DS9 revisited and Episode #5 in the Era of No Vir
mood: 
contemplative
contemplativeTonight I sat down and watched "The Passenger" and "Move Along Home." Neither of these episodes were especially noteworthy- "Move Along Home" was just plain silly in fact- but both were at least watchable. One thing I was delighted to notice this time was that Caitlin Brown, the first and best Na'Toth, had a guest appearance in "The Passenger." Whoo hoo! Go Na'Toth! Oh, and I had completely forgotten how arrogant Dr. Bashir really was this early on- it was kind of jarring. I loved Kira's sarcastic response to his bragging. "I feel privileged to be in your presence." Hee.
Let's see, other comments? Well, Quark and Odo are totally married. I always enjoy watching them spar. I also appreciated the tension the writers maintained between the Bajoran and the Federation officers. Odo gets a new Fed partner in "The Passenger," and it was so nice to see that Odo did not respond to this happily. And it was wonderful that they took pains to capture Kira's silent put-off reaction to this Fed security officer invading Odo's turf. Maintaining this conflict was something that Voyager, which also involved the melding of two very different crews, failed to do.
Now on to this morning's B5 episode...
"Secrets of the Soul"
Grade: B-
Another average-to-solid episode with a missed opportunity or two.
In response to my bitching yesterday about Sheridan's perfection,
selenak reminded me that there was one major, acknowledged mistake that Sheridan made in the later years- his poor treatment of Lyta, which ultimately drove her into the arms of Byron. (As we saw today.) All right- I stand corrected. I still consider this whole thing problematic, however, because this particular mistake didn't seem to come from anywhere. What reason did Sheridan have to snub Lyta in this fashion? I don't think this was ever conveyed effectively, and without that motivation, the situation seems writer induced rather than organic.Byron really shows himself to be quite an arrogant hoser in this episode. "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" "As many as want to." He also quite effectively demonstrates the lesson that martyrs make very poor leaders. Byron might've averted a murder if he had not been so focused on protecting his people from the consequences of their actions. But instead, he takes the fall himself, thus effectively leaving the more militant elements of his group completely unsupervised.
Byron's hypocrisy is also striking. He speaks of being attacked and persecuted simply for being a teep, but when one of his own is taken to Med Lab after being beaten in Down Below and Byron is asked what happened, he responds that the teek was beaten "by one of you." As if all mundanes are universally violent and prejudiced towards teeps. With an attitude like that, it's no wonder he ultimately shows himself to be incapable of polite negotiation. (Which we'll see tomorrow.)
The Hyach/Hyach-Doh storyline was okay. However, I can't help but wonder if JMS missed an opportunity here by doing the parallel evolution/genocide storyline with a race with which we weren't previously familiar when there is a race out there with which we are very familiar that is one of two species that evolved on their homeworld. I am referring of course to the Centauri and the Xon. What if everything the current generation of Centauri have been taught about the Xon is wrong? What if Dr. Franklin had discovered something in the medical history of the Centauri that led him to discover that the Centauri were the aggressors in the fight against the Xon? How would Londo have responded to that revelation? How would Vir have responded? Doing this storyline from this angle would hit upon the same theme, but would do so with characters we know and like. It would raise the stakes of the plot considerably. Hmm...
Damned plot bunnies just won't leave me alone. Nice bunny. Have a carrot.
Franklin...