Amph To Boldly Trek Where Many Geeks Have Gone Before- VOY: Drive, Repression & Imperfection

Nope, only that he was being assigned to the Titan under Riker, where they depicted him as Assistant Chief Engineer of the Titan (alongside Tuvok as 2nd Officer) in ST: The Exhibition.

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Though, ignoring that, fans have speculated that he merely took on the appearance of a uniform to fit in, ala Q.

 

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DS9 219: Blood Oath
-Premise: Three old Klingon warriors reunite on Deep Space 9, seeking Curzon Dax, with whom they entered into a blood oath to one day exact revenge on an enemy for killing one of the warrior's sons. Finding Jadzia as worthy a warrior as they felt Curzon to be, she joins the Klingons in completing their vendetta.

-T2Q Comments: These holosuites aren't very private if you can hear events transpiring within them from the hallway outside through the doors.

Kor from TOS returns here as does Kang and Koloth, all three played by the same actors in TOS. Kang is the not-Galen Technomage from B5 as well as the voice of Mr Freeze on Batman: TAS.

The Dax/Kira scene is excellent, Dax's actress in particular.

"There is tension of your face- perhaps you should drink more!"

"I'm going to find out if he's inside."
"How do you intend to do that?"
"I'll ASK somebody!"

"I was right- it is a good day to die"; Actually, I don't think he ever said that in this episode- only Dax and Kor, so how can he "be right"?

I like the quiet ending here. Very good episode, both for Dax and as Klingon episode. With the return of the "first Klingons", I think that's significant enough when combined with the quality to classify as Definitely Essential

Trivia: The episode was originally written with three original characters before someone suggested bringing back the three most popular Klingons from TOS. The story and characterization was based on Seven Samurai, The Magnificent Seven and Henry IV.

The production played with the idea of having the Klingons appear as they did on TOS but decided against it. When Kang forces open the doors of the holosuite at the beginning of the episode, you can hear whoosh sound used for TOS's doors.

While the other two Klingon actors were easy to find, it took some effort to find Koloth's actor, as he was doing Trek cruise conventions at the time. The battle that is played in the holosuite is set in Klach D'Kel Brakt, the Klingon name for the Briar Patch.



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TNG 721: Firstborn
-Premise: A mysterious family friend encourages Worf's son Alexander to become a warrior.

-T2Q Comments: Interesting that, with this viewing order, you get two Klingon-centric episodes back to back. Duras Sisters' name arises again, with a connection/reference back to the DS9 episode they appeared in- crossovertime! ...with Quark? Oddly amusing misdirection in that you assume by being patched through to DS9 it'd be going to Sisko or one of the command staff.

Interesting that Geordi would be less inclined to alert the Pakleids of something...

Duras sisters appear in person. Somewhat interesting visual concept to note we're looking at a Bird of Prey commanded by the Duras Sisters staring down the Enterprise-D, given what will take place in Generations.

Luras pregnant? dunt-dunt-dah!

So,wait, this episode takes place on stardate 47779.4 while Generations takes place on stardate 48650.1, which means Generations is something like only 7 or 8 months after this episode- was she pregnant when she died in Generations? or is there now an unnamed Duras heir still floating about?

Unexpected timetravel element- and a grandfather paradox of sorts at that. They sort of gloss over how Future-Alexander manages

 

I wasn't complaining- it's just an interesting synchronicity.

 

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DS9 220: The Maquis, Part I
-Premise: When a Cardassian freighter explodes at Deep Space 9, the Cardassians blame Federation colonists in the new Demilitarized Zone.

-T2Q Comments: Continues treaty subplot of TNG: Journey's End. Very cool to have Dukat and Sisko paired up like this for such a duration as opposed to the usual comm conversations- they play well off of each other and it's good to get some non-villanous development on Dukat. Gul Evek returns here too. Slight connections to The Circle Trilogy.

When these guys grab Dukat, the guy impersonating a Federation security officer fires a phaser before they drag him through the airlock to their ship. Shouldn't the phaser fire have set off an alarm in command- something that would be even more suspicious if the ship right outside the airlock the phaser was fired in front of begins to leave just then? A ship they could have easily tractored?

Bashir has am almost-silent appearance just before episode's end. First mention/external appearance of the Badlands (and it's plasma storms resulting in some ships going missing). Twist ending is predictable but not distractingly so. Pretty good part 1- once Sisko gets pissed it does pick up an urgency to the proceedings.


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DS9 221: The Maquis, Part II
-Premise: Sisko tries to rescue Gul Dukat, stop the Maquis terrorists, and prevent a new war with the Cardassians.

-T2Q Comments: They bring back Admiral Nechayev here. Really like Sisko's "saint in paradise" speech- it's refreshing to have Trek reexamine even the holy Riddenberry philosophies from a different angle.

The "accomplice" reveal is amusing. Drall as a Cardassian here- a Cardassian of greatest girth.

One thing that didn't really become so noticable till now is that Dukat's skin color in these episodes seems to be much more flesh-tone than the usual pale grey Cardassian skin he has- wonder what the reason was behind that or if it's just a fluke? Dukat's interrogation is a solid scene- brings out the controlled teasing crazy in his eyes.

I love the way the actor playing Dukat says "Bajor"...

"Ah, but the Zeppilights have never been caught."

Aa shame casting and production couldn't have allowed the Native American and Klingon behind Hudson to be Chakotay and Torres- would have been a nice bit of setup.

Neat "runanbout squadron" shots. The Maquis are flying what are essentially either old school Cylon Raiders or F-302s with a dash of Federation "TRONing".

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He let's this guy get away...I really hope they do a followup with him, as that's a fairly significant dangling thread (but, from what I can tell, this is not to be- dammit, don't give potentially recurring roles to actors who don't want to come back!).

Key episodes for Dukat, Sisko and Quark as well as noteworth look at the general view of Star Trek that will apparently play out in future episodes; add in further appearances by th

 

And a moment of TOS levity: Star Trek Tik Tok

 

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TNG 722: Bloodlines
-Premise: DaiMon Bok threatens the life of a son Picard never knew he had.

-T2Q Comments: Bok returns here, making this a semi-sequel to The Battle from Season 1.

"If I'm not your son, is this person still going to want to kill me?"
"I doubt it."
"In that case, you won't mind my saying that I hope you're not my father."

I don't know what it is, but having Jason pick up that tricorder in medbay, it suddenly strikes me how bulky they look all of a suddrn- I must have been around too many iPhones lately.

Interesting that, perhaps as a result of the humanizing of the Ferengi on DS9 and the later TNG seasons, that some of the behaviors of the Ferengi from Season 1 (at least this one) is written off as "unstable" by the Ferengi.

Slightly amusing how Data and Geordi can have a conversation at the rear bridge terminals and Picard can turn around to the helmsman to order them to plot a course without relaying that info- making it assumed the helmsman heard it, yet so often the background extras at those terminals so often seem unaware of the comversations happening even closer to them between the helmsman chair and them.

The actor playing Bok, for all the occasional Ferengi acting exaggerations, he's actually is creepy several times in that psycho way...heh, "unstable".

"One thing is clear- you'll never look at your hairline in the same way"

"15 years ago you took my son away from me". I thought it was 6?

They say it'll take them 20 mins at warp 9 to get there, but instead suggest the faster method of subspace beaming- so they're able to modify the transporter system to use a technology that was abandoned in R&D by the Federation in less time? It'd probably take me at least 10 min just to hook up my desktop system with all it's perephrials and stuff.

Even though this follows-up The Battle, it doesn't strike me as particularly necessary to watch that episode to enjoy this one- only the one "6 years" reference and "mind control" reference really connect it and avoid it from otherwise being "a newly introduced villain from Picard's past" perception, especially since Bok is played by a different actor here.

Good Episode, But Not Necessarily Essential.

Trivia: the development of this issue stemmed from a conversation with Stewart on any aspects of his character he felt were unexplored, he commented, "It's always fascinated me that there is this creature running around the universe even now who despises me.".

I find myself agreeing more with the first half of Moore's comments, who said "I wondered if the world knew or cared if DaiMon Bok came back again. I wasn't a big fan of that or 'The Battle' and I didn't see the point of repeating "Suddenly Human" where we really nailed an interesting arc with Picard having a sort of father/son relationship."


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TNG 723: Emergence
-Premise: A series of puzzling events on and off the holodeck lead the crew of the Enterprise to a surprising conclusion: The ship is creating its own offspring. The crew has to assist with this arduous process to ensure the survival of the emerging lifeform ? and their own.

-T2Q Comments: I wonder if any other show since TNG has so often gone into literary analysis as they have with their various Shakespeare plays and such. I can't help but think Picard's musings on Prospero's character are meant to reflect the coming end of TNG, with the comments of "an end of an era" and "a final act of creation before the end" (which makes me wonder if this was meant to originally be t

 

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DS9 222: The Wire
-Premise: Bashir tries to help when Garak suffers painful headaches from an implant in his brain.

-T2Q Comments: Garek! huzzah! Kira just kinda butts into the scene and comments like she'd been participating in it the whole time- did they have to cut her lines from the script?

"I'm a doctor, not a botanist."

"Did anyone ever tell you that you are an infuriating pest!?"
"Chief O'Brien- all the time! And I don't pay any attention to him, either."

I like how they do tie back to the orphan angle (albeit Bajoran orphans, not Cardassian ones).

Towards the end, this one dude they focus on leaving the airlock looks like a Narn/Drazi hybrid, maybe a dash of Unas.

Can't help but think that the mention of a Klingon/Cardassian war in that novel will turn out to foreshadow a real one eventually.

"They're all true."
"Even the lies?"
"Especially the lies."

Nice focus on Garek. First appearance of Tain, first mention of the Obsidian Order. Really solid episode. Definitely Essential.

Trivia: first DS9 episode directed by a woman. The Obsidian Order was originally going to be called The Grey Order, but was changed because it was too similar to The Grey Council on Babylon 5. The original conceot for this episode was to have Kira addicted to battle stimulants since the resistence. They abandoned that idea when they realize they'd have to have Kira continue to mention it in subsequent episodes for some time and it was felt that would damage the character.


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TNG 724: Preemptive Strike
-Premise: Lieutenant Ro is sent undercover to root out a Maquis cell.

-T2Q Comments: Ro returns- I still greatly wish we had her on DS9 and not Kira. Gul Evek returns as well as the Admiral of All Things Cardassian.

I wonder if this shield weakness thing is legit or something Ro made up?

The whole celebration recollection discussion is quite effective and makes me greatly wish we had her on DS9 and not Kira.

Even though you kinda expect it, Ro's goodbye is emotionally effective.

Really great episode- though I know the Maquis story is continued in DS9, and I know I was just praising the interwoven storytelling in a previous post, but I do feel disappointed that the Ro/Picard stuff doesn't get another episode (or movie!). Last appearance of Ro.

Definitely Essential.

Trivia: Originally titled "The Good Fight" but changed due to similarity to "All Good Things...". Directed by Patrick Stewart- only episode to have been done so without Data as a significant character.

The use of Klingons, Vulcans and Native Americans as village extras was setup for the cast of Voyager. The instructor of Ro's who defected to the Maquii that she mentions here was intended by the producers to be Chakotay, something that was included in her bio on startrek.com. This was later contradicted by a Voyager episode where a date for his resignation as being 2 years before this episode occurs.


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DS9 223: Crossover
-Premise: An accident inside the wormhole sends Kira and Bashir into the "mirror universe," where Bajorans rule over their human slaves.

-T2Q Comments: Garek! Huzzah! Mirror Universe! Double Huzzah!

So, does every female c

 

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TNG 725/726: All Good Things...
-Premise: Picard is mysteriously traveling back and forth through time, thanks to Q, and he is unwittingly to blame for the destruction of Humanity. (Series Finale)

-T2Q Comments: Q fittingly returns again (though it's a shame the opening credits have to spoil the various guest stars like him)- and time travel, huzzah!

Ha, must be from having watched First Contact & Nemesis so often, but it took a long while during the vineyard conversation for me to realize Geordi didn't have his VISOR on- or even (distinguishable) cybernetic implants. So, Geordi married Leah afterall (I have to assume her unseen husband stood no chance against the collected desire of fandom ).

Interesting to note that this flashback with Tasha is set previous to even the first scene of the pilot (as are several of the related scenes that occur subsequently), with the beginning of a shuttle-approach sequence akin to TMP & TWOK (albeit abrievated).

Damn does Data have a lot of cats- Spiner musta loved that.

I'm not surprised that the Man-Skirt isn't present in the flashbacks, or that Deanna's hair and makeup, while similar, isn't as awful. Also interesting that these "past" events play out more or less like they "really" did, as Picard hadn't changed them until he calls red alert.

The slip of giving Worf instructions instead of Tasha is one of my favorite little moments. I am also amused that they circumvent the lack of a central chief engineer in the first season by using Miles.

Showing Riker's distraction at Worf/Deanna at least softens one portion of my infinite hatred of Insurrection by showing that at least Riker/Troi wasn't completely restarted out of the blue.

So glad they at least pursued the Picard/Crusher relationship some more before series end. And they kiss! horray!

The Klingons take over the Romulan Empire- that's quite fitting, and I can't help but wonder if the alternate-future loss of Romulus (and some events in Countdown) might accelerate that outcome...

I dig the revised Starfleet logo seen on the transmission screen- I'd like to see that come to actually use eventually. Mention of Romulus still existing (so it doesn't fit seamlessly with Countdown and absolutely must be an alternate version of the prime universe, but not the new alternate timeline).

Despite obviously not having aged

 

When commenting on the lack of Manskirts in the flashbacks, I made one oversight that I must correct now before I forget, to be fair and all...

Manskirts: 4, Masculinity: 1





Ok, so, looking back at my reviews/breakdown of Season 7 of TNG... (Even though we're treating the episode as a whole, to help maintain similar ratios to most of the prior seasons, it'll count as two episodes.)

TNG Season 7

Definitely Essential: (15)
701: Descent Part II
704: Gambit, Part I
705: Gambit, Part II
708: Attached
710: Inheritance
711: Parallels
712: The Pegasus
715: Lower Decks
716: Thine Own Self
718: Eye of the Beholder
720: Journey's End
721: Firstborn
724: Preemptive Strike
725/726: All Good Things...

Potentially Essential, But Not Necessarily Good: (0)
(however, I do count several episodes categorized otherwise as borderline Potentially Essential, so that's noted here)

Good Episodes, But Not Necessarily Essential: (5)
706: Phantasms
707: Dark Page
709: Force of Nature
713: Homeward
722: Bloodlines

Average Episodes: (6)
702: Liasons
703: Interface
714: Sub Rosa
717: Masks
719: Genesis
723: Emergence

OK Episodes: (0)

Forgettable: (0)

Trash: (0)


So, out of 26 episodes, the now-standard-season-length's 20 episodes worth of episodes Adds up to the stuff you either should see, or should consider seeing, 3/4ths of them being "essential" stories to the ongoing franchise or too damn good to pass up.

Compared to the previous seasons:

Season 1: 9 DE, 4 PE, 3 GE, 2 AE, 5 OK, 2 Forgettable, 1 Trash
Season 2: 5 DE, 1 PE, 6 GE, 2 AE, 2 OK, 3 Forgettable, 3 Trash
Season 3: 12 DE, 1 PE, 7 GE, 5 AE, 1 OK
Season 4: 16 DE, 1 PE, 5 GE, 4 AE
Season 5: 12 DE, 1 PE, 9 GE, 4 AE
Season 6: 16 DE, 1 PE, 7 GE, 2 AE


And, for those wantinga reminder of what I ranked Trash and Forgettable (essentially, the bottom 9 worst episodes:

Trash:
-103: The Naked Now
-218: Up the Long Ladder
-219: Manhunt
-222: Shades of Grey

Forgettable:
-104: Code of Honor
-114: Angel One
-201: The Child
-205: Loud As a Whisper
-212: The Royale



Next, I'll look back and pick out some of the cream of the crop- the best episodes of the series/my favorites, ignoring the need for related "essential" backstory episodes or even the episode's actually essentialness.

My unthemed Fan Collective, if you will.

 

(I'll post the TNG collective stuff soon)

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DS9 224: The Collaborator
-Premise: Kira's lover is accused of collaborating with the Cardassians during the Occupation.

-T2Q Comments: "Welcome back. You're under arrest."

I must give credit to the show for this Winn character- she manages to fill that religious/political figure role that embodies the worst qualities of that occupation, but does it all smiles in a way to avoid the typical evil slime that fill those roles- it's refreshing and maddening at the same time

"...to reveal the location of the rebel base"

The computers in Trek sure do beep alot. Even ours in the mid 90's didn't beep that much.

They kinda pull these transit files out of nowhere, making it feel like the investigation has been artificially drawn out somewhat.

I guess the continuation of Winn/Kai plotline here ties things into being Definitely Essential, though depending on how that plotline plays out/is reintroduced in subsequent episodes, I could see downgrading it to "Potentially Essential".

Trivia: There are several watergate parallels in this episode.

Originally Bareil was going to become Kai (which is why the whole season seems to be building towards it) but they changed their mind at the last second since they realized it'd be more interesting to have a non-Federation-friendly Kai.

Odo's reaction to Kira's love of Bareil was not intended by the script, which apparently led to fan speculation and the inspiration for events in the 3rd season (that I did not know about/remember- damn your spoilers, Memory-Alpha!).


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DS9 225: Tribunal
-Premise: When Cardassians arrest Miles O'Brien for working with the Maquis, he's put on a Cardassian trial, where the verdict is already decided, and is always guilty.

-T2Q Comments: Evek returns again. I forget- is this the first time we see Cardassia Prime? I see the Cardassians are still big on the mandatory interrogation nudity as last seen in Chain of Command.

A shame we couldn't get the flipside of Miles' capture from the Enterprise POV as mentioned by Sisko, in place of Emergence (this line is apparently a tribute to TNG, as this was the first episode to air after All Good Things...).

The actor playing Miles' council has those huge facial features atypical of Cardassians, who are usually either thin and hollowed or fat- it fits the makeup well.

I'm pretty sure I saw this episode when it first aired- I definitely remember aspects of the trial. Good Episode, But Not Necessarily Essential.

Trivia: This episode ks one of the so-called "O'Brien Must Suffer" episodes. Episode concept originates with a line made by Dukat earlier in the series. First episode directed by Avery Brooks.


Up next: DS9 226: The Jem'Hadar.

 

How much of DS9 and beyond have you seen?


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DS9 226: The Jem'Hadar
-Premise: On a camping trip in the Gamma Quadrant, Sisko, Jake, Nog, and Quark encounter the ruthless soldiers of the Dominion, the Jem'Hadar.

-T2Q Comments: Odessey returns from Cardassian border- shame they couldn't use the Enterr[ise to connect to the reference in Tribunal- would kind of link the two episodes somewhat.

Poor Morn.

Sisko's exasperated laugh at agreeing to let Quark aboard is hilarious.

Huh, I wonder if that Narn/Drazi dude they focused on in the other episode was a Jem'Hadar? i don't have to the episode to go back and look now, drat...

When they mentioned the New Bajor colony in the Gamma Quadrant an episode or two ago, I had a feeling it would come to a bad end- in fact, I brought up that possibility in one of my reviews earlier, not realizing it would come to pass:

215: Paradise The opening premise is that they are searching for worlds to use as potential colony candidates on the other side of the wormhole- though I don't think this is something that plays out, how great would it have been to establish such an outpost or colony in this episode, or subsequent ones, only to later have them eradicated by the Dominion?


The "walks through force field" bit was a nice bit of "oh, crap".

It's interesting that they bring the "Ferengi are how humans used to be" theme so overtly in dialogue- I had read about that observation before, but only expected it to be background subtext.

The captain of the Odyssey looks and sounds just a bit too much like "Picard-with hair and less accent!" for comfort. The shot of the Odyssey with the Runabouts below it has that sorta "With fighters!" Trek/Wars hybrid vibe that has felt missing on many occasions- not to mention it provides a greats ense o scale that is often lacking itself.

"Attack Pattern Delta". Heh.

Galaxy death #12. It's obvious the intended effect here is "these bad guys could destroy the Enterprise", and it does a semi decent job at achieving it (if they had developed the Odyssey's crew beforehand or in prior episodes, it would have been more effective had we got to know them somewhat).

Though it gets me thinking- what if TNG (or, at leats, the D itself) hadn't been destined for the big screen? What if they had used the completion of TNG to let them sacrifice the Enterprise-D to introduce the Dominion in the continuing series of DS9? That would have been an epically mega shock and they coulda went with the E right off the bat in the TNG films (since at least most of the TNG crew would have probably survived in this scenario). It'd be in the vein of say (SG-1 spoilers!) the loss of the Prometheus in SG-1 Season 9, though on a greater level.

For the introduction of the main bad guys of the series, it's pretty good- not something you'd expect out of Trek for mortal enemies (the Borg comes closest, and even their introduction was somewhat different in nature), though it's perhaps a bit too overt compared to some other shows (it's hard

 

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DS9 301: The Search, Part I
-Premise: Sisko takes an untested Starfleet warship into the Gamma Quadrant in an attempt to find the Founders of the Dominion.

-T2Q Comments: They don't do a good job matching the hair from the last season- Kira's and Bashir's are plausible but Dax's is definitely different. Nice little reveal of the Defiant (an update to the B5 log- though I must say that the Defiant looks better than the Whitestar).

I like the concept of the warship being designed in response to the Borg, and the lessened urgency of the Borg threat leading to it's abandonment (something that will bite them in the ass in a couple years in more than one way, no doubt).

There is no way that whatever that slop is that Jake is eating tastes anywhere near as good as to warrant his reaction to it.

Callback to the Toolaberry Wine episode...might have to upgrade that episode. Sisko's expression after making Quark kiss the Nagus's staff is such a great "God, I LOVE ****ing with people." expression.

Ok, so it's really been 2 months since The Jem'Hadar happened, so that excuses the hair and sudden appearance of the Defiant.

Nice "launch of the Defiant" sequence- though I find it curious that they have so far avoided showing her from the front up until the first shot of her exiting the wormhole.

I like the look to this alien- the narrow angles accent the aristocratic personality.

I'm liking the tone that Jem'Hadar set thus far- when they're traveling through the Gamma Quadrant, despite being on arguably the most advanced warship the Federation has produced, there's a darker sense of danger that's quite palpable.

I can't recall any other point in Trek, thus far, where simply "going somewhere" through space felt dangerous- sure, they often tell you it's treacherous or they're in enemy territory, but you're pretty sure they can handle whatever they encounter, because they've beaten Klingons and Romulans and Cardassians before and have the tech edge on all of them and if worst comes to worse, there's probably another Federation ship or two a few hours or a day or two away.

So they can tell you that, but you never really feel or believe it. Here though? You definitely feel it- the sense that the enemy is all around, that you have little chance in a fight against them, that even if you win, they have reinforcements quite nearby and you have none, that's there little safehaven.

That's quite an achievement for Trek. I know that feeling can't plausibly last forever, but I hope it lasts for a little while longer at least- that's a tone that would make me look forward to the next season or so with great interest.

Apparently the Defiant has those rare "**** YEAH!" guns.

The whole boarding fight is above-average effective (and neat to see Federation and Romulans fighting side by side). Much like the Wolf 359 scenes in the pilot, the show is good at making Trek battles a bit grittier than usual- the uniforms get dirtier "better" here than they have elsewhere.

Pretty good cliffhanger (above average for Trek, which has had some weak ones in some of the post-Chain two-parters).

Trivia: Berman was originally against having the Defiant have a cloak due to the Roddenberry tenants, but was eventually convinced otherwise due to the unique situation and limitations of use.

The Defiant was originally going to be called the Valiant, but couldn't since Voyager also started with a V. Instead, it was named after the ship from The Tholian Web.

It was decided that the cloak on the Defiant wouldn't be used after The Search Part I after they decided not to make T'Rul a recurring character (they would write it away by mentioning the cloak had been returned to the Romulans). As such, the set design didn't allow for the lighting rig to dim the lights for cloaked status- but then they decided to use the cloak again afterwards, so the crew had to manually change all the lights during cloaking for all subsequent uses, wh

 

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DS9 304: Equilibrium
-Premise: Jadzia Dax is plagued by disturbing hallucinations that allude to the dark past of the Dax symbiont.

-T2Q Comments: The mask hallucination visuals are effective here- makes me wonder how they did some of that- not a question that Trek raises in me often as I tend to know their tricks by now.

So they're taking the Defiant to transport Dax to Trill instead of a Runabout? Seems like a bit of overkill.

First glimpse of Trill. Though the middle investigation doesn't engage me much, the conversation with the brother is handled well, and the eventual reveal of the hidden secret is pretty neat.

Don't care for the visual metaphor of her joining the memories- I almost giggled a bit when he emerged from the water.

Not a bad episode, though not one I'd want to watch more tha once- but neither am I inclined to outright skip it if I were doing a DVD marathon. Average (though Joran apparently shows up again later in the series, so this one might get elevated much later on).

Trivia: The mask tricks are based on the magic show performed by the actor who plays Joran, and, in fact, the show was the inspiration for developing this episode (so that's why I couldn't figure it out- it's literally NOT one of their tricks!).



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DS9 305: Second Skin
-Premise: Kira is kidnapped by the Cardassians, who try to convince her that she is really one of them.

-T2Q Comments: Little obvious with the alien trailing Kira here. Garek! huzzah! Interesting premise to the Kira plotline.

"A pity- I rather liked him."

Minor advanecement of the Garek plotline- Good Episode, but Not Necessarily Essential (though Ghemor shows up later so perhaps this one will be upgraded)

Trivia: The story was originally about Miles, revealing he'd really been a Cardassian for 20 years, but the writer ran into problems trying to explain his fully-human child, so it was changed to Kira. Originally, they were going to leave whether or not Kira was a Cardassian ambiguous.

Nana Vistor is claustrophobic and disliked wearing the Cardassian makeup- on one long day she asked to end early to get out of the maleup, but the director wanted to get a few more shots, to which Visitor responded by physically removing the makeup on the set.

The running theme of a "second skin" for many elements exists for the whole episode- Kira/Iliana, Ghemor's pro/anti Cardassian governent stances, Defiant/freighter, Garek's tailor/spy status, Sisko/Kobheerian captain and Odo/bag.



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DS9 306: The Abandoned
-Premise: Quark finds an abandoned Jem'Hadar child, and Odo is the only person who can control him.

-T2Q Comments: Jake and the Daubo Girl, the dinner invite following up on a reference in Season 2's Playing God.

Aww, it's a baby Jaffa... I am Teal'c, Son of Sisko

Odo's enthusiasm for his shapeshifting really sells the scene.

Nice reveal of the baby's nature- I like the concept a lot, though it's also interesting to note my

 

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VOY 101/102: Caretaker
-Premise: The newly commissioned starship Voyager and a Maquis raider are flung into the remote Delta Quadrant by a powerful entity known as the Caretaker.

-T2Q Comments: Neat that they mirror DS9's effective opening scroll. I don't think this was a tradition carried on by Enterprise. Gul Evek (briefly) returns- I'm surprised they didn't take the opportuniy to off a recurring characetr here like him.

Very good teaser- now for the opening credits. Of the three modern shows with real themes, Voyager's, while not bad, is my least favorite of the three. Though they are obviously showing off how much the ship FX have improved in the past 7 years, and there are some nice touches (my favorite being the subtle reflection of the ship in the ice rings), it ultimately comes across as somewhat dull for an intro- and it never makes Voyager feel big. Sure, Voyager was a smaller ship than the Enterprise, but it's still bigger than the Enterprise-A and even that felt big most of the time.

I remember that my initial impression was that I didn't like Janeway- not because she's a woman or anything, but because she had that nasally voice that really grated me. I eventually warmed to her somewhat and overcame that initial issue.

Paris flirts with terrible pickup lines Trekkies wish actually worked on women.

Voyager itself looks nice- I like the design, except for the stubby nacelles. But, the arrowhead-like saucer is a nice new variation. All those years as a kid pretending the spoons at restaurants were mis-shapen Federation ships, and finally we have a Federation ship actually shaped like a spoon. Shots subsequent to the title sequence do do a better job at conveying the scale os Voyager.

Tom Paris, despite the attitude differences, tends to have a very similar backstory to Not-Tom Paris.

...and the best thing to come out of Voyager- Robert Picardo! "Tricorder." :auses, after seeing what is handed to him:: "MEDICAL tricorder."

I believe my interest begins to decline as soon as we hit the old farm- it's a very TOSlike feeling- though thankfully it subsides quickly enough for the camp to make way for TNG-like holodeck danger.

I know this is a very odd suggestion, but my first impression of Neelix basd on his first few lines, and maybe also because of the camera angle/lens, but I'm suddenly reminded a little of Ledger's Joker, or at least certain moments of Ledger's Joker- just not the evil/crazy.

One other thing that just crossed my mind- it's odd that, till now, they've distinguished the "station" and "ship" uniforms for starfleet, yet Voyager's crew uses the DS9 station-style uniforms- granted, they do look better.

And here come the Water Klingons- er, Kazon.

"Kazon ships approaching the array"- how do they know what Kazon ships are?

The battle is rather well done- the sense of zooming around Voyager for the battle is pretty neat (though having the soon-to-be-gone Maquis ship helps a lot, as with the Runabouts and OPdyssey in The Jem'Hadar).

The malfunctioning holodeck effect is kinda creepy and rather effective here with the barn.

Up to this point I was going to say that this was a strangely pro-prime directive story, showing the dangers of even beneficial interference in the long term, but then Janeway decides to ignore the application of the directive, which kills that notion. Personally, I think it's a poor judgement for the rule- she claims they are already involved, but the Caretaker would have died a