[DS9] Lynch's Spoiler Review: "To The Death"
Timothy W. Lynch
WARNING: Spoilers for DS9's "To the Death" lurk below.
In brief: Not top-notch, but mostly engrossing except for the final act.
======
Written by: Ira Steven Behr & Robert Hewitt Wolfe
Directed by: LeVar Burton
Brief summary: Sisko and the Defiant are forced to fight along a
group of Jem'Hadar in order to prevent other, renegade Jem'Hadar
from gaining access to technology that could make them nearly
invincible.
======
I wasn't expecting all that much from "To the Death". The two-fold
premise seemed to promise lots of action for action's sake, and lots of
Jem'Hadar. I'm not a big fan of the former, and find the Jem'Hadar a
pretty boring villain -- so as a result, I came in really not anticipating
very much.
Perhaps as a result of that, I was pleasantly surprised. "To the Death"
certainly wasn't the most gripping or hardest-hitting or most
interesting show DS9 has had this season, but it wasn't the clunker I
was dreading either. Aside from a lackluster fifth act, most of it
managed to be carried along by the performers well enough to work.
From a writing standpoint, it's awfully difficult to make the
Jem'Hadar interesting. A race genetically engineered to be superb
killers may be sound tactics, but it makes them such automatic "black
hats" that plots involving them tend to be cartoon-like. And even
unlike the Borg, who lack even what little individuality exists among
the Jem'Hadar, the threat isn't personal beyond the simple threat of
death -- with the Borg, at least the threat is of a life where your own
sense of self has been stripped away.
"To the Death", however, did a reasonable job of making the
Jem'Hadar ... about as interesting as they can be given their premise.
I'm still not particularly fond of them, but at least a few details were
given that fleshed them out a little bit -- mostly about their loyalty.
For them to have loyalty to the Founders but not, necessarily, to those
between the Jem'Hadar and the Founders on the Dominion food chain
does establish some potentially interesting precedents.
The main thing that worked, however, was the reaction of Sisko,
O'Brien and the rest of the Defiant crew to the Jem'Hadar presence on
their ship. Unlike the Maquis, there was very little here to make the
Federation officers question their own beliefs -- but Sisko's ever-
present attempts to make the barely-apt "teams" function without
internal warfare worked just fine. The inevitable disparagement of
fighting styles and the comparison of ship's discipline styles weren't
exactly surprising -- but they were effective, which is the more
important thing.
I also appreciated the nod given to TNG's "Contagion" as the plot
unfolded. It's not all that feasible for the Dominion to be referring to
most Alpha Quadrant races, given their location -- but the Iconians and
their "gateway" technology are one of the few races that it would make
sense to know. It's been a long time since I've seen "Contagion", so
I don't remember whether the Iconians did all their conquering from a
single gateway on their homeworld or not; the situation we got,
though, made a whole lot of sense, and certainly made the time
pressure entirely appropriate.
Jeffrey Combs's Weyoun was probably the most interesting (or at
least interestingly presented) guest character. We're starting to see a
pattern develop of the Vorta being used as Jem'Hadar "overseers" (at
least, I think we are -- I seem to recall references to them being used
that way before), and just that simple consistency makes the Dominion
seem at least marginally more realistic. More interesting, though, was
his attitude given that fact: while he was acknowledging the help that
Sisko and the rest of the Federation could be, he was still seeing them
primarily as *tools*, just as he clearly saw the Jem'Hadar. With Odo,
he was somewhat more conciliatory -- but even then, he tried to
manipulate things a bit (as his "do you want to come home"
conversation made clear, in a beautifully-lit series of close-ups). His
"just doing my job" refrain to Sisko when Sisko rejected his "offer"
did a good job of making us realize that he never really *stopped*
trying to use everyone. That attitude eventually cost him his life, but
it's plain as day that he had no idea there was any problem with his
attitude at all -- and that was nice to see. (This was also a very
welcome relief from the last couple of times we've seen Jeffrey
Combs, when he played Brunt in the Ferengi-themed "Family
Business" and "Bar Association". Ugh.)
The main story didn't really do much more than that for me -- suicide
missions and statements about dying in battle aren't my cup of tea --
but there were a lot of nice character moments and dialogue snippets in
passing to bring the episode up to the enjoyable level. Many of them
centered around O'Brien: his sardonic "followed by a get-to-know-
you buffet at 1930" in response to Sisko's mention of a joint briefing,
his mimicking of the Jem'Hadar battle oath, and especially his scene
with Dax about "goodbye" messages. O'Brien's always been the
most down-home character, and he's one of the few you expect
automatically to record a message like that (the other one being Sisko,
for Jake); to see him worry about it publicly with Dax and her calmly
reassure him that one, he'd live to be 140, and two, everyone records
them, made for one of the best scenes of the show. (A few other
moments didn't fare so well, the "you're in Worf's seat" opening
scene and Dax's "no sleep, no food, no women -- no wonder you're
so angry" scene being the two weakest.)
That leaves the battle sequence comprising the fifth act. Here, I was
pretty much yawning straight through. Admittedly, this time we
actually got *some* casualties (a whopping two of them for "our"
side, so far as I know) -- but given that Our Heroes were fighting a
hand-to-hand combat with blades against a foe that had them
outnumbered, knew the territory better, knew they were there, and
both genetically and by training are likely to be vastly superior in
tactics, for no one of the main strike force to even get *bloodied* apart
from Dax is absolutely mind-bogglingly unbelievable. This wasn't
real violence -- this was a cartoon, and if you're dealing with major
hand-to-hand combat like this you can't afford to do that, especially if
there's been a lot of soul-searching about dying in battle beforehand.
The final scene, involving Weyoun's death and "next time, we'll be
enemies", worked okay, but the last act as a whole left me pretty cold.
That makes "To the Death" a generally "okay" episode -- not superb,
but pretty much involving for the majority of the show. That makes it
a comparative weak spot for the season, but certainly not awful.
Some short takes:
-- I appreciated the lack of technobabble. When they beamed down
and discovered that their weapons were useless, we didn't get two
paragraphs -- just a quick "oh, the gateway much be damping them
somehow". Works for me (even if that was a fairly obvious thing to
spring on the team.)
-- Tactically, it was explained why the whole site couldn't simply be
blown to oblivion from orbit -- but why not send down a few
torpedoes to take care of all the Jem'Hadar *except* those in the actual
complex? It would lower the odds, I'd imagine.
-- The Omet'iklan/Sisko "I'm going to kill you -- but later you saved
my life, so now I won't" arc was entirely by-the-numbers. Anyone
not seeing that resolution coming must actually have been born
yesterday.
-- "It is not for us to accuse a god of betraying heaven." *That* was
an interesting line -- we know the Founders are more or less
considered gods by the Jem'Hadar, but it's still an intriguing way to
look at it.
That should do it. So, wrapping up:
Writing: Some nice character interaction and a *little* deepening of
the Dominion. Not much of a plot, though.
Directing: *Nice* work for most of it, aside from the final battle.
Acting: I still think Brooks is overplaying a bit, but most everyone
else was fine -- Colm Meaney and Jeffrey Combs in particular.
OVERALL: 7, I'd say. Reasonably good, but not stellar.
NEXT WEEK:
A Dominion-induced plague.
Tim Lynch (Harvard-Westlake School, Science Dept.)
tly...@alumni.caltech.edu <*>
"I am First Omet'iklan, and I am dead. As of this moment, we are all
dead. We go into battle to reclaim our lives. This we do gladly, for
we are Jem'Hadar. Remember, victory is life."
-- Omet'iklan
"I am Chief Miles Edward O'Brien. I'm very much alive, and I intend
to *stay* that way."
-- O'Brien
--
Copyright 1996, 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.
Ted McCoy
In article <4nm09g$6...@gap.cco.caltech.edu>,
Timothy W. Lynch <tly...@alumni.caltech.edu> wrote:
>WARNING: Spoilers for DS9's "To the Death" lurk below.
>Jem'Hadar interesting. A race genetically engineered to be superb
>killers may be sound tactics, but it makes them such automatic "black
>hats" that plots involving them tend to be cartoon-like. And even
>unlike the Borg, who lack even what little individuality exists among
>the Jem'Hadar, the threat isn't personal beyond the simple threat of
>death -- with the Borg, at least the threat is of a life where your own
>sense of self has been stripped away.
One of the trademarks of DS9's first two seasons (before the appearance of the
Jem'Hadar) was its treatment of Cardassians, Bajorans, and Maquis as complex,
believable, multi-faceted participants in the assorted struggles. More
often than not, this resulted in realistic conflicts, colored with shades of
grey, often avoiding many of the more cartoonish conventions sometimes
associated with the genre. For better or worse, I think the Jem'Hadar (and,
perhaps to a lesser degree, the Founders) represented a change from this, or
at least a contrast with it. The Jem'Hadar *are* a fairly simple race; the
Founders specifically designed them that way.
However, the Jem'Hadar as a race also seem to represent something which is
fairly new to Trek: they are an enemy with which there seems to be no hope
of negotiation, no hope of compromise, no hope of finding some common basis
for understanding. Time after time, Trek (TNG onwards, anyway) has shown that
the Federation's enemies are, on some level, reasonable creatures not totally
unlike humans; there's always been some basis for communication and compromise,
if not for agreement. Even with the Borg. The Jem'Hadar are different; as
long as their programming is working properly, trying to reason with them
seems to be about as sensible as attempting to reason with a gun or a knife or
any other mere tool of destruction.
(Personally, I'd prefer to see DS9's writers spend more times developing parts
of the Dominion *other* than the Jem'Hadar. I have no problem with the idea
of the Jem'Hadar as a race, but they don't seem to provide all that much
potential for interesting drama. The only way I can see around this would be
to more fully develop the circumstances under which the Jem'Hadar programming
breaks down and the areas where Jem'Hadar will is not completely controlled by
the Founders...which I guess is basically what the writers have been doing.
But this can only be taken so far.)
>"To the Death", however, did a reasonable job of making the
>Jem'Hadar ... about as interesting as they can be given their premise.
>I'm still not particularly fond of them, but at least a few details were
>given that fleshed them out a little bit -- mostly about their loyalty.
>For them to have loyalty to the Founders but not, necessarily, to those
>between the Jem'Hadar and the Founders on the Dominion food chain
>does establish some potentially interesting precedents.
The acting seemed better than in the last few Jem'Hadar outings, which I think
helped a lot.
>I also appreciated the nod given to TNG's "Contagion" as the plot
>unfolded.
Ah. I spent the entire episode trying to figure out where I had heard of the
Iconians before; now I know.
>Jeffrey Combs's Weyoun was probably the most interesting (or at
>least interestingly presented) guest character.
Combs is a great actor, and the contrast between his character and the
Jem'Hadar was fascinating. I wouldn't mind seeing more of the Vorta.
>That leaves the battle sequence comprising the fifth act. Here, I was
>pretty much yawning straight through. Admittedly, this time we
>actually got *some* casualties (a whopping two of them for "our"
>side, so far as I know) -- but given that Our Heroes were fighting a
>hand-to-hand combat with blades against a foe that had them
>outnumbered, knew the territory better, knew they were there, and
>both genetically and by training are likely to be vastly superior in
>tactics, for no one of the main strike force to even get *bloodied* apart
>from Dax is absolutely mind-bogglingly unbelievable. This wasn't
>real violence -- this was a cartoon, and if you're dealing with major
>hand-to-hand combat like this you can't afford to do that, especially if
>there's been a lot of soul-searching about dying in battle beforehand.
>The final scene, involving Weyoun's death and "next time, we'll be
>enemies", worked okay, but the last act as a whole left me pretty cold.
This bothered me too. Considering how big some of those blades were, I
would've expected to have seen severed limbs bouncing off the walls, tons more
casualties, and all of the combatants dripping with blood by the end. (Kind of
like the battles in "Braveheart," basically.) Of course, anything that violent
could never have been aired uncut on syndicated television, not to mention that
anything so pointlessly disgusting could easily have alienated viewers.
>Writing: Some nice character interaction and a *little* deepening of
> the Dominion. Not much of a plot, though.
The entire let's-have-the-Federation-work-with-the-Jem'Hadar-setup seemed
awfully contrived to me. For starters, it looked to me like the Federation
could've been walking into a pretty obvious trap, although perhaps I just
wasn't paying attention when this issue was considered. I never got the
impression that I was watching people who, prior to this temporary cooperation,
had basically been at war with each other -- and who next week will presumably
be at war with each other again. I guess I'm just complaining that everybody
seemed awfully trusting, considering how much this show had been focusing on
paranoia recently.
>Directing: *Nice* work for most of it, aside from the final battle.
>Acting: I still think Brooks is overplaying a bit, but most everyone
> else was fine -- Colm Meaney and Jeffrey Combs in particular.
Agreed, especially about Brooks.
>OVERALL: 7, I'd say. Reasonably good, but not stellar.
6+ or 7-. Weak premise saved by some interesting dialogue; execution was
uneven but generally good.
Ted
Timothy W. Lynch
mc...@math.ohio-state.edu (Ted McCoy) writes:
>In article <4nm09g$6...@gap.cco.caltech.edu>,
>Timothy W. Lynch <tly...@alumni.caltech.edu> wrote:
>>WARNING: Spoilers for DS9's "To the Death" lurk below.
[much good discussion snipped]
>(Personally, I'd prefer to see DS9's writers spend more times developing parts
>of the Dominion *other* than the Jem'Hadar. I have no problem with the idea
>of the Jem'Hadar as a race, but they don't seem to provide all that much
>potential for interesting drama. The only way I can see around this would be
>to more fully develop the circumstances under which the Jem'Hadar programming
>breaks down and the areas where Jem'Hadar will is not completely controlled by
>the Founders...which I guess is basically what the writers have been doing.
>But this can only be taken so far.)
That it can. I keep hoping that each Jem'Hadar show I see will be the
last. I have no problems with the Dominion as a concept, but the two
major portions of it we've seen (Founders and Jem'Hadar) both leave me
a bit cold.
>>"To the Death", however, did a reasonable job of making the
>>Jem'Hadar ... about as interesting as they can be given their premise.
>The acting seemed better than in the last few Jem'Hadar outings, which I think
>helped a lot.
Agreed, though I was having a few "Twin Peaks" flashbacks whenever
Clarence Williams III was speaking. :-)
>The entire let's-have-the-Federation-work-with-the-Jem'Hadar-setup seemed
>awfully contrived to me. For starters, it looked to me like the Federation
>could've been walking into a pretty obvious trap, although perhaps I just
>wasn't paying attention when this issue was considered.
Then neither was I. Admittedly, I hadn't thought of this point, but
it's been that kind of a week. :-)
Tim Lynch
R. Tang
In article <4nr5tp$n...@gap.cco.caltech.edu>,
>>In article <4nm09g$6...@gap.cco.caltech.edu>,
>>Timothy W. Lynch <tly...@alumni.caltech.edu> wrote:
>
>>>WARNING: Spoilers for DS9's "To the Death" lurk below.
>
>
>Agreed, though I was having a few "Twin Peaks" flashbacks whenever
>Clarence Williams III was speaking. :-)
TWIN PEAKS? Ahem. Whippersnappers!
--
Roger Tang, gwan...@u.washington.edu, Artistic Director PC Theatre
Editor, Asian American Theatre Revue:
http://weber.u.washington.edu/~gwangung/TC.html
"The most unAmerican thing you can say is "He/she makes too much money."
Rich Kelley
Timothy W. Lynch (tly...@alumnae.caltech.edu) wrote:
: WARNING: Spoilers for DS9's "To the Death" lurk below.
:
: In brief: Not top-notch, but mostly engrossing except for the final act.
:
: ======
: Written by: Ira Steven Behr & Robert Hewitt Wolfe
: Directed by: LeVar Burton
[snip]
: -- Tactically, it was explained why the whole site couldn't simply be
: blown to oblivion from orbit -- but why not send down a few
: torpedoes to take care of all the Jem'Hadar *except* those in the actual
: complex? It would lower the odds, I'd imagine.
I had a lot of trouble reconciling the fact that the torpedos couldn't just
obilterate the planet's surface with what I'd seen of previous Trek
episodes. Didn't half a gram of anti-matter blow away the atmosphere
of a whole planet on the original ST (Obsession)? Can't a couple of
torpedos take out a fully sheilded ship? Didn't a volley of photon
torpedos tear the space time continum and send the Enterprise C
forward in time? Seems like 20 or 30 quantum torpedos all targeted
at the same location should be able to destroy anything.
This was not consistent in my mind, it was a plot device. It's
not much of a story if the Defiant goes to planet X, bombards
it back to a spherical glob of molten rock, and then goes home.
The problem is, as always, the story takes presedence over "rules"
that have been previously established in other episodes.
When push comes to shove, ST writers will always change the rules
to tell the story they want to tell.
Just seems like a really lazy way to write a series.
Rich Kelley
Junsok Yang
In article <4nro3c$a...@nntp4.u.washington.edu>, gwan...@u.washington.edu
says...
>
>In article <4nr5tp$n...@gap.cco.caltech.edu>,
>>>In article <4nm09g$6...@gap.cco.caltech.edu>,
>>>Timothy W. Lynch <tly...@alumni.caltech.edu> wrote:
>>>>WARNING: Spoilers for DS9's "To the Death" lurk below.
>>[much good discussion snipped]
>>Agreed, though I was having a few "Twin Peaks" flashbacks whenever
>>Clarence Williams III was speaking. :-)
> TWIN PEAKS? Ahem. Whippersnappers!
Umm...
Do you *really* want the "whippersnappers" to remember the show that
Clarence Williams III was involved in before "Twin Peaks?"
There *are* some TV shows better off forgotten; no matter what all these
new cable channels may sy to try to convince us otherwise... :)
--
*********************************************************************
"Of course life is bizarre. The more bizarre it gets, the more
interesting it is. The only way to approach it is to make yourself
some popcorn and enjoy the show." ...David Gerrold
Junsok Yang (yan...@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu)
(yan...@minerva.cis.yale.edu)
R. Tang
In article <4nt4vi$i...@news.vcd.hp.com>,>: WARNING: Spoilers for DS9's "To the Death" lurk below.
>: In brief: Not top-notch, but mostly engrossing except for the final act.
>:
>: ======
>: Written by: Ira Steven Behr & Robert Hewitt Wolfe
>: Directed by: LeVar Burton
>
>
>: -- Tactically, it was explained why the whole site couldn't simply be
>: torpedoes to take care of all the Jem'Hadar *except* those in the actual
>: complex? It would lower the odds, I'd imagine.
>
>obilterate the planet's surface with what I'd seen of previous Trek
>episodes. Didn't half a gram of anti-matter blow away the atmosphere
>of a whole planet on the original ST (Obsession)?
And didn't ship's phasers do diddly squat against the Doomsday
Machine? Which was made up of....neutronium?
>This was not consistent in my mind, it was a plot device.
And let me cite some Trek precedent to say that you're
incorrect....
Ian
rke...@vcd.hp.com (Rich Kelley) wrote:
>: -- Tactically, it was explained why the whole site couldn't simply be
>: blown to oblivion from orbit -- but why not send down a few
>: torpedoes to take care of all the Jem'Hadar *except* those in the actual
>: complex? It would lower the odds, I'd imagine.
>I had a lot of trouble reconciling the fact that the torpedos couldn't just
>obilterate the planet's surface with what I'd seen of previous Trek
>episodes. Didn't half a gram of anti-matter blow away the atmosphere
>of a whole planet on the original ST (Obsession)? Can't a couple of
>torpedos take out a fully sheilded ship? Didn't a volley of photon
>torpedos tear the space time continum and send the Enterprise C
>forward in time? Seems like 20 or 30 quantum torpedos all targeted
>at the same location should be able to destroy anything.
Actually, not correct. The substance they said the gate was protected by was
Neutronium. It is literally the hardest, strongest, densest form of matter
possible. It is squished together so hard that it effectively forms one giant
atom, with the electrons and protons collapsed together to form neutrons. Even
a very thin layer of the stuff would be virtually indestructable.
The only other time Neutronium was used as armor in Trek was the Planet Killer
in TOS - they couldn't penetrate the armor either.
>This was not consistent in my mind, it was a plot device. It's
>not much of a story if the Defiant goes to planet X, bombards
>it back to a spherical glob of molten rock, and then goes home.
>The problem is, as always, the story takes presedence over "rules"
>that have been previously established in other episodes.
>When push comes to shove, ST writers will always change the rules
>to tell the story they want to tell.
>Just seems like a really lazy way to write a series.
Actually, that particular premise was VERY intelligent. The Iconians used the
gates to control an interstellar empire. If their precious gateways could be
taken out by a few measly torpedoes, they'd never have been able to do that.
Therefore, the Iconians would have HAD to have some sort of protection system
built into the gateway complexes. With their advanced level of technology,
armoring it in a thin layer of neutronium would be ideal.
Timothy W. Lynch
gwan...@u.washington.edu (R. Tang) writes:
>In article <4nr5tp$n...@gap.cco.caltech.edu>,
>Timothy W. Lynch <tly...@alumni.caltech.edu> wrote:
>>>>WARNING: Spoilers for DS9's "To the Death" lurk below.
>>[much good discussion snipped]
>>
>>
>>Agreed, though I was having a few "Twin Peaks" flashbacks whenever
>>Clarence Williams III was speaking. :-)
> TWIN PEAKS? Ahem. Whippersnappers!
I prefer vaguely pleasant memories, Mod though the others may be...
Tim
Andrew T. Kim
>>>>> Thus spake tly...@alumnae.caltech.edu(Timothy W Lynch):
> WARNING: Spoilers for DS9's "To the Death" lurk below.
>
> In brief: Not top-notch, but mostly engrossing except for the final act.
>
> "To the Death", however, did a reasonable job of making the
> Jem'Hadar ... about as interesting as they can be given their premise.
> I'm still not particularly fond of them, but at least a few details were
> given that fleshed them out a little bit -- mostly about their loyalty.
> For them to have loyalty to the Founders but not, necessarily, to those
> between the Jem'Hadar and the Founders on the Dominion food chain
> does establish some potentially interesting precedents.
Indeed. Although the plot was utterly predictable, dialogues and
acting did a nice job adding depth to Jem'Hadar and the workings of the
Dominion.
One thing that interested me was the conversation between Sisko and Weyoun
which implied that the Dominions have its own share of internal problems.
I was annoyed by the lack of action by the Dominions and any explanations
for it, because the Dominions had been portrayed as a creature devious in
its plots and powerful in its firepower. "Paradise Lost", as good as some
of its scenes were, left me wonder "Why haven't they taken over the
Federation yet?" Perhaps this "internal problems" may explain things a
bit. We shall see.
What bugged me was, though, the wisdom of Weyoun carrying that enzyme(?)
all the way down to the surface with him. It was pretty clear that
Jem'Hadar's weren't exactly fond of him and the enzyme was the only thing
that kept him alive. Weyoun seemed to be too clever not to notice that.
And I thought that container can be only opened by Weyoun? If not, why
wasn't he killed before? He was practically asking for it. If Weyoun
indeed is the only one with an access to the box, but Jem'Hadars would
rather die than be insulted, they should have killed him way before as
well. It just doesn't feel right, or I am missing something.
Another "doesn't feel right" category: the whole joint operation idea.
Once it started, it felt right, but I wasn't convinced that the joint
operation was entirely necessary, esp. from the Dominions point of view.
-ak
--
Andrew T. Kim | I only speak for myself. My opinion does not reflect
and...@panix.com | that of my employer's.
nny...@ubss.com |
212-821-6959(W) |If wishes were fishes, we'd all cast nets. - Gurney Halleck
Jose Gonzalez
On 19 May 1996, Timothy W. Lynch wrote:
> WARNING: Spoilers for DS9's "To the Death" lurk below.
>
> That leaves the battle sequence comprising the fifth act. Here, I was
> pretty much yawning straight through. Admittedly, this time we
> actually got *some* casualties (a whopping two of them for "our"
> side, so far as I know) -- but given that Our Heroes were fighting a
> hand-to-hand combat with blades against a foe that had them
> outnumbered, knew the territory better, knew they were there, and
> both genetically and by training are likely to be vastly superior in
> tactics, for no one of the main strike force to even get *bloodied* apart
> from Dax is absolutely mind-bogglingly unbelievable.
And, apparently, there's actually a justifiable reason for this. This was
the first Trek episode ever censored for violence. (Although who exactly
gives the order to censor, I don't know.) And it must have been a last
minute thing, because there's 30-40 seconds less running time to this
episode than to the standard DS9. I saw this off the satellite, and there
was a preview for "The Quickening" inserted just before the 3rd act, along
with the regular preview for it at the end of the fifth. So it's quite
likely that all the bite and blood was taken out of the fight scenes,
against the producer's wishes. (Now that I think about it, I recall, in
that "sweeps" preview after "Hard Time," seeing several Jem 'Hadar coming
at Dax. This was not in the episode.) My guess is that they *tried* to
make it more realistic, but weren't allowed.
> Acting: I still think Brooks is overplaying a bit, but most everyone
> else was fine -- Colm Meaney and Jeffrey Combs in particular.
Interesting. I think that Brooks is doing the best job of the series of
late, really infusing Sisko with a lively and unpredictable persona.
Brooks has really done an awesome job of taking Sisko through a natural
progression over the course of the series. The way he portrays Sisko now
is something he began at the end of last season. I've *always* liked
Brooks' performance, and the emotional intensity was always there, but now
he makes even the smallest scene interesting to watch. (And yep, he does
occasionally go a bit over the top, but I much prefer that to an actor who
chooses to chart safe waters again and again. Brooks is willing to take
risks, and more often than not nowadays, they pay off.) I think, as hard
as it is to believe, that Brooks is a strong contender for giving the best
portrayal of any of the Captains, even reaching Patrick's Stewart's
height. As great an actor as Patrick is, we never got this much variety
from him. (Not depth, but variety, which is a different thing.)
There simply isn't anyone else I can see playing Sisko now. Brooks has
made the character his own.
-
Jose Gonzalez
Jose Gonzalez
On 23 May 1996, Andrew T. Kim wrote:
> > WARNING: Spoilers for DS9's "To the Death" lurk below.
> Another "doesn't feel right" category: the whole joint operation idea.
> Once it started, it felt right, but I wasn't convinced that the joint
> operation was entirely necessary, esp. from the Dominions point of view.
Made perfect sense to me. From what we know of the Dominion, they only
have *one* type of solider, the Jem 'Hadar. Weyoun was obviously very
concerned that if the Jem 'Hadar found out about the gateway, they would
turn against the Dominion just as the rebels did. When StarFleet showed
up, he saw the perfect oppurtunity to destroy the gateway without having
any Jem 'Hadar find out about it. Remember it was only going to be a
Federation team that entered the gateway chamber. And from Sisko's point
of view, imagine if he doesn't offer his helf and the Jem 'Hadar *did*
manage to finish the gateway. Not a risk he could take.
-
Jose Gonzalez
Andrew Brecher
>-- The Omet'iklan/Sisko "I'm going to kill you -- but later you saved
>my life, so now I won't" arc was entirely by-the-numbers. Anyone
>not seeing that resolution coming must actually have been born
>yesterday.
Actually, I expected it to be a ploy to make Sisko fear the Jem'hadar (and
Omet'iklan in particular) so much that he wouldn't jeopardize the mission
for fear of retribution.
--
- Andrew Brecher (andrew_...@brown.edu) <insert disclaimer here>
Perrin
In article <NNYKIA.96M...@ubss.com>,
Andrew T. Kim <nny...@ubss.com> wrote:
>And I thought that container can be only opened by Weyoun? If not, why
>wasn't he killed before?
Well, the rebel Jem'Hadar must have had a large supply of the
White on hand; I assume these Jem'Hadar are planning to use that.
That's why they needed to wait until they got to the planet.
Just an idea.
/
:@-) Scott
\