You Design the Finale Montage!

[Tosk]

I really like the fact that DS9 took the time to have a 'memories montage' during the final minutes of the series, but it does disappoint a little that the flashbacks for Worf and Quark are pretty poorly chosen. (In my opinion.)

The legal obstacle of not being able to show Farrell didn't help, but even that aside, having half of Worf's memories being from just the few weeks prior was weak.

And Quark (as has been noted by many) mostly just remembers watching other people do things. Not exactly his finest (or most comedic) moments.



So I ask you, fellow DS9 fans...what shots would you have used? Not just for Worf and Quark, but for everyone. What four or five shots from the series perfectly sum up each of the characters journeys?

 

[PorthosShadow]

Well, my idea is not intended to start any arguments of DS9 vs B5 because I love both shows. That being said I liked the way B5 did it's character montage at the end of "Sleeping In Light" by showing the character at the beginning of the series and at the end. I would have liked to have seen a clip from the characters first appearence and their last (nearly).

 

[Navaros]

The legal obstacle of not being able to show Farrell didn't help

I disagree; it helped a lot. DS9 would have been better if Jadzia fell out of the airlock in Emissary rather than waiting 6 years to go. Snubbing Jadzia in the montage was great IMO .

What was not great was snubbing the best characters of the show, like Garak, Weyoun, Winn, Dukat, Nog etc. etc.

I would fix the montage by putting those characters in it and squeezing out of it the main characters who contributed less to the show then they did, i.e. both Daxes, Bashir, Jake.

Other than that, they used way too many shots from Season 6 and Season 7, and way too few from earlier Seasons. That should be fixed too. The Jake one seems to be the only one the put some effort into in regards to not doing that.

I agree that Quark's montage sucked, just showing him watch other people. Quark did so many great things on the show, like frying Jem'Hadar, saving the station, etc; why not show that?

 

[Tosk]

I would have liked to have seen a clip from the characters first appearence and their last (nearly).

That would have been cool. They did do close to that with the Jake one, which I agree with Navaros on...the Jake montage is the only really good one.

Snubbing Jadzia in the montage was great IMO .

Surely you'd have to admit though, it makes the Worf montage weak from the point of view of his character. It made it seem like Worf has no ability to form long-term memories. (Like Homer, he remembers watching TV, eating a big sandwich, and having this conversation. )

What was not great was snubbing the best characters of the show, like Garak, Weyoun, Winn, Dukat, Nog etc. etc.

Nog maybe, but I can see why the others were left out. Who is there to think fondly of these characters? Bashir may spare a thought for Garak, but that's about it really.

Quark did so many great things on the show, like frying Jem'Hadar, saving the station, etc; why not show that?

I can't believe that from all the episodes, they chose him watching people walk, watching Rom clean his infected ear, and watching Julian and Miles drink. Oh, and catching a baseball and getting slapped by Odo.

 

[Tulin]

The legal obstacle of not being able to show Farrell didn't help

I disagree; it helped a lot. DS9 would have been better if Jadzia fell out of the airlock in Emissary rather than waiting 6 years to go. Snubbing Jadzia in the montage was great IMO .

WTF?!?!?!!

 

[flemm]

The final montage isn't intended to be the characters' greatest hits from the seven seasons. Of course it does provide a glimpse into the past, but it also has a dramatic purpose, which is to move the story forward and develop the theme that "What you take with you is what you leave behind."

It's on this basis that it should be evaluated.

The O'brien montage, for example, focuses on his friendship with Bashir because that is what he leaves behind on the station (whereas his family and Starfleet career are going with him).

The Kira/Odo montage focuses on Odo's evolution from a lab sample who regenerates in a bucket to a changeling who is loved for who he truly is. This is what Odo leaves behind, but also the message he takes with him to the Link.

Jake takes his memories of his father with him, but they are also what he leaves behind him in the sense that he is a man now who has to move on without his father's guidance.

The Worf montage suffers from not having any images of Jadzia but, again, the emphasis is on that part of him that will always remain on Deep Space Nine, to paraphrase Sisko's toast.

With Quark the emphasis is on the character as an observer of life on the station, since his bar is a stable element that existed from before the Federation's arrival and will go on after the finale. This sets the stage for his nostalgic "the more things change..." comment at the very end of WYLB.

Other than bringing in Worf's memories of Jadzia, I don't think I'd change the montages much, since they accomplish their goal quite nicely, which isn't to give a comprehensive look back on each character's history on the show, but rather to focus on the key moments of transition that are taking place right at that point in time.

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

First off, I would eliminate all the Worf/Ezri memories. If you can't have Jadzia because of rights, then dispense with the montage, and just have meaningful looks between Ezri and Worf. Neither of them were there since the beginning anyways, it's ok to not have a montage.

 

[Kirby]

^^^ I like that idea...

I loved the O'Brien montage. Just adding the first few notes of 'The Mistral Boy' gave me chills. It was a great callback to one of my favorite TNG episodes.

 

[Tosk]

The final montage isn't intended to be the characters' greatest hits from the seven seasons. Of course it does provide a glimpse into the past, but it also has a dramatic purpose, which is to move the story forward and develop the theme that "What you take with you is what you leave behind."

It's on this basis that it should be evaluated.

Except for a shot of holosuite-Worf smoking a cigar, right?

(Still not sure how that one snuck in.)

 

[flemm]

Except for a shot of holosuite-Worf smoking a cigar, right?

(Still not sure how that one snuck in.)

I admit you've got me there

Still, despite the obvious flaws in Worf's montage due to a lack of Jadzia, I think the basic purpose of these sequences remains more to focus on a particular theme (what they leave behind) rather than a pure retrospective or "best of."

I might quibble with a couple of choices in Quark's montage, but I think the basic idea is clear. Quark is not leaving the station, so what he takes with him is what the others leave behind: Bashir and O'Brien's friendship (they hung out at the bar a lot), Rom's doofus persona (he is now Nagus), Sisko and his love for baseball, the crew as a whole (who may never all be together again), his rivalry/disguised friendship with Odo. This is what the chosen memories show: not "Quark's greatest hits," but his thoughts on what is being left behind at that particular moment.

 

[Tosk]

I dunno why I keep thinking about this, but another quibble occured to me...

In the otherwise pretty-good Jake montage, one of the shots is of a memory Jake should not have. His father kissing him from "The Visitor". The shot they used came from the never-shall-be future rather than the regular timeline.

Oops!

 

[Trek Survivor]

Well, my wife and I finally got to WYLB in our watching of DS9 last night so I got to refresh my memory of the montage.

I liked it just fine!

I thought there WAS a good mix of old and new eps, including the O'Brien/Bashir montage. Clips from "The Storyteller", "Rivals" and "The Die Is Cast" confirm this.

Jake's was just great. Brought a lump to my throat and had my wife crying (well, the whole last ten or fifteen mins of the episode did actually).

Kira and Odo's were just perfect too.

Worf's were OK - obviously in a perfect world, they would have Jadzia clips but for whatever reason (I've heard conflicting comments from the producers and Terry Farrell) they didn't, and given that restraint, what they picked were good.

WYLB definitely redeems season seven.

 

[Marie1]

The legal obstacle of not being able to show Farrell didn't help

I disagree; it helped a lot. DS9 would have been better if Jadzia fell out of the airlock in Emissary rather than waiting 6 years to go. Snubbing Jadzia in the montage was great IMO .

WTF?!?!?!!

I don't think he liked Jadzia...

Still, she shoulda been there- but for legal-y-ness, because she was Worf's wife.

And I liked her better than most DS9 characters...