Meridian

I firmly believe that it's okay for TV to have an off day, and this episode is mostly about the DS9 crew dealing with their Riker-level horniness for some aliens. It was (unintentionally) funny, no one was getting angsty about Cardassians, I liked it.

I'm not going to mince words here -- the A plot with Dax and the dimension-shifting alien was an insult to script-writing, common sense, and every single attempt at characterization over the course of the series. Literally nothing about it made sense, from the sudden life-changing decision-making, to any attempt to make the dimensional alien attractive enough to lead to such a decision, to the fact that none of the other primary characters seemed to see that the entire situation was completely ludicrous. Whoever wrote this episode should be ashamed. Whoever greenlit it should be ashamed. People who happened to be standing near the set when it was filmed should be ashamed. It was just hack writing and a hack episode.

I'll give it three stars because of the B-plot, and that's stretching credulity too. The B-plot wasn't bad, per se, but it was also lazily done. It had so much untapped potential for hilarity that the writer never attempted to explore. That one joke at the very end wasn't nearly enough to make the plot worth it, especially when a better writer could have turned the entire sequence into a really funny farce. The idea behind it could have been developed much better than what we got -- too many potential comic scenes were left a straightforward drama and exposition. Quite disappointing.

The plot from this is lifted from the play/movie "Brigadoon"...though without all the singing, Van Johnson, Gene Kelly and the rest. When the story begins, the Defiant spots a planet that just appears! They are invited to land and learn from these nice folks that their planet appears and they live their lives every 60 years. Then, it disappears after a bit and becomes invisible and the folks go to sleep for another 60 years! It's actually a pretty ridiculous idea but try not to think about it.

During their visit with the nice folks, a VERY frisky guy from the magical planet seems VERY bent on getting his groove on with Jadzia Dax. Slowly, Jadzia also starts having feelings towards the guy. In fact, she's so taken by him that she agrees to move to the planet to stay with the guy. Ultimately, this doesn't work, as the writers weren't about to write her off the show...yet.

Overall this is a reasonably pleasant episode though it's hardly original. Worth seeing but forgettable.

This episode is really boring. The whole "extra dimensional" aspect of the story is beyond science fiction and into science stupidity. On top of that they layer an extremely cheesy love story. Wouldn't be so bad if the male lover's acting weren't so terribly unrealistic. Someone in the writing staff of ds9 has the idea romance and seduction occur when a man stares creepily at a woman in awkward silence. It's atrociously shallow and silly. There's a "filler" subplot involving an alien trying to get a holosuite program of Major Kira. It's stretched-out too long but it builds to a funny, if cheap, laugh. Overall this episode has been one of the weakest in the ds9 series until this point. Totally forgettable.

The minute the planet appeared in space, I said to myself, "This is Brigadoon!" It was so obvious.

I loved Brigadoon but not because it was Brigadoon. I'm a huge fan of Cyd Charisse and Gene Kelly. They carried this. The music and singing and costumes carried it. These characters and actors cannot carry the DS9 adaptation of it. It succeeds only as an homage to the original film. It has little merit of its own.

On top of all that, we already know the outcome even if we don't know the film. Dax is a recurring character and can go nowhere. There is no element of surprise. This is a poor episode but bearable if you're reading or knitting while you watch it.