Cheap Star Trek - Deep Space Nine, Episode 60: Heart of Stone (Video) (Rene Auberjonois) (Rene Auberjonois, Michael Dorn, Alexander Siddig, Corey Allen, Reza Badiyi, Gabrielle Beaumont, LeVar Burton, David Carson, Chip Chalmers) Price

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Customer Reviews of Star Trek - Deep Space Nine, Episode 60: Heart of Stone

While others may find this particular installment slow-moving and irreverent, I find it to be dynamic and most essential to the DS9 saga.

Childish and forced
Episode title: Heart of Stone

Written by: Ira Steven Behr & Robert Hewitt Wolfe

Directed by: Alexander Singer

"Heart of Stone" continues in the tradition of "Life Support", the episode preceeding it, with packing tide-turning events for the whole show to idividual episodes as spontanious and ungrounded events, insteafd of handling those changes with proper care and presicion.

"Heart of Stone" deals with one of the strong themes of season 3, the hidden love Odo feels for Kira.

And how originally have the writers dealt with the subject that is finally being adressed?

Kira and Odo, while returning from a Bajoran colony in the Delta Quandrant, stumble onto a Maquis raider who leads them to a remote cavenous planet of the Badlands. When they get there, Kira's foot gets stuck to a living chrystal that grows rapidly.

Meanwhile on DS9, we get to experience the horribly executed B-plot of the episode deals with Nog's sudden decision to enter Starfleet Academy, a decision that has a big role in the developement of the character later on, so it definitely shouldn't have been introduced as a spontaneous whim.

The plot of the story is overly simplistic and childish, underestimating and frustrating the viewer, as overly melodramatic scenes accompanied by bad dialogue and clumsy timing carry the viewr through the episode that doesn't do it's duty in deepening the characters it dels with.

The ending of the story is mostly a reset, even if we are being reminded of a few things nearly forgotten after the third seasons jumpy ride through different aspects of the show.

A good example of what you get if you force developement and closure to a series that has no clearly established storytelling archs yet.

The unrequited love of Constable Odo for Major Kira
Major Kira and Odo are in a roundabout chasing a Maquis terrorist to a moon in the Cardassian badlands. During their search of some caves on the moon the pair separately. Then Odo hears Kira cry out for help. Her foot has become stuck in a crystal formation that keep growing and threatens to cover her completely in a few hours. Of course the peculiar qualities of the moon make it impossible for Odo to use his communicator or the transporter. Despite his efforts, the crystal grows until it covers everything but Kira's chin. She tries to get Odo to leave, but he refuses to because he loves her. When Kira responds that she loves Odo too, the Constable knows that something is very wrong here.

There is nothing like discovering that an emotional moment is not what you really think it is, but you know how impossible it is for the characters on Star Trek to have a love life (there is an episode of Voyager that does the same thing with the Doctor and Seven). But Odo is a tragic figure in the scheme of things, especially as played by the Tony Award winning actor Rene Auberjonois, and "Heart of Stone" explores that quite nicely. The episode's sub-plot back on DS9 deals with Quark's brother Rom, who displays some talent in the field of engineering. Both of these storylines will be continued in future episodes.