For the Uniform #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 13) Sisko pursues former Federation officer Eddington

Rewatching ST:DS9

In a cave (again with the caves) Sisko, in civilian clothes, seeks an informer, but is instead met by the rogue security officer Eddington, who uses the plight of the refugees in the cave to justify his treason against Starfleet. Eddington claims the moral high ground, but Sisko is unimpressed. 

Eddington beams away and sets a course for stock footage of a nebula full of plot contrivance particles that complicate the chase. Sisko decides this is the perfect time to try out “the new holo-communicator,” which projects a 3D image of Captain Sanders from the nearby Malinche, who has a few moments to chat about the new technology and Sisko’s personal interest in apprehending Eddington, before actually moving to intercept.

Eddington’s ship turns to face the Defiant, and promptly multiple systems fail — sabotaged by Eddington. Of course the new holo-communicator is working perfectly, so that a 3D representation of Eddington can take in the chaos on the Defiant bridge, and brag about how he could have destroyed the Defiant, but instead only asks them to leave him alone. 

Odo has prevented similar sabotage from affecting the station, and pointedly reminds Sisko that Eddington was stationed on DS9 because Starfleet didn’t trust Odo.

Sanders cautions Sisko that Starfleet sees his (Sisko’s) history with Eddington as a weakness, and thus Sanders is taking charge of pursuing Eddington.

As Sisko vents to Dax while beating up on a punching bag, it seems that Starfleet may be right.

Eddington, who spoke so eloquently of refugees displaced by the Cardassians, does bio-terrorism against a Cardassian colony, rendering it uninhabitable for Cardassians. Although Sisko is supposed to be off the Eddington case, the partially-working Defiant is still the closest ship in the area (because of course it is). 

Nog will be in charge of relaying all communications from the bridge to engineering, because reasons. (I gather the writers wanted to make sure to show Nog is doing well at this point, setting up the character arc for a reversal that I remember is coming, but I don’t remember exactly when.)

Sisko expects Dax to scold him for resuming his personal vendetta, but actually she approves. (“The next time I go off half-cocked on some wild adventure, think back to this moment and be a little more understanding.”)

Apparently because so many of the automated systems are offline, we get a lot more “we’re on a spaceship talking about the official spaceship things we are doing” dialogue, made even more official because Nog repeats whatever anyone on the bridge says to engineering.

Eddington shows up (by hologram) to taunt Sisko, sending him a copy of Les Miserables, and for the audience members who haven’t gotten it so far, comparing Sisko to Javert.

Sanders, looking pretty rough, also holo-calls in to report his ship was tricked and ambushed, which of course means Eddington is Sisko’s responsibility again.

Odo uses his knowledge of Eddington to decode an intercepted message and predict Eddington’s next move. Sisko feels he knows Eddington well enough to second-guess him, and reasons that Eddington would choose not to attack the most logical target.

Sisko is correct. Eddington attacks a Cardassian freighter, expecting that Sisko will break off his pursuit to help the freighter. (He’s correct.)

Sisko, reading Les Miserables during downtime, reasons that if Eddington sees Sisko as the obsessed Inspector Javert, then Eddington must see himself as the romantic hero Valjean, and hatches a plan to become the villain in Eddington’s story.

Over Eddington’s objections, Sikso coldly orders a bioterroristic attack against a Maqui colony, making it uninhabitable to humans, and orders his ship to lay in a course for another colony.

Horrified, Eddington offers to give himself up.

In a Captain’s log we learn that Sisko’s attack on the colony apparently didn’t make it uninhabitable to Cardassians, so the Maqui refugees Sisko created will simply swap places with the Cardassian refugees Eddington had created. 

Eddington has no lines as security guards escort him onto the station, but he’s playing the tragic romantic hero very sincerely. 

Dax notes that Sisko’s unauthorized plan to poison the Maqui colonies was risky, and Sisko notes, “That’s what it takes to be a good villain.”

As much as I love any Star Trek bridge, I found the “we are giving very specific orders about bearings and headings and whatnot” to be a bit much, and the Eddington hologram was kinda distracting — STII “The Wrath of Khan” and TOS “Balance of Terror” did a fantastic job establishing a connection between adversaries who are never in the same room together, and I don’t think this episode gains much from the hologram gimmick. Having the refugees swap planets during a captain’s log was a bit of a sitcom resolution, but I can understand the value of devoting an episode to the instability caused by shifting Federation-Cardassian borders.