Season 1 re-watch -- wow this is good!

You know Morn, he never shuts up.

 

Every time I see this episode I imagine the writers room and wonder, "How did anyone not speak out and say this is dog shit?"

 

I am sure they knew it wasn't their best work, but sometimes you have to meet a deadline and that's all you've got.

 

I never got the intense hate for Move Along Home. I mean, I get it's not great but there are worse eps of DS9, even in season 1.

 

It's the weakest season of DS9 but probably the best first season of any of the spin offs.

Emissary, Past Prologue, The Nagus, Vortex, Battle Lines, Dramatis Personae and In The Hands Of The Prophets are quite good.

Captive Pursuit and Duet are excellent.

 

I've always loved DS9's first season, and have never really understood the hatred that gets leveled at it on the whole. I've also never understood the hatred that gets heaped on Move Along Home; yes, it's silly, especially in relation to much of the rest of the first season of the show, but, for all of that silliness, it shows us some interesting sides to the characters that we needed early on, which makes it worth watching, IMO.

As an aside, I'm starting my own (re)watch-through of the show, which I haven't done in quite some time, and the first few moments of Emissary really are spectacularly well-done, and help cement the show as something that you can watch and enjoy even if you're not a Star Trek fan per se.

 

Oh man, now you've pushed me over the line. Time for a rewatch!

 

Just started season two. It's been so good to watch the fine show after more than a decade. As much as I will always love the original series most, DS9 is the best example of Star Trek's vision for the sake of entertainment. TNG was too nice because everyone was part of 'The Roddenberry Vision.' I think because you can show the utopia of Earth and the UFP in contrast to the rebuilding of Bajor and the other non-Federation planets out there, the ability to tell a more compelling story is far greater than the other series.

I agree with others who note that season one works better once you know what it all leads to. The show has a great seven year arc. I miss Star Trek like this.

 

Past Prologue, The Nagus, Dramatis Personae and Duet are all good fare. I'm surprised that Dramatis Personae isn't talked about more. It's a fun, fun episode.

 

I think I read a review when DP came out that said it was a shame it wasn't later in the series so that we and the actors would have a better understanding of the characters.

No mention of "In the Hands of the Prophets"?

 

I'd add Emissary, Q-Less, A Man Alone, The Passenger, Vortex, Battle Lines, The Storyteller, Dax, and In the Hands of the Prophets to that list as well.

 

Some interesting things from 50 Year Mission II: ISB says that Piller left him and the writing staff in limbo when it came to the first half of the first season. Piller had signed ISB on with the notion that ISB would take over after a few seasons. However, he left IS and the writers with a very preliminary show bible. Key aspects of the characters and the nature of the station had not yet been decided upon, and studio execs were often able to convince Piller to make things safer. Revisions to the pilot were being made until the last minute, and it was turning into a rehashing of Encounter at Farpoint. Indeed, it was Berman (I'll give him credit) who convinced Piller to make the script what he wanted, with a deeper exploration of the lead's persona and with the station being run-down, neglected center of political turmoil.

According to ISB, the writers knew none of that until the pilot began filming. While they planned to sketch out the characters before complicating their lives, all they had to work from was the bare outlines provided by that initial bible.

I don't think that explains everything, like Move Along Home, but I think it does show the disconnection between the characters as they appeared in the pilot and much of the first season. It explains the reliance on Colm Meaney, whose character was well established, and the formlessness (so to speak) of Odo, for whom little was decided upon.

 

This makes a lot of sense. Having just finished the first season and now in the middle of the second one, I feel that O'Brian and Kira were the most effectively utilized in that first year. In fact, I'd forgotten how much I liked Kira. She was like the Tasha Yar we never got.

 

Major Kira was always my favorite part of the first season. I think she played the oppressed Bajoran very well.

 

I hapen to think that they handled all of the main characters well during Season 1, even though not every one of them appeared in every episode, and even with Bashir being a horndog.

 

Given what we learn about Bashir later, you have to wonder what he was really thinking during the early seasons.

 

I've been forced to start my rewatch over after running into a problem vis a vis Dax (which I'd chosen to skip and was going to watch later on at the point where its Stardate says it should've taken place) and Move Along Home. Hopefully it won't take too long and I can resume watching MAH, because it's frustrating when you notice stupid errors that really should've been caught and fixed before things went 'to air'.

 

Sorry for the double post, but am I the only person out there who thinks A Man Alone is a great episode? It's filled to the brim with character development and focus, and also opens up some interesting lines of thought in light of stuff we later find out regarding the issue of genetics.

 

I don't think "A Man Alone" does the Bajorans any favors, personally.