Paradise Lost #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 12) Sisko Uncovers a Conspiracy on Earth

Rewatching ST:DS9 Continuing from Part 1 (s4e11 “Homefront“), Sisko and Odo puzzle over Starfleet’s reports on the planetwide power outage, noting that the elite cadet group Red Squad was first recalled, then assigned to unspecified field duty. Though the streets are empty except for the security guards, Joseph Sisko opens his restaurant, seeing the guards…

Homefront #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 11) Sisko Investigates a Changeling Incursion on Earth

Rewatching ST:DS9 The wormhole is opening and closing for no apparent reasons. The Bajorans think it’s a sign from the Prophets; Sisko is convinced there’s a scientific explanation. Dax has been pranking Odo — breaking into his quarters while’s regenerating in his liquid state and slightly rearranging his furniture. A security video reveals that a…

Our Man Bashir #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 10) Bashir’s superspy holosuite fantasy becomes all too real. (Facepalm.)

Rewatching ST:DS9 Plot contrivance particles somehow force Bashir to live out his superspy holodeck fantasy. I know this episode has its fans, and I have to admit Garak’s outsider commentary almost saves it from Facepalm Planet, but coming so soon after the s4e9 “Little Green Men” homage to sci-fi B movies and the s4e8 “The…

The Sword of Kahless #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 9) Kor invites Worf and Dax on a quest for an artifact that tests their fellowship

Rewatching ST:DS9 Kor (the charismatic and brilliantly campy John Colicos) recounts the battle from s2e19 “Blood Oath.” He’s stretching the truth quite a bit.  “Yeah, but who cares?” asks O’Brien. “He tells it well.” A starstruck Worf is sensitive about his outsider status, but Kor not only accepts him, but recruits him on a quest…

Little Green Men #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 8) On Earth in 1947, Quark, Rom and Nog are mistaken for Martians

Rewatching ST:DS9 A plot contrivance particle field sends Quark, Rom and Nog to 1947 Earth, where they’re mistaken for “Martians.” In the teaser, Nog auctions off his childhood belongings as he prepares to leave for Starfleet Academy. Quark makes an apparently magnanimous offer to bring Nog to Earth “in style” on a shuttle his cousin…

Starship Down #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 7) During a battle with the Jem’Hadar, O’Brien offers Worf leadership advice

Rewatching ST:DS9 An enjoyable “crisis creates unusual/dramatic parings” ensemble story. Quark is on the Defiant to mediate a trade agreement between the Karema and the Federation, but Sisko is annoyed to learn Quark has been adding surcharges and blaming them on the Federation. Kira tells Dax she suspects Sisko scheduled these trade negotiations so that…

Indiscretion #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 5) Kira teams up with a rival to track down a Cardassian prison ship

Rewatching ST:DS9 New-to-me episode in which Kira teams up with an enemy to solve the mystery of a Cardassian ship that disappeared six years ago, along with its Bajoran prisoners. An old friend from Kira’s resistance days has found a chunk of metal from the Ravinok. Knowing that Kira knew someone aboard that ship, Odo…

Hippocratic Oath #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 4) Bashir and O’Brien disagree over aiding their Jem’Hadar captors

Rewatching ST:DS9 Worf grumbles to Kira that Odo seems permissive about Quark’s shady doings. On a runabout, O’Brien stops himself just before saying he wishes Keiko were more like Bashir. Plot contrivance particles get the runabout crashed on a planet and the spacebros captured by Jem’Hadar ground forces before the opening credits roll. The leader…

The Way of the Warrior #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 1) Worf joins the station crew as the Klingons prepare for war

Rewatching ST:DS9 We cold open into an action sequence, as security teams sweep the station with phaser rifles, looking for a Changeling. Sisko, now with a shaved head and goatee (actor Avery Brooks’s preferred personal style), enjoys a dinner with Kassidy Yates in his quarters, until he’s interrupted by a vague message from Dax. A…

The Adversary #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 3, Episode 22) A Changeling saboteur uses the Defiant to provoke a war with a Federation ally

Rewatching ST:DS9 The cold opening has Jake gearing up to say something dramatic, which turns out to be celebrating his dad’s promotion to captain. During the festivities, Ambassador Krajensky injects some exposition about joining the Defiant on a patrol of the volatile Federation-Tzenkethi border. In the Defiant engine room, O’Brien hears a noise, but dismisses…

Shakaar #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 3, Episode 20) Winn asks Kira to reclaim macguffins from the leader of her former resistance cell

Rewatching ST:DS9 After losing to O’Brien at darts, Sisko visits Kira in her quarters (where she is praying before a memorial for Bareil) to report that the scheming Kai Winn, already the spiritual leader of Bajor, has been elevated to First Minister. During a routine meeting with Odo, a distracted Kira vents about her recent…

Through the Looking Glass #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 3, Episode 19) Sisko Must Rescue Collaborator Mirror Jennifer from Evil Mirror Kira

Rewatching ST:DS9 The teaser gives Odo and Quark a comic scene that shows Sisko in Space Dad mode. A casually dressed O’Brien says he wants to speak to Sisko, then pulls a weapon and orders him to the transporter pad.  Sisko realizes he’s been taken to the Mirror Universe, and learns his counterpart was killed…

Distant Voices #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 3, Episode 18) Dr. Julian’s very Jungian 30th birthday

Rewatching ST:DS9 Bashir is less than thrilled with Garak’s gift of a holographic adaptation of a Cardassian “enigma tale,” and explains he’s testy about his impending 30th birthday. Quark seems relieved when Bashir shoots down a shady client’s hopes of buying “biomemetic gel.” Bashir later finds that same customer (a bumpy-faced reptilian named Altovar) ransacking…

You can be a Trek fan without loving TOS. But if we think tolerance and empathy are good things, it makes sense to practice tolerating and empathizing with our own past.

I was born in 1968 and grew up with reruns of TOS. I can only remember seeing a handful of episodes for the first time (and those are some of my earliest memories). Some of the episodes are awful, and the third season is overall very weak. You can be a Trek fan without loving…

Prophet Motive (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 3, Episode 16) The Nagus’s eccentricities annoy, alarm Quark

Rewatching ST:DS9 Quark is enjoying an ear massage from a humanoid woman who is clearly more interested in a business deal when they are interrupted by the arrival of Grand Nagus Zek. In the B story, Bashir is nominated for a prestigious Federation medical award, yet he seems aggressively unenthusiastic. (Some good character bits, and…