Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Rewatch

[Zero Gravitas]

I'm  not sure how long it lasts but the makeup in Emissary is just WRONG Odo and Quark in particular.

[Wonderful Butternut]

I'm  not sure how long it lasts but the makeup in Emissary is just WRONG Odo and Quark in particular.

I think Odo's lasts for most if not all of season 1.

[Zero Gravitas]

Actually It looks like he gets botox/attacked by wasps just before Move Along Home, some good came of that episode at least.

[Sex Wax]

IIRC Odo still has a wrinkly forehead through S2, and they don't put him in a turtleneck to hide Rene's saggy old man neck until 4.

[Zero Gravitas]

Rene's saggy old man neck until 4.

How dare you!

[Lemming]

About to watch "Emissary" later tonight, and I notice that good old Netflix (which I'll be relying on for the whole rewatch) seems to have a bit of fuckery going on: they've got "A Man Alone" as episode two, when other sources say that should be "Past Prologue". Let's SYNCHRONISE WATCHLISTS: which one should we do as ep2?

[Chairman Yang]

Grandad Chairman Yang's DVD box set says Past Prologue is #2 so we should do it that because it's the way Gene would have wanted.

[Wadded Beef]

Both Memory Alpha and Wikipedia list Past Prologue as the second episode. Apparently, A Man Alone was the first of the two episodes produced, so Netflix may be following production order for whatever reason.

[Blumf]

About to watch "Emissary" later tonight, and I notice that good old Netflix (which I'll be relying on for the whole rewatch) seems to have a bit of fuckery going on: they've got "A Man Alone" as episode two, when other sources say that should be "Past Prologue". Let's SYNCHRONISE WATCHLISTS: which one should we do as ep2?

Think the first episode is a double length jobbie, so probably been split into two for repeats, and fucked up Netflix's listings.

Either way, I'd stick with Memory Alpha's order, because Trek fans know how to spod:
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Trek:_Deep_Space_Nine#Episode_list

[Wonderful Butternut]

Original airing order was Emissary - Past Prologue - A Man Alone. A Man Alone was produced before Past Prolgue, hence why Shitflix has it 2nd.

Normally you want to go with airing order.

[Zero Gravitas]

Original air and dvd order agree: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Trek:_Deep_Space_Nine_episodes plus is gets us to the best character faster.

[daf]

[Zero Gravitas]

[Chairman Yang]

ahhahaha holy shit

[kalowski]

Bashir is too high.

[Lemming]

I'll keep checking with the wiki/Memory Alpha lists to make sure Netflix hasn't gotten anything else arse-backwards.

Proper belly laugh, might have to use it as the 8/10 going forward.

[Lemming]

S01E01 - Emissary

A burned-out Starfleet commander is offered command of a far-off space station, which is suddenly propelled to galactic relevance when a wormhole is discovered nearby.

Splitting it into two just for length (phwoar), since it's a two-parter:

Part 1

Spoiler alert

- Picard was gone for six days during BoBW???

- Anyway, here we are at Wolf-359 again. Sisko's getting his shit rocked by the Borg. Because of Starfleet's wizard "let's all bring our families aboard our ships" plan, his wife Jennifer has her head caved in by falling debris, and his son Jake is trapped in a burning room.

- Jennifer's already dead so Sisko's crew drag him and Jake to the escape pods, where he gets a cinematic view of his ship exploding. All Picard's fault.

- Three years later, Sisko and Jake are moving to DS9. By the way, the recording looks like shit - I know TNG was remastered, so it's a bit of a shock to go to this very videotape-y kind of look instead, everything's fuzzy as fuck.

- Sisko enters DS9 to see that it's well shit, left in absolute tatters after by the HATED CARDIES. As soon as Sisko enters from the airlock, O'Brien's right behind him moaning about what a shithole this is. Didn't even say "hi"! Things get worse because, a short walk later, some Bajoran nutcase pops out to try and get Sisko to check out the prophet shrine. Deftly avoiding the madman, Sisko makes his way to his new quarters, which is as grotty as everything else on this station.

- Next part of the tour is Ops. Literally the instant the elevator arrives, O'Brien's off on another one about what a pile of cack the layout of this room is. It's time to meet Kira, and O'Brien, showing his trademark loveable narrow-mindedness, reckons that all Bajoran women are standoffish, based on the only two he's met in his entire life.

- Kira's in a mood. Sisko whips out his shit-hot Starfleet diplomacy skills for this one, all "can I help?" and "let's talk about what's bothering you". Kira hates the Bajoran government, hates DS9, and is deeply skeptical of the Federation. For this reason, she's decided to work for the government and has been assigned to DS9 to work with the Federation. Sisko reveals that he personally requested that he have a Bajoran national as a liaison, because it'll look really good in Federation photo ops.

- Thieves and LOOTERS are ransacking what's left of the station! Odo goes to intercept, and gets a fucking mace thrown at his head. Jesus! What was the looter's plan here? Straight-up murder someone as part of his escape, even though this is a part-Federation station and the penalty for mere theft is probably just to be sat in a room with a therapist who asks you about your feelings? Anyway, Odo's made of jelly, so no effect.

- Everyone's got it in for Shitsko today, so Odo has a go at him next over carrying weapons around. Out pops Quark, who identifies one of the thieves as his nephew Nog. He tries to extricate Nog, but Sisko's switched-on to Ferengi culture and realises he's got some leverage here, and so shoves Nog in the brig for now.

- Oh no! Picard's coming to personally brief Sisko! Aboard the Enterprise's ready room, Picard opens with a textbook handshake and chirpily welcomes Sisko to "bah-jorrr". Unfortunately, Sisko's still salty about Picard turning into a Borg and killing his wife, so the meeting sours immediately. With all traces of gregariousness sucked out of the conversation (Picard probably had to discretely hide the tea and sandwich tray he'd specially prepared), the two talk about the political situation with the Cardassians and the Bajorans, and the absolute fucking state of DS9.

- Bajor might be on track to join the Fed, but it'll be an absolute ballache. Picard's got a Bajoran fetish so he's really excited about the potential for them to ASCEND in this way, but Sisko makes it clear he doesn't want to be here and that he resents the assignment, and admits that he's planning to ditch Starfleet. Things go tits up even further and Sisko pretty much growls at Picard before being dismissed. As Picard rushes off to Troi for an extended cry, Sisko goes back to DS9 to see if he can pressure Quark into remaining aboard, for having a happenin' bar will be a boon to the station.

- Odo and Quark make their simmering homoerotic interest in each other clear while Sisko lays out his plan for Quark to become a "community leader". Quark reckons that Bajor is on the brink of becoming an outright failed state, and if the government falls, it'll be bad news for him. But because of Nog's situation, he agrees to stay.

- Kira's still in a mood, and to be fair to her, she's spent all day crawling around in shit trying to keep the station from falling to bits. Sisko proves that he's a tough customer by picking up a bit of metal and then putting it down a meter away from where it was. This is so impressive that it chills Kira out a little, but she tells him the same thing Quark did - the government's about to collapse, Starfleet's gonna be out of here in a week, and then everything's going to go completely to shit. After she's got him cornered in a vent, Kira springs the religious crap on him again, and then that basket case religious guy from earlier shows up and invites Sisko to visit Bajor.

- Planetside, Sisko gets to see a big room with a pool in it. Ooh! Out comes the current Kai, Opaka, who's psyched to see Sisko. She gives him a lesson on the pagh, the life force you can access by grabbing people's ears. Too polite to say anything, Sisko lets his face get pulled about like on the start screen of Mario 64. Whatever Opaka did there, she's impressed, so she unlocks the SECRET POOL DOOR to take him down into some caverns.

- We're going to see the Tear of the Prophet. When Sisko looks into it, he's transported to a beach, where Jennifer awaits. This is Dildo Beach, where he first met Jennifer, and it's exactly as he remembers. He plays along with the memory so he can relive his one of his Top Jennifer Moments. Just as he's about to say something really interesting about aubergines, Opaka shits on the fun by closing the box containing the Tear, snapping Sisko back to reality. There's more of these Tears, and they let you see all kinds of mad shit. The Cardassians are onto this, so the race is on to find the "Celestial Temple" where the "Prophets" live before they do. Opaka tells Sisko that he's destined to be the one who finds the temple.

- Back on the station, Quark's opened his bar, and people are pumped. The Enterprise is fucking off soon, so it's time for the last of our people to arrive - Bashir and Dax. Oh no! It's season one Bashir, and he's fucking odd! Dax and Sisko are old mates, given that she's a Trill and he knew her previous host, Curzon.

- I love this next scene. Bashir chirpily enthuses about how excited he is to be here, and Kira just rips his fucking head off. She's right, and refreshingly calls out Starfleet's annoying paternalistic attitude, but still, hilarious stuff. While Bashir's being eaten alive, Sisko and Dax get to work on learning more about the Tears, which we've decided to call orbs. Because Sisko didn't warn her about the freaky-deaky effects of the orbs, Dax looks into the one they've got here and is zapped back to her memory of being JOINED with the symbiont. She's awake for the whole thing! What's interesting is... is this the slug's memory, or Jadzia's? Most of it occurs before the moment at which the joining actually occurs, and the direction seems to suggest it's Jadzia having the memory. Did the slug just enjoy a brief reminiscence of being yanked out of Curzon's innards?

- On the Enterprise, O'Brien bids a few OLD MATES farewell. The bulk of his chums couldn't be arsed showing up, but Picard gives him a fond farewell, as does, believe it or not, that one transporter chief who appeared once or twice in TNG, who is apparently called Maggie. After that, the Enterprise finally fucks off.

- Hahaha here comes DUKAT, who smells blood in the water now that the Enterprise is gone. He has a one-on-one meeting with Sisko, which is filled with the usual veiled threats and all that. He knows too much about THE ORBS, so we've got to ramp it up to beat him to the "temple". Dax has compiled a bunch of shit and put it into an attractive grid graphic, which shows a potential search area.

- Quark's bar is shut down, order of Sisko. Cardie gamblers dump their winnings bag in a vent on their ship but ODO IS THE BAG and and slithers out to fuck shit up. Why does he shift back into humanoid form? Surely he'd be safer as like, a rat, or even just staying as sludge. He's maximised his chances of being detected. Anyway, he installs BonziBuddy on the Cardie computers and they all crash, giving Sisko and Dax the chance to rush to the coordinates in THE RIO GRANDE SHUTTLE.

[close]

Part 2

Spoiler alert

- Shuttle starts shaking! We're going to fucking DIE! Sisko and Dax are pulled into a 90s CGI hellscape, like one of those old RealPlayer music visualisers. They're thrown into the Gamma Quadrant, 70,000 light years away. Sisko is buzzed that they've discovered the first stable wormhole ever to exist (lol @ the unstable bullshit one from "The Price"). After basking in the heady Gamma Quadrant air for a while, they decide to go back, but the wormhole goes fucky and the shuttle is pulled onto some kind of structure inside the CGI hellscape.

- Sisko and Dax both get out of the shuttle, but see radically different environments. Sisko (emo, unstable) sees a torn and battered landscape of jagged rocks and lightning storms, while Dax (well-adjusted) just sees a field. One of the orbs arrives and zaps them both, then vanishes Dax. Now alone, Sisko is harassed by the malicious orb.

- The ground cracks beneath him, propelling him into the music video for Tina Turner's "The Best":


- Dax gets shot out of the wormhole and beamed back to DS9 while Sisko is immersed in a ridiculous amount of soft lighting. Turns out there are aliens in this wormhole! "Are you capable of communicating with me?" Sisko says to the aliens that have already started successfully communicating with him in English. The Bajorans worship these guys as deities, but they're dense as hell, and have no idea what Sisko is or where he came from. They elect to kill him, because he's "aggressive".

- I like the idea of nonlinear time aliens, but I don't really get how they're talking to Sisko at all - haven't they already had the conversation? You could say it's being shown entirely from Sisko's perspective, but the aliens shouldn't need to ask him about any of this, because they already know who he is because they've already met him, and are current meeting him, and are about to meet him, and so on. You can assume that we're seeing Sisko's highly subjective viewpoint of the whole encounter, I suppose.

- Kira's in command, and she's got a batshit idea - let's drive DS9 itself up to the wormhole. Yesss! O'Brien fears that this is another COMPLETELY IMPROPER PROCEDURE, but Dax comes up with some bullshit method of making it happen. While O'Brien gets to work on getting the ball rolling entirely by himself, Kira intends to take a team into the wormhole.

- DS9 ENGAGES THRUSTERS. O'Brien gets stressed at the imminent disintegration of the station, which will cause his nuts to be ripped from his body and sucked into the wormhole. Elsewhere, Dukat's warship is already heading to the wormhole's entrance. Kira hails him and warns him off, but he's not having it. Meanwhile, the wormhole aliens, who Bajorans have worshipped as divine and shaped their entire civilization around for thousands of years, desperately try to understand really tough concepts like people having names. They threaten to kill him again because they don't believe it's possible for anyone to experience time linearly. Why are all aliens we meet such knobheads? Imagine if the roles were reversed, and Sisko was like "nah, no way, not buying it. Nonlinear time? Bollocks," and ordered the wormhole destroyed. And then imagine if the Bajorans worshipped him... oh wait, haha.

- It's like pulling teeth, but the wormhole aliens eventually manage to understand who Jennifer was and how she was an important figure to Sisko. They watch a memory of Sisko and Jennifer flirting in a typically stilted 24th century way, and then try to figure out what kissing is. "Pleasure... what is this?" Once again: Bajorans think these dunces are gods.

- Just as Sisko's about to manage to teach the brains trust about primary colours and shapes, they're cut off by Dukat's entrance. The aliens get pissy again and close off the wormhole in retaliation, but are calmed down when Sisko manages to use baseball as a metaphor for existing in linear time.

- Kira's got a new problem - one of Dukat's mates has shown up and demands to know where Dukat is. The DS9 crew tell him the truth, but it's a flop, and the Cardassian fleet prepare to attack.

-

KIRA: Shields up.
O'BRIEN: What shields?

- Luckily, the Cardies give you an hour to surrender before blasting you. I don't really get their plan here - even if Kira surrendered, surely Starfleet would respond within hours/days and just ask for the station to be returned? I guess maybe Kira speaks for the Bajoran government and can officially turn the station over to the Cardies, but wouldn't that require Federation approval?

- The Enterprise is 20 hours away, so in addition to the one hour grace period, we've got 19 hours of shitting our pants. O'Brien helpfully reminds everyone that he KNOWS WHAT THE CARDIES DO TO THEIR PRISONERS.

- In the wormhole, the aliens keep asking Sisko why he's so obsessed with the moment Jennifer died. He tells them he can't leave, because he doesn't know how to live without Jennifer. Huge credit to Avery Brooks, I know he's got an eccentric acting style that's easy to mock but he's really fantastic here.

- BIG DICK KIRA decides to try and psych out the attacking Cardassians by leaning on her resistance fighter cred. The Cardies are spooked by Kira's hardcoreness, and debate what to do next. Ultimately, they open fire on the station. Kira orders battle stations, because she's got a death wish she'd like everyone else to participate in.

- Half the fucking promenade explodes. Bashir springs into action to deal with the 999 trillion wounded people while O'Brien angrily goes to fix the fuel rupture or whatever that's about to blow the station up.

- Lucky for DS9, the wormhole reopens, and the Cardies are made to look like Boo Boo the fool. Sisko and Dukat exit, and Dukat orders the Cardies to stand down. Amazingly, turns out there were no fatalities, even that dude who got crushed under metal and that other dude who got thrown about by an explosion. Bashir fixed it all, nice!

- The Enterprise returns. Patrick Stewart has been briefed on how to say Bajor, and gets it correct this time. Sisko asks to remain on DS9, and Picard fucks with him a bit just for fun but agrees to his request in the end.

[close]

Great start. Every character is established well - some very well, others rather fleetingly but still effectively. Avery Brooks, Nana Visitor and of course Colm Meaney all make very strong impressions. Mentioned it up there but I really like Brooks' style - I always like when actors are a bit more stage-y and less "realistic", I'm not a fan of some of the popular acting styles on TV right now where people just sort of mumble their way through dialogue in a way that's meant to sound "natural". Brooks delivers every line with absolutely bizarre, almost Shatner-esque enunciation, and the effect - for me at least - is that Sisko has an incredible amount of screen presence.

The plot itself covers a lot of ground and moves at pace. What really makes it click is that, despite the wider political situation and the discovery of the wormhole and all that, the whole story is ultimately about Sisko and his grief over Jennifer, which gives the story a great hook to build itself around.

I love, by the way, that the Enterprise doesn't save them at the end. The arrival of the Enterprise is repeatedly mentioned as the goal, and their plan is basically about how to survive until it can get here, but it doesn't get there in time. It's all down to Kira, pretty much, and I also like that she's about to surrender when the wormhole opens. She made her stand but it was all going to shit and it's a miracle that nobody actually got killed, so the writers managed to have her show both backbone in taking the stand and wisdom in stepping down, and it really worked.

Easily the best Star Trek intro, not that it's up against particularly heavy competition there. 8/10

[Zero Gravitas]

Emissary: Parts 1 & 2



Incredibly dark and depressing, from opening hard with Jennifer's death and Brooks' weird squarking "Help MEEEeeeEEeee!": trashed station, Fucking O'Brien is here!, weird preists, Ripley-esque second in command in Kira, CRIME AND LOOTING! FUCKING BURN VICTIM JELLY MAN!





I can still feel the residual fear and loathing my eight year old self felt at watching this, very much setting itself apart from TNG but an absolute horror story.

Masterfully done with the amount of character, history plot and tension they get through in an hour an a half, quite a few of the characterizations stick throughout the series, I think  Bashir is the only one that gets a major change of direction.





Odo and Quark look horrific, too little is done to hide Auberjonois' face and too much to hide Shimerman's.

I loved both the Kira introduction and the Picard stand-off, both of them being supremely uncomfortable but perfect within the show, I hate to say that Brooks is a little lacking in both, smiling like an imbecile at Kira and clenched jaw seething at Picard a little broad on both counts.



Dukat is a joy when he appears, high handed and clearly evil but with the confidence and charm Marc Alaimo drenched him with already present.

The Prophets seem more as if they have 'orb technology' and aren't afraid of intervention, both in the way they return Dax and in how they intercept Dukat's ship seems strange in retrospect as they're muted later on to allow people to traipse through their non-spatial-temporal house in service of other plots but it stands out.



Sisko's blooming visions are the weak point of it for me, not because of any tension with the to be established facts of the Prophets, but they're just a little shit, dramatically ALIEN aliens are cool and all that but when they get curious about kissing I stop giving them the benefit of the doubt.



Kira's standoff and the Cardassian reaction is probably the high point, nice isolated back and forth scheming and then vindication.



Technically and narratively it's amazing, Prohet visions are shit, Sisko is still iffy and the place looks awful.
Best Trek series premiere eva.



Still only 7 puddle cops out of 10



Emissary: Parts 1 & 2 - 7/10

[Chollis]

Bashir is too high.

not having this. put some fucking respect on Julian's name

[Malcy]

It's only the proper Emissary episode if it has O'Briens leaving the Enterprise scene.

[Zero Gravitas]

O'Brien wasn't built for fond farewells with crewmates, he was built to undergo psychological torture and give Keiko something to force creamy blue meat stew down the gullet of.

[Chairman Yang]

As it's been said, it's amazing how coherent this episode feels already. Armin Shimmerman basically single-handedly redeems Gene's stupid fuck-goblin species inside of two scenes. Marc Alaimo effortlessly fills the character of Gul Dukat to the brim with slime and menace. Avery Brooks has a few fumbles but I have to credit his scenes with Jake, which are a perfect mix of stern but gentle, and of course his generally hypnotic line delivery.

EVEN BASHIR, who is incredibly shit for so long, is played as appropriately green and peppy.

The story itself is... fine.

I love the choice to have Sisko at odds with Picard, it's a bold decision that props up the rest of the series. Sisko watches his wife get brained by a girder and spends the next three years designing the USS REVENGE. Perfect.

He's also the most competent officer in Starfleet history, even when idling, because he listens to his staff, wrangles them into a heist, follows an ancient ORB QUEST to a wormhole and holds Nog hostage for his own profit on his first day. Literally impossible to imagine any other Commander/Captain (except Kirk) being this intuitive.

Ron Moore sorry Sisko teaching the Prophets about baseball can fuck right off. The episode actually overplays its hand with the Prophets. The show will try and peddle them back into being mysterious and aloof in order to prop up the religious episodes but never quite undoes the damage.

O'BRIEN: Remind me never to get into a game of Reladan Wild Draw with you

Remind me to cut this line from the script more like, Jesus.

This episode is an incredibly strong opening but all its strength comes from its eventual consistency with what's to come. It's like complimenting a foundation for holding a building up. An efficient introduction to a boatload of characters that drags a little in the second half.

5/10, purely as a baseline.

[Zero Gravitas]

All of the reshot scenes were from the first half of the episode. Several of these scenes, including Sisko's first scene with Kira and part of the scene with Sisko and Jake in their quarters, involved Avery Brooks. From Michael Piller's perspective, the reshoots were because he wanted to make Sisko a more personable and likable character early in the episode. "We asked Avery to go back in with Nana and reshoot a couple of things and make a few changes that softened him," said Piller. Rick Berman added, "The stuff that we reshot is very normal on a pilot. We probably did less than most two-hour pilots. It wasn't a question of making [Sisko] more sympathetic, as far as I was concerned. I think Michael and I had very specific ideas about what we wanted, and the actors were just getting their feet wet."

[Lemming]

The episode actually overplays its hand with the Prophets. The show will try and peddle them back into being mysterious and aloof in order to prop up the religious episodes but never quite undoes the damage.

I quite liked how naff the Prophets were in this one, felt very Star Trekky that these entities regarded as gods would turn out to essentially just be a group of unimpressive people who are unable to understand what baseball is without being given a step-by-step explanation.

And yet at the same time you can absolutely see why ancient Bajorans would have regarded them and their "orbs" as divine - reminded me of "Who Mourns for Adonais?" where the crew understand how Apollo could have been perceived as a god by ancient humans, but ultimately just regard him as a big shouty twat.

[daf]

Proper belly laugh, might have to use it as the 8/10 going forward.

Yes, that's a better one!

8/10


(just lightened it a bit - to see his face better )

[daf]

1 | "Emissary"



I Found my Heart on Sand, Jen Sisko

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Highlights
• Wolf 359 Fire Flashback
• Nefarious Nog's Nobbled Robbery
• The Odo Fluid Face Function
• Picard #1 : Prickly Parley
• "Baaah-Jor"!!
• Kai Opaka's Erotic Ear Exploration
• Orb Trip #1 : Sisko Sand Dance
• Sisko's Tiny Shorts Knob Bulge
• Quark's Bar : Underboob-Baring Dabo Dame
• Orb Trip #2 : Dax Trill Transfer
• Odo Disguise #1 : Cardassian Booty Bag
• O'Brien's Favourite Transporter Room : 3
• Wormhole #1 : Whiteout World
• Space Station Thrust Trek
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Other Bits :
• Secret Staircase Hiding Hologram Pond
• Bashir Chat Up #1 : Dax Drinks
• Dax : 328 Year Old Space-Slug
• Enormious Notorious Denorios Belt
• Morn #1 : Exiting Bar
• O'Brien's Transporter Re-Boot Boot
• Lengthy Linear Time Talk
• Baseball #1 : Unknown Result
• O'Brien : "What Shields?"
• The Six Torpedos Trick
• O'Brien Blaster Bluff
• "Bloody Cardassians"
• Wormhole to the Wrescue
• Picard #2 : Handshake Hand-over and Out
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

5/10

[Wentworth Smith]

Rewatching this it seems a bit odd we never see the blue guy who saves the Siskos again. The guys a goddamn hero.

[Chollis]

Remember laughing out loud at Picard trying to find something to say to the departing O'Brien.

"This was your favourite transporter room, wasn't it?"
"Number 3, yes sir"

God, the things he would get up to in Transporter Room 3! Staring blankly at the control panels for hours on end, on his own.

[Zero Gravitas]

God, the things he would get up to in Transporter Room 3! Staring blankly at the control panels for hours on end, on his own.

[Wentworth Smith]

At least give the guy a chair.