Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9)
Episode: 1.06 Captive Persuit (02/1/1994)
Rating: 5/5
Redshirt Status: 0/1
Notable Guest Stars:
Scott MacDonald (Tosk) MacDonald is a reoccurring Trek actor, and he will continue to show up in various series, including Enterprise.
Gerrit Graham (Hunter)- Graham, like MacDonald is a reoccuring actor in the franchise, appearing first as The Hunter on DS9 before joining the Q continuum as Quinn on Voyager. He also was an option to play Odo before Rene Auberjonois was chosen.
Kelly Curtis (Miss Sarda)- Curtis is the older sister of Jamie Lee Curtis, but unlike her sister and parents, her career tends to be behind the scenes more these days than in front of the camera.
Review:
This episode is something one could have expected in any of the trek shows. We have first contact, a philosophical discussion about the Prime Directive, and of course, someone saying let’s do it anyway.
In this case, the crew on DS9 find themselves meeting the first (sort of) alien from the Gamma Quadrant. Until this episode, most of the activity of Star Trek was limited to the alpha Quadrant and a sliver of the Beta Quadrant. DS9 explores Gamma and Voyager (in a few years) will explore Delta. Tosk follows a traveler through the wormhole and ends up on the station while his ship is in repairs. He begins to befriend Miles, although he is quite secretive of his life.
Because nothing is simple when you are doing a TV drama, The Hunters arrive. Its unclear to me if the Hunters are a separate race or a separate class within the same species. Whichever the truth, the Tosk’s life purpose is to outsmart them or die honorably escaping them. To return home is to be dishonored. The fact that the Hunters found him on the station was akin to being captured. He was to be returned home to be humiliated and forced to beg for scraps (which I thought was a bit much, and I can understand why the Tosk wouldn’t want it).
Tosk won’t even ask for Asylum that Kira comes up with, finding that even more dishonorable. So Miles cooks up a plan to hopefully free his friend, ensure his freedom and if all goes well, preferably not lose his job.
This episode sets a different tone from TNG. DS9 already is more character driven, but with this episode it shows that the characters are more action versus philosophical thought. They are still bound by the same rules, but maybe a streak of Kirk runs through them, and they are a bit more rebellious on the station.
Sisko is not Picard (as he will emphatically express in the next DS9 episode), and while he still has to dress Miles down for breaking the rules, he also knows how to find the loopholes and the bendy bits that Picard is less willing to do.
Interesting Notes:
- Written by Jill Sherman Donner and Michael Piller
- Directed by Corey Allen
- This episode won an Emmy Award for make-up
- Apparently, this episode was influenced by the need of the producers to have more inter-character drama that previously had been not allowed by Gene Roddenberry’s standards for TNG.
- Tosk’s make-up was inspired by alligators.
Pros
- Miles O’Brien
- Characterization development of several characters
Cons:
- .I feel the Tosks/Hunter society isn’t really developed and we really don’t see them again.
Sokorra Lewis 