36. Shadowplay

Summary

While on a survey mission in the Gamma Quadrant, Dax and Odo beam down to a small village on a planet to investigate a mysterious omicron particle field, but they're soon taken into custody by Colyus, the local protector. He tells them that 22 people have gone missing from the village, and after being convinced that Odo and Dax had nothing to do with it, accepts Odo's help. Odo questions Taya, granddaughter of the village leader Rurigan, whose mother has most recently gone missing. She's doubtful about his assertions that he's a Changeling and wants him to change shape for her. He questions her but doesn't learn anything useful. In the course of his investigations, Odo is stunned to learn that no one's ever left the valley. Taya takes him and Dax the furthest she's ever been and they are amazed when her arm disappears when she holds it out past a certain point. Dax surmises that the omicron field, coming from a reactor at the center of town, is really a holographic matrix and that everyone and everything in the village is a hologram. The generator is breaking down and that's why people are disappearing. After some convincing, the villagers allow Dax to deactivate the reactor so she can fix it...but when she does, Rurigan is revealed to be a real person, in fact the person who created the holographic village as a refuge for himself after fleeing the Dominion. At first he doesn't want them to reactivate it, but after Odo's impassioned plea that the villagers have a right to their lives, he agrees...on the proviso that the villagers aren't told that he's not like them. Taya and her mother are reunited and Odo and Dax depart, after Odo shapeshifts into a spinning top as a goodbye gesture to Taya.

Meanwhile on DS9, Jake Sisko takes a job helping the Chief while Kira's happy to have Vedek Bareil visiting the station while she keeps an eye on Quark in Odo's absence. Kira and Bareil become lovers, and Kira learns that Quark arranged to have Bareil come to the station to distract her so he could do some under-the-table business...but it doesn't work, she catches him anyway. Jake also finally admits to his father that he doesn't want to join Starfleet.

Analysis

This episode is cute, mildly heartwarming, and actually a few sort of significant things happen, but it has problems. The main plot is charming, but it's got too many holes even for a disbelief-suspender like me. It makes no sense that a randomly malfunctioning hologenerator would delete only entire people as opposed to part of buildings or even just parts of people. And how did Rurigan manage to obtain real food and clothing for himself when everything in the village is a hologram? I won't begin to address the question of how he managed to have a family with, presumably, a holographic wife. Their Pier-One linens-and-beads attire is a bit ridiculously uniform. Why do alien cultures all dress homogenously? I'm also not a fan of the common Trek technique of developing characters by having them form instantaneous bonds with young children, but it sort of works for Odo here. He does get some good development, especially in his speech to Rurigan urging him to reactivate the generator. Odo's been gradually revealed as a man with deep feelings who's especially sensitive to the rights and respect of other races and species...yet he manages to express these feelings without lapsing into sentimentality and while retaining his characteristic gruff personality. Dax might as well be a talking tricorder here, it's not a meaningful part, it could just as easily have been O'Brien. I do like their conversation in the runabout before they beam down, about various station romances and the fact that a Bolian kiosk operator has a crush on Odo...since this exchange has little to do with the rest of the episode I can't help thinking that it has other purposes. Especially interesting is Dax's line "Sometimes we don't see true love even when it's staring us right in the face." Wonder what she meant by that. All in all it's entertaining but nothing that's gonna earn a Hugo.

As for the B plots...just because I'm such an O/K slut doesn't mean I don't like Bareil. I love Bareil, always did. He's so calm and centered and soft-spoken, and that adorable slightly cross-eyed gaze is enough to melt anyone. I liked his relationship with Kira but I knew it was doomed. Come to think of it, Bareil always sort of had that air of doom hanging about him. An amusing thing about this Quark angle is that apparently Quark doesn't learn from his mistakes...he would try almost the exact same trick four seasons later in The Sound of Her Voice when he tries to distract Odo with plans for a one-month anniversary celebration with Kira. It worked the second time, but only because Odo let it work! The Jake thing...well, that was that. Big deal.

Rating: 6.5

Memorable Quote:

Taya: There's no such thing as Changelings. They're make believe.
Odo: Well...I'm not "make-believe."

Classic Scene:

Most Odo fans point to this episode as containing their favorite shapeshifting moment, when he changes into a top. It is a nice moment and somewhat significant...it was the first time Odo had used his abilities for something other than work or necessity. It would take some time for him to learn that his nature is the stuff of fantasy and is a source of joy, not shame. It started for him here, I think.

Sexually Slanted Line 'O the Episode:

"It'd be better if I knew what I was doing." --Jake Sisko...well, you're only 15, kid.

"This may take a minute...I don't want to make a mistake." --Dax

The O/K Status Report

Nada. In fact, one might say a step backwards since she's getting involved with someone else. Oh well, patience is a virtue, right?

Special Alerts

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