“Tears of the Prophets” is one of those moments in a series that has repercussions far beyond the final moments of the episode. The story — and more importantly the implications of the story — reverberate long afterward. That is the case here. But the issue for this episode isn’t whether or not it’s important to the overall arc of the series — indeed, it’s a critical story — but the means by which the story is told. With that in mind, this is a classic, but hardly and exceptional installment.

After months on the defensive, the Federation has finally decided to go on the offensive against the Dominion — and they want Sisko to plan and lead the attack. Concurrently, Sisko has a vision from the Prophets which warns him against leaving the station. On Cardassia, Weyoun and Damar weigh the implications of the invasion when they receive a visit from … Dukat. Also, Worf and Dax decide to have a baby.

There’s plenty of grist for the mill here. In fact, it’s too much. Ultimately, this is an episode about Sisko — about his conflict of interest between being a Starfleet captain and an Emissary of the Prophets. His choices, namely the one to ignore the Prophets in favor of serving Starfleet will lead to tragedy. And as a result, his will and confidence will be broken.

But the episode doesn’t spend all that much time on these issues, until its final scenes. Instead, we’re treated a mixed bag of ancillary character moments, plot developments, and bizarre occurrences. The Dax-Worf scenes are nice, but they prove to be little more than emotional manipulation. I liked Bashir and Quark listening to Vic Fontaine sing “Here’s To The Losers” but it’s entirely unnecessary to the episode. And then there’s Dukat’s “possession” by a pah-wraith.

It’s a bit unfortunate that the series is returning to the concept of pah-wraiths, though. The Ghostbusters-style possessions (complete with manic red eyes) are just too silly and campy to be taken seriously. It’s a poor direction to take a series that, up until now, dealt with its concepts as realistically as possible. The motivations of Dukat are, at the very least, understandable. But the means by which he carries out his actions — allowing himself to be possessed in order to somehow attack the Prophets — strains credulity.

Worse still, it leads to the episode’s biggest gaffe: the death of Jadzia Dax. Actress Terry Farrell had decided to leave the show, so the death of her character was written into the series. Fair enough. But I would have thought that DS9 would handle the death of a major character with more craft and care than what is, essentially, a retread of “Skin of Evil” — that is, a senseless, unnecessary, unheroic murder. Possessed-Dukat simply beams into the temple on DS9 (from where? how so without detection?) and kills Jadzia simply because she happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Worse yet is the episode’s contrivance to allow the symbiont to survive … and for Jadzia to survive just long enough for Worf to return from the invasion mission. It’s more than a bit overwrought, and suffers from the same issues that cropped up when Tasha Yar was killed in “Skin of Evil.”

Of course, all of this is meant to be yet another piece of the Sisko puzzle. Jadzia’s death is supposed to be part of what causes Sisko to lose faith — in himself, more than anything else. There’s also the matter of Dukat’s mission effectively closing the wormhole. But the episode spends far too much time on Jadzia, Dukat, and the whiz-bang invasion battle, than on Sisko’s character. As such, his final acts are perfunctory, rushed, and somewhat hollow.

The whole point of the episode is to get Sisko off of DS9 and back on Earth, questioning his motives, his inner strength, his faith in the Prophets and his role as both the Emissary and as a Starfleet captain. But because the episode spends so little time on Sisko The Person, his decision to abandon DS9 and the Bajoran people, just as the Federation has begun its long-awaited offensive smacks of selfishness and cowardice, rather than the deep introspection of a man stretched to the limit and left with no other course of action.

“Tears of the Prophet” has the potential to be a moving, emotional episode. And there’s no question that its events leave the series transformed in new and tantalizing ways. But the execution is hardly close to perfection. So while it is memorable and influential, it is hardly worthy of being mentioned as “one of the best” that DS9 has to offer.

Filed under: Deep Space Nine