“Improbable Cause.” By René Echevarria. Perf. Avery Brooks, Rene Auberjonois, Alexander Siddig, Terry Farrell, Colm Meaney, Nana Visitor, Andrew Robinson, Carlos Lacamara, Joseph Ruskin, Darwyn Carson, Julianna McCarthy, and Paul Dooley. Dir. Avery Brooks. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Season 3, episode 20. Syndicated television. 24 April 1995. DVD. Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment, 2021.
“The Die is Cast.” By Ronald D. Moore. Perf. Avery Brooks, Rene Auberjonois, Alexander Siddig, Terry Farrell, Colm Meaney, Nana Visitor, Andrew Robinson, Carlos Lacamara, Joseph Ruskin, Darwyn Carson, Julianna McCarthy, and Paul Dooley. Dir. David Livingston. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Season 3, episode 20. Syndicated television. 1 May 1995. DVD. Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment, 2021.
I recently mentioned that I've been listening to
Star Trek: The Next Conversation, a highly-enjoyable
Star Trek rewatch podcast, and am currently trekking with them through
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
As my Grandmother Jones used to say, I told you that to tell you this.
Late in Season Three, we're presented with a two-part episode that begins (quite promisingly, from Bardfilm's point of view) with some Shakespeare. That's not too unusual, and, since the episode aired on the day after Shakespeare's 431st birthday, quite fitting. But I was disappointed and unsatisfied. After all, it seems like mere filler to show the ongoing quasi-antagonistic relationship between Garak (a Cardassian who might or might not be a spy) and Doctor Bashir, a member of the Federation (which has, at this point, a queasy peace with the Cardassians). Here's all the Shakespeare we get in the episode:
Not much there, right? That could have been a conversation about Ernest Hemingway or Emily Dickinson or Erma Bombeck, couldn't it?
After a fashion, that's accurate. But we get a deep payoff toward the end of the second episode of this two-parter, and it's exactly what Star Trek, at its best, does with Shakespeare.
Note: From this point forward, spoilers abound.
The plot of “Improbable Cause," the first episode, involves Odo, Deep Space Nine's Constable (a.k.a. Chief Security Officer) investigating an explosion at Garak's shop. [Side note: Garak has been exiled from Cardassia for mysterious reasons and has set up shop as a tailor on Deep Space Nine—which is, in itself, somewhat suspicious.] Odo suspects Garak of having blown up his shop himself, but it's also possible that he's been the victim of an attempted assassination. When the two of them learn that many former members of the Obsidian Order, a secret police force of sorts, have recently been killed, they set off to find Enabran Tain, who was very high up in the Order—and responsible for Garak's exile.
Garak and Odo find Enabran Tain, who was, indeed, responsible for eliminating many of his former colleagues and underlings in the Obsidian Order. In doing so, he was setting the stage for a political and military power play. Because Garak betrayed him in the past, Tain doesn't trust that Garak's interests and his own (which he equates to those of Cardassia) coincide. However, he offers Garak a chance to join him. Even though doing so works directly against the Federation, Garak does so.
The second episode is entitled "The Die is Cast," and its plot increases the intrigue. In fact, it gets very complicated indeed. Essentially, the Cardassians and the Romulans, historic enemies of the Federation, have joined forces to do battle with the Founders (a.k.a. the Dominion, a.k.a. [sort of] the Jem'Hadar), brand-new enemies. And Garak has cast his lot (or "die," I suppose) with Enabran Tain and Cardassia.
But that's where Julius Caesar comes back. It's themes of trust and betrayal have actually been running subtly throughout the entire two-parter. In the clip below, we find out that it's all been a trap for the Cardassians and the Romulans. We join in the middle of a very one-sided battle:
Although Garak wasn't the mastermind behind the trap (and hasn't betrayed Enabran Tain in that way), he has been working to protect Odo—you can see him sneaking off to save Odo in the last moments of the clip.
What seemed to be a tangental and throwaway use of Shakespeare turns out to be the underlying structural element of the entire two-part narrative! When we go back to the first minute of the first episode with the second episode in mind, Garak's "I knew Brutus was going to kill Caesar in the first act" makes us consider whether we should have known that Garak would betray Enabran Tain from the beginning of the two-parter. That's the use Star Trek can make of Shakespeare if it puts its mind to it.
Which brings me to Star Trek: The Next Conversation. In order to belong to their prestigious "Admirals' Club," a listener must post a five-star review somewhere where it's likely to be seen. And I've decided I'd like to be a member of that club.
Star Trek: The Next Conversation is a five-star podcast. Matt Mira and Andrew Secunda, its hosts, have taken listeners through the entirety of Star Trek: The Next Generation, which Matt had watched—and watched deeply—many, many times while Andrew had seen few (if any) episodes before the podcast began. The podcast is currently making its way through Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The thrilling experience of seeing Star Trek in all its forms through their eyes cannot be duplicated elsewhere, especially given the devoted listener contributions (the creation of theme songs and other hilarious material by fans of the show), the many "inside baseball" insights from two television writers, and odd-but-enjoyable segments like the strangely-compelling "Frank Sinatra? Come on!" bit where Matt and Andy recount what the Chairman of the Board was doing on the release date of many episodes.
If there's one part of this otherwise-flawless podcast that could be improved, it is the hosts' engagement with the Shakespeare offered by
Star Trek. It's almost as if they haven't read carefully through
Bardfilm's vast collection of Shakespeare references in
Star Trek found in the post
Shakespeare and Star Trek Complete or discovered that my work compiling those references has earned me the nickname "Chairman of the Bard." On occasion, the Shakespeare is incidental to
Star Trek. But in the case of “Improbable Cause” and “The Die is Cast," understanding the Shakespeare is integral to appreciating the episodes. In their most recent episode, for example,
Star Trek: The Next Conversation gave “Improbable Cause” fewer than a full ten Andies (their rating system)—in part because they felt the opening sequence had nothing to do with the rest of the story. I hope that their next episode will re-consider that rating now that the second episode of the two-parter has make the Shakespeare reference intensely relevant to the show as a whole. Paying greater attention to the Shakespeare will make this five-star podcast even more rich and strange (see what I did there?—that's a quote from
The Tempest).
