“EXTREME MEASURES”
“What’s that noise?”
“That, Miles, is the sound of the writers DROPPING THE BALL.”
I’m going to go on record as saying this is one of the most disappointing episodes of DS9’s entire seven year run. Not because it’s necessarily one of the worst episodes, for there are worse in this season alone. But with a mere two episodes left, expectations were understandably high, particularly as we’ve been treated to an excellent run of episodes and, a week previously, one of the strongest in the history of the franchise. This, sadly, is just a misconceived mess. Admittedly, I’m not a fan of the “inside a character’s head” episodes which feel like an enormous cliche by this point. While “Distant Voices” in the third season had its moments and a nice surreal touch, and “Things Past” in season six had some genuine meat, the novelty has well and truly worn off by this point. Frankly, I find it lazy writing and cheap as heck (why on Earth would Sloan’s mind be represented by the DS9 sets?—the excuse “I wanted you to feel at home” is just lame).
Everything that made “Tacking Into the Wind” so great—the stellar writing, performances, directing and music—is conspicuously absent here. Steve Posey’s directing is adequate but no more, and really lacks creativity and finesse. The actors are seemingly aware that this is a lame duck, and although both talented actors, both Colm Meaney and Alexander Siddig are pretty much phoning it in, although William Sadler does his best with a thankless role. It’s really the writing, however, that deserves to shoulder the blame. I don’t know why the writers thought it would be a great idea to grind all the momentum of the past six episode to a COMPLETE HALT in order to do a pointless and misplaced trip into the head of a minor character, which is largely done to allow Miles and Julian some more “male bonding”, as if we haven’t already seen enough of their bromance over the past several seasons.
Admittedly, the episode starts off well. The scene in the Infirmary between Odo and Kira is heartbreaking and beautifully performed. Unfortunately, it’s all downhill from there. Bashir’s plan to lure Sloan to the station is reasonable enough, but I find it impossible to believe that Sloan, a man who was always ten steps ahead of everyone else (to the extent he almost seemed a tad omnipotent) would fall for the trap and allow himself to be captured so easily. Indeed, I expected Sloan to be already be aware that Bashir was onto him, as I’m pretty sure, given the immense power at his fingertips, he’d have already been monitoring Bashir’s activities and perhaps even his conversations. It just seems far too easy for me, and Sloan’s suicide was so abrupt I thought there must have been more to it—that, as before, he must have had some kind of plan within a plan—but no. It’s also rather ridiculous that Section 31’s suicide implant actually takes an hour for the individual to die, which, as we see here, is an unacceptably long—and strategically risky—time. Really, the plot is just contrivance after contrivance.
Worse is the fact the episode completely sidesteps the moral implications of Bashir’s actions. He passionately ranted to Sloan more than once that the ends never justify the means. Well, here Julian seems a complete hypocrite, because he does some unspeakably awful things for a man who supposedly lives by the Hippocratic oath. Sloan’s death is not only on Bashir’s hands, but the fact Bashir and O’Brien essentially mind-rape a dying man to extract information is questionable to say the least, although the writers never admit or explore this.
Instead, it’s a jaunty little male bonding adventure, complete with all the usual cliches we get in such “mind-based” episodes—such as the twist where they think they’re back in the “real world” only to find out they’re still actually in Sloan’s mind. The exploration of Sloan’s character is pretty uninteresting (sorry, “muffin”) and does little to justify the technobabble and interminable scenes of Bashir and O’Brien wandering the Defiant corridors having “banter” (some of which, like Miles “liking Julian more” than Keiko, was lifted from earlier episodes in the first place). Bradley Thompson and David Weddle’s script is truly weak; there’s no real point to anything other than getting the plot from A to B and finding the cure to Odo’s disease. There’s no exploration of the moral issues and the characterisation is superficial and ultimately pointless.
Sloan’s eventual death is sidestepped, and no one seems to have any issues with the ethics of what has just transpired. Of course, it’s great to see Odo cured, although even that is badly handled and happens with a magical administering of a hypospray. I’d much rather have seen Odo make a more gradual and realistic recovery. But, heck, it’s a happy ending and O’Brien invites Bashir around for dinner. Oh, happy day.
This episode undoes so much of the great work the writers have thus far done in this closing arc. Everything grinds to an untimely halt for a completely misjudged standalone outing—and one that also commits the cardinal sin of being rather boring, too. I found my attention wandering to my phone several times because, frankly, this just didn’t hold my attention. Alas, as excellent as DS9 was, it was without doubt a flawed series—a series that could follow a masterpiece like “Trials and Tribble-ations” with a steaming turd like “Let He Who Is Without Sin”. Fortunately, “Extreme Measures” isn’t on that level, but it’s still one I wish had been skipped or substantially rewritten. Rating: 4
“What’s that noise?”
“That, Miles, is the sound of the writers DROPPING THE BALL.”
I’m going to go on record as saying this is one of the most disappointing episodes of DS9’s entire seven year run. Not because it’s necessarily one of the worst episodes, for there are worse in this season alone. But with a mere two episodes left, expectations were understandably high, particularly as we’ve been treated to an excellent run of episodes and, a week previously, one of the strongest in the history of the franchise. This, sadly, is just a misconceived mess. Admittedly, I’m not a fan of the “inside a character’s head” episodes which feel like an enormous cliche by this point. While “Distant Voices” in the third season had its moments and a nice surreal touch, and “Things Past” in season six had some genuine meat, the novelty has well and truly worn off by this point. Frankly, I find it lazy writing and cheap as heck (why on Earth would Sloan’s mind be represented by the DS9 sets?—the excuse “I wanted you to feel at home” is just lame).
Everything that made “Tacking Into the Wind” so great—the stellar writing, performances, directing and music—is conspicuously absent here. Steve Posey’s directing is adequate but no more, and really lacks creativity and finesse. The actors are seemingly aware that this is a lame duck, and although both talented actors, both Colm Meaney and Alexander Siddig are pretty much phoning it in, although William Sadler does his best with a thankless role. It’s really the writing, however, that deserves to shoulder the blame. I don’t know why the writers thought it would be a great idea to grind all the momentum of the past six episode to a COMPLETE HALT in order to do a pointless and misplaced trip into the head of a minor character, which is largely done to allow Miles and Julian some more “male bonding”, as if we haven’t already seen enough of their bromance over the past several seasons.
Admittedly, the episode starts off well. The scene in the Infirmary between Odo and Kira is heartbreaking and beautifully performed. Unfortunately, it’s all downhill from there. Bashir’s plan to lure Sloan to the station is reasonable enough, but I find it impossible to believe that Sloan, a man who was always ten steps ahead of everyone else (to the extent he almost seemed a tad omnipotent) would fall for the trap and allow himself to be captured so easily. Indeed, I expected Sloan to be already be aware that Bashir was onto him, as I’m pretty sure, given the immense power at his fingertips, he’d have already been monitoring Bashir’s activities and perhaps even his conversations. It just seems far too easy for me, and Sloan’s suicide was so abrupt I thought there must have been more to it—that, as before, he must have had some kind of plan within a plan—but no. It’s also rather ridiculous that Section 31’s suicide implant actually takes an hour for the individual to die, which, as we see here, is an unacceptably long—and strategically risky—time. Really, the plot is just contrivance after contrivance.
Worse is the fact the episode completely sidesteps the moral implications of Bashir’s actions. He passionately ranted to Sloan more than once that the ends never justify the means. Well, here Julian seems a complete hypocrite, because he does some unspeakably awful things for a man who supposedly lives by the Hippocratic oath. Sloan’s death is not only on Bashir’s hands, but the fact Bashir and O’Brien essentially mind-rape a dying man to extract information is questionable to say the least, although the writers never admit or explore this.
Instead, it’s a jaunty little male bonding adventure, complete with all the usual cliches we get in such “mind-based” episodes—such as the twist where they think they’re back in the “real world” only to find out they’re still actually in Sloan’s mind. The exploration of Sloan’s character is pretty uninteresting (sorry, “muffin”) and does little to justify the technobabble and interminable scenes of Bashir and O’Brien wandering the Defiant corridors having “banter” (some of which, like Miles “liking Julian more” than Keiko, was lifted from earlier episodes in the first place). Bradley Thompson and David Weddle’s script is truly weak; there’s no real point to anything other than getting the plot from A to B and finding the cure to Odo’s disease. There’s no exploration of the moral issues and the characterisation is superficial and ultimately pointless.
Sloan’s eventual death is sidestepped, and no one seems to have any issues with the ethics of what has just transpired. Of course, it’s great to see Odo cured, although even that is badly handled and happens with a magical administering of a hypospray. I’d much rather have seen Odo make a more gradual and realistic recovery. But, heck, it’s a happy ending and O’Brien invites Bashir around for dinner. Oh, happy day.
This episode undoes so much of the great work the writers have thus far done in this closing arc. Everything grinds to an untimely halt for a completely misjudged standalone outing—and one that also commits the cardinal sin of being rather boring, too. I found my attention wandering to my phone several times because, frankly, this just didn’t hold my attention. Alas, as excellent as DS9 was, it was without doubt a flawed series—a series that could follow a masterpiece like “Trials and Tribble-ations” with a steaming turd like “Let He Who Is Without Sin”. Fortunately, “Extreme Measures” isn’t on that level, but it’s still one I wish had been skipped or substantially rewritten. Rating: 4
I’ll write it up tomorrow. I’m not sure how to rate it yet, but I decided that FarscapeOne is right and “The Dogs of War” is more of an 8.
