DS9 S3.E8 - Meridian

Season 3, Episode 8 - "Meridian," or "Sixty Year Latency"

I swear I've seen this episode before. Something about Meridian's idyllic beauty and bucolic lifestyle reminds me of a TNG episode where the crew visits some Edenic planet, mingles with beautiful locals, and discovers some horrible secret buried underneath.

Meridian is different because by all accounts it seems to be a real Utopian society. Somewhere in the Gamma Quadrant, the crew discovers a planet that shifts in and out of existence. This is Meridian: a planet trapped in an interdimensional bubble, the properties of which drag the planet in and out of our dimension at steady intervals of sixty years.

Even Meridian is vulnerable to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, though. Entropy always ruins everything. Meridian's internal clock is degrading, and after every 'shift,' the planet lingers in our dimension for a shorter and shorter duration before vanishing again.

As for the people of Meridian, they exist in a state of pure conscious, incorporeal but aware, waiting sixty long years for the moment of their return. In this interstitial place, the people of Meridian do not eat, sleep, or age; they just exist.

The ephemeral quality of Meridian sets up an effective story of (literally) star-crossed lovers. Jadzia falls in love with a Meridian man named Jeral. It's a classic dilemma, but a compelling one: when Meridian returns to its own dimension, Jeral must go with it. Jadzia will not see him again for sixty years. Will she stay with DS9 or follow her love into the unknown for sixty years? Will Jeral let Jadzia go and keep her memory in silent vigil until they meet again, when she's grown old? Or will he walk away from his own people and live with her on DS9?

I didn't think I'd like the romance between Jadzia and Jeral, but in fact I did. It's an oddly genuine and sweet romance, occasionally flirtatious and occasionally intimate. I was surprised by the speed with which Jadzia fell head-over-heels in love with Jeral, but I believed it. I don't think I'm cynical enough to believe that love at first sight is a myth, and there is something to the idea that you could meet "the one," and then never see them again because of impossible circumstances.

The show respects my skepticism, though. Even Sisko is skeptical of Jadzia's motivations: Curzon Dax was an incorrigible romantic who chased one love after another, but Jadzia always thought things through. Jadzia insists she isn't Curzon, but we've heard that argument before, haven't we? As much as Jadzia insists on her fundamental individuality outside of Curzon's influence, she and Curzon are part of the same gestalt entity. They are, together, Dax. And Dax can be an incredible romantic.

The episode was at its best when it explored the genuine love and pain between Jadzia and Jeral, carried by Terry Farrell's excellent acting. Yes, I was even okay with the delightfully cringe-inducing "count each others' spots" joke. It was nice to see Jadzia participate actively in her own courting, to flirt back even as she's flirted with. She has this independent, bon-vivant energy that I really admire.

I wasn't wild about the secondary plotline, though. I wanted to be, because I'm fascinated by some of the questions suggested by (but never properly explored) this plotline. Back on DS9, Alien Donald Trump Tiron pursues an unhealthy obsession with Major Kira. Kira has absolutely no interest in his receding orange hairline or his creepy advances, so she rebuffs him (by, adorably, pretending she's already with Odo. Poor Odo.)

Tiron doesn't take no for an answer. He waves several bars of latinum in front of Quark and convinces him to create a custom holosuite program involving a perfect likeness of Major Kira. It's horrible--but also raises an interesting question:

What is the difference between a flawless holographic simulation of Major Kira, and Major Kira herself? If there is no difference at all, are they the same person? If they're not the same person, is the hologram a person? If the hologram is a person, does the question of consent come into play? If the question of consent does not come into play, can we say the hologram is sentient? If the hologram is not sentient, is it truly a flawless simulation?

This is a subtle and compelling question in latter-day science fiction. Even Destiny has a fascinating little snippet of lore where a Warmind creates a perfect simulation of various scientists and subjects that simulation to horrible torture, and the scientists (the real ones) don't know if they're in a simulation--because if they are, then they've already lost.

I'd love to see an episode about the question of simulated sentience. TNG kind of touched on this idea when it gave us Holographic Moriarty, and Data explores the question of simulated humanity through his very existence.

Unfortunately, all my philosophical navel-gazing is for naught. This sub-plot has absolutely nothing to do with the ethics of sentience, and everything to do with green-screening Quark's leering bedroom eyes on the exquisite legs of a lingerie model. Possibly with a smoky saxophone solo.

It's hilarious comic relief, but I would've preferred the philosophy.

Some episodes have problems trying to figure out what they're about. Meridian knows exactly what it's about. It's a star-crossed lover story set in a dimension-shifting planet. Because the episode is committed so hard to its central premise, everything tangential to that premise really suffers. Most Star Trek episodes that are any good at least try to explore the drama in their science. A character will die if Bashir can't synthesize the right amino acids. A society will collapse if a power source dies out.

But in Meridian, we have an episode that feels impatient and distracted by its own science. Jadzia breezes over the complex problem of stabilizing Meridian's "quantum flux" over an afternoon of datapad calculations and coffee. The problem and solution present themselves with a wave of a hand and a sentence or two of jargon, which made the whole problem of Meridian's stabilization seem scientifically trivial.

It was nice to see Jadzia's romantic side, though. I like just about every side of Jadzia I've seen, which, I suppose, is also every side of Dax that I've seen.