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weerd1 · 5 years

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Star Trek DS9 Rewatch Log, Stardate 1909.22: Missions Reviewed, “Afterimage,” “Take Me Out to the Holosuite,” and “Chrysalis.”

(Review notes: While watching these three episodes yesterday, I saw the news that Aron Eisenberg, Nog, passed away unexpectedly. Nog has been in integral part of this story, and I know he has some very deep and dark episodes coming up in this rewatch. The heart that shows through Nog though is certainly the product of Aron Eisenberg’s performance. He was actively involved with fandom, even liking a couple of my tweets in the past. By all accounts he was quite a person, and this is certainly a hard loss for the community of Niners, and Star Trek fans in general. Condolences to his family and friends.)

“Afterimage” shows Ezri Dax having a hard time adapting to life on the station, and planning instead to resume Ezri Tigen (pre-joined Ezri’s) duties on the USS Destiny. Sisko wants her to stay, Quark considers this to be the chance he lost out on with Jadzia, and slowly convinces Bashir of the same. Worf meanwhile refuses to even be in the same room with her. When Worf sees her spending time with Bashir however, he threatens the Doctor, saying that accepting Ezri dishonors the memory of Jadzia. Garak, who has been codebreaking the Cardassians for Starfleet Intelligence starts having claustrophobic attacks even in spacious areas, and Sisko asks Ezri, a counselor, to talk to him.

She ties his claustrophobia to the fact his father would lock him in a closet for a punishment and moves on, but his attacks get worse, causing them to have to let him spend time in a holosuite. When she tries to treat him again, he becomes belligerent, and convinces her she should leave Starfleet. Sisko seems to support that. O’Brien goes to Worf, and talks to him about the fact that this is a tough situation, but would Jadzia want him to treat Ezri this way? Ezri is preparing to leave the station, and yet goes to say goodbye to Garak, mentioning his successes codebreaking. When he gets uncomfortable, she pushes, and Garak breaks down, and the two of them realize he is punishing himself as a traitor to Cardassia, knowing the Dominion must be stopped, but knowing also that his people will likely be destroyed in the process. He accepts treatment, and Ezri decides she will stay if Worf can handle it. Worf mentions it will still be hard for him, but knows he cannot punish Ezri for what has happened. As she accepts the DS9 position and a promotion, knowing Sisko pushed her buttons earlier to motivate her, she moves through the crowd more comfortable. Worf does not speak to her, but toasts her from across the room.

It is fascinating to watch these writers who now have more than six years working together under their belts get to develop a new character, when there is so much great material sitting around to call on. Garak’s feelings on Cardassia are a great moment for his character too, but I think the thing that I find most compelling here is the Sisko/Dax relationship. We know Curzon Dax was Benjamin’s mentor, then Jadzia his friend and peer. Here we see Benjamin get to step into the mentor role, and that’s a really lovely piece of character development only a Science Fiction setting can give you. Worf’s confusion over all of this is very heartfelt, as who wouldn’t want to bring their love back in some form…but particularly since he just allowed Jadzia soul to enter Sto-Vo-Kor, how does a Klingon deal with her being in this new, timid and unsure person? All of this is well-played.

A Vulcan starship the T’Kumbra docks at DS9 and an old rival of Sisko challenges him to a baseball game in “Take Me Out to the Holosuite.” Since an Academy quarrel, Captain Solok has taken every opportunity to show his Vulcan superiority to Sisko, including citing Sisko’s Academy behavior in about a dozen papers. Now, he has trained members of his crew in baseball, and is ready to show Sisko he is superior there as well.

Sisko assembles his staff and starts training them to play, and asks Odo to be umpire. The crew is eager, but also untalented. Sisko begins to take this all very seriously and kicks Rom off the team for being so bad at it. The rest threaten to quit, but Rom asks them all to stay. When the game day arrives, the Vulcans are pulling way ahead, and tensions are high. When Odo calls a strike on Worf and Sisko protests, tapping Odo on the chest, Odo ejects him. Sisko, now in the stands watches O’Brien take over as coach and sees his crew together as a team, losing or not. He grabs Rom (who has been in the stands watching) and suits him up. O’Brien puts him on the plate with Nog on third at the top of the ninth. They signal for Rom to bunt, and when he leans in to try and figure out what they are talking about, the ball hits his bat. Nog makes it to home and the Niners score their first run. The team goes out praising Rom and celebrating, carrying him off the field. Solok complains to the umpire that the game isn’t finished and when Odo turns, the Vulcan grabs his shoulder to pull him back. Odo smiles and says, “YOU’RE GONE!”

Later at Quark’s, the Niners are celebrating their non-shut out with Jake beating himself up over giving up 12 runs. Ben reminds him Vulcans are at least three times stronger and faster than humans, and in the circumstances they all did great. Solok comes in to gloat, but finds himself heckled when he sees they Niners enjoying themselves, and they begin to point out how emotional he seems to be over that fact. The Logisticians have more points, but the Niners enjoyed the game, and the team all sign a baseball to go on Sisko’s desk.

Given the serious nature of the show, having a break like this one where you can catch your breath and enjoy some fish-out-of-water moments is pretty welcome. (Worf’s version of “hey-batter-batter” is actually “Death to the Opposition!) I had more of a problem with this episode 20 years ago feeling the Vulcans were mis-portrayed, and indeed, I think THIS is where we first see the Vulcans of “Star Trek: Enterprise” with their superiority complex. Having reconciled that watching ENT this worked much better for me. Perhaps an analysis of the Vulcans in canon and fanon should be the subject of another essay…oh lord, do I need to rewatch and review Enterprise? Interestingly, Rom is shown here batting left handed because Max Grodénchik was an accomplished player, having actually played semi-pro. They couldn’t get him to otherwise appear unskilled enough.

In “Chrysalis,” Bashir is feeling a bit lonely but has the Jack Pack, the group of genetically enhanced humans who are institutionalized, come to the station because they know he is working on something to help Serina (the non-verbal woman among them) control her sensory stimuli and normalize.

After Sisko smooths over the fact that three of them impersonated Starfleet Officers to get there, Bashir tries to design the machine he needs to work on Serina’s brain, but O’Brien tells him it can’t be done. The Jack Pack take on the issue and manage a fine substitute. Bashir performs the operation and indeed Serina seems fine, yet she has the benefits of her genetic engineering as well. She seems unable to integrate back into the group of her friends though, and starts spending more time with Bashir and his friends. He develops feelings for her, asking if she wants to stay on the station. He is quite happy to have someone who can think and act as well as he can with his augmentations.

She seems to suffer a setback however and becomes cataleptic again. They come to realize it is only a defense mechanism as she does not want to hurt Bashir, but is not ready to make a decision to be with him either; Bashir derides himself for smothering her. Jack, Patrick, and Lauren go back to their hospital, while Bashir finds Serina a research position where she can sort out her new life. As she leaves, he promises to never forget her, and standing alone, he watches her ship leave.

I have to wonder if intentionally or not, this episode puts Bashir’s insufferable horndog days from the early seasons into context. He is indeed separated from everyone around him by his abilities, and though he does love his friends, he is seeking some form of deeper connection on par with his level of thinking. There’s not a lot of time left for the show to revisit Serina, and we won’t see her again before the show ends, but it would be neat if some future show could give us a hint of where a second genetically enhanced human whom it seems the Federation is going to allow out in the world, ends up.

NEXT VOYAGE: Star Trek gives me one of my dearest beliefs about the inner workings of the universe in “Treachery, Faith, and The Great River.”

#star trek #Star Trek: Deep Space Nine #DS9 rewatch

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cyrelia-j · 6 years

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[Fic] Deuces IV: Heartbreaker (Garak/Bashir)

(Apologies if #1 this has weird characters and #2 it doesn’t cut. I’m about to melt down trying to get this to work and on every device I use it looks wrong in a different way so I’m at a loss)

First off, MASSIVE thanks to @eilupt @ladyvean @noxziconsortium @valkyriesews and anyone else I forgot to mention for your input on Cardassian fair food. Also, I wanted things to be a bit different but don’t be alarmed by any snags in the road because this is ultimately definitely a garashir universe :) Previous parts are here:

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Summary: AU (no Dominion also kept some other characters alive like Bareil because this world is a happy place) Garak and his surrogate daughter Ziyal find themselves on Deep Space Nine on a stopover to Bajor. While Major Kira shows Ziyal around DS9 Garak and Julian have their date. Julian is optimistic. After all, he’s got this down to a science

Keiko O’Brien is an absolute gift from the Prophets, Julian likes to say making use of local idioms, and if Miles doesn’t treat her properly Julian is totally going to steal her. That’s what he likes to tease, but she really is an intelligent and infinitely creative woman who has been invaluable in the success of what Julian likes to call his infallible first date sure thing holoprogram. Jadzia had at first referred to it playfully as “Julian’s Lizard Daddy Trap”. Keiko had then told the both of them about gairaigo and how a lot of Japanese products to this day bear strange sounding names because of the fascination with borrowed words . She then showed them an old “family heirloom” that was something called a “bento box” with the odd combination of words “Crunky Ball Nude” elegantly scrawled across the top. She then said with a perfectly straight face that if Julian wanted to truly thank her for her contributions to the menu that he would call it nothing less than “Julian’s Delicious Lizard Delight Circus.”

The program now bears the innocuous file name of “JDLDC1”

The program in question is the ultimate product of love and devotion- and if he’s being frank, Julian’s attempt to streamline the “first date” into a happy efficient guarantee of success. It had taken the three of them – Jadzia, Julian, and Keiko – two years to complete with some degree of trial and error but it’s a masterwork. Julian had built it off of one of Recreational Station Hidalgo’s old modules of an exotic carnival and the three of them worked to modify every parameter to meet a certain taste; namely a certain Cardassian male taste, though Julian didn’t see that it wouldn’t appeal to most Cardassians as a whole with some modifications.

Quark certainly seemed to think so. Going off Julian’s impressive track record in fact, he thought if Julian would let him copy it that it would net them both a tidy profit with the steady influx of Cardassians passing through the station. Julian wouldn’t hear of Jadzia and Keiko being left out but in the end he decided that he still wanted to get use out of it before it became public.

Quark had asked sourly exactly how many more Cardassians he really needed to entertain as many as he had already. So perhaps Julian had developed a bit of a reputation- amazingly over the course of his time on station he’d gone from Deep Space Nine’s resident Ladies Man to resident Lizard Queen- but well, he still hadn’t quite found the one who he could really fall for. Well, alright, perhaps Julian had fallen for several dozen going by Miles’ count but they just weren’t quite it. There was still something missing there. And thus came in the holoprogram that made the entire process easier.

Jadzia had contributed to the majority of the attractions, the exotic animals on display, the rides, and the shows. Of course they’d been honed and refined over time with new data to account for Cardassian musical preferences, hearing, exceptional eyesight, differences in equilibrium, adrenal responses and the like and it was absolutely magnificent. He’d also managed to- with Miles’ persuasive help initially- “sweet talk” Gilora Rejal from the Science Academy into further assisting them during her periodic visits for research. She’d thought the idea was completely ridiculous at first, but as he laid out his ambitious plans and designs, she couldn’t help but throw in corrections where she saw improvements were needed.

By the end of it, both she and Jadzia had engaged in some fantastically heated debates on adjustments and turned out a marvel of engineering. Jadzia may have also slept with her which Julian was a tad envious of since Gilora was a stunning woman. She’d warmed to Julian’s company once he’d finally stopped being so circumspect and polite and he corresponded with her regularly with her now to keep abreast of the latest news and current events on Cardassia Prime. She had a completely wicked and unforgiving wit and she also helpfully provided him with the best and most heated topics of debate that he took full advantage of using on his dates. Julian still wondered on occasion if he might not have a chance, but Jadzia was certain that it would never work.

Her associate, Ulani Belor had been curious as to their “secret” conversations and meetings though Julian didn’t know if she’d have an interest he’d explained the project to her as well. Their “colleague” Dejar had little interest in any of it and thought the lot of them were allowing themselves to get distracted by nonsense. Well, that was Julian’s introduction to the Obsidian Order and its operatives and he could say he’d be perfectly happy to go his entire life without dealing with another one of them. Ulani had taken interest in the food that Keiko had been working on. Julian hardly fancied himself a culinary expert- Miles once said he was pretty sure that Julian would ingest anything for the purposes of getting laid. But between the two of them they seemed to reach a perfect accord and marriage of both Cardassian and Earth tastes.

Or rather it turned out that the Cardassian taste was particularly receptive to a lot of Japanese and other Southeast and East Asian foods not often represented in most Federation cultural exchanges. Both scientists declared after tasting the dango smothered in yamok sauce that if the Federation actually brought some real food with them, they might find more Cardassians to be receptive to their proposals. Keiko then wondered if the Vietnamese balut that some back stalls still sold had would carry well over to regova eggs. It absolutely did and Ulani was happy to share some other Kardasi festival delights such as W’sai, Kori balls, and Nurot. Well, lacking a sense of taste or not, Julian was completely sold and it turned out, so was Legate Turrel when he was on the station during negotiations with Kai Winn and Vedek Bareil. Not that Julian is bragging, but he doesn’t think that Vedek Bareil had anything on his negotiating skills.

Julian wasn’t sure how he’d felt about Captain Sisko subsequently designating him official head of the Cardassian welcoming committee, remarking with a perfectly straight face that he was pleased Julian had overcome his initial difficulties with showing foreign dignitaries around the station. Julian was sure there was some look that passed between him and Jadzia just then which made him pout just a bit before ultimately accepting incredibly graciously. He could hardly look a gift horse in the mouth.

And he was good at it, he found, his social life aside. Julian had grown quite adept at reading the necessary cues to avoid any embarrassing incidents (Kira still seemed crushed that Gul Dukat had no interest in him whatsoever though Julian was hardly crushed by that realization as he found the man utterly insufferable) and learned which subtle ones to throw out when off duty to get a feel for the atmosphere as Keiko liked to say. Julian saved those little tricks for his dates though; no need to let on too early just how good he was at this game. Most of the men he dated seemed to prefer his “vapid twink doctor” bit anyway and he only employed the most subtle use of his Cardassian routine. He was terribly good at it.

According to Quark as he enters the bar tonight, they were taking bets on which of the newest station arrivals Julian had his eye on. Quark informs him a bit sourly that he’d lost a good bit of latinum when he bet on the older doctor from Lacoria City. Rom on the other hand had picked the Tailor Garak right off the bat and is counting his winnings rather loudly at the bar. Quark snaps that they aren’t his winnings since “his woman” had to pick the candidate for him. Julian just smiles and shakes his head as he looks for Garak to make an entrance. Leeta knows his tastes so well.

Julian had arrived exactly on time, neither early nor late knowing how Cardassians value punctuality. And what an entrance he makes. Garak looks absolutely luscious in the dark red silk shirt wrapped around him magnificently, showing off those broad shoulders and delectable thick waist. And speaking of thick… Julian is sure he must be drooling, looking at those impeccably tailored pants hugging thick thighs and Julian finds himself catching a discreet glimpse to the burnished old Bajoran sculpture that he’d donated out of generosity.

Of course those in the Federation were renown for stupid gestures like that though Julian admitted to Quark that if he would be so kind as to perhaps place it say along the one wall near the first floor entrance where Julian might make use of it for “observational purposes” he might say that he owed Quark a favor during one of Odo’s subsequent “witch hunts”. Quark hadn’t needed more than a month before he called that favor in and Odo hardly seemed amused by his accidentally spilling a drink on the “Odo in a jar” that he’d assumed the guise of to replace Quark’s actual one. Julian loves the sculpture.

Especially now that the flat, reflective surface is giving him the most stunning view of Garak’s ass that he could have imagined. Julian usually prefers bottoming but for an ass like that he’s more than willing to be flexible. …In more ways than one.

“The house takes two! Place your bets now!” Quark yells out the code as every eye on the bar turns to Julian for just a moment. He smiles a bit self-effacing at that, the 2 references the two hours Quark thinks it will take him to bed the humble tailor. Julian certainly hopes so. A few bets go for 1 and some for a half- Julian mentally rolls his eyes at that bit of optimism- but he trusts Quark, really. The house is rarely wrong. Julian meets Garak with a few steps, seeing the curious look.

“They’re taking bets,” Julian explains with a disinterest shrug. “I couldn’t begin to guess on what but I have to tell you, that you look absolutely fabulous.” Julian gives a casual but hopeful brush of his upper arm. “I love this shirt,” he says, sure to keep his flirting completely human for now. He can let the fun begin once they’re inside. Garak’s smile in return is brilliant. It’s a wide pleased grin and Julian can see the hint of tongue poking the air, tasting, scenting.

He was sure to shower and apply the deodorizing oil that he and Jadzia had developed after his second date had informed him rather bluntly that he had a delightful time but didn’t think he’d ever be able to adjust to the human scent and taste. Julian never thought he particularly smelled but Gilora had said there was a very strong musk that he would get when perspiring that had quite a salty and at times bitter taste to it. Jadzia didn’t have it and neither did Keiko and he thought it might be a male thing until Keiko reminded him (which he really should have remembered being a doctor) that humans of East Asian descent tend to have fewer apocrine sweat glands and so there began the great experiment to develop an oil that could effectively eliminate that issue. After much trial and error he realized everything Federation produced left an odd lingering taste on the Cardassian tongue even if it was supposed to have no odor.

It took months but in the end it worked with the final approval from both Gilora and Ulani he had an effective oil which sat over the skin until it wore off naturally over a few days’ time but until then reacted exactly as needed to produce no odor but a faint trace of sandalwood and root from the north renowned for it’s mild aroma. They both informed him that they’d scented him more than they cared to and he absolutely owed them both big time. He figured it couldn’t be worse than any other deals he’d cut with them.

There’s a curious glance from Garak at that but he refrains from commenting on it instead complimenting Julian’s outfit. Julian can see a linger of eyes to his bare neck, bare collarbone and he almost wishes that he could bet on himself. One. Definitely one.

“You’ve no idea how excited I am to show you what I have planned for this evening,” Julian says practically vibrating. The Midway. Julian definitely is going to start there with this one. One hour if that and he’s got this. He shoots Quark a wink holding up a finger watching as the patrons erupt in another frenzy of betting as they make their way to the second floor. Julian’s got this…

Garak doesn’t know that he’s ever been more bored in his life. He smiles politely as Julian drinks the broth out of the boiled egg his head timing out just when he imagines that Julian is going to accidentally spill some down his neck because it’s “terribly messy” and there it goes, a few inviting rivulets of the clear broth running down that nicely tanned skin.

“And I take it that’s how I’m supposed to enjoy this delicacy?” Garak asks already knowing the answer because he’s already known the answer to every insipid contrivance that this evening has brought him. Guls, if Julian wasn’t so gorgeous… but even that’s starting to wear thin. Julian smiles- wait for it- inviting tilt of his head just so, to the right, another flash of his neck and Garak knows that he should have long put a hand on Julian’s shoulder to show his interest but it’s just so obvious he can’t bring himself to give in to such egregiously blatant cues even if it drags this miserable date out further.

That and actually every dish that Julian has tempted into his hands has been completely to die for.

The teriyaki, the sweet and sour sauce covering the fried pop beetles nearly brought him to another plane of existence. Julian had gone on about the work he and Chief Engineer O’Brien’s wife had put into the food in the program along with on Ulani Belor who he’d only chanced to hear of due to his former colleague’s amateurish bungling of a simple sabotage mission. Naturally he told Julian he wasn’t familiar with her. Right about now he’s almost wishing he was on a date with her as Julian begins another “conversation starter” that he has to be fishing off of a hidden list somewhere.

“Yes, you’ve got it, you do that brilliantly,” he says in a fawning compliment that would be nice if it wasn’t immediately followed up by a predictable air scenting and an enthusiastic “flirty” draw of his finger in the air and by the state did someone print Cardassian dating manual in the Federation since the end of the occupation because Garak feels he could sit here with a list and check everything off in order.

The Regova balut is also heaven. The sprinkle of the furikake that Julian suggests is masterful. Julian then asks his opinion on the proposed changes to the household registry next quarter that the council meets and Garak nearly wants to weep. Garak is sure that Julian will present the most uninformed opinion imaginable and allow Garak to “educate” him while he tries to debate a careful but ultimately poor position. Guls, if he wanted to have a date with a vapid holoprogram he’d just run the thing without Julian and just enjoy the food and the ambiance.

How long has it even been? Garak is certain he’s lost all sense of time being trapped in this miserable mobius continuum of bad date. Perhaps he’s in fact died and this is some Faustian iteration of eternal torment for a life poorly lived. The most delicious food in the galaxy in exchanged for company so poor it would drive a man to want to take his own life. Alright, so perhaps the newly opened Federation archives have only given him a larger plethora of work with which to reference when he wants to seem smart- at least that’s what Parmak had said to him the last time they had corresponded. He’d sooner die than admit it but there’s actually some Earth derived literature that he enjoys and he’d been hoping for more interesting cultural exchanges and debates like he’s enjoyed with some of the more frequent human visitors vacationing on the Morfan Providence but…

“Is something the matter?” Julian asks and Garak can’t believe that he’s been driven to actually show any of his anguish outwardly. Ironically in a rare moment of veracity he has no clue where to even begin to itemize the obscenely long list of everything single “something” which has grown fed by Julian’s obviousness into a “matter”. My, where to even start… perhaps the scent is the most difficult to reconcile. I definitely scented you in the Replimat and it was a touch strong but very human, very alluring and it was quite nice. But here tonight it’s like tasting a pleasure doll engineered to be inoffensive which may appeal to some but it’s quite boring. You were charming in the replimat and here charm has given way to some series of contrived scripts you’ve been following exactly like a carefully choreographed routine. Which makes perfect sense of course given the interesting conversation I’d had in Quark’s but still I’d hoped for something a bit different.

He’d in fact as was his custom gone to Quark’s earlier in the day to make a discreet study of the area, check for escape routes, hazards, observe the atmosphere. He hadn’t noticed anything untoward as he ordered a drink and kept his ears and eyes open. It had allowed him to relax a bit and it wasn’t long before he started catching snippets of conversation about the “infamous” Julian Bashir which was quite a curiosity. He certainly wasn’t going to involve himself with anyone who could pose a possible danger to himself or Ziyal but then in striking up a conversation with a fellow named Morn who couldn’t shut up for the life of him he learned several interesting things.

The first being that the young doctor was infamous for the number of Cardassian men he’d bedded- primarily military men and a handful of freighter captains. The second was that his reputation was so large that the entire bar got in on serious betting whenever a “fresh wave” of Cardassians were on the station and third… Third being that he never fails to “bag his lizard” with this very program. Which Garak supposes he could see if he was feeling particularly charitable but he’s been gamely going along with this for the past hour now and he’s sure he’s put in enough time.

He went along with taking the lead in winning Julian some nonsense trinket from a target shooting booth, earning much praise from a “strength tester” that was definitely doctored, to a boat ride with just the right ambient sounds to create pleasant complimentary reactions in one’s nervous system and on and on to Julian himself who clearly has mastered the fine art of appealing to a very specific segment of the Cardassian military population. It’s a wonder they haven’t invited him back to give him his own holiday. Which Garak supposes would be all well and good- Yes, doctor, I’m so pleased with your obvious love of civic duty that I’ll gladly put a hand on your shoulder and tell you what a good boy you are- except he isn’t some authority obsessed soldier who gets off on these bland deferential power games. He wants passion, he wants a challenge, he wants there to be a reason for him to bring discipline, to lead, to bring Julian to heel. Perhaps he is getting old because Julian clearly has done this dance so much he could go through the motions unconscious but is it really asking too much to have something more than just a pleasing body to jam his prUt into?

Still, he has to bear in mind that cause embarrassment to the station CMO might prove unwise. Yes, a lie is definitely in order here, though he needs to make sure it’s not a medical one. He supposes Ziyal will have to be it. It’s uncreative and stupid but frankly, Julian doesn’t deserve his good stuff and the sooner it gets him out of here the better.

“I’m sorry, doctor,” he says a touch dramatically. He might not be getting more than Julian’s usual routine but he likes to think that even if he’s returning in kind that his routine is much more convincing. “I’m afraid I’ve been terribly poor company but you see I’ve just been so terribly concerned about Yaya. Oh, I know she’s a grown woman and I trust Major Kira to be showing her the same consideration and hospitality that you’ve shown me-“ Guls, he hopes not “-but I just haven’t been able to give you the attention that you deserve and it’s such a pity after all the trouble that you’ve gone through. It’s only my hope that we might do this again sometime.” Perhaps after he’s long dead and Julian gets some new material.

Garak wears sincerity brightly and reaches across the table to put his hand over Julian’s. He intends the gesture in the human way but sees Julian’s curious look at the display of dominance. Maybe he’ll get lucky and a fleet of Klingon birds of prey will crash into the station. But it seems to do the trick and Doctor Bashir is ending the program mercifully. Garak could kiss him, he really could. Except that would certainly make him try for a second and Garak isn’t too keen on remembering the first. He wonders if anyone ever actually bets on the doctor to fail. Judging by the expression on Julian’s face somehow he doubts it.

And it’s with that sour taste in his mouth that Garak finally gets back to his quarters determined to hack the station computers and never again eat in the Replimat when Julian isn’t on duty. He sees Ziyal laying sprawled on the couch looking about the way that he feels right about now. He opens his mouth to ask, the two of them exchanging a look before he does.

“Kanar?” She asks sympathetically already sitting up to go get it.

“Kanar,” Garak agrees with a sigh.

Looks like he’s not the only one who had a “bad date”.

(Part 5 is here)

#star trek ds9 #star trek deep space nine #ds9 fanfic #Julian Bashir #elim garak #Garak/Bashir #garashir #au #deuces #bad date #fanfic #update #cyrelia-j

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sleepymarmot · 7 years

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DS9 season 6

[Season index: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 PS]

Here I get angrier and discourse-y

A Time to Stand

The Garak/Bashir scene (finally)... and Bashir looking like this... I feel blessed

when he talks about his “boyish smile” but cannot smile at all. that hit hard

aw Worf/Jadzia!

the Terok Nor dynamics are fascinating. I'm very impressed by Kira's willpower...

jesus fucking christ the Dukat/Kira scene :O D: 😨

why is Bashir doing mental calculations now, he's not Data

Rocks and Shoals

Kira's storyline about being self-conscious about collaborationism is great. In the previous episode we saw her trapped and vulnerable, especially in the viscerally horrifying scene with Dukat, and now we realize along with Kira herself that all of that is having it good.

Sons and Daughters

how did Sisko send a signal that Martok heard but the Jem'Hadar didn't?

Alexander lived on the Enterprise because Worf's parents were incapable of raising him anymore... I guess that was so inconvenient for the DS9 writers they decided to just ignore it instead of at least trying to invent an excuse.

"But the last time you defied him, he left you here to die!" "We talked about that. He admits he overreacted" bwahaha

Oh Alexander, so much secondhand embarrassment...

god, he gave her a dress, eww

oh my god, and he immediately re-gifts it to his own daughter, what a jerk

accepting Worf into the house of Martok involved much less ceremony...

why doesn't this episode address Alexander's age? did the writers assume, again, we didn't watch TNG? they could have said something about his grandparents protesting because he's about ten years old. something about Klingon children growing up very fast, and humans disapproving of child soldiers.

I don't understand how Ziyal can be so naive. Sure, she's kept unaware of the creepy sexual aspect of Dukat's advances (though I was waiting for Kira to snap and finally say "Your father keeps hitting on me, please don't force me to be in the same room with him"), but surely she must see why Kira finds his company uncomfortable and inappropriate! I do like that Ziyal is on his side again. And I enjoy seeing the continuation of Kira's storyline where she has to walk the line between keeping a polite facade and staying true to herself, gets too used to engaging Dukat&co on their own terms and has to take a step back to reassert herself.

Behind the Lines

Wait, if the Romulans have signed a non-aggression pact with the Dominion, why do they still allow Starfleet to use their cloaking device against it?

I've already been concerned about their open discussions of resistance activities, but a Founder's presence on the station makes it even worse! Sure, discuss your plans over a bar table that might well be a changeling...

Odo, for fuck's sake, she's going to learn all about the resistance from you...

"She didn't find out about the resistance, if that's why you're worried" in the same scene: "If she had some hidden motive, I would have sensed it"

Odo!.. >:(

Captain Dax!

Do the Cardassians still have the truth serum? If no, it's a giant plot hole; if yes, things are looking really bad...

Favor the Bold

oh god ewwwwww

why is Leeta making that noise

haha you go Kira

"We are way, way past sorry" good. unforgiving Kira is the best Kira

Odo's longing for his kind works so much better when the Founders are not on screen -- the things they actually say are so boring, one-dimensional and unconvincing... Though I find interesting that Odo's storyline mirrors Kira's in this arc: the female changeling manages to seduce him while Dukat fails to do the same to Kira.

Sacrifice of Angels

"DAMAR: I doubt he was working alone when he tried to sabotage the station. He must've had help. His wife Leeta, Jake Sisko, Major Kira. DUKAT: What are you proposing? DAMAR: That we arrest them. Keep them in custody, at least until the wormhole is reopened." Finally someone wakes up! I was expecting them to do this an episode ago...

"War is such thirsty work. Don't you agree?" "Perhaps if you didn't talk so much, your throat wouldn't get so dry."

Oh look! He's actually pretty shocked by the suggestion to "eradicate [an entire planet's] population"! Even this guy has standards.

"A true victory is to make your enemy see they were wrong to oppose you in the first place. To force them to acknowledge your greatness" classic Dukat. this is his ideology in a nutshell

"Then you kill them?" I'm loving the discussion of the differences between the Cardassian and Dominion approach

"Perhaps the biggest disappointment in my life is that the Bajoran people still refuse to appreciate how lucky they were to have me as their liberator. I protected them in so many ways, cared for them as if they were my own children. But to this day, is there a single statue of me on Bajor?" how is it possible to be so deluded?! fucking incredible

"Link with me, Odo. Embrace the clarity" EMBRACE ETERNITY

Where's the Enterprise during all these battles?

haha Quark & Ziyal make a great team

"The only reason they haven't killed me yet is that I'm part of their victory celebration. Seven o'clock, Dukat makes a speech. Eight thirty, cake and raktajino. Eight forty five, execute the Ferengi"

holy crap, they actually detonated the minefield! I didn't expect that

LITERALLY DEUS EX MACHINA

(I'm beginning to think this is a predestination paradox and the wormhole aliens started taking care of the Bajorans throughout history because Sisko told them to...)

Shit, I thought Dukat was about to snap and kill her, but it's even worse

I didn't expect to feel sympathy for Dukat ever again after those scenes with Kira, but this show played me again. I guess he'll completely lose it now?

Did you really had to remind us that the trainwreck that was Garak/Ziyal existed?

Wait, please tell me this isn't Dukat's last appearance and he's not about to spend the last 1,5 seasons in an asylum?

You are Cordially Invited

Why does this Klingon woman have human teeth?

Ah yes, Jadzia is too proud and independent and should follow her fiance's totally reasonable suggestion to humiliate herself to fit better in his culture. fuck you

Resurrection

am I supposed to recognize this guy?

oh no it's a Mirror episode

I... don't... care...

ugh, her again

I wish I just fast-forwarded this episode

Statistical Probabilities

How did I know from the title that this is a Bashir episode...

lol my dude when Bashir gets his look on his face you know you're fucked

I can't believe Miles pretended to have work just so he could be in the same room as Julian... romance is not dead

Don't know what to think about this episode. There are some good conversations about ableism and intelligence, but that set of stereotypes and assumptions... It's like the final Sherlock episode. And it was implausible when they could read Damar so well in the first place. And the long-term predictions are a million times worse! Do they include variables like "wormhole aliens destroy the entire enemy fleet because Sisko asked nicely"?

Plus I don't like how this season portrays Bashir's enhanced intelligence... I thought he was just made smarter than average, not make mental calculations at the same speed as Data... Where did that come from. Why.

The Magnificent Ferengi

"May I help you, gentlemen?" lmao

"Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to take a nap."

"By the time the Dominion is done with you, all you'll want is a quick death." I love his serene tone haha

This was hilarious :D I really like this show's ventures into black comedy! Also Keevan looks exactly like Orlando Bloom and it cracks me up.

Waltz

Dukat's career has been through a lot of ups and downs over the seasons, and this is the lowest point ever that brings a new dynamic: Dukat so powerless that Sisko can afford to feel pity for him. I'm glad Dukat seems sane.

"A bottle of kanar and an Orion slave girl would be nice" ew

oh, so he has hallucinations. oh well.

"From this day forward, Bajor is dead. All of Bajor" Ouch. Sisko, I think you made it worse... I might have used the same rhetoric in Sisko's place, but damn, his final statement about Dukat's evilness rings pretty hollow since it was him who dragged "kill all Bajorans" out of Dukat's subconsciousness into the light. Like, I understand, when you're injured and trapped with an armed crazy fascist who tries to force you to praise him, you'd want at least the final satisfaction of telling what you think about him to his face, in no way I blame you for it... But if someone is mentally unstable and obsessed with proving to you he's a good person, and you reject it and instead goad him into exposing and accepting his darker motivations -- then don't say he is irredeemably evil? I can see how Sisko's rhetoric could have worked as reverse psychology -- his opponent would have started the speech about killing everyone, heard himself, stopped in horror and realized the error of his ways -- but Dukat didn't have enough self-awareness for that even in better times, and certainly not now. This was just giving your enemy ideas. Nice job breaking it, hero! When Dukat sabotaged his own redemption arc by joining the Dominion, it was beautiful, but when someone else does it to him... Idk, I usually like the Batman/Joker dynamic where the bad guy is obsessed with the protagonist and defines himself in opposition to him, but I'm not sure how well it works here... On the other hand, it has been a part of Dukat's character that he has an almost fourth wall breaking awareness of his role in the story as a likeable complex antagonist, so there is some poetic sense that he turns to straight-up villainy when someone convinces him that is the better role for him and he decides to live up to it.

The sad thing is, except that strange last scene, I was absolutely with Sisko the entire episode. And contrary to his words at the end, I found it an excellent example of grey morality. I've talked about it a couple of seasons ago -- allowing the antagonist to plead his case and then explaining why he's still wrong -- and this episode dedicates a lot of time to this. We've basically already heard Dukat's self-justifications, but learning what exactly was his role during the occupation and what he has done differently that made him think he was so much better than the other Cardassians -- that's something I've wanted since the beginning of the show. Cardassians are my favourite part of the show because of their messed up ideology, and Dukat is the one character who keeps talking about it, which is why he's so interesting for me. (Initially, heavy focus on ideology was what I expected from Garak and his character arc, which is one of the reasons I was disappointed in them.) It's great how he gives a lengthy speech that does make him sound pretty reasonable and sympathetic for a minute, and then with a single line Sisko breaks the spell and makes him reveal the ugly racism under it all, the reason why Dukat is deeply wrong despite any good intentions: "From the moment we arrived on Bajor, it was clear that we were the superior race. But they couldn't accept that. They wanted to be treated as equals when they most certainly were not". But, honestly, this isn't exactly news. Dukat's always been a racist, a victim-blamer, an egomaniac, an opportunist, and this episode doesn't even touch the issue of Bajoran women. So in this episode, he says pretty much the same things as when he played a "morally grey" role, but now that suddenly means he's "not morally grey"? Because of some bat-swinging during a psychotic episode, and a final villainous speech based on an idea fed to him by Sisko? He's responsible for a genocide, that's bad enough -- you don't need to start blaming him for things he's not fully responsible for! One of my favourite things about Dukat is that his crimes mostly happened offscreen, before the events of the show, so his presence on screen was sort of a test of integrity for both other character and viewers -- can you still tell right from wrong without a visceral reaction to violence and suffering happening right now before your very eyes? The characters have always passed that test; but now, regrettably, the writers decided that the viewers cannot. At the beginning of the episode he's a war criminal half-mad from loss, and Sisko feels sorry for him; at the end of the episode he's a war criminal completely mad from loss, and Sisko thinks he's evil. I guess, this might be interpreted just as Sisko's version of Kira's stories at the beginning of the season, where she briefly forgets how much she hates Dukat, and by the end of the episode he gives her a reason to hate him even more. I guess it comes down to the first line in this liveblog that I wrote during the first minutes of the episode: when the enemy is neutralised, we can afford to feel sympathy for them, but as soon as they start posing real danger, compassion goes out of the window and our first priority is to stop them. Except, of course, that works for any enemy, they don't have to be "truly evil"... So my complaint about that line still stands. Besides, it really deflated the drama; five minutes ago we had Dukat delivering his mad king's speech with the Shakespearean levels of gravitas, and now Sisko almost looks in the camera and summarizes his experience with the dramatic equivalent of "That's as many of four tens. And that's terrible."

Alright, let's try to stop raging about the dumb final scene and say something about the actual episode... I wish this was a real courtroom episode without the madness -- but the imaginary Weyoun, Damar and Kira's arguments were very well done. Their opinions sounded authentic while the delivery was distorted by Dukat's point of view. Just look at the imaginary Kira draping herself sensually over everything... :D

Dukat has a special talent for making me feel terribly guilty. You know the parts from his final monologue about Bajoran "superstitions", how they "clustered in their temples and prayed for deliverance"? Well, as I dislike the episodes about Bajoran religion I kinda see where he's coming from, and now I feel like a Nazi...

Idk how I'd fix this episode.

I'd like to throw out the mental illness altogether but then half of the episode stops working.

If I couldn't invent a completely different ending, I'd throw out the final scene, letting Dukat's actions speak for themselves.

Or there would be a final scene, but similar in tone to "The Ship", where Sisko'd be like "Whoops..." and also traumatised by the experience.

Or, if it were absolutely necessary to state the moral of the story and remind the viewers that Dukat is Bad(tm), maybe he'd say something like "Yes, I gave him the idea, but everyone is responsible for his own actions, and blaming everyone but himself is what he wants and does, so I'm not going to".

Maybe I'd end the episode with Sisko killing Dukat and the final scene being like "Generally I value life but you know what? No regrets". (Of course the best outcome would be if Kira killed Dukat but I've already been informed it won't happen.)

tl;dr: There are some impressive scenes, lines and acting, but the episode is deeply compromised by its general intent, mental illness excuse and the final scene.

Who Mourns for Morn

Not the best Quark episode... Gags about Morn don't work for me because the prosthetic is so bulky the actor can barely move in it, let alone make facial expressions, and it's impossible to believe that guy becomes talkative, charming and athletic as soon as the cameras stop pointing at him.

Far Beyond the Stars

Finally, a classic episode that lives up to its reputation -- and an AU that's good enough that it does not require an explanation. (The Prophets... made an elaborate simulation of 20th century Earth... to inspire Sisko to fight on? Okay.) I feel that somehow this is the best story about Sisko as the Emissary so far, even though -- or maybe because -- it was only discussed indirectly. It works as a history episode, as an AU episode, as an issue episode, as a meta episode about Star Trek itself...

I'm a bit confused by not-Bashir's role as one of the white writers who just don't get it -- just another reminder of how little I understand the concept of race... I've never thought of him as white -- would he be, by 1950's standards? I get that the episode is specifically about antiblackness, but they did mention sexism against not-Kira, so why not him?

I tried hard and failed to recognize the artist -- turns out, it was Martok! I'd never guess...

I'm darkly amused at Odo as conservative, contemptible half-antagonist again (similar to the roles he played during both occupations and in Mirror universe). His conflict with not-Quark is still recognizable, not just superficially imitated without any of the substance (remember when Quark called Odo a fascist?).

Similarly, I almost laughed when Dukat and Weyoun showed up as racist cops -- just in case you somehow still aren't drawing parallels to the current events, the show does it for you... How sad it is though: a show filmed in 1990s about the 24th century remembering the 1950s looks like an immediate reaction to the news reports of today...

It was a pleasure to see Kasidy in both worlds! I've missed her. She's such a likeable person, and has effortless chemistry with Sisko (and Benny).

Joseph was great, a beautiful variation on his role in Homefront/Paradise Lost.

I was impressed to learn afterwards that the writers all had real prototypes. So they’re based on a group of real people and group of fictional character at the same time, and both sets of influences are recognizable. That’s incredible.

One Little Ship

"I love it. Let's go"

more enjoyable than I expected

Honor Among Thieves

ooh nice scenery

this is the kind of story I find hard to watch both because it's painful to wait for something terrible to happen, and because it's not very captivating

Change of Heart

ah yes, Bashir learned all the rules from half a second glance *eyeroll*

this is season freaking 6!!! you told us two seasons ago that Julian's crush on Jadzia is dead! what the fuck?

moral of the story: don't send married couples on dangerous missions toge -- wait, as I was typing, Sisko said the exact same thing lol

why are all Jadzia/Worf episodes so bad. why are all Jadzia episodes so bad. is this a conspiracy?! why is her every episode about almost dying? you know, at this point I'm kinda looking forward to it happening for real.

Wrongs Darker than Death or Night

What, you can easily travel back in time? Just like that?

I didn't expect this show to actually use the term "comfort women"!

Kira looks like she needs a bucket to vomit in... I may need one too...

*Dukat kisses Meru* *mine and Kira's vomiting intensifies*

let me guess, the episode will end with Kira realizing that "my mother deserves death for having Stockholm syndrome" was a bit too harsh

"Kira and collaborationism" is one of my favourite themes in this show istg

"Believe me, there's a part of me that wishes that I hadn't. But the fact is, no matter what she did, she was still my mother" I actually wanted to Kira to go through with the assassination! But then it'd create a different timeline and the episode wasn't about that.

ok, I spoiled myself about Dukat/Meru so it lost the shock value, and I can see that it's incredibly contrived, but on the other hand it somehow managed to make Dukat's harassment towards Kira even more gross and creepy which is impressive

I have so many technical questions though. If Bajor has a freaking time machine why is no one using it in the war? Why is the Dominion not trying to get its hands on it? Why does it work differently than in "Tribbles"? Is it a closed time loop or alternate timeline? -- at the start of the episode, have Meru and Dukat met the time-travelling Kira or not? Dukat said he was the Prefect only for ten years but in this episode young Nerys looks about four and she certainly isn't a teenager at the end of the occupation -- how does all of that add up? Wait, if Ziyal was 13 by the end of the occupation, it would make more sense if Dukat was in charge for about 20 years and, roughly speaking, spent seven of them with Meru (as said in this episode) and thirteen with Naprem, and the line in "Waltz" is a continuity error -- but putting it this way sounds more wholesome than he deserves, since from the words of that one dude in this episode and a scene in "Things Past" I got the impression that those unfortunate Bajoran women passed through his quarters at a much faster rate...

btw remember when I was hoping that Dukat's mentions of his children to Sisko were intentional manipulation? now I'm pretty sure they were.

wow, TvTropes: "The episode itself... which is rather a letdown. With such a name, you'd expect some sort of horrible atrocity to be happening" -- you mean, MASS SEX SLAVERY, long-term psychological manipulation, prostituting oneself to a tyrant and learning to like it, and planning the murder of one's own mother -- these things are not horrible enough??? who tf wrote that entry

(btw, kudos to this episode for handling these heavy topics without going the exploitative shock value route like "Violations" that actually showed rape scenes on screen.)

also someone mentioned that Terok Nor is very brightly lit and now I can't get it out of my mind... why, set designers, why...

Something I liked: in the opening scene Dukat says: "Captain Sisko gave me the clarity to see beyond the lies, the self-deceptions that were controlling my life. He helped me see to the truth about myself. And now I'm going to do the same for you." And that's what happens indeed, even if not exactly in the way he might have intended. Sisko made him acknowledge the violence under the pretty words and justifications, and now we get to see the ugly true face of what Dukat calls -- and genuinely believes to be -- "love".

Inquisition

"Why would the Dominion leave your runabout orbiting the camp" well I'm glad the writers are aware of their plotholes... :D

"Captain, if Doctor Bashir had been involved in one or two questionable incidents, I could understand how you might be able to dismiss it, but the sheer number of incidents form a pattern of behaviour that can't be ignored" you could say that about literally any of the main characters lmao... every episode of any Star Trek series contains a questionable incident plot twist?? let me guess, it's set up by Sloan to make him confess

Second Skin 2

"And because you didn't want billions of Federation citizens to lose their lives needlessly, you agreed to provide us with information that would help us end this war quickly" heh, nice use of Statistical Probabilities

oh wow, Weyoun and his ship are actually real! I didn't expect that

the DS9 crew are all acting so strange, I guess they're part of the simulation too

"I admit it takes exceptional people to do what we do. People who can sublimate their own ambitions to the best interests of the Federation" heh, is this the final test?

wait, they kidnapped him THAT early? Bashir really should stop going to medical conferences...

this episode was pretty predictable after so many similar stories, but I do like these types of episodes, and this one utilised well the long-running themes of Bashir and secret service, and Bashir's idealism. And he got to join the club with Data, Riker, Picard, Dax, O'Brien, Worf -- am I forgetting anyone? Oh, right, Wesley -- that was one of my favourite episodes, actually... Oh, and I just rewatched the scene is the beginning where Bashir wakes up tired in the simulation for the first time, and remembered that episode of TNG where Riker kept losing sleep because aliens kidnapped him every night.

In the Pale Moonlight

Garak saves the day! I'm glad to see him live up to his reputation.

Actually, I don't think the plan was THAT immoral. Especially how it turned out in the end. The worst part was the danger to the Federation in case the forgery was discovered, but Garak took care of that. So ultimately, my only regret would be the use of that biomimetic gel in the clearly wrong hands. Call me cynical, but I fully agree with Garak that the price they paid was very small. Sure, for a Starfleet officer all of that must feel very dishonorable, but I'm sure the secret services of all major powers in the galaxy pull this kind of crap and worse on a fairly regular basis.* Hell, I think what Sisko himself did to apprehend Eddington was worse by my standards! And how is bribing Quark worse than blackmailing him, which Sisko has been doing literally since the pilot?! I think his guilt would have worked better for me if the plan failed and all of that were for nothing.

* Actually, why WAS Sisko the one doing this? And not someone like the just-introduced Section 31?

On a less serious note, I love that Sisko isn't satisfied with the recording until someone talks shit about Dukat :D then he's like "mmm perfect"

I feel obligated to mention the quality of writing and directing! And the wonderful ambiguity of the final "I can live with it" -- I love things like this.

His Way

let me get this straight, Julian got rejected three times by the same woman but she started dating him after he asked a hologram for advice?? wtf. Miles is surprised by the latter part but I'm more concerned about "Bashir is repeatedly rejected and refuses to stop pursuing a woman" (what is this, season 1???! between that and the mention of his crush on Dax several episodes ago, certainly feels like that, and not in a good way) and also about "Bashir dates a woman offscreen because the relationship is so shallow it's apparently not worth showing but we need to remind the viewers he's Straight"

"Is that the best you can do?" "I'd like to see someone do better." "So would I."

"You're not exactly the most lovable person in the galaxy. You're not even the most lovable person in this sector, or on the station. Or even in this room"

how many of those dumbass songs must I endure?

I'm really bored...

ughhh this is embarrassing

and THIS is creepy

(at least Odo is better than Barclay and backs off...)

he can just go to any other holosuite and interrupt whatever people are doing in there? D:

oh god, he can also use the station's com line?! SOMEONE DELETE THIS PROGRAM IT'S GETTING REALLY SCARY

kill me. or kill this episode with fire

ughhhh it's finally over bye. the scene with Quark was very good, but the rest... how come Kira and Odo by themselves are probably the most interesting characters but their romance is this utter dreck?

The Reckoning

why doesn't the universal translator work here?

how did the wormhole animals get here, anyway?

(I’m keeping this typo lmao)

for once, Winn is absolutely right!!

did he actually break it?.. this is not a dream?.. Winn won't be pleased

it's episodes like this when I miss TNG, and Picard's total refusal to treat Q like a god

this is getting stupider and stupider...

take a shot every time Sisko claims to know something

you know your story is bad when Winn is the most, and probably only sympathetic character in it (and Kira spends the entire final scene talking how bad Winn is? what?) Winn is being rational and ends up saving lives while Sisko keeps justifying his shitty actions with weak babbling about how "The Prophets want this, they work in mysterious ways" -- have they switched bodies while I wasn't looking?!

Valiant

Jake has a nice stylish outfit

That's strange... Why didn't they return to the Federation space after the war began? Will that be the point of the episode -- that they continued the mission on their own out of sheer hubris?

so this poor girl and the others spend months trapped on a tiny ship inside enemy territory because that guy wants to feel adult and important and likes to play captain?

so, they finally found one specific battleship they had been looking for for 8 months? and it happened the next day after Jake and Nog come on board? is that just because Nog adjusted the warp drive?

dude! your job was to gather info! if that battleship kills you, you fail!

The First Duty 2

...but a lot more bloody D:

this episode was better than I expected

Profit and Lace

aaaalright, here we go, let's see if this really is the Worst Episode Ever

why is Ishka wearing clothes that accentuate her breasts? the clothes in the previous episodes were so baggy I assumed that Ferengi women don't have boobs

"...brilliant Ferengi female. Do you know any?" I suppose Pel wouldn't be able to get here fast enough?

okay, Quark reluctantly doing his best to advocate for female rights is actually pretty awesome

are u telling me all Quark needed to be a better person was a little estrogen?

I actually... didn't find this bad for a Ferengi episode? and it was more interesting to watch than some other episodes in this season -- I was genuinely unsure what would happen and was rooting for everything to turn out well!

Of course I'd prefer if Ishka made the case for Ferengi feminism herself -- but, at least, the narrative is on its side this time, unlike at least one previous episode. And this time she has more agency than in her previous appearances (Zek's lover/hidden mastermind and damsel in distress) -- she's using her position of power to implement a whole new progressive law, and it even seems like she made it to Zek's side for that purpose and domestic bliss was a nice side effect.

Quark as a woman is an objectively transphobic gag, of course (and yes I know that it’s my privilege that allows me not to be viscerally upset by it enough to immediately ruin the episode forever). But I didn't actually find it as nasty as the same joke in "Facets", where the narrative and other characters used it to made fun of him, and the shot of his head on Kira's body in "Meridian"; here it's for greater good, and being in a woman's shoes (literally) gives him some perspective, plus nobody seems to think sex reassignment surgery is a big deal. Other characters criticise Quark’s performance of femininity in the same tone as Worf criticised others’ performance of Klingon-ness. Like, I see that this is fundamentally Bad, but I was preparing myself to be outraged much more so it doesn’t feel that bad.

And it's gross that Quark sexually exploits his workers and the narrative doesn't punish him, but that happened before in season 1...

Unlike, say, The Reckoning, it doesn't affect the show's overall plot or lore in a negative way -- I'd even say it's the opposite because of the big win for women's rights on Ferenginar. (It shows a frustrating lack of progress in Quark's character arc, but a lot of episodes share this problem...) So, even though this episode is unfunny and largely offensive, I don't feel it's exceptionally terrible -- just another example of the problems this show has always had. I have more problems with stories that break the entire show, than isolated episodes like this which can be easily skipped and ignored.

Time's Orphan

what about the Orb of Time, wouldn't it help?

Keiko, that's a terrible decision

I guess the episode will end with both Worf and the O'Briens realizing this parenting problem is too difficult for them, and they'll do what they should have done from the start and re-rescue Molly

No, Miles, your plan is horrible. If it works I'll never forgive this episode.

I'm glad it ended well. But feral!Molly was obviously a lost cause from the beginning...

The Sound of Her Voice

Odo, are you being shitty on purpose?

I was worried when Bashir didn't want to talk at the beginning, but this is almost scary!

I suspected something like this...

Julian no...

“I really care about all of you, even if sometimes it would appear that I care more about my work” says the guy who spent two seasons running after everybody like “PLEASE BE MY FRIEND!!!11!”

This entire thing looks like Julian and Miles are about to make a public proposal to each other...

"Someday we're going to wake up and we're going to find that someone is missing from this circle" *looks directly at Jadzia*

Tears of the Prophets

*sigh* Okay, I'm emotionally prepared, here we go

*sees Jadzia on screen* no I'm not prepared

ughh why are Bashir and Quark being so gross

where has he been all this time?

"I don't hold you responsible for Ziyal's death. You may have fired the phaser, but it was Benjamin Sisko who forced your hand" ????? dude. this is a stretch even by your standards.

"You've gone from being a self important egotist to a self deluded madman" Weyoun is not wrong

(but you know acknowledging within the story that your writing is shitty doesn’t fix the problem)

Klingons and Romulans!

why must I listen to this stupid song and look at Bashir and Quark being shitty and badly written

Oh great, the wormhole aliens can somehow contact him whenever and wherever they want, no orbs or travels to the wormhole necessary. WTF?

I like how Weyoun and Damar roll their eyes at Dukat's nonsense. same

"I've immersed myself in the study of the Bajoran ancient texts, and I've come to realize that the wormhole is much more than the gateway to the Gamma Quadrant. It's the Temple of the Prophets" o rly??? truly an astonishing discovery

congrats on finally getting the Renegade eyes, Dukat

what is Garak doing here?

ugh.

Dukat went from the embodiment of the best storyline on the show to the embodiment of the worst storyline on the show

At least Weyoun and Damar keep reacting to his every word as "That's nonsense" so at least someone inside the story doesn't like this plot as well. I think Dukat has passed them the torch of being the fourth wall breaking meta character...

...but, you know, if the wormhole would really close forever I'd be glad. of course they'll find a way to reconnect with their "Prophets" somehow

I interrupt the ugly crying to ask: how the hell would Sisko's presence on the station have saved Jadzia's life?!

"for the first time in my life I've failed in my duty as a Starfleet officer" uh, how?!

this is the worst season finale in DS9

Ohhh man... The season started so strong I was overjoyed. I've always wanted more stories set on Terok Nor during the occupation, and didn't expect the show to deliver in this way! The change of status quo was exciting -- it really felt like Shit Got Real and a serious war was on and things would not be the same again! And Kira's little storyline about normalization of oppression and fighting it, first of all inside one's own heart, was great. But then it just went downhill...

Odo's betrayal made me lose all sympathy and trust towards him forever, and even without that, his character arc was greatly weakened by the presence of the Female Changeling, who is the worst combination of uninteresting and unlikeable. When the Founders are somewhere out there, Odo's longing for them is poignant, but when you see them on screen being bland and annoying, the magic just evaporates.

An underused female character fridged to make a male character's arc less interesting: he loses his Morality Chain, his mind, and complexity as an antagonist. It's just so lazy. His main redeeming quality is the love for his daughter, and we're tired of writing bad people who still have some sympathetic motivations, that's too difficult, so let's take the object of that love away from him to make him Purely Evil(tm). And since the plot requires this rationalist character to do something OOC in the finale, we need to make him crazy or it couldn't happen. He's evil because of mental illness, he's evil because he gets himself possessed by a demon, he's evil because he has red eyes -- that leaves the viewer with the impression that his previous crimes weren't bad enough, that the writers think overseeing colonisation/genocide for years is tolerable but five minutes of hate speech & one minute of glowing red -- that's the real moral event horizon! Mental illness made him evil, huh? Take that trope and throw it in the trash along with Intendant Kira's Depraved Bisexual trope. Hey, remember when this show was about dealing with the effects of war and oppression, and Dukat embodied the different ways that oppression manifests? well now he's a comicbook villain with glowing satan eyes who shoots death rays

The wormhole aliens are now suddenly Good Gods hijacking bodies and using them for Voldemort-Harry ray battles

The best-forgotten stupid tropes about hyper-intelligence are dragged from TNG and pasted onto Julian

The writers pulled out of their asses Bashir and Quark's unrequited love for Jadzia?? Bashir's crush was cute in season 1, but he got over it long ago, and Quark has always been just friends with her. Bashir had such a nice friendship with her, and now he's wishing that her marriage would fail so he'd get a shot, even though she was never interested in him in the first place? Fucking disgusting. Way to compromise his character.

And, of course, as the final insult, they fucking killed Jadzia for nothing.

So, let me count: Jadzia literally dead. Dukat's character almost completely assassinated, Bashir’s comes pretty close. Odo's character weakened. Lore and plot of the entire series fucked up. God. I have no words anymore. How do you ruin something so quickly?!

#star trek #ds9 #blah blah blah #my friend finished s6 which finally prompted me to post this #i spent two weeks hoping to make my long unbroken paragraphs a bit more coherent #it didn't work

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weerd1 · 5 years

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Star Trek DS9 Rewatch Log, Stardate 1909.05: Missions Reviewed, “A Time to Stand,” “Rocks and Shoals,” and “Sons and Daughters.”

“A Time to Stand” picks up three months after the Dominion seized Deep Space Nine in “Call to Arms.” Dukat has been unable to bring down the minefield at the mouth of the wormhole, but neither is the war going well for the Federation/Klingon alliance. The Defiant crew heads to starbase while waiting for word from the Seventh Fleet, which is undertaking a major offensive against the Dominion. Word does come: out of 112 ships, 14 have survived. On DS9 things remain civil, but Kira is unable to convince Dukat to allow Bajoran security to patrol the ship again.

Jake is writing stories for the Federation, but Weyoun refuses to send them out due to their “bias.” Benjamin meanwhile is taken out of command of the Defiant and the sector admiral, Admiral Ross, assigns him to the starbase pending further orders. They are not long in coming though as the Jem’Hadar ship Sisko captured the year before (in “The Ship,”) has been refurbished. The Defiant crew are to take it and destroy the main ketracel white production facility in the Alpha Quadrant. On the way, they end up glad they brought Garak as the Command interface is giving Sisko a migraine.

After narrowly escaping a Federation ship that doesn’t know who they are, they get to the facility, intending to beam a bomb down in the empty White container. They are locked down though, and Bashir uses his genetically enhanced brain to devise and escape velocity that will keep them ahead of the bomb but not bounce them off the shields. The bomb detonates early though, and the ship is damaged; their warp drive gone, Bashir estimates it will be 17 years to get back to base.

Season six starts off strong with a very contiguous story arc. The first six are actually very serialized, but we have reached peak Deep Space Nine. All of the major players are in place, and the writers and actors all know who they are playing and how. The stakes are high and we are now examining humanity facing an existential threat. Great use is made here of Doctor Bashir’s mental talents, and for the first time we allude to his believing there is a good chance the Federation will fall. Kira is also well represented here as someone who has to bide her time and seemingly assist the people who she is sure will try to capture her world. The tension between the Dominion represented by Weyoun playing the long game, and the Cardassians represented by Dukat and Damar ready to be the tyrants they were before Cardassia “lost its way: is very well presented. The Cardassians are licking their lips at the possibility of re-occupying Bajor, but the Dominion’s tactics are so much more subtle.

“Rocks and Shoals,” has the damaged Jem’Hadar worship with Sisko and crew on the run. Chased by other ships, they duck into a dark matter nebula to avoid the enemy fire that has already severely wounded Dax. Out of control in the nebula, they are pulled into the atmosphere of a planet lurking within. On the station, things have fallen into a routine, and Odo, Quark, and Kira admit that this is a far more peaceful “occupation” than under the Cardassians. Odo approaches Weyoun to restore the Bajoran security force, which Dukat wants to deny. Weyoun immediately concedes, in exchange for Odo joining the station’s “ruling council.” Jake asks if this move somehow gives legitimacy to the occupiers. He also asks Kira if she will stop the Vedek led protest planned for the next day. Kira goes to Vedek Yassim, an older woman, to get her to back off for now, to bide her time because “this isn’t like with the Cardassians.” The Vedek asks how it is different, and then is the only person who appears to protest the next day: she hangs herself on the Promenade after declaring “Evil must be opposed!”

Kira begins to see herself as a collaborator, and she and Odo decide it is time to begin some form of resistance. On the planet where Sisko and crew have crashed they are stranded but find there is a Jem’Hadar crew already stranded there with a wounded Vorta.

The Vorta negotiates with Sisko to have Bashir save him, and then tells them that they must kill the Jem’Hadar. There is only one remaining vial of ketracel white, and when it is gone, the 10 soldiers will go mad with withdrawal and kill everything they see. In exchange, the Vorta has a subspace transceiver O’Brien can repair. Sisko talks to the leader of the Jem’Hadar about how they can be put in stasis and all saved, but he refuses, leading his men into Sisko’s attack, all of them dying. The Vorta brings the radio, and Sisko has to fight the impulse to kill him as well.

The juxtaposition for Kira here as the young angry freedom fighter, to the person biding her time, to someone who can no longer just wait and has to take an active role is fantastic here, as is the desire of Sisko to try to solve this situation without just murdering ten Jem’Hadar soldiers. The Vortas continue to be smarmy and conniving with Kivas on the planet being as bad as Weyoun. The Vedek’s protest feels like a Buddhist monk in Vietnam setting themselves on fire, and Yassim’s appearance may be brief, but it is striking and memorable. Parts of Bajor are coming to the realization that a benevolent occupier is only benevolent when the occupier is happy with you.

“Sons and Daughters” begins when Dukat brings Ziyal back to the station. Ziyal wants to have dinner with Kira and Dukat to share something important to her. Kira is resistant (literally as part of the resistance) but gives in to Dukat’s request.

Martok’s Klingon ship the Rotarran brings Sisko and crew home from the Dark Nebula with their Vorta prisoner, and Worf goes back out on mission with the Klingons. New crew arrives including Alexander, Worf’s son, who has decided to try to live as a Klingon. He is small and weak and timid however, and has a real problem finding his place, also finding much conflict with his father. Alexander feels his father has abandoned him as Worf feels he was only protecting his son. Ziyal reveals she has become and artist and is going to be exhibited on Cardassia. Dukat decides to throw a party for her, and Kira is invited. She is willing to go for Ziyal’s sake, but when Dukat sends her a dress as a present, Kira goes to him returning it and tells him that she simply cannot have any part of a relationship with Dukat beyond her station duties, believing Dukat to be an opportunistic despot. She leaves, and Ziyal enters asking who it was. Dukat tells her it was a delivery, bringing them the nice new dress he got his daughter for the party. The next day Ziyal asks Kira where she was and Kira says she knows Ziyal can’t choose between them but she will not be part of Dukat’s game.

On the Rotarran, Alexander continues to bungle things, but then when the ship is damaged in a skirmish, dives in to do what must be done to save it…before accidentally locking himself in the compartment. Worf accepts that Alexander must choose his own path and reconciles, while Alexander accepts the name “son of Worf” and is inducted into the house of Martok.

For Kira the occasional hint that there might be some reconciliation with Dukat ends here. She is done, even with Ziyal in the middle, and this defines how the two will act toward one another the rest of the show. A little strange having a young but adult Alexander here, as timeline wise he should only be about eight or nine years old having been born late in TNG’s second season. This acceleration was done for dramatic reasons, but that now means that Klingons must mature and grow quickly. This seems at odds with Worf hitting normal human milestone when he grew like high school and entering the Academy at 18 but…space man, it’s outer space. Perhaps time dilation plays in as well.

NEXT MISSION: The DS9 resistance learns the minefield may soon fall and a Founder comes to the station in “Behind the Lines.”

#Star Trek #Star Trek: Deep Space Nine #DS9 Rewatch

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weerd1 · 5 years

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Star Trek DS9 Rewatch Log, Stardate 1909.28: Missions Reviewed, “Extreme Measures,” “The Dogs of War,” and “What You Leave Behind.”

(Note: as we are in the last nine episodes which run as a continuous storyline, these three will be summarized together.)

Kira and Garak return an ailing Odo to DS9, and his condition is far worse than Bashir expected. Odo asks Kira to return to Damar so she doesn’t have to watch him die, and so Kira’s grief won’t be the last thing he sees. Bashir and O’Brien reveal their plan to Sisko who though angry, gives his approval. They also reveal they have Romulan mind-probes to use if the Seciton 31 agent does not want to be helpful. Soon enough, Sloan himself arrives, and Bashir springs his trap. Realizing he’s cornered, Sloan triggers a suicide device.

Bashir stabilizes him, but they have about an hour before he dies. Bashir re-rigs the Romulan probes to create a mind meld, and he and O’Brien go into Sloan’s brain to find the material. At first there is little resistance, but the longer they stay the worse it gets until they are shot by a “guard.” They realize that must symbolize where the information is. Trying to enter, they find themselves awakened by Sisko, who puts and end to it. In his quarters, Bashir tries to read, but the book just starts over again right where he left off, and he realizes they are still in Sloan’s brain; Sloan can’t replicate what Julian has not read yet. He gathers O’Brien and returns to “the room,” finding Sloan inside surrounded by documents. O’Brien finds the cure for Odo, but Bashir does not want to leave given all the other information.

O’Brien talks him out, and they wake up, really this time, as Sloan dies. Bashir replicates the cure and saves Odo. Starfleet however does not want to share the cure with the Founders, and Sisko follows those orders, asking Odo not to do it either. Odo mentions how the Federation wrings their hands about a Section 31, but they still allow them to do the dirty work, and accept that work. On Cardassia, Damar’s resistance cell is in trouble when betrayed by one of the officers he tries to recruit. Soon, it is just Damar, Garak, and Kira hiding in the basement of Garak’s childhood home, tended to by Mila, the servant to Garak’s father Enebran Tain, and likely Garak’s mother. The ailing Founder decides to pull Dominion forces back into Cardassian space, solidifying their position, and allowing them time to build more ships and Jem’Hadar and extend the war. The Federation Alliance decides not to let this happen, and prepare to invade Cardassia. Kai Winn takes Dukat, whose sight is restored, back in, and the two plan to take the book of Kosst Amojan to the Fire Caves to release the Pah-Wraiths. Quark gets a message from the Grand Nagus that he’s going to be made the next Nagus, and begins to plan. Brunt shows up, ready to suck up, and tells Quark about the various reforms Zek has made, like taxes and wage guarantees and free healthcare.

Quark vows to return Ferenginar to it’s corrupt, greedy glory. Ezri and Bashir begin to talk about whether or not they should pursue a relationship. Initially they decide not to ruin their friendship, but soon they are making out in a turbo lift. The Nagus arrives, and reveals that he thought he was talking to someone else when he named Quark Nagus…Rom. Rom becomes the Grand Nagus and Quark vows that HIS bar will always be the greedy and corrupt tribute to what Ferenginar should be. Dukat and Winn find the right place in the caves, and reading the right spell, they burst into flame. They await the moment. O’Brien makes the decision that he will return to Earth after the war and take a teaching position at the Academy. Kasidy reveals to Ben that she is pregnant.

The invasion of Cardassia begins. On the planet, Damar reveals he is alive, and the people begin to rise up against the Dominion in the name of Damar. In response, the female Founder orders a city destroyed. She promises every act of betrayal by Cardassians will result in another razed city. Jem’Hadar forces find and capture Darmar, Kira, and Garak.

They are about to be executed. The Alliance fleet enters Dominion space and the fight is on. Things are not going well for them. Winn on Bajor proposes that Dukat drink with her to celebrate, but he realizes too late that she has poisoned him and his death is the sacrifice that brings forth Kosst Amojan. Just as the Jem’Hadar are going to gun down Damar and crew, the Cardassian guards turn on the Jem’Hadar, and declare their allegiance to Damar. They prepare to raid the headquarters. In space, the Cardassian fleet turns its guns on the Breen and Jem’Hadar, turning the tide. The Alliance fleet pursues the Dominion to Cardassian orbit. There are thousands of ships and orbital emplacements there. The fight is not over but becomes a stand off.

Given the Cardassian change of sides, the Founder orders the elimination of all Cardassians on the planet. The world begins to burn. The rebels hit the HQ, but Damar is killed in the process. Kira and Garak make it into the control room, and Garak kills the last Weyoun.

The Founder refuses to call off the attacks on Cardassia or surrender the fleet, telling them they will have to fight to the last Dominion soldier. Odo beams down from the Defiant, linking with the Founder, curing her in the process. In the seconds they are bound together, he negotiates a treaty between Dominion and the Alpha Quadrant. The war comes to an end. The alliance beams down to find the Dominion has killed 800 million Cardassians. Odo reveals the Founder will stay and face war crimes trials, but he will go back to the Great Link and cure his people, teaching them about the Solids. Kira asks when he will come back. He reveals he won’t.

On DS9, everyone gathers in Vic Fontaine’s lounge, realizing it is likely the last time they will all be together. Worf takes the position as Federation ambassador to the Klingons. Garak has stayed behind to rebuild Cardassia. O’Brien gets ready to leave to Earth. On Bajor, Kosst Amojan returns, but rather than come into the Kai, he reanimates Dukat, restoring him to his Cardassian form.

Sisko senses it from the station, and goes there. Dukat/Amojan disintegrates Winn as she tries to stop him, distracting him enough Sisko can tackle him, and taking the book, knock Dukat, himself, and sacred evil text into the flames. Sisko is suddenly in the Celestial temple. Sarah/Prophet is there and tells him that he has fulfilled his duty, Dukat will forever be imprisoned with the Pah-Wraiths on Bajor. But Ben’s corporeal form has been destroyed. He is now to stay in the temple and learn, so he may one day return to Bajor as Emissary. He reaches out and brings Kasidy into the temple, telling her what has happened, but telling her to make sure everyone knows Benjamin Sisko, The Emissary, promises to return.

Kira takes Odo back to the Great Link, where he changes his appearance to look as if he is in a tuxedo one more time and bids her farewell. He steps into the dying link, and it begins to heal around him, but he can no longer be differentiated from his people.

Kira returns to DS9 where she has assumed command of the station. She finds Quark has started a betting pool on who will be the next Kai, which she immediately shuts down. Quark realizes he’s going to have to stay crafty to keep ahead of the new station commander. “The more things change the more they stay the same,” he says. Kira sees Jake Sisko, standing on the upper level of the Promenade, where he and Nog (Kira’s new Ops officer) used to look down on the others. Now he’s looking out, toward the wormhole, knowing his father is in the Celestial Temple. She joins him there, and the two look out as we pull away. Deep Space Nine, formally Terok Nor, hangs in space at the mouth of the wormhole, and as it has for the last seven season…it waits.

I’m not sure how you mourn a show that ended two decades ago, that you know is on Netflix, or that I know I have upstairs on DVD. It’s a show I can revisit anytime I want to in any amount, and dammit, I am sad it is over. I want more, I would watch all of these people carry on tomorrow if I could. We’ve lost some of them, but dear lord how this all ends, enough to satisfy, but I would return to Bajor in a heartbeat if they announced it.

There are some things here I might have done differently. I still think Kira should have killed Dukat rather than Sisko, and with all the talk of the Alamo, it seems like the final battle of the show should have happened at DS9, surrounded by insurmountable numbers of Dominion ships, but perhaps that would have been too much like the battle that opened Season 6. The culmination of the Damar storyline, from “Cardassian Bridge Officer” to Dominion toady, to hero of Cardassia is so pitch perfect as to need the climax on his world. The fleet battle so ridiculously epic to this day, despite 20 years old effects, you need it to be where it is so you can cheer when the Cardassians turn, and be horrified when the Dominion turns its guns on Cardassia…formerly the villains. What a change from the first episode, and what a journey.

What a journey for the Ferengi as well, as Rom goes from “Pit boss” to Quark’s brother to engineer to Nagus. Or Nog as he goes from child thief, to Cadet, to DS9’s operations Lieutenant. Garak, as the plain, simple, tailor with a mysterious past to the defacto ruler of a smoldering Cardassia. As great as all the main character arcs where, those supporting characters are what really makes DS9 great. Brunt, Weyoun, Martok, Sloan, Cretak, Winn, Bareil, the list goes on. A couple of particular things I took away from the finale, the final battle between Sisko, Dukat, and Winn struck me this time as a nearly beat for beat homage to the final scene of the Classic Series’ second pilot “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” where Kirk has to face his friend Gary Mitchell who has developed god-like power along with ship’s psychologist, Dr. Elizabeth Dehner. The dynamic where Dehner realizes she’s wrong as she watches Gary force Kirk to bow to him as a God is remarkably similar to Winn watching Dukat do the same to Sisko. More on that in a minute. Another character note I love, and something I missed 20 years ago, Worf becomes Ambassador to the Klingons…the same position once held by Curzon Dax. What a fascinating extension of his relationship to Dax, even as Dax’s current host Ezri has chosen Bashir.

Kira Nerys: Former freedom fighter, who may have delved into terrorist one time too many. Woman of faith, surrounded by a scientific world. Woman who owns her sexuality and her femininity, and is perfectly happy to kick your ass when you need it. A woman we watch grow from ready to kill every Cardassian she sees to co-liberator of their world. Who loved and lost a Changeling, but whose love will set the stage to bridge Odo’s people with the Solids. Who served next to her Emissary, and stands now in his place waiting for his return. Rewatching DS9 absolutely reinforced my feelings that Kira Nerys is Star Trek’s best character.

Hindsight allows me to see what DS9 foreshadowed in television as well. Complex characters in morally ambiguous situations; long story arcs dependent on you seeing each chapter, and each episode leading into the next; women as leaders and peers who are not marginalized by the story; a brown man who is presented as a good father AND as the Messiah: Deep Space Nine is not just progressive for its time, it helped define what television would become. It’s continuity replicated in a thousand binge-worthy streams on Netflix like “Stranger Things.” Representation for women on shows like “Jessica Jones,” or “Game of Thrones” or of course “Star Trek: Discovery.” Though honestly, we have perhaps not learned enough from DS9, as there has never been another character quite like Benjamin Sisko, and all he represents. We can still learn from that; as I have said many times in this rundown, “Star Trek is always relevant.”

So now it is over, and I find that yes, DS9 holds up pretty well 20 years later. It’s still ahead of its time in some ways, and in those things that aren’t, serves as a roadmap of where we have been, demonstrating why we needed to move beyond such tropes. But in questions of faith, what it means to be human, and how one doesn’t have to be perfect to be better, nothing quite examines the human condition like DS9 does; and that’s why, hands down, at least for now, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is the very best Star Trek has to offer.

NEXT VOYAGE: After 173 episodes, 124 pages, and 71,819 words about DS9, how is there a Next Voyage? Join me one more time for my review of “What We Left Behind,” this year’s DS9 documentary. But let’s face facts: I will never be done talking about DS9.

#Star Trek #Star Trek: Deep Space Nine #DS9 Rewatch

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weerd1 · 5 years

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Star Trek DS9 Rewatch Log, Stardate 1908.28: Missions Reviewed, “Things Past,” “The Ascent,” and “Rapture.”

“Things Past” begins with Sisko, Odo, Dax, and Garak on their way back from a Bajoran conference discussing the Occupation. Garak is offended by the Bajoran attitude toward Cardassians, but Odo was treated as a man who served justice rather than Cardassia. When the Runabout is hit by a Deus ex Plasma Surge, the four are rendered unconscious and recovered by the station. However, the four of them are experiencing a time during the occupation on Terok Nor, where they are seen as Bajoran workers.

Odo is increasingly distraught and tries to convince Strax, his Cardassian predecessor to let them go when they are arrested as easy targets after an attempt is made on Gul Dukat’s life. Garak begins to point out that things don’t quite add up: Odo seems to know who they are, and time-wise, these events should be transpiring after Odo took over security.

The plasma surge has accidentally triggered a part of Odo’s mind that is still a Changeling, pulling the other three into a tiny “Great Link,” reliving what Odo considers a huge mistake. He did not work hard enough to save the three actual Bajorans falsely accused of the crime and witnessed their public execution. It has haunted him, and now he has relived it. When he acknowledges it, the link is broken, and everyone wakes up.

Not too bad an episode, kind of a way to do time travel that isn’t time travel, but it seems to me that if they were all in Odo’s mind, Dax would not have been separated out to become Dukat’s plaything. Just seems odd that Odo’s subconscious could act on Dukat’s behalf. Also strange, at the end Kira gets pretty judgey on Odo, wanting to know if those three were the only innocent men he allowed to die. Bold question coming from a woman who murdered someone nine years earlier and asked Odo to cover it up when he found out in season 2. Not a great character development piece for Odo, but does delve into the fact he may still have Changeling properties, which becomes very relevant in about three more episodes.

Jake moves out on his own with Cadet Nog who is in his Academy Sophomore year field assignment in “The Ascent.” As they are working out the fact they are not the boys who used to hang out on the Promenade, Odo takes Quark into custody to escort him on an eight day journey to an arraignment. Refusing to tell Quark the charges, Odo is enjoying watching the Ferengi squirm, until their Runabout is sabotaged. Quark immediately realizes this must have something to do with a deal that went wrong against the Orion Syndicate, which distresses Odo. He did not in fact know what the charges involved, and would have taken more precautions if he’d known the Orions were involved. They crash on an icy world, but much of the survival gear is destroyed in the explosive sabotage, leaving them to have to carry a heavy subspace transceiver to a mountain peak to broadcast through atmosphere.

When still-human Odo breaks his leg, Quark goes on ahead. After some time passes, Odo is convinced Quark has died, and knows he won’t last much longer. Preparing his last message, he is suddenly beamed up. Quark DID make it up the mountain and has gotten help. Recovering in sickbay after their experience, both Quark and Odo take a moment to remind one another they still hate each other.

Good character stuff with Jake, but especially Nog, whom we see become more and more the Starfleet cadet rather than the little Ferengi kid. Aron Eisenberg does a great job making that happen. Watching Armin Shimerman and Rene Auberjonois play off each other is always a delight, and it is interesting to watch the now human Odo become more fallible as a solid, giving in to temper to wrestle with Quark and break his leg. Neat to get mention of the Orion Syndicate here too, something else that will be picked up later, though the relationship between “Orion Syndicate,” “Orion Pirates,” and “Orion Slave Women” is all a little nebulous at times.

A 20,000 year old Bajoran painting comes through the station depicting the lost city of B’Hala in “Rapture.” Sisko, despite the fact that Bajor’s admission ceremony into the Federation is coming up, gets caught up in deciphering the painting to find the lost city. While reconstructing it in the holosuite a deus ex quark’s bad wiring zaps him, and seems to give him the ability to tap into a greater insight as The Emissary. Indeed, on the cusp of various officials coming to see Bajor enter the UFP, Sisko DOES find B’Hala, sharing it with Kassidy Yates who has served her six months and come back. Sisko’s visions however become more intense and Bashir realizes that there is damage in his brain from the shock that could kill him, but Ben is adamant about continuing to have the visions. His ability has even won over Kai Winn who now can’t help but acknowledge he is the Emissary, and she accepts Bajor’s Federation membership.

Just as they are about to sign though, Ben has another vision, seeing that Bajor must stand alone or a swarm of locusts that will head for Cardassia would destroy the planet. He collapses as Bajor pulls out of the signing. Ben is dying, but Bahir will not intervene without permission, in this case from Jake, who does authorize it. Sisko awakes, but is unable to see what the Prophets were trying to tell him. He accepts his path though, as Starfleet reluctantly leaves him in place because without “The Emissary,” Bajor would reject the Federation entirely.

This is a great one that deals with faith, prophecy, and how we interpret the events in our life in a really compelling way. Is Ben having legitimate visions, or is his over-stimulated hippocampus just giving him better insight, or even just gibberish? It’s a question anyone who thinks they have had a religious experience must deal with, and is handled really well here. Kira caught between her faith and her duty to the Captain, Winn having to admit the Prophets have chosen Ben, and Starfleet dealing with the fact their Colonel Kurtz has gone up the river and declared himself a God all balance with the every more beatific Sisko to keep you involved. As this is a rewatch, we know Ben is right: the “locusts” are the Jem’Hadar who will rush to Cardassia later this season. If Bajor was a Federation world, they would have been a target when the invasion happens. Interesting though that hindsight also tells us that Bashir IS NOT BASHIR! This episode marks the first with the “Star Trek: First Contact” style uniforms, which Bashir is wearing. When the real Bashir is recovered later this season, he is wearing the older Voyager style uniform, so this must be the Changeling. It leads me to question if Ben’s visions ever actually caused the damage, or was his connection to the Wormhole Aliens being sabotaged by The Dominion?

NEXT VOYAGE: Someone is killing off Kira’s old friends, and she may have to confront past sins in “The Darkness and The Light.”

#star trek #star trek: Deep Space Nine #DS9 Rewatch

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Star Trek DS9 Rewatch Log, Stardate 1906.13: Missions Reviewed, “Crossover,” “The Collaborator,” “Tribunal,” and “The Jem’Hadar.”

Kira and Bashir are coming back through the wormhole when their runabout’s warp engine malfunctions. After a harrowing passage, they emerge into the Alpha Quadrant to find DS9 is still in orbit around Bajor.

They are immediately captured by a Klingon ship, but those warriors take one look at Kira and fumble over themselves trying to please her. Bashir has studied century old logs however and has an inkling as to what has happened. They have crossed into what a century before James Kirk called the “Mirror Universe.” His influence on mirror Spock was initially good and the Terran Empire became benign…only to be conquered by an alliance between the Klingons and Cardassians. Now Terrans are slaves or somehow beholden to the alliance. Kira finds her counterpart—The Intendant—is basically in charge of DS9 and Bajor…and may be insane with power.

She employs Mirror Sisko as a boytoy and pirate, but he resents it. Bashir gets mirror O’Brien to help them and a little human slave revolt provides enough of a distraction for Kira and Bashir to make it back into the wormhole to find their way back to their own universe.

Nana Visitor is eating this one up. Not only does she get to sport a rubber outfit, she is definitely at TOS levels of villainy as The Intendant. Though, at some point, some director had her walk away in that outfit just to have a character call her back…so she could walk away again. Gulp. This episode is really the best of the DS9 MU episodes, as they get a little less credible with each one. Of course, “Enterprise” will go to that well (though they do it rather exceptionally well managing a sequel to both “Mirror, Mirror” and “The Tholian Web) and the MU plays a huge role in the first season of “Discovery,” which I will try not to spoil, but trust me it’s worth your time. Although Orci and Kurtzman who wrote the first two Kelvin Timeline movies cite the TNG episode “Parallels” as the basis for their alternate timeline, let’s look at the MU. Whatever differences happened in the past the separated it from Prime, there is still a Starship Enterprise commanded by Kirk; still an NX-01 with an Archer. Still a Terok Nor with Kira. History WANTS to happen a certain way in the Star Trek multiverse, and yes “Parallels” gives us 180,000 examples of how similar but different those timelines can be, it all goes back for me to the MU. One day though I will have to share my theory that “The Prime Timeline” is at least five different alternate realities.

“The Collaborator” has Bajor finally preparing to elect a new Kai since Opaka stayed in the Gamma Quadrant back in S1. Vedek Bareil, Kira’s boyfriend now, is about a shoe in, but Kai Winn arranges for a Bajoran collaborator to return from Cardassian exile.

He brings evidence that during the Occupation, Bareil provided information to the Cardassians as to the location of a resistance cell of which Kai Opaka’s son was part; they were massacred. Winn gets Kira to investigate, and she indeed finds that Bareil erased the data. When he finds out she knows, he pulls his name out of the running for Kai, and indeed Winn is elected. Afterward, Kira discovers more evidence proving Bareil couldn’t have been the collaborator. Indeed, he was not. He covered up the fact Opaka herself had provided the information, including the location of her son, to save the 1000 people who lived in the area the Cardassians were going to exterminate to stop this cell. Winn is now Kai, but Bareil could not let Opaka’s memory be tarnished.

This is a solid episode that does what one would not expect- allows Louise Fletcher’s Winn to become the Bajoran Pope. Setting up years of follow on conflict, it’s a hard story to take, but dramatically wonderful. Along with all that, there is a scene where Kira admits to Odo that she loves Bareil. Odo is visibly hurt by this, but quickly covers it up. Apparently this was improvisation on Rene Auberjonois’ part, which the writers immediately set upon. Good for them; Kira/Odo is my OTP (look it up, old folks).

This season has TWO “let’s screw with O’Brien” episodes apparently, as “The Tribunal” has O’Brien trying to take a vacation, only to be detained by the Cardassians and put on a public trial.

Of course in Cardassian court, the trial is just to demonstrate the State’s case, as you have already been convicted and sentenced, and you are ALWAYS guilty. O’Brien is given a lawyer, whose only job as the defense is to get O’Brien to confess faster and show remorse so “the people” can take pride in justice done when the execution happens. Odo manages to use his old status as an officer of the Cardassian courts to intervene, but it is when Sisko finds O’Brien was framed by a Cardassian deep cover spy the Chief is publically granted clemency, the Cardassian plot uncovered.

Poor Miles. He goes through so much crap. Apparently at one point Ira Steven Behr as showrunner had a card up reading “O’Brien must suffer.” The Kafka-esque trial setting is effective here, and Fritz Weaver as the Defense Attorney who really isn’t is pretty good.

Some nice call backs to the Maquis episodes as well as the crime O’Brien’s accused of is stealing photon warheads to pass to the terrorists…who have no idea what’s going on. Also nice to see Odo is just as cranky in the courtroom as he is on the Promenade.

Season two comes to an end with “The Jem’Hadar.” Sisko is planning a wilderness planet getaway with Jake in the Gamma Quadrant when Jake talks him into bringing Nog. Quark uses that as an opportunity to tag along to try to convince Sisko to let him use the stations comm screens to play commercials (you know, like all the gas pumps do now). While on the planet they find an alien woman on the run from vicious soldiers called the Jem’Hadar.

They are the military force for The Dominion who keep coming up all season. When they go missing, the Jem’Hadar deliver a message to their friends at DS9 to stay out of the Gamma Quadrant…and they have destroyed the colony of New Bajor already. The Federation sends a Galaxy class starship, the Odyssey, to flex its muscle and rescue Sisko and Quark (Nog and Jake have made it back to the Runabout and are trying to fly it when the cavalry arrive). Sisko and Quark escape with the alien Eris, but Quark reveals she could have escaped anytime.

As they are getting away though, the Jem’Hadar destroy the Odyssey with all aboard. Back on DS9, Sisko accuses Eris of being what the soldiers called “The Founders,” but she is a Vorta, the middle management of the Dominion. She does escape, leaving DS9 to realize that there is an advanced, ruthless enemy on the other side of the wormhole, and when they come through, DS9 will be their first target.

Besides finally showing us the Jem’Hadar, Vortas, and letting something happen with The Dominion, this episode has some great interaction between Sisko and Quark. The Ferengi points out how accepting the Federation is, until some race like the Ferengi have values that don’t fall in line. It’s an interesting argument on tolerance, and how accepting the Federation as a liberal democracy really is across the galaxy. I would normally complain that a concept like that deserves its own episode, but DS9 handles this sort of thing regularly enough not to mind the question getting sidelined too much. I tried to remember back to when I first watched this episode, if I had any inkling just what the Dominion would become on this show, or if I had any clue who the Founders were just yet. Though not precisely a cliffhanger, the wolf is at the door by the end of this episode, promising that the foreboding feeling we are left with will only get worse in Season 3.

NEXT VOYAGE: Season 3 kicks off with “The Search” and we get to see just how Defiant the DS9 crew can get!

#star trek #Star Trek: Deep Space Nine #ds9 rewatch

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