My Review- 'Oasis'

WARNING! HERE BE AN 'OASIS' OF SPOILERS!

Way back in 1994 there aired an episode of DS9s Second Season called 'Shadowplay'. The A plot of 'Shadowplay' (for the episode had an A, B and C plot) was about Odo and Jadzia stumbling across a village in the Gamma Quadrant. People from the village were mysteriously disappearing, and it was eventually found the people in the village were holograms created by one of the people there whom had re-created his own village, which had been destroyed by the Dominion. So 'Shadowplay' was a story starring Rene Auberjonois about a man re-creating his fallen friends using holograms. 'Oasis' on the other hand is a story starring Rene Auberjonois about a man re-creating his fallen friends using holograms. Wait, a minute. Did I miss ENT this week and watch a re-run of DS9 by accident?! :) The A plot of 'Shadowplay' came off pretty well and had the episode been dedicated to the A plot and not had either B or C plot I feel it would be my favourite of Season 2, or at least one of my favourites. So does 'Oasis' live up to this?

STORYLINE  

Well, partially. The episode is entertaining definitely but it's not on the level 'Shadowplay's A plot was. The episode moves EXTREMELY slowly, and takes an awfully long time to get going. Even when it is moving along it still isnt perfect, with a recurring problem from 'Sleeping Dogs' and 'Rogue Planet', two of my least favourite episodes so far, reappearing. You see ENT seriously needs to send it's directors on a course. JUST darkness does NOT automatically create atmosphere and suspense, and the effect is more of 'Ahh, Paramount hasn't paid it's electricity bills again' than 'Oh dear, what's going to happen' I assume the desired effect was the latter. Still much of the dialogue is entertaining enough. Captain Kuulan's "You could say it keeps us alive" of the computer core is a brilliantly thought out piece of dialogue. And Trip's "Maybe you could make a holographic doctor." was fun, if a little obvious. Indeed the episode is solid and entertaining and from a storyline standpoint there's no contradictions, or idiotic things happening, in fact the episode is pretty intelligent. Trip has worked on the Xyrillian which also happened to have holodecks. It makes sense that the computer systems would be similar. The only problem with the use of Xyrillians is this- it makes it easy to see that this episode is very similar. If every Trip episode we see features Trip fixing a ship and falling in love with a girl who has something to do with engineering I shalt not be pleased, and thy Paramount will feel the wrath of my rage! Shall we move on?

THE SHIP  

Very impressed here. First of all they remembered the crew compliment correctly. Something Voyager never did and they were searching for spare parts, something Voyager never seemed to have the intelligence to do, and Enterprise can at least claim the Vulcans drop some supplies off every now and then, or could return to Earth, while Voyager was 10s of thousands of light years away from the nearest supplies. The only thing I did wonder about is it was mentioned that Shuttlepod One was back in service. Seeing as last time we saw Shuttlepod One it's engine had just self-destructed, one could wonder at this, but I suppose we could just assume they have a supply of spare engines on board.

THE CHARACTERS  

Guess who came off badly this week. *Sigh* That's right T'Pol.  In my humble opinion,  T'Pol claiming not to feel emotions earlier on, and then acting like a jealous ex-girlfriend to Trip about Liana is not drawing a character well. Yes, making the point about the Xyrillians is a good point to make, doing it like some kind of Soap Opera Bitch is not good characterisation. Either A: The writers want her to act like this, and she's being built up as a character your not supposed to like or B: The writers are idiots. Neither are a suggestion I particularly like, though Id be willing to bet my wage packet that B is more likely.

Ezral came off well too. Ok Auberjonois wasn't consistently excellent ALL the time on DS9, but he was generally one of the better actors on the show. Here he's playing a character totally different from everyone's favourite changeling and he plays him differently enough to be entertaining. It's maybe a little obvious to the indoctrinated DS9 fan (IE me) that this is the man who played Odo, but he still comes off different and well acted enough. My only complaint is he doesnt really get to ACT until about 10 minutes before the end due to the horribly slow pacing of the episode, still when Ezral tells the truth of what happened he is wrought with emotion. Kudos all round.

Mayweather was used well this week. Especially when it came to wondering about whether they'd be desecrating a tomb and realising the Airponics bay was too small. These are things he SHOULD notice, considering his personal history.

STAR TREK NOTES.  

Not been much Porthos lately has there? What about the Porthos fans man? Wont someone think of the Porthos fans? We've only seen him in 'Acquisition' since 'Dear Doctor'

Rating (out of 10): 7/10. Solid work, thumbs up :)