Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 4 “The Visitor” and “Hippocratic Oath”

Dad? I mean… son?

I’ve completed my re-watch of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” Now it’s time to start Deep Space Nine! I am much less familiar with this show, though I’m pretty sure I’ve seen about 80-90% of the episodes. It’s been so long that I’m sure it will all feel brand new. My wife has never seen the show. She and I will go through, review every episode, and give commentary and a grade from A-F. There are SPOILERS for each episode below. Without further adieu, here’s:

“The Visitor”

Synopsis

An older Jake Sisko receives a visit from a fan of his writing in the middle of the night. She’s curious about his writings and why he didn’t write more. Jake agrees to tell his story. It turns out that on DS9, there was an accident that transported Captain Sisko into some kind of time-locked dimension, keeping him connected to Jake but also making it impossible for him to escape. The younger Jake became obsessed with trying to rescue his father, ultimately losing his wife and his writing career in pursuit of finding a way to get his father back. Jake has seemingly figured out what’s happening with his father–he himself is acting as a kind of tether keeping Captain Sisko bouncing around in the time thingy. To fix it, Jake has taken a lethal dose of a drug, freeing his father, but only after informing him that he’s going to be transported back to the moment of the incident and needs to avoid the accident that began the whole thing. Captain Sisko, back to the “present,” rescues himself and his son from the tragic accident, freeing them both to pursue a life that they missed in an alternate realm of possibility.

Commentary

Here we have the kind of emotional storytelling that made TNG so spectacular at its best. There is tragedy here on a grand scale–we feel immense loss throughout the episode, and even at the end, when everything turns out well, we still feel the tragedy of the whole of the “other Jake’s” life. Because really, “other Jake” is truly dead, as Star Trek works its multiverse. It is haunting and beautiful. Yes, you know as the viewer all along there will be resolution, but that doesn’t take the power away from the narrative.

Grade: A “Hauntingly beautiful.”

Wife’s Grade and Comment: A- “It was quite good acting with a compelling story, but the thunderstorm visitor felt a little contrived.”

“Hippocratic Oath”

Synopsis

On DS9, Worf tries to impose his own way of rule of law on Odo, which leads to Odo losing a valuable lead in an investigation. The bulk of the plot, though, is O’Brien and Bashir stranded on a planet with a bunch of Jem’Hadar. One of the Jem’Hadar appears to be immune to the drug the Changelings use to enslave them, and Bashir tries to work on a cure. His efforts ultimately lead him to discovering that the man is immune not due to some built up immunity or anything he can do; rather, it was something genetically unique to him. Bashir can’t save the others, and O’Brien attempts to bust them both out of the planet, much to Bashir’s chagrin as he worked on trying to find a cure. They escape, but Bashir is displeased with O’Brien’s attempts to escape, feeling his own commitment to helping others was more important.

Commentary

Bashir and O’Brien will need some patching up after this one. I thought it was a great character piece for the four primary movers- Bashir, O’Brien, Worf, and Odo. It showed how different Odo and Worf are regarding their mindset when it comes to security. It also helped establish Bashir as more than simple comic relief. The main plot is brutal, too- the whole time I thought there’d be some breakthrough and we’d start seeing Jem’Hadar getting cured, but once again they baffle attempts to change them. It’s a kind of nature vs. nurture playing out all over again, and it is a fascinating way to deal with a whole people group.

This episode is one that is part of what I think may be a larger problem with DS9, though–there are a lot of big idea episodes with far-reaching implications that don’t seem to keep having an impact beyond the episode itself. Time will tell if anything from this episode will reverberate beyond its 45-minute confines.

Grade: A- “A strong central plot coupled with great character development makes for a great episode.”

Wife’s Grade and Comment: A- “I thought it was really interesting and now I want to know more about how the Jem Hadar are impacted by their mind control drug.”

Links

J.W. Wartick- Always Have a Reason– Check out my “main site” which talks about philosophy of religion, theology, and Christian apologetics (among other random topics). I love science fiction so that comes up integrated with theology fairly frequently as well. I’d love to have you follow there, too!

Be sure to follow me on Twitter for discussion of posts, links to other pages of interest, random talk about theology/philosophy/apologetics/movies/scifi/sports and more!

Star Trek: DS9– For more episode reviews, follow this site and also click this link to read more (scroll down as needed)! Drop me a comment to let me know what you thought!

SDG.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 3 “Second Skin” and “The Abandoned”

Well, this is awkward.

I’ve completed my re-watch of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” Now it’s time to start Deep Space Nine! I am much less familiar with this show, though I’m pretty sure I’ve seen about 80-90% of the episodes. It’s been so long that I’m sure it will all feel brand new. My wife has never seen the show. She and I will go through, review every episode, and give commentary and a grade from A-F. There are SPOILERS for each episode below. Without further adieu, here’s:

“Second Skin”

Synopsis

Kira gets kidnapped by Cardassians. She wakes up with Cardassian skin and is told she’s been an undercover Cardassian agent for more than a decade. Her Cardassian “father,” Ghemor, is brought in and seems genuinely concerned for her and upset that she doesn’t remember him. As the days go on, she continues to believe that the Cardassians are trying to pump her for information, a feeling that is only confirmed as the Obsidian Order presses her for information from her alleged undercover operation. When her father finally comes up with a plan for sneaking her out, the true plan of the Obsidian Order is revealed. They were trying to trap the man who thought he was her father in a betrayal of Cardassia so they could arrest him and get information about more dissidents from him. Thankfully, Sisko and crew manage to save Kira and her Cardassian “father.”

Commentary

I thought this was a great character piece. It reminds me quite a bit of “Face of the Enemy,” the TNG episode in which Troi ends up as a Romulan. Here, though, Kira is not only placed in enemy hands, she also has very little control over the situation. Watching her deal with that, and try to figure out what exactly is going on, was rewarding.

What really elevated this episode, though, was the revelation that the Obsidian Order was using Kira, not to try to convince her to give up valuable information, but to nail her “father” on his political leanings. When Ghemor tries to help Kira escape, he is outed as a dissident and the Order is about to take him into custody when Sisko et al. rescue them. It’s a twist that I didn’t expect, because they’d sold the notion of it being Kira everyone was interested so well.

Grade: A “It was an excellent episode for both character development and overall plot.”

Wife’s Grade and Comment: A “I just thought it was really well done throughout. Good job. Also, double undercover agent Kira!”

“The Abandoned”

Synopsis

Quark buys a ship in a shady deal. What he didn’t know is that a baby is on board. As the station’s crew cares for the baby and speculates about his origins, he continues to grow at an alarming rate. It becomes clear the child is a Jem’Hadar. He sees Odo as his ruler, just like the other Jem’Hadar. Odo partners with the boy to try to teach him to control his violent impulses and overcome his genetic programming. All his efforts are in vain, however, and he ultimately satisfies himself with helping the Jem’Hadar return to his people, where he can live out the life of violence and other-hating he was designed for.

Commentary

Hey look, Star Trek can pull off a baby-to-adult transition without having to resort to the creepiness that was TNG’s “The Child.” I thought the best part of this episode was actually how it developed Odo. Odo was trying to go against the way his people had oppressed the Jem’Hadar and show that the latter were more than the product of their genetic modifications. Chalk that one up as a failure–for now, anyway. Who knows if the Jem’Hadar will have more to them later. But again, Odo’s own insistence on his not being somehow better than everybody else showed his coming to terms with his own place in the universe. He is an outsider, but one who still makes a difference wherever he is.

The problem with this episode is just how swiftly the Jem’Hadar developed. I guess they may have decided to go from baby-to-adult so quickly to try to show that developmentally, the Jem’Hadar change massively and perhaps the aggression manifests itself later, but I think the episode could have been more powerful if Odo had simply been interacting with an adult Jem’Hadar the whole time. That way, we’d have been able to get into more discussions of the Jem’Hadar philosophy, etc.

Still, this was a decent development piece for Odo, and whenever a main character gets some major character development, I am pleased.

Grade: B- “It’s like ‘The Child,’ but not creepy or terrible.”

Wife’s Grade and Comment: B “The sheer implausibility of the Jem’Hadar kid is hard to overcome, but it was a good look at Odo’s character.”

Links

J.W. Wartick- Always Have a Reason– Check out my “main site” which talks about philosophy of religion, theology, and Christian apologetics (among other random topics). I love science fiction so that comes up integrated with theology fairly frequently as well. I’d love to have you follow there, too!

Be sure to follow me on Twitter for discussion of posts, links to other pages of interest, random talk about theology/philosophy/apologetics/movies/scifi/sports and more!

Star Trek: DS9– For more episode reviews, follow this site and also click this link to read more (scroll down as needed)! Drop me a comment to let me know what you thought!

SDG.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 2 “Tribunal” and “The Jem’Hadar”

What’s going on?

I’ve completed my re-watch of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” Now it’s time to start Deep Space Nine! I am much less familiar with this show, though I’m pretty sure I’ve seen about 80-90% of the episodes. It’s been so long that I’m sure it will all feel brand new. My wife has never seen the show. She and I will go through, review every episode, and give commentary and a grade from A-F. There are SPOILERS for each episode below. Without further adieu, here’s:

“Tribunal”

Synopsis

Cardassians kidnap Chief O’Brien from Federation space, put him on a show trial with the outcome already determined, and determine he must be executed. Meanwhile, Odo and others from DS9 scramble to save O’Brien, ultimately digging up information that leads to his release.

Commentary

I was brief in the synopsis because this episode, while convoluted, is actually rather simple. Also, it is wildly implausible. Just think about this for a second. Imagine if some country today came into the territory of another country with a warship, used that warship to disable one of the ships of that other nation, kidnapped an officer from that ship, and then announced to the world they found that officer guilty of something that they were going to execute her for. I’m pretty sure that, at the very least, there would be some major outcry from the UN and probably war declared. I doubt no shots would be fired. Do you disagree? Fine. Layer on top of that scenario the fact that the two nations already had war(s?) in the past, currently have armed conflict by proxy along their border territories, and have a major dispute over a vastly important economic junction. Then you have the scenario we got in this episode.

Except, in this episode, the Federation doesn’t act like I’d expect them to. Are they mad? Sure. But they aren’t exactly sending massed fleets to the Cardassian-Federation border. There’s actually very little sense of a broader deepening of threats and conflict whatsoever. Sisko is mad as heck, but basically gets no support from Starfleet more broadly. It’s pretty unbelievable.

The court scenes with the Cardassians are kind of cool, and they help show the juxtaposition between how the Federation handles things vs. how Cardassians do. There’s no presumption of innocence at all. Boom, you’re guilty. We’ll show you why. That part of the episode helps build up the lore of the Cardassians and makes the episode more worth watching than it would have been otherwise.

Grade: C- “None of this makes any sense at all.”

Wife’s Grade and Comment: B “I thought it was a good story, aside from the glaring plot hole that the Cardassians essentially initiated war against the Federation.”

“The Jem’Hadar”

Synopsis

Sisko decides to take Jake on a camping trip through the wormhole, and his son invites Nog, who then has Quark come along to try to make a deal with Sisko regarding some profit-making venture on the station. During their trip, Sisko and Quark run into an alien woman and the three of them are taken captive by soldiers of the Dominion. These soldiers inform Sisko and people on DS9 that they are angry about alleged incursions from Starfleet and others into their quadrant through the wormhole and threaten escalation of conflict. As the USS Odyssey and Runabouts from DS9 go to Sisko’s rescue, the latter and Quark free the alien woman’s restraining collar to let her use her telekenetic powers to destroy their prison. They escape and are rescued, but the Odyssey is destroyed. Back on station, they discover the alien woman is actually a spy, and she leaves to return to the Dominion, implying that conflicts may broaden.

Commentary

I think this episode suffers mainly from what I (and I’m sure others) call “middle book syndrome” or “middle movie syndrome.” Namely, it feels almost entirely like a setup for things yet to come, with not as much payoff in the short term. We see Dominion forces for the first time. We get tantalizing glimpses of what may be yet to come. Overwhelming force is displayed by the Dominion, raising worrisome questions about whether Starfleet will be able to compete. But these and many other issues are raised, and nothing is really solved, apart from getting Sisko and group back to DS9. It all feels a bit anticlimactic.

That said, this was still a pretty solid episode. It is exciting, with lots of action shots. Unexpected plot twists hit a couple times. The destruction of the Odyssey is particularly surprising. Yes, it is mostly just an episode to set up later things, but it has its own good moments. In particular, the introductory scenes with Sisko and Quark interacting were great. And Quark on a camping trip? Epic.

Grade: B “An exciting setup episode. But it is a setup episode.”

Wife’s Grade and Comment: B- “It was just missing something.”

Links

J.W. Wartick- Always Have a Reason– Check out my “main site” which talks about philosophy of religion, theology, and Christian apologetics (among other random topics). I love science fiction so that comes up integrated with theology fairly frequently as well. I’d love to have you follow there, too!

Be sure to follow me on Twitter for discussion of posts, links to other pages of interest, random talk about theology/philosophy/apologetics/movies/scifi/sports and more!

Star Trek: DS9- For more episode reviews, follow this site and also click this link to read more (scroll down as needed)! Drop me a comment to let me know what you thought!

SDG.