Deep Space Nine’s pilot episode, “Emissary,” has a lot of very big ideas about what it wants to be and where it wants the series to go. Unfortunately, the execution of the episode is very much flawed – to the point where it stands to lose some viewers. That’s not to say that it’s all doom and gloom. Indeed, there is enough here to provide fertile enough ground for some of the ideas to take root and grow. But in the most important of first impressions, the episode stumbles when it should be wowing audiences.

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Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is the final voyage of the original crew of the Starship Enterprise. That isn’t to say that the characters didn’t reappear again in other films or episodes of Trek. But this was the last time they were on a mission together. As such, the movie holds a great deal of nostalgia – for fans and actors alike. And in many respects, it is a worthy, proper sendoff for such an iconic cast, crew, and series. After three seasons of television and six films, this is quite literally the end. And the movie is quite self-aware of this fact, making the theme of the future, the “Undiscovered Country” central to the story, the characters, and the audience. Put simply, everyone is aware that they are passing on the torch and they strive to do so with dignity, grace, and a lot of adventure. That the movie isn’t especially very good hardly matters in light of how important it is in the vast canon of Star Trek.

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