From: hmoran@nswc-wo.? (Howard Moran)
Subject: Re: Lynch's Spoiler Review: "Past Prologue"
Organization: NSWC White Oak
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 20:53:20 GMT

In article <1jae1cINNbdn@gap.caltech.edu> tlynch@cco.caltech.edu (Timothy W. Lynch) writes:

   Well, I'm not as intrigued here as I was by the pilot, but this was still 
   pretty good...



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   ... One of the big twists in the show, the fact that Tahna was 
   targeting the wormhole with his explosive rather than the station, wasn't a 
   bad idea at all ...

But this was the one point I gagged on!  Wormholes, "natural" or "artificial"
are tied to titanic/subtle forces/events capable of warping spacetime.  IMHO
Tahna and the Khon-Ma had about as much chance of shutting down the wormhole
"entrance" with that device as I would in trying to disrupt hurricane Andrew
with a box of TNT - we are talking MAJOR forces here.  

I suppose that this may have been meant to be seen as a desperate act on the 
part of the Khon-Ma to yell to the universe-at-large "Hey, we're still here 
and a force to be reckoned with!"  What with the Cardassian evac and the 
establishment of a Bajoran provo government the Khon-Ma and their ilk may 
have been wondering what to do to validate their continued existence.

Beware the freedom fighter with spare time!!

   One of the things about the plot that definitely interested me, though, was 
   the involvement (and return) of Lursa and B'Etor, "the sisters of 
   Durassss..." ...

I wonder just how many persons we'll be meeting with personal starships-cum-
warships-cum-personal-yachts 8>

   Tahna was being chased by the Cardassians because he stole an antimatter 
   converter, and nobody on DS9 knew about it except Garak, right?  Well, not 
   really; in fact, that doesn't work at all.  Tahna strongly implies that he 
   stole it and then was immediately chased by the Cardassians, landing him in 
   his present predicament.  If so, then the converter should either have been 
   blown to bits along with his ship, or would have been on him when he came 
   aboard -- and there's no way in hell that Sisko, Bashir and the rest 
   wouldn't 
   have noticed it almost immediately.  That's a big, *big* problem, and one 
   that should have been caught.

Might Tahna have previously handed on the converter to co-conspirators while
he led the Cardassian posse away?  In which case the two other Khon-Ma he
met with on DS9 may have brought the converter as well as the "gold pressed
<<whatever - duck?>>".

   We saw lots of Bashir in his whole situation with Garak.  While I think it 
   ran a bit long in places, and that Bashir was perhaps *too* silly about it 
   early on, it did make for some wonderful eye-rolling "aw, no, what's he 
   getting himself into *now*?" reactions on my part.  ["In the meantime, 
   Doctor, I think you could definitely use a new suit."  Love it.  :-) ]  
   As in 
   the pilot, I think Bashir needs a bit of toning down, but not too much.

I like what Al Faddid is doing so far.  Bashir is SUPPOSED to be a bit of a
pampered naif, maybe an only child coddled and cuddled who is only now out
in a "real" world situation.  I don't necessarily see a need for "toning down"
just a bit of growth a la Hot Lips from M*A*S*H.

   O'Brien ...

I was bothered a bit by O'Brien's rather matter-of-fact follow-through to
Sisko's order to ready the torpedos and be ready to fire on the runabout
carrying Tahna AND Kira - a glance at Sisko, a bit of "uh, we'll destroy
Kira as well if we fire, sir".  Something more than "okay, now let me think
what buttons to push here...hmmm."

   That leaves Kira and Tahna, clearly the focuses of the whole thing.  I'm 
   starting to warm to Kira, too; although at times she can still get too 
   strident, many more of her strong-willed scenes worked for me here than in 
   "Emissary".
   [...]
   I agree with Tahna, however; here, she 
   *was* far too much of an advocate for the provisional government and the 
   Federation.  If her intense dislike of both hadn't been laid out quite so 
   clearly in "Emissary", I might be able to buy it; but this sounded like the 
   real pose was pro-both and she was trying to weasel out of it.  

I just figured that this was meant to throw into bolder relief that Kira has
turned to constructive while Tahna is still bound to destructive methods (the 
"old ways").

   Tahna was okay, but primarily was around to get to Kira, whom I've already 
   discussed.  Two of his final actions are worthy of comment, though.  The 
   first, actually surrendering, seemed a surprise to me; I'd have expected him
   to at least threaten to kill himself rather than turn himself over to either
   side.  (I know; the point was that he really *wasn't* as brave as he'd been 
   claiming to be.  This didn't seem the way to show it.)  

I thought he had simply run out of steam, not courage.  Assuming that this was
a sort of last-ditch bid for attention by the Khon-Ma, when it failed he simply
collapsed with no alternatives availabe/planned.  As for his bravery, remember
he had already been in Cardassian hands before (however did he get away??) and
KNEW firsthand what O'Brien could only allude to and Sisko only imagine - he
was most likely brave but not stupidly so.

   The second, his final 
   word to Kira -- simply "Traitor." -- worked extremely well; not so much for 
   what it did with him as what it will hopefully do with her.  Again, we'll 
   see; but that was a striking, and somewhat dark, way to end the show.

This was a high point to me - Kira expressing growing faith in the future,
Tahna having only his past despair and anger.  The follow on was good -
Sisko stepping forward and then realizing he had nothing he could offer but
his presence, Kira looking up stricken by this angry rejection by a onetime
friend and teammate (at least) and then the two simply striding away to the
the future - together.

   "There's someone down here in Security who wants to talk to you, Commander."
			   -- Odo

Loved this line and the delivery.

   Copyright 1993, Timothy W. Lynch.  All rights reserved, but feel free to ask

hmoran@nswc-wo.nswc.navy.mil