Brother

DVD, Discovery S2 (Brother)

Any time this series conforms to Trek tradition is a good thing for me, so it's appreciated that one of those few times has been regarding the titles of episodes not repeating what has been used before, making every title unique. Some cut quite close, with names such as 'Muse' and 'The Muse,' or 'Paradise' and 'Paradise Lost,' and now 'Brothers' and 'Brother.' I must say that I came to this season with heavily lowered expectations from that which I went into with Season 1, especially when the makers gave us such choice comments as 'everything will make sense by the end of the season,' and 'we wouldn't bring Spock into the series.' The first was proved incorrect, and now the second has been, but if there's anything Trek has taught its viewers over the years, it is to hope. Even though Season 1 was the worst year of Trek ever made, I still have the tiniest smattering of hope that its second will be an improvement. I know significantly less about it, for a start: I knew Pike would be the Captain. I knew Spock would be in it. I knew it would have something to do with something called 'The Red Angel' (what is the obsession with angels these people have? - first Michael and Gabriel, now this…), with the hint of a Borg connection. I knew the theme would be a discussion of faith versus science. And that 'time crystals' will be a device involved, Culber would be returning to life from the mycelial network, Sylvia Tilly's Mother will be appearing, Sylvia will be even more of a 'comedic' character, and apparently there's to be a clips episode at some point. And that's it.

First thought on watching this season's opener was that they'd ditched the slightly squished widescreen they championed before and are now filming in cinema ratio, which was a little distracting, it's not a film, but you get used to it. Last thought was that Ethan Peck's voiceover in the form of Spock's Personal Log did sound reminiscent of Leonard Nimoy. I wonder if they affected his voice in some way or if he was coached to try and lean towards the slight rasp, deep timbre of the man who made Spock, because I can't imagine it was mere serendipity that they found someone with a close similarity in vocal cords! In between these thoughts I found the episode to be a mixed bag, which is actually a positive for me as right from the off I found myself blanching at the self-indulgent twaddle that this melodramatic series loves to peddle as if it's deep drama, so to find anything to like in it was a success in my eyes. Strangely, considering in how low esteem I hold James Frain's portrayal of Sarek, it was one of his scenes that first broke light of day out of the murk of the 'same old misery' I experienced with Season 1 (and experienced again even more on my re-watch). It was when he and Burnham were discussing their past with Spock and where she fitted into the family that some small thing clicked for me and made me realise if they were more careful about what they did and how they wrote, avoided the overly emotional outpourings and heavily pretentious voiceovers Burnham is prone to, they can make worthwhile contributions to Trek's unfolding past.

So it is gravely unfortunate that for far too much of the episode things felt awkward, frivolous or self-indulgent. Ensign Tilly has reverted to her most annoying persona from last season, and though I'd been forewarned that she was to be used even more as a figure of fun, so it came as no surprise, it was no less a shame when I had come to appreciate her a little more at times on my second viewing. Here, she's just as scatty and inappropriate to get laughs as her worst showings before, but the misguided attempts at humour weren't hers alone. The most egregiously out of place comedy moment comes when several of the crew enter a Turbolift which features an Arcturan (I think they're called), a species that had been a minor background alien in 'The Motion Picture' and had never troubled the screen again. It wasn't the most inspired design, being a 1950s bug-eyed alien, but it's nice that they had something like that for those of us who recognise such touches ('TMP' is also an inspiration for Spock going off on some mystery, being troubled by a 'question,' just as his Kolinahr training was disrupted by V'Ger in that film, leading him to go off and seek answers). The writers get points for bringing back a forgotten minor race that looks a little less 'Star Wars' than most of their full-head prosthetic background uglies, but then they lose those points for ripping off one of those typically unfunny gags in the most recent Trek film, 'Beyond': Keenser has a cold and sprays acid mucus wherever he sneezes. It wasn't funny then (though it had a function in the plot), and it's even less funny here where somewhat snooty Science Officer Connolly gets snot splattered on his face in a typically undignified 'comedic' moment for modern TV and film.

It's not just the lack of dignity for characters that irks, it's that the writers think this will lend appeal to the series, that this kind of scatological 'humour' is the way to go. It really isn't, and like a lot of choices in Season 1, shows a juvenile mindset that is far-removed from the intent of previous Trek. Even on a practical level it's ridiculous that this alien member of the crew doesn't even show the hint of an apology as if he's just some dumb animal (like the beast of burden in 'The Phantom Menace' letting rip in front of Jar Jar Binks to give him something to react to). Considering Connolly's fate I wonder if it was even appropriate on a dramatic level that he should be demeaned shortly before he dies. That's another thing, I knew he was destined for death quickly into the rescue pod sequence as he, Captain Pike, the Engineer woman (who appeared to be a Zaherian, or whatever the princess from Tilly's 'Short Trek' was called), and Burnham hurtle through asteroidal matter to get to a downed ship, the USS Hiawatha. You know that the woman in red is the one who would traditionally die, the famous 'redshirt,' so they were obviously going to kill off Connolly in reaction to expectations. At the same time they were aping the Kelvin Timeline films again since that's exactly what happened to Chief Engineer Olsen, who thought he knew better in the space jump and got himself killed. Connolly was set up as a grumpy, superior type who wasn't going to listen to Burnham, who is somehow an expert in everything (!), and since someone had to die to demonstrate the danger this asteroid field posed to our cast, he was always going to be the one. Just to dig the point in deeper, Pike is ineffective enough to need rescuing and not only is Burnham the one to do it (surprise!), but she even hits it on the nose by grouping herself with the 'ladies' on the Bridge that are part of the rescue attempt, not the best way to introduce the new guy - these writers really shouldn't have access to Trek royalty.

Similarities to the modern film series didn't end there, either: we also become acquainted with the Hiawatha's Engineer Reno, a foul-mouthed 'expert' who somehow needed Burnham to show her how to do her job, when the 'crackerjack Starfleet Engineer' trope is so well established that it makes her look like half the woman she should be. The film connection is in how they find her, essentially exiled on this asteroid, along with her little friend(s) - this time they're robots rather than Keenser, but it's virtually the same setup, and she's like a mix of the finding of Scotty in 'Star Trek XI' with the characteristics of junk jury-rigging Jaylah from 'Beyond,' so much so, that I half expected it was going to be the Prime Universe version of her (which might have been interesting, but they wouldn't have been able to get the rights, I think, though I'm not sure). Even though she shows herself less than you'd expect in the engineering department (aside from her success in creating this makeshift shelter), she's somehow able to be a doctor, keeping a few survivors alive, her offhand explanation being that the body is just a machine. If that were the case then Doctors and Engineers would be interchangeable, and it's just one more example of the kind of unstable logic-plotting that this series is notorious for. If they don't set up Reno particularly well, then neither do they succeed with the season's arc of some mysterious signals emanating from somewhere in the galaxy, or in Captain Pike's inauguration. I will give Pike that he is a positive role model of a Captain (well, certainly more than Lorca, anyway, which isn't hard!), in the way he remembers the Bridge crew's names and prefers to refer to them that way rather than by rank, although his casual dismissal of the need for rank could not be seen in any way in Jeffrey Hunter's masterful origin of the role.

'Casual' is a word that can far too often be levelled at the series, consequently, having a Captain that is so easygoing to add to that mix may not bode well for my appreciation levels. At this point it's very hard for me to see my way to liking anything in 'DSC,' but one of the things that has always got under my bonnet is the lack of protocol and structure, a remnant from the days when creator Bryan Fuller wanted the focus to be on lesser ranks rather than the main roles of a starship, a wish that proved incompatible with the needs for drama on a continuing basis, and certainly within the style of the series that came to be after he was booted out. It shouldn't be a surprise that this casual tone has persisted into Season 2 since the series was still under the control of Harberts and Berg, Fuller's appointed successors, before they too were booted out at some point during the writing of this season. Whether Kurtzman stepping in was able to right a choppy ship is yet to be seen, but there was enough about the writing of this episode to make me hope for a considerable improvement. Take Pike's inauguration as Captain, it's all very simplistic, with Saru spouting regulations, but it's a little fuzzy and I was even wondering if Pike was up to something nefarious since his explanation of why he's taking command was so weak: the Enterprise lost power… and, um… did I miss something? Again, it's utterly simplistic plotting in the same manner as a devastating war was begun by Burnham's accident with a clumsy Klingon!

I didn't really follow the central story, either. Where are the signals coming from, what are the ramifications? It must have been in dialogue, but they confuse the issue so much with things like Burnham wittering on about some African tribal legend about 'the girl who made the stars' that you almost don't spot where the 'poetic' nonsense ends and the real facts begin, and so it was hard to get invested in the story. All I really got was Pike didn't have a ship and they had to go somewhere to investigate something: an asteroid field where this signal was originating and where they located the downed Hiawatha. It remained clumsy storytelling, in my eyes, unless I'm just being too unsophisticated to keep up. But so much is covered in melodrama and emotive music that confuses the issue so far away from the simple, clear approach Trek used to take. The visit to Sarek and Amanda's home on Vulcan where we see Burnham first taken into their care, meeting her foster-Mother and young Spock should have been a highlight. Wow, we're going to see Spock's childhood bedroom, what a treat for we who love the canon and the history, especially as it was reminiscent of the design seen in non-canon 'Yesteryear' from 'The Animated Series,' making that little bit a part of continuity now, which is great. But it's all filmed in such a way as to be unreal and, again, melodramatic. Spock reacts badly to this human intruder, drawing a holographic dragon which flies round the room like one of Gandalf's famous fireworks, just so they can show off their swanky visual effects. Such things don't impress me - to do that they'd need to make everything more grounded and realistic, but for the simpleminded folks of today that need visual treats to keep their disloyal interest from straying to mobile phones and social media, this is apparently what they need to get them to watch. How sad.

As before, I didn't like Sarek, Frain has none of the gravity or weight to him that Mark Lenard had, so that I just wish they didn't show him at all, but he's tied in to Burnham's backstory so we'll never be rid of him, I suspect. Amanda isn't as bad since she's human, but for what was shown as such a practical woman that had learned to live among Vulcans effectively, she's very emotional. We're given the mystery of why Burnham and Spock don't interact these days, with only that it was her fault, in her eyes, to go on, so it'll be interesting to see that play out. But yet again the casualness of life on Discovery is so anathema to me and to my view of how life on starships is, even at this time in history, that it's so irksome the way people talk to each other: Burnham should be making a 'personal request' when she asks the Captain if she can board the Enterprise for what are purely emotional reasons. Instead of a formal request, it just comes up in conversation as she hangs out with Pike, losing the value of ship operations and the reality of that world, again to make it more appealing and accessible to a modern audience that don't like being told what to do, having discipline, rules and protocol. Then when we do get our view aboard the old girl it looks nothing like the Enterprise of either Pike's time in 'The Cage' (I assume the fortune cookie message he finds under Lorca's desk was supposed to be a reference to that title, as clumsy and irrelevant as it was), or Kirk's time in the future, so I dread to think how badly the rest of the ship has been messed with - Spock's Quarters should have been a wonderful moment where we go back in time to 'TOS,' the small, simple Quarters a delight to revisit, and they could have simply added more texture to the same basic layout, but no, suddenly it's a vast room that is a waste of space and pushes me away as if to overwrite what had gone before: you know, that thing we love, called 'Star Trek'?

I'm not convinced the makers even know what 'Star Trek' is, and if they do, they probably have never viewed a single episode of 'TOS,' that's the impression I get from the writers, the designers, and almost everyone behind the camera - watching the DVD extras to Season 1 and reading interviews from the official magazine it was clear these people had no reverence for the past, they were only interested in creating a series today. And that's why, as long as this is the prevailing attitude, that people like me will never be able to accept the series. I know it's a trope that every time a new series comes out the loyal viewers complain and point out everything wrong with it, but I'm one of the most loyal, Trek has been kept alive by me for years. I've suffered through the recent films, hoping for a series to come along which will clearly be more Trekky than those things. I've enjoyed every new Trek series, and I worked hard to be accommodating when I came to this one, but they made it very hard for me and it still has a long way to go to regain my trust. The trouble is, if it was compelling drama, great sci-fi ideas, and just generally impressive it could appeal. Or if it was as dull as ditchwater, but was slavishly true to Trek ideals and history it could appeal. But it is neither of those things! If it could go one way or the other, and I'm not saying the concepts are mutually exclusive - most other Trek proves that you can be devoted to the canon, this inspiring greater ideas that come out in terrific writing, direction and drama, then it would appeal more to me, but so far I don't see evidence that it ever will.

Yet I'm still humbly grateful to have the opportunity to consume another new season of Trek (even one that has been shaved down to fourteen episodes rather than Season 1's fifteen - which might be a good idea considering how much of a struggle it was for me to get through the last few episodes on my re-watch), on physical media because I sense the day coming when I won't have that option and I very much doubt I would go out of my way to get on the streaming bandwagon to have access to this kind of Trek. As it is, I'm privileged to be able to remain onboard with current Trek, even if I'm often repulsed by it. At least I still have the ability to view it and make my own opinion with which to weigh in, which is better than nothing. It doesn't make it easier to cope with how lax they are with my beloved continuity, the wrongheaded choices they frequently make, and the concessions to modern thinking (or unthinking!), they feel forced to adhere to, but it's one small consolation.

Before I wrap up, I noticed some odd things here and there: like Airiam seemed to have a slightly altered appearance, I don't know whether it was the colour scheme or pattern, but something was amiss. Plus she seems to be played by someone else now (Hannah Cheesman), while Sara Mitich is credited as Lt. Nilsson. Is this a deliberate clue to something that we're supposed to wonder about (I did hear rumour of Airiam being killed off…). And did Detmer always have such different-looking eyes? It's a shame they have to make her look so ugly as when you see the actress out of makeup she has a nice look to her, but she's far from the only member of the cast they squander. At least the Bridge crew were more integrated right from the first episode, although it's still strange that they're not main cast members in the opening credits. Some changes come to those credits with Wilson Cruz being an addition as Dr. Culber, as is Anson Mount as Captain Pike - when they first showed pictures of the actor online, comparing him with predecessor in the role, Hunter, I thought he looked very similar, but on screen he lost that, and if anything bore more of a similarity to the Kelvin version. I'd already seen the uniforms, a modified version of the Discovery cut, with that strange crossover black collar and the shoulder ribbing, and although they look far superior to the main 'DSC' ones, I still wasn't enamoured with them because again they ignore the canon: we know what the uniforms looked like from three years ago ('The Cage'), and that the same ones were in use a decade later in Kirk's first appearance, and we also see them used to cool effect as historical dating for images of crew from before that time, back when those making Trek cared about creating a living history, but these ones (which are new, according to Pike), are neither the 'TOS' main uniforms, nor 'Cage' designs, so it's a further complication.

People can laugh at someone being hung up on what a uniform looks like, but it's all about intent and how much care and thought is lavished on the production, and choices like this show me that little reverence is paid to the giants upon whose shoulders this series is precariously perched, and if Trek is to survive as a coherent whole then they need to change their attitude. Otherwise it may as well be another universe, like the films, and then they lose the ability to contribute to an unfolding history that has been developed by so many different people across more than fifty years, and if they can't see their way to caring about such an incredible legacy, then I can't see any way I'm ever going to care about their production. At least a little more went into this opening of Season 2, with an episode running time that almost reached an hour, making it the longest single episode so far, even if some of that time was taken up with a longish recap of the first season, or had precious minutes wasted for a pointless action scene or special effects demonstration. Kurtzman's direction was okay, I liked little things like the human ear of the Science Officer being the thing we see when he beams aboard, but as usual there's far too much moving camerawork, there to keep ADHD sufferers interested. The holographic stuff still irritates, as ever - the rules for Trek have been established, we know how advanced Voyager was a century later, yet they couldn't easily project things outside specific areas, but now, in this century Burnham can play around with such things in her Quarters. And yet they do daft things like needing to use ordinary cameras to take photos of the asteroid field, as if sensors couldn't deal with it! The double standards are humungous and laughable!

I'm not going to go through and point out all the inconsistencies and things that don't make sense, but maybe I will touch on the fact that the Discovery clearly doesn't have the new uniforms that the Enterprise does, and Pike even changes into their uniform by the end when the Enterprise is being towed away by the Corps of Engineers, mentioned by name! - it's so frustrating that they can give us shots of asteroids, but they still fail to realise that what we most want to see are the ships themselves, which are given such short shrift as if they're afraid of turning off viewers by showcasing the beauty of starships in space. Were those Miranda-class vessels towing the Enterprise? You can't see, it's only a reflection in the porthole, or an out of focus view out the window, it's maddening! Anyway, they don't have the uniforms, but somehow they do have the emergency suits Burnham, Pike and the others wear to fly in the pods, and they're in the new colour scheme, so what's going on, it doesn't make sense? It's also annoying to see Starfleet tech fail just so they can create a moment of jeopardy (although it was nice to see the Transport Pattern Enhancers back again), making Starfleet look stupid - what happened to multiple backup systems that makes Federation technology so dependable? I could buy it if this were 'Enterprise' a century before, but they want both the cake and the eating of it when they have inferior tech for dramatic purposes (Pike's suit failing), yet also superior tech to show off in holographics, etc. Why can't they make up their mind and stick to it? Argh! At least there was plenty of technobabble to leaven some of the frustration. Not the worst episode of 'DSC,'
but neither does it set up a new standard. Hope springs eternal.

**

Runaway

DVD, Short Treks (Runaway)

I'm not sure how to quantify and categorise these 'Short Treks,' the shortest running time of a Trek production ever, even beating 'The Animated Series' for length. Something warns me that one day this will be the running time of most episodes, bite-sized chunks for people to digest on the fly in their high-speed lives. But I'm not going to get into issues of attitude and changing mores, I want to know where to place this new Trek: it was released between Season 1 and 2 of 'Discovery,' four mini-episodes to help sate the appetite of those who loved the series and couldn't get enough of it (not me), and as a tease for the coming season, so I'm glad that they released them on the Season 2 DVD. Actually, they only gave us two, which seems a bit mean-spirited, as if they're hoping to collect them all together with future shorts as a separate release. To be honest I was just pleased that fifty percent were here. But back to the qualifier again: can this be called a new series? An extension of 'DSC'? Something else? It's a sort of 'Season 1.5,' and so should easily be drafted into the column of 'DSC,' except that there are future shorts that are to be animated, so clearly they're not limiting themselves to 'DSC,' and yet it's not a proper series in itself. Did they not think of us poor Trekkers when they came up with this idea? It's nice to have more minutes of Trek to add to the slowly gathering momentum of the third TV era of the franchise, but it's also a real headache!

Deciding where the episodes sit in canon and order is one thing, but the quality of the episodes themselves is another, as is the timeframe they're set in. This one is post-Season 1's (awful) finale, since Tilly is an Ensign now, but as there's no mention of the Enterprise it's not occurring immediately after the cliffhanger, its placement on disc 4 suggesting it'll tie into an episode further along in the season. Now we've established that, I'd also like to establish my continuing irritation with the character of Tilly. I don't find anything to enjoy in her role or characterisation, she's just annoying, and since this short is focused on her it was a good bet I wasn't going to like it. Which I didn't. It's a slight (as dictated by the format), tale of Tilly meeting the runaway of the title, an almost as irritating teenage girl alien. There's not really much of a story, and in fact I felt it could have sat perfectly in 'Dr. Who,' exactly the kind of spinoff short or scene from an episode of that poor modern iteration of the classic sci-fi series, which 'DSC' has seemingly been influenced by, another reason why it's such a disappointment to me as a Trek series. Indeed, seeing this short made me once again (after re-watching the first season and discovering it really was as dully average as I thought the first time, and as stupid), wonder if I really want to delve back into this destruction of the Trek name, but I'm still grateful to have new Trek on physical media and I'm ever hopeful for improvement (I have to be!).

I'm not going to be too hard on this, it's just a short, it's just a freebie, and it stars one of my least favourite people from the series, so it wasn't going great guns before I even saw it. It was interesting to meet Tilly's Mother, even if I still cringe at the era-ruining holographic tech, not to mention the way the food slots and computer are far too advanced for what they should be. I doubt I'll ever get over the total messing up of Trek history and style and everything else I love about it, but it's better to get it out than keep it inside. Of the four shorts this was the one I was least keen on seeing, but being a stickler for broadcast order (in most cases), I had to watch it first. Next up on order of 'merit' would have been the Mudd short, then I am actually looking forward to seeing the Saru one, and most intriguing to me is the far-future episode that, along with Mudd, is absent from the DVDs. But I've crossed off another part of Trek to view, even if I can't ever see reason to return to it. I'm sure it's very inspirational for teenage girls, but it's not my cup of Tarkalean, I'm afraid. Oh well…

*

Shimmer

DVD, Smallville S1 (Shimmer)

A mixed bag of class issues and struggles with Lana that is at times a heroic display of Clark's goodness, and a slight tale of the invisibility of some people. A more apt title would have been 'Invisible' since it's reiterated again and again that the theme is about those quiet ones we don't notice, and it does come down to an invisible man on the attack. But it's hardly a rampage, just a mild spree that doesn't have that strong a basis - Jeff must just have got really bitter that he was unable to fight back at those forces which controlled things around him and finally snapped. I'm not sure if I was fooled the first time and thought it was Amy who was the perpetrator of the ghostly goings-on, but it seems super obvious watching it now. The power of hindsight I suppose, which is as powerful a tool as Clark's x-ray sight which does get some use this time. The effects for it, and for the invisible person seen in the steam of the locker room at school, or in the displacement of water in Victoria's bath, or the mist of the Luthor grounds, not to mention the paint splatter, was very well staged, and really you'd take it for granted, except it must have been a big deal at the time and was probably stretching the abilities of the visual effects people working on it. In some ways the effects are the standout part of the episode because it is a rather romantic-focused story that isn't going to end well: either Whitney will be upset or Clark will, and it wouldn't look good on the hero of the series if he was having a whale of a time with Lana, while Whitney was grieving his Father's illness and dealing with that!

It is realistically portrayed in that Clark does the decent thing and fights off Lana after encouraging her in his direction to begin with, and then feels bad about it, but in truth it didn't make him look the greatest, nor Lana for that matter. Granted she and Whitney aren't wedded in holy matrimony, but things are heightened in teen minds so you'd expect loyalty. The episode is a little muddy in that it has three intersecting plots in Clark and Lana, Lex and Victoria, and Lex' house servants, none of which entirely take off, and none of which end conclusively, except for the help being cast out in as kind and non-vindictive a way as possible by Lex. Clark's confrontation with Jeff in the Luthor Mansion is small fry on the scale of violent encounters (though it did provide a terrific visual to be used in the opening credits to come!), and is over very quickly, Lex conveniently knocking his head on the wall in what would become a common occurrence whenever they didn't want Clark to have to explain anything about his powers (who's going to believe Jeff?). They only halfheartedly wrap up the major scientific discovery of total invisibility that he got from a green flower in the grounds by Clark not revealing it and supposing that the secret went with him - I don't think Jeff was dead, however, and the authorities, or at the very least Lex, would want to do extensive studies and work out how this wonder technique was achieved. I can buy that Lex hushed everything up, but he would be as desperate to get his hands on such a momentous, world-changing product as anyone - indeed this formula would be enough to make him far richer than his Dad!

Realism isn't that high on the series' list of main goals, and the way they let it go in such a low-key way doesn't leave you wondering if Lex will pursue the formula for invisibility, so it works for the series and isn't really a problem, it's just that I notice stuff like this more and it's not one that can be as easily explained away as if Jeff had died or that it was a personal mutation as other meteor-infected have been. More importantly, the episode is as bright and lovely to look at as ever that it's simply a pleasure to exist in that world for forty-odd minutes. I can't remember if Jonathan Kent and Nell having a history had ever been vocalised before, though you can tell there was some subtext the first time we saw them in the pilot episode. The Kent parents are kept largely out of the picture this time so as to give Clark more space to make the right decision for himself, which works in the context of this episode, but when they began to do that on a regular basis was when the series became far less interesting because they have so much to teach, so much experience to impart, and they're simply great characters acted by superb actors. Fortunately the adults were largely kept on the ball in Season 1, as evidenced by another flying visit by Luthor senior, there to tut at Lex, while he bats it all back again.

Although Lana comes across a little harsh and not terribly understanding to Whitney, not helped by his 'manly' handling of his problem by keeping it to himself to spare her, she also gets another gold star for her charity work, showing she wants to do things to help the community, a selfless girl who claims she's 'just trying to find her place in the world.' So all that stuff was great, especially Clark having to invent a reason why he can't give blood (I assume the Kents have realised that a needle wouldn't penetrate his tough hide, unless they were more concerned with his blood being alien?), and little moments like Pete saying Clark isn't the flying type or him using his x-ray vision in front of Lex, and to his friend it just looks like he's staring intently down at the floor around them! At the same time it isn't the deepest of episodes, even with Chloe's obviously wishing for Clark's attention, always around him, while he can barely see her as anything more than a useful font of information, so I do have mixed feelings. On the other hand, it is seeding things for the future, and I liked the servants giving us another perspective on Lex' life, so although there isn't a great deal to discuss around the episode, it still makes it over into the coveted side of the line. Lex being tied up and/or being knocked out, and Lana and Chloe throwing glowing eyes Clark's way were yet to become tropes, so even they can't detract from Clark's decent course of action. That's the thing, a useful lesson: just because you do the right thing doesn't mean you immediately get rewarded or feel good about it, beyond the comfort of knowing it was right. A hard lesson to learn.

***

Emissary (2)

DVD, DS9 S1 (Emissary) (2)

Every time I watch 'What You Leave Behind,' the series finale, seven years down the timeline (timeline? What is this?), I get a hankering to see how it all began, and this time I needed to write an in-depth review since my last one was only short. The two bookends connect at times so coherently, but also throw a light on how much had developed and changed in those intervening years. I don't think I saw the first BBC transmission of 'Emissary' back in 1995, though I know I saw some of the first season (my first exposure to 'DS9' was with 'Armageddon Game' a Season 2 episode that my History and Geography teacher showed us at the end of Summer Term in '95 that got me wanting to see more), but when I did eventually see it on buying the video in 1998, the characters already meant a lot to me, so to be able to witness how they came together and the impetus for the whole saga made me appreciate it far more than I might have if I'd come to it cold with no foreknowledge - it happened the same way with 'BUGS,' another series I got into well after its genesis, and returned to the beginning after I'd seen the rest of it, meaning the opening episode carried more weight and resonance for me. But even seen today as a story on its own, 'Emissary' not only holds up, but provides the kind of heartrendingly emotional and personal story you used to expect from Trek.

The focus is squarely placed on the solid shoulders of Ben Sisko, it's his story, and not until 'DSC' with everything revolving around Michael Burnham have we seen quite such a main star take the majority of the pilot. It echoes back to Captain Pike in the original, 'The Cage,' which was heavily concentrated on him with the other characters truly in supporting roles only, and even to some extent Kirk's pilot, 'Where No Man Has Gone Before.' 'TNG,' 'Voyager' and even 'Enterprise' were a little more giving for the ensemble casts, but for Sisko this was no bad thing because everything rested on him: his own path, that of his son's, even the entire Alpha Quadrant would one day be influenced by the decisions he makes in this episode. Although 'DS9' was often accused of breaking the Roddenberry rules of no conflict, perfected humans and the like, it actually was a far more human and accessible series than 'TNG,' which was the Great Bird's purest vision of what he saw as the optimistic future for humanity. Sisko embodies the ideals of 'TNG' in that he relishes the challenge of exploration, and even explains it better and more succinctly than ever before when he says they are explorers who explore their own lives day by day, and space. It's like the physical exploration is the less important one, as it is to explore how to be a better person, how to live and what that living means that matters. It's very philosophical and far removed from the space battles, shooting the Phasers and having a bust-up that Trek has largely 'explored' this side of the 20th Century, and is far richer for it.

Sisko is a man you can get behind and the pilot does a superb job of introducing him and showing us the most important event in his life: the death of his wife, Jennifer, at the Battle of Wolf 359. Though the episode isn't about action, it does begin with some, a sight of some of the famous battle, the most affecting and game-changing event in modern Trek history to that day. It was a wise decision to base the second spinoff on such a linchpin of drama and horror as the first Borg attack on Earth as it showed what Trek was capable of. Again, in 'The Best of Both Worlds' the action is part of it, but it's the psychological implications that are the most fascinating to explore. What better draw could there be than the chance to witness some of that fabled battle which the Enterprise-D arrived too late partake in? I love the rolling text at the beginning of 'Emissary,' a historical note that makes things both impersonal and somehow more alluring. We're thrown from cold text into a very real human experience, something that was achieved to the same effect with the opening to the pilot of 'Voyager.' Right away it appeals to someone like me who cares about the reality of this world, as if this is a historical fact and now we're seeing more of it. I love that they recreated a period which, although it was only three years before the episode and thus easy to recreate compared to if they were showing flashbacks to such an era in a modern production (which may not be outside the realms of possibility!), it really has that feel of mid-'TNG' thanks to the uniforms and the ships. It also pre-empted 'First Contact' by bringing back Locutus.

Importantly this is no flashback, we're seeing what happened in the same time frame as Sisko, only after the event do we go forward to the 'present day' of Trek production to see him take up his post at DS9. This puts us right in the heart of the event, witnessing Sisko's heart on his sleeve, his emotions boiling. I've occasionally wondered if his actions in searching for his wife and son were unprofessional, but this doesn't actually happen until the evacuation has begun, the warp containment failure heralded with only five minutes to get everyone out, so he has every right to try to rescue his family once he's done his duties of initiating evacuation. I wonder if 'Star Trek XI' took a cue from this episode because it does have a similarly emotive opening of a family separated, one of the parents dying while the other, and child, escape, and in both cases it makes for strong bonding for the audience to the characters. Sisko is a very physical leader and we get this right away from the manner in which he wades through debris like a bear, punching obstacles out of the way as if nothing can stop him. Until it does: death. He might have been lost along with young Jake if not for the burly Bolian that forcibly restrained him and pulled him out because his mind is completely shot up and not thinking straight. That's the thing, though: Sisko is not a perfect human, he retains strong feelings in both a good and bad sense. His emotions get the better of him on the Saratoga when confronted with his dead wife, but it also means his devotion to duty is equally powerful.

Something I was impressed with was how far Sisko went in attending to his role as Commander of a space station. Although he didn't really want to be there and it wasn't a great place to raise a son, he made the conscious choice to request a Bajoran for his First Officer. He had every right to come in all guns blazing and establish himself as head honcho over these civilians and representatives of a foreign government that don't necessarily have the same ideals and ways of working as the Federation, but it's his job to smooth things over, to make Bajor ready to take its place as part of that Federation, something that Captain Picard insists is Sisko's priority. So it's an amazing choice that we never saw that happen during the run of the series, and indeed it was made patently clear that it would harm Bajor to do so. To make the central mission of the series something which is eventually fought against by the main character was a surprising direction to take, but 'DS9' was a series full of surprises, one of the reasons why it's such good drama. It managed to surprise the audience and take unexpected routes for stories and characters without sacrificing that inherent sense of logic and progression that so much drama (including Trek), ignores today. In that way it satisfies on more than one level. And just as the series turned out to be different than may have been expected, the posting for Sisko followed the same pattern - what he thought he was there for, he wasn't, and instead a greater destiny awaited him.

I still want to concentrate on his Starfleet qualities, however, because in my memory, perhaps from reading the novelisation, he was totally opposed to being on DS9 and wanted to hightail it out of there ASAP. In reality he approaches everything wisely and correctly, not flaring into anger at the insubordinate and hostile tone displayed by Kira and Odo, his two top non-Starfleet people, but dealing fairly and decently with them, even impressing them somewhat with things like throwing Nog into a holding cell alongside the fish-faced alien, after they were caught thieving. This appeals greatly to Odo's sense of justice after an initial friction about Sisko using a weapon on the Promenade. But it's all part of a bigger plan from Sisko, who has clearly given the situation much thought. He may not want to be there, but as he coldly states to Picard, he will do the job to the best of his ability, and he wasn't lying - you see the diplomatic qualities of this man, but also the strength of character that makes him such a good Starfleet officer. It's wonderful that they chose to make him a Commander rather than a Captain because it gives room for growth within the succeeding years which no other main character has had. That also stretches to the rest of the cast, and one reason this episode is so great to see right after the series finale is to realise how far they've come: the Ferengi boy, Nog, is a thief, and not a very adept one either, and when we last see him he's become a man, a Starfleet officer, piloting the Defiant into pitched battle against a terrible foe.

Odo in this first episode is as rough as splintered wood, at odds with his smooth, gooey natural state (what a masterstroke: make a character's temperament completely the opposite of his nature!), nominating himself to join the party heading to the Wormhole because it may be a clue as to his origins. A wonderful way to add mystery to a new series: you want him to find out about himself, he's intriguing, and not just because he has some wacky special power (like sensing the coming of death… wa-waaah), but because of his personality. Right from the start these are three-dimensional beings with a past that they've lived and a future you want to see play out, and even when you've seen it all, it's so well thought out and acted that you look forward to seeing it play out again. And again. That's the strength of the series. They were so fantastic at creating and developing characters that they didn't stop with the main cast and continued fleshing out the minor ones. It's also surprising how many pieces were put into place so early on: we get Nog, Rom is there if only as a background character with about one line, Dukat is right away the honey-tongued villain of the piece, and Morn gets good exposure for being such a fascinatingly designed creation. But who knows, we could have been watching that weird, hump-backed alien you see in the exotic Quark's Bar if things had been different!

Sisko's plan is to create and maintain a community on the station so that it's a place people would want to be. It's a bit of a long shot, this laudable goal, right up until the discovery of the Wormhole, which Picard points out will make DS9 a leading centre of commerce, trade and exploration. Sisko didn't know that was going to happen, he was just trying to do the best he could with the tools at hand, and being a Starfleet man, he's been taught to be resourceful with even basic tools. Like Quark! His knowledge of other cultures leads him to pull a plea-bargain, again impressing Odo and also Quark at his clever manipulative skill. They can both appreciate such things, Quark especially, who's been on the station for four years prior to this as he says Odo hasn't caught him in that time. I love the fact there are so many dating references so you can place where and who and when: O'Brien arrived two days previous to the episode (and has clearly gained the respect of the Bajorans he's worked with - perhaps they sense his attitude toward Cardassians and think if Starfleet is like this they'll get on fine!), Dukat left his office two weeks ago. Wolf 359 occurred three years ago… It all helps to set the scene and create a chronology for events.

Another key part of Sisko's character, beyond the ability to plan and manipulate with knowledge, is his embracing of the adventure: he could have been moping around the whole time and ignored the arrows pointing the way to success, such as when he realises he needs to speak with Kai Opaka as a key component to uniting fractured Bajor, and shown no interest in the anomalies that present themselves. I wonder if the Bajoran monk that accosts Sisko on his first visit to the Promenade knew that this was to be the Emissary? Or was it simply that he knew the leader of their new allies should speak with the Kai? Again, I like the ambiguity and the mystery, not all spelled out neatly, but left to the imagination. I must admit it is strange to see an Orb of the Prophets open and exposed in the Science Lab while Dax inspects, quantifies and investigates as if it were a common artefact. But Opaka wouldn't have handed over this priceless link to her Prophets unless she was certain Sisko was the man they had been awaiting. The deeply personal experiences that characters are thrown into when they gaze upon the Orb are another mysteriously satisfying dramatic device. I understood Sisko's vision as having purpose since they send him right to the umbilical cord holding him to the past, immediately. When you don't know what's going on it appears to be a haphazard vision with no purpose, but in reality it is as precise as a scalpel, the answer, though he can't recognise it, is right in his face, straight to the heart of the matter (Sisko's heart). That's another brilliant thing about the episode: hiding an answer in plain sight.

Jadzia's vision was harder to explain. As nice as it is to see her moment of joining with the Dax symbiont (another character ripe with potential to explore), and to witness the 'old man' Sisko knew, in Curzon, there doesn't appear to be any particular reason for it. Perhaps it is a message from the Prophets to remind this intelligent, intensely scientific woman of a moment when she felt, and not just a moment, but the most important moment of her life, like a gentle reminder that there is more to life than cold, hard facts and calculations. It affects her on an emotional level, telling her that this thing is more than just an object of curiosity, it has real meaning behind it. It's all stuff I'm reading into it, but that's what makes it so fascinating: that there is breathing space left for the imagination to fill in. I imagine the Cardassians that examined the Orbs they stole from Bajor probably felt similarly personal experiences and I suspect the Orbs quickly got a name for spookiness and something to be avoided. It's a shame we never got to meet one of the Cardassian scientists that were involved. But the visions can't compete with a direct face-to-face with the Prophets themselves within their Celestial Temple, as Sisko discovers, and here we come to the crux of the story: his teaching and learning of the most alien aliens you can imagine.

The Prophets were brought to life inventively, through words and dialogue, not through the limited visual language that can only do so much to demonstrate the 'other' or unknown because it all comes from the mind of man. It was a very sensible choice to have people from Sisko's experiences talk to him within those experiences and also it created an even more alien impression since these are ordinary people we've seen behaving as we'd expect, and now they've become something different. Out of all Sisko's accomplishments and skills in this pilot episode I'm most impressed by his willingness and ability to eloquently explain complex matters: time, love, baseball… these are not easy things to define (in some cases), or explain in simple terms (baseball!), yet he succeeds magnificently and never balks at the task. He's contemplative and never stumbles, doesn't get frustrated unless it's with the emotional pain they seem to be subjecting him to, but throughout he navigates the distrust, even the moments of fear when the Cardassian ship travels through the Wormhole, hurting the Prophets, he never gives up, he presses on and confidently explains every question they hurl at him until he creates trust with them. The big question is how to understand these nonlinear, non-corporeal beings in a manner that is possible in an American TV show, and the writing is superb to pull it off.

Even the problem with the fundamental connection Sisko is supposed to have with these beings can be explained away as their being outside time. So they can have planned out his existence, which would suggest they understand linear time, made it so that he came into being, and yet still be confused when he appears, because for them this is their 'first' knowledge of him. I surmise that as a result of Sisko entering the Wormhole and becoming known to the Prophets they made sure he was born and directed his path towards them. It's a difficult and confusing concept to get tangled up in, but it makes a weird sense when you consider they don't see things as we do. Otherwise it would be a huge flaw in the series that they lack all this understanding, yet later we come to know how personal a connection they already had with Ben from before his conception. It's a tricky thing, but it's all pulled off so smoothly. What I love about Sisko's conversations with them in this first episode is how he relishes the challenge of the first contact. He doesn't throw up his hands at their confusion on the big, complicated questions of how we exist, or believe they should understand and must be thick not to. No, he shows patience all the time and rather than become discouraged that they ask what baseball means, like a true enthusiast he seizes on it as a perfect metaphor for describing linear existence, and seeing someone tackle a seemingly impossible challenge with gusto and flourish is about the most uplifting thing to see: this is what makes Trek, Trek!

The episode succeeds to the same degree as Sisko does, which is to say magnificently. Sure, compared to the slick, shiny productions we get now this does look a little constrained, but only in the way it's fullscreen rather than expansive widescreen, and the fact that rather than coming to a smooth new starship or station just out of the plastic wrapping, this is a place with history (something Roddenberry was keen on when he created the original Enterprise and which gives story flow backwards as well as forwards), that has fallen to its knees, hope is brought inside it and that is more powerful than any number of hot off the production line starship designs. New blood pours into this crusty old alien station with people like Jadzia and Bashir, fresh-faced and full of vigour to enervate (and crusty old O'Brien to renovate!), the creaking old bulkheads into regeneration. The series has so much to explore, its setup is perfect and if the first season fell into the trap of course correcting back into too much of an old 'TNG' season, then that's just the vagaries of TV production. This first episode has everything, huge potential in both character, location and even style of storytelling, and over time it would grasp every nettle and provide the greatest Trek, the most satisfyingly complex and deep, and the most incredibly personally suited style to me that I've ever encountered or expect to encounter again!

There are so many things it's easy to take for granted about this episode and this series in general, but particularly the first episode. They could have set the series on another starship, gone the expected route and caused less ripples, but would Trek have lasted those eighteen years that marked the Rick Berman era without the risks 'DS9' took? Just as Sisko recognises in Quark that he's a gambler, and though the prospect looks grim he can take a punt, so the writers and creators of this series approached its creation. By featuring more aliens than humans, and especially aliens that had been previously created on 'TNG,' it gave them ample space to delve into other cultures even if the station wasn't going anywhere. With the mystery of Odo, the mystery of Sisko's role to the Bajorans, the mystery of the Trill and the biggest mystery of an entire new quadrant of the galaxy to interact with, the series was primed with many questions to answer. It wasn't just another starship, another crew, some more aliens of the week, it went far beyond superficiality to a bedrock of story material upon which to build or mine. But they did it without discarding what had gone before, fully and more strongly grasping the richness inherent in a universe that had been in development for years. We get Chief O'Brien transferring from the Enterprise and they allow him his moment of poignancy as he visits the ship one last time, but they don't overindulge in it, it's just enough to show how much he'll miss the place as it goes off to new adventures.

That's another thing, 'TNG' was still going for two more seasons, that journey was continuing, which makes O'Brien leaving it for this new posting give value to DS9. If 'TNG' had ended it wouldn't have had so much meaning, but he's passing up on the chance for further adventures on the Federation flagship for this rundown monstrosity in a dangerous region, the threat coming from a race he's already had good cause to feel aggrieved with, yet still he chooses the station. Having Patrick Stewart as your guest star also does wonders for a series, lifting its profile considerably, and it's a really touching moment when he takes the time to come down to the Transporter Room and see O'Brien off. But it's also an important episode for the Captain as we deal with something that probably hasn't been thought of much, if at all: the fallout from Picard's assimilation by the Borg. We'd seen it from his perspective in the great 'Family,' how much it took from him, but now we see it from the outsider point of view and what those brave Starfleet people lost because of Picard's knowledge. It was a bold risk, could almost be said to be foolhardy to set up your new series by having its main character practically seething with rage at the much-loved Picard, modern Trek's number one character, but again it pays off because we see how deep the hurt went, and we see the resolve on Sisko's face and hear it in his voice when he reiterates that he's ready to take this post permanently, where earlier he had displayed such personal distaste for the job and Picard. It's a mini-arc just for the episode, but it shows in microcosm what the series would go on to do as a whole.

The first scene with Sisko and Picard crackles, suiting the mood we've gotten that everyone connected to DS9 is standoffish (bar the genial O'Brien, and even he loses his rag with the technology). Kira's angry, but not as much as I remembered, she quickly allows for Sisko to take his position as the dominant voice, but throughout the season they'd have their disagreements, so it wasn't over. The same with Odo, who didn't like bending into shape, despite having that ability physically - they do a fine job of showing what he's capable of, and that's the kind of thing that enamoured me of the series in childhood when I first watched it. The danger, the effects, the simple things that appeal to simpler minds, but as I grew older I saw new levels to the stories and characters so that it has actually improved with age. 'DS9' became a hub for all of Trek, featuring crossovers with numerous characters from 'TOS' to 'TNG,' and even 'Voyager,' because those behind it understood Trek culture and loved it and its history. It was all the better for it, but king of all was the desire to tell meaningful stories and use the characters in the right way, something I haven't seen demonstrated in the Kelvin Timeline films, 'Discovery' and even 'Enterprise,' which has a lot to answer for in terms of many of the precedents and failings that the current generation of Trek has eagerly jumped on and sought after when what they should have been paying attention to was 'DS9.' Some say that 'DS9' DNA is more in evidence in 'Enterprise' and 'DSC' than the other Treks, and in a superficial reading I suppose that's true, but neither came close to reproducing the glorious breadth, depth and sense that this series produced even while being part of the 'sausage factory' production line mentality of Eighties and Nineties Trek.

Not to say that 'Emissary' got everything right. Like all pilots it sometimes strikes a discordant chime, and there are myriad examples. Quark's nose (which is actually Rom's since they didn't have his ready, or something like that: read 'The DS9 Companion' and 'The Making Of' books for the details, both terrific repositories of 'DS9' background), and the much more weird portrayal of his bar, are two things that stand out. I don't think he's even got the dark patches around his eyes which made him more alien - here you could almost see a human face amid the gargantuan ears and teeth poking out all over the place! Kira's look, too, is definitely aping Ro Laren, who was the character they really wanted in the position, but would have been far less interesting than Nerys. Odo's makeup is unfinished, just as the character is, which oddly suits him as the mystery man alien. Dax (a revamp of the Trill look entirely that probably would have annoyed except it was only one episode to change and the race came to be this version much more strongly), calls DS9 'the space station,' which lands hollowly, but then they're not attached to this place yet, it is an alien structure that they don't see as home. O'Brien telling Kira to remind him not to play Roladan Wild Draw with her when you're expecting him to say Poker considering the ship he came from… In terms of the look of everything, it's hard to fault it as they had done five and a half years of 'TNG' and had it all down pat what Starfleet of the 24th Century looked like.

I love David Carson's work as Director, this gig getting him 'Generations,' and it's full of great shots and clever visuals: the inside of the Wormhole appearing starkly different to different people was a great idea, as were the holographic fake-outs with the Earth pond where Jake is fishing eventually revealed to be just a program, which really opens up the potential of Trek's tech to new viewers, the way you at first assume it's real. The same with the holographic pool that hides the cavern where Opaka keeps the Orb - it looked to me like there was a forcefield over the top to prevent people falling down the stairway! The upper Promenade barely existed, but yet you still see them walking along it, and everything about the sets is amazing. Such huge locations built so intricately as had never been seen on Trek and never would be again. Even the theme music is more majestic and distant at this time. And that's something else about the series that is fascinating to see. It became something so different, and yet retained its character. Even at the end of this first episode we're expectant of great change coming to this region, and it would come, but it was also at great cost and the story of the Alpha Quadrant relied on this area. It could have succeeded perfectly well as a story about the back of beyond, the politics of a world, and smaller details, but it grew into a larger beast that made Trek's world even more expansive and cohesive and much of what it would be was set in motion in this episode which is still a powerful personal tale in itself, achieving its place as close to being the best pilot in Trek.

*****

What You Leave Behind (2)

DVD, DS9 S7 (What You Leave Behind) (2)

Not the perfect finale I thought it was when I first saw it one Bank Holiday in 2003, viewing it on video as I'd missed the TV transmission on BBC2, or avoided it because I'd missed 'The Dogs of War' and wanted to watch it all complete (nor was I impressed the BBC chose to split up what was supposed to be one long conclusion into two parts), but still the best Trek finale of them all. It kicks into high gear right away with the new Defiant heading off with Klingon and Romulan forces to deal with the Dominion fleet once and for all. Seeing it today (and in my previous viewing, almost ten years ago to the day), I noticed the flaws more fully. The fact is that, though the battle is a terrific one, and far superior to anything done in Trek to this day (only the Battle of The Binary Stars in 'DSC' can really show even an attempt to rival what this series did), it isn't as good as those seen in 'Tears of The Prophets,' 'Sacrifice of Angels' or 'The Way of The Warrior' (though I loved the camera perched on the Defiant's hull as it does a loop-de-loop to plough through pursuing enemies - reminded me of the realistic camera positioning in 'Interstellar' that makes you think of real ships and real launches). There's a slight disjointedness between all the events that makes them a little episodic in narrative structure. The episode required more than the resources they had at their disposal to pull off such an epic story, so we see a lot of intimate spaces and the full grandeur and scale is sometimes nipped in the bud.

The two greatest things to seem smaller than they warranted regarded the two heroes of the story: on Cardassia, Damar's ignoble demise, and on Bajor, Sisko's simple solution. But neither is as problematic when thought about. That the Emissary to the Prophets had had his whole life geared to the point where he would have a moment in which to push Dukat, starring as the Emissary of the Pah-Wraiths, into a fiery pit, seems reductive to so much of what he went through. But to the Prophets that was the most important moment. Time has no meaning for them: a moment is an eternity, as a famous android similarly once said, and so it makes complete sense that years and years passed until this moment came. And if Sisko had had a moment's hesitation, that moment would have been his last. He had to do what he knew to be necessary, and though it was only a simple physical task, he had to be sure and willing to sacrifice himself to the unknown. And it's not like his whole life was geared to just that moment, as Sarah, his Prophet-Mother said, he was to learn new things with them and he knew he'd return to the realm of the corporeal eventually ('Star Trek: Picard'? Somehow I doubt it!), this was just one task he had to perform in his life.

Damar's death, too, can be seen in the light of all that he achieved: he unified Cardassia against their oppressors, and like Rom he prepared the ground for a new Cardassia. Though Garak is bitter that his world is gone, Kira reminds him to fight for a new one. One that was largely birthed by Damar and his choice of reconciliation - to put down the booze that he was using to cover his cowardice and take a stand for his people. To employ the services of a bitter rival in Kira, who stood for Cardassian failure, and not just that, but Cardassian military failure, something they can't endure. And to tell her that without her it wouldn't have been possible. So yes, he'd achieved much, and yes, perhaps it was foolhardy to risk him in the firing line of the Jem'Hadar, but he'd already survived one execution squad in the episode, saved when the Cardassian soldiers turned on their Jem'Hadar counterparts, and this was a last-ditch effort to get to the 'snake head' of the Dominion, as Garak put it. Now Cardassia can remember a great downed leader and erect statues in his honour and sing songs of his heroism, and, because that's all they can do, unable to have such a fair-minded leader to guide them into a new era, as the Ferengi received with Rom, it's a great tragedy, and such an epic tale required some form of sacrifice to add bittersweet meaning to the risks everybody was running. Damar's death is largely small and pointless, but it emphasises that point.

The series was written in many ways to be quite moral. Aside from Damar, the deaths and losses come mainly on the side of evil, and if there was any question of which side was truly evil it is in the actions and decisions of the Female Changeling, whose superiority to all other life forms and hatred of them, leads her to order the complete slaughter of every Cardassian on the planet. She even has a twisted logic about her: that this final act of vengeance will make other powers think twice before they venture into the Gamma Quadrant to destroy the Founders forever. As has always been the case in their history, they are still, despite all this great power, driven by fear, driven by the memory of how they were treated by the solids, blinded from the reality that not all people are of a kind. If only the Federation had sprung up in the Gamma Quadrant, then the Changelings would have had a safe haven to flee to when solids hunted them, but instead they created their own anti-Federation of fear and control. The parallels with the Cardassians are there to be weeded out, and there is much talk of how they deserved what happened to them, but again, it was their racial attitudes that allowed them to fall victim to Dukat, a leader who promised to make them the winning side against the other races of the Alpha Quadrant, a Hitler figure that was willing to sell the national soul in exchange for total power (under the Dominion, of course).

It could be said that the Female Changeling's complete one-eighty on her vicious proposal to sour the allies' victory with genocide was a rather quick reversal for one so set in her ways. But I think it shows how deeply she cared for her own kind: not just in sending a threat message of fighting to utter destruction, but mainly in the proposal Odo made. For him to return to the Great Link at last and take up his place in it as she had always wanted him to do, as she wanted all the infant Changelings that had been sent out, to do. The Link was not complete without him, so like Locutus being willingly given over to the Borg, Odo was willing to become part of the Link again. It's what he wanted to do, and his experience as, or among, solids would be invaluable to life after the war and a lasting peace across the Quadrants. It only makes you wish that the story could have continued, that this highest caliber of writers could have continued the deeply fascinating mix of galactic politics and personal journeys that they had wrought across seven years on the station. It's funny, but the situation has completed switched around from the time I last reviewed this episode in 2009 when it seemed as if the Kelvin Timeline (as it eventually became known), had spelt the end of 'our' universe forever. Yet now we have the possibility (and I keep mentioning it in my reviews because it's still astonishing to me), that the Kelvin films are done and we're going to get post-'Nemesis' stories again with the potential for any characters from 'DS9' returning. And that was an impossibility only a decade ago.

I do find it sad that 'Voyager' was so competitive with 'DS9' rather than being cooperative. They preferred to tighten links with 'TNG' and largely ignore the developments their older brother made in the Alpha Quadrant so that we never saw anyone from 'DS9' crossover post-series, and there were few connections they made beyond recognising the culling of the Maquis. Partly that was down to the series choosing to remain in the Delta Quadrant for so long instead of returning to Alpha to take up the mantle of familiar lore, but I also get the impression they were jealous of the quality of the writing and of the vastness of its cast. It's only an impression, but I don't remember seeing a change in the Ferengi when we got an episode on them in the latter stages of 'Voyager,' nor was there much mention or consequence of the aftermath of the Dominion War. The same goes for 'Star Trek Nemesis,' the final data point in the 24th Century canon until 'Picard' arrives next year, which gave passing reference to the war, and it could be argued all the Romulan stuff came about as a result of it, but it wasn't integral to the story for fear that the mainstream audience couldn't cope with connecting to TV shows - laughable considering the connectivity in superhero franchises today, and such a slapdash approach to appeasing the casual viewers didn't help the film, either. It was criminal that Worf was merely back in his old position at Tactical on the Bridge of the Enterprise-E without any mention of his ambassadorship to Qo'noS, as if he just drifted back to Picard's wing, having moved on from one Captain to another.

The fault of the reins of story not being grasped with relish by the few remaining Trek productions to continue on in the 24th Century is not a concern of 'DS9.' It set up the pieces, and if no one chose to knock them down, then that's their affair. The end of this series was like a tolling bell, warning of the coming end of Trek in its then form, never to have been succeeded since (until the hope inherent in 'Picard'). It was the end of an era, just as it was for the characters, and for me. This isn't the kind of episode you can just stick on - to me, a finale has to be earned because it is the culmination of so much, which is why it takes so many years for me to get round to it again, thus it has even more meaning because each time I see it another chapter of my own life has concluded in the interim. No other Trek series did it this way: 'TNG' felt as if it was just another day, and the series was going to continue as before (which it did with the films), which has its own feeling of security and cosiness. 'Voyager' wasn't afforded even that, ending abruptly with myriad questions about the futures of the characters left unanswered. 'Enterprise' posited a future a few years down the line where things had largely remained the same ('the more things change, the more they remain the same,' said Quark in this episode). 'TOS' had its ending in the films with a hearty conclusion. I suppose the closest comparison is 'Nemesis' where the 'TNG' cast is split up, leaving Picard to face the future 'alone,' but with hope.

I guess that makes Quark the Picard figure in this instance as he is the only one that doesn't really change. His life remains the same, he's the one that stays behind. Sure, Kira and Jake, Bashir and Ezri stay on the station, but all their lives are irrevocably altered by recent events. Quark is the only one to continue on his lonely path to profit. Well, not quite - he does still have his trusty customer Morn to keep a barstool warm from dawn to dusk. But that's what I love so much about this ending, that it shows that though these events have been so damaging or so rewarding, and so much has changed in this world we've viewed so long, the essential world is still there. Quark's Bar will continue. Perhaps Bajor will move towards Federation membership now that the Dominion threat is passed. The rebuilding of Cardassia will throw up new problems. We already know what happened with the Romulans in both 'Nemesis' and 'Star Trek XI,' so it wasn't all roses for them. The Ferengi have a new, kinder Nagus. The Breen… well, they remain as mysterious as ever, even though Kira pulls off another coup, finding a Breen uniform to hide in, just as she did in their first appearance back in Season 4's 'Indiscretion' - we still don't know if she saw what was inside, or whether it was merely discarded. When the Breen express their wish to go and join up at the front of the battle, I really expected them to be evacuating Cardassia as a tactical move so they could slink off from the battle and leave their Dominion allies in the lurch, but to their credit they stuck it out. They must really have wanted Romulus and Earth - perhaps they were avid collectors of homeworlds? (I can see it now, a subscription to 'Star Trek Homeworlds' where the price for signing up is undying loyalty to the Founders, and the reward a new homeworld to add to the collection each month, with a magazine detailing everything the Dominion knows about it!).

The moral of the story is that evil's day will come: Legate Broca, the puppet leader of the Cardassians is turned on by his superiors when the Cardassians switch sides in the midst of battle, revenge for the Dominion laying waste to Lakarian City. He's taken out into the darkness where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth, and even worse, we see one last stab (literally!), of showing the Jem'Hadar's brutality as they bayonet him and his fellows to death. The Jem'Hadar had been lost in recent seasons - they reached the point of becoming more than a blunt instrument for the Founders to use to batter their enemies, as we were presented other views of them as an honourable, duty-bound force that held their loyalty in the highest honour. But this season especially they weren't given a voice, and even the potential development that would have ensued from the differences between Alpha and Gamma Quadrant-bred types, fell through the cracks as so many other things had to be tied up. That's perhaps one reason why the season doesn't work as well as the preceding one, Ezri taking up a little too much screen time to the detriment of other elements. But at least the Jem'Hadar do have a bodily presence in the finale, even if it's to fail in executing the traitors or protecting their leaders. They demand their prisoners stand to be executed, but deny them any last words, death their only concern, and that's what they received, failing to gain an inkling of what motivates their Cardassian associates, to their undoing.

Weyoun, too, couldn't preserve enough survival instinct to save his life (literally), as he boasts of the waste laid to Cardassia, right at Garak. To be fair, he was still giddy with the kindly praises the Female Changeling (who always remained nameless to the end), gave him as the only solid she could trust, so he was cock of the walk in his last moments, guard down, and body downed by Garak's Phaser. Anyone else would have been gratified to have captured a war criminal, but unfortunately Garak isn't anyone else and has always shown an ability to kill in cold blood. Which is a sort of contradiction in terms since all Cardassians are coldblooded all the time. And if anything, his blood was up, revenge filling his mind so that it only took one trigger from Weyoun to set it off. He was almost ready to shoot Odo for wanting to link with the Female as they really don't want a healthy shapeshifter morphing off into freedom. But no, thanks to Odo's reconciliation, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall inherit the Great Link, she was more than happy to stand trial for her crimes and take responsibility. That's something we never hear about: what was the judgement, and her penance? Could she be judged as an individual or would the whole Link have to be judged. It was enough for the story that we see the historic signing of peace between the peoples in the Ward Room, packed out with humans, Romulans, Klingons, even Vorta, though no sign of Weyoun for he was the last of his clones. Does make you wonder though: did they have copies back in Gamma? Could other forces have been built up there so there was another fleet of Jem'Hadar ships waiting to come through the Wormhole?

Who else dies? Why, the home grown villains of the piece, Kai Winn and Gul Dukat. Fittingly for their hateship, they each kill the other: Winn poisons her fellow cult member gleefully, and Dukat burns her to a crisp (though it's all very tastefully done, the fire too intense for us to see anything - 'DSC' would take as much glee with showing every burn as Winn took in murder), once he's been revived by the evil power of the Pah-Wraiths. Was Winn's turn against them just one more self-serving decision, or did we see a glimpse of the true penitent once more, the one that requested answers from Kira when things weren't going well in her walk with the Prophets? It's difficult to see what the benefits would have been if she had managed to hurl the book of evil into the fire. She might have survived, I suppose (no one will ever know what happened to her as no one comes back from the Fire Caves to tell the tale), but I'd like to think that she finally saw the light at the end. It's never too late for redemption, but unfortunately, thanks to the pattern of her life and choices it's just as, if not more, likely that she was merely interested in hurting the Pah-Wraiths because they rejected her as their Emissary, so like Khan she was spitting her last breath at them, rather than being noble and taking the side of the Prophets' side. Either way, it gave Sisko the moment's diversion he needed to plough into Dukat and end the whole sorry state of affairs.

None of the main cast are killed off, mercifully, whether that was in the vain hope that the series might one day become popular enough that it demanded a film sequel as had happened with its two predecessors, or because it would have been ungrateful to punish such wonderful characters merely for surviving to the end, I don't know. Perhaps it was even in response to the bad taste left from having to execute Jadzia at the end of Season 6, which no one really wanted, I think. I can't help feeling that the current runners of Trek would take great joy in killing off some main cast, believing that only with this will people feel the drama, but for me that is only something to be done if there is no other option because you're taking away the audience's ability to imagine that this world and these people will continue on outside of the adventures we've been privileged to see. It's a lazy choice to kill for dramatic effect and in the name of realism (as if any of this is really real!), so I'm very glad to see they didn't do it to the heroes here. It makes you think anyone could return to the Trek fold in future, though sadly the time has passed for Nog (Aron Eisenberg), and Admiral Ross (Barry Jenner), both having died since the last time I saw this episode, adding a new poignancy to their scenes: Ross the best Admiral ever seen on Trek, and Nog a promising, newly promoted Lieutenant with a career towards captaincy guaranteed. They will be missed, and it makes me wonder how many more of these great actors will have gone by the time I come round to seeing the episode next time?

If the main characters were spared, the writers at least had some fun with the concept, setting us up to wonder about their fates by opening with so many domestic scenes before the stride off to battle. Bashir is toying with audience expectations when he says it would be a shame if anything happened to him or Ezri when they've just found happiness together, and O'Brien is there in the familiar Quarters with his whole family (I wonder if they got the same baby Kirayoshi as last season?), a delight to see and all too brief - he's planning to return to Earth to teach at the Academy. In the same vein we see the Sisko family together in their Quarters with Kasidy requiring a promise that her husband will come back safely. One thing they didn't stint on in this finale is giving the characters chance to breathe and live in this world one last time - the domesticity of the station is one of the things sacrificed on the altar of war over the last few seasons. It may have irked some viewers that there were small stories in the early seasons, but it gave us the chance to get to know these people from all angles and made the station a living place, the 'Cardassian monstrosity' became a home, and a homely place to visit week by week. That's why it's so enjoyable to go back to the beginning and watch through again because you've almost got two different series', the first half concerned with more intimate details and the second a brassier, bolder epic, even heard in the main theme's brassing up.

The joy of the series is to see it as a whole - in fact, if you think about it, not only does the series make Sisko a Prophet, but the dedicated viewer, too. Just like those non-corporeal aliens that live outside time, we see the whole picture of the series, the complete story. Like them we can dip into any part of it in any order, but it remains its own bubble of time internally. You can't say that about all TV shows! The series has always meant so much to me as the first TV show I really 'discovered' on my own over a number of years, and the first and only series I collected the videos for to completion. It came along at just the right time in life and fitted the bill of what I wanted, perhaps moulding my view of how TV should be, and while not exclusive as the only series I am so strongly attached to (both 'BUGS' and 'Voyager' are in the vicinity, though they can't touch it), still, to this day, it remains and shall ever so, my favourite. I'm with Quark when he says he doesn't like change, and it's just one more character trait that cements him as my favourite character across all Trek. Around him everyone is moving on to new places or different roles, but he's still there, just as the series will be still there to revisit.

There's been so much chatter over the years from people wishing they'd hurry up and create a higher resolution version of the series, but to me I think it's better that it remains as it is. It is grainy, and it is gloomy, particularly in this episode which takes place in so many dark spaces, whether it be the Fire Caves, or the smoky Bridge of the Defiant (I couldn't quite make out whether the plaque on the wall said USS Defiant-A, or not - but I like that ambiguity), the dank cellar or the cramped streets of Cardassia, even the low lighting at Vic's. Perhaps it's not good for those of us with poor eyesight, straining to see every detail (Ira Steven Behr just walked past!), but it somehow pulls you in much more than the flat, bright lighting of 'TNG,' and invests the place with a Christmas lights glow. Perhaps for such a huge scale story things were too close and claustrophobic, but they were leavened with some beautiful matte paintings such as the contrast between the sunny, peaceful Bajor, and the ominous red sky over Cardassia, and finally its broken capital, the familiar view replaced by smoking, blackened ruins - there's even a sense of imminent danger as the rebels leave dead Mila's basement for their final attempt on the Dominion stronghold before Jem'Hadar weapons flatten the building. The best stories show the end is just a new beginning, like 'The Lord of The Rings' (I'm sure I've mentioned before, but if 'DS9' were a literary work it would be on par with that great tome), and through the devastation we can imagine the lives of the characters continuing on.

The most heartbreaking sequence of the finale is the montage of scenes from other episodes as characters take a brief moment to recall some of their memories, and well chosen they were, even if it is a tragedy that they couldn't use any clips of Jadzia, which is bizarre considering you'd assume they own the rights to whatever's been filmed - does that mean Terry Farrell refused to allow her image to be used? I can't imagine that. It's unashamedly sentimental, but not indulgent, or at least only as much as the series had earned and these wonderfully drawn characters deserved. That was the key to the series' success, not the action spectacle, nor even the sci-fi trappings, but how well these people were made real in our minds. Worf gained a sense of humour on the station, Sisko found his place, Kira learned control, Bashir could be himself, O'Brien lived life, Quark learnt from the hew-mons, Jake found a career, Dax changed her life, Odo answered the mystery of his… It is a positive, life-affirming series, even though it often appeared murky in tone and visuals, and it had the Trek vision all over it, but with added depth and complexity. They let slip the dogs of war, but still learned, in the words of Jean-Luc Picard, 'what we left behind is not as important as how we've lived. After all, we're only mortal,' except perhaps for Benjamin Sisko, the Builder of Bajor. I'd like to believe the writers, whether consciously or not, took the title from Picard's speech at the end of 'Generations,' because that film also deals with destruction and the moving on of life. Crucially, Kira finds the baseball still on Sisko's desk, an affirmation the Captain is coming back. One day. Until then we pull away from Jake and Kira, standing in front of a window, much like in the alternate future of 'The Visitor' when his Father was ripped away from him. The difference now is that he's grown up, his own man, and Sisko makes it known to Kasidy that it's not over, he will return. As we pull back from the station we see it as a tiny jewel in the vastness of space, among all those other stars. A perfect end.

*****

Rogue

DVD, Smallville S1 (Rogue)

I came to this without much preconception as I had no memory of what it was about from the title, and only when I saw it was a school trip in Metropolis did I associate it with Clark saving the bus (or stopping it to save the homeless man, to be precise), so it was with great pleasure that I found it to be a terrific episode, up there with the best so far this season. It's well structured with a strong main plot about Clark being manipulated by a cunning and ruthless Metropolis cop, a smaller secondary story about Chloe being fired from the Torch school newspaper, and a third minor subplot which kicks off Lex' direct fight against his Father thanks to Victoria Hardwick coming onto the scene to begin a new arc for Lex. What struck me most was how powerful the two levels of the series are working at this stage: you have the raw, clumsy, emotional teenage point of view, and then you have the more measured, experienced and rational adult one, and both are fascinatingly bounced off each other. You see how simple Clark's world is from the way he reacts to things - he's pulled into corrupt copper Phelan's plausible narrative and world, despite warnings from Lex and his own Father, because he thinks there's no other choice. Choice is a big theme of the episode, right down to the decision to kill, as we see how horrified Jonathan Kent is when he hears his son build up to a big secret, only to find that, though Clark wanted to kill the man holding his family to ransom, he didn't, and his relief is palpable.

Whether Superman should kill or not is a huge moral issue, so it's fantastic to see the writers address such an integral hallmark of his makeup. Because Phelan probably does deserve death: he's manipulated innocents, he's killed, himself, and he's not even above stealing - there's a reason Internal Affairs are breathing down his neck, he's a really objectionable guy, played to perfection by the actor whose every mannerism and gesture is so full of reality, whether he's twisting people round his finger, or barely containing his own rage at Clark betraying him and landing him in more hot water. He's such a fascinating character that the only downside of the episode for me was that they (seemingly), killed him off, as he could have been a terrific recurring force for evil. Though he claims to be the one standing between the criminals and 'decent' citizens like the Kents, he's actually the one standing between Clark and Lex, holding the cards on both of them. Though Clark doesn't show interest in learning about Lex' dark past, Lex is desperate to know just what Phelan had on his young friend, even to the point where he rushes to ask him before he dies at the Metropolis Museum and Phelan, twisted to the end, refuses to give him the satisfaction. What would have happened if Lex had found out or Clark had come clean with him at this stage of the series, I wonder? Would Lex have been more or less resentful that he wasn't trusted, or would he have become a Phelan-like force, not to control Clark into doing his bidding, but perhaps a voice on his shoulder urging him not to waste such talents. And he probably wouldn't have been self-controlled enough not to want Clark to do something for him at some point.

That's the great thing about this episode, it has all the elements that make the series sing: you've got Lex getting close, but not quite close enough to learning what there is to know about Clark. You've got the incredibly strong bond Clark shares with his parents. You've got the wider town community a part of the story (Sheriff Ethan embarrassedly comes to arrest Mr. Kent). And you've got the bright, happy moments amid all the tension and drama. One place that should be the brightest and happiest is the Torch, run so well as it is by Chloe. But this time Principal Kwan has had enough of her bizarre theories and stories on meteor-related events. What's more bizarre is his assertion that experts have proved the meteor rocks to be harmless, as every encounter you ever see has shown how dangerous they are, so either the 'experts' were incompetent or it was all hushed up by LuthorCorp so they could carry out their own experiments. I don't think these kinds of issues ever got true resolution as the series descended into more comic book simplicity and idiocy in later seasons, but that isn't the case here where there's still a strong impression of reality. Sure, there are still little things that make you double-take, like the bus driver who collapsed from a heart attack, then sits up right as rain after the crash. Or Martha being handed the report in the paper and mere seconds later says there's no mention of any witnesses as if she'd had time to glance through the whole thing! But these are minor problems that don't affect the quality of the story, the first Metropolis-based adventure.

What is major are the character moments and the great superpower stunts. Aside from the spectacular bus crash where Clark stands his ground with the vehicle smashing so hard into him he almost has to pry his way out, there's his anger coming out in smashing a wooden beam into splinters in the Kent Farm kitchen, and though the safe being used to crush Phelan's car isn't a particularly dramatic visual, it's a great way to show Clark uses brain as well as muscle. And of course the impressive slow motion bullet that Clark is surprised to be able to dodge when Phelan fires at him. Even though he'd actually have been fine he's not to know that, and if you could step out the way of a speeding bullet (which he is faster than!), you would do. That's something they've done a great job with: making each new extension of his powers something that surprises him or comes out of the blue, rather than a result of careful experimentation. His Dad's not going to drop farm machinery on him, but a dodgy guest character can do that, and does. You'd think that Clark would be a little more careful with the machine rather than toss it across the barn, but this is another (actually the first), indication that he has a temper as he shows real frustration at being pinned to the floor. While he makes some wrong decisions, he still manages to take the course that sets things right, and I love that although bad things comes from what he does during the episode, his parents never blame him (apart from the lying part), because he feels bad enough already and they realise they've drummed into him so much how careful he has to be not to give away his power that they're proud of him and it's a beautiful moment when his penitence is met with pride.

You feel the depth of difficulty Jonathan and Martha have to deal with as they try to grapple with the issues at hand. They've always known there are those out there who will exploit him, and we see a flash of the old Kent temper when Phelan pushes too hard. I was surprised how level-headed Jonathan was up to that point, actually, as you can imagine him going in all fists blazing, but he treads carefully, controlling himself because his son's life is at stake. I suppose it was the temper that eventually killed him, and certainly didn't do his heart any good. But John Schneider is absolutely masterful in his portrayal of a simple man of the land that has such great love for his family that everything is seen through that filter, with a hard line of pride running through him, a decency, an honesty and a homespun wisdom about how the world works, even while carving out his own corner of it. It's these things that you really miss as the seasons progress, but it's difficult to see where they could have gone with the series without trying to make things bigger in scale and thus losing that intimacy of family and community, as well as the blurring of the lines between teen and adult. Even Lex is younger than I realised as he's said to have a few years to go before he reaches thirty, so it's strange watching it now when I'm well past even that age. But the dynamics are so strong, with the younger people (Whitney and Pete barely appear, though his Dad, Bill Ross is mentioned as he's the one Jonathan wants contacted - I know his wife is eventually seen as a Judge), the middle group of Lex and now Victoria, and the proper adults.

While Clark is shown to be of his age group in the decisions he makes, Chloe and Lana are equally seen to be naive: when Kwan shuts down the paper Lana has so come to like Chloe that she offers to talk to him, but it backfires with the Principal giving her the editorship. It doesn't occur to her for a moment that Chloe could see this as moving in on her territory as she thinks they can carry on as before, only with her as the public head, while internally things would be the same, but a lot of things comes rushing out and I suppose this is where you see that Chloe has designs on Clark and a jealousy toward 'perfect' Lana that has previously only appeared as impersonal dislike of her set. It's deftly written the way Clark and Lana are danced around or dance around each other, with Lex once again arranging for them to meet (shades of his ruthless nature surface again when he advises Clark to see Whitney as the enemy), and obviously the rather on the nose gush of Chloe's views. Crucially the situation with Chloe is worked out by episode's end giving us another happy ending where everyone's friends again, followed by a second finale of the sinister type as Lex puzzles over the blur in the Museum that was Clark super-speeding away.

It really does have it all, even if Lex' position outside the place looks a bit suspicious when there's just been a bomb threat phoned in. Then again, the guards obviously know him, though I wasn't quite sure what he was doing there at the beginning - he's clearly a big shot in town. We even get the most important Jonathan Kent line, too: "You always have a choice, son." The whole thing comes together magnificently, and I can't help but put a deal of that down to the Director, David Carson, as I've always liked his style in Trek: he directed my favourite of the films, 'Star Trek: Generations,' one of the best pilots ('Emissary' for 'DS9'), as well as one of the most well regarded episodes of 'TNG' ('Yesterday's Enterprise'), so it was a pleasure to see his name attached to this. It's hard to believe, but I actually was a little down on this episode when I first saw it, finding it to be very average, but either age has improved it, or my own has given me a better understanding of all the angles, because this time I thought it was very good indeed.

****

The Dogs of War (2)

DVD, DS9 S7 (The Dogs of War) (2)

'The line must be drawn here! This far, no further,' so says Quark, the last true Ferengi unconsciously emulating the famous words of Captain Picard in 'First Contact.' Quark had been largely lost, not just in the final nine-part arc, but in the whole season, you could almost say the last third of the series since the war began, though he had a number of episodes within that period. In the final arc he barely features, there only to walk on with a drink and some wise words, before shuffling off stage again. It might appear to be a waste of the series' fast depleting time to give over its penultimate episode to the Ferengi extended family's last visit to the station, and equally it could have followed the pattern of penultimate-to-series-or-season-finales begun in 'TNG' where 'Pre-emptive Strike' was good, but not great, or 'Transfigurations' was forgettable before the monumental 'The Best of Both Worlds.' It became a disappointing trend that some of the last episode slots the writers had available to them as they closed out a series for good were variable in quality: 'Emergence,' 'Bloodlines' on 'TNG,' 'Natural Law,' 'Friendship One' on 'Voyager,' 'Demons,' 'Terra Prime' on 'Enterprise'… That pattern hadn't quite been set and thanks to 'DS9' was not chiselled in stone at this time, once again proving that this was the highest class of Trek ever created - not only did they complete the run of episodes up to the finale with tremendous flair, they brought us a Ferengi episode that even those that couldn't stand the race must have admitted was one of the better episodes of the series.

I reiterate from other reviews that that sentiment about Ferengi (when it referred to 'DS9'), was never mine, and I consider this to be not just a better episode, but one of the series' best. I always think of it as a last Ferengi knockabout episode, but while that is a key part of the story, it is by far not the only one. I'm not sure if it's the A or the B plot, but one thing's for sure: there are so many plots that you might even say we have a C, D and E! Well, there were plenty more letters in the alphabet. The incredible cast list heralds what must be the most recurring characters for a single episode ever: you've got the various Ferengi, you've got the villains, minor characters we've seen before, some not for many years, and even the glorified extras of the bar, Broik and Dabo girl M'Pella, are given part of the limelight. It's astonishing that they could jam in so many people and yet it never feel rushed or illogical in any way. Jeffrey Combs even does double time in a superb combination of Weyoun and Brunt which if you didn't know (and failed to notice the onscreen credit), were played by the same actor, you'd never guess! On the same day as I watched this, I re-watched the Season 1 finale of 'Discovery' and what a miserably put together piece of rubbish it was - I'd go as far as to say it's in the running for worst Trek episode ever and I think I'd even watch the awful 'Shades of Grey' above that one. It got Trek, no it got storytelling itself, so, so wrong that it wipes good Trek from your memory like a Romulan mind probe. Watching 'DS9' reminded me why Trek is so great, or had been so great: the craft that went into not just the production, which 'DSC' succeeded at, but the believability factor and the portrayal of the races, restores all despairing brain cells that had died with that poor ending to a frustration-strewn season.

There are multiple races in this episode, all being used in the way that is so, so right: you have Kira, a Bajoran who is also a figurehead for the Federation in its dealings with Damar's Cardassian Liberation Front, that must continue to walk that tightrope between serving the Federation's purpose for her, and being sensitive enough to know when to keep her creased nose out of the eyes of the Cardassians she's there to support. She's like a caged bear when circumstances force her, Damar and Garak to seek refuge in Enabran Tain's dusty old basement, wanting to do something to strike back at the Dominion, but knowing from where she is she's powerless. The Dominion, using Cardassian collaborators that would sacrifice their world's future for personal gain, have put an end to the carefully constructed network of Damar's resistance: all the bases have been annihilated and it's their belief that Damar, too, has been killed when his ship, piloted by Seskal, is obliterated when they go to meet with further potential allies. It's a miserable beginning to the episode, and the cruel, ruthless nature of Cardassian psychology is shown up to their detriment, as well as its arrogance when we see the new puppet leader, Legate Broca. Damar and his two allies lie on their beds in this dark, dingy cellar, depressed and demoralised, until Mila brings word that the people think Damar still lives. Kira hits on this as a last, desperate solution: extreme circumstances require extreme measures, and while the military is all but ruined, the civilian population are ripe for turning into a force against their oppressors.

Birthing Damar into legend, a mythical folk hero, was something that happened without him doing anything, aside from his daring exploits, of course. But the people took his name on as a source of hope and so he chooses to get off his bed of misery and try to turn things around. With the solidifying of his continued survival, the people can be fired up, and I love how Kira stays in the shadows as Damar takes the floor in a fury of purpose after their attack on a Dominion target, melting away as Damar's position rises. They so succeed at pulling the heart strings, and at every emotion, it's a wonder to behold as tensions mount and ebb, the action a result of logical progression and sense. In some ways a light episode, but not to be taken lightly, it's a deeply personal experience. Some episodes are best left unshared, and this is one of those. I'm not sure why. But it's not one you'd pick out to watch on the fly, it needs to be seen as the semi-culmination of a multi-part saga (just as you wouldn't stick in 'Sacrifice of Angels' on a whim), of a season, of a war and of a series entire. Perhaps for that reason it stands out, it takes a long time to get to this point, however many times you've seen it, and it's a mirror of the characters' own circumstances of reaching somewhere after many years, mainly Rom, but Quark too, who sees what he's become and doesn't like it, rages about it, yet knows what he really thinks - he likes to play up his image of being the true Ferengi, but he is soft. It's this interplay of soft and hard, implacable enemy and close friendship that gives the episode a keenness, because this is almost all there is left.

If Damar is a living legend to his people, Quark is a beacon of Ferenginess, but only to himself. He's struggling to maintain the ways he knows, in the light of extreme social change like you could never have believed, all because of his Moogie's careful reforms over the last couple of seasons. It's really incredible how they could turn a race that was so defined on its ear (!), yet when you see it happen it makes perfect sense, not just because Rom is the ideal candidate to form a fairer, kinder Ferengi society, one at odds with Quark's deep-held, yet lovably hypocritical beliefs, but because the seeds have been planted ever since Moogie and Zek became lobe to lobe and her influence spread. Quark at heart really is kind, and abhors violence. He just wants to make a profit, and he does want to make a fair one. He does have a conscience, he does care, he has succumbed to the bubbly and cloying insidious goodness of Federation 'root beer' values, and it doesn't matter how much he doth protest (too much?), he's fighting his true nature when he refuses to conform to the new Ferenginar and proudly states his bar will be the last outpost (see what they did there - hee, hee, glorious!), of the true Ferengi. Even then he has to rely on his brother's charity in freely giving him back the bar which Rom bought off him without even having to haggle when Quark's mind is on the Nagus-ship which he wrongly believes is coming to him. Even then, he's planning to turn it down, turn down his ultimate dream of untold riches because he stands on principle and if he has to see Ferengi society crumble away he'd rather not be part of it.

Either way, the joke's on him: even if he had been made Nagus by Zek he'd have taken on this role when it had been reduced in power, the reason for having it in the first place, so Quark would have been just as unhappy as finding out that his brother was the actual recipient of the honour. The family politics continue even to this point, because Rom was the 'favourite,' he was the gentler one that needed more help and Quark is more like his conniving, cunning Moogie than he was his profit-failing Father, so he sees himself in her which makes it even harder. But Ishka sees what she's accomplished with Zek and knows that Rom will continue in that direction. My only hope is that if they do touch on Ferengi civilisation in 'Star Trek: Picard' they show how it has changed for the positive, without losing its Ferengi identity. And if they can bring in Max Grodenchik and Chase Masterson as Rom and Leeta it'll be thrilling! Though, thinking about it, when they brought the Ferengi into 'Voyager' they were the same old Ferengi, reverting to the simplistic 'TNG' variety. Here, it's truly brilliant writing to shape it so that Trek gets to have it both ways: Quark remains true to his personal values even while reform comes to the un-reformable, a most Trekkian solution. Amongst both these main plots of the death and rebirth of the Cardassian underground, and the death and rebirth of the Ferengi, there is time for the expected social commentary on one hand, and developments in the war on the other. No area goes unexplored - in fact that's true of Avery Brooks' directing, too.

The last cast member of the series to direct an episode was fittingly the Captain and star, once again demonstrating his supreme ability to juggle all these varied stories and characters without dropping one. It's like he deliberately chose to film in some of the smaller, out of the way areas of the station because these places won't be seen again, and this adds intimacy to what is a grand scale story that features countless sets. When they allow time for even Bashir and Ezri's romantic interlude (in keeping with what became a tradition, if a strange one, of throwing two main characters together at the last moment of the series - see Worf and Deanna in 'TNG,' and Seven and Chakotay in 'Voyager'), Brooks films it in a little Bajoran shop which may or may not have once been the Assay Office of early seasons. It's not a big part of the episode, but is the culmination of a number of recent episodes. It still came out of nowhere, effectively, but at least they gave us time to get used to the idea unlike the other examples I mentioned. And when Quark and Rom are discussing things they do it by going up to the second level of the bar from where Quark can look down on all he surveys, metaphorically, and it's lovely to revisit these quiet little nooks and crannies that have so often been too small to contain the epic main stories we've been watching over the final arc. Brooks also shows accomplishment in his filming of other scenes, such as the fast moving camera as we dart around the Female Changeling's office, or the bomb in the Cardassian street, or the destruction of the captured Jem'Hadar ship as Vaughn Armstrong goes out in a blaze.

It could have been any old unnamed Cardassian, but there's terrific continuity in even the little details. So they bring back Seskal, the surviving 'name' character of Damar's coterie after Rusot had already been dealt with previously, and this makes Damar seem even more alone. I know three's a crowd, and his dark hole of a hideout is cramped by sharing it with Garak and Kira, but their presence is almost worse since one's a Bajoran, the other a disgraced exile, a reminder of Damar's position at the bottom by the only company he can keep. Another wonderful touch of continuity is bringing back Julianna McCarthy as Mila, Tain's housekeeper whom we hadn't seen since Season 3's 'Improbable Cause' - again, they could easily have recast this role, but they chose to bring back the same actress and she is wonderful. When she tells them to get cleaning in that murky basement I sense it was for two reasons: to give them something to do to occupy their hands, and to give them a feeling of earning their keep, having a job so important to mental health. She was a wise old woman was Mila, though her assertion that despite not being a good cook she could keep a secret, was blown a bit by revealing to Kira and Damar that Tain, former head of the Obsidian Order, was Garak's Father! I might be missing something, but I don't know that that was common knowledge or that Garak would necessarily want it to be! I'd have expected some shock for Damar, but maybe it had been rumoured in military circles? Who knows, it's not a problem, it's just one tiny moment that surprised me.

I wonder if the Dominion genuinely believed they'd killed Damar? It's just that you'd think they would have preferred to capture him alive to make an example of him. I guess they don't follow the same rules as the Cardassians who like to think that you haven't truly defeated an opponent until you make him realise he was wrong to oppose you in the first place! It could have been lies from Weyoun as I don't think we see any scenes for the villains to react to Damar's resurgence. Whatever their true beliefs were, the important thing was that the Cardassian people found something to cling onto. It's great to actually visit Cardassia (sandy coloured from orbit, just like its ships), even if it is mainly the grim basements or tight streets rather than seeing the sights - that's one area where 'DSC' made an improvement, it had the money and the advances in technology to be able to swoop into Earth or Qo'noS from orbit right down to the streets, such visuals previously only available to the bigger-budgeted films. I wish we could have seen a larger area of the city streets, but it would have been tricky to do unless without portioning a ton of money towards huge facades on the Paramount backlot city that was used a number of times in Trek, and they must have already been busting the bank with all the things they were doing as it was. They get across the story, which is the main thing, with the people seeing their hero in person.

Even the Cardassian youth that speaks out in excitement, proclaiming Damar's name, had been in a 'Voyager' episode (he was the young Tuvok in 'Gravity' that had aired earlier that corresponding season on 'Voyager'), and interestingly the one credited Jem'Hadar of this episode was also in that (Paul S. Eckstein), and had, and would have, other minor roles in Trek. Velal is brought back for his second appearance as the representative of the Romulan Empire in meetings aboard DS9, and the minor characters, really extras, of Broik and M'Pella (she'd played various uncredited roles across the series), were also given their dues. One character that might not have been expected to return was the USS Defiant, in the form of the Defiant-class USS Sao Paulo. You couldn't have had the coming massive pile-up of starships in battle in the finale without it, really. Although Bashir doesn't like the carpet he must have been pleased to have a proper Sickbay because I seem to remember him complaining about the lack of any such facilities back in Season 3's introduction of the original Defiant in 'The Search' - this time he's off to check out his Sickbay, so things have definitely changed in the intervening years. I especially love that former producer and writer Peter Allan Fields (now sadly deceased), returned to help write this episode, like everyone coming back to the fold for a last push.

Lastly, there are a couple of small moments that are nonetheless important: Bashir informing Odo that he was the carrier rather than a victim of the nasty shapeshifter-crippling plague leads to a short discussion between the Constable and Sisko that Starfleet is abetting genocide by not giving the Founders the cure. He points out to the Captain that when the Federation needs its dirty work done they look the other way, referring to the unofficial Federation-created Section 31. It may not be sanctioned, but it's still not being opposed. This may have been a further prodding to Odo towards his coming decision to leave the solids and return to his people permanently. We've seen Odo can be as hypocritical as any of us ('Things Past'), but he still holds himself to high standards and those that claim to have ideals, and it's true that the Federation comes off looking bad in this. It's also the case that the reforms in Ferengi society had nothing to do with the Federation, so it's another development that occurred in parallel, which they can't claim as being part of other than leading by example, but even there the most Federation-exposed Ferengi, Quark, is still adamantly opposed to their ideals of equality, from the tips of his lobes right down to the garishly painted toenails we see Brunt shamelessly pedicuring. The other small, but integral scene is Kasidy's revelation that she's to have a baby, the warning from the Prophets suddenly taking on more meaning. Will we see this other Sisko child in 'Picard'? Oh there are just so many possibilities in returning to this time period plus twenty years.

I knew I loved this episode, but I didn't expect it to hit home as much as it did. It remains one of the most full, charged, complete stories, yet also keeps moving, covers so many things in as satisfying a way as you could desire. It has action, it has meaning, it has social commentary, it deals with multiple established cultures, it has in-jokes that are mere touches you wouldn't even notice unless you knew your Trek. It is lovingly made, lovingly written and acted, and is good enough in tone and mood and success, to be the finale itself, but it isn't over yet and it knows it, and it sets up the last push wonderfully. Like 'Call To Arms,' the incredible finale to Season 5, there's just enough war talk to remind you of the big picture (Martok in his Chancellor's cloak!), while also finding time to service so many, many characters, the small, personal details, the grand gestures of Damar and Rom, it's a real bundle of everything Trek can, and should be. Brooks pulled it all together beautifully, giving us great reassurance throughout an adventure that was at times bleak, but never hopeless, especially in that last quiet scene between Sisko and Kasidy. It's the kind of reassurance and warmth I have yet to see in modern Trek, that has been missing for years as it tried to be something it wasn't. I can't say more to sum up its qualities than to praise its beauty and to declare that this is one of the best episodes of the series, from direction on down to every other aspect. Amazing. And all named after an obscure Klingon quote from 'Star Trek VI'!

*****