KTR's reflections from another DS9 newbie

[JadziaKathryn]

I'm not a fan of MU, a well-known fact. But now that we have mirror everybody, it's even more absurd. Really, since people are the same only physically, and they're obviously in relationships with different people, why, why, why does anyone think that we'd end up with the same people? Different relationships = different children. This drives me nuts.

[CoffeeCat]

Nice slam of the MU, JZK - (I wonder what the MU Threshold offspring would be like just to get even more ridiculous...)

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

(I wonder what the MU Threshold offspring would be like just to get even more ridiculous...)

Some carnivorous crocodile creatures, perhaps!?


Three episode reviews today:


3-22 Explorers

Coming right after the previous action-packed two-parter, the understated Explorers was a nice break for us and allowed the crew to relax a bit. It relied on very little plot and more on some really good character moments. But I have to wonder how Sisko could find the time to construct an ancient Bajoran solar sail vessel from scratch in just a few weeks? And from my understanding of the physics involved, those sails should really be a lot larger. It was nevertheless a beautiful ship.

The Ben and Jake interactions were really good. Sisko is such a good father, but not in an all too sugary sweet way. This is a realistic portrayal of a father and son relationship. It was quite funny when Jake gave his dad some advice on women. And I noticed that this was our first view of Sisko's beard.

The b-plot with Bashir and his old academy classmate wasn't all that engaging, but that was made up for by the hilarious drunken scene between him and O'Brien, singing "Jerusalem" of all songs. Scenes like these humanise the characters in a way the other modern Treks never quite managed to do, especially TNG, who took itself far too seriously. They had the poker game but not much else.

Explorers gets a grade of 7- on my 10-graded scale.



*****

3-23 Family Business

Geez! Why do they insist in making these stupid Ferengi episodes? I realize that they this time opted more a more serious tone and tell a story about family. But these Ferengis are obnoxious caricatures anyway, so I cannot get invested. It's plainly obvious that the writers have no real understanding of capitalism. If the Ferengis are so obsessed with profit why would they exclude their females if they can prove that they also have the lobes for business? And this about the females being naked and chewing the food for the males is just icky! Seeing Quark's mother was just… bleach! While I liked that Rom showed some backbone I found his "moogie" silly and tiresome.

The Sisko gets a date b-plot was better and I liked Kasidy Yates. She ought to be a good partner for him. It was a bit too convenient that her brother had resurrected baseball on the colony where he lived though.

Family Business gets a grade of 2- from me.



*****

3-24 Shakaar

Shakaar was an episode that seemed promising but eventually failed to fulfil on its promises. I usually like stories about Bajoran politics but this one didn't accomplish much in the end, besides introducing what I assume will be a new recurring character in Shakaar. Kai Winn gets elevated to the position as First Minister (in a non-separation of religion and government fashion) only to lose it in the end. And one has to wonder whatever happened to her former associate Jaro.

I liked the camaraderie displayed between the former Bajoran resistance fighters and the fact that they weren't ready to shot at each other. That felt sincere. I didn't quite get what the conflict was all about. If it was just a matter of scarce soil "replimats" couldn't just the rich Federation have lent a hand? Or would that go against the inane 24th century interpretation of the prime directive?

Kai Winn is quite a puzzle. I wish the writers would make up their minds regarding her and her motivations. From episode to episode it's hard to tell if she's just plain evil, or a misguided albeit idealistic religious leader, or a power hungry political player? One thing is certain and that is that for someone to have managed to achieve such an exalted position, she seems much too incompetent. Why would she risk her position by putting Bajornas against Bajorans over some farm equipment? She really seems out of her element.

The subplot about O'Brien being on a lucky streak throwing darts felt out of place and didn't do anything for me. I'm also surprised at Sisko for just accepting that Kira went off to Bajor to join a rebellion like that.

I'll give Shakaar an average grade of 5+.

[JadziaKathryn]

I'm also surprised at Sisko for just accepting that Kira went off to Bajor to join a rebellion like that.

Maybe it's because he knows she'll be back by the end of the episode?

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

^ Heh! That must be it!

Today I'm finishing off the third season and also give a season overview:


3-25 Facets

What could've been a further interesting glimpse into Trill society instead not only felt uninteresting but also managed to break previously established continuity. It doesn't help that I normally find Jadzia Dax a bland and fairly uninteresting character to begin with. On paper it probably looked like a nifty idea to actually see Dax's previous hosts inhabiting the bodies of our characters and interacting with Jadzia. But it mostly fell flat, with the exception of Sisko-as-Joran (Equilibrium). That was truly chilling. I got mostly annoyed with Odo-as-Curzon. That is perhaps because I have a hard time standing people like him in real life.

My main gripe though is that it was strange indeed to now learn that a lot of memories from previous hosts are hidden to the current one. It is one thing to break continuity with previous Trek shows - as they indeed have with the Trill between TNG and DS9 - but here they break the intra-continuity on DS9. Given that we knew that each new host has the memories of the previous ones (the thing that allows Jadzia to be Sisko's "old man" friend) I found it odd, to say the least, that they could in fact hide a lot of important things, such as Curzon being in love with Jadzia.

I liked the b-plot with Nog taking Starfleet entrance tests much better. It was great to see Rom getting really furious with Quark for tampering with the holo-test and standing up for his son.

Facets receives a grade of 4+. The Nog story saved it from being lower.



*****

3-26 The Adversary

Reading the DS9 Companion I understand that this was not what they originally planned to end the season with. They had an idea about a cliffhanger that the studio nixed and thus they had to come up with this one fast. Given this knowledge I can excuse The Adversary for not packing the punch that one should expect of a season finale. Still, it was a very good episode and I enjoyed it.

The plot reminded me a lot about The Thing, this time set in the isolated confines of the Defiant. It made clever use of the paranoia when everyone suspected everyone for being the changeling. It is quite chilling to learn that they can be anyone and, as was revealed in the end, that they indeed are everywhere already.

It was rather sad for Odo to first confess to never having killed anyone, and then have him kill one of his own people. Not only was it his first kill, but he was also apparently the first changeling to break the rule that they don't harm each other. There were some really good effects scenes there as well.

And finally Sisko gets the promotion to Captain that he should have had from the beginning. I never quite understood why they'd make a lowly Commander the commanding officer of such a strategically important place. Every Starbase has normally has a Commodore in charge (at least in TOS, by now I suppose they have Admirals).

I liked the references to the Tzenkethi, but was a bit miffed that we never got to see them. I'm curious as to what part they have played in Earth/Federation history. There has apparently been a recent war with them, and some have speculated that they're the same as Larry Niven's Kzinti from the animated series, which would mean that they had a conflict with Earth before the Federation was formed (and before ENT too I take it).

I'll give the third season finale The Adversary a grade of 7- on my 10-graded scale.



*****

Season Three Overview

The third season was as uneven as the second season, in fact it was more so. It did have some really good arc-related stories but unfortunately it also contained some real stinkers. I gave three episodes a grade of 1, which never happened in the second season, and that pulls down the average even if there were some excellent ones (such as the Improbable Cause/The Die is Cast two-parter). I'm not sure what the coming seasons hold, but I can tell that the shake-up they did was necessary. Two roller coaster, high-and-low seasons in a row was enough. They've shown that they can make some riveting stories and character moments, so why mix those with really sub-par episodes?

On the character front there is a noticeable absence of O'Brien many times. I understand that was to accommodate actor Colm Meaney so he could do other projects, but nevertheless I missed him when he wasn't around. Even more absent (but not missed that much) was Keiko. This allowed for O'Brien's and Bashir's friendship to develop and that is something I liked. I still can't get interested in Jadzia. And whatever they're planning with Odo/Kira I'm sure I'm not going to like it. Sisko continues to grow as a Trek Captain - now with full rank pips. I like him, his command style and his relationships with the others, especially his son.

Summing up my episode grades I come to an average season grade of 5.32, which translates to a 5+ on my 10-graded scale. This is actually a bit lower than season two, and you have the three stinkers to thank for that. Since I haven't completed my grades for ENT's third season I cannot tell that average, but I can say as much that there is no way that DS9's third can compete. Also, ENT ended very strongly whereas DS9 really didn't.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

I started with season four today:


4-01-02 The Way of the Warrior

The Way of the Warrior was an amazing season opener. In a lot of ways it was like a second pilot for DS9, being feature length, introducing another regular character and taking the series in a new direction. It still remains to be seen how much different DS9 will be after this one though.

I gather that this change was mandated by the studio to shake up the show, and I agree with that. The past three seasons had shown some really great stories, but had also produced some terrible ones as well. It seemed to "stagnate" and not going anywhere. But what befuddles me is why they did this change. It was clear that the producers and the writing team did intend to take DS9 forward with the Dominion storyline, only to be nixed by the studio. So they opted for this change instead. I don't understand why they couldn't have been allowed to proceed with the original plan if a shake up was deemed necessary.

Oh well, this is as good as any change I suppose. At least something new happened. While I'm not that big a fan of the 24th century Klingon mentality (spouting "honour" and mindlessly charging forward to silly deaths) it mostly worked here. I do like Worf, he was one of the more interesting characters among an otherwise bland set on TNG. Perhaps it is his human upbringing, but he does come off as being a more controlled and smarter Klingon, reminiscent of the TOS era Klingons, than the rest that populate this era. So I liked his addition to the cast. And his assignment actually made sense, given the situation, and didn't feel contrived. I liked the nods to what happened in Generations.

The episode was a bit slow moving in the beginning, and it took a while to get things going but when it did it did with a bang, so to speak. The battle scenes were spectacular and you really had to catch your breath at seeing the massive Klingon fleet around the station.

I understand that it is the paranoia against the Dominion threat that prompted the Klingons to react in this manner, but it did seem a bit too much of an over-reaction on Gowron's part. From what I remember him from TNG, he was a smarter and more calculating fellow - here he just blindly rushed through, damned the consequences (making enemies of the Federation again, a Federation he owes his position of power to). And the Klingon battle tactics left a lot to be desired. I suppose they thought they didn't need any with their superior numbers. They should easily have destroyed the station, no matter its upgrades (those were really cool, by the way). It can maybe be excused that the Klingons wanted the station intact; after all they did try and board it.

I also didn't understand why Starfleet didn't react sooner. They should've sent a huge fleet to DS9 the moment the Klingon fleet arrived. Now the station was like a sitting duck when the Klingons came back from Cardassian space. There should've been a lot of starships waiting for them. Stupid Feds!

Garak shined as usual. I especially liked his talk with Quark about how insidious the Federation are, and the hostility shown between him and Gul Dukat. And I felt sorry for him when he got beat up by the Klingons, but I laughed at when he said he got of some cutting remarks.

I liked the revised opening sequence and theme. It shows a more busy station, befitting its position by the wormhole, instead of this far away outpost in the outskirts of space.

As the episode said, the Klingons are there to stay and I hope that it won't mean too much of a postponement of the Dominion storyline. Also, from my understanding of galactic geography, the Klingons are a quite far away from home. The Klingon Empire is in the "southeast" part of Beta Quadrant, whereas DS9 is to the "northwest" of the Alpha Quadrant. Does this mean they can travel willy-nilly across Federation space?

Finally, my grade for The Way of the Warrior is a 9+ despite the obnoxious and often moronic behaviour of the Klingons.

[CX]

Don't let the Star Charts fool you about the various locations. But to answer your question, yes, the Klingons are going to do quite a bit of damage in Federation space, and there isn't anything Starfleet can seem to do about it.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

Don't let the Star Charts fool you about the various locations.

Well, my understanding of canon is that Klingon space is were it is and the various star charts out there (online and published) has taken that into account.

But to answer your question, yes, the Klingons are going to do quite a bit of damage in Federation space, and there isn't anything Starfleet can seem to do about it.

Now why am I not surprised!?

[JadziaKathryn]

Also, from my understanding of galactic geography, the Klingons are a quite far away from home. The Klingon Empire is in the "southeast" part of Beta Quadrant, whereas DS9 is to the "northwest" of the Alpha Quadrant. Does this mean they can travel willy-nilly across Federation space?

Well, I suppose all of this depends on exactly how much of the Alpha Quadrant the Federation controls. (Isn't Earth almost in the Beta Quadrant, incidentally?) If they don't control the "northeast" then the Klingons could go through there.

Then again, the Klingons do have cloaking devices. Maybe if the Federation was busy worrying about Founders, they were less concerned with checking for cloaked ships.

[Elessar]

Given that they have cloaking technology, I think yes, they CAN just travel across Federation space all willy-nilly, .

I think Gowron's very-poorly-thought-out and slightly-stupid move of rushing in to try and occupy the station is definitely that, but I never considered Gowron to be the best tactician or even the best leader, I think back in TNG when he was installed, it was made clear that he was simply the best political leader for the Klingon empire, in the interests of cohesion. Later on, we'll see that status quo challenged, but I won't go into any detail. Suffice it to say, I don't think Star Trek is attempting to claim that Gowron's a great commander-in-chief by any means, so the fact that he makes stupid mistakes shouldn't reflect poorly on all Klingons, who, although they should be stepping up a little more, place incredibly high value on loyalty. For anyone to question Gowron they'd have to be willing to fight him to the death and attempt to wrest control of the empire from him.

I agree that Worf is portrayed as one of, if not THE, most intelligent and cunning Klingon, and largely as a result of his Human upbringing. IMO there's little subtlety in the implication that because he has a Neopolitan background of Klingon blood, human parents, and human friends; that he sees past the typical bloodlust that his compatriots suffer from. It's actually kind of ironic when you look at it in this regard because some modern Trek suffers from the backhanded trait of actually reflecting the ethnocentric attitudes of the modern world that, originally, the whole concept of the Star Trek ethic was intended to subvert and destroy. Humans are usually, if not always, superior in our multi-facetedness. The sentiment was nice, but the scene between Forrest and Soval is a prime example where Soval goes on about how confusing humans are and how we display surprising logic at times, blah blah blah. It just felt like a little humano-centric self-horn-tuting to me on the writers' parts. The whole point of Star Trek is to imagine how insignificant we could be in the scope of a galactic community, but sometimes we stray a little too far into being proud of ourselves for not embodying any one concept in an absolute sense, like logic or emotion. It's like they sometimes portray OTHER races as absolutes of the many facets that make up US so that our variations in that manner make us better. Just irks me, but I'm horribly OT.

I have to say, I've never seen TOS Klingons do anything, but I can definitely understand the criticisms of 24th century klingons, because one thing I hate about some Star Trek races (and this is how 24th century Klingons come off) is when the writers try to make them embody some eclectic or exotic social/political/cultural stereotype to such an extreme that it's impossible to imagine warp drive coming out of a society like that. Klingons and Kazon strike me that way. Both races (in the 24th century Klingons) are just like these melee-weapon-wielding brutes that someone handed a warp drive and a phaser to, you can't envision them developing science and culture and medicine in order to GET where they are right now. The introduction of that Klingon doctor and the "We're not all warriors" line in Enteprise helped, but it was like 15 years too late.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

It's actually kind of ironic when you look at it in this regard because some modern Trek suffers from the backhanded trait of actually reflecting the ethnocentric attitudes of the modern world that, originally, the whole concept of the Star Trek ethic was intended to subvert and destroy. Humans are usually, if not always, superior in our multi-facetedness. The sentiment was nice, but the scene between Forrest and Soval is a prime example where Soval goes on about how confusing humans are and how we display surprising logic at times, blah blah blah. It just felt like a little humano-centric self-horn-tuting to me on the writers' parts. The whole point of Star Trek is to imagine how insignificant we could be in the scope of a galactic community, but sometimes we stray a little too far into being proud of ourselves for not embodying any one concept in an absolute sense, like logic or emotion. It's like they sometimes portray OTHER races as absolutes of the many facets that make up US so that our variations in that manner make us better. Just irks me, but I'm horribly OT.

I have to disagree, the "point" of Star Trek has to me always been very Human-centric, even moreso in the later incarnations. The Feds are nothing but Earth writ large, and a "paradise" to boot. And since they're so "evolved" they tend to look down on other species that are stereotyped into brutes (Klingons), the cold and emotionless (Vulcans) etc.

I have to say, I've never seen TOS Klingons do anything, but I can definitely understand the criticisms of 24th century klingons, because one thing I hate about some Star Trek races (and this is how 24th century Klingons come off) is when the writers try to make them embody some eclectic or exotic social/political/cultural stereotype to such an extreme that it's impossible to imagine warp drive coming out of a society like that. Klingons and Kazon strike me that way. Both races (in the 24th century Klingons) are just like these melee-weapon-wielding brutes that someone handed a warp drive and a phaser to, you can't envision them developing science and culture and medicine in order to GET where they are right now. The introduction of that Klingon doctor and the "We're not all warriors" line in Enteprise helped, but it was like 15 years too late.

Bah, they probably stole the tech from some peacnik interstelalr travellers that happened to land on Kronos.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

Two more reviews today:


4-03 The Visitor

I am generally not too fond of (to put it mildly) so called Reset Button™ episodes, and it was obvious from the start that The Visitor would fall into this category. These alternate futures episodes are nullified in the end, the events depicted therein didn't happen and the characters don't learn or remember anything from them. And so it is with this episode too. Benjamin Sisko does remember, but he only learned very small tidbits that Jake told him as he kept appearing from time to time in the future.

That said, for being a Reset Button™ episode, The Visitor isn't too bad. It had some real poignant and heart-wrenching moments when poor Jake felt the loss of his father and couldn't seem to move past it. There were some great acting on behalf of Avery Brooks, Cirroc Lofton and guest star Tony Todd as the older Jake. Trek has mostly not portrayed kids in a satisfying manner, but as I've stated before, the father-and-son relationship between Benjamin and Jake Sisko are the exception, and it is ultimately what saves this episode.

This alternate "future" raises some questions. It doesn't seem that there ever was much of a Dominion war, so one wonders why that never happened in this timeline. And Jadzia fared better here, since she lived to old age (killing off her character by the end of the sixth season was obviously nothing that they knew here).

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention guest star Rachel Robinson (daughter of Andrew Robinson who plays Garak). She was great as the visitor and aspiring writer who came to visit old Jake, and she was rather cute as well. I liked Jake's home. It felt like a real place where someone actually lived, instead of the antiseptic digs we mostly see on Trek.

I'll give The Visitor a slightly above average grade of 6- on my 10-graded scale.




*****

4-04 Hippocratic Oath

Hippocratic Oath was a pretty good episode. We learned some new things about the Jem'Hadar that could conceivably be used in future episodes. There is an apparent weakness to them and if that could be utilized them there could presumably be some internal strife within the Dominion. But all the same, I found myself siding with the cautious O'Brien over Bashir. Bashir was in effect aiding the enemy, almost to the point of a Colonel Nicholsonian obsession (Bridge on the River Kwai). There is no way to know what freed Jem'Hadar would do! Since all they know is war and fighting, then the likelihood of them turning into nomadic marauders is very plausible, unless they turn out to be like the Jem'Hadar commander, who I liked and who was a decent fellow. I really liked the tension shown between Basir and O'Brien.

The b-plot was all right, I guess. If anything it was inevitable to show the conflict between Worf, a former security officer, and Odo. My main gripe is that it tended to paint Worf as being too rash. On the other hand, Odo hasn't been shown as all that competent either, since he continuously lets Quark get of the hook. I wonder why Quark wasn't arrested here. At least have Odo once say that he thinks it's better with the devil you know. And I liked Sisko's comments that here there are "shades of grey", which seems like the running theme for the entire show.

I noticed that both Bashir and Dax have gotten promotions, and O'Brien is wearing a brand new Senior Chief Petty Officer insignia, and is referred as a Non-Commissioned Officer. Given his previous hollow pip, I had assumed he was a Chief Warrant Officer. Guess I was wrong. Kira has also gotten a new and softer uniform that I like. It is even more like a catsuit, so the criticism against T'Pol's outfits isn't really fair. It began here. And I haven't seen any other Bajoran officer wearing it. Why would Kira be the only one (except that she looks good in it)? The same can be said for T'Pol. But I digress…

Hippocratic Oath receives a grade of 6+.

[CX]

I've always criticized all the catsuits, including Kira, so criticising T'Pol's is completely fair in my view.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

I've always criticized all the catsuits, including Kira, so criticising T'Pol's is completely fair in my view.

As I said at WWBJ, I'm not talking about you, but at the general selective criticism levelled against T'Pol's catsuits while ignoring Kira's for instance.

[Elessar]

The "O'Brien rank issue" is a known one, and one they just plain screwed up on. At one time on the Enterprise D (and I actually just saw an episode recently that proved this, The Best of Both Worlds) he is also wearing two full pips, suggesting a rank of Lt Full Grade, but obviously he's not. Later in the show they talk more about his NCO status so it's a definite that he is NOT an Academy grad. I love it, and I'm glad they're finally using a little bit of military consistency here. But you can't change the past and tehy just plain didn't know what to make him back in TNG and even early DS9, though I can't say I remember what pips he was wearing in early DS9.

I do think you're right that Odo should express a little more sentiment of that 'devil you know' because it would help to justify a little the fact that Quark always gets off the hook. Basically, I would rationalize it by saying that Quark becomes Odo's conduit to the more serious crimes on the station and that's why he lets "the little fish" go. He DOES at times still come down hard on him and I think you can still be convinced that Odo would put him away right up to season 7 if he got the chance. But he has moments of weakness where he does start to think he can trust Quark. All in all though, I don't think they violate Quark's character by ever making him too goody-goody or Odo by making him too soft. There are local, isolated instances though.

KTR I don't think we disagree about Star Trek being humano-centric.... What I'm saying is, I don't really think that was Gene's intention. I mean he had the vision that we could be better than we are, but the humility of "we're not alone" goes hand in hand with the "humans coming together as one race to better ourselves" sentiment. I agree with you that it became in later Trek about humans being better than everybody else ---ehhh, but still not so much in TNG. Not as much in TNG as in DS9, Voyager and sadly, Enterprise. I still liked the shows, but there are ethnocentricities abound in them if you look close enough. On the fact that that's how the shows ARE we agree. I just don't think they OUGHT to be, or that Gene would have WANTED them to be.

I mean, when there's an episode or a storyline where some race other than Humans or some group other than Feds, can do something better than we can, then this is not the case. Then that is a celebration of diversity and a message of humility as a human race that we may not be better than everything else. But when we are portrayed as being better than klingons because we dont' rush blindly to war, better than Vulcans because we're not just governed by logic but also emotion, better than Ferengi because we're not dominated by greed, etc etc, then it gets...well I get annoyed, to be perfectly honest . A good scene that stands out in contrary to this actually is one, at some point in DS9, when Quark says something like, "You humans may think we are barbaric and greedy, but Ferengi have not made war against one another for thousands of years. We've ruled our planet peacefully far longer than Humans." or something to that effect. It's the concept that just maybe we're not the end-all perfection in our mixed Neopolitan nature. I mean the fact that most Q-episodes show humans to be morally and ethically superior to the Q is a great example. Here we are, being measured against this omnipotent being, and still, the character of Q is written such that we're still better than him. It's a cute lesson, but still wrapped in it is a superiority complex.

Oh and I don't even think Kira looks that good in a Bajoran catsuit. It's shaped all weird, it doesn't accentuate her body the way T'Pol's or 7 of 9's catsuit does. I mean people call it a catsuit but I don't even consider it, as a man, to be that great of a catsuit. Maybe it's just that she's got no hips or no ass or somethin, but she doesn't look all that great in it. I think she's gorgeous, I just don't think that it flatters her much. I think she looks smokin hot in the Season 7 Federation uniform actually

I should start back up where you are and do some DS9 reviews with you... we can do like point and counterpoint