How many season do I have to wait
for Kira and Odo to hook up?
That’s a good hairstyle too!
I have serious Nerys hair envy.
I am, however, in love with Kira’s hair in this episode.
I know she’s been shot, but look at how cute she is! With her little boots!
Seriously, could Nana Visitor be a cuter woman?
The off-duty clothes in DS9 are great. Kira’s a total sky pirate.
S1E15 - Progress
(I’ve skipped a number of episodes. I’ve watched them, I just haven’t posted about them yet, but I totally will).
The B Story about Nog and Jake trying to “turn an inordinate amount of seemingly worthless condiments into profit,” was far more interesting than the main story in this episode.
Would they be able to find a buyer for the Cardassian condiment? How would they get it from Quark? What the hell is a self-sealing stembolt? I wanted to know the answers and the episode did a good job of spacing them out.
Side-note: to be totally honest, the last question reminded me of one major problem I have with a number a fantastical worlds (mainly Trek and Harry Potter). Somehow, in the future, we have lost the power of google and wikipedia. Nog and Jake spend a pretty significant amount of time wondering what self-sealing stembolts are (and the audience does to). Google that shit! It’s annoying when we have a better solutions in our time than they do in theirs.
Still, I find this kind of thing fun. And I like Jake and Nog, a lot, and I don’t mind spending time with them on their zany and adorable space station adventures.
The main plotline was just annoying. I have no sympathy for people like Mullibuck. If someone tells you that you need to evacuate your home (and provides you with the means to do so) or you’re going to die and you decided not to evacuate your home, then that’s fine. I honestly don’t care if you die in the home you refused to evacuate despite the fact that the volcano is erupting. Also, I don’t find crotchety old men inherently endearing, which I think this episode assumes I will.
If the government is set on ensuring that no one does die then they should just transport him away. Major Kira’s flip-flopping on the matter seemed less like something she would do and more like something that was necessary for the episode (sort of like O’Brien in “Captive Pursuit”). Wasn’t she fighting for the Bajoran greater good, not individual rights? Also, her shirt is weird (but I like it). And the stupid tree story didn’t help, writers! The quick Sisko speech resolution to her problems also happened way to quickly to be believable. And, oh the fire! It’s so symbolic!
As always, the scenes with Bashir were adorable. And, Sisko as captain is really growing on me.
Conclusion: It’s a trite plot line that centers around a situation and a type of person that is (or that I, at least, find) unsympathetic and irrational at best. When you would have preferred to spend more time with the silly side story, it’s probably not a good epi.
S1E3 - Past Prologue
So this episode was obviously a way for us to get to know Major Kira a little bit better. Her hair is also better, but that’s a little beside the point.
The episode also seems to serve the purpose of reassuring the audience that Nerys’ loyalties lie with the new Starfleet crew and the transitional government and not with her old friends in the rebellion.They did the same thing on Voyager, with the integration of the Maquis into the crew although, if I recall correctly it took at least the first season and then that lady Chakotay was in love with kept coming back. Her name was Ceska? or something…
Whatever, anyway, we also get introduced to a secondary character who if I again remember correctly becomes pretty well loved, Garak, the clotheir on the promenade who is also the last remaining Cardassian on the ship. Although his role in the epi was obviously critical to determining what the terrorist, Tahna Los, is up to his interactions with Julian are meant to be played mostly for laughs.
And while I laughed when Julian told Sisko that “This relationship with [Garak] isn’t going where I planned. He wants me to…buy a suit!” it is unbelievable how dumb he seems. I think the writers were going for naive, but he just seemed like an idiot. Which was weird when juxtaposed against any moment where Julian was doing his job because he really is a pretty competent doctor.
So we learn that Tahna Los has not given up terrorism. He wants to destroy the wormhole so everyone will leave Bajor alone, regardless of the economic benefits it might bring to his people. Major Nerys makes the right choice loyalty-wise, we learn that Garak is a good egg and all is well.
Oh! And we also get to see the Duras sisters, which is a nice tie into the ongoing Trek lore that was being developed throughout the 90’s. And, I mean, who doesn’t love the Duras sisters?
Conclusion: Not a bad second episode, although it was pretty plotty. If you’d never watched TNG it might also be slightly confusing, although it does add to the feeling that this show is occurring in the same universe as the other series. That somewhere, light years away, Captain Picard is off having adventures. It’s a nice feeling.
