Shatnertage's Mostly-1st-Time Watch Thread
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I actually think that's one of the best DS9 MU episodes.
My ranking of them would probably go like this....
1.) Crossfire
2.) Resurrection
3.) Through the Looking Glass
4.) The Emperor's New Cloak
5.) Shattered Mirror
2.) Resurrection
3.) Through the Looking Glass
4.) The Emperor's New Cloak
5.) Shattered Mirror
Oops! 
That's what I get when I write fast.
That's what I get when I write fast.
Boy, I missed the Worf/Garak bi thing. Will have to watch it again when I have time.
Still love the AU.
Thought the performances were excellent & enjoyed the storyline, too. Esp. the fact he has to live w/it.
They had a definite love/hate thing going on. Worf, as much as he seemed to detest Garak, couldn't bring himself to have him killed. And he even showed a lot of concern after he stabbed him during the "he stole the key" fiasco with "If he dies...you die."
Of course, given that Cardassians flirt by showing annoyance with each other, Garak probably thinks that everyone on the station in the regular universe is hot for him, but that's another story.
You know, I've been a little blocked creatively lately. I think I could use a visit from...
"The Muse"
Or not.
I'll say it right up front. This is a bad episode, but it's not an awful episode. Like a few Voyager episodes, once you accept that the whole idea (or in this case both ideas) is ridiculous, you can actually enjoy the little things about the episode.
It's a case where the failure is with the writers, and everyone else has to pick up the slack.
Where to start? Lwaxana Troi (or "Laxwana" as Jayal calls her) is pregnant. Oh Lord. I love Majel, but this is a bit much. I think she's a wonderfully inventive comic actress who doesn't quite have the range to pull of serious drama, e.g., "He's only sixty!" and all of "Dark Page," which had the added burden of Marina Sirtis doing heavy drama. Yeesh. so when she's written herself a part where she's doing the serious stuff and just about nothing but, you know it's going to be a long day.
She's not bad here, though, and she lets Odo get some good character development. Michael Ansara as Jayal was a treat; I wish they'd have found a way to use him more. Did Kang die in "Blood Oath?" I forget.
Granted Betazed physiology might be different from humans', but didn't Lwaxana already go through "The Change" in that episode where she was after Picard? Now that was a fun one, if only for Troi's "Oh no, my mother's an excellent telepath" to Picard, followed by an, "Uh oh. I mean, her abilities must be diminished right now because I know you don't really have the hots for her, sir."
And I miss Mr. Homn. How I would have loved to see him and Morn acting against each other.
But once you accept how bad the basic idea is, there's actually some decent stuff here.
The A-story, however, doesn't have a lot going for it. Again, the basic idea is kind of a crap one--a parasite that somehow feeds on creative energy is drawn to Jake--and the whole Mrs. Robinson thing is kind of creepy, too. When she asked Jake if he'd ever been in a woman's quarters, I wanted him to say, "I was banging a dabo girl for a couple of months, you know."
And that ethereal spoogy stuff that she pulls out of his head...just seems kind of disgusting.
There's no payoff to that story, either, she just turns into a golden shower and disappears through the bulkhead. We do get to see Sisko dressed for casual Friday, though, and he's a snazzy dresser. Kasidy Yates is mentioned, but we don't get to see her or her monogrammed cargo containers.
"The Muse"
Or not.
I'll say it right up front. This is a bad episode, but it's not an awful episode. Like a few Voyager episodes, once you accept that the whole idea (or in this case both ideas) is ridiculous, you can actually enjoy the little things about the episode.
It's a case where the failure is with the writers, and everyone else has to pick up the slack.
Where to start? Lwaxana Troi (or "Laxwana" as Jayal calls her) is pregnant. Oh Lord. I love Majel, but this is a bit much. I think she's a wonderfully inventive comic actress who doesn't quite have the range to pull of serious drama, e.g., "He's only sixty!" and all of "Dark Page," which had the added burden of Marina Sirtis doing heavy drama. Yeesh. so when she's written herself a part where she's doing the serious stuff and just about nothing but, you know it's going to be a long day.
She's not bad here, though, and she lets Odo get some good character development. Michael Ansara as Jayal was a treat; I wish they'd have found a way to use him more. Did Kang die in "Blood Oath?" I forget.
Granted Betazed physiology might be different from humans', but didn't Lwaxana already go through "The Change" in that episode where she was after Picard? Now that was a fun one, if only for Troi's "Oh no, my mother's an excellent telepath" to Picard, followed by an, "Uh oh. I mean, her abilities must be diminished right now because I know you don't really have the hots for her, sir."
And I miss Mr. Homn. How I would have loved to see him and Morn acting against each other.
But once you accept how bad the basic idea is, there's actually some decent stuff here.
The A-story, however, doesn't have a lot going for it. Again, the basic idea is kind of a crap one--a parasite that somehow feeds on creative energy is drawn to Jake--and the whole Mrs. Robinson thing is kind of creepy, too. When she asked Jake if he'd ever been in a woman's quarters, I wanted him to say, "I was banging a dabo girl for a couple of months, you know."
And that ethereal spoogy stuff that she pulls out of his head...just seems kind of disgusting.
There's no payoff to that story, either, she just turns into a golden shower and disappears through the bulkhead. We do get to see Sisko dressed for casual Friday, though, and he's a snazzy dresser. Kasidy Yates is mentioned, but we don't get to see her or her monogrammed cargo containers.
Bizarre episode. Worst thing is that Onaya leaves mysteriously with no explanation of her motives, no apology and no resolution to speak of. All we can gather is that she gains some kind of creepy pleasure from the activity. And the less said about the B plot, the better. Probably the worst of the season, for me.
I have to respectfully disagree about Majel Barret, I feel she handles the drama stuff quite competently. I mean, her performance doesn't bowl me over or anything, but she gets the job done. The fact that she can get pregnant at such a late age - well, the great thing about sci-fi is you can just explain away those things by saying Betazoids stay fertile longer then human women. And yes, she did go through "The Phase," which I suppose you could equate with menopause, but I don't recall Troi making it sound like it was the end of a femal Betazoid's fertility (please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). Heck, for all we know, Betazoid women are fertile their entire lives!
But aside from that, I did like seeing more character development for Odo and I really like his deepening friendship, respect, and care for Lwaxana. You get that feeling that if Odo wasn't so in love with Kira, these two could actually make a go of it as a couple.
I do agree with you that the A-story was really hokey, though. The one part I enjoyed was as the end where Jake wrote the title "Anslem" on his manuscript, a nice call back to "The Visitor" (unless I'm misremembering, I think The Visitor preceded this episode).
But aside from that, I did like seeing more character development for Odo and I really like his deepening friendship, respect, and care for Lwaxana. You get that feeling that if Odo wasn't so in love with Kira, these two could actually make a go of it as a couple.
I do agree with you that the A-story was really hokey, though. The one part I enjoyed was as the end where Jake wrote the title "Anslem" on his manuscript, a nice call back to "The Visitor" (unless I'm misremembering, I think The Visitor preceded this episode).
^ I can see where your coming from with Majel. If I didn't have the TNG baggage, I'd probably react to this episode much differently.
Since this was a one-shot thing and they weren't planning on keeping her or the kid around, I don't know why she had to be pregnant. I agree that within the reality of the fictional Trek universe it might make perfect sense, but it does take you out of the story to think of a woman of her age getting pregnant.
I'd have preferred a more cat-and-mouse type story, with her hiding the Sacred Chalice of Rixx with Odo or outfoxing Quark, but that's just me.
Since this was a one-shot thing and they weren't planning on keeping her or the kid around, I don't know why she had to be pregnant. I agree that within the reality of the fictional Trek universe it might make perfect sense, but it does take you out of the story to think of a woman of her age getting pregnant.
I'd have preferred a more cat-and-mouse type story, with her hiding the Sacred Chalice of Rixx with Odo or outfoxing Quark, but that's just me.
Yes, Kang died in Blood Oath. So did Koloth. Kor was the only one of the three to survive.
And, Michael Ansara lends a lot of gravitas to any character he plays, even one as dull and uninteresting as Jayal. But, then if he can make Technomages on Babylon 5 look non-ridiculous, Jayal is easy for him.
As for the episode itself - as bad as it is, it's still nowhere near the worst of DS9 and it's heads above the dreck of the franchise.
Odd ep. Plus, I thought it a bit silly Voyager had a similar ep. title.
^ That was actually a great episode, though--the one where Torres is the "inspiration" for the playwright. It went very meta in a good way.
It's funny because when I watched "Blood Oath" I had Kor pegged as the deader. And he was the only one to survive.
For me, Michael Ansara will always be Killer Kane from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. I might have seen him in TOS earlier, but he was featured a lot more in Buck Rogers.
It's funny because when I watched "Blood Oath" I had Kor pegged as the deader. And he was the only one to survive.
For me, Michael Ansara will always be Killer Kane from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. I might have seen him in TOS earlier, but he was featured a lot more in Buck Rogers.
In this episode, someone takes one for the team. Or, as it turns out...
"For the Cause"
Beverly, um, Kasidy Yates is back! And Sisko sniffed her pillow! And that sounds a lot dirtier than I intended! I'll stop now.
So the security guys, Odo and Eddington, think that Yates might be a Maquis smuggler. On a side note, the Cosmopolitan casino in Las Vegas has a nightclub that's called "Marquee." So I keep on thinking that everyone's sneaking around smuggling stuff into a nightclub. Or that the nightclub is a hive of terrorists. But that's neither here nor there.
For the second time in recent memory, Sisko leaves Jake alone with a woman who he knows to be duplicitous. Tough love or bad writing? You be the judge.
You can tell he's in a bad mood because he didn't make Hungarian food.
Did I mention this is a Garak episode? That makes me happy enough to start making a big pot of chicken paprikash. He's watching the springball game with Bashir. I love how he looks mildly discomfited by the physicality of the game...almost squeamish. That's playing against his violent background, but I get the feeling that he doesn't like these overt displays of aggression when simply staring at someone for long enough ("Those eyes!" Those eyes!") will do the trick. Brilliant.
Though he suddenly likes girls? When did that happen? I picked up on some subtext earlier that he wasn't exactly interested in women--it was, specifically, his line to Bashir about "entertaining one of your lady friends" in "The Wire." It just doesn't seem like the kind of thing that a guy who was into women would say. But now there's some definite tension between him and Ziyal, and not just because he and her father don't get along.
I loved the way the story between the two of them was handled. As usual, Andrew Robinson made Garak seem alive. It's in the little things--like the way, at the end, he lies down on that heated rock in the sauna simulation. He makes it seem like he's luxuriating in a bed at a five-star hotel. My first thought was, "Man, I'd love to have a hot rock to lie down on."
Back to the A-story. I'm starting to like Eddington. But then it turns out he's a traitor. And Kasidy really is working for the Maquis. Very dramatic. I liked Brooks channeling Bogart from the end of The Maltese Falcon at the end. Clever stuff.
Though I don't understand why Eddington thought the Federation was so insidious. I could see being peeved about the Cardassian treaty, but the Federation itself seems pretty hands-off. You've got planets with weird customs that they're allowed to keep, planets populated solely by mad scientists, even pleasure planets. Seems way better than any of the other powers, which have prison camps, torture chambers, and worse. The worst punishment they give you in the Federation is to send you to New Zealand. And while I'm sure there are some parts of that country that are less than ideal, that actually sounds pretty nice to me.
So I don't really get why someone would get so disillusioned with the Federation itself, as opposed to disagreeing with specific policies. Yeah, the uniforms could be nicer, but it seems on the whole to be a nice place to live.
"For the Cause"
Beverly, um, Kasidy Yates is back! And Sisko sniffed her pillow! And that sounds a lot dirtier than I intended! I'll stop now.
So the security guys, Odo and Eddington, think that Yates might be a Maquis smuggler. On a side note, the Cosmopolitan casino in Las Vegas has a nightclub that's called "Marquee." So I keep on thinking that everyone's sneaking around smuggling stuff into a nightclub. Or that the nightclub is a hive of terrorists. But that's neither here nor there.
For the second time in recent memory, Sisko leaves Jake alone with a woman who he knows to be duplicitous. Tough love or bad writing? You be the judge.
You can tell he's in a bad mood because he didn't make Hungarian food.
Did I mention this is a Garak episode? That makes me happy enough to start making a big pot of chicken paprikash. He's watching the springball game with Bashir. I love how he looks mildly discomfited by the physicality of the game...almost squeamish. That's playing against his violent background, but I get the feeling that he doesn't like these overt displays of aggression when simply staring at someone for long enough ("Those eyes!" Those eyes!") will do the trick. Brilliant.
Though he suddenly likes girls? When did that happen? I picked up on some subtext earlier that he wasn't exactly interested in women--it was, specifically, his line to Bashir about "entertaining one of your lady friends" in "The Wire." It just doesn't seem like the kind of thing that a guy who was into women would say. But now there's some definite tension between him and Ziyal, and not just because he and her father don't get along.
I loved the way the story between the two of them was handled. As usual, Andrew Robinson made Garak seem alive. It's in the little things--like the way, at the end, he lies down on that heated rock in the sauna simulation. He makes it seem like he's luxuriating in a bed at a five-star hotel. My first thought was, "Man, I'd love to have a hot rock to lie down on."
Back to the A-story. I'm starting to like Eddington. But then it turns out he's a traitor. And Kasidy really is working for the Maquis. Very dramatic. I liked Brooks channeling Bogart from the end of The Maltese Falcon at the end. Clever stuff.
Though I don't understand why Eddington thought the Federation was so insidious. I could see being peeved about the Cardassian treaty, but the Federation itself seems pretty hands-off. You've got planets with weird customs that they're allowed to keep, planets populated solely by mad scientists, even pleasure planets. Seems way better than any of the other powers, which have prison camps, torture chambers, and worse. The worst punishment they give you in the Federation is to send you to New Zealand. And while I'm sure there are some parts of that country that are less than ideal, that actually sounds pretty nice to me.
So I don't really get why someone would get so disillusioned with the Federation itself, as opposed to disagreeing with specific policies. Yeah, the uniforms could be nicer, but it seems on the whole to be a nice place to live.
I really like your analysis of "For the Cause" I look forward to reading more reviews
Andrew Robinson felt that Garak was likely bisexual, or sexually ambiguous ... somebody for whom gender was largely irrelevant.
"I started out playing Garak as someone who doesn't have a defined sexuality. He's not gay, he's not straight, it's a non-issue for him. Basically his sexuality is inclusive. But – it's Star Trek and there were a couple of things working against that. One is that Americans really are very nervous about sexual ambiguity. Also, this is a family show, they have to keep it on the 'straight and narrow', so then I backed off from it. Originally, in that very first episode, I loved the man's absolute fearlessness about presenting himself to an attractive human being. The fact that the attractive human being is a man (Bashir) doesn't make any difference to him, but that was a little too sophisticated I think. For the most part, the writers supported the character beautifully, but in that area they just made a choice they didn't want to go there, and if they don't want to go there I can't, because the writing doesn't support it." (Memory Alpha)
Think of it this way, other than the rare Cardassian ship that stops over at DS9 Garak has not have much contact with his fellowmen for 4 years. And there is now a second resident Cardassian on the station. Being patriotic and social creatures, I think Garak would appreciate having another Cardassian around.
Yeah, Garak totally had a thing for Bashir, and it was the actors intent to portray him as omnisexual or pansexual. But Garak/Ziyal was still kind of sweet in its way.
While I think Eddington goes WAY overboard in his comparison of the Federation to the Borg, I do see where he's coming from. The UFP is indeed a much nicer place to live than many of the surrounding powers, but there is a sort of dark undercurrent of conformity to it. We've seen that many people in the Federation, even the heroes of all the Trek series, expect others to agree with their views.
As Odo said to Skakaar in Crossfire....
Does that mean they're forcibly assimilating people to a Federation-imposed lifestyle? Hardly. But they do have that prejudice - which is something they don't like to admit. So the Maquis do have a valid if overblown, in Eddington's case, case. They've rejected the Federation way of thinking and are setting out on their own. The Feds do have a problem with that. They could have just left them alone and let them and the Cardassians have at it, but they didn't.
As for Garak, I like the idea that he doesn't really care about gender and is drawn to Ziyal because she's another Cardassian. He even points out in this episode that she's the only other Cardassian living on the station. And Garak/Ziyal does lead to some really good moments in future episodes.
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