#DS91sttime: Season 3, Episode 15, “Destiny”

May 10, 2013 in #DS91sttime, General Topics

The sophisticated targets of a priest's ire in Season 3, Ep 15: "Destiny"

The sophisticated targets of a priest’s ire in Season 3, Ep 15: “Destiny”

I don’t know if it was in vogue to be in a Trek series back in the 90’s, or if Deep Space Nine‘s producers just believed in a bevy of good guest stars, but either way Erick Avari showed up in this episode. You might recall him from tiny art house productions, like Stargate.

Here, he’s Vedek Yarka, warning Commander Sisko not to allow a group of female Cardassian scientists on board. A prophecy from the show’s enigmatic Bajoran religion is afoot, and the Vedek thinks letting these ladies participate in their joint Federation/Cardassian project–intended to create a way to pass messages through the wormhole–will destroy it.
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#DS91sttime: Season 3, Episode 14, “Heart of Stone”

May 6, 2013 in #DS91sttime, General Topics, Other Stuff

Odo's dilemma, Season 3, Ep 14: "Heart of Stone"

Odo’s dilemma, Season 3, Ep 14: “Heart of Stone”

When in doubt, and crafting a Trek episode, give the sets group a call and tell them you’re dragging out the cave system again. No other location, except perhaps Californian woodland, has seen so much screen time as an off-world locale in this franchise’s history.

Odo and Kira, returning from another one of those conferences we always hear about but never see, run afoul of a marauding Maquis, and pursue him to planet Sensor Disruption IV. On-world, they commit the AD&D faux pas of splitting the party, and the entire situation falls apart as Kira gets her foot trapped in a crystal. Said crystal is growing.
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#DS91sttime: Season 3, Episode 13, “Life Support”

May 1, 2013 in #DS91sttime, General Topics

Twitter hastag: #DS91sttimeAs I’ve said before, Deep Space Nine does a great job with its villains, making them so much more than one-dimensional. The way this show employs its baddies is a credit to the writing. When it comes to other supporting characters, though, it’s sometimes a mixed bag.

“Life Support” displays both of these tendencies. Here, in Season 3, the writers are doing some housecleaning, and unfortunately it looks like poor Vedek Bareil is going to get the axe. The cause? Supposedly, a nasty accident up in the docking ring that severely wounds him on the eve of key negotiations with the Cardassians.
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#DS91sttime: Season 3, Episodes 11 & 12, “Past Tense, Part I”, “Past Tense, Part II”

April 25, 2013 in #DS91sttime, General Topics

A stark welcome to the mid-21st century.

A stark welcome to the mid-21st century.

…And just when I get used to the tempo of tension leading up to the Dominion War, here comes “Past Tense”, Parts 1 and 2. Did someone invite Paul Verhoeven on-set for a few days? This kind of neobrutalism-painted dystopia is his trademark.

No, actually this is Ronald D. Moore’s characteristic grit and character-focus getting a chance to shine several years before Battlestar Galactica gets its day in the sun. Man, oh man, is it pretty.
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#DS91sttime: Looking back via Season Three Episodes

April 17, 2013 in #DS91sttime, General Topics

Twitter hastag: #DS91sttimeI just finished “Meridian“, “Defiant“, and “Fascination“.If you take these three episodes, break them over the rock of analysis like some caveman cracking open an egg, you’ll see in the yoke everything Deep Space Nine has been about until this mid-season three point.

This is a show defined by what it wants to be almost as much as what it is. What I most respect about DS9, so far, is it is always pushing itself to be bigger than it was two or three episodes prior. It exudes gusto. By season three, it’s just about gotten a sense of itself, but the journey has been rough.

Deep Space Nine was a bit of a wild beast when released into the Star Trek pantheon. You get the impression that—prior to filming the pilot—the show’s producers and writers were sitting around on-fire to take a different tract, not just on Trek but its approach to storytelling. It became obvious to me during the first season that no one, not even the show’s writers, seemed to know quite what they wanted to do with it after it debuted. The results (in said first season) are like someone decided to chuck some cage-kept animal into the wild, and just see what it tore into first.
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