#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 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 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 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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