Season Seven: 13 years later

[Eric Cheung]

The companion said as much. Since Odo infected them sometime in the fourth season presumably Laas may have had some time. Hopefully he either made his way to the Great Link, the location of which he may have learned from linking with Odo; or Odo may have left the link for a while to try to seek out some of the hundred, including Laas.

 

[Rush Limborg]

^I think the DS9 Relaunch tackles this, as the Domionion short story in the Worlds miniseries has Odo and Laas on the Founders homeworld.

On the virus: I recall, in a previous discussion on this forum, that we'd more or less come to a consensus that Odo's infection of the Founders had occured in "Broken Link", when he'd been judged by the Link. (Dramatic irony: the "justice" they imposed on Odo was turned around onto them. They had intended to punish Odo...and in return, it was they who were punished.)

Now, Odo had been infected with a "carrier" virus--he wasn't to be affected. But after he'd become a changeling again, he was re-infected when the Female Changeling linked with him in the Season 6 arc...reinfected, mind you, with the full virus. (Another dramatic irony: perhaps it is the universe's "punishment" for his giving in to the temptation to fall under the FC's spell.)

 

[Eric Cheung]

That's a pretty reasonable explanation for why Odo took longer to show signs of the virus. I figured the fact that he was a carrier made his symptoms take longer.

 

[Kosh Naranek]

Wow! 13 years - Makes me want to go home right now and watch my DVDs.

 

[Gary7]

I'm also with the crowd who didn't like Ezri the first time around. Although Jadzia wasn't one of my favorite characters, I did miss her when she died. Few people embrace change. Also, Ezri was just a very dramatic difference from Jadzia.

In the revisiting, I'd have to say that Ezri was a great character that just didn't get enough time. Quite frankly, I wish they'd let Jadzia die at the end of Season 5, to help mount the tension for the start of Season 6, where Ezri would come aboard.

 

[Rush Limborg]

I think the fact that Ezri was so great, even with one year, speaks volumes about Nicole deBoer's acting prowess....

 

[sonak]

I think the fact that Ezri was so great, even with one year, speaks volumes about Nicole deBoer's acting prowess....

and the character was great as well. A very different one from Jadzia, and DeBoer really did a good job showing her slowly settling in and gaining confidence as the season went on.

 

[Eric Cheung]

Finally started The Final Chapter with a double-header of Penumbra and 'Til Death Do Us Part. I'd like to do another double-feature next week as the episodes after that are almost stand-alone (by 21st-century standards).

 

[Mygaffer]

Jadzia sucked. First of all, after six years to say "I'm not getting enough screen time so screw you guys, end the show without me" is pretty lame. But to be honest I never thought she was a great actor. Before the pairing with Worf she was an energy vampire, sucking all the energy out of every scene she was in.

 

[Rush Limborg]

^I woudn't go nearly that far...but I will say she has a tendency to be rather snide towards all the events around her--turning the scenario into a big joke.

And yet...when Worf dares to needle her...she acts all offended and ticked off.

Such strikes me as evidence that Jadzia, bless her heart, is not nearly as self-confident as she expresses herself to be. Af Worf noted concerning K'ehleyr, it would seem her "irreverence" is a shield--puting the universe down to build herself up....


Say what you will about Ezri...at least she can (and often does) laugh at herself.

 

[Eric Cheung]

For some reason Jadzia tended to work better as a supporting character than as the star of her own episodes. I think it's because the Jadzia episodes they tended to write would more accurately be called either "Trill mumbo jumbo" episodes, "Curzon" episodes, or tragic love of the week episodes.

But as a friend to Kira, or a snarker, or as one half of Worf and Dax, or as a confident, intelligent liver of life she was quite solid.

I do see your point that she didn't always get as well as she gave, but I think she was still a solid character. (BTW, the AV Club is reviewing DS9. Zack Handlen is on The Circle Trilogy and has yet to be impressed by Dax at all).

Anyway, watching season seven has been interesting because for the first half of the season I'd have to convince my girlfriend to watch because she didn't really remember being much of a fan of those episodes when they aired back then. But now that we're deep into The Final Chapter she's even suggested watching them.

A couple of observations on The Final Chapter:

* At this point the show really does give a lot of screen time to the supporting characters, especially the villains. Our crew has gotten slightly lost in the shuffle.

* From When It Rains... on I remembered the last few episodes to be slightly more stand-alone in tone (the changeling disease episode, the Klingon episode, the Sloan episode, the Ferengi episode). This should have gone without saying, but having just seen Tacking Into the Wind, it's much more serialized than I remembered.

I think I have Extreme Measures and Dogs of War on VHS from when they aired on Spike lying around somewhere. It might be fun to switch from Netflix Instant to that. I definitely want to order the disc for the finale though (I don't have the DVDs because that's not something I've yet invested in, but until last fall we were watching the show on disc via Netflix).

After this, I may occasionally, perhaps even alone, watch the odd episode here or there as the AV Club moves along through the series.

 

[Worf'sParmach]

For some reason Jadzia tended to work better as a supporting character than as the star of her own episodes. I think it's because the Jadzia episodes they tended to write would more accurately be called either "Trill mumbo jumbo" episodes, "Curzon" episodes, or tragic love of the week episodes.

Or, in the case of Facets, all three in one

Good point, I never quite thought about it like that but Jadzia was much better as a sidekick than on her own.

 

[BennyRussel]

For some reason Jadzia tended to work better as a supporting character than as the star of her own episodes. I think it's because the Jadzia episodes they tended to write would more accurately be called either "Trill mumbo jumbo" episodes, "Curzon" episodes, or tragic love of the week episodes.

Or, in the case of Facets, all three in one

Good point, I never quite thought about it like that but Jadzia was much better as a sidekick than on her own.

DS9 would have been better if Jadzia was a recurring character and Garak was a regular from the beginning. I think the PTB thought the whole "alien with 7 lifetimes worth of experience" angle would give them interesting things to do, but Curzon Dax was the only previous host they ever really featured other than Joran.

Ezri was so good because we had seen a Trill that was completely prepared and comfortable with her symbiont. Then we got to see a Trill that was completely unprepared for a symbiont and the havoc/growing pains it caused for her.

 

[Worf'sParmach]

Ezri was so good because we had seen a Trill that was completely prepared and comfortable with her symbiont. Then we got to see a Trill that was completely unprepared for a symbiont and the havoc/growing pains it caused for her.

I've said it before I'm sure, but I have always thought that part of what made Ezri work was due to the fact that she came after Jadzia and was so different.

 

[Eric Cheung]

We just saw the finale again for the first time in years and we made some observations I'm not sure we've made before.

To preface, I wanted to get the DVD so that I could watch the special features, and I watched a couple of them, including an interview where Ira Stephen Behr. In some parts he talks about how they gave all their characters as much closure and as much of an ending as possible so that whoever takes those characters on in the future has to deal with that (If there was a DS9 movie it would have to be sort of a "let's get the band together kind of thing, like TMP, TWOK, or Trek09. I think such a movie would have benefited from such a built-in premise as at least one of its threads).

He also talks about how all the couples are parting ways in the end. Kira and Odo, Sisko and Kasidy, Sisko and Jake, O'Brien and Bashir, Bashir and Garak, Odo and Quark, Quark and Rom (in fact Rom and Leeta are just about the only ones still together in the end--and they're on Ferenginar!). "This is heavy stuff!" Behr declared.

It got me thinking of another parallel: Sisko and Odo basically follow the same path: They find out they're at least demigods (in Odo's case his half-god status is cultural rather than genetic), they both go home to their people to teach them about what it's like to live with people who have solid and physical and complicated bodies that are incomprehensible to these gods.

And speaking of the Celestial Temple, my girlfriend observed "It's taken me twenty years to realize this, but that heartbeat is supposed to symbolize the womb." Obviously the producers didn't fully comprehend that. When they made "Emissary" they'd eventually give Sisko a prophet mother and it would make some kind of sense, whether they realized that or not.

Regarding the episode itself, it is kind of slowly paced, but engaging throughout. To some extent the finale was a little self-conscious of the fact that it was a finale, in a way that the Seinfeld finale tended to call attention to itself with lines like "Is this how it's really going to end??" But with DS9 it was much more of a confident victory lap than with Seinfeld.

At this point it'll be fun to continue following DS9 on the AV Club, and maybe catching an episode now and again. But it'll probably be years before we watch it start to finish again. And then we can look at the story from beginning to middle to end. For that reason, it's still probably my favorite TV show of all time.