First-Timer's Impressions of Deep Space Nine

[Navaros]

"Dax" is indeed the weakest Jadzia episode, and it took some time until her character was properly fleshed out.

That's not saying much, since just about every single Jadzia episode is extremely weak. There aren't any Dax episodes that I don't skip when re-watching DS9, that's how weak they are.

I'd say her character never gets fleshed-out and is entirely useless throughout the entirety of the show. But perhaps we should discuss such things in another thread so as this one does not inadvertently become spoilery.

 

[apenpaap]

Spoiler: Bashir's sex-change

I like this thread, it's exiting!

 

[Jimmy Bob]

The Passenger

This episode was so boring that it broke my viewing rhythm. When will this show get awesome? I wanna see more prophets and Garak and stuff like that.

Okay, in the beginning, when Bashir was on his "I'm great" speech, I discovered that I like the guy. There's a serious potential for funny. Best part of the episode.

However when Siddig El Fadil tried to act possessed I started crying. Or laughing. Or something in between. I don't know, it was confusing.

Worst part: "Hailing?... Us?"

My God, it was so terrible and I'm scarred now. I laughed and cried "fuck no!" all the time.

There was a plot too. That also was terrible. Jesus, Mary and St.Joseph! Sisko is so procedural now. Gone is that interesting man from Emissary.

This episode was so boring that I fell asleep while writing this post.

 

[TheGodBen]

The Passenger

This episode was so boring that it broke my viewing rhythm. When will this show get awesome? I wanna see more prophets and Garak and stuff like that.

There's a good Odo episode coming up soon, but that episode only really hits home when rewatching the series because it has some surprisingly good foreshadowing you might not notice on your first viewing. But as for when the show becomes awesome? Your opinions may vary, but consensus is that the show only becomes awesome during the final few episodes of the season and that carries over into the beginning of season 2. The Prophet stuff isn't coming back any time soon, but in a few episodes you will get to see Kai Opaka again.

However when Siddig El Fadil tried to act possessed I started crying. Or laughing. Or something in between. I don't know, it was confusing.

Worst part: "Hailing?... Us?"

I can still hear that line in my mind over four years after last watching that episode. Luckily that's probably the worst the acting on this show will get, although some will argue that Avery Brooks tries to best it at times (not me though, I love me some Brooks ). Siddig El Fadil improves immensely over the years, it's shocking to go back and watch this episode knowing how good he can be.

There's no two ways about it, you're in a rough patch at the moment, and there's two or three more episodes on the way that will be down on The Passenger's level. But it is worth sticking with this season to watch the characters grow, the final scene of the season in particular will only work if you stick with these characters.

 

[Tree]

However when Siddig El Fadil tried to act possessed I started crying. Or laughing. Or something in between. I don't know, it was confusing.

Worst part: "Hailing?... Us?"

If I remember correctly that scene had to be re-dubbed in post-production, which might explain why it sounds so awkward.

 

[I am not Spock]

I'm watching through season one as well at the moment. Saw 'Dax' last night. Let's just say its not the best Jadzia episode.

 

[Jimmy Bob]

Move Along Home

That guy with a moustache... he just seemed so familiar. I kept trying to guess where I could have seen him before. So I checked his IMDB and got no answer. Still, impressive moustache. I liked him from the first sight.

I enjoyed it. I kinda dig this sort of bizarro Trek. And it wasn't just bizarre. It also had some pretty good character moments.

That scene in the beginning with Sisko and his son. That's exactly what Sisko needed... he's been getting too procedural for my taste. Procedural=can watch several episodes and still have no clue who that guy his. Sometimes procedural people fool around with sunglasses. Sometimes they don't even have that. They're mostly just basic traits with a line.

But what this episode really did well was Quark. I was moved by Quark's breakdown. Really. He's becoming something of a loveable rogue. I'm really surprised that I'm actually liking a ferengi character. When I first heard of Quark I really thought I was going to hate him. Because usually ferengi's are only a bit better than Neelix. But Quark has avoided neelixification completely.

And since I was buying the impression that it was really a life and death situation I was somewhat impressed, when it turned out that they were just fooling around.

Cool game.

 

[apenpaap]

I like Move Along Home too, for the reasons you named. Most people hate it.

 

[Eyes]

Move Along Home, quite a controversial episode around here, you'll find, when others begin posting. Its the sort of fun Trek that some people think shouldn't have been wasted on an episode and therefore is the low point of Season 1, and some people quite like it, like yourself.

I kinda liked it, but I'm normally too generous on most episodes anyway, there are few I don't like.

I will say this for it, it had much better acting then the Passenger, and pretty much every other episode bar Captive Pursuit thus far.

 

[Jonluck Pickard]

I'll admit, I used to despise "Love Boat in Space" when it was on the air. I've been watching some reruns the past few days, and I'm seeing some solid story writing....perhaps I didn't give this show enough of a chance. Another bonus is that it doesn't have a Neelix character...

 

[DevilEyes]

I'll admit, I used to despise "Love Boat in Space" when it was on the air. I've been watching some reruns the past few days, and I'm seeing some solid story writing....perhaps I didn't give this show enough of a chance. Another bonus is that it doesn't have a Neelix character...

Being unfamiliar with this "Love Boat in Space" show, I did think for a moment that this was an attempt at humor and some sort of allusion to Star Trek: The Next Generation with its incredibly dragged-out will they won't they love stories between 'soulmate' Troi/Riker and Picard/Crusher who aren't getting together for some mysterious reason, combined with lots of lame and contrived love-stories-of-the-week that each of them managed to get into... but then I searched Youtube and found this.
Star Trek: Love Boat

 

[Jonluck Pickard]

I'll admit, I used to despise "Love Boat in Space" when it was on the air. I've been watching some reruns the past few days, and I'm seeing some solid story writing....perhaps I didn't give this show enough of a chance. Another bonus is that it doesn't have a Neelix character...

Being unfamiliar with this "Love Boat in Space" show, I did think for a moment that this was an attempt at humor and some sort of allusion to Star Trek: The Next Generation with its incredibly dragged-out will they won't they love stories between 'soulmate' Troi/Riker and Picard/Crusher who aren't getting together for some mysterious reason, combined with lots of lame and contrived love-stories-of-the-week that each of them managed to get into... but then I searched Youtube and found this.
Star Trek: Love Boat

That was hilarious! Yes, the reference was to that aspect of TNG, but when they brought Worf on DS9 there was a continuation of this habit, which is why I didn't really watch it. Speaking of Troi, I"m sure there's been a thread about this, but who didn't she marry over the course of both shows? And while we're trading clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luVjkTEIoJc&NR=1&feature=fvwp

 

[TheGodBen]

That scene in the beginning with Sisko and his son. That's exactly what Sisko needed... he's been getting too procedural for my taste. Procedural=can watch several episodes and still have no clue who that guy his. Sometimes procedural people fool around with sunglasses. Sometimes they don't even have that. They're mostly just basic traits with a line.

I know, I know...

Move Along Home. Yes. I'm going to reluctantly join in the chorus of people who enjoy this episode for some deranged reason. In my case it is complete nostalgia, this is one of the earliest episodes that I can remember seeing and I remember being engrossed in the idea that Sisko and co were actually in a game and had to solve puzzles and stuff. It may seem lame now, but remember that this was 1993, video games were still almost exclusively stuck in two dimensions, Doom wasn't even released until the end of the that year. The idea of these characters being inside a game world where they had to overcome obstacles stuck in my impressionable young mind and helped to turn me into the nerdy gamer I am today. It's a bad, cheesy episode, but I can't not enjoy watching it.

As for Quark, he's not really like Neelix, there are times when he can get annoying, but when the character is treated seriously he is given some wonderful material. There's a speech he gives in the final season that is often brought up as being one of the finest moments in the series.

Spoiler: teeny tiny spoiler

He also has the show's final line.

Come on now everybody, sing along...

Allamaraine, count to four.
Allamaraine, then three more.
Allamaraine, if you can see.
Allamaraine, you'll come with me.

 

[Tree]

The actors must've felt like a right bunch of prats while filming this.

 

[Sykonee]

Star Trek: Love Boat

Star Python

 

[Jimmy Bob]

The actors must've felt like a right bunch of prats while filming this.

The only one who seems openly uncomfortable is Nana Visitor. El Fadil seems to enjoy it and Brooks probably has done lot worse in theater.

 

[Jimmy Bob]

Move Along Home

Damn I forgot.

Dax Factor:

When they're in the caverns and eveything is collapsing and they're like "we need to jump!" and Dax is all "leave me here!"?

Dax: "Seven lives is enough for one Trill."

Right. Because the body is so irrelevant. It's just expandable and doesn't need to live at all. The true living being is apparently the worm.

Also, Sisko's and Dax friendship is not completely believable.

 

[apenpaap]

The actors must've felt like a right bunch of prats while filming this.

The only one who seems openly uncomfortable is Nana Visitor. El Fadil seems to enjoy it and Brooks probably has done lot worse in theater.

Nana Visitor's uncomfortableness seems in character to me. As if Kira is thinking "If anyone laughs, I'll break their arms."

 

[Jimmy Bob]

The Nagus

Hmm. Hmm indeed. Interesting. So this is DS9, huh?

Spoiler: my opinion

This episode is so 90's. I don't remember TNG season 6 being so 90's. There was always something 80's about TNG. But this episode was like so... yeah I said that already. It reminded me of seaQuest DSV. So bright and sunny and innocent.

The following just screams 90's sitcom. It's like a Full House episode.

Sisko a single father who wants to raise his kid to be a decent person. Sadly he is occupied by his work all the time and so his son hangs out with the undecent sort. The teacher comes home to say that undecent kid has a bad influence of Jake. Sisko forbids Jake to ever meet Nog again. Jake still hangs out with the undecent kid. So Sisko spies on his kid and discovers that he is teaching Nog to read. And then the audience goes "aww!"

And then we have the jewish family of Quark. The allusion has never been this clear before. The ferengi are a mix of jewish and gypsy stereotypes. I've never realized that before.

Quark's story was nice. I guess. I'm not actually sure how I feel about the episode. I guess my opinion area of the brain was turned off and my amateur anthropologian area was turned on, because all I could think of was "so this is what they watched back in 1993". And I kept I trying to analyze the mating rituals, religious systems and social hierachies of that world, but I'm yet unclear if it's a serious peace of scientifical work or just my imagination.

"The people of 1993 played around with the idea of having *real* holographic sexual simulations. This shows that in they're world sex was associated with bad consequences - whether a punishment from God or an unwanted disease - and all their mental capacities where used to dream of means to experience "real" sex without the consequences.

Judging from the appearance of ferengi, we can deduce that people of 1993 associated people dealing with money with negative traits. Everyone involved in finances have comically deformed appearances and they talk funny. It's an interesting way to live inside a capitalist system and associate all the bad things with an unwanted "other" and remain "pure and a better person" themselves."

Dax Factor: "I should know. I've been a mother three times and a father four."

Clearly shows that the body is just the means for the worm, the true controller and person (and soul), to experience bipedal life. The body is expendable. It's not alive.

 

[Pemmer Harge]

Y'know? I don't mind Move Along Home at all. It's no classic, but I found it entertaining enough (although I did wonder why Odo didn't just threaten to shoot the aliens).

The Nagus on the other hand? I'm sketchy on some of the plot details, but I remember not enjoying it. And Rom did what?