Month: June 2010

Season six feels like a year where the writers were willing to take chances. And while there are some failures (*Aquiel*, anyone?), when it works it really works. Another trend of this year was a move away from ensemble episodes and more towards single-character focused episodes. So we have episodes like *Frame of Mind* or…

The traditional end-of-year cliffhanger brings back both the Borg and Lore. The usual ‘two-parter’ syndrome is not as evident as usual here, thanks to the plot thread involving Data and his investigation of emotions. The other strength is the callback to *I, Borg*, and the long overdue examination of Picard’s actions there. But there’s a…

So far it’s fair to say that Deep Space Nine has a lot of promise, but so far has only showed a couple of attempts to really grasp it. The thing this season has done really well is avoid awful. There were really only two ‘bad’ episodes (*The Passenger* and *If Wishes Were Horses*). That’s…

The first season comes to an end with a bang. Sorry, couldn’t resist. Anyway, in the tradition of the best episodes of this season, once again the focus is on Bajoran politics. This time the religious angle is at the fore, and the underlying differences between Bajor and the Federation are the main thing. The…

Another trip to the time travel well, fortunately with something new to offer. This episode is very reminiscent of *Cause and Effect*, but given that was one of the best episodes ever that’s not the worst base to build off. There’s a new direction taken here, and the episode ends up standing well on its…

It took the best part of a season, but Deep Space 9 now officially has an episode to rival the best of Next Generation. The greatest strength of this episode is that it draws almost solely on the setting on Bajor, and outside of that is barely science fiction. It’s a bold, courageous approach to…

Time for DS9 to take another run at the ‘possessed by alien energy’ plot. This one works a lot better than *The Passenger*, but that’s not a hard bar to clear. There are some nice bits and pieces – Sisko as the disengaged yet vicious leader was nice. It was also a nice touch that…

The most interesting transporter malfunction so far. In a call back to the TOS episode *The Enemy Within*, Riker is duplicated in a transporter accident. Only this time it’s not an evil twin. It’s a refreshing take on the older idea, and my only quibble is the lack of trauma in ‘Thomas’ Riker. He’s been…

Oh dear, it’s Lwaxana Troi. Despite that handicap, I liked quite a bit here. O’Brien’s relationship with the computer seemed quite real to me – I’ve had similar thoughts about some of the computers that I’ve worked with. And while Lwaxana’s normal predatory approach was annoying, we learnt quite a bit about Odo that made…

Y’know, if I was Gowron I’d just go in the other direction whenever I saw Worf – he always seems to be caught in the middle of complicated difficulties for the Klingon Empire. This time around he’s rewriting the Klingon constitution by reforming it into a constitutional monarchy. It’s a good episode, driven by Worf’s…