Star Trek DS9 - Season 3 - Episode 04
Star Trek DS9 - 3x04 - Equilibrium
Originally Aired: 1994-10-17
Synopsis:
A deadly secret from Dax's past could mean the end of Jadzia's life. [DVD]
Filler Quotient:
0, not filler, do not skip this episode.
- This episode establishes the existence of Joran, the implications of which will have important repercussions later.
Problems
- Is the Defiant Sisko's own private spaceship or something? Shouldn't it be defending DS9 instead of using it to go galavanting around the Federation? Wouldn't a runabout have been better suited for the trip to Trill?
Factoids
- The dates of Joran's birth and death are four digit Stardates which is consistent with his living in the time period of TOS. :)
Remarkable Scenes
- Sisko's home-cooked dinner. I am particularly fond of Odo's behavior.
- Jadzia skillfully playing the piano out of nowhere.
- Jadzia getting pissed at Sisko and Kira.
- The Trill Guardian.
- Sisko discovering that Joran held the Dax symbiont.
- Dax: "If you want to know who you are, it's important to know who you've been.'
- Dax playing the piano in the end.
My Review
This episode opens with funny Dax behavior and initially comes across as being another DS9: Dramatis Personae, maybe with a little DS9: Dax mixed into it as the episode develops. Instead, it ends up being one of the better Dax character development episodes. This episode also reveals a Trill coverup, that almost any Trill can be joined with a symbiont. This could actually go a long way toward explaining away a few of the inconsistencies in TNG: The Host. Perhaps any species may join with a Trill symbiont after all. Obviously, this episode doesn't explain away all those problems, but it helps. Overall, I'm satisfied with this episode at large.
The following are comments submitted by my readers.
I was wondering the same thing about the Defiant - the first thing that came to mind was that since Trill is 36 hours away even in the Defiant (which can go quite fast if I recall correctly), maybe they figured the risk of permanently losing a key staff officer + losing 2 other key staff officers for many days (or even weeks) in a slower runabout was worth losing the Defiant for a few days.
This is decent. The flashbacks are genuinely creepy, the Trill trivia is cool for the most part, and it all goes down fairly easily.
I don't read Star Trek novels, but it occurs to me that there's probably a DS9 novel out there that goes into all this business with the symbionts and how their relationship with the Trill evolved, which would probably be interesting. If anybody knows of such a novel, let me know.
Total borefest. It's as if the writers realised that they had enough material for 20 minutes so added everything they could think of to pad it out.
I don't agree it's even good Dax development - it doesn't depend on anything that goes before, doesn't add anything very important, and doesn't create anything new for the future. Pure padding.
Not a very outstanding episode, but the beginning with the cooking and party preparations shows why I like Sisko more than all the other Star Trek captains (except Kirk, because he is the first one and a totally unique character). Sisko as played by Avery Brooks appears to be a credible human being with weaknesses, true emotions, and what I like best, more humour than the other captains. The Dax conspiracy story is not too bad, I only wish that the painted Trill city, like Cardassia or Kronos capitals depictions, would be replaced by some appropriate graphics in future, augmented versions, similar to enhanced TOS.