The Ascent #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 9) Odo and Quark bicker their way up a mountain

Rewatching ST:DS9

Space Dad fusses hoveringly as Jake packs to move in with Nog.

Cadet Nog, who has been placed on DS9 for a sophomore internship, is all about duty and cleanliness and exercise, setting up comic tension with Jake, who wants to play computer games and have fun.

Odo smugly collects Quark, who’s wanted by a Federation Grand Jury, thus justifying an eight-day runabout trip, most of which they plan to spend bickering. Quark complains about annoying noises, one of which turns out to be a bomb, which leads to a crash-landing, and the discovery of a plot contrivance particle field that forces the pair to work together on location, lugging a trunk-sized transmitter up to the top of what is most definitely not supposed to be California’s Mt. Whitney.

Jake and Nog both seem surprised when their personality differences lead to a rift in their friendship, but after Space Dad and Nog put their heads together, their subplot resolves through cheerfully predictable compromise.

Not so, ye sworn frenemies of the A-plot, not so.

Odo and Quark trade increasingly unhinged speeches about the other’s failings. The resulting comic mayhem is satisfying, but what happens next is actually touching. We see that, rather than obey the injured Odo’s orders to leave him behind, Quark would rather drag both him and the transmitter up the mountain. For his part, Odo must learn to stop depending on his authority and instead lead by the example of his character.

They each know exactly how to manipulate the other’s character flaws to get them both rescued. The episode ends with the two lying side-by-side in the infirmary, chuckling over how, during their ascent, they declared their mutual hatred.

Quark: “I meant every word.”

Odo: “So did I.”

While “runabout crash forces an unlikely pair to work together” has been overdone, I give the producers credit for not inserting a “nerds try to unflabbergast the subspace jimberjam” C-Plot.  The brief shot of the runabout model perched on a rocky ledge helps set the scene, showing perhaps that the producers knew it would be important to boost the integrity of our Coleridgeian “suspension of disbelief” particle fields, at least until the character-driven scenes could really get going.