HIDE AND SEEK is an episode worth a look thanks to the presence of cult icon William Shatner in a typically larger-than-life performance. Shatner plays an evil dictator - what else? - who needs to help his ailing son, and he thinks that Darwin the dolphin is the key. What follows gives our hero plenty of opportunity to chew the scenery and bring some BIG.EMOTIONAL.GRAVITAS to the screen while the acting regulars look on.
3 Reviews
The Black Sheep of Season 1
xfmand15 July 2023
I really like this series, but this episode is just plain stupid. I'm writing this without spoilers to avoid spoiler tags, but it has elements that not only make no sense, but they aren't even needed to for the "plot" to work. (Especially since the "plot" doesn't "work" anyways.)
To be a bit more specific, this show relies on "suspension of disbelief" when it comes to Darwin, the computer-assisted talking Dolphin. In fact, give the show a leeway in terms of decades and "their technology is different than ours" and most the time the speech synthesizer and what Darwin says actually makes sense, but this episode pointlessly pushes things to whole new levels for no reason whatsoever other than, perhaps, to distract the viewer from a lack of an interesting plot...
The damage done is not just the episode but to the credibility of the series in general. For that reason alone, I'd suggest just skipping over this episode.
As far as William Shatner, it's a cute surprise to see "Captain Kirk" show up, and honestly, "back in the day", I think Bill Shatner was a better actor than most of the scripts allowed him to be. Unfortunately, this is very much an example of such an episode. His dialog is pretty monotone, boring (and with respect to the plot not-credible) for most of the episode, and in the end, he has one emotional moment which was so badly performed (IMO) that I suspect someone(s) just didn't even care enough to shoot a second take.
I really don't like picking on Sci-fi shows that I like, but again, I think this is one of those cases where saying "Pretend this episode doesn't exist" helps the series significantly. Oh, by the way: I suggest you pretend this episode doesn't exist, or if it does, hopefully it was just a really bad dream.
To be a bit more specific, this show relies on "suspension of disbelief" when it comes to Darwin, the computer-assisted talking Dolphin. In fact, give the show a leeway in terms of decades and "their technology is different than ours" and most the time the speech synthesizer and what Darwin says actually makes sense, but this episode pointlessly pushes things to whole new levels for no reason whatsoever other than, perhaps, to distract the viewer from a lack of an interesting plot...
The damage done is not just the episode but to the credibility of the series in general. For that reason alone, I'd suggest just skipping over this episode.
As far as William Shatner, it's a cute surprise to see "Captain Kirk" show up, and honestly, "back in the day", I think Bill Shatner was a better actor than most of the scripts allowed him to be. Unfortunately, this is very much an example of such an episode. His dialog is pretty monotone, boring (and with respect to the plot not-credible) for most of the episode, and in the end, he has one emotional moment which was so badly performed (IMO) that I suspect someone(s) just didn't even care enough to shoot a second take.
I really don't like picking on Sci-fi shows that I like, but again, I think this is one of those cases where saying "Pretend this episode doesn't exist" helps the series significantly. Oh, by the way: I suggest you pretend this episode doesn't exist, or if it does, hopefully it was just a really bad dream.
SHATNER!!!
rccutler-979-94371415 February 2024
Another great episode of a great and often overlooked series. This episode has everything you could want from a 90s cult tv show. It has sci, adventure, over the top story and oh yeah did I mention? William effing Shatner. Per usual he steals the show and chews the scenery. He raises this episode to the next level, the only negative is this is the only appearance he has on this show. He should have been a recurring character. One small caveat is that it's interesting they chose the Balkins as a war torn area in 2018. Yes, they have had problems since prior to 1914 even, but at the time Slobodan Milosevic was in power (1993). He was committing war crimes in Kosovo including genocide. This storyline is exactly that. Nothing new or interesting. That is the only real negative of this episode. It takes place 25 years later. I would expect a different war. Other than that this is a must watch episode of the series.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
