Sorry guys, in opposition to SOPA/PIPA I've decided to do a blackout of my reviews.
What??? So if SOPA does pass (curse you congress) does that mean no more reviews?
TheGodBen Revisits Deep Space Nine
- Thread starter TheGodBen
- Start date
What??? So if SOPA does pass (curse you congress) does that mean no more reviews?
If SOPA passes then YouTube will be taken down and I'll lose access to all the funny cat videos, which means I'd probably just give up on life altogether.
Correction, all the videos with copyrighted content would be taken down. If you post videos that has all of your own material then SOPA (Shitty Obstreperous President's Act
) isn't a problem. Besides you shouldn't be worried about SOPA you should be worried about the National Defense Authorization Act, giving the president of the USA legalized power to kill any USA citizen considered a terrorist.
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/obama-signs-legislation-killing-bill-rights
To sum up, if you're a terrorist or a USA citizen suspected of being a terrorist, you're days could be numbered...
This bill has already been passed and no one protested about, because most of you guys were distracted by SOPA.
No, that's the current situation under the (oft-abused) DMCA. SOPA/PIPA have no safe-haven or notification provisions, they make the website itself liable for any user-posted content and the websites would face having their entire domain blocked for US users, not just the offending material.
Eh, I'm not a US citizen so it doesn't matter much to me, if I was suspected of being a terrorist then I was going to be shot in the head anyway.
I'd sooner take season one of The Golden Girls over that of season one of TNG all day long. 
Having said that, maybe we should all pitch in and review something? Everyone take the first episode of something they like and post it here, maybe?
Hey, we could all do other 80s sitcoms!
Having said that, maybe we should all pitch in and review something? Everyone take the first episode of something they like and post it here, maybe?
Hey, we could all do other 80s sitcoms!
Or we could post old GodBen reviews. Damn reruns take up half the season. 
TheGodBen's Rise Review (*½)
This review is kind weak, there's very little insight to the episode it's reviewing and hardly any humour at all. It's really just a list of likes and dislikes from the episode, with me liking the character stuff and disliking the plot. I didn't go into much detail for either of those areas, which is partly the fault of the the episode that was being reviewed being not all that interesting. I can understand the difficulty in trying to be interesting when writing about a subject that's not all that exciting, but I expect better from me and I let myself down with this review
I also think I was too lenient about the shuttlecraft counter, it's highly unlikely that Voyager picked it up as it seemed like a wreck, but I let the show get away with yet another shuttle crash because I didn't want to rock the boat too much. That displayed a serious lack of backbone, I feel. At least I had the balls to count the torpedoes properly. Also, while it's not technically part of the review, this was the post where I started referring to the Doctor as Shmully, which was a nice bit of continuity that remained throughout the thread.
The review itself was overshadowed by Jaespol's rude attitude towards neogothboy74 because of his choice of avatar. Jaespol, if you're reading this somehow then I'd like you to know that you were quite a character, but it would be a mistake to try and make a dual and come back because you will fail.
Torpedo counter use: 5
(Yes, I checked.)
This review is kind weak, there's very little insight to the episode it's reviewing and hardly any humour at all. It's really just a list of likes and dislikes from the episode, with me liking the character stuff and disliking the plot. I didn't go into much detail for either of those areas, which is partly the fault of the the episode that was being reviewed being not all that interesting. I can understand the difficulty in trying to be interesting when writing about a subject that's not all that exciting, but I expect better from me and I let myself down with this review
I also think I was too lenient about the shuttlecraft counter, it's highly unlikely that Voyager picked it up as it seemed like a wreck, but I let the show get away with yet another shuttle crash because I didn't want to rock the boat too much. That displayed a serious lack of backbone, I feel. At least I had the balls to count the torpedoes properly. Also, while it's not technically part of the review, this was the post where I started referring to the Doctor as Shmully, which was a nice bit of continuity that remained throughout the thread.
The review itself was overshadowed by Jaespol's rude attitude towards neogothboy74 because of his choice of avatar. Jaespol, if you're reading this somehow then I'd like you to know that you were quite a character, but it would be a mistake to try and make a dual and come back because you will fail.
Torpedo counter use: 5
(Yes, I checked.)
Nice. 
Season 2 Review
So, how much of a step up was season 2 from the first one? Behold the glory of the graph!
The average score for this season is 6.231, the highest score I have awarded to any season of Star Trek, although lower to the scores I gave to seasons 3, 4 & 5 of Babylon 5. It's a strong score, almost a great one, but this is a show still being held back by poor and mediocre episodes, particularly in the first half of the season. The trendline shows quite strongly that the second half of the season was rated higher than the first half, thanks mainly that that really strong run of episodes from Blood Oath to The Jem'Hadar.
This shows us why the score was so high, it's because of the impressive number of episodes that scored 8. Remove those episodes and the score would be roughly average, but the height of that bar compared with the lack of a similarly-sized bar on the left of the graph is what stands out. When this season was good it was really good, and when it was bad it was about average.
I rated seven episodes this season below average, two were average, and seventeen were above average.
Best episode: The Wire
Worst episode: Second Sight
The Writers
Last season saw Fields as the runaway winner with Piller, Behr, and Wolfe all scoring below average. How will things change this season?
Fields ends his run as a staff-writer with an even more impressive score than last season's, an average of 7.75 out of four episodes. Hans Beimler's score is something of an anomaly as he only wrote one episode and wont be joining the writing-staff until season 4, so his score is 7 from the episode Paradise. Piller is next, strongly improving his score to 6.5 out of four episodes. The most improved score is Ira Behr's, an average of 6.333 out of six episodes. Wolfe trails behind with a still above-average score of 5.4 from his 5 episodes. Now let's combine season 1 and 2's scores and see where that leaves the writers.
Peter Allan Fields leaves the show with a score of 7.571 out of seven episodes, which will be very difficult to beat. He'll write one more episode in season 5 (For the Uniform), but that's unlikely to change his score much. Beimler's score is 7, but we can't read much into that from one episode. Michael Piller writes his final script for the show (officially) and bows out with a final score of 5.5 out of ten episodes. Ira Behr is next with 5.375 out of eight episodes. Wolfe gets a perfectly average score of 5 out of 8 episodes.
There's five seasons to go and with Ron Moore and René Echevarria joining the show next season there is still the possibility of Fields losing the top-spot.
Statistics
Runabouts Lost: 2 (+1)
Form of... : 12 (+6)
Wormhole in Peril: 1 (+0)
Sykonee's Counter: 13 (+4)
Stupid French Things: 1 (+1)
Season 1 Average: 5.211
Season 2 Average: 6.231
Overall Average: 5.8
Voyager Average After 2 Seasons: 5.122
Enterprise Average After 2 Seasons: 4.882
Babylon 5 Average After 2 Seasons: 5.356
In Summation
Michael Piller says that for season 2 he encouraged the writing staff to focus on the areas that made DS9 different from TNG, and that's the key difference between this season and the first. When the show focused on Bajor, Cardassia, or the characters we were usually in for a good hour of television, but when it focused on anomalies or aliens of the week we were usually in for a poor to mediocre episode. The writers' score graph for this season tells us more than which writer "won" the season, it also shows us that almost all the staff-writers outperformed the season average, and the main reason why Wolfe trails behind is because of his involvement with Second Sight, a poor attempt at a TNG episode. The score this season appears to have been weakened by the freelance writers, most of whom contributed more general episodes that could have been adapted to work on the other Trek shows. But the staff writers were focusing on DS9's uniqueness, and that's where the season got its strength.
Is this one of DS9's greatest seasons? Before I would have said yes, now I'm less sure. Remove the poorer, inconsequential episodes and this is a very strong season, one that sets up much conflict for future seasons, something that's especially appreciable when you're rewatching the show. But there's still quite a few below-average episodes here, and while I may be viewing the future seasons with rose-tinted glasses, I don't think there's as many bad episodes in future seasons as there are here, and many of those seasons reach greater heights than season 2 managed.
While all seasons of DS9 could be labelled transitional seasons is some sense, I think that season 2 qualifies for it more than the others. This is the season where they experimented with more political stories, where they chose to focus more of their time on established races than establishing new ones, and it was the season where they let the bad guys win some stories. Season 2 was DS9's puberty: things got darker, more complicated, and less whimsical, but it could also be awkward and extremely frustrating. But at least it's not shitting its pants or rubbing its sticky fingers over everything like it did back in season 1.
[yt]v=NS02PUF-gb0[/yt]
So, how much of a step up was season 2 from the first one? Behold the glory of the graph!
The average score for this season is 6.231, the highest score I have awarded to any season of Star Trek, although lower to the scores I gave to seasons 3, 4 & 5 of Babylon 5. It's a strong score, almost a great one, but this is a show still being held back by poor and mediocre episodes, particularly in the first half of the season. The trendline shows quite strongly that the second half of the season was rated higher than the first half, thanks mainly that that really strong run of episodes from Blood Oath to The Jem'Hadar.
This shows us why the score was so high, it's because of the impressive number of episodes that scored 8. Remove those episodes and the score would be roughly average, but the height of that bar compared with the lack of a similarly-sized bar on the left of the graph is what stands out. When this season was good it was really good, and when it was bad it was about average.
I rated seven episodes this season below average, two were average, and seventeen were above average.
Best episode: The Wire
Worst episode: Second Sight
The Writers
Last season saw Fields as the runaway winner with Piller, Behr, and Wolfe all scoring below average. How will things change this season?
Fields ends his run as a staff-writer with an even more impressive score than last season's, an average of 7.75 out of four episodes. Hans Beimler's score is something of an anomaly as he only wrote one episode and wont be joining the writing-staff until season 4, so his score is 7 from the episode Paradise. Piller is next, strongly improving his score to 6.5 out of four episodes. The most improved score is Ira Behr's, an average of 6.333 out of six episodes. Wolfe trails behind with a still above-average score of 5.4 from his 5 episodes. Now let's combine season 1 and 2's scores and see where that leaves the writers.
Peter Allan Fields leaves the show with a score of 7.571 out of seven episodes, which will be very difficult to beat. He'll write one more episode in season 5 (For the Uniform), but that's unlikely to change his score much. Beimler's score is 7, but we can't read much into that from one episode. Michael Piller writes his final script for the show (officially) and bows out with a final score of 5.5 out of ten episodes. Ira Behr is next with 5.375 out of eight episodes. Wolfe gets a perfectly average score of 5 out of 8 episodes.
There's five seasons to go and with Ron Moore and René Echevarria joining the show next season there is still the possibility of Fields losing the top-spot.
Statistics
Runabouts Lost: 2 (+1)
Form of... : 12 (+6)
Wormhole in Peril: 1 (+0)
Sykonee's Counter: 13 (+4)
Stupid French Things: 1 (+1)
Season 1 Average: 5.211
Season 2 Average: 6.231
Overall Average: 5.8
Voyager Average After 2 Seasons: 5.122
Enterprise Average After 2 Seasons: 4.882
Babylon 5 Average After 2 Seasons: 5.356
In Summation
Michael Piller says that for season 2 he encouraged the writing staff to focus on the areas that made DS9 different from TNG, and that's the key difference between this season and the first. When the show focused on Bajor, Cardassia, or the characters we were usually in for a good hour of television, but when it focused on anomalies or aliens of the week we were usually in for a poor to mediocre episode. The writers' score graph for this season tells us more than which writer "won" the season, it also shows us that almost all the staff-writers outperformed the season average, and the main reason why Wolfe trails behind is because of his involvement with Second Sight, a poor attempt at a TNG episode. The score this season appears to have been weakened by the freelance writers, most of whom contributed more general episodes that could have been adapted to work on the other Trek shows. But the staff writers were focusing on DS9's uniqueness, and that's where the season got its strength.
Is this one of DS9's greatest seasons? Before I would have said yes, now I'm less sure. Remove the poorer, inconsequential episodes and this is a very strong season, one that sets up much conflict for future seasons, something that's especially appreciable when you're rewatching the show. But there's still quite a few below-average episodes here, and while I may be viewing the future seasons with rose-tinted glasses, I don't think there's as many bad episodes in future seasons as there are here, and many of those seasons reach greater heights than season 2 managed.
While all seasons of DS9 could be labelled transitional seasons is some sense, I think that season 2 qualifies for it more than the others. This is the season where they experimented with more political stories, where they chose to focus more of their time on established races than establishing new ones, and it was the season where they let the bad guys win some stories. Season 2 was DS9's puberty: things got darker, more complicated, and less whimsical, but it could also be awkward and extremely frustrating. But at least it's not shitting its pants or rubbing its sticky fingers over everything like it did back in season 1.
[yt]v=NS02PUF-gb0[/yt]
Great review (and excellent video, too!). I agree with you that Season Two was a big transition period for the show. It was the beginning of a maturation process that, at least IMO, would continue through Season Three before culminating in the greatness that was Seasons Four, Five, and Six (and Seven, but to a lesser extent).
Also the stories for "In the Pale Moonlight" and "The Dogs of War".
Love the video, review and graphs! Thank you and welcome back
But.... but.... but.... I was all set to review the next Golden Girls episode - Break-In. 
Just kidding, I'll save that for the next time there's a lull in the re-watch.
It is true that Season Two is very much a transitional season for the show. It went from something that was sadly just a knock-off of TNG to something unique among the Trek franchise. With Ron Moore joining the crew in the upcoming season, I think we're in for an even better ride this one.
Just kidding, I'll save that for the next time there's a lull in the re-watch.
It is true that Season Two is very much a transitional season for the show. It went from something that was sadly just a knock-off of TNG to something unique among the Trek franchise. With Ron Moore joining the crew in the upcoming season, I think we're in for an even better ride this one.
Yay! Your back TheGodBen! What made you change your mind on protesting about SOPA?
Anyway you were right when you said you realized that season 2 was not one of the best seasons. I would also say DS9's 'puberty' started in season 3 when the real story arcs got set down. Season 2 still had that directionless quality about it, but season 3 gave the show a clear direction.
I still maintain that on average season 2 was better than season 1, but season 2 had no episodes that really stood out (with the possible exception of The Wire) whereas season 1 had two such episodes (Duet and In the Hands of the Prophets). But I will say this for season 2: it did at the start experiment with story arcs, and had a slightly more coherent structure to it than season 1.
Even so season 3 has a few shockingly bad episodes, but I can safely say that when TheGodBen comes round to tallying up its average score, season 3 should have a better score than season 2.
Finally, it's good to have you back TheGodBen!
Anyway you were right when you said you realized that season 2 was not one of the best seasons. I would also say DS9's 'puberty' started in season 3 when the real story arcs got set down. Season 2 still had that directionless quality about it, but season 3 gave the show a clear direction.
I still maintain that on average season 2 was better than season 1, but season 2 had no episodes that really stood out (with the possible exception of The Wire) whereas season 1 had two such episodes (Duet and In the Hands of the Prophets). But I will say this for season 2: it did at the start experiment with story arcs, and had a slightly more coherent structure to it than season 1.
Even so season 3 has a few shockingly bad episodes, but I can safely say that when TheGodBen comes round to tallying up its average score, season 3 should have a better score than season 2.
Finally, it's good to have you back TheGodBen!
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