From: tvf@cci632.cci.com (Tom Frauenhofer)
Subject: Re: Deep Review 9: "The Emissary" (SPOILERS)
Organization: Northern Telecom, Network Applications Systems, Rochester, NY
Distribution: world,local
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 21:56:30 GMT

In article <79327@hydra.gatech.EDU> ccoprdj@prism.gatech.EDU (Jorge Diaz) writes:
>In article <1993Jan6.214546.25648@cci632.cci.com> tvf@cci632.cci.com (Tom Frauenhofer) writes:
>
>>Spoilers follow, so beware...

>
>>The morphing effect for Odo was good, just like in Terminator 2.  I liked the
>>scene where the guy throws the knife at Odo's head and it "splashed" through.
>
>Yeah, but couldn't this have hurt someone behind him?  Wouldn't it have been
>better to "catch" the knife with his face? :-)

A good point, but who knows.  Remember, he's not a human - does he
only see with his humanoid eyes in that form?  Hey, how does a
jello-like shapeshifter sense the world, anyway?

>>Avery Brooks is great.  I loved him in "Spenser: For Hire" and
>>was very happy to hear that he was to start in DS9.  He didn't disappoint
>>me.  The initial confrontation with Picard after assuming command of the
>>station was well done on his part, but I'm glad that the Sisko character was
>>able to overcome this.
>
>Yes, but did it have to happen so *soon*?  This is typical of the "episode
>in a bottle" problem that we've seen before in TNG.  Everything is wrapped
>up nicely in a single episode.  Why not make friends with Picard in *another*
>episode, two or three weeks from now?

I disagree - it showed some growth in his character.  I'll admit, the
start of that scene seemed a little forced, but Sisko is supposed to
be the hero.  Hero's are supposed to overcome their deficiencies.

>>Patrick Stewart did a good job as Picard.  I'm a Stewart fan, I admit it,
>>and I think he did a good job modulating his character, particularly in the
>>confrontation scene.  The O'Brien goodbye scene was also well done.
>
>Modulating his character?  What modulating?  I didn't find the performance
>all that great.  Nothing wrong with it, mind you, just nothing spectacular.

The way Stewart's jaw sort of dropped at the mention of the battle of
Wolf 359?  The discomfort he put across?  That was modulation.

>BTW, I liked the fact that they used a major.  Nice to see some non-navy
>ranks.  Not a big deal, but it shows an attention to the little details.

Yes, I agree.

>>Nana Visitor as Major Kira (spelling?) was a find - better than I expected.
>>I do think she overacted a little bit in the confrontation with the
>>Cardassians, but some over-the-top acting might be appropriate for an
>>ex-terrorist who has "come in from the cold" (so to speak).
>
>I'm surprised that no one has mentioned this:  Kira was ready to sacrifice
>the entire space station to fight the Cardassians.  Now, I realize that
>surrender was not an option, and they only had 6 photon torpedoes, but she
>acted like she wanted to "die the glorious death" in battle against the
>oppressors of her people.  That's all well and good, but not with all those
>Federation officers in a Federation space station.  That just didn't seem
>right.  While the battle was occurring, I thought "She's responsible for
>every death on that ship."  Then, later, we'll told that there were no
>deaths.  How convenient!  Especially seeing that beam fall on that one
>guy.  I thought for sure he'd be dead.  I don't know.  That scene just didn't
>work for me.  She seemed just a little to selfish.

I didn't read that scene this way.  Her conflict is that she's a
former member of the Extremely Disloyal Opposition who's now one of
the folks in charge.  And, obviously, a poker play in the Kirk mold
(one of the better characteristics of Kirk, IMHO) (and, I should add,
a Much Better poker player than any of the TNG crew, too).  She kept
coming up with bluff-after-bluff and bought time.  She kept her goal
in site.  Like I said, maybe she went a little overboard, but it was
an interesting strategy.  A good Persian flaw for her character, I
think.

>>Colm Meany as O'Brien doing a LaForge/Scotty schtick was okay.  He really
>>didn't have any memorable lines.  He's got the hardest job here - taking a
>>somewhat established character and re-defining him in a new surrounding.
>
>Oh, I don't know.  I kinda liked the "Computer, we have *really* got to
>have a talk!" scene. :-)

I'd forgotten about that line.  You're right.

>>Armin Shimerman as Quark was better than most Ferengi, but I'm still leery.
>>The Star Trek people still haven't figured out that being greedy and
>>intelligent CAN go together in a believable character (this "greedy=stupid"
>>way the Ferengi have been played in the past is pretty tiresome now).
>
>I don't think he was played stupidly at all.  As another poster mentioned,
>I liked his line "When governments fall, people like me are lined up and
>shot."

I didn't say that he was played stupidly.  I said that the Ferengi are
usually portrayed as idiots (as are the Romulans).  I said Quark was
better than most Ferengi.

>>The spacestation is pretty interesting.
>
>But what a waste!!!  Who's the designer of that thing?  It uses a lot of
>material to encompass very little volume.  Not a very sensible design,
>although it looks good.

Remember - it's a Cardassian design, with Cardassian flourishes.
Federation types know a lot more about architecture.  Oh, :-).

>>THE GOOD
>
>>- Sisko used Baseball to explain how linear time works!  I wondered what the
>>  baseball player was doing in some of the intercuts when he's talking to
>>  the aliens.  I had heard he was a baseball fan, it's just nice to see it
>>  used here, constructively.
>
>Who are you talking about?  Who is a baseball fan?  And what would the baseball
>player be saying to the aliens?  You lost me here.

Sorry.  Sisko is supposed to be a big baseball fan.  If it was
important to him, no wonder the aliens used it to communicate with him
(hell, they used just about everything and everyone else - lord knows
there were a LOT of different settings/actors going on there!)

>>- Having the big, bad Cardassian ship "towed" out of the wormhole by the
>>  lowly Federation shuttlecraft.  Some Cardassian Crow had to be eaten
>>  there.
>
>Watching that scene, the big, bad, Cardassian ship seemed to be only 2-3
>times larger than the Runabout.  Either those Runabouts are bigger than I
>thought, or there's nothing *big* about the big, bad Cardassian ships.

Yes, the Star Trek effects people do have an annoying habit of
screwing-up the size relationships between ships.

>>THE BAD
>
>>- The "move the spacestation" scene.  Pretty hokey.
>
>I didn't have a problem with it.  I just wish that they writers would let
>us use our imagination some of the time.  Do you actually think that the
>shields around the space station are going to form a visible bubble?  Not
>me.

Lessen the mass using a shield of some kind?  Sorry, I don't buy it.
And I agree about the stupid bubble.

>>- The aliens "closing" the wormhole at that point?  I think their dramatic
>>  license should be suspended, possibly revoked.
>
>Why?  They made the wormhole, why shouldn't they be able to close it?

But why then?  Why not after they disposed of Dax, at least until they
finished grilling Sisko?

>>- How come the Borg didn't go after the escape pods?
>
>How come the Borg destroyed the ships?  Isn't their purpose to assimilate
>the Feds?  Destroying the ships won't leave a whole lot for them to
>assimilate.

The borg seemed to have no problem trying to destroy resistors.

BTW, if the Borg could carve up the fleet like that, how come when the
Enterprise did the separation (in "Best of Both Worlds Part II") they
didn't just take out the two pieces?  Are the Enterprise crew that
much better than the whole fleet?

>>2) WAS THERE MORE CONFLICT?  Not a lot more than TNG or TOS, really, but a
>>lot more potential for conflict.
>
>I have to disagree.  There was about as much as in the first series:  something
>TNG has been sorely lacking.  Kira seemed to dislike the doctor, and, at
>first, both her and Odo disliked Sisko.  There's at least *some* tension
>there, which is better than T-"group hug"-NG.  And of course, there was the
>conflict with the Borg.  I loved that scene where half a ship's saucer
>section was destroyed. :-)  Which of course begs the question what the
>hell was the saucer section doing there in the first place?

No, a little more.  Apart from Spock and McCoy (and the occasional
Scotty "You can't be serious" lines) there really wasn't a lot of
conflict in the crew.  And the McCoy and Spock stuff did sometimes get
a little too similar (if I ever here "Why you green-blooded
something-or-other" again I will get sick).

Besides, you brought up the best Odo scene - the scene where Sisko
blackmails Quark.  The line about how Odo might like Sisko after all
was pretty good.

And, yes, the half-a-saucer effect was pretty good.

>>3) DOES IT HAVE POTENTIAL?  Yes.  A lot more that I thought it would, to be
>>honest.  I'm not sure how many seasons they can pull out of the concept, but
>>we'll see.
>
>I think I'm ready to give up on TNG just to watch this.  This show has a
>lot of potential, IMO, and TNG is just too far gone.

TNG does seem to be getting somewhat formulaic these days, but what
the hell, I still like it enough to watch it.

>>Acting: 	 8 (Due to Brooks and Stewart.  The rest need more fleshing-out)
>
>Brooks and *Stewart*?  C'mon, he had less air-time than most of the characters
>you said we didn't get to see (eg Odo and Dax).  I realize you're a Stewart
>fan, but c'mon, the man just didn't *do* anything.

I think the confrontation scene between Brooks and Stewart brought out
the most in Brooks, and Stewart and him played off each other nicely.
I know you disagree about Stewart, but that's my reading.
--
Thomas V. Frauenhofer, WA2YYW
tvf@cci.com, ...!uunet!uupsi!cci632!tvf, tvf@cs.rit.edu
Mandlebratwurst: The Meal that Eats Itself!