Changes: Shadowplay (episode)

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At a colony in the Gamma Quadrant, Dax and Odo investigate the mysterious disappearance of several colonists.

Summary

"Science officer's log, stardate 47603.3. Commander Sisko has assigned me to investigate an usual particle field detected on the other side of the wormhole. Odo has come along to the Gamma Quadrant hoping to find clues to his origin."

When Dax and Odo at the particle field on a nearby planet, Dax detects omicron particles isolated in a small valley. These particles are very rare, and they appear to be interfering with other scans, so an the pair beams down to the planet. Once on the planet, they find a small village, and with their limited tricorder functions determine the source to be some sort of reactor at the center of the village. Odo suggests they leave, but Dax insists on scanning it in more detail, and they are discovered by Protector Colyus.

Meanwhile, on Deep Space 9, Major Kira Nerys keeps her eye on Quark, and stops his cousin Kono from smuggling stolen merchandise onto the station. Commander Sisko also talks to his son Jake about getting a job. He eventually talks Jake into becoming Chief Miles O'Brien's apprentice, saying it would look great on his entrance request to Starfleet Academy. However, Jake seems to do it because he has to rather than because he wants to.

Back on the planet, Colyus interrogates Dax and Odo. They both insist they committed no crime, and had just arrived. Odo even impresses him with their transporter, saying if they wanted to escape capture, they would have. They convince him they did nothing, but this disappoints him. He has 22 unsolved disappearances occurring over a period of months. He has no suspects, after having talked to everyone. Odo offers his help as an investigator.

The first person they talk to is Rurigan, the leader of the village. He says his daughter was the latest victim. After Dax scans for EM traces and detects nothing, Odo talks to Taya, Rurigan's granddaughter. She is afraid of Odo, and won't talk to him because she thinks her mother will come back. Rurigan says they should wait until morning.

On the station, Commander Sisko sends Jake off on his first day on the job, giving him a comm badge. Meanwhile, Major Kira talks to Doctor Julian Bashir about spying on Quark. She wants to make sure Quark isn't up to something while Odo is away and she is running the station. Julian is happy to do it, since Garak has been teaching him surveillance techniques. Just then, Kira is informed by Sisko that Vedek Bareil has just docked.

The next day, Odo tries talking to Taya again. She still doesn't like the subject, so she changes it, asking about his face. He says he is a shapeshifter, and she talks about how Changelings are supposed to be make believe, and how everyone must like him because of his ability. He says it's not that easy, many people are probably scared of him. She says she isn't. After the conversation wanders, Taya returns to the subject of her mother. She was making pottery, quite contentedly, the last time she saw her. She seemed to just vanish while Taya was away. When Odo asks, she said no one has ever left the valley, so she had no reason to run away.

Back on the station, Jake is having trouble following the component lists from O'Brien. When he continues to be baffled, the chief reassures him he didn't even get this stuff until after his Academy training. That just makes Jake sigh. He explains that he doesn't want to go to Starfleet Academy, but he can't tell his dad. After a long story about how his father set him up for music school, O'Brien explains to him that if Jake's father is anything like his was, he will understand. He just needs time. Kira and Vedek Bareil play springball.

Odo interrogates Rurigan. He asks him why Rurigan is unconcerned. He says there is nothing he can do about it. Odo points out the pain in his eyes. He says he is dying, but he has had a good life. Odo also asks why Colyus was surprised when he suggested looking outside the valley for the missing people. Rurigan agrees, and insists cryptically that he is certain there are no missing people out there.

Dax, Odo, and Taya walk outside, and she tells a story about a foolish Changeling, which Odo quietly objects to. As they continue to get further from the village, she shows them a tree where she and her friends go out and play sometimes. Odo tells her to wait there while he takes Dax further out. As she continues walking, the scanner vanishes in her hand. When Taya starts moving toward them, Odo tells her to stop. When she tries to hand some berries to him, the end of her arm disappears. It reappears when she pulls it back to her.

They return to the center of the city, and bring Colyus to the reactor. Dax explains she knows what happened to the people. After being able to use a console to make his cloak disappear and then reappear, she explains the situation. It's not a reactor; it's a hologenerator. It creates an omicron field and manipulates it to create matter. Everything in this village, his cloak, and the people, are made up of these particles. The component that controls the field is breaking down, and people are being lost.

Colyus can't believe it, sure he's not a holographic projection. Odo explains what happened to Taya's arm. Colyus tells them to show him the same thing.

Back on the station, Vedek Bareil and Kira finish dinner, and in fact are kissing, when Bareil mentions something about how the man who invited him to the station had a sizable gambling debt to Quark. She suddenly bolts for the door, leaving Bareil confused, convinced she knows the real reason why he was invited here.

On the planet, the villagers are gathered together, and shown the disappearing at the edge of the field. Back in the town square, many believe it is a trick. Colyus says it is because they were programmed not to want to leave. He says the only alternative to having everyone disappear one at a time is to let Dax turn off the machine and fix it. However, if she can't, the whole village will cease to exist. After some murmuring, at the suggestion of Rurigan, they agree to let Dax shut it off.

Once it is disabled, the people, the buildings, everything disappears; everything except Rurigan. He explains he lived on Yadera Prime, with all of the people there, when he decided to leave. He came here and set up this hologenerator. He has been living among these people for 30 years, sometimes even forgetting they were holograms. He wants them to take him back to Yadera Prime.

Odo wants to know what will happen to the people in the village. While they may not be real the way biological life forms are real, perhaps they are worth keeping alive, since they appear to think, feel, and reproduce. He is also betrayed by his emotions; they are real to him, since he didn't want his granddaughter to get hurt, and he cares about them. After such a rousing speech, bringing him to tears since he does love his granddaughter, he agrees not to turn his back on them.

Back on the station, Jake finally sits down and admits to his father he doesn't want to go to Starfleet. He wants to do something that is like he is, not like his father is. Benjamin understands. Kira confronts Quark with his cousin in custody, and while he refuses to admit trying to distract her by suggesting Bareil be invited to the station, it is clear she is correct.

Dax fixes the machine, and Rurigan makes one last request: don't tell the holograms he isn't one. After agreeing, she turns it back on, and everything is restored, including the missing people. Colyus wonders who created all this, and Odo simply says that whoever they were, they did a fine job.

Taya says goodbye, and Odo turns into a toy to amuse her, just before beaming up.

Memorable Quotes

"I saw the way you held her hand when she was sad... how you comforted her when she was frightened."
"I didn't want to see her get hurt."
"If she's not real, what does it matter?"
"It matters to me."
"Why should it matter to you if a hologram cries?"
"Because... I love her."

- Odo and Rurigan, talking about Rurigan's granddaughter Taya

"So, what did you think?"
"Of your speech?"
"Hmm."
"I liked everything about it, except the content."

- Kira and Bareil

Background Information

Hologenerator — Early Jim Martin design of hologenerator

This episode was originally to be titled "Persistence of Vision", a title later used in Season 2 of Star Trek: Voyager. Writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe's original idea involved Dax and O'Brien trapped in a virtual reality prison on an alien planet. They escape from the prison but as they attempt to leave the planet, they discover they are in fact still in the prison. They escape again, and this time make it back to Deep Space 9, but neither of them are entirely convinced that they are in fact free, and probably never will be. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) Elements of this concept would make it into the third season episode "The Search, Part II" and the fourth season episode "Hard Time".
Kenneth Tobey, who played Rurigan in this episode is one of Ira Steven Behr's all-time favorite actors. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion)
Noley Thornton, who played Taya in this episode, had previously appeared as Clara Sutter in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Imaginary Friend".
This episode marks the final reference to the Dominion before they are finally encountered in the second season finale, "The Jem'Hadar".
This episode is somewhat similar to the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Oasis", in which Rene Auberjonois guest-starred, with his character, Ezral, taking on a role similar to that of Rurigan. Auberjonois noticed the similarities.
The blooming sexual tension between Major Kira Nerys and Vedek Bareil Antos finally shows itself in this episode, as the couple share their first kiss. It was later revealed that Quark purposely urged his debtor to invite Bareil to distract Kira from interfering with his affairs with the absence of Odo.
O'Brien says his father introduces him as "Senior Chief Specialist Miles Edward O'Brien." In the US Navy, senior chief petty officer is an enlisted rank. In Star Trek, it is the first reference to O'Brien's full rank. This changes, however, in "Hippocratic Oath", when the Jem'Hadar First Goran'agar identifies O'Brien as a chief petty officer, which is one step down from a senior chief. However, this can be attributed to O'Brien's father deliberately exaggerating.
In this episode, O'Brien mentions having studied to be a musician before joining Starfleet. This refers to his cello playing in TNG: "The Ensigns of Command".
In a scene cut from the aired episode, it was mentioned that there was an incident on Brinda V where half the population of a village disappeared and that it was later found that they had been abducted by Orions to work as slaves in their mining camps.
Robert Hewitt Wolfe is extremely proud of this episode, particularly the thematic connections between the A, B and C-stories; "They're all about the unreality of appearances. Everyone would think Jake would want to be a Starfleet guy, but he doesn't. You'd think Bareil was on the station to see Kira, but the truth is that Quark lured him there. And then there's the girl, who seems real, but isn't." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion)

Video and DVD releases

UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 18, 25 July 1994.
As part of the DS9 Season 2 DVD collection.

Links and References

Guest Stars

Co-Stars

Trula M. Marcus as Female Villager
Martin Cassidy as Merruk (credited as "Male Villager")

References

Aldeberan Music Academy; cello; Freyla; Ghergher beast; harrid berry; Hedrikspool Province; Ilvia; jumja; katterpod; Kono; Manwaring; Omicron radiation; Protector; Relliketh; Seelee; Singha refugee camp; Strek; Tellarite freighter; tornado; Yadera Prime; Yaderan

Previous episode:
"Paradise"

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Season 2

Next episode:
"Playing God"

@@ Line 97: / Line 97: @@
 * The blooming sexual tension between [[Major]] [[Kira Nerys]] and [[Vedek]] [[Bareil Antos]] finally shows itself in this episode, as the couple share their first kiss. It was later revealed that [[Quark]] purposely urged his debtor to invite Bareil to distract Kira from interfering with his affairs with the absence of [[Odo]].
 * O'Brien says his father introduces him as "Senior Chief Specialist Miles Edward O'Brien."  In the US Navy, [[senior chief petty officer]] is an enlisted rank.  In ''[[Star Trek]]'', it is the first reference to O'Brien's full rank.  This changes, however, in {{e|Hippocratic Oath}}, when the [[Jem'Hadar]] [[First]] [[Goran'agar]] identifies O'Brien as a [[chief petty officer]], which is one step down from a senior chief. However, this can be attributed to O'Brien's father deliberately exaggerating.
-* In this episode, O'Brien mentions having studied to be a musician before joining Starfleet. This refers to his 'cello playing in {{TNG|The Ensigns of Command}}.
+* In this episode, O'Brien mentions having studied to be a musician before joining Starfleet. This refers to his cello playing in {{TNG|The Ensigns of Command}}.
 * In a scene cut from the aired episode, it was mentioned that there was an incident on Brinda V where half the population of a village disappeared and that it was later found that they had been abducted by [[Orion]]s to work as slaves in their mining camps.
 * Robert Hewitt Wolfe is extremely proud of this episode, particularly the thematic connections between the A, B and C-stories; "''They're all about the unreality of appearances. Everyone would think Jake would want to be a [[Starfleet]] guy, but he doesn't. You'd think Bareil was on the station to see Kira, but the truth is that Quark lured him there. And then there's the girl, who seems real, but isn't''." (''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion]]'')