Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Resurrection Rewatch
July 28, 2016 4:07 AM - Season 6, Episode 8 - Subscribe
It's the second coming of another Bajoran religious figure believed to have died long ago. This time, it's Vedek Bareil…except it's not, and he is actually dead. Confusing? Well, what do you expect from the MIRROR UNIVERSE…
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- Ira Steven Behr has commented on this episode: "I think part of the disappointment that some fans felt with the episode is due to its placement in the season. After the six-parter and the wedding, an episode like "Resurrection" seemed almost like an afterthought. But any episode with Nana Visitor can't be all bad. I think she did a lovely job. And though I don't think it's the best episode we've ever done, I believe we've done worse." He has also stated, "I knew we were going to get hammered for whatever show we came up with after the war arc and the wedding episode. People were going to say, 'This is what you're doing next?' It's that feeling of letdown after you've done something big. It was bad timing, and it probably shouldn't have been a relationship show, but I felt we needed one for Kira. And actually, I think it was one of our better romantic shows."
- Nana Visitor didn't really like this episode because she feels that Kira acts out of character. For one thing, Visitor felt that Kira was well over the death of Bareil, and for another she felt that Kira would never get so involved with a man she had only just met.
- This episode features a reversal of the standard mirror universe episode format insofar as the story involves someone from there visiting the normal universe, instead of the other way round. It also differs from the traditional mirror universe format (at least for DS9 mirror universe episodes) because no one is killed in this episode.
- On the shelf behind Bareil at the dinner is the trophy Worf won at the Bat'leth competition in the TNG episode "Parallels", another episode concerning parallel universes.
"It is an amazing resemblance. Put you in a Vedek's robe and no one would know the difference."
"Believe me, there's a difference."
"Not to the paying public."
- Quark and Bareil
"I take it you like him."
"Let's just say I like the idea of you with him. But I'll tell you one thing, Major. You'd better brace yourself. You're in for a rough ride."
- Kira and Quark
"Nerys! Oh you look as beautiful as ever!"
- Intendant
.edosipe eht rof egap ahplA yromeM eht morf era aivirt dna setouq llA
- Ira Steven Behr has commented on this episode: "I think part of the disappointment that some fans felt with the episode is due to its placement in the season. After the six-parter and the wedding, an episode like "Resurrection" seemed almost like an afterthought. But any episode with Nana Visitor can't be all bad. I think she did a lovely job. And though I don't think it's the best episode we've ever done, I believe we've done worse." He has also stated, "I knew we were going to get hammered for whatever show we came up with after the war arc and the wedding episode. People were going to say, 'This is what you're doing next?' It's that feeling of letdown after you've done something big. It was bad timing, and it probably shouldn't have been a relationship show, but I felt we needed one for Kira. And actually, I think it was one of our better romantic shows."
- Nana Visitor didn't really like this episode because she feels that Kira acts out of character. For one thing, Visitor felt that Kira was well over the death of Bareil, and for another she felt that Kira would never get so involved with a man she had only just met.
- This episode features a reversal of the standard mirror universe episode format insofar as the story involves someone from there visiting the normal universe, instead of the other way round. It also differs from the traditional mirror universe format (at least for DS9 mirror universe episodes) because no one is killed in this episode.
- On the shelf behind Bareil at the dinner is the trophy Worf won at the Bat'leth competition in the TNG episode "Parallels", another episode concerning parallel universes.
"It is an amazing resemblance. Put you in a Vedek's robe and no one would know the difference."
"Believe me, there's a difference."
"Not to the paying public."
- Quark and Bareil
"I take it you like him."
"Let's just say I like the idea of you with him. But I'll tell you one thing, Major. You'd better brace yourself. You're in for a rough ride."
- Kira and Quark
"Nerys! Oh you look as beautiful as ever!"
- Intendant
The previous Mirror episodes were pretty good, but this one was dull. 'Bad guy poses as a good guy to do a bad thing, but is persuaded to do good at the last minute' is done a lot in Star Trek and never particularly entertaining.
And Bareil is not an important enough character to bring back from the dead. I mean to Bajor I guess he is, but not to viewers. Bareil and Shakaar and Li Nalas all are the same person to me. It would have been much better to have Mirror Ziyal appear, as her death was recent. It still would have been a Kira episode.
The best part of the episode was Quark. He's Guinon without the empathy. Loved when he interrupted he talk with Kira to berate his employees.
posted by riruro at 2:38 PM on July 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
And Bareil is not an important enough character to bring back from the dead. I mean to Bajor I guess he is, but not to viewers. Bareil and Shakaar and Li Nalas all are the same person to me. It would have been much better to have Mirror Ziyal appear, as her death was recent. It still would have been a Kira episode.
The best part of the episode was Quark. He's Guinon without the empathy. Loved when he interrupted he talk with Kira to berate his employees.
posted by riruro at 2:38 PM on July 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
I do wonder why the writers were so desperate to make Bareil work. The character was just kind of blah, no matter what they did. But they wouldn't give up! In this case maybe they were like, "We'll make his mirror universe counterpart a sexy, amoral badass guy! That'll blow people's minds!" But nope, he still just doesn't really pop. He's about as vanilla as a mirror universe bad boy can be.
Either they really liked the actor, or fixing poor Bareil became Ira Steven Behr's great white whale. "We will make this character interesting if it kills us!"
posted by Ursula Hitler at 4:55 AM on July 30, 2016 [2 favorites]
Either they really liked the actor, or fixing poor Bareil became Ira Steven Behr's great white whale. "We will make this character interesting if it kills us!"
posted by Ursula Hitler at 4:55 AM on July 30, 2016 [2 favorites]
I do think this was the most interesting/sexiest the actor has been on the show, but I agree with the shrug-worthiness of it all, and that it was out of character for Kira to trust him so quickly. And while Visitor did her usual terrific job of playing the two different characters, it completely undercuts the Intendent's original level of menace to have Mirror-Bareil be so blasé about his ability to sweet-talk his way out of her wrath when she wakes up back in MU with no Orb.
posted by oh yeah! at 5:02 PM on July 30, 2016
posted by oh yeah! at 5:02 PM on July 30, 2016
I think that one of the big problems in the episode is lampshaded when Sisko talks about his own experience with Mirror-Jennifer: the show had already done a version of this story, in two separate episodes, in "Through the Looking Glass" and "Shattered Mirror". Nevertheless, I think that they could have sold it, since all of the DS9 mirror universe episodes so far have riffed off of the basic premise of the original TOS episode, appealing to the better angels of the mirror counterparts' nature, and there are some interesting bits with people reacting to Mirror-Bareil as he walks along the promenade; they could have even done a scene where he talks to Sisko, who tells him about how he had to grow into the role of Emissary and accept the difference between how he felt about himself and how the Bajorans felt about him. But UH is right; whatever his other talents as an actor, Philip Anglim can't really sell Bareil, and his scenes with Kira are just deadly-dull. (I also think that, right at the beginning, the first thing that the ops crew should have done when detecting an incoming transport from nowhere is grab some guns.)
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:27 PM on July 31, 2016
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:27 PM on July 31, 2016
Count me as another who isn't a Bareil fan, but this episode was okay. I totally agree Kira's actions were way out of character, and the ending was naff, but there were some interesting ideas in this which, as mentioned in previous comments, had they been followed up, could have made for a more powerful episode.
I think the worst thing for me is just that Bareil has such a boring voice. It sorta worked when he was a Vedek, but as a bad-ass, it totally didn't.
The best bits, apart from Quarks short parts which were both ace, were the comedy parts - the beginning with Kira and Dax; and the part with the Doctor coming to ops and asking Kira what she got up to last night (meta-funny); and the parts with the Intendant especially where she dressed like Kira and the two of them met again.
One thing I would like to know is how that trans-dimensional teleporter device works, and how it interacts with the teleporter on DS9. (I mean in-universe, obviously!)
posted by marienbad at 3:34 PM on August 1, 2016
I think the worst thing for me is just that Bareil has such a boring voice. It sorta worked when he was a Vedek, but as a bad-ass, it totally didn't.
The best bits, apart from Quarks short parts which were both ace, were the comedy parts - the beginning with Kira and Dax; and the part with the Doctor coming to ops and asking Kira what she got up to last night (meta-funny); and the parts with the Intendant especially where she dressed like Kira and the two of them met again.
One thing I would like to know is how that trans-dimensional teleporter device works, and how it interacts with the teleporter on DS9. (I mean in-universe, obviously!)
posted by marienbad at 3:34 PM on August 1, 2016
I gotta say, Dax’s exchange with Worf at the beginning of the episode was one of the few times Star Trek really nails it on comic timing on purpose. Laughed out loud at that.
It says a lot about this show that, at this point, even the filler episodes aren’t really that bad.
posted by DoctorFedora at 5:49 AM on June 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
It says a lot about this show that, at this point, even the filler episodes aren’t really that bad.
posted by DoctorFedora at 5:49 AM on June 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
I don’t know what everybody’s talking about. I freaking loved this. From the moment the Intendant stepped on the set, I was grinning from ear to ear.
After 6 seasons and 100+ episodes with these characters, the MU episodes hit in a completely different way. Also, Nana Visitor can chew scenery like it’s nobody’s business.
I would have ended the episode differently, though. Keep almost everything the same, but when Bareil meets the Intendant dressed as Kira Prime, it should have actaully been Kira Prime.
Sure, a switcharoo is cliche, but wouldn’t you have loved to see Nana Visitor playing Kira playing the Intendant?
Also: Mirror Bareil might be the only interesting Bajoran man that we’ve met so far. I haven’t finished the series, but I suspect this might hold true until Lower Decks. (Seriously… was the acting prompt “Prince Valim from Spaceballs, but duller”?)
posted by schmod at 6:39 AM on February 19, 2022
After 6 seasons and 100+ episodes with these characters, the MU episodes hit in a completely different way. Also, Nana Visitor can chew scenery like it’s nobody’s business.
I would have ended the episode differently, though. Keep almost everything the same, but when Bareil meets the Intendant dressed as Kira Prime, it should have actaully been Kira Prime.
Sure, a switcharoo is cliche, but wouldn’t you have loved to see Nana Visitor playing Kira playing the Intendant?
Also: Mirror Bareil might be the only interesting Bajoran man that we’ve met so far. I haven’t finished the series, but I suspect this might hold true until Lower Decks. (Seriously… was the acting prompt “Prince Valim from Spaceballs, but duller”?)
posted by schmod at 6:39 AM on February 19, 2022
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But any chance we get to see Mirror-Kira (Mirra?) infatuated with Our-Kira is fine by me.
A more bawdy, daring show might have even explored the morality of engaging with your alternate self. I'm sure there is some Kira-Kira slash fic out there somewhere.
posted by 2ht at 5:10 AM on July 28, 2016 [1 favorite]