Dr Bashir has a romance with an Elaysian Starfleet officer.
This is an okay episode but it suffers from some contrivances and misses the opportunity to give a more positive depiction of a disabled character.
What frustrates mostly is that it has some fantastic ideas at the heart of the story. I love the concept of the planet's gravity being what causes problems elsewhere. I'm not convinced it would hold up to scientific scrutiny but I like it as a sci-fi angle.
Melora is unfortunately portrayed as a disabled stereotype with a chip on her shoulder and is initially aggressive towards everybody around her. If they wanted to make a social issue out of her disability it would have been better to portray others as awkward but her being cool about everything.
The resolution to the story is positive but feels preoccupied with raising a middle finger to the TNG episode 'Ethics'. If it had been generally more positive in tone, it could have moved on to Dr Bashir being told confidently by Melora that she is not interested in a 'cure' and he then falls more in love with because of it. She could even have been a recurring character, but as she never appears again it feels like diversity box ticking.
Also the subplot, that eventually merges with the main story, is a half-baked contrivance with no genuine sense of threat to give Melora a 'Wait Until Dark' Audrey Hepburn moment.
All that being said there are some decent moments. As implausible as the romance is, with Dr Bashir being so reminiscent of Geordie LaForge in his attempts to woo the ladies, I do like the sequence of dialogue when he retaliates against all her prickly comments. The zero gravity scenes are done very well considering it is wire work.
Most performances are great, particularly Alexander Siddig and Daphne Ashbrook.
This is an okay episode but it suffers from some contrivances and misses the opportunity to give a more positive depiction of a disabled character.
What frustrates mostly is that it has some fantastic ideas at the heart of the story. I love the concept of the planet's gravity being what causes problems elsewhere. I'm not convinced it would hold up to scientific scrutiny but I like it as a sci-fi angle.
Melora is unfortunately portrayed as a disabled stereotype with a chip on her shoulder and is initially aggressive towards everybody around her. If they wanted to make a social issue out of her disability it would have been better to portray others as awkward but her being cool about everything.
The resolution to the story is positive but feels preoccupied with raising a middle finger to the TNG episode 'Ethics'. If it had been generally more positive in tone, it could have moved on to Dr Bashir being told confidently by Melora that she is not interested in a 'cure' and he then falls more in love with because of it. She could even have been a recurring character, but as she never appears again it feels like diversity box ticking.
Also the subplot, that eventually merges with the main story, is a half-baked contrivance with no genuine sense of threat to give Melora a 'Wait Until Dark' Audrey Hepburn moment.
All that being said there are some decent moments. As implausible as the romance is, with Dr Bashir being so reminiscent of Geordie LaForge in his attempts to woo the ladies, I do like the sequence of dialogue when he retaliates against all her prickly comments. The zero gravity scenes are done very well considering it is wire work.
Most performances are great, particularly Alexander Siddig and Daphne Ashbrook.