Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Star Trek DS9 Episode 116 - Business as Usual

"Despondent over his mounting financial woes, Quark allows his Cousin Gaila to talk him into joining the arms sales business."


Quark ends up wrapped up in a dangerous arms business. Gaila is selling arms to both sides in a conflict. Quark struggles with the moral aspects of this coupled with his need to pay off debt. He finds a way out but not before a firefight ensues on DS9. Sisko makes Quark pay for damages, adding even more to his debt problem.

The side plot is about how Quark was losing his friends due to his involvement in arms dealing, particularly Dax. Ok...so when did Quark get friends? Especially Dax?

116 down and 60 to go

Star Trek DS9 Episode 115 - A Simple Investigation

"Odo falls in love with a woman, Arissa, involved in the Orion Syndicate."

Arissa arrives on DS9 and starts acting suspicious. Odo begins to investigate her and finds out that she is an agent for a crime organization. She tells Odo that she wants to leave the Orion Syndicate and Odo agrees to help her. They begin to fall for each other and they eventually make sweet passionate banging.

Further investigation reveals that Arissa has had her memory removed by the Syndicate in order to control her. Arissa wants her normal life back so Odo helps to retrieve her memories. She realizes that she is a married woman with a family and that Odo and her can never be together. Poor Odo. He has worse luck with woman than Geordi LaForge. Also, the lady that played Arissa was in the movie Rock 'n Roll High School.

115 down and 61 to go

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Star Trek DS9 Episode 114 - Doctor Bashir, I Presume?

"Julian Bashir is selected to become the model for a Long-term Medical Hologram, until a family secret is revealed."


The Doctor from Voyager shows up and want to use Bashir as a Medical Hologram template. Then Bashir's parents show up. There is much tension between Bashir and his father. It seems that as a child Julian was a moron, until his dad illegally genetically altered him. This info gets out and Julian figures he must resign because he is essentially a criminal. In the end his father offers himself up to Starfleet and will go to prison instead of Julien. Or something like that.

The side plot is thus: Dr. Zimmerman starts hitting on Leeta and they go out a few times. Rom is of course going out of his mind, but he is also an idiot and can't just tell Leeta how he feels. It takes all episode but he finally lets her know and she leaves Zimmerman for Rom. ....I still don't get it.

114 down and 62 to go

Monday, December 29, 2014

Star Trek DS9 Episode 113 - By Inferno's Light Pt. 2

"Gul Dukat aligns the Cardassians with the Dominion. The station must deal with a Changeling infiltrator."

This was an incredibly action packed episode. That jammed a ton of plot into 48 minutes. Maybe too much plot. So Worf and Garak are still in prison and Worf is made to fight an endless line of Jem'Hadar warriors...for some reason. The Cardassian forces have allied with the Dominion. As the exit the wormhole they end up in a fight with DS9, The Defiant and Gul Dukat piloting a Bird of Prey. But, Dukat was only playing Sisko, he is in on the Cardassian plot.

The battle lines are now drawn. Cardassian/Dominion (Jem'Hadar/Founders) versus Starfleet/Klingon/Bajoran/Romulan. As the battle wages on; Worf and Garak escape the prison and Changeling Bashir tries to send a bomb into the sun killing everyone. Real Bashir sends a message to DS9 and they are able to stop fake Bashir. In the process they discover that the Cardassian fleet was real but the Dominion force was only smoke and mirrors. Which is a disappointing ending. I assume Cardassia has really aligned with the Dominion.

113 down and 63 to go

Friday, December 26, 2014

Star Trek DS9 Episode 112 - In Purgatory's Shadow Pt. 1

"Worf and Garak journey to the Gamma Quadrant to investigate a coded Cardassian message."


This coded message is a distress call from one of Garak's old mentors. Garak and Worf travel far into the Nebula to investigate and they argue the entire time. They are really a terrible pairing and to be honest I don't enjoy having them together as the main focus of an episode. Eventually they discover something shocking, I giant Dominion fleet assembling to attack the Alpha Quadrant. Suddenly Jem'Hadar soldiers appear and take the two prisoner. Worf manages to send a coded signal back to DS9 and Sisko dispatches Kira to find Garak and Worf. She is unable to save them and returns to DS9 with news of the coming invasion.

Sisko decides to give Worf and Garak 36 hours to get home before he seals the wormhole and stops the Dominion invasion. This is a tough decision that Sisko seems to make without blinking.

Meanwhile in prison. Worf and Garak find the mentor, but he is dying, so the two begin to try an escape. Oh but first there is an excellent twist. They descover another prisoner....Bashir! It seems that for the past bunch of episodes the Dr. Bashir on DS9 has been a Changeling!! With the 36 hours now up, Sisko fires into the wormhole, but it doesn't close. The episode ends as Jem'Hadar warships start pouring through the wormhole...

112 down and 64 to go

Star Trek DS9 Episode 111 - For The Uniform

"Michael Eddington returns and Sisko becomes obsessed with catching him."


I like the idea of a rogue Starship Captain as the villain. In fact, I would have liked this plot much more than the Changeling stuff. But, I just don't enjoy Eddington as a character. Maybe it's just the way he is played by Ken Marshall. I don't know. He is just very hokey.

The cat and mouse game between Sisko and Eddington in this episode was enjoyable. Sisko seemed thwarted at every turn. Eddington is getting rather brazen too, he has been attacking Cardassian colonies with this crazy biogenic weapon that poisons the atmosphere. Sisko figures out that Eddington sees himself as the hero so he decides to play the villain. Sisko makes public his plan to poison the Maquis atmosphere and kill them all. This causes Eddington to surrender. It was a cool ploy by Benjamin.

111 down and 65 to go

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Star Trek DS9 Episode 110 - The Begotten

Odo buys a Changling baby from Quark. Which right of the bat is just weird. He tries to teach it to shapeshift. Odo's former mentor Dr. Mora shows up and tries to take over. They argue over how to raise the baby. But soon the little Changeling starts to die and Odo must give it up to Mora. Odo knew the Doctor was right all along but was resentful of his former "father". In the end they hug it out.

Kira is also finally having the O'Brien baby. So it's an all baby episode. And it sucks.

110 down and 66 to go

Star Trek DS9 Episode 109 - The Darkness and the Light

"Someone is killing Kira's friends off and she might be next."

As expected everyone is trying to protect Kira, especially Miles (as his unborn baby is inside her). But, Kira only wants revenge and goes on a mission to hunt this killer down. How she manages to slip by nearly everyone on the station is beyond me...seeing how they are all supposed to be watching her. Good job Odo, you dumb human.

She eventually confronts this assassin (and gets captured in the process). He was disfigured in a Bajoran bombing and now seeks revenge. Yeah...that's the plot. Also, he was not even a soldier, he was like a dry cleaner or something. Then he tries to cut out Kira's baby. The plot really falls apart at the end there.

At least the lady that played Simone from Pee Wee's Big Adventure was in this episode. She was cute.

109 down and 67 to go

Monday, December 22, 2014

Star Trek DS9 Episode 108 - Rapture

"An accident causes Sisko to have prophetic visions."

While I did enjoy this episode, the plot was a little forced. Sisko sees a painting of a lost Bajoran city and then becomes obsessed with finding it..(OK, but why??). He Finds an obelisk that supposedly leads the way to the city, he go nuts trying to figure out it's meaning...(yes, but again, why??). Then the holodeck malfunctions and knocks Sisko out. He starts having prophetic visions (how convenient...and also why is stuff always malfunctioning on DS9?). His visions bring him closer to the truth, but his headaches are getting bad and Bashir tells him that he will die without surgery. Sisko refuses, he wants the visions to reveal the truth to him (since when does he even care about this stuff?). Jake is forced to decide for him and Bashir operates. The visions end. But not before Sisko warns that if Bajor joins the Federation than all hell will breaks loose.

108 down and 68 to go

Friday, December 19, 2014

Star Trek DS9 Episode 107 - The Ascent

I enjoyed this one. Odo is transporting Quark to a hearing, when their runabout crash lands on a desolate frozen planet. Their rations and equipment are destroyed. They decide to take the remnants of a transmitter and bring it to the top of a mountain in order to send a distress signal. They argue the entire way, and even get into a fight. Initially they think that it will take a few hours, but it ends up being days. To make matters worse Odo breaks his leg. Quark leaves Odo behind to continue up the mountain. They are both very near death and Odo begins to record his last will and testament. Suddenly he is beamed to sick bay. Quark was able to send the signal after all.

107 down and 69 to go

Star Trek DS9 Episode 106 - Things Past

"Sisko, Odo, Dax and Garak are found unconscious. While Bashir attempts to revive their bodies, the four wake up during the Cardassian occupation of Bajor several years earlier."

They actually all share a telekinetic memory, they don't actually go back in time. But what is revealed during this experience is that Odo allowed three innocent Bajorans to be executed. Seven years earlier on DS9 an assassination attempt was made on Gul Dukat and Odo arrested these three Bajorans. He didn't do much investigating and had them put to death...then he found out that they were innocent. They should have had this memory go even further back to when Odo, Benson and the Governor go to Hong Kong and Odo gets kidnapped by a fashion designer. I can't believe it took me 106 episodes to make a Benson joke.

106 down and 70 to go

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Star Trek DS9 Episode 105 - Let He Who is Without Sin...

"Worf and Dax vacation on the pleasure planet, Risa, and encounter unexpected dangers."

Evidently Worf and Dax are now an item... I recall Dax flirting with him, but do not remember them ever getting together. Either way, its disgusting. Not only is Worf gross, but he has the personality of the husband from The Burning Bed. Then they have to go ahead and have Leeta (who is very cute) say that she is attracted to Rom! What the heck is going on here?

Then Worf drops a bombshell. When he was a little kid he accidently killed another kid while playing soccer. His gigantic Klingon head collided with the other kids head. I literally laughed out loud during this part.


So basically Worf is jeleous and doesn't trust Dax so he continuesly sabotages their vacation. It's kind of like the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Also, Vanessa Williams is in this episode, she really gave me risa. I was hoping that Paul Risa would appear in this episode... That's all I got. And actually I really can't stand Paul Riser.

105 down and 71 to go

Monday, December 15, 2014

Star Trek DS9 Episode 104 - Trials and Tribble-ations

"Darvin, a disgraced Klingon spy, travels back in time. The DS9 crew must prevent him from altering the timeline by killing James T. Kirk."

Possibly my favorite DS9 episode. You may remember Darvin from the episode Trouble With Tribbles, he was the surgically altered human-looking Klingon spy that tried to poison the grain shipment! They actually have the same actor who played the original Darvin too.

This episode is amazing. Sisko, Worf, Miles, Bashir and Dax end up pulled back in time with Darvin... he is hell bent on getting even with Kirk. He plans to place a bomb inside one of the many Tribbles. The DS9 must find this Tribble and save history. The plot is a bit forced, but who the hell cares. The visuals are awesome. They take the DS9 members and add them right into the Trouble With Tribbles episode, rather seamlessly too. Evidently the filming was influenced by the movie Forrest Gump. It really looks great, even when they have to use a "stunt double" for Kirk. It's not like that Golden Girls episode where Rose is in the dance contest and the stunt double is obviously a man in a bad white wig.

It is fun to see the DS9 crew interact with the TOS crew. They constantly comment on the primitiveness off the technology, clothing and social structure of the old Starfleet. I do find it a bit unbelievable that they would be so lost in this time period... I mean they have no idea what the Turbolift even is. I'm sure they would have learned about all of this in Starfleet Academy. But again...who cares! I like how when Bashir asks Worf why the old Klingons look different he just says, "It's complicated". The real explanation will not be address until Enterprise. But anyway, I would say that this is a must see episode for every Star Trek fan.

104 down and 72 to go

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Star Trek DS9 Episode 103 - The Assignment

"Keiko O'Brien is possessed by evil Pah-wraiths with a plan to eliminate the Prophets. The Pah-wraiths force Miles O'Brien to use DS9's systems to fire chroniton radiation at the wormhole — destroying both it and the Prophets — or else he loses his wife and his daughter Molly."

Keiko turns into a nagging, irritable, manipulative wife .... finally, some normalcy on the show.

103 down and 73 to go

Monday, December 08, 2014

Star Trek DS9 Episode 102 - Nor the Battle to the Strong

"Dr. Bashir has been away at a conference and Jake Sisko accompanied him to research a profile he is writing about the doctor. Returning in a runabout, they get a distress call from a federation colony under Klingon attack."

This was a great Jake themed episode, and actually I really liked Bashir in this one too. Typically I find Jake a bit boring and Bashir way too hokey. But, this episode was a serious and powerful inside look at war.

Basically Jake ends up becoming an imbedded war correspondent. He sees and writes his thoughts on what he is witnessing; death, destruction; strife; bravery. As Jake and Bashir are out on a supply run they are attacked. Bashir is injured and Jake runs away, leaving Bashir behind. Jake writes about how he folded in the face of danger. This causes Sisko to remark that, it takes a real man to write about his cowardice for all to see.

102 down and 74 to go

Friday, December 05, 2014

Star Trek DS9 Episode 101 - Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places

"Worf finds himself attracted to Grilka, Quark's ex wife, when she visits the station."

This episode plays out like some kind of 80s romantic comedy, except everyone in it is ugly ... like Moonstruck. Although Worf is interested in Quarks Klingon wife, he does not make a move, in fact he helps Quark win her over by showing him Klingon ways. It's like Steve Martin in the movie Roxanne....I guess. Then Quark has to fight a Klingon warrior so Worf rigs Quarks body with electrodes and he is able to control him during the fight... sort of like Andre Toulon from Puppet Master. I assume. Meanwhile Worf is losing his mind over Quarks wife. All the while Dax is trying to get Worf to notice her. In the meantime Kira and O'Brien are falling for each other and O'Brien's wife is totally clueless to this!

101 down and 75 to go

Thursday, December 04, 2014

Star Trek DS9 Episode 100 - The Ship

"While exploring in the Gamma Quadrant, Sisko, Dax, Worf, and O'Brien see a Jem'Hadar warship crash on the planet's surface."

Soon, Sisko is confronted by a Jem'Hadar women named Kilana. She wants to retrieve the ship, but Sisko also want to take the ship. A fight breaks out and 5 of Sisko's away team members are killed. That is pretty significant for Federation deaths and certainly so for DS9. Sisko's crew takes the ship and while trying to fix it up they discover the body of a Founder. Kilana then appears and tells Sisko that her crew has committed suicide because they allowed one of the Founder Gods to die. After a discussion they both discover that they could have avoided this unfortunate situation. Kilana reveals that she would have given Sisko the ship because she wanted the Founder back... Sisko reveals that he just wanted the ship and would have given the Founder back. If only they trusted each other in first place.

Of course no real crewmembers die in the battle. That is one thing that Star Trek rarely does is kill off main characters. Tasha Yar is the only one that comes to mind.

100 down and 76 to go

Wednesday, December 03, 2014

Star Trek DS9 Episode 99 - Apocalypse Rising

So season 4 ended with the revelation that Gowron is a changeling. The crew of Sisko, Odo, O'Brien and Worf plan on infiltrating a Klingon ceremony and expose the Changeling. Bashir surgically alters their appearances and they all look pretty convincing...even Odo. Sisko actually makes a rather scary Klingon. They blend into the festivities fairly well, although Odo is a bit awkward. The Klingon Martok becomes suspicious and eventually finds out their identities. He too seems to know the truth about Gowron and offers to help.

They confront Gowron and of course he is outraged. He then challenges Worf to a fight to the death. They then realize that only a true Klingon would do that...Gowron is not the Changeling. It was Martok all along. Goes to show that these Changelings are always one step ahead.

99 down and 77 to go

Tuesday, December 02, 2014

Star Trek: First Contact

Damn, I forgot how much I enjoyed this movie. It's just so much better than Generations and is right up there with some of the old Trek films. I could not find it streaming on either Netflix or Amazon, so I had to rent the streaming version for 1.99. Well worth it.

Here is the basic plot. The Enterprise goes to Earth to help stop a Borg invasion. They blow up the Cube but get sucked into a vortex. The Borg are traveling back in time to stop first contact between Earth (Zefram Cochrane) and the Vulcans. Picard and crew must prevent the Borg take over of 2063 Earth. Right off the bat, I love the idea. Yeah, time travel is so over played in Star Trek but It still hooks me in every time.

Here are some observations. The acting gets a bit corny. Especially James Cromwell as Zefram Cochrane. I like Mr. Cromwell, he has had a variety of roles in TNG, DS9 and Enterprise (as Cochrane) as well as American Horror Story and Boardwalk Empire... he is great in bit roles ... he just sort of sucked in this movie. It however was interesting to see how Zefram was just a self serving a-hole and not some kind of hero. Interesting note: Tom Hanks was asked to play Cochrane and he really wanted to, but he already was obligated to another film. Now imagine if that.

The Earth women that ends up on the ship, Lily was her name, I hated this character. She would not shut the hell up. I did enjoy Data getting human skin grafts and then getting laid by the gross yet sexy Borg Queen.

The movie kept you in a constant state of anxiety. There is something scary about the Borg and how they are so calculating. If they are occupied, you can walk right by them un-phased but you never know when they will go after you. The most frightening part was their ability to adapt on the fly. They can overcome just about any attack by altering themselves or their tactics within minutes.

Visually the movie looked great, especially the scene in which they walk on top of the Enterprise dish. The acting was decent (mostly Patrick Stewart and Spiner), script was great and I highly recommend you watch it. While Generations felt like a really long TNG episode, First Conflict actually felt like a movie.

Monday, December 01, 2014

Star Trek DS9 Episode 98 - Broken Link

This is the season four finale. So, Odo keeps turning into a puddle and Bashir can't figure out why. A female Shapeshifter shows up and explains that Odo has been infected with a deadly disease by the Founders. The only cure is to come and join the Great Link. While there, he will also be judged for his actions against his own kind. They agree to go and Sisko accompanies him. Meanwhile the Defiant is orbiting the planet under command of Work. He is desperately trying to stop Garak from firing on the planet and killing the entire Founder population. Seems like a serious crime, but they never really bring it up again.

Finally, judgment is passed on Odo. He is expelled from the Link and must live his life as a human. As a punishment he gets to keep his ugly face...although honestly he is much better looking than most of the hideous monsters that appear on Star Trek ... like Lwaxana Troi. So is Odo human from now on? He no longer has shapeshifter powers? If so, then he is fucking useless.

The episode ends with the discovery that the Klingon Gowron is actually a shifter. It's an OK twist, but as finale's go this one was just not that great.

98 down and 78 to go

Star Trek DS9 Episode 97 - Body Parts

I watched a hand full of episodes this weekend so I'm just going to blog them out in a row. This one was good. Quark gets a physical and finds out that he has a terminal illness and will die in a few weeks. So of course he puts his dead body up for sale on an EBay type website. His enemy Brunt purchases it. Then Quark finds out that he is not dying after all, but Brunt still wants his "merchandise". Quark breaks the deal and Brunt takes all of his assets, leaving Quark with nothing. The entire crew gets together to help rebuild the bar and get Quark back on his feet, although now he is shunned by the Ferengi.

In a weird side plot, Keiko is injured in a shuttlecraft accident. Her baby is in jeopardy of dying, so they transplant the baby into Major Kira who will now carry the baby to term. What the hell??

97 down and 79 to go

Star Trek DS9 Episode 96 - The Quickening

"Bashir tries to free the population of a Gamma Quadrant world in the Teplan system of an engineered disease left by the Dominion 200 years ago."

That's sort of the gist of it. Not much else happened really. I recall a similar episode in TNG I think. The ending is bitter sweet as Bashir develops a "cure" but it only works on future generations. Everyone who is alive now, will die.

96 down and 80 to go