Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV Series) Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang (1999) User Reviews

Fun with gangsters

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 16 January 2010]

Normally I'm not too keen on episodes set on the holodeck and as soon as I saw the plot synopsis for this I expected it to be a disappointing instalment, thankfully I was wrong. While Bashir and O'Brien are watching Vic sing in his Las Vegas lounge bar something strange happens, the club's design changes and crowd appears and boos him off stage, then a couple of gangsters turn up and tell him the place now belongs to them and he that he must leave town. Not surprisingly the regulars aren't happy to see their holographic friend in trouble and try to come up with an idea to get rid of the gangsters. It turns out that the program has not malfunctioned but activated a jack in the box program which the creator had installed to keep things interesting, unfortunately the only ways to remove it are rebooting the the program which would delete Vic's memories or to interact with the program in a way that causes the gangsters to leave. They see a chance when they hear the man who bankrolled the operation is coming to town to see things for himself and get a cut of the profits... all the crew has to do is steal the cash before he can take delivery. As they plan the heist each of them has a role to play; Kira will distract the senior gangster, Nog will pick the safe, Odo will carry the cash out etc. All they need is somebody to take the job of being the high roller, the captain is approached but isn't too keen as he understandably isn't keen on the racial politics of 1960s Las Vegas.

This episode was a lot of fun, the way they planned and executed the robbery reminded me of "Hustle", although this was made much earlier. I did feel Sisko's speech about racial politics was somewhat heavy handed given that we are meant to believe racism is ancient history for the people in the 24th century. This is a minor quibble though about an episode that kept a smile on my face.

Nothing Wrong with Fun Episodes, If They're Fun Like This

[frankelee · 8/10 · 26 June 2022]

Vic's casino is overrun by digital mobsters and his friends back in the real world either have to solve the problem in character or else delete the whole thing (including Vic's memories) and start the program over.

It's ridiculous premise, nothing new for Star Trek, and it goes to show it doesn't matter how ridiculous the premise is, just so long as it rings true. We're told they can't use technology to solve the problem, and so the crew decide to put on an Ocean's Eleven style heist to get the mobsters out.

The show even provides a little extra drama by having spoilsport Captain Sisko display close mindedness and prejudice toward Vic and his world, until Cassidy helps him see how foolish he is being.

It is yet another diversion from the "main storyline" of the Dominion War, but really this isn't the fault of the episode, but rather shows the problem of keeping the Dominion War strung out well past its natural conclusion. The writers would have been much smarter ending it in season 6, with the Federation retaking the station. They then could have explored the peace, instead of making viewers think there was something new or exciting to be done with that played out storyline.

Hindsight is 20/20 though, but it shows quite clearly that an episodic series like this should be judicious in its use of arcs, not keep them open too long or too indefinitely. Have a war, then end the war. Don't have a war and then make viewers sit through a dozen episodes of Ezri solving mysteries like Nancy Drew, or people working out their love lives.

Enjoyable holosuite fun

[snoozejonc · 7/10 · 6 October 2023]

The DS9 crew pull off a caper to help Vic Fontaine deal with mobsters.

If you can accept the concept of what is happening and have enjoyed previous holosuite adventures, you are likely to enjoy this one as for me it is well made. If you have issues with Star Trek doing light escapism, it might be a struggle.

The idea is pretty funny, as it shows a group of fictional characters doing something out of love for a character who is fictional within their own fictional universe. This proves quite ironic when you regularly read angry rants on forums like IMDB about the content of fictional television for various reasons.

I quite enjoyed Bada-Bing, Bada-Bang. The tributes to films like Ocean's Eleven and The Godfather: Part 2 are pretty cool and likewise the visual storytelling. It gets very good in the last 20 minutes as the heist is planned and staged. The cinematography, set design, costumes, choreography of actors, and editing is top drawer. I love the shot of Frankie Eyes walking from the count room, passing by the bar as the DS9 crew are lined up behind slightly out of focus, and Vic (in focus) watches them leave. Incredibly slick visual storytelling.

Sisko's race speech always gets criticised and whilst I agree it feels a bit out of place in a story set in the supposedly progressive 24th century, the writers are entitled to have their fictional characters speak and behave how they wish.

All actors are on great form and seem to be having fun doing something different.

James Darren so underrated

[MiketheWhistle · 10/10 · 3 May 2019]

At first I wasn't sure how much I like Vic, James Darren, character. Gradually I enjoyed him more and in this ep he truly drives it home. I remember watching him in Navorne, TJ Hooker, Time Tunnel and never thought he was great but definitely good. For whatever reason in DS9 he became great in my eyes.

This episode was just perfect

[albert-bentall · 10/10 · 24 June 2021]

It is so refreshing to see the main characters team up like this. And what a voice the Sisko has !

Wormhole's 11

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 16 June 2012]

Vic Fontaine is as important to the crew of DS9 as any "real person" but "The Sisko" does not want to have anything to do with it when Vic's Program gets "Appropriated" by a Computer Worm.

It appears that a "Mr Zimo" (Marc Lawrence) has "bought out" Vic's Casino and has set "Frankie Eyes" (Robert Miano) to kick Fontaine's Holographic buttocks out of his own Casino.

In what is apparent Homage to "Ocean's 11" - A group of DS9 Crew help Vic rob the place blind so that Frankie will fail to deliver his "Skim" to Zimo at the allotted time.

At First, The Sisko does not want to get involved - He tells Cassidy about the way Coloreds were treated in real historical Vega$ - But she reminds him, "This is not Vega$ the way it was-Its Vega$ the way it should have been."

Odo, Ezri, O'Brien, Bashir, Kira, Cassidy, Nog and maybe some others form the basis of a crew that plan the "Hit"-Eventually, The Sisko joins as the "Whale" Decoy which keeps Frankie occupied.

It was absolutely fabulous how Deep Space 9 merged into the Universe of "Good Fellas" into the "Imagined" Universe of "Benny Russell"-Each member of "Sisko's Eleven" (Not sure how many were in on the hoodwink) blend in, Odo latches on to Tony Cicci (Mike Starr), Kira catches Frankie's "Eyes", Odo gets Ezri a "job" as a Waitress with a Kinky Outfit — and with everyone in place, DS9 pulls off a parody of Ocean's 11 which is perfect.

Marc Lawrence homages all of the gangster and Hit-Men roles he's ever played through the 50's and 60's - The Wool is totally pulled over his eyes, Frankie is set up for a fall and Vic gets his Nightclub back.

Apparently, it was a worm that the program designer, one of Bashir's Genetically Altered friends named "Felix," put into the Holo Program, and the only way to set it back to the way it was, was to play it out just like it would have in the historical Vega$. And Fontaine, who does not want to end up in a "Hole in the Desert" must put his trust in his friends.

Vic is an important member of Deep Space 9, having helped out Odo, Kira, Nog, virtually every member of The Sisko's main staff. This episode added a little fun to Deep Space 9, right before the 10 or 11 episode final arc.

In these Season 7 Episodes, there are some things that are Clouded Over: Who was "Felix," and when did they learn that Vic Fontaine was a Self- Aware Holo Person, much like Dr Moriarty (Daniel Davis from The Next Generation). I appreciate the sheer amount of story elements that the "Benny Russells" who wrote the DS9 arcs had to deal with, they put bows on as many of the loose ends as possible, If they had about 5 to 8 more Episodes, they could have explained everything in detail, as it was, they told years of story in just 26 episodes. They stuck to the Trek future history as much as possible, but ultimately, DS9 transcended the scope of Roddenberry's Trek, giving us many more dimensions of enjoyment from the franchise.

One thing makes this episode amazing

[editor-12847 · 10/10 · 11 May 2021]

Nicole de Boer dressed as a waitress with legs that go on forever! And the first hoodlum from The Man with the Golden Gun turning up.

A classic Holideckepisode

[krieg-frieden · 2 January 2019]

One of the few DS9 Holo episodes - it is not Sherlock Holmes of TNG but it's refreshing

DS9 Gets Even More Preachy

[Island-Publius · 6/10 · 17 August 2010]

Look, it's a great show, and the Star Trek series produced some of the best work on television. But it seems that someone along the line in the last two years decided to depart from not only Star Trek way of addressing issues, but the whole role science fiction plays in revealing the modern world to us through metaphor. When Sisco throws his hissy-fit that he won't go in the holo-suite because blacks weren't welcome in Vegas in 1962 - they violate a raft of sci-fi and Star Trek no-no's. First of all, this is the very first time that human racial resentment has been carried into the Star Trek future. Sisco's angry reaction is of someone who has suffered racial bigotry - which is not the case in Rodenberry's future. We've moved beyond it. It makes about as much sense as O'Brien refusing to go with Bashir into his James Bond program because the British oppressed the Irish. Or Bashir refusing to go to the Alamo program because Arabs wouldn't have been accepted in early 19th century Texas. It's idiotic and it violates the truly color-blind approach humanity has reached in the Star Trek universe. Science fiction addresses issues indirectly - like the original Trek's story of the planet that was racially divided by people who had half black/half white faces - but each 'race" had the colors on the opposites side of the face. Metaphor. Misdirection. That's how science fiction gets it done . . . not by throwing an Al Sharpton rant in the middle of the 24th century. Generally, it's a great episode and a lot of fun. But someone involved with that show insisted on grinding an ax - and accomplished the exact opposite of what they wanted to.

Deep Ocean's Nine

[tomsly-40015 · 8/10 · 1 December 2023]

Another Vic episode. This time with a twist: The hologram program has a jack-in-the-box trigger to make it more interesting. A group of mobsters buy the hotel/casino and fire Vic. Bashir and O'Brien are unable to just erase this part of the programm. Resetting the programm would wipe Vic's memory and so the only solution is to fight the gangsters within the program itself.

So, a group of Vic's friends gather to plan a coup. They want to rob the casino so that the gangster boss cannot pay his share to the new owner (the mafia boss) and Vic can takeover again.

What we see then is a funny "Let's go through the plan one more time" montage and here every step of the plan works exactly as planned. Then they gather for the real coup - and let me just tell you this: Everything that can go wrong, goes wrong now. The whole plan seems to fall apart but Starfleet wouldn't be Starfleet if they would not be able to improvise...

Funny episode with lots of interaction between the characters. But again: We are in the last season and still basically only get one standalome episode after another.

Give it a rest already

[robert3750 · 2/10 · 2 March 2021]

The more I think about it, the more negative I feel about this episode. I got sick and tired of the whole "holosuite/deck malfunction" trope which was done to death in TNG, and I don't like it any better here. The whole "Sisko (actually, Brooks) gets on his racial soapbox" thing REALLY pissed me off. Others have made very good comments on it. Once again, the show essentially said "forget the whole Star Trek premise, forget the illusion that this is a show about the 24th century when human racism is dead and buried, and has been for centuries, and it makes no sense for a man of the 24th century to talk about 'our people ' in 20th century terms, because we want to earn 20th century merit points". It's utterly ridiculous that Kassidy has to give a speech to Sisko about ideals that have been held and practiced for HUNDREDS OF GODDAMN YEARS. It's made even more ridiculous by the fact that Sisko isn't remotely bothered that the Vegas characters interact with frickin' BAJORANS and KLINGONS and FERENGI and SHAPESHIFTERS without batting an eye (which isn't historically accurate either), but he chooses to get his panties in a twist over the "nonaccuracy" of how HUMAN characters are treated. What incredible stupidity.

Possibly the worst episode of the entire series

[treborbasset · 1/10 · 12 September 2019]

I don't understand what happened to Deep Space Nine in season 7. They had done such amazing world building in seasons 5 and 6 with interesting, complex characters such as Gowron, Garak, Dukat, and great villains in the Cardassians and the Jem'Hadar and the Dominion and the Founders. They had so much to draw from and could have made so many interesting episodes.

Instead nearly every episode up to this one is about Vic Fontaine or Ezri playing detective on another planet with no other members of the cast, or some other terrible holodeck episode such as playing baseball. Badda-Bing Badda-BAD is where they really just gave up on sci-fi altogether. They just decided to write an entire episode set in 60s Las Vegas (as if we hadn't seen enough of it already) with more Vic Fontaine singing, and even Sisko singing.

What a complete waste of time. It's genuinely not worth watching, and of no relevance to the show at all. If I could have given this episode 0 I would have. It's even worse than the much maligned episode of The Next Generation, Code of Honor.

Vic Fontaine was the "jumping the shark" moment for Deep Space Nine. Had they really run out of ideas that they had to introduce a recurring singing character in a permanent 1960s Las Vegas holosuite and he is involved in nearly every episode? Even as I write that description I realise how ridiculous it is.

Maybe Too Much Vic !?

[Hitchcoc · 5/10 · 12 November 2018]

This is a silly throw away episode, once again featuring Vic (James Darren) the lounge singer. A malfunction screws up the holo-suite program and allows real gangsters to take over, so the staff gets involved in changing things around. The problem is that it goes on forever and forgets pretty much what good sci fi is all about. I'm hoping at some point we can get back to the bigger issues.

Proof that Vic should have been used VERY sparingly...and that the series had about reached the end of its run.

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 27 January 2015]

During the course of the last couple seasons of "Star Trek: Deep Space 9", there were quite a few episodes which showed that the writers were grasping at straws--trying to come up with new ideas when the well had run dry. A few good examples was one show where the DS9 baseball team played a Vulcan team in the holodeck, a crime detective show featuring Ezri Dax and her alter-ego as well as this show which is a spoof of the old film "Oceans 11". Perhaps sticking with the Dominion and Prophets plots would have been wiser in hindsight.

Bashir and O'Brien are doing what they love to do--hanging in the holosuite with Vic. However, suddenly something strange happens-- the club where Vic performs is taken over by mobsters AND the crew cannot just delete the mobsters from the program---they need to be more creative. So, they come up with a variation on the film "Oceans 11" and a group of crew members help Vic to seal the mobster's money--so that his bosses get mad and kill him.

Does this sound the least bit like any of the "Star Trek" shows? Nope. And the entire show comes off as very forced and a bit stupid. Easy to skip and, fortunately, the last episode like this in the series.

400 years on there is still whining about the past.

[Davart · 1/10 · 15 June 2020]

Every race, every civilization, every culture has suffered from some injustice from another culture it's life, it's just how it goes right or wrong but here in the world of Star Trek there is still whining about racial injustice from the from the pre civil rights days in America that no longer even exist in the Star Trey universe ... for some of us it gets to be a really tiresome storyline. You'd think after 400 years people could move on - name one single race or culture that wasn't enslaved by another one at some point, mine was, yours was we all were at some point in the past and that's just it, it's the past. Stop whining and move on./ Oh and enough Vic too Pally.

Ocean's Deep Space 9

[snarky-trek-reviews · 5/10 · 7 March 2019]

There is a dystopian future awaiting us where everyone feels they owe computer programs a debt of gratitude. A future where we think of computer programs as friends instead of applications.

I still can't figure out how these holodecks work. While Miles and Julian are tending to Vics wounds in his suite, where do they go when Kira and Odo enter the Casino? Do they wait outside in Quarks? Are they kept in some sort of transporter suspended animation? Is the holodeck actually that big? Or that good at creating multiple illusions for multiple people in multiple places? While were on the subject, I'd also like to know how food and drink works on the holodeck. Is it replicated and real or just convincingly fake?

Sisko is a big fat stick in the mud in the this episode. The writers already tackled racism in Far Beyond The Stars. Why they feel the need to give it a second go here is beyond me. While Benny Russell was poignant, Sisko feels preachy here. Why he changes his mind and joins the fun is never made clear.

While Felix may have failed to accurately capture the racism of the period, he sure got the misogyny right. The heist sequence is sufficiently entertaining, but honestly, while O'brien is getting stripped searched and the rest of the gang is finishing the caper, who is where? Ah, well, don't think about it too hard just listen to Sisko sing a song with Vic.

Verdict: Forgettable filler

More plot holes than Swiss cheese

[tiffanybbear · 2/10 · 17 September 2021]

SPOILERS:!!!

One of the worst DSN episodes of all

The whole episode should've been over before it began. When O'Brien & Bashir suggest Vic go with them to the Alamo program, they've solved their computer problem before it came up

They need to reset Vic's HOLODISC. But doing so will erase his 'sentient memory'

COPY & PASTE, b£$%¥>+

Take Vic to the Alamo. Reset HIS program while he's gone. Re-import him

Boom. Done. Episode Over

But, since that's not what the writers did. We get the implausible Sisko harboring resentment for racism that supposedly ended hundreds of years before his birth.

I'd say just skip the episode all together. But it does have a Sisko-emissary moment that leads into the next episodes storyline :/

Yet another Vic episode

[morn1960 · 1/10 · 18 August 2020]

And as ever or worse this one scrapes the bottom of the barrel. It is one of the lowest worst Trek episode ever covering 5 series

Back to thee holosuite

[student_points · 5/10 · 5 December 2021]

Not a good episode. We need more Garak, Worf, Gul Dukat, Quark and war. Not Vic Fontaine and Kassidy Yates. This is ocean's 11 (the 60ies movie) but there is no excitement. Probably cause the time is going to too short in 1 episode to do it justice.

I like Vic Fontaine and this one was the worst

[ulrichkristine · 5/10 · 26 May 2022]

As someone who actually likes Vic Fontaine episodes - this one unfortunately ended up falling flat for me. It had a lot of potential but it was written like a mediocre fan fiction. The characters didn't even get a halfway decent heist to pull off. Kira and Odo were especially out of character in their roles in all of that - with no explanation.

I get some people don't like that Sisko had a problem with the 1962 Vegas setting - when there was racism in that time and setting - and I guess that the holisuite program isn't racist but it's like it was brushing that under the rug or something. I think it was fine and understandable. Maybe Avery Brooks had a problem with it - and wanted to add that. But it was kind of a weird take. My husband was like "wait... he's upset the program isn't racist?".

I did like the Sisko and Vic duet song at the end - Avery Brooks can really sing. But even that seemed a little out of nowhere and forced.

In any case I usually really like the Vic episodes - but not really this one. It's really lacking in quality overall. I was very surprised to find out that this one is so well rated. I would think it would be down there with "Profit and Lace" (just based on what people think of it - I actually overall like that episode and think it was underrated.

Another Insulting Episode

[abaldree-84743 · 1/10 · 21 March 2022]

The second episode portraying Italians as mobsters. Horrible stereotypes. Can't wait for this show to end. Worse series in the Star Trek universe. Writers must do better.