DS9 Spoiler: Lynch's Spoiler Review: "Paradise"
Tim Lynch
Review by Tim Lynch <tly...@juliet.caltech.edu>
===============================================
WARNING: This post, although probably not paradisiacal itself, does contain
spoilers for DS9's "Paradise".
In brief: nice ideas, not-so-nice execution. Okay, but I've definitely seen
better.
"Paradise" isn't a bad show on a first viewing, but it does *not* age well at
all, at least so far as I can see.
However, the core idea of "Paradise" seems to me a decent one. In
particular, shows that have Sisko vs. X in a battle of wills tend to, at the
very least, have some power packed into them, and this was no exception.
What's more, the issue of "is technology really all good" is one that's both
currently raging and worth thinking about, and given the right story, could
have worked beautifully.
Did it, then? Only in part. There are a few problems that resulted from
shoe-horning the episode to fit the issue.
For starters, we have Sisko taking a joyride in a runabout with O'Brien.
Sisko? The commander of the station? I don't think so. It was plausible
but reaching in "Armageddon Game" when he left to go look for O'Brien --
here, it was simply absurd. There was no diplomatic effort involved here;
this was a routine mapping mission of sorts. There needed to be a better
rationale for putting Sisko where he was. (I might not have griped about
this had a different series not made a strong point about commanders putting
themselves in harm's way just the night before, but it's a dumb move on the
show's part regardless.)
(What's more, of course, we have Kira and Dax then heading out in search of
the missing pair later in the show. Excuse me, but who's in charge of the
station at this point? Bashir? Quark? Morn? :-) )
Beyond that, the structure of the show seemed fine. I suspect some people
may have strong reactions to the merest *hint* that technology isn't a great
improvement all the time, but I think the idea of "there are tradeoffs, and
for *some* they may be too high" is a perfectly reasonable one. As such, I
was quite comfortable with seeing the colony thriving (more or less), and
Joseph's speeches didn't rub me wrong at all.
Alixus's speeches, on the other hand, did. I realize that the attitudes
themselves, given her closed-mindedness, were supposed to; but it was the
*delivery* that got to me. Unfortunately, Gail Strickland seemed to be
delivering all her lines in that tone of voice that says "I'm about to burst
into tears." That was fine in the few scenes where it was appropriate, like
Meg's death, but the halting, breathy style did not make her seem like a
strong leader at all. That's a pity, because if it weren't for that I think
the show could have been very strong indeed. Alixus's body language worked
beautifully for me, but most of the dialogue just fell flat on its face.
Other scenes didn't work for other reasons. I liked the initial meeting
between Ben, Miles, and the villagers -- the questions weren't all deep and
meaningful, but were about various people's interests (soccer, for instance)
-- and I particularly liked that they couldn't *remember* who'd won the last
soccer championship. However, the close of that scene, with Alixus clearly
plotting already, was unnecessary. It said "well, we'd better make it
obvious who the bad guy is instead of letting it develop and making those
poor viewers at home think." Ugh.
Another "make everything well beyond obvious" point came after Sisko came out
of the box for the first time. The entire scene invited comparison to the
Picard/Madred scenes in "Chain of Command", or at least they did with me.
Unfortunately, this scene had Alixus come out and lay her strategy on the
table: "let's make Ben change by getting rid of little things first." Yes,
Alixus, it was obvious you were doing that twenty minutes ago, and until now
was nicely done. Are you worried people hadn't *realized* that? In "Chain
of Command", by contrast, it was always clear that the "how many lights?"
routine was meant to break Picard on something nonessential, but Madred never
came out and said he was doing it -- he never had to. Neither did Alixus,
but she did anyway.
The only other colony scene that really, really didn't go over well for me
was Cassandra's attempted seduction of Sisko. Maybe I just wasn't in the
mood for such a scene, but it just seemed blatant and, to be blunt, boring.
Sisko then going on to find Alixus "contemptible" also seemed a little much,
given that he's been letting Quark hang around the station ever since he took
over.
On the good side, the O'Brien/Joseph relationship was one of the highlights
of the show. O'Brien managing to convince Joseph to let him escape felt
right through and through, from Joseph's reluctance to O'Brien's "I can make
it so it won't hurt at all." Definitely a strength. What's more, I really,
*really* liked Alixus's response to Joseph's defense of O'Brien. Her
reasoning was a bit off (extreme strawman arguments, basically), but it did a
good job of making someone taking the right position feel like dirt for it,
which is *exactly* the sort of thing Alixus must have been doing for years to
keep the colony in order. A strength all around, really.
The "Vinod hunts O'Brien" chase at the end was also strongly done. If Corey
Allen thought anyone was tricked by the "arrow through the uniform" idea, he
was probably wrong, but it was easy to think that _Vinod_ might have been
tricked.
Moving on, the sequences with "the box" were the most powerful in the show.
Although a little of the speechmaking when Stephan was taken out got over the
top, nothing in the show compared to Sisko's stumbling back out of the cabin
towards the box he had just been released from. Pure theater, and purely
riveting. Good job to Brooks, and to Corey Allen for the direction there.
On the Kira/Dax scenes, well ... I liked the joking around on the station,
but the scenes in the runabout didn't work at all. The first one, namely
"lassoing" the runabout, was evidently supposed to be suspenseful somehow. I
didn't see it -- neither Farrell's laying out of the situation nor the
surprisingly cheesy FX during the drop to impulse made me react beyond "okay,
we know they'll get it, move *on* already." The later scene, where Dax
deduces that the runabout obviously had been flown near a star, was okay, but
seemed a bit of a reach for Dax. Better to just retrace the course, I think
-- why bother with the "they tried to destroy it" other than to make it more
clear that Alixus is dangerous?
Speaking of which, I have to confess to a little skepticism about all the
technology Alixus managed to keep access to. Remember, she's the one who's
so opposed to *doors*, for heaven's sake -- how is she managing to keep what
must be a functioning _communications_ system up and running without anyone
else knowing about it? (She must have a comm system or a transporter;
doing what she did with the runabout without it would be rather difficult
otherwise.)
Lastly, while I expected and appreciated the point that, regardless of means,
the end result of the colony would convince _some_ to stay, I find it
extremely difficult to swallow that *nobody* would want to leave. Cassandra
all but asked to leave when Sisko and company first *arrived*, after all --
why would she suddenly be reluctant when the colony was revealed as a fraud?
Joseph, I can understand and support; but to have no one from an entire
village want to leave didn't work at all for me.
I think I'm coming off sounding more negative than I intended. "Paradise" is
a show that's decent to watch, but you more or less have to let it carry you
along without stopping to think. Then, the only problem is Strickland's
delivery. There are some very good scenes -- almost anything with Joseph is
good, for instance, and the initial Sisko/O'Brien scene in the teaser is
excellent. I also appreciated the fact that Alixus, at least, wasn't some
incredible megalomaniac who ended up being killed: she believed in what she
did, but also had enough of a grip on reality to accept defeat. That's a
strong touch.
All in all, then, "Paradise" is okay -- certainly not bad, and not something
that made me wonder what the point was. It was just flawed, that's all.
So, to wrap up:
Plot: Flawed but fairly decent. A couple of logic points were stretched,
though.
Plot Handling: Good in most of the cases it absolutely needed to be, but
a bit slow much of the time.
Characterization: Iffy, but mostly on the acting side.
OVERALL: A 6.5. Not bad, but not a shining moment either.
NEXT WEEK:
A planet disappearing from under one's very nose -- I've heard of being
absent-minded, but...
Tim Lynch (Harvard-Westlake School, Science Dept.)
BITNET: tlynch@citjulie
INTERNET: tly...@juliet.caltech.edu
UUCP: ...!ucbvax!tlynch%juliet.ca...@hamlet.caltech.edu
"An interesting philosophy -- and while we're debating it, a woman is dying."
"We're doing everything we can for her." "No, we're *not*!"
-- Sisko and Alixus
--
Copyright 1994, Timothy W. Lynch. All rights reserved, but feel free to ask...