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. Last time I looked at an episode about a natural disaster striking
the Enterprise. But just because TNG did that doesn’t mean the other
series can’t do something similar. What about a lock down on Deep Space
Nine? This is….
This episode has some similarities to “Disaster”, but does that mean it’s as good an episode? Well….
Plot Synopsis:
While converting the station’s ore processing unit, O’Brien and Jake accidentally trip an old Cardassian security system which sets the station on a lock-down.
While O’Brien and Sisko work on the problem where they are, at OPS is also locked own as is Odo with Quark. Kira’s attempts to stop the lock down makes it worst, and then it’s make even worst when Garak’s ideas sends the station into a two hour self destruct.
Gul Dukat appears and discusses options with Kira. But before he can return to his ship he ends up trapped on the station with everyone else. While O’Brien and Sisko manages to escape and Dax manages to shut down the force fields around the station. Sisko manages to fortify the shields just enough to absorb the energy of the self destruct and save the station.
Guest Stars:
Just the usual players this time around, which is rare for a DS9 episode.
Episode Pro’s:
Course DS9 was a heavy character show so we get some good interactions here. Odo and Quark end up trapped together which is kind of fun. And Dukat and Garak take a few snipes at each other. It’s easy to forget just how much of a bastard Marc Alamo’s Gul Dukat could be and this is a good example of it. Kira is awesome here to, I like how her brilliant solution only makes things worst (and then Garak’s and Dukat’s also has the same result).
One thing this episode has over “Disaster” is a ticking clock scenario. Yeah they tried in the other episode by saying that the ship could explode if they wait to long, but it feels more real here since the station does try to attack them with force fields and poisonous gas. And especially the self destruct which is primed and ready to go off. I love the idea that Gul Dukat actually recorded all those video warnings that we hear though the episode. For some reason the idea he would do that seems funny to me. This was an abandoned Cardassian security program in case the Bajoran workers revolted. And you kinda gotta ignore the ridiculous idea that this wasn’t discovered when Starfleet first took over the station.
I like how the episode ends, after being stuck in the confined spaces of the ore processing center, OPS, and Odo’s office for the episode out characters finally get out and we get a shot of the large and spacious promenade. It’s a very effective way to close the episode out.
Episode Con’s:
Unlike “Disaster”, the characters are separated into groups of three’s. And the result is much slower pacing which hurts the episode. The characters spend a good deal of time standing around coming up with ideas. At least in “Disaster” everyone was doing something every time we cut back to them. At one point to fill the time Quark gives us some backstory to Odo which is plain old filler. Bashir has almost no reason to even be in the episode, maybe that’s why they did that silliness of Dax hurting her hands.
In order to make it more interesting the script has some annoying contrivances in it. Like Dax hurting her hands on an EPS relay, and O’Brien getting hurt so that Jake would be forced to do something in the climax. Would have liked to see him help his father more. And some of the bickering between the characters is just silly, especially Dukat and Garak going back and forth. Yeah yeah we get, they don’t like each other! And what was the point of that whole scene where Dukat tries to play around with Kira? I get the feeling they only added Dukat because they ran out of ideas to keep the story going (although they did use him well).
The sad truth is this episode even with the filler gets boring, there just isn’t enough going on to keep it interesting. We spend so much time on one story we almost forget the other two until we cut back to them. And as usual for DS9 there is no epilogue. Yeah we can assume Dax’s hands were fine and Dukat just left when he was finally able to. But, it would have been nice if they had given us something rather than dragging the inevitable conclusion out.
Apparently this was not an easy script to get out, and it kinda shows.
Fast Forward Moment:
While it’s always fun to see Odo and Quark bickering their scenes serve almost no real purpose to the story. It was also clear they had to force Quark into the episode.
Final Thoughts:Slow paced but not awful. “Disaster” was better, there was just more going on to keep us engaged. This episode has also been compared to Voyager’s “Worst Case Scenario”. Is that a valid comparison? Guess we’ll have to check next time.
This episode has some similarities to “Disaster”, but does that mean it’s as good an episode? Well….
Plot Synopsis:
While converting the station’s ore processing unit, O’Brien and Jake accidentally trip an old Cardassian security system which sets the station on a lock-down.
While O’Brien and Sisko work on the problem where they are, at OPS is also locked own as is Odo with Quark. Kira’s attempts to stop the lock down makes it worst, and then it’s make even worst when Garak’s ideas sends the station into a two hour self destruct.
Gul Dukat appears and discusses options with Kira. But before he can return to his ship he ends up trapped on the station with everyone else. While O’Brien and Sisko manages to escape and Dax manages to shut down the force fields around the station. Sisko manages to fortify the shields just enough to absorb the energy of the self destruct and save the station.
Guest Stars:
Just the usual players this time around, which is rare for a DS9 episode.
Episode Pro’s:
Course DS9 was a heavy character show so we get some good interactions here. Odo and Quark end up trapped together which is kind of fun. And Dukat and Garak take a few snipes at each other. It’s easy to forget just how much of a bastard Marc Alamo’s Gul Dukat could be and this is a good example of it. Kira is awesome here to, I like how her brilliant solution only makes things worst (and then Garak’s and Dukat’s also has the same result).
One thing this episode has over “Disaster” is a ticking clock scenario. Yeah they tried in the other episode by saying that the ship could explode if they wait to long, but it feels more real here since the station does try to attack them with force fields and poisonous gas. And especially the self destruct which is primed and ready to go off. I love the idea that Gul Dukat actually recorded all those video warnings that we hear though the episode. For some reason the idea he would do that seems funny to me. This was an abandoned Cardassian security program in case the Bajoran workers revolted. And you kinda gotta ignore the ridiculous idea that this wasn’t discovered when Starfleet first took over the station.
I like how the episode ends, after being stuck in the confined spaces of the ore processing center, OPS, and Odo’s office for the episode out characters finally get out and we get a shot of the large and spacious promenade. It’s a very effective way to close the episode out.
Episode Con’s:
Unlike “Disaster”, the characters are separated into groups of three’s. And the result is much slower pacing which hurts the episode. The characters spend a good deal of time standing around coming up with ideas. At least in “Disaster” everyone was doing something every time we cut back to them. At one point to fill the time Quark gives us some backstory to Odo which is plain old filler. Bashir has almost no reason to even be in the episode, maybe that’s why they did that silliness of Dax hurting her hands.
In order to make it more interesting the script has some annoying contrivances in it. Like Dax hurting her hands on an EPS relay, and O’Brien getting hurt so that Jake would be forced to do something in the climax. Would have liked to see him help his father more. And some of the bickering between the characters is just silly, especially Dukat and Garak going back and forth. Yeah yeah we get, they don’t like each other! And what was the point of that whole scene where Dukat tries to play around with Kira? I get the feeling they only added Dukat because they ran out of ideas to keep the story going (although they did use him well).
The sad truth is this episode even with the filler gets boring, there just isn’t enough going on to keep it interesting. We spend so much time on one story we almost forget the other two until we cut back to them. And as usual for DS9 there is no epilogue. Yeah we can assume Dax’s hands were fine and Dukat just left when he was finally able to. But, it would have been nice if they had given us something rather than dragging the inevitable conclusion out.
Apparently this was not an easy script to get out, and it kinda shows.
Fast Forward Moment:
While it’s always fun to see Odo and Quark bickering their scenes serve almost no real purpose to the story. It was also clear they had to force Quark into the episode.
Final Thoughts:Slow paced but not awful. “Disaster” was better, there was just more going on to keep us engaged. This episode has also been compared to Voyager’s “Worst Case Scenario”. Is that a valid comparison? Guess we’ll have to check next time.
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