Shout by SpiderJerusalemInTheMountains
VIP2Ok, so the theme of disappointment continues, but the potential remains, so I go to episode 3.
Apple TV is truly disappointing, if not for Federation (just forget the books) and the Morning Show... Yea, all I got to say.
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@spiderjerusaleminthemountains dude, don't disregard Silo, Foundation and Severance. Apple TV has been absolutely great for sci-fi nerds!
Shout by LeftHandedGuitarist
This episode is rightly lauded as one of the best of the entire franchise. It's emotional, powerful and thoughtful and exemplifies exactly what the show is about. But, and I am frustrated with myself for saying this, I don't really love it all that much. This could be a product of having seen it a bit too often, or having it always rammed down my throat as BEST TREK EVAH!1!!
I get it, it IS quite wonderful, but I've always found it to highlight The Next Generation's inherent weakness, and that is that the episodic nature of the show. This is an episode that absolutely demanded to have repercussions for Picard as a character, and there are absolutely none. It should have utterly changed him as a person. The fact that this is such a self-contained episode makes it lose its power somewhat for me. Much in the same way that Worf is completely fine following 'Ethics' or that Riker falls in love but has forgotten all about it after 'The Outcast', TNG tells fantastic stories that you can dip in and out of at any time but so rarely rewards the viewer for watching.
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@lefthandedguitarist You speak truth! Many episodes should have had lasting effects if not for the episodic format.
Review by LeftHandedGuitarist
There's something off about Torchwood. The premise is interesting enough, being given a nice setup in series 2 of Doctor Who, but the tone is bizarre. It's an adult show that exists within the Whoniverse, and therefore piles on the sex, violence and swearing. Doctor Who is a family show aimed more at the kids, but adults are a huge part of its audience. So it made some sense to create a spinoff that could be more mature.
But Torchwood isn't mature. It throws in the aforementioned sex and blood and swear words, but its writing is still at the level of Doctor Who. By that I mean it still has people running around shouting silly dialogue, giving us tons of exposition, plot contrivances, poorly designed monsters and only glimpses of emotional maturity. This stuff works in Who, in fact it works quite well because we know we're watching a fun kids adventure show. But this is supposed to be an adult drama, so immediately things feel iffy. The pantomime vibe is still here.
The characters do the show no favours either. I quite enjoy Captain Jack portrayed by John Barrowman, but I think it's fair to say that dramatic acting is not his forte. The issues with the rest of the characters are numerous, but it's a real problem when they are so completely uninteresting (Tosh and Ianto) or absolutely impossible to like (Owen). Gwen is our way into the story being the newcomer, and she's handled better but she makes odd choices. The character has nowhere near enough depth to give us the information to understand why.
The writing is not able to do justice to the stories being told. This isn't the fault of the actors (...mostly), but down to the laughably weak dialogue and direction. It doesn't help that visually it's all so poor, inheriting the cheapness from it's parent show of this era. Through all this there is fun to be had. There are good episodes in there and a sense of camaraderie does build within the cast. There's so much room for improvement though.
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@lefthandedguitarist agreed on these general vibes! Gwen seems very driven by her emotions and empathy rather than logic, which sets her apart from the other members and brings something new to the team, but that also leads her to take questionable decisions... I quite like that about her as a character, it makes her interesting and allows for disagreements and obstacles to happen naturally enough in the story. Tosh and Ianto... are another matter, they feel like they were written as plot devices rather than full characters, and have a hard time moving from that spot, tbh
I did find it funny that none of the characters seemed to care about the Rebel pilots who were killed.
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@lefthandedguitarist yeah, those seem to be quite disposable in this show... :o
How did Ford, who was leaning over the DHD, get shifted by momentum when the entire cockpit was submerged before the drive pod touched the gate? He would have been dematerialised energy.
Also, love the discrete units/only in one piece rule that suddenly applies to gate travel when SG-1 has shown dozens of cases of something being cut off by the gate. Usually staff weapons.
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@lefthandedguitarist Yes it would. The back would be left drifting in space. But what they mean by discreet units is that if the gate shut off, the front section would just cease to exist, along with those inside. If the entire object doesn't pass through, then none of it will be rematerialized on the far side.
I can kind of parse it as a security feature... If the object had become static when going in, then there is no momentum to push the dematerialized bit out of the event horizon at the far end. But again, we see several cases of something being chopped off by a closing gate, and no one ever mentions that the person carrying that thing is now gone forever because the discreet unit was cut up.
what's the point of anything anymore
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I know right. They better get an amazing new companion 'cause idk how they'll top Clara tbh.
Damar has made an incredible character journey though this show: background soldier, to arrogant right-hand man, to leader of Cardassia, to an alcoholic in a downward spiral and now a rebel. He's become the most compelling character now.
I can't help but think that Kira's unwillingness to work with Kai Winn and find a way to help her despite her desires was a bit shortsighted. She's only pushed her further into hate and the consequences will be bad. Winn is a tragic character but it's so easy to just despise her, further testament to what Louise Fletcher brought to the role. Still, it remains icky to see her and Dukat together.
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@lefthandedguitarist - Yes, DS9 had such fantastic character development. Also, I think "icky" is an understatement, it's absolutely revolting. Bleh! (They did a great job indeed!)
Shout by LeftHandedGuitarist
It's really hard to talk about these continuous episodes as seperate entities.
My main takeaway from this is that I'm annoyed we didn't get to see Dax's mission on the Defiant, and I really didn't like the way she copied Sisko's speech word-for-word to the crew at the end. It made it feel inauthentic, whereas Sisko's felt spontaneous and true.The stuff going on back at the station is fantastic. I actually feel genuinely angry at Odo.
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@lefthandedguitarist I like that we don't get to see Dax's mission on the Defiant for that very reason. It's annoying! We want to see it! We want to be there! Not getting to be a part of it sucks! And that puts us in the exact same headspace as Sisko who feels the same way. It's a nice way of putting the audience in his shoes when he's forced to sit on the sidelines rather than be a part of the action.
(Now if they somehow showed it to us in the next episode, I wouldn't complain.)
"An algorithm could write movies and TV shows!"
"Not well though...."Well played, writing team, well played. :laughing:
The death scene was wild. So well done. I didn't expect the first death to be so crazy. Now, I'm extremely curious to see how the rest of them will be killed.
Likely in the minority here but I wish there was less sexual stuff and weirdness. It doesn't add anything really to the plot. The orgy music was on point though.
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I noticed how in the beginning it shows him laid up with all the naked bodies surrounding him after an orgy and then in the end it’s the same way but they’re dead.
How on earth is Ezri, this bumbling newcomer, newly promoted girl, already the superior officer of Miles? What the hell's the Chief been doing all these years that he can so easily be outranked? This is bonkers.
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Technically, even an ensign outranks Miles as he's not a starfleet officer.
Review by LeftHandedGuitarist
This is the one. This is the episode where, back in 1999(?), I more or less gave up on Star Trek: Voyager. I caught a few more episodes over the next year or two, but my heart really wasn't in it anymore and this was the nail in the coffin.
It's an episode that fails in every way, made worse by the fact that it's attempting to make a valid point about blind hate and propaganda. The horrible icing on the cake is that, of all the characters, Chakotay is the one chosen to lead this outing.
The peculiar dialogue, while initially intriguing, quickly becomes tiresome and cheesy, and then infuriating. Especially given how seriously all the actors attempt to deliver it, and then once Chakotay begins to use it it's unbearable.
In a lazy move, the Kradin appear to just be a slight variation on Nausicaans. The episode ends with an unbelievable act of stupidity on the Voyager crew's part when they bring the Kradin ambassador to meet Chakotay and wonder why the Commander is uncomfortable. HE'S JUST BEEN BRAINWASHED TO HATE THEM.
How many shuttlecraft does Voyager have? This is the third to be lost in the last three episodes.
Apparently it may take some time for Chakotay to get over this, but don't worry everyone - he'll have forgotten all about it next week. Just like this episode forgot that Tom and B'Elanna professed their love for each other last week after a whole year of trying to get us to believe it.
To see a show which tackled a somewhat similar subject and did it very well, see the Stargate SG-1 episode 'The Other Side'.
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To be perfectly honest, I’ve been following you for a while and I read your reviews before I watched 90s episodes of things and thank you so much for saving me 45 minutes of my life I’m just gonna skip this episode and watch the next one
props to my boy Dylan G for holding that position for what seemed like an eternity!
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His outtie definitely did muscle shows!
Review by LeftHandedGuitarist
While being little more than a scene-setting episode that attempts to arrange all of the characters on their new journeys, and also being unfortunately predictable. I found this quite easy to enjoy. The characters all feel so fully rounded and developed by this point and their easy cameradie comes across so well. In particular, O'Brien/Bashir/Quark make for a fantastic trio, and I also loved seeing Miles going to visit Worf for a drink.
Kira, now a Colonel, gets some meaty material as she goes head to head with the new Romulan representative. Nana Visitor does her usual excellent job, it's such a shame that the same can't be said for the utterly bland Romulan who seems to speak her lines with all the enthusiasm of reading the phone book.
The Sisko part of the story is a bit more troublesome. Seeing our Captain depressed and lost prevents the episode from having momentum and it feels like it goes on a bit too long. There are some major revelations that occur here, though, which do spice things up but it's also where the predictablity factor comes into play. Sisko's dad becomes very dramatic in the way that only TV characters can when questioned about his mysterious secret. The locket has some writing on it and, guess what? It's ancient Bajoran - who didn't see that coming? The mysterious hooded figure turns out to be an assassin. Mm hmm.
It's fortunately not enough to derail things for me. We get some superb moments here too, notably the continued arc of Damar who we now learn has developed a drinking problem. Plus, the episode ends with the wonderful introduction of EZRI! God, I love Ezri. Maybe it's a poor idea to replace Jadzia so quickly, but Ezri is going to inject all sorts of joy and enthusiasm into the show and I'm so glad she's here.
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Yes, I loved the short scene between Miles and Worf, glad they kept that in, it meant a lot.
20mins chase sequence in a 30mins episode. We know the main characters won't die , who are we kidding .
4/10
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@thebabayaga the chase scene doesn't start until almost 17 minutes in and ends at 27, making it 10 minutes out of a 31 minute episode, and part of that isn't even the chase, as ahsoka wards off the approaching fighters while their ship is down. it's really weird to me that so many comments here are saying the same 20 minute chase scene in a 30 minute episode nonsense, when it's not even approximately true.
Review by Andrew Bloom
VIP9[7.5/10] Ahsoka feels right. The vistas of Lothal feel of a piece with their animated rendition. The characters seem like themselves despite shifts in the performer and the medium. Their relationships feel genuine even though much has changed in the five years since we’ve seen them together.
Maybe that shouldn’t be a big surprise with Dave Filoni, impresario of the animated corner of Star Wars, both writing and directing “Master and Apprentice”, the series premiere. He is the title character’s co-creator and caretaker. He is the creator of Star Wars: Rebels, the show that Ahsoka is most clearly indebted to. And he is, for many, the keeper of the flame when it comes to the Galaxy Far Far Away.
But it was my biggest fear for this show. More than the plot, more than the lore, more than the latest chapter in the life of my favorite character in all of Star Wars, my concern was that translating all these characters, and their little corner of the universe, to live action and a different cast and a different era of the franchise would make everything feel wrong. Instead, we’re right at home. The rest is gravy.
And the gravy is good. Because these are not the colorful, if intense, adventures of the Ghost crew fans saw before. This is, or should be, a period of triumph for the onetime Rebels. They won! The Empire is torn asunder! Lothal is led with grace and a touch of wry sarcasm by Governor Azadi, with none other than Clancy Brown reprising the role! Huyang the lightsaber-crafting droid is still around and has most of his original parts!
Nonetheless, our heroes are hung up on old battles and older wounds. Ahsoka Tano is on a quest to track down Grand Admiral Thrawn, who hunted the Spectres in Rebels. Sabine Wren can’t bask in the afterglow of victory as a hero when she’s still mourning Ezra Bridger. And the two warriors have some lingering bad blood with one another after an attempt to become master and apprentice, true to the title, went wrong somewhere along the way.
With that, the first installment of Ahsoka is a surprisingly moody and meditative affair, one that works well for Star Wars. Sure, there's still a couple of crackerjack lightsaber fights to keep the casual fans engaged. But much of this one is focused on familiar characters reflecting on what’s been lost, what’s been broken, and what’s hard to fix. The end of Rebels was triumphant, but came with costs. To linger on those costs, and the new damage that's accumulated in their wake, is a bold choice from Filoni and company.
So is the decision to focus on Sabine here. Don’t get me wrong, Ahsoka has the chance to shine in the first installment of the show that bears her name. Her steady reclamation of a map to Thrawn, badass hack-and-slash on some interfering bounty droids, and freighted reunions with Hera and her former protege all vindicate why fans have latched onto the character. For her part, Rosario Dawson has settled into the role, bringing a certain solemnity that befits a more wizened and confident master, but also that subtle twinkle that Ashley Eckstei brings to the role.
And yet, the first outing for Ahsoka spends more time with Sabine’s perspective. It establishes her as a badass who’d rather rock her speeder with anti-authoritarian style than be honored for her heroics. It shows her grieving a lost comrade whose sacrifice still haunts her. It teases out an emotional distance and rebelliousness between her and her former mentor. And it closes with her using her artist’s eye to solve the puzzle du jour, and defend herself against a fearsome new enemy.
This is her hour, and while Sabine is older, more introverted, all the more wounded than the Mandalorian tagger fans met almost a decade ago, this opening salvo for the series is better for it.
My only qualms are with the threat du jour. Yet another Jedi not only survived the initial Jedi Purge, but has made it to the post-Return of the Jedi era without arousing the suspicions of Palpatine, Vader, Yoda, or Obi-Wan. Ray Stevenson brings a steady and quietly menacing air to Baylan Skoll, the former Jedi turned apparent mercenary, but there's enough rogue force-wielders running around already, thank you very much.
His apprentice holds her own against New Republic forces and Ahsoka’s own former apprentice, but is shrouded in mystery. She goes unidentified, which, in Star Wars land, means she’s secretly someone important (a version of Mara Jade from the “Legends” continuity?) or related to someone important (the child of, oh, let’s say Ventress). And I’m tired of such mystery boxes.
Throw in the fact that Morgan Elsbet, Ahsoka’s source and prisoner, turns out to be a Nightsister, and you have worrying signs that the series’ antagonists will be rehashing old material rather than moving the ball forward. The obvious “We just killed a major character! No for real you guys!” fakeout cliffhanger ending doesn’t inspire much confidence on that front either.
Nonetheless, what kept me invested in Rebels, and frankly all of Star Wars, despite plenty of questionable narrative choices, is the characters. The prospect of Ahsoka trying to train a non force-sensitive Mandalorian in the ways of the Jedi, or at least her brand of them, is a bold and fascinating choice.
But even more fascinating is two people who once believed in one another, having fallen apart, drifting back together over the chance to save someone they both care about. “Master and Apprentice” embraces, rather than shying away from, the sort of lived-in relationships that made the prior series so impactful in the past, and the broken bonds that make these reunions feel fragile, painful, and more than a little bitter in the present.
I am here for Hera the general trying to patch things up between old friends. I am here for Sabine holding onto her rebellious streak but carrying scars from what went wrong, in the Battle of Lothal and in her attempts to learn the ways of the Jedi. And I am here for Ahsoka, once the apprentice without a master, now the master without an apprentice, here to snuff out the embers of the last war and reclaim what was lost within it.
They all feel right. The rest can figure itself out.
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@rivvvers So you didn't bother to read my write-up, but you did take time to comment on it? If you'd like to understand why I gave the score I did, might I recommend reading my review?
The show was still feeling that it needed to connect to The Next Generation, so we get more guest stars from that series. Vash fits in just fine (and has some great chemistry with Quark), but Q's presence is just a bit silly. John de Lancie is always incredibly fun to watch in the role, but the whole thing just feels like someone behind-the-scenes said, "why don't we put Q on the station?" when he has no real place there. On a side note, it gets even worse when he begins appearing on Voyager.
It does serve to highlight how different Sisko and Picard are, exemplified by the wonderful scene where Sisko punches Q in the face. It doesn't do much to endear us to Julian, though, who comes off as nothing more than a womaniser - and quite a cheesy one, at that. Again, we can see the O'Brien really doesn't like him very much. Dax gets to be very scientific and not much else, at this point she really needs to have an episode focus on her.
The Odo/Quark scene is pointless, seemingly just there to remind us that these two have a rivalry of sorts. Most silly of all is the clerk in charge of the assay office, who seems to want to be the most stuck-up Bajoran in the galaxy.
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@lefthandedguitarist This is actually quite important for those who don't know every TNG Episode by heart, since while TNG watchers knew how Vash got to the Gamma Quadrant (or could at least speculate), others wouldn't know.
Tbh, since I don't rewatch TNG (fond memories, but the show is a bit "slow" for my taste as an adult), I probably wouldn't remember if he wasn't in the Episode...
This falls a little short for me despite being pretty good fun. I can't help but feel like the writers came up with the clever title first and then needed to form an episode around it.
It also feels like we've had a lot of comedic Quark episodes recently, so maybe there's some fatigue setting in. I'd be pretty down on this episode if it wasn't for the great cast and performances. Armin Shimmerman and Rene Auberjonois are their usual excellent selves, but all of the guest cast make a great impression. The two brothers are particularly delightful to watch and manage to evoke a sense of skilled incompetence.
But the general silliness and lack of competent criminals is sort of what lowers the episode's quality a bit. This also represents Quark in a mixed light - is he genuinely sad at the loss of his best customer/a friend? Is he really as greedy as shown here, given how so many episodes have established that he's a good guy who will place friendship over profit?
But mostly, I'm just happy that Morn isn't really dead.
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@lefthandedguitarist - Oooh, the brothers were gooooood entertainment, creepy good . Aside from the reptilian appearance, that chilling soft, whispery way they speak, barely opening those tiny mouths... only to have their words reduce them to bumbling idiots. Lol!
I'm disappointed that all of Paul Wesley's singing moments weren't done as spoken word, as a tribute.
So, this was a mixed bag for me - It's very difficult to overcome my negative feelings towards musicals. I found parts of this quite entertaining, and there was also parts where I was cringing in embarrassment. I'm not sure it's going to have any rewatch value for me. I appreciated that they at least incorporated the songs into the storyline as a mystery that needed to be solved, but am never a fan of when they lean into the music as a way to dwell on a character's emotional state. Just move the damn story forward instead of sitting in a single moment for three minutes!
Some musical parts were definitely better than others, but this was always going to be a difficult one for me. There were just too many songs here, and they were too much in the musical theatre style. I didn't like the "finale" at all (the Klingon moment should have been hilarious but literally made me cry out "oh GOD NO").
At the same time, I really appreciate that Strange New Worlds is taking risks and experimenting. This is a thousand times more interesting than the super safe Berman-Trek, even when the results don't completely work for me. The problem is that we are only getting 10 episodes per season, so episodes like this can feel like a monumental waste of storytelling time.
The best stuff here was everything that dealt with character relationships - Chapel/Spock, Pike/Batel and La'an/Kirk.
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@lefthandedguitarist Funny -- cuz William Shatner released an album of songs in spoken word, right? That would've been more camp. I recommend, if you haven't seen it, watching the "Short Treks" episode where Spock first beams on to the Enterprise, and he and Una get stuck in a turbo lift. To deal with the stress she reveals a secret passion for Gilbert and Sullivan -- and, he joins her in a duet. (She then swears him to secrecy.)
Opera, a physicist told me: "What's too silly to say can be sung." It is a way for actors to show their chops, and I think all of these did sooo much better than the albums released by either Shatner or Nimoy!
That is EXACTLY what I would have done back in the wild wild west.
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@mbze430 Died? Same.
(Three more words.)
Idris Elba is carrying this show so hard.
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@gusanito1886 well that's easy, it's mediocre at best.
An entertaining if slightly odd beginning to season 2. It was nice to see a shift in focus to other crew members, even if that choice felt kind of jarring as a reintroduction to the show. Side-lining Captain Pike was quite bold and honestly I missed his presence, but giving a chance for Spock, Chapel and M'Benga to have centre stage was also rewarding.
Still, I found this whole episode to feel like it was throwing us into something that was already progressing and it was a little difficult to stay fully engaged with it. There was a whole backstory to the situation and characters on Cajitar IV that was reduced to fleeting dialogue, instead trusting us to just go with it and not worry about the details. I felt that could have been handled better. Obviously this episode drew from the Klingon War that happened on Discovery, and featuring its repercussions so heavily here required a shift. The deep trauma that M'Benga and Chapel seem to have experienced came out of nowhere and fundamentally altered their characters. It was great material for the actors to work with, but flew in the face of what they've established previously.
It also led to the scene which was the weakest part of the episode for me; an extended action sequence in which Chapel and M'Benga expertly fight their way through hordes of Klingons with the assistance of a drug. Exciting, yes, but tonally bizarre and again not fitting the characters. This was WAY over the top, leading to M'Benga torturing a Klingon.. Again, wrong tone.
Thankfully there was a lot of great stuff outside this. La'an has really come into her own and felt like a well balanced character here. And Spock got all the of the episode's best moments. It's great to see him playing the lute and being in charge. We're going down an interesting narrative path here with his losing his grip on his emotional stability, and honestly I'm quite up for it thanks to Ethan Peck's wonderful take on Spock. Yes, we're edging on breaking canon in several areas here, but I'm really not that worried if I'm enjoying what I'm seeing.
Overall, this episode felt kind of unsettled and over-enthusiastic in it's return, but I'm in.
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@lefthandedguitarist I appreciate the time and thought you put into this. Thanks
The empire’s story is the only interesting thing of the countless stories they’ve made up, instead of following the books.
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@magenof "Based off of" needn't mean "same as". My advice is still the same, if the book is more interesting, then read that.
Meant to be set in the 90s but the woke bullshit is already out of hand.
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@kingy72 how is it 'woke'? This is literally the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy that was brought in during the 1990s
They add woke drama, too far from the true story. The character is not like the real Miep, Disney keep doing it, good actors, bad directors, bad writers, instead a good show, it is like a soap opera based vaguely in real persons. Skip it.
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@edgrande If you use the word 'woke' it renders the rest of what you're saying is disregarded. I'm assuming the problem you have is that the Nazis aren't the good guys.
This will always remain among my favourite episodes. It's full of joy and the spirit of exploration as well as being all about the father/son relationship portrayed so well by Brooks and Lofton. It feels like it's been a while since we've spent time with Benjamin and Jake, so this makes up for it very nicely.
It's not a flashy episode, it's a quiet character piece that lets itself have fun. We've had a hint of Jake's desire to write before, but this is the real beginning of his journey and it was always one of my favourite parts of DS9 (I always wanted to write when I was a teenager, so Jake was such a great character for me to watch). The relationship between the two of them feels so natural. I love the way Jake is nervous about showing his dad his story, and the way he makes a joke about joining the Maquis. There also seems to be a lot of delight in Avery Brooks' performance here.
The Bajoran sailing ship is a gorgeous creation. Sure, it stretches believablility that Benjamin managed to build it in a couple of weeks - especially with that level of detail - but we can let it slide. Don't forget, before being assigned to DS9 he was in charge of ship building at Utopia Planitia and designed the Defiant. The story of them getting all the way to Cardassia is just lovely and peaceful, and I love the welcome that Gul Dukat gives them when they arrive (which, for once, sounds pretty sincere). Ben also gets a great scene with Dax, reminiscing about their past.
The background story isn't quite as wonderful, but there's fun to be had. Julian handing Dax a padd saying "GO AWAY" never fails to make me laugh. We get to meet Leeta for the first time, who will become quite important.
Drunk Bashir and O'Brien is one of my favourite scenes in all of DS9, and they both play it really well. I love that their friendship has now reached this point, and I love that O'Brien declares "I really do... not hate you anymore!".
Also, important to note: the beard has appeared. It's funny, because it coincides with a change in the series which is going to propel it's quality up and and up. To me, this episode does represent the beginning of the real DS9, there's a change in the mood of the show and everything just feels like it's working perfectly.
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I’m watching the show for the first time and loving it, and this comment makes me even more excited to continue. Can’t wait to see what’s next!
Review by LeftHandedGuitarist
I'm as surprised as anyone that I've found an episode with Neelix in such a prominent role that I quite enjoyed. But it's not because of him, it's because it's the culmination of a plot thread that has been building over the past bunch of episodes - even though that culmination may not be the most satisfying end. At any rate, Neelix's scenes saying goodbye to Tom did work very well.
It turns out Tom Paris has been faking his misbehaviour (duh) because Janeway and Tuvok suspect there's a spy on board. They decided to keep Chakotay out of the loop to make it seem more real, but I think it's really because they didn't trust Chakotay not to mess things up. I think what's impressed me most about it all is that the show kept this thread running over the course of several episodes, and it just feels like such a breath of fresh air to have some serialisation that I'm happy to sit back and enjoy it, despite it not being all that compelling.
Tom's fight to escape from Seska and the Kazon is unimpressive, seeminly limited to one corridor set that he has to run back and forth through. Seska herself is revelling in being evil, and I have to admit I get a weird thrill out of the cheesiness of it all. I almost didn't expect Jonas to die, and at least he goes out in style.
Neelix's TV show could become grating if we see lots more of it, but the funny subplot with the Doctor did entertain me. One moment that took me right out of the episode was when Janeway contacts engineering and explains everything that's going on to Jonas ("we need the transporter, because we've detected a Kazon shuttle and there is one human life sign on board and we think it might be Tom Paris") despite no captain ever taking the time to do this in Trek history. Also, Jonas being the only person in engineering is really bizarre.
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@lefthandedguitarist I found myself unexpectedly impressed by the way the show laid the groundwork for this episode over the course of the past six or so, and built to this climax bit by bit, even if it's not perfect. Between this and the show introducing Lt. Durst the episode before the same actor plays a Vidian wearing Durst's skin in "Faces", I'm pretty taken aback at Voyager's willingness to indulge in some serialization and forethought in its early seasons.
I’m starting to wonder why I’m watching a show that is designed for children.
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@ausxor you mean star wars? yes of course it's for children. it's still good.
MODERATION EDIT: Respect other users.
It became a tradition on this show to have at least one episode per season in which the character of O'Brien is put through hell. While there have been some up to this point that could sort of fit that description, this seems to be regarded as the first "official" one. I don't know why the writers had it in for him.
This is a clever and fun episode with a great twist that, on your first viewing, is a real surprise. We spend the whole episode thinking that something is wrong with the crew of DS9, only to find out that it's O'Brien himself who is the odd one out. It has a bit of a creepy vibe and it's off-putting to see everyone acting a little strange but not understanding why. It unfortunately loses that surprise value upon rewatch but remains a solid episode.
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@lefthandedguitarist This is my first time watching DS9, and when I first read your comment after having seen this episode, I thought the conclusion of your first sentence was a little dramatic. But then I finished episode 25 just now and holy shit. I was immediately reminded of your comment, and damn, you are not wrong. That was really intense, and I very much agree with you in, why did the writers have it in for him?
The most interesting thing here is the mind-controlling alien itself. It shows a level of either control or technology that hasn't really been done before, and that makes it kind of fascinating.
The hallucinations that everyone has are unfortunately very obvious and unadventurous. Particularly cringeworthy is the stuff with Paris and his father; daddy issues have never felt so dull. Far better is the revelation that B'Elanna kind of wants to get it on with Chakotay, and true to her Klingon heritage she wants him to be forceful about it. Not something I'm particularly eager to see, but it did manage to take me by surprise. Tuvok was a particular let down with his "I ... do not ... understand ... how this is ... possible". Seriously? There's a mind controlling alien giving you hallucinations, Tuvok, it's pretty obvious. You're supposed to be a logical and clever Vulcan, act like one.
Janeway's holodeck fantasy is a fun diversion despite some of the actors involved. For all its silliness, it's managed to create a compelling mystery (WHAT IS ON THE FOURTH FLOOR?!). However, having had cucumber sandwiches myself I can say with certainty that they are never something worth fantasising about.
Kes continues to develop her mental abilities and comes out, again, as the best part of the story.
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@lefthandedguitarist >WHAT IS ON THE FOURTH FLOOR?!
I don't remember it ever being adressed but I think he's got his dead wife there. Pure fantasy on my behalt, though. That whole holonovel has somewhat of a creepy edge to it.
The most interesting thing here is the mind-controlling alien itself. It shows a level of either control or technology that hasn't really been done before, and that makes it kind of fascinating.
The hallucinations that everyone has are unfortunately very obvious and unadventurous. Particularly cringeworthy is the stuff with Paris and his father; daddy issues have never felt so dull. Far better is the revelation that B'Elanna kind of wants to get it on with Chakotay, and true to her Klingon heritage she wants him to be forceful about it. Not something I'm particularly eager to see, but it did manage to take me by surprise. Tuvok was a particular let down with his "I ... do not ... understand ... how this is ... possible". Seriously? There's a mind controlling alien giving you hallucinations, Tuvok, it's pretty obvious. You're supposed to be a logical and clever Vulcan, act like one.
Janeway's holodeck fantasy is a fun diversion despite some of the actors involved. For all its silliness, it's managed to create a compelling mystery (WHAT IS ON THE FOURTH FLOOR?!). However, having had cucumber sandwiches myself I can say with certainty that they are never something worth fantasising about.
Kes continues to develop her mental abilities and comes out, again, as the best part of the story.
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@finfan @lefthandedguitarist Spoilers for Jane Eyre, but yeah, based on the tropes they're pulling from, the implication is that his wife had some sort of mental breakdown, and he's keeping her up there while telling the rest of the world that she died. As the Doctor says, very macabre!
