Equilibrium (episode)
From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference.
| This article is written from the Real World point of view |
 |
| "Equilibrium" | ||
|---|---|---|
| DS9, Episode 3x04 Production number: 40513-450 First aired: 17 October 1994 | ||
| ← | 49th of 173 produced in DS9 | → |
| ← | 49th of 173 released in DS9 | → |
| ← | 333rd of 726 released in all | → |
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| Teleplay By René Echevarria Story By Christopher Teague Directed By Cliff Bole | ||
| Unknown (2371) | ||
Jadzia Dax is plagued by disturbing hallucinations that allude to the dark past of the Dax symbiont.
Contents |
[edit] Summary
[edit] Teaser
Commander Sisko was preparing food for a dinner (with some help from Jake) for Doctor Bashir, Major Kira, and Odo. Odo assisted with the mixing for a soufflé, with difficulty at first, and Kira commented that she found it cute. It turns out that Sisko used to help at his father's restaurant in New Orleans, Earth.
Bashir discovered that the meal contained beets, something he obviously was not too fond of the idea of. Dax arrived and asked what smelled so nice. In response, Bashir mentioned the beets as a major ingredient and she noted her approval.
Sitting down at the table, Dax found Jake's keyboard instrument. He had taken lessons but had not proven to be terribly musically adept, unfortunately. Dax noted that throughout her seven lifetimes, she'd ended up with a tin ear and no musical ability. She began playing a tune on the piano, but could not recognize it.
[edit] Act One
Later on, while playing chess with Sisko in his office, she kept humming to herself and was totally distracted from her game. She took one of his bishops, leaving a move open for Sisko to move a knight and put her king in check. She asked where the knight came from and he pointed out that she was distracted. She then declared that he must have made an illegal move to attract her attention and that Curzon had always thought that he was a cheat. Dax then upended the board and stormed out of the room.
Later on, she was in the Replimat having a drink and Kira came by to ask her what was wrong. Dax asked if she'd come from Sisko to apologize for his behavior. The answer was that Kira was worried about Dax after she'd heard about the earlier incident. Kira couldn't believe that Sisko would have tried to cheat and Dax insisted that Kira leave. Before she had a chance to do so, Dax stood up to leave, but Kira caught her arm. Dax told Kira to remove her hand before she must do something that she would regret. Dax stared at her for a moment and then stormed off, onto the Promenade.
As she walked along, the place seemed to be deserted, then the light seemed to change, and she spotted someone watching her from the second level. She turned around to find that figure behind her. He (or she?) was wearing a robe with a cowl and had a smooth mask on. The figure removed the mask with one hand, revealing another. Dax turned to escape and the figure had now appeared in front of her again, tearing the second mask in half, revealing a third underneath.
She turned about again and suddenly ran into Quark, and the Promenade was back to normal with the masked figure having vanished.
[edit] Act Two
At the infirmary, Bashir was checking over Dax. She apologized to Sisko for the horrible things that she had said to him earlier. He suggested that she input the music into the computer to let it find out what it is. After a brief discussion of her symptoms, it arose that Torias (the Dax host prior to Curzon) had fallen into a coma after a shuttlecraft accident, forcing the Trill to eventually remove the Dax symbiont due to low isoboramine levels (around 40%). A quick check of Jadzia showed that her isoboramine levels were dropping and were now at 73% of normal, thus she might be rejecting the symbiont. They decided to take Jadzia to the Trill homeworld to see if any solutions could be found.
On the bridge of the Defiant, Bashir and Sisko discussed not having Jadzia (the host) around anymore and how much they would miss her if she were gone. That night, Dax could not sleep and went to talk to Bashir. She discussed her time as an initiate, the tests she endured, the pressure she put on herself, and how going back as a patient was worse than being there as an initiate. She also commented that she was afraid of doctors, while Bashir noted that as a child he was terrified of doctors. As he grew older, he wanted to find out what they knew, and that's what ended up leading him to medical school. After the discussion, Bashir offered to let her stay over, even allowing her the top bunk. She agreed, but insisted on the lower bunk because Curzon once fell out of a tree. She fell asleep almost immediately.
Now on the Trill homeworld, Jadzia discussed some of the tests with Bashir. She noted that they had to make a small incision on her side to insert the scanner to scan the symbiont. Doctor Renhol entered the room and noted that Jadzia was the only initiate to successfully reenter the program after being dropped. She noted that Jadzia was on a benzocyatic regimen to compensate, but that she did not need to stay at the hospital because Bashir could administer the treatment. The doctor and Dax made an appointment for the next day for a follow-up and lunch. She then excused herself to assist an initiate.
Back on the Defiant, Bashir prescribed rest for Dax, who noted that she could never sleep in the afternoon. Sisko suggested lying down, closing her eyes, and not trying to think, something that worked for him. She left them to head to her quarters, and as she moved down the hallway, she encountered the figure she'd previously seen on the Promenade. She asked who he was and he replied "It's beautiful, isn't it?" A door opened, and two Trills came through and tried to kidnap her; as she fought them off, she was just about to punch one in the face, and it turned out to be Bashir.
[edit] Act Three
Back in the hospital, Bashir couldn't understand why Dax was still having hallucinations as her isoboramine levels had risen another 6%. Jadzia noted that her attackers in the hallucination had been from the Symbiosis Commission, wearing uniforms from over a hundred years ago, long before she had been an initiate herself, but none of her other hosts had bad memories of being there. Sisko noted that the computer still had not figured out the piece of music that Jadzia had been humming earlier. Despite Bashir's suggestion of therapy, Dax insisted that she needed answers and suggested visiting the Guardians, a group of unjoined Trills who devote their lives to the care of symbionts.
They went to the symbionts' breeding pools in the Caves of Mak'ala and watched two symbionts surface and communicate with each other with electrical impulses. A Guardian, Timor, entered and began using a testing instrument in the pool. He seemed very distracted as he checked to ensure that the symbionts were comfortable and not cranky; after all, they get very demanding when they are cranky. He commented that he sometimes didn't know why he put up with it and asked about the weather, before saying that he missed sunshine. He then recognized Jadzia as Dax and immediately recognized that something was wrong. He asked about her dreams and pointed out that they were actually memories. This was due to an imbalance between host and symbiont and that someone wasn't playing fair, and that it could be any one of her prior hosts.
Back on the ship, the computer had finally discovered the piece of music and that it was written by Joran Belar 86 years previously. The name was not familiar to Jadzia, but his picture was and immediately brought back a memory of what appeared to be a Trill doctor working at a desk. The masked figure appeared behind him holding a weapon shaped like a spike which he then plunged into the ear of the working man, killing him and stating that "he left me no choice!" Jadzia demanded to know who the masked figure was and reached to remove his mask, which shattered and vanished in a flash of bright, white light, revealing Joran. The hallucination over, she fell into neural shock.
[edit] Act Four
At the hospital, she began to be stabilized, and it was noted that her condition was worsening again and that if her isoboramine levels, now at 51%, did not rise within 48 hours, the symbiont would have to be removed, killing her. It was suggested that dynametric fields from the wormhole might be causing it.
Sisko and Bashir visited Timor, the Guardian, and asked for his help. However, he recanted what he had previously told Dax and insisted that he could not help. He appeared scared, and both Bashir and Sisko wondered why and were curious as to why an investigation of the past Dax hosts was unwanted.
They returned to the Defiant and began investigating Joran Belar and found that his record consisted of merely a birth date and death date, but also found that the file had been altered substantially. In a comparison with the Dax records, it turned out that Belar died on the same day as Torias Dax, which was the same day that the symbiont had been put into Curzon. A check of the musical schools revealed that Yolad Belar had been registered.
Contacting Yolad, they discovered that he was Joran's brother. Yolad was having trouble remembering much, but did note that Joran entered to become an initiate but had been dropped after his second year. Apparently Joran had killed the doctor who recommended that he be dropped and was killed himself while trying to escape. It turns out that Joran had a violent temper. However, about six months before the incident, Joran had contacted Yolad and had seemed more confident and this was due to the fact that he had been joined, but Yolad could not recall the name of the symbiont. Some further checking of the records led Sisko to theorize that perhaps the Dax symbiont had been put into Joran Belar before being put into Curzon.
[edit] Act Five
Back in the hospital, Jadzia's isoboramine levels had dropped to 44% and Renhol was preparing for surgery to transfer the Dax symbiont to a new host. Sisko and Bashir confronted Doctor Renhol about the Joran Dax incident. Since only one in a thousand candidates are acceptable, they are put through rigorous testing, since poor choices would result in the symbiont being rejected within 3-4 days and thus both host and symbiont dying. However, Joran and Dax had been joined for well over six months, despite Joran being a poor candidate. The Symbiosis Commission wanted to hide this fact and had put a memory block into Dax when it was transferred into Curzon, and they were now willing to let Jadzia die to continue the cover-up. Sisko threatened to expose the cover-up unless Jadzia was saved. It turned out that nearly half of the Trill population was capable of being joined and the Symbiosis Commission did not want the symbionts to become commodities, items to be sold to the highest bidders and to be fought over. With this ultimatum, Sisko took the decision out of Renhol's hands and put it into Jadzia's.
She visited the Caves of Mak'ala again and entered one of the birthing pools. A symbiont approached her and sent its electrical communication to her. Joran emerged from the pool and Jadzia invited him to become a part of her. They hugged and he vanished into her with an electrical surge, awakening the memories from his host period in Jadzia and Dax once again.
Back on the station, Dax sat at a porthole in her quarters, and Sisko entered the room. She asked if he was checking up on her, and he commented that he was just ensuring that she was okay. She commented that Bashir had been in 15 minutes earlier doing the same. She stated the importance of knowing one's past in knowing one's self, then sat down at the table with her piano and began playing.
[edit] Memorable Quotes
"If you want to know who you are, it's important to know who you've been."
- - Jadzia Dax
[edit] Background Information
- The origins of this episode are to be found in the magic show of Jeff Magnus McBride who portrays Joran Belar. Michael Piller saw McBride's show, loved it, and commissioned Christopher Teague, a mutual friend of his and McBride, to draw up an outline for a story based on McBride's act. McBride's show revolved around a use of masks, and the repeated removal of what is seemingly a single mask only to reveal another underneath (something which happens in the episode itself). Teague's story originally involved a kind of intergalatic circus coming to Deep Space 9 with a magician who is revealed to be a murderer, but nobody on the writing staff was keen on the idea. René Echevarria then modified it to focus on Odo and a series of disturbing dreams, before Ronald D. Moore suggested switching the emphasis of the plot to Dax, as he felt that masks were a good metaphor for the Trill species in general. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion)
- This is the first episode to:
- feature the Trill homeworld.
- show that Jadzia's spots do go down to her feet. They can be seen briefly in shots of her on the hospital bed.
- reveal that Sisko is from New Orleans.
- This episode features a number of changes to the style of the USS Defiant's bridge, including a new Captain's chair area (no fencing and new consoles), movement of the dedication plaque from the back to beside the starboard door, more consoles in the rear and additional consoles on the walls of the side stations.
- René Echevarria partly based the penultimate scene, where Dax accepts Joran's memories, on a scene in the Peter Schaffer play Equus. In that play, the word 'abreact' is used as a psychological term to describe the relieving of a trauma, and Echevarria felt that that was exactly what was happening in this scene.(Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion)
- Joran would be seen again in the seventh season episode "Field of Fire", although he would be played by Leigh J. McCloskey as Jeff Magnus McBride was unavailable at the time.
- Colm Meaney (Miles O'Brien) does not appear in this episode.
[edit] Video and DVD releases
- UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 3.2, 27 February 1995.
- As part of the DS9 Season 3 DVD collection.
[edit] Links and References
[edit] Guest Stars
- Lisa Banes as Renhol
- Jeff Magnus McBride as Joran Belar
- Nicholas Cascone as Timor
- Harvey Vernon as Yolad Belar
[edit] Uncredited Co-Stars
- Brian Demonbreun as a Starfleet science officer
- Nick Dimitri as a Trill guard
- J. Suzanne Rampe as a Trill guard
- Unknown performers as
[edit] References
Bajoran wormhole; Blackened redfish; beet; Belar, Yolad; benzocyatizine; Caves of Mak'ala; coma; Dax, Curzon; Dax, Joran; Dax, Torias; isoboramine; Promenade; Replimat; Symbiosis Commission; Tenaran Ice Cliffs; Trill; Trill (planet); Trill Guardians; Trill symbiont
| Previous episode: "The House of Quark" | Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 3 | Next episode: "Second Skin" |
