Tag: tv science

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 233: Interface

Posted on by sokorra

Series: Star Trek: TNG
Episode: 7.03  Interface (October 4, 1993)
Rating: 4/5
Redshirt Status: 7/7/64

Notable Guest Stars:

Madge Sinclair (Captain Silva La Forge) –  Sinclar is a Jamaican actress who earned the country’s Order of Distinction.  She was the voice of Sarabi, Simba’s mother in the Lion Kingm and was in the 1977 miniseries Roots (which earned her a nomination for an Emmy).  She won an Emmy award for her role as Empress Josephine in Gabriel’s Fire (1991).  .  She also was in the Star Trek IV as the captain of the Saratoga, being the first Female captain to be aired in the series. She died in 1995, two years after this episode was made after a long battle with Leukemia.

Ben Vereen (Commander Edward M. La Forge)- Ben Vereen is a well-known singer, danger and performer.  He has an admirable stage career, winning a Tony award for Pippin (1973).  He played the grandson of LeVar Burton’s character on Roots(1977). Other recognizable rules include Will Smith’s father on Fresh Prince, and more recently as Sam Gibbs on How I met Your Mother.  More personally, this kind man was nice enough to call my grandmother and wish her happy birthday when a close friend told him how big a fan of his she was.

Warren Munson (Admiral Marcus Holt)-  This is his first role on Star Trek, but he played the early version of Owen Paris on Voyager.

Review:

This episode is a sad one – Geordi’s mother is declared missing and presumed dead.  Geordi has trouble accepting that and his mission helping another crew goes astray in part because of that.

Read more: The Rewatch 233: Interface

The brighter side of the episode is the introduction of the interface, which allows Geordi to go into the damaged and unsafe ship via a computer interface to a probe.  We do have virtual reality today, but it would be interesting to see something like this in real action.  It would be especially good for emergency services for things like fires and cave ins that would allow people to view the area without damaging themselves in the process.  Perhaps less sensitive, because Geordi does get burned when he touches fire.

Apparently this was one of the issues that the production team had with this episode.  They felt that we already had this kind of technology so it wasn’t scifi enough for the show. I do have to point out that VR is still in its early stages and not nearly as useful as the interface and its been 30 years since this episode aired (yes – let that sink in.  Its been 30 years since 1993).

I do have issues with female characters who come onto a show and get killed off for “Man pain.”  Which happens way too often.  However, I think this episode does it well enough that it rises above that horrible troupe.  Yes, this causes Geordi emotional pain, but there is a point to it.  She’s not an after-note.

Its also good to now that just because something is successful doesn’t mean the rules don’t abide. Sometimes it seems like people can break the rules as long as it ends up sucessful. If it does, then there are no consequences. Geordi doesn’t get a severe punishment on this, but he does get a consequence for going against orders.

Interesting Notes:

  • Written by Joe Menosky (with some additional work by Jeri Taylor)
  • Directed by Robert Wiemer
  • Joe Menosky wrote this having to send bits and pieces of the script back via fax and Mail. Makes you glad for email doesn’t it?
  • This book as a spin off novel called Indistinguishable from Magic  by David A. McIntee. It also features Montgomery Scott and Guinan.
  • Originally the pitch was with Riker, with his father dying.
  • LeVar Barton was in a much-applauded miniseries called Roots with both Ben Vereen and Madge Sinclair.
  • Apparently this episode made people in the production team think it might be time to hang up TNG’s hat and move on.

Pros:

Geordi background

Cons:

  • Lack of a good use of Ben Vereen
  • No happy ending for Captain La Forge.

Screencap via CygnusX1.net

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 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 221: Suspicions

Posted on by sokorra

Series: Star Trek: TNG
Episode: 6.22 Suspicions (05/08/1993)
Rating: 3/5
Redshirt Status: 1/20/54 

Notable Guest Stars:

James Horan (Dr. Jo’Bril)- Horan has done alot of voice work over the years in several highly known video games, including tie-in games for Star Trek, Star Wars, and Avatar. He will appear again in DS9 and Enterprise (as the humanoid figure seeking to change time). More recently he has played in Orville.
Peter Marx (Dr. Reyga) – Marx has played a series of Ferangi characters over the years, appearing first as Nibor in Menage a Troi. He will also appear in Voyager in the 2 parter year of hell
Joan Stuart Morris (Dr. T’Pan) – Morris has a fairly short credit list, with Star Trek in the middle. Her last credit is listed in 1995.
John S. Ragin (Dr. Christopher)- Surprisingly, this is Ragin’s last listed credit on IMBD. He is known for his roles on Santa Barbara, Quincy M.E., and The F.B.I. He died in 2013.
Tricia O’Neil (Kurak) – Tricia O’Niel is a Star Trek Alum, having previously shown up on TNG as Captain Rachel Garrett in Yesterday’s Enterprise. Of course, with the make-up and her acting skills you can’t recognize her.
Tracee Cocco (Ensign Jae) – while her roles are mostly listed as “Uncredited” Cocco has appeared in 62 episodes of TNG, 6 episodes of Voyager, 6 episodes of DS9, several movies, and a few video games. So for this episode, I’m going to acknowledge her contributions to Star Trek

Review:

This is an interesting episode. We start at the midway point as Guinan shows up at Beverly’s apartment seeking treatment for a tennis elbow, and listens to Beverly explain the events of the past few days. You see, Beverly was impressed by the presentation of a Ferengi scientist, Dr Reyga, and his metaphysic shield. However, Reyga was faced with some discrimination due to his being a Ferengi and in general no one trusting someone from that species to be a scientist with ethics.

So Beverly gathers a few scientists: Dr. T’Pan, Dr. Christopher, Dr. Kurak, and Dr. Jo’Bril. The four of them, along with Beverly procede to cautiously examine the data, and few the test run. Dr. Jo’Bril even offers to be the pilot of the test craft, to make it a bit more unbias. But then Jo’Bril suddenly dies, after what seems like a positive test run. Then Dr. Reyga dies. And Beverly has a hinky feeling about all this. Side Note: This review has some serious Spoilers as I have to talk about the end of the episode

Continue reading “The Rewatch 221: Suspicions” →
Posted in Rewatch, Star Trek, Television shows, tv reviews

The Rewatch 213: Babel

Posted on by sokorra

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9)
Episode:  1.05 Babel (01/11/1994)
Rating: 5/5
Redshirt Status: 0/1

Notable Guest Stars:
Jack Kehler (Captain Jaheel)– Kehler is a member of the Actor’s Studio.  A recent credit for him includes the Amazon hit series The Man in the High Castle.  He has appeared in smaller roles across a spectrum of popular tv shows.
Ann Gillespie (Jabara)- Gillespie has appeared in several hit tv shows, including Gilmore Girls, 90210, and Ryan’s Hope.  She currently works as an Episcopal Priest.

Review:

Continue reading “The Rewatch 213: Babel” →
Posted in Rewatch, Star Trek, Television shows, tv reviews

The Rewatch 210: Emissary

Posted on by sokorra

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9)
Episode:  1.01/02 Emissary (01/04/1994)
Rating: 5/5
Redshirt Status: 1/1

Notable Guest Stars:
 Patrick Stewart (Picard) – Odd seeing him as a Guest star, but technically he is. 
Camille Saviola (Kai Opaka)- Saviola plays the part of Kai Opaka for four episodes, and is referenced in several more.  She had a long Broadway career.  She recently passed away in October 2021.
Felcia M. Bell (Jennifer Sisko) – Bell is known for her soap opera credits on Days of Our Lives and General Hospital.  She has since focused her career on holistic health.
Aron Eisenberg (Nog)- Eisenberg will play Quark’s nephew for all seven seasons of the series. The actor was 25 when the pilot was aired, making him slightly older than the character he plays.  Unfortunately he died in 2019 due to lifelong medical issues.
Marc Alaimo (Gul Dukat)- Alaimo played several characters over the past few years, but Gul Dukat is his most notable role.  He’ll appear on this series at least 34 more times.
Max Grodenchik (Rom/Pit Boss)- Grodenchik has played various Ferengi over the years, but Rom will be his most known role.  He is actually credited as “Ferengi Pitt Boss” in this episode, though he would eventually be Rom.
J.G. Hertzler (Vulcan Captain) – He is more known as Martok, Worf’s mentor later in the series.

Review:

Continue reading “The Rewatch 210: Emissary” →
Posted in Rewatch, Star Trek, Television shows, tv reviews

The Rewatch 120: Up The Long Ladder

Posted on by sokorra

Series: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Episode: 2.18  Up The Long Ladder (5-22-89)
Rating:  3/5
Redshirt Status: 0/18.5/21.5

Notable Guest Stars:
 Rosalyn Landor (Brenna) – Landor does mostly voice acting in recent years, but she did appear in several TV shows during the 1980s, and appeared in the 1990 film Bad Influence, which I’ve not seen but includes Rob Lowe and James Spader.
Barrie Ingham (Danilo)- Ingham was prolific television actor and a long career. He was in The Great Mouse Detective, which I haven’t watched in years. Should probably change that.
Jon De Vries (Wilson & Victor Granger) DeVries has appears as a guest star on many television shows over the years, most recently The Black list and Elementary. He also had a part in the film Sarah, Plain and Tall. A film I loved as a kid, and really should watch again (It stars Glenn Close and Christopher Walken and remains my favorite film of both)

Review:

Continue reading “The Rewatch 120: Up The Long Ladder” →