Exasperated Calculator: Star Trek & Economics

Bashir mentors a group of genetically enhanced oddballs. Hey everybody, remember that Bashir’s genetically enhanced? We had that [whole episode](http://www.exasperatedcalculator.com/archives/2012/08/trekathon-462-doctor-bashir-i-presume-ds9/) last year, and one other brief mention since then. Well the writers have remembered too, and now he’s looking after a whole passel of damaged geniuses. From there it’s a mostly above average version of…

B’Elanna is arrested for violent thoughts. The thing Voyager has been doing best lately is returning to the well of ‘imaginative science fiction’ – thinking up a concept, and telling a story that revolves around the complexities and consequences of that concept. It’s the core of what’s best in Star Trek, and sometimes the shows…

The Mirror Universe Bareil appears, and Kira takes a fancy to him. 25 minutes 52 seconds. That’s when things head downhill with mirror Kira making an appearance. Up until then it was passable, if a little dull stuff. But with mirror Kira we’re back into the full range of reasons why this mirror universe thing…

Things go downhill for Voyager this year. …only on screen that is. In terms of quality, this is actually one of the best ‘second parts’ that Trek has ever turned in. One plus of the time travel episode is that you can have a lot of fun. While they resist the temptation to kill characters…

It’s the compulsory ‘funny’ wedding episode. I’ve seen this one a million times. There’s a wedding coming. Some external stress causes the couple to fight. They call the wedding off. The wise friend talks them both into getting married anyway. Optional extras include the bucks and hens night, and some bridesmaid dress humour. Well, they…

Voyager has a pretty bad time dealing with a foe with time weapons. Well, it’s definitely another round of Janeway-the-terminally-annoyed. I honestly don’t know how Chakotay ever dares disagree with her. She is not one to cross – and she’s getting a little bit angrier all the time. It’s good to have a relatively new…

The battle for DS9 at last. A pretty good first half followed by a second half that rests on a [deus ex machina](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_ex_machina) so pure I’m tempted to write it in to the Wikipedia article as an example. Using the wormhole aliens in this way might make sense, but it cheapens events, and makes everything…

Aliens experiment on the Voyager crew. A lot of this felt an awful lot like things that we’ve seen before. Most recently [Displaced](http://www.exasperatedcalculator.com/archives/2012/08/trekathon-474-displaced-voy/). The ‘inscrutable aliens do stuff to the crew’ hasn’t generally been interesting before. And we spend a lot of time with Janeway being cranky, people becoming sick mysteriously, and then the Doctor…

The Federation finally decides to take the offensive. Well, clearly we’re headed back to the status quo. Or, at least, I’ll be very surprised if we don’t end up with the crew back on the station within another couple of episodes or two. Once again the DS9-side plot is a lot more interesting, following on…

The station resistance hits a few snags. Wow do things get worse here. Rom arrested, Odo (apparently) changing sides to the Founders. It’s really just a fairly standard cliffhanger, but it’s more effective given the buildup. And the buildups of Kira and Odo’s relationship really pays off, as there is a genuine sense of betrayal.…