skygiants | (no subject)

So we're into season 2 of Deep Space Nine, and already it is clearly a much better show than it was in Season 1 - not that I did not enjoy Season 1, because I SUPER DID, but there are definitely more episodes that I'm walking away from feeling ". . . huh, that was more complicated than I expected." (. . . with some notable exceptions.)

1. The Homecoming

This is the one where Kira and O'Brien go to rescue the GREAT HERO Li Nalas from a Cardassian prison camp. Here I must point out that in order to go on this undercover mission, Kira wears a long-sleeved shirt, some nice pants and a woven vest:

This outfit triggers the following conversation, prior to Kira's undercover entry into the camp:

KIRA: "How do I look?"
O'BRIEN: "No Cardassian could resist you!"

And indeed, the next Cardassian they meet proceeds to assume that Kira is a hired prostitute, as is apparently the plan. Which left us really puzzled, because, like . . . what? Are sweater-vests just a real turn-on for Cardassians?

ANYWAY. They rescue Li Nalas, who is clearly suffering from PTSD and just wants to retire. Sisko tells him he has an obligation to enter public life and be a symbol. THAT IS NOT A HELPFUL THING TO TELL SOMEONE WITH SEVERE TRAUMA, SISKO.

2. The Circle

This is the one where Kira gets reassigned away from DS9, and we have the hilarious scene where everyone turns up in her quarters and is like "KIRA WE LOVE YOU DON'T LEAVE" while Kira is like "@__@ I DON'T KNOW HOW TO DEAL WITH THIS MUCH AFFECTION FROM THESE WEIRDOS." It is is one of the most glorious in the series so far.

And then Kira goes to a monastery and has weird sexy dreams about one candidate for Bajoran Pope; meanwhile, the other candidate for Bajoran Pope gets seduced by the evil politician who is trying to lead the anti-Federation coup. Bajoran religious politics are very sexy, apparently.

3. The Siege

Last one in the Bajoran Politics Three-Parter! Sisko and every named character decide to stay and hold the space station against the Bajoran coup until the provisional government can regain control. Everybody else gets evacuated except a couple of unlucky redshirts that Sisko calls out by name as having a personal reason to stay and help Bajor, including Guy Whose Daughter Did A Science Fair Project With A Bajoran Kid.

Debi and I spent the rest of the episode convinced that Guy Whose Daughter Did A Science Fair Project With A Bajoran Kid was going to die cursing Sisko's name, but amazingly, this was a day where no redshirts died!

Li Nalas does however commit suicide by heroism and dies cheerfully telling Sisko he's relieved to be out of it, which: I mean, what else did you think was going to happen when you told a severely traumatized dude he was never going to get to escape his living nightmare of constant politics, Sisko? WAY TO GO.

4. Invasive Procedures

A bitter Trill dude ambushes DS9 to try to steal Dax away from Jadzia. Not much memorable about this one except Sisko enjoying himself immensely playing mind games with New Dax in order to get the symbiont back to Jadzia.

5. Cardassians

The Cardassian war orphans episode! A super complicated issue which was handled well enough that Debi and I spent every commercial break arguing about it. The end is that there's no good answer, and the show knew it, which is enough for me. Also, a lot of well-meaning fail from the O'Briens during the time they take care of the Cardassian kid, which I think was also well done in that it is very clearly shown as . . . well-meaning fail.

(This is also the episode where Bashir wanders around complaining to everyone about how Garak doesn't TELL him anything, and everyone on DS9 is like "Bashir, you need to sort our your relationship with your Cardassian boyfriend."

DEBI: So . . . do you think they are sleeping together at this point, or not yet?
BECCA: No, I think Bashir thinks he is playing hard-to-get, when in fact Garak is the one who's really enjoying playing hard-to-get.)

I do also think it's really interesting that this episode was very much a Garak-and-Bashir-and-Cardassian-politics episode and Kira was barely in it at all; like, I would actually really like to know what her viewpoint on this is.

. . . on a more shallow note, we also get to see Sisko Dealing With Situations in a ~FABULOUS DRESSING GOWN~. Is Sisko Chrestomanci? If not, can we please have a Chrestomanci crossover and a dressing-gown-off?

6. Melora

And we go straight from a really interesting and nuanced episode about complicated political and racial dynamics to a Very Special Episode About Disability. Bashir has a new girlfriend who has difficulties in space station gravity. Valuable Lessons For Everyone Ensue.

7. Rules of Acquisition

You guys have no idea how excited I was by this episode. Guys, it is a CLASSIC CROSS-DRESSING EPISODE! *__* Nobody told me I could look forward to a classic cross-dressing episode! It hits EVERY TROPE. Quark has a new pint-sized but extremely clever assistant named Pel with a giant crush on him --

JADZIA: So how long have you been in love with Quark?
PEL: How could you tell I was female?!
JADZIA: . . . you're female?!

Jadzia is absolutely the Gu Yong Ha in this episode, which meant we were all sort of disappointed when it did not end with a Sungkyunkwan Scandal-style solution of Pel staying on as Quark's live-in boyfriend/business rival. Instead, Pel goes off to the Gamma Quadrant to continue doing dudely Ferengi things, which, I mean, is fine too. And probably better for Odo, who gets in a long rant in the middle to Quark's brother about how if HE had a Quark, HE wouldn't let any jumped-up cute clever newcomer just run off and steal his affection, HE'S JUST SAYING.

Also I guess they introduce the Dominion in this episode which might be important later or something, but WHATEVER, CROSS-DRESSING.

8. Necessary Evil

YESSSS ODO-KIRA BACKSTORY EPISODE. This is the one where Odo wanders around, both in present-day and in flashbacks, doing a noir PI monologue and telling everybody who will listen that he stands for JUSTIIIIIIICE. (Okay, some of those times might have been me and Debi chorusing "JUSTICE!!!!!" during ominous silences.) Backstory Kira has awesome hair and convinced him she didn't kill the dude whose death he was investigating; present-day Kira sadly admits that she did. The Odo/Kira train is departing from this station and we are all on it.

I should also point out that when this episode began with Quark having a super soft-focus meeting with a super noir lady, Debi decided that the whole episode was a game that Quark and Odo were playing on the holodeck and would not be convinced otherwise until halfway through.

It has, relatedly, clearly gotten to the point where I need a DS9 icon. Can anyone point me to a place where one might be found?

Crossposts: http://bookelfe.livejournal.com/346217.html

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

percysowner

Cardassians is a great episode and creates so much discussion. Another site is doing episode by episode reviews and it is still going strong on this one. Melora did reek of a "very special episode" especially because there was no reason for Melora to feel discriminated against. Way back in TOS they had ships manned by various races. Spock felt the deaths of a entire ship of Vulcans. Melora would have trained in the a nice low gravity training facility and gone on missions on low gravity planets where humans would be at a disadvantage. But no, we had to have a lecture on ableism and low gravity sex. Fortunately as the series goes on more episodes are like Cardassians and Necessary Evil and less are like Melora.

From:

skygiants

Yeah, it is extra perplexing because, like . . . we know they have non-humanoid aliens in Starfleet, even! I've seen the picspam about Sisko and Bashir talking about their tree-shaped crewman's quadruplet birthday party! SURELY THEY MUST HAVE BETTER ACCOMODATIONS THAN THIS FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT BIPEDAL.

From:

allchildren

I built a time machine and made you a present!

From:

skygiants

OMG YOU DID !!!!!!!!

and what a delightful present it is *_____*

From:

nonethefewer

I am IMPATIENT for you to get to 2x19.

From:

skygiants

It is a slow process! And will probably get slower because Debi and I are going to be trying to watch together over the internet in different timezones now after next week. BUT WE'LL GET THERE.

From:

nonethefewer

*SHAKES MIGHTY FIST*

...I mean, hooray!

From:

raven

That whole scene where all of Kira's friends turn up in her quarters and AWKWARDLY EXPRESS AFFECTION, OMG. It is basically my favourite scene in all of DS9 and maybe in all of Trek. Oh SHOW.

From:

skygiants

IT'S SO GOOD. I spent the whole time with my hands clapped over my mouth and squeaking with giant shiny eyes. Odo is so tsundere! And Dax is attempting to be so sneaky! And Kira is SO CONFUSED. (And so is O'Brien, who is the only one who came out of a cheerful sense of professional courtesy, and not out of a desire to cling to Kira's ankles and never let her goooooo.)

From:

innerbrat

How did you not mention the awesome revelation that Casanova Dax has hooked up with Quark?

From:

skygiants

It's not a huge revelation, I mean, we all know Casanova Dax has hooked up with EVERYONE. (Except Bashir.)

From:

sdelmonte

IIRC, John Glover was in Invasive Procedures. And he's rarely a bad actor. But he is wasted on such small characters, as opposed to the operatic villainy he would show from time to time on Smallville.

Also IIRC, we get a lot of Frank Langella at the start of the season, but I can't recall being very impressed. The Treks tend to use guest stars well, but he just faded into the woodwork.

Melora ranks as one of the most Next Gen-ish episodes of DS9, the sort of thing that you do when you can't figure out how to be your own show. Sadly, Bashir tends to be in a lot of them.

From:

skygiants

I mean, Frank Langella is fine and all, but there are a lot of guest stars running around in that three-parter, so it's not like anyone in particularly is standing out -- especially when you have Kira stealing every scene she's in anyway.

I guess being in a Very Special Episode is the kind of thing you get a doctor to do when you can fix most medical procedures by waving a magic science wand...

From:

thirdblindmouse

Bashir gets that because he's the idealist you can do those plots with. Everyone else on DS9 has too many other issues going on.

From:

nextian

You know Li Nalas is Tony from West Side Story, right? I can't get over this. Every time I think about it I think it's funnier.

Necessary Evil isn't the best episode in the show or anything but it's the one which, when I saw it, I knew I actually loved this show, instead of just being on a shit ton of morphine. It was so, so delightful to me, in every possible sad way.

From:

skygiants

WAIT WHAT. No! What! I had NO IDEA. Forever doomed to dramatically ironic gunshots in the chest!

I think for me it was that scene in "The Circle" when I realized I had somehow gotten really deeply attached to these characters. That wasn't supposed to happen in season one!

From:

nextian

Yes. I am struggling against my urge to link you to my own gifstrewn liveblog of DS9 because it'll spoil you (it's Tumblr, so, you know, it's unfilterable by any sensible method) but yes, EXACTLY. I laughed so hard when he died and felt so bad about it.

Yeah!! THESE ARE MY FRIENDS.

From:

skygiants

AW WAIT WHAT but I want to read it. :( :( :( Can I just start at the beginning way back and figure out where to stop?

I felt guilty triumph when he died because I'd been calling it since his first appearance. SHOULDA LET HIM SNEAK OFF ON THAT SPACE SHIP, SISKO.

Yes! My terrible-at-feelings, often-terrible-at-space-ethics friends. <3

From:

nextian

It's not that long!! It's just three pages of bad jokes. Stop when you get to the pajama comic, I think that's where you're at.

From:

skygiants

PYJAMA COMIC!!! that episode came so close to my dream of an episode in which everyone just wears their gorgeous night attire all the time

Also I remember seeing the "these are my . . . friends" comic before seeing this episode and it was totally running through my head the entire time. FYI.

From:

gogollescent

"instead of just being on a shit ton of morphine"

From:

nextian

in addition to being on a shit ton of morphine, ok

From:

gogollescent

Which left us really puzzled, because, like . . . what? Are sweater-vests just a real turn-on for Cardassians?

This is especially good in the context of Garak's outfits. No wonder he's firmly of the belief that he's the one who's been an awful tease.

also: EVERYONE ABOARD THE SISKO AS CHRESTOMANCI TRAIN. god. I would also take him as Millie to Dax's… Dax.

From:

jinian

These are also the two elements to which I wanted to reply!

Is Kira's vest... tatted? What is UP with that? I'd be fascinated by her too!

In re: Siskomanci I can provide only incoherent screams of delight.

From:

skygiants

It's like she's dressed in somebody's very stylish leftover fishing net!

Just imagine the DS9 episode where he has to negotiate with a sinister alien species dressed in a tiger-skin and many strategically placed gold earrings.

From:

jinian

Oh, you haven't gotten to that one yet?

From:

skygiants

T'S TRUE. All that . . . weaving so wantonly displayed, man. Sets Cardassian hearts ALL A-FLUTTER.

. . . wow, Dax totally has nine lives, too. The only point against it is we have yet to see her in a fabulous dressing gown. I'M WAITING FOR THE DAY.

From:

gogollescent

Maybe it's a lizard thing? Cable-knit looks like scales? Scales… but fuzzy. SO DEPRAVED.

Yeah Dax never really gets the sleepwear she deserves BUT I think we can put that down to poor writer choices/cultural differences. If she were in Universe 12A, it would be brocade dressing gowns all the way down.

From:

skygiants

Cardassians have a really weird and confused reaction to, like, Figment the fuzzy dragon.

TRUE. . . . and wait, Sisko is also basically an avatar of a god, isn't he? OH WOW SISKO IS MILLIE

(although if Sisko is Christopher, that basically makes Dax Tacroy and "Necessary Evil" the incident in which Christopher ~claims Tacroy's soul~)

From:

katta

I'm a bit sorry that I didn't go through with the idea of rewatching along, because my memories of some of these eps are a bit hazy. (Though "you're female?" is a glorious line that has stuck to memory. *g*) It's super entertaining to read your summaries anyway, and it reminds me how much I love this show and its characters.