Yora reviews Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - All of it!

[Xyril]

I feel like the show has gotten rather soft about the whole occupation thing. In the first seasons they made real efforts to make the occupation sound like the Germans rampaging through Eastern Europe, or the Japanese through China, but now three years later everyone lets bygones be bygones. Reconciliation after horrible crimes is possible, but that usually takes two or three generations, not two or three years.

Except that's not much of an exaggeration of how things worked out in real life, even in those examples you cited. Yes, there are folks who absolutely still hate the people who invaded them even as far back as WWII, but the Cold War meant that almost immediately after the fighting stopped, a lot of people had to at least pretend to bury all that hatred, as Britons, French, and West Germans wound up on one side of the battle lines and Poles and Slavs had to start working with the East Germans. To a lesser extent, the same happened between the Japanese and the Koreans, who suffered just as much as their hands as China did. It's not quite Stockholm syndrome, but sometimes when you're forced to be civil with someone you absolutely hate, a strange thing happens and all that forced politeness and fake cordiality starts to feel real, even if all of the grievances are still there under the surface. That's how I read the situation with Kira and Dukat, and my opinion was only reinforced when he made that crass comment about Bajor benefiting from the occupation, and it was clear from her reaction that despite outwardly looking like she was taken in by his superficial charm, she absolutely did not forget his role in the Occupation or forgive him, not even a little bit.

[Cikomyr]

I always found so funny that Marc Alaimo (Dukat's actor) was persuaded there would be a romance eventually Between Dukat and Kira.

Nana Visitor was categorically vetoing it from ever even coming remotely close from happening.

It somehow gave a layer of authenticity to their character.

[comicshorse]

I always found so funny that Marc Alaimo (Dukat's actor) was persuaded there would be a romance eventually Between Dukat and Kira.

Nana Visitor was categorically vetoing it from ever even coming remotely close from happening.

It somehow gave a layer of authenticity to their character.

Certainly Dukat always seemed attracted to Kira and gave the impression (at least to me) that he just assumed Kira would eventually succumb to his charm
And

Spoiler: Spolier for Season 5

Show

In 'Inferno's Light' (Season 5 Episode 15) Kira seems genuinely concerned for Dukat when she thinks he's launching a gallant, suicidal attack on the Dominion fleet. Although of course Dukat manages to disappoint everyone when they discover he's not attacking the Dominion he's joining them. "You and me on the same side Major. It never seemed quite...... right- did it ?"

[Yora]

S4E6: Rejoined.

A very special episode. I really didn't want to watch this. I really didn't want to review this. But the things one does for completeness.

--

A group of Trill scientists comes to the station, one of whom was married to Dax three lifetimes ago. Sisko suggests that Dax could take her vacation days during that day, but she says it's alright and keep working while she's there.

The Trill arrive and the others notice that there is something weird going on. In the bar, Kira doesn't understand what the issue is, and Bashir explains to her that the Trill consider it psychologically harmful to the symbionts to maintain personal attachments to their past lives. The rule is enforced so strictly that the punishment for symbionts who get back together after they started new lives is to be exiled and be prohibited from being joined again.

The two gets along together really well. Surprisingly well, given that they haven't seen each other for a hundred years. But soon they both notice that it is indeed really weird to be talking again and it's a bit disturbing. The last time they spoke, Torias' wife asked him not to do something dangerous when he was a test pilot, he did it anyway, and then had a fatal accident because of it. They also notice that they have much more in common now than when they were married.

The other Trill notice how much time they are spending together and are concerned and somewhat disturbed by it. Dax and her former wife have a discussion about it, but it ends with them both admitting their continued love. Dax sees the seriousness of the situation and goes to Sisko to ask for help. Unfortunately, the advice he gives her is exactly what she didn't wanted to hear. But if they both really really want this to be their last life and spend it together, that's their choice to make. But they need to be absolutely sure about that.

As the science stuff is going on on the Defiant, there's an accident and Dax runs off to the engine room and does crazy dangerous things to search for her former wife and rescue her. When they are back on the station, Dax asks her to screw it all and stay with her. And she says no.

--

Can you find the elephant in this giant herd of mammoth? The whole episode, all the characters are pretending that the issue has nothing to do with them both being women now. But we as the audience all know that this is exactly the entire reason for the existence of this episode.

Of course representation and inclusion in media is hugely important, but not like this. When I grew up in Germany in the 90s, it was already socially unacceptable to say homophobic things in public, and it at least wasn't something argued about in the presence of kids. As such, I found the walking on egg shells around queer representation in media in the 90s and 2000s a bit puzzling. I fully understand that my experiences where the exception compared to most of the world, and that in America it still was a huge uphill battle at that time. But my own personal feelings about representation is that I am looking for normalcy. When queer issues are made into traumatic drama it always freaks me out a bit. I don't want tollerated as a weirdo, I want people to not think there even is any issue in the first place.
Maybe progressive people in the 90s thought that making TV episodes like this was actually a good way to gradually spread a bit more tolerance into the weirder society. Maybe it actually worked at that time and that place. But personally, they always creep me out a lot.

A year or so back, there was a movie about America having minorities of fantasy monsters living among humans, as some kind of allegory about racism. And lots of people really hated the orcs dressing and talking like poor black Americans, and all treated like gangsters. This episode is not quite as bad, but I think it's suffering from the same issue of trying to make stories about actual discrimination by translating them into fictional discriminations against fictional creatures. The result always feels like it's only making things worse than better.

Not to mention that this episode ends with "Well, tough luck. Sucks to be you. Accept what society tells you to do, it's for your best". That's really not how an obvious allegory about homophobia should end. That's not really better than all the gays dying at the end.

I don't want to give this my typical rating of "well, this sucks". Maybe some people see something valuable in it for their own social situations, and I don't want to make any impressions that I am telling other people I don't know that I know best how they should deal with the problems of their society. But personally, from my own perspective, it makes my skin crawl from start to finish. For me, this is the most uncomfortable Star Trek episode I can think of. (Which does not account for any nightmare episodes my brain has suppressed.)

[Talakeal]

Its my understanding that the episode was originally written with a male love interest in mind, but it was only changed at the last minute to try and make a statement; so there might be something more to the episode beyond the (really weird) attempt to do a same-sex story.

[Yora]

I was thinking about that at one point. Thanks for bringing it up.

It would have worked so much better. The question of whether it is healthy for Trill to pick up personal attachments from previous host is actually a great premise for speculative fiction. It feels very plausible that Trill society eventually decided that it just causes way too much trouble. There even is a moment where Jadzia feels very guilty about Tobin ignored his wife's plea to be careful and got himself killed. This really can't be healthy. At least Tobin's wife also had two or three other lives since then. But imagine if Curzon had tried to apologize to Tobin's family for his death? That would be really messed up.

Absolutely no denial here from me: I just said that I wish for media to make the genders in relationships a non-issue, and that means this story should work just as well with all the characters having any combinations of genders. It shouldn't matter. And taken at face value, that's exactly what the episode does. I actually liked the scene where Kira is completely baffled and tries to wrap her head around everyone being on edge about Dax meeting her former wife and why they shouldn't get back together again if they want to. Especially because Kira has never shown any signs of being particularly progressive minded or standing up against prejudice. That's the casual normalcy when it comes to queer relationships that I want to see.
But this is an American TV show from the 90s, which makes it a product of environment where many TV shows where trying to dip their toes in gay rights, which very often turned out quite cringy and seeming to flirt with the scandalousness of it. Frequently making me question whether it was progressive or exploitative. One could argue about The Death of the Author, and if anyone wants to judge the episode purely by what is on the screen without drawing on any outside contexts, that's perfectly fine. There might even be a really strong script behind it. But in this case, I find this impossible myself. I barely can see the content for all the baggage. The episode is not just the script, and the writer is not the sole creator. I very strongly feel that at some point, some of the creators made the decision to turn the script into a homophobia allegory episode. And I think that was a mistake. It makes the issue too abstract and diffuses it to a point where it doesn't actually say anything constructive anymore.

[Algeh]

From what I remember, that episode's promos and publicity in the USA heavily teased the same-sex aspect, for what it's worth. I think it was "fluff piece at the end of the newscast" level news at the time.

I was not impressed at the time, but I was also really disengaging from Star Trek at the time for unrelated reasons (I really didn't like any of the post Star Trek 6 movies, and DS9 didn't focus on the bits of their initial premise I found most interesting and wanted a show about, so I'd wandered off to Babylon 5 fandom by then), so I'm not sure how much of that general Star Trek fatigue colored my perceptions that this wasn't a very good episode.

In contemporary 90s tv SF, I wasn't super happy with how blink-and-you'll-miss-it Babylon 5's only same-sex relationship was, but I assume that was at least partially due to one of the actresses leaving suddenly. At least it involved actual main characters and not wacky alien plotlines with the guest cast.

The only mid-90s show of any kind I remember watching with an ongoing gay character where that was a hard-to-miss part of the ongoing character traits and plotlines was Melrose Place (an evening soap by the same group as 90210). Of course, I didn't watch everything. (We didn't have cable, so I pretty much had 5 or 6 channels to choose from and tended to get into a few shows and watch all of them rather than watching occasional episodes of many shows.)

[Xyril]

I was not impressed at the time, but I was also really disengaging from Star Trek at the time for unrelated reasons (I really didn't like any of the post Star Trek 6 movies, and DS9 didn't focus on the bits of their initial premise I found most interesting and wanted a show about, so I'd wandered off to Babylon 5 fandom by then), so I'm not sure how much of that general Star Trek fatigue colored my perceptions that this wasn't a very good episode.

I'm a bit curious what bits you mean. I definitely saw DS9 as a departure from what was distinguishing about TNG/TOS, but to me this was because it was focusing on a very similar sort of thematic/narrative focus as Babylon 5.

[Wraith]

Not to mention that this episode ends with "Well, tough luck. Sucks to be you. Accept what society tells you to do, it's for your best". That's really not how an obvious allegory about homophobia should end. That's not really better than all the gays dying at the end.

I think it's a little bit sad because this episode COULD have worked out much better, with only very minor changes.

You just change the last conversation between Dax and her Ex to make it really, really, absolutely clear that they're not turning Dax down because she's also female, or because she's Starfleet, or because it's a cultural taboo - they're doing it because it's Dax, and Dax has an unfortunate tendency towards recklessness which always sets up those around her for heartache.

I think that by focusing heavily on the character and giving Dax a reason to inspect her own behaviour going forward, rather than simply going for the vague "it'll never work because reasons" resolution, the episode could have been redeemed as a character study and a motivation towards self-improvement throughout the rest of the season.
Instead, they got lazy and did another "Dax's love interest of the week" episode, with the vague titillation of a lesbian romance for "shock" value. Lazy, lazy, lazy.

[Cikomyr]

The Star Trek management at the time were very, very afraid of anything queer related.

[Xyril]

The Star Trek management at the time were very, very afraid of anything queer related.

Does that mean they got more conservative than they were a few years earlier? I seem to recall a TNG episode involving Riker and an androgynous alien having a relationship that violated a very strict taboo among the alien's society. That seemed like a pretty transparent stand in for queer issues, and IIRC the crew members all judged the world pretty harshly for its intolerance.

[JCarter426]

End of Season 3
I found the end of season 3 to be surprisingly anticlimactic. The hunt for the Changeling was fun, but the real finale is "Improbable Cause"/"The Die Is Cast".

Beginning of Season 4
The show continues to level up. Following Sisko's captaincy, his hair has finished migrating from the top of his head to his face and we get new a new credit sequence, Worf, a meaner DS9, and Quark's obsession with root beer takes root.

The Way of the Warrior
It's a slow buildup to the battle but it pays off really well. The way the Klingons overreact to the Dominion, leading to what's essentially civil war in the Alpha Quadrant, is believable when it could easily come across otherwise. By that I mean obviously this situation is dumb and they should stop fighting each other, but there's an internally-consistent logic in it that makes it so nobody comes across as dumb in their motivations or actions.

The Klingon conflict is a good way of delaying war with the Dominion (while the writers figure out what to do with them no doubt) while still having a plot.

Adding Worf to the crew always seemed to me like perhaps the biggest stunt that Star Trek ever pulled.

It really does come across as a stunt in this episode with the way everybody keeps gawking at Worf. But it turns out to be a successful stunt.

Switching shows was a good career move for Worf. On TNG he was a junior officer that everyone had known since he was Tasha's secretary. He was there to be the subject of Klingon jokes, lose fights, and be wrong all the time. On DS9, the only character that outranks him is Sisko and apart from O'Brien nobody knows him that well at first, so they don't feel comfortable making fun of him all the time like the TNG crew, and can't tell if he's joking or being serious.

Quark's reaction to the prune juice order in the first episode is a good example of this. It's a silly request for a Klingon and he laughs at first, but then there's a scary Klingon he doesn't know, so your running gag from TNG won't work here and he gets the man what he ordered.

Visionary
I like this episode but I wouldn't put it on the level of "The Inner Light" and I think there are far better DS9 episodes than this.

Rewatching it kind of bothered me, though, because of how inaccurate the alternate timeline is, considering later events. For one thing, there are no First Contact uniforms. *crosses arms*

Hippocratic Oath

As great as the story is, I take the same minor issue with it that I had with S3E6 The Abandoned. I think it comes to early.

I forgot the episode was this early. The problem, I think, is that the Jem'Hadar and the Dominion haven't done much at all since their introduction, but they have to keep showing up in episodes like these so we don't forget they exist.

Indiscretion
This episode introduces two important long-term elements: the Breen and Dukat's Changeling daughter.

What I find a bit odd is how well Kira and Dukat are going along here. That she agrees to go on a search for several days with one Cardassian might be believable, but that she can be around Dukat for more than a few minutes without wanting to kill him is not.

A few things to keep in mind:

• Dukat was relatively lenient. I think he said in a previous episode that the Central Command wanted him to execute every last Bajoran when they pulled out. He's obviously guilty of war crimes, but in a way he may have saved the lives of more Bajorans than he ever executed.
• Kira isn't so innocent either. Her crimes might not be comparable to Dukat's, and were basically what she perceived as self defense at the time, but some were at least bad enough that she doesn't seem to forgive herself. So she must understand that people do bad things in war that can't be undone and blaming Dukat forever isn't going to help anything.
• As unbelievable as it may seem, Dukat is actually genuine in his belief that he's a friend to Bajor. He saw the Bajorans as a primitive people that would amount to nothing on their own and needed to be civilized. This seems to be the Cardassians' general excuse for the occupation - "Explorers" hinted at this a bit with how they had suppressed evidence of the ancient space sailors to further this narrative. Dukat, at least in his mind, is an intermediary between the primitive Bajorans who need the help of Cardassians like him and the imperialist Central Command that would just exploit the Bajorans' natural resources and leave them with nothing given the chance. You may think he's crazy, and Kira may think he's crazy, but it's a genuine sort of crazy that makes him more difficult to dismiss than someone like the Butcher of Gallitep.

Still, she does seem to tolerate Dukat more than Winn.

Rejoined

The whole episode, all the characters are pretending that the issue has nothing to do with them both being women now. But we as the audience all know that this is exactly the entire reason for the existence of this episode.

I've read that it actually started as a exploration of Trill society and the issue of why there isn't an oligarchy of joined Trill who all hang out with each other. And that's a valid point to bring up.

But the reassociation issue is handled inconsistently later so I don't think whatever point they were trying to make in this episode came across right.

For me, this is the most uncomfortable Star Trek episode I can think of. (Which does not account for any nightmare episodes my brain has suppressed.)

Surely "The Outcast" is worse.

I always felt it was more rebuffing Bashir's advances because she's not interested, and she's using joining as an excuse.

It might've been an excuse, but she was interested. This gets brought up a few times.

But it's fine. I'll just add this episode to the ones my brain suppresses.

[Yora]

S4E7: Spaceship Down

Sisko and Quark are negotiating on the Defiant with the Ferengi's trade partners in the Gamma Quadrant. They get found by two Jem'Hadar ship, and the merchant ships tries to escape into the upper layers of a gas giant. The Jem'Hadar pursue and Sisko decides to follow and try to save the traders. Sensors and targeting computers are basically not working, and not being build to deal with outside pressure, the Defiant is getting squeezed and takes some damage.

The trader finds out that Quark has been cheating him and Quark tries to weasel out while they are left alone in the mess hall.

Dax goes leave the bridge to repair something to help save the ship, but she gets injured and when Bashir goes to save them they both get trapped and can't reach the bridge. A Jem'Hadar ship finds and hits them, destroying communications so neither the bridge nor the engine room have any idea what's going on on the other side. Sisko suffers head trauma and Kira takes care of him while Worf and the Pilot try to get to the engine room.

Quark is debating with the other merchant who thinks greed and gambling are terrible approaches to do business. Kira tries to entertain Sisko and it's super awkward. Worf takes charge in the engine room and pushes O'Brien's men around.

The Defiant avoids a missile, but a second one crashes through the wall of the mess hall without detonating. Quark thinks they should try to disarm it. Worf tries to coordinate the engineers but very unflexible in how he wants things done, so O'Brien tries to give him some pointers on micro-managing. Worf tries to tell the engineers what result he wants and they quickly come up with a way they could do that, and he gives them the go ahead. Dax and Bashir are freezing in an elevator and discussing the state of their relationship. With Sisko getting worse, Kira tells him that the Bajoran's still need him to save their world.

Worf and the engineers destroy the Jem'Hadar ship with a decoy they set up, and then quickly get the ship of the traders and everyone is fine. Except for the redshirts who died off screen.

--

I find this episode pretty meh. Production values are pretty good, clearly having the look of later seasons DS9 than early seasons DS9. The acting is also well done. But I actually found myself somewhat bored for large stretches. This episode gets an okay rating, but a weak one. 2/5.

As should be completely predictable, I found the scenes with Kira and Sisko quite annoying. It's that mushy stuff again. Same with Bashir and Dax trapped in an elevator. There are lots of small character moments this episode, but they don't really form any kind of narrative.

Worf is now second in command on the Defiant. Which makes sense. Kira never commanded the defiant and Dax is both lower rank and a science officer. Since Dax is incapacitated, again!, the Defiant has another pilot. I don't recall ever seeing her again.

I am also pretty sure that you shouldn't try to keep people with bad concussions awake. If I recall first aid classes correctly, the brain wants to go into repair mode and preventing that doesn't help. But it's a standard thing in TV, just like people regaining consciousness from CPR.

I noticed there have been more Morn jokes recently, There actually were not that many in the early seasons. I didn't recall that he turned into a running gag only later in the series.

--

And yes, they were getting more conservative in the 2000s. I don't recall Voyager ever dealing with social issues, and when writers and actors wanted to have a main character on Enterprise come out, it got axed from the top of the Star Trek team. Which apparently didn't involve the owners/parent company at all.

[Cikomyr]

Does that mean they got more conservative than they were a few years earlier? I seem to recall a TNG episode involving Riker and an androgynous alien having a relationship that violated a very strict taboo among the alien's society. That seemed like a pretty transparent stand in for queer issues, and IIRC the crew members all judged the world pretty harshly for its intolerance.

The episode where all "androgenous" characters were played by women. Where the stakes were about a man and a woman-played character to be together. Where the executives refused to have a gay couple in the background of a scene?

They made a Special Episode about being gay is ok and removed everything that could be actually gay from it.

[Xyril]

The episode where all "androgenous" characters were played by women. Where the stakes were about a man and a woman-played character to be together. Where the executives refused to have a gay couple in the background of a scene?

They made a Special Episode about being gay is ok and removed everything that could be actually gay from it.

But that's the whole deal with Trek. They use fantastic and imagined scenarios to create an allegory for real life issues that will hopefully allow people to ponder an analogous situation without unconsciously bringing their own baggage. Take any work that attacks slavery in the U.S., or the Holocaust, or women's suffrage, and chances are you'll have parts of the audience who have some people who have very personal connection to some aspect of the conflict at hand. Let That Be Your Last Battlefield may have seemed contrived by modern sensibilities, and I am guessing that you would condemn it as being too cowardly to address racism using real, human races, but it did provide a lens for people to examine the idea of racism without necessarily bringing in their own baggage. In many respects, this way way ahead of their time.

I should also note that in one respect, TNG was (probably unintentionally) far ahead of its time: Back when many folks were still afraid to even broach the idea of same sex relationships, the idea of gender non-conforming or non-binary people wasn't even on the mainstream radar. TNG depicted a world where that was normal, and accepted. (Sure, the people were judged harshly, but it was for their intolerance, not how they were born or their different view of gender.

[Cikomyr]

But Let That Be Your Last Battlefield actually had a black and a white person kissing

[Algeh]

I was not impressed at the time, but I was also really disengaging from Star Trek at the time for unrelated reasons (I really didn't like any of the post Star Trek 6 movies, and DS9 didn't focus on the bits of their initial premise I found most interesting and wanted a show about, so I'd wandered off to Babylon 5 fandom by then), so I'm not sure how much of that general Star Trek fatigue colored my perceptions that this wasn't a very good episode.

I'm a bit curious what bits you mean. I definitely saw DS9 as a departure from what was distinguishing about TNG/TOS, but to me this was because it was focusing on a very similar sort of thematic/narrative focus as Babylon 5.

The passage of time has left my memory foggy, but I remember being excited by the idea of getting to watch the rebuilding of Bajor and see the Federation in a role where they should be "support an outside group over time, living with your decisions along the way" rather than "problem-solver of the week, then leave", and the first few seasons didn't do enough with the details of how things were going on Bajor to keep my interest. I was particularly disinterested in the entire Dominion/changeling plotline for whatever reason, and found it pretty ridiculous that station command would be off exploring the Gamma Quadrant rather than the Federation (and/or some combined force) sending one or more of their actual exploration ships/teams to do that.

It was also probably just one of those things where it was airing against something else I also liked, so I'd have to stay up late and watch the tape to catch both shows. I vaguely think it might have been on Wednesday nights in my market, and thus maybe against some Spelling drama or other on Fox. The specifics are fuzzy now. My parents got divorced about this time, and my dad the Star Trek fan moved out, leaving me in charge of TV channel choice even on Star Trek nights, which had not historically been the case. Before dad moved out, it was a choice between watching new Star Trek episodes or being in a different room when Star Trek was on. (Interestingly, neither of us has bothered to get a CBS All Access subscription, so neither of us is watching Discovery. I do go over to his house to watch The Orville, though, since he has a DVR and I barely remember that I have a TV.)

[Lord Vukodlak]

S4E7: Starship Down

I rather enjoyed the part where Quark chides the Merchants about selling substandard goods As the torpedo was supposed to explode.

[Yora]

The passage of time has left my memory foggy, but I remember being excited by the idea of getting to watch the rebuilding of Bajor and see the Federation in a role where they should be "support an outside group over time, living with your decisions along the way" rather than "problem-solver of the week, then leave", and the first few seasons didn't do enough with the details of how things were going on Bajor to keep my interest. I was particularly disinterested in the entire Dominion/changeling plotline for whatever reason, and found it pretty ridiculous that station command would be off exploring the Gamma Quadrant rather than the Federation (and/or some combined force) sending one or more of their actual exploration ships/teams to do that.

That's what I meant a few days back. Star Trek always seems more interested in giving the characters something to do for the week instead of exploring how things work out in the setting.

[Rodin]

I really enjoyed Starship Down, because it's essentially a "Lower Decks" episode. Sisko, Kira, Bashir, and Dax are all locked out of the situation right off the bat. They need to give them something to do, so...mushy stuff. The rest of the episode focuses on Worf adjusting to a command role and showing that the engineering crew aren't just faceless lackeys. O'Brien sitting Worf down and giving him "the talk" is exactly the sort of thing I expect to see from a senior NCO to an officer who is out of his element. Another neat little detail I noticed - normally, when one of the main cast gets hurt we get to see another of the main cast making the perilous journey to save them. In this case, Kira sends the redblueshirt off to get help, and remains behind in a helpless situation. At the end of the episode when the medical team is helping Sisko, you see the blueshirt in the background. It took her the whole episode, but she made it! She saved the captain while the full-time cast member sat around doing nothing.

Me rating this highly is entirely down to how much I like seeing no-name background characters actually get acknowledged for the work they do, but I still love it.

Also, it's got Quark being Quark, which is always a bonus.

[Cikomyr]

In this case, Kira sends the redblueshirt off to get help, and remains behind in a helpless situation. At the end of the episode when the medical team is helping Sisko, you see the blueshirt in the background. It took her the whole episode, but she made it! She saved the captain while the full-time cast member sat around doing nothing.

The Doylist explanation is you now have two main cast members sharing a moment that they never really had before. And it's actually pointed out in the episode that Sisko and Kira never really shared nonwork screen time.

The Wastonian explanation is that Kira is supposed to be outside the chain of command of the Defiant, technically. She isn't a Starfleet Officer, hasn't had training in Starfleet protocols an procedures. She isn't the best suited officer to navigate a damaged ship.

[Yora]

S4E8: Little Green Men

Nog is leaving to become a cadet at the Starfleet Academy on Earth, and as is Ferengi tradition for such an occasion, Rom makes a little speech to all their friends and acquaintances to start an auction of Nog's childhood possessions. Worf doesn't want to be there, but has come because Sisko requested it. He thinks letting a Ferengi join Starfleet is a stupid idea, but O'Brien points out his own hypocrisy.

Quark finally got his own shuttle that his cousin Gaela had promised him ages ago. Rom checks it for flaws but finds it to be in top condition, very much to Quark's surprise. Quark decides they will both take Nog to Earth for a test run. Which Quark wants to use as a cover story for a smuggling run.

Before they leave, Nog gets a traveller's guide to Earth from Bashir and O'Brien as a present. Nog finds it very fascinating to read during the flight, but Quark really doesn't want to hear trivia about humans. Rom found the stuff that Quark is smuggling and is a bit worried about transporting such dangerous material. But 20% of the profit will be ease his mind. Nog says that as a Starfleet cadet he would have to report all breakings of Federation law. But he's not signed up yet, so he'll take 10%.

As they reach Earth, they realize that Gaela sabotaged the warp core to kill Quark but Rom is able to improvise something to get them out of warp and try an emergency landing on Earth. Something weird happens with the engine and they find themselves on a US military base in the 40s, where they crashed. The universal translator is not working so they can't talk to the humans. Among which is the girlfriend of Captain America.

Then there's lots of small jokes that you can't really summarize. But also Quark is shocked that the humans detonate nuclear weapons on their own planet and all seem to be addicted to tobacco. "If they buy poison they'll buy everything!" Nog warns him not to change history, but as soon as Rom has the translators working again, Quark immediately starts to try selling the humans technology.

Some times later they are left alone with a dog, which then turns out to be Odo who had been hiding on Quark's ship. He tells them the ship is nearby and looks mostly undamaged and Rom has an idea how to get them back to their time once they are back in space. Quark wants to stay to take over the planet. Soon after, the soldiers decide to drug the Ferengi to find out what they really came to Earth for, and when that doesn't work the commander wants to torture them. Nog makes up a story about them being scouts for an invasion force. The Buerocrats decide to help them and knock out the officer. They get caught again on the way to the shuttle and Odo has to show up to save them. They fly the shuttle straight into a nuclear test explosion and get transported back forward in time.

--

Eh. Time travel episode just never do anything for me. Comedy episodes are also much more often a miss than a hit for me. This isn't terrible, but not really doing anything for me.

Usually I think the costume designers do a great job with the Ferengi costumes. Since neither Bajorans nor Cardassians dress very flamboyant, Ferengi really are the only onces where they can have some fun with civilian clothing. But I really hate Quark's pink and light blue jacket this season. That thing causes eye cancer.

Did they ever have a Ferengi shuttle appear on TNG? Because that exterior shot they show several times somehow looks like TNG footage and not DS9 material for some reason.

So much smoking in the 40s.

I never noticed it when I saw the show on TV, not sure if this was remade for the DVDs, but the image quality of the new intro from season 4 on is much higher than it used to. To the trained eye, it also looks like it's complete CGI. There's not just the Defiant added, but a lot of various other ships flying around, making the whole place look much busier than previously.
It might be that it's simply that I've seen the opening credits probably literally a thousand times now, but watching it now it's starting to get on my nerves. I usually now start a new episode and then have a walk to the kitchen while the opening credits run, instead of skipping it. When you watched the show on TV, that probably would have been the same way. Perhaps all intro's start to get annoying the thousandth time you see them, but I think this one is actually particularly bland and annoying. It really doesn't need to be this long and slow paced. Not that the TNG opening was much better, but at least it was more lively.

[Rodin]

This episode didn't do it for me either, and I normally like Quark. This is him at the exact opposite end - being abusive to Rom and willing to destroy the timeline for his own profit. A lot of the "primitive hu-MON" stuff felt really preachy, and in terms of Area 51 episodes just about everybody else to do comedy episodes has done it better. Stargate SG-1 with O'Neill introducing himself as Luke Skywalker, and Daniel Jackson responding in fluent Russian in the middle of the Cold War. Then there's Futurama with Zoidberg commentating on his own autopsy.

The one cool moment in the episode was the reveal of Odo as the dog. The shift from "dog with it's paws on Quark's shoulders" to "Odo grabbing him menacingly" was done REALLY well, and is probably my favorite shapeshifter moment in the show thus far.

Other than that, there's really not much to say.

[JCarter426]

Worf is now second in command on the Defiant. Which makes sense. Kira never commanded the defiant and Dax is both lower rank and a science officer.

Actually, Worf and Dax are the same rank - Lieutenant Commander. Both Dax and Bashir got an unmentioned promotion between seasons.

But yes, the science thing.

Little Green Men

I like this episode but come on, Quark, you've been catering to humans for three years and you have to know more about them than baseball, root beer, darts, and atom bombs.

Did they ever have a Ferengi shuttle appear on TNG? Because that exterior shot they show several times somehow looks like TNG footage and not DS9 material for some reason.

I don't remember if it's the same model, but there was one, yes. In the TNG episode with the wormhole, oddly enough.

The one cool moment in the episode was the reveal of Odo as the dog. The shift from "dog with it's paws on Quark's shoulders" to "Odo grabbing him menacingly" was done REALLY well, and is probably my favorite shapeshifter moment in the show thus far.

I'd totally forgotten about this and was pleasantly surprised upon rewatching it.

[Xyril]

But Let That Be Your Last Battlefield actually had a black and a white person kissing

Wait, what?

Do you mean actors underneath alien makeup or characters?

I'm honestly surprised I never remembered this. The Kirk/Uhuru kiss from Plato's Children was a pretty big deal, and I think only predated the air date of this one by a few months. (I wasn't actually born for the original air date, and interracial whatever was never a big deal to me, but I remember my dad specifically told me the first time what a big deal that kiss was at the time, so I thought I would have been more hyperaware if it happened again.)

My parents got divorced about this time, and my dad the Star Trek fan moved out, leaving me in charge of TV channel choice even on Star Trek nights, which had not historically been the case. Before dad moved out, it was a choice between watching new Star Trek episodes or being in a different room when Star Trek was on. (Interestingly, neither of us has bothered to get a CBS All Access subscription, so neither of us is watching Discovery. I do go over to his house to watch The Orville, though, since he has a DVR and I barely remember that I have a TV.)

I'm sorry to hear that. Glad he passed on the interest in sci-fi and it still keeps you together though.

I see what you mean with the other potential plot-lines. The early seasons definitely teased the potential to be a lot of different kinds of shows, and they probably didn't have much specific in mind beyond "different enough than TNG to run concurrently."

I like this episode but come on, Quark, you've been catering to humans for three years and you have to know more about them than baseball, root beer, darts, and atom bombs.

I think you're being a bit harsh to Quark. A few of my closest friends from college were international students, and that's given me a bit more insight to their (contemporary) culture, but that doesn't extend into history (well, except in the case of one guy who was a bit of a nationalist and a history buff.) IIRC, even Dr. Bashir was slightly fuzzy on what the Bell Riots were during that two part time travel episode, and that was a more recent and more obviously consequential event. The average American probably couldn't tell you something as specific as how the average citizen's life was different under the U.S. during the Articles of Confederation, so I doubt the owner of an American expat bar in Thailand would just pick up that knowledge organically.

She saved the captain while the full-time cast member sat around doing nothing.

I thought Kira was being pretty productive. She was keeping someone with a head injury awake (I have no idea whether this is an important thing in real life, but it's such a universal trope in television that I'm going to just say it's essential in TV-land) and getting face time with the boss.

[Wraith]

I thought Kira was being pretty productive. She was keeping someone with a head injury awake (I have no idea whether this is an important thing in real life, but it's such a universal trope in television that I'm going to just say it's essential in TV-land) and getting face time with the boss.

In first aid, with any injury you're supposed to keep the patient alert and awake. People who get sleepy and "switch off" might be going into shock, which is potentially lethal as their core temperature drops. Doubly so for head injuries, where the potential for a stroke or internal bleeding can happen gradually after the initial injury and you can't spot the progress of symptoms if they're asleep and unresponsive.

[Cikomyr]

Wait, what?

Do you mean actors underneath alien makeup or characters?

I'm honestly surprised I never remembered this. The Kirk/Uhuru kiss from Plato's Children was a pretty big deal, and I think only predated the air date of this one by a few months. (I wasn't actually born for the original air date, and interracial whatever was never a big deal to me, but I remember my dad specifically told me the first time what a big deal that kiss was at the time, so I thought I would have been more hyperaware if it happened again.)

Right. Now I look real silly. You are totally right.

Nevertheless, the original series actually had people breaking the taboos they wanted to break. The Outcast was as safe a step as could be. At least Rejoined had two women kissing, but everyone here can probably agree that society has generally been more tolerant of that than two men kissing.

[comicshorse]

But Let That Be Your Last Battlefield actually had a black and a white person kissing

Certainly a 'Glasgow Kiss'

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headbutt

[Cikomyr]

Certainly a 'Glasgow Kiss'

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headbutt

Nanana, I was mistaken. My knowledge of TOS is sub-Trekkie par, and I know there was an interracial kiss and an episode about racism, I assumed they were in the same episode.

[Arcane_Secrets]

And yes, they were getting more conservative in the 2000s. I don't recall Voyager ever dealing with social issues, and when writers and actors wanted to have a main character on Enterprise come out, it got axed from the top of the Star Trek team. Which apparently didn't involve the owners/parent company at all.

Voyager had a couple, mostly involving the Doctor, as with when he joins the hologram revolt against the Hirogen, or he gets legal rights to recall the holonovel he created in the last season that made the crew look bad, or (one of my personal favorite episodes) when he gets kidnapped and forced to work in a hospital where medical care is rationed by social status, so he revolts against his supervisor and forces them to change the system before he gets rescued.