A couple of random thoughts on DS9 episodes - crossposted to Wordpress

[mary_j_59]

So - having watched the show in its entirety, my sister (the lovely Deirdrea - deirdrej on livejournal) and I are watching episodes here and there, mostly from the fifth season. Among those we saw recently were "Dr. Bashir, I presume" and "The Begotten". And

Comments

[vermouth1991]

Just want to comment on the Tolkien bit: Peter Jackson's six-film adaptation of The Hobbit and LotR is, of course, far from perfect, but the story and scripts is pretty coherent, which is more than can be said of the Harry Potter films (especially PoA, GoF and OotP). You can make DVD documentaries of the Middle-earth saga with clips of the films put in, and you'll have pretty much everything you need (e.g. "If Bilbo hadn't spared Gollum that day" *clip of Martin Freeman lowering the blade* "No one would be there to fall into the lava with The One Ring" *clip of Gollum cradling Da Precious and falling*) at your disposal, but can you do the same with, say, the very important backstory of the Marauders bullying Snape, Snape turning evil but repented, while Wormtail was the real traitor and actually gave away the Potters' house? Post-CoS the films stubbornly stuck to linear-narratives (except for a few pensive scenes) while also SHORTENING the lengths. And it shows.

I envy the fans of shows and movies that can do that.

[mary_j_59]

Good point. You can certainly do that with DS9. Like all the "Treks", it is episodic at times, and it has its share of clunkers, but on the whole it's a very thoughtful, humane, character-driven show. It never got the respect it deserved in its first run. I firmly assert that it's the best of the "Treks", closely followed by the original. Of course, without the original show, there would have been no cartoon, no movies, no Next Generation, no DS9, and none of the shows that came after these!