392. Things PastFORMULA: Distant Voices + Necessary Evil + Past Tense + Spectre of the Gun
WHY WE LIKE IT: Odo's not-so-spotless record. Dukat gets what's coming to him. Kurtwood Smith.
WHY WE DON'T: Compromised suspense. Garak's racism. Kira's hypocrisy.
REVIEW: First let me say that I think Things Past's structure is extremely flawed. I understand the need to give the entire cast scenes, but everything not related to the four "time travellers" is in the way of telling the story competently. The early Ops scene doesn't mesh with the previous runabout scene at all (they're suddenly unconscious). The sickbay scenes deflate all the tension and mystery by effectively revealing that we're all in Odo's head (it would have been much more interesting to leave Odo's hallucinations as "clues" and let us believe this was a take on "Quantum Leap"). And Kira's last scene is unduly harsh when in Necessary Evil, the shoe was on the other foot.
Now to the crux of the story. Odo's status as a non-collaborator was always dubious, but it's good to see it debunked. He was working within an unjust system in which he wouldn't have had time to conduct proper investigations, and mistakes were made. His guilt over it combined with some strange form of the Great Link (a debatably reasonable plot device) returns us to the still fertile days of the Occupation, when Dukat was in charge and Quark was a bastard with a heart of gold.
Tough clearly an Odo episode, the people trapped with him get large enough roles as well. Sisko's stillness and strong leadership are appreciable, though he doesn't really do much except ask the right questions. Garak is more problematic. Though he has useful skills, the writers have chosen to make him speak some of the worst racist dialogue this side of "Gul Dar'heel"'s. And what, is that the first time he's ever heard the term "spoonhead"? Dax trembling in front of Dukat seems out of character at first and let me think the Link was influencing her to be more like the person she was incarnating, but it's all a ploy to wait for Dukat to turn his back so she can hit him in the ego.
Part of the mystery is the presence of the surrogate Odo, Thrax, and I have to give Kurtwood Smith props for actually inserting some of Odo's mannerisms, like his huffs and puffs. Of course, it's a mystery severely compromised by the episode's structure, so that's that.
LESSON: Dukat is an insufferable ass in any reality.
REWATCHABILITY - Medium: An episode that could have been a lot better if they'd just thought up some comedy piece about Quarktajino or something to front-end it. Still, Odo's dark secret is worthy and the performances are good.
Comments
I didn't like Kira's appearance at the end, either. First, I would have liked her to have appeared earlier, or for there to be some comment that she was indisposed. Secondly, I guess she was one of those Bajorans who truly believed Odo's "master" was Justice, and so she was obviously upset, but....I thought it could have been written better.
I did like the usage of Garak, though. Clearly as a member of the Occupational race, he would have some lingering racism. I saw a lot of that when I lived in Japan between Japan and Korea, although Japanese occupation had been over for more than 40 years.