(no subject)
Jun. 3rd, 2014 10:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsOver halfway through Season Four! This is the batch that includes both the ROSWELL EPISODE and the JAMES BOND EPISODE. Well played, Deep Space Nine. (Although, sadly, no mirrorverse episodes this season so far, which I think are the only things that get us more excited than we got at the prospect of the Roswell episode.) Also, I got behind on posts, so there are ten episodes here rather than eight, which offends my sense of order slightly but oh well.
5. Indiscretion
This is the one where Kira and Dukat go on a life-changing field trip, and it turns out that Dukat has a half-Bajoran daughter, and is stopped from killing her by the combination of ZIYAL'S PUPPY-DOG EYES and Kira's ANGRY FACE. Also, the story of "Dukat and the LITERAL STICK UP HIS BUTT" is clearly destined to make the rounds of every space station party from now until the rest of the season.
Aside from the existence of Ziyal (Ziyal! <3), the most notable thing to us in this episode was the sheer effort that Dukat went to in order to be polite to Kira. Like, I think this was intended to be read as creepily flirtatious, except that we already know that Cardassians flirt by being really irritable and snipey? So instead it reads to us as Dukat taking very great care ... NOT to come off as flirtatious? He wants to make it very obvious he's not being inappropriate! This is a work relationship! HE'S POLITE-ING WITH ALL HE'S GOT.
...and in other news Sisko and Kasidy have some commitment-phobic slice-of-life relationship issues and sort them out, so, I mean, good for them?
6. Rejoined
THE LESBIAN EPISODE! \o/ Uh, sorry, I meant: the one where Jadzia and a previous host's ex-wife have a FORBIDDEN LOVE AFFAIR that is not at all in any way a metaphor for homosexuality.
The thing here is that, while Debi did watch the first few seasons of DS9 when it first aired, she never got as far as this episode. Whereas I had been spoilered for this episode, in particular. So we're like halfway in, and I'm like "here we go!" and Debi's making "now kiss!" gestures with her hands, and then they do in fact kiss, and Debi's like "!!! WAIT WHAT IT WORKED???? THEY ACTUALLY LET THEM KISS?" and her utter surprise and delight was basically the best part about this episode.
7. Starship Down
This is a SUPER ACTION-y episode where everything is going horribly wrong on the Defiant, and everyone gets heartfelt endangered character moments to solve relationship problems that ... did not seem to previously need solving....?
Like, OK, the emotional center of this episode is Kira being like "Sisko, we have such an awkward relationship! We only talk about work! It's awkward because you're the Emissary!" And meanwhile Sisko is clearly sitting there thinking "we are .. professional colleagues ...? of course we talk about work ...?" Except probably he's too busy bleeding out to actualthink this, so Debi and I think it for him. Mostly Debi and I do not understand where Kira got the impression that Sisko talks to any of his subordinates about anything except work, with the occasional exception of rants about a.) baseball and b.) being a dad.
Meanwhile, Dax and Bashir have a heartfelt talk about how far their relationship has come from the early days when Bashir made Dax nervous because he came on too strong, which as far as I can tell is not a thing that EVER HAPPENED because Dax was too busy trolling Bashir and his attempts at flirty posturing to kingdom come.
...on the other hand, O'Brien teaching Worf Managerial Skills for Awkward Engineers was A+ hilarious, as was Quark and Minister Hanok's Excellent Adventure, so I guess I'm not complaining really.
8. Little Green Men
THE TIME-TRAVELING ROSWELL EPISODE!
There are two best things about this episode, aside from the sheer delight of the premise.
1. Every time Quark has an episode with a wacky adventure, I entertain myself by positing that Odo is disguised in every scene as some innocuous object and is going to swan in halfway through and play Big Damn Hero to his favorite Ferengi fatale. AND THIS TIME IT REALLY HAPPENED. *___*
2. Quick-thinking military lady who plays the lead 1940s human role in the story is very clearly Peggy Carter in deep cover with the US military. I mean, check it:
Meanwhile, Morn is in charge of the bar while Quark is gone, and Eddington is presumably in charge of security while Odo is gone. We have decided that Morn and Eddington probably have an offscreen rivalry/romance as pure and true as Odo and Quark's. Every time anything shady happens on the station, Morn is Eddington's number one suspect. HE'S GOT HIS EYE ON HIM.
9. The Sword of Kahless
Jadzia goes on what is supposed to be a life-changing field trip with Klingons and ends up spending the entire time spritzing them with water like two cranky cats and regretting all her life decisions. We're pretty sure she had way more fun on her last life-changing field trip with Klingons, and that one ended with literally all friends dying.
I mean, it is kind of interesting how every time you have a Klingon episode everything just goes 100% high fantasy -- so much so that even though it never really gets spelled out (ha ha) that the Magical MacGuffin Sword they're all questing after has a magic spell on it that makes everyone cranky and possessive, that's REALLY how it comes across.
10. Our Man Bashir
The James Bond episode! ALSO A CLASSIC. The science in this makes hilariously next to no sense even by normal Star Trek standards -- the whole point is that there's a transporter accident (it's always a transporter accident!) and everyone's patterns (???) get stuck in Bashir's favorite James Bond RPG and if THEY DIE IN THE RPG, THEIR DATA GETS DELETED, except that is ... not in an way how computer games work ....?
WHATEVER. It's pretty much an excuse for Bashir to get really embarrassed when Garak tags along accidentally into his private spy fantasy --
DEBI: It's like being a teacher and then coming home and discovering that your significant other has a stack of sexy teacher porn!
-- and make out with everyone, and then shoot Garak, which Garak obviously thinks is the hottest thing anyone's EVER done to Garak, while Avery Brooks plays Evil Genius Supervillain With a Goatee which is the role Avery Brooks secretly loves best.
11. Homefront
Every so often we watch an episode (see: Hippocratic Oath) and we're like, "the wrong people were in that episode." Homefront and its follow-up are episodes that have exactly the right people in them. Sisko and Odo take a field trip back to Earth to deal with a Terrorist Changeling Threat, and because Sisko has an Earth fetish (sorry Sisko I love you but it's true), and Odo is security-obsessed to Orwellian levels (sorry Odo I love you but it's true), they are all in favor of increasing planetwide security measures to protect against Changelings! Sounds logical! Seems legit! Meanwhile, Artistic Commie Liberal Sisko Family Members Jake Sisko and Grandpa Sisko look dubiousfaced from afar, and it's actually all really well done.
...but just in case you think make the mistake of thinking Star Trek is a Very Serious Show, we begin the episode with Jadzia pranking Odo by moving all his furniture three inches to the left while he fumes helplessly from his bucket.
DEBI: Wait, that's a thing we would headcanon for Jadzia to do! It's not a thing that Jadzia would really do ... on the show ....
BECCA: WELL APPARENTLY IT IS NOW.
Meanwhile, O'Brien and Bashir roleplay World War I flying aces. That's also canon now.
12. Paradise Lost
So I guessed the twist that the Changeling attack was a fakeout to allow for a plausible military takeover about two minutes into the episode and then felt very smugly pleased with myself for the rest of it. That said: really good episode! I love it whenever Sisko gets to pull Man of Unshakeable Ethics because he actually is really good at it. I also love Odo and Sisko being SUPER COMPETENT together. Odo, Sisko and Kira together make the ultimate competence dream team. (And then you've got Bashir waaaaaay on the other end of the spectrum.)
I also ALSO love whenever Sisko and Grandpa Sisko attempt to out-dad each other. Siskos: ULTIMATE FAMILY OF DADS. I mean Jake is already attempting to dad Sisko, and he's only like sixteen.
13. Crossfire
Debi and I keep being so busy being annoyed at how pointlessly vague the title of this episode is that we forget what happened in the ACTUAL EPISODE. Kira and Shakar started dating, which at least marks a step up from Vedek Bareil, Blandest of the Bland? (Although Shakar is still pretty bland.) Odo's pining increased by 300%? Quark distinguished himself being an astoundingly good ex-boyfriend and giving Odo decent advice in addition to sad longing looks across the room?
BECCA: When Quark is the best-behaved person in an episode, something is probably wrong.
That being said, Odo and Worf have a great conversation in which they bond over being really controlling about their living quarters and the placement of their furniture, so now we know how Jadzia and Worf are inevitably going to hook up:
WORF: What are you doing in my bedroom, Lieutenant Dax?
JADZIA: ...definitely seducing you, and definitely not moving all your furniture three inches to the left? :D
Also: we have it as confirmed that Eddington is on vacation this episode. AN EPISODE IN WHICH THERE IS A DEFINITE THREAT TO STATION SECURITY, and Odo is totally not on his A-game, creating a power vacuum! Poor, poor Eddington. It is his curse and his tragedy that he somehow manages to be on leave any time anything might happen that would actually further his career.
14. Return to Grace
Kira's second life-changing field trip with Dukat, in which he is just SO IMPRESSED by her terrorist skills that he decides to just ...BECOME A TERRORIST. HOW ABOUT THAT. Kira is like, crap, my terrorist game is just TOO STRONG. Also, last time someone pulled this, it was Fake Riker, and it didn't work out for him either.
Dukat's carefully not-Cardassian-flirty politeness also definitely goes all the way back through the other side into uncomfortable come-on territory here, like, since re-adopting Ziyal he has clearly gone into a panic of "MY BABY ZIYAL NEEDS A BAJORAN MOTHER! ... a COMPETENT TERRORIST BAJORAN MOTHER!" and settled on Kira for the position. He delivers approximately five pre-rehearsed speeches on the theme of what a great team they make, while Kira tries not to look too obviously at her watch.
Important things that happen this episode:
1. We get confirmation that all that Cardassian spy services ever report back about ANYBODY is who is sleeping with whom. "I have a list of everyone Shakar banged during the Occupation, Kira!" Yes, and the fact that this is what you were spending your time on is PROBABLY why you lost the war, Dukat.
2. Ziyal moves to Deep Space Nine! You know Sisko, overwhelmed with dad feelings, is going to write Dukat long progress reports on her schoolwork and extracurriculars and station activities every week, and he will mean it WELL, he will mean it out of GENUINE EARNEST DAD SYMPATHY, and Dukat will just take it as pure smugfaced parental competiton. "Whatever, Sisko! YOu have my daughter for now ... but back on Bajor I probably have FOUR THOUSAND daughters."
5. Indiscretion
This is the one where Kira and Dukat go on a life-changing field trip, and it turns out that Dukat has a half-Bajoran daughter, and is stopped from killing her by the combination of ZIYAL'S PUPPY-DOG EYES and Kira's ANGRY FACE. Also, the story of "Dukat and the LITERAL STICK UP HIS BUTT" is clearly destined to make the rounds of every space station party from now until the rest of the season.
Aside from the existence of Ziyal (Ziyal! <3), the most notable thing to us in this episode was the sheer effort that Dukat went to in order to be polite to Kira. Like, I think this was intended to be read as creepily flirtatious, except that we already know that Cardassians flirt by being really irritable and snipey? So instead it reads to us as Dukat taking very great care ... NOT to come off as flirtatious? He wants to make it very obvious he's not being inappropriate! This is a work relationship! HE'S POLITE-ING WITH ALL HE'S GOT.
...and in other news Sisko and Kasidy have some commitment-phobic slice-of-life relationship issues and sort them out, so, I mean, good for them?
6. Rejoined
THE LESBIAN EPISODE! \o/ Uh, sorry, I meant: the one where Jadzia and a previous host's ex-wife have a FORBIDDEN LOVE AFFAIR that is not at all in any way a metaphor for homosexuality.
The thing here is that, while Debi did watch the first few seasons of DS9 when it first aired, she never got as far as this episode. Whereas I had been spoilered for this episode, in particular. So we're like halfway in, and I'm like "here we go!" and Debi's making "now kiss!" gestures with her hands, and then they do in fact kiss, and Debi's like "!!! WAIT WHAT IT WORKED???? THEY ACTUALLY LET THEM KISS?" and her utter surprise and delight was basically the best part about this episode.
7. Starship Down
This is a SUPER ACTION-y episode where everything is going horribly wrong on the Defiant, and everyone gets heartfelt endangered character moments to solve relationship problems that ... did not seem to previously need solving....?
Like, OK, the emotional center of this episode is Kira being like "Sisko, we have such an awkward relationship! We only talk about work! It's awkward because you're the Emissary!" And meanwhile Sisko is clearly sitting there thinking "we are .. professional colleagues ...? of course we talk about work ...?" Except probably he's too busy bleeding out to actualthink this, so Debi and I think it for him. Mostly Debi and I do not understand where Kira got the impression that Sisko talks to any of his subordinates about anything except work, with the occasional exception of rants about a.) baseball and b.) being a dad.
Meanwhile, Dax and Bashir have a heartfelt talk about how far their relationship has come from the early days when Bashir made Dax nervous because he came on too strong, which as far as I can tell is not a thing that EVER HAPPENED because Dax was too busy trolling Bashir and his attempts at flirty posturing to kingdom come.
...on the other hand, O'Brien teaching Worf Managerial Skills for Awkward Engineers was A+ hilarious, as was Quark and Minister Hanok's Excellent Adventure, so I guess I'm not complaining really.
8. Little Green Men
THE TIME-TRAVELING ROSWELL EPISODE!
There are two best things about this episode, aside from the sheer delight of the premise.
1. Every time Quark has an episode with a wacky adventure, I entertain myself by positing that Odo is disguised in every scene as some innocuous object and is going to swan in halfway through and play Big Damn Hero to his favorite Ferengi fatale. AND THIS TIME IT REALLY HAPPENED. *___*
2. Quick-thinking military lady who plays the lead 1940s human role in the story is very clearly Peggy Carter in deep cover with the US military. I mean, check it:
Meanwhile, Morn is in charge of the bar while Quark is gone, and Eddington is presumably in charge of security while Odo is gone. We have decided that Morn and Eddington probably have an offscreen rivalry/romance as pure and true as Odo and Quark's. Every time anything shady happens on the station, Morn is Eddington's number one suspect. HE'S GOT HIS EYE ON HIM.
9. The Sword of Kahless
Jadzia goes on what is supposed to be a life-changing field trip with Klingons and ends up spending the entire time spritzing them with water like two cranky cats and regretting all her life decisions. We're pretty sure she had way more fun on her last life-changing field trip with Klingons, and that one ended with literally all friends dying.
I mean, it is kind of interesting how every time you have a Klingon episode everything just goes 100% high fantasy -- so much so that even though it never really gets spelled out (ha ha) that the Magical MacGuffin Sword they're all questing after has a magic spell on it that makes everyone cranky and possessive, that's REALLY how it comes across.
10. Our Man Bashir
The James Bond episode! ALSO A CLASSIC. The science in this makes hilariously next to no sense even by normal Star Trek standards -- the whole point is that there's a transporter accident (it's always a transporter accident!) and everyone's patterns (???) get stuck in Bashir's favorite James Bond RPG and if THEY DIE IN THE RPG, THEIR DATA GETS DELETED, except that is ... not in an way how computer games work ....?
WHATEVER. It's pretty much an excuse for Bashir to get really embarrassed when Garak tags along accidentally into his private spy fantasy --
DEBI: It's like being a teacher and then coming home and discovering that your significant other has a stack of sexy teacher porn!
-- and make out with everyone, and then shoot Garak, which Garak obviously thinks is the hottest thing anyone's EVER done to Garak, while Avery Brooks plays Evil Genius Supervillain With a Goatee which is the role Avery Brooks secretly loves best.
11. Homefront
Every so often we watch an episode (see: Hippocratic Oath) and we're like, "the wrong people were in that episode." Homefront and its follow-up are episodes that have exactly the right people in them. Sisko and Odo take a field trip back to Earth to deal with a Terrorist Changeling Threat, and because Sisko has an Earth fetish (sorry Sisko I love you but it's true), and Odo is security-obsessed to Orwellian levels (sorry Odo I love you but it's true), they are all in favor of increasing planetwide security measures to protect against Changelings! Sounds logical! Seems legit! Meanwhile, Artistic Commie Liberal Sisko Family Members Jake Sisko and Grandpa Sisko look dubiousfaced from afar, and it's actually all really well done.
...but just in case you think make the mistake of thinking Star Trek is a Very Serious Show, we begin the episode with Jadzia pranking Odo by moving all his furniture three inches to the left while he fumes helplessly from his bucket.
DEBI: Wait, that's a thing we would headcanon for Jadzia to do! It's not a thing that Jadzia would really do ... on the show ....
BECCA: WELL APPARENTLY IT IS NOW.
Meanwhile, O'Brien and Bashir roleplay World War I flying aces. That's also canon now.
12. Paradise Lost
So I guessed the twist that the Changeling attack was a fakeout to allow for a plausible military takeover about two minutes into the episode and then felt very smugly pleased with myself for the rest of it. That said: really good episode! I love it whenever Sisko gets to pull Man of Unshakeable Ethics because he actually is really good at it. I also love Odo and Sisko being SUPER COMPETENT together. Odo, Sisko and Kira together make the ultimate competence dream team. (And then you've got Bashir waaaaaay on the other end of the spectrum.)
I also ALSO love whenever Sisko and Grandpa Sisko attempt to out-dad each other. Siskos: ULTIMATE FAMILY OF DADS. I mean Jake is already attempting to dad Sisko, and he's only like sixteen.
13. Crossfire
Debi and I keep being so busy being annoyed at how pointlessly vague the title of this episode is that we forget what happened in the ACTUAL EPISODE. Kira and Shakar started dating, which at least marks a step up from Vedek Bareil, Blandest of the Bland? (Although Shakar is still pretty bland.) Odo's pining increased by 300%? Quark distinguished himself being an astoundingly good ex-boyfriend and giving Odo decent advice in addition to sad longing looks across the room?
BECCA: When Quark is the best-behaved person in an episode, something is probably wrong.
That being said, Odo and Worf have a great conversation in which they bond over being really controlling about their living quarters and the placement of their furniture, so now we know how Jadzia and Worf are inevitably going to hook up:
WORF: What are you doing in my bedroom, Lieutenant Dax?
JADZIA: ...definitely seducing you, and definitely not moving all your furniture three inches to the left? :D
Also: we have it as confirmed that Eddington is on vacation this episode. AN EPISODE IN WHICH THERE IS A DEFINITE THREAT TO STATION SECURITY, and Odo is totally not on his A-game, creating a power vacuum! Poor, poor Eddington. It is his curse and his tragedy that he somehow manages to be on leave any time anything might happen that would actually further his career.
14. Return to Grace
Kira's second life-changing field trip with Dukat, in which he is just SO IMPRESSED by her terrorist skills that he decides to just ...BECOME A TERRORIST. HOW ABOUT THAT. Kira is like, crap, my terrorist game is just TOO STRONG. Also, last time someone pulled this, it was Fake Riker, and it didn't work out for him either.
Dukat's carefully not-Cardassian-flirty politeness also definitely goes all the way back through the other side into uncomfortable come-on territory here, like, since re-adopting Ziyal he has clearly gone into a panic of "MY BABY ZIYAL NEEDS A BAJORAN MOTHER! ... a COMPETENT TERRORIST BAJORAN MOTHER!" and settled on Kira for the position. He delivers approximately five pre-rehearsed speeches on the theme of what a great team they make, while Kira tries not to look too obviously at her watch.
Important things that happen this episode:
1. We get confirmation that all that Cardassian spy services ever report back about ANYBODY is who is sleeping with whom. "I have a list of everyone Shakar banged during the Occupation, Kira!" Yes, and the fact that this is what you were spending your time on is PROBABLY why you lost the war, Dukat.
2. Ziyal moves to Deep Space Nine! You know Sisko, overwhelmed with dad feelings, is going to write Dukat long progress reports on her schoolwork and extracurriculars and station activities every week, and he will mean it WELL, he will mean it out of GENUINE EARNEST DAD SYMPATHY, and Dukat will just take it as pure smugfaced parental competiton. "Whatever, Sisko! YOu have my daughter for now ... but back on Bajor I probably have FOUR THOUSAND daughters."
no subject
Date: 2014-06-04 04:20 am (UTC)I accept your headcanon for Sisko/Dukat correspondence.
no subject
Date: 2014-06-04 04:45 am (UTC)(I mean, O'Brien is also a dad, but DAD is clearly not ingrained into his very bones the way it is into Sisko's, and, alas, Dukat's.)
no subject
Date: 2014-06-04 06:38 am (UTC)Jadzia, for example? Yes, special case. But, still hard to reconcile. But more to the point, commander/XO (not to mention the two sides of the governmental liaison) do need more than just a punch-clock relationship.
even though it never really gets spelled out (ha ha) that the Magical MacGuffin Sword they're all questing after has a magic spell on it that makes everyone cranky and possessive, that's REALLY how it comes across.
It was actually a relief that it wasn't revealed to be some sort of particle or technobabble. That as much as it had the effect of being magical greed, what it really was was the darker side of Klingonity.
And speaking of darker sides of speciesity...
So I guessed the twist that the Changeling attack was a fakeout to allow for a plausible military takeover about two minutes into the episode and then felt very smugly pleased with myself for the rest of it.
Yeah, the false-flag nature of it was probably more of a shocker in 1996.
(I think I said this before, but DS9's very nature means it has to be a pre-9/11 show. Try to do something like that today and you get...actually you get the first part of season 3 of Battlestar Galactica.)
Though Joseph Sisko's turn from Only Sane Man to Pod Person ("Benjamin Lafayette Sisko, what is going through your head?") is disappointing. Most people see this ep as a letdown.
no subject
Date: 2014-06-04 12:31 pm (UTC)Elaborate on the pod person shift?
no subject
Date: 2014-06-04 12:46 pm (UTC)In "Paradise Lost," which eventually proves him right philosophically, he's suddenly hunky-dory about them. I would rather he submit to them (there was martial law, after all), but not be blase about it.
no subject
Date: 2014-06-04 12:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-04 02:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-04 12:54 pm (UTC)I bloody love Star Trek.
no subject
Date: 2014-06-04 02:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-04 01:12 pm (UTC)Also, as usual, your recaps are utterly delightful.
no subject
Date: 2014-06-04 02:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-05 03:38 pm (UTC)Debi's like "!!! WAIT WHAT IT WORKED???? THEY ACTUALLY LET THEM KISS?" and her utter surprise and delight was basically the best part about this episode.
Aw, that's adorable! I wish they had brought up Dax's bisexuality (and genderqueer-ness, I guess, in a sense?) more often, but it was the 90s, so I guess I'm happy they brought it up once.
I think my favourite thing about Little Green Men is that even Quark knows better than to get involved with things like tobacco and nuclear weapons. Weird hu-mons.
The James Bond episode! ALSO A CLASSIC.
Has anyone recced you "I Wish I Was James Bond" yet? It's a little bit spoilery, but not badly so, and about the most delightful Bashir vid imaginable.
Avery Brooks plays Evil Genius Supervillain With a Goatee which is the role Avery Brooks secretly loves best.
Brooks doesn't HAVE to chew the scenery, but boy does he relish in it given the opportunity!
Meanwhile, O'Brien and Bashir roleplay World War I flying aces.
I can't NOT think of them as Snoopy and Woodstock! Except I'm not sure which is which.
no subject
Date: 2014-06-06 01:24 pm (UTC)I am. I am very sure.
no subject
Date: 2014-06-06 04:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-06 04:47 pm (UTC)Bashir is the chirpy, flappy annoying one that turned up one day and just DECIDED he and O'Brien were going to be friends, and O'Brien tolerated it.
no subject
Date: 2014-06-06 04:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-06 04:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-06 05:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-06 01:39 pm (UTC)NO ONE has yet recced me this vid and now I am excited. >:D
no subject
Date: 2014-06-06 04:44 pm (UTC)That is as it should be. :-)
NO ONE has yet recced me this vid and now I am excited. >:D
Well, possibly you won't like it as much as I do. But I really like it, is all.
no subject
Date: 2014-06-06 04:55 pm (UTC)LOOK AT AL THE SCENES FROM THE EPISODES WE HAVE TO LOOK FORWARD TO.