The Good In Every Episode, DS9 Edition...

[Farscape One]

All STAR TREK series have had their share of clunkers. And everyone has a different list of what they consider bad episodes. There are, of course, some that are universally reviled. But even those can have something positive about them.

So here is a challenge...

Every episode each of you consider a bad one, I want you to find something positive about it. For me, DS9 will be difficult because this is my favorite series.

I want to do this for every series, and I already started one for TNG, VOYAGER and ENTERPRISE.

I will begin.

"THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOAK" - This was never a very likeable episode for me. It was unnecessary, and it didn't really work on several levels.

But that scene with Quark and Rom roaming the corridors with the cloaked cloaking device? Priceless.

And it was nice to see the rebels take Emperor Worf prisoner, so that is another positive for me.

 

[Paradise City]

In the infamous Move Along Home episode, Quark begging not to choose a player to be sacrificed and the Wadi's end-of episode declaration that it's "Just a game" to the bemusement of everyone else. Not a plot device to be use twice but I did like those touches in what was otherwise a very smelly episode.

 

[Farscape One]

"SHAKAAR" - This episode is not so much bad as it is rather slow paced, at least it felt that way to me.

One good thing about it, other than Louise Fletcher's great performance (as always), is O'Brien's winning streak. Everyone has had those days where everything just goes your way, and Colm Meaney played that perfectly. It's always a treat to have our favorite everyman take the spotlight, even if it's the B story.

 

[at Quark's]

Not sure I could do that. DS9 is utter perfection. Every. Single. Last. Episode.

(just joking...)

Let's see. In another thread, the Reckoning was mentioned recently. Generally I consider it a 'silly' episode, with Blue and Red Action Figures. However, it is true that (as remarked in that thread) Winn is played very well there, conflicted and spiteful as she is about never being selected by the Prophets. Even though she probably never acted without self-interest, I still think her commitment when she choose an ecclesiastic career was at least partly genuine at the start, and she conveys that very well in this episode.

Babel (season 1 ). Another silly episode, with people turning aphasic (for want of a better word) in an instant. However, I like that neat little scene with Quark that showed his comedy potential :

QUARK: FOOD! DABO! DRINKS! MONEY! HAND! MINE! GIVE!
SISKO: Well, Quark, I see even you couldn't weasel your way clear of this one.
QUARK: You underestimate the Ferengi immune system, Commander. I'm merely here visiting my less fortunate customers to make sure they're not faking the illness to avoid paying their bills.
SISKO: No one's that devious.
QUARK: I am. YOU! MONEY! OWE! ME!

 

[Armus]

Profit and Lace. I liked Odo's reaction when Quark asked for a hug.

 

[Farscape One]

In the infamous Move Along Home episode, Quark begging not to choose a player to be sacrificed and the Wadi's end-of episode declaration that it's "Just a game" to the bemusement of everyone else. Not a plot device to be use twice but I did like those touches in what was otherwise a very smelly episode.

I honestly enjoy "MOVE ALONG HOME". Yes, there are some aspects that I can see why everyone hates the episode, bjt the concept of the episode was really great.

Also, seeing another Gamma Quadrant race with very advanced technology was a treat. It made me wish we had an entire season set in the Gamma Quadrant... I am convinced that technologically speaking, they are much more advanced than the Alpha Quadrant. A lot of things had to happen to turn the tide in favor of the Alpha Alliance for them to win. If even one of those things didn't happen... Romulans joining, Cardassian uprising, Prophets stopping hat fleet... everyone would be singing, "Hail the Conquering Dominion."

 

[at Quark's]

Profit and Lace. I liked Odo's reaction when Quark asked for a hug.

^I generally loathe that episode so it's a good candidate.

What I like about it:

The scene in which the Ferengi team try to convince other Ferengi over subspace to come to the station. I thought the way it was done (skipping between different calls each line yet still clearly progressing) was somewhat original. Also liked the fight between Quark and his mother. And that every time someone mentioned 'Grand Nagus Brunt' the entire group kept correcting: acting Grand Nagus! Oh, and them singing that jingle : 'the slimiest cola in the galaxy'.

It made me wish we had an entire season set in the Gamma Quadrant... I am convinced that technologically speaking, they are much more advanced than the Alpha Quadrant. A lot of things had to happen to turn the tide in favor of the Alpha Alliance for them to win. If even one of those things didn't happen... Romulans joining, Cardassian uprising, Prophets stopping hat fleet... everyone would be singing, "Hail the Conquering Dominion."

If Weyoun's statement about the Dominion existing for ten thousand years is true, they could have a significant headstart. However, in that case it is also true that the Dominion seems amazingly primitive considering the time they have had for technological advances. They certainly don't seem more advanced than the Federation by more than a century or so, and the Federation seems to be catching up quickly. At the beginning of conflict, Dominion shields were impenetrable, at the end of the conflict the Defiant went through entire packs of Jem'Hadar fighters and through larger ships with relative ease.

Perhaps the Dominion recognised this Federation potential (the famed Starfleet engineers that can make replicators out of rocks) and decided that if they were to ever conquer the Alpha quadrant, it had to be immediately, while they still held the edge. Another century and the Federation might have been in posession of distinctly superior technology.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I must admit that I get a kick out of watching the actors doing the hopscotch thing in Move Along Home, each trying to inject this stupid scene with meaning. I particularly love Siddig's and Visitor's camping acting in the scene.

To be accurate, this isn't something good in the episode, just something bad that I still enjoy.

 

[Kilana2]

Tiron in Meridian. And the infamous holodeck scene involving Kira - involuntarily.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

The Nagus has one of my favorite speeches in the show.

"And why? Because no matter where we go, our reputation precedes us. A reputation tainted by the lies of our competitors, who maliciously spread the erroneous impression that we are not to be trusted!"

I wish the Nagus was written more like that for the whole series instead of the weird cartoon character he turned into. If they made him into a real plutocrat, actually smart at business, like the Koch brothers or something, he could have been a great character.

 

[UnknownSample]

In Move Along Home, we see the first glimpse of a "good" side to Quark. This was when it hit him that the game might actually kill. Now, I didn't need Quark to have a decent side to consider him a good character. The way they did it was interesting though. They didn't make him a good guy... or compassionate... Quark may not even have known that he had this limitation, that he wouldn't kill when it came down to it.

 

[Qonundrum]

Profit and Lace. I liked Odo's reaction when Quark asked for a hug.

That, and getting Henry Gibson to guest star was pretty cool too!

In Move Along Home, we see the first glimpse of a "good" side to Quark. This was when it hit him that the game might actually kill. Now, I didn't need Quark to have a decent side to consider him a good character. The way they did it was interesting though. They didn't make him a good guy... or compassionate... Quark may not even have known that he had this limitation, that he wouldn't kill when it came down to it.

I'll try to find the interview; Armin Shimerman himself played Quark with that good side in mind, playing against what's written and thank the saltine crackers I found the URL: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/how-quark-became-a-fully-realized-ferengi-on-star-/1100-6457562/

Early on in the first season, there was an episode called "Move Along Home" [where Quark is coerced into a game where he literally bets on the crew members' lives]. They wrote on the page that I was a sniveling, cowardly sort of creature, much like the Ferengi in The Next Generation. So I played against that in "Move Along Home." I tried to make him as troubled and conflicted about the dilemma in front of him as anyone would be. And that, for me, was the first time I had an influence on the writers, where they saw the quality that Armin Shimerman was bringing to the Ferengi.

I didn't put it behind me for years; it was like sword of Damocles hanging over my head. All of my work on Deep Space Nine, for the first four seasons, was me trying to eradicate that original (TNG) performance from everyone's mind. It was my personal agenda to rectify the mistake I made--to take a one-dimensional character and make him a three-dimensional character.

 

[Farscape One]

"RIVALS" - This episode didn't work for me for some reason. Not even sure why.

But the best part is the highlight of the O'Brien/Bashir friendship. As always.

 

[Armus]

^ I liked Rivals. It's a light and breezy episode that reminds me of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. It has the early DS9 gentleness. The Bashir and O'brien rivalry was fun. Bashir actually acted more mature than O'brien did, who was obsessed with competitiveness. Then Quark forces them into a public match to support Bajoran children and they can't back out. Priceless.

 

[Farscape One]

"RIVALS", to me, is also unique in that the idea and execution wasn't bad, and I liked the characters and the story, but for some reason it doesn't work for me. But it SHOULD. To this day, I still have no idea why, and I saw it again recently, too.

 

[tomalak301]

Valiant

Jake was pretty good in this episode, and we got to see the Defiant class ship battle a heavily armed Jem'Hadar ship.