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The Beginning of the End Penumbra Review by Steve Perry Airdate: Week of April 5, 1999 Written by: Rene Echevarria Directed by: Steven Posey Short Take: Good start Brief Summary: All sorts of things happen Review: It's official - we're knee deep in arc. I wish we had more of it this season, because Penumbra was surprisingly involving. This is good stuff. Babylon 5 for awhile did this well, too... I'd argue that DS9 has the potential to do more, because it has so many things that need to be done that it's bound to make involving TV. And since this episode covered about five different things, there's no good way of reviewing it besides going through each on, one by one. Here we go. Ezri and Worf took up too much time, yes, but this isn't a bad plot. Yes, Ezri got too much screen time this year, but this story needed to be told... I hardly call it soap operatics. They needed to hash out their relationship, and this dialogue was great. Great lines just batted back and forth, some humorous, some sarcastically humorous, and all it being a good example of two people who have feelings for each other but are afraid to admit it. Ezri mistakenly acting like she was Dax, after a very good scene in Worf's room, and Worf not talking about Jadzia (and Alexander, too - nice mention) both worked well. In all seriousness, this is some of the best relationship dialogue DS9 has ever had, even the cheesy part where Worf worries about whether Jadzia slept with Boday. Even that rang true, except for the fact that Boday has a transparent skull. There are two difficulties with this story, and these two difficulties are really the only two flaws in the episode. The first is that another person is lost in space. Ezri's reasoning to find Worf was well thought out, and the FX of the pod hovering in the Badlands as the shuttle approached it was simply breathtaking, so I can forgive the writer a little. The second problem was the fact that it ended with them in the sack. Yes, it makes sense for those two, and we haven't seen how it will play out. And yes, they at least noted that Ezri got hurt a little bit from it, bless her heart. The real problem is, it felt so... cliched. How many times do people get in a fight and then start doing it? Never, but on TV it happens all the time. I wish we had a little more tenderness before this happened. I like the idea of the Breen. They're just plain badasses. Of course, we don't know what they're doing yet, but whatever it is, it's bound to be cool. The best storyline, I thought, was the story on Cardassia. That's a no brainer, though - these villians are absolutely delicious, and anything they say is gold. Weyoun does have Damar under his thumb, but Damar is slowly beginning to squirm. Weyoun really does care about the Founder, who was simply great, coldly ordering the deaths of the clones to get a "fresh perspective" and practically groaning during that gross little scene where she gave up more of her flesh for experiments. You feel sorry for Damar - almost. And then there's Gul Dukat. Back, still crazy, but with very much an alive mind. Basically, the same Gul that was in Covenant, which makes me wish that story was followed up on more. It makes me wish the entire Bajor story was followed up on, because, despite what Behr says, the Bajor story is about the planet, not the Prophets. Anyway, making Dukat get the operation to look Bajoran is pure genius. Genius. It's full of irony - here's the most hated Cardassian becoming a Bajoran, partly because he wants to and partly because he's doing it to get vengeance. Dukat dying asa Bajoran would be incredibly, incredibly appropriate. I love it. Finally, there's Sisko and Kasidy and the Prophets. Who knows what to make of the Prophets stuff. Lacey was sufficiently creepy yet nonetheless motherly as Sarah Prophet. Thank god, this time they seemed to care, I suppose an appropriate change now that Sisko's mom is with them. This wasn't babble about our way or the high way, necessarily - just the fact that Sisko is headed for trouble, and if Kasidy is in the way, she might face sorrow, too. The scenes with Sisko and Kasidy worked for me, with only the first one coming off as a bit too much exposition. I enjoyed the proposal scene and I have no idea what the problem is with a person building a model house (Geez, come up with better nitpicks than that.) The use of the item in the house as an impromptu ring was well done, as was the next scene, on the Promenade, when they realized that the wedding was going to be complicated after all. Echevarria's the best character writer DS9 has. He's the whole reason those scenes worked. Sisko and Kasidy, after all, hardly get to be together because Penny Johnson has other projects. Despite that lack of screen time, this actually worked. Here, the proposal scene was tender, it had its moment of humor, and those two things were enough to survive Brooks' acting. You see Echevarria's touch in other places - Jake congratulating his father, Quark worrying about Worf with Ezri... no Trek show is at good at this department at DS9. No science fiction show is as good at that, I dare say. Overall, definitely an hour that has my interest peaked. It has many possibilities, and while I feel that before it is all done more could have been done with this arc, so far it's going strong. Points off for the ship being lost again and the fight turning into a night together, but all in all good work. Some short takes: - I kind of thought that Breen ship was ugly... - And it sure didn't look organic - Apparently they forgot that the Ganges was destroyed, and so they wrote it in and then realized that it was... so we got a ship named after the ever mysterious river Ganda, which isn't on any of my maps. Rating: B+/A- Next week: The Kai is back, uh oh. | |
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