Re-Watching DS9

[Lord Garth]

On the subject of Muniz: both during the '90s and during my Re-Watch, I forgot about him in his earlier appearances. I just thought, "he's just a rando!" and he went into my short-term memory. Both times, in the '90s and now, he only registered in my brain while I was watching "The Ship". Until Farscape pointed out otherwise.

So, when I was watching "The Ship", both times I thought, "He's a Redshirt! Even though they're Goldshirts in the TNG Era. Either way, I agree with Worf. He's dead!"

 

[Farscape One]

Spoiler

True point.

Of course, I also saw the covers of all the season sets, including Season 5 where Sheridan has a beard! So that, unfortunately, already give it away, but no problem. The question just shifted from "if he survives" to "how he survives", and that works too.


Something I also appreciated.


I have Star Trek too ingrained in my brain. I just assumed there would be another White Star next season. If not, then it really is a surprise that they got rid of the White Star this soon!

On the subject of 'how'... the answer is rather surprising.

On the subject of Muniz: both during the '90s and during my Re-Watch, I forgot about him in his earlier appearances. I just thought, "he's just a rando!" and he went into my short-term memory. Both times, in the '90s and now, he only registered in my brain while I was watching "The Ship". Until Farscape pointed out otherwise.

So, when I was watching "The Ship", both times I thought, "He's a Redshirt! Even though they're Goldshirts in the TNG Era. Either way, I agree with Worf. He's dead!"

One of the things I loved about DS9 is they did a great job with not only the lead characters, but the secondary ones. Even the ancillary ones like Muniz got life breathed into them. It was great to see an engineering brotherhood, for lack of a better term.

Best show in the franchise for bringing life to so many characters.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

Unrelated: I recently watched the original "True Grit" for the first time, and it was a pleasant shock to see a much younger Jeff Corey

He's also in the TOS episode The Cloud Minders!

 

[LadyGayle]

First, Jake being a writer writing about war reminds me of the author Henry David Thoreau writing about war, and maybe that might've been an inspiration for this episode.

I believe Hemingway was an inspiration here.

 

[ichab]

"Nor the Battle to the Strong"

While I'm not a veteran, I have friends who are, and I've heard stories that I won't repeat here, and from my admittedly second-hand knowledge, this seems like one of the most realistic depictions of war that Star Trek has ever done. There's a break in the Klingon ceasefire. One of the planets Bashir and Jake are flying near is on the frontline, and Bashir takes Jake directly in with him.

The setup is perfect on a character level. Jake wants to get a job as a Reporter, so he wants to write an article on Bashir. Except he can't even pay attention to anything Bashir is saying. Then, he's excited when they go to the frontlines, only for that excitement to disappear once they're in a cave with cramped space, medics all over the place, with wounded and dead patients everywhere. Jake goes from excited to disoriented to scared, overwhelmed, and outraged all within the space of this one episode. He runs the gamut of emotions, getting his first real taste of war for the first time.

He's afraid when he and Bashir are temporarily out on the battlefield, gets scared, separated, and then runs into a wounded solider who's about to die and Jake can't do anything about. This soldier might as well have been in Vietnam or the Middle East. It felt real. And he taught Jake that he couldn't automatically make things right by bringing him to the Bashir. Then he died, and Jake ran off to try to make it back to base.

It seemed like Jake made a friend when he was helping out as medic earlier in the episode, but then Jake snaps at this friend when he and some others are cracking jokes about the best way to die. It was some black humor, but I completely understand it if they're surrounded by death all the time. It's their way of coping, or they'd go crazy. But Jake doesn't see it that way and explodes at them. Then Bashir has to take him aside and asks Jake what's really bothering him. Jake says he feels like a coward.

He feels like a coward again when there's an explosion, everyone has to evacuate, Jake's pinned down, and he starts blindly firing at raiding Klingons. Hiding, shooting without rhyme or reason, just shooting. Then at the end of the episode, the ceasefire is reinstated and Sisko's there to take him to the Defiant.

When Jake writes the article about his experience, Sisko is proud of him. He tells Jake that anyone who's been a battle can see themself in that article, when talking about the fine line between courage and cowardice. I have two thoughts about that. First, Jake being a writer writing about war reminds me of the author Henry David Thoreau writing about war, and maybe that might've been an inspiration for this episode. Second, Jake was "lucky" that he had something "exciting" to write about. There are going to be several times where he'll have to write about stories that he's not so excited about. So, he'll have to get used to writing those too. But at least he'll have his foot in the journalistic door, and he learned some hard lessons about life and death along the way.

Other parts of this episode? Seeing Sisko trying to find work to do to keep his mind occupied while the Defiant is rushing to jake and Bashir makes sense. Especially to avoid thinking about what might've happened to Jake, if the worst had happened. There are some other character bits as well that tie into how fragile life is: such as Odo forgetting he can't turn into a bird mid-air anymore to stop a criminal, or O'Brien being worried that Kira drinking caffeine will turn his baby into a caffeine addict.

Overall, it's starting to sound like a cliche to say this, but it's the truth: this is an episode of Star Trek that could only have been done on DS9. For the third time in a row, I give it a 10.

Awesome review! This is one of DS9's hidden gems.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A little sidebar:
As fun as Star Wars is to watch, the Lucas movies really do sanitize war too much. Every time a fight starts, happy music plays and the heroes cut through every thing. Even droids can waddle thru fields of fire without a scratch. While exciting to watch, it is completely unrealistic and masks the real horrors of war. A lot of other movies from the period did this like..... most of Arnold and Sly's catalogue.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Flash to this episode and we have Jake ,who has a similar ignorance about war, get completely snapped into reality. Real quick. This episode along with some others since Season 4 did a great job of reminding people the stark contrast between the Federation and the Klingons. Klingons don't give two sh!ts about rules of war. Weapon or no weapon, if you are on the battlefield and not a Klingon, then you are marked for death. Jake really was out of his element and I really believed that he was in danger here.

This really is peak DS9. It is dealing with a subject that Rodenberry always shied away from. War, and everything bad about it. Since we have talented writers along with talented actors, it works perfectly here. A great episode and, hard to believe, but it gets even better from here. I can't wait to see your response to some of the other "realities of war" episodes that come later.

 

[DonIago]

^Perhaps one of the reasons why Rogue One may be my favorite Star Wars installment is that while it doesn't go full-on nitty gritty, it comes much closer to the realities of war, especially when you don't have wizard-warriors on your side.

 

[Commander Troi]

It is dealing with a subject that Rodenberry always shied away from. War, and everything bad about it.

"A Taste of Armageddon" has entered the chat.

 

[XCV330]

^Perhaps one of the reasons why Rogue One may be my favorite Star Wars installment is that while it doesn't go full-on nitty gritty, it comes much closer to the realities of war, especially when you don't have wizard-warriors on your side.

In fairness as shown in the movies at least, Jedi were never able to stop horrific losses for their own side. I know the old EU books indicated that the Emperor had a kind of leadership affect on the fleet near him when he was alive, but, again, still didn't seem that big of a help. All in all Han seems to have been right when it to blasters vs their religion.

 

[Lord Garth]

The only Star Wars I've seen are the nine mainline films once each and Rogue One once. And my memory of all of them is pretty faded, except for the most iconic stuff like, "I am your father!" And that's more because of pop culture than anything else.

So, this is all Greek to me.

 

[DonIago]

In fairness as shown in the movies at least, Jedi were never able to stop horrific losses for their own side. I know the old EU books indicated that the Emperor had a kind of leadership affect on the fleet near him when he was alive, but, again, still didn't seem that big of a help. All in all Han seems to have been right when it to blasters vs their religion.

But within the context of the films, there's rarely much focus given to the 'little people' fighting the war.

As for the Chancellor, he had reasons to not want the casualty counts to be particularly minimized.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

"A Taste of Armageddon" has entered the chat.

As did Gene Coon.

 

[Lord Garth]

I'll be reviewing "The Assignment" next, but first I want to run through the numbers for Babylon 5 Season 3, before I do my Season Review.

These were my ratings:

"Matters of Honor" - 8
"Convictions" - 7
"A Day in the Strife" - 10
"Passing Through Gethamane" - 8
"Voices of Authority" - 8
"Dust to Dust" - 10
"Exogenesis" - 2
"Messages from Earth" - 9
"Point of No Return" - 10
"Severed Dreams" - 10
"Ceremonies of Light and Dark" - 7.5
"Sic Transit Vir" - 6
"A Late Delivery from Avalon" - 7
"Ship of Tears" - 8
"Interludes and Examinations" - 9
"War Without End, Part I" - 10
"War Without End, Part II" - 10
"Walkabout" - 7.5
"Gray 17 Is Missing" - 8
"And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place" - 9
"Shadow Dancing" - 8
"Z'ha'dum" - 10

Average: 8.27
Average: 8.57 (without "Exogenesis")

Even if I take out "Exogenesis", DS9 Season 4 (which I gave an 8.9) is still ahead of B5 Season 3.

However, I gave the first season of B5 a 7.92 and the second season an 8.07, so I think the third season is Babylon 5's best so far. "Exogenesis" or not.

 

[Lord Garth]

"The Assignment"

You can say this is a Torture O'Brien Episode, but it's really a Torture Keiko Episode. The Pah'Wraith that possessed Keiko put her through Hell. Which is appropriate since the Pah'Wraiths essentially came from Hell. Rosalind Chao is finally given something she can sink her teeth into instead of just being O'Brien's Wife and she plays the perfect villainess who has O'Brien wrapped around her finger. If O'Brien does anything to warn the others, the Pah'Wraith will either kill Keiko, kill Molly, or both.

Loved the Birthday Party and "Keiko" trying make O'Brien celebrate it as if everything's normal! And nothing O'Brien can think of will stop the Pah'Wraith before it can do something to Keiko. So, he's forced to comply. You'd think that Sisko and Odo would be onto O'Brien the moment he hesitates when they ask if he knows if someone in his department is responsible for sabotage on the station. Though, to be fair, Odo does piece together Rom must've had help when O'Brien reluctantly tries to pin everything on him.

Rom's over-eagerness to fit in with whatever shift he's working on is in character. His enthusiasm is just enough without becoming annoying. Voyager Writers take note when it comes to Neelix. I remembered at one point on DS9, Rom was taken into custody by Odo and that Rom was covering for someone, but I didn't remember it was for O'Brien and in this episode. When I recognized what was about to happen, it all came back to me. Rom's intelligence is put to good use when he helps O'Brien piece together that a Pah'Wraith is the one who possessed Keiko and that they're enemies of the Prophets.

The Pah'Wraiths were the final piece missing on DS9. The Cardassians are the enemies of the Bajorans. The Dominion are the enemies of the Federation. The Pah'Wraiths are the enemies of the Prophets. So now, DS9 is operating its central conflict on three fronts and on three different levels.

My favorite scenes are Possessed Keiko showing how dangerous she can be by 1) flinging Keiko off the second story of the Promenade, and 2) doing something as simple as combing Molly's hair and having her say "owww". It's a minor thing, but it shows how much danger Molly's in.

That's all I have to say about this episode. It's light, but considering the last Torture O'Brien Episode was "Hard Time", I don't mind. It's fun, it's something different, and it introduces a new enemy that'll become very important later on. I give it an 8.

 

[Farscape One]

It's a nice reversal of O'Brien being possessed in "Power Play".

Just goes to show you: the couple that gets possessed together, stays together.

 

[Lord Garth]

Babylon 5 -- The Third Season
Part I: General Thoughts

Spoiler

"The Practical Joker" (TAS)

Since this is a Saturday-morning cartoon from the '70s, I'm going to cut it some slack. It's goofy and some stuff is totally random, but not a big deal. The Romulans automatically claim a certain area of space and use it as an excuse to attack the Enterprise. Nothing like making shit up. Then the Enterprise goes into a weird nebula thing which turns the computer into a practical joker, hence the title of the episode. Hijinks ensue. You just have to roll with it.

My favorite part, and what stands out is the Rec Room. It's an early version of the Holodeck. The computer has the Rec Room put McCoy, Sulu, and Uhura in the freezing cold. Then it puts them in a maze. They can't find their way out until they're finally rescued from outside. Showing the potential of the Rec Room, a.k.a. the Proto-Holodeck, we also see a beach and a forest, the latter of which will be shown in "Encounter at Farpoint" when we first see the Holodeck in live-action.

At the end of the episode, the Romulans are back up to their nonsense again, so Kirk leads the Romulans through the nebula they just went through, and the Romulan computer starts playing jokes on the Romulans! Kirk will show the Romulans how to fix the situation they're in, but he wants to wait and let the Practical Joker have its fun with the Romulans. Laughter ensues!

It's stupid, but it killed some time, and there are worse things to watch. And by the way, for everyone thinking this would be the B5 Season 3 Review... April Fool's!

I'll have B5 Season 3 Review ready later on in the week.

I would've preferred to have the first episode of the fourth season. It would've been fitting for the first day of the fourth month, but it didn't work out like that. See you next time!

EDITED TO ADD: April Fool's! The real Babylon 5 Season 3 Review will be coming soon.

 

[Poltargyst]

Next up, Dirty Dancing! It's been a while since the last time I've seen it.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Oh, wait. No. Sorry, my mistake! I meant Babylon 5's "Shadow Dancing"!

"Shadow Dancing" (B5 S3E21)

Spoiler

To start off with, if you're going to go find yourself: don't do it in the crime-ridden ghetto. Why do I say this? Because you just might get shanked! And that's exactly what happens to Franklin. Then Franklin sees himself. I'll call what he sees Franklin #2. I love Franklin #2 because he tells Franklin what a fuck-up he is. He's been running all his life. The job to run from his family. The stems to run from his job. Now the walkabout to run from everything. So, Franklin, bleeding like crazy, gets up, walks, makes it long enough to be rescued by medics. Glad that storyline's wrapped up. Too bad Franklin had to be stabbed with a knife to find what he was looking for.

Meanwhile, the League of Non-Aligned Worlds reluctantly votes to commit their ships to aiding Sheridan and Delenn's fleet to fight the Shadows. I can see their point-of-view when it comes to their reluctance. They don't want to leave their worlds defenseless. At the same time, mobilizing a fleet against the Shadows is important. So, they're stuck between a rock and a hard place and tell Sheridan they hope it's worth it.

The combined fleet looks impressive. I'm taking note that this is the first time in B5 (or DS9) that I'm seeing such an organized fleet and with so many different attack wings. So, that was interesting for me to finally see on my projector. Interesting choice of camera work to depict the Minbari telepaths in those ships. And the battles looked pretty good by '90s TV CGI standards. I was fully bought into it.

But, oddly enough, the main thing that interested me the most were the relationships. I'd say it's bizarre because I'd say I'm not usually a shipper, but then I'm all about Margo/Sergei on For All Mankind, Janeway/Chakotay on Voyager, Worf/Dax on DS9, and here we are with Babylon 5. I'm all about Sheridan/Delenn and Ivanova/Marcus. At one point I said out loud to Ivanova and Marcus, "Go to bed with each other already!"

Interesting Minbari tradition where the woman gets to see if they like the man's true face. Delenn likes Sheridan's true face, so I guess that makes them even more of an item. Whatever works for them!

One last thing to mention: I like Garibaldi being worried about Franklin, but then trying to deny it in the most Tough Guy way possible. "I just didn't want to lose a bet!" Yeah, right.

Then there's the cliffhanger ending. Sheridan's wife! That's a cliffhanger! What the Hell are the Shadows up to with this?!

The Z-Minus Countdown continues! I expect the next episode to be a major powerhouse. And I liked this one too. I give it an 8.

One episode left of B5's third season. If I have it in me, I'll cover it later on tonight. If not, then tomorrow.

No, no, Shadow DANCING.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[Lord Garth]

No, no, Shadow DANCING.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Right on, man!

 

[kkt]

The only Star Wars I've seen are the nine mainline films once each and Rogue One once. And my memory of all of them is pretty faded, except for the most iconic stuff like, "I am your father!" And that's more because of pop culture than anything else.

So, this is all Greek to me.

Seems more Roman to me. Emperor. Senate. Praetorian Guard.