Deep Space Nine - Season Two Reviews - I

 1) Homecoming - Major Kira embarks on a mission to rescue Li Nalas from a Cardassian prison, hoping the legendary war hero can unite the torn and divided Bajor. Uneven episode with some good action and Odo-quark By play. I'd rate it higher except Li Nalas is a bore. Further, Kira looks horrible with a butch haircut, bad lipstick, and mannish pantsuit. The first two seasons are lowpoint for her looks-wise.  In later seasons they grow her hair and soften her look - thank God. Rating **1/2

 2) The Circles — While Kira spends at a Bajoran monastery, Sisko learns of a Bajoran terrorist group who plans to seize the station. Has a few good moments, but ultimately Bajorian politics matter little. As usual, the liberal producers make the military general and religious leader (kai winn) the villains. Rating **1/2

 3) The Siege  — Following DS9's evacuation after a Bajoran coup, Sisko and his crew remain on the station to prove the Cardassians are involved in the Circle's coup d’état. Action packed, but boring on rewatch. Once you know how the Sisko Gang triumph there’s little tension and the villainous leader of The Circle and Li Nalas are low on charisma. Rating **

 4) Invasive Procedures  — A jealous Trill is bent on stealing the Dax symbiont from Jadzia,  Dull guest star in an episode with dull Trill issues. Rating **

 5) Cardassians — The visit of a young, adopted Cardassian boy and his Bajoran father opens the door to a difficult political controversy involving Cardassian children left behind after the Cardassian withdrawal. Starts out as a soap opera about an unhappy adopted Cardassian war orphan and then turns interesting as Gul Dukat, Bashir and Garak battle it out . Rating **1/2

 6) Melora  — A woman confined to a wheelchair finds her defensive attitude confronted by a fascinated Doctor Bashir.  A bad medical drama in space. Rating *

 7) Rules of Acquisition  — The Grand Nagus hires Quark for a position,  but his business partner turns out to be a female. A horrible Ferengi comedy with the awful Wallace Shawn. Rating *

 8) Necessary Evil — When someone tries to kill Quark, Odo reopens an old murder mystery from years ago  -  when Cardassia controlled DS9. Next to Crossover, the best episode of Season 2.  Rating ***1/2

Deep Space Nine - Little Green Men

 Plot: Quark, Nog, and Rom somehow end up being captured by the US military in 1947 Roswell, NM.

This is widely accepted as the best "Ferengi Comedy" of DS9 and sports a respectable 8.5 IMDB rating. I wish I could agree. Certainly, its good Ferengi Comedy, but that's a low bar, isn' t it? Despite the presense of Charles Napier as a cigar chomping US General, Odo saving the day, and a few good liners by Quark, its a comedy that far outlives its one joke punchline. Other problems:

• It takes a dull 15 minutes to get to 1947 New Mexico
• The Producers anti-tobacco message is hammered home with all the nuance of a non-stop jackhammmer.  Hey, we get it - guy. Don't smoke.
• Even for DS9 the reason for the time-travel makes zero sense.
• Too much Rom and Nog.
• Last 10 minutes is the equivilent to people running down halls. 
• Its incredibly low budget.  Our heroes never get out of two rooms on a military base. 
• The 1940s Americans are shown as complete morons and fools. Even the Government scientist is a complete idiot.  Supposedly, the liberal producers wanted to parody those 1950s SF movies about aliens invading the earth.  Except, the parody isn't funny, its just dull.

 Summary: For a Ferengi comedy I liked it more than most. Rating **

Deep Space Nine - Season Two Reviews

9) Second Sight — Sisko falls in love with a mysterious woman who keeps disappearing ... literally. Nothing-burger Sisko Romance. Rating *

10) Sanctuary — Three million refugees from a race called the Skrreeans come through the wormhole, believing Bajor is their long-lost homeland. A very boring 1990s political allegory, a sort of DS9 Hippies in space, without any humor.  Rating *

11) Rivals — With the help of a gambling device, an El'Aurian con man opens a casino that threatens to put Quark out of business. Bad filler episode, with an inadequate Guest star. Also, lots of racquetball. Rating *

12) The Alternate — Odo's father figure, Doctor Mora, visits DS9, bringing with him old regrets and reopening unresolved issues in their relationship. Interesting Odo episode. Fun when he's onscreen, dull when he's not.  Rating **1/2

 13) Armageddon Game — After destroying unwanted biological weapons, O'Brien and Bashir find themselves on the run from a group of deadly conspirators. A lifeless paint-by-the-numbers Bashir-O’brien action episode. Rating **

 14). Whispers— O'Brien suspects a Starfleet conspiracy when he finds the entire crew of DS9 exhibiting unusual behavior. This was much better the first time round. Once you know the twist ending, it’s boring on re-watch. Far too much O’Brien.  Rating **

 15) Paradise — Sisko and O'Brien find a human colony that has been stranded 10 years without the benefits of technology. Another tedious star trek,“ utopias are bad” episode. As usual, everybody seems happy, but our liberal heroes know conformity comes at too high a cost.   Rating *

 16) Shadowplay — Odo and Dax investigate the disappearance of several people, only to discover the entire village and its people are part of a sophisticated holographic simulation.  Odo and Dax have excellent chemistry together, and the Guest star is quite good, but we get too much B plot about Jake, Sisko, Quark, etc. Rating **1/2

 17) Playing God — Dax is assigned a Trill "initiate," whom she must enlighten regarding the life of being joined with a symbiont.  More Dax - and not worth watching. Rating *

 18) Profit and Loss  — Three Cardassians on the run from their own government seek refuge on DS9—and one of them is Quark's ex-lover. A "Homage" aka rip off  of Casablanca.  Has its moments with Garak and Odo, but Quark is no Humphrey Bogart.  He's a funny little ferengi  with a big nose and big ears.  He's a comic supporting character,  and mostly concerned with cold hard cash. Yet, we're supposed to believe he's a romantic figure!  Imagine Peter Lorre, instead of Bogart, romancing Bergman. Rating **1/2

 19)Blood Oath — Dax finds herself in a difficult moral dilemma when torn between Federation values and a loyalty to three Klingons with whom Curzon Dax took an oath of vengence. Starts out well as the 3 Klingons are played by former TOS Klingons, but it just peters out. Good idea, average script.  Rating **

 20)The Maquis, Part I Sisko and Dukat observe skirmishes between Federation and Cardassian colonies in a section of space supposedly demilitarized as a result of a recent treaty. Good introduction of the Maquis. Dukat makes this an above average episode.  The scenes with Sisko and Admiral Cal Hudson are best skipped Rating **1/2

 21) The Maquis, Part II — Sisko tries stop a war by preventing the Maquis from attacking a Cardassian outpost.  Highlight is the Dukat-Sisko pairing. Lowlight is the acting of Ben Casey. Otherwise a good action packed episode. Rating ***

 22) The Wires — A malfunctioning brain implant places Garak in mortal jeopardy, Bashir tries to save his life  Garak (Robinson) makes this a most interesting drama. Rating ***

 23). Crossover — Kira and Bashir cross into a mirror universe where humans are slaves.  Good Kira vs. Bad Kira.  Very enjoyable. Rating ***1/2

 24) The Collaborator —Winn tells Kira that Vedek Bareil may have been a Cardassian collaborator causing. Kira searchs for the truth.  A low stakes drama. Vedek is a very dull dog and his Romance with Kira is very unpersuasive. Rating **

 25) Tribunal — O'Brien is arrested by the Cardassians and forced to engage in a public Cardassian show trial. It was much better the first time round. Not enough Odo or Fritz Weaver. Too much Sisko, too much setup, and too much O’Brien torture porn. Rating **1/2

 26) Jem'Hadar  — While on shore leave, Sisko, Jake, Rom and Quark are taken prisoner by the Jem'Hadar, the dreaded foot soldiers of the Dominion. The only thing of interest are the Jem’Hadar, otherwise its snooze city. Rating **

Deep Space Nine - Season 1

On rewatch, I was very  unimpressed with Season One.  I've watched all seven seasons, and its obvious that Season One was a learning experience for the writers/producers.  Supporting characters like Kai Winn, Quark, Garak, Odo, and Dukat, haven't pushed themselves to the forefront. Sisko is a bland nice guy.  Bashir and Dax  haven't found their voices. And Kira is extremely agressive and annoying.  

Except for Duet - A thinly veiled Holocaust/Nazi Hunter parable and the humorous by-play between Odo And Ambassdor Lwaxana Troi in The forsaken, nothing in Season 1 is worth re-watching. 

Deep Space Nine - Season Seven - Part III

17) Til Death Do Us Part - Sisko must choose between the Prophets and his fiancee. Meanwhile, Dukat meets Kai Winn; and the Breen hold Worf/Ezri captive. Chapter 2 of the 8-part series. Three equally important stories are going on:

• Sikso, Kasidy and the Prophets - Boring - FF'd through most of it. 
• Worf/Enzi - Quite good especially when Damar, the Breen, and Weyond are on-screen.
• Winn-Dukot - Hilarious to see Dukat posing as an 'umble Bajorian farmer and manipulating Winn.

Can't rate it higher since the Sikso part is completely useless.  Rating **1/2

18) Strange Bedfellows -A new alliance between the Dominion and the Breen further appalls Damar. Meanwhile, Winn finds her spirituality thrown into chaos when she has a vision from the Paghwraiths.
This continues the story lines from Til Death Do Us Part - except the Sisko part is put on hold - thank goodness. So, at least that's an improvement. Watching Dukat manipulate Winn continues to be enjoyable, and  Winn losing her faith and turning to "The dark side" is interesting and well acted. Another positive: Damar and Weyond get more screen time - and that's always a good thing. Rating ***

19) The Changing Face of Evil - Winn begins to turn toward the dark side and studying forbidden books, and the Federation battles the Dominion and their new Breen allies.  Chapter 3 of 8. A continuation of the plot lines from Strange Bed Fellows.  We get a fair amount of Winn-Dukat, Damar-Weyond, and NewDax-Worf.  Damar becomes a resistance leader,  and Winn discovers Dukat is not  a Bajorian. Strangely, we see a lot of Sisko in the episode, but he has few lines and does little. Rating ***

20) When it Rains  Kira helps organize Damar's resistance forces, while Bashir learns that Odo has been infected with the same virus as the Founders. This is a good episode, but its hard to rate as a standalone episode - its a just another chapter of on-going story. The best part is Winn teaching Dukat a lesson in humility with Dukat becoming a blind begger.  We won't see Dukat-Winn again till the last episode.  The rest of the episode is just set up.  Kira and Oda help Damar set up the  Resistance cell and Bashir and O'brian work on cure fo Oda.  Rating ***

21) Extreme Measures - Bashir and O'Brien capture Sloan and probe his mind  to find the cure for Odo's disease. This is almost a self-contained episode despite being related to the on-going series.  And its quite disappointing.   The episode starts out strong with Odo ordering Kira to leave DS9 so she won't watch him die.  We then get the capture of Sloan and Bashir probing his mind. But then it all goes downhill, and the last 25 minutes are a standard  "O'brien/Bashir are in Sloan's brain finding vital information".  Anyway, O'brien/Bashir bumble and stumble around before predictably finding the cure.  Thus ends Sloan. One of the best guest stars,  he goes out with a wimper and not a bang. Rating **1/2

22) Tacking into the Wind   There's infighting in Damar's resistance cell,  while Worf tries to prevent Gowron from making a key strategic mistake. This is an action packed episode which ends the Klingon impass over Gowan and has some excellent Odo-Kira moments.  Well-written and well acted. The only negative was a ridiculous "you go girl" moment when 120 lbs Kira manhandles 170 lbs Rosot and punches him into submission.   Rating ***1/2

23) The Dogs of War  Kira, Damar, and Garak are trapped behind enemy lines. while Quark is named as the head of Ferengi.  This is the last Ferengi comedy (thank God) and parts of it work. Quark's comic fury at the changes in Ferengi society, and his shock at Rom being named  Nagus were funny.  It almost makes up for the annoying Brunt, Moogi, and Wallace Shawn. Another negative is the lackluster Resistance scenes in Tain's basement.  Garak has a few good lines, but there aren't enough of them. Fortunately, we get some good Odo scenes and seeing Bashir and Dax get together was a relief.  A strange, holding pattern episode, before the finale.  Rating **1/2