I think that dead Kang and Koloth would disagree.
TheGodBen Revisits Deep Space Nine
- Thread starter TheGodBen
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Blood Oath was decent accept for one thing; that damned albino word! I dunno why but it made me cringe everytime someone said a***** in that episode! What a naff name! Another gripe with this episode is how implausible everything is, even the script explicitly shows the implausiblity, with quite a few 'I don't hows' and so forth.
Maybe I'm missing something by why did those three Klingons come to DS9? How did the a***** infect those Klingon babies? Why did the a***** even invite Kor and the two other Klingons for this death-party in the first place?
The only really good bit was Kira describing to Jadzia what it was like killing someone. The directing in that scene was superb, with both Kira and Jadzia sounding rather nervous (initially) when Jadzia broods about carrying through this blood oath.
Maybe I'm missing something by why did those three Klingons come to DS9? How did the a***** infect those Klingon babies? Why did the a***** even invite Kor and the two other Klingons for this death-party in the first place?
The only really good bit was Kira describing to Jadzia what it was like killing someone. The directing in that scene was superb, with both Kira and Jadzia sounding rather nervous (initially) when Jadzia broods about carrying through this blood oath.
This may be a little late but I've had some thoughts about Paradise and this proves how the plot just falls apart. Firstly:
At the start of the first scene, O'Brien detects a duonetic field and he must know about its properties, as that was indicated in the episode. Dig this! So Sisko and O'Brien beam INTO the duonetic field and then wonder why there technology ain't working!!! How stupid is that? They could have beamed somewhere just out of the duonetic field and investigated, but no they beamed inside it!
Secondly:
The next thing is the duonetic field itself, there does not seem to be an indication that it covers the whole planet. Indeed the device does not seem big enough to generate a field that size. So eventually those people from the crashed ship should have fanned out to find a spot where their technology WOULD work.
This would have happened but it didn't, they just stupidly stayed around one area and did not venture outwards??? Those two things cause the whole plot to fall apart. When the people had found a place where their technology worked, they would have sent out a distress call and eventually been rescued. This meant that revolting bitch Alixus would not have been able to implement her dumb low-tech philosophy, and we would have no episode.
Seriously plotholes like this should give Paradise a zero for dumb plot.
Now I'm off to watch the episode!
At the start of the first scene, O'Brien detects a duonetic field and he must know about its properties, as that was indicated in the episode. Dig this! So Sisko and O'Brien beam INTO the duonetic field and then wonder why there technology ain't working!!! How stupid is that? They could have beamed somewhere just out of the duonetic field and investigated, but no they beamed inside it!
Secondly:
The next thing is the duonetic field itself, there does not seem to be an indication that it covers the whole planet. Indeed the device does not seem big enough to generate a field that size. So eventually those people from the crashed ship should have fanned out to find a spot where their technology WOULD work.
This would have happened but it didn't, they just stupidly stayed around one area and did not venture outwards??? Those two things cause the whole plot to fall apart. When the people had found a place where their technology worked, they would have sent out a distress call and eventually been rescued. This meant that revolting bitch Alixus would not have been able to implement her dumb low-tech philosophy, and we would have no episode.
Seriously plotholes like this should give Paradise a zero for dumb plot.
Now I'm off to watch the episode!
I love Blood Oath - it's great seeing those three Klingons again, and having them team up is a stroke of genius. Jadzia feeling the bloodlust is a good continuation of Curzon's relationship with the Klingons, and is similar to what we have seen of Worf so far in TNG. It just touched all the right places for me to make it really enjoyable.
And have we finally made it through the dreck? Are we at the good end of the season? Does everyone still have their limbs and eyesight? I can't believe we made it!
And have we finally made it through the dreck? Are we at the good end of the season? Does everyone still have their limbs and eyesight? I can't believe we made it!
Actually, the dreck of season 2 wasn't so bad, once I got to Whispers things were okay, and this season was far easier to get through than season 1. The big thing I'm curious about is where season 3 will rate compared to season 2 because I've felt for a while that season 2 had a bit of an edge on season 3, which seems likely to be the case as season 2 is better than I remember.
I rewatched "Shadowplay" after the review and realized that it did quite a bit of the "is a hologram real life stuff" before the Doctor got involved. It reminded me of my episode idea for Voyager where a crewmember secrety replicates the holo-emitter and creates a hologram of his dead girlfriend who he tries to pass off as the real article to the rest of the crew.
I think that Kira and Jadzia work well together whenever the scene sets up a contrast between the two, their perceptions and their backgrounds. Another example is their holodeck time in Way of the Warrior. Jadzia's the "privileged" woman who grew up on a prosperous planet (and is in the minority elite of her culture, no less, by being Joined) and whose trials and personal demons stem from introspective self-doubt and failures to live up to her full potential. Kira, of course, is the woman from a war-torn world who struggled through hell to get where she is and whose demons are grounded in circumstance, external reality, and the trauma of action and experience. I really do wish the two characters had more screen time together, because these scenes where their backgrounds and the women they became because of them are thrown together are usually intriguing. It would have been nice if the writers took advantage of that set-up more often. But I suppose with Worf's arrival Jadzia-as-party-Klingon took over and "introspective Jadzia struggling with being the elite of a priviliged culture" was largely set aside.
The scene Ln X describes is a perfect example of how Jadzia could benefit from Kira's insight, just as the holodeck scene in Way of the Warrior shows how Jadzia can positively influence Kira. I'm surprised more wasn't made of the potential here.
I couldn't stand "Blood Oath"--I think from this point, the writers forgot to write Jadzia as a character in her own right and made her a Curzon clone instead.
Your season two reviews were delightful. Whenever my life outside of the BBS gets too real I go back and read some of them just to smile and laugh. So thank you for that.
Say what you will about the focus that season 7 spent on Ezri early on, but at least she was different.
Yeah, I do think Jadzia was underwritten
That's another major problem I have with the episode. I can't accept that nobody ever ventured out to see if they could use their technology elsewhere. Even if we accept that they think it's because of naturally occurring mineral deposits, the whole planet isn't covered by them. Gather some food and start moving. It isn't that hard.
The only explanation I can give it is that Alixus, being the power-hungry tyrant she is, immediately forced everyone to stay in the crash area.
That's something that always bothered me when Vic Fontaine showed up in the last seasons. Shadowplay goes out of it's why to show that holograms can be sentient just as organic beings can be, yet everyone either has to convinced that Vic is "alive" or never accept it. But then, I never got the whole "holograms can't be real" argument, either here or on VOY. This is a society that fully accepts an android as an equal. Accepting sentient holograms shouldn't be that big of a jump for them.
As for Blood Oath, I'm sort of with Nerys on this one. This is clearly a departure point for the character of Dax - she's not the same after this one and is indeed simply a Curzon clone. And it's her characterization after this that really turns me off to the character (not that I was a big fan of her before). However, I do enjoy this episode for other elements. Kang, Kor and Koloth are great and seeing them together is excellent as they really play off each other well.
And, to be nitpicky, what exactly was the Albino? Was he a Klingon? Because he doesn't look like any Klingon we've seen otherwise, and I don't just mean his skin color. If anything, I'd have to say he looks like a Tellarite/Klingon hybrid.
I think the Albino was intended to be a Klingon, but I agree that he doesn't look very Klingony. Maybe he was disfigured in addition to being an albino.
As for Jadzia, I found her dreadfully boring before "Blood Oath," so it never particularly bothered me that she turned into Curzon 2.0. I thought she was a lot more fun from that point on.
As for Jadzia, I found her dreadfully boring before "Blood Oath," so it never particularly bothered me that she turned into Curzon 2.0. I thought she was a lot more fun from that point on.
It's also that he seems to hate all Klingons - calling Kang, Kor and Koloth "that Klingon scum" for example. So, unless he's got a self-hating complex (which would make some sense if he's only half-Klingon) than it makes more sense for him to be another species.
I am not a fan of Jadzia but I probably liked the scenes between her and Kira the best, I enjoyed watching them pilot the runabouts and shuttles and just having a general respect each other.
Maybe he came from a subject race of the Klingon Empire.
Or maybe he was half-Tellarite.
That's a good point. I never thought of that.
Do any of the non-canon books explore his background?
The novel Forged In Fire, while mostly being about Sulu gaining command of Excelsior, focuses heavily on the origins of the Albino. It's been a while since I've read it, so my memory's a little sketchy, but from what I recall, he's Klingon, the albino-ness stemming from his mother attempting to cure the Augment virus if not for herself then for her son, because it would let him claim his family name and position.
I'll agree about the under-development of Jadzia as a separate character from Dax. I happen to love her, but I openly admit that it's pretty clear that there was a better understanding of who Curzon was than who Jadzia was, so they just made her Curzon-lite. It'd be interesting to have seen her question if she was still Jadzia or if Dax or Curzon had overwhelmed her. Don't we even see that to a small extent in Season 3's Facets? Would have been nice if it had led to a story for Jadzia. Ah well. Missed opportunities and all that.
I'll agree about the under-development of Jadzia as a separate character from Dax. I happen to love her, but I openly admit that it's pretty clear that there was a better understanding of who Curzon was than who Jadzia was, so they just made her Curzon-lite. It'd be interesting to have seen her question if she was still Jadzia or if Dax or Curzon had overwhelmed her. Don't we even see that to a small extent in Season 3's Facets? Would have been nice if it had led to a story for Jadzia. Ah well. Missed opportunities and all that.
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