DS9: “Sanctuary” and “Rivals”

Date: June 18, 2020

Season 2, Episodes 10 and 11

Musical Accompaniment: A Billy Joel mix from YouTube

Interstellar News: I had a moderately frustrating day at work followed by a fully frustrating evening.

Favorite Quote from “Sanctuary”:

Sisko: It’s hard to keep a secret in Ops, especially when you’ve been shouting at a monitor for the last two days.

Kira: I thought I kept it down to an angry whisper.

Sisko: Let’s just say that your voice carries.

Sisko is the master of understatement.

So what had happened in “Sanctuary” was…: Sisko and Kira talk about paperwork, Quark is beside himself because of a Bajoran musician who’s mesmerizing the crowd but cutting into his profits, and a ship comes through the wormhole with four aliens from the Gamma Quadrant. Unfortunately the Universal Translator isn’t so universal and they have to poke along for a while until Kira finally makes a breakthrough with Haneek, the woman, who identifies herself as a Skrreean farmer. Haneek, along with three million of her closest friends, are a female-dominated society (with multiple bonded mates) who were recently liberated, thanks to the mysterious Dominion, and now they are free to find their Kentanna – a planet of sorry where they can sow seeds of joy.

Some of the Skrreeans are found and brought through the wormhole, Kira and Haneek bond over an ugly dress, and Odo is besides himself with all of the activity on the station. Nog and Jake talk about girls and get into trouble with some of the Skrreean boys. Haneek is elected to lead her people to Kentanna which she thinks is Bajor and everyone else things is Draylon II. The Bajorans do not vote to allow the immigration and Haneek takes it badly, but not as bad as her son Tumak. Tumak and two friends steal a ship and make for Bajor, they refuse to answer and turn off the engines but they have a radiation leak and, through a series of unfortunate events, the ship explodes. Haneek and her people leave, but not before she tells Kira that it could have been but they’ll never know.

…”I don’t have any males. Not at the moment, anyway.”: This was a very interesting episode. I liked how the universal translator needed some time to catch up and I suspect that will continue to be a trend as there are more interactions from the Gamma Quadrant. I also immediately saw the similarities between the Skrreeans and the Bajorans, like how the T-Rogorans occupied their planet for 800 years and forced them to be their laborers and slaves… sounds like the Cardassian occupation to me just 16 times as long. The thing I don’t get is that the Bajorans are all about their prophecy but then don’t take stock in someone else’s? Why couldn’t they try it out for a year and if it wasn’t working out then the Skrreeans could move to Draylon II, but if it did work out than Bajor would have helped themselves and another race. I will admit that Haneek totally overreacted and put all of her eggs into the Bajoran basket, but she should have been allowed to make her arguments or for them to come to some soft of compromise. It just felt like the Bajorans focused too much on the negative and “what could happen if everything went wrong” but didn’t focus much on “what could happen if everything goes right”.

The part where Tumak dies is incredibly sad, not just for a mother losing her son and a child losing their life, but because it’s something that never should have happened. No one deserves to lose their life because death is the one thing we cannot recover from. Think about what happens when a ship comes through the wormhole; Sisko always tries to communicate and uses every other non-lethal method of contact before resorting to a violent response and then it’s only if the station is in danger. Here the Bajoran military caused so much interference and three Skrreean children died because their first thought was violent. I also hated, but was unfortunately not surprised, that Nog and Quark were against refugees because they were poor and looked different. I did love that Jake tried to be friendly and Odo pulling Nog by the ear was fan-fucking-tastic. I wish there was more here, but it just didn’t pan out the way I would have liked. 6 icoberry tortes for this episode.

Favorite Quotes from “Rivals”:

Quark: But the blankets…

Bashir: …will be provided by you one way or another, and if the monks don’t get their blankets, Chief O’Brien and I’ll be very upset. Do I make myself clear?

QUARK: Perfectly.

Quark trying to get Bashir to throw the match and Bashir making it abundantly clear that Quark will make a payment one way or another.

Martus: Where are you going?

Rom: Back to Quark. At least then I’ll get cheated by family.

I wonder if Rom’s statement is a Rule of Acquisition?

So what had happened in “Rivals” was…: Alsia and Martus are sharing a drink when Odo comes to arrest Martus, a known con man. Martus is sharing a cell with a snorer who laments about this purple ball that ruined everything and then he dies, so Martus takes the ball. Good luck begins to come to Martus: the charges are dropped, he wins at Quark’s, and he flirts with a Bajoran widow who becomes his business partner and fiancée. Much to the chagrin of Quark, Roana and Martus open up Club Martus and people flock to a new and fun place to gamble and drink… including Rom!

O’Brien makes a racquetball court and Bashir joins him for a game, which turns into three as Bashir whoops O’Brien and O’Brien keeps thinking the next game he’ll beat Bashir for sure. During a brief rematch Bashir intentionally tries to be terrible but O’Brien sees right through and is pissed about it. Streaks of both good and bad luck seem to be happening all over the station. O’Brien drowns his sorrows at Quark’s and inadvertently gives Quark the idea for “The Mechanic vs. The Doctor”, a rematch “for the children”. During the rematch, Bashir is getting his ass kicked and they report what is happening. Martus’s luck begins to fail: everyone hits the jackpot at once, his fiancée and Rom leave him, and everyone starts to flock to Quark’s. Dax figures out it’s the machines in Club Martus and she and Sisko destroy them so Martus decides to invest in Alsia, but it turns out she’s also running a con job and they both get arrested.

…”Think of the children.”: I want to start off by saying Keiko is an amazing wife. She solemnly hands her husband items he needs to get ready for his match while O’Brien is talking to himself in the mirror, without giggling at him, and then smooches him thoroughly and encouragingly to wish him luck. The whole Bashir/O’Brien bit was wonderful. O’Brien, as much as I love him, as some serious character flaws. We know he’s got work to do regarding the Cardassians, but he’s also now the old man screaming at the kids to get off his lawn simply because Bashir is super amazing at racquetball. It’s almost like Bashir was built for it the way he graces the court and serves the ball. It was fun when Bashir had bad luck because he made it look like he was really trying and just couldn’t get his mojo right. He also stood up to Quark and I absolutely loved he took the time to identify what was in the liquid Quark tried to give Bashir.

For some reason this reminded me a little bit like “The Game“, mostly with how addictive it was and all for pushing a button. It was great to see the karma in this episode go round and round with Quark getting a little taste of bad luck, Rom realizing that his brother isn’t so bad after all, and Martus getting conned. Odo was having a grand old time holding folks in security and seeing Quark down on his luck. Kira and Dax had super minor roles but they were still fun. I have one burning question, though… WHO WINS THE MATCH?!?! 5 Isiks for this episode.

TA Out!