Overcooked.

“The Quickening” is one of those Trek episodes that takes itself far too seriously — and completely misses its mark in the process. There are some praiseworthy moments tucked into the stew, but on the whole, there’s just far too much time spent on making the results as pungent as possible. Perhaps during the production there were too many cooks in the kitchen. Either way, the ingredients do not mix together particularly well and the result is a bitter offering, made all the more distasteful by its attempts to be sweet and fulfilling.

While on a survey mission Dax, Kira and Bashir stumble onto a 200 year-old distress signal. What they discover is an alien population who have been punished by the Dominion by way of a virus called The Blight. Everyone on the planet is born with lesions and, sooner or later (usually sooner) they experience The Quickening whereby the lesions become active and excruciating painful. Death follows, but not soon enough to ease the suffering.

As a result, the society has taken on a kind of ritual worship of death, symbolized by the character of Trevean — a man who specializes in euthanizing those who have Quickened … easing their passage from life into death. Bashir and Dax are thoroughly revolted at the idea. But instead of using the opportunity to explore the different perspectives of the issues, the episode simply ignores it and moves on to Bashir’s attempts to find a cure. It’s a missed opportunity.

The result is to make an already tenuous (though potentially powerful) story and make it thoroughly pedestrian. Bashir latches on to a pregnant woman, named Ekoria, who wants to live in the hopes of seeing her child grow up. Through her assistance, Bashir begins his quest and the episode quickly devolves into so much technobabble as Bashir tries one approach after another.

The main element to all of this is Bashir’s arrogance in approaching the situation. He seems to think he can find a cure in short order. But when his methods (or, more specifically, the equipment he was using), cause the deaths of dozens of his patients, Bashir’s confidence is profoundly shaken. The scene itself is thoroughly melodramatic and undercuts any heft it might have otherwise conveyed. But it does serve a purpose. Bashi admits his arrogance at thinking he could find a cure and Dax quite insightfully notes that his arrogance doesn’t end there: It’s the height of arrogance to believe that, just because he couldn’t find a cure that none could possibly exist.

But what does Bashir do now that he has been confronted with his own arrogance?

Why, he chooses to shirk his duty as Chief Medical Officer on DS9 so he can spend a few weeks with Ekoria to continue looking for a cure. It seems to me that Bashir is acting more to salve his pride at this point than for any other reason. And I’m not questioning the nobility of his character as it has been portrayed in the series — I’m questioning the nobility of his character as it is portrayed in the episode. Surely Bashir could have come up with some alternative to going AWOL.

Then, of course, you have the finale in which Ekoria Quickens and Bashir must oversee the premature birth of her child, Ekoria does in the process, but not before holding her son in her arms — a child which, miraculously does not bear The Blight. Bashir didn’t find a cure … he found a vaccine. With it, he convinces Trevean to shift away from euthanasia and instead focus on manufacturing and distributing the vaccine. And so the whole euthanasia debate is settled … without ever having to confront it.

“The Quickening” is, at best, trite. At it’s worst, it’s a rambling nonsensical tale that goes for cheap dramatical moments rather than truly illuminating ones.

Filed under: Deep Space Nine