The prospect of peace is the backdrop for “Life Support,” a strongly emotional and powerful episode. The central conflicts of the episode do a fantastic job of capitalizing on much of the previous character work that has been done on the series and the ending, in its crushing finality, drives home the central theme: life is precious. Objectively speaking, there are more than a few plot inconsistencies and questions which undermine the story, but through the sheer force of emotion, the episode manages to be thoroughly compelling.

A transport accident leaves Vedek Bareil near death, just as peace negotiations with the Cardassians are reaching a critical juncture. The conflict, then, involves Bashir’s duty to keep his patient alive against the grand sweep of history which calls upon Bareil’s insight and expertise to help close the deal. Kai Winn pushes both Bareil and Bashir to find some way to sustain Bareil’s life long enough to conclude the negotiations, while Bashir continually reminds everyone how important a single life can be.

This is, without question, an emotional tale – beginning with Bareil’s initial “death” and resurrection, thanks to a nearly miraculous happenstance. From here, Bareil becomes little more than the rope in a tug of war. Winn desperately needs Bareil, Bashire desperately wants to save Bareil, and Kira walks the line between the two, wanting to save the man she loves, and wanting a peaceful resolution with Cardassia.

It’s through these emotional conflicts that the episode’s central narrative is woven.  And, for the most part, it works.  This is due to the excellent character work Deep Space Nine has accomplished thus far.  These people are entirely plausible in their motivations and actions.  And to that extent, the episode is a success.

Unfortunately, though, some of the machinations involving Bareil veer a tad bit too far into happenstance and silly-sounding technobabble.  The effect is to partially (though not completely) undermine many of the emotional threads of the episode.

“Life Support” is a solid, if somewhat flawed installment.  It’s at its best when focusing on the characters, but stumbles with the particulars of the story.

Filed under: Deep Space Nine