ulrichkristine Reviews

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang (1999) Season 7, Episode 15

I like Vic Fontaine and this one was the worst

[5/10 · 26 May 2022]

As someone who actually likes Vic Fontaine episodes - this one unfortunately ended up falling flat for me. It had a lot of potential but it was written like a mediocre fan fiction. The characters didn't even get a halfway decent heist to pull off. Kira and Odo were especially out of character in their roles in all of that - with no explanation.

I get some people don't like that Sisko had a problem with the 1962 Vegas setting - when there was racism in that time and setting - and I guess that the holisuite program isn't racist but it's like it was brushing that under the rug or something. I think it was fine and understandable. Maybe Avery Brooks had a problem with it - and wanted to add that. But it was kind of a weird take. My husband was like "wait... he's upset the program isn't racist?".

I did like the Sisko and Vic duet song at the end - Avery Brooks can really sing. But even that seemed a little out of nowhere and forced.

In any case I usually really like the Vic episodes - but not really this one. It's really lacking in quality overall. I was very surprised to find out that this one is so well rated. I would think it would be down there with "Profit and Lace" (just based on what people think of it - I actually overall like that episode and think it was underrated.

The Endgame (2022)

It won me over by the end of the first season

[9/10 · 7 May 2022]

It's fairly outlandish and I wasn't sure where it was going the first few episodes - but by halfway I was invested. By the end it won me over and I think it's fairly good. It's very good for these types of shows (like the Blacklist and the like). The two leads have very good chemistry - I think it's better than the leads on the Blacklist. All of the actors won me over by the end of the season - it's very well cast. I give it a 9 because I think it's very good for the type of show it is - it's not a great quality show compared with the best - by any means.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Children of Time (1997) Season 5, Episode 22

Completely ignores the Dominion wars and the prophets/pah wraiths conflict

[5/10 · 29 April 2022]

This episode has a lot going for it as a stand alone Star Trek episode. However it completely ignores important events going on elsewhere with the characters as central key players - like the Dominion wars and the prophets/pah wraiths conflict.

It chronicles how the crew comes to the decision to voluntarily crash land on a planet in the past in order to result in the settlement in the present day of their descendants. When the crew sees the settlement and learns of the accident that will leave them stranded - they figure out pretty quickly that now that they know what happened they can prevent the accident. They resolve to return to the future. Then there's a plot where the Dax descendant convinces them that they can create a quantum split involving doubles of the ship and crew - one returns home and the other crash lands - creating the settlement. But that is discovered as a lie. Naturally Sisco and the crew agree they can't just the stranded there and abandon their families and duties - and resolve to leave - until Kira (the only one who dies resulting from the crash) decides it's her fate to die there and have the settlement remain. Long story short - the rest of the crew eventually agrees and they decide to crash land. But the version of Odo that was left stranded sabotages their plans. He sets the ship to automatically swerve out of the way of the anomaly and the ship goes home in the present day.

I have a few issues with this episode. One - the crew keep saying that they "know their families at home are alright" - but they are at war - they actually don't know for sure and have no reason to think their families are not facing danger in the future from war.

Another thing is Kira and Sisko ignoring that Sisko is the Emissary. Kira makes her decision to stay because she reasons her fate was to die there. It's very hard to believe she would feel the same way about Sisko not making it back to bajor and the prophets. Even Sisko had come a long way towards accepting his role as emissary at this point.

They knew about the Pah Wraiths attempting to kill the prophets at this point. They were right in the middle of the war with the Dominion. It's very difficult to believe their "greater good" calculation would end up being to stay there to make sure those people exist as opposed to going back to fight.

Then the idea that this is basically in service of the romantic subplot of Odo and Kira really just kind of makes it not very good.

It was a good stand alone episode with good moral quandaries but poorly timed and way too stand alone - it just doesn't make sense in context of the rest of the season.

Star Trek: Voyager: Retrospect (1998) Season 4, Episode 17

Terrible rape analogy

[1/10 · 6 December 2019]

It was just cringy and bad. The rape analogy and memory implantation storyline was terrible and badly executed. One of the most cringy Star Trek episodes ever.

When the guy is "accused" he doesn't stick around to face the consequences or defend himself. He takes a ship and runs. Then he fires on Voyager when they are trying to tell him that they may have made a mistake. He ends up destroying his own ship, while firing on Voyager somehow, which he knows will happen - therefore committing suicide. All because he was falsely accused of violating seven (taking her borg technology by force). Janeway and the crew make a big deal about blaming 7 and the doctor even though 7 had no idea the memory wasn't real (implanted memory by the doctor basically hypnotizing her). When it was actually this dude having a meltdown over being "falsely accused" and actually being violent over it.

The message of the episode is don't believe rape victims and the worst thing that could ever possibly happen to a man is to be falsely accused of rape and any actions commited by a man falsely accused are justified. It's really terrible.