Star Trek 393: The Ascent

393. The Ascent

FORMULA: The Enemy + Final Mission

WHY WE LIKE IT: The location work.

WHY WE DON'T: The roommate crisis.

REVIEW: The Orion Syndicate gets its first mention as they attempt to assassinate Quark before he testifies against them. Nice to hear from those dastardly pirates/dancing girls from TOS again! (Fizzbin has apparently caught on too, check it out.) Anyway, that's the set-up for a survival story à la Final Mission. Instead of a desert and a father/son relationship, we get a cold mountain setting and mortal enemies (Odo and Quark) trading barbs, then insults, then blows.

It's a very simple plot, with gorgeous location work that adds a lot of production values, but still pretty simple. Aside from the fact that each considers the other a loser, we don't learn much. After Odo breaks his leg (probably not for the squeamish, but tell yourself Odo's always been rather flexible anyway), Quark is left to reach the mountain top, the only spot from which a signal can get into space. Of course he succeeds, but the episode does a good job of making it look hard. Both men survive, but definitely look the worst for wear. The real twist is that in the end, it hasn't been a magical bonding experience. Delightfully, they confirm a shared animosity instead.

The episode is further padded with a subplot concerning Nog's return to the station and now rooming with Jake. It's the latter who's the ne'er-do-well now (I mean really, trousers in the replicator?), and Nog's new lifestyle can't abide that kind of behavior. Predictably, the Ferengi moves out in a huff, and it's up to the two fathers to reconcile their sons. It's sitcom fluff, and resolved all too easily. Still, there are a couple of nice moments here and there, and a sense that Sisko and Rom have a certain relationship.

LESSON: Jake Sisko is the guy who wrote Deep Space 9, as time capsuled back through time to us. Or at least the Past Prologue episode.

REWATCHABILITY - Medium: The Ascent looks great and has a few good lines here and there, but too often devolves into screaming matches.