#also the B plot with Nog and Miles was really funny

[cardassianapplebees]

Watched "Treachery, Faith, and the Great River"

Weyoun 6 fanclub I am running at the clubhouse door at full speed

[thegeminisage]

now it's time for a proper star trek update. i am sooo behind. monday we did voy's "the q and the grey," made it about 11 minutes in before quitting and switching to ds9's "the ascent" and then did ds9's "rapture," and then later that evening i finished "the q and the grey" on my OWN, then on tuesday we did voy's "marcocosm" and "fair trade" which means we accidentally went a little out of order (we were supposed to hit another ds9 ep first).

the q and the grey (voy):

as mentioned above, we got. 11 minutes. into this episode. rough!

there's normally very little sexism on this show which is like. despite this show's tone being similar to tng's, a better cast and less sexism put it MILES ahead of tng in my opinion. but for some reason you put q in a room with janeway and WOW. the harassment, the casual "kathy," the belittlement...like, it was kind of funny in CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES when it was picard but it looks sooo different when he is doing this to a woman. like, he wasn't trying to have picard's baby, was he

not to mention he's always a little racist to chakotay, which is even more unfunny than him being fantasy racist to worf. him stealing the tattoo wasn't like. funny or quirky. jesus

also. CIVIL WAR COSTUMES? REALLY? REALLY??? they cast q's side as the yanks but like...he's rebelling against the government, so............

anyway, this episode had two redeeming moments for me. first was when chakotay was jealous i did holler. second was when janeway decided to "watch" the two qs procreate and then it was just a little zap, which i did think was really funny. other than that, it was ALL bad. i checked and we have one q episode left and then thank god i don't see his ass again until lower decks

the ascent (ds9):

THE MOST EP EVER. i'm normally "eh" on quark/odo but i really enjoyed this episode mostly because even when they were trying to survive they could NOT stop arguing

also, it did wonders for quark, like...he's the reason odo's leg got broken and he made it to the top and saved him. furthermore, he hates root beer, but bought some for nog. i love when quark has little hints of having a soul. like when he sold food at cost for bajorans. we don't need much, just more than we got in season 3

also, rom was in this ep :')

going from like the existential mountain climb back to the silly little odd couple b plot was INSANE whiplash, by the way

i do love how much of an artist jake is. he wants to wake up at 1pm have junk for breakfast and spend all day working on his fanfic while cleaning never. maybe he wanted to move out so sisko wouldn't nag him to clean so much

ALSO, AWW, JAKE MOVING OUT...my best friend sisko was so emotional. please. i love him so much

i did also like that the solution to the odd couple problem in both the instances of jake and nog and odo and quark was to simply invent a bigger problem. for odo and quark it's the mountain but for jake and nog it's not being roomies anymore. they were so happy when sisko forced them to get back together they instantly forgave each other's flaws which is heartwarming but also extremely fucking funny

rapture (ds9):

the title, i know, i know, i KNOW. i almost typed "THE rapture" like twice, nobody say anything, fuck

did not love this episode BUT i made it through the entire thing without calling kai wynn a bitch

i actually liked the depth they gave her in this ep, though it's not enough to make the character fun for me. she just takes such relish in being cruel for the sake of her faith, i can't stand it

kira also wearing blinders this episode :/ it's not that i don't think she should have a faith but i wish it didn't make her stupid. like, oh let's let sisko die from his visions! let's be an artist instead of a soldier! because some guy said to! come on

poor kassidy having just got out of prison and now she gets back to sisko being like. totally fucking crazy. i do like that she and jake have bonded though. i hope she makes him a great stepmother someday

i feel like this plot is gonna come back later...? i've read Some Things about sisko. i will say i'm curious to see where it goes. at the same time, i can't believe he chose his visions over JAKE when we all saw how jake was in the visitor and i'm kind of mad he didn't so much as apologize for putting jake in that position. it doesn't really feel like he ever came back to his "right mind." i hope he's not like that for the rest of the series lol

macrocosm (voy):

JANEWAY HOT!!!!!!!!!! this is so rough for me because i've never found her like stupid attractive before but wow the laura croft look really did it for me. i wish chakotay could have seen it 🫡

sorry i know there are other things to say about this episode. ummm it's much funnier post covid. the giant viruses. i wish they hadn't made them so buglike though

very fun that the doctor had gone full apocalypse mode. it makes absolutely NO sense how he was able to infect everyone if he wasn't real though...that's the whole reason they sent him down

the prosthetics in this were very cool. the cgi effects were very silly

fair trade (voy):

SSSSSSIGH

the conceit of this episode was so fucking stupid. like, what about any of them makes neelix think they're gonna toss him out for being useless. kes is also useless, they don't NEED a nurse, but they're not throwing her out. a single conversation could have solved all of this

i thought that guy wix looked so familiar i was struggling to remember what he did in voyager, but no, i made that up.

on the other hand, i did like seeing vorik again! i remembered him from tng because of how fucking good his spock mannerisms were. like, not his name or anything he actually DID on tng, just how good he was at being a vulcan. i hope he comes back trek DESPERATELY needs more vulcans. maybe he and tuvok hang out and find peace in nobody pestering them about having emotions lol

anyway, i do love that janeway gave him hell at the end for it though. like that time she lectured b'elanna and tuvok and they wanted to die. AND she did it to chakotay once too. one thing she will do is shame somebody for being fucking stupid <3 may everyone on the cast get one before the series is over

TONIGHT: voy's "ater ego" and ds9's "the darkness and the light"

[isthereintruthnobeauty1968]

going to bed with just the finale left in season two and feel like drawing up a rough list of favorite episodes from the first two seasons:

for season one:

both the emissary pilot duo. it's a strong introduction and the deal with the prophets and time/grief is compelling

past prologue. strong follow-up! several layers of intrigue! good kira episode! garak is there!

dax. hesitated on including this one bc the pacing kinda kills it for some stretches but i get excited whenever the stories actually Do anything with jadzia 😑 compelling introduction to her & sisko's relationship

the nagus. really only here for the b plot. i like seeing jake and nog :)

vortex. it's paced well and seeing odo compromise after insisting it's not something he does for half an hour is satisfying lol

dramatis personae. REALLY GOOD ENSEMBLE EPISODE! loooove how the plot device gas plays on existing tensions even though their motives don't suit them. love seeing sisko ignore everything to work on a clock. also kira hot

duet. really strong performances for kira and marritza and it left me thinking about it for a good while

season two:

invasive procedures. again, a yay they're doing something with jadzia! one. has some strong moments for julian and quark and LOTS for sisko too. i liked it when he shot the bastard

cardassians. another one that left me thinking about it for a while. feel horrible for rugal and that diplomacy/preserving a treaty forced him away from a family that loved him. still thinking about miles saying something nasty about rugal WHILE HE WAS IN THE ROOM and keiko calling him out on it like holy shit.

necessary evil. solid crime drama! i enjoyed the elaboration/complication of kira and odo's relationship and am madly curious how they followed up/resolved it. funny how Was odo complicit with the occupation is even brought up as a point of question though like. Yes. his justification of it as being better than an alternative/just regular cardassian force has some logic but there's no denying that he was!

rivals. again only here for the jake & nog b plot! this one was really funny

whispers. solidly written thriller that i think would work even if you don't know the series at all! i did NOT guess the twist

profit and loss. i continue to like the 'cardassian dissidents' ones. the two quark & garak scenes are both REALLY good

the maquis. good sisko episodes even if there are some parts (mostly like. ideological implications/framing of colonization/presentation/lack thereof of real history while presenting a fictional future-history that are aspects of star trek in general and ive talked about on main wrt tos) that i take issue with. liked seeing him play across dukat for so long clearly barely tolerating his presence & blow up at kira after being level with various bureaucrats for hours and she's like :)

the wire. my god! i don't think i have anything to say that hasn't already been said abt this. it's good drama and good tv and REALLY good performance

crossover. curious abt what bajor is like in the MU and v interested in everyone's counterparts

[zenosanalytic]

DS9: Tribunal to Prophet Motive

Overall S2 wasn’t really that much better than S1, though it did have a handful of eps that were genuinely “good” television. S3’s also spotty but slightly better. One S3 trend I don’t like is the SUPER heavy-handed selling of Kira/Odo from basically the first ep on, and how it comes entirely out of nowhere. Also, Keiko is royally and consistently shafted and ignored, which is frustrating as hell. They FINALLY give her something to do, and not only is it presented as a “gift��� from her husband(which, Ick! Like she’s not following the going’s on in her own damn profession???), they use it to effectively write her off the show! Ridiculous >:(

Tribunal: Bad. What’s the point of doing a courtroom ep that isn’t a courtroom ep? Sure, I can understand the theoretical appeal of the irony of a trial episode about a show trial, but you really need to embrace the absurdity of the concept for it to work and they didn’t. Also, the Cardassians are one-note(like all the non-human species in ST), and their one-note is “Order”, so Cardassian law, even if entirely show-trials in practice, really ought to be procedurally meticulous. An ep about Odo, skilled in these procedures from his time as a Cardassian security chief, out bureaucrating a culture of military bureaucrats to stall for time while the DS9 crew finds dirt to blackmail the Cardassians with would have been great and probably darkly funny; this was just dull. Also, there’s no way the Fed would stand for a Starfleet officer being snatched out of a Fed shuttle in Fed space like that, smuggling weapons or no, or believe for one second the Cardassian claim weapons were on the shuttle in the first place, given their past experiences. This would have caused a major diplomatic incident, and the Fed embassy corps on Cardassia Prime would have been all over O’Brien like ants on a summer picnic.

The Jem’Hadar: Fun and Good. Trying to do something simple and succeeds. Quark’s rant to Sisko about Ferengi history is obvsl convenient writing rather than fact -in TNG they’re aggressive, needlessly violent cruel pirates who, I’m pretty sure, are explicitly slavers as well- but it SHOULD be right. They’d be more interesting as a culture built around a capitalism that never saw any profit in compulsion. Historically, while slavery pre-dated capitalism in Earthican societies, slavery as we think about it -dehumanization, brutality, murderous forced labor- has nigh-universally been associated with capitalism, and quite frequently with commerce(Greek, Roman, and American slavery were all basically built around ag production for commercial markets[though slave-artisans based in cities was a significant part of the Greek and Roman systems as well]). That internal contradiction, attached to a larger ethical distaste for direct, personal violence(and valorization of tattling that’d go along with the instinctive distress-cry DS9 gives to Ferengi), while still being the profit-driven thieves and schemers they are, would have been Compelling.

The Search is… OK. I mean, as television it’s fine. The plot doesn’t make any damn sense though. The Dominion makes it clear they don’t want the Fed entering their territory and the Fed’s response is… to infiltrate deep into their territory to find the Homeworld of their leaders and confront them with the only warship in the Fed fleet? This move is basically designed to start a war. Also, they seem to forget that they’ve had Odo come to the Gamma Quadrant before, so his whole “I feel drawn to this nebula” deal seems out of left-field. Also Also, they should have used The Defiant to add the Romulan liaison as a regular cast member, instead of bringing on Eddington and doing nothing with him. Having Sisko, who has had an excellent relationship with Odo until now, suddenly giving this speech about how he doesn’t like that Odo isn’t “a team player” is pretty ridiculous as well(and out of character. Sisko’s not a team player. His WHOLE CREW is made up of square pegs just like himself). Also Also Also, a Romulan security officer who spends a season or two building up relationships with the maincast, sashaying around being arrogant and cynical in Romulan kimonos during her off-time, gradually developing Maquis sympathies, becomes Sisko’s evil!Valjean and remains so until nearly the end of the series would have been a genuinely surprising character-arc requiring consistently good writing to sell, and kind of explain why, in later eps, the Romulans wouldn’t require one of their own to protect and operate the cloak. Or hey! Maybe her becoming a Maquis could begin as a plot to foment rebellion in the Fed, that’d be neat.

Equilibrium: Meh

Second Skin: Good in some parts, but that the journals would be what starts cracking Kira up isn’t believable and it just isn’t mindfucky enough. Also, Kira’s warmth towards her fake dad at the end of the ep didn’t feel earned. Maybe if they’d had her bond with him over having lost family in the Occupation.

The Abandoned: pretty offensively essentialist, really. Especially given the plotline later in the series(iirc) about a Jem’Hadar trying to break his people’s addiction to ketracel-White, which kinda undermines this eps whole “the Jem’Hadar have no will of their own and are genetically programmed soldiers that it’s useless to reason with” line.

Civil Defense: good. It remains unbelievable to me, though, that Starfleet wouldn’t have done a complete refit of the whole station the minute the Cardassians left, especially given the Star Trek obsession with hard-wired, analog computing.

Meridian: a noxious pile of garbage all round. The subplot is skeezy, but at least it’s in-character, well-written, and believable which the main plot certainly is not. I kinda wish that, if they were going to include such a scummy sub-plot in the ep, they’d at least made it a bit interesting by subverting expectations. At the end, have Tiron be at first taken aback, and then surprisingly pleased with Kira’s modifications to the program. He walks out, “deeply satisfied” with the program and pays 20% extra for it, compliments Quark on his “creativity” as a holodesigner with a slightly amorous look, Quark is clueless and confused yet pleased, Kira and Odo are absolutely mortified. Then maybe leave it around as a Chekov’s Gun; Quark makes a secret copy(of course), offering it to only his best customers, it leads to a small but noticeable increase in custom, then someday in a later season he checks it out and is Horrified to find he’s unknowingly made himself one of the most popular porn-performers in the sector :|

Defiant: fine as it is, except there should have been a bit about HOW the Maquis found out about the Defiant and knew about its cloak. This would be a good time to introduce the long-arc of the Romulan officer’s Maquis sympathies/attempts to use her position on DS9 to co-opt the Maquis and undermine the Federation.

Fascination: dumb and really Skeezy, Ferrell’s is the only entertaining performance in the ep, but, again, the smooch-directing of this series is uncommonly good. Also: Miles is not just a bad dad, but also a bad husband. Also Also: Bajor’s only 3 hours away in a runabout or shuttle for Frak’s sake? You can’t be bothered to go visit her?? People in Texas regularly make three hour drives every DAY.

Past Tense: One of my favorite eps of the series; heavily Nostalgic for me. Having now read To Say Nothing of the Dog, however, I do wish ST writers treated Time and Causality as more robust and stubborn than they tend to.

Life Support: The inevitable killing off of a past love-interest to free Kira up for Kirdo. Bareil was bland and boring anyway, even if his performances in S3 were much improved. Why the heck is the Kai negotiating treaties??? That the Kai and Vedeks plays a direct, institutional role in Bajoran politics needed to be established before jumping into a plotline about the Kai negotiating a secret peace pact with Cardassia. The subplot with Jake and Nog, which reduces the question of female personhood to a “cultural issue” in the context of Nog’s misogyny ruining Jake’s chances with a girl who never appears again(iirc), is repulsive in about a half-dozen ways.

Heart of Stone: Ho-hum. The Nog in Starfleet storyline is good, but they should have built up to it in previous eps. Wesley spends pretty much all his time before acceptance doing science experiments and apprenticing in various departments on Enterprise to build up his resume just to qualify to take the exams; having Nog accomplish the same task with a letter of rec is kinda |:T Also: wouldn’t Sisko have pointed out that, in the Fed and Starfleet, Nog’s “gift” would be interpreted as an attempted bribe and get him immediately arrested? Seems like an important cultural rule to point out to a Ferengi |:T |:T

Destiny: Good. Ulani and Gilora are obviously lesbians and I won’t hear another word on the matter u_u

Prophet Motive: Fun and Good, though the “evolved” talk re: social constructs and cultural modes was annoying.

Why are S3′s subplots so much better done than it’s main ones? I imagine the discipline of having limited time to complete them in has something to do with it. Some other observations:

A-plot B-plot structure is entirely standard in S2 and S3, probably because it’s an obvious way to include such a large cast, but then all the plots revolve around the same handful of characters, so the opportunity is wasted.

It’d have been nice if every species was given the same variety of clothing the Ferengi get to have. Having Caradassians wear mil uniforms IN THEIR OWN HOMES, and when they are scientists, is absurd.

DS9 continues the Trek tradition of having a real nebulous and unexplained relationship with money.

DS9 really needed more women writers and head-writers on staff. Why are male writers so bad at this???

I really need to get in the habit of taking notes while I watch so I can give more detailed reactions later -__-