If the internet had been as prevalent in 1993 as it is now, I feel sure that the phrase "I am Tosk" would have become a meme. This is a strong episode when taken within the context of DS9's first season, and an excellent exploration of O'Brien's character. This may be the first episode in the entire franchise that's been fully focused on him as a person and really lets us into his personality (I'd argue that various TNG episodes only ever gave us hints).
Turns out he's quite willing to throw away the Prime Directive and even his career for what he believes in, and he seemingly does it with a smile on his face. Maybe it's a bit too much to believe that the Chief has no hesitation or internal debate whatsoever to breaking the rules like this, but it makes for a decent episode. He gets annoyed pretty easily, as the scene with Quark demonstrates (as well as the previous 'Babel'); I think this is the first utterance of "hew-mon". We also get the first indication that he doesn't like Julian that much! But it also shows how kind and open he is quite beautifully.
Special mention does need to be given to the pretty amazing design job for Tosk. He looks amazing even to this day.
Category: more than anything that's a soap opera. One (crazy) day in the life aboard a space station.
That's bread and butter Star Trek. O'Brien is just a relatable, regular guy who happens to be a Star Fleet officer. This fluffy man is perfect for such buddy stories. The "fugitive finds asylum" theme is also very well known in the Star Trek lore. It lacks the usual philosophical question whether the Prime Directive allows granting asylum to a criminal who has committed a crime under an archaic alien jurisdiction. I mean, that's briefly discussed but the writers didn't want exchange legal or ethical arguments here. Thus, they let Miles take care of this issue. In his own hands-on solution-orientated way. And clever Sisko let him do the right thing.
This episode also explores how you can replace the space exploration ("boldly go where no one has gone before") part: let the most peculiar and motley characters of the gamma quadrant visit the station. This formula isn't enough to produce enough material for seven seasons though but it gives you a feel how this once unassuming space station at the edge of Federation space quickly becomes a giant mingling place of all kinds of species from both the alpha and gamma quadrant. This way, unlike in Voyager or TNG, you can introduce totally unknown species w/o violating rules of physics but keep all the links to the usual parameters of the alpha quadrant.
It's an entertaining but not a great episode. It's not an important for the overarching story of the show but after this episode you like Miles and Benjamin more than ever.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2021-10-23T18:40:58Z
[7.1/10] One of the built-in advantages of Deep Space 9 is that wormhole to the Gamma quadrant. Picard’s Enterprise still encounters its fair share of new life and new civilization while patrolling the galaxy. But access to communities from ninety-thousand light years away means that Sisko and company can go beyond Klingons and Vulcans and Romulans and encounter unique cultures that the Federation has no knowledge of.
It’s something Nineties Trek tried to replicate with both Voyager and Enterprise in different ways. “Everything’s new now!”, says the creative team. “Our heroes aren't masters of their domain, but instead have to learn and adjust to the strange and unfamiliar!” It’s a good pitch, blending the known quantities of Starfleet with the endless possibilities of the universe.
But at the same time, DS9 is trotting out some familiar Star Trek chestnuts. One is the “I befriended an alien, and they need our help!” episode. If I had a nickel for everytime an Enterprise crewmember got buddy-buddy with the forehead extraterrestrial of the week, causing conflicts with their Starfleet obligations, I could afford my own holosuite at Quark’s. Another is the Prime Directive episode, where some moral quandary makes our heroes want to act in favor of what’s right but feel penned in by the law of non-interference.
“Captive Pursuit” has both. Chief O’Brien is our protagonist for the episode. He gradually befriends Tosk, a Gamma Quadrant resident who comes through the wormhole with a damaged ship, a furtive demeanor, but also a need for some help to fix his vessel. In the interest of cultural exchange and goodwill, Sisko dispatches Miles to help repair Tosk’s ship, and over the course of the episode, Miles comes to consider this first visitor through the wormhole a pal worth fighting for.
It’s a sweet idea. The catch is that the friendship doesn’t click in practice. Tosk is practically lifeless in his affect. He speaks in stilted, practically monosyllabic sentences and doesn’t express emotions beyond mild curiosity. His design is reptilian, not exactly warm or welcoming. And most of what we see of him in the first half of the episode involves Tosk keeping secrets from a friendly O’Brien and surreptitiously trying to find the station’s weapons cache.
Now part of me admires how alien Deep Space 9 is willing to make this alien. Most Star Trek species are just different flavors of human in their demeanor with the volume turned up on one feature or quality. Tosk feels legitimately different and harder to recognize, which helps make the Gamma quadrant seem like the distinct, unknown realm the show needs it to be to fuel that intrigue.
But it’s a problem when the emotional foundation of your story is built on a budding friendship between O’Brien and this dull, unengaging visitor. The Chief can’t just be morally affronted when the truth about Tosk’s status comes out; he has to be personally invested in Tosk’s welfare, and the audience has to feel the same way. That’s a tall order, to say the least, when Tosk feels too subdued and even doltish for Miles, or us, to truly connect with.
The other side of the coin is that the inevitable Prime Directive dilemma at play livens the episode, regardless of the players. It’s why Star Trek goes back to them so often. The concept of whether to do what seems ethically right, versus observing the rules meant to affirm Starfleet’s humility about not judging other cultures, makes for inherently interesting thought experiments. The intrigue carries even when the specific characters involved aren’t up to snuff.
O’Brien and Sisko have to grapple with these issues when it turns out Tosk is the prey in a ritualized, interstellar hunt. His pursuers overcome the station’s shields and beam aboard (wearing some pretty ridiculous-looking Daft Punk get-ups) and track down O’Brien’s new friend. What follows is the usual “How dare you barge onto my ship!” stand-off, followed by the standard hand-wringing over whether to turn the new arrival over to the aliens who’ve been looking for him.
However familiar the setup, I actually like the concept here. The new visitors have bred Tosk’s people for the hunt, chastising him for being such easy prey and bristling at Sisko’s interference. Tosk himself is bound by an honor code. It turns out he’s been holding back information not to be secretive, but because it’s part of the rules of the game. And when offered asylum, he turns it down because, while he doesn’t want to be put on display and shamed on his home planet, he’d rather have an “honorable death” as part of the hunt than a comfortable life as part of the Federation.
The idea has legs. Cultural practices that seem strange and even abominable to us, but have great meaning for the people socialized into them, are a fact of life and regular fuel for Star Trek stories. O’Brien grappling with how to work within the system -- both his and Tosk’s -- while seeing that his new friend isn’t left to such an ignominious fate, makes for a good plot point, even if it’s hard to be invested in their friendship.
Of course, it’s Star Trek, so we have to have a spate of phaser fire and explosions and dudes who seem to just dust themselves off after getting blasted with energy weapons but go down with one punch from our heroes. But despite the silliness of the fireworks, “Captive Pursuit” comes up with a clever solution to the problem of whether to cooperate with Tosk’s pursuers. Instead of trying to protect Tosk, O’Brien just frees him and gets him back to his ship (with a nice setup and payoff involving the security scanner) so the hunt can begin once more.
It’s a violation of the Prime Directive, but one that gives his new friend the chance for what he wants. More than that, O’Brien reasons it’s what both sides here want: a chance for a noble death for Tosk and a better hunt for his pursuers. O’Brien gets a stern talking to from Sisko, but the Commander is also complicit in letting it happen, as the episode even closes on a sly smile from Benjamin after Miles points out the security...lapses that allowed his plan to work.
The way Deep Space 9 handles all of this is especially interesting in light of “Cogenitor” from Enterprise. Without giving anything away, that episode has a similar setup, but goes in a very different direction, both in terms of plot and message. There’s a tacit approval of what O’Brien does here, with the idea that new contact will mean having to adjust and accommodate new cultures and practices that make us furrow our brows, while also vindicating our values and, more importantly, our bonds with the new arrivals to Deep Space 9.
“Captive Pursuit” isn’t the greatest rendition of any of these familiar tropes. Miles and Tosk’s bond isn’t exactly one for the ages, and the ability of O’Brien to simply restart the hunt without any professional or diplomatic consequences beyond a minor tongue-lashing lessens the impact of his choices. But it’s a harbinger for what Deep Space 9 can do, the clear game board that lay in front of the series. There’s new people and communities to meet as they fly by from the Gamma Quadrant. Some of them will be friendly. Many of them will be hostile or challenging. But with those unique visitors, the show has an avenue for telling familiar Star Trek stories in a new, wide-open context.