Frivolous, silly, semi-humorous. “Rivals” is an episode that approaches the ideas of fate, chance, and luck. But it’s such a lightweight story that it never really delves all that deeply into these concepts. The stories themselves are relatively inconsequential. And yet … the episode maintains enough charm and wit to make it entertaining – even if, at the end of the day, it doesn’t amount to a whole heckuva lot.

This is an episode (mostly) about luck and, as the title implies, rivalries. In one story, we get the rather unassuming and enjoyable “rivalry” between O’Brien and Bashir over racquetball and in the other we see the developing rivalry between Quark and Martus (Chris Sarandon) over gambling establishments on DS9. Both plotlines skew toward relatively amiable conflicts, allowing the episode to present its humor without worrying about undue melodrama or angst.

The most satisfying story comes from O’Brien and Bashir. O’Brien has built a racquetball court on DS9 and when he discovers that Bashir is not only a player, but also a younger, faster, champion player, his pride pushes him to the limits of his physical abilities. The execution here is key. O’Brien never really comes across as a sore loser – more like a man frustrated that his aging body is starting to betray him – and Bashir never really comes across as a cocky win-at-all-costs player – more like an incredibly skilled young man worried about trying not to show off his skills against a clearly inferior opponent.

This setup allows for some enjoyable scenes between O’Brien and Keiko, as well as Bashir and Dax. But it all comes to a head when Quark literally cons them both into playing a match for charity – Quark’s personal charity as well as that of children on Bajor. That Quark would resort to such a scheme is as a result of Martus – a con man who has a run of such surprisingly good luck that he opens his own gambling resort on DS9. And this is where the episode’s flirtation with the ideas of luck and chance comes into play.

Can one man really have that much good luck? Or, later, have that much bad luck? To what do we attribute luck – both good and bad? These questions form the thematic foundation of the episode (such that it is) and are certainly worthwhile explorations. But, in true Trek fashion, the explanation is some technobabble nonsense that is connected to a device Martus received from a dying man … who, as “chance” would have it, was down on his luck.  The hard-and-fast explanation robs most of the thematic weight from the episode.

“Rivals” is an episode that provides some solid lightweight entertainment.  The character interactions are enjoyable enough.  But the attempts at a slightly deeper subtext just don’t particularly well.  And yet it’s safe to say that if you’re looking for a mild distraction from every day, the episode should do just fine.

Filed under: Deep Space Nine