Timothy Lynch's Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Episode Reviews

Season 1 - "The Storyteller"

Review Date: 5/01/93

WARNING:  This post, while not a story in itself, contains spoilers for DS9's 
"The Storyteller", so those wanting to avoid details should avoid the article 
as well.

Well ... hit and miss, with more misses than I'd have liked.

After the intensity of last week's "Battle Lines", something lighter was 
definitely in order -- but not *this* light, in my opinion.  "The 
Storyteller" was pure fluff, and I think some of it wasn't meant to be.

Where to begin?  Well, how about with this:  When _neither_ of the two focal 
guest stars can act their way out of a paper bag, you've got trouble.  And 
unfortunately, that's what we had here.  Lawrence Monoson (Hovath, the 
Sirah's apprentice) sounded woefully unconvincing in every single scene he 
was in, including his rescue of the village -- though there, at least, he 
had O'Brien's storytelling to make him look better.  Gina Philips (Varis) was 
no better:  "I am not a little lady!" was, like Worf's "I am not a merry 
man!" in "Qpid", a line better off unwritten and unspoken.  (Philips, in 
addition, seems to have attended the William!  Shatner!  School!  Of!  
Dramatic!  Pauses!  For!  Emphasis! .!)

I should amend that slightly.  Philips had one scene that worked well:  her 
scene with Sisko near the end, after the "bucket" incident.  She was hardly 
stunning in the scene, but she held up her end enough to let Brooks shine, 
which he did *not* manage to do in earlier scenes with her.  

Moving on, "The Storyteller" also suffered from the "A/B plot" syndrome, 
something which TNG used to have trouble with all the time.  One could try to 
argue that "filling a legend's shoes" is a thematic link between the 
"storyteller" plot and the "negotiations" plot, but I think it's a tenuous 
link at best.  And we've seen time and time again that multi-plot stories 
without any strong connections between them usually don't work very well on 
Trek.

I also had difficulty finding Sisko believable as a negotiator -- in fact, if 
anything I get the impression this might have been originally intended for 
TNG and Picard, and was at some point moved over.  Sisko's character, from 
what we've seen so far, doesn't describe a particularly accomplished 
diplomat; while he doesn't fly off the handle as much as, say, Kira would, he 
doesn't seem the most patient of people.

The village plot, while flawed in some ways, did have some strong elements to 
it.  In particular:

-- O'Brien's immediate assumption was that the Sirah had some secret method 
of controlling the Dal'Rok, and not that any mysticism was *really* involved. 
That's very in keeping with what we've seen of 24th-century attitudes, and 
even more so in line with O'Brien's "salt-of-the-earth" personality.  If he 
can't see it, so far as he's concerned it's not there.

-- Even more intriguing, though, was the fact that it _was_ all fakery on the 
part of the Sirah.  Between that and the non-mystical explanation now 
existing for the orbs, one wonders if the true religious "leaders" on Bajor 
actually believe any of what they're saying.  And whether they do or not, the 
normal Bajoran people may be in for a shock at some point.  That should be 
interesting to see.

-- Fine, I'll admit it -- I got a big laugh out of watching Bashir's flip 
response to O'Brien's "messiah" situation.  "Oh, don't worry, Chief -- I have 
faith in you," for instance, was priceless, and his reaction to the women 
offered as gifts fit quite well.  Bashir may end up having some of the more
_understated_ wit on the show, as opposed to the broad-based humor of, say, 
Quark.

Unfortunately, those things above didn't save the plot from being rather 
tedious to follow, or from some logistical problems.  The most interesting 
thing it did was throw O'Brien and Bashir together, and that by itself isn't 
enough to carry a show, or even the half-show it had to here.  The "common 
danger as unity" explanation for the whole thing was laid out with straight 
exposition, and was also done far, far better back in "Darmok".  The two 
scenes with the Dal'Rok's attack were both treading dangerously on that line 
between hopelessly bad drama and deliberate camp, and Hovath's attack on 
O'Brien was even worse to watch.  (The last started out as though it was 
going to be a failed Marx Brothers routine, with the parallel-window 
ideas.  Now *that* might have been amusing.  :-) )

As for the negotiation-related plot back on the station ... well, it was 
better, but not by all that much.  

Part of the problem here was in Jake and Nog.  While Cirroc Lofton continues 
to be a very realistic Jake, he's also playing Jake as very *young* for 14, 
which is how old he's supposed to be.  Some of that might be Nog's influence, 
but most of the time I see Jake as 12 rather than 14.  

Aron Eisenberg, on the other hand, just doesn't quite work for me.  Now, 
granted, I don't know exactly how a Ferengi kid is _supposed_ to behave, and 
he may be doing a good job there -- but he's turning in the kind of 
performance which led to my general dislike of Ferengi in the first place.  
Add to that the bluntness and tongue-tied-ness of being whatever age he's 
supposed to be, and you have a character I simply don't enjoy watching.

Unfortunately, a lot of this means that I have great difficulty watching 
Nog proving so helpful in negotiations.  It may make some sense in terms of 
the character, but it's simply _not something I like watching_.  The pile of 
"parents are wonderful" moments here went way past the point of palatability 
for me, and some of the moments about Nog's "opportunity" just turned into 
great doses of talking heads.  Ugh.

This plot, like the other, did have some merit to it, though.  The whole 
bucket-swiping stunt _was_ pretty dumb on their part, but it worked, right 
down to the oatmeal.  In addition, it was nice seeing the kids' view of Odo: 
Forget chief of security, he's a hall monitor to them.  :-)  And, while 
Philips didn't do a particularly good job of pulling it off, the idea of 
using Jake to find out about Sisko was a good one, if one that shouldn't be 
used *too* often.

That's the main points.  On to some shorter takes:

-- By the end, Sisko was almost openly taking sides with the Navot.  Not a 
good idea for a negotiator -- why?

-- Kira's frustrated "better make it a double" to Quark was one of the most 
understated bits the character's had yet, and it worked.  More of these and 
less screaming.

-- Bashir's _awareness_ of how annoying he can be was a big plus.  I've met a 
few Bashirs in my time, and most of them _didn't_ have any idea of their 
shortcomings.  This one has a good chance of becoming fully human.  :-)

-- We already knew that O'Brien didn't care for Bashir, but what's 
interesting here is that he probably still _won't_, even after this.

-- I'm not at all clear on the Dal'Rok itself.  If the Sirah _had_ created it 
out of the villagers' minds, was it a one-time creation, or did he have to do 
it each time?  If the latter, then there's no problem for the village with 
O'Brien, since he won't make it in the first place.

-- Loose end:  So why *didn't* the tricorder detect anything about the 
Dal'Rok?  If it's a construct rather than a mystical entity, shouldn't it be 
able to be picked up?  

-- Finally, an *atrociously* bad pun that's been dogging me ever since I saw 
the show:  "Que Sirah, Sirah..."  There, now you can suffer too.  :-)

That ought to do it.  Very disappointing, all in all.  So, the numbers:

Plot:  6.  Both were reasonably competent, if uninspired.
Plot Handling:  3.  This was the big surprise, coming from the director of
	"The Mind's Eye"!
Characterization:  4.  Some good Bashir and okay for the other regulars, but 
	atrocious guest stars.

TOTAL:  4.5.  One of the most disappointing to date.

NEXT WEEK:

Kira gets another loyalty check.

Tim Lynch (Harvard-Westlake School, Science Dept.)
BITNET:  tlynch@citjulie
INTERNET:  tlynch@juliet.caltech.edu
UUCP:  ...!ucbvax!tlynch%juliet.caltech.edu@hamlet.caltech.edu
"I think they're the ones offering services, Chief..."
			-- Bashir, on three of O'Brien's "gifts"
--
Copyright 1993, Timothy W. Lynch.  All rights reserved, but feel free to ask...
This article is explicitly prohibited from being used in any off-net
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