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Wacky Reviews: Star Trek

For the Uniform - Sisko goes looking for information on Michael Eddington, but ends up with Eddington holding a gun to his head. Eddington wonders if Sisko is mad at him for leaving Starfleet or because he did it on Sisko's watch. Sisko says Eddington commited treason. Eddington points out all the poor people living in a cave because of the Federation giving their planet away. He beams away and tells Sisko not to go after him. Sisko goes after him on the Defiant and talks to another Captain on the NEW HOLO COMMUNICATOR. It's...pretty dumb. What advantage does it even offer over a viewscreen? Eddington manages to transmit a virus to the Defiant's computer somehow then sends a message over the holo communicator again telling Sisko just to give up. He doesn't destroy the Defiant even though he could. Back at the station O'Brien reports it'll take two weeks to fix the Defiant. Odo finds more viruses on the station and points out that Starfleet made Eddington head of Security because they didn't trust Odo. The Captain from before tells Sisko that Starfleet wants him to hunt Eddington now because Sisko isn't getting the job done. Sisko angrily punches a puncing bag Dax is holding for him and Avery Brooks does some pretty over the top acting ("RRRRR GRRRR!" is an actual quote.) Kira reports that Eddington has attacked a Cardassian planet with a biogenic weapon (that only targets Cardassians) and the Maquis are going to take over the planet. Sisko's going to take the Defiant after him to stop him poisoning anymore planets even though only half the Defiant's systems are back online. The comm system is offline but O'Brien's come up with the idea to use Nog to relay orders (he's got big ears!)

There's a sequence where they have to manually take the Defiant out of the docking ring. It's pretty good. They start searching the Badlands for Eddington. The holo communicator is somehow still working so Eddington sends a message and beams over a copy of Les Miserables. He compares Sisko to Inspector Javier who chased a man for twenty years for stealing a loaf of bread. It's a bit much considering this is the first episode where we've seen Sisko's obsession with Eddington. The other ship that was chasing Eddington has been ambushed by the Maquis but the Captain has a secret Maquis message. It's a Breen nursery rhyme (of course!) that reveals that the Breen have been storing weapons for the Maquis. Sisko works out Eddington's next target but the Defiant is too late: the Maquis have already activated the biogenic weapon. They nearly catch Eddington fleeing the planet but he shoots a Cardassian transport and Sisko has to rescue it instead of catching Eddington (Eddington sends a message saying "let's see how obsessed you are, Javert!" but it's pretty obvious Sisko isn't going to let the Cardassians die.) Sisko watches a Blu Ray of Les Mis with Dax and Sisko thinks he can tell something about Eddington's character based on the book. He thinks Eddington sees himself as the hero of the book and that's why he joined the Maquis. It's quite a leap. Sisko thinks to defeat Eddington he has to become the villain. Sisko has torpedos modified to be able to destroy the atmosphere of a Maquis colony and waits for Eddington to appear. Eddington thinks he's bluffing so Sisko launches the torpedos, making the planet inhabitable for humans. He says he'll do the same to every Maquis planet unless Eddington gives himself up. He finally hand himself over and the homeless Maquis and Cardassian colonists swap planets.

Yeah it's a weird epsidoe. Sisko does tend to get obsessed with things, yes, but his hatred of Eddington all seems a bit much. Eddington is right that the Maquis don't have a problem with Starfleet as long as they're left alone. The ending makes Eddington seem more sympathetic than Sisko. Eddington calling Sisko "Javert" all the time was really annoying. And Avery Brooks goes full Avery Brooks in some scenes, most notably the boxing one. I still quite liked the chase aspect though and the stuff with them having to do everything manually made it a bit more interesting!

SCORE: 7/10

Okay I have several shows to binge watch soon, plus other stuff I want to watch and Christmas things, so this will probably be the last DS9 review until January. HO HO HO see you then!
 
Yeah, I still don’t get why Sisko is SO obsessed with Eddington AND it’s annoying when fictional characters get compared to other fictional characters (nobody does that in real life). I thought the swapping of planets at the end was poetic at least.

The communication ring thingy maybe wasn’t such a bad idea in principle, but somehow it comes off as cheap. If they’d added a bit of distortion here and there to emphasise that it’s a transmission it would’ve sold it, but it just looked like the person was right there.
 
The writers admit in the DS9 Companion that they were sort of jacking off with this episode. Someone wanted to do a Les Miz story, but they didn't flesh it out well enough but it was too late to turn back. The holo-communicator was just a trick to make the scenes between Sisko and Eddington more impactful, but to me that was a cop-out, because so many great episodes of Trek have scenes consisting of two characters playing cat and mouse via communicator. (Not to mention KHAAAAAAAAN!) Sometimes the DS9 writers were bold & brave, which is how they got their reputation for doing a different kind of Trek. And then there's weeks like this when they were sitting on that reputation and sniffing their own nebula emissions.
 
On that note, has anyone seen the documentary? I’m gonna wait til I finish rewatching the series (midway through season 6 now).
 
Ah... I’d assumed since it had its premiere that it was complete and had been released. Well I’m quite happy to wait however long it takes them to release it on Blu-ray.
 
In Purgatory's Shadow - Kira helps Odo move his changeling stuff back into his room and discovers he was trying to find love as a solid. The station picks up a coded Cardassian message from the Gamma Quadrant and Sisko has Garak look at it. Garak tells Bashir and Ziyal (now played by Melanie Smith) that it was just an old survey report but Garak tends to lie about things! Bashir catches him trying to steal a Runabout. He knew that Garak wouldn't give up on the possibility of there being Cardassian survivors in the GQ and Garak reveals it was indeed a message from Tain. Garak suggest Bashir run off to the GQ with him(!) but he takes Garak to Sisko instead. Bashir tells Sisko not to let Garak go (hmm) because it's too dangerous, but Sisko has Worf go with him. Dax is mad at Worf for taking this mission without telling her (but I doubt she runs every mission she takes by him first?) and borrows his Klingon operas while he's gone. It's actually a tactic to motivate him into returning as he loves those Klingon operas! Garak talks to Ziyal first and she tells him how she's into him. She holds his hand just as Dukat happens to be walking by. He threatens to throw Garak off the Promenade by Quark and Ziyal talk him down. Garak gets a few zingers in before leaving. Dukat uses his "you have no idea how much it pains me to hear you say that" catchphrase for the first time(~!) when Ziyal tells him Garak is a good man. Worf tells Sisko that he'll kill Garak at the first sign of betrayal but return the body intact (this is a very good dialogue episode!) In the runabout, Garak spins an elaborate lie about wanting to join Starfleet to Worf. He has to practice lying every so often to remain good at it, he explains. Dukat suspects Kira "let" Ziyal become friends with Garak just to anger him but Kira isn't having any of his crazy shit today. He suggests that there will soon come a time where Bajorans start taking Cardassian threats seriously again. Worf won't take the runabout into Dominion space to find the source of the message as it's against his orders but Garak makes clever use of the word "honour" to convince him to travel through a nebula where sensors won't work. They find a fleet of Jem'Hadar warships.

Worf sends a message to the station but it's not clear if it gets through. They're captured by the Jem'Hadar. O'Brien picks up part of the message and Sisko notifies Starfleet that the Dominon is coming. Kira is sent to look for Worf in the Defiant. Worf and Garak are taken to a Dominion prison on an asteroid (well it's a big rocky thing in space anyway.) Dukat tells Ziyal that she has to return to Cardassia because the Dominion are coming. The Jem'Hadar in charge of the prison tells Worf he's been waiting for another Klingon and we find that General Martok is still alive, with one eye, and has been forced into combat against the Jem'Hadar. Martok brings them to Tain, who is sick and dying, but wakes up long enough to tell Garak how disappointed he is in him for getting captured. Dukat is invited to a briefing on the Dominion threat by Sisko and "the recent Borg attack" is mentioned. Go see Star Trek: First Contact, kids! Doctor Kahn (Dax's former lover) has come up with a way to seal the wormhole without harming the Prophets (Kira still isn't happy about it.) Worf and Garak have 36 hours to return home. BIG TWIST: another prisoner is released from isolation on the asteroid...it's Bashir! In an old uniform! But that means the Bashir on the station has been a changeling for the last few episodes! We cut back to the station to show the now SINISTER Julian bring possibly EVIL sandwiches to O'Brien and Dax. Ziyal refuses to go to Cardassia and Dukat suspects it's because of Garak. Garak tells Bashir that he regrets coming for Tain. He speaks to him one last time before Tain dies. Garak tells Tain all his enemies are dead and he can die happy. Tain wants Garak to avenge his death, but Garak says he'll only do so if Tain ackowledges that Garak is his son. Tain remembers the one day he took Garak out to ride space horses and how proud he was of him that day. Then dies. The station attemps to seal the wormhole but something goes wrong (Bashir sabotaged them) and a huge Dominion fleet exits the wormhole. TO BE CONTINUED!

A mid season two parter where Garak teams up with another beloved character for a Gamma Quadrant adventure? No, we're not in season three again, but this episode is just as good as 'Improbable Cause' with great dialogue and plot twists through. Andrew Robinson continues to be one of the strongest actors in Star Trek with Tain's death scene being particularly great. This is one of those amazing first parts of a two parter where you just hope that part two can live up to it...

SCORE: 10/10


By Inferno's Light - Kira commands the Defiant, with two runabouts and Dukat's Bird of Prey, to go and meet the Dominion fleet. The fleet turns away from the station and sets a course for Cardassia. Dukat flies off after them and Kira tells him not to try to be a hero and attack the fleet. Dukat confesses that he's actually JOINING the Dominion fleet as for the past few months he's been holding secret talks with the Dominion for Cardassia to join them. What the actual fuck! Worf comes up with a plan to uses Tain's transmitter (hidden in a cramped space behind the wall) to send a message to the runabout that is conveniently still orbiting the asteroid and beam them to safety. A Vorta reveals to them that all Cardassian prisoners are to be released since Cardassia joined the Dominion...except for Garak. We get a great bit with Dukat, the new leader of Cardassia, speaking to the citizens on those big Orwellian screens they have on Cardassia. Sisko and the others watch his speech on the station and Kira vows to kill Dukat. Bashir says there's obviously a changeling on the station, the irony being that he is the changeling himself. Odo is strangely absent from this scene (and was only in the teaser scene in partone.) Garak is obviously struggling with the confined space where he has to work on the transmitter, especially when he's shut inside. Worf is taken to Jem'Hadar fight club in place of Martok. Bashir is concerned about Garak's health when he's finally let out of the wall. Worf wins his first fight and is like "is that all you've got?" Kira and Ziyal talk about Dukat and how he justifies his evil acts. Gowron coms to the station to see Sisko. The Klingons are getting their asses kicked now that the Cardies have joined the Dominion. Sisko wants him to restore the Khitomer Accords so they can stand united against the Dominion. Gowron agrees pretty quickly and they have their legenadary "they're tricky, those tides" exchange. Worf wins his fifth fight, though he's having a tougher time. Garak starts to have a panic attack inside the wall. He starts going nuts and Bashir has to get him out.

Bashir tells the others that Garak has claustrophobia but none of the rest of them can take over from him. Dukat sends a private message to Sisko. Dukat offers him a chance to save the Federation by joining the Dominion. "Dukat, if you have something to say to me THEN SAY IT"(~!) Sisko invites him to try to take the station back. Worf is still winning his fights but he's in bad shape. Garak gets back in the wall and Martok and Worf praise him for facing his fears. Fake Bashir tells O'Brien that he's ordered new darts. Quark is worried about losing business when the Dominion take over as the Jem'Hadar don't eat, drink or have sex. The Jem'Hadar leader is Worf's next opponent. The Jem'Hadar begin to search for Garak is he's to be put to death and find Julian's secret tool. Fake Bashir steals a runabout as the station prepares to engage the Dominion fleet which is heading their way. Some friendly Romulans show up and join the Federation and Klingon fleet. Worf gets his ridged butt kicked by the Jem'Hadar leader but won't stop fighting. The Jem'Hadar find Garak's hideout but a Breen prisoner saves the day ("Never turn our back on a Breen" the Romulan prisoner says to Bashir. It's great.) Worf won't yield and the Vorta orders the Jem'Hadar to kill him. The Jem'Hadar yields instead and the Vorta doesn't understand why. Garak manages to beam the prisoners up to the runabout right before Worf is to be shot and they get away from the asteroid with no trouble (so the Dominion just left the runabout there and operational and didn't have any way of stopping it?) The Dominion flet that was heading for the station doesn't arrive, the sensor readings were false. The real Bashir sends a message to the station and Sisko orders the Defiant to destroy the fake Bashir's runabout. Fake Bashir is attempting to blow up the Bajoran son and destroy the station, the fleet and Bajor all at once. Kira takes the Defiant to warp "inside the solar system" (this used to be a thing that was risky) and destroys the runabout. Garak returns to Ziyal as promised. O'Brien admits to Bashir that the changeling Bashir was a lot easier to get along with. Sisko has Gowron appoint Martok as the commander of the permanent Klingon presence on the station. Dukat sends Sisko another message and Sisko points out that Ziyal would have died if the changeling had succeeded. But at least Dukat has a statue now!

So yeah it's not QUITE as good as part one just becausse that whole thing about the runabout still orbiting the asteroid is pretty stupid. And come to think of it it's really covenient that the real Bashir escapes to send a message just seconds before the fake Bashir is about to blow up the sun. Otherwise though this is another great episode, making this one of the strongest two parters in Star Trek history!

SCORE: 10/10

So how about the fact that the Bashir who did brain surgery on Sisko, delivered Kira's baby and tended to the dying changeling (who then gave Odo his shifting powers back) was a changeling all along? It's a shame that they didn't decide that until this episode and Alexander Sidding couldn't play him any differently. Imagine if we'd known there was something wrong with Bashir while Kira was giving birth? The drama! Would have been a lot more entertaining than the stupid pregnancy cliches we got. This shows how tv is actually better today because something like this would have been planned long in advance. Anyway, it's a good twist within this two-parter.
 
Given how overtly evil he played evil Bashir it wouldn't have been much of a surprise reveal, when this way its pretty much the biggest shock in star trek, if you don't count the romulans looking like vulcans in balance of terror.
 
They could have at least made us think Julian is dying or gay or something then revealed "actually he was a changeling!"
 
I loved these episodes! This is the beginning of some of the best Klingon stuff, too. Martok is a great Klingon.
 
Whisky took the words out of my mouth. As much as it would’ve heightened the drama (and just made more sense) to hint that there was something up with Bashir earlier on, Alexander Siddig’s evil smirks were eye rollingly bad. He’s only really any good when he’s giving dry medical explanations.

Anyway, agreed that these are some of the best episodes.
 
It's a similar thing to dog day afternoon, where Al Pacino plays a character comletely straight until half way through the film when it's revealed he is gay, and after that for the rest of the film he is flaming.

Although in that case it was an acting choice.

Maybe it was with Sidig? Usually with TV shows they see memorising two scripts in advance while filming one.

It's hard to believe he would only know that story plot in the week of filming.
 
I’ve been reading the behind the scenes details on Memory Alpha for each episode and some of them were really close calls. The script for Prodigal Daughter (where Ezri goes home and helps find out what hell O’brien’s been going through) had been about Sisko travelling into the future and meeting himself, until about two weeks before filming started.
 
Doctor Bashir, I Presume - Rom wants to ask Leeta out but he's bad at it. Quark suggests Rom needs a girl with brains. Doctor Zimmerman (Robert Picardo) arrives in the station with an offer for Doctor Bashir. He explains the Emergency Medical Hologram to Sisko (and any viewers who don't watch Voyager) and reveals the new Long Term Medical Hologram is to use Bashir as a template. Bashir doesn't seem thrilled about it. Julian has to answer lots of questions and O'Brien is amused at the idea of a holographic doctor having Julian's personality. Zimmerman stares at Leeta's cleavage from the upper level of Quark's. Bashir asks that Zimmerman not speak to his parents, but Zimmerman makes a note to speak to them as soon as possible. Bashir isn't impressed by the first version of his hologram as it still has the EMH's personality. Zimmerman interviews Bashir's friends (including Morn) and asks Leeta out for dinner. Stalker Rom listens in on their date with his super ears. Rom tries to ask her out and she's disappointed when he fails again. Bashir's parents arrive on the station and he doesn't seem pleased to see them. O'Brien amuses himself by making the holographic Bashir walk into walls (this is funny.) Zimmerman offers Leeta her own cafe on his station. She's naked during this for some reason.Bashir has dinner with his parents and their terrible accents. He tells them not to reveal "OUR LITTLE SECRET" when Zimmerman interviews them.

Leeta asks Rom if she should take the job and he continues to make stupid noises. Come back Bashir's parents, your accents are forgiven! Bashir's parents speak in a really unnatural manner to Julian about the fact that he's genetically engineered (ike they speak in a tv exposition way rather than the way real people would talk) unaware that they're actually talking to the Bashir hologram. And Zimmer and O'Brien are listening in. Bashir is angry at O'Brien at first but really he's upset that his secret is out. He'll be kicked out of Starfleet as genetic engineering is illegal. He explains that he was a slow child. When he was seven his parents had him illegally genetically enhanced to make him better at everything. O'Brien thinks Starfleet might be more understanding than Bashir thinks but Julian wants to resign because he thinks his career's over. Quark and Rom talk about how Nog's wife swindled Rom out of all his money. Quark suggests he wank himself silly in Vulcan Love Slave 2: The Revenge and forget about Leeta. Bashir's dad wants to come up with some kind of plan to get away with their law-breaking. Julians accuses his parents of being ashamed of him and that's why they got him enhanced. His mother says they did it because they felt guilty for how he was struggling and did it out of love. Bashir goes to Sisko's office to resign and finds that his parents are already there and have told him everything. There's a hologram of an Admiral there (yep the holo communicator returns!) and he's agreed to let Bashir's dad go to prison for two years in exchange for Julian being allowed to stay in Starfleet. Julian's mother doesn't have to go to prison too for some reason. The Admiral talks about the Eugenics Wars being "two hundred years ago" WHICH IS RIDICULOUS. Julian sees his parents off at the airlock and they're friendlier now. Rom comes running after Leeta and Zimmerman (who's going to be the LMH now? Ah, who cares) making a stupid noise and tells Leeta to stay because he loves her. She says she loves him too. It's terrible. Zimmerman runs off after the first hot alien girl he sees. O'Brien realises that Julian has been letting him win at darts for years.

It's the big shock reveal episode that changes the nature of Bashir's character and how we've thought about him all these years...and it's pretty bad? It's a much more egregious example of how not planning ahead hurts a show than the whole changeling Bashir thing. We've had a whole (terrible) episode set inside Bashir's head back in season three and the genetic engineering didn't come up there. It was obviously invented just for this episode and it feels pretty awkward. Alexander Siddig hated the development (I read in an interview he did) and you can see it in his performance here. His parents are really annoying too: his dad has a horrible Dick Van Dyke in Marry Poppins accent and his mother just kind of stands around being all meek and submissive to him most of the time, which strikes me as quite stereotypical. Then there's the woeful b-story about Rom, Leeta and Zimmerman where Robert Picardo is the only good actor involved (and he disappears halfway through.) I don't give a fuck about Rom and Leeta. There are some good things here: O'Brien has some great comedy moments and the discussion on genetic engineering is pretty interesting. Robert Picardo is always good even if he's stuck with the two worst characters. But this isn't a good episode overall.

SCORE: 5/10
 
The guy who plays Bashir’s dad did live in London for a while as a child before moving to Canada, so that weird accent might be his natural speaking voice.

The only credit you can give to the writers is that they did at least reference the genetic enhancements repeatedly in future episodes (including two forgettable episodes featuring more people like Bashir).
 
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