Rigil's Reflections from a DS9 Newb...

[Reanok]

Our man Bashir was a fun episode to watch Bashir & Garak in the world of Bashir the spy is alot of fun. Avery had lots of fun playing the badguy. All the cast had fun filming this episode. And Bashir got to be kissed by Dax or should I say Honey Bear.

[Rigil Kent]

Homefront kicked off a two-parter mostly set on Earth, and I really enjoyed the episode. It's very surprising how topical this episode is, what with the changelings basically taking the same role as those Islamo-fascists who want to blow up civilians. Given how long ago this episode was done, I found it fascinating to see the same arguments (both pro & con) being made. Sisko's dad was great, and I really enjoyed the interactions with him; Jake's hesitance about visiting 'cause he'll be put to work reminded me of why I didn't always want to visit the grandparents back when they were alive, and Ben's concern over his ailing dad was quite believable. There was a continuity issue here: ADM Leyton (V'Las, from ENT! And that General from B5) said that Earth hadn't been in this much danger since the Third World War. Now, I understand that the Xindi attack hadn't been conceived of yet, but I'd think that the Earth/Romulan War would be considered as placing Earth in danger.

The second part, Paradise Lost, was also pretty good, and I really liked how Sisko got the information about the Red Squad crew that he did. The changeling that he encountered was fairly ballsy, and I was once again impressed by the Sisko family dynamics. The best part about ADM Leyton, IMO, is that he wasn't entirely wrong. Based on what I've seen of Earth in the various Trek episodes and movies is that it is never properly defended. The examples of this are too numerous to list but Star Trek: First Contact or ENT's The Expanse and Zero Hour are immediate proof of that. Given how often the Federation capital is attack, you'd expect there to be some planetary defenses in place. So, Leyton wasn't entirely wrong ... he just wasn't right either. Interesting that Worf is in command of Defiant ... makes sense, I suppose, but brings up some questions about the chain-of-command. Do he & Kira sort of share the XO job? Like Kira is the XO on the station, but Worf is XO on Defiant? Best line: "Paradise has never seemed so well-armed." Heh.

So, 2 for 2.

[JadziaKathryn]

There was a continuity issue here: ADM Leyton (V'Las, from ENT! And that General from B5) said that Earth hadn't been in this much danger since the Third World War. Now, I understand that the Xindi attack hadn't been conceived of yet, but I'd think that the Earth/Romulan War would be considered as placing Earth in danger.

I've not seen this episode, but I immediately honed in on the qualifier this much. In Leyton's opinion, the E/R War didn't put Earth in as much danger as the Third World War or the Dominion War. Easy enough to explain.

[Rigil Kent]

That doesn't track with the way they described the E/R War though. Everything up until this point has seemed to indicate that Earth came really close to losing that war ... if Earth was never in any danger, why should anyone care if they nearly lost it?

[Rigil Kent]

If I had to describe Crossfire in a single word, that word would be "boring." Maybe it's because I can't get interested in this Kira/Odo thing (at least it's not offensive like Archer/T'Pol was, but it's still that uninteresting), or maybe it's because the episode itself was a complete dud, but it was very difficult to sit all the way through this thing. The only interesting bits (to me) were the Odo & Worf bonding scene, and then later Quark's scenes with Odo. The rest of this thing was just depressingly dull.

Unfortunately, Return to Grace wasn't much better. Yeah, it was cool seeing Dukat again, and I liked that they displayed continuity what with his daughter and his subsequent demotion/loss of family/etc. because of the daughter, but the episode just idled in neutral for almost the entire hour. The Klingons once again displayed a staggering lack of competence, which confirms my belief that their reputation for being warriors is very obviously exaggerated. Damar, the Cardassian who was evidently Dukat's XO, looked pretty good - his make-up wasn't quite as good as Dukat's, but it was probably the second best I've seen on the show.

Two below average episodes...

[Rigil Kent]

Two episodes up...

Sons of Mogh was ... difficult to define. On one hand, I liked some of the elements within it, but on the other, I really, really hate the Klingon culture as evidenced by this episode. These guys are complete jokes, and I don't see how they are "warriors" or any of that bunk. Clearly, the Augment virus that made Klingons into the TOS guys also seriously enhanced their intelligence.

Anyway, the episode was slightly above average, and it was good to see continuity as Kurn was suffering from Worf's decision back at the beginning of the season to side against Gowron. Worf had an interesting comment in this ep: "I have no family." Uh ... doesn't he have a son?

This also clearly sets up the future Dax/Worf relationship, although I can't say that it really does anything for me.

And good Lord, but Sisko was seriously pissed off at Worf and Dax, wasn't he? Man...

To my surprise, Bar Association was surprisingly tolerable, despite it being Ferengi-centric. My strong dislike of unions caused several anti-union quips during the episode, but the ep somehow managed to keep my attention. There was some good continuity (always a positive thing IMO) with the tooth sharpener that Worf bought from Nog earlier in the season, as well as references to a couple of the security breaches on the luxury liner, 1701D. Worf's expression when O'Brien pointed out that the Klingon would be all alone while living aboard the Defiant was amusing, but the Nausicaan "game" in the background of the last Quark/Brunt conversation was hysterical. I don't know why it was so damned funny, but I couldn't stop laughing at it!

And good for Rom.

So, two positive episodes ... but, dammit. I want the fricking war to start! Stop pussy-footing around and start blowing crap up!

[Rigil Kent]

Finally got time to watch some DS9. I caught the first of these two episodes before class, and just finished with the second one a couple of minutes ago.

Accession wasn't bad, and had some very interesting insight into the Bajoran culture, particularly their outdated caste system that they no longer use. It was rather amusing to see how quickly Sisko leaped at the chance to shed the role of Emissary, and I loved Worf's reaction when O'Brien told him that Keiko was having a baby (mostly 'cause I actually remember that episode of TNG that they were referencing.) Sisko's response to Bashir's question about what the Prophets were trying to tell him ("I have too many neuropeptides running around in my brain") was hilarious, and I was glad that this wasn't a reset button. As an aside, I totally want people to refer to me as The Kent now, 'cause it's neat how the Prophets call him "The Sisko." There was some weird directing in this episode that seemed a little jarring – they moved the camera around in odd ways, but the episode was still pretty decent.

Rules of Engagement was very good. I totally dug seeing a Starfleet admiral who wasn't human (a blue-eyed female Vulcan, huh? Hmmmm...) and the guy playing the Klingon advocate was really familiar to me for some reason. It seemed a little silly for the defense (Sisko) to not already have the information that Odo was hunting before the trial began, but that's Trek for you. And I unfortunately agree with the Klingon advocate about Starfleet law (and thus, by default, Western law) relying too much on procedure over fact. The advocate had some pretty good lines, and the directing was fantastic! I loved how they had the testifying characters responding to questions while in the middle of a flashback. I'd love to read this script to see if that was built into the screenplay, or if it was something the director did. Sisko's cross-examination of the advocate that revealed the deception going on was pretty good, but his final dressing down of Worf and comments about being in command were fantastic. "Wait until you get four pips on that collar. Then you'll wish you went into botany."

So, two for two tonight.

[JadziaKathryn]

That is a good quote. Botany. I wonder if there are Klingon botanists.

[Rigil Kent]

Two subpar episodes tonight.

I was surprised to see that Daniel Keys Moran wrote Hard Time - he is the author of The Long Run, which is quite possibly my all time favorite cyberpunk genre novel. Unfortunately, the episode itself was pretty uninteresting, although I did appreciate that they didn't just give O'Brien a handwavium solution that completely fixed the problem. Unfortunately, this episode and the "memories" that the chief has will likely never be referenced again, so it's ultimately irrelevant. I'm probably in the minority but I really hate it when a show (any show) does something this traumatic to a character and then he/she/it is fine come the next episode.

With Shattered Mirror, I've officially become sick of the Mirror Universe as shown on DS9. The bad guys are not threatening in the slightest, and have instead become ridiculous parodies. The entire thing seems to have devolved into camp, with the actors not really appearing to take it that seriously. IMO, the MU episodes started out okay, but have taken a sharp nosedive in quality as each successive one appears. It's also become absurdly easy to travel between the two universes. You can also tell that they have started using CG for their battle scenes instead of just models; some of those shots weren't bad, but the explosions just stunk. I did like Sisko's expression after Mirror Bashir hit him, though.

So, ultimately, it was 0 for 2 tonight.

[Rigil Kent]

Kind of fallen out of the habit of posting these here, so here's a recap of my thoughts...

For the most part, the final run of episodes in season 4 were decent, but there were two mediocre to flat out stinkers in there too.

And The Muse is that stinker. I don't like Troi, and this episode only intensifies that dislike (Worf's deadpan "I would" answer when Odo asked Troi if she would like to take a walk was hysterical though). The Meg Foster character was amazingly predictable (being a "creative" leech), and my roommate can attest to the fact that I theorized that was her MO the minute she spoke to Jake regarding his writing skill. I liked seeing Michael Ansarra again, but it's a pity he was wasted in such a crappy episode. Also noticed Patricia Tallman, now playing a Bajoran medic. Nice bit of continuity in that Jake is writing the novel that his future self was known for in the DS9 magic!reset!button episode, but that couldn't save this from getting a big goose egg from me.

For the Cause was much, much better. They did a pretty good job concealing that Eddington was a Maquis guy, although I'm sad to see him go 'cause I liked him. Some really great Bashir/Garak interaction in this, and even better Garak/Ziyal interaction ... although you can tell that it was a different actress this time. I have to say that I rather liked Sisko in this episode; you could really see that he was struggling with the realization that Yates was a smuggler. More and more, though, I realize that I would either be a member of the organization or a sympathizer, as I completely agreed with pretty much all of Eddington's comments about the Federation (second time someone has called it "insidious", I note). But, given my general dislike of the 24th century Federation, you can take that for what it's worth.

To the Death was also pretty good, although I have some minor difficulty buying how quickly the Federation started working with the Jem'Hadar. Very effective teaser (that's two in a row! I think that's a record for DS9), and I had to sigh at Brian Thompson once more being relegated to playing a bad guy - someday, when I seize power and write a series, I'm going to cast him and Jeff Kober both as paragons of virtue, just to be different. For the "ultimate killing machines" that the Jem'Hadar are advertised as, I've got to say that the renegades got their asses handed to them fairly easily. I would have also liked to have seen more of what was happening on the station during this little expedition. Rather liked the Jem'Hadar leader.

The Quickening was ... okay. It wasn't anything spectacular, being a run-of-the-mill Hero Doctor Fights Plague/Epidemic, but you could see the DS9 crew's darker influence as Bashir didn't cure the blight straight out. I also had to roll my eyes a little bit at the completely human-looking aliens; isn't amazing have nearly every single alien in the Trek-verse looks human, with the rare ones that don't (Cardassians, Jem'Hadar, Andorian, Tellarite) really being the exception? Anyway, back to the episode: Dax should leave her hair down all the time, 'cause she looked better with it down. So, this was ultimately slightly above averaged.

Body Parts was, frankly, mediocre at best. Not surprisingly, I didn't care for the Quark plot, especially the resolution of it. When they brought Garak into the picture, I was hopeful that he would do something nifty at the end (like killing off Brunt, whom I can't stand, Jeff Combs aside), but that was ultimately a waste of time as well. And only in Trek can a human fetus be transferred to a non-human, and still survive. I presume that this is due to Nana Visitor's real life pregnancy. I can't give this episode a higher grade than mediocre.

Unfortunately, the same has to be said of Broken Link. The fourth season finale had some decent elements in it, but I had too many problems with the episode overall for it to be an effective season finale. For example, if knowing that walking/moving intensifies Odo's problem (as Bashir clearly stated) then why the hell would they have Odo walk to Defiant? We've already seen anti-grav stretchers or even a wheelchair on the show before, so it was stupid to have him walk. And Odo's sudden change to solid? How exactly did they do that? Oh, wait. Trek science. Never mind. Some positives include the amusing Garak/Sisko conversation in Defiant's mess hall, as well as the bridge scene with O'Brien lamenting over Keiko and Kira talking about him. And seeing Garak actually hold his own against Worf (if only for a few seconds) was amusing, but ultimately, for a season finale, it didn't have the OOMPH that it needed.

Final Thoughts on Season Four: Overall, the season has been pretty decent although, IMO, it started a lot stronger than it ended. The slow build up to the war has also annoyed me - I'm entering season 5 now, and I still haven't seen the damned war start. At this rate, the war that so many people have raved about is going to be four or five episodes in length, and will leave me monumentally disappointed.

On the character front, Sisko is officially my favorite Trek captain, eclipsing even Kirk. I'm learning to tolerate Worf, but still can't give a damn about the Kira/Odo "ship". None of the other main characters really changed too terribly, although I remain enamored of the Dax/Sisko friendship.

Compared to season 4 of Enterprise (which is generally, for some reason that defies my understanding, considered the best season of ENT), I have to say that this one starts off a whole lot stronger, and doesn't end by crapping all over me as a fan and telling me that it was a "valentine." I also appreciate that none of the various relationships in the show were regressed during this season (ala the inane decision to go the Ross/Rachel route with the T'Pol/Tucker relationship) and we haven't been forced to sit through countless episodes of Sisko leaping tall buildings in a single bound (ala the nonsense with Archer in ENT season 4). So, overall, I'd say this was a superior season IMO.

[Rigil Kent]

As a season premiere, Apocalypse Rising was a disappointment. As a regular episode, however, it wasn't that bad (even if it revolved around the cliched Klingon!Retards of the 24th century era). The damaged runabout shot in the teaser was easily recognizable as the same one they used two episodes ago in "Body Parts." As this running Pregnant Kira thing continues, I would like to see her boyfriend's reaction to her sudden state. That said, Dukat's expression at her statement that the baby was Chef O'Brien's was hysterical. Her later comment that this pregnancy was Bashir's fault was also kind of funny, given the real world reason behind it. And it was nice to see Jake in some clothes that didn't suck.

As to the actual Klingon plot, I was a little bit underwhelmed, but that's due mostly to my general dislike of the walking, talking cliches that Klingons have become since ST:TMP changed their appearance and TNG robbed them of the cunning they seemed to have in TOS. The Klingon make-up for the various non-Klingons was pretty decent, and I have to admit that Sisko made a pretty good one. It was also nice to see that at least Odo was using his brain when he figured out that "Martok" wasn't actually Martok - I would have thought that the general's failure to recognize Worf should have been a dead giveaway. And I have to say, that the speed in which the other Klingons drew their disruptors and shot "Martok" was pretty funny. Overall, it was an underwhelming season premiere, but a slightly (slightly) above average episode.

However, I really enjoyed The Ship despite being disappointed that they killed off Muniz. I really liked the senior noncomm/junior enlisted relationship between him and O'Brien in this episode (and in the previous ones that Muniz has shown up in). It's a sign of good writing that I was sad to see such a background character be written out. I wasn't that keen on the Vorta chick's make-up, though, and they didn't do a very good job explaining why that Founder died. Was it injured? They never really said. It also didn't seem to take very much to rattle the surviving Named Characters ... a couple of distant booms, and they were already at one another's throats.

And once again, I'm a little confused about ship sizes. How big, exactly, is a runabout? I thought it was a four to six man craft based on previous episodes, yet they evidently crammed nine people into one for this ep.

Looking for Par'Mach in All the Wrong Places was an average episode, considering it centered around Quark (primarily.) I do appreciate that they've been building up the Dax/Worf relationship since he arrived (even if I don't particularly care for the pairing), and I really liked the outfit that Dax was wearing while in the holosuite training thing for Quark; it was very ... Valkyrie-esq. I found it a little difficult to believe that Odo wasn't aware of this duel since the Klingon bodyguard guy basically challenged Quark to a death duel in the middle of the bar; therefore, it's premeditated murder, regardless of who wins, so Odo would, by default, have to get involved. And ya gotta feel for the poor Klingon dude; he was pwn'd by a Ferengi using traditional Klingon weapons. If that's not a reason for ritual suicide, then I don't know what is.

Nor the Battle to the Strong was actually pretty good. It was very much a watershed episode for Jake, and I really like how they dealt with war in a more realistic manner. Honestly, I didn't blame Jake for panicking like he did; he's never been under fire or been trained for this, so it's only logical to be overwhelmed. As someone who has been shot at in a combat situation, I know exactly how chaotic and terrifying it is. Battle simulations are all well and good, but knowing that you can't be killed in them basically robs them of any real sense of danger. And correct me if I'm wrong, but are the Siskos the first main characters in Trek who don't have daddy issues?

Also said something about the maturation of the Bashir character, who was the FNG when the show started. I don't think I've heard "hoppers" referenced before. Random sexist thought: that brunette nurse was a serious babe, and I'd like to have seen more of her.

The Assignment was mediocre and never really captured my attention. I found Possessed!Keiko's comment about there being O'Brien thinking up a technobabble solution to the possession thing kind of amusing - it had to be a subtle jab at the usual deux ex machina they use to get out of these sort of things. But overall, there wasn't anything really memorable about this episode apart from the wraiths being mentioned for (I think) the first time.

Trials and Tribble-ations, however, was truly a "Valentine" to Trek fans that didn't flip the finger to the DS9 crew (like *the_abomination* did to the ENT crew). Right from the teaser, you could feel the love that the production crew had for old school TOS, and they did a spectacular job recreating some of those sets. A lot more than ENT's IAMD II, I enjoyed seeing the TOS uniforms in all their glory, and even the inserting of the regular crew into Kirk's crew was pretty well done. Yeah, there were a couple of bits in there that stood out as not entirely correct (the shading on O'Brien's face when Kirk was asking Chekov who started the fight, for example), but overall, it was exceptionally well done. A lot of the in-jokes in this ep were just hysterical: the temporal investigation guys and their dislike of Kirk, or how everyone looked at Worf when they saw the TOS Klingons, or even Bashir's meeting of his (possibly) great-grandmother were all fun. They also did a good job of using Dax to highlight how much they (the production team) loved TOS, and the -1701 looked awesome. Plus, they got one of my all time favorite Scott quotes in there: "Laddie, don't ya think ya should ... rephrase that?" On a final note, I would have soooooooo done what Sisko did when he spoke to Kirk at the end. This is definitely an episode I plan to watch again, just for the fun factor.

[Rigil Kent]

Let He Who is Without Sin was, to be blunt, boring. Every Risa-based episode I've seen (this one, the TNG one, the ENT one) has pretty much sucked. There were some more continuity gripes in this ep: the Risan chick implied that Curzon Dax died by sex, yet they showed him in the pilot, still alive, as the symbiont is transferred. And, not surprisingly, I found myself agreeing with those Essentialist guys about the Federation: it does appear disgustingly weak, and they bring on a lot of their troubles by not appearing strong. Frankly, the only reason that the Federation seems to win any of these wars is because the bad guys are written as complete and total morons. The Klingons are a perfect example of this. If they were written realistically instead of the way that they always are, then the Federation wouldn't stand a chance against them in battle. Chase Masterson looked nice in this ep, but her voice was driving me up the wall; the whole thing between her and Bashir seemed like I had missed a couple of episodes that actually showed that they were a couple. So, ultimately, this episode was a really big Yawn.

Things Past wasn't much better, actually. It was pretty obvious from the get-go that the Thrax guy was supposed to be Odo, and, while I liked the previous flashback episode, this one didn't do a lot for me. Garak had some great lines, though, and I liked the ending and how they sort of did a reversed mirror of the way the last flashback ep ended with Odo being the one who was feeling guilty instead of Kira.

It sure would be nice to have seen the so-called Federation-Klingon war that they referenced a couple of times recently ...

The Ascent was mediocre, although I suspect that my lack of real interest in it is due to my general dislike of Quark. The opening Sisko scene was excellent, though, and was once again further proof of the the fact that they (the Siskos) are apparently the only members of Starfleet that don't have "daddy issues." Ironically, I was drinking root beer when the Quark/Rom root beer scene took place. Error in dialog: Quark called Odo a misanthrope, but a misanthrope is a hater/distruster of humanity ... so it's not accurate here. I did find the reference to Vulcan Love Slave amusing - I think I'll try to work something into my Endeavour series about that based on that dumb Ferengi episode of ENT; it'd be hilarious, I think, to see how T'Pol would react if she discovered that she was the basis for such a thing. Another problem I have with this ep is the idea of sophomore field studies from the Academy; that's just dumb. A sophomore doesn't know enough to be put in the field. A junior or senior I can buy. As is always the case with Trek, the writers ignore how truly vast space is, and for a "barely hospitable" planet, that world looked a lot like Canada. Amusing final scene, though, and I did like Quark's comment that he was taking Odo along as emergency rations.

Despite being deadly slow, I was fascinated by Rapture ... and I don't know why! First appearance of the First Contact uniforms, although Sisko's comm badge seemed to move all over the uni (bouncing between the black part where it should be and the grey upper part). I appreciate that they actually referenced the fact about how easy it was for Sisko to figure something out that had been plaguing scientists for years, but it was still a little hard to buy that no one ever thought to reverse the images like he did. Ah well. Given how Starfleet has treated its member worlds (see the ongoing Maquis issue), I can't say that I'd be for Bajoran joining the Federation if I was Bajoran, especially since the Bajoran military is evidently absorbed by Starfleet. For some reason, I was reminded of Paul Atreides and his "addiction" to farseeing as the Sisko plot unfolded and how he reacted to them being taken away. And once again, I love the Sisko family dynamics.

The Darkness and the Light was pretty blah, even if it had some really interesting ways of killing people off. Once again, Sisko's comm badge was all over the place, and it was a little distracting to me. Randy Oglesby (Degra from ENT) was recognizable by his voice as the Cardassian, and I kind of wish that they hadn't telegraphed how Kira would get out of her situation (the herbs counteracting the sedative) as bluntly as they did. This was a fairly unmemorable episode.

Finally, the only thing that mattered in The Begotten was that, once again in defiance of realistic biology and science, Odo has inexplicably regained his shapeshifting abilities. Both the A and B plots bored me to tears, and the entire episode was dull and ... ponderous springs to mind. An "infant" changeling makes me wonder: how do they reproduce?

The war can't possibly come soon enough ...

I've noticed a funny thing about DS9. Just when I'm getting really frustrated and really disgusted with how slow things are going, they put out some absolutely fantastic episodes.

For the Uniform was very good, and I was glad to see Eddington back since I liked him and still agree with the Maquis. This was one of those shades of gray episodes where nobody was entirely in the right, and it's always fantastic to see continuity play a part in a show. I loved that Eddington is a smart character, and was stunned to see SFC do something ... logical. Putting someone else in charge of the Eddington hunt actually made sense, and I approve of Sisko's professionalism (the "Good hunting" line to the other captain.) I was amused at the Trek cliche of the Hero Ship being the only one in range though. Oh, and I loved the scenes aboard Defiant's bridge where orders were being relayed like an old navy ship - totally wish they would do that all the time instead of the usual Trek bridge crew basically being the only ones who matter. Fantastic visual of the crippled Starfleet ship (don't recall the name); was that an Excelsior-class? One thing though: I'm really surprised Starfleet didn't come down like a ton of bricks on Sisko for his resolution ....

Initially, I was just glad to see that In Purgatory's Shadow featured the return of Garak. As the episode went on, though, I found myself more and more drawn into it. The Dukat/Garak interaction at Quark's was hysterical Some astoundingly good and witty dialog in this episode (Worf: At first sign of betrayal, I will kill him. Sisko: I assume that's a joke. Worf: We'll see.) and three big surprises (Garak's dad, the return of a familiar Klingon face, and the shapeshifter reveal). And the ending of this ep? Whoa buddy. About fraking time!

Following up, By Inferno's Light both excited and frustrated me. All of those ships and not a single one of them gets blowed up. Alas. Beyond that, the rest of this ep rocked. Hell, I even dug Worf the Super!Klingon on the penal colony. His line "Then I will die ... but I will not yield." was excellent. The Jem'Hadar training kind of made sense (in a brutal manner), but it doesn't seem like the most skilled would actually learn anything by beating up on a really messed up guy. The Dominion proved that they're smart - fantastic plan that was narrowly foiled, and further proof that going to warp inside a system is a bad idea. Based on Worf's actions and his very vocal supporter, I've got to assume that he's not going to be dishonored forever. And seeing all those ships just makes me want to see some damned space combat!

For the most part, Doctor Bashir, I Presume was a pretty decent episode, even if it pulled the Bashir is an Augment thing out of nowhere. I see now why CX suggested that Leeta (sorry, I snicker when I hear her name and think of Futurama) is the "station's babe". BTW, her hair looked atrocious in this episode. The B Plot involving her and Rom and Zimmerman drove my grade of this episode down to slightly above average instead of very strong; I just couldn't find it in me to care about the Ferengi and the Bajoran chick, especially since Leeta seems pretty "easy", if you know what I mean.

The A Plot involving Bashir's parents, however, was pretty strong, and I liked the casting of the parents. Bashir's daddy issues made total sense and were probably summed up best by his line "You decided I was a failure in the first grade." Ouch. And I have to say that the way Siddig said "Oh ... my God" when Bashir's parents first showed up was pretty funny. The later scene where the parents spoke to Bashir's hologram and revealed his adjusted genetic ancestry was really lame though, and felt like unnecessary exposition. It could have been done better, I think, by having Zimmerman discover inconsistencies in their stories, and start pressuring them for answers which ultimately leads them to reveal something (not the whole truth, of course) they shouldn't have. Instead, this came across as the same sort of silliness where the bad guy explains to his cohort the master plan while the hero overhears it, or is pretending to be the cohort.

That said, the scene immediately afterwards between Bashir and O'Brien was quite good, and Siddig did a nice job at conveying anger, dismay, and resignation all at the same time.

A couple of weird things:

• Zimmerman is wearing the gold of engineering or security, yet is a medical doctor.
• Zimmerman has no rank on his uniform throughout.
• "Vulcan Love Slave 2: The Revenge." Heh.
• O'Brien says that Bashir's problem hasn't cropped up in Starfleet for a 100 years ... so an Augment tried to join Starfleet during Kirk's era?
• The JAG ADM places the Eugenics Wars at 200 years earlier, when, by my calculations, it should be around 400 years earlier.

Despite the nitpicks and the annoying Rom/Leeta plot, this was a pretty decent episode, making this entire disc a good one.

[Rigil Kent]

A Simple Investigation really did nothing for me. Point of fact, I was pretty bored with this episode from the beginning, and it never really picked up. I get that this is supposed to be an ep centered around Odo, but it was just boring, and so ridiculously predictable that my attention kept wandering to other stuff. Dey Young, huh? I remember her from that atrociously bad season 1 ENT episode, Two Days, Two Nights. The fact that this chick had a neural interface jack ("dataport") was interesting, though. The forced interactions between Odo & this chick kept causing me to grit my teeth in annoyance. Not exactly sure what Odo gets out of "sex" with this chick, since he's established previously that he doesn't "feel" things like solids do. Sad to say, but I liked the two hitmen better than this "love interest of the week"; they had boatloads more personality than this chick. Again, I'm astounded at how quickly the characters on Star Trek fall in love. Smile at them once, and BAM! They're "in love." Ugh. Rather liked the look of the alien spy guy though, even if it was more of the usual "bumpy forehead aliens" of Trek. So, this was nothing if not mediocre.

Business as Usual. To my surprise, I actually found myself slightly interested in this latest Ferengi episode. The A Plot involving the arms dealing was actually slightly interesting, with the Ferengi cousin having more character than most of the other guest-starring Ferengi we've seen. The entire plan of using the holo-suites to sell weapons was actually a pretty good one. I did love Sisko's threat to Quark though. It was great! It was amusing to see Quark realize just how in over his head he was, though with the psycho human guy; it was pretty much a given that he would ultimately betray the dude, though. I heartily approved of how Quark outwitted him, but really hope that there some sort of ramifications down the road.

The B Plot regarding O'Brien's kid was meh. Is there not some sort of daycare center on the station?

Ties of Blood and Water was pretty good and had a wicked cool title to boot. I enjoyed the continuity with Ghemor, Kira's Cardassian "dad." I see what CX was saying about Kira wearing a catsuit. The episode was a pretty interesting insight into Kira, although the Flashback!Kira looked wrong with her really bright hair. I really liked the fact that the security guys were around and keeping an eye on Dukat while he was on the station, and once again, I really liked the Dukat/Sisko interactions. Rather liked Weyoun in this, a lot better than Combs' portrayal of Brunt the Ferengi. So, overall, this was a really good episode.

Which brings me to the horrifically painful Ferengi Love Songs which made me seriously consider suicide just to avoid actually watching the end of the episode. It's a pretty bad episode where I find myself actively looking for other things to do in order to take my mind off of the tripe that is on the screen. I suppose this was supposed to be funny, but I found stupid and boring.

[JadziaKathryn]

I liked Worf on TNG, but the DS9 writers really did great things with his character - they gave him great lines and multi-dimensionality. (Is that a word?) Plus, I'm a fan of Worf/Dax.

It kind of makes you wonder, though, that the only Klingon with a brain was raised by humans. Martok is a possible exception, I suppose, but still, the point stands.

[Rigil Kent]

Don't mean to step on any toes, but the Dax/Worf thing really doesn't do anything for me. I suppose it's "tolerable", but I can't really work up the effort to care about them as a couple, not the way I cared about T'Pol and Trip.

But then, none of the "ships" on this show have really interested me ... and the Kira/Odo thing flat out bores me.

Mired, tired, and uninspired today, so I watched a whopping four episodes. (Only two to go until the season ends). Unfortunately, I was mostly indifferent to three of them, and had some trouble taking the fourth seriously.

Soldiers of the Empire didn't do much for me, actually, as it was a continuation of the Klingon!Retards of the 24th Century. Honestly, this so-called "warrior race" is so lame that they couldn't win a shadowboxing match. Yeah, it had some nice Martok/Worf interactions, but other than that, it was silly. The fact that Worf stated point blank that the Jem'Hadar had attacked a Starfleet ship a week earlier, and the Federation still isn't at war with the Dominion is further proof that the Federation is pathetic and weak, and frankly deserves to fall. Hearing Dax encourage Worf to attack the Jem'Hadar warship from stealth in what amounts to an act of murder (since the Federation isn't at war with them, and last I checked, she was still Starfleet) was wildly OOC for her. The visual from the viewscreen as they went to warp in the Klingon ship was cool, but the fact that we didn't see the battle is a major rip off.

Although I've never seen Children of Time before, I have heard the many complaints that the Enterprise episode E2 ripped it off ... and frankly, I see why. E2 so blatantly rips this episode off that it was hard for me to watch this ep without seeing the parallels (i.e. New!Dax = Lorian, or New!O'Brien = Karyn Archer, or Old!Odo = T'Pold). Because of this inevitable comparison, I couldn't enjoy this episode at all, and it sort of damaged my enjoyment of E2 at the same time. Also, Dax's uniform is noticeably tighter in this ep (something that continues in the next two), which is fraking absurd and ridiculously sexist; I'll note that the men's uniforms weren't turned into silly catsuits. I did like how one of the "Klingons" actually kind of looked a little like a TOS Klingon, but otherwise, I wasn't that impressed.

Blaze of Glory was ... okay, I guess. It was a lot weaker than the previous Maquis!Eddington episodes, although I couldn't figure out why Starfleet Security didn't put him in a prison jumpsuit of some sort instead of letting him lounge around in his Maquis clothes. The starbase shot was pretty obviously from one of the TOS movies, and the part of me that knows something about astronomy is still trying to figure out what the frak that nonsense was they flew through in the Badlands. But then, I've been struggling with that since they introduced it. Nice bit of continuity with Cal Hudson, though. And my general disdain for the 24th century Federation is summed up with something Jake said: "If you ask me, respect is overrated."

Finally, it was really hard for me to take Empok Nor seriously because it was so obviously an Aliens homage (or rip-off, I'm not sure which) that it was painful. Me and my roommate were laughing and inserting the Aliens-appropriate lines as the episode progressed. The fact that O'Brien was a soldier emphasizes my belief that Starfleet is a military (although not a very effective one, based on what I saw of those two "security" troopers.) This is, as far as I know, the first time they've referenced O'Brien as the "Hero of Whatever." Previously, he's just been identified as a combat veteran of the Cardassian war ... yet now, he's promoted to full blown hero. Nifty that.

So, I'll probably step on some toes here, but I wasn't particularly impressed with any of the four I watched tonight. At best, I will call them each "average."