Plot Synopsis:
When Kira finally cracks from the strain of a heavy workload, Bashir flexes his muscle as Chief Medical Officer and orders her to relax at Quark's. There, Kira spends an evening with "Will Riker" and develops a bit of a crush. (Typing that has just made me die a little inside.) The following evening, "Will" catches up to Kira just as she's about to retire for the night, and Kira, although at first hesitant, offers to give him a tour of the station. This tour eventually leads, on "Will's" suggestion, to the Defiant. Thinking nothing is amiss, Kira unlocks the consoles on the Defiant's bridge -- after which "Will" - or Tom Riker, rather - promptly stuns her with his phaser and beams his Maquis cohorts aboard. Tom then tricks the crew in Ops into releasing the docking clamps and sets a course for the Badlands.
Gul Dukat, naturally, is none to pleased to hear that the Maquis have commandeered the most heavily armed warship in the sector and warns Sisko and Odo that this theft will almost certainly provoke a confrontation between the Federation and the Cardassian Empire. Sisko offers to accompany Dukat to Cardassia Prime to assist in the Cardassians' pursuit of the Defiant as a show of good faith. Upon entering the Cardassians' war room - which, by the way, is being supervised by an operative from the Obsidian Order - Sisko tells Dukat how the Dominion penetrated the Defiant's cloaking device. He also catches Tom's clever use of a decoy to distract the Cardassian fleet, but not before the Maquis destroy two Cardassian outposts on the border. The Defiant heads straight into Cardassian space.
Tom sets a course for the Cardassian ship yards at Omekla III, but before he gets far, Kira does some tinkering with a replicator and successfully disables the cloaking device. This forces Tom to sit tight in a nebula while his people make the necessary repairs. Kira, meanwhile, is brought up to the bridge so she can be closely watched. There, Tom reveals the true purpose of his mission into Cardassian space: he seeks to confirm intelligence reports that a rogue group of Cardassians is secretly assembling a military fleet in the Orias System. Kira believes Tom is trying to be a hero in order to distinguish himself from his transporter twin.
The Defiant attacks the ship yards at Omekla III, a weapons depot in the Dameron System, and a communications relay on the Rokat colony. Sisko studies the pattern of these attacks and concludes that Tom is trying to lead the Cardassian fleet away from the Orias System. Dukat is perplexed; as far as he knows, there's nothing of value in that region of space, but on Sisko's urging, he agrees to send one of his ships to Orias. Before Dukat can contact Gul Ranor, however, the Obsidian Order operative threatens to destroy any ship that enters the Orias System. Dukat's suspicions are piqued.
Sure enough, when Tom finally makes his run for the Orias System, he is greeted by three Keldon-class warships that are not affiliated with the Central Command. Taking advantage of Dukat's now burning curiosity, Sisko makes a deal: all of the Maquis crew members aboard the Defiant will be turned over to the Federation for trial in exchange for Tom Riker (who will not be put to death) and the Defiant's sensor logs. Dukat and Sisko then contact Tom, who, on Kira's urging, agrees to the compromise. Before he beams onto a waiting Cardassian ship, Kira promises Tom that he will be rescued one day.
Overall: 6.7
A shoddy, out-of-character set-up detracts from what could've been a good-to-great episode.
Writing: 6.5
There is a lot of material here that's quite respectable. I enjoy, for example, the continued deepening of Dukat as a character. The scene in which he laments how his eleven-year-old son will react to his father's missing his birthday - highlighted below - is particularly outstanding (and surprisingly poignant). I also like watching Cap'n Benji display his tactical and diplomatic genius and am delighted to see yet one more fracture appear in the already shaky foundation of Cardassian society.
Unfortunately, all of this is scuttled somewhat by the means in which the plot is set up in the first place. Kira's falling for Riker makes me want to jab sharp sticks in my eye to distract myself from the psychic pain. Even if I did buy the notion that Riker is a stud muffin - which I don't - an instant school-girl crush just doesn't seem to fit with Kira's personality at all. Granted, Kira does get a chance to display her resourcefulness and pluck, but it's not enough to overcome that initial embarrassment.
Oh, and that kiss at the end? Please spare me.
Acting: 7.0
I can't say Jonathan Frakes impresses me here. He doesn't make Tom Riker distinctive as a character, and he certainly has no chemistry with Nana Visitor. On the other hand, Avery Brooks and Marc Alaimo once again make a dynamite team; it is their interactions that truly push this episode above the average line.
Message: 6.5
Defiant is very light on the message front, but SABR Matt has alerted me to two subtle threads that are certainly worth mentioning. First of all, this episode, like several episodes before it, takes care to invest the central antagonist with at least some modicum of legitimacy, thereby reminding us that even the bad guys have reasons for what they do. Tom Riker's wild goose chase turns out to be not so wild after all: a Cardassian faction is in fact building an illicit armada in the Orias System, though the true purpose of this fleet is not to attack Federation colonies in the DMZ, as we discover later this season. Moreover, while it may be true that Tom is looking here to go out in a blaze of glory, he is also revealed to be a reasonably smart tactician.
Secondly, Kira's perspective on terrorism is blisteringly - and refreshingly - honest. As we see in the highlights below, she is very quick to disabuse Tom Riker of the notion that terrorism is the path to glory of any kind, and she freely acknowledges that terrorism is largely about hate - about hurting your enemy as much as possible. Such an admission, I feel, puts her squarely on the side of angels.
Highlights:
BASHIR: Major, the scheduled transport's been delayed, and I need those medical supplies by the end of the week.
KIRA: We can't spare a runabout to go all the way to Vulcan right now.
BASHIR: I'm supposed to be setting up a field hospital for a new colony on Campor Three next week. If I don't get those medical supplies, the entire colonization schedule could be set back by at least -
KIRA: (suddenly losing her temper) Listen to me! You can't have a runabout, you can't get your medical supplies, and I don't give a damn about the colonization schedule! Those colonists can make do with a box of bandages for all I care!
BASHIR: (severe) Stop right there, Major. (Kira does stop.) When was your last day off?
KIRA: I don't know. What does that have to do with anything?
BASHIR: If you can't remember, then it's been too long. You're off duty as of this moment.
KIRA: What do you mean, I'm off duty? You can't do that.
BASHIR: Oh, yes, I can. And not even Commander Sisko can overrule my judgment as Chief Medical officer.
KIRA: Now, wait a minute, Julian. Just because I snapped -
BASHIR: My diagnosis is that you're overworked and suffering from extreme stress and borderline exhaustion. As for my prescription? Follow me.
(At Quark's, Kira is sitting at a table looking rather annoyed.)
QUARK: Karvino juice, Lorvan crackers, a holosuite program, a jumja stick and gambling tokens.
BASHIR: Now, at least two of these items must be used and fully enjoyed before you can leave this facility.
KIRA: Julian, I -
QUARK: I'll be giving you a full report of her activities, Doctor.
BASHIR: If I hear you didn't completely relax and enjoy yourself tonight, we'll do this every night until you do. Have fun. (It's like being scolding by the principal.)
SISKO: Dukat, are you listening to me?
DUKAT: Oh, I'm sorry, Commander. I was thinking about my son's birthday.
SISKO: Really?
DUKAT: Yes. Today is his eleventh birthday. I promised to take him to the amusement center in Lakarian City. He always wanted to go but I've never had the time. I told him, "This year will be different, Mekor. This year, I will make the time."
SISKO: I've had the same experience with Jake. At that age they never understand, do they? You just hope that one day they'll look back and say, "Now I understand. Now I know why he did that."
DUKAT: When my son looks back on this day, the only thing he'll remember is that a Federation officer on a Federation ship invaded his home and kept his father away from him on his eleventh birthday. And he won't look back with understanding. He'll look back with hatred -- and that's sad. (A really, really good scene.)
KIRA: You're really not cut out for this, are you? Being a terrorist, I mean. You're not very good at it.
RIKER: Really?
KIRA: You're acting more like a Starfleet officer who's more interested in intelligence reports and Cardassian politics than in actually hurting Cardassians. You have one of the most powerful ships in this quadrant under your command. Why aren't you out attacking every Cardassian outpost along the border?
RIKER: Because these stakes here are far greater than border outposts.
KIRA: Not for the Maquis, there're not, because the Maquis are terrorists, and the only thing terrorists care about is attacking the enemy. I know. I was a terrorist. And if I'd had this ship then, I would've destroyed Deep Space Nine. I would've hit the Cardassians so hard they would have screamed for peace - but I certainly wouldn't have gone flying off into the middle of Cardassian space on some wild goose chase.
RIKER: I guess we're different kinds of terrorists.
KIRA: No, you're trying to be a hero. Terrorists don't get to be heroes.
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