TheGodBen Revisits Deep Space Nine

[Admiral Shran]

^ I would rather have what we got with nine average seasons of VOY and ENT and two good/great seasons of ENT. If it were reversed and VOY got the good seasons, I doubt they would have been able to tell the same kinds of stories they did, especially in ENT Season Four.

Civil Defense, I must admit, is something of a guilty pleasure for me. It does have all the flaws that TheGodBen pointed out, but damn is it an enjoyable ride. And, of course the scenes between Dukat and Garak are spectacular - especially when Garak calls out Dukat for thinking he can charm his way into Kira's pants.

 

[Evil Twin]

"Civil Defense" was the very first DS9 episode I ever saw, back when I was first getting into Trek as a whole during the summer of '95 via late night TOS reruns on UPN, so it's always held a special place with me. This is my all-time favorite Dukat appeance on the show, especially him standing there immune and laughing as the device in the replicator is blasting away at everyone, and then flicking the baseball off Sisko's desk afterwards. I prefer old school season 1-3 Dukat to the later disgraced/crazed/possessed etc one.

 

[Admiral Shran]

I forgot - I also love the scene in Sisko's office where Kira tells Dukat that she would rather let the station blow up than let Cardassians set foot on it again. When Dukat says....

Would you allow two thousand people aboard this station to die simply because you don't like... us?

....Marc Alaimo really shows up his acting chops. You can tell, in that short pause before the word "us" that there is so much going on in Dukat's mind - he almost said "me" but knew what Kira's answer would be and didn't want to face it. Amazing acting, that.

 

[MacLeod]

"Civil Defense" is an enjoyabe enough episode.

 

[TheGodBen]

Meridian (*)

What is love? Baby don't hurt me. Don't hurt me no more.

Here we are, the crème de la crème of romance-of-the-week episodes. Actually, that's an erroneous use of that phrase but I don't know the French word for santorum. The a-plot of this episode is absolutely awful, it has no redeming qualities. What could have been a mildly interesting sci-fi story about a village capable of shifting into an extra-dimensional plane gets hijacked by a romance story that's impossible to take seriously. This episode completely undermines Jadzia's character and turns a woman with eight lifetimes of experience into someone resembling a Twlight-loving teen girl. Hell, this episode undermines Sisko's character purely because he didn't hold Jadzia's head under water until she came to her senses. I don't want to talk about this any further, so I'll let Ira Behr have the final word:

I am a moron.

However, I did like the b-plot, and this is perhaps the only occasion where I was annoyed that the serious a-plot was getting in the way of the comic b-plot. You've got Quark doing something seedy, you've got Jeffrey Combs getting his perv on, and it has a great punchline. It's a little upsetting that a major issue like holographic image rights in the 24th century is played purely for laughs, but in this case I'm willing to let it slide because this story continually rescued me from the a-plot over the course of the 45 minutes.

 

[Ln X]

I am a moron.

God that pictures rocks! But since Ira is a guy then how can he be lesbian? I can sum up Meridian with these choice words: the episode was a big f*** you to Jadzia's character and the audience. Jeez! Can Jadzia possibly reach such shallow depths?

I think without the appearance of Jeffrey Combs this episode would have had a rating of 0.

 

[Thestral]

Here we are, the crème de la crème of romance-of-the-week episodes. Actually, that's an erroneous use of that phrase but I don't know the French word for santorum.

Win!

Meridian sucks. Suuucks.

 

[MacLeod]

From memory it was based "Meredian" was based loosely on Brigadoon

 

[apenpaap]

I'll let Stephen Fry sum up my opinion of the A-plot: [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYZU9p22JRA[/yt]

The B-plot is so-so, good for a few laughs. But it seems like a masterpiece thanks to sharing an episode with that awful A-plot.

 

[DS9 Gal AZ]

I think the people at DS9 flat-out admitted "Meridian" wasn't one of their best moments. I don't mind a romance-of-the-week if it's done well, but this was far too WTF for me to enjoy. The B-plot was definitely the saving grace of the episode, and another nice not-so-subtle hint to the fans that Odo is in love with Kira - look at his reaction when she pretends to be involved with Odo to get rid of Jeffrey Combs' pervy character.

 

[Sykonee]

Whatever is this 'b-plot' people keep talking about with this episode? All I remember is the awful, terrible, horrendous...

(Googles "awful thesaurus")

...abominable, alarming, appalling, atrocious, deplorable, depressing, dire, disgusting, distressing, dreadful, fearful, frightful, ghastly, grody, gross*, gruesome, grungy, harrowing, hideous, horrendous [double!], horrible, horrific, horrifying, nasty, offensive, raunchy, repulsive, shocking, stinking, synthetic, tough, ugly, unpleasant, unsightly love story, blocking out any and all possibility there is anything of worth in Meridian.

I demand Godben strike that 1 star from the record!

 

[defiantfan]

From memory it was based "Meredian" was based loosely on Brigadoon

Now "Heathers on the Hill" will be playing in my head every time I watch this episode.

 

[Seven of Five]

The one star is worth it, Admiral Shran. The B plot is just a funny little thing. Basically, Jeffrey Combs, or whetever character he's playing this week, shows up, and wants Quark to make him a sleazy holographic program with Kira as the star. Quark does this, but Kira gets wind of it. Later when Shran/Weyoun/Brunt/whoever goes into ther holosuite, we find Quark's head on the female body that was originally Kira!

It's certainly not series-best comedy by any stretch, but it's funny, and it seems a lot better when compared with the rest of the awful episode.

Romance of the week is a sucky concept - we've talked about it a lot already in this thread. I'm just not sure why Jadzia would fall in love with that boring guy so quickly, and also be willing to trap her symbiant in that sucky existence for the rest of its life.

It's absolute nonsense, and I wish that the story had turned out be a drug-induced side-quest of Quark's holoprogram.

 

[Admiral Shran]

The one star is worth it, Admiral Shran.

I agree, but I think you meant to say Sykonee instead of me.

To be honest, I had forgotten that this B-plot was in this episode. It's something that I at least remember with some joy, unlike the rest of this santorum.

Seriously, Trek has only done one romance-of-the-week episode that was any good, and this is not it!

I remember when I first watched Meridian when it originally aired. My dad walked into the living room during the scene where Dax is asked to stay and she gleefully responds with "WHAT DO YOU THINK?!" and throws her arms around Deral. He said "what the hell are you watching here?!" I responded with.... "yeah, I know, it's not one of the great ones is it?" To which he said "GREAT?! Christ, it's not even any good!" He then turned around and walked out. I don't blame him.

Recently, I've had my parents watching all of DS9 for the first time. When they got to Meridian, they both said that it was okay. Senility is the only explanation I can think of.

 

[Admiral Shran]

From memory it was based "Meredian" was based loosely on Brigadoon

Now "Heathers on the Hill" will be playing in my head every time I watch this episode.

This ought to help get that out of your head....

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=So9yHpHOAiI[/yt]

 

[Seven of Five]

I agree, but I think you meant to say Sykonee instead of me.

Oops my bad! I was distracted with the whole Jeffrey Combs thing.

Your parents found it alright though? That's another for you.

 

[Admiral Shran]

Your parents found it alright though? That's another for you.

Absolutely, I even called my dad on it - telling him what he had said the first time he caught me watching it. My mom had never seen it before.

Dad just laughed about it and off we thankfully went to Defiant.

 

[trekkiebaggio]

Romance of the week is a sucky concept - we've talked about it a lot already in this thread. I'm just not sure why Jadzia would fall in love with that boring guy so quickly, and also be willing to trap her symbiant in that sucky existence for the rest of its life.

I thought a way to salvage the episode would be to suggest that the Dax symbiont was tired of living and overpowered the will of Jadzia to go somewhere where it could eventually die. I mean, we never really know how the symbionts feel about living so long, maybe they have a 'curse of the immortals' thing going on.

 

[TheGodBen]

God that pictures rocks!

It's a screencap from some behind the scenes documentary I watched on Youtube some years back, which is why the quality is so crappy. I just wanted an image of him wearing the t-shirt but the only time it was in full view was when he did that with his arms, but that just ended up making the image even better!

Whatever is this 'b-plot' people keep talking about with this episode?

[yt]v=fP5yQWhgelA[/yt]

It keeps the star.

He said "what the hell are you watching here?!" I responded with.... "yeah, I know, it's not one of the great ones is it?" To which he said "GREAT?! Christ, it's not even any good!" He then turned around and walked out. I don't blame him.

Your dad has better taste than mine. I remember watching some rerun of The Way of the Warrior, the big battle was just getting underway when my dad walked in, watched it for about 5 seconds and said "Not this crap again" and walked out. Crap?! The Khitomer Accord had just broken down and the Federation and Klingons were descending into war just as the Founders wanted, and there was an action scene taking place on a scale not before seen on Star Trek? Crap?!

I still pretend to care about him for the sake of my eventual inheritance, but there's no love there anymore.

This ought to help get that out of your head....

[yt]v=So9yHpHOAiI[/yt]

Get that Fair Haven crap out of this thread!

 

[Admiral Shran]

^ Well, at least it's a Scotsman pretending to be an Irish stereotype this time instead of two white Americans and an Asian. Eventually, we'll find an actual Irishman to do it. If we're lucky, we might even one day have an Irishman that isn't a stereotype (other than O'Brien that is).