

(written from a Production point of view Real World article

Bashir and O'Brien lure a Section 31 agent to the station in a desperate search for the cure to the disease that is killing Odo. (Part 7 of 9)

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Summary

Teaser

Doctor Julian Bashir treats Odo in the Deep Space 9 infirmary, still unable to make any significant progress in curing his sickness. He estimates Odo has one week, perhaps two, before dying. Odo persuades Kira to leave his bedside to accompany Damar back to Dominion space in order to help the Cardassian Resistance, for his sake as well as hers. Elim Garak reminds Kira that they need to leave quickly before the Dominion border patrols are changed. Odo appears to be in an advanced state of decomposition, yet this does nothing to dampen their love for one another. He tells Kira that he knows how hard it was for her to watch Vedek Bareil die in this very infirmary, and he doesn't want her to see him die either. He makes it a request from him, to not have the last thing he sees be the pain in Kira's eyes. She decides to go, making it easier on the man she still loves.

Chief Miles O'Brien informs Captain Sisko that Starfleet Engineering now has the schematics of the Breen energy-dampening weapon Kira and the others were able to procure, and a defense is currently being worked on. When Captain Sisko inquires of Odo's prognosis, O'Brien suggests that a medical cure is not the only option they have been pursuing, at which point Sisko demands to know the whole story. Doctor Bashir reluctantly discloses his belief that Odo's sickness is a virus created by Section 31 intended to wipe out all Changelings, leaving Sisko shocked that people who call themselves Federation citizens are attempting to commit genocide. Bashir also says that he has transmitted a report to Starfleet Medical, falsely claiming to have found a cure for Odo's sickness, in order to lure a Section 31 operative to the station; once captured, the agent would be interrogated to help point Bashir in the right direction of finding a cure. Sisko then asks why they didn't tell him. Bashir answer that if they told him, then he'd alert Starfleet Command and Section 31 would cover up their tracks and go even deeper into hiding once they realize they were discovered. They also tell the captain they plan on using Romulan mind probes, which are illegal in the Federation. Sisko knows that what his officers are doing is not only illegal but also highly unethical, but since the two are being forced to play dirty in a dirty game, he has no choice but to allow them to continue.

Act One

Later that evening, O'Brien stumbles across Bashir throwing darts in a closed Quark's; each man is restless and feeling down in the dumps. Bashir tells O'Brien that he, after thinking over the conspiracy to infect the Founders with the disease, has concluded that at least seventy-three people must have been involved in the plot; a fact that leaves a very bitter taste in his mouth. The two friends each view Section 31 as an evil that's crawled its way into the heart of the Federation, and that it must be destroyed. O'Brien tells Bashir that he'll get no argument on that. Bashir says that they should probably go have a light sleep, and reminds him there is still a chance Section 31 could still fall for the trap they've set. O'Brien tells Bashir that he'll be ready.

Afterward, Bashir awakens in his quarters to find Section 31 operative Luther Sloan sitting comfortably in a chair overlooking Bashir's bed, as he normally appears, saying he has another assignment; but this time, Bashir is ready for him. The doctor activates a containment field, trapping Sloan where he sits. Bashir tells Sloan that he needs the cure to the morphogenic virus; Sloan is confused, he thought Bashir had already had it but he soon realizes he doesn't. Sloan is impressed, but indicates that turning him over to security won't do any good. Bashir tells Sloan that he is not interested in turning the latter over to security, then drops the force field and stuns Sloan unconscious with a phaser.

Sloan awakens in a science lab, immobilized with a force field encompassing his body. Sloan asks O'Brien about his family, implying that if he dies, Section 31 will harm them. Yet Bashir doesn't believe him and tells O'Brien to not to listen to him. Bashir deduces that Sloan must have known the cure in order to find it in the doctor's lab and destroy it.

Bashir and O'Brien prepare to use the Romulan mind probes on Sloan, who, for once, appears lost for a backup plan. He resorts to pleading with Bashir, saying he is genuinely sorry Odo has to die, but he cannot risk the millions of lives that might be lost if the Founders learn about the cure and the war is allowed to continue. Bashir coolly replies that Sloan no longer has any say in the matter. Ruefully acknowledging that he underestimated Bashir, Sloan activates a neuro-depolarizing device in his brain, killing himself. Bashir moves quickly to stabilize Sloan before he does irreversible damage.

Act Two

Bashir manages to stabilize Sloan's body, but the higher cortical functions in his brain will cease to function within the hour, so Bashir prepares a multitronic engrammatic interpreter to link minds with the dying Sloan. This will allow him to see information through Sloan's memories, though the memories could be anything from Sloan's past, including his childhood. O'Brien insists on accompanying the doctor on this potentially lethal travel through someone else's mind. Bashir explains to O'Brien that when they are ready to exit, he will use his genetically-enhanced nervous system to raise his blood pressure, thus sending a signal to the device to pull them out.

When they activate the mind link, Bashir and O'Brien find themselves in a turbolift, which neither of them remember entering. They realize it is merely an abstraction in Sloan's mind. The turbolift appears to be moving and O'Brien wonders where it is going to. Bashir does not know but notes that they are not wasting any time getting there. Just then, the turbolift appears to go into free fall and O'Brien and Bashir grab onto the lift's hand holds.

Act Three

The turbolift eventually comes to a stop and then rapidly falls down some more. Finally, the turbolift ceases its descent. The doors opens to a recreation of DS9 and a cooperative Sloan greets the two. He seems to be aware of their place within his own dying mind. This Sloan tries to tell the two the cure, which is a simple nucleotide sequence but the dominant Sloan personality is preventing him from telling them what it is. Bashir grabs him and slams him against the wall, telling Sloan that they do not have time for games. Sloan tells Bashir that he understand why he is suspicious, but says that if he wants the cure, he is going to have to come with him to the wardroom.

Sloan leads the two mind-travelers to a reception, being held in Sloan's honor in the wardroom, where he delivers a farewell speech to his family and friends, apologizing for all the pain he has caused in his life. After he finishes, he prepares to give Bashir and O'Brien the cure on a PADD, but suddenly another Sloan appears, killing the first (cooperative) Sloan with a phaser, and running away down a corridor of Sloan's dying, yet still active, mind as cooperative Sloan's party disappears.

Act Four

Bashir and O'Brien receive phaser wounds from a Section 31 operative "guarding" Sloan's mind. The wounds are causing them physical pain, meaning that Sloan is sending sensory stimuli to their brains, as well as thought patterns.

When Bashir is unable to disengage the mental connection, the two men fear they will die (in reality) because their minds are linked to a dying mind; they ponder friendship, marriage, love. As O'Brien wishes he had written Keiko a goodbye letter explaining why he had to do what he did, Bashir confides that he loves Ezri passionately, but has never told her.

They then see… the light at the end of the corridor. They resist the urge to quit; instead, they regain their bearing, and prepare to open another door.

Suddenly, Bashir and O'Brien wake up with Sisko, Worf, and Ezri around them. Bashir tries furiously along with Nurse Bandee to save Sloan and the knowledge of the cure, but it is no good and he dies of complete neural failure.

Act Five

Devastated, Bashir tells Odo that he has no hope of finding a cure. Odo thanks Bashir for all his help, asking to be left alone to die. Outside, Bashir and O'Brien feel terrible that their plan failed but now there's nothing else they can do. The two friends part ways and sadly decide to turn in for the night.

Later, Bashir tries to take his mind off the matter by reading Jadzia's copy of A Tale of Two Cities that Ezri loaned to him, but finds that after turning the page from where he left off, the book simply begins again from the start. Knowing the book can't be misprinted, Bashir realizes that he and O'Brien are still in Sloan's mind, and that is another trick being played by Sloan, who is trying to keep Bashir and O'Brien linked to him long enough to ensure that they will die with him. They remember they were about to open a door before their false awakening, and realize the cure must be there.

When they finally reach the "inner sanctum" of Sloan's decaying mind, he tempts them with information tablets about every aspect of Section 31 that he knows. Bashir starts reading, and is shocked to find information powerful enough to bring the organization down. However, O'Brien realizes that it is one final ploy by Sloan, knowing that one of Bashir's deepest desires is to destroy Section 31. It's meant to distract them from finding the cure. O'Brien finds the correct tablet, and persuades Bashir to reluctantly walk away from the information.

Bashir wakes up (for real, this time) in science lab four with Sisko, Ezri, and attending medical staff. O'Brien awakens, and promises that will be the last mind link he is ever a part of. Sloan is dead, but Bashir has discovered the cure. Later, having synthesized the cure, Bashir injects it into Odo, who experiences a quick and complete recovery.

Later that night, Bashir is playing darts again in Quark's, and O'Brien comes by to invite the doctor to dinner. O'Brien finds a bottle of the 'good stuff' which is older than Bashir, and the two friends share a toast to 'aging gracefully and to Odo'. Bashir accepts the dinner invitation, and reminds O'Brien that Sloan had the perfect bait for Bashir with all the information on Section 31, however the one thing that Sloan didn't count on was O'Brien getting him to leave. The two drink another toast, this time to friendship and leave for the dinner which Keiko has prepared. Before Bashir leaves Quark's, he throws a dart from the entrance to the dartboard, which hits it bullseye.

Log entries

Memorable quotes

"Genocide – committed by people who call themselves Federation citizens."

- Sisko, learning of Section 31's plan to eradicate the Founders



"Remember these? Romulan mind probes. Not the most pleasant devices, but very efficient."

"They're also illegal in the Federation."

"Oh, I hope you can appreciate the irony of that statement."

- Doctor Bashir and Luther Sloan



"I misread you. I thought you were just a misguided idealist. But you're a dangerous man. People like you would destroy the Federation. Fortunately, there are people like me who are willing to die in order to protect it."

- Luther Sloan



"As I stand here, reunited with my friends and my family for one last time, I want you, the people I love, to know how sorry I am for all the pain that I've caused you. I've dedicated my life to the preservation and protection of the Federation. This duty, which I carried out to the best of my ability, took precedence over everything else: my parents, my wife, my children. I lived in a world of secrets, of sabotage and deceit. I spent so much time, erasing my movements, covering my tracks, that now as I look back on my life, I find nothing. It's as if I never really existed. I cheated you all out of being in my life, and what's more, I cheated myself as well. Now I know a simple apology won't change that. Still, I feel the need to apologize anyway. No tears, please. My death isn't a tragedy. It's a celebration. In death I can finally step out of the shadows, and prove to myself that I existed, that I lived."

- Luther Sloan



"You're in a restricted area."

"I thought we were in the cerebellum."



- O'Brien and Bashir looking for Sloan inside his head



"It's the tunnel."

"What tunnel?"

"Y'know, the tunnel to the great beyond."

"It is. I must say I'm a bit disappointed. I expected it to be a bit more elaborate."

- O'Brien and Bashir



"Hey Julian, the next time you take a trip inside someone's mind, you're going on your own."

- Miles O'Brien



"Aha! Here we go. I knew Quark was hoarding a bottle of the good stuff."

"This is older than I am."

"What? I'm drinking with a child."

- O'Brien and Bashir



"I should warn you, you may feel some discomfort."

"If you mean it's going to be painful, just say so."

"It's going to be painful."



- Bashir and Odo

Background information

The Final Chapter

"Extreme Measures"

According to the script, the working title of this episode was "Night Tremors". It also mentioned the Tilavan art theft. ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion - A Series Guide and Script Library )

) As explained above, this was originally written to be an Odo episode. Ronald D. Moore stated " Initially, our thought was to have Odo going into Luther Sloan's mind and having a surreal adventure where he eventually ran into Dr. Mora and learn that it was his own "father" who created the changeling disease. Unable to really mine this concept for all it was worth, we junked it and decided to make one final Bashir and O'Brien adventure, but I think maybe we were closer with the original idea. " [1]

" [1] As this comment indicates, this is the only show in The Final Chapter with which the writers were a little disappointed. They had wanted the show to deal with two major topics; the Bashir/Sloan story and the Bashir/O'Brien relationship, but as Weddle explains, " We'd have been better off trying to do one or the other. With the focus so split, it just didn't work, conceptually ." ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion )

." ( ) Once the issue of who would be in the episode had been finalized, and how the episode was going to work, the plan was for Sloan's mind to be like a labyrinth, with dark corridors, hidden rooms and traps. However, the Art Department couldn't afford to build the new sets, so they suggested using existing Deep Space 9 sets, lighting and decorating them in really unusual ways to make them look different. As director Steve Posey explains, " In the beginning we planned to have an Alice in Wonderland kind of experience in Sloan's mind. It was very surreal, and the Art Department and I were very excited about redressing the sets, repainting some of them in a psychedelic style. But then the writers threw in this plot twist where Bashir and O'Brien think they're out of Sloan's mind and back on the station. That meant we had to make everything in Sloan's mind look exactly like it did in reality. If we hadn't it would have been obvious that we were still in his mind. That took some of the fun out of it, at least in the visual sense ." ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion )

in ." ( ) In an initial version of the script after the show had been changed to Bashir/O'Brien and Bashir/Sloan, the structure of the episode was very much split into two distinct halves; the first was a very dark and serious verbal duel between Bashir and Sloan, the second was a reasonably light-hearted O'Brien/Bashir adventure. As Weddle says, "It was a very serious exploration of the moral implications of what Sloan had done, played against Bashir's willingness to cross the line himself to pull the information out of Sloan's head. That much was great, but it didn't work at all with the tone of the second half of the show." O'Brien's role in this version of the script was also minimal, meaning that the relationship aspect of the story felt tacked on. As Thompson says, "We owed the Bashir and O'Brien relationship. We needed to see the two guys together." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion)

Video and DVD releases

This is the final DS9 volume released by CIC Video. The last volume, 7.13, was distributed by Paramount Home Entertainment after the dissolution of CIC.

As part of the DS9 Season 7 DVD collection

Starring

Also starring

Guest star

Special guest star

Co-stars

Uncredited co-stars

Stunt double

References

47; ability; abstraction; adenine; admiral; Alamo; alpha wave; apology; asporanine; Bareil Antos; blood pressure; building; cerebellum; clerk; clothes; computer expert; cordrazine; cortical function; cortical stimulator; Crockett, Davy; Dax, Jadzia; darts; death; deceit; Dickens, Charles; disorientation; doctor; ethical issues; family; Federation; Founders; friend; gray; Great Beyond; heart; hippocampal nuclei; hypothalamus; hypothalamic feedback loop; Jaresh-Inyo; lidestolinine; life support; lunatic; memory pathway; milligram; morphogenic matrix; morphogenic virus; Morphogenic virus plot participants; muffin; neuro-depolarizing device; Martok; multitronic engrammatic interpreter; neural interface; neuronal pathway; neurotropan; O'Brien, Keiko; O'Brien, Kirayoshi; O'Brien, Molly; operative; pain; percent; practical joke; Qo'noS; Quark's; radodine; racquetball; Romulan mind probe; sabotage; secret; Section 31; security officer; shock; Sloan family; sonic shower; Starfleet Medical; Starfleet Security; suicide; Tale of Two Cities, A; tear; toast; Travis, William; Vic's lounge; vital signs; Worf (illusory)

Unreferenced material

holo-sculpture; Tilavan art theft



