{"id":1901,"date":"2021-03-16T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-16T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/assend.net\/?p=1901"},"modified":"2021-03-17T02:06:17","modified_gmt":"2021-03-17T07:06:17","slug":"deep-space-9-watchparty-phil-season-1-episode-4-babel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/assend.net\/index.php\/2021\/03\/16\/deep-space-9-watchparty-phil-season-1-episode-4-babel\/","title":{"rendered":"Deep Space 9 WatchParty (Phil) – Season 1, Episode 4 \u2013 Babel"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re continuing on in our watch party of Star Trek: Deep Space 9. This week\u2019s episode is Babel.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Babel is a very pleasant surprise. It is the best episode of the season so far. We\u2019re only four episodes in,\u00a0so that is not a very high bar, but I liked this one.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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I\u2019m very much enjoying this project, even if I\u2019m not enjoying each episode of DS9. This entire process has\u00a0been very interesting, and I\u2019ve discovered a very weird side-effect of writing these blog posts about TV\u00a0shows. Writing a review\/commentary about what I\u2019m watching, or knowing that I\u2019m going to be writing\u00a0about what I\u2019m currently watching in the moments that I am actually watching, enhances my enjoyment\u00a0of the show.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Normally when I watch TV or movies, the judgment process is fairly simple. Did I enjoy it? \u00a0Yes or no.\u00a0Enjoyment is a catch-all description that generally ties in things like emotional investiture, excitement,\u00a0discovery, intrigue, suspense, living vicariously through exploits on the screen, etc. Am I having fun? \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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It also depends a lot on the thinking that goes on in my head when watching films or episodes. \u201cI\u2019ve\u00a0never thought of that aspect before\u201d always gets a higher rating than \u201cthat is clearly wrong\u201d or \u201cthat\u00a0would never happen,\u201d for instance. How much it makes me think is generally a positive, usually because\u00a0if I\u2019m thinking about the plot or premise, then I have bought into it. I\u2019m buying it. I\u2019m suspending my\u00a0disbelief.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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There is always some level of enjoyment just based upon how well the actors, directors, editors, effects\u00a0teams, lighting, set crew, etc., all did their jobs too. I\u2019m not involved in the creation of anything, and I\u2019m\u00a0certainly not an expert, but I have had some professional training in the production of video media, and\u00a0I appreciate it when someone\u2019s care for their craft, their artistry, their creativity, and their\u00a0professionalism come through on the screen.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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To get back to the point, however, when I\u2019m writing about these episodes I\u2019m much less concerned\u00a0about my simple pleasure\/enjoyment\/engagement, and I pay a little more attention to the other stuff. I\u00a0don\u2019t know if this will raise the ceiling of my possible enjoyment of the show, but it has certainly raised\u00a0the floor of my level of enjoyment.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Primary Plot<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n
Babel\u2019s plot is relatively straight-forward. The episode starts out focusing on Miles O\u2019Brien, who I always\u00a0appreciate as a character, but Miles is quickly incapacitated with an inability to communicate. He can\u2019t\u00a0speak anything but nonsense and he can\u2019t understand anyone else either, but the rest of his mental\u00a0faculties are largely unaffected.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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The reason for the strange symptoms turns out to be a gift left by the Bajorans for the Cardassians when\u00a0the station was built. It is a small MacGuffin that inserts a genetically engineered virus into the\u00a0replication patterns of anything that is replicated by the replicators (Star Trek). The intent was to\u00a0conduct biological warfare against the Cardassians by the Bajoran freedom fighters, and O\u2019Brien\u00a0accidentally hooked it up and triggered it when he was repairing things on the busted-up DS9.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Secondary Plots<\/b><\/h2>\n
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There really aren\u2019t any secondary plots in this particular episode. Everything is focused in one direction,\u00a0and everything is moving towards a common goal. It was very refreshing, and I think it helped amp up\u00a0the buy-in on this episode (spectacularly stupid writing notwithstanding\u2014we\u2019ll get there).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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We do get a lot of character development, however, on characters you\u2019d rather least expect. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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The doctor gets a lot of screen time in this episode. He\u2019s fine. He\u2019s neither impressive nor a distraction,\u00a0except for one scene in which he tells Commander Sisko that he only has 12 hours to find a cure or\u00a0O\u2019Brien, and everyone else, is dead. It\u2019s just another one of those things he brings up to Sisko in a\u00a0nonchalant conversation standing around in the med bay after Sisko asks him how he\u2019s doing. There\u2019s\u00a0no urgency portrayed by the doctor, no furiously fiddling with gear or looking studiously at a screen\u00a0trying to pick through important pieces of info\u2026 Just, information dump. Tech Sgt. Fred Kwan would\u00a0have been right at home in this scene. Terrible writing #1 (probably directing too).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Major Kira does have an enjoyable little part, coming up with a plan to obtain information on a cure\u00a0from the party they believe may have engineered the virus. She heads down to Bajoran to make this\u00a0happen, and at first, Sisko is adamant that she not leave the station. She tells him she doesn\u2019t plan to set\u00a0foot on Bajoran, and he\u2019s suddenly just \u201cOk, sure.\u201d Drops the subject, doesn\u2019t ask for more info, doesn\u2019t\u00a0back down, doesn\u2019t catch on to her plan, just, \u201cfine, whatever\u201d and drops it, moving on. Terrible Writing\u00a0#2 (also probably directing).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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The characters that really shine, however, are the two you might least expect to have much to do in a\u00a0pandemic episode: \u00a0Quark and Odo.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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We get to see Quark work behind the scenes at taking care of Quark first. Make Quark Great has to be\u00a0his motto. If something is not good for Quark, it is not done. No rules or regulations have any sway over\u00a0him. He\u2019s strictly out for self-improvement, generally via profit. He will avoid confrontations with those\u00a0who can harm him because being harmed would not be good for Quark.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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We also get to see what he has going for him. He is sneaky, and he has backdoors and tools to access\u00a0what he needs in the station. He has some kind of thumb drive devices he can insert into computer\u00a0terminals to bypass access restrictions, giving him unlimited access to information in the ship\u2019s\u00a0computer. What does he do with this info? He finds out which replicators on the station are working (his\u00a0establishment\u2019s replicators are broken) and then cuts himself an access card to get into an unused room\u00a0with a working replicator where he produces all the foodstuffs needed for his business.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Odo, of course, catches him at this and confronts him. These two are going to be primary adversaries\u00a0throughout most of the show, I think, and I\u2019m looking forward to it. They are going to have a love\/hate\u00a0relationship and be constantly engaged in a low-stakes squabble.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Odo ends up assuming control of the station as everyone else succumbs to the virus (more on the\u00a0amazingly crap-tastic writing there in a bit). One ship is trying to break quarantine and is trying to\u00a0literally break away from the station, but in doing so is actively breaking the station. Sisko had\u00a0commanded them to be released, and then a tractor beam would be placed on the ship before they\u00a0could get away, thereby preserving the quarantine and DS9\u2019s hull integrity, but the locking clamps were\u00a0stuck to the forces applied on them by the ship trying to leave.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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The ship is also doing itself no favors, overloading its reactor or engines or something in its struggle to\u00a0break free. It is going to explode, and probably take the entirety of DS9 with it. Sisko was trying to\u00a0ineffectively \u201cleadership\u201d his way into a solution for that when he succumbed to the virus and could no\u00a0longer communicate.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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So, it is Odo. Odo is all that remains, and Odo can\u2019t do it alone. There\u2019s only one other creature left\u00a0cognitively unimpaired on DS9, and that is Quark (thanks to his superior Ferengi immune system, so he\u00a0says). Quark and Odo must team up to save DS9, and thereby save Quark.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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In another humorous little scene (it is impossible to tell if half the stuff Quark says is meant to be serious\u00a0from his point of view, or if he\u2019s just yanking chains), Quark convinces Odo to let him beam Odo to the\u00a0stuck docking clamps. It\u2019s the only way to get there fast enough, and Quark has witnessed the process\u00a0dozens of times. Odo is alarmed that he has never actually done it before, but has no further time to\u00a0object as Quark does as he said. Odo releases the ship and it pulls away just in time and explodes. The\u00a0station is saved, quarantine is preserved, and there is sufficient time for Kira\u2019s maneuver to capture the\u00a0biologist to force a cure. The day is saved, and everyone lives happily ever after, until the next episode.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Other Thoughts<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n
Star Trek isn\u2019t SF. I\u2019d like to get back to that discussion. The writers have no concept of anything at all. In\u00a0fact (warning, big, crap-tastic writing reveal incoming), the writers don\u2019t believe in science, genetics, or\u00a0evolution, but more importantly, the WRITERS DON\u2019T EVEN BELIEVE IN STAR TREK!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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This bio-engineered super virus that was formulated to attack and kill Cardassians by the Bajorans does\u00a0infect the Cardassians. It also infects humans. It also infects every other alien on the station. All the little\u00a0background extras aliens all get sick from it too. Why? \u00a0Because even to the writers, aliens on Star Trek\u00a0are just humans in a rubber suit. There\u2019s no concept of cross-species transmissions of the virus, and\u00a0even though it was developed to work on the Cardassians, it also miraculously works on every species\u00a0ever.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Except for Odo and Quark. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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Why? Because plot armor. There\u2019d be no one left to save the day without it, and we wouldn\u2019t have that\u00a0fun scene where they had to work together.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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There\u2019s no reason to suspect that Odo and Quark wouldn\u2019t eventually succumb, either. It could be\u00a0argued that they just hadn\u2019t developed symptoms yet, but would inevitably succumb too if the cure was\u00a0not given to them soon. But even if that is the case, that still leads us back to the amazingly, mind-numbingly terrible, non-scientific writing of a disease that just affects everyone the same. We aren\u2019t\u00a0talking about a disease that that is jumping species but is just infecting members of the same Taxonomic\u00a0class (mammals, for example).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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We\u2019re talking about infecting multiple species, each one of which is not in the same Domain as any of\u00a0the others. They share no common genetic descendants, unless Star Trek is going to go with the\u00a0\u201cseeded\u201d story of the origins of life in the Universe. Even then, it isn\u2019t going to happen. It might be\u00a0conceivable of one miraculous fluke where a disease might be able to jump from one alien species to a\u00a0human or vice versa, but everyone? C\u2019mon, man!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Final Grade: \u00a0C<\/b><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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All bad writing aside, the episode is well done and very enjoyable to watch. The bad writing really\u00a0tanked it, though. I could have seen this episode making a push for solid B territory without that.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re continuing on in our watch party of Star Trek: Deep Space 9. This week\u2019s episode is Babel. Babel is a very pleasant surprise. It is the best episode of the season…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26017,"featured_media":1946,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,2,21,33,20],"tags":[28,27,24,29,32,31,30],"class_list":["post-1901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-deep-space-9","category-reviews","category-sci-fi","category-star-trek","category-tv","tag-deep-space-9","tag-ds9","tag-reviews","tag-sci-fi","tag-star-trek","tag-television","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/assend.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/assend.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/assend.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/assend.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26017"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/assend.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1901"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/assend.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2187,"href":"https:\/\/assend.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1901\/revisions\/2187"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/assend.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/assend.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/assend.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/assend.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}