One Little Ship

Okay so the producers did away with the dreaded (and predictable) red jersey fatalities, but why do most of the extras who are thrown to the floor by an exploding comm panel or work station die?

The cavalier attitude with which characters accept the most amazing things is strictly Hollywood. The downsizing of people has been a plot entity used many times in Science Fiction. Here, in order to explore and anomaly, several of the crew are reduced in size to a few centimeters. Unfortunately, the Defiant, which is following them, is taken over by the Jem'Hadar, leaving the crew at its mercy. The little people in the little ship become the hope of the others (as well as the creativity and resolve of Benjamin and his people). The fun is in seeing this gnat of a space ship maneuvering within the larger ship, unbeknownst to the Jem'Hadar. It's all a lot of fun.

In many ways, this episode of "Star Trek: Deep Space 9" is a lot like the 1960s movie "Fantastic Voyage". This is because the success of this mission ends up relying on a miniaturized ship and its miniaturized crew.

The show begins near some anomaly (that's Star Trek for 'great big something we cannot really describe') and to investigate it, they decide to miniaturize a runabout and its crew. However, in the midst of this, a Jem'Hadar ship appears and attacks. Before long, the Defiant has been captured and the crew appears to be screwed. Their only chance is to somehow sabotage the ship or, perhaps, the tiny ship can slip in an offer assistance.

This is a rather cool episode. Of course it's sill, but it is sci- fi! What I really liked was the funny ending involving Odo--but that's something you'll just need to see for yourself.

The Jem'Hadar attacks the Defiant whilst a miniaturised shuttle and it's crew helps with a hostage situation.

I enjoyed the concept that pays tribute to a classic sci-fi story of the 60s. For me the best scenes involve the visual moments of the shrunken crew. There is plenty of humorous banter that helps keep the tone quite light and enjoyable.

None of this helps the urgency of the situation involving the Jem'Hadar, as it all feels contrived to fit with the novelty of the shrunken crew. (As does the whole episode) In fact as antagonists they are made to look pretty incompetent at times. The concept of the alpha-gamma variants of the species is quite good, but should have been followed up with more significant material in later episodes.

The regular case are all on good form, particularly Colm Meaney and Alexander Siddig.