Episode #37: Playing God
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Episode #37: Playing God
PLAYING GOD (prod. #437; Episode #17 of 2nd season)
written by Jim Trombetta and Michael Piller; Director: David Livingston
This is another episode where at least two different stories are grafted together rather clumsily. The main story involves a young male Trill who has to serve in a kind of training/judgment under Jadzia Dax, who must decide if he is fit to be joined with a symbiont. The 2nd story involves a mysterious mass of matter/energy, accidentally getting attached to a runabout, which turns out to be a miniature universe. There's even a 3rd subplot about Cardassian voles overrunning the station. Voles? Think - a larger-than-average rat. My first thought when the nature of this mini-universe was revealed was that this should have been the main & only story. It's a wild concept (the old Outer Limits series had an episode with a similar premise) but is treated like some bothersome sidelight while we're supposed to pay more attention to the Trill's education.
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The intent of the first story is obvious: Jadzia is cool, carefree and adventurous; her 'apprentice' is closed-minded, dense and wound too tight. At one point, Jadzia wants a 'black hole' drink and even this instance is too radical for her student. I became annoyed with this student very quickly, but Jadzia was on the annoying side here also. They were both cliched extremes here - this was sketchily written. It was a stretch for me to buy into the turn of events near the end, when the apprentice becomes close-to-acceptable to Jadzia; I would rather he had ended up a complete failure - that was the logical way it was headed for.
There's even a 4th subplot here (yes, too much for one episode) - Sisko finds out that his son Jake has the hots for a dabo girl; dabo girl? - sort of a 24th century version of a whore (they're a bit more respectable in the future). Sisko isn't very pleased. The best scene, however, is the debate on what to do with the tiny universe, in which apparently life has already evolved (time probably flows differently inside there). This universe is expanding and poses a danger to the station and the whole sector; Kira advises its destruction. "It's like stepping on ants!" Kira argues. "I don't step on ants, Major," Odo indignantly replies. This should have been a cosmic dilemma - with one universe possibly replacing another - but is treated as pretty trivial. But, I do wonder - what if our universe...?
BoG's Score: 5.5 out of 10
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