Exasperated Calculator: Star Trek & Economics

Someone wants to steal the symbiont that makes up half of Jadzia. For about 10 minutes I was afraid this was going to turn into ‘Die Hard on a space station’. So the ‘symbiont kidnapping’ angle came as something of a relief. This episodes take a bit of Jadzia’s character that hasn’t been much examined,…

Captain Picard dies, and Riker seeks revenge. And gets kidnapped. I was a bit worried at the start that we were going to have another ‘being convinced they’re really not dead’ episode, but this time we got ‘Anger’ rather than ‘Denial’. I guess ‘Bargaining’ and ‘Depression’ will come along later in the series (Although snark…

Star Trek’s first 3-part story draws to a close as the station is besieged by the Bajorans. Ultimately the story fizzles out a bit. It’s an attempt to do something new and interesting in terms of Trek story telling, but the writers and producers just don’t seem confident enough about this. For instance, killing off…

Ah, the old ‘aliens appear as a crew member’s dead mother’ trick. It’s troubled episode when two people staring quietly at a screen is one of the better moments in the episode. This is a very slow developing episode (and strangely enough one without any B-plot). That’d be OK if there was a bit more…

Everything gets just a little bit worse than last time. This episode is a bit weak overall, but has some nice character moments: * The Odo/Kira scene early on where they are fighting about Kira just giving in to living is a fantastic window into their relationship, and the farce that develops is hilarious. *…

Once again alien ambassadors are very annoying as they try to learn about humanity. As you might be able to tell, I’m getting a bit tired of this story. Troi and the chocoholic, and Worf and the angry ambassador were silly and dull – trying to do too much means that nothing really worked well.…

Kira rescues a renowned POW from a Cardassian camp, as political tensions worsen. So Season 2 starts with the same Bajoran politics angle that was the best promise from Season 1. And it is also a far riskier episode than anything tried in Season 1 – politics heavy, action light, and probably the weakest cliffhanger…

Back for the final season, with Lore tempting Data with emotions to join him in ruling the galaxy. Overall a very disappointing followup to what was a fairly strong part 1. There are three components: Crusher commands the Enterprise to avoid the Borg ship – a technobabble filled yawnfest. Riker and Worf meet up with…

On February 11, 2012.