Some More Trek Reviews!

[skywaterblue]

This time, with the added perspective of my fourteen year old brother, who has never seen much of the latter-day franchise.



Wow, this episode was a snooze fest. It features a story for Beverly Crusher, in which she becomes attached to an amnesiac patient who has healing powers. Also, Geordi is bad with women, which is apparently uh, something that healing powers can fix, so he does. That weirded us both out, because it doesn't get reset at the end. And I know better, about Geordi and the womens.

And Miles O'Brien dislocates his shoulder for the first time!

Later, it turns out amnesiac John Doe is a mutant with higher evolutionary powers than the race he's from, and they are hunting him because they fear him. (No, really. They use almost the exact phrase as 'humans who hate and fear us.')

My Brother: It's okay, Xavier will help him.
Me: See, this is a generation gap here. He was Picard before he was Xavier!

We also made a lot of regeneration jokes, as John Doe's magical healing powers come in the form of golden sparkles he shoots out of his body. Natch.





My brother doesn't think very much of Riker, which wounds me, because the whole episode hinges on you caring about Riker's emotional state.

The Enterprise is dispatched to investigate a case of the Borg entering Federation space. The Federation has only just met them and is not at all prepared, but they've sent Lt Commander Shelby, a young go-getter who is their best expert on the Borg. She also has her eye on Riker's job, because Starfleet wants to promote Riker to Captain of his own ship.

However, Riker doesn't want to go. Meanwhile, Picard is eager to push him out of the nest. It's a surprisingly effective frame for the episode, given that the baddies don't show up until the midway point, and when they do, the drama is not in how powerful they are. It's in their theft of Picard, and how Riker is going to have to face his issue in the worst way possible.

This didn't work at all for my brother as suspenseful, by the way. There's just no way to replicate a nineteen eighties television experience, where things like that just DID NOT happen to the lead of the show. Especially not since he has the foreknowledge that the Borg are going to be recurring baddies for the rest of time.

I'm hoping he'll start to get into the characters more by Family, which is the next disk.





Paramount has helpfully packaged TOS season two with The Trouble with Tribbles, More Tribbles More Troubles, and Trials and Tribble-ations all on one disk. Naturally, we really enjoyed Trouble with Tribbles. I'm glad, since my dad really hates that episode. (He doesn't like any just comedy episodes of Trek.)

More Tribles More Troubles: "This isn't as bad as I thought it would be."
"No, man, the animated Star Trek gets a really bad wrap."

But the best thing EVER was "Trials and Tribble-ations". I had to pause it a couple of times to explain character backstory like Jadzia Dax's many lives and her love for Klingons. He thought it was the best Forrest Gump paste-in job he'd ever seen and laughed in all the right places. About halfway through, right after Jadzia admits she's totally had Bones, he turned to me and said, "This is the only episode of DS9 I have seen, but I already know: this is the best series."

... I am not too sad to admit I welled up and cried. My brother, everyone, baby fan with good taste.





Based on his sheer love for "Trials and Tribble-ations", we watched "Take Me Out to the Holosuite", which he also adored. He giggled, because Sisko gets the Christopher Pike medal of Valor. "I get all the jokes now!" Indeed, indeed he does. :D

Unfortunately, he doesn't yet know all the 24th Century alien species. There was a lot of 'she's a Bajoran' - he finds the Bajoran nosejob to be very convincing, apparently.

My brother is a really big fan of Worf. This is how you know that even though my brother and I seem to share the same taste in TV a lot of the time (we hate Rose Tyler and Sam Seaborne) we are not complete carbon copies. (He still refuses to watch the black and white Doctor Who episodes, and I think they are the best ones.) There was a lot of "Death to the Opposition!"

However, there was a REALLY creepy moment when the Federation anthem plays and he said, "OH, the Federation has a fake anthem!" Creepy as in looking in a mirror creepy.

I accidentally spoiled him for Bashir's genetic engineering, though, which: woe. That's a good reveal. But based on his extreme love for DS9 already, I am sure that a complete rewatch is in due course.

Comments

[grlnamedlucifer]

>"This is the only episode of DS9 I have seen, but I already know: this is the best series."

... I am not too sad to admit I welled up and cried. My brother, everyone, baby fan with good taste.<

What your brother lacks in Riker-appreciation he certainly makes up for in recognizing the awesome.

>I accidentally spoiled him for Bashir's genetic engineering, though, which: woe. That's a good reveal. <

Aw, that is a shame. But he can now play the always fun "let's pretend they actually planned that in advance and spot the breadcrumbs in earlier episodes" game. Um. Or possibly that's just fun for me.

[skywaterblue]

He claims not to like Riker because "he has a rubbish beard".

No, I totally find that game fun too. Because I am a dork. Tennis, anyone?

[pauraque]

Did Beverly ever get a decent story? I can't remember one. I found her likeable as a character but it seemed like every time they tried to focus on her it fell flat due to perplexing writerly choices.

BoBW = ♥♥♥, and you're totally right about it hinging on our investment in Riker more than Picard.

[ahkna]

I don't think so. There was that one where she thought everyone was disappearing; that was pretty good. But Beverley has forever been tarnished by that episode when she fell in love with that ghost from a candle or something like that.

[pauraque]

Yeah, ow, so bad, that one.

[skywaterblue]

I don't think so; that's why I think Pulaski is the better character. Like her or not, at the end of one season I think I knew what made her tick.

[pauraque]

I did like Pulaski, and for some reason the writers seemed better able to figure out something to do with her. Was it because she was less overtly feminine? I can think of multiple TV series where the more-girly female characters got less interesting content while the less-girly ones got more. Do guy writers do better with these women because they can think of them as "normal people" and not as Girls? I dunno, it's late and I'm talking out of my ass a bit.

[skywaterblue]

I think there's something to that, yeah. I think being the mom didn't help her much - worse than being girly is being motherly, because no one wants to think of their mother as say, a Japanese rope bondage aficionado.

[ahkna]

You dislike Sam? No. No! I'm hurt by that.

Oh Season 7 DS9, you were so awesome when the episode wasn't featuring Ezri.

[skywaterblue]

Yes, sorry. We really dislike Sam.

I kind of like Ezri. It's just that it's what they should have done with Jadzia in season one.

[ahkna]

I sort of like Ezri too, I just feel that they dropped the ball on her storylines. I liked the way they highlighted the differences between her and Jadzia as people and why Trills have to go through such difficult training in order to be joined but Nicole de Boer's performance was just a little too young, especially coming into the show late.

Can you tell I've been thinking about DS9 a lot?

[skywaterblue]

I kind of hate what they've done with her in the books, a lot of the time, which doesn't help. The ultimate problem for me is that you can't really see Ezri and Ben hanging out and that relationship should have been their first thought. (Which is why I think they should have gone with Jake/Ezri, heh.)

Who hasn't been thinking of DS9? Heh.

[thedrummertobeat]

But the best thing EVER was "Trials and Tribble-ations".

It's so true! I am seriously of the belief that you have to watch both Tribble episodes together to really get the most enjoyment out of the story.

It's been really hard for me not to skip past everything and go straight into a rewatch of DS9, but I have committed to myself that I will go through TOS, then TNG, THEN DS9, VOY, and ENT. In the manner in which it was produced.

Then again, I already watched all the films, so maybe there's something to be said for jumping ahead...

[skywaterblue]

We have to wait until DS9 gets in at the library, so there's a bit of a limit to our rewatch.

[thedrummertobeat]

It stands up remarkably well!

[skywaterblue]

I rewatch it all the time, so yeah. I agree. It's a really prescient show.

[thedrummertobeat]

I got into a big discussion today with a friend of mine as to why I thought DS9 was the natural heir to TOS. It did all of the things I loved so well about TOS, but with less crack and more thought. There's a reason, I think, that the furthering of TOS character stories happened in TNG (Unification, Relics), but the sort of meta commentary on the value of TOS happened in DS9 (Trials and Tribblations, Far Beyond the Stars). DS9 took that moral component of TOS and really questioned the rightness and wrongess of the edifices of the ST Universe itself.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the other series. But DS9 captured my mind, and I think that's why I appreciate it so much at the end of the day.

[skywaterblue]

I hate it when people discount DS9, because if you haven't seen DS9, or worse DON'T CARE about DS9, you're shooting yourself in the foot. I don't think you can have a canon discussion about the 24th century without having seen it: that's where all the real world building happens.

They're never home in Voyager, and TNG doesn't really care that much about the politics of home. (Which is unfair, there's a lot of episodes of TNG where we do see the Federation at work, but Picard is the Federation's roving problem solver, not their long-term guy the way Sisko is.)

There's a reason Picard's idol is Sarek, but Sisko loves Kirk. You know?

[thedrummertobeat]

There's a reason Picard's idol is Sarek, but Sisko loves Kirk. You know?

That is SO spot-on, man. It's why Sisko is such an important figure, not only for the events as they unfolded with the Cardassians and the Dominions, but because of his deep moral centre combined with his attitude of action, not merely diplomacy. Picard was always reacting to forces--to the Borg. Sisko was not as rash as Kirk could be, but he never took things lying down.

Which isn't to say that I didn't love Picard. I do. In First Contact the manifestation of his internal struggle onto the decks of his starship is such a brilliant portrayal of trauma and fear and the strength and purpose that can come out of those experiences. But my heart soared with Sikso; he inspired that same love as Kirk, in the midst of different struggles.

I don't understand people who handwave DS9; I grant that it was a distinctly different format from the other settings in the franchise, and the arc was significantly more important to DS9 than the other post-movie shows, but it seems to me that the heart of the post-Kirk Federation is embodied on that station, in the struggle between what the UFP has become and what the rest of the galaxy sees it as. It's hands down some of the best television I've watched. Though I admit to a rather clear bias.

[skywaterblue]

I love Picard, though. selenak is right, they just don't make American heroes from the mold of Picard. He's an intellectual diplomatist. She thinks he represents a European style, and it's hard to argue with it because he's a British guy playing a Frenchman. I will try this: I think Picard is thoroughly an American hero in a Founding Father, polyglot sort of way.

Sisko would take Picard in a battle, though. There's no question about it, and I think in any war, there's a reason you want your commander to be a Sisko and not a Picard. It will be less safe for you, but Sisko never sent people out on fool's errands either. His missions were risky but important.

IDK about DS9's arc being important to only DS9. Since all the other series take place on UFP borders, I'd argue it's probably the only series where we see what's really important and going on in the Federation. There's no doubt that Sisko's goals in the series are important to their long term plans: bring Bajor to the Federation, defend the border from Cardassia while quelling domestic terrorism in the form of the Marquis, keeping the peace with Romulus and Klingon Empires and later defending the Federation from the onslaught of the Dominion.

It's harder for me to tally up what Picard does that's as important as that, because the Federation doesn't use him as a long-term guy.

But you know, I am a Niner, and us Niners are crazy.

[thedrummertobeat]

Mmm, it's a fair point. It seems a little too tempting to make it an American-European distinction, and I'm always wary of the intellectual risk of imposing too much of the authorial worldview on the medium itself, because it can detract from the value of the message within the context of the medium's world boundaries; but now I think I've just used too much semiotics in one sentence, so I'll leave that thought be.

Of course, the thing about DS9 that's worth reiterating is that there wasn't a war when Sisko took command. I mean, there was the Borg, but there wasn't a DS9-specific war going on. it's the tail end of one, instead, where everyone is trying (badly) to peacefully coexist. The war only comes once those politics have destabilized, and then what Sisko's characterization had been working toward finally found its place as a formidable adversary.

I always find myself wondering if putting a guy like Sisko behind a desk, a static, unmoving desk, wasn't Starfleet's way to try and rope him back. Like, if you put that guy out in the field, in command of a mobile diplomatic militaristic platform, it seems like there are more unknowns than if you put Picard or Janeway up in the command position. Both P and J would respond to an incursion, but you could be relatively certain they weren't going to go out and start a war, intentionally or no. (I say that with some facetiousness.)

But with Sisko...his ethic wouldn't stand for the offense, so to speak. Not that he doesn't have restraint, but I'm thinking of those absolutely beautiful, robust rants he would occasionally go on, outlining exactly why a thing was Wrong, and far be it from you to disagree with him. That's why Sisko and Nerys were so interesting as colleagues; she never backed down.

But you know, I am a Niner, and us Niners are crazy.

Ack, truer words. I feel like I should break out the powepoints and expository dialogue when people knock DS9.

[skywaterblue]

IDK. Yeah, DS9 is a desk job, and maybe that is what Starfleet thought, but let's think more about what Sisko's background is: engineering to XO of the Saratoga, and after he's no longer psychologically fit to be in command post-Wolf 359 (and that's fair, his wife gets KIA and he has a very young child to care for as a single father) they give him a base job heading up starship design.

Plus, at some point he's the Starfleet attache to Curzon Dax, Federation ambassador to the Klingon Empire.

I'm not sure why they give Sisko a desk job, but it's at least half as much trying to keep this guy in the service as it is finding a place for him where he won't break stuff. Their reasoning seems to be that the Bajorans need mostly material help in order to rebuild and join the Federation, but if they can find a guy who also has some diplomacy background so much the better. A stationary command is what Sisko has been demanding because of his son, so Bajor fits that billet. And it gets him away from the Defiant-class design board, which Starfleet is considering pulling funding from and his psych report indicates encourages him to fixate on his trauma.

They obviously don't consider it a military posting, because they never bother to post a defensive ship to the system until long after the territory is threatening. And Picard himself says the main goal is to get Bajor to join the Federation. (Reading between the lines suggests Bajor was warp-capable, but the Federation never came to their aid and feels guilty about this.)

I don't think that Starfleet command thinks he's a problem officer until at least half-way through the series, where he starts actively being Emissary to the Prophets and pushing Starfleet to war with the Dominion. Troubled, yes, but not in a problematic way.

You're right that they self-select Picard and Janeway because they think they're temperamentally suited towards not starting shit, though. Picard is far more racist towards the Ferengi than Sisko, though.

[thedrummertobeat]

I think it's not that Starfleet considers him an active problem; more that his psychological profile likely becomes of profound importance following the events of Worf 359, and his potential responses in the face of battle are noted. Once SF started introducing counselors into the crew-mix, probably just the end result of a long integration of psychological profiling, it stands to reckon that the administrators handling assignments would take into account potential responses as much as actual needs. That's why I think the selection of P and J as diplomatic-type captains is so important in contrast--it's as much a predictive model as it is need-based.

That's my initial theory, anyway. But I'm apparently incapable of spelling words without assistance at this moment, so I'll come back and try to clarify later, when I have brain cells.