Season 6, Episode 10 “Equilibrium" (DS9) with Alex White

Secrets and lies get exposed as we peek behind the mask to find our “Equilibrium”!

Author Alex White joins the show this week to discuss an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine that gives us a brief but intriguing look at the Trill homeworld. When Dax begins experiencing troubling visions, she returns to Trill for medical help. When her condition becomes grave, it’s up to Sisko and Bashir to fight through a web of lies to expose a dark truth about Trill and to save Jadzia’s life!

The concept behind the Trill–a benevolent race of intelligent slug-like creatures and the humanoid civilization that provides for them–is one of sci-fi most creative and fertile premises. However, the privilege, wealth, longevity, and political power that near-eternal life would afford means that Trill society must accept a rigid class structure to maintain its equilibrium, a structure that stands at odd with the egalitarianism that the Federation was founded to promote. On this episode, we discuss the fleeting glimpses we get of Trill in the franchise, how the audience’s perception of Dax has evolved over time, making the rules of your universe clear, the generational impact of violence and abuse, re-lensing old stories, and why it’s important that people and children especially have the opportunity to see themselves in fiction.

We also discuss insurance in the Alien universe, Eternal Space ’80s, the speed of plot, the best DS9 episode based on a magic act, getting cheated out of a circus, symbiotes as a commodity, “wormy hot tub time”, getting the most out of your immortal, “nice vampires”, capitalist critique, “a taste of the creature”, using Outlook in the future, John Carpenter, good and bad bosses, and a Rear Admiral Grace Hopper name-drop!

This episode is dedicated to the memory of Lisa Banes.