Deep Space Nine Disc 2
Jan. 5th, 2015 09:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessBabel, Captive Pursuit, Q-less, Dax
Babel -
I had some problems with the created aphasia virus plot, like how the virus affected everyone on the station, of all races, in an order that made no intrinsic sense. Sisko and Kira withstood the virus for quite some time for no other reason than their importance as main characters. They were both of races that had been susceptible to the virus, after all.
It made sense that Odo (not a humanoid) could withstand the virus, but if the Ferengi could, we should have seen an unaffected Rom and Nog. Instead, they were only mentioned.
And oh, something that drove me spare was that lots of scenes ended with silly close-ups of character’s faces, as the actors emoted (or smelled farts) even when someone had just collapsed in front of their character and might require some assistance with that.
But watching the characters descend into fervent gibberish was effective, especially in contrast to the medical technobabble.
It started off well, with a day in the life of an overworked O’Brian on this brokendown station. There were several nice character moments throughout, particularly between Sisko and affected Jake, but again, I was thinking of characters who should have been onscreen, but weren’t, because they’re not in the main cast, for if O’Brian was so close to death, wouldn’t his wife and daughter be by his side?
Best of all was the Odo-Quark push and pull and how they were forced to co-operate by circumstances in the end. It was delicious that Quark, who helped the spread of the virus by his self-serving sneakiness, ended up being in charge of the station.
I liked Captive Pursuit more although the Prime Directive doesn’t seem to mean what I thought it meant.
So, enter the station’s first visitor from the Gamma Quadrant, and Dax blithely suggests they skip first contact protocols. That's Dax who has at least one Starfleet career behind her. Cue O’Brian striking up a relationship with the almost naive Task. Things are not all hunky-dory. Shocker.
Cue more aliens and it emerges they’re hunters and Task their genetically modified prey. Blah blah non-interference even though the Federationites are appalled and really, I found all this a bit of a disappointing trope to pick for first contact with aliens from the GQ, and as they vowed to keep the AQ out of bounds for the hunt in future, it lead nowhere in the grand scheme of things. Well, we saw O’Brian’s diplomatic skills and analytical side.
I also liked Q-less more than the previous ep, although coming at it as a fan of this show and the universe in general, rather than someone who’d been watching ST: TNG for the last few years, I wasn’t quite as enthralled with where the focus was. Sure, Q/Vash’s banter was fun, and you could see why she'd had enough, but Sisko and Q didn’t spark like Picard and Q did. Vash’s interactions with the crew were more interesting, but she was never going to hang around and be Quark’s partner (although wouldn’t that have been something? The question of whether they were equally avaricious and ruthless was more interesting than Julian’s skirt chasing.) I’d rather learn more about DS9’s crew than have a holdover from the mothership, as it were. Again, we were given mere tidbits about the Gamma Quadrant.
As soon as I realised Q was a distraction, and worked out exactly what was the cause of the station’s problems (not hard) the plot got less interesting. It was the character moments involving the regulars that got to me – Jadzia Dax being amused by Julian, O’Brien saying ‘for the first time everything’s working on the station’ and Quartk trying to tempt Odo into desiring a latinum bucket.
I liked Dax even more although I had to set aside my conviction that there must be legal precedent as to whether a joined Trill could be held responsible for the (alleged) criminal acts of an antecedent. But it was a gripping question, studying Sisko’s friendships with Curzon Dax and Jadzia Dax.
If the angry son (wee Minelli from The Mentalist – the connections between that show and Trek multiply) had tried to extradite Jadzia Daz properly, he might not have ticked the Bajorans off so much, although Sisko would sill have fought as hard, I suppose.
Beautiful Terry Farrell got to do a lot of silent acting as Jadzia stayed mum. Odo was great, blackmailing Qaurk and going along with Sisko’s orders for the sake of finding the truth, while bringing his trademark cynicism along.
The basic questions were thrashed out, and the answer (that Curzon Dax wasn’t guilty of the crime anyway and Jadzia was staying quiet for other reasons) was both a dodge and dramatic.
100 seemed to be a big number in this episode. I was surprised Keiko’s mother was that old – the same age as the fierce Bajoran judge – so what was the number’s significance?
Anyway, the fact that I liked each episode more than the last is something.
Babel -
I had some problems with the created aphasia virus plot, like how the virus affected everyone on the station, of all races, in an order that made no intrinsic sense. Sisko and Kira withstood the virus for quite some time for no other reason than their importance as main characters. They were both of races that had been susceptible to the virus, after all.
It made sense that Odo (not a humanoid) could withstand the virus, but if the Ferengi could, we should have seen an unaffected Rom and Nog. Instead, they were only mentioned.
And oh, something that drove me spare was that lots of scenes ended with silly close-ups of character’s faces, as the actors emoted (or smelled farts) even when someone had just collapsed in front of their character and might require some assistance with that.
But watching the characters descend into fervent gibberish was effective, especially in contrast to the medical technobabble.
It started off well, with a day in the life of an overworked O’Brian on this brokendown station. There were several nice character moments throughout, particularly between Sisko and affected Jake, but again, I was thinking of characters who should have been onscreen, but weren’t, because they’re not in the main cast, for if O’Brian was so close to death, wouldn’t his wife and daughter be by his side?
Best of all was the Odo-Quark push and pull and how they were forced to co-operate by circumstances in the end. It was delicious that Quark, who helped the spread of the virus by his self-serving sneakiness, ended up being in charge of the station.
I liked Captive Pursuit more although the Prime Directive doesn’t seem to mean what I thought it meant.
So, enter the station’s first visitor from the Gamma Quadrant, and Dax blithely suggests they skip first contact protocols. That's Dax who has at least one Starfleet career behind her. Cue O’Brian striking up a relationship with the almost naive Task. Things are not all hunky-dory. Shocker.
Cue more aliens and it emerges they’re hunters and Task their genetically modified prey. Blah blah non-interference even though the Federationites are appalled and really, I found all this a bit of a disappointing trope to pick for first contact with aliens from the GQ, and as they vowed to keep the AQ out of bounds for the hunt in future, it lead nowhere in the grand scheme of things. Well, we saw O’Brian’s diplomatic skills and analytical side.
I also liked Q-less more than the previous ep, although coming at it as a fan of this show and the universe in general, rather than someone who’d been watching ST: TNG for the last few years, I wasn’t quite as enthralled with where the focus was. Sure, Q/Vash’s banter was fun, and you could see why she'd had enough, but Sisko and Q didn’t spark like Picard and Q did. Vash’s interactions with the crew were more interesting, but she was never going to hang around and be Quark’s partner (although wouldn’t that have been something? The question of whether they were equally avaricious and ruthless was more interesting than Julian’s skirt chasing.) I’d rather learn more about DS9’s crew than have a holdover from the mothership, as it were. Again, we were given mere tidbits about the Gamma Quadrant.
As soon as I realised Q was a distraction, and worked out exactly what was the cause of the station’s problems (not hard) the plot got less interesting. It was the character moments involving the regulars that got to me – Jadzia Dax being amused by Julian, O’Brien saying ‘for the first time everything’s working on the station’ and Quartk trying to tempt Odo into desiring a latinum bucket.
I liked Dax even more although I had to set aside my conviction that there must be legal precedent as to whether a joined Trill could be held responsible for the (alleged) criminal acts of an antecedent. But it was a gripping question, studying Sisko’s friendships with Curzon Dax and Jadzia Dax.
If the angry son (wee Minelli from The Mentalist – the connections between that show and Trek multiply) had tried to extradite Jadzia Daz properly, he might not have ticked the Bajorans off so much, although Sisko would sill have fought as hard, I suppose.
Beautiful Terry Farrell got to do a lot of silent acting as Jadzia stayed mum. Odo was great, blackmailing Qaurk and going along with Sisko’s orders for the sake of finding the truth, while bringing his trademark cynicism along.
The basic questions were thrashed out, and the answer (that Curzon Dax wasn’t guilty of the crime anyway and Jadzia was staying quiet for other reasons) was both a dodge and dramatic.
100 seemed to be a big number in this episode. I was surprised Keiko’s mother was that old – the same age as the fierce Bajoran judge – so what was the number’s significance?
Anyway, the fact that I liked each episode more than the last is something.
