I've been watching the entire series from start to finish since June and i'm now at season 5, so far its a pretty good show but it has a number of irritating flaws, but the point of this thread is to discuss some episodes which have annoyed me recently (not on purpose of course :P). First one is The Assignment: Not a new premise, character gets possessed, does evil stuff, etc, but if this was meant to be this seasons torture O'brien episode then i'm disappointed, although I don't think anything could top Hard Time. Firstly, what was up with the pah wraith? For a non-corporeal entity or whatever thats been stuck in a cave for thousands of years it seemed like it had the personality of some sinister humanoid, it just told O'brien to do questionable technobabble in an evil voice, i'm not sure whether the writers intended for the pah-wraith to be a basic, evil villian or another confusing, mystical alien like the prophets. Secondly, why are these pah-wraiths bad? Why did the prophets just decide to kick them out and freeze them in a cave? Don't they have some kind of non-corporeal rehabilitation service? (Jokes aside, i'm still confused about this). Despite this confusion I kind of liked seeing O'brien in a hostage situation and seeing him go to those lengths to save his wife kind of added to his character (even though its a really big cliche). I found Rom annoying though, he was on goof overload in this episode. Second one is Let he who is without sin: I know, I know, everyone hates this one, biggest stinker of the series, yada, yada. I thought it was okay, I thought the premise of a cult against paradise and for toughening up the federation was an interesting idea, but it was poorly carried out and it just felt like a really pointless episode. Despite this, I found it mildly entertaining, I don't know why actually, everything about this episode was stupid, but it didn't feel out of character, Worf refusing to enjoy himself and then ruining everyone elses fun seemed like something he'd do (he just wants duty and warfare after all). Worfs traumatic childhood story seemed silly though, either the kid must have had a really delicate neck or Klingons are really the supermen they make themselves out to be. Third one is Things Past: This just felt like a well-done but pointless rehash of necesarry evil (which is one of the most awesome episodes in trek, btw Terok Nor thats really clever ). The reason for the telepathic simulation just seemed really silly, I was hoping DS9 would move away from some of the totally unbelievable phenomenon that happened in TNG in favour of more plausible (but still creative) events. So once again old Terok Nor was well directed, with dark, grim lighting and atmosphere and convincingly corrupt opressors in abundance, however it didn't really add anything new to what we knew about Odo (HE HAS FLAWS, I KNOW THAT ALREADY!) , the old station, the Bajoran resistance or any of the other characters for that matter (we already kind of know that Dukat thinks he's a sympathetic dictator and some kind of hero). Despite all this, the bit of foreshadowing at the end was cool, and it was nice to see past Terok Nor again (which should have been in the show more often, although with reason). So, thats my rant of the day, if anyone wants to add something or answer my questions stated, please do.
The fifth season is often heralded as the best, but it does have a couple of pretty iffy episodes. LHWIWS is an obvious choice by most accounts, and the premise behind "The Assignment" has me worried about reaching it in my rewatch. I do recall enjoying "Things Past", though. Granted, I can't imagine it outdoing "Necessary Evil".
DS9 is an uneven series throughout its run, no doubt about that. We had to suffer through many mediocre episodes on the assumption that the really good stuff was next week...well, okay maybe the week after next...early S7 was a particularly fallow stretch. It wasn't till I started watching Lost that I even considered the possibility of a non-cable series could be almost free of dud episodes. And even then, it's a rarity.
"Ferengi Love Songs" is the other of the pair alongside "Let He Who Is Without Sin..." that I see people commonly associate with lowest of the low. Jammer, who as a reviewer now, myself, is quite the inspiration, considered those two the only bad episodes of the season overall. I should really give Lost another shot eventually.
"let He who is without sin" is one I definitely FFW quickly. Worf doesn't want to go on vacation, and when he is there refuses to have a good time. Then to make his point that he hates being there, he joins a group of party pooping goofballs. I do like "Fernegi Love Songs", but I like all the Ferengi episodes. I can understand how people do not like having a whole show concerning the mommy issues of Quark or Rom getting married. I liked it.
I believe even the show writers/produces did not like how "Let he who is without sin" turned out. Memory Alpha says the plan was to make a show about sex and taboos and hypocrisy related to it, but many scenes were deemed too risque for a show that kids could be watching - DS9 came on as early as late afternoon in some markets at the time - and the result was a sexless show about sex, which ... yeah, it fell flat. Another interesting tidbit, Siddig said that when he filmed the break-up scene with Leeta (Chase Masterson), his son with Nana Visitor had just been born and he was the most "out of it" he had ever been in a scene, he just wanted to get off set and go see his family.
Just saw 'Ferengi love songs' today, it wasn't bad, but these ferengi episodes get more and more cartoony with each season . Did all those people transporting in and out of Quarks closet have some sub-meaning to it?
I don't understand the complaint about Things Past being a rehash of Necessary Evil. Yeah, they both took place during the Occupation time of Terok Nor, and one dealt with Kira and the other dealt with Odo, but that's pretty much it. With that in mind, I loved Things Past and consider it one of DS9's most underrated episodes.