Enterprise 3x9 "North Star"

rating: *

the story: The crew finds a colony of humans...living like they were in the Old West.

what it's all about: It should always be noted that my rating system is as much a reflection of an episode's overall worth as it is a judgment of its entertainment value, although I tend to give precedence to worth over value, knowing impatient fans need to know the former more than the latter.  The particular episodic nature of the franchise for most of its run has a natural conflict with an era that values serialization above everything else.  If I give an episode any stars at all (I've really omitted them for only about a dozen entries), it means it has some viewing worth, and anything beyond that is really a judgment call on my part.  It's sad that an episode can't just be enjoyed for its entertainment value, but I've come across episodes that have long been my favorites that I've been shocked to give one or two stars to, based on my criteria. 

"North Star" is a huge reflection on franchise lore.  As such I'd like to say it's essential viewing on some score or another.  Gene Roddenberry originally envisioned Star Trek as "Wagon Train to the stars."  Wagon Train was one of many popular TV Westerns.  When the original series did a Western episode ("Specter of the Gun"), it was almost entirely befitting, even if it had also done Roman Empire episodes ("Bread and Circuses"), Nazi episodes ("Patterns of Force"), gangster episodes ("A Piece of the Action"), and even several hippy episodes!  And later series would do Westerns, too (Next Generation's "A Fistful of Datas"), as well as Cold War spy episodes (Deep Space Nine's "Our Man Bashir") and even old-time sci-fi serials episodes (Voyager's "Bride of Chaotica!").  "North Star" grounds its events into the same kind of thought as the original series, while holodecks invariably produced the results otherwise.

It even has something to say about the season, on a metaphorical level, another reminder, before things got really hairy, of the crew's intrinsic humanity (with apologies to T'Pol, Phlox), and how to keep it despite circumstances.  But I'll keep that as an implied value.  Really, it's just fun viewing at a basic Star Trek level, one of those episodes that ought to remind fans what the franchise is all about, and not just leaving them begging "for something more relevant."

criteria analysis:

• franchise - A good example of what Star Trek started out as.
• series - A latent commentary on the Xindi arc.
• character - Maybe one of those episodes that would've been improved with just one creative alteration: focusing on, say, Phlox and Archer.  Phlox makes everything better!
• essential - A nice throwback, but your level of enthusiasm is your own call.

notable guest-stars:
James Parks

Enterprise 3x3 "Extinction"

rating: *

the story: Several of the crew are mutated into an alien species.

what it's all about: It's a little difficult to imagine what "Extinction" was supposed to accomplish except on a metaphorical level.  It seems to exist mostly as a concession to Star Trek fans who might have otherwise been leery of a season-long arc.  As the lone episode of the season with no overt ties to the Xindi arc, that seems to be its only reason to exist.

There have been plenty of episodes throughout the franchise with the same general plot; "Ashes to Ashes," a Voyager effort, saw the return of a crewmate everyone thought was dead, who'd been given new DNA, a new appearance.  The idea itself is sound, and "Extinction" explores it about as well as an episodic story can.

The problem is, it comes near the start of a season that was constructed for a serialized story.  No matter how slowly the arc begins, it remains methodical in its approach.  There's always something added to the viewer's understanding of the framework.  Except in "Extinction."  The only thing "Extinction" does is theoretically give the crew a little perspective; perhaps after the ethical concerns of "Anomaly," the producers thought they should pull back a little.  Archer is given a gentle reminder of his humanity, so he doesn't quickly barrel ahead to a breaking point.  But that's mostly implication. 

The truth is, if "Extinction" didn't exist, it wouldn't affect the season at all.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - An familiar episodic entry for casual viewers.
• series - Doesn't press its metaphorical significance.
• character - If Archer had been observer instead of participant, the episode could've improved.
• essential - The later "Hatchery" covers this ground much better.

notable guest-stars:
Daniel Dae Kim

Enterprise 1x18 "Rogue Planet"

rating: *

the story: The crew encounters a party of hunters who are unwittingly tracking sentient prey.

what it's all about: In hindsight, "Rogue Planet" feels like a leftover Hirogen script from Voyager.  Just look at that summary...!  Otherwise it's one of those historical ironies of the later franchise: an episodic adventure in an era when that was no longer satisfying in and of itself.

But it is worth watching of its own accord.  "Planet" amounts to an allegory of contemporary concerns.  As fewer people hunt for a living, or even for sport, the very notion of it begins to seem barbaric, especially as more people identify as vegetarians or outright vegans.  Enterprise doesn't go so far as to sympathize with all that so far as to acknowledge it as a growing trend.  Sometimes such bare acknowledgment can seem somewhat disastrous (Next Generation's "Forces of Nature"), but here it's merely innocuous.  We get to see Archer once again loosely fitting the Kirk mold of ladies man, a role Trip would fill later in the series, as had already been suggested in "Unexpected."  And on the whole, it's another light exploration of the crew's learning curve, and how they experience this sort of thing as newcomers to the Starfleet mission overall.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Light allegorical work concerning modern-day hunting.
• series - Not particularly informative.
• character - Light work here, too.
• essential - Not especially.

notable guest-stars:
Eric Pierpont

Voyager 7x24 "Renaissance Man"

rating: *

the story: The Doctor is forced to work against the crew.

what it's all about: At its heart, "Renaissance Man" is a throwaway screwball adventure, playing fast and loose with Voyager conventions.  And it's not really meant to be anything else, just a fun way to experience the penultimate, final regular episode of the series.  Briefly, you get a sense that it's also intended to take the Doctor down a peg, in a lighthearted manner, one last chance to see him stick his foot in his mouth, as he does when he makes a grand confession in front of the crew when he thinks his program will be lost forever...

Of course that doesn't happen!  But it's also a kind of cheap way to say goodbye to arguably Voyager's best character, in total humiliation.  I realize the series gave him plenty of opportunities to grow, and they were among the best episodes the show ever produced, and you don't need to take this particular one seriously, that it's designed not to be, but...

Anyway, the episode also features the "Potatoheads," as some fans affectionately named them, aliens otherwise known as the Hierarchy, of all the memorable species to appear in Voyager perhaps the ones only the true fans are going to appreciate.  So it's also fitting that they enjoy a final spotlight here.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - This is the kind of episode that won't necessarily convert someone into a fan of Voyager.
• series - Although it might almost be considered a classic romp.  Or pure nonsense.
• character - The most definitive thing that can be said about it is that it's a Doctor spotlight, and it doesn't, like all his episodes, make light of the opportunity.
• essential - Although it doesn't necessarily take him seriously, either.  Which again, is something that's open to interpretation.

notable guest-stars:
Alexander Enberg (Vorik)

Voyager 3x18 "Darkling"

rating: *

the story: The Doctor tampers with his program and inadvertently creates an evil subprogram.

what it's all about: The oddest thing about "Darkling" is that it's so similar to the later "Real Life" and yet they exist totally exclusive to each other, so that the Doctor seems to have learned nothing at all from this experience.  It's the very definition of episodic storytelling, "Darkling" more than "Life."  In "Darkling," the whole plot can be boiled down more to a pastiche on Jekyll and Hyde than a story about the Doctor.

But, technically, it's a story about the Doctor.  Oddly, he becomes jealous of someone Kes fancies (some dude who runs around with a terrible wig, alas).  He'd had a wonderful relationship with Kes (the Doctor, I mean) for much of the series to this point, Kes being about the only person who took him seriously.  To drop a potential romance into this relationship seems like a horrible misstep.  Later, when the same idea is attempted with Seven, it works better, because the relationship is different from the start.

So, rather than recommend it on the basis of the Doctor, I will remind the viewer that the franchise has done this sort of thing before ("The Enemy Within"), and sort of leave it at that.  Making the Doctor a villain based on corrupted programming is such a slippery slope.  It's not the first and not the last time his programming leave him vulnerable, but it's the least inviting. 

criteria analysis:

• franchise - An episode perhaps best enjoyed by the casual fan.
• series - Later developments seem to ignore this ever happened.
• character - See the above statement, an extremely odd thing to say about a Doctor spotlight.
• essential - If the season itself pretends this never happened, then maybe it's for the best.

Voyager 3x15 "Coda"

rating: *

the story: Janeway dies.  Repeatedly.

what it's all about: Fans who generally hate Voyager love this episode.  The reason is pretty simple.  Just look at my summary, above.

It's a baffling episode, arguably one of the most baffling of the whole franchise.  By their third seasons, Next Generation and Deep Space Nine had taken fairly dodgy characterizations of their lead characters (Picard and Sisko, respectfully) into key selling points by figuring them out and giving them killer spotlights again and again.  Janeway, like a lot of the third season, experiences an abrupt shift in Voyager's third season.  While there's a lot right about the season, Janeway generally isn't part of it.  The caustic Janeway fans remember can be traced to it, and "Coda" is kind of the epitome of this version of the character.  Luckily, by the end of the season, "Scorpion," she's found a powerful new motivator, much like the series itself.  It can't be overstated how importance Seven was to Janeway. 

"Coda" purports to be a Janeway episode, and even features a likeness of her father, but the whole thing is a poor riff on the repetition concept featured brilliantly in Next Generation's "Cause and Effect."  Literally Janeway dies.  Repeatedly.  There's some effort to make it matter to Chakotay, which is an irony of the episode, as it attempts to play off the version of these two that existed until the third season.  If this had happened in the second season, it would've been done better, and it would have been better.  This is just a hasty attempt to increase the episodic drama, which I think was the main creative mandate of the season.  The problem with episodic storytelling is that it's inherently hit or miss.  Given a whole season to fill, there will never be enough time to polish every story. 

The most egregious thing about it is that the Vidiians technically make their last major appearance of the series, and their part in it could really have been filled by any aliens, which is basically...exactly the opposite of a decent Vidiian appearance (heh).

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Not recommended for casual viewers.
• series - Not recommended for fans.
• character - Your best bet is to try and decide whether or not this constitutes an adequate Janeway spotlight.
• essential - No, it's not.

Voyager 3x12 "Macrocosm"

rating: *

the story: The ship is attacked by a virus that grows in size.

what it's all about: This is a germaphobe's worst nightmare, I think.  The aliens-of-the-week are giant germs.  If that makes you incredibly uncomfortable, this will be a tough episode for you, because they fly around the whole ship.

The basic premise is so generic that it'll invite anyone brave enough to watch.  It's interesting and all, but doesn't have a lot of distinguishing properties other than imagery.  Except for Janeway.  As a commando.  Attacking giant germs.

So that's the real draw of the episode.  Doesn't really say much about Janeway herself.  It could've been anyone at the heart of this one, but I imagine Kate Mulgrew enjoyed the change of pace.  Because she's mostly acting against, as I may have mentioned, giant germs, she doesn't even get to "Starship Mine" (Next Generation) her way through it, where Picard at least got to outsmart a bunch of thugs (including Tim Russ, later to be cast as Voyager's Tuvok; how cool would it have been for Tuvok to be the focus of this episode?).

Not much else to say about it, except "Macrocosm" manages to create a scenario where the Doctor can't safely leave sickbay, after he's just gotten that nifty mobile emitter.  Seems kinda insane when you think about it...

criteria analysis:

• franchise - The thought of giant germs is morbidly compelling, so I'll give this one to casual fans brave enough to experience it.
• series - Because it really doesn't have much to tether it to Voyager.
• character - I wish Action Janeway had a better reason to exist.
• essential - No, not essential.  Not essential at all, giant germs!

Voyager 3x10 "Warlord"

rating: *

the story: Kes is possessed by an alien warlord.

what it's all about: Something of an update of Next Generation's "Power Play," "Warlord" is a very curious episode indeed.  Most of it is spent exploring the conflict of the aliens-of-the-week, with Kes thrown in, sort of, and Tuvok, too.  Sort of.

The oddest thing, by the way, is that it technically concludes a longstanding element of the series, the relationship between Neelix and Kes, in such an offhand manner as to be laughable in hindsight, considering Neelix really has nothing to do with the episode otherwise, which seems...pretty much what the whole episode to be about.  Or pushing the Tuvok element further.  Or...basically doing something other than trying to make Kes more edgy.  Because that's basically what the episode really is. 

Famously, the series wanted to axe a cast member at the end of the season, and it was going to be Garrett Wang (Harry) until he was named to one of People's sexy lists, so the producers instead decided to eliminate Jennifer Lien (Kes).  You can see how they struggled with her during the third season.  "Warlord" is obviously an excuse to reinvent her, while "Before and After" looks like a life summary for a character whose species lives about as long as a Star Trek series ran at that time (seven seasons/years, though Ocampa best case scenario live about ten years).  As one of two Delta Quadrant natives to become a passenger of the ship, she took on considerable significance in giving the series its unique identity in the early seasons, and since those seasons didn't seem to please the fans too much, like Chakotay's reduced role starting in the third season, Kes seemed like a logical focus for change, too.  Unlike Neelix, who kept showing new shades and ways of defining his role, Kes had become static, inevitable, too...comfortable.  "Warlord" ultimately proves that the producers saw little potential in her relationship with Tuvok, and the Doctor had just won a get-out-of-sickbay card, thereby freeing him to interact with anyone, and not just her. 

That "Warlord" dithers and wastes time as an episodic story that wastes its potential, it's like the first sign of the Ocampan apocalypse...A true low point of the season.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - This is a familiar story that might amuse casual fans.
• series - But it'll frustrate more committed ones.
• character - It wastes valuable Kes time on a pointless spotlight.
• essential - And doesn't really explain why she gave up on Neelix even after the problem is solved.

Voyager 3x6 "Remember"

rating: *

the story: Torres relives the genocide of an alien culture.

what it's all about: It's surprising how often Star Trek uses the trope of aliens projecting memories onto various crew members.  Sometimes it's hugely effective ("The Inner Light" from Next Generation), sometimes it's not ("Memorial," a Voyager episode I rate as one of the franchise's worst for the sheer generic nature of its storytelling).  "Remember" has a story to tell, and it's a good story to tell but the episode really doesn't know what to do with it.  After Deep Space Nine did so much with the memory of past atrocities in such spectacular fashion (right from the start, with "Duet" in its first season), it's really hard to accept it in such simple alien-of-the-week context.  Even the choice of character to experience the tragedy, B'Elanna Torres, seems completely random.  Torres became a ready source of excellent storytelling; she was capable of selling just about anything.  If you like this episode, it's because of her.  But really, there's no point in her being at its center other than the way it ends, attempting to find a hopeful solution about the alien culture becoming willing to accept its actions.  You could've had Kes or Tuvok, and their receptiveness to the projected memories would've made complete sense, but...

Well, anyway, it's the kind of episode that probably plays well better when you're watching it than when you think about what it really accomplishes.  You can celebrate the message, but the manner of delivery leaves a lot to be desired.  On the whole, sloppy storytelling.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - There's a Star Trek tradition being upheld here.
• series - This is one of those episodes that could've been done in any of the shows, one of the basic complaints about Voyager that usually doesn't have this much merit.
• character - Torres is wasted in this, unless you think she really does charm everything she touches.
• essential - Nope.

notable guest-stars:
Bruce Davison

Voyager 1x9 "Emanations"

rating: *

the story: Harry gets mixed up in an alien culture's rituals concerning the afterlife.

what it's all about: "Emanations" is a perfectly serviceable episode for fans just looking for a cool sci-fi concept and/or examination of existential matters.  Where it fails is exploring its nominal lead, Harry Kim.

So this is probably why fans began to think Harry was basically worthless.  His first spotlight barely has anything to do with him, or say anything about him.  Already we've seen B'Elanna Torres ("Parallax"), Neelix ("Phage"), and Tom Paris ("Ex Post Facto") command spotlight episodes, so it's not as if the series has proven deficient in that regard at this early stage of the game.  It's certainly true that fans didn't end up caring all that much for just about any character in Voyager, but it wasn't for lack of effort.  Somehow, however, Harry ended up being pigeon-holed as the most meaningless of the bunch, and I have little doubt that it stems from "Emanations."  It's a shame, too, as he turns out much, much better in the second season episode "Non Sequitur."

criteria analysis:

• franchise - A casual fan's kind of episode.
• series - Nothing much to do with Voyager, alas.
• character - A poor spotlight for Harry Kim.
• essential - Not hardly.

notable guest-stars:
Martha Hackett (Seska)
Jerry Hardin

Voyager 1x4 "Time and Again"

rating: *

the story: Janeway and Paris are confronted with a paradox concerning their involvement in the annihilation of a planet's population.

what it's all about: Likely a lot of fans settled their opinion of Voyager not to much on the pilot or the premise and whether or not subsequent episodes lived up to it, but on the second regular episode of the series, which jumped right into a fairly generic Star Trek, high concept story.  Now, this would not have been a problem thirty years earlier.  NBC wanted cool sci-fi concepts to define Star Trek, not the kind of cerebral material Gene Roddenberry kept delivering.  This is not to say that Voyager was incapable of being cerebral, but as the first Star Trek series to air on a broadcast network since the original, it's perhaps not unexpected that somewhere along the way network executives finally got their way.  Sometimes.

This just happened to be one of those times.  Again, there's nothing particularly wrong with "Time and Again" itself.  The closest it has to any significance is the emergence of Kes as a kind of series regular version of Next Generation's Guinan, someone who could sense when something wasn't right.  I'm not sure Kes ever quite became another Guinan (not mysterious enough), and there's other material later to sells this version of the character better.

So that leaves us with how well the concept actually works.  It's another problem of who they chose to focus the episode around, I think, something that later in the series often fell to Chakotay, who never gets the credit he deserves for selling just about any concept (high point: "Distant Origin").  It was more Janeway's determination than her science background that made her stand out, so having her lead a story like this was one of its weak points, I think.

But on the whole, I think it's a pretty fun experience.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - The idea of Star Trek featuring cool sci-fi concepts shows up here.
• series - Not hugely impactful in this regard.
• character - Soft start to the evolution of Kes.
• essential - Not especially.

Deep Space Nine 6x17 "Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night"

rating: *

the story: Kira travels back in time to investigate Dukat's claims about her mother.

what it's all about: It's almost inexplicable, that three of the four episodes in this stretch of the sixth season (this, as well as "Change of Heart" and "One Little Ship") could be so badly miscalculated in what is otherwise one of the most calculated periods in franchise history (only the next season, plus the third and fourth seasons of Enterprise can possibly compare, as well as portions of Voyager's second). 

"Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night" is the last time Deep Space Nine attempts to chase the legacy of one of its own classic episodes, "Necessary Evil" from the second season.  "Evil" was a trip back to the Terok Nor era of the station, when the Cardassians still ruled it, during their Occupation of the Bajoran home world.  "Things Past" from the previous season also made the attempt, but its success was equally muddled.  It's not so much the idea of revisiting the earlier time that's the problem, but the tortured excuses used in both episodes, both of them doubling up, unnecessarily, on the compromised nature of life under Cardassian rule.

It's a good thing, at least, to meet Kira's family, regardless of how it happens.  In that sense "Wrongs" is almost like an update of the classic Animated Series episode "Yesteryear," in which Spock, too, visits his own past (it served as the basis for how the character was depicted in the 2009 movie reboot).  And it's good to see Dukat in his prime, before everything fell apart for him.  A confident Dukat was always the best Dukat.  Even if he was such a villain in his prime (really, the third season, especially "Civil Defense" and "Defiant," features the best Dukat).  It's a problem in that regard, too, especially as we meet up with Dukat again later in the season and he's on a mad quest that will forever seal his destiny, not to mention how we'd last seen him ("Waltz") when he was clearly on his way there.  "Wrongs" really has nothing to do with any of that.  It's almost as if the producers simply thought it was a good idea to remind fans what Dukat was like before he went completely mad, since the six-episode arc that began the season really didn't have definitive Dukat material until his daughter was murdered in front of him.  Seems like a creative oversight clumsily corrected in "Wrongs."  Plus trying to remind people what makes Kira relevant outside of her relationship with Odo, which was about to finally hit its stride with "His Way" three episodes later.

In the end, "Wrongs" and its fellow misfires from this stretch in the middle of the season feel like misguided filler.  At least the season got really good again right after this, and continued bold storytelling for the rest of it, which led to renewed creative juices for the final season that followed.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Really, there's nothing here skeptics can't find done better elsewhere. 
• series - Needlessly duplicates past storytelling without adding anything new.
• character - We meet Kira's family, we see Dukat in his "prime."
• essential - Such a wasted opportunity.  Almost would've been better to scrap the Kira material and focus on the character traits that would ultimately prove Dukat's downfall.

notable guest-stars:
Marc Alaimo (Dukat)
Thomas Kopache

Deep Space Nine 6x16 "Change of Heart"

rating: *

the story: Worf must choose between the mission and saving Jadzia's life.

what it's all about: This has always been a difficult episode for me.  I get that it puts a strong focus on a relationship that had become integral to the middle part of the series, but at a steep cost.  It never felt authentic to me, like one of those impossible fiction scenarios superheroes normally get, who normally get to have it both ways.  Well, this being the increasingly grim Deep Space Nine, Worf most certainly does not get it both ways.  He seems to sacrifice his future professional potential because he can't bear to think of losing his wife.

Look, and I had the same thoughts when it originally aired, but the whole thing becomes that much harder to defend in hindsight, because...ten episodes later it becomes a moot point anyway.  I can accept that Terry Farrell forced the producers' hand by the end of the season, deciding she wanted to leave, and they killed off the character to solve her absence, and that none of that had necessarily played out in the writers room at the time "Change of Heart" was first conceived, but...It just seems egregious, thinking about that now.  It doesn't even count as foreshadowing, because the situations that play out here and when she actually dies are nothing alike.  In one, Worf has the chance to save her, in the other ("Tears of the Prophets," the season finale) it's completely random.

So it makes Worf look good and it makes him look bad, forsaking what had previously been a fairly defining characteristic, his overriding sense of duty, which actually got him into trouble far more often.  So to have him finally forsake his duty, you'd really need a story that is itself defensible, not something that relies on backstory.  Yes, we know, from the episode, that they've recently gotten married ("You Are Cordially Invited," nine episodes earlier), and that at least for part of the episode, Worf and Jadzia are still enjoying newlywed bliss.  But it rapidly becomes something else.  It would actually be better if the whole episode, we know she has the potential to die.  Like "In the Pale Moonlight" a few episodes later, it would be better if the whole thing were told from Worf's perspective.  It would've been a completely different Michael Dorn experience.  Too often he seems remote, unapproachable.  His relationships, with Troi (Next Generation) and Jadzia were always calculated as ways of thawing him out a little.  And yet...the Worf in this episode is just as frozen as he ever was.  It gets in the way of the story.

To my mind, it's just not executed very well, and yes, I've had that thought from the very beginning, and I've never changed my mind.  Maybe I just can't stand that Worf has to stand there, at the end, and listen to Sisko warning him about how bad a career move it was, regardless of whether or not it was the right thing to do.  It only further alienates a character who still has only the one link to his second series, the character who was very nearly removed from the board during the episode.  And who will be.  And then we'll actually see where Worf stands.  Because we don't see that in "Heart."  It somewhat ironically lacks heart because of that.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Aside from Voyager's "Thirty Days," has any main character been so thoroughly compromised in the midst of doing the right thing?
• series - Technically a Dominion War story, but that part is a complete afterthought.
• character - Here's where you find your reason to consider this episode, whether or not it says something useful about Worf.
• essential - No, it's not.

Deep Space Nine 6x14 "One Little Ship"

rating: *

the story: Dax, O'Brien, and Bashir find themselves shrunk in the midst of a Jem'Hadar attack.

what it's all about: Now, this is something of a baffling episode.  It's almost as if someone decided it would be a good idea to give casual fans a Dominion War episode.  More committed fans will...only be baffled.

On the one hand, there's some useful continuity stuff in the way the Jem'Hadar are experiencing the Alpha Quadrant and how it affects day-to-day operations for the Dominion.  But it's not a particularly memorable Jem'Hadar episode.  On the other, the obvious gimmick of shrinking a runabout, and by extension a few of the main characters, is a visual trick that's kind of interesting and well within franchise tradition.  It's just...not Deep Space Nine tradition.

It's painfully not Deep Space Nine tradition.  So this is an episode that will always stick out like a sore thumb, and how you feel about it will probably depend on how much you can stomach the central gimmick.  You can sort of get into the spirit of things after a while, but it's like a bad one night stand.  It'll make you feel dirty in the morning.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - If you're really hesitant about the whole Dominion War thing, this one's for you.
• series - Yeah, it takes the piss out of the heavy drama.  Maybe too much.
• character - Honestly, no one really benefits from this one, not even the jokers at the end of the episode trying to ape the original series.
• essential - All but completely skippable.  It's not superfluous or downright bad, but...

notable guest-stars:
Aron Eisenberg (Nog)

Deep Space Nine 5x17 "A Simple Investigation"

rating: *

the story: Odo becomes intrigued with a woman he's investigating.

what it's all about: What an absolute waste of an episode.  I give it one star because it introduces the Orion Syndicate later featured again in "Honor Among Thieves" and "Prodigal Daughter," and so it has some lingering significance, but otherwise "A Simple Investigation" is about as nondescript an episode as you can get. 

What's most shocking about it is the context.  The preceding eight episodes were all exceptional adventures that put a spotlight on everything right with Deep Space Nine at this point in its run.  What's most egregious, however, is that it squanders Odo at a time when he could easily have had incredibly interesting character work done.  Heck, if this had been an episode from earlier in the season, it could have meant something much more without really changing anything at all, from before he regained his shapeshifting abilities.  But here he is, a full-fledged changeling again, and "Investigation"...diddles.  It has nothing to say.

So here's what's a good spin on all that: "Investigation" is a breather.  It removes all the heaviness of what's been going on.  It's a throwback to a simpler time, when you didn't have to worry about what would happen next, when there was no Dominion threat looming.  This could've been a fun experience from the first few seasons, never mind earlier in this season.

But when you watch Deep Space Nine for everything it does really, really right, it's kind of disappointing when an episode delivers something that just feels...safe.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - It could conceivably give fans who are otherwise hesitant to give Deep Space Nine a chance a reason to watch, but would this really be a good way to sample?
• series - A link to later episodes does exist.
• character - Odo is in the spotlight, but nothing much of importance is said about him.
• essential - An all but completely skippable affair.

Deep Space Nine 5x5 "The Assignment"

rating: *

the story: Keiko is possessed, forcing O'Brien to comply with an insane request.

what it's all about: It's wildly curious that the debut of the Pah-wraiths should come off like a bad remake of the Next Generation episode "Power Play," which also features alien possession and the O'Brien family caught in the crosshairs...

A far more menacing version of this story appears late in the sixth season, "The Reckoning," which basically corrects all the horrendous missteps of "The Assignment," featuring a far more menacing possession and a much smarter plan on the part of the Pah-wraiths, just before Dukat appears in the sixth season finale ("Tears of the Prophets") and effectively sets up their integral part in the eventual conclusion of the series.

But really, it's hugely baffling that something like this could happen.  Clearly the producers had no idea at this point how important the Pah-wraiths (cast-out wormhole aliens the Bajorans worship as the Prophets, and as such the devil to their god) would turn out to be, and is one of the more egregious examples of how the series developed as it went along rather than was figured out from the start (Babylon 5 fans get a point in that regard).  Not that this is a bad thing, because in most other respects such organic growth actually helped make it feel more natural.

The worse part is that Odo's life as a "solid" is featured, as he attempts to figure out what O'Brien's up to.  If this had somehow involved Odo being more important to the plot rather than an add-on, this would've been better.  If, say, he were investigating someone close to Kira, but that's not the case, and another lost opportunity is found in one of the most pointless arcs of the series.

If you don't want to worry too much about the significance of...anything and just want to sample characters and concepts from Deep Space Nine, this is a curious way to do it, but I suppose it is available for such viewing.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - That this could've happened in any series is hardly a positive note.
• series - Inauspicious as it is, this is still the debut of the Pah-wraiths.
• character - Useless spotlights on the O'Briens and Odo.
• essential - One of the most truly poorly-developed episodes of the whole series.

notable guest-stars:
Rosalind Chao (Keiko)
Hana Hatae (Molly)
Max Grodenchik (Rom)

Deep Space Nine 4x18 "Rules of Engagement"

rating: *

the story: Worf stands trial for being in command during a mission in which innocent civilians died.

what it's all about: Court drama is such a familiar Star Trek trope that if attempted, it had better have something interesting to say.  Unfortunately, "Rules of Engagement" really doesn't.

It's one of the few episodes of the season to have something, even tangentially, to say about the Klingon war, but it's also an episode that could've been told regardless of it, in an earlier era of the franchise.  It's almost like Enterprise's revisiting of the period where the Federation and the Klingon Empire were definitely rivals, which was a running theme of the original series as well as their six films.  Even with the war going on, it seems it would've been more a Deep Space Nine story, or even a franchise story in general (think "Balance of Terror") if there had been an episode this season that tried to demonstrate that war couldn't really shake the bonds of friendship that had been forged in the more recent past.

And it's one of those curious episodes (like the later "Change of Heart") that the series inexplicably did, whose only real effect was to call into serious question Worf's command ability.  Why was this such an easy thing for the series to do with the character?  I don't know if anything else Worf ever did really justifies such storytelling.

And yet, "Rules" still has some things to say, the general alienation Worf will continue to experience among his people until he finally bonds with Martok later, and the uses of propaganda and show trials in wartime (and election seasons).  It becomes clear that the whole point of the trial is to discredit the Federation.  But the effectiveness of Founder manipulation is better represented, among Klingons, in the fifth season premiere, "Apocalypse Rising," in which this particular war reaches its conclusion.

So this is definitely one of the season's misfires.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - The best reason to watch this episode is a general look at continued Klingon/Federation differences.
• series - It doesn't really have that much to say about the Klingon war happening around it.
• character - Or anything particularly useful to say about Worf.
• essential - Pretty much the opposite of what a Deep Space Nine episode should be.

notable guest-stars:
Ron Canada

Deep Space Nine 4x5 "Indiscretion"

rating: *

the story: Dukat joins Kira on an unlikely rescue mission while Kasidy decides to take a job that will leave her a permanent resident of the station.

what it's all about: It never really occurred to me how radical a change the fourth season was for the season until I started writing in-depth about it.  This is the second episode, after "Hippocratic Oath," that proves how much someone wanted to change Deep Space Nine to correct perceived shortcomings and make it more approachable to fans.  But the result was a kind of neutering, in some respects, which is no big surprise, because by the time the Dominion War kicked off in the sixth season, the pendulum swung radically in the other direction, letting the series enjoy what made it special in a sometimes smothering fashion.

Case in point?  The one-two-three punch of "Duet," "Necessary Evil," and "Second Skin" from the firsts three seasons find their fourth season answer in "Indiscretion," which on paper seems like the perfect way to finally ground that tradition in the emerging continuity-heavy nature of the series.  And yet as a standalone experience, divorced from what later came of it (and several actresses portraying Dukat's heretofore hidden Cardassian/Bajoran daughter Tora Ziyal later), it seems like a wimpy start to the arc that changed the character's arc forever.  And no one really seems to have known just how big the consequences of this episode would be.  Surprisingly, this won't be the only time the producers get something like this wrong.

Long story short: Dukat's daughter alienates him from the Cardassian establishment, and his scrambling to redeem himself leads the Cardassians into the arms of the Dominion, and thus the Dominion War...and then Dukat officially becoming Sisko's opposite number, the emissary of the Pah-wraiths (their introduction is equally bloodless in "The Assignment" next season and exactly what I was alluding to earlier).

...But the biggest problem with Dukat's characterization this episode is that it ignores all the character work accomplished last season, and leaves Kira in a predicament that plays poorly against every other such example of her trying to make peace with the complicated past between Bajorans and Cardassians.  It's a Dukat story, basically, that really wants to be a Kira story, too, but can't figure out how, and doesn't really try.  So it's just setup, with little indication of how severe any of this will affect the duration of the series.  It's the opposite, too, of how well Dukat featured into last season's "Defiant," which for all intents and purposes is much the same story.

Anyway, if that weren't bad enough, Sisko and Kasidy's relationship hits a predictable hiccup when she decides that taking up permanent residence isn't such a bad thing, but he does.  In fact, all of this uncharacteristic behavior merely for the sake up trumped up drama just had me downgrade the episode to one star, when I'd originally pegged it for three and decided to settle for two given my dawning reservations...

The good news is that this early season shakiness settles down very soon.  The producers obviously had a rough time adjusting to new expectations, but they did figure it out.  Hey, there are always rough episodes, right?  At least with these last two, it's easy to see why they happened.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - This is a Deep Space Nine story.
• series - It's just kind of fails at being one.
• character - Still, some relevant groundwork is done for Dukat.
• essential - But in the grand scheme you don't have to watch it to understand what comes later.

notable guest-stars:
Marc Alaimo (Dukat)
Penny Johnson (Kasidy)

Deep Space Nine 3x18 "Distant Voices"

rating: *

the story: Bashir is attacked, and then finds himself aging rapidly.

what it's all about: One of the most famous Star Trek tropes is a character aging (or de-aging) rapidly, which began all the way in the original series episode "The Deadly Years," and can be found in every TV incarnation, sometimes with the variant of simply seeing a main character in an aged state.  Most of the time this involves atypically horrible prosthetics that are not the least convincing.  "Distant Voices," unfortunately, continues that trend, too.

What's worse is that it nearly undermines a character who had really started to come into his own, Bashir suddenly seeming a lot more mature than when we first met him.  This is a whole episode that deals with the same issues as a number of vital B-stories elsewhere in the season, but in a metaphorical sense, having a birthday and feeling the years creeping upward.  The worst thing about it is that it exposes the limits of an otherwise impeccable actor, Alexander Siddig, especially by the time Bashir is an enfeebled old man; Siddig doesn't seem to have figured out what to do other than stammer a lot more.  No one wants to tell an actor that it's not enough to convincingly portray the physical aspects of such a state but also to come up with a voice to match it.  In the classic episode "The Visitor," Tony Todd plays an equally aged character with considerably more grace.  That's just the next season, Sid.

But if that sort of thing doesn't bother you, the story does sort of preview a far better episode later in the season, "Facets," in which Dax's previous hosts are embodied by the main characters so Jadzia can meet them.  I don't mean to spoil "Distant Voices" for you, but everything ends up being inside of Bashir's head.  That's actually the best part of the episode.

This is one of those episodes that could just as easily have occurred in the first season, when random sci-fi plots happened all the time, rather than in the third, when the series had really come into its own.  You'll be happy to know it's also the last time this season such an episode occurs.  The rest of it matches or exceeds the average quality that would come to define Deep Space Nine as a whole.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - General Trek fans will probably get a kick out of it.
• series - But more specified ones probably won't.
• character - I'm convinced it's not a good Bashir episode.
• essential - I don't think anyone would argue that this is a great one by any means.

notable guest-stars:
Andrew Robinson

Deep Space Nine 3x8 "Meridian"

rating: *

the story: Dax falls in love with someone on a planet that usually exists in a different plane of existence.

what it's all about: For a season I've always found to be among (if not the) best ones in the history of the franchise, there had to be an episode that just wasn't anywhere near par.  That's not to say "Meridian" is bad, it just seems pointless compared to nearly everything else in the third season.

But on the other hand, more casual fans of Deep Space Nine, which is to say Star Trek fans in general, will probably enjoy it well enough.  It's not a bad romance episode, which happens way too often in the franchise, although Dax's decision to quit Starfleet abruptly to pursue a relationship with someone she just met...stretches credulity no matter how you view it.

But the idea is pretty cool, like the classic musical Brigadoon, which was of course its original inspiration. 

Other than that, the B-story is actually a rare misfire for Quark, involving a seedy patron who calls on him to create a holographic Kira so he can...Yeah, so the tone just seems wrong.  But it at least means Jeffrey Combs makes his Deep Space Nine debut, before appearing later in the recurring roles of Brunt and Weyoun, both of whom are much better characters.

That's about it for this one.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - A rare chance for casual Star Trek fans to tune in and not have to worry about anything else.
• series - Which also means Deep Space Nine fans can probably tune out.
• character - Not a particularly good spotlight for anyone.
• essential - Even poor Jeffrey Combs!

notable guest-stars:
Jeffrey Combs
Brett Cullen