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Old April 15 2013, 02:49 PM   #31
Dal Rassak
Lieutenant Commander
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Location: Terok Nor
Re: Skippable episodes abound...

I honestly don't get how anyone can actually complain about there being too much "character stuff"!! To me that's the strong point of the entire series, that's what makes it stand above so much standard sci-fi fare. I love a bit of serious depth in my characters. I like a good battle as much as the next guy but I'm not five and I don't need stuff being blown up in space every ten minutes in order to find things interesting.
For my money, pretty much the outstanding episode of the entire run of the series (though there were a great number of excellent contenders) was the Season 1 episode "Duet". You could have taken the whole thing and minus the costumes and make-up it wouldn't have been out of place in a straight film dealing with the horrors of Nazism. It's the episode that convinced me that this was a cut above.

Throughout I found the most captivating episodes those that were built around two strong characters confronting one another in close-up. "Duet" as mentioned. Bashir and Garak in "The Wire". Dukat and Sisko in "Waltz". To me those were always the most powerful tales, and the most involving, and I can watch those any number of times. They fly on the strength of the writing and most of all, the acting.
It's unfortunately rare to see some real dialogue and "proper" acting in TV these days. They're too afraid people will get bored and switch channels if something doesn't go "bang!" every other second. I loved DS9 for bucking the trend.

The few "skippable" episodes for me were the ones like "Meridian" which just seemed contrived and pointless, or the likes of "Move Along Home" which seemed silly without being really amusing. But every show has a few glitches like that. I'd watch the vast majority over again.
"Trust is good; control is better"
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