Jammer's Review
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
"Indiscretion"
Air date: 10/23/1995
Teleplay by Nicholas Corea
Story by Toni Marberry & Jack Trevino
Directed by LeVar Burton
Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan
"Captain Sisko is right ... you are in love with the sound of your own voice." — Kira to Dukat
Nutshell: So-so. The early scenes are outstanding, but then the episode turns a bit trite. Some horrendous attempts at comic relief really hurt, too.
There are some very relevant moments in "Indiscretion," but this episode, alas, does not live up to what it easily could have been. It could've been another great installment, but it falls a little bit short because of its predictable conclusion and lapses of incredulity.
When Kira gets a reliable lead on the whereabouts of the Ravenock, a Cardassian ship with Bajoran prisoners lost since the Occupation, she sets out on a mission to search for it, hoping to find a friend who was on board. Since it was a Cardassian ship, the Cardassians also want to find it, so they send an official to assist Kira in her search. Surprise! The Cardassian official is Gul Dukat.
The most compelling moments in this episode come in the early scenes where Kira and Dukat begin their journey in the Runabout. Kira would be content sitting in silence. Dukat, however, decides to initiate a conversation, and pretty soon the two find themselves debating the Occupation.
This scene rings true all the way. Here are two characters who were on the different sides of a Holocaust-type situation. They're trying to accept each other now that the peace treaty is in place, but it's not that simple. Dukat used to command a slave mining station. How can Kira separate yesteryear's image of a Cardassian slave driver from that of today's newfound "ally"? At the same time, how can Dukat possibly apologize for a genocide that his people don't even want to admit? He tries, nonetheless, in his own way, but not without insulting Bajor at the same time. A lot of this discussion seems like the realistic views people in such a situation would take, and I liked the way the material in this scene was presented: without the dramatic cheats of instant mutual understanding.
Unfortunately, this scene has little to do with the rest as the story. Once they locate the crash site of the Ravenock, the plot thickens when we learn that Dukat is also looking for somebody—a Bajoran lover with whom he had a daughter. He finds that his lover has long since perished, but the daughter may still be alive, marooned on the planet. But since his daughter is half Bajoran, he informs Kira that he has to kill her—or risk having his career destroyed when his peers find out about his affair.
This is where the story slips up. It becomes a predictable tale of the Man who Reluctantly Heeds his Conscience. Will Dukat change his mind at the last second and realize that killing his daughter to save his career and reputation is wrong? Or will he shoot her with his phaser set on vaporize? Can we vote more than once?
Sarcasm aside, this might have worked, but the story ends with his choice played out in overly dramatic terms, and the issues from earlier in the episode fade into background conversation. The writers seem to have sincere intentions here, but the final result is just not that inspired.
Something else this episode does—and more successfully—is show the many faces of Gul Dukat. It makes Dukat into a more fully developed character that we can understand (although there were a few scenes where Alaimo's performance could've been a little bit better).
The big problem with "Indiscretion," however, is some filler which just doesn't sit right. A scene where Dukat sits on a spike and impales it in his rear is all-too-obviously played for laughs. Dukat starts yelping in pain and then shoves his rear into the camera while bending over to run a medical device over the wound. This makes Kira laugh hysterically. But the scene isn't funny. It's just a dumb contrivance to make Kira and Dukat a little more friendly toward each other. It's basically saying "We've had a good laugh, right? Now we're buddies." Thanks, but no thanks. This "comic" scene just feels way too forced and hokey, and doesn't balance very well against the serious tone in the Runabout. Aside from this scene, most of the Kira/Dukat scenes work well, although, aside from the Runabout scene, there's nothing particularly standout about them. Kira threatening to kill Dukat if he tries to hurt his daughter sounds like something which is supposed to make us gasp, but instead borders on being obvious and obligatory.
There's a B-story here, involving Captain Yates taking a job on Bajor which will allow her to be closer to Captain Sisko. She even considers moving onto the station. All Sisko can say is "It's a big step." (That was his first mistake.) The amiable results of this thread are amusing, particularly the series' running gag of Jake being the expert on his father's relationship. Lightweight, but likable.
Overall, "Indiscretion" is a decent episode that could have been much better. Pairing Kira and Dukat has so many possibilities and it's too bad the script doesn't realize more of them. This story shows promise early on, but then settles for less.
Previous episode: Hippocratic Oath
Next episode: Rejoined
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22 comments on this review
The scene when Dukat sits on the thorn is a pivotal moment in the episode and in this process of re-evaluation. Of this scene, Ira Steven Behr comments, "There are moments in life when you can be with someone with whom you have nothing in common, who you have nothing but disdain for, and then something happens: a moment of shared experience, or shared laughter, and it just changes the playing field. And it doesn't mean that you become friends afterward, it doesn't mean that you've broken through to a new level of understanding that'll be with you for the rest of your lives. But something has changed. It's a bonding moment. And though it's probable that neither of them would ever discuss it, after this, their relationship will never be quite the same again. They've started to see each other as people."
This really rings true to me. But hey, suit yourself!
There is a scene I never saw in 7 years of DS9 that would have been very satisfying. Dukat, running through DS9 trying to escape from something, then turning a corner, and being face to face with Kira. He would knock her down as he ran over her, but her hand or foot would stick out and trip him, and then she would pounce, and we can imagine the rest.
As for the episode as a whole, I pretty much agree with Jammer that the rescue/killing part was pretty standard writing (i.e. lame). But still, lots of good points brought up during the episode. Maybe 2.8 stars. (But then Hippocratic Oath has to get 3.2)
All Dukat had to do was rescue his daughter, take her back to Cardassia and make up any story he wanted regarding her identity and have her killed there. It's not like Kira was going to be visiting Cardassia Prime anytime soon so how would she ever know what happened?
Again, I certainly didn't want to see him become such an overt murderer, but I'll never understand why he confessed his plan to Kira and still expected to get away with it.
I don't know what the problem is with the thorn scene, and comic moments between Kira and Dukat in general. Just because Dukat can be funny or silly occasionally doesn't mean that he isn't a real villain or that we have to sympathize with him. People all have silly moments in real life, I'm sure that every despot and criminal has had some of those. And it's not like Kira was going to be Dukat's friend or forgive him just because they shared a silly moment and laughed about it. It just makes the situation more bizarre, in a way, but also more lifelike - how do you deal with situations when you're forced to work alongside people who have committed terrible crimes and haven't repented for their past? It must be bizarre and uncomfortable looking at them acting like 'normal people' while at the same time thinking about who they are.
Ziyal was an awful addition.
the first place. To force them to acknowledge your greatness."
It's important to him that everyone -- but especially Kira -- comes to understand him and agree with him. He considers himself a misunderstood hero, and if he can just explain himself properly, people will understand why everything he did was actually for the good, and ultimately learn to love him.
That's why he told Kira about his plans -- he wanted her approval. (And maybe on a subconscious level he wanted her to stop him.) It's not the last time he'll tell her something terrible, so that he can try to explain his reasons and convince her he was in the right.
The butt-hurt scene was off-key, but in theory, I don't have a problem with the idea that two people who are extremely uncomfortable around each other would go overboard when something funny finally breaks the tension. I think it would have played better, though, if they hadn't seemed so relaxed about it, and if they'd realized what they were doing and cut off the laughter a lot sooner.
I like Kira and Dukat a lot. Another good episode.
7/10
As for rescuing the prisoners - they don't really need to show how they got the Breen uniforms but obviously they had to have been stolen off of dispatched Breen. If that's the case then that negates the future statements that no one has seen what a Breen really looks like. And I highly doubt that their would be spare uniforms lying about.
The b-story was refreshingly pleasant and had me grinning quite a bit.
High end of 3 stars for me.
I'd say this is more hovering around 3 stars... Though last outing with the Jem'Hadar may have arguably been slightly better in its premise, I like the potential underlying messages here more, evening the two episodes out in my mind. (as I've said in other comments, this IS my first run of DS9, so there could easily be more to it later on)
Both "sides" find common ground with respect to the dead.
The "thorn" incident was funny, almost as funny as watching Dukat and his skinny ass legs trod through the sand dunes.
But again, Kira & one easily penetrate a compound that is guarded... really?
The first of 3 Ziyal’s was played very nicely by Cyia Batten.
2.5 stars for me.
The failure for me was the Sisko/Cassidy stuff. It felt...trite. I didn't like anyone's acting in that at all. I also don't understand why all the blame was on Sisko's shoulders. Clearly he wasn't ready for a deeper relationship with Cassidy, and everyone's mad at him for not squealing with glee because she could be around more often. The only thing he did "wrong" was not express himself clearly enough. For that matter, Cassidy could have communicated better.
Up to that point, the two characters had been strategically adversarial. Going along and tolerating each other for the sake of the mission and the larger spirit of the peace treaty, but the tension and contempt for each other was palpable. Nearly every comment was a pointed jab at the other, even the compliments (or as Garak might say, "*Especially* the compliments"). Their entire conversation was a constant power struggle. Dukat's condescension towards Kira trying to maintain his superiority and justify his actions during the Occupation; Kira wanting to lash back at the former oppressor of her people and looking for any avenue to attack him.
When Dukat sits on the thorn, Kira laughs loudly at him. But Kira's initial laughter wasn't jovial. It was bitter. It was basically schadenfreude. She was enjoying seeing him in a little pain. Here was the man who was the taskmaster, this powerful man who inflicted so much pain and misery on her and her people, who ordered death squads to kill dozens of freedom fighters.....and he's hopping around like mad, howling and begging one of his former enemies to help him, because of a simple thorn. It gave Kira the satisfaction of seeing Dukat knocked him down a peg....and Dukat knew it. And had no defense for it.
At first Dukat was just simply dealing with the momentary reaction of the pain. He quickly turns to anger and frustration over losing control of the situation and seeing his air of superiority and authority stripped away. He invested so much time and energy trying to maintain his power in front of Kira, and now she's just sitting back laughing as he makes a spectacle of himself. It infuriates him and he shouts at her. But then he calms down a bit and has no other choice but to acknowledge the humor of the situation. And for a moment, the bravado and the power struggles and the manipulative game-playing are all set aside and they share a brief but genuine chuckle that helps bring down some of the walls between, even if only slightly.
They still don't like each other much (Kira less so), but for one brief moment, they stopped being bitter rivals or cold allies. I thought it was well-done.
*****
As for Sisko-Yates, the part I didn't like is how it's acceptable for her to fly off the handle the way she did. I get that he could have been a little more communicative with her, but Sisko was right....her moving to the station *IS* a big step. Surely she would (or should) have recognized that and understood it.
This is his first real serious relationship since his wife's death. The possibility of her moving to the station was pretty sudden (not something they had talked about at length for months before). It's understandable that he might still have some reservations or hesitation before such a major change in their relationship status. A more compassionate partner would have been more understanding of how big a step this was and how Sisko might need a few days to process this new development and figure out if he was ready for it. Storming out and stonewalling him because he displayed a reserved response is detrimental to a healthy relationship where the feelings of BOTH partners are valued.
If my wife had basically asked to move in with me after only 6 months, I would have hesitated, too. And I probably would have rejected it as being too much too soon, even though I loved her.
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