Move Along Home - Unfairly derided?

[DigificWriter]

I've always enjoyed "Move Along Home"; yes, it's not what you might expect from a Deep Space Nine episode, even in Season 1 when they were trying to appeal to the TNG audience while also forging ahead and making the show its "own thing" and there are things about it that * could * be criticized, but the thing that ends up working about it for me is the way that it puts the focus on the characters, giving us a chance to get to know them a bit better and showing us bits of their personalities by way of how they react to the situation in which they find themselves.

Quark's confusion about the whole thing, coupled with the revelation that nobody was actually in any danger, also helps the episode work for me, and is a source of a lot of the fun and "charm" of the episode. Nana Visitor also pulls the greatest face in the world in response to the fact that nobody was actually in any real danger. It's hilarious and a great example of one of the things that makes Kira one of the best characters in the series: her inability to hide her frustration/annoyance with things that she either doesn't understand or can't control, and her no-nonsense "I don't give a crap who you are" attitude.

 

[Death Ray]

Those challenges were too easy. It should have been more like Cube!

 

[Tosk]

Couldn't do Cube, Ezri wasn't a castmember yet.

 

[Death Ray]

Hey-Oh!

 

[publiusr]

What is a shap?

That's when Mike Meyers wears a William Shatner mask--no--that was the Shape.
shap means level methinks...

 

[Michael]

That's when Mike Meyers wears a William Shatner mask--no--that was the Shape.
shap means level methinks...

Was just quoting Kira there.

 

[Navaros]

Move Along Home is terrible.

But it could be considered "unfairly derided" insomuch as it takes a lot of flack as if it's unique/anomalous in its badness, even though it's not.

DS9 easily has 5-6 terrible/unwatchable episodes per season (with more bad episodes than that in Season 1 specifically), most of which are either just as bad, or worse, than Move Along Home. Yet most of those other bad episodes take little to no flack.

 

[DonIago]

I don't find the episode necessarily bad so much as one that adds essentially nothing to the series (perhaps if they'd kept Primmin around) and ultimately feels like a waste of space. Perhaps those are its greatest sins, and I'm not sure that the things I necessarily remember the episode for are reasons why one should want to remember an episode. It might be better off being more forgettable.

 

[Sakonna]

I don't find the episode necessarily bad so much as one that adds essentially nothing to the series (perhaps if they'd kept Primmin around)

I do get a chuckle from how Eddington is so clearly a "take two" on Primmin. Like, what happened, did they intend to call him all season 2 for another guest spot but kept putting it off, and then by the time they got to "The Search" they were just too embarrassed?

 

[DonIago]

I feel like Primmin may have shown up in one of the Myriad Universes stories.

Either way, I thought it was sad that he disappeared after two episodes and was never remarked upon again. IIRC I felt a mix of amusement and irritation when Eddington showed up and was introduced in almost exactly the same manner, with Odo also reacting in almost exactly the same manner.

It might have been interesting to see Primmin show up as a more moderate Maquis contrast to Eddington, given that they'd both served on DS9 in an identical role.

 

[Navaros]

That's a good point about how Primmin/Eddington makes blunt the artificial nature of the show and therefore breaks the viewer's immersion.

The same happens for me whenever they start giving random Starfleet members lots of lines, like Muniz in The Ship. For the most part, Starfleet members don't speak unless they are established as main characters or as regular secondary characters. So for the film suddenly to break that pattern out of the blue by cutting to yappy random SF characters is jarring.

 

[GulBahana]

I thought Move Along Home had some funny moments and was much better than the Q Episode that was just an excuse to bring in familiar characters.

 

[DonIago]

I'd rather watch Q and Vash's antics again, if I have a choice, though the B-story of that episode was pretty uninteresting.

 

[kkt]

Move Along Home is derided, but not unfairly. I'd rather watch Spock's Brain.

 

[Sakonna]

I'd rather watch Q and Vash's antics again, if I have a choice, though the B-story of that episode was pretty uninteresting.

This episode had a B story?!? And here I thought I remembered it pretty clearly...

 

[DonIago]

The alien-in-a-box? Or is that the A-story and Q and Vash are the B-story? Either way, the alien-in-a-box is, as noted, forgettable.

 

[tomalak301]

I'd rather watch Q and Vash's antics again, if I have a choice, though the B-story of that episode was pretty uninteresting.

That was so repetitive though. There wasn't much antics to that episode. It was mainly Vash trying to get away from Q and Q acting like a bit of a stalker.

 

[DonIago]

And yet I still find it more interesting than "Move Along Home".

 

[Sakonna]

The alien-in-a-box? Or is that the A-story and Q and Vash are the B-story? Either way, the alien-in-a-box is, as noted, forgettable.

Ah, I always saw those as the same story. That actually provides the only thing I really like this about episode: all the aliens that assemble for the auction. A bunch of great, elaborate makeup designs there. I also love those two that are just blue fabric wrapped around the head.

 

[DonIago]

I did like the unusual aliens. But the mystery element of the plot was meh.