DS9 - Profit and Lace

Deep Space Nine’s 6th season had some of the best episodes of Trek ever produced, but this is definitely not one of them. In fact Profit and Lace was the worst episode of the season. During DS9’s 6th and 7th seasons most of the episodes centered on the Dominion war, dealing with either the horrors of war, such as in the Siege of AR- 558 or with other serious issues related to that war. During this period of DS9, Ferengi episodes were used a comic relief form the more serious stories being told in other episodes at the time. When done well these Ferengi episodes can actually be quite entertaining, such as The Magnificent Ferengi. Profit And Lace was intended to be a comical story, but ends up being pure farce, almost painful to watch. This episode is too melodramatic, and the whole thing about Quark having to “be” a female. Instead of being funny, it is, quite frankly, stupid. It is not accurate to say that this episode has problems; rather, it is better to say that the entire episode is a problem. The entire premise of the plot is based on the false assumption that that story line is funny, when the exact opposite is true, thus this episode displays levels of sheer idiocy never before, or since, seen in a Star Trek episode.

What Went Wrong With Enterprise, Part II

The crew of Enterprise NX – 01 is full of useless, boring, and/or wimpy characters. Archer is annoying and naive at the beginning of the series, and goes form being naive to being a predictable and boring character towards the end. Almost no character development was done with Hoshi, but enough was done to prove that she is the most useless whiner in star trek’s history (except for Kes). I don’t even know what to think of Maywether, except for a few episodes, all he ever did was sit at the helm console. Reed’s character was very one dimensional. Despite the fact that he played a major role in many episodes, almost none of them center on Reed himself; all he usually does is blow things up. T’pol - all she did for the first two seasons was bitch at Captain Archer and the rest of his crew- and then she became a drug addict! Phlox is incredibly annoying, he is always jovial and optimistic even when it is completely uncalled for, and it is almost as if he is incapable of any other emotions. The only person who is decent is Commander Tucker.

What Went Wrong with Enterprise, Part I

I loved all of the ‘Trek’ series, including Enterprise. But if I had to rank the five Star Trek series, this one would come in fifth. The fact that Enterprise was a prequel to the Star Trek series produced before it doomed it from the beginning of the first episode. Because Enterprise took place before the other ‘trek’ series but was actually filmed after, it precluded the possibility of the crew actually doing or discovering anything interesting, new or momentous, without either raising the question, “If this alien race, that Enterprise just discovered, is so powerful, then is so then how come we never hear from, or even about them in Picard’s time?” or just outright violating the continuity of the Star Trek time line. Therefore, the first two seasons of Enterprise are full of wimpy enemies that are alwayies easily defeated by Archer and his crew over an hour. In the third season of the show the writers made an attempt to overcome the “wimpy aliens” by starting the Xindi arc, completely ignoring the fact that the Xindi are not even so much as mentioned in the series that, in Star Trek chronology, occur after Enterprise. Despite its problems Enterprise showed a marked improvement in the fourth season. The storylines were actually interesting and incorporated themselves into, instead of violating, Star Trek continuity. However, Enterprise can only be involved in so many events that lead to the founding of the federation before the fact, because the crew of NX-01 are (almost) never mentioned in the “later” series. This dashes the credibility of the show. Part II of What Went Wrong with Enterprise in my next post.

TNG - Heart of Glory

Heart of Glory provides insight into Klingon culture, psyche, and rituals. It is mostly comprised of long, drawn-out speeches, but does have its moments. For instance, it is revealed what LaForge “sees,” as he sees the Batris through his VISOR. This gives us an insight into his character. Also of particular note in this episode is the Klingon death ritual. This is one of the earlier episodes of TNG. It seems to be aimed at developing the characters of Geordi, Worf, and to some extent developing the Klingons as a whole from a rather one-dimensional enemy, as they were in the original series, to a more dynamic ally of the Federation. While all of the character development that took place in this episode was beneficial to the series in the long run, the episode itself is relatively boring.

TOS - The Doomsday Machine

This is one the best episodes of The Original Series. It involves “larger than life” stakes, and puts a madman in command of the Enterprise. The special effects in the original series are usually very cheesy, however in this episode, the non-recycled special effects look very realistic for TOS. In other words, this episode has some of the best special effects in the original series, enhancing the quality of this episode. The acting is for the most part very good. The overacting that is common in TOS is ether not present or works in favor of the episode. The musical score, much of it barrowed from other episodes, effectively enhances the scenes within the episode. Many original series episodes had great plot lines, however the bad acting and cheesy special effects usually detracted form one’s enjoyment of that story line. These elements are largely absent from The Doomsday Machine, allowing its strong story line to shine through. Because of the lack of bad acting, the relatively good special effects and a strong, interesting storyline, this episode was able to reach its full potential, making it an example of The Original Series at its best.

VOY - Innocence

This episode deals with a very interesting concept, an alien species that ages backwards, theoretically setting the stage for what should have been an interesting episode of 'Trek'.
In reality, however, the writers of this episode failed to take advantage of the storytelling possibilities afforded to them by the nature of the Drayans. Instead of building the plot line around the nature of the Drayan's life cycle, they chose to write an episode basically about Tuvok teaching badly behaved, non-Vulcan "children" how to meditate. The writers did not even reveal how the Drayans age until the end of the episode. The result of these decisions, is that an epsode that could have been very entertaining and deep -- dealing with the nature of life, death and the aging process -- is turned into a rather boring epsode about whining "children" and bitching heads of government. This episode definitely had great potential, and could have been one of the best episode of Voyager's second seasion, if only the writers of this episode had chosen to make use of it.

The Mission Begins

Hello to all the Star Trek fans out there. Because Paramount is no longer producing new episodes of Star Trek, we have to be content with what we have. And we have a lot, 703 episodes and ten movies. On this blog, I will post whenever I view an episode or from my DVD collection. I'll share my thoughts and I welcome yours. Perhaps if we can keep the mission alive, Paramount will realize there are a lot of us out there and revive the Star Trek franchise.