Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

“Meridian”

2 stars.

Air date: 11/14/1994
Teleplay by Mark Gehred-O'Connell
Story by Hilary Bader and Evan Carlos Somers
Directed by Jonathan Frakes

"Sorry to hear you say that, but if you're asking for a refund, forget it. The contract specifically says that satisfaction is not guaranteed." — Quark to his customer

Review Text

With the airing of "Meridian," every major character on DS9 has earned the spotlight for an episode in which they have a love interest. Okay—everyone except Odo who does not typically involve himself in the same emotional relationships as humans (and Bajorans and Trills and Ferengi and...).

Trek love stories are just about always unsatisfying. They follow a basic formula that is nearly impossible to deviate from because some unwritten rule states that the particular week's love interest has to be gone by the end of the episode. The biggest problem is that within the given one-hour time limit, the characters have to meet, fall in love and separate. Consequently, everything happens too fast, important dialogue opportunities are missed and in the end it just seems forced.

Don't get me wrong—I'm not saying relationship stories on Star Trek can't work. I'm just saying that writers don't take the risks they should and instead compromise the characters with conventional conclusions. These relationships should inhabit the subplots of multiple episodes to develop and really be effective.

While in the Gamma Quadrant, the crew of the Defiant discovers a planet called Meridian dwelled by a small village of people. The unique thing about Meridian, however, is that it shifts between two dimensions, the second in which the planet exists solely as energy without matter. (Comment: One laughable element of Star Trek is how the population of an entire planet can consist solely of one village of 50 people. Call it extreme dramatic simplification if you will.)

Dax falls in love with a Meridian inhabitant, a man named Deral (Brett Cullen). The relationship is set against Meridian's unstable phase changing and the threat that the planet may go out of phase forever. There's a surprising amount of forgettable technobabble buried in this episode, all of which can fortunately be ignored because it's basically irrelevant to the core of the story.

Unfortunately, the scenes between Dax and Deral are nearly equally irrelevant. They're extremely typical and, frankly, quite boring. What the teleplay should have done was use Dax's eight lifetimes of intelligence and wisdom to inspire some thoughtful, meaningful dialogue. Lines like "Later we can go back to your room and count each other's spots" are cute and all, but the script misses some major opportunities. Instead we get predictable, mediocre (and nearly gag-inducing) scenes such as Dax and Deral climbing a tree or walking down a hillside together while commenting on the beautiful scenery (though it is nice to have some outdoor location filming for a change). And this sappy score is dreadful—excruciatingly reminiscent of some of the original series' love themes. Not much of a comeback for Dennis McCarthy, who scores his first episode of DS9 since returning from working on the Generations feature.

What are very relevant are the peripheral scenes. This episode works well for Dax's character as she decides to abandon her career (and life as she knows it) to stay with Deral on his phase-shifting world. The show's highlight comes in a wonderfully directed and performed scene between Sisko and Dax, who say goodbye to each other forever. These minor moments are so much stronger than the episode's mainstream, which is exactly the problem with "Meridian"—the peripheral scenes are engaging while, on the other hand, the chemistry-lacking scenes between Dax and Deral can basically be thrown out the window.

Keeping the episode lively is a humorous (albeit forgettable) B-story taking place on DS9 as Quark tries to fill a "special order" for a holosuite program. It's an enjoyably unimportant comedy involving an obsessed visitor (Jeffrey Combs) who requests a sexed-up holosuite image of Major Kira. The results are entertaining, with a deliciously hilarious—and equally unconventional—payoff. Though completely unrelated to the main plot, it adds an acceleration boost to the episode.

As expected, "Meridian" ends on a sad note, but it feels like somewhat of a cheat because the ending is based on contrivance rather than character decision. Plus, it seems like a really crappy thing to do to Dax's character. It's just the same old stuff.

The disappointing aspects of "Meridian" demonstrate just how well TNG's sixth season "Lessons" worked as a relationship story. That was a story with thoughtful discussion and memorable moments where Picard stepped back and analyzed his life. That's what "Meridian" needed.

Previous episode: Civil Defense
Next episode: Defiant

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Comment Section

112 comments on this post

    Along with "Rejoined," "Lessons" is probably my favorite Trek love story. Picard and Dax really examined their lives in those episodes and, as you pointed out "that's what 'Meridian' needed."

    If anything, a ** rating flatters this episode. A pile of sappy, rushed and gag inducing garbage.

    I just can buy that a person like Dax who have lived so many lifes (and have been both a father and a mother in them) would fall so deeply in love in 10 days that would decide to abandon everything for her love. I find it totally out of character.

    @Jammer, your bot-elude maths are becoming more and more complicated. Aren't you afraid that you'll reach a point were some of your readers won't be able to answer them? :))

    I can't believe this gets the same star rating as Civil Defense, which Jammer seems to loathe. Watching this again made me realize that most stories which focus on Jadzia are garbage.

    I managed to ignore the A-plot for most of it...and in the process had to ignore most of the episode. The B-plot was entertaining...though I couldn't stop imagining that it was Weyoun ordering the holosuite program. Coombs' voice here is identical to the one he uses as a Vorta.

    There's only one good scene in here, it's the scene between Sisko and Dax. But even that doesn't completely work because I never believed Dax would really abandon her career (for which she worked so hard) for a man she just met a few days ago, and that's not even mentioning the fact that they have no chemistry. None of the pseudo-science in the episode is remotely believable. And even Jeffrey Combs couldn't make Tiron an interesting character.

    1 star. I think this is the worst episode since "Move Along Home" (to which I would give 0.5 stars)

    So far, it looks like everyone, including myself, shared the same reactions to this episode.

    I, too, found the A plot a re-hash, and a poor one at that, of the typical 'love stories' that clutter and drag down both TOS and TNG. I would have thought that concerns regarding serialization wouldn't be as important on DS9 given it's season-spanning plotlines and Operatic story arcs. But the old rule about characters ending the show where they started seems to be prevalent in DS9 as well.

    I even found myself fast-forwarding through the sappy cliched love scenes to get back to the Quark plot. I do have to give Dax and Sisko credit for their emotional scene aboard the Defiant, it was touching, moving, and sincere.

    Unfortunately, as others have noted, that scene and Quark plot are the only things that make this episode remotely watchable. 1 star here.

    Jadzia really violated every established protocol for putting the well being of the symbiont above all else, particularly the "6 hours having her (and its) molecules scrambled in the transporter"...

    ^ Not to mention taking the Dax symbiont out of the joining rotation by skipping town, er, universe on a ghost planet...

    I totally agree. Jadzia is full of passion and embraces live but would she really "run off" with a guy she just met a few days ago and abandon her career, her friends... I'm just not buying it.
    The only scene that really works is the one between Sisko and Dax. You really feel the chemistry and extremely strong bond between them. In my opinion this is actually the most important and most credibly relationships on ds9 (maybe even on all of Treck). The main reason why Jadzia's death left such a big hole in session 7.

    Here's a question - why are these people willing to stay on the planet? They've spent who knows how many years as ghosts, for maybe a year in their bodies. They are all over food, and Deral, for one, looked ready to drag the first person he saw into bed; Jadzia just happened to be sitting next to him at the wrong moment.
    So, why go back? They have Defiant in orbit. They can go where ever they want. They can see if their own civilization is still around, found a new colony, or just go their own ways. They are not stranded anymore.

    And, oh, as the TNG episode where Riker and Crusher killed a room full of unborn clones pointed out: You Can't Maintain a Civilization With 50 People!




    (unless they are aliens)

    The concept of this episode was kind of interesting but the writers, having given us Equilibrium only a few episodes before highlighting the importance of the Trill symbionts and their need to preserve them- even at the expense of the hosts, seemingly decide to chuck all that out the window with no explanation or consideration. None of the characters, not even Sisko, brought that up as a reason why she can't so easily decide skip off to another dimension for several years. I realize that getting permission from the Symbiosis Commission would've taken up time that they didn't have before the planet phased again but that just makes it more obvious that Jadzia totally suspended all rational thought and placed her love life above her duty to her Symbiont (not even to mention her neglect of her duty to Starfleet). Knowing what we already knew about Jadzia, her characterization in this ep rang horribly false.

    I can't believe no one seems to notice the biggest problem with this episode. Why are the administrators of a space station out doing exploration? And on an unstable prototype warship? Isn't that the job of people like Picard and ships like the Enterprise? I understand that there is only so much that can happen on a space station, but having the lead doctor of a space station out on exploration missions seems totally wrong.

    Oh, and yeah, I didn't believe that Dax would do this at all. Hundreds of years of life and still hasn't learned not to throw everything away on a quickly-developed infatuation?

    I like the Trill concept about as much as Jammer likes the Ferengi, and Dax herself bores me to tears, so this episode didn't have much of a chance with me. If this gets 2 stars, I give Civil Defense 35. But like others said, it's like the symbiont didn't even exist here. (It's revealing that it's never mentioned in a fairly detailed review.) If Jadzia were a 28-year-old human woman with a couple of ordinary romances in her past, I could buy that she'd fall in love and change her life overnight. But Dax has been married, as both husband and wife, had kids, and (seemingly) experienced everything the quadrant has to offer. If anyone should be jaded enough to avoid love at first sight, it should be Dax.

    Dax is also, if anything, an adventurer. Even if I could convince myself that Dax saw the chance to live with 50 people in a ghost town for a while as a new kind of adventure, there's the practical fact that Trills kinda need to be close to other Trills, just in case a new host body is needed in a hurry. Dax wouldn't necessarily care about its duty to stay alive for Trill society, but it cares a whole lot about its own survival, as we saw when it was stolen. Shifting into another dimension for years takes a big risk with that for little gain.

    It's like... there is one good line in this episode. Jadzia stating "I just need some time... ... ... 60 years or so".

    The best part of this entire episode was the first scene, with Kira and Odo and Kira telling Tiron that Odo's her sweetheart, and just watching Odo's face the entire time.

    You can SEE how bad he wants that to be TRUE!! And knowing it's just an act.

    Other than that, this episode was complete crap. I kept wanting Dax's new beau to just die. Or be a founder. Or be a something! Besides just... boring.

    The A-story in this episode is among the worst material this series ever produced. It is unwatchable. With that said, I loved the B-story involving Quark and Tiron. The hideously saccharine Dax stuff juxtaposed with the hilarious, perverted Quark plot is jarring. Had to fast-forward large parts of the episode, though. Jammer's 2 stars are generous in the extreme (I also loved Civil Defense, which got the same rating).

    One thing I have been struck with as I have rewatched DS9 in order has been how Odo was played as clearly being in love with Kira for years before it was officially revealed. Was that a choice by the actors, or did the writers intend for that to happen eventually?

    Implausible (what does Jadzia find so interesting about this guy), boring, typical Star Trek a planet is a village, blah, blah... Agree that this did not deserve a 2.

    Nice to see Mr. Combs.

    The worst episode of DS9 thus far. The relationship between Dax and the alien makes no sense at all.

    1/10

    Wow. I guess this COULD have worked, if the actor had more chemistry with Jadzia and their scenes together weren't so corny. Everything happened way too suddenly; it was like her and the alien were playing a trick on everyone or something. The romance in 'Rejoined' was well paced; this one wasn't. Thank goodness they never came back to it.

    I have to say, though, that the B-story with Quark, Kira, and the alien perv was hilarious and came to a fitting end.

    This is one of those episodes that stuck in my mind as pretty unique. The idea of a phase-shifting planet between dimensions is imaginative. Sort of akin to the TOS and VOY eps about temporally displaced planets. Unfortunately this ep also stuck in my head as being another neat idea with a bad story. The review here and most of the comments are pretty spot on but the rating a bit forgiving despite the amicable enough b-plot.

    "...it seems like a pretty crappy thing to do to Dax's character." Indeed.

    1 star.

    This is a clear 1 star mess. Dax and Deral had no chemistry, their dialogue was stilted, and the whole relationship was so rushed. Was their a proper discussion regarding the symbiant?

    Totally pointless.

    However, the light B-story is pretty funny stuff, which is perhaps just enough to make it 1.5 stars. It marks Jeffrey Combs' first appearance in DS9, so it's a bit of an easter egg to see him here.

    Why couldn't Jadzia phase shift like everybody else? They never explained that. Jadzia should have accidentally called Worf Deral on her deathbed.

    I think, to enjoy this episode, you need to be drunk.

    But there is a lot to enjoy for ds9 fans--a b-plot that includes not only jeffrey coombs' first appearance on ds9 but also an entertaning odo/kira scene.

    And if you skip the "romantic" scenes (although I actually think that Dax is absolutely the most plausible person to know that she's in love in a week--300 years ought to give you the ability to recognize love when you find it), the a-story is fun. The technobabble is entertaining, and Jax and Sisco are great.

    Also, Sisco and the colony leader have the Best Chemistry Ever. Has anyone written fanfic on that?

    Always a skipper for me.

    The best part about this episode was the "B" story. Loved Jeffery Combs and thought Quarks efforts to make some coin at Kira's expense were pretty funny.

    This is the worst writing for the Dax character in the entire show. 7 lifetimes of knowledge/wisdom/experience and she lets her loins do the talking? Leave Star Fleet? ... Sisko lets her? .... I'll say again... Sisko lets her?

    ***multiple face palms***

    In “ReLOINed” she can’t control herself either. Didn’t she want to leave Star Fleet then too?

    The most enjoyable part of this episode is Odo's face when Kira calls him her lover.

    "Yes, sweetheart." ... lol

    1 star for me, and that's generous I think. (I love Jeffrey Combs)

    Here is another example of a DS9 episode automatically getting a 1/2 to 1-star bonus for the sake of being a DS9 episode. The love interest between Jadzia and Deral was as bad as 7of9 and Chakotay. And Avery Brooks hasn't had acting this poor since the pilot episode, he looked like a child actor in a school play. The B-story was better!

    @Domi - 2 things to consider.

    1) Trek romance-of-the-week stories are almost universally bad, whereas 2 regulars starting a relationship should probably get a little more work. Comparing it to C7 is a bit of an apples/oranges situation.

    2) The sci-fi idea behind the Meridian planet actually is cool. I'd give it half a star for that, and a half star for Jeffrey Combs' first appearance being an "amusing enough" B plot.

    That said the first ever DS9 episode to score 1 star is Fascination and Meridian is at least as unfortunate as that.

    As an aside, I think the inspiration for the SF idea of "Meridian" is probably the musical "Brigadoon" (Scottish village appears for only one day every hundred years).

    Ah, one of the only good things about the episode wasn't even original :P

    Jammer wrote: "Keeping the episode lively is a humorous (albeit forgettable) B-story taking place on DS9 as Quark tries to fill a "special order" for a holosuite program. It's an enjoyably unimportant comedy involving an obsessed visitor (Jeffrey Combs) who requests a sexed-up holosuite image of Major Kira. The results are entertaining, with a deliciously hilarious—and equally unconventional—payoff. Though completely unrelated to the main plot, it adds an acceleration boost to the episode."

    I don't know how I would have viewed this plot in 1994, but in 2014, I think it's important to talk about whether this is a violation. We all know what the obsessed visitor would have done with Kira's character/body in the holosuite. We know that Kira did not want her image/psychology used for that purpose or any other. If the visitor would have succeeded, would this have been a type of sexual assault and/or ethical transgression? Remember how creepy Geordie in TNG was to Leah? Isn't it possible (and perhaps likely) that holosuite fantasies with non-consenting "real people" would lead to blurring the lines in the real world? What recourse, if any, would Kira have had if the visitor had succeeded with his objective? Bad enough that her body was shown with Quark's head.

    "If the visitor would have succeeded, would this have been a type of sexual assault and/or ethical transgression?"

    Sexual assault on Tiron's part? I would say no. It's all a simulation. An ethical transgression by Tiron and Quark? Yes, absolutely. In this case it doesn't bother me because the B-story was clearly done for laughs. There was no doubt that Tiron would fail to seduce Kira, real or simulated--the only question was how.

    You bring up an interesting point though. Was the issue of recreating real people on the Holodeck for selfish purposes ever seriously dealt with, or was the Holodeck always just a plot device and a moral gray area?

    Maybe the more experienced Trek viewers can answer this question.

    I rate Meridan a -1 and Move Along Home,should be removed from the show.

    This episode made no sense because the simple solution would be that these people leave the planet they were supposedly stranded on and go back to their own society. They don't make so much as a mention of contacting their home planet, if only out of curiosity. Dax wanting to stay behind was ridiculous and isn't even worth further mention.

    The only thing that saved this episode was the Kira/Quark storyline where he's trying to get Kira's holo image so Weyoun -1 can do her on the holodeck.

    Quark should have been hanged from the promenade railing for what he tried to do. Was funny though.

    For Jadzia this is typical of her. She runs off to help 3 aged Klingons kill the Albino, she could have been killed herself and I don't think would have known to bring back the body so they could remove the symbiot. Also in "Rejoined" she was willing to go off and marry the other Trill (cannot think of her name) She still remains one of my favorite in spite of being impetuous.

    Absolutely spot-on review by Jammer. But I'd give this 1.5 stars, and without the B-story, I'd go down to one or even zero. I don't ever intend a research.

    Sorry, auto-correct on my phone garbled that last word, which should have been "re-watch."

    Like many here, I felt it was worth about 1 star. There's just no chemistry between Dax & the guy. I also don't care much for the B story, despite Combs debut.

    But, while the romance was a wreck, I agree with MsV that running off to this planet was something Dax would do. She believes she's solved the planet's phasing problem. So she'll get to experience the phasing for 60 years (which everyone says is interesting and fascinating) with no harm, and then she'll be able to rejoin the physical world (and fulfill any remaining Starfleet obligations). The symbiont will be fine and will have added 1 more interesting experience to its memories.

    The character of Jadzia Dax is somewhat inconsistent in the beginning of the series, but the writers began to understand her as someone who had accumulated eccentric tastes (such as Klingon food or Ferengi games) and was always open to new experiences (such as when she talked about dating a guy with a see-through skull earlier in the series). She's doubtless done "ordinary" for much of her centuries of life, so it makes sense she's open to new things. So I can certainly buy she'll decide to experience 60 years phasing without thinking too long about it. 60 years, after all, is not nearly as long for someone with who has centuries of memories.

    Of course, that same character trait makes it hard to buy her dating this guy, who's as bland as can be. Everything about him is ordinary!

    I agree in your review about Trek love stories. This is not a good episode. It reminds me of a lot of flimsy TNG mid-season Troi episodes: ''Troi falls in love with a member of an alien specie. It does not work because he devotes himself to his life's work (the sub plot) or dies or something or other. There is a Crusher love story involving a Trill which also is similar.

    Since it opens the episode, I'll start here: what is up with the way the episode skirts past the decision to continue exploring the Gamma Quadrant in a commander's log? It is true that we don't know how much the Dominion is purely posturing and how much they can invade the AQ if the Federation et al. don't stick to their side of the wormhole/fence, nor do we know how much stock to place in the Dominion's territorial claims to the entire quadrant, particularly when so far the only word they've actually had of the Dominion are either from Dominion deceptions or from second- or third-hand sources, or unscupulous traders like that guy Quark talks to in "Rules of Acquisition" and "The Search." Still, the mission to open some kind of dialogue with the Dominion failed in "The Search"; within the simulation, Sisko et al. decided that their only option to save the quadrant was to *blow up the wormhole*; and "House of Quark" made a point of showing that the Dominion threat has brought on a pall of fear over the station. The Federation Mission Of Exploration may genuinely be worth risking Dominion retribution, particularly if they can help peoples whom the Dominion are oppressing, but the idea of continuing exploration against the Dominion's territorial claims, but now doing it with a warship (uncloaked!), is one of the things that leads to the war which threatens all Alpha Quadrant peoples, and surely should have been given a little more on-screen discussion.

    I suspect that the genesis of the plot of "Meridian" comes from the stage and screen musical "Brigadoon," which features an enchanted Scottish village which takes physical form out of the mist only once every hundred years as a result of a curse/spell placed on the town to preserve it. I've only seen the movie (with Gene Kelly); there, the thematic thrust of things is that Kelly falls in love with a lass, yes, but also with the magical, bygone way of life, which has not existed for some time and maybe never truly did exist -- so tht his attraction to Brigadoon and the woman he meets there is partly about an attraction to wonder and magic and a desire to escape the confines of his dull New York City existence and his gossipy fiancee -- and so the tradeoff is that he will live a beautiful and magical life, but only in an imaginary land which barely ever manifests in this world. This mythic resonance for certain Dreamers who spend much of their lives in their heads, or who only come truly alive when at their favourite vacation spot, or when reading of wonders of yore.... I bring this up at length because while "Brigadoon" isn't really a favourite movie of mine or anything, I more or less understand what it's about. It's a romance, with Gene Kelly's falling for the woman within a few days, but the romance is aligned with his falling in love with the town, the setting, and the excitement of getting out of his stultifying existence.

    "Meridian" starts with the same plot idea, transposed to SF -- a planet goes in and out of nonexistence (another dimension) and only has corporeal form occasionally before disappearing again. Fine, and a potentially neat idea. However, beyond that, I have no idea what this episode is about. Dax falls for Meridianite Deral, and then decides to follow the planet into nonexistence for sixty years because of LOVE; she mentions that as a scientist/explorer she'd find it interesting to find out what existing as pure consciousness for 60 years would be like, but it is a passing statement almost tossed off as a joke, so it's not her main goal. It really is that she loves this guy so much she wants to stay by his side into noncorporeal existence for a few decades, then, I guess, build a new life with him on Meridian, though given that she makes a request for a *leave of absence* from Starfleet I guess she's planning on resuming her lieutenancy upon her return (?). So, okay; one would think Jadzia Dax has family she would miss, and certainly there's Quark and Kira and Julian and Sisko, but those are nothing compared to this guy she just met. It looks like what is supposed to make Deral attractive is his hedonistic glee at the pleasures of the flesh, while he's got his couple of days of fleshiness, and so he shows Dax how to have fun by climbing trees, which terrifies her (?) and how to eat fruit (?), which are apparently life-changing experiences for the woman who cycles through dozens of cultures' food and drink and gambles and does extreme sport holosuite programs.... If there were chemistry between Jadzia and Deral, then this episode would be less painful to watch, but what is it that Jadzia gets out of this relationship that is the thing she has never felt in eight lifetimes? That Deral notices that Jadzia chews her bottom lip, which, uh, has she even ever done that before? It doesn't help that Deral really does seem like a boring guy, and not very bright -- a favourite bit of silly writing for him is when he declares that he did his calculations again and got the same answer!, which I know is reasonble in context but I couldn't help but hear as inability to understand that math gives you the same answer twice. The innuendo between Deral and Dax is painful. Nothing works.

    You know, Trek one-episode romances get a bad rap, largely because many of them are terrible. But you know what, weak to terrible one-off romance episodes like "Captain's Holiday" or "Melora" or "The Dauphin" or (ick) "The Lights of Zetar" or (ick again) "Aquiel" are based in part on the extreme naivete and loneliness of their central characters, people who have little experience or who have trouble connecting to others. The tree-climbing scene here is reminiscent of Spock in the tree in "This Side of Paradise," which has problems, of course, but is partly a lovely episode for its portrayal of Spock being allowed/forced into happiness which runs totally counter to his normal restraints, and so the whimsy of his hanging from a tree and telling Kirk off has conviction and release. This episode forces Dax to choose between her just-met boyfriend and her career and friendships, and Dax talks about how leaving Deep Space 9 is the hardest thing she's ever had to do without us actually seeing any evidence of ambivalence. She really just seems like she doesn't care, and is ditching her friends, most of whom without so much as a recorded message, on a whim -- but because she's not a starry-eyed teenager or even socially maladjusted, it really does seem to be more that she really doesn't care that much about her friends or career or her (unmentioned) family or the warming-up conflict with the Dominion or any of that. Which, well, it is hard to be that moved by the Sisko/Dax scene, though there was at least an attempt to inject the show with some energy there, as a result, to say nothing of how this trashes the personal conflict in "Blood Oath" since it now appears that Jadzia's running off to kill the Albino is less because of her difficulty giving up old commitments and more because she doesn't particularly care about any of her new ones. There is something particularly pathetic in the way Julian tries to tell Dax he'll miss her by talking about how Quark will miss her, leading to Dax getting into a huff about her tongo playing and then forgetting that she's even in conversation with Bashir, until she continues talking about tongo on the surface with Deral, who obviously has no reason to care. She kind of acts here like there is no one else in the world but her. Dax's impulsiveness (and the selfishness that accompanies it) is a real character trait, but here it's magnified while we are also assured by her (and everyone seems to accept) that she truly has (offscreen, in between shots) thought long and hard about this lifetime commitment. And Dax never even changes her mind, but the plot conspires to keep her on the show for some unexplained reason (probably something to do with the transporter phase variance blah blah thing not working). It is not that leaving one's career and friends for love is inconceivable, but for this days-old love, so unconvincingly brought to screen?

    The B-plot is a welcome relief from the A-plot in that it is nondescript rather than terrible, features Jeffrey Combs' first appearance in the series, and yields a few chuckles. Combs character, The Man Who Has Everything, is nonetheless emotionally empty and thinks that having a very realistic Kira-gram of his very own is worth any price and will fulfill him; whether we take this as parallel to Jadzia's ditching most of her life on what seems like a crush, or a contrast to the True Love Jadzia has with base lust, or simply a completely irrelevant subplot, who can say. My favourite bit is the "one millionth customer" thing, particularly Kira's earnest expression of surprise ("I've never won anything before!"). The awkwardness of the Odo/Kira/Tiron scene at the beginning, with Kira claiming that Odo is her boyfriend and Odo's reaction, continues to simplify Odo/Kira down to a standard unrequited love romcom from the more complex thing they had before, though I think the series does make some good strides to recover on the nature of Odo and Kira's relationship (...eventually). This plot does not examine the issues related to the ethics of using other people's images, and nor does it have to, but I do think it makes sense that getting a full holo-scan of someone without their will is not allowed, and maybe either Starfleet/Enterprise policy is particularly permissive or there is a particular restriction against *sexual* programs involving people's faces. Kira and Odo going for *poetic* justice rather than the regular kind does make me wonder, for one thing, where they got that Quark holo-image -- did Odo or Kira stalk Quark for a while, or did they break into his *private* files, as the actual holosuite owner, in order to concoct their ruse? I guess this is the part where I should mention that going for petty revenge which also involves committing the same crimes Quark committed falls under the "two wrongs don't make a right" clause -- but it makes sense to me that Kira and Odo would go this route, Kira because she's used to "they hit me I hit them back" as a policy and Odo because his relationship with Quark depends on mutual ribbing. One thing I like about the plot from a character POV is that while Quark is serving a gross guy and violating Kira's image, he is also doing something that really fits into "vice" type criminality; there are no obvious negative consequences to Kira's life overall if she never found out about what Quark does and if the Kira-gram began and ended with the one guy's private collection, and so it's not as if this is the same type of potentially character-breaking wrongdoing as in "Invasive Procedures" (which I write off to stupidity but still is pretty bad), where people have their lives endangered.

    The B-plot is not that great, but probably earns the episode about a star. The worst episode since "If Wishes Were Horses."

    -1 star because Dax episode
    -1 star because lame/uninspired Trek "romance" main plot
    -1 star because of violating ST universe understood truths (Dax symbiont effectively killed for a rushed/teenage-style romance)
    -1 star because of stale score and non-emotive acting
    +1 star because of Dax/Sisko scene
    +1 star because of halfway decent side-plot with Quark

    1 star episode.

    Why would phasing "kill" the symbiont?

    Also "-1 star because Dax episode" ouch!

    I agree with others...terrible episode.
    Something I didn't see mentioned was how the explanation for why their numbers were so low didn't make sense. They said because they were spending less time in this reality, their numbers were going down. But that made no sense. The other reality is essentially a timeout. Their ratio of births and deaths shouldn't be affected, unless it is possible to die in the other shift.

    @Robert:

    I said "effectively killed" meaning that Jadzia removing the Dax symbiont from the Trill rotation would eventually mean the symbiont's death when she dies.

    And, yeah, I'm not a huge Dax fan. She just pisses me off. Especially in the later seasons when she's clearly flirting and getting all touchy with Lieutenant Atoa when she was supposed to be marrying Worf (not to mention impressing his future mother-in-law). God-forbid a guy acted that way even in this day and age, you'd never hear the end of it! But not Dax, oh no. Those 7 lifetimes have taught her to act in such a way.

    Dax = thumbs down for me. Not Terry Farrell, though, she did a fine job with the crap she was dealt.

    I just assumed in 70 years when the planet stabilized she'd be back and so would the symbiont.

    One of the worst episodes of DS9. Star Trek rarely gets love stories right. This here feels ridiculous. Dax and the guy are basically in love 3 minutes after having met. It took my 15-year-old underf*cked self longer to fall for a woman.

    And Dax has the experience of 6 full lifetimes. No way in frickin' hell would she behave like a stupid teenager.

    But that part of the Trill is never explored. Dax should be *literally* wise beyond her years, but she never is. She's a twenty-something with lots of anecdotes of an old guy who liked Klingons.

    The B-Plot is silly as well. Totally pointless. Like the rest of this episode. Like a typical episodical show of the 90s. The writers didn't try to advance a plot, they just looked to fill 45 minutes with something.

    Wow, something of a rarity in that what we have here is a genuine clunker as DS9 does Brigadoon. It's interesting that having the Defiant means that DS9 can now do forgettable early TNG episodes, as that's what this feel like.

    The Dax story feels rushed, doesn't make a lot of sense, and is presented in such a 'soft focus' style as to invite ridicule. We know she isn't staying, so there's no drama to it either.

    The B-story provides one big laugh - the Quark/Kira hybrid - but otherwise is eminently forgettable, and not a little sleazy with it. 1.5 stars.

    So I may just be lost here or missed something, but I'm confused on one thing in this episode - why does the crew have the Defiant? The Defiant was brought to DS9 during "the Search", which was essentially just all a dream. So if none of that happened, why are they in possession of the Defiant?

    @James, the first part of "The Search" happened, up until the Defiant was attacked. Then Odo and Kira got an an escape pod and found the planet with the Changelings on it, and all their scenes really happened. Meanwhile, the rest of the main characters on the ship (Sisko, Dax, Bashir, O'Brien, the Romulan) were captured by the Dominion and they hooked their brains up to a simulation thing. Then at the end of the episode Odo and Kira found out that the changelings had put the Defiant crew in a simulation, and the Female Changeling agreed to let Odo's friends go, at which point Odo, Kira and those who were hooked up in the simulation were allowed to go home on the Defiant.

    What is love? I'm no ladies man myself but I've always thought that it's quite possibly the most complex emotion/situation a person can ever experience. Well, apparently it's not. It's nothing more than simple infatuation which can....

    Hey, wait a minute. Didn't I write this twice back in Season Two?

    You know, I kind of like this joke about romance-of-the-week episodes. I think I'll Seth MacFarlane it - i.e., run it straight into the ground until it's nowhere near funny anymore.

    "Sorry to hear you say that, but if you're asking for a refund, forget it. The contract specifically says that satisfaction is not guaranteed." Did the writers just let Quark go completely meta and break the fourth wall? Because I'm pretty sure they did!

    All good things. All good things must come to end, am I right? We've been having a major run of good episodes. Ever since "Profit and Loss" we haven't had a single episode that wasn't above-average. That's sixteen episodes in a row! A new record for Trek, shattering the old record of nine. And now, with "Meridian", that record comes to a sudden, crashing, truly inglorious end. This episode sucks!!!! "Meridian" is the the creme de la creme of romance-of-the-week episodes. It's awful. The acting is horrible. The dialogue is atrocious. The set-up is beyond ridiculous. The "drama" is abominable. The "comedy" is appalling. The pay-off is laughable. The "romance" is ghastly. Please tell me you understand where I'm going before I turn into a thesaurus.

    Let's examine the A-plot. I can sum up my experience of it thusly....
    EPISODE: Hey, Dax is in love with this guy she just met!
    ME: No she isn't.
    EPISODE: Yes, she really is!
    ME: Don't insult my intelligence.
    EPISODE: They're so in love that they're going to be together forever!
    ME: No they're not.
    EPISODE: Yes they are! In fact, Dax is leaving the show because she's going off into another dimension for sixty years with him!
    ME: Who the hell do you think you're fooling?
    EPISODE: Oh wait, she's not really leaving the show. Tricked you didn't we?!
    ME: Yeah, you're all regular Shakespeares with that amazing writing.
    EPISODE: Oh, thank you!
    ME: Fuck off.

    I hate his plot. The saddest thing about it is that it might, maybe, possibly could have given us a somewhat interesting sci-fi story about people who are switching between dimensions. But, instead we're forced-fed a romance that is simply impossible to take seriously. Add to that the fact that is completely undermines Dax's character. I'm already not a fan of her characterization so if I'm the one calling the episode out for undermining her you KNOW it's bad. Instead of a being with eight lifetimes of experience and wisdom under her belt, she's little more than a Twilight-obsessed teen girl. Well done, people! Bravo. Hell, it even undermines Sisko's character since he didn't take her aside and bitch-slap some sense into her twit head! And by the way, that scene between Sisko and Dax where they "discuss" her decision is fucking god-awful! "A wonderfully directed and performed scene"? Holy hell, Jammer! I don't think I've ever disagreed with you more! Both of them giggle like schoolgirls over what should be a life-altering event for both of them. What should have happened was Sisko coming in to Dax's quarters and dunking her head under water until she came to her damn senses!

    Now, let's examine the B-plot. It's a Quark and Kira story. It's already doomed to failure. Not even the magnificent Jeffrey Combs, in his first Trek appearance, can save this one from the rubbish heap. So Quark tries to illegally create a hologram of Kira so Combs can have some sex with it. Add another character to list of ones being undermined. Quark is a rogue, but he does have his limits. Of course, Kira's reaction to the situation isn't to act in character and have Odo throw Quark in a holding cell. She just plays a prank on him instead. WTF! The only thing that could have made this enjoyable is if Quark's holographic head on Kira's holographic body looked Combs directly in the eyes and said "would this dress be more aesthetically pleasing if it were blue?".

    I really don't want to talk about "Meridian" any more.

    0/10

    @Luke, I can't disagree much with your assessment. It's a pretty shockingly terrible episode.

    That said -- on the Quark subplot -- I'm not sure that it's that out of character for Quark. In particular, this is very much a "vice" crime. If Kira never finds out that Jeffrey Combs wants to sleep with a hologram who looks like her, then it becomes a victimless crime. For comparison, I think that including sexual favours clauses in his employee contracts (established in, like, s1) is much more troubling to me, and reflects a Quark much more willing to actually *hurt* people in the process of exploiting them. (Even if she should have read her contract, she would not like doing sexual acts she didn't expect to be part of the job.) He knows Kira wouldn't want Jeffrey Combs' character having her image, but hey, what she doesn't know won't hurt her, and it doesn't have to affect Kira's life. What's the harm? Especially when Jeffrey Combs starts actually threatening Quark if he doesn't give him the right hologram. This isn't exactly how I would look at it -- I think Kira is right to be appalled at the idea, and it's pretty troubling that apparently anyone who uses the holosuite can apparently have their image taken without permission, etc. -- but I don't particularly see it as such a gross violation of Quark's code, which, to me, mostly comes down to "don't hurt people (much)."

    Meanwhile, unless I missed something, I think that until Quark "illegally accesses" the station's computer (which is where Odo & Kira catch him), he wasn't even breaking the law. Certainly legality of use of image in holodecks didn't come up in "Hollow Pursuits" or with Leah. Nor, for that matter, later when Vic started accessing Kira's image to go on a date with Odo. Holosuites seem to be relatively new tech and a system of mores for what constitutes fair use of a person's image don't seem to have been fully developed yet.

    I don't know. This is a guy who could have sold Pel down the river in "Rules of Acquisition", not just to save his own skin but to rake in profits that would exceed even his wildest imagination, but instead stuck up for her. He risked his own life for others in "Profit and Loss". He showed true bravery in "The House of Quark". I just don't think he'd stoop to this level.

    But even leaving that aside, I doubt he'd try it on more pragmatic grounds. Trying to do something like this with Kira is like teasing the gorilla in the monkey house - there's no way it'll end well. I doubt Quark would be so stupid as to try to get away with something like this. With someone else, maybe I might be persuaded to think he would try it. But not with Kira - he's not that dumb.

    Sure, Quark is brave and doesn't want to sell people down the river. He cares. But look at the negative consequences of his failure to act in those cases. Pel goes to jail maybe? Natima and her students are killed by the Cardassians? Grilka loses her house and honor? What happens to Kira here? Nothing much -- she doesn't lose her career, she doesn't die, she doesn't lose any respect of the people she cares about, her life is totally unimpacted. She would be angry if she found out, but if she doesn't find out, well...? Quark heroically puts himself on the line to prevent people from suffering, and Kira isn't going to suffer if all goes according to plan. That doesn't square with my ethics -- I think people can be hurt by what they don't know -- but Quark seems to me not to consider deceit by itself to be a huge problem, only suffering. It's not that I think Quark is so bad that he would stoop this low, but that I think Quark's code for when he acts bravely as I read it is more focused on people not suffering/dying. It's gross and all, but I don't know that stealing Kira's image for a sex hologram breaks his code the way letting Pel's life get ruined does.

    Pragmatically, I agree that it's a dumb idea to go after Kira's image.

    Given Quark's track record on females in general up to this point (in a later episode he's still flustered by the idea of Leeta wearing clothes at her wedding), I wouldn't say how he treats Kira is out of character. There's a lot of latinum at stake here, after all.

    As to whether Kira's harmed by this? I say she is either way. Kira isn't like some hollosuite actress or model who might expect her image to be out in public like this. And even if she doesn't find out, the chances of this programming becoming popular and circulating are pretty high, and could seriously damage her reputation as a public leader.

    @Chrome - I think the discussion is regards to if this is "in character" via Quark's opinion of what consists of damaging an innocent victim... not necessarily what we think.

    Okay, well let me put it another way. Quark and Kira aren't exactly friends, and Quark probably wouldn't mind doing this for the latinum even if he thinks it's wrong because he likes to push Kira's buttons just like she likes to push around Quark.

    These two have this sort of back and forth up until the finale.

    As Robert says, I am certainly talking about what I think Quark's POV is. :) I haven't talked about the long-term effects of Kira's image being tarnished because I don't think that's so much Quark's concern. My interpretation is that Tiron is so weird and obsessive that he's not going to let anyone else have his program or even know of its existence, so that the only people whose view of Kira will be "changed" by the program are Tiron and Quark himself, and Quark doesn't *actually* find Kira any less threatening because some weirdo creep wants to sleep with holo-Kira. But of course, Tiron can just just as easily get bored and start farming out the program or whatever, or decide to use it to embarrass Kira later out of revenge for rejecting him again. Even if he never does use it, it's a violation of Kira's image and alters the way *Tiron* thinks of her. Plus, it fuels the fire of Tiron's creepy, obsessive imagination, which could even conceivably lead to Tiron becoming violent toward Kira -- he might eventually realize he can't settle for the hologram anymore, and become angry that Kira refuses his advances. T

    My contention is more that I don't think Quark would particularly think that far ahead. And part of that, frankly, is that Quark *isn't* a total creep, and on some level he can actually be a little naive about how vile people can be. Quark will exploit people for cheap labour and sex and treats his brother badly and swindles people, etc. But he doesn't really do revenge, not really. He sells the station out to Verad et al. in "Invasive Procedures," which I think is partly bad writing, but I think the idea is that he pretty genuinely didn't expect that anyone would actually use access to the station for *really* nefarious purposes like kidnapping Dax (and leaving Jadzia to die). He is really very shocked by Brunt's behaviour in "Body Parts," because he can't really conceive how Brunt's plan fits in with rational self-interest -- because, well, it doesn't; Brunt's viciousness in spending considerable resources specifically to hurt Quark is unfathomable. That Tiron could eventually use the program to hurt Kira is possible; that his obsession with Kira could even become dangerous is something I think is pretty possible, but I don't think that would even cross Quark's mind.

    I think that is also why Kira decides to ruin Quark's profit opportunity rather than toss him in jail. Quark is gross and is violating her, but I think Kira recognizes that there's not really ill intent per se, and it's more fun to imagine embarrassing Quark deeply than to imagine him languishing in prison, for what doesn't seem to be all that serious a crime anyway (how much would Quark get for illegally accessing personnel files, even if it's for totally gross reasons?). This fits in with what Chrome says about the adversarial stance the two have for each other, which is not quite as pronounced as the Quark-Odo one but is there.

    I ended up watching this again because it came next after of set of good episodes.

    Honestly, I wonder what the writers wanted us to think about in this episode. Is this the pain of falling in love with someone unattainable? Is fleeting joy better than no joy at all? Is there supposed to be a message about love transcending all cultures and boundaries?

    Well phooey. Those would have been great messages for some teenage artist character, but while watching this episode it becomes increasingly hard to swallow that a Starfleet Officer, let alone a science officer, like Dax would go gaga over some random chap on a vanishing planet. Dax is supposed to be wise, right? 8 lifetimes of experience and all that? This is sort of addressed in the episode, but it still all seems crazy.

    Even worse, why is Deral leading Dax on? Hasn't he come to peace with his existence? Doesn't he realize how unlikely it is that they could end up together? Doesn't he care at all for her life and her career? I don't care for this guy's philosophy towards romance at all.

    The best thing this episode has going for it besides the B story is it's beautiful backdrop. I'll give the planet itself 1.5 stars.

    An interesting note to this episode though, the Quark-Kira image generated in the B-story was not Nana Visitor's body. They had to use a double because Visitor was still a little shaken from the make-up used in "Second Skin".

    So even the B-story isn't as fan service-y as one might think.

    Favorite quote that wasn't: O'Brien says, "That's a long time between meals [— even for a famished Irishman!]" I love how subtlely yet thoroughly Irish Miles is. I hear these kinds of stereotypical lines all the time in my head as I watch, inspired by Colm's acting.

    @Luke, LOL at your conversation with the episode!

    "Sub Rosa" was better.

    Came on here to check comments before the episode is even finished...

    Eventually just started to FF through the love scenes. Terrible.

    And someone who's had multiple lifetimes, who'd previously made it clear that the symbiote is to be saved above all else, just buggers off to disappear for 60 years?

    Terrible.

    At least I have the Dax / Sisko scene to look forward to, brb.

    2 stars?!?!?!?!?!?

    I have no idea what the hell Jammer was smoking. He gave the same score to Civil Defense which was a lot of fun, something this episode certainly was not.

    Utter shit - 0.5 stars

    This episode is bullcrap. Terrible techno babble. No chemistry between romantic leads. Dax is The B story is mildly amusing.

    I'm freaking out. Little because of all the SAME SPOILERS, but that's my fauly. IMDB took their message boards away and I needed to make sure it wasn't just me.

    It took me a while to get into DS9, Sisko was the only character I liked. But they all started growing on me EXCEPT Dax, because she has no personality. A great story but she's soooooo boring. I Thought maybe this episode would bring it out of her but I was wrong.

    My thinking while I was watching is that this was a poor and misguided attempt at not only giving her personality but making her feminine. (The only time personality was remotely interesting was in Playing God, so I'm good with her being "less feminine" but whatever.) I thought maybe they were trying to soften her by watching her fall head over heels. But it just was way out of character. A truly terrible episode.

    Can't find anything good to say about this episode to be honest. It was downright boring, sterile, but it wasn't outrageously bad either. Just really bland stuff. The B-plot with Quark trying to satisfy a stupid demand by one of his rich friends for a holosuite program of Kira wasn't really entertaining -- just typical Quark nonsense with the expected reaction from Kira/Odo.

    Jadzia Dax is one of my least favorite characters on DS9 (along with Quark) and Farrell is nothing special as an actress -- the romantic scenes with Deral were very wooden. It just seemed like their romance was arbitrary.

    And the technobabble for trying to alter the dimensional shifting of the planet wasn't the kind of thing that could be related to anything -- so this was just technobabble that meant nothing. Of course Dax can't stay behind so she has to be beamed back as the planet vanishes into another dimension -- predictable stuff.

    Too bad the episode didn't really dig deeper in Dax's decision to leave DS9. It seemed to give more focus to Deral's decision to stay behind (some crap about so few colonists and them needing Deral). The scene with Sisko saying good-bye to Dax was OK, but it could have been played up more -- there's a strong bond between the 2 that wasn't really played up enough for me.

    1.5 stars for "Meridian" -- another Trek romance that doesn't pan out in this waste of an hour. So much for a token Dax episode -- probably does a disservice to the character with the emotionless performance. This episode could have been so much better if, say, it was Kira in Dax's shoes.

    I honestly hadn't thought this before, but the intro put the idea in my head--what WOULD it be like to make love to a shapeshifter? You're in position, things are progressing, and then he changes and . . . and . . . whoa!

    Odo and Kira pretending to be lovers is the best part of this whole episode.

    I'm getting shades of The Masterpiece Society--did no one else notice? A planet in peril with the love interest.

    Brett Cullen, who played Deral, has been working steadily for 40 years. I often wonder about actors like that--who are considered absolutely dependable to fill a role but never achieve stardom. I hope he has a good life and is well compensated. He did a pretty good job in this episode, but playing against Dax it must have been hard. She just strikes me as so fake.

    But their problem? Oh give me a break. Just beam them up if they don't want to shift again. There's only 30 of them.

    Their romance is climbing a tree. Kill me now. But she slips, so no kiss? Who the hell ARE these writers?

    Did they seriously throw down on the grass? Good lord.

    Count each other's spots? I am seriously going to puke.

    OMG--Deral and Dax's conflict is so manufactured. She just doesn't seem in love at all.

    I don't believe at all that either is conflicted about staying for going. At least in "The Masterpiece Society," they made me believe there was some substance to their reasons.

    Okay--saying "After 8 lifetimes as a humanoid, existing as pure consciousness might be interesting" is the first thing that rang true in this episode

    But now she's leaving and Dax isn't going to say goodbye to Kira? Good lord.

    Could this be more hokey? I'll guess she's over this "love" affair by the next episode.



    And about the B-plot. Blech. Mr. Perv is yucky and now all I can think about is how you'd clean semen out of a holosuite.

    It would make sense if Dax joined Meridian to experience being pure consciousness, thats the kind of risk one takes after seven life time, something worth exporing

    Ummmm............no thank you. "Meridian" is completely awful in every way. The end.

    Fine-the romance is hilariously unconvincing, the subplot is gross and uncomfortable. Though the payoff was quite funny.

    1 star for the subplot payoff I suppose.

    You know, I think I'm going to downgrade this pile of crap to 0.5 stars-it would be zero without the subplot. The A-story is just as bad as "Profit and Lace".

    The scene with the planet phasing all around Dax has got to be one of the creepiest moments in Sci-fi, at least for me. Imagine if you were sitting in your living room when the Earth started phasing but you didn't. Your whole room begins to shimmer and blur, you feel the air getting thinner and thinner while at the same time, you feel like you are rapidly losing weight as Earth's gravity has less and less influence on this dimension. You start to gasp and choke, you feel the veins in your body begin to swell than burst. You look up, and all of the things so familiar to you, your
    family pictures, the decor of your living room, your 60'' big screen TV with a Netflix menu still showing, are all shimmering and blurring more and more as well as getting dim. You then begin to see the distant stars shining *through* all of that stuff I just mentioned, and by now you are in extreme pain and fear. Finally, the Earth has phased out totally from this universe, and you pass out and die, but only after a couple seconds of seeing nothing but stars all around you.

    Teaser : **.5, 5%

    Odo quizzes Kira on some humanoid idiosyncrasies, like ordering coffee which is too hot to drink at first. And for the record, as an avid caffeine addict, Kira is dead wrong here. Whatever. This DBI is interrupted by Jeffrey Combs, currently playing some sort of space ginger, Tiron. Tiron is clumsily hitting on the Major, so she tells him that Odo is her lover (god, I hate that word), and he backs down.

    Meanwhile, the Defiant log reveals that sometime, somehow, for some reason, Sisko has convinced Starfleet that, rather than closing the wormhole and ending the Dominion threat, they should *continue* exploring the Gamma Quadrant. Now, we aren't stupid; we know that show has to come up with some reason to keep the wormhole open so we can have more stories, but this is just pathetic. The Dominion destroyed New Bajor, destroyed the Odyssey, disabled and boarded the Defiant within minutes. The curb-stomp potential of these people is clearly in the same league as the Borg. Do we really think Starfleet would casually explore Borg space if it were nearby?

    The Defiant finds an odd planet emitting technobabble waves which seems to appear out of no where.

    Act 1 : **, 17%

    There is a very small settlement (30 souls) on the planet, so Sisko makes contact. We learn that the planet is called “Meridian” (not only do they look completely human, they name their planets in English). The crew is invited down for an exposition breakfast buffet. The planet shifts between dimensions, the other of which is without matter or form. In a way, the entire planet becomes numinous, a dream-self, and this period lasts the equivalent of sixty years in our universe. While eating, it's Dax' turn to get hit on by one of the locals, Deral, who is as smarmy and irritating as your average Deanna Troi-lover (ick, why did I use that word?)

    On DS9, Tiron is sampling Quark's wares, holosuites, beverages, etc. Speaking of Troi, apparently at some point, Barclay sold his Goddess Of Empathy programme. Either that or Riker lost it in a bet, because it's currently available at Quark's. Yeesh. Tiron is unimpressed and unsatisfied. What he really wants is an expensive custom programme—one where he gets to bone Kira. Quark needs about four seconds with the massive fee he's been offered to agree to make this happen, somehow. We'll...come back to this.

    On Meridian, Deral informs Dax that the amount of time the planet remains corporeal keeps shrinking, so these people have only twelve short days to “increase their population.” Cue cheesy porn music. More pressingly, eventually, the planet will simply cease to exist. And obviously, we *really* care about this. A lot.

    Act 2 : .5 stars, 17%

    So, Quark's scheme is underway. Kira is his 1 millionth customer! Um, hooray! Let's tell her what she's won, Bob. One bottle of wine, five free spins at the Dabbo Wheel, and one hour of free play in the holosuite where Quark will scan her likeness for his creepy programme [shudder]. In the mode of your most pedestrian sitcom, Kira decides to re-gift this particular prize to some ensign. Wah wah waaahhh...

    Meanwhile, Sisko has offered to try and help the locals, so Dax and Deral start scanning the local solar system. They think maybe the Sun is doing something funky which causes their problems. Deral creep-hits on Jadzia again while the Defiant probes the star, deep and hard. Any subtext here? Nah.

    So, Deral, a widower, and Dax have a date where they climb trees, stand around manicured-lawns, listen to cheesy harp music, and do other really boring shit. You know, sometimes I have to wonder about the Trek writers. This may seem cruel, but has any of them ever been on a date? Usually, when people spend this much time talking about absolutely nothing, it means the date isn't going well, and the couple will just get drunk, have sex and never speak again, or say good night, go to bed, and never speak again. At this point, I'd give away all my latinum for a Jem'Hadar attack.

    Act 3 : *.5, 17%

    With the promise of impending spot-counting, the coma-couple interpret the data from the Defiant's probe. They figure out how they might keep Meridian around longer. Hooray.

    Meanwhile, Quark is upping the creep-factor in his subplot, trying to capture a holographic image of Kira from far off. She and Odo notice, and she confronts him. He spins an absurd yarn about trying to create a programme for in-Universe trekkies. Speaking again of Barclay, the whole premise for this subplot seems kind of absurd. The computer *has* to already have Kira's holographic template from the times she has been in the holosuite and/or used the transporter. Whether Quark would have legal access to this is another matter, but obviously, that wouldn't stop him from retrieving it.

    Meanwhile, the snoozefest continues on Meridian. Deral decides he's going to leave his home and go back to DS9 with Jadzia. Sure.

    Act 4 : .5 stars, 17%

    Meridian's leader is excited that people will start having families again....and become so inbred that maybe they can become a side-show attraction in a Dominion labour camp. There's a completely pointless scene about Tongo and Deral comes up to the ship to give boring hugs, just to go right back down to the planet again. Oof.

    On DS9, Tiron is *really* horny and impatient for his new programme. Odo discovers that Quark has gone all Facebook, collecting personal info on Kira, enough to create a holographic image without the peeping tom antics. Rather than arresting him, Kira's decides they're just going to prank him. Yeah...

    Deral is having second thoughts about leaving Meridian. He's just so *tortured* and burdened. So, Jadzia figures she'll use the transporter to change her into fairy dust like the rest of them and allow her to remain on Meridian with him. Oh, of course. I don't need to repeat what everyone else has said about this decision. It's completely fucking absurd, unearned, out-of-character, pointless, telegraphed, and poorly-delivered to boot.

    Act 5 : 0 stars, 17%

    Sisko says goodbye to Jadzia, having accepted that the Old Man hasn't gone completely insane. The script tries to justify this character abortion by claiming that because Jadzia isn't impulsive and stupid, her impulsive and stupid decision isn't impulsive and stupid, QED. In another story, this could have been a lovely scene—Brooks is surprisingly effective with the waterworks, but the actors aren't rescuing this pile of nonsense.

    Meanwhile, Quark has completed his special programme for Jeffrey Combs. And we are treated to a glimpse of the series' future, sexy lady legs and pink satin topped by Quark's head. I think this is supposed to be funny. It's not. It's fucking juvenile. Yuk yuk yuk, Quark's an ugly dude, Kira's a hot lady, so COMEDY! What....what if Jeffrey Combs was really into this holographic creature? What if he was into Kira's feet and boobs, but found Quark's face attractive? Even if he weren't an alien, why is the sight of Quark's head on Kira's body automatically funny? Man in a dress jokes—even the good ones—are really, cheap and lazy. You have to bring something original to the scenario to pass for comedy, because otherwise it's just embarrassing.

    Speaking of embarrassing, Julian has finished realigning Dax' molecules (only good line this episode: BASHIR: I don't know what to say. DAX: That's a first). So Dax says goodbye to the crew and beams away for ever. Hooray.

    Meridian begins its dimensional shift, but somethings funky is going on again. Dax isn't dematerialising with the rest of them, in fact her presence is destroying the planet. So they beam her away. Um. Climax. So, just like in “Equilibrium,” Dax is a sad girl and the end.

    Episode as Functionary : 0 stars, 10%

    Let's deal with the B plot. As others have noted, the script isn't interested in confronting the ethics of using people's images for sex without their consent. Honestly, I don't have a strong opinion about this. In 2018, the entire concept of privacy seems like an anachronism. We all know that celebrity porn is quite common. No one should be under any illusions that if someone would like to find and objectify their image for personal purposes, including sexual ones, a determined person will find a way. Quark's actions in “Invasive Procedures” still count way more against his character than this. Really, the ethical issue here is that Quark was going to *profit* from Kira's holographic image without her consent. So, I sort of have a Marxist objection to the idea that Kira is being denied the value for her labour-being—but then again, what labour are we talking about? Being hot?

    Ehhh...Really, I just want to sweep all that stuff to the side today. This subplot was played for laughs, and the punchline did not land for me because it was cheap and easy. Some of the Odo/Kira stuff is in the ballpark of funny, but they could have done way better.

    The main plot had a TON of wasted potential. The idea of getting to live part of your life in a communal dream-state—kind of the ontological opposite of the B plot, with its simulacra of reality—is fascinating...and goes completely unexplored. Rather we are forced to sit through the most trite, passionless, contrived and intolerably boring “romance” this side of “Haven.” The only lasting effect of this story is to make Dax look ridiculously naïve. Also, *why* did this need to happen in the Gamma Quadrant? Definitely goes in the skip column.

    Final Score : *

    @Elliott

    "Do we really think Starfleet would casually explore Borg space if it were nearby? "

    Well, I honestly wouldn't put it past them given how utterly moronic Starfleet Command and its flag officers are routinely shown to be across the whole franchise (seriously, with the exceptions of Admiral Ross in late-DS9 and Admiral Forrest in ENT, I can't think of a single example where an admiral/ambassador/bureaucrat is consistently shown to be one of the unalloyed "good guys").

    "not only do they look completely human..."

    Oh, come now, that's not fair. After all, they all have yellowish discolorations running from their eyes to the hairline on their temples. So, therefore, by Trek logic, they MUST look like aliens. Right?

    "So, Deral, a widower, and Dax have a date where they climb trees, stand around manicured-lawns, listen to cheesy harp music, and do other really boring shit."

    LOL! You know, I may disagree with Elliott on a lot of things, but I got to admit that he does know how to bring the funny. That is such a perfect description of that entire scene!

    Watching and commenting:

    --Ok, I know by the ep name, and William B's earlier comment, that this is the one and only DS9 ep that I remember watching before, because I disliked it so. But I have no memory of the details, just my dislike of the character assassination of Jadzia. Anyhow, I'm going ahead and holding my nose and diving in.

    --Ugh. I think that's Mr Wonderful asking Jadzia about her markings.

    --Is it prejudging to hate the ep already, if I saw it before about 25 years ago, and remember almost nothing except the extremely sour taste in my mouth?

    --Ugh, this B plot about the creepy Kira-stalker wanting her image in the holosuite, and Quark trying to trick her into letting him get her image, is awful as well.

    --"Do you always do that when you're concentrating?" "What?" "Bite your lower lip." "I guess I do." Now, listen here. I am the hardened, jaded mom of a teenage girl. I've heard some major simpering, and I have a high tolerance for cutesy and starry eyed and dramatic. But that awful bile taste is returning. SOMEONE GET ME SOME PEPTO BISMOL.

    --"I've been looking for you." "You've found me." "I have." Never mind. I can't wait on any of you guys. I'll find the Pepto Bismol myself.

    --I actually think the Kira-stalker and Kira make a cuter couple than Dax and Mr Wonderful.

    --This goodbye scene with Dax and Sisko is so, so overwrought and horrible. The writing. The acting. The music. All my senses are rebelling and threatening to mutiny if I don't turn this off. But I must persist.

    --Even Meany can't pull off this good bye scene with Bashir, Sisko, O'Brien, and Jadzia. Meany just looks sort of . . . outnumbered and defeated, as he mumbles his way through it.

    --Oh, poor Jadzia! How can she contain her grief? And how can I contain my dinner?

    And it's done.

    These are depths I had hoped never to plumb again: I must give this ep -1,000 stars, i.e., the same score I gave Voyager's Threshold (though I think baby salamanders would actually have improved this episode).

    "--Is it prejudging to hate the ep already, if I saw it before about 25 years ago, and remember almost nothing except the extremely sour taste in my mouth?"

    No, no it isn't. Especially when the episode in question is a flaming pile of garbage.

    Awful episode. One of the worst. Creepy and cringe-worthy.

    My favorite part of this episode was the end credits. Total skipper. A shame. How did they drag Frakes into directing this mess?

    Watched the entire episode via the right arrow key and netflix's "skip 3 seconds" function. Worth it to see yet another incarnation of Coombs though.

    OK, so Ira Steven Behr wanted to do "Brigadoon" in space.

    I guess that's not a bad idea in theory... But, it seems no one who made "Meridian" understood what made Brigadoon so popular (that something being Cyd Charisse and Gene Kelly dancing, thrown in with some decent songs)....

    After the show aired, Behr said, of his idea to do a Star Trek show based on Brigadoon, Behr says "I am a moron."

    That comment was had more humor, insight, and intelligence than anything in this 45-minute piece of spackle.

    The author of the teleplay, Mark Gehred-O'Connell, seems to have spent too much time on Brigadon's shores. He describes the episode as " an outer space version of Brigadoon, with Dax as Gene Kelly. It's really a fun story. We know that Dax has had many romantic entanglements over the course of three hundred years, but this is the first time that Jadzia Dax has fallen in love. That's the angle on which I'm building this script. There isn't a whole lot of jeopardy or danger and there are no bad guys. In that sense, it's a lot like "Second Sight". It's a light story in many ways, but it has emotional weight for Dax, and it's very appealing. All of her friends have to realize that this is her first romance. Sisko is used to thinking of Dax as old Curzon, and it comes as a shock to him."

    He did say all of this was the "angle on which I'm building the script." I'm not sure what he said about the finished product.

    The comment "There isn't a whole lot of jeopardy or danger and there are no bad guys" was more revealing than it should have been. in the absence of these elements, all we were give to possibly care about was the romance, and Brett Cullen, who played Deral, had all of the charisma of a cadaver.

    "Second Sight" was a poor role model, by the way.

    As for the Quark sub-plot, I can see why someone might find it offensive, but the rest of the episode - the bulk of it - was so awful it was hard to notice.

    A question prompted by Kira abandoning her coffee mug on a replimat table: what happens to all the dishes the replicators must create?

    @Chess

    I'm going to take a wild stab at your question: What happens to all the dishes the replicators must create?

    My theory: Only the food and drink are replicated. The cups, dishes, silverware, etc, are beamed. So when you're done, you put your dishes back in, and they are beamed back to the storage area. The transporter cleans and disinfects them in route, for reuse.

    Thank you, Springy! I really like this idea. I’ve begun thinking about the practical implications of the replicators, and all kinds of questions about their cost, effectiveness, limitations, effects on behavior. . .

    Deral and Jadzia have incredible chemistry imo. The lust and extremely intense attraction between the two is visceral. I love this episode. Also sisko crying while saying goodbye to Dax is some of his best early series acting again in my opinion.

    I'd like to echo some of the previous comments saying I can't imagine giving this the same rating as Civil Defense. That one I'd rate 3 stars, easily -- though I don't really have much new or original to say about why.

    This one? One star would be generous IMO.

    I really don't know how I got through this. Jadzia's lover is quite possibly the least interesting man in existence. Talk about wooden, you could have Dax snog a log and I'd probably like it more. And you know he's not gonna stick around, and she's not gonna stick around *there*, so the Tragic Conclusion is... yeah, there wasn't really anything else to expect from that. The A-plot basically trudges straightforwardly forward until it reaches the boringly inevitable conclusion, with a brief enjoyable detour at Sisko and Dax's goodbye (honestly I wasn't entirely convinced by the acting there either, but it's better than the rest of this by comparison).

    Meanwhile, the allegedly redeeming B-plot does get *some* laughs from me (Kira and Odo get good scenes together), but most of the time I'm too busy being skeeved out by it to laugh. It pretty much is Quark trying to get nude pics (sci-fi edition) from Kira without her knowledge/against her will, and I *do* see that as a clear violation of consent. Yeah, Quark's a bastard, but I really don't wanna have to watch this particular variety of bastardry. I know of more than enough of this going on IRL; it's tiresome there, and it's tiresome when it's broadcast on TV as comedy.

    Sisko: So she’ll be back in 60 years.
    Trills: You didn’t think maybe checking with us was a good idea?
    Sisko: Nope.
    Trills: Did you think to see if Dax could survive this?
    Sisko: Nah. It should be fine. Never been done, so it’s all good.
    Trills: And ... if it isn’t?
    Sisko: Well I’ll be a god by then, so no big whoop.

    Dax was a disappointment. She had so much promise but always came up disappointing. She had 7 lifetimes of memories and still ended up flat and boring.

    And I HATE "I just met you and I'm going to abandon everything I've ever known and oh no it didn't work out and I'm sad 😭😭😭" plots. Ugh.

    For once they adequately explain away the “single village” thing. Their expedition crashed and the planet was uninhabited. Nuff said there but if they prefer their corporeal existence why don’t they just leave with the Defiant? This episode is a hot mess. The first of an otherwise stellar start to season 3. The Dax romance is Troi romance-level cringeworthy. And it’s almost always the fault of the guest actor and how he’s written - milquetoast boring and unremarkably handsome. Why would Dax fall for someone so ordinary? He’s worthy of a hookup at best. Gawd even Shakaar and Bareil are more interesting than this yawn inducing schmuck. Meanwhile the first major seed of the Odo/Kira romance is subtly planted, proving the writers are more adept at long form romance tales.

    What I don't think has been highlighted amongst the comments - and the thing I found most Infuriating about this episode - is that the so-called "man," Deral, having claimed he'd move to the Alpha Quadrant for Dax - then back pedals and bails out! "Oh, I can't leave," he whines! So it's Dax - the woman - who is expected - and seemingly willing - to make all the sacrifices. I would have thought, after 8 lifetimes' experience, Dax would be savvy to this spineless excuse of a man!

    huh and to think Parallax was on VOY the following week, must of really turned off some viewership at the time.

    When the only thing about this episode that truly sticks out is an image of Quark trying to be seductive...yeah, that says everything you need to know about this episode. Easily the worst of Season 3

    Different Perspective: after two or three DS9 whole-series rewatches, I am coming to realize just how terrible an actress, and how poor a fit for the 'Dax' role, Terry Farrell truly was. Episodes like these (and the I-play-Klingon schtick) only serve to highlight same. The Sexy-Holo-Kira subplot is goofy + dumb, but the serious Dax bits are what really sink it.

    I dunno about Farrell. I think she did pretty well for a first gig, and I've always liked Jadzia personally. Unlike many others, I actually dig the 'ethereal Dax' she came in with for Emissary, and am almost sorry that went away. Or if it did, I'd rather it had been less of a soft retcon and more overtly a result of an episode like Equilibrium or some other Dax-focused episode. And I do think fun Dax is fun. The actress at least really seems to be having fun with her cast-mates, which is more than I can say for the likes of Harry Kim or Mayweather. At least she's rather pleasant on-screen.

    I honestly think the problem with Meridian is that it's a terrible idea from the drawing board and onward. Why take a character who is supposed to be old and wise, and write her an episode where she acts like a dumb teenager? If that's supposed to be an example of Dax's temperament (going on instinct) then why bring that up all of a sudden? It's as if the writer is unilaterally re-writing the character bible, which is a no-no. That, along with the folly of *any* writer thinking they can write a credible "give up my entire life for this person" plot in a 45 minute episode using a random character and the greenest actress on the show. It's just awful conceptual writing, like bad fan fiction with no thought toward production. I really can't blame Farrell for this one. This script is so lame!

    Farrell was the least sexualized eye candy actor on the Trek shows and her acting ability improved over time. I thought she was ok in the later seasons and in the episode where she is hurt with Worf on that planet, there she is pretty good. At least she is not running around in a tight bodysuit. That always bugged me about 7 of 9, T'Pol, Troi and Wesley. :)

    I liked Kira far more but I thought Dax was ok. The whole gender bender angle with Sisko was one of the more progressive concepts of the show. The trill species itself sadly never moved past the simple gimmick stage.

    So this planet only appears every 60 years, and the Defiant just happened to arrive at the exact moment it appeared? That's a pretty amazing coincidence isn't it? Not to mention how quickly the planet detected and contacted them, literally moments after appearing. Apparently they all gather in their town square when they phase out so how did one of them get to a communication device, see the Defiant and contact them that quickly? They didn't even seem to be that technologically advanced, all I saw were grass and trees.

    Finally if they are facing extinction because of this crazy planet then why didn't they ALL decide to leave? There seems to be no shortage of uninhibited class M planets in the Star Trek universe. The whole thing just seemed really silly, and I also don't buy that Dax would fall in love and give up her whole life that quickly.

    The only really good part of this episode was sexy Quark in the holosuite.

    The A-plot is garbage. Also, why aren't the Trek officers more surprised by the discovery of an interdimensional phenomenon? This should be an absolutely mind-blowing event, and yet they immediately accept it and start cracking jokes as soon as some random humanoid shows up on screen.

    The B-plot is interesting, but altogether not very good. It got me thinking about the horrible situation that we are in now with Deepfake technology being used to create revenge porn. What was once a sci-fi comedy bit is now a real contemporary problem.

    This is easily the worst episode of classic Star Trek I have ever seen. It's baffling how this gets 2 stars from Jammer.

    I think if this was a TNG or VOY episode, Jammer would give it a lower score.

    That alien man was such a creep. He acted like a predator watching the person he wanted to lure. The scene with him an Dax on the bridge is utter cringe.

    Almost everything that needs to be said about this one has been said in this thread... except unless I missed it, nobody has pointed out the biggest issue with the B-plot, in my view.

    So Kira and Odo sabotage the program. They put Quark's head on Kira's body. The alien refuses to pay Quark until he inspects the program. He sees it and storms out.

    Then he tells Quark that he will 'ruin him for this'. Why is the alien so angry? Did something else happen after we cut away? Did the Quark hologram assault him or something? I don't see the massive personal slight the alien apparently sees.

    This seems to fall into that classic TV trope of 'this could all be solved by a simply conversation, but instead we'll have silence and anger.

    Bad.

    Really, really bad.

    This is not two stars. There's truly nothing redeemable about the ep. Both story arcs are at once boring and idiotic.

    Jax not just hopping into the sack with some random dude she(?) just met but wanting to shack up with him for effectively CENTURIES to come based on the whole of, what, two days' worth of interaction with him? Seems legit. The faux-romantic schmaltzy music playing as they were swapping spit made it all the more RIDICULOUS!

    But even that incredibly managed to get surpassed in "ridiculousity" by the Jax and Cisco's heart-to-heart about the former decamping from D.S.9. I mean, from both their perspectives, that would very likely have been the very last time they'd ever see each other: By the time the planet would reappear, sixty years later, Cisco would almost certainly be dead, whether from old age or due to the inherent dangers of what he does. Yet, it was all just:
    J: "Don't try to talk me out of it."
    C: "I won't. I just want to be sure you're happy and know what you're doing... - my friend."
    J: "I am and I do... - my friend."
    C: "Okay, then. Have a nice one."
    J: "See ya!"
    Coupled with the facts that Cisco has all the charisma of a potato peeler and we knew it was just not going to happen for whatever reason, it was all an unforgivable, abominable waste of time. I'm actually mad at myself for having expended those minutes of my life on these scenes.

    The subplot, with Quark and Keera and Dodo and that holodeck freak: The less said, the better.

    Another lame love story, another lame Dax story, and not really any laughs from a B story that I think we were supposed to be laughing at? I'm not sure but I think thats what the writers thought they were delivering? Anyway 1.5 stars from me.

    Must admit I laughed when Quark’s head appeared in the holosuite - but I like any scene with him in anyway. Whereas any scene with Jadzia is a struggle. I make it through them though - unlike all Ezri scenes which have to be fast forwarded immediately!

    There seems to be widespread agreement that this is a terrible episode.

    This is far worse than Move Along Home.


    I wonder If this is the worst episode of DS9.

    I wonder if Jadzia ever bothered to stop and inform her new found love interest of the slug creature living inside her stomach and if I’m not mistaken, the slug’s gender/identity is masculine.

    And all this phase shifting, what’s that doing to the creature Jadzia is sworn safeguard much less be available to transfer the slug at the proper time when new host is required

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