TheGodBen Revisits Deep Space Nine

[Seven of Five]

I hate Melora, and totally agree with the sentiment of romance of the week episodes. They're totally pointless as they all follow the same boring plot, and said romantic interest is never seen of or referred to again.

It's baffling that they decided to have an episode about a woman in a wheelchair, when all this poor woman wanted was for everyone to treat her normally. They should have had a story like Rejoined where the issue is there for us to see plain and simple, but it barely registers a murmour amongst the characters.

Now that I've bought it up, is Rejoined the exception to the rule of romance of the week, or is that different because it was one of Jadiza's past hosts that was married to Lenara's past host?

Oh hang on, I also like A Simple Investigation.

[defiantfan]

TheGodBen wrote:

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This is the Garak I know and love, and you can see why he started to recur more and more after this episode.

He did a great job of being dispassionate while they visited the orphanage. I still get slightly confused as to why they did not touch on the subject of Bajoran/Cardassian kids like Ziyal.

[Admiral Shran]

Deranged Nasat wrote:

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The worst part is that they reuse this strange "handle over the mouth" look for another minor character in season six, who remains the absolute worst alien seen on Trek.

I'm drawing a blank on who the alien in Season Six was.

As for Melora, I agree it's a bad episode and it's because of the romance-of-the-week aspect. A Simple Investigation is the franchise's only instance of that genre that works that I can think of off the top of my head.

Sadly, we're in store for at least two more romances-of-the-week in this season alone.

[Deranged Nasat]

Admiral Shran wrote:

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I'm drawing a blank on who the alien in Season Six was.

It is - *shudder* - the guy in "Honor Among Thieves" who gets shot by Bilby. Name of Yint.

[Ln X]

JWD75 wrote:

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Melora is one of my least favorite episodes of the series. Only a certain third season episode that also focused on a cringe-worthy romance is worse. Coincidently, that episode's title also started with an M. Romance-of-the-week stories were almost never successful for any of the Star Trek series and were, more often than not, flat out embarrassing.

I don't which one was worse: Melora or the cursed M named episode, which I can disclose as Meridian... (shudders). Both were pieces of crapppy (please insert various swear words here) splodge, unworthy of DS9 and following the horrible TNG romance of the week. In TNG it worked when Riker was making out with anything that had hips and a bust, but in DS9 it just failed miserably.

However the worst episode of all DS9 hast to be Rivals, a season 2 episode. If TheGodBen does indeed give it his lowest rating ever for a DS9 episode he has so far reviewed, then I want a taco bell!

[defiantfan]

[QUOTE=Ln X;5373823]

JWD75 wrote:

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However the worst episode of all DS9 hast to be Rivals, a season 2 episode. If TheGodBen does indeed give it his lowest rating ever for a DS9 episode he has so far reviewed, then I want a taco bell!

It is not our place to question TheGodBen's (whom I have nicknamed "The Sisko" in my head) ratings until they are dispensed. I don't know how Rivals will be rated, but we wait patiently. Besides Sanctuary has to be rated first.

[Admiral Shran]

Deranged Nasat wrote:

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It is - *shudder* - the guy in "Honor Among Thieves" who gets shot by Bilby. Name of Yint.

Ah, okay, now I remember. Thanks.

[Skywalker]

defiantfan wrote:

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It is not our place to question TheGodBen's (whom I have nicknamed "The Sisko" in my head) ratings until they are dispensed. I don't know how Rivals will be rated, but we wait patiently. Besides Sanctuary has to be rated first.

...Okay, now I'm kind of wishing TheGodBen had reviewed the series in random order. Reviewing it in such a linear fashion is so very un-Prophetlike.

[Nerys Ghemor]

Deranged Nasat wrote:

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Guy-Who-Wants-To-Kill-Quark has, sadly, one of the worst makeup designs in the series. Every time I see him I start thinking I'm a Little Teapot, short and stout...The worst part is that they reuse this strange "handle over the mouth" look for another minor character in season six, who remains the absolute worst alien seen on Trek.

I'm convinced the only possible way that could ever be an evolutionary advantage is that they came from a planet where parasites would take them over otherwise.

Of course, I'm sure no one actually thought that one through in the makeup department.

Shatnertage wrote:

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Given that the A-story was about a woman in a wheelchair, Odo's comment seems particularly insensitive.

And a total non-sequitur.

Heh...you mean kind of like the first blooper in this video here?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hZtW_q_6Ug

(As a little bit of background, he was addressing a man who used a wheelchair.)

[Admiral Shran]

Nerys Ghemor wrote:

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I'm convinced the only possible way that could ever be an evolutionary advantage is that they came from a planet where parasites would take them over otherwise.

Ah, so they're from a Goa'uld planet. Makes sense.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hZtW_q_6Ug

Good ol' Joe.

[Deranged Nasat]

Nerys Ghemor wrote:

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I'm convinced the only possible way that could ever be an evolutionary advantage is that they came from a planet where parasites would take them over otherwise.

Of course, I'm sure no one actually thought that one through in the makeup department.

Yes, it would certainly have been nice if someone in the makeup department was thinking about such things and making the aliens plausible. It's strange that no-one would propose that having an alien unable to eat effectively isn't the soundest design. At least it leaves us opportunity to try and reason it out ourselves. I like the parasite idea (I suppose you're suggesting something akin to the pink puppet-things, the bluegill?).

Perhaps this should have been another of TheGodBen's tally lists: "Aliens Who Give The Middle Finger To Darwin".

[TheGodBen]

I think Elaysians would have to be added to that list. Hell, they don't even obey the laws of physics as far as I understand them; what was their planet made of, styrofoam?

[M]

Hm, I don't know. While I certainly don't love "Melora", I sure like it. It's not one of Trek's best love stories, that's for sure. (Although I must admit to finding the low-gravity scene quite romantic. ) But what I really enjoy about the episode is Melora's character. The way she looks at her situation seems realistic.

[flemm]

NCC-1701 wrote:

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Hm, I don't know. While I certainly don't love "Melora", I sure like it. It's not one of Trek's best love stories, that's for sure. (Although I must admit to finding the low-gravity scene quite romantic. ) But what I really enjoy about the episode is Melora's character. The way she looks at her situation seems realistic.

I also like the character reasonably well, which keeps this episode from being a total loss for me, but I basically agree with everything that's been said about how irritating these one-episode romance stories can be.

Second Sight and Meridian are worse, though, I think. A Simple Investigation is substantially better, because of how that episode contributes to Odo's character arc overall.

[TheGodBen]

Rules of Acquisition (**½)

Hey guys, did you know that the Ferengi are misogynistic and greedy? If you didn't then you must not have watched any of DS9's Ferengi episodes because they pound those two facts into your skull repeatedly for for an hour straight. That's the problem with this episode, it's just the same old jokes over and over again. The humour rarely rises above the Two and a Half Men level. As a comedy episode, this doesn't really work, but if you treat it a little more seriously it's not so bad.

In some ways, this episode introduces the major Ferengi plot for the rest of the series; the emancipation of Ferengi females and the liberalisation of their society. It's not one of the most important or celebrated plotlines, but it is part of the tapestry of the show that makes DS9 grander than the others. With TNG using the Ferengi mainly as ineffectual villains, the issue of Ferengi females only came up as a way of making them seem like savages, it was never properly addressed, so it's good that DS9 chose to actually address that issue at least semi-seriously. Pel is a crusader for women's rights that has to pretend to be a man in order to prove her worth, much like many women in human history. The fact that Pel falls in love with Quark and can't stop herself from kissing him is somewhat unfortunate, it plays to the stereotype that women are romantics and are ruled by their emotions, which kinda undercuts the points that Ferengi females are equal to Ferengi males. But I guess that's the comedy side of things trying to barge its way into the story again.

What this episode is probably most famous for is the introduction of the Dominion, and the handling of that wasn't bad. In fact, of the three episodes this season that hint at the existence of the Dominion, this probably handled it the best as it was more than just a name-check, the Dominion were at the core of this plot. The entire negotiation story was secretly about learning of the Dominion, and we get some sense that they're the key to the Gamma Quadrant rather than some generic threat. I'm not sure how effective it was to place the first reference to the Dominion in a light-hearted Ferengi episode because the Dominion were already a major part of the show by the time I became a fan. I'm intrigued, did any of you see this episode when it aired and write off the Dominion as something inconsequential, or did the reference pique your interest?