Star Trek - Deep Space Nine, season 2, disc 3
I came back to Deep Space Nine after a bit of a break, but that was a while ago, and I kept meaning to write up my thoughts - telling myself I wouldn't watch the next episodes until I did. Clearly, I have finally finished Christmas prep, and can, after another break, move on to disc 4.
Overall, these were pretty good, but I was starting to expect more.
Second Sight
Sisko is musing on how he almost let the four year anniversary of his wife Jennifer’s death pass unnoticed when he meets this week’s alien of the week. She’s charming and he’s very taken by her, but she’s mysterious. Less mysterious is the egomania scientist whom Dax is going to help (in a minor capacity) to revive a dead star, because it’s practically the same as terraforming it. (!?) Of course, when they meet his wife, she turns out to look exactly like Venna...you can tell where the plot is going a mile off.
The script was really heavy-handed about dropping references to Star Trek-ian drinks, foodstuffs and poets, but then there’d be a smattering of errors - like not having Dax eat the pie she’d just been talking up or having a Starfleet officer not know a poem that’s required reading at the Academy, and overuse of the word ‘crowing’. I wanted less referencing and more focus on the basics!
On the other hand, Brooks plays a man opening up to the possibility of romance beautifully and we have the paradox of his good friend Jadzia Dax, the impossible, on the face of it, repository of all these lifetimes of memories. Also, it’s funny to have Ferengis offering any other males advice about women.
Sanctuary
This is a much better episode and my favourite of the four on this disc, probably because it’s so linked to Bajor through Kira’s role. She’s having a tough time, her focus split between her home planet and her responsibilities on the station. On Bajor, the provisional government seems to be rubbish at rebuilding the planet.
But then, mysterious aliens from the Gamma Quadrant arrive at DS9 in a bad state. As they don’t have a Hoshi or Uhura, the universal translator (which has worked fine with other aliens from the Gamma Quadrant, my internal continuity picker noted) can’t understand them, but when the translation kicks in, the crew learn the Skria are refugees who bolted when the Dominon (cue a significant pause to make sure we got it) took over from their oppressors.
Much is made of the fact they’re a matriarchal society, because the males are ‘too emotional’ to be in charge of anything, as proven by one of their lads, who has run-ins with Nog, but need to be bonded and cosseted. I SEE WOT U DUN THERE, DS9.
The de facto leader of the Skria, Haneek, is charged with finding a home for her people - she thinks, on the basis of their sacred texts, that a peninsula on Bajor could be it. The Bajorans disagree - this causing a rift between burgeoning friends Kira and Haneek.
Tragedy puts it all in perspective, and the Skria get sent to a promising-sound planet the Federation found for them. But as the leaving Haneek says, Bajor may have been spiting itself out of fear.
My minor quibbles are that we see a random Minister, Vedek and general in this episode, there to represent types, but it would have been good if we had history with them. It’s what makes watching Nod read and Morn weep at the performance of a Bajoran musician Kira’s helping - of course he played a variation of the theme music - more resonant. But the depiction of a women-led society (nearly all white readheads, mind) is fun. Visitor is marvellous and nicely supported by Brooks as the crew deal with the perplexities thrown up by the refugees the station is hosting. Give or take those quibbles, then, yes, good.
Rivals
I liked that they’d seeded the main guest character in the previous ep. Played by Chris Sarandon, he’s a ‘listening’ conman. Odo is onto him, but can’t keep him under permanent arrest. In the brief time Odo has his way, he comes across a cunning gambling toy, using it and his charms to set up a (gaudy) rival establishment to Quark’s. Quark is not amused.
Meanwhile, Miles and Julian start playing racketball against each other. O’Brien doesn’t take being thrashed and then patronised by a young pup well. In this, Quark sees a chance to regain his customers...
Improbable things are happening all over the station. Dax investigates...
Sure, I was a step ahead of the characters e.g. about the conman getting conned. But the richness of the guest stars (a Martha Kent!) and characters (we get some Rom and Quark childhood stories) and the growing relationship between O’Brien and Bashir, odd Trek fashion (a forerunner of Seven of Nine appears) all make for an entertaining episode.
The Alternate
A bit of this confused me, mainly because I never trusted Dr Mora (and was wrongly suspicious of Dax here).
So, the doctor responsible for Odo’s upbringing at the lab turns up on the station. Odo is prickly. The show is a bit heavy-handed about how Dr Mora is Odo’s father figure, but is also the scientist who didn’t realise Odo was sentient and, perhaps, still, denies his personhood.
Anyway, he’s come to dangle some similar DNA to Odo’s that they’ve found in the GQ in front of a curious Odo. He and Dax join a scientific trip to its source, where there are mysterious ruins and maybe a lifeforce, a volcanic gas that harms the humanoids, and then stuff really gets weird on the station. Mora decides it’s melty Odo who is to blame. Melty Odo turns into bad SFX because the gas from the GQ affected him. Bashir can’t explain it!
It’s an okay look at Odo’s past, but we don’t get much further forward in learning about his origins or the GQ.
This entry was originally posted at http://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/211976.html.
Overall, these were pretty good, but I was starting to expect more.
Second Sight
Sisko is musing on how he almost let the four year anniversary of his wife Jennifer’s death pass unnoticed when he meets this week’s alien of the week. She’s charming and he’s very taken by her, but she’s mysterious. Less mysterious is the egomania scientist whom Dax is going to help (in a minor capacity) to revive a dead star, because it’s practically the same as terraforming it. (!?) Of course, when they meet his wife, she turns out to look exactly like Venna...you can tell where the plot is going a mile off.
The script was really heavy-handed about dropping references to Star Trek-ian drinks, foodstuffs and poets, but then there’d be a smattering of errors - like not having Dax eat the pie she’d just been talking up or having a Starfleet officer not know a poem that’s required reading at the Academy, and overuse of the word ‘crowing’. I wanted less referencing and more focus on the basics!
On the other hand, Brooks plays a man opening up to the possibility of romance beautifully and we have the paradox of his good friend Jadzia Dax, the impossible, on the face of it, repository of all these lifetimes of memories. Also, it’s funny to have Ferengis offering any other males advice about women.
Sanctuary
This is a much better episode and my favourite of the four on this disc, probably because it’s so linked to Bajor through Kira’s role. She’s having a tough time, her focus split between her home planet and her responsibilities on the station. On Bajor, the provisional government seems to be rubbish at rebuilding the planet.
But then, mysterious aliens from the Gamma Quadrant arrive at DS9 in a bad state. As they don’t have a Hoshi or Uhura, the universal translator (which has worked fine with other aliens from the Gamma Quadrant, my internal continuity picker noted) can’t understand them, but when the translation kicks in, the crew learn the Skria are refugees who bolted when the Dominon (cue a significant pause to make sure we got it) took over from their oppressors.
Much is made of the fact they’re a matriarchal society, because the males are ‘too emotional’ to be in charge of anything, as proven by one of their lads, who has run-ins with Nog, but need to be bonded and cosseted. I SEE WOT U DUN THERE, DS9.
The de facto leader of the Skria, Haneek, is charged with finding a home for her people - she thinks, on the basis of their sacred texts, that a peninsula on Bajor could be it. The Bajorans disagree - this causing a rift between burgeoning friends Kira and Haneek.
Tragedy puts it all in perspective, and the Skria get sent to a promising-sound planet the Federation found for them. But as the leaving Haneek says, Bajor may have been spiting itself out of fear.
My minor quibbles are that we see a random Minister, Vedek and general in this episode, there to represent types, but it would have been good if we had history with them. It’s what makes watching Nod read and Morn weep at the performance of a Bajoran musician Kira’s helping - of course he played a variation of the theme music - more resonant. But the depiction of a women-led society (nearly all white readheads, mind) is fun. Visitor is marvellous and nicely supported by Brooks as the crew deal with the perplexities thrown up by the refugees the station is hosting. Give or take those quibbles, then, yes, good.
Rivals
I liked that they’d seeded the main guest character in the previous ep. Played by Chris Sarandon, he’s a ‘listening’ conman. Odo is onto him, but can’t keep him under permanent arrest. In the brief time Odo has his way, he comes across a cunning gambling toy, using it and his charms to set up a (gaudy) rival establishment to Quark’s. Quark is not amused.
Meanwhile, Miles and Julian start playing racketball against each other. O’Brien doesn’t take being thrashed and then patronised by a young pup well. In this, Quark sees a chance to regain his customers...
Improbable things are happening all over the station. Dax investigates...
Sure, I was a step ahead of the characters e.g. about the conman getting conned. But the richness of the guest stars (a Martha Kent!) and characters (we get some Rom and Quark childhood stories) and the growing relationship between O’Brien and Bashir, odd Trek fashion (a forerunner of Seven of Nine appears) all make for an entertaining episode.
The Alternate
A bit of this confused me, mainly because I never trusted Dr Mora (and was wrongly suspicious of Dax here).
So, the doctor responsible for Odo’s upbringing at the lab turns up on the station. Odo is prickly. The show is a bit heavy-handed about how Dr Mora is Odo’s father figure, but is also the scientist who didn’t realise Odo was sentient and, perhaps, still, denies his personhood.
Anyway, he’s come to dangle some similar DNA to Odo’s that they’ve found in the GQ in front of a curious Odo. He and Dax join a scientific trip to its source, where there are mysterious ruins and maybe a lifeforce, a volcanic gas that harms the humanoids, and then stuff really gets weird on the station. Mora decides it’s melty Odo who is to blame. Melty Odo turns into bad SFX because the gas from the GQ affected him. Bashir can’t explain it!
It’s an okay look at Odo’s past, but we don’t get much further forward in learning about his origins or the GQ.
This entry was originally posted at http://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/211976.html.