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 EPISODE REVIEWS | ||
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Image in the Sand Airdate: Week of September 28, 1998 Written by: Ira Steven Behr and Hans Beimler Directed by: Les Landau File Photo || Mission Log || Opinion Poll Short Take: Solid if unspectacular. So much relies on how these issues will be resolved. Let's hope the entire season isn't that way Brief Summary: Sisko learns a secret about his mother; Worf mourns Dax; Kira faces a potential crisis involving the Romulans Review: Is DS9 going the route of Babylon 5? Not yet. Despite Hans Beimler's early claims, looking ahead it does not appear that DS9 will devolve into completely serialized story telling. We just *have* to have a baseball episode, after all (I'm actually looking forward to it). However, "Image" suggests that they may have started with a giant arc in mind It has all the earmarks of a B5 episode: no pretension about informing newcomers, no time to catch a breath for regular viewers, and a story structure very suggestive of B5, with A, B, and C plots that flip back and forth and back again. While it's great they are challenging themselves this way, such stories emphasize long-term convolutions and usually go about it through sudden and not always sensible plot twists. Instead of wrecking one episode with bad plotting, you wreck three or four. Sisko, Sisko, Sisko. Is this making sense? Will it go anywhere? Is it just parroting religious big talk? Didn't Bajoran religion be a sort of Buddhism with a touch of Hollywood hedonism? Where's Satan fitting in? Who knows - I won't pass judgment until the final episode explains it all (and god it better). What I do know is that I really wish the episode had dealt with Sisko's rather cowardly reaction to Dax's death, through a nice chewing-out session from Daddy Joe to Gentle Ben. I also would have liked a little explaining about the three months and where was Starfleet in all of this. It's the middle of a war after all. Making the absence only one month long wouldn't make it perfect but it would certainly be an improvement Still, we have to compare this to "Tears of the Prophets" and realize that "Tears" was awful because despite all of its attachment to the DS9 universe, so much of what happened seemed out of the blue. Pah wraiths can do this, Dukat can do that, the Prophets suddenly get demanding of Sisko... none of it quite fit. "Image" had similar problems but fares better because they can be better explained. Symbolic of all of this was the vision... why then? Why not two months ago? I suppose we could have a theological debate about the Prophets and why they don't more openly communicate, but I'll simply say I wish there was some logic to what our non-linear friends do for once. I don't like - but I don't dislike - the soap opera dynamic of Sisko's mom being something... unusual, but it makes sense and has actual dramatic possibilities as opposed to forcing characters to do ridiculous things... like take three month leaves of absences. Sisko's father concealing this and the existence of the bracelet were very convenient, yet also can be plausibly explained, since if I were Sisko's father I wouldn't talk about a wife who deserted me either. I'm hoping that these sudden plot twists are early kinks that will be worked out once the season's direction is set. If not, it's going to be a long one for me review-wise. Still it didn't do anything completely ridiculous. Well, one thing - Worf's mission. Perfectly justifiable from his point of view, since he has very strong religious beliefs and Jadzia may or may not have been "Klingon" enough for Stovokor. How she died, as pointed out, didn't help her cause. This part was all well within Worf's feelings toward Jadzia and the afterlife and will no doubt be a good source of character development for him down the road. What's more puzzling is the return of the buddies-go-along-so-we-can-use-all-the-actors-in-the-episode syndrome. I can understand why Bashir in particular would be so concerned for Jadzia. But would O'Brien run off on a "suicide mission" so easily with Keiko at home? The shame in all of this is that the dialogue around this discussion was good, with Julian being surprisingly sentimental and Quark being asinine but asinine in the sense that he was exactly right and knew it. (The dialogue in general was good - the jokes were better and the Odo/Kira banter wasn't a lovey dovey mess. Ah, and Joe Sisko! Everything he says works! I think Behr and Beimler need to do a spinoff about crotchety old restauranters travelling the galaxy and serving smiles in a bowl of gumbo along the way.) More thought went into the lines than what was actually being said! At the same time, Bashir fully admits that all of this is nonsense. O'Brien does too. Perhaps they know that their characters can't die at least not until May or June. To a degree DS9 is in fact entertainment and no more; not everyone wants a TV novel, meaning we shouldn't take everything so seriously. Still, poor Keiko... I'm worried that the Romulan subplot is a painfully obvious Founder plot. The problem is that having Weyoun report to Damar about it could suggest that it is a Founder plot (since Weyoun knows) or that it isn't (since Weyoun seems so excited about the development.). But with allies fighting, it suggests the Founders, and the top suspect is that the senator is one of them. And I wanted her to return! Or maybe it will prove to mean nothing at all, a mere attempt by the Rommies to get a foothold near the wormhole. In either regard, what we saw was interesting enough. Kira in a way can be naive, so being "suckered" by the Romulan (if she in fact has been suckered - another nice point about this plot). Senator Creetak is a fascinating character - maybe she is a good Romulan after all, but wouldn't you love to see good ol' fashioned Romulan treachery? The great danger in this Rommie plot, and indeed all of these plots, is that they'll all be resolved next week, and that will be it. It's the Babylon 5 syndrome that I alluded to above. B5 loves doing its plots over a couple or three episodes, and the result is that we get a plot piecemeal that ususally winds up resolving itself way too quickly after being drawn out for so long. The classic example was a debate over how the crew would send propaganda to Earth, wrapped up in an obvious way I won't spoil for those who don't know. It angered me greatly. DS9 has promised to be more "arc"-like. I'm not sure if this approach will work, but in a way I'm glad they're trying simply because it's something new and different, thus showing they still care. But it will be a problem for this reviewer if they go about this by doing small and ultimately irrelevant mini-stories strung out over a couple or three episodes. If this plot is wrapped up and the ambitions of the Romulans/Founders/whoever is responsible mean something down the road, particularly for Bajor (please, writers, more of Bajor!), then that's ok. If not, I'm not so sure... One definitie positive to this approach is that it does create an epic feel that excites you the viewer and makes the DS9 universe seem even more rich than it already is. How many characters did the episode have? It seemed like all of them with Cretak and that new girl at the end of the episode... I suppose should talk about her, but I don't know what to say. It was a surprise and a fabulous way to end the episode... but until we get more than two lines from her, I'll simply say that my preliminary judgment of Ms. deBoer is that she is damned cute. Damned cute! Back to what I was saying about the epic feel, her scene emphasized this. The wonderful New Orleans set, Sisko tinkling on the piano... it was all so well done, so well directed, that the show seemed bigger. Ok, the plot sense doesn't always work out, but "Image" and its feel show one of the biggest reasons why I watch DS9 every week. A good, methodical start - no gimmicks like "Way of the Warrior" or "The Search" for example. It had some problems, but the simple fact it made me forget "Tears of the Prophets" means that it had to have worked. Some short takes: - Was it just me, or was the assassin Nog? -Kira's haircut... I don't know. At first I thought, "Well maybe Miss Makeup was sick, and they had to film Kira with her hair slicked down." But Kira filmed for several days... the only possibility is that she's got a cyst she's trying to hide. - The cult of the pah wraith is a great idea, if they follow through with it. It's a fantastic way to get some of the Sisko plots focused on Bajor itself. Why not bring the Kai back for it? - The Worf/Martok scene was great. Worf's answers Martok's question by beating the fool out of him! Those crazy Klingons... -Where exactly did the hair for the Etch-a-Sketch of the woman come from? -Sisko's assassination attempt didn't catch me by surprise because I read too many spoilers. It was sufficiently well done to surprise me at first, despite the foreboding lighting, or lack of lighting. Jake's intervention was well done. Too bad these "primitive" Bajorans still use knives as weapons. Maybe they escape sensor detection and guns don't? - Tyree is a TOS reference, a friend of Kirk I think. Anyone remember? - Vic's scene was once again too long - for crying out loud he's a great character, so give him lines and not songs - but the fact it helped us with a little insight into Worf made it more forgiveable than the huge interludes "His Way" brought us. Rating: B Next week: Part two... no "To Be Continued," but it certainly isn't going to be a followup to Profit and Lace... | |
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