Attention on heck! Don’t try to adjust your viewscreens, person-hell and boo-tenants! What you’re seeing isn’t a creepy clone, a hellish hologram, or a strangely specific alternate universe! For the month of October, we’ll be taking a spine-chilling stroll through Trek’s most horror-iffic outings and spooky adventures! Now why don’t you sit back and try not to let that green blood of yours run cold! If things get a little too intense, don’t hesitate to ask Scotty to SCREAM you up! Hehehehehehehehehe!
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Season 3, Episode 26
John Carpenter’s 1982 adaptation of The Thing From Another World is a superb story because it taps into so many aspects of horror and terror effectively. Its titular monster presents a deadly threat to not only the small Antarctic team that discovers it, but to humanity as a whole should it escape. The creature itself is a visual horror brought to life by gut-churning effects, but the true terror comes by its shapeshifting nature. The characters quickly realize that it can disguise itself as anything, and its cunning nature makes cornering it extremely difficult, especially once people’s natural frailties are factored in.
Several varieties of shapeshifting aliens have been featured in Star Trek throughout the ages, but none provided a more existential threat to the existence of our heroes than the Changelings introduced in Deep Space Nine. The fact that the Changelings were the Founders of the dastardly Dominion empire made them a huge threat, but stripping that aspect away still left an intractable and disturbing enemy because you couldn’t tell what (or who) they were. “The Adversary” highlights the paranoia that a single Changeling can embody while paying a nice homage to my favorite horror film The Thing.
“The Adversary” uses all of this as a template for a tense and self-contained hour of action and suspense. Season 3 started off by focusing on the threat of the Dominion, so it’s fitting that it closes out by upping the ante. From this point on, the Dominion would become an increasingly central component of Deep Space Nine and would provide a great array of stories.
The episode begins with Sisko’s long-awaited promotion to captain. Deep Space Nine bucked many of the trends laid out by the previous two Trek series at that point, and the fact that its lead officer was a commander and not a captain was one of them. But it seems to make a lot of sense in the context of the series’ themes. It’s a show about growth that is explored in many ways: the growth of Bajor from a war-torn world to a functioning society again, the growth of the DS9 station from a Cardassian hellhole to a strategic command post and community, and the growth of Benjamin Sisko from a grieving man to one who has accepted his role and is flourishing in it. At this point in the series he is in the beginning stages of a relationship with Kasidy Yates, and along with his promotion he seems to be a far cry from the wounded man who first boarded the station. And it makes sense that as the threats of the series increase, Sisko is given an increased amount of legitimacy to face them.
As compared to the rest of the episode, the opening scene of Sisko’s promotion is a nice bit of warmth as his son is the one to pin the extra pip onto his collar. Everyone shares their congratulations and the meta commentary that it’s about time. Federation Ambassador Krajensky (played by Lawrence Pressman, who was also Legate Ghemor, Kira’s kind-of dad) is there for some reason and pulls Sisko aside to give him some dark news. Apparently there has been a coup on the Tzenkethi homeworld and the current (apparently bad) regime has been overthrown. The Defiant is therefore ordered to the Tzenkethi border to show a Federation presence in case they try to get shifty.
It’s a big info dump and we’re just supposed to roll with it (although in hindsight we shouldn’t have, nor should have Sisko and the crew). Ambassador Krajensky seems chummy with Sisko, and I guess we can intuit that they know each other? It’s a little odd, like: hey, here’s someone we’re supposed to listen to? Everyone, an old man is giving orders! And also the Tzenkethi exist (or do they? we never see them), and the Federation was at war with this never before mentioned species. Oh, and it was a conflict which Sisko saw some action in. OK, sure I guess.
In the Defiant’s engine room, O’Brien is preparing the ship for potential combat when he hears a weird thud somewhere. He calls out but no one answers back. And he doesn’t bother to check, which is kind of funny. Like, dude. Maybe get off your lazy ass and get yourself attacked? It’s a little half-assed as a teaser.
After the Defiant gets underway, O’Brien is working in one of the Jeffries tubes when he… hears another thud. It’s repetitive, since we just did this dance, but he at least goes and checks it out this time. Spoiler alert, it’s the Changeling infiltrator, which begs the question: buddy, why are you making so much damn noise? You are a liquid. Your people are also the naturally best spies ever, and yet you’re banging your goo ass around like a bull in a Jeffries tube? It furthers the horror movie suspense factor, but it’s also a little nonsensical. Changelings are normally not this sloppy, but maybe this one is especially overconfident.
O’Brien gets a jumpscare from Dr. Bashir, who says he was hooking up a piece of his medical equipment to the ship’s systems. He drops one of Bashir’s commonly-used factoids about his engineering extension courses. If you’ve seen the episode and know that it’s actually not Bashir, it reads as a carefully dropped piece of info to throw O’Brien off the trail. And the Changeling has many more of those up its sleeve.
As the Defiant approaches the border, they receive a distress call from the Barisa Prime colony who report being under attack by the Tzenkethi. Sisko tries to contact Starfleet, but their communications are mysteriously down. O’Brien and Dax check out that system in one of the Jeffries tubes, where they find a weird device with several moving tendrils attaching themselves to the ship’s systems. The Dominion’s tech is portrayed as slightly ahead of the Federation’s, and this almost looks Borg-like. Even worse, the devices themselves are shielded by forcefields and can’t be removed. Being temporarily confused about what Star franchise he’s in, O’Brien says that “He has a bad feeling about this.” May the prosper be with you!
O’Brien reports to Sisko that the devices are all over the ships and plugged into every major system. And they weren’t there when they departed the station, so there must be a saboteur aboard. O’Brien hesitantly mentions his odd encounter with Bashir, and Dax formulates a way to tell who messed with the systems.
The main staff gathers on the bridge. Anyone who got close to those systems would have residual tetryon particles on them, so Dax uses a tricorder to scan each crew member individually. It’s a clear nod to the blood testing scene in The Thing, and the suspense builds as she scans each person. Bashir tests negative, which confuses O’Brien. It’s not long before Dax gets a positive result from Krajensky, who smirks malevolently before revealing himself as a Changeling. It’s an awesome little action moment as he balloons his form outward in all directions, knocking everyone on their asses before disappearing upwards into an air duct. As will be emphasized in later appearances, the Changelings’ superiority complex is absolute and they regard solids as lower lifeforms. So it’s totally in character for Krajensky to be nonplussed and even a little amused at these creatures’ little testing. He’s like, “Aww, ya got me, kiddos.”
Before the crew can barely even process that, the Defiant cloaks and arms its weapons. They no longer have control of the ship and it becomes clear that the Founders wish to use it as a weapon to start a war between the Federation and the Tzenkethi. Eddington and Odo search the ship but have no luck in finding the Changeling. Because a Changeling reads as whatever it impersonates to scanners, it seems an impossible feat to track it down. Odo believes that it’s still aboard since its mission is not yet complete. Sisko realizes that the distress signal could have been faked, as well as their whole mission.
Sisko confines all nonessential personnel to their quarters, issues phaser rifles to everyone else, and orders that no one will be left alone. Much like The Thing, the characters act in a generally sensible and methodical way against the threat, but in both cases the monster is too devious and able to capitalize on any mistake or lapse in procedures.
Case in point: Dax gets attacked in engineering and knocked out with a concussion that will keep her down for the count for a while. Sisko decides that if O’Brien can’t regain control of the ship then he’ll have no choice but to destroy it.
Their plan of attack is to break into two-person teams and sweep the ship with phaser blasts set low enough to not damage anything, but high enough to disrupt the Changeling’s disguise. It’s not long until this plan breaks down – Sisko and his buddy get attacked by the Changeling and Sisko chases it alone.
He comes upon Kira’s Bolian buddy who narrowly misses him with a phaser blast. Kira comes around the corner, who had gotten separated from him somehow. He’s convinced Kira is the Changeling and disobeys Sisko’s order to drop his weapon. He’s a small player in the episode but illustrates the threat of the Changeling well. He’s so completely out of his blue gourd with fear and paranoia that he’s refusing to follow the orders of his commanding officer.
Thankfully, Odo appears and sucker-punches his lights out. A frustrated Sisko realizes how screwed they are now since all of them allowed themselves to be isolated. The episode successfully recreates a large portion of the paranoia that made The Thing so effective.
But Odo notices that Sisko is bleeding, and reminds everyone that any part of a Changeling separated from its main body will revert to its natural state. Sisko orders Bashir to meet them in the mess hall, where he performs blood tests on everyone. It’s basically a repeat of the earlier testing scene and an even more direct homage to The Thing. The plot structure could have used some tightening up, and even though it’s a season finale it also feels like a somewhat slapdash bottle episode.
Eddington’s test reveals him to be a Changeling and he gets escorted to the brig. He protests his innocence (how ironic) and just as they’re about to toss him in, another door randomly opens to reveal the real Dr. Bashir trapped inside. Sisko shoots at the fake Bashir but he’s too quick as he darts up into another vent. It’s pretty weird; why does this door suddenly open at just the right moment for a dramatic reveal? Ah, whatever. Odo pursues the Changeling into the vent, and the bridge reports that the Defiant has entered Tzenkethi space.
The ship is 12 minutes away from a Tzenkethi outpost, and Sisko sets the ship’s autodestruct for 10 minutes. He wearily asks O’Brien for some good news, who responds with some: he has figured out a way to disable the forcefields around all the devices, but it means losing all of the forcefields all over the ship. In engineering, Odo emerges from one of the conduits and asks if they’ve seen the Changeling. A few moments later, another Odo appears on the other end of the room.
One of the Odo’s tries to convince O’Brien of his identity with a detail from their last hangout session, but the other Odo one-ups him with an even more nitpicky detail. O’Brien refuses to “choose the Changeling” (my favorite Trek-themed carnival game) and proceeds with shutting down the forcefields. One of the Odo’s seems panicky about what the Chief is doing, which turns out to be some genuine emotion from the Changeling infiltrator. When the forcefields get shut down, he morphs into his true (?) form and knocks out O’Brien’s assistant (good going, dude) and O’Brien.
Krachangeling jams his fist into Odo’s chest and paralyzes him, as he wonders why Odo is protecting these solids. He implores him to let go and link with him so they can leave together. Yeah, maybe if you were a chick, buddy. No dice, Dr. Canfield! It’s kind of a disturbing moment as Odo reacts in pain as his body slowly reverts to its gelatinous state. But he regains control and plunges both of his hands into Krachangeling’s body ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) and gives him a little what for. Shoving him back onto the Defiant’s warp core (which is now unshielded due to O’Brien’s plan), Krachangeling gets a heaping helping of radiation surging into his body.
With destruction imminent, Odo helps O’Brien to his feet so he can shut down the devices. Krachangeling’s top half of his body reforms (with his lower half still liquid), but in a cracked and blistered visage of himself that resembled Odo when he was tortured by Garak in “The Die is Cast.” It doesn’t come close to matching the gross creature effects of The Thing, but it’s some decent body horror and a good illustration of how much Odo fucked him up. He calls out to Odo, who says that he never meant to hurt him. Krachangeling nods weakly and whispers something into his ear and giving him a little smirk before he dies. The visual of him drying up into what looks like burnt ash and collapsing is evocative, and Auberjonis’ acting as he watches helplessly is great. He really communicates how gutting it is for him.
This is a payoff of an earlier scene in the episode where Odo refuses a phaser offered by Eddington. It’s been a consistent character trait of Odo that he doesn’t use weapons, and has been able to do his job without taking a life (welllll… almost). So of course the climax of this episode involves Odo not only killing someone, but one of his own kind. The Female Changeling had previously mentioned that no Changeling has ever harmed another, and this act will not go unpunished.
O’Brien is able to regain control of the Defiant, and Sisko quickly cancels the autodestruct and orders them back to Federation space. Yay! All’s well that ends well.
Sisko relays to his staff that Ambassador Krajensky has been missing for a while, and that he’s most likely been kidnapped (or killed) by the Dominion. Furthermore, the Tzenkethi coup never happened. Odo, who has been quiet since the mission enters the room. He relays the message that the Changeling whispered to him: “You’re too late. We’re everywhere.” Bwa ha ha ha….!
It’s a haunting message to end the season on and ups the ante of the Dominion’s threat. They don’t just represent a military threat, but an existential one that can hide anywhere and in plain sight to sow dissent and spread paranoia. A single one was able to almost start a war and caused total chaos aboard a starship, so a network of them all over the Alpha Quadrant is a scary notion.
The Thing is an effective horror film because of the suspense it draws from the paranoia its characters experience. A shapeshifting menace that can disguise itself as anything was an interesting wrinkle to the adaptation and provided some primal fear. “The Adversary” is much less intense but relies on the same ideas to create a suspenseful episode that further proves how big a threat the Dominion is. Cooperation, trust, and understanding are basic tenets of the Federation, and it’s chilling how much a single enemy can destroy all of that so quickly.
Stray Observations:
- OK, so… is any ambassador allowed to just send a crew on a mission with zero oversight whatsoever? Because that’s what happens here! Krachangeling gives them this bullshit mission, no one double-checks it with Starfleet, and they just head off! You’d think Sisko would contact Starfleet before leaving to confirm his marching orders. Of course, if he had done that, they would have said “No, what are you talking about?” and the episode would have ended there. Or did Krajensky have the highest “trust me bro” credentials possible?
- This is only the first time that Bashir gets replaced with a Changeling!
- This episode’s plot reminds me of one of the early DS9 novels (neeerrrddd) by Peter David, The Siege. It features a Changeling serial killer that boards the station that Odo has to hunt down. It’s not bad!
- The shot of Sisko’s blood on the ground is reminiscent of a similar one in The Thing.
- I guess the drinking age in the Federation is still 21 (or higher)? Jake asks his dad if he can have a sip of some champagne, and Ben allows him literally one. It’s a cute moment.
- When Odo enters the meeting at the end of the episode, he says he hopes he isn’t interrupting. Dude, why are you not in this meeting in the first place? It’s just so that he can deliver his haunting final message, but it’s conspicuous that he “interrupts” the kind of senior staff meeting he’s always in?
- This is the first time we see the Defiant’s engine room, and it’s a pretty awesome set. The warp core is really cool-looking, as well as all the control panels. The production design of the engine rooms was always great. Of course, we never saw DS9’s power core. It would probably be on a much larger scale than a starship’s and couldn’t be a full physical set.
- I love when Krachangeling drops his disguise and goes full beast mode. It’s actually a good transition, SFX-wise.
- As long as I’m sharing GIFs!
Well, I don’t know about you, my space-FEARing cadets, but I’m certainly beat! All this looking at the viewSCREAM has given me quite the headache. As much as I’ve enjoyed this month long trek-or-treat, I think I’ll head down to sickbay and see if Bones can do anything for my Guts. Until next time, Live as Long as you can and Prosper! Ahehehehehehehehe!