"Paradise" - lost on me

[Qonundrum]

It's almost as if the writers of this episode had sat through TOS "The Way to Eden" and used it as a springboard for something a little more complex. Indeed, even the use of "sterilized air" feels like a callback. Add in a dish of "Lord of the Flies" and a premise that could have been better if the group were there without any coercion of any sort and with the EM disruption being due to the rock formations, this creating the need for a less predictable ending since stating the big hurdle before the opening credits was as throwaway as it gets.

But to good effect. A lot of this episode rightly dives into the details best needing to BE told and there's stuff of intrigue to be found.

Granted, for the technological Federation rendering its people fat and lazy and dull, that didn't stop her own hubby from being a bit hey-hey-hey himself. But the Federation people aren't exactly lazy... definitely right regarding "dull". At least for TNG half the time...

Interesting that Alexis sends a person named "Cassandra" to go seduce Ben and I'm more astounded that the standby reason of "increasing the genetic pool" wasn't used, but even before the 1990s it was somewhat common knowledge and TNG brought up the concept in "Up the Long Ladder" already. So there's another reason this episode had some astute scripting behind it.

When it needed to.

O'Brien's pre-credits bit is one walloping foreshadowing parallel to the episode's main plot, which was all nicely handled.

There's some great acting in all this, from everyone but a couple scenes really stood out: Sisko when dealing with Alexis pretty much gets the best moments. But the most poignant moment, he's got a stern look on his face despite a telling eye twitch and O'Brien is stuck there looking helpless... dayum. This episode really knew how to make its plot work and having me give a damn for everyone involved. Most particularly for our crew but also for the colonists, including Alexis.

And it's nice that the villain (Alexis) actually feels sincere, showing humans of the 24th century aren't as perfect as all that.

The music is a bit stock, but it's better than latter-day TNG stock and by a wide margin.

I found it interesting that for all the talk of community spirit, Alexis doesn't offer clothes to their guests when they start doing the crops harvesting. Only after he's been stuck in a cell that looks ominously like a Borg cube (unintentional?) and offered water if he were to change clothes and that scene also hints at another neat nuance: She leaves the room and the water is still there. We all know if Sisko were to drink it and otherwise defy, there'd be a more stern punishment.

And, yeah, when he chooses of his own accord to go back into that box despite being tired and in pain... dayum.

This feels like a story worthy of TOS but in more deft handling, without the trappings of 1960s television. And without the fumbles "Eden" made, Alexis is not unlike Dr Servin in some ways.

O'Brien having a nice Professor moment here on Gillian's Alexis' Planet, to find the source of the high-tech disruption via low-tech means was fairly brilliant. And not a compass, just a "you're getting warmer" analogue whose RPM indicated how close one was... that was rather brilliant, as well as finally tying into the opening line where he realized he was a miracle worker in finding a solution in 9 minutes 53 seconds. Miles isn't flippant like this unless he's with Bashir or Garak so I'm wondering if there's a subtle callback. Doctor Who once stated his age was 953. Trek, like most sci-fi, would use esoteric references, callbacks or easter eggs or whatever the term is. TNG used references to M*A*S*H all the time... and Doctor Who on occasion...

And still the writers resorted to chicanery on the part of Alexis to drive their 10 year experiment into operation. Either having them genuinely go off course and on a planet with EM interference or start it as a colony via no manipulation might have been a little stronger.

But in the end, she's still a villain. Meg was going to die regardless and Miles wasn't a botanist so there'd be zero chance of him saving her either way. Her spinning the situation was a bit snide. As was when she was fingering Joseph for siding with O'Brien yet he was not to be punished (yet, it was just a verbal warning to keep the whole colony in line.)

And while they did touch on the lack of modern medicines, they could have a lot more in order to be a little more balanced as technology and modern medicines are able to treat and cure things that otherwise couldn't be, nor all drugs made from herbs. But the episode was having to make compromises to keep the flow of the main narrative and emotional attachment going, there is still a palatable balance that was achieved for this episode. I still get the feeling it could have been a bit tighter, or to pull a twist on the "We're lulling you with nature until" (*plot twist*) trope.

But there was one other issue at hand: With the Dominion War, this planet would be an easy target. And instead of Risa, "Let He Who is Without sin" should have returned to this planet as a sequel and focus its core points, which were rather good ones. Mixing those in with sex follies did that story in. But I'm just one member of the audience.

In the end, the episode is by no means a below average outing. Quite the contrary, especially as this episode would have to work to sustain 2 episodes' worth of nuances and facets while keeping the emotional tautness firm.It almost is "The Way to Eden" done right. (But having said that, TWtE was still onto something poignant despite its ultimately hated status in 1969. Given the morale behind the scenes, that might be a part of it and I'll admit I'm partial to that story and it isn't as bad as its reputation...)

8/10

 

[Qonundrum]

I forgot to add:

I'm surprised her son didn't get mad when she said she would sacrificed him. On the plus side, she didn't act like Avon in the Blake's 7 episode "Warlord" when he was talking of people he'd sacrifice for the sake of their alliance! Though it might have helped bring out the villainous mustache, which I do know they were trying avoid (rightly so, it's not the same context...)

Not to mention that it seems apocryphal that she would let her son die to save the community even though a community is only as strong as the people forming it. But it's nice to see Joseph taking the reins and reign.

But it struck me odd, and it's lost on me, that open ending with the two children just staring blankly outward... if there was a sequel intended, assuming it was made, I wonder what came of it. Time to read the episode listings...

 

[Bad Thoughts]

It's Jonestown, only they didn't have the inhabitants massacre one another.

 

[Qonundrum]

It's Jonestown, only they didn't have the inhabitants massacre one another.

Ah yes, good ol' Jimmy Jones and his foibles. Well, not "good" in a literal sense - 1978 only added to the angst society was already trying to unwind itself from., in an ironic twist since the late 1960s led to the cults because of the civil unrest.

If it were Jonestown, then Alexis should have told them all to drink replicated Cool-Aide because the Federation is coming in to destroy them (which is a flimsy excuse, regardless. "Bad people are coming to kill us so drink this and all will be well." (drinks) (massive thud noises are heard. Scene ends.) And they didn't want her to be a paper cutout, wanting her to have more depth than Jim Jones ever had. She did have the charisma but she was sincere in her beliefs where Jim was always seen as being otherwise...) I didn't get that impression, though Jones as a cult leader did demonstrate tactics shown in the episode. Albeit loosely, He did want to make a utopia (which Jonestown was) and he did manipulate people in classic cult runner sense, but did he tell everyone boarding the Joneston Airplane that they were going to somewhere else but got knocked off course?

Given the episode's open ending, you're now making me wonder if doing a Kool-Aid scene would have been stronger. But Jonestown seemed more like a story influence and not a retelling via sci-fi tropes. And I like the idea that was told throughout that people were there of their own free will. The ending could have had a couple more people going but most staying because they liked what they grew into as a society.

But those children at the end just staring blankly. That opens up a lot of questions, almost to the point that makes me believe they may have fathomed doing a sequel.

And maybe that's where I didn't perceive the episode correctly, if the goal was to do a partial redo of what led to Jonestown (sans slaughter) then surely they would have a villain that wasn't as multifaceted or so pronounced in sincerity (which almost felt sledgehammered at times, possibly to quell the thoughts from the audience she's another 2D stick figure.)

There are people who do say technology is bad, yadda yadda yadda, so what might they do to prove a point? In another pair of hands, the story would be written so a ship's skipper and his first mate might deliberately set the SS Minnow off course with passengers unaware and thus would have to build anew in the middle of nowhere, like on a tropic desert isle. Great, now the Ballad of Gilligan's Isle is an earworm. Grr.

Back to the DS9 story, the society having been made up of people wanting to be there instead of lied to or manipulated or dragged or what not would have created an entirely new tone for the whole piece, but then to keep Sisko and O'Brien there how would that be scripted in? So having it be Lord of the Flies Cult 101 with penalty box does make sense. I doubt the box was an allusion to anything else, though I can think of two - just not how they would fit together in an allegory as such. Maybe that's where the Jonestown allusion makes more sense.

It could be worse. Alexis could have been not a wack zealot but a hypocrite or anything else. It's actually rather impressive they didn't go the trite and cliched route of her locked room being loaded with technological goodies. But considering she didn't deactivate the damper field and it doesn't run on unicorn methane, a necessity given the coercive origins of her colony, she clearly was maintaining it somehow... but there's otherwise no sign of her being any different to the rest of the colony.

But Jonestown, yeah... cult stories are more engaging than accidental happenstances.

 

[Qonundrum]

And it dawned on me just now - nope, O'Brien was not standing there helpless. He was trying to beckon over but Sisko shook his head slightly enough to send the message.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Given the episode's open ending, you're now making me wonder if doing a Kool-Aid scene would have been stronger. But Jonestown seemed more like a story influence and not a retelling via sci-fi tropes. And I like the idea that was told throughout that people were there of their own free will. The ending could have had a couple more people going but most staying because they liked what they grew into as a society.

More realistic? Probably. More dramatic? Definitely. However, I like the open ending. When I've seen interviews of Jonestown survivors, they save their wrath entirely for Jim Jones, but they continue to praise the work they did and the community they built. The ambiguity of Alixis leaving peaceably puts a light on a specific aspect of cult behavior.

Now, I think this is a great early episode. Sisko shows more leadership qualities that are going to be developed in later seasons. And with all respect to punching out Q, getting into the sweat box for O'Brien ... and then getting back in ... was the first badass thing Sisko did.

 

[Tosk]

Miles isn't flippant like this unless he's with Bashir or Garak...

Not really, it just depends on the circumstances. We see him like this in other situations such as dealing with Tosk in Captive Pursuit or talking to Rom in Ferengi Love Songs.

Trek, like most sci-fi, would use esoteric references, callbacks or easter eggs or whatever the term is. TNG used references to M*A*S*H all the time... and Doctor Who on occasion...

I think Paradise's biggest easter egg might just be the number on the side of Alixus' ship-cum-house. BDR-259 is the license plate of the Bluesmobile.