DS9 Flashback: The Assignment

With Miles O'Brien being the only married main character in Star Trek (up to the time of Deep Space Nine, anyway), Keiko would guest star whenever the writers wanted to depict a bit of turmoil with domestic bliss. With "The Assignment," though, they took a sledgehammer to it.

Keiko O'Brien returns from a visit to the fire caves of Bajor... but not alone. She has been possessed by an evil entity with complete access to all her knowledge. Ahead of Miles at every turn and cutting him off from any help, the entity forces him to sabotage systems on the station for its own nefarious purposes.

Though this story was initially pitched by outside writers as more of a hostage situation, staff writer René Echevarria turned it into a creepy tale of possession, adding the notion of "evil wormhole aliens" so that it wouldn't just be a random entity. Their name, though, came from another staff writer, Robert Hewitt Wolfe, who'd actually had the same rough notion for Bajoran "devils" clear back in season one, only to have his reference to "pah-wraiths" cut from the final script.

Neither writer is credited for the script here, though. With all hands on deck to create the 30th anniversary episode "Trials and Tribble-ations," show runner Ira Steven Behr invited then-freelancers Bradley Thompson & David Weddle, whose season four pitch had worked out, to help here. By the end of the season, they'd be offered positions on staff.

Keiko's possession is a chilling idea even on paper. No one knows Miles O'Brien better than his wife, keeping the entity ahead of him at every turn. The pah-wraith threatens the lives of his loved ones to keep him in line, in ways both subtle (roughly brushing Molly's hair) and overt (forcing Keiko to dive off the promenade balcony). But the cruelty is constant, and no torture seems too small for the pah-wraith to inflict. It forces Miles to sleep in the same bed, sends him through the motions of a surprise birthday party, even makes him give "her" a kiss when people are watching.

This all becomes better still in the execution, though, thanks to a fantastic performance by Rosalind Chao. She isn't often given a lot of meat as Keiko, and her role in most episodes is sweetness and charm. Suddenly, she's in a dark and sinister gear, tossing off threats with casual disdain, and indulging in the pleasures of having a flesh and blood form. She switches back and forth on a dime, bringing full evil to the fore when only Miles is there to see it, and disguising it when others are around. Rosalind Chao was reportedly one of the actresses in the running to play Tasha Yar on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and from this episode, I can actually see it. She's forceful, badass, and in charge... and it's fun to watch.

That excellent performance also brings out the best in Colm Meaney, who's great as the tortured Miles. Most of his key moments in this episode are conveyed only with a look -- staring daggers as he makes a birthday wish, turning aside an earnest offer of help from Worf, realizing how he might use Rom to get through it all, and ultimately being caught red-handed by Odo. There's a reason why Deep Space Nine made it an annual tradition to make Miles O'Brien suffer; they knew Colm Meaney would always deliver.

It's also a strong episode for Rom, as he strives to fit in at his engineering job. He wants whatever breakfast his co-workers are having (much to Quark's disgust), is eager to fill in for someone who's out sick, and is trying his best to please his boss. But it's another "Rom is no dummy" episode, as he figures out what the pah-wraith is really up to, and stoically plays dumb to Odo when O'Brien throws him under the bus. ("I'm Quark's brother. I know the role.")

Other observations:

• There may have been references to it before this episode, but the phrase "waste extraction" really stuck out to me this time. Waste extraction? Is that like using the transporter to beam the poop out of people?

• This episode was actually filmed after "Trials and Tribble-ations," but aired first (probably because of all the visual effects that had to be completed for that episode). As such, Nana Visitor was in the final days of her real-life pregnancy, and unavailable for this episode. It's too bad, as I think getting Kira's thoughts on the pah-wraiths would have been a nice texture for this episode.

• This was the first time Allan Kroeker directed an episode of Star Trek. He'd go on to direct over three dozen episodes across Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise -- including the series finale of all three.

• Miles and Keiko now share the experience of being possessed by malevolent aliens. In the Next Generation episode "Power Play," the roles were reversed.

This episode may have been the breather for production, with few flashy effects and no new sets, but it continued an early season streak of strong stories. I give "The Assignment" an A-.

Island Escape?

This weekend, I went to see another touring Broadway production during its stop here in Denver: Escape to Margaritaville. It's a "jukebox musical" made up of Jimmy Buffett songs, lifting tunes from his catalog to flesh out a light, two-hour experience.

For the most part, the show is exactly what I expected -- and I'm pretty sure exactly what you'd expect too. This was no heavy, challenging experience at the theater. The story revolves around an uptight city woman who goes on an island getaway with her soon-to-be-married best friend. The two women meet "beach bums" and get tangled up in island romances that may be built more to last. (It's a fluffy Broadway musical, though, so... yeah, they are.)

Along the way, you hear every Jimmy Buffett song you know (well, unless you're a big "Parrothead"), a few songs you didn't realize were Jimmy Buffett songs (again, unless you're a big Parrothead"), and a few songs you've probably never heard of before (unless... well...). It's all done with a wink and a nod to the audience, encouraging them to participate at times, working lyrics into dialogue for a laugh, and more. It doesn't take itself at all seriously, and it's pretty easy to go with the flow.

If anything, it's perhaps assembled with more care than most jukebox musicals I've seen. In other shows I've seen assembled around other artists, there honestly isn't much craft put into how the songs fit with the created story. The general assumption seems to be that no one will care too much; just get to the songs. This show seems to have been built more like a puzzle. The writers, Greg Garcia and Mike O'Malley, have combed through all the songs and all the lyrics, and spent a lot of effort setting up what's going to happen. Characters are built specifically to justify songs they'll sing later, with the things they do cultivated to fit specific lines in the song. The seams show a bit at times, but the story feels more coherent and natural overall.

Honestly, this isn't a show I probably would have chosen to see if it weren't part of a season-long theater package we'd gone for. But we've certainly seen worse. I'd call Escape to Margaritaville a B-. If you're a fan of Jimmy Buffett, you should definitely check it out if it comes to your town. (If you live in Denver, you have the rest of this week.)

DS9 Flashback: Nor the Battle to the Strong

After the writers of Star Trek: The Next Generation repeatedly did Wesley Crusher (and actor Wil Wheaton) wrong with bad material, it was a bit surprising that another child character was included in the main cast of Deep Space Nine. But these writers were smarter about how to use Jake Sisko, and actor Cirroc Lofton rose to the occasion almost every time an episode featured his character. Case in point: the fifth season episode, "Nor the Battle to the Strong."

Jake Sisko is writing a news article about Julian Bashir's presentation at a medical conference. Bored with the assignment, he persuades the doctor to divert their runabout to respond to a distress call from a Federation colony. The two find themselves in a war zone, under fire by Klingon warriors, and facing more casualties than the local field hospital can keep up with. Jake quickly learns the horrors of war, and must face his own reactions under pressure.

Deep Space Nine had previously done episodes that examined what war does to people. Just episodes earlier in this same season, the series portrayed a death in battle, and made it matter. Yet "Nor the Battle to the Strong" is something different: a darker, more visceral episode that gains much of its power from focusing on the character least equipped to deal with it. Inspired by Ernest Hemingway's writings of World War I, this episode, as show runner Ira Steven Behr put it, really messes with the "Teflon image" Star Trek had after The Next Generation. Jake Sisko goes looking for adventure -- something more exciting than his boring profile of Dr. Bashir -- and gets far more than he bargained for.

Star Trek is no stranger to voice-over, of course, but it's not a "captain's log" that guides us through this episode. Jake's narration seems a bit unnecessary at first, expressing emotions that can be read plainly on Cirroc Lofton's face. But ultimately, we learn that what we're hearing are excerpts of the article Jake ends up writing about his wartime experiences. It's not unlike the "letter to home" cliche that's common in prestige war movies, but it feels more potent here not coming from the perspective of a soldier.

We do get some of the tropes of a war film, though, repackaged in a compelling way. There are a lot of almost interchangeable medics in this episode, all with a few lines, each barely distinguishable from the others if not for the alien makeup. Jake tries to stay out of their way in a crisis, is subjected to their crass gallows humor, flees artillery shelling in the field, has to comfort a dying man, and must endure Bashir's apologies to him when he feels he's the one who has failed.

A pivotal exchange comes when Jake meets a cowardly soldier who has wounded himself to get off the front line. Jake looks down his nose at the man... until he comes face to face with his own cowardice in a crisis. The episode's most powerful scene comes when Jake meets the soldier again after his own experiences. Amazingly, this was not a scene in the original script. When director Kim Friedman, a veteran of the show ER and its frenetic pace with similar material, brought in the episode several minutes short, the writers added this scene to drive the main theme home.

It's not just Jake who's affected by this experience. We see his father go through the wringer on the way to a rescue, trying to distract himself with menial work, commiserating with Dax, even confiding in Odo just to relive tension with anyone who will listen. Bashir also shares the trial with Jake; Alexander Siddig noted what a strong episode this was, but lamented that nothing further ever really came of the closeness the two characters experienced here.

Though not an especially big part of the story, we also get a few moments dealing with ongoing story lines for the other characters. Kira's pregnancy is a topic of debate in Ops, in one of the few moments of levity in the episode. Later, Odo suffers an embarrassment when he reacts on instinct and forgets he can no longer shapeshift, causing himself injury.

Other observations:

• Once again, filming on location helps an episode a great deal. The outdoor scenes here were back out in Star Trek staple Bronson Canyon, and add a great deal to Jake's experience under fire.

• Episode writer René Echevarria originally put Jake in a foxhole with a Klingon blinded in battle. The two formed a grudging respect for one another until Jake confessed his cowardice and was thrown out by the Klingon. Ira Steven Behr insisted on changing the Klingon to a Starfleet officer, so that the audience wouldn't be made to like the enemy too much in a story that wasn't about that. This reportedly caused a huge fight between the two at the time, though Echevarria ultimately agreed the change was a good one.

"Nor the Battle to the Strong" feels more real than a lot of Star Trek, and its ending really packs a punch. I give it an A-.

A Rich Tapestry?

Right now, few games in the board game enthusiast world are hotter than Tapestry. It's the latest in a string of well-received titles from Stonemaier Games (including Kennerspiel des Jahres winner Wingspan). It's receiving a lot of critical praise... but there have also been some more critical assessments of this game. It seems to be a bit of a polarizing experience.

Tapestry is a game about advancing a civilization through millennia as it discovers new technology and expands. This is the core of the game's appeal: it promises the flavor and trappings of a "civ builder" game -- though at 90-120 minutes, it will take half the time (or less!) of other games with similar themes.

The gameplay defies full description without the components in front of you for easy reference. The highlights, then. There's a central game board with four tracks devoted to different lines of advancement; each player will pursue some of these but be unable to do them all, and where they make different choices is a key part of where their strategies will diverge.

Meanwhile, each player has a personal board in front of them, a sort of Sudoku-like 9 x 9 grid subdivided into 3 x 3 sections. Buildings are arranged on this grid to unlock things, including some large buildings representing major construction efforts (and represented by substantial pre-painted miniatures). Filling in parts of your personal map, and working around its natural obstacles, is another axis of the strategy.

Depending on how slavishly you want your civilization simulation to be, parts of the system may drive you nuts. There's a sort of tech tree to things, with X leading to Y along the lines of a game like 7 Wonders -- but not a great deal of interconnectedness. It is, for example, possible to discover vaccines while simultaneously being a bit sketchy on that whole "wheel" thing. There's also a rather abstract approach to progressing through the five delineated ages into which the game is divided -- though the turn order always proceeds clockwise, player choose to advance ages when they're out of actions. The result: some players could be in the figurative Bronze Age while other opponents might still be in the Stone Age, even though they're all competing with each other for access to same things. Personally, these are trade-offs I don't mind making in the name of streamlined play, but I've seen some reviewers ding the game for the odd flavor.

I do have other reservations about the game. My biggest is that early turns matter a lot. It's pretty common for games involving resource management to depend on building good resource generation early on. But Tapestry really demands this to a greater degree, and it's not always clear just how bad a subpar choice is until it has snowballed on you through the game's five ages. The endgame has players dropping out one by one as they run out of actions, and the games I've played or heard about often end with one player (who had a strong early game) taking many more turns than their opponents. Final scores have not been close, with a 100-point scoring track often getting lapped two or even three times by a winner who is generally more than 100 points ahead of the last place player. It feels vital to me that whoever is explaining the game stress enormously how important early game economy matters. And then, even if they've done that, the first game will likely be a blowout.

The game does contain an element that appears to be intended as a catch-up mechanism to address this issue. The first player to cross into an age before anyone else gets some rewards, which in theory seem to balance for the players who still have actions to finish in the previous age. But this is not how it's shaken out in games I've played or observed. Running out of actions first in an age is not necessarily a sign that you've made weaker choices. A smart player (or a player more experienced than their opponents) can make strong choices and still finish the age first to collect the "catch-up" reward going into the next age. It can be double gas for the savvy player, an advantage they can often collect for several ages before the sheer momentum of their engine finally slows enough that the game's true trailing player(s) might ever "end an age first."

Those pre-painted miniatures the game comes with? I'm not really a fan of those, either. They are beautiful, to be sure, but they actually make the game harder to play than it would be with more conventional punched tokens. For one thing, the rounded, artistically rendered bases don't always clearly conform to the precise square patterns of the mini-map you're trying to place them on. For another, the height of the minis makes it hard to tell from an angle just what is really covered. You have to lean over your mini-map and look straight down on it from above to tell exactly what's covered. And if you want to know how an opponent is doing, which building they might be after to fill in the perfect area on their map? Forget it. Flat, 2D chips wouldn't look as cool, that's for sure, but they'd be far more user-friendly.

It seems the game isn't particularly well-balanced either, even apart from the extreme score differential between players of different skill levels. The game comes with a number of different civilizations you can play, each with their own unique ability to use. Some of these abilities seem strictly better than others as you read through them, and a few even seem to explicitly counteract an advantage given by a different civilization.

A series of errata was announced recently, acknowledging the imbalance between the civilizations. A few were weakened a bit, while others were buffed up. But the nature of the buffs doesn't seem especially compelling. In most cases, the weaker civilizations are spotted some number of victory points at the start of the game, depend on the number of opposing players. This doesn't affect the way the civilization actually plays; instead, it seems to be a tacit acknowledgement that even if you try to do what they do best, the best way it can possibly be done, you'll simply come up that many points short. Should you even bother doing it at all then, when you could look other ways to score points?

I might be willing to try Tapestry again under the right conditions. If the players are all clear-eyed about the value of early actions, if certain powerful and/or weak civilizations are simply excluded from the game, then there are hints of game mechanics in the mix here that might be pretty fun. (Mechanics I could not easily explain above without having the pieces to show for reference.) But it's hard to imagine wanting to make such allowances here with other gaming options available -- including stronger ones from Stonemaier Games like the widely beloved Scythe, or Viticulture, or Wingspan, or Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig.

For me, Tapestry is at best a C. But as I said at the outset, there are plenty of gamers out there who love it. If you were considering it, you might watch a video review on YouTube for a "second opinion."

DS9 Flashback: Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places

In television, some shows are known for being loose -- open to improvisation and interpretation by the actors. Others demand the performers are word perfect to the written script. The Star Trek series of the 80s and 90s were in the latter mold, with calls having to go out to the writers and producers if they wanted to change even a single word on the set. Still, this didn't mean the writers didn't take input from the actors. One case where an actor made a notable contribution was in Deep Space Nine's most lengthily-titled episode, "Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places."

The Klingon Grilka comes to Deep Space Nine and back into Quark's life. The smitten Quark hopes to stoke the marriage-for-show they once had into a real love. He turns to Worf for advice on romancing a Klingon woman -- though Worf himself is also beguiled by Grilka. Meanwhile, Kira and O'Brien are realizing that their relationship has grown to border on inappropriate... even as Keiko is innocently pushing them closer together.

The genesis of this episode came from actor Michael Dorn, who suggested to the writers that Worf would be fun in the middle of a Cyrano de Bergerac scenario. They in turn picked, I think, the best character to position as the "Christian" opposite him: Quark. It's possible there's more animosity between Quark and Kira, but there really aren't any two characters less alike than Quark and Worf. Forcing them to work together is just plain fun.

Culture clashes abound. Worf cannot fathom what such a "glorious" woman sees in such an odious troll. When he throws Morn off his bar stool, he attracts not her attention, but that of her adviser, Tumek -- who points out Worf's place of dishonor among his own people. Meanwhile, Quark's flattery goes a long way toward winning Grilka... though he's of a mixed mind when it comes to honoring Klingon customs. Sweeping food off a dining table in a grand overture? Sure! Making advances in a bloody battleground littered with corpses? No thanks!

The episode ultimately one-ups Cyrano by not only having Worf feed poetry to Quark, but having Worf actually puppet the Ferengi in a bat'leth battle. Armin Shimerman rises to the occasion for this uncharacteristically physical sequence. He wields the weapon as credibly as Michael Dorn (which we see, side by side, in a cleverly choreographed scene). He also sells some convincing mime work as Quark is jerked around in directions he doesn't expect. There's very little stunt doubling in this rather elaborate fight sequence.

The real strength of this storyline, though, is not so much its interpretation of a classic tale, but in how it's the vehicle for finally taking Worf and Dax's flirtatious relationship of half a season to a new level. Over the course of the episode, Dax spars with Worf over his rigid sense of tradition, pokes at him for not picking up on the vibe she's throwing down, sort of plays her own telling of Cyrano inside the large telling of Cyrano... and ultimately gets what she wants. Dax is a secondary character to the tale, but it's a strong secondary role, and Terry Farrell is quite charming in it.

One character who isn't so great in this plot? Grilka. It's not the fault of guest star Mary Kay Adams, who really can perform through the Klingon makeup better than most. It's that the character is written in the most shallow way here, a mere object to be pursued by Quark, Worf, and Thopok. She's found a way to lead a Klingon house as a woman, against serious cultural headwinds, but that's not something the episode is interested in engaging with at all.

Meanwhile, the O'Brien/Kira storyline is an interesting tangle of originality and cliche. Not many TV shows take on the subject of surrogacy (and fewer still in the 1990s), and this is an engaging tale about how an experience that personal might cause longtime friends to reevaluate the nature of their friendship. Miles and Nerys have really been through a lot together over the years, and it's not crazy to think that they might be a romantic couple if circumstances were different.

On the other hand, this storyline is also steeped in the TV trope that married couples do nothing but snipe at each other all the time. When Miles and Nerys are overhead yelling at each other, it's "the other O'Briens" fighting again. And Keiko sort of subconsciously buys into this too, pushing the two into a romantic getaway to mend their "marriage." I know conflict is the core of drama, but sometimes it feels like there's no television writer anywhere actually in a happy marriage. Don't get me wrong -- there's a lot of realism in this subplot, and the performances are strong. It's just that it's a type of story that's told a lot: people fight because they're in love.

Other observations:

• The episode is directed by Andrew Robinson. Though best known to Deep Space Nine fans as Garak, he also had a long career as a theater director. He won two L.A. Drama Critic Awards for directing in the year before this, and leveraged that for a directing opportunity on the show. Though this was his only DS9 episode, he would go on to direct for Voyager too.

• Shout-out to Edwin Starr when Quark opines: "War. What is it good for? If you ask me, absolutely nothing."

• Morn is quite the drunk, dipping his finger in his glass to get every last bit of liquid out.

• It's fun to watch Quark try to bluff his way through Klingon customs, just as it was in "The House of Quark" (his "throw away his weapon" move from that episode being referenced specifically).

I wish this Cyrano reimagining had made better use of the woman everyone is chasing. I also wish that the "feuding spouses" trope didn't inform so much of the O'Brien/Kira plot. But despite those shortcomings, the episode is still broadly fun to watch. It advances ongoing relationships between the main characters, and is occasionally deep too. I give it a B+.

Glass and Throwing Stones

I was rather mixed in my opinion of M. Night Shyamalan's movie Split. But I was a big fan of Unbreakable, and that was enough that inevitably, at some point, I'd watch the completion of his unusual trilogy, Glass.

Glass places the three main characters from Split and Unbreakable -- David Dunn, Elijah Price, and Kevin Wendell Crumb -- in a mental hospital, where the inscrutable Dr. Staple tries to convince them that they're delusional for thinking they have superpowers. As their loved ones outside the hospital try to help, events seem to be moving inexorably toward a confrontation between the three men.

While it always felt like Unbreakable might be ripe for a sequel, it would be exaggeration to say that I'd been eagerly awaiting it. Good thing, too, as Glass feels like much more of a sequel to Split than to Unbreakable. Bruce Willis' character is marginalized for most of the movie, while Samuel L. Jackson's character is literally speechless and emotionless. They both feel shoehorned into a real slow burn of a story that doesn't really get moving until the final act.

But then, it's not so much that the first two-thirds of the movie are a slow burn as they are a waste of time. We the audience have seen too much of these characters' super shenanigans to ever give any credence to Dr. Staple's theory that it's all in their heads. The story thus falls into the trope of one obnoxious character trying to basically stop the story we all came here to see from happening. As presented, Dr. Staple can't be taken seriously, so we're all just marking time until the movie decides not to focus on her so much.

If you can stick it out, though, there is some cleverness in the third act. I don't so much mean that there's a classic "M. Night Shyamalan twist" that'll blow your mind. There are some surprise turns, but they aren't the strongest stuff in the movie. It's more that the movie finds its way to a message of sorts, embraces it, and finds a bit more depth as a result.

Still, the main reason to watch Glass would be for the performances. Bruce Willis is sadly rather flat, but James McAvoy really swings for the fences in a fun (sometimes over the top) way as he embodies his character's split personalities. It's also fun to watch Samuel L. Jackson play a serious villain -- particularly after so many turns as the heroic Nick Fury, and after a decidedly non-serious villain role in the first Kingsman movie. Also, as badly written a character as Dr. Staple is, it's a testament to Sarah Paulson that she's able to do anything with it.

Glass isn't truly as bad as many have said. But it's hardly essential viewing, even for a fan of Unbreakable. I give it a C.

Rising to the Middle

Many of you have already seen The Rise of Skywalker. Many of you have yet to do so. I managed to go into it with relatively few spoilers, though, and that's how I'd like everyone to be able to experience it. (Really, there was just one major thing I wish I hadn't known -- something I gather was revealed in at least one of the trailers leading up to the release. But I actually had managed to avoid all the trailers.) In any case, I promise a spoiler-free review here.

Episode IX was very much a mixed bag. Some parts of it were quite good. Some parts of it were quite not. And for the moment, at least, I have no grand unified theory on what separates one from the other. It's not like it "starts strong, but ends weak," or vice versa. It feels a bit too long, but it's hard to point to any one particular section that drags. It is a real smoothie of good and bad, blended thoroughly.

Nostalgia reigns throughout the film. Some of the ways in which the film echoes and evokes past Star Wars is really quite cool. It introduces enough original ideas that it's not as easy to one-for-one fit the movie to a predecessor as The Force Awakens could be mapped to the original. But some of the callbacks and reappropriated plot elements are eye-rollingly terrible. There are ways in which you can map this movie to pre-existing Star Wars that really aren't great.

Some of the big action sequences are wonderful. They're majestic in scope, present unique visuals, and are really a joy to watch. Other sequences feel flat and obligatory -- the part of the movie where they're required to do this thing, but apparently not at all excited about it.

The relationship to The Last Jedi is mixed. It embraces some of the new elements that were introduced in that film. It totally jettisons others. Does it keep the good stuff and ditch the bad stuff? Nope. Nor does it do the opposite. It doesn't even discard cleanly; at least one narrative element from The Last Jedi sort of gets ground up and thrown away only to be picked up again and represented in its own new way.

There are several moments that are clearly meant to pack a hefty emotional punch. Some of them work. Some don't. Not all the moments that are meant to be exhilarating are. But some are. Not all the moments meant to tug at your heartstrings work. But some do. I'd say much of this movie kind of rushes past you in the way of a big dumb action movie... but it's not completely empty calories, either.

I can't even come down strong on the question of whether it's a good "ending" or not. As an ending to this modern day trilogy that began with The Force Awakens? I think I'd say no, it really isn't. It introduces too many new elements, not doing the best job of engaging with what the prior two episodes set up. But as an ending of a nine episode arc including the classic trilogy and the prequel trilogy? Yeah, it's a pretty good ending. It touches on all the things you'd want it to, and does a pretty good job tying it all up in a bow.

...though, I have to ask: why do that? This is, of course, not the last Star Wars film. And it feels pretty arbitrary to me to identify the nine numbered episodes as a thing that needs to be concluded. It's not like other two movies really stand that much apart from the nine. It's not like we're never going to see any of the characters from the nine episodes again -- stay tuned to Disney+, folks! So why manufacture the need for An Ending here? (Though I guess if you're going to... this one was pretty good?)

When I first reviewed The Last Jedi, I gave it a B. I watched it again a week ago, and I think it slipped just a little down to a B-. (The slow parts felt really slow to me this time, is the shortest way to put it.) I mention this because The Rise of Skywalker feels like a B- movie to me. But I'm really not sure whether I liked it more or less than The Last Jedi. Both to me are flawed movies -- but neither critically flawed in a way that makes me not want to watch them. It'll probably take me some time to figure out how I'd rank them. I suspect that means that the people who had a more polarized reaction to The Last Jedi than I did are going to have a very polarized reaction to The Rise of Skywalker too (in the opposite direction).

But, of course, you're all going to go watch and decide for yourselves.

DS9 Flashback: The Ship

Because Star Trek: Deep Space Nine made more episodes per season than the typical show (even more than broadcast networks), its 100th episode -- a landmark for a long-running show -- fell at an odd time: the second episode of season five. With the premiere just aired, and a big episode just around the corner to celebrate Star Trek's 30th anniversary, "The Ship" was essentially "just another episode."

Our heroes are exploring a planet in the Gamma Quadrant when a Jem'Hadar warship crashes nearby. They're on the scene immediately, hoping to salvage the ship for the secrets it might reveal about the Dominion. But soon more Jem'Hadar arrive, destroying the orbiting runabout and pinning down the handful of survivors inside the very ship they'd hoped to salvage. Can they hold out long enough for the Defiant to come to their rescue? And what secret about this particular ship is the Vorta Kilana hiding from Sisko?

You might expect Deep Space Nine to save money here following the season premiere, but "The Ship" puts a lot of production value on the screen. There's a variety of alien makeups from Vorta to Jem'Hadar to alien Starfleet officers. Many scenes are filmed outdoors, at a location that reportedly got to a stifling 100+ degrees every day. There are also a number of new sets, as this is the first time we ever see the interior of a Jem'Hadar ship. It's a clever and different environment without chairs or a viewscreen -- and with the added twist that it's all upside down. Consoles and corpses hang like stalactites, as light shines up from the floor to cast horror movie shadows on our heroes.

Horror movies also feel like the touchstone in an extended early sequence without dialogue as they first board the ship. But then the vibe gives way to submarine film, as the survivors take shelter inside the ship and get "depth charged" by the enemy. Dutch angles and moody closeups throughout the episode connect the two tones.

But the real meat of the episode is character drama. A recurring minor character, Muniz, is seriously wounded in the initial Jem'Hadar attack. In a neat trick, we're made to care about the demise of one of Star Trek's "redshirts." This is achieved largely through the conflict his death creates between O'Brien, arguing for hope, and Worf, who argues for realism. Strictly speaking, this sort of interpersonal conflict between 24th-century Starfleet characters was a no-no in Gene Roddenberry's book, but I think this episode makes a good case for breaking that rule. The deep personal investment of our main characters, informed by their different cultural backgrounds, makes for solid drama. Dax tries to mediate, and Sisko has to lay down the law to all of them.

The strongest scenes conclude the episode, as Dax and Sisko talk about the cost in lives to capture this enemy ship -- and how, sadly, it's worth it. It's a scene that plays notably without music, and effectively makes the point that redshirts are people too. It's followed up with a great reconciliation between Worf and O'Brien, effective even if Worf's attitudes toward the dead don't quite seem to fit with Klingon customs established in previous Star Trek.

Behind the scenes, though, the writers felt this episode didn't push far enough. Show runner Ira Steven Behr felt they didn't capture enough of "the Alamo thing," the hopelessness in the face of overwhelming odds. Staff writer Hans Beimler felt in retrospect that they relieved too much tension to let Sisko out of the ship for negotiations with the other side. I think they're shortchanging the elements that work... perhaps because some of their original plans were thwarted before the cameras ever rolled.

The original concept for this episode was to bring back the one female Vorta shown previous to this: Eris, the first Vorta we ever met. When actress Molly Hagan was (for the second time!) unavailable to reprise the character, they created this new one, Kilana, in a similar con game image. She lies about this being her first mission, affecting a somewhat flirtatious, somewhat naive demeanor to try to disarm Sisko. It sounds intriguing on paper, but isn't as indelible as the slick polish Jeffrey Combs put on Weyoun. Eventually, they'd quit trying to make the next Weyoun happen, and bring back the original. (Well, a clone. Not the original. But anyway...)

Other observations:

• Of course, the Defiant needs to not be on scene at the beginning of the episode to make any of the story work. Still... why are they exploring enemy space in a runabout?

• As Muniz deteriorates and approaches death, he begins to speak in his native Spanish. With a sense of drama, the universal translator helpfully does not translate it.

• As cool as the location filming is, the piece of the crashed Jem'Hadar ship we see sticking out of the rock face doesn't actually look anything like the ship we see being towed by the Defiant at the end of the episode.

Perhaps the writers are correct, and this episode might have been better still. But it's pretty good as is. I give "The Ship" a B+.

Game Fusion

A while back, I wrote in praise of Between Two Cities, a board game that managed to support the large player count of a party game (up to 7) while presenting some of the tactical choices more expected of a strategy game. I might have wished for the game to present even more interesting decisions, but it nevertheless was a great option for a game night where you have a lot of players and aren't necessarily up for another game of Codenames.

My wish has been granted with Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig. It's the combo/spinoff of two previous board games, a real "two great tastes that taste great together" creation, the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup of board games. From Between Two Cities, it takes the tile-laying, infrastructure building challenge of sharing one city with the player on your left and a different city with the player on your right. From Castles of Mad King Ludwig, it lifts a more complicated array of things to be built -- numerous types of rooms each with unique symbols and relationships to other types of rooms in the same castle.

The result improves on a great thing. The drafting elements of Between Two Cities are still here, and they shine. You can plan with your two partners what to look for in future selections, and can leverage which direction you're passing as a way to get two things you really want. (Pass to your partner and count on them to take the second choice.) You still have to balance both your construction efforts, thanks to the game's quirky scoring -- your score is the worse of your two castles.

The broader array of tiles, inspired by Castles of Mad King Ludwig, gives you more options to aim at. Each category of room has its own way of scoring, with each room having its own conditions within that way of scoring. Collect three of the same type of room and you'll trigger a bonus -- a different kind of bonus, depending on the type. The castles you're building with the players on your left and right will be completely different; the game has enough diversity to support it.

Also notable, the game comes with some cleverly designed plastic trays to hold the tiles in a way that also serves speedy play -- each well in the tray holds the number of tiles each player needs to draw to begin a round. And with snap-on tops, they don't slide everywhere inside the box once you put the game away. It's a thoughtful add-on from designers who have clearly considered how their game will actually be played "in the wild."

After discovering Between Two Cities, my group didn't go on to play it as much as I might have expected (or hoped). But I feel like Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig, being a bit more advanced, should also have more staying power. I give it an A-. Any gaming group that routinely fields more than 4 or 5 people for a game night should consider it for their collection.

DS9 Flashback: Apocalypse Rising

Introducing Worf in season four of Deep Space Nine -- and turning the classic Star Trek Klingons back into baddies -- had derailed the writers' plans to heat things up with the Dominion. With season five, they wanted to get back on track... but in a way that made the war with the Klingons "all part of the plan." Thus came about the season opener, "Apocalypse Rising."

Our heroes have learned that Gowron, the leader of the Klingon Empire, has been replaced with a changeling imposter. To expose him, they plan some infiltration of their own: Sisko, O'Brien, and Odo disguise themselves as Klingons and -- with Worf as their cultural guide -- go undercover at a military base. But there's a familiar face at Gowron's side, General Martok. If he sees through the Klingon alterations and recognizes them, the plan will be ruined.

This episode went through some major changes in development, though mostly for the better. Nervous about upsetting fans of The Next Generation, and feeling the story needed a twist, staff writer Ronald Moore suggested they make Martok be the changeling when they really had planned it to be Gowron, as they'd set up in the season four finale. Not only does this make for a fun reversal, it gives Odo a strong character moment: in figuring out the scheme, he learns that his instincts are what makes him a good "cop," not the shapeshifting abilities he's lost.

This episode was apparently also planned at first as a two-parter. Even condensed into one episode, there are some moments where the pacing feels off. The idea of Hitchcockian suspense, of everyone overcoming obstacles to plant their Macguffin devices to expose Gowron, seems great. The gags are fun too: O'Brien (who has been the worst in "act like a Klingon" school) is the one Martok almost recognizes; Odo drops his device and Worf has to cover for him; Sisko gets called onto stage to receive a medal. But it all feels slow as it unfolds, and there's no explanation for why they don't just turn on the devices the instant they're positioned.

There are also aspects of this plan that simply don't make sense. Why isn't Worf being disguised as well? His face is probably one of the most recognized in the Klingon Empire -- and is surely recognizable by Gowron and any number of other Klingons they can expect to encounter during their infiltration. (Basically, why is the concern that Sisko, O'Brien, and Odo might be recognized when Worf just looks like Worf?) Why not send in Dax, who already has extensive knowledge of Klingon customs?

If you can shove questions like this from your mind, there are a lot of fun scenes to enjoy. The drunken revelries of the Klingon soldiers are entertaining, complete with sloshing wine and giant "turkey" legs -- it's like a Renaissance festival with head butting. As Gowron, Robert O'Reilly gets to act even larger than normal; this episode is popular with Trek fans for his delivery of "Glory to you... (big eyes) and your hoooouuuse." And the spectacular, multiple disruptor death of the changeling is just great.

Worf's lessons on being Klingon are fun too, and something of a real life proxy for Michael Dorn -- who had to wear this makeup every day -- watching his castmates squirm. (Colm Meaney reportedly complained the entire time, while Rene Auberjonois said it was actually more comfortable than his regular Odo makeup, and easier to act with since it left more of his real face visible.)

Another fun blending of reality with the fiction is a scene between Kira and Bashir where she says her pregnancy is his "fault." (Nana Visitor and Alexander Siddig had gone public with their relationship by this point.) There's more playfulness when Kira stuns Dukat by revealing that Chief O'Brien, not Shakaar, is the father of her baby.

Other observations:

• There's a fun shot composition of Odo staring into his bubbling beer. In the same scene, we get a brief glimpse of the bottle and its Bajoran label. Odo's drinking locally.

• Dukat is always about appearances, here donning a Klingon sash as an affectation. He's also shading back toward villainy -- and honesty -- in only offering our heroes a one-way trip to the Klingon headquarters.

• The unseen Pran gets another mention, piling on more alien characteristics they know they'll never have to actually show.

• Jake doesn't always get much to do in a season premiere or finale, but there's a nice scene here where he notes the increasing tension on the station, and Bashir gives him a pep talk while his father is away on the mission.

• After the mission, Bashir offers to give Odo a more human face. But the writers didn't want to strip his appearance along with his shapeshifting powers.

• Not wanting to kill off Gowron, a late change made Martok the changeling instead. Then, as show runner Ira Steven Behr put it: "we saw J.G. Hertzler again and said, 'He's really great. We've got to find a way to use this character and actor again.'" And indeed, they would.

The suspense of "Apocalypse Rising" doesn't come off as well as it should, but the action does. I give the episode a B. It's not Deep Space Nine's best season opener, but it gets the job done.

Christmas from Mannheim

There's a wide variety of holiday traditions out there. This year, my husband and I tried out something that's a tradition for a lot of other people: going to see Mannheim Steamroller perform a Christmas concert, during their two-day tour stop here in Denver.

Mannheim Steamroller is fairly ubiquitous during the Christmas season. You hear the music, arranged by Chip Davis, whether you've ever bought one of the albums or not. (The bouncy synth take on Deck the Halls seems to me to be the one that pops up all over.) Between that casual exposure and the fact that, well, the concert was mostly going to be Christmas standards, we figured that would be enough of a grounding to attend and have fun.

Still, the fact that the show played in the Buell Theater perhaps set me up to expect less of a typical musical concert and more... a show laced with performance? It was very much the former, though -- even down to the groupies. You could tell that for some people in the audience, this was an annual Christmas tradition. The band would strike up a new song, get two notes in, and you'd hear people sitting up straighter, or whispering "yes!" This was the most well-mannered rock concert you could ever imagine going to, but it had that vibe.

The show was split between two main styles of music. One was the synth-driven pop I was expecting -- though less generated entirely by synth than you might imagine. Two keyboard players and an EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument) player drove a lot of the arrangements, but percussion, bass, a small string section, and a pair of live horn players were part of the band. The other style, which might not have surprised me if I'd actually listened to an entire Mannheim Steamroller album before, was essentially Renaissance music -- harpsichord, recorders, and old drums.

This was the 35th anniversary tour of Mannheim Steamroller -- a Christmas tour that's grown so successful there are now two different incarnations of the band traveling the country for the season. No doubt you get the same program at either, as the concert was supported by an array of videos that played behind the musicians. I had to wonder if these too were part of the tradition for the real Steamroller fans, as some of the videos looked to have been created back in the 80s. The retro vibe did bring a bit of a smile to my face. It may have been a little cheesy, but there was something about it that felt perfectly at home with the sound.

I'd say for me, the show was about a B-. It was fun to have done, but I doubt it will become a part of our tradition. On the other hand, it was exactly like going to a concert for a band you don't know very well -- more than I'd have expected for a Christmas concert where I thought I'd know most of the songs.

DS9 Flashback: Broken Link

After a series of epic season finales that threatened the balance of power on planets and throughout the galaxy (not to mention a similarly high stakes two-hour season premiere), Deep Space Nine's season four finale took things to a more personal level. "Broken Link" focuses on Odo's relationship with his people.

When Odo contracts an apparent virus, he's left with no choice but to seek the help of the Founders. But the price will be high; Odo has killed another changeling, something that has never before happened among the shapeshifters, and they now plan to pass judgment on him for this crime.

Star Trek has a proud (and impactful) history of season-ending cliffhangers, but they're all generally resolved with the first episode back in the next season. While that's true here in part (the plot thread of Gowron being a changeling infiltrator), what's far more notable is how Odo's story is treated. His people turn him into a solid (an especially "cruel" punishment, their leader notes), and this is a change built to last for some time. The writers planned to leave him this way for "five or six" episodes of the next season... a span that ended up stretching for a dozen episodes.

This is quite a dramatic change for a main character, a true risk for the series to take. But already, this episode demonstrates that the writers are going to make the most of it. Much of this story is built to emphasize Odo's sense of self, which he seems to define in two main ways. First is the strength that comes from his identity as a shapeshifter, which this episode erodes even before stripping it away completely. Odo doesn't know (and Bashir can't tell him) whether his inability to hold his shape is a virus or something as common as changeling puberty or menopause. He can't stand to be seen as weakened by his affliction -- a fact recognized by both Worf (in a sort of "game respect game" way) and Sisko (who assigns Garak to keep him company, not a friend, knowing the Cardassian won't coddle him).

The second pole of Odo's identity is his work. Kira recognizes this when she brings him crime reports during his stay in the infirmary. He's so driven to work that he gets up from his sick bed and collapses in a puddle of goo (with a creepy hand reaching out). Justice is so important to him that he refuses any efforts from his friends to help him escape judgement by the Founders. And as he poignantly confides in Sisko at the end of the episode, his work is all he has left afterward.

There's a great union of actor, makeup, and costume in presenting this story. Odo's gradual degradation is painfully apparent in his stilted movements and his melted-wax appearance. The latter is achieved with a substance called Methicil; at a Star Trek convention, I once saw Rene Auberjonois claim his "drippy face" affect was achieved with the same substance used to make fast food milkshakes thick (uh.... yum?), but this seems to be something different. It looks vaguely edible, though; my husband compared it to a Nailed It! cake.

Although this is very much an Odo story, Garak has a significant role in the episode too. His quest to find survivors from Enabran Tain's attack on the Founders is shut down by their leader in the most chilling terms imaginable (basically: "they're all dead, and you soon will be too"). That quest then pivots to vengeance, which he's so eager to get that he's willing to die for it -- and to physically fight Worf when words alone can't convince the Klingon to help. Ultimately, we're told Garak will be spending six months in a holding cell for what he attempts here, a nice statement that as bad as the things he and others like Quark try, there will sometimes be consequences for them.

There are also a few moments of comedy for O'Brien and Kira, following up on the "pregnancy swap" of the previous episode. Other small nods to continuity include a mention of Dr. Mora, and a new homeworld for the Founders -- an even more desolate and alien environment than their last home.

Other observations:

• Although the writers did plan to leave Odo human for a time, not all their plans here worked out. The Bajoran woman Garak tries to set him up with in this episode was meant to be a long-term romantic interest -- explaining why she gets so much screen time. But upon seeing the finished episode, the writers decided the character wasn't the right fit for Odo, and they abandoned those plans.

• Kira's pregnancy sneezing is the broadest comedy of the episode, but I think the most effective humor is in a much more subtle moment, when Sisko stops Bashir from skipping a stone across an ocean of changelings.

• Some of the most tender moments Odo experiences in this episode come from his "enemies." Quark's goodbye to him conveys genuine concern, while Garak helps him to see the bright sides of becoming a solid -- experiences he'll now get to have for the first time.

A strong finale that sets up a lot for the future, I give "Broken Link" a B+.

Overall, I found season four of Deep Space Nine to be roughly on par with the also strong season three. But the standout episodes of the year were especially notable, among the series' best. My picks for the top five episodes of season four are: "The Visitor," "Hard Time," "The Way of the Warrior," "Our Man Bashir," and "Broken Link."

On to season five -- featuring a human Odo, a pregnant Kira, a loving homage to the original Star Trek, and the true beginning of the Dominion War.

Going Up to Rabbit Hole

Puzzle Effect is on the opposite end of Denver for me and my friends. So while we were up in Thornton at lunch this weekend, after enjoying back-to-back escaping, we got to talking about what else is up north that we don't usually get to. Talk turned to another escape room that came recommended to us by the people who run our favorite room, the Crooked Key up in Steamboat Springs. We're from down in Denver? Well, we have to go to Rabbit Hole Recreation Services, they enthused. They're even better than we are!

Located in Louisville, Rabbit Hole Recreation Services has three different experiences available. We went for Paradox, a room themed around a mad inventor who has left us a time machine to activate and repair. The recommendation was not overstated. This was a fantastic escape room.

First of all, the construction of the environment was spectacular. The room was fully built up, fully furnished, and fully immersive. Even the giving of clues was incorporated into the experience, via a "magic mirror" sufficiently camouflaged to not look like a simple computer monitor. There were tons of interactive elements, moody lighting all throughout, and a large variety of sturdy and realistic props. Nothing looked fake or cheap.

Second, the room made no use of combination locks. We've done one or two rooms like this before, but they're definitely the exception more than the rule when it comes to escape rooms -- for good reason: it's not easy to incorporate challenging puzzles in place of the locks. Paradox did so in a sort of steampunk-adjacent setting with actual, working consoles that responded to your input of moving components around and flipping switches.

Because I'd never dream of giving away specifics, it's hard to convey just how cool some of the puzzles in the room really were. Suffice it to say that the number of tiny details, the volume of reactive elements, and the variety of the puzzles was truly impressive. And I really only got to experience just a small portion of it all...

...which would be my one point of caution for anyone trying this particular room. It purports to take up to 8 players, but we had 7 and it felt a bit too crowded for my tastes. We were stepping on each others' toes a bit, with not everybody always able to find a way to pitch in usefully. I really wouldn't call this a knock on the room itself, only in the claim that 8 players could do it at once. Indeed, I've now done enough escape rooms that I'd say the ideal number is probably 5 in just about every case, with either 4 or 6 working reasonably well for most. Paradox certainly fits this description. But here's another point in Rabbit Hole's favor: all their rooms are reserved privately! If you want to go with just a few of your close friends, you don't need to worry about a couple of strangers crashing your party at the last minute.

If Paradox is even slightly indicative of the quality of the other two rooms at Rabbit Hole Recreation Services, we have make the trip across town to try out those rooms! The Crooked Key in Steamboat may have been selling themselves short to say Rabbit Hole was even better, but I certainly haven't found better anywhere else in the Denver area. If you're in Denver, and into escape rooms, you have to check them out.

Going Back "Where No Man Has Gone Before"

In typical algorithmic fashion, after I finished the These Are the Voyages books by Marc Cushman, the "because you liked this, you might like this" gnomes suggested for me the ponderously titled The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek. This two-volume history of Star Trek was published around the 50th anniversary of the franchise a few years back, each volume divided in theory into a 25 year chunk.

In practice, writers Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman made their first volume ("The First 25 Years") all about the original series and related topics -- the building of the fans' devotion, the short-lived animated series, the failed effort to start a new series with the original cast, and the six feature films that emerged instead. Consequently, a great deal of this material was already well covered by Marc Cushman in his trilogy. Nevertheless, Gross and Altman take a very different approach that makes any repetition still worthwhile.

This book is comprised almost entirely of interviews. They conducted new interviews and mined old quotes from cast, writers, behind the scenes people, television critics, even some fans. These are parceled out a paragraph or two at a time, flitting from person to person. The writers themselves interrupt only rarely to set a backdrop, mostly allowing their interview subjects to create context instead. But don't mistake this for declining to take a point of view on things; the wry choices in how one person's quotes are juxtaposed against another conveys a lot.

Everyone with Star Trek from the early days has something intriguing to say. Sometimes it's self-aggrandizement, and other times a polished version more pristine than the truth is likely to be. But mostly, people exposed warts-and-all feelings about their work and the process that created it. It's not all sniping either, though I did find the interviews on Star Trek's less successful moments to be more interesting than those on its triumphs.

Because Cushman never wrote in the These Are the Voyages books about the Star Trek movies (or, at least, has yet to), those sections of this book are the more revelatory. The First 25 Years is particularly engrossing in the long chapter on Star Trek: The Motion Picture (a white-knuckled race to meet a preset release date), as well as the sections on Star Treks II and IV (where writers and directors given more creative control were able to produce something great).

Still, you can't look to this book to provide any authoritative account of what happened during the making of Star Trek. That's the flip side of the coin in taking this interview approach; different people often say contradictory things (which Gross and Altman usually position back-to-back). You can guess which statement you think is more likely to be true, though you must realistically assume that neither has it completely correct. But then, if you're the sort of Star Trek fan looking for this kind of deep dive, you're probably okay with navigating the haze of conflicting memories.

Though less researched than Marc Cushman's mammoth series, the first volume of this The Fifty-Year Mission series was nevertheless an entertaining read. I give it a B+. I'll be continuing on into the second book, focusing on the franchise from The Next Generation onward.

A Knight to Remember

It's been just over a year since I first blogged about Denver Escape Room. It was one of the better escape rooms my friends and I had visited. We loved it. So, apparently, did Puzzle Effect -- a company with locations in several states that has now bought Denver Escape Room, taken it over, and re-branded it. They've kept the great rooms intact, though. And to celebrate a friend's birthday this past weekend, we headed up to try two of their rooms we hadn't played before.

There was actually good reason to do these two particular rooms back to back, the way we did: they have a connected story line. First up was Knight + Rook, a room set in a private investigator's office. The P. I. has left behind clues to a kidnapping case involving a missing girl, which you have to decipher to call in a rescue team. In the second room, Rescue lets you play as that team, arriving on site to save the kidnapped girl before a bomb destroys the building where she's hidden.

Both rooms are well-built and immersive environments; it's easy to accept the scenario that you are in a private eye's office or a creepy abandoned warehouse. The puzzles are also well spread out to allow everyone in a group space to work on different things. We had six players when we went, but all of us had our chance to contribute something meaningful to the effort. Knight + Rook was especially good in this regard, with us splitting in half or even working in pairs for much of the hour.

These two rooms were both filled mainly with the combination lock puzzles typical of escape rooms... but with a nice variety of different lock types (and thus, different kinds of codes). Combinations were hidden in a variety of fun ways -- each of the two rooms had some nice "showcase" moments to get the code to some of the locks.

I think I personally helped more in Knight + Rook, finding the puzzles more up my alley. But Rescue was probably the better room of the two, featuring more unique moments. One aspect of it in particular was something I hadn't encountered in an escape room before -- and even seemed a bit subversive of the typical rules that are common to these rooms, if you've done them before.

We succeeded in both rooms, with a couple of clues nudging us along in both cases. (As was the case when Puzzle Effect was Denver Escape Room, they do a good job of not helping you too much too fast, giving you a chance to figure things out on your own. Unless you ask, of course.) Our time was pretty comparable in both. We've now done four of the rooms at Puzzle Effect... but there are still three more we haven't done. But the place impressed again, and I'm sure we'll be back to try those others.

But two rooms weren't quite enough escaping for us on this day. After stopping for lunch, we rather impulsively decided to check out a different location that had come highly recommended. More on that in another day's post...

DS9 Flashback: Body Parts

Yesterday's news of the passing of actor René Auberjonois was the latest of several Star Trek deaths in the past week (including writer D.C. Fontana and "Charlie X" guest star Robert Walker). It would be great if I had a strong Odo episode to review today, a "Necessary Evil" perhaps. But Deep Space Nine built up such an array of strong characters, and was so good about giving them all their episodes in which to shine, it simply didn't line up that way. (And, sadly, we were made to care about so many characters and the actors who played them that we'll no doubt be going through this loss many times again, just as we did a few months ago with Aron Eisenberg.)

The great work will remain, though. Even in episodes that weren't as strong, the actors' work was often excellent, showing just how well these people understood their characters -- more than the audience, more even than the writers. One great example of this keen insight involves the Deep Space Nine episode I am here to talk about today, "Body Parts."

A medical misdiagnosis leads Quark to briefly believe he'll be dead within a week of a terminal illness. Before the mixup is revealed, he makes plans to sell his remains on the open market. When the buyer, his nemesis Brunt, shows up to collect his merchandise, Quark is trapped between two horrible outcomes: honor the contract by killing himself, or break the contract and become a pariah stripped of all his worldly assets. Meanwhile, a runabout accident that threatens Keiko's life forces Dr. Bashir to transplant her unborn child into the only other available safe option, Major Kira.

At the surface, this episode is a bit of ridiculous fun. We get a dream sequence tantamount to an angel and demon arguing over Quark's shoulders about what he should do, complete with an elaborately made up Max Grodénchik playing the first Ferengi Grand Nagus. We get to see Garak intrigued at the notion of being contracted to murder Quark... by Quark. (Quark's ensuing paranoia is also great for a laugh.) Because none of this is especially deep, nor is it truly laugh out loud funny, the episode comes off somewhat slight. We never for a moment think that Quark will actually kill himself to fulfill the terms of a contract.

But the episode played very differently in the mind of Armin Shimerman, who had to play Quark and make this dilemma real. As he explained in one interview, "Quark had always believed he's an outsider on the space station, and that the only thing that's his own are his Ferengi ways." In these terms, breaking his contract with Brunt means giving up the only thing that makes him feel like himself. It means fully "assimilating" into detestable hew-mon society. It's a loss of self that might as well be a loss of life. But the episode doesn't really succeed in making any of this subtext text. We're not really invited to empathize much with Quark, we're only invited to laugh at him.

Another case in point -- this episode was directed by Avery Brooks, who you might expect to understand his fellow actors more than the average director passing through for an episode. Shimerman recounted filming a scene in which Brunt insults Quark, and Brooks felt that a bigger reaction was called for: "Avery took me aside and said, 'Hey this guy's just insulted you. Aren't you going to react?' And I said, "Avery, your character would take umbrage if he was insulted. But my character is insulted every episode, every day. If he's to survive in this particular environment, he must slough off insults, otherwise he'd be in fights every day.'" Brooks took his point and let Shimerman play the scene his way; again, it goes to show that no one will ever come as close to understanding Quark as the man himself.

The episode's B plot is another instance where what we see doesn't dig as far down into the emotional truth of things as it might have. It was a story line born of necessity: Nana Visitor had informed the producers she was pregnant. The writers had no interest in giving Kira a baby with Shakaar, and they really weren't sure what to do. Laura Behr, the wife of show runner Ira Steven Behr, pitched the solution: move the baby that had been given to Keiko earlier in the season over to Kira. It's a fun gimmick you could only do in sci-fi, and vastly preferable to hiding Nana Visitor behind tables for half a season.

But the episode spends as much time explaining away the gimmick (basically: "why can't the baby be moved back?") as exploring its emotional ramifications. There is a nice little arc about the O'Briens asking Kira to move in with them, and the three of them all becoming closer. But there's a lot more here that could be unpacked that the episode ignores or merely brushes against. What must this experience be like for Keiko? She's lost her baby as though through a miscarriage... and yet the baby is fine. She seems to bounce back a bit fast. What is this really like for Kira? We've never once heard her consider having a baby, and now one is thrust upon her... that won't even be hers a few months from now.

Sure, all of that doesn't necessarily need to be packed into this episode. But viewing ahead, you learn that the show never really digs into much of this at all, instead opting for sci-fi versions of typical sitcom pregnancy jokes. It's great that the show found a way to keep Nana Visitor fully involved throughout her pregnancy (which the actress herself acknowledged), but it's a shame they didn't better mine the unique story they created.

Other observations:

• One character whose motivations and feelings do get stated clearly in dialogue, oddly enough, is Brunt. He explains at length why he's so repulsed by Quark, referencing in the process past episodes showcasing Quark's immoral behavior: protecting his profit-earning mother, and settling with striking workers. (It's another great Jeffrey Combs performance, perhaps his best as Brunt.)

• The final scene is more potent than you might expect from such a light episode. Everyone showing up with a gift to help Quark get back up on his feet is somehow quite touching (even if he undercuts it by haggling with Sisko to receive the help.)

"Body Parts" is actually a fine episode. But I feel like it wastes several opportunities to dig deeper. Perhaps the writers simply aren't willing to take the Ferengi that seriously. I give the episode a B-.

An Uplifting Movie

With Frozen 2 out in theaters now (and raking in the money), Frozen is once again on everyone's minds. But have you heard of the movie Frozen?

Released in 2010, three years before Elsa first sang "Let It Go," Frozen was a low budget thriller written and directed by Adam Green. It tells the story of three people who become trapped on a ski lift in dangerous weather, with no hope of rescue as the resort will be closed through the week until the following weekend. So... not one for the kids.

Frozen gets off to a bit of a rough start. A whole lot of track has to be laid to try to justify how such a scenario can even come to pass. Even then, the movie can't button up every flaw you might find in the plot. Plus, all throughout the first act, rather clumsy exposition lays out the relationships between the three soon-to-be victims. Still, if you can possibly maintain your suspension of disbelief until disaster finally strikes and the characters become stranded, the rest of the ride is reasonably entertaining.

There are a lot of fun new takes on some classic horror movie tropes. There are gross-out scares, psychological thrills... plenty of moments to make you wince and recoil and lean in and tense up and more. It ultimately delivers exactly the sort of ride you want out of a thriller. It's not coincidentally like a ski run itself -- a slow ride to the top to start out, but then a fun and fast rush of adrenaline.

It's also fairly impressive looking for a small indie production. It was made right on the cusp of the time where it might have been judged easier to film with abundant and cheap greenscreening and other digital effects. Instead, the movie is actually shot practically -- if not entirely, then near enough not to be noticeable. It's filmed on an actual snowy mountain. Actors are actually suspended in the air. Real breath fogs in the real night air. And it all makes the outrageous scenario a bit easier to accept, as it mostly looks quite real.

It also holds together thanks to committed performances from its three stars, Emma Bell, Shawn Ashmore, and Kevin Zegers. Making this movie couldn't have been tons of fun for them; sure, they weren't suffering as much as their characters, but they were definitely out in the miserable elements to catch it all on film. After that awkward first act, the actors play the shifting relationships of the characters believably -- moments of accusation, heroism, and more.

Would I recommend Frozen? Well, if you aren't a fan of thrillers, no I wouldn't. But if you like a movie with chills (pun not intended) and are able to switch off your "oh, come on!" detector for at least a bit, you might be entertained. I give the movie a B-.

DS9 Flashback: The Quickening

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine would ultimately be known for its continuing story lines and numerous recurring characters. But many strong episodes of the series are quite stand-alone in nature, putting a darker DS9 spin on the established Star Trek formula. One such episode is "The Quickening."

Exploring in the Gamma Quadrant, our heroes come upon a planet in squalor, afflicted by the Dominion with a deadly bioengineered plague known as the Blight. Dr. Bashir is determined to help these people by finding a cure, but he's soon humbled -- the disease seems to be far beyond his skills.

Show runner Ira Steven Behr was inspired here by two sources -- a 1995 historical drama called Restoration, and the recent death of an office assistant, Gregg Duffy Long, lost to AIDS. He wanted to bring those threads together into a story for Bashir, but didn't have time to craft the script himself. He brought in Naren Shankar, who'd worked on The Next Generation, to have a go at it. Shankar dropped the AIDS metaphor to a degree (saying that he didn't feel these aliens were "outcasts or pariahs, which is how AIDS patients are often perceived"), but nevertheless presented a society afflicted with a plague that felt very real.

The Blight brings into sharp focus the conflicting opinions surrounding assisted suicide, the clash between pain management and the wishes of a patient vs. those who think of such measures as immoral. And the society of the Teplans can be seen as a metaphor for many kinds of people who have learned suspicion the hard way -- the character of Trevean speaks of many snake oil salesmen who have promised cures in the past only to steal what little his people have left.

Bashir arrives on what he thinks is the moral high ground (written in the beginning of the episode much more like the unknowingly pompous character of season one). Why wouldn't he? In every other Star Trek episode before this, the doctor would indeed find the cure within the hour, then warp off triumphant to the next adventure. We get a bittersweet ending instead, with the woman who trusted Bashir the most, Ekoria, dying as she gives birth to her son; that child and its generation can be vaccinated from the disease, but there is nothing to be done for this generation.

This episode doesn't have a B plot, an important and valuable decision that makes plenty of room to flesh out Teplan society. We learn about their customs surrounding death in a way that makes it meaningful when Ekoria dips into the stash meant to feast her death so she can feed Dax and Bashir. We see the uphill battle of getting test subjects to volunteer for Bashir's research, and this drives it home all the more when his hubris does them more harm than good. We see that Trevean really isn't wrong to believe as he does, given the life he's lived, which makes his conversion in the end a meaningful turn for the character. And in making all this struggle real, it matters in the end that Bashir isn't able to help these people as much as he'd like.

This episode was directed by Rene Auberjonois, and I think it's a real milestone for him behind the camera. He's been good with actors in all his episodes -- and is again here. He gets great performances from Terry Farrell and Alexander Siddig, with Dax translating Bashir's doctor-speak into a more humane bedside manner. Dax's "tough love" in Bashir's darkest moment is exceptional -- him realizing his arrogance for thinking he could cure the disease in a week, her calling out his real arrogance for thinking that if he couldn't find a cure, there must not be one.

But this time out, Auberjonois demonstrates a skill with the camera that matches his facility with the performances. There's inventive staging throughout, and numerous standout shots. A clever switch of focus ties Bashir's bubbling beaker to his patient/assistant Ekoria. A slow zoom in on Bashir during an examination of Ekoria lets us know from his expression how dire the situation has become. And there's an amazing shot near the end that flies across the village, from the people gathering around the healthy baby to an isolated Bashir who watches their celebration without sharing in it. (It's the sort of thing one could do easily with a drone today, but back in 1996 must have been a hell of an effort.)

Of course, it helps Auberjonois that the show was willing to devote a good amount of money to this episode. There's extensive filming outdoors, on location, to create the village -- and great use of matte paintings (both day and night) to further expand what we see. There's also very early use of a form of motion-capture technology to depict the spreading lesions of the Blight; rather than do a hokey "werewolf transformation" that required an actor to hold a pose through multiple makeup applications, a computer was used to animate the lesions based on dots applied to the actors' faces.

Other observations:

• Though, as I mentioned, there is no B plot to this episode as such, there is a tonally dissonant opening scene that involves Quark hacking computers to advertise his bar with an obnoxious jingle. It's good for a laugh... in an episode that really shouldn't have many laughs. It's a good thing this thread isn't followed throughout the episode.

• Because Dax gives away her hair clip early in the episode, we get to see her with her hair down through most of it. It's a striking look that I think could have been used more often.

• The Dax/Bashir pairing in this episode is especially good when you remember that just a couple seasons earlier, they really couldn't have been put together for so long without him getting awkwardly flirtatious with her.

• Who actually did engineer the Blight? The Teplans attribute it to the Jem'Hadar, but that sort of medical expertise doesn't seem like their thing. Nor can I easily believe the changelings would know enough of the actual biology of "solids" to work out such a thing. Perhaps it's the Vorta. In any case, the twist that using technology to try to cure it actually makes it worse is an especially cruel touch.

• Bashir's story about his "first surgery," on his teddy bear Kukalaka, is a nice bit of character building. Neat to still be learning things about the main characters four years in.

"The Quickening" is a classic Star Trek tale rendered as only Deep Space Nine could. I appreciate the darker take, and give it a B+.

On the Double

When it comes to pop culture, I was feeling a little bit of "zombie fatigue," which is why I didn't rush out to see Zombieland: Double Tap when it released in theaters. I liked the original well enough (quite a bit, actually), but it took me a month or so to wade through other movies that felt like a higher priority.

In that time, I also rewatched the original Zombieland again. It's totally unnecessary to do this, in terms of "continuity." Nuance is not Zombieland's thing; there really isn't much you need to know from the first movie to see the second. But I did find it good to watch the first film again in terms of calibrating expectations. In the many years since I'd seen Zombieland, I'd slowly convinced myself that it was "all time great," like on my Top 100 Movie list great. Watching it again, that's really not the case. It's quite enjoyable, but my original review had pegged it right to call it an A-. It's good, just not as good as I remembered.

That set me up to find Zombieland: Double Tap better than I'd anticipated. First and foremost, it succeeds at being "more of what you loved," and that actually sets the baseline pretty high. Quippy Woody Harrelson, neurotic Jesse Eisenberg, badass Emma Stone, snide Abigail Breslin -- they're all here. And it's been long enough since we saw these characters last that it feels pretty good to see them again.

The sequel does a great job of checking the most fun boxes from the first movie -- the survival rules of Columbus, the showpiece "Zombie Kill," the wanton destructive moments and over-the-top violence, the slow-motion opening credits sequence, and wall-to-wall sarcasm. But the movie isn't just a repackaged "greatest hits album." And indeed, the new additions are generally the highlights of the movie.

There are a number of new cast members. Zoey Deutch is hilariously obnoxious as Madison, kind of the last person you'd want to find in an apocalypse, and a great tool for stirring things up among the veteran characters. Rosario Dawson is pretty much always great, and is no exception here as Nevada, a no-nonsense survivor our heroes encounter out on the road. Luke Wilson and Thomas Middleditch also show up to fantastic comedic effect in the middle of the movie.

For being a comedy first and foremost, Double Tap actually takes the action quite seriously. There are a number of great set pieces sprinkled throughout. One in particular is the movie's real show-stopper, an elaborate sequence designed to appear as a single take. It travels through multiple rooms (generating tons of visual interest along the way), involves six characters, features a number of great stunts (including some I can only assume were achieved with digital face replacement for the actors -- but it's seamless enough that I'm really not sure), and plenty of camera trickery to hide the cuts. It's a great sequence even if you don't pick up on the filming techniques at play, and even more impressive if you do.

This is also a "stay at least partway through the credits" kind of a movie -- but one that's definitely worth it if you do. That's about all I can say on that.

Zombieland: Double Tap is a solid B+. Perhaps not quite as good as the original, but still absolutely worth seeing if you liked the first one.