This new DVD is so comfortable, it feels like a....
"Second Skin"
This was a well-acted episode and therefore a good one, but on the whole it recycled quite a bit and some parts didn't make any sense. I liked it, though.
First, the whole thing about Kira being in Elemspur prison ended up not really mattering...did it? Was planting the evidence that she'd been there just a pretext to get her off the station? I guess so, but couldn't they have done that a lot more easily? Like, "There's a Bajoran extremist holding a ship of Cardassians hostage, and he'll only negotiate with Major Kira."
The biggest borrowing for this episode came from "Face of the Enemy," with Kira subbing for Troi. But "Second Skin" took the same basic premise--series regular wakes up as an ostensible enemy--in a different direction. Instead of going for SpyTrek, this was more of a psychological/personal spin on the same situation. And Nana Visitor made it believable. It was interesting to read that she hated the Cardassian makeup (on MA).
Lawrence Pressman as Legate Ghemor also delivers, with Entek becoming slowly more antagonistic as the episode goes on. At first I thought it was just an elaborate good cop/bad cop interrogation (and Kira seems to have thought so, too), but the plot twist--Ghemor is the real target--was a good one.
But this is the second big "I think I've seen this before" moment, this time from "The Defector." But there's a difference. Instead of the secret dissident giving his life to create a better Romulus (or, in this case, Cardassia) for his daughter to grow up in, this one comes to realize that his real daughter actually wouldn't want to help bring down the Obsidian Order. Interesting.
It's great to see Garak, but I'm starting to think that it's more interesting to listen to Garak make allusions about Cardassian politics than actually have him get out of his tailor's shop and do commando stuff.
Which leads me to something else that feels recycled, Garak's talking down the Cardassian patrol ship, which seems totally lifted from "The Maquis," where Dukat did the fast-talking.
And the idea that the Defiant could motor right up to the Cardassian homeworld and send a commando crew into the home of a member of the Central Command, undetected, seems implausible, to say the least. But if I was going to start letting plausibility get in the way of enjoying Trek, I wouldn't like the show very much.
I liked that they let Ghemor live--he's a great and interesting character.
Even though I've pointed out some of my quibbles here, I've got to repeat that I liked this episode--the strong acting and character stuff is enough for me.
