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Wacky Reviews: Star Trek

Vortex - Odo is suspicious of an alien (Croden) who the Klingons brought through the wormhole. He also notices twin Miradorn nodding to Quark. Croden tries to rob a stolen egg thing from the Miradorn but Odo was spying on them (he just spies on people he's even a little suspicious of.) Croden kills one of the Miradorn in the struggle and his brother is angry and wants revenge. Odo thinks it's curious that Croden had a Ferengi phaser and knew about the sale of the egg (to Quark) and suspects Quark and Croden were working together. Croden calls Odo a "Changeling" and claims to have heard of others in the Gamma Quadrant and even to have met one. Odo tries to get more information from Quark. The Miradorn waits outside Odo's office to kill Croden. Odo presses Croden for my information and Croden tells him that there used to be shapeshifters on his planet but they were persecuted and drive out. He knows where they are now though and can take Odo to meet them. He has a small amount of shapeshifting liquid which he claims comes from the colony of changelings. Siko and Dax go to Croden's planet and they say Croden is guilty of many crimes and want him handed over. And shout at Sisko a lot. Croden convinces Odo that only he knows where the colony of changelings is.

Sisko tells Odo to escort Croden back to his home planet. They sneak his runabout out in a freighter so that Miradorn don't notice. Croden explains his backstory to Odo: he was declared an enemy of the state and the security forces on his homeworld murdered both his wives so he killed the killers in revenge. The Miradorn threatens Quark and Rom into giving up Odo's location (Quark does try to lie to prtoect Odo at first.) Rom thinks this was a genius move by Quark because the Miradorn will kill Odo and Croden for them (wow Rom was a big fan of murder in seaosn one) but Quark is sad that Odo might die. The Miradorn attacks Odo's runabout but of course Odo won't give up his prisoner. He gives Croden the controls so he can pilot the runabout through a vortex and escape the Miradorn (but he follows anyway.) They arrive at a planet and Croden admits there is no colony of changelings (though his people do tell stories of them.) He bought the shapeshifting liquid thing from a merchant. It turns into a key to unlock a secret compartment with Croden's daughter inside it. That's what this was all about! The Miradorn attacks and Odo is knocked out by a rock falling on his head (he shapeshifts a humanoid brain for himself when he's in humanoid form?), but Croden carries him to safety. There's more chasing in the vortex and the visual effects are really quite good here, the vortex looks good and the spaceship stuff is a lot better than in 'Past Prologue'. The Miradorn ends up blowing himself up. A Vulcan ship(!) contacts Odo and he lies and tells them Croden and his daughter are survivors from another ship. They're taken back to Vulcan and Odo promises to tell Sisko that Croden died. Odo lying to protect a criminal! That's character development! Croden gives Odo the shapeshifting key in the hope that it will help him find his home. Odo smiles for the first time ever to Croden's daughter.

It's a lot better than the last Odo centric episode. Rene Auberjonois is one of the strongest actors in the cast and gives Odo new levels here. The backstory about Changelings is nice to learn, even if it's possibly not true (though it ends up being pretty accurate.) And the ending with Odo letting the prisoner go and smiling at the little girl is pretty cute! On the downside the actor playing Croden is a bit annoying. I also feel like they're overusing Quark and his criminal schemes at this point? Like every episode he's up to another plot that often ends with someone getting killed and it's getting a bit silly that he hasn't been arrested for anything yet. They should just let him run the bar for a while. But yeah it's a solid episode.

SCORE: 7.5/10
 
Battle Lines - Kira is angry that Dukat described her as a "minor operative" in the file he kept on her. Kai Opaka shows up unexpectedly on the station, wanting a tour. It's the first time she's ever left Bajor and she wants to take a trip through the wormhole. Sisko, Kira and Bashir come with her. She gives O'Brien a Bajoran earring to give to Molly, for reasons that are not explained and never come up again (I'm sure I remember people on TrekBBS saying this was foreshadowing for Molly turning out to be a Bajoran God or something.) Hey, this is the firsst time the main characters have taken a trip through the wormhole just to explore. I wonder if viewers thought this would happen more often? They pick up a mysterious signal from a moon and Opaka insists they look into it. The runabout is fired on by a satellite and crashes on the moon (it's done really cheaply where we stay inside the runabout the whole time and never see the satellite or the crash.) Opaka dies in the crash, the others are completely unhurt. Kira does some loud crying over her body. Some vaguely Mad Max looking aliens appear and drag them into a cave. Their leader Golin is played by Jonathan "Mike from Breaking Bad/Character Name from Community" Banks and he asks if they know about "the punishment." Kira is really suffering because Opaka has always been a symbol of hope to the Bajoran people and she died pointlessly on some moon. Some different aliens attack Golen's people so Kira shoots some rocks down on them. Then Opaka shows up in the cave...still alive!? Bashir finds some kind of bio mechanical presence in her. The dead aliens begin to come to life too.

O'Brien and Dax search for the missing crewmembers. Golen reports that he's died and come back to life many times and he sees it as a curse. He and another group of aliens thought a war for many years and the leaders of their planet finally sent them to this moon for punishment, fighting an undying war, and to serve as an example that war is bad. Kira kind of misses the point and wants to give Golen advice on how to fight his war. He says they used to use battle tactics but over the years they realised it was pointless since they always come back anyway. O'Brien decides that the search is like looking for a needle in a haystack so they need a magnet ("like putting too much air in a balloon!") Sisko convinces Golen to hold peace talks with his rival. Kira doesn't want Opaka to think that she enjoys fighting. Opaka feels Kira's Pah and tells her not to deny the violence inside of her, she must accept it to move on. Sisko makes the offer to the rival alien leader to take their people off the planet and settle them ona different planet from Golen's people. The leader thinks he's on Golen's side and this is all a trick. It breaks down pretty quickly and there's a big fight. Julian saves Sisko's life and tells him they can't die on the planet, not even once. If you die on the moon you can never leave it. O'Brien and Dax arrive at the moon but can't beam the crew up yet because of the evil satellites. Opaka says that when she entered the wormhole she knew she'd never return home and it is the call of the Prophets for her to stay and heal the aliens. Julian wonders if he can put an end to the suffering on the planet by disabling the microbes and finally letting the people die. Golen begs him to do so, but only so he can finally kill his enemies. Sisko knows he can't allow that and has O'Brien beam he, Kira and Bashir up. He tells Opaka if he can ever find a way to save her he wll. Opaka says her Pah and Sisko's will cross again.

It feels a bit like an unused TOS script, but it's actually quite a good premise. Jonathan Banks is a strong guest star, obviously it helps now looking back and knowing who he is. I like all the gritty fight scenes. The problem with the episode for me as Opaka's character. We don't really learn much about her? She's only been in one episode before this (and it was basically just one scene in that episode) so it's not really that shocking that they'd kill her off/write her out. It's hard to really feel much about her fate. I'm usually impressed by Nana Visitor but she seems to overact terribly in some of her scenes with Opaka here. I do like the ending with Sisko being disgusted at Golen wanting to finally kill the other group and ordering Bashir not to disable the microbes. It feels like something Kirk would do. It's a decent episode but feels like it could have been a lot better.

SCORE: 6.5/10


The Storyteller - Sisko is mediating a land dispute between two Bajoran factions (zzzzzzz.) There's a medical emergency on a Bajoran village too and Sisko sends O'Brien and Bashir to look into it. O'Brien is not happy about being stuck with Julian. The leader of one of the Bajoran factions is a teenage girl. Julian asks Miles if he annoys him. Miles clearly doesn't want to talk to him and doesn't want to call him "Julian" either. The "medical emergency" in the Bajoran village turns out to be one dying old man. Sisko holds the negotiations between the two factions but the girl throws a drink in Quark's face when he calls her a "little lady." Nog doesn't want to play baseball because it's boring. Nog is the best character now. He instantly falls in love with the Bajoran girl. Bashir reports that the old man will be dead soon and the village leader says a monster is coming from the woods and only the old man can stop it. God Bajorans are dumb. Jake and Nog make friends with the Bajoran girl. The old man nearly defeats the monster (it's an angry looking cloud) by telling a story that gets the villagers to unite their strength. But he collapses and the cloud shoots up the village a bit (O'Brien says "bloody Hell!" which is funny.) The stroyteller names O'Brien as his successor and has O'Brien repeat his story to motivate the villagers into standing against the bad cloud. The storyteller dies.

Sisko tells of fthe Bajoran girl for wanting to fight rather than talk. She says her people and willing to die and storms off. She talks to Jake and Nog about it and Nog says she should look at the situation as an opportunity rather than a problem and she should try to get something she wants out of her rival. Julian tells Miles he's enjoyng himself on this mission. The villages bring O'Brien gifts. Including some young women offering him sexual favours. The village leader thinks O'Brien is going to stay with them because they need him to tell the story every year (can't he just visit on story telling days once a year?) Nog suggests stealing Odo's bucket (where he lives!) to cheer the Bajoran girl up. They sneak into his office and Nog spills the bucket on Jake. He thinks Odo's dead and tries to put him back together but it's just oatmeal Nog put in the bucket earlier! They all laugh. This is actually brilliant and redeems the episode a bit! The storyteller's apprenctice tries to murder O'Brien with a knife because he thinks he should be the new storyteller. He explains that many years ago the first storyteller used a fragment of an Orb (you can break parts off of them?) to create the monster and unite the villagers against it. The apprentice tried to control the monster three days earlier but faied and the storyteller named O'Brien as his successor to punish him. This barely makes sense but okay. Now they they know the monster is just created by an Orb fragment can't they just tell the other villagers? Surely they'd united now after hundreds of years of fighting the monster together? The Bajoran girl admits to Sisko that she befriended Jake and Nog to learn if she could trust Sisko. She knows she can trust him now and he convinces her to compromise with her rival. O'Brien tries to tell the story to stop the monster but does a terrible job (he starts with "Once upon a time...") The apprentice EVENTUALLY steps in to save he day and the villagers accept him as the storyteller. Thank fuck for that! It's pretty weird that O'Brien just helped the guy who tried to MURDER him though. The Bajoran Cutie (the actress was TWENTY THREE at the time so I think it's okay to find her cute okay) kisses Nog and he likes it. Bashir tells O'Brien he doesn't have to call him "Julian" anymore and O'Brien is fine with calling him "sir" because he still hates him.

It's the first Bshir/O'Brien team up! And though they work well together and have some funny moments, the actual plot they're invovled in is UTTER CRAP with some terrible guest star acting. It's plots like that that made me hate the Bajorans for years. So that's a shame! The B-plot with Jake, Nog and the girl is actually better and I genuinely loved the "Odo's dead!" scene with all my heart, so I could never hate this episode.

SCORE: 5.5/10


Progress - With the help of the Federation, Bajor is going to tap the molten core of one of its moons. The power will heat "a few thousand" homes. Dax tells Kira that Morn asked her out and she finds him cute. Kira finds some Bajorans still living on the moon and they hold her up with pitchforks. An old Bajoran man tells Kira she he doesn't trust uniforms but also he thinks she's hot so he'll talk to her. There's also a b-plot where Jake and Nog try to sell Yamek Sauce to an alien. Instead he trades them for self-sealing stembolts. The old man insists Kira help him make supper. His two farmhands can't speak because the Cardassians cut their tongues out. The old man (Mullibok) keeps perving on Kira but she realises he's trying to make her leave. Kira explains to Mullibok that he has to leave so the moon can be tapped but he says if he leaves his home he'll die so he's staying. Nog offers to take the Yamek Suace off Quark's hand and Quark tells him he's a good boy (they've toned down Quark being constantly ivolved in criminal activities lately and it's welcome.) Mullibok tells more slow paced stories to Kira. Mullibok tells Kira he's sorry he missed the fun of killing Cardassians. Again he's being tricksy and trying to make her see that he's in the same situation she was in when fighting the Cardies. Nog and Jake try to find out from O'Brien what stembolts are for but he doesn't know either. Kira reports back to Sisko and the minister in charge of the project that Mollibok won't leave and tries to offer an alternative. The minister orders her to get him off the moon.

Kira returns to the moon with two security officers. Mollibok still won't leave. One of his farmhands stabs one of the security officers and Mollibok ends up getting shot. Jake and Nog try to sell the stembolts to the guy who originally bought them but he offers a trade for some land instead. Nog is frustrated but Joke convinces him that trading is good. Bashir comes to the moon to treat Mollibok (the others are evacuated now.) Kira won't let Bashir take him, removes her uniform, and starts rebuilding Mollibok's damaged farm thing. Kira compares Mollibok to a big, selfish, annoying old tree she once knew. Sisko comes to the moon. He tells Kira she's risking her career by staying. Mollibok keeps interrupting and being annoying. Sisko tells Kira he thought she was hostile and arrogant when they first me, but now he knows that she's what Bajor needs and he needs her too. Kira keeps looking after Mollibok as he keeps whining. Odo tells Quark that the Bajorans want to build something on land owned by the "No-Jay Consortium." Nog tells Quark he'll give him the land...for five bars of gold-pressed latinum. Mollibok finally finishes building the thing he was building (I should have payed attention earlier I guess.) Kira packs up his stuff and says it's time to leave. He still won't go so Kira burns his cottage down. That'll work. They finally beam up.

I wonder if Michael Piller hated this episode and wrote Insurrection in response? Because it has the exact opposite ending: Kira does force the old man out of his home here. And maybe she's write too, because Mollibok was very annoying, but it doesnt seem like a Star Trek ending. The guy playing Mollibok is very good and the episode certainly tackle ssome meatier issues than many this season...it's just all a bit dull? Mollibok keeps syaing he won't leave, Kira keeps talking to him, and it goes on and on. It's well acted form both of them but by the end I just wanted him to die or something so we had an ending. And can't the Federation just replicate a few thousand power plants for the Bajorans? The Jake/Nog story is fun but feels a bit out of place in this episode. Then again I wouldn't have wanted a whole uninterrupted episode of Mollibok telling stories. I don't know. It's an episode I don't really enjoy watching that much but I respect it more than, say, the previous one. Let's just go with a safe score...

SCORE: 7/10
 
I wish they'd given Opaka more to do, she was better than Kai Winn! I liked it when she grabbed Sisko's ear. Also, what's the point of war when nobody can die, or ever win? That always bugs me. They just keep torturing themselves forever.
 
Cassie said:
I wish they'd given Opaka more to do, she was better than Kai Winn! I liked it when she grabbed Sisko's ear. Also, what's the point of war when nobody can die, or ever win? That always bugs me. They just keep torturing themselves forever.
Click to expand...

Its as pointless as that TOS episode where the "casualties" of war were expected to report for execution within 24 hours.
 
If Wishes Were Horses - Quarks asks Odo if he has any fantasies and wants to have holosex. Didn't they have this exact conversation a couple of episodes ago? Bashir does he usual pervy stuff with Dax. O'Brien reads Rumpelstiltskin to Molly. But then Rumbelstiltskin appears in her bedroom somehow. He's a rude midget. Baseball player Buck Bokai follows Jake home from the holosuite. Jadzia shows up in Julian's room all horny and kissing him. Except when they go to Ops the real Jadzia is there. Bokai talks about some incomprehensible baseball stuff (DS9's greatest flaw will always be including so much baseball stuff. Should have used WRESTLING instead.) It starts snowing on the Promenade. Dax detects some weird plasma field that's making people's imaginations come true (yeah it's dumb.) Also it could kill everyone. Odo orders people to refrain from using their imaginations. Quark is fine with it because he has two scantily clade ladies rubbing his ears, but becomes concenred when he notices everyone winning at Dabo. Jadzia asks Julian if he really wants her to be as submissive as the fantasy Jadzia.

Rumpelstiltskin keeps bothering O'Brien. It's not funny, it's just annoying, and Rumpelstiltskin's acting is really bad. Bokai keeps saying boring baseball stuff to Sisko. His acting's really bad too. The three fantasy figures (just the three created by main characters) talk to each other about what they've learned. There's talk about the technobabble spatial thing and how to destroy it (using magic torpedos who cares.) Kira's fantasy figure is...a man on fire. There's some cheap scenes of Odo chasing offscreen animals on the Promenade. Odo's fantasy is Quark in his jail. Odo is happy about this and laughs but it's not the real Quark so what good is it really? Oh no the space rift is expanding and it's going to kill everyone how terrible. The magic torpedos fail to destroy the rift...I think It's more technobabble and it's really bad. The station is nearly destroyed and fantasy Jadzia is injured. I think we're supposed to feel bad for her as Julian tries to keep her alive but I don't care. Rumpelstiltskin says he can save the station...but he wants Molly for his daughter. Sisko realises that the subspace rupture actually came from Jadzia's imagination and isn't real. It will go away as long as they all believe in fairies. Bokai visits Sisko and tells him that they're explorers and they learn about people they meet through their imaginations. He's a cunt.

It's the standard "imaginations come to life!" episode that all the series do for some reason. Ironically it's really unimaginative as nothing particularly interesting happens and we don't learn anything new about the characters. A waste of time.

SCORE: 2/10


The Forsaken - A delegation of Federation ambassadors is visiting the station. Sisko has Bashir look after them because the ambassadors are all stuck up and rude. Surely ambassadors should be good at talking to people? Isn't that part of the job of being an ambassador? There's a Vulcan, some alien woman we haven't seen before, a Bolian and Lwaxana Troi in a pink wig. Something of hers is stolen in Quark's and she grabs his ear. She's impressed by Odo when he catches the thief. O'Brien's having problems with the computer and is in full Grumpy O'Brien mode. A probe comes through the wormhole. Sisko wants to download its databanks. Lwaxana hits on Odo in his office. He's scared and runs away. Odo goes to Sisko for advice on dealing with Lwaxana. Sisko just basically tells him to shag her which isn't very helpful. Lwaxana wants to have a picnic with Odo but he doesn't eat. They get stuck in a Turbolift together. The transporters aren't working either so they can't be beamed out. O'Brien and Dax can't find out what's wrong. Lwaxana tells Odo about the time she and Deanna were kidnapped by Ferengi. Odo is really bored.

Sisko tells Bashir that Curzon used to force him to look after ambassadors but it ended when Sisko punched and ambassador who was sexually harrassing an Ensign. O'Brien thinks the computer's personality has change and it's acting like a child now. Dax thinks it could be a non-biological lifeform from the alien probe. The ambassadors keep moaning to Julian. Odo tells Lwaxana that he based his hair on the Bajoran man who studied him at the research centre where he grew up (Odo backstory!) Odo is starting to look wet as it gets closer to the time when he'll have to regenerate. He opens up to Lwaxana about how he used to shapeshift into things to entertain people and fit in. The crew distract the computer by asking it questions while O'Brien tries to repair it. There's a fire in the habitat ring and Bashir is trapped there with the ambassadors. O'Brien and Dax compare the entity in the computer to puppy that's been locked up in a room too long. Odo is breaking down and dosnt want Lwaxana to see him. She tells him he doesn't have to be ashamed and takes her wig off. She doesn't like looking ordinary. Odo turns into a liquid and she takes him into her skirt. This is the best Lwxana scene ever, even better than 'Half a Life' in TNG. Majel even does some good understated acting and Rene is great as always. Sisko and Kira rescue the ambassadors and they praise Julian. O'Brien put "Pup" into a computer subroutine where it will be happy and never mentioned again.

There's three strorylines here: the one with the ambassadors and Julian isn't very good because the ambassadors are too over the top. The one with O'Brien and the alien computer is okay but they don't really do much to give the new lifeform a personality (it likes starting fires I guess?) Shockingly enough it's the Lwxana Troi story that saves the episode. The's annoying at first but the scene with her and Odo in the turbolift is great and the best use of her ever in Star Trek. The rest of the episode is completely disposable but the Odo/Lwaxana scenes are well worth watching.

SCORE: 7/10


Dramatis Personae - Kira is angry that aliens who sell weapons to the Cardassians have come to the station. Keiko is taking her school children on a field trip to Bajor (I think this comes up again in a few weeks.) A Klingon ship comes to the station and explodes. A Klingo beams into Ops, says "victory!" and dies. Jadzia starts acting flighty. The aliens Kira was worried about arrive at the station and she doesn't want to let them dock because she thinks they're running weapons again and wants to prove it. Sisko clears them. Odo probes Quark for information on the Klingons who blew up. He tells him the Klingons were looking for some kind of secret weapon. Odo's face goes weird and he collapses. When he wakes up Bashir starts gossiping to him about the problems between Sisko and Kira. The very next scene is Sisko and Kira clashing over how to handle the weapons-running ship. O'Brien tells Dax that anyone who's against Sisko is against him. Kira flirts with Odo to try to get him on her side. O'Brien and Dax find the Klingon Captain's log, which seems to report a power struggle on his ship similar to the one on DS9 at the moment. Kira tries to get Dax on her side but Dax just keeps saying weird things about the past. Kira threatens to kill her if she takes Sisko's side then threatens Quark when he overhears.

Odo is unchanged by the weirdness and notices from the Klingon journals that there was a mutiny on their ship. He finds O'Brien in Sisko's office and Sisko under armed guard in his quarters. Sisko doesn't care about anything and has drawn a clock (there's a good bit where he says "A CLOCK!"to Odo where Brooks' weird acting style works well.) Kira tells Odo she's ready to move on Sisko and O'Brien. Odo watches more of the Klingon journals and finds they discoverd a sphere with some kind of telepathic energy inside it. O'Brien tells Sisko they should leave the station and Sisko goes "NEVER!!!" Brooks is good at playing a crazy guy because he's kind of crazy. O'Brien wants to round up a Federation attack force to kick the Bajorans off the station. Odo's appeals to Bashir's vanity to get his help. A Bajoran tries to assassinate Sisko and he beats him up. Dax tries to call Kira but O'Brien pimp slaps her! Kira shows up with more Bajorans and Sisko and O'Brien flee. Odo plays both sides. Kira catches Sisko and is about to execute him but Bashir's made a cure which Odo uses on them (it's a loud noise.) He flushes the telepathic energy into space. Kira aplogises to Sisko (who has an alien clock that he built now) and he says it's fine. We never find out if the aliens really were running weapons to the Cardassians.

The "weird energy alters everyone's personality" story is another Star Trek standard, but this one is quite well done. I like how it starts with real tensions between Sisko and Kira and the telepathic energy stuff just greatly enhnaces that existing tension. Giving Avery Brooks an excuse to overact is a good thing as Sisko's been a bit dull lately and he's fun here when he goes full on Crazy. Colm Meaney is very good as the scheming O'Brien and Rene Auberjonois is great as always as Odo (and really Odo's been treated more like the central charcter than Sisko in recent episodes.) It's a solid entertaining episode.

SCORE: 7.5/10
 
Duet - A Cardassian named Marritza (Harris Yulin) with a rare medical condition seeks treatment from Bashir, but Kira orders him arrested for war crimes as she believes any Cardassian with the condition must have served at the forced labour camp Gallitep. He tells Sisko it's all been a mistake and seems like a nice enough Cardie (there's also a racist Bajoran in the cell opposite him, remember that for later!) Bashir however confirms that he has the condition and the only possible way he could have contracted it is from Gallitep. The Bajorans put Sisko under pressure to hand Marritza over to them. The Bajorans want Kira to head up the investigation but Sisko would rather Odo do it. Kira admits she isn't objective but gives her word as Sisko's first officer that she'll be fair. Sisko lets Kira question Marritza. He admits to being at Gallitep, but claims to have only been a filing clerk. But a very skilled one! He claims he witnessed no atrocities and Kira is disgusted. He claims Gul Darheel spread rumours of atrocities to scare the Bajorans. Gul Dukat (the guy from the first episode!) contacts Sisko, wanting Marritza released. He also tries to downplay the war crimes commited by the Cardassians as just bitter Bajoran lies. Kira admits to Dax that she wants Marritza to be something worse than a file clerk so she can punish him. Dax tells her Kira knows vengeance won't help her.

A Bajorans send an image from Gallitep which is supposed to show Marritza, but he's not the Cardassians they're holding. They find that their prisoner is in fact Gul Darheel himself. He admits to being Darheel and makes a big bombastic speech about what a great job he did running the labour camp and killing all the Bajoran scum. (Kira's resistace cell is named as the "Shakaar resistance cell" for the first time in here.) Kira can't stand being around him any longer and goes to Odo. But Odo wonders how Darheel knew the name of Kira's resistance cell. Kira demands answers from Darheel but he gleefully rants about killing Bajorans and claims he read her name in a report years ago. Survivors of Gallitep arrive on the station waiting for justice. Dukat contacts Odo and tries to make out they're old friends (Odo doesn't remember it like that.) He claims that Darheel is dead and he attended his funeral himself. He gives Odo access to his files to prove Marritza isn't Darheel. Darheel asks Kira how many Cardassians she killed and how many of them were civilians. Kira defends herself as doing what needed to be done and Darheel says he was doing the same thing. "What you call genocide, I call a day's work." Odo tells Kira that the man in the cell wanted to be caught. The records Dukat provided show that Darheel didn't have the medical condition. Kira thinks Dukat is trying to trick them so Darheel can be released. Odo has found that Darheel/Marittza came to the station on purpose. Bashir reveals that he had extensive plastic surgery, changing his appearance to look like Darheel. Kira goes to him one more time to get to the truth. He gets angry and starts talking about how much he enjoyed killing Bajorans again. Kira knows now he was really Marittza. Darheel says Marittza was weak and cried every night because he coudln't stand the screams of Bajorans. He finally breaks down crying. Kira lowers the forcefield to let him go because he didn't commit the crimes. He demands he be punished. Kira says he's not repsonsible for Darheel's crimes. Marittza wants to stand trial so that Cardassia will be forced to admit its guilt. Kira says she won't kill anyone else. She lets him go but the racist Bajoran from earlier stabs him in the back. Marittza dies instantly and the Bajoran says he deserved to die for being a Cardassian. Kira disagrees.

Hey, it's a great episode! Typing out my probably too long recap I realised I wasn't really getting across how good it is because the strength is in the acting, of Nana Visitor and especially Harris Yulin (though Marc Alaimo is also great in his short appearance.) The double twist works because you can see there's something not quite right about Marittza all along. At first it's pretty obvious he's lying, but it makes sense he'd make it obvious because he wanted to be caught. Then when he comes out as Darheel he goes very theatrical, trying to really hammer home how evil the Cardassians were. It's one of the best Trek guest star performances. The story for Kira moving past her hatred is great too...but the last line where she says "no, it's not!" when the racist Bajoran says being Cardassian is reason enough to be murdered is a bit too on the nose. And really Marittza dying instantly when he's stabbed is a bit silly. But do I downgrade the episode based on the last minute being not quite as great as the rest? Nah, that would be unfair, it's not like the last minute ruins it or anything. It's a top level episode.

SCORE: 10/10


In The Hands of the Prophets - Keiko is teaching her class about the wormhole when Vedek Winn (Louise Fletcher) comes in and asks why Keiko is teaching scientific facts rather than the wormhole was created by the prophets. Keiko reasonably defends herself but Winn says she can't allow her teachings to continue. O'Brien asks his new assistant Neela (who was in the last episode too) if she's seen his missing tools. Kira tells Sisko and Keiko that Winn has her support and she thinks Keiko should change her lessons. She suggests maybe there should be a seperate school for the Bajorans but Sisko doesn't like that idea. He goes to Winn and she keeps calling him "Emissary" (the first time that's been brought up since the season opener.) Winn says the prophets told her through the orbs that she must protect the Bajoran faith on the station. O'Brien and Neela keep looking for his missing stuff and he finds humans remains. It seems to be an accidental death. A Bajoran shopkeeper refuses to serve Miles and Keiko. Winn hangs out with the children and asks Keiko again if there's a place in her school for the prophets but Keiko says no. Winn says she'll let Bajoran kids keep going if Keiko stops teaching anything about the wormhole but Keiko refuses. All the Bajoran kids walk out and only Jake and four randoms are left in school. O'Brien isn't convinced the death was an accident since the dead engineer took his tools without asking. Jake goes to Ben and says the Bajoran belief in prophets is dumb. Ben says that faith is what got the Bajorans through the occupation and their beliefs should be respected. Sisko goes to Bajor to find some help and speaks to Vedek Bareil, a cool priest who doesn't like grabbing ears. He's one of the front runners to be the next Kai but he can't support Sisko openly because it could hurt his chances.

Some Bajoran crewmen stop coming to work and Sisko asks Kira if the Bajorans are willing to let their relationship die because of this. Bashir reveals that the dead crewman was shot by someone, not killed by accident. Odo finds he was murdered in a runabout. Miles and Neela investigate. She says Bajorans and Starfleet don't associate much but she likes O'Brien. He thinks she's hitting on him. Odo and O'Brien keep investigating the death but are interrupted by Keiko's school exploding (she's not inside.) Sisko blames Winn for inciting hatred. He questions he motives and Winn says the Federation has no soul and she won't let Bajor be dragged into it. Sisko makes a speech in front of all the Bajorans about how much they've achieved together on the station. Neela nods to Winn after the speech is over. Bareil arrives at the station. Neela tells Winn that Starfleet has found out about the runabout and she has no escape. Winn says the prophets are calling on her to sacrifice herself. A huge crowd of Bajorans (and Morn for some reason) mob Bareil when he comes onboard. O'Brien finds out that someone's done something to the security settings on the Promenade. Bareil and Winn meet (he moves her hand away from his ear, amusingly) and go to the school together. O'Brien realises that Neela is responsible for everythign and has turned off the weapon detectors on the Promenade and tells Sisko. Sisko manages to stop Neela from assassinating Bareil (with hilarious slow motion "NOOOOOOOO!") Kira accuses Winn of planning the whole thing to get Bareil on the station so he could be killed and she could be Kai. Kira tells Sisko that he isn't the Devil and he says maybe they've made some progress after all.

It's a strong season finale. I've found the Bajorans annoying at times (see 'Storyteller' for example) but this one does a good job of handling their religious beliefs, I mean Keiko's clearly in the right about the school but you can see why moderate Bajorans like Kira could get riled up. Winn is a great villain and Louise Fletches plays her perfectly. Bareil is...alright? If the episode has a weakness it's that it never goes back to the school issue. I mean the school blows up so I wasn't expecting it to reopen, but we don't get any answer as to what will happen with it in the future. And there's maybe a bit too much of O'Brien and Odo investigating stuff. But yeah it's a good finale and all the characters seems improved from how they were at the start of the season, though some (Bashir and Dax mainly) still need a lot of work.

SCORE: 8.5/10
 
The Homecoming - Odo (whose face looks different but that makes sense since he's a shapshifter) is suspicous because Quark tipped him off about some criminal activity. A purple-haired woman he knows has a Bajoran earring, given to her by a Cardassian and wants to show it to someone. Quark brings it to Kira who seems to think it's important. Jake (who is nearly as tall as Ben now) has a date with a Bajoran girl and asks his dad for advice. I think the Promenade set is bigger now? Kira tells Sisko that the earring belongs to legendary reistance leader Li Nalas and she wants to rescue him from Cardassia IV. The Bajoran government doesn't want to risk war with Cardassia so Kira needs a runabout to investigate. Kira thinks Nalas can bring the troubled Bajor together. O'Brien (who has had a haircut!) finds graffiti of the emblom of The Circle on the station, an extremist group who believe Bajor is for the Bajorans. Sisko goes to Dax for advice (all the characters are getting little re-introductions) and she advises giving Kira the runabout (she's already told everyone.) Sisko has O'Brien go with Kira as he wants Li Nalas on Bajor as much as Kira does. So we get O'Brien and Kira in casual clothes and I wish there was a tumblr fashion blog for DS9. Kira and O'Brien bond by fooling Cardassians. They find that there's still Bajoran prionsers on the Cardassian labour camp which was supposed to be shut down. They beam down and O'Brien pretends he's Kira's pimp and she has an appointment with the Prefect. This is a pretty insane plan? Like wouldn't the Cardies be ultra suspicious of a human and a Bajoran woman showing up at their secret labour camp? Luckily the guard is really horny and Kira easily beats him up. They find Nalas (plays by Richard Beymer, Ben Horne from Twin Peaks) and learn that his friend smuggled the earring out. Some of the Bajorans sacrifce themselves for Li by staying behind to hold the Cardies off. Kira doesn't want to leave them but two Cardassian warships or on their way so she has no choice.

Bashir makes his first appearance of the season treating Li and the injured bajorans. Dukat tells Sisko and Kira that the Cardassian government has issued a formal apology to Bajor as they had no idea the labour camp was still operational. He claims the prisoners who were left behind have been sent to Bajor too. I love these little Dukat cameos playing politics and stopping wars. Minister Jaro (Frank Langella, who was uncredited in his episodes because he "only did Star Trek for his children" or something, which seems a bit stuck up to me?) of the Bajoran government shows up on the station to see Kira and Li. A reluctant Nalas makes a small speech to Bajorans. Li asks Sisko what free Bajor is like and Sisko says it needs strong leadership. Quark is attacked in his bar by masked men and has the sing of the Circle branded on his forehead. Li is troubled to learn of the Circle's existence. Bashir fixes Quark's forehead (Sisko snaps at Quark at one point which feels a bit off since Quark's just been assaulted in his own bar?) Jake tells Ben that his date's father wouldn't let him go out with her because he's not a Bajoran. I like how they show the Bajoran troubles from all angles! Li tries to stow away on a ship to escape the station to the Gamma Quadrant. Li explains to Sisko that his reputation is all a lie, he got lucky and killed an unarmed Cardassian (in his underwear!) who turned out to be a big deal and the story of his legend grew from there. He inspires people but he is no hero. He's sick of it and wants out. Sisko convinces him that all Bajor needs is a legend so it needs Li. For the cliffhanger Jaro reveals that Li has been made the new Bajoran liason officer to DS9 and Kira has been recalled to Bajor.

It's a strong start to the three episode arc. The Bajoran politics stuff is handled well here. The trip to the Cardassian prison camp is fun, even if it's a little unbelievable that Kira and O'Brien manage to liberate it by themselves. I enjoy the Li Nalas character even though the "legendary hero who's actually just a normal guy!" thing has been done in every show. A good start to a more confident season two.

SCORE 8.5/10


The Circle - Sisko is unhappy that Kira has been recalled. Jaro says the situation on Bajor is getting worse and they can't risk something happened to Li Nalas there. Kira is packing to go and Odo is angry she isn't putting up more of a fight. Dax, Bashir, O'Brien, Quark all come to see her one by one, in a scene that's supposed to be funny but gets a bit annoying as they all tak over each other. Bareil comes in last and Kira admits the others are her friends. We hear from Bareil that the situation on Bajor getting even worse and maybe it would help to actually see Bajor at this point instead of having character after character talk about how bad it is? He invites Kira to his monestary. Li Nalas apologises to Kira for taking her job. She remembers how she didn't want to be on the station at first but ended up liking it. Sisko promises that he'll get Kira back. Bareil and Kira talk and man Bareil has a boring voice. He shows her the Orb of Prophecy and Change. She has a vison of the Chamber of Ministers where she...ends up naked. Then naked Bareil appears. This is weird. She wakes up when she's about to vision kiss him. Did Bareil set all this up to get her into bed? I say yes. There's other stuff in the vision too (Dax as a Bajoran) but ending it on a near sex scene makes the rest hard to remember. Quark tells Odo that he's heard someone on Bajor is receiving weapons from the Kressari. Odo makes Quark a deputy and orders him to find out where the weapons are going.

Bareil tells Kira the Orb previously gave him a vision of her and that's why he brought her here. I BET IT DID. Winn arrives and pretends not to remember Kira's name. She's such a bitch! She implies that Bareil brought Kira here to shag her so maybe this is literally something he's done many times before. Sisko visits the Bajoran General Krim and tells him the Circle are being armed by the Kressari. Sisko asks for a favour in return (Kira to be returned to the station) and Krim is impressed that Sisko didn't ask for the favour before giving the information. Li Nalas tries to deal with the Kressari Captain on the station. The Kressari ship is finally allowed to depart but of course Odo's onboard disguised as a mouse as usual. Sisko viists Kira in the monestary. Mouse Odo witnesses the Kressari receiving a shipment of weapons from a Cardassian. Odo is kidnapped and brought to the leader of the Circle in their underground cave headquarters: it's Jaro! The real reasons he didn't want Li on Bajor was because he didn't want the war hero stopping the Circle. Deputy Quark comes to Ops and tells Sisko he's found out where the Circle's headquarters are. Sisko takes O'Brien and Bashir to rescue Kira. Nalas insists on coming too. There's a phaser fight in the cave and Kira (who has been beaten up) is rescued. Winn goes to see Jaro after he's been looing at an Orb. He wants her public support and for her to tell the people the prophets are on his side but of course she perfers scheming behind the scenes. She says she'll support him if he makes her the new Kai. Jaro takes over the military on Bajor and sends assault ships to DS9 to get all non-Bajorans to leave. Admiral Chekote orders Sisko to leave as it's an internal Bajoran matter (even though the Bajorans are unaware that the Cardassians are supplying their weapons.) Sisko orders O'Brien to delay the evacuation until after the Bajorans arrive.

It's another good episode but a lot slower than the first part. There's a lot of talking and some of it doesn't work, namely the scenes with Kira and Boring Bareil together. The "everyone interrupts Kira!" scene is pretty unfunny too. But yeah the story's still very good.

SCORE: 8/10


The Siege - Sisko makes a speech to the Starfleet officers about how they all care about the Bajorans and that's why he's staying on the station. They all volunteer as well, to delay the takeover until the Cardassian involvement in the takeover is exposed. Quark and Rom plot to profit by sealing seats on the evacuation ships. Jake and Nog are sad that they might never see each other again. Keiko is angry that Miles won't leave but he says they can't let the Cardies have the wormhole. Jadzia talks about her secnod host Tobin who knew a lot about some technobabble thing the plot requires. Sisko chokes Quark when he finds out he's selling seats. Then we get an Odo/Quark goodbye bit and man this episode is slow. Li Nalas tells off Bajorans who are trying to flee the station. The Bajorans stay and Morn get his rightful seat. Ben and Jake have a goodbye. Rom has hilariously given Quark's seat to a Dabo girl so Quark has to stay. Krim (who I guess was with the Circle all along) arrives with the Bajoran military, finding the station empty (everyone's hiding.) Krim is no fool and suspects that Odo, Li and Kira are still on the station and Jaro orders them found. Jaro and Winn have a "together we will rule the galaxy!" type moment. Kira and Dax try to get an old Bajoran ship working on Bajor. Dax whines a lot here, which is the most personality she's shown for a while (but that's not really a good thing.) Sisko and O'Brien debate the tastiness of combat rations. It feels like more padding. Why does this episode have so much padding?

Sisko's Starfleet guys hide out and take some Bajorans prisoner (Bashir is shown as competent here, which is an improvement from season one.) Dax continues to whine about the quality of the Bajoran ship while Kira acts all superior. It's a bit annoying. There's more fighting on the station (Odo turns into a tripwire and trips some Bajorans!) and Kira and Dax have a Starfox type dogfight with some Bajorans fighters. They end up crashing. The Bajorans find Sisko and Li in the Holosuite but SHOCKER it turns out they're just holograms. That was really obvious. Sisko tells them the Cardassians are behind the Circle but Krim's second in command doesn't believe him (and fails to tell Krim.) Kira is injured and tells Dax to get the evidence to the Provisional Government but Dax won't leave her behind. Sisko asks Li if he's willing to live for his people. Dax and Kira end up in Bareil's monestary and Dax is disguised as a Bajoran (like in Kira's vision.) Quark keeps pulling a big chest full of gold pressed latinum with him and it's a bit stupid. Li Nalas captures Krim. Kira arrives at the Chamber of Ministers just as Jaro is about to take power, with the proof that Odo obtained of the Cardassians supplying the Circle. Winn sees which way the wind is blowing and quickly turns on Jaro. Krim chews out his second in command for not telling him about the Cardassians. Krim gives command back to Starfleet (and shows his respect for Sisko. His second in command tries to assassinate Sisko but Li dies in the way and dies after telling Sisko he got off the hook after all. Seems quite convenient to kill him off really. O'Brien points out that Li Nalas wasn't the hero everyone is making him out to be but Sisko says they must remember him that way because it's what Bajor needs. Jake and Keiko and the rest come home.

It's the weakest part of the trilogy for sure. It feels like they run out of story for the station half of the episode because there's a lot of padding and teary goodbye scenes (even though everyone comes back by the end of the episode) and some bad comedy with Quark. The stuff with Kira and Dax on Bajor is more exciting, despite Dax's whining getting annoying. The point about Li Nalas being the hero Bajor needs right now has already been made in the previous episodes so it feels a bit repetitive here. It's not a bad episode though, it's watchable all the way through and some of the action stuff is good. I just wish the whole trilogy had stayed at the level of the first part.

SCORE 7/10
 
I thought the Kira/Dax flight scenes were kickass and well done. Extra points for not singing Gilbert & Sullivan.

Being able to cast Frank Langella, Stephen Macht and Richard Beymer was interesting and impressive. But while I love Steven Weber endlessly, he's such a great comic actor and clown that I can't take him serious;y in dramatic roles. I wasn't buying his Kirk Douglas impression. But overall I'd say this arc and Duet was where DS9 turned the corner and found its legs for good.
 
Invasive Procedures - The station has been evacuated (AGAIN) due to a "plasma disruption" (what) and is operating with a skeleton crew (just the main characters.) Odo and O'Brien find that Quark has stayed behind (AGAIN) because he doesn't want to leave his latinum. And he's done something sneaky in an airlock. A cargo ship trapped in the storm asks for help, but it's got two Klingons on it (one played by an angry Tim Russ!) who threaten O'Brien and stick Odo in a box. There's also an unjoined Trill Verad (played by John Glover of Smallville/Gremlins 2 fame!) and his girlfriend Mareel (Megan Gallagher). They quickly take over the station. O'Brien realises that Quark is responsible for all this and Kira promises that have a little talk with him later. Quark thought he was just selling some stuff to the Klingons. Verad reveals that he wants Dax...the symbiont that is. But removing it will kill Jadzia. Verad is a stuttery nervious type and reveals that he spent his whole life stuidying for the joining but was declared "unsuitable." Jadazia says only one in ten are chose to be joined and it's nothing to be ashamed of. He's going to steal Dax and disapear into the Gamma Quadrant. Bashir doesn't want to help but Verad threatens to kill everyone else. Julian preps for surgery while being held at gunpoint by a Klingon. Verad refuses to be sedated. Sisko beats up Tim Russ but Mareel surprisingly kicks Kira's ass. Julian completes the symbiont transplant (it's really quite simple.) Kira tells Quark that he crossed the line and is through on the station.

Mareel reveals that Verad rescued her from a rought planet so she's loyal to him. Sisko tells her Verad will be a new person once he had the Dax symbiont but she doesn't believe him. Julian shows some balls ordering the non-Tim Russ Klingon to help him keep Jadzia alive. Jadzia says she feels alone without Dax. Verad is a completely different man after the surgery (good acting by John Glover!) and introduces himself to Sisko as his old friend Dax. They laugh about stuff together (Avery Brooks brings back hs "Hoo hoo!" noise.) Of course Sisko brings it back to the fact that Jadzia is dying. Verad says she'll live on in him but Sisko says that's bullshit. Verad says he'll bring his knowledge to the Gamma Quadrant and help entire worlds with his Dax knowledge. Sisko tells him their friendship is over if he lets Jadzia die. Sisko continues to try to convince Mareel that Verad is different now and their relationship won't be the same. Quark comically attacks the Klingon then starts crying in pain when his ear is hurt (he's faking it.) Mareel finds it hard to kiss the new Verad. Quark distracts the Klingon so Julian can hypospray him out. Quark gets Odo's box open (he has to be shown to be helpful to explain why he isn't arrested at the end of this.) Verad changes plans and Mareel realises he's going to leave her. Sisko finally convinces him to help remove Dax from Verad. Kira and Odo beat up Kling Russ. Sisko stuns Verad (who rather stupidly thought Sisko would let him leave.) Mareel tells Verad he'll always have her as he adjusts to losing Dax. Jadzia, reunited with Dax, can remember everything Verad felt and thought and feels sorry for him.

It's a pretty good episode, largely due to John Glover's guest star performance. He manages to make Verad a sympathetic character and his relationship with Mareel is well done. But in a way that hurts the episode too, because Julian Glover is clearly a far better actor and far more convincing Dax than Terry Farrell. It's telling that once again in a Dax-centric episode Jadzia doesn't actually get much to do at all. There's one scene where she talks about how alone she feels without the symbiont which is pretty poor. I'd say Siddig's overtaken her as an actor by this point. Even guest star Megan Gallagher puts in a far better performance and makes me wonder why we didn't have someone like her as a regular cast member instead. Another weakness of the episode is the Quark story. Sure, he helps out a bit, but he still should have faced some consequence for nearly getting everyone killed! Anyway yeah I did like the episode.

SCORE: 7.5/10


Cardassians - Bashir joins Garak (FINALLY) for lunch again when a Cardassian boy wearing a Bajoran earring (with a Bajoran father) sits at the table next to them. The boy bites Garak's hand unprovoked. Kira says the boy must be a Cardassian orphan who was left behind when the occupation ended. Dukta contacts Sisko, outraged that Garak was attacked. He says it's a disgrace that Cardassian children were left on Bajor and that Bajorans are raising them to hate Cardassians. The boy's father says he just told his son the truth about the occupation and he loves him. Bashir talks to the ship Captain who took the boy (Rugel) and his father to the station and he claims that Rugel's parents beat him as revenge against all Cardassians. That doesn't sound good! Sisko has Rugel stay with the O'Briens while things get sorted out. Garak is curious when he hears form Bashir that Dukta is trying to solve the war oprhan problem and was concerned about Garak. He laughs at the idea Dukta is his friend. Garak says that it was Dukat who was responsible for leaving the oprhans behind in the first place. Bashir rushes to Ops where Sisko is talking to viewscreen Dukat and confronts him with this. Dukat says he was ordered to leave the children behind but Bashir says that's unlikely! Sisko is impressed by Bashir but tells him not to do it again. O'Brien is surprised Keiko let Rugel play with Molly as he bites hands. And also O'Brien is racist against Cardassians (bit weird that Sisko sent Rugel to stay with him, really.) Rugel has made Cardassian food for dinner even though the boy was raised on Bajor and has never eaten it before. This parenting isn't going well! Rugel tells Miles he wants to go home to Bajor. Rugel says his parents hate other Cardassians but not him and they never beat him. He puts Miles on the spot about how he feels about Cardassians.

Garak visits Bashir in his bedroom(!) and says they're going to Bajor. He tells Sisko he needs a runabout and Sisko isn't sure. Dukat contacts Sisko to tell him that Rugel's father is a powerful politician. Sisko still doesn't know if he's going to let the Cardassian father have the boy so of course he allows Bashir and Garak to go to Bajor to find the truth. Bajoran kids run away when they see Garak, which is funny. The Bajoran woman running the orphanage keeps throwing shade at Garak but he offers to fix her computers (to get the records of Rugel's adoption.) Cardassian kids ask Garak if he's here to take them home and he has to tell them he's not. Bashir is angry Garak won't help the kids and that he doesn't know what game Garak is playing. Garak reveals that Rugel's Cardassian father was one of the civilian leaders who decided to withdraw from Bajor, making him an enemy of Dukat's. Rugel's Cardassian father (he has one of those names I'm not going to try to spell) meets with Miles to talk about fatherhood. He blames himself for losing Rugel. He meets his son for the first time in years and apologises for losing him, but Rugel says it was his own fault for being a Cardassian butcher. The Cardassian and Bajoran father agree to let Sisko decide what is best for Rugel. Dukat arrives on the station. He claims to be here to represent all the children left behind on Bajor and watches the custody hearing. Bashir and Garak finally track down the oprhanage where Rugel was handed in by a woman working at Terok Nor (I think this is the first time we hear that name.) Bashir and Garak crash the custody hearing and Bashir reveals that Rugel's Cardassian father's career will be over when all this comes out. There's about to be a hearing on Cardassia regarding the attempted coup by the military and Dukta is one of the key witnesses. Bashir does his best Jessica Fletcher act revealing that Dukat was the one who gave Rugel to the orphanage is the hope of disgracing his father at some point in the future. Garak looks really impressed by Julian here and has a brief staredown with Dukat. Sisko appears in his station log that he's giving Rugel back to his Cardassian father. Rugel's father tells Sisko that Dukat won't allow any of this to go public now. Bashir asks Garak what the history between him and Dukat is but of course Garak won't outright tell him.

Garak! Dukat! In the same episode! Playing the game of Cardassian politics! It's very good stuff! I like how complicated it is and that there isn't any easy answer for Rugel. The weakness then is that Sisko's judgement on the custody hearing is rushed and we don't get to hear how the Bajoran father felt about it. I'm not saying he was wrong to give Rugel back to the Cardassians (though it's the opposite of what Picard did in 'Suddenly Human') but we could have heard more of this reasoning. That said it's still a strong episode, possibly the best of season two so far.

SCORE: 8.5/10


Melora - Ensign Melora, a Starfleet cartographer from a low gravity world, arrives on the station. She has to use a wheelchair because Cardassians don't believe in helping the disabled or something so her usual anti-grav unit won't work. And because they can't show cool flying wheelchairs on tv. She's got a stick up her ass right away about not wanting to be treated differently and is rude to Julian and Dax. Quark is still on the station despite Kira saying he was finished here and is nervous when an old friend he got sent to prison shows up. Melora is angry when she sees Bashir and Dax talking to Sisko about her and says they're all treating her like she's ill and they don't understand because they're not in her chair (really she's not coming across very likable since everyone's just trying to help.) Sisko insists that Dax go with her on her runabout mission. Julian goes to see Melora in her quarters and says she attacks people a lot. She can't believe someone is calling her out! He invitees her to the new Klingon restuarant on the Promenade. Quark makes dinner for his old enemy to try to convince him not to kill Quark. The Klingon Chef is great and should have been in more episodes. Melora impresses him by shouting at him in Klingonese. Bashir tells her he wanted to be a tennis player before he became a doctor. Jadzia later finds Melora has fallen over after trying to do something by herself. Bashir tells her that in space they all depend on each other. They go back to her quarters and she turns the gravity down. They float around to together and have flying sex.

Jadzia and Melora go to the Gamma Quadrant and talk about romance in Starfleet. Quark goes to Odo for help. Bashir tells Melora he's been doing research and might have a way for her to be able to walk around normally in normal gravity (no one else bothered doing the work, apparently.) Odo tells Quark's enemy that he can tell by the way he walks that he's going to kill Quark and he'd rather he didn't do that. Bashir carries out the first procedure on Melora and she can walk within an hour. That was easy! He says she let him fly for the first time so he let her walk. Aww. Quark's enemy is about to murder him but Quark offers him 199 bars of gold pressed latinum. Melora is uncertain if she wants to continue with the treatment as it means she'll eventually not be able to go back to the low grav environment. Jadzia compares her to the Little Mermaid. Quark's enemy mugs another guy and goes on the run with Quark as a hostage. He steals the runabout with Jadzia and Melora onboard. He "kills" Melora but her special exosuit thing protects her. Melora turns off the gravity and tackles him (it looks bad.) Melora tells Julian she doesn't want to give up everything she is to walk like a normal person. Obviously their romance is over too because, you know, Star Trek. The Klingon Chef sings a song.

Yeah it's just not very good. I don't want to blame Melora's actress as I think she did the best she could, but introducing the character with "I DON'T NEED ANY HELP" feels like a mistake. Bashir coming up with a cure for her out of nowhere halfway through the episode is stupid (no I won't accept "but he's genetically modified!" as an excuse because they hadn't come up with that yet.) Their romance never really gets off the ground (PARDON THE PUN) and the Quark story is a tedious waste of time. But I like the Klingon Chef a lot!

SCORE: 3.5/10
 
CaptainWacky said:
Even guest star Megan Gallagher puts in a far better performance and makes me wonder why we didn't have someone like her as a regular cast member instead.
Click to expand...
Probably because Farrell's personality provided such a stark contrast to Nana Visitor's. If Megan (whom I've loved since she was a feisty cop on Hill Street Blues) was cast as Dax, she would have seemed like another Kira with body tattoos.

I don't think I ever watched Melora again after it first aired -- now I'm going to have to scan through it just for the Klingon Chef.
 
Rules of Acquisition - Quark is playing cards with Rom, a bunch of Ferengi and Dax. Rom quickly reminds us that Ferengi are really sexist and like their women to be naked and submissive. A young waiter (Pel) impresses Quark. Grand Nagus Zek contacts Quark with a business opportunity in the Gamma Quadrant. He meets with Sisko and Kira (they're worried about him doing business on the station) and wipes his nose comically. Kira is pretty rude to the leader of a whole planet! Zek wants Quark to buy berries from the Dosi in the Gamma Quadrant. Pel warns Quark that the Nagus is using him because he'll need someone to blame if the negotiations don't go well. But Pel has a secret: he's wearing fake ears! And he has breasts! Zek touches Kira's bum. The Dosi have read faces and big sexy man chests. The negotiations don't go well as the Dosi want to talk directly to Zek, but Pel manages to stop them killing Quark. Zek sends Kira a gift. Dax tries to convince her Ferengi can be a lot of fun despite being greedy and rapey. Zek tells Quark that he wants a hundred thousand vats of wine instead of ten thousand. Dax has breakfast with Pel. She's noticed that he's loyal to Quark and suspects he's in love with him, even before she finds out Pel's a girl. The good thing about this scene is that Dax doesn't think it's unusual for one male to be in love with another. That's about as progressive as Star Trek has gotten for the gays up untilt his point.

Zek gropes Kira again when she returns his gift. The Dosi leave the station because of Quark wanting too much wine, but Pel convinces Zek to let her and Quark go after them to the Gamma Quadrant. Rom is angry that Pel is stealing Quark away from him. Odo tells him he's better off without Quark but another evil scheme is forming in the mind of evil schemer Rom. He searches Pel's room and finds her spare ears. Quark and Pel go to a Dosi business meeting/party where people get shot because they're so serious about profit. Quark overturns a table (like Jesus!) to get the Dosi's attention. They still won't give him 100,000 vats. Quark and Pel have to share a bed and Pel freaks out. Pel kisses Quark (who is kind of into it but freaked out) but the Dosi woman comes in. She warns that they don't have 100,000 vats but she can put Quark in touch with the right people for a price: a member race...OF THE DOMINION. It's actually not presnted as ominous at all, more like that Zek already knows about this Dominion and wants to do business with them. Quark tells Zek what he's learned and Zek says whoever learns the secret of the Dominion will learn the secret of the Gamma Quadrant. Zek promises Quark a percentage of every business opportunity in the Gamma Quadrant if Quark gets him a meeting with a member of the Dominion. Quark faints after Rom tells him the truth about Pel. Rom wants Pel to be punished but Quark says he can't tell Zek because it would ruin him if Zek thought he was deceived by a female. Rom still wants to tell, because Rom is literally evil, but Quark offers him ownership of the bar when he's a bigshot Gamma Quadrant businessman. Quark goes to tell Pel she has to leave. Pel says she loves Quark and knows he feels the same way and asks him to run off to the Gamma Quadrant with her. But Quark is still a Ferengi traditionalist and won't accept a clothed female. Pel gos and revals her true identity to Zek who is disgusted. Zek promises to send Pel to prison. Quark saves Pel by telling Zek that he'll tell everyone Zek was fooled by a female too. But Quark loses his Gamma Quadrant profits because the status quo must be maintained. Pel leaves after kissing Quark one more time.

The story with Pel is okay. I like Quark being shown to have a softer side after the many times he's almost gotten someone on the station killed. But the episode does that weird thing where Dax keeps trying to convince Kira that the Ferengi are actually great fun and you just have to ignore that whole thing where women have no rights on their planet. Sorry, but women having no rights is actually a pretty big deal and I don't really believe Dax would be willing to ignore it and Kira's right to be angry at Zek grabbing her ass all the time. Zek is also a bit more over the top here than in his first appearance. Anyway it's a fine episode?

SCORE: 6/10


Necessary Evil - A femme fatale type Bajoran woman is meeting with Quark (also it's raining...this is a noir episode okay.) She wants a box her late husband left on the station, in the shop where he was murdered. Sisko has asked Odo to record a security log so that we get a noir type voiceover. His first log goes "Everything's okay. End log." Quark and Rom break into the Bajoran's old shop and retrieve the box. Quark opens it and finds a list of Bajoran names inside. A Bajoran )sent by the sexy widow because she knew Quark would open the box) shoots Quark. Bashir works to revive Quark and Evil Rom is quickly excited at the idea that he'll own the bar if Quark dies. Sisko and Odo play good cop/bad cop to get the truth out of Rom. Odo is interested once he hears which shop they found the list in and we get a flashback to Odo meeting Gul Dukat on the dark and smokey Terok Nor. The dialogue betweer Dukat and Odo is great. Dukat wants Odo to solve a murder for him as he suspects Odo would make a good investigator with his shapeshifting abilities. Odo is no fan of the Cardassian occupation of Bajor, but Dukat tells him his superiors will make him execute ten random Bajorans if Odo doesn't solve the case instead. I like how Dukat is smart enough to know that it's better for him to be seen to be doing justice rather than just killing random Bajorans. Odo questions the widow, who wasn't as sexy during the occupation. She believes her husband was having an affair and points out the other woman: it's Kira! Odo tries to get Rom to remember the names on the list using meditation (kind of.) He comes up with one name which Odo shows to Kira.

Flashback Odo questions Kira. She claims they weren't having an affair. I like how Odo's investigating skills aren't as honed in the flashbacks (since it's literally his first investigation) but he still has good instincts. She tells Odo he'll have to pick a side in the end. Odo goes to see the widow in the present day (we can tell because it's bright.) He wonders how she was suddenly able to pay her power bill. He mentions the name on the list to her and the next day Kira tells him someone with a similar name just died. We get the first Odo/Quark meeting in flashback. Quark is Kira's alibi and claims she had sex with him for a job interview. But Odo gets him to admit she paid him for an alibi. Quark and Dukat laugh at the idea of Odo using a prostitute and it cuts to present day unrelated laughter. Odo finds that several Bajorans have made payments to the widow. They were collaborators during the occupation and she was blackmailing them. Flashback Odo questions Kira again. She says when she tells him the truth he'll have to pick a side but all he cares about is justice (he said it seems to be a racial trait of his people.) Kira says she didn't kill him but admit she's a member of the Bajoran underground and her alibi was sabotaging an ore processor. She'll be executed for it if Odo tells Dukat. But Odo tells Dukat she didn't do the murder so Kira can go (ODO'S NOT A FASCIST.) The Bajoran hitman tries to kill Quark again but Rom saves him by screeching annoyingly. He then screeches again when he realises he saved Quark's life (this is a bit much.) Odo has the widow arrested for the blackmail but agress that she didn't kill her husband. Kira asks Odo when he figured it out. The murdered Bajoran was a collaborator. He caught Kira trying to steal his list and she had to kill him. Odo is hurt that Kira didn't tell him the truth in the last year. Odo isn't sure if he'll be able to completely trust her again.

It's a great episode! I love seeing what the station was like during the occupation (it was really grim.) They did a great job with the set dressing. It's the best Odo centric episode so far and has great stuff for Kira too. Dukat continues to be a pleasure. The story about the collaborators is interesting enough on its own, but the final twist with Kira being the killer puts it up there with the best episodes so far. Really the only negative is Rom's annoying screeching.

SCORE: 9.5/10
 
Second Sight - It's the fourth anniversary of Jennifer's death and Ben and Jake can't sleep. Ben geos for a walk on the Promenade and speaks to a mysterious woman (Fenna.) They have a boring conversation and then she literally disappears. Sisko drinks something unusual the next morning and Kira is shocked. There's also a genius scientist Professor Seyetik onboard to reignite a star (yeah, fuck the Genesis Device!) He's arrogant but likable (Sisko and Dax keep smiling at him.) Sisko says Fenna and they look out some windows again. Sisko wants to know all about her but she says she can't tell him and disappears again. Jake says if Ben is in love it's okay with him. Sisko tries to find Fenna with help from Odo. Dax wants to know about Sisko's mysterious woman too but he says there's nothing to tell. He's right about that. Seyetik gives a speech on the starship Prometheus. He then introduces the senior staff to his wife...it's Fenna! They all have dinner together but she uses a different name and then acts like she doesn't know Sisko when he confronts her.

Odo tells Ben that no one but Seyetik has left the Prometheus while it's been at the station. Fenna comes to see Ben and doesn't understand how he could have had dinner with someone who looks exactly like her. Fenna says she came to the station looking for a person and Sisko is that person. She kisses him but then disappears in front of him. Avery Brooks does a hilariously bad worried face. Sisko goes with Dax and Seyetik on the Prometheus because he thinks he might find out the truth about Fenna. Seyetik is feeling sad because once he brings the star back to life he'll have nothing left to do with his life. He finally explains that he met his wife on a planet her terraformed and where he's worshipped as a near God. Fenna appears to Sisko again and this time he gets Dax to scan her. Fenna is "pure energy" and not a real person. Meanwhile Seyetik's wife has gone into a weird coma. Seyetik recognises Fenna and explains that she's an illusion created by his wife's unconscious mind when she feels emotionally distraught. He's a bad husband but she can't leave him because her people mate for life. Sisko explains to the oblivious Fenna that she can save the wife's life by going back to her. Fenna doesn't want to because then everything she has with Sisko will die. They hardly fucking know each other! Seyetik flies his star reviving shuttle at the dead star to sacrifice himself so his wife can finally be free. It works and the star comes back to life. Fenna disappears one last time.

It's weird to think that there hasn't been an actual Sisko centric episode since 'Emissary'. There's been episdoes where he's been an important part of the plot (like the season one finale) but none until now that have actually explored him as a character. All the other characters have had one, so why not Sisko? Because judging by this, the writers have a really hard time writing for him. This episode is shit. There's no chemistry between him and Fenna. A better actor might have been able to get something out of it, but Avery Brooks isn't impressive here at all. Fenna is pretty bad too with her "oh no I'm disappearing!" face. The only good part of the episode is Seyetik's sacrifice scene, but that feels like it should be a scene in a much better episode than this. BAD AND BORING.

SCORE: 2/10


Sanctuary - The teaser starts with Sisko telling off Kira for something. Then she goes to help Quark with a problem and talks to a Bajoran musician who wants to rebuild a music hall or something. This takes up about five minues and isn't a great start. Some aliens come through the wormhole and need to be beamed aboard. They have flakey skin and the universal translator doesn't work on them. Kira takes them on a tour of the Promenade and they look at things while talking gibberish and being generally annoying. Finally the translaor starts working and we can get on with the plot. The main alien woman (Haneek) found the wormhole and there are three million of her people on the other side who need help. Her people are ruled by females as their men are too emotional for leadership. Their people's legends say that their sacred home is a planet through the wormhole. We get another Dominion name drop (they conquered the people who once conquered her people.) Kira suggests to Haneek that she should take a leadership role as most of their leaders are dead. More of the aliens arrive

Some of the alien kids chase Nog around after he sprays them with stinkspray. Quark talks to Odo about how disgusting the aliens are because their skin flakes everywhere. The Bajoran musician from earlier gives Haneek a recording of his music and she becomes interested in Bajor. The alien kids attack Nog and Quark tells them to fuck off home. Sisko finds a planet for the aliens to live on but Haanek says she's realised that their legendary homeworld is actually Bajor. The Bajoran Provisional Government decides to deny the aliens their request as Bajor isn't in good enough shape to take on three million refugees. Haneek says her people are farmers and can make Bajor thrive again but it's still a no. Haneek just won't take no for an answer and asks Kira for help but she agrees with the government. Haneek tells Kira she betrayed her by not speaking up. She's pretty ungrateful, really. Haneek's son (played by the late Andrew Koenig, son of Walter) steals a ship and tries to flies to Bajor. Something goes wrong, as it always does when a child steals a ship in Star Trek, and he refuses to listen to his mother's pleas to turn his engines off. He still won't turn his engines off even when the Bajorans are about to shoot him down. He fires at the Bajorans and they fire back and the shp is destroyed. The aliens move to their name planet but Haneek is still bitter at the Bajorans for not letting them move there.

Well at least this episode tries to be about stuff. It just doesn't really work? It touches on racism a bit with Quark not liking the flakey aliens, but that part doesn't go anywhere. Then Haneek decides Bajor is her people's sacred homeworld. And...I don't know whose side we're supposed to be on here. Haneek really tells the Bajorans off for not letting her people live there, but we've been told how badly Bajor was hurt by the occupation for a season and a half now so it's hard not to be on Bajor's side. I do like that the episode has a downbeat ending and there are no easy answers, but it doesn't do a good job of setting up why Haneek's people are so sure Bajor is where they belong and especially not of explaining why her son goes on a suicide flight to Bajor (all we saw of him before that was fighting with Nog.) Also all the universal translator stuff at the start feels like padding (why has that never happened with any other Gamma Quadrant race?)

SCORE: 5/10
 
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