shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,862
|
Post by shaxper on Nov 26, 2014 0:17:30 GMT -5
As a reminder, this was actually the second episode produced, but the third aired. It feels a lot rougher around the edges, in my opinion, than Past Prologue, and also does the obligatory "let's get to know our cast of characters" thing with the episode, forcefully introducing a variety of characters that weren't thoroughly enough touched upon in the first episode. As a teacher myself, I love the idea of it being so easy for someone with no teaching background whatsoever to suddenly master curricula from a variety of different worlds and put together a legitimate school on a whim. Nog and Jake -- there's a relationship that's going to develop over the next seven years. I LOVE how Nog evolves as a character, but I never grew a fondness for Jake. Incidentally, Aaron Eisenberg (playing Nog) is a full grown dwarf, explaining why he proves to be a far more convincing and likable character. I've only rewatched the first half of the episode, so I don't remember the solution to the mystery, but it AMAZES me no one suspected the holosuit program, itself, of being programmed to kill the guy. Yeah. That bad acting is NOT going to get better. She was good friends with Marina Sirtis, and I suspect that's how she got the job over a more qualified actor. Odo's views on romance only get more fun with time  I wondered that too. On the one hand, it's a Bajoran station, so it would likely keep time with Bajor and not The Federation. On the other, 26 hours may be some kind of standard practice for Odo/Bajor/the Cardassians. Who's to say? I really would have enjoyed such an episode. Ironically enough, though, that almost describes a central plot in Avatar, a follow-up book series written to be DS9 Season 8. If you make it through all the episodes and still want more (and I expect you will), the "Season 8" novels are, in many ways, even superior to the show. DS9 is often about odd contrasts. The station, itself, is a melting pot, and Keiko's very point in this episode is that it's messed up having kids run around in a place where things like this happen. It won't. They are truly the WORST couple of the 24th century. They're also the only married couple in pretty much all of Trek. Pretty disappointing that this is the depiction we get. Yes. It's all Cardassian. O'Brian will be bitching about this endlessly through at least Season 4. They do quite a lot of exploring of his past throughout the series. His grumpiness is well earned and, until the Federation arrived, it was also well suited to his job. This gets explored in great detail later in Season One. They have good reason. By the way, the introduction of Quark's brother, Rom, in this episode, utterly caught me off guard. Completely different character (though same actor) than what he'll be later down the road. There's a reason I only got halfway through this episode. It really was pretty "blah." Better ones are coming, and Season 2 is a vastly superior work to this one. From there, it just keeps getting better. |
|
|
|
Post by wildfire2099 on Nov 26, 2014 9:23:35 GMT -5
That makes sense (the time thing)... would have been nice to state it the first time they mention it! I thought Quark's brother was utterly forgettable, and only there to make Keiko feel nice. While I knew Nog was a regular, I had no idea he was. I didn't think of that sequence from a teacher's point of view.. that must really make your blood boil! I feel like Keiko and O'Brien were pretty happy (even a bit sappy) on TNG... is Keiko really such a brat she can't handle DS9? LOL re: Jake... I kinda feel that way too, so far. They could humanize Sisko in far better ways. I guess, for whatever reason, they felt they needed a Wesley on the station? At least he's not running the place. that's a plus. I don't remember much development of Odo, so that's good to know it happens I didn't mind the 'getting to know you' stuff, but it probably could have been spread out more, and fit more naturally in. |
|
shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,862
|
Post by shaxper on Nov 26, 2014 10:56:33 GMT -5
Yes, Rom was utterly forgettable here. So forgettable, in fact, that I didn't even remember until I looked it up that he was also in "Emissary". Ultimately, he becomes one of my absolute favorite characters on the show. Nah, I just figure next they should have some civilian who's never been in the military but always thought about being a captain to take over the station. That would make him qualified for the job, right?  Well, the roots of their relationship were tempestuous from the get-go. Remember "Data's Day"? O'Brian and Keiko are both jerks, in my opinion. Keiko is selfish, and he's absurdly volatile. It's just plain sad when Molly is in the picture. They are TRULY terrible parents, too, as becomes the most disturbingly evident in the Sixth Season episode "Time's Orphan." As my wife and I often joked whenever the two came on screen, "worst...parents...ever." Yup. I agree all the way. Fortunately, they never tried to make Jake into a wunderkind like Wesley. If anything, Jake often disappoints Sisko. That should make him more relatable/likable, but it doesn't. At least he gets less awkward as time goes on. His voice drops, and they get him out of those ridiculous clothes. One of the best developed characters to come out of the series. Agreed. So when are you planning on watching "Babel"? I'm loving keeping pace with you! |
|
|
|
Post by wildfire2099 on Nov 26, 2014 16:11:09 GMT -5
It kinda depends on when I get the TV, and when the wife goes to sleep... tonight is possible |
|
|
|
Post by wildfire2099 on Nov 27, 2014 22:05:16 GMT -5
Babel
Season 1, ep. 4
Plot: O'Brien is a busy guy...we see a strange beep-y device in the bowels of the station. Quark's
sad the replicators aren't working well... turns out O'Brien only fixed the bridge's replicators, so
Quark hacks into the system to see which ones work.
Suddenly, O'Brien starts spouting nonsense. The doctor is stumped... as they discuss what might be the
cause, Dax gets it too. When a couple civilians get it, too.. Sisko declares a quarantine.
Odo catches Quark using the replicators for the crew... meanwhile, Bashir figures out it's those same
replicators that are the problem... and it's mutated into an airborne one.
Turns out the Bajorans made it back when the station was first built, so Kira is set to figuring out
who in the Bajoran underground might have done it.
O'Brien's suddenly very sick, and about to die, and Bashir isn't close to fixing it yet. Too late...
Bashir's got it too, while Kira chases wild geese from the Bajoran underground.
Kira catches her wild goose, but Sisko's got it now, too...meanwhile a ship captain tries to fly out of
his docking rig, and could well blow the station up, with Odo the only one still able to help. The
doctor Kira found denies he knows anything... meanwhile, Quark shows up to run ops while Odo tries
to get rid of the ship.
Kira gets the virus just as she gets her doc to Bashir's research station...things are looking grim.
Luckily, the Bajoran doctor solves it in 45 seconds flat, and Odo saves the recalictrant captain in the nick
of time. All is well! Well, except the replicator is broken again. <insert laugh track>
Random thoughts:
- O'Brien sure is grumpy! Does he not have a staff? Is he a poor delegator? Is Shax right that
he's just terrible?
-- Last episode, Quark's place was wall-to-wall people.. now it's empty? Did the station crew decide
to stop eating? Where'd they all go? That needs explanation.
-- Why would were the replicators are require security clearance? I understand they wanted to point
out Quark could hack the system, but what a stupid reason for it.
-- And now Quark's is full again.. did the replicators not working get around that fast? And then
around again that it was fixed? DS9 is either very, very small, or more time is passing than it seems.
-- So, 60% of the station has the virus, but not Sisko, Kira, Bashir, Quark and Odo.. that's pretty lucky.
-- If it's a Bajoran made virus, and the guy who made it was a genius, why didn't he make it so it wouldn't hurt Bajorans?
-- I'm pretty sure the science here is really bad, bordering on silly, really.
So, yeah, IIRC, this was the episode back in the day when I stopped watching.. then I came back for Q, then left again. Easily the worst so far... with only the Odo-Quark bits having any redeeming qualities. Also, talk about making Bashir look like a punk! Poor guy, they're going to have to work overtime to make him seem like anything but a pretty face.
|
|
shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,862
|
Post by shaxper on Nov 28, 2014 14:00:59 GMT -5
Babel Season 1, ep. 4 Plot: O'Brien is a busy guy...we see a strange beep-y device in the bowels of the station. Quark's sad the replicators aren't working well... turns out O'Brien only fixed the bridge's replicators, so Quark hacks into the system to see which ones work. Suddenly, O'Brien starts spouting nonsense. The doctor is stumped... as they discuss what might be the cause, Dax gets it too. When a couple civilians get it, too.. Sisko declares a quarantine. Odo catches Quark using the replicators for the crew... meanwhile, Bashir figures out it's those same replicators that are the problem... and it's mutated into an airborne one. Turns out the Bajorans made it back when the station was first built, so Kira is set to figuring out who in the Bajoran underground might have done it. O'Brien's suddenly very sick, and about to die, and Bashir isn't close to fixing it yet. Too late... Bashir's got it too, while Kira chases wild geese from the Bajoran underground. Kira catches her wild goose, but Sisko's got it now, too...meanwhile a ship captain tries to fly out of his docking rig, and could well blow the station up, with Odo the only one still able to help. The doctor Kira found denies he knows anything... meanwhile, Quark shows up to run ops while Odo tries to get rid of the ship. Kira gets the virus just as she gets her doc to Bashir's research station...things are looking grim. Luckily, the Bajoran doctor solves it in 45 seconds flat, and Odo saves the recalictrant captain in the nick of time. All is well! Well, except the replicator is broken again. <insert laugh track> Random thoughts: - O'Brien sure is grumpy! Does he not have a staff? Is he a poor delegator? Is Shax right that he's just terrible? -- Last episode, Quark's place was wall-to-wall people.. now it's empty? Did the station crew decide to stop eating? Where'd they all go? That needs explanation. -- Why would were the replicators are require security clearance? I understand they wanted to point out Quark could hack the system, but what a stupid reason for it. -- And now Quark's is full again.. did the replicators not working get around that fast? And then around again that it was fixed? DS9 is either very, very small, or more time is passing than it seems. -- So, 60% of the station has the virus, but not Sisko, Kira, Bashir, Quark and Odo.. that's pretty lucky. -- If it's a Bajoran made virus, and the guy who made it was a genius, why didn't he make it so it wouldn't hurt Bajorans? -- I'm pretty sure the science here is really bad, bordering on silly, really. So, yeah, IIRC, this was the episode back in the day when I stopped watching.. then I came back for Q, then left again. Easily the worst so far... with only the Odo-Quark bits having any redeeming qualities. Also, talk about making Bashir look like a punk! Poor guy, they're going to have to work overtime to make him seem like anything but a pretty face. Wow. I don't even remember this one, and, judging by your review, I don't want to Think I'll skip watching this one alongside you. |
|
|
|
Post by wildfire2099 on Nov 28, 2014 17:35:18 GMT -5
It was definitely skippable... the take away was Quark isn't really SUCH a bad guy, as long as he makes his money, and Odo really sorta likes him |
|
shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,862
|
Post by shaxper on Nov 28, 2014 19:36:41 GMT -5
It was definitely skippable... the take away was Quark isn't really SUCH a bad guy, as long as he makes his money, and Odo really sorta likes him Yeah. Those two points will get reiterated ad nauseam |
|
|
|
Post by wildfire2099 on Dec 2, 2014 0:27:24 GMT -5
Captive Pursuit
S1, Ep. 5
Plot:
An Alien, name of Tosk, wanders through the worm hole with his shp about to fall apart. He's a skittish thing, but O'Brien convinces him to land and let DS9 fix his ship. O'Brien gives the tour.
Just when O'Brien start to think he's a pretty good guy, he gets caught trying to steal weapons. He says he wants to 'die with honor' while in the Brig.
Another ship comes through, and refuses to talk, they take down the stations shields and beam aboard. Three guys in red suits have a shoot out on the promenade... they seem to have superior firepower.
Once they get to Tosk, it's revealed that it was a hunt, and Tosk(a race, not a name) was the prey. The hunter is mad Tosk got captured, and promises he'll live to be humiliated. Sisko puts the kibosh on that and has words with the hunter.
Sisko decides he has to release him, and the hunters leave. He does grant that he'll accepta request for asylum, but Tosk has no interest, he just wanted to be hunted.
O'Brien grumps at Quark, and has a brainstorm. He ditches his communicator and helps Tosk escape, allowing him to be prey again. Tosk takes out several hunters and escapes to his ship so he can die with honor.
Sisko yells at him for a while, then O'Brien points out that it was awfully easy... Sisko just says 'I guess that one got by us'.
Random Notes:
Quark has a harassment suit! Wait, apparently he puts it in the contract that the help has to sleep with him. it's in the Ferengi fine print on page 21. I'm not sure if if that's horrible or awesome.
A ship wanders through the wormhole, and O'Brien is on hand for 1st contact. Diplomatic procedures? Pshaw!
That alien looks alot like a Sulliban from Enterprise... not quite the same, but very close
we find out about 300 people live on DS9, and '5 or 6'people a week visit. Not much compared to B5
OK, so last time, Quark had to hack the computer to find out where the replicators are.. but a guest is able to find out where weapons are stored? That makes sense.
O'Brien was a old crumudgeon a couple episodes ago, now he's happy to have a "straight man" I guess the other episode he was just having a bad day.
The other aliens remind me of power rangers... especially the arm-shield thing.
No need to find out who they are or anything... maybe that happens off camera, when O'Brien is busily following first contact protocols... yeah, that's it.
Odo disdains firearms... I suspect we'll find out why at some point.
Is the prime directive ever used for good?
O'Brien's grumpy again... I guess it's just intelligent hunting animals that make him happy.
So much for the Prime Directive! Sisko turns the other way awfully quickly in the face of insubordination. Yelling or no, O'Brien's not stupid.. he just got away with disobeying a direct order.
Very little character stuff this time, unless you count Tosk, who I'm pretty sure won't be back. Really Quark, O'Brien, and Sisko are the only characters that get more than a line or two. FAR more action than all the other episodes combined, which was a nice switch. This was definitely better than the last episode, but still pretty medicore.
|
|
shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,862
|
Post by shaxper on Dec 2, 2014 0:38:30 GMT -5
Quark has a harassment suit! Wait, apparently he puts it in the contract that the help has to sleep with him. it's in the Ferengi fine print on page 21. I'm not sure if if that's horrible or awesome. Pretty sure this gets forgotten or that Quark is forced to abandon it. Later in the series, a dabo girl becomes a pretty prominent supporting cast member, and it's never suggested that she was ever intimate with Quark. Wow, that's bad writing. This is another episode I barely recall. That will change by season 3. Keep in mind that the Cardassians just withdrew. Oops. Wait for it... They made a bigger deal of that in the very beginning and then, I think, pretty much dropped it. Sisko blatantly disregarding the tenants of the Federation in order to dish out a more real form of justice in a darker world will become a recurring theme of the series, but rarely will it be done this easily. Good call. |
|
|
|
Post by wildfire2099 on Dec 4, 2014 0:05:16 GMT -5
Episode 6: Q-Less Plot: Dax finds old Picard flame Vash in the Gamma quadrant... she claims to have been there for two years... having been dropped off by 'a friend'. Q doesn't turn up until Vash is alone... apparently they had a fight... they seem to have a bit of a Doctor-Companion relationship.. but apparently Q abandoned her at some point. Quark stops by and helps Vash set up an auction for her Gamma quadrant swag. Then he goes to harass Bashir when he put the moves on Vash, where O'Brien recognizes him. Q taunts Sisko some, with no apparent purpose as usual. The station starts having random power issues, and they all assume it's Q's fault... but Sisko (rightly) doesn't think that's his style. It gets worse... then the station starts getting sucked into the worm hole.. while Q watches and tells them that Picard would have figured it out long ago. Turns out to be one of Vash's artifacts...one of them was an egg about to hatch. They beam it off the station, and suddenly all is well. Huzzah! Q decided he'll not force Vash to be his companion, and wanders off,while Vash re-considered retirement and agrees to hunt for artifacts for Quark. Notes: - I guess Bashir's given up on Dax. "Starfleet Medical Finals... gets them every time" could quite possibly be the stupidest line in a show ever. - Either Amazon messed up the beginning, or it starts really randomly (with Bashir hitting on a random Bajoran)... no mention of WHY Dax was in a runabout retrieving Vash from the Gamma quadrant, or how they knew to do so. - Q as a Bajoran is pretty funny Q jealous? Ridiculous. - He's back in a Captain's uniform.. that's better. - That's the worst fake mustache ever.. Q as an old timey boxer.. no. - Q was right, the Enterprise would have figured that out in a second...nothing else changed on the station but Vash, after all.. no one thought to ask her about the GIGANTIC bag she had? or the strange glowing rock... I mean, everyone knows glowing = energy - Bashir slept through the whole thing, and no one (including me) noticed.. that's not good. - ZERO character development again (except for Vash, I suppose)... Kira was barely there, and Sisko just got taunted by Q a bit. Not much, though... almost as if the character too realized it wasn't worth the effort. Dax, at least, gets to be the science wizard. No Jake or Keiko in 2 episodes, either. Clearly, the sole purpose of this one was to try to re-snag TNG fans... I can't say it was effective, since it gave no sense of any of the DS9 characters (except for Quark) |
|
shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,862
|
Post by shaxper on Dec 7, 2014 14:30:32 GMT -5
The episode that caused me to abandon DS9 when it was first airing. Took me a decade to come back and give it a second try. Nah. That's coming back. This scene felt racist to me. Whereas Picard would get angry at Q for a brief moment and shout, the black guy gets a full head of steam and gives in to outright punching an all powerful alien repeatedly? NO ONE on TNG lacked self control to that degree. Yep. If the point of the episode was to compare/contrast the two leaders, Sisko comes out worse in every way -- both dumber and angrier/more violent. Heh. In fact, it turned away this TNG fan |
|
|
|
Post by wildfire2099 on Dec 7, 2014 18:35:55 GMT -5
It kinda worked for me... I definitely watched it when it was new... unfortunately it made the Ds9 crew look so dumb, it failed in it's attempt to lure me back in.
The same thing happened when they added Worf, IIRC
|
|
shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,862
|
Post by shaxper on Dec 7, 2014 19:09:23 GMT -5
The same thing happened when they added Worf, IIRC I actually thought that was an excellent decision. Though a transparently desperate move, it worked. Worf made far more sense on that station than he ever did on the bridge of the Enterprise. |
|
|
|
Post by wildfire2099 on Dec 9, 2014 0:32:17 GMT -5
Dax
S1, Ep 7
O'Brien is off to Earth for his Mother-in-law's birthday, and Dax is attempting to fill in. She's attacked by aliens, and Bashir fails miserably to save her. The bad guys know exactly how to escape, but Sisko does something nifty and grabs the ship in the tractor beam.
The aliens then drop their big bombshell.. Dax is a fugitve from Kylstron IV on treason and murder from 30 years ago. Sisko, of course is horrified and doesn't believe it, but Dax won't talk.
Sisko figured out that he doesn't have to co-operate, since DS9 is a Bajoran station, not Starfleet, so they set up a extradiction hearing. Sisko continues to delay and sends Odo to investigate the 30 year old case.
The argument is apparently that Dax is a different person now, and Sisko makes that the issue.
Meanwhile, Odo finds the widow of the guy Dax supposedly murdered...who things Kurzon Dax was a swell guy, and certainly couldn't have been responsible. She's extremely disturbed to find out Kurzon is dead. Odo turns up that Kurzon had a long term affair, thus giving him a pretty solid motive.
The trial is on.. with first a Trill expert, then Bashir as witnesses (Bashir gets roasted on the stand, incidently). Finally, Sisko takes the stand himself and shares his memories of Kurzon. He kicks some butt, or course, and they break before Dax speaks for herself.
During the break, Sisko and Dax chat, and Sisko confronts her with the affair.. she's willing to die to protect the widow, apparently.
As Dax is giving his testimony, the widow enters and, surprisingly, gives Kurzon an alibi (they were in bed together)... I thought for sure she was going to admit she killed him. The judge tosses out the extradiction and that's that.
Turns out the general tried to switch sides, but the rebels (wrongly) didn't believe him, and ended up giving their opposition a martyr. Dax makes friends with the widow... then end.
-----
Yup, Bashir is back to hitting on Dax.. he's got a short attention span. And he won't hit a girl, even an alien girl.
Nice, but ridiculous.
This whole thing is pretty weak...far to mysterious for my taste.
No mention of how Keiko's school gets on while she's on Earth... this is the 3rd straight Jake-less episode.
This reminds me alot of when they had the trial about whether or not Data was a person on TNG.
It's probably best Dax was mostly silent.. it's really pretty bad when she tries to act... whispering doesn't not count as emotion.
I really like the old crumudgeon Bajorian judge.. best part of the episode, even if she's a pretty standard trope.
Almost no Quark... I didn't realize I actually would miss him.
I really dislike how Sisko paused to look smug every time he makes a point... I hope that stops eventually.
I really can't imagine any TNG fan watching this episode (all those ones that tuned in for Q last week) and not being disappointed... not only do you get no O'Brien, but you get a pale imitation of a very good TNG episode.
|
|
