dev_chieftain (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dev_chieftain) wrote2012-04-12 02:42 pm
dev_chieftain) wrote2012-04-12 02:42 pm
DS9, and hey Dustin
Dustin, I need to make you watch Past Tense. It's a two-parter, but it's also a DS9 episode that is NOT about the actors playing shadows of their real selves. :) Oh, and Explorers, because it's the cutest father/son field trip ever.
I keep coming back to pretty much all of season 7 Deep Space Nine, and having some serious problems with it. I had my little issues here and there all through the show, obviously, but for the most part I think I love it unabashedly. And even though I feel like a big chunk of season 7 tried to ram Ezri down my throat (a choice I don't agree with in the first place, being of the mind that bringing Dax back was a little weird and counter to Trill culture, after making such a big deal about past lives in the earlier seasons), the only thing I really take issue with is the ending.
Problem One: the pah-wraiths. I still think the very existence of these is kind of on the silly, if not downright ridiculous side. Still, it could have been done well, handled in a way that didn't just scream "Star Trek! It's cheesy, and it'll always be cheesy."
As a follow up to some of the other confrontations Gul Dukat and Sisko had had...I was just so disappointed. I would have been much more interested to see Kai Winn wake the Pah Wraiths alone, and show up on the station to confront Sisko personally. That would have honestly validated her interrupting the showdown in the ridiculous Ancient Bajoran Laser Beams episode, earlier-- and even if Sisko still disappeared, at least people would have had some idea what had happened, it would have made sense.
Likewise, I think that Gul Dukat falling into a pit and dying ignominiously was pretty lame. I wouldn't have minded him showing up for the final conflict, but I also think Gul Dukat, the blind, now-Bajoran, begging in an alley and finally actually understanding what it was like for Kira, would have been much more interesting. His character was so desperate for love the whole show, so to have him end with nothing but the kindness of strangers to support him-- that would have been fitting.
Problem Two: Cardassia. I personally think that Cardassia was devastated enough by the Dominion attack at the end without Damar getting offed almost casually. I also think that if it had to be someone important, even though I really like Garak, I think it would have been better if it was Garak, not Damar, that died in that scene. This bothers me significantly less than the other two problems though, so I'll get straight to the heart of things.
Problem Three: "Sorrow". Sisko gets visions warning him of great sorrow to befall him if he weds Kassidy. He goes through with it, which I thought was ballsy and awesome of him and all, but then when he's teleported into the Celestial Temple, I think it's pretty clear that the person experiencing sorrow isn't Sisko, it's Kassidy. And Jake. And, well, everyone else. I just don't see how you can connect the Sisko of season 7 with the Sisko of the rest of the show. This is a man who I would define almost entirely based around his love of his son, and his sense of connection to family. What sets Sisko apart from his predecessors is his incredibly fierce love for his crew, and his fatherly attitude towards everyone under his command. To have that just...absent, and really, to have Sisko himself be so largely absent from the final season and the final episodes is just incredibly jarring and unfulfilling as a viewer, really.
Season 7 dedicates a lot of time to Ezri, and it dedicates a fair amount of time to Odo/Kira (which I still kind of object to because the logic is entirely "he deserves her" and not "she wants him, too"), and it dedicates some time to both Ezri/Worf and Ezri/Bashir, with a healthy side helping of Bashir and O'Brien being just about the best damn friends ever. But there's very little Sisko in the midst of all that, and it's weird, because he was so involved in their lives before that point. The excuse-- that the absence of Jadzia Dax has changed him-- that they had is countered by Ezri's presence, so there's not actually a very good excuse for it. Instead, we get a believably remote man, who is in love with Bajor, and affectionate towards his family but not quite so fierce and passionate.
So, I don't know what I'd change to fix it, exactly. That's a whole season I'm basically decrying as not quite delivering, and I know that's a pretty big complaint. Still...still. I am not happy with the end of Deep Space 9. It was not fair to Jake or Sisko or Kai Winn or Gul Dukat. Or Kasidy!
I was completely satisfied with the end of Odo and Kira's relationship; I was saddened by the way O'Brien's leaving was handled, and even though I don't buy Ezri/Bashir, I believed it had a chance. I liked Worf's sendoff at Martok's side; I liked Rom and Quark's respective rewards. My big problems were just with the pah-wraith plot, when it comes down to it.
I keep coming back to pretty much all of season 7 Deep Space Nine, and having some serious problems with it. I had my little issues here and there all through the show, obviously, but for the most part I think I love it unabashedly. And even though I feel like a big chunk of season 7 tried to ram Ezri down my throat (a choice I don't agree with in the first place, being of the mind that bringing Dax back was a little weird and counter to Trill culture, after making such a big deal about past lives in the earlier seasons), the only thing I really take issue with is the ending.
Problem One: the pah-wraiths. I still think the very existence of these is kind of on the silly, if not downright ridiculous side. Still, it could have been done well, handled in a way that didn't just scream "Star Trek! It's cheesy, and it'll always be cheesy."
As a follow up to some of the other confrontations Gul Dukat and Sisko had had...I was just so disappointed. I would have been much more interested to see Kai Winn wake the Pah Wraiths alone, and show up on the station to confront Sisko personally. That would have honestly validated her interrupting the showdown in the ridiculous Ancient Bajoran Laser Beams episode, earlier-- and even if Sisko still disappeared, at least people would have had some idea what had happened, it would have made sense.
Likewise, I think that Gul Dukat falling into a pit and dying ignominiously was pretty lame. I wouldn't have minded him showing up for the final conflict, but I also think Gul Dukat, the blind, now-Bajoran, begging in an alley and finally actually understanding what it was like for Kira, would have been much more interesting. His character was so desperate for love the whole show, so to have him end with nothing but the kindness of strangers to support him-- that would have been fitting.
Problem Two: Cardassia. I personally think that Cardassia was devastated enough by the Dominion attack at the end without Damar getting offed almost casually. I also think that if it had to be someone important, even though I really like Garak, I think it would have been better if it was Garak, not Damar, that died in that scene. This bothers me significantly less than the other two problems though, so I'll get straight to the heart of things.
Problem Three: "Sorrow". Sisko gets visions warning him of great sorrow to befall him if he weds Kassidy. He goes through with it, which I thought was ballsy and awesome of him and all, but then when he's teleported into the Celestial Temple, I think it's pretty clear that the person experiencing sorrow isn't Sisko, it's Kassidy. And Jake. And, well, everyone else. I just don't see how you can connect the Sisko of season 7 with the Sisko of the rest of the show. This is a man who I would define almost entirely based around his love of his son, and his sense of connection to family. What sets Sisko apart from his predecessors is his incredibly fierce love for his crew, and his fatherly attitude towards everyone under his command. To have that just...absent, and really, to have Sisko himself be so largely absent from the final season and the final episodes is just incredibly jarring and unfulfilling as a viewer, really.
Season 7 dedicates a lot of time to Ezri, and it dedicates a fair amount of time to Odo/Kira (which I still kind of object to because the logic is entirely "he deserves her" and not "she wants him, too"), and it dedicates some time to both Ezri/Worf and Ezri/Bashir, with a healthy side helping of Bashir and O'Brien being just about the best damn friends ever. But there's very little Sisko in the midst of all that, and it's weird, because he was so involved in their lives before that point. The excuse-- that the absence of Jadzia Dax has changed him-- that they had is countered by Ezri's presence, so there's not actually a very good excuse for it. Instead, we get a believably remote man, who is in love with Bajor, and affectionate towards his family but not quite so fierce and passionate.
So, I don't know what I'd change to fix it, exactly. That's a whole season I'm basically decrying as not quite delivering, and I know that's a pretty big complaint. Still...still. I am not happy with the end of Deep Space 9. It was not fair to Jake or Sisko or Kai Winn or Gul Dukat. Or Kasidy!
I was completely satisfied with the end of Odo and Kira's relationship; I was saddened by the way O'Brien's leaving was handled, and even though I don't buy Ezri/Bashir, I believed it had a chance. I liked Worf's sendoff at Martok's side; I liked Rom and Quark's respective rewards. My big problems were just with the pah-wraith plot, when it comes down to it.