don't you know by now {you can't turn back}

I actually saw a DS9 episode with Ezri for the first time today. Nicole deBoer is adorable. Ezri's so bubbly and cute and different and yet every once and a while--particularly while she's being all Dax-y and reminiscent about Jadzia or other lives--she throws in a Terry Farrell mannerism (the old Dax) that makes you go "Wow. She's actually a good actress." Because especially early on (meaning 7.02 and 7.03, as she wasn't in 7.01 save 3 seconds at the end and 7.04 was the baseball one and didn't have her in it sufficiently to see), the first couple of episodes she's on a new show, you know it's got to be on purpose. I wouldn't be surprised if that drops off after a few more episodes, but it's still impressive.

The first episode of the 7th season, though, "Image in the Sand" made me sad, however. Because there was a scene where Sisko is all "OMG, I can't figure this out, what am I going to do without you to help me?" on Jadzia's coffin and it should have been sad and touching and show how much he cared for their friendship but it was horrible. Plain, freaking, disastrously horrible. I was sitting there repeating the lines in my head like I would have acted them (which I find myself doing quite often when it strikes me that I would have said/done something particularly differently) and shaking my head because I hate his acting so much. Avery Brooks is okay during episodes like "Take Me Out to the Holosuite", where he's being all energetic about baseball, but he's incapable of acting seriously. It sounds like he simply always puts the wrong inflection on his words for the emotion he needs. I've no idea how he got the gig as lead on that show.