It's a spin on Brigadoon - all her wanting won't make it possible, unlike that film. You might want to watch the musical movie as part of this rewatch.
Re-Watching DS9
- Thread starter Lord Garth
- Start date
I have to say, I always thought "MERIDIAN" was the weakest episode of season 3. (And if the 'Most Disliked Episode' threads are any indication, I'm not alone in that assessment... it has won the DS9 season 3 game every single time the game has been played. In fact, it is the ONLY episode across all shows that has won every time since that game has started.)
The B plot was definitely superior to the A plot, not only because it had good comedy in it but because it seemed out of character for Jadzia to do this. I also didn't think there was much chemistry between them.
Frankly, I give this one a 6, and that's mostly because of the B plot, Frakes directing, and it being the first episode with Jeffrey Combs in the franchise.
For me, Civil Defense is an 8, a fun episode that divides the cast into assorted groups and gives them parallel adventures. Garak and Dukat's presence adds to the experience.
Meridian's A-story is inoffensive but not all that compelling... but it's tempered by the hilarious business with Jeffrey Combs in full creepy mode, Kira threatening Quark, and Kira wearing Quark's head. Call it a 6.
Meridian's A-story is inoffensive but not all that compelling... but it's tempered by the hilarious business with Jeffrey Combs in full creepy mode, Kira threatening Quark, and Kira wearing Quark's head. Call it a 6.
...thanks, now I'm imagining Nana Visitor actually putting a copy of Quark's head on top of her own, Friends-Thanksgiving style...
"I've been waiting for you..." (wink)...thanks, now I'm imagining Nana Visitor actually putting a copy of Quark's head on top of her own, Friends-Thanksgiving style...
I'm changing my rating for "Civil Defense" to a 10. My review reads like a 10. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck.
9s, as good as they are, don't have a certain spark to them -- if that makes sense -- "Civil Defense" does.
9s, as good as they are, don't have a certain spark to them -- if that makes sense -- "Civil Defense" does.
Or like this?
"The Quality of Mercy" (B5 S1E21)
One episode left of the first season!
This episode has an A-Plot, a B-Plot, and a C-Plot. The A-Plot and B-Plot converge at the end, so this will be interesting to untangle... And I'm going to take a different approach by starting with the C-Plot!
The C-Plot: Right, so, before I get into this, it's Flashback Time. I was going to a Star Trek Convention in 1996. Marina Sirtis was there, Rene Auberjonious was there, and an actor from Babylon 5. I can't remember who. All I remember thinking was, "Oh, it's that other show!" When the actors came on stage, they did their thing when it was their turn, and each of them took questions. Some B5 Fan asked the B5 actor, "Is it true that Centauri have six penises?" I kid you not. Hearing that question certainly wasn't going to make me go out of my way to check out the series.
Fast-forward to 2025. Now I know what that person was talking about! And, um, yeah. Londo uses his extra stuff (that's what we'll call it) to win poker while he's showing Lennier around the seedier parts of Babylon 5 while Delenn isn't back from her trip to Minbar in the previous episode.
Lennier reminds me of Elnor from Picard. He spent all of his life basically raised in the equivalent of a church, shielded from everything else before the series. Londo, of course, is sin after sin, vice after vice. Put the two together and no way is Londo not going to take advantage of him and no way is Lennier not going to end up in trouble. And naturally a bar fight breaks out when Londo is caught cheating at a poker table. It's Londo and Lennier versus everyone else, and then Lennier kicks ass and holds his own in the fight, showing another way that he's like Elnor.
All I really have to say there, so we might as well keep doing this backwards and go into...
The B-Plot: Dr. Franklin is taking care of patients outside of his normal medical duties in the Downbelow even though it's not authorized. It reminds me of The Doctor helping patients in lower levels in "Critical Care" (VOY). Even though Ivanova points out that what Dr. Franklin is doing isn't authorized, she still offers to help. Sometimes you can't tell where she's going to land, but I'm glad she landed on helping people.
Dr. Rosen is another person who wants to help and heal people, by giving some of her energy to heal the sick and injured. In a way, that reminds me a little of Gem from "The Empath" (TOS), except Gem didn't gradually lose a bit of her life every time she healed someone.
At first, Dr. Franklin wants to put a stop to Dr. Rosen because he thinks she's a quack but then comes around when he finds out she really does help people. It's a good thing they got that misunderstanding resolved as quickly as they did as they're really on the same side when push comes to shove, and I wouldn't have wanted a whole episode focused on them being at odds.
Meanwhile, there's...
The A-Plot: It's an interesting futuristic take on criminal justice. Karl Mueller is guilty of murder. The death penalty can't be applied, Earth won't take him, and Sinclair can't keep him in Babylon 5's jail, so Judge Wellington sentences Mueller to a mindwipe that will erase his memories and who he was. The erasure of him might as well be a death sentence.
When Talia reads his mind, she finds a truly horrific person with no humanity. Then Mueller breaks free before his sentence is to be carried out, which leads us to...
When the A-Plot & B-Plot Collide! Mueller takes Dr. Rosen and her daughter hostage. Mueller threatens to kill her daughter, then Dr. Rosen reverses the process of giving her energy to heal and takes his energy, killing him! That's a creative sci-fi way to stop a killer who's threatening you and your loved ones.
Even though it was in self-defense, Dr. Rosen is horrified that she had to take a life, and she no longer practices healing. Her daughter, Janice, stays on Babylon 5. I'm wondering if a relationship is going to start between her and Dr. Franklin? Don't tell me!
General Thoughts: If this isn't the first time Babylon 5 juggled three plots at the same time, it's one of the first. If all three plots were serious, we would've had B5 juggling three relevant storylines at the same time. I think peak Babylon 5 will be them juggling three relevant and ongoing storylines at the same time. I'll look forward to it when they get to that point. I know they will because for decades I've been told about how serialized this series is.
Summing Up: The C-Plot is the weakest, but it isn't bad. The A and B Plots complement each other perfectly. In this episode, Babylon 5 was really ahead of Star Trek on the curve, since it reminded me of two Star Trek episodes that didn't exist yet, from VOY and PIC. I'm going to give this episode an 8.
The C-Plot: Right, so, before I get into this, it's Flashback Time. I was going to a Star Trek Convention in 1996. Marina Sirtis was there, Rene Auberjonious was there, and an actor from Babylon 5. I can't remember who. All I remember thinking was, "Oh, it's that other show!" When the actors came on stage, they did their thing when it was their turn, and each of them took questions. Some B5 Fan asked the B5 actor, "Is it true that Centauri have six penises?" I kid you not. Hearing that question certainly wasn't going to make me go out of my way to check out the series.
Fast-forward to 2025. Now I know what that person was talking about! And, um, yeah. Londo uses his extra stuff (that's what we'll call it) to win poker while he's showing Lennier around the seedier parts of Babylon 5 while Delenn isn't back from her trip to Minbar in the previous episode.
Lennier reminds me of Elnor from Picard. He spent all of his life basically raised in the equivalent of a church, shielded from everything else before the series. Londo, of course, is sin after sin, vice after vice. Put the two together and no way is Londo not going to take advantage of him and no way is Lennier not going to end up in trouble. And naturally a bar fight breaks out when Londo is caught cheating at a poker table. It's Londo and Lennier versus everyone else, and then Lennier kicks ass and holds his own in the fight, showing another way that he's like Elnor.
All I really have to say there, so we might as well keep doing this backwards and go into...
The B-Plot: Dr. Franklin is taking care of patients outside of his normal medical duties in the Downbelow even though it's not authorized. It reminds me of The Doctor helping patients in lower levels in "Critical Care" (VOY). Even though Ivanova points out that what Dr. Franklin is doing isn't authorized, she still offers to help. Sometimes you can't tell where she's going to land, but I'm glad she landed on helping people.
Dr. Rosen is another person who wants to help and heal people, by giving some of her energy to heal the sick and injured. In a way, that reminds me a little of Gem from "The Empath" (TOS), except Gem didn't gradually lose a bit of her life every time she healed someone.
At first, Dr. Franklin wants to put a stop to Dr. Rosen because he thinks she's a quack but then comes around when he finds out she really does help people. It's a good thing they got that misunderstanding resolved as quickly as they did as they're really on the same side when push comes to shove, and I wouldn't have wanted a whole episode focused on them being at odds.
Meanwhile, there's...
The A-Plot: It's an interesting futuristic take on criminal justice. Karl Mueller is guilty of murder. The death penalty can't be applied, Earth won't take him, and Sinclair can't keep him in Babylon 5's jail, so Judge Wellington sentences Mueller to a mindwipe that will erase his memories and who he was. The erasure of him might as well be a death sentence.
When Talia reads his mind, she finds a truly horrific person with no humanity. Then Mueller breaks free before his sentence is to be carried out, which leads us to...
When the A-Plot & B-Plot Collide! Mueller takes Dr. Rosen and her daughter hostage. Mueller threatens to kill her daughter, then Dr. Rosen reverses the process of giving her energy to heal and takes his energy, killing him! That's a creative sci-fi way to stop a killer who's threatening you and your loved ones.
Even though it was in self-defense, Dr. Rosen is horrified that she had to take a life, and she no longer practices healing. Her daughter, Janice, stays on Babylon 5. I'm wondering if a relationship is going to start between her and Dr. Franklin? Don't tell me!
General Thoughts: If this isn't the first time Babylon 5 juggled three plots at the same time, it's one of the first. If all three plots were serious, we would've had B5 juggling three relevant storylines at the same time. I think peak Babylon 5 will be them juggling three relevant and ongoing storylines at the same time. I'll look forward to it when they get to that point. I know they will because for decades I've been told about how serialized this series is.
Summing Up: The C-Plot is the weakest, but it isn't bad. The A and B Plots complement each other perfectly. In this episode, Babylon 5 was really ahead of Star Trek on the curve, since it reminded me of two Star Trek episodes that didn't exist yet, from VOY and PIC. I'm going to give this episode an 8.
One episode left of the first season!
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Quality of Mercy is another one of those episodes I was kind of dreading rewatching, though I actually ended up liking it just fine. It doesn't blatantly push any plots forward or set up anything for future episodes, but sometimes it's nice to have a break and just hang out with characters for a bit.
BTW, "eleventy-fifth", "eleventy-seventh"? I thought it was amusing in Lord of the Rings when I heard "eleventy", but it makes me wonder. Would the Minbari call 105 "tenty-five" or 125 "twelfty-five"? Can't wait 'til they get to "thirteenty"!
We're in 2025 but I remember that we were promised flying cars in the 21st Century. To quote Avery Brooks "Where are the flying cars?!" It's not the 21st Century without flying cars, so I'm not calling it "twenty twenty-five". I'm calling it "nineteen twelfty-five"!
We're in 2025 but I remember that we were promised flying cars in the 21st Century. To quote Avery Brooks "Where are the flying cars?!" It's not the 21st Century without flying cars, so I'm not calling it "twenty twenty-five". I'm calling it "nineteen twelfty-five"!
Actially, this does set up a couple things for several episodes. I'll message you the episodes because I don't want to spoil things for Lord Garth.
@Lord Garth going to give Brigadoon a try?
While it does rather literally drop a plot device for future episodes, I think Ray was referring more to the stories themselves having any future repercussions. Mueller and the Rosens are never seen again. Death of Personality comes up again, but you don't need to have seen this episode to properly appreciate it.
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I have seen Brigadoon. It's a good musical, but not one of the very best, in my opinion. But what makes a good musical on stage is not what makes a good science fiction drama. A lot of what makes a musical good is the songs, and you take those away and all that's left is a very improbable plot.
I'll be reviewing "Chrysalis" (B5) today, then I'll be watching and reviewing Brigadoon tonight.
It's one of my favorite films - enjoy. 
Edit: Not related to this except for being about Scotland with music, but check out "Lucy Goes To Scotland" for fun. https://ilovelucyandricky.fandom.com/wiki/Lucy_Goes_to_Scotland
Edit: Not related to this except for being about Scotland with music, but check out "Lucy Goes To Scotland" for fun. https://ilovelucyandricky.fandom.com/wiki/Lucy_Goes_to_Scotland
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While you are right in what you say, "THE QUALITY OF MERCY" has a bunch of other little things that are used in the future. It's really more details and minutiae than actual stories or plots.
(I think I need to turn my trivia brain off for a bit.
)
Wow. That Babylon 5 Season Finale. I've watched it twice. Once last week and just now. That thing is packed. I'll need (more than) a minute with this.
“Chrysalis” (B5 S1E22)
In Brief: What a season finale!
The A-Plot: Morden is a lot worse than I ever would’ve imagined during his first appearance. He makes a pie-in-the-sky promise to Londo that he’ll take care of the Narn Outpost attacking Centauri ships in Quadrant 37 and that “promise” leads to 10,000 Narnians dead, no survivors. Londo is horrified! That’s not what he wanted at all! And Centurians are crediting it to Londo, Morden says. Londo’s even more horrified!
If Morden were on DS9, he’d make the perfect Vorta!
Na’Toth tells G'Kar about what happened. G'Kar can't figure out who conducted the strike. He thinks there's someone else out there. Then he leaves the station and leaves a pre-recorded message for Na’Toth saying he’s pursuing his suspicions. I can just picture his reaction if he finds out Londo had any part in this at all! Unwittingly or not.
The B-Plot: After the political aspect of Babylon 5 stayed in the background for most of the season, it changes drastically here. An informant rushes to Garabaldi with terrible news and dies before he can deliver it. Downbelow keeps giving Garabaldi a hard time with his investigation, but eventually he figures out that someone is trying to assassinate the President. He runs to warn Sinclair, then gets ambushed and shot.
First of all, I want to say: That’s crazy! I mean that in a good way. Crazy makes for exciting episodes. Second, here’s my question: Why would people in the Downbelow have any inkling about a plan someone had to assassinate the President? Something like that is begging to be leaked with people like those, as we saw. But that’s just a minor nitpick. Very minor. No one in the know means there’s nothing for Garabaldi to investigate until after the fact, which would’ve gotten rid of the urgency. So I’ll let it pass. Besides, I can’t prove this but I think Morden wanted that information leaked; for whatever reason.
Garabaldi is rushed to the Medbay and just barely manages to tell Sinclair they're going to kill the President, before he loses consciousness. So now the urgency shifts to Sinclair as he rushes to the C’n’C and Ivanova tries to contact anyone she can as fast as she can only watch President Santiago’s ship explode right on live television.
President Santiago’s death and how he died comes across to me like a cross between the JFK Assassination and the Challenger Explosion. I wasn’t born yet for one and too young to pay attention to the other (and I was probably shielded from it), so the way this scene resonated with me was by thinking back to 9/11 and how shocking that was for me to witness and find out about.
Anyway, Dr. Franklin manages to stabilize Garabaldi's condition and Vice President Clark is sworn in as President to succeed Santiago. To be continued next season!
The C-Plot: Delenn has information she wants to tell Sinclair about from during the 10-hour-gap in his mind at the end of the Earth-Minbari War. But with everything going on in the A and B Plots, he doesn’t have time and isn’t able to visit her until it’s too late. Delenn is in a chrysalis and changing into something else.
I think Delenn’s metamorphosis into whatever she’s going to change into symbolizes both that change is coming and change that’s unfolding in the episode itself.
The D-Plot: And of course, now of all times, Sinclair wants to marry Katherine Sakai and they become engaged. Of course, this is right before the shit hit the fan everywhere else. Sinclair asks Garabaldi to be his Best Man. Sinclair's fiancée asks Ivanova to be her Maide of Honor. It was a nice scene, before everything went crazy.
Comic Relief Moment of the Episode: Sinclair wants to see G'Kar. Na’Toth tries to make it sound like he's busy, then three women he was having sex with leave his room. He's been busy alright!
General Thoughts: President Santiago wanted to give a speech about alien relations and yet elsewhere Sinclair says, “We’re standing at a crossroads and I don’t like where we’re going.” My takeaway from this was that Santiago was clueless about what’s really going on, unlike Sinclair who’s in the trenches and has to deal with everything hands on and is more in-the-know. And the bureaucracy turns a blind eye to Sinclair as he tries to warn them. They don’t know how to react to anything until it’s too late. It was true in the ‘90s, it’s true today, it’s been true throughout history, and I’m sure it’ll be true in 2259 during the Third Age of Mankind!
Summing Up: What a way to finish the season. So much going on, so many storylines. Last episode, when I said I knew eventually they’d weave several storylines together and have them all going on in the same episode at the same time, how could I have forgotten it was the very next one? I blame the problems I had sleeping last week. In case you can’t guess, I’m giving this episode a solid 10.
The A-Plot: Morden is a lot worse than I ever would’ve imagined during his first appearance. He makes a pie-in-the-sky promise to Londo that he’ll take care of the Narn Outpost attacking Centauri ships in Quadrant 37 and that “promise” leads to 10,000 Narnians dead, no survivors. Londo is horrified! That’s not what he wanted at all! And Centurians are crediting it to Londo, Morden says. Londo’s even more horrified!
If Morden were on DS9, he’d make the perfect Vorta!
Na’Toth tells G'Kar about what happened. G'Kar can't figure out who conducted the strike. He thinks there's someone else out there. Then he leaves the station and leaves a pre-recorded message for Na’Toth saying he’s pursuing his suspicions. I can just picture his reaction if he finds out Londo had any part in this at all! Unwittingly or not.
The B-Plot: After the political aspect of Babylon 5 stayed in the background for most of the season, it changes drastically here. An informant rushes to Garabaldi with terrible news and dies before he can deliver it. Downbelow keeps giving Garabaldi a hard time with his investigation, but eventually he figures out that someone is trying to assassinate the President. He runs to warn Sinclair, then gets ambushed and shot.
First of all, I want to say: That’s crazy! I mean that in a good way. Crazy makes for exciting episodes. Second, here’s my question: Why would people in the Downbelow have any inkling about a plan someone had to assassinate the President? Something like that is begging to be leaked with people like those, as we saw. But that’s just a minor nitpick. Very minor. No one in the know means there’s nothing for Garabaldi to investigate until after the fact, which would’ve gotten rid of the urgency. So I’ll let it pass. Besides, I can’t prove this but I think Morden wanted that information leaked; for whatever reason.
Garabaldi is rushed to the Medbay and just barely manages to tell Sinclair they're going to kill the President, before he loses consciousness. So now the urgency shifts to Sinclair as he rushes to the C’n’C and Ivanova tries to contact anyone she can as fast as she can only watch President Santiago’s ship explode right on live television.
President Santiago’s death and how he died comes across to me like a cross between the JFK Assassination and the Challenger Explosion. I wasn’t born yet for one and too young to pay attention to the other (and I was probably shielded from it), so the way this scene resonated with me was by thinking back to 9/11 and how shocking that was for me to witness and find out about.
Anyway, Dr. Franklin manages to stabilize Garabaldi's condition and Vice President Clark is sworn in as President to succeed Santiago. To be continued next season!
The C-Plot: Delenn has information she wants to tell Sinclair about from during the 10-hour-gap in his mind at the end of the Earth-Minbari War. But with everything going on in the A and B Plots, he doesn’t have time and isn’t able to visit her until it’s too late. Delenn is in a chrysalis and changing into something else.
I think Delenn’s metamorphosis into whatever she’s going to change into symbolizes both that change is coming and change that’s unfolding in the episode itself.
The D-Plot: And of course, now of all times, Sinclair wants to marry Katherine Sakai and they become engaged. Of course, this is right before the shit hit the fan everywhere else. Sinclair asks Garabaldi to be his Best Man. Sinclair's fiancée asks Ivanova to be her Maide of Honor. It was a nice scene, before everything went crazy.
Comic Relief Moment of the Episode: Sinclair wants to see G'Kar. Na’Toth tries to make it sound like he's busy, then three women he was having sex with leave his room. He's been busy alright!
General Thoughts: President Santiago wanted to give a speech about alien relations and yet elsewhere Sinclair says, “We’re standing at a crossroads and I don’t like where we’re going.” My takeaway from this was that Santiago was clueless about what’s really going on, unlike Sinclair who’s in the trenches and has to deal with everything hands on and is more in-the-know. And the bureaucracy turns a blind eye to Sinclair as he tries to warn them. They don’t know how to react to anything until it’s too late. It was true in the ‘90s, it’s true today, it’s been true throughout history, and I’m sure it’ll be true in 2259 during the Third Age of Mankind!
Summing Up: What a way to finish the season. So much going on, so many storylines. Last episode, when I said I knew eventually they’d weave several storylines together and have them all going on in the same episode at the same time, how could I have forgotten it was the very next one? I blame the problems I had sleeping last week. In case you can’t guess, I’m giving this episode a solid 10.
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