Re: Starting a Star Trek journey
 

"Progress" features the continued evolution of Major Kira. If this episode had taken place earlier in the season, there's no way Kira would have relocated Mullibok. Transitioning from worker to management is not always an easy one but as the episode title suggests, progress stops for no one. The B story with Nog and Jake wasn't that interesting but it did bring self-sealing stembolts to our consciousness. I think what separates Nog & Jake stories, at least in the beginning of the series, from Wesley episodes is the fact that Nog and Jake act like the children they are.

"If Wishes Were Horses" almost feels like a holodeck malfunction episode but not quite. At least in this episode there were sentient beings manifesting themselves and not some technobabble explanation. Having one's subconscious literally manifest itself for everyone to see would kinda suck - I felt a little bad for Bashir.

"The Forsaken" Our first Lwaxana Troi episode for DS9 and I have to admit it is a good episode. Troi starts out as her usual annoying self but midway through she becomes sympathetic. We learn a ton about Odo in this episode too and their interaction toward the end of their elevator stay was touching. Their scenes were actually more important and interesting than the A story that explains why they're trapped in the elevator in the first place.

"Dramatis Personae" so an alien consciousness is downloaded into the crew and a mutiny ensues. I think I saw this episode on TNG except this time the entire command staff is involved instead of just three officers. Always fun to let the actors stretch their legs a bit and do things that are out of character. The one thing that struck me watching the episode this time around was Kira trying to seduce Dax to her side of the mutiny. A little foreshadowing of the mirror universe maybe. Hadn't noticed it before.

"Duet" best of the season, hands down and maybe in the top five of DS9 episodes period. This episode is a bit like "progress" in that if it took place prior to episode 12, Kira would have knifed Marritza in the infirmary the first time she saw him. She admits throughout the episode that she is not impartial, if he was at the forced labor camp then he's automatically guilty. When Marritza admits to being Gul Darhe'el Kira is shocked, sickened, and pleased. When his story falls apart and it turns out Marritza was simply a file clerk who couldn't stop the atrocities even if it wanted to, Kira has evolved enough to realize that he's already punished himself enough; putting him in front of a show trial won't heal any wounds. The sfdebris review points out that this is the episode where the audience really gets a feel for how bad the occupation really was and that's true. Kira's description of what went on in the camps was far more graphic than anything mentioned before.

This is one of those episodes like "Inner Light" and "Far Beyond the Stars" that makes me wonder what the hell Emmy voters have against science fiction shows. Harris Yulin was spectacular in this episode. He starts off as playing a naive, innocent man who maintains that his only crime is that he is Cardassian. He then morphs into Gul Darhe'el who revels in the war crimes he's committed and shouts with glee about serving his empire. Whether this is actually how Darhe'el actually was or how Marritza perceived him we'll never know. Finally he transforms into a man powerless to prevent past events and so consumed by guilt that he literally tries to get himself executed in the hopes of bringing reconciliation to Cardassia and Bajor. Unfortunately, not everyone has evolved in the same manner as Major Kira and Marritza is killed for the sins of his people and the cycle of violence continues.

"In the Hands of the Prophets" oh my goodness I don't know how Louise Fletcher does it but from the very first moment she appears on screen you know her character is evil. It's even worse in hindsight because you know exactly what depths she'll sink to over the course of the show. In this episode alone she persecuted Keiko O'Brien for teaching science (who knew that storyline would be relevant in 2012) convinces some rube to kill one guy to cover her tracks and attempt to kill another in a blatant power grab. Of course no one can prove Winn was involved cause that's how she rolls. Neela's betrayal would have been more heartbreaking if they had managed to have the same actress play O'Brien's aid in the previous episodes (that was the plan but things didn't work out). This episode also shows us that integrating Bajor into the Federation is not going to be an easy task: there had to already be a large amount of mistrust for Winn to get any foothold on the station.

One season down...

Re: Starting a Star Trek journey
 

"The Homecoming" / "The Circle" / "The Siege" are a nice trilogy to start the season. These episodes continue the discussions regarding the aftereffects of the occupation. Before, the Cardassians were the common enemy and all Bajorans came together to fight them. Now that the occupation is over, all of the old rivalries and politics come out of the woodwork. Of course after fighting a war against alien aggressors, the tendency is to not want outsiders anywhere near you ever again so we get The Circle who want all non-Bajorans gone. Add the evil Winn and a charismatic Frank Langelia as an equally unscrupulous, power-hungry politician and you have intrigue. As The Circle takes over the station, we see our first example of an enemy underestimating Sisko at their peril. Tisk Tisk.

"Invasive Procedures" gives us more background info on Trill society which is always fun. We see Tim Russ for the third time and we see Sisko willing to pop a cap in his best friend to save someone's life. If we think of Kirk as a cowboy and Picard as a diplomat then Sisko is a soldier. This is a solid episode but it's clear that the writers were making up the Trill society as they went along because they completely reversed the things we learned in this episode later in the series.

"Cardassians" has always been a solid episode and this time around I found it even more compelling. When the occupiers withdraw from an area, what do they leave behind? In this case it's orphans. The why and how Rugal ended up with his Bajoran adoptive parents is Cardassian political intrigue and sheds more light on Gul Dukat's slimy character but Rugal's situation in an of itself is the more interesting story. Rugal is embraced by his Bajoran adoptive parents and it's clear that the parents care for him after a fashion. Though clearly there wasn't any physical abuse there was certainly emotional abuse even if it wasn't intentional. Rugal's parents told him the reality of the occupation and because of that, learned to hate everything Cardassian, including himself. At first glance it seems unfair to send Rugal back to Cardassia with a father he never knew but leaving him on Bajor would have intensified the self-hate Rugal was already experiencing. Even though The Circle was eliminated after the third episode, it's clear that Bajor rightfully still harbors a lot of ill will against Cardassians and that doesn't make for the best environment to raise a Cardassian child.

"Rules of Acquisition" so Quark accidentally takes business advice from a female. This is not one of the better Ferengi episodes but it does provide the first mention of The Dominion. Nothing good will come of that.

"Necessary Evil" gives us flashbacks to what life was like on Terok Nor during the occupation. We see how Odo first met Kira and Quark. I wonder, did Odo let Kira go back in the day because he didn't want to see her punished by the Cardassians or because he was infatuated with her. In the present, he doesn't tell anyone about Kira's actions either and I'm guessing that there's no statute of limitations on murder so he certainly could have turned her in. Dealing with the personal and political ramifications of that could have made for an interesting sequel.

Re: Starting a Star Trek journey
 

I really, really need to watch DS9. From what little I saw of it (the first three seasons, a few years ago) it was the best ST I'd seen.

Re: Starting a Star Trek journey
 

Yeah - same here. I've seen eps here and there and know the general story (I never gave it a chance originally). I wish some cablenet re-aired it in its entirety.

Re: Starting a Star Trek journey
 

I've always thought of DS9 as the best of the series but that's just my humble opinion. Folks seem less talkative so far but I'll continue to babble on until someone closes the thread on me.

"Second Sight" is not a particularly good episode but it certainly establishes that Salli Richardson does not age. Seriously I watched Eureka a couple days ago and besides the ears they put on her, she looks exactly the same today as she does here. They tried to give Sisko a love interest but it didn't work out this time around.

"Sanctuary" much like TNG there are a bunch of episodes that shouldn't be relevant today but they are. This one deals with immigration, dislike of outsiders, and how folks can be welcoming up to a point. One of the cool things about this episode is that for the first 15 minutes or so, the universal translator doesn't work so everyone has to muddle through first contact. The Skreeans are in search of a new home after being scattered to the four corners of the quadrant by The Dominion (how ominous) all they want is a home so they can continue to farm. The Bajorans are so mistrustful of outsiders thanks to the Cardassians that they balk at allowing the Skreeans to farm on an uninhabited part of Bajor. As the head of the Skreeans points out at the end of the episode, it's ironic that even though Bajor is suffering from a food shortage they turn away farmers. The episode doesn't end on a happy note which it probably would have if this had been an episode of TNG

"Rivals" puts O'Brien and Bashir together on the racquetball court. Their bromance continues to blossom. The rivalry between Quark and Chris Sarandon was less interesting.

"The Alternate" shows once again that scientists in the Trek universe can be real jerks. First there was the scientist who tried to dissemble Data and now we have the Bajoran scientist who "discovered" Odo being a royal pain the in ass. It's clear that Odo wasn't comfortable with his time at the Institute and yet Mora continues to try to get Odo to return even going so far as to tell Odo that his friends on DS9 will turn their back on him. Yikes.

"Armageddon Game" was the first in a series of "lets torture O'Brien" episodes. For such a likable character folks are always trying to kill O'Brien. The rationale seemed idiotic to me: so these two races were at war with each other and developed bio weapons. Now that they're at peace they want to destroy those weapons. They can't figure out how to do it so they ask the Federation for help. It all makes sense until they decide to kill everyone who had any knowledge about the weapons including Bashir and O'Brien. That part makes no sense: you're killing the folks who volunteered to help you. They were even willing to kill Sisko, Kira, and Dax who knew nothing about the weapons. Geez, get a grip. I don't foresee that peace lasting too long. There was one thing I didn't understand. So after the lab was attacked, O'Brien and Bashir tried to beam off the station but transmissions were being blocked so they had to transport to the surface. But if transmissions were being blocked, why did the transporter on the station work? If that transporter worked, why didn't O'Brien and Bashir use it to beam to the runabout. Either all transmissions were blocked and they should died on the station or only transmissions from the runabout were blocked in which case we could have bypassed most of the episode.

"Whispers" was another torture O'Brien episode. It was interesting because right up until the last 10 minutes or so of the episode, I wasn't sure whether O'Brien was compromised or whether the station was compromised. That's the mark of good writing and good acting.

"Paradise" moved from torturing O'Brien to torturing Sisko. Allixus was an evil bitch and it was cool to have someone Sisko could play against. The moment when Sisko puts himself back into the torture back rather than take off his uniform is powerful. I get the idea of creating a society not based on technology but if you have to lie to get people there and torture folks who have opposing viewpoints, you've got a problem. Putting Allux in the torture box would have been a far more satisfying ending but DS9 wasn't ready to go that dark ... at least not yet.

Re: Starting a Star Trek journey
 

I just recently heard that Netflix has all of DS9 on streaming, if you have that.

Re: Starting a Star Trek journey
 

If DS9 was actually run in circulation so people (like me) could actually view this shyt it would be better.

Re: Starting a Star Trek journey
 

or amazon prime

Re: Starting a Star Trek journey
 

good
I was afraid when you took the break after TNG you weren't going to continue on. I'll comment occasionally. I went through DS9 a few months ago and am on voyager now

Re: Starting a Star Trek journey
 

It's on Netflix. Come join us in the 21st Century.

Re: Starting a Star Trek journey
 

Streaming. Meh. Ain't an option with an aircard. Unless I want to sit all day downloading episodes. I don't want to see it that much. I need Costco to sell the season sets for like $10 apiece which is when I bought B5.

Re: Starting a Star Trek journey
 

Get a real internet connection and try Netflix. I think you'd like it. Every single episode of Star Trek, whenever you want.

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Yeah I don't foresee Trek dhows getting anywhere near that price ever. Do any of your local libraries have the DVDs?

Re: Starting a Star Trek journey
 

or netflix dvd option

Re: Starting a Star Trek journey
 

What did I watch yesterday and forget to post about:

"Shadowplay" gives us yet another ominous mention of The Dominion. When I saw this episode originally I didn't guess that the entire village was a hologram until well into the episode. It's still not obvious which is good. It was nice to see Odo open up to the little girl and this episode was a nice contrast to the previous episode "Paradise."

"Playing God" tells us that even though Sisko and Curzon were great friends, the latter wasn't the most popular among Trill initiates. How could he wash Jadzia out of the program? Yes we learn why latter. The Vols were ugly little creatures and the proto-universe story wasn't particularly compelling. It seems as though for a few episode here the writers were going with the George Lucas style of writing: tell as many stories as humanly possible in a short time frame even if you really only need one story.

"Profit and Loss" was Trek meets Casablanca and I really don't know why the writers felt they had to turn Quark into a leading man. His transformation comes out of nowhere and seems unbelievable. We do get to see Garek being a slimy and helpful at the same time which is quite an accomplishment but that really is the nature of his character. He didn't blast the Gul because he loved Cardassia, he did it because the Gul was an ass and totally deserved it.

"Blood Oath" so Curzon took a Klingon blood oath to avenge the death of his godson and Jadzia feels honor bound to fulfill that oath. I really like this episode. When the series began Sisko has no problem accepting Jadzia both as her own person and as Curzon. It was interesting to see how other people from Curzon's past react to Jadzia. The discussion between Jadzia and Kira about the effect killing has on a person was played really well as was Jadzia's struggle for retribution and honor vs her her duty to Starfleet and her personal moral code. It was a wee bit of a cop-out to not have Jadzia kill the Albino at the end of the episode.

I didn't want to breakup the two-part Marquis episode last night so I skilled to "The Wire" which I've always loved. Garek is a truly enigmatic and compelling character and Andrew Robinson does a great job in this episode. I was reading that fans didn't like this episode when it aired and I do not understand the criticism. Folks were mad because we didn't know which of the stories Garek told were true. We're not supposed to know, that's what we learn about the character. Even on his deathbed Garek couldn't/wouldn't tell the truth. Or maybe he did and we just don't know. We know for sure that Garek was in the Obsidian Order and that his first name is Elim. I'm cool with that, a little mystery surrounding the characters is not a bad thing. We learn a little more about Bashir too as his character mercifully begins to mellow out. He didn't hesitate to tell Odo to step off in an effort to protect his patient and he stared down Enabran Tain to get what he needed. Good for your doc. There was one cool thing I noticed in this episode that I hadn't before: at the end of the episode Garek gives Bashir another novel which Garek says takes place in the future when Cardassia is at war with the Klingons. Nice bit of foreshadowing there though I have no idea if that was intentional or not.

Today I'll get the Maquis and the first visit to the mirror universe.

Re: Starting a Star Trek journey
 

It's easy to be a saint in paradise is the key statement for both "The Maquis" and DS9 overall. This episode is basically another setup for VOY but it still serves its purpose. Having Bernie Casey in the episodes certainly doesn't hurt either. Tensions between the Federation and the Cardassians escalate which is always good for fun and games.

"The Crossover" brings us to the mirror universe and everyone gets to stretch their legs and play completely against type. Kira is in charge of the station and has quite the libido, Sisko is her concubine for lack of a better term, Smiley still tinkers with gadgets but he's incredibly meek. Quark doesn't make it to the end of the episode. It's probably a good thing that TNG never visited the mirror universe, it wouldn't have been nearly as much fun.

"The Collaborator" oh if only things had gone differently in this episode we probably could have avoided all of the heartache that's coming down the pike. Winn oozes back onto the station and is just as slimy and evil as ever. She manages to get Bareil to recuse himself from being Kai and gets elected to the position. Oh Lord that is not going to end well at all. Now I understand that Bareil wanted to protect the memory of Kai Opaka but he put the future of Bajor in jeopardy by leaving it in the hands of Winn. When you think about it, Opaka was not a collaborator in the traditional sense. As Bareil pointed out, she sacrificed her own son to save thousands of Bajorians. I think people would have understood.

"Tribunal" is a torture O'Brien episode...literally. With shades of the TNG episodes "Chain of Command" we once again get to see Cardassian interrogation techniques and we also get a birds eye view of their "justice" system. Poor O'Brien he didn't really want to go on vacation and he ends up captured, tortured, and put on trail for some crap a Cardassian agent did to embarrass the Federation. It was interesting to learn that the Cardassians had an agent in Federation space who had been operating for eight years. You just can't trust anybody these days.

"The Jem'Hadar" the season 2 finale and we finally get to meet the soldiers of the Dominion. They know pretty much everything about the Federation and apparently they've been wreaking all sorts of havoc on folks from the Alpha Quadrant. Watching the Jem'Hadar vessel ram and destroy the Odyssey which was retreating really was an omen of really bad things to come.

Re: Starting a Star Trek journey
 

I do enjoy holidays because it means I can watch more TV.

“The Search Pts 1 & 2” hello Defiant, it’s so good to see you. Finally the Federation gets a cloaking device. It was also cool to see Sisko kicking some Jem’Hadar ass. It may not have been completely successful but the Dominion knows he won’t go down without a fight. Odo finds his people (hooray) but they’re the Founders who control the Dominion (boo). It’s funny how the first episode sets up this tense situation and you expect all sorts of fighting and explosions but the second episode is all about Odo and is more emotional and cerebral. The “alternate” reality was interesting and it was fun to see Garek go out with a bang. In this episode you get the first real and obvious glimmers of Odo’s feelings for Kira.

“House of Quark” the Ferengi and the Klingons are not two species that you think would work well together. Quark’s solution to the “now I have to defend my Klingon house” dilemma was ingenious but otherwise, the story wasn’t that interesting. It was nice to see Gowron again but in this episode, the B story involving the O’Brien’s was the more interesting story. You’ve seen how unhappy Keiko has been for the past three seasons and finally it comes to a head with Miles telling her about a six-month long expedition on Bajor. Long distance relationship, ought to be fun.

“Equilibrium” gives us an interesting Trill episode though I have always enjoyed “Facets” better. Dax is having some anger management issues and it turns out that there’s a wayward homicidal host that’s been erased from her memory. Of course this leads to the realization that many more Trils can be joined than the government leads the people to believe. Sisko uses a little blackmail to save Dax’s life and everyone lives happily ever after.

“Second Skin” is a cooler remake of the TNG episode “Face of the Enemy.” Instead of Troi turning into a Romulan, Kira turns into a Cardassian or that’s what the Obsidian Order would like for her to believe. It seems like an elaborate ploy to smoke out a dissident but this is the Cardassians we’re talking about. In much the same vein as “Duets,” Visitor does an excellent job showing both how angry Kira is at the Cardassians as a whole but how compassionate she can be to individual Cardassians.

“The Abandoned” oh the little baby Jem’Hadar was so adorable. And then he grows up and is not so adorable anymore. Odo feels responsible for the boy because The Founders created him but he doesn’t quite grasp that the Founders were very, very good at their job when they created the Jem’Hadar: they’re utterly subservient to the Founders, they don’t have a moral compass, and they’re only function is to kill. We do learn about the Jem’Hadar’s addiction to ketracel-white which was created to control the soldiers.

“Civil Defense” I was pretty indifferent to this episode when I watched it previously but this time, I enjoyed it a bit more. So O’Brien and Sisko accidently trip an old Cardassian booby-trap which was designed to prevent a Bajoran worker insurrection. We go from force fields to automated phaser fire to a self destruct protocol. What is so funny about this episode is when Gul Dukat arrives and tries to blackmail Kira and the system turns on him and won’t let him leave. This just goes to show that even Dukat's own people don't trust him. We also get clues into the serious bad blood between Dukat and Garek.

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“Meridian” OK this episode just made me shake my head. The premise of a planet phasing into this dimension once every sixty years is a sound one. The problem is that the writers framed this as a love story between Dax and Deral and that didn’t work IMO. Seriously, Dax knew this man for five minutes and she was willing to leave Starfleet for sixty years. Dax didn’t have a clue about how existing as pure energy would effect the symbiont but she was willing to jump all in anyway. The residents of Meridian knew that the shifts between dimensions was getting dangerous and that they would cease to exist so why on earth didn’t they leave the planet?

“Defiant” well hello Tom Riker! Look at you pretending to be Will just so you can steal the Defiant and help the Maquis. The really interesting aspect of this episode is the discussion Kira has about being a terrorist. She sees right away that Riker is not cut out to be nor is he operating as a terrorist which means he’s going to fail miserably. As Kira points out, terrorists don’t get to be heroes. Sisko has to help the Cardassians track down the Defiant and that goes about as well as you think it does. This episode reminds us that there is a growing division between the military and the Obsidian Order. I kinda wish the writers had gone back and had Kira free Riker from the Cardassian prison he was sent to. There was a scene in the episode where Dukat is talking about his son and Sisko tries to relate to him and for a second, Dukat seems like a decent person but it only lasts for a second.

“Fascination” is an awful and unnecessary episode. Everyone is falling in love with everyone else in the most unlikely of pairings. Jake loves Kira, Kira loves Bashir, Bashir loves her back, Dax loves Bareil and Lwaxana Troi is the cause of all this madness.

“Past Tense Pts 1 & 2” I love this two parter. First, while time travel episodes usually don’t work well this one does alright. I’m excited they didn’t go back to World War II which seems to be the default point for Trek time travel. Bashir talks about Starfleet’s temporal displacement policy and I have to wonder why this was never mentioned in previous Trek time travel episodes. Second, this is another one of those episodes where the writers attempt commentary on current events in this case, homelessness and prison populations. We get a nice commentary on race relations too: the nice brown people (Sisko and Bashir) are sent to the sanctuary while Dax ends up with the upper class of society. I can see some people’s criticism that the episodes were too liberal but did we really expect Trek to say homelessness and treating people like animals is a good thing? Bashir really stepped up in this episode and Kira/O’Brien’s trips through the past were brief but fun. The Art Dept did a good job for what was only a minute of two of screen time per time period. I like that there wasn’t really a happy ending and no clear-cut solution to the problems presented in the episode.

BTW, mikehunt, your "Ben Sisko's Mother F***ing Pimp Hand" quote comes from the "Defiant" review. That had to be one of the funniest sentences I've heard in a LONG time. I watched the review a couple times because there were some really hilarious lines in that review.

Re: Starting a Star Trek journey
 

I love TNG, it originally ran when I was 9-16..perfect age for me to love it and before all of the serialized shows I love now. Also seen TOS(not every episode) and all of Enterprise(which was a disappointment). Still love TNG, and when DS9 came out it didn't look interesting to me, robotic commander, always just chillin' in one place.. Course for several years I've heard it actually had a large story arc and was the best Trek. So now that it's on Netflix I've been watching it and am on about S5 E18 I believe.

I do like it, but not nearly as much as TNG, and I don't think it's great by any means. Part of this is probably due to TV taste for me having changed as I don't ever watch new episodic TV anymore. The main problem for me is the lack of logic in so many things going on. Like WHICH characters go to certain places via the Defiant/runabouts and other decisions that are made. Like,

The best characters are the supporting characters like Garak and Rom, the only main characters I like much are Odo and Quark. And I really liked Worf on TNG, not so much on this one. He doesn't seem like the same dude. Is Avery Brooks a bad actor or am I missing something? He does have a great voice at least.

Also either the standalone episodes aren't as good as TV(in general, but there are some fantastic ones), or I just want to skip over them and get to the arc stuff since well, it's there and TNG was mostly episodic. I was expecting a more serialized show after what I'd heard about it. It's really more of an episodic show with a large arc that is probably focused on for less than half of the episodes. Oh, have to mention that the is easily one of the best Star Trek show ever!

After I'm done with DS9 I'll give Voyager a shot.

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I've passed this point in my viewing so I don't think we need spoilers for the discussion. This is a fair point but there are a couple of things to keep in mind. First, the Federation didn't know that the Dominion posed a threat until the Season 2 finale. The Defiant arrives in response to that threat.

Second, the wormhole and DS9 are in Bajoran territory, even if the Federation wanted to put an armada there they couldn't do it without Bajor's permission. Previous episodes have shown that there is a portion of the provisional government and the population who are weary about the Federation's presence. The last time an armada arrived it was the Cardassians and that didn't end well for Bajor so they are unlike to want that to happen again.

Third, we have to remember that the Federation is not a military operation, the Defiant is the only warship, for lack of a better term, that the Federation has, the rest are vessels like the Enterprise complete with families and scientific missions. The Federation wouldn't move their ships to DS9 until they knew exactly what they were dealing with (I think they get that picture toward the end of Season 3). Also, at this point in Trek chronology, the Federation is still primarily concerned with The Borg. They wouldn't want to leave actual Federation planets unprotected.

As for Sisko, I love Avery Brooks but his character was a bit stifled in the first couple seasons. Once they let him shave his head and grow the goatee I think he became a total badass but that's just my opinion.

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"Life Support" I've always had a fondness for this episode though that doesn't seem like the appropriate word. This time around I have a small problem with it. First, in "Defiant" Kira was making goo-goo eyes at Riker and in "Fascination" she's making out with Bashir so Kira's relationship with Bareil doesn't seem as strong as it did before the other episodes aired. The question involving how much of our physical selves can we lose and still maintain our humanity is an interesting one. I liked Bareil and I was sad to see him go but I understand why the writers gave him the boot. The B-story involving Jake and Nog on a double date was completely inappropriate given the gravity of Bareil's story. The writers should have switched this B story with the one in our next episode.

"Heart of Stone" has the B-story of Nog wanted to join Starfleet. It's a seemingly light story that turns serious and it would have fit better in "Life Support" The A story with Odo and Kira being stuck on a moon was OK. When Odo finally confesses his feelings for "Kira" Auberjonois plays the moment in a completely unexpected way: instead of looking relieved at having this weight lifted off of his shoulders, he collapses as if saying the words were physically painful. That rock prop looks cheesy and will probably look even worse if they ever convert the show to HD.

I have one rant about this episode which isn't about this episode specifically. So we know Kira and Bareil were in love with each other. He dies a horrible death and yet, there's no mention of it in the next few episodes. This isn't a DS9 issue: I've had this problem with several other series where characters, some of whom were regulars, are killed and the other characters in the show never mention the dead character again. Geez don't these people mourn? DS9 spoiler ahead


"Destiny" hey this episode reminds us that Sisko is supposed to be a religious figure whose arrival was prophesied by ancient texts. The writers had dropped that particular plot point for quite some time but now it's back. It's interesting how there can be multiple interpretations of texts: one person thought the vipers were the Cardassians and the sword would destroy the wormhole. Instead, the vipers were the pieces of the comet and the sword allowed communications to the Gamma Quadrant. You just have to trust the Sisko I guess.

"Prophet Motive" is our Ferengi episode. Zek, it probably wasn't a good idea to ask the Prophets for information about the future. If you hadn't, they wouldn't have turned you into a philanthropist. Quark makes the wormhole aliens turn Zek back into the greedy, cheating, capitalist he once was. Oh and the self-sealing stem bolts make a comeback in this episode and the introduction of the dart board O’Brien and Bashir use for the remainder of the series.

"Visionary" now this story took some guts. O'Brien keeps traveling five hours into the future and watching even more disturbing visions. First he's killed by a phaser blast, then he's killed by the time shifts themselves, then the station goes boom. Finally "our" O'Brien dies of radiation poisoning and the future O'Brien comes back to the present. Imagine of the TNG writers had done this with Riker and his duplicate as they once contemplated.

“Distant Voices” is our Bashir episode. Our good doctor is in a coma and we see him interact with the other station personnel who represent aspects of his personality. I didn’t care for some of the early stage old-age makeup but the later stuff was good (it won an Emmy so it had to be decent). I don’t remember being that neurotic about turning thirty but Bashir sure worked himself into a state over that particular birthday. Siddig certainly had the old age ticks, tremors, and slouching down to a science.

Re: Starting a Star Trek journey
 

Good point about the "warship" thing. But why not make more warships to be there. Understand the Bajorans wouldn't want a big military presence of any kind in their space, but then again aren't they in the Federation by season 5? I remember the episode were they were going to be allowed early admission, then the guy came out of the wormhole claiming to be the true emissary saying they shouldn't join, but then it was back on. Has it not happened yet? Regardless, there's no excuse to basically have the Dominion's only access point into the alpha quadrant virtually unguarded. One space station and one ship.

Agree Sisko does get more badass and has grown on me. But he's terrible at conveying anything with facial expressions and sounds. Some cringe-worthy stuff there.

By the way, watching this show has made me wonder if the way Trek handles language is a mistake or if I'm missing something. I know they explain away the fact that everyone always understands each other due to the universal translator(the Roswell time travel ep with the Ferengi is interesting due to this). But sometimes they will speaks words in, say, Klingon. And we hear it as Klingon. Shouldn't everything be heard by anyone in their native language? I would assume when Klingons are kickin' it as DS9 that they are speaking Klingon, but we hear English. But sometimes they'll throw out a Klingon word or two, making it seem like they and everyone is always speaking English except for examples such as random Klingon phrases.

Re: Starting a Star Trek journey
 

thanks, I can fix my sig now

Re: Starting a Star Trek journey
 

short answer, no

Re: Starting a Star Trek journey
 

lsadoris, who is your favorite captain ?