Although the premise behind the episode is good, it falls off the mark mainly due to Avery Brooks overdoing it. His performance is like a smiling, charming Benjamin Sisko on steroids---creepy and overbearing.
It begins with Sisko studying a Bajoran painting of an ancient city which includes an obelisk with hieroglyphics. He recreates the obelisk in the holosuite and stares at it for hours and becomes obsessed with solving the mystery of what it conveys. So obsessed in fact, while attempting to save the program, it short circuits and attacks his neural net. What comes out of this mishap is a Sisko mingled with a good splash of guru and messiah figure hell bent on finding the lost ancient city.
He finds it but in the meantime suffers debilitating headaches but presses on, even requesting the guidance of the equally creepy Kai Winn to help with the visions.
Admiral Whatley wants Captain Sisko at the ceremony of Bajor's entrance into the Federation, but Sisko decides instead to look into the orb of prophecy to see how the ancient city and the obelisk all ties in with what's happening on the station and in general, how it ties into everything. He's on the verge of collapse when he bursts into the treaty signing and warns that if Bajor enters the Federation now, a swarm of "locusts" will descend upon the planet.
While his dad lies unconscious on the infirmary table, Jake signs the OK to allow Dr. Bashir to perform the life saving surgery that will give Benjamin his neural net and sanity back, but take away the visions.
I found this episode well meaning but played like a mythical drama over-played by its lead actor; a character that should have, and normally would have, remained focused on his duties on running the station rather than becoming obsessed with the beliefs of an era gone by---beliefs that Sisko normally does not subscribe too.
No comments:
Post a Comment