With every rewatch of the series, I’ve come to appreciate this episode more — almost entirely for the B plot, interestingly. The A plot is good, but for me, the B plot is just so surprising and moving that every time I rewatch, I’m almost surprised to remember that oh, right, it’s not actually the primary focus of the episode.
Month: January 2020
3.13: “Life Support”
Good lord, Louise Fletcher and Nana Visitor are both just phenomenal in this episode, and Alexander Siddig is no slouch, either.
3.12: “Past Tense, Part II”
All right, between work and a cold, my brain just kind of…turned off while I was working on this post, so there isn’t as much depth as I typically try for. Though I also feel like this episode isn’t as strong, overall, as the first part. That may also be that, as noted, the first part hits me a lot harder with that “ah, I see, the dystopian early 21st century Star Trek predicted was in fact much too optimistic” feeling, however.
3.11: “Past Tense, Part I”
This one…whew. Let’s just say that with every DS9 rewatch I do, it gets more and more depressing. It’s a great episode! Just — WHEW.
Continue reading “3.11: “Past Tense, Part I””
3.10: “Fascination”
Apparently this is considered one of the worst of the series, which I…don’t quite get? I mean, it’s pretty silly, and I wouldn’t call it one of the best, but I’d consider it fairly middling. Is it skippable? Probably. But it’s fun enough that I generally don’t skip it, which is more than I can say for “The Storyteller” or “Second Sight”.
3.09: “Defiant”
I hadn’t rewatched this one in awhile, and now that I have, I’m really not sure why not — it was a pretty great watch, in my book. The pacing is great, with the episode just zipping along, and the actors, both regular and not, play off of each other in really cool ways.
3.08: “Meridian”
This one is…fine? It’s fine! There are some good moments, and it’s a Dax-centric episode where she’s actually conscious and doing things, which is nice. I just…really don’t have a lot to say about it, and am also a bit under the weather and trying to write through brain fog, so this may be a pretty short post.
3.07: “Civil Defense”
Synopsis: After accidentally triggering an automated counterinsurgency protocol left over from when the station was under Cardassian control, the crew must find a way to shut it down — before the station self-destructs.
3.06: “The Abandoned”
I actually liked this one a lot more than I remembered liking it, and I ended up having a lot more to say about it than I expected. As established, I’m not really the biggest Odo fan, but I actually liked him a lot in this episode, and felt like they were doing some really interesting things. I get that they didn’t want it to just be a retread of TNG’s “I, Borg”, but I also found it a little disappointing that the show seems to come down on the side of genetics as destiny with the Jem’Hadar, particularly when Odo himself points out that he’s started to reject his own genetic “programming”.
Content warning: I do talk a bit about Mardah, the dabo girl dating Jake, and how her comments about her background have some pretty troubling implications, perhaps more so than the writers intended. I don’t get graphic or anything, but just wanted to mention that the possibility that she was, essentially, being sexually exploited as a teenager is a theme I examine for a bit. The Mardah section of the post is pretty clearly demarcated, though, so it should be easy enough to skip over.
January 2020 schedule
Happy new year! Let us observe it with a nearly-thirty-year-old TV show, eh?
- January 2: “The Abandoned”
- January 7: “Civil Defense”
- January 9: “Meridian”
- January 14: “Defiant”
- January 16: “Fascination”
- January 21: “Past Tense, Part 1”
- January 23: “Past Tense, Part 2”
- January 28: “Life Support”
- January 30: “Heart of Stone”