A Bajoran scientist who worked with Odo in a research facility arrives at the space station and informs Odo that he picked up traces of a substance containing DNA similar to Odo's which may hold clues to Odo's origins.
He, Odo, and Dax arrive on the planet in the Gamma Quadrant and find and retrieve an entity and plan to bring it back for study. Their otherwise uneventful trip is interrupted by a violent earthquake that releases gases that render the crew unconscious except for Odo.
As the crew are recovering back on the station, Chief O'Brien puts the alien in a glass containment field.
It continually goes through metamorphosis and grows, eventually breaking out of the container. But later the thing escapes and O'Brien finds what was once the alien hiding in a duct. It had turned to a liquid that looks like the consistency of oatmeal. O'Brien states it is dead.
Later, Dr. Bashir is almost attacked in his lab by a massive blob. This blob resembles Odo in his transitional phase and affects the thermal temperature of its surroundings. The science team collects some residue and sees the DNA patterns matches Odo. The scientist tells Odo this and warns him he may be captured and put on display as some type of freak unless he comes back to the research facility with him. Odo has a psychological and physiological meltdown. Odo becomes the monster again and is contained in a force field. The scientist is able to talk him down.
Later, the gas that affected Odo's physiological structure is removed.
I found this episode confusing. It left many unanswered questions. For one, why did the team remove the pillar from the planet instead of taking images of it and samples to study? The earthquake eruption occurred when the away team transported the pillar to the shuttle. Was the earthquake related to the removal of the pillar?
Second, it doesn't answer who or what the life was that they took back to study. Is it like Odo or a similar life form? That's never made clear. The episode became more about Odo's relationship with the scientist rather than Odo's origins, which are pretty much forgotten by the end.
Another thing I noticed that isn't mentioned much in previous episodes. O'Brien asks Sisko and Kira if security cameras picked up anything during the alien's escape. Funny how security cameras are hardly referred to any other time unauthorized beings enter the station. One example was when an alien entity enters the body of Bashir in "The Passenger" and wonders around the station undetected.
No comments:
Post a Comment