#DS91sttime: Season 3, Episode 20, “Improbable Cause”

June 19, 2013 in #DS91sttime, General Topics

Now this is more like it.

Somebody sets us up the bomb at Garak’s, detonating a device that rocks the promenade and puts all the senior staff in bad moods. Odo relishes these kinds of mysteries as much as he hates them, and is thus soon on the case, and we’re off to the races.

“Improbable Cause” slowly peels a series of layers off the true cause of this event, gradually ensnaring us with its revealed implications. It all starts as a typical mystery for the station, but before Odo knows it, he and Garak have delved down a vast, dangerous rabbit hole.

Odo and Garak don't know what they're in for.

Odo and Garak don’t know what they’re in for.


The acting on all sides here is stellar. Garak (Andrew Robinson) in particular is performed with aplomb, in fact I’d say the man’s acting in this episode surpasses that of most of the main cast.
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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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#DS91sttime: Season 3, Episode 18, “Distant Voices”

May 28, 2013 in #DS91sttime, General Topics

Twitter hastag: #DS91sttimeThe title of “Distant Voices” is oddly metaphoric for its central problem. This was an episode that always held me at arm’s length. It’s obsessed with its own premise, but unsure how to spin up its plot. My wife, a solid Trek devotee, gradually moved toward skipping it altogether. I stuck through it, but I can’t say I blamed her when she made good on her threats.

The problems start right off the bat, when Garak and Bashir’s actually-interesting conversation about aging is interrupted by Quark and some alien. Read the rest of this entry →

#DS91sttime: Season 3, Episode 17, “Visionary”

May 22, 2013 in #DS91sttime, General Topics

O'Brien, meet O'Brien.  Season 3, Ep 17: "Visionary"

O’Brien, meet O’Brien. Season 3, Ep 17: “Visionary”

The incredibly likable Miles O’Brien has gone a few episodes without threat of imprisonment, disease or misplaced adulation, so “Visionary” remedies that by inflicting him with involuntary leaps forward in time.

Goody. Another time travel episode.

Only, not really: here the jumps aren’t setting up a dystopian episode or establishing a comedy of errors, but instead a mystery. And with each time shift, the stakes progress for O’Brien. The first shows an almost bemusing future conversation; the last has me wondering why O’Brien didn’t come out of these events with a Federation medal, if not a
major promotion. Read the rest of this entry →

#DS91sttime: Season 3, Episode 16, “Prophet Motive”

May 15, 2013 in #DS91sttime, General Topics

Reaction over new Rules of Acquistion in Season 3, Ep 16: "Prophet Motive"

Reaction over new Rules of Acquistion in Season 3, Ep 16: “Prophet Motive”

Whenever Deep Space Nine allows Ferengi the chance to be more than just punchlines, the result is often enjoyable, even deep–such as Quark’s wonderful admonishment of some of humanity’s past acts way back in “The Jem’Hadar”, or Nog’s drive to do more than just seek profit, which we saw just a few episodes back.

When the show reduces the Ferengi to caricatures, however, it’s a mixed bag. And, sadly, “Prophet Motive” milks this method to the point that it becomes tiring, while also managing to betray the air of mystery surrounding the wormhole’s inhabitant race, the Prophets. If I could choose the worst way for this enigmatic species to appear on the show, it would be this one.
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