posted
Welp, on PayTV here in Australia they've just started repeating Deep Space Nine...
So the split pilot was on today, and even though I kept saying - aaaaaah I've seen it turn the channel - I ended up watching it. I've never seen the split in half version. I would have preferred them to show the full two hour pilot instead, but what are you going to do?
Anyways, I just have to say how truly awesome this episode is... well the whole two hours is. And it was a mixture of nostalgia and wonder that brought me back about 8 years to where it all began. Emissary was what hooked me on Star Trek, and well it still doesn't fail to please.
I realised how things have changed over the run of the series, and how things stayed the same. It showed just how much of an organic entity the whole series of Deep Space Nine was. They replayed "Caretaker" the Voyager pilot on Free To Air TV the other night, and well really the characters are just the same now as they were 6 years ago. Its a shame because watching Caretaker, Voyager had such a fascinating potential. Hey don't get me wrong, I love watching Voyager and I enjoy nearly all the episodes, but there is just something about DS9 that superseeds Voyager.
Emissary was a wonderful episode. From seeing Jennifer Sisko, to Kira's fantastic first impression (I liked her hair then!) The first appearance of Gul Dukat to the first appearance of Morn. Its suprising how much of a rich tapestry Deep Space Nine is. I reckon you could pull apart Emissary and give an in depth story on every little detail. The exchange between Sisko and Picard is even more dramatic and heavy to me 8 years on. With the complete story of both TNG and DS9 filled in, its a wonderful but frightening moment. Picard is so shaken with what Sisko has dealt him. This is one of the most vunerable moments of Picard on screen ever. Sisko, is so threatening too... you just go "hey, this guy is MEAN but then, well you see what he went through loosing his wife, and how hard it must have been for him raising Jake alone. The comment by the Bajoran Vedek on the promenade to Sisko, that now it was "time" had a wonderful moment where the Vedek is surrounded by a background light, which makes it exactly look like the 'white space' that envelops anyone who visits the prophets. Could this Vedek have been a wormhole alien!?! Kai Opaka... I just have to say how much I really wanted to see more of the Kai over the seven years, and her small appearance in season 5 really didn't give you anything else. There is such a presence to her character. She knows what needs to be done. She really is someone who knows what is best for her people. She knows that she can't help her people to come together, with out the celestial temple being found. Here the prophetic comment she made to Sisko about him having to discover the Celestial Temple is now more important than ever. That Sisko had to find the Celestial temple "not for the Bajorans, not for the Federation, but for himself" she said it was simply what he has always been destined to do.
If anyone can watch this episode again, do. Its amazing how DS9 is complementary to ITSELF. Not willing to compare to Voyager again, but a pet peeve is that the characters don't develop, haven't developed. They have a crew (apart from Seven and The Doctor) that are basically carbon copies of their characters from Caretaker. DS9 has embraced and developed internal consistency, where as Voyager almost has a disdain for such a thing. Voyager poorer for this attitude, even though the show might be an enjoyable one. DS9 flourishes on it characters and intertwined threads; it makes DS9 one of the BEST Television shows, that have ever graced our televisions.
Thankyou DS9.
Andrew
------------------ "This is cooling, faster than I can..." Tori Amos "Cooling"
[This message has been edited by AndrewR (edited December 02, 2000).]
posted
Speaking of the vedek... When I saw the episode again for the first time in several years he seemed to know that Sisko was the Emissary even though no one else, including us did. So that after watching the series, and to see it again from the beginning it's amazing the level of continuity, character development, and foreshadowing DS9 had. It made watching Voyager seem kinda dull since Braga relies on flashy fx more than good story-telling. "In the Pale Moonlight" is one of my favorite episodes, I've seen it a dozen times, it doesn't have a lot of fx... the Romulan shuttle landing was cool, some holosuite stuff, but mostly just a damn good story.
------------------ "There's a new Mexico?" - Mr. Burns This post is sponsored in part by the Federation Starship Datalink
posted
Oops... season 4 in Accession... aka "The Other Emissary".
I would have like to have seen her again with a bigger part... I would have liked to have seen something on the whole g of her giving Molly O'Brien that earring of hers...
------------------ "This is cooling, faster than I can..." Tori Amos "Cooling"
posted
I agree that DS9 has an intricacy that Voyager lacks. I also agree that Opaka should've had a bigger part in later seasons. With everything about destiny that ended up happening in the later seasons, it would have been nice, and wonderful, to have Opaka play a real role in that destiny. The world she was marooned on could've easily been a Dominion tie-in and Opaka seemed to have knowledge of Sisko's position as Emissary. She should've been brought back.
The only problem with the intricate development of Sisko as the Emissary, is that TPTB didn't decide until later on that Sisko was actually the Emissary or that he had any kind of a "destiny" as far as the Prophets were concerned. This made for sort fo a back and forth feeling regarding his nature and gave the final decision sort of a forced feeling.
------------------ "A gathering of Angels appeared above my head. They sang to me this song of hope, and this is what they said..." -Styx
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