DS9 – Field of Fire

Plot – I love the fact that there is a murderer loose on the station that is taking out his victim with regular bullets. Think of all the waifs and strays and assassins and criminals that have swept through DS9 over the years. This is an open port, and a dangerous one. It’s very purpose as a way-through is a device for telling darker stories.

You wouldn’t think that the ins and outs of a murder case would be particularly interesting in a Star Trek setting but the whole nature of the TR-116 rifle (a gun that can literally shoot through walls) is the sort of technology that I can excited by. How O’Brien comes to that conclusion takes place in a terrific scene between him and Julian and the demonstration of the weapon at work (‘better than that melon’) really sells the insidious nature of the weapon. It means anybody on the station could be a target and they wouldn’t know anything about it until they were dead.

Character – At this point in series seven people were getting a little short about the constant Ezri episodes and truth be told the writers hands were a little tied. They only had a single season to develop this character (and in stark contrast to other shows they manage to do more with this character than some of the regulars get in seven years) but in order to do her justice they had to give her a lot of attention in the first half. It doesn’t help that one of her three focus episodes (Prodigal Daughter) is one of DS9’s weakest. This is easily her strongest and the one where we can see just how well she has integrated at this point. The latter half of the season gives a far fairer share of material everybody and it is astonishing how well Ezri has slipped into this show when she is treated as just another one of the regulars rather than the new kid on the block. She flirts sweetly with Ilario in the cold open and it’s one of the first indications that she is getting comfortable enough in this new life to relax and have fun. She’s not the first person I would choose to head this investigation (and indeed it appears that Odo has been tasked with this) but ultimately it turns out that she has a terrific emotional insight into this kind of crime and proves far more able to step into the darkness with the killer than anyone would imagine. It’s great that the episode gets to explore the Joran host in more depth and to allow Ezri to come to terms with the dark shadow of her past. Even Jadzia never managed to do that. Ezri is such a nice, sweet girl and so pairing her up with the serial killer inside her must have been irresistible.

This isn’t an episode about O’Brien but he sure gets some decent material here. He states boldly that DS9 is the best posting in the galaxy, which is a far cry from how he felt seven years ago. He doesn’t want anybody interrupting his leisure activity with Julian (best left to the imagination) and again that is stark contrast to how he felt about the guy at the beginning of the show.

Performance – Watch the scene after the cold open and bask in the joy of a set of regulars who bounce off each other perfectly and work incredibly well together. It’s Star Trek leaping into CSI territory and the DS9 crew look perfectly comfortable with the shift.

Whether you like Joran or not will depend upon your mileage for theatricality because McCloskey is not giving a naturalistic performance but a very disturbing and mannered one. He’s the sort who laps up murder, loves studying the psychology of a killer and gets off on pushing the innocent to do things that unbalance them. He’s a man who gets off on being bad, and frankly that makes him a lot of fun to be around. It would have been very amusing if Ezri hadn’t put Joran back in her head at the end of the episode and he had spent the rest of the series hanging out in the back of scenes and throwing shade at everybody like he does here.

Great Dialogue – ‘I’m sorry Lieutenant, there’s nothing more annoying than a corpse with a mind of its own.’

‘I don’t know what you and Curzon and Jadzia all see in that man. He’s so insufferable. So Starfleet. I’m surprised the killer hasn’t targeted him.’

Production – DS9 was never afraid of blood, as proven time and again (off the top of my head I can think of Way of the Warrior, To the Death, Nor the Battle as some pretty grisly examples) and Ilarios’s wound is nasty and sticky and very real.

Best moment – There’s a glorious dream sequence of the type that Star Trek loves about a third into the episode where Ezri is first re-introduced to Joran and he taunts and hunts her through the station and eventually tosses her off the Promenade. It’s deliciously filmed in slow motion, beautifully scored and acted with theatrical madness by Leigh J. McCloskey.

Worst moment – The killer walking into the same turbolift as Ezri. What an incredible co-incidence. The music tells us this is the killer immediately.

I wish they hadn’t done that – For some reason Ezri brandishing the knife and going for someone at Quark’s really makes me chuckle. She just isn’t the sort to casually murder like that. It’s the only point where the episode is so madly over the top that I was shaking my head. Plus, the scene straight after where Sisko chews her out is awesome. Mind you every scene where Sisko chews somebody out is awesome.

A reason to watch this episode again – The fact that DS9 is juggling Empires and a wealth of primary and secondary characters come its seventh season and that it takes time out to tell a procedural murder mystery tale led by Ezri Dax at the start of its final run of episodes shows that whilst the show is serialised to a point, the studio were still asking for standalones. The fact that they practically get away with it is thanks to a committed performance from Nicola de Boer, a smart script by Robert Wolfe and some really tasty direction courtesy of newcomer Tony Dow. Those three things combine to make a memorable and dark episode, although at times it does feel as though we have dipped into CSI Star Trek. This is one of those instalments that sees the DS9 crew all working together as a truly effective team and everybody has something to contribute to the investigation. De Boer didn’t have long to prove herself (and I refuse to punish her for simply not being Terry Farrell) and Field of Fire proves what a decent dramatic actress she was and she really holds her own against Leigh J McCloskey as he chews the scenery around her. If the reveal of the killer strains credulity, then the set piece at the climax more than makes up for that and proves a gripping climax. I really like this, even when I think that the show should be doing other things at this point.

**** out of *****