TheGodBen Revisits Deep Space Nine

Discussion in 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine' started by TheGodBen, Oct 16, 2011.

  1. flemm

    flemm Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Yeah. The idea seems to have been that these two characters needed some quiet time with each other and a last adventure together. But... I don't think it needed to be in isolation at all. Even if they needed to use the main DS9 set, I think a more straight-forward story would have worked much better.

    Just a misfire.

    I agree about the first 15 minutes being very strong, in passing. They made a mistake by resorting to such a gimmick when it wasn't necessary at this point at all.

    It seems to be a tendency that Trek writers have. I guess because the standard Trek episode has historically involved a tech gimmick of some kind fairly often.
     
  2. Praetorian

    Praetorian Captain Captain

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    Exactly! That's a major pet peeve of mine. The tech gimmick in order to make the story seem more "scifi", I guess. Most of the times it just gets in the way I think. Just do the story straightforward, we can handle it!
     
  3. Dover

    Dover Lieutenant Junior Grade Red Shirt

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    I never knew that either. It would have been a very different Section 31 story, sending two non-Starfleet people. I'm not sure how that would have turned out, but it definitely changes the dynamic since Section 31 couldn't use the usual excuse of "we're all Starfleet here, just let us do our work."

    Storytelling aside, it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to send Bajoran Militia to Section 31 headquarters in search of assistance, rather than sending Starfleet officers. Unless the idea was that they're actually breaking in, which would have been awesome.
     
  4. TheGodBen

    TheGodBen Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    The strange thing about the show's budget problems is that The Dogs of War contains a completely unnecessary visual effect of an extra transporting into ops. It's a cool shot, but considering the fact that the previous episode had been scaled back, and the finale was going to have to use stock footage for some of the battle sequences, where did the money for that unnecessary effect come from? :confused:


    The Dogs of War (***½)

    After the mess of Extreme Measures, the show only has one episode left with which to set up the finale. The first bit of set up is the introduction of the new Defiant and its terrible carpet. Who decided that purple was a good colour for the interior of a starship? What is this, the freakin' Andromeda?

    On Cardassia, Kira, Garak, and Damar somehow escape a Dominion ambush. Thankfully, we don't see their exciting escape or their daring journey to the capital, we get to see them hang out in a dark basement. Seriously though, bringing back Mila was a wonderful bit of continuity, and she's instantly memorable even though she only appeared in one scene back in season 3. Unfortunately for Damar, his entire band of merry men are wiped out by a Dominion attack. How did this happen after Kira reorganised the rebels so that precisely this sort of thing couldn't possibly happen? We don't know, and Kira seems to think it doesn't matter, probably because she's embarrassed her plan didn't work. On the plus side, Kira manages to convince Damar to turn the rebellion into a full-scale revolution, and Damar gives an inspiring speech about FREEDOM!! while Kira watches from the shadows. Kira has finally achieved what she has always wanted, she's blowing up shit on Cardassia real good.

    So that the Section 31 arc isn't a total loss, Odo has a few great scenes in this episode that get to the core of what the previous episode should have been about. He's none too happy that Section 31 attempted to commit genocide against his people, and is further aggravated by Starfleet's refusal to hand over the cure to the Founders. It's an understandable decision for Starfleet to make given the circumstances, but Odo makes the wry observation that the Federation clearly isn't motivated to do anything to stop Section 31 while they serve the Federation's interests.

    In order to get it over with at long last, Bashir and Ezri finally hook up. Hardly the best story DS9 has ever produced, but an interesting parallel to Bashir's introduction on the show where he was leering at Jadzia.

    Quark has been sadly forgotten during most of this final arc, and this episode does its best to complete his character arc with a certain amount of dignity. Not much dignity, mind you, but he gets about as much dignity as a Ferengi ever gets. I don't completely buy that Ferengi society underwent such rapid reforms in the space of a couple of years, or that Quark has been so busy thinking about Ezri that he didn't pay attention to what amounts to a revolution for Ferengi society back home. But these things are just a means for Quark to give one final bombastic speech about the marvels of greed. I also struggle to imagine that Rom would be accepted as Nagus by the majority of Ferengi, and I fear he will end up dead within 2 years, but since there's only 1 episode left the show wont have to deal with the sad consequences of this decision.

    The Federation have developed a countermeasure to the Breen weapon, so Dead Fish has decided to withdraw all Dominion forces back to their space. Sisko decides that now is the best moment to go on the offensive, and because he's such a badass the leaders of three massive empires decide to do as he tells them. The final battle awaits...

    Oh, and Sisko forgot to take his pill and accidentally knocked up Kasidy. They're doomed! :eek:
     
  5. tomalak301

    tomalak301 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    It's been a long time since I've seen Dogs of War, but I do remember it being interesting how Rom was named the new Grand Negus. I haven't read the relaunch, but was this plot ever brought up in the books and the consequences of such decision. I do wonder if Rom being the new Negus was something that should have been done before the Final Chapter began.
     
  6. flemm

    flemm Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Pretty much, yeah. This episode does an ok job of closing off this storyline, and Quark's speech is fairly memorable, partly as a send-up of Picard's tirade about the Borg in First Contact, as I recall.

    Having said that, the decision to try to flesh out Ferengi society as a kind of farcical sideshow to the rest of DS9 was probably the show's biggest mistake.

    It's especially unfortunate that Quark gets so caught up in it. Great character anyway, but... he deserved better material in the later seasons.
     
  7. Seven of Five

    Seven of Five Stupid Sexy Flanders! Premium Member

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    Yeah, Quark deserved better than his annual Ferengi hijinks. He was better man than that. Better than any of us.

    As far as Ferengi escapades go, this episode is not too bad. It helps that they don't dominate the whole episode, as their jokes quickly wear pretty thin. But at least they had some token development along the way, even if it meant their society changed overnight. Too little, too late really, but meh.

    The latest part of Ezri's romantic comedy is alright. Bashir finally getting the Dax he pined for in the early part of the series is a fun idea, even if the actual lead-up to it was dullsville.

    The announcement of Kasidy's pregnancy was a nice moment, only to be shat on by the 'great sorrow' saga.

    Far and away the best part is with Damar, Kira, Garak and Mila, which should have been a spinoff; never mind that ENT hooey.
     
  8. Sykonee

    Sykonee Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    This was one of those subtle things I really liked in this episode. It's barely mentioned, but when you take a moment to think about exactly what he implied, it throws the implications of relationship dynamics in the Trekverse into an intriguing light.:vulcan:
     
  9. DS9Continuing

    DS9Continuing Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    It is - specifically in Satisfaction Is Not Guaranteed by Keith RA DeCandido.

    .
     
  10. flemm

    flemm Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Seconded. The whole "Kira goes to Cardassia to lead a resistance movement there" concept was an inspired idea to begin with, but it's funny what a genuinely entertaining, merry band of misfits they end up being.

    For whatever reason, Kira + Cardassians always worked well. It was the same with her and Dukat, and I liked everything with Ghemor as well.
     
  11. Seven of Five

    Seven of Five Stupid Sexy Flanders! Premium Member

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    Yep. Kira was a very bankable character. I've just finished the Circle trilogy on my rewatch, and after that, Past Prologue, Battle Lines, Progress, Duet, In The Hands of the Prophets, and even Babel, I'm amazed at how I'd forgotten how well the character was so quickly defined.
     
    Last edited: Feb 23, 2013
  12. Dover

    Dover Lieutenant Junior Grade Red Shirt

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    One of the reasons I cringe when people say you can skip Season 1.
     
  13. DonIago

    DonIago Vice Admiral Admiral

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    With the exceptions of Duet and IHOP (sorry, couldn't help myself)...while I wouldn't say any of those episodes aren't necessarily good, I wouldn't call them critical or among DS9's best either. YMMV of course.
     
  14. Dover

    Dover Lieutenant Junior Grade Red Shirt

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    I'm not saying they're fantastic, but there's a lot of character development you'd miss. Hell, even "Move Along Home" contains certain useful bits of knowledge about the characters.
     
  15. Seven of Five

    Seven of Five Stupid Sexy Flanders! Premium Member

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    Yeah that's what I meant. For example, Babel is a bit of a strange illness-of-the-week episode, but the way Kira goes about trying to find the guy she needed was very interesting. In fact that episode was good for a lot of the characters, even if the plot was pants.
     
  16. apenpaap

    apenpaap Commodore Commodore

    Progress and Battle Lines are pretty good, and definitely shouldn't be skipped. Past Prologue introduces us to mr. Garak, enough said.
     
  17. TheGodBen

    TheGodBen Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I liked the fact that Bashir reminds everyone on the station, including his boss, to take their contraceptive.

    BASHIR: Good morning, Captain. Planning on having recreational sex this month?
    SISKO: Um... probably.
    BASHIR: Then remember to take your injection.
    SISKO: Yeah, thanks.
     
  18. flemm

    flemm Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Past Prologue is a good episode overall. In some ways, it's a better pilot than the pilot, or better than the second half of Emissary.

    Of course the writers weren't thinking in these terms back then, but in retrospect it probably would have been better to introduce the Prophets later.
     
  19. heavy lids

    heavy lids Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    I agree. And considering the importance of the prophets and their relationship with Sisko, they really didn't focus on it very much early on in DS9 which seems strange since it was a major part of the pilot.
     
  20. Ketrick

    Ketrick Commander Red Shirt

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    I recently rewatched the fourth season episode "To The Death" and I noticed a parallel between Sisko and Dukat that helps build up to the whole Emissary/Anti-Emissary confrontation in the final episode that I hadn't noticed before. In "To The Death", Weyoun 4 offers to make Captain Sisko absolute dictator of the Federation which he refused. Later on while negotiating with the Dominion, Dukat apparently is given the offer of becoming absolute dictator of the Cardassian Union which he accepts. Such little plot threads being picked up and built on later in the series is something that makes DS9 great.