It amuses me that sometimes, Starfleet ships can be remote controlled by people who know their command codes or whatever, and sometimes they can't. Clearly they just wanted an excuse for Dax's tractor beam shenanigans, rather than just transmitting an "all stop" command to the Rio Grande remotely. (The warp tow actually makes sense, though. It's probably cheaper, fuel-wise, to run only one warp engine and have that runabout tow the other, than to run both warp reactors. Post-scarcity society or not, efficiency is still valuable.)
Wow, Alixus is a totally unlikable character. There's actually no reason whatsoever to sympathize with her. If this episode has a flaw, she's it. Good villains (and she's worthy of the appellation, I'd say) have a hook for the audience to see things from their point of view and understand why they do the things they do, however evil they might be. Alixus is just a flat, sociopathic plot device.
Sisko is my favorite part of this episode, even though Avery Brooks isn't quite at the top of his game yet. (It takes him a few seasons to really hit his stride with the character. At this point in the series, he's still delivering a fair few lines in odd ways that don't feel right.) Him climbing back into the "hell box" is the best moment of the whole thing.
Review by dgwVIP 10BlockedParent2018-01-17T08:56:45Z
It amuses me that sometimes, Starfleet ships can be remote controlled by people who know their command codes or whatever, and sometimes they can't. Clearly they just wanted an excuse for Dax's tractor beam shenanigans, rather than just transmitting an "all stop" command to the Rio Grande remotely. (The warp tow actually makes sense, though. It's probably cheaper, fuel-wise, to run only one warp engine and have that runabout tow the other, than to run both warp reactors. Post-scarcity society or not, efficiency is still valuable.)
Wow, Alixus is a totally unlikable character. There's actually no reason whatsoever to sympathize with her. If this episode has a flaw, she's it. Good villains (and she's worthy of the appellation, I'd say) have a hook for the audience to see things from their point of view and understand why they do the things they do, however evil they might be. Alixus is just a flat, sociopathic plot device.
Sisko is my favorite part of this episode, even though Avery Brooks isn't quite at the top of his game yet. (It takes him a few seasons to really hit his stride with the character. At this point in the series, he's still delivering a fair few lines in odd ways that don't feel right.) Him climbing back into the "hell box" is the best moment of the whole thing.