Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Rocks and Shoals

**** (4 stars out of 5)
Cadet Nog's third year field training continues to suck a Denebian Slime Devil's ass. But what do you want? There's a war on, you know. Welcome to 2374.

The Jem'Hadar shoot down Sisko's Sneaks. The infiltrators and the attackers both crash into a sea.

Back on the Dominion-occupied station, Bajoran Vedek Yassim hangs herself after worn-out Major Kira informs her they must make no protest. The Vedek's final statement to those on the Promenade: "Evil must be opposed."

Jem'Hadar Third Rema'tiklan chafes under the smarmy condescension of his injured Vorta handler Keevan. Nog still cringes from Garak after last year's creep-ery on Empok Nor, but the killer and the Ferengi Boy Hostage are soon equally captives of the lizard-men.

Keevan trades Garak and Nog for Sisko and Bashir. After the Doctor has micro-sutured his cells, Keevan tells his foes that he is out of ketracel-white. Without the drug, his engineered soldiers will kill everything they see, then each other, before they die of withdrawal. So Keevan is telling the Starfleeters in advance where to aim when he sends his dupes... uh, troops to their deaths.

Rema'tiklan refuses to disobey, or surrender to Captain Sisko, even knowing this. He and his nine men are loyal to the Founders. And thanks to that, they're loyally pushing up the daisies Lt. Neeley's burial detail planted over them.

"Rocks and Shoals" is great stuff, a day in the life of an interstellar war. Kira trudging to work every day, using the elevator with heaps of creepy lizard-men she'd rather make hand-bags out of. O'Brien's belly laugh that he came crashing down from the heavens on fire, paddled to shore on a roasting, barren wasteland, and that his biggest problem is that he's torn his pants. A slimy tactician who sells out his own troops, and troops who would rather die than turn against 'the order of things'.

However, did I miss the part where this slaughter was strictly necessary? Are Jem'Hadar immune to stun settings and restraints? Aw, heck, you know what?  They probably are. The Founders do excellent work, curse their jelly hides.

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