#DS91sttime: Season 4, Episode 4, “Hippocratic Oath”

September 5, 2013 in #DS91sttime, General Topics

Season 4, Ep 4, "Hippocratic Oath"

Season 4, Ep 4, “Hippocratic Oath”

If I was in Starfleet, I’d get very nervous if ordered to fly off in a runabout to perform a planetary survey, or some other banal task. I’d definitely bring a phaser rifle or eight, and I’d also make sure the vessel sent constant updates from my galactic positioning system. These trips never end well.

I’d have to be on my toes, too, because runabout missions have rules, a la Scream. One of these is the danger of idle chatter. Don’t ever get into conversations about nothing, because if you do, something is going to show up.

Bashir and O’Brien are returning from just such a survey–and having just such a conversation–when they run into an odd sensor signal on a nearby planet, indicating a downed starship. Before they can gather more information, the runabout is lanced with a plasma field, causing it to crash land onto the planet’s surface, in what is a fairly solid effects sequence. Predictably, Bashir and O’Brien are fine, though both vow never to discuss Keiko O’Brien again. Read the rest of this entry →

#DS91sttime: Season 4, Episode 3, “The Visitor”

August 28, 2013 in #DS91sttime, General Topics

Egad, am I stepping into it this time. I knew after I finished “The Visitor” that I was going to find myself in trouble.

See, I’ve some guidelines I stick to so that each review in this series is truly a virgin experience. One of these is that I make a point not to check out Memory Alpha, or Trek Core, or anywhere else for anyone’s opinions on an episode ahead of my viewing. I don’t want to know about the public’s derision or acclaim, because that small bit of dye dropped into the waters can color my perception.

I failed that guideline with this episode, because of a slip-up that happened well prior to my decision to even make this review series. Sometime back–maybe a few years ago–I googled the most popular Trek episodes of all time, and wound up staring down a list of the best Deep Space Nine episodes. And there was an image of Sisko, holding some old guy’s shoulders–that’s all I knew–and since the episode’s title was simple to remember, it stuck in my head.

Many regard “The Visitor” as the best episode in DS9’s entire run, and–checking Wikipedia after I watched–I saw quite a few viewers believe it is the best episode across the entire Trek universe. Wow. That’s overwhelming.

Overwhelming, too, was the pressure I think I placed on the episode before I watched it. I was ready to slingshot around the sun over this one. How could I not be impressed? So many people loved it, after all.

And yet, I’m left with a somewhat-contrarian review to write. Here comes the shuttle crash. Holofilm at eleven. Read the rest of this entry →

#DS91sttime: Season 4, Episode 1 & 2, “The Way of the Warrior”

August 16, 2013 in #DS91sttime, General Topics

I spent a lot of time thinking how to express the excellence of Deep Space Nine‘s feature-length fourth-season opening episode, “The Way of the Warrior”, and the word that keeps fighting its way to the surface is Qapla’ (that’s Klingon for “success”). Its not that the Klingons own this episode, it’s that their arrival and its subsequent consequences force the crew to cooperate in a way that is compelling and gripping. You can’t watch this thing without being engrossed–it almost approaches First Contact with its thick air of escalating tension.

Pause on that for a moment: this is a season premiere of a syndicated Trek spinoff, and it warrants positive comparisons with First Contact. Read the rest of this entry →

#DS91sttime: Season 3, Episode 22, “Explorers”

July 3, 2013 in #DS91sttime, General Topics

I didn’t go into “Explorers” expecting to find one of the show’s best episodes yet. This was supposed to fall apart from the very beginning. After all, how exciting or plausible, really, is Ben Sisko suddenly deciding to prove a Bajoran space exploration theory by hand-building a primitive solar-sail ship and setting off toward Cardassian territory?

The lightship from S3, Episode 22: "Explorers"

The lightship from S3, Episode 22: “Explorers”

And indeed, throughout the episode, the realist in me was picking things apart. We know that the rate of acceleration for one of these vessels–if ever built–would probably be glacial, since they’re using the force exerted by photons against their “sails” to accelerate. We know that Sisko setting off in a defenseless ship on the eve of a galactic war smacks of stupidity at worst, and almost criminal recklessness at best. We don’t see how the arrival of one of Bashir’s former classmates is supposed to provide an entire B plot.

Doesn’t matter.
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#DS91sttime: Season 3, Episode 19, “Through the Looking Glass”

June 5, 2013 in #DS91sttime, General Topics

What a wasted chance. Season 3, Ep 19: "Through the Looking Glass"

What a wasted chance. Season 3, Ep 19: “Through the Looking Glass”

Dabbling in the mirror universe is always fun, and this episode certainly lacks nothing in the raw entertainment category. But it’s also a thing of blown opportunities. Here, we had a chance to see Sisko come face to face with a potentially tear-jerking plot arc–and what should have been a home run for our favorite baseball junkie was only a base hit.
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