DS9 Episode 1.11: The Nagus

In which Ferengi culture gets a little more fleshed out... with hairy ears.

Memory Alpha says: With the sudden death of Grand Nagus Zek, Quark becomes the new leader of the Ferengi Alliance, but he also becomes a target for murder. (Please click the Memory Alpha link for detailed information.)

My Review

Well, I finally have a proper, working internet connection again, so I can blog some more - although it seems inappropriate to cover a Ferengi episode when I have an ear infection. I don't quite feel like this:

but I don't feel too good.

This episode introduces Grand Nagus Zek and starts to show us a bit more about how the Ferengi Alliance works. Well, it shows us that the Ferengi Alliance does work, in its own shifty, shady, shonky little way, and that it's run by people with at least fractionally more nous than those twerps with energy whips who occasionally mildly inconvenience Captain Picard. Feeling about Ferengi-centric episodes seems to be a bit divided among DS9 fans, as some regard them as Odious Comic Relief. I like 'em. I like 'em all. What do you mean, 'Profit and Lace'? There's an episode called 'Profit and Loss,' you must be thinking of that. Move along.

DS9 Episode 1.10: Move Along Home

In which we receive further evidence that there are a lot of jerks in the Gamma Quadrant.

Memory Alpha says: A visiting delegation from the Gamma Quadrant turns four crew members into "pieces" for a bizarre game. (Please click the Memory Alpha link for detailed information.)

My Review

'Move Along Home' vies with 'If Wishes Were Horses' for the coveted title of Dorkiest Episode of Deep Space Nine. Visually and structurally I found it reminded me a lot of a children's TV show from my childhood called, if I remember correctly, T-Bag. A young girl had to solve a series of alphabet-themed challenges, moving around a giant game board, in order to defeat a wicked sorceress called Tallulah Bag, whose motto was 'Ignorance is bliss.' Her unwilling henchman was a grumpy little boy called T-Shirt, who she kidnapped at the start of each new series and enchanted and bullied into serving her; he always ended up turning on her and helping the heroine, and yet she kept on doing it. I always liked T-Shirt. I wish he were in 'Move Along Home.'

Two interesting snippets from the Memory Alpha page: one, STILL NO O'BRIEN THIS WEEK. AARGH I HAVE BROGUE WITHDRAWAL. Two, it seems that it was actually Dax who was supposed to visit the Enterprise in 'Birthright, Part 1' but Terry Farrell was too busy with this episode, so they sent Siddig El Fadil instead. I'm very, very glad about that, just because I'm a big fan of the friendship Julian and Data struck up (well, Julian did most of the striking) and wish it could have been pursued. It really is silly that the Enterprise never comes near DS9 again.

DS9 Episode 1.9: The Passenger

In which Julian's mind is the scene of the crime.
 

Memory Alpha says: An alien criminal, attempting to prolong his life, hides his consciousness inside the mind of a station crew member. (Please click the Memory Alpha link for detailed information.)

My Review

Glorious: one of the search terms that has led people to this blog in the past month is 'keep away from data bitch ontd_tng.' Dude, it has not been possible to keep me away from Data since approximately 1988. But let's press on with DS9.

This is one of those Star Trek standbys, an episode in which a core crew member gets possessed by an alien intelligence so that they can have conflicts with the rest of the core cast and/or generally act like a dick without it being morally their fault or breaking Gene's rule that We Don't Fight Amongst Ourselves or, in fact, having any impact on how anybody responds to them in subsequent episodes (this is particularly hilarious with Data; the most hostile anyone gets with him is when, after he goes berserk and stabs her in a lift, Counselor Troi presents him with a mocking cake). TOS and TNG would be such different shows if, after events like these, it took time for people to regain their trust in each other, and in some cases they never quite did.

Of course, as DS9 went on, it became apparent that you don't need anybody to be possessed by an alien intelligence for them to have some beefy conflicts and act like a dick (you have people like Dukat around who are more than happy to fill your dick quota), so they became less reliant on the old possession trick, or when they did use it did something interesting like introduce the Pah Wraiths. At least that's how I'm remembering it; I'll have to see whether that's borne out by this rewatch. I do remember that they did at least one other old-school possessionpisode, 'Dramatis Personae,' which I found striking because Avery Brooks played his possessed character with much more personality than he gave Sisko at the time.

For the second episode in succession, we'll get no O'Brien. I guess he's still in Japan, and I hope at least he gets to do some nice things like soak in a hot spring with snow monkeys. But hang on. Bear with us. Bullet point commentary again.

DS9 Episode 1.8: Dax

In which Dax could tell you a lot, but it's not in a gentleman's code; make it one for Fionnula Flanagan and one more for the road.

Memory Alpha says: New evidence reopens a thirty-year-old murder case, and Dax's previous host Curzon is now the prime suspect. (Please click the Memory Alpha link for detailed information.)

My Review

I'm reverting to commentary form, because it's quick and I'm lazy. I'm doing this one at my parents' place, because they have decent broadband and are sympathetic to my internet-deprived plight (connecting the line at my new flat is not going smoothly, I'm waiting on a technician, they might have it working on Monday, it's all a bit unnecessary). I have to admit that, while I'm really enjoying revisiting the early TNG episodes that I haven't watched for ages, because everything is half-remembered and goofy and adorable and weird, since I first watched DS9 right through back in May 2010, getting through Season One again is a bit of a slog, so I want to keep this thing moving and not get bogged down. (The only thing I can remember being outstandingly good in Season One is 'Duet,' but at least 'Move Along Home' is so cracky it really deserves to be an early TNG episode.)

Right; this episode is important because it begins to explore the consequences for Jadzia of living with Dax's past, something to which her storylines (and Ezri's, but Ezri is rather boring) will return a few times, sometimes with awesome two-lady kissing. I do like the fact that, in the Star Trek universe, the legal system has to deal with questions like 'Does Data have human rights?' and 'Is Jadzia liable for things Curzon did (if indeed he did them)?' that are quite outside the kind of courtroom dramas you can do in a less fantastic setting. I persist in believing that something like Law & Order: UFP would be kind of a fun spin-off. The usual assumption is that Captain Picard will be some kind of ambassador when he retires from Starfleet, but why not a crusading silver-fox DA, I ask you? Why not indeed. If you like Law & Order and ridiculous/cool things, go and look at These Are Their Stories; I'll wait for you. There are Kate Beaton drawings.

DS9 Episode 1.7: Q-Less

In which Julian gets right up my nose - and up Q's too.

Memory Alpha says: Archaeologist Vash arrives from the Gamma Quadrant as Q plagues the station and an unknown force threatens to destroy it. (Please click the Memory Alpha link for detailed information.)

My Review

I'm getting blogger's anxiety about whether people are enjoying this, because I haven't had any comments in the last couple of days, and as I type this my Blogger stats suggest people actually haven't been viewing the last couple of entries. I realise that the format or style of my reviews has been changing around; in some cases I just gave commentary while in others I recapped the episode with my commentary seeded in. (I fell into this, I suppose, because it's standard on Television Without Pity, and I usually enjoy that site - Keckler's reviews of Enterprise are well worth reading, because she gives the show credit for what it did well but never lets its many weak points slide, and is funny, and includes interesting cookery anecdotes, and she did some one-offs of TOS, TNG and DS9 episodes as well.) I hope that's not annoying people. On the other hand, I realise that it's the end of the middle of December and a lot of people are travelling to spend the holidays with their families, shopping, cooking and decorating for Christmas, going to parties, and generally less inclined to sit on their bums reading about Star Trek, so I'll try not to fret.

To take my mind off it, today I shall wrap presents (I'm using a 'brown paper packages tied up with strings' theme, and anyone who doesn't like The Sound of Music can sit on it), help decorate the tree at my parents', and watch Star Trek. I see I've surprised you! Okay, let's tackle the only Q episode of DS9, which would otherwise be Q-less, and you see what I did there.

DS9 Episode 1.6: Captive Pursuit

In which O'Brien makes a friend, and Quark is a more effective counsellor than Deanna ever was.

Memory Alpha says: O'Brien helps an alien from the Gamma Quadrant as hunters descend on the station searching for their humanoid prey. (Please click the Memory Alpha link for detailed information.)

My Review

Although O'Brien wasn't exactly the main focus of the last episode, he was our way into the story. I would say 'Captive Pursuit' is the first proper O'Brien Episode, so it's an interesting one to look at in terms of how O'Brien is used in DS9. His initial purpose in the series, besides 'mend the station,' is to be a familiar face from TNG, someone reliable and relatable who we know and like, a bit of an anchor as we get used to the new characters and setting. The foundation of the 'O'Brien Must Suffer' policy was the fact that O'Brien was so relatable and likeable, that he had an Everyman quality in the midst of space opera. And of course now that O'Brien got to be a main rather than supporting character, he could be much more developed than there was ever time for in TNG. Good opportunity for the writers, and for Colm Meaney, of whom I am fond (see The Snapper). So this is the start of O'Brien's new phase of development.

'Captive Pursuit' also features some far more convincing reptilian alien makeup than 'Lonely Among Us' did, just in case you really like reptilian alien episodes. Let'sssss go.

DS9 Episode 1.5: Babel

In which O'Brien commences to suffer, and Quark has an adventure.

Memory Alpha says: A virus infects the station's residents, making everyone unable to speak coherently. (Please click the Memory Alpha link for detailed information.)

My Review

Star Trek writers really like the word 'Babel,' because it's been in the title of multiple episodes, including the awesome TOS 'Journey to Babel' in which we meet Sarek and Amanda, everyone looks extra classy in dress uniform jackets, and McCoy is just elated to hear that Spock had a childhood teddy bear.

I love his eyes. Furthermore, I felt quite unnerved when I realised that in the JJTrek universe, McCoy has brown eyes and Kirk has blue; what an inversion!

This episode is the most literal use of 'Babel' in Trek, because the name originates in a Biblical story that purports to explain why people in different places speak mutually unintelligible languages. Once upon a time all the humans got together to build a great tower at a place called Babel which was going to reach Heaven and really annoy God. So God caused them all to speak different languages so they couldn't understand each other and co-operate, and the project was abandoned. I think this means the Universal Translator is an abomination, like eating shrimp, wearing poly-cotton blends, and Garak's personal life. 'Babel' also, like 'The Naked Time' and 'The Naked Now,' introduces a contagion that messes with people's minds, but to my eternal gratitude, nobody is going to get awkwardly laid.

DS9 Episode 1.4: A Man Alone

In which there is very little actual suspense about a murder case, and Julian has obviously not seen Wayne's World.

Memory Alpha says: An old enemy of Odo's is murdered behind locked doors, and all the evidence points to Odo as the killer. (For detailed information, please click the Memory Alpha link.)

My Review

I think I remember finding this a pretty good episode, so I'm interested to see what I think this time. It has the advantage of focusing on Odo, who is reliably interesting. Rene Auberjonois feels to me like one of the tentpoles of early DS9, in the way that Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner were in early TNG; without such charismatic performances, the show would have been much weaker and more likely to fold. DS9 was in a stronger position to begin with, having the proven success of TNG to support it (and provide justification for giving it time to find its style),  but I do think that if Stewart and Spiner hadn't been as good as they were, TNG might not have stayed on the air long enough to become awesome. (Yes, Jonathan Frakes helped by growing a beard, I am not denigrating his contribution.)

DS9 Episode 1.3: Past Prologue

In which Garak hits on Julian with the force of an angry god, and it is established that all Kira's old friends are boring jerks.

Memory Alpha says: A Bajoran terrorist tests Kira's loyalties to the Federation when he attempts to rid Bajor of the Federation for good. (Please click the Memory Alpha link for detailed information.)

My Review

Firstly, thanks to Lea, in the comments on the last entry, for pointing out that I had my episode order confused - I thought 'A Man Alone' was next, but it's 'Past Prologue.' It's a good thing she said something, or we would all have had to wait longer to see Garak.

'Past Prologue' is such a Star Trek episode title, isn't it? It sounds vaguely smart and portentous but doesn't really tell you jack about the episode. I'm not asking for a Friends-style naming scheme, particularly as Trek episode titles sometimes get rather poetic, like 'For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky,' or just endearingly stupid like 'Spock's Brain,' but my problem is that titles that are so far from being descriptive don't help me to remember which story is which. It got a bit clunky towards the end of Lost how much they liked to include the episode's title in its dialogue, but that did help my poor little memory; I read 'He's Our You' and immediately see Sayid tying to a tree and giggling his head off. Oh, Sayid. Creepy fingernails! Shoots little boys who trust him! Naveen Andrews obviously had no idea what was going on in the last season and had checked out mentally like Robert Beltran in Voyager! On with 'Past Prologue.'

DS9 Episode 1.1, 1.2: Emissary, Parts 1 & 2

In which we meet a new crew, The Sisko has some 'splainin' to do, and Dr Bashir commences being smarmy.

Memory Alpha says:  On the edge of explored space, a new crew takes command of an abandoned space station and makes an incredible discovery that will change the galaxy. (Series Premiere) (For detailed information on the episode, click the Memory Alpha link.)

My Review

I'm now going to hop sideways and forward in time and get stuck into DS9. My plan is to do two or three episodes of each series in a row, alternating as I go along. This blog, by the way, is my summer holiday project. I had wanted to foster kittens from the SPCA again, but because I'm in the process of finding and moving to a new flat, that wasn't practical. I tried to think of something else that would be good fun and take my mind off the lack of kittens, and noticed that I was tending to write enormously long comments in the Weekend Watch-along posts on ontd_startrek/tng. So I decided to make it into a blog and see how far I got. It isn't as much of an achievement as giving a kitten a good start in life (sorry, Tasha and Data, I know that's what you'd have liked me to do) but it will be enjoyable.