The Good: One or two flirtatious lines of dialog that "read" as real, Scenery, B-plot
The Bad: Contrived, obvious plot, Pacing, Lack of genuine character
The Basics: In pretty much the most obvious love story Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ever does, Dax falls in love with a man who will disappear for sixty years.
Closing off a strangely stagnant section in the imagination of the writers of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is "Meridian" and it's a great thing the last real rut the series ever gets stuck in. And that's a great thing, to get out of a rut. But, there is still "Meridian" to get through and it exists as one of the most shameless and obvious tie-ins to popular culture at the time; "Meridian" was produced simultaneously with the Broadway revival of Brigadoon.
The Defiant journeys to an area of space with intriguing readings to witness the appearance of a planet out of subspace. The planet Meridian appears and Sisko, Dax and the crew investigate. On the planet, the crew learns that Meridian appears and disappears as it falls in and out of subspace and that in a few days, the planet will disappear for decades. While studying the phenomenon with a native of Meridian, Dax falls in love. Dax must make the choice between her StarFleet commission and her love of . . .
Who cares what his name is? We know how this episode is going to go from the first moments of flirting between Dax and Deral. It's not a terribly complex episode and it does not insult our intelligence by attempting to pretend it is. Unfortunately, it also does nothing to pretend to be anything other than a cheap "Brigadoon" rip-off.
The only real reason to watch "Meridian" is for the b-plot. The other half of the episode, back on Deep Space Nine, focuses on an alien acquaintance of Quark's, a man obsessed with Major Kira. This man comes aboard the station, becomes infatuated with Kira and desires nothing more than a pornographic holosuite program of her. Quark spends the remainder of the episode attempting to get scans of Kira to provide his customer with the program.
Quark's antics are as humorous as the Dax plot is contrived. The problem with "Meridian" is it is utterly unoriginal. Even with what might have been a surprise ending, when that goes awry anyone with half a brain cell and a modicum of awareness will guess what is going on.
Unfortunately, even the acting does not save this episode. The only one who is not listless or phoning in their performance is Jeffery Combs as Quark's unscrupulous associate. Combs makes his mark and it becomes clear that he is a talent worth reusing (which he will be!). Terry Farrell never convincingly portrays Dax as a person in love in this episode and as a result, the lengths her character goes to seem ridiculous.
Dax and Deral flirt well and that's fun to watch, but beyond that, there's no substance to this episode. People who are not fans of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine will find nothing special here; this is pretty much the typical hour-long drama romance episode that we know from the beginning will end with a homeostasis. Fans of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine will enjoy the b-plot, where we learn of Kira's disdain for holosuites, but beyond that . . .
Fortunately, there's an episode after this one and it's much better. On an amusing note, this episode was directed by Jonathan Frakes (Riker from Star Trek The Next Generation). He must have been a part of some type of bundle deal because the next episode . . . oh, that would be telling, wouldn't it?
[Knowing that VHS is essentially a dead medium, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Complete Third Season on DVD, which is also a better economical choice than buying the VHS. Read my review of the breakout season by clicking here!
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3/10
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© 2011, 2007, 2003 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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