Television Review: The Storyteller (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, S1x14, 1993)

The Chase (S01E14)

Airdate: 2 May 1993

Written by: Kurt Michael Bensmiller & Ira Steven Behr
Directed by: David Livingston

Running Time: 46 minutes

Unproduced television episode scripts often languish for years in production office desks for very good reasons. They sit there, gathering dust, because the fit between a creative concept and a specific series' tone, budget, and narrative direction is often a difficult one to match. The production staff of The Storyteller, the fourteenth episode of the first season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, learned this lesson the hard way. The episode represents a fascinating example of bad adaptation—the journey of a script that was good enough to work on one starship but was ultimately reshaped to find its home on a space station.

The genesis of The Storyteller lies with Kurt Michael Bensmiller, who originally conceived the script for the first season of The Next Generation. It was a spec script that was initially rejected by the TNG producers. While this rejection was a setback, it proved to be a fortunate redirection for Bensmiller. He would later be credited as the story author for the relatively successful Time Squared in Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 2. The script for The Storyteller itself was partly inspired by Rudyard Kipling’s classic short story The Man Who Would Be King. Rather than shelve the concept entirely, the story was ultimately found to be more suitable for Deep Space Nine. It was adapted by Ira Steven Behr, who recognised that the moral ambiguity and the Bajoran mythology inherent in the story provided a good fit for the gritty, character-driven world of DS9.

The title of the episode refers directly to the main plot, which is set entirely on the Bajoran planet and revolves around a central figure known as the "Storyteller." Dr. Julian Bashir is sent to the planet, accompanied by Chief Miles O’Brien, who apparently doesn’t much enjoy his company. They are sent to handle a medical emergency in one of the villages. There, they meet the village magistrate, Faren Kag (Jim Jansen). Kag explains that one of the villagers, an old man named Sirah (Kay E. Kutter), is dying. More worryingly, Kag claims that the entire village might die with him. It is revealed that "Sirah" is actually a title that corresponds with "storyteller." The Sirah performs a vital function, using stories to encourage the villagers when they are confronted by a mysterious, ominous force called the Dal’Rok. Bashir and O’Brien witness how Sirah is able to fend off this phenomenon through his storytelling, a feat that appears to be a form of charismatic magic. Soon afterwards, Sirah dies, but not before apparently naming Chief O’Brien as his successor.

O’Brien is quite baffled by this strange honour. The episode introduces another complication in the form of a man named Hovath (Lawrence Monoson), who is Sirah’s old apprentice. Hovath clearly wants to kill O’Brien, viewing the Bajoran tradition as a threat to his own position or desires. O’Brien manages to stop him. Later, Hovath explains the backstory: the first Sirah long ago took possession of part of Prophets’ orbs, which materialise villagers’ thoughts into a physical form. He thus created an external danger—the Dal’Rok—to stop internal strife and force the villagers to work together. O’Brien agrees to take part in the next ritual, intending to deliberately fail and leave the reins to Hovath, acknowledging that the burden of leadership might be more than he bargained for.

Another storyline features a land dispute between two powerful clans on Bajor—the Paqu and the Navot—which threatens to escalate into a full-blown civil war. Commander Benjamin Sisko wants to mediate and has called both clan leaders to the station. He is much surprised to find that the leader of Paqu, Tetrarch Varis Sul, played by Gina Phillips, is only fifteen years old. Her presence leaves a great impression on Jake Sisko and Nog, with the latter becoming infatuated with her. They both try to impress her, yet their efforts, combined with hanging out with Nog and learning the Ferengi’s ways of the Rules of Acquisition, make her seek compromise rather than war.

The production of The Storyteller was apparently very demanding. It was difficult both in terms of budget and because the cast had to endure a wind machine that simulated the effects of the Dal’Rok. Those efforts, however, didn't pay off. The simple plot of deliberate deception as a way to suppress strife and achieve social harmony looks artificially injected into the DS9 world. It feels like a fable grafted onto a sci-fi series rather than a story that naturally grows out of the show's established universe. It seems that the concept lost all nuance during the adaptation, becoming a rather blunt instrument in the narrative.

The lack of focus didn’t help either. The concept of a young female leader suddenly having to make some very adult decisions is compromised with a rather generic teen romance plot, with some cheap comedy added to good measure. The subplot involving Varis Sul feels like it was written for a different show entirely, lacking the gravitas required of a Tetrarch facing war. The episode tries to do too much, splitting its time between magical realism and political drama without giving either enough room to breathe.

Nevertheless, the episode is important for DS9 lore. It is the first to show Odo’s bucket, which is used for this character’s liquid regeneration. This is a subject of a boys’ failed prank, a moment of levity that highlights Odo’s unique physiology. The episode is also the first one that prominently features Bashir and O’Brien together. Their slowly developing friendship later becomes one of the narrative backbones of the series, a dynamic that is charming here, even if the surrounding plot is lacking.

The Storyteller is, despite a few cute and funny moments, mostly disappointing and forgettable. It falls into the trap of trading the complex, serialized storytelling for a simple, whimsical fable. It would have been the worst DS9 episode by that point if not for the significantly worse Move Along Home. While it has its moments of charm and represents an early step in the development of the Bashir-O'Brien dynamic, it ultimately fails to justify the heavy production requirements and feels like a script that was never quite sure which show it belonged to.

RATING: 4/10 (+)

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