Lizstar

Gay Murr Girl

Liz, Goblin, Part-Time Shark, VTuber, retired speedrunner, author, GDQ staff, Sega fan, "Yuri Sommelier", Walking Encyclopedia of All Things Useless, Twitch partner, general menace. Says "Murr" a lot. This is not a place of honor, views my own, etc. Avatar art by me.


Every Sunday my Twitch subs and I watch Star Trek in my Discord. Here are my reviews and thoughts on each of the episodes as I see it. If you're curious about a nerd's views on Star Trek episodes, please read on, I go quite in depth with some of this episodes! I've watched some Star Trek before but not all of it!

We're watching Star Trek Deep Space 9 now!!! Every other week, we're going to be watching DS9 instead of TNG! You have no idea how excited I am~ I LOVE DS9. Let's do this!

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Emissary - DS9
7/10

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So much to go into. So much to meet.

So, we have Sisko, who was there at the battle of Wolf 359. He and his son escape, but his wife dies. And this is where my FIRST issue comes into place...

Look, I like Avery Brooks. He's just not quite there yet. People say it gets better when he grows the beard, and compare it to Riker. Riker wasn't 100% until he grew the beard. This is like this but a bit more. His line reads are kind of... stunted, not quite there. His expressions are off, sometimes, smiling in weird ways, and his anger is also a little... TOO much. And he's also not extremely likable... But hopefully he'll get there. (He will get there, and be Dad)

Anyways, Sisko is here and he meets our cast and sets up the plot. So, Bajor is a planet that was controlled by an empire called the Cardassian Empire. They colonized them, ripped all their natural resources, and left. The Alliance is here to try and help them, but most people aren't... SUPER happy they're here. ESPECIALLY not Kira, who's introduction is her going "we invited the Cardassians in 60 years ago and look where that got us. You are NOT WELCOME." For the record I fucking LOVE Kira. And damn, she hot.

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The setup and concept are really strong, and carry some HEAVY themes. Colonization. Whether the Alliance is truly Good, like they are shown to be (and not in a goofy heavy way like TNG's Conspiracy). It's a good setup for what DS9 can be, and eventually will be.

We just gotta get there first. First, QUARK! OH MY GOD IT'S QUARK AND ODO. I LOVE THEM. Quark is leaving but Sisko (who does NOT want to be here but is trying his best), convinces him to stay through some... Rough Means. Odo agrees.

Sisko meets with the Bajoran's Popes, the Kai. She's rad. She shows him An Orb, which shows him his dead wife in an awkward scene, and then she explains that the Cardassians took the other eight orbs, but they need to find them and find the Celestial Temple, whatever that is. It is DESTINY! He's Black Space Jesus! This comes off a little weird right now, I won't lie, especially because of how stunted Avery Brooks is.

But enough religious prophecy, LET'S MEET MORE OF OUR CAST!

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We have two characters! One is my favorite, Jadzia Dax, the Trans Queen herself! She's sweet and perfect. And then there's Julian Bashir. I hate him. He's so unlikable. He's very Colonialist "AHH FRONTIER SCIENCE~" and is IMMEDIATELY called out by Kira, which is great. I love how Kira is just.... speaking her mind, fuck yeah. The lady characters in TNG I'mma be real honest? They're not.... AMAZING. They're GOOD! And they get better but they especially start weak. Here? Jadzia and Kira are basically 100%. The men actually have more to go. Well, Bashir and Sisko absolutely do. Quark and Odo are great. And of course, O'Brien.

Anyway. speaking of character introductions, we got GUL DUKAT! What a fucking shit. I love the Cardassians, they suck ass. They're great.

Anyways they're off flying, trying to find this thing the Kai told them to find... and they discover THE WORMHOLE! The other major plot point of this show!

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In the wormhole, they land on a place with... atmosphere! It's idyllic to Dax, but a hellish landscape to Sisko. Some kind of... something comes and attacks Dax, teleporting her back to DS9, while Sisko interacts with God!

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Sisko's memories replay, as he talks to some... Something, as it speaks back to him from the people in his memories (his wife, Picard, his son, the Kai). It thinks he might destroy it, and he's trying to reason for it. I'll be real, a lot of this is... a LOT. And it's not SUPER compelling? I zone out a lot for it. I like the concept of it enough but I just zone out. It's kind of like a TOS thing, you could easily see this being a talk Kirk has with some white god being, but instead it's done in a fascinating way with them talking through his memories. But again.... not 100% into WATCHING it.

Though it does get a LOT better with the wham line. The memories keep going back to the day his wife died. "I don't want to BE HERE!" "...Then why do you exist here?" And what comes after DOES get better, as Sisko explains Humans and overcomes his fears and angers at the same time, to move forward and try to Do Good.

Anyways at the same time, Kira wants to lay claim to the wormhole. O'brien moves the station with duct tape and gumption. And then Gul Dukat FUCKS IT ALL UP by going in the wormhole and pissing off God. God hates fascists. God also hates lizards.

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It all works out in the end. The Wormhole agrees to allow passage, creating the first stable wormhole, Sisko no longer Exists Here, and the Cardassians piss off. All in all this episode does it's best to set up the series, and it's one of the better season starts... MAYBE? Avery Brooks' weaker performance is a bit offputting since this is absolutely a Sisko episode. But all of the surrounding stuff is actually pretty strong.

Past Prologue - DS9
8/10

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THE BOY IS HERE! TIME FOR SOME GAY TENSION!! Apparently Garak was supposed to be a one shot? Good fucking thing they decided other than that, cause Plain Simple Garak is PERFECT. And it allows Bashir to have a good scene! :D

Anyways, TIME FOR A KIRA EPISODE! A Bajoran scout ship is running from some Cardassians, and they beam the pilot on board as it's about to explode, saving him. Turns out he's an old friend of Kira's, called Tahna!!! He's a Kohn-Ma, whatever that is. Apparently they're a terrorist cell? That makes me worried. This series is usually kinda bad with terrorist plot points. Sisko is unhappy about the idea, cause y'know, the Kohn-Ma have assassinated ANYONE they disagree with, including Bajorans. Kira, meanwhile, has sympathies, and thinks they should be reintegrated into the fold.

Tahna, for what it's worth, says he's done. At least he says that to SISKO. He feels duplicitous, immediately. He feels like Kira, but a little... less understanding, willing to talk. More willing to stabby stab instead of listening? It's uncomfortable. Also he's a Racial Nationalist which is GROSS. Anyways Sisko DOES give him asylum, cause tbf a Federation officer giving over a Bajoran to the Cardassian Empire would be a disgusting political faux pa, but he's really just passing it down the line. Good political discourse and concepts here.

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Anyways The Duras Sisters are here! They're from TNG season 4, and no one is happy to see them here. Least of all Tahna, who is paying them for... SOMETHING. Fun set up >w> Our little terrorist boy is in Trouble!

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DIE MAD :D. Garak is good in this episode as he... GENTLY points out all the Illegal Stuff happening to Bashir. Bashir is VERY bad at being a spy.

Anyways yeah obvious Tahna is a shithead who's still a terrorist. Kira is split between two worlds. The terrorists of course are like "if you're not with us YOU'RE AGAINST OUR PEOPLE." Again, xenophobic Racial Supremacy stuff. It's clearly shown as bad, but you get Kira's outlook. I think it's done better than it could have been for sure. And I love Odo being the neutral party. You know no matter what, he does what's fair and right.

In the end, Bashir learns of the bomb they're building cause of his swaggy new suit, and Kira agrees to be a double agent. But it's all for naught, as Tahna set us up the bomb, and intends to blow up the wormhole! We get some fun Kira fight scenes in the wormhole, which makes up for her getting slapped earlier by Tahna.

In the end, this is a pretty good episode. Good character moments, good drama. It's good they had this episode now. Kira and the politics of Bajor are important, and it's good they got the Kira the Former Terrorist thing out there just right away, cause it's such an important plot point that could be VERY bad in hindsight if they didn't get that clear. Also of course, Garak is perfect. Over all, good episode.

A Man Alone - DS9
8/10

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This episode starts with Bashir being creepy and hitting on Dax. Eventually they'll get the hint and stop trying to force Bashir to be horny and not forcing him to be het. But he's very horny, and it's nice to see Dax trying REALLY HARD to put him down easy.

This episode starts by setting its themes very clearly. It's about relationships. O'Brien and Keiko are having troubles. Dax and Sisko are being kinda awkward cause Dax suddenly has tits. And then suddenly it turns into an episode building up Odo and that's good that's what we need.

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This is a great scene setting up Quark and Odo's bromance. "You've never.... COUPLED?" "Coupling is about compromise. You like jazz, she likes Klingon Opera. You compromise. So you listen to Klingon Opera." It's a little cishet "someone take my wife please", but it builds up Odo a lot.

Speaking of building up Odo... "laws change, but justice stays the same. I will do what's right regardless of what you tell me is right, I am the judge on this station" is quite a setup, especially since it puts him EXTREMELY at odds with Sisko (who is still acting weird).

I'm going to try and ignore all the terrible Bashir Cannot Take A Hint bullhit. She's like "trill aren't into romance. Sometimes yes we have the urge but we try to rise above that, it's hard for us to romance younger races" and he LITERALLY goes "SO YOU'RE SAYING THERE'S A CHANGE?" Fuck off Bashir. Come back in later seasons pls. Or be replaced by Polaski, who deserves a second chance.

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Anyways let's go back to interesting Odo shit. There's this Bajoran, Ibudan, who did a murder and so Odo doesn't want him around. It was a murder on a CADASSIAN though so who cares. Odo still doesn't want him around cause yeah. So after the argument, Ibudan gets murdered. And woah, things are pointing to it being Odo who killed him! WHAT A SURPRISE!

Hot take, Bashir is not bad at all when he's just... being a doctor. Doing doctor techno babble things.

GOD they really did start off Odo and Quark in the best way. There's a bit of a mob growing that is NOT happy that Odo is still around even when he was working for the Cardassians. And then Quark butts in like "Look, he's a fucking dickhead and I HATE him. But he's no Cardassian collaborator. I stand by him."

Small nice thing, I like what they do with Keiko. She works well as a school teacher. It's a small thing about this episode but it's still good, sets the scene of the series.

Also another good thing about this episode? All the Bajorans on the Prominade are getting grumpy that Odo is around.... and Kira is his #1 defendant. She KNOWS he's innocent and is very angry when Odo is relieved by Sisko of his job. She's a Bajoran, and she's VERY anti Cardassian. And he was WITH the Cardassians. But she trusts him 100%. That's great.

I'm stunned Dax is as good as she is considering all the trans energy. It's still VERY 90s. "When Dax was Curzon he and I used to bang bitches left and right! Guess we're not doing that any time soon, huh?" Yeah there's no way she's still be into woman NoW ThAt ShEs A gIrL.

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Uh oh, the mob is forming! And they're here to mock and attack Odo! The Mob Rules! At least Kira gets to kick a dude in the nuts. She looks SO happy. At the same time, Dax and Bashir are close to figuring out what Ibudan was up to before his death, he was growing A Pile Of Meat! Turns out it's a clone, which Ibudan killed to frame Odo and get himself free! And this brings us a GOOD quote!

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Of course none of the mob apologizes. Odo doesn't seem to care. That's not important to him.

Over all, good episode. Some issues, a little imbalanced. That theme I noticed earlier? Not really fitting actually, at all. But it has some great moments.

Babel - DS9
9.5/10

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This episode starts with O'Brien trying to stop the fucking station from falling apart and working miracles, while getting no thanks. At least DS9 knows how underappreciated O'Brien is. Poor boy is overworked. While fixing the replicators, some kinda bomb lookin' thing activates, oh no!

Anyways, Quark's bar is in dire straights cause of his broken replicator. Don't worry he does a great scene where he fucking hacks DS9 and uses it to copy the fixes on a particular replicator. All while O'Brien starts having a fully awake stroke. His brain is fully awake, he's fine, but he can NOT speak right. He's Aphasic, he just speaks gibberish. It's kinda funny to see O'Brien rambling madness in a grumpy Irish way.

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And then Dax gets it. Ruh roh! WE know what happened, she got invited to Quark's. But this sudden disease spreading is SCARY. Though of course Quark ignored any quarantine. He LITERALLY goes "I'm an essential worker~". THIS FUCKING EPISODE PREDICTED WHAT COVID WAS LIKE. CHRIST.

Eventually Odo realizes what's happening. Quark actually didn't fix his replicator, he was sneaking in and using a replicator from the command level! I will never get tired of Odo turning into things and sneaking around on people.

The virus eventually mutates to be airborne, and EVERYONE is getting sick. Like Jake, oh no! Anyways they find the bomb, which implanted the virus. It's a Bajoran terrorist plot from 18 years ago :o But if it was a Bajoran Terrorist, Kira can handle it! Or at least knows SOME people who know!

This episode is ANXIETY INDUCING, but in a good way! It's a GREAT scary episode as this disease spreads. And then it starts KILLING them. O'Brien is dead in 12 hours. I can't believe they're ALREADY killing off O'Brien. Not even DS9 respects O'Brien.

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Quark and Odo are still okay! And Quark is being kinda depressed alone in his bar alone. And he's SO lonely he's willing to teach Odo how to play Dabo! Odo obviously is having none of it.

They find their scientist who helped make the virus, but he obviously wants nothing to do with em. Kira is like "nope, going to talk to him in person" "I can't let you break quarantine!!" "Oh I won't, I'm not stepping foot on Bajor." She literally kidnaps the doctor. I love Kira.

Uh oh. As if a virus isn't scary enough, someone is trying to LEAVE, and even though they can't break from the anchor links, he's going to try anyway. It's REALLY tense, as his ship stars to break apart and threaten to break down the fucking station. And then Sisko gets sick. Odo is like "OH MY GOD IS ANYONE STILL ALIVE CAUSE WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE" and then the big damn hero arrives.

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Quark becomes the highest ranking official on the station and we are ALL fucked.

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Anyways, it all works out! Odo makes it JUST in time, Odo and Quark were the ONLY two who could fix it. With Bashir's notes, the kidnapped doctor makes a cure, and it all works out! This episode was good and tense! Maybe the pacing is SLIGHTLY off but it was a LOT of fun =w= Not quite 10/10 levels, it's not quite... powerful enough for that. But it's a lot of fun.

Captive Pursuit - DS9
8/10

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Our episode starts with Quark sexually harassing women cause it's in their work contract. Lovely. Anyway, ignoring that (Let's just ignore all the bad parts of the Ferengi pls), an alien comes through the wormhole! Our first Gamma Quadrant alien race comes through :D His ship is almost asploding but O'Brien helps him out, good guy O'Brien.

O'Brien gets to his ship to help out, and the new alien friend is hiding through some cloakin'. Turns out he's Tosk. Hi Tosk.

I remember this episode being weird and giving weird feelings.

Tosk seems kinda flighty, a little anxious. But not aggressive or bad in any way. But way less friendly than O'Brien, who is a chatty guy who's good at making friends! Tosk is very curious though, he's a little awkward but wants to know more!

Oh he specifically wants to know so he can knows where the weapons are whoopsies.

Tosk and O'Brien, or "Oh Brian" as Tosk says, have good chemistry. O'Brien LITERALLY calls him "the best straight man I've seen in ages". Anyways, Tosk is clearly hiding something. He's "living the greatest adventure one can live", but can't and won't talk about it. O'Brien is worried, but likes him.

ODO IS HIDING AS A PAINTING, TAKE A DRINK!

Tosk is found out trying to steal weapons and when Odo stops him he's genuinely confused. He's not hurting no one. He just needs to prepare??? He takes offense to them claiming he needs the weapons to escape a crime. He'd NEVER do crimes! He is TOSK! It's all really interesting. He BEGS O'Brien to let him out, to let him "die with honor". O'Brien doesn't feel right about this...

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Anyways some Dr. Who villains are here to abduct Tosk. They break into DS9 VERY easily, blow open the brig, and get to Tosk. Odo tries his best to stop them but he refuses to use guns, which is cool. Anyways we find out What's Going On. Tosk was meant to be hunted. He's a toy. And him being captured and so easily found by his hunters is HUMILIATING, a DISAPPOINTMENT. He has failed in his noble mission of creating a fun bloodsport.

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He was BRED for the hunt. Made sentient to be hunted. To make it as exciting as possible. This is a VERY interesting thing? Tosk wants to be hunted. They HONOR hunt. The hunters HONOR the Tosk, they are all proud of their roles in their cultures. Sisko finds it abhorant. And it's VERY weird like. Obviously they're making sentient creatures and grooming them to like being hunted. That's fucked? But I dunno. Sisko can't actually interfere unless Tosk asks for asylum tho.

Tosk literally cannot. It goes against everything he believes. He is TOSK. He lives to outlive hunters another day. Ignoring the moral ramifcations of this episode (it's not REALLY what it's about), it's very interesting, as O'Brien is conflicted. He likes this guy. He's friends with Tosk. He wants to help, but he also doesn't want him to DIE! After a great scene with Quark (Quark is the anti-guinan, he's so good),

O'Brien sneaks his way into escorting Tosk and his hunter out. He literally breaks the law (though Sisko seems to agree it's the right thing to do and tells Odo to take his time in capturing O'Brien), punches out the hunter in a SICK attack, and fights his way with Tosk across the promenade. The hunt. is back on. The escape scene is really tense and fun, with Tosk saving O'Brien and respecting him so much for helping him out.

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Somehow SO touching.

If you ignore the moral fuckiness of this episode, it's real good? GREAT character moments, exciting, funny, also touching? Real good makeup, too. It KINDA makes the morality and other things obvious with the weird comments on the prime directive but it's still lots of fun, I liked it.

Q-Less - DS9
5/10

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Bashir is trying really hard to be a suave horny guy, but he's bad at it. I THINK he's supposed to be? He wants to be Riker. He is not Riker.

Anyways, it's THE Q EPISODE! The only Q episode, as apparently they realized Q just straight up does not work here as compared with TNG.

And we also bring back Vash! Vash was the lady who fucked Picard. Apparently later on she meets Q in a later TNG episode we haven't gotten to yet, no worries tho, you don't need to see that episode for this.

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Vash is an Archaeologist who somehow found her way into the Gamma Quadrant and was exploring for two years. She never expected to reach Humanity again. She immediately puts a bunch of fancy shit into a safety deposit box, including some weird glowing rock that I'm sure will not be important later.

The ship she came in on was all out of energy, its batteries were drained dry. It's pretty obvious what's going on already. Especially when after a few hours power is draining from DS9 as well.

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He's back! He's been hanging with her for two years and she's SICK of it! She wants nothing to do with Q but he keeps trying to push her to go with him. She just... wants her old life back. Y'know, her life of stealing and selling artifacts for profit. Thankfully, Quark is here to help! He'll throw her an auction! All he needs is 50/50.

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So she gives him a Ferengi handjob.

Anyways Q is entertaining as he usually is, but also an asshole, as he usually is. Bashir gets a date with Vash and Q, the jealous dickhead he is, and Q basically forces Bashir to fuck off. The one good thing Q ever does. Anyways, O'Brien recognizes Q and warns Sisko that all these outages might be one of Q's jokes.

Sisko is not laughing.

Q misses Picard. Sisko is not going to play his games with witty comments. Sisko is basically constantly going "fuck off".

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Sisko immediately beats the shit out of Q. "Picard never hit me???" "I'm not Picard." This is THE scene that people use to show that Sisko and Picard are different people. Is this a good thing? Depends on your opinion. Q seems to think it's a good thing. Makes Sisko easier to provoke.

ODO WAS THE WINE BOTTLE THAT QUARK DRANK OUT OF, TAKE A DRINK, ALSO TAKE A DRINK BECAUSE QUARK KISSED ODO

Anyways Q basically threatens to kill Vash if she doesn't continue to date him and it's uncomfortable and gross as fuck. I miss Quark kissing Odo already. I do NOT like Abusive Boyfriend Q.

Anyways shit is still hitting the fan and the problems are for some reason causing them to fall into the wormhole. Q of course is not going to help. He's never seen a space station torn apart by a wormhole before :D That'd be so cool to see!

Quark is selling the weird glowing egg that prolly isn't important and they literally show up and just fucking yoink it and throw ito ut of the station. Sorry Quark, no million bars of gold pressed latinum for you. The egg turns into a pretty Space Ray tho

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The episode kinda just ends. Q finally accepts Vash leaving. He's going to miss seeing the wonder through Vash's eyes. This episode is.... fine. But Q made me kinda uncomfy. It's not that Q doesn't work in DS9, it's that he wasn't written at his best. TBF, Q agrees with me.

"John de Lancie has expressed some disappointment with this episode, and agrees with the fans who felt that Q is acting out of character. According to de Lancie, "Q is best used when he deals with large philosophical issues. And skirt-chasing just isn't one of them.""

If it was just Quark and Vash, it would have been fun. But it doesn't quite build up anything great with the other characters, Q is mostly just a negative drain on the episode. Even the only other character Q really interracts with, Sisko, it doesn't do enough to make it worth it. Sisko's immediate punch is kinda fun.

THOUGHTS

DS9 is IMMEDIATELY off to a better start than TNG ever was. It's not perfect. But like 80% of its bones are here. The best part of Trek is always the character, and most of the character is perfect here. I'm super excited for more~


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