Category Archives: 1996

1996, 2372, Kazon, Voyager

“Alliances”

November 25, 2015 Paul

Welcome to our peace party. Oppressed meet your former oppressor who in no way is about to double cross us. — Welcome to our peace party. Oppressed, meet your former oppressor, who in no way is about to double-cross us.

After repeated attacks by the Kazon and mounting casualties, Janeway and Chakotay start thinking that they need to change their approach to survive in the Delta Quadrant. They wonder if they can build alliances with some Kazon sects in hopes of getting through their space unscathed. That largely doesn’t work — negotiations with our buddies in the Kazon Nistrim don’t pan out when Maje Culluh makes goofy demands — but Neelix runs into a group of people called the Trabe, once enslavers of the Kazon who were overthrown decades earlier and now are essentially nomads. After an introduction by Neelix, Janeway bonds with Trabe leader Mabus (Charles Lucia) who seems more civilized than the Kazon thugs Voyager has generally dealt with. Janeway and Mabus (who has a small fleet of ships) form an alliance and organize a peace summit among the Kazon sects. But it turns out Mabus actually is using Voyager to get all the Kazon leaders together in one place so he can assassinate them. Janeway foils the plot at the last minute and Voyager escapes — and ends the episode telling her crew that her mistake was going against tried-and-true Starfleet principles. Oh, Kathy. This is why we can’t have nice things.

Why it’s important

If regular readers think we’ve been focusing on the Kazon a lot in recent reviews, it’s because the Kazon are the biggest story thread in Voyager’s second season. This episode furthers that and likely puts Voyager in the crosshairs of the entire Kazon race. As a concept — and given the payoff at season’s end — this episode works pretty well and a lot of the execution (up until Janeway’s goofy closing speech) is strong.

Give Voyager credit, too, for its strong run of continuity. The Trabe had actually been mentioned in the previous two episodes we’ve reviewed (“Initiations” and “Maneuvers”). This episode is also the first time we see former Maquis Michael Jonas (Raphael Sbarge) conduct his covert communications with the Nistrim, which is a big domino in the next several episodes. While the Kazon were not great villains in that they came across as dumb thugs, the creators clearly developed a pretty extensive backstory and plot outline for them. A for effort, C for execution.

It might no be "Starfleet" captain, but it's probably still a good idea to not — It might not be “Starfleet”, Captain, but it’s probably still a good idea to NOT let the former enslavers get the leaders of the people of who overthrew them together in one room.

What doesn’t hold up

The declaration by Janeway at the end of the episode — that Voyager erred by going against Federation principles — deserves scrutiny. While it’s true that allying with one of the Kazon sects would have been a usual no-no — something Janeway acknowledges during a nice scene with Tuvok but something that doesn’t actually happen — can the same be said about making friends with the Trabe?

The Trabe were, most definitely, separate from the Kazon, so forming an alliance with them didn’t really go against any higher Federation values regarding internal politics. True, allying Voyager with the Kazon’s most hated enemies might not have been a smart tactical decision and you could argue that Janeway was too quick to trust Mabus. But things didn’t go to hell in this episode because Janeway ignored Federation principles. They went to hell because the Voyager crew acted out of desperation and/or were bad judges of character.

The episode would have been stronger if Janeway had done a different kind of soul searching before the credits rolled. As it stands, it feels like the creators were looking for a way to justify Voyager’s essential “TNG in the Delta Quadrant” approach as to why the unique premise that they came up wasn’t being utilized. Having the show’s star essentially say that “Because we’re the Federation, damnit!” as an explanation for nearly everything that went wrong in this episode was mostly inaccurate and was an odd meta moment — a rather disappointing one.

Really, one lesson Janeway ought to have learned is that the ship should kick it up to the much-vaunted warp 9.975 maximum cruising velocity until it exited Kazon space. I know her initial declaration in “Caretaker” was that the ship would continue to explore. But high-tailing it out of a particularly nasty area — in which exploring would have been difficult given the near-constant Kazon attacks — would have been prudent. Of course, as the episode ends and after the ship flees the planet of the peace summit, we see the ship moving along at impulse — a recurring oddity throughout the series that we mentioned in our last review.

Maybe Godfather III didn't survive into the 24th century. Or else the wisdom to not watch it did. Otherwise they'd have seen this coming a mile away. — Maybe “Godfather III” didn’t survive into the 24th century. Or else the wisdom to not watch it did. Otherwise, they’d have seen this coming a mile away.

Final thoughts

Basically, this episode is where the Voyager creators took their ball and went home as far as doing anything new and different in a large, series-shaping way. And that’s a shame. Even if Voyager hadn’t ended up being akin to the rebooted “Battlestar Galactica” (which aired a decade later) making the Voyager crew struggle more wouldn’t have been that difficult. A power shortage here, more shots of the ship traveling at high warp there, a lack of torpedoes there, not having an endless supply of shuttles there …

Coming next week …

One of Voyager’s best episodes, as we explore the Q in a truly great, sci-fi way.

1996, 2373, Bajoran, Deep Space Nine

“The Assignment”

August 15, 2015 Paul

"I have good news. I have made a decision designed to increase your unhappiness." — “I have good news. I have made a decision designed to increase your unhappiness.”

Keiko returns from some trip that sort of explains why she’s never around and tells O’Brien that she’s actually an alien who’s taken control of Keiko’s body. She gives O’Brien a bunch of stuff to do on the station and tells him if he informs anyone, she’ll kill Keiko. O’Brien gets everything done with the help of Quark’s dumb brother Rom (Max Grodenchik) and realizes the thing in Keiko is likely a pah-wraith, sort of the evil version of the prophets who live in the wormhole. Keiko’s plan seems to be to use the modified station to kill all the prophets. O’Brien leaves the station with Keiko in a runabout and then activates the modifications on the station and fires toward the wormhole. But the shot hits the runabout instead, killing the thing inside Keiko. Keiko is shaken, but OK.

Why it’s important

In what could have been a pretty forgettable episode, we meet the pah-wraiths, who play a major, major role down the stretch in DS9. We even learn that they’ve been hanging out (banished to, really) the fire caves on Bajor.

Also of note is the continued evolution of one of the series’s worst characters, Rom. By this point, he’s still the moron he was early on, but he’s also a “engineering genius”. To the show’s credit, they establish this and then let it evolve to the point where Rom’s skills are key in the events surrounding the Federation’s defense of the station against the Dominion. Still, it’s too bad the creators did such a poor job of writing Rom the rest of the time.

Rom, dumb in all things... except engineering?! — Rom, dumb in all things… except engineering?!

What doesn’t hold up

I truly hate this episode. It’s just so full of nonsense. It’s the worst of the “O’Brien suffers” episodes that we saw about once a year throughout DS9’s run. Colm Meaney, as usual, makes something out of the material, but it’s still a bad episode.

First of all, how would a pah-wraith banished to the fire caves for thousands of years have any idea how to modify the station’s systems? Granted, the creator knows what Keiko knows, but Keiko’s a freaking botanist! And given that she was surprised by O’Brien’s actions at the end, it’s not as if she was all-knowing.

Beyond that, why did she need to be in a runabout near the wormhole in the first place? She could have stayed on the station and gotten a pretty good view of her plan coming to fruition and not exposed herself to O’Brien’s switcheroo. There’s no evidence that she needed to be near the wormhole — and she likely was trying to secure the thing for ALL the pah-wraiths and not just herself. So, really, the only reason for her to be on the runabout was so that O’Brien could have a way out.

Then, there’s Rom. Now, it’s true that the Ferengi (Quark, Rom, Nog) can be good additions to episodes — whereas Ferengi-centric episodes are largely stupid if not pointless. But Rom’s actions here just are too hard to swallow.

Basically, he’s able to ascertain what’s going on by looking at the tasks O’Brien has him complete — which MIGHT make up half of O’Brien’s assignment — and remembering the wormhole/prophets stuff Leeta (Rom’s Bajoran girlfriend) has told him. A lot’s made about Rom being super smart after DS9’s first couple years (in which he was just written as an idiot) but his assessment here is a freaking miracle.

Of course, maybe this is further proof that Ferengi can absorb information more quickly than other races. Of course, if that’s true, it’s amazing that they’re such interstellar dunces.

And you thought being married to me was a "torture O'Brien episode" — And you thought being married to me was a “torture O’Brien episode”

Final thoughts

Then, there’s Keiko. Ugh.

Rosalind Chao’s not a bad actor. But the performance and writing of Keiko throughout DS9 paints her as mostly a nag who complains a lot. Initially, her plot line involved her unhappiness on the station where a botanist had little to do — and that was somewhat passable. But the school stuff mostly went away after the first season and Keiko basically became the unhappy wife.

It’s telling, then, that Keiko appeared just five times in DS9’s final three seasons, including in the final episode. With the Dominion war raging, there was a lot less for her to do — and, really, she and daughter Molly should have likely been away from the station while fighting was going on, anyway.

This episode really gives Chao the most to do that isn’t relegated to her family, other than the school stuff. Chao isn’t bad in the role, but the episode is just so full of holes that her performance isn’t nearly enough to make it a better overall viewing.

Coming later this week …

Odo’s a daddy! Sort of, maybe.

1996, 2373, Deep Space Nine, Dominion, Klingon

“Apocalypse Rising”

August 12, 2015 Paul

asdfasdf — Starfleet’s worst thought-out undercover operation. We hope.

With a war raging between the Federation and the Klingons, Sisko is assigned the task of exposing the Gowron Changeling, mentioned in “Broken Link”. Sisko takes Worf, O’Brien and Odo (who’s still smarting from becoming a human) and they masquerade as Klingons participating in a ceremony deep in the Empire after being transported there in Dukat’s Bird of Prey from “Return to Grace”. Just as Sisko’s about to use a new prototype device to determine that Gowron’s a Changeling, General Martok (J.G. Hertzler, seen in “The Way of the Warrior”) stops them. In a cell, Martok tells them he’s suspected that Gowron’s a Changeling and offers to help them kill him (the device has been destroyed). As Worf fights Gowron, Odo figures out that Martok’s actually the Changeling and exposes him. The Martok Changeling is killed and Gowron agrees to begin peace talks. Odo, with some of his self-worth restored, goes back to his life on DS9.

asdfasd — One of the most, ahem, “fortified installations in the Empire”.

Why it’s important

The beginning of the short war with the Klingons is significant, as is the end of that war (it drags on for a few more episodes, but the lead up to ending it starts here) as is the establishment of a relationship between Sisko and Gowron. That comes into play in a major way later in the season.

Odo, again, plays a major role in interstellar matters. If he hadn’t exposed the Martok Changeling, Worf would have likely killed Gowron and the war would have continued — leaving the Alpha Quadrant ripe for conquest by the Dominion.

asdfa — “Yup. The creators had a few of these when they wrote this episode.”

What doesn’t hold up

This is a great time to bring up the issue of scope that we see in a lot of DS9’s final three seasons. Faithful readers, you’ll hear a lot from us on this topic, starting here.

It’s really hard to believe that Starfleet would have sent Sisko, Worf, Odo and O’Brien on this mission. Even if you figure Sisko and Odo have a great deal of experience with Changelings — and Worf, of course, has a great deal of experience with Klingons — the four of them would have just been too recognizable. It’s actually laughable that they thought changing Worf’s hair would be even close to enough to make him look different.

Why is this a matter of scope? In early DS9, it made sense for Sisko to be in the middle of everything because the DS9 staff was small and its sphere of influence was over a relatively small area. But, here, we’re dealing with a war that could shape the face of the Alpha Quadrant — at a place that’s quite far from DS9. There’s just no way that Starfleet wouldn’t have had some commandos or spies or SOMEONE better equipped than 1) a very recognizable captain 2) a very recognizable Klingon 3) an emotionally fragile recently turned human and 4) an engineer whose abilities had no real value here. Why Dax didn’t go instead of O’Brien is another matter …

Beyond that, it’s kind of ridiculous how easy it was for Sisko and Co. to get into the Klingon installation. Wouldn’t there have been sensors to detect three human life signs in a ceremony where only Klingons were supposed to be in attendance? I know a big deal is made about Dukat’s efforts to get their names into the ceremony, but still. And, really, there’s the whole language thing (which I normally don’t bring up, but is key here) and the idea that Sisko and Co. talk so openly about their true identities with so many people in earshot. Klingons are known to be very paranoid — to the point where they’re described as “obsessive” about blood screenings.

Final thoughts

Frankly, this episode revolves too much around the gimmick of Sisko’s team dressing like Klingons. The best parts of it occur on Dukat’s Bird of Prey and in the prison cell with the Martok Changeling.

It’s also somewhat disappointing that the war didn’t really end here. We see more Klingon stuff in “Nor the Battle to the Strong”, arguably DS9’s best use of Cirroc Lofton as Jake. On one hand, that’s DS9 doing its thing as the Trek series that best handled continuity. On the other, it makes the events in this episode a little less significant.

Coming up next week …

Keiko’s back and she’s even more annoying than usual … because she’s possessed. Maybe that’s why she’s been so annoying for so long!

1996, 2372, Deep Space Nine, Dominion

“Broken Link”

August 9, 2015 Paul

Odo gets all sick and Bashir is baffled. The crew figures that they need to take Odo back to the Founders, and it turns out they actually caused his illness as a way to make him come home and face the music for killing another Changeling (back in “The Adversary”). Sisko takes the Defiant to the Gamma Quadrant and allows the Jem’Hadar to pilot the ship to the Founders’ new, secret homeworld. Odo is in the Great Link for a while and emerges as a human, without the ability to shape shift. As he begins to struggle with his new existence back on the station at the end of the episode, he sees a transmission of Klingon Chancellor Gowron threatening war with the Federation and tells a shocked Sisko and Kira that he remembers (from his time in the link) that Gowron … is a Changeling.

Why it’s important

Well, Odo’s role as someone torn between two worlds (really, two quadrants) was a major thread of the entire series. It was a big shock when he lost his shape-shifting abilities — and an even bigger shock when he told Sisko and Kira that Gowron was actually a Changeling infiltrator. But, actually, the creators quietly — or inadvertently — made the events here blow up in the Founders’ faces. Skip ahead a few graphs if you want to avoid spoilers …

In DS9’s final season, it’s learned that the Founders are dying of a mysterious disease. It’s later learned that a rogue Starfleet organization — which we’ll soon meet — infected Odo when he was at Starfleet headquarters in “Homefront”/”Paradise Lost”, and Odo subsequently infected the Founders.

Here’s where things get interesting. Odo almost certainly infected the Great Link when he was called to be judged in this episode. He doesn’t interact with any Changelings (that we know of) between “Paradise Lost” and “Broken Link.” He regains his shapeshifting abilities in “The Begotten”, but he doesn’t link with another Founder for at least another year or so. And, by that point, no ships were coming and going from the two quadrants, meaning Odo couldn’t have had the disease and passed it to another Changeling who would have carried it to the Gamma Quadrant. So, really, the only chance Odo had to infect the other Changelings was in “Broken Link”. It’s likely he was infected again, early in the sixth season, when he briefly colludes with the female Changeling (Salome Jens) while the Dominion occupied DS9.

Last point on this: The Changeling threat really seems to fade into the background after the middle of the fifth season — even though we’ve been told the Founders have been all over the Alpha Quadrant for years. While it’s never exactly stated, one wonders if those Founders stopped impersonating people because they got infected — and instead reverted to a more typical military campaign.

Anyway, the disease is a big key to the Federation winning the war, even if you discount my theory on why the Changeling threat faded away and simply figure that what happened in this episode caused the Founders to get sick and later provided Odo a huge chip to end the war earlier than it would have otherwise.

Spoilers over. 🙂

What doesn’t hold up

I guess I could question whether the Founders could really turn one of their own into a human. But the abilities of Changelings have always been pretty amazing. It’s incredible, for instance, how they can impersonate humanoids with such precision that they can out doctor Julian Bashir (which we see in season five) out-Klingon General Martok (as we also see in seasons four and five) and navigate the Defiant and understand its systems (as we saw in “The Adversary”). That Starfleet’s sensors can’t detect the difference between a Changeling and a human (or a Klingon, or whatever) has always been pretty amazing. I guess that means that Changelings can mimic internal organs while being scanned? Hmmmm …

So, sure. Maybe they can make Odo a solid and cause him to start deteriorating from the other side of the galaxy. Why not, I guess?

Otherwise, I kind of hate that Garak tries to set up Odo in this beginning of this episode. It’s quite odd that Garak would do this, and that a Bajoran woman would enlist his assistance in her attempt to go after Odo. It’s not appallingly bad. It’s just kind of bizarre.

Final thoughts

Props to the creators for a bit of continuity. Gowron mentions the Klingons’ claim to the Archanis system, mentioned way back in “Day of the Dove” on TOS. It’s a very small thing, but nods like that make Trek’s history much richer.

Otherwise, I really liked the moment between Quark and Odo as Odo walks through the promenade in his sickly state. It’s pretty clear that Quark and Odo are each other’s closest friend on the station (though the Kira/Odo stuff later changes that some) despite their rivalry. And, while I hated the Garak setup stuff, his presence on the Defiant to keep Odo occupied and his interaction with the female Changeling was vintage Garak — as was the classic exchange between Garak and Worf as Garak tries to use the Defiant’s weapons on the Founders’ homeworld.

Coming later this week …

Sisko, Worf, Odo and O’Brien go undercover … as Klingons? It happened, people.

1996, 2372, Cardassian, Deep Space Nine, Maquis

“For the Cause”

August 5, 2015 Paul

The Federation is sending a bunch of heavy-duty replicators to Cardassia to help rebuild the battered empire following the Klingon invasion. Eddington is leading the efforts and he and Odo tell Sisko that they suspect that his new main squeeze, Kasidy Yates (Penny Johnson) is smuggling goods to the Maquis on her freighter — something they confirm by following her ship to the Badlands in a cloaked Defiant. They plan to arrest her and the Maquis on their next trip — a big part of the episode is Sisko not wanting to arrest her — but the Defiant lies in wait as Kasidy’s ship waits for hours for a rendezvous. It turns out the whole thing with Kasidy was a ploy by the Maquis, specifically Eddington, who has defected(!),to get Sisko and most of the senior staff off the station to steal the replicators. Sisko leaves Kasidy’s ship behind to try to catch Eddington, but he’s too late. Eddington contacts Sisko and gives him a blistering speech about his reasoning, and Sisko vows to hunt down Eddington, even if it takes the rest of his career. Kasidy returns to the station to face the music and tells Sisko she’ll return to him after some time in prison.

Why it’s important

This is another example of the creators showing Cardassia in really bad shape following the Klingon invasion. That’s important considering where the Cardies turn for help in season five.

It also shows the expanding grasp of the Maquis, who had largely been forgotten about in season four (probably because the Klingons were taking so much focus). Eddington’s defection isn’t a galaxy-shaking domino, though we learn later that the Maquis scored their biggest victories under his leadership (at least, that’s what he says).

In a bigger picture way, this is a good example of why DS9 was a compelling show. On TNG or Voyager, it’s very likely we never would have heard of Eddington again. But we see two more episodes involving him, one of which is a personal favorite of mine — and both are pretty significant moments in the DS9 tapestry.

What doesn’t hold up

I’ve always wondered where the hell Dax was at the end of this episode. It’s true that Sisko, O’Brien, Worf and Odo are on the Defiant while Eddington does his thing — and, of course, he stuns Kira. But Dax was fourth in command and must have been in the holosuite or eating steamed azna while Eddington stole the replicators.

Speaking of Eddington’s plan, it all comes together a little too well, doesn’t it? That he was able to so cunningly get Sisko, Odo, Worf and O’Brien off the station — and stun Kira — was pretty incredible. And, really, it’s disappointing to think that the junior officers would be dumb enough (and that Eddington would know they would be dumb enough) to go along with everything he did.

Beyond that, how did Sisko — yet again — justify using the Defiant’s cloaking device in the Alpha Quadrant? This was expressly forbidden from what we learned in “The Search”, but Sisko pretty much ignores that rule whenever he thinks it’s appropriate. Hmmm.

Final thoughts

While Kasidy Yates vacillates between being an important character (like in this episode) to being not important (like when she only appears once in the sixth season) to being important again (like when she shows up for most of the last leg of the final season). We haven’t had a real chance to dive into the character, though she did show up in “The Way of the Warrior”.

Oh, and I suppose you COULD argue that Garak’s new relationship with Ziyal — a rather weak subplot — is somewhat significant given later events. Still, Ziyal’s later importance has more to do with her father Gul Dukat than with Garak. Also, it’s odd that another actor plays Ziyal here, and that another one will play her when we see her again. This was DS9’s weirdest casting issue, BTW.

This episode is probably best remembered for Eddington’s f-you speech to Sisko. It’s well-acted and well-written — and the idea that the Federation is “insidious” is a good theme of DS9. But why did Eddington get to this place with his assessment of the Federation? We never see any motivation for it, as he’s always been a fairly by-the-book dude. It’s too bad the creators didn’t try to sew up on of their goofiest misfires of season four and give Eddington some motivation at the same time. Put on your fan-fiction glasses for a second …

Hilariously, Eddington (Starfleet head of security on DS9) is nowhere to be seen when the Klingons attack. Hell, he’s not even mentioned! The creators should have used this as an opportunity to explain where Eddington was at that point. With just a few lines of dialog, they could have established that he was on a mission and witnessed the Maquis hit in the crossfire during the Klingon invasion of Cardassia. Remember, Sisko did everything he could to save the heads of the Cardassian government, but didn’t (apparently) let the Maquis know the Klingons were coming. That could have easily enraged Eddington into defecting.

Coming next week …

Here come the judge, here come the judge for Odo.

What if a site focused on the really important Star Trek episodes, explained how they were important and how they tied together — while tossing in a healthy dose of snark?