The Dominion war just keeps getting wilder with the rapid switching of sides by the Cardassians. I don't remember exactly how it all goes down but I am pretty sure Sisko's revelation that Bajor must stand alone is going to end up paying off in a big way. They didn't waste any time resolving the issue with the changeling Bashir which is honestly a good thing. It looks like we will be seeing a lot more of general Martok which is also a good thing.
We begin where we left off with the Dominion fleet streaming through the wormhole. The Defiant heads out to fight the fleet along with Dukat's Bird of Prey but it turns out they aren't the target, Cardassia is. Only that isn't quite right either, instead of breaking off or attacking Dukat flies his ship directly into the Dominion fleet, it turns out they are allies now. Back on the prison asteroid Garak is working on a link to the runabout when all the prisoners are summoned. With the new alliance all Cardassians are being released, except for Garak. The new head of the Cardassian government isn't a big fan of his, it is of course Dukat. While Garak gets back to work Worf is put in a ring to fight every Jem'Hadar on the station one by one from weakest to strongest. He manages to take four the first day.
Back on the station Gowron shows up with a fleet and rather than kill himself in a last attack Sisko convinces him to reform the Klingon alliance with the Federation. However other things aren't going so well. A security officer has been killed and the industrial replicator was used to make something and a changeling is suspected, but they have no idea who. Sensors indicate a Dominion fleet is inbound so they prepare for a fight but with the enemy only ten minutes out a fleet of Romulans decloaks and requests to join their fleet.
In the prison things aren't going great as Worf fights the Jem'Hadar first and isn't winning, but he refuses to quit. The Jem'Hadar surrenders to him rather than kill Worf which prompts the Vorta to order them both killed, but just at that moment Garak triggers the transporter on the runabout and they all escape. On the station they find suddenly that there is no Dominion fleet, but fake Bashir is gone and has taken a runabout with a huge bomb and is heading straight for the sun. They only just stop him from destroying the star system along with the combined triple fleet. The escaping runabout returns and Garak is reunited with Ziyal and Miles is horrified to learn he has been hanging out with a founder for a few weeks.
Review: A mostly plot episode with a bit of good character stuff along the way. They aren't wasting time figuring out who is on which side which I appreciate. Can't wait to keep watching!
8 out of 10
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
DS9: In Purgatory's Shadow
And then suddenly in the middle of season five the Dominion war got started in earnest. As a kid this was a super significant episode because I was starting to get really frustrated with the endless build up to war without much delivery on the promise. But having seen it I can vouch for what is to come so this seemed more like a startling transition from the fairly straightforward character driven show into a political/war thriller with solidly built characters to use to tell the story. I had completely forgotten that Bashir got replaced by a changeling at some point. Also it actually seems kinda silly to keep all those you replace in a secret prison camp together to plan an escape. Especially a talented general and the long serving head of a powerful intelligence agency.
The episode opens with Odo settling back into his quarters as a changeling and being awkward around Kira as per usual. But quickly we transition the detection of a Cardassian transmission from the Gamma quadrant. Sisko recruits Garak to help decode it but he tells them it is nothing but a planetary survey report. He tells this to Bashir and Ziyal in the replimat before scurrying off to a runabout which he plans to steal. But it is a little surprised to find Bashir in the pilots seat with a phaser. They go to Sisko and Garak tells them it is a coded message from Enabran Tain who is supposed to be dead from the failed invasion of the Dominion. Sisko agrees to let Garak go but insists Worf go with him. Dax tries to convince Worf to not throw away his life on the mission and he gets going. But before they can leave Dukat catches Garak flirting with Ziyal and threatens his life, but ultimately lets Garak go only to go yell and Kira and blame her for not keeping the two of them apart.
Garak and Worf's journey is uneventful until they come to an area claimed by the Dominion and Worf says they have to go back but Garak convinces him to fly through a nebula. They encounter a huge Dominion fleet massing and try to flee but are captured. They are taken to a prison on an asteroid with no atmosphere run by the Jem'Hadar. They encounter General Martok who was replaced with a changeling two years earlier and finally Tain who has nothing but disdain for Garak for only showing up with one Klingon. Back on the station Kira returns with the Defiant and bad news from the Gamma quadrant. They decide the only option is to seal the wormhole but not damage it. They get to work on an elaborate plan.
Back in the prison Martok introduces Worf and Garak to the most interesting prisoner, Dr. Bashir. A blood test proves he is no changeling which is bad news for DS9. And speaking of fake Bashir shows up with sandwiches for O'Brien and Dax who are installing the wormhole sealing tech. Back in the prison Garak finally gets to have his goodbye to Tain who after much begging acknowledges Garak as his son and even says he is proud of him for being so persistent. Back on the station the wormhole seal fails and a Dominion fleet flies through the wormhole.
Review: This episode finally concludes the long running Garak/Tain saga and moves us directly into the series biggest saga of all, the Dominion war. If I recall correctly it will be a while before there is much good news for the alpha quadrant.
7 out of 10
The episode opens with Odo settling back into his quarters as a changeling and being awkward around Kira as per usual. But quickly we transition the detection of a Cardassian transmission from the Gamma quadrant. Sisko recruits Garak to help decode it but he tells them it is nothing but a planetary survey report. He tells this to Bashir and Ziyal in the replimat before scurrying off to a runabout which he plans to steal. But it is a little surprised to find Bashir in the pilots seat with a phaser. They go to Sisko and Garak tells them it is a coded message from Enabran Tain who is supposed to be dead from the failed invasion of the Dominion. Sisko agrees to let Garak go but insists Worf go with him. Dax tries to convince Worf to not throw away his life on the mission and he gets going. But before they can leave Dukat catches Garak flirting with Ziyal and threatens his life, but ultimately lets Garak go only to go yell and Kira and blame her for not keeping the two of them apart.
Garak and Worf's journey is uneventful until they come to an area claimed by the Dominion and Worf says they have to go back but Garak convinces him to fly through a nebula. They encounter a huge Dominion fleet massing and try to flee but are captured. They are taken to a prison on an asteroid with no atmosphere run by the Jem'Hadar. They encounter General Martok who was replaced with a changeling two years earlier and finally Tain who has nothing but disdain for Garak for only showing up with one Klingon. Back on the station Kira returns with the Defiant and bad news from the Gamma quadrant. They decide the only option is to seal the wormhole but not damage it. They get to work on an elaborate plan.
Back in the prison Martok introduces Worf and Garak to the most interesting prisoner, Dr. Bashir. A blood test proves he is no changeling which is bad news for DS9. And speaking of fake Bashir shows up with sandwiches for O'Brien and Dax who are installing the wormhole sealing tech. Back in the prison Garak finally gets to have his goodbye to Tain who after much begging acknowledges Garak as his son and even says he is proud of him for being so persistent. Back on the station the wormhole seal fails and a Dominion fleet flies through the wormhole.
Review: This episode finally concludes the long running Garak/Tain saga and moves us directly into the series biggest saga of all, the Dominion war. If I recall correctly it will be a while before there is much good news for the alpha quadrant.
7 out of 10
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
DS9: For the Uniform
The episode that closes out the Eddington story line that I feel like only existed because Worf showed up to do pretty much exactly what Eddington had been doing resolves in the same episode that introduces to stupid holographic viewer. While I am not a big fan of suddenly having every one just appear on the bridge it raises some questions about the sending part. Do the Maquis raider ships really have all the tech needed to transmit a holographic signal, and if so does Sisko appear as a hologram on their ship too? Same question about the calls back to DS9. I know this episode moves the story of the Maquis forward a bit and even moves the story of Sisko becoming unhinged forward a bit as well, it still feels like a kinda bland episode.
We begin with Sisko trying to meet with a contact inside the Maquis (which makes no sense, don't they have intelligence agents to do this kind of work?) but he instead meets with Eddington's gun. Eddington beams out and they chase in the Defiant but Eddington hid a virus inside the Defiant computer that destroys all its memory requiring a tow back to the station. As soon as Sisko gets back the captain of the ship that towed him back meets with him, Starfleet has given the other captain the job of hunting Eddington. So first Sisko starts punching his punching bag and then he ignores orders and starts hunting Eddington. Well, technically first Eddington releases a Cardassian only biogenic weapon on a former Federation colony ceded to the Cardassians.
So of course Sisko takes the still crippled Defiant out to hunt Eddington down before he can attack another colony. They find what they think is a ship bit it turns out to be a Maquis decoy with a message for Sisko that he is really Javert from Les Miserables. They do figure out where Eddington is headed though but arrive too late to save the colony. Despite being on almost all manual controls they manage to destroy one Maquis ship but Eddington cripples a Cardassian evacuation ship to get them to not chase him. Sisko realizes the only way to stop Eddington is to make him sacrifice himself to stop Sisko so Sisko has Worf rig up some torpedoes to make a Maquis colony uninhabitable to humans and uses it while talking to Eddington. To stop Sisko from doing it again he agrees to give himself up.
Review: It seems like there should be some serious consequences to Sisko first totally disregarding orders and then salting an atmosphere of a Maquis colony world to make it poisonous to humans for decades. But hey, he caught the traitor so I guess all is forgiven..
5 out of 10
We begin with Sisko trying to meet with a contact inside the Maquis (which makes no sense, don't they have intelligence agents to do this kind of work?) but he instead meets with Eddington's gun. Eddington beams out and they chase in the Defiant but Eddington hid a virus inside the Defiant computer that destroys all its memory requiring a tow back to the station. As soon as Sisko gets back the captain of the ship that towed him back meets with him, Starfleet has given the other captain the job of hunting Eddington. So first Sisko starts punching his punching bag and then he ignores orders and starts hunting Eddington. Well, technically first Eddington releases a Cardassian only biogenic weapon on a former Federation colony ceded to the Cardassians.
So of course Sisko takes the still crippled Defiant out to hunt Eddington down before he can attack another colony. They find what they think is a ship bit it turns out to be a Maquis decoy with a message for Sisko that he is really Javert from Les Miserables. They do figure out where Eddington is headed though but arrive too late to save the colony. Despite being on almost all manual controls they manage to destroy one Maquis ship but Eddington cripples a Cardassian evacuation ship to get them to not chase him. Sisko realizes the only way to stop Eddington is to make him sacrifice himself to stop Sisko so Sisko has Worf rig up some torpedoes to make a Maquis colony uninhabitable to humans and uses it while talking to Eddington. To stop Sisko from doing it again he agrees to give himself up.
Review: It seems like there should be some serious consequences to Sisko first totally disregarding orders and then salting an atmosphere of a Maquis colony world to make it poisonous to humans for decades. But hey, he caught the traitor so I guess all is forgiven..
5 out of 10
Monday, March 28, 2016
DS9: The Begotten
The baby episode has finally arrived! I have to wonder if they actually timed this episode to be filmed the week Nana Visitor actually delivered her baby or if more realistically they had Nana wear a fake baby belly for the first part of this episode (and honestly maybe the last few). The story this episode tells about Odo coming to terms with his own surrogate father honestly works better than most of the other baby story in this episode and it ending with Odo regaining his ability to shape shift is a very nice touch. The bits about him having to learn to live as a solid were fine for a few episodes, but it was time to wrap that up and get him back to shapeshifting every few episodes.
The episode opens with Odo in the infirmary for back pain caused by his constantly stiff posture, but he is interrupted by Quark with an offer he can't turn down: a changeling in a jar. Quark had believed it dead, but Odo recognizes that it is an infant, and a sick one at that. Bashir manages to purge it of the radiation it had been exposed to and Sisko urges Odo to call Dr. Mora Pol, the doctor who raised Odo, but Odo refuses. Bashir leaves to go help with Kira's delivery and Odo talks lovingly to the baby shapeshifter. Bashir arrives to help Kira and she is trying to relax on the birthing table while a midwife, Keiko and Miles play supposedly soothing rhythm instruments. It turns out she is having trouble relaxing which is making the delivery impossible because Shakaar hasn't arrived from Bajor yet. Shakaar finally arrives, but the process has already gone on too long so it will have to be put off until another day which deeply disappoints Kira.
Odo is still trying to work with the infant changeling but isn't having much luck. His mood only gets worse when Dr. Mora arrives to help. The two bicker for a while and eventually Mora says he will only observe but insists on staying. A week later things aren't going any better and the two of them are arguing when Sisko walks in quietly. He interrupts the dispute with the news that Starfleet command is hoping to hear there has been good progress and that if they don't show any results soon the changeling will be taken to a starfleet lab. Odo reluctantly agrees to start trying to train the changeling with the equipment and techniques that Mora used on him. The electric charges immediately start showing results as the changeling moves for the first time which pleases both Odo and Mora. Meanwhile Kira/Miles/Shakaar arguing about what Kira should be doing when Kira realizes she is in labor again.
Mora's techniques are working well and for the first time the infant starts holding shapes other than inanimate goo. It even forms a tentacle that takes the shape of Odo's face when he looks at it. The two are elated and after some convincing Odo even agrees to celebrate a bit. All joy is removed when Odo gets notified by the computer which has been keeping an eye on the infant that its morphogenic matrix is unstable. Bashir, Odo and Mora all try to save the infant, but there is nothing they can do. Meanwhile a finally relaxed Kira delivers Korayoshi O'Brien to her great relief. In the infirmary there is much worse news, the infant changeling is dying and there is nothing they can do. As it dies Odo picks it up but it disappears into his hands and he is stricken, then rushes to the promenade where he transforms into a hawk and flies across the promenade. Odo and Mora make up and hug and the episode concludes with Kira and Odo both admitting they really missing having a child around.
Review: A very touching episode that could have probably done without all the Miles and Shakaar fighting bits. I am very happy for Odo finally being able to shapeshift again, but it is too bad it had to happen like this.
7 out of 10
The episode opens with Odo in the infirmary for back pain caused by his constantly stiff posture, but he is interrupted by Quark with an offer he can't turn down: a changeling in a jar. Quark had believed it dead, but Odo recognizes that it is an infant, and a sick one at that. Bashir manages to purge it of the radiation it had been exposed to and Sisko urges Odo to call Dr. Mora Pol, the doctor who raised Odo, but Odo refuses. Bashir leaves to go help with Kira's delivery and Odo talks lovingly to the baby shapeshifter. Bashir arrives to help Kira and she is trying to relax on the birthing table while a midwife, Keiko and Miles play supposedly soothing rhythm instruments. It turns out she is having trouble relaxing which is making the delivery impossible because Shakaar hasn't arrived from Bajor yet. Shakaar finally arrives, but the process has already gone on too long so it will have to be put off until another day which deeply disappoints Kira.
Odo is still trying to work with the infant changeling but isn't having much luck. His mood only gets worse when Dr. Mora arrives to help. The two bicker for a while and eventually Mora says he will only observe but insists on staying. A week later things aren't going any better and the two of them are arguing when Sisko walks in quietly. He interrupts the dispute with the news that Starfleet command is hoping to hear there has been good progress and that if they don't show any results soon the changeling will be taken to a starfleet lab. Odo reluctantly agrees to start trying to train the changeling with the equipment and techniques that Mora used on him. The electric charges immediately start showing results as the changeling moves for the first time which pleases both Odo and Mora. Meanwhile Kira/Miles/Shakaar arguing about what Kira should be doing when Kira realizes she is in labor again.
Mora's techniques are working well and for the first time the infant starts holding shapes other than inanimate goo. It even forms a tentacle that takes the shape of Odo's face when he looks at it. The two are elated and after some convincing Odo even agrees to celebrate a bit. All joy is removed when Odo gets notified by the computer which has been keeping an eye on the infant that its morphogenic matrix is unstable. Bashir, Odo and Mora all try to save the infant, but there is nothing they can do. Meanwhile a finally relaxed Kira delivers Korayoshi O'Brien to her great relief. In the infirmary there is much worse news, the infant changeling is dying and there is nothing they can do. As it dies Odo picks it up but it disappears into his hands and he is stricken, then rushes to the promenade where he transforms into a hawk and flies across the promenade. Odo and Mora make up and hug and the episode concludes with Kira and Odo both admitting they really missing having a child around.
Review: A very touching episode that could have probably done without all the Miles and Shakaar fighting bits. I am very happy for Odo finally being able to shapeshift again, but it is too bad it had to happen like this.
7 out of 10
Sunday, March 27, 2016
DS9: The Darkness and the Light
This dark episode deals with the consequences of Kira's involvement in what she views as a resistance group that to the Cardassians was a terrorist group. In this case I feel like Kira's actions were justified, but I can see how someone on the other side would feel differently. The moral dilemma is made a bit simpler by the clearly crazy antagonist, but it isn't hard to see how he would feel about being the target of a bombing as a servant. This kind of deep moral question is only ever really dealt with in DS9, sure people tried to get revenge on Kirk, but his actions are a lot easier to defend than Kira's.
The episode opens with vedek being killed by a hunter probe hidden in prayer candle. Kira is busy being examined by Bashir and told to keep taking her herbs despite how they block the action of her sleeping sedative. Odo arrives with news of the vedek being killed, it turns out he was in Kira's resistance cell. Back in her/the O'Brien's quarters Kira gets a mysterious message saying, "that's one," in a distorted voice. Kira tells Sisko about the attacks and the message and he gets the crew working on investigating, but there are too many suspects. Kira gets a call from an informant to the cell and they send Dax and Worf to pick her up. But when they try to beam her onto the runabout something goes wrong and she is killed in the transport beam. That day while walking on the promenade Kira hears the same voice saying, "that's two," and sees Quark with a data pad that he found in a case of brandy. It was addressed to Kira and has her friends face on it.
Kira talks with Odo about creating a list of suspects and while she is there his computer is hacked. The face of another friend of hers appears on the monitor with the voice saying, "that's three." Odo gets a search team sent to find him on Bajor and Kira returns to her quarters with an armed guard. He goes in with her and while she heads to bed he heads to the replicator. But she hears a thud and goes for her gun. She turns off the lights and opens the door. She almost shoots two more members of her cell who snuck onto the station and hit her guard. The guard leaves and she starts catching up with her friends. The next day she is working with Nog and Dax on the messages. They eventually descramble them enough to figure out it is her voice. Just then the sensors report an explosion in the habitat ring, in the O'Brien's quarters. Her friends were both killed but fortunately Miles and his family weren't home.
Kira wakes up in the infirmary and takes matters into her own hands. She beams to Odo's office and steals, then erases his copy of the list of suspects. Kira then beams to a runabout and heads out to start tracking down the people on the list. The fourth one she looks into is hiding on a desert world. She beams into his house and gets distracted by a holograph and is captured. She wakes up in a stasis field and finds she has been captured by the man who has been killing all her friends. He was crippled in a bombing she carried out and blames her for it, but Kira is unrepentant. He plans to cut the baby out of her and kill her, but she convinces him to give her a sedative which he does and she appears to pass out, but as soon as he turns off the stasis field she knocks him down, grabs her gun and kills him. Sisko arrives sometime later and Bashir confirms she is ok, and that the herbs he prescribed counteracted the sedative and let her fight back.
Review: A dark but very well put together episode. Classic DS9 for dealing the the darker sides of a bitter resistance war against an occupying army. A very strong Kira episode with some great moments from the other characters, especially Nog.
8 out of 10
The episode opens with vedek being killed by a hunter probe hidden in prayer candle. Kira is busy being examined by Bashir and told to keep taking her herbs despite how they block the action of her sleeping sedative. Odo arrives with news of the vedek being killed, it turns out he was in Kira's resistance cell. Back in her/the O'Brien's quarters Kira gets a mysterious message saying, "that's one," in a distorted voice. Kira tells Sisko about the attacks and the message and he gets the crew working on investigating, but there are too many suspects. Kira gets a call from an informant to the cell and they send Dax and Worf to pick her up. But when they try to beam her onto the runabout something goes wrong and she is killed in the transport beam. That day while walking on the promenade Kira hears the same voice saying, "that's two," and sees Quark with a data pad that he found in a case of brandy. It was addressed to Kira and has her friends face on it.
Kira talks with Odo about creating a list of suspects and while she is there his computer is hacked. The face of another friend of hers appears on the monitor with the voice saying, "that's three." Odo gets a search team sent to find him on Bajor and Kira returns to her quarters with an armed guard. He goes in with her and while she heads to bed he heads to the replicator. But she hears a thud and goes for her gun. She turns off the lights and opens the door. She almost shoots two more members of her cell who snuck onto the station and hit her guard. The guard leaves and she starts catching up with her friends. The next day she is working with Nog and Dax on the messages. They eventually descramble them enough to figure out it is her voice. Just then the sensors report an explosion in the habitat ring, in the O'Brien's quarters. Her friends were both killed but fortunately Miles and his family weren't home.
Kira wakes up in the infirmary and takes matters into her own hands. She beams to Odo's office and steals, then erases his copy of the list of suspects. Kira then beams to a runabout and heads out to start tracking down the people on the list. The fourth one she looks into is hiding on a desert world. She beams into his house and gets distracted by a holograph and is captured. She wakes up in a stasis field and finds she has been captured by the man who has been killing all her friends. He was crippled in a bombing she carried out and blames her for it, but Kira is unrepentant. He plans to cut the baby out of her and kill her, but she convinces him to give her a sedative which he does and she appears to pass out, but as soon as he turns off the stasis field she knocks him down, grabs her gun and kills him. Sisko arrives sometime later and Bashir confirms she is ok, and that the herbs he prescribed counteracted the sedative and let her fight back.
Review: A dark but very well put together episode. Classic DS9 for dealing the the darker sides of a bitter resistance war against an occupying army. A very strong Kira episode with some great moments from the other characters, especially Nog.
8 out of 10
Saturday, March 26, 2016
DS9: Rapture
I think it is not an accident that the writers of DS9 decided to make the prophets both spiritual beings and also extra-temporal aliens. It makes an argument about faith have a little more interesting to someone like me who isn't spiritual, but would who has no problem with genuine prophesy from beings literally living outside time. At the same time it is hard to accept the Bajoran position in this episode that Sisko should let himself die rather than risk giving up his visions from the prophets. He can't do a very good job communicating the visions if he is dead.
The episode opens with Dax, Kira and Sisko staring at an ancient painting of the lost Bajoran city of B'Hala. Dax isn't impressed but Kira thinks Sisko may be able to find the lost city since there is a prophesy that one touched by the prophets will eventually find it. Sisko remains obsessed after they leave and notices one side of an obelisk in the painting is reflected in a fountain which is critical since the obelisk is supposed to show the coordinates of the city. He moves to the holosuite where he manages to remake three of the four sides of the obelisk and then spends a few hours staring at them until Quark interrupts him. He goes to save the image but a plasma discharge from the panel knocks him unconscious. When he wakes up Sisko notices that everything is a little extra bright and clear which Julian tells him is a side effect of the shock. Bashir orders Sisko to take a few days of light duty until he recovers. That night at dinner Jake keeps trying to talk to his father about Kasidy returning to the station after serving her prison sentence but Sisko is cutting fruit into the shape of the figures on the missing side of the obelisk.
The next day Sisko is in the holosuite working on his obelisk when he gets a call from Admiral Whatley who tells him that Bajor has finally been approved to join the Federation and that the signing ceremony will take place on the station. Everyone starts celebrating but Sisko who is busy staring at the obelisk. Kira goes to check on him and finds him unresponsive, but after she touches him he jumps and wakes up. He explains to her he was having a vision of the past and future of Bajor and she is kinda bummed to have interrupted him. Sisko gets a call the Kai Winn has arrived on the station but he sends Kira to deal with her while he gets his stare on. Kasidy interrupts him next and he is more excited to see her, but mostly he is excited to take her to the lost city of B'Hala. The two of them fly to Bajor and after some wandering in a cave Sisko vaporizes a rock wall with his phaser revealing the lost city!
Back on the station Kira is super distracted while trying to help Odo and Worf work out accommodations for the visiting admirals and such and for once seems ok with being interrupted by Kai Winn. Winn explains she can accept that she was wrong about Sisko being the emissary and now doesn't oppose joining the Federation. On Bajor Admiral Whatley stops by B'Hala to check on Sisko who is in full emissary mode talking about visions and such to the point that the admiral openly worries about him. Whatley orders Sisko to report to the station the next day and to get a check up with Bashir. The next day Sisko is late but when he gets to the infirmary it is clear why, he is walking around having visions about various people on the station and is advising them based on what he sees. He even sees the problems Whatley is having with his son which impresses him, but he is more worried when Bashir discovers that there is something seriously wrong with Sisko's brain.
It seems the part of his brain that is giving him visions is also going to kill him unless Ben gets surgery on it and soon. The visions are so important to him though that Sisko refuses the surgery. That night in his quarters Kasidy and Jake beg him to accept the surgery, but Ben refuses. He leaves with Kai Winn which doesn't exactly calm them down. She takes him to the orb of prophesy and seeing his condition actually genuinely tries to talk him out of it, but he opens the orb box. The next day at the signing ceremony Sisko is nowhere to be seen. Whatley and Winn agree to go forward with the ceremony when Ben barges in, tells them it isn't time yet for Bajor to join and then collapses. It is hard, but Jake tells Bashir to go ahead and operate and when he wakes up Ben is distraught to have lost his visions. Winn announces Bajor will put off joining the Federation and Sisko makes up with Jake and Kasidy.
Review: Lots going on in this episode despite the lack of a real B story. You won't hear (read) me say this very often, but this probably should have been a two part episode. The part about discovering the lost city seemed like it could have been an episode on its own and the second half about the visions clearly had enough material to be its own episode. Still despite being a bit overstuffed this manages to be a rather good episode.
7 out of 10
The episode opens with Dax, Kira and Sisko staring at an ancient painting of the lost Bajoran city of B'Hala. Dax isn't impressed but Kira thinks Sisko may be able to find the lost city since there is a prophesy that one touched by the prophets will eventually find it. Sisko remains obsessed after they leave and notices one side of an obelisk in the painting is reflected in a fountain which is critical since the obelisk is supposed to show the coordinates of the city. He moves to the holosuite where he manages to remake three of the four sides of the obelisk and then spends a few hours staring at them until Quark interrupts him. He goes to save the image but a plasma discharge from the panel knocks him unconscious. When he wakes up Sisko notices that everything is a little extra bright and clear which Julian tells him is a side effect of the shock. Bashir orders Sisko to take a few days of light duty until he recovers. That night at dinner Jake keeps trying to talk to his father about Kasidy returning to the station after serving her prison sentence but Sisko is cutting fruit into the shape of the figures on the missing side of the obelisk.
The next day Sisko is in the holosuite working on his obelisk when he gets a call from Admiral Whatley who tells him that Bajor has finally been approved to join the Federation and that the signing ceremony will take place on the station. Everyone starts celebrating but Sisko who is busy staring at the obelisk. Kira goes to check on him and finds him unresponsive, but after she touches him he jumps and wakes up. He explains to her he was having a vision of the past and future of Bajor and she is kinda bummed to have interrupted him. Sisko gets a call the Kai Winn has arrived on the station but he sends Kira to deal with her while he gets his stare on. Kasidy interrupts him next and he is more excited to see her, but mostly he is excited to take her to the lost city of B'Hala. The two of them fly to Bajor and after some wandering in a cave Sisko vaporizes a rock wall with his phaser revealing the lost city!
Back on the station Kira is super distracted while trying to help Odo and Worf work out accommodations for the visiting admirals and such and for once seems ok with being interrupted by Kai Winn. Winn explains she can accept that she was wrong about Sisko being the emissary and now doesn't oppose joining the Federation. On Bajor Admiral Whatley stops by B'Hala to check on Sisko who is in full emissary mode talking about visions and such to the point that the admiral openly worries about him. Whatley orders Sisko to report to the station the next day and to get a check up with Bashir. The next day Sisko is late but when he gets to the infirmary it is clear why, he is walking around having visions about various people on the station and is advising them based on what he sees. He even sees the problems Whatley is having with his son which impresses him, but he is more worried when Bashir discovers that there is something seriously wrong with Sisko's brain.
It seems the part of his brain that is giving him visions is also going to kill him unless Ben gets surgery on it and soon. The visions are so important to him though that Sisko refuses the surgery. That night in his quarters Kasidy and Jake beg him to accept the surgery, but Ben refuses. He leaves with Kai Winn which doesn't exactly calm them down. She takes him to the orb of prophesy and seeing his condition actually genuinely tries to talk him out of it, but he opens the orb box. The next day at the signing ceremony Sisko is nowhere to be seen. Whatley and Winn agree to go forward with the ceremony when Ben barges in, tells them it isn't time yet for Bajor to join and then collapses. It is hard, but Jake tells Bashir to go ahead and operate and when he wakes up Ben is distraught to have lost his visions. Winn announces Bajor will put off joining the Federation and Sisko makes up with Jake and Kasidy.
Review: Lots going on in this episode despite the lack of a real B story. You won't hear (read) me say this very often, but this probably should have been a two part episode. The part about discovering the lost city seemed like it could have been an episode on its own and the second half about the visions clearly had enough material to be its own episode. Still despite being a bit overstuffed this manages to be a rather good episode.
7 out of 10
Friday, March 25, 2016
DS9: The Ascent
This episode is about two different relationships on the station being tested in actually kinda similar ways. The A story has Odo and Quark trapped on a barely habitable planet trying to save each others lives while openly discussing how much they hate one another. Meanwhile Nog has returned home and has moved in with Jake and they immediately start fighting about cleanliness standards and what qualifies as work. The Jake/Nog bit seemed to be a pretty direct reference to The Odd Couple while the Odo/Quark story is more of a tale of survival. Also disappointment for Odo since he takes way to long to figure out Quark is being summoned by the grand jury as a witness, not a suspect.
The episode opens with Ben struggling to accept that his own son would rather live with his buddy Nog than with the old man. Cut to Rom getting everything just right in the new quarters when Quark shows up to show his scorn/deliver root beer as a welcome home gift. But before they can get to celebrating Odo walks in and hauls Quark off to appear before a grand jury. The trip will take about a week by runabout and Odo is in full gloat mode while Quark is in full complaining freak out mode from boredom. On the station things go well for about a quarter second before Nog is laying down the law about early bed times, early morning exercise and daily cleaning. On the runabout Quark starts complaining about a buzzing noise which Odo ignores until Quark locates the source and it gets louder. They remove the panel and find a bomb which Quark recognizes as the work of the Orion Syndicate. Odo both wants to gloat that Quark is such a serious criminal but also tries to save them by beaming the bomb into space. It kinda works and the craft is only crippled and forced to make a hard landing on a barely habitable planet.
The first thing Quark notices when he wakes up is how cold it is. As they look over the vessel the find that almost everything is broken and Quark discovers the com unit lacks an amplifier so they can't call out of the atmosphere unless they get much higher up. Luckily they are on a mountain, unfortunately they have almost no rations and only one survival suit. Back home Jake and Nog keep arguing about everything to the point that Nog moves out. Ben and Rom run into each other and realize both boys are just being the extreme version of themselves and if they could be a little more like each other they would both be happier so they come up with a plan. Odo and Quark's plan of dragging the transmitter up the mountain isn't going great and gets worse when Odo breaks his leg. Quark insists on dragging him along too claiming he will eat Odo after he dies, but it seems more likely that he doesn't want his frenemy to die.
Ben shows up in Jake's quarters to tell him he will have to move back home if he can't get a room mate. Jake eventually agrees to try living with Nog again and this time they both are a bit more reasonable and seem to be back as friends again. The marooned Quark and Odo aren't doing so well. Quark is desperately hungry and can't keep dragging Odo along and is eventually forced to leave him behind. Odo is finally giving up hope and makes his final log entry, but just as he gets to the part about Quark having failed and being a terrible person he is beamed aboard the Defiant.
Review: A well structured two part story with actual well thought out parallels. This may be some sort of freak accident or something, but it works well in this episode.
7 out of 10
The episode opens with Ben struggling to accept that his own son would rather live with his buddy Nog than with the old man. Cut to Rom getting everything just right in the new quarters when Quark shows up to show his scorn/deliver root beer as a welcome home gift. But before they can get to celebrating Odo walks in and hauls Quark off to appear before a grand jury. The trip will take about a week by runabout and Odo is in full gloat mode while Quark is in full complaining freak out mode from boredom. On the station things go well for about a quarter second before Nog is laying down the law about early bed times, early morning exercise and daily cleaning. On the runabout Quark starts complaining about a buzzing noise which Odo ignores until Quark locates the source and it gets louder. They remove the panel and find a bomb which Quark recognizes as the work of the Orion Syndicate. Odo both wants to gloat that Quark is such a serious criminal but also tries to save them by beaming the bomb into space. It kinda works and the craft is only crippled and forced to make a hard landing on a barely habitable planet.
The first thing Quark notices when he wakes up is how cold it is. As they look over the vessel the find that almost everything is broken and Quark discovers the com unit lacks an amplifier so they can't call out of the atmosphere unless they get much higher up. Luckily they are on a mountain, unfortunately they have almost no rations and only one survival suit. Back home Jake and Nog keep arguing about everything to the point that Nog moves out. Ben and Rom run into each other and realize both boys are just being the extreme version of themselves and if they could be a little more like each other they would both be happier so they come up with a plan. Odo and Quark's plan of dragging the transmitter up the mountain isn't going great and gets worse when Odo breaks his leg. Quark insists on dragging him along too claiming he will eat Odo after he dies, but it seems more likely that he doesn't want his frenemy to die.
Ben shows up in Jake's quarters to tell him he will have to move back home if he can't get a room mate. Jake eventually agrees to try living with Nog again and this time they both are a bit more reasonable and seem to be back as friends again. The marooned Quark and Odo aren't doing so well. Quark is desperately hungry and can't keep dragging Odo along and is eventually forced to leave him behind. Odo is finally giving up hope and makes his final log entry, but just as he gets to the part about Quark having failed and being a terrible person he is beamed aboard the Defiant.
Review: A well structured two part story with actual well thought out parallels. This may be some sort of freak accident or something, but it works well in this episode.
7 out of 10
Thursday, March 24, 2016
DS9: Things Past
Wow this show can get dark, a lot more so than any Trek so far. This episode is about Odo coming to terms with having falsely convicted three Bajorans the during the occupation and then presided over there execution. It seems like he didn't do it on purpose, but he clearly blames himself for not investigating as thoroughly as possible. The justification for this episode at the end that he founded a "great link" with Dax, Sisko and Garak is pretty silly, but it doesn't take up enough of the episode to interrupt this serious and engaging story.
The episode opens with Sisko, Dax, Odo and Garak on a runabout returning from a conference. They are fighting about whether Garak should be upset the Bajorans don't really want to hear his perspective on the occupation when they hit some sort of plasma thing. Next thing we see the runabout is arriving at DS9, but it is on autopilot and the four passengers aren't doing well. Bashir beams over and finds all four in some sort of comatose state but with lots of brain activity. He takes them to the infirmary and meanwhile the four find themselves 7 years early on Terok Nor. Although they see themselves as who they are everyone else sees them as Bajorans. Odo keeps freaking out and seeing his predecessor, security chief Thrax, doing the job he was already doing at this point in history. Before they can figure out what is going on Dax is grabbed by the guards and Garak gets a punch in the face for trying to bribe them.
Dax finds herself in Dukat's quarters where he has her pour drinks and starts laying on the charm. Garak managed to pull steal a Cardassian com unit from the guard who hit him and uses his codes to scan their identities and they discover they are Bajorans and Odo knows who they are but won't say what he knows or how. They are interrupted by Quark offering them work which they accept. Odo sees Thrax again and while he is disoriented Sisko gets him to admit that the three Bajorans they are portraying were falsely convicted of attempting to assassinate Gul Dukat. Sisko arranges a meeting with the resistance to try and get them off the station but before they can get very far Dax and Dukat walk in and a bomb goes off. Sisko rushes to try and help Dax which gets all three arrested for the attempted murder of Dukat.
While they are in prison Dax manages to knock out Dukat and all four make a break for a shuttle of some sort but suddenly they are back in prison. Odo gets a meeting with the Cardassian in charge of security and tries to convince him using the evidence he remembers from the case but the Cardassian doesn't listen. To him it is about teaching the Bajorans a lesson. Then they are at the execution but it is now Dax, Sisko and Garak being executed and Odo is watching. Then he admits he failed these three and all of them watch his memory of the actual execution and then wake up in the infirmary. Afterwards Kira stops by to talk about it with Odo. He is extremely remorseful but she can't find it in herself to forgive him so she asks if these were the only ones and he admits he isn't sure.
Review: A deep and disturbing episode that digs way deeper into the history of its characters than any Trek has before. Kinda an odd scifi element making it happen, but the story works very well.
8 out of 10
The episode opens with Sisko, Dax, Odo and Garak on a runabout returning from a conference. They are fighting about whether Garak should be upset the Bajorans don't really want to hear his perspective on the occupation when they hit some sort of plasma thing. Next thing we see the runabout is arriving at DS9, but it is on autopilot and the four passengers aren't doing well. Bashir beams over and finds all four in some sort of comatose state but with lots of brain activity. He takes them to the infirmary and meanwhile the four find themselves 7 years early on Terok Nor. Although they see themselves as who they are everyone else sees them as Bajorans. Odo keeps freaking out and seeing his predecessor, security chief Thrax, doing the job he was already doing at this point in history. Before they can figure out what is going on Dax is grabbed by the guards and Garak gets a punch in the face for trying to bribe them.
Dax finds herself in Dukat's quarters where he has her pour drinks and starts laying on the charm. Garak managed to pull steal a Cardassian com unit from the guard who hit him and uses his codes to scan their identities and they discover they are Bajorans and Odo knows who they are but won't say what he knows or how. They are interrupted by Quark offering them work which they accept. Odo sees Thrax again and while he is disoriented Sisko gets him to admit that the three Bajorans they are portraying were falsely convicted of attempting to assassinate Gul Dukat. Sisko arranges a meeting with the resistance to try and get them off the station but before they can get very far Dax and Dukat walk in and a bomb goes off. Sisko rushes to try and help Dax which gets all three arrested for the attempted murder of Dukat.
While they are in prison Dax manages to knock out Dukat and all four make a break for a shuttle of some sort but suddenly they are back in prison. Odo gets a meeting with the Cardassian in charge of security and tries to convince him using the evidence he remembers from the case but the Cardassian doesn't listen. To him it is about teaching the Bajorans a lesson. Then they are at the execution but it is now Dax, Sisko and Garak being executed and Odo is watching. Then he admits he failed these three and all of them watch his memory of the actual execution and then wake up in the infirmary. Afterwards Kira stops by to talk about it with Odo. He is extremely remorseful but she can't find it in herself to forgive him so she asks if these were the only ones and he admits he isn't sure.
Review: A deep and disturbing episode that digs way deeper into the history of its characters than any Trek has before. Kinda an odd scifi element making it happen, but the story works very well.
8 out of 10
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
DS9: Let He Who Is Without Sin...
The strength/serious problem with this episode is how it points out all the issues with the Dax/Worf relationship. Yes, they have a breakthrough were Dax realizes what Worf's issue with relaxing is, but they still have massive differences in terms of what they consider relaxing. Fortunately Worf is clearly very into Dax and she is super into Klingons in general and Worf in particular. The Bashir/Leeta relationship plays itself out pretty much as you would expect, only Bashir is a bit disappointed she is the one ready to move on, not him. The plot by the puritans to save the Federation from having fun plays out pretty much as you would expect with Worf first joining in the hi-jinks and then saving the day when they go too far.
The episode opens with Odo and Sisko hanging out at the Replimat discussing the upcoming O'Brien baby and how they want to name him Sean, which means swamp in Bajoran. And mostly proves that you should never tell people the name until the child has it... But then Dax arrives with a sore neck which leads to discussion of her relationship with Worf and their upcoming trip to Risa comes up. Worf arrives to be outraged she is talking about their relationship. And then it gets worse, Leeta and Bashir show up and talk their way onto the trip as well, which seems to be as bad as it gets, but then as they get ready to board the runabout Quark shows up and demands to go if Leeta is going. Worf doesn't kill Quark on the trip there, but he comes close.
They arrive and Worf is still determined to not enjoy himself and Dax seems to only enjoy hassling him about it. The only thing Worf seems to enjoy is the flyer he gets from a group of puritans who are holding a rally to try and get people to stop having so much fun so they can fight the Dominion or something. Worf just keeps getting more upset as he watches Leeta and Bashir constantly move between other sexual partners and Dax keeps flirting with a girls she knows who was Kurzon's lover. That night he and Dax fight about the nature of their relationship so he storms off and helps the puritans disrupt the climate controls on the planet causing instant rain pretty much everywhere. Which leads to a great bit by Quark about all the different Ferengi names for rain. Things seem to be getting better rain wise but the puritans show up again, this time with guns, but they aren't loaded, it is all just a stunt.
Things finally come to a head with Dax and Worf and he finally tells her the reason he is so restrained all the time was that as a child he accidentally killed a human classmate in a sporting competition at school. Dax finally has at least a bit of an understanding of what he is going through and tells him she will never do anything to hurt him. And then the earthquakes start. Worf correctly guesses it is the space puritans and manages to stop them before they destroy all the buildings on the planet. Leeta and Bashir finish off their relationship in a Bajoran ritual and she immediately admits she has feelings about Rom which shocks both Quark and Julian.
Review: A fun episode with most of its issues coming from obvious problems with the Dax/Worf relationship. But then it isn't exactly unrealistic to think that people might stay in a relationship that has serious problems. Some genuinely funny bits help as well.
7 out of 10
The episode opens with Odo and Sisko hanging out at the Replimat discussing the upcoming O'Brien baby and how they want to name him Sean, which means swamp in Bajoran. And mostly proves that you should never tell people the name until the child has it... But then Dax arrives with a sore neck which leads to discussion of her relationship with Worf and their upcoming trip to Risa comes up. Worf arrives to be outraged she is talking about their relationship. And then it gets worse, Leeta and Bashir show up and talk their way onto the trip as well, which seems to be as bad as it gets, but then as they get ready to board the runabout Quark shows up and demands to go if Leeta is going. Worf doesn't kill Quark on the trip there, but he comes close.
They arrive and Worf is still determined to not enjoy himself and Dax seems to only enjoy hassling him about it. The only thing Worf seems to enjoy is the flyer he gets from a group of puritans who are holding a rally to try and get people to stop having so much fun so they can fight the Dominion or something. Worf just keeps getting more upset as he watches Leeta and Bashir constantly move between other sexual partners and Dax keeps flirting with a girls she knows who was Kurzon's lover. That night he and Dax fight about the nature of their relationship so he storms off and helps the puritans disrupt the climate controls on the planet causing instant rain pretty much everywhere. Which leads to a great bit by Quark about all the different Ferengi names for rain. Things seem to be getting better rain wise but the puritans show up again, this time with guns, but they aren't loaded, it is all just a stunt.
Things finally come to a head with Dax and Worf and he finally tells her the reason he is so restrained all the time was that as a child he accidentally killed a human classmate in a sporting competition at school. Dax finally has at least a bit of an understanding of what he is going through and tells him she will never do anything to hurt him. And then the earthquakes start. Worf correctly guesses it is the space puritans and manages to stop them before they destroy all the buildings on the planet. Leeta and Bashir finish off their relationship in a Bajoran ritual and she immediately admits she has feelings about Rom which shocks both Quark and Julian.
Review: A fun episode with most of its issues coming from obvious problems with the Dax/Worf relationship. But then it isn't exactly unrealistic to think that people might stay in a relationship that has serious problems. Some genuinely funny bits help as well.
7 out of 10
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
DS9: Trials and Tribble-ations
During the original run I think this was either my favorite or possibly second favorite episode in the entire show. And fortunately it has aged quite well. This is especially fun since it doesn't seem all that long ago that I was watching the first two tribble episodes and this feels like a nice conclusion. The effects of inserting the crew into the original episode actually work quite well. This is also one of those rare times where it is apparent how awesome it is to have a character with memories going back hundreds of years. This also introduces the Temporal Investigation Agency who I feel like make at least one more appearance, but I don't remember in what episode. It seems like if they existed they should have shown up when Sisko inserted himself into history as a critical civil rights leader, but I guess the writers didn't have the idea yet.
The episode opens with the two Temporal Investigation agents showing up to question Sisko about an incident with the Defiant. They aren't interested in any jokes about time or time travel, not that this stops the crew from trying. It seems they were on a mission to retrieve a Bajoran orb from Cardassia with a human passenger who had been trapped on Cardassia after the war started. While warping home they suddenly go to plaid and discover they have traveled a great distance in both time and space. They encounter the original USS Enterprise (well, the original Trek version, there have been a lot of other types of ship with that name) in orbit around station K-7. It seems where human passenger was in fact Arne Darvin, the Klingon agent altered to look human from the original episode. Somehow he has already beamed to station K-7 and they all assume correctly he is trying to get revenge on Kirk.
They beam over and get into all sorts of hi-jinks before finally catching Mr. Darvin, but it is too late, he hid a bomb inside a tribble intent on killing Kirk. I am not going to go through all the gags and bits in this episode, just go watch it, almost all of them work out great. They eventually find the bomb in the grain hopper full of tribbles that fall onto Kirks head and beam it into space just in time. Before leaving Sisko shakes Kirks hand and tells him what a pleasure it has been to serve with him. This seems to satisfy the Temporal Investigation agents who somehow miss that the station is now infested with tribbles.
Review: Much like the original episode this is about as comedic as they get in any part of Trek. Luckily everyone seemed to be working well both in writing, effects and acting making this a real pleasure to watch.
9 out of 10
The episode opens with the two Temporal Investigation agents showing up to question Sisko about an incident with the Defiant. They aren't interested in any jokes about time or time travel, not that this stops the crew from trying. It seems they were on a mission to retrieve a Bajoran orb from Cardassia with a human passenger who had been trapped on Cardassia after the war started. While warping home they suddenly go to plaid and discover they have traveled a great distance in both time and space. They encounter the original USS Enterprise (well, the original Trek version, there have been a lot of other types of ship with that name) in orbit around station K-7. It seems where human passenger was in fact Arne Darvin, the Klingon agent altered to look human from the original episode. Somehow he has already beamed to station K-7 and they all assume correctly he is trying to get revenge on Kirk.
They beam over and get into all sorts of hi-jinks before finally catching Mr. Darvin, but it is too late, he hid a bomb inside a tribble intent on killing Kirk. I am not going to go through all the gags and bits in this episode, just go watch it, almost all of them work out great. They eventually find the bomb in the grain hopper full of tribbles that fall onto Kirks head and beam it into space just in time. Before leaving Sisko shakes Kirks hand and tells him what a pleasure it has been to serve with him. This seems to satisfy the Temporal Investigation agents who somehow miss that the station is now infested with tribbles.
Review: Much like the original episode this is about as comedic as they get in any part of Trek. Luckily everyone seemed to be working well both in writing, effects and acting making this a real pleasure to watch.
9 out of 10
Monday, March 21, 2016
DS9: The Assignment
And thus are introduced my least favorite element of the last few seasons of DS9, the pah-wraiths. I am not saying it would be impossible to make them interesting, but basically they just keep possessing people and causing chaos for the next few seasons crescendoing into the conclusion of the series. I get that the prophets/wormhole aliens were the original central story on the show, but honestly they could have stuck with the Dominion war from here to the end and I think most fans would have been a hell of a lot happier. And finally I have to once again point out how kinda awful it is to be an O'Brien on this show.
The episode opens when Miles freaking out about how he and Julian managed to kill all Keiko's bonsai trees and even Molly knows Miles is in trouble. Which is how you can tell how serious the trouble is when she arrives home and doesn't care about what happened to the trees at all. Instead she tells him she has taken over his wife's body and will kill her if he doesn't do exactly as she says. She starts by having him mess around with some station systems to prove his loyalty. To be an extra big jerk she insists that his surprise birthday party that night should go forward. We get a bit of a B story with Rom and Quark discussing Rom's new breakfast habits and setup that Quark thinks Rom will be stuck on the night shift forever. But things start looking up for Rom when a crewman gets sick on the swing shift and he gets the job for a few days.
The Keikowraith is satisfied with what he did so far and then gives him the real job, lots of tiny changes around the station and only 13 hours to get them all done. Miles thinks about telling the captain but Keiko sees him walking towards the captain from the upper level of the promenade and jumps to prove how serious he is. Miles isn't going to be able to get it all done so he recruits Rom to help. But before long Dax figures out something is wrong and starts investigating. Eventually they decide Rom is the one responsible and drag him into a holding cell but he won't talk. Miles manages to have a private talk with Rom and learns Rom has figured out what is going on, the station is being modified to kill the wormhole aliens. Rom even knows why, the pah-wraiths were expelled from the wormhole long ago and need to kill the prophets to get back in.
Miles is cutting it close and as he finishes up the modifications Odo stops by. Being a good investigator Odo has figured out Miles is the one behind the changes, not Rom, but before he can stop Miles he gets a punch in the face. Miles and Keiko meet in a runabout and fly to the wormhole, but instead of blasting the wormhole Miles blasts the runabout killing the pah-wraith saving Keiko. She thanks him for saving her and he thanks Rom for both his help and his loyalty by promoting him to the day shift.
Review: Not the strongest episode in the show, but they did at least choose well to have this one be all about Miles. My dislike of the pah-wraiths from later in the show makes it hard to judge well, but I think the following score is pretty fair:
5 out of 10
The episode opens when Miles freaking out about how he and Julian managed to kill all Keiko's bonsai trees and even Molly knows Miles is in trouble. Which is how you can tell how serious the trouble is when she arrives home and doesn't care about what happened to the trees at all. Instead she tells him she has taken over his wife's body and will kill her if he doesn't do exactly as she says. She starts by having him mess around with some station systems to prove his loyalty. To be an extra big jerk she insists that his surprise birthday party that night should go forward. We get a bit of a B story with Rom and Quark discussing Rom's new breakfast habits and setup that Quark thinks Rom will be stuck on the night shift forever. But things start looking up for Rom when a crewman gets sick on the swing shift and he gets the job for a few days.
The Keikowraith is satisfied with what he did so far and then gives him the real job, lots of tiny changes around the station and only 13 hours to get them all done. Miles thinks about telling the captain but Keiko sees him walking towards the captain from the upper level of the promenade and jumps to prove how serious he is. Miles isn't going to be able to get it all done so he recruits Rom to help. But before long Dax figures out something is wrong and starts investigating. Eventually they decide Rom is the one responsible and drag him into a holding cell but he won't talk. Miles manages to have a private talk with Rom and learns Rom has figured out what is going on, the station is being modified to kill the wormhole aliens. Rom even knows why, the pah-wraiths were expelled from the wormhole long ago and need to kill the prophets to get back in.
Miles is cutting it close and as he finishes up the modifications Odo stops by. Being a good investigator Odo has figured out Miles is the one behind the changes, not Rom, but before he can stop Miles he gets a punch in the face. Miles and Keiko meet in a runabout and fly to the wormhole, but instead of blasting the wormhole Miles blasts the runabout killing the pah-wraith saving Keiko. She thanks him for saving her and he thanks Rom for both his help and his loyalty by promoting him to the day shift.
Review: Not the strongest episode in the show, but they did at least choose well to have this one be all about Miles. My dislike of the pah-wraiths from later in the show makes it hard to judge well, but I think the following score is pretty fair:
5 out of 10
Sunday, March 20, 2016
DS9: Nor the Battle to the Strong
Another one of those episodes that only happened in DS9. It would be like having Wesley get caught in a war zone and have to learn to deal with death and his own fear all in one episode. Pretty dark stuff, and this show gets a lot darker from here on out. Also it totally figures that all this fighting takes place while a cease fire is being worked out giving it that wastefulness of war feeling to it too. The only real B story in this one is Ben having to handle his son being stuck in the middle of a battle with nothing he can do about it. On the upside for Jake this is the kind of experience he can draw on for his writing.
The episode opens with Jake and Bashir returning from a medical conference. Jake is bored out of his mind listening to Julian rant about how wrong the medical establishment is to not take his work seriously when they get a distress call from a Federation colony under attack by Klingons. On the station things are pretty calm until word of the Jake's situation arrives. The USS Farragut will be there in a day and a half, but that isn't soon enough for Sisko. At the colony they land and walk right into the middle of the hospital with injured patients everywhere. Bashir is right at home and jumps in taking care of people but Jake doesn't know what to do. He watches a man come in claiming to have been shot in the foot by Klingons and then sees how everyones treatment of him changes when they realize he shot himself to get out of combat. Jake eventually gets recruited to help move patients around and really gets into it, but at the end of his shift he throws up at the sight of food.
Things get worse when the power generator gets knocked out by shelling and Jake goes with Julian to get the generator from the runabout. News also comes in that the Farragut was destroyed so help will be significantly delayed. On DS9 Ben can't get the Defiant underway fast enough. As soon as Julian and Jake head out for the runabout they start taking fire and are separated. Jake comes across an injured Federation soldier who volunteered to stay behind to save his platoon. Jake helps him get a hypo of pain killer, but it runs out and the man dies. Jake can't take it and runs off again ashamed of his inability to save him. Ben isn't holding it together very well on the Defiant but Jadzia manages to calm him down a bit at least.
Jake manages to make his way back to the clinic and everyone is glad to see him, especially Bashir who managed to drag the generator back himself and was injured in the process. His failure compared to Julian only makes Jake feel worse. He takes food to the man who shot himself and can clearly see some of himself in the man who is deeply ashamed of what he did and wants to be punished for it by starfleet. After in the mess hall some of the other medical staff are discussing how they would want to be killed by Klingons in that way that people do when they are under a ton of stress but Jake takes it badly and yells at them. Bashir pulls him aside but Jake is breaking down. He wakes up to the shaking of explosions, the Klingons have broken through. While the others flee Jake cowers under a desk. A soldier is killed in front of him and after hesitating Jake grabs his phaser and starts shooting blindly and in the process collapses in entry tunnel ending the assault and saving most of the rest of the people in the clinic. He wakes up to his father telling him that he saved their lives and is a hero, but he isn't really buying the hero part. The episode ends with Jake writing his experience up in a story about the thin line between courage and cowardice.
Review: A deeply moving episode about one of the less frequently featured characters in the show. But really this could have been about any war from any time period, it is a story about being afraid in the face of war and how a person deals with that incredible stress.
8 out of 10
The episode opens with Jake and Bashir returning from a medical conference. Jake is bored out of his mind listening to Julian rant about how wrong the medical establishment is to not take his work seriously when they get a distress call from a Federation colony under attack by Klingons. On the station things are pretty calm until word of the Jake's situation arrives. The USS Farragut will be there in a day and a half, but that isn't soon enough for Sisko. At the colony they land and walk right into the middle of the hospital with injured patients everywhere. Bashir is right at home and jumps in taking care of people but Jake doesn't know what to do. He watches a man come in claiming to have been shot in the foot by Klingons and then sees how everyones treatment of him changes when they realize he shot himself to get out of combat. Jake eventually gets recruited to help move patients around and really gets into it, but at the end of his shift he throws up at the sight of food.
Things get worse when the power generator gets knocked out by shelling and Jake goes with Julian to get the generator from the runabout. News also comes in that the Farragut was destroyed so help will be significantly delayed. On DS9 Ben can't get the Defiant underway fast enough. As soon as Julian and Jake head out for the runabout they start taking fire and are separated. Jake comes across an injured Federation soldier who volunteered to stay behind to save his platoon. Jake helps him get a hypo of pain killer, but it runs out and the man dies. Jake can't take it and runs off again ashamed of his inability to save him. Ben isn't holding it together very well on the Defiant but Jadzia manages to calm him down a bit at least.
Jake manages to make his way back to the clinic and everyone is glad to see him, especially Bashir who managed to drag the generator back himself and was injured in the process. His failure compared to Julian only makes Jake feel worse. He takes food to the man who shot himself and can clearly see some of himself in the man who is deeply ashamed of what he did and wants to be punished for it by starfleet. After in the mess hall some of the other medical staff are discussing how they would want to be killed by Klingons in that way that people do when they are under a ton of stress but Jake takes it badly and yells at them. Bashir pulls him aside but Jake is breaking down. He wakes up to the shaking of explosions, the Klingons have broken through. While the others flee Jake cowers under a desk. A soldier is killed in front of him and after hesitating Jake grabs his phaser and starts shooting blindly and in the process collapses in entry tunnel ending the assault and saving most of the rest of the people in the clinic. He wakes up to his father telling him that he saved their lives and is a hero, but he isn't really buying the hero part. The episode ends with Jake writing his experience up in a story about the thin line between courage and cowardice.
Review: A deeply moving episode about one of the less frequently featured characters in the show. But really this could have been about any war from any time period, it is a story about being afraid in the face of war and how a person deals with that incredible stress.
8 out of 10
Saturday, March 19, 2016
DS9: Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places
The capitalization in the title alone is enough to make your head spin, and add in an episode about Klingon love rituals and you get a rather interesting episode. The B story about Kira starting to fall for Miles isn't quite as great as Quark trying to court Grilka and the ending with Jadzia putting the moves on Worf isn't even a little surprising. Dax has clearly been into Klingons for several lifetimes and Jadzia had the hots for Worf since he first came onto the station. Worf meanwhile acts as a more than honorable wingman for Quark who needs all the help he can get.
The episode opens with Grilka arriving on the station to get Quark's help with some financial problems her house is having. She immediately catches Worf's attention and he is open infatuated with her. Quark is too though and gets to work on the House of Grilka financial records. The B story about the relationship between Kira and Miles starts with Miles checking on her medications with Bashir who can see something is going on. Worf isn't waiting for Grilka to notice him and tries starting a fight with her body guard in Quark's, but her chief advisor pulls him aside and points out that since Worf is an outcast it is unthinkable for him to try and romance Grilka which he can't really argue with. Quark though has been invited to a private dinner with Grilka and stops by the Defiant mess hall to ask Worf and Jadzia for help. (Side note: how is it Quark can saunter onto an experimental warship whenever he wants???) Worf isn't interested, but Jadzia offers some solid advice for Quark.
Back with the O'Briens Miles is massaging Kira's legs and feet which are sore from the pregnancy. She is clearly really enjoying it and Keiko doesn't seem bothered in the slightest. Quark again comes to Worf for advice and we see Worf is living through him a bit. Jadzia's advice worked great and he is looking for the next step. Worf trains him to get through a Klingon battle holosuite program which is considered super romantic to Klingons. Grilka is super impressed afterwards but demands to know Quark's intentions. He say he wants to marry her, he thinks she is more valuable than all the latinum in the quadrant which she loves, but her body guard doesn't and challenges Quark to a duel. Back at the O'Briens Kira announces she is going to Bajor for a few days to stay at a house that belongs to a friend of hers. Keiko insists Miles go with her despite both Kira and Miles not being comfortable with that.
To get Quark through the duel alive Jadzia hooks him up to a control rig on Worf so he will move as Worf moves. Things go great for a while, but the device fails for a minute and Quark is forced to stall, but it all works out in the end and Grilka jumps on him as soon as the duel is over. On the runabout Kira is telling Miles how romantic the spot they are going to is and Miles decides he can't go and reluctantly lets her go on her own. Back on the holosuite Worf is complaining about not being the one to get Grilka and Jadzia tells him to shut up basically and then jumps on him. In the infirmary Bashir is treating Quark's love wounds when an equally beaten up Jadzia and Worf walk in. In private Worf tells Jadzia they should marry after what happened, but leaves it up to her.
Review: This episode is mostly about moving a few of the main relationships in the story forward. The Kira/Miles plot is mostly a bit uncomfortable but the Worf/Quark bits are golden.
6 out of 10
The episode opens with Grilka arriving on the station to get Quark's help with some financial problems her house is having. She immediately catches Worf's attention and he is open infatuated with her. Quark is too though and gets to work on the House of Grilka financial records. The B story about the relationship between Kira and Miles starts with Miles checking on her medications with Bashir who can see something is going on. Worf isn't waiting for Grilka to notice him and tries starting a fight with her body guard in Quark's, but her chief advisor pulls him aside and points out that since Worf is an outcast it is unthinkable for him to try and romance Grilka which he can't really argue with. Quark though has been invited to a private dinner with Grilka and stops by the Defiant mess hall to ask Worf and Jadzia for help. (Side note: how is it Quark can saunter onto an experimental warship whenever he wants???) Worf isn't interested, but Jadzia offers some solid advice for Quark.
Back with the O'Briens Miles is massaging Kira's legs and feet which are sore from the pregnancy. She is clearly really enjoying it and Keiko doesn't seem bothered in the slightest. Quark again comes to Worf for advice and we see Worf is living through him a bit. Jadzia's advice worked great and he is looking for the next step. Worf trains him to get through a Klingon battle holosuite program which is considered super romantic to Klingons. Grilka is super impressed afterwards but demands to know Quark's intentions. He say he wants to marry her, he thinks she is more valuable than all the latinum in the quadrant which she loves, but her body guard doesn't and challenges Quark to a duel. Back at the O'Briens Kira announces she is going to Bajor for a few days to stay at a house that belongs to a friend of hers. Keiko insists Miles go with her despite both Kira and Miles not being comfortable with that.
To get Quark through the duel alive Jadzia hooks him up to a control rig on Worf so he will move as Worf moves. Things go great for a while, but the device fails for a minute and Quark is forced to stall, but it all works out in the end and Grilka jumps on him as soon as the duel is over. On the runabout Kira is telling Miles how romantic the spot they are going to is and Miles decides he can't go and reluctantly lets her go on her own. Back on the holosuite Worf is complaining about not being the one to get Grilka and Jadzia tells him to shut up basically and then jumps on him. In the infirmary Bashir is treating Quark's love wounds when an equally beaten up Jadzia and Worf walk in. In private Worf tells Jadzia they should marry after what happened, but leaves it up to her.
Review: This episode is mostly about moving a few of the main relationships in the story forward. The Kira/Miles plot is mostly a bit uncomfortable but the Worf/Quark bits are golden.
6 out of 10
Friday, March 18, 2016
DS9: The Ship
This is a smaller story in many way than a lot of what happens in Trek, but it is also a very touching story. The only part I am not sure I entirely buy is how upset Sisko was at losing crew. His character goes back and forth from being probably the most pragmatic captain in all of Starfleet to being super upset by losing come crew when the only way to save them was to trust an enemy who repeatedly violated his trust. I guess we are supposed to see how much he cares about each of his crew which is a good thing for a captain, but the idea that the capture of a Jem'Hadar warship was a waste of their lives is just silly.
The episode opens with the captain leading an away team surveying for valuable mineral deposits. Miles is teaching creman Muniz about rocks/taking a rest while pretending to be teaching. The two clearly get along well and the fact we have never seen Muniz before should have been a hint something bad is going to happen. The group comes together and we see Worf and Dax are there along with a few other unnamed crew. They get a call from the runabout suddenly, a ship has come out of warp and is crashing towards the planet. They get beamed to the crash site and find a Jem'Hadar ship sticking out of a wall of rock with no life signs. They get inside and find that all the crew died from an inertial damper failure before the ship crashed. A little while later Worf and Dax return from burying the dead soldiers only to get a call from the runabout again, an undamaged Jem' Hadar ship has appeared and before they can do anything the runabout is destroyed. They don't have long to mourn, Jem'Hadar start beaming in all over and they flee onto the crashed ship. Muniz is hit along the way and although he puts on a good show, he is clearly badly hurt.
While trying to figure out what to do next they get a call on the coms from the vorta in charge of the Jem'Hadar. She wants to meet with Sisko and he agrees, but while they talk a Jem'Hadar beams onto the ship and places some sort of sensor. O'Brien is nearly killed by him but Muniz manages to save his life. The Vorta again tries to talk to Sisko, but this time he brings a gun. It seems there is just one object on the ship she wants badly, but won't say what so he doesn't agree to let her come get it. When she figures he isn't going to negotiate they start shelling the ship, but not so hard as to damage it. Muniz dies during this which really makes O'Brien feel terrible. They try flying the ship out of there, but it doesn't work. They do however find a changeling hiding on the ship, but it dies before they can do anything. The Jem'Hadar commit suicide and the Vorta comes over to say how sad she is things couldn't have been worked out.
Review: A pretty straightforward episode, but one that tells us a lot about how our main characters react under stress. Might have benefited from a B story, but the main story is good enough to still be above average for Trek.
7 out of 10
The episode opens with the captain leading an away team surveying for valuable mineral deposits. Miles is teaching creman Muniz about rocks/taking a rest while pretending to be teaching. The two clearly get along well and the fact we have never seen Muniz before should have been a hint something bad is going to happen. The group comes together and we see Worf and Dax are there along with a few other unnamed crew. They get a call from the runabout suddenly, a ship has come out of warp and is crashing towards the planet. They get beamed to the crash site and find a Jem'Hadar ship sticking out of a wall of rock with no life signs. They get inside and find that all the crew died from an inertial damper failure before the ship crashed. A little while later Worf and Dax return from burying the dead soldiers only to get a call from the runabout again, an undamaged Jem' Hadar ship has appeared and before they can do anything the runabout is destroyed. They don't have long to mourn, Jem'Hadar start beaming in all over and they flee onto the crashed ship. Muniz is hit along the way and although he puts on a good show, he is clearly badly hurt.
While trying to figure out what to do next they get a call on the coms from the vorta in charge of the Jem'Hadar. She wants to meet with Sisko and he agrees, but while they talk a Jem'Hadar beams onto the ship and places some sort of sensor. O'Brien is nearly killed by him but Muniz manages to save his life. The Vorta again tries to talk to Sisko, but this time he brings a gun. It seems there is just one object on the ship she wants badly, but won't say what so he doesn't agree to let her come get it. When she figures he isn't going to negotiate they start shelling the ship, but not so hard as to damage it. Muniz dies during this which really makes O'Brien feel terrible. They try flying the ship out of there, but it doesn't work. They do however find a changeling hiding on the ship, but it dies before they can do anything. The Jem'Hadar commit suicide and the Vorta comes over to say how sad she is things couldn't have been worked out.
Review: A pretty straightforward episode, but one that tells us a lot about how our main characters react under stress. Might have benefited from a B story, but the main story is good enough to still be above average for Trek.
7 out of 10
Thursday, March 17, 2016
DS9: Apocalypse Rising
So it seems my memory of Gowron not being a changeling were correct! It seems the founders don't know about the radiation balls that destabilize changelings since they tried to get Odo to go after Gowron. Had the plan to use the radiation spheres worked it would have exposed Martok and ruined everything. Also, Odo is a terrible Klingon. O'Brien isn't much better but Sisko seemed to actually enjoy himself quite a bit. Dukat is pretty close to peak fun for his character, now that the Klingons aren't at war with the Federation I don't think it will be all that long until the Cardassians switch sides and end up part of the Dominion and he is back to being super evil again.
The episode opens with Kira trying to keep Worf from taking the Defiant to go look for Sisko who has gone missing. Things are getting a bit tense when Sisko finally arrives in a damaged runabout. He has orders from starfleet to try and infiltrate the Klingon command structure and reveal Gowron as a changeling. To do this he has been given radiation emitters that should destabilize him, hopefully in front of a bunch of armed Klingons. Sisko recruits a very moppy Odo for the mission and also O'Brien. They get Dukat to shuttle them in using his stolen Klingon ship. To actually do the infiltration they are surgically altered to appear Klingon. Worf is also going on the mission, but mostly it seems he is there to get them to act more Klingon.
Dukat drops them off and gets out there since his holofiter isn't working. They have been set up with fake identities and are to be inducted into the order of the bat'leth which means a few days of drinking before Gowron arrives. Martok arrives and seems to recognize O'Brien but he talks his way out of it. This does make them realize Gowron will be there soon so they start hiding the emitters around the room. Gowron shows up and they get the emitters in place. Just as Sisko is about to turn them on he is called to receive his honor, but as he turns away Gowron recognizes and attacks him. The four of them are put in a holding cell and Martok comes to talk. He admits he has had his doubts about Gowron as well. He helps them escape and they fight there way to the hall of warriors where Worf challenges Gowron to a duel. However Odo figures out that it is actually Martok who is the changeling just in time and he reveals himself and is slaughtered by the hall full of warriors. Gowron thanks them and agrees to a cease fire to negotiate with the Federation.
Review: An exciting and good episode over all. Seeing Sisko, Odo and O'Brien playing Klingons is clearly the best part. Hopefully next episode we see this more confident Odo, sulking Odo is kinda the worst.
7 out of 10
The episode opens with Kira trying to keep Worf from taking the Defiant to go look for Sisko who has gone missing. Things are getting a bit tense when Sisko finally arrives in a damaged runabout. He has orders from starfleet to try and infiltrate the Klingon command structure and reveal Gowron as a changeling. To do this he has been given radiation emitters that should destabilize him, hopefully in front of a bunch of armed Klingons. Sisko recruits a very moppy Odo for the mission and also O'Brien. They get Dukat to shuttle them in using his stolen Klingon ship. To actually do the infiltration they are surgically altered to appear Klingon. Worf is also going on the mission, but mostly it seems he is there to get them to act more Klingon.
Dukat drops them off and gets out there since his holofiter isn't working. They have been set up with fake identities and are to be inducted into the order of the bat'leth which means a few days of drinking before Gowron arrives. Martok arrives and seems to recognize O'Brien but he talks his way out of it. This does make them realize Gowron will be there soon so they start hiding the emitters around the room. Gowron shows up and they get the emitters in place. Just as Sisko is about to turn them on he is called to receive his honor, but as he turns away Gowron recognizes and attacks him. The four of them are put in a holding cell and Martok comes to talk. He admits he has had his doubts about Gowron as well. He helps them escape and they fight there way to the hall of warriors where Worf challenges Gowron to a duel. However Odo figures out that it is actually Martok who is the changeling just in time and he reveals himself and is slaughtered by the hall full of warriors. Gowron thanks them and agrees to a cease fire to negotiate with the Federation.
Review: An exciting and good episode over all. Seeing Sisko, Odo and O'Brien playing Klingons is clearly the best part. Hopefully next episode we see this more confident Odo, sulking Odo is kinda the worst.
7 out of 10
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
DS9: Broken Link
This is an episode I remember pretty clearly and it is an effective one. After waiting so long to join the great link Odo finally gets his wish, but not the way he would want. Also if I recall correctly he secretly spread a virus into the link which wrecks havoc among the other founders at least as bad as what they did to him to get him to join them in the first place. I honestly don't remember if Gowron is actually a founder or if that is just a ruse they planted in Odo's mind while in the link. I kinda think he is, but these shapeshifters are tricky.
The episode opens with Garak trying to set Odo up on a date with a Bajoran restaurant owner and he is both annoyed and into it. Unexpectedly as he prepares to leave Odo collapses on the floor appearing to be having difficulty holding his shape. Bashir examines him but other than being able to tell that something is seriously wrong he doesn't have much of a diagnosis. Kira stops by with the criminal activity report which seems to get Odo's attention, so much so that he leaves the infirmary and tries to arrest some smugglers but collapses into a puddle and wakes up in the infirmary again. Odo insists that the founder are the only ones who can help them so Sisko agrees to take him to the Dominion in the Defiant uncloaked broadcasting their plan. Before they can leave Garak talks his way onto the ship and Sisko gives him the job of keeping Odo entertained with his tales of intrigue.
They are quickly met by a fleet of Jem'Hadar ships and before they can discuss the situation a founder accompanied by Jem'Hadar guards beams onto the bridge of the Defiant. They agree to a device to block the nav computers from logging the voyage and a Jem'Hadar pilot. The changeling merges partially with Odo and he is a bit more stable. In private she tells him he will join the great link and be judged by his people for killing another changeling. They arrive and Sisko and Bashir beam down with Odo and watch as he joins the link. While Odo is being judge Garak tries to use the ships weapons to wipe out the founders but is stopped by Worf. Eventually Odo is ejected from the link a different person, a solid person. They return to the station and he is haunted by his memories of the link, there are things they tried to hide from him. His memory is jogged when he sees a video of Gowron announcing a provocation against the Cardassians, he realizes Gowron is a changeling!
Review: A pretty straight forward episode, I did leave out the subplot about Kira sneezing a lot which I don't think is a big lose. Mostly a setup for things to come, but not a bad episode never the less.
6 out of 10
The episode opens with Garak trying to set Odo up on a date with a Bajoran restaurant owner and he is both annoyed and into it. Unexpectedly as he prepares to leave Odo collapses on the floor appearing to be having difficulty holding his shape. Bashir examines him but other than being able to tell that something is seriously wrong he doesn't have much of a diagnosis. Kira stops by with the criminal activity report which seems to get Odo's attention, so much so that he leaves the infirmary and tries to arrest some smugglers but collapses into a puddle and wakes up in the infirmary again. Odo insists that the founder are the only ones who can help them so Sisko agrees to take him to the Dominion in the Defiant uncloaked broadcasting their plan. Before they can leave Garak talks his way onto the ship and Sisko gives him the job of keeping Odo entertained with his tales of intrigue.
They are quickly met by a fleet of Jem'Hadar ships and before they can discuss the situation a founder accompanied by Jem'Hadar guards beams onto the bridge of the Defiant. They agree to a device to block the nav computers from logging the voyage and a Jem'Hadar pilot. The changeling merges partially with Odo and he is a bit more stable. In private she tells him he will join the great link and be judged by his people for killing another changeling. They arrive and Sisko and Bashir beam down with Odo and watch as he joins the link. While Odo is being judge Garak tries to use the ships weapons to wipe out the founders but is stopped by Worf. Eventually Odo is ejected from the link a different person, a solid person. They return to the station and he is haunted by his memories of the link, there are things they tried to hide from him. His memory is jogged when he sees a video of Gowron announcing a provocation against the Cardassians, he realizes Gowron is a changeling!
Review: A pretty straight forward episode, I did leave out the subplot about Kira sneezing a lot which I don't think is a big lose. Mostly a setup for things to come, but not a bad episode never the less.
6 out of 10
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
DS9: Body Parts
As a kid I loved any episode with FCA Liquidator Brunt in it and I am starting to see why. This is one that I remember watching both for the great trick of getting Quark to agree to sell his remains before he is dead and for Keiko giving up her baby to Kira to carry to term. I remember reading somewhere that Nana Visitor was pregnant and this was the writer solution. And honestly for where Kira is in her romantic life at this point in the show this is actually a more reasonable solution. Having Kira get pregnant on her own would kinda limit their ability to play the love triangle angle, plus it gives the O'Brien's another shot at some family trauma which is something they seem to excel at.
We begin first with Miles characteristically worrying about Keiko being on a mission to the Gamma Quadrant and Dax laughing at him. But next we see Quark very uncharacteristically being very giving with his brother offering a free snail juice, the reason: he is dying. While on Ferenginar Quark was diagnosed with the rare Dorek Sydrome, which is always fatal. Rom talks him into putting his remains up for sale on the futures market to raise money to pay off his debts before death. Keiko's shuttle comes through the wormhole badly damaged and O'Brien rushes to the infirmary. Keiko was badly hurt, but the baby is fine, and now in Kira. To save the child Bashir transferred him to Kira and then treated Keiko who is now also fine. Because of Kira's Bajoran anatomy though the transfer is permanent until she comes to term.
Quark meanwhile is super disappointed only Rom has bid on his remains, but his moon changes when an offer for 500 bars of latinum comes in which he accepts immediately convinced it must be the Nagus. Quark is ecstatic, for once in his life he is a big success, so you can imagine his surprise when he learns his diagnosis was in error. He is even more upset when he learns Brunt set the whole thing up and intends to collect what he is owed. Quark tries to talk him out of it but Brunt insists he will ruin Quark if he doesn't get his desiccated remains. Quark not wanting to not live up to his contract tries hiring Garak to kill him, but insists on watching several simulated kills on the holosuite and doesn't like any of them so he tells Garak to surprise him.
A now super paranoid Quark goes home and ducks while turning on the lights. He is now exhausted though so he goes to sleep and awakens in the Divine Treasury convinced Garak did his job. The first Grand Nagus comes out and tells him to break the contract but Brunt then appears and Quark realizes he is dreaming. When he wakes up he decides to go ahead and break the contract so Brunt proudly liquidates his assets. The O'Briens meanwhile have convinced Kira to come live with them until the baby is delivered and while a bit overwhelmed she is happy to do it. We see Quark sitting with his brother in the empty bar when Julian comes in with a case of brandy. He says it was given to him as payment but he can't take it. Quark tries to refuse but Dax then arrives with a box of ugly glasses. Then Sisko comes in saying that renovations on the habitat ring require moving out a bunch of tables and chairs. Quark at first refuses again, but then his eyes light up and he asks for a storage fee.
Review: Ferengi episodes are some of my favorite and this is an especially good one. The Kira/O'Briens plot feels a little forced, but it doesn't seriously detract from the episode.
7 out of 10
We begin first with Miles characteristically worrying about Keiko being on a mission to the Gamma Quadrant and Dax laughing at him. But next we see Quark very uncharacteristically being very giving with his brother offering a free snail juice, the reason: he is dying. While on Ferenginar Quark was diagnosed with the rare Dorek Sydrome, which is always fatal. Rom talks him into putting his remains up for sale on the futures market to raise money to pay off his debts before death. Keiko's shuttle comes through the wormhole badly damaged and O'Brien rushes to the infirmary. Keiko was badly hurt, but the baby is fine, and now in Kira. To save the child Bashir transferred him to Kira and then treated Keiko who is now also fine. Because of Kira's Bajoran anatomy though the transfer is permanent until she comes to term.
Quark meanwhile is super disappointed only Rom has bid on his remains, but his moon changes when an offer for 500 bars of latinum comes in which he accepts immediately convinced it must be the Nagus. Quark is ecstatic, for once in his life he is a big success, so you can imagine his surprise when he learns his diagnosis was in error. He is even more upset when he learns Brunt set the whole thing up and intends to collect what he is owed. Quark tries to talk him out of it but Brunt insists he will ruin Quark if he doesn't get his desiccated remains. Quark not wanting to not live up to his contract tries hiring Garak to kill him, but insists on watching several simulated kills on the holosuite and doesn't like any of them so he tells Garak to surprise him.
A now super paranoid Quark goes home and ducks while turning on the lights. He is now exhausted though so he goes to sleep and awakens in the Divine Treasury convinced Garak did his job. The first Grand Nagus comes out and tells him to break the contract but Brunt then appears and Quark realizes he is dreaming. When he wakes up he decides to go ahead and break the contract so Brunt proudly liquidates his assets. The O'Briens meanwhile have convinced Kira to come live with them until the baby is delivered and while a bit overwhelmed she is happy to do it. We see Quark sitting with his brother in the empty bar when Julian comes in with a case of brandy. He says it was given to him as payment but he can't take it. Quark tries to refuse but Dax then arrives with a box of ugly glasses. Then Sisko comes in saying that renovations on the habitat ring require moving out a bunch of tables and chairs. Quark at first refuses again, but then his eyes light up and he asks for a storage fee.
Review: Ferengi episodes are some of my favorite and this is an especially good one. The Kira/O'Briens plot feels a little forced, but it doesn't seriously detract from the episode.
7 out of 10
Monday, March 14, 2016
DS9: The Quickening
It is really odd how they decided to start this super serious, dark episode with a gag about Quark rigging the com units and replicators to produce ads for his bar/casino. From there it pretty directly transforms into a story about a people cursed with an uncurable disease for disobeying the Dominion. But Bashir doesn't believe in a no win situation so he returns to the planet even after learning that his electronic instruments are making the disease worse. Luckily for him he doesn't need them though since he had already created a vaccine, it just didn't work on patients not in utero. Probably my favorite part of the episode is the Trevean, the local who assists blight victims in having a comfortable death is totally down for Bashir's cure after it works rather than being a caricature who can't accept a change, even such a good one.
The episode opens with a bit of silliness, Quark has modified the stations systems to display ads for his bar on all the com screens and in the form of talking cups whenever a beverage is replicated. Kira isn't amused, but she has business scouting in the Gamma Quadrant so she leaves him to fix it. While scouting in the Gamma Quadrant they detect a distress beacon. Dax and Bashir beam down to investigate and find a ruined city. All the people have lesions on their bodies and they are approached by a woman with inflamed lesions who begs for help. Bashir scans her, but he doesn't have what he needs to help her. Dax locates a hospital and they take her there. She is taken to Trevean who emerges a minute later. A man thanks him for the comfortable bed and warm meal before drinking a poisonous compound and dying in front of them. Bashir is horrified by Trevean explains they weren't always like this. The Dominion gave them the blight as punishment for defying them and while there is no cure he provides a comfortable death for those who have quickened, the final stage of the illness before death.
Outside the hospital they are approached by a pregnant woman named Ekoria. She is interested in Bashir's talk of a cure and volunteers to help him in any way she can. Before they can get much further though Kira contacts them, the Jem'Hadar are approaching. Bashir talks her into sending down medical supplies and returning the following week to pick them up. They get started studying the disease from samples from Ekoria. This is a start but Bashir also needs samples from patients who have quickened, but has a hard time getting volunteers. He impresses the population by healing a boys arm, but Trevean appears and reminds the people that healing an arm isn't like healing the blight which Julian agrees with. He does get a few volunteers and fairly quickly finds what appears to be a cure.
But things start going bad pretty soon after that. It turns out the disease is programmed to mutate, and even worse it somehow detects the EM from his instruments and makes the disease extra painful. Even worse Ekoria is showing signs of the blight. Kira returns but Bashir isn't willing to give up so he stays behind while Dax heads for home. Bashir keeps trying with more primitive tools but it doesn't seem to be working. He does help Ekoria make it long enough to deliver her baby and to both their great joys, the baby is free of the blight. The cure he developed doesn't help people with the disease, but it prevents them from passing it on. Trevean is super stoked about it and asks Bashir how to make the cure which he is only too happy to teach him. Bashir returns to the station and keeps working on a cure, but it doesn't seem likely.
Review: At first it seemed like Bashir was returning to is more jerky first season persona with his freak out about Trevean helping people die with dignity, but it becomes a more nuanced trait as the episode develops. It goes a long way to show how committed to helping people Julian is.
7 out of 10
The episode opens with a bit of silliness, Quark has modified the stations systems to display ads for his bar on all the com screens and in the form of talking cups whenever a beverage is replicated. Kira isn't amused, but she has business scouting in the Gamma Quadrant so she leaves him to fix it. While scouting in the Gamma Quadrant they detect a distress beacon. Dax and Bashir beam down to investigate and find a ruined city. All the people have lesions on their bodies and they are approached by a woman with inflamed lesions who begs for help. Bashir scans her, but he doesn't have what he needs to help her. Dax locates a hospital and they take her there. She is taken to Trevean who emerges a minute later. A man thanks him for the comfortable bed and warm meal before drinking a poisonous compound and dying in front of them. Bashir is horrified by Trevean explains they weren't always like this. The Dominion gave them the blight as punishment for defying them and while there is no cure he provides a comfortable death for those who have quickened, the final stage of the illness before death.
Outside the hospital they are approached by a pregnant woman named Ekoria. She is interested in Bashir's talk of a cure and volunteers to help him in any way she can. Before they can get much further though Kira contacts them, the Jem'Hadar are approaching. Bashir talks her into sending down medical supplies and returning the following week to pick them up. They get started studying the disease from samples from Ekoria. This is a start but Bashir also needs samples from patients who have quickened, but has a hard time getting volunteers. He impresses the population by healing a boys arm, but Trevean appears and reminds the people that healing an arm isn't like healing the blight which Julian agrees with. He does get a few volunteers and fairly quickly finds what appears to be a cure.
But things start going bad pretty soon after that. It turns out the disease is programmed to mutate, and even worse it somehow detects the EM from his instruments and makes the disease extra painful. Even worse Ekoria is showing signs of the blight. Kira returns but Bashir isn't willing to give up so he stays behind while Dax heads for home. Bashir keeps trying with more primitive tools but it doesn't seem to be working. He does help Ekoria make it long enough to deliver her baby and to both their great joys, the baby is free of the blight. The cure he developed doesn't help people with the disease, but it prevents them from passing it on. Trevean is super stoked about it and asks Bashir how to make the cure which he is only too happy to teach him. Bashir returns to the station and keeps working on a cure, but it doesn't seem likely.
Review: At first it seemed like Bashir was returning to is more jerky first season persona with his freak out about Trevean helping people die with dignity, but it becomes a more nuanced trait as the episode develops. It goes a long way to show how committed to helping people Julian is.
7 out of 10
Sunday, March 13, 2016
DS9: To the Death
The entire time this episode was going on I kept wondering when the Jem'Hadar were going to betray Sisko and the others but it never happened. Also conveniently all the Jem'Hadar on their side are the perfect fighters we are used to, but the renegade Jem'Hadar are easy for any of them to kill. Also Weyoun's explanation of why he needs Sisko's help honestly makes no sense. And if it is all a lie to give him a chance to try and turn Odo this is a pretty elaborate trap. And would Odo's defection really be more useful than a portal to anywhere? And speaking of, what could possibly be more important than that portal to the rest of the Dominion? I know they have plans to take over the rest of the galaxy, but this portal would make that job far easier so why aren't they all there taking it over and invading whoever they want with impunity?
The episode opens with the crew of the Defiant relaxing in the mess hall until the red alert klaxon sounds and they rush to the bridge. DS9 has been attacked and upper pylon three has been destroyed. They beam over to help and learn that group of Jem'Hadar beamed over from a transport ship before stealing equipment, setting off a bomb and escaping. Sisko heads back to the Defiant to give chase. They encounter a crippled Jem'Hadar ship (this part also makes no sense, how did they damage this warship with their transport ship?) that is about to explode. Sisko for some reason beams the survivors aboard but at least has the sense to meet them with armed guards. Their leader is Weyoun, a Vorta who we will be seeing a lot more of (even though he gets killed in this episode...) Weyoun pulls Sisko aside and tells him that a group of rogue Jem'Hadar are responsible for the attack and have come into possession of an Ionian portal which would allow them to conquer the Dominion and rest of the galaxy.
They spend most of the rest of the episode fighting with the Jem'Hadar on their own ship, it gets so bad the Jem'Hadar leader has to kill one of his own men, and being tempted by Weyoun who tries to recruit both Odo and Sisko. They eventually arrive at the planet with the portal (the Jem'Hadar also already know the plan despite it being a secret, again, no explanation ever given) but their weapons don't work. They fight their way to the portal and set off the bomb. Weyoun shows up with the white but gets killed by the leader of the Jem'Hadar for questioning his loyalty. This is despite earlier showing how only Weyoun can open the white container so they are all presumably dead now, but whatever. The Jem'Hadar leader lets them go and they head back to the station.
Review: Almost none of this episode made a damn bit of sense. I guess a lot of it could be explained by "secret Dominion plans" but I don't think I have enough faith to believe that. I can't help but wonder if they planned on having Weyoun be a one time character but realized he was the best Vorta yet so he had to come back despite being dead.
4 out of 10
The episode opens with the crew of the Defiant relaxing in the mess hall until the red alert klaxon sounds and they rush to the bridge. DS9 has been attacked and upper pylon three has been destroyed. They beam over to help and learn that group of Jem'Hadar beamed over from a transport ship before stealing equipment, setting off a bomb and escaping. Sisko heads back to the Defiant to give chase. They encounter a crippled Jem'Hadar ship (this part also makes no sense, how did they damage this warship with their transport ship?) that is about to explode. Sisko for some reason beams the survivors aboard but at least has the sense to meet them with armed guards. Their leader is Weyoun, a Vorta who we will be seeing a lot more of (even though he gets killed in this episode...) Weyoun pulls Sisko aside and tells him that a group of rogue Jem'Hadar are responsible for the attack and have come into possession of an Ionian portal which would allow them to conquer the Dominion and rest of the galaxy.
They spend most of the rest of the episode fighting with the Jem'Hadar on their own ship, it gets so bad the Jem'Hadar leader has to kill one of his own men, and being tempted by Weyoun who tries to recruit both Odo and Sisko. They eventually arrive at the planet with the portal (the Jem'Hadar also already know the plan despite it being a secret, again, no explanation ever given) but their weapons don't work. They fight their way to the portal and set off the bomb. Weyoun shows up with the white but gets killed by the leader of the Jem'Hadar for questioning his loyalty. This is despite earlier showing how only Weyoun can open the white container so they are all presumably dead now, but whatever. The Jem'Hadar leader lets them go and they head back to the station.
Review: Almost none of this episode made a damn bit of sense. I guess a lot of it could be explained by "secret Dominion plans" but I don't think I have enough faith to believe that. I can't help but wonder if they planned on having Weyoun be a one time character but realized he was the best Vorta yet so he had to come back despite being dead.
4 out of 10
DS9: For the Cause
Early in Eddington's run on the show I realized I didn't remember him and clicked through to his entry on Memory Alpha, and immediately regretted it. Right at the top was discussion about how he had been a Maquis agent the whole time and eventually turned against Sisko and the Federation. Since then I have been watching him with a close eye and honestly he hasn't shown nearly as many signs of being an agent as Bashir has of being an altered super person which is a little disappointing. While I don't really remember much about this I do vaguely remember Eddington's turn to evil being a bit out of nowhere.
The episode begins with Sisko and Yates in bed together and he is clearly enjoying having her there, but she has a meeting to rush off to. Later that day Sisko and the other senior staff receive a briefing from Eddington about some industrial replicators heading to Cardassia by way of the station. They make plans to keep the Maquis away but after the briefing Odo and Eddington pull Sisko aside. They have some evidence suggesting Kasidy Yates may be smuggling for the Maquis. Sisko refuses to believe it but agrees to let them search the ship if they can come up with an appropriate excuse. Cut to what I guess is the C story with Garak and Bashir watching a springball game Kira is competing in, but Garak only has eyes for Ziyal and despite Bashir's warning seems very interested.
Kasidy is back home but we can see Sisko isn't feeling as comfortable around her as he once did. As she gets ready to leave again Kasidy is upset to see they will be delayed for an inspection. Sisko tells them to let her go but orders Worf to follow her cloaked. He does and watches as he ship transfers supplies in the badlands to a Maquis vessel. Back on the station Ziyal stops by Garak's shop and invites him to try out a Cardassian spa program for the holosuite she acquired. He agrees but later than day while doing a fitting for Quark Kira stops by to threaten to kill him if he touches Ziyal which makes him think Ziyal isn't going to kill him which Quark points out may be just another layer of double cross. On the station Garak shows up in the holosuite and after some tense talk about if she is going to kill him he decides to take the risk and stay which clearly makes them both happy.
Kasidy gets back to the station and Sisko pretends everything is ok, but he is clearly worried sick. She tells him she has to leave again that night and Eddington convinces Sisko to take the Defiant out and leave him in charge of the replicators. Sisko follows Yate's ship but she just circles in the badlands. They eventually get suspicious, decloak and board but only learn that she was supposed to wait here with the supplies at which point Sisko realizes he has been betrayed. On the station Eddington has knocked out Kira and taken the replicators on a Vulcan transport. He calls Sisko to taunt him a bit but is gone afterwards. Kasidy returns to face justice after leaving her crew behind with the Maquis and the episode ends with her being hauled off to jail.
Review: A fairly average episode with some good Garak parts and solid Sisko drama. Relationships on DS9 are never simple and his with Yates is proving to be especially complex.
6 out of 10
The episode begins with Sisko and Yates in bed together and he is clearly enjoying having her there, but she has a meeting to rush off to. Later that day Sisko and the other senior staff receive a briefing from Eddington about some industrial replicators heading to Cardassia by way of the station. They make plans to keep the Maquis away but after the briefing Odo and Eddington pull Sisko aside. They have some evidence suggesting Kasidy Yates may be smuggling for the Maquis. Sisko refuses to believe it but agrees to let them search the ship if they can come up with an appropriate excuse. Cut to what I guess is the C story with Garak and Bashir watching a springball game Kira is competing in, but Garak only has eyes for Ziyal and despite Bashir's warning seems very interested.
Kasidy is back home but we can see Sisko isn't feeling as comfortable around her as he once did. As she gets ready to leave again Kasidy is upset to see they will be delayed for an inspection. Sisko tells them to let her go but orders Worf to follow her cloaked. He does and watches as he ship transfers supplies in the badlands to a Maquis vessel. Back on the station Ziyal stops by Garak's shop and invites him to try out a Cardassian spa program for the holosuite she acquired. He agrees but later than day while doing a fitting for Quark Kira stops by to threaten to kill him if he touches Ziyal which makes him think Ziyal isn't going to kill him which Quark points out may be just another layer of double cross. On the station Garak shows up in the holosuite and after some tense talk about if she is going to kill him he decides to take the risk and stay which clearly makes them both happy.
Kasidy gets back to the station and Sisko pretends everything is ok, but he is clearly worried sick. She tells him she has to leave again that night and Eddington convinces Sisko to take the Defiant out and leave him in charge of the replicators. Sisko follows Yate's ship but she just circles in the badlands. They eventually get suspicious, decloak and board but only learn that she was supposed to wait here with the supplies at which point Sisko realizes he has been betrayed. On the station Eddington has knocked out Kira and taken the replicators on a Vulcan transport. He calls Sisko to taunt him a bit but is gone afterwards. Kasidy returns to face justice after leaving her crew behind with the Maquis and the episode ends with her being hauled off to jail.
Review: A fairly average episode with some good Garak parts and solid Sisko drama. Relationships on DS9 are never simple and his with Yates is proving to be especially complex.
6 out of 10
Friday, March 11, 2016
DS9: The Muse
I had totally forgotten that Odo ended up marrying Luwaxana Troi! And for not quite the first time, but the first time in a long time I am actually kinda sad Luwaxana didn't stick around. Her relationship with Odo seems so much more interesting and real that her supposed relationship with Picard. The DS9 writers see her as much more of a real person than the caricature we got on TNG. I remembered a bit of the subplot about the psychic vampire muse that gets Jake to finally start his big novel Anslem which was so defining to the episode The Visitor with future Jake.
In a rare variation from tradition this episode starts with the A story! Jake is standing on the upper level of the promenade taking note on passengers arriving to the station for future stories. Most of them are pretty straightforward, but then he sees a woman he can't keep his eyes off of. It isn't lust or romantic interest though, just fascination. Next we see Odo walk into his office and find an unexpected guest, Luwaxana Troi, and she is pregnant! She explains that she is having a serious problem with her husband, he wants to take her child. In his culture male children are raised only by men and female children only by women until the age of 16 and Luwaxana isn't willing to do that. Back to Jake he is having a meal at the Replimat when the woman from earlier approaches. They start talking and he is surprised to learn she knew the most influential Cardassian architect of all time. She invites him to her quarters that night for some inspiration.
That afternoon Jake is working on a story at home when his father comes in. Jake tells him he won't be going on the trip with him to Bajor, but doesn't mention why. Lwaxana meanwhile has ruined all the business in Quarks by empathically influencing everyone's mood to match her own depression. Quark asks Odo to get her out of there and he does, but she tells him her replicator isn't working and then two end up in his quarters. Odo is facinated by the kicking of the baby in her belly and she falls asleep in his arms. Jake shows up at Onaya's quarters that night and after getting him to relax a bit she gets him to start writing with a pen paper. She starts massaging his head as he writes and clouds of energy start coming out which she absorbs. A couple times he gets a nose bleed but is so into the writing that he ignores it. She eventually insists that he get some rest and he wanders on the promenade and collapses. In infirmary Bashir tells his father that something has been overstimulating his brain and that he almost died.
Back in Odo's quarters he and Luwaxana are playing hide and seek until Odo gets a call from security that her husband has arrived. He meets the guy in the security office and explains that the baby belongs to her and her husband, not the biological father and that he is going to marry her. He returns to his quarters and tells her, but she explains that if anyone at the marriage ceremony doesn't believe he really wants to marry her it won't count. Jake meanwhile is recovering a bit but Onaya suddenly appears out of thin air in the infirmary and two of them vanish. The wedding goes off well and we can see Odo really cares about Luwaxana, but she doesn't seem interested in him any more. Ben eventually finds Jake near the reactor and Onaya disappears into space before he can stop her. Luwaxana shows up at Odo's office the next day to say goodbye. He is devastated but she is ready to move on. Back in their quarters Ben tells Jake that he really liked the start of the novel but Jake doesn't think he can finish it without Onaya. Ben explains that even though she helped get it out of him it is still inside him and the episode ends showing the title page Anslem which Jake signs.
Review: Both an uplifting and kinda depressing episode, but isn't that what drama is supposed to be? The character beats are dead on and this episode makes me actually kinda like Luwaxana for a bit which I never thought I would be writing.
8 out of 10
In a rare variation from tradition this episode starts with the A story! Jake is standing on the upper level of the promenade taking note on passengers arriving to the station for future stories. Most of them are pretty straightforward, but then he sees a woman he can't keep his eyes off of. It isn't lust or romantic interest though, just fascination. Next we see Odo walk into his office and find an unexpected guest, Luwaxana Troi, and she is pregnant! She explains that she is having a serious problem with her husband, he wants to take her child. In his culture male children are raised only by men and female children only by women until the age of 16 and Luwaxana isn't willing to do that. Back to Jake he is having a meal at the Replimat when the woman from earlier approaches. They start talking and he is surprised to learn she knew the most influential Cardassian architect of all time. She invites him to her quarters that night for some inspiration.
That afternoon Jake is working on a story at home when his father comes in. Jake tells him he won't be going on the trip with him to Bajor, but doesn't mention why. Lwaxana meanwhile has ruined all the business in Quarks by empathically influencing everyone's mood to match her own depression. Quark asks Odo to get her out of there and he does, but she tells him her replicator isn't working and then two end up in his quarters. Odo is facinated by the kicking of the baby in her belly and she falls asleep in his arms. Jake shows up at Onaya's quarters that night and after getting him to relax a bit she gets him to start writing with a pen paper. She starts massaging his head as he writes and clouds of energy start coming out which she absorbs. A couple times he gets a nose bleed but is so into the writing that he ignores it. She eventually insists that he get some rest and he wanders on the promenade and collapses. In infirmary Bashir tells his father that something has been overstimulating his brain and that he almost died.
Back in Odo's quarters he and Luwaxana are playing hide and seek until Odo gets a call from security that her husband has arrived. He meets the guy in the security office and explains that the baby belongs to her and her husband, not the biological father and that he is going to marry her. He returns to his quarters and tells her, but she explains that if anyone at the marriage ceremony doesn't believe he really wants to marry her it won't count. Jake meanwhile is recovering a bit but Onaya suddenly appears out of thin air in the infirmary and two of them vanish. The wedding goes off well and we can see Odo really cares about Luwaxana, but she doesn't seem interested in him any more. Ben eventually finds Jake near the reactor and Onaya disappears into space before he can stop her. Luwaxana shows up at Odo's office the next day to say goodbye. He is devastated but she is ready to move on. Back in their quarters Ben tells Jake that he really liked the start of the novel but Jake doesn't think he can finish it without Onaya. Ben explains that even though she helped get it out of him it is still inside him and the episode ends showing the title page Anslem which Jake signs.
Review: Both an uplifting and kinda depressing episode, but isn't that what drama is supposed to be? The character beats are dead on and this episode makes me actually kinda like Luwaxana for a bit which I never thought I would be writing.
8 out of 10
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