The Sword of Kahless

B. Traven wrote Treasure of the Sierra Madre. I saw the movie so long ago that I don't remember much of it except for Humphrey Bogart being filthy and sweaty and desperate. I do not understand the parallel drawn between this episode of DS9 and Treasure of the Sierra Madre. I guess I'm not much of a critic because I don't really have a problem with the acting by Terry Farrell. I enjoy her portrayal of Dax and appreciate how she interacts with her crewmates. This is to me a good episode that I would rate 7 of 10. The plot complications were enough to hold my interest. I did find the trek through the caves a bit tiresome.

My 4th time watching this episode and it is still just as annoying. By the 4th season, you would think Dax (Terry) could deliver her lines better. Idk, her trying to act tough and angry had me rolling my eyes. It's like Marry Poppins getting upset. I know Dax is a favorite to many, but every episode where she is a main character in the story, I just get irritated because her lifeless acting is such a distraction and the writers don't help. And this episode is a fine example. You could totally skip this episode and not miss anything. The episode before this and after are enjoyable which makes this episode that much worse.

"The Sword of Kahless." Deep Space Nine always had this thing to instinctively pick boring plots, but not boring enough to quit watching the show. Always scratching the floor when it comes to excitement. DS9's crew has a Klingon on board now, so now girlfriend Jazdia has to join Worf on a quest for an ancient Klingon sword. We need to start talking inspiration for good scripts, now. See, it's God's Dad who inspires scripts. Not actually God himself. God's Dad calls himself "God," too. As long as there is no actual God, just yet. God's Dad inspired both Bibles, as an example. God's Dad is tiny. Those tiny electrons that circle around protons ? That's God's Dad. And those atoms as a whole hit a writer's heart, and inspire his brain to write it up. Hence God's Dad is also called "The Word." And that's what's evidently missing throughout the DS9 TV show. Inspiration through words. From the get-go. Even DS9's setting on a boring space station is uninspired. My advice is to find writers whose hearts function normally. Because guess what: Sooner or later there might be the real deal, the real God, that God not just hits but smashes your heart, and boring plots will then stick out as hate.

The Sword of Kahless is the holy grail of the Klingons. Kahless is the godhead of these people and the sword is thought to have magic properties. Kor, Jadzea, and Worf go on a mission to find the sword and return it to the Emperor of the Klingons. But the thing creates serious problems for all of them. It also enlists a group of Klingons who follow the trio and try to take the sword from them. Ultimately, the power is different from what was imagined. There is just too little effort to create a sense of suspense and dread.

Quite literally 36 minutes of this episode was done in that cheap-looking cave, but it was also in the exact same spot of that cheap-looking cave. They didn't even change the background props. They re-use the same scene with the sword twice and only used 2 cast members for the entirety of the episode. Was there seriously no money for the making of this episode? Was it that the script was so bad they didn't feel it necessary to put any effort into the production of this episode? It's a mystery as to why this episode had to be made so cheaply. The plot had potential, but suffered the same fate as most DS9 episodes.