Posted in tv reviews, Star Trek, Rewatch, Television shows

The Rewatch 229: In the Hands of the Prophets

Posted on by sokorra

Series: Star Trek: DS9
Episode: 1.20 In the Hands of the Prophets (Season 1 Finale; June 21, 1993)
Rating: 5/5
Redshirt Status: 1/3.5

Content/Trigger Warning: Religious violence.

Notable Guest Stars:
Louise Fletcher ( Vedek Winn Adami) – Louise Fletcher plays the rule of Winn for several seasons on this show, and is one of the most rememberable side characters on the show. She is also known for playing the role of Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (A movie I dislike, but she did an awesome job) for which she won an award for Best Actress in 1975. Her last role was on the Netflix series Girlboss (which means I need to watch it now). She died late last year at 88 years old.

Philip Anglim (Vedek Bareil Antos) – Anglim is known more for his theater work then his work in television, but he will be a reoccuring actor on this series, playing Bareil. He is also known (television wise) for playing the son of Richard Chamberlain and Rachel Ward in The Thorn Birds

Robin Christopher (Neela) – This is Christopher’s second (and last episode) as Neela.

Rosalind Chao (Keiko O’Brien) – While I usually don’t mention reoccurring characters much, I feel I should bring up Rosalind again. She does such an excellent job in this episode. Some other roles she is known for include Soon-Lee Klinger in M*A*S*H. She is Rose Hsu Jordan in the Joy Luck Club which I have yet to see but seems to be quite popular. More recently she appeared in the 2020 Mulan as Hua Li


Review:

In the Hands of the Prophet is a bit too relatable. It could have been a ripped from the headlines episode. A small (but Vocal) group of radical religious people have decided to commit violence to either get rid of the opposition or to remove what they see as “Unholy”.

Read more: The Rewatch 229: In the Hands of the Prophets

As we know, the Bajoran religion is very much a part of their social and political structure. They have a provisional government but a great amount of power lies in the hand of the Kai, the head of their church. Kai Opaka “died” a few episodes ago, so Bajor is left without a leader, and so the next tier of their religion -the Vedeks – are vying for the position.

One of these Vedeks is Vedek Winn, a woman who belongs to a more conservative and strict order then others. Her main competition is Vedek Boreil, who has been found to be much more charismatic and frankly kinder then she is. So she concocts a plan to get Boreil out of the way.

Onboard DS9 is a school. Keiko O’Brien has become a school teacher and for the most part is loved by her students and their parents. However Winn is not quite a fan. You see, Winn wants schooling that fits the religion of the Bajorans, rather then the science-based and “Leave the religion to the parents” type schooling. She starts convincing Bajoran parents to take their children out of the school if Keiko doesn’t start teaching Bajoran beliefs.

Remind you of current events?

It causes problems in the station as Bajorans are starting to believe, as is Winn’s intent, that the Federation doesn’t respect anyone’s beliefs. This is made worse by the fact that a member of O’Brien’s team has been killed and it seems it might be related to the issues. Then the school is bombed. Thankfully no one is at school as Keiko had dismissed them early that day.

Needless to say everyone is quite concerned. Winn pretends to offer sympathy then claims perhaps it was a result of their blasphemy against the prophets.

Vedek Bareil then comes to visit the station, deciding that staying neutral is no longer an option. He manages to gather the Bajorans and with kind words and good leadership, he tries to heal the wounds from what has happened.

But then Neela shoots at him. And this causes havoc. Everyone is convinced that she was working for Winn, which we know from earlier scenes, but those in the universe didn’t see that conversation. Winn gets to go free despite planning the assassination of her coworker, the bombing of a school and basically causing havoc wherever she goes.

Given our current events this episode was harder to watch because I could see the similarities to reading on the news people restricting books, and changing laws to better fit their religious views vs. the neutral space school was. In Florida, the governor has made it basically so if the school doesn’t fit his agenda he can revoke their ability to be a school.

But back to Star Trek based analysis. This is a good Kira episode. Kira has a lot to think about after this episode. She’s not as conservative as Winn by any means but she has a high respect for her as a member of her clergy. After the events of this episode she is forced to reexamine her beliefs and how much power she puts in those who lead her religion in how she believes.

Its also a good Keiko episode. The nice thing about DS9 is that both Keiko and Miles are fleshed out, having been only minor reoccurring characters on TNG.

Interesting notes:

  • Written by Robert Hewitt Wolf
  • Directed David Livingston
  • Some of the outdoor scenes were filmed at Fern Dell, which had also been a location for TNG’s Encounter at Farpoint
  • Originally the plan was for Anara, a character in the episode The Foresaken to be the assasin, but that fell threw, causing them to create Neela. Some elements of the original plan remain in the script.

Pros:

  • Winn is an iconic character for the series, so its good to see her arrive, though in general I would dislike her in real life.
  • This is an excellent episode for Kira Nerys.
  • This episode explores more of the Bajoran culture, in particular their religion.

Cons:

  • Too similar to current events where people are attempting to control schools to promote their religious or intolerant agenda.
Posted in Rewatch, Star Trek, Television shows, tv reviews

The Rewatch 228: Timescape

Posted on by sokorra

Series: Star Trek: TNG
Episode: 6.25 (June 14, 1993)
Rating: 4/5
Redshirt Status: 0/20/54

Notable Guest Stars:

Patricia Tallman (Romulan) – Patricia is a background actor and stuntswoman, and worked on 3 of the 90s trek shows. She also was Laura Dern’s stunt double for Jurassic Park.

Review:

So we have another time travel episode from Brannon Braga. This time Troi, Data, Geordi and Picard are returning to the Enterprise from a conference when they stumble upon fractured time. The Enterprise and a Romulan ship turn out to be in the middle of it all, and the four left out have to investigate.

Read more: The Rewatch 228: Timescape

I enjoyed this epiosde, overall. However, its not their strongest. Its not an episode I would put in a “Top Ten Must See Episodes” list. At the same time it is not bad by any means. Its just…good.

I do appreciate a few things that the episode presents. In particular Troi is shown to be less a pretty face and trouble monitor for Picard. She is relied upon for knowledge of the Romulan people and their ships. None of the characters are shown as more or less useful then the others.

Its also nice to have a Romulan episode where they are not the bad guys.

Interesting notes:

  • Written by Brannon Braga based on a pitch by Mark Gehred-O’Connell
  • Directed Adam Nimoy (son of Leonard Nimoy)
  • Braga put a few injokes into the script, using the names of an old girlfriend and a teacher as speakers at the conference.

Pros:

  • Good use of characters. You don’t often see Troi involved with action sequences. She’s usually in the more dramatic scenes due to her character’s occupation.

Cons

  • There was some elements of “How did that even work?” in the episode.
Posted in tv reviews, Star Trek, Television shows

The Rewatch 227: Duet

Posted on by sokorra

Series: Star Trek: DS9
Episode: 1.19 Duet (May 31, 1993)
Rating: 4/5
Redshirt Status: 0.5/2.5 (Honorable Mention Death)

Content/Trigger Warning: Discussions about Genocide (in particular the Holocaust). Also I pretty much spoil the episode if you were hoping to watch and get surprised by where it goes.

Notable Guest Stars:
Harris Yulin (Marritza) – Yulin is a popular character actor and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in 1996 for his role as Jerome Belasco on Frasier.

Marc Alaimo (Gul Dukat)- Marc Alaimo hasn’t been around for a few episodes, so I’ll remind you: He’s a regular actor on Star Trek, although he only in DS9 has a regular character (Gul Dukot). He’ll appear many more times as the character.

Ted Sorel (Kaval)– Sorel was an actor who tried a bit of everything, leaving behind a body of work that included film, television and stagework. He died in 2010.

Robin Chistopher (Neela)- Probably best known for her work on ABC soap operas (as Skye Chandler), she appears a few times as “Neela”, a Bajoran officer on the station.


Review:

This an excellent episode, both as a encapsulated story, and for Kira’s development. The actors all do supremely well. Given the nature of the topic of the episode I’ve chosen to write this above the “read more” and leave the actual discussion below it.

Read more: The Rewatch 227: Duet

At the start of the episode, a transport arrives with an ill patient. This patient has Kalla-Nohra Syndrome, an disease that occurs to those who were present at a mining accident at the Cardassian labor camp Gallitep. Gallitep, as you learn in the episode, was a place where many Bajorans were tortured, killed and put into horrible work conditions. Kira can’t even talk about it without getting angry.

She was part of the resistance team that was able to liberate the camp, so she feels a connection to those who were kept there. She goes to greet this newcomer, believing it was a Bajoran POW, only to find a Cardassan sitting on the medbed.

The Cardassian’s name is Aamin Marritza, and Kira believes that he must have been guilty of war crimes if he contracted the disease. We find out he was stationed at the war camp as a file clerk.

Sisko and Odo decide to investigate, not as sure as Kira that this man was a war criminal. Through interviews and research they find out various tidbits about the man they hold in the security cell.

Marritza has changed his appearance to appear like Gul Darhe’el, the Gul in charge of the camp. He pretends to be him, even giving invigorated speeches on his hate crimes. Kira is convinced that he is in fact Gul Darhe’el.

Odo is not convinced. He does more research, even talking to our favorite quasi-villian Gul Dukot, who tells Odo that there are several reasons why this can’t possibly be Gul Darhe’el. The biggest of which is the man himself died six years ago.

Kira manages to convince Marritza to come clean about the deception, finding herself to having compassion towards the man who is trying to find a way to both pay for not putting an end to the atrocities, as well as make Cardassa realize their sins. However, Kira letting him go makes little difference as a Bajoran on the station kills Marritza in the last moments of the episode with the key set of lines:

Kira: Why? He wasn’t Darhe’el! Why?
Kainon: He’s a Cardassian. That’s reason enough.
Kira: No…it’s not

This episode appears (purposefully so) to be a metaphor for the Holocaust and the soldiers involved. According to references on Memory Alpha, this was based off both real events and older works done on the subject. Genocide is a hard topic to discuss. I know in high school we often would take a yearly lesson on an element on the Holocaust, but never really talked about the bulk of it. I’m still learning aspects to WW2 and the Holocaust today. In fact, not too long before I watched this episode I was watching a documentary about the Ahnenerbe, a section of the SS I had never heard of before. It started off sounding like an episode of Captain America from The Red Skull’s side, but ultimately ended with cruelty, and inhumanity by the leadership.

Science Fiction has often been used as a way to discussing hard subjects indirectly. This episode does a good job at not coming off as a lecture, as some episodes (and yes, Star Trek is guilty of this) can. The actors do such an excellant job. You can believe Marritza (as Gul Darhe’el)’s conviction that he was doing something great, and you could believe that absolute horror that Kira felt hearing it. In fact you might even feel a bit of horror hearing it.

But sadly while there were people who dragged into things they didn’t believe in but had little power to stop, there were also people who believed wholeheartedly that committing these atrocities were absolutely the way to go. People like Heinrich Himmler (in real life) and Gul Darhe’el (in Star Trek’s universe).

The Holocaust is probably the genocide that the general public is most aware of. It is horrifying that there are more out there less recognized.

Interesting notes:

  • Written by Peter Allan Fields with story inspiration by Lisa Rich and Jeane Carrigan-Fauci
  • Directed James L. Conway
  • This episode was partially inspired by real life events, in particular the Nuremberg trails after WW2. Memory Alpha pointed out the story of Adolf Eichmann, who escaped at first but was later caught and tried in Israel on war crimes. He was convicted and executed in 1962. His story is more like that of Dar’heel then Maritzza.
  • They wanted to establish the metaphor of the Cardassian occupation for Imperialism shown by the British, Japanese and Germans. (and I’m just going to add the US to that list because…yeah, we did some messed up stuff too, my friends).

Pros:

  • This episode manages to bring up a difficult subject, without sounding like a lecture which, even I have to admit, sometimes Star Trek does.
  • This is an excellent episode for Kira Nerys.

Cons:

That genocides exist. I wish this was just something that happened in fictional worlds and not in real life.

Posted in Rewatch, Star Trek, Television shows, tv reviews

The Rewatch 226: Dramatis Personae

Posted on by sokorra

Series: Star Trek: DS9
Episode: 1.18 Dramatis Personae (May 31, 1993)
Rating: 3/5
Redshirt Status: 0/2

Notable Guest Stars:

Tom Towles (Hon’Tihl) – Tom Towles was a popular character actor, and he worked on both DS9, Voyager and Firefly.

Randy Pflug( Guard) – Pflug, who goes by Randy James, is a continuing background actor on Star Trek. He also worked as a stand-in for several actors including Colm Meaney.

Jeff Pruitt (Ensign) – like Pflug, he is a continuing background actor on Star Trek.

Review:

I’m not a big fan of civil War/Mutiny story lines because I like watching the crew act like a team. In this episode, Some outside force (Telepathic vortex?) causes everyone to act out of character – or are they? I feel in reality it makes a little character quark of each of the characters to go into overdrive and become their driving characteristic.

Read more: The Rewatch 226: Dramatis Personae

Let’s start with Sisko. In this episode he is almost preoccupied with his clock to the point he doesn’t really concern himself with what is going on with the station. Sisko loves his history and he also likes to tinker with things, building things. In this episode its like he is stuck in a hyper-focus on that clock. Of course that clock is a piece of the society the telepathic energy is trying to remind people of, so it has significance on its own. He also is unusually violent with his reactions.

Kira, likewise, has a tendency to be more militant, having just served a war for her basic survival. She usually also has compassion though, but in this episode she also has a hyperfocus – Control of station and vengeance against the Valerians. She lets this taint her view of Sisko and O’Brien.

Jadzia is the opposite, more lethargic and prone to drifting off into her memories. Julian too is not agreesive, but he does show his innate curiosity and strategic mind. Miles is super in security mode – but then again, he has the history to be extra cautious. He, like Kira, has fought in wars and also has a history of being protective of his commanding officers.

There wasn’t much follow through at the end of the episode. Julian creates a force field interrupter to help disperse the telepathic energy (Again – for someone who only dabbled in engineering he does alot of it. This is pretty much why I give the Augment storyline a ok) and everyone is back to normal. Other then an apology by Kira we really don’t see anyone’s reactions. Did Miles O’Brien have a reaction? What about the Bajoran who tried to kill Sisko? I don’t see how that wasn’t traumatizing for him.

But alas, this is a Television show and not a book, and is therefore limited by its media type. They only have 42 minutes.

Interesting notes:

  • Written by Joe Menosky
  • Directed Cliff Bole
  • The name of this episode is in latin, and translates as “The Persons of the drama” It has become a phrase used to notate the characters in a work.

Pros:

  • This episode gave some change of pace for the actors.

Cons:

  • There really isn’t any follow through. We do get Kira’s apology, but never see how the others react to their actions.
Posted in Rewatch, Star Trek, Television shows, tv reviews

The Rewatch 225: Second Chances

Posted on by sokorra

Series: Star Trek: TNG
Episode: 6.24 Second Chances (May 24,1993)
Rating: 3/5
Redshirt Status: 0/20/54 

Notable Guest Stars:

Mae Carol Jemison (Lt. Palmer) – Mae Carol Jemison is a real life astronaut, and was in fact the first black woman in space. She was also the first astronaut to guest star in Star Trek. She is awesome for so many reasons.

Jonathan Franks (Thomas Riker) – I mean…


Review:

Honestly this isn’t my favorite episode to watch. But it is an important episode because of future episode of DS9 Also Imzadi reasons.

This episode focuses on Will Riker, who finds himself a twin all of a sudden. Prior to being on the Enterprise, Riker had partispated in a mission where he was involved with a transporter accident. To his mind everything ended up okay -he made it back on the ship and continued on with his life. I’m going to refer to Riker Prime as Will. Will has grown considerably as a person and has become more comfortable with his life, his decisions and where he wants things to go. He no longer wants to advance as fast as possible, hoping to linger where he can learn. And he’s also built himself a family on Enterprise. I have my own theories about why it took Enterprise to finally make him comfortable with himself but lets stick to the episode.

Riker 2, or Thomas as he will be known, did not make it up to the ship. The transporter accident caused a duplication of Riker, with one making it back and the other spending 7-8 years living on the planet waiting for a rescue. Tom has spent this time alone and focused on his previous decisions. One of the things that kept him going was correcting his mistake with Deanna.

If you are an Imzadi fan this episode can be a pretty good one. It goes more in depth about their history, and gives us more moments where you see what is still there. And just because I didn’t really care for the episode doesn’t mean you will. In fact, many people like this episode, and its exploration of having gone in both directions from a single incident.

I think what bothers me about this episode is that Tom Riker isn’t really spoken of much afterwards. He does appear in an episode of DS9. He ends up being a way to play wiht Riker if he wasn’t molded by Picard’s sense of ethics and duty. Tom spent 8 years alone and pining for a woman who he loved but who didn’t (seemingly) love him enough to stay with him.

Which is another part of this episode that brings some interesting conversation. Tom is made to be what Will would be like if he hadn’t been on Enterprise. Except not, because Tom was stranded Alone for 8 years. That’s got to do something to your psyche. And he’s had 8 years to obsess over his break up with Deanna. So I think that for her, while it was nice reliving the glory days of their relationship, Tom wasn’t ready anymore then Will had been. He had some things to work through. I think the Will that spent 7 years on Enterprise was more ready for what she needed, to be honest. Even though it takes them another 7 years to figure that out.

Interesting notes:

  • Written by Michael A. Medlock (Story), and Rene Echevarria (Teleplay)
  • Directed LaVar Burton in his first directing role.
  • They almost killed off the original Will Riker that we had grown to love. They also almost killed off Tom Riker. I’m glad no one died.
  • Nichelle Nichols was also on set.

Pros:

  • Mae Jemison.
  • Imzadi content

Cons:

  • Transporter Clone stories always seem weird to me and uncomfortable.
Posted in Rewatch, Star Trek, Television shows, tv reviews

Rewatch 224: Forsaken

Posted on by sokorra

Series: Star Trek: DS9
Episode: 1.17 Forsaken (May 24, 1993)
Rating:4/5
Red Shirt Status: 0/2

Notable Guests:

Jack Shearer (Vadosia)- This is Shearer’s first appearance in Trek, but he would appear in several more episodes and a film. His most notable character being Admiral Hayes as seen in Voyager and First Contact.

Constance Towers (Taxco)- Towers is a Julliard Graduate, as well as the Academy of Dramatic Arts. She appeared in several of John Ford & John Wayne’s westerns in the late 1950s. She appeared on various television shows, including Soap Operas and of course Star Trek. She continues to be active with a recent role on 911: Lone Star.

Michael Ensign (Lojal) – Ensign is a character actor who has appeared in many many things, including Titanic.

Benita Andre (Anara) – Like Ensign, she is a character actor who has appeared in several well known television shows. This was her only appearance on Star Trek.

Review:

Continue reading “Rewatch 224: Forsaken” →
Posted in Star Trek, Television shows, tv reviews

The Rewatch 223: Rightful Heir

Posted on by sokorra

Series: TNG
Episode: Rightful Heir (Aired 5/17/93)
Rating: 4/5
Redshirt Rating:0/20/54

Notable Guest Stars:
Alan Oppenheimer (Koroth) – Oppenheimer is a character and voice actor who will go on to appear on several episodes of Star Trek.
Robert O’Reilly (Goron) – Gowron remains one of my favorite reoccurring characters on TNG. He is no longer actively acting.
Norman Snow (Torin) – Snow has appeared in several sci-fi series, including Quantum Leap. He’s also a Julliard graduate.
Charles Esten (Divok)– One of his more recent roles was in 2012 as Deacon Claybourne on the tv series Nashville. He has also appeared on Voyager, ER, The Mentalist and NCIS: LA.
Kevin Conway (Kahless)- Conway had a mix-media career, with credits on film, Television and Broadway. One of his bigger credits is as the Control Voice on The Outer LImits (1995), Roscoe Martin on JAG, and Jonas Stern in The Good Wife.

Review:

Continue reading “The Rewatch 223: Rightful Heir” →
Posted in Rewatch, Star Trek, Television shows, tv reviews

The Rewatch 222: If Wishes Were Horses

Posted on by sokorra

Pausing a Moment to Remember Louise Fletcher, who was a remarkable actress and DS9 would not be the same without her.

Series: Star Trek: DS9
Episode: 1.16 If Wishes Were Horses (May 17, 1993)
Rating: 3/5
Red Shirt Status: 0/2

Notable Guest Stars:
Keone Young (Buck Bokai)- Young is known for both his live-action and voice work. I can’t say I’ve seen any of his scenes in the live action credits to his name, but he did voices for Mulan II and Sofia the First.

Michael J. Anderson (Rumpelstiltskin) – Anderson has appeared on shows such as Twin Peaks and Carnivale. But as an more important factor, he was a NASA tech operator before he went into acting. Which makes the scene where Rumpelstiltskin asks to help O’Brien amusing as the actor probably could have helped.

Review:

I can’t say this is one of my favorite episodes, and to be honest it has all to do with the Alternative Dax. To be honest DS9 in general has a history (or will as we are in season 1) of turning sexual elements into the creepy realm (see: All Mirror Universe Episodes).

Continue reading “The Rewatch 222: If Wishes Were Horses” →
Posted in celebrity news, history, Women of history

In Memoriam: Elizabeth Windsor, Queen.

Posted on by sokorra

Today we learned that an era has ended and a new one has begun. Queen Elizabeth II died today in Scotland ending a 70 year reign and a life of service longer then that.

In the future I plan on giving Elizabeth her own post as a Women of History, but for now I want express my condolences to her family and to the many countries that consider her their figurehead.

As an American it’s hard to understand having a leader for that long. The closest we got was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whom she must have met when she was a young girl. He was only president for 13 years. Elizabeth has ruled long enough that most people were not old enough to remember a time when she wasn’t Queen. She was a year older then my Grandmother who died earlier this year. My parents were both born after she was Queen. With my neices and nephews that’s 3 generations during her reign.

No matter if you are a monarchist or an antimonarchist ( I know both) I’m sure this coming week will be weird adjusting to a new normal of talking about her in past tense and all the changes that take place when a new monarch is on the throne. She left a large shadow.

ELIZABETH ALEXANDRA MARY WINDSOR (Montbatten)

1926-2022

Posted in book reviews, bookit, history

Book-it Review: 22.4 Champagne:

Posted on by sokorra

Title: Champagne: How the World’s most Glamorous Wine Triumphed Over War and Hard Times.
Author: Don & Petie Kladstrup
Published: November 1, 2005
Final grade: 5/5

You are all probably surprised to see a review from me that isn’t a romance novel. Its not even a fiction novel. This is non-fiction, a walk through the history of the Champagne region. And its not only for wine drinkers, but for history lovers as well.

The couple who wrote this book, Don & Petie Kladstrup, are a pair that love the region of Champagne. They talk about their travels through out the book as it relates to the complex history of the region. They have also written several books about the history, including one about Charles Heidsieck, a man they mention briefly in this book.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It talked around the actual process of champagne instead talking about the people, the area, and the rich history that they all have. I honestly learned more about French involvement in WWI & WWII from this book then my high school history classes.

The book starts with Attila the Hun, who visited the area in 451 CE/AD and continues the tale through to the Great Depression and WWII. Some of the interesting stories include that of Dom Perignon, who despite the legend did not invent sparkling champagne. The legacies of women such as Barbe-Nicole Clicquot and Louise Pommery. How George Washington and Woodrow Wilson both effected Champagne.

One of the stories that sticks with me was the chapter covering early WWI, where Reims, the capital of Champagne, was bombarded with German missiles for over 3 years. The city was utterly destroyed. The Cathedral which had stood for hundreds of years, and had been used for the coronation of French kings (including Louis XIV, perhaps their most famous), was left in ruin. People were forced to evacuate further back from the front lines, or to seek shelter underground in the limestone caves that were transformed into the storage area for champagne. Schools were taught underground, concerts were given underground. For close to 3 years the community had to use the tunnels and caverns and hope the bombs wouldn’t disable the ground and cause cave ins.

So I highly recommend this book, not just to those who want to know more about the history of the wine, but those who want to know the stories of the people who live there.