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Reflections from another DS9 newbie; From the Beginning...
Topic Started: 25 Jun 2007, 19:24 (4,930 Views)
Kevin Thomas Riley
Vice Admiral
Got my sets today, and decided to make this new thread, although I fear that it will go mostly ignored since Rigil already has his and is a couple of seasons ahead already... :(

Anyway, I have watched the first season before but that's about it. It's been many years since I saw it now though. But I do know about most of the characters and I am somewhat spoiled in very general terms about what's going to happen. Still, i hope to get surprised a lot as I go through the episodes.

I'll post smaller mini-reviews (if I feel like it) as I watch. But they won't be nearly as ambitious as my ENT reviews. I will also use a simplified "grading" system of awful/below average/average/above average/excellent.

So, kicking this off with the pilot...

*****

1-01-02 Emissary

While a bit slow in parts, the DS9 pilot is one of the best ones that Trek has to offer. It sets up the stage for the series nicely as well as lets us meet the characters for the first time. The plot was intriguing and complex enough, which bodes for interesting further developments. Already we can see the set up for longer story arcs, something which Trek up until this point usually has stayed away from, and this is something I really appreciate. The wormhole, prophets, Bajoran politics and Cardassians, among other things, should prove to be a very interesting ride indeed.

At times the pilot bordered on being too cerebral, but I liked the contrast of the prophets' non-linear existence with the linear ones we experience... unless of course we're "stuck" in one horrible memory that Sisko is - the death of his beloved wife at the battle of Wolf 359. I also liked that Sisko held a grudge against Picard and didn't even try and hide that fact. Overall I appreciated the conflict among the different characters, something I find refreshing from what we're usually shown on 24th century Trek.

While seeming a bit wooden and stilted in the delivering of his lines, I did like Benjamin Sisko. He should prove to be one of the better Trek Captains, and after Janeway and Archer I often have had problems with them. I didn't care that much for having his son Jake on the show, but that's because I generally don't like having kids on Trek. I hope Jake (and Nog) will turn out better than the annoying twerps we usually see. A side note: what happened at Wolf 359 is the prefect argument against having kids and families onboard starships.

Odo and Quark makes for an interesting sparring couple, and despite my dislike of the Ferengis I do fins myself liking Quark. It was genius to add Chief O'Brien to the crew. He's something as unusual as a non-commissioned officer and the "everyman" of Trek, a combination we rarely see in the franchise. I also like Kira, the feisty Bajoran X.O. and former resistance fighter. We never saw much of Bashir or Jadzia in the pilot to make an impact.

All in all, I'd rate Emissary above average.
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Rigil Kent
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What? No bum ratings?

My favorite shot in the pilot has to be that one in the beginning with Sisko in the escape pod as its jettisoned...totally cool-looking.
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Kevin Thomas Riley
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Rigil Kent
Jun 26 2007, 04:28 AM
What?  No bum ratings?

Heh! Sorry but it would be way too much work for me to benchmark all the episodes to do my 10-graded scale justice. And just using five T'Bums would be confusing when compared to the 10 T'Bums I normally use. :sassyhare:

Hm, maybe I should try and use something else besides T'Bums?

Quote:
 
My favorite shot in the pilot has to be that one in the beginning with Sisko in the escape pod as its jettisoned...totally cool-looking.

Yeah, that was a really cool-looking scene! B)
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chrisis1033
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very cool scene... they got that perfect.

when you think that most of DS9 SFX is models and not CGI...!
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Kevin Thomas Riley
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They have some great SFX, especially when you consider when it was made.
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sipovic
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B
I just finished to watch 1st season of DS9 and I must agreed with KTR - ""Emissary"" is not only the best episode of 1st season but one of the best pilot of Trek (much better than Voyager and TNG). About crew: This is the first Trek show except TOS where Captain (I mean Sisko) and his first officer are my favorite characters.
Avery Brooks such so incredible charisma that it is absolutely unimportant what he is doing - sitting on the chair or shouting on Q - it's all great + The fact that he hates Picard as an additional bonus personaly for me. I like Kira may be for some reason as I like Trip - she is ALIVE. Alibe charcter with opinion, mistakes, posititon. When she get enough time in the episode is always intersting(by my opinion the second best episode of 1st season is ""Duet"" between Kira and Cardassian prisoner, Voyager tried to make something similar in their 1st season between Neelix and another guy but it was horrible). Odo - I really don't like him very much because he is boring, BUt he remains me people from KGB who lives their lives under slogan ""You're not in jail not because you're innocent, but becasue we don't work hard enough"". And I like his interaction with Quark, who is really not bad for Ferengi. I have nothing against O'brien(it's funny that thru all fist episode his phrazes always ended "" ... from Enterprise :biggrin: ) and Bashir. But there is one charcater who's really pisses me off - Jadzia Dax. I couldn't even imagine that it's possible to have such opportunity and to be such boring character at the same time. She never do anything. She always sitting and smiling or saying :""Benjamin..."" as she is after lobotomy. Even in episode about her (trial for murder) she does NOTHING. Good thing is that she doesn't get big storylines so I'm not became nervous so much.
In total, I like it more that Voyager and TNG. Conception ""We don't find problems, problems found us"" works very good. I put DS9 on 3rd place after TOS and ENT in my favorite trek list

PS. Special effect never was important to me but for TV SHOW in 93 there are absolutely incredible
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Captain X
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Heh, KTR, you sould use Kira bums for your DS9 reviews. As you'll see later on, she has an awefully nice bum too. ;)
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Kevin Thomas Riley
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Captain X
Jun 26 2007, 01:51 PM
Heh, KTR, you sould use Kira bums for your DS9 reviews.  As you'll see later on, she has an awefully nice bum too. ;)

Heh! I've actually been considering that! :blushing: I just have to find some nice cap of her bum.

And while it's nice, it's no way near as nice as Jolene's. But then again, with the exception of Jessica Alba's, few other bums are... :sassyhare:
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Kevin Thomas Riley
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Three more episodes...

1-03 Past Prologue

I liked this episode a lot - a strong outing for being the first regularly aired episode of the series. It perfectly highlighted Kira's torn loyalties between a former comrade-in-arms and the new Bajoran government (and even Sisko and the Federation). But while she's moved on to new realities, Tahna is still a terrorist. My only gripe is that he's rather one-dimensional.

Another favourite part was the introduction of "plain, simple" Garak, who is anything but. Maybe Bashir was a bit too naïve here, but I really liked the Garak character. Tailor my butt!

Speaking of tailoring, I must just mention something that I do not like whatever passes for clothing, but that's not a complaint against DS9, but at the whole 24th century Trek. I especially hate those brightly coloured unisex outfits that no sane person would wear. The uniforms aren't very good either, but I've never much liked what passes for uniforms in Trek.

And it was fun too see some Klingon cleavage… I mean, the Duras sisters again!

An above average grade!

*****

1-04 A Man Alone

This episode was all over the place, and came off as unfocused and contrived. I never got the sense of uproar and urgency that would compel the Bajornas to react the way they did when the wanted to lynch Odo for a murder he didn't commit. The murder mystery wasn't that interesting either, it merely served as a vehicle to get the Odo plot going. And almost as an afterthought a clone was created and it wasn't mentioned again. That felt rather callous on behalf of Dr Bashir and Sisko. The moral implications of this should've been huge but we never even saw him come alive.

The Odo and Quark scenes were good though, but the Sisko and Dax scenes felt a bit forced, but that might have been intentional as he's adjusting to Dax being in a new host.

The Keiko O'Brien as a school teacher sub-plot felt too much like a soap opera. I didn't care much for her whining either or having her cast in the stereotypical "motherly" role as caretaker for the kids.

A Man Alone rates as below average.

*****

1-05 Babel

This could've been better, as the concept of an aphasic virus is interesting. Unfortunately it devolves into the clichéd "race against the clock" plot, with the all too predictable Trek Insta-cure™ at the end. All this combined with the extra threat of an obnoxious freighter captain trying to leave.

Since we know that everyone on the station isn't going to die, the suspense just isn't there. They should have realized that and concentrated on other elements of the story.

But I enjoyed the Odo and Quark scenes, especially when Quark came to help out at Ops.

A slightly below average grade from me.
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Reanok
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:thumbsup: Emmissary is my favorite of the StarTrek Pilots one of the best out of all the series.The beginning with the borg battle at wolf 359 and Jennifer being killed and how it affected him his anger towards Picard were some of my favorite things the flashbacks to the Sratoga and having to finally deal with his grief. Also that this pilot was used to continue certain storyarcs for the entire series run of Ds9. I really liked the regular cast and guest characters like Garak.Ziyal,and many other characters Damar and Weyoun also.Jeffrey Combs makes several guest appearences as Brunt and Weyoun he's a great actor you get to see the range of his talents comedic, to being dangerrous and much more as a Vorta.
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Captain X
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Heh, did you get the gay vibes from Garak in his intro KTR?
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Kevin Thomas Riley
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Captain X
Jun 27 2007, 12:37 AM
Heh, did you get the gay vibes from Garak in his intro KTR?

Um, no! :unsure: What gay vibes?
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Captain X
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Go back and watch where Garak first introduces himself to Bashir. How his body language is, the inflections in his voice, and how he touches Bashir on the shoulders in a way that would definately make me feel uncomfortable. But then, that's how the actor purposely played the part. ;)
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Kevin Thomas Riley
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Eh, I just assumed that it was a combination of his spy persona and him being an alien. A gay Cardie? Who'd have thunk? :shrug:
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Kevin Thomas Riley
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Oh, I forgot to mention that I recognized Vaughn Armstrong (ADM Forrest) playing a Cardassian commander in Past Prologue.

And please, if someone has a good picture of Kira's bum, will you be so kind as to post it. I don't dare go and search for it at TrekCore for fear of getting spoiled.
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Rigil Kent
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Captain X
Jun 26 2007, 05:37 PM
Heh, did you get the gay vibes from Garak in his intro KTR?

I kinda did.
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Kevin Thomas Riley
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Two more episodes:


1-06 Captive Pursuit

I know that the plot isn't all that sophisticated or novel, but I liked Captive Pursuit nonetheless. What makes this an enjoyable episode is the nice interactions and camaraderie between O'Brien and Tosk. They had great chemistry and it was a treat to watch.

I especially appreciated the fact that O'Brien decided to ignore Starfleet protocol and actually help Tosk escape, thus allowing the hunt to continue. It was also nice to see Sisko giving his implicit approval after the fact, and that Odo caught up on it even if it was never spelled out. And of course Sisko had to chew out the Chief in the end, as he had to as C.O. but his heart wasn't really onto it, which is as it should be.

This also points to the absurd interpretation of the Prime Directive they have on 24th century Trek. It should be there to protect pre-warp societies, not a general "turn a blind eye" to alien societies with questionable practices.

I might be going out on a limb when I rate this episode as above average, but I really liked it for what it was.

*****

1-07 Q-Less

Gah! The obnoxious Q shows up and it becomes pretty clear that he has no place on this particular incarnation of the franchise. I got a chuckle when Sisko punched him in the face though. "Jean-Luc would never do that!"

The threat to the station was far too predictable and I hated the copious amounts of technobabble spouted here. Even Q made a joke about that.

The only redeeming thing about Q-Less was Vash. Aside from the fact that she's quite hot I've always found her a nice break from the all too perfect, evolved stiffs that apparently make up the bulk of humanity in this century. She even managed to bring out certain hidden qualities in the über-stiff Picard when she was on TNG.

Alas, I have to rate this episode at the very bottom. DS9's worst so far.
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Rigil Kent
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Kevin Thomas Riley
Jun 27 2007, 04:30 PM
The only redeeming thing about Q-Less was Vash.

She bored me in this episode. Maybe it's the actress or her proximity to the equally annoying Q, but I wanted someone to toss her out an airlock.

So far, I'm finding that our respective opinions pretty much match with the episodes that you've seen.

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Alas, I have to rate this episode at the very bottom. DS9's worst so far.

There's much worse in store ...
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Kevin Thomas Riley
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Rigil Kent
Jun 28 2007, 12:03 AM
Quote:
 
Alas, I have to rate this episode at the very bottom. DS9's worst so far.

There's much worse in store ...

Of that I have little doubt.
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quinn
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Bow down before me, board administrator!
Ever notice how bad and Berman start with the same letter...
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