From: mwgertz+@cs.cmu.edu (Matthew Gertz)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.current
Subject: Comments on DS9 "Emissary" **SPOILERS**
Summary: Very nice.
Date: 5 Jan 93 15:51:32 GMT
Article-I.D.: cs.C0E1E1.HHs.1
Organization: Dept. of ECE, The Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon

A discussion of the excellent DS9 premiere follow this control-L and
blank space:




















Well, *THAT* was a lot of fun!  I found myself grabbed by the first few
minutes of the show, and only at one point did I find that it slowed down
at all.  Pardon me for not knowing all of the names of the characters
and their portrayers; I'll try to make myself as clear as I can.

Cdr. Sisko is an excellent character, and a joy to watch and hear.  It's 
the little things that make the difference between a two dimensional
and three dimensional character, and these things are well incorporated 
into this character.  Although the first thing we see in DS9 is the
tragedy the haunts Sisko, we soon see that his character extends beyond 
this incident.  We weren't hit over the head with his character all at
once; rather, dribbles and drabbles of his personality were revealed
to us over the entire episode in flashes as quick as his smile.  Sisko
isn't Kirk, and he isn't Picard (Picard would've been reading a book on
the beach, and, while Kirk would have been flirting with the women, he
would have been a little less, uh, sincere). (Don't construe this as
the beginnings of a Kirk vs. Picard vs. Sisko thread -- I don't want
to start THAT!  I like them all...)

The bits with the wormhole aliens tended to drag, plus the scripting
had some problems (for instance, one alien said that Sisko should
be destroyed, and yet, later, Sisko had to explain what "death" was.
I would have been much more interested to see what occured that
disabled the Cardassian ship, and how Sisko was released to rescue
them, rather than spend all that time listening to aliens learn about
linear time.  That was my only major nitpick in this episode (one wonders
what ended up on the cutting room floor to make room for all of those
self-searching scenes).  "Whay do you exist *here*?" though, was
a nice line.

The Tritt (Dax?):  Using the orb to reveal her past was a clever way
to show those who hadn't seen "The Host" what a Tritt was without
Dax having to go into "sermon mode"  as other characters have done
in premieres to describe what drives them (most notably Tasha Yar and
Data in "EaF," and Odo in this episode).  I am not thrilled with the 
actress portraying the Tritt -- she sounds as if she's reading her
lines from cue cards -- but perhaps this will get better as she gets
used to the character.  (She doesn't have job security, anyway, since
anyone can play the Tritt... 8^)

Rene Auberjonois doesn't have job security, either, but I like Odo,
and was pleasantly surprised by his character (I guess I had pictured
him as being rather like Data in temperment).  The morphing special effects
were nice.  I didn't like Odo stopping everyone in the middle of the
corridor to explain his purpose in life during an emergency, but, hey,
it's a premiere.

O'Brien belongs here.  Colm Meany has a lot of fun in this episode and,
while his character seemed out of place to me on the Enterprise once
they tried to "develop" him, I think he'll fit right in here, and become
one of my favorites.  Keiko is another matter; I wonder why she wasn't
in this episode?

Major Kira:  Her portrayer has a tendency to overact, but I was surprised
to find that I didn't care!  I guess I expected a lot of dark emotions
based on Ensign Ro.  I don't have a lot to say about her, except that
I like her -- it's nice to see a strong female lead character.

Quark:  So, that's what a Ferengi looks like without the headpiece.
Quark isn't as "dark" as I would like, but, since his only purpose
in this episode was to demonstrate how tough Sisko and Odo were, he
wasn't given much of a chance.  I'll reserve judgement until later.
(The problem is that DS9 is set up for multi-faceted characters, while
Ferengi are, in my mind, rather two-dimensional.  We'll see.)

Julian Bashar:  Glad to see he wasn't a total goof.  Not much to say
about his character, since he was barely featured.  If we have another
first officer/doctor conflict between Kira and Bashar (as in TOS, but
with different motivations), he could be a lot of fun.

Bajor spiritual leader:  Ehh.  I find her annoying, but that may be 
intentional on the part of Berman & Piller.  Search for the celestial
temple?  I'm skeptical.

Wormhole aliens:  Well, at least that explains why the wormhole is stable,
which was necessary.  I won't be able to take too many episodes of
"What is...?" and "Why are...?" though.  Hopefully, my fears will prove
to be unjustified.

Cardassians:  My, TPTB have gone to great lengths to make us hate the
Cardassians, haven't they?  Even the Borg were shown to be redeemable,
but the Cardassians have been super-nasty since their second appearance
in "Ensign Ro" -- rather like TOS Klingons, actually.  It may be that
they, too, may become multifaceted, but probably not until we've set
up some decent conflicts.

Question:  How were the Cardassians tricked into thinking that DS9 had
4000 torpedoes?  The "Thorium rays" just cloaked the base instead of
providing false ghosts.

Question:  O'Brien indicates that DS9 has no shields.  Later, we
hear that shields are failing.  What gives?  Did O'Brien rig something
up in five minutes?

I rather liked the music throughout the episode.  Who was the composer?

The promenade could use some beefing up.  Right now it looks like a sound
stage with about thirty extras walking around "nattering and grommishing."
I realize that DS9 is supposed to be nearly empty, though, so maybe
this will change as more crew are assigned.

The mood on the show, in general, was excellent.  These characters
were a breath of fresh air, and for the most part beleiveable and
three-dimensional.  I'll be looking forward to further episodes of
Deep Space Nine, and I give this premiere episode a nice 9.5 out of 10 --
as a first episode, it worked much better than "EaF."  Looking at "EaF"
and seeing how much the characters changed over the first season, I am
very interested to see how these characters will evolve over the
course of the year.
-- 
Matt Gertz, mwgertz+@cs.cmu.edu
Dept. of ECE, The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.current