#DS91sttime: Season 4, Episode 15, “Sons of Mogh”

April 7, 2014 in #DS91sttime, General Topics

Kurn from Deep Space Nine: "Sons of Mogh"

Family problems. Kurn from DS9, Season Four, Ep 15: “Sons of Mogh”

By the very nature of all the writing that I do, and how busy I stay, I usually only get the chance to post one of these episode reviews weeks after I’ve seen the subject. That’s usually a good thing, because I have time for any initial emotional reaction to settle and can be more objective about what I did or did not like about the latest installment.

This time, when I came back to write another review, I realized that I’d forgotten I’d watched “Sons of Mogh”. If you think that means I wasn’t engaged with this entry in the series; that I might have seen significant problems with it–well, you’re right. Read the rest of this entry →

#DS91sttime: Season 4, Episode 14, “Return to Grace”

March 19, 2014 in #DS91sttime, General Topics

A man on multiple missions. Season 4, Ep 14, "Return to Grace"

A man on multiple missions. Season 4, Ep 14, “Return to Grace”

You know what I find myself saying often when I watch Deep Space Nine? That it’s time for Mark Alaimo to come back for another great performance. Seriously, in any talk of this show’s finest actors, Alaimo just has to be in consideration. Gul Dukat is perhaps the most nuanced of the Trek villains, even more multidimensional than the legendary Khan.

So we can forgive yet another premise that sees Kira thrust into a mission with the wayward Cardassian commander. This happens all the time, sure, but taking issue with it would be a bit like complaining about another helping of fudge in your ice cream. Alaimo raises the bar for everyone else on the show when he’s present, Nana Visitor plays off his character fantastically, and…well, isn’t that all that matters? Read the rest of this entry →

#DS91sttime: Season 4, Episode 11, “Homefront”

December 21, 2013 in #DS91sttime, General Topics

Joseph Sisko and son, from Season Four, Ep 11, "Homefront"

Joseph Sisko and son, from Season Four, Ep 11, “Homefront”

Well, that didn’t take long. Just when I’d started complaining about this season spending too much time away from the core Dominion plot arc, we’re thrown into a terrorist attack taking place on Earth itself in “Homefront”. This gives us a strong episode, and one that resonates with a post-9/11 audience even more than it must have back in the late 90’s. More on that in a moment.

The episode opens to Dax and Sisko observing the wormhole’s odd activity–it’s been opening and closing like a revolving door at a busy downtown office, but there’s no sign of any ships leaving it. That should have screamed “get a perimeter around it, and start scanning”, but it’s basically shrugged off by Sisko, while the Bajorans on board see it as a possible sign from the prophets. Read the rest of this entry →

#DS91sttime: Season 4, Episode 10, “Our Man Bashir”

December 6, 2013 in #DS91sttime, General Topics

Season Four, Ep 10, "Our Man Bashir"

Season Four, Ep 10, “Our Man Bashir”

Several years ago I was at Dragon*Con waiting for the start of an event in one of the grand ballrooms. Said event was running behind schedule, so the organizers had several people playing “You Don’t Know Jack”, live, while everyone else waited for the real deal to start. I’m pretty sure the demo of the game (which was all it really was) wasn’t supposed to run nearly an hour, but it did.

I knew the main event was delayed, and no announcement had been made as to why, as the organizers apparently thought “…Jack” would keep us sufficiently distracted. I had a lot of laughs, true, but I kept thinking to myself “man, this is taking a while”.

That’s what this season has felt like. We know the Dominion is circling ever closer, but the showrunners don’t seem to be interested in going to the show’s core plot just yet. So we keep getting distractions.

We’ve had an homage to old alien invasion flicks, a send-off to Indiana Jones, and now it seems we’re going to be delving into James Bond territory. “Our Man Bashir” is very much like “Little Green Men”, in that the plot is outlandish, and it makes few apologies for it. Read the rest of this entry →

#DS91sttime: Season 4, Episode 9, “The Sword of Kahless”

November 1, 2013 in #DS91sttime, General Topics

Kor: a great character if there ever was one.

Kor: a great character if there ever was one.

“The Sword of Kahless” is almost a love letter to the treasure-hunting adventure genre. There are so many borrowed tropes in this episode that one wouldn’t be surprised to see Indiana Jones himself show up, perhaps with a phaser in the place of his trusty revolver, cracking away with a Ferengi energy whip.

As I’ve said so many times, no one owns tropes, and I can think of worse things than such an homage within the Star Trek universe. But the affection might have gone a little too far, because this adventure’s similar ending to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade undermines the plot development up to that point. As in, we’re left wondering if there was a point. Read the rest of this entry →