Let's do this.
The Mirror Universe counterpart of Kira's dead love takes her hostage on Deep Space Nine as he is running from the evil Alliance of his universe.
I can no longer tell which of my Star Trek thoughts are things I say all the time in a variety of places and which aren't. I suspect my thoughts on how the mirror universe should only be used sparingly are things I've shared to a number of places, online and off. So I'll give my spiel once and for all below and hopefully just hyperlink to it going forward; no point wandering through life sharing the same spiel to anyone who'll listen about the same topics as triggered by Star Trek!
The mirror universe can work once or twice on the idea that there is no throughline-continuity in the mirror universe, that's it's just like a random dimension-scrabble at any one time, from a transporter accident or Q-snap or whatever, like tuning to the one spot on the dial at any one given moment that will never exist again where this weirdly-improbable-impossible "mirror" universe for the main cast exists. That's it. Once, twice, three is pushing it, and I'm talking across all the shows. And one of those is already (always) TOS' "Mirror, Mirror," so really, you can do it only twice.
The moment you start having it be one continuity you can go back and forth to - and as soon as you tie it into the mirror timelines of the other shows - the whole thing collapses, and I don't care how many gymnastics you perform to tie them together. There is no way the Mirror Universe of TOS "Mirror, Mirror" becomes the timeline seen in any other show; zero, done, nada. It is not a failure of imagination to assert this; it is a failure of imagination to assert it is not. This pretty much goes for reboots as well as for alternate dimensions starring the cast in mustaches or where Hitler won the war, etc. Ask DC.
I give the DS9 folk kudos for trying some new things with the concept; none of the mirror episodes hit me as dumb the way news (I haven't watched them) of the Discovery episodes does. But the concept simply cannot support the close examination repeated use makes inevitable, so whatever merits this story has - and everyone does a nice job - it's handicapped by that from the first.
I often hear people scoff in a "if you can swallow the transporter or the replicator or warp speed, you can swallow the mirror universe" manner. The difference for me is that I can see technology advancing to a point where people invent transporters or replicators or warp speed, so it's written into the concept of the show to be okay with the iffiness of those things. Whereas technological advancement will - I'm going out on a limb but I feel it will support my weight - likely not lead to the discovery of some ongoing mirror universe where all our friends and family are still nearby, in a Frankenstein'd, artificial construct that maintains the same structure over multiple franchises despite the characters arising from completely different circumstances.
The Defiant picks up a distress call from Captain Lisa Cusak, whose escape pod has crashed on a remote planet following the destruction of her ship, the Olympia.
Early in this episode, Odo starts giving Quark crap about the barstools or some nonsense. It's meant to demonstrate Odo's state of mind, but it's ridiculous Quark would take him seriously or comply with this. This is by no means a hill to die on, just something that mildly irritated me. Then again, Odo and Quark are starting to be better and closer frenemies at this point, so wrapped up in Odo's compliance is likely recognition that Odo's petty tyrannies are masking inner turmoil.
Speaking of Quark's, just a question on money: do they cover the adjustment Federation members must make to a market (not to mention bribes and fines) economy in seasons one, two, or three? For that matter, how do Federation peoples handle commerce with cultures with whom they share Promenade space but do not pay wages/ have a system of exchange? Do they replicate money? That could be a problem.
The twist is cool but not really integrated well. You could see it coming a mile away, I thought, not that that ruins it. This lady was a commanding officer, though? Some suspiciously poor radio discipline on these distress calls. Her demeanor in general kind of doesn't feel real to me. Maybe it's just not a good performance. I hesitate to put it on that, though.
When Dukat tells Kira that her mother did not die when Nerys was three but was actually Dukat's lover, Kira goes into the past using the Bajoran Orb of Time to find the truth.
This one is silly. One day Dukat drunk dials Kira to tell her he banged her Mom? And then she time travels to see if it happened? What? This Orb of Bajor might've been used for something else in some other episode for some nobler purpose. (To put it mildly.)
But they really wanted to tell a story about comfort women, I guess, and it's reverse engineered from that.
While on General Martok's ship Worf is reunited with his estranged son, Alexander.
It's a shame Brian Bonsall couldn't round out his arc as Worf's son. I don't know what it was about this one that irked me. In retrospect I kind of liked it fine. It was a bit ham-fisted in some regards. This is the one with Gabrielle Union as a Klingon. In my head canon Michael Dorn whisked her away in his Cessna 340 after taping finished and they had a whirlwind romance, in character.
The Ziyal/ Kira/ Dukat triangle was less interesting to me.
Bashir attempts to reintegrate genetically engineered misfits into society, but they are asked by Starfleet to become a think tank when they provide insightful analysis of upcoming Dominion peace talks.
Very annoyed with all these folks. Good performances - I guess? It's tough to tell. I think so. - but more interesting than enjoyable for me.
I kept waiting for Bashir to bring up the places from "Whom Gods Destroy" or "Dagger of the Mind." Did I miss it? Or did they shut those places down?
An attack on the Starfleet ship carrying Gul Dukat to a hearing for war crimes, as well as Captain Sisko who is to testify at the hearing, leaves the two of them stranded on a deserted planet together.
Kira is like Number Six from BSG here is. Ron Moore! So much BSG back there in this and VOY. Then again, without checking, the tormenting-ghost-figure is probably as old as Aeschylus.
Were they doing an Enemy Mine thing in this episode? It amuses me to compare so many things to things like Enemy Mine that are likely not the touchstones for anyone else but to proceed from a place assuming they are. "What do you mean this isn't an homage to Megaforce?" etc. is a confusion-of-perspective that always makes me laugh.
Sisko creates a risky plan to disable a critical Dominion sensor array, while on Terok Nor, Kira, Jake, Rom and Odo seek to undermine the Cardassian/Dominion Alliance.
More of Odo exploring his sexuality. Great. ("Do you want me to stop?")
The intergalactic warlord aspect is still confusing about the Dominion. There is no credible reason why the Changelings would want to create a Buck Rogers-style star empire. Nor why they would go about it the way they did. For the thousandth time: the Changelings/ Dominion / Maquis make only retrograde sense.
Too many "Cadet!"s with Nog. They really fell in love with that this season. Not sure why only Sisko feels the need to be his drill instructor, or why this aspect of military training survives into the otherwise enlightened military future of Trek. Plus why is "Chief" O'Brien doing this? Is he an officer or isn't he? Then again, the traditions of the space navy are erratic to say the least.
The broad set-ups on this show are good: war/ resistance/ prophecy. (Come to think of it, that's BSG too isn't it?)
Worf's plans for a traditional Klingon wedding hinge on Martok's demanding wife, Sirella, accepting Dax into their family.
Fine, but it's mostly made-up Klingon stuff, so tough to gauge. They don't mock Worf mercilessly enough for his every-Klingon-boy-dreams-of-a-Klingon-wedding sentiments. Holy moley. What's even funnier is it kind of fits Worf as a character, which is why I wish it had been a sort of mocking-thing between Jadzia and him.
Sisko is called to Bajor when an ancient tablet addressing
the Emissary is discovered at B'hala.
The season's big Bajor/ Emissary episode I guess.
I was just thinking 'cool premise but no real buld-up' when Sisko smashed the tablet. Nice. Things get more interesting from there.
Starfleet Intelligence recruits Chief O'Brien to infiltrate the Orion Syndicate to find a Starfleet informant.
"Oh FFS" is what I wrote in my notes. Funny - not sure exactly why. This is a pretty good episode, I guess. Real flair in performance, execution, and script. Feels a little like a mini-movie. What is it that turned me off? I suppose I could watch it again to find out. (Rubs eyes and shakes head in cartoon-noise fashion) Sorry, sometimes I say things...
Why is no one in Orion ever super tall? I don't understand Orion in Trek really. I also don't really understand the lack of green Orion people in this episode. It's unfortunate when space shows go for a terrestrial gangster angle in space. It seems silly. Anyway, the Orion seem like an untapped area of Trek. I'm sure Picard and Discovery will fill in all the gaps with space trans racism. Thank the makers.
As Sisko considers leaving Starfleet due to the destruction of Captain Swofford's ship, the Cortez, he has a vision of himself as a science fiction writer in the 1950s.
At the risk of being accused of tone deafness or worse, I'm afraid I wasn't blown away by this episode. What this episode need is a Don Cheadle from The Family Man/ Q angle. (We just watched Family Man, pardon the reference. But I've taken to saying "What this needs is Don Cheadle" around the house re: scramble-the-timelines.) It doesn't have one. So we have essentially a "very special dream episode" instead of, say, an "Inner Light" episode. One thing I've learned: DS9 doesn't do "The Inner Light."
Anyway, it's not terrible, but watching it in 2020 just makes me think of how pandering Ira and some of the other DS9 brass can be. (Particularly in that Netflix documentary about the show.) Armond White's recent review of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom has a line in it that made me think not just of this episode but a certain "type" of episode / person: a "conception of black artistic struggle as overacting." I'm not the guy to ask about any of this, I guess.
I like the prophets angle, and I really like Michael Dorn as a ballplayer in love with Kassidy. That's another problem with this one; Dorn is just way too likable. Watching this episode you can see a whole career Dorn might have had in another show had he not done Trek. He chose pretty well either way, but it's a good performance.
Sisko asks Garak to help him get the Romulans to join the war against the Dominion. However, Sisko finds that he might not be able to keep his ethics intact to do it.
A bit overwrought. Cool enough I guess. I probably would've loved it in the 90s. I don't care for the direct to camera address. And Avery Brooks is doing all his weird mannerisms and then some all episode long.
Just a war logistics question: with replicators doing what do, shouldn't there be a planet of replicators be working overtime now, for months and months, to pump out the equivalent of the Romulan fleet? If Voyager can 3-d print shuttlecraft as needed, can't some Starfleet Factory produce starships as needed? (Unless - as in the Abramsverse - Starfleet is still putting these things together on the ground, solely so characters can drive up to it and gaze upon their future destiny.)
Ditto for the Jem'Hadar breeding facilities, etc. This is partly why "war" doesn't work too well in the Trekverse for people who like to meditate on Trek concepts. Take the antimatter chamber, for example; anyone ever beam a micron or two of antimatter over to someone's bridge? Thing would blow up, right? How far away do you have to be to beam this stuff? Meh.
Anyway, these aren't the takeaways from this episode; we're supposed to be blown away only by the introduction of moral ambiguity into the Trek-verse. (Surely what was lacking from TOS was moral ambiguity! Thanks, Ira!)
Bashir shows off a new Holosuite program of a martini lounge with a 1960s Vegas singer named Vic Fontaine who is very perceptive. Vic delivers the conclusive advice to Odo he needs to hear to woo at last Major Kira.
Vic Fontaine was a big part of my first positive feelings on DS9. But I never saw his debut episode until now. Good for James Darren. (Although, for continuity sake, they could've gotten Joe Piscopo. How would we feel about Joe Piscopo had he done this role, I wonder? I don't think he'd have done as good a job, but it's interesting to consider.)
It's unfortunate the Doctor from VOY and Vic Fontaine never met. I bet the Doctor would've been annoyed by him. It'd have been fun to see.
Anyway, his strokes are broad, and this is basically Hitch for Odo, or The Tao of Steve, or any of those type of things. I guess The Tao of Steve came along later. I further guess there's some Commedia dell'arte or even more ancient precedent. Goes on a bit too long/ too one-note. But hey. Harmless enough.
Bashir is accused of unknowingly spying for the Dominion.
Directed by Michael Dorn. ("Today is a good day for... 'Action!'") We see the widening of Trek into something else here, something 'darker.' More successfully, for my money, than in "In the Pale Moonlight." Still, Bashir's moral indignation is a little silly. Isn't everybody at war FFS? Some of the hair-splitting gets a little much. Then again, of gods and generals and all that. Of these things and more is good drama made.
Sloan and his guys are obviously the same guys from Die Hard 2. So that changes how I view the end of Die Hard 2. Obviously the plane's wreckage was beamed in as they beamed to the future or what not. Who the hell is General Esperanza supposed to be in the Trekverse? Interesting development. I didn't expect to have a new take or reason to love Die Hard 2 in 2021. I thought peak Die Hard 2 had been reached long ago.
Dax, O'Brien, and Bashir board a Runabout, which is shrunken to four inches long as they investigate a rare subspace compression phenomenon.
I don't have much to say about this one except that it doesn't quite capitalize on its premise as much as it might. Otherwise it's a fun one. There's something a little, I don't know, Superman's Pal Jimmy Olson about the whole thing.
Three months into the war, DS9 is still under Dominion control. Sisko and his crew are given a mission to destroy a vital Ketracel White facility deep in Dominion space using a captured Jem'Hadar ship. Jake is working for the Federation News Service. Odo is head of Terok Nor's security supported by the Vorta Weyoun.
Nice set-up for season 6. (More BSG! I promise to stop saying this, but FFS someone needs to write the definitive Thematic and Structural Overlap in Berman-Era Trek and the Moore/Eick Battlestar Galactica.)
Good stuff, what more to say? Hate to leave cruddy reviews, but what say you?
Sisko and his tired crew crash on a planet where they encounter a band of Jem'Hadar.
From the get-go here, I liked this one.
So many BSG parallels. Good stuff at the end.
I am the worst reviewer on the planet.
Jake and Nog come under attack by the Jem'Hadar and are rescued by a rogue Defiant class starship, the Valiant, under the command of Starfleet Red Squadron cadets.
Red squad! red squad! red squad! It's a little too much. This feels like it was written by people who didn't make the varsity squad and honed the resentment into a critical worldview rather than worked through it.
That said, I like this one. I wanted to listen to Cirroc Lifton and Aron Eisenberg's podcast episode on this one, if they did one. But time ran out and I didn't get to check, never mind listen. There's a bit at the end where Nog says "In the end he was a bad captain." Hey Nog! Says you, CADET. Maybe tactical hierarchy is not your purview? It certainly isn't from a military standpoint. The ending feels like a movie about wartime made by Hollywood, which is, more or less, a problem with DS9-at-war in general. Here, though, specifically, the episode should have let people make up their own mind. There are any number of other arguments from people with much more experience regarding the who and how of a good Captain, especially during wartime.
Learning of thousands of Dominion reinforcements gathering in the Gamma Quadrant, Sisko initiates a plan to retake Deep Space Nine and secure the wormhole before the minefield is detonated. (And) Sisko commands the Defiant and 600 Federation ships against a Dominion/Cardassian armada to retake Deep Space Nine. Damar has Kira, Jake, and Leeta arrested.
It's kind of unbelievable to me that they (the Jem-Hadar, Cardassians, whomever) wouldn't keep a Defiant-deterrent ship around.
All the drama(s) in this episode. Good stuff.
When Jadzia Dax is critically injured on an away mission, Worf must choose between saving his wife and completing their assignment. O'Brien becomes obsessed with beating Quark at Tongo.
The Worf/ Dax/ soundstage-jungle plot is pretty good. And the Tongo duel between Quark and Bashir is fun. I was hoping Bashir was faking being so distracted. I'm not sure how his genetic enhancements wouldn't neutralize such things. But perhaps Quark is just that good.
So when Worf mentions Nikolai here, does his creator get credit/ royalties? Who created Nikolai? Ron Moore wrote this one; Naren Shankar did the teleplay for "Homeward" on TNG. Ron and Naren worked closely for years; I wonder if it was just tossed out in the writer's room. ("Mind if I reference Nikolai?" "Lease 'em to you for a dollar.") I keep hoping someone with writer's guild sort of experience/ lawyerly know-how will opine on the subject and let us all know.
Starfleet Command begins an offensive against the Dominion, and Sisko is chosen to lead the invasion of Cardassia, but the Cardassian/Dominion Alliance has secretly reinforced their borders with unmanned orbital weapons platforms.
What is it with admirals in Starfleet? Admiral Ross (Barry Jenner) is so milquetoast. Is it only to contrast the Captain, is that why they do this?
"We're in the middle of taking over the Alpha Quadrant" says someone on the Dominion side during this. I really need to go back to the earlier seasons. Is there ever a time where the Dominion makes sense? It all goes back to some kind of solid/liquid war? I mean, really? So they became space empire overlords? Did they ever meet the Metrons? Or the Organianians? Or Q?
Vic Fontaine is like that buddy of yours who only communicates in bad Dad joke memes. Whereas Martok (at least in this episode) is like that buddy of yours that communicates only in"Mister Spock's Dank Meme Stash" memes.
Dukat! Jedzia! Oh no! The drama. This whole angle on Dukat/ X-men transform is pretty wild. The mad Pa-Mach Prophet.
BLOWED UP BIG ROCK IN SPACE! would've been a cool subtitle for this episode. The ending evokes "The Paradise Syndrome". Good set-up for season 7.
I'm undoubtedly overranking this one, but screw it. I'm enjoying the Ferengi so much on this re-watch and this is such a pleasant surprise to me. All the actors do such fun work.
Morn is killed in an ion storm and Sisko informs Quark that Morn left his entire estate to him. But Quark has a little competition.
That extends to this and one of the next two, as well. I just enjoy the Ferengi episodes more than the others, I guess. This one, digging into the mystery of Morn a bit, has that sort of "Captain's Holiday" chase-fun/treasure-hunt quality to it, as well. And President Logan to boot.
I often cite Cheers parallels with Berman-era Trek. Morn is obviously a reference at least in nomenclature to "Norm," but this episode hints at a more Al-Rosen-type presence on the show. I wish there was a subtitle of him saying "SINATRA!" in some episode. Or a Cheers episode where Al vomits up some latinum to pay his bar tab.
Yaay, it's the O'Briens... Even the writers must've felt this way, really. Consider the mutations of family dynamic of the typical O'Briens episode: possession, brainwashing, disappearing into a prison fantasy for years and PTSD in close quarters, etc. And yet, is this their finest hour? I think so. The whole thing was unexpectedly moving and tragic. One of the emotionally-truer meta-statements on parenthood Trek has pulled off, I think. The ending - like the ending to "Children of Time" - has a lot of stuff to unpack, not all of it pleasant. Rosalind Chao gives a good performance, as does Hana Hatae, hell even the Chief breaks out of his usual comfort zone here. Great marks all around.
The Worf/Jedzia/Yoshi stuff was nice, as well.
Quark helps out when Zek's status as the Ferengi Grand Nagus is put in jeopardy by proposing equal rights for Ferengi females.
Hey-oh! Anything I can possibly say about this Dr.-Bashir-directed episode seems redundant. Or something. Wow! To think this Ferengi journey began with "The Last Outcast." The metaphor gets away from them a little bit. But who cares.
All the Nog stuff is great. Mrs. Quarkfire is more hit or miss but Nilva (Henry Gibson) and Slug-o-cola (the slimiest cola in the galaxy) are great. And great stuff as always from the Nagus bodyguard guys. Well, "guys."
At one point I thought of how much talent and weirdness was on the screen before me. Quite an impressive achievement this episode. I'm not one to congratulate a show for the optics of such things, but I do praise audacity when judiciously applied, and having a main character undergo surgery to bribe a visiting captain of Ferengi industry with sex is a hell of a thing to pull off properly. And they did here. Kudos. I imagine that's whence the conspicuous-hook-up babe at beginning and end, to placate anyone uncomfortable with such implications.
The score during this whole scene from commercial break to the bitter end is really something. It's like a little movie, or scene from an opera.
"You may be a lousy son, but you make a wonderful daughter."
And now...
 |
LEFTOVER SCREENCAPS. |
 |
| Bye Jadzia. (Or, as the girl who got me into DS9 once put it, "Have fun on Becker, you traitorous hussy.") |
 |
| Gregory Itzin. |
 |
| Hana Hatae. |
 |
| The single most disturbing visual in the Trek universe. |
 |
| "It's called 'teamwork.'" |
 |
| "It's called 'mweamwowk." |
 |
| ... |
 |
| ... |
 |
| "Hate us because we're beautiful well we don't like you either we're cheerleaders! cheerleaders! ROLL CALL!" Okay, okay, wrong team I know. |
I look forward to checking this out one week at a time!
ReplyDelete"A Time to Stand" --
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't say that's a cruddy review, I just don't think there's a whole lot to be said about this episode. It's less an episode than it is a collection of scenes. It's not bad, though. It's pretty good, in fact. There's just nothing much to discuss. It's clearly just what you suggest: a prologue to the rest of the season.
I *will* say, however, that it's a bit of a letdown in relation to the season-five finale. It ends with that great shot of a big-ass fleet that is obviously headed to immediately retake DS9. Except no, that's apparently not what it was doing at all. Which makes sense, because of Bajor's new treaty. So really, I guess it's that final shot of "Call to Arms" that's to blame. Either way, a mild letdown that this doesn't pick right up from that.
Otherwise, not bad.
That's a good point re: the cliffhanger scene from last season.
DeleteWe're always supposed to be so overwhelmed by shots of all the starships flying as a fleet. To me it always looks like a tactical nightmare. That's not a convoy, you're all bunched up! Spread out FFS, one burst of antimatter and the entire fleet is gone...
I actually thought of something else after posting this: I really, really hate the line they give Dax where she says she's fine with it if all the Jem'Hadar end up dying. Just doesn't seem very Trek-like, not to mention that it doesn't seem very Dax-like. Maybe Worf has been having a bad influence on her.
DeleteNothing a single Federation member says about the Jem-Hadar or the Dominion makes a damn lick of sense. Or is very Trek-like. Either/or.
Delete"Rocks and Shoals" --
ReplyDelete"I am the worst reviewer on the planet." -- lol
Nah, not even in the bottom 50%, I bet.
If you're anything like me, you find this episode to simultaneously be very well made and entertaining but problematic as a piece of Star Trek. But not, on that latter point, in a major or new way; it's just doing what DS9 does, and by this point, that's just what the show is. I object to it, but is there a big point in such objections when the episode is as fundamentally solid as this one?
So it makes sense to me that you just didn't have much to say about this one. My take is much the same: I object to what this episode stands for in many ways, and think it did a terrific job of being what it was trying to be. I can think of worse things to say than that.
My only real complaint is that I wish they had not sidelined Dax. Maybe that plays out more in upcoming episodes, though, I can't remember.
I think that's it: I watched this and enjoyed it mostly, but I get sick of writing down the same comments/ reactions. It's just doing what DS9 does. Yep.
Delete"Sons and Daughters" --
ReplyDelete(1) Am I crazy or does the guy playing Alexander both look and sound like an off-brand Christian Bale? Not a bad thing to look and sound like, mind you.
(2) I liked the Kira/Dukat stuff more than you did. If anything, I think I was more invested in that than in the A-plot. And I liked the A-plot fairly well.
(3) Holy smokes, that WAS Gabrielle Union, wasn't it? I would have never recognized her, but it seems fairly obvious once it's pointed out. In related news: she is on the verge of being FIFTY now?!? That doesn't seem possible, but I guess it must be. Jesus.
(4) You know, say what you want about DS9 (and I do), but holy moly did they develop a hell of a bench of recurring guests stars. I suspect that if they could have gotten away with it, they'd have dumped about half the main cast off the show at some point and restaffed with Dukat, Garak, Martok, Rom, etc. And they might have been well-served to do so.
(2) It's true: I like the direction they eventually settle on with Dukat at the end of this season/ through season 7, but I never quite found his obsession with Kira to make any sense. Or, I should say, it makes whatever amount of sense it needs to make, it just never interested me much.
Delete"Behind the Lines" --
ReplyDeleteI thought I might barf for about most of this episode, especially that "Do you want me to stop?" line. Hurk...!
As I routinely feel the need to state in relation to the Founders, I just don't care about of that stuff. It's a big, fat, gooey-faced bore to me all the way around. If I recall correctly, the stuff with Odo here ends in a plot twist, but I don't care about that, either; and I might be misremembering, in which case I hella don't care.
I don't understand the Cadet Nog stuff, either. It's like how on "Discovery," they've just decided that they're going to cram a First Officer Tilly plotline down the throats of the world, sense and logic be damned. Probably for the same reason, because they love the actor and think everyone else must as well, and if they don't, they'll be made to by no other option being entertained. Meanwhile, I'm wondering why Cadet Nog is out of the Academy early, and also why there aren't cadets all over the other shows all the time. Oh, right; it's because it don't make no damn sense.
This is an okay episode, though. Does nothing for me, but it's not badly made or anything like that.
I read about First Officer Tilly. Sounds par for the course.
DeleteI think the cadets are spread out among the fleet because of the war or something? I already forget.
"Favor the Bold" --
ReplyDeleteI found myself unsure how to feel about this one. It didn't particularly engage me, except for the fact that it contains -- what? -- like half a dozen dynamite character scenes between various people, including the requisite awesome performances from your Marc Alaimos and Jeffrey Combses. I ever like Ziyal in this one.
And yet, it still doesn't work for me as a whole. Granted, it's NOT a whole; it's a single episode in an arc. But there's no suspense. It never feels as if the show is going to do anything other than restore the main characters to their places on DS9. Never a danger at all, so all I'm left with is the fact that is IS very well made, and the acting IS awfully good. And hey, there are lots of worse things you can say about a show than that.
Reviewingwise I was in the same boat, as you can see. I liked it but what was there to say, really? I had the same reaction to the overall two-parter.
DeleteThe restoration of the status quo is, as you say, a given. I more or less am positive on the way they went about it all. Like you say, lots worse one can say about shows than hey, good performances, well done, etc.!
"Sacrifice of Angels" --
ReplyDeleteThis finale didn't do much for me. Everything works out the way you'd expect it to, except for Ziyal being killed; and frankly, that's stupid. No way Damar would risk himself like that. I get that he's even more of a hardliner than Dukat is, but with being a Cardassian, playing politics is part of that equation. He'd advocate for her trial and execution, but not this. And I'm not sure I buy the idea that Dukat cares about her enough to be literally driven mad. It's all well done, but it doesn't work for me.
Also, there's a subplot which hinges on Ziyal knowing how to cook a Bajoran delicacy. Uh, replicators?
Good points, all! I never know what to make of the replicator/ cooking discrepancies. I roll with some, and roll my eyes at others.
Delete"You Are Cordially Invited" --
ReplyDeleteI liked this one more than you did. It's got some silly stuff in it, but Terry Farrell is great. I like the woman who played Martok's wife, as well, and this is by far the most I've ever liked Martok himself.
On the other hand, if I could live the rest of my life without seeing Nog dance again, that'd be fine.
Cut loose! Foot-loose!
DeleteAnd yes sir, kudos to Shannon Cochran. You're right it's a good Terry Farrell episode, and their scenes together are good.
"Resurrection" --
ReplyDelete(1) "It is not a failure of imagination to assert this; it is a failure of imagination to assert it is not." -- I cannot possibly amen this strongly enough.
(2) I wouldn't say I like this episode, exactly, but it gets closer to succeeding for me than really ought to be possible. I'm (a) not a fan of the Mirror Universe, (b) not a fan of the DS9 Mirror Universe, and (c) not a fan of Bareil. All that being the case, it's a little surprising to me that I even tolerated this one. And yet, I kind of did.
(3) There's a really weird scene in which Julian comes to Ops, seemingly to hover and get firsthand news of Kira's first-date conquest. This comes out of absolutely nowhere, and Julian seems like some sort of resigned non-lover. It's almost certainly because they wanted to use Siddig in at least one scene so his salary wasn't being completely wasted, but he plays it as if he's jealous of his real-life wife. Very strange little scene.
(3) I don't recall this scene but I wish I'd made note of it it.
Delete(2) And yeah that goes for pretty much each of the mirror-DS9 episodes. None of them are on their own annoying or badly made, it's just returning to the well is a handicap. So an "A" episode becomes a "D" simply for that. Not that this one was an "A" perhaps, but it's inoffensive, certainly, and everyone does a good job.
"Statistical Improbabilities" --
ReplyDelete(1) I think the idea is that the places like the Tantalus Colony have been shut down. Or maybe just reformed into something more noble.
(2) I think you are being a very kind person regarding the guest performances. I detest every single one of them except maybe for the mute girl, and even her I don't actually like. But the Laziest Woman In Town is dreadful and Tweedle Dum is dreadful and Jack is maybe the worst performance I have ever seen in Star Trek. All of them are embarrassing.
(3) Julian and Miles should both be court-martialed for discussing the top-secret think-tank results in Quark's, where any knobby-headed jackwad could overhear. Sure, they're talking in hushed tones. Like that'd matter.
(4) Some interesting ideas in this one, and I'll confess that it's at least an attempt to do actual Star Trek -- you know, with ideas and whatnot -- after a while without. But it never comes together. Swing and a miss, dog. Next.
(1) The idea that insanity was curable/ eradicated was kind of a wacky idea from "Whom Gods Destroy." A broad stroke needing some finer hues. We never get them in subsequent Trek, which is fine - kind of hard to write around that one, best to just imply it as part of the glorious future - except for when they try to play around with the idea anyway, and we get things like here. Good gravy.
Delete(3) Good point!
I got the title wrong! It's "Probabilities"!
DeleteListening to the Mission Log episode, and they brought up a good point -- how did these jokers factor the Prophets into their thinking? After all, that's an awfully big variable, and it's one we literally just saw in action a few weeks previously. Bad writing, man.
"The Magnificent Ferengi" --
ReplyDeleteI kept trying to figure out whether the title actually is a play on "The Magnificent Seven." Is it? It must be, right? If so, who is the seventh? The Vorta they bring along or Moogie? I can't figure that out.
A silly episode, but very entertaining. I even kind of liked Nog in this one.
And it's got Iggy Pop! Good lord.
That's a good call. I'd have to watch it again and count, I don't remember. I bet there was only 6th and Ira said something dumb like "I will be your seventh!" and everyone did crystal meth.
Delete"Waltz" --
ReplyDeleteI wanted to love this one, but never got there. It's highly watchable, almost entirely on the strength of Marc Alaimo's performance. But beyond that, I just couldn't manage to wring much moisture out of that rock.
Alaimo needs to play some kind of gruff newspaperman in a 1920s flick, every day of his life.
DeleteHis imdb is rather sparse after DS9; it's too bad.
That is too bad. I hope it's because he made so much money off DS9 that he's just golfing all day or whatever. He probably just descends on a few conventions a year and rakes it in left and right.
Delete"Who Mourns For Morn?" --
ReplyDeleteI'll confess that the running Morn joke does virtually nothing for me. They had a chance to put a punchline on the whole thing with this episode, but didn't quite get there, in my opinion.
It's a fun episode, even so. As you say, everyone in it does good work. Brother #1 of the green aliens is played by the guy who was Pascow in "Pet Sematary"!
This episode is the only Morn-joke I like! I think. If memory serves.
DeleteThat reminds me: I kept waiting for someone somewhere to address the mix of Starfleet no-currency with DS9-bar-tabs and wages and what not. It's a thorny problem, the no-money thing. Even "the inheritance," here, really. Would no one comment on these things? You'd think solving problems of money (as Earth of the future did) would be brought up more.
Of course, WE don't know how to do it, so we can't write characters that reflect on it intelligently. And yet, that doesn't stop them (DS9/ Trek in general) from pontificating on half a dozen other topics, or even stopping the show to give a genetic-enhancement-sermon the way they did at the end of that one episode.
"Far Beyond the Stars" --
ReplyDeleteIt's by no means a bad episode, or even a failure, but it's an episode that swings for the fences and ... well, apparently it's a much-beloved home run for most people, so I can't say it fails. But it doesn't connect with me. Maybe I'm being a stick in the mud, but the mechanics of the whole thing simply don't make sense. You're quite right, I think, to point out that this needed a Don Cheadle. (Everything needs a Don Cheadle of one kind or another, after all.) Or a Q, or some "Inner Light" aliens, or hell, even a faulty warp core.
It ain't got it. It's got what we have to assume are lingering bits of prophet juice sloshing around in Ben's brain. I guess? But even then, there's no explanation for why it is THIS scenario which Sisko comes up with. Has he ever expressed any interest in 20th-century sci-fi writers? Or even an interest in 20th-century (etc.) racial politics? We can assume it, I guess. But, actually, CAN we? It feels kind of wrong to assume it, in some way I'm best served not to explore.
More sensible by far if he had dreamed himself into some kind of scenario where he was a Jackie Robinson type, exploring his love of baseball -- the show's made that well-known from early on. So why not go there?
It's got some great moments, and it's fun to see most of the cast (not talking about you, Cirroc Lofton, sorry) in their roles. But this is a prime example of putting the metaphor first and the story second, to the point where it's actually not even a metaphor or a story, it's a guy wearing a sandwich-board on a corner hollering about the need for change. And sure, I agree, we needed change in 1953 AND in 1998 and we still need it in 2021, too. But the way the message was delivered here just doesn't quite work for me. Wish it had; glad it does for so many other fans.
Hear, hear.
DeleteI liked "sandwich-board on a corner" When Avery collapses into his falsetto weirdness sputtering "I'm a... hum-an... bei-ng..." I guess it's supposed to be moving? Or enraging? Or fill me with some hu-man emotion. Instead I want to yell "cut, come ON, people, we can't do it like this."
Excellent call too on the baseball/racism angle already existing, damn it! What a waste. I'd say it's a failure of an episode only because it isn't a proper story; it's a setting that exploits certain members' of the audience's hunger for over-emotional gloss that never moves beyond a perfectly obvious point, and does not do the necessary Trek-math to spin its metaphorical web.
Even the similarly-fail (for me) episode where Jake lives out his life seeing Sisko-ghost every so often made more sense - even if it was ultimately of the same zero consequence - than this.
It's the sort of "need for change" muddled argument that is being made currently by people trying to re-segregate the country in the name of fighting segregation. One wishes they'd raise the rhetorical bar slightly higher so they don't feel compelled to affirm and admit every spasm of emotional violence that slithers beneath it.
They just about shit themselves due to the effort they exerted in praising it on Mission Log. They did mention something interesting, though, which is that the episode evidently began life as a story in which Jake, not Ben, would have been the main character. Makes a ton more sense as a story for him.
DeleteThe predictability of overpraising it is one of the reasons I gave up on "Mission Log."
DeleteBut holy CRAP does that story make more sense as a story for Jake. I wonder what the deal is there! Did Avery Brooks swipe it for himself? Did Cirroc just not feel comfortable doing it/ didn't want to do it? I'll have to investigate this. The story does not work as a Sisko story (despite the near unanimity of that opinion out there) but as a Jake story? Absolutely.
As you know, I'm less aggravated by that sort of content in a podcast than you are. So imagine me, listening while cooking some spaghetti, stopping in sheer disgust when one of the guys says something along the lines of "sociologists could write thousands of pages about how great this episode is." ME! Your head would have pulled a "Scanners" immediately. (And no, I'm not exaggerating; might be misremembering mildly, but not exaggerating.)
DeleteAnd, like, I don't want to clown anyone for having an emotional reaction to a thing like this. I just don't feel the episode itself merits it. Might have with Jake in the lead, although even that might have been a stretch. Especially with Cirroc Lofton in the role; just not a big fan of his work, bless his heart.
I can't remember what they said about why it shifted from a Jake ep to a Ben ep. They might have not said at all, I was only listening with half a brain by that point.
"One Little Ship" --
ReplyDeleteI think what this one reminds me of more than anything else is TNG in its later seasons: high-concept, well-executed, not necessarily a classic but still basically alright. There's a certain chumminess to it that makes it the kind of Trek I could happily watch all day long.
Great little bit at the end with Worf trolling Jadzia over his "poem," too. Dorn and Farrell are really cute there.
Yeah, good call on each count, there.
Delete"Honor Among Thieves" --
ReplyDeleteI guess the idea is that the Orion Syndicate has expanded to include non-Orion members? You'd have thought the main guy would've been a greenie, though, at least. Anyways, they were on the most recent season of "Discovery" to lame effect, and Margot Kidder's niece played a green-skinned baddie. So there's that.
"Lower Decks" also features a green-skinned Orion lady, this one a super-enthusiastic and sincere Starfleet ensign. She's got a great joke early on where someone gives her shit over her people all being pirates -- she gets indignant and says that her people gave up piracy years ago! TWO years ago! (Or something like that.) Anyways, she cracks me up.
This episode does not. It's alright, though; everyone does a pretty good job. At the same time, I kind of get that "FFS" note you made, even though I'm not sure I understand why I understand it. This requires further thought, but let it be known, we are on pretty much the same page.
I misremembered something, by the way: I spent the whole rewatch convinced that the Starfleet Intelligence guy turned out to be evil, and was the informer the entire time. Guess not, though.
"Change of Heart" --
ReplyDelete(1) They couldnt be bothered to use the Cyndi Lauper song even once?!? Sheesh.
(2) I'd have lost quite a bit of money in a bet as to which episode Jadzia dies in. I mean, my memory was conVINCEd it was this one; "jungle-planet episode," I'd have said cockily, right before getting cleaned out. This is why I don't bet.
(3) I really love this episode. I mean, in some ways it's nothing special, but Michael Dorn and Terry Farrell are so goddamn good in it, man. Dorn in particular. I'm not always wild about how DS9 treated Worf, but every once in a while they toss out an episode where I'm reminded of why he's one of my absolute favorite Trek characters. Here's one!
(4) Good point regarding Julian, but I think the idea is that Quark is always able to find a weakness and exploit it. No mater what Bashir's big brain is, he's still a terminally friend-zoned loser when it comes to Jadzia. I don't know that the episode really gets that across, though, partially because the game of tongo makes zero sense and therefore is of no use in setting up something like that.
(1) I wish I'd thought of that joke. I think there's a "Time After Time" episode as well. Discovery, the way they name their episodes, will undoubtedly name something "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." Although "girls" might be "problematic." It's difficult to anticipate the workflow decisions of the insane.
Delete(3) Yeah this is a good one and especially for the reasons you mention. It's an essential Worf and Jadzia episode for sure.
(4) Not so much an essential Bashir one, but I think you're right: we're meant to think his level of distraction re: Jadzia is just that great. Of course it makes little sense, but I guess this is what I get for jumping in season four and skipping over all the Bashir-lusts-after-Jadzia seasons.
(1) I was gonna make a joke involving the title to some fake lesser-know Lauper hit, but frankly, it seems ill-advised to do so.
Delete"Trills Just Wanna Have Fun" would be a great Trek title, though, and Discovery has a Trill now, sort of. Make it so!
(4) It's just a lot of wounded-puppy-dog stuff. Some of it's a little on the objectionable side nowadays even for me, to be honest, so I don't know that you're missing a lot there.
"Wrongs Darker Than Death Or Night" --
ReplyDeleteI agree, this is a silly episode, all the sillier for how incredibly seriously it takes itself. Terrible title, too.
On the plus side: the acting is pretty good. I rarely complain about seeing Marc Alaimo, and Nana Visitor is good in this one as well.
I still can't quite make myself believe they actually did this one. The set-up is so ridiculous and the motivation is so transparent and somewhat embarrassing. Not for 2021, though; reverse engineering stories from rather transparent conclusions has become encouraged by law. So to speak.
Delete"Inquisition" --
ReplyDelete*sigh*
It's a good episode; nicely acted, nicely directed, all that. But for my money, the notion of Section 31 is simply not compatible with the ideals which underpin Star Trek.
I type that, and then I ask myself: is that true? I think of some of the renegade actions undertaken by a certain James T. Kirk, and I wonder if I'm not dismissing the notion too quickly.
Maybe so; I can't say for sure. Either way, I do think this is a pretty good episode, but not one that I can say that I love. Like might also be out of the question; we'll have to settle for respect.
I remember thinking Section 31 was fascinating when I saw this in the 90s. I'm kinda surprised I didn't mention this above - only I just realized, the episode I'm thinking of is the season 9 one, and my then-girlfriend explained it all to me and I was thinking "Oh, that sounds cool."
DeleteNow I think more like you on it: does this idea really work in the Trekverse? I think it's possible to make it work, but I'd have gone about it all much differently. The show's concerns with DS9 are any show's generic concerns with "secret government" or what not and not very Trek-like, or even all that interesting, really; we've seen this kind of stuff better in a thousand places. There's a novelty to placing it in a Trek context, I suppose, and they mostly stay "in-bounds" with Trekkiness, at least as much as DS9 ever does.
I shudder to think how Section 31 might be used on Picard or Discovery.
Finishing up Enterprise, which of course ends with the Federation coming together. I know Starfleet is responsible for Section 31, but seems they missed an opportunity, there, too, to explore the origins/ necessity of the organization. They could have justified the damn Xindi storyline if they'd done so.
"In the Pale Moonlight" --
ReplyDeleteI would need to write an entire book to explain how much I dislike this episode. If I were Rick Berman, I would have rejected the screenplay and immediately terminated everyone in charge of attempting to make this episode. I'd have canceled the series rather than permit this to happen.
At least, I wish that's what I would have done. Who can say for sure?
I agree totally about the stagey wraparound segments and about Brooks' performance. The episode has a good Andrew Robinson performance, and that's about the only good thing I will say for it.
Agreed.
DeleteI do know: I'd have probably dug it in the 90s had I seen it then. I'm glad I didn't.
I'd like to read that book! But, unless it was authored by someone I absolutely wouldn't want to spend any time with, I'd probably read just about any book authored by anyone who wrote it for the sole reason of fleshing out why they hated one (and only one) episode. Or even if it was a book-length Ten Treks That Piss Me off. I'm on board, agreement or not. That's the kind of stuff I support sight unseen.
"His Way" --
ReplyDeleteWhat a bizarre episode. I kind of love it; I kind of hate it. I'll say this, to whatever extent it does work, it is largely because of the talents of three people: James Darren, Rene Auberjonois, and Nana Visitor. I don't always feel particularly connected to what the latter two do on this show, and if I'm being honest I have to admit that I don't buy into the Kira/Odo relationship at all. And yet, it works reasonably well here even so; that's a testament to their good work.
Darren is terrific. The very idea of Vic Fontaine could have been a disaster, but he's got just the right approach. I think Joe Piscopo would have likely not managed to find that approach, but who knows for sure?
I'd love to have seen some kind of crossover with The Doctor. The notion of sentient holograms still weirds me out in some ways, but I can suspend that while I'm actually watching those characters, and that's good enough for me.
Agreed on Piscopo. Although even if they brought him back to maintain symmetry with TNG they'd just have named him something different, anyway, i.e. Tom Paris/ Locarno or Ensign Vorick. Even as a hologram? That imaginary lawyer-Trekkie-commenter I'm always appealing to and who never materializes: one for your billable hours, if you ever show up to work.
DeleteThe lack of belief in the Kira/Odo relationship is a big hurdle. As much of one as my lack of belief in Changelings. Like you say, though, it all coalesces well enough here for me not to mind too much.
"The Reckoning" --
ReplyDeleteSlept through much of it and feel I missed little.
This is my kind of review, right here!
DeleteHonestly, one of these days I'm going to publish a whole season's worth of reviews that are just "Fell asleep" or "Lost my notes." I'm typing up my s7 ones now and more than a few are of this genre.
Good thing I'm on the board over here, or my job would always be on the line...
Didn't seem like a bad episode, but it also didn't seem like anything I couldn't live without. Silly Bajoran nonsense; it did seem live Avery Brooks was minimizing his tics, though, which is always welcome.
Delete"Valiant" --
ReplyDeleteI think you are on the money with this feeling like a wish-they-made-the-varsity-but-didn't type thing. My brain recognizes that this is a good episode, but I was so bored by it that I just can't muster any enthusiasm for it. Aron Eisenberg does a pretty good job, I guess; everyone else (Cirroc Lofton being somewhat of an exception) is just a void of charisma. In some ways, that works for the episode rather than against it, but it didn't make the watching any more enjoyable for me.
I like Lofton and Eisenberg more than their characters, that's for sure.
Delete"Profit and Lace" --
ReplyDeleteAlright, I have to say, I love that this was your #1 for the season. I'm going to have to sleep on this one; my knee-jerk reaction is to say "I hated this, it's offensive and only occasionally funny and I don't like Armin Shimerman in it even before he becomes Lumba." But some contemplation might soften me on it.
Either way, man, you've had quite the journey with the Ferengi! That's been fun to read. I've mostly gone on a similar version of the same thing; I think I remain somewhat intolerant of some aspects of these episodes, but even then they work more often than not for me.
This one? Immediate reaction: not so much. Immmediate reaction: I award this episode 47 "Jesus Christs" of fuck-no.
I can only imagine what the Mission Log guys said about this one...!
DeleteThat's a strong reaction from your quadrant. I cannot imagine anyone being actually offended by something so ridiculous. But perhaps a rewatch will enlighten me. I doubt I'll get to it anytime soon, alas.
After sleeping on it, I have decided that the episode lost me with the cretinous opening scene of Quark trying to induce his employee into oomoxing him. If the rest of the episode had stuck to repudiating him for it, well maybe that helps; but then it repudiates the repudiation in the wrapup!
DeleteThere is some fun to be had, but that aspect turned me off so much that I just can't focus on any of it.
You are a responsible and moral person and I'm sure I'd rather work for you than Quark!
Delete"Time's Orphan" --
ReplyDeleteHere's another one I didn't much care for. Well, that's half true; I didn't care for the O'Briens stuff. I just don't have much use for any of them, and felt like this was a big ask considering how little investment the show has encouraged me to have.
The Worf stuff, now, that's another story. Michael Dorn is always great, but he's especially great here; you can see how much it hurts him to have (so he thinks) failed his big fatherhood test. (I mean, he's already failed a big one with Alexander, but let's do what the show mostly wishes it could do and just forget him).
I had a hard time believing in the idea that an eight-year-old who was along for ten years would revert to a feral state. It felt like they wanted to do a story in which lil' Yoshi was abandoned and got older without the benefit of being around people, but couldn't figure out how he could stay alive.
Granted, I'm not a parent. So I can see this landing more firmly with anyone who is.
These are all fair and reasonable points, particularly about the likelihood of turning feral in such a state. Like most things on DS9 they start from the idea and kind of hammer the show around it to make it fit. I think take out the parent reaction and it's entirely possible the true evaluation of the episode is closer to yours than mine. I think I was so struck by the novelty of caring for the O'Briens that I was stunned.
Delete"The Sound of Her Voice" --
ReplyDelete(1) I actually ended up liking this one a good bit, mainly on the strength of the final scene, in which O'Brien gives a toast to having friends. That's the kind of thing that can land quite solidly on a long-running series, and it did so for me even though I'm not exactly a huge fan of DS9.
(2) The silliness between Quark and Odo is indeed silly, and Jake's involvement in it is even sillier. There's virtually no scenario under which Quark would take Benjamin Sisko's kid under his wing in that capacity; that's a nonstarter for me. I also continue to be mystified at how willing this show is to cast Quark as a lovable criminal, but it's at least palatable here, which is an improvement over some of this season's episodes. I did kind of like the Odo/Kira scene toward the end, though; at least Odo is showing some character growth. Quark of late has only been regressing.
(3) I don't mind the big plot twist; I thought that worked reasonably well. (I'd forgotten that's how it ended, so it played like new for me!) It's a Mary Sue type of story conceit, though, and I'm guessing that the name on the writing credits which was not Ronald D. Moore means that this episode originated as a fan pitch that the producers liked. In which case, 100% a Mary Sue idea. But not, for me, a bad one.
(1) The toast is nice, it's true.
Delete(2) I kind of like the sleaziness of Quark. So much about DS9 does not fit into either sense or Trek-sense, so I can shrug off the occasional incongruency. Some are worse than others.
(2) Me too, generally speaking, and this episode is pretty mild as far as sleazy-Quark-ness goes. I don't know, something about it rubbed me the wrong way, but I think I am more bothered by it on paper than I was in the actual watching of it. Or is it the complete opposite of that? Man, I just don't know.
DeleteRegardless, Armin Shimerman was great, as always.
"Tears of the Prophets" --
ReplyDeleteI have so little investment in most of the things that this episode is doing that it's probably pointless for me to try and say anything about it. It's not a *bad* episode, but it falls almost entirely flat for me. I like the scene in which Worf says goodbye to Jadzia (not as she's dying, but as he's leaving), and some of the Julian-and-Quark-sad-sack stuff plays alright for me on account of how I can relate. Most everything else strikes me as either silly or lame.
If I really responded to the aspects of the show being foregrounded here, maybe this one would mean something to me. But as is, I don't even get emotional at the sight of Jadzia -- my favorite character on the show -- dying. That's not how that ought to be going, I think.
For the record, my review of this one contains probably the most insightful thing I'll ever write about DS9: "Vic Fontaine is like that buddy of yours who only communicates in bad Dad joke memes. Whereas Martok (at least in this episode) is like that buddy of yours that communicates only in "Mister Spock's Dank Meme Stash" memes." I even thought of this yesterday when I got yet another (up to maybe 44,000, over 10 years) meme from the friend I was thinking of when I wrote that.
DeleteI enjoyed this episode, but I completely empathize with the lack of really caring about folks on the show. As I was saying the last couple of episodes, above, the only one I actually seem to care about is the sleaziest dude on the show! Which may be what they were expecting/ how it ought to be going, I dunno - either way, I thought it was an effective season closer.