Star Trek: Deep Space Nine — 2x16 — Shadowplay
Synopsis
Odo and Dax try to solve the mystery of an alien planet whose inhabitants are disappearing without explanation.
Filler rating: good filler
There's no essential plot or exposition in this episode that renders it unskippable, but it's a decent episode, even though it could have been better.
Remarkable scenes
- Odo denying that there are women chasing him.
- Odo beaming himself up to demonstrate his power to leave, but then returning to demonstrate good faith.
- Bashir eager to spy on Quark because he wants to try out the surveillance techniques he learned from Garak's lectures.
- O'Brien telling Jake to stand up to his Dad.
- Another mention of the Dominion. Rurigan mentions the Dominion conquered his race and he fled to the planet of this episode to set up a new holographic life.
- Jake standing up to Sisko.
- Odo shape shifting in the end.
Review
This episode tackles the building up issue of Sisko trying to control his son's actions too much. In earlier episodes, Sisko makes plans with O'Brien for the internship featured in this episode. Even earlier, Sisko tries to dictate to Jake the "proper" dating procedure. Even earlier, Sisko tries to discourage him from dating at all, and even discourages him from being friends with Nog! In this episode, Sisko must finally confront the fact that Jake wants to shape his own life. There are some annoying things in this episode, such as the residents of Yadera Prime looking exactly like humans, and the fact that this is another episode which opens with the hope of exploring Odo's origins yet yields no answers. Otherwise, this is a largely successful episode; a decent offering.