DS9: “A Man Alone”

Date: Jun 6, 2020

Season 1, Episode 2

Musical Accompaniment: A violin/cello version of The Piano Guys

Interstellar News: Apparently Netflix has a weird viewing order, but that’s the one I’m using. Was only able to watch one episode today because we celebrated by husband’s birthday with his brother and our good friend. We had French dip sandwiches, garlic butter Parmesan potatoes, and German chocolate cake for dessert.

Favorite Quote:

Dax: Steamed azna will put years on your life.

Sisko: Dax, I don’t want years on my life if I can only eat steamed azna. Sautéed, rolloped, fricasseed, fine. But not steamed. I’ve missed your steamed azna.

Dax and Sisko sharing their widely different views on food. I’m with Sisko on this, I enjoy food.

Sage Sisko: “Do not condemn this man because he is different than you are.”

So what had happened was…: Bashir shamelessly flirts with Dax, who later tells him Trill are above romance and such as much as possible, and then he fails her brain teaser. Odo and Quark discuss their different takes on relationships; Quark is in it for the physicality and Odo does not want to compromise… especially when it comes to Klingon opera. A Bajoran named Ibudan arrives and gets into an altercation with Odo, the man has recently been released from prison. Sisko tells Odo he can’t do anything unless Ibudan breaks the rules, but Ibudan winds up stabbed and dead before he could get to the happy ending of his massage on the holosuite.

O’Brien and Keiko argue about their being stationed on DS9 but Keiko eventually decides to begin a school on the station, she was inspired by Jake and Nog getting into trouble because they were bored. She meets with the other parents and try to get them to agree to send their children. Eventually she gets four students, though both Jake and Nog’s fathers tell their kids to stay away from each other.

Odo begins to look like the prime suspect, so Sisko pulls him temporarily. The other folks on the station begin to harass Odo, presuming his guilt, and start yelling at him for being a shape-shifter and different. Quark, surprisingly, stands up for him. Bashir figures out that the proteins in the victim’s room are of a clone, and it was another clone that was killed by the real Ibudan in order to frame Odo. Odo finds the real Ibudan, who gets sent back to prison, and the clone actually gets to being its new life.

…and then I found five dollars: With everything going on in the world, I thought the larger message of this episode is still very appropriate. People are, generally, innocent until proven guilty. The courts are generally the place where judgements are made, it is not up for the public to be judge, jury, and executioner so to speak. Also, just because someone is different does not make them guilty or otherwise deficient in any way. Odo is able to change shape and that might be different, and slightly gross that his natural state is a puddle of goo, but he has the right to live without being harassed for his differences. We don’t choose how we are born, who we are born to, when and where we are born, so it’s not right to make assumptions based on solely those things. I was also hoping, based on his conversation with Quark, that his species was asexual in some way. Instead I get a TOS era rant on how men always have to compromise to what the woman in the relationship wants, like that’s the only kind of relationship there is. Maybe there’s still hope for Dax to be Ace.

The rest of the episode, however, was a bit of a mess. I’m already sick of Bashir hardcore flirting with Dax, as she is clearly uninterested. It would be different if he was simply interested in her Trill nature and wanted to get to know more about her as a friend, but he’s like the creep who wants to sleep with someone who has an oddity about them just to say he did. I will admit, however, that I’m glad he had a bit more to do this episode and he was useful. Though the fact that he just grew a clone in a lab and it got to go off on its merry way is, distressing to say the least. I mean we don’t even see it, Sisko just offhand mentions it in the station log, super lame.

While I love that they showed O’Brien and Keiko arguing, it’s a totally natural thing that happens when you have to move because of your partner’s job, I’m a bit sad that Keiko wasn’t able to find something in her wheelhouse. I mean couldn’t she go down to Bajor and help them rehabilitate the planet? I also loved O’Brien’s suggestion of an arboretum on station. However, sometimes a change of career can be the thing you need. I thought I was going to be an engineering when I graduated high school and then college, but instead I became a professor and academic advisor. What started as an undergraduate teaching assistant position turned into a whole new world of possibilities for me and ultimately I found a profession that I am passionate about, a true vocation. Keiko said she always wanted to try it, and maybe she’ll be amazing… or can teach the kids about plants. While I hate the connotation that it’s the wife that needs to find a new job, and a woman who becomes a teacher, I hope this eventually turns out to be something fulfilling for Keiko.

I’m still not sure how I feel about the Scooby Doo ending where Odo pulls the mask off to reveal the real Ibudan, but I didn’t quite see it coming so it gets a “C” for effort. I can’t see more than 5 slices of German chocolate cake for this episode.

TA Out!