Comments on: Retro Review: Past Prologue

By: Sara

Sara — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 19:32:00 +0000

I like this review so much. I really never got the whole Bashir/Garak except as a form of friendship but I still found your POV interesting.
I agree completely with the observations about Kira. Her interactions with Sisko vs. her friendship with Odo. Thank you for posting this.

By: ldude

ldude — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 23:12:00 +0000

I like this episode more after having read this review. I never saw the homoerotic angle, and still don’t, but the Garak / Bashir relationship is rich and fascinating for all 7 seasons. At this point his manipulative duplicity finds its perfect foil in Bashir’s naivete. That’s what’s great about DS9: all the relationships become more rich and mature over time.

By: Ritz

Ritz — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:46:00 +0000

Having read the reviewer previously I think she is simply happy to see that somewhere in the Star Trek world there is a hint of homosexuality. It is hard to believe that Trek has never featured a gay couple or delt with the subject seriously beyond the very good Nex Gen episode The Outcast.

Star Trek blazed the diversity trail since the beginning and seeing an openly gay character in the 24th Century would have been interesting.

By: Undead

Undead — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 22:17:00 +0000

I never read anything into the Garak/Bashir relationship while the show was on (especially since it was made explicit over the course of the series that neither character was gay). This interpretation has gained steam in more recent years, promoted by those who for some reason feel the need to retroactively inject as much gayness into Star Trek as possible.

It comes as no surprise that people who are “gleeful” at prospects of homosexuality are going to find it in their favorite shows if they want to.

By: Warren Lisak

Warren Lisak — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 17:03:00 +0000

Just a quick note about Janeway (from my opinion, as I am critical of Voyager); the assimilation of the Maquis could have been made more tense and difficult, as it should have. But, as was the trend with Voyager, the writers most often chose the easy way out and ignored important or difficult issues that would have made for much more interesting story telling. There were some feeble attempts at drama, primarily with Seska and Suter, but otherwise the vast potential that was Voyager and Janeway were squandered very early, starting with the end of the mostly fantastic ‘Caretaker’.

But I’ll wait for the Voyager reviews to come in a few years to become more vocal about that.

As always, enjoying the Retro Reviews. Thanks!

By: fainodraino

fainodraino — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Gleeful???????

By: Uncle Mikey

Uncle Mikey — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 22:34:00 +0000

I think in the earliest episodes, neither the writers, production staff, nor the actress were quite certain how far they wanted or needed to go in making Kira Nerys an Angry Young Woman. They definitely wanted to contrast her with the cool, collected, Roddenberrian Starfleet officers we’d come to know from TNG, but they over-balanced things early on, with the result that, occasionally, Kira comes across not so much as forceful as shrill, which can be hard to take.

Then again…even that shrillness is credible. Kira needs a lot more therapy than she ever gets. She’s wound up, deeply emotional, and at this stage firmly convinced that she’s the only one who really knows what she’s doing. The only person in her government or her faith she respects is Kai Opaka. There’s exactly one person on the station she thinks of as remotely a friend (Odo) and even he raises her hackles a bit because he worked for the Cardassians. The only other person who seems to have her respect at this stage is O’Brien, in part because he’s a working man who loves getting his hands dirty, in part because he’s also fought the Cardassians, and in part because he’s demonstrated his engineering wizardry, without which Bajor would not have claim on the Wormhole. In fact, at this stage, as far as we know, she has no real friends at all (we don’t know about the other survivors from her resistance cell, yet).

Those trust issues would make anyone either shrill or taciturn, I think.

All of that said, I largely agree with Michelle about this episode, and definitely like the *potential* of Kira Nerys even this early on, even while admitting that the *execution* was a little rough.

By: Guest

Guest — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 16:16:00 +0000

“Considering that to this day Star Trek’s producers resist depicting gay people in the 24th century, Garak and Bashir make me positively gleeful.”

“Glee” at the very prospect of homosexuality is either disrespectful or some attempt to pander to a gay readership, and immature either way.

By: Duanebruner

Duanebruner — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 11:17:00 +0000

Kira is the one DS9 character that never “clicked” with me, unless we also include O’Brien’s wife. I felt that the actress playing Kira was trying too hard to act, and it pulled me out of the episode too many times. She got much better in later seasons, though, and I loved the Odo/Kira relationship.

Having said that, I have only seen the DS9 series once so I really need to give it another round.

By: Brett Schuitema

Brett Schuitema — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 07:38:00 +0000

I grew up watching this series, and remember liking the Kira and Odo characters the least. I was a big Bashir and Dax fan, though Sisko became and still is my favorite character of the show. But when I rewatched the series on DVD as an adult, my interests and tastes changed and I truly fell in love with the show again from a completely different perspective… and this time Kira and Odo were far more appealing and fascinating individuals to me. Maybe it’s the ‘loss of innocence’ but I could just identify with her and Odo with more life experiences under my belt. It’s been many years since I’ve gone through it again, and your reviews compel me to revisit it. Thanks!