Now I'm babysitting the...
"Children of Time"
Can I just talk about how awesome Rene Auberjonois is? Even before we got to see him without the heavy make-up in this episode, I was struck by how powerful a performance he was giving. The tease was great--his reaction to finding out Kira's single again was just perfect. And I absolutely fell in love with the shot where he doesn't say a word, but you can see exactly what he's thinking in his eyes. Brilliant.
My wife pointed out that it would be nice if the Prophets went and ahead and told you who you were supposed to be with, instead of just ruining your current relationships. She has a point there.
I thought that this episode seemed a little familiar, and then I remembered "E2." Of course, this one was first.
This was another episode that worked for me because it had a coherent emotional arc. In this, it was a lot like "Soldiers of the Empire." The Jem'Hadar aren't destroyed because the Klingons have shifted the phase variance of their photon torpedos; they die because Worf is willing to sacrifice his life to help Martok get his balls back. That's a story. In this one, the colonists don't die because O'Brien can't compensate for a quantum fluctuation; they die because Odo loves Kira and wants her to live. Again, that's a real story that makes sense regardless of genre.
There were a few great moments. O'Brien's wanting to go home, for example, was very real, as was his observation that Worf hardly ever saw Alexander. Which leads me to my favorite moment: Worf's pride at seeing the Sons of Mogh. It's everything he's always wanted: a proud house of warriors to call his own, and it speaks to his private anxieties about not being Klingon enough. This was a great Worf episode, and he's becoming a favorite character of mine.
Ditto for both Dax's guilt over what they'd done.
And the Odo stuff was great, with brilliant acting behind it.
One thing I disagree with was after the resolution. It was already obvious that Odo had changed the course--they didn't need the coda to spell it out for the viewer. I wish they'd have had a little bit of faith in us there. And having "young" Odo know about what happened really puts the characters in an awkward place, which they've started ignoring with the next episode.
Aside from that, this was one of my favorites. I loved this episode so much, that I talked myself into watching a second episode....
"Children of Time"
Can I just talk about how awesome Rene Auberjonois is? Even before we got to see him without the heavy make-up in this episode, I was struck by how powerful a performance he was giving. The tease was great--his reaction to finding out Kira's single again was just perfect. And I absolutely fell in love with the shot where he doesn't say a word, but you can see exactly what he's thinking in his eyes. Brilliant.
My wife pointed out that it would be nice if the Prophets went and ahead and told you who you were supposed to be with, instead of just ruining your current relationships. She has a point there.
I thought that this episode seemed a little familiar, and then I remembered "E2." Of course, this one was first.
This was another episode that worked for me because it had a coherent emotional arc. In this, it was a lot like "Soldiers of the Empire." The Jem'Hadar aren't destroyed because the Klingons have shifted the phase variance of their photon torpedos; they die because Worf is willing to sacrifice his life to help Martok get his balls back. That's a story. In this one, the colonists don't die because O'Brien can't compensate for a quantum fluctuation; they die because Odo loves Kira and wants her to live. Again, that's a real story that makes sense regardless of genre.
There were a few great moments. O'Brien's wanting to go home, for example, was very real, as was his observation that Worf hardly ever saw Alexander. Which leads me to my favorite moment: Worf's pride at seeing the Sons of Mogh. It's everything he's always wanted: a proud house of warriors to call his own, and it speaks to his private anxieties about not being Klingon enough. This was a great Worf episode, and he's becoming a favorite character of mine.
Ditto for both Dax's guilt over what they'd done.
And the Odo stuff was great, with brilliant acting behind it.
One thing I disagree with was after the resolution. It was already obvious that Odo had changed the course--they didn't need the coda to spell it out for the viewer. I wish they'd have had a little bit of faith in us there. And having "young" Odo know about what happened really puts the characters in an awkward place, which they've started ignoring with the next episode.
Aside from that, this was one of my favorites. I loved this episode so much, that I talked myself into watching a second episode....
It's good that the writers realize this - in the earlier seasons, character-based stories or political stories were almost always better than anomaly stories. Realizing that "popular sci-fi as a setting for drama" works better than "popular sci-fi as a poor man's substitute for hard sci-fi" is one of DS9's strengths.
That's right guys, plow that nice big field of guilt.
