Deep Space Nine 3x19 "Through the Looking Glass"

rating: ****

the story: Sisko is brought to the Mirror Universe to confront the most unlikely foe: his dead wife's doppelganger.

what it's all about: What's even more unlikely than Deep Space Nine producing one classic sequel to the original series classic "Mirror, Mirror" (last season's "Crossover")?  Producing a second.  (And, also, a third: next season's "Shattered Mirror," completing arguably the best trilogy of the whole franchise.)

You really only need to look at the story summary, a truly genius move that few other shows would even consider as a possibility.  What's most brilliant about it is that the actress whose minor appearance as the late Jennifer Sisko in "Emissary," the first episode of the series, returns, for a far more substantial role.  It's a gamble that absolutely pays off.  Even if you don't think the actress nails it, Avery Brooks does.  It's one of the key performances in a season full of them, a season that redefined Sisko as the true lynchpin of the series, after a few seasons in which that was never a certainty.  It happened with Picard, too, but Sisko's accomplishment is the greater for having so much demanded of him in one season and every time proving to be up to the challenge, as if all of Picard's best moments were in the third season.  (I mean, there's still "Pale Moonlight" and "Far Beyond the Stars" in the sixth season, but it's still incredibly hard to stack anything up against Sisko's appearances this season.)

"Looking Glass" at last tackles the elephant in the room, which two previous seasons had danced so badly around, Sisko's devastating loss, the central element of the very first episode, for him.  Seeing it finally revisited, and brilliantly, was a moment that really had to happen, but the way it happened is the genius of the episode, in another trip to the Mirror Universe, the signature alternate reality of the franchise (revisited several other times in the series besides, plus the two-part Enterprise entry "In a Mirror, Darkly").

The third season scored so well with Sisko because it constantly put him in discombobulating situations, and each time he proved worthy to the task.  The Mirror Sisko we met in "Crossover" was about as far from the Sisko we knew then, and later, as you could get, so to see that character reverse-engineered, not even to talk about the Jennifer element, is to see exactly how Sisko goes about making decisions.  That's probably the best way to view the episode if you don't particularly care for the greater implications, which is what you should be able to say about classics, whether they can work on multiple levels, and how much they challenge the viewer.  Anyone who thinks this might just be a Mirror Universe rehash will have to admit that it adds significant new wrinkles to the formula.

But the Jennifer element is definitely good enough to warrant classic status all on its own.  Everyone in the episode clearly enjoys the possibilities given them.  This one is really hard not to love.  If none of what I've already said sells it for you, just think of this: "Looking Glass" also sneaks in the craftiest interseries character appearance ever, with Voyager's Tim Russ appearing as Mirror Tuvok, with no one really drawing attention to it.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Another fruitful trip to the Mirror Universe.
• series - Another in a fruitful series of Deep Space Nine trips there.
• character - Sisko comes face-to-face with the specter of his dead wife.
• essential - Too darn good to ignore.

notable guest-stars:
Felecia M. Bell (Mirror Jennifer Sisko)
Tim Russ (Mirror Tuvok)
Andrew Robinson (Garak)
Max Grodenchik (Rom)
Dennis Madalone

Deep Space Nine 3x17 "Visionary"

rating: **

the story: O'Brien keeps jumping into the future, where things are spiraling wildly out of control for the whole station.

what it's all about: "Visionary" is an episode that is so fun it almost doesn't matter that it could have happened in any series, which is usually a knock against Deep Space Nine trying stuff like that, but here is anything but.

The crux of it is the classic template of let's-torture-O'Brien!, a reliable source of material if there ever was one.  Let's just get that out of the way.  If anyone can sell material like this, it's O'Brien, who gets to enjoy yet another scenario that's so entirely bonkers only science fiction can get away with it.  By the time he starts putting two and two together, seeing his own future self, replacing himself, the fun just explains itself.

The rest of it is vaguely centered on series elements, like the Romulans complaining about Starfleet not living up to its end of the bargain (I may not have previously mentioned that the station's new warship, the Defiant, comes equipped with a cloaking device on loan from them), but it's really just an excuse to let loose all manner of mayhem, including more Klingons than you can shake a stick at (although the Romulans certainly try).  This was before the Klingons were really an intrinsic part of the series, so it does come off as fairly random to involve them here.

But don't worry about such things!  Just run with it!  Because it's a pretty fun episode, and that's all you really need to know.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Stands proudly in the tradition of fun sci-fi storytelling in Star Trek.
• series - Inessential to Deep Space Nine, however.
• character - Although it's prime O'Brien material.
• essential - Keep calm and just watch it already.

notable guest-stars:
Jack Shearer
Dennis Madalone

Deep Space Nine 2x23 "Crossover"

rating: ****

the story: A follow-up to the classic episode "Mirror, Mirror."

what it's all about: This is the level of confidence, and audacity, the second season of Deep Space Nine had introduced to the series.  Well before the prequel nature of Enterprise made it easier to provide follow-ups to previous episodes of the franchise, let alone sequels to episodes of the original series, "Crossover" began a whole tradition in Deep Space Nine, a whole series of episodes set in the so-called Mirror Universe.

What started with "Blood Oath" a few episodes earlier, in which three actors who portrayed Klingons in the original series returned," culminates with "Crossover."  The curious thing about the series, which is a problem that persists today, is that fans question its faithfulness to the Star Trek tradition, because it departs to dramatically in tone.  And yet episodes like this easily evoke not only its fondness for that tradition, but its faithfulness.  In "Mirror, Mirror," Kirk is forced to confront a reality in which the moral decisions he has long taken for granted from those around him are not a given.  Yet, it's him who sets a new standard.  In essence, he's in the same predicament as he's always in.  Yet in "Crossover," it's the Mirror Sisko who makes the difference, despite the presence of Bashir and Kira from the standard reality.  He'd been as corrupt as anyone before they showed up, but he suddenly discovers his moral compass pointed in the right direction because of their influence.  Where we only suspect Mirror Spock has indeed taken Kirk's parting message to heart, "Crossover" is an active demonstration of all that classic Star Trek hope for the future, even if it seems anything but.

It's not so much that "Crossover" provides a follow-up to "Mirror, Mirror," but that it proves things aren't so easy to fix as Kirk could sometimes suggest.  More than a century later, his actions in the Mirror Universe have drastically changed things, but not as he imagined they would.  Humans have become an embattled species.  Sure, the whole thing allows the series to present familiar characters in unfamiliar roles (Kira becomes doubly iconic thanks to this initial appearance of her Intendant counterpart, the most sensational and successful variant, although Odo's one-off take is pretty darn shocking, too), but it's a whole exercise in demonstrating what Deep Space Nine would be like moving forward, what the season had hoped to accomplish all along but hadn't quite managed to nail until the last few episodes.  Basically "Crossover" is a massive tease for the rest of the series, its confidence now unshakeable. 

You can watch "Crossover" on its own, ignore all its follow-ups, and still feel its impact.  If you somehow thought Enterprise's two-part "In a Mirror, Darkly" was the only "Mirror, Mirror" spin-off worth remembering, think again.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Again, it's a sequel to "Mirror, Mirror."
• series - And yet it's completely relevant to Deep Space Nine itself.
• character - The debut of Intendant Kira.
• essential - A classic sequel to a classic.

notable guest-stars:
Andrew Robinson (Garak)
Dennis Madalone

The Next Generation 4x18 "Identity Crisis"

rating: *

the story: Geordi is transformed into an alien.

similar to: "Ashes to Ashes" (Voyager)

my thoughts: This is a Geordi episode that works less well than the earlier "Galaxy's Child."  It attempts to flesh out more of his backstory by drawing on his earlier career (the series loved doing this, almost to an obsessive degree: "Clues," also just a few episodes earlier; "The Wounded," also just a few episodes earlier; and "The Pegasus," from the final season, which was further expounded on in the controversial Enterprise finale, "These Are the Voyages...").

The problem with "Identity Crisis" is that Geordi gets together with a friend with no dramatic heft, and nothing to say about Geordi's past.  The whole thing becomes far more about a random sci-fi story (which itself is pretty interesting; that's the main reason why I'll give it franchise credentials, because, as fans seem to forget, Star Trek is above all things kind of a random sci-fi story vehicle in the best Twilight Zone tradition).  The later "Ashes to Ashes" explores a similar tale of someone being somewhat forcibly drafted into an alien species.

When the episode can literally be about anyone but goes to the trouble of being about someone, that's a problem.

But as I said, it's not without its merits.  For example, there's one of those neat holodeck recreation scenes (such as also featured in "Schisms") that's a wonderful working example of how these people in the future use their fancy technology in ways that are easy for people like us to understand (in other words, not what's commonly known as "technobabble). 

All that being said, if you want to watch this just for having the spotlight on Geordi, then it's all good.  He was apparently a tough character to write for, outside of his purely functional roles, so it's always a treat to watch him in one of his own episodes. 

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential

notable guest-stars:
Patti Yasutake (Ogawa)
Dennis Madalone

Star Trek: The Next Generation 3x22 "The Most Toys"

**

You may view this as a vast improvement over the dreaded original series episode "Spock's Brain" or even a variation on Next Generation's own "A Matter of Time," but not quite the genius of Voyager's "Living History" (but better than "Think Tank") or as fun as Deep Space Nine's "In the Cards."  Bottom line, though, "The Most Toys" won't disappoint you.

If you like the character of Data, it's absolutely essential, in ways you probably wouldn't imagine without having seen it.

Simply put, this is an episode where a main character is "collected."  Data is in fact one of the "toys" in the title.  As distinguished from the very different case of Starfleet wanting to collect him in the second season classic "The Measure of a Man," everyone's favorite Star Trek android is deemed a valuable curiosity.  That in itself would probably make for an interesting story.  But the episode delves deeper.

Data doesn't end up worrying about himself.  He becomes far more concerned about his kidnapper's assistant, who ends up realizing how little she means to the collector even though she's served under him for years.  It's Data's shocking act at the end of the episode that speaks to how much of an impact this experience has on him.  I won't spoil it here in case you haven't seen the episode, but rest assured it's a defining moment for the character, one that far elevates "The Most Toys" beyond its sometimes routine story beats (it's also another franchise example of a main character apparently being dead and the rest of the cast trying to prove how that couldn't be the case; DS9's "Armageddon Game" has the best example of that particular Star Trek trope).

franchise * series * essential * character

notable guest-stars:
Colm Meaney
Saul Rubenik
Dennis Madalone

Memory Alpha summary

The Next Generation 1x20 "Heart of Glory"

*

This is another classic bit of the Next Generation first season producing what could have been a lasting standout, if the series hadn't drastically improved.

Even though a Klingon (Worf) had been standing on the bridge since the first episode, "Heart of Glory" is the first time the show heavily features this famous Star Trek species.  It's also the first episode to use Klingons and allow them to be, act, and end up like Klingons (unlike the two original series appearances where a forced peace occurred at the end, and the one where their mortal enemy turned out to be Tribbles).  In short, it's probably the first true franchise episode of the series, and in a roundabout way is the genesis of Deep Space Nine, the only series to rely almost exclusively on details the audience already knows (with the notable exception of the Dominion).

This is no doubt a legacy of the movies.  The movies gave a lot more to the franchise than fans sometimes realize.  Not only did the Klingons gain their distinctive forehead ridges (thereby giving birth to all the forehead aliens in Star Trek), but they became recurring elements with lasting consequences, including the reason Kirk got his happy demotion back to captain.

Worf's backstory is the real lasting achievement from the episode.  It's still surprising that Yar didn't receive something similar at some point (perhaps it would have happened had Denise Crosby not left, perhaps with far more dignity than the later "Legacy").  Sure, it was probably part of the series bible, and so "Heart of Glory" or not would have eventually been brought up, and that's part of the reason I give only minimal support to the episode.

It's still memorable.  The Klingon death howl is introduced, and for the moment is a hugely significant feature of the society that is just being built around these aliens who are slowly becoming more than just a constant thorn in the side of the Federation.  There are more memorable Klingon episodes later in the series, and Enterprise would later feature this kind of kid gloves approach to the Empire (heck, the Bajorans in DS9 are very similar to the Klingons here).  At the time this was a very big moment.  And it remains one, but its impact has been muted over the years.

Certainly watch it, either as a fan of Worf or Klingons in general.  Just know there's better material on the horizon, as with the rest of the season.

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
Vaughn Armstrong
Dennis Madalone

Memory Alpha summary.

The Next Generation 1x6 "Where No One Has Gone Before"

****

Before we go much further, let me just mention the title of this episode.  It's another call and response from the original series, but one that like the episode itself is perhaps the first sign since Q that The Next Generation is going to be a notable enterprise all its own.  It comes from the famous mission statement that Kirk and Picard speak over the credits of every episode, with that one crucial difference, "one" instead of "man," just as years later Enterprise would eliminate the split infinitive concerning the boldness of the adventures when essentially having Zefran Cochrane creating it.  As with the later example, it's Star Trek trying to grow up a little, just as in the casting of the older Patrick Stewart to be the captain of this new crew.  Of course, there will always be fans who suggest such quibbles aren't necessary to fix.

Anyway, so "Where No One Has Gone Before" is the best Wesley episode of the season (arguably the only good one).  It's the introduction of his cosmic destiny, something that wouldn't be visited again until the final season.  Had the series been launched later, it's very probable that subsequent creators would not have allowed such an important character development to be overlooked.  It's arguable that this is a lot of what the series should have been about, and that Deep Space Nine, especially with Sisko's relationship to the Prophets, that Star Trek itself later figured this out.

The Traveler, then, is a lot like Q, Next Generation introducing a giant concept that could very well have been like something out of the original series but instead transformed into an integral element of the mythology that shaped later franchise developments.  On the surface he's just the catalyst for crazy warp engine experiments (tagging along very much with one of those original series misguided-Starfleet-officers-of-the-week) that push Picard's ship into one of several far-out journeys into unknown territory (happens again in "Q Who?" and eventually becomes the premise of Voyager).  But when we find out that it's the Traveler making everything happen (unfortunately while being exploited, which is another nice aspect of the episode), and that he's marked the erstwhile annoying boy genius Wesley as another like him.

Q was the first to suggest that Next Generation was about taking Star Trek to the next level, figuring out how to not only explore strange new worlds but to, well, go where no one has gone before.  Later seasons, although technically superior in every way, lost this thread and later series never really got it back.  That's one reason why this episode still stands out.

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
Eric Menyuk
Dennis Madalone



Memory Alpha summary.