tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4400152815785368447.post2975482827323023704..comments2024-03-15T07:28:47.064-05:00Comments on Treknobabble: Deep Space Nine, Season 4: For the CauseUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4400152815785368447.post-71852023247285963332014-04-30T22:30:48.333-05:002014-04-30T22:30:48.333-05:00Cogent analysis. This story lives or dies by how m...Cogent analysis. This story lives or dies by how much we identify with the Maquis. If they're just villains, they're not interesting. We needed to have things made more ambiguous by their having a valid point. As you say, Voyager made that point better than DS9.matthewweflenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07540521459703556959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4400152815785368447.post-52051885874572767422014-04-30T20:35:33.107-05:002014-04-30T20:35:33.107-05:00I agree with all your guys' interpretation but...I agree with all your guys' interpretation but I must say love this episode because "it works". I liked how the Kassidy story was treated, her reaction to being caught, that she had integrity enough to return, Sisko's reaction to her; how she was finally discovered, how Odo and Eddington had a suspicion that she may be involved. How it all unraveled. That was cool and entertaining. <br /><br />I also liked that Eddington turned out to be the Maquis. I dont know why. They had given the actor some extra lines earlier and he had presence and to see him then turn out to be the Maquis traitor was interesting. <br /><br />What I did not like is how he portrayed the Maquis. Or how the writers did. <br /><br />Maybe it is my bias for Voyager and the fact that half of the main characters in that show, some of whom are my favorite Voyager characters, were Maquis, <br /><br />Maybe it is knowing that these people, these Maquis who just happened to find themselves some 70,000 light years across the galaxy due to an accident but who could very well be on that very ship with Eddington, WERENT the garbage terrorists DS9 made them out to be. <br /><br />Maybe because in VOY, the Maquis were fleshed out as real three dimensional characters with their own stories and trajectories and causes etc., but I just did not like how they were treated in DS9. How the entire maquis acr was treated and then abruptly ended to make room for the Dominion. <br /><br />In the end when Eddington was giving Sisko his ridiculous, vague speech. "Oh, what have we done to you, why are you mean to us? Whine, whine, whine, I was really disappointed, because he didnt do shit for the Maquis cause. It had no substance. He did not explain anything at all, such as why he was doing it, what they were fighting for, what the issue was, what the CAUSE was - which is the TITLE of the episode!!<br /><br />He just sounded like some disgruntled member of a rogue faction needing to break free because they wanna live in anarchy and defy "Paradise" to assert their independence blah blah yawn - instead of being portrayed as a passionate counter-insurgent, an activist and fighter doing this for a specific reason, a specific cause: namely to defend those the Federation has seemingly abandoned to maintain some ridiculous treaty with the duplicitous, genocidal Cardassians (a species I especially love to hate and nothing made me happier than to see their entire world in shambles at the end of the show, but that's another discussion. I digress). <br /><br />Anyway, the result of this half-assed, luke-warm treatment of the Maquis was that the writers failed to sell us their fight, their cause in order to gain our sympathy. <br /><br />The Maquis seemed to be more about ego than cause and Sisko's "I am going to chase you to the end of the world" line was sooo dramatic and obviously also about ego - his ego - and as we later find out, half the reason he is chasing Eddington is because Eddington defied him and bruised his ego. In other words, the conversation with Eddington and Sisko, in the end, was more like a penis measuring contest and i was totally expecting one of them to take out the measuring tape. <br /><br />And that, for me, is the flaw of this episode. I felt the Maquis were just not as positively portrayed in DS9 as in VOY and that disconnect has always bothered me. Ellenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4400152815785368447.post-81700900426215263082013-12-29T08:48:34.191-06:002013-12-29T08:48:34.191-06:00I have to agree. I had not seen this episode befor...I have to agree. I had not seen this episode before but was already aware of certain of the plot elements having seen future episodes. And I agree once you know the pay off the tension in this episode is just not the same and hence not really rewatchable. sirkatzalothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01196996609340706645noreply@blogger.com