Welcome back to Underrated Trek, where I take a special look at Star Trek episodes that I love…which may not be the most popular or even liked by most. But today we’re doing something very special. This episode isn’t just loved, it’s beloved. And since this is it’s 30th anniversary it’s time to talk about….
The episode is simply amazing. It’s a celebration of the then 30th anniversary of Trek and is so much fun. But at the same time is it a little…overrated?
Plot Synopsis:
The Defiant picks up a human trapped in Klingon space and is bringing him home. However the ship is then thrown back in time in front the original U.S.S. Enterprise.
The human was actually a Klingon agent named Darvin and he has sent them back 100 years to get revenge on Kirk. They realize they have arrived during the events of “The Trouble with Tribbles” and need to prevent Darvin from altering history.
After finding Darvin Sisko and Dax track Kirk to where the bomb set to go off is located, and stops it just in time. They return home bringing some tribbles along for the ride.
Guest Stars:
Having Charlie Brill back as Darvin was nothing short of brilliant. The fact it’s the same actor adds a believability to the episode that makes it all work.
Episode pros
Where do I start? I’m usually very critical of set recreations since they always look off in some way, but man did they do a beautiful job here! It really looks like they walked into an episode of the original series. My favorite effect has to be when Kirk sits on the Tribble and looks at Dax. That one moment makes this episode worth it! They did an amazing job with the costumes, the gadgets..everything is perfect.
And the use of the clips from the original episode are perfect. At first I was annoyed we didn’t see more but in hindsight we got enough. If you’ve never seen TOS you could follow along and know who the people were and if you have it’s enough nostalgia to make you smile. The restaged bar fight is great and I could fan gush all day. There were also some nice references like The Gorn on Cestus 3 to Bashir getting one of McCoys “I’m a doctor not a..” lines.
One cool thing is that since the episode needs to padded out we get some nice character stuff here. Worf and Odo, OBrien and Bashir, and Sisko and Dax have nice scenes. The only one sidelined was Kira who didn’t get much (fair since Nana Visitor was very pregnant). It doesn’t get so silly it stops feeling like a real DS9 episode (SNW TAKE NOTES!) as if it were a parody of itself. The characters stay in character and the music wonderfully scored works only adding to the experience, even the silly bar fight.
And what can I say about that last scene taken from “Mirror Mirror”?. Just beautiful you could almost really believe Kirk and Sisko were actually interacting. The novel expands this a bit but as for the episode whoever edited this deserved an award. By the way the novelization for this episode is absolutely worth a read since it ties the episodes together in a way not possible in the actual episode.
Episode Cons
So let’s talk about the one criticism and it’s not with the episode itself. You’ll see a lot of people say that this episode is the best episode of Deep Space Nine. And I say, really? This episode is a technical marvel and a lot of fun but compared to the rest of the series it doesn’t hold up. And saying this episode is the best is sort of an insult to the dramatic work the series has done. It’s not a bad episode AT ALL and I love it but you also have to acknowledge that it’s an odd duck among the rest. Heck even the original is not considered the best TOS episode just one of them. And don’t get me wrong a light DS9 episode is fine there are several but I’m Sorry when you have Way of the Warrior, The Visitor, and The Pale Moonlight (among others) calling this the “best” is just a disservice to the series.
Guess it’s only fair that while the effects were fantastic they weren’t perfect. The interrogation scene has one shot where O’Brien is clearly not supposed to be there. And there are some other glitches too but I’m really just nitpicking. Also in the corridor scene they took dialogue from later in the original episode to stretch it out, something I caught instantly. And this happened other times too. There are some other minor inconsistencies with the original episode I won’t list here but you’d only notice if you’ve seen that episode a million times, like me. For instance, the sound Kirk’s chair makes when he calls McCoy was never a thing. But nothing happens that hurts the original episode like some stupid retcon that completely changes the meaning of a scene or anything.
And yes there is some silliness. The stuff with the woman Bashir and OBrien talk to was padding though the actress did fine. OBrien confusing the extra with Kirk at the bar was lame padding. Though at least they finally acknowledged TOS Klingons. I get the feeling they were under a time constraint like they could only show much of the old footage so they needed to fill in the gaps. And Why didn’t Quark get a line? That was a whole day of makeup just to sit there in the very end and say nothing. Oh well still a funny visual. And by the way the writer of the original episode cameos.
Fast Forward Moment:
Nothing. Thought I do love how since they knew fans who didn’t watch regularly might tune in they had the temporal investigation guy need the orbs explained to him.
Final Thoughts:
It’s perfect as a silly episode of DS9 and as an anniversary tribute to Trek. What more can I say?
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