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Albert
Webmaster
USA
3747 Posts |
 Posted - September 02 2004 : 10:17:46 PM
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If you survived the horror that is "Profit and Lace", post your comments here.
I'm now halfway home; Five Trek reviews down, five more to go! Though I have a feeling the rest are going to be a breeze compared to this one.
I should also mention that this review marks something of a milestone for the site, as this is the 50th official Agony Booth review. Thanks to all the many guest reviewers who have contributed to the now-lengthy list of reviews here!
Please vote for what you thought of this review on a scale of 1 to 10:
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The Agony Booth Forums will be upgraded on Friday, May 16. |
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Premier Blah
is killing space bitches in heaven
Canada
4631 Posts |
Posted - September 02 2004 : 11:55:23 PM
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| Wow...I applaud your efforts in getting through...that. Good job and congrats! |
"I've just found out that I have saboteurs in the tower! I still do not have the meteorite piece! I'm about to lose everything! We can talk about this later, if later even occurs!"
Clearly you all are not ready for space travel. I guess I'd better hang up my career as sci fact author.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes.
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Demiurge
Alien DEVO Impersonator
USA
1156 Posts |
Posted - September 03 2004 : 12:22:31 AM
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Yeech. I have never seen Profit and Lace. A fact for which I am now eternally grateful. Definitely komedy with a capital K.
Just one question- is there any proven link between Slug-O-Cola and Slurm? |
Oh no! He ate the Pope! |
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vapourtrail
I grew up in Europe - where the history comes from
USA
818 Posts |
Posted - September 03 2004 : 12:42:35 AM
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Great review, Albert! For some reason my parents are DS9 fans and never miss an episode - I think they watch it as a soap opera more than for its Star Trek associations - and your review is vindication for my opinion that it's utter crap.
Image hotlinked from http://www.planetmut.com/crap.jpg
Is it me or does the guy in the background have a classic "Who farted?" look on his face? |
"Trousers!"
http://www.planetmut.com |
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The Ancient Mariner
Patrician
Germany
1108 Posts |
Posted - September 03 2004 : 01:24:57 AM
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I always hated the Ferengis. The only kinda-good episodes were about Nog trying to become a member of the Starfleet. And didn't have Enterprise an episode (the series is pretty new here, we aren't even halfway through the first season I think) were the crew is surprised by Ferengis and they actually pose a small threat? That was okay, too.
Great review, and all I really wanna say is : "Grand Nagus Brunt?" "Acting Grand Nagus Brunt!" |
"It's like he went to the Brian Blessed School of Subtle Performance, but was thrown out for laughing too much." |
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Ed
The Once and Future Genrewriter
USA
2489 Posts |
Posted - September 03 2004 : 01:50:40 AM
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Wow, I'm glad I was in college and too busy to give a damn about Star Trek that year. Trek has almost never done comedy well and this episode is possibly the worst example of it.
Funny thing you mentioned about Worf's role in the series, I have a little theory of my own that I'm saving for an upcoming review. |
"How can the same thing happen to the same guy twice!" |
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Premier Blah
is killing space bitches in heaven
Canada
4631 Posts |
Posted - September 03 2004 : 01:51:08 AM
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That could be a funny signature for me, while driving a few poor people mad:
"Grand Nagus Brunt?" "Acting Grand Nagus Brunt!" |
"I've just found out that I have saboteurs in the tower! I still do not have the meteorite piece! I'm about to lose everything! We can talk about this later, if later even occurs!"
Clearly you all are not ready for space travel. I guess I'd better hang up my career as sci fact author.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes.
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christian rosenkreutz
will never see heaven or home
Christmas Island
2426 Posts |
Posted - September 03 2004 : 04:28:10 AM
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Was this episode's original title Don't Ask, Don't Sell, by any chance?
Why do some of the most annoying Trek characters have mute servant/bodyguards who are afflicted by gigantism? (Not to be confused with elephantitis.)
Great review, Albert. Here's a really scary thought: there's probably someone out there writing huge amounts of horrifying fanfic based on this episode. 
"Whoever knows fear burns at the Quark-Thing's touch!"
It's the DTV sensation that's taking the Alpha Quadrant by storm: Post-Op Transsexual Ferengis Gone Wild!
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Edited by - christian rosenkreutz on September 03 2004 04:46:16 AM |
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LCB
Captain
382 Posts |
Posted - September 03 2004 : 04:50:22 AM
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Let me say that this was a great review, and DS9 was the only Trek series I thought was truly worth a gosh darn.
Humor on Trek truly is often done really badly, overobvious and irrtating. Most sci-fi shows that try to slip in a little humor end up with the results being disastorous. Babylon 5, for instance, often had some wretched attempts at humor, complete with inane wordplay.
An example of a humorous episode of DS9 that worked would be Trials and Tribble-ations which could have blown up in everybody's face but was well done, as well a nice bit of nostalgia remarkabley free of gooeyness or schmaltz.
Another episode would be the one where Bashir's 1960s style spy-craze fantasy in the holosuite not only has the main crew trapped in it, but also has ex-spy turned tailor Garek critiquing the fantasy scenario as unrealistic. That and Avery Brooks playing the Cliche Mad Genius to the hilt.
However, this was perhaps the most terrible attempt at humor for DS9. To begin with the Ferengi are the worst example of the abused cliche of the Alien Race That Can Be Summed Up By One Trait. Like the Klingons are a warrior race, except the Ferengi are even more annoying, and hideous and always the scripts never forget to remind the audience that the Ferengi are all obsessed with commerce via it being mentioned about 5000 times during almost any Ferengi centric scene during almost any episode. |
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Bull Moostronaut
Eegah: "Hands" of snakey
South Sandwich Islands
2223 Posts |
Posted - September 03 2004 : 07:17:43 AM
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<tangent>
Trek almost never does comedy well, but I'll admit that when I was younger, I thought TOS' Shore Leave episode was really good. As Emilio might say...that was then and this is now, though, and I can barely sit through it now.
</tangent>
This is a great review. That is all. |
I am now switching over to Amanda's helmet microphone. Now I’m turning on her invisible electromagnetic ray screen which forms a protective layer over our faces. [EOT]
You know what would have saved this movie? Surf music. Man, surf music makes anything good. |
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GreenNinja
The Best Name in Fake News
USA
365 Posts |
Posted - September 03 2004 : 08:00:45 AM
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| Urrgh! That was one tough episode review to sit through. Although I did love the references to Bill/Hillary/Monica, other reviews, New Coke, Hitler, and the Muppet Show. The Agony Booth - there's no other place like it, and this review is a paramount example. |
"...Where I draw the line is with these attack bloggers, just someone with a computer who gathers, collates and publishes accurate information that is then read by the general public, they have no credibility, all they have is facts. Spare me."
- Stephen Colbert |
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Evanescent_Rain
Banned Forum Member
USA
1895 Posts |
Posted - September 03 2004 : 08:47:56 AM
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| God. I don't know what's more horrifying: Quark with a sex change exposing his surgically added breasts all so that female Ferengi can wear clothing or one user's..um...lusty affections for the Predators as posted in another messageboard I frequent. I cannot decide which inspires more terror. Maybe I should create a poll for this somewhere. |
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Premier Blah
is killing space bitches in heaven
Canada
4631 Posts |
Posted - September 03 2004 : 09:28:58 AM
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Interesting enough, one of the Ferengi (the guy who plays the Grand Nagus - sorry Acting Grand Nagus), was another Ferengi on that Enterprise episode "Acquisition" where the chief engineer has to stop those aliens wearing only blue underwear. He (Mr. Combs) was fighting alongside our good friend Ron "Balok" Howard and Ethan "Neelix" Philips (must be angry that humans hated his food).
One suggestion - I suggest putting links on the Trek reviews to their synopses on startrek.com much like you link movies to the IMDB. That could be useful. Here's an example for this episode:
http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/DS9/episode/100243.html |
"I've just found out that I have saboteurs in the tower! I still do not have the meteorite piece! I'm about to lose everything! We can talk about this later, if later even occurs!"
Clearly you all are not ready for space travel. I guess I'd better hang up my career as sci fact author.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes.
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Edited by - Premier Blah on September 03 2004 09:31:03 AM |
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The Waffle Man
Flakey Pastry
1413 Posts |
Posted - September 03 2004 : 09:34:01 AM
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| The Acting Grand Nagus stick not only looks like the Aztec/Maya/Inca mask, but it also kinda looks like a ferengi charicature of Leonard Nemoy. |
Strawberries are also edible, but should not be picked in case tiny fairies are using them for hats. Nothing angers the giant fairies quite like people who decapitate the tiny fairies. -Mark Trail |
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Styling Shatner
A Rhinestone Cowboy
USA
3206 Posts |
Posted - September 03 2004 : 09:37:03 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by LCB
However, this was perhaps the most terrible attempt at humor for DS9. To begin with the Ferengi are the worst example of the abused cliche of the Alien Race That Can Be Summed Up By One Trait. Like the Klingons are a warrior race, except the Ferengi are even more annoying, and hideous and always the scripts never forget to remind the audience that the Ferengi are all obsessed with commerce via it being mentioned about 5000 times during almost any Ferengi centric scene during almost any episode.
I agree; I mean, the Psychlos didn't talk about commerce and profit as much as the Ferengis!
I read the review late last night, and I was quite shocked at how broad (and awful) the humor was, along with a whole heaping of disturbing on top. The fact that in the future, you can have a sex change operation in just a few minutes is only the first of numerous problems with this sleazy episode. |
"That was Old-School Santa. He wasn't always the kind guy who hands out toys once a year. Who do you think armed the colonists during the American Revolution? Yeah. Santa, bitches.".-Rymmie1981 |
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Nancy
Thinking Arbys
USA
1864 Posts |
Posted - September 03 2004 : 2:55:52 PM
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| great review albert. very funny. i didnt bother to look up the title when it was first on the poll so it wasnt till the review that i remembered that i had seen it before. yech. |
Hammer: Now here is a little peninsula and here is a viaduct leading over to the mainland.
Chico: Why a duck?
My journal- http://servogirl76.livejournal.com/ |
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Wereweasel
Captain
USA
416 Posts |
Posted - September 03 2004 : 4:38:17 PM
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Congrats on the site's 50th review. I'm not a Star Trek fan, but I enjoy the "Worst of Trek" reviews, not least as a quick way to learn about the different series (for example, now I'll get Ferengi jokes in other movie reviews). Forgive my ignorance, but what's your new avatar from? It looks kind of like a young Iggy Pop doing a guest spot on a Trek series.
(Edit: I see on the IMDb that Iggy actually did appear on a DS9 episode--and not when he was young, either--so that must be it. Good choice of avatar.) |
http://video2cd.co.uk/twitlist/aatwit.html#D (hit PageUp) |
Edited by - Wereweasel on September 03 2004 4:50:59 PM |
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krylonman
Commodore
USA
2436 Posts |
Posted - September 03 2004 : 6:45:49 PM
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Yikes. And I thought so far that you were doing the Worst of Trek out of obligation, since the site is named "the agony booth" and all. The other episodes were bad, but in a relatively innocuous bad television sort of way; this one seems positively rancid. If I was cringing just from reading The Running Joke Which Shall Not Be Named, imagine watching it. My hat is off to you, sir.
P.S. Although the idea of quick-and-easy (and I assume safe) sex change operations is actually an optimistic one, I think, the idea that you can get them on a whim because you feel like fooling Mr. Roper is not merely stupid but actually pretty reprehensible. If it weren't for the fact that Quark is male again at the end, I would have a sneaking suspicion that the episode was actually brilliant satire: if I were a doctor and someone told me they needed a male-to-female sex change for the weekend in order to go to a business meeting, I would assume that the only proper response would be to grant it, so that they could never produce children. |
I learned—painfully—that there is a difference between good and bad trash, if you're going to write novels about innocent young women who fall backwards into being fashion models and international movie stars and succumb to hedonism, Daddy complexes, barbiturate addictions, selfish lovers, marriages with impotent older men and bitter fights over large inheritances. |
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Groom Of The Atom
They called him Machete...
1338 Posts |
Posted - September 03 2004 : 8:11:57 PM
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Maybe you could produce children with the sex change... OF THE FUTURE!
If genetics gets advanced enough to produce single organ cloning you could take a cell, change Y to X and make a fully functional set of replacement parts with a very close genetic structure, in theory.
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He knows the score, he get's the women and he KILLS the bad guys!. |
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Juniper
The Boy Can't Help It
1241 Posts |
Posted - September 03 2004 : 9:46:57 PM
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quote:
Another episode would be the one where Bashir's 1960s style spy-craze fantasy in the holosuite not only has the main crew trapped in it, but also has ex-spy turned tailor Garek critiquing the fantasy scenario as unrealistic. That and Avery Brooks playing the Cliche Mad Genius to the hilt.
That was pretty good, the actors who played Bashir and Garek had great chemsitry together. And I loved Garek's horror at sixties design "oh look another room decorated in a complete lack of taste."
Excellent review Albert, I think those screencaps will frighten me more than the close ups of a decaying Mae West in Myra Breckinridge. |
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Dark Chaos
I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?
USA
833 Posts |
Posted - September 03 2004 : 11:20:05 PM
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I didn't vote in the poll. My exact post was:
quote:
Originally posted by Dark Chaos
I'm sorry, but I don't think I can vote on this one. I loved DS9 too much to ever think bad of it, even though I know it had stinkers just like the other 3 series (I am NOT counting Enterprise  ).
Also, I haven't seen a single episode of the show in years. If only the DS9 DVD sets weren't so frickin' expensive. 
But the moment I began reading the plot of the episode in the review, I had vivid memories of seeing this episode about six years ago, at the tender age of 13. Not terribly long after my finding out that women had nipples.
(Yes, I was absolutely clueless about the female physiology AND what they looked like under clothing until I was about 11. I genuinely thought they had no nipples, just like Barbie dolls.)
I shudder to think what this episode did to my psyche then when I was just finding out about women. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to have had any effect on my sexuality, but it might explain why I hate Will & Grace so much (other than the fact that except for Karen, it's not funny).
I feel that I MUST thank Terry Farrel, Nana Visitor, and Nicole DeBoer for that. Their combined hotness could overpower even the most odious trans-sexual/bi-sexual Ferengi "komedy". |
Glenn's Video Shelf - My LiveJournal - My MySpace
None of these ten people have any record at all. And yet we're ready to book 'em for withholding information, causing accidents, failing to report accidents, reckless driving, theft, at least three cases of assault and battery... - Captain Culpepper It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World
My DVD Collection - Nightwish - Within Temptation - Lacuna Coil - Stolen Babies - In This Moment |
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