“For the Uniform” features the kind of abrupt return of everyone’s favorite Maquis, Michael Eddington. “In Purgatory’s Shadow” features the kind of abrupt return of everyone’s favorite villain, The Dominion. Shit’s getting real, folks.
Trekabout Episode 204: For the Uniform/In Purgatory’s Shadow
Mindy
-Haven’t left a comment in a while, but I’m still loving your podcast. Had to comment on this one.
“In Purgatory’s Shadow” is one of my favorite DS9 episodes. I love love love LOVE this episode. I love how all the small character moments at the beginning help build tension until the ending, which is extremely scary in its implications. The Kira/Odo scene is really good. I love all the scenes with Garak early in the episode with Faux-Bashir, Ziyal, and especially the great scene he has with Dukat.
Dukat sneering at Ziyal and leaving her there is incredibly cold. Sometimes I want to believe that Dukat actually cares about her, but other times, like this one, that seems unlikely. There is something about her that matters to Dukat, but I have trouble articulating what it is. She represents something…. Hmm.
Garak is incredibly great in this episode, really. Every single scene he has is fantastic. This two-parter is maybe Andrew Robinson ‘s best work on the series. I love Garak trying to convince Bashir to come with him. I’ve always wondered if Real Bashir would have gone. Love the scene on the runabout with Garak totally toying with Worf. The scene with Enabran Tain at the end is fantastic. Great work by those two actors through what looks to be pounds of makeup. It is fascinating to me that Garak let Bashir stay and listen to that conversation. (Wonder if that went into Bashir’s ultimate report on this.) I feel like Garak is actually the lead character of this episode.
The tension buildup in this episode is AMAZING. It is a genuinely scary moment when Garak and Worf discover all those Jem’Hadar ships in the nebula. Watching the DS9 crew freak out as they get this garbled message and then lose all communication with the Gamma Quadrant…. Wow, this is so well done. That communications array was installed in the episode “Destiny” and feels almost like a background event in that episode to the whole drama about Sisko and the prophecy. It is used to incredible effect in this episode.
I will never forget seeing this episode aired on television during first run. This is one of the most jaw dropping moments in my television memory. I didn’t see “The Best of Both Worlds” live. This is the closest I got. This is a wonderful fear-inducing “holy shit” ending.
Anyway, yeah, I love this episode. This is the kind of episode only a serialized Star Trek could do. That is why there is nothing else like this one in the entirety of Trek.
Lev
-Since “For The Uniform” is one of my favorite episodes (and most likely the episode I’ve watched the most of the series), I’ll dissent a little bit on it. I do think it holds together, though that goddamn final exchange between Sisko and Dax really is off tone and doesn’t leave it in the right place. Beside that, though, I think it’s pretty damn great.
Eddington cannot beat Starfleet, but given its apparently divided attention and resources he’s making his move to win the conflict, and between his understanding of the Starfleet mentality in general (and Sisko’s in particular) he’s easily able to fight Sisko to a stalemate every time while accomplishing his overall objective. Sisko cannot sit idly by while Eddington poisons all the Cardassian colonies (and given the personal dimension to the fight he doesn’t want to), but his tactics weren’t working against Eddington and after the last battle he needed to find a way to take the initiative as he had nothing left to go on. It’s pretty easy to make the case that Sisko’s actions were defensible in a utilitarian sense, as only one poisoned Maquis colony was enough to make Eddington lose his nerve and prevent the poisoning of a bunch of others that would almost certainly otherwise have happened. It’s unclear what other courses of action Sisko could have tried instead of what he did. And he loses his shit just doing that much–I do laugh at the bit where Sisko barks at Worf to ready the next two torpedoes even though he’s still in orbit of the planet where he shot the first two. Admittedly that could just have been intended for dramatic effect. Still, the whole “you betrayed your uniform!” exchange is pretty uncomfortable to watch as we’re simply seeing Sisko unravel in a scary way. (Also, while there isn’t a “you broke your little ships” type of scene to it, I do think the repeated uncomfortable reaction shots of Worf and Kira after hearing about the plan–your typically most gung-ho people on the show–gets that point across. When Worf of all people hesitates to fire the torpedoes and needs to be yelled at multiple times to do it, it should give you pause.)
It’s true that Picard would never have done this, though frankly TNG was almost never written to give Picard this kind of fucked-either-way situation with no morally satisfying middle path to be found in the final act. I think it’s just great. Then there’s that stupid last few lines, like a pasted-on everything’s okay smiley face. They couldn’t quite get to the unflinchingly darkest places yet. But they would.