Re-Watching DS9

[Orac]

I like A Late Delivery from Avalon.

Love the scene with G'Kar joining KIng Arthurs fight then getting knighted.

< Me watching the aforementioned scene.

Spoiler: about the broad strokes of the rest of the show

This kind of standaloneish story all but disappears in the next season. Then the final season almost recaptures the feel of the first season with the return of the strange man visits B5 trope (sans Sinclair).

 

[akb1979]

I like A Late Delivery from Avalon.

Love the scene with G'Kar joining KIng Arthurs fight then getting knighted.

< Me watching the aforementioned scene.

Spoiler: about the broad strokes of the rest of the show

This kind of standaloneish story all but disappears in the next season. Then the final season almost recaptures the feel of the first season with the return of the strange man visits B5 trope (sans Sinclair).

G'Kar was excellent in that episode. "They made a satisfying thump as they hit the ground."

Well, guess I know what I'm doing in 2026. TOS. TAS. TNG. DS9. VOY. ENT. B5. Galactica. I'll never get anything done!

 

[The Lensman]

I didn't realize you hadn't seen Babylon 5 before Lord Garth! You're a few episodes away from my favorite two part story (technically three part) in all of televised scifi. I'll be very interested in hearing your thoughts on it. I've been watching some Babylon 5 clips lately and they reminded me of why it became this old Trekker's second favorite scifi show after Star Trek again.

I keep wanting to re-watch DS9 again for the first time since first run.....but ultimately everything post TNG just has all the stuff I was getting tired of in Trek by that point and I struggle to do it. Babylon 5 is like an epic novel and I've watched it multiple times. The last episode is my favorite finale of any tv show and more than any other it feels like the end of a grand story and there's a sense of completion, and sadness that it's over that no other show has ever engendered.

Ah, to experience it for the first time again. Although to be fair, the experience isn't complete until a second watch through as then you will see just how much foreshadowing was actually done in the first season. A crazy amount, even in episodes you wouldn't think of when thinking back on season one.

Enjoy!

 

[Lord Garth]

I know it's not DS9 (or B5), but I just gave my take on the first episode of SFA. And the second.

Like I said before, it's not going to affect my first-watch/re-watch here. In fact, I'm going to speed things up a little, so I can get to "War Without End, Part I" sooner. I'll try to go for one review a day of what I'm watching until I get there. At least I'll try my best to, anyway.

 

[Lord Garth]

"For the Cause"

It's been a while since this series has dealt with the Maquis. The first time this season. And what a way to do it. Kassidy has been delivering supplies to the Maquis, Eddington has been secretly working for them, and Sisko didn't know about either. When Eddington and Odo brought up that Kassidy's connection the Maquis right before the opening credits started, it was a stinger of a teaser. But a huge misdirect on another level. If you've never seen this episode before, going in you'd think that Eddington was one of the Good Guys. That Odo and Eddington would expose Kassidy or whatever the Maquis are up to, taking our eyes completely off Eddington until it's too late.

Throughout the episode, I felt bad for Sisko since had to track what Kassidy might be up to. He doesn't want to believe it. Meanwhile there are industrial replicators that Eddington says need to be delivered to the Cardassians to help in their war against the Klingons. It's the perfect cover story for sending said industrial replicators to the Maquis instead. Then Eddington used Kassidy as the perfect way to draw Sisko and Odo away from DS9 in order to get those replicators off the station and to the Maquis.

Those replicators must've had a huge tactical advantage in order for Eddington to make this is point-of-no-return. Knowing what happens next, once Eddington stuns Kira, I had the sense feeling of, "Things are never going to be the same for him again!" I would've felt the same way even if I didn't know what was ahead.

In retrospect, it makes sense that Eddington was never one to give his opinion on the issues. He always just followed the Starfleet Company Line. It's even highlighted in a scene in this very episode in a conversation on the bridge of the Defiant between Worf, O'Brien, and Eddington about the Maquis. Worf has one take, O'Brien has the opposite take, and Eddington takes no side. He can't take a side because he wants to take the safest possible route: have no opinion at all, as far as they're concerned. It was really the best way never to reveal his hand.

Then Eddington finally reveals his hand to Sisko at the end of the episode, after he escaped from DS9 and brought those replicators to the Maquis, telling Sisko that the Federation is even worse than the Borg because they assimilate people without even knowing it. Before I watched this episode, when it first aired, I never thought about it like that. Afterwards, I couldn't unhear it and it stuck with me ever since. I used to think, "Who wouldn't want to join the Federation?" After that, I'd wonder sometimes, "But why would they want to?" That's a roundabout way of saying everyone has their own point-of-view. With the Maquis/Federation conflict dead by this point on Voyager, DS9 was finally picking up the slack with it.

While Eddington feels no regret about betraying Sisko, Kassidy feels a great deal of regret about having to Sisko about making deliveries to the Maquis. I can see why she'd want to do it from two angles. First, she has a business to run as the Captain of her freighter. And second, she probably feels like she's doing the Humanitarian thing by helping people in need. She also still loves Sisko, and he loves her. Their love for each other can transcend this. Which makes Sisko having to arrest her at the end all the more difficult.

The B-Story was important to have as well, and addressed something that was also overdue. Ziyal has been on the station for a little while now, so having a story with her and Garak makes sense. Kira sees Garak as an enemy when it goes to Ziyal. Quark sees a date. But all Garak and Ziyal want to do is enjoy the heat in the holosuite because the station is so cold. Their only real connection: they're both outcasts. Ziyal doesn't care about any of the history that everyone else cares about and makes that clear. It shows that she's not the delicate flower that Kira (and Dukat) want to think of her as.

Overall, this episode had some major developments on all fronts and manages to make a lot of moving parts flow together into something that looks deceptively seamless. I give it a 10.

By giving the Maquis such a tactical advantage it also sets up this exchange of dialogue between SIsko and Eddtington next season perfectly. "We had the Cardassians on the run!" "And they ran straight to the Dominion. End of story." That's some long-term planning right there, if the seeds for that idea were planted here.

 

[Osol Twist]

^ it really is a fantastic episode

 

[DonIago]

Kenneth Marshall does a great job transitioning Eddington from the relatively bland but amiable guy we've seen in all of his appearances to date to the Maquis zealot we see at the end of the episode.

I don't find his or any of the Maquis' arguments to ultimately be persuasive, but Marshall's performance makes you believe that Eddington believes what he's saying.

I wonder whether part of Sisko's anger toward Eddington was transference away from how he felt about Kassidy's own actions.

I don't really know that TPTB were anticipating the Cardassian-Dominion alliance, but this episode does do a good job of laying some of the groundwork for that.

I regret that we never got to see Eddington and Cal Hudson meet. While I have no love for Bernie Casey's performance, seeing the radical Eddington interact with the more moderate Hudson would have given the Maquis a bit more color than the unfortunately monolithic view we're going to see for the most part after this point. One wonders whether Eddington came to view Hudson as an impediment to the Maquis and/or his leadership thereof and ultimately disappeared him.

 

[Lord Garth]

I don't have it in me to put on B5's "Ship of Tears" right now. I'm too tired.

So, I'll just add in a little something extra about Eddington, even though I'm getting ahead of where I am in the re-watch. With how angry Sisko is in "For the Uniform", it makes it seem like he thought Eddington was his bestie up until "For the Cause". I never, ever got that sense in either Season 3 or Season 4. So, the fact that Sisko took it so personally and let himself get so angry seems to come from out of nowhere and doesn't make Sisko look good.

I wonder if the writers saw Eddington's betrayal of Sisko as a second chance to be able to follow up on the betrayal theme there was no time for in TNG after Ro betrayed Picard. If so, then that one moment of Picard's stone-cold stare at the end of "Preemptive Strike" was far more effective than Sisko getting all shouty, angry, and literally hitting a punching bag in "For the Uniform". This probably makes it sound like I don't like "For the Uniform" -- which isn't true -- but it's an observation of mine, nonetheless.

If they wanted to get Sisko up that point in the fifth season, without it seemingly like it came from out of nowhere, they should've done more beforehand during the third and fourth seasons, instead making Eddington seem like this bland character who they kind of didn't like sometimes in Season 3. Seriously, in "The Search" he may have said he wanted to make friends, but his actions told a different story. He always kept a professional distance. He'd be friendly, but not necessarily a friend. And in Season 4, he was only in "Rejoined", "Our Man, Bashir", and "For the Cause". Outside of this last episode I just re-watched, they didn't really do anything with him this season. Which I think was a wasted opportunity.

 

[Farscape One]

Eddington was also in "REJOINED".

 

[Bad Thoughts]

they didn't do anything with him this season. Which I think was a wasted opportunity.

Blame Dorn.

 

[DonIago]

I don't have it in me to put on B5's "Ship of Tears" right now. I'm too tired.

So, I'll just add in a little something extra about Eddington, even though I'm getting ahead of where I am in the re-watch. With how angry Sisko is in "For the Uniform", it makes it seem like he thought Eddington was his bestie up until "For the Cause". I never, ever got that sense in either Season 3 or Season 4. So, the fact that Sisko took it so personally and let himself get so angry seems to come from out of nowhere and doesn't make Sisko look good.

I wonder if the writers saw Eddington's betrayal of Sisko as a second chance to be able to follow up on the betrayal theme there was no time for in TNG after Ro betrayed Picard. If so, then that one moment of Picard's stone-cold stare at the end of "Preemptive Strike" was far more effective than Sisko getting all shouty, angry, and literally hitting a punching bag in "For the Uniform". This probably makes it sound like I don't like "For the Uniform" -- which isn't true -- but it's an observation of mine, nonetheless.

If they wanted to get Sisko up that point in the fifth season, without it seemingly like it came from out of nowhere, they should've done more beforehand during the third and fourth seasons, instead making Eddington seem like this bland character who they kind of didn't like sometimes in Season 3. Seriously, in "The Search" he may have said he wanted to make friends, but his actions told a different story. He always kept a professional distance. He'd be friendly, but not necessarily a friend. And in Season 4, he was only in "Rejoined", "Our Man, Bashir". and "For the Cause". Outside of this last episode I just re-watched, they didn't really do anything with him this season. Which I think was a wasted opportunity.

Sisko may still be stung from Cal Hudson's defection and having it happen again, and this time with an officer under his direct command, and at the same time as his girlfriend is also going behind his back...I can see why he'd direct more ire at Eddington than he might have otherwise.

But I agree it would have been nice to do more to make the audience care more about Eddington before his sudden-yet-inevitable betrayal. It's been so long since I watched the episode; is it surprising when it happens?

Sisko being emotional, especially compared to Picard, is nothing new though; this is the guy who punched Q in the face. And we have no prior context for how much loyalty from the officers under his command would mean to him.

 

[Lord Garth]

It's been so long since I watched the episode; is it surprising when it happens?

I'd have to say yes. Granted, I already knew what was coming but, if I pretend I didn't, you're not led to suspect anything is up with Eddington until the moment Sisko figures it out, by which time it's too late.

EDITED TO ADD: None of the YouTube Reactors I follow who are watching DS9 have reached this point yet. Except for RolliePolyOlly, who's done with the series. I avoided most of his DS9 reactions because I wanted to keep my second first-impressions (if that makes sense) fresh. So, I'll watch his reaction to "For the Cause" at some point soon, to see how he reacted.

Of the other YouTube Reactors I'm following who are watching DS9, Jen Murray and Target Audience are in the third season, with Jen a little bit ahead, and Court Reacts just started the second season.

 

[kkt]

It's been so long since I watched the episode; is it surprising when it happens?

Yes, I remember being very surprised when Eddington phasered Kira. It's not every day you see Starfleet officers betraying their fellow officers.

 

[DonIago]

I wish I could rewatch "Defiant" without foreknowledge.

...huh, Kira has a knack for getting phasered by people she believes to be allies...

 

[Bad Thoughts]

For the Uniform comes three episodes after Rapture. I would think they would have tied Eddington's treason to Kassidy's imprisonment and eventual homecoming.