Season 3 - Equilibrium through Life Support

[Duane]

This post spans 10 episodes so I am going to have difficulty remembering a lot of details. As previously stated, I've probably seen about 50% of DS9 episodes when they originally aired, but nothing since then.

Equilibrium - I recall seeing this episode before. Possibly my favorite teaser in any episode up until now. I like the Jadzia character so far (I've read some spoilers here that she never really develops) and the music that is stuck in her mind is haunting. We learn nearly a full 50% of the Trill can be joined, and that Dax had a previous host that he/she had been forced to forget. A good but not great episode.

Second Skin - Yuck - a Major Kira episode, but I dislike her less and less as I go along. The episode would have been more powerful if Kira has been allowed to question for a season (or two, or three) whether she was really a Bajoran or a Cardie.

The Abandoned - we get a lot of great background on the Jam'Hader in a very solid episode. They are truly exploited by the Founders, forced to obtain an addiction to a substance, and genetically programmed to worship the Founders, if I am not mistaken. Great stuff and it should lead to a lot of other great stuff in future.

Civil Defense - a stand-alone episode (or so I guess) in which no character really evolves. Entertaining, but not that great.

Meridian - here we get to see a planet that moves between dimensions. It's a nice sci-fi concept and I suppose we have may seen it in Star Trek before, but I cannot recall a specific episode. I do find it hard to swallow that Dax, having seven (or is it eight?) lifetimes of experience, could fall head over heals in love in such a short time.

The holographic Kira with Quark's face was a riot! All in all this episode is a weaker effort.

Defiant - I had seen this episode before so I knew it was not really Will Riker. That takes away all of the fun. A great Star Trek episode can be watched over and over, and this one cannot. A weaker effort. Did this episode get produced after the following aired episode "Fascination?" In "Defiant" Major Kira says she is involved with someone, and I asked myself "what the heck is she talking about?".

Fascination - I'm throwing this episode into the same barrel as "Crossover." I never need to see it again. One bright spot is the acting of Avery Brooks when Jadzia makes a pass at him. Brooks performance comes through strong when you least expect it, and in the most difficult of circumstances.

Past Tense (I & II) - I had seen this before but it was a long time ago. Part of me (as a TOS fan) wants to cry "foul" since it is a "City on the Edge..." rip-off, but at least they put a nice twist on it when Bell is killed off and Sisko has to replace him. Enjoyable, but not a classic episode.

Life Support - Gai Winn is not such a total witch in this episode, just half of one. Vedek Bareil dies which confused me. Having seen some later episodes before, I thought he was an obstacle to the Odo/Kira relationship for a while. Maybe he is not really dead? And peace is made between the Cardies and Bajor?

The "B" storyline with Jake and Nog having to come to terms that they will need to accept their differences is at least as strong as the "A" storyline.

A few comments: the Bashir character did pretty well in these ten episodes. He got a lot of screen time in "Past Tense" and "Life Support." It is helping to flesh his character out.

It's not really clear to me what the Cardies want at this point (or at any point in Season 1-3.) Is it bugging them that the wormhole was discovered in space they very recently controlled? Do they really expect to get this space back? What is their objective?

I guessed I missed a lot, so any comments would be appreciated.

 

[Jack Bauer]

roger1999 said:Vedek Bareil dies which confused me. Having seen some later episodes before, I thought he was an obstacle to the Odo/Kira relationship for a while.

That was Shakaar who was the obstacle and not Bariel.

 

[AdmiralGarak]

Always fun reading a new viewer's thoughts. (Or, at least, semi-new, since you've seen bits of DS9 already.)

A few notes I had as I read this:

Equilibrium (or at least, Jadzia): It's true that Jadzia doesn't get too much development, but Jadzia Dax does. In fact, Season 3 has another Dax-centric episode that is very imprtant for her.

Civil Defense: While it doesn't really delve too deeply into character development, it does have a couple of strong bits in that department. In particular, it's one of the very few times that the Odo-Quark relationship gets explored for more than a few lines of banter. (Season 5 has the only episode that revolves around the pairing.) Also, I believe it's got the first reference to Quark's Cousin Gaila.

Meridian: Brigadoon... IN SPACE! I don't think Trek has done any others like this, but a hundred other shows have. And most of them did it far better. Still, its the first episode to feature one Star Trek's favorite guest actors, Jeffrey Combs (Tiron).

Defiant: The scenes between Sisko and Dukat alone make this very rewatchable, in my humble opinion. As for Kira's relationship-- I believe she had been romantically involved with Bariel since Season 2's "Shadowplay".

Past Tense: Apart from the time travel and some trivial similarities, I don't really see much of a connection to "The City on the Edge of Forever". I've always thought it was one Trek's most under-rated time travel story.

 

[Michael]

Funny, I disagree with almost every point you're making about those episodes. I love "Second Skin"! This is a really intelligent piece about hatred and the questionion of beliefs. Though I can understand that when you don't like Kira you don't like the episode.

On "Meridian": A planet shifting between dimensions -- sounds pretty original to me. (If you don't mind the borrowing from the "Flying Dutchman" myth though ). Why can't Jadzia Dax suddenly fall in love? I don't think that the knowledge of another nine lives prevents you from falling in love on first sight. And then again I don't hope it would .

I think the writers placed the "revelation" that Will is really Tom Riker so early on in "Defiant" because of this very reason: To not take away the fun from the episode. I mean, this is not about the the "twist". It's first and foremost about Tom's struggle to find his place in universe and the Cardassians hiding something (what it is they are hiding you'll find out later). Gotta love this classic!

"Past Tense" a rip-off? Hu? Never! Just because it's time travel? IMHO "Past Tense" is one of the few occassions where DS9 really is doing classic Trek complete with social commentary. I love just about every aspect of those two episodes!

 

[TeutonicNights]

Past Tense is one of the best Trek episodes ever in my opinion.

 

[Duane]

Thanks for the replies. I agree that "Second Skin" has a worthwhile message. Most of these episodes do. I just find it hard to swallow that one of the few (at least I assume few) Cardie rebels just happens to have a daughter that looks just like the senior Bajoran on the space station. I guess I should relax and have more fun.

Without really thinking about it, here are the similarities I noticed between "Past Tense" and "City" which led me to conclude it was a rip-off. These may be trivial to some, but not to me. "City" has and always will be near perfect Trek for me, and if you are gonna steal from it you better have something valuable to say.

Similarity 1: Three of our hero's get stuck back in time. They are separated into two groups: a group of two, and one of one.

Similarity 2: the hero lost on his own finds a helpful soul (McCoy finds Edith, Dax finds the media whiz kid wonder guy), and without the help of this person it is very unlikely that the timeline would be restored. Dax's buddy provided more direct help, sometimes without knowing it; Edith's help was more of a coincidence.

Similarity 3: Two honest and upstanding humans must die in order to protect our future. Edith and Gabriel. (We don't learn a lot about Gabriel, but I guess he was upstanding and honest.)

Similarity 3: If historical events do not unfold as they were suppose to, our existence as it was meant to be will be fundamentally altered in a disastrous way ie. the Federation will cease to exist and this part of the galaxy will look very different than it is suppose to.)

I'm sure someone could write a stonger list of reasons as to why the episodes are different. For myself, "City" has an emotional moment (when McCoy stops Kirk from saving Edith) that Trek finds very hard to duplicate.

Anyway, your comments are helpful and I hope you keep posting.

 

[AdmiralGarak]

Belar Lugosi said:
On "Meridian": A planet shifting between dimensions -- sounds pretty original to me.

Excect for the fact that if you replace planet with village it is literally the plot of Brigadoon. The writers fessed up to it, too.

Of course, DS9 has never been averse to "borrowing" well-known stories.

The Nagus -> The Godfather
Profit and Loss -> Casablanca
Meridian -> Brigadoon
Starship Down -> Every submarine movie ever made.
Our Man Bashir -> James Bond, Derek Flint
Nor the Battle to the Stong -> The Red Badge of Courage
The Sacrifice of Angels -> Charge of the Light Brigade
Badda Bing, Badda Bang -> Ocean's 11

And those are just the most blatant ones.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

Humm...I love Second Skin and Past Tense.

Oh well...to each their own.

 

[Brutal Strudel]

"Second Skin" was fantastic and Gregory Sierra made such a wonderful villain I was sorry that garak killed him--almost as sorry as Garak was.

"Past Tense" was a good episode--not great, but good. Very good, actually.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Civil Defense is fun for being one of the few times we see Garak and Dukat interacting. Second Skin becomes important later on in a minor way; Defiant is important in a MAJOR way.

 

[The Habs Fan]

Menacing Horta said:
Defiant is important in a MAJOR way.

It's funny because you don't realize it's important or what part of the episode is important until later in the season.

 

[Navaros]

I disagree with the comments saying Jadzia Dax gets development. The most "development" she ever gets is making bland generic statements like "Curzon did this, Curzon did that..."; or having other actors and actresses inhabit the roles of her previous hosts --- all of which always remain 100% irrelevant the the character of Jadzia Dax, and have no effect whatsoever on the performance of Terry Farrell.

I agree with much of the episode comments in the original post.

Second Skin is awesome because of the terrific and hilarious Garak scenes. That's it. Medicore episode otherwise, but Garak drags it up to a higher level. It has been said in interviews that originally the ending was unclear about if Kira was really a Bajoran or Cardassian and that question was left open for the rest of the series, but Berman or something interferred and made them change the ending. Would have not been a medicore episode if they kept that much-better original ending.

I too agree Defiant is medicore episode at best, with no point, and not rewatchable. Same with Equilibrium, only to an even larger extent.

Fascination is easily in the top 3 of DS9's worst ever episodes. Utterly atrocious, mind-numbing complete waste of time.

Meridian would easily be in DS9's top 5 worst ever episodes if not for the awesome holo-Kira B-plot. The A-plot "love interest of the week" for Dax was complete drivel in my view. Love interest of the week stories are a concept too good for DS9 as a show, yet DS9 does fall victim to this poor idea some times.

Past Tense are mediocre.

I'd put The Abandoned in DS9's top 10 episodes, it's a masterpiece in my view. I love how Odo thought his good intentions would win the day and convert the Jem'Hadar to think like him, but it failed. That's grit. No "I, Borg" cutesy treatment of the Jem'Hadar in DS9. :thumbsup:

Life Support is awesome solely due to Kai Winn. She was being a witch in this episode too, but she's just so nuanced about it sometimes it's hard to pick up on the nuances. That's why she's a masterpiece of a character played by a master actress. :thumbsup: