S01.E05: Babel

[BizBuzz]

Stardate: 46423.7 - Miles O'Brien unknowingly triggers a Cardassian booby trap that releases a potentially fatal virus throughout the station. (Description via TheTVDB.com)

 

[ShadowDenizen]

I liked this episode overall.

 

But I cringe when I see Cirroc Lofton overacting in this episode. (Actually, many of these early episode have cringe-worthy Jake moments, come to think of it.)

 

However, Colm Meaney knocked it out of the park, IMO.  O'Brien is such a solid "every-man" supporting character you can't help but empathize with him, whatever the situation.  (And I encourage everyone to check out the "Chief O'Brien at work" comics [easily findable via a Google search].)

Edited April 28, 2014 by ShadowDenizen

[HalcyonDays]

I really like Babel as well. Bashir gets to be useful, and not a goofball and we get the first hints of his obviously excellence at being a doctor.

 

Chief O'Brien - always amazing. He truly is the everyman, since he's like the only main character in any Star Trek I think, who is an "enlisted man". It's not a career, it's a job, I guess. But he loves his job!

 

Loved, LOVED Kira flying the runabout to get unhelpful Bajoran Doctor and just beaming him to the ship against his wishes. A Star Fleet officer probably wouldn't do that type of "Well too bad, but I'm going to do things MY WAY!". That's why I love Kira. She has no time for anyone's bullshit -  she gets things done. Maybe I should change her thread title to that.

 

This is one of the season one's that I can rewatch and quite enjoy.

Edited April 29, 2014 by HalcyonDays

[Meushell]

I enjoy this episode, but there are a couple unintentional funny moments for me.

I admit, when the dramatic music starts playing when O'Brien starts talking nonsense, I find it amusing. Given that he is human, and he was talking to Kira, a Bajoran, it seems like they would both think the universal translator is just not working. At least, at first.

Dax is given all Brian's work, and we all saw how overworked he is. When she suddenly starts talking nonsense, part of me thinks, "Well, one way to get out of work."

[ShadowDenizen]

part of me thinks, "Well, one way to get out of work."

Ha Ha ha.

At least until you go into shock and die! 

 

Dax is the one character I don't think they really got a handle on until MUCH later.  I think part of it is Terry Farrel (she couldn't hold her own, acting-wise, with Nana or Rene or Avery, didn't seem like.), bur part of it is they didn't have a clearly defined arc for her until later in the series.  Often, Dax is just "there" throughout S1.

[Chip]

it seems like they would both think the universal translator is just not working

 

 

This stuck out to me as a problem. The writers sometimes forget that everybody is supposedly speaking different languages. I also started wondering, why aren't people transport kidnapping people ALL THE TIME? It can't be that hard to get hold of one if Bajorans and Cardassians both have the tech.

[ShadowDenizen]

I also started wondering, why aren't people transport kidnapping people ALL THE TIME?

See Voyager,

They did an ep focusing on EXACTLY that. 

 

But, even with a show as focused and detail-oriented as DS9, sometimes you just have to handwave certain things, (Funny; I didn't notice/think of  that on my first few times vieweing this ep, but it did occur to me just recently, within my last few "rewatches".)

Edited May 6, 2014 by ShadowDenizen

[BizBuzz]

Well gosh, that was a pretty exciting episode, kind of had me at the edge of my seat, totally didn't expect that.

I can tell right now, Kira is going to be my favorite character. She is so bad ass, fly off the handle, and her facial expressions speak volumes.

This is definitely getting easier to watch. Now that I am familiar with the characters, and I am watching them develop.

Very nice episode!

[ShadowDenizen]

I love hearing youtr thoughts on eps, BizBuzz!
Watching these epsidoes vicariously through someone is actually just as exciting as rewatching the episodes!

 

If's funny; there's so many great characters through the series; you can ask 12 people and get 12 different answers about their favroite characters. (Confidntially, Kira is one of my favorite characters, too.)

[Bryce Lynch]

I thought this episode was only so so. To me the aphasia was sort of gimmicky and it seems like the whole "race to cure the strange virus before it kills the entire crew" formula has been overdone in the various Star Trek shows.

I did enjoy seeing Kira go rogue and Odo as a fish out of water in ops.

[iMonrey]

Having the afflicted spew nonsense was at times unintentionally funny. Some of the actors pulled it off better than others.

[Reishe]

Joining in the conversation now b/c I just finished binging the series as a first-time watcher. I like this epi well enough for a season-1 standalone; as a writer/editor, I like it when something points out just how important words and communication really are. However, I was frustrated by the actual babblespeak that the actors were given; if I were to imagine an aphasia condition, people would speak normally and with normal intonation, but the words just wouldn't hold meaning. The aphasic "dialogue," however, was more a static list of words, like "expect. cartridge. eat," (like, just nouns and the occasional verb and no other parts of speech that connect and add flow) and it was often delivered that way. If I were to write the dialogue, I would have written it more like "the wish is breading under in no kidding stop monkey," read very conversationally, with the emotion of the moment. It's a language-nerd thing; that would've sounded more natural to me.

ETA: I'm not a novelist or tv writer or even a wannabe, just this is how I wish they had written it.

 

Edited December 6, 2017 by Reishe

[John Potts]

I have a soft spot for this episode, because I found the aphasia (however inaccurate it may be) as both funny and slightly creepy. It also provided the inspiration for me when my character in Call of Cthulhu got aphasia following a bad SAN roll (he died fairly soon afterwards, but it was fun while it lasted)!

[blueray]

I've always like the scene when Miles is like "when" when he told to go to sickbay. Which made sense. I agree that they use of the dialog in this episode is inaccurate but it's fun.

[readster]

The episode works on many levels especially towards the end. When it goes from characters babbling to almost dying. The scene where Miles is burning with fever and they realize how bad it's getting. It really changes the dynamic of the episode very quickly. 

[Maverick]

Colm did pretty good with the dialogue.  Whenever I hear the title the first thing I think of is "Way link!"  He's so frustrated, annoyed and desperate when he says it.