Part of me really wanted to enjoy this one more, because it's a really good character piece that finally lets us know why Worf has always been so stoic and serious, while other Klingons are party animals. Terry Farrell gets to do a lot with her character too, plus there's fun stuff for Bashir, Leeta and even Quark.
But it's the surrounding events that just let this down. All of the Risa stuff is unforgivable in it's utter banality and lack of excitement. The threat is meaningless and comes off as pathetic. Risa itself is probably given the most fleshed-out portrayal seen so far in the Trek franchise, but it hardly feels like a pleasure planet from what we see and has never felt like a fun place to visit.
There really are two opposing stories at play here, and the bad one takes so much away from the good one. At its heart, DS9 is far more about the characters than any other Trek show and that's exactly why I love it so much, but those characters can't just exist to serve a crappy "emergency" while they play out their arcs. Normally the two manage to work in harmony - definitely not here.
There are definitely much worse episodes, but this one feels particularly egregious due to its lack of even trying.
Review by LeftHandedGuitaristBlockedParent2018-01-21T12:07:39Z
Part of me really wanted to enjoy this one more, because it's a really good character piece that finally lets us know why Worf has always been so stoic and serious, while other Klingons are party animals. Terry Farrell gets to do a lot with her character too, plus there's fun stuff for Bashir, Leeta and even Quark.
But it's the surrounding events that just let this down. All of the Risa stuff is unforgivable in it's utter banality and lack of excitement. The threat is meaningless and comes off as pathetic. Risa itself is probably given the most fleshed-out portrayal seen so far in the Trek franchise, but it hardly feels like a pleasure planet from what we see and has never felt like a fun place to visit.
There really are two opposing stories at play here, and the bad one takes so much away from the good one. At its heart, DS9 is far more about the characters than any other Trek show and that's exactly why I love it so much, but those characters can't just exist to serve a crappy "emergency" while they play out their arcs. Normally the two manage to work in harmony - definitely not here.
There are definitely much worse episodes, but this one feels particularly egregious due to its lack of even trying.