Quest

DVD, Smallville S7 (Quest)

Grisly is one word to describe the opening in which Lex' chest is sliced up by an old guy, later said to be the one at the Swiss bank, some kind of superhero if he can track down Lex, do a Zorro trick on his torso and then leave unmolested. You see, it was to send Clark a clue so he'd know where to go and he could meet Edward Teague and, well, that's when the story falters. The quick, surprise fight in the mansion at the beginning wasn't bad, and of course you want to know more about the thing which can control Clark, but I was most excited by seeing Robert Picardo's name in the opening guest credits, one of the best actors on 'Star Trek: Voyager.' It might have had something to do with the episode being directed by Kenneth Biller, who was also a high-up on that series, so it's a bit of an old Trek reunion. If only the results had been worth it. Because what this is, is a jumble of mumbo jumbo mythology, heavily retconning, even more than had been done before: every action Lionel ever took was towards securing the Traveller? He had the Scottish castle removed brick by brick to Smallville (this we knew from early in the series), because he knew there was something hidden in it that could control the Traveller? Edward Teague has been waiting in hiding as a mad monk all these years to eventually meet the Traveller and has gone half-crazy in venerating this 'messiah' of a pedestal vision, so much so that he'll kill the guy if he doesn't immediately show proper willing when it comes to killing his enemies? The Kawatche caves again?

Retcon mumbo jumbo overkill salad! This really is too, too much. I was rarely more happy than when the caves and their wall paintings (first introduced in Season 2), and the myth of the great Naman, were left behind as the series changed into something else (witches and vampires very much aside!), so to have all that tie in was not my favourite way of resolving the latest quest for the latest artefact, not even a reference to Clark writing a paper on the caves in high school ameliorated me. Why, it's another Kryptonian key thing that when added to a multifaceted bauble gives Lex what looks like the location of the Fortress of Solitude. Big wooh. Okay, so if that symbol in the mantle of the fireplace has always been there and they were observant enough to be able to incorporate it into this latest arc, then they are clever. What they aren't so clever about is actually writing the hackneyed thing. It's another (yet another and another, will I never learn?), making-it-up-as-we-go-along story, rich in prophetic language, Christ- or God-like thematic material and morals (should Clark kill Lex if that will save humanity?), but it's all so full of holes.

Early part of the episode? No problem, it's sudden attacks and moody meetings in the back of limos, rain dashing down and making beautifully alien patterns on people's skin, a tonne of atmosphere. But the real torrent comes in all the 'research' various parties are flinging together. Least expected is that Jimmy, out of the blue, is writing and sells his first story (did Lex allow him to? Is there a case of double standards here?), which could easily lead to information on Clark ending up on Lex' desk. Such concerns are academic now if Lex really has discovered the location of Clark's special hidey-hole, but that too could be academic if the 'prophecies' comes true of an ultimate battle between good and evil (that old chestnut!), in which one should emerge the victor. Guessing it's not Lex, since the series carried on for another three seasons…

Let's get down to the nitty-gritty, though: Robert Picardo plays the presumed dead Edward Teague who claims that his son and wife both died for the sake of the Traveller. Now I can't remember exactly why they died, but I'm pretty sure it was their own greed or desire for power that motivated them. Not that Eddy is talking too coherently - Clark shows up at the grand church in Montreal (didn't they shoot the series in Canada? Handy!), and the guy wants to bow down before him. Lex must die, because, well, he just has to, because, well, he's bad, right? It's all rather vague and nonsensical, but Mr. Teague sees Clark isn't going to take over from the President right there on the spot and this means Clark must die. Riiiiiiight. So he uses his handy Kryptonite-handled cane to subdue the Traveller whom he's been waiting much of his life to meet (notice they don't bother with the old green vein effect any more - when did they stop doing that? Without that effect it makes Clark look merely a bit queasy instead of fighting for his life), then straps him down on a sacrificial slab he prepared earlier, you know, just in case he had to kill his hero, fills the surround with liquid Kryptonite and carves a tasty symbol on Clark's chest. Mmm, grisly, we're back to that again.

Meanwhile Lex has done his own investigations, despite almost having died in the teaser he's running around searching the globe for the fabled clock - amazing what a few stitches can do for you! Yes, you read that right, a 'special clock' that Veritas built to hide part of the device which could control the Traveller. How convoluted did they need all this to be? It ends with a confrontation in which Lex and Ed have a stick fight, Clark rushes in to save Teague for some reason, the clock gets smashed and Lex finds the key thing. It seems likely he has no idea that Clark is the Traveller, the way he appears to be so awed by his proximity to the being, knowing that was whom stopped the fight. So now we have Mr. Teague to look forward to again (and as much as I love Picardo, as a mad monk I can take him or leave him), and Lex with the device fully formed. How exciting, not.

I'm so glad we didn't have the continuation of Kara as Brainiac, comatose Lana, or Lois shoehorned into this as well, as it was already far too overblown and slopping over the sides of the sacred chalice of Krypton. There's some bizarre religious cult impression to be taken from Teague's ramblings and all his lore of Krypton (apparently he was a student of Swann's, not just part of the secret society), but it's all way over the top ridiculous. Even minor niggles like Chloe and Clark waving an A4 colour photo of Lex' injury around in the Smallville Medical Centre (why was Lex not seen by a specialist doctor, he usually has his medical attention that way?), where they would surely be noticed and arrested for breaching patient confidentiality, or at the least questioned over how they got that image, gets forgotten in the bigger, more crazy, picture. Lex is happy to have every millimetre of his mansion searched by a crowd of people to find the artefact, but wouldn't he be worried that someone could find some other secret of his? Or does he no longer have any other secrets, which takes away from the character? I will give credit to a couple of sequences: the dash to save Edward with Clark superspeeding in was good to see, even if it remains a trifle muddled, but the CGI of the internal mechanics of the 'special clock' were artistically done, both visually and aurally, a moment of finesse in a torn up tapestry of a story.

**

Skyfall

 cinema, Skyfall (2012) film

As I watched, for a while into the film I began to think I'd have nothing to write a review about. It wasn't that it was bad, it was fine, just fine. At the end I easily summed it up as 'good in parts, disposable entertainment,' but at least I had found much more to write about by that time. To write a review you need things to think about, and much of the plot was the usual brand of 'seen it all before' action fare. After the film there's little to cogitate over, but enough to remember, that I'll do my best to get across my feelings on this, the third Daniel Craig Bond film. But there it is: when your first film is the best Bond it's difficult to drive an upward curve. In a way, 'Quantum of Solace' had an easy time of it, since any weakness in story or character were instantly attributed to its troubled writing period or the fact that it couldn't be improved during shooting due to the strikes in the industry. So I went into 'Quantum' with low expectations and came out thinking it was alright and wondering what all the fuss was about. A second viewing made me realise that it was a very average film, whereas repeated viewings of 'Royale' made me want to rate it higher.

After 'Quantum' I was no longer bothered about the next Bond film, and with the extended time it took to arrive I didn't have any lingering inertia from 'Royale' to make alter my feelings one way or the other. Before 'Royale' I'd never even considered going to the cinema to see a Bond, so I'd slipped back into that pre-'Royale' apathy over it. But then there was all the talk of it celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the first in the series, 'Dr. No,' back in 1962, and it was talked up as being a really good instalment, bringing in elements of the history of the man and having a much improved villain to oppose, all combining to pique my interest. Having been disappointed on many occasions when others have lauded a new film, only for me to watch it and find it okay, nothing more, I kept a level expectation, neither high nor low, but it did make me want to at least see the film in the cinema. So I did, and it turned out to be nothing more, nothing less than expected: a suitably watchable film that was certainly not a disappointment (like 'The Bourne Legacy'), more like an average to above average blockbuster (like 'Mission: Impossible 4'), and certainly not on a par with my film of the year, 'The Dark Knight Rises.'

I will say this for it, it had a much more memorable adversary than 'Quantum' - can you remember him? If you haven't seen it recently, I'll warrant you can't. Silva was a defined personality, an old-fashioned Bond enemy (somewhat making up for the lack of Oddjob, a classic baddie I'd heard rumours about a few years ago, and which was at the back of my mind, causing me to wonder whether he was one of the 'bodyguards' of the French girl, who gets eaten by CGI Komodo dragons!), he made an impact with his opening monologue about rats, had the mad hair and delightfully simple physical disfigurement (like Le Chiffre and the classic Bond villains of old), one that had been indirectly caused by M, in a way. Because, at the risk of citing many films in this genre, it's another one about a former operative gone bad. He had reason to, after being tortured and attempting to use his cyanide pill to escape the agony only to find it ate up his insides, but left him alive enough to want revenge on his former boss. Presumably he went a little bit mad thanks to this episode, which is why he goes about things in the usual superfluous super-villain way - why just hire someone to kill M when you can do it yourself in a convoluted and fiendishly clever way? Why blow up a house with a gunship's missiles when you can lob little grenades in and chase her across the barren Scottish countryside? Mind you, he had help from the complete ineptness of the British police who can't protect high-ranking members of the government from three bad guys with guns! Not sure the Metropolitan Force will feel quite so patriotic about this films as others do...

The biggest pointer to Silva's deranged nature was that when it came to it he couldn't kill her, and instead wanted her to pull the trigger and send a bullet through both their brain's at the same time! Which leads me to the biggest (you could say only, but for a minor sleight of hand flourish at the end. Oh alright, the dark-skinned agent who helps or hinders Bond through the film turns out to be Miss Moneypenny), surprise: Judi Dench's M is killed. Wow! That I did not see coming, and it's a credit to my ability to avoid spoilers that I never even sensed a whiff of such a twist. You think the main 'iconic' characters are safe, and the only deaths are of agents we meet in the film we're watching at the time or mindless goons for Bond to dispatch dispassionately, but not M… I can see why they did that, Dench ageing, as they all are - if a theme can be taken from the story it is age, years and history, the right kind of sentiment considering this is a franchise that began in the early 1960s. I didn't buy Bond suddenly becoming a weaker agent just because he got shot and fell in some water (so he can drink in a bar with a scorpion for a friend - must admit I never noticed the product placement this time, whereas n 'Royale' it jumped out at you). Suddenly he's a lesser man, but that particular theme didn't play out strongly enough, as if they weren't happy to go the whole hog and make him a truly vulnerable person physically as they made him emotionally in 'Casino Royale.'

Dench and Craig have aged, and there was a sadness in seeing the departure of the M of the modern era, the only actor I associate with the part, since I'm not heavily into the history of the films - I've seen most of them, but Dench was the one of my lifetime, or that part of my lifetime when I began to be aware of Bond, whether through people talking about the Brosnan films or playing the seminal 'Goldeneye 007' on the Nintendo 64, and later, 'The World Is Not Enough' on the same. I like her from other things and I remember her, so to have an era come to an end with her passing the mantle onto Ralph Fiennes was a sentimental moment for me. It was one of the things that worked so well about 'Royale,' that, even though they were rebooting and going for a new cast and realistic style, they retained the Brosnan M. It was something to provide continuity despite being a new world. It wasn't even that she had a glorious death, went out in a bang or saved someone, she just got hit during the firefight attack on Bond's ancestral home, and is too pigheaded to tell anyone until it's too late, dying in Bond's arms. I liked that he was allowed to shed a tear over her, as she's the main influence on his Bond (aside from Vesper), just as I was glad when he showed concern for a fellow agent at the beginning, wanting to save that man's life rather than fulfil his mission and follow the baddies (though why a hard drive would have all the names of all the undercover agents in one place is a plot contrivance you have to politely ignore).

When they do that, they add depth to the character. No more so than with the delving into his backstory, something I did know was going to happen. We find out his parents names, see their graves, visit his family home (the Skyfall of the title - neither an impressive reveal or a crushing disappointment), meet the old gamekeeper that looked after him (shades of Alfred, Bruce Wayne's butler?), with Albert Finney muscling in on another action hero franchise, arriving in the third film as the guy who was there when it all began, a similar situation to 'The Bourne Ultimatum,' only that time you could tell which accent he was going for. This time I thought he was playing it American, then English, then Scottish, and I'd have thought better of such an accomplished performer as he, unless it were simply my ears playing up. The old Aston Martin makes its comeback, proving useful, in a 'the bad guys better stand right in front of it or it won't be able to shoot them' kind of way, but as I say, I'm not steeped in Bond lore, I was quite happy for them to reboot the series in 2006 as, though I'd seen most of the films, I wasn't attached to them as some people are.

That stretches to people such as Q or Moneypenny being reintroduced into this new version, and actually it took me out of the film a little because I had forgotten this is an updated Bond, so that what went before didn't happen in this 'universe.' Not that I minded those characters, they were fine, and actually, in the previous two films I enjoyed Felix Leiter's appearances, so technically I'm all for people of the old-school showing up (still I wait with bated breath for Jaws!). They even joke about the changes compared with old Bond, with Q wittily pointing to the fact that this one doesn't have the luxury of gadgets, just simple tools, nothing elaborate. It kind of makes you wonder what the point of having Q in this, was, but he had to be the brain which Silva manipulated with the computer wizardry, though again, it could have been any MI6 technician and made as much sense. But they were going for a deliberate referencing of old Bond, there were probably so many references in there that only an aficionado would spot them all (I got Silva's wine was from 1962!).

There were things to like (none more so than the fact that you could actually see what was going on, with a distinct recoil away from shaky-cam dramatics) - the bike chase over the rooftops, part of the opening gambit; the attack on the house at the end, Silva's wild hair flying in the hot wind blasted by the inferno behind him; the desperate ramble through the Scottish countryside, evoking some old Sherlock Holmes tale (I half expected it to be the equivalent of the Grimpen Mire, Silva being sucked in as he chases revenge, except it played out on an ice); some of the artistic direction; the short chase through the London Underground… But I was never left wowed, never felt I'd seen something I never had before, rarely empathised with the characters or felt I knew them (the women's parts certainly harked back to the 60s considering the amount they got to do - a surprise for me was how quickly the French girl gets killed off, though M had more involvement than ever before, so there's an argument that that balanced it out). I've seen a hero and villain atop a speeding train ('Mission: Impossible'), I've seen a train fall, crashing through walls ('Batman Begins'), countless times the main bad guy has been locked in a transparent cell ('Avengers Assemble' as the most recent), telling his tragic story and smugly observing his captors before cunningly escaping to wreak revenge. When I saw the chase in the Underground I was hoping it was going to try and top the incredible parkour sequence from 'Royale' which, more than any other scene told you who Bond was, or who this Bond is. But it petered out, and I can understand why they wouldn't try to top such a stunning cinematic stunt.

The good thing about the villain is that he isn't a physical match for Bond, he's an intellectual superior that plays MI6, but he's a little too Joker-ish in his lack of real longterm motives. This does prevent a conventional fistfight between him and Bond in the final minutes, which is how so many action films end, to varying degrees of success. Bond got his fighty stuff in with Patrice, the hitman/terrorist/whatever he was. I actually thought he was going to be the bad guy! Until he slipped out of Bond's clutches and fell from a skyscraper. There were things about Silva I didn't appreciate, an attempt to take Bond down an entirely different and unexplored route which I can imagine will one day become the norm, but which I do not consider suitable for either the character or the films. But that's another issue, and it didn't prevent me from accepting the film, for the most part, as a reasonable continuation of the famous secret agent. It was a minor improvement on 'Quantum,' but almost imperceptibly so, and I remain indifferent at either Q or Moneypenny joining the 'cast.' I will say that I approved of Fiennes as Mallory, a character you're obliged to feel well disposed to so his promotion to the new M feels right. But I can't agree with the general mood that this is the best Bond ever, that Craig is undeniably the best actor to play the role, or that it can only get better from here on.

Well, maybe I can agree that it can only be on the up, but more from the standpoint that it was different to 'Casino Royale' and would have benefitted from being more like it. The theme song was fine, but again, cannot eclipse the epic 'You Know My Name' from you-know-what, but at least there was an impression of more invention in the title sequence, compared with the usual female bodies sliding across the screen - I wanted more of that illustrated visual style, as best depicted in, well, the film I keep mentioning. The Bond theme didn't ring out as strongly as it does in… that film, I almost never felt the nostalgia they were talking about coming through, and so I think I've returned to that level of take-it-or-leave-it sentiment that I used to think of when I thought of Bond. Despite all that, thinking and writing about it has made me appreciate those things that stuck in the mind, and while it doesn't leave a lasting impression, and it is just another samey Bond film, I would consider seeing the next one. And that's more than I can say about Bourne.

**

Apocalypse

DVD, Smallville S7 (Apocalypse)

Utterly flawed, but with enough potential that it stays the right side of the watchability line, this is another alternate world story, and yes, it was all a dream. Again. The only lesson Clark learns is that we can't change the past, only the future (even if our Fortress has the sudden ability to send us back in time, and to another planet!), rather than what we knew he should do, which was go and… save the past. Protect the past, to preserve the future, and all its mistakes and wrongs, because for all he knows he could make things worse, just as Evil Kara was suggesting they should go back and fix all Krypton's problems at the end. By doing what, becoming President of that planet? Of course she's been taken over by Brainiac, a 'twist' I saw coming by the dismissive way she told Clark he was defeated and gone. Gone, just gone? No, Clark didn't give it much thought, he was too busy cooing over his own baby self. But wouldn't meeting himself bring some ultimate apocalyptic annihilation in the space/time continuum? In a word, no.

Clark isn't at his best, he's too upset over Lana's permanent coma (she only gets in as a photograph this time), believing Earth would have been a better place without him. You can tell he's not thinking straight when he calls up Chloe so she rushes round so that he can tell her the important news that… he's not going to do anything. That's when he gets sucked into a world where things are not as they should be, in incrementally small ways. They couldn't have afforded to set an episode on Krypton so they made it all about Clark coming to the decision that he should have made in the first place: to go there and stop Brainiac's scheme (which took an inordinate amount of time considering he's been there for several episodes - maybe it took all that time just to get there. Wonder what he and Kara talked about on the way?).

The whole point of an alternate reality is to make things as radically altered as alternately alternating possible. Alternatively, if you have a small budget you just use the same sets and very slight variations on the people you know, to sell the setting. I'm not getting at this episode, I like it, but there's a strong impression that this is all being done with money heavily in mind. We're given some exciting prospects to anticipate, but then they fall through: the biggest had to be the chance to see Jonathan and Martha Kent alive and well together, two driving forces that had left the series, this the ideal way to bring them back. I know it would likely have been written the same way as charisma-less alternate Clark, them questioning who he was, and it wouldn't have had any point except for bringing back the Kents, but there we have it, it would cost more money. Instead, it only costs 'in world' money to send them off on a birthday cruise (I can't imagine Jonathan ever going on one of those, he'd be too busy with the farm and he'd consider it a waste of money and time), and we can say this Clark is designed to be drab and ordinary.

That's fine, but they did bother to bring back another person from the past, Sheriff Nancy Adams (for no reason at all, except for us to go: "Hey, look, it's Sheriff Adams, back from the dead!"), who inexplicably goes from a law enforcer in the real history to an undercover informant on none other than the President of the United States of America! The money-saving ethos is high on the list with the setting of The Ace of Clubs, where Jimmy broke into recently, but anything wrong with any aspect of this story you can fix by pulling out the 'it was all a dream' card, and even if it had been for 'real,' this world still wouldn't have mattered - I mean, look at the way Clark has absolutely no qualms about showing his powers. He doesn't hide from Lois, whisking her off her feet and out of the clutches of the security me (she assumes he's a meteor freak, then an android, then doesn't even flinch when he explains his mission - maybe that's how real Lois would react?), and he lifts up Jimmy and slams him against the wall (after thoroughly pleasing the lad by pretending to be a fan of his photography!). It gives the world little reality, because if Clark's that cavalier and careless why should we worry about anything here. And yet, there were enough fun quirks that I liked it for the most part.

Things fall apart once President Lex is introduced (the old white suit gets another run out of the series' wardrobe store - please, why does he have one black glove?). It's not that seeing him as the leader of the free world is hard to swallow, we've seen these echoes of the future before, the problem lies in the credibility of the President still hanging out in Smallville, launching nuclear strikes across the globe from the old Luthor Mansion (man, you really need to get underground, fast!), and his James Bond villain plot to kill off the population for the sake of starting again with better people, safely in bunkers. Yeah, but where are they going to get their food from? How many centuries will it be before they can emerge into the devastated planet's surface once radiation has dissipated or whatever radiation does? Who cares, it's all a dream! But it isn't supposed to be a dream without a purpose, that's the point. Jor-El is doing the 'It's A Wonderful Life' thing, showing Clark a world without him. Yes, Chloe's about to be married and Lana's already happily married with children, and Lois and Jimmy are doing well at the Daily Planet, but Lex is in charge, and that's bad. Trouble is, there's not enough setting up of that lesson, Clark tumbleweeds along, or perhaps more aptly, pinballs around the machine of Smallville and Metropolis until he goes undercover and gets shot.

That's right, Clark got shot. By a gun. But, wait for it, it shoots Kryptonite bullets! So that makes Clark's reactions slower, how? Why can he not dodge them as he always has done? Yes, it's a dream. Don't forget it's a dream. It's Jor-El, he's making it up as he goes along - thinking about it, he'd have made an excellent member of the writing staff on this series, and would have been welcomed with open arms: "You're just like us! Join us…" Sorry, I'm getting into complaining territory again, when, as I said, I liked this one. When Lois gets Clark to dress in a suit and tie (for no real reason - ostensibly it was to get near the Prez as part of the press, but he could have used superspeed to do that), I was thinking, "Do the glasses, do the glasses!" And they did the glasses, even the little poke up the bridge of the nose action (but why does he need to take them off to use superhearing?). Real Lois later calls him a mild-mannered reporter and there are good meetings - alternate Clark is a nobody, but it's a 'what if?' Baby Clark is just a baby, but it's a connection to his own youth (the spaceship again!). Chloe doesn't know him, but she's happy to chat to him as an old school friend she doesn't recall.

There's even a surprise meet up between Lex and Clark back in the real world, at the end, in which Lex offers an olive branch in the way he wants to help Lana. Okay, looking at it pragmatically, he's after the answers, and if he ever finds out, he'll be holding the fact that Clark didn't even tell him when Lana's life was at stake, over his head forever. But I didn't expect Lex to be seen in the sun-bathed barn talking to Clark ever again. I liked the shot where Clark's on the left, out of focus and Lex is close up on the right in profile, and when you know that Tom Welling directed, that has to take the production as a whole, up a notch in estimation, because he's in it a lot, he had to direct himself, he had to do all the Krypton stuff and plenty of weird story moments, learn the lines, and bring in an episode on time and on budget. It's the first he directed, but considering how front and centre he was as the character I applaud him for the work. It's not a spectacular episode, and there are so many duff lines of both dialogue and reasoning, but it's a script of the usual 'quality' of the series when at its most plot-twist-button or plot-twist-artefact crazy.

Adams believes everything Clark says, a guy who just shows up, and although he persuades her by showing how fast he could move, why would that make her trust him? Coming from the whacko-land of Smallville, her first inclination would be that he's a meteor freak. Big things happen in such a small way - nuclear detonation set off from a briefcase in the mansion; Lois is in on this huge presidential secret yet she's just chatting about it as she sits at her computer; Kara's 'astounded' Clark knows her true name and trusts him because he gives her the pained 'Trust Me' look; Clark invites Chloe round to tell her about his inaction (why was that such an emergency - so she could say her bit about them needing him, of her needing him, in that bad line that only works in the least because of Allison Mack's abilities? I thought she shoved some Kryptonite into his hand and was going to drag him to the Fortress and throw him into a vortex so he was forced to save himself, but it was the Kryptonian disk thing). Jimmy lets him hang out in the Planet's basement to use the database, unsupervised, and is absent - is he upstairs writing a story? The main conceit that Clark could fade away any moment, doesn't make sense either - if Brainiac killed him as a baby he wouldn't be there, so it couldn't have happened.

One of the biggies is that the fate of Clark's life is solved in a little chamber that's an obvious redress of the Fortress. All we have is a short fight, if you can call a couple of people being thrown a few metres (I really should get around to defining what 'fight' means in the terminology of this TV series), and Brainiac being stabbed, and thus, history is righted. I thought he was liquid metal. So… no heart? But then I think of the wonderful explosion as the ship with little baby Clark aboard shoots into camera, like something out of the first Superman film, or the effect of Clark in a refracted glass tube, similar to the way Jor-El showed himself in that film, and lots of these touches enamour it to me. Not in a big way, we've certainly had the end of that several-episode-spanning patch of goodness that 'Smallville' seasons usually have. But alternate reality is fun. They didn't push the story far enough, they didn't play with the themes as deftly as they might, and whoever generates the dialogue is a computer program (Maybe Brainiac wrote it - nah, it would have been a classic then, as James Marsters is as good as he could be with the limited role), but for all that I simply liked this one. Nothing stronger than that.

***

Terror in Times Square

DVD, The Incredible Hulk (Terror in Times Square)

New York, New York… Whether it's the Big Apple or not, this is back to form as the series goes, and makes for a better viewing experience than the last two. By the end, when David resumes his long walk to the next lonely port of call it has more meaning than usual. He can't be too sad when he moves on because he always knows he'll effortlessly make new friends wherever he goes - maybe I don't give him enough credit and he puts a lot of effort into finding people to stay with and work for, but I think the effort comes in helping people. He may be on a quest for personal peace, but he's found a measure of it in the good deeds he's done, the lives he's mended and the wrongs put right. Maybe that's the theme of The Incredible Hulk, or this version of the famous comic character - solace is found as a result of making the best of the hardships he deals with, and in a strange way that makes the burden lighter. Not easier, but he finds purpose beyond his life's mission to learn about and cure his problem.

Someone with his own problem is Jack McGee, or 'Newspaper Man' as I'd like to call him - his is not physical, but a mental obsession, something that gets referred to by a friend or colleague of his. We don't get to visit his paper, as the guy he chats to talks about the paper in a detached way so doesn't belong to it, but he does highlight the fact that McGee's been chasing the green creature for six months! It's useful to know how long the series has been progressing in real time, but I don't think his character has been given enough development to make him fully part of the series. He's more like a recurring menace at the back of the action. Case in point: when he starts to run after Hulk in downtown New York, it's another level of events conspiring to put us on the edge of our seats as Hulk races to get to where Norman and Leo, the associates of crime boss Jason, are set to attempt to kill him, amping up the drama as everything converges, but we don't see any more of Jack, except for another scene with his mate right at the end, saying how he was proved right.

The reason Hulk does what Banner and the audience want him to do is probably more like a subconscious urge left over from Banner's (or David Blake's, this week), own urgency - it's like going to sleep worrying about something, then dreaming about it. Because, as we've observed, Hulk has very simple, driving tendencies - he knows when he's threatened or challenged, hungry or sad, not the directions to get to a specific place for a specific reason. For the first time we see Hulk actually get injured, when a forklift's fork is rammed into his leg behind the knee. It's such an injury that it's sustained even when Banner wakes up, something he's usually seen to be immune from. Usually the worst he experiences from a Hulk hangover is the freezing cold thanks to his clothes falling away in the Hulk-out. It shows that Hulk would be vulnerable to extreme damage, such as bullets from a machine gun or a weight falling on him, so he's not as invincible from danger as he might appear.

We're down to two Hulk-outs this time, the average number for an 'hour' episode. The first has the aforementioned intrigue of damage to the giant, but the second is much more striking. It's the imagery of The Incredible Hulk storming through New York as if we're in the comics (I noticed he appears to have soles to his feet so it's a bit easier on Lou Ferrigno, running for so long on concrete 'sidewalks' and roads), that proves so powerful and memorable, far removed from dull country houses or identikit city streets. I half expected him to run into Spiderman, that being the web-slinger's stomping ground, but instead he only meets Clayface, except that's the wrong universe: villainous Jason's thrown into an unset bed of wet mix concrete for ultimate indignity. I wonder if an actor of the calibre he seemed to be was happy to be rubbed face first in grey mud? That's what made this episode superior - I didn't know any of the actors, but all provoked stronger reactions than most of the recent guest roles. Carol was loveable and naive, not seeing what was really going on between her Father; Norman, and 'Uncle' Jason, the local protection racket boss. It makes her trust in David more pronounced when he charges in with a cock and bull story about her Father and his friend Leo going off to murder Jason, but she gets there with the police anyway.

Norman was excellently played, an avuncular old man with a twinkle in his eye, but fear and trembling in his hands. He wants the best for his daughter, but it has become at the expense of his own manhood, the threat of her being mistreated or killed is more than enough to keep him toeing the line. It's Leo who stirs him up, surprisingly, because the man wasn't the strongest or most charismatic of rallying men, he'd just had enough of the bullying tactics of Jason and his cronies and was ready to stand up for himself. When the two of them go off together on their suicidal plan to take Jason on at his own game it's so effective in making us care - the way he talks to his daughter without her realising this is probably the last time he'll see her, the words about paying for what you love, and the solemn grasping of the hands as the two old men prepare to carry out their plan is all so much more subtle and thematic than this series has been so far.

The evil Jason is another old guy to have a sparkle in his eye, but his is a cold glint of malice. Even the hired heavy Banner talks to, the man that blackmails him to come and talk to Jason, had more personality to him than most of the goons we usually see, and one line really struck home when he tells David Banner, of all people, that David doesn't want to make him angry. That gets Banner's attention alright, he steps back like a tiger into the shot, his eyes pronouncing that this guy doesn't know what he's saying, and you sense the electricity of the moment. But he goes along with what he must, he doesn't go out of his way to get into a rage, it's the beating he suffers at the hands of Jason's men, and then later, the intensity of frustration he feels at being stuck in traffic - that's another excellent image when we see the green Hulk smash the door off and leap out of a bright yellow taxi cab!

David fits right in with honest people that see the good in his eyes, this time he's fixing machines at Wizard's Arcade. An example of a deeper level to the writing comes early on with the scene in which he meets up with Carol. We've seen her from the teaser, so we know she's going to be part of it (though this time I was pleased to find there was very little given away about the story, and actually it was played up as more about McGee tracking down Hulk in New York than anything else, something that barely featured), but it's written in a way that you don't quite get at first that they know each other, or how, or why. Is she a doctor from his past that he's helped? But no, that wouldn't make sense as she'd know of Banner's official demise, but it's a charming way to introduce the setup this time. I even felt the makeup in between transitions had improved, though the actual blurring into each stage still doesn't cut it for today's effects. As an all round improvement on the last couple of stories I'd say this is close to being my favourite now, but can the quality keep getting better?

***

The Ascent

DVD, DS9 S5 (The Ascent)

Jake and Nog, Quark and Odo - two of the best pairings in the history of the series, being chalk and cheese chappies that bounced off each other like racquetball or springball. There should be no surprise, then, at how good this would make an episode, but I feel this is an unsung hero of the series, a serious consideration for top ten of all time. Not because it's an exciting adventure, avoiding Jem'Hadar soldiers or Klingon warriors, not because it's a convoluted spying game, or a personal conundrum, a mystery or a time-travelling paradox - it is none of those things, but the simplest of tales, and made with these actors it becomes so much more. It's one of those that you watch and you truly don't know where to start: just praise it for all it does in any order, think carefully about the underlying meanings or point to the many, franchise-wide connections. Applaud the director and cinematographer, the composer, the writing… There is no place to begin discussing such a seminal work, except that I did have one teeny-tiny nitpick about one small aspect of it: the bomb.

I ought to get my one reservation out of the way first, and it is only a minor one, but then, and this is the point, so was the explosion. I remembered the sequence as the beam-out attempt failing and that activating the mechanism's countdown, but in fact that causes an immediate detonation and they funnel the main force of the blast into the Transporter buffers, so it's not even that I claim it doesn't make sense that such a small explosion should make the Runabout uninhabitable. I think it's Quark being so close to the blast radius, his head thrust towards it, when he should have taken cover. Granted, he gets thrown off his feet, but it was the one visual moment of the whole thing that made me question something. It does make sense, the transference of the energy sends ripples of explosions throughout the rest of the ship, so it stands to reason that most supplies and equipment, including the life support systems would be damaged beyond the repair capabilities of a crook and a crook-catcher.

Don't forget, these aren't Starfleet officers, a fact that makes their struggles even more heroic on the planet. O'Brien could have fixed the Runabout up in no time; Worf would have lopped branches off trees and made burning torches; Dax would have got a Tricorder working to find the best route, and piloted them down safely in the first place; Bashir would have found a way to boost their body heat; and Sisko would have planned out what to do better and pushed on in discipline for all he was worth. One character that was less help than usual was the Runabout itself - so often this season the little ships haven't been named so we don't know which is which, but this time, looking at the nosecone sticking up after the crash-landing, it appeared to be the Rio Grande. On one hand that was probably what saved them from being obliterated in a spatial explosion, since the Rio is the only true survivor of the complement over the years, but on the other, you'd expect the galaxy's safest Runabout not to have crashed. Put it down to Odo's piloting skills not being as strong as his detective ability (note how Quark grabs his own head with both arms, just like in 'Babel' when the two of them had to save the station!). Or maybe it had something to do with the new central console column at the back, something I don't recall being there before?

Even Odo's detective skills fail him this time, Quark rubbing it in with glee: Odo was mistaken about the Ferengi being wanted, he'd actually been summoned as a witness against the Orion Syndicate! There are a couple of points to make here: Quark shows untold bravery in what he's agreed to (maybe he didn't have much choice, but he must have told someone he was a witness), and he's excellent at keeping secrets, because all the while he doesn't correct Odo's assumption that he's to be put on trial (even though Quark's style is to avoid the 'big boys' and violent crime - as played out later in 'Business As Usual'), making him look forward to seeing Odo's face when they release him!

The other point about all this is that it's the first ever mention of the shady and powerful organisation that is the Orion Syndicate, and it's talked up so well that even without seeing a green-skinned member of the race (something they should have gotten around to on the series, and another item, like the Klingon forehead debate, to be dealt with on 'Enterprise,' another reason I connect that series to this in so many ways, along with Jeffrey Combs and Section 31), you get a feel for the magnitude of this organisation and that its crime is on a vast interstellar level, a totally different enemy to the Dominion. That would have been a story! If the Syndicate had had to get involved in the fight against the Dominion to protect their interests in the Quadrant it would have been like a gang war. The Federation was willing to accept help from the dodgy Romulans and it would have been just as compelling to see Starfleet forced to team up with a criminal organisation in an effort to oppose their greatest enemy yet, and it would have made a good moral story about accepting help at any cost (like 'Nothing Human' and the Nazi-type Cardassian Doctor on 'Voyager'). The Orion Syndicate would go on to feature on and off, mainly as background references, but notably in one of the 'torture O'Brien' episodes of Season 6 ('Honour Among Thieves').

No surprise this is a Behr and Wolfe script. They brought together two people for the best antagonistic friendship ever, even more than Spock and McCoy, upon which, it can be suggested, it was based. It works even better than that did because these are not two people at the opposite end of the spectrum, not even in the same organisation. McCoy and Spock had the emotional/dispassionate divide, but because Odo (the Spock archetype), isn't restricted by emotionlessness, he can dig in and jab at Quark, the petty thief with a heart of gold (even if it is Latinum-plated!), and get as irritated and frustrated as Quark can, which makes it a more level playing field, and a ping-pong effect of insult and snide observation. Quark claims Odo's ten-year attempt at catching a 'nobody' makes him the bigger loser, but in 'Things Past' they established Odo's predecessor, Thrax, was in command nine years ago. Just an observation - Quark was probably exaggerating in the heat of the moment. The lip-smacking/buzzing scene has to be one of the funniest in Trek, but I noticed throughout this episode, even while they were getting laughs or smirks from me, it worked on more than just a humorous level because they're true to their alien cultures. Quark would complain about the tiniest of noises in the Runabout because his ears are so sensitive (just as he could stand outside O'Brien's quarters and fill the eavesdropping Bashir in on what was being said in 'Looking for Par'Mach'), and when he's worried about losing his hearing in one ear, he would say that a one-eared Ferengi's only half a man!

Odo never missed an opportunity to annoy Quark, always getting so much satisfaction out of it in the series, but in this one it's those little niggling scenes or petty arguments on overdrive, the scale of an entire episode for it to run gloriously rampant - every little expression or impression Odo does now and again comes out in this one - the self-satisfied smile or that head-wobbling sarcastic way of talking as he nettles his opponent, the gravelly growling and personal insights, they're all there. He's perfectly serious when he needs to be, since he's basically the commanding officer of the journey, and that makes Quark rise up and take responsibility in answer, to spite him when the need arises, whereas you can imagine he'd just keep complaining if one of the others were in charge. Quark's strongest motivation, what gives him a final boost of strength, is knowing how all his Ferengi-ness will be for nothing if he dies on that planet: Rom will get the bar, Nog will be completely 'corrupted' by Starfleet (interesting, so the inference is he thinks there's still time to show Nog how wrong hew-mons are, and get him to return to his people's ways! And don't forget he's the one who comes with a tray of root beer to welcome his nephew home, despite how much he despises, or claims to despise, Starfleet, there's still a big part of him that cares about Nog - that scene again recalled 'The Circle' and Kira's packing scene to me!), and worst indignity of all, his bones will lie unsold.

It's a sign of Odo's great affection that he says in his final log (even though it's in a world-weary, somewhat offhand manner), that Quark would want to have his remains auctioned off - it shows that he's thinking of his friend even though he's typically dismissive of Quark's seemingly failed attempt to save them. This leads to his half-joking shame when Dax lets him know Quark saved his life, but more tellingly, and this is what I got from the final scene on the biobeds (I thought we'd never see a sickbay on the Defiant, but I think that's where they are at the end, though I always used to think it was at DS9 - it's also a pleasure to get a good look at the Defiant's Transporter room, so rarely glimpsed), is that Quark is saying 'you don't owe me anything' in his repeat of how he hates Odo, and Odo's saying the same in turn. It's an unspoken friendship, and will always be that way because that's how they want it. They aren't mushy or sentimental, they distrust and often revile each other (Quark says earlier he's so glad that when he sits on a chair he knows it's not Odo now that he can't shape-shift), but they have a core of warmth for each other.

Quark will give Odo advice, like in 'Crossfire' when he's in full frustration at Kira and Shakaar, and Odo lets Quark have a break now and again (in 'His Way' when he allows him to get away with some smuggling deal as a private thank you for what he did in getting him and Kira together, though he'd never confirm it). Now that they're alone with no other ears around, they're remarkably open (just like the others in 'Let He Who…') - Quark's one of those who knows all about Kira, and gets at Odo for being such a stick in the mud when he's got what he always wanted: he's a solid, like everyone else, but he can't be happy because that's his nature, or so Quark claims in his capacity as 'counsellor'! But he doesn't know Odo's deepest core, maybe Odo doesn't fully know himself, yet, but when he gives final directions for what to do with his remains, it is to send his ashes back through the Wormhole in his bucket. He may as well end up where he began, he says, but we know from later in the series that it's more than that. It's another sign of his unspoken wish to return and be accepted by his people again.

Jake and Nog, then. They were the main source of each other's stories, and since Nog left for Starfleet Academy, it did impact the amount Jake had to do. I can imagine at the time people would have been upset when Nog was apparently shunted off the series, but as in most things they should have trusted the writers to know what they were doing (he was even in at least four episodes of Season 4, his 'off season,' so you can tell they really wanted to use him!). Just as they began the series with unfinished characters like Bashir, who learned and was tempered by his experiences to become the kind of person you'd expect on a Trek series, so they took the long view of what they could accomplish, and Nog is one of the most famous of those seeds that was planted. I like the way characters were brought in or taken out for a while, like Kasidy Yates, Commander Eddington or Kai Winn, because it showed they weren't relying so much on who they had as much as they were keeping them back, ready for when they could make the most impact. Absence makes the heart grow fonder they say, and that was true of Jake and Nog.

To begin with, that is. Jake discovers his short friend has taken on a whole new bearing, his Ferengi tenacity channelled into extreme levels of discipline and self-improvement. He's gone off to a military school and returned with a new regimen of training. In short, he isn't the same Nog that nervously went off to the Academy in 'Little Green Men,' and Jake isn't the only one to see that. I like to think Rom was influenced by his son's decision to do something new and unexpected, inspired to stand up to Quark and become his own man, join O'Brien's work crew as a junior engineer, just as Nog was inspired by his Father's lack of prospects, so they've both inspired each other in different ways, but to the same result: greater confidence and meaning in their lives.

Despite this, Rom's so taken aback at Nog's new personality (including putting his Dad on report for an untidy toolkit!), he confides in Sisko that his son may be a Changeling! It's a very Rom way of thinking for him to come to such a conclusion, but Sisko puts him right, and in a bright mirror of their attitudes in the early seasons, they both discuss the good their opposite number's son is doing for theirs. Think back to those distant episodes when Sisko was uncomfortable with his son hanging out with a Ferengi, Rom equally scolding Nog for following hew-mon ways, but he's changed so much himself, swigging that very human drink, root beer (how I wanted some reference to Quark and Garak's double-meaning 'cloying' conversation about it from 'The Way of The Warrior'!), and trying out their food, too. It's a lovely moment when Rom joins Sisko at his meal - the highest-ranked man on the station finding common ground with just about the lowest.

I did think they were going to come up with a way of sticking Nog and Jake together to make them realise they needed each other, but instead it's put much more bluntly: the Captain comes to turf Jake out of his quarters threatening his newfound independence, then pretty much orders Nog as his commanding officer, and Jake as his Father, to settle their differences. It's a prompt way to get the situation sorted without going into the usual territory of trapping them in a lift or giving them a task to complete. Perhaps if they'd been the A-story that might have been the route taken, but they were the B-story, and one that, despite humour, didn't clash with the life or death struggle going on for Quark and Odo. Both stories are a reflection of the other, about two very different people getting along and working together to a successful outcome, and that's as much a morality play as any other, more obvious, Treks.

So it has everything - the essence of what makes Trek, Trek in it's ideals and style. It uses the races it created and those that populate it to craft a relatively simple tale, and even though it's not an action adventure, in the mould of defeating an enemy, the difficulty comes from within (their own frailties), and without (the challenge of the environment). And I haven't even lauded the look and sound of the production. It's complimented by a stirring soundtrack, that even has the subtlest of details - on the Defiant's arrival, the Klingon opera tag plays a few bars, perhaps signalling Worf's command. Attention to detail in the extreme. And they went to a REAL mountain! It looks incredible, Allan Kroeker, in what was, if not his first, one of his earliest episodes as Director, a man that would go on to helm some of the best of this series and 'Voyager,' makes some beautiful observational shots in the open air. We see water trickling towards camera; vast peaks of the mountain bathed in a crisp, blue sky; cold trees and rocks, pointing to the cold, frosty faces of Quark and Odo, bruised and frozen, struggling on through the elements. There are some incredibly evocative images, mainly of Quark pulling Odo along on a stretcher while also heaving the transmitter over his back, like Frodo and Sam in 'The Lord of The Rings,' he struggles onward until he can't go any further. Then Odo's gritty determination fires him as the former Changeling with a broken leg, crawls agonisingly along the ground, pushing the transmitter as he goes, his stubborn disposition refusing to give up, leading Quark to take up the burden again with his last buried strength, creating the most affecting image of all: the lone Ferengi, half-dead, slowly pulling the bulky transmitter along the rocky ground as wind and storm whips into him.

Odo's broken leg is the most dramatic physical effect that he's had to go through since becoming a solid. He's certainly allowed his passions to take more control this season, and now we see the culmination of years of frustration and anger, not just at Quark, but directed at him because he's there. In the same way, Quark gives as good as he gets, insulting and challenging, they both spit out epithets like bullets until they come to blows. This isn't something that could have been done in earlier seasons, it's a situation developed from the way Odo is now, and that Quark is now, being a man that lost all his race's pride in himself, lost his possessions and only had the bar left to keep him going. So they've both lost the essential parts of their lives, both outcast from their people, and they know exactly the rawest nerve to stab. Add hunger, cold and hopelessness, and their ragged anger is totally believable, and another thing that, had they been Starfleet, wouldn't have happened (though it came close in 'The Ship' between Worf and O'Brien - another link to that episode is when Quark removes the transmitter from the Runabout's bulkhead, Odo querying his action, just as Worf ripped a console from the wall of the Jem'Hadar warship, much to Jadzia's disgust!).

Anyone that claimed 'DS9' was a station-locked series should check out this season before opening their mouths again: in the first nine episodes only three have actually been set on the station, and one of those was Terok Nor, the station of the past. This ninth episode features a subplot aboard DS9, but the majority of it takes place on an alien world, so it's been a wholly refreshing mix of stories and locations, and makes the series look terribly expensive - this episode on its own had the feel of a feature film, and if it had been made in cinema screen ratio would easily have passed muster. But it's also excelled in the small details - I kept making observations about little things and links to other episodes, like familiar extra Ensign Jones in the background (I think it's he that walks between Nog and O'Brien in the corridor where the pair chat about Nog's duties, Nog making light of the laborious or mundane tasks he has to do - everyone gets a little screen time, another reason why it feels so complete); Sisko's baseball's used once again as a visual metaphor (he rolls it to Nog across his desk to when speaking as a friend rather than a commanding officer, taking it back when formality returns); Fizzbin, the game Captain Kirk made up on the spot to fool gangsters in 'A Piece of The Action,' has since become a widely exported (presumably, since Quark's playing it), genuine card game; the supercool silver weather suits debut (later seen in 'Timeless' on 'Voyager'); Jake's story is called 'Past Prologue' (did it feature a renegade Bajoran terrorist, I wonder?); the list is almost endless.

This would have been the perfect time to have shown the back room of the Runabout, as seen on 'TNG' ('Timescape') - Quark complains about the cramped accommodations, but according to that series, he could have had a full-sized Tongo wheel in the back there, with room to cartwheel round it! Either the Rio Grande is built differently and the aft section is used for cargo or whatever, or Quark's just enjoying any opportunity to irritate Odo. Don't forget, this was a voyage of several days, so even a big room would seem smaller the longer you were confined to it. Maybe. To Nog, even the cockpit would have been a huge space - if you watch when he visits Sisko's office there's a small tumpty or footrest, a solid stool thing for him to sit on at just the right height. Did Sisko place it there specially, knowing the cadet would visit? It makes him look funny, his head at the same level as the table, Sisko leaning back above him in a relaxed, but commanding position. I reckon the Captain bought it for him as a 'welcome back' present, since you can see the very same piece of furniture in Nog and Jake's quarters later on! The whole scene in the Captain's office reminded me of when Nog came to make an official bribe, the thing that started off his whole adventure in going to the Academy, a nice return to that time in the style of the meeting.

You could probably count the number of episodes focusing on Quark and Odo on one hand. Judging by the superbly executed, wholly satisfying display of both their alienness and their strengths that are played up there weren’t enough, and this episode is probably the best argument to support that. It gave them a chance to let their hair down, (literally for Odo, only this time the producers couldn't complain that Auberjonois had done something out of character as he did in 'Crossfire' to evoke some kind of Japanese painting, or something!), to use these people in ways that they'd done before, but not to this extent, and to take advantage of the vast scaffolding of friendships and traits to blow it out of the park - thoughts, feelings, idiosyncrasies, all blended into an engrossing mixture with so many truthful moments. If Quark’s heroic status is ever doubted, this shows what he's made of. If it had been anyone else urging Quark on he might not have summoned the Ferengi tenacity that saves them in the end, even though verbally he's given up. It's the best elements of Seasons 1-4, enmeshed together to create the best material possible. Odo and Quark's antagonism; Jake and Nog's unconventional friendship; a 'Generations' crash onto a tree-lined planet. Yes, 'Generations' is the closest analogy I can get to explaining how I feel watching this episode. It has what that film had, condensed into half the time. A true beauty, a jewel, I wish all could be this amazing - just as 'Descent' proved to be a drop in quality and one of the weaker two-parters of 'TNG,' 'The Ascent' lived up to its name, and soared.

*****

Sleeper

DVD, Smallville S7 (Sleeper)

In fairness, it's been a good run recently with the Veritas plot, Pete coming back and Lionel murdered, so I was fully expecting a duffer to be on the horizon, and though this was not awful, it did fall into that category much more than a good one would. It begins well enough with a cat burglar Ninja dude taking out a guy and stealing his retinal scan briefcase (I didn't realise until the second run later in the episode that the guy who's jumped was none other than Sergeant Siler/the stunt guy from 'Stargate SG-1'! Did he move to 'Smallville' once his series ended or was this just a one-off thing, I'd love to know!). The music is all Asian and sets you to thinking this is some new villain of some kind, but then he pulls off his mask and it's Jimmy! That's one of the best gags here, and as a whole it wasn't terrible, like I said, it was just too farfetched that by the time I got to the dance I was gone. As soon as I saw this was going to be a Jimmy episode I was surprised at the novelty, then reality set in and I thought back to other ones where he was front and centre and my expectations dropped. But it was the dance at the Ace of Clubs between Chloe and Jimmy that sunk me, I just couldn't believe they were going to go for the whole dance.

I think we were supposed to be charmed by all the Jimmy/Chloe stuff going on, that things are going bad with so many secrets such as Chloe letting Oliver Queen use Isis as a storage area for his groups' equipment, not able to tell Jimmy about it (ooooh), then they eventually talk and it's all happy again (wheeee), but as I was never that bothered about them, I saw only the ridiculousness of the story: Jimmy's recruited by Special Agent Webber, evil agent stereotype supreme, who's seen Chloe's extracurricular activity trying to help Clark locate Brainiac and Kara - they had to tie it into Clark's story somehow, and it does make a certain amount of sense that the government would be investigating her after all the hacking she's done - usually when she gets in too deep it's one of the Luthors who bails her out, and what do you know, Lex takes her name off the federal arrest blacklist by the end, only this time it's to blackmail Jimmy, something to hold over him in future. Have we been here before? Yes, we have, Lionel and Lex have both blackmailed various people for various reasons so stick this is the 'cyclical' box along with so many other plot devices on this series.

What's silly is that a federal agent would recruit a friend of Chloe's to spy on her when clearly he could be with her, and would at the least have allegiance to her. I'm surprised Clark wasn't pulled in too, and Lana, if she weren't still in a coma, as associates of Miss Sullivan. Lana's missing again, (what can you do with a girl that just sits there), but then Clark barely figures either, his most memorable scene being with Jimmy who travels out to the Kent farm to ask about Chloe, while Clark gets his wires crossed and thinks he's talking about his own secret, almost spilling the beans. It would have made Lois look even more stupid if she was the only goodie left  who wasn't in the know (not that she's in this episode). Granted, that was a good moment, but would Jimmy really believe in Chloe as terrorist or that he couldn't ask her about what's going on, especially as he knows her deepest secret of being a meteor freak! So Webber gives him this briefcase of gadgets and he gets to play James Bond, and it's all so much wish fulfilment for teenage boys that it's too far out. I've moaned before about the series stretching credibility when it strains the boundaries of its own style and world, and this is another case in point. He trusts this woman and agrees to help her, ending up the hero when he rescues Chloe using his handheld shooting game (don't know what it was) as a distraction.

In other news Lex gets to Switzerland and finds the Veritas secret, a kind of astronomical clock mechanism, getting attacked by the bank guy in the process who knows he's not of the group. That guy must have been working there for a long time to protect the box! How could he be certain it would be violated when he was on duty? Suspension of disbelief, suspension of disbelief, then click your heels and you're back in Smallville, Kansas. How did Lex deal with the government whom his lackey reports are on his case? The same way he took Chloe's name off the list, I suppose, he must have friends in presidential places! I thought for a while this might be where Jimmy learns CK's secret, and you have the feeling that either that or Chloe's secret is going to be the eventual price Lex demands of him, but for now he remains ignorant.

Clark actually heads back to the Fortress of Solitude, risking a freezing like the last time he was there, though Dad doesn't even talk to him this time. Best of all Kara, manages to send a garbled message, and that, added to Chloe's pictures from a satellite (the reason she wanted to break into the building that Jimmy's tasked with accessing, which means her information wasn't really needed, except as confirmation), plus a page appearing in Swann's journal which wasn't there before, warning of Brainiac's intentions, leads them to the result: Brainiac and Kara went back in time to Krypton before it was destroyed, setting up the most overly expectant cliffhanger that they'll never be able to pull off: perhaps it's time Clark went home? Yeah, right, they're never going to achieve that on a TV budget. Are they?

**

Doctor's Orders

DVD, Enterprise S3 (Doctor's Orders)

Character was one example of something 'Enterprise' often didn't do as well as the other series', but with this 'haunted house' episode, as Phlox calls it, they made you care about him and feel so bad for him when he crumbles, everything seemingly failing in his mission to keep the crew alive. He has to look after the running of the NX-01 as the ship traverses a gigantic anomaly cloud, while everyone else has to be kept comatose to protect their brains. Many times you find that episodes of Trek reflect a previous story on another series, but their lineage isn't usually so direct as this story, which is very much a remake of 'One' on 'Voyager' in which Seven of Nine goes through the same circumstances, even down to having a companion who may not be all they seem. This is not a complaint, as it's often entertaining to see new characters put through similar experiences to their predecessors to see how they react comparatively. I believe I actually saw this one before 'One,' which I missed on transmission, eventually getting to on my first DVD run through, so I probably have slightly more allegiance to this version, even though 'Voyager' was the superior series over all.

Dr. Lucas, Phlox' human colleague whom he's kept up a correspondence with over the course of the series (and I believe is seen in the Augments trilogy of Season 4), though I'm not sure he's been mentioned since Season 1, is part of the story again. It makes me wish there was more time for scenes like the ones where Phlox narrates a letter to him, because after the first season many of those unique character moments were not bothered with, losing some of the essential ingredients that endear us to a cast. This episode doesn't make up for all the missing time we could have spent in Phlox' company, but it does a good job of reminding us why he was such fun in the first season - we see him interacting with Porthos (almost phasering him, no less!); having the film night alone; jogging round the empty decks; even enjoying the freedom of nakedness since there was no one else around to be offended. Did he trim his toenails to fit what appeared to be standard slippers, as early on we see his usual scraggly growths which might not fit a shoe so neatly?

The naked scene takes on a new tone when we find T'Pol is up and about too, though I can imagine the doctor being perfectly happy in his 'natural' state even with a Vulcan around, as long as she was off somewhere making diagnostics or staying in her quarters. But the clues are all there: when he invites her to dinner in the desolate galley (they chat about good old Chef and his culinary deficiencies, so it's good to know he came on the mission into the Expanse!), she never touches the food. When he's using the Tricorder she never takes it from him to check if it's working properly; and in the most critical moment with the warp engines having problems, she appears ignorant of the controls, leading Phlox to do every physical adjustment himself. Having seen the episode before, I knew the twist, but it is fascinating (as T'Pol would say), to see how delicately they use her without ever giving away that she, like everyone else who appears, is a figment of his imagination.

The only real jumpy moment is when he peers out of the porthole - my idea to make this episode much creepier would be to have made the anomaly a dark brown and black rather than the bright and beautiful blues and purples. That way when Phlox passed a window it would feel like anything could be looking in at any time. But still, it was a scare, and actually much better than the later 'encounters' with Xindi-Insectoids, or zombie Hoshi. Phlox hasn't had a lot of good experiences with the girl, has he! In 'The Crossing' she was taken over by an alien consciousness and kicked him in the face when he came into her room, and now he imagines her as a hideous monster that blames him for her scars. I think they lingered too long on her face, or the Xindi, it should have been half-second scares where you don't have time for the look to sink in to your mind, just enough to jolt you. At least we had some clear shots of the NX-01's empty corridors and bridge so that in twenty-five years they'll be able to use the footage for a 'Relics'-style revisitation!

I wouldn't say Roxann Dawson did a bad job, though, and I would say it was one of her better recent 'Enterprise' episodes full of a variety of shots we wouldn't normally see - the Porthos point of view, the camera low down and looking up at the looming shape of the Doctor when we first see Phlox running after him (he does more running in this than all his other episodes combined, I'll bet!), or the odd angle looking down from the engine room's balcony as a worried Phlox and unhelpful T'Pol converse on what must be done, the enormity of the situation bearing down on a tiny, insignificant Denobulan. I also had the strongest impression of the ship's submarine-like structure than I've ever had before, probably because those vessels tend to be fairly empty, except for certain areas. I wonder why Phlox imagines people the way he does? Does he have such strong self-doubt that he thinks Archer would come along and say he isn't up to the job? Or that Trip thinks so badly of him that he would warn him away from interfering with the engines.

That leads me to a couple of the most satisfying character moments, and though they're in a Phlox episode they're as much about his companion as himself: when Archer shows confidence in him it's a warm moment, but even more so was Trip's encouragement that if he ever got in a jam and couldn't do anything about it, he must wake Trip, even though it would cost the engineer his life. It was such a self-sacrificial moment for Trip, and an understanding between him and Phlox that he would entrust this with him as a last resort to save the ship, that it ranks up there as one of the best scenes of the episode! T'Pol's loss of control isn't as overt as might have been attempted, and though I would normally complain about her overly emotional version of a Vulcan there were extenuating circumstances in this case - it wasn't really her, and if it had been, she'd have been affected by the anomaly. She actually played a bit of comedy when she shows herself so incompetent and so helpless during the crisis, yet also so apologetic, that it evoked a smile from me. All that was missing was for her to do some completely un-Vulcan act at the end, such as a peck on Phlox' cheek just before he finds out that T'Pol's actually been asleep the whole time. That would have made the episode.

Even as it stands I consider this one of the better examples of the season (Phlox even learns to appreciate Mayweather's efforts at helm!), with the tension level just turned up enough to rattle the doc, but not enough for him to turn into a gibbering idiot. As he works out how to solve the problem with the engine and the warp speed increases we're totally rooting for him, an achievement on its own, considering there isn't always such a strong level of attachment reached on this series. It was about time Phlox got a proper episode to himself, just like Hoshi with 'Exile,' and it's only Travis who's yet to headline a story. But don't go into a coma waiting for that one… Phlox is the hero of this story, and while I would have liked more congratulations for him at the end, I also felt the lighter way they did it with the Mess Hall scene between him and T'Pol worked well. The story touches on the Xindi as this threat at the back of everyone's mind, as much as they are a real, physical enemy, and the need to get to Azati Prime as quickly as possible was the motivator for the predicament, but it was a personal battle for a member of the crew to overcome, and we don't see enough of that on the series, so this was a successful and creepy pleasure.

***

Things Past

DVD, DS9 S5 (Things Past)

Time travel was achieved in more ways than one this time, while also featuring no time travel at all. Work that one out! The time travel to which I refer is the real world making of the series, since they were recreating the impression and period in history (the other form of time travel, a representation of the station's own past), that had been first seen in Season 2, 'Necessary Evil,' a past in which the Cardassians were in full control of their mining station Terok Nor, as it was known then, during the Occupation of Bajor. Like 'The Assignment' was a reversal of the O'Brien/Keiko roles from Season 2's 'Whispers,' 'Things Past' flips Odo and Kira's - clever, since she only shows up at the end. It would have been very satisfying to see her Occupation self again, as seen in 'Necessary Evil,' and though we got to revisit her younger years later in the season (the flashbacks in 'Ties of Blood and Water'), that was before she came to Terok Nor. We'd already seen her first meeting with Odo, in the former episode, where she convinces Odo of her innocence in a murder, later discovered to have been a lie.

Whom among the DS9 occupants can say they don't have any secrets (even Morn was found to be more than just the barstool-warmer he appeared), and yet as surprised and shocked as Odo was back then, Kira is equally disappointed. You'd think she'd go easy on him since the same situation they'd gone through three years or so before was repeating, and, give her her dues, she does concede that no one who lived through the Occupation went unscathed, it's just that she saw Odo as the only good man, the true bearer of justice, and it pains her to see her faith in him, if not shattered, then deeply blemished. But maybe the truth coming out at this time was a good development for the pair, though they didn't know it. Odo already knew Kira was an imperfect being, but she saw him as being above such petty things. Now that she sees he's just as vulnerable to his own weaknesses as everyone else it should make him more real, more truthful to his real self.

I think Odo would have done whatever he could to keep this dark secret from her, if he could, which is what makes his anguish so keen and his guilt so visible as soon as he realises the time and place he's experiencing. I'm sure Odo would have wanted to keep the secret safe and secure inside him for all time if he could, though it was healthier for him to admit it and release the guilt into the open. As much as he didn't want Sisko and the others to know, he cares most about Kira's perception of him, and perhaps it was another of his attempts to give her what she wanted: an impossible picture of him as this dependable individual who could always be counted on, who made the Occupation that little bit fairer for her people on the station.

You have to wonder how many different scenarios they could come up with for an altered reality - we've seen before in more recent seasons that Starfleet officers often go through a list of possibilities because it's something that's happened so many times. They didn't need to do that on 'TOS' or 'TNG' because the variety hadn't unfolded into a myriad different adventures then, but now we've had parallel universes, we've had alien fabrications, we've had Holodeck scenarios, alternate perspectives, even trips into a person's mind. And still they engineer a new way to put the protagonists into this kind of story! This time it's a telepathic connection, a sort of shared dream world, couched in an easily relatable period of their recent history. Part of the impact stems from Sisko and the others' attempts to understand what exactly it is they're playing out, only Odo aware of the ramifications, though even he doesn't realise this is all unravelling out of his own head. If he'd known that, he might have opened up a bit earlier, but he just hoped upon hope that he could get through this without the truth being known, and as a last resort, change the course of history.

Except this is not the history he knows should be happening, small details aren't right. Thrax is the piece that doesn't fit into his nightmare. I'm not so sure we ever got to meet Thrax as I believe Odo said he had left before he was appointed to the post (by Dukat, as seen in 'Necessary Evil'), so it seems more feasible that Thrax was a cover rather than an accurate representation of the man, that Odo's subconscious mind used to hide the fact it was he who caused the controversy, allowing three innocent Bajorans to be executed. Thrax is Odo, Sisko even notes how the Cardassian isn't the usual brutal type, but a thinking man, like Odo. But why did Odo allow the injustice? Did he believe it was necessary to provide an example for the Bajorans so they would be more law-abiding? Was he lazy, overlooking the evidence that he pleads with Thrax is there under his nose? Or was he trying too hard to appear detached from either side, to keep aloof, impartial justice his badge of outsiderness?

Kurtwood Smith was a good choice for the foil of Odo, as a version of the Changeling (Thrax even morphs, literally into one of Odo's people, as if even Odo's own subconscious would betray him to his friends' minds that he and Thrax are the same), in his second of three Trek roles I can remember (the Federation President of 'Star Trek VI' and another villain with an 'x' in his name, Annorax of 'Year of Hell,' one of the great 'Voyager' two-parters). I used to get confused about who Thrax was (not in the dream world sense, but the actual person), because Odo makes the same mistake - a hook-nosed Bajoran, one of the three that was killed, appears to him on the Promenade, though the others don't see him, and refer to Thrax (up on the second level), confusing Odo. It was also because there's a picture of hook-nose that stayed in my mind because it's so striking, and adding these things together I believed this was Thrax, partly because he's such a nondescript or atypical Cardassian, as Sisko notices.

I love to see the history of Deep Space Nine brought to life, even though these were Odo's memories. The same could be said of 'Necessary Evil' in that they were flashbacks rather than actual time travel, though we'd visit in real time for the Season 6 episode 'Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night,' to see another of the suicide attempts on Dukat's life. I think that was the only other time Terok Nor was seen, but it made such an impact whenever they redressed those sets: DS9, the Bajoran facility, is bright, clean and open, with plenty of space, neon lights glowing and the hustle and bustle of a shopping mall. Even in the present you can sense the evil times of its past, like a house that has not forgotten its history, in the dark corridors and unexplored depths of the mining sections (see 'Civil Defence'). Just as much as seeing the segregated station with its high fences, gloomy murk and cruel dungeon or prison-like depiction, is getting to see earlier versions of some of the people we know so well in the series: Quark is harsher, obnoxious and condescending, but we also know he was more benevolent and goodhearted than his landlords, so it's probably more of an act to keep on side with the Cardassians. He didn't have to offer the Bajorans work. One thing, though - whenever I see him in this time period I wish, just for the sake of authenticity and an in-joke, that they'd given him Rom's nose again, as that's the nose he has in 'Emissary'!

Dukat is the only other character from the past we meet this time. I'm sure the writer's relished playing with the old Dukat, his personality before he became complex, a kind of hero taking on the Klingons in his little ship! Back then he still considered himself the 'hero,' as if he was the champion of the Bajorans rather than their oppressive master. Dax does an admirable job of playing the role of the downtrodden, frightened Bajoran girl she appears to be, but there's a cold echo of these two characters later meeting in Season 6, probably because we never usually see them together. Here, foreshadowing what would happen between them later, Dukat is apologetic about what's happened to her or her people in the Occupation, even admitting that he sees the Bajorans' behaviour in trying to kill him as his own fault - it shows he could be as deluded against himself as for, since usually he's saying what a great help he was to that people in those days. It's a tenuous connection with 'Tears of The Prophets,' but in that terrible moment he also claimed he had no intention of harming his victim, just as he takes on a Fatherly view of himself in this, as if the Bajorans were his errant children.

The stuff with Dukat was completely supplemental to the main event, he only needed to be there for the attack on his life by the Bajoran Resistance, but it gives Dax something to do and keeps you believing that there's a way out of the puzzle if they can just do the correct action, when in truth nothing they do makes any difference, such as when Dax arrives to free her trapped crewmates in a scene so heavily reminiscent of 'Star Trek V' that I actually shouted out "Do ye not know a jailbreak when ye see one?" - how I'd have loved Dax to say that line, or an approximation! But it's all a red herring, because after getting far enough to escape through an airlock after a fight with Thrax and his men they find themselves inexorably back in the holding cell, as if 'history' cannot be changed and they must be executed. What ship did they plan to escape on, that's what I'd like to know - it would have been terribly embarrassing to arrive at the airlock and find nothing moored there! I wonder whether it would have been better to keep the audience in as much suspense about the situation they were in as the participants. We know it's all playing out mentally because Bashir and Worf have the bodies arranged in the Infirmary, but if we hadn't had any of those scenes, the various ideas of a shapeshifter trap or some other anomaly that sent them to an alternate reality would have been kept alive.

Even so, Odo's extreme anguish means the ending has a lot of bite. When he persuades Thrax to at least listen to what he's got to say, then breaks the laws of the universe he knows mean so much to his Starfleet fellows by telling the Cardassian who they really are, then comes the most alarming moment: Thrax says he knows who they are and must carry out his orders as before. Whenever a person inside another reality turns around and says they're on the same level as those visiting it, it's a nightmarish moment, and for Odo it couldn't be a more apt word to describe the hellish guilt he goes through. But I can't help but see it all as cathartic therapy for Odo that his own mind has forced him to address something so twisted up inside him. It's meant that he takes no pleasure in the compliments of people on his devotion to truth and justice, and nothing but the truth, when they praise his great example to those he worked with, as in the teaser aboard the Runabout (another not to be named - maybe they forgot they even had names and had O'Brien paint over all the designations?). Now that Odo's had to confront himself and his actions he can begin to work through them, to accept the past for what it is and move on.

I thought it was left open to begin with, whether the others had retained a memory of the events they'd witnessed once they woke up, because they don't rush over to Odo and demand if it was true, or why it happened. Maybe they were too dazed, because Odo clearly felt he had to write a report, which is what Kira read. It reminded me of Jake's position at the end of 'Nor The Battle To The Strong' - the line between justice and inequity closer than you think, or something, but Odo didn't have the support of a Father to reassure him. Mind you, he hadn't willingly shared his secret past so it wasn't quite the same situation, but there were parallels. For Odo, this whole experience was a cruel torture, he's always been the most private and self-contained individual, so to have shared one of his deepest sorrows and lowest point with others, and to have done so through his own subconscious desire to reach out, must have been painfully wrought, just like in 'Heart of Stone.' The scientific explanation made perfect sense, and though there is some irony that he achieved The Great Link through a telepathic bond after he'd been turned 'human,' it tells you once again how strong the need for his own kind is within him, a hint to his future as well as dealing with his past.

It's only the present that has little bearing, this time. It's a shame the standard uniforms were barely seen when you realise that in only a couple of episodes they'd be gone forever (except on 'Voyager'), and the next one was mostly off-station and out of uniform. It's not that I loved those shoulder-colour versions, though I preferred them to the 'TNG' chest-colour variety, the 'TNG' films' style was the best-looking uniform they ever came up with! It was completely fitting that the grey-shoulder design should graduate to 'DS9,' both for its contrast and for its tone, which suited the series down to the ground. Maybe they deliberately kept the old uniforms to a minimum so as to prepare for the new and make the change less jarring. Then again, if they'd been wearing the new ones on Terok Nor they'd have faded into the background like camouflage!

Also in the 'present' were parallels with a different reality: 'The Matrix.' This was actually made before that great film, but you can see similarities in the way the four are lying on beds when 'jacked in' to Odo's mind. Even more can be seen when Garak gets belted in the face and blood trickles down his cheek as he's lying in the Infirmary - if they kill you in the Matrix you die in the real world. None of which explains a small, but noticeable inconsistency in the present, from Worf of all people: he says the Runabout's coming in, and to prepare Landing Pad 1, but they've always been designated by A, B, or C, not numbers! If this was Season 4 you could put it down to inexperience with the station, so maybe they built an extra pad, or changed the designation, or… could it be that they simply forgot? Such an important detail of the series? The Runabouts still get a raw deal even though they're being used more often - they never get named and now this…

Garak's someone I should talk about. He's always one of the most anticipated people to catch up with when a new season begins, and aside from a recap at the beginning of 'Apocalypse Rising,' he hadn't been seen. Eight episodes in and it was about time we had him play a part in proceedings! But it wasn't like he was essential to the story, the role could have been just as easily filled with O'Brien or Bashir, but they chose Garak. It's a bit like 'Mission: Impossible' where they had this large selection of people they could use, and would select a team based on their characteristics - we'll have this spy, this science officer, this security man, and Mr. Phelps, I mean Sisko, if you choose to accept it. I felt Garak was added more for the sake of using him than any other reason, but his Cardassian nature does create some amusement - his assumption that his old codes would work, or coming up with a plausible explanation to give to the Command as a last resort.

His 'hobby' of pickpocketing is another as is his reaction to the racial slur of 'spoonheads,' from the Bajoran Resistance member, the guy that earlier had enjoined them to wake up from what he assumed was a chemically induced stupor and show themselves to be people, not slaves for the Cardassians to push around (he also had one of the best lines - responding to Sisko's assertion that they aren't who they seem to be, 'I hope not, because you seem to be wasting my time!'), is funny, but it still felt wrong for such a moniker to be used, maybe because we're so incredibly politically correct and have to be extremely careful about what's said nowadays, more so even than when this episode came out, giving it more shock value than humour. I wonder if the line came up because they'd just been handing round spoons to eat the soup with, or whether they'd been looking to get the reference in after it had been heard in the background of a previous episode or cut scene?

We get more station history laid down, with details of Thrax having been in charge of security nine years before, and Odo seven years, though if it was proved false it could easily be explained away as Odo's memory playing tricks. Levar Burton, back for more directing duties, seems to like 'DS9,' that's the impression I get. He always does a grand job, here expertly recreating the time period, but also injecting a mood of horror into, mainly, Odo's perspective as he almost falls apart from the writhing emotions he feels. For a man without a face he can really project such intensity of feeling in his whole bearing and when you know what's really happening you can't help but feel so sorry for him.

Trivia buffs, look out for Ensign Jones, who is the security man that beams to the Runabout with Worf and Bashir. Dax pulls Leeta's name out of the air when past Dukat asks who she is, and Nana Visitor's back after being absent from three episodes - her scenes in 'Tribble-ations' were shot prior to the rest of it as she was having her real baby, that is Bashir's, I mean Alexander Siddig's, not Colm Meaney's, I mean Chief O'Brien's. It gets so confusing, but it looks like she was back from her few weeks of absence for her meeting with Odo, thematically linking this even more strongly with 'Necessary Evil,' the other side of the coin playing out. While Odo became physically human in Season Four it’s only now that he finally admits, is forced to admit that he is ‘just an imperfect humanoid like everyone else.’ The lesson here is that no matter how good your reputation, you can never be perfect, and the downside to people thinking well of you is that they can be shocked when you're revealed to be only human, an imperfect creation. Honesty is the best and easiest policy in the long run, as deceit can be painful, more painful perhaps than revealing imperfections and mistakes.

****

Of Guilt, Models and Murder

DVD, The Incredible Hulk (Of Guilt, Models and Murder)

I still can't get used to the story being told in advance by teaser clips at the beginning, and this time it really did undermine what was otherwise a dramatically different opening to the story. For this time we begin just after Banner has Hulked-out, the man cooling off in someone's mansion. The signs don't look good: he sees a dead woman, the room wrecked. Can this mean… the Hulk is a killer? That's the central idea for this story, but it doesn't come across strongly enough. There's an attempt at breaking the formula, doing something different instead of the tried and tested 'Banner arrives somewhere, helps a lady in distress and goes Hulk-mad when she's threatened, uncovering criminals in the process,' that had worked reasonably well so far. I was only saying last episode how long it takes reporter McGee to get into the story since he's only summoned once the Hulk appears. They got round that this time by having the first Hulk-out before the episode starts, so he's in on the action much quicker than usual.

It was a good stab at doing something more with the format, adding a bit of a mystery of multiple points of view, each telling a different tale. But the trauma and deeply felt motive that drives Banner this week (or David Blaine as he calls himself this time), is his guilt over whether it was really the Hulk that crushed model Terri Ann Smith's back, or something more sinister. That first Hulk-out has everything you'd expect: a fight with dumb animals (seeing the dog sailing through the air looked more real than the usual puppets, so maybe it was a real dog?), Hulk smashing through a door and turning a room into a war zone! If we're talking different points of view, it could be said that there's either one Hulk-out (in the car crusher), or many - the pre-episode one is seen in flashback several times. As soon as we know Hulk didn't do the deed the story loses its potential, with only the double-crossing of Sheila to make up for the certainty about what's going on. Jeremy Brett (ten years after he was in an episode of 'The Champions' and still a few years away from his most famous role as Sherlock Holmes in the 80s), was fine as the suave head of a business empire, Joslyn Cosmetics, but once the truth was known he became just another ruthless enemy.

Did Sanderson not realise Banner had turned into the Hulk, or was he so glad to escape, and so terrified of the creature that he ran into the distance never to be heard from again? What about the recording on McGee's tape recorder? Won't Banner's voice be on there? It was daft enough that he could lose all his clothes but still had the recorder when he came to, even after the encounter with the crusher! It's like one of those computer games where you have a bag to put stuff in and there's infinite space, nothing getting damaged in all your adventures! And that supposedly weighty statue that Joslyn hit Terri with in one version of the story was seen to roll lightly away when Hulk picked up her dead body! There were also some technical flaws again, this time in the dubbed lines during the car crusher scenes which were cut abruptly short and sounded unnatural, and some scenes that were slowed down didn't look right - I'm used to it when the Hulk's on screen as that's a device to make him look larger and weightier, but when it's the other characters, as if for some directorial reason, it was a mistake.

I liked the flashback to Elaina from the first pilot, and all the stuff they did early on with Banner staggering around, wondering about himself, almost turning himself in to the police, so I just wish the multiple viewpoint idea and the head of an empire opponent could have become something more. I hate to say it, but I think this is the new low point, and that's very sad when it comes at a time they were trying something different and shaking up the style of the series a little - it wasn't that that was the problem, it was diverting from that into the same old story of Banner being locked away by the bad guys, Elkin the hairy heavy this time, who manoeuvres the old banger into the crusher. It wasn't trying hard enough after a good start. Disappointing.

**

Let He Who is Without Sin…

DVD, DS9 S5 (Let He Who is Without Sin…)

There is much to discuss. Actually, you know, there isn't as much as the other episodes, this being the first of Season 5 to let the side down. It wasn't bad going, seven episodes in and only now do we get one which is not 'fantastic,' and is merely 'good.' Being merely good is not something that 'DS9' aspired to after its first couple of seasons, and after a string of greats this one does tend to stand out a bit more than it might have done had it been part of an earlier season - it's that Season 5 consistency I keep talking about, sometimes the high quality level was a curse. Fortunately it was something of an anomaly, and you can count the merely good episodes this season on one hand. And I was wrong, this couldn't have been done in earlier seasons, unless it had been Season 4, because this is heavily Worf's story, and if he wasn't at the centre of it, it could easily have been lost to soapiness.

Not that the idea of people going on holiday is boring in itself (looking forward, 'The Ascent' is pretty much Quark and Odo on holiday, albeit an unscheduled one, in harsh conditions), 'The Jem'Hadar' was great, putting Sisko and Jake with Quark and Nog made for a fascinating juxtaposition. But it was the holiday going awry, the adventures that ensued in spite of the holiday that made it so good. A holiday where things went right for the most part doesn't work so well. And that's where this version falls down - they even set it up in a similar way to the Season 2 cliffhanger, where Quark was the uninvited and unwanted tripper, only this time he's practically forgotten, his only point being to wind Worf up early on, and then complain about all the rain later (being an expert on the subject, since he comes from a planet that has over a hundred and seventy different words for rain, and none for 'crisp,' which were two of the fun facts I picked up from his scenes).

Quark can't be blamed for not shining in an episode that barely features him, so what brings things down? Maybe it's one of those rare things: 'DS9' doing an episode just for the sake of it. It wasn't usually the case, they went out of their way to be creative, but this time it felt like the motive was that 'TNG' had done a Risa episode, so now 'DS9' was going to do it, too. Usually that would be no problem, but Risa was never ripe with possibilities unless it be unsavoury, immoral possibilities. It's a hedonistic pleasure planet, its only purpose to provide hippy 'free love' and the casting aside of restraint and responsibility. So Starfleet officers were never going to be shown at their best there. Either they would look weak for succumbing to temptations and leaving behind the strict discipline and heroic status of a life in Starfleet, or they were going to come across as killjoy, buttoned-up grumps. This is where Worf fitted in, though it becomes more about his irritation with Dax and her ways than anything else.

The characters are more open and candid than we see them usually, which would make sense in a relaxed environment, so we hear Dax and Worf get down to the nitty-gritty about what they think of each other, and Quark and Bashir discuss Jadzia in front of her as though she were a patient of some kind. It's refreshing to hear the inner thoughts of the characters spoken out so clearly, Bashir saying that her problem is she's too much work, but you wouldn't want that kind of thing all the time. Dax is a lot of work, because she has a streak of daring and cheek, she's like a happy Vulcan in some ways. In the early episodes she was so serene and aloof, purely scientific, and concerned only with the next mental challenge to figure out. As time went on, and Jadzia grew accustomed to the vast wealth of memories and personalities vying for her attention from the symbiont, she relaxed more, her fun side was revealed, and she showed her irreverence for authority and joy for life that, I don't know, an old person might have if they'd remained young at heart. Jadzia had the excitement of youth and the wisdom of age at the same time, the ability to be self-restrained, but also sometimes acting childishly (such as when she becomes almost insubordinate to Sisko in 'The Ship').

As Martok's wife would find out, and Worf is told here, Dax isn't controllable except when she controls herself, and one of her traits is that she will chooses to be out of control. Of course all these things are taken out of hand thanks to the pride of two people quarrelling, so there's that to it as well, but her reactions in this story don't make her creditable - she says Worf is this paragon of virtue (more like a parody of virtue - sorry, I can't hear that phrase without adding Kasidy's comeback from 'For The Cause'), and he is, he's the best example of what a Klingon should be. He really is honourable, and just as with K'Ehleyr, he wants things straightened out with Dax regarding marriage. She's so free and easy it comes across as her having no reverence for such a sacred thing, but she reverses it on Worf as if he's the one being stuffy and boring. Things would change over the season, some kind of compromise would be reached between the two, and it all worked out, but that was then and this is now.

One of those fun references that comes up periodically are the otherworldly species that inhabit or visit the station, which were outlandish and difficult to do without CGI (hence we never saw them, unless you count Morn, in this episode giving a flower to some older Starfleet woman!) - we hear of the Gallamite, Captain Boday again this time. He's the one with the transparent skull. This is what starts off Worf's displeasure during a small gathering with Dax, Sisko and Odo in the Replimat, but this, the only scene actually on DS9, is good fun, and even though it's only there to make sure Odo and Sisko get some exposure, it's a nice throwback to their earlier meeting together in 'Apocalypse Rising.' Odo's come a long way. We haven't seen the anguish that might have been expected of his new lifestyle, but that's because he's a very private person, and the one he might talk more openly to, Kira, has been preoccupied with the O'Brien pregnancy. I also note once again that the Runabouts are getting their maximum usage this season, as that's what Worf, Dax, Quark, Bashir and Leeta use to travel to Risa, though I was disappointed again not to be told which it was!

Now that's another thing that stops the episode gelling like the others have: Bashir and Leeta. She had only been in, what, three other episodes, beginning with the latter half of Season 3. In that one she's introduced as this ditzy Dabo girl impressed by the doctor, but either there were no references, or so few that they slipped by, forgotten, but I haven't thought of Leeta and Bashir as a couple since then, so it's incongruous and out of the blue that they're taking part in this big Rite of Separation! I reckon she made all that up as an excuse for the trip, but the single thing that sticks in my mind about them in the episode is Bashir's clothing, which looks like either pyjamas, or some Arabic style of dress. Without elaborate slippers and a turban he just sticks out as if they'd put 20th Century casual clothing on him. And they also don't have any good scenes, mostly sat around or strolling, so they were surplus to requirements, as much as I like to see a recurring character like Leeta brought back again. The only aspect of her contribution that appealed was the incredulity she inspired in Quark and Bashir when she announces she's more interested in Rom! This fits, since we know Rom's been spending time with her, the reason he knew about Bajoran mythology in 'The Assignment.' So it's fun on one level to see a continuing story drip-dripping into episodes, even in such a small and unobtrusive way.

Something else that didn't make a whole lot of sense was Curzon's retroactive demise. It might well have been just the way for such a man to go, knowing him from Sisko's stories and his memories bonding with Odo in 'Facets,' but when we saw him die on the operating table in 'Emissary,' gently smiling old man that he was, passing on his symbiont to Jadzia, who was on the other table, it didn't fit the mood described here. That's not to say it wasn't possible, as Arandis could have been the cause of his death without being there to see him die - he could have been rushed back to Trill for the transference procedure, but it's just another seedy line in the episode. It wasn't that I minded Arandis, but she was a typical Risan, vacant and uninteresting, not a proper character in the way they usually write characters on this series.

The biggest thing holding the episode back, for me the most important part of it, is that in a lot of ways Pascal Fullerton, leader of the Essentialists, was right. Only to a point, once he began to really trouble the safety of people's lives he became as much a threat as any of the other enemies of the Federation he mentions (Had 'First Contact' actually come out yet? He talks of the Borg, but tat could just as easily be referring to Wolf 359 - nice touch, anyway). But before he went too far, and Worf saw this as well, he was right that loving pleasure makes you soft and lacking a good moral calibre. The people we see on Risa are so loose and uninhibited as to make such a society decadent and one destined to perish, as the Roman Empire found out (it's even compared to that in the loosest of ways when Bashir says "When in Rome," about changing into more comfortable attire).

I'm not saying that having fun and enjoying life is bad, that's the intimation of the Essentialists - that they're old fogies (admittedly they are in look and dress), who don't 'get' Risa, and can't have fun so they want to stop others from having it, but actually they were right about needing to stay alert and be toughened up ready for whatever might come next. It wasn't the best time for Dax and the others to hear a message like that, when they were on holiday - as Dax said, she'd had plenty of time saving the galaxy and now it was time to enjoy herself. True, there is a time to work hard and a time to play, that's just a balanced life, but the Risan's lifestyle was unbalanced by their dependence on pleasure. If only Risa had been shown as more than a place where young, bathing-suit-wearing models hang on your every word - such a beautiful world must be full of pastimes that don't involve innuendo - walking in the mountains, bathing in the ocean, seeking out new life and undiscovered species… To boldly go on the holiday of a lifetime! I can just see the adverts now, but the trouble is this is not a family place, you couldn't take children there! So Risa isn't coming across as a three-dimensional place, too much time is spent concentrating on the alluring aspects of its culture. This is why I felt Worf was right to teach them a lesson and revert the planet's weather to its natural, uncontrolled state: rain. Us English people would have been right at home there!

That which makes this a watchable episode is the meeting of minds between Dax and Worf, a coming together, an understanding of why they are the way they are. Worf's story about killing a young boy when he played football (or 'soccer' as American Klingons call it!), as a thirteen year old is riveting and so, so sad. I was racking my brain trying to remember where I'd heard a parallel in what he says - he's stronger and bigger than those around him and so all his life he's held back, frightened that he may one day lose control and hurt someone. And then it hit me (not Worf, fortunately!), he is 'The Incredible Hulk,' or the Dr. Banner of that personality. It's a connection I'd never ever considered before, but it's a potent association. On a lighter note, I couldn't help but make another association a little bit later: when he picks up Pascal one-handed, then throws him against a wall, Darth Vader came to mind. Hmm… Who'd win in a fight between Worf and Vader, or even a three-way match with Hulk, too…?

Enough with the green man, we've got to talk about blue ones - we have another Bolian, this being the season of Bolians, it appears. He doesn't get much of a character, being more of a background role, but he shows that even some Bolians can be tough (in sharp contrast to the weedy Boq'ta of 'Empok Nor'). Like the one in 'Nor The Battle To The Strong' he shows some compassion, not wishing Pascal to go as far as he wants, though he doesn't oppose his leader in the end. There were other blue people in the background in various scenes, but they were too far away to be certain of their race. We should be grateful that we never had to endure the sight of Worf stripped naked, since the episode ends before he gets as far as taking off the baldric. We've seen Klingon anatomy now and again - his brother Kurn's exoskeletal chest, his own ridged spine, but we've never had a fully shirtless Klingon running around, and that would be interesting from an anthropological perspective, but a headache from a makeup one (like Captain Boday), so it's probably best they avoided that (probably the same reason O'Brien wasn't in the episode at all!) - I must say I was surprised at how much Worf had mellowed from his 'TNG' days. In 'Conspiracy' he growls "Swimming is too much like… bathing." Yet Dax persuades him to take a dip with her as the suns set over the mountains.

It's an idyllic end, but an ending to an episode that gives mixed messages. On one hand it's saying anyone who makes rules or gets people to be serious and not do whatever they wish, is a wrong-headed, censoring dullard. On the other, they display just the kind of jealousy and misunderstanding that can result from a lack of boundaries and being willing to talk about things. Trek has often tried to express its desire that we all accept 'infinite diversity in infinite combinations,' but if you stop and think about what that really means (anything goes? Literally anything? There's no caveat there), 'anything' cannot be acceptable. Risa is a case of Trek trying to get a liberal message across, but failing; putting a Starfleet officer in the position of looking less heroic (Dax or Worf, they're interchangeable), while also having them stand up to terrorism. It's all a bit of a free-for-all muddle. Mind you, I'll grant them this: if Tim Smitt had modelled The Eden Project on Risa, attendance would probably have been much higher… Oh, and did you see de Horta? No, not the rock-guzzling silicon-based alien creature - one of the extras in the end credits was called DeHorter. Made me smile, that.

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