Star Trek: Things Past

Episode: "Things Past"

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Season 5, Episode 8

Original Air Date: November 18, 1996

via Memory Alpha

Garak episode!

It's also a Terok Nor episode.  Sisko, Odo, Dax and Garak pass out on a runabout, then wake up on the station seven years before when it was still under Cardassian control.  They are not themselves.  They are Bajorans whom Odo remembers had been accused of and executed for an assassination attempt on Gul Dukat.  Our heroes quickly set about figuring out how to escape their fate.  Meanwhile, Odo is falling apart.

The technobabble explanation for how they all ended up in the situation is completely ludicrous, detracting from what is otherwise a meaningful story.  The writers didn't want to do time travel or a flashback.  Instead they concocted a convoluted "everyone is living Odo's dream" scenario.  I fail to see how that's better.

Honestly, I wouldn't normally be up for a flashback either - typically the sort of choice that indicates a show's writers are running out of ideas.  I'll forgive it in DS9's case because the Terok Nor history is particularly interesting - and pertinent to the series's present.  In this instance, Odo is working through guilt over his own role in the assassination investigation.  "Things Past" is not as strong as Season 2's "Necessary Evil," my choice as DS9's first truly great episode.  But I'll still take Terok Nor over the Mirror Universe anytime.

At story's end, there's a confrontation between Odo and Kira over the newly revealed truth, an exact swapping of roles from their confrontation at the end of "Necessary Evil."  They're even now.  For each, there is something the other did in the deep dark past that will be difficult to forgive.  The Odo-Kira relationship is only going to get more complicated moving forward.  Will they be able to trust one another?

Acting Notes

via Regular Show Wiki

Kurtwood Smith played Thrax, Odo's Cardassian predecessor as head of security on Terok Nor.  Smith was born in New Lisbon, Wisconsin, July 3, 1943.  He has a BS from San Jose State and an MFA from Stanford.

Smith's stage and screen resume is extensive, one of the most recognizable character actors of the 1980s and '90s.  I remember him most for two very different father roles: Tom Perry, Neil's father in Dead Poets Society, and Red Foreman, Eric's dad in That '70s Show.  He's a hardass in both, though it plays out differently in drama and comedy.  Other films include RoboCop, Rambo III and A Time to Kill.  On television, he had principal roles on The Ranch and That '90s Show, reprising his role as Red Foreman for the latter.  He made guest appearances on Lou Grant, The X-Files and 24.  "Things Past" was his first of two Trek appearances.

Off My Duff: Winter 2026

In my last fitness report in September, I noted that winter was a challenging time for maintaining goals and so it has been this year.  It's colder.  It's darker.  Hibernation instincts are hard to fight.  Even recess duty doesn't help as much as in fall or spring because we're more likely to be inside due to cold and ice.

So, my initial idea to increase my step goal didn't help.  If the goal is harder to reach, I'm more inclined not to try.  That's the trouble for me (and I imagine for others) with exercise.  It's too easy to come up with an excuse not to do it.  Attainable goals matter.  Without them, I just won't bother.

In early January, I think, I set my step goal back to AmazFit's factory setting: 8,000.  Since then, I've hit the goal far more often than not, including every day this past week.  The hardest days are travel days with long stretches in car or plane with virtually no steps at all.  

The step goal is enough for now.  Admittedly, it's not as good for exertion but at this point, I think those targets will need to wait for summer.  Establish the vigor habits then with an eye towards how to keep them up in the fall.

Meanwhile, my present aim: hit the step goal for 365 consecutive days.  I'm currently at 7.  It can and shall be done!  The key is doing it on the days when I really don't feel like it.

Star Trek: Future's End, Part II

Episode: "Future's End, Part II"

Series: Star Trek: Voyager

Season 3, Episode 9

Original Air Date: November 13, 1996

via Memory Alpha

The story begun in the last episode concludes.  Janeway and company must stop evil tech baron Henry Starling (Ed Begley, Jr.) from going to the 29th century in his timeship to steal more future tech to adapt and sell in his own time.  They must do so without corrupting the timeline and also preventing whatever future disaster Voyager was involved in to set all of this in motion in the first place.  

Confused?  Yeah well, the details are more complicated than the basic idea: cat and mouse game between the Voyager crew and Starling with Rain Robinson (Sarah Silverman) caught in between.  Who?  Rain Robinson is the scientist who first detected Voyager.  Tom Paris and Tuvok have befriended her.  Unfortunately, Starling fears she knows too much and wants to kill her.  

Long story short: all works out, good guys win.  Tom gets to kiss the girl.  Voyager gets sent back to its own timeline - and back to the Delta Quadrant.

One important long-term development: Starling created a mobile emitter for the Doctor which allows the EMH an existence outside of sickbay.  

Acting Notes

via Wikipedia

Thirty years later, Sarah Silverman is a big star, a genuine A-list stand-up comic with a broad and lasting screen career to boot.  In fact, I think it's fair to say that she's had a more successful career since "Future's End" than any of the other actors involved - possibly excepting Begley.  Though I bet Silverman would win a name recognition poll.  In 1996, she was just getting started.

Silverman was born in Concord, New Hampshire, December 1, 1970.  She attended NYU for one year before dropping out to pursue a stand-up career in Greenwich Village.  She got the big break in 1993 when she was hired by Saturday Night Live as a writer and performer.  Unfortunately, it didn't work out.  She was fired after one season.  It set her back emotionally for about a year.  She's been on a pretty good roll ever since.

Her own series, The Sarah Silverman Program, ran for three seasons on Comedy Central.  She's had numerous appearances on high profile shows, including Seinfeld, Monk and Frasier.  She was guest host of The Daily Show for a week in 2023.  She's had two televised stand-up specials.  Films include There's Something About Mary, School of Rock and The Muppets.  Then there's the voice acting career: The Simpsons, Bob's Burgers, Wreck-It Ralph and Ralph Breaks the Internet among others.  She adapted her autobiography, The Bedwetter, into an off-Broadway musical.  She's had eight Emmy nominations, winning twice, and four Grammy nominations.

Seriously, she's everywhere - for over 30 years.

On the Road: Black Belt Eagle Scout

Our latest trip to North Adams, Massachusetts was inspired by a concert at Mass MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art).  Black Belt Eagle Scout's real name is Katherine Paul.  She's a Swinomish/Inupiaq singer-songwriter whose indie rock sound is heavily influenced by Native American folk music.  For her current tour, she has teamed up with Mato Wayuhi, an Oglala Lakota hip-hop soul performer from South Dakota, and Ailani, a singer-songwriter in her own right from New Mexico who also serves as KP's lead guitarist.  I enjoyed all three performers, especially the hip-hop elements Mayuhi brought to the ensemble.  The full band was the highlight.  The drummer was particularly strong.  

Black Belt Eagle Scout's "Indians Never Die":

Mato Wayuhi's "KETCHUP POTATO CHIPS":

Star Trek: Let He Who Is Without Sin

Episode: "Let He Who Is Without Sin"

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Season 5, Episode 7

Original Air Date: November 11, 1996

via Explaining Errors in Star Trek Wiki

Dax, Worf, Leeta, Bashir and Quark are off to Risa for a vacation.  Actually, it was supposed to be a romantic getaway for the newly involved Dax and Worf but the others tagged along for their own reasons.  Worf gets distracted by a radical fundamentalist group who take exception to Risa's decadence.  It seems he'd rather spend his time with them than with Dax.  

Dax.  Terry Ferrell.  One of the most statuesque women on 1990s television.  Oh, and she's smart and witty, too.  And she's in love with you.  Seriously?  You'd rather hang with the political wackos?

So I've finally come to a DS9 episode I don't like very much.  It's too bad because the idea had potential.  The writers wanted a show about sex but then the network made them tone it down.  Even so, there was plenty of space for something meaningful here.  Worf and Dax have different expectations of each other and of their new relationship.  That's a real world problem.  Frankly, a lot of couples don't survive it or they're miserable for years or both.  Without question, it's an issue worthy of narrative attention.  

But the writers couldn't make the pivot once they couldn't have the full-on sleaze fest they wanted.  My guess is they all had plenty of experience with lusting after scantily clad women but not so much successfully working through difficult relationship issues.  Yup, I'm being judgmental and catty.  So be it.  And Worf's childhood trauma tale about a soccer game to explain it all away?  What a load of garbage!

And the Leeta-Bashir story is downright vomit-inducing.  They're that cute college couple who can't keep their hands off each other and desperately need the rest of the world to know it.  There is one good long-term benefit from that thread: Leeta proclaims her love for Rom.  The Rom story just keeps getting better.

Mind you, I'm not exactly complaining about the beautiful women.  Beyond Farrell and Chase Masterson (Leeta), the screen is graced by Zora DeHorter and Blair Volk (Quark's Risian companions) and former Miss America, Vanessa Williams.

The episode title comes from the Book of John, chapter 8, verse 7: "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."

Acting Notes

via Wikipedia

Williams played the role of Arandis, a former lover of Curzon Dax and the current chief facilitator of the Temtibi Lagoon on Risa.  Williams was born in The Bronx, March 18, 1963.  She went to Syracuse for college.

Vanessa Williams rose to fame when she was crowned Miss America 1984, the first African-American to win the competition.  Sadly, she had to resign when Penthouse published unauthorized nudes.  Let's be clear: other people took advantage of her fame and she suffered the consequences.  In 2016, Williams received a public apology for the scandal at that year's Miss America pageant.

Back in the '80s, Williams certainly made the best of the situation, turning to the music and acting industries, finding great success in both.  Overall, she has released nine studio albums, one live album and four compilations.  She's had four top ten singles including a #1: "Save the Best for Last."  Her Broadway acting credits include Kiss of the Spider Woman, Into the Woods and The Trip to Bountiful.  Television work includes principal roles on both Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives.  Films include Soul Food, My Brother and Eraser.  Awards include seven NAACP Image Awards, four Satellite Awards, 11 Grammy nominations, 3 Emmy nominations and a Tony nomination.

As if that weren't enough, she has also published two books: You Have No Idea, a memoir co-authored with her mother, Helen Williams, and a children's book entitled Bubble Kisses.

Squid Flicks: Help!

Title: Help!

Director: Richard Lester

Original Release: July 29, 1965

My Overall Rating: 4 stars out of 5

via Wikipedia

Ringo has come into possession of a mysterious ring.  The original owners, members of an Indian-ish cult, are prepared to chase him and the rest of The Beatles all over the world - London, Austria, Bahamas - in order to get it back.  Along the way, the boys sing a lot of really good songs.

Way back in my early teens, I watched Help! before A Hard Day's Night.  It appealed to me primarily because I was more familiar with the music.  The soundtrack was one of the three Beatles albums in my parents' record cabinet (see story here).  I suppose it was also a naïve bias for color over black-and-white.  I remember being particularly charmed by John's pit bed in the London apartment.  I wanted one just like it.  Someone - probably my sister - pointed out that it would only be more difficult to get out of bed in the morning.

Now, it's easy to see A Hard Day's Night as the stronger of the two.  Help!'s story is better and I still prefer the music.  But The Beatles' effortless charm in the first feels more forced and scripted in the second.  The band members have since admitted they were often stoned out of their minds during the filming of Help! which was surely part of the problem.

Make no mistake though, the music is amazing.  The title track is an under-appreciated masterpiece (see here) and "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" is the first hint of a more Dylan-esque aesthetic creeping into the band's music.  The album - especially the UK version which includes several songs not in the film, including "Yesterday" - is The Beatles' cusp offering.  The last strains of '50s-style rock 'n' roll were giving way to something less frenetic and more introspective.

The movie experience brought one particularly important long-term development to The Beatles.  The filming of Help! provided George Harrison's first exposure to Indian music.  The story itself is undeniably racist and that is a well-deserved knock against it.  But George genuinely fell in love with the sitar.  He wasted little time tracking down master Ravi Shankar to teach him.  Just a few months later, Harrison played the instrument on Rubber Soul's "Norwegian Wood."  Raga rock was born.

Come to think of it, the movies worked out pretty well for George especially.  He met his first wife in the first one: Pattie Boyd, rock music's greatest muse.  In the second, he discovered a fascination with India that would shape his life for years afterward.

********

Last week's movie post inspired one of the longest and most gratifying comment threads this blog has seen in quite a long while.  Let's keep it going, folks!

NyQuilDriver proposed They Might Be Giants as a challenger to Beatle supremacy.  I welcome the choice.  I loooove TMBG (see here).  No band is more emblematic of my own college years in the early '90s.  

I can't deny they hold up surprisingly well with the parameters as I have set them.  TMBG are incredibly prolific: 740ish songs.  While that is spread out over four decades, they have maintained a consistent level of quality over the years.  NQD introduced me to some of their more recent material which is still really good.  Dare I say, some of it is stronger than some of their better-known early work.

My conclusion: They Might Be Giants is not in The Beatles' league.  And yet, they clearly deserve a lot more love than they get.  Indeed, the entire genre of geek rock is worthy of greater respect - Weird Al, especially.  Let's start the Hall of Fame campaign now, folks!

Star Trek: Future's End

Episode: "Future's End"

Series: Star Trek: Voyager

Season 3, Episode 8

Original Air Date: November 6, 1996

via Memory Alpha

Voyager encounters Captain Braxton, a time traveler from the 29th century.  In fact, Braxton, formerly of the Starfleet Temporal Integrity Commission, is trying to destroy the ship in order to avoid the role it is to play in a temporal explosion in his own time.  Man, it's like he's never read a Greek tragedy...

Anyway, both Voyager and Braxton's ship get pulled into the gravitational field from which Braxton came.  It throws them all the way to Earth.  Great news, right?  Except that it's Earth in 1996.  

Star Trek returning to "present day" is well-tread territory for the franchise.  Prior to "Future's End," it had been done in TOS's "Assignment: Earth" and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.  There are other stories involving Earth's past but to this point these were the only ones that pinpointed the current time of production.  There is something funny about watching our heroes navigate the, for them, inconveniences of the 20th century.  How handy that because of his hobbies, Tom Paris already knows how to drive a car.

Our villain is Henry Starling.  In 1967, Starling discovered Braxton's crashed ship and has been mining its technology to build his own corporate empire ever since.  The story asserts that this chance encounter accelerated Earth's computer advances at a much greater rate than should have been.  In their effort to set the timeline right, our heroes have to mess with Starling's plans.  He's none too happy about it.

Part 2 in two weeks...

Acting Notes

via Wikipedia

Ed Begley Jr. played Henry Starling.  Begley was born in Los Angeles, September 16, 1949.  His father, Ed Begley Sr., was an Oscar-winning actor himself.  He attended Los Angeles Valley College.

Ed Jr.'s resume is lengthy with literally hundreds of professional credits.  Films include An Officer and a Gentleman, The Accidental Tourist and Batman Forever.  His portrayal of Dr. Victor Ehlrich on St. Elsewhere earned him six consecutive Emmy nominations.  Recurring television credits include Better Call Saul, Young Sheldon and Arrested Development.

Ed Begley, Jr. is the most outspoken environmentalist in Hollywood.  In particular, he is closely associated with electric vehicles.  He and his wife Rachelle Carlson co-hosted a green living show called Living with Ed for three years.