But isn't that exactly what's brought up in the Maquis set-up episodes? That Starfleet was only able to maintain its peaceful, goody-goody image by not stepping up when other empires were oppressing other people? That Starfleet should have stepped in earlier in the Bajor situation instead of playing "what happens behind Cardassian borders stays behind Cardassian borders"? Maybe that's why so many high-ranking officers were quick to leave. They saw that Starfleet is more about protecting its image than protecting people, sometimes. They saw what happened on Bajor and decided that the price paid wasn't worth protecting peace with the Cardassians. I do agree maybe TNG and DS9 could have been a little more explicit, earlier on, about the Cardassians treating the DMZ treaty and colonies in bad faith as justification for the rapidity of Maquis escalation,
My DS9 Rewatch Odyssey
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But isn't that exactly what's brought up in the Maquis set-up episodes? That Starfleet was only able to maintain its peaceful, goody-goody image by not stepping up when other empires were oppressing other people? That Starfleet should have stepped in earlier in the Bajor situation instead of playing "what happens behind Cardassian borders stays behind Cardassian borders"? Maybe that's why so many high-ranking officers were quick to leave. They saw that Starfleet is more about protecting its image than protecting people, sometimes. They saw what happened on Bajor and decided that the price paid wasn't worth protecting peace with the Cardassians. I do agree maybe TNG and DS9 could have been a little more explicit, earlier on, about the Cardassians treating the DMZ treaty and colonies in bad faith as justification for the rapidity of Maquis escalation,
The final scene with Sisko and Kirk was done seamlessly and it's taken from "Mirror, Mirror".
It is one of Trek's more queer moments: Kirk is giving the hairy eyeball to Sisko when signing the report.
Well, it was a woman with whom his counterpart has had sex in the other universe...
It's been my understanding that neither side ultimately treated the treaty or colonies in good faith. That said, IIRC "The Maquis" does establish that the Cardassian government was arming its colonists...but that doesn't preclude that elements within the Federation government were illictly doing the same.
Well, it was a woman with whom his counterpart has had sex in the other universe...
Now I want to see "Mirror, Mirror" updated with Sisko as the Captain's Woman.
The Federation is the good guys. Their government is presented as honoring its word. If the treaty says that the Cardassians living in the Federation's part of the DMZ will be treated well, we're supposed to assume that is what's happening. Not like the Cardassian government that you couldn't trust any farther than you could throw them.
(Which doesn't preclude Section 31 or non-Federation agents from doing so if they thought it was in the Federation's interests.)
Given DS9's reputation for exploring shades of gray, and that it already exposed several cracks within the Federation's facade, would it be so crazy to believe there were factions within the government that were arming the colonists? The Cardassians likely did so more officially, and I believe the majority of the Federation government embraced the treaty, but I have no trouble believing that an EvilAdmiral or two might have misplaced some weapons shipments.
Whether or not the Federation is the good guys, there were clearly enough good guys who disagreed with the treaty to make the Maquis what would ultimately become an intolerable threat to security.
Whether or not the Federation is the good guys, there were clearly enough good guys who disagreed with the treaty to make the Maquis what would ultimately become an intolerable threat to security.
I don’t know if Futurama and DS9 ever ran concurrently. Futurama began in 1999, the same year DS9 ended. But, as you say, the grandmother idea could have been inspired by any number of things, including Back to the Future.
I didn’t know that. That’s really cool.
Haha, it’s quite funny, if you watch closely, Uhura is checking him out too, and Spock has rather a smirk on his face. He certainly made an impression!
“LET HE WHO IS WITHOUT SIN...”
“Yes, Worf, I know it’s a shit episode, but what do you expect me to do about it? Show more skin?”
Oh, sweet Prophets. The step down in quality from the previous episode is enough to give even the most undiscriminating of viewers a severe case of whiplash. In my last review, I stated how just about everything came together to make “Trials and Tribble-ations” an exemplary piece of television. Sadly, in the case of this one, virtually NOTHING comes together and it results in an episode that’s not merely bad, but, quite frankly, abysmal.
Ira Behr was partly responsible for the creation of Risa back in TNG’s third season, although ironically he’s on record as saying it was Gene Hornyberry, sorry, Roddenberry, that insisted on adding the hyper-sexual elements. I actually think “Captain’s Holiday” largely got away with it, because the Risian lifestyle was not a big part of the plot. Sure, there was the embarrassing gag with the whoregone—OK, “horga’hn”—and talk of “jamaharon” (because creating a new euphemism for sex is just so hilarious and edgy) but they adopted the less is more approach. “Let He Who is Without Sin...” uses NO such restraint. I lost track of the endless references to horga’hns and jamaharon. The “joke”, such as it was, was done to death and by the end of it I could feel my skin crawl at the mere mention of those words.
One of the red flags at the very start of the episode had Quark distributing the fertility statues to everyone on the runabout, except Worf of course (lucky Worf), and we have Leeta, perched on Bashir’s lap, pushing their two horga’hns together and declaring, “I think they LIKE each other.” I’m sorry to say that Chase Masterson’s faux “sexy”, irritatingly chipper performance really grates throughout the episode, and I find Leeta perhaps the most pointless recurrent Star Trek character in the history of the franchise. I generally forget she even exists until she suddenly turns up every dozen episodes or so, and I think “oh, it’s her again, why do they even bother?” Her relationship with Bashir was a blink-and-you’ll-miss it affair, referenced in only one episode (“Bar Association”) before promptly being forgotten again, perhaps because the two had zero chemistry. But that’s really the very least of the episode’s problems.
One of the reasons I really hate this episode is that, for me, it actually damages the show’s characters. The Dax and Worf relationship started off reasonably well in “Looking For Par’Mach...” but here, in only the second episode to feature it in any depth, I’m already completely and utterly OVER it. This episode actually created some long-term damage for me, because it would be considerable time before I’d warm to the pairing again, and the whole thing was just so wretched and painful to watch that I almost began wishing that Worf had never shown up on DS9.
First of all, Dax does deserve to shoulder some of the blame for railroading Worf into going to Risa when it was quite clear he’d be miserable and hate the place. I know that both TNG and DS9 have often milked humour from putting Worf into situations in which he’s clearly uncomfortable. Unfortunately, it’s just not funny here. He behaves like a petulant brat throughout, which is bad enough, only things get infinitely worse when he gets hooked into the Essentialist’s nonsense and then wilfully commits criminal damage by sabotaging the planet’s weather grid. Incredibly, he suffers no repercussions for this criminal act whatsoever. Surely a Starfleet officer perpetrating a terrorist act ought to warrant an investigation, if not a court martial. Worf’s actions are moronic, unpleasant and his behaviour toward Dax—controlling, shaming, manipulating and downright emotionally abusing her—is heinously out of line. Why Jadzia is content to put up with being treated in such a manner and continually looked down upon for not being “a Klingon woman” is a complete mystery and never satisfactorily answered by this thoroughly awful script (“because he has the heart of a poet” does NOT cut it).
Whereas the cast can often salvage even the weakest of material, nobody acquits themselves especially well here (even Vanessa Williams’ appearance is a disappointment because there’s no actual character for her to play; she’s pretty much just delivering lines). I can only suppose the writers burned themselves out putting so much effort into “Trials and Tribble-ations” because this episode features some of the worst writing ever seen on the show. It’s no wonder the actors failed to impress when they had to deliver such shitty dialogue as this:
“I have been loyal to you but I'm not going to let you run my life.”
“I'm not trying to run your life.”
“Then I'm going to go and have a big glass of icoberry juice.”
“That is a mistake. You are allergic to icoberry juice. It makes your spots itch.”
“But I like the taste.”
“Fine. Have as much icoberry juice as you like but it is still a mistake.”
“But it is my mistake to make.”
The Essentialist plot perhaps contains the seed of a good idea, but it’s horribly executed. Basically, what Fullerton tries to do here is what Admiral Leyton did in “Homefront”—sabotage a Federation facility to show them they’re complacent in their unreadiness to deal with hostility. Fullerton is clearly an idiot, however. First of all, he purports that the Federation had, or should have, a standard, unilateral set of values with regard to culture and morality, which fails to appreciate the diversity of all the member planets and cultures. This is not only anti-IDIC, it’s as nonsensical as it is tasteless. It’s also never clear what he’s actually intending to do: ban holidays, stop people having sex, turn the Federation into a police state, or just convert everyone to his puritanical cult? If he is a “ponderous academic” as he claims, then why isn’t he delivering his polemic through proper channels of discourse instead of resorting to terrorism—which is what this is, and in which Worf is complicit? The plot is far too too lame and half-baked to take seriously dramatically and it’s not remotely funny either. Perhaps if the writers had been clearer in depicting Fullerton as the parody of a pearl-clutching Sunday School teacher, instead of expecting us to take him seriously, there might have been a few laughs. Although probably not.
The nadir of the episode is clearly Worf aiding and abetting the terrorists for no reason other than Risa’s “free love” ethos offends his sensibilities. But where is the HONOUR in betraying Starfleet and sabotaging a planet’s weather grid? Worf has already made it clear that he believes “terrorists have no honour”— why, then, is he so quick to join their ranks here?
About the only thing the episode does right is provide some insight into why Worf has always had such a stick up his ass—something once noted by Guinan as far back as TNG’s “Redemption”. His tragic childhood story does give us some insight into his character and is about the only thing the episode does right, even if it is goofily enacted with cheesy lightning flashes at the most dramatic moments.
Unfortunately, the writers go and ruin it in the very next scene by having Worf casually throw Fullerton into a wall! So we’ve just learned that Worf has a deep-rooted fear that his superior strength could injure and kill humans, so he always has to hold himself back—then a moment later he’s actually throwing some guy at a WALL. WHAT? The moment is treated humorously, but given what just went before it’s head-scratchingly misplaced and pretty much undoes whatever good the childhood confession scene did. Furthermore, the recurrent gag of Jadzia and Worf constantly injuring each other through rough sex also doesn’t quite add up in the context of Worf’s revelation.
Is there anything I did like about the episode? Well, as annoying as she is, the scene where Leeta confesses her feelings for Rom is quite funny, simply for Bashir and Quark’s reactions. Quark has a few decent quips, and there are some nice beach shots and a cool matte painting of Risa (I’m really having to struggle here!). Terry Farrell, I have to say, looks fantastic in a swimsuit and is perhaps the most beautiful regular cast-member Star Trek ever had. It’s worth noting, however, there’s little to nothing in the way of guy candy on offer, a problem not uncommon on DS9—they really should have brought back Malko from the Hubishan baths.
Interestingly, the producers partly blame this episode’s failure on network censorship, and I call bullshit on that. This episode has many problems and the fact they weren’t allowed to show tits and ass is NOT one of them. I certainly don’t have a problem at all with Risa’s liberal, sex-positive modus operandi, but I felt the way it was written was embarrassingly immature and facile, filled with “wink-wink, nudge-nudge” schoolboy sniggering and sub-CARRY ON style innuendo. At its worst extreme, I kind of felt the episode depicted Risa as a kind of incel fantasy. It’s clear that the women are willing to unquestionably put out even to a guy is as, um, “not conventionally attractive” as Quark. Is the mantra “All that’s ours is yours” perhaps law on Risa? You basically have to fuck anyone that’s interested even if you find them physically repellent? Because that would make Risa an incel utopia—and, for anyone else, an actual dystopia.
Anyway, as you no doubt noticed, I found this episode offensively bad; from the unusually terrible writing and unimpressive acting, to the weak directing and mediocre music (I’m rarely a fan of Paul Baillargeon’s scores and I can’t quite pinpoint why). The worst thing about “Let He Who is Without Sin...” is that it immediately follows the anniversary masterpiece that is “Trials and Tribble-ations”. I imagine a number of newcomers will have watched that and decided to tune into DS9 again the following week only to endure this piece of shit and decide never to bother again. The worst thing is, I wouldn’t really have blamed them. It’s definitely the worst episode of DS9 to date (with only one even bigger stinker still ahead of us in the sixth season). Rating: 2
“Yes, Worf, I know it’s a shit episode, but what do you expect me to do about it? Show more skin?”
Oh, sweet Prophets. The step down in quality from the previous episode is enough to give even the most undiscriminating of viewers a severe case of whiplash. In my last review, I stated how just about everything came together to make “Trials and Tribble-ations” an exemplary piece of television. Sadly, in the case of this one, virtually NOTHING comes together and it results in an episode that’s not merely bad, but, quite frankly, abysmal.
Ira Behr was partly responsible for the creation of Risa back in TNG’s third season, although ironically he’s on record as saying it was Gene Hornyberry, sorry, Roddenberry, that insisted on adding the hyper-sexual elements. I actually think “Captain’s Holiday” largely got away with it, because the Risian lifestyle was not a big part of the plot. Sure, there was the embarrassing gag with the whoregone—OK, “horga’hn”—and talk of “jamaharon” (because creating a new euphemism for sex is just so hilarious and edgy) but they adopted the less is more approach. “Let He Who is Without Sin...” uses NO such restraint. I lost track of the endless references to horga’hns and jamaharon. The “joke”, such as it was, was done to death and by the end of it I could feel my skin crawl at the mere mention of those words.
One of the red flags at the very start of the episode had Quark distributing the fertility statues to everyone on the runabout, except Worf of course (lucky Worf), and we have Leeta, perched on Bashir’s lap, pushing their two horga’hns together and declaring, “I think they LIKE each other.” I’m sorry to say that Chase Masterson’s faux “sexy”, irritatingly chipper performance really grates throughout the episode, and I find Leeta perhaps the most pointless recurrent Star Trek character in the history of the franchise. I generally forget she even exists until she suddenly turns up every dozen episodes or so, and I think “oh, it’s her again, why do they even bother?” Her relationship with Bashir was a blink-and-you’ll-miss it affair, referenced in only one episode (“Bar Association”) before promptly being forgotten again, perhaps because the two had zero chemistry. But that’s really the very least of the episode’s problems.
One of the reasons I really hate this episode is that, for me, it actually damages the show’s characters. The Dax and Worf relationship started off reasonably well in “Looking For Par’Mach...” but here, in only the second episode to feature it in any depth, I’m already completely and utterly OVER it. This episode actually created some long-term damage for me, because it would be considerable time before I’d warm to the pairing again, and the whole thing was just so wretched and painful to watch that I almost began wishing that Worf had never shown up on DS9.
First of all, Dax does deserve to shoulder some of the blame for railroading Worf into going to Risa when it was quite clear he’d be miserable and hate the place. I know that both TNG and DS9 have often milked humour from putting Worf into situations in which he’s clearly uncomfortable. Unfortunately, it’s just not funny here. He behaves like a petulant brat throughout, which is bad enough, only things get infinitely worse when he gets hooked into the Essentialist’s nonsense and then wilfully commits criminal damage by sabotaging the planet’s weather grid. Incredibly, he suffers no repercussions for this criminal act whatsoever. Surely a Starfleet officer perpetrating a terrorist act ought to warrant an investigation, if not a court martial. Worf’s actions are moronic, unpleasant and his behaviour toward Dax—controlling, shaming, manipulating and downright emotionally abusing her—is heinously out of line. Why Jadzia is content to put up with being treated in such a manner and continually looked down upon for not being “a Klingon woman” is a complete mystery and never satisfactorily answered by this thoroughly awful script (“because he has the heart of a poet” does NOT cut it).
Whereas the cast can often salvage even the weakest of material, nobody acquits themselves especially well here (even Vanessa Williams’ appearance is a disappointment because there’s no actual character for her to play; she’s pretty much just delivering lines). I can only suppose the writers burned themselves out putting so much effort into “Trials and Tribble-ations” because this episode features some of the worst writing ever seen on the show. It’s no wonder the actors failed to impress when they had to deliver such shitty dialogue as this:
“I have been loyal to you but I'm not going to let you run my life.”
“I'm not trying to run your life.”
“Then I'm going to go and have a big glass of icoberry juice.”
“That is a mistake. You are allergic to icoberry juice. It makes your spots itch.”
“But I like the taste.”
“Fine. Have as much icoberry juice as you like but it is still a mistake.”
“But it is my mistake to make.”
The Essentialist plot perhaps contains the seed of a good idea, but it’s horribly executed. Basically, what Fullerton tries to do here is what Admiral Leyton did in “Homefront”—sabotage a Federation facility to show them they’re complacent in their unreadiness to deal with hostility. Fullerton is clearly an idiot, however. First of all, he purports that the Federation had, or should have, a standard, unilateral set of values with regard to culture and morality, which fails to appreciate the diversity of all the member planets and cultures. This is not only anti-IDIC, it’s as nonsensical as it is tasteless. It’s also never clear what he’s actually intending to do: ban holidays, stop people having sex, turn the Federation into a police state, or just convert everyone to his puritanical cult? If he is a “ponderous academic” as he claims, then why isn’t he delivering his polemic through proper channels of discourse instead of resorting to terrorism—which is what this is, and in which Worf is complicit? The plot is far too too lame and half-baked to take seriously dramatically and it’s not remotely funny either. Perhaps if the writers had been clearer in depicting Fullerton as the parody of a pearl-clutching Sunday School teacher, instead of expecting us to take him seriously, there might have been a few laughs. Although probably not.
The nadir of the episode is clearly Worf aiding and abetting the terrorists for no reason other than Risa’s “free love” ethos offends his sensibilities. But where is the HONOUR in betraying Starfleet and sabotaging a planet’s weather grid? Worf has already made it clear that he believes “terrorists have no honour”— why, then, is he so quick to join their ranks here?
About the only thing the episode does right is provide some insight into why Worf has always had such a stick up his ass—something once noted by Guinan as far back as TNG’s “Redemption”. His tragic childhood story does give us some insight into his character and is about the only thing the episode does right, even if it is goofily enacted with cheesy lightning flashes at the most dramatic moments.
Unfortunately, the writers go and ruin it in the very next scene by having Worf casually throw Fullerton into a wall! So we’ve just learned that Worf has a deep-rooted fear that his superior strength could injure and kill humans, so he always has to hold himself back—then a moment later he’s actually throwing some guy at a WALL. WHAT? The moment is treated humorously, but given what just went before it’s head-scratchingly misplaced and pretty much undoes whatever good the childhood confession scene did. Furthermore, the recurrent gag of Jadzia and Worf constantly injuring each other through rough sex also doesn’t quite add up in the context of Worf’s revelation.
Is there anything I did like about the episode? Well, as annoying as she is, the scene where Leeta confesses her feelings for Rom is quite funny, simply for Bashir and Quark’s reactions. Quark has a few decent quips, and there are some nice beach shots and a cool matte painting of Risa (I’m really having to struggle here!). Terry Farrell, I have to say, looks fantastic in a swimsuit and is perhaps the most beautiful regular cast-member Star Trek ever had. It’s worth noting, however, there’s little to nothing in the way of guy candy on offer, a problem not uncommon on DS9—they really should have brought back Malko from the Hubishan baths.
Interestingly, the producers partly blame this episode’s failure on network censorship, and I call bullshit on that. This episode has many problems and the fact they weren’t allowed to show tits and ass is NOT one of them. I certainly don’t have a problem at all with Risa’s liberal, sex-positive modus operandi, but I felt the way it was written was embarrassingly immature and facile, filled with “wink-wink, nudge-nudge” schoolboy sniggering and sub-CARRY ON style innuendo. At its worst extreme, I kind of felt the episode depicted Risa as a kind of incel fantasy. It’s clear that the women are willing to unquestionably put out even to a guy is as, um, “not conventionally attractive” as Quark. Is the mantra “All that’s ours is yours” perhaps law on Risa? You basically have to fuck anyone that’s interested even if you find them physically repellent? Because that would make Risa an incel utopia—and, for anyone else, an actual dystopia.
Anyway, as you no doubt noticed, I found this episode offensively bad; from the unusually terrible writing and unimpressive acting, to the weak directing and mediocre music (I’m rarely a fan of Paul Baillargeon’s scores and I can’t quite pinpoint why). The worst thing about “Let He Who is Without Sin...” is that it immediately follows the anniversary masterpiece that is “Trials and Tribble-ations”. I imagine a number of newcomers will have watched that and decided to tune into DS9 again the following week only to endure this piece of shit and decide never to bother again. The worst thing is, I wouldn’t really have blamed them. It’s definitely the worst episode of DS9 to date (with only one even bigger stinker still ahead of us in the sixth season). Rating: 2
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Great review. Or rather, pretty spot on.
Side note: "THE ASSIGNMENT" was actually produced after "TRIALS AND TRIBBLE-ATIONS", but was swapped because of the obvious extra post-production work needed for the latter episode. The former was also when Nana Visitor went into labor, and well into production of this one, which also explains Siddig's sort of tired performance... he was exhausted from the back and forthing to the hospital.
I would actually call this the 3rd worst episode of DS9, as season 6 and 7 each have one worse than this. The only saving grace here is the scene about Worf's childhood, which explains so much about him. The other two episodes don't even have that kind of scene going for them.
I honestly never minded Leeta. Plus, she was very easy on the eyes. Maybe my view is colored by that...
A rating of 2 is deserved, and frankly only for the above scene.
Side note: "THE ASSIGNMENT" was actually produced after "TRIALS AND TRIBBLE-ATIONS", but was swapped because of the obvious extra post-production work needed for the latter episode. The former was also when Nana Visitor went into labor, and well into production of this one, which also explains Siddig's sort of tired performance... he was exhausted from the back and forthing to the hospital.
I would actually call this the 3rd worst episode of DS9, as season 6 and 7 each have one worse than this. The only saving grace here is the scene about Worf's childhood, which explains so much about him. The other two episodes don't even have that kind of scene going for them.
I honestly never minded Leeta. Plus, she was very easy on the eyes. Maybe my view is colored by that...
A rating of 2 is deserved, and frankly only for the above scene.
Behr, Wolfe, Moore and Auberjonois all regretted how badly this episode turned out. They blame the network’s restrictions on showing skin and sexuality, but seems like they’d have been well aware of that. Even the title is messed up [Let he who is without grammar]. Watched very little, but did notice this time, Jadzia’s swimsuit has the Speedo logo. Always liked Terry Farrell, but what was she thinking?!
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Terrible episode, but I will defend the teaser, which I think has some good dialogue that is well played by the actors. Indeed, I'd say it's somewhat endearing. On the other hand, Worf's I crushed a poor human speech, despite being sincerely delivered, was too off the shelf, too clichéd for me to care. I don't feel we needed an explanation for being a humorless, rigid man. Being raised in an alien culture should suffice.
I think it's a tribute to the strength of this season that I let this episode play when it comes up, something I cannot say about a few other terrible episodes.
I think it's a tribute to the strength of this season that I let this episode play when it comes up, something I cannot say about a few other terrible episodes.
My one disappointment with Trials and Tribbleations: they couldn't get Kira into the 23rd century scenes. Not only would her cynicism have added a little contrast, it might be pretty awesome to see pregnant Nana throwing a punch.
I feel that if they wanted to play the 'alien culture' card it wouldn't quite work either, as we've seen Klingons be a joyful type willing to joke with each other when they're not civil-warring...and sometimes even when they are.
The speech fails for me too because it's just so generic, and it's too far into our exposure to Worf for it to come up now.
I'm now amusing myself with the idea that Worf made it up.
Or maybe it did happen, but Worf really doesn't feel guilty about it. I mean, "Death to the opposition!"
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This hwole dialog came across as kids acting out how their parents act when they fight. It's terrible writing, and poorly delivered. I never understood the purpose of making fun of Worf for being how he is. Jadzia is all about Klingons and wants Worf but then is like "You make me angry!" The Fundamentalists' plot is stupid. It tries to say something without knowing what it wants to say. All of that is on the writing and I don't believe for a second that network interference would have impacted the final product.
2 is being generous.
