Deep Space Nine Disc 4
Battle Lines, The Storyteller, Progress, If Wishes Were Horses.
Battle Lines
Although I liked this a lot, I feel it could have been slightly better. For example, I needed a little more build-up to Kira’s turmoil about her violent past than her losing it over the Cardassians’ dismissal of her when they were in charge of the station.
What happens is that Kai Opaka turns up for the first time since the pilot and Sisko courteously offers her a trip through the wormhole. Because of some prophecy, she encourages him to track a mysterious signal which leads to her death as the runabout Yanghtzee-Kiang crashes on a moon that turns out to be a penal colony, where two warring peoples are doomed to relive their battles thanks to artificial microbes...which also bring the Kai back to life.
In fine Star Trek fashion, much of this takes place in a cave.
There are a few moral quandaries for our heroes. (There’s also some gubbins about the Prime Directive.) But the whole set-up raises interesting issues. Sisko does some cool leadership stuff. Nana Visitor convinces in Kira’s big emotional scenes (we could have done with more build-up about how important the Kai was to the Bajorans than Odo basically telling us as much, too). Being folksy helps O’Brian come up with genius enough solutions to impress Dax.
I did wonder what the aftereffects would be for the Bajorans. Would the Kai’s gift to Molly turn out to be significant? There was a suggestion that Sisko’s arrival as the Emissary had made the Prophets turn outwards a little more, by sending the Kai to this place where she was forced to stay. But she seemed willing enough to play gnomic peacemaker.
The Storyteller
(Relatively) weak. Given that such a huge thing had happened for Bajor spiritually in the last episode and that this focuses on the planet, not DS9, you’d think they’d at least mention the loss of the Kai. Actually, I expected more than that.
Instead we get the silliness that inspires the title. At this point, Miles doesn’t like puppyish, boastful Julian, but he’s assigned to take Julian down to the planet to assist at a village facing disaster. Then he’s appointed the successor to a mysterious figure who harnesses a village’s energy to save it from a mythical monster and what unfolds reminded me a little of the whole business of the Nagus faking his death. The villagers seem bizarrely backward - they’re almost being scammed - and the look of the monster is a bit silly.
Meanwhile, Sisko is trying to broker a deal between two (legendarily obdurate) Bajoran tribes (that’s legendary among Bajorans!) One of those tribes is lead by a teenage girl. Nog sees her and falls in lurve, and the two boys’ attempts to impress a girl is a nice dynamic. Although the acting was only so-so, Officer Odo’s amusement at the pesky kids and their shenanigans is infectious. Like Sisko, the more we learn about the young Tetrarch, orphaned by the Cardassians and under much pressure for her tender years, the more sympathy we feel, but the negotiations don’t quite have the weight they should.
Progress
Like with the last ep, this focused on the Bajorans, with no acknowledgement of the impact of losing the Kai on them. FRUSTRATING.
Again, it deals with an isolated group, a few people who found refuge on the moon the Bajorans are evacuating because they’re going to use it as an energy source, and Kira is given the job of evacuating them. Except they’re determined not to leave the home they’ve made. Kira develops a soft spot for the oldest of them. He’s the only one who can talk as the others were tortured by the Cardassians. I kept expecting it to turn out that he had Other Reasons for not wanting to leave, but it’s not that kind of episode.
Really, it’s about Kira, who doesn’t like the accusation that she’s a bit like the Cardassions (insofar as she represents the ones giving the orders). Her instinct and habits tell her to help him, and not carry out her duty. So, Sisko has to come and reason with her, appealing to her to choose her own and Bajor’s future over sentiment.
The subplot involves more Nog and Jake shenanigans. The grown-ups don’t really tumble to their adventures in bartering. Interesting (Ferengi?) response from Nog to Quark berating his father - he sees it as an opportunity for profit. He’s probably used to Quark talking down his father.
If Wishes Were Horses
This was a fun episode, although the more I think about it, the more I want to unpick the concept.
It’s all nicely set up with Quark and Odo having a good argument about holosuites and their identities. It turns out Miles is good at telling stories...to his daughter. And then Rumpelstiltskin and other figments of people’s imaginations or hologram programees start appearing all over the station, causing all manner of consternation, while a subspace anomaly looks set to threaten the whole Bajoran system.
Jadzia has to put up with seeing Julian’s submissive fantasy version of her, Sisko and Jake have a baseball player dispensing advice, Odo has to deal with various crazinesses on the Pomenade and we get the network TV version of Quark’s fantasises.
A turning point comes when the viewers learn that the main figments are in cahoots. Sisko eventually realises they’re aliens contacting them by taking on the forms of their imaginings, before the station’s collective imagination leads to imminent destruction.
His baseball player/alien visitor is very congratulatory towards ‘us’, but who is he talking about? Humans? The people of the Federation or Alpha Quadrant? Although the three conspirators are linked to humans, we see non-human fantasies. Perhaps the most fun is Odo imagining Quark locked up. Anyway, I think this episode is pro imagination in its place, or something. How far along was the internet when this aired, anyway?
Still, Keiko and Molly are back (yay!) and we get to see more of Sisko’s leadership in action as he decisively saves the day.
I'm glad to post this, as I'm racing ahead with the rewatching - I'm up to the last episode of disc 5. I will post my thoughts about that, unless if I'm distracted by Festivids or Halfamoon.
This entry was originally posted at http://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/154556.html.
Battle Lines
Although I liked this a lot, I feel it could have been slightly better. For example, I needed a little more build-up to Kira’s turmoil about her violent past than her losing it over the Cardassians’ dismissal of her when they were in charge of the station.
What happens is that Kai Opaka turns up for the first time since the pilot and Sisko courteously offers her a trip through the wormhole. Because of some prophecy, she encourages him to track a mysterious signal which leads to her death as the runabout Yanghtzee-Kiang crashes on a moon that turns out to be a penal colony, where two warring peoples are doomed to relive their battles thanks to artificial microbes...which also bring the Kai back to life.
In fine Star Trek fashion, much of this takes place in a cave.
There are a few moral quandaries for our heroes. (There’s also some gubbins about the Prime Directive.) But the whole set-up raises interesting issues. Sisko does some cool leadership stuff. Nana Visitor convinces in Kira’s big emotional scenes (we could have done with more build-up about how important the Kai was to the Bajorans than Odo basically telling us as much, too). Being folksy helps O’Brian come up with genius enough solutions to impress Dax.
I did wonder what the aftereffects would be for the Bajorans. Would the Kai’s gift to Molly turn out to be significant? There was a suggestion that Sisko’s arrival as the Emissary had made the Prophets turn outwards a little more, by sending the Kai to this place where she was forced to stay. But she seemed willing enough to play gnomic peacemaker.
The Storyteller
(Relatively) weak. Given that such a huge thing had happened for Bajor spiritually in the last episode and that this focuses on the planet, not DS9, you’d think they’d at least mention the loss of the Kai. Actually, I expected more than that.
Instead we get the silliness that inspires the title. At this point, Miles doesn’t like puppyish, boastful Julian, but he’s assigned to take Julian down to the planet to assist at a village facing disaster. Then he’s appointed the successor to a mysterious figure who harnesses a village’s energy to save it from a mythical monster and what unfolds reminded me a little of the whole business of the Nagus faking his death. The villagers seem bizarrely backward - they’re almost being scammed - and the look of the monster is a bit silly.
Meanwhile, Sisko is trying to broker a deal between two (legendarily obdurate) Bajoran tribes (that’s legendary among Bajorans!) One of those tribes is lead by a teenage girl. Nog sees her and falls in lurve, and the two boys’ attempts to impress a girl is a nice dynamic. Although the acting was only so-so, Officer Odo’s amusement at the pesky kids and their shenanigans is infectious. Like Sisko, the more we learn about the young Tetrarch, orphaned by the Cardassians and under much pressure for her tender years, the more sympathy we feel, but the negotiations don’t quite have the weight they should.
Progress
Like with the last ep, this focused on the Bajorans, with no acknowledgement of the impact of losing the Kai on them. FRUSTRATING.
Again, it deals with an isolated group, a few people who found refuge on the moon the Bajorans are evacuating because they’re going to use it as an energy source, and Kira is given the job of evacuating them. Except they’re determined not to leave the home they’ve made. Kira develops a soft spot for the oldest of them. He’s the only one who can talk as the others were tortured by the Cardassians. I kept expecting it to turn out that he had Other Reasons for not wanting to leave, but it’s not that kind of episode.
Really, it’s about Kira, who doesn’t like the accusation that she’s a bit like the Cardassions (insofar as she represents the ones giving the orders). Her instinct and habits tell her to help him, and not carry out her duty. So, Sisko has to come and reason with her, appealing to her to choose her own and Bajor’s future over sentiment.
The subplot involves more Nog and Jake shenanigans. The grown-ups don’t really tumble to their adventures in bartering. Interesting (Ferengi?) response from Nog to Quark berating his father - he sees it as an opportunity for profit. He’s probably used to Quark talking down his father.
If Wishes Were Horses
This was a fun episode, although the more I think about it, the more I want to unpick the concept.
It’s all nicely set up with Quark and Odo having a good argument about holosuites and their identities. It turns out Miles is good at telling stories...to his daughter. And then Rumpelstiltskin and other figments of people’s imaginations or hologram programees start appearing all over the station, causing all manner of consternation, while a subspace anomaly looks set to threaten the whole Bajoran system.
Jadzia has to put up with seeing Julian’s submissive fantasy version of her, Sisko and Jake have a baseball player dispensing advice, Odo has to deal with various crazinesses on the Pomenade and we get the network TV version of Quark’s fantasises.
A turning point comes when the viewers learn that the main figments are in cahoots. Sisko eventually realises they’re aliens contacting them by taking on the forms of their imaginings, before the station’s collective imagination leads to imminent destruction.
His baseball player/alien visitor is very congratulatory towards ‘us’, but who is he talking about? Humans? The people of the Federation or Alpha Quadrant? Although the three conspirators are linked to humans, we see non-human fantasies. Perhaps the most fun is Odo imagining Quark locked up. Anyway, I think this episode is pro imagination in its place, or something. How far along was the internet when this aired, anyway?
Still, Keiko and Molly are back (yay!) and we get to see more of Sisko’s leadership in action as he decisively saves the day.
I'm glad to post this, as I'm racing ahead with the rewatching - I'm up to the last episode of disc 5. I will post my thoughts about that, unless if I'm distracted by Festivids or Halfamoon.
This entry was originally posted at http://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/154556.html.