Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Deep Space Nine, season 7

FOUR-STAR EPISODES: 1
AVERAGE EPISODE RATING: 2.7
-Image in the Sand **
On Earth, sisko receives a vision of his unknown mother. On the station, a newly-promoted col. kira deals with underhanded romulan allies. Step right up! Howzabout some dipsy wipsy? Howzabout some tepid? One-star land is barely avoided, thanks to a sweet number by vic to a grieving worf, plus the button-cute debut of nicole de boer (THE KIDS IN THE HALL, STEPHEN KING'S DEAD ZONE) as ezri dax.
-Shadows and Symbols **
Ezri joins sisko's family in orb-questing. Kira blockades an illegal romulan dump. Everyone else joins worf on a mission of death, in order to get the dead jadzia into heaven. Inane, implausible...one star is avoided, but i'm not sure how. I mean, a non-temporal race of aliens who create an orb of...time?
-Afterimage ***
Ezri ponders whether to stay in Starfleet, as she tries to slip into jadzia's life. Worf shuns her. Conflicted over helping in the war effort against Cardassia, garak experiences life-threatening attacks of claustrophobia. Ezri tries to counsel him.
-Take Me Out to the Holosuite ***
An Academy rival of sisko's challenges the DS9 crew to a baseball game. Ignore yet another poorly-portrayed vulcan, and just embrace the silliness. The writers have the good sense to show the home team getting creamed, but celebrating nonetheless. A rollicking fun time. Probably the DS9 episode with the most heart.
-Chrysalis ***
Bashir brings one of his genetically-engineered genius friends out of her semi-catatonic state. Hmm...any chance someone might fall in love, but it won't end well?
-Treachery, Faith, and the Great River ***
As nog wheels and deals for an exasperated o'brien, odo tries to bring a vorta defector back in a runabout. A delightful dual performance by the always lovely jeffrey combs. Plus a sweet hat-tip to henry blake's desk. Fun.
-Once More unto the Breach ***
A fitting farewell to john colicos, in the last role of his life. Martok leads a strike force of five birds of prey behind enemy lines. The aged kor dies with honor.
-The Siege of AR-558 ****
-written by ira steven behr, hans beimler
-directed by winrich kolbe
TREK's most stark portrayal of war. Focusing on characters who have no battle experience, the Federation defends a pathetic planetoid against waves of jem'hadar. Desperation, death, and dismemberment abound...and not just with the redshirts. Bill mumy (LOST IN SPACE, PAPILLON) is wonderfully resonant as an engineer who befriends ezri (sadly for the series, she has more chemistry with him than either worf or julian). Patrick kilpatrick (MINORITY REPORT, BEASTMASTER: THE EYE OF BRAXUS) is very, very good. Raymond cruz (ALIEN RESURRECTION, CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER) couldn't be better. Searing.
-Covenant **
Kira is kidnapped by a pah'wraith cult led by...dukat. Simpering religiosity aside, it's a jonestown allegory that works on a number of levels.
-It's Only a Paper Moon ***
A thoughtful exploration of shell shock, as nog comes to grips with losing a leg. He retreats into a holosuite, to live in vic fontaine's world. The first opportunity for either aron eisenberg or james darren to carry an episode, and they acquit themselves well. Too often, TREK can be a little blase about war, its characters exempt from pain or the ramifications of violence. Not here. Vic's world and music are a delight.
-Prodigal Daughter ***
Can nicole de boer carry an episode? Yes she can. A dysfunctional family drama that's a compelling mirror for our society, as she returns home for the first time in years. Kevin rahm (JUDGING AMY, MAD MEN) shines as her troubled brother. The writing falters during the climax, with a murder reveal that feels forced.
-The Emperor's New Cloak **
Quark and rom try to rescue grand nagus zek from the mirror universe. Mirror ezri is saucy, not simpering (and NOT into men). This one almost gets three stars just for damning the torpedoes. Kira sexes up ezri...and wallace shawn! A real-life vic fontaine! Ezri gets debriefed...by leeta! Sadly, they don't actually show that last one...hopefully it will appear someday in a deleted scenes release. It all looks like four stars, but it's puddle deep, almost as if the writer resented having to write it.
-Field of Fire **
To solve a murder, dax calls up memories of her psychopathic host, joran. The potential dissipates in the final act.
-Chimera ***
A non-founder changeling finds odo, and wants them to travel the galaxy looking for others of their kind. Poking and prodding in all the right places, laas (a nifty performance by the ubiquitous j.g. hertzler - ZORRO, PIRATES OF SILICON VALLEY) has disdain for humanoids. Existential angst beautifully rendered.
-Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang ***
Due to a programming glitch, mobsters take over vic's holo-club. Crew no happy...but they can't reboot, as vic's memory would be erased. So they have to right things on the program's terms. The fatal flaw (one that another writer pointed out, but which i hope i would have perceived on my own) is that it feels wrong to propose that sisko, a 24th-century human, would still bear the scars of 20th-century racism. Aside from that, this one's all sweetness and fun.
-Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges ***
Section 31, a Federation shadow agency that does the dirty jobs no one else can, was explored in both DS9 and ENT. There is a flaccidity to all such episodes, which i hope isn't just because one doesn't like the idealistic TREK vision undercut. I'd rather hope that the main reason is iffy writing. But it was an idea worth exploring, and this is the best of the batch. Julian is pressured into collecting intelligence (and more) at a romulan medical conference. A fine performance by john fleck (ENTERPRISE, HOWARD THE DUCK), and the identity of the actress playing cretak will taunt you. Go watch it now, while i tell everyone else it's adrienne barbeau (MAUDE, SWAMP THING). No, really! Really. Plus, much of the action takes place aboard an intrepid-class (Voyager!) vessel.
-Penumbra **
Worf is MIA. Ezri disobeys orders, in order to search. Quease alert - sisko proposes to kasidy. DOUBLE QUEASE ALERT - as he's doing so, somebody strategically placed an out-of-focus object behind them. The appearance? A crucifix. Accidental? Oy. How does this hot holy mess avoid one star?
-'Til Death Do Us Part **
The wormhole aliens don't want sisko to marry kasidy (at least SOMEBODY is showing sense). Ezri and worf have sex...and are captured and tortured by the breen, who hand them over to their new allies, the Dominion. Dukat surgically becomes bajoran...and seduces kai winn. Lost in the muck is perhaps the most delicate, nuanced performance of marc's TREK career.
-Strange Bedfellows **
Witness winn's dukat-led plunge into the dark side (bad), domestic doings with the yates-siskos (worse), ezri and worf's incarceration (good), and damar's realization that his are a conquered people (even better). It would have been nifty to have both kira and dukat separately beseech winn to "pray on it", using the same language.
-The Changing Face of Evil ***
While worf and ezri await execution (and explore their attraction/repulsion), the breen lead a strike on Earth. The Defiant is nastily destroyed. Dukat's identity is revealed...but winn is too far gone to care. Finally rejecting the yoke of second-class citizenship, damar leads Cardassia in revolt. Casey biggs' (LEGACY, THE PELICAN BRIEF) finest hour.
-When it Rains... ***
Kira must train cardassian resistance fighters, led by damar. Gowron replaces martok as fleet commander, and the narcissistic bungling begins. Julian discovers that the genocidal changeling virus was manufactured by Section 31 and installed in odo three years ago.
-Tacking into the Wind ***
Worf challenges and kills gowron, installing martok as chancellor, while kira and the cardassians (including garak) execute a high-risk raid. Odo tries to conceal from her the extent of his illness. So long, robert o'reilly, and the most memorable eyes in TREK history. We had to get to the other side of the worf/ezri romance to come to a fantastic scene between them, when she makes him face the systemic corruption which has long been the fatal flaw in the Empire. Can you spot j. paul boehmer, TREK's favorite nazi? The A plot is four-star loveliness.
-Extreme Measures **
In chasing a cure for odo's disease, bashir and o'brien take...well, y'know. They capture a Section 31 agent and project themselves into his dying brain, in order to gather information. It's not awful, just a bit uninspired (not just derivative, but self-derivative). And the decision to have the female founder be disease-ridden sends an unfortunate message equating ugliness with evil. Where are you, "Devil in the Dark"?
-The Dogs of War ***
As the Dominion crushes the cardassian resistance, kira, garak, and damar become stranded on Cardassia. Damar takes to the street, to turn failed resistance into revolution. Zek names a successor to lead a reformed Ferengenar, but due to a garbled transmission, quark doesn't realize that it's rom who is the new nagus.
-What You Leave Behind ***
Julian wakes up in bed with ezri, as a rebuilt Defiant is off to the the war's final battle. Damar dies, as the remnants of the cardassian fleet turn on the Dominion. Dukat and winn die, trying to free the pah wraiths. The Federation Alliance closes in on Cardassia, and only a gesture of healing from odo prompts the female founder to end the war before the final cataclysm. Some of the most awesome space battles in TREK history, plus a farewell scene in vic's lounge as o'brien, odo, worf, and sisko leave the station. Vic sings "Just the Way You Look Tonight", touching the heartstrings just right. And no, it's not the resolutions to the spiritual aspects of the series that keep this from four stars (though that doesn't help)...it's the whiff of petty nose-cutting in the omission of any jadzia visuals in the beautiful flashback collage. Well, maybe that plus an unending ending worthy of LOTR. And no leeta.

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