Worth watching
Themes: first contact, Reed development, Enterprise development
Enterprise is making way for future human space exploration by deploying subspace amplifiers, which apparently draws attention from a ship that even T'Pol doesn't recognize. They don't respond at all and just go away after taking a look. They return later, causing ship wide power failure, docking their shuttle, getting all old school alien with probing incapacitated crewmen and escaping before the crew can do anything. This makes Archer realise they are ill equipped for dealing with something as alien as this and turns them around to Jupiter station so they can get their phase cannons mounted. Reed and Tucker are certain they can do it themselves but Archer is too shaken to approve their request. That doesn't stop them from giving their all to do it themselves, which is the decision that ultimately saves them as they encounter aliens one more time, where it's finally clear their intention is to capture Enterprise. Aliens themselves have a part in their own defeat as their monitoring device causes power surge that boosts power of the cannons at the expense of other systems, which is something they use to defeat aliens and once more reverse course and go further into space.
Now this is really good. We get character development with having a character in question barely in that storyline at all, which is actually brilliant way to show just how much of a private person Reed is. We get truly alien looking aliens, not just humans with a little prosthetic detail to make them different (and also some slick looking ships). This goes a long way to show us there are other warp capable species in the universe whose motives and intentions can't be understood by usual human logic. Mystery surrounding them really brings a dose of scariness that isn't that usual in ST universe, as they genuinely seem as a threat, which really brings home the point of Enterprise and its crew not really being prepared for anything galaxy throws at them. Moreover, it also gives an opportunity to show us what the crew is made of, as they work relentlessly to mount those cannons themselves. It's everything one would hope for out of a Star Trek episode.
Fun fact: we get to learn there are 81 humans, 1 denobulan and 1 vulcan onboard.
[2.4/10] What an utter chore of an episode. I love when Star Trek goes comedy. I love when Star Trek goes for something smaller stakes and more intimate. I love when Star Trek goes for cultural minutiae an introspection rather than explosions and firefights. But this was an attempt to do all of these things that quickly turned into forty-five minutes of hot wet garbage.
Let’s start at the most obvious point of this episode: you knew they weren’t going to kill off the dog. Outside of a choice action movie franchise, Hollywood never kills off the dog. So from the minute porthos was revealed to be sick (in another completely unnecessary decon scene), you knew the how the whole thing would end.
Granted, false peril is nothing new for Star Trek. Despite a few serialized elements (like the easily offended Kreetassans still holding a grudge), Enterprise is mostly a case-of-the-week show, which means the status quo has to be more or less restored by the end of the episode. That’s not a problem in and of itself.
The problem is that you have to make the fear and expectation and threat to a crewmember (even of the furry quadruped variety) meaningful through what the other characters do in reaction to it. Here is what “A Night in Sickbay” gives us instead. A goofy Odd Couple routine between Archer and Phlox, some C-level slapstick, a crappy monologue about Porthos being the Captain’s ex-girlfirend’s dog’s puppy, a bunch of Archer horny dreams that nobody was asking for, and a heap of Archer just generally stomping around with a bug up his butt in a way that’s broad and annoying and not especially relatable.
Let’s try to take this piece by agonizing piece. The biggest issue with this episode is that the misadventures of Archer and Phlox in sickbay are just unfunny and uninteresting. Archer being kept up by odd noises, or bitching about the Kreetassans, or trying to convey righteous anger in a way that puts you on his side even a little is just a dead on arrival. At times, the episode seems to be going for a lighter tone, which is something I tend to like, but the comedy here is so broad, so hacky, so sitcom-esque, that it almost makes you wish for a nonstop bout of the deadly serious/severe episodes.
That’s all before we get to the show trying to pull off a will they/won’t they bit between Archer and T’Pol that I find utterly baffling. I’m not blind to the fact that the show has tried to do some Hepburn/Tracy-type material with the two of them in the past, but I just completely fail to see any speck of romance or non-forced sexual tension between them.
The show has continued to try to make Archer/T’Pol happen, and it seems about as well-fated as trying to make “fetch” happen. I don’t know if its some odd, sublimated effort toward franchise penance given how many people seemed to want Kirk/Spock to happen, but the pairing makes no sense and has no chemistry, and devoting much of an episode to the idea that their friction is a projection and reaction to suppressed sexual feelings for one another is a doomed mission from the getgo.
Then it leads to us having to deal with more corny horndog dreams from Archer, mixed with the most cheeseball slips of the tongue immediately after. I’ll admit, the scene at Porthos’s dream funeral uses some nifty little noir tricks, and the focus on the hand-holding makes the sequence memorable, but it’s in service of utter drivel. The fact that Archer and Phlox have a bro-down heart to heart about it afterward only makes things worse, and the tease at the end between Archer and T’Pol is the rotten apple core on the top of the trash pile.
So what’s good about this episode? Not much, but there’s a few decent takeaways. For one, it’s interesting to learn a little more about Phlox’s history and his people’s culture. John Billingsley is one of the better performers on the show, and he can pull off a monologue about being proud of his children, not speaking to others, and missing the whole lot work in a way that Bakula just can’t.
And other the other side of things, I do appreciate the way that Archer realizing he was insensitive about Phlox’s people and their practices gives him the humility and understanding to both apologize to the good doctor, but also to go through the Kreetassans’ rituals for the good of his ship. I still think the whole “Archer’s pride vs. his love for his dog vs. the good of his ship” is half-baked as all hell, but it at least ends on a note of self-awareness and repentance from Archer, which is good and rare thing on this show.
It’s just a real pain to get to that point. Sure, the Kreetassans seem totally unreasonable about what they’re asking of Archer, but Archer is just as annoying in return. It’s fair to note that that’s the point here -- that Archer is being just as stubborn and pestersome as the people he’s railing against, and has to learn and grow. The problems are two-fold: (1.) It’s just not fun to watch Archer be a dick to people for forty minutes, and Bakula isn’t good enough in that sort of role to pull that off in the way that, for example, Hugh Laurie can, and (2.) the episode tries to chalk up most, if not all, of his irritability, to his feelings for T’Pol, which feels misplaced from the beginning, and unwelcome even if it weren’t.
The end result is an episode that you can’t even tell people skip, because it’s clearly setting up more indulgent and gratuitous “friction” between Archer and T’Pol down the line, but which has nothing of substance to offer beyond five good minutes or so with Dr. Phlox. More than anything, “A Night in Sickbay” exposes the weakness of Bakula as the lead of this show, with an episode that puts a lot on his shoulders in terms of comedy, drama, and relatability without much external conflict to sustain the episode otherwise, and he all-but completely fails to rise to the challenge.
(As an aside, one other irksome thing about the episode, which makes it hard to like Archer in this, is that he's a freaking idiot for bringing Porthos down to the planet to meet an easily-offended species in the first place! Sure, the Kreetassans may be unreasonable, but that doesn't excuse his stupidity for introducing an element that's very likely to create more problems than it solves.)
I've watched each season of any Star Trek show more times than I can remember. The Next Generation was a show I rejected at first but with every time I watch it I embrace it more and more.
Yes, there are a lot of things debatable about the premiere season in terms of quality of the writing, continuity errors, character developement, actors performances to name a few. It is easy to critisize after the fact and with many years now gone. And even I am the first to admit that there are many cringe worthy or eye rolling moments in this first season. But remember, althought they had the original show to base it upon, they literally started with a white sheet of paper. Especially with the characters.
I also like to write a few words about the remastered HD version as I was initially oposed to that. Having now seen it I have to say it really looks great. The special effects are what most benefitted from the overhaul. They look much more crisp and detailed now. In general the picture looks great and I am amazed what they got out of the original source material. A minor negative is that the picture background looks very grainy at times especially if you're sitting close to your screen, whereas the important foreground is almost always amazingly clear. It also gets grainy when there is camera movement whereas static shots are really the best. But that is not really a downside. Brilliant and vibrant colours.
It is now easy to read the screens (which I did ocasionally). At the same time it is also easier to spot minor imperfections on the sets and props plus you sometimes spot the egdes of the make-up on characters. And it becomes really obvious now when a stunt double was used. But those are all not really flaws, nevertheless I thought I share this remarks.
Quark as a romantic isn't the most natural fit for the character, which is what makes this episode stand out a bit. It works surprisingly well while falling short of being a classic. Armin Shimerman takes to it with aplomb and makes it all quite fun. That also extends to his numerous scenes with Odo which leave room for a fair bit of humour to come through.
Garak would normally be the reason to watch this, or any DS9 episode, but he doesn't quite feel like himself here despite having some meaty scenes. We find out for certain that he's a spy and that he's been exiled from Cardassia but his motivations here never seem quite settled. The indication at the end would seem to suggest that he's in favour of the dissident movement and wants a significant change for Cardassia, which is intriguing and would make sense given his current circumstances.
I like Mary Crosby in the role of Natima Lang, for some reason her performance here has always kept the character memorable for me. At the start of the episode I was distracted because I thought that the role of her female student was being played by a young Amy Poehler!
I think the first season was so-so.
They took about everything that worked for Star Trek so far in the past in terms of stories. We had Holo-Adventures, Alien-mind-takes-over, some sorts of time travel, other dimensions, nebular entities and so on. The rare exception, and highlight of the first year, being "Jetrel". Very powerful episode. And some stories just don´t work at that early stage of the show. I mean you build a whole show about the fact that they need 70 years to come back and than you have early episodes that promises to take out huge chunks of that trip. Not going to work.
I never quite had a favorite character from the beginning as I did in TNG or DS9. The Kazon were a race I never liked - I always saw them as a poor mans Klingon. Another general flaw of the show for me was althought they wanted to show that they are one crew, a Starfleet crew, and did everthing possible to create togetherness, you could always identify Marquis from their rank insignia. It might look minor but that shows seperation in my eyes.
Nevertheless, as with most shows, the first season is a building block from which you go on.
I should like this more than I did, but for whatever reason on this rewatch the Ferengi episodes aren't clicking with me all that well. There's a lot of great stuff here, but I just wasn't really into it.
Such a shame, because the performances are stellar throughout. Notably brilliant guest star Jeffrey Combs is back as Brunt (I can't believe we still haven't met Weyoun by this point), but it's Max Grodénchik who steals the episode as Rom. Finally, his character is set on the path he was always meant to be on and after many misadventures has found his courage. There's a lovely look at the relationship of siblings Quark and Rom, and the reveal that they both really care about each other despite feeling the need to things which make life harder for the other.
Leeta finally makes another appearance too, it's easy to forget about her since she hasn't appeared much at all since her first episode. It's easy to understand why she's a fan favourite, but at this point she's really not been given anything interesting to do. There's a nice hint that she and Rom may like each other, though (I can't believe the episode gets away with a blatant conversation about masturbation).
More good stuff with Worf trying to fit in, too. Overall though, my attention was wandering through this one.
It's a lazy thing to say, but I just find this episode to be boring. And that's a real shame because it has a lot going on and it should have been much more enjoyable. Maybe it's just the concept of a religious cult that instantly makes me want to switch off.
This is still a great character piece for both Kira and Dukat. They're complex relationship has a lot of depth by this point, and it's fascinating to see their characters growth here. Kira reacts to everything in far more subdued way that she once would have, using words, logical arguments and restraint rather than aggressively lashing out. It also looks like Dukat genuinely believes in the pah-wraiths even through his own egotistical needs.
This is the third time we've been to Empok Nor, but it's the first time where it's felt like the DS9 set slightly redressed. A good way to save money, unfortunately it takes me out of the episode.
The episode has a couple of genuine "oh, shit!" moments - the reveal of the baby, the airlock sequence (why would she agree to meet there?) and Dukat's fake pill - which help it along, but this is all a bit too lacklustre for me. I'm also frustrated at how gullible the people shown here are.
[8.0/10] One of the smartest things the powers that be did to advance The Next Generation from its predecessor was to flip the dynamic between captain and first officer. In The Original Series, Kirk was the swashbuckling adventurer and Spock was the seasoned officer. In TNG, Picard is the more stoic diplomat and Riker is the more roguish rule-bender.
That comes into play in “Unification.” Picard has a mystery to solve, but while it requires a bit of subterfuge, it also requires diplomacy, playing politics, calling in old favors and speaking with politicians and potentates. Riker’s mystery is a Kirkian throwback, one that requires flattering junkyard masters, flirting with piano-players, and roughing up venal profiteers. In a two-part episode, The Next Generation delivers a bit of each of those two complementary elements of what made Star Trek so notable.
But it also creates a bit of a problem, because episodes need conflict, and often, so do personal interactions in stories, and Picard and Spock are a little too much alike, their interactions with one another given too little time to develop, in order for what little disagreement exists between them to have much impact. Instead, “Unification” has to coast on the thrill of seeing the first officer of the original Enterprise coming face-to-face with the captain of the current Enterprise.
But it’s hell of a thrill! Despite having seen this episode in my distant youth, and knowing more or well when and how it happens, I have to admit to giving a little cheer when Picard declares that he’s in search of Ambassador Spock, and the man himself emerges from the shadows to declare “you have found him.” It’s a meeting 20+ years in the making, and as manufactured as the conflict between them feels, it’s hard to resist the energy that comes from seeing these two men bridge the gap between The Original Series and The Next Generation.
The way the episode tries to overcome the persistence of that similarity is to make Picard a stand-in for Sarek (Spock’s dad) whom he mind-melded with in the prior season. And it kind of works! If “Unification” does nothing else, it uses that momentous meeting to pay off a contentious father-son relationship that’s been present in the series from the first moment we met Spock’s parents back in 1967.
Having Picard be the vessel for that creates both a connection and a distance between him and Spock, and gives Spock a means that is both welcome and yet at a remove to reconcile his feelings about his father and receive his father’s feelings for him. Like the best Star Trek stories, it creates an emotional undercurrent and personal stakes to the wider political intrigue and action that take center stage in the episode, even if it’s not a perfect fit for Picard and Spock’s natural dynamic.
There is, naturally, a decent amount of fanservice in this one. There’s thinly-veiled (and clunkily-written) references to Kirk. Some Romulan goons are taken out by a combination of a nerve pinch and a punch to the face a la the original duo. And there’s pretty blunt notes of Picard’s resistance to the “cowboy diplomacy” of Spock’s era as the two men become representatives for their respective shows’ differences, but ultimate compatibility. None of it’s subtle, but it’s all enjoyable for blending the DNA of the two series, and that gets it far.
And yet, what should be the most fan service-y moment of them all ends up being arguably the best and most revealing scene of the two-parter. In many ways Data occupies the space in TNG that Spock once did in TOS. He is the emotionless, logical being who’s trying to understand humanity. But while that could create too much similarity between Data and Spock, instead it uses their differences to find insights and irony. Spock sees Data as having by design the purely logical state that so many Vulcans strive and struggle to achieve, and Data sees Spock as having abandoned the thing he wants most in the world by seeming to reject his human side and embrace his stoic, Vulcan one. The similarities and yet notable differences between the two create a particular resonance to their “grass is always greener” conversation.
Of course it can’t all be character work, fan service, and theme. There has to be some actual plot too, and the story here is basically split into two, dovetailing plot threads. The first one sees Picard and Data surreptitiously making their way to Romulus to investigate rumors that Spock has defected, and find the Ambassador attempting to help bring about Unification between the Vulcans and Roulans. The second sees Riker investigating some mysterious debris, and working his way through the clues until he’s caught in a web of missing ships and backroom deals related to that same unification effort.
The latter story feels mostly like an excuse to let Riker do his best attempt at Kirking it up, but it’s a fun outing. Whether he’s stifled by officious intergalactic quartermasters (and, ugh, basically using Troi as bait), putting the screws on Ferrengi gangsters, or recognizing a ruse when he sees one, his efforts to uncover the Romulan conspiracyspearheaded by Sela, with a fun performance from Denise Crosby are a fun outing, even if they feel a little superfluous.
The main story with Picard has a better setup than payoff. Watching Picard figure out the mystery, whether it requires him to commune with a deteriorating Sarek whose mind is in disarray, to negotiate his way with Gauron and a tempestuous Klingon ally (Stephen Root!), or to blend-in in Romlunan society, is a compelling build.
But when he meets Spock, all the fan-service and semi-contrived debates between the two take up time that hinders advancing the plot. Of course there’s a secret conspiracy, and allies turn out to be collaborators, and the FATE OF THE VERY QUADRANT is at stake, but what do you know, our heroes save the day in the nick of time. It’s a little too convenient, and a little too tidy, and all resolved a little too quickly, but there’s legitimate reasons for the characters to do what they do, and it’s an episode less about the plot as a story and more about providing enough of a spine to throw Spock and Picard together, and blend the spirit of TOS with that of TNG, and in that, it succeeds.
Let’s face it, Michael Piller and Rick Berman could basically have had Spock and Picard sitting in a dimly lit room discussing the proper way to cook chicken for 90 minutes and fans like yours truly would still lap it up. They are arguably the two characters, and two actors, who most elevated Star Trek as it burst onto the scene and then reestablished itself on television after a nearly two-decade hiatus. Just getting to watch these two holy figures of the franchise interact is a treat.
And so despite the fact that pairing them removes the dynamic that makes their relationship with their command counterparts interesting -- differences in temperament and philosophy -- saps some of the life out of their manufactured conflicts, the spark that Leonard Nimoy and Patrick Stewart bring to their roles wins out. “Unification” isn’t perfect, but it’s damn good, and those two men, who have done so much for Star Trek, are the biggest reason why.
Quite magnificent. This is a gorgeously slow paced and sedate episode that asks big questions - but those questions are not about our world or our own point of view, but rather questions about our characters. Captain Sisko has long been uncomfortable with the role of Emissary, but here the age old addage of not knowing what you've got until it's gone comes into play. He finally is able to embrace it and see it for the honour and pleasure that it has the potential to be.
It's also a deftly clever look at religion that allows for all points of view to be viable. Some of our characters have faith, some don't, and both are absolutely fine because they can live their lives comfortably with those beliefs. I find the notion of the Bajoran caste system quite fascinating (it's explored a bit more in the Terok Nor novels) and the ruling which Akorem makes to bring it back is obviously jarring, to the point where it's scary how many people are willing to accept it.
One thing I really enjoyed, which was understated, was the fact that Akorem accepts that he was wrong without kicking up a fuss. He was never a bad person, just of a different time.
The Miles/Julian bromance is a pleasant backdrop to all of this, again resonating with the main story by showing what our characters want or need to make them comfortable with their lives. I'd also forgotten that Keiko's pregnancy was going to start this early!
A very standard and predictable story about bickering rivals getting stranded together actually turns out to be quite good fun thanks to the great chemistry between Odo and Quark, and the actors who play them. The mountain scenery makes a nice change and we get to see Odo experience how frail a human body can be now that he doesn't have his shape shifting abilities.
The arguments between them do get over-the-top. Odo has had numerous chances in the past to "catch" Quark in a crime, so it feels a bit odd that this is the time he finally decides to do it. And of course, we know that the two of them don't really hate each other at all, although calling what they have a "friendship" does feel like a bit of a stretch. The closing moment of the episode encapsulates this nicely.
In some ways the b-story with Jake and Nog is even more fun as it rips off The Odd Couple. The show always managed to make Jake's relationships with both friends and family feel natural and it's easy to get invested with them. Sisko does a pretty great job at sorting their problems out, and I quite liked that his solution was a simple as "deal with it!".
Nothing special overall, but quite an easy watch.
Just finished season three of Voyager.
Luckily the Kazon are gone. If you´ve read my other reviews you know why I never liked them. That freed up time for other stories and species. In a way they pushed the reset button on certain things which helped the show in the long run. I would say this is the better Season 1. This Season has one of the best episodes up to this point f.e. "Unity", "Real Life", "Distant Origin" which was my favorite of this year. We meet the "Q" again, "Before and After" was really well made and "False Profit" was a fun episode to watch. But this season also contains the infamous "Trilogy of Terror". If you don´t know what this is about google it. For me it felt like a rolercoaster that has some really exicting sections and than some boring ones. They still couldn´t keep it on the same level for a whole year. Since there were more good episodes than in the first two season combined (this is my personal opinion I´m sure other´s feel different) I´d rank this as the best Season so far.
I could never quite figure out why Voyager was my least favorite of all the Star Trek shows. With TNG and especially DS9 I was hooked after Season 1. Voyager was more of an effort to like. Since it was Star Trek I wanted to watch it and like it. Which ultimately I did. For me until the end of this year in general everything was "just-so". Watching it now, almost 20 years later, I wonder if it hadn´t been Trek would I have had the patience to see it through ?
My Top Ten Avatar Episodes: #3
This is just a really nice filler episode. We get to see each of the characters just going about their lives: Aang helps someone make a nice zoo, Katara and Toph go to a spa, Iroh goes about helping people (because of course he would), Sokka gets in a haiku rap battle (because of course he would), Zuko goes on a date, and Momo has a wacky misadventure with some big cats. It's just nice to have a break from all the big events happening, and settle down with these characters a bit.
But Avatar goes further and inserts deeper meaning into these episodes. Katara and Toph's spa day helps them develop a better friendship, and so does their encounter with some bullies, who they drown like the trash they are. This encounter reveals some of Toph's worries about her looks, and Katara comforts her. Momo's adventure also conveys his feelings towards the disappearance of Appa, and how he misses him. Zuko's date shows his softer side, and he expresses happiness for possibly the first time in the series. And Iroh...I don't think I need to talk about Iroh's tale. You all probably know already. It's really sad, I cried, I don't often do that, moving on.
Overall, a phenomenal filler episode, although not really one, considering the amount of character development present.
9.7/10
My Top Ten Avatar Episodes: #7
This is a really nice finale. We get to see all of the main characters cross paths, and the result of many of these characters actually interacting with each other, such as Zuko and Katara's heart to heart. All of the major characters make a choice, and these choices are big - Katara decides to hear Zuko out, Azula manipulates Zuko, who then betrays his uncle for a chance to reunite his family, Aang gives up Katara to continue his journey as the Avatar, and Iroh defends the gAang. All of these choices lead to consequences - Zuko's betrayal causes his uncle, the person who believes in him and helps him the most, to be arrested and captured, Azula's plan/lightning almost kills Aang, even in his Avatar State (which gives quite a scare to the viewers), Katara loses her superpowered water to save Aang, and biggest of all, the Earth Kingdom falls. Plus, we get to see one of the greatest fight scenes in the series, Aang and Katara vs Zuko and Azula.
Overall, this is a great finale to an amazing season and sets up the next one very nicely, as well as continues Zuko's character arc quite well.
9.4/10
My Top Ten Avatar Episodes: #5
This episode (and the previous part) kind of feels like a finale in itself. We have almost all of the characters we've seen in the series coming together for one big invasion. We see Sokka showing his growth from the start of the season, and leading a full-on attack on the Fire Nation. The plan of attack has so many things going for it and is very interesting to watch play out.
However, the plan fails. Azula knew what was coming, and made some incredibly clever preparations for the Day of Black Sun. Even when she is caught by the others, she is still able to outmaneuver both Aang and Toph, and doesn't give up any information. The Invasion is a total failure, and that's what makes this episode so awesome. It ups the stakes for the finale, and gives a brutal sting to the audience knowing that many characters have been captured, including the reveal of Suki. Not only that, but the introduction of the Fire Nation Air Fleet is haunting, and a bit terrifying.
On the plus side, we get to see one extremely positive note near the end of the episode - Zuko finishes his character arc, one of the best redemption arcs all time, in an amazing confrontation with his father, luke skywalker Fire Lord Ozai. This scene is brilliantly written, with Zuko telling his father straight up that what he did, everything he has done to him is wrong, and redirecting his father's lightning right back at him. And seeing him following Team Avatar in a hot air balloon, while in previous episodes would be a cliffhanger for a possible fight, is instead a fist-pumping moment for the audience.
This is the 'Empire Strikes Back ending' of season 3, and a brilliant way to further set up the finale.
9.5/10
My Top Ten Avatar Episodes: #2
Look, this isn't a perfect finale. I do feel like Energybending is a bit of an easy way out for Aang, and a bit out of nowhere. In defence of this, however, it is evident that Aang could easily kill Ozai throughout the entire final fight. The purpose of the Energybending was to show that Aang is a pacifist, and does not believe in killing anyone. He wants to take his own path through life, and this is shown since the very start.
Other than that, everything else is amazing. The Final Agni Kai between Zuko and Azula is an incredibly satisfying payoff for his journey, and the music changes the context of the scene from an epic battle to a tragic circumstance, where a brother and sister are duelling, likely to the death. The faceoff between Aang and Ozai is incredibly epic and even has character relevance in it. In fact, basically every single scene in every battle is visually stunning and very cinematic. Even Sokka and Toph's side story, taking down the Fire Nation Fleet, is awesome, with each character showing the extent of their powers in taking down the airships.
My favourite scene in this finale is probably Azula's final scene, having a full-on mental breakdown at the prospect of her loss. It's not satisfying to see her like this, the primary antagonist defeated, it's saddening, to see a manipulated 14-year-old crying. And that's brilliant.
I don't have much else to say about this finale, it's just really amazing. Not perfect, but amazing.
9.7/10
This is a great example of just how complex things have become on this show. We have characters from all sides attempting to further their own goals or just stop disaster from happening, and they all overlap in beautiful ways. It also helps that both Avery Brooks and Marc Alaimo are on fire here, and both are given meaty scenes which they deliver wonderfully. A particular delight is Gul Dukat mocking the amateur methods of his captors.
Quark also gets to show some intelligent insight, something that we don't often expect from him but he tends to be able to do from time to time. He also once again gets away scot-free from his crimes with no repercussions. We get some great insight into the backstabbing nature of the Cardassian Central Command, who leave Dukat to rot with a friendly smile on their face.
It's slightly less than the promise of the first part for me, though. Cal Hudson is, again, quite a terrible character and there's no trace of friendship or camaraderie between him and Sisko. He acts like a brat, as do most of the Maquis, and the episode gives us little reason to really sympathise with their cause. As their plot lines continue through the shows, it difficult to see them as anything other than terrorists with a racist grudge and that could have been different had these episodes allowed us to understand what they're going through.
This episode hits me every time, and I always forget just how meaningful the plot is until Captain Keogh shows up with his intimidating Galaxy-class starship and I remember what's about to happen.
Ultimately, the episode title could not possibly be more relevant. Everything that happens eventually serves to paint the Jem'Hadar and the Dominion in full color, and we know exactly who they are by the end. We don't know what they want, precisely—even if we can guess from the name, "Dominion"—but we do know that agents of the Dominion will stop at nothing to carry out whatever orders the Founders have given them.
I did forget about Eris being a Vorta until they all made it back to Deep Space Nine, but I have to agree with @LeftHandedGuitarist on at least these points: Her telekinetic power is never displayed by any other Vorta in the Star Trek canon; and it's extremely odd that she should fail to recognize Odo as a Founder. Eris was meant to return in at least two episodes ("The Search, Part II" and "The Ship"), but Molly Hagan was unavailable. In the process the writers seem to have forgotten about the Vorta's supposed telekinetic ability. As for Eris failing to recognize Odo as a Founder, all I can think of is that the writers hadn't yet thought far enough ahead. Later we find out that the Vorta consider themselves "those who serve the Founders", and that the hierarchy of the Dominion government is essentially Founders > Vorta > Jem'Hadar > everyone else. But this early on, that structure likely hadn't solidified in the writers' room yet.
Certainly there are other little things I could nitpick, like how Jake seems to think putting back the single piece of the autopilot subsystem he removed would be too difficult, but overall this is a good, gut-punching (on account of the Odyssey's fate), first real introduction to the Dominion's true colors.
An action episode that successfully manages to place character moments above the fighting. It also has a nice callback to the Iconians from a very old TNG episode. The Jem'Hadar were already a fascinating enemy, but every time the show reveals more about them to us they become even more intriguing - and we see that they are really, really brutal. While they are extremely disciplined it turns out that they are also highly individual. I particularly enjoyed the almost-friendship that begins between Jadzia and Virak'kara, and the complete opposite aggression between Worf and Toman'torax (played by the excellent Brian Thompson).
Of course, this is notable for being the episode that introduces Weyoun (and finally lets us in on how exactly the Vorta function). Played to perfection by Jeffrey Combs (who was already playing the recurring character of Brunt on the show), this guy is grew to be one of my favourite characters in Trek. From the start here he's manipulative, slimy and devious while always being somehow humble and ever so slightly charming. It's an odd mix that results in the viewer both hating him and feeling joy whenever he's on screen because we know if he's around then sparks are going to fly.
There's some good comedy from other areas, especially when Bashir accidentally sits in Worf's favourite chair. That's followed up very quickly by shock when we see that DS9 has had one of its pylons destroyed (fortunately they replace it super fast due to TV magic).
This episode was always memorable to me because the neck-breaking scene was edited on the UK releases (at least on video/DVD). Sky do broadcast it uncut these days, but I remember searching for the clip online back in the day so I could see what I was missing. Not such a big deal now, and the Netflix UK version is the full uncut one.
EDIT: reading about the episode online, it turns out that it was also heavily cut for violence in the USA prior to broadcast, and that footage has never seen the light of day anywhere worldwide. Interesting!
The second season didn´t provide much progress compared to the first. They were still doing what worked best before. I saw little in terms of character developement.
The whole idea of the show was to put a ship literally "where no one has gone before" but we only see glimpses of other cultures. Instead they keep dragging the Kazon along and it became more and more aparent with every Kazon episode that they didn´t work. As the writers and producers agreed later it was unfathomable that you travel a year and a half at high warp and still haven´t left them/their space behind. After all they were a sub-culture that overthrow their supressors just 30 years ago.
I still couldn´t pick a favorite character. Althought I don´t really hate one each of them had a minor flaw or two as far as I saw it. K. Mulgrew does a great job but I never could bring myself to like Janeway. Chakotay is kind of the dog that wants to please his master. The Doctor was still to arrogant but showed promise. Neelix is symply irritating. I can´t really say why I never liked Tuvok. Kes is a non-factor - they just didn´t found a way with her. B´Elana, Tom and poor Harry Kim all had there moments in the show but nothing that got to me. This was unusual because with every other Trek incarnation I had a favorite right from the get-go no later than the end of the premiere season.
But overall it still was on a level back at the time that few shows had so there was reason to go on.
[7.5/10] There’s something so charming about the earliest seasons of The Simpsons. It feels like a different show, to be frank. The animation is cruder, but also more expressive. (See: Bart’s facial contortions when he’s being punched by Nelson). The story feels more like something from a kids’ show (the 10 year old fighting his bully) but it’s still tinged with that trademark Simpsons cynicism. It features liberal doses of characters like Herman and Nelson’s goons who are rarely seen after.
And yet it also feels like it very much has that Simpsons perspective. The conceit of doing a war film through the eyes a fourth-grade attack on a bully is hilarious and creative. (See also: visual references to Full Metal Jacket and a cornucopia of other war flicks.) The animation, while again, a little wooly, is also superb, with imaginative sequence where Bart images confronting his burly foe, and engrossing war imagery filtered by elementary school students as the water balloon attack goes full bore.
There’s also the amusement and cynicism of how the adults behave that fits the ethos of the show. Skinner is too focused on learning and order to notice that one of his students was just threatened. Marge naively tells Bart to just talk to Nelson while he’s being beat up, claiming he’s lashing out at the world. Homer ignores his wife’s “Maharishi Ghandi”-like advice and tries to teach Bart to fight dirty instead. And Grampa waxes poetic about seeing the look of terror in a man’s eyes, punctuating it with “thank god for children” in a delightfully cynical twist. The adults are as misguided as the kids here, even when well-intentioned, and that’s a Simpsons trademark in play from the beginning.
Plus, there’s plenty of good laughs here. Lisa declaring that Grampa is the toughest Simpson there is after “the fight he put up when we put him in a home,” or Grampa’s letter to Hollywood that old people are not all “vibrant, fun-loving, sex maniacs,” or Herman’s deranged ramblings about the Franco-Prussian war and water balloons that say “death from above” are all laugh-worthy moments that pepper the episode.
Heck, there’s even some nice symmetry at play, since the events of the episode begin and end with a batch of Simpson-made cupcakes. Overall, it’s one of the best episode’s of the show’s early going, showing the fun, wry edge the show brought to network television.
Picard orders Yellow Alert, and then later in that scene Riker orders the shields up. Yellow Alert implies the shields being raised.
Offenhouse making it to the Bridge presents several problems. One, it should not be possible for an unauthorized person (who is not even wearing a commbadge) to order a turbolift to the Bridge. I would say perhaps that kind of access restriction wasn't yet implemented, but in "11001001" a turbolift panel announces "Bridge Access Denied" when Picard and Riker try to get there. (It did so before they told the computer where they were trying to go, but still.) Then we have to address the security personnel apparently giving up on removing the man, presumably because they're distracted by the Romulan ship decloaking on the viewscreen. Who knew all it took to stop a Starfleet security officer from moving you was planting your feet and shrugging off their hold on your arm?
And finally: Initial scans of the derelict ship should have shown life signs of some kind on board. Data and Worf discovering the cryogenic pods shouldn't have been a surprise.
This episode feels pretty weak for a season finale. Captain Picard's final line ("There's still much to do. Still so much to learn. Mister La Forge, engage.") reads like the end of a series pilot or season premiere. And it wasn't preceded by much substance.
Sure, it's fun to have the present-day humans on board. They're fun, in the same way "The 37's" are fun, because we get to see people out of time come to understand what has changed in the intervening years. But based on the title, they're supposed to be the "B" plot.
Meanwhile, in the actual Neutral Zone plot (which, based on the title, is the "A" story), not much happens. Most of the action is centered on the "B" plot characters, and we actually see surprisingly little of the events leading up to the Romulan encounter.
From my research into "Conspiracy", I can surmise that the destroyed outposts have been captured by the Borg, and this episode is supposed to be a kind of cliffhanger leading into their introduction at the start of season three. Of course, the writers' strike was still ongoing at this time, and the Borg story arc was postponed due to that, so this episode doesn't really have a story to tell any more. (I also found a quote from the director, James Conway, who recalled this script was shot as a first draft—rewrites being impossible due to the ongoing writers' strike. That's probably the main reason it's such a weak episode.)
While season 1 closed with a look at Bajor's religion, season 2 begins with a dive into its politics. Trek's first three-part tale is a slow burning and thoughtful episode with a lot of moving parts. As with much of early DS9, it's more about intrigue and character rather than explosive storytelling (although that will certainly become a big part of the show too later).
Kira and O'Brien's rescue mission is an enjoyable adventure, and they work surprisingly well together with their various attempts to deceive the Cardassians - O'Brien trying to sell her services is particularly well done and they both play it up perfectly. The POW they resuce, Li Nalas, is a fascinating reluctant hero played very nicely by Twin Peak's Richard Beymer.
What I most appreciate is that there is a sense of DS9 really finding its own identity here and forging ahead with confidence. The father/son moments between Sisko and Jake remain strong and always feel genuine. You could possibly accuse this episode of being a bit flat, but then Frank Langella turns up and is a great mix of charming, smarmy, arrogant and friendly.
The sedate pacing is a far cry from the usual action of TNG (especially when you consider they had just aired the frantic and messy 'Descent' two-parter alongside this), but it allows far more depth to the storytelling. Action junkies will get their fix later, but for now the show's world is being expanded and given life.
Klingons, I love 'em. They are going to become a major part of DS9 and this is the first episode dedicated fully to them. It could have been nothing more than a fun diversion, but bringing back the actors who played three Klingons in The Original Series was an absolute stroke of genius.
Kor, Kang and Koloth (it's easy to forget which is which) steal this episode in every way and bring so much fun to the proceedings. Kor especially is a joy to watch bringing his drunken humour to everything. It's easy to believe that Kang is a revered warrior as he takes charge of this little gang, and one of my favourite moments is Odo's realisation of who he is dealing with when Koloth arrives in his office.
But at it's heart this is a Dax episode. The tough choice she has to make about whether or not to follow through with her blood oath is portrayed well, notably in her conversation with Kira. She manages to piss of Sisko, but there isn't any real fallout from it. The episode begins to lose its impact a bit once we get to the end battle; it's severely underwhelming and the Albino turns out to be little more than a pantomime villain. The guards that the band face are beyond pathetic and there's no sense of a challenge there. For all that, the final moments are quite strong as Jadzia needs to figure out if she's capable of murder.
Hooray, Odo finally discovers where he comes from - and wow, that's a good twist about who his people really are. The scenes with Odo and Kira on the planet are the best parts of episode and that's in so small part due to the beautiful acting by Rene Auberjonois. They are emotional scenes that show Odo going through different phases of coming to terms with things, and meanwhile Kira is supportive but keeps her wits about her.
The stuff "happening" back on the station is crazy and fun, and it becomes quite clear that it's probably not entirely real. Things happen extremely fast and many of them off-camera, so it feels like something is up. If you haven't already figured it out when Garak is "killed", then there's no mistaking it there; the show would never kill off such a great character in such an arbitrary manner. It's enjoyable to watch but extremely silly in it's shock factors - the death of T'Rul, Eddington's blank reaction to O'Brien getting assaulted, giving up Bajor and Admiral Nechayev basically being a psychopath. It's worth it for the excellent scene of Sisko shouting at her, though. I kind of felt like the crew should have reacted a bit more bewildered (or at least relieved) when they're released from the simulation.
A great twist in the show's overall story direction that opens up a ton of new possibilities.
This is a pretty good one, most notably famous for having Jonathon Frakes guest star as Riker. The twist that he's not actually Will Riker is absolutely fantastic if you go into this without knowing (and the beard-removing moment is kind of funny in its epicness).
For all the good stuff, I do find this episode slightly disjointed. It's split into two very distinct parts, with the early acts being a nice ensemble piece on board the station, and then changing into something very different once Riker is on board the Defiant and Sisko is on Cardassia.
Those Cardassia scene are quite fantastic, though. Sisko is especially great and demonstrates his excellent tactical skills, as well as his ability to find a way to get what he needs. The scenes between him and Dukat are quite electric, thanks again in no small part to how great Marc Alaimo is in the role. The bonding moment they share over both being fathers is a real highlight - thought, a part of me does wonder how truthful Dukat was being. Given all that we discover later about his character, this doesn't quite ring true and feels more like a manipulation. However, I like to think that at this point in the series, the writers wanted to make him genuine, so it's nice.
The stuff on board the Defiant is a bit less enticing, and I find that the episode sort of slows to a crawl as it goes on. Jonathon Frakes' charm helps it, but there's a lot of staring at screens and characters trying to persuade each other to get through. Kira has some great dialogue, fortunately.
First mention of quantum torpedoes, and a nice mystery being set up about what's going on in the Orias system. It's a real shame that the Thomas Riker storyline was never followed up on screen, but it does get some continuation in the relaunch novels.
It's silly to the extreme, but I have a lot of fun with this one. Taking its cues from a Shakespearean style comedy, this is enjoyable but feels so very un-Star Trek. There's no real scientific aspect to the story, or exploration of human nature, or politics or even action. In fact, nothing really happens at all here. It's just a fun diversion with our characters getting to act a bit weird. But DS9 was far more about its characters than other Trek shows.
The acting is actually what always made this memorable for me, with Cirroc Loften (Jake) and Terry Farrell (Jadzia) in particular embracing the comedy aspects and really making them work. The creepy side of Bareil actually gets to work its way into the story, and that actually makes this one of his better appearances! (I LOVE it when he punches SIsko, and then Dax decks him.) Avery Brooks directs and does so beautifully, and there are some lovely epic camera movements spread throughout. The station looks bright and colourful.
I also like the O'Brien/Keiko marriage difficulties storyline, as it feels quite realistic (at points) here.
There's also Lwaxana Troi, who is a difficult character for some people to enjoy. I usually kind of enjoy her appearances, although they could be hit and miss. DS9 managed to use her well and bring out a more caring side to her personality, notable here for the great moment where she recognises Odo's feelings towards Kira.
Season 3 turned the show around, and I'd go as far as saying that it saved the franchise. A massive change of people behind the scenes resulted in a big shift in tone for the show, and this bled over into every aspect of production. Michael Piller took the reins as what we would now call showrunner, and writers like Ronald D. Moore, René Echevarria and Ira Steven Behr did their first work.
The show became more confident, and made its storytelling far more about the characters than the plots. It looked better, with a more cinematic style and much improved uniforms for the cast. We got to know these people in a far more intimate and relaxed manner than previously, and they each managed to find their own voice. Beverly Crusher was a welcome return.
While it's not a perfect season, it's such an improvement over what came before as to be almost unrecognisable. The first two seasons of the show almost feel like they fit into The Original Series at times with their cardboard planet sets, overly dramatic camera shots and quirky acting. Here, Star Trek: The Next Generation came into its own.
Quite surprisingly, Wesley Crusher becomes quite interesting here. Maybe it's because he wasn't constantly saving the ship and acting like a brat, or maybe it's because they finally gave him some personality. His conversations with his mother are some of the highlights of the season. Data gets a massive amount to do and starts to show that he is capable of very nuanced human behaviours.
The one character who is left behind somewhat is Geordie. The poor guy just never gets developed well, there's not much personality and he doesn't seem to have anything much going on other than his engineering work. His dating attempts are routinely abysmal, and I can't help but think that LeVar Burton deserved better.
Best episodes for me: Yesterday's Enterprise, The Offspring, The Best of Both Worlds (1), Who Watches The Watchers, The Enemy, The Defector, AllegianceWorst episodes for me: The Price, Booby Trap, The Vengeance Factor, The High Ground, A Matter of Perspective, Tin Man
Oh no, we lost 11% of our energy reserves! Janeway's gotta give up coffee to save power, but using the holodeck is totally fine? (And apparently even more fine when that figure doubles.)
Convenient that Chakotay happens to have his medicine bundle even though his ship was destroyed in Caretaker, isn't it? I don't remember the Maquis crew members exactly getting a chance to salvage their belongings before that Kazon ship took their shuttle in the flank…
Based on the deck layout in Star Trek: Voyager: Elite Force, Neelix turns left out of the mess hall right into a dead-end when he's heading off to argue with Janeway. Turning left got him out of the shot faster, I guess.
Someone in effects should have checked the script. Those nucleonic beams were very much not parallel to the ship's central axis.
OK, nitpicks aside, I'm of two minds on this episode.
On the one hand, it does a lot of great work establishing elements of the series that I really do love (if only for nostalgic reasons, in some cases). We get a hint of the Doctor becoming more independent ("A hologram that programs himself…"). We get jokes about Neelix's cooking. Tom is already establishing himself as a holodeck wizard of sorts (even if he does write his female characters like a chauvinist).
But we also get some of the bullshit. The whole premise is just a bit hokey, and the Neelix/Kes relationship is all the more awkward when you start the series already knowing that she's two years old and will be dead by age ten. (That kiss? So uncomfortable.)
Still, Voyager was my first Trek show. I can't help but like it despite myself.
I was worried when this started as it looked like was going to be an episode all about Neelix and his jealousy. It turns out that it is, but it's nowhere near as bad as I had feared. Tom and Neelix really needed to work their differences out, and in true cliched TV tradition they get stranded together. It becomes a prime example of how simplistic the writing on this show was, as the two of them bond over a baby and magically resolve all of their differences. You could argue that Trek in general operates like this, but Voyager somehow makes it much harder to stomach. Still, I'm really glad that the Neelix/Paris jealousy story is over.
It's also a shame that the alien baby puppet looks like a reject from that '90s TV show Dinosaurs.
I really appreciated the calmer moments of this one, such as Harry playing clarinet and the Doctor's discussion with Kes. Voyager was not one for really digging into characters, so when the moments occur I tend to enjoy them. I think this also wins the prize for the most insane camera shaking ever during the shuttle's crash landing. That was absolutely nuts.
Janeway's new hairdo is awesome.
I'm quickly learning that episodes which give Kes a lot to do generally benefit from Jennifer Lien's good acting abilities. I also enjoyed this one due to the continuity of picking up plot threads from the pilot episode - the opening montage actually got me excited that something big was going to happen here. Ultimately, it doesn't, but that doesn't detract from proceedings too much.
When all is said and done, it does fall right into the standard Trek storytelling template. The Ocampa which we meet turn out to be evil and manipulative, and the possibility of getting home by means of Suspira goes nowhere. And yet, the episode focuses on Kes' character and manages to make the whole thing mostly interesting. There's also some surprisingly strong moments of horror when Tuvok's blood begins to boil, and we see people strung up in engineering (where are the rest of the engineering crew and Tuvok's security team, though?). I find myself quite interested in what Kes is really capable of.
The most problematic and annoying part for me is that it ends exactly where it begins, with nothing really changed. Gotta make sure to hit that reset button before the credits roll.
