Change Your Image
tedchaynes
I'm a longtime film buff.. everything from Drama to Comedy to Sci-Fi/Fantasy. As a child, my Favorite show was The Six Million Dollar Man. I tended to lean more toward Sci-Fi for my entertainment, becoming a Star Wars and Star Trek junkie.
In the 80's.. I fell in love with The Godfather Saga (still my favorite film).. and in the early 90's, I began my love of classic cinema (30's through 50's). I'll never throwaway a film or show because it's old. I'll always judge it by the time it was made. I have a very low tolerance for someone who judges something slow, boring or cheesy just because it's older. These filmakers were the innovators, the risk takers, the groundbreakers.. who's product made possible the entertainment we enjoy today.
While I enjoy much of what is produced today, I find many movies rely too much on over usage of CGI, and ear splitting explosions, not to mention gore, too often at the expense of story, and characterization.
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Lists
An error has ocurred. Please try againReviews
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: His Way (1998)
It's all about the characters
I have been a Star Trek fan for most of my life. From the Original series.. through the movies, TNG, DS9, and VGR. With the exception of Discovery and Lower Decks, which, personally.. I don't consider canon. I won't waste time stating why.
I have yet to watch Picard, but I will save judgement when I do.
But I digress.
My point is.. I consider myself somewhat of a Trek scholar.
I've always found that the best episodes are always about the characters. No matter how fantastic the environment.. how interesting the planets.. how complex or entertaining the story.. it's all about how the events and experiences affect the characters we care about and love. How the events and circumstances in the story cause them to learn.. grow.. and evolve.
I am currently doing a chronological re-watch. Starting with Enterprise on down through Voyager, and eventually.. Picard.
And I just watched " His Way" for the first time ever.
Watching Star Trek was always a regular event with my family, and particularly.. my grandmother. In the first three months of 1997, I lost her, my childhood home, and finally.. my mother. I stopped watching both DS9 and Voyager after that. My heart just wasn't in it. So I never saw how either series ended. I had always planned to go back to them.. but never did.
Then in 2004, I met my Wife, and she brought me back to life again. I always wanted to go through the franchise with my wife, but I could never bring her into being a fan. Unfortunately, she also passed in 2016.
Suffice it to say, I've seen my share of pain.
These two characters, Kira and Odo, have also seen more than their share. Kira.. spending most of her life as a freedom fighter, and a terrorist. Odo has spent most of HIS life alone, and alienated.
When this show began, I didn't much like either of them. Kira was impulsive, rude and violent.. and Odo with his grumpy and alienating personality.. even when people tried to be his friend.. he wore always "Haarumph" them away.
But over the years, we have watched them grow closer to the people around them.. allow friends inside their self erected protective walls, and we've seen them soften, and through diverse and different circumstances, become comfortable in their own respective skins.
I've always meant to review episodes on here. I had planned to start doing it on my next re-watch. But THIS episode, which I've JUST watched for the first time.. brightened my evening so much.. I had to do my first review here and now.
First of all.. as a fan of Sinatra and old standards.. I LOVE Vic's character. And as far fetched as some might claim this particular premise is... (HELLO.. It's Star Trek!!)... and being an incurable romantic who won my wife and soulmate by sweeping her off her feet... this episode sucked me in right away.
As this series began, I'd venture to guess almost NO ONE watching EVER envisioned these two together. And even though Odo confessed his feelings (to what he THOUGHT was KIra way back in mid-season three.. I don't think many fans thought it was very likely that she would reciprocate .
And so we watched as Odo suffered silently with his longing and heartache.. until now.
It was joyous to watch!
I am surprised , as I read the reviews.. there was little or no mention of this aspect of the episode. I know we live in a clinical and dark time these days.. but are there no romantics amongst fans these days?
As I watched their first "date", I lost all awareness that Vic misled Odo. What got me.. above all else.. was how she was looking at him. The real Kira! You could see her falling in love right there. And when he asked her to dance. The confidence. The suave, smooth and GENUINE way he swept her off her feet.
It was then the realization hit. I forgot! He thinks she's a hologram. He's gonna ruin it.
But he'd already done it. He'd let her see everything. She fell.
And the final scene on the Promenade.
Who needs dinner?
This scene was the culmination of several seasons of multiple stories and events that led them both.. these two lost souls.. to each other. The first REAL happiness either one had known in their entire lives.
Things like this are the core of why I love Star Trek so much. Yeah, the stories are great. The action, the aliens, the battles.. but when you come right down to it.. the best of Trek brings you into these people's lives.
It doesn't matter if it's fiction.
It doesn't matter if their words are dialogue written by a pen.. or tapped into someone's computer.
You get to know these people. You watch them live, grow, make mistakes.
You love them, you hate them, you yell at them...
.. and you care about what happens to them.
And it makes you smile, it makes you think.. it makes you feel.
And it seems to me, if some of the reviewers looked at some of the so-called filler episodes or.. episodes where the writers "dropped the ball".. in this kind of focus.. that they would enjoy the series a lot more.
Especially.. if they fall it love.
It's all about the characters!
Star Trek Continues: Embracing the Winds (2016)
Trek at it's Finest
The cause of all the debates and arguments over what is or is not Star Trek.. are to some degree.. a result of the legal status of current versions of Trek, ( ie, Discovery and the reboot films). Because of the split between Paramount and Viacom, neither released films nor CBS (current television rights) hold legal realm over images and content necessary to fully bring us the Star Trek that we all know and love.
But it goes deeper than that.
Current Trek in both mediums panders to a modern audience, which means greater emphasis on action, fights and explosions instead of story and character development. As, I suppose it must in order to gain a core audience and reap a profit. Numbers are, after all, the deciding factor in any franchises continued survival.
The problem with that equation is that Star Trek.. at it's core... The FINEST and best stories of Star Trek have ALWAYS been it's characters and philosophies. Which requires a love and respect for the continuity of the franchise in all it's past incarnations. Ron Moore, who has written some of the best Star Trek episodes ever, has often stressed the problems of pleasing the fans is the vast amount of canon amassed over the years, and the difficulty of keeping up with it, and thus not pissing off the fans. This led to him praising the reboot films, stating publicly on several occasions that starting the franchise over was exactly what it needed.
And while I praise Vic and company for their politics in embracing and respecting the reboots in general... and Discovery in particular.. I do not agree with them.
The work these people have done with this series shows that embrace to be false.
The love and care.. as well as their respect for canon shows.. and is painted with many multi-colored brush strokes.. onto every aspect of every episode. The fact that it is all done for the fans ( something that is totally absent from current professional productions).. and not for profit.. makes it all the more special.
Saying that, of course.. one HAS to admit that it is not perfect, but neither was the original series.. which we all know had it's fair share of warts and lemons., most of which have grouped themselves into the third season of TOS.
Which brings me to this story.
The episode Turnabout Intruder ended the third.. and last season of TOS. It's story line involved the slightly insane Dr. Janice Lester switching bodies with Kirk, fueled by the motivation of her jealousy of Kirk's captaincy , and that " Your world of Starship captain's doesn't admit women "
This line, in dialogue as well as story wise, has been one of things that has made that series ender seem silly and irrelevant (Shatner's hamming aside). After all.. we have seen so many females in command since that show, it was seen to be a flub, or something that must be regarded as non-canonical .I wince everytime I hear Lester utter that line. After all.. the capability of Women VS Men.. the so called "Battle of the Sexes " had been rendered pretty much moot by the late 20th century. Certainly, there would be no issue with Women being granted command of a Starship by the 23rd century !
But, Turnabout Intruder was made at a time when women were still very much in a struggle for their basic rights, and the Women's movement was largely regarded as a silly annoyance. Within the next five years.. what changes would come !.. resulting in Lester's insane motivation impossible to take seriously
But hear comes James Kerwin and Vic, who have created a brilliant and entertaining episode out of a plot hole that, for decades.. made no sense, and explains Starfleet's policy.
It seems a slight reason for praise.. but it's not.
It shows the love that this company has for Star Trek to put a band aid on this small.. but annoying little wound that has driven fans crazy for decades.
If only the same kind of love and respect was shown in the official productions today.
Thank you James, and most especially, Vic.
And to the fans.. if you really wanna know what Star Trek is supposed to be.. here's a modern production that proves there are still people who knows how to get it right.