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One Little Ship The Little Ship that Almost Could. Airdate: Week of February 16, 1998
Written by: David Weddle and Bradley Thompson
Directed by: Allan Kroeker
In short: Better than expected, yet failing to answer one key
question - "How on Earth was this episode approved?"
Brief Summary:A runabout shrunk in an accident rescues the Defiant
from the clutches of the Jem'Hadar
Review: David Weddle and Bradley Thompson are truly the saviors of
the mediocre. I'm not sure if the episodes they've written were their ideas
or what they were assigned by the Powers That Be... but the bottom line is,
they've haven't had a premise I actually liked. Yet, out of the five shows
they've done now for DS9, this is the third one that actually worked on some
level - a rather remarkable feat. "One Little Ship" is certainly not the
best episode this year, but it was worth a good laugh and could have been
far worse. Don't take my word for it though. With "Inquisition" and "The
Reckoning," two very promising shows about actual issues on DS9, coming up,
it appears that "Ship" was good enough in the eyes of the producers to
justify Weddle and Thompson getting some shows with actual meat to them from
this point on. It will be interesting to see how they handle it.
Let's dispatch of the bad science and crummy plotting first, since they
seem to be the episode's primary down points. As I pointed out in my
Voyager review, it's not that these things *have* to be perfect - come now,
warp drive is probably impossible - but avenues of lesser resistance are
often passed by in the pursuit for technobabble. "Ship" had several
examples. How exactly was the ship restored to normal size? Wouldn't going
back in to the phenomenom only shrink it more? There had to be a better way
to shrink the ship... for instance, a Dominion weapon that does some
fancy-smancy relativity work and makes things shrink. Use it in reverse to
restore the ship once you're done. It's that easy! This would have avoided
sending the Defiant on a SCIENCE mission of all things, a real plot problem.
A good portion of the intro was wasted on technobabble (one nice touch, by
the way, was Kira finding it all ridiculous. How true...), when we could
have had a weapon as the plot point... with explosions to go with. Thank
you, I know, I do need to be writing episodes....
Oh, Mr Reviewer is getting arrogant. Let me tell you, Mr Reviewer won't
write episodes with nits! It's these *little* things that which bother me,
chafing at me while I watch the show. What's up with O'Brien's seeming
obliviousness to the situation inside the phenomenom, despite his
engineering skills? Or Julian's amazing knowledge of math that doesn't
translate into common sense about the situation they're in? Or the
ridiculous ease in which the Defiant was captured? Or why Sisko was able to
roam around Engineering plotting a retake of the ship? Yes, I am in a
nitpicking mood... maybe this has been building up all year, but I do want
to know why they don't think this through! We criticize ballplayers for
dropping the ball. It's about time we do it for writers as well. End rant.
OK, I am being mean, but I also tired... of silly mistakes. But, I
should point out that despite these flaws, all in all, this episode worked.
Why, pray tell? For starters, they kept the plot simple. Really, only two
things were happening during the show, and they dovetailed nicely once the
runabout realized what had happened to the ship. From there, the solution
was simple. The runabout crew only needed to make it to the Bridge to help
those in Engineering access the system, and that was it. Little
technobabble was required, and it was basic enough to leave space for all
the jokes in the episode that I loved.
The humor was great, wasn't it? Good Lord, I tripped out over that poem
scene between Worf and Dax. Part of it was because I was actually worried
that the writers would come up with such a lame poem... until I realized
that Dax and I had both been fooled. It's nice to see Worf laugh for once,
by the way. The Chief/Bashir banter was right on, and I found Bashir's
commet to Dax about Worf to be not only amusing, but interesting as well,
considering that he onced like Jadzia. Best of all, however, was the trick
Odo and Quark played on Miles and Julian. So good was it that I've crowned
one of the quotes from it as my quote of the week. O'Brien and Bashir
dashing off to the infirmary together was so like them. Humor that uses the
characters we love is awful hard to beat.
As I side note, I enjoyed the Sisko/ Kira interaction, particularly since
it gave Kira actual duties to do within the command structure, something we
don't see enough of with her. I found the use of Nog to be great as well,
with his defense of Worf, his needing to be defended from Worf, and his
nervousness in Engineering all working wonderfully. Sisko, too, was dead
on, from his baiting of the Jem'Hadar to his cool demeanor in Engineering.
"One Little Ship" had some of the best ensemble work (well, the only
ensemble work when you think about it) by the show in some time.
Actually, the show's most important achievement was the creation of the
Alpha Jem'Hadar. Creating the Alpha Jem'Hadar was ingenious, because they
can be used to explain the Ketracel White problem while at the same time
creating a potential source of friction within the Jem'Hadar. I see a lot
of story possibilities ahead. The episode itself, however, didn't do them
enough justice. We needed a little more explanation for why a new breed was
needed. Is it a Founders experiment in the field? Is it the fact that the
wormhole has cut off the Founders from the Jem'Hadar, meaning the Jemmies
have to be more independent? Could it be a lack of Vorta? The episode
heavily emphasized the conflict, and did it well, making the issues between
the First and the Second sticky questions without easy solutions, and I like
that. I also felt, however, that if this was going to be setting the table
for a future plot line, more of a rationalization for the existence of the
Alphas was required. Points for the concept, but a couple of deductions on
the follow-through.
The episode was hilarious and did have some outstanding Jem'Hadar
characterization. Still, the episode couldn't fully overcome cliches
established by previous Trek episodes. We knew the ship would be
recaptured, that the firefight would result in only Jem'Hadar dying, and
that everyone would be the normal size in the end. In other words, we knew
it would be good ol' fun, and nothing more.
"One Little Ship" was a fun show, and we need fun shows. But coming so
soon after "Magnificent" and "Morn," I have to wonder what made them make
this one at this time. Come to think of it, after TNG's abysmal "Rascals,"
which was written by Ronald Moore, I wonder how was this episode idea
allowed through??? With the Dominion War continuing and so many good
storylines (that is from Behr himself) still left in the pot simmering, why
must we have a rather silly and implausible tale of yuk-yuk when a serious
drama would do the situation greater justice and maybe even earn the show
some respect from critics and Trek bashers on the net? While "One Little
Ship" was rather nicely written, this humorous take on bad science fiction
so soon after "Far Beyond the Stars" makes me wonder, more than anything, if
DS9's creators have let their desire for the show to be diverse override
their common sense.
Some short takes:
- Hmm, I thought the reason you hardwired stuff was so that little
O'Briens *couldn't* come by and start pulling wires out!
- As I pointed out, this is the third "silly" episode from Ds9 in five
shows... not to worry, however, for at least through episode 22 there isn't
another one on the horizon. Thank the Prophets...
- Yes, I found it difficult as well the distinguish Alpha from Gamma
Jem'Hadar, but remember, it doesn't make any tactical sense to point out
which Jem'Hadar have which talents. See, I can defend the writers too.
Rating: B-
Quote: Odo: "Well you both appear to be a couple of centimeters
shorter sicne the last time I saw you. A changeling notices that sort of
thing."
Quark: "I didn't want to say anything, but you do look a little on the
petite side."
Bashir: "Infirmary!"
Odo and Quark tricking Miles and Julian
Next week: O'Brien as Donnie Brasco?
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