“Things Past” is an awkward, inelegant attempt at some serious and profound character development and thematic exploration. The episode has its heart in the right place, it has the best of intentions. But the basic premise, the one required to get into the depths of the story, is just too obscure and bizarre to be an effective portal. The problem is, the audience is required to accept the premise throughout the entire episode — not just at its beginning. The result is that, despite the rather stunning revelations, the episode just doesn’t register as anything particularly special or noteworthy.

The story begins with Dax, Sisko, Garak and Odo returning to DS9 after a Bajoran conference. Their discussions about the Cardassian occupation frame the episode so that, following some strange plasma accident, when they awake in the past, we’ve some foundation on which to build the story. The issue, though, is that the episode never quite finds the right way to pull the audience into this “historical” tale of Odo and three accused terrorists. We see our heroes being rescued from their runabout. We next see them in the past. We learn that their consciousnesses are in the past while their bodies are in the present. There’s no explanation for why.

And yet, the episode isn’t even about this mystery. It has more to do with the events of the past. But such a strange mystery hanging over the episode proves to be a glaring distraction. As such, it’s very difficult to accept what is happening in the past. And for the story to work, both emotionally and dramatically, it requires the audience to be fully invested. The mystery is a constant reminder that what we see in the past just isn’t real.

As it turns out, the heroes have been transported back to Terok Nor and, though they see each other as normal, everyone else sees them as nothing more than Bajoran slaves. Throughout these sequences, Odo acts agitated and distracted and sees apparitions of men with blast marks on their chests. It isn’t difficult to imagine that these are “ghosts” of a sort, haunting Odo’s consciousness. And, as it turns out, the whole affair is something akin to Odo facing is worst moment as a constable on Terok Nor: Allowing three innocent men be accused, convicted and executed for an assassination attempt against Gul Dukat.

That’s really what the episode boils down to. Odo confronting one of the biggest regrets of his life — a truly despicable act on his part — while also providing commentary on the differences between order and justice. These are powerful ideas and concepts. And they had the capacity to be just as forceful on screen. But because the manner with which we experience these events is so obscure, they aren’t allowed to play out entirely on their own merit.

Besides, the explanation is entirely nonsensical. Or, rather, it’s the perfect example of why there ought to be some kind of Trekkian “justice” for misusing technobabble plot devices. When all is said and done, Bashir explains that the plasma triggered some latent changeling gunk left in Odo’s brain, creating a pseudo “Great Link” between Odo and his friends, forcing them all to relive Odo’s worst memory (because Odo had been thinking of it just prior to the accident).

*Sigh*

There had to be a more economical way to get the audience into the story of Odo’s past.

And then there’s the final scene between Odo and Kira. Kira’s holier-than-thou attitude and response to learning that Odo, in fact, is “just another imperfect solid” seems entirely hollow and misplaced. Considering that the two characters had a similar contretemps in Season Two’s “Necessary Evil” — when it is revealed that Kira committed murder — her attitude toward Odo is just a bit too much to take seriously.

“Things Past” has some very interesting and worthy moments. But the story is awkward and obscure. The clumsy approach fairly sabotages any real chance the episode had at creating drama. Instead, it’s a slightly below-average outing.

Filed under: Deep Space Nine