34. Whispers

Summary

In a runabout, O'Brien details in his personal logs the reason he's currently a fugitive, and the episode flashes back to the morning he returned from overseeing security arrangements for an upcoming peace talk on DS9 between the Paradan government and the rebels they've been fighting for 12 years. Gradually, the Chief becomes suspicious as everyone around him acts strangely and he's systematically shut off from any of the security arrangements he just spent a week setting up. When Odo returns from Bajor the Chief tells him of his suspicions and is glad to have an ally...but when he confers with Odo later it becomes clear that the security chief is now part of whatever's going on. Sisko and Kira appear and try to take the Chief into custody but he escapes in a runabout to warn the Paradans of something fishy aboard the Station. When he detects Sisko, Kira and Bashir beaming down to the rebel base, he follows them and is stunned to find another O'Brien there just as he's shot by the Paradan rebels. The real O'Brien had been kidnapped by the Paradan government and a replicant of him was sent back to DS9...but the replicant was so perfect that he thought he was the real O'Brien. The DS9 crew had been notified of the substitution and so was trying to keep him away from anything to do with the conference.

Analysis

And thus begins what would become a pattern for the poor Chief...whenever they want to do a plot concerning strange anomalies or temporal displacements it always seems to fall to the Chief, perhaps because he's the most difficult character for which to do character-oriented stories. This one isn't great but it isn't terrible, either. I will say that I never saw the ending coming, although I knew that it couldn't be what "O'Brien" thought it was...a grand conspiracy that had infiltrated all of Starfleet. That's too big in scope for a single episode, so I knew it had to be something else but this explanation was pretty original. This is another episode that's more interesting to watch the second time...we can tell by observation if and when each crew member is informed of the O'Brien Swap, though I would have thought that Odo would have been notified before he boarded the station. The use of flashbacks is particularly effective and is done in such a way that it doesn't detract from the suspense of the story, and it does generate suspense, especially in some of the scenes with Keiko...such as the dinner scene where O'Brien begins to suspect that she's trying to poison him. Shades of Hitchcock's "Suspicion" are everywhere in this episode, and I'll even go out on a limb and say that this ending was more satisfying than Hitchcock's.

Rating: 6.0

Memorable Quote:

O'Brien: I don't have a sense of humor.
Bashir: How's the sex life?
O'Brien: I don't have a sense of humor.

Classic Scene:

The scene from which the above quote is taken, in which Julian gives the Chief an extensive physical (attempting, as we find out later, to find some way to prove that he's a replicate), is an amusing scene with some good back-and-forth dialogue and indicates a bit of the developing friendship between Bashir and O'Brien, although at this point it's still mostly mild dislike and sarcasm. It might also be the first-ever onscreen prostate exam in Trek! Turn your head to the side and cough...

Sexually Slanted Line 'O the Episode:

"I figure they'll be coming after me." --O'Brien...well, take your time, big boy...

The O/K Status Report

Nothing to report, sir.

Special Alerts

1