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Mar. 4th, 2014 07:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsSo I had an amazing time in Dublin and did all sorts of awesome things! (Including the Book of Kells, AMAZING, thanks to everyone who reminded me that it was there.)
...but sinceinnerbrat was there we also watched some Deep Space Nine, which brings me to my next episode post.
15. Destiny
This is one of those "Sisko vs. the Bajoran religion!" episodes, where there's an Ambiguous Prophecy, and religious Bajorans would like Sisko not to do the thing, but Sisko insists on doing the thing, but it's OK because the prophecy is ambiguous so the thing turns out not to actually be terrible, and in the end they decide Sisko should probably just do whatever thing he feels like doing and it seems likely to turn out OK.
Mostly notable for: a.) ADORABLE Cardassian lady scientists and b.) confirmation of the fact that Cardassians flirt by getting really irritable and snipey. THIS WILL BE RELEVANT LATER.
16. Prophet Motive
A Ferengi episode in which the wormhole aliens brainwash the Grand Nagus into anti-Ferengi benevolence, and Quark, as a proper pious Ferengi, has to go glare them down into putting him back to normal. This is obviously all played for comedic value but s actually kind of fascinating, because the wormhole aliens are SO JUDGY about Ferengi values, which ... one sort of imagines they picked up from Sisko, who gave them their whole concept of a time-based value system, and who is also INCREDIBLY JUDGY about Ferengi values. In his heart of hearts Sisko really believes everyone should trot along politely on human Starfleet values because they are the BEST values, which is one of Sisko's biggest flaws and also one of the most interesting things about him.
So basically I really wish this episode had included the scene in which Quark goes and yells at Sisko about how his human-centric values almost started a FERENGI RELIGIOUS WAR. How d'you like them apples, Mr. Peace-loving Starfleet Diplomat?
Unrelatedly, this episode also kicks off the trend of Odo name-dropping his SPY FRIENDS in every corner of Starfleet, Bajor and Cardassia, which is AMAZING, because you know te friendships are all just Odo and someone in a dark cloak lurking in a corridor muttering JUSTICE to each other. What I'm trying to say is that Odo is obviously friends with Starfleet Batman.
17. Visionary
I would just like to point out that you could basically shuffle the titles of these last three episodes in a bag, pull them out, and randomly apply them to each other, and they would all still make sense. By which I mean, these titles are all SO VAGUE AND BLAND. The writers were just not trying.
You know who else was not trying in this episode? BASHIR. So this is the episode in which O'Brien gets radiation poisoning and keeps hopping forward in time, and then discovers that DS9 is going to blow up, so Bashir injects him with MORE radiation to do a controlled time-jump ... AND IT KILLS HIM. IT LITERALLY KILLS O'BRIEN. Then the Future O'Brien that he meets jumps back and becomes Past O'Brien, in the WRONG UNIVERSE FOREVER, actually, and Bashir is just kind of like SHRUG, WELL, ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. No, Bashir. No. You KILLED YOUR FRIEND WITH SCIENCE. That is not all's well ending well.
Do you think anyone's going to tell Keiko about this? I bet no one ever tells Keiko about this.
However, I do find it hilarious that we posited the existence of Clo'Briens in Season One, and ever since then O'Brien has had, like, at LEAST one plot per season where there's multiple O'Briens hanging around in one shot. It's basically his go-to!
18. Distant Voices
This is the one where we spend a whole episode in Bashir's head, so ... I thought it was kind of boring ...
Mostly notable for his perceptions of the rest of the cast, in which Garak plays SEXY DANGER like he always does in Bashir's head, Sisko plays PROFESSIONALISM and is therefore a much better doctor than Bashir usually is (SISKO doesn't do any dodgy medical experiments!) and O'Brien plays Bashir's sense of fear and caution, which creates a very un-O'Brien-like O'Brien but makes a lot of sense if you read it as a SUBCONSCIOUS EXPRESSION OF BASHIR'S GUILT OVER LITERALLY KILLING HIM IN THE LAST EPISODE.
19. Through the Looking Glass
Mirror episode mirror episode mirror episode! *___*
Sisko in the mirrorverse is AMAZING because he's ... really distressingly good at playing Morally Ambiguous Space Pirate Han Sisko, like, really good at it, and also REALLY DISTRESSED at being good at it, because Morally Ambiguous Space Pirate Han Sisko is such a DICK, but there's also a tiny part of him that's like "....what would it be like to be a dashing space pirate?"
However we were disappointed that at no point during the episode did Sisko whip out a picture of Jake and start having dad feelings all over Jennifer.
20. and 21. Improbable Cause and The Die is Cast
This episode really threw us, because Bashir and Garak having their married-couple bickering session about Julius Caesar in the beginning of the show made us think the whole time that Garak was actually triple-crossing his old Cardassian BFF when he temporarily switched sides, and in fact someone else was the traitor to the Cardassians and Garak was actually ... being genuine ...? I can't decide if this is inappropriately misdirected foreshadowing, or actually a brilliant misdirection.
Anyway these episodes are in fact GREAT. Road Trip with Garak and Odo, Torture and Angst and Reluctant Bonding Ensues! This is basically a recipe guaranteed for success. DS9 does amazing road trip episodes.
Also great: the return of Commander Eddington, who sabotages the mission to rescue Odo out of respect for ORDERS, thus endearing himself to Sisko for the first time as the only person to respect the uniform as much as Sisko does. This is -- I think? -- the guy who introduced himself at the beginning of Season Three by explaining that he was here to make friends, and immediately starred as the villain in everybody's hallucinogenic fantasies. We're so excited to see him again, STILL TRAGICALLY FAILING TO MAKE FRIENDS WITH THE MAIN CAST. ("I'm friends with Odo too!" says Eddington. DOES ODO KNOW THAT, EDDINGTON?)
Also also great: Odo's SHEER JOY in drawing out his interrogation of the assassin perfume merchant. I love the episodes where Odo gets to play noir detective because Odo loves it so much.
22. Explorers
Speaking of road trip episodes, this is kind of adorable. Sisko builds a Historically Accurate Bajoran spaceship and takes a road trip with Jake to prove it can fly! We're pretty sure that this is Sisko's way of getting all the Space Pirate Han Sisko stuff out of his system in the NERDIEST WAY HUMANLY POSSIBLE. Sisko also grows a goatee, which is probably a Historically Accurate Bajoran Goatee, because Sisko absolutely proves himself in this episode to be that kind of Regency cosplayer who refuses to use sewing machines because they wouldn't have had them in the 1700s. I LOVE SISKO SO MUCH.
(DEBI: I want an episode in which Sisko grows the goatee and everyone else spends the episode cautiously checking to make sure he's not an evil mirror universe Sisko.
BECCA: "Quick, Dax, try and make out with him! If he runs away, it's real Sisko!")
There is also a scene where Dukat shows up to taunt Sisko about his model Bajoran ship and be like "you realize that you're probably going to die en route, right?" and it is ... really flirty ... especially when you take into account Cardassian flirtiness ...
BECCA: I bet Dukat is just going to stalk Sisko all through his road trip just in case he turns out to need a really smarmy rescue.
AND THEN SISKO GETS BLOWN OFF COURSE TO CARDASSIAN SPACE AND DUKAT IMMEDIATELY SHOWS UP TO BE SMARMY ABOUT IT. I - I didn't expect to be right! Guys! This is so distressing! I'm starting to feel the same way about Sisko-Dukat scenes that I do about Odo-Quark scenes. HELP. THIS IS INAPPROPRIATE.
Oh, also there's a B-plot in which Bashir's hot school valedictorian rival turns up, and everyone has bets going on whether they're going to hook up, and it turns out she doesn't remember him at all because he was just really boring and bland in school.
DEBI: He spent all his time studying, he didn't get hot until after graduation!
BECCA: I bet someone in his class had a bet on about whether they could glam Bashir up in time for prom.
DEBI: He took off his glasses, he tossed back his hair, and suddenly he was beautiful!
BECCA: And then he spent the whole summer after med school being suddenly beautiful and it went to his head, which is why he's SUCH a tool.
...but since
innerbrat was there we also watched some Deep Space Nine, which brings me to my next episode post.15. Destiny
This is one of those "Sisko vs. the Bajoran religion!" episodes, where there's an Ambiguous Prophecy, and religious Bajorans would like Sisko not to do the thing, but Sisko insists on doing the thing, but it's OK because the prophecy is ambiguous so the thing turns out not to actually be terrible, and in the end they decide Sisko should probably just do whatever thing he feels like doing and it seems likely to turn out OK.
Mostly notable for: a.) ADORABLE Cardassian lady scientists and b.) confirmation of the fact that Cardassians flirt by getting really irritable and snipey. THIS WILL BE RELEVANT LATER.
16. Prophet Motive
A Ferengi episode in which the wormhole aliens brainwash the Grand Nagus into anti-Ferengi benevolence, and Quark, as a proper pious Ferengi, has to go glare them down into putting him back to normal. This is obviously all played for comedic value but s actually kind of fascinating, because the wormhole aliens are SO JUDGY about Ferengi values, which ... one sort of imagines they picked up from Sisko, who gave them their whole concept of a time-based value system, and who is also INCREDIBLY JUDGY about Ferengi values. In his heart of hearts Sisko really believes everyone should trot along politely on human Starfleet values because they are the BEST values, which is one of Sisko's biggest flaws and also one of the most interesting things about him.
So basically I really wish this episode had included the scene in which Quark goes and yells at Sisko about how his human-centric values almost started a FERENGI RELIGIOUS WAR. How d'you like them apples, Mr. Peace-loving Starfleet Diplomat?
Unrelatedly, this episode also kicks off the trend of Odo name-dropping his SPY FRIENDS in every corner of Starfleet, Bajor and Cardassia, which is AMAZING, because you know te friendships are all just Odo and someone in a dark cloak lurking in a corridor muttering JUSTICE to each other. What I'm trying to say is that Odo is obviously friends with Starfleet Batman.
17. Visionary
I would just like to point out that you could basically shuffle the titles of these last three episodes in a bag, pull them out, and randomly apply them to each other, and they would all still make sense. By which I mean, these titles are all SO VAGUE AND BLAND. The writers were just not trying.
You know who else was not trying in this episode? BASHIR. So this is the episode in which O'Brien gets radiation poisoning and keeps hopping forward in time, and then discovers that DS9 is going to blow up, so Bashir injects him with MORE radiation to do a controlled time-jump ... AND IT KILLS HIM. IT LITERALLY KILLS O'BRIEN. Then the Future O'Brien that he meets jumps back and becomes Past O'Brien, in the WRONG UNIVERSE FOREVER, actually, and Bashir is just kind of like SHRUG, WELL, ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. No, Bashir. No. You KILLED YOUR FRIEND WITH SCIENCE. That is not all's well ending well.
Do you think anyone's going to tell Keiko about this? I bet no one ever tells Keiko about this.
However, I do find it hilarious that we posited the existence of Clo'Briens in Season One, and ever since then O'Brien has had, like, at LEAST one plot per season where there's multiple O'Briens hanging around in one shot. It's basically his go-to!
18. Distant Voices
This is the one where we spend a whole episode in Bashir's head, so ... I thought it was kind of boring ...
Mostly notable for his perceptions of the rest of the cast, in which Garak plays SEXY DANGER like he always does in Bashir's head, Sisko plays PROFESSIONALISM and is therefore a much better doctor than Bashir usually is (SISKO doesn't do any dodgy medical experiments!) and O'Brien plays Bashir's sense of fear and caution, which creates a very un-O'Brien-like O'Brien but makes a lot of sense if you read it as a SUBCONSCIOUS EXPRESSION OF BASHIR'S GUILT OVER LITERALLY KILLING HIM IN THE LAST EPISODE.
19. Through the Looking Glass
Mirror episode mirror episode mirror episode! *___*
Sisko in the mirrorverse is AMAZING because he's ... really distressingly good at playing Morally Ambiguous Space Pirate Han Sisko, like, really good at it, and also REALLY DISTRESSED at being good at it, because Morally Ambiguous Space Pirate Han Sisko is such a DICK, but there's also a tiny part of him that's like "....what would it be like to be a dashing space pirate?"
However we were disappointed that at no point during the episode did Sisko whip out a picture of Jake and start having dad feelings all over Jennifer.
20. and 21. Improbable Cause and The Die is Cast
This episode really threw us, because Bashir and Garak having their married-couple bickering session about Julius Caesar in the beginning of the show made us think the whole time that Garak was actually triple-crossing his old Cardassian BFF when he temporarily switched sides, and in fact someone else was the traitor to the Cardassians and Garak was actually ... being genuine ...? I can't decide if this is inappropriately misdirected foreshadowing, or actually a brilliant misdirection.
Anyway these episodes are in fact GREAT. Road Trip with Garak and Odo, Torture and Angst and Reluctant Bonding Ensues! This is basically a recipe guaranteed for success. DS9 does amazing road trip episodes.
Also great: the return of Commander Eddington, who sabotages the mission to rescue Odo out of respect for ORDERS, thus endearing himself to Sisko for the first time as the only person to respect the uniform as much as Sisko does. This is -- I think? -- the guy who introduced himself at the beginning of Season Three by explaining that he was here to make friends, and immediately starred as the villain in everybody's hallucinogenic fantasies. We're so excited to see him again, STILL TRAGICALLY FAILING TO MAKE FRIENDS WITH THE MAIN CAST. ("I'm friends with Odo too!" says Eddington. DOES ODO KNOW THAT, EDDINGTON?)
Also also great: Odo's SHEER JOY in drawing out his interrogation of the assassin perfume merchant. I love the episodes where Odo gets to play noir detective because Odo loves it so much.
22. Explorers
Speaking of road trip episodes, this is kind of adorable. Sisko builds a Historically Accurate Bajoran spaceship and takes a road trip with Jake to prove it can fly! We're pretty sure that this is Sisko's way of getting all the Space Pirate Han Sisko stuff out of his system in the NERDIEST WAY HUMANLY POSSIBLE. Sisko also grows a goatee, which is probably a Historically Accurate Bajoran Goatee, because Sisko absolutely proves himself in this episode to be that kind of Regency cosplayer who refuses to use sewing machines because they wouldn't have had them in the 1700s. I LOVE SISKO SO MUCH.
(DEBI: I want an episode in which Sisko grows the goatee and everyone else spends the episode cautiously checking to make sure he's not an evil mirror universe Sisko.
BECCA: "Quick, Dax, try and make out with him! If he runs away, it's real Sisko!")
There is also a scene where Dukat shows up to taunt Sisko about his model Bajoran ship and be like "you realize that you're probably going to die en route, right?" and it is ... really flirty ... especially when you take into account Cardassian flirtiness ...
BECCA: I bet Dukat is just going to stalk Sisko all through his road trip just in case he turns out to need a really smarmy rescue.
AND THEN SISKO GETS BLOWN OFF COURSE TO CARDASSIAN SPACE AND DUKAT IMMEDIATELY SHOWS UP TO BE SMARMY ABOUT IT. I - I didn't expect to be right! Guys! This is so distressing! I'm starting to feel the same way about Sisko-Dukat scenes that I do about Odo-Quark scenes. HELP. THIS IS INAPPROPRIATE.
Oh, also there's a B-plot in which Bashir's hot school valedictorian rival turns up, and everyone has bets going on whether they're going to hook up, and it turns out she doesn't remember him at all because he was just really boring and bland in school.
DEBI: He spent all his time studying, he didn't get hot until after graduation!
BECCA: I bet someone in his class had a bet on about whether they could glam Bashir up in time for prom.
DEBI: He took off his glasses, he tossed back his hair, and suddenly he was beautiful!
BECCA: And then he spent the whole summer after med school being suddenly beautiful and it went to his head, which is why he's SUCH a tool.
no subject
Date: 2014-03-04 02:02 pm (UTC)I seem to recall saying, in so many words, to remember that you posited such clones...and these were the episodes I was thinking of.
no subject
Date: 2014-03-06 05:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-05 10:24 am (UTC)(And in his last moments he gained a grudging respect for his truly Cardassian-level untrustworthy enemies.)
no subject
Date: 2014-03-06 05:31 am (UTC)(Et tu....random Vulcan....?)
no subject
Date: 2014-03-05 05:50 pm (UTC)I wish I could say more, but I haven't been keeping up, so I barely remember most of these eps.
no subject
Date: 2014-03-06 05:31 am (UTC)