Hard Time #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 19) O’Brien deals with the implanted memories of a 20-year prison sentence

Rewatching ST:DS9 A haggard O’Brien, with a scraggly beard, is released from an alien prison. He seems disoriented… “I can’t leave. Where would I go to?” A concerned Kira watches as smug aliens infodump that they punish offenders by inserting extended memories of incarceration — twenty years, in O’Brien’s case. Sisko explains to Keiko that…

Rules of Engagement #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 18) Worf is accused of destroying a Klingon civilian ship

Rewatching ST:DS9 After a nightmare featuring dead Klingon children, Worf wakes up in Odo’s security cell. He’s clearly in trouble. A Vulcan admiral convenes a Federation hearing called to explore allegations that, while commanding The Defiant, Worf destroyed a Klingon civilian transport. A Klingon prosecutor, Ch’pok, intends to prove Worf’s negligence, thereby stoking sympathy for…

Accession #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 17) Sisko rethinks his role as Emissary when a poet from Bajor’s past claims the title

Rewatching ST:DS9 Bashir reluctantly helps O’Brien clean up before Keiko is due to return after an extended absence. At the family reunion, little Molly points to her mother’s belly and announces she has a little brother. At the request of Kira and her mentor Porta, Sisko blesses a young couple. He’s not thrilled with his…

Bar Association #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 16) Rom Inspires Quark’s Employees to Strike

Rewatching ST:DS9 As The Defiant returns from an uneventful jaunt in the Gamma Quadrant, Dax teases that Worf is in love… with The Defiant. Bashir and O’Brien, dressed as medieval Irish warriors, prepare for a holosuite adventure. Rom, exhausted and overworked, collapses at the bar. Leeta is concerned, but Quark is just annoyed. Bashir confirms…

Return to Grace #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 14) Kira supercharges Dukat’s clunky freighter to fight Klingon raiders

Rewatching ST:DS9 Played for laughs, Kira gets many inoculations as she prepares for a diplomatic mission to a Cardassisan outpost. Her pilot is none other than Dukat, who has been demoted and ostracized after acknowledging his half-Bajoran daughter, Ziyal, who now lives on his clunky freighter. Dukat smugly flirts with Kira at dinner, clearly enjoying…

Crossfire #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 13) Odo’s feelings for Kira complicate his job

Rewatching ST:DS9 Odo meticulously arranges his office in preparation for a routine meeting with Kira. For her, it’s an enjoyable part of her workday, but Odo looks like he’s nervously preparing for a date. Quark complains that Odo makes too much noise shape-shifting into various creatures in the quarters above his. First Minister Shakaar arrives…

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…