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

[Cikomyr]

Somewhat offtopic, but one of the ST books (I think it was one of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers novellas) had a really interesting follow-on to this episode. Way back when, Bashir mentioned that he finished second in his class at Starfleet medical on a basic mistake. The ship's doctor in that story was the one that finished first.


The interesting bit is told in flashback - after it became known that Bashir was genetically modified, Starfleet became incredibly suspicious that she was also modded, because she beat out Bashir. So she was arrested from her ship and interrogated for weeks. To make matters worse, while she was undergoing this procedure, her ship went into battle without her, and most of the crew was killed. The crux of the story is dealing with her PTSD from the experience and her outright hatred of Bashir.

That's a really sucky turn of events for her.

But on the other hand, it's really sad that she blames Bashir. He isn't responsible of what happened to her or her ship.

[Lord Vukodlak]

Somewhat offtopic, but one of the ST books (I think it was one of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers novellas) had a really interesting follow-on to this episode. Way back when, Bashir mentioned that he finished second in his class at Starfleet medical on a basic mistake. The ship's doctor in that story was the one that finished first.


The interesting bit is told in flashback - after it became known that Bashir was genetically modified, Starfleet became incredibly suspicious that she was also modded, because she beat out Bashir. So she was arrested from her ship and interrogated for weeks. To make matters worse, while she was undergoing this procedure, her ship went into battle without her, and most of the crew was killed. The crux of the story is dealing with her PTSD from the experience and her outright hatred of Bashir.

Her name was Elizabeth Lense, and according to Memory Beta, she was questioned but that was the end of it. Most of the crew getting killed happened after she returned to her ship. She was however later stranded in a parallel universe along with Bashir.

[Traab]

That would have been the most illogical outcome possible. The first reasonable explanation is "He didnt want to draw attention as top of his class, so he tanked just enough to come in second." You know, so people wouldnt suspect him of being an augment? Im pretty sure every vulcan in the vicinity of these events had a stroke just trying to process that chain of thought.

[Lord Vukodlak]

That would have been the most illogical outcome possible. The first reasonable explanation is "He didnt want to draw attention as top of his class, so he tanked just enough to come in second." You know, so people wouldnt suspect him of being an augment? Im pretty sure every vulcan in the vicinity of these events had a stroke just trying to process that chain of thought.

Really? Remember he lost by one question. Even if she couldn’t actually beat him she could keep up with him. If winning valedictorian would aroused such suspicion in Bashir then it must have been an impressive competition.
And of course only Bashir a few DS9 cast members know he lost on purpose.
Questioning Elizabeth is not that dissimilar then a lot of cheating scandals. One person is exposed to they start testing others.

[Yora]

S5E17: A Simple Investigation

Two aliens rob a traveller on the station to get some kind of thing he planned to give to a woman that will be arriving soon. They accidentally kill him before knowing where the thing is and decide to wait and see if the woman tries to retrieve it.

Bashir got his new spy holo program they have been waiting for for a long time (makes sense that they are too big to download over subspace), but Odo really isn't interested in joining the others and excuses himself. He walks into the bar to talk to a woman who is pestered by Quark and finds himself smitten by her.

The next day he finds the woman in the security station, after she was arrested for breaking into station computers. She doesn't try to hide that she clearly has a criminal past and wants to avoid drawing attention, and tells Odo that she is was to meet with a man who had information about her missing daughter, but he never showed up and so she tried to find out where his quarters are. Odo looks him up and takes her to the quarters, and quickly finds the scorch marks that are left of him in the carpet under a chair. Security is going to investigate and he'll tell her if they find anything new.

During the night Odo catches her breaking into the station's vault. She didn't cause an alarm, but he had a hunch that she would. He has her give him the data chip she stole and takes her to his office. He knows the story about her missing daughter is a lie and wants to know what's really going on. She admits that she's a cyborg data thief working for a boss of the Orion Syndicate. She was offered an opportunity to disappear without her boss ever finding her, if she can help decrypting a data chip with very important information. Since it's not even the halfway point, I am getting the impression that this is her backup lie. Odo offers to hide her in his quarters while he tries to get the files decrypted. He doesn't think it's likely that she can use whatever information they find to get away safely, but suggest that she becomes an informant and trade her information for a new identity. Odo is becoming increasingly flustered around him and she has a pretty easy time seducing him.

Dax' sixth sense tells her exactly what happened and is gossiping with Kira, which greatly annoys Worf who has to hear it.

The two Orion thugs are still waiting around on the station and get a message from their boss that the woman made a deal with him to be allowed to quit in exchange for returning the data chip. One of them is surprised that they are supposed to let her go, but the other tells him that of course they are not going to, Odo is visited by an alien intelligence agent that who came in response to his government getting a massage about the man who got killed. He wants to know where the woman is and tells Odo that she's an undercover agent who had her original memories removed from her cybernetic brain and replaced with a new identity, and her original memories are stored on the data chip to make her immune to telepathic checks. Odo takes the agent to the computer lab where they find O'Brien on the floor who tells them the woman came in and stole the data. She goes to see the thugs to give them the chip and as they plan to shot her Odo arrives to save her.

They upload her old memories but she remembers everything she did during her mission. She goes to say goodbye to Odo and is incredibly sorry that she really did fall in love with him but now has to go back to her family.

--

This is one of the episodes that I guess are not that particularly impressive on objective grounds, but I really quite enjoyed watching. I actually thought for most of the episode that the deception was really very transparent, and it then came as a real surprise when the truth came out at the end. The problem with a twist like this is that there was absolutely nothing in the entire episode that would have indicated it, and it came so late in the story that it didn't have any impact on the rest of the story. Sure, it's surprising, but also meaningless. On one hand, I really appreciate that this episode didn't turn out to be Odo gets seduced by a woman who uses him for criminal purposes. But I also think that such an ending would still have had more impact than this. It's a good idea, but the reveal would have needed to be at the two third mark so that action of the final third get a change of direction and are seen in a new light. I think this idea could actually be the seed for a great sci-fi movie, but here it is severely underused. But even in light of the twist not being well done, I found the rest of the episode to be very enjoyable anyway.

[Traab]

Really? Remember he lost by one question. Even if she couldn’t actually beat him she could keep up with him. If winning valedictorian would aroused such suspicion in Bashir then it must have been an impressive competition.
And of course only Bashir a few DS9 cast members know he lost on purpose.
Questioning Elizabeth is not that dissimilar then a lot of cheating scandals. One person is exposed to they start testing others.

We honestly dont know the full story. Its entirely possible he spent his entire time in school staying just behind the top spot and that the gap between them would have been much further if he hadnt carefully set that up. There is always that one student who is stupidly good at the classwork and ends up valedictorian. Beating an augment who intentionally threw the ranking to avoid suspicion is not in itself suspicious. And I was more referring to the earlier version of events Gnoman was talking about. How they went full hague war crime investigation on this woman whose only crime was being top of her class. I do hope they rounded up and tortured everyone who graduated first in their class for any subject over the last few decades. You know, just in case it was a filthy augment.

[Gnoman]

We honestly dont know the full story. Its entirely possible he spent his entire time in school staying just behind the top spot and that the gap between them would have been much further if he hadnt carefully set that up. There is always that one student who is stupidly good at the classwork and ends up valedictorian. Beating an augment who intentionally threw the ranking to avoid suspicion is not in itself suspicious. And I was more referring to the earlier version of events Gnoman was talking about. How they went full hague war crime investigation on this woman whose only crime was being top of her class. I do hope they rounded up and tortured everyone who graduated first in their class for any subject over the last few decades. You know, just in case it was a filthy augment.

Thanks to Lord Vukodlak, I was able to find the exact passage:

L: [Doctor Elizabeth Lense] Captain, I outperformed a genetically enhanced human. That’s like beating a Gorn at arm wrestling. It’s unheard of.
G: [Captain David Gold, who is in charge of the ship in the SCE stories] And yet you kept up with him. That’s impressive work.
L: Yes. Starfleet thought so too. That’s why I was investigated.
G: Investigated? There’s none of this in your files.
L: There damn well better not be. I made sure that it was all taken out. It was a baseless accusation. But it still made a mess out of my life. Here we were, in the middle of the war, and we get a request to dock at Starbase 314. Captain Eberling called me into his ready room, and there were two security officers there from the starbase. He said, “These are Lieutenants Cioffi and Shvak. They need to bring you onto the starbase and ask some questions.” And I was carried off to a lovely little suite inside the station where I had everything but a way to open the door. The starbase commander was a Phil Selden, and I stayed a month in the Selden Arms while they tried to prove that I was also genetically enhanced.
I wasn’t even told about Julian for the first two weeks. I had no idea what they were digging for. My family history was investigated eight ways from Sunday; I found out later that my mother had been detained and investigated as well. They were convinced I was covering up. They talked about sending me away to the Institute where they keep all the other people who were genetically enhanced—they alternated that with threats of criminal proceedings. It took a month of combing over my back history before they would let me go back to active duty. And of course, the Lexington was long gone.
G: They left you behind.
L: They were ordered to the front lines.
G: They still left you behind.
L: It was orders. There was a war on. Surely, Captain, you understand.
G: Yes. But I can’t imagine you liked it.
L: By the time I could catch up with the Lexington, two-thirds of the crew had been killed in battle or rotated off the ship,including Captain Eberling—he died in one of the first skirmishes of the war. So I never got a chance for an apology from him.
G: What did he owe you an apology for?
L: For not supporting one of his officers. For jumping to conclusions.
G: I see. Sorry for interrupting.
L: I never got to say good-bye to any of them. Gaines, Leff, Bowdren, Twistekey—gone. When I came back, I didn’t know who half the crew was on the ship. They didn’t know me, either; they thought I was some rookie freshly promoted. Commander—sorry, Captain Anderson was promoted to the center chair from XO, and she and I never got along well. She kept insisting I call her “Heather.”
G: Did you feel like you let them down?
L: What do you mean?
G: I mean, do you feel that if you were still there on the ship, you would have been able to keep those crewmembers alive?
L: I—Maybe. I don’t know.
G: Your staff was, I assume, more than competent; I doubt you would have accepted less. You couldn’t have done more if you were there.
L: You don’t know that. I don’t know that.
G: Yes, you do, Elizabeth.
L: Do you know what the hell of it is? He flubbed the question.
G: I’m sorry, what question?
L: A question during the oral section of the finals. If Bashir hadn’t mistaken a preganglionic fiber for a postganglionic nerve, he would’ve been valedictorian instead of me.
G: You didn’t crack, and he—
L: You’re missing the point. Preganglionic fibers and postganglionic nerves aren’t anything alike. Any first-year medical student can tell them apart. He purposely gave the wrong answer. He flubbed it.
G: Oh.
L: Now do you see?
G: Why do you think he did it?
L: Well, I can’t imagine it was the pressure of the exams. I think he was trying to hide that he was genetically enhanced. He was lying. And I was caught up in his lie. I’m sorry, I’d like to stop now. This isn’t doing me any good. May I be dismissed, sir?

[Yora]

I think we don't need to have discussions about fan fiction in a review and discussion thread about the TV show.

[Gnoman]

Other than a remark that licenced derivative works are not fan fiction and I can't understand why anyone could possibly think otherwise, it is your thread.

[Cikomyr]

I think we don't need to have discussions about fan fiction in a review and discussion thread about the TV show.

It's actually official novels. Beta canon, the Starfleet Engineer Corps series.

[Aeson]

My understanding is that the 'official' position of Paramount/CBS on licensed Star Trek works is basically the same as Disney's position on the old Star Wars EU material: they are not canonical unless raised to that status by unambiguous reference within a core work (the mainstream shows and films). Until and unless that happens, it's just a fictional story within a fictional setting.

[Rodin]

My understanding is that the 'official' position of Paramount/CBS on licensed Star Trek works is basically the same as Disney's position on the old Star Wars EU material: they are not canonical unless raised to that status by unambiguous reference within a core work (the mainstream shows and films). Until and unless that happens, it's just a fictional story within a fictional setting.

I've always found Paramount's position here a bit contradictory.

A) The books/games/whatever are not canon.

B) You are not allowed to kill any of the main cast members in said works.

This apparently extended even to multiplayer gaming, because the developers of Elite Force stated that they set their multiplayer in the holodeck purely because that was the only way they could let their players shoot at Janeway/Tuvok/et al without pissing off Paramount.

---------

On the episode, not much to say that Yora didn't already. It was kind of fun, and I liked Dax and Kira gossiping as well as Bashir's reaction to Odo barging in on the holodeck program. It's still a single episode romance story, and I was never really sold on Odo falling for this lady.

[Yora]

S5E18: Business as usual

Quark asks Dax to play tongo but keeps loosing because he's constantly watching his stocks as they are becoming worthless. He's completely broke now with lots of debts to pay, but fortunately his cousin Gaela (the one with the moon) comes to visit him. Gaela wants Quark to join his weapons business as a salesman, and he doesn't care that Quark has been banned from doing business with other Ferengi. Quarks wants to haggle his share of the profits up from 5% to 10%, but with the amount of money Gaela is making, 5% is still much more money than he was hoping for. And when Quark gets rich, the FCA will quickly remove his ban because they want to make business with him again.

O'Brien can't work because he has to care for his baby full time. Jake offers to babysit, but the baby only stays calm with O'Brien, so he decides to just take it to work with him.

Quark and Gaela use Quark's holosite as a showroom to show their stock to Gaela's business partner Hagath. Quark is constantly looking over his shoulder looking for Odo spying on them, while Gaela and Hagath are chatting about selling weapons to both side of a war, which would be very dangerous if found out but very profitable. Gaela also tells Hagath that using the holosuite for sales and making the deliveries outside Bajoran or Federation space was Quark's idea.
They get their first customer and Quark makes his first sale, and Gaela and Hagath both think he did very well. But Hagath informs Quark that he already transferred Quark's share of the profits to pay off some of his debts, and will continue to do so because it's too risky to have one of their partners in financial troubles.

Bashir is rather concerned that O'Brien wants to play dart with a baby on his arm, but O'Brien can't do anything without holding his son or he immediately starts crying.

Odo quickly finds out and arrests Quark, but Sisko and Kira both come in person to his office to tell him that the Bajoran government is making an exception for Hagarth since he supplied them with weapons to fight the Cardassians. But Sisko makes it very clear that they won't continue to overlook Quarks many minor illegal activities and will throw him off the station at the first reason he gives them.

Hagath has one of his other salesmen come to him and fires him for missing to make a sales offer to some rebel group and so they signed one with their competitor. Quark tries not to be too bothered by it. Business in the bar is very slow, as no Federation people are coming anymore. Gaela tells Quark that he wants to reduce his own amount of work, but Hagath and Quark should be able to handle everything between the two of them now. And also, the salesman that Hagath just fired died in an accident. Quark wants to join Dax for a drink to talk, but she doesn't want to have anything to do with him.

Quark does the preparations for the reception of an important warlord client, and Hagath first seems to be furious with his stupid catering ideas but then says it's a joke and it's actually perfect. When the warlord arrives they have dinner and he talks with Gaela and Hagath about his genocidal terror campaigns against his enemies, and they both think they have just the right bioweapons to wipe out small planets.

Gaela has a talk with Quark about his conscience. Out of the window are millions of stars, and half of them is dedicated to killing the other half. If one of them disappears, what difference does it make? And the profits for them are enormous. Quark has a dream where he sees his friends as walking dead, telling him that he killed them. Then they all stand at the dabo table, with a huge pile of latinum before Quark, but the wheel spins and he loses everything.

O'Brien discovers that his son sleeps quietly when he puts him down in a corner of the operations room. Sisko thinks that's very nice, but suggest that he goes on parental leave until his wife gets back.

Quark goes to Dax to give her his tongo board, but she doesn't want it. He tries to make a dramatic speech about not needing it anymore since he will bravely stand up to face his mistakes, but she just throws him out. Quark goes to Hagath and tells him that his suppliers can't deliver the bioweapons the warlord had ordered, but he thinks he can get his hands on something very similar, but only half of the ordered amount. Hagath has to convince the warlord to accept the change of plans and Quark prepares a demonstration to wipe out the wildlife on some uninhabited planet.

Quark gets Gaela to meet very important customers he just got and introduces them as some other rebell group. Gaela pulls him outside the room to warn him that they are the warlords enemies and there will be a disaster if they learn of each other's presence.

Hagath and the warlord want to inspect the crates that were just delivered, but Quark says the look is broken and he has to get a tool to open it. Around the next corner he passes Gaela and the rebel leaders coming the other way and then tries to quietly get away as security comes running moments later.

Sisko is not happy with Quark causing a violent incident on the station. Gaela and Hagath are on the run from the rebels, but they killed the warlord before he got away. But he is willing to not charge him with anything, except for a very steep bill for the phaser damages in the cargo bay. Quark goes to play tongo again with Dax, but she insists that it is now her tongo board.

--

I enjoyed watching this episode. It's nothing outstanding, but I think it's pretty fun.

Steven Berkoff as Hagath is great. I think back in the day it was pretty unusual to have distinguished movie actor play little quirky roles on TV. Now it's very common, but I think on Star Trek it still stands out. He is perfect for the role. He has just the right combination of believable menace and that slight twinkling of self-aware campiness to make it work.

This episode had me once again think how weird it is how much arms dealers are vilified in western culture and how completely unbothered western governments are by them. In this episode, everyone is just outright horrified by Quark working with Gaela, even before he has any idea to whom they are selling and that they supply bioweapons on special order.

Given the material, a 45 minute episode (with an additional, completely pointless B-plot) makes the story somewhat superficial by default. It does feel a little underdeveloped and rushed. So what it does is to focus entirely on Quark and go straight from selling phaser rifled to bioweapon planet killers. I think it would have been good to have a more extended middle part with Quark slowly catching on to the shadiness of their business and people gradually deserting him for it. But given the format of the show, I guess this is about as good as it can be done.
I also feel that they could have done a bit more with Gaela. There is good potential there with what the actor delivers, but I think it could have been dialed up a lot more to make a really memorable performance.

[Saph]

It's especially bizarre given that this comes only five episodes after 'For The Uniform'.

Apparently the Federation is fine with using weapons (up to and including chemical/biological ones that are employed against civilians), just so long as you don't sell them. It implies some really uncomfortable things about Federation ethics.

[Lord Vukodlak]

If you want to in essence see a two hour version of this tale see the film Lord of War.(containing no gun props because renting them from actual arms dealers was cheaper).

Quark is by comparison selling arms to third world dictators in west Africa so they can continue to hold on to power. Even without the WMDs I think Quark would have cracked eventually.

This is a man who risked execution to sell food and medicine to the Bajorians during the occupation. For just above cost. (Profit and Loss makes mention he’d have been executed if caught).
And given that Quark is a greedy SOB money was clearly not the motivation. He was fully prepared to die so long as that bioweapon sale fell through. That’s why Sisko and the others forgave him. Quark has repeatedly put his neck on the line to help others.

It could have been interesting to run this as a subplot over the course of several episodes and see Quark slowly crack under the guilt of what he’s doing.

It's especially bizarre given that this comes only five episodes after 'For The Uniform'.

Apparently the Federation is fine with using weapons (up to and including chemical/biological ones that are employed against civilians), just so long as you don't sell them. It implies some really uncomfortable things about Federation ethics.

Those weapons were used in such a way so that no one was killed(they killed no one that’s canon debate over) it just forced a few thousand colonists to change planet and possibly avoid escalation into genuine mass destruction.

The ones here are intended to kill millions in the most painful way possible.

[Cikomyr]

It could have been interesting to run this as a subplot over the course of several episodes and see Quark slowly crack under the guilt of what he’s doing.
.

I think DS9 is probably the one Star Trek series that would benefit most from having a modern remake. They wouldn't be afraid of multi - episode arcs. You could have Worf actually joining Gowron and Martok in the war against Carsassia, possibly eventually facing off against Renegade Dukat, until he is approached by Sisko and the others who believe Gowron to be a changeling and.. He..

Helps them almost assassinate Gowron. But he was manipulated, and even if they revealed Martok, Gowron decides to cast him out.

... I should stop writing fanfics in my head.

[Yora]

And given that Quark is a greedy SOB money was clearly not the motivation. He was fully prepared to die so long as that bioweapon sale fell through. That’s why Sisko and the others forgave him. Quark has repeatedly put his neck on the line to help others.

My grand theory of Deep Space Nine, which I have developing since I started combing through every episode, is that all character developments are about a struggle to live up to the expectations they have of themselvs based on their culture.
And Quark stands out as the comedic inversion of the idea in that it's not his flaws that keep him from reaching his ideal image, but that his culture is horrible and he's just too decent to get that low. But he never stops trying being a greedy bastard, even after his brother and nephew have refused to play that game anymore.

Worf and Garak both have their boggest development in that field yet to come, so I keep the whole theory until probably the end.

[Yora]

S5E19: Ties of Blood and Water

Kira gets visited by the old Cardassian who the Obsidian Order once tried to get believe that Kira is his lost daughter. She is very excited to see him and wants him to set up a Cardassian government in exile, but he is suffering from a terminal condition. Bashir examines him and has some treatments they could try, but agrees that there are very low chances of curing him. Gemor expects to die, but before he does he wants to tell Kira everything he knows about Cardassia's defenses and leadership, as well as opposition groups or anything else she thinks would be useful.

Dukat calls Sisko because he got wind of it and demands for Gemor to be handed over to the Dominion, but Sisko tells him he is under no obligation to do so and hangs up on him.

Gemor's health is failing quickly and Kira agrees to care for him, and she also has memories of her dying father. Bashir checks on him and finds that he isn't responding to the medication anymore.

A huge Jem'Hadar cruiser appears at the station and Dukat calls to demand Gemor. Sisko agrees to let Dukat come to his office and he brings with him Weyoun. Sisko remembers him and also remembers that he was killed by his Jem'Hadar, but that was actually just the previous clone of him. Dukat says they are offering Gemor to return to Cardassia as a free man and get the treatment he needs. Gemor agrees to hear them, but refuses since he is certain he only has a few days to live anyway. Dukat claims that he has found the whereabouts of Gemor's missing daughter, but Kira warns him not to trust it. He might have considered making a deal with Dukat, but he won't have anything to do with the Dominion.

Later Dukat comes back from his ship to give Kira a file of Gemor's military file and tells her to take a look at it, but she doesn't want to play alone. She throws him out, but once he's gone she's reading it anyway. She's very unhappy with what she finds about his activities during the occupation, which he very much regrets and thinks were huge mistakes, but mostly about that he never told her anything about it.

Weyoun and Dukat are hanging out in Quark's bar and Sisko comes in to share a bottle of canar with Dukat. Dukat tries to avoid it, because it's indeed the poisoned bottle he just had delivered to Gemor. And Sisko is really pissed about it. Weyoun is very amused by their arguing. He empties Dukat's glass and comments that it certainly would have killed most regular people.

Kira is pacing around at the temple at night and Odo goes to talk with her. He thinks she can't really be that upset because of Gemor's action, because he was just a simple young soldier among several hundreds, and if she ever had wanted to know the information would have been easily available to her all the years. Bashir comes to her to tell her that Gemor is dying and she doesn't really want to talk to him. But she also remembers how she left her dying father to kill the Cardassians that shot him and found him already dead when she returned. After a while she has a change of heart and goes to see him, and he dies a while later.

Dukat and Weyoun go to Sisko to get Gemor's body to give him a state funeral as a statesman who returned to being a loyal patriot before his death, but Kira has already taken him to Bajor to be buried next to her father.

--

This is an okay episode. One of the kind that isn't doing much for me, but for what it is it is quite well done. Not really much happening and Kira's struggles don't really have the sufficient substance. Dukat, Weyoun, and Gemor do well, but all have very little to say or do. There's not enough story scraped over too much episode.

[Yora]

S5E20: Ferengi Love Songs

Quark is feeling really down after his bar is closed because of rats for three days and Rom tells him that he's going to marry Leeta. Rom recommends that he should visit their mother for a while, and he actually accepts.

When he goes to his old room he finds all his old things gone, and the Grand Nagus hiding in his closet.

Dax is impressed by Rom making great effort to accommodate Leeta's culture, but is curious if she does similar things for him. He had not really thought about it, but it gets him the idea that they should have a Ferengi marriage contract to sign away all her claims to any shared possessions. Obviously she refuses.

Brunt beams secretly beams into Quark's room to talk to him about his mother and the Nagus. He thinks a scandalous woman like her would have terrible influence on the Nagus that could bring down traditional Ferengi society, and Quark agrees to work together to separate the two. Quark puts some ideas into the Nagus head, they get into arguments, ad Quark gets his business licence back. His mother is down, but seems to be doing fine. Before he leaves to return to the station, he gets a call by the Nagus to come see him.

The Nagus thanks Quark again for saving him from a disastrous relationship and wants to make him his personal assistant. It immediately becomes clear that the Nagus has been getting forgetful and doesn't have a good grasp about business anymore.

O'Brien tries to talk with Rom to reconsider his demands to Leeta, and he decides the best way to prevent any potential conflict about his life savings is to give them to charity. He goes back to Leeta and she agrees to marry him.

Quark comes back to his mothers home in the evening and tells her about his new job, and she isn't very impressed because the Ferengi economy has been tanking badly the whole day. She gives him some advice on steering the Nagus and Quark realize that she's really been running the Ferengi economy for a good while now. Quark is upset about the revelation and let's slip that he and Brunt have been plotting against them.

The next morning Brunt comes to the Nagus' office and gloats to Quark that the FCA has been conspiring to remove the Nagus and Brunt having plans to succeed him, and Quark was just a pawn. Quark goes back home and he and his mother try to think of something to stop Brunt. He goes to the Nagus to quit his job and recommends that his mother should help him again.

--

As Ferengi episodes after second season go, this one isn't too dreadfull. It's still not a good or even an entertaining episode.

The only interesting part is when Quark tells his mother that the morals of the Federation officers and Bajorans is affecting him and sees it as a personal failing to be true to Ferengi values. Which supports quite nicely my theory about Quark's character depths.

Other than that, meh.

[Lord Vukodlak]

Aron Eisenberg the actor who portrayed Nog has apparently passed away. His cause of death is apparently unknown.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/heavy.c...berg-dead/amp/

[Yora]

S5E21: Soldiers of the Empire

Though General Martok is the highest ranking Klingon in the Bajor region, he doesn't take the disgrace of his kidnapping and imprisonment very well and needlessly risks serious injuries while training to regain his old skills But his mood goes up when he gets tasked with taking command of a Klingon ship to go searching for a missing ship on the Cardssian border. Worf thinks it's an exciting mission and congratulates him, and Martok asks Worf to come with him. Sisko wants to know Worf's reasons, and Klingon honor and comradery is good enough for him to give his permission.
When the Rotaran arrives at the station to pick up Martok and Worf, Odo thinks the crew is looking like trouble. Dax takes Worf to the airlock, but then walks in with him and informs him that she is coming along as her vacation. She just didn't tell Worf because she thinks it's funny.

When they get to to the bridge, Dax quickly makes friends with the engineer who seems to be the only cheerful person on the ship. When Worf walks in and makes his official announcement to take his position as first officer, nobody really seems to care. And when he demands the ship's battle records he immediately sees that the crew is a total failure. Worf gives orders to set a course, but Martok stops him and orders to take a detour that is less dangerous. The pilot complies, but not without mocking Martok's order. To pass the time, Worf and Dax start singing Klingon war songs, but the crew is into it.

Dax goes to get something to eat and the first she does it to throw one of the crew from his chair at the officer end of the table. The food is dreadful, but she does cheer everyone up a bit by telling them that she loaded three barrels blood wine before they left. The engineer and the pilot take their crappy assignment with some humor, but the gunner is a total buzzkill.

Everyone runs to the bridge when a Jem'Hadar ship is spotted, but since it doesn't seem to have noticed them, Martok decides to leave it alone and just be on their way. Dax reminds Worf that as first officer it's his duty to make sure Martok does a propper job. He goes to talk with Martok, but in the end avoids a confrontation.

Dax goes drinking with some officers and the pilot is fully fed up and starts shouting doom and gloom about the Jem'Hadar being the end of the Klingons. This leads to a fight between the drunk Klingons and Dax warns Worf that things will get much worse soon if he doesn't get things under control soon. Later Dax finds the missing ship that has been damaged in a battle and when Worf goes to talk with Martok, the engineer comes over to Dax and offers her to stick together when a mutiny breaks out.

Martok is certain that it must be a trap and the Jem'Hadar wouldn't have left anyone alive to be rescued, but Worf convinces him to get closer and take a better look before making a decision. When they get near the ship they find it to be beyond the border and Martok refuses to go any further because he was ordered not to attack, causing heated arguments on the bridge and Martok storms off to his room. Worf admits to Dax the the time may have come that he has to challenge Martok.

Not long after the officer line up before Worf and demand that Martok is to be removed. Instead Worf orders everyone to get ready for battle and Martok comes to be bridge to see what's going on. Worf challenges him for command and they draw their knives to duel. Worf lets him win and the engineer just happens to spot an approaching Jem'Hadar ship on the sensors. Still excited from the fight, Martok orders to attack.

When they arrive back at the station Martok request medical treatment for the survivors they rescued and to have their damages repaired. And barrels of blood wine to celebrate. Martok knows that Worf let him win but wants to know why Worf was sure he wouldn't kill him. Worf says he wasn't and as thanks Martok offers him to join his house and regain his status as a Klingon warrior.

--

This is why I still watch this show after 20 years. Klingon adventures are fun. This episode takes place almost entirely on a Klingon ship, and they did a really good job of making all the Klingons very distinguishable. Gone are the days where they put the same costume and mask on all Klingon actors. It's not just the three officers with speaking roles, but also many of the background Klingons.

I like that they completely skipped the entire battle at the end. It's financially smart and wouldn't have added anything more to the narrative. The story is resolved when Martok gives the order to attack. Worf is in a bit of a difficult position, having come along for the sole purpose of serving Martok, but also taking on the duty to be the one to slap him into shape. His hesitation makes perfect sense. But in the end, it's really Dax who does a lot of the real work to salvage the ship. She most certainly wouldn't care about where she sits on the table but saw the need and opportunity to slap awake with her first impression. But of course she does't want to fight Worf and so she goes with subtly nudging the crew instead of stirring up a commotion. But she still goes into the whole thing determined that the situation has to be solved in Klingon ways and doesn't bother with trying any sneaky trickery.

I believe there are a couple more episodes with Martok and his new ship, and I am really looking forward to those.

[Cikomyr]

S5E21: Soldiers of the Empire

Though General Martok is the highest ranking Klingon in the Bajor region, he doesn't take the disgrace of his kidnapping and imprisonment very well and needlessly risks serious injuries while training to regain his old skills But his mood goes up when he gets tasked with taking command of a Klingon ship to go searching for a missing ship on the Cardssian border. Worf thinks it's an exciting mission and congratulates him, and Martok asks Worf to come with him. Sisko wants to know Worf's reasons, and Klingon honor and comradery is good enough for him to give his permission.
When the Rotaran arrives at the station to pick up Martok and Worf, Odo thinks the crew is looking like trouble. Dax takes Worf to the airlock, but then walks in with him and informs him that she is coming along as her vacation. She just didn't tell Worf because she thinks it's funny.

When they get to to the bridge, Dax quickly makes friends with the engineer who seems to be the only cheerful person on the ship. When Worf walks in and makes his official announcement to take his position as first officer, nobody really seems to care. And when he demands the ship's battle records he immediately sees that the crew is a total failure. Worf gives orders to set a course, but Martok stops him and orders to take a detour that is less dangerous. The pilot complies, but not without mocking Martok's order. To pass the time, Worf and Dax start singing Klingon war songs, but the crew is into it.

Dax goes to get something to eat and the first she does it to throw one of the crew from his chair at the officer end of the table. The food is dreadful, but she does cheer everyone up a bit by telling them that she loaded three barrels blood wine before they left. The engineer and the pilot take their crappy assignment with some humor, but the gunner is a total buzzkill.

Everyone runs to the bridge when a Jem'Hadar ship is spotted, but since it doesn't seem to have noticed them, Martok decides to leave it alone and just be on their way. Dax reminds Worf that as first officer it's his duty to make sure Martok does a propper job. He goes to talk with Martok, but in the end avoids a confrontation.

Dax goes drinking with some officers and the pilot is fully fed up and starts shouting doom and gloom about the Jem'Hadar being the end of the Klingons. This leads to a fight between the drunk Klingons and Dax warns Worf that things will get much worse soon if he doesn't get things under control soon. Later Dax finds the missing ship that has been damaged in a battle and when Worf goes to talk with Martok, the engineer comes over to Dax and offers her to stick together when a mutiny breaks out.

Martok is certain that it must be a trap and the Jem'Hadar wouldn't have left anyone alive to be rescued, but Worf convinces him to get closer and take a better look before making a decision. When they get near the ship they find it to be beyond the border and Martok refuses to go any further because he was ordered not to attack, causing heated arguments on the bridge and Martok storms off to his room. Worf admits to Dax the the time may have come that he has to challenge Martok.

Not long after the officer line up before Worf and demand that Martok is to be removed. Instead Worf orders everyone to get ready for battle and Martok comes to be bridge to see what's going on. Worf challenges him for command and they draw their knives to duel. Worf lets him win and the engineer just happens to spot an approaching Jem'Hadar ship on the sensors. Still excited from the fight, Martok orders to attack.

When they arrive back at the station Martok request medical treatment for the survivors they rescued and to have their damages repaired. And barrels of blood wine to celebrate. Martok knows that Worf let him win but wants to know why Worf was sure he wouldn't kill him. Worf says he wasn't and as thanks Martok offers him to join his house and regain his status as a Klingon warrior.

--

This is why I still watch this show after 20 years. Klingon adventures are fun. This episode takes place almost entirely on a Klingon ship, and they did a really good job of making all the Klingons very distinguishable. Gone are the days where they put the same costume and mask on all Klingon actors. It's not just the three officers with speaking roles, but also many of the background Klingons.

I like that they completely skipped the entire battle at the end. It's financially smart and wouldn't have added anything more to the narrative. The story is resolved when Martok gives the order to attack. Worf is in a bit of a difficult position, having come along for the sole purpose of serving Martok, but also taking on the duty to be the one to slap him into shape. His hesitation makes perfect sense. But in the end, it's really Dax who does a lot of the real work to salvage the ship. She most certainly wouldn't care about where she sits on the table but saw the need and opportunity to slap awake with her first impression. But of course she does't want to fight Worf and so she goes with subtly nudging the crew instead of stirring up a commotion. But she still goes into the whole thing determined that the situation has to be solved in Klingon ways and doesn't bother with trying any sneaky trickery.

I believe there are a couple more episodes with Martok and his new ship, and I am really looking forward to those.

Qoy qeylIs puqloD.
Qoy puqbe'pu'.
yoHbogh matlhbogh je SuvwI'
Say'moHchu' may' 'Iw.
maSuv manong 'ej maHoHchu'.
nI'be' yInmaj 'ach wovqu'.
batlh maHeghbej 'ej yo' qIjDaq vavpu'ma' DImuv.
pa' reH maSuvtaHqu'.
mamevQo'. maSuvtaH. ma'ov.

[Yora]

Kaplah!

[Rodin]

Aron Eisenberg the actor who portrayed Nog has apparently passed away. His cause of death is apparently unknown.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/heavy.c...berg-dead/amp/

Man, that really sucks. :( From everything I've heard, he was a really nice dude who stayed super involved in the Trek community. Rest In Peace.

[Yora]

S5E22:

The Defiant is returning to the station from a recon mission (take a shot) and finds a planet with some kind of temporal distortion field. They fly through to get a better look at the planet and Kira gets shocked by her console. But doesn't seem to be hurt. (Don't take a shot.) They detect several villages with 8000 people on the planet and get a call from the leaders who explain that the Defiant will be thrown 200 years into the past and crash on the planet in two days. And they will build settlements on the planet. Dax and Odo are both still around and able to explain things, though regular Odo is unable to retain his form within the anomaly at this point.

Yedrin Dax has researched the temporal anomaly over the centuries and thinks there is a way to allow the Defiant to leave safely and also prevent the people on the planet from disappearing once the cause of their existence is prevented. But they need to hurry because Kira got a brain injury that needs treating and will kill her if she doesn't get a surgery. He also tells Dax that she and Worf are a great match.
Other Odo goes to visit her and gives her a hint that regular Odo loves her but won't be telling her, and she should think about what to do with that information when she gets back. She also takes his offer to see the grave of her other self.
There's also a group living in the forest consisting of Worf's descendants and their friends.

Dax does some checking on the data on which Yedrin based his plan for get the Defiant off the planet safely, and thinks it's forged. Dax and Sisko go to confront Yedrin and he admits that the plan won't work and the Defiant will be thrown back into the past and be stuck on the planet like the last time. Kira will die, but since it was Dax' idea to go to the planet in the first place, other Dax feels responsible for the people on the planet and wants to make sure they continue to exist. Sisko and Jadzia both decide to come up with their own plan to leave the planet.
Everyone is pretty unhappy with the situation, and particularly Kira doesn't want 8000 people to die to safe her life. In that case Worf is also for not leaving, but O'Brien really wants to go back and Sisko's choice is that they will make the attempt. Before they leave, the villagers decide to still go planting the next harvest and invite the crew to help him. Which plenty of them do, though it's really weird for everyone. And it makes even O'Brien change his mind.

Then things get unclear and apparently they decided to not try to escape. But when they fly through the anomaly they pass through without any disruption and the people on the planet have disappeared. Someone manipulated the Defiant, and Sisko thinks that it was other Dax who changed his mind.
As they continue on the way back, Odo is back into shape and goes to see Kira. Other Odo came to him while he was incapacitated as a liquid and told him that he told Kira about his feelings. So that cat is now out of the bag in a somewhat awkward way. But even worse, he also told him that he made the modifications to the Defiant and sacrificed the villagers to save Kira. Which Kira finds horrifying and Odo is obviously uncomfortable with.

--


"I hate temporal mechanics."

I expected this episode to be terrible. But it's actually close to having been something quite good. The idea for 48 people to grow into a population of 8000 in 200 years seems really weird when you think of the logistics a bit. Assuming an average age for mothers of 25, that would mean a birth rate of 4 children per women. With such a small gene pool, that requires a big excel sheet to organize. Repeat with me children: "Sci-fi writers have no sense of scale."
The one thing that makes the whole setup interesting is Kira's brain injury. Given her character, it makes sense that she would prefer to give her life to save a whole population. And that in turn creates a genuinely difficult situation for everyone else. If Kira said no, then everyone would have had a solid moral foundation to justify why they want to leave. But in this case everyone else only has to decide if they are okay with being marooned forever, with the knowledge that they will be fine, or if they want to sacrifice the villagers as the price for going back home.
At some point someone argues that their families on the station are not at risk and will just have to live with their relatives being missing and presumed dead. Which isn't so bad compared to ending the existence of 8000 people. Things get really difficult when Kira tells other Odo that everyone on the planet will not exist if she lives, but other Odo argues that any future descendants in their own time also never will exist if they stay on the planet. Kira says it doesn't matter because those other descendants are still hypothetical, while the people on the planet are actually there. That's one position to take, but if you would look at it from a temporal physics perspective, I think the two should be completely identical.

"I hate temporal mechanics."

This episode has some interesting new ideas about time travel, but at the end of the episode all those people never came into existence in the first place, and of course this is just the space anomaly of the week so nothing that happened will have any impact on anything.

Also, now that I think of it, there's a big plot hole that makes everything irrelevant from the start. Even if the Defiant now gets through the same time warp and crashes on the planet, the crew on the Defiant are now very different people than the ancestors of the villagers. Just take O'Brien: He was grossed out by knowing who his other future wife will be. If they crash on the planet now, he will constantly be grosses out by the thought that he has to have children with her to preserve the timeline. This will massively change their relationship. And the same applies to all 48 survivors. Things will be very different after this crash, so 200 years and 8 generations later, everything will be completely different. It is impossible for them to recreate the villagers they meet. All they do is create another set of people that never existed. Which they can just as well do if they leave the planet.
So logically, everything is lost from the start and there is no moral question. The whole exercise made no sense.

"I hate temporal mechanics."

[Cikomyr]

I kind of agree with your criticism, but this assumes the original timeline with the 8000 didn't go through the exact same mindset.

It's what I call the "William Equilibrium". Basically your knwoeldge of past events have already shaped past events. There isn't a timeline where Obrian was blissfully unaware of his future life with his future wife, therefore there was no timeline to upset.

The timeline has reached a degree of balance where the participant 's own self knowledge is baked into it.

Personally, I have my own theory of what and why happened. You have to take a look at the following sequence of events. Spoiler up to a quarter of Season 6

Spoiler

Show

Sisko had to go into the Wormhole to ask the Prophets to intervene.

He couldn't have reached the Wormhole if Rom hadn't disabled the weapons.

Rom couldn't have disabled the weapons if Odo hadn't came to the rescue of Kira and Rom in the firefight

Odo wouldn't have come to the rescue if he hadn't realize the depth of what he was going to lose with Kira

Odo would have never developped these depth of feelings if he had remained distant emotionally from Kira

Odo would have remained distant if his secret hadn't been outed by himself in this episode.

Basically, the entire planet was just a plot by the Prophets to put into motion the sequence of events that would have saved Bajor. Because, for a moment, everything turned around Odo

[Yora]

S5E23: Blaze of glory

Martok comes to Sisko with a Maquis transmission the Klingons picked up. They have been almost wiped out by the Dominion, but before they are finished they are launching their arsenal of long range missiles against Cardassia. And unfortunately the number of missiles matches the number of cloaking devices that the Klingons gave to them when they were at war with the Cardassians. Since they have no way to find them, Sisko goes to see Edington in prison to help them stop the missiles. But Edington really doesn't care since basically everyone in the Maquis except for him has been killed. Sisko offers to arrange a pardon for him, but at this point Edington doesn't see any point in that anymore.

Quark is in the infirmary after he got punched by Morn when he went on a screaming rampage. And Odo suspects that the whole thing started when Quark was spreading doomsday rumors about Dominion invasions.

Sisko takes Edington out of prison anyway and takes him to the planet from which the missiles where launched. Edington is immediately back to his old game of ridiculing the Federation and Starfleet to annoy Sisko. Sisko flies into the Badlands and waits until Dominion patrols find them. Sisko doesn't know how to escape pursuers in the Badland but he takes off Edington's handcuffs and tells him to safe them both. Or not. But he really doesn't think that Edington really doesn't care about his life anymore.
Edington's first plan doesn't work, and the alternative is pretty dangerous. They have to make modifications to the engines, but with the Jem'Hadar in pursuit they can't turn the engines off. And Edington has to do the piloting, so Sisko has to work inside the running engine. It works and they cause a disturbance that destroys the Jem'Hadar ship, and Edington is disappointed that Sisko survived.

Edington takes them to a remote planet that is impossible to scan and tells Sisko that he will lead him to the missile control room. As they explore the hidden base, they run into some Jem'Hadar soldiers. They only have Sisko's phaser and he gives it to Edington while he sneaks around the back and hopes that Edington won't shot him. As they go in deeper, they come across large numbers of dead Maquis fighters. They continue on until they find several survivors hiding in a locked room. Edington and the leader who had been sending the message about the missiles tell Sisko that they never had any cloaked missiles and the message was a coded signal to call for rescue. The survivors go ahead to the shuttle and Sisko and Edington stay behind to keep of the Jem'Hadar. Edington gets shot and distracts them while he tells Sisko to escape.

--

This episode didn't do much for me. The idea with the cloaked missile was interesting, as was the reveal that there never were any, It's just everything else in this episode that is very uninspired and even a bit boring.
Edington really is a broken record. Everything that comes out of his mouth is nothing but calling the Federation hypocrites and taunting Sisko personally. This got really boring several episodes ago.

Even though I am watching these episodes on DVD, the image quality isn't great, and in this episode it's really terrible. What format where they scanned from? This looks like 144p.

[Wraith]

My biggest problem with this episode is that I think Eddington works best as a dissenter and a foil to Sisko. He shows the audience the "other side" of human/Federation politics which is nice world building, and his actions force Sisko into some of his more interesting albeit controversial - reactions.
He drives the conversation and demonstrates a lot of stuff that DS9 staff can't, or at least, that they can't before being ordered into silence by their superiors. Having him "redeemed" and prove that he and Sisko can quite easily find common ground is very much a waste of character.

Any number of people could have gone on this mission and discovered that Sisko has some good points while convincing him that they too have some of their own; why make Eddington - the most unrepentant and diametrically opposed enemy apart from Dukat (and even he has a short-lived epiphany later on...) - the one to soften his edges and be shown as a "nice guy in the end" when he's so much more fun being Sisko's little "conscience" that points out how far he's gone and why that's a bad thing?

[Yora]

S5E24: Empok Nor

O'Brien and Nog need some major replacement parts for the station that can't just be replicated, and the current situation makes Cardassian parts unavailable. But there's another Cardassian station that has been abandoned recently and O'Brien thinks they might be able to salvage the parts they need. Since Cardassians tend to trap abandoned bases to prevent just that, Sisko gets Garak to go with the salvage team and disable the security systems.

When they arrive, Garak goes over in a space suit to unlook the doors. The team gets inside without problem, but they activate some stasis pods that have been left behind. Garak and one of the engineers find the stasis pods and see that two have just been opened and the third one has malfunctioned and holds a Cardassian corpse with the uniform and insignia of an infamous elite batalion. Nog goes to the ship to get a tool he forgot to bring and finds the ship gone from the airlock and exploding in the distance.

Since the station's communication system have been entirely removed, O'Brien tells his engineers to rig something up to transmit a beam that can be picked up by Deep Space Nine and hopefully makes them notice that the ship can no longer be reached. Meanwhile the Cardassian soldiers are creeping through the shadows of the dark station to ambush engineers they can catch alone. When they attack the first team, one of the engineers still manages to call O'Brien for help. When they find the two engineers dead, the team is down to five people. O'Brien wants to keep working with Nog, and when the other two engineers are too afraid to go working alone, he tells Garak to go with them. But Garak is getting twitchy and says he's going to hunt the two soldiers. He's also getting really annoyed by the humans' whining.
O'Brien offers to go alone and send Nog with the others, but they think it's better to go in two pairs.

Garak goes to a computer to work on the security systems and is very noisy about it. One of the Cardassians hears him and follows his voice to the stasis room, where Garak is hiding in one of the stasis pods and shots him in the back. He returns to O'Brien and Nog by sneaking up on them and gives them the soldier's insignia that he took as a trophy. He also scanned the body and found that he was completely drugged up. O'Brien thinks that maybe the drug didn't work as intended and they just left the three soldiers as a booby trap because they couldn't do anything else useful with them. He also notices that Garak has been acting unusually aggressive since they came to the station, but Garak quickly runs off again.

He hides near where the other two engineers are working to wait for the other soldier to attack them. When one of the engineers goes looking for a tool, the Cardassian kills the other one. Garak shots the soldier but then takes the tool from the second engineer and stabs him with it. When O'Brien wants to call them and they don't answer, he and Nog go looking for them and find the dying engineer telling them that Garak attacked him.

Garak is now completely out of his mind and calls O'Brien to do crazy monologing and giving him a hint that he's in the prefect's office. They try to sneak up on him from two sides, but Garak separates them with a force field and takes Nog as hostage to lure O'Brien into hunting him. He calls O'Brien again to tell him that humans are just a vicious as Cardassians, and O'Brien, who fought in the Federation war with the Cardassians, in particular. O'Brien tells him that if he wants a brutal fight, they should meet on the promenade without weapons. When he gets to the promenade, he finds that Garak has hung the corpses of the engineers from ropes. Both he and Garak still have their phasers and Garak tells him to put his down or he will shot Nog. They brawl and O'Brien is losing, but then uses his communicator to remotely detonate his phaser and tricorder that are lying at Garak's feet and knock him out.

They get rescued and returned to the station. Bashir is able to get the drug out of his body, and Garak deeply apologizes for having killed one of the engineers.

--

I like this one. Not amazing, but still pretty good. This is one of the few episodes with classic redshirts. I think they somewhat overdid it with all four of them dying and all three named characters being completely fine at the end. Maybe the script could have gotten a bit more polishing, but other than that it's all really well done. I think the main problem is that 45 minutes just isn't enough for this type of story. They are usually full length movies with plots that aren't really any more complex than here. But with this short time limit, it goes through the plot development too fast. But then, this is a Star Trek episode and they didn't want to do an actual space horror movie. Which is something they just did with First Contact. The space suit and one of the phaser rifles are both props from that movie.

The Cardassians stalking in the shadows might seem a bit over-dramatic, but it actually builds on established facts. There's been a number of mentions throughout the
series that Cardassians are used to live in much lower light than humans. With the station having no working lights, that gives them a clear advantage and it makes sense that they use it.

I think there were some intentional nods back to S2E22 The Wire, where Garak is also acting unusually hostile, and I think it's a deliberately call back when he mentions a bad headache early on.

It's subtle, but the music this episode takes a lot of strong elements from the soundrack of The Thing. Which is very fitting.

Really quite happy with this one.

[Yora]

S5E25: In the Cards

Sisko invited the command staff to his quarters to cook something for them as a distraction from all the bad news about the war that is developing between the Federation and the Dominion. The fighting has already been going on for a while, but the Federation hasn't launched any opperations to repell them. They try to think of something else to talk about, but it all comes back to the war approaching.

Jake and Nog go to Quark's bar and Quark reminds them that he has organized an antiques auction. Nog looks at the list of items and thinks it's all junk, but Jake thinks an old baseball card would be a great gift to cheer his father up. Problem is that he doesn't have any money to bid for it and has to beg Nog to give him some.

Kai Wynn comes to the station to talk with Sisko about the developing situation. A Dominion representative is coming to talk with the Bajoran government and she doesn't know how she should handle it. Sisko tells her that he'll try to help her with this in any way he can.

Jake and Nog go to the auction but an eccentric human bids much more for the box with the card and other stuff than Nog has. So their new plan is to see if the man will sell them just the card. But he thinks they've been send by his enemies and tells them to go away.

Later Nog gets a message that the man want them to come to his quarters to discuss a proposal. When they arrive he has his quarters stuffed will with scientific equipment. He checked who they are and having found that they are related to the station's commander and the owner of the bar, he wants to trade the card for a couple of things he wants them to get for him. They agree to go looking for it, but looking at the list Nog thinks they first need to know what the things will be used for. The man is happy to explain to them his wacky theory about aging and his plan to achieve immortality. Nog isn't eager about helping him, but Jake convinces him to go along.

Wynn is having talks with Weyoun. She goes to Sisko and tells him that the Dominion is offering Bajor neutrality, which would keep them out of a war between the Dominion and the Federation. She really doesn't trust the Dominion, but the prophets gave Sisko a very clear message that Bajor must not join the Federation and remain independent. She doesn't know what to do about the offer and wants Sisko's advice. He isn't sure either how the Bajoran government should decide, but his advice is to try stalling for more time and hope that something will develop that make the decision more clear. He asks her to trust him, and she does.

Jake and Nog go to O'Brien and Bashir to ask for the materials, and Nog offers them to do small services for them. They do an inventory for O'Brien to give him some free time, and get Bashir's teddy back from Leeta who refuses to give it back to him. Nog has to calibrate Worf's Klingon opera recordings to get the best sound in the acoustics of a space ship, and Jake is writing a speech for Kira.

Meanwhile the machines in the scientist's quarters are making noise that is heard in the quarters on the deck above where Weyoun is staying. When Jake and Nog later go to deliver the materials they got, they find the quarters completely empty. They go to Odo to ask where he might have gone, but Odo has no records of the scientist staying in those quarters.

As they leave, Jake sees a Bajoran priest who was bidding at the auction talk with Kai Wynn and draws the conclusion that she wanted a Bajoran antiquity from the box and had her minions send after the scientist to get it. Jake goes to confront her and he and Nog end up straight in Sisko's office and get connfined to their quarters. Nog keeps trying to tell Jake that all their troubles could be avoided if they just explain that they want the baseball card as a gift for Sisko. As they go back to their quarters they are beamed over to the Dominion ship and greeted by Jem'Hadar who take them to Weyoun. He wants to know what they have to do with the scientist who had lots of equipment under his quarters, why they have been meeting with the officers of the station, and been talking to Winn right after her talks with him. The Jem'Hadar bring in the scientist. Jake makes up some nonsense about being intelligence agents who are investigating the man on the baseball card who they think is a time traveller messing with Earth's past. It's so stupid that Weyoun believes their first story about just wanting to get a present for Sisko. He let's them go with the card because he has much more important things to do to talk with the scietist about the genetics of immortality.

Jake and Nog give Sisko the card, and everyone on the station is a lot happier again.

--

This episode is silly, but it pulls it off well in a very reserved way. It doesn't go into crazy antics for most of the time, but is just a lot of light fun. And it is fun. It clearly is a comedy episode, but the jokes don't really feel like jokes most of the time. It just has an overall absurdity to everything that happens without having real punchlines.

At the same time, the episode manages to sneakily advance the season storyline to set the stage for the big final episode of the season.