Profit and Lace

DVD, DS9 S6 (Profit and Lace) (2)

One episode that tends to get a bad rap, but actually isn't so bad. It is funny in places, not as laugh out loud comedy, but provoking the occasional titter thanks to the antics of Quark and his extended family, the way they're written, as always, the best thing about them (something you'd never have thought, back in 1987 watching 'The Last Outpost'!), with the intricate makeup the second best thing about them. What prevents the story reaching the heights of the majority of the Ferengi soap episodes is that the comedy is the main part of it, real issues about the development of Ferengi society shifted into the background. But there is a learning curve, at least for Quark, and it's him that the series cares more about, his views and attitudes rather than the faceless majority of the Ferengi race, he and his family having been used as a crucible to explore social issues. It's just that the social issues were overshadowed by the laughs. There are real grassroots changes taking place - even if it's coming from the top, Zek has been deposed, so his new Ferenginar will have to be accepted by the masses on the street, making Nilva, chairman of Slug-o-Cola ("the slimiest cola in the galaxy"), the drink of the people, the man needed to sway in Zek's bid for reinstatement. Everyone drinks Slug-o-Cola, so the populace would be more likely to follow a candidate endorsed by the famous brand. This could have become an interesting examination of consumer driven politics or the influence of branding on a population, but it's another side avenue that isn't explored.

What I do like about the episode is that it continues the ongoing story of Zek's failing memory (in small part), Ishka's strong and increasing influence on him (in greater part), and the setup for a new Grand Nagus, one that would be at home with the equality of the female portion of the population, that has an understanding of its sensitivities, and that would usher in an avant-garde period for The New Ferengi. So it's funny that even now, Rom is the one to show he has understanding of women, he can give advice on their behaviour and what being a woman is about. Is this because he's a genius, and simply has natural insight, or because he's spent so much time in their company, or because he'd puzzled over female behaviour so much since his wife left him? Probably a mix of all of them, but it's good to see his sweetness and openness used as a resource, even if he wasn't a good enough Ferengi (in the 'old' sense of the word, anyway), to fill the high-heeled shoes, and charm Nilva. For all the reasons Quark's Moogie dislikes him, it's ironic that these are the things which make him a good Ferengi (in the old sense of the word), to which she and those she represents must rely on to serve their cause. And it's also ironic that Quark, the staunchest defender of the traditional values, must be the one who tries to persuade Nilva to disregard them, or perhaps bend them slightly.

It's not all the old values that are on the way out, however, greed still shines brightly above the species, like a star to follow towards wealth (if not happiness - there was a brief exchange between two characters, I can't recall whom, about not being happy, but at least being rich, something that explains the Ferengi culture perfectly). This is why Quark's business acumen and greed-inspired cunning can win Nilva over. It does seem surprising, when you think about it, that the male Ferengi had never thought to exploit the females other than as mates or possessions, and that they should finally realise, all of a sudden, that giving them the same rights to wearing clothes = getting jobs = spending money = doubling the workforce and consumer base in one swoop! It seems like something the calculating Ferengi would have long ago worked out, but perhaps they couldn't see the forest for the trees - they've always been a very traditional race, and while they could think outside the box when it came to profit, opportunities staring them in the face that were contrary to their ways, simply didn't register.

The episode begins with concern from Quark and Rom that they can't contact anyone on Ferenginar, leading to suggestions of defeat and occupation by the Dominion (Worf happy with that possibility - okay, maybe not happy, I'm sure he wouldn't seriously want any species to suffer, but he certainly wasn't concerned about the implications). I like that the Ferengi are at the centre of the story again, following the previous episode in which Nog was tasked with delivering an important, but confidential message to the Nagus, though whether he eventually got it or not, and whether it was the proposition of an alliance with the Federation or not, we never found out (Nog should have waited, Zek came to him, and then he wouldn't have fixed the Valiant's Warp Drive and it might still survive out there…). It may be telling that he makes his way to DS9 when he's been kicked out of office, or it could be that Ishka suggested Quark would be the one to go to for assistance. The whole sequence of events does give the lie to the great power of the Nagus - previously he'd always seemed practically untouchable (barring the period when he might be revealed as unfit for duty as in 'Ferengi Love Songs'), but it may be that his Latinum road had run out: his dependence on a female seemingly common knowledge, and the changing of Ferengi law and custom too much for his supporters to take. So Ferengi government does sound more like a democracy than we ever thought before, something else that could be for the good of the race's development, away from its childishness, in galactic terms.

One Ferengi who always knew when to take advantage of the situation, was Brunt (back to bad guy after helping rescue Moogie in 'The Magnificent Ferengi,' co-rescuers Gaila and Leck also mentioned), and here we witness a hellish possible future with him as Grand Nagus. Hellish for Quark and family, but I don't know whether Brunt's inauguration would herald a positive or negative outcome for his society, though obviously it would mean a backward step for the new legislation. Mind you, profit is what matters to them, so even Brunt could have been persuaded that it was in his best financial interests to break with tradition and allow the females their chance. But probably not coming from Quark, as Brunt would rather take revenge than more profit, and preferably both, even if it was a rather antithetical attitude for a Ferengi to take (DaiMon Bok notwithstanding). This may well mean he wasn't the best traditional Ferengi, either. Whatever Brunt's turn as Nagus might have meant, we were never going to find out as he was always the foiled enemy, plotting revenge. Jeffrey Combs just does it so well! This time he has a Hupyrian servant, Uri'lash, mirroring Zek's choice of Maihar'du, the only other Hupyrian we ever saw, I believe (I thought we'd seen two Hupyrians square up, but I was thinking of Brunt's Nausicaan heavies in 'Bar Association').

It's fun to watch these background characters who never speak (except for that one time when Maihar'du's image was used by the Prophets in 'Prophet Motive'), as, far from zoning out, as they had every right to do, they're clearly following every line of conversation and reacting to it with bouts of pained facial convulsions, but that was always Maihar'du's stock in trade. This attention to detail is another of the many things that makes Trek so special, and I couldn't help noticing the same care taken to create the impression of a living world: when they're in the bar having a discussion the camera pans round so you see the open doorway very briefly, and some extra walks past. Now either they planned this one extra to walk past at the very moment the camera caught the doorway in its shot, or they had background walking up and down the Promenade the whole time the scene was being shot, in case the doorway was seen. Either way, they could have simply closed the door (we've seen Quark shut up shop when he wants a private meeting in the past), and all the shutters were down, so it wasn't like we were seeing a busy Promenade behind - it shows how much dedication went into making DS9 seem alive with people, going above and beyond what was strictly necessary for a scene. I don't know whether episode Director Alexander Siddig should be given the credit for this, but I'd have thought it would be up to him to decide on everything that was seen on camera, and he did a good job on the episode, it wasn't his fault that the story didn't delve deeply enough into the issues or the comedy.

Some pretty major surgery takes place, barely even registering as an issue. The first is Moogie's new heart (something we'd already known was possible in the 24th Century since Captain Picard had a new heart after being stabbed by Nausicaans in his youth), after Quark's argument with her causes a heart attack. That's how they've always been towards each other, and always manipulated things to get the best for themselves out of each other - probably a traditional Ferengi example of family interaction. It's only because Rom is so gentle and inoffensive that he gets special treatment, but it often seems like Moogie treats him that way because she knows he's not a traditional Ferengi and doesn't have the lobes, almost like a disability. She probably also sees the New Ferengi in his eyes, and any ally towards that goal deserves more coddling and encouragement. The other example of futuristic medical science (another one for Bashir's House of Horrors - I can just imagine a similar scene to the end of 'Apocalypse Rising' when he told Odo he could give him any face he wanted: "You know Quark, I can make you any sex you want"), and the one that's up front and personal, is the ease with which Quark is transformed into the opposite sex. It's made clear this is a full body transformation, inside and out, hormone treatment affecting him more than the physical changes. What isn't so clear is how easy it was to switch back and forth, as by the end of the episode he's practically back to normal (bar some side effects that lead him to ask Odo for a hug, the Changeling complying reluctantly, but showing their true friendship, so often hidden in sniping, supporting Quark at his low ebb).

What I did respect about the story was the logical progression to reach a point where Quark needs to become a woman in order for things to be straightened out. It wasn't some silly prank that had to be played, or a stunt that the episode was all about, it was a necessary development for the story (okay, maybe that's pushing it - it was farfetched and bonkers, but well plotted). It's just that the episode is better before Quark's change, and it does tend to reinforce stereotypes, even if it is in a comedic way: at the end, Quark's oversensitive as he still has the hormones swirling around in him, and the whole point of the episode is to say female Ferengi are equal to males, but there are no other female Ferengi that could do what Ishka does, which is why they need Quark! It also doesn't seem to take long to travel between DS9 and Ferenginar, so any argument for not being able to transport someone from there would be weakened. But as I said before, it's supposed to be a learning experience for Quark, to appeal to his compassionate side, bookended by his dealings with Aluura the Dabo girl (Symba Smith, previously an uncredited alien dancer in 'Voyager' episode 'Alliances'), who must accept his unwanted advances or face dismissal, something we've seen happen before - I distinctly remember a Dabo girl taking her appeal to Sisko.

This is Quark at his most despicable, something we've seen less and less over the years, so that it almost seems out of character, and yet he strives to continue to be the Ferengi's Ferengi, struggling to quash the Moogie genes within that make him more open to the better parts of the Federation ethics he's constantly exposed to. At the end of the episode he shows more concern for Aluura's wellbeing, displaying generosity and self-denial (to a point), the message somewhat stomped on by Aluura having a change of heart and Quark realising he still stands by his earlier wishes after all. But that was typical of the series: when you thought you knew what they were doing, they'd pull the rug out or switch direction at the last! The great thing about 'DS9' lasting so many years is that it had got to the point where it could reference itself (having already done so many times with 'TOS,' even recently with 'Who Mourns For Morn?' for 'Who Mourns For Adonais?'), 'Profit and Loss' the Season 2 Quark episode title that this one emulates. When it comes to detail, the 'DS9' writers were king, and even a planet that was mentioned in the first big Ferengi soap episode, 'The Nagus,' is part of the conversation again.

But references are only as good as the story around them, and this, and previous episode, 'Valiant,' have more in common than a lack of Chief O'Brien (again!): they both start with the promise of a classic Ferengi episode, and neither delivers on it. 'Valiant,' because they gave us something equally as good, but different, and this because it didn't really know what it was trying to achieve beyond the high concept of Quark as a woman. It does have plenty to laugh at, the absentminded way they all quote the Slug-o-Cola slogan by rote (possibly a jibe at how subliminally pernicious advertising can be), the amusing brass themes for the Ferengi (sadly lacking on the 'DS9' CD set), the montage of Quark, Rom and Nog calling up the FCA commissioners, or Zek meeting Leeta for the first time (surprising, but she'd only been married into the Ferengi family for just under a year at this point), but it's not one I particularly look forward to, which may make it a better viewing experience, as it's more enjoyable than I expect. But it leaves me with the wish to see what Ferengi society developed into post-'DS9,' and how the new ways were assimilated into the traditional culture, something I'd love to see explored in a new series. Sadly, any new series is likely to go back to basics, not build upon the groundwork established in all that went before.

***

Going through my store of pictures from the series I noticed some which hadn't been in the episode: they show Quark in what looks like a surgical gown in the Infirmary, with Zek holding up a dress for Quark's approval as Maihar'du and Rom look on, though we only ever see Quark in one dress, suggesting that this is a deleted scene set just after Quark's come out of surgery, though there are no extra scenes on the DVD, and Memory Alpha has no information, either…

In A Mirror, Darkly, Part II

DVD, Enterprise S4 (In A Mirror, Darkly, Part II)

Sometimes you could believe you were watching a fan-made production of Trek while watching these episodes, particularly Part II which takes place mainly on the old sixties sets they recreated for the USS Defiant. Not a bad fan-made production, to qualify that statement. Essentially, it's not done in the thoughtful, slower style we associate with 'TOS,' the energy of 'Enterprise's last two seasons, coupled with the quick cuts, moving cameras and multitude of closeups, making the experience somewhat jarring when observed in such a setting. It's so fast and frantic that we aren't allowed time to revel in the beauty of these classic sets, we aren't given the classic shots, such as looking down on the bridge at work (though T'Pol looking through the science station viewer was one that recalled 'TOS'), or seeing long shots of the cast sat around the briefing room table complete with tri-screen, so although we have these wonderful recreations, we don't necessarily see them used as we'd like to. And when you consider that this is in the Mirror Universe, not just a difference of time, and these are alternate versions of the characters, who aren't used to sitting around discussing things, and that they don't have a lot of time to do so as they're either under attack, attacking, escaping, or dealing with internal threats, then you see that the style of direction and how the sets were used was purely to serve the story. It just doesn't make it as satisfying an experience as it might have been.

I often felt as if the constant action was designed to disguise the fact that the story, like Part I, is very slight, just continuing the shifting power play of before. It's not so much a story as a series of vignettes of pleasing stuff to see, or a list of references to keep track of. Again, as I said in my review of Part I, it seems churlish to point out flaws since they were doing such a wonderful thing as recreating those old and beloved sets, but it's not enough to just recreate history, you have to tell a good story within, and this isn't a good story. I felt much the same way as I did watching the 'TNG' two-parter, 'Unification,' with all the promise of bringing Leonard Nimoy back as Spock - Part I held all the anticipation, and then what a great way to finish, with a glimpse of the man (just as 'In A Mirror, Darkly' fleetingly served up the Defiant at the end), but then Part II failed to deliver on the potential, as joyous an experience as it was to have him back in Trek. The analogy works for this episode - it's great to have a Constitution-class vessel, both the inside and outside, but it required a story that could equal that greatness. It had been pulled off before, in 'Trials and Tribble-ations,' and 'Flashback,' even 'Relics,' so this is the main reason why this two-parter remains merely good rather than great, and isn't on my list of the Top 20 episodes of 'Enterprise,' no matter how groundbreaking they were in terms of attention to detail.

Now that that's out the way, what was fun about the episode? Just about everything, really: they have the 'Enterprise' cast dressed in the 'TOS' uniforms, which was fantastic, they have everything from food cubes to a Gorn, and we're even treated to parts of a Constitution-class that we'd never seen before. Admittedly, they were only Jefferies Tubes, which led out into larger, corridor versions, but even that complimented the design of the later Enterprise-D, which was shown to have a similar internal structure. I think this would make 'Enterprise' the series where most parts of different Enterprises are seen (if you count the Defiant as one in spirit), as we had the NX-01, this one, the D in the series finale, and a corridor of the J! It was a sight to see an NX-class vessel flying side by side with a Constitution of the 23rd Century, and it is these visual treats that the episode hangs on. Because of the time difference, Mirror Archer is able to look up what happened to him and people he knows (specifically, Hoshi), teasing us, and her, with the threat of exposing who she married and when she died. Even though they're different people, it makes them uncomfortable, and of course, it's of great interest to us as they're talking about the characters from the 'real' universe that we're invested in. It's a treat to have Majel Barrett once again providing the computer voice, you realise how much you miss her contribution, as easy as it was to sometimes take her for granted in the other series', making you wish she could have been more a part of 'Enterprise.' Technically, she should have been more monotone, but perhaps the Defiant's computer was slightly different to that of the Enterprise.

Another small thing I appreciated was seeing the tri-ladder being used during the Gorn hunt (we're going on a Gorn hunt, Gorn hunt, Gorn hunt, we're going on a Gorn hunt, we're not scared - you should be!). It's something seen since 'TOS,' but I don't think we ever had three people all climbing its sides at the same time, which was a great visual. The actual Gorn on the other hand… One of the best things about Part I was the unveiling of the Tholian look, and one of the worst things in Part II was the unveiling of the new Gorn. It's like this is the Mirror episode of Part I, with what was good before, now bad! Even at the time I remember disappointment with what they did after the buildup in Part I that there was a reptilian creature aboard, then the reveal from the captured slave that it's a Gorn, and to finally see it as a CG character… Even at that stage, when CG had moved on, they still couldn't achieve a fully believable humanoid. While the Gorn of 'TOS' is, in some ways, quite laughable, it's mainly from his snarling voice and lumbering movement, the look was incredible for the resources they had at the time. What they should have done was what they did with the Orions - get a bodybuilder, paint him green, stick a quality prosthetic head on top, and show him sparingly in dark corners - that would have been the way to make it work. I can see what they were trying to do, update an old design, but it just looked too different to what was expected, and didn't work. He didn't talk like the other Gorn, either, for which we can be thankful, growling into his communication device when we see him speaking at his end, so it was probably being translated.

I was unsure what the relationship the Gorn and the purple/blue aliens had to the Defiant - it would make sense that they were slaves working for the Tholians, but equally the Gorn could have been an ally, or, and this was my confusion, were they aboard the Defiant when it was brought through to the MU? If that were the case then I'd have liked to have seen them take the opportunity to make the unnamed alien slave be one of the many 'TOS' races that we were never likely to see again, instead of the contemporary design which they used, though it was a good one (even if it had red blood, when you'd expect blue or purple from a race with that colour skin). It made sense to bring in a character we knew to bite the dust (or get bitten to death), Kelby seeming like a nicer fellow in this universe. Not that we really knew him that well anyway, but it was better than a no-name MACO being the victim, I just wish he'd been wearing a red shirt - shame they didn't have a Ferengi to kill off! I wonder if it was another tribute to 'First Contact' mirroring the way an engineer pokes her head up a Jefferies Tube and gets killed in that film, though Kelby lasted a bit longer. When the Gorn tricks Reed and his men into an explosion activated by Communicator, I wanted it to say "I'm not a slave any more, I'm an engineer," in tribute to Chief O'Brien ('Empok Nor')!

We see another step towards the multicultural mix that would become the norm in our universe's Federation when an Andorian and an Orion are part of the ISS Avenger's crew (so Star Trek XI wasn't the first time we saw an Orion in Starfleet!). Soval is more of a cowed individual than the proud, often haughty version we know (and we finally get a Vulcan with a goatee), but the Vulcans in this universe seem even less logical and calm than the usual ones we see in the 22nd Century, which were already unVulcan-like enough. T'Pol shows fear, apprehension (such as when Archer threatens her in the Briefing Room, when she should have been solid as a rock), anger, distrust - she practically shouts at Soval to get her point across, writhing around him as she tries to convince him of the necessity to mutiny against Archer and his grand plans of becoming Emperor, no sign of the calm, still presence a Vulcan (even in the MU), is supposed to portray. It makes me think she's only partly Vulcan. A very small part, and the rest Romulan, or something! But then we see Soval's the same unrestrained, emotional being as her. His fiery death as the Avenger ruptures around him looked cool, but it would have been so much cooler if he'd maintained Vulcan composure to the last, and died with his eyes shut, allowing it to wash over him. That inability to give in to fear, anger, etc, was what made Vulcans so great as a species, and it's a huge reminder of one of the biggest mistakes with the series as a whole (and something I'm always harping on about).

At least T'Pol was shown to make short work of Hoshi in a knife fight in the corridor, but that was somewhere we could have seen a Vulcan lose it somewhat, perhaps pushing her up the wall in a rage, then returning to her placid demeanour to remind us that these Mirror Vulcans are more ruthless. I also would have liked that to have been a more dramatically shot sequence instead of confined to a corridor, T'Pol seen to take out several MACOs, for example, so we're impressed with her physical capabilities (much like our T'Pol in 'Marauders'). But if you thought the Vulcans were overacted, Archer takes the biscuit. It's only when we see an imagined version of our Archer who taunts the Mirror Archer (an excellent idea, well implemented, and the only person we see from our universe, even if it was a figment), that we remember that Scott Bakula is actually an accomplished actor and his character is likeable, because this Archer is so over the top with everything he says, harshly snapping out his dialogue, that it makes him a weak, uninteresting character. The performance may have been in keeping with other MU characters we'd seen before, but I'd have preferred a darkly subtle evilness to him. Like Mirror Garak, he was a one-note villain that had nothing about him for us to sympathise with or wish well in any way, and if you don't care what happens to the characters that doesn't help make the story memorable.

Not every character was like that, however, Phlox shown to have some kind of loyalty, even if it was motivated by greed, as well as being a much more competent fighter than our version when he has a rumble with Trip. It was good to finally see the much mentioned Admiral Gardner (if only the MU version), and Admiral Black was played by regular face, Gregory Itzin ('DS9,' 'Voyager,' and Season 1 of 'Enterprise'). Reed's nastiness was pretty much forgotten this time as he didn't have much to do before being wounded (perhaps mortally), by the Gorn explosion. Trip and Mayweather were the lesser used characters, and seemed better for it, especially the brutal Travis, who's happy to beat up the alien as he sits tied to a chair, the fact that he hardly ever speaks making him more menacing, very different to the affable, interested helmsman we know. Trip's scar, although an excellent tribute to Captain Pike, could have done with some work, as this episode, perhaps due to the flatter lighting on the Defiant, made it look fake thanks to the shininess of the prosthetic. Perhaps that's what it would have looked like in real life, but I'd have thought a matte look would have been more appropriate. Not that it was that important, just whenever his face appeared there was a glare from the lights shining on the scar, which put me off.

The fact that the flaws of the episode were more evident stopped it achieving its potential: the characters are wear the garb of 'TOS' and walk the corridors of 'TOS,' but you don't get the sense of 'TOS' or the idea that this is anything more than showing off visually, not duplicating the camera work of 'TOS' as they had the sets and lighting. T'Pol sees the logic in the Federation, though logic is too strong a word for it as these Vulcans just aren't very logical, which does at least plant the seed of rebellion down the line as a possibility, which Spock eventually took on after our Kirk's visit, but because they couldn't do any more than that there was little to stop the story from simply ending, and abruptly at that, just the beginning of a new reign, as Empress Hoshi takes control in revenge for so many episodes where she'd taken a back seat. She and Mayweather have the last laugh, and they were the two least used characters on the series, so there's nice contrast there, although whether it was planned I don't know. If it was they'd have had to admit they hadn't used them enough in the series, so it may just have been an unconscious reward for them. Trouble is, the story doesn't really matter, and when you have these forty-odd minutes to tell one, you should be taking the opportunity, not expecting to have a few more years. This was the episode in which they were told of cancellation, and it is sad, because even though these weren't the best two episodes, they could have developed it in another visit to the Mirror Universe had the series been allowed to continue. A visit to the MU was a good idea, and the implementation worked well, but only because of the gimmicks.

***

Valiant

DVD, DS9 S6 (Valiant) (2)

Arrogance, leadership and the consequences of blind loyalty are all themes of this surprisingly atypical Jake and Nog story. It could very easily have been a more common comedic runaround for the pair in the vein of last season's 'In The Cards,' even getting a setup for it with Nog's mission to deliver an important diplomatic message to the Grand Nagus, Jake tagging along in the hopes of a story for the Federation News Service. I can just imagine the hi-jinks as Nog tries to carry out his important task while also trying to keep Jake from embarrassing himself with Ferengi customs, keeping him away from Zek, and finding time to show him the sights of Ferenginar (mud, rain and muck, as Jake suggests). Who's to say this wouldn't have been as good an episode as the one they actually turned out? I, for one, would have loved to see Jake and Nog running around on the Ferengi homeworld, and it could have been a classic Ferengi comedy episode with room for all the usual recurring characters, with quite a different spin on the norm as they tended to feature Quark and Rom at the centre of such tales (and it couldn't have been worse than the very next episode, 'Profit and Lace,' which was one of the season's Ferengi episodes). While I do regret not getting a chance to see what this episode might have entailed, I like what they did come up with, putting the friends in a dangerous, war situation behind enemy lines and emphasising once again how much they'd changed over the years we'd known them.

Even in the teaser scene where we think we're being primed for a Ferengi comedy, the time isn't wasted - the impression the Federation's getting desperate enough to try and form an alliance with the Ferengi, who've traditionally been either enemies, or a barely tolerated race, despite their complete differences to the Federation's ethics and practices, shows what state the war is going for them. The other part of the teaser, Quark upset that Dax is forced to repair his drinks Replicator, could be seen as frivolous, but it's important to have these character moments, they always have some unrelated scene for the other members of the cast to show their faces if they don't have a large role in an episode. Odo's newfound romance with Kira means that he's seeing love all over the place, or that's how I read it, not that he wasn't also being perceptive about Quark's care for Dax, considering such repair work beneath her. It's just somehow sad to see Dax given only these tiny parts of an episode when we know her time is coming to an end, but I suppose if they suddenly made her integral to every episode it would have signalled big things were afoot for the character (and ironically, perhaps Terry Farrell wouldn't have wanted to leave!). Quark must have been absentminded, as I don't think I've ever seen him pour a drink away, even if he got it wrong (he pours it out behind the bar, so there must be some kind of sewage system, a grille or tube in the floor, though I've never seen it - not that we tend to see the floor). And O'Brien was absent for a second episode in a row, which leads me to believe Colm Meaney was making another film, as was his wont. Quark should at least be upbeat about the busyness of his establishment, quite the opposite to the emptiness of 'The Reckoning' (the title must have referred to the reckoning of Quark's bank balance!).

One thing I love about this episode is a Runabout having a starring role, something that had become increasingly uncommon (though they were also used in the preceding episode as part of the evacuation - the rise of the Runabouts?). Well, it would, wouldn't it, during a time of war? It's no good sending out tiny ships that aren't going to offer much protection, when there are squadrons and even fleets out there that would make mincemeat of such a small vessel. Plus there wasn't much time for exploration and relatively minor tasks, the usual domain of the Runabout. If Nog's message was so important, why did it need to be delivered in person, and why send a Runabout to do a starship's job? If it needed to be delivered in person to prevent it being intercepted by enemy forces, shouldn't it have been sent with more experienced members of Starfleet, not just one young Ensign and a civilian? Even if they wanted it to be a low profile mission so as not to direct attention, perhaps a good idea in which case to send a Runabout, couldn't they have sent some officers along? I can only imagine that things were busy and nobody could be spared, whereas Nog, firstly being a Ferengi, would be accepted on his homeworld, and secondly, it was an opportunity for him. Shame he got the Runabout destroyed, so no more missions on his own, I expect! In his defence it was not expected that Dominion ships would be in that area of Federation space, but in time of war perhaps it should have been, especially with so many Federation worlds fallen to the Jem'Hadar.

It remained unclear whether the USS Shenandoah was destroyed, or not - when they come under attack from a Jem'Hadar vessel after the surprise attack on the nearby Starbase (and an impressive sight it was to see an attack wing of Jem'Hadar ships swoop in on the base), once Valiant had come in guns blazing and dug them out of the situation, Jake and Nog are beamed over to the starship and I don't recall hearing anything of the fate of what would certainly be christened the 'Short-lived Shenandoah,' considering we only had it since 'Change of Heart,' a few episodes ago! There's no evidence that Valiant brought it with them as I don't think the cargo bay would be big enough to contain it, and we don't see it being towed by tractor beam. It's possible it was simply left behind in hopes of future salvage, but knowing Captain Watters I suspect he'd be quick to blast it himself on the logic that it would be better than leaving it for the Dominion to pick up. In the end even the Valiant is obliterated, one escape pod all that survived, so even if the Runabout had been brought along with them it wouldn't have made it out of the episode. They should have taken the Rio Grande: hundred percent survival rate, but maybe that little ship had more intelligence and developed faults whenever a mission came along that would be sure to prove disastrous for its life expectancy - artificial AI might have been cleverer than we thought, not even letting on that it knew what was what!

The episode had some spectacular sequences for what was essentially a bottle show on (mainly), standing sets, the Valiant obviously a reuse of the Defiant. Except it was slightly more than that because we'd never seen a Ready Room on the Defiant, yet Watters has one, and it's not tiny, either. We'd seen the Mess, Sickbay, Engine Room, Transporter and Brig before (actually we hadn't, I was thinking of Dukat's transfer in 'Waltz,' but that was aboard the USS Honshu), so it was satisfying to see what a Ready Room would have looked like in the Defiant's style. But Red Squad only got the best, whether they deserved it or not, and Watters needed somewhere private he could swallow his pills. It's from this, if not addiction, then certainly high level of dependence on stimulants that first gives us warning signs about this Captain. He's young, yes, but we've seen plenty of young members of Starfleet that have been more than competent and succeeded thanks to their training. Being part of the elite cadet group, Red Squad, you'd expect the training to be even better, but I can't help thinking that the group was a folly, created in arrogance, but with the best intentions, to provide a fast track to success for the most promising candidates. Did they not learn from things like 'The First Duty' that a cult of personality could lead to trouble, and even more when it's a cult of excellence, teaching them to elevate themselves above the common cadet and forgetting that humility and the ability to learn from mistakes is important, too.

In story terms it's great to see Red Squad again, not a forgotten piece of Starfleet's recent history, but something that's been kept alive, no doubt with the best intentions. Just because Admiral Leighton used them to mount a military coup at the heart of Starfleet and impose martial law, doesn't mean the idea of gathering together the best and brightest was a bad one, and they couldn't be held entirely responsible for the manipulation by a paranoid Admiral. Still, the organisation should have been shamed and put to work reclaiming their honour, carefully adding checks and balances to ensure cadets were rounded and not kept in an ivory tower. It could actually have benefited the standard classes to have these highly skilled cadets merged in, as it would have given targets to keep up with and inspiration. I suppose that was what the organisation itself was about, aspiring to be like Red Squad an impetus for success at the Academy. The trouble comes, I think, from bad leadership, and letting these cadets believe they were so much better than they were. Captain Ramirez is to blame for much of what happened on the Valiant: either he promoted Watters to Captain with the understanding he'd do everything he could to get the ship and crew home, or, more likely, as Watters would have obeyed the chain of command, he allowed him carte blanche and thought him ready to lead. This would chime with the misguided idea of Red Squad's elite status, their own ability so drilled into them that they couldn't help but believe they were capable of anything. Those at the top were so blinded by the prestige of creating this group they failed the cadets in the most important of ways.

Ramirez can't take all the blame - for all we know he did want Watters to return home, and Watters would never have told anyone, it's just that the attitude of Red Squad and the culture of it all makes it seem like those in authority shared and even ingrained that view into them. As Nog says at the end, in the most telling exchange with the last surviving member of the Valiant's crew, Watters may have been a good man, he may even have been a great man, but he was a bad Captain. It made me think of the words of Zefram Cochrane: "Don't try to be a great man, just be a man." Watters should have remembered these words of wisdom, then perhaps being a good Captain would have followed, because you felt he was pushing himself to live up to the creed of Red Squad, rather than reaching a balance that experience would have given him. Even his First Officer is slightly concerned (a single moment of humanity for her), that he keeps pulling extra shifts, but she doesn't have the character to stand up to him, nor does she ever see any reason to, she just thinks she's being a good Exec, when she should have been voicing concerns. Her coldness and sarcasm don't engender an environment in which the crew could talk to her or go through her to the Captain, so the whole chain of command was not that in which any alternative points of view were encouraged. At first, Jake is tolerated, Red Squad's enthusiasm drowning out his public protest, it's when he talks to Dorian and gets to the heart of a scared cadet that just wants to go home, that he becomes a problem. And when he tries to get Nog to open his eyes he's seen as a threat by Watters.

With an experienced Ensign aboard, Watters' perception of himself and the importance of his crew goes up another notch: now he has a 'real' member of Starfleet to order around, and one that is eager and willing to help, and has learnt a few tricks in his short career thanks to the experience of those he served with. The confusion over rank when Nog first comes aboard was an interesting issue, something that wouldn't normally be brought up. You'd think Nog would outrank them all, but he's also unsure of such a situation and is so used to following orders that he takes to Watters quickly, especially as the Captain knows how to play him. Except I don't think he was playing him, he genuinely seemed appreciative of Nog's talent and knowledge. First Officer Farris seemed a little sceptical at first, but I didn't sense jealousy, just uncertainty over whether it was the best idea to trust an outsider to Red Squad, not to mention he brought the baggage of a civilian friend with him, whom she did not approve of at all! But Nog fits in so well it's not an issue, and he's soon an asset that encourages Watters on his quest to complete the mission.

The Captain is seen to be both harsh and demanding (when dealing with Dorian, he has no sympathy, and rather than stoop to 'babysitting,' he prefers to engender hardness, where a real Captain would have listened, at least, even if they eventually told her to pull herself together). But Watters isn't deliberately being a bad Captain, everything he does is because he thinks it's best for the mission, the burden of responsibility on him, without experience to temper it. Despite coming across as slightly remote, he seems strong and keeps the trust of the cadets (and having rescued Jake and Nog from a Jem'Hadar ship gives them all a morale boost). It's his inspirational speeches and strong rhetoric that captures the imaginations of the crew, and one reason Nog abandons his doubts, drawn into a dream come true for him - rising up the ranks and being made Chief Engineer is what brings him totally onboard. His angry conversation with Jake when the latter tries to convince him that Watters is crazy, the power gone to his head so that he can't make sensible decisions, shows that he may have a slight realisation inside that his friend is right, but doesn't want to give up on his dream, as well as the easy attitude to fall into that Jake isn't one them, has never been like him, forgetting that it was their differences that first made them friends. Once again, it's fascinating to see how they've swapped roles, Nog the servant of Starfleet, doing what's right for the good of all, Jake openly more selfish, not sure what the good of all is. It's a clash that has been so well grown from the seeds of the early seasons.

You'd think after his experiences with Red Squad in the Season 4 two-parter, 'Homefront' and 'Paradise Lost' that Nog would have been more cautious, but they appeal to his Ferengi single-mindedness. Jake's immune because he doesn't want the same thing and sees that they shouldn't be trying to do what even the most experienced Starfleet officers would be loath to. That only exacerbates the problem, telling Red Squad they can't do something other Starfleet officers couldn't or wouldn't attempt prods their arrogance that they can be the best, even though they're still learning. The reason they were caught behind enemy lines was because the Valiant was circumnavigating the entire Federation! How long would that even take? They must have been doing it pretty fast, not stopping off too often. Not that we know how big Federation space is, it's just the idea sounds so vast, fitting neatly into Red Squad's inflated opinion of themselves. One thing I did think very special was the story of their first battle - the episode very well written, the people's attitudes of commitment to duty (or nostalgia for home in Dorian's case), and it's especially clear in the zeal with which Watters proudly recounts it. But it's not only the manner in which he tells it, but the story itself: rather than being about prowess in destruction, firepower and dogfighting à la 'Star Wars,' in the best Starfleet tradition it's about technical skill and teamwork as Valiant raced against the Cardassian ship to get main power back online, and succeeded, rewarded with the decisive tactical advantage. It's this spirit of cooperation of individuals' technical ability that won the day, and that's a great message and example of the Starfleet ethic.

Time is also given to building up these characters, so while we know the pill-popping, inspirational leader of Captain Watters quite well, and his abrasive First Officer, we also have time to get to know the sensitive Dorian Collins, who's taken the role of Chief Medical Officer. She does come across as a little weak for a member of Red Squad, but after eight months there are probably more like her that feel homesick. Her description of home, living on the Moon, or Luna as they apparently call it in the 24th Century, is almost poetic, and what's rare for a Starfleet officer she mentions that seeing the sun come up each morning was like seeing God. I wonder if she was portrayed as weak so they were showing that only weak humans still have any ties to such ideas, or whether it was just a subversive moment of slipping in the concept that some still follow God, since modern Trek tended to be humanist, even though, and especially on 'DS9,' aliens were allowed to show faith quite openly. The conversation also points up other little nuggets of 24th Century life, such as Jake admitting he'd never been to the Moon, even though he'd lived on Earth, just as you often hear about people who live in some famous city like London, say, but haven't been to see Buckingham Palace because there's no hurry - it's nice to see this aspect of human nature still exists, albeit on a larger scale! It was also fun to hear Joseph Sisko still calls it the Moon, because he tended to be more old-fashioned, and even though the society had moved on, space travel and many moons, Joseph's very much a homebody of Earth and would still look at it as The Moon.

It's worrying when Jake is summoned to almost a tribunal for having a simple conversation, the thought police out in force. It shows Watters and his regime enforce the company line with no deviation. Farris had a good point that it could affect how the cadets did their duty, but it just shows how his crew aren't ready for long months of combat, something he and Farris would never accept. Especially when they were resolved to carry out the mission laid out for them, and not only that, but take it a stage further than even Starfleet would have allowed: instead of just sending a probe to collect data on the biggest, baddest ship in the area, they decide that's not enough and they have to try and take it out, too! I have to say this is where things take a turn towards the unbelievable. How could they even get close to this Dominion battlecruiser so that it was on sensors, and yet remain undetected from it? I can buy a tiny probe might not be detected, but they had to get near the enemy before launching it. And what was this huge ship doing, just swanning through space? Was it still under construction internally? There are so many questions about how it was even a remotely achievable goal, especially considering the Valiant doesn't have the advantage of a cloaking device. The ship itself was bristling with weaponry, massive and bulky, so I could believe that a targeted surprise attack at impulse speed (just as Nog talks about when trying tactics to deal with the pursuing Jem'Hadar ship on the Runabout), might have a chance, adding to that fact the attack being so foolish it wouldn't have been expected so deep in Dominion-held space, but even so…

Then it becomes 'Star Wars' where the bold little ship has to hit a specific point on the enemy 'Death Star' to set off a chain reaction, but sadly there was no Obi-Wan around to remind them to use the force, or in this case, common sense. While Watters could inspire, when it came down to the wire, he had no backup plan and bit off more than he could chew. Responsible for his crew, all he did was become responsible for their deaths. So good at persuasion, he'd even convinced himself he could do it. Cruelly, it seems like they've succeeded as explosions envelop the vast structure, but then we realise it's just surface damage as it swings down into attack posture. The design of the ship worked really well, an outgrowth of established Dominion technology, and it could have shown Shinzon's Scimitar from 'Star Trek Nemesis' a thing or two about exuding menace and having realistic weight and heft to it, as it banks slowly, bringing itself to bear on the enemy rather than whipping around like a child's toy. The creation of the battle scenes worked well, the Valiant's fiery demise as even the ship's escape pods get picked off or lost in the mothership's own destruction an excellent final denouncement of Watters' leadership.

Although we see Starfleet represented at its worst, we also see its best side, too, with inspirational speeches, the story of banding together and defeating the Cardassian ship with wits and technical skill, and montages of busy cadets preparing for battle (nice to hear some nautical themes in there, too - sadly no music from this episode is on the CD collection), and though the attack was futile, it was an exciting moment as the bridge explodes around them, even the Captain's Chair being ripped from its mounting, which shows you're in trouble. Conversely, Dorian was pretty safe to jump on the helm - after a console's exploded once it doesn't usually erupt again, though how it would still be working is another thing! Attention to detail continues to be strong, and I liked that they brought back one of the cadets we saw in Red Squad previously, the same actor playing Riley Shepard (a shame he was only ever a background character, and never developed). They went to the trouble of updating the Red Squad uniform with the same texture as we see in the new Starfleet uniforms, while keeping them the same style and colour as before, and one reference that might have slipped past the general viewer: Dorian grew up in Tycho City, which had been mentioned in 'First Contact.' I also like that Nog is shown to be a pragmatic member of Starfleet, unafraid to retreat when he knows nothing constructive can be done, both in the Runabout during the Starbase attack, and aboard the Valiant, he knows when it's time to leave, not in a cowardly way, but fully in command of himself under fire, never flustered.

One epiphany I had was that Red Squad is what the Abramsverse 'TOS' characters are: a bunch of youngsters doing brave, but foolhardy things which even the Vulcan crewmembers don't point out are illogical (there were at least two aboard Valiant, which would make sense, as Vulcans tend to be top of the class). Arrogant, annoying, and doing things that Starfleet wouldn't agree with, that sums up both crews! I wasn't sure if Sisko was out searching for his son and Nog, as he seemed so calm as if it was merely a patrol, and I'm not sure how much time had passed since they went missing, and the Ferengi would know they hadn't arrived. The Starbase attack would probably have alerted Starfleet, and knowing the Runabout was in the area might have tipped them off. It's actually a real relief to go from the madness of overconfidence and mess of destruction on the Valiant, to the clam, reasoned adult officers on the Defiant. You suddenly feel safe after everything had gone to pot. Red Squad were asked a question and found wanting, without an answer, and while it was a tragic loss, it should serve as a warning to those at the Academy that want to engender the correct Starfleet values in cadets. This may not have been a happy episode, it may not even have been an educational episode, but it was a great episode, and that's all you need!

****

Space Race

DVD, Stargate SG-1 S7 (Space Race)

I groaned as soon as I saw the title, because you just know it's going to have all the usual cliches of a, yes, space race: there are going to be the small odds of success, an evil rival, the sabotage from an evil rival, taunts from an evil rival, helping an evil rival and bonding over it, and winning against all odds, not to mention aliens like American sports presenters who act like American sports presenters. Because it's funny. Okay, so they didn't get all the cliches in there, Carter and Warrick didn't actually triumph and win the race, but that didn't matter, and they knew that it wouldn't matter (except to Warrick who was under the mistaken impression it would get his life back together), because the whole point of the episode was a trade between the governments of Earth and Hebridan, so we could get an ion propulsion drive to study. So if they've got better technology than us, why do they need a naqahdah drive? Well, they don't as it happens, it was just Warrick who couldn't afford all the good equipment himself. I was confused over whether he was there under false pretences, as it sounded like it was an official request by his people, but it wasn't, it was his personal wish. He did admit it, and suggested that the team could come along for diplomatic reasons, which might mean they could get some info on the tech they were after, perhaps. It was all a little hazy, clearly pulling the narrative strings purely to get Carter into the seat of a space hotrod, after reminding us of her penchant for motorbikes which almost never comes up, by having her arrive in leather jacket and carrying a bike helmet.

I wouldn't say it lived down to my expectations, because there was something going on that was interesting: the motivation being racism against the native Serrakin by certain of the human descendants, particularly Tynan who worked at Tech Con Group, the company that held the race to find the best ship for a special contract - he was also against the merging of the species. It wasn't until this point that I understood this was the explanation for various other aliens seen in the episode, such as the cohost of the race broadcast, Coyle Boron, who looked alien, but had human hair, which the other Serrakin didn't. Hagen, the leader of Tech Con Group was also of the two races, so that was cleared up. So at least they dealt with the racial aspect of the setup a little, unlike when we first met the Serrakin and Hebridans last season ('Forsaken'). Before then, I was expecting a 'Star Wars' mix of various races joining in, which would chime with the idea that this planet wanted Carter involved to help it win a race, when in fact it was this one planet's race, and most of the racers were human, so it was strange that they should consider it odd for Warrick to be racing with a human, though I suppose there might be some animosity there since she's from the planet the human population originated on, giving them bad reminders of the fact they were slaves to the Goa'uld until the Serrakin freed them.

I couldn't say I remembered that episode with Warrick, but I immediately took to his makeup, and seeing Scott MacDonald's name in the credits, took it to be him, though it later turned out that he was one of the human racers, Jarlath, Warrick's arch-nemesis whom Carter forces him to save. One of the worst things about these kinds of stories is that no matter how many mishaps and sidetracks occur, somehow there's still got to be a chance for our heroes to win the race, when in reality if you were caught up in such things, you'd never catch up enough to even stand a chance. So their plan to catch up with the spurious Muirios was… to catch up with Muirios so they could send a signal to disable him? Right… Okay, they didn't have to catch right up to him to transmit it, but it smacked of the usual bad plotting and false drama of these kinds of situations. And how was it right to cheat so someone else could win because Muirios cheated? The whole story logic was a bit vague, and no wonder, because it was manipulated to try and give us a dramatic race with a twist, what these stories always try to do - sport just doesn't work with drama, its drama is inherent in the act. I was just relieved they didn't have Warrick finish first as that would have been too much to take. They got their happy ending by the winner asking Warrick to join him as copilot in the Tech Con Group prize of the contract with them.

Was there any need for the episode? Carter didn't really do anything special, as nice as it was to have Warrick come back (even though I didn't really remember him, the prosthetics were good), they were forced to try to force a story and squeeze in the other characters which didn't really work: Teal'c, as his usual alias, Murray, and Warrick's brother, Eamon, get into the Tech Con Group's offices and find the plans on the bad guy's computer - and Eamon's suggestion for getting in is for Teal'c to wear a hat. It was supposed to be a quirky, funny episode, seen most prominently by the use of the 'hilarious' adverts by the main host of the race, Ardal Hadraig, who keeps flogging Tech Con Group products to us, the viewers. It was fairly amusing at first, but got annoying quickly. They had exactly the kind of banter 'Star Wars Episode I' featured in its podrace, but at least that was exciting - TV didn't have the budget to do an effects-heavy race through the vacuum of space, which, if you think about it isn't all that exciting anyway: how do you get an idea of speed, of racers moving up and down the pack? Space is big and mostly empty, you may as well go in a straight line and see who's engine is most powerful and can last longest. They tried to vary proceedings by having mini challenges, like fighting off drone attackers, or flying through their sun's corona, but it didn't feel much like a race. The effects of the field of ice asteroids looked good, and the ships didn't look bad, especially when you see the Seberus docked in Warrick's workshop, but to sustain this sort of story it needs to be constant or it ends up being too many scenes of people in cockpits, leaning.

That's why they had to have the subplot of nefarious activity back on the planet, and that was the only reason. I'd love to know how a Stargate was going to be lent to the Serrakin to study, as it's not something you could transport through a Stargate, not unless it was in pieces, and where were they going to get one? Or did they mean they'd take them to a planet that had a Stargate, but O'Neill definitely said they were going to bring them one, in exchange for an ion drive to study? This starts me wondering how they got to the planet in the first place - did Warrick arrive at Earth on his ship and give them a lift. Then again, if the Hebridans are made up of humans once slaves of the Goa'uld, shouldn't they have their own Stargate? It was all a bit bizarre to me. Even the little scene at the beginning where Hammond looks annoyed that Carter wants to do the race, didn't make sense. He knows why Warrick's there, he's already spoken to the guy, so why was he displeased as if he was just then realising Carter wanted to jump at the opportunity? It was her suggestion to actually take part, I get that, her weak excuse being that they often take risks to get new technology, and it probably seemed a frivolous thing to do for no definite reward, Carter getting to see an ion drive in action. The thing is, none of it mattered, and as much as I liked the few scenes between the SG-1 team, there wasn't much to like in general. Even 'Voyager' knocked out a space race episode ('Drive'), and that didn't sit well with me. Ban all future space races in TV series'!

**

In A Mirror, Darkly

DVD, Enterprise S4 (In A Mirror, Darkly)

Amazing! That's my first thought when this episode begins, even now I know what's coming. How wonderful to see the historic first contact between humans and Vulcans, with the 'First Contact' theme music, and then… boom! This isn't your Father's 'Star Trek' universe, to coin a phrase from the Abramsverse films, the great Zefram Cochrane blasting the alien visitor clean across the screen. He couldn't do the hand gesture, so he kills. That alone should tell you you're not in Kansas anymore, but even better is to follow with a new opening sequence complete with menacing theme music and images of war throughout human history, and for anyone that knows their classic 'TOS' episodes it must be obvious by now: we're in the Mirror Universe!

I can't say I was ever the biggest proponent for this alternate universe, made a regular destination in 'DS9,' but if you're looking to pay tribute to 'TOS,' then 'Mirror, Mirror' in which we first saw this place, is arguably one of the top five episodes that come to mind when you think of the series, so it's fantastic that 'Enterprise' decided to bring it back, and not just bring it back, but make it the first MU two-parter, and take the opportunity to have some fun with other key components of 'TOS.' It's tragic that amid such a celebration of the franchise's history was the moment when news came through for cast and crew that they wouldn't be coming back for a Season 5 (though it was reportedly during Part II they found out). Just when they were doing some of their best episodes of the series (and 'Bound,' but the less said about that…). Not that I'm saying this two-parter was particularly in the category of best episodes of the series, as if you look at them objectively, you can see that they're fun, but a bit empty in terms of story. The motivations and fine acting of many episodes of Trek tended to take a backseat to the spectacle and decadence of playing around with the established characters and continuity, which was the point, really. I can't help feeling that the characterisations didn't go far enough, or weren't nuanced enough as 'evil' versions of our universe's heroes. And T'Pol didn't have a beard!

The thing is, there's so much to enjoy that you don't spend too long thinking about there not being a proper story, you just sit there grinning at the opening and the opening credits; Reed's new invention of the agoniser booth; the little nods to 'TOS' (Tucker's radiation scars look just like Captain Pike's in 'The Menagerie'), as well as the big ones (finally, after almost forty years the mystery of what a Tholian looks like is solved!), and the gigantic one: a Constitution-class starship to play in. Who-ho! It's amazing that they could go to the trouble of recreating those well-known sets of 'TOS' and have them fully formed and operational - yes, they'd done similar before on 'TNG' ('Relics'), recreating a portion of the bridge so the ageing Scotty could be melancholy over his old ship; and even more spectacularly they created portions of sets and corridors for the thirtieth anniversary celebration, 'Trials and Tribble-ations' on 'DS9.' But this time to actually create a fully working bridge set, as well as other parts of the most famous starship in history… it just puts a smile on your face whenever there's a scene there. And it really, really makes you want to hurry up and see part two. I think this would have been an ideal candidate for a high profile feature-length episode, just as 'Voyager' used to do, with plenty of advertising to get the news out there, but Paramount or CBS, or whatever they called themselves at the top, couldn't be bothered and were happy to let the series slide out of existence taking the last piece of true Trek production into the grave.

For as big and as flashy, and as many lens flares, the new films and their version of the Enterprise can never compete with that real, historical place that has been in the public eye since the sixties, and it's an episode like this that proves what a difference adherence to established history can do, and all without upsetting the canon. It's magical. And it's not even the USS Enterprise! That's the clever thing, not only do we get our first full-body view of a Tholian, we tie directly into a 'TOS' episode, 'The Tholian Web,' in which the USS Defiant (no, not that one!), got pulled through a rift into presumed destruction. But, aha, no no, it didn't: it went through into another universe, one hundred years in the past where it becomes a trophy to be fought for. Apparently even the layout of the dead crew's bodies are arranged in the correct way as seen in that episode way back in the late sixties, which is incredible and really shows how much many of the people involved in this eighteen year run of Trek loved it. Their attention to detail and care for the subject; their application and knowledge made such a run possible, and if the ball was dropped with 'Enterprise,' at least we got a chance to see the series step up a gear and go for it again. But these are all sentiments I should be saving for the finale.

I can enthuse about the production design and the effort expended on this episode, but I have to check myself a little. You see, the MU episodes were generally not the best of their series', as likeable as they could be. For me, only 'Through The Looking Glass' stands up as a truly great story, the others are all enjoyable slices of a continuing narrative. The acting wasn't bad, it was just not layered enough, but that was the style of the MU in general, I'm not disputing that, but Archer is very close to his usual shouty self, and while this part of the story is all about the power struggle between Captain Forrest's loyal followers, and those on Archer's side, that's pretty much all it's about. Undeniably fun, but not deep in any way. Again, I'm not complaining, as MU episodes aren't known for their depth and subtlety - they're supposed to be a chance for the cast to let their hair down (literally for T'Pol and Hoshi), and play alternate versions of their characters, ones that are looser and more unpredictable. But it seems that most of them are just more angry. Phlox displays a sadistic pleasure in cutting up and killing animals and other lifeforms, but though he carries out the actions I didn't feel like John Billingsley was allowed to run wild and show his pent-up ability to emote or perform that he keeps in check as an alien character. Trip is uptight, that's his character. Major Reed delights in torture, but I didn't get a sense or horror from seeing him, as I should. T'Pol is more logical, but manipulative with it.

What I'm saying is that things are too similar. The clothes are different, Forrest's back from the dead, the ship has decals… but things don't feel radical enough. It's fantastic to see Tellarite and Vulcan crewmembers in uniform, something we wouldn't see in our universe, so it was more of that kind of thing that was needed to emphasise the MU locale. I suppose I didn't have the impression that these actors are embracing their Dark Trek roles with as much glee and relish as we've often seen in MU episodes. Maybe it was something to do with news of cancellation, though they were professionals and wouldn't have allowed something like that to affect their work (and they didn't know about it during Part I), or perhaps it was just the long hours of a long season at boiling point. But things weren't fizzing, somehow, which left it up to the garnish to plant that grin on my face. The garnish was wonderful, and it worked, but I would have liked a good plate of story and juicy character moments to get my teeth into, too. I would also say that as much as it was a great surprise to have a different theme music, it didn't sound like the carefully thought out theme for a TV series - if it had been imagined as the first episode of a new Trek series, perhaps a stronger theme would have been forthcoming, but it was only a small part of the episode, so I can understand that it was only meant to be a gag, and with time and money at a premium you can't perfect everything. But it was that impression of good stuff, but not great stuff that permeated the episode, for me.

All is forgiven, however, when we see that Constitution-class Defiant. They couldn't have come up with a better way to pay homage to their forebear than to tie into an actual episode of 'TOS,' and give us some answers about a mystery from that series. It makes me long for 'Enterprise' to have survived the full seven years so we could have seen what they would have done for a fortieth anniversary celebration episode! Those old sound effects, the lighting, the arrangement, it's all so delightful to behold, and regardless of getting to that point being a little Tab A into Slot B, it was all worth it for the chance to see an old favourite in widescreen. We even get an updated version of the Tholian web, which in turn gives us what I believe is the only sighting of the Enterprise NX-01's escape pods (though technically it's only the Mirror version, the ISS Enterprise, so the NX-01 may not have them).

Every series at some point has to show the ship/station exploding in a fireball of death. I can't recall if we'd seen the NX-01 break up like that, but we get the full experience here, as, like George Kirk in another 'mirror' universe, Admiral Forrest apparently sacrifices himself to let Hoshi escape (I do wonder why he was so attached to her, as I never really believed they loved each other so much that he'd sacrifice himself to save her, nor is that the usual MU way - Forrest could have been a noble version, just as Mirror Spock was, but he needed fleshing out). I had a problem with how unclear it was whether Forrest survived, since we don't see him go out in the blaze of glory Vaughn Armstrong deserved (this being his last of so many appearances on both this series and other Trek), but I wonder if it was another of those little loose ends writers like to leave in so that when the inevitable happened (if the series had continued), and we returned to the MU, they could get Forrest back? I could buy that, and it's yet another disappointment to chalk up to early cancellation. On the other hand, if Forrest did die he may be the only character in Trek history to die twice in the same season! It's a wonder Archer wasn't close to death himself, after ten hours in the agony booth. I know it was meant to be a device that didn't wear you out so pain could keep being administered without your body completely shutting down, but going through any extreme pain for ten hours you'd think he wouldn't be able to stand up, yet after initially falling out of the booth he's soon on his feet again and not too worse for wear.

It's easy to forget, amidst all the love and appreciation for a Constitution-class starship, that this was the episode that invented the look of the Tholians. But it's so true to what you might have imagined, better even, that you almost don't think about it, it's just so natural a development, as if it had always been so and they just hadn't shown it on 'TOS,' hitting the nail on the head (but not too hard or it might shatter!): a crystalline structure, multi-legged like a spider or crab, with the ability to use their own structure to communicate with their own kind - the tremulous whine is so pitiful you feel for the poor creature. It's one of those totally alien aliens, and a stroke of genius. Really, I can't express how impressed I was with what they came up with for such a long-established, but never fully realised race. It even ties neatly into the tiny details we knew of the species before this episode: in 'DS9' we occasionally hear of the Tholian ambassador, and that he owed Sisko a favour, the Captain calling it in for some Tholian silk for Kasidy Yates. You can believe that these creatures could spin silk as their form suggests a connection to the nature we see in our own world, something Trek's always done with aplomb, and which helps to give alienness a reality for us to understand subconsciously.

The arrowhead design of the ships can't be as credited as the alien design, since it goes back to 'TOS,' but just as in 'Future Tense' one of the stronger episodes of Season 2 of 'Enterprise,' where we first saw these ships again, the modern update looks really nice (even if the explosion of its destruction falls into the weaker CGI style you tended to get). I thought from that earlier episode that Tholians were going to play a bigger part in the series, and I think one problem with the series was that they didn't fully embrace the Trek universe as the other series' did, perhaps trying too hard to focus on humanity's first steps into this new technology and space exploration to avoid falling into the trap of repetition, but in effect they took too long to get to established races making a meaningful contribution to the series and I believe that's one of the things that lost it traction as they fell into the pitfall they'd tried to avoid by having any old aliens of the week a common occurrence rather than delving into the 'TOS' races (though they did a pretty good job with the Andorians), something it took until this season, and new management, to get to.

Even races that were invented for the series never fully received their due, such as the Suliban, although at least in this episode we do hear of the race again as the cloak they're using is Suliban technology. This leads me to wonder if the Temporal Cold War happened in this universe, as that's how they were getting their genetic upgrades and technology? It seems more likely that a full on hot war would have sliced through the centuries as soon as MU inhabitants solved time travel - you can only imagine what these people would do with that ability, probably destroy all time in their universe. It's safe to assume they never, for whatever reason, got their hands on this technology, probably too busy fighting to invent it, otherwise there would be no continuity to the MU at all, it would have fragmented into a mess as factions went back and forth, manipulating history, or more likely, directly altering it whenever they chose. Perhaps the Vulcans were believed - they don't put any credence in alternate universes (we could have done with one of these when it came to the Abramsverse being suggested at Paramount!), just as in our universe the Vulcans stoically refused to accept time travel, the mirroring of which could be a little in-joke against our pointy-eared friends. It's a solution to explain the coherence of the MU's timeline, anyway…

One last reason I don't consider this two-parter as great, despite it having some greatness within it (you can't get greater than powering up the Defiant's bridge - even the helm viewer that pops out of the console looks incredible, and as for T'Pol getting to use the equivalent of Spock's science viewer…), is that it's only connected with our universe in the most cursory of ways, through the hardware being lured into the MU. Otherwise (just like the Abrams films), it has nothing to do with anything, even more so if we're talking the TV series, which it has no connection to in story terms, at all! Not to say a completely unconnected story can't have resonance, as the 'Voyager' episode 'Course: Oblivion' is quite affecting, but this is all about doing something in the MU that I'm not even sure has any relevance to the MU storyline since it's not the changing of an empire as the 'DS9' stories updated, cleverly positing that Kirk's peaceful intentions made the Terran Empire weak. It would have been very hard for them to come up with a way to tie into 'Mirror, Mirror' and make that be a continuation of this, so I'm not saying it's a problem, it just could have been taken a stage further.

I sound ungrateful, but I really do like this episode, loving the attention to detail, the chance to see the Mirror versions of these characters, and some amazing continuity. All this almost makes me forget that this might have been the time William Shatner made his return to Trek, as there were talks to get him in as a Mirror Kirk, which would have been brilliant. There's still the possibility that he may return in the thirteenth Trek film, but I'd have really been impressed if they'd had him in this two-parter, though it wouldn't have made any difference to the series' lifespan, I'm sure, as things were too far gone, and the powers above had tired of Trek. I could go on all day about how sad it was that the series was abandoned just when it was picking up and learning what its potential could be. But like the poor Tholian, it didn't resonate strongly enough to be saved. I just hope the ISS Enterprise was kept warm, or all those female crewmembers were going to catch cold!

***

Inception

DVD, Inception (2010) film

Perhaps my expectations were too piqued for the film to live up to my imagination of what it would be like, but I didn't like the film as much as I was expecting to. I was thinking it would be akin to 'The Matrix,' but it was more complicated than that, with endless rules and less visual amazement, as if not fully taking command of the opportunity of the concept. I liked that it had a happy ending (or did it…?), with the team each waking up, and nobody dying, as I was sure someone was going to. That end moment on the plane was the only moment I really felt the feeling of a team and their success that was much better achieved in 'The Matrix' and some of the 'Mission: Impossible's, so although there were several actors I like in there, I didn't necessarily feel like they clicked that well together. Perhaps they could have done the whole story from Fisher's point of view, and he learns about the whole dream thing while inside, forgetting it by the time he gets to the real world, although this learning about reality would be very much closer to 'The Matrix' and Neo's awakening, even if the concept was inverted: that he had to go further into unreality, rather than escape it.

They must have been conscious of similarities of style and idea with 'The Matrix,' (I hear it was one of the influences on Christopher Nolan), and that may have been why it felt less flashy, especially shooting scenes - you could never accuse them of glorifying guns in this film, they're purely a tool here, which is for the best. The happy ending was slightly marred by the uncertainty of whether Cobb really was in the real world or not, as the spinning top is not seen to fall, though we cut away before it could have, leaving it ambiguous. Was it about to fall and we cut away too soon, or was it all a dream from beginning to end, Cobb never actually getting out of the limbo he and his wife found themselves in? I do kind of like the ambiguity because it gets you thinking, and reminds me, as so much of the ideas in this film do, of my favourite kinds of 'Star Trek': the nature of reality, and levels within levels (as well as 'BUGS,' which is where I first heard of the concept of not thinking of an elephant, though that was more about artificial intelligence). My biggest suggestion toward dream is that his children were still the same age he'd been seeing them throughout the film, and children grow fast, so this is presumably how he saw them when he left, so they should have been older, although we're not told exactly how long he's been in exile. But he could have been fooled by Mal, and she wasn't actually dead in that deep-level limbo, all an elaborate design to keep him within the confines of the dream, making him think he'd succeeded, and he was the only one never to come back on the plane. Or none of them succeeded in which case he'd never know anyway.

If it was that this version of Mal did have control, she'd have wanted to be there with him and the children, so it seems more likely it was own madness that would have stopped him returning to reality. It would make anyone mad trying to puzzle it all out, and I have to admit that I didn't entirely follow all the rules and context. This might explain why I had the impression it was all built on a house of cards that could never make sense. One big thing for me is that there was no sign of this being the future or of any other technological improvements that would be in line with a society that could enter into dreams and the mind in that way, but that's just a stylistic choice: you don't need to be in a futuristic world to have this stuff happen if you don't want to. But there was no explanation of how it was discovered (beyond being something created for the military), or what implications it had for society (beyond the opium den-style setup of all those people lying around in fake dreams because they preferred that to reality, another warning against getting lost in fantasy worlds of entertainment which can take control, just like Trek was so good at exploring). There are also things like seeing time move at different rates in different levels of the dream, but not necessarily corresponding with the established rules, though that can easily be explained away as just being what we see subjectively: we don't have to be seeing everything in realtime, just as we don't when in a normal film that takes place in only one reality.

It was clever having all these concepts, such as kicks, and the effects to pull off Joseph Gordon-Levitt packaging up the sleepers on one level and pushing them around the corridors like a floating tea trolley! Again, you can point to time not measuring up, as in that level, one below the ride in the van (which was itself one down from what we assume is reality, on the plane), if the van tips to one side the whole world's gravity is affected, but it should be much slower in that lower level, but isn't, though that's at the mercy of convention that says you don't adhere slavishly to your world's rules at the expense of story or action (the fight in shifting gravity corridor would have been less impressive if gravity had shifted almost imperceptibly!). That scene was one that got me interested from the trailer, as did the city folding over onto itself, always keeping the film in my mind as one high on my 'to see' list. But as I said, it didn't impress as much as expected, 'Interstellar' I got more from. Either it was the complication of the story, or the lack of a team dynamic quite being so strong, or that the concept had already permeated my mind, and I'd seen it done so many times before, and been impressed so often by Trek that this didn't do anything technically new, except for visuals and detailed rules for this world.

The house of cards thing extends to motivations: Saito, has enough power to erase Cobb's criminal record and conviction in the US with a single phone call, yet has to go to all this trouble to take a rival out of business! Surely there'd be a simpler way than planting an idea in a business rival's head, aside from it being very unethical, as it was known to be practically impossible! You can point to Fisher getting a more favourable impression of his Father, but it was a false one, so on the one hand they seem to be saying reality is more important than fantasy, but it could also be the opposite. Then again, they're saying all this in a vehicle of entertainment, so it's messages within messages however you look at it! There was also the motivation of Cobb to get back to his children - couldn't he have had someone take them to him? I never felt the pain he was supposed to have at being separated from them, he was a very secretive and in some ways, insular character, as shown by the fact he didn't tell his team the full risks of what he was proposing. And his wife was so mad that she was able to convince three psychologists she was certifiably sane, in order to leave a letter claiming he was trying to kill her so she could blackmail him into a suicide pact! It was very much a 'Holodeck with the safeties off' kind of story, with the revelation that what usually just wakes you up, will now kill you thanks to the sedative they had to take in order to go deep enough into the dream levels. It was also quite precarious, as in each level one person had to be left behind to initiate the kick, but if one in the chain was killed everyone would be trapped, wouldn't they? It does up the stakes, I'll grant them that.

I could also complain about the faceless threat they're up against. It was refreshing not to have an evil baddie at the bottom of it all, and no good guy versus bad guy fistfight at the end as is far too often the convention, but it was weak to have the inhabitants of the dream be aspects of the dreamer's mind that, like white blood cells would attack when they realised things weren't right, as they were faceless minions with no intelligence or maliciousness, acting from purely robotic reaction. I'd have liked Michael Caine to be in it more, and I think this was the first Leonardo DiCaprio film I've seen - although he was fine, I didn't feel he was the most charismatic of actors. And after seeing Tom Hardy and Marion Cotillard in the next film Nolan made, 'The Dark Knight Rises,' I thought they weren't as interesting here. Definitely worth a watch, and although most of the way through I was lacking in eagerness for the film and didn't think I'd have anything to say about it, afterwards it all comes leaking out, so it does leave an impression and give you pause for thought. It very much seems like the sort of thing you could make sequels to, so in a few years when Nolan's run out of ideas and nobody wants his new ideas any more maybe he'll return to this world again? One thing I'll give it: it does make you look forward to bedtime and exciting dreams.

**

The Reckoning

DVD, DS9 S6 (The Reckoning) (2)

I think of 'The Reckoning' as an almost forgotten episode, lost in the backwater of Season 6, if arguably the strongest season of the series can be said to have a backwater. What I mean is, it's not one of the big exciting episodes that everyone remembers: the six-episode war arc; the wedding; 'In The Pale Moonlight;' the finale… It's just one of those that feels slightly out of place in the grand scheme (it's not, of course, since this is actually what all the grand schemes are about, regardless of what the Dominion, the Romulans, the Klingons or the Federation think, it's all about this one little planet and the personal relationship Captain Sisko has with their Prophets), like it belongs in Season 3 or 4 when the Bajoran side of the story was playing a more prominent role than it did in later seasons. The remoteness stretches to the feel of the episode, too, it being another of those occasions when the station is evacuated down to a skeleton crew, weird things are happening, and the main characters are all alone. Except I never felt that remoteness ever reached the same atmosphere of other such stories as 'Empok Nor' or 'Invasive Procedures' - that second example is very much the vein in which this story runs, with openings of the Wormhole, the strange shudders going through the station and the intermittent loss of power something both use to create an atmosphere of gloom.

They also share the idea of one of the main characters in danger of losing their life in an unnatural procedure that is against their will, with a showdown at the end. I can't articulate why it doesn't come across quite so well in this later episode, perhaps there isn't enough time given to the build up, or there's too much time before weird stuff starts to happen, or the station's evacuation was too quick and easy… I don't know, it just doesn't carry the same impression of isolation, and that could well be because the series is part of the much grander galactic backdrop now, and we're given references to those other parts of its narrative, like Admiral Ross said to have ordered Sisko to allow Kai Winn to take the tablet back with her, or Martok said to be off battling the enemy. We're not in an isolated, distant post any more, and though I probably prefer the execution of later seasons, with the fate of the quadrant at stake, and so many great episodes, one of the things I love about those first three seasons is the aloneness of the situation, happening in a backwater. There we go again, back to the backwater. Yes, that must be why I don't feel so affected by the rising atmosphere of doom.

That doom is truncated, and it may be that after being encased in the tablet for thirty-thousand years, putting even ancient Bajoran civilisation of a few thousand years ago into perspective, these two beings wanted to get on with their battle to the death as quickly as possible. I feel like they could have done more with the idea of a Prophet and a Pah-Wraith occupying the station, preparing for an ultimate duel for the soul of Bajor. But because of the rate at which things happen, I didn't buy all of it, like the Prophet telling Sisko, the Emissary, his job was done. And not enough explanation was given for these two combatants: it's just 'here is a Prophet and the Evil One, Kosst Amojan, they're gonna fight, and if good wins out there'll be a thousand years of peace, so let's hope for a positive outcome there.' Why did this particular Prophet have to fight alone and unaided, what was the significance of the Evil One, and what would have happened if either side had won? How did they become locked in the tablet in the first place? Is Kosst Amojan one or many? Many questions are left unaddressed, and although Kosst Amojan is important later in the series, we never really get answers, these things just are the way they are (though that last question seems to answer itself when you consider it's called the Evil 'One,' it's just you see multiple energy forms depicting both Prophet and Pah-Wraith, so you start to wonder). I like a bit of mystery sometimes, but the same way the Temporal Cold War never fully came to fruition on 'Enterprise,' this central storyline wasn't fully explained by the end of the series, although it could be, as 'Star Wars' is all about the Skywalkers, this series is all about The Sisko, and his fate, not the Bajorans.

Leaving aside lack of culmination, it's not a bad story, it's just that set in the crown of Season 6, it doesn't come off so well compared with the majority. It feels like a Season 2 episode, no bad thing, but has that incompleteness to it. But like that time we take time to see most of the crew interacting in pleasing ways, most notably in Quark's understanding of Odo ('He always expects the worst'), and Kira's understanding of Odo (and this wasn't even an Odo episode!). It's also about his understanding of Kira and her strength of faith. And what faith! To be chosen by those she worships as a vessel for them at a crucial time is more than Winn could have ever imagined. She's basically ignored by the Prophet, just one more nail in the coffin of her convictions. It's strange, because when we saw her in Season 5, she'd found a common enemy to oppose with Sisko, and accepted what he did truly was for the best of Bajor ('Rapture'; 'In The Cards'). With common cause came a truce, but maybe it was just Winn on a good day: putting Weyoun in his place, and playing an important role in Bajor's affairs as she always wanted. When did she ever really do anything in the service of the Prophets that wasn't self-serving for her own ends of power and aggrandisement? It might have played better if we'd seen some of the political life of Bajor in the preceding year, and how Shakaar and she disagreed on just about everything (did he side with Winn in her mission to recover the tablet for political reasons, or did he agree that it shouldn't have been removed?). Bajor was no longer as important on the galactic stage after the initial threat of the Dominion invasion had been passed over. We might have been privy to her rising frustration so her betrayal of the Prophets and Sisko wouldn't have excessive.

As usual you can believe she believes she's doing what's right for Bajor, except that what she believes is right for Bajor is whatever she decides is right for Bajor! Her own lack of faith in the ability of the Prophet to defeat the Pah-Wraith is what spurs her on to take matters into her own hands and activate the technological solution that Dax and the others had formulated for defence against a potentially station-destroying event (a Bajoran who can operate a Starfleet program on Cardassian technology? - but it's quite easy to believe that Winn would secretly be more technologically adept than you'd think, just in case such an eventuality could be taken advantage of and used in her favour). It's not just that the Prophets have never spoken to her, as they have to Sisko, or even that they ignore her now as irrelevant when she gets a group of Bajorans together for a jolly chanting session on the Promenade. As Kira explains to Sisko, he's one of the infidels (perhaps the only time that term's been used in Trek), an outsider elevated above her political and spiritual role that she'd schemed and strained to achieve, who effortlessly ascends to what she wants without even having full understanding. Kira doesn't resent him for it, she knows it wasn't his choice, but Winn does, and her resentment and jealousy have brought out her already strong dark side so to meddle. She's not lost all faith in the Prophets, or decided to turn her back on them, but she hasn't come to the realisation yet that she isn't going to get what she wants from them: total power and control.

If she can take credit for saving Bajor by stopping the floods and earthquakes, then so much the better for her, ignoring the fact completely that if she'd left well alone Bajor may have entered into the promised land, where people and Prophets become one and everything's happy-doodle-dandy for a thousand years, Bajor's Golden Age. There's actually some quite humorous moments in the episode, mainly coming from Sisko's smashing of the tablet. First, Dax scolds him (in the same manner she criticised Worf for ripping a console out of the wall in 'The Ship'), as Sisko's explanation is simply that he had an uncontrollable urge to smash it. Oh, that's fine then, if you had a good reason… And then he has to explain to the Kai why she can't take this priceless relic back to Bajor as Starfleet had commanded him to allow her to do! It's funny, mainly because you're squirming for Sisko, and it's interesting to see his forceful personality on the back foot, almost penitent, but trying to convince others that the Prophets wanted him to do it, honest! The chat between some of the crew about the validity of the prophecies runs the gamut, Worf seemingly on the fence, Dax heavily sceptical, Bashir saying they're vague enough to be used to explain anything, and Odo and Quark both seeing the effects, and noting that, real or not, their reaction is having an effect. Odo isn't a believer, but he has so much faith in Kira that he backs her to the hilt and always believes the Prophets will triumph, just as Sisko always believes they won't let his son die.

Why did the Kosst Amojan choose Jake for his vessel? Again, it's not touched on, except for the likely malice it bears the Emissary, even mocking him as he cries out to take him instead of his son, anguished at the thought of losing Jake. What would have happened if the Pah-Wraith had been annihilated? Would Jake have survived? He didn't look too well in the battle, or after it, and Kai Winn's happy to take credit for saving both the Emissary and his son's life by her interference. Maybe she did? It's obvious why they chose Kira: her strong faith and openness to serve - Jake was used against his will and knew that it would be better for him to die if it took such an evil entity out too. For once it's Jake in the Infirmary - ironically, in this very episode he'd been telling his Father how he didn't want to see him on a biobed again, close to death after visions. Of course Sisko gets another vision this time, and it chucks him across the cave (he's thrown onto his back a second time by the Pah-Wraith, so it wasn't a good episode for his back!), something scientist Dax has no explanation for. That's another thing that sets this into the mould of an early seasons story, because Dax was often doing experiments and things in science labs. It also has more meaning when you know what's coming at the end of the season (she talks of the penance promised by the Prophets), that she would be so affected by Bajoran relics that she'd want to protect them later, whereas here she has nothing but scorn, slightly different from the more open-minded Jadzia of the pilot who examined the Orb.

One thing they're good at is setting up with the teaser, and this one is no exception, with another visit to the lost city of B'hala that Sisko unearthed in 'Rapture,' and a monk that doesn't seem the brightest Orb in the Temple - after Sisko's had his vision, he protests that they didn't see anything! I thought the direction generally good, but this vision sequence stood out as being less polished than usual, even a bit clunky. Prophets in the form of Jake, Kira and monk, Ranjen Koral (Ranjen a form of rank in theological research), take it in turns to talk over Sisko's shoulder before walking away, but I felt it should have had more cutting as you could see them moving, when they should have just appeared and glided away like waves on Sisko's beach - instead it was as if they were trying not to step on each other's toes, or bump into each other! That's how the episode felt: the foreboding there, but not potent (even with the visual display of the power struggle between the two forces). The tension wasn't strongly felt, spooky without getting creepy or chilling. I don't know how the battle could have been bettered because you don't want physical fight scenes in a battle of wills; power and intensity, yes, movement, no. Could it have been done as a metaphorical battle, Sisko forced to watch a game of chess, either literal (like 'The Seventh Seal'), or metaphorical? At least in the way it was done there were no corny bad guy insults slung between them (the closest being the Kosst Amojan asking if the Emissary of the Prophets was offering himself to him).

Though the result of the battle was denied, it leads to thoughts about the future. Was there really a millennium of great times to come upon the destruction of the Kosst Amojan, or was that just one thing that was going to happen before the Golden Age, because although we don't have any knowledge of Bajor following Sisko's battle with what I think was the Kosst Amojan-inhabited Dukat in the final episode of the series, you don't get the impression the way it all ends that the Prophets and the people ushered in the Golden Age. So I'm unsure if the promised benefits came to pass at that time, or not. If it had happened at the end of this episode, I suspect it wouldn't have made for a Golden Age for the series, even if everything wouldn't have been smooth sailing with the Dominion still to defeat, but you can imagine that the 'Temple' would have been closed (as the Wormhole would be in this season's finale), as Bajorans welcomed Prophets to reside among them somehow. It's all rather uncertain, but one thing you could draw from the events is that this could have been a test, not for Sisko, but Winn, her lack of faith and inability to take the leap when it came to having a choice to make to allow or step in and control, setting her on the path of tergiversation.

Choice and faith are among the big themes this time, but just as the battle was literally postponed, the story is unfinished, not fully fleshed out. Although it was good to see Jake made part of it, it's for his position as the son of the Emissary, not himself, and he doesn't get any more to do than show concern and be possessed. The battle is an anticlimax, partly because of it's incompleteness, and there's a lack of vitality to proceedings, like wading through treacle - it's like the writers weren't fully turned on, or perhaps it was the difficulties of working within myth and legend? I do like the idea that Sisko had to get annoyed enough to throw the tablet against the wall, and that it wasn't an easy answer for what the Prophets wanted him to do, although if he thought explaining to Winn what he'd done was going to be the hard part of his day, he had yet to deal with his son as a potential sacrifice, so his bad day was only going to get worse. Yet even in that he held fast to a faith that wasn't even part of his culture, which does make a fascinating character study, at least. 

Though the war feels distant, we have meetings and reminders of the ongoing threat, tying it to the way the Prophets prevented the Alpha Quadrant from being overrun in 'Sacrifice of Angels.' It's good to hear worries about the future, with talk of Vulcan as a potential target, and post-war, Romulans may not give up Benzar and other worlds won from the Dominion (parallels with Russia after the wars of the 20th Century, and even today). Even the Runabouts make a contribution, assisting with the evacuation. And this episode also does a good job of filling in the gaps for those that might not have followed every episode, contrary to what some might think of many of the series' mythology episodes. It reminds us clearly of all the relevant pieces: why Sisko is Emissary, his attitude now of acceptance, and how Winn feels about him. All easy to follow for the casual viewer, I reckon!

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