Meridian

The minute the planet appeared in space, I said to myself, "This is Brigadoon!" It was so obvious.

I loved Brigadoon but not because it was Brigadoon. I'm a huge fan of Cyd Charisse and Gene Kelly. They carried this. The music and singing and costumes carried it. These characters and actors cannot carry the DS9 adaptation of it. It succeeds only as an homage to the original film. It has little merit of its own.

On top of all that, we already know the outcome even if we don't know the film. Dax is a recurring character and can go nowhere. There is no element of surprise. This is a poor episode but bearable if you're reading or knitting while you watch it.

Quick Review:

Story #1 - Sisko and the squad are off in the Gamma Quadrant in the Defiant exploring strange new worlds. This after getting their butts handed to them by the Jem'Hadar and the Founders. That confrontation wasn't even close if you will remember. And the Dominion didn't just physically destroy them in short order, they mentally and psychologically controlled them as well. This mission defies common sense and makes me wonder if the writers were getting bored with stories on the space station. It's so much more fun being out there in space and meeting interesting beings.

The planet they come across has an interesting dilemma they face as a society relating to dimensional shifts.

One of the sappiest Trek love stories ever to unfold on the screen does so involving Dax with one of the planetary lover boys attracted to women with spots. Planet man: "How far do those spots go down?" Dax: "All the way..." This romance is silly and ridiculous on so many levels. It makes Captain Kirk's weekly infatuations seem mature and realistic by comparison.

By the way Dax, did you happen to mention the worm living inside of you?

In the end the love story was so contrived it made me upset the writers were trying to present something which completely insulted the viewers in a way that had me saying, "Give me a break..."

Story #2 - Quark is offered a lot of compensation to create something interesting (and definitely ethically challenged) relating to the holosuite and Major Kira by an alien that reminds me of Pinocchio's naughty friend Lampwick. This weirdly obsessed alien asks Quark to create a computer simulation of Kira because he has been rejected in real life by her. When Quark asks the alien why he wants a holosuite creation of Kira they have a non-verbal understanding that borders on obsessive creepiness. All I could think as I watched the episode is: Oh boy, when Kira finds out........Instead...there is a hilarious twist which made me laugh out loud.

An episode harkening back to the real stinkers of TNG. The sci-fi element here is boring and dull, not used in any interesting way. The romance is the worst part of it by far, reminding me of the TNG episodes where Troi and Beverly would blindly fall in love with some stranger with little to no personality. Did they really have to do this to Jadzia as well? The Trill with 8 lifetimes of experience and who has been shown strongly standing for herself, rejecting advances from not only Bashir but a multitude of people. She's very independent and does what's in her best interest. But here, she just falls head over heels for this rando after climbing a tree with him, it's inexplicable and so out of character. Within a day she's madly/wildly in love with him as if they've been dating for months. I thought we had left these kind of episodes with TNG, which often regress into old-fashioned and antiquated writing for their female characters. But I guess with Star Trek it's just something to be expected.

Quark's storyline is far better, not surprisingly. The scene when Kira catches Quark trying to get a holo-image makes for great comedic interactions. We've also seen Kira fall in love with Vedek Bareil, which despite being a bit forced, was at least foreshadowed and they had some chemistry at least and showed genuine care. We also didn't see it develop in one day, it is implied they have already spent quite some time together, which is a smart trick by the writer's. But this episode forces the writer's to create chemistry, romance and some kind of emotion arc all at once and it's obvious they can't pull it off. Romances in Star Trek work when it's between main members of the cast, people we know and whose relationships we see develop. Even then, Troi and Worf was no doubt a dumb experiment for a couple that has no things in common nor chemistry nor any reason to be together except fate. Jadzia's decision, WITHIN A WEEK, to spend 60 years with this guy in limbo is absolutely insane. It is an absolute insult to the past two seasons of strong female characters, or of the strong characters in general. DS9 usually does not focus too much on romance except for comedic or minor story use. The acting here is just as atrocious, I think Terry Farrell playing Jadzia probably also found it hilariously stupid and corny. They have no chemistry and her dedication to him is like some helpless Victorian-era wife, who just cares for him and does nothing except to please him. A normal episode would have Jadzia scoff at his suggestion at building a house for the two of them. One of the worst episodes I have seen so far, not only unoriginal and insulting but unbearably dull to sit through. So much of this episode is dedicated to her romance and there's nothing, absolutely nothing, to be interested by in their relationship or their dialogue and especially not their acting. The only salvageable part of this episode is Quark, luckily he is a constant positive aspect to any of the DS9 series, which does also have a good standard of quality regardless. It gets a 3 because its not as bad as the Star Trek episode where Beverly crusher gets Stockholm syndrome with a Scottish ghost. Star Trek writers need to steer away from romance, I mean it doesn't even work for your target demographic. I don't think many Trekkies get excited with another episode of Troi, Beverly, Jadzia, Kira etc becoming an object and falling blindly in love with any guy with a face.

The plot from this is lifted from the play/movie "Brigadoon"...though without all the singing, Van Johnson, Gene Kelly and the rest. When the story begins, the Defiant spots a planet that just appears! They are invited to land and learn from these nice folks that their planet appears and they live their lives every 60 years. Then, it disappears after a bit and becomes invisible and the folks go to sleep for another 60 years! It's actually a pretty ridiculous idea but try not to think about it.

During their visit with the nice folks, a VERY frisky guy from the magical planet seems VERY bent on getting his groove on with Jadzia Dax. Slowly, Jadzia also starts having feelings towards the guy. In fact, she's so taken by him that she agrees to move to the planet to stay with the guy. Ultimately, this doesn't work, as the writers weren't about to write her off the show...yet.

Overall this is a reasonably pleasant episode though it's hardly original. Worth seeing but forgettable.

"With a brief stop to climb a tree!" Honestly? Eight lifetimes and still falling for a line like that, Jadzia! Well all the actors did what they could with a thin gruel, but " Please Sir, I don't want any more!"