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!
Melora - DS9
6.5/10
This episode is a recipe for disaster.
This is The Episode About Disabilities. AND it's a Bashir episode. I cannot imagine a worse combination of things for a show from the early 90s. Maybe today I'd trust a show to handle disabilities well (I may not trust us to handle Bashir well), but I'll try to go in with a positive mind.
Our episode starts with Bashir and Dax preparing a wheelchair for an individual who was just assigned to the station. She's from a planet where gravity is VERY light, so she uses canes and braces to get around, and has basically spent her whole life in Federation space like she's an ill cripple. She's clearly fucking sick of it. She doesn't want special treatment beyond her basic abilities to actually move around and exist. Okay, not too bad so far. She's forceful, but like, not at all offensive. Though the episode DOES start with Dax pointing at the wheelchair and going "I HAVEN'T SEEN ONE OF THESE IN 300 YEARS :D" Like they inoculated against wheelchairs. Y'know, like they inoculated against migraines.
Our B plot involves this tense scary guy Quark hasn't seen in years who shows up in his bar and nonchalantly tells Quark "I am going to kill you :)". Uh. So, you know how sometimes Trek in this era had an issue with A and B plots not meshing together?
The dialogue between Melora and Bashir is... all over the place. Sometimes it's REALLY uncomfy, in that way that all Bashir dialogue is umcomfy cause he's trying to fuck people with his voice. But he somehow gets a date out of this lady, and it gets to the best scene I've EVER seen Bashir in (though he barely plays a part). They're at a klingon food stall, which I LOVE the idea of, and he orders a bunch of food and hands it to her. "I can't eat this!" "I mean, I know how it LOOKS, but-" and then she starts yelling at the Klingon in Klingon about how the food isn't live enough for her, and he yells back then laughs and goes "I LIKE A CUSTOMER WHO KNOWS WHAT SHE LIKES". That's good shit. And then their cute sweet scenes where Bashir talks about how he got started in medicine. Does a lot to make him likeable.
And their cute moment where he's like "You've gotta learn to trust us more. We trust you" and then they make out in zero G while he's like "WOAH" flinging aroudn the zero G room, like this mother fucker has never been in zero G before. You live in space my man. How would you have NEVER been in low grav before??
She was like "Hey Dax, do you think love has a place in Starfleet?" and the ENTIRE CALL burst into "DO YOU THINK LOVE CAN BLOOM EVEN IN STARFLEET". Anyways Bashir comes up with some kind brain surgery so she can walk in Human Gravity. Basically overclocking her brain. I can already tell this is going to fall apart in the future. "You let me fly for the first time. I'll let you walk." JULIAN YOU CAN FLY ANY TIME YOU WANT. YOU ARE IN SPACE. She also doesn't look... too happy about all of this. Julian is a bit overbearing. His crime is he loves too much.
And then we watch this criminal dude try to choke out Quark. This episode has a bit of a tone problem. It eventually culminates in Dax and Melora being held at gunpoint alongside Quark, as he steals a Runabout. The episode takes a turn into a sudden car chase through space with a hijacker. Melora gets shot, but she pulls herself to the anti-grav and then beats the shit out of the criminal.
"Why didn't I die from the phaser fire?" "I dunno." Oh good. Anyways she breaks up with Bashir and calls off the treatments. If she DID get the treatments, would she still be herself? Bashir seems to take it well at least. Over all, this episode is WAY better than I expected it to be. It's not AMAZING. But it's good.
Rules of Accquisition - DS9
8/10
FERENGI EPISODE FERENGI EPISODE! Our episode starts with a game of Tongo, which appears to be like... Poker on a spinning table. Quark, Rom, and a new Ferengi are playing, and it's fast and frantic with their betting and spinning, then a slow pan over and oh hey Dax is playing with them and she fucking SMOKES them. While also in that chill Dax was is like "I can't play with your hand on my thigh, Quark". Love her.
The new Ferengi is a young business minded Ferengi who got a job on the station recently, and he and Quark hit it off... to the annoyance of Rom. Then, a phone call comes in. THE GRAND NAGUS IS BACK! God I love him. His makeup is a little different this time, and he's like "HEY I'M BACK :D" and tells Quark he's gonna be a BIG part of something coming up~
Tulaberries, Quark. Quark gets into the wine buisness and gets his foot in the door of the Gamma Quadrent. Perfect! But Pel, the new Ferengi waiter, warns Quark. Rule of Acquisition 35: The bigger the smile, the sharper the knife. He warns Quark that if the deals go well, Zek wins. If the deals go badly, Zek is fine and Quark loses. Quark and Pel move into a kind of business partnership to make this go smoother, and as this happens, I made a realization. I watched Pel and listened to him and was like "That's a woman".
Sure enough.
I dunno, something about her face and voice! It was so much more different than any other Ferengi. This is our first Ferengi we've ever met! She and Dax become friends, and we get more insight into the Ferengi. It's really funny too how she reacts though "Oh, you're in love with Quark!" "Keep your voice down, he can't know!" "Why not, it's not that big of a deal?" "Well he doesn't even know I'm a woman" "YOU'RE A WOMAN?"
Dax over here like "Oh gay Ferengi that's normal, WOMAN FERENGI? NEVER SEEN THAT BEFORE!" I also love how Dax says her favorite people to hang with are Ferengi. She and Kira argue heavily about this, especially as the Grand Nagus hits on Kira RELENTLESSLY.
I'm going to be sending this to people out of context.
Quark and Pel work together and they get a deal with, not the Dosi like originally planned, but... THE DOMINION! THE DOMINIOOON! Of course they had NO plans for the Dominion at this point but they will become very, VERY important. Quark is like "I WANT DEALING WITH THE DOMINION" which is very funny because he totally will NOT in three seasons.
Things fall out between Quark and Pel, once Rom sneaks around and finds out, and tells Quark. Quark gives Pel 10 bars of Latinum and tells her to leave, she'd never be happy as a Ferengi's wife. She's like "But then let's run away to the Gamma Quadrant, no one there will care if I wear clothes!" "But I WILL."
Quark is an interesting character. He's a misogynist. He's kinda shitty. But like, he's STUNNINGLY progressive for a Ferengi. When the Grand Nagus finds out, he immediately plans to throw her in jail. When QUARK does, he gives her money and is like "get away from me or I'll get in trouble, and I can't get over my societal stigmas against it. I KNOW there's nothing wrong with it but I can't MOVE PAST THAT."
Not YET anyway. It all works out to status quo in the end as Nagus accepts Quark's profits as a bribe to move past the issue. This episode is good. There's some tone problems, and it's not a perfect episode, but I still really enjoyed it. I just love the Ferengi.
Someone made a good comment in my discord, btw. Quark's storyline is the same as Worf's in TNG. They are a person who is, deep down, a good person from a Planet of Hats, and they spend the show over compensating, because the hat doesn't fit on them and they don't want to pretend it doesn't. But I dunno if we're going to get a "It is the Klingon way, but it is not MY way" moment for Ferengi like we did with Worf.
Necessary Evil - DS9
10/10
A widow who's husband was murdered in his shop on Terok Nor hires Quark to get a box from his old shop, hidden in the walls. Then Rom and Quark break into the shop, and we get some ROM LORE! Rom is a stereotypical dumb guy, he has the dumb guy voice. But he's NOT. He's just a bit of a pushover, and anxious. When he's left to his own devices, he's real smart. He does fancy super spy robbery stuff.
Anyways they get the box and then Quark is fucking murdered. Like, pronounced dead. Rom explains where they found the box to Odo, and Odo has a PTSD flashback to five years ago... when he met Gul Dukat. What a good scene. Gul Dukat is like "have you ever seen a dead body?" "Yes. In your mines." "Oh, please, those are casualties." It's perfect. It shows PERFECTLY how these two think.
Dukat assigns Odo as the primary investigator on the case of a chemist's murder. Odo is younger, he's not looking anyone in the eyes. The station is still under Cardassian rule, it's very... blue. Very dim. Very fascist. He works with the husband's wife to find the murderer, and she explains what her husband was cheating on her with some young hussy who murdered him in a jealous rage when he broke it off. She leads him to her and points it out.... a young Kira Nerys. DUN DUN DUN!
A five year old murder case is now open. We're bouncing between the past and future. This episode is really good so far.
Holy shit this episode is a columbo episode no WONDER this episode is good. It's Star Trek Columbo! And we get to see the background lore of SO many characters. Odo's first meeting with Quark, and with Kira. This episode fucking slaps.
Kira is implicated in the murder in the past, but she has an alibi... she was doing terrorism. And he lets her go, and doesn't turn her in. But in the end... even that was wrong. That was someone ELSE doing the terrorism. She DID do the murder, because he was a collaborator.
And in the end... he has to give up on his blind sense of "justice". Because of what's truly RIGHT, in this moment. It's not justice. Justice was already served.
This is one of the best episode of Star Trek I've ever seen. It's nonstop character development and history, and even everything down to how it's CUT and SHOT is absolutely perfect. I loved this episode.
Second Sight - DS9
4/10
It's the 4th anniversary of the Battle at Wolf 315, the anniversary of Sisko's wife's death. I have to say, at the start of season 1, Sisko was.... so not Right to me. But very slowly, without me even noticing, he's been morphing into a much better character. Maybe this episode will really show that, and show how far he's come. And how much further he has to go. He and Jake have a sweet heart to heart, as Jake's had a bad nightmare. It's a cute scene.
Then he meets a mysterous woman, and they hit it off. He's staring out at the stars on the promenade, when she makes the first move. They hit it off, chatting, but then she just... disappears. Aw heck, Sisko is hitting it off with random Gods again, isn't he?
The others IMMEDIATELY notice a difference. Kira directly calls it out with a "You never talk to anyone before you have your coffee and now not only are you all smiles but you're drinking TEA?!"
She keeps disappearing a bit, and is also evasive about herself. But Sisko can't help but fall deeper for her. She IS cute, I get it. People ask Sisko about her, but he honestly doesn't know much about her. She flies in and out of his life like a hurricane. There'sa funny scene where he tries to get Odo to find her and he's like "can you tell me her name?" "Only her first name" "Race?" "Nope" "Ship she came on?" "Nope." "Well I'll... see what I can do."
There's also this terraformer, a human scientist who's very.... loud. Talkable. He's a jovial old dork, and most people are exhausted by him but I kinda love him. Anyways he introduces them to his wife, which is.. DUN DUN DUN! FENNA! Or who INTRODUCED herself as Fenna. His wife, Nidell, has never seen Sisko before in her life. But looks and sounds EXACTLY like her. And next time we see Fenna, she's like "HI :D" and is so confused when Sisko is annoyed.
Most of the time with Star Trek romance, it's VERY forced and fast. It's kinda that way here. Sisko is CRAZY for this woman, she's been in three scenes. He risks his life going to this terraforming thing, which everyone says is a bad idea. But he NEEDS TO FIND OUT ABOUT HIS NEW GIRLFRIEND.
Turns out Fidell is a... "psychoprojective telepath"? In times of deep stress, her race makes fake telepathic versions of themselves, and it kills them. Why did a species evolve this way that is very stupid. Apparently, they mate for life, and she is NOT happy being with this blowhard, but she can't leave him. She's his ninth wife. Damn dude. Maybe at some point you gotta realize it's not them, it's you.
I guess he realizes it's him. He commits suicide, and slams into the dead sun, bringing it back to life. He goes out of this world as flamboyantly as when he lived in it, with the words "LET THERE BE LIGHT!". This I guess releases his wife. She doesn't remember anything of her second life, and she and Sisko go their seperate ways.
Eh. It's not terrible. Safely skippable, I think the basic idea was just flawed. The Terraformer guy was the best part of it by far. He was funny. But his death didn't hit as much as it should have.
