User Reviews

This episode of DS9 had an "issue of the week" feel to it but still managed to be fairly entertaining. When Melora, a new crew member, is stationed to DS9 Dr. Bashir has to make some preparations as the new ensign is from a low gravity planet so need special equipment to move in the relatively high gravity on the station. At first she comes across as rather brusque, objecting to anything which could be seen as special treatment due to her mobility problems even when some of those things have more to do with her only being an inexperienced ensign rather than her disability. The doctor is determined to get her to see that people want to treat her as an equal so invites her to dine with him at the new Klingon diner. As they get closer he suggests a medical procedure which over time will lead to her coping with standard gravity, the cost would be that she wouldn't be able to enjoy zero gravity the way she does currently.

In a secondary story an old acquaintance of Quark turns up on the station and is out for revenge because Quark left him to spend eight years in a Romulan gaol. Quark tries to pay him off with the proceeds of a deal but his old friend decides to take the money and the goods and forces Dax and Melora to take him and Quark through the worm hole to the Gamma Quadrant. Here Melora manages to turn off the shuttle's gravity and overpower the hijacker.

The main story wasn't too exciting although Quarks side story was fun and the episode had a few good laughs, best of which was seeing Melora argue with the Klingon about the quality of his food.

Dr Bashir's fascination with no gravity makes no sense - everyone in the station is under artificial gravity! In addition, as gravity can be controlled Melora could easily have an assist device to keep herself virtually weightless. I suspect these inconsistencies probably damaged the premise beyond repair. Not a strong episode.

Dr Bashir has a romance with an Elaysian Starfleet officer.

This is an okay episode but it suffers from some contrivances and misses the opportunity to give a more positive depiction of a disabled character.

What frustrates mostly is that it has some fantastic ideas at the heart of the story. I love the concept of the planet's gravity being what causes problems elsewhere. I'm not convinced it would hold up to scientific scrutiny but I like it as a sci-fi angle.

Melora is unfortunately portrayed as a disabled stereotype with a chip on her shoulder and is initially aggressive towards everybody around her. If they wanted to make a social issue out of her disability it would have been better to portray others as awkward but her being cool about everything.

The resolution to the story is positive but feels preoccupied with raising a middle finger to the TNG episode 'Ethics'. If it had been generally more positive in tone, it could have moved on to Dr Bashir being told confidently by Melora that she is not interested in a 'cure' and he then falls more in love with because of it. She could even have been a recurring character, but as she never appears again it feels like diversity box ticking.

Also the subplot, that eventually merges with the main story, is a half-baked contrivance with no genuine sense of threat to give Melora a 'Wait Until Dark' Audrey Hepburn moment.

All that being said there are some decent moments. As implausible as the romance is, with Dr Bashir being so reminiscent of Geordie LaForge in his attempts to woo the ladies, I do like the sequence of dialogue when he retaliates against all her prickly comments. The zero gravity scenes are done very well considering it is wire work.

Most performances are great, particularly Alexander Siddig and Daphne Ashbrook.

"Melora" was a character idea they had for the series, they wanted one character from a Low-Grav world. So they thought up "Melora" for this. Ultimately, having such a character was not cost effective, especially with a Shapeshifter/Changeling in the cast (Odo).

So, to keep costs within reasonable boundaries, the Melora character was removed from the cast of weekly characters. This show however, lets us see how that would have worked.

Melora (Daphne Ashbrook from Dr Who) is from a world which has a greatly reduced gravity-The Humanoids who live on that planet can take advantage of this by literally being able to float around.

Melora has to use prosthetic help to be able to get around in the higher gravity environment of The Station, and she makes it very clear she does not want one iota of assistance from anyone, and she holds everyone at as much arms length as she can. Bashir is the first person to try to crack this armor, and he is shot down rapidly. But he is not a man who gives up readily, he keeps pounding away until chinks in her armor appear.

Meanwhile, one of the countless people Quark has made enemies of has come on to the Station, and makes it clear he is there to kill Quark. This guy has a kind of "Beak" and he acts like a predatory bird. Quark tries to buy him off, but that just makes the guy mad and even more willing to kill Quark.

Bashir finds some 30-year old research that would allow Melora to walk around in the higher gravity of the Station, it is not that she is too weak to walk in Earth Gravity, but that her nerves simply do not work right in the higher gravity. The treatment would allow her to walk around without her Gravity-Suit. But there is a drawback, the change would be permanent and she would not be able to go back to her planet.

As she is there for one simple experiment, she has been using the Runabout with Dax. On the way back into the Station, Dax and Melora come face to Face with Quark's Problem, which has just gotten worse: And so Quark's nemesis kidnaps them all including Melora.

This is one of those episodes where everything just kind of Gestalts, if Bashir had not started the Treatment on Melora, something bad would have happened on the Runabout. So the two story lines, Quarks problem and Melora's choices, all come head to head and allow for a resolution.

This is also the first appearance of the Klingon Chef played by Ron Taylor, there is a short scene where Melora orders food in Klingonese and wins the respect of the Chef.

Quark on the other hand, is once again out almost 200 bars of Gold- Pressed Latinum... As Usual.

I like this one quite a bit.

A bit of backstory on my life ---- My dad (whom I deeply love) had a massive stroke in 2012 and lost use of his right side yet he can still get around with a leg brace. When the stroke first happened I was the caring son who felt honor bound to help him with tasks ---- zipping up his jacket, cutting his food, and other tasks. Well, he would get really mad at me for it and I would get frustrated because I only wanted to help. It took me a while to clue in but I discovered that being independent is of great importance and instead of allowing him to adapt I was reaffirming he was different and 'needed' my help. I don't help unless requested to do so and it is oddly the most caring thing I can do. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We start off the episode with Bashir creating a vision of Melora that is subverted by her aggressively independent and willful personality. Bashir being 'bashir' has a strong attraction to strong willed women and he manages to gain Melora's affection with his dogged interest and admiration for her. I enjoyed this love story ---- It felt organic and true to the character of bashir. Sadly, we do not get the happy ending as Melora is wise enough to know that both of their careers would take prominence but the viewer is left wondering about the possibilities. Sign me for no gravity intimacy!

The Quark story was decent. It is likely a scenario like this would happen to him given his checkered business ventures. We get some classic Odo moments --- his smile at the idea of someone threatening to kill quark cracks me up. Odo also gets the quote of the episode, "You can tell someone's intentions by the way they walk..." Classic odo and fits his keen observation skills.

This is the type of trek story I think could potentially land well for people who are battling a disability (be it mental or physical) and fighting against the tendency of good people treating them differently because of it. It's very trek.

2.06 "Melora"

A Starfleeet ensign named Melora comes about DS9 for a mission to map parts of the Gamma Quadrant, but her species requires special accomodations since they are from a very low gravity planet. Bashir oversees her accommodations and becomes romantically involved with her. He makes it his mission to "cure" her so she can operate normally and independently, but she worries that in doing so she will abandon who she is.

This is a pretty bad (and incredibly boring) episode. It's utterly inconsequential, and the plot and premise get dumber the more you think about them. I think I actually enjoyed this one even less than "Run Along Home," hence it gets the lowest score of any episode so far on the show (coincidentally it comes immediately after the first perfect 10/10 score I gave an episode).

THE GOOD

-A couple of good scenes between Odo and Quark. Odo's grin at the thought of Quark being killed and his comment about how he'll buy a piece of desiccated Quark both had me cracking up. Rene Auberjonois is not only a great dramatic actor, he also has an incredible sense of comedic timing.

THE BAD

-BORING. I kept checking the time stamp and couldn't wait for the episode to end. Nothing about it matters in the larger DS9 saga, there was no appreciable character development, and I didn't like or care about Melora or her plight at all.

-So much of it makes no sense. Some of this would normally get lumped into the 'ugly' category but it's so heinous that it is outright bad. For example, in a galaxy with trillions of beings--a great many of whom have dedicated their lives to scientific advancement--for 30 years this life-changing therapy was ignored?! So ridiculous. Although I do have another theory below...

-The "her weakness is really a strength that saves the day" trope is lame and predictable.

-Melora's complete lack of respect for her superior officers drives me nuts. She is belligerent with Sisko and never calls Dax sir/ma'am. Sisko's "no BS" policy lapses in this one, as he is way too nice to her. I kept waiting for him to sternly say "Lt. Dax is going with you and that is an order. Do I make myself clear, ensign?" Alas, no such moment happens.

THE UGLY

-Apparently the writer of this episode was physically disabled and he wrote it for the purpose of advocating for disabled people. That explains why it's not good; it was written to push an agenda instead of to tell a good story.

-In the extremely low level of gravity (virtually zero gee) that is depicted, there is no way a humanoid, much less completely human-like, creature would evolve. So much of our evolutionary traits are due to the influence of 1G gravity. More or less gravity would drastically alter the physical form of creatures that develop there.

-Bashir is a space explorer who has never experienced low/zero gee?! Come on.

-Rule of Acquisition quoted: 16 -- "A deal is a deal."

-Runabouts used: Orinoco for the mapping in the Gamma Quadrant and hijacked. Rio Grande used for pursuit. Now RG has the dorsal sensor module, so they must move it around to whatever runabout they think might need it.

-Bashir retcon watch (WARNING: this section contains major spoilers for a future story arc): is it possible that the "cure" Bashir comes up with is actually far more revolutionary than "dotting some i's and crossing some t's" on some 30-year-old research? He may have employed his supergenius talents to conjure up a magic cure and then played it off as no big deal to avoid suspicions. If you choose to view it this way the episode becomes a lot more interesting.