1x01 & 1x02 “emissary”
the general consensus on season 1 of ds9 is that it’s bad & boring, and like, in a way fair enough? but there’s also just absolutely no comparing it to season 1 of tng, so i oftentimes find myself resisting this take even though it’s kinda totally fair.
still, this larger narrative actually has zero bearing on the show’s pilot episodes. this two-parter was pretty easily the best star trek pilot ever at the time given that its only competition was either tos’s “the cage” or “where no man has gone before” (or both, depending on how you wanna count it, idk) and tng’s “encounter at farpoint.” among its contemporaries i also think it definitively edges out voyager’s “caretaker,” though not by nearly so wide of a margin. i think it’s since been surpassed by the first episodes of virtually every installment of nutrek, minus the last ten minutes or so of both of discovery’s first two episodes. but regardless, this is just a fantastic two-parter and a great way to pass the torch from tng.
linking sisko’s backstory to picard and the most celebrated episode of tng was an especially shrewd move, and having the two of them initially butting heads was a great way to differentiate sisko immediately. not that he actually ended up needing the help considering how strong his characterization is and how amazingly avery brooks plays him throughout the series. on top of that, like… as a star trek fan, it’s just undeniably satisfying to actually finally get to see some of the carnage at wolf 359 instead of just the aftermath.
beyond that, this two-parter had so many characters to introduce and so much to set up about the setting, and i think it pulled all of that off admirably. a-rank
1x03 “past prologue”
i 100% agree with the decision to swap this episode in as the first episode after the pilot instead of that episode where odo is being oppressed for being a cop. like, even leaving my personal & political feelings out of the equation, kira is just blatantly the more important & interesting of the two characters, and getting her & sisko on something resembling the same page feels like the most important thread that needed picking up after the pilot.
moving this episode up also helped reiterate the importance of bajor and the wormhole both to the show’s narrative and to the politics of the universe, so kind of a double whammy of obviousness there.
… also also, although it’s inexplicably his only appearance in the first season, this gets us to my problematic husband garak sooner, and that’s obviously very important. his interactions with dr. bashir (and others) in this first appearance are just fucking priceless, and this show will always be better off the more garak it has in it. and this episode is fully like 50% garak insinuating that he’s a spy, bashir pouncing on it like an overeager puppy, and garak denying it and making bashir feel silly.
it’s gonna taper off soon, but ds9 season 1 actually gets off to quite a strong start all things considered. a-rank
1x04 “a man alone”
if you’re like me you want to write this one off for being principally about odo being so oppressed because *checks notes* it looks like he may have used his position as a cop to murder someone and then chafed at being removed from the investigation of a murder for which he is clearly the prime suspect, like regardless of whether he is or not he obviously needed to be taken off that case like a million years earlier than he was? and him being so butthurt about it is just wild?
seriously the main plot of this episode is just infuriating. and the secondary plot of keiko becoming a schoolteacher is… not that much better? like, you cannot convince me that ds9 wouldn’t materially benefit from an arboretum, and even if you wanted to take her character this direction, having her just kinda wander around scowling disapprovingly at all the children on the station is also just about the worst way you could’ve chosen to get there? so in one corner we have just absolutely wild copaganda, and in the other we have a bad idea poorly executed. super.
the problem is, this is also the episode that started jake & nog’s iconic friendship, so you can’t just totally write it off without losing something pretty vital to the series. not that their first few interactions were anything all that special, and it’s rather interesting seeing rom pop up in these early episodes because they clearly just had no idea who he was yet, but regardless jake & nog’s relationship is just such a big part of the show and one of the all-time great trek friendships in its own right, so you can’t just totally ignore this episode unfortunately.
also there’s some good quark/odo stuff and no matter how much odo infuriates me, i do certainly love how blatantly those two are husbands.
but yeah, y’know. the rest of it is still pretty awful. acab. c-rank
1x05 “babel”
there are kind of way too many episodes of season 1 that follow this basic format nearly beat for beat, but the aphasia virus is so novel that it kind of pushes this one to the top of the pack among those at least. plus we get a pretty awesome example of kira just bulldozing her way to a solution, which is pretty much always gonna be a plus. extremely “glad she’s on our side” energy.
also, with quark & odo basically the last two people on the station not affected by the virus, we get even more of them just blatantly being husbands, which is just about the only time i can stand odo. so, yeah. that’ll work. b-rank
1x06 “captive pursuit”
this wasn’t a terribly well-written episode, and o’brien is just about the least sensible character for them to decide is just… in charge of this alien just because he’s the first guy who encountered him? like, literally any other senior officer would’ve been better equipped for this, it seems like? like, don’t get me wrong, i did enjoy the clearly predator-inspired bullshit for, ah, totally not kink-related reasons. (don’t check.)
that doesn’t make this a good episode or anything, but like when the one hunter guy is berating the prey guy about how he’s gonna be put on display for people to insult & punish for allowing himself to be captured alive yeah i was hella into it, so i can’t say i didn’t get anything out of this pretty lackluster episode. c-rank
1x07 “q-less”
why the fuck was this a ds9 episode? like, i guess they needed to give ds9 one (1) and only one (1) q episode, but of all the ways to involve q in the show you’re gonna have vash’s return happen on ds9? really? what a just truly bizarre choice.
also like, in terms of q’s only ds9 appearance, following vash around making threatening comments and then getting punched in the face by commander sisko wasn’t exactly a great use of your one john de lancie appearance. c-rank
1x08 “dax”
i love a good courtroom episode, and dax is probably my favorite ds9 character, but it’s hard to say that the combination here makes an entirely satisfying whole? also like, i’m beyond infuriated that the only way dax was rescued from being kidnapped early in the episode is that bashir was being a fucking creeper? like, we’re basically being narratively told that his behavior was actually okay? so that fucking sucks.
the trial itself is actually pretty interesting, and i fucking love the old lady judge who is just doesn’t want to be there & consequently has no patience for anything. and i loved sisko fighting tooth & nail using every loophole of the legal system to keep dax from being extradited. this is a great sisko episode, honestly. the problem is that it’s not a great dax episode, and for it to work it would kind of have to be. c-rank
1x09 “the passenger”
odo has two other cops to compete with in this episode, and i think giving odo the latitude to be much more of a 20th/21st century earth-style cop than the much more enlightened approach starfleet security generally takes is probably the worst big picture command decision sisko makes on the entire show? though it’s depicted as like, the starfleet guy wanting to be more “strict” & “by the book” which doesn’t really square at all with where the conflict actually seems to reside? idk.
it’s way too obvious that bashir is the one possessed by the killer, but i did very much enjoy how silly the scenes before the reveal are. overall this is not an especially great episode, but it does have its moments. c-rank
1x10 “move along home”
easily the most infamous episode of ds9, and one of the most infamous episodes of trek in general. i get that it isn’t a brilliant episode or anything, and i get that this is coming from robin “the episode of tng where beverly fucks a ghost isn’t that bad!” moon, so you’re probably taking this with an amount of salt that a doctor would only reluctantly endorse if you’re a trans girl on spiro, but it’s just not that bad? i actually enjoy how fucking silly it is?
i don’t have a long-winded defense of this episode in me. it isn’t a favorite of mine or anything. there are some very obvious production problems and it’s pretty clear that the cast isn’t remotely on the same page, resulting in their performances oftentimes not really meshing. again, i’m not saying it’s good, or that it’s an episode i particularly look forward to or go out of my way to revisit.
this is just moreso in the “sub rosa” or “angel one” zone. it just doesn’t bore me, and i really do enjoy some of the sillier elements in it. so yeah, i unironically enjoy this mess while still admitting that it’s absolutely a mess. c-rank
1x11 “the nagus”
it’s pretty funny that the episode where rom is the most in character in season 1 is the one where he literally tries to murder his brother to take possession of the bar. like, i don’t think the rom of later seasons even tries to do that, but at least his affect more resembles the rom we come to know later in the show.
grand nagus zek is pretty hilarious, i love basically all of his appearances on this show. and seeing quark temporarily take over as nagus was pretty fun for all the things it shook loose. overall the a plot is just a fun diversion with no lasting consequences for anyone, but considering how much of a slog parts of season 1 are, i’ll take a fun diversion with no lasting consequences for anyone.
the b plot, on the other hand, actually elevates the episode quite a bit. when rom pulls nog out of human school because of the nagus’s visit, jake & nog have their first real fight, and seeing them work to maintain their friendship even with both of their respective parents discouraging it was a pretty terrific. we also learn that jake is helping nog learn to read, which is just absolutely the sweetest thing ever. i love how blatantly proud of his son sisko is when he discovers this. b-rank
1x12 “vortex”
this is one of the better odo episodes since at least he ends up sympathizing with the guy and letting him go, but yeah obviously i’m still not really a big fan of odo-centric episodes until they get more character-driven? (and even then, only when his character isn’t a way for writers to make really shallow critiques that feel like they belong on reddit.)
again, this is fine for an odo episode, but i don’t really like odo episodes as a rule, so yeah. c-rank
1x13 “battle lines”
this episode’s consequences reverberate throughout the rest of the series, but that doesn’t necessarily make it a good episode? and i do recall every time kai opaka’s death comes up in the future feeling kinda weird about it having this exact shape. like, she seems like a pretty cool lady and i’m glad she’s not technically dead, but yeah this was just a weird way of clearing the deck imo.
the episode is fine but hardly memorable apart from its lasting effects on bajor’s politics. i do, however, feel a very real need to point out that ds9’s mediocre first season episodes are still much more watchable than a lot of tng’s first season episodes, so there is that at least. c-rank
1x14 “the storyteller”
the beginning of the legendary bashir/o’brien relationship, aka the only healthy relationship in o'brien's life. (i hate a lot of the fandom's tendency to blame keiko for this, btw, when it’s clearly the result of misogynistic writers.) i love that the starting point of their relationship is o’brien being super annoyed at how posh & self-involved bashir is and bashir being totally oblivious (we’ve actually even seen evidence of this in background reactions prior to this episode), and the development here gets them to a little more respect for each other but not immediately best buds.
i also love how useless o’brien is at the storyteller thing. “once upon a time there was a dal'rok.” i fucking chortled.
the b & c plot finds sisko negotiating with a child ruler (wow star trek loves this trope) and jake & nog speedrunning a better-written version of wesley & salia’s relationship in the second season tng episode “the dauphin.”
when they aren't writing him as a space racist or doing some nails-on-chalkboard misogynistic shit with keiko, o’brien episodes can actually be pretty great. and it’s fucking refreshing to see someone openly rolling their eyes at season 1 bashir. b-rank
1x15 “progress”
before i start praising this episode, let me begin by saying that i take issue with the central allegory. i largely align with star trek’s ethos of optimism & humanism, but it’s frequently all too clear that the underpinnings of this ethos are wishy-washy white liberalism rather than a more grounded, honest examination of the material conditions the show seeks to comment on.
people are generally not displaced from their homes due to morally complicated questions of “progress” and providing for a larger number of people at the expense of one or two individuals who are just being stubborn. the motivations are almost always the enrichment of the few at the expense of the many. so while i do like this episode quite a bit for reasons i am about to enumerate, i feel it necessary to point out that i take great issue with the framing of its central conflict.
the main reason i think this is a great episode in spite of these issues is holy shit nana visitor is an incredible actor. like, that’s been apparent since the first episode of the show, and she’s been given plenty of chances to shine since, but this episode really does just say “everyone else get the fuck out of the way” and lets her do her thing with minimal interruption, and it’s fucking glorious.
i don’t like what this episode has to say on a big picture basis, but the character writing & execution of said writing is top notch, and in star trek that always has & always will cover a multitude of sins. my issues with its premise aside, this is pretty clearly one of the best episodes of season 1. a-rank
1x16 “if wishes were horses”
... rumpelstiltskin???
(and that was after colm meaney rightly vetoed him being a leprechaun. woof.)
one thing i have to give to ds9’s writers is that o’brien is consistently written as a better father than he is a husband. really, between him & sisko, there are some pretty great examples of fatherhood on display in this show. (i say that as someone who is voluntarily estranged from their parents for a whole host of reasons, but i still like seeing positive examples even if they don’t match my lived experiences.)
i wish this episode had dunked on bashir way harder for being a creep towards dax. like, it’s nice that it’s addressed at all, but after watching him squirm a bit she super lets him off the hook (which tbf does fit her vibe), and i just… the way bashir is written in season 1 is as a straight-up sex pest, and it gets toned down over time, but if you’re gonna comment on it at all while it’s still going on, i think you need to go way harder than this. not that i actually expect a 90s show to do that.
this is one of those plots that woulda worked equally well on either tng or ds9, and while it’s not the greatest episode or anything it’s definitely some pretty classic star trek bullshit, so i’m not about to hate on it. the most annoying thing about the episode by far was rumpelstiltskin, but other than that it was honestly pretty alright. b-rank
1x17 “the forsaken”
this is the best odo episode of season 1 by a pretty wide margin, and that elevator scene is fucking fantastic despite all the contrivances they had to go through to make it happen.
i really do wish lwaxana could learn to take no for an answer, but with this episode you do at least finally see some of where deanna gets her radical empathy & bravery from. recognizing that odo is suffering due to an inability to allow himself to be vulnerable, she makes herself vulnerable to him like a parent taking a bite of something to show their child it’s okay to eat.
another solid ep. b-rank
1x18 “dramatis personae”
another day, another virus that makes everybody act weird. this isn’t a bad ep or anything, and it is pretty fun seeing everyone act all machiavellian, but at the end of the day it’s just really not much to write home about. c-rank
1x19 “duet”
i find it pretty hard to write about this episode because it’s just so straightforward, like it’s another one that’s just all about having nana visitor give a great performance across from an equally good performance by an old guy. that’s kinda it? but that makes it sound kind of underwhelming when in actuality it’s anything but.
this episode is rough to get through at times, there’s a lot of big feelings & traumas on display w/r/t war & occupation, and for a lot of the episode kira & the cardassian prisoner are just trying to verbally wear each other down, doing everything they can to get under each other’s skin.
this is not a fun episode, or one i go out of my way to revisit very often, but it’s honestly quite remarkable that season 1 of ds9 was able to wring two episodes this good out of “nana visitor yells at an old guy for 40 minutes.” a-rank
1x20 “in the hands of the prophets”
this episode is largely about introducing the principal candidates to replace the departed kai opaka. vedek bareil is the one we’re supposed to like but he’s gonna be super creepy towards kira next season, and vedek winn is the one we’re supposed to hate.
and i mean yeah okay she’s super gross & manipulative & toxic. but.
look. her mannerisms get super dommy next season like she just starts calling everyone “child” & being hella condescending and just… yeah… i’m not proud of it, but i feel some kind of way about it.
don’t get me wrong, i know she’s vile. i just… yeah. ahem. anyway. moving right along.
this episode gets pretty heavily into bajoran religious politics (aka… bajoran politics), and although it doesn’t necessarily have lasting consequences in & of itself, it’s still pretty important to the show’s metanarrative thanks to introducing these two characters.
i was a bit taken aback by kira initially being on vedek winn’s side, but i suppose that did make her denunciation of her at the end of the episode even more satisfying? and i just thoroughly loved the conversation between ben & jake where jake calls “all this bajoran stuff” “stupid” and ben turns it into a teachable moment about cultural relativism & empathy.
meanwhile, chief o’brien is forming a workplace friendship with his bajoran assistant chief of operations, and when keiko finds out about it we get some The Straights Are Not Ok writing. fun. it does add a nice little twist that the assistant ends up being the assassin that he’s helping investigate, and we get some pretty awesome star trek investigation bullshit where he figures it out at the moment of maximum drama and warns them, a la data in “the mind’s eye.”
this is a pretty action-packed episode with lasting consequences for the rest of the series, which is a pretty good formula for a season finale. now that we’ve come to the end of it, i do have to agree with the general consensus that season 1 of ds9 isn’t great, but it’s for sure no tng season 1 and i really do always enjoy revisiting it even though a lot of it is fairly mediocretacular. b-rank
s-rank: 0
a-rank: 5
b-rank: 6
c-rank: 9
d-rank: 0
average: 2.8 (c-rank)
No comments:
Post a Comment