I literally rolled my eyes and groaned out loud when the premise of “The Assignment” was revealed. As far as hokey, preposterous concepts go, this is right up there with the worst. Still, the episode managed to make the most out of its setup, right up until its final paces. Despite the silly story, there was enough tension and emotion to give the narrative a measure of (almost) legitimate drama. But, of course, when the foundation is shaky to begin with, it doesn’t take much for the whole construct to come crashing down into ruin. And that’s basically what happens before it’s all over.

This is the story of how Keiko O’Brien returns from Bajor possessed by a spirit, a false prophet cast out of the wormhole centuries earlier. The spirit uses Keiko as a hostage to coerce O’Brien into modifying DS9 into a weapon that will destroy the prophets, allowing it to return home. Of course, this is the episode’s central mystery. All we’re given at the beginning is the fact that Keiko is possessed and that, if O’Brien doesn’t do *exactly* as he is told, Keiko will be killed. The whole notion of how far a person might go to save a loved one is certainly interesting, and worthy of exploration. But the reveal in the episode is entirely laughable. I’m not sure how else the moment could have been portrayed, but it certainly does nothing to set events in motion on a positive note.

From here, though, the episode does manage to salvage a bit of legitimacy by allowing events to unfold in such a way as to portray the possessed Keiko as thoroughly insidious — without making it seem overly melodramatic. In fact, Keiko’s outward “niceness” towards O’Brien and everyone else is quite effective. Underneath the saccharine exterior is a ruthless entity, holding hostage a person O’Brien dearly loves. And O’Brien really does do exactly what the spirit wants. This is aided by Keiko following Miles until Miles tries to inform Captain Sisko. At that moment, the spirit has Keiko take a fall from the top of the promenade, effectively stifling any further attempts by Miles to solicit help from his friends.

But this really does bring up an inherent flaw. It’s not like Keiko could follow Miles the entire time. And Miles certainly had plenty of opportunities to get people involved. I suppose one could chalk it all up to Miles being desperate and not thinking straight. But there were quite a few scenes in which Miles passed up opportunities to spill the beans for seemingly no real reason. The only person Miles actually speaks to?

Rom.

Perhaps the best element to the episode is how it utilizes Rom’s almost savant-like abilities to figure out engineering puzzles. After an interesting scene with his brother about whether or not he’ll ever be recognized for his abilities, Rom manages to impress O’Brien with the speed and accuracy of his work. O’Brien, under a time constraint from Keiko, enlists Rom’s assistance and silence. And it’s Rom who turns out to be the key to solving the mystery.

Unfortunately, the ending just doesn’t come across particularly well. O’Brien’s actions a just a bit too obvious to have gone unnoticed for so long. The modifications must have been a bit too drastic to really be passed off as minor fluctuations. And when O’Brien has the beam aimed at the shuttle instead of the wormhole, there was certainly more than enough time for the spirit to kill Keiko as it was also being killed (which of course brings up the question of whether or not the spirit could have simply flown away or something).

In any event, O’Brien’s mutinous actions are effectively waved aside by a lame “You’ve got some explaining to do” comment from Sisko. And the trauma to Keiko, despite being given a scene, seems likewise too lightweight.

At least Rom finally does get promoted for his efforts.

Consider its precarious starting point, “The Assignment” fares a lot better than it ought to have. But it’s an uneven and unsatisfying installment which doesn’t do much for the characters or the series. And any commentary on how far people might go when coerced by a threat to a loved one seems glossed over by a focus on the mystery elements, rather than the emotions Miles was feeling. It’s a shame, because it wastes solid performances by both Miles and Keiko.

Filed under: Deep Space Nine