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deep space nine rewatch tv

DS9 Rewatch: Season 2, Episode 26

Only time for one episode tonight, which is the father-son (and uncle-nephew) camping trip disaster that is The Jem’Hadar.

Honestly, this is what Sisko gets for not letting Jake just enjoy his plants in peace. But he sees it as a chance to take Jake on a camping trip that can double as a science project… and then Jake invites Nog along, because Nog needs to not fail out of school. Honestly, I love the relationship between Jake and Nog. They’re both great kids with a great relationship. But from the adult perspective, I can recognize Sisko’s moment of suppressed eye-rolling. I, too, have been the kid who insisted on bringing along a friend that my parent did not like and only put up with because I insisted on being friends with them. (Thankfully, not something I figured out until I was a grown up and saw it in action from that side of things… and I get the feeling that you think your kid is friends with someone who is bad for them, but also you can’t do anything about it but grin and bear it.)

Anyway, the altered plan is something Sisko could deal with… except Quark, who is trying very hard to suck up to Sisko because he wants to do… something…. invites himself along, too. This goes about as well as you would expect, in that Sisko already doesn’t like Quark, and Quark is not the outdoorsy type. Thankfully their mutual misery is interrupted by a telekinetic space elf lady running into their camp and stunning Sisko, then getting them all captured by the Jem’Hadar, who have always reminded me of humanoid ankylosaurs.

Nog and Jake were out of camp when the grownups get captured, so they have to do the best they can. They manage to get to the runabout on their own, which is good. But they have to figure out how to get anything in the runabout to work, which is a lot harder on them. But they figure it out, and they make it to the wormhole just in time for reinforcements to come through and O’Brien can take over.

Ultimately it’s all a ploy by the Dominion to get a spy briefly on DS9. Though at least Quark and Sisko figure that out right quick and send her packing.

Basically, this is going back to the mention of the Dominion we got with the Ferengi trying (and failing) to establish trade relations with them. And they look a lot scarier thanks to the Jem’Hadar showing up on DS9 to deliver some threats. The Jem’Hadar gets established as a presumably technologically superior threat–they can just walk through containment fields, and destroy the Odyssey with a suicide attack as it retreats–who has staked out the gamma quadrant as theirs.

There’s a bit about Sisko and his relationship with Ferengi, which basically Quark decides is a problem of humans being racist against Ferengi. Because Ferengi greed reminds humans of their past, only according to him Ferengi were never as bad as humans because they haven’t done genocide or slavery. (Him mentioning slavery specifically to a Black man was… sure something.) There’s some “building mutual respect via combat during escape” action, so we can see Sisko and Quark at least figuring out how to work together, even if they still don’t like each other.

As a season finale, it feels like it fizzles a bit. It’s not really the summation of any plotline for the season, and for all that it ends with the death of a starship, it lacked the tension we even got out of the season 1 finale, In the Hands of the Prophets, while still hinting at conflicts to come. And if memory serves, the Dominion and the Jem’Hadar become a MUCH bigger problem than The Worst Bajoran Ever, though I seem to remember it takes a couple more seasons to really get going. It’s a slow burn and a long plan, something that felt like a major departure at the time… though now it seems pretty fantastic that the show has so many episodes ahead of it of cold war before it goes into full hot war.

TV has sure changed a lot.

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deep space nine rewatch tv

DS9 Rewatch: Season 2, Episode 24-25

I’ve been meaning to get back to my Star Trek rewatches… the ultimate goal is to finish DS9 and finally watch Voyager, which I saw very little of when I saw it air. So let’s get back on the wagon!

It’s a rough start after a long pause, because we’re deep into Bajoran politics and religion with The Collaborator. It’s time for the Bajorans to choose a new Kai, so it’s Bareil as the favorite candidate versus the sleazily manipulative queen of passive aggression, butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-her-mouth Winn. Winn isn’t ready to let power slip out of her clutches, and she sees an opportunity to scuttle Bareil’s candidacy when an infamous collaborator named Kubus shows up. Kubus was the mastermind of a lot of bad shit happening to his fellow Bajorans, though like many collaborators he claims he did it to prevent worse harm.

Where it gets all twisty is that Kubus says he knows who really caused an infamous massacre. It’s not clear if he decides to offer Bareil up to get Winn to help him off the station, or if Winn feeds him that as the fact she wants to hear. But the mud gets splattered on Bareil… and Bareil accepts blame that turns out to not belong to him. Because it was actually beloved Kai Opaka, making one of those deals with the devil to save thousands at the cost of 43 people (including her own son) and Bareil thinks that saving her reputation is more important than saving his own.

I’m with Kira when she thinks that’s not worth the cost of letting Winn become Kai. She’s a goddamn right-wing religious nut. Bareil saying that it’s just up to them to somehow influence Winn into being less completely awful is not something that sat well with me back in the day, and even less so now. Protecting the reputation of a woman who can no longer even try to do good for Bajor at the cost of putting a goddamn fascist in charge is an absolutely hideous choice, and a cowardly one. Honestly, from all the hints at the beginning of the episode that show Bareil having some kind of doubts or showing uncertainty make me think that’s why he took that way out.

Anyway, it’s a pretty complex episode from a moral standpoint. Kira’s line, “A good man does not betray his people,” really hits hard when you find out the culprit was Opaka… and in a way, Bareil has also betrayed his people because he’s trying so hard to be good that he’s handed them right to the worst possible leader at the worst possible time. Or he already feels like a traitor because he’s covering for Opaka and let a vedek commit suicide over the matter, so maybe to him this feels like a path to absolution–boy is he wrong.

Also, doing a little outside reading about the episode, it sounds like the writers were originally planning for Bareil to become Kai… but then at the last minute, they realized Winn being Kai would be way, way worse for the Federation, and thus would be much better for the story. Which is a good point. When in doubt, take the plot option that makes things worse for everyone involved.

Next episode is Tribunal, which starts with Chief O’Brien going on vacation. And that means either the station is fucked, or O’Brien is fucked, or maybe both. That in the next scene, O’Brien meets up with an old colleague who has weirdly settled in Cardassian space, and the guy apparently takes a recording of his voice…

Yep. O’Brien is fucked.

Miles and Keiko get pulled over just hours into their vacation by Cardassians, who are way out of their space. Miles gets arrested and abducted back to Cardassia prime in an incredibly authoritarian scene where they demand to know if he admits to his crime but refuse to tell him what it is. Oh and then they strip him naked and rip one of his teeth out. And then they call the Federation to let Keiko come to the trial where the verdict has already been decided–he’s guilty, unsurprisingly–and then Odo steps in to volunteer as O’Brien’s “Nestor” thanks to the time when the Cardassians occupied the station.

Oh, and O’Brien’s execution has been scheduled for next week.

This is a great line from his assigned lawyer: “I am here to help you concede the wisdom of the state. To help you accept the inevitable with equanimity.”  Confession is good for the soul on Cardassia, you see. It’s even better for the populace. No need to worry about what you’ve been charged with; it doesn’t really matter. “This trial is to demonstrate the futility of behavior contrary to good order.”

Law and order, people. All crimes are solved, all criminals are punished. This is an episode that certainly still feels relevant today.

Of course it’s a set up; O’Brien is accused of helping the Maquis and the evidence has been planted. It’s all for show. And the trial is literally a show–all of Cardassia is watching. And his lawyer is not pleased about this, because he’s a year away from retirement. It’s on the edge of farce, except for the fact O’Brien is to be executed.

The amazing part is watching the archon immediately reverse herself when Sisko shows up with the Cardassian plant that framed O’Brien. Suddenly the Cardassian court has mercy, and it’s never made any mistake. The silent threat to embarass the Cardassian government in front of all the citizens is all it takes to get them to backpedal, and apparently everyone will just pretend that none of this ever happened.

Honestly, I love it when Star Trek has an excuse to do a courtroom drama, and this one was quite delicious. Fritz Weaver playing Kovat (O’Brien’s useless lawyer in this pantomime, who goes stentorian and Shakespearean in his complaints every time O’Brien or Odo go off script) and Caroline Lagerfelt as Chief Archon Makbar (who somehow never changes her assured tone between condemning O’Brien to death and congratulating him for furthering relations between the Federation and Cardassia by learning so much about the Cardassian legal system) are the icing on the cake for this episode.

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deep space nine rewatch

DS9 Rewatch: Season 2, Episodes 18-23

Time for more DS9! Starting with Profit and Loss, where we get to meet Quark’s old main squeeze, who happens to be Cardassian. She also happens to be a political radical, shepherding two other politcal reformers on the run from the Cardassian government.

There’s a lot of good character work for Quark, expanding him out past his usual character trait of “greedy.” After scheming and plotting to find ways to make his former lover stay with him, he finally does the noble thing and lets her go. I think this episode also has really great development for the Cardassians as a whole, because it takes them from being monolithic space assholes; it gives their politics a dimension and shows not all of them believe the same things.

But the real start? Our Totally Heterosexual Friend, Elim Garak. This is such a good episode from him… because we find out he’s been exiled, and that he really is serious about his love for Cardassia… and just how much he wants to go home. To the point that he basically allows himself to get played by some Gul you can also tell he hates. Because he wants to believe he can go home. And the conversation he has with Quark that is definitely about fashion is A+… though it’s a shame that Quark ruins it at the end by saying what he actually means.

A+ episode. The only thing I didn’t like is that they gave the two female Cardassians like super femme-y lips, which isn’t a problem of itself, but the makeup just looked really weird and out of place.

Then we get to Blood Oath (alternate title: Grumpy Old Klingons), which has Dax expanding on her connection with Klingons. And it’s got some great trans parable moments in it.

Kor: Curzon, my old friend!

Jadzia: It’s Jadzia now.

Kor: Jadzia, my old friend.

The Klingon s don’t expect Jadzia to keep the oath to go murder the albino guy who killed their kids. (The villification of the albino is not great.)  Where it gets interesting is that Jadzia wants to keep the oath, and she feels obligated. Though she obviously has conflicting feelings at the thought of revenge killing… to the point that she asks Kira flat out how many people she’s killed. (Jadzia, you can’t just do that!) Kira talking about how killing takes a part of you, too, it a good moment for her. This episode is mostly concerned with the dichotomy of the Trill… it’s supposed to be a new life, because you can’t keep paying your old debts, but that doesn’t mean the old lives are easily forgotten. And the parallels between Jadzia choosing to remember Curzon and then also choosing to remind the Klingons of their pasts is lovely, drawing them all into their shared history.

Kang: thank you for saving the death blow for me. You have honored me one last time.

The conclusion is very Klingon, with a high body count. Two of Jadzia’s old friends dead, while the third sings their death song for them. You can’t have a Klingon episode without “It is a good day to die.” Jadzia’s note is very much her own: “It’s never a good day to lose a friend.”

Look, I really love the Klingons, for all their problematic underpinnings. Every time I get to see their culture expanded on a bit and not made a joke, like Kor’s singing, it makes my heart happy.

Also, I really love that this looked like a pretty low-budget episode. All the mooks (didn’t bother Jadzia to mow them down…) are human and it looks like they just rented someone’s house for the day.

The Maquis part I and IIare something I vaguely remember… in that the Maquis were way too politicky for me when I was a kid and this was where DS9 really started losing me. I could certainly do with less of Quark hitting on the Vulcan lady. But the highlight of these episodes for me is Sisko having to deal with Biggest Piece of Shit Ever, Gul Dukat. Sisko loathes Dukat, Dukat is horrible and smug, and they snipe at each other. And then Sisko actually has to rescue Dukat… even as Central Command hangs Dukat out to dry, which is extra hilarious.

Also, there is a lovely moment where Odo is complaining that he wants the power to do more searches and set a curfew, because the Federation have too many rules on him and that’s why he can’t keep the station safe.

Kira: And the station will be just the way it was during the occupation.

Odo: Say what you like. It was safer then.

Kira: Unless you happen to be a Bajoran.

Odo: *awkward pause*

Methinks Odo is sure running the station with an authoritarian iron fist would be great as long as he’s the one in charge.

What makes these episodes interesting is that they introduce a group of humans (and Vulcans, and presumably other normally-Federation aliens) that are definitely not aligned with the Federation–and control enough territory to actually be a political force. There have obviously been anti-Federation societies before, but they’re normally just a colony on a single planet. So adding in another player gives the universe more dimension, just like adding the political dissidents to Cardassia in Profit and Loss. And their political argument is compelling enough that it makes a Federation officer defect to their side.

Not a lot of deep character work in these two, in my opinion, but it’s such a great expansion to worldbuilding.

On the other hand, The Wire is nothing but deep character work.

I love the starting bit of Garak as the literature nerd, talking about the repetitive epic (of which The Never-Ending Sacrifice is the pinnacle achievement) as foundational to Cardassian art… and how different cultures value different things–service to the state instead of individuality. It’s a wonderful little world building detail. Made more wonderful because since this is Garak, there is no way to tell if he’s earnestly giving Julian literature he thinks is great and important, or if he’s doing the equivalent of me handing someone Ethan Frome and claiming it’s a very important classic. The sidebar ends with Something Is Wrong With Garak, to start the whole episode in motion.

Because you bet your ass it’s a Garak episode. And Garak is so intensely Garak in this. So wonderfully terrible and tricky and adamant about the importance of lies. In a way it feels like a riff on Duet, because it’s another story about a Cardassian maybe being someone else, and then again maybe not, but it’s a question of whose soul atrocity lives within. Except this one isn’t a case of closure through punishment and who gets punished, but a question of who Garak is, and what the truth means, and the lies people construct around themselves and what they’ll do to survive all kinds of chronic pain and wrenching cognitive dissonance. (What does Garak actually value as opposed to what he claims to value? What is internal to him as a person and what is imposed on him by his culture? Who did he really betray?) Garak keeps telling different versions of the truth, separating himself into two people, having them play different roles, and each time the story has a different purpose that he’s trying to work on Bashir and himself. And just holy shit, watching Andrew Robinson play so many different versions of his character in so many different emotions is stunning.

Garak: They’re all true.

Bashir: Even the lies.

Garak: Especially the lies.

Garak is still a bad man, and I still adore him.

Last up is Crossover, which starts with Julian annoying the bajeesus out of Kira by being extremely Julian while they’re on a mission in a runabout. Random Star Trek space stuff happens and… MIRROR UNIVERSE TIME!

This one’s fun because it’s not just about humans with sinister facial hair. Instead we get an alliance between the Klingons, Bajorans, and Cardassians that have enslaved the humans in the area. And it’s all Kirk’s fault–by convincing evil Spock to be a less evil reformer, and thus open the Terran Empire up to the alliance. It is just a trip to see Garak dressed like a regular Cardassian and Nana Visitor playing special edition Bondage Kira. I imagine these episodes were just a ton of fun to film because everyone gets to play a complete twist on their character.

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deep space nine rewatch

DS9 Rewatch: Season 2, Episodes 11-17

This group of episodes starts off strong with Rivals in my opinion. There’s not a whole lot of meat to this episode… it’s a standard “Macguffin makes things go wacky in the station and the crew has to figure out the source and stop it”-type episode that doesn’t have any metaplot for meat. But it’s just so dang fun. The macguffin in question is a little toy-like device that alters the laws of probability, meaning people suddenly start having hilariously good or hilariously bad luck. The guest star trouble-maker is Chris Sarandon, aka Prince Humperdinck, and he’s in fine form. He’s a con-man on the take before he gets his hands on the macguffin.

The B-plot is a fun sports rivalry between O’Brien and Bashir… a one-sided rivalry. O’Brien wants to reclaim is space racquetball glory days. Bashir is a much better player than him. O’Brien refuses to give up. Bashir just wants out. It’s actually really fun to witness.

And in the end, the con-man gets conned, which is one of my favorite plot devices ever. I love this dang episode. I wouldn’t want every episode to be like it, but it’s a good break from more serious stuff.

The Alternate is definitely a more serious episode–and it’s all about Odo. Dr. Mora, who was the scientist in charge of Odo when he was found, shows up on the station. Odo’s got a lot of feelings about this that René Auberjonois does really good work expressing, often via long stres.

It’s honestly upsetting to see people misinterpret Odo’s relationship with Dr. Mora as something father-son, and the episode expands and explores that relationship, which is a very uncomfortable one. Odo and Dr. Mora are bound together, but they were scientist and experimental subject, which is a very different sort of power dynamic. They might have some sort of affection for each other, but particularly from Odo’s perspective, there’s plenty of reason to resent Dr. Mora and even feel threatened by him.

The driver of the exploration is a strange volcanic gas that sort of unleashes Odo into an altered, monstrous state when he’s in his rejuvenation cycle–or driven to it by an extreme of emotion. The monster-Odo fixates on Dr. Mora, and while it’s a scary creature, it also becomes very understandable. When Dr. Mora figures out what’s going on, he basically tries to badger Odo, telling him that he’ll be put in a zoo. (Odo’s already been in Dr. Mora’s zoo.) That Dr. Mora is the only person Odo can trust–to which Odo bitterly argues, “Who says I trust you?”

After an episode of Dr. Mora talking over Odo, first almost like a fond parent, then insisting that no one knows as much as he does about shapeshifters (“Except for me,” Odo notes bitterly.) you can hardly blame Odo’s id for wanting to smash him flat. And it takes that level of fundamental anger for Dr. Mora to finally realize that he was not Odo’s parent, but his prison keeper.

It’s such a good episode because it focuses so tightly on the relationship between Odo and Dr. Mora and uses that as a window into both of the characters.

Dr. Mora: You had to speak in a voice loud enough for me to hear.

Odo: I’m sorry.

Dr. Mora: I’m sorry it was necessary.

Armageddon Game is another episode that puts O’Brien and Bashir together. They’re an interesting combination because they’ve got such clashing personalities–and O’Brien will argue with anyone at the drop of a hat. They’ve also got their similarities, being very good at what they do and needing to have something to do that they can pursue. Can’t say this episode is a favorite, but it’s good to see O’Brien getting some development, even if the writers haven’t figured out a damn thing for Julian to talk about that’s not how much he totally wants to have sex with a lady. (Like for goodness sake, watching him natter about space racquetball a couple episodes before felt like a massive change for him.)

Anyway, it’s another stand alone episode. O’Brien and Bashir are working together to destroy some horrible biological weapons at the request of alien cultures that finally have a peace treaty. Right when they’re destroying the last one, some people bust into the lab, shoot everyone, blow up where the weapons are, and O’Brien gets splashed. Then the two of them escape. The aliens then lie that O’Brien and Bashir are totally dead and it’s their own fault. So while the boys try to figure out how to get in contact with DS9, everyone there is feeling incredibly sad–even Quark, in a rare, very genuine moment for him.

We eventually find out that the murder of the scientists and attempted murder of O’Brien and Bashir was orchestrated by both sides of the new peace treaty, because they wanted everyone with knowledge of the biological weapons dead. Which is not what I expected, honestly. But, as that great philosopher Jake Peralta says, “Cool story, still murder.”

It’s an okay episode, but after the incredibly intense character work in The Alternate, it’s a little wanting. It feels like the writers just couldn’t find the same depth in Bashir and O’Brien at this point as they found in Odo, which is a shame.

I do love that Keiko gets to be the one who solves that mystery and discovers the “proof” that O’Brien and Bashir died is bullshit. The bit where she even figures out exactly what O’Brien is drinking by checking the spectroscopic analysis… I wish they gave her more moments like this.

Now, Whispers is another episode that’s definitely my jam. Chief O’Brien thinks there’s some kind of conspiracy going on at DS9, and since the episode is shot very much from his viewpoint, it becomes very evident that there’s definitely something going on in the background. So it’s basically O’Brien becoming increasingly paranoid and then figuring out how to get the hell off the station and go on the run. It’s DS9’s take on The Manchurian Candidate and when we got to the end of the episode I was yelling at the TV because the conclusion was pretty dang fucked up. A+, would watch again.

Kind of hilariously, I found the next episode, Paradise to be just as creepy and fucked up, but in a different way. O’Brien and Sisko beam down to a planet where there’s an unplanned human colony and get stuck on the planet. At first, the humans–who were on their way to a different planet to colonize and got stuck–seem welcoming and pretty cool. Then the leader of the colony, Alixus, starts getting creepier and creepier. She leaves her philosophical writings everywhere, and it becomes apparent she has decided how the community will go and doesn’t want things to change. Alixus doesn’t like doors. Alixus says that everyone agrees to locking people in a hotbox is a totally cool punishment. Alixus has made sure the only thing everyone reads are her philosophical writings. Alixus says they don’t need to have technology even to save someone’s life. Alixus really wishes they’d take off those uniforms and stop talking about Star Fleet coming to rescue them.

Oooh, she is so creepy, and so sure of herself, and so convinced that hers is the only way. Obviously if Sisko doesn’t agree with her shit, he just needs his attitude adjusted with more work. I mean, props to Gail Strickland for playing a character I can hate almost as much as Winn, but being way more subtle about it. My god, her entire speech accusing O’Brien of “wasting his time” trying to get his tricorder to work so he could save someone’s life and making him an enemy that’s trying to destroy the community by challenging what she sees as their righteous way of life. Gave me chills. And that little smile when she puts Sisko in the hot box? Brrrrrrr. (Also, let’s just consider for a moment Alixus, a white woman, locking a black man in a hot box for someone not working as hard as she wants them to. Yiiiiiiiikes.)

Alixus: This is painful for me to. I want so much to give you water. But I can’t without your help.

Hats off to the writers for crafting such a believably abusive and manipulative character. And the thing that’s grossest about it is that if she’d just asked for volunteers for her back-to-nature philosophy wank fest, she would have gotten them. And Sisko points out how people died? “You have no idea how much I suffered, because I watched them die.” The worst part is that she wins in the end–though I will say that about the last two minutes feel like it wrapped up too quickly, too neatly, and I really do not understand why it shook out the way it did.

Also, I need a moment to tell you how much I fucking love Mile O’Brien because he is so unabashedly smart and yet so firmly rooted in the working class. (Which I think is why they keep matching him with Julian, because the contrast is so pronounced.)

It’s time for some Detective Odo in Shadowplay! Dax and Odo go to a village where peole are mysteriously vanishing. Sadly, it’s not murder, it’s that the village is the Matrix, and the Matrix is glitching. That whole plot is pretty straightforward. And then we get Kira and her main squeeze and something about gambling debts as the B plot to fill out the episode. The big take-home from the episode is a little more information about the Dominion and how bad they are–and a fun little thought exercise about if hologram people are actually real people–artificial intelligences.

Odo + Kids is my favorite combo, I think. Odo gets along so well with kids because he basically treats them like they’re tiny adults.

My headcanon for this episode, by the way, is that every 30 years now someone will go back to the planet, do the maintenance on the holographic projector, and let the little colony of hologram AI people continue to evolve.

It’s an okay episode.

In Playing God, Dax has a Trill initiate to teach. There’s some background Star Trek bullshit plot that involves O’Brien dealing with a vermin infestation and then some kind of pocket universe thingy bob that wants to eat the station. Mostly it’s there to let Dax expand on her background a bit and bounce off the nervous student. Though the most fascinating part is seeing Jadzia’s resentment toward Curzon; it’s always cool to see the Trill interacting with their previous lives.

The number one thing to love about this episode is the return of the Klingon Street Food Restaurant and its totally amazing, singing proprieter. The rest is a lot of good character work for Terry Farrell.

Oh, and also this:

Kira: It’ll be like stepping on ants.

Odo: I don’t step on ants, Major.

What a good. Anyway, it’s a good episode if you want Dax development, very meh otherwise. And the development of Dax as a character doesn’t feel as raw or immediate as it did, say, for Odo in The Alternate because it’s more about her revealing events of her past than reckoning with concrete effects in the present. This might also be because Jadzia is a kind of understated character; I do feel like her discussion with Sisko where she struggles with not wanting ot be like Curzon, and then realizing the Curzon might have had a point, and then figuring out her own way to make the same statement without being a total dick is important. But it’s easy to lose when there’s a lot of louder stuff going on in the episode.

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deep space nine rewatch

DS9 Rewatch: Season 2, Episodes 8-10

Necessary Evil is a damn good episode, I think. Two connected murder (or in Quark’s case, attempted murder) mysteries running in parallel, one in the DS9 present, one in the past that’s told in flashbacks. It’s an episode with such solid character work for both Odo and Kira, explaining their friendship, expanding it, and then ultimately troubling it. I think what makes it so good is that while the “bad guys” of the episode get locked up, to Odo’s professional satisfaction, the perpetrator of the original murder that caused all of these events turns out to be Kira. And when she explains it, in all the complexity of Bajor being a planet occupied by a hostile force, you can tell that Odo can’t really say that she’s wrong… even if at the same time he’s incredibly troubled by being faced with the darker reality of who Kira is and the fact that she lied to him–and caused him to unwittingly lie for her.

Really, it’s so good. It’s also fun to just learn how Odo came to be the security chief on the station, which is another gross complexity because he’s being used to do Dukat’s dirty work, while Odo steadfastly refuses to do anything but a good job as defined by his own moral code. The station looks so different in the flashbacks, and so do Odo and Kira; it’s like the appearance of another lifetitme rather than just a few years before.

This is one of my favorites of the season so far, to be honest.

Which is followed by the solidly meh Second Sight. Sisko meets a mysterious love interest alien lady. Turns out that she’s the psychic projection of another dude’s actual wife. Except the psychic projection version of her is such a completely different person that she doesn’t remember anything about her real life. And the reason she’s psychically projecting is because her husband is a self-obsessed terraformer who has had about a zillion wives before her, and lost them all because that marriage ain’t big enough for a woman and his ego.

So like dude. Seriously. Stop getting married if you’re self-aware enough to admit you’re the problem.

Except the alien lady can’t just leave him because her species mates for life.

Which again, dude. If you know you’re that much of an asshole, maybe don’t marry someone who’s going to be stuck with you forever? In an act of self-sacrifice that he basically makes into a giant monument to how great he is, the terraformer guy basically dives into a star so he cacks it and his wife will stop trying to escape him by astrally projecting so hard that it’s killing her. It says a lot about how done everyone is with this guy that no one seems sad or the slightest bit upset that he basically commits suicide live on the comm channel with them.

I take back my meh. The more I think about this episode, the more I actively hate it.

Sanctuary is a refugee story. Three million aliens from the gamma quadrant show up, looking for a home. They think they’ll find that home on Bajor, pointing out that they’re farmers and they can help with the famine issues the planet is happening. Bajor says no, with the Bajorans certain they’ll end up having to take care of the refugees with resources already stretched thin.

This is a construction where you can’t necessarily blame the Bajorans; they’re recovering from the damage the Cardassians have done to their world. They’re already having famine problems and needing aide from the Federation. So it’s a decent set up for a conflict that doesn’t necessarily have a right answer… even if I think it’s a lot easier to sympathize with the gamma quadrant aliens when the Bajorans seem so cold… and then blow up a refugee vessel that tries to land. On the other hand, you can hardly blame the Bajorans for being frightened and suspicious when they’ve only just retaken control of their planet.

I think if we wanted to see it as a parallel on Earth, it works if you consider refugees going to a country that already has severe problems with famine and the like. It definitely shouldn’t be seen as a parallel to, say, refugees trying to come to the US, when we have a ridiculous amount of resources as a country and are just being selfish, xenophobic assholes who are trying to use “but we have to take care of our own people [who we don’t actually give a shit about because then we’d have to tax the rich oh noes]” as a shield.

It’s all right as an episode. Can’t say that I really want to see it again, ever.

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deep space nine rewatch

DS9 Rewatch: Season 2, Episodes 4-7

After the short arc of the first three episodes, we’re back into more standalones. Invasive Procedures is about Deep Space Nine being taken over during a plasma storm because there’s only a skeleton crew left aboard. The mastermind of the takeover is an unjoined Trill named Verad, who has decided that he is entitled to the Dax symbiont. His love interest, Mareel, is a prostitute that he rescued from his former life; she acts as his second-in-command on the hired crew that Vared uses to invade the station.

There isn’t a b-plot to speak of; most of the episode is devoted to Sisko trying to convince Mareel that Vared, once he’s Vared Dax, is going to leave her because he’ll be a different person. There’s also some good interaction between Sisko and Vared Dax, where Sisko makes it clear that he doesn’t give a shit if Dax is in there… basically if that’s Dax, that’s someone who is no longer his friend.

Honestly, I wanted to like this episode more than I did. The biggest problem is, I think, that for all the conflict is about Dax and who is in possession of the symbiote, Dax as an entity seems curiously absent. Doesn’t Dax as a being have an opinion about being kidnapped, their previous host effectively murdered while in the prime of her life, and forciby joined with someone they didn’t choose? Apparently not. Dax is a little football that Vared and Sisko fight over, basically. Then because the episode is at its time limit, Jadzia gets the symbiote back and everything is fine.

Meh.

The next episode, Cardassians, is the moment we’ve all been waiting for: The triumphant return of the Totally Heterosexual Adventures of Elim Garak. A Bajoran couple bring their adopted Cardassian war orphan to the station and immediately there’s politics all over the place when it’s implied that the parents are somehow teaching the poor kid to hate himself. The situation is obviously more complicated than that–Rugal, the kid, knows he’s Cardassian, knows what the Cardassians did to the Bajorans, and isn’t really being accepted… but his adoptive parents really love him. But he’s also the thought-to-be-dead natural child of Pa’Dar, a political opponent of Gul Dukat.

Look, I’m just in it for Garak. My favorite moment of the episode is when he just casually lets himself in to Julian’s quarters to tell him they’re going to have an Extremely Straight Field Trip down to Bajor as soon as possible. Andrew J. Robinson, who plays Garak, is absolutely transfixing in the moment when a Cardassian child at the orphanage asks him if he’s come to take them home to Cardassia; the simple look he gives her speaks absolute volumes.

The one thing I didn’t like about this episode is how quickly Rugal’s story is tied up; it’s not very satisfying. Sisko decides to send him back to Cardassia with Pa’Dar, even though his Bajoran parents love him. Rugal doesn’t get a voice in any of this. He’s a plot puck, getting batted around.

But really, it’s all about Garak, telling Julian:

Truth is in the eye of the beholder, doctor. I never tell the truth because I don’t believe there is such a thing. That is why I prefer the straight line simplicity of cutting cloth.

Keep scattering those bread crumbs, Garak.

The next episode, Melora, is… bad. Real bad. It’s a Very Special DS9 Episode about an ensign coming to the station who is effectively disabled in normal gravity because she comes from a very low-gravity home planet. (The good ol’ “marginalized person as alien” Star Trek trope.) The station is obviously not accessible for someone who uses a wheelchair; that fact alone heavily applies that disabled humans (or Bajorans, etc) don’t exist in this future because they haven’t had to come up with any work arounds to the Space Asshole Construction before now.

Melora herself has some good moments, like when she says “The truth is there is no ‘Melora’ problem until people create one.” Her “disability” isn’t the problem; other people make it the problem. But all of her good points are met by the crew being uniformly patronizing in a really awful way. Julian is in total creeper form as well as being patronizing, which apparently is appealing to Melora?

There’s the dangling of a “cure” for Melora’s condition. She starts to pursue it, but then ultimately decides to not because she would lose a lot of her cultural connections and no longer feel like herself. I am not a disabled person myself, but I know this is a fraught topic, and not one where there should be an automatic assumption that a cure would be wanted… so maybe in this little bit, the episode gets it slightly of right?

But otherwise, the episode is real bad. It wants to make philosophical points about dependency versus independence in a way that totally elides that it Star Fleet as a society treated accessibility like a right, this wouldn’t even be a question.

The only bright light is the cook at the new Klingon restaurant, and he’s mvp when he’s serenading Julian and Melora.

Rules of Acquisition brings back DS9’s second best recurring character: The Grand Nagus, played as always with wicked delight by Wallace Shawn. He comes to the station to put Quark in charge of a big negotiation with people from the Gamma Quadrant… because if Quark is successful, the Nagus will reap the rewards, and if he fails, Quark will take the blame. A brilliant young Ferengi waiter on Quark’s staff  points that out and becomes Quark’s business consultant in the process.

Only the waiter is a Ferengi woman who is masquerading as a man. She has an absolutely brilliant mind for business and refuses to be hampered by her gender in their fundamentally misogynistic culture. Look, I’m a total sucker for “crossdressing to get around the stupid bullshit of my society to get what I want” stories.

And my favorite bit is where Jadzia figures out that Pel loves Quark, but not that she’s female–Jadzia thought she had her a gay Ferengi! (Also, this is a great way for Pel to reveal she’s female without having been “clocked” by anyone, which is a thing that happens way too often in stories like this.) This also really implies that Jadzia doesn’t think homosexuality is abnormal–and maybe that gay Ferengi are a thing. Which come on, this thing was made in the 90s. I’ll take it.

I think this episode also has the first mention of the Dominion? Quark and Pel find out about it when they go to the Gamma Quadrant. Right after Pel tries to kiss Quark. Which Quark immediately goes into denial about.

Rom, incredibly jealous about Pel, ransacks her room to find out her secret. The scene where Rom rats Pel out is so hilariously shot. We just see them in the distance, Rom and Quark talking, then Rom hauling Pel over, then… Quark just falling over like a log. It’s a delight. What it leads to is sad, though. Quark sending Pel away from the station, unable to handle that she’s wearing clothes and quoting Rules of Acquisition.

Pel: Then come with me! No one in the Gamma Quadrant would care if I wear clothes or not.

Quark: I care.

Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Pel decides to unmask herself in front of the Nagus… but all it does it screw Quark out of his cut of the profits from the Gamma Quadrant. The Nagus querelously saying, “Shame on you!” to her is lovely, though. He sounds so hurt about having been skunked.

Pel: It’s time you learned that women are as capable as men when it comes to acquiring profit.

Quark: Do me a favor and don’t tell anyone else.

Oh Pel. You were amazing.

Honestly, I wonder if that’s why Quark spends all his time creeping on non-Ferengi women, particularly Jadzia. Deep down, he wants someone who can be his equal (or outfox him) but he can’t mentally handle it when he meets his match in a Ferengi woman. Your loss, Quark.

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deep space nine rewatch

DS9 Rewatch: Season 2, Episodes 1-3

The Homecoming starts out out with a Bajoran earring… and it’s enough to make me even more curious about them, since they’re apparently singular enough that Kira can look at one and know exactly who it belongs to. Which in this case is a war hero who everyone thought was dead. But the earring implies that he’s maybe still alive, and on Cardassia IV. She’s not just looking to rescue a fellow Bajoran, but hoping he can become a leader that her people need.

And then we introduce the Circle, a society of Bajoran anti-immigrant racists, basically, so this feels… nicely relevant to today. But that’s what gets Sisko to think maybe a little war hero rescue wouldn’t be a bad idea. This gives Kira and O’Brien a chance to have some time together; Kira seems a bit surprised when O’Brien just says “understood” after being told they’re either going to accomplish the rescue or die trying.

Kira and O’Brien rescue the guy they want and some additional prisoners. They get back just in time for Kira to walk in on Gul Dukat offering an apology for there still having been prisoners… which is… I don’t trust it. At all. And he says the rest of the prisoners are being sent back to Bajor. Also don’t trust it.

Frank Langella is a government dude that tells Kira to not pull crap like this again, but privately thanks her. He is just one hell of a politician character actor, isn’t he?

A bunch of masked assailants from the Circle come into Quark’s bar and brand him. Jake’s girlfriend can’t go out with him because he father says she can’t date someone who isn’t Bajoran. And Kira’s war hero (who doesn’t view himself as very heroic) is trying to run away from home by stowing away on a ship. Honestly, I can understand why a guy who’s been held prisoners and traumatized for years might not want to immediately launch himself into a racist garbage fire in an attempt to put it out with his own body.

And then Frank Langella comes back to let the war hero know he’s the “Navarch” and made the liaison to DS9. Which basically means they don’t want him messing with politics. And they’re putting Kira back on Bajor where they can watch her. Good place to end the episode…

The Circle starts with Langella totally shocked that Sisko isn’t happy to be getting rid of Kira. The Circle is attacking politicians (whew) and that’s Langella’s excuse to not want Li (the war hero, I’m tired of typing war hero) on Bajor. And there’s graffiti on Sisko’s door.

Odo’s mad as hell that Kira’s just quietly leaving.

Odo: You did fairly well at it once I smoothed your rough edges.

Kira: I thought you did well once I smoothed your rough edges.

And he’s just the first to the Kira room party. Then we get Dax, Julian, and O’Brien… and Quark. Followed by Vedek Bareil, the anti-Winn. Who has come to report that shit is tense and bad on Bajor, and invite her to hang out at his temple. And once she’s frustrated enough, she gets to stand in front of one of the orbs of the Prophets. (Apparently the way to hear what she needs to is naked sexy times with the hot Vedek. I mean. Okay. Glad to know the Prophets ship it.)

Vedek Winn: Stay as long as you like. Maybe a week if necessary.

Have I mentioned I hate Winn so, so much?

Also, I think I haven’t mentioned how hilarious it is that I find Odo’s widely varying density. Because he goes from being human-sized to very small things like glasses or a mouse. But mouse-snooping does reveal where the weapons are coming from.

And meanwhile, Kira gets kidnapped by the Circle…and they’re run by Frank Langella. It’s just the kind of behavior one would expect from a Frank Langella character! Thankfully she gets rescued by Sisko and crew before they beat her into a total pulp. And back on the station, Odo reveals that the Circle is getting its weapons secretly supplied by the Cardassians… because the Cardassians really want to force the Federation out so they can come back. Well played, Cardassians. (And my nemesis Winn is plotting with Frank Langella too, so there’s another reason to just hate them both.)

The Siege is the third and final episode of this little arc, and I’m really excited to see DS9 already dipping its toes into longer form storytelling. It wasn’t something I really got as a kid, particularly because this arc is so much about the internal politics of Bajor, but as an adult I could just roll around in this like a happy dog.

The start is an excellent moment for Sisko, reestablishing his unique command style with his spin on a pep talk. And going to the old device of slow-walking a transition of power to buy time. Classic, fun stuff.

Oh no Jake and Nog facing the prospect of being separated during the evacuation!

Nog: If our fathers couldn’t break us up, no [unable to pronounce coup d’etat] no stupid French thing can either.

MY HEART. BEST FRIENDS.

O’Brien calling the Cardassians the “Cardies” makes me think that Cardi B is going to take over that wormhole any fucking second now. But we see here where he sees his duty to Sisko specifically versus his duty to his family. “He needs me.” (Wondering how much fanfic launched off that line.)

Of course the Ferengi invented overbooking. Of course. Though Sisko trying to choke Quark seems kind of… I don’t like it. Doesn’t seem right. Sisko’s obviously willing to throw a punch or two when necessary, but that moment really rubbed me the wrong way. (Even if Quark kind of deserved it.)

The cat and mouse sequence between the bad Bajorans and the Federation resistance is wonderful. As Corina pointed out while we were watching, Li (the Bajoran war hero) is the king of this game of chess–and Odo is definitely the queen because he’s immensely maneuverable. And Meanwhile, the Kira and Jadzia adventure hour where they’re running around in a flying junk pile is just fun.

Sisko has to go all George Washington at Li, “Dying is easy, young man. Living is harder.”

Also, Winn turns on Jaro in the blink of an eye, which tells you everything that you need to know about Winn. Though boy, is this a series of the 90s, because Jaro is “fully willing to cooperate with the investigation.” Just imagine if this show was happening today.

It ends on a brief, but beautiful note about the difference between who our heroes actually were and who we need to remember them to be, because we need those stories. It’s such a solid little mini-arc.

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deep space nine rewatch

DS9 Rewatch: Season 1, episode 13-19

The Storyteller was… look, I was drunk while I watched it. It was okay? You had parallel plots of the young Bajoran Tetrarch trying to figure out how to negotiate, and the Bajoran village figuring out how to name a new “storyteller” to keep it unified. The only real problem I have with the episode is the dude that wants to be the Sirah LITERALLY TRIES TO MURDER O’BRIEN and he’s SO INTO IT that Julian and O’Brien working together barely get his knife away. And then they’re like oh cool, you be the glue that holds this village together because O’Brien doesn’t want to be.

Cool cool cool cool cool.

Anyway, it’s okay. Nog and Jake are fucking adorable. Nog playing a joke on jake with some oatmeal and pretending it was Odo, also A+. Honestly, I would have liked a little more of the Tetrarch and a little less of O’Brien going Do Not Want.

Progress has Nog and Jake being friends and attempting to do deals, and eventually coming out ahead which is lovely. I mean, Nog and Jake trying to act like they Totally Know What a Self-Sealing Stem Bolt Is when talking to O’Brien is comedy gold.  The other half of the episode is a very old-school Star Trek ethical dilemma. The Bajorans want to do a thing to a moon, and there’s some people who don’t want to leave so that the thing can be done.

Though I could do with a lot less of “he’s being so patronizing, isn’t it charming?”

Kira not wanting to be like Cardassians versus weighing the needs of a lot of people is pretty rough. Particularly because it’s so clear that the people were victims of authoritarian violance more than once already. “Doing what has to be done.”

It’s another good episode for Kira, really. She’s gone from Fighting the Power to being and agent of The Power herself. I mean. That’s basically half the episode is getting to the point where Sisko just flat says that to Kira. And the ending is an ambiguous thing… Kira forces the last holdout to leave the moon, but she’s not happy about it, and the show isn’t trying to tell us it’s a good thing that peoples’ lives have to be destroyed for progress; utilitarian arguments aren’t the be-all and end-all.

It’s a good, grown-up episode.

Oh god, Julian awkwardly hitting on Dax again at the start of If Wishes Were Horses. Why this.

Julian: Stop. you’re driving a stake through my heart.

Please god.

Imaginary things are becoming reality! That’s the plot. (Julian does indeed end up with a sex kitten version of Dax, which is… yikes. And extra yikes when Sex Kitten Dax calls the real Dax a “cold fish.”) There’s a “rupture.” The last time it was reported, it blew up the system it was in. Ticking clock ahoy!

I mean, very classically Trek. A weird thing in space makes stuff happening. There’s a slight twist in that we find out there’s some kind of sentient force behind the weird space thing when all the “hallucinations” get together and have a cryptic conversation about the people who imagined them. The conclusion that the weird space thing is everyone’s imaginary fears made manifest is a bit too Sphere for me to be able to take, though.

According to Wikipedia, Rumplestiltskin was originally supposed to be a leprechaun and Colm Meaney nixed it. In which case, whew. I do think it’s super cool that the greatest baseball player ever, Buck Bokai, is Aisan. And the birds Odo spends most of the episode chasing around are the MVPs.

I really could have lived without this one.

Next up is The Forsaken. It’s a “disaster on the station” sort of episode, where some kind of entity gets downloaded into the computers and O’Brien has to figure out how to get it out… while that leaves Odo trapped in an elevator with Lwaxana Troi and Julian trapped in a hallway that’s on fire with a bunch of ambassadors he’s supposed to take care of.

It’s not a particularly deep episode, but it’s got Lwaxana being so very Lwaxana, and I’m a sucker for that. And she does get to have a nice, serious moment with Odo, which I liked. I want a recording of Majel Barrett saying, “I never cared to be ordinary,” that I can listen to every time I’m feeling small and sad. So I loved this episode, it’s fun, and O’Brien comes out of it with an alien computer dog that if I remember correctly, never gets mentioned again.

Dramatis Personae has everyone but Odo acting really fucking weird after a Klingon ship fresh from the Gamma quadrant blows up right outside the station. Odo gets to have a headache that literally splits his head in half and knocks him briefly unconscious instead. Honestly, I kind of loved seeing Quark being so concerned about his best frenemy when Odo gets struck.

You can tell Odo thinks something is very wrong, but the look he shoots Sisko when he says “I couldn’t care less what happened to a Klingon ship,” is absolute gold. And Quark is also unaffected, so that’s a great opportunity for some buddy cop moments. The crew starts splitting into factions between Kira and Sisko, with everyone way too into station politics.

Turns out there’s a doodad that’s recorded the way a species tore itself to shreds and that’s put a telepathic overprint on the people of DS9. Which is very, very Star Trek, looking at the sins of the past destroying the presence. Mostly, this episode is full of really solid acting work by all of the main cast. They are convincingly not themselves, down to the body language, and you can tell things are really, really wrong long before Odo reaches that conclusion.

The fact that the MacGuffin Kira’s so concerned about in this episode is “dolamine” fucked with me, because my brain kept hearing “dolomite” and getting very confused. Also, decision to name the place where the not-dolomite gets refined into weapons-grade MacGuffin, “Ultima Thule” is sure… something. (Though there were quite a few less Nazis running around publically in the early 90s than there are now, so who knows.)

This is a pretty good episode, but it gets 30 DKP minus for telepathic energy being a physical cloud that you can flush out a cargo bay.

Duet goes fast right out of the gate. A Cardassian with a rare illness that means he must have been at an infamous mining camp during the occupation comes to DS9 and Kira is on him immediately. The parallels to hunting down Nazi war criminals are conscious and stark. Kira interrogates Marritza through three phases, each becoming more claustrophobic and tense: first, Marritza claims to have been nothing but a file clerk, and even attempts to gaslight Kira with the claim that nothing so terrible happened at the work camp; it was just a rumor the Cardassians started to keep the Bajorans cowed. Then he claims to be Gul Darhe’el, the Butcher of Gallitep, and taunts Kira monstrously. Then it’s revealed that he in fact Marritza, who has cosmetically transformed himself into the appearance of Darhe’el in an effort to be tried and executed for the war crimes that Darhe’el died in order to escape. In this last moment, he becomes a broken, weeping man, someone tortured by being a “bug” who did nothing personally to cause the atrocities but was too morally weak to do anything to stop them.

Harris Yulin plays the Cardassian, Marritza, and he’s fucking amazing. Nana Visitor is intense and emotional and fucking amazing in this episode. I can see why it’s considered to be one of the best DS9 episodes; the fact that it’s a bottle episode just makes it all the more claustrophobic and inescapable. It’s a masterpiece that asks a lot of incredibly difficult questions and doesn’t offer any answers–because it admits it doesn’t have any. It’s an episode only DS9 could have done justice to because of DS9’s world build and the character work Kira already had in the rest of the season.

Here’s a really intense breakdown of the episode that’s a deeper dive than I can manage–and puts it in context of similar episodes in The Twilight Zone and Magnum, PI.

Anyway, Duet definitely earns its place as one of the best Trek episodes of all time.

Oh god here comes [Not yet] Kai Winn in In the Hands of the Prophets. I barely remember watching DS9 back in the day, but I remember how much I fucking hated Kai Winn. Her first appearance is showing up to shit all over Keiko’s school because the science of the wormhole is blasphemy. This is the first episode that really puts me at odds with Kira, because she’s of the opinion that science needs to have the right spiritual context, and all I can hear is “intelligent design” until I start seeing red.

(And Kira, do you really have a right to dictate the spiritual education of the non-Bajoran kids? Just. Argh.)

Winn: I feel your anger toward me and I forgive you for it.

ARGH I HATE HER SANCTIMONIOUS ASS SO MUCH.

This whole thing just gives me flashbacks to the Kansas evolution hearings, for all they happened over ten years later. It’s all about the conflict between secularism and fundamentalism, with Winn’s faction happy to do things like, say, bomb a school that teaches stuff they don’t like. (And the thing that really cheeses me off is it’s not like Keiko was telling the kids they couldn’t believe in the Prophets; she was just saying what the scientific understanding was.) Sisko rightfully lays the bombing at Winn’s feet; she’s made it clear that she won’t tolerate any beliefs that diverge from her own, and she’s a master of veiled threats. Hell, she uses their shared religion to convince one of the Bajorans on station to attempt to assassinate her opponent.

I mean, it’s a good episode in that it made me hate Winn with the firey passion of a thousand suns. It’s definitely speaking on relevant issues as well. Not a bad ending for the first season, because it hints at social conflicts to come.

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deep space nine rewatch

DS9 Rewatch: Season 1, episode 11 & 12

The Vortex has a pretty good hook to start. Shady dealings, half of a Miradorn pair getting murdered by a random other guy in a robbery gone wrong that Quark might have set up, the remaining half swearing vengeance. And the alien that did the murdering is from the gamma quadrant–and knows about Odo’s people, “changelings.”

The gamma quadrant alien, Croden (played by Cliff DeYoung) is the absolute backbone of this episode. He’s massively good as a grifter and a liar and a murderer on the run from his scary government. His dialog is absolutely A+ for someone who is basically trying to coldread Odo the entire time so he can get to the one thing that matters to him–his daughter. It’s just such a well put together set of interactions, and Croden masterfully manipulates Odo into doing the one thing he finds most important, which is taking his daughter back to DS9. And that moment where Croden goes back and forth between saving Odo and leaving him behind is incredibly well done.

It’s a great character episode for Odo, where you finally get a little more depth to him other than being just a hella grumpy security guy. He does feel lonely, and he does desperately want to know where he came from… but not quite desperately enough to compromise his principles for the bribe of information. What bends him is seeing and hearing enough truth about Croden’s circumstances–and then getting heavily guilted by Croden about the daughter. It’s interesting to see Odo make an emotional connection despite his best efforts, and be emotionally manipulated by someone while obviously understanding that’s what’s going on. And so he hands Croden and his daughter over to the Vulcans that happen to be in the area.

It’s a really good episode. And I agree with Corina, that you could sum it up as “Odo: I had an emotion once, and I hated it.”

Battle Lines has probably my favorite opener so far, with Lesbian Icon Kira Nerys furious that the files from the old Cardassian commander call her a minor operative. So disrespectful. It’s so lovely to see Kai Opaka again, some to collect the tour Sisko promises her–but she obviously wants to go through the wormhole. Kai Opaka gets killed almost immediately after the runabout gets attacked by a satellite and crashlands on a moon that’s basically Space Avernus. It’s not the first time Star Trek has done an “endless war” episode, but the wrinkle here is the dead being infinitely resurrected to continue fighting. It’s very clearly set up to be about the spiral into obsessive vengeance, where the reasons for a war have been forgotten and all that remains is a nightmare where negotiation is nearly impossible.

If the last episode was Odo’s, this one is Kira’s. Much of Star Trek has operated under the really problematic assumption that the enlightened future is basically atheist (sometimes quietly, sometimes not) and the deep spirituality of the Bajorans (and Kira, specifically, as a character who uses her religion as a source of hope and strength) is a major counterpoint to that. Kira’s moment of deep mourning for Kai Opaka is heart-wrenching. 

Kai Opaka: This is not your war, Kira.

DS9 has set up Kira as being the most combative of the command staff before, though it always seemed to lean more toward that just being the result of an aggressive personality. But the moment when Kira tries to throw herself into the endless war, frantically demanding organization and defense, makes it pretty clear that she’s been fighting all her life and that’s left a deep mark of paranoia on her. Things make the most sense in the context of war, and she seems both scared yet almost glad for it.

Kira: That’s over for me now. That’s… not who I am. I don’t want you to think that I’m this violent person without a soul, without a conscience. That’s not who I am.

Not gonna lie, I cried in this moment.

Kira: I’ve known nothing but violence since I was a child.

Kai Opaka: In the eyes of the Prophets, we are all children.

Kira: I’m afraid that the Prophets won’t forgive me.

Kai Opaka: They are waiting for you to forgive yourself.

Kira is just such a fantastic character, conflicted and flawed and still trying to figure out who she is and who she wants to be. This episode gives her such a good opportunity to be vulnerable and express those things with someone she trusts–Kai Opaka–because she’s still not willing to be anything but confident and totally badass around the Star Fleet staff.

Kai Opaka’s conclusion that she should stay and provide spiritual guidance comes in before Sisko and Julian have a chance to tell her that she can’t leave anyway. Which tells you everything you need to know about Kai Opaka. And I’d say Julian actually gets a good character moment too, if a brief one, when he mentions he could stop the aliens from being endlessly resurrected… and then immediately quietly withdraws the offer when the leader enthuses about what a great weapon that would be.

Oh, and there’s still time for a little Prime Directive noodling.

Basically, what a good fucking episode.

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deep space nine rewatch

DS9 Rewatch: Season 1, Episodes 7-10

Well, Dax is off to a strong start with another round of “Julian, take a fucking hint.” Extra annoying is Julian basically tells himself “well, she didn’t say no, so it still could be yes!” and follows Dax, so he’s there to at least see her being kidnapped. Dax, why so many creepers?

I love that there’s a “unilateral extradition” treaty with these people, because that ensures a dramatic kidnapping attempt. But I like the way this sets up to examine some of the strangeness of the Trill as a people, like the question of who Dax really is, and if Dax becomes a different person when the host changes–and the existence of the host as an entity who still has a life with meaning despite joining. And there’s some great moments of politics, about who is allied with who and why the Bajorans don’t have a treaty so they can say no extradition because it’s their station. The maneuvering is lovely, as is Odo playing hardball with Quark using the threat of building code violations; this kind of thing is Star Trek playing bureaucracy at its best.

Also, special love for Anne Haney as the arbiter who is Done With Everything Before The Trial Even Starts. As Trek trial episodes go, it’s not The Measure of a Man (if for no other reason than it lacks the special drama of Picard versus Riker); it leans more toward being a mystery episode, solving a thirty year old crime that goes full Long Black Veil, which cuts into the major ethical debate that’s rolled up in the question of who Dax is. But it’s solid, and fun watch.

Another episode, another setup with Julian being fucking insufferable, but this time he’s not creeping on any lady people so I’ll allow it. You know, I remember really liking him at some point, and I’m not sure if it’s because he gets some good character development in later seasons, or if I just gravitated toward him on my first watch because he was the youngest guy on the crew and he is as objectively cute as he is smug. The Passenger starts out with Julian getting lightly choked by a dangerous prisoner who then promptly dies, so my money was instantly on him getting possessed by the prisoner in some way.

I feel like episodes are taking turns with who is hitting grossly on Jadzia. Last episode was Julian. This one, it’s Quark’s turn.

Security Lieutenant: …if you want my opinion…

Sisko: Actually, I don’t.

This is why I love Sisko. And DS9 is working to make him such a distinct sort of command presence from the captains we knew before.

Instead we get a shipment of a MacGuffin going to a planet to help stop the people there from dying, on a collission course with a very bad man who is supposedly dead and was obsessed with immortality. Probably because I called it at the very beginning of the episode, so none of the “ooh, suspense! mystery!” stuff worked for me, this ended up feeling like the worst episode of what had been a fairly solid run. (And all love to Alexander Siddig, but him [over]acting as the criminal walking around in his Julian suit is just… not great.)

Move Along Home starts with the terrible revelation for Sisko that Jake’s gotten all his relationship advice from Nog. Y I K E S. And the first ever aliens coming in formally from the Gamma Quadrant are gamers. OH NOES. (Oh god they actually look like they got scraped up from the TTRPG tables at a fantasy convention and slapped in some horrible, cheap-looking costumes, which I feel terrible for even having written.)

Honestly what appalls me even more than the wigs in this episode is that the Ferengi are just so bad and obvious at cheating. And the bad, obvious cheating leads the main crew members to get trapped inside the game that Quark is playing as an apology, which is just… not a great concept, and especially not as executed, plastic 3D board and all. My face met my palm when the Head Gamer Alien showed up to cackle maniacally and shout his first cryptic message.

I mean, that’s basically the entire episode. Dude in a bad wig saying cryptic things while the command staff wander around in a maze and get given basic “puzzles,” salted liberally with some of the worst acting so far this season. Even Odo’s exasperated “Is it against Star Fleet policy to push a few buttons?” comes across flat. Quark’s decisions have the potential to be interesting; I mean, as Corina said while we were watching, if you’re going to pick one guy off the station to play a random game with lives at stake, it probably would be Quark. I’m not sure how, but this episode even makes the life or death choice uninteresting; Quark goes into a screaming begging fit and the exasperated Head Gamer Alien says they’ll just choose someone at random. Which leads to an interminable cave sequence. And in the end, it’s all dismissed as “only a game.”

(Also “a tectonic shift of two ground masses”??? WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT EVEN SUPPOSED TO MEAN?)

Apparently this one is considered to be one of the ten worst Star Trek episodes ever. Can’t say I disagree.

In fact, Move Along Home was so fucking awful, instead of going to bed I decided to watch another episode just so it wasn’t going to be the last thing in my brain before sleep.

Which puts us at The Nagus. And this episode, I do vaguely remember, mostly because the Grand Nagus is played by Wallace Shawn (you know… “Never trust a Sicilian when death is on the line!”) and he’s still an absolute delight even under seventy pounds of makeup.

I think the more important part of the episode is the expansion of Nog and Jake’s friendship, the tensions where you can tell that their respective parents would really rather prefer to tear them apart. It’s a great foundation for their later character development. And poor Nog getting told yet again that he can’t go to school when it’s something he actually wants to do, and that makes him get in a fight with his best friend. This poor kid in his unsupportive home environment. And then there’s Jake, who I love with all my heart, sad because he’s losing his best friend–and when his dad tells him that “these things happen sometimes” you can just hear him thinking this is bullshit. It’s a really great depiction of friendship between young men that I don’t feel like even gets a lot of play today.

That scene of Jake helping Nog read. My fucking heart.

Okay, yeah, there’s some other stuff going on too. Quark getting to play Mob Boss for a Day has its really fun moments, particularly if you can turn off the part of your brain that’s screaming about the horrible, racist stereotype they’re based on. There’s some spoofy nods to The Godfather and watching Quark go mad with power followed by paranoia definitely has its moments. The Grand Nagus popping back up from his faked death is pretty dang fun.

Definitely a worthy apology for the two episodes that preceded it.