Re: Starting a Star Trek journey
 

His delivery is a bit odd at times (but never to the level of Shatner), but he does have a cool voice.

One of his best speeches is given to Jadzia in the 5th Season Episode "For the Uniform", when he talks about


For Sisko's best work, see below:

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Oh don't spoil "Far Beyond the Stars" which is my favorite Trek episode (and it's a really close call).

As for the facial expressions, I always assumed that Sisko wasn't the type of person who wanted to give away what he was thinking or feeling hence the stoic facial expressions. In the scenes between Sisko and Jake you see the former's facial expressions come alive because he relaxes when he's around his son.

As for my favorite captain, Sisko isn't a captain at this point in the story so it's not a fair question :).

It all depends on the situation. If you're in a jam and you need someone to move heaven and earth to get you out of that jam, call Kirk.

If you're in a first contact situation or you need a diplomat to negotiate, call Picard.

If you need someone to win a fight or you need a diplomat to get you exactly what you want, call Sisko.

It's been several years since I've seen VOY or ENT so I can't make judgements on Janeway or Archer. I'll revisit the favorite captain question at the end.

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Loved him as a Klingon..he was obviously having a blast!

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I'll go with Picard even though Original Trek is my favorite of the series's, i suppose it's always that way that there's a tradeoff. Similarly why Moore is my favorite Bond but Connery had the best movies.

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"Improbable Cause" and "The Die is Cast" a nice Garek two-parter. When the Tal Shiar and Obsidian Order send a fleet into the Gamma Quadrant to launch a first strike on the Dominion, the Federation sends 9 ships to DS9 in case the Jem'Hadar retaliate. Those 9 ships wouldn't have made a difference since the Jem'Hadar sent 150 ships to deliver a royal smack down to the Romulans and Cardassians. While our old friend Enabran Tain conceived of the plan it turned out there was a Founder in his midst and the whole operation turned into a setup. That sucks. These episodes show that Odo is truly a more forgiving individual than I am: even after Garek tortures and breaks him not only does Odo not leave him on the sinking ship Odo risks his life to save Garek, forgives him, and suggests they have a meal together. Yeah, I'm not that forgiving. Once again the audience is reminded that Garek is not a nice character.

"Through the Looking Glass" gives us another visit to the mirror universe. The alternate Sisko gets blowed up real good and Smiley crosses over to bring our Sisko over for one last mission: to save his estranged/dead wife. Goodness in two episodes they've killed the alternate Odo, Sisko, Quark, and now Rom but they did introduce Tuvok. Soon there won't be anyone left! At least our Sisko was able to get a little action in the mirror universe since it seems as though he slept with Dax and Kira on the other side.

"Explorers" We see Sisko's goatee for the first time, hooray! I've always liked this episode. I completely forgot that Jake is the one who introduces Kasidy Yates to Sisko, though not until the next episode. The ship looked cool and the father/son relationship was always touching. The idea that Cardassians don't want to publicly admit that Bajorans had space travel before they did was interesting - some folks won't admit the truth until it bites them in the butt.

"Family Business" is a decent Ferengi episode. They weren't the evil empire the writers tried to make them out to be in TNG nor were the Ferengi the bungling fools they have been in the previous DS9 episodes. We meet Quark and Rom's mother and see the Ferengi home world for the first time. It was cool to see Rom grow even more of a backbone in this episode, his character really did get better as the series went on. Kasidy Yates and Sisko meet for the first time in this episode and everyone knows they're going to be a couple except them. It's hard to find baseball fans in the 24th century. Jeffrey Combs returns in this episode as the first of two his recurring characters.

Re: Starting a Star Trek journey
 

the cut from "Move Along Home" to "Far Beyond the Stars" was really well done

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we also learn that some sort of lasting peace must have been made with the Gorn since Cestus III once again has a federation colony on it

Re: Starting a Star Trek journey
 

The last episodes for the Make-Your-Own Challenge

It may be a few episodes too late but “Shakaar” actually remembers that Bareil is dead and that Kira was in love with him. Kira says a prayer for him but another reason to be sad and pissed: our good friend Kai Winn is going to become head of the Provisional Government. Yeah because that will end well. Kira is reunited with her former resistance cell who refuse to return a reclamtor that was promised to them. What’s really interesting about these episodes is that it shows how easy it is for Kira et. Al. to go back to their resistance ways (highlighting once again that Bajor hasn’t moved out of a war mentality) and second, it shows that the stakes have changed. It was easy for them to kill nameless Cardassians in the name of freedom but when the time comes to shoot fellow Bajorans, no one has the stomach to do it. That’s the heartbreak of a civil war: you know exactly who it is you’re killing. Winn may have thought it was a good idea to declare martial law and send the militia in to hunt her own people but all it got her was a challenger for the election. Kira blackmails Winn into not running for head honcho and her former resistance cell leader Shakaar will run instead.

“Facets” is kinda like “Explorers” in that I’ve always had a soft spot it. I’m sure it was fun for the cast to stretch their legs a bit and play different characters if only for a few moments. The new and improved Curzon Odo was an interesting sight to behold. Odo got to eat, drink, play Tongo, and finally gets to experience what it means to be a solid. Dax understands what it means to be a Changeling. Overall I just think it’s a sweet episode especially given what happens in the next one.

“Adversary” hey Sisko’s finally a Captain, hooray! The Defiant is armed to the teeth, sabotaged, and about to start a war with the Tzenkethi, boo. A Changeling has taken control of the Defiant and caused all kinds of trouble. SF Debris guy was right, given what happened with Tom Riker, you’d think there’d be slightly better security around the Defiant. On the other hand, our friend Eddington is a little shady so he may not be the best person to have watching the Defiant. Since the Founders made such a big deal out of the fact that no Changeling has ever harmed another, it was inevitable that Odo would be the first to break that rule. The dead changeling’s final decree that the Founders are everywhere will lead two of my favorite episodes down the line: “Homefront” and “Paradise Lost.”

“Way of the Warrior” well Sisko’s transformation is complete: he’s a captain, he’s got the goatee, and now he’s bald. Kira’s got a new doo as well and Siddig El Fadil gets a name change. Welcome Worf, nice to have you on board and Kasidy Yates is back too. When the Obsidian Order and the Tal Shir launched an attack on the Dominion a Founder admitted that the only thing the Dominion worried about were the Klingons and the Federation. Well the Klingons believe that there’s been a coup on Cardiassia and they’re ready to invade. This drives a wedge between the Federation and the Klingons since the former won’t back an unprovoked attack especially given a lack of concrete evidence. The dominoes continue to fall as the Klingons withdraw from the Federation and Gowron wants Worf him to join him in the battle against Cardassia. He doesn’t take no very well. The DS9 crew risks their lives to save the Cardassian government and the Klingons don’t take that too well and they attack the station. Sisko tells them that they’ve had a year to beef up stations offensive and defensive capabilities but the Klingon thinks he’s bluffing. What happens when you underestimate the Sisko? Most of your ships get blown up real good and you end up having to retreat. The Klingons hold on to some of the territories they confiscated from the Cardassians so we know they’ll be in the sector for awhile.

“Hippocratic Oath” a O’Brien/Bashir bromance episode with a dark twist. The dynamic duo find themselves stranded on a planet with a complement of Jem’Hadar soldiers. Their leader is not addicted to ketracel-white and he wants Bashir to figure out a way to ween the other Jem’Hadar off of the substance. As you can imagine, O’Brien is only concerned with getting them off the planet alive and in one piece. Bashir orders O’Brien to help him. This is a tricky argument: on the one hand Bashir is a doctor and has an obligation to help his patients. It is clear that the Jem’Hadar are in pain and will die without finding either a substitute for the white or a cure for their addiction. On the other hand, O’Brien is correct too, the Jem’Hadar probably would have killed them both after Bashir was finished and who knows what the Jem’Hadar no longer bound to the Founders might actually do. Not a pretty thought. O’Brien solves the problem by destroying Bashir’s work and they leave as the head Jem’Hadar goes off to kill his men rather than watch them die slowly from withdrawal.

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I originally wasn't going to watch this episode today but I did and it's such a great episode and I have so much to say about it that it gets its own post.

“The Visitor” before “Far Beyond the Stars” aired, this was my favorite DS9episode. I am the type of person who cries during films: Casablanca, The Color Purple, The Green Mile, Brokeback Mountain, Field of Dreams, Running on Empty, I Will Follow (great indie film if you've never seen it). Seriously, you name the sad ending and I probably cried. For some reason, television shows do not have the same effect on me. I have cried exactly three times watching a TV show and this episode was the first.

So at the beginning of the episode Sisko “dies” during a warp accident on the Defiant. In the first couple scenes after Sisko’s death you get a real sense of loss from the remaining cast members. This is how you treat the loss of a character, other series should take notice. One night Jake wakes up and sees Sisko sitting in their quarters. It is a brief visit and everyone, including Jake writes it off as just a dream. As the situation with the Klingons deteriorates, Jake faces the prospect of having to leave the station and once again, Sisko returns. This time he sticks around long enough for everyone to see him. They try to keep Sisko but it doesn’t work. Lofton doesn’t have much to do on the show and he’s not supposed to (the writers didn’t want another Wesley Crusher on their hands) but the expression on his face when Sisko vanishes is physically painful to watch. You can see he is absolutely heartbroken.

Over a decade passes and Jake is married, living on earth, and is a successful writer. Sisko appears once again and Jake, now played by Tony Todd is furious with himself for giving up on his dad. All Sisko wants to do is hear about his son’s life and all Jake wants to do is to find a way for his dad to stay. When Sisko vanishes again Jake falls apart. When folks hear the name Tony Todd folks don’t typically think of great acting but like Lofton in the earlier scenes, he plays grief beautifully. Jake leaves writing behind and devotes his life to studying the temporal phenomenon that has trapped his father. Fifty years have passed since the accident and the gang’s returned to help recreate it. The old age makeup in “Distant Voices” was much better than the old age makeup is in this episode. Anyway, Jake is pulled into the temporal space Sisko’s been trapped in. Sisko tries desperately to get Jake to live his life but Jake is obsessed with saving his father. Unfortunately it doesn’t work.

More time passes, Jake writes another collection of stories and Sisko makes his final return. It turns out that Jake is the reason Sisko keeps appearing so to remedy the situation Jake poisons himself. Jake hypothesizes that if he dies while Sisko is near, Sisko will return to the point of the accident. Both Todd and Brooks play the scene beautifully. Sisko is heartbroken that his son has wasted his life and that he has to watch Jake commit suicide. Jake is relived that he will finally have his father back. Sisko returns to the accident and ducks just in time to save himself. Instead of being happy that he’s alive Sisko is still haunted at having to watch his son sacrifice himself. The performances are powerful and moving and they make this a heartbreaking episode to watch.

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The Visitor is in my top 5 episodes from all of Trek. Very well executed and a great character story.

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“Indiscretion” tells the story of Kira and Dukat taking a road trip. Six year prior a Cardassian vessel carrying prisoners disappeared and the two both have their reasons for wanting to find the vessel. The man who recruited Kira into her resistance cell was on that ship and it turns out, Dukat’s mistress and their daughter Ziyal were on the ship too. Dukat being who he is, isn’t interested in rescuing his daughter: he wants to kill her because knowledge of her existence would ruin his career. He doesn’t kill her in the end so he shows a little bit of parental affection but it’s only a little bit. It’s interesting, the alternate timeline in “The Visitor” was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad timeline for the Sisko family, but in retrospect, it may have been a less painful timeline for everyone else.

“Rejoined,” now this is what the TNG episode “The Host” should have been. One of the truly interesting question regarding Trill society is why don’t hosts resume relationships with lovers from previous hosts. That is what “The Host” was trying to get at but having a same-sex relationship was a no-no. A few years later the fact that Jadzia is pursuing a relationship with a woman isn’t even mentioned as an issue, the taboo against resuming previous relationships is the issue. Granted, this didn’t seem to be a big deal in “The Host” but their Trill society is so different from DS9’s Trill society that you can hardly make a comparison. Apparently, the penalty for association is exile so when the host dies, the symbiont dies too. That seems a little harsh. I’m not at all surprised that the show received threatening letters and phone calls about this episode when it aired. What I do find interesting is how the staff pats itself on the back for how progressive they were with the episode. Yes, creating an episode where the fact that the idea of a same-sex relationship didn’t raise any eyebrows was cool. On the other hand, the fact that in six different series the writers never thought to create a gay character makes the whole “Trek is super progressive” argument a little thin. Still a good episode though.

“Starship Down” has the Defiant getting caught inside a planet’s atmosphere. O’Brien has to school Worf on how to handle engineers, Kira has to keep Sisko conscious by telling him stories, Dax and Bashir snuggle to keep warm, Quark and James Cromwell have to disable a warhead stuck in the hull. The most interesting of the pairings is Kira and Sisko. The Major points out that they’re relationship is strictly business because Sisko is uncomfortable being one of her religious figures. Having Sisko invite her to watch a baseball game at the end of the episode was sweet – as was the fact that Sisko threw her a Homestead Greys hat. The O’Brien/Worf stuff was cool too, the latter is still adjusting to being on the command track and the former tries to help him out.

“Little Green Men” you know, I understand that the Ferengi are comic relief but their episodes work best when they have semi-serious episodes sprinkled with humor as opposed to these all out camp episodes that seem completely out of place with what else is going on in the series. Now the idea that Quark, Rom, and Nog are the original Roswell aliens is a cool concept and you really get a 1950s feel with the wardrobe, makeup and costumes. Some of the moments were fun but in other instances they went completely over the top. The malfunctioning universal translator was funny but everyone slapping their heads got old after the second slap. Having the nurse commit a sexual act with Nog without her knowledge is a little tacky. Having Charles Napier graduate from space hippy to an army General was a nice touch though.

“The Sword of Kahless” finally gives Worf something to do in this Klingon version of the Holy Grail. It’s not a bad episode but it’s not a good one. The camaraderie between Worf, Dax, and Kor is there and the quest was interesting, and I get why they had to beam the sword into space but something just falls flat for me. I can’t really put my finger on what’s missing.

“Our Man Bashir” is our holosuite malfunction episode. I’ve seen exactly two James Bond films in my life so most of the references went over my head and I suspect tempered my enjoyment of the episode. I think if I had any love for Bond films I would enjoy this episode more than I do but since I’m not a fan, I just shrug my shoulders.

Re: Starting a Star Trek journey
 

I generally like bond movies and our man bashir was still a bit meh
I do like little green men though

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“Homefront” and “Paradise Lost” are two of my favorite episodes and whenever I watch them I’m reminded of a Ben Franklin quote I read in college..to paraphrase: whose who would give up liberty for security deserves neither liberty nor security. A Changeling detonates a bomb at a Federation conference killing a bunch of people. Sisko and Odo are called to earth to enhance security measures and everything goes to hell in a hand basket. There are two really interesting things about these episodes, first, is that “Homefront” is a total misdirect: the entire episode sets up a Dominion invasion but we learn there are only four Changelings on Earth. It isn’t the Dominion that’s the problem in Paradise Lost, it’s the Federation itself. Second, and this is an unfortunate bit of foreshadowing in the real world: the enemy you really have to worry about isn’t from the outside, it’s from the inside. The Dominion executed one event and then just had to sit back and watch as the Federation destroyed itself. Blood tests, phaser sweeps, everyone is suspicious of everyone else and that takes me back to Franklin’s quote. Another cool thing about this episode is the wonderful Brock Peters. He was a great actor and can you really think of anyone else who could play Sisko’s dad? Robert Foxworth was good as the Admiral. It was always difficult to tell whether he really thought Martial Law and all of those over the top security measures were in the best interest of Earth or whether the whole thing was a camouflage for a power grab.

“Crossfire” makes me feel so bad for Odo. You know he’s in love with Kira, and for him to have to watch as Kira falls in love with Shakaar is just painful. On the plus side, the writer do give us a glimpse of the deepening of Odo and Quark’s friendship. Quark tries to help Odo (without admitting it) and Odo retruns the favor (without admitting it).

“Return to Grace” Dukat has to be one of the most interesting and frustrating characters ever. He’s been demoted to a freighter captain after taking Ziyal back to Cardassia and he has to shuttle Kira to a conference. Well the Klingons destroy that plan and Dukat and Kira are forced to work together. They do set a trap for the Klingons, and Dukat kills the Klingons and takes the Bird of Prey. He’s psyched that the strategic info will get him his title back but the Cardassian government isn’t interested in another war so Dukat decides to take the Bird of Prey and wage his own private war. You can’t really blame Dukat for this decision. As it’s pointed out toward the end of the episode Cardassia is finding itself in a very similar position as the Bajorans were during the occupation. But throughout the episode, Dukat is basically trying to get into Kira’s pants. It ain’t happening. Dukat wants to be liked and forgiven for all the evil stuff he’s done. It ain’t happening. This really was an opportunity for Dukat to become a better person but he didn’t take it.

“Sons of Mogh” well it seems like yesterday that I was watching Tony Todd! Korn wants Worf to kill him, Worf stabs in the chest (yikes), Dax delays the inevitable, Korn tries to live on the station but in the end, Bashir wipes Korn’s memory and Worf no longer has any family. That final moment between Worf and the amnesia Korn made me feel bad for Worf. If it’s any consolation, you see the beginnings of the Worf/Dax romance in this episode.

“Bar Association” now this is what I mean about Ferengi episodes. This one is funny without being campy. Maybe it’s all the stuff going on here in MI and in Wisconsin but the nice Ferengi episode about the importance of unions was much better than I remembered. Rom quits the bar at the end which was great and you see a teeny tiny hint of the Rom/Leeta relationship. The fact that O’Brien and Worf started a brawl over the union and Bashir ended up being thrown over a table was funny (I kinda wish they had filmed that scene). The sight of the three of them in the holding cell and Sisko chewing them out was hilarious.

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“Accession” so Sisko may not be the Emissary? A long-lost Bajorian claims to be the Emissary and at his decree, Bajor returns to a caste system. Kira’s not an artist – she really should stick to being a solider. I noticed something odd: this is the first episode where I’ve noticed the Bajorians clapping palm to the back of their hand as opposed to two palms together. That’s an odd cultural practice to introduce in the fourth season. Worf’s reaction to Keiko being pregnant was hilarious: Bashir: “hey Worf, did you hear, Keiko’s having a baby” Worlf: “Now!” Don’t think he’s gotten over the first birthing experience. This episode also presents us with a little foreshadowing I hadn’t even noticed until this point


“Rules of Engagement” Worf’s accused of blowing up an unarmed transport full of civilians. Turns out it was all a setup to get the Federation to stop accompanying Cardassian transports. The way the episode was filmed with character’s breaking the fourth wall during flashbacks was the really interesting thing about the episode. Unfortunately, it was a Worf episode without Worf: he didn't talk for the majority of the episode. They were aiming for a "Measure of a Man" type of episode but fell a bit short.

“Hard Time” is our annual torture O’Brien episode. Our unfortunate chief of operations asks one too many questions and is sentenced to twenty years in prison. Thankfully, sort of, the prison time is a memory implant. O’Brien has to readjust to life back on the station with those memories floating around in his head. We have flashbacks to O’Brien’s time in jail and his hallucinations. We even go so far as to have Bashir have to talk O’Brien out of committing suicide. I know the war episodes start to ramp up at the end of this season but it would have been consistent for them to mention O’Brien’s readjustment a time or two before the end of the season.

“Shattered Mirror” is the last of the mirror universe episodes I believe. Jennifer talks Jake into heading to the other side so Sisko will follow and fix their Defiant. The Intendant has been captures by the Terrans and Garek has been captured by Worf (welcome to the mirror universe). We confirm that Sisko and Dax had sex the last time and the writers kill Nog this time – Brunt better be happy they didn’t do another mirror episode or else he probably would have gotten killed like every other Ferengi!

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:up: One of my favorite books when I was a kid.

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there is at least one more

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The last of season 4. You know, serialized shows are much easier to watch than shows with disconnected story lines. There's just forward momentum that makes me want to keep watching episodes. The fact that I really don't feel like doing the massive amount of work I have sitting on my desk helps the watching process too.

“The Muse” is a really unfortunate Jake episode. He meets a mysterious alien woman who offers to help him with his writing. She does help by zapping his neurological energy and damn near killing him. Add to that Lwaxana Troi’s pregnancy and marriage to Odo and the less that’s said about this episode the better.

“For the Cause” that slimy horses ass Eddington leaves Kasidy Yates twisting in the wind! We learn that Kasidy Yates has been smuggling food and medicine to the Maquis and Eddington leaves her twisting in the wind to hide the fact that he’s a Maquis too. Sisko is going to hunt you down Eddington, mark my words. The ending where Kasidy tells Sisko she’ll be back and he replies that he’ll be there was really touching. I think it’s funny reading the Companion that the writers were worried about showing Sisko and Kasidy in bed together at the beginning of the episode. They can show death, destruction and all manner of horrors but two people having an intimate moment is somehow taboo. Good grief.

“To the Death” is a really cool episode because we gain some more insight into the Jem’Hadar. Granted that insight just reinforces the fact that you don’t want to mess with them under any circumstanced but having a nameless and faceless enemy is no fun (unless you’re the Borg). We meet our first Vorta, Weyoun, and Clarence Williams III is awesome as the First (not going to try to spell the character’s name). The Federation and Jem’Hadar have to work together and that goes about as well as you’d expect. The scene where Sisko saves the CW’s – after he had promised to kill Sisko – was cool. As scary as the Jem’Hadar are, you also see that Sisko is not to be trifled with. He doesn’t understand what’s happened and asks Sisko why he’d save his life in light of the threat. Sisko’s answer is obvious and truthful: “if I have to explain it, you’ll never understand.”

“The Quickening” is an OK Bashir episode. Our friends arrive on a planet where everyone is dying of The Blight. Bashir is arrogant enough to believe that even though this disease has been killing people for two centuries that he can cure it in one week. Yeah, it doesn’t work that way. He ends up killing several patients but to his credit, Bashir doesn’t just give up and leave: he sticks around and does find a vaccine which will save the unborn children even if their parents won’t survive.

“Body Parts” is not an over-the-top Ferengi episode which is cool. We learn that Brunt doesn’t see Quark as a true Ferengi: he thinks Quark has been tainted by his dealings with the Federation and wants him out of the way before he can infect other Ferengi with his humanitarian ideals. To a certain extent, Brunt is correct though wanting Quark to die so he can own his freeze dried remains seems a bit of a stretch. The B-story on this episode is also a nice bit of convenience. The writers had already set up the fact that Keiko O’Brien was pregnant and they were looking for some way to deal with the fact that Nana Visitor was pregnant in real life. So they take the O’Brien baby and put it in Major Kira. Thank goodness. Hiding Kira behind a desk for several episodes would have been such a step back for the character.

“Broken Link” sees Odo infected with a deadly virus that only his fellow Changelings can cure. The Defiant sets out to find the Founders who want to judge Odo for killing another Changeling. They Founders, believing in ironic and harsh punishment, make Odo human. The season ends with Odo remembering that while he was in the Great Link, his fellow Changelings were trying to keep something from him and that info was that Gowron is a Changeling.

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“Apocalypse Rising” well Odo and O’Brien make ugly Klingons! I did like the bait and switch the writers did with this episode: we end season 4 thinking Gowron is the Changeling and it turns out that Martok is the Changeling. The discussion between Kira and Bashir where she blames him for the pregnancy was a cool in-joke.

“The Ship” is where we really start to see the consequences of war. It would have been sadder if there had been one or two additional episodes to flesh out Muniz before they killed him but the impact was still felt. Watching the pressure get to the crew as the Jem’Hadar bombard the ship was insightful. The best part of the episode was at the end when Sisko and Dax talk about the consequences of war and how it feels to lose people under your command. We get a short glimpse of that in TNG’s “Lower Decks” but this discussion was deeper and more personal.

“Looking for Par’Mach” is Trek’s take on Cyrano de Bergerac. Worf controlling Quark during a bat’leth fight was certainly a new and unique take on Cyrano feeding Christian lines from the bushes. Worf and Dax consummate their relationship in this episode too.

“Nor the Battle to the Strong” the first few times I watched this episode it never did anything for me but this time it resonated. I think it has to do with talking to family members and students who have been to Iraq and Afghanistan. Jake isn’t a soldier and he isn’t supposed to be and watching how he deals with being thrust into a warzone without his father’s protection was heartfelt. We’ve always seen Starfleet Officers composed and efficient in battle but even trained soldiers have moments they wish they could take back and we see that here. We also see the coping mechanisms people who spend too much time in warzones use to deal with what’s going on around them: the hospital staff contemplating the best ways to die and Jake’s reaction to that conversation seemed all too real.

“Trials and Tribble-ations” is such a cute little episode. I’ve always wondering how long the Dept of Temporal Investigations has been around b/c there have been some time travel episodes I’d love to undo. Inserting the DS9 crew into an Original Series episode was a good idea. Worf’s response to the 23rd century Klingon’s was priceless. I do have one question though: which of the DS9 crew brought the Tribble back to the 24th century?

“The Assignment” is not a particularly good episode. The only good thing about Keiko being possessed is that this provides us with the first mention of the Pah-wraiths. They’re going to be important later.

“Let He Who is Without Sin” Worf, Dax, Bashir, Leeta, and Quark go to Risa. Yeah this episode kinda sucks. They even found a way to make Vanessa Williams look less attractive than she actually is and I didn’t think that was possible.

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I had complained earlier that the show wasn't as serialized as I'd expected..Just finished S6E6 last night..A seven episode run starting with the S5 finale that was just awesome..Hope the rest of the series is the same.

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I'm guessing Odo, or maybe Dax brought the tribble back.
Obviously not Worf.

Odo seemed especially taken with the one he had in the bar

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Yeah Odo was my guess too. Wonder how long it took them to get all the Tribbles off of DS9?

"Things Past" takes us back to Terok Nor and Odo's huge mistake which lead to the execution of three innocent people. Episode sets up the fact that Odo still has some Changeling properties in him which lays the foundation for him to shape-shift again in a later episode. What was really interesting about this episode is that the show had until this point framed Odo as a kind of neutral observer during the Occupation but in this episode you learn, nobody's hands were clean.

"The Ascent" Odo and Quark are trapped on a desolate planet and have to rely on each other to survive. Some nice moments between our two friendly enemies.

"The Rapture" brings back that whole Emissary thing again. This episode really hammers home 1) Sisko is absolutely, positively, without a doubt the Emissary and 2) Starfleet really wishes that he weren't. Sisko worked so hard to get Bajor into the Federation and at the last moment, visions from the Prophets cause him to torpedo the whole operation. We get a little more back story into Winn so that she's not just a pure villain and this episode also sets the groundwork for "Far Beyond the Stars" next season. When I watched the episode this time around I was struck by the family bond between Sisko, Jake, and the newly returned Kasidy. "The Visitor" tells us that Jake isn't going to sacrifice his dad for prophetic visions or anything else so no real suspense there. The final scene with the three of them holding hands was really touching. It reminded me of a completely unrelated interview with Wendell Pierce. He was talking about his role on "The Gregory Hines Show" and how a network exec had the nerve to ask Hines and Pierce if black people kiss their kids -ohbfrank-. The final shot of this episode reminds me that showing a loving black family on TV is still kinda rare. This episode also sets up the series finale quite well.

"The Darkness and the Light" my first couple viewings of this episode didn't really leave an impression but this time it did. First, we have Kira kicking butt while pregnant which is nice to see. Kinda like "Things Past" we see more effects of the Occupation as a bitter Cardassian kills the members of Kira's resistance cell. The monologue Kira had as she tells Odo how she joined the resistance was touching. The fact that things were so jacked up that a twelve-year-old had to fight reminds us of how bad things were. Kira yelling at our disfigured Cardassian that there were no such thing as innocent Cardassians during the Occupation is certainly food for thought. They both had a point: he was a servant not a soldier so did he deserve to be targeted; on the other hand, Kira's right, the Cardassians didn't belong there so was there really any such thing as a Cardassian civilian?

"The Begotten" Kira has her baby and Odo tries to nurse a baby Changeling back to health. Unfortunately the Changeling dies but it gives Odo his shape-shifting abilities back.

Next up are three really good episodes and one really infuriating one.

Re: Starting a Star Trek journey
 

“For the Uniform” see Eddington, I told you Sisko wasn’t going to let betrayal go. This episode shows the lengths Sisko will go to in order to get what he wants: he poisoned an entire Maquis planet to get biogenic weapons out of Maquis hands and to get Eddington. The sequences showing the crew operating the Defiant manually was kinda cool: even when technology fails, things still get done on that ship.

“In Purgatory’s Shadow” pairs Garek and Worf together in the Gamma Quadrant and they find all sorts of fun surprised: a Dominion fleet headed toward the wormhole, General Martok , Enabran Tain, and Dr. Bashir in a Jem’Hadar prison. Bashir was snatched one month before (I assume during the conference he and Jake were attending in “Nor the Battle to the Strong”). We learn that Tain is Garek’s father and even on his deathbed, Tain can only muster something nice to say about an event that happened when Garek was 5 – that explains a lot. DS9 tries to close the wormhole but our fake Bashir sabotaged it and the Dominion fleet comes rushing through. On an unrelated note, the sfdebris review mentioned the proliferation of Bashir/Garek fan fic, yeah I don’t see it but now I have a whole new way of procrastinating as I go find some of that fic!

“By Inferno’s Light” thankfully the Dominion fleet bypasses DS9 and makes a B-line for Cardassia thanks to Dukat who’s been negotiating for his people to join the Dominion with him as the ruler Raise your hand if this surprises you? Yeah, nothing Dukat does surprises me; he’s a fargin sneaky bastage (points to anyone who gets that reference). The Klingon’s join the Federation as they get their butts kicked by the collective Cardassian and Dominion forces and of course Dukat wants to retake the station. As the Federation and Klingon fleet converge for a final stand, the Romulans arrive to assist in defending the station. Worf kicks all kind of Jem’Hadar butt to give Garak enough time to save them. The impending invasion was all a ruse: it diverted attention from the fake Bashir who attempts to take out Bajor’s sun. Kira and Dax take care of him and Sisko says, Armageddon will have to wait for another day.

“A Simple Investigation” Odo has sex with a humanoid for the first time. The relationship doesn’t end well at all: turns out she's an undercover agent whose real memories have been removed. This episode would have been more effective if it had taken place before Odo’s shape shifting abilities returned.

Re: Starting a Star Trek journey
 

“Doctor Bashir, I Presume” this episode bugs me to no end so it gets its own post. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad episode, it’s actually a really good one, I just don’t buy the “Bashir is genetically engineered” story. Now I understand that everyone else on the station has a really interesting backstory and the fact that Bashir rarely spoke about his past meant he was probably hiding something but this was way too big. Siddig himself said that if he had known this about Bashir he would have played the character completely different. This is not a character trait you throw in on a whim: you’ve got to plan for this kind of bombshell or else it seems contrived. If Bashir was hiding the kind of secret that could end his career and send his parents to jail, why wasn’t he more concerned when Sisko was reading people’s minds in “Rapture”? Why wasn’t he scared to death when he was up for that huge award he was up for a couple seasons ago? If Bashir tanked his final med school question to avoid scrutiny, why would he use the fact that he failed as a story to pick up women? Hell on a basic level, why didn’t he object to being the template for the LMH program in the first place?

Our friend our sfdebris was right about the oddity of this story: why should Bashir be punished for something his parents did? I can understand the dad agreeing to jail time to Bashir could stay in Starfleet but why should he have to? Bashir didn’t do anything wrong, he had no control over what his parents did to him when he was 6 years old, and as far as we know, Bashir never lied about anything. That aspect of the episode made no sense. Plus, from a Trek timeline perspective, you're going to fire one of your finest physicians when the Federation is on the brink of war? Really?

Siddig really shines in this episode. The scenes with his parents are heartfelt and full of tension. Even before you know exactly what’s going on you can tell what the family dynamics are from the moment Bashir’s parents walk into Sisko’s office. The tension between Bashir and his father is palatable and when Bashir admits he believes his parents upgraded him because they were ashamed, you understand that this is the first time they’ve had an honest conversation. His mother’s admission that everything they did came from a place of love and wanting to do what’s best for this son seemed genuine.

Having Robert Picardo in the episode is good fun but the Rom/Leeta B-story was horrid. I think having this episode come so closely after the fake Bashir was on the station contributes to the contrived feel of this story. How many crappy surprises can you heap on a single character (and actor) in such a short period of time?

Re: Starting a Star Trek journey
 

“Business As Usual” Quark is so deep in debt that he starts selling weapons to make some Latinum. Unfortunately, all that time among humans means Quark has developed a conscience and when a deranged warlord wants a bio weapon to wipe out millions of his enemies, he sells them out.

“Ties of Blood and Water” this was a really honest and heartfelt episode. Kira’s Cardassian father arrives on the station and is dying. He wants to tell Kira all kinds of info about the goings on within the Empire. We watch as Kira becomes his caretaker and listens to his stories. There’s a beautiful montage of Kira performing all of her caretaking duties over and over again which is exactly what happens when someone takes on hospice care duty. We also get flashbacks of Kira’s actual father dying and the fact that instead of staying with him while he died, Kira chose to go out and kill the Cardassians responsible for his death. Anyone whose had to be a caretaker sees the honesty in this episode.

“Ferengi Love Song” The Grand Negus and Moogie are involved. The former is losing his memory and even though females aren’t supposed to know anything about profit, she helps. A halfway decent Ferengi episode though folks appearing in Quark’s closet seemed a bit odd.

“Soldiers of the Empire” Worf and Dax join Martok on a mission to rescue another Bird of Prey. The other Klingons on the ship are disheartened and on the verge of mutiny. Martok finally gets over his PTSD and Worf joins his house. I like Martok and he’s good for Worf.

“Children of Time” this one is a doozy. You have your moral dilemma: should the Defiant crew willingly strand themselves 200 years in the past to save their descendants or should they screw the descendants and go back home? There’s no good solution to this problem. You certainly don’t want to doom thousands of people to nonexistence just so you can go back home but it’s not that simple. We know the planet’s inhabitants will thrive as long as the Defiant is marooned but what happens to Bajor and the Federation without Sisko and the Defiant? In the end Odo makes sure that the Defiant makes it back to DS9 because he loves Kira so much. It’s the antithesis of “City on the Edge of Forever” where Kirk is willing to let Keeler die in order to save history, Odo says history be damned, I won’t watch Kira die. Except for Kira, once again we have an alternate timeline that ends much better for the crew than the regular timeline.

“Blaze of Glory” Sisko has to spring Eddington out of jail in order to prevent what few Maquis are left from launching an attack on Cardassia. Turns out it was all a setup for Eddington to rescue the few remaining Maquis members including his wife. Our disgraced Starfleet officer sacrifices himself to make sure everyone escapes. Eddington was a complicated character but I’m glad this story thread has been wrapped up so that we can focus on the fun and excitement that is the Dominion.

Re: Starting a Star Trek journey
 

“Empok Nor” Garek becomes a murderous psychopath and O’Brien has to take him down. Nice to see O’Brien being a soldier which will come in handy next season.

“In the Cards” Jake and Nog try to obtain a Willie Mays baseball card to cheer Sisko up and they go to great lengths to get the card and keep it a secret. That story is fun in the extent that Nog and Jake make everyone happy to get what they need to get the card: the likelihood of war has depressed everyone. The end of the episode was perfect: O’Brien gets some time to relax in the holosuite, Kira’s speech, which Jake helped write, gets a glorious ovation, Bahir gets his teddy bear back, Worf’s operas sound perfect and Sisko gets the baseball card. I love the fact that at the end of the episode, everyone is relaxed and happy right before all hell breaks loose.

“Call to Arms” Since the Federation won’t commit any ships to help defend DS9, and the Dominion keeps sending warships to Cardassia, Sisko et. al. decide to mine the entrance to the wormhole. To add insult to injury, the Romulans signed a nonaggression treaty and Sisko tells Bajor to sign one as well. DS9 battles the Dominion fleet so that the Defiant can finish putting down the cloaked minefield and it turns out DS9 has had some mad upgrades that neither Dukat nor the Dominion knew about. It turns out at the reason the Federation won’t send ships to DS9 is because they’re destroying a Dominion ship yard which is an excellent move and highlights the fact that the Federation has known for some time that war was inevitable. All the Starfleet personnel, except Jake, leave the station. Sisko disables the entire station but leaves his baseball behind as a sign to Dukat that he’ll be back. The final shot is of Martok’s bird of prey and the Defiant meeting up with a Federation fleet headed back toward DS9 to officially start the war.

It’s difficult to talk about this episode by itself since it’s really just the first piece in a 7-episode story arc. I’ll try to get through as many of the episodes as I can tomorrow and just post overall thoughts on the entire arc. Let the war begin.