Deep Space Nine Rewatch

[tomalak301]

I did this for Star Trek, TAS, and Voyager, and I was debating if I wanted to do this for DS9 as well. This year my celebration of the 50th anniversary consisted of mainly rewatching the series I haven't seen in a long time, which was Star Trek, of course, then TAS and I just wrapped up Voyager over the weekend. For some reason every time I've done a DS9 rewatch I've stopped in Season 5, despite that season being my favorite of the series. I guess maybe things got busy and I didn't pick it up, but when I was at the end of Voyager, I was craving a proper rewatch of DS9.

With that in mind, I decided might as well do a companion thread with it. Not sure how busy this is going to get, and if it doesn't get busy I might stop doing it, but one of the things about these threads is it forces me to keep going with the rewatch, even if I decide to stop it early. Basically, this thread is going to be that, me talking about the episodes as I go and maybe picking up on things I've never picked up on before. Tonight starts it off with the premiere.

Emissary

This episode isn't my favorite of the Trek pilots, but I've come to really appreciate it more and more over time. I think the reason I don't think it's a favorite was because it might be too cerebral for a pilot episode, and honestly, seeing Sisko in a very white background for a good portion of the back half is kind of on the slow side.

Still, this is a great start to what will eventually become the best written series of the franchise. I love the stuff with Sisko teaching the prophets about Linear time and in turn the Prophets telling Sisko basically to stop living in the past. One of my favorite lines in all of Trek was Q's "The Unknown possibilities of existence" line from All Good Things... Well, this episode expands on that in much detail and it's a really fascinating look at where DS9 as a series will go. It's not about exploring space. It's about exploring ourselves on the edge of the frontier and learning from one another. People call DS9 a dark series. Yeah, it's edgier, but that message statement is one of exploration and wonder, something Star Trek excels at. Also, as a TNG fan, I loved the scenes with Picard. The first one Sisko is pissed off, and he should be because Picard killed his wife. In the final scene, we see a sense of reconciliation between the two and I don't see this series bashing picard at all. I see this series looking at both Sisko and Picard has people who had old wounds ending up coming together and some of kind peace. That's a good thing by the way.

We also meet the characters, but I'll talk about the characters a lot. I will say though that Bashir comes across as a bit of a creep, and I'm already in love with Kira, who becomes one of my favorite characters in Star Trek. I think I could have done without the "There's your wormhole" line, but Visitor sells it well.

 

[DonIago]

What, no mention of the fact that we finally get to actually see a bit of the Battle of Wolf 359?

 

[tomalak301]

What, no mention of the fact that we finally get to actually see a bit of the Battle of Wolf 359?

It was brief but it was a great opening scene to the series. It was actually a pretty big scene in the grand scheme of the episode.

 

[tomalak301]

Past Prolouge

This is a pretty good follow up to Emissary, and I'm glad this was the Follow Up and not A Man Alone. We really dig deeper into Kira's position on the station, and testing her loyalty between her past life and her current life as liaison. However, you can tell this episode was still kind of in the shadow of TNG with Lursa and B'Etor there. I'm not sure if they had to be there, even though I am a fan of those two characters. I do think the highlight of this episode was the first appearance of Star Trek's best character, Garak. It was quite an entrance too, making his presence known to Bashir and Bashir's reaction. Other than what I've said, there isn't much else to this episode. It was better than most first season episodes but it's a series still trying to find out what it wants to be. It's better than Naked Now, Charlie X, and Fight or Flight though. Maybe not as good as Parallax, mainly because that was the episode Torres became Chief engineer.

 

[Seven of Five]

I find Emissary a bit slow at times. I think originally they just wanted to do a normal length for the pilot, but some of the scenes drag. The Wolf 359 scene is pretty awesome, and does the job of getting us into the mindset of Sisko and Jake.

I really like the Wormhole/Prophet story, particularly when they are so confused as to why Ben keeps thinking of the same event over and over again, effectively living in the past despite describing how corporeal beings live in the present.

Past Prologue certainly has a good Kira story, and I appreciated that they carried on with her mixed feelings towards the Federation. Garak was awesome, but then I have mixed feelings with how Lursa and B'Etor were shoehorned into the story. There was just no need here.

 

[tomalak301]

I think the only thing I liked about Lursa and B'Tor was the statement that DS9 and TNG are able to coexist. It's more astute now with crossovers and DS9 would do it better with the Maquis thing, but we got to see the show really get started in Past Prolouge. Would have liked more on Tahna though. He seemed like the less memorable of the Bajorans we see on the series. I wonder if there was ever talk about brining him back.

 

[heavyneos]

I found Kira in the early episodes almost needlessly abrasive, but I can understand that as the character has suffered a lot during the resistance against the Cardassians, but even when Sisko is actively helping she bites his head off.

though I loved that O'Brien had a starring role after being in TNG for so long

 

[stardream]

I liked seeing the Battle Scenes in Emissary. The one scene that stood out to me was when he and Jadzia landed in the 'temple'. She saw blue sky and sunshine while he saw darkness.

I always thought Sisko was too hard on Picard. I mean, it's not like the man had a choice on whether or not he would help destroy the fleet. Had the same opinion of B'Elanna when she got all righteous on Seven of Nine. These people had no free will when they were with the Collective so why are you treating them this way?

I didn't think I would like Kira when the series began. I'm glad they gave her a character arc.

 

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

I'm also doing a rewatch of DS9 at the moment (currently in season 3). I did review the whole thing on other boards some nine years ago when I was a Niner newbie, and also put them up at my website (see link). But I guess I can repost them here, starting with the pilot:

1-01-02 Emissary

While a bit slow in parts, the DS9 pilot is one of the best ones that Trek has to offer. It sets up the stage for the series nicely as well as let us meet the characters for the first time. The plot was intriguing and complex enough, which bodes for interesting further developments. Already we can see the set up for longer story arcs, something which Trek up until this point usually has stayed away from, and this is something I really appreciate. The wormhole, prophets, Bajoran politics and Cardassians, among other things, should prove to be a very interesting ride indeed.

At times the pilot bordered on being too cerebral, but I liked the contrast of the prophets' non-linear existence with the linear ones we experience... unless of course we're "stuck" in one horrible memory that Sisko is - the death of his beloved wife at the battle of Wolf 359. I also liked that Sisko held a grudge against Picard and didn't even try and hide that fact. Overall I appreciated the conflict among the different characters, something I find refreshing from what we're usually shown on 24th century Trek.

While seeming a bit wooden and stilted in the delivering of his lines, I did like Benjamin Sisko. He should prove to be one of the better Trek Captains, and after Janeway and Archer I often have had problems with them. I didn't care that much for having his son Jake on the show, but that's because I generally don't like having kids on Trek. I hope Jake (and Nog) will turn out better than the annoying twerps we usually see. A side note: what happened at Wolf 359 is the prefect argument against having kids and families onboard starships.

Odo and Quark makes for an interesting sparring couple, and despite my dislike of the Ferengis I do find myself liking Quark. It was genius to add Chief O'Brien to the crew. He's something as unusual as a non-commissioned officer and the "everyman" of Trek, a combination we rarely see in the franchise. I also like Kira, the feisty Bajoran X.O. and former resistance fighter. We never saw much of Bashir or Jadzia in the pilot to make an impact.

All in all, I give Emissary an above average grade of 8 on my 10-graded scale.


1-03 Past Prologue

I liked this episode a lot - a strong outing for being the first regularly aired episode of the series. It perfectly highlighted Kira's torn loyalties between a former comrade-in-arms and the new Bajoran government (and even Sisko and the Federation). But while she's moved on to new realities, Tahna is still a terrorist. My only gripe is that he's rather one-dimensional.

Another favourite part was the introduction of "plain, simple" Garak, who is anything but. Maybe Bashir was a bit too naïve here, but I really liked the Garak character. Tailor my butt!

Speaking of tailoring, I must just mention something that I do not like whatever passes for clothing, but that's not a complaint against DS9, but at the whole 24th century Trek. I especially hate those brightly coloured unisex outfits that no sane person would wear. The uniforms aren't very good either, but I've never much liked what passes for uniforms in Trek.

And it was fun too see some Klingon cleavage… I mean, the Duras sisters again! Oh, and I noticed Vaughn Armstrong (ENT's Admiral Forrest) as a Cardassian commander.

An above average grade of 7 for Past Prologue!

 

[DS9nurse]

One of the scenes that has always stood out to me in Emissary, was the one where the prophets take Sisko back to the Saratoga when Jennifer died and asks him why he exists here?

I know that one of the biggest criticisms of DS9 is that they didn't go anywhere or explore anything. But that scene, along with many others proves that it did explore- it explored "the self", and how we learn and grow and develop friendships. We don't always make the best/right decisions and we have to learn to live with the consequences, and DS9 showed us that it's okay to be flawed and to make mistakes and to learn from them. And that's why it's my favorite, because everyone on the show felt so real.

 

[tomalak301]

A Man Alone

Have to be a little honest. There are episodes in DS9's first season I'm not really looking forward to seeing again, and A Man Alone is one of those episodes. It shows Odo as security chief, but I found it really distracting mainly because of Odo's voice. I know this was the real second episode that was filmed, but I never understood why Odo's voice was so different in this one over every other episode, including Emissary.

We also had a B-Plot about Keiko opening up the school and the only thing this does is set up what we will see in In the Hands of the Prophets. Also, I didn't like her line about trying to be on time from now on on the first day of school. She was lucky she got any students at all.

 

[DonIago]

To be fair, the school also sets up the plot of Jake teaching Nog to read in "The Nagus", which I don't think was an ineffective B (or C?) plot in that episode.

 

[Andrews]

The school really did fizzle out quickly as a plot device. Keiko was never written well, she always come off as rather cardboard.

 

[tomalak301]

To be fair, the school also sets up the plot of Jake teaching Nog to read in "The Nagus", which I don't think was an ineffective B (or C?) plot in that episode.

But you didn't need the school to make that plot possible.

The school really did fizzle out quickly as a plot device. Keiko was never written well, she always come off as rather cardboard.

Don't get me wrong, I think the school was a good idea, but the way this episode dealt with it could have been better. Also, the only thing with Keiko I did like was her feelings of being useless on DS9. I thought that was a very realistic conversation they had, but then I've always found O'Brian and Keiko to be a very realistic married couple.

 

[Seven of Five]

I think the Odo story in A Man Alone was pretty forgettable, but I always enjoy seeing the early Nog and Jake interactions. I just find it so natural, and I actually liked Jake a little more than Ben early on.

 

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

1-04 A Man Alone

This episode was all over the place, and came off as unfocused and contrived. I never got the sense of uproar and urgency that would compel the Bajornas to react the way they did when the wanted to lynch Odo for a murder he didn't commit. The murder mystery wasn't that interesting either, it merely served as a vehicle to get the Odo plot going. And almost as an afterthought a clone was created and it wasn't mentioned again. That felt rather callous on behalf of Dr Bashir and Sisko. The moral implications of this should've been huge but we never even saw him come alive.

The Odo and Quark scenes were good though, but the Sisko and Dax scenes felt a bit forced, but that might have been intentional as he's adjusting to Dax being in a new host.

The Keiko O'Brien as a school teacher sub-plot felt too much like a soap opera. I didn't care much for her whining either or having her cast in the stereotypical "motherly" role as caretaker for the kids.

A Man Alone gets a below average grade of 3+ on my 10-graded scale.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I think that there was some hope that Rosiland Chao would join the main cast, but she was unwilling to commit. Moreover, she was somewhat in demand at the time. It seemed important to Piller that Miles O'Brien really appear to be a family man, so some of these efforts to make it seem that Kieko had a place on the station may have been clumsy efforts to make it seem she was around more than she really was.

Tangentially, many of the jokes about the Bashir-O'Brien bromance were in-jokes about having to shift O'Brien's focus away from having a family.

 

[tomalak301]

Babel

There is a lot of mediocrity in this first season and every time I'm watching this season, I'm trying t muddle through these episodes so I can get to the good stuff. Babel is a little like A Man Alone but slightly better. It's a there episode, highlighted by hearing the actors speaking gibberish and actually having to memorize those lines. It was also highlighted by the Odo/Quark stuff, which is always gold, especially in this first season. Still, to have a virus episode (Even though we learn who created the virus a little back history of the station and the occupation) in the first season feels like a go to "We need to do something" type of show. All the other Trek's had something similar, so DS9 just joins the club.

Captive Pursuit

Now this is an episode I like. We get our first alien from the Gamma Quadrant and it's a very interesting species. What strikes me about this episode every time I see it is how many foreshadowing moments this episode has for the Dominion. We get shrouding technology, the weapons the hunters use are like what the Jem'Hadar uses, and the Tosk are genetically engineered for the hunt, like the Jem'hadar are to serve the founders. In a way, I wonder of the Dominion got most of what makes themselves the Dominion from this world. I also really liked OBrian here, befriending Tosk and violating Sisko's orders to allow Tosk to continue the hunt. It was a nice dynamic between the two and Sisko's reaction at the end kind of shows what kind of commander he is and will be. Like I said, this episode does a lot of foreboding for the series and, before Duet, one of Season 1's best.

 

[DonIago]

In some ways I feel like you can assess the overall quality of an early DS9 episode by the standard of "Could they have done exactly the same plot on TNG?"

Babel: Yes
Captive Pursuit: No.

 

[Seven of Five]

Yeah exactly. I really enjoyed the characterisation in Babel, lots of decent work happened here before it turned a bit dull. A stationwide sickness is a bit TNG season one, really. I always enjoy Quark coming to Odo's aid at the end though.

Captive Pursuit is really interesting though: Tosk! Our first visitor through the wormhole. I enjoy O'Brien's relationship with him, and it's a pretty well paced episode.