“Equilibrium” is a quiet, introspective episode which can be best summarized by Dax in its final scene: “If you want to know who you are, it’s important to know who you’ve been.” The idea of understanding and reconciling your personal history – the choices you’ve made, regrets you might have – is an important theme to explore and discuss. And this episode deserves credit for raising this very point. Unfortunately, the pacing is glacial and, despite a handful of truly creepy moments, there’s very little real emotion generated by the proceedings – an unfortunate deficiency in an episode all about identity. Afterall, who we are is directly linked to the emotions we experience.

The episode opens with a wonderfully conceived dinner party in Sisko’s quarters. Seeing the crew together, enjoying one another’s company, and interacting demonstrates their very real and plausible camaraderie. The scene serves as a launching point for a story about Dax. When she notices one of Jake’s musical instruments (a kind of piano), she bemoans the fact that none of her previous hosts had any musical ability. But not all is as it would seem. Inexplicably, she begins playing a rather lovely melody on the piano, without having any clue where it came from. This, then, is the first step in her journey to uncovering a brief, but very dark, chapter in the past history of the Dax symbiont.

The idea that Dax once had a host (for all of six months) who was a brilliant, but violently angry, composer is a quite a worthwhile revelation. It forces Dax to understand and accept that past, and incorporate all of the previous host’s memories into her own – including the benefits of musical composition and the detriments of an aggressive personality. This notion of finding the balance with our own experiences, with the “good” and “bad” elements of our selves, is vital to anyone finding true harmony within their lives.

What’s unfortunate, then, is that the episode focuses almost entirely on the mystery of what happened to Dax – in other words, uncovering why she is currently out of balance and experiencing hallucinations – rather than on her struggling, or at least having to confront the reality of, integrating newly uncovered experiences into her character. As it is, the scene in which Dax demonstrates her acceptance is entirely perfunctory. And it’s followed by the simple notion that Dax “just needs time to work things out.” This is easily the more interesting angle to the story, and it’s left almost entirely off-screen.

Compounding the problem is the rather pedestrian nature in which Sisko and Bashir investigate and uncover the truth about Dax’s past. Admittedly, watching their concern for Dax – an extension of the camaraderie established in the opening scene – is great to watch. But as a mystery, there’s almost nothing here to carry the episode. The best moments are the creepily masked figures in Dax’s hallucinations. But beyond that, the machinations of Sisko and Bashir are slow, plodding and downright dull.

“Equilibrium” is a missed opportunity. It’s an episode whose priorities are entirely misplaced. Had it focused on its explicitly stated theme, rather than on a shallow mystery, then it would have been a much more valuable installment.

Filed under: Deep Space Nine