From: ph9991_manfr@rivers.acc.uwrf.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.current
Subject: Tuesday Night Review "Emissary" !SPOILERS!
Date: 6 Jan 93 06:42:38 GMT
Organization: University of Wisconsin - River Falls


And now, even less live, from Ellsworth and River Falls, Wisconsin,
comes the Tuesday Night Review!!!

Tonight's offering, the two-hour premiere episode of ST:DS9, "Emissary"


SPOILERS!






careful.  Do you really want to exist here?



Wow.  This was one hell of a dandy way to kick off the new series.  
Everything seemed fresh and new, even the things which were reused from
other sources!  The direction, the characters, the special effects,
and above all else, the wondrous script, all blew me right away.

Where do I begin?  They say the hardest thing to review is something you
love.  Well, let's do the normal grading thing...

Acting:  B+   Considering this is the first episode in the series and the
		actors are still feeling their way around their characters,
		I think this went surprisingly well.  I can recall feeling
		a little awkward watching Patrick Stewart in "Encounter at
		Farpoint," so when the same thing happened in this show,
		I was much more forgiving.  He'll settle down soon, and I
		can easily tell he has a LOT of potential to become just
		as great as Stewart.  
		As for the rest of the cast, they seemed perhaps a little
		more at ease, probably because they aren't the stars.
		I found myself liking the Major a lot more than I thought
		I would, due probably in large part to Nana Visitor's
		performance, to the extent that I think this is a far better
		way to go than to have Ro in this part and position.  
		Terry Farrell gets good mention too as Jadzia Dax, 
		successfully conveying "an unearthly child" feel to the
		character and speaking the technobabble with easy confidence.
		Another big surprise was Odo (can't remember actor's name,
		another symptom of a first episode :).  The same actor was
		in the extra scenes in Star Trek 6, and frankly I think his
		scenes there were better left out of the movie.  This was
		a complete opposite, and he even managed to deliver that
		obvious exposition line about being found near the wormhole
		convincingly.  
		Armin Shimerman is simply the only choice to play Quark.
		Armin was the original Ferengi, and attendees of PolarisCon II
		in the fall of 1991 in the Twin Cities were fortunate enough
		to meet and talk with him there (myself obviously included).
		We knew from the Shakespeare reading he did at the Cabaret
		that he could *really* act, and I mean * really * (you could
		hear dust drop during his performance, he had us so 
		enthralled), and so choosing him as the first non-hyper-active
		Ferengi is the best choice possible, and I think you will all
		be pleasantly surprised at how three-dimensional Quark will
		become.  
		Speaking of PolarisConII, if memory serves, Colm Meaney was
		supposed to attend that convention but had to pull out due
		to TNG commitments.  Ironic then that he's now working with
		Armin full-time, and working well.  Colm successfully made
		the transition to the new series with just the right amount
		of everything, and took full advantage of the Cardassian
		continuity lines given him in the script.  Nice to see him
		in charge of more than a transporter, and the scene where
		he leaves the Enterprise is really quite touching.
		As for our Doctor friend, well, he really didn't have much
		to do in this episode, but what he did have to do showed 
		even more good potential for good acting and character
		development.  I'll reserve a little judgement on him for
		an episode where he is really featured.
		That leaves Jake.  This is a kid who acts like a real kid,
		something very hard to find in Hollywood, and I'm amazed,
		quite frankly.  In fact, I'm just bloody amazed at nearly
		the whole thing.  Everything!

Story:  A+	This was a dandy storyline, and even had me, someone who
		read a little of the spoiler information, surprised at
		many parts.  Had I been thinking hard, I probably could have
		predicted many things, but that's the point.  The episode
		made me *not* think hard.  It caught me up in it, and I
		didn't stop to think until I was on the other side of the
		wormhole, so to speak.  The "What is time?" stuff was 
		gorgeous and ripe territory for Trek to cover.  The dream
		sequences and the moving into Sisko's eye brought back
		fond memories of a "Doctor Who" story called "Kinda,"
		and like that story, this told a philosophical argument
		in a very original and visually interesting manner.  
		What really made me smile was the moment when it finally was
		made clear what the aliens meant by "but you exist here."
		It was something I could have seen coming, but I wasn't
		looking, and thus I smiled when we got there. 
		And what kept me not looking was no doubt the sub-plot 
		with the Major moving DS9 and the Cardassian conflict,
		which was also handled very, very well indeed by characters
		on both sides.  Simply sweet.

Direction: A+   YES!!!!!! This is the kind of direction I've been waiting
		to see on TNG, and now I see why we haven't seen it there...
		they've been saving it for DS9.  At last, a camera that
		can move!  Close-ups!  Interesting shots and angles!
		Ghostly dream sequences!  Battle scenes balanced perfectly
		between model-work and crew reactions!  Utterly terrific
		stuff, and I hope they keep up the good work.

Special FX:  A+  A hundred thousand words by me would be insufficent to 
		describe the pictures.  See them for yourself and you'll
		see what I mean.  best bits were the Borg battle scenes
		and the wormhole.

Music:  C+	I'll give it credit for being more interesting than TNG,
		but it does need to be more odd than it was.  I do like
		the title music though, more of a sweeping style theme
		that takes its time rather than a pompous-sounding trumpet
		blare.  Allow some more odd synthesizer tricks such as
		we heard in the religious temple and in some of the dream
		bits (the backwards music comes to mind) and then we'll
		really be cooking.   The show has the stories and the look.
		The sound will finish it off.

Overall grade (scale of one to ten):  10

The only thing that worries me is that now TNG seems dull by comparison...

Steven.K.Manfred
 


	
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