Hi Folks.
I hope you'll pardon my indulgence in posting in lengthy fashion on a subject you've no doubt all done to death. However, I haven't discussed Trek for a long time and have recently found myself gravitating back to it after a long break.
I've been watching DS9 reruns on cable lately. I haven't seen any in years because prior to Virgin's takeover, the only Trek I got was delivered courtesy of Sky, and Sky never showed DS9 as far as I can tell.
Anyway, I've been enjoying the return of the Cinderella spin-off series, particularly the early seasons which were, in my humble opinion, the best of the lot. This was underlined when I decided there had been 5 seasons, only to belatedly realise there were 7 when I visited Jammer's Reviews to read up on one or two. This was revealing. It told me I didn't rate the last 3 seasons and had, it seemed, blanked them out!
The other evening I saw 'Duet' and was rivetted. Can't recall whether I saw it the first time around, but it seemed fresh and vibrant even so, and that is a hallmark of good writing and equally good acting. Visitor was on form as the "inflatable Major". On this occassion her passion and habitual lack of compromise over anything occupation-related were amply justified by the plot at hand. On many other occassions this attitude has been tiresome, if nevertheless believable in someone with Kira's background.
Her opposite number was played by Harris Yulin, a man whose work I'm not familiar with but wish I was after seeing this performance. The villain of the piece was not overplayed, which was a trap he could easily have fallen into in this instance, and the final twist was brilliantly and believably executed.
The other highpoint for me was the portrayal of Sisko's reaction to the situation. He's caught between a legal rock and a principled hard place. He has to respect Federation policy and law and due process, but in this case he finds himself unable to satisfy either side of the debate. He knows there's something deeply amiss with this Cardassian traveller, something that warrants further investigation, but he's also struggling to uphold the traveller's rights in a free society. Suspicion alone is not grounds for detention without charge for what, if Kira had her way, would be an indefinite period that would end in public execution for crimes he may not have committed. For an episode first aired in 1993, this aspect is surprisingly relevant to the situation we find ourselves in today.
All in all, a damn good bit of TV. The kind of TV that I would hold up as evidence to all the nay-sayers and those who condemn the genre of science fiction out of hand as entertainment for those who never grew past puberty. Those who say science fiction can't be adult entertainment better get a load of this.
Ultimately, it's such a damn shame that they squandered all the possibilities this show exhibited in the beginning. They shot themselves in the foot by trying to be a Trek version of Babylon 5 (if that's what they were doing) and bogging themselves down in dead ends. The last 3 seasons rightly earned the show the monica of Deep Space Snoring. Only the grand space opera of the space battles kept me watching, because I like a good space battle like anyone else. But I'll always take an episode like 'Duet' over any cosmic fireworks show with burning spaceships and explosions reverberating through a gasless vacuum.
Cheers,
I hope you'll pardon my indulgence in posting in lengthy fashion on a subject you've no doubt all done to death. However, I haven't discussed Trek for a long time and have recently found myself gravitating back to it after a long break.
I've been watching DS9 reruns on cable lately. I haven't seen any in years because prior to Virgin's takeover, the only Trek I got was delivered courtesy of Sky, and Sky never showed DS9 as far as I can tell.
Anyway, I've been enjoying the return of the Cinderella spin-off series, particularly the early seasons which were, in my humble opinion, the best of the lot. This was underlined when I decided there had been 5 seasons, only to belatedly realise there were 7 when I visited Jammer's Reviews to read up on one or two. This was revealing. It told me I didn't rate the last 3 seasons and had, it seemed, blanked them out!
The other evening I saw 'Duet' and was rivetted. Can't recall whether I saw it the first time around, but it seemed fresh and vibrant even so, and that is a hallmark of good writing and equally good acting. Visitor was on form as the "inflatable Major". On this occassion her passion and habitual lack of compromise over anything occupation-related were amply justified by the plot at hand. On many other occassions this attitude has been tiresome, if nevertheless believable in someone with Kira's background.
Her opposite number was played by Harris Yulin, a man whose work I'm not familiar with but wish I was after seeing this performance. The villain of the piece was not overplayed, which was a trap he could easily have fallen into in this instance, and the final twist was brilliantly and believably executed.
The other highpoint for me was the portrayal of Sisko's reaction to the situation. He's caught between a legal rock and a principled hard place. He has to respect Federation policy and law and due process, but in this case he finds himself unable to satisfy either side of the debate. He knows there's something deeply amiss with this Cardassian traveller, something that warrants further investigation, but he's also struggling to uphold the traveller's rights in a free society. Suspicion alone is not grounds for detention without charge for what, if Kira had her way, would be an indefinite period that would end in public execution for crimes he may not have committed. For an episode first aired in 1993, this aspect is surprisingly relevant to the situation we find ourselves in today.
All in all, a damn good bit of TV. The kind of TV that I would hold up as evidence to all the nay-sayers and those who condemn the genre of science fiction out of hand as entertainment for those who never grew past puberty. Those who say science fiction can't be adult entertainment better get a load of this.
Ultimately, it's such a damn shame that they squandered all the possibilities this show exhibited in the beginning. They shot themselves in the foot by trying to be a Trek version of Babylon 5 (if that's what they were doing) and bogging themselves down in dead ends. The last 3 seasons rightly earned the show the monica of Deep Space Snoring. Only the grand space opera of the space battles kept me watching, because I like a good space battle like anyone else. But I'll always take an episode like 'Duet' over any cosmic fireworks show with burning spaceships and explosions reverberating through a gasless vacuum.
Cheers,
).
