DS9: “Captive Pursuit” and “Q-Less”

Date: Jun 8, 2020

Season 1, Episodes 5 and 6

Musical Accompaniment: Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi, Live at the Met

Interstellar News: 3 loads of laundry finished today and the yard finally got mowed, hooray for a handy husband and his riding lawnmower!

Favorite Quote from “Captive Pursuit”:

Tosk: You sleep a full third of your rotation. You rest and relax while you are awake. Alpha quadrant has far too much down time.

O’Brien: My wife would laugh at that. She’s barely seen me in the last three weeks.

Tosk: We are very different, Tosk and O’Brien.

Even during a worldwide pandemic, there is not nearly enough downtime.

So what had happened in “Captive Pursuit” was…: A Gamma Quadrant ship unexpectedly comes out of the wormhole and is damaged, but O’Brien makes a good first impression so he’s tasked with meeting the alien. The lizard like alien identifies himself as Tosk, has the ability to make himself invisible, and is suuuuuuper shifty and immediately begins trying to get to the weapons locker. Tosk and O’Brien work on repairing his ship and poor Tosk needs a sarcasm sign, he’s super adorable. They share a drink and Tosk admits he’s on an adventure, but won’t say more.

Odo catches Tosk trying to break into the weapons locker, so they have to keep him locked up. Sisko is sure someone will come looking for him and, lo and behold, three aliens come busting into the station to look for Tosk. Tosk, who had asked O’Brien to let him die with honor, is apparently the object of a great hunt. It’s a cultural thing for which Sisko has no fucking tolerance for, but also realizes there’s nothing he can do to stop it… stupid Prime Directive. As Tosk was captured alive he will be dishonored and displayed back on their planet. O’Brien tries to get Tosk to agree to asylum and, when he can’t helps Tosk to escape. The hunt resumes and the wormhole is considered out of bounds for future hunts. Sisko dresses O’Brien down but he’s really secretly pleased.

…and then I found five dollars: At the top of the episode a Dabo girl is complaining to Sisko about Quark sexually harassing her, and then it’s promptly forgotten and never followed up on… shame on DS9.

The husband and I had an interesting conversation about Sisko’s differences from Kirk and Picard. Sisko, aside from being a Black man, is a family man, not a ship’s captain, and not really focused on anything other than making sure the station stays afloat. He’s also working with a lot more non-Starfleet folks and I think he’s sassy as all hell, I really like it. He wasn’t afraid to have a heated argument with the lead hunter, but ultimately understood what he had to do. He also did a fine job of being mad at O’Brien until he was out of sight, I think glad that he has a COO that can do what Sisko couldn’t. I think that they could have “accidentally” allowed Tosk to escape confinement in a different way, but then we wouldn’t get to see “O’Brien: Action Hero”.

I am beginning to like Odo not only when he and Quark banter but also in his professionalism and dedication to his work. The way he handled Tosk and deescalated the situation is how conflict should be resolved. I like a security chief who is competent (sorry Worf) and also that all of his staff can actually shoot – even if he is anti-phaser. This was just a wonderful episode with very few flaws and I hope that means that DS9 is finally getting some steam. 8 minutes of rest, for I am Tosk!

Favorite Quote from “Q-Less”:

Q: Preferably dead. It’s a wonder you haven’t offended every sentient race in the galaxy.

Vash: You’re the one who almost got me killed on Errikang Seven. And they weren’t exactly thrilled to see you on Brax either. What did they call you? The God of Lies?

Q: They meant it affectionately.

Good banter between Q and Vash

So what had happened in “Q-Less” was…: Bashir is flirting with a Bajoran woman when he’s called to a medical emergency. The shuttle holding Dax lost power and they barely made it back to the station, but they did find Vash (and Q, though they do not know it yet). Bashir continues his creepy and shameless flirting with Vash, though she promptly makes a trip to store some items in the safety deposit box on the station. O’Brien is thoroughly flummoxed about the issue with the shuttle and then similar things start happening on the station.

Vash has apparently left Q and he wants her back. Instead Vash teams up with Quark who is going to be her fence as she auctions off all of those items from the Gamma Quadrant. Q pulls a Kaa and Bashir blows off his date with Vash to sleep but O’Brien identifies Q and notifies Sisko. Sisko and Q meet, it’s so very Q, and Sisko decks Q in a fake boxing match. The station is still experiencing power drains but it’s absolutely not Q, it’s one of Vash’s items. Dax identifies the object, they transport it off station, and it turns into a space stingray… when did I switch to watching Moana? Vash is going to head to Earth, she and Q part ways, but then Quark talks her into going to Tartaras V, oh and Bashir finally wakes up.

…and then I found five dollars: This gave me the vibe of “Encounter at Farpoint” mostly because that’s where we met Q and the space jellyfish and also because Q knew something was up and wasn’t going to tell anyone. No wonder Sisko decks him right in his smug face and it was truly fantastic. Vash gets a better outing here with Quark, it got a little steamy with the ear-touching, than she ever really got with Picard. Quark is a better fit as a fence because he doesn’t care about the history he cares about the profit, which Vash admits here she’ll choose every time. It’s fun to watch her geek out a bit and Quark looking in horror before becoming the auctioneer that gets results.

This episode makes a little fun of itself where Q calls out the technobabble and Bashir does the “did I miss anything” thing. I find it funny that Bashir opens and closes the episode but doesn’t do much besides flirt and sleep. I also love that Starfleet holds seminars on Q, Q must fucking love that. He certainly has a soft spot for humanity, despite his many claims to the opposite. He knows a lot of human pop culture, has a fascination with wardrobe changes, and certainly loves to banter and hear himself speak. I will say I did figure out it was one of the objects that Vash brought on board but I didn’t really get worried until the space station started moving and nothing the crew did helped. I really wish I got to see Odo and Q interact more, that would have made it perfect. I hear I won’t get to see Q until Voyager, so we’ll “hop hip hooray” 6 times in his honor. I’ll miss you Q!

TA Out!