Tag: season 2

Posted in Star Trek, Television shows, tv reviews

The Rewatch 237: Cardassians

Posted on by sokorra

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9)
Episode: 2.5 Cardassians (October 25, 199)
Rating: 4/5
Redshirt Status: 0/1/3.5

Notable Guest Stars:
Robert Mandan (Kotan Pa’Dar)- Mandan was best known for his roles on shows such as The Search for Tomorrow and Soap.  He also appeared in several well-known sitcoms as a guest star such as All in the Family, Maude, and Sanford and Son.

Terrence Evans (Proka) –  Evans appeared last season as a mute farmhand in the episode Progress.  He will later play a role on Voyager.

Vidal Peterson (Rugal) – Peterson was a child actor, and this was his last credit according to IMDB.  He appeared in 1991 in TNG, and also appeared in The Thorn Birds, which has quite a few Star Trek Alum in it.

Returning is Andrew Robinson (Elim Garak), Rosalind Chao (Keiko O’Brien) and Marc Alaimo (Gul Dukat).

Review:

Read more: The Rewatch 237: Cardassians

This episode brings up an interesting issue.  After decades of being on Bajor, Cardassia evacuated the planet, leaving behind several orphan children.  One of those children was Rugal, who was adopted and raised by a pair of Bajoran parents since he was 4 or 5 years old.

Rugal gets everyone’s attention when he bites Garak.  Which I find really odd given the age of the child.  They keep referring to him as a child, so I am assuming he is meant to be younger then the actual actor (who was 26).  I had assumed he was at least 14, possibly as old as 16.  It seems a bit old for that kind of behavior. In context clues suggest he may just be twelve but it still doesn’t seem age appropriate.  Not that I have much sympathy for Garak – he did invade Rugal’s space and touched him without permission.

Someone accuses Rugal’s adoptive father of abuse, and so Sisko has to take things into his own hands and complete an investigation.  Rugal is taken out of the care of his father and put in the care of Keiko O’Brien instead.

As it turns out, while there is a real problem with Cardassian children left behind on Bajor, Dukot and Pa’Dar aren’t really concerned. Pa’Dar mentions how important family is and to be found out as a neglectful parent is humiliation at its largest.  Dukat wants him to be humiliated as he is Rugal’s father and therefore “abandoned” him despite the fact that Pa’Dar thought him dead for years.  So this wasn’t about the “cause” for Dukot.  But Pa’Dar seems almost dismissive of returning any of the orphans other then his own son.

Rugal wants to remain with his Bajoran parents, and his wants are ignored.  Sisko returns him to his biological parent since he could find no reason Pa’Dar shouldn’t have his son back.  I’m not sure I agree but what do you think?

Interesting Notes:

  • Story by Gene Wolande & John Wolande
  • Teleplay by James Crocker
  • Directed by Cliff Bole
  • This is the first time we hear the Cardassian name for DS9: Terok Nor.  Trust me, we will hear this plenty of times in the future.

Pros

  • Exploration of Cardassian Culture
  • The nice thing about DS9 is it doesn’t shy away from showing the aftereffects of war.  How Bajor is still unstable, and just finding its feet after decades of occupation.  How there were orphans on both sides.  Although the Cardassians still come off as a horrible people in general.
  • I like the showing of Miles O’Brien working on his prejudice.  A lot of times on TV shows you have a character who has a epiphany/awaking to an issue and suddenly they loose all their bad ways.  Miles shows here that it is something you have to keep working on.  One thing I like about Post-Roddenberry Trek is that Humanity is still in need of work.  Some of the TOS and early TNG episodes are so “We are beyond this”

Cons:

  • Why is Cirroc Lofton given Regular credit status if they don’t plan on actually using him?  ( I actually had this from the last episode but the situation still remains.  Particularly for this episode as there was a perfect reason to have him around with Rugal).
  • I’m not sure this episode had a satisfactory ending. 

Screencap credited to TrekCore

Posted in Star Trek, Television shows, tv reviews

The Rewatch 235: Invasive Procedures

Posted on by sokorra

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9)
Episode: 2.4 Invasive Procedures (October 18, 1993)
Rating: 5/5
Redshirt Status: 0/1/3.5

Notable Guest Stars:
John Glover (Verad) – I love John Glover. I know him best as Lionel Luther, Lex Luther’s father from the CW series Smallville.  He does an excellent job every time I see him, and this episode is not a variation.  He is also known for being the voice of the Riddler and Max Brodsky in Twist of Fate.

Megan Gallagher (Mareel) – Gallagher has an award winning theater career, but has several television and film credits to her name.  She appears on ER, Voyager, The Mentalist, and Suits (as Meghan Markle’s mother oddly enough).

Tim Russ (T’Kar) – Tim Russ has appeared on Star Trek before, and yet we are still not at his main character for the Franchise.  He stars in Voyager as Tuvok.  Tuvok and T’Kar would probably not get along. For a recent role, he played a curator bringing old Earth artifacts onboard the Orville in, well, The Orville.

Steven Rankin (Yeto) – Steven Rankin appears on DS9 twice, once as Yeto and a second time as a Cardassian Officer. He will appear again in Voyager and Enterprise (where he plays the detestable Colonel Green). He has a credit in my favorite film Apollo 13 as Pad Rat which I’m guessing he plays one of the people on the launch pad. Other appearances include X-files, Millennium, Sliders, West Wing, JAG, Providence and more recently, Veronica Mars and Leverage.

Review:

This episode is perhaps one of my favorite of the early seasons of DS9.  Not only is it because I loved seeing John Glover on my screen outside of being Lionel, but it also has really good pacing to the story and there are so many facets to explore.

Read more: The Rewatch 235: Invasive Procedures

Unlike many episodes of Trek in the 90s, there is only an A plot for this episode.  Verad, a disgruntled unjoined Trill takes over the station during a plasma storm (therefore easy as they had only a skeleton crew) and demands to have Dax.  The Symbiote, not Jadzia.  He is accompanied by two Klingons named Yeto and T’Kar (AKA the muscle) and Mareel, a young woman who has fallen for him. The show uses vague wording, but funnily enough Wikipedia does not mince words and outright calls her a former prostitute.   It sounds like they had a space version of Pretty Woman.

In any case, she is devoted to him and what he wants is to be joined.  He figures he will gain the confidence and knowledge that was denied him by the joining committee.

This episode explores the re-imagined Trill culture, which as we have mentioned before, was reset for DS9 and takes very little from the original episode TNG’s The Host.  It does a few key things.  The main thing is it explores a little about the Trill process of symbiosis.  We find out there is a committee that reviews each applicant and decides who is suitable for symbiosis.  I keep thinking of this in relation to organ donation.  Usually there is a committee who reviews everyone on the list to see how likely it is that the person will be able to handle receiving the new organ, and then doing the necessary tasks associated with having an organ replaced.

Verad was deemed unsuitable, for reasons unknown, and is bitter about it.  Jadzia doesn’t see this as a insult, as she has family who never had symbiotes. However, she is willing to give up Dax if it means saving the rest of the crew on the station.  Also we do see a moment of just Jadzia when she wakes up after the symbiote is removed.

Another keynote to the episode is Julan Bashir character development.  He has a strong sense of ethics and refuses until both Jadzia and Sisko tell him to go through with it.  He has also seemingly lost some of his obliviousness in this episode, being more astute and coming up with a plan on the go to get Yeto distracted till he can subdue him.   While I don’t think this shows Julian to be “advanced” it does show he’s not the oblivious man he was in season one who made you wonder how he made it this far in Starfleet.

This also brings up the discussion of ethical medical treatments and can someone be forced to give up an organ (say a kidney or a lobe of their liver) to someone else if there is a need?  I personally don’t think so, as I believe body autonomy is a basic right, but what do you think?

As I mention below, the only mar on this episode is that Quark is never given any sort of consequence for the actions he takes. 

Interesting Notes:

  • Story by John Whelpley, who wrote the Teleplay with Robert Hewiit Wolfe.
  • Directed by Les Landau
  • This episode is a favorite of many of the production crew and the actors.  However Armin Shimerman is one of those who didn’t like it, and I don’t blame him.  He believes his character should have seen consequences for his actions which crossed a line.  I agree with him.  Quark often gets away with crimes he shouldn’t, but this one was caught early on and Kira even promises that he is “Done”.  I half wonder if maybe Dax decided to speak in his behalf, saying he wasn’t aware they were coming for Dax. 

Pros

  • Exploration of Trill Culture and the act of Symbosis
  • Development of characterization for Jadzia, Dax itself, Bashir and Sisko.

Cons:

  • Why is Cirroc Lofton given Regular credit status if they don’t plan on actually using him?
  • No punishment for Quark

Screencap via CygnusX1.net (reuse of a season 1 screencap as they don’t have any further then season 1)

Posted in Star Trek, Television shows, tv reviews

The Rewatch 231: The Homecoming Trilogy

Posted on by sokorra

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9)
Episode: 2.1 Homecoming (September 27, 1993) 2.2 The Circle (October 10, 1993), and 2.3 The Seige (October 10, 1993) Season Premiere (plus 2).
Rating: 4/5
Redshirt Status: 1/1/3.5

Notable Guest Stars:

Frank Langella (Minister Jaro)– Langella is known for multiple mediums, winning 4 Tony Awards, and getting an Academy Award nomination.  One of my favorite roles of his is in Dave, where he plays unscrupulous Bob Alexander, a character not unlike Jaro.

Richard Beymer (Li Nalas) – Beymer was a popular actor in the studio era, he also works as a photographer and documentary maker.

Stephen Macht (General Krim)- Stephen Macht was actually Gene Roddonberry’s first choice to play Picard.  I can’t imagine it being anyone besides Patrick Stewart.  He has appeared on several soap operas.  More recently he appeared in Suits, a show produced (and starring) by his son Gabriel Macht.  He is also an ordained chaplain.

Bruce Gray (Admiral Chekote) – Gray played several times on Star Trek, most notably Surak on Enterprise. He also appeared on Babylon 5 (often compared to DS9)

Mike Genovese (Zef’no)- Genovese is known to me mostly as Al Grabarsky, a police officer wooing nurse Lydia on ER.

Steven Weber (Colonel Day)-  Weber is known for his role as Brian Hackeet on Wings, though I know him better for his role as Mayor Hamilton on NCIS: New Orleans. He currently plays Dr. Archer on Chicago Med.

Leslie Bevis (Rionoj) – She’ll appear 3 times as Rionoj over the years.  She has also appeared on such shows as Night Court, MacGyver, and Murder, She Wrote.

Honorable mentions to our reoccuring characters:  Rosalind Chao (Keiko O’Brien), Aron Eisenberg (Nog), Max Grodenchik (Rom), Phillip Anglim (Vedek Bareil), Louise Fletcher (Vedek Winn), and Marc Alamo (Gul Dukot)

Review:


 I am reviewing these three episodes together because they are all connected, and I don’t like reviewing multi-arc episodes apart from one another.  This might change if I ever catch up with currently airing Star Trek because I literally won’t be able to, but since we are still in binge-capable era we shall do these three together.

Read more: The Rewatch 231: The Homecoming Trilogy

So we start Homecoming with Rionoj, a trader, handing Quark a Bajoran ear piece.  We already know that ear jewelry is important within the Bajoran culture.  If you had missed that memo, you would have gotten it by how Kira reacts when Quark hands it to her.

The earring belongs to resistance leader Li Nalas. Kira is eager to find out if he’s still alive and if so bring him back to Bajor to lead the people.  She’s afraid the planet will implode without him.  Which given the signs of fractional group that wants to “Keep Bajor for the Bajorans” known as the Circle, she’s not really far off.

I used to ask myself why there was always these groups that were so hateful but then I turn on my TV now and…well, yeah.  Its happening right now.

Episode 1 of the trilogy, Homecoming, deals with the rescue of Li Nalas.  He has a celebrated return despite his reluctance to be celebrated.  Episode 2, The Circle, deals with Kira having to deal with Li Naas replacing her at the station.  To be honest most of the “action” takes place in parts one and three.  Part two is mostly filler it seems.

Part three has the crew doing what amounts to pacifist gorilla warfare. They know the station, the Bajoran military does not.  And for the most part this actually works as Kira & Dax manage their side of the mission to bring the evidence of outside foul play by the Cardassians.

The most stupid part of the episode however was Li Nalas’s death scene.  Even if I hadn’t read the backstory on why they made that decision it seems very “We don’t know what to do, lets kill him off.”  He wasn’t a particularly intriguing character. He does seem to fit the theme of legend outliving the reality.

I wish I had more commentary on these episodes.

Interesting Notes:

Part One (Homecoming)

  • Story by Jeri Taylor and Ira Steven Behr
  • Teleplay by Ira Steven Behr
  •  Directed by Winrich Kolbe
  • Scenes were filmed at Soledad Canyon, which caused some…interesting filming conditions.  Not a favorite to shoot but the appearance on film pleased the production so it was used several times across DS9.
  • No Morn Today.

Part Two (The Circle)

  • Written by Peter Allen Fields
  • Directed by Corey Allen
  • The scene where Kira says goodbye is filmed in one continuous take, with close ups edited into the scene later.

Part Three (The Siege)

  • Written by Michael Piller
  • Directed by Winrich Kolbe
  • This episode was the most challenging of the three in visual effects.  This included a spider that was a prop bought at a yard sale and enhanced by the Visual Effects department. Personally, I could do without spiders.

All

  • This was the first multi-part arc on the show that was more then 2 episodes.  Enterprise would make good use of this style in its fourth season (11 years later).
  • Frank Langella is uncredited for his role on the show. This was by his request as he was doing it for his children, and not to advance professionally. 

Pros

  • Bajorian backstory
  • A very good Kira set of episodes (minus a bit of the prophecy…see below)

Cons:

Why is Kira always sexualized? This episode didn’t do it as badly as the Mirror episodes but I find it out of place or the orb to basically tell her she needs to go jump Bariel. I’m sure they see it as misdirection because its really about appearing in front of the ministers.

Screencap via CygnusX1.net

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

The Rewatch 106: Elementary, Dear Data

Posted on by sokorra

Series: Star Trek The Next Generation
Episode: 2.03 Elementary, Dear Data (12-05-88)
Rating:   5/5
Redshirt Status: 0/0/3

Notable Guest Stars:
Daniel Davis – James Moriarty.  Forever Niles Crane to me.
Alan Shearman – Lestrade. He does alot of voice work in the last couple of decades, including Trollhunters, Missing Link and World of Warcraft.
Anne Elizabeth Ramsay – Clancy. She had a role in the TV Show Mad About You.

Review:

Continue reading “The Rewatch 106: Elementary, Dear Data” →
Posted in Rewatch, Star Trek, Television shows, tv reviews

The Rewatch 104: The Child

Posted on by sokorra

Series: Star Trek The Next Generation
Episode: 2.01 The Child (11/21/88) (Season Premire)
Rating: 2/5
Redshirt Status: 0 /3

Notable Guest Stars:
 Whoopi Goldberg– Guinan.  She would appear as Guinan several times across the series, and played a major tole in the 1994 film Generations.  If you don’t know who Whoopi Goldberg is, I suggest you share your method of ignoring pop culture.  She is known for many films and tv shows, currently the talk show the View.
Seymour Cassel – Hester Dealt. He was a prolific actor, and even showed up in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.
R.J Williams – Ian Andrew Troi. He no longer acts, but instead runs Young Hollywood, an entertainment company.
Colm Meaney – Transporter Chief. Or Miles O’Brien. I’m not really going to point him out much because as far as I am concerned he’s a main character for Star Trek. Same with Whoopi Goldburg. Guinan shows up often enough to be considered a medium character. (There should be a term between major and minor.)
Diana Mulder – Katherine Pulaski. She was a guest star in two TOS episodes, and would remain a main character for season 2.

Continue reading “The Rewatch 104: The Child” →
Posted in Rewatch, Star Trek, Television shows, tv reviews

The Rewatch 74: The Animated Series

Posted on by sokorra

I decided to review this series as a whole after the third episode because the episodes are so short its hard to do a review that’s not just a summery of events.  Instead, I’m going to write one review on the entirely of the season.

The Animated series was produced in 1973-1974 for Paramount Television. It was a 22 minute show that aired in the morning.  The writers decided to aim this series at all ages rather then just adults.  Therefore some of the themes from the original series aren’t to be found in this series.

This series is not necessary to watch to enjoy later series. It does fill in some elements of backstory and characterization for the Original series.   It has been argued back and forth whether this series is part of the franchise canon, and I believe it eventually is canon.  It definitely doesn’t have the same feel as the other series.

Part of that I believe is because it must tell its story in 22 minutes rather then 50 (or 45 for later series). It also requires, due to production costs, several of the actors to do several voices. That isn’t uncommon with animated series.  Its when the characters are known characters from the show (for example, Koloth) and its someone else doing the voice is a little off putting.  

The stories are sometimes a bit odd as well.  Some of them are based on scripts and outlines that were in the plan for the non-existant season 4.  Reducing something meant for 50 minutes down to 22 probably leaves something left to be desired. 

The series, like TOS, is episodic rather then arched, so each episode is pretty much self-contained.  I think if there had been more episodes, and some of the episodes had continuing stories perhaps it would have worked out better.

Overall I am neutral on this series.  Its not a show I enjoyed binging.  I feel like perhaps its better as an occasional view, maybe when you have a feel for a particular storyline.  I do enjoy that the animated series has given more time to some of the characters not the main three, such as Uhura and Chapel.  It also think it helped the idea of making a film later down the road.

The animation is beautiful, but it doesn’t age well.  There are often mistakes and goofs. The one that stood out to me in the first episode is that Uhura’s desk is about three inches too low and looks like she’s twice her size.  Other scenes have background temporarily jumping to the top or lines not matching up.  I don’t know if this because of digitalizing it or if this was an original problem.

Positive things I enjoy about this series is the fact that it gives more adventures.  They just need to be drawn out a bit to be enjoyable.  This might be a good series to start with children as they are shorter stories.    It also fills out some backstory on the characters, including Robert April. 

Final Rating:  3/5.

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

The Rewatch 51: Assignment Earth

Posted on by sokorra

Series: Star Trek (The Original Series)
Episode: 2.26 Assignment: Earth (03-29-68)
Rating: 4/5
Redshirt Status: 0/21/44

Notable Guest Stars:
Robert Lansing – Gary Seven. He is most known for his role in 12 O’Clock High (1964)
Teri Garr – Roberta Lincoln. I know her from Young Frankenstein.
Don Keefer – Cromwell. He appeared in 10 episodes of Gunsmoke, my step-Aunt’s favorite Tv show.
Barbara Babcock – Beta 5. She was on a previous episode.

Review:

Continue reading “The Rewatch 51: Assignment Earth” →
Posted in Rewatch, Star Trek, Television shows, tv reviews

The Rewatch 48: The Omega Glory

Posted on by sokorra

Series: Star Trek (The Original Series)
Episode: 2.24 The Omega Glory (03-01-68)
Rating: 3/5
Redshirt Status:  0/21/44

Notable Guest Stars:
Morgan Woodword – Captain Ronald Tracy.  He appeared earlier in the series as Dr. Van Gelder in Dagger of the Mind.
Morgan  Farley–  Yang Scholar He is a return from The Archons episode.  He also was a WWII veteran.
Ed McGready – Dr. Carter (hey look, he’s not named Morgan!)  Known for his work on various TV programs.

Review:

Continue reading “The Rewatch 48: The Omega Glory” →