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I was going to start writing up the seventh season of Deep Space Nine after eight episodes as per usual, and then I hadn't gotten around to it by the ninth episode and then DUKAT STARTED LEADING A CULT and anyway we've seen through ten episodes of this season by now.
1. Image in the Sand
So when this episode begins Sisko is on extended sad leave from work at his dad's restaurant, and, like -- I understand he is having a crisis what with Jadzia dying and Dukat having maybe destroyed the Prophets and all, I'm just not sure how you get extended sad leave from Starfleet, at a crucial position, during the war, without someone coming in to replace you? Instead Kira seems to be interim Sisko, which is great for us, but since she doesn't actually work for starfleet I'm sort of puzzled about the logistics all of this.
Also, I don't know why Bashir, Quark and O'Brien are our POV characters for Worf's grieving process but I DISAPPROVE, more on this in the the next episode.
2. Shadows and Symbols
There are basically three different plots going on in this episode and I feel very differently about all of them.
Plot A: Kira gets in a giant game of chicken with an apparently friendly but politically manipulative Romulan officer who's secretly stocking weapons on a Bajoran moon! HIGHLY ENJOYABLE. God, I loved that Romulan officer. I wanted her to stick around and be Kira's nemesis all season. Not that I don't love all of DS9's cast, but I think of a half-dozen series recurring characters that I would gladly replace with a hot middle-aged politically manipulative female Romulan officer.
Plot B: Life-changing field trip with Sisko, Sisko Junior, Sisko Senior, and New Dax! New Dax is adorable, I enjoy New Dax a lot (though of course she will not fill the Jadzia-shaped hole in my heart). That said, of all the 'Sisko goes full Jesus!' plots this is ... one of the weirder ones .....? And I'm pretty sure I don't approve of the Prophets dubconning Sisko's mother into a relationship with his dad to Bring The Chosen One Into This World. UNCOMFORTABLE ALL AROUND.
Plot C: Again: WHY ARE BASHIR, QUARK AND O'BRIEN OUR POV CHARACTERS FOR WORF'S GRIEVING PROCESS? I'm so mad that the narrative forces Worf to apologize to them for being mad that they came along on his PRIVATE field trip MOURN HIS ACTUAL WIFE IN ACCORDANCE WITH HIS HERITAGE. Which they spend most of the time mocking! Bashir and Quark's unrequited crushes on Jadzia do not give them a claim on her husband's grief, and as for O'Brien, I'm not sure ... he and Jadzia were even friends? ... like, I'm pretty sure she found him really boring ......
At the end of this episode Sisko, New Daz, and Jake return to DS9. As soon as New Dax introduces herself, Worf turns and walks out of the room.
BECCA: Aaaaand Worf nopes out of Ezri Dax.
DEBI: I kind of hope they're just never in the same scene again for the rest of the show.
3. Afterimage
Otherwise known as: Ezri and Worf are in the same scene! But not very often because it is still SUPER AWKWARD, and understandably so. Meanwhile, Ezri attempts to therapize Garak out of his anxiety attacks and claustrophobia.
I'll say it again: Ezri is in fact adorable. And it's a good character episode for both Ezri and Garak! I kind of wish the DS9 writers were ... any good at writing therapy, at all. But a good character episode nonetheless!
4. Take Me Out To The Holosuite
We basically spend this entire episode chanting "baseball episode baseball episode BASEBALL EPISODE!" And oh, did it ever live up to our hopes and dreams. *__* Like, we knew there was a baseball episode! We did not realize that the point of the baseball episode was so that Sisko could defeat YET ANOTHER NEMESIS WITH A WEIRD OBSESSION WITH HIM.
OK, so the backstory here is that Sisko was rude to this Vulcan once in school. The Vulcan, in return -- most logical of all species! -- proceeded to:
- wrote papers on him
- like, MULTIPLE papers
- stalked him enough to find out ALL HIS INTERESTS
- then forced his ENTIRE VULCAN CREW to play CONSTANT GAMES OF HOLOSUITE BASEBALL, a sport which one can only assume they find INTENSELY BORING
- all for the purposes of turning up again and being like 'SISKO SISKO GUESS WHAT I CAN BEAT YOU AT YOUR FAVORITE GAME NEENER NEENER notice me Sisko'
- "It's been a long time." "Ten years, two months, five days," says Sisko's nemesis, who has apparently been LYING AWAKE DREAMING OF THIS MOMENT for every single one of those days
I -- I seriously don't understand what Sisko's magic power is that draws Kate Beaton nemeses to him like flies. But it's great! I'm not complaining! It's like we have Eddington back all over again. (Somewhere, Dukat is like, "but why didn't I ever think to beat Sisko in a game of baseball?! That's even BETTER than calling him up to say I banged his mom!")
Also I am so happy for Kasidy that she finally got to appear in an episode where Sisko was not hallucinating, dying, hallucinating and dying, or being inexplicably angry at her for being on his ship when he had a job to do. Finally, Kasidy and Sisko get to go on a good date! Good for you, Kasidy, you deserve it.
- also, also, Odo having the GREATEST TIME as the world's most ANNOYING UMPIRE? Worf shouting "FIND HIM AND KILL HIM??" ROM! This episode is so good.
5. Chrysalis
BASHIR. You did such a good job not romancing Sarina in the last episode where the savants showed up! WHY THIS.
(At least the show does call out romancing your patients/medical experiments as a bad idea this time around? But I still didn't want to spend a whole episode watching it!)
6. Treachery, Faith, and the Great River
The A-plot of this is great and the B-plot is PURE DELIGHT.
A-plot: Odo has a life-changing field trip with his very own pet clone Weyoun, who attempts to defect with him and then, like, start his own endearingly creepy Odo-centric religion. It's actually kind of adorable? And ends horribly, of course. But I would also have been OK with Odo returning to DS9 trailing a dedicated Weyoun valet, like, "he followed me home and I don't want to keep him but I do not appear to have a choice in this matter. @__@"
B-plot: Nog embarks on a series of barter-related side quests in order to get some kind of MacGuffin part for Chief O'Brien. Every minute of this subplot is pure gold. EVERY MINUTE. Also, every Nog episode makes me sadder than ever that the Star Trek spinoff series about Captain Nog and his wacky crew of misfits doesn't exist. PLEASE MAKE THIS SERIES EXIST FOR ME.
7. Once More Into the Breach
This tragic Klingon episode would have been a lot more fun with Jadzia in it.
8. The Siege of AR-558
SPEAKING OF NOG AND ALL MY MILLION FEELINGS ABOUT NOG. Oh, lord. I mean, this episode is basically a war movie in miniature, and that would be solid in and of itself, but when you've got the thread of Quark and Nog running through it -- Nog, who has always really idealized this kind of weird macho Starfleet military mindset, and then Quark, who sees his nephew internalizing this to-a-Ferengi incredibly alien worldview, who can't stop saying "kid, they may seem cool but please remember you don't understand them, you're dealing with aliens here --"
Moments like this are one of the reasons why I love this show: the times that it remembers that in a Star Trek universe filled with infinite sapient species, you don't have to always look at things from a human-centric point of view. Sometimes -- not often, but sometimes -- humanity should be the incomprehensible Other.
Also, man, I did not expect them to actually take Nog's leg!
9. Covenant
I ... cannot believe ...... Dukat is now a religious cult leader?? He kidnaps Kira to join his special anti-Prophet cult??? WHAT IS HAPPENING. I spent this whole episode laughing with increasing incredulity. I feel like I should have a lot to say about this but I just keep coming back to 'DUKAT LEADS A RELIGIOUS CULT.'
10. It's Only A Paper Moon
I wish I liked Vic Fontaine, because this is a legitimately fantastic episode and I really appreciate that they dedicate pretty much a whole forty minutes to Nog's trauma and recovery and attempts to reconceptualize his entire relationship with the military-industrial complex. I've probably said this before, but I would read a whole novel -- whole series of novels -- about Nog and Jake and their respective weird relationships with the Starfleet military machine. (WHERE IS MY CAPTAIN NOG SHOW??)
BECCA: Man, I bet Aron Eisenberg loved this episode.
DEBI: And I bet Colm Meaney was INCREDIBLY BITTER about it.
(Sorry that the PTSD from O'Brien's many, many traumas never lasts past the end of the episode, Colm Meaney!)
Anyway, Vic Fontaine's arc as an increasingly self-aware hologram given greater life by Nog's need of him is also interesting, so I wish I did not hold a simmering resentment at Vic Fontaine over his terrible, terrible romantic advice to Odo during His Way. I would probably like him if he was only in this episode!
BECCA: Also, now that he's going to be on for 26 hours a day with nothing to do but plot, there's no way Vic Fontaine is not going to go evil.
DEBI: Oh, yeah, he's going evil for sure.
This entry is cross-posted at Livejournal from http://skygiants.dreamwidth.org/421707.html. Please feel free to comment here or there! There are currently
comments on Dreamwidth.
1. Image in the Sand
So when this episode begins Sisko is on extended sad leave from work at his dad's restaurant, and, like -- I understand he is having a crisis what with Jadzia dying and Dukat having maybe destroyed the Prophets and all, I'm just not sure how you get extended sad leave from Starfleet, at a crucial position, during the war, without someone coming in to replace you? Instead Kira seems to be interim Sisko, which is great for us, but since she doesn't actually work for starfleet I'm sort of puzzled about the logistics all of this.
Also, I don't know why Bashir, Quark and O'Brien are our POV characters for Worf's grieving process but I DISAPPROVE, more on this in the the next episode.
2. Shadows and Symbols
There are basically three different plots going on in this episode and I feel very differently about all of them.
Plot A: Kira gets in a giant game of chicken with an apparently friendly but politically manipulative Romulan officer who's secretly stocking weapons on a Bajoran moon! HIGHLY ENJOYABLE. God, I loved that Romulan officer. I wanted her to stick around and be Kira's nemesis all season. Not that I don't love all of DS9's cast, but I think of a half-dozen series recurring characters that I would gladly replace with a hot middle-aged politically manipulative female Romulan officer.
Plot B: Life-changing field trip with Sisko, Sisko Junior, Sisko Senior, and New Dax! New Dax is adorable, I enjoy New Dax a lot (though of course she will not fill the Jadzia-shaped hole in my heart). That said, of all the 'Sisko goes full Jesus!' plots this is ... one of the weirder ones .....? And I'm pretty sure I don't approve of the Prophets dubconning Sisko's mother into a relationship with his dad to Bring The Chosen One Into This World. UNCOMFORTABLE ALL AROUND.
Plot C: Again: WHY ARE BASHIR, QUARK AND O'BRIEN OUR POV CHARACTERS FOR WORF'S GRIEVING PROCESS? I'm so mad that the narrative forces Worf to apologize to them for being mad that they came along on his PRIVATE field trip MOURN HIS ACTUAL WIFE IN ACCORDANCE WITH HIS HERITAGE. Which they spend most of the time mocking! Bashir and Quark's unrequited crushes on Jadzia do not give them a claim on her husband's grief, and as for O'Brien, I'm not sure ... he and Jadzia were even friends? ... like, I'm pretty sure she found him really boring ......
At the end of this episode Sisko, New Daz, and Jake return to DS9. As soon as New Dax introduces herself, Worf turns and walks out of the room.
BECCA: Aaaaand Worf nopes out of Ezri Dax.
DEBI: I kind of hope they're just never in the same scene again for the rest of the show.
3. Afterimage
Otherwise known as: Ezri and Worf are in the same scene! But not very often because it is still SUPER AWKWARD, and understandably so. Meanwhile, Ezri attempts to therapize Garak out of his anxiety attacks and claustrophobia.
I'll say it again: Ezri is in fact adorable. And it's a good character episode for both Ezri and Garak! I kind of wish the DS9 writers were ... any good at writing therapy, at all. But a good character episode nonetheless!
4. Take Me Out To The Holosuite
We basically spend this entire episode chanting "baseball episode baseball episode BASEBALL EPISODE!" And oh, did it ever live up to our hopes and dreams. *__* Like, we knew there was a baseball episode! We did not realize that the point of the baseball episode was so that Sisko could defeat YET ANOTHER NEMESIS WITH A WEIRD OBSESSION WITH HIM.
OK, so the backstory here is that Sisko was rude to this Vulcan once in school. The Vulcan, in return -- most logical of all species! -- proceeded to:
- wrote papers on him
- like, MULTIPLE papers
- stalked him enough to find out ALL HIS INTERESTS
- then forced his ENTIRE VULCAN CREW to play CONSTANT GAMES OF HOLOSUITE BASEBALL, a sport which one can only assume they find INTENSELY BORING
- all for the purposes of turning up again and being like 'SISKO SISKO GUESS WHAT I CAN BEAT YOU AT YOUR FAVORITE GAME NEENER NEENER notice me Sisko'
- "It's been a long time." "Ten years, two months, five days," says Sisko's nemesis, who has apparently been LYING AWAKE DREAMING OF THIS MOMENT for every single one of those days
I -- I seriously don't understand what Sisko's magic power is that draws Kate Beaton nemeses to him like flies. But it's great! I'm not complaining! It's like we have Eddington back all over again. (Somewhere, Dukat is like, "but why didn't I ever think to beat Sisko in a game of baseball?! That's even BETTER than calling him up to say I banged his mom!")
Also I am so happy for Kasidy that she finally got to appear in an episode where Sisko was not hallucinating, dying, hallucinating and dying, or being inexplicably angry at her for being on his ship when he had a job to do. Finally, Kasidy and Sisko get to go on a good date! Good for you, Kasidy, you deserve it.
- also, also, Odo having the GREATEST TIME as the world's most ANNOYING UMPIRE? Worf shouting "FIND HIM AND KILL HIM??" ROM! This episode is so good.
5. Chrysalis
BASHIR. You did such a good job not romancing Sarina in the last episode where the savants showed up! WHY THIS.
(At least the show does call out romancing your patients/medical experiments as a bad idea this time around? But I still didn't want to spend a whole episode watching it!)
6. Treachery, Faith, and the Great River
The A-plot of this is great and the B-plot is PURE DELIGHT.
A-plot: Odo has a life-changing field trip with his very own pet clone Weyoun, who attempts to defect with him and then, like, start his own endearingly creepy Odo-centric religion. It's actually kind of adorable? And ends horribly, of course. But I would also have been OK with Odo returning to DS9 trailing a dedicated Weyoun valet, like, "he followed me home and I don't want to keep him but I do not appear to have a choice in this matter. @__@"
B-plot: Nog embarks on a series of barter-related side quests in order to get some kind of MacGuffin part for Chief O'Brien. Every minute of this subplot is pure gold. EVERY MINUTE. Also, every Nog episode makes me sadder than ever that the Star Trek spinoff series about Captain Nog and his wacky crew of misfits doesn't exist. PLEASE MAKE THIS SERIES EXIST FOR ME.
7. Once More Into the Breach
This tragic Klingon episode would have been a lot more fun with Jadzia in it.
8. The Siege of AR-558
SPEAKING OF NOG AND ALL MY MILLION FEELINGS ABOUT NOG. Oh, lord. I mean, this episode is basically a war movie in miniature, and that would be solid in and of itself, but when you've got the thread of Quark and Nog running through it -- Nog, who has always really idealized this kind of weird macho Starfleet military mindset, and then Quark, who sees his nephew internalizing this to-a-Ferengi incredibly alien worldview, who can't stop saying "kid, they may seem cool but please remember you don't understand them, you're dealing with aliens here --"
Moments like this are one of the reasons why I love this show: the times that it remembers that in a Star Trek universe filled with infinite sapient species, you don't have to always look at things from a human-centric point of view. Sometimes -- not often, but sometimes -- humanity should be the incomprehensible Other.
Also, man, I did not expect them to actually take Nog's leg!
9. Covenant
I ... cannot believe ...... Dukat is now a religious cult leader?? He kidnaps Kira to join his special anti-Prophet cult??? WHAT IS HAPPENING. I spent this whole episode laughing with increasing incredulity. I feel like I should have a lot to say about this but I just keep coming back to 'DUKAT LEADS A RELIGIOUS CULT.'
10. It's Only A Paper Moon
I wish I liked Vic Fontaine, because this is a legitimately fantastic episode and I really appreciate that they dedicate pretty much a whole forty minutes to Nog's trauma and recovery and attempts to reconceptualize his entire relationship with the military-industrial complex. I've probably said this before, but I would read a whole novel -- whole series of novels -- about Nog and Jake and their respective weird relationships with the Starfleet military machine. (WHERE IS MY CAPTAIN NOG SHOW??)
BECCA: Man, I bet Aron Eisenberg loved this episode.
DEBI: And I bet Colm Meaney was INCREDIBLY BITTER about it.
(Sorry that the PTSD from O'Brien's many, many traumas never lasts past the end of the episode, Colm Meaney!)
Anyway, Vic Fontaine's arc as an increasingly self-aware hologram given greater life by Nog's need of him is also interesting, so I wish I did not hold a simmering resentment at Vic Fontaine over his terrible, terrible romantic advice to Odo during His Way. I would probably like him if he was only in this episode!
BECCA: Also, now that he's going to be on for 26 hours a day with nothing to do but plot, there's no way Vic Fontaine is not going to go evil.
DEBI: Oh, yeah, he's going evil for sure.
This entry is cross-posted at Livejournal from http://skygiants.dreamwidth.org/421707.html. Please feel free to comment here or there! There are currently
comments on Dreamwidth.