TheGodBen Revisits Deep Space Nine

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

  1. Nerys Ghemor

    Nerys Ghemor Vice Admiral Admiral

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    12 seems quite old for biting, which is how old Rugal was at the time. A more "normal" reaction, though not a socially appropriate one, would've been to cuss Garak out. Obviously there's a reason we couldn't have that on TV (ironic considering that biting was a more serious matter than some swear words), but that's why I think there's evidence of serious psychological problems.

    And your point about Bajor is why I would've suggested DS9 as an alternate location where they could live. It would still be Bajoran enough that Rugal would find some familiarity in it, but Federation enough that diversity is a value. For all of Keiko's flaws, I know she would not tolerate racist bullying in the classroom, and I think that Starfleet officers would not stand by if an incident occurred in the public areas of the station.
     
  2. DonIago

    DonIago Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Given how Cardassia seemed to be running at the time, if Pa'dar had voluntarily moved to DS9 it probably would have raised all sorts of issues for him, and possibly exacerbated the existing problem.
     
  3. TheGodBen

    TheGodBen Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Melora (*½)

    What is love? Baby don't hurt me. Don't hurt me no more.

    [​IMG]

    What is love? Is it a deep emotional connection? Is it something spiritual? Is it a biological force intended to facilitate procreation? Is it a reaction to seeing the biggest tits in the world?

    [​IMG]

    What is love? I can't tell you because I don't know, the only emotion I can experience anymore is fanboy rage. But if I wasn't so unfeeling I'd probably tell you that love is the most complex and powerful of all emotions and it can impact our lives in major ways. So I find these romance-of-the-week episodes annoying, they come from nowhere and they go nowhere, at best they are a temporary infatuation. This episode is one of the worst offenders, Melora shows up on DS9, two days later she has dinner and 0.01G sex with Bashir, and suddenly the two of them are in love. I don't buy it, and for once it's not because I'm being cynical, it's because the episode is being cynical and I'm not standing for it. (Edit: Poor choice of words there.)

    I suppose the main point of the episode is that disabled people don't want special treatment and that they don't need to be "fixed" to be normal, or something. I'm not going to quibble about that, the episode was written by a disabled guy (well, the first draft was) and I'm sure he knows what he's talking about. The thing is that for a character who doesn't want to be known as the woman in the wheelchair, that's what this episode is, it's about a woman in a wheelchair. She'll be forever remembered as that Star Trek character that was in a wheelchair. The only reason why I can remember her name is that it's also the title of the episode, and I remember the title of the episode because I'm a huge nerd. I suppose that if she had been a recurring character the gimmick would would have faded away and I would remember her as an actual character, like how I think of Geordi as Geordi and not as the blind guy.

    There's a b-story about Quark and some guy that wants to murder him that doesn't really work, and it brought us this line from Odo:

    You've never said that before. You'll never say that again. I hate this sort of thing, it's almost as bad as Janeway's comm-badge fiddling.

    Anyway, the b-story unnecessarily ties in with the a-story so that we can have some boring suspense, and Melora gets shot but doesn't die because of the magic spells Bashir has been experimenting with on her. I can't be the only one thinking that Dr Bashir has just come up with a technique to create superheroes. I mean, if a human underwent that procedure they'd get super-strength, and they could get shot at point-blank range and still survive. Starfleet should have used the procedure to create super-marines during the war, they would have had the Jem'hadar running in terror.

    I hope you do, because Bashir sure wont.
     
  4. Deranged Nasat

    Deranged Nasat Vice Admiral Admiral

    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.
     
  5. tomalak301

    tomalak301 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I still think to date Melora is the worst of DS9, even worse than Move Along Home. I appreciate what they were trying to do, but it just didn't work.
     
  6. Shatnertage

    Shatnertage Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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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.
     
  7. Skywalker

    Skywalker Admiral Admiral

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    It's no surprise that, when I first tried watching through all of DS9 a little over a year ago, I stopped watching for a while after "Melora." :lol:
     
  8. tomalak301

    tomalak301 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Just curious, what brought you back?
     
  9. JWD75

    JWD75 Commander Red Shirt

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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.
     
  10. Skywalker

    Skywalker Admiral Admiral

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    Netflix Instant Streaming. That, and I knew there was much awesomeness to come. :D

    Okay, it wasn't just "Melora" that made me stop watching for a while. I was watching the show via DVD, but I only had the one-disc-out-at-a-time plan, and it was taking too long to watch one disc, mail it back, wait for the next disc to be mailed, watch it, mail it back, etc. So I occupied myself with other stuff while I waited for DS9 to make the jump to streaming.

    It was still a terrible episode, though. The disc that ep was on actually ended up sitting in my house for like a month after I watched it before I finally remembered to mail it back. :ouch:
     
  11. Seven of Five

    Seven of Five Stupid Sexy Flanders! Premium Member

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    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. :biggrin:
     
  12. defiantfan

    defiantfan Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    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.
     
  13. Admiral Shran

    Admiral Shran Admiral Admiral

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    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.
     
  14. Deranged Nasat

    Deranged Nasat Vice Admiral Admiral

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

    Ln X Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    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!
     
  16. defiantfan

    defiantfan Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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  17. Admiral Shran

    Admiral Shran Admiral Admiral

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    Ah, okay, now I remember. Thanks. :techman:
     
  18. Skywalker

    Skywalker Admiral Admiral

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    ...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. :D
     
  19. Nerys Ghemor

    Nerys Ghemor Vice Admiral Admiral

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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. :rolleyes:

    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.)
     
  20. Admiral Shran

    Admiral Shran Admiral Admiral

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

    Good ol' Joe. :lol: