If You Could Eliminate 1 Miles Must Suffer Episode

[Eyes]

Hmm, I quite liked Time's Orphan, mainly the ending really.

Whispers, Visionary, Hard Time and Honour Among Thieves are too good to eliminate, Tribunal and The Assignment aren't that bad, and I do have a soft spot for Armageddon Game, for its relationship-starting moments, so I'd have to get rid of The Storyteller, mainly because the Bajorans were annoying and also because the whole story was 'Oh, look, big scary cloud. Quick, tell it a story and it'll go away '.

I do have to say, for the concept they were working with it was well executed, but it doesn't beat any other O'Brien episode.

 

[tomalak301]

The thing with The Storyteller though is that it was important in starting the whole relationship between Obrian and Bashir. I guess you can really start it in Armageddon game, but it just wouldn't be the same.

 

[Sykonee]

The thing with The Storyteller though is that it was important in starting the whole relationship between Obrian and Bashir. I guess you can really start it in Armageddon game, but it just wouldn't be the same.

What about the beginning of Q-Less, with O'Brien overhearing Bashir smooth-talkin' a gal? Actually, I'd pin the beginning of their relationship with the very moment they hired Siddig.

"We've already got the common Irishman, and here we have a 'high-class Brit' speaking guy... Light bulb!!! We've got our odd couple!"

 

[Pemmer Harge]

Bashir and O'Brien? They didn't do much for me as a pair before Explorers. After that they worked well (especially in Hippocratic Oath), although they became rather annoying in Season 7 when they WOULD NOT SHUT UP ABOUT THE ALAMO.

 

[Brutal Strudel]

I'm one of those fans that love any episode with Colm Meany torture or otherwise. However, I will have to go with the consensus that "Times Orphan" is pretty bad and no actor could have made that story work

Wild Molly was really sexy and O'Brien does say "bollocks" but the episode just sucks beyond belief. Easily, it's the one to go.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Hard Time, mainly because that whole experience didn't have any real effect on his character afterwards when it really should have.

This.

Time's Orphan, at least, can be explained as not having so much of an effect because of the reset button. Not that I like the reset button, but it does at least keep there from being severe, long-ranging psychological effects on Miles like what should've happened with an experience as bad as "Hard Time."

ALTHOUGH...I find myself wondering if a way was eventually found to block Miles' memories of that episode. I bet Garak would've known the Obsidian Order's methods used to condition its operatives. If it could've been done in a more targeted way, that might work. But without some kind of memory blocking, that episode is just implausible.

 

[I am not Spock]

Yeah, my only disappointment with the great 'Hard Time' was no reference of it in subsequent episodes.

The Storyteller was one I hadn't thought about eliminating. In TNG, Picard says Bajorans were a flourishing civilisation with the best architects, philosophers, artisans, etc in the galaxy when humans weren't yet standing erect; and yet a bunch of them are scared by a monster? Get rid of the Storyteller!

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Hmm...I wasn't including that one in "Miles Must Suffer," but I agree it was pretty insulting to the Bajorans.

And you can bet the Cardassians made miles and miles of propaganda with that, too, during the Occupation.

 

[DevilEyes]

Yeah, my only disappointment with the great 'Hard Time' was no reference of it in subsequent episodes.

The Storyteller was one I hadn't thought about eliminating. In TNG, Picard says Bajorans were a flourishing civilisation with the best architects, philosophers, artisans, etc in the galaxy when humans weren't yet standing erect; and yet a bunch of them are scared by a monster? Get rid of the Storyteller!

I'd be surprised if an entire species of billions of people were on the same level of development throughout the entire planet. I thought people had a problem with Trek cultures usually being presented as monolithic?

 

[Sykonee]

Yeah, I can buy into the notion of some backwater Bajorans. After all, for as 'advanced' as we are in the 21st Century, there are still hunter-gatherer societies on this planet too.

But these backwater Bajorans are just, well, silly country bumpkins. They're like the Amish of their planet.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Except there's no evidence that the Amish are ignorant. My understanding, rather, is that they know full well what goes on in the outside world; they just choose not to participate.

I've actually written something similar in an alternate version of Cardassia that I work with for my fanfic--a group of Cardassian desert tribes who have chosen against most technology, in part out of a similar desire for simple living. This saved their lives when the planet's climate shifted drastically and massive desertification took place. They were already adapted for living off of the desert and didn't suffer the way the city dwellers did, and they took it as confirmation that they had chosen the right path. But what a lot of outsiders don't realize is just how much they actually know about the rest of Cardassia...they're not ignorant and they don't take kindly to assumptions that they are.

 

[Myasishchev]

Time's Orphan. Is there a serious argument to be made for any other episode?

"Hard Time." Not because it's bad--it's great, one of DS9's best--but because a man isn't going to come out of that situation all right. Not at all. "Hard Time" only works, really, if the character's being put on a bus, or if you really want to change him forever.