S07.E23: Extreme Measures

[John Potts]

"Bashir and O'Brien lure a Section 31 agent to the station in a desperate search for the cure to the disease that is killing Odo." (from Memory Alpha)

Have to say, I love the character of Luther Sloan and any villain who you can actually understand the motivations of: sure, he's a ruthless, evil bastard, but William Saddler really sold the idea of him as a patriot, doing what (he felt) had to be done. And maybe the fact that there WAS a cure was what will [SPOILER!] convince the Founders to end the war in the Alpha Quadrant, so in a roundabout way, perhaps Section 31 were right?

Apparently, TPTB weren't happy with the way the episode split its focus between "Saving Odo" (that scene with Kira felt so true - and damn near heartbreaking) and the Bashir/O'Brien Bromance (how much did they tease the Shippers with all that "You like me more than your wife!" stuff?) but I felt it was near perfect. For a bottle show, I barely noticed there were no scenes outside the Station and even if it was somewhat contrived to have Sloan's mind portrayed as DS9 itself, he strikes me as a man who perpetually inhabits dark corners of space ships (and one grimy metal corridor looks much like another). My only slight regret about it was there was no meeting between those two master spies Garak & Sloan - but you can't have everything!

[blueray]

I loved all the Julian and Miles stuff. They have one of the best friendships on Star Trek (maybe even TV). I'm glad that this episode served as one last adventure with them. I love that the main reason Julian managed to get the cure is because of Miles. Which he realizes in the episode. It's also true that the cure is what ends the war.

If Garak and Sloan met, my bet is on Garak winning ;).

[iMonrey]

This episode didn't really make a lot of sense. I'm now seeing the limitations in the writing of this show overall that wasn't apparent back in the 90s - it doesn't necessarily hold up real well and isn't quite as deep or profound as it seemed at the time. I suppose it's possible to do a story about literally getting inside someone's consciousness but I just don't think the talent was there to pull it off. It doesn't seem likely that Sloan would have had the exact ingredients to The Cure locked away inside his brain somewhere or that Julian would be able to retrieve them. I think at best he might have been able to lead them to whoever invented the virus but since they were running out of time they had to take a short-cut here. Even if Sloan did know exactly how to manufacture this cure, what are the odds he could give the correct recipe to Julian in his dream-like state? And there were only four crappy ingredients and Julian couldn't figure that out on his own?

[Maverick]

 Yeah, this episode was...not good.  So many problems.  All the other episodes were advancing multiple plots, so you felt like you ere watching an epic story unfold.  This one was basically just a basic standalone episode that could have fit into the overall plot of the series.   I like the concept of Section 31, here again it's just executed in an idiotic manner.   It never occurs to Section 31 or Sloan that Bashir could be setting a trap?  These are the people who played Mr. Genetically Enhanced like a fiddle just a few episodes ago.  Section 31 operatives don't have some fancy tech that allows them to defeat simple force field?  If all Section 31 wants to do is eliminate Bashir research, they can send someone no one on the station knows to search and sanitize his database with him every knowing.  What possible sense does it make to beam into Bashir's quarters and night and announce yourself?  Bashir's estimate of 70+ people being involved seems way high.  Starfleet is a bureaucracy.   Any half decent intelligence agency could make that happen with a handful of people.  And let's be real, Section 31 has interfered with foreign governments, kidnapped, murdered and attempted genocide to protect the Federation.  If they really thought Bashir had the cure, they would have  at a minimum orchestrated some sort of abduction that would keep him out of action until after the Founders died out.  More likely, they would have had him meet an unfortunate accident.

 This episode also left us with another unfortunate visit to the Bashir/O'Brien forbidden love well.  I think Bashir and O'Brien had good chemistry as friends and it played well.  But this obsession the writers had with O'Brien comparing Bashir to his wife and who he loved more was just strange.  It's like he wanted to leave Keiko for Bashir but couldn't because he was a man.  In the commentary of some of the episode, the writers even gleefully talk about shipping Keiko off so Bashir and O'Brien could spend more time together.  It's like they were trying to do some strange Lifetime movie husband on the down low thing but didn't want to actually go there.  

[blueray]

I always took it as while Miles loves Keiko, he sometimes has more fun with Julian. This is shown when Keiko first comes back to the station after being gone a year, Miles is clearly trying to put her first however clearly misses hanging out with Julian and the activities that they have in common. Keiko was the one that realizes this and "blackmails" them into seeing each other. They came a long way from him hating Julian in season 1. But the point is the scene is that he finally admits that he enjoys hanging out with Julian and considers him a close friend. And Julian admits he has feeling for Ezri.

 

As for section 31, I always took it as Sloan had a bizarre interest in Julian and wanted to see it for himself.  It may not be a realistic episode but a fun one anyway.

[rmontro]

On 9/5/2017 at 12:51 PM, iMonrey said:

Even if Sloan did know exactly how to manufacture this cure, what are the odds he could give the correct recipe to Julian in his dream-like state? And there were only four crappy ingredients and Julian couldn't figure that out on his own?

I might be able to give a pass on Sloan knowing the cure, because he was there to investigate Julian finding the cure.  Since it was apparently so simple, maybe he wanted to know if it matched, or if Julian had found a new cure?  But considering Sloan told him there were four ingredients and he gave him the first one clearly, I would think that would at least serve to put Julian on to the right track - especially taking into account his genetically enhanced mind.  Plus he said the cure was some kind of RNA sequencing, so that should have been another clue.  It's hard to believe Julian couldn't have figured it out from what he had heard.

Similarly, all Julian had to do was pull a few key names out of that pile of intel on Section 31.  A similar "Romulan mind scan" of such a person would probably give him all the info he would need.  Unless a pt. has to be conscious for that, in which case the subject would probably try to kill himself again.  But still, a few key names would be better than nothing.  But I guess Sisko looked the other way on the illegal Romulan device because it was to save Odo, not just to gain intelligence.

It was nice to have a final Bashir/Miles adventure, although the conversation about how they liked each other better than their wives was a little strange.  Not the type of conversation you generally hear male friends make in real life.  There was talk awhile back here about the show pushing a gay agenda though, so maybe this is more of it.

I was willing to let Section 31 just fade into the background, but by this point I feel like it needs some sort of conclusion.  Not sure if I'll get it - two more episodes to go.

This is the second episode in a row with nothing on the Pah-Wraiths, they must be taking that subplot down to the wire also.