Note: most of these are my posts copied over from a Star Trek group-watch going through the entire series in broadcast order, rather than properly written reviews.
DS9 S01E01&E02 'Emissary' Stardate 46379.1 Broadcast date 1993-01-03.
Wow, that pilot is a lot! There's so much stuff in there. A lot to like, too. Opening with the big action of Wolf 359 and also making it part of Sisko's backstory is a great idea. It's nice and crunchy to have a series crossover where the one lead can barely stand to be in the same room as the other. There's a ton of fun sci-fi concepts thrown in, like Odo, Dax and the wormhole inhabitants, and a bunch of fun characters introduced. The dialogue is a little pulpy and the acting is mostly naturalistic and earthy but with some Wild West and even Shakespearian tones thrown in here and there. And the concept of using a non-linear species to discuss grief is great. It's all directed and edited really nicely.
Probably the main negative to my mind, in fact, is that there's too much in there! It still feels like a show finding its feet, albeit more enthusiastically than TNG's beginnings. There's the Wild West vibe of a new sheriff arriving in town, meeting the locals and trying to clean things up, prophecies, a quest for a mystical MacGuffin, encountering a new species, and developing galactic politics. There's space battles and O'Brien kicking machinery to get it going, there's extended hallucinatory sequences. There are about ten different acting styles, most of them coming from Avery Brooks. It's a serialised show set on a space station and yet they're already off on missions, moving the station to a different location and introducing a second big local political football.
Basically, I enjoyed it, I think it's more successful than TNG's pilot, and I appreciate the energy, but also look forward to the show refining and controlling that energy a little more.
DS9 S01E03 'Past Prologue' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1993-01-10.
This one was okay. I do like the relatively complicated set-up of various factions all working their own angles, and the divided loyalties and priorities that Kira (and presumably others in the future) has to deal with. It didn't feel particularly deep or resonant here, but it's a good baseline to start from for a second episode. Also liked the Klingon sisters showing up, the doctor being a young naive dope rather than the usual worldly-wise grump/sage that we usually get, and the introduction of Garak who seems like a fun Varys-esque character.
DS9 S01E04 'A Man Alone' Stardate 46421.5 Broadcast date 1993-01-17.
I thought this one was really strong, a great mission statement of what this show can, or at least one mode of it. Winding between the multiple stories, with complex blocking and showy oners, overlapping them in the plot a little, showing the different styles of story that can co-exist like detective, domestic, romantic, and hinting at the continuing clash of cultures on the station.
Granted the detective story wasn't particularly deep or elaborate, but it was interesting enough and served well to highlight power structures and character histories. This episode made me more excited about the show's potential than Past Prologue did, certainly.
DS9 S01E05 'Babel' Stardate 46423.7 Broadcast date 1993-01-24.
I really liked the opening of this episode, O'Brien running around putting out fires and the station being in a state of unreliability that we're not used to after so much time spent on the Enterprise. There's in-built tension here before the plot even gets going. Then the idea of the rapid-onset aphasia is great. Though it's a shame they gave the game away so early with that shot of the doohickey in the replicator - why the hell did they make that choice?! It feels like the whole thing is set up to drop subtle but fair hints and then have a nice reveal when Odo catches Quark and works it out, but then they decided that audiences were too thick or impatient to wait fifteen minutes? Anyway, after that, I was looking forward to a Darmok style episode where the crew quickly fall victim to the virus and have to find non-verbal ways of communicating and solving the problem. Instead they all catch it very slowly and, conveniently, after providing their individual contribution to the solution, and then drop out of the story. The language aspect to the virus may as well not be included, they could just instantly fall unconscious for all the plot function they have once they become symptomatic. So yeah, a very slow investigation and a vague last-minute ticking clock didn't really stand up to my expectations.
DS9 S01E06 'Captive Pursuit' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1993-01-31.
I really enjoyed this one! It was a bit slow, but in a considered, purposeful way. I liked the Enemy Mine style growing friendship between O'Brien and Tosk (curiously similar reptilian alien name to Bossk!), the designs and culture of the new races, and just as I thought it was running out of steam, they had O'Brien come up with a smart solution. Guest actors were good, too.
I did think it was a little odd that they had that opening bit about Quark legally obligating his staff into sleeping with him only to not only immediately drop it but then have a couple of sympathetic comedy scenes with him. Stuff that didn't get thought about as much in early 90s tv, I guess.
It's funny that they've come up with this way to still have them encounter new species and have to think about the Prime Directive etc in the same way as the Enterprise shows - they just have the strange new worlds come to them via the wormhole!
DS9 S01E07 'Q-Less' Stardate 46531.2 Broadcast date 1993-02-07.
This is a rough one. A complete waste of Q (I normally like his episodes and it was pretty cool to see him show up on DS9!) and aside from him a very dull and predictable episode. I think I liked Vash okay on TNG too, and she didn't get much to do here either.
The only good bit was the Promethean stone thing turning out to be an egg instead of just exploding. Even the "Picard never punched me!" scene was worse than I remember, because Q literally puts Sisko in a boxing ring with him and punches him several times. I expect Picard probably would have punched him at that point. I had it in my head as happening in Sisko's office, Q saying something particularly obnoxious and getting caught off-guard by a Sisko haymaker. (I probably was also picturing bald goatee Sisko!)
Also, I'm not sure why, but the SD/HD gap was much more noticeable this episode, it as pretty ugly. That opening scene especially felt like watching a contemporary episode of Neighbours.
DS9 S01E08 'Dax' Stardate 46910.1 Broadcast date 1993-02-14.
Just watched the cold open and uh oh ,think I'm starting to dislike Bashir. The 'hopeless romantic/gadabout' act is starting to curdle into creepy, and he was absolutely fucking useless in that fight. Almost knocked himself out against a wall by punching someone and then just stopped fighting because, what, he was so surprised that his opponent was a woman? It's the 24th fucking century, Julian!
Turned out to be a solid episode. Trials and hearings are always strong ground in Trek, and this one works nicely with the symbiotic nature of Trills giving it some unique things to argue about, and the different members of the crew going off to investigate different areas (even if really only Odo did much there). And wow, what a guest cast - Gregory Itzin, Fionnula Flannigan and Anne Haney, all doing good work. Oh, also cool to see DC Fontana get a credit on another Trek show!
Really the main drawback here was that it was fairly obvious what the truth was as soon as Enina confirmed that someone leaked the route - it's going to be someone we know about and that list is limited. Plus the overplayed sad look a few moments later when she hears Curzon Dax died makes it obvious that they were lovers, so Jadzia is keeping quiet to cover for her. Admittedly, though, I did guess that this meant Enina leaked the route, so I didn't get it 100% but then it's a bit weird that the general leaked his own route so I'm not surprised I didn't guess that. I suppose the implication is that he wanted them to pick him up so he could escape with them?
Also, might have been nice to get this episode after we'd gotten to know Jadzia a little better so we'd be invested despite her silence and we'd have experienced the quirks of Trill life directly a bit more.
Anyway, enjoyed it, and I continue to enjoy them experimenting with what this show can be. Feels like they have a LOST style approach at the moment - we have this ensemble of characters with different jobs, strengths etc, so at any time we can do a different genre of show.
DS9 S01E09 'The Passenger' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1993-02-21.
Unfortunately I spoiled myself on the reveal for this one, so I can't say how obvious I would have found it, but as a Child's Play fan I suspect I would have clocked immediately! Otherwise, it was okay but pretty slow. Kind of hard to find anything to say about it.
I liked the opening scene with Bashir, where he was bragging and it clicked with me 'ohhh, they're writing him as an oblivious jackass', which they've been much closer to achieving than, I dunno, likable horndog. Maybe this is just what they're trying out with him this week, though. I also appreciated Siddig doing a different voice for the evil guy, because I often feel disappointed in body possession episodes of any show when the actor doesn't really change their speech patterns or posture or anything like that, but it just doesn't really work here because it's an 'impression' of a character we haven't met and basically all he does is put a pause between each word. I would have preferred if he stuck with the Voldemort whisper from when he grabbed Quark, I think!
DS9 S01E10 'Move Along Home' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1993-03-14.
I didn't like it that much. It has the seed of a good idea - they're trapped in the game figuring out riddles while Quark is also playing at a meta-level both using and resisting his gambler instincts to help them out. But it's all so overwrought and cheesy. There's a lot of over-acting in this show and it gets amplified here (mainly Siddig and Visitor), plus I hate it when an alien species is just some guy with awful facial hair and some doodles on his face. It's all a bit shallow, the connection between Quark's actions and the players' fates is ill-defined, and the threat is so vague as to be unconvincing.
Also, not particularly happy that Starfleet security officer is still around. I figured he was a one-and-done character. Feels like another Bashir right now.
DS9 S01E11 'The Nagus' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1993-03-21.
I found this one a bit slow, especially for the first two acts, and the Jake sub-plot is pretty flat and mostly serves to make Sisko look like a dick - angry at his son for no good reason, resigned to humans and Ferengi never getting along, and then acting all smug like he's had some big character growth moment when all he's done is spy on his son and see that he should have continued to trust him after all. The A-story does pick up once Quark gets named Grand Nagus, though, and it's fun to see more Ferengi culture. A bunch of great character actors brought in to play them all, too.
DS9 S01E12 'Vortex' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1993-04-18.
I found this one solid and satisfying if not particularly sophisticated in any way. The parts all work and fit together just fine, but agreed that it feels very tropey.
One subtlety I enjoyed, though, was how it can be easily inferred that Odo tarnished his honour by letting the two people go because between that and the emotional work required in taking on a surrogate daughter it was the lesser of two evils for him!
DS9 S01E13 'Battle Lines' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1993-04-25.
This episode is okay. Interesting concept, nicely placed as a reflection of Kira's internal struggles, but it's pretty slow and simplistic.
Funny to see Patricia Tallman again so soon after her TNG appearance!
Only Bashir would fix a computer and then say out loud to himself with no one else present, "Nice work Julian." What a prick.
From memory-alpha: "The necklace that Opaka gives O'Brien for Molly was not seen or mentioned in the series again." Booo, surely if you have a prophet give a gift to someone for no reason, you have that on the writer's room whiteboard until it's resolved! JMS would never let something like this happen. I just assumed the O'Briens would be taken hostage and saved by the necklace's religious significance to their captors or something like that.
DS9 S01E14 'The Storyteller' Stardate 46729.1 Broadcast date 1993-05-02.
Dreadful. I started skipping through for perhaps the first time since TOS (or maybe ever?). Two boys fight over a girl and an advanced outsider is worshipped as a god by a primitive tribe, two hoary old premises done in very dull and predictable ways with wonky acting from everyone involved. Except Kay E. Kuter, of course. And the Bashir-O'Brien arc, such as it is, is completely out of whack - at best, it can be summed up as 'O'Brien doesn't like Bashir, Bashir tries to make friends but eventually realises that actually he doesn't give a shit if O'Brien likes him or not'.
Apparently this was a repeatedly re-rejected TNG season 1 script. Explains a lot.
DS9 S01E15 'Progress' Stardate 46844.3 Broadcast date 1993-05-09.
A couple of interesting concepts, acted well, but both felt a little underdeveloped - the Jake/Nog one never really got past laying out its plot mechanics to make use of its comedic potential, and the Kira one never got messy enough. I did like that in the end she simply had to become the aggressive occupier, burning down Mullibok's homestead and relocating him by force, but she was so clearly painted as sympathetic that it didn't have a lot of impact. I think both of these could have benefited from getting an entire episode devoted to them. Hopefully the showrunners will realise soon that they can break the TNG rules a little more.
DS9 S01E16 'If Wishes Were Horses' Stardate 46853.2 Broadcast date 1993-05-16.
Painfully bad! A mix of Benny Hill level comedy and reams of meaningless tech gobbledegook, with a rubbish 'defeat the imaginary things by not believing in them' ending. Some of the worst Star Trek habits and tropes all thrown together.
DS9 S01E17 'The Forsaken' Stardate 46925.1 Broadcast date 1993-05-23.
I liked the Lwaxana/Odo plot. As formulaic as it was ('Lwaxana is annoying but then does something good at the end'), it worked, it was well-acted and the writing wasn't too overblown. I also liked the theme of attention (Odo and Bashir not wanting any, the non-organic lifeform wanting too much), and I thought the idea of that lifeform had a lot of potential for a fun, interesting story - an examination of the Starfleet engineers being so finely tuned to their ships and computers that they start to recognise moods and develop pseudo-relationships (or at least think they do). But unfortunately, it didn't really get taken advantage of - there was a lot of telling rather than showing in both that plot and the 'Bashir handles a situation well' one. We never see the computer trying to get attention, we never see Bashir handling the crisis. Again, it feels like the writers need to take advantage of their 20-episode seasons and delve into single plots more rather than cramming two or three of them in to a single episode (or just get good enough that they can manage the latter without compromising all the plots).
Funny how whenever I say the writers room should be trying to do something less, it turns out that they were specifically trying to do it more! Michael Piller, quoted on memory-alpha:
We were looking for A/B/C stories that gave us the opportunity to do lots of little stories in that same 'life on the space station' vein.
DS9 S01E18 'Dramatis Personae' Stardate 46922.3 Broadcast date 1993-05-30.
Ah, the old 'the crew get personality shifts' set-up, where the actors can all let loose a little. They are all great fun to watch here, but it's a strangely common mistake to do this kind of story too early in a show's run. It's a lot more effective once you've really got to know the characters, and we're only 18 episodes into a season that hasn't exactly delved deep into its main cast. Plus there's barely anything else going on here - as soon as Bashir starts acting weird, it's pretty easy to figure out 'everyone's getting turned against each other, probably due to something the Klingon brought over as he's one of only two new things on the station this episode and the ship already has a plot purpose whereas he doesn't, one character will realise and break the spell, probably Odo considering his sparkly head-fart, the obvious solution for him is to trick someone into finding the cure'. And that's, what, ten minutes in to the episode? The rest of it is just watching the cast chew the scenery.
Another issue with this episode is that El Fadil has been playing Bashir on and off as a psychopath anyway, so his character didn't really feel that different here.
Ira Steven Behr: "it was a third season show that we had the nerve to do in the first season. Anybody else would say 'You need to know the characters better before you twist them like this.' But seeing Kira come on to Dax – I don't care if it's first or third season, people are going to be interested in that!"
Good grief. The reason anybody else would say that is because it's true. Just write an 'everyone catches a sexy virus' story if that's what you're really invested in.
DS9 S01E19 'Duet' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1993-06-13.
Really powerful. Visitor is great, Yulin is incredible, and the messaging and tone is all on point without shying away from anything. Glad they got a strong, full-throated episode in before the end of the first season, a display of the show's potential that they haven't managed too often so far.
DS9 S01E20 'In the Hands of the Prophets' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1993-06-20.
Really enjoyed this one, a solid political thriller and a good way to wrap up the season. I wish I hadn't spoiled myself on the killer's identity by reading memory-alpha's continuity section on the previous episode, because I suspect I would have been none the wiser all the way up to the reveal. It would have been nice if their plans to establish her as a regular second-tier crewmember character had worked out, but still I think it works well. All the other detective mystery stuff is laid out nicely too. Louise Fletcher doesn't get to fully flex but she's still great at quietly terrifying. The only bum note for me really is the final action moment, where Sisko's plan is to simply shout "Noooo" and dive into the crowd. He doesn't alert anyone, or block the shot, or even get to Neela in time. It's even unclear as to why she misses. Are we supposed to infer that Sisko threw her aim off? Did she have last-minute reservations? Would have been nice if they could have spent a bit more time on that moment, seeing as it's the de facto big action climax of the season!
I only have vague impressions of the prophets stuff in this show, so I was glad to see here that, at least at the start, Sisko's involvement in the whole thing is a relatively grounded affair, basically a more sensible version of the 'being with advanced technology worshipped as a god by primitive tribe' trope.
One nice little touch I noticed - after the explosion of the school, you can see Morn in the crowd holding a jumja stick!
So, season 1 is over. I think overall it's about as successful as TNG S1. It has a few strong episodes and a lot of stinkers, it makes a little progress in figuring out what show it wants to be but not a lot, and there are some good characters right off the bat but some who are still barely sketched in.
DS9 S02E01 'The Homecoming (Part 1)' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1993-09-26.
Well, I think this is perhaps the first time that DS9 has been strikingly better than the TNG episode directly preceding or following it - compared to Descent this was a breath of fresh air! Good location shooting with some simple but satisfying action, a solid story with personal and political stakes, and intriguing arc developments. The Bajoran/Cardassian stuff just feels more... grown-up than that cowboys and indians stuff that TNG was just doing. And even the cliffhanger is a classy character-driven one rather than a goofy 'return of the moustache-twirling villain' reveal. It's great how suspicious I am that Cardassian Intelligence is behind everything and anything - did they let the earring get out intentionally? Are they behind The Circle? Are they cockblocking Jake?! (Okay, not that last one.)
A couple of great guest stars, too, plus Alaimo of course, and there's even a background crewmember with a funky undercut who might be my DS9 Jae counterpart.
DS9 S02E02 'The Circle (Part 2)' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1993-10-03.
Well, this one was a bit too grown-up! That is to say, it was very slow for the most part with a lot of political discussions delivered in a methodical, restrained way. It picked up a bit towards the end once Kira gets taken and we get revelations and reactions going on. Hopefully the next part of the story will continue at that slightly higher register!
Minor observations: I swear there's no consistency to Federation admirals' attitude to any given political situation except for taking the stance that causes most difficulty for our protagonists. Poor old Quark has been nothing but helpful this episode and doesn't even get a thank you!
DS9 S02E03 'The Siege (Part 3)' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1993-10-10.
A solid conclusion. Not particularly deep, and the victory perhaps felt a little too easily won, especially planetside, but overall it was pacy and satisfying.
DS9 S02E05 'Cardassians' Stardate 47177.2 Broadcast date 1993-10-24.
Great episode! Politics, intrigue, personal drama and allegory all working together, no pat happy ending, and an impressive ensemble of regular, recurring and guest cast. It's good to see them not shy away from Miles having some unchecked biases that slip out when he's not consciously trying to be in diplomatic utopian Federation officer mode. I mostly find him a bit of a dull character, his interactions with Cardassians as a war veteran are when he gets interesting so hopefully the writers will use that as a springboard to continue rounding him out.
My only quibble really is a continuing one that Bashir seems to just fill any role going on the station - diplomat, detective, whatever. It's kinda sorta justified here by his friendship with Garak but it still feels odd when he's squeezing that gambler for info. It feels like the kind of thing that Odo or maybe Dax at a push should be doing, but I guess they've shot themselves in the foot here by making Odo too abrasive and Dax too passive to be applied in a variety of situations. I think this all ties in with the characterisation still not being there yet for a lot of the ensemble - they're not strong enough to only show up when they logically should and either make a splash with a single scene then duck out again or carry an entire episode. I never properly watched Deadwood, but I feel like that's probably a good comparison point for how DS9 could/should be handling things...
group-watch in progress
