Commence station log
Dec. 19th, 2014 08:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessDeep Space Nine Disc 1
Emissary is the feature length opening that does a bravura job of setting up a show that was a spin-off (of a spin-off), making clear DS9 was going to be its own thing, but honouring its origins. Nostalgia might have been a part of my enjoyment - and I all but hugged myself, knowing most of what was to come for these characters, good and bad, - but I enjoyed it for what it does. It has to fit into the optimistic Star Trek universe, but takes many of the darkest elements of TNG (Borg, the Cardassian occupation of Bajor) and, of course, the show is set at a space station, a static location that’s not the exploring starship on its ongoing mession we were so familiar with in all the previous TV and film iterations of Trek. Actually, it’s still unique in that regard. Of course, by the end of the episode with the discovery of the stable wormhole – and we’ve seen that DS9 can move, if nowhere near warp speed – the unknown of the Gamma Quadrant is dangled before us, as well as transforming the strategic importance of DS9 and Bajor.
Tension abounds throughout the episode, Sisko – broken by his grief and anger over what happened to his wife – is no friend of Picard, for it was when he was Locutus of Borg that Sisko’s wife was killed on the Saratoga. This understandable antagonism to Jean-Luc adds a charge to the handover from TNG, while Picard’s goodbye to former crewman O’Brien is much more what you’d expect, as the recurring guest star gets promoted to being this show’s Scotty. He was a rare familiar face when the show first aired. Although Sisko was a human, Starfleet presence, with his own son to bring up alone (but Jake seems reassuringly normal, and it’s interesting that two of the family units on the show were male) and we’d met Bajorans, Cardassians, Ferengi and Trill before, the individual characters need to be introduced.
And there are inherent tensions – it is far from a well-seasoned, well-oiled crew who have voluntarily joined the service. The Federation has been asked to step in at a delicate juncture in newly liberated Bajor, and not everyone welcomes its presence, to put it mildly. The future of the space station and the nearby planet are fragile, with the Cardassians still hanging about and people like Quark threatening to leave and choke off its future prospects.
I’d forgotten how much I loved and enjoyed Kira Nerys. If you want a one-woman army, here she is. A former freedom fighter (other terms may apply) who resents the fact that her people need the Federation’s help, she will stand up to the hated Cardassians, but not at any price. There’s a pragmatist there, under the punchiness. And we already get to see that she’s just one voice in the debate about Bajor’s future. The religious/spiritual aspect is introduced, although Sisko’s role as the Emissary is barely glanced at here. His encounter with the Prophets, beyond establishing what they are and the wormhole, is more about him acknowledging the scale of his trauma and taking the first step towards healing. Though their Vulcan ‘what is this x/baseball/time you speak of?’ questioning was hilarious.
It’s great to hear Avery Brooks’s voice again, and his occasional unexpected OTT flourishes mean that his Sisko is never boring.
Unlike us and the Starfleet personnel, Kira’s got history around these parts, as do prickly shapeshifter Odo and Quark – not the first Ferengi we meet, interestingly. Their antagonism – the representative of law and order and the crook - is there from the beginning.
The space station is battered, not new and shiny. (Bajor was meant to be ravaged after the Cardassian occupation, but the land where Kai Opaka resided seemed in good shape.)
Certainly, all these years on, the SFX seem on the cartoonish side – although I liked the trippy wormhole, and I thought the shaky cam on the Saratoga was ‘meh’. Picard mentions the Prime Directive, but surely that doesn’t apply - the Bajorans seem to be fine with travelling in space and if they hadn’t come up with it themselves, the Cardassians let that horse out of the stable. Modern shows might add even more detail, but this doesn’t stint on character – the serenely amused Trill Jadzia Dax is intriguing (I loved her too first time around) and Odo was definitely something new for a regular character.
Episode 2 - Past Prologue
While not quite as big in scope as the pilot episode, this is a good follow-up. It delves into the characters and the past shared by some – Kira and Odo don’t believe the Odo they know can be guilty of murder – and altered lives – Sisko is settling into his new relationship with this Dax, on whom Julian is puppishly crushing. (I thought that they did a good job of giving Julian and Jadzia a little more attention, as they’d been the last to arrive at the station and got the least screen time of the regulars in ‘Emissary’). And Keiko, another TNG face, needs something to do now that she’s definitely not on the Enterprise any more.
There was an echo of westerns as Sherriff Odo and bartender Quark are the best of enemies, new man in town Sisko has to administer justice and not yield to mob law, and schoolmarm Keiko takes charge of Jake and Nog.
It’s the beginning of many beautiful friendships.
Kira gets a new hairstyle, which is probably the most obvious symptom of the second episode syndrome. Oh, and I did think that the episode glossed over the questions arsing from cloning, though. I don’t recall if there were any other Bajoran clones over the years, but they just blanked all these ethical and practical questions that surely arose.
Episode 3 - Past Prologue
This becomes a riveting episode (if slightly lacking in subtleties) about Kira’s loyalties. Meanwhile, enter Garak, playing with Julian Bashir. Robinson’s Garak is a (camp) delight, offering a more nuanced take on the Cardassians. Throw in a pair of Klingon sisters (I don’t remember them, but they appeared on TNG, right?) wearing costumes I would have liked to have seen burned (a hole to show off their cleavage and BEG FOR THROWING KNIVES TO USE AS A TARGET? Think again, wardrobe).
Although we end with a chase after a bomb, basically, the thrill comes from Kira’s choices and the examination of how you move from a war footing to peace, as an individual and as a people, epitomised in a really good scene where Kira asks for Odo’s advice. Despite Kira’s aggressive bluntnesss, Visitor pitches it perfectly throughout the episode.
Emissary is the feature length opening that does a bravura job of setting up a show that was a spin-off (of a spin-off), making clear DS9 was going to be its own thing, but honouring its origins. Nostalgia might have been a part of my enjoyment - and I all but hugged myself, knowing most of what was to come for these characters, good and bad, - but I enjoyed it for what it does. It has to fit into the optimistic Star Trek universe, but takes many of the darkest elements of TNG (Borg, the Cardassian occupation of Bajor) and, of course, the show is set at a space station, a static location that’s not the exploring starship on its ongoing mession we were so familiar with in all the previous TV and film iterations of Trek. Actually, it’s still unique in that regard. Of course, by the end of the episode with the discovery of the stable wormhole – and we’ve seen that DS9 can move, if nowhere near warp speed – the unknown of the Gamma Quadrant is dangled before us, as well as transforming the strategic importance of DS9 and Bajor.
Tension abounds throughout the episode, Sisko – broken by his grief and anger over what happened to his wife – is no friend of Picard, for it was when he was Locutus of Borg that Sisko’s wife was killed on the Saratoga. This understandable antagonism to Jean-Luc adds a charge to the handover from TNG, while Picard’s goodbye to former crewman O’Brien is much more what you’d expect, as the recurring guest star gets promoted to being this show’s Scotty. He was a rare familiar face when the show first aired. Although Sisko was a human, Starfleet presence, with his own son to bring up alone (but Jake seems reassuringly normal, and it’s interesting that two of the family units on the show were male) and we’d met Bajorans, Cardassians, Ferengi and Trill before, the individual characters need to be introduced.
And there are inherent tensions – it is far from a well-seasoned, well-oiled crew who have voluntarily joined the service. The Federation has been asked to step in at a delicate juncture in newly liberated Bajor, and not everyone welcomes its presence, to put it mildly. The future of the space station and the nearby planet are fragile, with the Cardassians still hanging about and people like Quark threatening to leave and choke off its future prospects.
I’d forgotten how much I loved and enjoyed Kira Nerys. If you want a one-woman army, here she is. A former freedom fighter (other terms may apply) who resents the fact that her people need the Federation’s help, she will stand up to the hated Cardassians, but not at any price. There’s a pragmatist there, under the punchiness. And we already get to see that she’s just one voice in the debate about Bajor’s future. The religious/spiritual aspect is introduced, although Sisko’s role as the Emissary is barely glanced at here. His encounter with the Prophets, beyond establishing what they are and the wormhole, is more about him acknowledging the scale of his trauma and taking the first step towards healing. Though their Vulcan ‘what is this x/baseball/time you speak of?’ questioning was hilarious.
It’s great to hear Avery Brooks’s voice again, and his occasional unexpected OTT flourishes mean that his Sisko is never boring.
Unlike us and the Starfleet personnel, Kira’s got history around these parts, as do prickly shapeshifter Odo and Quark – not the first Ferengi we meet, interestingly. Their antagonism – the representative of law and order and the crook - is there from the beginning.
The space station is battered, not new and shiny. (Bajor was meant to be ravaged after the Cardassian occupation, but the land where Kai Opaka resided seemed in good shape.)
Certainly, all these years on, the SFX seem on the cartoonish side – although I liked the trippy wormhole, and I thought the shaky cam on the Saratoga was ‘meh’. Picard mentions the Prime Directive, but surely that doesn’t apply - the Bajorans seem to be fine with travelling in space and if they hadn’t come up with it themselves, the Cardassians let that horse out of the stable. Modern shows might add even more detail, but this doesn’t stint on character – the serenely amused Trill Jadzia Dax is intriguing (I loved her too first time around) and Odo was definitely something new for a regular character.
Episode 2 - Past Prologue
While not quite as big in scope as the pilot episode, this is a good follow-up. It delves into the characters and the past shared by some – Kira and Odo don’t believe the Odo they know can be guilty of murder – and altered lives – Sisko is settling into his new relationship with this Dax, on whom Julian is puppishly crushing. (I thought that they did a good job of giving Julian and Jadzia a little more attention, as they’d been the last to arrive at the station and got the least screen time of the regulars in ‘Emissary’). And Keiko, another TNG face, needs something to do now that she’s definitely not on the Enterprise any more.
There was an echo of westerns as Sherriff Odo and bartender Quark are the best of enemies, new man in town Sisko has to administer justice and not yield to mob law, and schoolmarm Keiko takes charge of Jake and Nog.
It’s the beginning of many beautiful friendships.
Kira gets a new hairstyle, which is probably the most obvious symptom of the second episode syndrome. Oh, and I did think that the episode glossed over the questions arsing from cloning, though. I don’t recall if there were any other Bajoran clones over the years, but they just blanked all these ethical and practical questions that surely arose.
Episode 3 - Past Prologue
This becomes a riveting episode (if slightly lacking in subtleties) about Kira’s loyalties. Meanwhile, enter Garak, playing with Julian Bashir. Robinson’s Garak is a (camp) delight, offering a more nuanced take on the Cardassians. Throw in a pair of Klingon sisters (I don’t remember them, but they appeared on TNG, right?) wearing costumes I would have liked to have seen burned (a hole to show off their cleavage and BEG FOR THROWING KNIVES TO USE AS A TARGET? Think again, wardrobe).
Although we end with a chase after a bomb, basically, the thrill comes from Kira’s choices and the examination of how you move from a war footing to peace, as an individual and as a people, epitomised in a really good scene where Kira asks for Odo’s advice. Despite Kira’s aggressive bluntnesss, Visitor pitches it perfectly throughout the episode.
