The Final DS9 Episode

The last DS9 aired last night. Who watched it? Overall, it wasn’t bad. It tied up all the loose ends of the various story lines very nicely (if predictably).

As you might have guessed, I have a list of complaints ready. ;-)

  1. Where was the Enterprise during the battle with dominion? Even if they can’t afford a guest appearance by the actors, a shot of the ship seems called for. Wouldn’t Warf or Miles at least have mentioned it?
  2. During each character’s flash-back about life on DS9, why does Warf not have any memories of Jadzia?
  3. Who’s running Cardassia now? Garak? Somebody else?
  4. And how about finally resolving the question of why the Bajoran religion evolved around the aliens? Are the “aliens” actually “dead” Bajorans who’ve transitioned into nonlinear space-time? Or are they actually aliens who act as benefactors to the Bajorans for some unexplained reason? (for that matter the whole worm-hole alien / prophet thing has bugged me all along. First we’re told the aliens have no concept of linear time, then it turns out they’ve been plotting and manipulating the lives of humanoids for decades – something that can only be done in and with an understanding of linear time. huh?)
  5. After so many seasons of build up about the great mission of emmissary, it turns out his job is to toss an old book into the fire? Couldn’t he have done that more easily and safely before it had been used to free the Pah Wraiths? And what happened to the warning he received from the worm-hole aliens just a couple of episodes ago that there would be a lot of suffering if he married?
  6. And speaking of Cisco, didn’t the sequence where he jumps into the fire to save the universe from the Pah Wraiths and then ended up dead but not really dead seem awfully like the scene in Babylon 5 where commander Sheridan jumps into the pit of Z’ha’dum to save the universe from the shadows and ends up dead but not really dead? Of course DS9 has been essentially a Trekified clone of B5 from the begining.
  7. And what’s with these Pah Wraiths anyway? They certainly didn’t turn out to be very dangerous. They’re finally released and rather than acting immediately to preserve their freedom by protecting the key that unlocked them or even leaving the caves where they’re held prisoner, they stand around talking about turning planets into fire and beans into peas until Cisco wanders by and pushes them off the edge of a cliff. Hmmm…
  8. Why is it that when the infected Odo touched a disease-free Founder, the Founder contracted his disease but when an infected Founder touches Odo, the Founder loses the disease? Based on the usual mechanisms of infection as well as previous stories, Odo should have become re-infected, shouldn’t he? Actually, I can think of several explainations of this one but it would have been nice if they’d at least mentioned one of them.

The rumours of a new series based around Star Fleet Academy seemed fueled by Miles leaving DS9 to become a teacher at the academy – I really dread the idea. I think we’ve had more than enough stories about life at the academy. Imagine a whole series full of Wesley Crushers. Now that’s scary!.