LogFAQs > #972918287

Episode 9: Move Along Home

Game over.

Sisko is quite pleased with how he looks. As any decent father would, takes an interest in his son's love life. Scolds Bashir and is bemused by the Wadi. Sternly keeps Quark under control, but eventually gets fed up and calls it a night. I like that his first thought is that it might be a holodeck simulation. Not thrilled with Allermaraine.

Odo is actually kind of sweet to Jake. Knows full well what teenagers get up to. Rightly irritated by Primmin's incompetence. Mock stuttering when he brings up Starfleet regulations is beautiful. I think he's going to be one of my favourite characters. I don't think I've ever seen a purer expression of hatred than his ever angrier reactions to the game. Why did he interrupt Sisko? I would've liked nothing more than to see him choke the life out of Falow.

Bashir forgot something. It happens and he's definitely slotted into the token idiot of the cast. Amused by the obsession with games. His screaming fit kind of reinforces the local idiot vibe and crashing into the field doesn't help. At least, he guesses about the antidote.

Dax tries to reassure Bashir. Very annoyed with Quark. Actually, she's annoyed in general this episode. I wonder if that's more Farrell than Dax.

Jake is first noticing women (at 14, apparently, which is a bit late) and is dreading the inevitable talk. Sheepish when Odo correctly figures out what he's up to.

Quark immediately senses a business opportunity. I appreciate his honest and blunt disinterest in the Wadi's tat. Can't believe the string of good luck (I assume Dabo is primarily luck based). Shimerman has adopted a more natural sounding set of inflections for Quark. Presumably, he's gotten more used to his prosthetics. Either way, it makes his inevitable fuck up a bit more tolerable than the latest example of this pattern otherwise would be. I feel for him, confused by the incomprehensible game in front of him. Has a dramatic moment of weighing up whether to further risk his friends, but picks the right answer, as if there'd be any doubt. Its a good display of his morality, but having him grovel quickly becomes painful to witness. The man's all but snotting down himself and we linger for far too long on him shrieking please. I saw that and I begun to wonder if the writer set out to humiliate as many actors as possible.

Kira was definitely not expecting that. Reluctantly guides them to Quark's. Does not react well to her first real brush with surreal Starfleet nonsense. I can't tell if it's more her or Visitor who's embarrassed by Allermaraine. I don't blame her for screaming her head off.

Primmin is snottier and stupider than he was last time and loses the last remaining drops of my goodwill.

Everything about Falow disgusts me. From his appearance, to his attitude, to all the mini Falows inhabiting the game all the way up to his arrogant dismissal of "it's only a game", he's a thoroughly wretched creature that I despise far more than I expect the episode wants me to.

The way the light filters in Sisko's quarters is like blinds. Give the place a more homey look. The board for Chula has an alright design. Sisko rolling over into the game world isn't quite as smooth as it should be. Painstakingly checking every door is needlessly tedious. Allermaraine brings to mind Doctor Who's The Celestial Toymaker and, frankly, some episodes are perhaps better off lost. The Wadi bashing their sticks together is some of the stupidest shit I've seen in this franchise in a long while. During the party scene, I think a substantial chunk of my emotional investment checked out. There's an attempt at drama by having Quark justify his gambling expertise, but it falls flat, especially since he's proven wrong immediately. Of fucking course Dax injures her leg. The whole cave sequence is an appalling drag.

One of my more nerdier hobbies is to play tabletop games with my friends. There's this business not too far from us all that allows you to book tables, order food and generally have a good time with whatever games and pieces you bring along. While me and mine are relatively normal individuals (or as normal as having this as a hobby allows you to be) and weve met some similarly decent people on occasion, I can unfortunately report that the stereotype of a typical tabletop player is mostly true: overweight, unhygienic, greasy, smelly, smarmy, smug, badly groomed wrecks with far too few social skills for the amount of time they spend polluting public spaces. Falow looks and acts enough of the part, to the point that I can almost smell him through the screen. Before Chula actually begins proper, the episode was just about decent and I was confident and hopeful that it may have had something to say about the culture of games and how the players almost isolate themselves by antagonising any outside that may express a legitimate interest. Refusing to tell Quark the rules and bullying him to make moves he doesn't fully understand and, well, his attitude in general, reminded me of that. The episode goes off the rails before too long (Jake's little subplot gets nothing, as well) but, if there's a point at all to this mess, it's against cheating and it comes down far too hard on something so harmless and puts Quark in such a pitiful position, that it becomes mean-spirited and cruel. It ultimately being a shaggy dog story where there were no stakes at all doesn't make this better at all and Falow continues to make himself such an unpleasant individual that Sisko would've been quite justified to have killed him at the end. The actual game itself is a dull and childish affair regardless of whether we're looking at it from the players' or pieces' perspective and there's so many weird choices like that dramatic beat from Quark which gets undercut for a cliffhanger and a sort of non ending where Falow walks off consequence free and Quark mumbles his way past the lesson he's apparently meant to have learned. Odo remains the only consistently decent thing about this.

Dull, slow, juvenile, mean-spirited and seemingly a bit unfinished, it's the first episode in a very long while to not even be competent.

pegusus123456 posted...

Move Along Home is an episode most people clown on, but I like it.

I'd be very interested in knowing why because I'm usually able to see the appeal in episodes I dislike, but this is stumping me.

Onto The Nagus.