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.

***

Descent

DVD, Smallville S7 (Descent)

A real game-changer, where to start? Lionel's death at the beginning, I suppose. Let's see, I had read somewhere that Season 7 was Lionel's last, but I hadn't been thinking about that over the last few episodes, it hadn't crossed my mind, and then he's gone, just like that! Coming in the teaser, pushed out of a building by Lex, he sails to his doom, his face showing… I'm not sure - relief that Clark won't be compromised by him? Resignation that he's going to die? This is 'Smallville,' despite how much of the episodes happen in Metropolis now, so even as he fell I didn't believe this was the end of Lionel Luthor, though by the final scene of Lex and Clark standing, opposed in black, on a green hill outside the city, Lionel's coffin in the ground, well, it was pretty definitive (where was Lucas Luthor, Lionel's other son from Season 2?). But earlier I thought Clark was going to save him, or that another super-person would catch him. I thought Jor-El might revive him, that it wouldn't be his body when Lex pulls back the cover for identification. Thinking about it now, Chloe could bring him back, though it was said previously that if she brought back someone again it could kill her permanently, and she had little love for Lionel. Few did, but through his death it seems he was as true as he professed to be, his purpose to protect Clark, the 'Traveller,' at all costs, even to himself.

I think most people would have had their doubts about Lionel, as all through the series he's been shown to be untrustworthy, devious, conniving, all the qualities Lex had inherited. Even at his most helpful and protective of Clark since learning the secret a couple of seasons ago, I never fully trusted him, it was more likely he was still playing his own game to the advantage of himself. But he refused, denied, put up every shield against his son so that Clark's name would never pass his lips, and he was murdered for it! Even now I find it hard to believe they'd kill off someone that had been in the series so long and influentially, but if I hadn't known he was leaving this season I would still be coming up with theories about how he's going to come back. If it comes to it, he could still live again, and my immediate thought when he was certified dead was that this was a clone or there could be a clone of him to come. I doubt this is the very last we ever see of him since I've heard that most of the characters come back in some way in the last season, though that's only a rumour, and will hopefully be something I find out for myself in a couple of years when I eventually get to the end!

The thematic content was heavier than usual, this a defining episode of the season, a momentous part in the ongoing story similar to Lionel or Chloe finding out Clark's secret, Chloe revealing a meteor power, and other huge events. It's telling that Kara plays no part in it, showing how little she means to the overall story of the series. It's all about the good in Lex being completely overthrown, the last vestiges of humanity cast into the fire, literally, as he drags the imagined Young Lex down the stairs and throws him into the burning fireplace. We've seen him reject the good in himself before, 'Smallville' has ever been a series that spins on a turntable, the same few events repeating over, again and again, Lex' diminishing goodness one of those scratches in the record that had to be dragged out because the series was popular and it had to continue.

For once I'm not going to go on about the awful plotting and cyclical story lines, because I was impressed with what was done here. It was so unexpected that Lex would just push Lionel out of the window - I could see him holding his Father at gunpoint, forcing him to admit he had the key or could take Lex to where it was, but it was never a wise move to go and stand in front of someone with a gun in their hand. I also felt the importance of that key and that Lionel always wears it as the only security he can count on, was discredited by the fact that we've seen him so many times over the years in so many circumstances and he's never shown any concern for a little locket and the key it contained. That's because the writers hadn't come up with the idea yet, but it could also be that it's only this season, with Lex snooping into the Veritas group and learning of the Traveller, that he felt it necessary to conceal it on his person at all times.

There are some really on the nose conversations taking place in this episode, about things that have made up the series' mythology since day one: Lex ranting about his Father basically sacrificing him for the Traveller - they wouldn't have gone to Smallville if hadn't been for that mysterious person, and Lex' life was changed because of it. He's mad when he thinks this Traveller meant more to Lionel than he did, but Lionel tries the old line about toughening him up for his special destiny. Seven seasons in, to be able to have a meaningful conversation about events we saw in the pilot is a joy to behold, and for these writers, an achievement, because let's face it, they aren't among the best, they don't plot well and their characters often don't make sense. I was similarly impressed with Clark and Lex' talk at the mansion - Lex accusing Clark of being the perfect son, likening their two Father's to each other, calling out Clark as the main reason for all his troubles. He's gone wrong and he's desperate to blame others, but there's some truth in what he says, though it was jealousy more than anything that has driven him. Chloe's assertion that all three of his Father figures (Jor-El, Jonathan and Lionel), have made him the person he is today was something I'd never have thought of, never have bracketed those people together, but in some ways it's true, and this was one of the best ways to remind us of Jonathan and all that he meant at such a time, his picture proudly displayed by Clark.

Lex talks of how he struggled to be Clark's friend, and we've heard these conversations before, but the abyss between them has widened and darkened, and we've even had an impression of finality, as if this is the last time they'll ever talk on the level as person to person, but we've seen that, too. I can imagine we'll return to this again (if Lex' duration lasts long enough, like Lionel, I believe this is his last season also), but for now the conclusive nature of what's said and the way he demolishes the small voice left inside that was his child self, and committing patricide… it adds up to a lot, and again, this series is far from being above undermining great drama in subsequent episodes, but I can at least take this patch, this run of episodes from the season, and hold it up as good 'Smallville.' Wouldn't even go so far as to say 'great,' but good and solid; stuff that worked, and I didn't expect that from what I'd heard of Season 7. I could even grant that there was some artistic direction, with some beautiful shots of the Luthor mansion that I don't think we've seen before, and a slowing down, visualisation of Lex' mind when he's stopped by his young self outside LuthorCorp). They even brought back that detective character (Sawyer), at least I think it was her.

The episode doesn't rely solely on Lex' evil or Clark's determination to put himself solidly in his path, it uses all the characters that take part in an effective way, and a way that makes you fear Clark's absence from them - all the powers in the world can't put him in everyone's vicinity at the right moment, and they're in deep waters. Chloe's fired, and in another surprise of the episode, the key Lionel left for her to pass on to Clark is very easily discovered by Lex. She didn't know how vital it was until later, and she might just have wrestled it off Lex or pushed her mind to the limits to quell his curiosity, but it was given up too easily. So now Lex has the two keys to unlock the Traveller's secret, but if he hasn't realised Clark must be that man, then… I don't know.

As soon as I picked up on his assistant, Gina's fondness and diehard loyalty to her employer, I felt she was destined for the dead list. I didn't think it would happen so soon, but once she was becoming an agent in her own right, terrorising Lois and Jimmy, knocking Chloe out– no, wait. It was when she showed she knew Lex had killed Lionel, that was the moment I knew, everything else was just the process of getting there. It was a fabulous wrinkle in her story that she sees who Clark is, sends a tantalising message to Lex about it, but before he's listened to it, he's had her killed. I assume it was him. He's going to be even crazier when he realises what he's done, and I was imagining a great Darth Vader style "NOOOOOOOOOO!" over Lionel's grave!

Lois and Jimmy make a great team, they really do. They're dedicated to the story, they have a sort of Clark/Lois friendship of mutual appreciation, but also nagging (mainly on Lois's side), and they work well together as a Superman TV series should. Who could have imagined we'd have had 'Young New Adventures of Superman' from the evidence of watching the early seasons? I can't say I ever warmed to them in the way that the Scooby gang of Clark, Chloe and Pete were so fun to watch in the old days, but if they carry on in this vein the series could improve. They were put into a very traditional difficulty, locked in a freezer room (it's 'BUGS' Season 4!), Lois having been shot (again!), and you want Clark to somehow find them. It's a little easy for him to do so, able to filter out all the noise of the city to locate them who knows how far away, but it's wonderful to see him do one of those old tricks of busting in, fixing things (in this case blasting a heat vision bubble around them), then scooting out before they know anything - they are some of the few characters that don't know about his secret, and while that often makes them look foolish and backward, this time it took us back to those times when Clark had to save people without them realising it, and I miss that.

He's not always around at the critical moments this time, it's up to people to do the best they can, perhaps he's been spending more time with the comatose Lana, who doesn't appear, nor does Kara and Brainiac, though they're all mentioned. The story doesn't bog itself down with all these other things, one of the reasons the force of Lex' descent isn't watered down. It was right for them not to make Lionel's death sentimental, for all the terrible things he was and did. His death will be a great loss to Clark's cause, but less so on a personal level, and the same for the viewers. The irony is heavy that at his most honest and truthful and righteous, Lionel was shut out and ignored - his very voice in this and the last episode became weak, his body language defeated, stripped bare of all subtlety and subterfuge, so that Lex doesn't believe him in the slightest. The real sadness is in Lex' rejection of right, even now shouting about protecting the world from aliens, meteor freaks and any other weird stuff coming out of Smallville by controlling it. But you sense it's more about him not being hurt any more by those around him. This is the Lex Luthor of Superman, the devious, deadly power-monger, that smiles sinisterly at Gina when she shows such affection and joy that 'their' (his), plan is coming to fruition. Then having her killed. Yep, Mr. Luthor is here, Lex is gone.

***

Harbinger

DVD, Enterprise S3 (Harbinger)

One of those episodes of Season 3 that I was waiting for, looking forward to the heated exchange between Reed and Major Hayes, but I didn't expect it to happen in this story, and I had the impression that it had more buildup in the first half of the season. It shows that you can't rely on memory, an impression can be created by a few scenes scattered here and there. I say a few, but it's hardly been anything, Hayes has barely featured. But this wasn't all about their feud, this was an unusual episode in that it was very much a modern Trek episode as you might find in 'TNG,' 'DS9' or 'Voyager,' with an A-story and a B-story, and in this case, even a C-story, and that it all takes place on aboard ship, a view into life onboard at this critical juncture in its mission. These things are uncommon enough on the series, but we also have the episode starting with quite a long recap montage, and a teaser, making it one of the longer intros for the series, and especially the season.

I don't know why they chose to write this kind of episode, but it works, and after some similar types of story in Season 2, such as 'Singularity' or whatever, stories that often didn't work because there wasn't enough characterisation going on, or a greater purpose, it's a pleasant surprise that they pulled it off this time, in the midst of a season-long mission. There were things that needed to be addressed, but 'Enterprise' often didn't bother, or did so in a half-hearted way, but not this time. I'm not sure what the main plot was, as all three have about equal exposure, but let's take a look at what we have here: it begins unexpectedly with Trip and Corporal Cole, the Engineer unwisely attempting Vulcan neuropressure on the young MACO woman. She's not one we've seen before, which is fair enough, as their number has never been tied down specifically, or at least, we haven't met them all, though we've seen a good few faces over the season. I would have preferred more of this Starfleet/MACO interaction from the get-go (though the actual nature of it, I admit, was not what I had in mind!).

The story is really a shortcut to Trip and T'Pol's pairing off later in the series, and something to get them to a conversation on the subject. I never liked what they did with T'Pol in this area, it smacked of ratings rather than being true to Vulcan heritage - she's not in Pon Farr, and Vulcans are supposed to despise touching under almost any circumstance, but here we have full on kissing, disrobing of a commanding officer, and apparent jealousy from her. If they had gone out of their way to say that T'Pol is an abnormal representative of her species, it would have made the blow to the cultural significance and the bending or breaking of so many established facts about her people a little easier to take. In their defence they have given us small insights into her history (such as the Grandmother that visited Earth, or her experience as a secret agent), and she has become so much more loyal to her human crew than the Vulcan High Command, even leaving with the humans on their mission, against orders. So we do know she is an atypical person, but she's not a good Vulcan to watch if that's your favourite race, as it is mine.

Trip enjoys her extreme candour, but is thrown when she pretends it was merely research into human behaviour, which makes the scene even more casual and un-Vulcan-like than ever. It also bothered me that they were having this private conversation in the middle of the Mess Hall with a room full of crewmates around them. The sound department takes the blame for the mood being wrong in this scene, as it should have been full of chatter, bustle, and the noise of clinking plates, to make the intimate nature of their talk less obvious and open. Instead there's a very low murmur and barely a whisper to be heard, so it didn't suit the scene at all, especially after both had shown interest in keeping things between them.

The strength of the episode is in its characters, and who would have thought that of a series that mostly concentrated on the next alien or planet. That's not to say there's nothing worthy of attention in space terms, as we get a bizarre gloopy mass converging from five Spheres, a giant blob of anomaly that looks like something that would have been seen in 'TOS' if they'd had the effects to pull it off in those days. I like that, and I wanted to explore inside that thing, but I suppose it was just meant to be a decoy to attract their attention so they'd rescue the cracking up 'canary' man (played by a member of Trek repertory, Thomas Kopache, whose name I saw in the opening credits, then forgot about and never thought about it being him under the makeup! I like it when they reuse people effectively).

When I first saw him being slowly ejected from his pod I thought it was a Suliban, so it was disappointing to find that that race still hadn't been used this season,  but not for long as the episode came together well - the makeup good, and the twist of it all being a ruse to try and halt the NX-01's mission (by plunging a phasing hand into the engine core and blowing up the ship?), made better use of the fellow than being one of those mysterious people we meet, rescue, then he either dies or we take him back to his planet and never really understand what the point of him was. But no, he gets the last word, proudly boasting that if Earth is destroyed his people will prevail, a hint that something greater was happening than just war between the Xindi and humans, and leaving the episode with a thoughtful tone.

Archer's descent continues, his morality being chipped away by his need for information. This time he even vocalises it to Phlox, saying they may need to bend ethics this time to find out what's going on. It's a slide into darkness that has been gradual, but you could peg it out on a graph with the things he's done and the attitude he's taken in certain episodes. He isn't too far gone yet, and in this he was justified in his concern over the alien, but it is worrying to see him making these concessions to his good morals. The alien's switch from weak and dying patient to able adversary didn't make full use of the potential horror of the situation. I'm not saying he should have snapped Phlox' neck or grimaced at the camera more, but there was something 'light' about the way he stalked, or rather wandered, through the ship, when his devastating nature and ability to walk through anything should have precipitated a feeling like the Borg in 'Regeneration' or Silik's similar mission hurrying through walls in 'Cold Front.' It's like the series can't quite muster atmosphere sometimes.

Saying that, I did think the music and direction were good, the score back to the edgy drum beats and portentous throb of 'big things are happening,' even if they were only opening the pod's hatch or tracking the alien. I liked many of the shots Livingston chose to do, such as the view from inside one of Phlox' creature cages, or looking out of the alien pod. That pod took me back to the one in 'Future Tense,' and while this story wasn't up to that standard, the episode had plenty going for it. My favourite part had to be Reed and Hayes 'hitting it off,' and not in a friendly way, but a literal one! It wasn't just the out of control fight and the taunting, or the phaser range scene like in one of the early seasons of 'TNG' when Riker and Picard hang out on the Holodeck for a similar session of target practice, it was a progression from Reed's issue right from the season's opening. I liked that Travis got to be a part of things (I imagine we saw only one group that was being trained as Reed must have a larger security team than that and there are definitely more MACOs), even if he did get slammed, but the episode would have been more complete if Reed had had a scene with the guy, talking about what happened, like the one he has with Trip. I suppose they felt there just wasn't room for Reed or Trip to have a lad's friendship with more than the two of them, another reason why Travis' exposure was reduced.

Even though the timeline of events leading to Reed and Hayes beating each other up was truncated, it was one of the things I remembered favourably about the season, and looked forward to. It's good that they get it out of their systems, and that there was room for a bit of amusement in what was a serious episode: the moment they're standing to attention after Archer's given them a strong talking to and left the room without dismissing them, was best, but there was also enjoyment to be had in the teasing during Reed and Trip's dinner, or Trip's bemused face whenever he's talking to T'Pol. I liked the mention of Jupiter Station, something that crops up now and again (visited in 'Voyager'), and the general feel of the episode as life on a starship, so rarely done well in the series. I look forward to Reed and Hayes working together as allies now the air has cleared, and making a stronger challenge for any race that chooses to oppose them. Incidentally, I wonder if they celebrated Christmas, since we're told this is set a couple of days after?

***

Trials and Tribble-ations

DVD, DS9 S5 (Trials and Tribble-ations)

The trouble with 'Tribble-ations' is that it's such a momentous episode, such a bastion of interlinking continuity, such a fanatically impressive recreation of 'TOS' and the only episode of its kind, that any review I make won't come close to explaining all that I think about it. For one thing, there's so much to think about; details are rife; comedic lines and observations; costumes and sets; people and actors; they're all enmeshed in a celebration of the origin of Trek, the very roots of where it all began - to think I could write a satisfactory breakdown would be a delusion. It's all just too much, and I've seen it so many times that I can't separate it out individually in my mind. Who was the best actor? Who fitted into the 'TOS' world best? The facets of technique and invention they used to pull off the seamless integration of 'DS9' characters into that environment… It's like that scene from 'The Lord of The Rings' - if you've watched the extras you'll know the one I mean: a shot of Frodo and Sam, I think it's the cliff top above Minas Morgul in 'The Return of The King.' Frodo's head shot was filmed one year, then the sets were packed into storage and Sam's reaction head shot wasn't filmed until a year or so later. This time we have Kirk covered in Tribbles, with more dropping onto his head intermittently, filmed in 1967, then Sisko and Dax in the grain silo above him, throwing those Tribbles down, in 1996!

The enormity of the achievement is immense and remains unrivalled. It wasn't the first episode to recreate something of its parent series, 'TNG' had done that with 'Relics' and the Holodeck recreation of Kirk's bridge. And it wouldn't be the last to do it, either - 'Enterprise' built an entire Constitution-class bridge set for its two-parter, 'In A Mirror, Darkly.' But neither of them went into the sets as a place to exist in and explore as much as 'Tribble-ations' did, another case of 'DS9' triumphantly trumping any other series. The question of the original Enterprise came up when new people came and designed a modern version for 'Star Trek XI,' and while I can understand the business reasons for why they didn't produce an identical replica of the creaky old 60s sets (even 'The Motion Picture' realised you needed a bigger, more high-resolution setup for the widescreen medium of film), it could never feel the same, and for most people that knew Trek before it became Lens Flare Trek, that original bridge will always be the definitive home of Kirk, Spock and the crew, so to have some of our favourite characters hook up with it, not just see it on a viewscreen, but actually go there and interact with it…

It's not solely about 'TOS,' this is still a 'DS9' episode after all, so it all happens in a framing story of a visit from Temporal Investigations. There'd been time travel since 'TOS,' and in 'TNG' we began to get an idea of people from further in the future beyond the 24th Century, coming backwards. In 'Voyager' Season 3 we learn of the Temporal Prime Directive. It all led to the understanding that the next, next generation was a place where travelling through time was becoming as easy as hopping in the Transporter. It stands to reason a department would be set up to investigate any occurrences of time travel or time-related anomalies, but it was this episode, primarily a comedy, that gave us that insight (much as Section 31 was to be introduced next season). So there are some big, important subjects being addressed despite the fun everyone's having. Well, everyone but Mr. Worf. His part in the story brings us to the first onscreen, official answer as to why Klingons in the 23rd Century look different to others. The answer is: they don't discuss it. Yes, it's a convenient get-out clause, leaving it to 'Enterprise' to explain years later, which, as it turned out, wasn't that interesting (except that it had links to Khan!). The point here is that they were enjoying the continuity, they weren't burdened by it, (the excuse used by unimaginative writers who want to justify making up whole other timelines, for example). They kept the mystery intact while having an inside joke with viewers.

The Klingon debate wasn't the only question about the warrior race left unanswered. After the recent break and reinstatement of the ceasefire, it now appears they're back to fighting again as the Defiant has to be careful on its journey to Cardassia Prime (which would be a much unhappier place on their next visit, I believe, at the end of the series). The Cardassians and Bajorans are still allies after last season, and in that spirit they have agreed to return one of the 'lost' Orbs of the Prophets. They'd probably had scientists studying it for years with no success, and as a show of good faith it's about as good as the Bajorans could hope for. Just happens to be the Orb of Time, one of those that hadn't been heard of before, but that's why it's important to keep the doors open in as many directions as possible, so that writers can snatch a piece here or an idea there, and put them together in a test tube, and 'BANG!' There needed to be a way to accomplish the time travel, this being as good as any, useful then that Kira was along so she could look into the Orb and, I imagine, contact the Prophets (who live outside of time), and get them to bring the Defiant home, since they wouldn't want The Sisko hanging around before 'the game' had even started.

The Defiant had gifted a lot of the limelight to the old Runabouts in the season so far, and that, combined with more focus on the O'Briens, a return to the Bajorans and their religion, and an enemy on the borders who could attack or cause trouble at any moment (the Klingons now, the Cardassians then), makes this season, more than any other, feel like an amalgamation of the first two, but with the later-season style, than any other. That mix returned it to what 'DS9' had been, while suffusing it with what it had changed into, one of the reasons this was the most consistently well done season of Trek. But back to the Defiant. It had been used to tow the Jem'Hadar ship back, and had served as Worf's home during Quark's winning of Grilka, but this is the first time it actually went on a mission, cloaking in that beautiful way, and coming almost nose to nose with the classic starship everyone knows: The Enterprise! Be specific, which one? There have been five. 'Six,' corrects Lucsly. That innocuous little line heralded the coming of the big 'E' of 'First Contact,' but if you weren't paying attention the detail could slip past. They could have been talking about the NX-01, though it wasn't a Federation ship (and wasn't even a twinkle of Doug Drexler's mouse then). Or they might have been referring to the 1701's refit for 'TMP.' But it's most likely that, as the eighth film was in production, this was a sly nod to the approaching unveiling, so not only does this episode tribute 'The Original Series,' it does so for the latest production too!

Over the years much has no doubt been written about how great this episode is, how it is the best tribute to 'TOS' they ever made, and I agree, but that's only part of this episode's charm - it's still a 'DS9' story, it still features 'DS9' music and 'DS9' characters, and the delight of it all is seeing those people blending in so well with an era almost a century before them. But it's not that long ago for some: Dax' symbiont lived through that time so she gets excited about the technology, the look, the people she knew back then. I don't know why Koloth wasn't shown in this episode, except that scenes he was in were more private - the station's office; his own ship - it would have been above and beyond what could be expected to invent a whole sequence on the Klingon Battlecruiser, and difficult to pull off, since we never saw the inside of one of those on 'TOS.' That would be going so far beyond a tribute as to be obsessive, and far too much for a TV episode to carry on its budget. But even then, everything they did was above and beyond - recreating corridors, sets, models, effects, sounds; integrating people into old footage…

What happened to those two people in Kirk's lineup? The ones Bashir and O'Brien replaced? In the original episode, and you might say, the original timeline, two other crew members were standing in that spot. Where did they go, were they erased from existence, or did something the Niners did mean they never came to the bar or got arrested by security? Actually, that's a huge point on its own: is this an alternate timeline? We see changes (only moderate ones), such as the panel behind Kirk and Spock that Sisko pretends to fix; the bar fight now has extra people. And what happened to the 'civilians,' Worf and Odo? I can't imagine Worf slinking off when the redshirts arrive, even to protect the timeline - his honour would mean more to him. Did Odo grab him and get him out of there, are there even any security forces on K7? It's all a mystery, but not in a way that pulls down the veil of belief in the story. The whole point of Temporal Investigations is to see if anything was done that altered history, but maybe history is a little more robust than 'drinking a coffee stopped someone being born,' or 'getting into a turbolift made someone transfer to another ship.' All the same, if you go back and watch the original encounter on K7 you don't see these people there so it can't be a predestination paradox! I think they went in, did what they needed to do and then got out without any pollution, and that's what the writers did with their loving salute to their forebears. They went in, fulfilled the potential of what the technology was capable of at the time, enjoyed themselves, and yet still made it a 'DS9' episode.

DVD is not a kind medium to some TV series. Effects that were created before the digital visual medium don't always appear as 'right' as they did on the grainier, blurrier video. I never noticed any problems with the shots in this episode until I watched it on DVD. I emphasise that problem as an exaggeration, but I could see the shadow on O'Brien as Kirk passes was not quite as perfect, or that moment Dax passes Kirk on the bridge wasn't as seamless as I'd thought. It's nothing major, not at all, I wouldn't complain about something so small, but I couldn't help but see very slight variation compared to the video or TV episode I'd seen before. That's why I'm gradually coming round to the idea that High Definition versions of Trek series are maybe not such a good idea. The work that must go in to smooth out any inconsistencies could be incredibly intense. But at the same time, with screen technology moving on, will we be able to watch the episodes as we always did? It may be necessary to view in HD when all content and screens are in that mode. But could there be an alternative to this, some kind of reduced complexity mode that doesn't alter the episode, but renders it watchable on a modern screen? Something to consider, especially when you think it's not just effects that can be shown up, but joins in makeup or sets, and a whole world of trouble is created.

The real trouble that was created in this story was an in-universe thing: the revival of the Tribble race. It's hard to believe the Klingons could have hunted down every single one in the galaxy (maybe a Tribble sleeper ship was sent off like the Botany Bay, out of the known galaxy to one day return and wreak revenge on the humanoids that destroyed them - sounds like a plot for a new Trek film there!), but it does appear they were wiped out, and now, quite apart from fulfilling a dream of Sisko speaking to Kirk (Picard's currently still in the lead, having had scenes with Kirk, Picard and Janeway, but outside the Captain's, Riker's been on the ships of all bar Kirk, and was in the same film as him!), his worst Temporal transgression is that some of the Tribbles came back to the future. Odo's new status as a warmblooded humanoid makes a difference when he discovers the joys of petting the small, furry animals - is he warmblooded? We've not seen him bleed yet, but he must be to have human organs. He must also have the chemicals that run around our brains and influence how we react to certain things, as in the case with his Tribble. His sneering attack on Worf, asking if Klingons still sing songs of the Great Tribble Hunt is almost as good as his sarcasm to Kira in 'Par'Mach' ("Cousin…?"), and I only wish Quark could have been roped in on the K7 hunt with him!

All we see of Quark is him recreating the classic pose of the barkeeper at K7, Tribbles all around him, even on his head - this is also a scene you can spot the elusive Ensign/Lieutenant Jones, standing near the bar talking to someone. I haven't spotted Jones so far this season, but a lot of screen time has been away from the station. So this is the only episode in any-verse where Jones and Mr. Leslie both appear! Can't say I noticed Les, but he was credited on Memory Alpha, though that could mean just the original episode - oh well, another reason to watch this one through again! One observation I made, if noticing an aural oddity can be described so: Korax the Klingon pronounces Klingonese, as Klingonee. And that's from the 'TOS' portion of the bar scene. That series could be quite inconsistent with things like that, but it stands out because Korax is so close to camera as he says it, almost spitting it out. It's a shame Michael Pataki is dead (this year I think), and several others of those involved with the original are too. It shows the passage of time better than old effects or bygone uniforms. But that's what this episode is about, celebrating that past that you can't go back to, that moment in a person's life that is irretrievable. 'Star Trek: Generations' said it best, about making the most of every moment because it will never come again.

Let's be honest, we wouldn't want to go back to a time when you couldn't watch Trek episodes unless they were on TV, there were no spinoffs, films, books (that were good), or any idea that this thing you liked to watch would last a lifetime. It puts it in perspective: 'TOS' started it all, 'TNG' built on it, but 'DS9' played with everything and sculpted the finest construction over that solid base. It couldn't have happened without 'TOS,' so the salute stands, but 'DS9' is the one that made Trek real. So I must say that this episode isn't the greatest story, nor the greatest episode, but it remains one of the greats because of what it did, and that position makes it one of the most important and essential episodes of the series.

*****

The Beast Within

DVD, The Incredible Hulk (The Beast Within)

Dr. Banner goes somewhere with a specific purpose this time, though we know what's going to happen from the first few seconds, thanks to the teaser flashing up clips from the episode, something I haven't yet got used to! So it wasn't a secret that Carl was going to be a bad guy and David was going to end up Hulking-out, but from the early scenes in the episode I thought this could have deeper characterisation than that - Joe the keeper, whom David is assistant to, has a personality, so what happens? He's not in most of the story. And Carl, with his carefully managed show of dominance when we first meet him (chronologically), heralded more than just another money-driven crook. And he turns into nothing more than a lackey to bully David, and even that's not open. So I would say this was the weakest story so far, and cute animals couldn't save it. I never believe in setting episodes in a zoo (when valuables were exchanged inside the snack, it reminded me of 'The Champions' episode 'To Trap A Rat' which also happened at a zoo!), because they all look so similar, the environment a bit dull, and you're restricted with what you can do with the animals, though it was brave of Bixby to be in a cave habitat with bare feet and a young Tiger cub, even if it was sleepy - look out for a keeper's head when the camera pans over the adult Tiger's lair, you can just see the top, presumably a safety precaution in case the Tiger bounded over to the filming, not approving of a TV career for its little one!).

Restrictions didn't stop them from having a full-sized Gorilla on board! I joke, of course, the guy in the Gorilla suit had to go (see 'Star Trek: Generations'). It was fine when the creature was waddling round inside a cage, or slumped in a chair, the costume was pretty good, like a more realistic version of 'Planet of The Apes,' and that makeup was on a film budget. No, it was in the first Hulk-out where we have a 'fight' between greenie and Elliott the Gorilla which was more like an old-fashioned Godzilla battle, with all of the subtlety. Elliott became laughable, and while it was fun to see Hulk throwing filing cabinets around, I hope it didn't scare all the little monkeys in the cages dotted around! This in no way compared to the fight with the grizzly in 'Death in The Family,' though it had the same unfortunate humour as chucking that creature through the air had. Another thing that bothered me was the flickery image in that scene, coming from the style of showing Hulk in slow motion to give him weight. Usually it's fine, but for some reason, probably the lighting, it gave a faint strobe effect. It was one of two technical problems with the episode, the other being a shimmery line on the left of the scene with the 'dead' Chimpanzee. They were only small things, but added to the uninspired location and character lack, it didn't promote the episode to great heights.

What did work was David meeting someone who, for once, already knew his work, and what's more, had continued his research to try and find an anti-aggression drug, the very reason why he's rolled up and got a job at this zoo, since he'd read Dr. Claudia Baxter's work. Fortunate then, that she hadn't seen a picture of him, despite knowing he'd died! As usual, regardless of social circumstances, this time he being a lowly cage cleaner, and she a research scientist, he hits it off thanks to his easy nature and intelligent conversation. He might have had an able and willing ally this time, much like the woman who was killed in the first pilot, only reporter McGee is hot on the trail as soon as Hulk makes his presence felt. I realised with this that McGee is always going to be late to the episode since it usually takes a while before Banner goes berserk. Not that it's a bad thing, but there's the danger that stories could become too formulaic. What am I talking about, 'could become'? It all happened back in the seventies, a time when episodic, formulaic TV was the rule. I shouldn't expect too much from old series', and usually I don't.

There was some actual suspense when Baxter asks David to get rid of the reporter who's on his way up thanks to the dozy secretary that let him through, and you wonder what he'll do - jump dramatically out of a window; hide; go out and confront his nemesis? It was too early to reveal the truth to McGee, I'm sure it will happen at some point, but not yet. So he uses his persuasive good sense to get Baxter to face up to her problems and deal with the man herself, initiating a lecture about running away, the irony of which I'm sure wasn't lost on Banner (calling himself Bradburn this time). The intellectual nature of this week's friend meant that we actually got some insight into the Hulk for a change: that he has a primitive skull structure, something I'd not considered before. But he is Neanderthal in features and behaviour, always willing to attack other males, but soft, gentle and protective toward females. A good observation from Baxter, well done.

I like seeing how different people react to the Hulk. We'd seen a young girl terrified of this giant man in the first pilot, but there's one in the zoo who's completely unafraid, handing out peanuts to what she thinks is another attraction! Maybe it was the context of meeting him in a place full of wild and dangerous animals, or perhaps she was too young to have developed a fear. Either way, it seems to be whatever a person brings is how they'll react, so someone evil, intent on doing bad things, like Carl, assumes the worst when he sees a huge green monster thumping towards him (I can understand that!), because doing the worst to others is what he expects from his own intentions. That second, and final Hulk-out was okay, with the running through the woods and throwing Carl (though the stunt man appeared to be wearing different clothes to the actor!), but I didn't buy that Dr. Malone was knocked out by the incredible force of… a piece of rope snapping near him! Banner goes green (without Malone noticing), then pulls his bonds apart, and what? The gust of air throws Malone off-balance?

So there were the usual inconsistencies or nitpicks, but that's never the measure of how well an episode works. It's all about story and character - no matter what happens, if you get that right, the audience is sold. That was the case with 'Final Round,' but not here, though by the end there is a small hope for the future: Claudia has been promoted to take Malone's place, so she won't have time to work on the miracle drug that could save Banner, but he does at least leave her with a suggestion of what to do next. He could never have revealed his identity to her at that time, though I entertained the thought of him writing his real name on her cast. With McGee around that would have been a stupid thing to do, but while I didn't think she was as good as his first assistant, she could have, and could be, in future, a valuable ally in his quest. Not sure if they'll ever bring people back as that could undermine the sad, lonely impression we always have at the end, of a man moving on, but knowing how long the series lasted, you never know.

**

The Assignment

DVD, DS9 S5 (The Assignment)

Of all the episodes this is one you could almost enjoy without the audio. I'm talking about Miles' furrowed brow and how it practically tells the story in the highly varied and adaptable way it reacts to events around him, as if it were a language unto itself - forget Klingon, forget Vulcan, the Okrand's of this world should be inventing a visually centred mode of expression in the style of sign language, inspired by the increasingly agitated lines on the Chief's forehead! And the Director gives us so many closeups, emphasising the personal trauma O'Brien's being put through, that I can imagine people going at the footage a frame at a time and crafting a detailed dictionary of forehead communication, leading to websites, tutorials, and ultimately Shakespeare 'in the original forehead edition.' There's a whole cottage industry waiting to burgeon, I'm amazed it's not become apparent to the wider world yet and a word in the Oxford English Dictionary (foreheaders, or maybe wrinklites).

This is, for those who haven't realised yet, the annual entry (sometimes more frequent), in the 'Torture O'Brien' genre, something that has been as much of a pleasure to watch as it is a trial for the man of the people to go through. What could be more traumatic for him than to have his family held hostage at brain point (the Pah-Wraith can switch off Keiko's brain like a light switch in a split second, which is why he asks the computer for a rundown of how long it would take every feasible method of knocking out the entity to work), and even worse, inhabiting his wife's body. The pair of them have had their brushes with hostage situations, in both a physical sense and a mental, dating back to 'TNG' ('Power Play') where the Chief was the one under alien control, to 'Whispers' in Season 2, which was a fake O'Brien, to 'Hard Time' when he was trying to return to normal after alien prison memories threatened to overwhelm his sanity, to… you can see the pattern: it was blatantly Keiko's turn to be the unhappy cause.

Rosalind Chao probably did her best Trek work here, giving her, as it did, a greater range to express than we usually see. It's so refreshing to return to the O'Brien household as we've done this season, and I suppose what made it possible is that the first half of Season 5 falls into a niche between war against the Klingons and war against the Dominion, so there was this period of around half a season to go back and update the situation on the station, to see how the families and friends are now. Not that Season 4 didn't do that, but there feels like breathing space had been allocated or it had just fallen out that way, so we could have some station-bound, family-themed stories, such as this and 'Par'Mach.' I don't think Chao ever had as much to do in an episode again, barring 'Time's Orphan,' and from this evidence (and we already know she's a strong actress from her first couple of seasons on the series, when Keiko was a much more integrated recurring figure), she was an untapped resource - she merges great evil with the homeliness of the good wife, chilling to the bone. Her hardest scene might have been the last one where she's back to normal with Miles, as she had to have such an overpowering resolve and certainty throughout the story, then she became vulnerable again, glad to be alive.

It was a bit of a longwinded and harmful way for Bashir to get away with murdering Keiko's beloved Bonsai plants, but if you look at it from his perspective, he got a pretty good deal this time - he ruins the plants, gets off lightly from fake Keiko, then gets to enjoy the Chief's birthday party, and never has to worry about the complications afterwards, Keiko was so relieved to have got through the ordeal that she'll never give a second thought to what he did! The Pah-Wraith (how I wish it had been given an individual name so it was easier to type without having to give its full title or variations on Not-Keiko), seemed to enjoy being in a corporeal form, lapping up every syllable of speech, every sensation of being alive, and busying herself with mundane tasks of life such as cooking, preparing the party, or combing hair. We don't know exactly where it came from, other than the Fire Caves of Bajor, so it's possible to imagine it was flitting around down there in the heat and took advantage of Keiko's proximity. Maybe it would have been a better idea to have Keiko part of some archeological/botanical dig, likening it to the opening of the Egyptian tombs, but we get the start of a wider Bajoran legend which could be filled out later.

That there could be evil versions of the Prophets, cast from the Celestial Temple, makes a lot of sense in mythological terms, as there are usually false gods and cast out enemies in the supernatural tales of the ancient past. It was a simple way to introduce another of the threads that wound the tapestry of the series, although I'm sure at the time they didn't have any idea where this piece was going to come in the puzzle. The point is, unlike some of the series', they threw down so many pieces that they had a number of options to work with as the overarching stories progressed. The sheer weight of characters, races and plotting meant they would never be lacking for toys to play with, even if they didn't take up every little piece they had available (e.g: Thomas Riker never being rescued from the Cardassians).

One of those characters that was a piece in the puzzle (and another one nobody could have guessed how he would end up), was Rom, though his inclusion at first seems just another excuse to get a reference to waste extraction in, a theme running through some of these early season episodes! His B-story of life in 'Ennngineerrrringggg' where they drink 'Rrrrraktajinoooo,' was slight in story terms, but he has a bigger part to play in the A-story, leading to his promotion to the day shift and acceptance by O'Brien. Rom is the brains behind figuring out the entity's plan, and the legwork behind much of the Chief's tasks. If he hadn't had the tight-lipped Rom to depend on, I don't know if he could have achieved what he had to. Rom once again reminds us that he isn't as dozy as he sounds, that it's almost become a role that he plays, though he is eccentric and isn't the best at social interaction. That's probably why he's thought of as cute, and is getting on well with some girl on the day shift, though he also mentions Leeta, marking the next step in their part in the series.

Leeta hadn't become a character on the level of Rom just yet, that would happen over the course of this season, but their association is believable since when we saw them both they were united against Quark, striking for better conditions. It gives Rom a reason to know about the Bajoran myths, when his early characterisation was entirely hostile and distrustful of any alien influence, profit being his only goal, the one that held him back. Now he's doing what he was created to do, he's fulfilled, with career goals, intense loyalty to the Chief, and most importantly using his natural skills in service of his community. Maybe when he started out, as Quark said, he got all the worst jobs, he served with people that had no reason to accept him (so much for Starfleet multiculturalism - I assume the lead guy on the swing shift had had a tough night or was in a bad mood, and maybe he was thinking Rom was going to make his life much harder than it was, based on the Ferengi's overzealous attempts to immediately fit in, his shyness making a mockery of him, that's probably why they reacted so drolly to him). But he reaped his reward by promotion and earning the trust of the Chief. If only it had been Rom training with O'Brien in the early seasons instead of Jake, he'd be running Engineering by now!

It's good to see Jake, along with the others at the party. I can't remember the last time he and Keiko shared a scene - he's probably grown a couple of feet since then. They used to be in a lot of episodes together when she was his teacher, so it was fun to see that teacher/pupil impression continue when he gets so excited about the prospect of the Fire Caves, and she shows interest in his enthusiasm. Odo's the one to express doubts about the Bajoran legends, and there's no Kira around to take her people's side (swanning off with Shakaar yet again). We don't know if the Pah-Wraiths are considered mythical to the Bajorans, or as real as the Prophets and the Orbs. The Constable continues to prove he hasn't lost any of his real abilities, even if he can't change shape any more - his investigative nose and shrewd judgement traces the sabotage to O'Brien, not impressed by their comradeship or familiarity. Like Sherlock Holmes, when he's disproved all the possible causes, he puts his mind to the impossible: the Chief wouldn't be sabotaging his own station, would he? I doubt O'Brien's felled ox blow would have knocked him out if had he been a Changeling, so that's something else for him to tally up against the Chief, after Kira went all protective of 'Miles' recently!

It's a wonder anyone ever has to go for a medical checkup, if O'Brien's trick is anything to go by. He asks the computer to give Keiko a full medical bioscan to see if that will unearth anything he can use against the entity, but if it's that easy why do people ever report for their annual physical - the doctor could ask the computer to scan a person without them even knowing! I suppose a bioscan is only part of a physical examination, and doctors would want to test all kinds of things, like stress on the body, stamina, etc, so Kirk or Picard or Sisko couldn't get out of it after all. Sisko did get a bit of relaxation in this time, which I'm sure his doctor approved of, even if the Chief didn't. Thing is, O'Brien's always been quite a dour, moody person, easily aggravated, so his display of apparent ungraciousness at his birthday do wasn't seen as anything majorly amiss, he was just being the Chief. The only pleasant time he has is when he first meets his wife at an upper docking pylon. Why do we never see people flooding out of an airlock in the upper pylons? We're always shown hoards of people exiting onto the Promenade, and even into outer corridors, but I can't recall a scene of entry by pylon. Instead it's the romance capital of the station where everyone takes someone to view the beauty of the Wormhole, in seclusion, without the hint of a grumpy Captain stumping past from his ship!

Something we have seen a lot of this season are the Runabouts, though usually unnamed. I just assume that if it survived, it was the Rio Grande. It's been a long time since we last viewed the full footage of a little ship being raised for launch and then taking off, but it wasn't something you could do with the Defiant or O'Brien's plan might have been less successful. The Defiant would make a bigger target, but Worf wouldn't take kindly to his home being hijacked (that's why it was stolen in Season 3 - Worf wasn't around then). How did O'Brien know the burst of energy would take out the Pah-Wraith before it took revenge and killed Keiko? I suppose he didn't, it was his last chance to save her, and he was banking on the fact that it was fully focused on its own malevolent glee at the impending annihilation of its enemies in the Wormhole, and didn't believe O'Brien would or could, do anything on the Runabout. It was a plan of genius, but if it had come down to a choice between the station's inhabitants and his wife's life, or the Wormhole's inhabitants and his wife's life, my feeling is that he would always save Keiko above anyone else. I think, faced with a similar situation, Sisko could sacrifice his son, but he's in a greater position of authority and responsibility, where the Chief's main care is his family.

I'm not saying the guilt wouldn't lay heavily upon him and he might regret his actions, but he wouldn't think too much about it when it came to the safety of Keiko and Molly. The visual of the blue energy crackling from the station, the actual physical structure I don't think having ever been used as a plot point before (unless you count its laboured move to stake a claim on the Wormhole in the pilot episode), was as angry and dramatic as you'd expect from an evil entity's intentions. Sometimes you have to wonder if keeping the Wormhole stable is such a good thing. If it wasn't for that, they'd be safe from all but the already infiltrated Changelings of the Alpha Quadrant. But they're stuck with it, the Prophet's realm making it more than a mere tunnel to travel across the vastness of space. If the Prophets had been eradicated would the Wormhole have continued to exist? Would it have become unstable? Was there a possibility it would remain open, yet be impassable by current technology? An episode that asks questions, or inspires viewers to such thoughts has done its job. It functioned well, very well, in fact, just like O'Brien and Rom.

As a window onto the O'Brien household it's not in the same league as the first two seasons, which had regular visits into their family life, but we get little Molly back, and actually in danger for once (bad Keiko deliberately combs her hair roughly as a warning to O'Brien), something that would be taken much further next season. It's the Chief that carries the weight of the story, though, and Colm is excellent as a man under duress who must pretend to be normal in the most excruciating circumstances (having evil Keiko kiss him in front of Bashir after she's thrown his wife's body off the Promenade, for example). O'Brien is not good at acting, he's a simple man who isn't trained in keeping his moods in check. When he's happy everyone knows it, when he's grumpy, likewise, but the incredible strain put on him is something he can deal with from his time as a soldier. The time constraints give his scenes with Dax (in which I read his ironic interest in her anomaly in two ways - he's worried she'll find out about the modifications, and one little anomaly at 3am isn't something he has any interest in when he has so much work to do), and the others a grinding desperation as he waits for soonest opportunity to get back to his job, while not raising suspicion from his lack of interest.

When things begin to get to a head the episode takes off, O'Brien initiating a personal countdown from the computer, coming up against every obstacle, single-mindedly doing whatever is necessary, so that you think he's going along with the plan, his solution even more masterful for being unexpected, while also being a logical way out (much like Jake's bringing down of the cave in the previous episode). It's helped by a strong score, apparently the first of Greg Smith's, not a name that ever sunk in as Jerry Goldsmith or Dennis McCarthy did. I look forward to seeing if he was partly responsible for the notable improvement in 'DS9' music in the last three seasons, when it seemed to take a deeper turn of recognisable themes (the Klingon opera for Klingon stuff, etc), beyond the usual Trek episodic wallpaper, or whether he didn't have much to do with it before. I've never paid that much attention to who was scoring before, I just knew the scores went from good to great around this season. One last item to add: I never noticed the blink-and-you-miss-it knowing smirk Rom gives Odo when he's in the holding cell. Because he thinks Odo's just pretending, making the Constable snort in disgust. So small a moment, but so funny.

****