Comment Stream

Re: DS9 S3: Equilibrium

@Clint1138

The Trill are a humonoid species. A small percentage of them are selected to be "joined" with slug like symbionts that are also native to their planet.

When a joined Trill dies or is about to die, the symbiont is surgically removed and implanted in to the next host, who has been chosen through an intensive screening process.

All of the memories from all prior hosts live on in the symbiont and are transferred to the new host. Because of this and the selection process, joined Trills tend to be very, high achievers.

"Dax" is the name of the symbiont slug inside of Jadzia. The hosts take the symbiont's name as their last name.

The Dax symbiont had several hosts prior to Jadzia. The most recent host was Curzon Dax who was a close friend and mentor to Benjamin Sisko. That is why Sisko affectionately calls Jadzia "Old Man".

Good question about whether the symbionts ever die naturally. They can be killed and can live hundreds of years (Dax is over 300) but I am not sure what the limits of their natural lifespan might be.

Re: DS9 S7: Tacking into the Wind

@VictoryIsLife

Picard would have lost the Dominion War by putting Star Fleet's pretentious principles above the survival of the Alpha Quadrant.

Of course, Section 31 would have assasinated him to keep him from doing it. :)

Re: DS9 S7: Covenant

Early in the episode I thought it was unrealistic that the Bajorans would be gullible enough to follow Dukat. But as I considered the history of cults, both religious and non-religious, I realized it was quite feasible. In fact, the least realistic aspect might have been the cult members coming to their senses after Kira exposed Dukat's treachery.

Re: ENT S4: In a Mirror, Darkly, Part I

Not even going to watch this. Mirror universes are the worst thing ever to happen to Star Trek. I would rather watch an episode where a Ferengi in drag attempts a transwarp flight and evolves into a giant salamander.

Re: ENT S3: Zero Hour

Good episode ruined by the idiotic ending. The Xindi story arc has already been way too long. Finally the war is won and Earth is safe and then suddenly the crew is in the middle of WWII?

I don't know if I will bother watching season 4 after this garbage.

Re: ENT S3: Chosen Realm

The action parts of the episode were pretty good, but the allegory was cliched and shallow.

I loved Phlox scaring his guard with his bat. "There's no cure for the venom!"

I totally believed D'Jamat falling for the transporter trick. He thought that he and Archer were alike and "understood" each other. He also would be apt to believe in any sort of religious custom.

At first I thought there must be a backup for the deleted database, but then Hillary Clinton and Lois Lerner's emails came to mind. If there are still Democrats in the 22nd century, anything is possible. :)

Re: ENT S3: Similitude

When I saw Tucker dead in the operating scene, I cringed thinking, "Not another reset button episode!"

When Phlox explained the cloning procedure I cringed again at the ridiculous science.

But despite that I got pulled into the episode and enjoyed it a lot.

I don't think Sim finally volunteering to give his life took away from the moral dilemma aspect, as Archer had already decided he was going to die. It did put a much happier spin on the ending, making Sim a hero rather than making Archer a possible villain.

What did sort of dilute the moral dilemma is that the entire population of Earth would likely perish if they did not sacrifice Sim's last few days or a small chance at a longer life.

If it had merely been Sim's life vs Trip's or Sim's life vs. Enterprise and the lives of its crew the decision might have gone the other way or been more difficult . But 5 days of life for one clone vs the survival of humanity made it much easier to rationalize.

Re: ENT S3: North Star

It is absurd to think that humans from the late 19th Century would still only have 19th Century technology, 300 years later. Also, it seems unlikely that a species so far advanced that they were capable of interstellar travel could be overcome and subjugated by 19th century humans.

Re: ENT S3: Twilight

I am surprised how much so many people loved this "reset button" episode.

Someone made a good point that Archer could have recorded his new memories into a log instead of wasting T'Pol's time and depriving Starfleet of a valuable officer.

Even Dana Carvey figured out that trick in "Clean Slate".

Re: DS9 S6: Valiant

@Ashton Withers
Well I guess they were sort of like the Nazis, without the racism, anti-Semitism, concentration camps, gas chambers, desire for global domination etc, etc.

Come on, they weren't anything like Nazis. They were generally good, very courageous young people fighting for a noble cause under extremely difficult circumstances.

Their fatal flaws were that they became arrogant and overestimated their own abilities and that they allowed their undestandable admiration of Watters to cloud their judgement and lead them to follow him blindly.

Re: DS9 S5: In the Cards

Seems that a 1951 Willie Mays rookie card just like Sisko's was recently stolen from Rob Schneider's home.

Could this be the work of the Soulless Minions of Orthodoxy?

www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Rare-Willie-Mays-Baseball-Card-Stolen-From-Rob-Schneiders-Encino-Home-318717251.html

Re: ENT S3: Extinction

Terrible episode. The virus was not the remnant of a lost species, but that species attempt to preserve itself through an unprecedented genocide that would spread all across the galaxy.

As others have mentioned, the only practical reason to preserve it would be to use it as a weapon; probably against the Xindi, since those smug, control freak Vulcans are pretty much immune. :)

It could be a very effective threat. Innoculate our friends and then infect enemies and only give them the antivirus if they submit to our demands.

Of course that seems way too immoral for Starfleet and even for me.

Re: ENT S3: Anomaly

I really don't get the outrage over threatening to kill one murdering pirate to help prevent the deaths of billions of innocent people and the destruction of their planet.

I think this quote from DS9 about a similar situation sums it up quite well:


Elim Garak: That's why you came to me, isn't it, Captain? Because you knew I could do those things that you weren't capable of doing? Well, it worked. And you'll get what you want: a war between the Romulans and the Dominion. And if your conscience is bothering you, you should soothe it with the knowledge that you may have just saved the entire Alpha Quadrant. And all it cost was the life of one Romulan senator, one criminal, and the self-respect of one Starfleet officer. I don't know about you, but I'd call that a bargain.

Re: ENT S2: Canamar

I would have given it 3 stars but I deducted a star for Archer risking his own life and the lives of everyone on the shuttle to try to save a mass murder, who would rather die than be taken alive.

Enterprise seems like the A Team of the Trek universe with lots of fire fights but very few deaths.

It is OK to kill the bad guys. In fact it is more realistic and more entertaining when this happens.

Re: ENT S2: Dawn

A solid episode, but something of a cliche. Enemies stranded together work out their differences and work together. (TM)

As for the comparison to "Darmok" this was far superior to that dreck as are 98% of all Trek episodes.

The whole premise of Darmok, a people who communicate only in metaphors, is mind numbingly stupid and an insult to the intelligence of viewers.

It is IMPOSSIBLE to communicate strictly in metaphors as without plain language to create and explain the metaphors, nobody would have the slightest clue what the metaphors mean.

Re: ENT S2: Precious Cargo

Pretty bad, but not quite worty (unworthy) of Jammer's wonderful rant.

Padma's acting was among the worst I have ever seen.

Trip and Padma reminded me of Lone Star and Princess Vespa in "Spaceballs", with their Princess and commoner rescuer mutual hostility, sexual tension, and battle over who is in charge.

Too bad Padma didn't get a chance to sample and judge Chef's cuisine.

Re: ENT S2: Singularity

I agree with Jammer's review. It takes the over done "crew goes crazy" plot but does it in a much more amusing and interesting way than most or all of the prior offerings.

I have been wondering the same thing about Chef. I think we will see him in an episode where the crew travels back in time to late 20th Century Boston and meets Vera Peterson from Cheers. The episode will narrated by Morn.

Re: ENT S2: A Night in Sickbay

Also, Porthos is definitely the best Trek pet ever.

My rankings:

1) Porthos
2) Spot
3) Chester (The O'Brien's adopted cat)
4) Neelix

Re: ENT S2: A Night in Sickbay

I didn't hate this episode. I thought Archer's angry reaction about Porthos getting sick because of those "stupid aliens" was funny and very human. Of course he would come to his senses and do what was in the best interest of Enterprise, but I thought it was a realistic initial reaction.

Bringing Porthos to the surface was dumb, but dog lovers tend to take their dogs places when it would be more practical to leave them home.

I thought much of the stuff witb Phlox in sickbay was pretty funny.

The only part I didn't like was all the sexual tension with T'Pol talk, because I didn't see any of this in the prior 29 episodes. It seemed to me the only sexual tension was between T'Pol and Trip.

I would give it 2 stars.

Re: ENT S2: Marauders

I agree with 2 stars. If they had killed the Klingons I would give it 3.5 stars.

Re: ENT S1: Two Days and Two Nights

I agree with the 3 star rating.

As for some of the complaints:

It didn't seem off that the Tandarians knew where the Enterprise was headed and that Archer had a dog.

The Tandarians seemed to have a strong intelligence agency. In "Detained" they knew a great deal about Archer and his interactions with the Suliban and the Cabal.

Also, it seemed Archer was becoming something of a legend with a lot a actual and exaggerated information going around about him.

As for the dog on the deck, I assume "Keyla" put her up there to orchestrate a "chance encounter" with Archer.

A better question would be how did the Tandarians acquire an Earth dog? Or was that hairless thing supposed to be an alien dog? I wonder if Porthos is just unfriendly or unaccustomed to other dogs or if he sensed something wrong about her. I was expecting the two dogs to have jamaharon rather than growl at each other.

Is my internal chronometer malfunctioning or were they only on Risa for one night? Didn't Reed and Malcolm get robbed on their first night there and return to Enterprise the next day?

Re: ENT S1: Fusion

Regarding the "Vulcan Myth", I think it was largely destroyed or debunked in DS9. We saw a Vulcan Machis terrorist, who perhaps even more troublingly, seemed attracted to Quark, a prideful, arrogant and somewhat racist Vulcan starship captain and a Vulcan serial killer.

Besides that, I don't think the Vulcan Myth was that well supported in TOS. For the most part we only saw Spock, who was half human and his father who had married a human. We also saw their primitive and brutal mating rituals.

I never saw any evidence that the idea of Vulcan perfection was anything more than propaganda and wishful thinking. The Vulcans were overall shown a noble species, but we never really saw the idealized Vulcans in action, with the exception of Spock.

Re: TNG S5: Darmok

Luke, I agree 100%. Without an underlying language for sharing the metaphors the metaphors would be totally meaningless to eveyone with the exception of those who witnessed the actual events the metaphors were based upon.

This was one of the most absurd and illogical ideas in Trek history, even sillier than Paris and Janeway evolving into lizards and mating.

Re: ENT S1: Dear Doctor

There has been a lot a great, thought provoking debate on this episode and issues related to it here.

One point I would make is that the Prime Directive seemed to be applied rather inconsistently and arbitrarily through the various Trek offerings.

I always saw it as a plot device, an artificial constraint to create difficult moral and practical dilemmas for the crew to overcome. To me it was similar to kryptonite for Superman or ion storms interfering with transporter beams, rather than truly being the guiding principle of Star Fleet and the Federation.

As for the decision, assuming giving any aid was acceptable, it was terribly wrong.

Dooming one species to extinction was "playing God" much more than saving them and possibly keeping another species from fully reaching its potential, especially when that species seemed to live a happy and healthy existence.

Re: DS9 S6: Valiant

I always liked this episode a lot.

I didn't find it at all unrealistic that Ramirez gave his best and most experienced cadet the battlefield commission of Captain. The ranking officer on a ship was always considered the captain to his/her crew and he had to leave someone in charge.

As for Nog not taking over it could be either that he had also received a battlefield promotion to ensign (he had only been at SFA 2 years) and did not outrank Watters or that even if he technically did outrank him, his own inexperience, Watters having lead the Valiant for 8 months and the sort of cult of personality around him would have made that impractical.

There is no doubt Worf, Dax or even O'Brien would have immediately taken command in Nog's spot.

I thought Watters was a heroic cadet, who kept his crew together against impossible odds, but ultimately failed to recognize his own limitations and those of his crew and got them killed.

I also think having an understandably weak First Officer enabled his demise. An experienced one would have demanded that he get some sleep and stop popping pills and threatened to relieve him of duty if he did not. But, like Watters, she was thrown into a situation where she was in over her head.

I thought it was a bit unrealistic how harsh she was with Jake over his harmless conversation with Collins.

I understood why Watters wanted to separate him from Nog after the conversation in the engine room. Jake was going way out of line there and interfering. That said, having the 2 security officers take him to the brig at phaser point was absurd.

If they ever made it back to the Federation, Captain Sisko would have had Watters and his 2 goons cleaning out DS9's waste extraction system with toothbrushes for the next year for that. Confining him to quarters would be the realistic response.