Call to Arms - What was it like?

[Tallguy]

On the one hand seeing the MASSIVE FLEET in Sacrifice of Angels was pretty amazing. The effects work is top notch, especially for a TV show. Congratulations, Mr. Stipes.

But then I realized that the scale for a space battle was just stupid and that between this and Babylon 5 this was where it all began. (I've contributed to one or two of them myself and I'm sorry.)

It's a straight line from here to that ridiculous Romulan / Federation fleet in the SNW finale.

Even in Return of the Jedi the ships were farther apart,

 

[The Knappos]

Deep Space Nine has grown in appreciation over the years to be many people's "Best Star Trek".

There are those of us who knew it was the best Trek at the time.

Call to Arms was fantastic. High stakes, tension ratcheted as high as it could go, the goodies loose.

And the promise of unprecedented action to come.

But among all that, the beat that lands home the most is Jake staying behind. I mean wow. And that’s emblematic of the show really leaning into character over plot.

 

[Tallguy]

So far my favorite scene this season is in Sons and Daughters between Alexander and Martok. And I'm generally not digging the Alexander stuff. But this was as good as it gets.

Alexander: All I ask is a chance to prove myself.
Martok: I just gave you one and you failed.

 

[Farscape One]

One of my favorite Martokisms (I am coining that term) is, "When a father and son do not speak, it means there is trouble between them."

It's the most ludicrously obvious piece of dialogue I have ever heard in my life, but it works because it's Martok.

(My wife and I, on occasion, will come up with our own versions of such obvious dialogue. For instance:

"When the rice is on the fork and the mouth is open, it means the rice will be eaten."

"When you buy the milk and it is left in the fridge past the expiration date, it means the milk is expired."

And we do it in the style of Martok.)

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

I take it that it's implied that they do not because they will not (refuse to), not merely can not (because of distance, busyness, secrecy, etc) or have not (time got away from them).

 

[Paul755]

I was all pumped up for the Federation to “make the Dominion pay for stepping foot in the Alpha Quadrant” but when the next season starts we find out that it is actually the Federation getting pummeled by the Dominion and it so demoralizing. As one reviewer noted, A Time To Stand feels like Yesterday’s Enterprise but this time bad things are REALLY happening.

I was disappointed at the time. But looking at it now I actually like the twist, revelation or whatever you want to call it that despite having the Klingons and everything they were working on to counter the Borg, the Federation just wasn’t yet equipped for an all out war like this.

 

[Tallguy]

I was disappointed at the time.

Disappointed at the episode or you just didn't like the way the story went?

I watched Statistical Probabilities last night. I was shocked at how much I enjoyed that.

 

[Saul]

I loved the whole build up to the war. There was a definite air of the coming storm from season 4 onwards. Completely pumped when the lid was finally blown off at the end of season 5 and the arc we got at the start of season 6. Seeing fleets of Starships go to battle was unlike anything else in Star Trek before. I remember reading rumors that the Dominion would take over the station for a while and it sounded so unimaginable. Most Star Trek shows would have all that done and dusted in 2 episodes but this was for the long term.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I'm not sure why my experiences were so different. When I saw Call to Arms, I thought, "a cliffhanger." Certainly Trek had many of those. When Time to Stand did not restore the crew to the station, I just thought they were doing the Circle trilogy thing. I was really only a few episodes after Sacrifice of Angels that it became clear this would be a major storyline throughout the season. All the episodes were great, don't get me wrong, but it didn't necessarily feel like DS9 was breaking ground that it had not already broken. It was really other shows, especially Voyager, that seemed increasingly quaint.

 

[FanST]

That whole arc from end of Season 5 to early Season 6.... DS9 at its finest.

 

[The Knappos]

There is a bit of me that sometimes thinks the bigger, more WTF cliffhanger was
“I’m not attacking the Dominion. I’m joining them.”

 

[JediKnightButler]

There is a bit of me that sometimes thinks the bigger, more WTF cliffhanger was
“I’m not attacking the Dominion. I’m joining them.”

Yeah. Dukat sure pulled a fast one on everybody.

 

[Dukhat]

The ending of A Call to Arms was not what the writers and producers intended. They only wanted the Defiant and Martok’s ship to rendezvous with the fleet, but they didn’t want it to look like the fleet was ready to attack DS9 immediately, which was what the VFX guys did. So instead of having the war begin much later, they had to rewrite the next season opener to show that the war had already started three months prior, and that fleet we saw at the end of the episode was reduced to damaged and destroyed ships.

 

[kkt]

Yeah. Dukat sure pulled a fast one on everybody.

Kira should have gotten to kill Dukhat. Between the occupation, her mother, and all his innuendo she put up with over the years, no one had a better right to shoot a phaser between his eyes than she did.

 

[Farscape One]

I read that years ago, and it actually impressed me more.

The VFX guys did too good a job. How often do you hear that sentence said out loud?

 

[Commander Troi]

I watched Statistical Probabilities last night. I was shocked at how much I enjoyed that.

What shocked you about that?

 

[The Knappos]

What shocked you about that?

It’s a great episode

 

[Tallguy]

What shocked you about that?

It has the feel of a lot of TNG and DS9 episodes that are just kind of a slog. I'm not crazy about the "enhanced Bashir" plot. (Neither was Siddig.) The room full of quirky quirks with quirky things about being quirky. And it is the episode after Resurrection. So my expectations were low.

Fortunately it does manage to overcome all of those things. And it has a bit of WWII Midway / Enigma kind of feel to it. And I keep forgetting that DS9 is the show where reality and human nature actually visits more often than not.

BTW: If there were such a policy for intentional augments it would have to apply to the children, even though it wasn't their fault. That's actually the one final thing that would deter the parents. "This will not produce the results for your child that you want." Otherwise you get parents who think "Sure, I'll end up in jail, maybe even dead. But my child will be KING / QUEEN / DULY ELECTED PRESIDENT!" (I think I wrote this in the Prodigy section. Should I go find an ENT thread to post in?)

We love Our Man Bashir (the dude, not the episode) (yes, we love the episode) but other than having plot armor, why was he not kicked out of Starfleet again? Yes, he's a nice guy. And yes, he's useful. But so is an army of Datas and I've heard Guinan's speech from Measure of a Man.

OTOH, he's serving with Commander "I Killed a Member of the Klingon High Council Against My Captain's Orders and All I Got Was a Lousy yIvbeH SeQHa'" Worf. I'd love to hear Mariner from Lower Decks rant about this.

 

[Ssosmcin]

I was there at the time. I mostly remember the build up was tense and interesting. Rom was annoying (although later I grew to appreciate he was a savant of sorts). Jake came off forced with "I'm a reporter" but I loved Sisko's reaction. Finally, I remember two things:

"God it's ends THERE?!!!"

and

"Wow the music was amazing!"

Big theatrical scoring had come back with "The Die is Cast" when Dennis McCarthy slipped in some of his "Generations" music and nobody complained. After that (and especially in "The Way of the Warrior") bold music returned to Trek. And that cliffhanger music was some of my favorite of the Berman era.

I felt the story could literally go anywhere and those five episodes following were really great. With all of the cheesy 90's science fiction on the air, DS9 was such an example of quality television. It wasn't always great, but it wasn't Space Rangers either.

 

[kkt]

Bashir's treatment really doesn't solve the problem. "Yes, I will make sure I don't enhance my young child's abilities, because if we get caught I might have to spend a year in a minimum security prison that 21st century humans would pay to vacation in, while the grown child might have to continue their career in Starfleet Medical with no punishment!"

If they weren't prepared to carry out some kind of real punishment, the writers shouldn't have even brought up the "Bashir is Enhanced" plot line.