Honor Among Thieves

Let's start with the good: Nick Tate does some excellent acting in his final scene, and there's a fantastically fluffy cat. Now for the bad:

Very little of the plotting here stands up to any critical thought. Intelligence work is *all* about confidence, so they wouldn't be using the Chief as an agent in the first place -- for all the reasons that tickle us for suspense here: he has to lie about almost everything about himself, and he has a family to consider. Does anyone really imagine Keiko allowing him to take such a mission?

Not surprisingly, the secret element of plot-holium comes to his rescue, over and over. The script has Bilby seeming to be shrewd or not, as the plot requires; he's confident and commanding one moment, then quivering and obsequious when the boss shows, then totally trusting of his brand-new sidekick. But if Bilby's character has no consistency, neither does the agent who has given O'Brien this mission in the first place. The only trustable character in this mission is O'Brien, and most of what he says we know to be lies.

It's not impossible to successfully port in a script written outside the Star Trek universe, which seems to be the case here. But this doesn't even feel like Star Trek. So we have:

• an insufficiently-developed script that
• violates the continuity and character of a main role and
• doesn't feel like Star Trek.

That being said, it's a largely functional gangster story with some awkward character continuity and nice photography. 10/10 it could never be, but IMO it can't even really be Star Trek; there just aren't any DS9 characters who could have been given this role (with the possible exception of Odo).

5/10 for good sets, lighting, decent acting within scenes

O'Brien, for whatever reason, has been given the task of getting the goods on a sort of mafia syndicate. His engineering expertise is an asset to his role, but why he, of all people, would be given so much responsibility is beyond me. This job would require a skilled secret agent who could play the part of a trusted mobster. O'Brien is a shoot from the hip kind of guy and would probably be caught in a lie or slip up in the first five minutes. It's about a friendship that develops with a boss and the consequences of lying to him. Not a bad episode. Just not on a par with some others.

I noticed that another reviewer felt that this was THE worst episode of "Star Trek: Deep Space 9". Well, this series had quite a few terrible shows (though on balance, most were quite good) and I would venture to say that there are several much more terrible episodes I can think of right off the bat! However, I agree that "Honor Among Thieves" is not a particularly good show.

When the show begins, O'Brien is in some other part of the galaxy because he's on an undercover mission. It seems that the dreaded Orion Syndicate has infiltrated Starfleet and because of that they need some outsider. What follows is much like a mobster film, with O'Brien becoming a made man and learning to over-identify too much with his new 'friends'.

Why wasn't this a very good episode? Well, while O'Brien is only on this mission a short time, he way over-identifies with his new friends and his reaction to their being arrested or killed (due to their own evil) is ridiculous and makes no sense. Up until then, I hadn't minded the show--but towards the end it just looked like it needed a re-write...badly.

Bilby is well portrayed by Nick Tate. Another review here notes that it is an odd choice for a Federation engineer to go undercover to infiltrate a mob. I agree although it is a nice change of venue from the station.

Chief O'Brien goes undercover to infiltrate the Orion Syndicate.

This is a decent "O'Brien must suffer" episode thanks to a strong performance from Meaney that carries the story. It is a bit too random and implausible to fit within the serialised narrative of DS9, but the writer creates good material for the lead actors to bounce of each other. Nick Tate is also pretty good as the character Bilby.

Any fans of movies and shows about undercover operatives like 'Donnie Brasco' or 'Reservoir Dogs' should appreciate the themes covered, but at times they feel slightly clichéd. Personally I think if they really wanted to do an undercover story it should have been done in two parts and set over a longer period to make the relationship between the two leads more believable. Either that or at least have O'Brien absent for a few episodes in the build up to it so the audience can assume he spent the time developing the relationship.