Impulse

**** (4 stars out of 5)

Trellium-D is great for insulating a starship against the spatial anomalies of the Expanse, but the stuff is bad for Vulcans in every way. I'm not suggesting humans could use it as a sandwich spread, but it's murder on the space elves. Along the road to an ugly, ugly death is emotional collapse, neurological damage, slight zombism, irreversible neurological damage, moderate to severe zombism, and death. It's exactly like lead paint... only blue.

The crew of the Vulcan ship Seleya, caught between a lot of rocks and a lot of hard places, started slopping trellium around and soon got all rotting and bite-y. Synchronized dance numbers by the king of pop were not forthcoming. The tables are turned from "Extinction"... as Archer must contend with a feral T'Pol, and also 147 incurable super-strong Romulan-like monsters. And so I ask again: why wasn't this season the start of the long-anticipated and canonical Romulan War? Very effective horror story provided you're not prone to seizures from strobing lights and fog machines. And, because the genre has flipped totally on its head since last week, Phlox can't simply drop an instant cure in anyone's lap. He can't even ameliorate anyone's suffering. The kindest thing to do, somehow, is beat the victims to death and blow up their ship. Like heroes.

I remember scratching my head during "Impulse" and wondering what prompted them to create an action-packed epilepsy-inducing Vulcan zombie thriller video before I realized I answered my own question. This is what we get now. It's the decade of the living dead!

Field of Fire

**** (4 stars out of 5)

In which Ezri Dax uses Trill mesmerism to have crazy conversations with her invisible friend, that murderer who lives inside her brain, Joran.

Who could be killing people at all hours with a ceremonial kill-a-ma-jig? By which I mean a primitive projectile rifle upgraded with (A) an exo-graphic targeting scanner to see through walls and (2) a micro-transporter in the barrel to beam the bullet right where you're looking.

Granted, I'm not a shell-shocked space soldier with homicidal rage and access to deadly toys that sate my lust for blood, but I can think of a lot of ways to have more fun with X-Ray Goggles. Well, one.

Speaking of perversion, I just have to ask: why does Dax (or any Trill for that matter) need this Rite of Emergence? I mean, talking to yourself is exciting and all, but these are HER memories. Aren't they just as good when taken internally?

But we'd wrap much quicker if Ezri just looked up and to the left (J.D. style) in silent contemplation for thirty seconds and declare 'I know who the killer is! Also, wasn't William Peterson amazing in 'Manhunter'?'

"Field of Fire" is the final contribution Robert Hewitt Wolfe wrote for Star Trek. 38 scripts from 'A Fistful of Datas' onward, and great work throughout. I thought this was thrilling and innovative when I first saw it, and I still really dig it.

Rapture

*** (3 stars out of 5)

No, not the song by Blondie! Sisko's visions of religious fervour. He gets a look at a 20,000 year old Bajoran icon painting of the Lost City of B'hala that has been returned from The Looting Museum on Cardassia.

Emissary Sisko, in his spiffy but dour new grey uniform grows obsessed with the puzzle. He's so distracted that he doesn't notice his uniform was replicated wrong, and he's wearing his commbadge in the grey instead of the black.

Quark would like to distract Sisko even further with holosuite games. "I have a wide assortment of Pleasure mazes- and they all come with a surprise in the centre." But the only surprise today is a terrible plasma shock. Quark's holosuites mst be deathtraps now that Rom's not repairing them regularly. Good luck with your ePimping NOW.

The shock sets off Ben's "pagh-tem-fahr", holy prophetic visions. He's going Full Spielberg on his mashed potatoes.

Kasidy is released from six months in Federation jail. (A jail farther away than Garak's was, I guess, since they both got six months and he was sentenced afterward.) Oh, and by the way, Bajor is accepted into the Federation. Sisko's mission on Deep Space Nine is complete!

Sisko and Yates find B'hala. I don't quite understand this, but the city is fossilized or something. (Maybe buried in ash like Pompeii?) Ben begins to have headaches with his visions of the past and future. Among these is a cloud of locusts heading for Cardassia.

Sisko's underlings have VERY different views on the value of his visions. Kira's devout, Dax is skeptical, Bashir wants to do brain surgery, and Worf? Worf defends not the Bajoran religion specifically, but the very concept of faith. "Without [faith], there can be no victory. If the captain's faith is strong, he will prevail."

In pursuit of his answers, Sisko gets Winn's help to view the Orb of Prophecy.  Talk about desperate. Scraping the bottom of the barrel for religious guidance? I'd rather trust the ASStrologer from Eric Idle's 'What About Dick?'

Sisko busts up the signing ceremony to warn that those pesky locusts will destroy Bajor if it is part of the Federation.

Jake has Bashir operate on his father over his objection- it will cure his seizures by stopping the "Rapture". Problem solved, misery restored!