Classics: DS9 4:23 - The Quickening

Overall Rating: 9.3

The most effective thing about this story - aside from the fact that the writers chose not to give the story a truly happy ending (which is a nice change of pace from the usual infallible hero-worship of Trek and very in keeping with DS9's running theme that in the future, we won't be perfect, but our efforts matter) - is that it makes a powerful argument AGAINST any sort of casual acceptance of death as a blessing.

Plot Synopsis:

While conducting a routine exploration of a system near the wormhole in the Gamma Quadrant, Bashir, Dax and Kira stumble on an alien colony on the border of Dominion space where every inhabitant is afflicted with a genetically engineered superbug called "The Quickening" (ooooh...that's where they got the title! :) )...a disease which strikes in utero and eventually "quickens" leading to absolutely agonizing pain which gets so severe that the victim eventually dies from cardiac arrest. As a result of this disease, the colonists have lost all hope for living normal lives and they spend their days saving what little material wealth they can for the day of their quickening. When that day comes, they gather their belongs and their relatives, go to "Trevean" - a doctor who specializes in physician assisted suicide - and drink a ceremonial poison to end their lives before the pain comes. Not surprisingly, their singular focus on death has left their civilization in utter ruins - there is no economic productivity when no one is motivated to prosper, after all.

After treating some minor injuries and helping in whatever little ways he can, Bashir decides to stay on the planet in the hopes of finding a cure for this Dominion plague. He finds a pregnant woman named Ekoria who wants to live long enough to see her baby through the pregnancy and with her help, he rounds up a few dozen volunteers in various stages of the disease to study the virus. Trevean, after learning about this, tries to convince those in Julian's trial who have already quickened to come back to his hospital and die in peace and the two "have words" over his apparent focus on death, rather than medicine. Unfortunately, Julian's optimism is clobbered by the reality that the Dominion don't screw around when they make a superbug. The virus mutates under exposure to electromagnetic fields and all of his patients suffer horrible, painful deaths. YAY!

Defeated, Julian decries his efforts to Dax, who gives him a much-needed kick in the ass, suggesting that he might have been a little arrogant to think he could solve this problem in a week, but he's even more arrogant to give up now just because he couldn't perform a miracle in a week. His first volunteer has quickened due to exposure to his instruments, but she still desperately wants to give birth before she dies, despite Trevean's attempts to convince her to come with him to the hospital. Julian treats the pain as best he can and coaches her through two agonizing weeks until the child is old enough that he can induce labor. Meanwhile, he works on a cure for the disease and gives his volunteer dose after dose of it, with no results. When she finally does give birth, Julian realizes that the baby is not ill. His drug may not be a cure, but it IS a vaccine. Having seen this miracle, Trevean agrees to be Julian's point man and administer the drug to every pregnant female. Julian is, of course, not satisfied. He takes his samples back to the infirmary on DS9 for further testing...still wracked with guilt for the negative consequences of his tests, he seems determined to find a cure, not just a vaccine.

The Skinny:

SABR Matt - I have a great deal of sympathy for the belief in many out there that it is not only merciful, but indeed moral and necessary to help someone die when they are so miserable from medical afflictions that their quality of life seems beyond what they can stand. I believe, in fact, that most doctors who deal with high mortality rates (oncologists, e.g.) have probably upped a patient's morphine drip to stop the pain at some point. At the end of the day, however, I find myself troubled by the unavoidable changes in attitude regarding the value of fighting for every last breath of that which is most sacred (life). I have many friends who I consider to be very moral and well-intentioned people on the whole (they wouldn't be my friends if I didn't like who they were at core), who believe that life is only sacred as long as it's not overly painful. They say, regularly, that if someone wants to die, they should be allowed to do so, and in fact, there should be no stigma about suicide.

This way of thinking, while understandable, is, IMHO, dangerous. The Quickening makes the case for why. Here, we see a world where death is viewed as a merciful end to a miserable life. Where has that belief gotten the colonists afflicted with this dreadful disease? The colonists spend their every day literally planning for their death. In the many decades since their world was flattened by the Jem'hadar, these people have not rebuilt one iota. Why strive to make life better if you spend all of it begging for the end to come? Meanwhile, no one on their planet has made any further attempts to combat the virus...in a century or more, no one has even tried since their scientists failed. Why? Because they don't have scientists anymore...only a culture of death.

This is a reductio ad absurdum, obviously...we're in no danger here in the real world of losing our general will to survive, nor plunging into the dark ages. And you've seen me complain vociferously about the use of reductio ad absurdum in the past, but in this case, the scenario was actually well conceived and as a result, believable. As absurd demonstrations of a moral dilemma go, this one is top notch. And the deleterious impacts of death worship don't stop at the societal level. Their society is dying...not just because most of them die fairly young from the disease, but because few of them want to pursue romance and have children just to bring them up in such a dark and unappealing place. And here, we do see echoes on our own planet. When you step too far toward valuing life conditionally, you do run the risk of detonating the family structure that makes our civilization possible. If families have to choose which lives are worth living, there will come a time when we stop feeling the urgent desire to fight for our lives and propagate our genes.

Stephanie S. - I would dispute my co-author's comments on only one particular: I think characterizing this episode as an example of reductio ad absurdum is incorrect. I don't think there's anything absurd in Trevean's attitude. His people have been suffering with the Blight for two centuries -- and during that time, they have been repeatedly lied to by charlatans peddling their shady elixirs. They have no rational reason to expect that a cure will one day free them from their curse. That Trevean has lost hope and chosen to embrace euthanasia instead is entirely understandable. That's part of what makes Shankar's script so outstanding.


Of course, this episode also presents a fine example of how our supposed rationality can fail us. If Trevean had managed to convince Ekoria to choose death, the success of Bashir's vaccine would've never come to light. Fortunately, Ekoria is willing to suffer to give her child a shot at life; fortunately, Ekoria has hope. That hope may be "irrational," but as G.K. Chesterton once wrote, hope is not a virtue if it is rational. Just as bravery means nothing without fear and vulnerability, hope means nothing unless you're in a situation in which reasons for it appear to be wholly absent.


I also must echo SABR Matt's opening comments and applaud Shankar's choice to go with the bittersweet ending. It is indeed all too easy to allow your hero to ride in on his white horse and save the day in a dramatic, definitive fashion. A more modest success, however, makes for better television.

Writing: 9.5 / 9.5

I especially like the scene where Julian finally outright questions Trevean's philosophy and the scene where Dax kicks him in the prideful butt for his self-absorption after he fails. Another typically-well-written entry from the DS9 crew...by a freelancer you won't see too often named Naren Shankar. Good show!

Acting: 9.0 / 9.0

Ellen Wheeler (Ekoria) and Al Siddig were very convincing in their respective roles. I do have to ding the score a bit since I was not bowled over by Michael Sarazin's Trevean, but on the whole it was a very good presentation.

Message: 9.5 / 9.5

As an argument for the value of fighting for life, I give you this fine entry...well...that and Farenheit 451. :)

Highlights:

WORF: How did you do it?
O'BRIEN: Do what?
WORF: I ordered a glass of prune juice from the replicator in the Defiant's mess. This is what it came in.
(The mug is emblazoned with Quark's logo. When tilted, the jingle plays.)
KIRA: (grabbing Quark by his lapels) If all your little advertisements aren't purged from our systems by the time I get back from the Gamma Quadrant, I will come to Quark's. And believe me, I will have fun. (LOL!)

BASHIR: Make some room. I'm a doctor.
ATTENDANT: Leave him alone. You don't understand.
BASHIR: Can't you see he's dying?
TREVEAN: Of course he's dying. He came here to die. People come to me when they quicken. I help them leave this world peacefully, surrounded by their families and friends.
BASHIR: What are you saying?
TREVEAN: The herbs I give them causes death within minutes.
DAX: You poison them?
TREVEAN: The Blight kills slowly. No one wants to suffer needlessly. Not like that woman you brought me.
BASHIR: You killed her?
TREVEAN: I did what she asked.
BASHIR: I thought this was a hospital and that you were a healer.
TREVEAN: I am. I take away pain. (As we can see, Bashir is horrified to hear this -- as well he should be.)

DAX: That looks like a feast.
EKORIA: It was supposed to be.
DAX: What do you mean?
EKORIA: Nothing. Do you like Takana root tea?
DAX: Ekoria, where did you get all this food?
EKORIA: I've been saving it for the hospital, for my death. Something tells me I'm not going to need it anymore. (Ouch. Such hope.)

EPRAN: How did you do that?
EKORIA: Does it matter? He can find a cure for us if we help him.
TREVEAN: Fixing a broken bone and curing the Blight are two different things.
BASHIR: I know that.
TREVEAN: Others have come here with promises of a cure. They stirred up hope, took food and clothing in exchange for their elixirs. But their promises were always lies. And all those who believed them always came to me in the end, begging for release.
BASHIR: I just want to do what I can to help. I'm not making any promises.
TREVEAN: Take care that you don't. Because we've dealt with those who give false hope before. (The characterization of Trevean is extremely well thought out and sensitive here.)

EKORIA: Maybe you should go home. Maybe my people don't deserve your help.
BASHIR: They've just been suffering so long they've lost hope that things can be better.
EKORIA: It's more than that. We've come to worship death. I used to wake up and look at myself in the mirror, and be disappointed that I hadn't quickened in my sleep. Going to Trevean seemed so much easier than going on living.
BASHIR: But you don't feel that way anymore.
EKORIA: Not since the baby. My little boy. Can your machines tell me what he's going to look like when he grows up?
BASHIR: Oh, no, not really.
EKORIA: Maybe he'll look like his father. I want to be here for him. To hold his hand when he takes his first step. Kiss his knee when he scrapes it in a fall.
BASHIR: Well, with any luck, you'll see him have children of his own. (Careful, Julian.)

BASHIR: I prefer to confront mortality rather than hide from it. When you make someone well, it's like you're chasing death off, making him wait for another day.
EKORIA: But death comes to everyone in the end.
BASHIR: Except Kukalaka.
EKORIA: Kuka-who?
BASHIR: My first patient. A teddy bear.
EKORIA: What's that?
BASHIR: Oh, it's a sort of a soft puppet. Anyway, when I was a boy I took him everywhere I went. After a few years, he became a little threadbare until eventually his leg tore and some of the stuffing fell out. My mother was all set to throw him out, but I wouldn't have it, because at the tender age of five, I performed my first surgery. I re-stuffed him and sewed his leg closed. From that day on, I did everything I could to keep Kukalaka in one piece. I must have sewn and stitched and re-patched every square inch of that bear.
EKORIA: Why were you so determined to keep him together?
BASHIR: Well, I wouldn't be much of a doctor if I gave up on a patient, would I?
EKORIA: Where's Kukalaka now?
BASHIR: (lying) Oh, in a closet somewhere. (But then Bashir decides to level with Ekoria.) On a shelf in my room. (LOL!)

BASHIR: I remember running a hematology scan on Epran the other day. There were changes in the viral base-pair sequence, and I didn't know why.
DAX: There's no way you could've known it was because of our instruments.
BASHIR: I should have put it together.
DAX: That's not fair.
BASHIR: Isn't it? I'm going to tell you a little secret, Jadzia. I was looking forward to tomorrow, to seeing Kira again and casually asking, how was the nebula? And oh, by the way, I cured that Blight thing those people had.
DAX: It's not a crime to believe in yourself, Julian.
BASHIR: These people believed in me and look where it got them. Trevean was right. There is no cure. The Dominion made sure of that. But I was so arrogant I thought I could find one in a week.
DAX: Maybe it was arrogant to think that. But it's even more arrogant to think there isn't a cure just because you couldn't find it. (Fantastic scene.)

EKORIA: Trevean. Am I dead?
TREVEAN: Is that what you want? I can end your suffering. Your child will have known nothing but peace.
EKORIA: No. He deserves a chance to live.
TREVEAN: The Blight will take him in the end.
BASHIR: Trevean. I didn't realise you made house calls.
TREVEAN: I was concerned that she might be too weak to come to me.
BASHIR: I don't understand why you're so obsessed with death. From what I've heard, you've lived with the Blight longer than anyone.
TREVEAN: Yes, and I've seen more suffering than anyone else. Goodbye, Ekoria. I hope you live long enough to see your baby. (Ouch again.)

SISKO: Doctor. I read your report. Good work.
BASHIR: Thank you, sir.
COMPUTER: Nucleotide sequencing complete. Viral reproduction normal.
(We see an unspoken question on Sisko's face.)
BASHIR: People are still dying back there.
SISKO: Yes, but their children won't.
BASHIR: That's what I keep telling myself, sir.