Valiant
Season 6 Episode 22
Plot Summary: Jake and Nog are chased into Dominion space by a Jem'Hadar warship. They are saved in the nick of time by a Defiant-Class starship, the Valiant. The Valiant is piloted by Red Squad (from Homefront/Paradise Lost). They had been on a top secret mission, when they were attacked by the Cardassians. In the battle all non-cadets were killed. Red Squad took over the ship and is now carrying out it's original mission: to find out data about a new Dominion warship. Nog joins the team as Chief Engineer, Jake has no choice but to sit back and enjoy the ride. Red Squad has no trouble obtaining the data, but that isn't enough for Cadet-Captain Watters. He convinces the crew that they can single-handedly take on the new warship by means of a weakness found in the data. The crew fail in their objective and the Valiant is blown to smithereens. Only Jake, Nog, and one of the cadets survive the attack to reflect on what went wrong: Was it that the crew wasn't good enough or was it that Captain Watters let his pride and ambition cloud his judgement.
Sub-Plot: None
My Opinion: This was pretty good, but one main thing bothers me. Usually it's good if the viewer feels sorry for the heroes of a show when they fail to beat the bad guy. While the Valiant was being destroyed I was screaming, "Yes! Yes!" Now, I was glad those cadet-jerks got what they deserved, but if they had been good characters who had made the one mistake of attacking the Dominion warship the episode might have had more meaning. Instead I was shaking my head at they're arrogance, incompetence, stupidity, and overall meanness. They were morons, to put it bluntly. I can't see these kids graduating from Starfleet, let alone being the best of the best. At the end the question of whether or not Captain Watters was a good captain was brought up. The answer to that was blatantly obvious. Also, it was said that the crew might have failed him. In my humble opinion, they did. From the moment he said that they were going to attack the warship at least one of them should have pointed out that this was not part of their assignment, instead of shouting "Red Squad, Red Squad!" over and over again, pointlessly. Well, now that I've verbally bashed the episode, how about a little praise? Good idea. Good story. Good visual effects. Good ending! 'Nuff said.
Wrap-Up: "Valiant" was not as good as I hoped it would be. It had a lot going for it. Maybe if Red Squad hadn't been a bunch of Jerks, it would have been better. I give it two and a half stars.
Review by
05/22/04 01:00:00 AM
| Home | | Visit Area51/Cavern | Explore GeoCities | Get Your Own Free Homepage |