4x23 To the Death

[8.2/10] One of the strongest parts of Star Trek is the way the franchise uses alien races to highlight what we value. There’s an awkwardness to the dinner between Captain Kirk’s crew and Chancellor Gorkon’s coterie in Star Trek VI, which helped highlight common ground and cultural differences. Geordi being put into a survival situation with a Romulan in The Next Generation underscored the ways in which their approaches were different, but there was a common enough interest to form the beginnings of a friendship. And lord knows Deep Space Nine has drawn out the differences between the Federation at the Bajorans, Cardassians, and Ferengi, while all these groups strive to work together.

“To the Death” does the same for the Federation and the Jem’Hadar, and it deepens both the Dominion and their bred-for-war soldiers. Sisko and company need to team with a detachment of Jem’hadar warriors, led by a conniving operator of a Vorta named Weyoun, to stop a rogue unit of Jem’Hadar from unlocking a tool that would allow them to impose their will across the whole galaxy.

“To the Death” has to do some dancing around the obvious options (“Why can't we just nuke the tool from space?” “Because it’s made of super duper material!”), but it’s a plausible setup for why representatives from the Federation and the Dominion have to team up to stop a threat that would pose problems for both of them. The fact that the superweapon du jour is Iconian gateway technology, introduced back in TNG, helps give the plot a connection to the broader storytelling universe and a whiff of plausibility.

Mostly, though, it’s a shaky but welcome excuse to have our heroes from DS9 and a pack of erstwhile villains from the Gamma Quadrant team-up for a mission and play contrast and compare. “To the Death” makes hay throughout the episode from the immediate tension between the two groups forced to share space on the Defiant. Different ways of doing things, mutual scoffing at the opposing group's style, and unease that one side could turn around and betray the other at a moment’s notice makes for a laudably tense energy throughout but also those subtle opportunities for two disparate peoples to bond that are the lifeblood of Star Trek.

Granted, this episode serves the purpose of simultaneously nerfing and deepening the Dominion, the former of which is a necessary concession and the latter of which is a worthy tradeoff. Suddenly, the Founders’ ability to command the Jem’Hadar on instinct alone is overstated. The Vorta can seemingly no longer do that weird psychic blast thing,and are functionaries and middlemen. The Jem’Hadar themselves are not unstoppable warriors, but rather standard issue brutes who our feeble human characters can withstand with minimal casualties in hand-to-hand combat.

I’ll admit, it’s a little cheap. Part of what makes The Dominion so intimidating in their early episodes is that Starfleet seems completely overmatched against them. Leveling the playing field a little makes for a more interesting conflict, but follows the trope of unstoppable badasses being brought low to the ground so they can plausibly become the villains of the week.

And yet, I’m on board, if only because the dynamics of The Dominion are so much more interesting once they’re fleshed out like this.

That starts with the Jem’Hadar. Building on the development they received in “Hippocratic Oath”, we see more signs of their devotion to their duty, and rebellions and resentments both subtle and not so subtle. The sense that the warriors are still loyal to the Founders, but low-key revile the Vorta who control them via their addiction makes for a rich dynamic.

But hey, you’d revile Weyoun too. Jeffrey Combs has famously played a score of characters across Star Trek, but for my money, this is his best role. He is at once manipulative, oily, annoyed at his duty to manage the warrior class, jockeying for position, and undeniably compelling. The way he’s ready for slick diplomacy with Sisko, stoops to petty means to mislead and control the Jem’Hadar first Omet’iklan, and reverent (if still hustling) with Odo gives The Dominion a layered and formidable representative who pays off bigtime.

The point of illuminating details about the dynamic within the Dominion isn’t just for worldbuilding, though. It’s to put into relief the distinctions between the Starfleet officers and the Jem’Hadar soldiers. And as the title portends, the main difference is in whether, and how, the two groups value life.

For the Starfleet contingent, fighting is a necessary evil that allows the other joys of living to continue. The Jem’Hadar don’t eat, don’t sleep, don’t celebrate their victories. Instead, they have tunnel vision, devoting everything to a cause that they are as committed to as they are joyless in. They sneer at the humans for eating and sleeping rather than training, something they dismiss as weakness, and even Worf scoffs at them for being so stolid as not to bask in their glory and sing songs of their victories. The purpose of life between the two groups is different, and it makes it harder, on top of everything else, for them to work together.

More to the point, the way they value their lives is different. The Jem’Hadar are disposable soldiers, who are considered honored elders if they reach twenty. (Something that, in an underbaked B-story, gives Dax a bit of admiration from one for her long-lived status.) The Jem’Hadar don’t hesitate to turn any mission into a suicide mission, whereas our heroes want to make it out alive to see their families again. The Jem’Hadar slay those close to them as a means of “discipline,” whereas Sisko and company risk their own lives to save their comrades. The biggest cultural difference comes in what the two groups think their own lives, and the lives of their allies, are worth.

This all comes to a head in a confrontation with the rogue Jem’Hadar, which, candidly, is a bit of a letdown. You can only build up a tense battle between unstoppable badasses so much until the inevitable scuffle on the studio backlot can't live up to the hype. But the day is saved, of course, and two important choices are made.

For one, Sisko risks his life to save Omet’iklan. He demonstrates that for however weak the humans may seem to the Jem’Hadar, their compassion and appreciation for life shows the Jem’Hadar a grace and respect they don’t seem to get from their Dominion masters, who see them as disposable soldiers. Perhaps inspired by the example, the Omet’iklan kills Weyoun before he can lord the ketracel-white over them a moment longer, suggesting that even if the Jem’Hadar are not ready to adopt the Federation lifestyle, they’ve taken a few key things to heart.

That's the crux of these cultural exchange episodes. It’s unrealistic for everyone to be singing kumbaya together by the end of the hour. Cultural tolerance and meshing doesn’t happen that quickly. But seeing how someone else lives their lives, the values they bring to bear, can change you just a little. It’s the idea that Star Trek is built on, with these larger than life fables helping us to see a better, more humane, more understanding way in the real world.

And here, it’s founded on one of those core Star Trek principles -- a respect for life that extends even to your enemy. Deep Space Nine has tested that principle in the past, and will do so again plenty in the future. But for one week at least, it’s heartening to see tensions flare and cultures clash, only for that trademark respect to build bridges between enemies, rather than burn them.