Deep Space Nine - Dax

This is a really nice episode with a simple mission statement, help the viewers understand what a Trill is. I'm watching the series with my sister whose never watched it before and at the end she had a firm understanding of who Jadzia Dax is, her relationship with Sisko and is looking forward to seeing more of her as we go forward. The trial format adds an element of danger to the episode as its blatantly obvious that if Dax gets extradited she's going to pay for what is possibly Curzons crime.

Most of the other regulars get something to do this episode, from taking a part in the hearing to doing some investigating - in fact the only criticism I have is the one who gets the least to do is arguably Dax whose job for the episode is to be centre stage when the storm rages around her. But I'm willing to shrug this off as it feels like a gateway episode to bring Dax onto centre stage from the side lines.

Its a notable guest cast this week as we get Gregory Itzin off of 24, Anne Haney off of Liar Liar (and loads more) and Fionnula Flanagan off of Lost. Between them all they were fairly regular irregulars and all help power the episode. It's a strong 7/10 from me.

Lost - One of Us

There is a lot of stuff going on in this episode which is a relief after the start of the season. We see more of Juliets back story as her flashbacks fill in her time on the island and fill us in on her motivations before throwing in a possible swerve at the end. 

The majority of the episode is the ramification of Juliet switching sides from The Other to the Losties* and the issue of will they accept her. There's decent stuff happening here with Claire getting some screen time and Juliet gets a rather convenient chance to prove herself. We get a good bit of character stuff as various Losties get to interact with Juliet - some for the first time with Hurley stealing the scene he's in and Sayid & Sawyer showing their distrust.

It's a 7/10 from me and a really good strong flashback which adds a lot to the episode and helps colour in a character we hadn't met until this season.  

* I need a shorthand for the regulars and this is all I've got 

Deep Space Nine - Q-Less

Oh, I'd forgot that Q was in DS9!

We're in curates egg territory in this episode in that we have the first episode not to have any of the main cast as the starring character - something that the show would go on to be known for due to the strength of the supporting cast. However the two main characters of the episode are Q and (looks up wikipedia) Vash who I have no memory of what so ever.

Vash is actually quite fun - she's paired up in a fun double act with Quark and if anything she's the actual base of which the episode is built around. Q however does not fit at all into the DS9 format which is strange as he's brilliant everywhere else I've seen him. The strength of Q has always been in his relationship with the commanding officer to the show - to Picard he's the court jester ready to throw the Enterprise about for his own amusement and to Janeway he's the maturing class joker eager to prove that he's capable of maturing. With Sisko we get nothing - straight away he's viewed as a nuisance and someone who he's been briefed on. We get an amusing scene and moments here or there but there's no time given to creating a relationship.

The regulars mostly suffer this episode, O'Brien is perhaps given the worst material wondering around the station making references to the Enterprise while the only two that escape unharmed are Bashir and Quark. Quark gets his fun double act and arguably the most screen time while Bashir gets some comedy moments with Vash and Q before being written out for half of the episode.

I'm giving this 6/10 as Vash alone (plus Quark) makes this a fun episode however there is no need for Q. He's a half arsed addition to the episode that the producers don't fully commit to. The episode is notable for being the first to be fronted by a guest cast but it feels wrong as it's the guest cast from another show. Personally I think it's a swing and a miss instead of something that didn't work and without an early episode like this we'd never see the supporting cast grow.

Lost - Left Behind

This is a very tight episode, there is a lot going on but it has the feel of an episode where not a single shot is wasted. It's another episode where the action is spread over multiple locations; the flashback, the Others Barracks and the beach camp. The flashback bearing in mind the subject matter is the weakest part of the episode - plus it seems to mix up the Left Behind metaphor the episode is based around with Never Go Back. In order for this episode to work we need to see more of what Kate left behind. We get two good guest actors on show in the shape of Kim Dickens off of Deadwood and Elizabeth Broderick of Teenage Witchery fame - other shows may apply. They should have been given better material.

The stuff at the Barracks is brilliant, everything is from Kate's point of view - not from a camera Peep Show sense but it's certainly from her lens. Juliet is viewed as suspicious and Jack as some kind of end of level trophy that she has her aim on. There's a good scene with Locke early on which perfectly sums up his character, he's trying to be judgemental, aloof, looking for a moment where he gets to say goodbye and "ascend" but like Kate we don't care - we want to know where Jack is. We get a good set piece with Kate and Juliet handcuffed and encountering the smoke monster - we find out The Others don't know a lot about it and that the Pylon fence is designed to keep it out. The theme of this section is that The Others have gone and left behind everyone they (or Ben?) don't want - including Juliet.

The stuff at the camp with Sawyer and Hurley is lovely character stuff. Hurley manipulates Sawyer to be the leader they need in a series of comical set pieces and at this point we're getting the double act we didn't know we needed as the two characters bond.

It's a strong 8/10 from me and with a stronger flashback this could have been something special.

Lost - Expose

When I review something I like to review what is given to us viewers on the screen, however that is not going to be possible for this episode. The meat of this review is what happened backstage and due to the nature of the show it's going to centre on the production team's continued path to distrust. First of all a quick sum up of the episode, it's a good bit of fluff and gives the camp something to do while we take an episode away from the rescue attempt, ordinarily this would get a fun fluffy 6/10.

I fully believe that the production team let down Kiele Sanchez & Rodrigo Santoro the actors who play Nikki & Paulo and threw them to the wolves. From day one the producers of Lost were clear that they had a plan, as a viewer I was cool with that liked what I saw and decided I was in this for the long haul. And then season two happened, on my watch through (which started before these reviews) the season was better than I remembered but then it did spend half the season introducing "the tailies" a group of five character's (two main, two supporting and an occasional guest character) who were then killed off, or thrown into the background or given an average of one scene a season. But then again they did introduce Ben so we got a bit of goodness and a lot of dead end story that went nowhere.

We reach season three and we're repeating the start of the previous season in that it's a very slow start and the show has never been good at pacing the use of characters. If you take every regular and put them in the category of overused, underused or just right very few will be in the third category. Due to the pacing fandom of the show was at a low ebb as season three got going and the wrath of fandom was taken out on Nikki and Paulo who started cropping up in the background of scenes and like most of the cast based at the camp didn't do a lot. The producers to appease fans announced they had a plan for the show and it would be a six season run, then to appease us short term killed off Nikki and Paulo.

This is just abject cowardness imo and shows a lack of production management, also it takes away a little trust as a viewer. From this point there would always be a bit of suspicion between myself and the producers. As an episode it's fine, it even has a lot of fannish touches for viewers in bringing back characters from the dead for some flashbacks. Everything I've read about the initial plans for the characters sound brilliant and going through with those storylines would have been a good way to get the show on track. As such from a character point of view we have Nikki and Paulo playing their endgame characters for this episode and are not recognisable to the characters we've seen for the entire run up to now. It's like watching episode one of Robot seeing Tom Baker making his debut as The Doctor and not tuning in again until episode four as Logopolis the performances are unrecognisable from each other but in Tom's case we saw the character change. As such this episode gets two marks 6/10 for what we got on screen and 0/10 for the spineless producers.

Deep Space Nine - Captive Pursuit

A fun little episode which sees Chief O'Brien takes centre stage and also the first time someone comes through the worm hole from the Gamma quadrant. We get a nice little bit of culture as we see Tosk through the eyes of O'Brien and the first few acts of the episode are us getting to know Tosk while trying to figure whats up with him. With the final act we get answers and also a mini invasion of the station which is quite fun.

Avery Brooks does a good low level performance as Sisko as he quickly realises what O'Brien is up to and slow rolls any attempt to stop him. Odo trying to resist racing after O'Brien after Sisko's orders is a fun moment. Colm Meaney & Scott Macdonald as Tosk are the main ingredients to this episode working as they give excellent performances. A good fun episode with interesting things to say about the Prime Directive, 8/10.

Lost - The Man From Tallahassee

I had forgot how brilliant this episode is, we've been building up to this one for some time as the rescue party has been moving closer to The Others camp. It's not the all action affair that "Not in Portland" was earlier in the season but that's ok - we get something we weren't expecting. We get a character episode where Ben and Locke are pushed to the for-front and we get so many good scenes with them both. All centred around the fact that one of them is in a wheelchair and the other isn't.

The rescue is over quite quickly - so quick it's easy to assume viewers would have been disappointed. Kate, Sayid, Rousseau and Locke against The Others to rescue Jack is an event that sells itself. After being overwhelmed they all get their moments but going into this episode I was expecting more. Jack's plan to escape is quite frankly a good one and there's a brilliant low level telegraph that this rescue attempt is going to lead to it failing.

We finally see how John lost the use of his legs and it's a good reveal. It's the conclusion of his flashbacks going back to season 1 and it's a case of a long standing plot line ending well. The placement of Lockes flashback in this episode is perfect as we see him with his private agenda of seeking to keep the use of his legs - he cares about no-one or nothing else. It feels at first that we're going to see a Locke episode where he isn't manipulated but them Ben enters onto the stage and we get a battle of wits between the two of them with each getting the upper hand at different stages.

Again it's a 10/10 episode which is mainly due to the level of performance of Michael Emerson and Terry O'Quinn. As with most highly regarded episodes we get a fantastic finale/cliff hanger and of note we get one of the main differences between Season 2 and 3. In the previous season we had endless scenes with Jack & Locke however as Locke blows up the submarine and Jacks way off the island we have the first time their paths cross this season. We're left in a wilder place than when we started the episode and I can't wait for the next one.