Rigil's Reflections from a DS9 Newb...

[CoffeeCat]

I had to roll my eyes a little bit at the fact that they can evidently scan for telepathic activity on the station.

Thus proving just how useless Troi really is.

I sense hostility.

[Rigil Kent]

Heh.

[Rigil Kent]

Only had time to watch one episode today (between homework and some other stuff).

Almost as soon as Paradise began, I realized that this is one of the few episodes that I'd seen before. Overall, it's a pretty good episode that raises some interesting questions. On one hand, I do agree with the zealot lady (whose name escapes me) that 24th Century humanity has lost touch with what actually makes them human (hence, the reason I dislike TNG as much as I do), but on the other, she was flat out wrong in how she went about rectifying the situation. There were a couple of instances where the dialogue was bad ("did she send you to make love to me?" leapt out as astoundingly bad ... change 'make love' to 'seduce' and it works), and I have difficulty buying that every one of the colonists would decide to stay on that rock at the end. I liked Sisko's "frak you, bitch" expression after they pulled him out the box the first time, and, if I had been O'Brien, I'd have come back to that village and phasered the lot of them. When zealot lady starting talking, I'd have cranked the power up on that phaser and zotted her too.

Also, why couldn't Dax & Kira just remote pilot the other runabout? Two episodes earlier, they did exactly that.

So, overall, good episode.

[Reanok]

Paradise is a good episode the Zealot lady I wonder what kind of punishment she got for stranding all those people on that planet. I know in one of the strange new worlds books they have a story that deals with her punishment and the dominion war.I thought she was a real control freak and Sisko look after coming out of that sweat box he wasn't going to bend to her will. She was a real Witch that's for sure.

[CX]

I really wished that once the box issue had been brought up, that someone would've mentioned that that had been used as a form of torture once on Earth. Sisko and O'Brien honestly should've headed for the hills as soon as they found out about that, because it was a foregone conclusion that the psycho lady would find an excuse to stick them in there. As soon as Sisko confronted her about sending that younger woman in there to seduce him, I just knew he'd be in the box, not as a matter of predictability persay, but because I just knew that's the kind of twisted thing she would do once Sisko called her on her bullshit.

[Rigil Kent]

Which is why if I'd been O'Brien, I'd have phasered the whole lot of 'em. Come in shooting. But then, I'm a callous SOB...

[CX]

I'd have shot them if they got within a certain distance of me. I would've shot the psycho lady as soon as she stepped out though, and then her son just for fun because the frakker tried to shoot me with an arrow. Nice thing about having stun is that they'd wake up in a bit, and I'm sure Sisko wouldn't have said anything about shooting a woman because I didn't want to listen to her inane babble and a guy out of sheer revenge.

[Rigil Kent]

Oh ... you'd shoot them on stun. An interesting decision...

[CX]

Yeah, I'm generally about avoiding the whole killing people thing if I can avoid it. After all, killing some psycho lady because I didn't want to hear her little speech and killing her son, who I'd already subdued and bound would kind of look bad.

[Rigil Kent]

But they have the commander in a box! Zap away, buddy.

[CX]

In that case I'd rather have a real weapon, which wouldn't have been effected by that EM field to begin with. An M4 or even an M9 would do in a pinch.

[blacknblue]

This is where Indiana Jones had the right idea.

[Rigil Kent]

Damned straight.

Well, I finished the disc out with Shadowplay. I've seen this episode before on ENT as Oasis (yes, I know the DS9 one was first) and, frankly, it was boring there too. It's pretty sad that the B Plots (Kira & the religious guy, Jake Sisko (put on some underwear, man!) and his decisions) were more interesting than the A Plot. It's also amusing that another Dominion reference shows up ... seems like they're always sandwiched into these lame episodes.

Final thought: boring.

[Reanok]

I liked Odo and the little girl in the story it may have been a slower episde but I liked it. Also watched Profit and loss and liked it. Maquis Part 1 is really good and I won't spoil it .

[Rigil Kent]

Two more episodes today, neither of which really blew my socks off.

Playing God was kind of boring. Right from the beginning, I was worried 'cause the teaser was somewhat less than engaging. I'm still not sure what the point of the symbiont is ... does the Host actually derive some sort of benefit from it? At least in Stargate, the goa'uld accelerate healing and extend life for the host. Positives were the Dax/Sisko chess scene - I really liked their interactions. Further proof that I wouldn't make it in Starfleet: I'd have destroyed that "proto-universe" (how does that work exactly? Oh, right. Trek science. Nevermind.) without hesitating. Self-defense trumps their silly high-minded ideals any day. And was there ever any doubt that the Arjen (sp?) guy wouldn't lend a hand? Personally, I'd have liked to seen Dax flunk his ass.

With a name like Profit and Loss, there's no doubt that its a Quark-centric episode. Once again, the teaser wasn't that interesting, although I was glad to see them continuing the Bashir/Garak convos. The ick factor between the Cardassian chick and Quark made their scenes really hard to watch, although her make-up was quite good. I loved the Garak/Quark innuendo scene, and the Quark smacking the table to make sure it wasn't Odo was laugh out loud funny. So, my final assessment of this episode is mediocre.