What did you guys think of Blood Oath?

[EnriqueH]

I don't post here very often because I've only seen the first 3 or so seasons of DS9, and don't know how it ends, so I'm trying to stay spoiler free as I do my franchise-runthrough.

I just finished watching Blood Oath a few days back and I was kinda disappointed with it.

Part of me is elated to see the 3 Amigos again, but the plot involving the Albino lacked a certain oomph.

Maybe it was too talky, and after a while the talk felt redundant.

I like Dax overall, she's likeable enough. But after watching this episode, I'm beginning to think she's the least interesting character (certainly the only unconvincing character) on the show. I think it's the acting. Julian is a bit immature and a pain in the ass at times, but I can look at the character and say, "Eh, that's just Julian." With Dax, there's something about Terry Farrell's performance that just doesn't ring true for me. I like her well enough, but I do find her unconvincing in many situations, especially when she begins to tell "war stores" about her past and talks like she's so experienced about life.

Getting back to Blood Oath, somehow, Jadzia just didn't belong fighting alongside Kor, Kang and Koloth. Terry Farrell just didn't have the physicality to convince me she could kick ass alongside Klingon warriors. I think the episode would've played better with Kira, though you would've had to come up with a reason for Kira to have history with those guys.

Still, it was a pleasure to see Colicos, Campbell and Ansara again. I just wish it would've been a better episode. How badass would it be to have an epic Klingon episode like Sins of the Father or Redemption with Gowron, Worf, Kurn and those three?

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I address my feelings about Farrell's acting in another thread. I do think she get much better at the physical stuff in later episodes that involve Klingons (see Soldiers of the Empire).

I've always assumed that this film took its cue from samurai movies. ... Just looked it up, there were elements of Seven Samurai ... . The episode was great for reviving the older Klingons. I wish it made Dax seem less prepared, less sure of herself.

 

[EnriqueH]

Now that you mention it, Dax does seem a little Mary Sue-ish in some of these early episodes.

(For the record, I'm really enjoying the first 2 seasons of DS9, so I'm hoping to be blown away by the later seasons.)

 

[Kor]

It was the first time we ever found out that Klingons had such long life spans.
I think prior to that, fandom assumed that most Klingons would die in battle fairly young.

Kor

 

[Ithekro]

And yet even old Klingons can die gloriously in battle.

 

[Timo]

I guess that's the ticket: Klingons do die young in battles - except when they are really good fighters...

I had no problem with two of the Big Three going down in a fairly humdrum adventure - it's all the more touching that they die for nothing much, in a last hurrah realistically sized for has-beens.

It was a bit more jarring that Dax could so easily turn the impossible mission into a possible one. I mean, it would have been fine for her to do that by telling Kang to stop the self-pitying and actually go through the plan one more time, this time with the idea of winning. But she instead achieves it through techno-trickery that is unique to this adventure even though it should be very practical for every adventure - the gun-jamming trick is just too good to be true. And not particularly imaginative, not in the proper Mission:Impossible sense.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

The writers had issues with Dax to begin with, trying to make her a "wise, old sage" kind of character though in the body of an attractive woman. It was only really in S2 that they realised she'd be an adventurer instead, which works better for her, I think--Dax has seen so much that if its something new or weird, of course she would be first in line to explore it.

As for Farrell herself, it was either on the DS9 DVDs or in the Companion where she said about how the amount of techno-babble in the pilot was out of her comfort zone.

I personally have no issues with her performance, and find her easily the most attractive "sexy/smart" female character Trek has had.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I used to like Dax a lot.

Last couple times I went through, I noticed I wasn't seeing a whole lot of Dax. I realized, out of maybe 30 episodes I skipped, almost all of Dax's episodes were on the list, and she makes a very small impression in most episodes that aren't about her.

So yes, Dax is a very weak character.

Blood Oath fails to make me care whether or not they kill the albino. Great, they got revenge, whoop-de-doo.

 

[Jono]

This might sound weird but the lack of blood in the episode has always bugged me. Actually that goes for any episode where there's a lot of knife fights. I know that given the show tried to stick within the PG rating that there were very restricted in what they could do, but I still find it immersion breaking.

 

[Timo]

...Then again, there was a lot of body armor. No good for blocking the killing blows, but perhaps good for containing the bleeding?

On a related note, it would have been fun to break the "faceless goons" tradition/cliche here and have at least one of those helmets be knocked off, revealing a face we might have cared for, one way or another. Is the Albino desperately protecting his life by deploying all of this sons to defend the fortress? Is he hiring random ruffians, establishing him as utter lowlife? Or can he afford the most famed elite gunmen in the Empire, fortunately woefully untrained in swordfighting?

Timo Saloniemi