Retro Review: Field of Fire

[TrekToday]

In order to solve a series of murders on the station, Ezri contacts Dax’s former host Joran – himself a murderer. Plot Summary: The morning after Ezri Dax congratulates new pilot Ilario on a successful mission, he is found murdered by a bullet from an experimental projectile weapon. With hundreds of suspects on the station, […]

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[DS9forever]

Some people seem to dislike the episode, but I really liked it. The identity of the killer was a nice touch.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I don't like it this episode because of the contrivances surrounding Ezri's involvement and the reasoning behind the murder. That said, it is perhaps the best episode in which the actor/actress explores the conflicting personalities within Trills.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

I detest this episode, nothing in it makes sense. first of all: "Someone who hates emotion"?

"Hate" is an emotion, dummy!

 

[trekshark]

I liked the gun although I'm not so sure about the custom mini transporter the guy added to it
That seems like a huge technology stretch even for Trek

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

I liked the gun although I'm not so sure about the custom mini transporter the guy added to it
That seems like a huge technology stretch even for Trek

The mini transporter makes the gun useless... Why not beam the bullet directly inside the body, or a pellet of explosive, or of poison. It seems stupid to use a gun that seems equipped for long distance precision shooting, when you can't miss!!!

 

[kkt]

I liked the gun although I'm not so sure about the custom mini transporter the guy added to it
That seems like a huge technology stretch even for Trek

The mini transporter makes the gun useless... Why not beam the bullet directly inside the body, or a pellet of explosive, or of poison. It seems stupid to use a gun that seems equipped for long distance precision shooting, when you can't miss!!!

It served the purpose of confusing the investigators for a while about how close the killer was to the victim.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

I liked the gun although I'm not so sure about the custom mini transporter the guy added to it
That seems like a huge technology stretch even for Trek

The mini transporter makes the gun useless... Why not beam the bullet directly inside the body, or a pellet of explosive, or of poison. It seems stupid to use a gun that seems equipped for long distance precision shooting, when you can't miss!!!

It served the purpose of confusing the investigators for a while about how close the killer was to the victim.

Given the restricted space they were in, they knew it couldn't have been more than a few meters, a handgun would have been more than enough.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

This episode was staged like a bad crime procedural.

The entire thing was so forced and logicless. The first scene is staged like the first scene of an episode of CSI, which really feels awkward and strained in the context of Trek. Then you have to explain why Ezri was assigned to this murder and not Odo, and why Ezri would think it was a good idea to literally talk to Joran when she supposedly has his memories. "What do you see? Pictures of people smiling. The killer must be a Vulcan!" This is one of the biggest facepalm moments in all of Trek. It's the sort of thing you would expect to see in a comedy sketch parodying a detective show, also indicating a complete lack of understanding of Vulcans on the part of the writer.

Then, this idea of a projectile weapon that transports its bullet. Another of those things obviously put in because the writer thought it looked cool and not because it makes sense. If it works that easily it begs the question why snipers with these weapons are not posted all around during any kind of ground assault or invasion. But if you could control transporters so finely you should just be able to use them to detach somebody's head from their body. And in a universe where transporters can be controlled so finely at will, having some kind of site to site transport dampening throughout the station or at least constant transport detection should be considered a basic security precaution.

All that practical stuff is forgivable, if the writing were better. Ezri's interaction with Joran was incredibly cheesy, like it came from a crime show canceled after six episodes.

 

[DWF]

I really have never liked the modern Trek's portrayal of Vulcans, I can't see them as Maquis members or racists on Enterprise or worse still an assassin. And as much as I like Robert Hewitt Wolfe's work this wasn't a good story for him to end his assocation with Star Trek on.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

This episode was staged like a bad crime procedural.

The entire thing was so forced and logicless. The first scene is staged like the first scene of an episode of CSI, which really feels awkward and strained in the context of Trek. Then you have to explain why Ezri was assigned to this murder and not Odo, and why Ezri would think it was a good idea to literally talk to Joran when she supposedly has his memories. "What do you see? Pictures of people smiling. The killer must be a Vulcan!" This is one of the biggest facepalm moments in all of Trek. It's the sort of thing you would expect to see in a comedy sketch parodying a detective show, also indicating a complete lack of understanding of Vulcans on the part of the writer.

Then, this idea of a projectile weapon that transports its bullet. Another of those things obviously put in because the writer thought it looked cool and not because it makes sense. If it works that easily it begs the question why snipers with these weapons are not posted all around during any kind of ground assault or invasion. But if you could control transporters so finely you should just be able to use them to detach somebody's head from their body. And in a universe where transporters can be controlled so finely at will, having some kind of site to site transport dampening throughout the station or at least constant transport detection should be considered a basic security precaution.

All that practical stuff is forgivable, if the writing were better. Ezri's interaction with Joran was incredibly cheesy, like it came from a crime show canceled after six episodes.

This! and then some!

For instance, why was the star fleet guy ( the gun collector) running away if he had an alibi? Why was he running away at all on a space station where there is no way he could hide or escape? Plus the guy is star fleet for goodness sake! I supposed they're not recruiting morons. Why was he running? For what purpose other than giving Ezri an occasion to stab him with a butter knife?

And that's only one short scene of the episode, multiply that by a hundred to get an idea of the extent of the disaster...

 

[bolak]

I really have never liked the modern Trek's portrayal of Vulcans, I can't see them as Maquis members or racists on Enterprise or worse still an assassin.

I thought they'd be quite good assassins, as they could detach themselves from the emotion of killing someone in cold blood.

However I don't think any Trek series has ever really known how to handle Vulcans. Even in TOS the writers often lapsed into the simplistic 'logical mind == obsession with faux precision', like Annoying Spock* in 'That Which Survives'.

Mark Lenard's Sarek was an awesome Vulcan mainly through his own acting and having discussed the Vulcan psyche with Mr Nimoy. You could see his emotions bubbling just under the surface, yet always working to contain them.


* there is very little chance that the Enterprise was thrown precisely 990.7 light years. So Spock was rounding; in that case why not round to 991? Or 1000? Because the writers didn't think about how Vulcans would actually think. They took the lazy option of adding decimals to sound 'logical'.

The logical approach is actually to express data in a format and precision applicable to context. So Lt Radha initially saying '1000 light years' was, given the scale of space and the speed of the Enterprise, perfectly logical. As the distance reduced then additional precision could be introduced.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

I really have never liked the modern Trek's portrayal of Vulcans, I can't see them as Maquis members or racists on Enterprise or worse still an assassin.

I thought they'd be quite good assassins, as they could detach themselves from the emotion of killing someone in cold blood.

However I don't think any Trek series has ever really known how to handle Vulcans. Even in TOS the writers often lapsed into the simplistic 'logical mind == obsession with faux precision', like Annoying Spock* in 'That Which Survives'.

Mark Lenard's Sarek was an awesome Vulcan mainly through his own acting and having discussed the Vulcan psyche with Mr Nimoy. You could see his emotions bubbling just under the surface, yet always working to contain them.


* there is very little chance that the Enterprise was thrown precisely 990.7 light years. So Spock was rounding; in that case why not round to 991? Or 1000? Because the writers didn't think about how Vulcans would actually think. They took the lazy option of adding decimals to sound 'logical'.

The logical approach is actually to express data in a format and precision applicable to context. So Lt Radha initially saying '1000 light years' was, given the scale of space and the speed of the Enterprise, perfectly logical. As the distance reduced then additional precision could be introduced.

What was a bit annoying is Spock constantly (for a while that is) giving odds as to their success or failure when they were doing something. Odds are only a manifestation of your ignorance/knowledge of a phenomenon. By themselves they are meaningless.