#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 21, “The Die is Cast”

June 28, 2013 in #DS91sttime, General Topics

A daring plan. Season 3, Episode 21, "The Die is Cast"

A daring plan. Season 3, Episode 21, “The Die is Cast”

In “The Die Is Cast”, Odo and Garak find themselves deep in a secret mission waged by a joint Romulan-Cardassian task force. Before it is over, betrayals test allegiances, and the full weight of the Dominion descends upon a first strike by Alpha Quadrant forces.

I have been waiting more than two and a half seasons to write a plot summary like this. Am I giddy? Like a Ferengi at a discount store.

This episode’s balance of intrigue, double-dealing, action and character development is just about perfect, and extra marks go to Rene Auberjonois and Andrew J. Robinson, who once again steal the show. My goodness, we need these guys playing off each other more often. Thankfully, one scene seems to hint that’s slated for the future.
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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 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
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#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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