Star Trek: The Way of the Warrior

Episode: "The Way of the Warrior"

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Season 4, Episodes 1 & 2

Original Air Date: October 2, 1995

via Memory Alpha

Garak episode!

A Klingon fleet arrives at the station, preparing for an attack on the Cardassian home world.  They believe - correctly, as it turns out - that Founder infiltrators have staged a coup, overthrowing the military regime on Cardassia in favor of civilian rule.  The Klingons want to attack in order to prevent further incursions in the Alpha Quadrant.  They do not take kindly to the Federation's efforts to interfere with their plans.

"The Way of the Warrior" marks a major turning point for Deep Space Nine for a couple of reasons.  Recasting the Klingon Empire in their original antagonist role is one.  More important, at least for the fans, is the return of Worf.  Captain Sisko recruits the NextGen alum to help with the situation and fortunately for all of us, Worf agrees to stick around once the initial crisis subsides.  He'll remain in the principal cast for the rest of the series.

This presents an interesting wrinkle to my little game of drawing character legacies back to the original series (read here).  Clearly, Worf should get his own chair back.  So...

Chekov = Worf = Odo = Worf

But this leaves the question of what to do with Odo.  After all, he's not going anywhere and we still have four seasons to go.  For me, the best solution is to give Odo a chair of his own...

Odo (née Chekov line)

Two principals in particular will benefit from the addition of Worf to our story.  Already, we can see that his relationship with Dax is going to be an interesting one.  It also frees up Odo to be more than just the grumpy guy around the office.  Now that Worf can share in that responsibility, Odo's story can take off in exciting directions.  And what a tale it is, unique in Star Trek (so far).  

Food Notes

"The Way of the Warrior" includes one of the most popular individual scenes of the entire DS9 run, only tangentially related to the main plot.  Quark and Garak commiserate over their dependence on the Federation, a glass of root beer serving as the perfect metaphor.

Acting Notes

via Memory Alpha

An important side narrative is the captain's effort to invest in a romantic relationship with freighter captain Kasidy Yates, played by Penny Johnson.  Johnson boasts 16 Trek appearances, including 15 as Yates.

Penny Johnson Jerald was born in Baltimore, March 14, 1961.  She graduated from The Julliard School in New York.  Her on-screen resume is absolutely stellar, particularly on television.  She has had principal roles on four high-profile shows: The Larry Sanders Show, 24, Castle and The Orville.  Films include Do the Right Thing, What's Love Got to Do with It, The Lion King (2019) and the upcoming Mufasa: The Lion King.

On the Road: Northampton in December

Just a quick overnight visit.  I'm so grateful this town has become a part of our lives.

Tea, coffee and pastries at Ana Bandeira Chocolates

The holiday decorations at Thornes Marketplace

Hungry Ghost Bread, one of the best bakeries in New England

Star Trek: Twisted

Episode: "Twisted"

Series: Star Trek: Voyager

Season 2, Episode 6

Original Air Date: October 2, 1995

via Memory Alpha

During a birthday party for Kes, Voyager gets caught in an inversion field.  What begins as a problem with the comm system becomes more serious as the very fabric of reality becomes physically twisted.  Will our friends survive?

This one's bad.  "Twisted" is the last of four episodes that were written and produced for the first season but weren't aired until the second.  It was the last of the four because it was considered the weakest.  It's cited by many of the principal cast as one so bad they were surprised it aired at all.  Such are the choices you make when you're under pressure to generate 26ish episodes each season.

Why is it so awful?  Weak writing is at the heart of the matter.  Then the story was too short so they had to tack on extra scenes last-minute, including a subplot with the Doctor being pursued romantically by Sandrine, the proprietress at a holodeck-replicated Marseille bar.  Jealous Neelix also rears his ugly head (supposedly for the last time).  

It's also part of an ongoing issue with the series: they go to the space-time anomaly well far too often, to the point where they can hardly be considered anomalies any more.  Can't we please get back to good old-fashioned, intelligent life encounters?

And once again, the seed for a more interesting story was right there for the planting.  As the crisis moment approaches, with Janeway incapacitated, there is tension over what to do next.  Torres has one idea, Tuvok another.  Chakotay makes the call in favor of Torres and the showdown between Chakotay and Tuvok is the juiciest moment in the whole episode.  This tension could have been the narrative driver - hell, it could have been worth a season or more.  After all, these aren't just any three characters.  These are all former Maquis and why not push on lingering resentment between them?  I'd have been all in on that story.  How disappointing that the writers didn't see it.

Can you tell I'm getting impatient with this series?

Acting Notes

via Wikipedia

Judy Geeson (Sandrine) was born in Arundel, Sussex, England, September 10, 1948.  "Twisted" was her second of two appearances as Sandrine.  She trained at the Corona Stage Academy in west London.  She performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Titus Andronicus and Section Nine, then later off-Broadway in The Common Pursuit.  

Geeson has a solid television resume on both sides of the Atlantic.  In the UK, she had principal roles on The Newcomers and Poldark.  In the US, she had recurring roles on both Mad About You (33 episodes) and Gilmore Girls (3).  Films include To Sir, with Love, Fear in the Night and The Eagle Has Landed.  

Squid Eats: On Tap Bar & Grill

On Tap Bar & Grill in Essex Junction, Vermont was our meeting spot at the end of a Christmas-themed scavenger hunt this past weekend.  This was our first time at On Tap and also our first time engaging in such a quest with our friends the Mocks and the Blue Liners.  For those unfamiliar, participants are sent out in teams to do things like sing "Jingle Bells" with strangers, take pictures with a Santa Claus and so forth.  We had a grand old time and came in second.  Let's talk about the food...

On Tap is mostly a bar.  As discussed in previous posts, Vermont bars are required by law to serve food.  Naturally, some are better than others.  

My wife and I each got a turkey avocado wrap and jalapeño peppers to share that never arrived.  I got a side salad.  Nearly everyone else got burgers.  Service was friendly but a bit slow due to understaffing.  The beer list was respectable and my salad just fine.

The wrap was okay - the flavor was nice but my avocado was under-ripened.  It was filling, too.  My wife didn't finish hers.  I took half home for dinner.  Others were dissatisfied with the doneness of their burgers, in both directions.  Everyone seemed happy with the fries and onion rings, though.

So, On Tap is a pleasant place to hang out for a while and have a beer but maybe not the most exciting stop for a meal.

Star Trek: Non Sequitur

Episode: "Non Sequitur"

Series: Star Trek: Voyager

Season 2, Episode 5

Original Air Date: September 25, 1995

via Memory Alpha

I just learned I've been spelling Sequitur incorrectly my whole life.  I had an o where the second u should be.

Harry Kim wakes up next to his fiancee, Libby, in San Francisco.  His assignment to Voyager never happened.  His best friend went instead and was lost when the ship disappeared.  Evidently, he has stumbled into an alternate timeline and must find his way back to the right one.

"Non Sequitur" was the result of Garrett Wang's complaints to the writers about the shoddy material he had been provided so far.  He wanted a shot at being an action hero, a story where they would "need a stunt double" for him.  It's a reasonable request.  As discussed in previous posts regarding ALL Star Trek series, principal characters are marginalized quickly if they don't get good material on a regular basis.  The actors had good reason to advocate for themselves.

The trouble is that apart from the "action" supplied, the story is awful and it could have been so much better.  It could have been a "Family" or "Inner Light" sort of tale: a glimpse of the other life that might have been lived.  I like those stories and the basic set up was ripe for it.  But there's no dilemma, no sense of regret.  Given the premise of Voyager so far, Harry should have been thrilled beyond measure to wake up in San Francisco next to Libby.  Even once the sense of needing to put things right set in, there should have been a grappling with the cost of having to give up his happy, simpler life.  Instead, he skips that emotional journey entirely.

Writer's fault, not the actor's.  

Voyager is like this over and over again.  So close to being good but missed opportunities abound.

Acting Notes

via Grey's Anatomy Universe Wiki

Louis Giambalvo played the role of Cosimo, Harry's Clarence/Morpheus-like guide in the alternate timeline.  Giambalvo was born in Brooklyn, New York, February 8, 1945.  He attended Harpur College (now Binghamton University) for both undergrad and graduate school.  He was a founding member of Colonnades Theater Lab along with Danny DeVito and Peter Scolari, among others.  Television credits include The Love Boat, Murder, She Wrote and ER.  Films include Airplane II: The Sequel, Real Genius and Weekend at Bernie's.  

On the Road: Thanksgiving 2024

As has been our tradition for many years, we traveled to spend Thanksgiving with our friend English Prof in Massachusetts.  It was a quiet and peaceful week filled with great food (of course) courtesy of EP and my wife, board games, movies and long walks.

The meal:

Worcester isn't exactly brimming with famous landmarks but I like the First Baptist Church: impressive-looking in that way that New England churches can be:

As Massachusetts is south of Vermont, it's not unusual in late November for it to still feel autumnal:

Then we drive home to snow on the ground.

It was nice to get away for a while.  It's also wonderful to be home again.

On the Coffee Table: Kate Beaton

Title: Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands

Writer and Artist: Kate Beaton

via Amazon

Trigger warning: sexual violence

Comic artist Kate Beaton hails from Cape Breton in Nova Scotia, a gloriously beautiful part of the world but evidently a difficult job economy.  After she graduated from university, she did what a lot of Maritime province young people do: she left for a better opportunity elsewhere so she could pay off her student debts.  She landed in the oil sands of Alberta, a remote society where men outnumber women 50-1.  Not exactly ideal but the pay is good.  Her story also includes a year spent in Victoria working at a museum but the oil sands experience is the focus.

Rather predictably, by her own admission, Beaton and the few other women at each camp become targets of attention, not all of it exactly friendly or welcome.  She acclimates over time, eventually feeling more like "one of the b'ys" but she never loses the sense of otherness and vulnerability.  During her tenure - and mostly towards the end - she struggles with the impact of the oil industry on both the environment and the local indigenous populations.  

She's raped twice.  As a reader, you see it coming and you pray it doesn't.  She offers no graphic details about the incidents themselves but spares nothing in describing the long-term emotional impact for her.  In her afterword, Beaton reflects on the unhealthy working conditions for the men in such a high-stress, high-danger, isolated environment.  She stops short of forgiving her attackers, instead condemning the situation that enabled them - or as she describes it, created them.

The titular "ducks" have double meaning.  There are literal ducks: the flock of ducks that made world headlines when they landed in the oil sands, got covered in oil and died.  Duckies is also one of the more endearing euphemisms the male workers use to refer to the few women in their midst.

I am grateful for the new perspective on the Maritimes, even though the vast majority of the book is set in the Canadian west.  We've spent two amazing family vacations in the Maritime provinces, absolutely falling in love with that region: see here and here.  It's important to remember people actually live in such beautiful places and day-to-day living is not always so pretty.  

Overall, I'd say Ducks is good, not great.  I'm glad to have read it.