Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

[Martin Penny]

The other key point about this is the return of another Next Gen character - Varsh, the archeologist who was porked by Picard. She's an interesting character, but it does draw attention to the fact that DS9 is focussing on familiar situations or old characters a lot, rather than developing new story arc's.

Yeah, there was quite a lot of that in the first season. I guess it was just to ease viewers into what was a very different series, because they stop using TNG stuff after the first year.

'Q-Less' is a bit of fluff, but I do like the gag with Q as the waiter annoying Bashir - "By GOD your impertinent!"

[FlyingBeastie]

Q-Less i thought had a lot of overt homages to Who~i mean, c'mon the superior being who longs to have a traveling companion so he can see the world through their eyes? very Who.

I loved Babel btw, I just thought it was a very interesting episode and quite fun. A Man Alone I'm still trying to remember, but it was probably kinda meh~that's the one with the guy who pretty much kills his own clone correct? And Past Prologue...two words "Gay Cardassian"...
::FlyingBeastie guffawing on the floor::

[Anthony Williams]

Q-Less - I've never particularly liked this one, to be honest. Bringing Q and Vash into the series was a mistake, and one that I think the producers realised that they made, particularly as Q is never seen again in the series! Thankfully, this is only an early hiccough in the series.

Ant x

[Jason Thompson]

Q popping up in appearance (but not being named) before the credits here reminds me of how much DS9 must have been playing to its target audience - if this were Doctor Who, someone would have gone "Look, Q!" to tell the audience he was someone significant.

I don't think that's too terribly surprising, is it? DS9's main audience was always going to be people who watched TNG, at least in the first couple of years. Since TNG and DS9 overlapped in transmission, Q had been seen recently, so would be expected to be recognised by most people watching. In fact he was last seen in TNG only about three months before he turned up in DS9 (the episode True Q), and indeed would be in TNG only just over a week later (in Tapestry).

By the way, if they have replicators why don't they use replicate bars of gold pressed latinum? How is there a currency on the station?

A good and valid point, which tends to get glossed over. I believe it is mentioned in passing somewhere that the replicators have limiter circuits that prevent them from replicating, among other things, recognised currency such as gold-pressed latinum. Occasionally it is specifically mentioned that replicators are not all-purpose matter makers that can make anything you like in the blink of an eye.

I still find Q a bit of a dull or silly (the boxing match scene) character to be honest. All he ever does is turn up, proclaim to be bored, and annoy everyone. I prefer to see more 'down to Earth' situations, if you'll forgive me using that term in a space-set show.

Si.

Then I'm sure you won't mind a mild spoiler if I tell you he never shows up in DS9 again (and after Sisko belted him one, who could blame him!). He does show up in Voyager a few times though.

[Si Hunt]

"Dax"

I've yet to be convinced by the actress playing Dax (and doesn't DS9 have the weirdest set of actor names in its cast ever?). It's all very well being mysterious, but she just sort of never does anything. Was she totty there to give the Trek fanboys something to vent their frustrations to?

More seriously for this episode, it's a virtual re-run of a similar episode of Next Gen. This time the question is not "Does Data have the rights of a human?" but "Is the new Host body of a Trill responsible for the actions of the Trill in a previous form?" (were there any casual viewers left watching?). Worse, I felt Sisko was a bit ignorant in this. After calling Dax "old man" and saying how much he and his "old friend" had been together, he then gives the hearing some cock and bull about "just getting to know" this new Dax. It feels rather like he wants Dax to escape punishment simply because he/she's a mate.

Also, although the question is raised, there's a very lame answer to the question of why, with a full warrant for her arrest, the intruders arranged a complex and elaborate kidnap attempt to drag Dax off DS9 only to, when caught, announce they had the means to take her legally. To pad out the episode and make it a bit more exciting maybe?

"The Passenger"

This was quite interesting, although at heart it was just a traditional "guess who" Doppelganger story. The person whose mind the evil criminal turns out to be hiding in is Bashir, and unfortunately the actor isn't quite good enough to pull off the dual role. Odo continues to delight in his witty putdowns though - he's one of the best characters in this series.

Si.

[Martin Penny]

The best thing about 'Dax' is the elderly Inquisitor who conducts the trial, and clearly hates her job.

I constantly forget the ending of 'The Passenger', and I think it stands as one of the least memorable of this series.

[FlyingBeastie]

I agree with Si, Dax was the least interesting character n' also she was conflicting too~ at first they painted her as this sort of "holier than thou" and almost asexual type character almost like an Elf from LOTR_but then they changed her to be some sort of oversexed wanna-be klingon almost.

Ezrie was a definate improvement

[Si Hunt]

"Move Along Home"

A bit of a silly one, this. Some aliens arrive and challenge a cheating Quark to a game - where-in four random characters that need focussing on are transported to a real life game of challenges. The game itself isn't tremendously exciting, some of the 'games' have no rules and make no sense at all (such as the gas-filled ballroom where the players are somehow supposed to know that they should drink the glasses of champagne for the "antidote", or the weird caves one where they... fall down a chasm. God knows what that was about). By far the best bits are the scenes with Odo and Quark, though the Constable here is made to be curiously ineffective. Why is he letting the game proceed? Why not just arrest the aliens? And again it's highlighted what a bland actress the woman playing Dax is.

The alien leader is annoying and the twist at the end is that it WAS all a game, everyone is safe so that's alright then. But hang on - isn't it kind of assault to put Sisko and the others through these terrors and not TELL them they were in a game? Isn't it like kidnapping someone, terrorising them, then telling them it's ok because you secretely never intended to hurt them? It's a very weird, very forgiving First Contact.

The episode as a whole is an attempt to do something 'off kilter' with the main crew, unfortunately it's not that exciting and a little difficult to fit into the shape of the show, as many of these things are.

Si.

[FlyingBeastie]

"Move Along Home"

And again it's highlighted what a bland actress the woman playing Dax is.

especially during the Allamaraine hop-scotch game.

I didn't mind the episode actually, it was just a bit of fluff, but enjoyable at the same time~ especially looking back at how camp Bashir was at the beginning of the show

[Phillip Culley]

I just love 'Move Along Home' for the hopscotch bit - you can see Avery Brooks is really unimpressed with having to jump around and sing a song

[FlyingBeastie]

I just love 'Move Along Home' for the hopscotch bit - you can see Avery Brooks is really unimpressed with having to jump around and sing a song

as is nana visitor

[Si Hunt]

"The Nagus"

The first of what I'm guessing will be a new type of episode especially for DS9 - The Ferengi Episode. It's clever that it just leaves us to work out what a Nagus is (presumably some kind of Ferengi Prime Minister, probably self-appointed; whichever of them backstabs his way to the top of the pile) and this is a very entertaining episode. Quark is again given more chance to shine, and show what a great character he is. The joy here is in his various innocent reactions when finding out what fate lies in store for him at each stage and what he can get out of it.

Si.

[Martin Penny]

'The Nagus' is, by far, the best Ferengi episode of the series. The Ferengi come across as comical, but dangerous - where as later focus episodes would reduce them to bumbling idiots. Wallace Shawn is great as Zek, and you'll see more of him as the series goes on, but this is his best outing.

[FlyingBeastie]

'The Nagus' is, by far, the best Ferengi episode of the series. The Ferengi come across as comical, but dangerous - where as later focus episodes would reduce them to bumbling idiots. Wallace Shawn is great as Zek, and you'll see more of him as the series goes on, but this is his best outing.

yeah, they end up belittling him (no pun intended) as time goes along

[FlyingBeastie]

just saw Captive Pursuit~ probably the first real great episode for DS9. Tosk is such a quirky, loveable character. i quite enjoyed watching this one. twas' most entertaining

[Rob McCow]

Well, we started at The Emissary last night. Bullet points for lazy writing!

- This follows straight on from We have been so spoilt with TNG on blu ray. Flipping over to DS9 in standard definition is like suddenly going blind. The sound mixing is awful too.
- Sir Patrick of Stewpotalopagous turns up in two scenes with Avery Brooks (Benjamin Sisko) However, it's shot so that the actors stand at opposite ends of the table and we don't see them together. So I suspect that they never met.
- The effects at the Battle of Wolf 359 are the best that Star Trek has had up to that point, including the movies. But it looks crap because it's not in HD.
- The writing and charactersiation are streets ahead of Next Gen. With Roddenbery no longer around, Sisko gets doubts, inner conflict, anger and dramatic confrontations. The other characters aren't quite so strong, but this isn't about them.
- Gul Jasad! Won't see him again.
- Sisko has to explain linear time to the Wormhole Aliens/Prophets. Ironically this seems to take forever, although it does dovetail into some excellent character stuff as he relives his past with Jennifer.

The Emissary is a great start, really intriguing and I find I want to see them rebuilding the station and discover more about the characters.

[Wayne]

Edited because I basically put the same as I wrote 7 years ago on page 1.

[Rob McCow]

http://www.indiewire.com/2017/03/sta...ng-1201792806/

New Deep Space Nine documentary on its way!

Also we're now halfway through Season 2. Progress is slow because we're alternating with Next Gen episodes and other things keep cropping up to distract us. Still, we had "Whispers" were O'Brien thinks everyone is against him which was a great ep. Oh and "Cardassians" and "Necessary Evil", both of which show the way forward...

[Nyder]

Although I've not seen it for decades, I do remember enjoying DS9 more than Next Gen .... although I do plan to re-watch both soon(ish)


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Rob McCow]

Here's a few sentences on "Paradise". An Eden-like planet is run by an Evil version of Mrs Jefferson from Tenko. She is so self-righteous and smug that she makes Vedek Winn look like a naive bumbling fool. The community seems a happy one, but people die from diseases that are easily curable and they enforce their laws by putting people in a crate and letting them bake in the sun all day.

Makes a change from the old Star Trek standby of a paradise-like world with a dark secret at its heart when the secret is that the humans who live there are morally indefensible.

There are also some racial overtones and slavery references which are perhaps a little ill-judged? Sisko starts work in the fields and is immediately told "You're good at this!" - he explains that his family were restaurant owners and worked a lot in farms. Also he is inevitably the one who ends up in the crate. Probably I'm reading too much into it but I don't think they'd go with something like that today.

[Rob McCow]

Double bill tonight.

"Shadowplay" was kind of OK as a sweet and gentle story about an old man in a village where people are oh-so mysteriously disappearing. I remembered the twist from watching it some 20 years ago. Dax and Odo investigate and Odo develops a cute relationship with a kid.

"Playing God" is the worst episode. Terry Farrell might be a good actor but whatever she's doing as Dax, it doesn't work for me. In this episode she's training a young initiate (for 45 minutes or so before he vanishes forever). The initiate is a delta male, very shy and insecure and obviously in need of manning up. Fortunately there's some sci-fi b***ocks about a proto-universe to sort that out. There's also an invasion of Cardassian voles which is never resolved.

I have a limit - I can accept some silly science but when there's something as poorly thought through as this proto-universe they cross the line. SURELY if they leave it to grow at a natural rate it's going to eventually destroy our Universe??? They never ask that question which to me seems so obvious. And WTF it's just floating about in the Gamma quadrant and gets attached to the runabout nacelle? How? Where did it come from???

We did get the line "Some kind of space sea weed on the starboard nacelle" which made up for it though.

"There's space sea weed on the starboard nacelle,
Starboard nacelle
Starboard nacelle
Jim..."

[Leah Betts]

Shadowplay... where you wonder whether Clara Sutter from TNG's Imaginary Friend knows that she has a hologramattic like-a-look near DS9?

[Rob McCow]

Yeah... Si spotted that the girl from Imaginary Friend turns up again.

Profit And Loss has Garack in it so it is automatically great. An old girlfriend of Quark's turns up which is fine except a) she's Cardassian and b) she's a dissident who thinks the rule of the military is a bit too... militaristic. Her two interchangable and bland students are the future of Cardassia apparently, which means the rest of the series is going to be pretty dull.

Armin Shimmerman does not get enough recognition for his acting skills. They could easily have cast Ethan Phillips (Voyager's Neelix) as Quark and the whole series might have fallen apart. Shimmerman can make Quark sympathetic, interesting and versatile. He does comedy, romance and a bit of action in this episode and it all works for his character. Great stuff.

[Rob McCow]

"Blood Oath" - Three Klingons from the original series turn up and take Jadzia Dax on a mission to fight the Albino, a renegade Klingon who murdered their firstborn. And it's brilliant. I've been very negative about Terry "Smirk" Farrell but she raises her game at last for this story. I still don't buy that she's got an alien worm giving her centuries of experience at all, but she's at least competent in this one. The test for her is whether she is prepared to murder to fulfil her blood oath.

The writing and characterisation is so far ahead of anything we got in TNG it's unreal by this point. The last scene where Dax returns to the station and everyone knows what she's done is played in silence with the actors giving each other looks. Really effective.