Daveportivo's Cultural Evaluation Facility

Starship Down

The Defianant is in the Gamma quadrant is meeting with an alien race the Federation Trade with. Apparently its not profitable because of all the taxes and tarriffs the federation put on. However it turns out that seeing as they use the Farenghi to go under the dominions radar that the Farenghi have been creating fiction taxes.

Two Gemmadar warships appear by the Defiant. God that feels like a relief after the last episode. The Gemmadar fire on the Defiant and try and attack the trade ship. The Trade ship leads them into a local planets hostile atompshere the Gemmadar follow and so does the defiant. There's so much interference that they loose the viewing screen. They can't scan very far, cloak, use torpedos and they have to use the manual targetting on phasers. There going to have to use a sonar like scan to find there way around. Awesome start.

Quark then goes face to face with Hanok (the trader played byJames Cromwell) and he verbally bitch slaps Quark. The sweeps give away the location of the Defiant and the Gemmadar shoot them and there falling slowly and the ship is buckling. They have to seal off decks and they task O'Brien with creating warheads out of probes. Julien has to pull Dax out of a floor where the hull has burst and seals the bulk head but in the process they loose contact with the bridge. Dax managed to succeed in repairing the ship before the floor became inhabitable and the Defiant is gaining altitude.

Quark meanwhile tries to convince the Trade to do dirty deals with him but he's not having it calling Quark dispicable. The hunt begins for the Gemmadar and it goes all submarine wafare on us. All power is cut, they come to a full stop and release the probe, but as soon as they do the Gemmadar open fire, the Gemmadar are destroyed. The engine room has now lost contact with the bridge and presume everyone is dead, scissor is hurt and many of the crew are dead, the lighing is dark grainy and flasing and generally shot very well like a horror movie this is all excellent stuff.

The bridge is down, Wharf is going to the engine room to try and take over the ship from there, Sisko is down and Keira has to keep him awake so he doesn't slip into a coma. Dax isn't feeling great with Julien there stuck together in a small corridor with only a few hours of breathable air. Its pretty good stuff and the acting is subtly, subdued and very good.

Quark is still trying to convert Cromwell to his way of thinking. Risk and Gambling versus playign its safe and fair its a well played debate.

Keira in a effort to keep Sisko awake has a heart to heart about how there relation is merely work based as he is a religious figure in her culture. O'Brien convinces Wharf to go easy on the Engineers as there not bridge officers and haven't been to star fleet academy. He takes the advice and encourages them to think for themselves and sets them task to wrap there brains around and they perform well.

Quark and Cromwell work together to difuse a torpedo which is lodged in the side of the ship. It comes out that Cromwell is more unscrupilous than he let on and Quark teaches how rewarding gambling can be and conivinces him to continue trade with the Farenghi having successfully difusing the torpedo.

Bashir and Dax firt and tease each other about when they used to go out and how they used to come on strong. Sisko recovers having pased out and asks Keira to tell him another story, in the two hammier moments.

The Gemmadar are back, falling for Wharf's decoy and using the one shot the engineers got him he destroys the remaining Gemmadar ship. Leading to the bid happy ending. By the end Quark has fully converted to the gambling ways and wins a load of latinum.

Bashir is talking Morn which is alway ratings. Dax plays Darts with Bashir and O'Brien and Wharf have a nice little ending of there own and Keira agrees to go to a baseball game with Sisko.

Review: Very strong episode even with the overly happy ending. Even Quark played his role excellently as he converted James Cromwell's characters to the ways of the gambler. The action was good, dramatic and for the most part well shot. There were the hammy moments but they only a small blight on an otherwise strong and exciting episode. The Wharf O'Brien tandem and the Quark-Cromwell segments were very strong. Shame about the cringe inducing Keira ending, she still an unlikeable character but she's getting better. Good Stuff. (***1/2)