(no subject)

[skygiants]

I was going to start writing up the seventh season of Deep Space Nine after eight episodes as per usual, and then I hadn't gotten around to it by the ninth episode and then DUKAT STARTED LEADING A CULT and anyway we've seen through ten episodes of this season by now.


1. Image in the Sand

So when this episode begins Sisko is on extended sad leave from work at his dad's restaurant, and, like -- I understand he is having a crisis what with Jadzia dying and Dukat having maybe destroyed the Prophets and all, I'm just not sure how you get extended sad leave from Starfleet, at a crucial position, during the war, without someone coming in to replace you? Instead Kira seems to be interim Sisko, which is great for us, but since she doesn't actually work for starfleet I'm sort of puzzled about the logistics all of this.

Also, I don't know why Bashir, Quark and O'Brien are our POV characters for Worf's grieving process but I DISAPPROVE, more on this in the the next episode.

2. Shadows and Symbols

There are basically three different plots going on in this episode and I feel very differently about all of them.

Plot A: Kira gets in a giant game of chicken with an apparently friendly but politically manipulative Romulan officer who's secretly stocking weapons on a Bajoran moon! HIGHLY ENJOYABLE. God, I loved that Romulan officer. I wanted her to stick around and be Kira's nemesis all season. Not that I don't love all of DS9's cast, but I think of a half-dozen series recurring characters that I would gladly replace with a hot middle-aged politically manipulative female Romulan officer.
Plot B: Life-changing field trip with Sisko, Sisko Junior, Sisko Senior, and New Dax! New Dax is adorable, I enjoy New Dax a lot (though of course she will not fill the Jadzia-shaped hole in my heart). That said, of all the 'Sisko goes full Jesus!' plots this is ... one of the weirder ones .....? And I'm pretty sure I don't approve of the Prophets dubconning Sisko's mother into a relationship with his dad to Bring The Chosen One Into This World. UNCOMFORTABLE ALL AROUND.
Plot C: Again: WHY ARE BASHIR, QUARK AND O'BRIEN OUR POV CHARACTERS FOR WORF'S GRIEVING PROCESS? I'm so mad that the narrative forces Worf to apologize to them for being mad that they came along on his PRIVATE field trip MOURN HIS ACTUAL WIFE IN ACCORDANCE WITH HIS HERITAGE. Which they spend most of the time mocking! Bashir and Quark's unrequited crushes on Jadzia do not give them a claim on her husband's grief, and as for O'Brien, I'm not sure ... he and Jadzia were even friends? ... like, I'm pretty sure she found him really boring ......

At the end of this episode Sisko, New Daz, and Jake return to DS9. As soon as New Dax introduces herself, Worf turns and walks out of the room.

BECCA: Aaaaand Worf nopes out of Ezri Dax.
DEBI: I kind of hope they're just never in the same scene again for the rest of the show.


3. Afterimage

Otherwise known as: Ezri and Worf are in the same scene! But not very often because it is still SUPER AWKWARD, and understandably so. Meanwhile, Ezri attempts to therapize Garak out of his anxiety attacks and claustrophobia.

I'll say it again: Ezri is in fact adorable. And it's a good character episode for both Ezri and Garak! I kind of wish the DS9 writers were ... any good at writing therapy, at all. But a good character episode nonetheless!

4. Take Me Out To The Holosuite

We basically spend this entire episode chanting "baseball episode baseball episode BASEBALL EPISODE!" And oh, did it ever live up to our hopes and dreams. *__* Like, we knew there was a baseball episode! We did not realize that the point of the baseball episode was so that Sisko could defeat YET ANOTHER NEMESIS WITH A WEIRD OBSESSION WITH HIM.

OK, so the backstory here is that Sisko was rude to this Vulcan once in school. The Vulcan, in return -- most logical of all species! -- proceeded to:
- wrote papers on him
- like, MULTIPLE papers
- stalked him enough to find out ALL HIS INTERESTS
- then forced his ENTIRE VULCAN CREW to play CONSTANT GAMES OF HOLOSUITE BASEBALL, a sport which one can only assume they find INTENSELY BORING
- all for the purposes of turning up again and being like 'SISKO SISKO GUESS WHAT I CAN BEAT YOU AT YOUR FAVORITE GAME NEENER NEENER notice me Sisko'
- "It's been a long time." "Ten years, two months, five days," says Sisko's nemesis, who has apparently been LYING AWAKE DREAMING OF THIS MOMENT for every single one of those days

I -- I seriously don't understand what Sisko's magic power is that draws Kate Beaton nemeses to him like flies. But it's great! I'm not complaining! It's like we have Eddington back all over again. (Somewhere, Dukat is like, "but why didn't I ever think to beat Sisko in a game of baseball?! That's even BETTER than calling him up to say I banged his mom!")

Also I am so happy for Kasidy that she finally got to appear in an episode where Sisko was not hallucinating, dying, hallucinating and dying, or being inexplicably angry at her for being on his ship when he had a job to do. Finally, Kasidy and Sisko get to go on a good date! Good for you, Kasidy, you deserve it.

- also, also, Odo having the GREATEST TIME as the world's most ANNOYING UMPIRE? Worf shouting "FIND HIM AND KILL HIM??" ROM! This episode is so good.

5. Chrysalis

BASHIR. You did such a good job not romancing Sarina in the last episode where the savants showed up! WHY THIS.

(At least the show does call out romancing your patients/medical experiments as a bad idea this time around? But I still didn't want to spend a whole episode watching it!)

6. Treachery, Faith, and the Great River

The A-plot of this is great and the B-plot is PURE DELIGHT.

A-plot: Odo has a life-changing field trip with his very own pet clone Weyoun, who attempts to defect with him and then, like, start his own endearingly creepy Odo-centric religion. It's actually kind of adorable? And ends horribly, of course. But I would also have been OK with Odo returning to DS9 trailing a dedicated Weyoun valet, like, "he followed me home and I don't want to keep him but I do not appear to have a choice in this matter. @__@"

B-plot: Nog embarks on a series of barter-related side quests in order to get some kind of MacGuffin part for Chief O'Brien. Every minute of this subplot is pure gold. EVERY MINUTE. Also, every Nog episode makes me sadder than ever that the Star Trek spinoff series about Captain Nog and his wacky crew of misfits doesn't exist. PLEASE MAKE THIS SERIES EXIST FOR ME.

7. Once More Into the Breach

This tragic Klingon episode would have been a lot more fun with Jadzia in it.

8. The Siege of AR-558

SPEAKING OF NOG AND ALL MY MILLION FEELINGS ABOUT NOG. Oh, lord. I mean, this episode is basically a war movie in miniature, and that would be solid in and of itself, but when you've got the thread of Quark and Nog running through it -- Nog, who has always really idealized this kind of weird macho Starfleet military mindset, and then Quark, who sees his nephew internalizing this to-a-Ferengi incredibly alien worldview, who can't stop saying "kid, they may seem cool but please remember you don't understand them, you're dealing with aliens here --"

Moments like this are one of the reasons why I love this show: the times that it remembers that in a Star Trek universe filled with infinite sapient species, you don't have to always look at things from a human-centric point of view. Sometimes -- not often, but sometimes -- humanity should be the incomprehensible Other.

Also, man, I did not expect them to actually take Nog's leg!

9. Covenant

I ... cannot believe ...... Dukat is now a religious cult leader?? He kidnaps Kira to join his special anti-Prophet cult??? WHAT IS HAPPENING. I spent this whole episode laughing with increasing incredulity. I feel like I should have a lot to say about this but I just keep coming back to 'DUKAT LEADS A RELIGIOUS CULT.'

10. It's Only A Paper Moon

I wish I liked Vic Fontaine, because this is a legitimately fantastic episode and I really appreciate that they dedicate pretty much a whole forty minutes to Nog's trauma and recovery and attempts to reconceptualize his entire relationship with the military-industrial complex. I've probably said this before, but I would read a whole novel -- whole series of novels -- about Nog and Jake and their respective weird relationships with the Starfleet military machine. (WHERE IS MY CAPTAIN NOG SHOW??)

BECCA: Man, I bet Aron Eisenberg loved this episode.
DEBI: And I bet Colm Meaney was INCREDIBLY BITTER about it.

(Sorry that the PTSD from O'Brien's many, many traumas never lasts past the end of the episode, Colm Meaney!)

Anyway, Vic Fontaine's arc as an increasingly self-aware hologram given greater life by Nog's need of him is also interesting, so I wish I did not hold a simmering resentment at Vic Fontaine over his terrible, terrible romantic advice to Odo during His Way. I would probably like him if he was only in this episode!

BECCA: Also, now that he's going to be on for 26 hours a day with nothing to do but plot, there's no way Vic Fontaine is not going to go evil.
DEBI: Oh, yeah, he's going evil for sure.

Comments

[sovay]

but when you've got the thread of Quark and Nog running through it -- Nog, who has always really idealized this kind of weird macho Starfleet military mindset, and then Quark, who sees his nephew internalizing this to-a-Ferengi incredibly alien worldview, who can't stop saying "kid, they may seem cool but please remember you don't understand them, you're dealing with aliens here --"

Well, that sounds great.

[scifantasy]

Let me tell you something about Hew-mons, nephew.

[sovay]

Let me tell you something about Hew-mons, nephew.

Sold, will watch episode, thank you.

[skygiants]

If you're cherry-picking episodes again I would highly, highly recommend this one -- and the follow-up Only a Paper Moon as well, just for the arc that they form.

[sovay]

If you're cherry-picking episodes again I would highly, highly recommend this one -- and the follow-up Only a Paper Moon as well, just for the arc that they form.

"You can't make a deal if you're dead."

That was a very good episode in which people have differing attitudes and the narrative doesn't make any of them obviously right (we never even learn if the communications array on AR-558 was as strategically critical as everyone has been told it is; but everyone has to behave as though it is, because otherwise the toll is meaningless) and also kind of the "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" of the Star Trek universe, which is magnificent. Also, Quark may have replaced Bashir as my favorite character on this show, which only took about twenty years.

[skygiants]

Yes, it serves all the functions of a very good war movie in about forty minutes -- plus some additional valuable Star Trek functions to boot. Quark is absolutely one of my favorite characters, and Nog's ... may be the character arc I am most invested in at this point ...? And I'm not entirely sure how that happened, because a solid 50% of the Ferengi episodes are terrible and gross, AND YET.

I mean, it helps that Armin Shimerman is actually a fantastic actor, and pretty clearly takes Quark seriously as a character all the time even when the writers have forgotten to do so. Like, the writers frequently see him as comic relief, but Shimerman still manages to get across that all of Quark's ethical dilemmas are very real ones.

[sovay]

Yes, it serves all the functions of a very good war movie in about forty minutes

They even made the clichés work. The front-line head case survives; the sweet-natured technician who's mostly still holding it together does not; I could see that coming and it was still effective, because Ezri didn't see it. Bill Mumy, you take off that alien makeup for one episode and look what happens!

And I'm not entirely sure how that happened, because a solid 50% of the Ferengi episodes are terrible and gross, AND YET.

Fortunately, thanks to you suffering through that terrible 50%, I have been able to avoid it and mostly watch the episodes which intelligently explore questions of tradition and assimilation and cultural negotiation and all the stuff I really care about. I appreciate it!

Like, the writers frequently see him as comic relief, but Shimerman still manages to get across that all of Quark's ethical dilemmas are very real ones.

Agreed. I love that Quark in this episode is both the useless civilian who gets in the way of the soldiers and a deeply concerned parental figure who sees a kid flinging himself lock, stock, and barrel into an alien mindset that could get him killed or badly hurt and it's just luck that in this episode it's Option B, because just about everyone else we meet on AR-558 gets Option A, including the Jem'Hadar whose death Quark is himself responsible for. I really like that Quark is probably wrong that the Federation could have made a peace treaty with the Dominion, because from all evidence that isn't how the Dominion works, but that either the script or Shimerman's delivery (or both) resists framing it as a foolish or a cowardly option: he makes negotiation sound like something difficult and worthwhile, because then maybe everybody would not be dying around them. "Rule of Acquisition 125: You can't make a deal if you're dead." Said with a slight, wry verbal shrug, got to start somewhere. And he does shoot that Jem'Hadar.

I am sure it will never be followed up again, but I would love to have read his fact-finding report to the Grand Nagus.

[edit] Unrelatedly, that one episode where Quark dragged a broken-legged Odo up a mountain on an improvised travois while claiming he was only taking him along as emergency rations was amazing.

[skygiants]

Yes, we spent the whole episode pretty much waiting for good old Patrick Kilpatrick to finally kick the bucket. Sorry, Patrick Kilpatrick! You were too sympathetic a redshirt for this world.

I AM GLAD MY SUFFERING IS USEFUL. No, really, I should probably go back at some point and make a list of Interesting Ferengi Arc Episodes. (The Odo episode is SUCH GOLD.)

As a sidenote: I'm pretty sure the Jem'Hadar that Quark kills in this episode is the first person he's ever killed, period. At heart, Quark is a hardcore pacifist. He's giving dedicated speeches about bargaining for peace as early as Season Two. At the beginning of Season Six, if I'm remembering right, he stuns a Jem'Hadar while rescuing Rom and then watches in complete shock when Ziyal goes ahead and actually kills him. Quark does many unethical things, but taking life is something he's really uncomfortable with -- which makes the fact that he finally has to shoot someone in this episode kind of heartbreaking in and of itself.

I WOULD LOVE TO READ ANYONE'S FACT-FINDING REPORT TO THE GRAND NAGUS. I just want to know what Ferenginar is doing in the war, period! There's all these interesting hints of stuff that basically happens to get Quark or Nog into an episode -- "oh, we need Nog to go on a diplomatic mission to Ferenginar!" "oh, Quark needs to go on a fact-finding mission!" -- that's always immediately dropped as soon as the plot actually shows up and it's SO ANNOYING. I want Nog's diplomatic mission to Ferenginar!

So the price of peace is at an all-time low!

[sovay]

No, really, I should probably go back at some point and make a list of Interesting Ferengi Arc Episodes. (The Odo episode is SUCH GOLD.)

I would enjoy that. "Rules of Acquisition" and "Body Parts" are currently ranking among my favorite episodes of Star Trek generally, along with the three I remember from Next Generation and some amazing Doctor-focused stuff from Voyager.

(Is the Orion Syndicate ever important again? Does Quark get to testify against them? Should I just not bother asking these questions and focus on the really important things, like Odo's execrable taste in bodice-rippers?)

I'm pretty sure the Jem'Hadar that Quark kills in this episode is the first person he's ever killed, period.

That was my guess! It would have been thematically appropriate, and I honestly wasn't sure when he would have gotten the chance before now, and then it was never addressed, which puzzled me slightly.

He's giving dedicated speeches about bargaining for peace as early as Season Two.

"You want to acquire peace. Fine. Peace is good. But how much are you willing to pay for it?"

"Whatever it costs."

"That's the kind of irresponsible spending that causes so many business ventures to fail!"

That was both adorable and brilliant. I assume it works.

I WOULD LOVE TO READ ANYONE'S FACT-FINDING REPORT TO THE GRAND NAGUS.

"THESE PEOPLE, ZEK. THESE. PEOPLE.

< / end transmission >"

[sovay]

No, really, I should probably go back at some point and make a list of Interesting Ferengi Arc Episodes.

Did you ever do this? (Brought to you by offline conversations about Quark.)

[asakiyume]

I agree: Nog and Quark have great character arcs.

[innerbrat]

Vic Fontaaaaaaaaaine.

Becca, what was Once More Unto the... OH

Yes that needed Jadzia :-(

[skygiants]

Jadzia just gave me so much vicarious joy in Klingon episodes. :(

[scifantasy]

as for O'Brien, I'm not sure ... he and Jadzia were even friends? ... like, I'm pretty sure she found him really boring ......

O'Brien and Jadzia weren't especially close (though "boring" is rather harsh; she probably found him a competent professional and a pleasure to work with but not someone with whom she shared many personal interests)...but as I think O'Brien makes the point (several times), he knows Worf longer than anyone else on DS9.

[skygiants]

It's true, and I would have been fine if that's the angle the show had taken -- but the episode doesn't really play on Worf and O'Brien's friendship at all. Instead it hammers in the "these were JADZIA's FRIENDS and they deserve to BE HERE," which, a. would be a lot more convincing to me if Jadzia's ACTUAL closest friends Sisko and Kira were involved in this plot and b. this is still Worf's personal Klingon grieving ritual ...

[scifantasy]

Well, don't they have O'Brien be the one who drinks Worf into admitting his feelings?

[skygiants]

They do! Which is in the first episode of the season, where it's not quite as egregious. (Well, he dumps alcohol on Worf's door and then leaves him alone, more like.) But as soon as they're on their Special Sto-vo-kor field trip, he's back to spending all his time cracking wise with Bashir -- and the whole reason he's actually shown coming along because His BFF Bashir's putting his life in danger, not for any reason to do with Worf OR Jadzia. Which ... I get ..... but it's kind of a crappy reason to crash someone else's grieving process.

[wakuchan]

I would read so many spin-off novels about Nog you have no idea.

(apropos of nothing, have you ever seen Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries? I just finished watching it and it seems right up your alley)

[skygiants]

AN ENTIRE GIANT FAT SCIENCE FICTION SERIES. Please!

(I am watching an episode right now! I finished up Season One last week or so and am slowly making my way through. :D)

[bookblather]

I have only seen the baseball episode, of all of these, but I really, really want to just start shouting "DEATH TO THE OPPOSITION" at random people now.

[skygiants]

If you're only going to see one episode of this batch the baseball episode is an EXCELLENT choice.

[st_aurafina]

God, I loved that Romulan officer. I wanted her to stick around and be Kira's nemesis all season.

OMG she was amazing. I want the show where they upset each other's schemes, I would watch the crap out of that show.

Ezri is fantastic, and yeah, she'll never fill the Jadzia shaped hole in people's hearts, but I love that she knows it and it's hard to have been the person who loved them all and see them hurting like that. I think the actor did an amazing job of showing us that. /has many feelings about Ezri.

BASEBALL EPISODE!! <3 <3 <3

I seriously don't understand what Sisko's magic power is that draws Kate Beaton nemeses to him like flies.

...PERFECTION.

Vic Fontaine's arc as an increasingly self-aware hologram given greater life by Nog's need of him is also interesting, so I wish I did not hold a simmering resentment at Vic Fontaine

Oh, this, so much. Paper Moon is an amazing episode, and I didn't expect to be so moved by it BUT I STILL HATE VIC FONTAINE.

[skygiants]

Wouldn't it be great?! It's about time Kira got a nemesis who a.) was not skeevy and b.) she didn't have to share with Sisko.

I agree, I am very into Ezri Dax and Ezri Dax's arc -- honestly, what I really want is for Season Six to have ended with Jadzia being so injured that the symbiont had to be removed, but then them figuring out how to save her life after that anyway. So you get Ezri Dax figuring out how to be Dax, and Jadzia having to figure out how to be a Dax-less Jadzia, which would be painful as heck but also FASCINATING, and more importantly would have meant I could have my Dax cake and eat it too.

...this would in no way have served the actual purpose of letting Terry Farrell leave the show when he wanted, but WHATEVER, I CAN DREAM.

Vic Fontaine is kind of slimy and infects all of the DS9 dudes with terrible fifties attitudes about women and romance and I wish we had a different hologram with feelings. :( (I mean, I know the answer to that problem probably is: watch Voyager, become invested in the Doctor, BUT STILL.)

[sovay]

So you get Ezri Dax figuring out how to be Dax, and Jadzia having to figure out how to be a Dax-less Jadzia, which would be painful as heck but also FASCINATING, and more importantly would have meant I could have my Dax cake and eat it too.

Are there any Trill characters who survive past the ending of a symbiosis? There could be some amazing stories there.

(I mean, I know the answer to that problem probably is: watch Voyager, become invested in the Doctor, BUT STILL.)

It worked for me and I didn't even meet Vic Fontaine until last night.

[skygiants]

Unfortunately, it's written in early on as a plot point that joined Trill can't survive after the symbiont is removed -- that's why Ezri is stuck with the Dax symbiont even though she never wanted to be joined (which is a really deeply horrific thing, honestly, to suddenly have another mind and memories stuck onto your own, forever, permanently.) So it'd take one heck of a plot coupon to explain bringing Jadzia back to life afterwards, but I DON'T CARE, IT'D BE SO INTERESTING.

[katta]

I'm glad you like Ezri, because I think she's as cute as a button and so many DS9 fans don't like her at all. Which is understandable, what with her showing up as a replacement for Jadzia and all that, but it still makes me sad.

And Nog's storyline is a fine example of what DS9 can be at its best.

[skygiants]

Yeah, I was kind of defiantly ready to like her going in because I was SURE lots of fans hated her just for the replacement factor. I was like 'I'M NOT GONNA BE LIKE THOSE JERKS, IT'S NOT EZRI'S FAULT.' But then I didn't even have to work at it!