Synopsis: O’Brien, Dax, Bashir, and their runabout are reduced in size while investigating an anomaly. Meanwhile, the Jem’Hadar attack and commandeer the Defiant, leaving the runabout crew with no choice but to take their miniature ship inside the Defiant and help Sisko and the others recapture the vessel.
Rascals meets Honey I Shrunk the Kids! From a conflict standpoint there’s not a lot of new ground here (except the ordinary Gamma vs. Alpha Jem Ha’Dar fighting) but visually this whole episode is a treat. Getting to see the inside of a plasma conduit and computer circuitry not to mention substituting the photon torpedoes for a handheld phaser.
Lifeless Planet sold itself as a mostly stress-free platformer that focuses on story. While that turned out to be mostly true, there was not enough platforming and not enough story.
The game’s beginning is intriguing and has the same sense of awe I had when I started Journey. Sadly, less than an hour into play I found myself become increasingly bored and underwhelmed. The premise is that you’ve crash landed on a planet believed to be full of life. However, you quickly determine that all life is gone (including your crewmates) and find evidence that Soviet era Russians had been colonizing this planet for years, though there’s no evidence they’re still around either.
The story does develop over the five to nine hours it will take the average person to play, but it is so freaking slow. So much time is just spent walking over vast expanses of land and the platforming that exists is generally repetitive, occasionally awkward (those geysers made me want to scream), and with very little in the way of challenging puzzles. This would be fine if the story plugged along at a nice pace, but sometimes you can go an hour without learning anything of note. Some people were moved by the story that is there. I was not.
The most frustrating part for me were the few levels that were dark. I even selected the in-game option of brightening the screen and it was still so hard to navigate some areas without straining my eyes. Darkness has its place in games to add to the atmosphere, but here it was just mostly annoying.
I got this when it was a free download off Epic Games. It was generally a nice diversion, but I have no desire to ever pick this up again.
Synopsis: Dax is reunited with the Kahn symbiont, a wife of one of her previous hosts, and must decide whether or not to ignore Trill taboo and continue their relationship.
Review: Now this is what The Outcast wasn’t. If this aired today it probably wouldn’t be a big deal, but in 1995 showing two women kiss on prime time television was scandalous. What I love about this episode is that not for one second is the story a token to same-sex relationships (especially since for Trills sexuality is extremely fluid), but rather an aristocratic taboo specific to Trill culture. Nobody in this future even blinks at the fact that Jadzia is in love with this person who identifies as female. All they care about is her happiness. Even living in a world now where gay marriage is legal it’s still a refreshing episode.
Review: Man, DS9 isn’t afraid to take chances with character shifts. On a lesser show, Odo wouldn’t become human, or if he did, it would be only briefly, as the writers would be scared about not being able to rely on Odo’s shapeshifting abilities to wow viewers. Instead they chose the more satisfying character development path. Then you have the announcement at the end that Odo believes Gowron is a changeling. It wasn’t terribly surprising to me, as Gowron’s personality has changed quite a bit since his interactions with Picard. Still fun, though.
Synopsis: Garak and Doctor Bashir investigate abandoned Cardassian war orphans on Bajor.
Memory Alpha Summary: Duplicity
Garak is back! Finally! He helps take a show about orphaned Cardassian children and makes it dynamite. His friendship with Bashir grows stronger, and his own character develops as well, as he’s forced to help Bashir with the orphaned children, not just to get back at Dukat, but to help his own conscience. He’s still as evasive and wry as ever, and it’s hard not to grin whenever he’s on screen.
Has it really been almost five years since I reviewed Her Story? Sheesh, I’m getting old. Back then I said I was looking forward to Sam Barlow’s next project. I think I forgot about that as I didn’t discover Telling Lies until about 18 months after its release. Still, it was very much worth the wait.
Mild spoilers under the break. You might enjoy the game more knowing nothing about it.
Editor’s Note: I completely missed this episode while doing the countdown, and I noticed that I even started the countdown at the wrong number. So for the three of you paying attention, this week may be a bit confusing. We should be good to go going forward, though.
Synopsis: Ezri Dax has trouble adjusting with the rest of the crew; Garak inexplicably collapses..
Review: A nice break from the monotonous Dominion War, though I’m not entirely sure yet I’m going to like Ezri Dax. (Narrator: He didn’t) The actor seems at times to be projecting and her interactions with characters she’s supposed to have known for years feel a bit wooden.
Review: One of the best examples of Trek having multiple plots that all fit a similar theme, of people being markedly different than they appear to be.
Synopsis: Orthodox Bajorans object to secular teachings about the wormhole in the station’s school, causing tensions between fundamentalists and the Starfleet crew.
Review: All season long there were hints about tension between the Federation and the Bajoran people. It’s all slammed home in a hurry here, as we’re introduced to the wicked Vedek Winn (Louise Fletcher, who makes Nurse Ratched seem sunshine and roses here) and the more amiable Vedek Bareil. It’s the final episode of season one that was needed.
Synopsis: Sisko is recalled to San Francisco after a terrorist bombing reveals that Changelings have reached Earth. While Starfleet tightens security measures on Earth, Sisko and Odo discover that Admiral Leyton is deviously plotting to take over the planet.
Review: Morn doesn’t get a joke about Andorians! Morn’s the best.
This is an above-average episode about how the Dominion sow seeds of paranoia without actually having to a whole lot. The scene where Odo freaks out the President by shapeshifting in front of him is solid, and the scene where Odo recognizes a shapeshifter has taken the place of Leyton is also a chilling moment. Unfortunately other scenes are ruined by grandiose emoting and endless exposition where character’s state every emotion they’re feeling instead of just letting the viewer pick up on them. The President especially is guilty of this, though Leyton is at times as well. Sisko even gets in on the action. “I was hoping that this would never happen. But it finally has. The Changelings have reached Earth.”
Death By Troggles 
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