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Field of Fire (episode)

Revision as of 04:21, 16 October 2010 by Distantlycharmed (talk | contribs) (→‎Teaser)
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After several DS9 crew members are murdered, Ezri summons the memories and personality of Joran Dax to help her find the murderer.

Summary

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Teaser

Ilario holding a pictrue of his friends

Ilario holding a picture of himself and his friends laughing

Several of the senior staff are gathered in Quark's, toasting one young Lieutenant Hector Ilario for his excellent performance at the USS Defiant's helm in a recent battle. They laugh and drink, toasting to Ilario's accomplishments until the wee hours. At around 0300 hours, the party winds down and only Kira Nerys and Ezri Dax are left, having one last drink with the lieutenant. Ilario can barely get up and tumbles from being drunk, so Ezri offers to escort him back as his quarters are close to hers. When they get back to Ilario's quarters, he shows Ezri a picture of him and his two Starfleet companions, saying he wished they could have been there when he maneuvered the Defiant into battle. After looking at the picture and helping Ilario settle, Ezri wishes him a good night and leaves.

At 0600 hours she receives her usual wake up call. As she gets ready, she hears voices in the corridor. Everyone is running around nervously, talking about initiating a security alert. Ezri soon discovers what the commotion is all about: Ilario has been found dead in his quarters, having been shot right through the heart.

Act One

Perplexedly, there is no evidence of a forced entry, nor of any entry at all. Even more mysterious is the fact that he was killed, at close range, with a projectile weapon rather than a directed energy weapon such as a phaser or disruptor. The tritanium bullet is matched to a Federation prototype TR-116 rifle, which was never mass-produced, having been abandoned in favor of regenerative phasers. However, this does not mean that the killer did not have access to the weapon's replication pattern. Chief O'Brien points out that only Starfleet have access to those files; a thought Sisko finds very disturbing. Drawing on his knowledge of 20th century crime novels, Odo notes that there are no powder burns on the body, suggesting that the shot was fired from a longer range, even though it appears as if Ilario was shot point blank at close range.

All the while the officers are discussing the murder weapon, Ezri is standing in the corner, still in disbelief over what happened. She is disturbed to find out that Ilario was shot only ten minutes after she left his quarters. Sisko wants everyone to find out everything they can about Ilario. The officers mention that there was not much, as he has only been on the station for ten days and that he was known to be intelligent, dedicated and eager to please. Sisko wants answers, however, and whoever is responsible for this caught as soon as possible.

At Quark's, Doctor Bashir, the Chief and Ezri remember Ilario. The men feel bad about not having taken him to the holosuite with them as he had wanted, while Ezri wishes she had stayed around a bit longer, so that maybe he would be alive now. She feels pretty disheveled about the whole situation and just cannot believe that Ilario has been murdered like this.

The same night, she has a conversation with Dr. Bashir who tells her that the whole concept of someone killing another person in cold blood seems incomprehensible. Ezri replies that to her, it is not a very foreign concept, as she knows exactly what it feels like to have the urge to take a life. She points to the sixth host of the Dax symbiont, Joran, who killed three people. She says she tries not to think about Joran and suppress the memories of him, just like Jadzia before her. However, the thought of someone like Joran being on Deep Space 9 really irks her. She decides to get some rest.

Later that night, Ezri has a nightmare about the murdered lieutenant and Joran. In her dream, Joran tells her to stop being afraid of him as if he was a stranger. He points out that after all, the "worm" in her belly used to be in him, which means he is a part of her just as she is a part of him. He tells her to perform the Rite of Emergence already and simply ask him to help her if she wants to find the killer. She is resistant and says that she wants nothing to do with him after what he did, but Joran is smug, saying that there is nowhere else for him to go as he is within her all the time. He beckons her to let him out, saying that he can help because he knows how a murderer thinks. Upon awakening, she is summoned to the site of another murder...

Act Two

This time the victim is Greta Vanderweg, a science officer. Similarly to Ilario, she was killed by a tritanium bullet, apparently fired at close range but leaving any powder burns. Sisko assigns Ezri to assist Odo with her forensic psychology training.

Melon shot with TR-116

O'Brien demonstrates the TR-116 on a melon

Act Three

Later, at Quark's, O'Brien and Bashir are discussing the killer's odd choice of weapon. Davy Crockett's attachment to a particular weapon comes up, and, as Bashir tells an old story about Davy Crockett using frying pans to perform a trick shot, the Chief has an epiphany about how the killer has fired from close range without leaving powder burns. Quickly arranging a demonstration, O'Brien shows how a micro-transporter could be attached to the muzzle of a TR-116 rifle to beam the bullet close to the target, where it would exit with the same kinetic energy. An exographic targeting sensor could be used to scan through bulkheads, meaning the killer could be firing from anywhere on the station, at anyone. Unfortunately, the micro-transporter does not leave enough of a transporter trace to track.

Ezri summons Joran

Ezri summons Joran's memories

Ezri redoubles her efforts to find a connection between the two murder victims, but gets nowhere. Hoping to draw on the memories of Joran, she performs the Trill Rite of Emergence to extract and personify him. Joran encourages her to think like a killer, disturbing her deeply. In Quark's, Ezri nearly stabs a man, thinking he's the murderer. It turns out the man (Ensign Bertram) was being pursued by security for accessing the TR-116 replicator pattern. However, he was on Bajor at the time of the first murder, ruling him out as a suspect. Sisko almost takes Ezri off the case, but gives her another chance. Ezri attempts to reverse the ritual and rebury Joran's memories, but is interrupted by news of another murder. Zim Brott, a Bolian petty officer, has been found dead, by the same method.

While searching the latest victim's quarters for clues, Ezri realizes the only commonality between the victims is pictures of laughing people in their quarters. She suspects a Vulcan is behind the murders, reasoning that a Vulcan, sufficiently traumatized, might see the pictures as an unbearable, frozen display of emotion. She comes up with a short list of suspects who fit what she has deduced.

Ezri dax tr116

Ezri aims the rifle at Chu'lak.

On her way to review her list and shorten it further, she meets a Vulcan who seems to fit the killer's profile in a turbolift. Checking his personnel file, she discovers his name is Chu'lak, and he has indeed suffered a recent emotional trauma. Using the TR-116 and exographic scanner, she observes Chu'lak looking at her personnel file, then retrieving a TR-116 rifle and exographic scanner, and aiming at her. Although Joran Dax encourages her to kill the Vulcan, she shoots him non-lethally, and rushes to his quarters, capturing him. When Ezri asks Chu'lak why he committed these acts, he replies "because logic demanded it."

Finally, having solved the murders and come to terms with her memories of Joran, she successfully returns him to his normal place among her memories of Dax's previous hosts.

Memorable quotes

Background information

  • The working title of this episode was "The Killer in Dax"
  • With David Weddle, Bradley Thompson and Ronald D. Moore all busy trying to salvage "Prodigal Daughter", with Ira Steven Behr and Hans Beimler working on "The Emperor's New Cloak", and with René Echevarria working on "Chimera", Ira Behr found himself in a situation where he needed an episode, and had no-one to write it. As such, he contacted his old writing partner Robert Hewitt Wolfe and pitched an idea about a serial killer sniper being loose on the station. When Wolfe agreed to do the script, Behr foresaw the episode as an Odo show, but as Wolfe explains, "I felt we'd seen the constable investigate this kind of thing before. I wanted to use a character whom we hadn't seen spearhead an investigation. That gave me a chance to do something with Ezri." Wolfe decided that if Ezri was investigating a murderer, it might bring out her memories of Joran, and she comes to realize that if she embraces these memories, they may help her stop the killer. As such, in Wolfe's first draft, Ezri creates a hologram of Joran, but he quickly realized that this limited the character, and so he decided to go what he refers to as "the Trill mumbo-jumbo route." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion)
TR-116

John Eaves concept art for a TR-116 rifle

  • Jeff Magnus McBride, who had portrayed Joran in the third season episode "Equilibrium" proved unavailable to reprise the role for "Field of Fire". According to director Tony Dow, the casting process was very specific; "Joran is a pretty complex character. The actor had to play him with a sort of crazed unpredictability, but he couldn't be such a jerk that Ezri would just put him back in the bottle. Leigh didn't have the scariness of appearance that we'd initially anticipated, but he's such a terrific actor that it worked out well." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion)
  • When prepping this episode, Tony Dow was instructed to watch the fifth season episode "The Darkness and the Light", as "it had the same sort of mystery feeling, with a renegade who kidnaps Kira. Ira told me that it was really the only other show of this type that they'd done. There isn't much personal violence on this series, so when it does occur, it's something to be reckoned with. My objective was to create an atmosphere of apprehension and a bit of panic about what was going on." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion)
  • Early in the episode, Hector Ilario tells Ezri that she's very beautiful, to which she responds, "And you're very drunk." He then says, "But in the morning, I'll be sober - and you'll still be beautiful." This is likely a reference to the apocryphal, usually misattributed Winston Churchill conversation with socialite Elizabeth Braddock. When he was criticized for being drunk, he responded with some version of the famous quote "Yes, my dear, and you are ugly. But in the morning, I shall be sober."
  • Ezri refers to Hector Ilario as an ensign when they are leaving Quark's even though Bashir says he's a lieutenant and he wears the rank insignia of lieutenant JG. However, she doesn't specifically call him an Ensign. She comments that she has escorted many drunken ensigns to their quarters in the past and Ilario is a junior officer.
  • The male Bolian is described as being survived by a wife and co-husband. Some fans took this to mean that same-sex marriages were given legal recognition in the future. It could also refer to polyandry (more than one man being married to the same woman).
  • This episode represents our third encounter with Joran. As well as "Equilibrium", he also featured in the third season episode "Facets", where he was 'embodied' by Sisko.
  • After this episode aired, a number of fans questioned the believability of having a Vulcan serial killer. Wolfe however says that the very point of the episode was bound up in this 'twist'; "What would be the biggest surprise to a regular Star Trek fan? No one's going to be surprised if a Bajoran or a Cardassian or a Romulan is the killer. But a Vulcan serial killer? That'll make you sit up and take notice. I wanted to show the psychological strains of the War are far-reaching. If you've got a Vulcan who's cracking under the battle, that says something." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion)
  • Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko) does not appear in this episode.
  • A script for this episode was sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay. [1]

Video and DVD releases

Links and references

Starring

Also starring

Guest stars

And

Uncredited co-stars

Stunt doubles

References

20th century; 2353; 2372; Alpha Centauri; Bajor; Bolarus; Bolian; bullet; centimeter; Chandler, Raymond; chemical; cherub; co-husband; computer console; coonskin cap; crime novel; Crockett, Davy; dampening field; Dax, Audrid; Dax, Curzon; Dax, Jadzia; Dax, Torias; Dax symbiont; Defiant, USS; Template:ShipClass; displaced targeting; docking ring; doctor; counselor; Earth; Template:ShipClass; exographic targeting sensor; Ezri's father; Fanalian tea; frying pan; forensic psychology; goggles; Grissom, USS; habitat ring; Hammer, Mike; heart; helmsman; hunter; lighter; melon; micropaleontologist; micro-transporter; Mora V; mythology; New Sydney; novel; packrat; petty officer; photography; powder burn; projectile weapon; prototype; Quark's; Rackham, Martin; radiogenic; raktajino; regenerative phaser; replication pattern; Ricktor Prime; Rite of Emergence; Template:ShipClass; Sappora system; Saurian brandy; science lab; science officer; scientist; service record; Starfleet Command; Starfleet Security; Template:ShipClass; Stone, Jason; Strata, USS; targeting display; TR-116 rifle; tritanium; Truman, USS; Vulcan; wedding; Template:ShipType

External links

Previous episode:
"The Emperor's New Cloak" 		Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Season 7 		Next episode:
"Chimera"
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