Lynch's Summary Review: DS9 Season 7 (part 3 of 3)
Timothy W. Lynch
WARNING: This article has spoilers for the seventh and final season
(and possibly seasons before) of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine."
Proceed at your own risk.
II. DS9 Season 7 -- General Commentary |
-----------------------------------------+
Two years ago, DS9's fifth season came off feeling like surprisingly
more than the sum of its parts, particularly in its second half after
Cardassia joined the Dominion. Season 6 showed some of the cracks
in the idea of a DS9 Grand Epic, and season 7 continued those in
many ways, being the first season to date that feels like much *less*
than the sum of its parts -- probably because we expected it to be so
much more. Now, in fairness, some of the problems were due to
constraints imposed from the outside world, but that doesn't excuse
things entirely.
For starters, there's the war. The war doesn't need to be the focus
of every single episode, certainly; a constant diet of "The Siege of
AR-558" clones would get old really fast, even for those people who
thought the episode was near-perfect. I think it's even possible to
have the occasional "Take Me Out to the Holosuite" with no real
problem -- everyone needs a break from the war, and if the episode is
basically announced as such I don't see the difficulty. ("Badda-bing,
Badda-bang" would have worked much better, in fact, had the
justification been that everyone was going stir crazy over the war
than having everyone claim that Vic was just their neatest bestest
friend.) What is a problem is having several episodes in a row where
the war basically doesn't seem to exist. When a team of mutants can
get an easy transport to DS9 ("Chrysalis"), when Ezri and O'Brien can
be gone for weeks at a time ("Prodigal Daughter"), and when Quark
isn't tossed in the brig for impeding the war effort ("The Emperor's
New Cloak"), that doesn't track. For too many shows, it seemed as
though the war wasn't so much in a lull as completely absent.
In a related vein, the timing of several aspects of the war seemed to be
off. The revelation of the Founders' disease in "Treachery, Faith, and
the Great River" was all well and good -- but we then didn't see
Damar, Weyoun, or the Founder again for almost half the season.
Damar's discomfort at his role was somewhat well established, at least
in hindsight -- but the jump from him manipulating Weyoun in
"Treachery" to his once-again-subservient role in "Penumbra" is
jarring. Having Dukat lure Winn to the path of the Pagh Wraiths is
okay to a fault (and certainly had a lot of great scenework, especially
early on), but when you've reached your penultimate moment in that
story four episodes before the finale and have to resort to blinding
Dukat as a plot device to slow things down, it chafes. (Why is it a
plot device and not something more? Because we never got to see
Dukat while he was out on the street, that's why.)
You get the idea. In essence, while the DS9 staff had the entire
season to lay the groundwork for the series' end, only about half of
the season was so used, and that in a manner that was a little hard to
follow. (Now, I do know that they were told they couldn't have a
full-season arc the way they tried to use the last ten hours for, and
that's not their fault. Even so, I think things could have been planned
a bit more.)
There were a lot of other plot situations which felt as though they
should have knit together and didn't. A minor example is Section 31,
which did in fact tie into the major story in terms of the Founders'
disease, but which never developed beyond that. The major example,
and certainly the one that everyone's already been discussing without
any help from me, is the lack of connection between the
Dukat/Winn/Wraiths plot and the end of the war. The only real
connection the two had is that they both came to a climax in the series
finale, and that's just too coincidental for my tastes. Given that the
Prophets were instrumental in turning the tide of the war once, having
the Wraiths somehow influence the war later on actually makes for a
bit of parallelism; unfortunately, it looks like the Wraiths' main job
was to give Dukat something to do and to give Sisko a tragic end.
They, and especially the Kosst Amojan from which Winn read, turned
out to be little more than a MacGuffin.
That's a shame, because the Wraiths *could* have been a lot more.
Once or twice, there were hints that the Prophet/Wraith conflict might
have had issues underlying it: Dukat and others said on more than one
occasion that the Prophets "abandoned" Bajor during the Occupation
and that the Pagh Wraiths wanted to interfere on the Bajorans' behalf.
If that turned out to be true, the final conflict between the two could
have turned out in a much more interesting fashion. (Among other
things, picture Sisko and Dukat having a no-holds-barred struggle
within the Celestial Temple -- but a struggle of ideas, not FX flames.)
Unfortunately, if Dukat's final ravings are anything to go by, the Pagh
Wraiths want nothing more than universal destruction, fire and
brimstone, chickens sleeping with sheep ... you get the idea. Ultimate
evil is a lot less interesting than villains with ideals of their own; I've
said that time and again, and I wish it had turned out differently.
There are some other plot red herrings over the course of the season --
they were set up as though they were implying something, but either
turned out not to imply anything or to imply something that didn't
make a lot of sense. For example
-- Admiral Ross's Section 31 connections. Used to good effect in a
particular episode, then completely ignored every other time. Even
sweeping it under the rug would have been better than this. (Ross
was basically a chameleon character: he had whatever attitudes needed
to be rejected at the time. That's not really a character; it's a set of
straw men.)
-- Virtually every "major" episode in the season, even early on,
seemed to be filled with claims that such-and-such an action would
"change the course of the war." The wormhole reopens, the
Romulans and Bajorans have a spat, the Founders get sick, the Breen
show up with a new and powerful weapon ... sheesh. Whoever the
writers wanted to need a desperate victory had to be in desperate
straits, regardless of the past -- I've never seen a war with that many
drastic shifts in momentum. Would someone just *win*, please?
(Along with that, both the Founders and Dukat were mentioned as
"more dangerous than ever" early in the season. Okay, guys, we get
it: we're supposed to worry. Move along.)
-- Everything about the Breen. They produced a weapon which put
the Federation on the defensive for a few weeks, but that's it. If the
good guys could beat the Jem'Hadar and the Breen so handily, why
didn't they beat the Jem'Hadar and the Cardassians equally easily
months ago? The refrigeration suits, the static language, the what's-
under-the-helmet mystery ... none of them meant anything. They
were just filler. (It's been argued that perhaps a new series is being
set up with the Breen as the big villains. The problem with that is that
it's still dull. When the Cardassians were introduced in TNG to set up
for DS9, they were a fascinating race. When the Maquis was
introduced in DS9 to set up for Voyager, potential oozed out of every
episode with them. If the Breen are the next step ... brr.)
-- The Romulan presence in the war seemed to mean nothing apart
from having more ships. They contributed nothing in terms of
strategic advances or tactical advice; apart from one really good
episode on Romulus (which was only peripherally related to the war),
they were almost as faceless as the Breen. Why use 'em? Just
because they're there?
-- The Alamo. Need I say more?
I've just spent an awful lot of words griping about the stories of the
season. Was there anything to *like* from a plot standpoint?
Hell, yes. Many of the "finish lines" for various parts of the war were
worthwhile goals, and several of them were well established.
First and foremost: Cardassia. No one can argue that this ending was
envisioned seven years ago when the series began, but watching the
Cardassians turn once again from fiendish villains to oppressed rebels
was a neat trip indeed. Though it was a stretch to see the Bajoran
resistance paralleled quite so closely (as I said in the capsules, I'd
have loved to see the Maquis brought in to fight alongside Damar and
company), the Cardassians have truly come full circle: if they do
appear in another Trek series down the line, they'll be in much the
same situation Bajor was at the start of the series: a recently-occupied,
beaten world in need of assistance. I regret that we weren't able to see
an "epilogue" to the war, showing what exactly was going to happen
to Cardassia next, but I can live with what we got. Damar's
realization that his people were the victims of a bloodless invasion, the
Dominion's casual brutality in dealing with their rebellious "allies,"
Martok's gloating victory over millions of Cardassian corpses,
Garak's shattered dreams ... this was good stuff most of the time.
A lesser example comes in the form of the Klingon Empire. Some
years, I've been very tired of Klingon stories -- DS9's fourth season,
when Worf first arrived on board, was especially bad that way, as we
got a slew of questionable ones like "Rules of Engagement" and
"Sons of Mogh." It seems that what we needed was a "regular"
Klingon with a perspective different from Worf's. When Martok
came along, that's exactly what we got -- and from season 5's
"Soldiers of the Empire" on, Martok has reinvigorated a lot of
Klingon episodes. "Once More Unto the Breach" spoke to heroism,
and "Tacking Into the Wind" spoke to corruption, both fairly well.
Watching Worf play kingmaker again, undoing the very leader he
brought to power years ago, carried a lot of resonance for those who
remembered some of the solid Klingon episodes of the mid-TNG
years. Unlike Cardassia, though, Q'onoS's situation doesn't make
me eager to find out what's happened next -- rather, it seems as
though it's had its run of stories and needs some time to rest. (And
yes, this means I am resolutely *not* in favor of any all-Klingon
series in the future, not that I think it's particularly likely anyway.)
Ferenginar, on the other hand, is a good example of a world and a
culture that didn't particularly *need* closure. After "Treachery,
Faith, and the Great River" and "The Siege of AR-558" hinted at a
few ways in which Ferengi philosophy might be a valid alternative to
Federation values on occasion, "The Dogs of War" decided "ahh, the
heck with it; let's just shift everything around and make Quark rant
about the decay of his society." While I admit to being vaguely
amused at seeing Rom in charge of what's supposed to be a decent-
sized galactic power, I really wonder what the point of this one was.
One sizable argument DS9 fans (and Trek fans in general) have made
over the years, though, is that at its core, Star Trek is about characters
and the human condition. Okay. Let's take a look at the character
situation. How did they fare over this final season?
As in the case of plot points, the characters' fates are decidedly mixed.
Some characters fared very well, some were badly mistreated, and
some simply dropped off the face of the plot.
The big winner this season: Odo. Besides the fact that he had the lead
role in the best damned episode of the year, his final rapprochement
with his people was a very long time coming -- arguably five years
(ever since we met the Founders), and almost certainly at least four
and a half ("The Die Is Cast," when we learned how desperately he
wanted to be with his people. Odo's fate was tragic, and perhaps
made all the more so by Kira's presence: Odo was conflicted and
resolute at the same time, and that's difficult to manage. The main
exception to this was the issues brought up by Section 31: while
Odo's reactions were completely justified and interesting, we never
got to see any more than that initial reaction. That's more an issue of
not following up something good than it is doing something bad,
though -- Odo certainly had the best dose of good material of anyone
this year.
(And yes, I'm aware of how odd it is that I found the Odo/Kira
relationship so fulfilling this year, considering how much I bemoaned
the billion-year leadup to it. I still think most of the leadup was
terrible, but at least once we got there it was put to good use.)
Second place is harder, but it may well go to Damar. Damar started
out as nothing more than a sardonic aide-de-camp back in season 4,
and in most of season 6 was an interesting thug, but a thug
nonetheless. The year started off slowly for him, but the last half-
season turned him from a beaten, self-pitying man into a legend, and
in reasonably convincing fashion. (I would have liked to see it evolve
a little more gradually, but there we are.)
Then there's the list of "abused" characters. I think the recipient here
is obvious, too: everyone's once-favorite Gul, Dukat. At first he was
hurt by his absence: he was mentioned only in passing when Jadzia's
death came up, and no one on the station seemed particularly
interested in making him pay. Then he's turned into a cult leader, in
an episode that ostensibly makes him "more dangerous than ever" but
in reality suggests that his new-found belief in the Pagh Wraiths is
deceptive. He had some marvelous material early on with Winn --
deceptive, yes, but in amazingly adept and intelligent fashion. Alas,
it's all for naught, as he's turned into a strutting, possessed,
blathering corpse consigned to the flames of bad effects. That's just
sad. The complex, fiercely independent and honorable-according-to-
his-own-code Dukat was replaced late in season 6 by a pod person,
and his ending barely lived up to the one dimension he had left.
(As a moral note ... many people have noted how odd it is that Dukat,
who's arguably still unhinged from Ziyal's death and not entirely
responsible for his actions, is consigned to a fate worse than death,
while the female Founder, who consciously ordered genocide and
achieved it in part, is "allowed to stand trial" while knowing she's
gotten the one thing she truly wanted, namely Odo. I completely
agree.)
Second place goes not so much to an individual character as to a
group: the Prophets. Interesting, nonlinear, impersonal, only
vaguely aware of humanoid perceptions, "of Bajor" ... just about all
of that was swept away. Instead, we make Sisko half-Prophet so that
his "mother" can become the spokesProphet for the season -- and a
single spectral figure in whom we have no emotional investment is a
pale, pale shadow of seeing the Prophets speak through images of
other characters (and often very good choices of images at that). The
Prophets mostly carried the signs saying <FOREBODING ALERT>
during this season, and they were capable of so much more. And
what's more ... after all this, do we know why they're "of Bajor"?
Do we know why they wanted Sisko? Do we know why they sent the
Orbs? Do we know why they established the wormhole? A
resounding "nope" to all of the above: they were mystical White Hats
who helped Ben out and warned him of the dangers of being happy.
Sigh.
As for the characters missing in action, it's easy to see where to begin:
one Jake Sisko. Once a marvelous foil for Sisko's obsessions and for
Nog's bouts of dishonesty, then a journalist-writer who was often
willing to see past surface features, Jake this season was almost
completely absent, not even meriting a goodbye from his own father.
Jake's best line was a throwaway about planning a bachelor party, and
the best Jake-centered moment occurred when he wasn't even there
("The Siege of AR-558," when Sisko orders Nog into danger.) I've
seen one episode of Cirroc Lofton's new series, "The Hoop Life,"
and I've no doubt that he'll have a healthy career for a while. I only
wish he'd gotten to appear more as Jake.
Second place: Miles Edward O'Brien. Once a passionate engineer,
devoted family man, and all-around decent guy who could be counted
upon to do what's right, now he's a frequent buddy for Bashir and
occasional spouter of technobabble. Given Colm Meaney's wealth of
talent, that's another shame.
In a new category this year, there are also two major characters who
are new or fairly new: Ezri Dax and Vic Fontaine. One of them was a
good idea handled problematically, and the other was a bad idea
occasionally handled well.
Ezri's sheer existence was due to outside constraints (namely, Terry
Farrell leaving), and as such I was willing to cut her a little slack early
on -- but as it happens, early on I didn't have to. When Ezri first
showed up, I liked her: she was a bit immature, as cute and perky as
they come, and as in need of Sisko's counsel as he used to be of
Jadzia's or Curzon's. That was a nice role-reversal, and one I thought
showed a lot of room for growth. Unfortunately, "growth" in Ezri's
case consisted of finding her a prom date. Despite three separate
episodes devoting substantial time to Ezri, we know very little more
about what distinguishes her from her forebears that we didn't know
three episodes into the season. On those rare occasions she *wasn't*
talking to ghosts or deciding on her True Love, Ezri could be
interesting -- as much as some people dislike "Afterimage," there was
a lot in Ezri's relationship with Sisko to like, and her conversation
with Worf in "Tacking Into the Wind" had comments that only she
could make. I wish we'd had more conversations like that and less
"kiss me, Julian."
As for Vic ... basically, I don't buy the character and never did.
We're told, time and time and time again, that Vic is "not just another
holosuite program," but a good friend. The problem is that we're
expected to accept it pretty much solely on the basis of the very claims
we're meant to accept. That's called "argument by assertion," and it's
usually also called unacceptable. Vic wasn't an unbridled menace --
his music was put to decent use in "The Siege at AR-558" and he
himself worked beautifully in "It's Only a Paper Moon" -- but those
two episodes could have worked well without developing this huge
Cult of Vic in the process. James Darren is an amiable enough player,
but we didn't need two entire episodes and several episode-
interrupting breaks full of Vic just because Ira Behr and Hans Beimler
like that style of music.
On a more general note, some of the other characterization problems
from season 6 were amplified here. I mentioned last year that a lot of
episodes were solo runs for characters rather than true ensemble
pieces: while that got no worse this time around, the number of
connections any given character made seemed to lessen this season.
Mostly, characters were defined according to their relationships to one
or maybe two people: Sisko to Kasidy and Prophet-Mom (and *not*
Jake or Kira), Kira to Odo, Worf to Ezri, Ezri to Worf and Bashir
(and a little Sisko), Bashir to O'Brien and Ezri, and so on. Anyone
remember the days when we had a reasonable idea how every
character related to every other one? In the first season (maybe season
and a half) alone, Jadzia was pretty clearly a mentor and friend to
Sisko, forming a rapidly warming friendship with Kira, willing to
tolerate Quark unlike any others, amusedly fending off Bashir's
advances, and able to trade technobabble with O'Brien. There's
nothing wrong per se with focusing on a few relationships out of
several -- in some cases, such as (and I'm still amazed by this)
Odo/Kira, the relationship is fleshed-out enough to feel very real and
very adult. However, narrowing the focus in that way makes it very,
very easy to force the characters into regular molds. Sisko gets to be
confused or ticked off, Kira gets to be warm lover or cold resistance
fighter and nothing else ... the list goes on. It's a convenient short-
cut, but one I think short-circuits the characterization when not
watched *very* closely.
So, all of that said, was the season a success or a failure?
Yes.
It was a success in that, for the most part, things that needed to end
ended. Characters reached the end of their stories -- Odo has returned
to his people, Worf has moved on, O'Brien has made it through the
war with his life and his family intact, Martok is leading the Klingon
Empire, and the bad guys are dead. We've understood a little bit more
about what makes some of these characters tick, and while we feel for
Jake, Garak, and some others in their sorrow, we also know that the
station, and the quadrant, are in fairly good hands.
It was a failure in that it let some of the real triumphs and real meat slip
away. In ignoring Bajor and the Federation, in ignoring Sisko/Kira,
in glossing over Section 31 and its issues, and especially in butchering
Dukat, it made a lot of the big story a giant "who'd win?" bar fight.
The sense of tragedy is tinged with anger at how unnecessary some of
it is. The sense of triumph is tinged with a nagging feeling that we're
forgetting something -- something important. We care about a lot of
what happened, and about those characters we leave behind -- but we
know how much we could have cared had things been different.
It was the sum of its parts. It could have been more.
Thanks for reading, folks. Good night.
Tim Lynch (Harvard-Westlake School, Science Dept.)
tly...@alumni.caltech.edu <*>
"Oh, I'm sure we'll see each other again."
"I'd like to think so -- but one can never say. We live in uncertain
times."
-- Bashir and Garak
--
Copyright 1999, Timothy W. Lynch. All rights reserved, but feel free to ask...
This article is explicitly prohibited from being used in any off-net
compilation without due attribution and *express written consent of the
author*. Walnut Creek and other CD-ROM distributors, take note.
Andrew Brecher
>-- The Alamo. Need I say more?
Has anyone pointed out here yet that the star of the IMAX-film about the
Alamo was Casey Biggs? Curious.
David B.
>
> In article <7ottuj$g...@gap.cco.caltech.edu>, tly...@alumni.caltech.edu wrote:
>
>
> Alamo was Casey Biggs? Curious.
I saw it mentioned a few months ago...
--
"The bureaucratic mentality is the only constant in the universe." - Dr.
McCoy
Francis M'stein
Lynch) wrote in article <7ottuj$g...@gap.cco.caltech.edu>:
> [part 3 of 3]
>
> WARNING: This article has spoilers for the seventh and final season
> (and possibly seasons before) of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine."
> Proceed at your own risk.
>
> II. DS9 Season 7 -- General Commentary |
> -----------------------------------------+
>
> Two years ago, DS9's fifth season came off feeling like surprisingly
> more than the sum of its parts, particularly in its second half after
> Cardassia joined the Dominion.
That's odd. Two years back, after you posted your season
overview for the fifth season, I distinctly recall you replying to a
question of mine about that season's overall quality that it was "some
of the more hopeful episodes of the second part of the season" (or
words to that effect) which had made you give that season a passable
grade. I must have completely overlooked any euphoria on your part
about that season being "more than its parts", then.
During season five, many posters here and on a.t.ds9 balked at
the large number of poor episodes and the let-down that was the
mid-season Dominion two-parter. As I seem to recall, many of your
reviews during the season followed that general trend, which is why I
was so surprised that your overall assessment was relatively positive.
(Which led to your reply about the latter half that had somewhat
salvaged things.) At any rate, although quite a few of the people who
remained active posters after season five seem to have liked that
season, at the time the general opinion was overwhelmingly negative.
While you are certainly entitled to your own opinion, I must say that
I'm somewhat surprised at your altered stance on season five. Not in
the least because it would definitely be a rather partisan view to
hold...
> Season 6 showed some of the cracks
> in the idea of a DS9 Grand Epic, and season 7 continued those in
> many ways, being the first season to date that feels like much *less*
> than the sum of its parts -- probably because we expected it to be so
> much more.
Well, now that you expand the scope to "we" I definitely must
object again. During both seasons 5 and 6 a great many people felt
that both the "parts" and their "sum" were lacking. During season 7
this was no longer a "feeling" but an almost universally shared
opinion...
> Now, in fairness, some of the problems were due to
> constraints imposed from the outside world, but that doesn't excuse
> things entirely.
Quite.
> For starters, there's the war. The war doesn't need to be the focus
> of every single episode, certainly; a constant diet of "The Siege of
> AR-558" clones would get old really fast,
And IMO it got old a really long time ago, with such timeless
un-classics as "The Ship", "Nor the battle..." and "Rocks and Shoals".
DS9 has (again IMO) never managed to significantly rise above a jumble
of tired war-cliched which manage to convey nothing except the writers
complete lack of feel for actual war. Again, this is (or was,
considering how many posters disappeared after season five) not a
minority opinion.
> For too many shows, it seemed as
> though the war wasn't so much in a lull as completely absent.
Yes, a point that's been made many times before, although it's
still a valid one. Why don't we take it a step further for a change?
Let's argue that both the absence of the "war" for many episodes, plus
the number of dreary pointless episodes (plus the overemphasizing of
the new Dax, if you will) is an indication of a serious lack of talent
and/or originality on the part of the writers. In that case we would
no longer be talking about an isolated phenomenon (limited to the
war), but about something that's afflicted this show to a far greater
extent, like a disease spreading through a once healthy organism. The
only question that would remain was when the affection occurred. IMO,
way back in season five, when many were complaining that "DS9 has lost
it", after such drab episodes like "The Ship", "Nor the Battle...",
"LHWIWS", "Looking for Parmach", "The Ascent" and "FTU".
>
> In a related vein, the timing of several aspects of the war seemed to be
> off.
Yet another symptom, if you ask me.
> The revelation of the Founders' disease in "Treachery, Faith, and
> the Great River" was all well and good -- but we then didn't see
> Damar, Weyoun, or the Founder again for almost half the season.
Is that really different from Odo becoming human and it never
meaning anything, the shapeshifters having infiltrated Earth back in
season 4 and it never having any effects, countless victories against
the Dominion (destroyed shipyards and Ketracel White factories) and it
never getting any sort of follow-up? As far as I'm concerned this is
the same old problem rearing its ugly head once again...
> Damar's discomfort at his role was somewhat well established, at least
> in hindsight -- but the jump from him manipulating Weyoun in
> "Treachery" to his once-again-subservient role in "Penumbra" is
> jarring.
How about Kira reverting to her old "I hate all Cardassians!"
stance in fifth season's TDATL? Any different?
> Having Dukat lure Winn to the path of the Pagh Wraiths is
> okay to a fault (and certainly had a lot of great scenework, especially
> early on), but when you've reached your penultimate moment in that
> story four episodes before the finale and have to resort to blinding
> Dukat as a plot device to slow things down, it chafes.
How is this any different from the Dominion-heavy episodes
always conveniently being in beginning-central-end position during
seasons 3-7? Was there any good reason why the minefield was put up in
"Call to Arms" and not much sooner, given that the Dominion supplies
had been pouring in ever since mid-season 5? To put it as bluntly as
possible: hasn't this sort of thing *always* been the problem since
the start of season five?
> You get the idea. In essence, while the DS9 staff had the entire
> season to lay the groundwork for the series' end, only about half of
> the season was so used, and that in a manner that was a little hard to
> follow. (Now, I do know that they were told they couldn't have a
> full-season arc the way they tried to use the last ten hours for, and
> that's not their fault. Even so, I think things could have been planned
> a bit more.)
Yes, Ron Moore said something about he not being allowed to
have too many serialized shows, since that would mean that they had to
be shown in the right order and this pissed off some folk at Paraborg.
I still don't see why this meant that other plotlines couldn't have
been resolved earlier, or even how all of DS9 isn't in a way
"serialized" and must be shown in the correct order for it to make
sense. But that aside.
>
> There were a lot of other plot situations which felt as though they
> should have knit together and didn't. A minor example is Section 31,
> which did in fact tie into the major story in terms of the Founders'
> disease, but which never developed beyond that.
Lack of talent? Resorting to "big" storylines that never lead
anywhere? Sounds like DS9s trademark to me...
> The major example,
> and certainly the one that everyone's already been discussing without
> any help from me, is the lack of connection between the
> Dukat/Winn/Wraiths plot and the end of the war.
Well, we've all known why the Dominion was introduced in the
first place for quite some time now, haven't we? In order to give the
show the appearance of it being about "big" things, to take away the
horrible uncertainty on the writers' part that their stories alone
would not keep us watching. Knowing all that, why would this rubber
doll lead anywhere? At best, a tie-in would have been highly
artificial and transparent, if DS9s level of writing over the past
three seasons is any indication...
> That's a shame, because the Wraiths *could* have been a lot more.
Perhaps you should have informed the writers of that earlier,
since there was little chance they would come up with anything
worthwhile in the first place...
> Once or twice, there were hints that the Prophet/Wraith conflict might
> have had issues underlying it: Dukat and others said on more than one
> occasion that the Prophets "abandoned" Bajor during the Occupation
> and that the Pagh Wraiths wanted to interfere on the Bajorans' behalf.
> If that turned out to be true, the final conflict between the two could
> have turned out in a much more interesting fashion. (Among other
> things, picture Sisko and Dukat having a no-holds-barred struggle
> within the Celestial Temple -- but a struggle of ideas, not FX flames.)
*Ideas*?!? On _DS9_? Hah!
> There are some other plot red herrings over the course of the season --
> they were set up as though they were implying something, but either
> turned out not to imply anything or to imply something that didn't
> make a lot of sense.
But they kept you watching, didn't they? Which is what they
were _meant_ to do!
> For example
>
> -- Admiral Ross's Section 31 connections. Used to good effect in a
> particular episode, then completely ignored every other time. Even
> sweeping it under the rug would have been better than this. (Ross
> was basically a chameleon character: he had whatever attitudes needed
> to be rejected at the time. That's not really a character; it's a set of
> straw men.)
How about Kai Opaka promising that she and Sisko would cross
"pahs" again back in the first season's "Battle Lines" and it never
happening? How was that any different?
> -- Virtually every "major" episode in the season, even early on,
> seemed to be filled with claims that such-and-such an action would
> "change the course of the war." The wormhole reopens, the
> Romulans and Bajorans have a spat, the Founders get sick, the Breen
> show up with a new and powerful weapon ... sheesh.
Kept you watching, didn't it? (Or as the show's writers would
put it: "Neener, neener, neeeeener!!!")
> Whoever the
> writers wanted to need a desperate victory had to be in desperate
> straits, regardless of the past -- I've never seen a war with that many
> drastic shifts in momentum. Would someone just *win*, please?
So, eh, you still maintain all those high grades you handed
out in parts 1 and 2 of your review?
> (Along with that, both the Founders and Dukat were mentioned as
> "more dangerous than ever" early in the season. Okay, guys, we get
> it: we're supposed to worry. Move along.)
After all, they couldn't have had you thinking that the
victories in SoA, ITPML and TOTP *amounted to* anything, now could
they? (You might have decided the war was as good as won and not
bothered with the final season. It's not as if the writers had enough
faith in their abilities for them to suppose that you might have
watched for the other stories...)
>
> -- Everything about the Breen. They produced a weapon which put
> the Federation on the defensive for a few weeks, but that's it.
"Oh, no! Please keep watching, we promise you these guys will
turn out to be real badasses. Think of our future careers!"
> If the
> good guys could beat the Jem'Hadar and the Breen so handily, why
> didn't they beat the Jem'Hadar and the Cardassians equally easily
> months ago? The refrigeration suits, the static language, the what's-
> under-the-helmet mystery ... none of them meant anything. They
> were just filler. (It's been argued that perhaps a new series is being
> set up with the Breen as the big villains. The problem with that is that
> it's still dull. When the Cardassians were introduced in TNG to set up
> for DS9, they were a fascinating race.
Really? I thought they and the Bajorans were dry as dust to
begin with on TNG. Another enemy the Feds hadn't managed to completely
destroy, much to my chagrin.
> When the Maquis was
> introduced in DS9 to set up for Voyager, potential oozed out of every
> episode with them. If the Breen are the next step ... brr.)
What matters is who would be in control of the next series.
Since it looks like it"ll be Braga/Berman, there is no real hope
anyway, no matter who becomes the central race or whatever.
> -- The Romulan presence in the war seemed to mean nothing apart
> from having more ships. They contributed nothing in terms of
> strategic advances or tactical advice; apart from one really good
> episode on Romulus (which was only peripherally related to the war),
> they were almost as faceless as the Breen. Why use 'em? Just
> because they're there?
Do you want me to say it one more time?
> I've just spent an awful lot of words griping about the stories of the
> season. Was there anything to *like* from a plot standpoint?
>
> Hell, yes. Many of the "finish lines" for various parts of the war were
> worthwhile goals, and several of them were well established.
>
> A lesser example comes in the form of the Klingon Empire. Some
> years, I've been very tired of Klingon stories -- DS9's fourth season,
> when Worf first arrived on board, was especially bad that way, as we
> got a slew of questionable ones like "Rules of Engagement" and
> "Sons of Mogh." It seems that what we needed was a "regular"
> Klingon with a perspective different from Worf's. When Martok
> came along, that's exactly what we got -- and from season 5's
> "Soldiers of the Empire" on, Martok has reinvigorated a lot of
> Klingon episodes. "Once More Unto the Breach" spoke to heroism,
More predictable Klingon klap-trap is what it spoke to IMO...
> One sizable argument DS9 fans (and Trek fans in general) have made
> over the years, though, is that at its core, Star Trek is about characters
> and the human condition.
Rather, it always seemed to result in okay
adventure/action/romance/soap stories, and very few real "character
building and the human condition" stories. TOS was much better in this
respect.
> Okay. Let's take a look at the character
> situation. How did they fare over this final season?
> (As a moral note ... many people have noted how odd it is that Dukat,
> who's arguably still unhinged from Ziyal's death and not entirely
> responsible for his actions, is consigned to a fate worse than death,
> while the female Founder, who consciously ordered genocide and
> achieved it in part, is "allowed to stand trial" while knowing she's
> gotten the one thing she truly wanted, namely Odo. I completely
> agree.)
You wanted depth and consistency from post-season four DS9?
Oops.
>
> Second place goes not so much to an individual character as to a
> group: the Prophets. Interesting, nonlinear, impersonal, only
> vaguely aware of humanoid perceptions, "of Bajor" ... just about all
> of that was swept away. Instead, we make Sisko half-Prophet so that
> his "mother" can become the spokesProphet for the season -- and a
> single spectral figure in whom we have no emotional investment is a
> pale, pale shadow of seeing the Prophets speak through images of
> other characters (and often very good choices of images at that). The
> Prophets mostly carried the signs saying <FOREBODING ALERT>
> during this season, and they were capable of so much more. And
> what's more ... after all this, do we know why they're "of Bajor"?
> Do we know why they wanted Sisko? Do we know why they sent the
> Orbs? Do we know why they established the wormhole? A
> resounding "nope" to all of the above: they were mystical White Hats
> who helped Ben out and warned him of the dangers of being happy.
> Sigh.
Seriously for a moment, what did you really _expect_ after
last year's season 6 had come to a close? We all wanted DS9 to become
good again, but really, what were the odds?
> Ezri's sheer existence was due to outside constraints (namely, Terry
> Farrell leaving), and as such I was willing to cut her a little slack early
> on -- but as it happens, early on I didn't have to. When Ezri first
> showed up, I liked her: she was a bit immature, as cute and perky as
> they come, and as in need of Sisko's counsel as he used to be of
> Jadzia's or Curzon's. That was a nice role-reversal, and one I thought
> showed a lot of room for growth. Unfortunately, "growth" in Ezri's
> case consisted of finding her a prom date.
As if the DS9 writers have ever shown any great feeling for
female characters, romantic relations or women in general! We've had
silly romance stories and even lesbian kisses sprinkled throughout
this series (not to mention downright sexist crap in "Profit and Lace"
and the very existence of "big boobs" Leeta) as it was. What the hell
did you really _expect_, if you'll pardon my French?
> So, all of that said, was the season a success or a failure?
>
> It was the sum of its parts. It could have been more.
Sure, and I *could* find a pot of gold at the end of a
rainbow. Really. Uh-huh.
Francis (To email, replace 'Netherlands' with 'nl')
- - - - - -
+ + + Out Of Cheese Error + + + Please
Reinstall Universe and Reboot + + +
- The Hex Machine, from Terry Pratchett's 'Hogfather'
Timothy W. Lynch
the review there in the first place. (The original review should
still be in r.a.s.reviews and r.a.s.current.)
Fran...@wxs.Netherlands (Francis M'stein) writes:
>On 12 Aug 1999 07:43:15 GMT tly...@alumnae.caltech.edu (Timothy W.
>Lynch) wrote in article <7ottuj$g...@gap.cco.caltech.edu>:
>> [part 3 of 3]
>>
>> WARNING: This article has spoilers for the seventh and final season
>> (and possibly seasons before) of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine."
>> Proceed at your own risk.
>> II. DS9 Season 7 -- General Commentary |
>> -----------------------------------------+
>>
>> Two years ago, DS9's fifth season came off feeling like surprisingly
>> more than the sum of its parts, particularly in its second half after
>> Cardassia joined the Dominion.
> That's odd. Two years back, after you posted your season
>overview for the fifth season, I distinctly recall you replying to a
>question of mine about that season's overall quality that it was "some
>of the more hopeful episodes of the second part of the season" (or
>words to that effect) which had made you give that season a passable
>grade. I must have completely overlooked any euphoria on your part
>about that season being "more than its parts", then.
You might want to read my season 5 overview again, then. My tone in
that was positive -- I distinctly remember being surprised while I was
writing at how decent the season looked in retrospect, and I
distinctly remember saying so in print. Feel free to check yourself,
though.
Euphoria? No -- but a sense of the show possibly turning a corner.
>While you are certainly entitled to your own opinion, I must say that
>I'm somewhat surprised at your altered stance on season five.
I don't consider it particularly altered. In my season 5 overview, I
said I was surprisingly pleased with the season. In my season 6
overview, I noted what a change for the worse it was from season 6,
including specific paragraphs from the season 5 review in order to
compare and contrast.
Again, your perceptions are your own, but I don't particularly feel my
sense of the season has changed.
>> Season 6 showed some of the cracks
>> in the idea of a DS9 Grand Epic, and season 7 continued those in
>> many ways, being the first season to date that feels like much *less*
>> than the sum of its parts -- probably because we expected it to be so
>> much more.
> Well, now that you expand the scope to "we" I definitely must
>object again.
"We" doesn't have to be universal. However, I think that's beside the
point. "Expected" in this context is akin to setting standards --
when I say to a student of mine that I have high expectations for
them, it's a way of saying that there are certain standards they
should uphold. Please interpret the above statement in that light.
I'm not going to respond to your point-by-point, for two reasons.
First, I feel that my review should (and hopefully does) speak for
itself; I'm all for having it spark discussion, but I don't plan on
"defending" anything apart from actual clarifications or points of
fact. Second, an awful lot of your point-by-point claims are
essentially saying "this is typical of the evil nasty incompetent
writers and you're an idiot for hoping for anything better than this."
I can't see what response I can possibly make to that.
[As an example, there's "*Ideas*?!? On _DS9_? Hah!" Real helpful
contribution to the discussion there.]
A few small comments on broader points, then:
>> That's a shame, because the Wraiths *could* have been a lot more.
> Perhaps you should have informed the writers of that earlier,
>since there was little chance they would come up with anything
>worthwhile in the first place...
"Perhaps" you should refrain from assuming my work is intended for or
read by the writers.
>> Whoever the
>> writers wanted to need a desperate victory had to be in desperate
>> straits, regardless of the past -- I've never seen a war with that many
>> drastic shifts in momentum. Would someone just *win*, please?
> So, eh, you still maintain all those high grades you handed
>out in parts 1 and 2 of your review?
Gee, uh, no. I'm always oblivious to what I've written before.
Yes, I maintain them. That's *why* I made the point about the season
being less than the sum of its parts. (Several of my high grades were
for episodes that weren't war-related, as well. "Chimera" isn't
affected by the overall problems I've been mentioning, at least
seriously.)
> Seriously for a moment, what did you really _expect_ after
>last year's season 6 had come to a close? We all wanted DS9 to become
>good again, but really, what were the odds?
If I judged in advance that season 7 would be crap, there's be no
reason for anyone to read my reviews -- or for me to write 'em.
Would've made my job easier, to be sure, but I've found that a
willingness to look for a balanced view is more interesting both to me
and to readers. If you want a one-sided "the writers suck" rant, it
certainly sounds like you're more than capable of writing one.
Tim Lynch