Customer Reviews

Star Trek - Deep Space Nine, Episode 106: Things Past [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The moral implications of this episode are so profoundly portrayed by Odo that you can't help but feel for his predicament during the "Occupation". The way the script manages to tear away the character's social defences and expose his vulnerability is admirable. Though the one major, glaring deficiency in the episode is the premise. That is to say that what the characters do, given the situation they're in, is certainly powerful, however, the whole reasoning for their being there is shaky at best. True enough, the character implications are more the focus than the plot, but the explanation given by Bashir feels forced and unsatisfying. That's a shame, but nonetheless Things Past is a rewarding and insightful episode not to be missed.

This episode is very similar to Necessary Evil, which was just as rubbish. Dax, Odo, Sisko and Garak are all found unconscious and rushed to sickbay only to find they are in some strange coma. Though Sisko and co are infact in sickbay they all believe they are onbaord Terok Nor and a strange murder investigation goes underway in a slow, unrevealing and scientific flawed episode.

Terrible. Even Andrew Robinson aka Garak couldn't lift this one!

I think the best thing about this episode and DS9 in general is that this series allowed the characters to be fallible. They aren't superheroes, they're ordnairy people caught up in the midst of extraordnairy times. There are no cop-outs, i.e. Odo's memory doesn't turn out to be a hallucination caused by some alien virus. The audience is not allowed the automatic comfort of knowing "Hey, this is just a show, these people didn't really do anything wrong, they wouldn't." DS9 tried the audience more than most shows on television with few exceptions like The Sopranos. A show would be lucky to be this good.