Nicholas Worth

Day Young guest stars as Arissa, a young woman who Odo meets in Quark's bar. Impressed by Arissa's beauty and uncanny powers of observation, Odo is both shocked and disillusioned when Arissa is arrested for trying to break into DS9's computer. It soon develops that the poor girl is under the thumb of the vicious Orion crime syndicate, and she now wants out, even if it means her own death. Written by Rene Echevarria, "A Simple Investigation" first aired March 31, 1997. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Set in the year 2017, Barb Wire takes place after democracy has fallen and a fascist military junta has taken over the U.S. government, plotting to wipe out the country with Red Ribbon, a laboratory-manufactured disease derived from the AIDS virus. The entire test city of Topeka has been annihilated, and only the small bastion of Steel Harbor remains the last free zone in the country, conveniently the home of the title heroine Pamela Lee. Barb, a leather-clad, silicon-stretched motorcycle mama, happens to carry antibodies for Red Ribbon in her DNA, thus making her an enemy of the state. She sets out to defend freedom and take down the evil government by posing as a stripper and seducing foolish male adversaries with her well-displayed assets. The plot thickens as she happens upon her freedom-fighter ex-lover and his wife (much in the vein of Casablanca). ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide

An engineer tries to save people trapped on a nuclear-war-ravaged planet in this made-for-cable science-fiction fare. Stephen Baldwin stars as Adams, an engineer who is dumped onto a sand planet of the future, where the harsh conditions lead to constant fighting and brutality. The inhabitants have reverted to primitive tribal societies. He tries to teach the those left about farming and irrigation in hopes of saving them from destruction, but soon learns that peace cannot be had so easily. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide

This Southern Gothic drama of a deeply troubled family was written by leading man David Steen, who adapted the screenplay from his own play. Ma Samuals (Sharon Farrell) lives in a poor section of rural North Carolina during the 1970s. Her slightly retarded son Charlie (Steen) was the product of an incestuous relationship with her uncle, a preacher who seduced her when she was only 12; despite this experience, Ma remains a devout Fundamentalist Christian. Ma also lives with her adopted daughter, Messy (Gigi Rice), though it's obvious that Charlie is the favored child, and Messy is often the target for Ma's abuse. When Cousin Anna (Sarah Trigger) is orphaned, she comes to stay with the Samuals family, which upsets the household's already shaky emotional balance. Ma disapproves of Messy's new friendship with Anna, believing she's a poor influence on her daughter, and when Anna begins spending time with Charlie, her obsessive love for her son (which has already spilled over into incest) threatens to push her over the brink. A Gift from Heaven marked the feature debut for both screenwriter Steen and director Jack Lucarelli. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Evacuating a planet in preparation for a mining project, Kira confronts a curmudgeonly old farmer named Mullibok (Brian Keith). His pointed words force Kira to look within herself to determine if she has changed for the better or worse since aligning herself with the Federation. Meanwhile, Nog and Jake get mixed up in a series of trades, with curious results. Written by Peter Allan Fields, "Progress" was originally broadcast on May 8, 1993. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Mafia hijinks provide the basis of this violent crime drama. The trouble begins the night before an uneasy truce between the warring Malucci family and the Diamonds is to begin. A volatile gang member starts it all when he launches a dirty surprise attack upon the Maluccis, thereby breaching the code of honor. Among the dead is the fiancee of Dino Diamond's chief arm-breaker, aspiring fighter Fist Sullivan. After Sullivan is framed for the killing by a corrupt cop working for double-crossing Dino, he vows revenge. But he is in jail. One of the Maluccis busts him out. Now working for the enemy, Sullivan, and his turncoat surrogate daughter Alex, who witnessed the fiancee's murder, sets out to avenge the death of his beloved. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

With a scant few days left before his wedding, Bull (Richard Moll) participates in yet one more weird ritual. It's all for the purpose of performing another "miracle"--in this case, the restoration of Bull's virginity. Meanwhile, Christine is disillusioned by the off-the-bench behavior of former law professor Peter Collingswood (George Coe), a man she has idolized all her life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This detective movie is set in Hollywood, circa 1949. Hard-bitten detective Dan Turner gets entangled with an extortionist after he begins looking into the life of a movie mogul's beautiful wife. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Billy Zane stars in this direct-to-video gem as a spectacularly unsuccessful car thief. Hoping to reform by leaving LA, Zane must scare up $400 worth of exit money. He decides to pull off one last job, stealing a TV from William Bastiani. An ill-tempered criminal, Bastiani stabs Zane, who then runs off blindly into a cemetary ("Blood" and "Concrete": get it?) Weaving around the tombstones, Zane makes the acquaintance of would-be suicide Jennifer Beals. Love blooms, but it might be too late for both of them: Bastiani is found murdered, and Zane is suspect number one-forcing him to hide out from both the cops and the mob. Luxuriating in its tawdriness and cheapness, Blood & Concrete: A Love Story actually has an offbeat charm all its own. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The great nuclear holocaust has come and gone, and humanity is hanging on a string. Women rule what's left, and the world is filled with giant mutant humanoid frogs who have started their own communities. Fertile human males have become one of the rarest things on Earth. This really low-budget sci-fi adventure chronicles the exploits of one of those men, the wandering loner Sam Hell (as played by former wrestler Rowdy Roddy Piper). The tale begins as Hell is caught and tried for raping a woman. Realizing that he is fertile, Medtech, the organization devoted to repopulating the world, takes him and forces him to wear high-tech underwear designed to control his lusty tendencies and to keep him from squandering his seed on infertile ladies. The organization then forces him to go deep into froggy territory to bring back the fertile women stolen by the amphibian's leader. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

We know we're in a 1988 film when we're invited to laugh at O.J. Simpson in an opening slapstick sequence. We can also pinpoint the year of production when hard-nosed cop Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen), during a scuffle with the world's leading dictators, wipes the wine-colored birthmark off the head of Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev. Those wacky ZAZ boys -- David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker -- serve up a feature-length spin-off of their cult favorite TV show Police Squad!. Seeking vengeance when his partner (Simpson) is shot full of holes by drug dealers, dead-pan and dead-brained Lt. Frank Drebin searches for the Mister Big behind it all. Drebin suspects above-reproach shipping magnate Vincent Ludwig (Ricardo Montalban), but he can't prove a thing. Bumped from the force by the mayor (Nancy Marchand), Drebin, with the unexpected assistance of Ludwig's ex-girlfriend (Priscilla Presley), manages to nab the bad guy at a baseball game, where Reggie Jackson has been programmed to assassinate Queen Elizabeth. MGM mogul Irving Thalberg once reportedly told the Marx Brothers, "You can't build jokes on top of jokes." The producers of Naked Gun prove otherwise; indeed, one could develop writer's cramp just listing the gags in the film's first 20 minutes. Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad was followed by two lesser but still hilarious sequels, Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear (1991) and Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide