tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4400152815785368447.post1801719391949725188..comments2024-03-15T07:28:47.064-05:00Comments on Treknobabble: Deep Space Nine, Season 3: Improbable CauseUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4400152815785368447.post-55058812504818152942013-06-27T20:25:21.283-05:002013-06-27T20:25:21.283-05:00You just listed some of my favorite episodes. We&...You just listed some of my favorite episodes. We're allowed to reboot the reboot in about ten years, right? That's the unwritten movie rule, right? (A girl can dream.)<br /><br />I agree that there are no hard sci-fi elements, and little is illuminated about the human condition (with the possible exception of the starvation amid plenty line, but that's just a throwaway line). But I've always been much more forgiving about that, so we can agree to disagree. Sarahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05916441667738606158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4400152815785368447.post-38153657278385186602013-06-27T20:20:50.938-05:002013-06-27T20:20:50.938-05:00My criticism is not that Star Trek must focus on S...My criticism is not that Star Trek must focus on Starfleet. I'm criticizing the sci-fi credentials of the plot. There is no real speculative fiction at work. For instance, "Life Support" focuses on a Bajoran with a brain injury, and its effects on Bajoran politics, and his Bajoran lover. I've no problems with that. The sci-fi idea is strong (replacing brains with machines), so I don't really care about whom it focuses on. This is just a political plot. Entertaining? Sure. But I want sci-fi with my Trek to give it the premium marks. An episode will have to tell one hell of a non-sci-fi story to get a 5 from me, like it will have to make me reconsider the human condition or illuminate some deep truth or something.<br /><br />It's one of a plethora of reasons why the new movies are so bad. Of course, they're incompetent action movies, too. And insultingly awful misapprehensions of what "fan service" means.<br /><br />I totally agree with you about wonder. Wonder is exactly why I gave "Where No One Has Gone Before" and "Time Squared," episodes with definite pacing flaws, the ratings I did. They made me tingle with wonder. The best episodes will do that along with telling a crackerjack story ("Remember Me" and "Cause and Effect" spring to mind).<br /><br />matthewweflenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07540521459703556959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4400152815785368447.post-13563208590181819892013-06-27T19:40:34.950-05:002013-06-27T19:40:34.950-05:00I do love that Garak just happened to have a phere...I do love that Garak just happened to have a pheremonic sensor, *just in case* he should ever need to frame a Flaxian.<br /><br />Also the "I don't have a sense of smell" is a great way to provide descriptions for an audience who can't smell what's in his hand.<br /><br />(And, for the record, I will always imagine Enabran Tain with a cat, now.)<br /><br />Regarding the criticism that you're not seeing very much Starfleet, I understand that entirely, but those are some of my absolutely favorite episodes. Things that make the universe bigger are things that make the universe *real*. (Because we've seen, twice now, what happens when you make the universe tiny and centered on Earth without fleshing out any other people.)<br /><br />As an aside, I was watching an episode of Science Fiction Theater from the fifties, conveniently on Youtube now, and someone left the following comment: "will there ever be another series like these old ones with the same amount of wonder for the possibilities for the future and what path it may take? or for what we will someday be able to achieve? all the science fiction nowadays seems to be better termed "futuristic action fiction"."<br /><br />Someone needs to show this to the current filmmakers. I think it would help immensely for them to just keep that statement in their heads, and the movies would improve.Sarahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05916441667738606158noreply@blogger.com