I liked Vic's character, although I must admit that 5 minutes or more singing in a 43-minute episode is too much.
Too much singing from Vic? Not necessarily. But I'd like to have seen him singing not only Sinatra style songs, but also a Vic song. But I liked his duet with Sisko.
I like Vic, and his lounge, and his singing. Although I personally don't think Vic was self-aware. Vic was a non-sapient character whose "personality" was being run by the holodeck's computer. Vic's presentation was of a self-aware individual.
I like him in a way. Sort of a counselor for the station crew. I can understand that the program was popular.
Then how do you explain things like Vic only being active when he wants to be? I mean, I hate to keep coming back to this, but...yeah, it's all well and good to question whether Vic is sentient, but you can't prove YOU are, can you? People just have to take it on faith. So it is with Vic. If he walks, talks, thinks, and acts sentient, then for all intents and purposes, HE IS SENTIENT.
I thought Vic was used exceptionally well and came along at exactly the right time. The war was in full swing, Jadzia's death was on the horizon and it was getting rarer to see the whole crew bond together over something other than war and death. The three Vic centric episodes were all so different to each other despite using the same character as the lynchpin (s?) of the story. I also think his cameo appearances in other episodes were executed flawlessly each time. Mirror Universe Vic notwithstanding. A good character. A good actor.
Meh, I am watching season 7 and he is getting on my nerves. I think they used him too much. And someone mentioned that he is in a mirror universe episode too. Thankfully most of my mirror universe episodes are scratched and my DVD player skips most of them anyway. He is like I don't know, just used for lazy writing it seems to me. In his favor, he is a good actor. But it just seems too simple to have stuff "solved" in the holosuite by a fake person.
Every time people here talk about Vic, they always ask how his Mirror counterpart can be a human being whereas the RU Vic is a hologram. I always say the same thing, so to save time, I'll repeat it here. In my headcanon, MU Vic isn't actually Vic. He's the counterpart of Felix, the programmer who (in the regular universe) created Vic. My theory is that RU Felix is an overworked, unappreciated cubicle drone - kind of like Trek's Dilbert - and that he wrote Vic as a way to escape from his boring life. If Felix can't be a suave, entertaining lounge lizard, then he can create a version of himself who is. And of course the MU counterpart is the badass warrior that Felix of the regular universe definitely is not. And it makes sense that they look alike, because holoprogrammers usually base their holograms on themselves (like Dr. Zimmerman and the EMH). Actually we would not be even having this discussion except for the fact that MU "Fontaine" (you'll notice, nobody ever calls him Vic... ) only exists because James Darren wanted to play him. IIRC, Darren once said that he always dreamed of doing a scene where he goes in with guns blazing like we see him do. So they wrote that part because he asked for it.
I don't think I've ever seen the episode! Like I said oddly enough, most of the mirror episodes in my set play for a few minutes then skip to the end credits. For real, no remote control involved.
Yea, probably not. There is a mirror one where Kira goes into the bar wearing a blue sort of evening dress. Yea, that's where the episode ends.
I'm sorry you are having such trouble with your discs! I recommend getting a set of the new pressings. I got a set of the first pressings about 13 years ago, and the discs are fine despite many many watchings. Maybe more sales of the DVDs will impress on CBS that there's a market for the 4k remaster
Unfortunately it seems that my player does in fact work on that particular episode. I had the misfortune of watching that one tonight. Now I know why I had forgotten all about it.
^ So what did you think of that scene with "mirror Fontaine"? as I said, that was only there in the first place because James Darren wanted to do an action scene. I mean he always loved playing regular Vic but he wanted just one time where he could be a warrior. Strangely enough, there are some who thought that the other Fontaine was an android. Don't see how that could be possible at all, because humans in that universe were slaves by that point and never could have built an android. Me, I'm sticking with the thought that it was mirror Felix. We don't know HIS last name, do we?
It was an okay scene. I thought he would have his guns blazing a little longer and maybe kill more people. The episode was a comedy though. I thought the best scene was Worf and the Beatle-snuff.
Let us not forget that James Darren was the star of The Time Tunnel back in 1966 so this wasn't his first foray into the world of science fiction and he was also in TJ Hooker (not that I watched that one) complete with syrup just like Shatner! JB