First posted on MI6Forums and BondandBeyond from Feb 2 2011 to Apr 28 2011
"The Way of the Warrior"
Now THAT'S how you open a season! Within 90 minutes, DS9 changes everything -- 79 years of peace between the UFP and the Klingons ended, two decades of peace between the Cardassians and Klingons over, Worf added to the cast -- and tons of great action and excitement! And in the midst of all the battles and pyrotechnics, still time for great character moments, especially the root beer scene between Quark and Garak, but also the disruptor scene between Quark and Odo. Just a fantastic episode!
"The Visitor"
It's a sci-fi time travel subspace reset button plot -- and it's one of the best Star Trek episodes of all time. Really using science fiction to tell a moving and engaging story worth telling. I admit it, I teared up at the end. I love Jake and Ben as characters and episodes that explore their relationships, and this is the ultimate one.
"Hippocratic Oath"
And the fourth season of DS9 is three for three with this brilliant episode that explores Worf's settling in on the station in the B plot, and does a take on Bridge on the River Kwai and manages to explore, develop and drive a wedge between Bashir and O'Brien for the A plot. It's a great show that also makes the Jem'Hadar legitimate again. Classic Deep Space Nine.
"Indiscretion"
Here begins a long journey for Dukat that doesn't really end until the finale. And we FINALLY see the Breen! Well, kinda. Also, the b-plot continues the so-far great development of the Sisko/Kassidy relationship. And the episode is a triumph for not killing Ziyal at the end and hitting reset -- instead, there are major consequences. My only beef is that the b-plot was comic relief enough, we didn't need the ridiculous "thorn in Dukat's bum lololol" scene in the a-plot.
"Rejoined"
The most brilliant thing about this episode is no one ever even mentions the fact that the two lovers are women. It's a show about lesbianism without being a show about lesbianism. It's all allegory, it's all metaphor, and to the characters in the show its not even part of the issue, but to a modern viewer its all they see. It's very clever, it's the perfect way to do an allegory show (ie, not be in your face about it) and it's the sort of thing Star Trek is meant to do: talk about current day social problems in the context of an entertaining sci-fi story.
"Starship Down"
This is kind've like "Civil Defense" fourth season style, but it spends so much time trying to be a character piece for everyone (Quark, Julian, Kira, Worf) that it forgets how to be exciting and dramatic and ends up falling quite flat.
"Little Green Men"
This was just fun! A hilarious Trek tribute to the B-movies of the fifties, and an excellent comedy vehicle for the station's Ferengi family. Could not have enjoyed it more.
"The Sword of Kahless"
Everything about this episode works except one thing: the budget. Running around the same cave set for 70% of the screentime really dilutes all of the excitement and drama. Other than that, a fine first effort for the first real Worf episode of the season.
"Our Man Bashir"
What can I say about this episode that hasn't already been said? Pure gold.
"Homefront" and "Paradise Lost"
Everything about these episodes works great. They are a classic pair of Deep Space Nine shows. But after seeing them so many times, I think the only thing against them is that even by this point in Trek lore, the Admiral goes rogue concept isn't new or surprising. They try to blindside you with the Changeling threat so you don't see it coming, but this whole thing would mean a lot more if every Starfleet officer who wasn't in the main cast of a series wasn't always pulling this sorta thing. I mean, granted, Leyton goes farther than any rogue Admiral before, trying to take over the Federation and having Starfleet ships firing on each other -- but we'd already had an old friend of Sisko's betray him in "The Maquis" and then there were plenty of rogue Admirals on TNG, and of course everyone Kirk went to the Academy with turned insane and evil eventually.
But still, good episodes, and great to see Brock Peters as senior Sisko after three and a half years of hearing about him.
"Crossfire"
This is one of my favourite episodes of Deep Space Nine. It really shows how devoted this show is to its characters that we can have an episode like this. Picking up on the strands left by several season 3 episodes, it weaves Odo, Kira and Shakaar through a series of events that aren't standard or predictable, but are insightfully written and subtly plotted. Its all great -- but the stand out scene is of course the one with Odo and Quark in Odo's quarters: the unspoken friendship between them. There's nothing to dislike here; its a great exploration of one-sided love and its a feeling I think we're all familiar with. Even the little things, like the scene between Kira and Odo that opens the episode, or the scene between Worf and Odo about how you should never be hospitable to visitors (that only encourages further visits), they're all golden. Its just a great show. Ah, DS9.
"Return to Grace"
The actions of "Indiscretion" have their consequences here: For bringing his half-Bajoran daughter home, we see Dukat at his lowest point in the series -- without rank or position, divorced, hauling freight, not even worth shooting at. But the turnaround in this episode is great -- by the end Dukat has his own Bird of Prey and is ready to wage a one man war on the Klingon Empire. This episode is good, but what makes it great is how it connects to earlier episodes and clearly sets up later episodes, with Ziyal moving to DS9, Dukat preparing his comeback, and the introduction of Damar in a role as innocuous as "random Cardie crewmember". My only complaint would be that I think the writers lay the "Dukat has a crush on Kira" thing on too thick.
"Sons of Mogh"
The actions of "Way of the Warrior" have their consequences here: For opposing Gowron, Worf has disgraced his house and his family -- his brother visits the station for ritual suicide. I may point out this is the second suicide related episode Trek did that year, after VOY's "Death Wish". The best thing about this episode is that Worf actually plunges the dagger in -- its Bashir who saves Kurn later. This episode also has a great exploration of Worf's motives -- why he is who he is. Finally, Kurn's memory is wiped in Bashir's House of Horrors -- the Infirmary. This is a stellar, dramatic episode.
"Bar Association"
This is a pretty low pulse episode. Nothing really makes me sit up and pay attention except maybe a couple of the Quark/Rom scenes. But it's a fun episode and it's a good episode for the development it gives Rom. I'm a sucker for stories where the shy, underappreciated, kinda incompetent guy stands up and becomes more than he was. I had hoped TWIN PEAKS would do something like that with Andy, but he only got stupider.
It's funny how even in a minor DS9 episode, there's permanent change and development -- Rom's now a station engineer, and Worf's living on the Defiant.
"Accession"
A great Sisko episode, where he basically accepts being the Emissary. Best Prophets scene in a long time, very clever. A great Kira subplot, a great Miles/Julian subplot, and I found the bit where the priest murders the guy to be really shocking. A solid episode.
"Rules of Engagement"
Apparently the writing staff considers this episode a failure, but I quite liked it. Great performances, direction, style and story -- frankly, I love courtroom drama, and military courtroom drama even more -- and I like it when they remember that Starfleet is the military. My only real complaint is that Sisko never really wins the case and Worf never really proves the prosecutor wrong, in fact he basically proves him right -- Worf is only saved by a deus ex machina, which is weak. What makes up for it is Sisko's great "dressing-down" scene afterwards -- Sisko dresses down officers like no other. In actuality, Sisko feels like a real commanding officer much more to me than any of the others. Picard acted like being in the military was an annoying hobby and most of the time he was here to "see what's out there" and Kirk acted like being a Captain was basically for his own personal amusement. But I'm off track, great episode, great Worf episode especially.
"Hard Time"
Okay, having watched all of STAR TREK up to this point in chronological order, (excluding ENT), I can safely say this is the darkest episode of STAR TREK so far. I mean, despite the hopeful ending, I can really feel the DNA of BSG in this one. I mean, a regular character puts a phaser to his head and seriously considers suicide. And in a realistic, psychologically depressed manner, not bold heroism or exaggerated melodramatics. This episode is dark. I felt, while I was watching it, particularly while I was listening to O'Brien's "Roddenberry's dream is bullshit" speech, I felt a paradigm shift. I'm gonna call this episode as the point where this show stopped being STAR TREK: Deep Space Nine and became Star Trek: DEEP SPACE NINE.
"Shattered Mirror"
DS9 does ROTJ. Great fun, great effects, love the mirror universe.
"The Muse"
Not great, but not terrible either. Seems like two unrelated B-stories from other episodes that they didn't have time for shmushed together. Both are nice and have good character sentiments, but both needed to be paired with a stronger plot backbone to work.
"For the Cause"
A fucking EXCELLENT episode. Zoddamn I love the writing on this show!! This is why I watch DS9! Eddington, Sisko, Kassidy, Garak, Ziyal, drama, crackling good dialogue, great scenes with subtext and foreshadowing, plots that develop over time, and constant status quo shift! This episode is dynamite.
"To the Death"
A great, exciting, action adventure episode of DS9. First we've seen of the Jem'Hadar in a while, and we really get into their heads in this one, far more than in "Hipprocratic Oath" or "The Abandoned". We really get a feel for how dangerous these guys really are -- unlike episodes like "Day of the Dove" (TOS) or "I, Borg" (TNG), we find that when you get to know the Jem'Hadar, they're still scary bastards who want nothing but to kill you. Also, this episode has a great longterm continuity throwback, to second season TNG and the Iconian Gateways, and of course the debut of the wonderful, fantastic character of Weyoun.
"The Quickening"
Aside from being a great Julian episode, and who doesn't like Julian?, the best thing about this episode is the way it completely turns the standard Star Trek formula on its head in a way that hasn't really been done since "A Private Little War" (the darkest episode of TOS by far). The fact that this episode just rejects the whole notion of showing up at a random planet, solving whatever huge problem they've been dealing with for generations in the space of a week, and taking off without it being a big deal -- which is essentially the episodic premise of both TOS and TNG. It's a great, dark, episode of DS9, with a very important lesson: Don't fuck with the Dominion.
"Body Parts"
This is a really slam dunk episode, with a darkly comic Quark A-story that makes the Ferengi the third regular DS9 character to be an outcast from his people (Odo, Worf), and a great B-story for Kira and the O'Briens that intelligently worked Nana Visitor's pregnancy into the show.
"Broken Link"
Honestly, this is a good Odo character story, but a good season finale? Not really. The whole Gowron aspect feels really tacked on, like it would've gone in whatever story the season finale ended up being. This is a great episode, don't get me wrong, but when I also know that the Gowron reveal will be undone in the season 5 opener, it just becomes "another Odo episode" instead of a great season finale. Best parts of the episode were with Garak, btw.
No comments:
Post a Comment