Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9)
Episode: 1:14 Storyteller (05/03/1993)
Rating: 4/5
Redshirt Status: 0/2
Notable Guest Stars:
Gina Phillips (Varis Sul) – Phillips is a child actress who grow up on screen. She later became known for her roles in Jeepers Creepers and Ally McBeal. She also appeared on ER (I feel a theme today).
Jordan Lund (Woban) – Lund has appeared on Star Trek: TNG before as Kluge in 1991 and he shall appear on Enterprise in 2003. He appeared on both Chicago 90s Medical dramas Chicago Hope and ER.
Kay E. Kuter (Sirah)- When I was a kid, I watched alot of old programs because that was what my dad liked to watch. Its how I got into Star Trek for one thing. I also watched shows like Petticoat Junction and Green Acres both which had Kuter in them. He was also in the 1954 version of Sabrina (I much prefer the 90s version, but its still a good movie) He also appeared in ER (I told you, there is a theme today) Kuter died in 2003.
Jim Janson (Faren) – He appeared familiar to me but I couldn’t tell just where I saw him till I looked up his filmography. One of my favorite shows was Gilmore Girls and he appeared occasionally as Reverend Skinner. He also guest starred on Veronica Mars, The Mentalist, West Wing, and yes, ER.
Lawrence Monoson (Hovath) – He appeared in a 1994 Television series And the Band Played On, which was a docudrama based on the early years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It starred Alan Alada, Matthew Modine, Ian McKellen, Lily Tomlin and Richard Gere. You know he was among good company. I do recall watching this during school but I’m sure if it was a history class or a health class.
Review:
In this episode we have the first episode of “The Continuing Adventures of Julian & Miles” as well as Nog & Jake being children. Its not really the best of episodes, but its also not a bad episode.
I feel that the part of the episode with Julian and Miles is the stronger part of the episode, although seeing characters just being themselves is always a nice thing to see. One of the ongoing things with DS9 is the friendship between Julian and Miles. Despite this episode, they do end up best friends and are often seen together. This episode starts that transition from strangers to best friends, although the episode that cements their friendship won’t happen till later.
They are called to Bajor because the Sirah, the leader of a small village on the planet, has become deathly ill. Julian arrives to basically inform that that the Sirah is actively dying, which makes everyone freak out because of a long held tradition of the Dal’rok, a cloud monster who attacks the town every year and only the Sirah’s storytelling of the history can hold it at bay.
Do I call the monster a Balrok? Yes, yes I do. Because I have watched Lord of the Rings too many times and it sounds really similar.
The Sirah dies after naming Miles his successor. Which Julian finds hilarious and Miles just thinks is a horrible, no good, terrible idea. Especially after the “real” successor tries to kill him. This is when we find out that the Dal’rok is a made up monster powered by the towns fears to get them to unite. The town defeats the Dal’rok by their own power as well but they don’t know that. Ancient town leaders had designed the program to unite the villagers – and only the Sirah and his apprentice know the truth.
Miles of course shows us that he is a horrible story-teller and Horvath, the apprentice eventually takes over and shows he knows what he is doing.
On the other plot, Nog gets a crush on the young leader of a faction of Bajor. Her name is Varis, and she’s the same age as Nog and Jake. They help her relax, and give her advice even though they don’t know the particulars. Its actually kind of sweet in a way.
The awkward moment of this is when Nog decides to play a prank on Jake by convincing him they are playing a prank on Odo and stealing his regeneration bucket. Which is kind of mean in general – I imagine that’s like hiding someone’s meds that they need as a joke. The prank turns out a bit more harmless as Nog simply grabs the bucket and fills it with oatmeal and “accidentally” trips and spills it over Jake who thinks its Odo.
Odo catches them of course, and the boys are forced to clean up the security office since there is oatmeal everywhere.
Interesting Notes:
- Written by Kurt Michael Bensmiller & Ira Steven Behr
- Directed by David Livingston
- This episode reused set pieces from an earlier TNG episode.
- This episode was inspired by Rudyard Kipling’s story “The Man Who Would Be King”
Pros
- The beginnings of the great bromance of Julian & Miles.
- A few moments of kids being kids.
Cons:
- Odo Oatmeal does not look good in any way. And it seems a little mean spirited to
- Misuse of Orb fragments. This gives me too many Giver feels, honestly, even though I know it has nothing to do with that story.
- Dalrok. Seriously you do not know how many times I wrote Balrok instead.
Screencap via CygnusX1.net
Sokorra Lewis 