Ok, I am home sick, and decided to go ahead and get started on re watching Ds9, my fave Star Trek series. Still need to watch B5 and Farscape and other stuff, but when I am sick, I need to get back to a old friend that I been away from for too long. Emissary - This is a really good Pilot of Star Trek, or of TV shows in general. These days people want action thirty seconds into a show, but I enjoy the nice 1990s pace of the pilot. First off, its nice to see a couple of family men in this show, with Sisko with his son, and O'Brian with his family. Also I forgot how much fireworks you had between Picard and Sisko at the meeting. I always forget that Sisko looks like he wants to punch out Picard. After watching TNG for a while, its nice to see religion as something other then "pay no attention at the computer behind the wall over there." But a faith group that ranges from the casual, to the devout but logical, to the crazies. We show up at the station, have a first shot of Deep Space Nine, and then get to the plot. The plot is surprisingly deep, looking at the SF concept of what you had aliens who did not have our concept of time and perhaps how they would react to us. You meet all the secondary characters, Julian is surprisingly bad, I still think of him in his later years on the show when he had developed out, but it just goes to show how much he was developed. Quark is spot on, as is Gul Dukat. It is fun to see the "Space Western" and the nice large cast the show had. I don't mind Major Kira, some ask if she wants cheese with her whine, but it never bothered me. Terry Farrel is stunning, but still not that good of a actress at this point. In conclusion, sets up the series nicely, a strong first effort. B+ "Past Prologue" - The first non Pilot episode. I did not remember it fondly, but it was a lot better then I remembered. Garak is a true gem of a character, and the plot idea (Blow up the wormhole so everyone leaves bajor alone) is logical for terror plots go. The Sisters are the first of a number of TNG crossovers that I remember from Season 1, Not great, but better then I remembered. B- "A Man Alone" - Strong STRONG space western feel to this, and a police procedural to boot. One of the many charms of DS9 is that it varied its type of episode a good bit, so watching a big block of them never gets boring. Some will be high adventure, some will be gritty detective work, some are mob stories, and so on. Also, I find cloning cool, so it works up some extra points. Of course, there is some plot holes (what really happens with the clone in the medlab tank, just given a 20 dollar bill, a replicated suit, and told "Best of luck?" b- From what I remember of season 1, there is a few good episodes, then it goes from middling to poor, to finish up strongly into season 2.
I love Past Prologue. I wish far more of DS9's season 1 episodes were like Past Prologue, nice clever little plots that were really interesting and not odd TNG sci-fi anomaly episodes. I'm going through the whole of DS9, though with season 1 I'm cherry picking the episodes I wanna see.
It was MUCH better then I remembered. And it has aged quite well. "Babel" - Not a bad episode, a old booby trap is set off, and the crew slowly falls to babbling as they cannot speak to each other, and by the end, everyone is saved. Odo-Quark interplay is fun in this episode, as is the actors saying babble without falling into laughter. Forgot how utterly thin Terry Farrel looked in season 1. There is nothing too wrong with this episode as a Star Trek episode. B- "Captive Pursuit"- I am Tosk. Yes, this is a early classic episode. And one of the stronger episodes of season 1. Everything works well in this episode, and while not earth shattering, it has no weakness, there is no moment of sillyness, and a few moments of true humor. (O'brian's Glass Jaw comment comes to mind) with a suitable ending. May you have a honorable death Tosk. Imagine what fun if you took the hunters from Voyager and Tosk and made them pals. A "Q-Less - Ahh, Q and Vash on DS9. Vash was better then I remembered. And there is something cool in a Indiana Jones type of way of having collected rare artifacts and selling them. Perhaps I am a looter at heart. Perhaps they could have a Star Trek Series of the USS Ramses, which is off to explore strange new digs, and fending off looters and so on. Anyways. I will pause on that Major Kira's short haircut has grown on me over the years. Also I love Quark and his greedyness. However, in the end, this episode is as hollow as some of the props. C "Dax" - Ooo, this wasn't a good episode, trying to get the lawyer fun of some of the greats TNG episodes (Drumhead and The Measure of a Man) it not as strong, the only good point is that the guest star of the Bajorian officer who going to oversee the hearing is great. The rest of it boring on rewatch. Also feels "forced"... D "The Passenger" - Hoo Boy, every Deep Space nine season has a episode that is dire. This is it. I suffered a major problem in this episode, in that for my religious reasons, I do not drink, and I needed to drink beer to survive this episode. Is there at any point you have NOT guessed who it is, or that you know that everything will be ok. The only redeeming things for this episode are that the guest star female is wonderful, and that there is no sign of Rumpelstiltskin. F+ Almost half way though season 1!
I love reading re-watch threads. It's always interesting to see how the passage of time changes people's impressions of the episodes.
I think Captive Pursuit is alright, bits of it seemed timid, or more precisely stretched. It had action, but it took it's time getting there. I disagree entirely about the episode Dax. It is one of the better episodes of season 1, I just found it engaging, and some juicy scripts and dialogue, especially for that old Bajoran lawyer lady. I liked all the deliberation and argument about just who Dax is. Mind you I'm the sort of person who likes technical and thought-provoking stuff like that.
I agree, "Dax" was pretty good. I also can't remember what was so terrible about The Passenger, other than it being totally forgettable as I can't remember anything about it.
If you pause "The Passenger" at the right moment, you can see Bashir's face as he pushes Quark away after grabbing him from the shadows. I'm actually doing a rewatch myself. Though to be honest, it's not a pure rewatch as I missed a lot of episodes when DS9 first aired. I skipped most of Season One and the first few eps of Season Two because I'd actually watched those eps somewhat recently.
I am watching DS9 for the first time since it was originally on the air on UPN. I really enjoyed the series in high school. Since life got in the way on Saturday nights (due to band trips and church) I did not get to see all the episodes I wanted. So for the first time a few weeks ago, I finally watched Emissary! I read the book thousands of times, but I really thought the episode was extraordinary. It was like a puzzle in my head found a missing piece.
Now that is dedication and attention to detail! Sort of thing I would do, pause at a certain moment and look at something that caught my eye. It's a bad habit of mine...
I didn't do it on purpose, really. I was watching the ep on Netflix and when Bashir pushed Quark away, I was like "Wait, did they really just show his face?" So I rewound the video and paused it at that moment, and yep, they did!
The old Bajorian Lawyer Lady is what saves dax, along with Gregery Idzen<sp>. Still In the end I found it on re-watching being a lot lesser then I remembered it. Or perhaps I am being tougher, but its no Measure of a Man. The acting by Alexander Siddig was just...poor. It should of been good but I saw a barely saved train-wreck.
I thought I was just imagining that! Thank goodness I am not alone. I read somewhere that Siddig was not too thrilled with the way the episode panned out, something about voice dubbing I think.
Come Along Home "Allamaraine, count to four, Allamaraine, then three more, Allamaraine, if you can see, Allamaraine, you'll come with me..." This is a well hated episode. However, on re-watching it, I like it. Perhaps it is my ds9 version of "The Dauphin" (Disliked TNG episode that I really like). It is a fun, TOS feeling episode, that I do not feel is intended to be too serious. The Wadi makeup is not good (I like the trill and Bajorian makeup, light but still indicates to the water "These are aliens" and is cool. Wadi makeup is just bad. However the episode is cute, for example, when Sisko finds out his son likes girls, and knows all, due to Nog (mis)informing him what he needs to know. And perhaps since season 1 I saw at broadcast, and I was at the right age to really imprint, but Nana Vasor and Terry Ferrel just look amazing. Just had to throw that in. B+ The Negas The Ferenegi Episodes strikes!! Shhh, I don't share the hate of ferengi <sp> episodes that much (except for one that i HATE HATE HATE.) but this is not a bad episode. Not grand stuff, but a good fun episode. B- The Vortex I should like this episode, and I do, Kinda. It seems at points to be very slow, and perhaps it is partly due to the fact that TV as sped up over time, but there is a good to great points (Odo "cousin" moment") and everything is "cleaned up" at the end, which is typical of Star Trek, and something that Ds9 starts to move a little bit away from in the future. Also it pales in some of later episodes. B Another disk down!
Very good observations! I like the way you explained the "clean up" I never thought of it that way before.
You notice it more when I am rewatching a series con-currently that makes a point that only on rare cases is everything cleaned up at the end for anything major. Though in all fairness, DS9 "cleans up" less then say, TNG.
What's awesome about Move Along Home is at the end, when the alien says "It's only game!" That moment is orgasmically groan worthy.