Star Trek 323: Shadowplay

323. Shadowplay

FORMULA: Ship in a Bottle + Thine Own Self

WHY WE LIKE IT: Odo's sweet relationship to Thea.

WHY WE DON'T: A plot so slight, they needed both a B and a C plot.

REVIEW: First, let's discuss the A plot. Dax and Odo are on a somewhat forced road trip together, when they come up a village of holograms, only they don't know it, but they'll find out when the emitter malfunctions and they start losing people. Dax and Odo to the rescue. It's a slim story, and holodeck stuff we've kinda seen before, but it wins us over by being heartfelt. The villagers are real people (they certainly produce more convincing crowd scenes than the Bajorans), with Thea and her grandfather particularly effective. It turns out Odo has a soft touch with children and keeping his only shapeshifting trick to the end makes it wonderful. But the mystery is quickly discovered, perhaps easily guessed, and the mentions of both changelings and the Dominion by now obvious and expected. We certainly cut away from this story often enough, and to two unrelated plot threads.

But I tend to view this more as a character building episode. It's certainly good for Odo, and Dax's gossip and matchmaking keep making her more endearing than the "cold fish" of Season 1. Over on DS9, Quark arranges to have Bareil invited to the station to distract Kira, leading to some romantic entanglements I always disliked, but it's a fun idea for Quark to have (I love the delivery on Kira finding Bareil... diverting). Despite my lukewarm appreciation of the progressive Vedek, I'll admit to liking a couple of moments with him. Certainly when she leaves him unsatisfied to investigate the Quark situation, but also the initial awkwardness when he tries to steer her away from the deference she owes him as a religious leader.

Our other plot is Jake's. Good news, he's no Wesley (but we knew that, didn't we?). O'Brien and Sisko take turns acting as father figures for him, and I must say, both are excellent at it. Sisko's reaction to his son not wanting to follow in his father's footsteps reminds me of why I like this relationship so much.

LESSON: How to recognize an isolinear rod when I see one (but when will I ever need to?).

REWATCHABILITY - Medium: Though the plots are forgettable and sadly don't mesh together, there's a warm family drama at the center of the episode, and some good character moments.