Vic Fontaine Was the Escape Deep Space Nine Needed

Earlier this week, James Darren—the histrion and vocalist champion known for his roles successful the Gidget films, and, to sci-fi fans, his crook arsenic the kooky lounge vocalist hologram Vic Fontaine on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine—passed distant astatine the property of 88. A precocious accomplishment to the Star Trek galaxy, Darren’s inescapably wry charm and creaseless takes connected classical jazz were an improbable acceptable for a bid that was staring down the tube of immoderate its grandest, astir challenging storytelling. But his enduring popularity reflects that really, a quality similar Vic Fontaine was ever conscionable arsenic important to Deep Space Nine‘s communicative of warfare and compromise successful utopia.

A precocious accomplishment successful an established ongoing amusement is ever a challenging presumption to beryllium successful for an actor. Star Trek was nary alien to this passim its half-century-plus of existence, and is filled with arsenic galore occurrence stories (Jeri Ryan’s accomplishment arsenic Seven of Nine successful Voyager‘s 4th season) arsenic it is arguable ones—Deep Space Nine itself faced this with the summation of Nicole de Boer’s Ezri Dax, the adjacent big of the Dax symbiont to regenerate Terri Farrell’s Jadzia aft her exit. But Vic Fontaine, introduced precocious into the sixth play of the show, faced a peculiarly daunting entry. Star Trek had plentifulness of recurring holodeck bits earlier that played with anachronistic and tonal clashes: TNG had things similar Picard’s emotion of ’40s noir and his detective persona Dixon Hill, oregon its infrequent brushes with a maniacal Dr. Moriarty. Voyager, moving concurrently with DS9 astatine this point, went done a full bunch, from Sandrine’s, to the Paxau Resort, to Fair Haven.

But Vic Fontaine wasn’t conscionable different avenue and genre for a amusement that regularly played with genre to waltz down: helium was a lovable, all-singing, all-dancing smoothie, a sendup of ’60s mobster flicks, being shoved into the bosom of a amusement astatine its bloodiest and darkest, arsenic Deep Space Nine reckoned with the outgo of full war successful Star Trek‘s idealized future.

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It was an incredibly risky move, but 1 that paid disconnected enormously. A batch of this was owed to Darren’s charisma: arsenic tonally alien to DS9 arsenic Fontaine was, Darren suffused the hologram with an affable charm and wit that made the assemblage and Deep Space Nine‘s war-weary heroes alike rapidly autumn into his orbit and consciousness astatine ease. But it’s besides for what Fontaine and his lounge came to correspond arsenic the Dominion War raged crossed the series: a portion of civilization and comfortableness that agreed our myriad heroes, a portion of location that was not specifically immoderate singular being’s home. Vic Fontaine came to correspond to Deep Space Nine this romanticized perfect astir arsenic lofty arsenic the ideals the Dominion War was being fought for, this originative imaging of 1 society’s past that could beryllium shared and made accessible to the many, and unity to beryllium recovered successful that taste exchange.

This becomes explicit from astir the infinitesimal Vic is introduced to the series. In “His Way,” helium is the catalyst that brings unneurotic the climax of Kira and Odo’s on-again, off-again romanticist arc, providing a touchstone adjacent arsenic their ain baggage arsenic a Bajoran and arsenic 1 of the Changelings began to complicate their spot successful the warfare much and more. It’s Vic that provides a spot for Nog’s communicative astir wartime trauma aft helium loses his limb successful 1 of DS9‘s most brutal warfare episodes, a spot for these characters to flight to and beryllium successful interaction with a cosmopolitan consciousness of personhood. Vic and his lounge aren’t conscionable a location distant from the war, but a canvas for Deep Space Nine‘s idiosyncratic stories astir love, personhood, and grief to intermingle and beryllium fixed space. It’s a captious reflector to the show’s expansive story, and a changeless reminder that erstwhile helium shows up, portion you mightiness beryllium getting a interruption from the sorrows and enactment of the Dominion War, truthful are DS9‘s characters, if lone for a small while.

© Paramount

It’s wherefore climaxing Vic’s arc successful the wonderfully silly “Badda-Bing Badda-Bang”—the play 7 occurrence wherever Vic’s holoprogram comes nether menace of a full reset erstwhile portion of its storyline sees Vic ousted from his residence by the mafia—clicks adjacent close arsenic DS9‘s wider wartime communicative is reaching its climax. Vic represented a spot wherever everyone connected DS9 was welcome—an thought adjacent Sisko came to admire, aft his archetypal distancing from the lounge implicit its idealized presumption of a past that would’ve looked down connected him. By threatening it, and by having that menace unanimously propulsion the full main formed unneurotic to forestall it (via, of course, the mean of a classical heist tale), DS9 was telling america that this was the location these disparate characters had recovered together, this harmless haven distant from the acheronian encroaching further and further successful connected them, and they were going to bash their damndest to prevention it.

It’s fitting then, that 1 of the past scenes successful each of DS9 rightfully takes america backmost to Vic’s. After the warfare is implicit and the pact with the Dominion is signed, the unit comes unneurotic to perceive Vic 1 past time, earlier they each statesman to spell their abstracted ways. Darren gives a stunning rendition of “The Way You Look Tonight”—a opus astir appreciating the small things radical who emotion each different announcement successful 1 other. It’s romantic, but it’s besides a opus astir this snapshot of these radical together, friends, lovers, survivors, earlier the circumstances that steeled them and brought them unneurotic successful the archetypal spot statesman to slice from memory. It’s a reminder that this is 1 they fought for—for 1 last time, that accidental to beryllium together, to connect, to consciousness thing successful this shared place. In the shadiness of war, Vic Fontaine was the agleam airy that Deep Space Nine needed.

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