Star Trek Deep Space 9: Season 1

The series kicks off with a two part episode that is one of the best pilot's in the Star Trek franchise. The premiere sets up show nicely and doesn't leave a lot needed to fall into the week to week of the series. DS9 is the series I've seen the least, so many of these episodes are being seen by me for the first time as I'm working through the seasons on Netflix.

The second episode, while generally quite strong, leaves a few things to be wondered. Odo is a great security chief, yet someone gets an antimatter converter past him. That doesn't add up to me. I also don't like that they were testing characters loyalties so early on in the show. This plot would have worked better 8-10 episodes later.

The third ep was one of the worst in the season, but it was followed up by a personal favorite that helped to build the relationship between Odo and Quark. One of the best lines in the series pops up here as well. "You claimed Rom fixed your replicators." "So?" "Rom's an idiot. He couldn't fix a straw if it was bent."


Moving on to Captive Pursuit, chief Miles O'Brien gets to show off his stuff as a character much more than we ever got to see him do in The Next Generation. Basically just an action episode though. In the next episode we get to see Q in his first appearance on the series, but the episode itself is a dud.

Continuing a trend, the next episode, basically a courtroom drama is excellent, but is followed by another dud in The Passenger, it's so bad I won't go any further in explanation.

Breaking a trend the next episode is neither great nor terrible, but it appears better than it would have simply from coming after that previous stinker. It's a very interesting concept for a first contact situation, and really a shame that they never explored this further in later episodes.

The next two episodes were also average, but not falling into the loop of having a bad one. I've long been a fan of Star Trek, so average Trek is still better than a lot of shows.

Battle Lines is another excellent episode, and takes place mostly off the station, something that few episodes of this show did. Much of that was for budgetary reasons, but when they step off the station it's normally excellent, this is no exception.

The storyteller is an average episode at best, as are most of the rest of the season, but after that we get Progress which was one of my personal favorite eps of the season. It's basically a sequel in theme to battle lines as the characters are learning to deal with their past, but it has a few more fun elements that help to take the edge off when needed. It's a near perfect episode.

The next three eps were all average to below average, but the penultimate episode of the season is currently my favorite of the series. (Remember the preface that I haven't seen the entire series yet, so that may change.) It's head and shoulders above the rest of the season, as Major Kira learns to deal with her hate of the Cardassians and that not all of them are guilty of the crimes against her race. It ends with a bit of a surprise that I won't spoil for anyone.

The season finale, which starts slow concludes with a bang and is another great episode in the end. It's exactly what a season finale should be. It wraps up the important stuff, yet leaves you wanting for more.

“My name is William Shatner and I was a Starship Captain. But I wasn’t the only one.”

The Captains, minus Chris Pine from the 2011 Star Trek movie.

Last night I had a chance to sit down and watch "The Captains" which is a documentary about all of the actors that played captains in Star Trek throughout the years. My biggest complaint is that I wish that William Shatner would have just been one of the interviews, not the one conducting the interviews with each actor.

The movie is filled with excellent interviews that shows many insights into the careers and lives of the actors beyond just the shows and movies they were in. That's what I'm into, yes I love a good performance, but more than that I love the behind the scenes stuff, seeing the human side of the actors and actresses behind the facade they toss onto the screen.

My other complaint with the film, is that I would have rather seen each interview in it's entirety, not have it split up and switch back and forth in several pieces the way it was shown. It's understandable to see them like this, the pieces are longer than can be expected, in today's TV the scene normally cuts away every few seconds because no one can focus on a static shot anymore. and I'm just as guilty as the next person.

The movie would have been much better with less Shatner, I'm not dissing the man, he deserves anything he wants to do, the man is a legend, but in this format it just doesn't work. I'd rather have a professional interviewer on screen all the time asking the questions, Shatner makes this more about him than about all of the actors.

Overall I enjoyed the interviews, but it could have been oh so much better with just a few tweeks.