1.10 — “Move Along Home”
Plot: First contact with the Wadi, a new species emerging from the Gamma Quadrant, goes awry when first the Wadi want to do nothing but play casino games with Quark, and second, they kidnap Sisko, Kira, Dax, and Bashir to use as pawns in a potentially deadly game, placed under Quark’s control.
Thoughts: I basically agree with Avery Brooks, whom IMDB quotes as saying, “No favorite of mine!”
When you’re casting a lead guest star to represent a mysterious first contact species, maybe it’s better not to go with a well-known familiar face like Joel Brooks. Both the makeup and costuming for the Wadi are terrible. First- or second-season TNG bad.
I know it’s supposed to be silly, but I don’t buy that the Wadi would be so blasé about first contact. The fear and mistrust depicted in “Captive Pursuit” (DS9 1.6) seems more likely.
This episode’s take on Quark is that he doesn’t know his business. A casino owner never has to cheat, because math is on his side. The risk of lost reputation dwarfs the gain from scrupulously following the rules. This bugs me, because Quark is a lot more fun when he isn’t portrayed as stupid or inept.
The Wadi’s game doesn’t make any sense, nor do the “puzzles” or their solutions. The producers would have been better off avoiding the “Go on save yourself and leave me” cliché, which is something that nobody would ever say in that situation, ever. The director clearly ran out of money or fell behind schedule filming these scenes, because the next sequence is just a tight shot on the face and upper torsos of the leads as they clutch the air with their hands and pretend to be in great jeopardy on a ledge, while someone trains a big fan on them. This. Is. Embarrassing.
The best part of the episode, by far, is the return of young Jake and this exchange:
SISKO: You know what time you’re supposed to go to bed. We never had any problems with it until Nog.
JAKE: Dad, I’m fourteen.
SISKO: I’m glad we agree on something. Go to bed.
2 of 5 cheap rocks used to represent valuable alien jewels. And that’s being generous.
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