PERFORMANCE PROGNOSIS: DSN - EMISSARY
Roger Tang
OVERALL GRADE: 2.0 (of a possible 4.0)
Well......this has potential.....
With a spare Monday night not spent fundraising or chasing nubile
young (or not quite young) starlets, I was able to catch the premiere of
DEEP SPACE NINE.
First off, this was a two-hour premiere with about 70 to 90
minutes worth of story. Padding was not OVERLY evident, but was a tad
conspicuous from the rather loose pacing of the first half. The lack of
conflict (and hence, story) was all too evident in the travelouge nature
of the first half, plodding from plot point to plot point without any real
snap or tension.
Even with the discovery of the wormhole, things did not pick up
much. Scenes played on far too long past their effective point. The rapid
scene changing within the wormhole, while nice, could have been REALLY
disorienting and hence, far more effective.
To a certain extent, I can forgive the travelouge nature of the
episode, but EMISSARY betrayed far too many of the storytelling flaws that
have plague TNG over the last two-three years.
The saving grace of the show was the characters, sketchy as they
may have been. I was surprised at the inconsistency of Avery Brooks as Ben
Sisko; I expected more of the tension and supressed vitality in the
Sisko/Picard scene early in the show, as opposed to the lackluster and
colorless scenes with the Ferengi. However, I appreciated the intelligence
Sisko showed within the wormhole, adapting to the disjointed temporal
sequences. And I really appreciated his far-too-much-delayed internal
confrontation and resolution of his tramaQthe real meat and drama of the
episode. I think this worked better as a character show than a lot of
previous Trek shows.
Rene Auberjois did a competent job as Odo-nothing special; Quark
appears to be a potential source of interest as a Ferengi who COULD
fulfill both his mercernary nature and role as pillar of the business
community (why not? most Earth capitalists manage to do it....). And I
am afraid Terry Farrell needs a little work on her acting as Lt. Jax; she
betrays far too much of her days as a clothes mannequin (a less charitable
person would use the word airhead or bimbo....).
But the REAL find of this show is Nan Visitor as Major Kira. If
she manages to keep the spark she displayed during this show, we could find
a real gutsy hero with some depth beneath her. Personally, sheUs got more
balls than Riker (and could mop the floor with him at poker) and is a real
match for Picard. I find that she is UNLIKE most of the TNG crew in that
Visitor SHOWS us her character and doesnt TELL us about her.
So, bottom line, mediocre beginning...but some potential for good
characters, more so than the TNG crew....
--
Roger Tang, gwan...@u.washington.edu
Producer Emeritus, Asian Theatre at the UW, Uncle Bonsai Memorial Fan Club
"The definition of balls is for a non-singer to go karaoke singing
with the cast of a musical revue."
Michael Rawdon
>OVERALL GRADE: 2.0 (of a possible 4.0)
Well what do you know? I marked it down a tad for being basically the same
old TNG runaround pretending to be something new, but otherwise we agree.
> So, bottom line, mediocre beginning...but some potential for good
>characters, more so than the TNG crew....
Almost ANY series would have more character potential than the TNG crew! Even
Space Rangers (gag).
--
Michael Rawdon raw...@colby.cs.wisc.edu
University of Wisconsin Computer Sciences Department, Madison, WI
"My favorite Star Trek With Jean-Luc episode is the one where some alien
kills another in the first five minutes and then the crew debates for the
next 55 minutes about what to do. My favorite Star Trek With Captain Kirk
is the same as anyone else's, the one where Kirk, overacting, falls in
love with a beautiful alien babe, which Spock calls illogical, and where a
bunch of security guys die. You know the one?"
- A friend
just another theatre geek
>In <1ibhcs...@shelley.u.washington.edu> gwan...@carson.u.washington.edu (Roger Tang) writes:
>>OVERALL GRADE: 2.0 (of a possible 4.0)
>
>Well what do you know? I marked it down a tad for being basically the same
>old TNG runaround pretending to be something new, but otherwise we agree.
Yeeek! I'd better ADD a half point then!
Tom Frauenhofer
>>OVERALL GRADE: 2.0 (of a possible 4.0)
>
>Well what do you know? I marked it down a tad for being basically the same
>old TNG runaround pretending to be something new, but otherwise we agree.
>
>> So, bottom line, mediocre beginning...but some potential for good
>>characters, more so than the TNG crew....
>
>Almost ANY series would have more character potential than the TNG crew! Even
>Space Rangers (gag).
My co-workers and I have taken to calling Space Rangers "Star Trek:The
Proctology Exam Results." Makes the show tolerable to us...
More potential? Maybe, but I'm quite dubious here.
--
Thomas V. Frauenhofer, WA2YYW
t...@cci.com, ...!uunet!uupsi!cci632!tvf, t...@cs.rit.edu
Mandlebratwurst: The Meal that Eats Itself!