3.18 — “Distant Voices”

3.18 — “Distant Voices”

Plot: Bashir is attacked and falls into a coma. The remainder of the episode explores his subconscious as he rapidly grows older and projects ideas onto dream versions of other members of the crew.

Thoughts: “Distant Voices” continues a run of bad episodes for DS9. All suspense is dispelled early as Bashir’s rapid aging immediately confirms the suspicion that we are watching him dream from inside a coma. The only question remaining is whether he will wake up (yes, he will). I could have done without the 30 minutes in between where figments of his imagination discuss how interesting it is that they are figments of Bashir’s imagination. Only my sense of duty to this community kept me slogging onward to the obvious end.

The episode did win an Emmy for Outstanding Makeup Design. A quote from the makeup department on Memory Alpha suggests they were just as proud of the alien makeup (““Look at me! I’m Freddy Kruger in Space”) as they were of the makeup which ages Bashir. It was a pretty good looking alien.

Poor Alexander Siddig is put through his paces, and works very hard, but it’s in service of nothing. There is one good line at the end:

GARAK: To think, after all this time, all our lunches together, you still don’t trust me. There’s hope for you yet, Doctor.

My rating: skip it. 1 out of 5 tennis balls that rain down like Tribbles.

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Distant_Voices