Review of DS9 episode 1.16 “The Forsaken”

I'm in the process of rewatching Star Trek: Deep Space 9 and reviewing/recapping each episode in detail. Join me in my in depth look at the deepest and most complex Star Trek series to date.

An alien probe comes through the wormhole and begins to affect the station’s computer systems. Meanwhile, some Federation ambassadors are on board and Sisko passes the buck of dealing with them to Dr. Bashir, but one of the ambassadors is Lwaxana Troi and she has taken a special interest in Odo.

This is a pretty pointless and boring episode for the most part. Lwaxana’s presence in eps seems to go one of two ways: either it leads to a lot of humorous situations or it leads to total and complete boredom. This episode is mostly the latter.

The energy that Majel Barrett brings to the screen is impressive, to be sure, but unless Lwaxana is stirring up trouble, she doesn’t lend herself to many interesting stories. It doesn’t help that this particular story has been done with her many times before. Shamelessly throwing herself at every man that she encounters (none of whom want to be with her) was a trope that got old quickly on TNG and this ep does nothing to remedy that. On the plus side, we get some good character development for her and especially Odo in their scenes trapped on the turbolift, and Odo is such a deep and complex character that any development for him is always good. Overall this is a slightly below-average episode.

THE GOOD

• Lots of O’Brien, who is great as always. 
• Sisko is great too in this ep. I love the way he interacts with absolutely everyone. From trying to soothe O’Brien’s ego, to bracing himself before dealing with the ambassadors, to his glee at torturing Bashir with the assignment--he is such a good character. Avery Brooks can be very awkward at times, especially with his dialogue delivery, but he often makes up for it with the nonverbal things he does as an actor to make his character come alive. Plus he is so well written. He’s not hammy like Kirk, nor is he perfect like Picard; he’s the most “real” of the captains by far and that’s why I think he’s equal with those two legendary captains on my ranking scale.
• Good character development for Odo, although it’s mostly just talking which isn’t super interesting. Still we get a lot of meaty backstory for him that will be explored deeper in future eps.
• Lwaxana Troi reminds me of Michael Scott from The Office. She’s awkward and cringy and often downright unlikable, but she usually does something by the end of the ep to redeem herself or make you feel for her in some small way, just like you usually do with Michael. I think that the last act of this ep does a lot to show her to be more complex, caring, and compassionate than the buffoon she is often portrayed as.

THE BAD

• Terrarium ep
• The B plot (or is it a C plot?) with the other ambassadors feels utterly and completely pointless. The ambassadors themselves are all so wooden, one-dimensional, and boring. Every scene with them was a chore to get through.
• Yet another ep where Lwaxana throws herself at a man. It’s boring and cringy and simply not fun to watch at this point.

THE UGLY

• What is up with the episode’s title? Who or what is supposed to be forsaken?
• So, apparently this didn’t happen because I can find no confirmation of it on Memory Alpha, but I have a distinct memory of the crew unleashing the Pup during the Dominion War when the station was occupied by the Dominion, in order to mess with their control of it. Maybe it happened in a Dominion War novel I read years ago, but there’s nothing on Memory Beta about that either. Apparently in a novel called Valhalla they do that to a different force that has taken over the station, but I’m like 95% sure I’ve never read that novel so I have no idea where my memory of that happening comes from. According to Memory Alpha, the Pup is never mentioned again on the show.
• Odo shapeshift count: 1 (turns to goo to regenerate), 8 total for the series

Rating 5/10

Review of DS9 Episode 1.15 “If Wishes Were Horses”

I'm in the process of rewatching Star Trek: Deep Space 9 and reviewing/recapping each episode in detail. Join me in my in depth look at the deepest and most complex Star Trek series to date.

A strange anomaly appears near the station and at the same time, members of the crew begin inadvertently conjuring people and objects from their imaginations. The crew must discover the link between the two phenomena and find a solution before the expanding anomaly destroys the station...and the entire Bajoran system.

This is a whimsical and mostly entertaining episode with a ton of technobabble but not much story. It’s more lighthearted and fun than your typical DS9 episode, but ultimately inconsequential and pointless.

THE GOOD

• It’s fun to see the different encounters that the crew imagines. Odo fantasizing about Quark being in jail is perfect.
• ”Commander is there something you’d like to tell me?” “I don’t have time for games, Odo.” Sisko is the best.
• Buck Bokai is strangely charismatic, even if he is the most unathletic-looking professional athlete imaginable. I’m glad they bring him back for other eps.

THE BAD

• The plot is silly and pointless.
• The imaginary Dax draping herself all over Bashir is...yeesh. Tough to watch.

THE UGLY

• Buck Bokai is the baseball player referenced by Data in the TNG season 1 episode “The Big Goodbye.” Data says that he broke Joe DiMaggio’s streak of consecutive games with a hit, which Buck also references himself doing.
• It’s a dangerous gamble that Sisko takes when he refuses to consider the deal with Rumplestiltskin. He says the system is in no danger, but everything in the ep indicates that the imagined objects became completely real. If the rift was real too, the system was actually in great danger. But if the aliens had the power to create an anomaly like that, they must be extremely powerful, almost Q-like. One would hope that they wouldn’t allow their power to be used to arbitrarily wipe out an entire system, but their enigmatic nature makes it impossible to say one way or the other.
• Thoron is an isotope of the radioactive noble gas radon. It occurs naturally as part of the reaction chain of certain isotopes of thorium decaying into lead. Why the aliens would be emitting thoron I can’t even begin to guess.
• Going off the above point, there is a lot of technobabble in this ep and frankly none of it makes sense. Even though I have good deal of basic knowledge in many different science disciplines, I couldn’t find much, if any, real science behind the technobabble and I’m pretty sure it was all gibberish.
• The aliens tease returning “next year” but they never appear again. Probably for the best.

RATING: 5/10

Review of DS9 Episode 1.14 "Progress"

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The Bajoran government is planning to tap the molten core of one of its moons and transfer the energy to the planet to heat homes for the winter, but a stubborn old settler on the moon named Mullibok refuses to vacate. Kira tries and fails to convince him to leave, forcing her to choose between her duty and doing what is right.

This is classic moral dilemma Trek episode. A lot of time is spent (basically the entire episode) building a bond between Kira and Mullibok and much is made of her emotional turmoil, but essentially she is forced to choose between her duty and doing the right thing. It doesn't matter how many people the tap will help, the government has no right to forcefully relocate somebody who doesn't want to leave their home and their property. It's essentially the same thing as ethnic cleansing, even if ethnicity isn't involved. And even if it's just one person, it's still evil. As Picard asks in his legendary mini speech from Insurrection, "HOW MANY PEOPLE DOES IT TAKE, ADMIRAL?"

However, unlike Picard, Kira makes the utilitarian choice in the end. This could be an indication of DS9's more morally gray tone compared to TNG, but I think it has more to do with the way sci fi writers insist on writing women. I think they are afraid that if Kira made the right choice and refused to allow Mullibok to be forcefully relocated, that it would be seen as her being controlled by her emotions. In order to avoid being accused of sexism, the writers have her make the choice that is seen as being more rational, even though it is wrong. The same thing consistently happens on Voyager, where Janeway almost always makes the utilitarian choice rather than the one that protects individuals' rights and dignity. I believe this is due to the politically correct forces in Hollywood and it's extremely disappointing because it does a great disservice to the women on these shows. It's truly ironic that political correctness has the consequence of writers not being allowed to write good, complex female characters.

Then again, an argument can be made that the utilitarian choice is the only correct one according to Federation ethics. The Federation is essentially a socialist utopia (at least as presented by Roddenberry—DS9 ironically does a ton to subvert that notion). Socialism is a system of government for which trampling on the rights of individuals for the "common good" is a core tenant, so maybe all the times that Picard chooses to protect the rights of individuals over the collective utilitarian good is actually "wrong" by Federation ethical standards and Janeway is actually correct. That still doesn't explain Kira's choice in this ep, though, since she isn't part of the Federation. Not only is her choice wrong, but it is completely out of character for her and that is why I believe her actions were written the way they were in order to avoid accusations of sexism, rather than in service of the character and the story.

THE GOOD

• Mullibok is an interesting and charismatic character. He's equal parts frustrating and endearing. I think he is selfish and his decision not to leave is completely dictated by his fear of...basically everything. He is ruled by his fear. But I also respect him standing his ground against the government and feel bad for him with the way the ep ends.
• The moral dilemma is thought-provoking (obviously, considering I just wrote a mini essay on it...).

THE BAD

• Kira-centric ep. She's actually not terrible here, but she's also not great.
• The plot moves very slowly. It's a character-focused story and Brian Keith as Mullibok more than carries his weight, but Visitor lacks the charisma or acting chops to make such a slow story hold your interest completely.
• The B plot with the kids is not interesting. Also this is the third time in four eps that Jake and Nog have been featured in the B plot. It's getting pretty old. Give Dax something to do for once instead, please.
• Kira's choice at the end is very disappointing.

THE UGLY

• Runabout used: Ganges. No sensor module again, so it must really be removable.
• The kids not being able to figure out what a self-sealing stem bolt is is silly. I guess DS9 doesn't have the internet?
• It's fascinating that Bajor has a moon capable of supporting a breathable atmosphere. For a class M planet to have a moon massive enough to also hold that kind of an atmosphere, the moon would have to be pretty close to the same size as the planet. In fact, the planet and the moon would most likely be orbiting each other, much like Pluto and its moon Charon do. Pluto and Charon are tidally locked, so it's possible Bajor and Jerrado are as well, which would eliminate the possibility of destructive tidal forces that would otherwise be a consequence of such a massive moon, and also make an energy tap much easier, since the same point on Bajor is always aligned with the same point on Jerrado.

RATING: 6/10

Review of DS9 Episode 1.13 "The Storyteller"

I'm in the process of rewatching Star Trek: Deep Space 9 and reviewing/recapping each episode in detail. Join me in my in depth look at the deepest and most complex Star Trek series to date.



O'Brien and Bashir go to Bajor to assist a village where their spiritual leader, the Sirah, is dying. They discover that the Sirah must perform a nightly ritual to protect the village from a mystical creature called the Dal'Rok. However, when he dies, he names O'Brien as his successor, much to the engineer's dismay. Now he and Bashir have to find a way to save the village when the Dal'Rok returns. Meanwhile on the station, Sisko is mediating a border dispute between two hostile Bajoran factions, with the head of one of the factions being a young girl who is eager to prove that she is a strong leader—even if it means pushing their factions into an avoidable war.

The two plots of this episode are unrelated, despite both being about Bajoran society, and are ultimately inconsequential. The main reason to watch this episode is that it is jam packed with character development. We get tons of great O'Brien moments, and we see even more clearly than ever how much he dislikes Bashir. Considering that they go on to become inseparable friends, it's fun to watch O'Brien struggle (and fail) to contain his annoyance at every single thing Bashir says.

The real character development here, though, is for a different pair of inseparable friends, Jake and Nog. Unlike the last B plot they were involved in (in "The Nagus"), this time both young actors actually do a decent job and their story is fun and interesting. If not for the strength O'Brien as a character, I would argue that the B plot outshines the A plot in this particular episode. We get to see a lot of how Jake and Nog are developing as characters and people, which will be relevant for the entire show's run.

THE GOOD

• Good character development for Jake and Nog.
• Important piece in the O'Brien-Bashir friendship arc
• I love how O'Brien always says "Julian" with venom in his voice throughout the whole ep. It makes Bashir so uncomfortable that he reverses his request for O'Brien to call him that. The smirk from O'Brien when his little mind game works is amazing.
• O'Brien's distraught reactions to all the Sirah-related situations he finds himself in are so much fun to watch. I laughed quite a bit more in this ep than I expected to, mostly due to those moments. His trollish cackle when he realizes he's off the hook for being the Sirah is probably my favorite part of the ep.
• Going off the above, Bashir's amusement at O'Brien's discomfort is also fun to watch. Even though they aren't friends yet, you can definitely see the seeds of it here. And their friendship becomes one of the best parts of DS9, so it's fun to watch its genesis.

THE BAD

• Bajoran ep. Why are their outfits always so ugly?
• Inconsequential plot
• The girl who plays the Bajoran tetrarch isn't a very good actress

THE UGLY

• Rules of Acquisition quoted: 1 (9th). 3 total for the series.
• The runabout used by O'Brien and Bashir must be the Rio Grande, since the Yangtzee Kiang is gone and it lacks the Ganges' sensor module.
• It takes the runabout 2 hours to get from DS9 to Bajor. If they were travelling at warp 1 (the speed of light), that would mean that Bajor is about 14 AU (2.2 billion km) away from the station. But since the station was in orbit around Bajor before being moved on thrusters to the wormhole, it seems much more likely that they are significantly closer together and the journey between is done at impulse speeds.
• The Bajoran tetrarch is consistently referred to as being the same age as Jake and Nog (and the script apparently specifies her as being 15), but the actress who plays her, Gina Phillips, was 23 at the time. Jake is 14 and Nog is around 16, although Aron Eisenberg is actually a few months older than Phillips in real life.
• The use of the title "tetrarch" is very interesting. The historical context of that title in Earth history is pretty complex, but the meaning of the word itself implies that she is one of four joint rulers (tetra- being the Greek prefix meaning 'four'—a tetrarchy is a 'leadership of four [people]'). If so, it makes no sense that the other three rulers would send a young girl to negotiate instead of one of them going. Perhaps the rest of tetrarchy was destroyed during the occupation and they keep the title as a matter of tradition?

RATING: 7/10

Review of DS9 Episode 1.12 "Battle Lines"

I'm in the process of rewatching Star Trek: Deep Space 9 and reviewing/recapping each episode in detail. Join me in my in depth look at the deepest and most complex Star Trek series to date.

The Bajoran religious leader, Kai Opaka, makes a surprise visit to the station and Sisko decides to give her a tour of the wormhole. On the other side, they investigate a strange transmission and are attacked and crash land on an alien moon where two sides are locked in an eternal war.

We get our second and last episode featuring Kai Opaka, who is a great character and it's a shame she was "killed" off so early in the show's run. However, the upside is that it clears the way for Kai Winn, who ends up being a great villain for the show.

This episode is supposed to say something about how violence begets violence. It's a theme that Trek brings up pretty frequently, most notably in The Original Series episodes "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" and the great "Day of the Dove"—the latter in particular doing a better job of addressing the issue than "Battle Lines" does. But frankly it's a safe topic to address and not one I find very compelling. "Hatred is bad, mmkay." That said, this episode is still decent, mostly due to the performances of the guest stars.

THE GOOD

• Going through the wormhole is always a positive, especially in this rather claustrophobic first season. More cowbell, please.
• Camille Saviola is really good as Opaka. It's a major shame she was never brought back for any substantial roles.
• Jonathan Banks' IMDB page would probably be taller than me if it was printed out. He's a highly sought after character actor for good reason and it's awesome to see him here as the alien leader.
• The action sequences are actually decent, though not amazing. Since they were directed by the stunt director and not the incompetent Paul Lynch, that would explain the step up in quality from previous eps. I'm glad that Lynch doesn't direct any more eps after this one because he isn't good.

THE BAD

• Nana Visitor's acting is physically painful to watch. She's so bad.
• The ending is rather unsatisfying and depressing. Opaka says they are ready to begin the healing, but no indication of that is given. It seems like maybe she was putting on a brave face so the crew wouldn't feel bad about leaving her behind, damned to an eternal hell of suffering, violence, and death.

THE UGLY

• Terrible response time from Sisko and Kira when the satellite system aggresses them. They should have warped out immediately, especially considering their passenger. O'Brien is much quicker on his feet and bugs out the instant the satellites start scanning.
• Runabout roster: Ganges and Rio Grande. Say goodbye to the Yangtzee Kiang, as it's destroyed in the crash landing.
• Sisko gets defensive when Bashir questions his decision to try and save the prisoners, but I think Sisko's justification for why it's not a violation of the Prime Directive, at least in spirit, is sound. The decaying nature of the defensive satellite system indicates that whoever placed the prisoners there is no longer around, so freeing them isn't a violation of that society's natural course of evolution.
• Dax and O'Brien fly the Rio Grande while searching for the missing Yangtzee, but the Ganges seems better suited for a search and rescue mission with its advanced sensors. We can only assume a different crew is flying the Ganges in a different part of the sector, also looking for Sisko.

RATING: 7/10

Review of DS9 Episode 1.11 "Vortex"

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An alien from the Gamma Quadrant named Crodan gets mixed up in one of Quark's schemes and as a result ends up killing somebody in a scuffle. While in custody, he tells Odo that he has met other shapeshifters like him in Gamma Quadrant. Odo is very eager to learn more about his people, but Crodan's government demands that he be returned to face punishment for crimes committed on their world. Now Odo is tasked to bring Crodan back, but on the way he will be faced with a conflict between his duty, sense of justice, and his desire to learn more about his people.

The plot of this episode is very complex, with lots of twists and location changes. For the first time since the pilot, we get to see members of the crew going through the wormhole not once, but twice, which is exciting. As a result of the very active plot and character movement throughout, it feels like way more happens in this episode than should even be possible for 42 minutes of TV. We have scheming, murder, revenge, diplomatic contact, political intrigue, chase scenes, and most importantly of all, a lot of important exposition that will continue to be relevant through all seven seasons of the show.

This episode is the first time we hear the phrase "changelings." Though most of what Crodan claims to know about them turns out to be lies, his story about how they used to be persecuted and that's why they don't trust humanoids is accurate. It's also curious that he knew that they don't normally retain a humanoid shape on their own planet. Overall, there's a lot of foreshadowing of future events involving the Founders and Odo's conflicting desires to be with his people but also do the right thing.

THE GOOD

• Great pacing and plot movement. They fit a lot of story into the ep, but it doesn't ever feel rushed.
• Nice submarine hunt sequence. Definitely hearkens back to the epic sequence from Wrath of Khan, but the tactic Odo uses to take out the Miradorn ship is almost identical to the Riker Maneuver from Insurrection (and I'm not referring to the way he sits in chairs).
• A lot of good character development for Odo.

THE BAD

• Guy who plays Crodan lacks charisma and is too lackadaisical about everything. It wasn't too hard to believe right up until the point where it's revealed that his daughter's life was on the line the whole time and then none of his attitude makes sense retroactively.
• There's also no indication given of why Crodan was getting involved in Quark's schemes. We can guess that he wanted money to acquire passage back to get his daughter, but then we are forced to wonder why the heck he left his daughter in a stasis pod in some cave in the middle of a nebula. It makes no sense at all and no explanation is even attempted.

THE UGLY

• "Maybe that's why nobody has ever seen another shapeshifter--they're all hiding!" Like Crodan with his tall tales, Quark is surprisingly close to the truth with this seemingly throwaway line.
• The actor who plays the Miradorn twins, Randy Oglesby, has played seven different characters across four different ST shows over the years, most notably in eleven episodes on ENT season 3 as one of the Xindi leaders.
• Odo shapeshift count: 1 in frame. Out of frame he turns into a drinking glass, and there's a very cool shot on screen where the glass gets shattered and all the pieces turn to goo and congeal back into Odo's humanoid form. 7 total on screen shifts for the series.
• The effects shots of The Nexus appear to use the exact same matte painting used to show nebulae by several different ST projects over the years, including the Mutara Nebula in The Wrath of Khan and the nebula where the Enterprise-D hides from the Borg in "The Best of Both Worlds."
• Runabouts used: Rio Grande taken by Sisko and Dax. The runabout that Odo takes is referred to by the Vulcan captain as the Ganges, but in the effects shots it is missing the Ganges' telltale dorsal sensor module. Either the sensor module is removable, or that was an error in either the script or effects department.

RATING: 7/10

Review of DS9 Episode 1.10 "The Nagus"

I'm in the process of rewatching Star Trek: Deep Space 9 and reviewing/recapping each episode in detail. Join me in my in depth look at the deepest and most complex Star Trek series to date.



The leader of the Ferengi, Grand Nagus Zek, shows up on DS9 and holds a conference for exploring business opportunities in the Gamma Quadrant. But at the conference he suddenly retires and names Quark his successor—much to the consternation of his son and the Ferengi merchant lords—and then shortly afterwards dies unexpectedly. Now Quark must navigate the treacherous waters of Ferengi governance while dealing with attempts on his life by those jealous of his new prestige and power.

This is technically a terrarium episode, but you almost don't notice because of the sweeping galactic implications of it. Episodes like this really fulfill the core promise of DS9 as a show; no longer do we watch a crew going from place to place exploring the unknown, having adventures, and then leaving behind the mess for somebody else to clean up. Now we follow a crew that has the unknown come to them, and the consequences of those encounters are real and must be dealt with. This is more challenging to write because it's more restrictive, but restrictions breed creativity, and while the DS9 writers don't always adequately step up to the challenge, in this episode they definitely did.

This is a fascinating episode because prior to this, Star Trek had always glossed over how Ferengi society works; this is the first in what would become a long line of Ferengi-centered eps on the show. The Ferengi are essentially the exact opposite of the Federation. The Federation has abandoned all market-based activities, including commerce, acquisition of assets, and even money itself; while Ferengi society is entirely based around those things.

If you think about it, neither society is realistic. Both are extreme to the point where it's impossible that they could function as portrayed. The Federation's system implies several dark realities, most notably a denial of people's right to self-determination. If your society needs janitors to function and nobody wants to be a janitor, what happens? Since you can't pay people to be janitors, the only other option is coercing them into being ones. In essence, the Federation's marketless system implies that they resort to nothing less than slavery.

The Ferengi, meanwhile, have no values other than the acquisition of wealth. They treat contracts with the utmost reverence, but seem to have no laws outside of strict adherence to contracts. They treat charity with disgust and view government-run social programs as the ultimate evil. Who takes care of the sick, poor, old, and/or disabled? The implication is that millions of vulnerable Ferengi must be dying in the streets every day. For that matter, according to Ferengi values, why should a parent even feed their own child? There's no profit in it. Unless they are engaging in child slave labor. Shall I go on? Needless to say, no society could function like this. It's impossible; it would be virtual anarchy and inevitably result in the collapse of their civilization.

That all said, there is a deep and rich potential for storytelling when two such opposing societies (however unrealistic they may be) come into contact with each other. TNG never delivered on that potential, but DS9 does here, and will continue to do so in a big (though occasionally disappointing) ways through seven seasons.

THE GOOD

• Wallace Shawn is great as Zek. He was born to play a Ferengi. As I've noted before, the recurring guest stars are the best part of DS9, and episodes that feature them like this one are almost always very good.
• O'brien is back! I missed him but didn't realize just how much I missed him until he walked into that classroom. The show is significantly weaker without him, as the run of three mediocre episodes in his absence proved.

THE BAD

• The B plot is boring and has some bad acting from Cirroc Lofton and Aron Eisenberg. But they're kid actors so that's moderately understandable and expected. A better B plot or a more fleshed-out A plot and no B plot could have pushed this to a 9 or 10 rating.

THE UGLY

• This episode is the first time the Rules of Acquisition are mentioned. Rules quoted count: 2 (the 1st and 6th), 2 total for the series
• Rom's voice and mannerisms are much different from his first appearance and match his character for the remainder of the show's run.
• Rom trying to kill Quark was shocking. I forgot he did that and it shows how much his character changed/grew over the years.
• What happens to Zek's son after this? He never appears or is mentioned again, despite many more Zek-centric episodes.
• Odo Shapeshift count: 1 (turns into goo to pass through a locked door), 6 total for the series

RATING: 8/10

Review of DS9 Episode 1.09 "Move Along Home"

I'm in the process of rewatching Star Trek: Deep Space 9 and reviewing/recapping each episode in detail. Join me in my in depth look at the deepest and most complex Star Trek series to date.


First contact with a gaming-obsessed species from the Gamma Quadrant takes a bad turn when Quark is caught cheating them at Dabo. They get revenge on him by forcing him to play a game of theirs in which Sisko, Kira, Dax, and Bashir are the real life pawns that are forced to confront dangerous obstacles in their attempt to "move along home."

This is a frustrating and frankly quite stupid episode. It's memorable due to just how weird it is, but overall it's bad.

THE GOOD

• Sisko's approach to first contact compared to Picard or even Kirk reveals a lot about his character. Picard in particular seems to relish first contact. Sisko seems to dread it. He is definitely not a diplomat and it probably makes no sense that the Federation didn't send somebody better for the job of receiving their first official visitors from the Gamma Quadrant.
• The exchange when Dax wants Sisko to leave her behind and he refuses is the best part in the episode. Their interactions are always so interesting due to their long and complicated history with each other. Sisko was Curzon's mentee, and now he is Jadzia's commanding officer, and that conflicting dynamic is fascinating.

THE BAD

• The whole structure of the game (or lack thereof) is frustrating. Since Quark (and by extension the audience) doesn't know the rules, everything that happens feels totally random and arbitrary.
• More terrible acting from Alexander Siddig
• The obstacles encountered in the game are neither clever nor interesting.
• The revelation at the end that nobody was ever in danger retroactively ruins the one positive aspect of the plot, which is the tension from worrying about what will happen to the characters.
• No O'Brien for the third ep in a row. Jake mentions that Keiko is still on Earth, so obviously he is with her still. Meaney is lucky he got to sit this one out.

THE UGLY

• Why does Sisko have a tricorder? He was sleeping in bed (in his uniform, no less), and wakes up in the game with a tricorder strapped to his hip. Utter nonsense.
• Quark apparently faces no consequences for his actions.
• The conversation between Brennin and Odo while scanning the alien ship provides some clues as to how the game technology works. Brennin implies that it reads like a continuous transporter beam. Most likely, the four players were locked in some sort of sustained transporter field where matter and energy is able to materialize around them and be manipulated according to the requirements of the game. The tricorders read everything in the game as real, so it's not a holosuite or virtual reality most likely, but rather some highly advanced manipulation of matter and energy, like a holosuite but where everything is fully physical rather than holographic.

RATING: 4/10

Review of DS9 Episode 1.08 "The Passenger"

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Bashir and Kira are returning to the station via runabout when they encounter a ship in distress. They rescue the lone survivor, an alien security officer, but are unable to save her prisoner, a man named Vantika whom she claims is extremely dangerous. Upon returning to the station, someone begins tampering with station security and appears to be plotting to steal an inbound shipment of rare material, and all evidence points to Vantika being the one responsible for the issues. But how can that be if he is dead?

This is another inconsequential episode, although the wormhole does at least play a small part, as the shipment of deuridium is coming from the Gamma Quadrant. The tension and pacing are both decent. Unlike the previous episode, the performances of the actors are all very good (with one very obvious and notable exception). Sisko, Quark, Odo, and Jadzia all gets chances to shine and their performances are what make this a slightly above-average ep.

THE GOOD

• "If you want my opinion—" "Actually I don't." Man I love Sisko's no-BS attitude. His handling of Odo's wounded pride is also very impressive. You gain a lot of admiration for Sisko's ability to command in this episode. He is fair but doesn't tolerate any nonsense.
• As mentioned above, several characters have multiple noteworthy moments. Rene Auberjonois steals the show though. Every scene with him is great, from his conflicts with Lt. Primmin, to his banter with Quark, to his no-holds-barred conversation with Sisko. And even though Odo is too hard on Primmin at first, he knows when he was wrong and gives him due credit at the end, showing he is a fair, if harsh, judge of character.

THE BAD

• Oh my Prime Directive is Alexander Siddig bad here. So, so bad. Especially the scenes where he plays Vantika. I never realized what an awful actor he was in the first season until this time rewatching the show. Fortunately, he does improve as the show proceeds and has actually had a very successful acting career post-Star Trek. But boy is he bad here.
• Maybe it's because I've seen the episode several times before, but it seemed painfully obvious to me that Bashir was the bad guy all along. There was no mystery that I could discern. However, in spite of knowing I still felt the tension from seeing Bashir/Vantika skulk around the station and mess everything up, so that's a positive at least.
• Going off the above "bad," it's baffling to me that nobody suspected Bashir, especially Jadzia after discovering how Vantika had survived, or Kira after seeing Vantika grab Bashir right before dying. Definitely makes the crew look incompetent.
• No O'Brien for the second episode in a row.

THE UGLY

• PLOT HOLE: Now that Vantika has a new (human) body, he no longer has any need for the deuridium since he originally wanted it to prolong his life. None of his actions after the first scene make any sense in that light. He hangs around the station and waits to get caught for...absolutely no reason.
• Runabout used: Rio Grande multiple times
• The material that Vantika is trying to steal, deuridium, is apparently fictional.
• The freighter carrying the deuridium has Federation LCARS control interfaces, in spite of not being crewed by Starfleet personnel. That would explain how Bashir knew exactly what button to push to lower the shields, even in his disoriented state.
• Glial cells are what Vantika uses to transfer his consciousness into Bashir, but it's unclear how that would work since glial cells are non-neuronal, but are rather part of the central nervous system that surrounds and cares for the neural tissue.

RATING: 6/10

Review of DS9 Episode 1.07 "Dax"

I'm in the process of rewatching Star Trek: Deep Space 9 and reviewing/recapping each episode in detail. Join me in my in depth look at the deepest and most complex Star Trek series to date.


A foreign government wants to extradite Lt. Jadzia Dax to try her for treason allegedly committed by the former Dax host, Curzon, who was also Commander Sisko's close friend and mentor. Sisko is able to force an extradition hearing arbitrated by a Bajoran representative to attempt to determine whether or not Jadzia can be tried for the crimes of which her predecessor is accused.

Star Trek has a number of good courtroom drama episodes, with "The Measure of a Man" from TNG's second season leading that impressive collection. "Dax" does not unfortunately find a place among those quality stories. While the premise sounds like it could be interesting, the execution does not live up and the writers failed to make any relevant connection to contemporary social issues (at least that I could discern). The "drama" here is flat, the social commentary absent, and the acting dull and lifeless—in strong contrast to the aforementioned legendary episode from the sister show—all of which adds up to a below-average episode in this first season.

THE GOOD

• It's nice to finally get an episode centered on Dax. She has been seriously neglected as a character up to this point, including the aspects of her complicated relationship to Sisko, and this episode does a bit to explore that relationship. Unfortunately, it ends up mostly being Avery Brooks' mediocre dialogue delivery versus Terry Farrell's stoic silence (which she does well, but it's just not interesting).
• Does a good job of demonstrating how, even though she appears to be a young woman, Jadzia has the integrity and conviction of someone much older and wiser. That is really the only lasting takeaway from the ep.
• The shot where the tractor beam chases the Klaestron ship off the screen and then a few seconds later drags it back onto frame is great. Nice blending of quality effects with creative shot design.
• The cranky old Bajoran arbiter is amusing. She is the only one who isn't phoning in her performance here.

THE BAD

• Ironically, in the episode that bears her name and is ostensibly all about her, Dax herself does almost nothing here.
• The story is honestly boring. The ending is a rushed and anticlimactic deus ex machina.
• I hate to keep comparing this episode to "The Measure of a Man," but every courtroom drama ST ep naturally is benchmarked against that great ep. What is lacking here is...literally everything. The acting is far inferior. There are no epic speeches. No thrilling dramatic moments (by contrast, Riker's "Pinocchio's strings have been cut" moment still gives me goosebumps to this day). No important social commentary. "TMoaM" had so many powerful things to say about slavery, consciousness, free will, and more. What is the relevance of this ep? Are they commenting on the importance of redemption? Something about amnesia? I have no clue. It all feels so pointless, especially with the abrupt and unsatisfying ending.

THE UGLY

• First mention of the Klingon coffee, raktajino, which would become a station favorite, essentially replacing Earth coffee on the show.
• Bashir's flying elbow into the Klaestron agent trying to abduct Dax looks like something Kirk would try. The whole brawl was sloppy like a TOS fight, which I found surprisingly entertaining.
• Bashir retcon watch (WARNING: this section contains major spoilers for a future story arc) — With the way Bashir's physical abilities are portrayed post-genetic-engineering reveal, he should have been more coordinated during the critical fight to try and rescue Jadzia from the Klaestron abductors. Instead he looks like an adolescent who doesn't understand how human limbs work. He looks like Gumby getting electric shock therapy. The closest we've ever come to a real life version of a Bethesda game glitch was Bashir's "fight scene." It's bad, is what I'm saying.
• It seems highly unlikely that the culpability of current hosts for the crimes of former hosts would not be an issue that would have previously been settled by Trill law, and thus would serve as a guide for the proceedings of this ep. And yet no such precedence is ever mentioned.

RATING: 5/10

Review of DS9 Episode 1.06 "Q-Less"

I'm in the process of rewatching Star Trek: Deep Space 9 and reviewing/recapping each episode in detail. Join me in my in depth look at the deepest and most complex Star Trek series to date.

The Ganges returns from the Gamma Quadrant with a surprise passenger aboard—Vash, Captain Picard's love interest last seen with powerful entity known only as "Q." It's not long before Q himself shows up and starts to annoy the crew of DS9 in his uniquely irritating way. But with him and Vash also arrives a new danger that threatens the station. Will Sisko's crew be able to figure out what is happening before the station is destroyed? Is Q responsible? How does Vash fit into what is happening?

So for the third time in six episodes, we get crossover characters from TNG, cementing even further that these shows are tightly linked and not afraid to build off of each other. Q is almost always a treat on TNG, and the episodes he appears in are some of the best from that show (with a couple of exceptions). This would be his only appearance on DS9 and it's not too hard to see why. The energy that John de Lancie brings to the screen with this character is incredible, but his chemistry with Sisko is...well...frankly nonexistent—a far cry from the world-class dialogue filled with Shakespeare quotes and historical allusions he exchanges with Patrick Stewart over on the sister show. Part of that is due to Brooks' far inferior acting talents, but part of it simply Sisko's personality. He does not tolerate BS and Q is pretty much the definition of BS.

The scenes with Vash and Q are good though. And with Vash and Quark. Basically Vash is always a highlight. I'm surprised Jennifer Hetrick never got more roles back in the day because she steals the show in all of her Star Trek appearances. And despite not having Picard to banter with, de Lancie is still very entertaining as the enigmatic Q.

The story is well-written here too. The suspense is maintained right up until the end and it's fun to try and guess whether or not Q is nudging things one way or another to help or simply for his own amusement. As usual, even by the end of the ep we really have no idea what his intentions were.

THE GOOD

• O'Brien's face in the opening shot. His reactions to Bashir's whole Starfleet Medical finals story is amazing. We see a continuation of O'Brien's strong dislike for him from the last ep.
• O'Brien describing Vash "The captain likes a good challenge, sir." Way to put it diplomatically, Miles.
• O'Brien on seeing Q on DS9 "Bloody hell!" Colm Meaney could have a YouTube channel called "O'Brien Reacts to Things" and I'd watch the hell out of it.
• Quark is so wonderfully sleazy here. It's a credit to Armin Shimerman's acting talent that he can be charismatic with a giant latex mask and fangs on.

THE BAD

• Some cringy scenes with Bashir. The opening scene when he's telling about his medical finals like it's a war story is delightfully campy, but him hitting on Vash is more weird than fun.
• Aside from being the link to Vash, Q really doesn't do much here story-wise. He's pretty superfluous aside from acting as a red herring. Again, it's no surprise he doesn't return to DS9. He just doesn't fit the tone of the show.

THE UGLY

• How much must it enrage Sisko to get continuously compared to Picard by Q? I feel kind of bad for him because every time that name is mentioned, it must remind him of the death of his wife. No wonder he's so surly with Q.
• The gas used to trace the power drains, tritium, is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. It is indeed very toxic when inhaled, but how it would make changes in the graviton field easier to detect is a mystery since gravitons are currently still only hypothetical.
• It's somewhat subtle, but Q actually appears to help the crew figure out the mystery (or tries anyway). When they are blaming him, he reacts by insulting them but then says that while they are trying to figure it out, Vash is "engaged in base commerce" and says that she is the real danger. This seems to be his MO—be annoying and belittling and pretend not to care while subtly helping the crew survive a serious threat. It's strange that he can simultaneously be both childish and paternal. Of all the many great characters in the history of Trek, Q has to be one of the most enigmatic.
• Bashir retcon watch (WARNING: this section contains major spoilers for a future story arc) — First mention of him mistaking a preganglionic fiber for a postganglionic nerve on his Starfleet Medical finals. We learn much later on that he missed that question on purpose so as to not draw suspicion about his genetically-enhanced nature.
• Odo shapeshift count: none on screen, but it's implied that he was the wine bottle in one scene.

RATING: 7/10

Review of DS9 Episode 1.05 "Captive Pursuit"

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A damaged ship comes through the wormhole, piloted by an agitated creature named Tosk. He comes aboard DS9 for repairs and O'Brien befriends him and tries to earn his trust to figure out what he is so afraid of. He gets his answer when an advanced alien ship appears from the wormhole and attacks the station, but it quickly becomes apparent that their real target is Tosk. Now the crew of DS9 is faced with a moral dilemma and O'Brien's friendship with Tosk may influence him to put his entire career on the line to help his new friend.

Finally we get an episode with the Gamma Quadrant playing a role. I don't know why they waited until the fifth episode to start unpacking this particularly dense web of storytelling potential, but I'm just glad we are here now. The wormhole/Gamma Quadrant will be the driving narrative force for the whole seven seasons of DS9 and it all starts right here, which is very exciting.

Furthermore, even though the terms "Dominion" or "Jem'Hadar" are not mentioned here, this episode definitely foreshadows both. Most obviously: Tosk is very clearly Jem'Hadar or some closely related species created by the Dominion. It seems like a reasonable inference that the Hunters are members of the Dominion and were given slightly altered Jem'Hadar for their hunt (either that or the Hunters created the Tosk and then the Founders liked them so much that they adapted them as their own footsoldiers). Either way, the Dominion connections are clear, though not explicitly stated.

This episode is jam packed with story. At one point I thought the episode was probably close to over and checked the time stamp. Nope—there was still almost a third of it remaining. Probably more happens in any one act of this episode than in the entirety of the previous episode. So obviously there is a lot going on but we'll try to get into some of the details.

THE GOOD

• This story hits all the notes of a classic Trek episode. Moral dilemmas, touching human moments, conflict between Federation and alien value systems, tension and suspense, sci-fi technology, exploring the unknown, and of course, Prime Directive invocations. If you were to design a prototypical good ST episode, this is exactly what it would look like.
• Colm Freaking Meaney. This is why they brought him over to DS9; as a starring actor he can do the same thing Patrick Stewart does on TNG by taking an already very good script and making it great with his acting abilities. There is not a warmer or more relatable character in all of ST than Miles Edward O'Brien, and much of that is due to Meaney's talents.
• I like the interior design of Tosk's ship. The narrow crawl space to get to the inner workings of the ship feels realistic for a 1-man craft.

THE BAD

• The action sequences are very primitive and poorly done. Why do Star Trek directors think that combat is two groups of people standing in the open taking turns firing at each other? This isn't 1776.
• As good of an actor as he is, Meaney doesn't always sound like he believes his own lines when he has to speak technobabble. The lines in this ep about reversing polarity and bypassing phase inducers sound like an actor reading lines, not an engineer talking about his job.
• The episode focuses almost completely on O'Brien, which is nice, but the bad part is that the other characters don't get to do much, including Jadzia and Bashir, who have now played minimal roles in three out of the last four eps.

THE UGLY

• Miles cutting Bashir off sharply during the scene in Ops. This is the first indication of his dislike for Julian.
• Odo Shapeshift count: 1 (picture), 5 total for the series. It seems like my memory of Odo not shifting a lot was faulty, at least so far.

RATING: 8/10

Review of DS9 Episode 1.04 “Babel”

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A virus that causes people to talk gibberish starts spreading through the station. It’s a race against time to find a cure before everyone is incapacitated...or worse.

Like the previous episode, this is another inconsequential “terrarium” ep. The “virus that makes people act weird and it’s kind of humorous but then we find out it’s actually killing them” trope has been done a lot (and a lot better) in ST and it really has worn thin by now. Aside from some very minor character development for Quark and some great early scenes with O’Brien, this is a very forgettable episode.

THE GOOD

• The O’Brien scenes at the start are great. I love his sarcastic comments, and Colm Meaney is such a great actor (with an awesome accent) that I would be entertained watching him read lines from a quarterly earnings report.
• The shot where it pans through the inner workings of the replicator and then focuses on the sabotage device right as it turns on is a cool one.
• Some good Quark scenes. It’s interesting how he fluctuates between bravado and cowardice seemingly at random, a trend that holds throughout the show’s run.
• Nice continuity mentioning Keiko’s school established in the previous ep. It’s easy to take for granted since all shows do it nowadays, but at the time DS9’s serial storytelling was brand new for ST (and relatively uncommon on TV in general), and the fact that I don’t even notice it most of the time is probably a testament to how well it is done.

THE BAD

• Another claustrophobic episode that takes place essentially all on DS9 (aside from one scene on a runabout).
• *Sisko takes sip of coffee* “O’Brien!” I cringed. They may as well have used a laugh track and a womp womp trombone to go along with that dumb gag.
• A lot of really bad acting from Avery Brooks.
• Jadzia gets nothing to do for the second time in three eps.

THE UGLY

• Odo shapeshift count: 1 (a metal cart...and also the handheld device on top of the cart, oddly enough), 4 total for the series
• Not sure which runabout Kira takes. It’s either the Yangtzee Kiang or the Rio Grande because it doesn’t have the Ganges’ extra module on it.
• The ship that is trying to escape DS9 isn’t visible during the exterior shots of the station and the runabout.

RATING: 6/10

Review of DS9 Episode 1.03 "A Man Alone"

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A Bajoran that Odo put away for murder years earlier appears on the station and has a confrontation with the constable. Shortly after that he is found dead, and all the evidence points to Odo having done it. A search for truth ensues.

This is episode is very much whatever the station equivalent of a ship-in-a-bottle episode would be (stationary terrarium? I got nothing). The entire episode takes place on DS9, and as a result it feels rather low stakes and unexciting. That is unfortunately a trend of the early seasons. The wormhole is a gold mine for fascinating and creative storytelling, but for whatever reason (probably budgetary), much of the first few seasons are spent solely in the Bajoran system and the setting gets extremely claustrophobic as a result.

That said, this isn't a bad episode, just an inconsequential one. The mystery and its resolution are cleverly done, and the plot threads all weave together in a very tidy way that I appreciate as a writer. But the conflict between Odo's sense of justice and Starfleet rules will be done much better in later episodes, and the suspense is very minimal because nobody will really believe that Odo is the murderer. Overall, a mediocre episode by DS9 and ST standards.

THE GOOD

• Cleverly-written mystery with a neat resolution
• Some interesting glimpses of Odo's philosophy and into Dax's history and her Trill nature.
• All of the main characters get involved and play an active role in the story (well, O'Brien is active in the B plot). When you only have 42 minutes to work with, it's impressive that they are able to do that.
• Jadzia is really the highlight of this ep. Terry Farrell has said in interviews that she felt lost and overwhelmed as a 28 year old woman trying to portray a 300 year old being who has lived eight lives, and some of her unease does show through a bit, but overall I think she does a wonderful job. It helps that she is built like a legit Amazonian, because her attempts to project nobility are enhanced by the fact that she towers over many of the other actors.

THE BAD

• Nothing is overly bad, but the episode lacks suspense and doesn't explore much in the way of interesting sci-fi, and the story in inconsequential. It is essentially a cop procedural set on a space station, and that is of little interest to me.

THE UGLY

• Bashir retcon watch (WARNING: this section contains major spoilers for a future story arc) — Does he allow the bubble in the holosuite to burst on purpose? I think that with the way his mental abilities are portrayed post-genetic-engineering reveal, he definitely could have controlled it better than that if he wanted.
• Rom is totally different from future eps. He talks different, is way too confident, and doesn't have that awkward bent-over shuffling walk. 
• Hulk Kira count: 1 — This is the first of many times we see Kira beat up a much larger dude (during the riot scene). It looks utterly ridiculous for a tiny woman like Nana Visitor to be literally tossing around dudes twice her size and yet we are forcefed it throughout the entire series. When Jadzia beats people up it's believable because she is built like a warrior, but Visitor is so petite that it's impossible to buy when she does it.

RATING: 6/10

Review of Deep Space 9 Episode 1.02 "Past Prologue"

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A Bajoran terrorist named Tahna Los barely escapes pursuing Cardassians and requests asylum aboard DS9. He turns out to have a history with Major Kira, who advocates for him. He insists that his days of violence are over, but with the help of Plain Simple Garak, who uses the naive Bashir as his unwitting accomplice, the crew of DS9 discover that Tahna may not be sincere about his intentions on the station, and the tense confrontation that results will influence the future of Bajor.

The is the first “normal” episode of the show and it continues the high quality storytelling and character development from the pilot. The plot here is pretty complicated, but the writing is sharp and the directing and editing is tight, which gives the whole episode a polish that is rare for a show so early in its run, particularly by ST standards. TNG is great, but there is no doubt that is stumbled a lot in its first two seasons. While season 1 is probably my least favorite from DS9, that is mainly just because the show continually got better as it went, and not due to any real flaws with the season, aside from perhaps some claustrophobia setting-wise.

In general, Bajoran episodes are among my least favorite ones on DS9 (probably mainly because they always feature Kira, who is my least favorite character on the show), but the excellent use of suspense and tension and some really great pacing (not to mention a lot of great moments with Garak and/or the Duras sisters) makes this episode highly enjoyable in spite of poorly-acted Kira tantrums and those awful drab Bajoran uniforms.

THE GOOD

• Garak!! I think arguably the best part about DS9 is the deep roster of great recurring characters like Garak, Dukat, Weyoun, Damar, Martok, etc. The overall acting talent of the main cast is pretty average at best, but the recurring characters are almost always a highlight of any episode they appear in. And of all the best recurring characters, Garak is my favorite (well, he and Damar are tied as my favs). Andrew Robinson’s acting is incredible and he absolutely oozes a serpentine quality that is perfect for the enigmatic Cardassian tailor. Watching him toy with Bashir in this episode is like seeing an apex predator play with its food. You really never know what Garak is going to do next, and every scene with him is just a joy to watch.
• I love seeing the Duras sisters here. They are cartoonishly evil but immensely amusing. For better or worse, they capture your full attention every time they are on screen. And having another TNG cameo effectively reinforces what Picard’s presence in the pilot was showing--that these two series are taking place at the same time in the same basic setting.
• “Go over my head again, and I’ll have yours...on a platter.” One thing I love about Sisko is his ‘no BS’ attitude. Even the ever-petulant Kira was cowed by that dressing-down.
• The Odo and Kira scene in the security office is good. Even though I don’t care for Kira very much, their friendship is nice and Rene Auberjonois is a really great actor who gets to shine here.

THE BAD

• The Bajoran clothes and uniforms are ugly and I hate them. Every Bajoran-centric episode is 10% less enjoyable due to that alone.
• Some mediocre acting from the guy who plays Tahna, as well as by Nana Visitor, drags the scenes down a bit where it’s just the two of them.

THE UGLY

• Runabout roster: Ganges, Yangtzee Kiang, Rio Grande
• Odo shapeshift count: 1 (rat), 3 total for series
• If Gul Danar looks familiar, that’s because he is played by Vaughn Armstrong, who has played a total of eleven different ST characters to date. This is his second appearance, with his role as a renegade Klingon in the TNG season 1 episode “Heart of Glory” being his first, and Admiral Maxwell Forest on ENT being his most numerous and recognizable.
• I was curious why the Ganges has a extra module on its dorsal side that the Yangtzee Kiang doesn’t have. Turns out that is an advanced sensor module, which explains why the Ganges can monitor the Yangtzee around the moon but not vice-versa.
• It’s unclear why Tahna said he needed a warp-capable ship for his mission. Everything seems to take place within the Bajoran system, so a sublight ship would work just fine. However, the top speed of a Danube-class runabout is Warp 5, which about 200 times the speed of light. Since it takes them about 2.5 minutes to get to DS9, that implies that DS9 is 9 billion kilometers away, or about 60 AU. For reference, Neptune is about 30 AU from the sun, which means that DS9 and the wormhole are probably very far out on edge the Bajoran solar system and would make a sublight journey possibly take a very long time, increasing the chances his plan would be detected and stopped. 
• The Cardassian ship takes about 4 minutes to reach DS9 from the Cardassian border. The top speed of a Galor-class cruiser is around warp 8 (about 1000 times the speed of light), which means the Cardassian border is only .008 light years away, or about 493 AU. This implies that a large part of the Bajoran system’s Oort cloud (if it has one) isn’t even in Bajoran space, as the Oort cloud is believed to be able to extend more than a lightyear from its parent star. 
• Dax and someone else should have been piloting the Ganges, not Sisko and O’Brien. It makes no sense for the CO and chief engineer to be doing that job. It would have been nice for Dax to actually have something to do in the episode, too.

RATING: 8/10

Best Pilot for a Trek Series

I'm in the process of rewatching Star Trek: Deep Space 9 and reviewing/recapping each episode in detail. Join me in my in depth look at the deepest and most complex Star Trek series to date.

1.01 “Emissary”

Newly reassigned Commander Benjamin Sisko and his hodgepodge crew attempt to restore a former Cardassian space station into something resembling a Federation outpost, far on the outskirts of Federation space and crewed by a combination of Starfleet and Bajoran personnel. They get way more than they bargained for when a the first stable wormhole in the galaxy is discovered in their backyard, and a showdown ensues with the Cardassians, who are bitter about having to abandon Bajor and eager to claim the new discovery for themselves. But the inhabitants and creators of the wormhole are far more than they seem, and their role in the Bajor-Cardassia conflict will have consequences that stretch for years in the future and indeed beyond the bounds of time itself.

Star Trek: The Next Generation had so much success that Paramount decided not to even wait until it was off the air to begin a spinoff, with season 1 of DS9 more or less coinciding with TNG season 6. Gene Roddenberry having recently passed on, the new series would not be guided by his unrealistically optimistic vision of the future, but rather be a far more human and gritty view of the future. Deep Space Nine is really the most relatable and emotion-infused of the Star Trek shows by far. Building off of what was established in TOS and TNG, DS9 was able to create the deepest and most complex of all the many ST series without being bound by Roddenberry’s overly-restrictive mandates that everyone always get along and Federation society being portrayed as perfectly utopian. What we get instead is a refreshingly honest and wholly human (ironic considering the most human characters are often aliens) depiction of life in the 24th century.

As for the episode’s story, it was brilliantly set up by TNG in episodes like “The Wounded” and “Ensign Ro.” Long before “Emissary” ever saw the airwaves, we were already quite familiar with the worlds of Bajor, Cardassia, and the conflict that has raged between them for generations. This is very fortunate, because the plot of “Emissary” is quite complex, and not having to engage in an excessive amount of world-building allowed the writers to spend more time setting up the characters and their specific conflicts, which are equally as complex as the plot (even more so, actually).

Due to this prior exposition, “Emissary” is able to concentrate so purely on its plot and characters that it ends up being the best ST pilot to date (granted, the bar was not high). The story is not only engaging, but it sets up a conflict that will persist without tiring for seven seasons (and beyond), while also introducing some of the deepest and most layered characters to ever exist in the ST universe. Although its highest points never match those of TNG and TOS, its consistency across seven season makes DS9 equal to those shows in terms of overall quality and it all starts with a pilot that far surpasses “Farpoint” or the various TOS pilots.

THE GOOD

• Using Picard to launch the show was brilliant. The scenes he is in a great, but DS9 takes things to the next level by having Picard be in many ways the bad guy. This is a man we have spent five seasons growing in admiration for, and suddenly our new protagonist despises him to the core. What genius way to simultaneously link these shows together and also distance them from each other. The tone is set immediately: this is definitely Trek, but very different from TNG. The undisguised contempt Sisko shows for Picard, combined with the deep pain seen in Picard’s eyes at the mention of Wolf 359 is just an incredible interaction between two great characters. A million points to the writers (and Patrick Stewart) for these scenes.
• It’s honestly amazing to me how the story threads that are started in this episode are carried through so seamlessly for seven seasons. You’d think that the Cardassian-Bajoran conflict would run its course within a few seasons, but the incredibly complex dynamics of the wormholes, the Prophets, and especially the Dominion allow that conflict to persist for the entire series run without ever drying up narratively. This episode becomes truly brilliant when viewed through the lens of all seven seasons.
• Colm Meaney. He was criminally underutilized on TNG and moving him to DS9 was a great decision to let an all time great actor have a starring role that was long overdue.

THE BAD

• Odo’s makeup isn’t great in this ep. He looks skeletal.
• Nana Visitor is a bad actress and her character mostly annoys me. She’s not as bad as, say, Troi or Neelix, but she definitely is a weak spot in an otherwise pretty good cast.
• I’ve never been a fan of the DS9 uniforms. I think the TNG ones look much better and I wish they had just used those.
• The sequence with Sisko talking to the Prophets in the wormhole drags on for way too long. The episode is great until this point and then it really bogs down with frustrating dialogue and no plot movement. If this sequence had been edited down we might be looking at a 10/10 episode.
• I’ll get into it more as I review more eps, but Avery Brooks is such an awkward actor. He overacts and his delivery of lines is often sharply at odds with the emotion he is supposed to be conveying (like when he seems to be smiling while chewing out a subordinate). From watching interviews and other extra content of him, it’s clear to me that he is simply a weird dude, and that has made it slightly easier for me to swallow his unusual acting style...but only slightly. I think that Sisko is the most well-written of the ST captains by far, but Brooks’ weirdness as a person and an actor makes me rank him slightly below Picard and probably equal to Kirk on the all-time captain rankings.

THE UGLY

• "Never trust an ale from a god-fearing people.” Quark needs to try a Belgian abbey ale!
• Why are the Bajorans allowing Cardassian warships back into their space? I get that Bajor can’t really do much about it, but it seems like a glossed-over point that should have been a major diplomatic issue. There’s no way that, after almost a century of planety occupation and rape, the Bajorans would be cool with Cardassian soldiers taking shore leave on one of their stations.
• There is a lot of effects shots of Odo shapeshifting in this ep. I guess the effects budget must have been slashed for future eps because Odo’s shifting is seen very rarely for the next few seasons.
• Interestingly, in Sisko’s flashbacks to Wolf 359, his Vulcan captain is played by J.G. Hetzler, who would go on to play a starring role much later in the show as General Martok.

RATING: 8/10