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    Default Yora reviews Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - All of it!

    Because it's a great show and I want to watch it again.

    I don't remember a time before Star Trek. When I was a little kid, The Next Generation ran five times per week in the afternoon, which I watched with my mother and I guess my little brother would also have been around. But I do remember when Deep Space Nine had its first episode. Looking at the date, I would have been nine then and my brother just turning seven. It ran once per week in the evening (somehow I remember it being thursdays at 8 but who knows?), which made it a special occasion. I still remember being very sceptical about it at first. I knew TNG and this looked very different. And to this day I don't like when familiar things are updated to be different, and kids are extremely conservative when it comes to such things. I don't know how long it took for me to really start liking the new show, but many years later when both TNG and DS9 had been long over, DS9 started to look like the way better show in hindsight.

    I watched the entire show during its first run and I think once again in reruns. And at least once more in it's entirety, and once in most parts on DVD in the years since. I believe there also were reruns of the early seasons before the seventh season was finished. Memory is quite hazy there but I think this would now be the fifth or even sixth time I am watching the early seasons, and either the third or fourth time watching the later ones. But the last time I watched them is now at least six or seven years ago and I am really looking forward to giving it another go. I never watched any other Star Trek show on DVD, even though my parents have all of TNG at their home. In fact, after DS9 ended, I kept watching one or two more seasons of Voyager and then stopped watching Star Trek entirely. I watched the 9th and 10th movie, but that was more family obligation than being personally interested in it. Looking at it now, I can't say I'm a Star Trek fan. I'm just a huge DS9 fan, and I think that might have a lot to do with DS9 being really quite different from the whole rest of Star Trek. Voyager felt like a huge step backwards to me, and I've seen a couple of episodes of Enterprise that seem to follow exactly the same tradition. But DS9 is great and able to stand entirely on its own, without depending on being part of Star Trek to hold it up.

    I plan to watch every single episode. Even the ones that I remember as being absolutely terrible and trying to erase from my memory. I assume that pretty much everyone reading these will have watched the whole show at least once or twice as well, so I don't want to make exhaustive recaps of the whole plot, just limiting it to a brief summary to give a reminder of which episode I am talking about and what the key moments were. In addition to just enjoying the show, this time I am going into it with an interest to see how characters and plotlines develop over the whole seven seasons, how things change, remain consistent, get foreshadowed, and build upon earlier ideas. I also plan to do a closing review for every season that takes a look at the larger emergent themes and character developments that aren't tied to any specific episodes.

    S1E1: The Emmisary

    I want to begin this episode with a brief look at the context in which it first appeared. The first season of Deep Space Nine was produced and takes place at the same time as the sixth season of The Next Generation. However, with the exception of a few crossover cameos, both shows effectively remain completely separate, with events in one show not having any impact on events in the other. The first season of Deep Space Nine is only the third time Cardassians appeared in Star Trek, and only the second time that Bajorans were part of the plot. (Ro Laren appeared in seven episodes of TNG before that, but only the first of those dealt with the Bajorans as a species and a culture.) When the Bajorans had their first appearance in TNG, the episode was originally written to have them be enslaved by the Romulans, but because TNG had already used the Romulans a lot, they decided to change it to Cardassians which had appeared only once and didn't have much real developed background yet. So when DS9 started, the whole situation with the Cardassians and Bajorans was extrapolated from just a single episode of TNG. Which now makes me think I should watch that episode when I'm on a family visit in August and squeeze it in here.
    With the Enterprise being replaced by a left behind Cardassian ore refinery as the main setting of the show, DS9 has a very different look from other Star Trek show. Usually Star Trek is bright and shiny, but the Cardassian station has a very noir look with dim lighting and deep shadows. A look that really goes perfectly hand in hand with the equally exciting, unsettling, and unglamorous background of the setting. Like other Star Trek shows, a large part of the cast consists of Starfleet Officers, but Deep Space Nine is not a Federation station and the show is not set in Federation territory. Instead the Starfleet crew is on a rebuilding and peacekeeping mission to the neutral planet Bajor that has just been abandoned by a Cardassian occupation force that had enslaved the entire planet and its population to exploit its resources. Looking at all of Star Trek now, this is really very much unlike Star Trek. Normally Star Trek is all about implausible setups with Planets of Hats that have the Federation show up and bright enlightenment to the one-dimensional carricatures of the natives. This is completely different. This is a situation that feels based in reality, dealing with problems like those that actually exist, and not having simple idealistic answers. And from what I remember, this goes through the whole series, not just when it comes the Bajorans and Cardassians. It's bold. This is a show that actually tries to say something about actual issues. And somehow this all seems to have been confined to only this show, being completely absent in the shows that followed and even ran parallel to it. At times, Voyager felt awfully reactionary compared to this. I have no idea who we can thank for this, but I think it's the primary reason why this show is still holding up so well, while the rest of Star Trek does not.

    The first episode begins with a short prolog that takes place during the battle with the Borg in the first episode of the fourth season of TNG, so presumedly one year earlier. Commander Sisko's ship is destroyed and he escapes with his son Jake, while his wife is killed while the ship is being shot to pieces. In the present, Sisko and Jake arrive on Deep Space Nine, which still looks like a ruin after the Cardassians had removed all equipment they could take with them and vandalized the few civilian shops that were on the station. He is welcomed by O'Brien, who previously had been one of a handful of named minor crewmen on TNG. The first native he meets is a Bajoran priests who invites him to the Bajoran chapel, but Sisko has to postpone that for later.
    The next person he meets is Kira, who is the highest ranking Bajoran on the station and his new second in command. Kira is introduced as angry and looking for a fight and explains clearly that she thinks that asking the Federation for help was a mistake and the Bajorans are inviting new tyrants in just as they got rid of the old ones.
    The conversation is interrupted by an alarm and Sisko and Kira are going to meet with the Security Chief Odo at the store that is being broken in. Odo confronts the thieves and one of them tries to throw a weapon at his head. But Odo is a shapeshifter who can turn into a liquid and the weapon passes right through him and he continues to arrest the struggling thief without a pause. Sikso tries to help him by shooting his phaser at the wall next to the thief's head, but Odo doesn't like that at all. He makes it very clear that security and maintaining order is his job and that weapons are forbidden on the promenade, and that goes for everyone! He got things under control, don't get in his way.
    After this encounter, Sisko is ordered to see Captain Picard on the Enterprise to formally get command of the station handed over to him. Sisko is very rude and hostile to Picard and immediately starts by reminding him of that time he was enslaved by the Borg. "I don't want this! I hate this! I hate you!" Picard is visibly disturbed by this really low blow that was completely unasked for but tries to keep things civil. Sisko assures him that he will do the job assigned to him by Starfleet to the best of his ability, but makes clear that he hates everything about it. Especially Picard. Which is weird, because when he was introducing himself to Kira and Odo he seemed really motivated.
    The second of the thieves was Nog, the nephew of the bar owner Quark. Quark wants to pack up and leave before the Bajorans start fighting with each other now that their common enemy is gone, but Sisko bullies him into staying by threatening to send Nog to prison if he doesn't, because he wants to restore civilian commerce on the station.
    And then we meet the other two main crew members who arrive late, Dax and Bashir. Bashir is unusually bumbling and akward this episode, which I think gets dropped very quickly in the following episodes. He immediately make an ass of himself when he meets Kira by describing the disaster relief and peacekeeping mission he volunteered for as an adventure. The native don't quite share his excitement about the situation.
    Dax is a joined Trill, another species that appeared in a single episode of TNG. They are two very different species that come from the same planet, one of which is almost identical to humans, and the other one being an extremely long-lived intelligent worm that can live inside a humanoid Trill as a second brain that keeps all the host's memories when it's transferred to a new host after the old one dies. Dax is an old friend of Sisko and really over 300 years old, but just got a new one body after the last one died as an old man. As weird as that seems, Sisko has long been familiar with this part of his friend's physiology and adjusts to the new body very quickly.
    I think having Dax and Bashir arrive later was a really smart move. This got us time to get used to Kira, Odo, and Quark first and not dumping everything at us all at once.

    Sisko is having another conversation with Kira in which mention of the Bajoran pope and her huge importance to Bajoran society comes up, and at just that moment the priest shows up again and tells Sikso that now is the time for their meeting. But it's not at the chapel but at the pope's monastery where Sisko meets Kai Opaka herself. Opaka immediately realizes that Sisko is the one she has been waiting for and will be the Emissary, without elaborating on what that means. She takes him to a secret underground chamber where the priests have hidden a Tear of the Prophet, an ancient holy relic that has come from space, send by beings that the Bajorans revere as the Prophets. While looking at it, Sikso has a vision about the day when he meet his wife, recognizing everything himself, but she doesn't know him yet and reacts to his excited ramblings like a normal person would. Which is terribly awkward. The vision ends, leaving Sikso quite shaken, and Opaka tells him that relic will guide him to find the Celestial Temple where the Prophets live, and he has to do it before the Cardassians find it, since they have stolen all the other relics.

    On the station, Dax studies the relic and also has a vision about the moment when her old body died and she got her new one. She is taking the experience very well, though. After some seemingly very short and really easy research, she finds out that five of the Tears have been found in the same region of space and that a former Kai once had a vision of the sky opening and showing a path to the celestial temple there as well. Interestingly giving the implication that the Bajorans had mastered spaceflight long before humans did. Sisko and Dax decide to check out the location but first they need to distract the Cardassian ship that is snooping around, which involves a pretty implausible plan to get Odo on board and sabotage the computer. They reach the location and discover a stable wormhole that has been in that place for thousands of years, which would be the first one ever discovered. It leads halfway across the galaxy into the Gamma Quadrant, but as they try to make their return trip back to the station, their ship suddenly gets stopped and they appear on some kind of artificial planet or a simulation of it. To Sisko the planet looks like a barren rock with storm clouds, while to Dax it's a sunny park. This always seemed completely random to me, but only now I realized that this probably is meant as a sign that Sisko's mind is in turmoil while Dax is completely chill. To Sisko, his vision from the relic was quite distressing, while Dax seemed to have found it quite pleasant and amusing. Suddenly an object in the same shape as the tears appears and scans them. Dax is transported back to the station while Sisko is kept and has a quite trippy encounter with the incorporeal beings that live in the wormhole. They have a conversation in which Sikso tries to explain them what corporeal life and time is, to convince them that he is no threat to them. I think the first time I saw this episode it was all very fascinating and magical, but every time I see it again it feels pretty jumbled and tedious. Just like the first vision with his wife.

    The Cardassians decide to follow into the wormhole but the Prophets don't like them and close the wormhole, trapping the ship inside. Other Cardassians show up to see where their ship went and assume the Bajorans destroyed it. So they attack the station in retaliation. Fortunately Sisko convinces the prophets that they don't have anything to fear from ships travelling through their wormhole and he is allowed to leave with his ship, tugging the disabled Cardassian ship behind him. Having their missing ship back, the Cardassians stop attacking and leave. The Enterprise makes a last visit to check if everything is alright and Sikso tells Picard that actually he want to keep the job as commander of the station and doesn't want to be assigned to something else instead.

    Reviewing this episode turns out to be quite difficult. Not only is it double length, which makes the summary really long, it also spends most of the time establishing things that everyone who has seen the show even just occasionally already knows. What I find quite fascinating is that all the characters are very recognizable to their final shape right from the start. Bashir is unusually awkward, but that's really the only thing. Everyone else is the person you remember them as.
    At one point there is also a conversation between Sisko and the previous Cardassian commander Dukat. Dukat is also exactly the man we know and love to hate. He just left the planet in ruins and casually returns to the scene of his crimes inhabited by his victims and acts as if nothing had happened. He immediately gets the impression across that he doesn't have any trace of the notion that he did a bad thing and people would hate him for it.
    The stuff with the prophets was curious, but in hindsight doesn't seem to have had much substance to it.

    Other than that, not much to say about it. It's a good way to introduce a new show with new characters and a new setting, which could have been quite overwhelming, considering how much there is to take in. That there isn't much plot going with it might actually do the episode favor. It still makes me feel somewhat unhappy with this review, as it seems like a bad start. But there is more to come and we're going to see how that will work out.
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    Default Re: Yora reviews Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - All of it!

    Oh **** yhea. My favourite Star Trek series, and part of my top 5 sci fi series ever.

    You got a fan in me man. If you wish to go less play-by-play and more about how you feel about each episode, I'll follow you through to the end.

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    S1E2: Past Prologue

    Garak introduces himself to Bashir as the only remaining Cardassian on the station. He's being kind of a creep the whole time, but it really comes across like he's deliberately doing it to mess with Bashir. After he leaves, Bashir immediately goes to tell the others officers that he has been contacted by the Cardassian spy, but the replies he gets range from slight amusement to indifference. He raises the valid question of why Garak would pick him as his target, but the overall impression I am getting from the episode is that Garak simply thinks Bashir would be fun to mess with and easy to manipulate.

    A Bajoran ship is coming to the station, being pursued by a Cardassian warship. They beam him to the station and he says his name is Tahna and he is asking for asylum, and then to his surprise recognizes Kira. The Cardassians claim he is a terrorist who is also wanted by the Bajorans for various crimes, and he admits that he is part of a rebel group that recently was involved in an assassination of Bajoran politicians. But he no longer approves of the group and vows to cut all ties with them and become a regular member of society, if they don't turn him over to the Cardassians.

    Tahna is not too pleased to see Kira having joined the government troops, but warms up to her when she shows to not being on good terms with either the government or the Federation and is doing everything she can to get amnesty for him. Meanwhile the Duras Sisters show up on the station, two characters who tried to usurp the Klingon government in season 4 of TNG. Odo shows once more that he isn't take crap from anybody and all visitors to the station have to play by his rules, even klingons. Garak nudges Bashir to notice that the two are having some business with Tahna. Later the two approach Garak because they want to sell out Tahna to the Cardassians once he paid them. Garak tries his Merely a Simple Tailor routine with them, but the klingons are just "oh shut up, do you want him or not?" Garak drops the act and tells them he will arrange things with the Cardassian government. So much for ambiguity about his role and being a spy.

    Kira manages to pull some strings and get Tahna to go free, which leads him to open up about actually having known that she was on the station and came there to find out if she would help him with one more thing to get all foreign powers out of Bajor. Which he swears will be without anyone getting hurt. But he needs her to get a ship for him. He's not too friendly with her and is appealing less to her friendship and trust and more poking at her conflicted feeling of working for the government that tries to get Bajor in the sphere of influence of the Federation. And it works. At first.

    Meanwhile Garak gets Bashir to hide in his store while he wraps up the deal with the klingons, during which he gets the final piece of information that is needed to conclude that Tahna is building a powerful bomb. Bashir tells Sisko and he shares it with Odo. Odo asks if he wants Kira to know about it, but Sisko decides to keep it from her for now.

    Later Kira goes to see Odo, tries to chicken out, but Odo immediately sees through it and very subtly gets her to spill the beans. He doesn't really have to tell her to start talking, but knows right away that he just has to keep her talking herself. Kira admits that she's not proud of everything she did in the rebellion and that she feels in some ways guilty about participating in selling out Bajor to the Federation. But with very little prodding from Odo she admits that she already knows what the right thing to do is, at which point Odo simply calls Sisko to come down without commenting to Kira's admissions.

    Kira and Sikso both agree that the best thing to do is to give Tahna a ship to buy the explosives from the klingons and then arrest him red handed with proof to convict him of a crime. They do the deal, but Kira is too slow and Tahna realizes it's a trap, takes her hostage, and makes her fly to the wormhole. If he destroys the wormhole, Bajor will be a worthless backwater again and both the Federation and Cardassians will loose their interest in it. Kira fights him at the last moment and the bomb only gets launched after the safely reached the other side of the wormhole. Sisko pursues them and gives Tahna the choice to surrender now or wait until the Cardassians show up, picking whether he wants to spend the rest of his life in a Bajoran or a Cardassian prison.

    --

    Really quite interesting episode. It's somewhat of a simple story and has the characteristic bland visual look of the early seasons, but as a whole it stands up really quite well. I find it quite interesting that they made this the second episode of the season and not one of the last one. I guess they wanted to get Kira quickly established to her final form and not actually deal with the conflict about the Bajoran crew not wanting the Federation on the station.

    What I find quite remarkable is that even in just the second episode, they manage to communicate very clearly how Tahna is manipulating Kira by exploiting her insecurities about having moved on from being a rebel to joining the government forces, and starting to appreciate the Federation assistance while wishing that Bajor could take care of its business itself. We barely know the character yet, and going by the production code, neither did the actors. This was only the third episode that was filmed, and Kira did not play a big role in the one they filmed before.
    Odo is also quite impressive in this episode, even though his part is quite small. In his first scene, he shows again that he's the kind of guy who keeps very dangerous and agressive aliens in line while sticking to his no guns policy. He and Kira are the two Bajoran officers on the station, but don't have any established relationship yet. When they find out that Tahna is planning something, Odo simply leaves it up to Sisko to decide how they want to handle Kira. Do they treat her as a suspected accomplice, do they include her in their investigation, or do they observe her without her knowledge to see what Tahna will do next? These options are not spoken, but but that seems the implication in the scene. Odo doesn't seem to care either way.
    But he actually makes the biggest impact in the scene in which he gets Kira to inform on her friend she has been trying to protect. He barely says anything and lets her do all the talking. But when he says something it's just slight nudges to let her now that she isn't being held responsible for anything and nobody is angry or disappointed with her about her involvement, but she really needs to follow her conscience and do what she knows it right. He immediately knows that she means to confess and doesn't want to do anything to get her being defensive. At the end, she doesn't even say that she made a decision and wants to give over her friend, but Odo knows that she does and only then calls Sikso to come down.
    This is all very classic Odo. He doesn't see himself as the enforcer of the law, but a preventer of conflict and restorer of peace. He even mentions at one point that he didn't like the way Cardassians maintained order, but his job was simpler when he didn't have to deal with laws. Again, this is only the second episode, and there's a depth of subtlety and nuance that I really find quite impressive.

    Overall, I rate this episode as good. It's not one of the highlights of the show, but very solid and without any real problems.
    Last edited by Yora; 2019-05-26 at 01:04 PM.
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    Default Re: Yora reviews Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - All of it!

    Wiiiiii!!!

    I definetly liked your ending paragraphs! Impressions of characters and story beats!!

    What did you thought of Garak's first outing? I think the writers weren't sure where they wanted to go with this character yet, so they just had continuous fun hinting at something greater.

    There is something to be said that DS9's first post-pilot episode was about "what to do with violent terrorists who claim to be redeemed", and focuses on character conflict, characterization and politics.

    Compare to TNG's The Naked Now, or Voyager's Paralax. Or Enterprise's Fight or Flight.

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    Default Re: Yora reviews Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - All of it!

    Ah, a review series of my (by a big BIG margin) favourite Star Trek Series.

    Watched!
    A neutron walks into a bar and says, “How much for a beer?” The bartender says, “For you? No charge.”

    01010100011011110010000001100010011001010010000001 10111101110010001000000110111001101111011101000010 00000111010001101111001000000110001001100101001011 100010111000101110

    Later: An atom walks into a bar an asks the bartender “Have you seen an electron? I left it in here last night.” The bartender says, “Are you sure?” The atom says, “I’m positive.”

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    Thumbs down Re: Yora reviews Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - All of it!

    S1S3: A Man Alone

    Before the intro credits, there is a scene with Bashir and Dax in which Bashir is hitting on her, but she can't seem to decide if she is getting annoyed by it or want to goad him further. It has nothing to do with anything else in the episode. If anything, it only reminds the audience that Bashir tries to win her affection.

    In Quark's Bar, Odo and Quark are watching O'Brien and his wife having an argument about her being unhappy on the station. Odo spots a Bajoran he recognizes and immediately tries to throw him off the station being needlessly aggressive, then starts a fight when he insists he has not broken any laws. Odo really seems to hate this guy. He later reveals that the man was a smuggler who exploited the desperation of Bajorans during the occupation, but eventually murdered a Cardassian and was send to prison by Odo.

    Jake introduces himself to Nog and while he doesn't want to talk to a human first, they quickly start doing mischief on the promenade.

    The Bajoran goes to one of Quark's holo suits where he gets murdered by an unseen figure. The door was locked, sensors say nobody else came inside with him, and they can't find any DNA evidence of anyone except Sisko, Kira, Odo, and Bashir who were examining the crime scene. Odo admits that the only one who could have gotten in would have been himself, since he can squeeze through cracks around the door. Odo checks the Bajoran's cabin on the ship on which he arrives and doesn't seem to find anything that would enlighten the audience to what is going on. There is an entry in his log that states "Odo", but I didn't understand what that was supposed to mean.

    Another Bajoran man comes to Sisko and reports that the victim told he before his death that he was afraid Odo would murder him. That guy comes across as incredibly smug and untrustworthy in every scene he is in. Given the circumstances, Sisko decides that Odo will be off duty while the investigation is ongoing, to which Kira is very vocally opposed, insisting strongly that this is completely unfair and they should all trust him without any doubt. When Sisko tells Odo, he is obviously not happy about it and lashes back against Sisko's insistence that this is merely a formality by saying that Sisko doesn't know him and has no reason to trust him.

    When he returns to his office, the place has been vandalized. Curious that people can go into the empty police station unnoticed and wreck this place without being recorded. Is this how Cardassians build police stations? Quark comes by and offers his help, but wasn't able to find out anything useful. In the bar, some Bajorans are talking about Odo and how it's ridiculous that the old Cardassian security chief kept his job by becoming a Bajoran officers. Quark nudges in and defends Odo as not being the kind of guy who would ever murder someone.

    Odo asks Bashir to scan the Bajoran's cabin for any evidence that someone else was there and while doing so he finds some DNA traces at the garbage disposal. He sees indications that it's from some kind of biological experiment and decides to put the cells into a dish and see what they grow into. The thing keeps growing bigger and bigger, but Bashir is puzzled by what it could possibly be.

    Some people start to riot outside of Odo's office, which leaves him visibly shaken, and Sisko has to show up to tell the rioters to stop this nonsense. That moment Bashir shows up to reveal that the thing in the lab is growing into a clone, and that he checked the corpse again and discovered that it is a clone as well. Odo goes to confront an old Bajoran that has been looking at him ominous from the background two times during the episode and reveals that he's the man Odo had send to prison and he created a clone that he murdered to frame Odo.

    --

    I say it out right at the start. I really don't like this episode. The main murder mystery is not that bad and could have worked. It's everything else that doesn't work.

    There is a scene in which Sisko talks with Dax about old times, and another scene in which Sisko talks to Bashir about his old times with Dax. Both scenes serve to remind the audience how the whole Trill reincarnation thing works, in case they have forgotten the explanation or did not watch the first episode. However, it provides some detail on Curzon Dax having been some kind of charming, lecherous, and larger than life rogue, which does add an important dimension of context to Jadzia Dax' light hearted smugness. We'll be getting a lot more about this, but for now it's curious hints. It's okay, and probably not a bad idea, but doesn't tie into anything else in the episode.

    There is another small subplot about O'Brien's wife looking for a new occupation and the kids doing mischief, which leads to the creation of a school on the station. A sensible decision, but narratively I find it really boring.

    Another thing that irked me the entire episode was Bashir. I don't know why, but Siddig's acting is pretty bad in every scene. He's just short of reading out loud the stage directions in the script. There is a lot of medi-techno-babble in this episode and it's quite terrible. Whoever wrote this stuff back in 1993 clearly did not have any clue what he was writing about. I think the basics of DNA evidence and cloning are much more common knowledge these days than they were 26 years ago, and I am probably one of the better informed people on the subject, so the standard I am applying now is pretty high. But it is using real scientific concepts as magic mumbo-jumbo, and I think a bit more effort could have been made. But what really ticked me off was when Bashir had a sample of specially prepared cells to make a clone but was unable to determine that they were Bajoran cells, and when he was amazed that the cells he put in the dish were growing exponentially. Cell multiplication is the classic number one example of exponential growth. It's the example you see seemingly every single time when someone explains what an exponential growth function is useful for. This is stupid.

    And finally we get to Odo. I praised the previous two episodes for having the characters pretty much spot on from the start. This episode doesn't. Odo in this episode is completely against his character in any other episode. Sure, he thinks the Bajoran is an unethical smuggler and got convicted for murder. But Odo is used to work with very terrible people without losing his cool and maintaining politeness unless they get too uppity. Here he goes straight to being aggressive, threatening, and using force without any provocation. He is a hard ass sheriff who doesn't take crap from anyone, but he is keeping the peace by being diplomatic and lenient and using force only when necessary and more as a form of persuade people who only understand violence instead of beating them into submission. This episode he mostly is an aggressive bully who antagonizes everyone and has no subtlety at all. And then when people do try to come after him, he reacts quite spooked, which I think might be the only time he ever shows fear. This is the complete opposite to episode 2, which was filmed just before this one.
    Also his voice sounds different, when I went around the corner to the kitchen for a corner, I wasn't even sure if that was still Odo talking. Probably was the case in the first episode as well, but he only got a small part there so I didn't notice.

    Yeah, I don't like this episode. It's not awful, but there's lot of bad things to it and nothing really good. On a scale from +2 to -2, this would be a -1.
    Last edited by Yora; 2019-05-26 at 01:03 PM.
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    S1E4: Babel

    O'Brien is swamped by work as everything on the station seems to be broken. After he repairs a food replicator in the command section it first starts acting up strangely but then quickly is back to normal. He gets himself a coffee and it seems to be working fine. Soon after he starts to get dizzy and sweaty and suddenly find himself unable to form intelligible sentences. Quark complains that his replicators are broken and he's not getting any customers because of it, and Odo is taunting him that the replicators in the command section are working perfectly fine again. Getting an idea, Quark asks the computer to show him where all the replicators in the command section are located but all information about the command section is restricted. He goes to a drawer with a lot of data rods and searches through it until he finds one with the correct codes.

    Bashir examines O'Brien and can't find anything wrong other than his loss of verbal communication. While they discuss the situation in ops, Dax spaces out for a moment and then loses her ability to speak mid-sentence, showing that it wasn't caused by O'Brien having an undetectable head injury or extreme stress. Since the last thing he did before being affected was fixing the replicator, Kira goes checking it for anything unusual and finds a hidden device someone hooked up to it. As more and more affected people are showing up, Bashir discovers a virus that is causing it but is unable to create any kind of cure for it.

    Odo figures out that Quark has broken into an empty officers quarter to use the replicator, spreading the virus to all his customers. Odo claims that he figured out Quark lied about Rom having fixed the replicator in the bar because "Rom is an idiot. He couldn't fix a straw if it was bend." Bashir discovers that the virus is genetically engineered with methods used by Bajoran scientist. Given the number of infected people, he also suspects that the virus will mutate into an airborne variant, which turns out already happened, forcing a quarantine on the whole station. Also O'Brien is falling unconscious and developing a severe fever, with Bashir expecting that he will die within 12 hours.

    Kira does some researching on which Bajoran rebel group might have created the virus and placed the device to spread it on the station. The group responsible was captured 18 years ago before completing their plan, and the creator of the virus had died in prison. But she is able to find his lab assistant and when explaining that she is looking for the people who created the virus he immediately hangs up. She takes a shuttle to Bajor and kidnaps him with the transporter to take back to the station.

    Meanwhile a freighter captain tries to flee with his ship but only manages to get the docking clamps jammed and his engines catching fire before he gets a seizure from the virus. With everyone else being out of action, Odo needs quark to help him get to the ship, rescue the captain, and get the burning ship away from the station. Kira arrives with the scientist and using Bashir's note he quickly is able to create a cure.

    --

    Up until the last time I watched the series, I had always remembered this episode as being one of the early bad ones. But it really is not. This is another pretty strong episode with very little to complain about. Odo and Quark have a good number of scenes together which don't really contribute anything to the plot of the episode, but are still entertaining to watch. There is also a scene in which Quark tries to hit on Kira and Dax, in which Kira is immediately "Nope!", but Dax is more like "this could be fun".

    The medi-techno-babble this episode is much better than in the previous one and from what I understand of it, the depiction and explanation of aphasia is pretty accurate. The idea that having 100 infected over maybe a day is reason to expect that it will now mutate into an airborne version is rather implausible, though. Yes, the more widely spread the virus is, the higher the chance that an airborne version could randomly evolve. But it's still random and not an automatic result. Especially by such a tiny population as maybe a hundred. The speed at which a cure can be created from scratch is also implausible. It takes less than 12 hours from zero to being finished. I guess they wanted to give the impression that the whole episode takes place on a single day.

    Other than that, I find myself unable to really say much more about it. This is a good episode in which pretty much everything works. Though it certainly is not because of the script. The plot is really quite simple and straightforward, and the dialog nothing spectacular. I think it comes down to directing, and especially to editing. This episode flows really well and never gets drawn out or boring. The little "action piece" at the end where Odo and Quark have to prevent a docked ship from exploding feels a little bit tacked on, but avoids feeling forced.
    Not a spectacular episode, but a good one.
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    S1E5: Captive Pursuit

    The episode starts with a dabo girl making a complaint to Sisko about Quark sexually exploiting his employees. I assume that was supposed to be a light-hearted, one-off joke about Quark being sleazy and capitalism. Well, this is not considered funny anymore.
    An unknown alien ship arrives from the Gamma Quadrant with considerable damage. The pilot seems very hurried and nervous, but accepts an offer of having his ship repaired. Since the Federation has unlimited money, this is apparently a service they offer for free. The pilot avoids talking with Sisko about who he is and where he comes from, other than saying that he is Tosk, but is more responsive to O'Brien's instructions about the ship repair. Since he seems to be running from something, it's decided that O'Brien should try to find out more about him.

    In his interactions with O'Brien he appears as quite awkward and spooked and easily gets puzzled by O'Brien's casual expressions, but the two start to get along very well considering the situation. In the bar, Quark tries to find something he can offer to Tosk, who says he has no vices for Quark to exploit. Quark offers him to try out the holo suites, but Tosk says he has no need for fantasy adventures, because he is living the greatest adventure one could possibly imagine. O'Brien gives Tosk a quarter to stay during the repair, but he only needs some minutes of sleep every day and has nutrients stored in his body that will last him for a long time. Once he is alone, he immediately asks the computer to tell him where the weapons are stored.

    As Tosk is trying to break into the armory he is caught by Odo. He tries to escape by turning invisible, but Odo traps him with force fields and calls some reinforcements. Seeing that he is caught, Tosk agrees to peacefully come to the security station. Sisko arrives to interrogate him, but he refuses to explain anything other than that he means the people on the station no harm and that he is Tosk. He pleads with O'Brien to help him get out so he will be able to die with honor, but still won't explain what that means.

    Out of ideas how to get Tosk to explain himself, another ship arrives through the wormhole. It scans the station and then uses some beams to disable the shields and beam a group of warriors on the promenade. The newcomers are confronted by Sikso but are equally to talk and a firefight breaks out during which the attackers keep getting back up from stun hits several times. Eventually the leader blows up the door to the security station and uses a sensor to find the invisible Tosk in his cell. With Tosk having been found and cornered, the alien calls his men to tell them their hunt is over and for them to return to the ship. Sisko is very displeased about someone disabling the shields and attacking security for a sport manhunt. The hunter is totally pissed about the hunt being ruined by Tosk letting himself get imprisoned in a cell.

    In his office, Sikso and the hunter have a talk about the situation and Sisko calling the hunting of a person to the death barbaric. But the hunter insists that in his culture the Tosks are admired heroes who have been genetically engineered for the hunt and don't know any other life. Kira brings up the idea that Tosk could request asylum, which Sisko supports, but Tosk refuses. Being returned alive in shame to be humiliated would still be not as bad as letting someone protect him from the hunters. And while the prime directive is not mentioned, under these circumstances they would have no choice but hand Tosk over to the hunters. While talking with Quark about the aliens being so obsessed about their hunt, O'Brien gets the idea to help Tosk escape, so he can continue the chase, which is all he really wants from his life. He tells Odo that he will take care of the prisoner transport, who then storms off to complain to Sisko. O'Brien tricks the hunter to get stunned by a weapons detector in an airlock, and the hunt is back on. He helps Tosk to get back to his ship and Sisko tells Odo not to be in a hurry to stop them before Tosk escapes. Tosk gets to his ship and flies off, with the hunters in pursuit.

    --

    This is a really good episode. I usually try to not be too granular with rating things, but this episode clearly makes it above good while still not quite making it to great. Again, this is an episode in which the plot is pretty simple, and this time with no secondary plot at all, which makes it all very tight. Being a first season episode, it is visually pretty bland and somewhat sterile. They really step up their game with lighting and camera work in the later seasons. As it is, the episode is really good, but I think if they had shot this script in season 4 or 5, this could possibly have been one of the really great episodes of the whole series. It's also a classic alien of the week episode, which I think DS9 does not have a lot of.

    The first half or so of the episode plays around a bit with the awkwardness of encountering a new species and communication with Tosk is at first somewhat challenging. Having actually studied intercultural communication as my secondary field at university, which is exactly about this kind of situations, I probably have a more critical eye on it now, but O'Brien trying to talk with Tosk in his casual chatter full of ideoms that Tosk doesn't understand feels a bit overly clumsy. It's a realistic issue that comes up in such circumstances all the time, but O'Brien really takes an excessively long time to adjust his speech accordingly even though he is aware of the problem. (Which usually is not the case, which makes these situations often difficult and frustrating.)
    On the other hand, Tosk is really good at this! Even though his way of talking is awkward and stilted, he makes visible efforts to be polite and clearly states what he thinks and wants. When he doesn't understand an expression, he asks. And when he declines something that is offered to him, he explains why he has no need for it. The early conversations are stiff and awkward, but the communication works. I think I could have used those scenes for a 30 minutes presentation during a class as an example of good practices when communicating with people from an unknown culture.

    I really quite like this episode. It's not one I would necessarily put in any best-of, must-watch list, and it doesn't have any continuity to other episodes, but I think it might be my favorite episode from season one.
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    This is a good episode that could have been great, but I disagree on precisely where it falls short. If I were going to rewrite it, I'd base the entire second half on the scene where Tosk explains his purpose to O'Brian, and turn the main conflict into an internal one questioning what right the Federation has to object to it, maybe with a side discussion of "is Tosk really consenting to this, or has he just been indoctrinated into accepting it".

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    I noticed that the hunters arrive very conveniently at exactly the moment that Sisko says they will keep him held for now and see if anyone comes to take him, because they've run out of any ideas how to learn more about what's going on. There could have been more happening there.

    Also, the episode could totally have been named "I am Tosk" instead. I think in the German dub it actually does.
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    This is the first episode that planted the seed for what might eventually become the Dominion. Overall, I agree it was a pretty cool story. It's the kind of moment that makes you regret DS9's initial tendencies to do 1-shot species À La TNG, because the Hunter culture is something I'd have liked seen in more depth, the way we dug in Bajoran, Cardassian, Klingon, Ferengi, Vorta, Jem'Hadad, Trill cultures.

    No need to make multi-story arcs about them, just 2-3 more episodes that investigate the nature of their culture compared to The Hunt, and maybe how they live as subjects of the Dominions left with a substantial amount of autonomy.

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    The Breen were fun and they don't even have really dedicated episodes. They just show up a couple of times. Unfortunately, there are quite a couple hat wearing aliens of the week in the series if I remember right. Something I want to keep an eye out for.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Yora View Post
    The Breen were fun and they don't even have really dedicated episodes. They just show up a couple of times. Unfortunately, there are quite a couple hat wearing aliens of the week in the series if I remember right. Something I want to keep an eye out for.
    I think they literally only showed up in person in the prison camp where Tora Ziyal was being kept, and in the prison camp where Bashir/Worf/Garak were being kept.

    Then, we see them at the end when they capture Dax and Worf, and keep them in prison.

    They seem to be prison-themed.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Cikomyr View Post
    I think they literally only showed up in person in the prison camp where Tora Ziyal was being kept, and in the prison camp where Bashir/Worf/Garak were being kept.

    Then, we see them at the end when they capture Dax and Worf, and keep them in prison.

    They seem to be prison-themed.
    They can't really be put into a plot that requires them to be interacted with or goes into any depth about them when their shtick is being enigmatic. To the point that even Weyoun - the only one in the series who has a cordial diplomatic relationship with the Breen - finds them comedically opaque.

    The only hat-wearing aliens I can recall in DS9 that are particularly tedious are the Move Along Home gambler people. Who are coming up coming up pretty soon.

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    S1E6: Q-Less

    One of the shuttles picks up a human treasure hunter in the Gamma Quadrant who wants to return to Earth but refuses to explain how she even got there in the first place. On the way back the shuttle loses energy but makes it still back the station. The woman gets in contact with Quark to sell some of the objects she collected, and it's revealed that she was on adventures with Q throughout the galaxy, but now has enough of him.

    Meanwhile the station is experiencing the same energy drains, that are getting worse every time and are connected to gravity anomalies that threaten to rip the station apart. O'Brien sees Q and recognizing him, and goes to warn the others that there's an immortal prankster with magic powers on the station. Q appears and tries to annoy Sisko, who turns out to not be playing along with his antics and so Q quickly loses interest. He insists that he isn't doing anything to the station and the anomalies have nothing to do with him.

    The power drain gets really bad and the gravity anomalies start pulling the station to the wormhole. They come up with a way to find the source and trace them to a big crystal from the Gamma Quadrant that is currently being auctioned off by Quark. They beam it out into space in the last minute and the crystal turns into a glowing space squid and flies home through the wormhole.

    --

    Well, this was really bad. I always try to keep my summaries down to the essentials and they keep getting pretty long, but here there really isn't anything else to mention. Quark has a few funny moments, but otherwise this episode has nothing going for it in any way. They just dumped two comedy characters from TNG on the station, had them do some silly antics, and that's it.

    Though I can say one good thing about this episode: It wasn't actually painful to watch. Just dumb and pointless.
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    The majority of the bad DS9 episodes are not painful, just pointless. Even Move Along Home was merely pointless.

    The best moments always are character moments. For example, Quark has a marvelous groveling scene in MAH where he can't stand the idea of picking someone to die.

    This episode was overshadowed by Vash and Q, so little character moment were shown.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Kitten Champion View Post
    The only hat-wearing aliens I can recall in DS9 that are particularly tedious are the Move Along Home gambler people. Who are coming up coming up pretty soon.
    Hey, i actually like that episode because:

    1) Dax enjoying everything that is going on because, hey, its Dax

    2) Kira barely able to restrain herself from killing everyone in sight because they are in the situation that they are

    3) Sisko trying to treat the Wadi's ways with Federation Politeness, but seriously wanting to strange someone like Kira does

    4) Bashir not sure which to go with, Dax or Kira/Sisko

    5) the Wadi hamming it up to Shatner Levels, acting like the whole thing is SERIOUS BUSINESS
    Before acting like everything was a complete total joke thing after all

    Quote Originally Posted by Yora View Post
    Well, this was really bad. I always try to keep my summaries down to the essentials and they keep getting pretty long, but here there really isn't anything else to mention. Quark has a few funny moments, but otherwise this episode has nothing going for it in any way. They just dumped two comedy characters from TNG on the station, had them do some silly antics, and that's it.

    Though I can say one good thing about this episode: It wasn't actually painful to watch. Just dumb and pointless.
    Hey, we get the infamous Sisko punches Q scene, that completely makes up for the entire episode. Well, aside from Bashir sleeping for 2 days apparently.

    Don't forget about how the crew suspects everything is because of Q, because has a history of pulling off stunts like those in the episode.

    The Best other scene is Q offering 1 million bars of Latinum for the crystal, which Quark never apparently got!
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    S1E7: Dax

    Bashir tries to put all his charm to work to hit on Dax, but she doesn't really listen to him while working on something. She calls it a night and says there's no need to walk her home, but after a minute Bashir decides to be a bit of a creep and follow her anyway. Dax gets stopped by three people asking if she's Dax and then try to kidnap her once they know they got the person they are looking for. Bashir comes around the corner and tries to save her, but hesitates to punch one of the kidnappers in the face because he realizes she's a woman. So she punches him in the face and knocks him out. When he comes to he alerts Ops and they try to stop the kidnappers before they escape to a ship, but the leader gets passed all sealed doors and disables the force fields they put up, and they even sabotaged the tractor beams. They get the tractor beams working again just in time before their ship gets out of range and pull it back in. The kidnappers come out without a fight and hand Dax over, but explain that they have an arrest warrant and an extradiction agreement that legally allows them to arrest Dax and put her on trial for treason and murder of the leader's father 30 years ago,

    It turns out that they tried to kidnap Dax and didn't make a request for her arrest because even though Dax is a Federation citizen and Starfleet is bound by Federation law, the station is Bajoran territory and the extradiction treaty with the Federation doesn't apply there. The Bajoran's aren't too happy about business partners of the Cardassians making illegal arrests in their territory so there is a good chance that they will refuse to arrest Dax and hand her over, but it will depend on a decision made by a Bajoran official. Unfortunately, Dax refuses to make any statement to defend herself or to give any explanation why, which makes things needlessly complicated for Sisko.

    Sisko sends Odo to the aliens' planet to do some investigating while he tries to make an argument that Jadzia can not be held accountable for crimes committed by Curzon. The aliens were of course prepared and got an official delegate from the Trill homeworld with them to explain the situation, because they anticipated that such a situation might happen. Bashir makes some neurological arguments for why Dax' two brains aren't exactly a single entity, but it's all not very convincing. Eventually Sisko is arguing entirely on sympathy and their defense really seems to be grasping at straws.

    Odo figures out that the man who got murdered is a huge war hero and everyone saw him and Dax as best friends. His wife tells him that she is certain Dax didn't do it and she tried to convince her son to not start a trial, but he's just as swept up in the hero cult like everyone else on the planet. Only five people knew where the man would have been on the night og the murder and all of them have an alibi except for Dax. Digging a bit deeper, Odo finds out that Dax had been calling the man's house a lot of times while he was away on business and spend a lot of time with his wife. When he tells Sisko, Sisko mentally goes "damn it, Curzon!" because this all makes perfect sense considering Dax' history.

    Eventually the matter is resolved when the wife comes with Odo to the station to explain to the Bajoran official and her son that Dax couldn't have done it because he was with her at the time when the rebels got the tipoff for the man's route that night, and that actually he had planed to betray his side to the rebels, but they didn't trust him and just murdered him instead when he came to meet with them. The son doesn't take it very well, but the arrest warrant is withdrawn and the trial cancled.

    --

    Trill Episode #1. There will be more to come.

    I find it hard to judge this one. It's certainly not a bad one that is unfun to watch, but it has a considerable number of flaws. All the hearings with the Bajoran official come across as poorly done. Early on, Kira was given the task to check what Trill law says about such situations, and she does raise the point that they might not want to like the answer. Sisko admits that but wants her to check anyway. After that scene, she does not appear again that episode. So we can assume that by Trill law, Dax is indeed required to go to trial for charges against Curzon. That makes all the other arguments that Sisko brings why she shouldn't be extradicted feel inappropriate. The Federation has an extradiction treaty, even for crimes punishable by death, Trill customs apparently say she has to stand trial, and the aliens have made a proper and legal arrest warrant. How can Sisko concile his obstruction of justice with his Federation ideals. The prime directive is always deliberately vague for maximum drama potential, but surely this is violating it.
    At the same time, the persecution does have an official Trill delegate with them to explain why Dax could be held accountable for actions by Curzon and he also doesn't say whether this is Trill custom or not.
    In the end the whole situation doesn't get solved because the charges are withdrawn, never producing any answer. This is muddled pseudo-drama.

    As always, Odo doing his job is fun. I think this is the first time we see him as being an investigator as well. That part of the story also worked quite well. The unclear nature of the crimes and indiscretion, as well as Dax refusing to say anything that could implicate others is actually pretty good material.

    What I noticed at several moments during the episode is the unpleasant interactions between men and women. Bashir is a total creep deciding to go stalking Dax after she told him not to, and it ends up making him the hero who prevents her abduction. The he takes aim to punch one of the attackers in the face, but stops when he sees it's a woman. And when Sisko gets frustrated by Dax refusing to defend herself, he tells her if she was still a man he would punch her in the face. And the whole episode is about infidelity.
    Also, the episode is called Dax, and it is about Dax. But Dax doesn't do anything in it and barely appears at all. This is a setup for a very interesting conflict of interests and Dax is exercising considerable agency by choosing to remain silent, even when facing punishment by death. But we don't get to see anything about that the way the episode is written. All we get to actually see is Sisko making all decisions for her. She politely asks him not to, and he angrily refuses to respect her wishes about her own choices and wellbeing. that really doesn't work.
    I kind of feel that this is what it looked like when TV writers tried to be progressive 26 years ago, but they set the bar so very low that it now looks kind of insulting today. Really didn't age that well. It will be interesting to see how such things will be handled in later episode this season and the following one.

    Overall, it's an okay episode. Watchable, but also skipable.
    Last edited by Yora; 2019-05-29 at 01:01 PM.
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    S1E8: The Passenger

    Kira and Bashir are flying home to the station and are getting an emergency call. They find a burning transport ship and beam on board, where they find an injured security officer and her dying prisoner. She tells them to leave the prisoner behind because he's too dangerous to get close to, but Bashir is having none of that and gets himself grabbed by the neck before he actually dies.

    One the station, the security officer demands to check the prisoner's body and wants all kinds of tests done to check that it's not some elaborate way to fake his death. At the same time, Odo and a Starfleet security officer are preparing for a high security cargo arriving from the Gamma Quadrant, consisting of medical material the dead prisoner was trying to steal to extend his own life. The alien cop insists that he's a criminal genius whose crimes all revolved around extending his life, so she is certain he wouldn't have sabotaged the prisoner transport without a plan to save himself.

    Signs are piling up that the stealing of the cargo is still being prepared, so Sisko and Odo agree to assume that the dead prisoner somehow is still around despite they having a dead body in the morgue. Bashir and Dax start looking into the possibility that he somehow transfered a copy of his mind into someone elses brain.

    Meanwhile Quark hires some mercenaries to help the criminal with boarding the freighter. Somehow his unseen employer got access to one of the station's shuttles, and when they get there they run into Bashir. Quark tries to say something about having gotten to the wrong airlock, but Bashir assures them that he's the one they want to meet there, being now in full out evil ham mode. They use the shuttle to board the freighter as it comes through the wormhole, but the sabotage of the tractor beams had failed (again) and they can't get anywhere. The criminal tells Sikso that he will destroy the ship and kill Bashir in the process if they don't let them go, and while they are talking Dax makes up something about using radiation to supress the criminal's mind control nanomachines that he injected Bashir with just before he died. Bashir is back to normal for a few moments and turns off the freighter's shields, so they can beam him to the station and stun him. In the lab, Dax uses a transporter to get the mind control nanomachines out of his brain and puts them in a box. The alien cop than vaporizes the box with her gun.

    --

    Another episode that is quite okay, which is a bit suprising given the silliness of the premise. Siddig's acting in season 1 is not very good to begin with, and this episode it's actually rather bad. At times it feels like he is channeling William Shattner.
    It's decent. Not much to either praise or complain about.
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    Siddig El Faddig almost landed the role of Captain when he auditioned, but then the directors realized he was still a kid. They gave him the Doctor job tho.

    Here's the problem with Bashir season 1: the writers had no idea what to do with him. They needed a doctor because all star trek series had a doctor character. But that's it.

    So they probably had issues centering his character and/or giving Siddig acting direction. Siggig probably had a hard time figuring out how his own character would act when possessed by a different character.

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    Default Re: Yora reviews Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - All of it!

    Quote Originally Posted by Yora View Post
    S1S3: A Man AloneAnd finally we get to Odo. I praised the previous two episodes for having the characters pretty much spot on from the start. This episode doesn't. Odo in this episode is completely against his character in any other episode. Sure, he thinks the Bajoran is an unethical smuggler and got convicted for murder. But Odo is used to work with very terrible people without losing his cool and maintaining politeness unless they get too uppity. Here he goes straight to being aggressive, threatening, and using force without any provocation. He is a hard ass sheriff who doesn't take crap from anyone, but he is keeping the peace by being diplomatic and lenient and using force only when necessary and more as a form of persuade people who only understand violence instead of beating them into submission. This episode he mostly is an aggressive bully who antagonizes everyone and has no subtlety at all. And then when people do try to come after him, he reacts quite spooked, which I think might be the only time he ever shows fear. This is the complete opposite to episode 2, which was filmed just before this one.
    Also his voice sounds different, when I went around the corner to the kitchen for a corner, I wasn't even sure if that was still Odo talking. Probably was the case in the first episode as well, but he only got a small part there so I didn't notice.
    Actually, there's a nice bit of consistency here (although probably unintentional). Pay attention to how Odo acts anytime someone mistreats the Bajorans who SHOULD be looking out for them/on their side. Then watch "Things past" (Season 5 Episode 8). Repressed guilt can explain a lot.

    Quote Originally Posted by Yora View Post
    S1E7: Dax
    So we can assume that by Trill law, Dax is indeed required to go to trial for charges against Curzon. That makes all the other arguments that Sisko brings why she shouldn't be extradicted feel inappropriate. The Federation has an extradiction treaty, even for crimes punishable by death, Trill customs apparently say she has to stand trial, and the aliens have made a proper and legal arrest warrant. How can Sisko concile his obstruction of justice with his Federation ideals. The prime directive is always deliberately vague for maximum drama potential, but surely this is violating it.
    At the same time, the persecution does have an official Trill delegate with them to explain why Dax could be held accountable for actions by Curzon and he also doesn't say whether this is Trill custom or not.
    In the end the whole situation doesn't get solved because the charges are withdrawn, never producing any answer. This is muddled pseudo-drama.
    Even within the same series, there will never be a consistent answer on what the Prime Directive actually is/means....

    But this would probably not be a violation of it based on the most commonly accepted definitions. You can't interfere with the normal development of a culture. But if they are already able to form extradition treaties with other states, then that level of involvement is already normal (including whether or not to honor them). So it's not a violation of the PD, but could very well be a violation of treaties and other agreements.
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    Default Re: Yora reviews Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - All of it!

    Good point. They interfere with internal political issues of the Klingons, Romulans, and Cardassians all the time. It's not a universal policy of neutrality and nonintervention.
    Whatever else it might be, it's not that.
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    Thumbs down Re: Yora reviews Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - All of it!

    S1E9 - Move Along Home

    The first official delegation from the Gamma Quadrant comes to visit the station. Sisko has planned a formal first contact reception, but the aliens really aren't that interested about his officers and the station. They've come to see Quark for gambling. Wanting to make a good first impression, they are takenn to the bar where they spend the whole night playing Dabo.

    The officers have already gone to sleep and Quark also wants to close for the night because the aliens keep winning way too much latinum. He tries to cheat them but their leader immediately notices and isn't pleased. He's willing to let it go, but in turn Quark is going to play one of their games.

    The game is set up and at the same time Sisko, Kira, Dax, and Bashir are disappearing from their beds and find themselves in a maze where they have to solve a variety of puzzles. Jake discovers that Sisko has disappeard and tells Odo, who then realizes the others are gone as well. He asks Quark when he saw them the last time. Quark realizes that four people have gone missing and that he has four figures in the game, two blue and two red, which obviously can only mean that they are in the game somehow. The alien leader ignores any demands to explain what is going on, and Quark keeps playing until the game is over, in the assumption that the four people will then return. They are also assuming that any figure that gets discarded on a bad roll means the person is the dead.

    Odo scans the alien ship and detects some strange energy in one section. He beams over to investigate and finds a strange white glowing door. He walks through it and instantly appears in Quarks bar near the game table.

    The game finishes, Quark fails his last roll, loses all his remaining figures, loses all his bets, and the four people are returned.

    --

    I think this is probably not the worst episode of the series. But it is quite probably the dumbest premise for any episode on the series. This feels like a script that was written for TNG, but they told the writer that they have stopped doing such trash in season 2. Instead of doing the right thing and throwing it away, they gave it to DS9 instead.

    It's not just that the premise is silly, the script is also really quite bad. There is no logic to anything. Characters figure out what is going on with absolutely no evidence to base it on all the time. And there never is any explaination for where the four people actually went. Was it a holodeck, was it some alternate subspace dimension, was it all a dream? The episode never bothers to really ask.

    And the way characters behave is also ridiculous. Odo just goes along with anything. He should be insisting that the people are returned immediately, and when the aliens aren't forthcomming he should be demanding an explanation. He and Quark are opperating under the assumption that some or even all of the four are likely to die. They never demand an explanation what is going on, why it's happening, or how the game works. When the alien leader says "roll the dice", Quark does and Odo stays silent, as if there wasn't any other possible thing they could do.

    Also the alien costumes are horrible. I think the design is actually pretty interesting, but the costumes are made exclusively from fabrics that are shiny, glitter, or sparkle, and that makes them all look ridiculous.

    It's not an episode I found very annoying or frustrating to watch. But there is nothing good in it and so many things that are dumb, that there is no other way than to rate it as bad.
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    Default Re: Yora reviews Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - All of it!

    Quote Originally Posted by Yora View Post
    Good point. They interfere with internal political issues of the Klingons, Romulans, and Cardassians all the time. It's not a universal policy of neutrality and nonintervention.
    Whatever else it might be, it's not that.
    My vague recollection (I used to be a pretty big Star Trek fan during TNG, but never followed the later series as much and haven't watched any of them lately) is that the Prime Directive is about not interfering with civilizations that haven't reached a specific threshold yet (pre-warp?) rather than about interactions between all other civilizations and the Federation.

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    Default Re: Yora reviews Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - All of it!

    Sometimes. Sometimes it's about other things as well. It's more than just one rule, but a collection of rules that cover how to interact with non-Federation worlds.
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    Default Re: Yora reviews Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - All of it!

    Quote Originally Posted by Yora View Post
    Sometimes. Sometimes it's about other things as well. It's more than just one rule, but a collection of rules that cover how to interact with non-Federation worlds.
    Two main things: noninterference in internal affairs of others, and cultural preservation of pre Warp civilizations.

    The first rule is.. Not as strongly followed as some may think. For example, the Federation felt in the right of intervening in the Klingon
    Civil War, but only to the extent of negating /exposing Romulan intervention.

    The federation was happy to help the Cardassian government survive a Klingon attack, or expose a potential Dominion infiltrate within the Klingon Empire. But never intervention in actual, 100% internal politics.

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    Default Re: Yora reviews Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - All of it!

    Quote Originally Posted by Yora View Post
    Good point. They interfere with internal political issues of the Klingons, Romulans, and Cardassians all the time. It's not a universal policy of neutrality and nonintervention.
    Whatever else it might be, it's not that.
    Quote Originally Posted by Algeh View Post
    My vague recollection (I used to be a pretty big Star Trek fan during TNG, but never followed the later series as much and haven't watched any of them lately) is that the Prime Directive is about not interfering with civilizations that haven't reached a specific threshold yet (pre-warp?) rather than about interactions between all other civilizations and the Federation.
    Quote Originally Posted by Yora View Post
    Sometimes. Sometimes it's about other things as well. It's more than just one rule, but a collection of rules that cover how to interact with non-Federation worlds.
    Yeah, but it gets abused for Drama. Like seriously for Drama

    1) Klingons: Picard manages to help Worf deal with his challenge; Picard gets selected as Arbiter of Succession, picking the next two challengers to assume after K'Empec; Picard reprimands Worf for killing Duras, which leaves Gowron free to take the Top Job in the Empire, a really good outcome for the Federation; Picard allows Worf to fight in the Klingon Civil War, after refusing his request for leave, though he allows Worf to meet with his brother; Picard suggests Worf makes the nature of discommendation public, in a way that will benefit him; Picard persuades Starfleet to expose whether the Duras are getting Romulan Support; Picard installs Gowron as leader of the Klingon Empire; Worf, with Picard's help, arranges for the Clone Kahless to become a figurehead Emperor. Worf finds the Klingon-Romulan prison camp;
    Spoiler: Deep Space Nine Series Spoilers (Am assuming I will get yelled at if not spoiled)
    Show
    Worf get discommended again after refusing to support Gowron's campaign against the Spoonheads; Worf finds the Sword of Kahless; Worf fights Gowron, when the Klingon Changling was exposed; Worf rescues Martok, who makes Worf a member of Martok's House; Worf helps convince Gowron join the War against the Dominion; Worf kills Gowron, replacing Gowron as head of the Empire, then gives the Job to Martok. So that's two Federation Starfleet officers selecting the leaders of the Klingon Empire or significantly influencing who becomes the leader.


    2) Romulans: Picard learns about the Romulans returning; Picard encounters Tomalak at G Core; Picard takes his ship to investigate a probe based on Admiral Jarok's words; Picard has several encounters with Romulans at times during his Captaincy of the Enterprise.
    Spoiler: Deep Space Nine Series Spoilers (Am assuming I will get yelled at if not spoiled)
    Show
    Starfleet gives information about Gamma Quadrant Exploration for a Cloaking Device; Romulans try to blow up the station; Tal Shiar attacks dominion as joint effort; Romulans make a non-aggression treaty with the Dominion; Sisko tries to convince the Romulans to join the war, Garak makes the alliance happen through treachery; the Romulans build a hospital/military base on one of bajor's moons; Section 31 arranges to getting an operative on the Romulans continuing committee. Romulans join an alliance with the Federation and Klingons


    3) Cardassians: Stuff happens;
    Spoiler: Deep Space Nine Series Spoilers (Am assuming I will get yelled at if not spoiled)
    Show
    Then Obsidian Order tries to attack the Dominion; Cardassian government survives courtesy of the Federation; Federation provides medical convoys for Cardassian places; Gul Dukat gets Cardassian to join the Dominion; Damar gets Cardassian to revolt against Dominion; Cardassian is devastated by Dominion and Federation/Klingons/Romulans; Cardassian will be rebuilt by the Federation


    So, that's three major powers that the Federation got involved with, in ways that directly affected how those powers worked afterward. In several cases, in direct violations of the Prime Directive
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    Default Re: Yora reviews Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - All of it!

    Quote Originally Posted by russdm View Post
    Yeah, but it gets abused for Drama. Like seriously for Drama

    1) Klingons: Picard manages to help Worf deal with his challenge; Picard gets selected as Arbiter of Succession, picking the next two challengers to assume after K'Empec; Picard reprimands Worf for killing Duras, which leaves Gowron free to take the Top Job in the Empire, a really good outcome for the Federation; Picard allows Worf to fight in the Klingon Civil War, after refusing his request for leave, though he allows Worf to meet with his brother; Picard suggests Worf makes the nature of discommendation public, in a way that will benefit him; Picard persuades Starfleet to expose whether the Duras are getting Romulan Support; Picard installs Gowron as leader of the Klingon Empire; Worf, with Picard's help, arranges for the Clone Kahless to become a figurehead Emperor. Worf finds the Klingon-Romulan prison camp;
    Spoiler: Deep Space Nine Series Spoilers (Am assuming I will get yelled at if not spoiled)
    Show
    Worf get discommended again after refusing to support Gowron's campaign against the Spoonheads; Worf finds the Sword of Kahless; Worf fights Gowron, when the Klingon Changling was exposed; Worf rescues Martok, who makes Worf a member of Martok's House; Worf helps convince Gowron join the War against the Dominion; Worf kills Gowron, replacing Gowron as head of the Empire, then gives the Job to Martok. So that's two Federation Starfleet officers selecting the leaders of the Klingon Empire or significantly influencing who becomes the leader.


    2) Romulans: Picard learns about the Romulans returning; Picard encounters Tomalak at G Core; Picard takes his ship to investigate a probe based on Admiral Jarok's words; Picard has several encounters with Romulans at times during his Captaincy of the Enterprise.
    Spoiler: Deep Space Nine Series Spoilers (Am assuming I will get yelled at if not spoiled)
    Show
    Starfleet gives information about Gamma Quadrant Exploration for a Cloaking Device; Romulans try to blow up the station; Tal Shiar attacks dominion as joint effort; Romulans make a non-aggression treaty with the Dominion; Sisko tries to convince the Romulans to join the war, Garak makes the alliance happen through treachery; the Romulans build a hospital/military base on one of bajor's moons; Section 31 arranges to getting an operative on the Romulans continuing committee. Romulans join an alliance with the Federation and Klingons


    3) Cardassians: Stuff happens;
    Spoiler: Deep Space Nine Series Spoilers (Am assuming I will get yelled at if not spoiled)
    Show
    Then Obsidian Order tries to attack the Dominion; Cardassian government survives courtesy of the Federation; Federation provides medical convoys for Cardassian places; Gul Dukat gets Cardassian to join the Dominion; Damar gets Cardassian to revolt against Dominion; Cardassian is devastated by Dominion and Federation/Klingons/Romulans; Cardassian will be rebuilt by the Federation


    So, that's three major powers that the Federation got involved with, in ways that directly affected how those powers worked afterward. In several cases, in direct violations of the Prime Directive
    Where, in any of these instances, did the Federation violated the Prime Directive?

    The only place I can see it is when Sisko kind of pushed Work to challenge Gowron. Besides that, all of these dealt with these power's foreign policies, not internal affair.

    It is not the Cardassian's internal affairs to try to stage a strike against the Dominion. It is not the Romulan's internal affairs to take a side with the Klingon's Civil War.

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    Default Re: Yora reviews Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - All of it!

    In all series after TOS, the Prime Directive is more of a "INSERT MORAL CONFLICT HERE" button than it is any sort of reasoned philosophy. Someone with too much time on their hands could work a PD violation into any episode that contains a non-Federation society.

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    Default Re: Yora reviews Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - All of it!

    Remember also that the Prime Directive is not a Law. It's a guideline, and a set of principles. But at their discression it's perfectly acceptable for a member of Starfleet to go against it, if they feel that it is nessesary. They may stand for punishment afterwards, but that's not if they can give a valid reason for it.
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