Star Trek (DS9): The Quickening

[Beastro]

I disagree with Chuck's scoring, but see his reasoning, so I'm not so let down. I actually found the story and pace engaging because it was a rather slow paced episode and that's saying something, since I eventually got so sick of watching repeats of early DS9 as a kid I gave up on it after Season 5 and missed so many episodes I later came to love. For some reason deliberately slow shows are something I find interesting and it's part of the reason why I'm so fond of Seven Samurai.

For me the episode isn't important because of Bashir and his character grow but a nice subtle hint at what kind of power the Dominion is that is all the more important given how "out of the way" the episode is and it isn't really pointed at ever again and it falls to the viewer to recall it later on.

I take it as something of a Guernica moment before the Dominion War for the Federation that allowed them to see what kind of enemy they'd later be fighting that would provide a contrast between the two and their use of biological weapons: The Federation would use it like the Allied bombing campaign as a means to an end doing what was needed to end the war in the quickest way possible while the Dominion, like Germany, used it as a terror weapon of no strategic value. In the Dominion used it to do something even worse than "simply" devastating a world or committing genocide, but made it so that generations for centuries to come would continue to die and suffer for the sin of resisting them even when it was a planet such as this that was an ant to them.

Yes, Section 31 infected the Founders before DS9s crew found this world, but the Dominions reputation precedes it and it's not a leap to assume that Section 31 would have quickly discovered numerous incidents of acts like this that would go towards their decision to infect Odo and the Founders that, in the end, wound up being the wise and correct move that ended the war when nothing else could.

And in the end, the Dominion wasn't defeated, just stalemated in the Alpha Quadrant and free to continue to keep doing this in the Gamma Quadrant with only Odo to be of any influence to get them to stop.

[AllanO]

The thing this rating brings to my mind is my distinction between someone's list of best or someone's favourite movies, TV shows etc. Your favourite can be your favourite for reasons no one else will appreciate. As I recall Elwy Yost (Canadian TV personality, film presenter and affecianado ) declared Speed his 2nd favourite movie (in 1999) not unrelated to the fact his son wrote it. I have no doubt it actually was an amazing film for him to watch given his personal connection to it etc. but presumably he realized that others would not have this connection. So I would be surprised if he would have ranked it the number 2 best movie in terms of either some standard of objective quality or what you would expect a randomly selected film goer to enjoy. So I think there is good reason to separate best from favourite.

Obviously the ratings in an opinionated guide can just be the reviewer's personal ranking or Chuck could be saying not only did he not find it engaging but based on that experience and feeling no personal idiosyncracy was at play he has to judge that viewers in general were not going to find much to engage with in it either (even if some minority find it very moving) and so just because you make no mistakes does not mean you produced something with intrinsic merit etc. Any of these reasons is fair enough.

Personally I remember this episode vaguely but with some details; my impression is that it had its moments but it was also a bit sterile or manipulative at times, so I can understand some ambivalence, although my impression would have been it was at least an average DS9 episode.

Personally I think Bashir's mistake was giving himself too much time to cure the disease, the longer the time people in Star Trek have to solve a problem the less impressive the results (they can't even solve Fermat's last theorem in a couple of centuries), I blame procrastination. If you want Scotty to bend the laws of physics to his will you only give him five minutes to restart the warp engines, etc. If someone had just kidnapped Jadzia had issued an ultimatum to kill her in an hour if Bashir had not come up with the goods these people would all be in recovery by the end of the episode...

A relevant euthansia episode of Star Trek would be the TNG "Half a Life" where Lwaxana convinces a scientist she fell in love with not to go through with his cultures everyone is euthanized at 60 rule. It also gives us another example on why you don't give your Star Trek scientists, engineers and doctors too much time solve a problem as the scientist is trying to find a way to revive his planets sun, but since obviously the sun won't be going out by the end of the episode his plan his doomed to failure (and other people could carry on his work so he was doomed). That ep was definitely about euthanasia (there were some other themes) and was pretty ambivalent rather than outright suportive or condemnatory.

[ChiggyvonRichthofen]

I would have ranked this higher myself, but I don't have any special attachment to the episode and I can see the point about it not being terribly rewatchable. To me, there is a definite distinction between my personal enjoyment of something and my "objective" opinion of its quality.

The Wrath of Khan is one of my go-to examples. It's one of my ten favorite films, it hits all the right buttons for me as a sci-fi film and arguably the high water mark in one of my favorite franchises, and I find it far more watchable than most movies, including films with much higher reputations. As a fan of films in general, however, I couldn't say that its close to one of the ten best films of all time. I could say its underrated by some due to being both a genre and franchise film, and I do think its a very fine film- but if I were trying to be objective (despite the impossibility of being truly objective) I would have to rank films I like far less above it.

I don't know (or need to know) Chuck's precise methodology or reasoning behind his rankings, but it's obvious that he tries to be fair while still presenting his undiluted opinion. As AllanO says, general lack of rewatchability could fairly be construed as a weakness. I still find the ranking odd, sure, but I've found these rankings to be spot on so many times that he's more than earned the benefit of the doubt.

[SuccubusYuri]

In general, numbers aside, I do find this to be my favorite "the medical drama" of the franchise. Of course, when your category includes "A Night in Sickbay" and "Shades of Grey" that might be accidentally a backhanded compliment. I think because it zigs where so many zagged. Like, sorry TV-in-general, I am just not buying that you're killing off the character with their name in the main credits in the hospital this episode.

I think that is down to the stand-alone nature of the episode. There are no guarantees regarding any of the characters in jeopardy, the local naysayers aren't REALLY naysayers, they're real people in a difficult circumstance, and the outcome is an aversion of expectations.

But once all those clever elements are stripped away, or rather the surprise of them, it can be said you've absorbed the majority of the piece. I see this as kind of a transitional piece, from that earlier mentioned "Hey, are we going to kill Riker like a redshirt? Why are you laughing? This is a very tense moment." towards some medical drama really worth watching, which we could regard as Bashir's subplot regarding Section 31, which was so much more than just "cure the disease".

[Durandal_1707]

In general, numbers aside, I do find this to be my favorite "the medical drama" of the franchise. Of course, when your category includes "A Night in Sickbay" and "Shades of Grey" that might be accidentally a backhanded compliment. I think because it zigs where so many zagged. Like, sorry TV-in-general, I am just not buying that you're killing off the character with their name in the main credits in the hospital this episode.

Hmm, what would its competition be? Off the top of my head, I can think of:

"Miri"
"The Deadly Years"
"Spock's Brain"
"Requiem for Methuselah"
"Shades of Grey"
"That One Where Worf Breaks His Spine That I Can't Remember The Name Of"
"Babel"
"Melora"
"The Wire"
"Hippocratic Oath"
"Chrysalis"
"Extreme Measures"
"Threshold"
"That One With The EMH Diagnostic Program In It"
"Dear Doctor"
"A Night in Sickbay"

I'd actually give the overall prize to "The Wire", but other than that one... wow, Trek doesn't really have a great track record with this theme, does it?

[Yerushalmi]

"That One Where Worf Breaks His Spine That I Can't Remember The Name Of"

Ethics.

"That One With The EMH Diagnostic Program In It"

The Swarm, I think?

****

Actually, this list is missing quite a lot of medical drama-like episodes from Voyager. Since the Doctor was the breakout character, they dipped into that well quite often. And while the line between medical drama and drama that happens to have a medical aspect is a bit hard to nail down, the following definitely qualify:
* Nothing Human
* Phage
* Critical Care

And the following are arguable:
* Latent Image
* Mortal Coil
* Lineage
* Lifesigns
* Life Line
* Flashback
* Sacred Ground
* Death Wish
* Macrocosm
* Coda
* Course: Oblivion
* The Fight

Some of these episodes (Nothing Human, Life Line) were among Voyager's best, while others (Sacred Ground, Macrocosm) are absolutely terrible.

[thisithis]

I loved the Ep when it came out, but like sfdebris found it hard to rewatch again. I think it had to with the fact that it was too sad to watch.

[Mickey_Rat15]

I was surprised Chuck went below a five for a "well done, but not fun" story.

What I did like here was not treating Science! like a magic lamp that will give you the answer you want if you rub it hard enough, though it may reveal something you can work with.

I suppose I'll bring up the other dog not barking in this episode: the Prime Directive. The Blight is a horrific and cruel biological weapon and it is good that Bashir tried to help, but once they find out that this was punishment for resisting the Dominion then trying to cure it is interefering with Dominion internal politics, right? At least by Picard's understanding of Prime Directive ethics in not interfering in wars and such.

[BlackoutCreature2]

I suppose I'll bring up the other dog not barking in this episode: the Prime Directive. The Blight is a horrific and cruel biological weapon and it is good that Bashir tried to help, but once they find out that this was punishment for resisting the Dominion then trying to cure it is interefering with Dominion internal politics, right? At least by Picard's understanding of Prime Directive ethics in not interfering in wars and such.

The war is by all accounts over, so I don't see how this could be construed as interfering in a war.

As for interfering with Dominion internal politics, I suppose it depends on whether or not the planet was considered apart of Dominion territory and if the Teplan people were considered Dominion "subjects". If the Dominion just showed up, destroyed the planet, and left without making any real claim on the planet or its people, then this would easily be classified as a mission of mercy to a neutral party. Remember, Bashir and co. were answering a distress call, they were technically "invited".

This episode always does remind me of something I consider a missed opportunity to explore in DS9's later seasons - what was going on in the Gamma Quadrant during the Dominion War? Was it business as usual? Did the Dominion have the resources necessary to maintain complete, uncontested dominance over their home territory while waging a war against the Alpha Quadrant? Or were there cracks in the armor? Were there uprisings and rebellions while their iron grip started to loosen with forces and resources being diverted? Could they have been fighting some sort of war on multiple fronts?

I always had an idea for a TNG movie during the Dominion War where the Enterprise falls through an anomaly and winds up in Dominion territory in the Gamma Quadrant, but at almost the exact opposite side of the territory then where the Bajoran wormhole is. These planets are so far from the front of the Dominion War that they don't even know about it or anything about the politics of the Founders. All they know is that the their hated ruling force is starting to weaken and they see it as the perfect time to rise up and rebel. Picard has to decide whether or not to encourage or aid these people fight a war that they probably won't win simply because it would help the Federation out on the other side of the galaxy.

[Durandal_1707]

"That One Where Worf Breaks His Spine That I Can't Remember The Name Of"

Ethics.

"That One With The EMH Diagnostic Program In It"

The Swarm, I think?

****

Actually, this list is missing quite a lot of medical drama-like episodes from Voyager. Since the Doctor was the breakout character, they dipped into that well quite often. And while the line between medical drama and drama that happens to have a medical aspect is a bit hard to nail down, the following definitely qualify:
* Nothing Human
* Phage
* Critical Care

And the following are arguable:
* Latent Image
* Mortal Coil
* Lineage
* Lifesigns
* Life Line
* Flashback
* Sacred Ground
* Death Wish
* Macrocosm
* Coda
* Course: Oblivion
* The Fight

Some of these episodes (Nothing Human, Life Line) were among Voyager's best, while others (Sacred Ground, Macrocosm) are absolutely terrible.

Ahhh you're right. The trouble is that I have trouble remembering individual episodes of Voyager and Enterprise, since I was never nearly as obsessed with them as I was the other three as a child. But it does seem that Voyager should in fact have been the MVP of my list. Whoops.

We could probably also add "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" from TOS, if it counts.