I have to admit that I really disliked What You Leave Behind because it omitted Jadzia. She was with the crew for 6 years -- Sisko's confidant, Worf's lover and wife, commander of the Defiant during times of war, we laughed with her, we cried with her, but when it came time to bookend the show, she was very conspicuously absent. I really like Ezri, but it seemed really disrespectful toward long-term fans of the show to ignore her. Even Denise Crosby was able to return for All Good Things; surely the producers of DS9 could have paid whatever royalties were necessary to include some clips featuring Terri Farrell.
You and me both. I think the last time Shades of Gray soiled my television, it was during a late-night TNG binge and I fell asleep during The Emissary or Peak Performance and Netflix just kept playing on through automatically.
This is a really good point. I never thought about it before, but I really like the idea that Starfleet's most powerful ships were staying close to home (or getting recalled from deep space assignments) due to the emerging Borg threat.
I wish they would have played on that point a little more -- maybe with an episode about how patrolling the edge of known space was getting to the crew, or at least a some comments to tie existing episodes to the overall theme. Peak Performance, for example, need not have been just a wargames episode, but could have been a test of the crew's tactical creativity and ability to improvise solutions against the kind of incredible, almost impossible, odds the Borg presented. (It's nicely consistent that Riker captained the Hathaway during the initial training, and then lead the Enterprise to victory during the actual confrontation).
And in the third season, Picard might have been stressed/agitated and in need of the vacation in Captain's Holiday due to frustrations regarding Starfleet's (un)preparedness rather than some diplomatic problem on Planet Irrelevant. And there could have been a throw-away line about Gomtuu's tactical value against the Borg in Tin Man. All together, it would have been an amazing build-up to The Best of Both Worlds.
I know by this point the Conspiracy aliens had sort of morphed into the Borg, but if I had to make a clip show, I would use them (or paranoia about them) as the pretense. There's some event, perhaps some strange behavior on the part of a crewmember returning from a conference, an unexplained death, evidence of sabotage, something, anything to remind the crew about that episode and trigger an investigation.
Logs are reviewed in detail, past events are visited and revisited looking for clues. In a way, it could be a nitpicker's show; using preexisting continuity errors, plotholes, and the like to demonstrate the existence of a problem. It would also give Worf a chance to really shine in his role as security chief. You'd really only need one set even: the security office/brig (was it built by this point in Season Two?) where Worf conducts his interviews -- or the observation lounge.
