DS9 Season Review: Lynch's Spoiler Review: DS9 Season 1
Tim Lynch
Review by Tim Lynch <tly...@juliet.caltech.edu>
===============================================
WARNING: This post contains spoiler information regarding the first season
of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine". If you haven't seen the season and don't
wish the spoilers, don't read the article. Seems sensible enough on this
end. :-)
Grumble. After all this time, I have not one, but _two_ season-ending
reviews to write. My fingers will never forgive me. :-)
As with the last review, my apologies for being late with this, but (1) I
decided to go back through the season before beginning, and (2) I took care
of the TNG review first. Such is life.
Also following in the footsteps of the TNG review, I'm going to first go
through the season show-by-show (which, fortunately, will be somewhat less
work than for TNG's case, since there were fewer shows), and then have a more
general section. So, onwards:
I. DS9, Episode by Episode |
---------------------------+
"Emissary"
Written by: Rick Berman and Michael Piller (story)
Michael Piller (teleplay)
Directed by: David Carson
Initial rating: 8.
Best quote: "Then why do you _exist_ here?"
"Emissary" got DS9 off to a bang, particularly as pilots go (thinking of this
and then "Encounter at Farpoint" makes the comparison a cinch). Although
there were certainly bugs left to be ironed out (such as toning down Kira's
combative nature without disrupting it) and problems similar to those in most
pilots (such as O'Brien's rather un-touching farewell to the Enterprise and
"Exposition Officer" Odo's history of himself given with all the subtlety of
a charging rhinoceros), the show had more than enough kick to get past those.
After this, I think most people had a reasonable feel for who these
characters were and who they might become, particularly Sisko, Kira, Odo and
Quark. The "nonlinear time" issue was the sort of thing you either liked a
lot or disliked intensely -- I fell into the former camp.
All in all, "Emissary" was a hell of a way to start.
Final rating: 9.
"Past Prologue"
Written by: Kathryn Powers
Directed by: Winrich Kolbe
Initial rating: 9.
Best quote: "Go over _my_ head again -- and I'll have _yours_ on a
platter."
"Past Prologue" only had two problems, really. One of them is that the
internal logic of the episode doesn't work (there's no way to justify Tahna
possessing the antimatter converter without making Odo seem utterly
incompetent), and the other is that it was just too damned early in the
season for a "loyalties get tested" show. We may know Kira to a certain
extent from "Emissary", but we don't know her well _enough_ to get overly
concerned about whether she'd actually switch sides. If this had been about
four shows later, it would have made a lot more sense.
On the other hand, this began the first in a line of very nice "political"
DS9 shows, which I'll talk about later. "Plain, simple Garak" was also a
promising new player whose presence is sorely missed, and Bashir got some
much-needed time to develop here.
Final rating: 7.
"A Man Alone"
Written by: Gerald Sanford & Michael Piller (story)
Michael Piller (teleplay)
Directed by: Paul Lynch
Initial rating: 6.
Best quote: "Commander, laws change -- depending on who's making them."
The best thing about this was the "Keiko becomes a teacher" half of the story
-- and even it had its weak spots. Although the frame-up of Odo seemed
fairly well-thought-out, and there was some terrific interplay between Odo
and Quark, the show moved at a snail's pace. Add to that the trouble Terry
Farrell was still having making Dax's small role believable and a great deal
of biotechnobabble (a subgroup of regular technobabble), and you have an
episode that really didn't do much for me.
Final rating: 5.
"Babel"
Written by: Sally Caves & Ira Steven Behr (story)
Michael McGreevy & Naren Shankar (teleplay)
Directed by: Paul Lynch
Initial rating: 9.5.
Best quote: A tie, between
"You claimed Rom fixed your replicators." "So?" "Rom's an
idiot. He couldn't fix a straw if it was bent."
and "You, GOLD, Owe MEEEEE!"
"Babel" was the first show since "Emissary" that made me impressed again.
The jeopardy angle with Jaheel was a bit much, but was also a very small
fraction of the show -- and apart from that and some _mild_ technobabble,
everything was very nice. We had a believable (and somewhat worrying)
premise, some great O'Brien scenes, more good Odo/Quark interaction (this
time with some very serious undercurrents), and one of the better "random
virus hits our characters" episodes produced.
Final rating: 9.5.
"Captive Pursuit"
Written by: Jill Sherman Donner (story)
Jill Sherman Donner and Michael Piller (teleplay)
Directed by: Corey Allen
Initial rating: 9.5.
Best quote: "I am sorry -- I have no vices for you to exploit."
"Captive Pursuit" is a generally straightforward action piece, and only has
one real flaw. The flaw it has is a doozy, however -- namely, for Tosk to be
able to do what he does early on, station security has to be either useless
or incompetent, and I don't care to accept either. Beyond that, there are
some minor quibbles (such as the utter lack of a language barrier, and the
implication that O'Brien was sanctioning murder when he let Tosk kill one of
the hunters), but not enough to bring the show down much. Tosk was one of
the more convincing aliens we've seen this year, and O'Brien got some much
needed time to develop -- or at least, to be revealed.
Final rating: 8.
"Q-Less"
Written by: Hannah Louise Shearer (story), Robert Hewitt Wolfe (teleplay)
Directed by: Paul Lynch
Initial rating: 4.
Best quote: Two of them:
"What did they call you, the god of lies?" "They meant it
_affectionately_."
and Quark on his clientele: "They're all ridiculously
wealthy -- and not too bright."
The two lines above are about all "Q-Less" has going for it. Q has a couple
of good lines beyond this, and Sisko is vaguely decent (though not nearly the
foil for Q that Picard is). However, that is *it* so far as this show goes.
The mystery is something a five-year-old could beat this crew to solving,
Bashir is put way out of character as a womanizing Riker-clone, the
technobabble is very heavy, there's a truckload of unlikeable and unwatchable
characters at the auction, and we have the return of Vash, the character who
should never have been invented in the first place -- and she's probably in
the worst of her three appearances here. This is the only show of DS9 to
date that I'd have to call utter crap.
Final rating: 2.
"Dax"
Written by: Peter Allan Fields (story),
D.C. Fontana and Peter Allan Fields (teleplay)
Directed by: David Carson
Initial rating: 9.
Best quote: "Live, Jadzia Dax. Live a long, fresh, and wonderful life."
>From the worst of the lot ... to one of the best. "Dax"'s biggest problem is
simply what the episode isn't: it isn't a show that outlines who and what
Jadzia Dax _is_. It does, however, say a great deal about who and what
Jadzia and Dax _were_, and cloaks it in a good mystery/courtroom drama.
Sisko and Kira begin to work together here for mutual advantage, Odo's
detective work is as unique as ever, Bashir's naivete is exploited to the
full, and Fionnula Flanagan turns in a devastating performance as Enina
Tandro. D. C. Fontana needs to come back more often.
Final rating: 10.
"The Passenger"
Written by: Morgan Gendel (story)
Morgan Gendel and Robert Hewitt Wolfe & Michael Piller
(teleplay)
Directed by: Paul Lynch
Initial rating: 6.
Best quote: "There's nothing wrong with a good delusion -- I sell them
upstairs to dozens of people every day."
"The Passenger", on the other hand, probably would have been the worst DS9 to
date were it not for "Q-Less". While Kajada is an interesting character up
to a point, and some isolated segments of the Odo/Primmin interaction are
worth watching, the show itself really isn't. It's got loads of exposition,
some surprisingly bad acting from Siddig el Fadil as Bashir/Vantika, a
glacially slow pace, an obvious mystery, a silly technobabble solution, and
no thought whatsoever on the part of the regulars. I was not, to put it
mildly, impressed. (I should clarify that el Fadil was fine in _body
language_ as Vantika -- it was simply his manner of speech that failed.)
Oh, and for those wanting to spot small things -- if you look very carefully
(you might have to go frame-by-frame) while Vantika throws Quark aside early
on, you can see Bashir revealed early as the person doing the throwing for a
brief moment or two. Look for it.
Final rating: 3.5.
"Move Along Home"
Written by: Michael Piller (story)
Frederick Rappaport and Lisa Rich & Jeanne Carrigan-Fauci
(teleplay)
Directed by: David Carson
Initial rating: 5.
Best quote: Two of them:
"Dad, I'm fourteen." "I'm glad we agree on something."
"And if all else fails, just _yell_ again, Doctor."
"Move Along Home" could have been a very good show if it had any coherence.
There's the continuation of a great Sisko/Jake relationship here, a very
interesting idea, surreal game scenes, some good instances of Odo taking an
active role rather than a _reactive_ role (which he does a lot), some good
Sisko/Dax interplay, and ... well, who can resist yelling "alamarain!!" when
things go well? :-)
Unfortunately, "Move Along Home" _also_ has some bizarre leaps of logic on
the part of Quark and Odo, a rare bad (well, all right, miserable)
performance from Armin Shimerman (particularly when groveling), and several
annoying things that seem to come out of nowhere (Bashir's screaming, Falow's
laugh, Primmin's general bozo-like nature, etc.). What's more, Kira seems
incredibly out of character for most of the show. This is a nice idea, but
not one that came out even close to its full potential.
Final rating: 5.5.
"The Nagus"
Written by: David Livingston (story), Ira Steven Behr (teleplay)
Directed by: David Livingston
Initial rating: 9.
Best quote: "And remember -- when in doubt, be ruthless!"
The vast majority of the net appears to hate "The Nagus" with a passion.
Except me.
Quite honestly, I don't understand what everyone has against this. Yes, the
show is incredibly silly. Yes, the Sisko/Jake plot, while good, is somewhat
overplayed. But that's really about it for the negatives I could see. The
best phrase I came up with to describe this beast was "generally ludicrous
fun", and I'll stand by it. I enjoyed Quark being put as incredibly out of
his league as he was, I enjoyed Wallace "inconceivable!" Shawn playing the
Nagus, I enjoyed the funeral ritual -- hell, I even enjoyed most of the ear
jokes. The show was good, goofy fun -- and that's all it wanted to be.
Final rating: 8.
"Vortex"
Written by: Sam Rolfe
Directed by: Winrich Kolbe
Initial rating: 5.5.
Best quote: "You can pour your square shape into a round hole, but you
don't really _fit_, do you?"
"Vortex" improves a little bit with age, but only a little. It still strikes
me a show that's mostly, well, just _there_. The Mirradorn "let's get away
from Ah-Kel" plot was pretty much a loss and a bore, and the Croden-centered
aspects of the story were, while decent, extremely simplistic. Cliff de
Young did what he could with Croden, but there wasn't enough of a character
there to really make me care what happened to him -- and it seemed a foregone
conclusion that he wouldn't _really_ be killed at the end. Rene Auberjonois
did a nice job with what he had, but in my opinion what he had really wasn't
enough to build an episode on. Still, there are moments in here to look for
-- such as Odo's small smile when he tells Croden's daughter that he _is_ a
Changeling.
Final rating: 6.
"Battle Lines"
Written by: Hilary Bader (story)
Richard Danus and Evan Carlos Sommers (teleplay)
Directed by: Paul Lynch
Initial rating: 9.5.
Best quote: "I'm sorry, Commander, but I've learned we can't afford to
die here -- not even once."
Whew! "Battle Lines", more than any episode made up until it, exemplified
what I think DS9 was intended to accomplish as a series. While still
remaining true to the philosophies of the Trek universe as a whole, it
managed to turn in a gritty, truly _nasty_ examination of what violence can
"achieve" if left unchecked. Opaka was spot-on in her description of the
Ennis as people who "don't know how to do anything _but_ die" -- and that's a
bleakness we've never seen before in Trek, in my view. Even the regulars
didn't escape unscathed -- although Kira had a major step forward in coming
to terms with her past, she lost Kai Opaka in the process. This show set the
stage for an awful lot of future events -- and if it weren't for some
extraneous O'Brien/Dax scenes, it'd be a perfect show.
Final rating: 9.5.
"The Storyteller"
Written by: Kurt Michael Bensmiller (story)
Kurt Michael Bensmiller and Ira Steven Behr (teleplay)
Directed by: David Livingston
Initial rating: 4.5.
Best quote: A tie for a few:
"I think they're the ones offering services, Chief."
"Don't worry, Chief. *I* have faith in you."
and "Do I _annoy_ you?"
"The Storyteller" isn't bad at all. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean it's
particularly good either. I enjoyed the O'Brien plot up to a point
(particularly his interaction with Bashir, who was the self-assured member of
the pair for a change), but couldn't bring myself to actually get involved in
what was going on. The Jake/Nog/Sisko-as-mediator plot, on the other hand,
really only had one good scene, that being the attempt to steal Odo's bucket.
(I take that back -- the brief squabble outside Varis's door brought back
memories of me being their age, and some sympathetic cringes on their behalf.)
Other than that, I have to say that Sisko really doesn't work as a straight
mediator type, both Gina Philips and Lawrence Monoson were awful in their
guest roles, there was lots of technobabble, and despite having two plots the
show just seemed to drag on for a while. Worth watching, but not really much
of a standout.
Final rating: 6.
"Progress"
Written by: Peter Allan Fields
Directed by: Les Landau
Initial rating: 8.
Best quote: "But you have to realize something, Major -- you're on the
other side now."
"Progress" continued with Kira where "Battle Lines" left off. In "Battle
Lines", she had to deal with the violence in her past and in her nature --
here, she had to come to terms with the fact that she can't fight for the
underdog all the time any more. "Progress" made her come to that realization
quietly and naturally, and was a gripping piece of drama. The Jake/Nog plot
was a bit silly, but was a relieving counterpoint to just how depressing the
other plot was in many ways. I enjoyed it, possibly more than I should have.
About the only problem "Progress" had, aside from the question of whether the
environmental disaster being created here is really a good idea, is that the
ending is a bit too abrupt. Another thirty to sixty seconds would have been
ideal.
Final rating: 9.5.
"If Wishes Were Horses"
Written by: Nell McCue Crawford & William L. Crawford (story)
Nell McCue Crawford & William L. Crawford and Michael Piller
(teleplay)
Directed by: Robert Legato
Initial rating: 6.5.
Best quote: "He followed me home from the holosuite."
This is another show that has a lot of good ideas that turn into a very,
well, _wearing_ 46 minutes. While the show had several little touches that
served it well (such as Bashir's spot-on reaction to the infamous "I like you
as a friend" speech, and O'Brien's storytelling), and there really wasn't a
lot _wrong_ with the internal logic of the show, there simply wasn't much
there to make me sit up and take notice, either. Imagination-becomes-reality
shows are all too common in SF and Trek in particular, and this doesn't hold
a candle to some of the ones we've seen before. In particular, I found the
"two Daxes" subplot way overdone, the use of Odo purely as comic relief in
and of itself somewhat wearing, and the climax somewhat unexciting. C'est la
vie.
Final rating: 5.
"The Forsaken"
Written by: Jim Trombetta (story)
Don Carlos Dunaway and Michael Piller (teleplay)
Directed by: Les Landau
Initial rating: 6.
Best quote: "This is no computer -- this is my arch-enemy!"
Despite the rarely-welcome presence of Lwaxana Troi, "The Forsaken" managed
to at least be a watchable show. We got to see all the "good parts" of the
Bashir-plays-ambassador plot without having to endure much of the
ambassadors themselves, the O'Brien plot was entertaining fluff, and O'Brien
himself came off once again as a very real figure. What tidbits we got of
Odo's history were very much appreciated, but they weren't nearly enough to
save the show from the agonizing scenes with Odo and Lwaxana trapped in the
turbolift, to say nothing of her harassing behavior earlier.
Petty inconsistency note: Back when Odo first mentioned his regeneration
cycle in "A Man Alone", the cycle was 18 hours. Now it seems to be 16 hours.
It would be nice if we could at least go a _season_ before everything starts
contradicting itself. :-)
Final rating: 5.
"Dramatis Personae"
Written by: Joe Menosky
Directed by: Cliff Bole
Initial rating: 5.5.
Best quote: Two choices: Either
"Don't look at me that way -- I'm perfectly normal."
or "He's still _dead_, if that's what you mean."
If "Dramatis Personae" had used the DS9 characters and character traits we
know, it could have been fantastic. Instead, it was merely interesting.
The biggest problem was that there was no apparent rhyme or reason given for
the specific changes occurring to each specific person. Were such a reason
advanced plausibly, then the entire show could be a lot of fun, excepting the
complete dumbing-down of Dax. There are still a lot of things to have fun
watching, though -- Bashir's Machiavelli is such a huge change from the way
Bashir usually acts that it's worth a look, and Odo's detective work is among
the more subtle things we've seen from him to date. In addition -- well,
there may not have been a good reason for Sisko to act so strangely, but
Avery Brooks was decidedly compelling.
Final rating: 6.5.
"Duet"
Written by: Lisa Rich & Jeanne Carrigan-Fauci (story)
Peter Allan Fields (teleplay)
Directed by: James L. Conway
Initial rating: 10.
Best quote: Too many to count. Here's a sampling:
"If your lies are going to be this transparent, it's going
to be a very short interrogation." "In that case,
I'll try to make my lies more opaque..."
"Is that what you're charging him with, Commander? LYING?"
"You can never undo what I've accomplished -- the dead will
still be dead!!"
"I regret a lot of what I had to do -- " "How convenient of
you!"
"What you call genocide -- I call a day's work."
"He's a _Cardassian_! That's reason enough!" "NO! It's
not..."
Wow. "Duet" represents everything DS9 should be. It gave Kira another step
in her development, had a very naturally growing story, major repercussions
to be handled later, a grittiness not germane to any other Trek genre, and
some of the best performances ever seen in the show. Superb.
Final rating: 10.
"In the Hands of the Prophets"
Written by: Robert Hewitt Wolfe
Directed by: David Livingston
Initial rating: 9.5.
Best quote: Again, a great many. Here's another sampling:
"One must never look into the eyes of one's own gods."
"I'm a teacher. My responsibility is to expose my students
to knowledge, not hide it from them."
"Some fear you as the symbol of the Federation they view as
godless. Some fear you as the Emissary who walked
with the Prophets. And some fear you because Vedek
Winn told them to."
"The Prophets teach us patience." "It seems they also teach
you politics."
"Odo -- I am not a killer!" "No, but most of your friends
are." "True."
"You claim the Prophets as your _personal_ constituency..."
"I don't think that you're the devil." "Maybe we have made
some progress after all."
A fitting close for DS9's first season. Although the lack of detail about
what exactly Keiko _does_ teach about Bajor makes the issue far more muddied
than it should have been, and there is a minor logic goof (that of O'Brien
not calling Odo the minute he realized Neela had done something to security),
this show took several current-day issues and rolled them into a powerful
story about faith, religious extremism, and misplaced loyalties. Sisko
provided the strongest balancing presence I've seen from him so far, and both
of the major religious leaders (Winn and Bareil, the latter of whom I very
much want to see next year) were excellent. As with "Duet", we saw a lot of
seeds being planted for next season as well -- and ended with a wonderful
summing-up of how far we've already come. Nice work.
Final rating: 8.5.
So, averaging it all up, we have an even 7. As with the TNG "average", this
is not particularly meaningful -- but it's closer to having meaning than the
TNG one was. So, onwards to some general commentary:
II. General Commentary|
-----------------------+
First, let's get the alleged "big question" out of the way. People seem to
love to compare TNG to DS9, so I'll take care of it.
I think that DS9's first season stands head and shoulders above TNG's first
season in _almost_ every respect (the exception is one I'll get to).
However, I don't think it beat this season of TNG -- or even approached it.
And I think that's only fair. DS9 should have learned from most of TNG's
early mistakes and fixed them -- and, in many cases, it has. However, to
expect a cast that's been together for six months to work together as well as
one that's been together for five years is asking an awful lot.
Now that that's over with...
DS9, this season, was for the most part "routine", I'd have to say. When
going back through the season, I realized that there was much less variation
in ratings than I've seen in most equally-large stretches of TNG. On the one
hand, there was only one show of nineteen ("Q-Less") that made me want to
retch, and that's a good thing. :-) On the other hand, there were only a
handful of shows that were really _engaging_ to watch, too. This season
could be boiled down, as far as I'm concerned, to "Emissary", "Babel",
"Captive Pursuit", "Dax", "Battle Lines", "Progress", "Duet", and "In the
Hands of the Prophets" with almost no loss of information. The main traits I
feel I know about the characters, and certainly the stories really worth
watching, are all in there. (I'd probably include "The Nagus" for comic
relief, but that's me. :-) )
While most of the other stories had _something_ to recommend them on a first
viewing, they're also not aging particularly well. DS9, particularly
compared to TNG's first season, is a very _sedate_ show. Where TNG's quality
level (in almost every respect) ranged all over the spectrum in its first
season (from "Home Soil", which has virtually no redeeming features, to
"Conspiracy", which was terrific, and almost everything in between), DS9 has
mostly sat there -- not offending, but usually not adventuring either.
And as it happens, I think I prefer TNG's way at the moment. The erratic
nature of the first season may have been frustrating, but it also meant that
it had the thrill of unpredictability. :-) DS9 hasn't led me to that point
-- yet. I think it will before too long, though.
And one thing DS9 has done quite well, in my opinion, is introduce us to its
characters. After only a season, I feel as though I know several of them
quite well, and can more or less feel at home gauging their responses.
Kira, Odo, and Quark are the three best-outlined characters, I'd have to say,
and most of the others aren't far behind.
Kira, who was initially not one of my favorite characters at all, has had a
great deal of development and growth -- probably more in a single year than
most of the TNG regulars have had _at all_. From her initial, seemingly
one-dimensional attitude towards the Federation, Bajor, and Cardassians,
she's had to confront most of those beliefs and change more than a few of
them. The only worry I have here is where to go from what we've already
seen, short of a change in the show more radical than I think we should
expect. (She could always end up on Cardassia somehow, for instance, but I
think the odds of that are between slim and none in a practical sense.)
Odo is turning out to be surprisingly multifaceted. We've seen a fair amount
of what makes him tick and of just how limited his field of self-assuredness
is (for instance, bring technology in at all and he's usually lost --
"Vortex" was a slight exception), and his utter lack of pretense sometimes
turns him into the audience's stand-in. (He seemed to serve that role in
"Dramatis Personae", certainly, being the only person who got to stand
outside the tableau and say "wait a minute! This isn't right!".) The big
danger here is shown in "Vortex" -- there may be more teasing about his
origins ahead. As long as it's a slow, steady _progression_, that should be
fine -- but if it's just a bunch of wild goose chases, then they'll become
tiresome extremely fast.
Quark is still a bit shallow, but he's deliberately so -- after all, he's
representative of a race that's about the most caricature-like Trek's got.
Although his personality is pretty much as expected, it's been put to good
use most of the time. Unfortunately, there are tendencies to simply use it
as "Quark's scheming gets the station in trouble, and the rest of the
regulars have to solve it". We've seen it in "Q-Less", "Move Along Home",
and "The Passenger", all some of DS9's weaker stories. I don't think it's
going to improve with age, either, so I'd simply drop this type of story.
O'Brien had a cheat by being known before DS9 even started, but even so
things like "Captive Pursuit" and "In the Hands of the Prophets" have done a
lot to flesh him out. ("The Storyteller" should have, but really didn't --
that was one of my objections to it.) If Odo is sometimes the objective
stand-in, O'Brien's representative of the "working stiff" that we never see
in any detail on the Enterprise (Barclay excepted). I'd like to see more of
how he deals with criticism aimed at his family -- based on the finale, he
needs some restraint, which might be interesting to see.
Sisko got a huge burst of characterization in "Emissary", but unfortunately
hasn't gotten a whole lot since then. Sisko's mostly been seen through the
various bonds he's had to form -- with Jake (all right, that one was already
there), with Kira, with Dax -- and doesn't always seem like much of a real
_person_ yet if you remove the bits of "Emissary" that helped so much. The
main trait of his that's come out since that is worth pursuing is his
distaste for diplomacy -- given that he's in a situation where first contacts
should be quite common, that might be difficult for him. Let's see something
where that's addressed.
Jake is probably the best developed kid Trek's ever seen. (Wesley is very
well developed _now_, but given that he's 19 and in the Academy I don't
consider him a kid any more, really.) Unfortunately, that doesn't always
translate to good, watchable stories -- look at "The Storyteller", for
instance. Sometimes it does, as in "Progress", but I really think any
significant plot-time with Jake needs to be used as a balance for very grim
stuff elsewhere, as in "Progress". What Jake could really be effective for
is as a good way for Sisko to gripe about things -- and that's something we
haven't seen yet.
Bashir isn't all that well-formed yet, but what I've seen I've very much
liked. His youth and idealism are already starting to take a slight beating
(in "Battle Lines" and "Duet", if nothing else), but it'd be a shame to see
it removed entirely. The only facet of him I'm starting to get quite tired
of already is the obsessive flirtation with Dax. Unless things are going to
go somewhere (which appears not to be the case), I'm hoping not to see much
more of it.
Finally, there's Dax, who's gotten the weakest treatment so far. While "Dax"
did a wonderful job of outlining Dax's _past_, we need to see as much work go
into seeing Dax's _present_. What's going on inside that double-brain of
hers? How does it feel to be more experienced in life than _every single
person on the station_ in some ways, and yet having everything be almost a
novelty in others? How have things changed with Sisko? How have things
changed for her, going from a woman-chaser to an attractive woman herself?
(Yuck -- that sounds almost like an ad for "Switch". ;-) ) Right now, Dax
is either around to trade technobabble with O'Brien, listen to another
attempt by Bashir, or be dumbed-down by plot necessities. None of these
options is particularly becoming. Dax needs help next year -- please give it
to her.
Now that I've gone through all of that, there really isn't _that_ much left
to talk about. I think that, Dax excepted, all the characters are really
coming along nicely -- and Dax's biggest problem is that she's running in
place. What needs to change are the _stories_ involving those characters --
they simply need to be a bit more involved and a bit more interesting.
I've heard statements that DS9 will be focusing more on the Gamma Quadrant
next year. I'm not entirely certain this is a good thing, and I'll tell you
why:
DS9 is set on a station, not a ship. As such, it cannot be the type of "pure
exploration" show that TOS and TNG profess to be. If it tries to copy that
basic formula, my bet is it will have a very tough time of it.
What DS9's setting provides, though, is a wonderful backdrop to see the
_politics_ of the 24th century. Others have already said that the Sisko/Kira
relationship is meant to be the focus of the series. Maybe, but I think the
real relationship is a mirror of that -- the Federation/Bajoran relationship.
We've never been in a situation where we're seeing the active recruitment of
a planet into the Federation in any detail, and certainly not one under these
circumstances. DS9 has the opportunity to show us a lot about the mechanics
of the Federation, not to mention a great deal about how it's viewed outside
the normal spheres of influence we see. I think focusing on the Gamma
Quadrant, while also exciting, may detract from that.
Along the same lines, since DS9 is mostly confined to Bajor and its environs,
we have a unique opportunity to see the true culture of a _planet_ in the
Trek universe, something else we've never seen. Until recently, most planets
and races were pretty one-note -- Vulcans had logic, Klingons had honor,
Romulans had bad haircuts :-), that sort of thing. Bajor could go that way
-- or it could go the way we're already seeing in "Duet" and "In the Hands of
the Prophets", where it's a planet with a lot of internal issues always
brewing and never resolved. There's an awful lot of potential there for
powerful stories, and I think it'd be a shame to waste it.
Now I'm really almost done. Two much shorter points:
-- In my TNG review, I noted two major problems. There were a lot of logic
gaffes making it so that no one could believe the situations the crew was in,
and there was an overabundance of technobabble. DS9, fortunately, has mostly
avoided the first -- but the second is present, though not quite to the level
of TNG's. As in that review, I urge that this be lessened.
-- Here's a point which I meant to make in the TNG review, but is quite
applicable to both: The people responsible for creating the "next week"
previews should be replaced with people who know what they're doing. Most
previews this year have either made the upcoming episode look particularly
trite and awful ("A Man Alone", "The Forsaken", etc.), spoil major plot
elements better left unspoiled ("Q-Less", for instance), or on a really good
week, both at once. Since I don't use the previews to judge the quality of a
show, I'm not all _that_ worried about the former, although I would if I were
in the marketing division of Paramount. I do, however, _watch_ the previews
-- and when they contribute to ruining suspense in a show, it's a decidedly
bad thing. This needs correction.
That seems to be about it. I think DS9's off on the right foot -- it needs
to work a little more before it's consistently strong, engaging material, but
most of the right elements are in place. Onwards to season two!
Tim Lynch (Harvard-Westlake School, Science Dept.)
BITNET: tlynch@citjulie
INTERNET: tly...@juliet.caltech.edu
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"We are constantly searching, not just for the answers to our questions, but
for _new_ questions!"
-- Sisko, "Emissary"
--
Copyright 1993, Timothy W. Lynch. All rights reserved, but feel free to ask...