The Other Guys

DVD, Stargate SG-1 S6 (The Other Guys)

I had it in mind that this was one I didn't think much of, but it must have been another 'Other Guys,' because this turned out to be one of my fondly remembered episodes. I say remembered, but I didn't really recall anything except that I knew John Billingsley played a comical character in an episode (might even have come back for another), so it was a pleasant surprise to discover that this was that. It used to be the case that the 'Stargate' universe was the place where out of work 'Star Trek' actors turned up, but with this episode, it's 'Star Trek' actors still in work on their series, so it was practically a crossover episode, or as close as the two franchises were ever going to come to it! There was actually only the one Trek actor on display, but I know Jolene Blalock (who played Vulcan T'Pol on 'Star Trek: Enterprise'), also showed up, and Connor Trinneer later appeared on 'Stargate Atlantis' - this sixth season episode was released during 'Enterprise's second, before Billingsley (alien Dr. Phlox in that series), began losing weight, adding to the weight of his comedic performance in literal terms as well as other terms.

The sad thing is that he probably had more to do and got to act more in this than he did in an average 'Enterprise' episode, but that series was the relative low point of the franchise and can take a good portion of blame for being the last series (to date - always hopeful), though that was hardly Billingsley's fault - he was able to show in various episodes what a fine actor he was, and very much so in this story, playing scientist Simon Coombs who gets dragged into a rescue mission of SG-1 by colleague Jay Felger, a rescue mission they didn't need or want. Until they did. It is rather a parody of the series, from O'Neill talking about the big bad guy coming to their cell to gloat, to Felger's artificially deepened voice when he pretends to be a Goa'uld soldier, or Carter referring to it being the first time Jonas had been captured by the Goa'uld, and I can see how it could get tiresome if this was how the series played out every week. But as a once in a while blast of creative fresh air, much in the vein of Martin Lloyd and 'Wormhole X-Treme!' this is pretty jolly with enjoyable overacting throughout, that has a tinge of believability of a scenario for two boffins to get to do SG-1 type stuff.

It succeeds in making SG-1 look cool, slightly more so by the ineptitude of the scientists, with Teal'c bursting out of a lake (looked like the same one where the Unas creatures were found in Season 4's 'The First Ones'), and the others getting plenty of opportunities for showing their weapons prowess, even if Jonas is muted for the majority of the time. It's meant to be a 'fan' episode, I think, with the main scientist guy heavily obsessed with SG-1 and their missions and thinks of them as his heroes, just as many viewers probably did. It's an exaggerated portrayal, but many people who watch these kinds of programmes do develop a pride in the characters and a warmth to them - that's this series' greatest quality, because many of the stories I've seen before, elsewhere, and better, and much of the mythology is based on Ancient Egyptian melded with modern technology, but it's the characters that draw me to it and want to keep watching, not the stories or the effects. So Jay was speaking for viewers when he was getting all excited whenever the team were around, as much as the dedicated audience would be if they met the actors.

Coming much more from the Trek point of view I was delighted with not only Billingsley's performance, but the Trek references, since generally the series aimed nods at that other 'Star' series, 'Star Wars.' Coombs is an unreserved Trekker, going to conventions (dressed as a Vulcan, not as a Klingon - really surreal to hear the actor say such Trek-definitive words in another, unrelated TV series!). He also makes mention of redshirts, though Jay doesn't get the reference, being scornful of Trek in a 'Stargate' versus 'Star Trek' face-off! My favourite connection, besides John Billingsley, was a much more subtle one, and something I didn't notice until later when I'd already been put in the Trek mindset thanks to other references: when I first saw Lord Khonsu of Amon Shek introduced in that shiny red kingly garb in front of a glowing red background featuring sharply arranged bladed weapons, I was impressed with what a striking image it all made. But it was only later when we return to that throne room that I noticed, looming out of the gloom at the top of the display, was a prominent Bat'leth, the most famous Klingon weapon! Great fun, and surprising that they could do that while 'Enterprise' and Klingons were still in production.

The idea of a Tok'ra also being a System Lord, or even if he wasn't of that rank, very high up in Anubis' organisation, was a thought-provoking one. It was difficult to accept that someone so high would have turned to the Tok'ra, but equally as hard that he could have got to that rank while always being a Tok'ra. We're not given any further information in that way, a shame, because as good an idea as it was to have Lord Khonsu as an undercover agent for one episode, to see that play out over multiple episodes would have been far juicer, ripe with possibility. When Her'ak was introduced I was immediately thinking of Heru'er until I realised my mistake, which can be a problem sometimes when all the names and places are in an alien language, but I suppose that's one of the appeals to the diehard 'Gaters, or whatever they're called. I also had trouble accepting SG-1 were captured without any injury, especially with that gun turret from the ship blasting away at their rock cover, but later we learn that they wanted to be caught so they must have given themselves up at an appropriate time. What I can't explain away is the plan to capture the 'three humans and one Jaffa of SG-1' that is set out at the beginning. Surely by now, with all their intelligence gathering, the Goa'uld would know that Daniel had died and a new guy taken his place?

You can start to pick at things like the ring transport room having no guards when Coombs and Felger sneak aboard, or that no one is alerted to the gunfire of Felger, or that they never meet any guards at all - it shows how closely, even with all their technology, the Goa'uld monitor their internal security (not a lot), but it was fun to see them bumbling about, arguing and moaning in Coombs' case, or grinning like a Cheshire cat in Felger's, loving every minute. They get a lot of screen time for a couple of guest characters, but hopefully they'll be back, and there was still time for SG-1's usual banter - apparently they've saved Earth eight times now, Teal'c had been counting! The cool desert gear makes a comeback and helps with the image, the desert planet looks sufficiently real and deserty, I've already mentioned the fun 'Stargate' versus 'Star Trek' moment, and best of all, the ending fooled me - the pair are awarded medals for their heroism in a full ceremony in the 'gate room, which is realistic enough until Carter starts face-hugging Felger and… then he wakes up. Fun, pretty much all the way through.

***

Little Girl Lost

DVD, Starsky & Hutch S2 (Little Girl Lost)

The 'Starsky & Hutch' Christmas Episode! Actually, I'd completely forgotten this took place just before Christmas, but that wasn't the only thing that had slipped my mind as I had this episode confused with Season 3's 'The Trap,' another to feature young actress Kristy McNichol. This was her second of the three appearances she made in the series (she'd previously played Meg in Season 1's 'The Hostages,' a similar character), but I was under the erroneous impression that Molly/Pete from this episode was Joey, the girl from 'The Trap,' though this increasingly made less sense as the story progressed. I remembered Joey had a rich and slightly eccentric Mother, whereas this girl only had a drunk Father and no other relatives (the reason she had to live with the Williams' while her Dad was in prison). At first, I was still thinking that the Mum and Dad had split, but it made less and less sense and I realised she was playing two separate characters. They didn't entirely avoid continuity with Season 1, as Kiko, the boy Hutch was friends with in 'Running,' returns fortuitously to give Pete a place to go to at the end. But don't start giving in to that seasonal grumpiness about euphoric sentimentalism as Hutch begins the episode complaining about: this is a bona fide Christmas episode that makes up for lack of snow and the usual tropes they pull to give us the shorthand for the festive season, by making a proper happy ending, not just a jokey one (though we get both).

Another thing I forgot and was straining to recall, was the contents of Starsky's Christmas present from Hutch. It's set up in the first scene to be this week's running joke, with Starsky at his childish best, trying to guess what his partner bought him, but actually it's not really referred to again until the final scene, though the Christmas spirit versus Hutch's curmudgeonliness does come up regularly with less and less ardour from him. At first, he's stalwart against it all with its 'Better Business Bureau' message of ringing cash tills, which I can agree with - someone should tell him the real reason of the season, but the closest we get to that simple message is when Duran, one of the bad guys, and Pete's Dad's former partners in crime, shows up to kidnap Pete, posing as 'Reverend Jonas' from the Gospel Mission - when S&H discover the girl is gone they talk about how unlikely it would be for a gospel mission to host a Christmas pageant and Starsky says "Have faith, my son," sadly something that could be more easily construed as slightly mocking the phrase than a comment on denominational differences.

Apart from the Christian message (though love is played out in the episode, both from Hutch's agreement to host Pete for a night at his home, and the Ramos' decision to have her as part of their family), the other thing missing from the episode is Captain Dobey. They've used the other two 'cast' members sparingly so far this season as it had become more about the two title characters, but while Dobey doesn't appear (except unheard 'on the phone' to Starsky, and as an ant!), Huggy makes up for not being in the previous episode with a short scene doing what he does best and providing information. It does underline how far he'd fallen since last season when we see him hungrily eating at the outside cafe when S&H go to him for help - when he used to have his own place you got a greater sense of his status in the city and the series, and it's not like he even gets any good jokes in or anything, other than being there. I can't complain too much as that was the style of the series that it had taken on, but once Hug lost his business it didn't help his character.

The story's a very heartfelt one and is better than the more basic action detective two-parter the season began with because we see the friendship and banter between S&H played out, one of the clearest examples being when they have to leave Pete with the Williams' and after the door's closed, Hutch goes to knock again and Starsky stops him, knowing it won't do any good. There's a little action, such as the chase and fight with the bad guys (another salt and pepper combo as they called it in Season 1 - they like having two criminals working together, probably because it gives them something to play rather than sitting alone, staring moodily out of a window, or talking to themselves in the Prudholm style!), with Hutch doing the trademark leap off of something before taking down the bad guy, though I thought that was Starsky's move! I love it when Starsky leaps out of the ground floor window after Duran and Flent, but it's funny that the destination's never in the direction they're going when they receive a Zebra 3 call, leading them to screech the old carthorse round to head the other way with tyres growling and the cumbersome beast of the Torino grunting in a huge turning circle, bumping the curb and leaving smoke in its wake, almost in slow motion - it really doesn't look that flashy when it's called upon to do anything even remotely agile, only when it's zipping along a straight road, or violently lurching to a stop does it match the bright colours of its surface personality!

The credits montage remains the same so far, and it may be that they didn't add any new sequences of this season until the next season came around, but they had plenty of good shots, anyway (my favourite still the cruising of Starsky in the Torino by the side of Hutch, whose gun is drawn, stalking along, summing up the series better than words). An oddity though, are the credits at the end of the episode. I don't know whether it was a fault in the DVD or whether they just stuck the episodes on the discs without any editing (far more likely, I'd have thought), but if so, this is a mistake stretching back to 1976, because the end credits are those of 'Murder At Sea,' not this episode! Other mistakes or oddities would be that McNichol shows some emotion not true to the character. Amazing, I know, for a child actor to do that, but I couldn't help noticing that when Duran and Flent burst into her apartment to get her and she heads for the window, she sort of crouches and grins in anticipation of being grabbed, just as it happens, betraying the fun she's having. To be fair, she does an excellent job in the role, making us care, while not being precocious, and she even makes up for the grin by doing it again a few seconds later as a grimace so it looks like it could be just a natural reaction of fear.

I liked that they brought back a character, and showed us a bit more about him with his Mum and home, even a bit of Spanish (not subtitled), but why did he visit Hutch? He walks in, says hello to Hutch and Pete, then promptly leaves. I understand that he's a friend and might just call by, but it seemed more like a device to have him meet Pete when it could have been done more naturally. Maybe I'm straying into nitpicking… One thing that did look odd was when Starsky hands over the bad guy to another cop, Sid, then pats him on the rump in thank you! Was that deliberate or was he meaning to slap him on the back, a little higher up, or was it Paul Michael Glaser's sense of humour, or even a joke between him and the guy? I don't know, but it did seem slightly out of place for the context of the scene - Starsky wasn't grinning or being funny at the time! There was another moment a bit like that near the beginning when Hutch ducks under a Christmas bell decoration - I at first thought it was a quick reaction and that he almost walked into it, noticing just in time, though reviewing that sequence he was looking at it long before, so it's more probably him looking cooler by not moving aside and just bobbing his head instead.

Hutch's place has changed this season from the riverside bungalow to an apartment at Venice Place (we're given the exact address in a dispatch - 1027 and a 1/2, Ocean), which I think is the first we've seen of what was the most recognisable home location of the series. I don't remember if he lived anywhere else, but this one sticks in the memory so much I'd at first forgotten about the riverside place. It might even be the same internal set, slightly rejigged. He has a piano there which he tinkles on briefly in a reminder of David Soul's musical talent, though sadly he doesn't play anything this time. A continuing theme of old that shows up again while Pete stays with him, is his diet of health food - she has more similar tastes to Starsky than Hutch, and actually, now that I think about it, I wonder why Hutch was the one to get the story with her, especially after he initially fails to connect (getting his fingers slammed in the telephone booth she's been trapped in at the store!). It must be because his new girlfriend, Perkowitz, is the liaison or it's her job to find Pete a place to stay - it's not openly discussed, but the way Hutch behaves towards her you can tell there's something going on there. Something you couldn't get away with now is allowing a cop (or anyone), to just take a child home with them for the night, just as you wouldn't hand over a child to someone, even a Reverend, without some kind of query about it. But then Mrs. Williams didn't appear to be the brightest lady, as nice as she was.

I was mildly confused thanks to her. When S&H went to see her the second time she was wearing a different dress (in fact, almost immediately after her first appearance when Duran returns as the Reverend), giving the impression it was on a different day. But in S&H's first scene of the episode when they're driving along, they mention it's two days to Christmas Eve, then later, Hutch takes Pete home for the night, and it's mentioned again that tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and then we end with the party which they've been planning for… yes, Christmas Eve. That all stacks up (Pete gets kidnapped, then escapes, goes back to Hutch's place where they find her watching a cowboy film with Kiko, she has a bath, then they take her shopping, which could all take place in the afternoon), but it's the dress which made me confused - does Mrs. Williams wear different clothes at different times of day? However you look at it, Mrs. Williams is really the only S&H trademark character this time!

Aside from the differences in palate that often comes up between S&H, we get a few other connections: there's often stock footage of the front of police HQ, but this time a panda car pulls away from camera with lights and sirens flashing, which gives it a more active feel than usual. The alleyway where Nick Edwards, Pete's Dad, gets shot, looks like a place they often used (possibly where Junior's Dad was killed in 'Manchild on The Streets'), and the wide residential street of the Williams' had been used a lot. There are the usual cultural references, too: Starsky calls Pete, Dillinger (after John Dillinger the bank robber of the early 20th Century), and she asks a bit later if he's doing his Barnaby Jones act (which I didn't understand, admittedly), but the main theme is Christmas, so we get what looks like a purple Star of David on the dashboard of the Torino, with a deer, bell and holly dangling from the rearview mirror, and various carols throughout the episode ('We Wish You A Merry Christmas' whistled by Starsky early on, then sung by all at the end;' 'O Come Let Us Adore Him' plays in the background at the cafe where they meet Huggy; and 'Deck The Halls,' another one from Starsky).

He really gets into the Christmas spirit, giving away money to Pete and Huggy and generally being jolly, despite the sad mood of some moments - Pete's Dad being killed and her grief over his body; her telling Hutch that he'd been more of a Father to her than her own had; and crying herself to sleep while Hutch listens sadly on his sofa. But they get to have some action too, it definitely being Hutch when the car almost hits him in the alley and he has to leap aside - it's all done in one take, so when he runs closer to the camera you can see it's him. There's good cutting from when the stunt double leaps onto the baddie from a car, but his hair was longer so you could see it wasn't Soul, and strangely, he also does a walk over to slump down on the car near Pete which could have been done by Soul, when it's clearly the stuntman! The same with Starsky's double, who speeds the Torino towards the rails, then leaps out, then it cuts closer to see the actor doing the actual fighting.

The villains weren't the most terrifying, with one guy, Flent, just a hanger-on who likes using his gun, and Duran, who was a little more unsettling because of his twitchy behaviour and the ripple of tension just under the surface that told you he would do anything to get what he wanted. I felt he might be a drug addict because he was always sweaty and had quick mood swings, his temperament unpredictable, which may have been why he was so desperate to get his hands on the diamonds and the money they'd bring. But they weren't villains that would provide any challenge to S&H, more low-life crooks that had some deviousness. It's another positive-feeling episode - while it shows back alleys here and there, it is mainly a Christmassy episode and so stays in that tradition of heartwarming tales. Pete lives in a squalid apartment and walks the streets, but it's more about S&H's kindness and helpfulness beyond their job and there's often a lightness to the episode (such as the office staff gathering to leave a toilet with a big ribbon as a gift in Dobey's office!), plus one of the best happy endings you could get, that makes this a feel-good story.

***

Shadow Play

DVD, Stargate SG-1 S6 (Shadow Play)

The most interesting thing about the teaser at the beginning of this episode was that 'gate technician Walter wasn't wearing glasses. That's how engaging it was, but not how engaging it stayed, becoming a completely different story to the one you think it is, with a bittersweet conclusion. What was going to happen to Dr. Kieran as a mental patient on Earth, after all he's another alien joining the population? I suppose his mind had gone too far so he was merely a patient by the end, but living out his remaining years on the same planet as his most promising student, Jonas, won't cheer either of them because of his mental state. For once we see sad Jonas instead of eager, optimistic, Daniel Jackson-like, Jonas, and it was episodes like this that endeared the character and made me accept him as part of the tight-knit group of SG-1. It helps that he's become as accepted by his fellow members, Teal'c there once again to provide comforting advice from a fellow alien's perspective, and even Jack showing some support or tact by not ordering Jonas to heel, but giving him a bit of leeway to plead to his people even though they reject his words.

What makes this episode matter is that it deals with Jonas' own people, the Kelownans, and their potential war with the other two factions, the Tiranians and Andaris, who have formed an unprecedented alliance to likely attack the Kelownans. We revisit the planet when they seek to trade with Earth. None of their rulers are easy to like, a hard-looking woman, a bald security chief with a sour look, and best of all, the devilish, potentially moustache-twirling First Minister Valis (he looked a lot like Alexander Siddig does these days!). Looks can be deceiving, they weren't part of some evil plan to do away with the three original scientists that worked on the Naquadria technology, it was the experiments that had eaten away at those scientists' minds after long exposure, turning them schizophrenic and delusional. I knew as soon as the first vision of Jonas Quinn played out to Dr. Kieran that something wasn't right. I was thinking it might be a clone or some kind of trick by the leaders to unmask the resistance, which at that point seemed to exist. I even thought as deep as the resistance actually being an infiltration tactic of the Kelownan's enemies. But the way Jonas spoke in a slightly monotonous voice and hardly moved his head (when usually he's so full of energy, bobbing his head around), were instant giveaways that this wasn't the real Jonas, but I never would have read the scene as being the Professor imagining the Resistance and all hope for a coup.

The leaders may not have been getting at the him, or anything of that sort, but they were still shown to be blinkered and unimpressed with the explanations of SG-1 or the pleadings of Jonas. Their minds were closed to the reality of life among a community of planets, which makes me wonder if they even deserved the Stargate at all, especially as they were keeping it secret from the general populace. But, as the First Minister says, cutting through any argument, that's precisely what America has chosen to do on Earth, so it's a case of not practicing what they preach! It made me think that this would be the kind of reaction on Earth if a Stargate really was announced to the world - it would be seen as an advantage to be held over enemies and not an opportunity for peoples to rally around. The moral quandary was a strong one, even though there was no way, after all the lessons the SGC had learned over its short life, that they were going to interfere with a planet that was not united. It's always going to be a difficult question for them to answer, but that they address it here really made the episode something to mentally chew on.

It's not full of stunts or action, though the terribly sad, imagined chase of Dr. Kieran which leads to injury, fit the bill, but it's the back and forth of views and diplomacy that makes it compelling viewing - Hammond even noted how much like Dr. Jackson, O'Neill was sounding, to which he didn't react badly, but just admitted they'd spent a lot of time together. I'm betting he hadn't told anyone that he'd only just spent time with Jackson so as not to look mad, but it was a really nice moment there. Dean Stockwell does his usual believable performance (though you have to feel sorry for the old guy, running up and down stairs like a goat in the chase sequence), excellent as the old Professor who's mind is going, blinking constantly, rubbing his head, but showing the strain slowly through the episode so the surprise doesn't drop early: it's really all about him and his degeneration because that's what affects Jonas. He was never going to abandon his friends for a free pardon, especially when his people still consider him a traitor (even the fact that Kieran says there are plenty of people that don't consider him that one must have been a delusion, sadly), but going back there at least opened the door to talks and would eventually see him return.

The parallels with the atom bomb are evident, and it says it all about this people that they're considering the 'last resort' devastation of a Naquadria bomb, and threatening to use it if the SGC doesn't help them militarily. So instead of using the Stargate in the best strategic way to acquire whatever they can, or even visit other worlds and open their minds, they only think of the destruction of their enemies as quickly as possible. When SGC loses contact with them at the end, after SG-1 has returned, you can only fear that they've carried through on their threat. But that is their right, it's not for the SGC to go round putting out the universe's fires, not unless it's a fight that's justifiable (like opposing the Goa'uld). If the natural course of the planet has been for one faction to survive in a war, it is none of Earth's business. Of course it would be different if the Kelownans were 'good guys' or they had greater importance for the SGC. Then the quandary might have been more intense, but the only reason we as an audience are given to care is that Jonas cares. In the end that wasn't what mattered, it was Jonas' mentor and the tearjerker ending that means anything. But for an episode mainly concerned with sitting round a table discussing, it's remarkable how enjoyable it is.

***

The Las Vegas Strangler Part II

DVD, Starsky & Hutch S2 (The Las Vegas Strangler Part II)

Personally, I think this was a slightly better episode than Part I, mainly because they dispense with the joviality and romance and get seriously into the action with some tragic turns and a happy ending. But first I'd like to look at that ending - as heartwarming as it was that S&H sent the money Hutch accidentally won during their casino trip, to Vicky's little disabled girl, and refused to tell Dobey, it doesn't explain what was going on with Starsky and Vicky or what the fate of the Strangler was. Did he plead mental illness like the unfortunate Lantz (a copycat who attacked a woman in the same style, while taking credit for a string of bizarre and impossible terrorist acts), or was he banged up forever? It looked like he was just unconscious when Hutch knocked him off the net. And as for Starsky, did he have second thoughts about Vicky when he saw she had a daughter, or was she unhappy that he was a cop? The reason their friendship wasn't continued, we're supposed to assume, I think, is that they lived too far apart and Starsky had to go back to his normal life, but it didn't make any sense for what had happened, and this is where the series could have done with a jot more continuity to its episodes instead of pressing reset and heading into a simple conclusion that doesn't tie up all the loose ends, even if it does sweetly tie up the one it does focus on.

The action's well handled and assisted by a tense score, the first time what would become the familiar background score for danger (dum doww down, tsh, tsh, tsh, dum doww down, tsh, tsh, tsh), is used, first in the opening scenes of the recap, then when Eugene silences his Mother. With a shotgun. There's also an excellent guitar picking score during the hunt for Eugene in the machinery above Circus Circus, perfectly capturing the mood of tracking a dangerous foe. Of course, the action is defused in true S&H style with a comedic drop onto the high-flying trapeze acrobat's net, but they made very good use of the locations this time, fully utilising the vast setting of the gambling hall, the large emptiness of the abandoned stage area, and the mad dash through the service corridors or rooftop shootout with a crazy man. It gives this part of the story an epic quality that Part I aspired to, but didn't truly have because it felt like they were going in and appearing in locations, not fully using them. Even when the location isn't important in story terms you're getting a visually wider impression, such as when S&H are talking at the casino while in the background, dancers on horses are sky-railing above them, throwing out balloons.

As important as the spectacle is S&H's partnership, really in evidence here, where they depend on each other's judgements in the midst of life and death situations, but also pushing them to the state where they flare up against each other. To be fair, they were both suffering from the draining effects of the heady mix of all-night parties, babysitting Jack, and doing their police work before anyone else got strangled. How much sleep did Starsky actually get, because we see them come in to find Jack in bed, then Hutch curls up on the sofa to 'keep an eye on him,' while Starsky's been summoned to play taxi service for Vicky (driving while tired - police officers should know better!), then he gets a snooze when he and Hutch are at the hospital after Jack's been shot, which I think is that evening, as we see the shootout with Lantz takes place in darkness. He may have had time for a nap before the final confrontation with Eugene because that seems to happen in the morning (Sunday), Eugene and his Mother preparing for Mass first, then Eugene arranging to meet Iris. But certainly, by the time Starsky shows his irritation with Hutch, he's not had time for a sleep. Holidays just aren't what they're cracked up to be!

Hutch was proved right about Jack, in that he wasn't the Strangler. He couldn't have been, because he was too stupid and led a lifestyle that was close to being off the rails. The tragic revelation (coming out in an excellent scene with the doctor, who sells the role even though it's such a minor part of the episode), is that Jack's dying from a brain tumour, which explains his hyperactive behaviour, his bluster and the drive to have fun while he can. He's totally blocking out the reality of life by living one long party, and even worse, it puts him in the spotlight as a possible suspect. The Strangler not only damages his reputation in the eyes of the police, he also physically kills him. At least Jack went out trying to protect Vicky, even though it was probably more a case of the instinct of self-preservation that made him wrestle with Eugene, who then pushes him over the bannister to his untimely death. If you look at it as a heroic act it wasn't a bad way to go, but what takes away the satisfaction of the scene is that he never knew that S&H weren't after him, as he wildly told Vicky, and was never able to talk about his condition with his old friend, making the death unresolved as well as needless. If the writers had been concerned as much with the impact of his death as with keeping him in the frame as a possible Strangler by hiding him in Vicky's car, it could have been a satisfying end to his 'arc,' if you can call it that.

When Jack's pretty much cleared of being the Strangler (since why would he go all the way to Vicky's apartment rather than strangle her in the car as he at first seemed to be doing), Eugene makes his shocking appearance in the role. The violence of his attack on Vicky and Jack jerks us back to reality after the relatively sanitised shootout, where only Jack is shot, and even then he can run away, while S&H use their teamwork and athleticism to foil Lantz. Here, Vicky's smacked into a wall and Jack plummets to his death. I'm not sure it was the best way they could have revealed the Strangler, but it was a good enough choice thanks to the violent reaction and shock of the way he bursts out of the door. Eugene hadn't been in the episode to that point so it relies on the audience remembering the guy from the first episode, even though that was a fairly inconspicuous role. I didn't remember many of the details of this episode, so I had the theory Jack was a drug dealer and Eugene was making deliveries for him, and that's how the whole thing fit together. What I still don't understand is why Eugene did what he did. We hear that his Father died and his domineering Mother has continually criticised him over the years, only caring about 'real' men, as she talks about the macho type.

That particular line is actually in a humorous scene when Starsky shamefacedly buys stockings for Vicky at the store, but it adds to the unpleasantness of Mrs. Pruitt that began in the previous episode, so that by the time Eugene carries out the shotgun murder of his Mum we're almost on his side, not literally supporting what he does, but understanding something of why he did that, which I suppose can be brought over into the explanation of why he killed the girls. It was a bit of a tenuous link connecting all the murdered girls together, but if you look at the plot as a whole it was pretty well worked out, giving us side avenues of suspicion, with Lieutenant Cameron (this time making sure he wears grey trousers rather than the tan which gave us the visual inclination of him being the villain, added to his cold exterior, though nowadays having the lead officer of an investigation hiding his connection to one of the victims wouldn't be allowed!), S&H having time to enjoy themselves a little, and with this concluding part of the story, adding in action to the mix, which is why I feel this part was more satisfying - it showed S&H at their best.

After the recap of Part I (a new addition since there hadn't been a two-parter before), the cliffhanger is resolved in a weak way, the Strangler opting to leave Vicky's room instead of finishing her off there. It's difficult, because when you have a cliffhanger that looks so desperate, how do you resolve it without giving away the baddie's identity or killing one of the main guest characters? I thought Starsky or Hutch were going to knock on the door or something would happen to frighten the attacker off, but now I think of it, it does add to the Strangler's creepiness factor that his victim was in his power, but he chose to defer violence until he decided the time was right. It means he's got his own rules, not a mindless murderer. There could be a case to say he had things in common with Lantz, who was deluded and clearly had mental problems. I love Starsky's way of speaking to him about such horrible crimes as if he should be applauded, gaining his simplistic trust, though at the same time, the methodical and careful way he says each thing gives a hint of the distaste behind the words he's saying. Hutch gets to use his wits too, when the doctor asks how close he is to Jack, and rather than admitting he doesn't know him that well, he concentrates on the facts: they were at school together and the three of them are now sharing an apartment.

The doctor was such a well-performed role, and that was the difference with this part of the story, as opposed to the first - things are serious this time, you don't get the comedic characters you expect from the series, not even the drunk at the casino, whom I was expecting to appear and take some of Hutch's money out of the slot machine. Lantz is the only one to be considered in that category, and he was to be pitied or taken down, a dangerous, if damaged man. Jack's oddness is at last explained so there's really no one to take those traditional crazy people roles. One character that returns from the previous episode is the dancer, Iris. If there was a moral of the story it's probably 'don't mess with redheads' (as Kira would confirm on 'DS9'!) - out of all Eugene's victims she's the only one we see fight back instead of screaming and falling to her quivering knees. She throws him off and legs it, gets taken down in a rugby tackle (another brutal moment), but she survives. It's S&H's arrival that stops Eugene, but Iris did herself credit for her quick reaction and fighting spirit. I was wondering how she was going to be strangled in such a large empty space since the Strangler could hardly creep up on her, but she made the mistake of walking onto the stage where he was hidden behind the curtain, so you could say the sin of pride (she was practicing being the lead in this Mr. Green's production), had a bearing. The line 'must be seen by Mr. Green' for some reason, probably because it rhymes, always stuck in my head for this episode!

One thing Eugene did was break a habit of the series: we see him making the phone call to invite Iris for a casting meeting, from the side of an outside pool, but no one ends up falling into it! I wonder why he did that? It may have been to avoid his home number being traced, or it could have been somewhere he hung out, watching the people, who knows? That neatly (or not), brings me onto the usual questions I throw at the series, namely names. Or to be precise, pop culture references. We have a nod back to the film star game Iris played in Part I (in case you'd forgotten who she was, since she only had that brief scene at the beginning with Sharon, the girl who was murdered), with Buster Crabbe, Constance Bennett and Barbara Stanwyck all mentioned, and no, I still don't know all the names. But I do know the ones night manager of the store, Mrs. Pruitt, speaks of (in her rant about men being sissy's nowadays): Clark Gable and Tyrone Power. And you can't get much less sissy than Eval Knieval, the famous stunt biker whom Starsky mentions, I think, before he falls onto the net.

The car door failing to shut after being slammed a few times was a bit of a running gag, usually a derogatory comment on Hutch's banged up old motor, but this time it's the sports car S&H continue to use, the Torino again only seen in the stock footage parked right outside police HQ in the end scene. Hutch's embarrassing and unintentional winning streak is back again, and while Dobey's there for his single scene appearance, Huggy doesn't even have that honour, nor are there any changes to the credits montage. I thought the guy that played Lantz (Seth Allen), was familiar, but I suspected it was me remembering his face from this episode, but actually he'd already been in the series in Season 1 ('A Coffin For Starsky'), and his character this time had a connection with another first season episode where a similarly crazy villain was worried about UFOs (the Man of Foil in 'Lady Blue'). And in terms of the stunt guy, he could be seen driving the car wildly across the road when S&H are speeding to Circus Circus, and his biggest exposure came when he did the high fall onto the net, Soul's double once again so much harder to spot, though it was him doing Hutch's high fall, and the jump down from the net.

One aspect of reality the series doesn't always bother with, is how many bullets a gun can hold. I was thinking just that when they had their rooftop engagement with Lantz, how you don't see people reload, but then Hutch catches him in the middle of reloading. Later there was an even better example when Hutch notes that Eugene's fired his sixth and final bullet during the chase above Circus Circus, and I like that those details came into it. The same with the frightened little dog that runs out of the garage, yelping, when S&H find the car with Mrs. Pruitt's body in it. One detail that escaped their notice was when Jack and S&H go to track the 'Strangler' who's trapped on the roof - a woman exits the lift, then they enter and it cuts to the empty lift, but you can clearly see in the previous shot a man is standing in there! It was also comical how huge the lift is, large enough for them to fight inside, but then again, this is Las Vegas! Also, as soon as the little girl was introduced you could guess they were going to end up giving the money to her because that's the kind of irresponsible, but kind action they'd take. I also felt the store bag Starsky spots in Vicky's apartment was too convenient and too quick of him to realise the significance of. It was used to wrap up the plot quickly and get to the chase (literally), not to say I had a problem with it.

I have to say that the writing was probably an improvement over a lot of Season 1, cannily put together, and was not a disappointment as a big opening number to bring us back to the series. It's also useful because it leaves us looking forward to seeing S&H back to their usual haunts and doing their usual things. The action was bigger than usual, the different feel of the locations used to excellent effect, and importantly, the casting was very well selected with characters you'd be happy to see again. It has to end happily, it's what the series tended to do, and if I complain that things wrap up too fast, I also accept that was the style of the time and in comparison it's a very well rounded, even exciting episode that shows the leads at their best: a good start to a season that would sustain such levels of goodness.

***

The Las Vegas Strangler

DVD, Starsky & Hutch S2 (The Las Vegas Strangler)

You can tell they're trying to start Season 2 with a bang. I say trying, as it looks like a lot of stock footage to me, but the 'glamourous' neon signs and dancing girl shows do help give the impression that this isn't just 'Starsky & Hutch,' but 'Starsky & Hutch' done BIG. It even starts in the same manner as the pilot did in Season 1: we see some of the guest cast credits, plus the episode title is onscreen, something that had only happened once before, I think, on 'Captain Dobey, You're Dead!' Added to the high life depicted, it makes this seem more like a TV film than a series, so maybe they should have made this two-parter (the first in the series' run), into a feature-length single episode, in keeping with its feel as a new pilot. I suppose it's always important to start a season in a spectacular way and get the money up on the screen, something they tried again (less successfully), at the start of Season 3, with another location setting and two-part story (by Season 4 they didn't bother, with a much more basic single episode opening, perhaps realising that by that time they weren't likely to get new viewers hooked).

The humble TV production values can't entirely be disguised - we see plenty of studio sets of apartments or recognisable locations (the white-fronted clothing shop run by Huggy's friend, Duke, looks suspiciously like many a white shopfront we've seen before), but they do give us some nice scenery, such as the drive across the desert road or the use of an actual casino for when they're 'undercover' as high rollers (even though they stick out like a sore thumb), which means they must have cordoned off part of the place, and they had lots of extras! But they were really trying for something different, away from the usual police buddy drama, or uncompromising view of a city mired in dirt and corruption. This was by far on the 'fun' end of the gauge, not dealing with any of the negatives of gambling, purely a holiday for the characters, and the actors too - I expect this was a relatively easy sell to get back into the series by going off to film in different places, playing up the playful antics, while still having a threat hovering in the background to leaven the levity. This is probably how you could describe Season 2 as a whole, where they were happy to bring more of the carefree jollity into frame, with less focus on hardboiled gutter crime, while not forgetting action and getting to know the characters more.

This first episode introduces us to an old schoolfriend of Hutch's, a guy that's pretty crazy in the way he talks ten to the dozen, dashes off all over the place, lives at all-night parties, and brushes over his eccentricities as if it's normal behaviour! When we first see him (the camera canted onto one side to show Hutch's point of view as he tries to work out if the guy lying on a prison mattress is his old buddy, thus setting up the character as someone that has to be looked at in a different way, both for his suspicion as a suspect, and as an old friend), is about the only time he's still, apart from when he burns out on a dance floor and S&H have to carry him home. The rest of the time he's full of energy and just having fun, though his ability to do that without seeming to have a job or carrying out his career to be a doctor lends credence to the suspicions surrounding him. Despite the larger than life performance I'd actually forgotten all about Jack Mitchell and his role in the story!

Though this is quite a different kind of reintroduction to the series, the familiar conventions are there in part: Captain Dobey makes it into one scene (where he has S&H in his office to make them hear out Lieutenant Cameron's plan), and Huggy Bear gets the same treatment, there to remind us why they have his name in the opening credits with a fun little moment at Duke's clothing store. The credits are the most recognisable thing about the episode with very little changed from Season 1's montage (though the dancing girl from 'The Bounty Hunter,' the pair as cowboys from 'The Bait,' the walking and driving combo with gun drawn from 'Silence,' as well as Hutch pushing Starsky off him after an explosion from 'The Omaha Tiger' are all new additions, I think). The big difference is that the music has changed from the crumbling old trumpet score that never truly suited the series, despite Season 1's tougher and more realistic look at city life, to a much more upbeat, slightly zany, but also, for the time, cooler, jazzier and more in keeping with the personas we'd come to know. The music changed every season, and they're all much of a muchness, but I can't deny this suited the mood of Season 2 a lot closer than the old score.

Other familiar aspects of the series continue, as you'd expect, with wacky characters aplenty and a number of in-jokes or pop culture references. I must admit, I didn't get a lot of the famous names that were mentioned by the pair of dancers as they come off stage (playing some kind of word association game), or when they're at Duke's, or even if Bugsy/Benny Siegel was a real world gangster. I assume he was, as what would be the point of making one up, but it was a reference I didn't get. One I did get was John Wayne, though my knowledge of his filmography means I don't know which film Starsky talks about where Wayne carries Victor McLaglen back to Maureen O'Hara singing 'The Wild Colonial Boy'! It's not the first time the Duke's been referenced, though ironically it was in the first season's opening episode, and by one the bad guys! 'Guys and Dolls' is also mentioned (in a weird moment where it seems like they used the same selection of dialogue for background noise when Cameron's watching through the two-way mirror, then cut to Jack saying it again). He mentions in that conversation that his and Hutch's nicknames used to be Prince and The Pauper, so that's a literary connection, and he also tells us Hutch was class valedictorian - I don't think we knew that much about Hutch's growing up years, so that's good.

There are also the facts that they're dressing up to go undercover (as usual, in bizarre outfits that make them stand out more than fit in!), one of them has a book of facts and bores the other one with it, and there's a swimming pool, and you know what that means if you've seen many episodes of the series! Being called 'Hutch and Starsky' by the prison warder is a little turnaround on the traditional sequencing of their names, and whenever that's played with, it's always intentional, but there's a much more obvious example when Ace calls Starsky, Henderson and he replies 'He's Henderson, I'm Starsky,' so as not to forget the age-old running joke of the series. You could say that the success of Hutch and uncomprehending failure of Starsky is another running joke, but it's not used so much used throughout the episode as in a couple of scenes - the jackpot machine outside the garage (an odd place to put one, but they are approaching Las Vegas), where Hutch berates his partner's gambling fever, then wins the money himself, and later when he's supposed to be losing money so they can get into a fight and be thrown in jail, he has a run of wins. The bit where he hits the rose of the girl standing next to him would later end up in the credits.

Starsky, as wronged innocent is always funny, and he gets to have the romantic side of things this time when his polite embarrassment at Vicky's state of undress makes a connection. It's not that true to his character as he never usually has a problem with such things, so it's probably more that she saw the good in him, and that he wasn't leering at her as others had, but at the same time you can believe in his old-fashioned reaction to such things because he is quirky and he does react that way when presented with honesty and openness. Vicky was played by Lynda Carter, who would go on to be most famous for being Wonder Woman in her own TV series, and even appeared on 'Smallville' as Chloe's Mum. She doesn't have a great deal to do, but a lot more than the first two dancers we see, one of whom quickly gets murdered (I think that was Sharon, the actress also playing Nina in 'The Bounty Hunter'), and the other, her friend Iris, (played by Roz Kelly, who'd been Francine back in 'Death Notice' and came back as a third character in another episode, so they must have liked her), is hardly in it at all this time, though she'd get more in Part II.

I'm not sure if the layout of Police HQ had changed, but I have a feeling they used to go through a door on the left of the staff area to get to Dobey's office. Mind you, the set changed a lot over the years so I can't remember which was the most common setup. This could well be the first appearance of the large Pinky & Perky pig on S&H's desk. I don't remember seeing it in Season 1, but it was something iconic, almost as much as the red-striped tomato, which, although they don't use it in this episode in exchange for an open-top sports car, can be seen sitting outside HQ. The stunt guy that often stands out when he stands in for Paul Michael Glaser could be clearly seen when Starsky runs after Vicky as she's attacked by her ex-husband, Lloyd, leaps onto his back, and in the fight (surprise, surprise), ends up in the swimming pool, but if it was him when Starsky gets thrown onto a gambling table then it was much better disguised because I couldn't decide if it was a double or not. I'm pretty sure it was David Soul who leaps into the pool to help his partner, but it's so difficult to spot his double - probably a safer stunt leaping into water, so it could well have been Soul on that occasion. And I thought I recognised some of the dancers - a shoulder-length blonde-haired guy and his long-haired partner seem to be in just about every dancing scene on the series!

They squeezed in a good number of the typical oddballs, whether it was Duke (who mainly repeats "That's right, that's right!"), to the drunk wandering the casino, to Ace, the guy that's been cutting hair for the rich and famous for over forty years while sporting a huge, bushy beard and mass of unkempt hair ('I may get mixed up with a face, but I never forget a name!'), to Jack himself. The strangler could never have been him, because he's always hyper, or zonked out, whereas the strangler is a motionless predator waiting to strike, calmly readying himself or standing, watching his sleeping victims (in what wasn't a bad cliffhanger). Jack, on the other hand, is crazy, driving like a maniac, rushing off to do other things when he's promised to show his friends the town, and generally coming across as someone on drugs. And when he talks abut buying $100 of chewing gum with Eugene doing deliveries for him, it looks more and more like he's into illicit substances. I get that Hutch hasn't seen him for years, but he's seen enough addiction to be suspicious, surely!

At the same time we're given hints about the real strangler, the woman at the store criticising her son Eugene for his beard, and showing herself to be most unsympathetic as a person, by the way she shows contempt for her black customer, Gretchen Hollander, and acts very cool towards S&H when they visit her store. Maybe that's the reason Gretchen chose to park down a dark side alley instead of right in front of the lighted windows of the store, because she knew the woman hated her? But the strangler seems to have the power to terrify women when they see him, making them cower in a quivering wreck, the horrible mystique so strong - look at the first victim we see in the teaser: the strangler never once crouches or hides in any way, but somehow this woman never sees him in a lighted car park until he's right there in front of her! Maybe it's 'TV darkness,' so she couldn't see as much as we could? I like the way they film him with the distinctive white shoes and tan trousers, never actually showing his acts of violence as they would on a modern series where every gory detail would have to see the light of day. Imagination adds to this horror. They appear to set up Lieutenant Cameron as a possible suspect since he also wears tan clothing, but although S&H come up against plenty of crooked cops in their time, just because he's set up to be unlikeable and they've apparently got a history with him, plus his manner is very icy, he wouldn't be the strangler because it's too obvious.

I was dubious at first that they'd have a realistic reason for S&H to go to Las Vegas when they have plenty of talented officers there already, but I bought Cameron's story about it being a small town where everybody knows everybody else, so he needed fresh faces. Then it becomes about Hutch's former friend being the main suspect, and when you think about it, it may still be unlikely, but who cares, it's a chance for S&H to go somewhere different and try to blend into a young, party-loving crowd, so why not start the season like that? I wonder if this was one of the main episodes the parody film aped because in some ways it's wackier than ever, with Starsky wearing those big shades and putting his feet up on the dashboard, while the scene at the casino where Hutch asks Starsky for the money is so similar to their cameo in the film when he tells his reluctant partner to give the car keys to their younger selves. Not that I liked the film, it went way too much into ridiculous parody, but it is interesting to note when the series came close to that level. And Season 2 came closer than Season 1, while not quite straying into the excesses of Season 4's 'Dandruff' or 'The Groupie,' and keeping a good, rounded mix of the elements that made the series what it was. While this first episode doesn't set the screen alight, it's a pretty good start, and a shock when it doesn't get sorted out all in one episode.

***

Abyss

DVD, Stargate SG-1 S6 (Abyss)

I always remembered that they brought Daniel back during the Jonas season, but I'm surprised they did it so soon, only six episodes in. You'd think they would have given the new guy longer to bed in before showing the face of the one he replaced! Not that I'm complaining, I love that they did this and the way they did it, so touchingly and personally, when Jack is at his lowest point. Maybe it wasn't the worst predicament he's ever been in, but it would qualify high up the list, being tortured on a continual, never-ending cycle by an evil System Lord desperate for any information he can give, before using a Sarcophagus to revive him (shame they'd already used the revival footage in the credits montage for this season). The difficulty he's in is that he doesn't know any of the answers to questions demanded of him - it was the 'snake' in his head, the Tok'Ra, Kanan, who apparently took advantage of him in his weakened state and used him to rescue a personal slave (or lo'taur), of Baal. We can guess that he did it for love, just as we had the whole storyline of Jolinar in earlier seasons, the reason Carter can understand such things.

Things aren't quite as simple as they first appear, but not much more complicated either. O'Neill eventually tells Daniel the information he's been holding back, which is the reason, as we guessed, that Kanan went back for the slave woman. He's bravely going through all this pain and mental agony to protect the innocent and he's not even shouting about how good he is, he just does it, threatening Daniel that he'll eventually crack if he isn't saved or killed. Daniel was right when he talked about how good a man Jack is. But regardless of his feelings for his friend, Daniel is held back from directly interfering to save Jack. The episode was always so good whenever it was between the two friends, one dying every day and wanting permanent death, the other already 'dead' in the conventional sense, yet more alive than he's ever been before. I actually laughed aloud when Jack thanks him for stopping by after he admits that even with all this newfound power and life as an energy being, an 'evolved' form, supposedly, he can't do anything to help except comfort a friend!

I don't suppose anyone honestly thought to see Daniel Jackson again, he'd been written out, and though he hadn't been killed, instead allowed a mysterious sendoff that meant they could bring him back if they wanted to, he was, nevertheless, written out. I still don't know why Michael Shanks left the series, whether it was purely his decision, or what happened, but he must have quickly had second thoughts if he was willing to return so quickly to the series that made his name. It may have been a realisation that he couldn't easily jump into something equally as big, or he needed some money, or it may have been that there was such an outcry at a beloved character leaving that the writers were quick to come up with a cameo episode. What better way than to have him be there for Jack during his trial? If anyone could make the Colonel angry or irritated, it was Jackson with his wittering scientific mouth/brain, often making life more complicated for the simple military operations O'Neill wanted to run. But by the time he saw him ascend they'd become friends without even meaning to, and it was more than just being part of the team - we know the members of SG-1 have deep and mutual friendships. Somehow it became more between those two, which is why Jack was the one to see him go, and why Daniel doesn't appear to anyone here, but Jack.

It makes the ethereal sadness more real when Daniel's told us he can't interfere in, presumably, the affairs of mortals, so if someone else enters the room, he's not to be seen and yet he takes great care in being there when Jack most needs him, only once leaving because he had something to do. The implication you can draw is that he put the idea in Teal'c's mind during his meditation session, otherwise why say that he had to do something, and why does Teal'c react so surprised, like a lightbulb has gone on over his head? Daniel wouldn't tell Jack that he helped because he's not supposed to be doing that, he can only observe, as much as he wants to, and it also proves O'Neill's faith in SG-1 that they are the ones to come up with a way out for him: they pass on the location of the base to Lord Yu who attacks it. I thought he'd been killed last season by Osiris, but he must have survived if they're using him as a sort-of ally.

It was a simple plan, but all O'Neill ever needs is a fighting chance. He wasn't ready to give up on life and 'ascend,' something that you get the impression fills him with discomfort, being a very rational man who also doesn't like to take things too seriously. And how would this knowledge of an afterlife you can get to if you do some special energy thing affect how he sees the death of his son? It's an episode which refers to faith, though it remains pretty muddled and doesn't go deep into it with very humanistic ideals on display about humanity's potential and all that, something Gene Roddenberry would have loved, but not something this more down-to-Earth sci-fi series usually embraces. Still, there's as much humour in the two friends' exchanges as serious talk, and it's there that it's most enjoyable. Just seeing the two interact is wonderful and makes you wish they'd been able to do that more on the series in recent seasons. But then the Colonel didn't have so much need to listen to Daniel, he wasn't as important or meaningful as he is now that he's 'caught a plane to a higher existence,' as Jack puts it! He can't be ignored. Plus, he's dead, so it's nice to get any words in with him, from Jack's perspective.

Anything apart from Jack and Daniel isn't really necessary to think about, it's really their show, but the stuff with Councillor Thoran getting hoity-toity and smilingly prevented from leaving by man-mountain Teal'c, was quite fun. Also, the teaser was pretty good with a race through a darkened forest, a shadowy figure wearily dashing for the Stargate with his last effort and being shot down. I realised it was the Colonel as soon as we saw a closeup of the back of his head, but I didn't get it until then. All very well filmed and a good idea for a teaser. Another good shot was the transition from the torture grid to a similarly shaped image - the centre of the SGC's transparent galactic map. I'd also point to the bizarre, gravity technology at the enemy base, which is fun, if more trouble than it's worth - since when has that stopped Goa'uld from using such toys? O'Neill gets tortured on a metal rack that has the gravity of the floor, so daggers or acid can be dropped on him from across the room. The most visually appealing example would have to be the actual prison cell, which did at least have a good reason to use gravity in making the far wall into the floor - bars would still have been much cheaper, I expect! I noticed the arrows in the walls, which drop with whatever gravity orientation is on, but the set didn't entirely work as the arrows didn't drop all the way at least once. Still fantastic and imaginative to see O'Neill being dropped this way or that and slowly getting used to the idea so he lands on his feet.

***

Call To Arms

DVD, DS9 S5 (Call To Arms)

Ron Moore thought 'Call To Arms' was the best cliffhanger they'd done, even better than 'The Best of Both Worlds,' and I would agree with that. Not only is it the best cliffhanger moment (the station's abandoned to attacking enemy forces, the baseball is found and recognised as a symbol from the hero that he'll return, and the ship, partnered with an Klingon ally, speeds off to meet a vast Starfleet force, wheels round and joins it as it heads to battle the bad guys!!!), it's also one of the best of 'DS9' (and therefore the entirety of Trek) episodes, and would definitely be there in the top ten of the series, and even of all 'Star Trek.' It is an episode heavy with expectancy, kind of like 'The Way of The Warrior,' but squished into the normal running time instead of being feature-length, and watching it now, just as several of these recent episodes have, it makes me wish it were as long as a film because there's so much going on. Every character gets their moments and there happen to be a lot of characters - the series has reached fever pitch, it's playing with a full deck of cards, it has slotted the pieces of the puzzle together, and it leaves with you wanting desperately to see how the series will follow on from this. And I don't think the series had ever managed to make itself so edible, so fulfilling, before, a testament to the last Behr/Wolfe collaboration which had borne so much fruit over the years.

Like all the best stories that lead to a momentous conclusion, it starts slowly with minor matters, people talking, the station's atmosphere changing as it has been these past few episodes. There's the little matter of a wedding between Rom and Leeta, which Sisko agrees to officiate in the best Captain's tradition - Picard married Keiko and Miles, Kirk married crewmembers in 'Balance of Terror,' and even Janeway married off Paris and B'Elanna (though I think they were the clone versions - watch 'Course: Oblivion,' you'll understand!). Archer's the only one I don't remember fulfilling the privilege, but he didn't get the full seven years, or a film series, so I don't hold it over him as a failing! The teaser intelligently weaves two separate moments together, from the wedding couple trying to choose a dress for Leeta (somehow remembering over a hundred different designs!), getting excited to see Sisko walk by (and it would be an excitement for Leeta, a Bajoran, to have the Emissary marry her and Rom), then after Sisko's agreed, we continue the scene following him and O'Brien gloomily watching another squadron of Jem'Hadar ships speed through the Wormhole.

I don't think the gloom was as apparent this time. They've got to the point where the build-up of enemy ships has reached such regular numbers that they aren't worried so much about if, but when, an invasion is coming. We've had ships go missing and a general air of pessimism had fallen strong on the station, but just as there was a release for people to go 'over the top' in the trenches, facing their fear rather than waiting and brooding on it, things move to a head and plans are afoot. Starfleet does not stand idly by. The trenches analogy isn't the only link to the Second World War - the visit of Weyoun to the station is like Chamberlain's meeting with Hitler. The British Prime Minister returned with a peace of paper, crying 'peace in our time,' and that's very close to what happened between Sisko and the Vorta representative. He even admits afterwards that it was all just so many meaningless words. The difference this time is that Sisko expected what was going to happen, and so did Starfleet. There are trickles of rumour, such as Nog hearing about the Romulans signing a nonaggression pact with the Dominion, meaning the untrustworthy, but dependable Empire, would not be coming to bolster DS9's defences as it did at the end of 'By Inferno's Light' when what we thought was happening, didn't happen. Were the Romulans threatened, or were they sweet-talked by Weyoun into seeing the logic of keeping out of the fighting? Either way it wouldn't be out of character as they prefer remaining isolationist, sitting back and letting things play out, while watching in secret.

Things get a little testy in Ops when Sisko says Starfleet aren't sending reinforcements, either, Kira the one to show defiance. Where Worf has often been her supporter this season when it comes to faith, this time, when the subject is duty, he shows his obedience for the oath he accepted when he joined Starfleet - he knows he and the others don't have all the facts and don't need to see the big picture, they just need to do their job, carry out their role and not take time to question their superiors: a proper, professional Starfleet way. But there are plenty of people who aren't Starfleet and don't have the same affiliation. This can both help and hinder them - they aren't in the same boat as any Starfleet members because they can be counted as connected with Bajor, the station belonging to that planet, and as Bajor signs the nonaggression pact, they are not an official enemy of the Dominion. This means Quark, Kira and Odo are free to become the 'welcoming' committee when Dukat saunters happily onto the Promenade, finally returning to regain what he'd lost. I thought he was going to say 'just like old times,' but he didn't, though he did look at Quark when he was talking about 'you (Odo); me; the Major,' and as Quark was there when he was, it is a bit like the old gang getting back together.

Except this old gang has changed quite a bit since the days of the Occupation: Odo's remained the station's Security Chief through brutal Cardassian repression and strict Federation law; he's survived multiple attacks to the station and top brass' suspicion of him, and he's kept his sense of justice very much intact. Kira wasn't exactly a happy member of the station when Dukat left, but she'd been there before, and Quark had done the same job as proprietor of the bar since Cardassian rule. Is there a hint of the old Dukat again, after the tough, power-seizing villain we've seen recently? He always enjoyed being Mr. Nice Guy, as long as people obeyed his decrees, and now it's the same again - he's looking forward to working with Kira and becoming the Father of Terok Nor again. The only spoke in the machine is Weyoun and the fact that he now has to do the Dominion's bidding, which is why he humbles himself when Weyoun slaps him down for suggesting he had no treaty to honour with Bajor. Damar looks at his friend and superior, confused, giving us a sense that maybe he and Dukat say things about the Dominion they wouldn't say in Weyoun's hearing. Dukat was always better at disguising his true motives and plans than Damar. In many ways, though Damar was simpler, he was also better off because he didn't have deep psychological problems (they'd come later when he was put in Dukat's position). Good to see the personal viewscreen technology of Dominion ships that means only certain people get to see what's happening outside, being used again, adding to the menace of Dukat and the others, an almost Borg-like appendage added to their exoskeletal form.

I wonder if it was true what Weyoun said about children starving on the streets of Cardassia when the Dominion came with aid? You'd think with a new, friendlier government things would have been done to improve the lives of the planet, but then the war with the Klingons came so resources would have been piled into the military again, meaning such a scenario is possible, and possibly a reason Dukat was able to seize power so easily. You can't know if Weyoun speaks the truth or a twisted lie, certainly he never had any real charitable intentions towards a race that tried to wipe out his 'gods' and masters, the Founders. It's a huge irony that both the Romulans and Cardassians, the two who were so strongly paranoid about and opposed to, the Dominion threat that they built a joint fleet and went on the offensive, should also be the two to give the Dominion its biggest foothold on the Alpha Quadrant, the devious longterm planning of the Founders now coming to fruition. But it doesn't all go their way, because while the fleet attacks a shored up DS9 (though somehow the station seems to take heavy explosions to itself, then other times we see a shield protecting it - is the shield limited to the Habitat Ring and Ops?), like a decoy, the real force of Federation and Klingon ships was attacking the Dominion shipyards and destroying them. As Weyoun says, the victory to gain DS9 was a costly one.

It was also a vibrant and exciting one, with the best space battle they'd achieved on the series by then, even topping the big, but brief rumble in the film between Starfleet and the Borg, released the same year. It's astonishing the numbers of vessels onscreen, even 'Enterprise' with its full-CGI magic never attempted something so spectacular, and this was in the days when much space filming was done with physical models! There are some great and defining shots in the battle, but one of them is as simple as the Defiant speeding past camera as the minefield ripples into invisibility putting a permanent barrier between Alpha and Gamma Quadrants, and a thorny problem to keep Dukat's hands busy and preventing him from fully enjoying the fruits of his labours. There's also a striking shot after Sisko's last order has gone into operation, sending forks of lightning dancing on the consoles as everything burns out, smoke flies in with abandon and Kira and Odo stand tall in front of a camera looking up at them, defiant in attitude and strong in resolve (though I couldn't help wondering if there had been a lone Bajoran somewhere, or an innocent alien, just using one of the station's terminals, who suddenly gets a massive electric shock when all the consoles self-destruct!). I also love the pan shot as we track round behind the assembled aliens Sisko addresses outside the Bajoran Temple on the Promenade, his rousing words matched with the fluid movement of the camera.

My eyes were distracted with that scene as I was busy watching the backs of the alien heads we glide past - there's a 'fish-man' again, though I wouldn't trust him to leave the station to, as they've tended to be ruffians. There's also a Yridian, and if he's the one who used to work at Quark's he might be harbouring a vendetta for getting ousted when the Ferengi's business licence (and ability to hire fellow Ferengi), was restored. The funniest head is Morn's, those two pert little ears sticking up on a huge bulky head. Even from behind there's comedy about the guy! Though we don't see them, we hear about a lot of other aliens: many classic 'TOS' with Tholian, Vulcan, Romulan, and Tellarite, then more recent examples such as Risian and Miradorn, and even Orion 'free traders,' whatever they are. It wasn't mentioned whether they were actually green or not, or only aliens connected with the Orions, but it would have been so much fun if we'd actually seen some green Orions at Quark's! It's like they were trying to cram in references to as many alien races as possible. There weren't just references to aliens, but also to a couple of episodes: Kira and Odo discuss how tense things have been since what happened at the end of 'Children of Time,' Kira almost melting like a shapeshifter into her chair when Odo not-invites her to dinner! It also gives her and Dax one of their girly chats where we're reminded what's going on between them. It's good that they got it sorted out before the takeover of the station as they had to work closely together.

The other moment to be specifically recalled is Garak's conversation with Odo about how he could have shot Dukat when they were side by side against the Klingons, except there were too many of them so he needed him alive. It's fun and funny when Garak gets a scene with someone like that, and I feel like there was a similar scene when Odo was waiting on the Promenade in 'The Way of The Warrior' (from where Garak's observation comes), but I could be wrong. Is this the first time Garak's actually left the station on a permanent basis since his banishment, or did he leave during the Bajoran's attempt at a takeover in the Circle trilogy that began Season 2? Other parallels with 'The Way of The Warrior,' aside from an enemy force boarding the station after a pitched space attack, is someone handing out equipment to people. This time it's Jake, whereas before it was Bashir (with an 'i'), but there's the same sense of menace and preparing for battle as there was when the Klingons attacked. It makes sense that Jake gravitates towards Bashir in the crisis, to make himself useful, but also because they've been through a war zone together, back in 'Nor The Battle To The Strong,' so it becomes an unconscious link to that episode.

This isn't the only brave decision Jake makes - he also fends off his Dad's wrath at reporting his words without telling him, now that he's become a fully paid up (not literally, see the previous review, 'In The Cards'!), member of the Federation News Service. Or was it Starfleet News Service, I thought he said that one… Jake's biggest decision is taking his work more seriously than ever before, when he remains behind on the station without telling Sisko. He may be regretting his decision, but he's not about to chicken out of an idea he's had, not after learning what real fear and cowardice are in 'Nor The Battle To The Strong' - this is his moment to prove his words weren't just words and put his stylus and PADD where his mouth is, his own logic that he won't be harmed because he's the son of the Emissary just enough to shelter a weak reasoning to support the action. The reality is that he could have just given the Dominion a very valuable hostage, something to be used against Captain Sisko, but having already achieved a level of understanding between him and Weyoun, Jake didn't have too much to worry about.

With all these interpersonal scenes you'd think there would be more of the traditional friendships onscreen, but there wasn't enough time to cram in all that they did and still have space for Bashir and O'Brien, Jake and Nog, or Sisko and Dax, plus, as with last episode, if Dax is there for Sisko to lean on, he doesn't stand heroically alone and he might have discussed why he wasn't feeling troubled by events - he knew what Starfleet was planning, but we didn't need to know or it would spoil the surprise. Dax does get her tasks to perform, but she takes Worf's role as 'Captain' of the Defiant, working with Martok to get the minefield laid in time. I don't know why they gave her that role, but she carried it out well and could have made a good Captain, I feel. Kira's always shown the strength of command, and for once she finds herself stuck between two cultures, just as Worf used to be. It's a much simpler solution for her though - she makes her official protest as a member of the Bajoran Militia on one side of Sisko (since this is supposed to be a Bajoran station), then walks to his other side and announces herself personally ready for duty. It's another lovely moment in a host of them.

Rom also plays his part, the genius behind the concept of cloaked, self-replicating mines (his switching between agonising over the details of his upcoming wedding and flashes of inspiration are a highlight!), not even having time to notice his brother's uncharacteristic affection. How much of his desire to stay was what he told Quark about sticking with him because he's his brother, and how much was his plan to spy for Starfleet, I don't know, but Quark was clearly touched by the news, and this was about the only meaningful scene he had in the episode, a sad foreshadowing of things to come (though I enjoyed hearing more about traditional Ferengi wedding rituals - the Latinum dance and bridal auction. I'd love to know how they work!) Is Rom really there as an official Starfleet Intelligence plant? They must have known that Rom's career working for Starfleet, even though he was in a Bajoran uniform, would have been old news to the Dominion which often seems to know so much. For that matter, why did Rom need to return to being an employee of Quark's when he could have continued as a Bajoran repair man? And did he take some poor Ferengi's job as Assistant Manager, or did Quark not bother with such titles after Rom left? Rom also adds to the mythos of 'waste extraction' where it sounds more like going to the loo than ever before in the way he says he has to go there. Good comic timing, though, even if we don't need to lower the tone any further!

We again see a sterner side to Weyoun, like the teacher taking students on a college trip, with Dukat the goody-goody, who's actually the one to have fun, and the more brusque Damar who can't conceal his feelings well. Their meeting with Kira, Odo and Quark on the Promenade is a great one, with so much enjoyment squeezed out of it - Damar's smirking aloofness, Dukat's steely joy, and Weyoun's obsequious obeisance to Odo. If anyone thought there would be any question of Odo being accepted in his post, Weyoun's performance, as if Odo chose to stay especially to meet him, quashes all doubts, throwing another fascinating spanner into the tool-bag. And it's a pretty gleaming set of tools we have in this set. It may have been mixed up with people here and there, spread out on different ships and locations, but it pulses with potential, sizzles with suspense and makes us desperate to see more. It may not be a typical cliffhanger in terms of leaving a set of events that need immediate resolution, but it leaves the table set, the food on the table… and then makes us wait for the sumptuous feast of Season 6.

*****