Okay folks... quiz-time! Which of the following would classify as the most ingrating experience in recent memory?
I hate to pull a "Dr. John Becker" on y'all (kudos to Terry *g*) but the DS9 alternate-universe story-bloc, which held great promise with Crossover and Through The Looking Glass, then began a nose-dive with Shattered Mirror, really nose-dived with Resurrection (despite a devilishly-appealing performance by Nana as both Kiras), has sunk to an all-time low in this supposedly "last" of the alt-DS9 eps, The Emperor's New Cloak. Which is sad, to a degree. I enjoy the alt-universe storyline: Blanche Cohen and I have a web-site devoted to it (self-promotion not "intended", as the Intendant would say). Donna Hirsch, in a previous Visitations, wrote a fine story about it in "Fun House Mirror" (well done, Donna!). So why, WHYYYY give us a total boot like The Emperor's New Cloak??
Don't blame the actors... they did the best they could with what was given them. Nana's Intendant was her usual slinky, slimy self. And she was fed her usual cache of choice Tendy-lines: "...and you know how responsive I am to passion..." But those lines were few and far between all the potpourri that was thrust into our TV-screens during those 60 minutes. After all, this also doubled as a Ferengi-episode. And you thought the DS9 writers would've learned their lesson after last season's Profit And Lace. Well, think again! And... WHAT THE HELL was the deal with throwing in a mirror-Vic Fontaine??? Okay, the guy was dead within seconds, but I think the writers, ticked to a degree about all the flack this holo-Sinatra has been getting, were attempting to make a statement with this "cameo" appearance. It almost seemed the same way when they re-introduced Bareil in Resurrection a year ago (albeit as a rogue Romeo), but his interaction with both Kiras was interesting enough to prevent me from trashing that episode... definitely not the case now.
Now, about the Intendant/Ezri smooch-scene: A little more than the mirror-Ezri's sexual orientation is at stake here. In Crossover, we got our first taste of an Intendant who is a very complex, vain, and a little mentally-disturbed lil' gal, and this aspect of her to me (and a lot of people, certainly to Nana as well) made her quite an interesting and challenging character-study and, more than the rubber-suit, made me hungry for more. Since then, the DS9 brain-trust has turned her into little more than a tramp with a sense of humor by the time we get to Resurrection, and now, in The Emperor's New Cloak, she becomes a blatant cartoon. "Ehhh... What's up, Doc??" In fact, every mirror-DS9 character (with the possible exception of Smiley O'Brien) has by now become a total caricature of themselves when they first appeared on-screen, for better or worse. Not surprisingly, the episode ends with Her Vampyness still at-large while most everyone else is either stiffed or in bondage. Who can guess the implications... Possibly the best hope comes from talented & imaginative fan-fiction writers like our very own Donna Hirsch (and Felicity "Fliss" Carthew, if I can convince her to write a decent Intendant-story *g*) to break olā Tendy-Girl out of her cartoon-vamp and back to the deliciously devilish and complex nut-case I enjoyed in Crossover and Through The Looking Glass.
On a positive note... Nana has proven time & again throughout her career that she can take the worst of scripts and still pull out an enthralling & entertaining performance, and her Intendant-scenes in The Emperor's New Cloak were no exception, though a little more restrained than in previous mirror-DS9 episodes. Andy Robinson also gets a few kudos as the snivelling Garak - it's a shame he gets offed near the end, but I guess he knew when to bail out of a dead-horse of a story-arc when it was time. But the real laugh-riot was Max Grodenchik's Rom: "Hey... You're supposed to be the good guys!!!" "Over here, everything's... alternate! Somebody get me a lollipop!!" Okay, I made that last bit up! *g* Dorn's Regent was a bit over the top, Nicole's alt-Ezri could easily pass as the Intendant's kid-sister, Sid and Colm sort of sleep-walked their way on through as the "good guys" but once again the full blame goes to whoever wrote the script (not to mention who approved it!). And this was also directed by LeVar Burton of all people! Believe me, if it was any other story-line (once again, Donna's comes to mind), better written and well-scripted, providing a meaningful direction in depicting the complexities of the mirror-universe and the Alliance/Terran conflict, the efforts of Messrs. Burton, Meaney, Robinson, Siddig et al. (and most certainly Ms. Visitor) would've been much better rewarding, at least for an arm-chair critic like myself. Instead, we get The Emperor's New Cloak. Tsk, tsk...