DS9 Stories/News: Cardassian Names (2)

Cont.

B

Belor, Ulani – Female

Doctor, Scientist (Ministry of Science). In order to help set up a subspace relay through the wormhole, came to DS9 with Dr. Gilora Rejal. DS9: Destiny

Benil – Male – Gul.

The commander of the 8th Order and a captain of a Galor-class Cardassian warship. In 2371, Benil’s ship intercepted the Federation starship Defiant on its way to Cardassia to rescue Major Kira from the Obsidian Order. Garak, who was on the rescue team, issued an Obsidian Order access code, which convinced Benil to apologize and go on about his business.  DS9: Second Skin

Boheeka – Male – Glinn.

Boone, Raymond – Male

Borven – Male – Glinn. Aide to Gul Trepar in 2373. A political opportunist, according to Ghemor. DS9: Ties of Blood and Water

Broca – Male

 Legate. The third puppet leader of the Cardassian Union, chosen by Weyoun during the Dominion occupation of Cardassia and promoted from gul to legate. Later after the destruction of Lakarian City, he was executed by the Jem’Hadar on orders of the female changeling. DS9: The Dogs of War, What you leave behind

Bronok – Male – A Cardassian officer and Dominion resistance fighter in 2375 under Gul Rusot, one of Rusot’s most experienced men.  He was involved in the planting of a bomb in a Jem’Hadar ship’s intercooler matrix. He and his four companions ignored the orders of Kira Nerys, who had told them to plant it in the secondary plasma relay.  DS9: Tacking Into the Wind, When it Rains

Brun – Male – Former associate and later enemy of Enabran Tain. In 2373, Tain’s son, Garak, intimated that Tain was responsible for Brun’s death. DS9: In Purgatory’s Shadow

Bry, Maran – male – Poet who was noted for his criticism of the Bajoran Occupation.  A Stitch in Time

DS9 Stories/News: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Crossroads of Time (Genesis/Mega Drive) (4)

Oh right, I forgot about this bit. I have go systematically speak to every NPC on the station until one of them says something useful, then go do it all over again until one of them finally lets me go on a mission.

LATER.

Are you the one I’m supposed to be talking to now? No? Right, okay, moving on.

LATER.

AAAAAGGGGHHHH, this is driving me crazy!

EVENTUALLY…

Finally they let me have a little more gameplay! This time I’m flying a spaceship through a wormhole. I’m tasked with flying up, and sometimes down, to avoid hitting the… glowy strands of blue.

I’m sure this doesn’t actually go on for two hours, but that’s what it felt like.

Then I get to do five minutes of shooting against some asteroids and some poor ship that doesn’t fire back, and it’s back to the station.

And then it’s back to running around. Talking to every damn NPC. Again.

I know it’s a Star Trek game and everything, but I really wouldn’t have minded if there was less talking and more gameplay. Don’t get me wrong, if (for instance) Bethesda had actually made that Star Trek RPG they were thinking about before deciding they loved Fallout more I’d be all for talking to those NPCs. But this is just annoying.

LATER.

Level three at last!

I’m free, I’m finally free! Free to jump around these shitty looking wooden beams covered in thorns and evil fruit that jumps off and tries to kill me!

Oh fuck it, I’m just going to walk.

And then three steps later I fall down an invisible underwater pit and instantly die.

They’re putting me all the way back here again? Seriously? You know, if I’d started back at the beginning of the wooden beam planet I probably would have kept playing, but there’s no way I’m going through this NPC scavenger hunt again.

And then they never made another Star Trek platformer again. I hope.

Next game!

http://superadventuresingaming.blogspot.com/2011/12/star-trek-deep-space-nine-crossroads-of.html

DS9 Stories/News: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Crossroads of Time (Genesis/Mega Drive) (3)

Shit! I’m not liking this inventory. I have to hold down the A button to bring it up and assign an item to my hand, and tap it to switch between assigned items. There’s two problems with this:

1. I can’t quick draw my phaser and gun down my enemies if I’ve forgotten to assign it to a hand.
2. I have to hold down A to use the lifts too. So half the time when I’m trying to move a lift around, I end up bringing my items up instead. And I can’t make a quick escape when my inventory screen’s open.

And every time I get killed I’m thrown back to the password screen and have to reassign my items.

Seven seconds left. Damn, I’m really cutting it close on some of these grenades. Plus I’ll probably have to spend three seconds trying to line him up with the ejection tube correctly so he’ll flush the thing.

Still, I’m just glad I found the damn tube for once. Half the time I end up totally lost and get blown up by the bomb in my hand.

On the next section they start throwing these tricorder jammers in too. I can’t tell where nearby bombs are on my radar until I find and break the jammers.

Yeah, the inventory popping up when I’m on a lift isn’t getting any less annoying. I’ve got a time limit here!

Okay I admit, it’s my fault. If I was properly centered on the lift the menu wouldn’t come up. But I don’t have time to properly center myself on every lift, I’ve got a time limit here!

I’ve finally reached the third section of the level, and it’s getting very Prince of Persia now. There’s no lift to ride here, so I have to jump from ledge to ledge to reach the bombs. Then back down again to flush them.

And every time I miss a ledge and fall I’m put all the way back at the start of the level again. Crap.

A FEW DEATHS LATER.

I don’t actually mind jumping between a maze of ledges over a fatal drop. I don’t even mind the time limit. The thing that’s really starting to annoy me though, is that I have to replay this huge level every time I fuck up. That’s two entire sections of bomb disposal I have to repeat, over and over and over.

I should probably quit now, but I can’t help being implausibly curious about what’s on the next level. It can’t all be bomb disposal to the end, right?

TWO AND A HALF SECTIONS OF BOMB DISPOSAL LATER.

Okay, made a jump. So far so good. I’ll have to keep throwing myself at ledges like this until I find the next bomb, and even a single missed jump is likely to get Sisko killed.

And then when I find the bomb I’ve got seconds to jump all the way back down again.

The SNES version’s still pretty similar, and no less annoying. Well I guess it doesn’t have the inventory/lift button problem, so it has that going for it.

The hero sprite seems a bit invisible in these shots, but he shows up pretty well in game thanks to the parallax scrolling background. These lift rails look way too much like platforms I can stand on though.

THREE MILLION MISSED JUMPS LATER.

I… don’t believe I actually did it. Hah!

Level complete and I NEVER HAVE TO DO IT AGAIN.

BUT THEN…

DS9 Stories/News: Birthday Alert – Felecia M. Bell 12:06

It’s Felecia M. Bell’s Birthday

Felecia M. Bell (born June 12, 1960) is an actress best known for her roles in Days of our Lives and General Hospital, as well as her portrayal of Jennifer Sisko in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. She also starred as Jessica Rodgers, owner of the House of Soul, in the Sci-Fi television series Nightman.

Bell has also guest starred in Hunter (with Barry Jenner), Night Man, ER, JAG (with J. Patrick McCormack and Eric Pierpoint), Smallville (with John Glover), Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

Jennifer Sisko was the first wife of Starfleet Captain Benjamin Sisko. The two met on Gilgo Beach in 2354 and were married soon after. Later that year, Jennifer and Benjamin attended the Mazurka Festival on New Berlin with Cal and Gretchen Hudson. (DS9: “Emissary“, “The Maquis, Part I“)

Courtesy of Memory Alpha.org

Jennifer and Benjamin planned to have a child and their son Jake was born in 2355. (DS9: “Explorers“, “Move Along Home“, “Fascination“)

Jennifer and Jake accompanied Ben on his assignment to the USS Saratoga, where she was killed when that ship was destroyed by the Borg at the Battle of Wolf 359 in 2367. Jennifer’s death devastated Ben and it would be years before he began to move on emotionally. In fact, his bitterness and anger over her death, specifically toward Captain Jean-Luc Picard, whom the Borg assimilated and forced to lead their invasion of Earth as Locutus, almost led him to resign his Starfleet commission, before he accepted that he was trying to escape his memories of Jennifer’s death rather than Starfleet itself. (DS9: “Emissary“, “The Way of the Warrior“)

Jennifer

DS9 Stories/News: DS9 Stories/ News: Odo & Kira Relationship Review (11)

  “The Abandoned”

Review originally printed in ORACLE

Newsletter July 2011

____________________________________

 

Review written by Mary Shaver

The Jem’Hadar boy, now confined in a holding cell, is becoming more anxious and agitated with every passing minute. He begins hurling himself against the forcefield in desperate attempt to escape. On the other side of the forcefield, Bashir tells him his condition is the result of the enzyme that is missing from his system. The boy is belligerent and argumentative with Bashir until Odo arrives. Interesting that the boy denies to Bashir that there is anything wrong with him, but when Odo releases him from the holding cell and inquires about his health, the Jem’Hadar admits there is something wrong with him and catalogues his symptoms to Odo.

 

Bashir needs to run more tests to help him replicate the missing enzyme. The boy resists until Odo says he should agree. At once he becomes compliant and cooperative. Bashir leaves to retrieve the equipment he will need and Odo makes some friendly overtures to the boy. When he offers to show him around the station the Jem’Hadar defers to whatever Odo wishes. This isn’t what Odo wants – he wants to know the boy’s wishes and desires, and is somewhat startled when the boy jumps out of his chair, gets right in Odo’s face and announces that what he wants is to fight. Not Odo, but everyone else. He asks Odo if that is wrong and rather that criticize the boy’s choice, Odo suggests they find other interests. He then tries to get the Jem’Hadar to relax and even encourages him to smile – something Odo himself hardly ever does. Perhaps in this instance the Constable should take his own advice!

 

Chief O’Brien thinks he may have found a supply of the drug needed by the Jem’Hadar to replace the enzyme missing from his system. Odo joins him in the salvage ship to examine the container. O’Brien wonders aloud why the Founders would engineer the Jam’Hadar to be addicted. Odo’s explanation illustrates the stark difference between himself and his people. What better way to ensure total control over the Jem’Hadar, as well as guarantee their loyalty, than to addict them to a drug that can’t be replicated and that only the Founders can provide? Odo understands all too well what it is like to be controlled by others and now vehemently opposes the idea of exercising control over anybody (well, except perhaps Quark!). When O’Brien comments that it seems like a cold-blooded thing to do, Odo responds with a hint of sadness in his voice. “My people don’t have blood.” And this, perhaps is as good an explanation as any for why the Founders have no compunction about enslaving others. Is Odo wondering if the basic and fundamental differences between his people and the solids prevent his people from having any feelings of compassion for beings who are different from them?

 

The drug found in the salvage ship works and introduces into canon the vial of what will become known as Ketracel White, and the tygon feeder tube that delivers the drug into the Jem’Hadar’s carotid artery. Revived now and at full strength, the Jem’Hadar now poses a huge potential danger to the station’s inhabitants.  When the boy requests and then insists that he stay with Odo in his quarters, Odo is initially uncomfortable with the idea, and then sees the value in having the Jem’Hadar with him. Not only will it give him a chance to work with the boy and help him move beyond the limitations of his programming, but it will also assure a measure of safety to the DS9 personnel.

 

In Odo’s quarters, the Jem’Hadar is enthralled by Odo’s Changeling abilities. When Odo points out that some shapes are more difficult to master, like the humanoid face, the Jem’Hadar challenges him to explain why he would want to look like a humanoid since he (Odo) was better than them. Odo’s explanation that being different is not the same as being better confuses the boy who admits he instinctively knows that he is inferior to Odo, but superior to everyone else. Odo attempts to re-wire the boys ‘hard-wiring’ by telling that they are all equal and that he needs to ignore his instincts because they are wrong. Rather than accept Odo’s words however, the boy instead concludes that he must be defective because he also knows that Odo can never be wrong. Odo stubbornly persists, insisting that he is not infallible and urging the boy to begin to think for himself. Odo might be realizing that he’s in for an uphill battle, but he isn’t about to give up. He asks the boy what he wants, not what he thinks Odo wants. After a moment’s reflection, the Jem’Hadar says he wants to know more about his people – who he is and where he came from, something Odo can certainly relate to. Odo shares with the boy his own history of being orphaned, found and raised by aliens, and their common connection of not knowing who his people were or what they were like.