DS9: “Life Support” and “Heart of Stone”

Date: July 4, 2020

Season 3, Episodes 13 and 14

Musical Accompaniment: Tchaikovsky via Alena Baeve on violin

Interstellar News: I celebrated Independence Day by eating Italian food and watching a Canadian television show, ‘Murica… am I right?

Favorite Quote from “Life Support”:

Nog: What could be more important than dom-jot?

Jake: I have a date.

Nog: Oh. Well, that’s different.

Nog asking a good question and then realizing females were involved… giggidy.

So what had happened in “Life Support” was…: Jake runs into Leanne who asks him to dinner but that means breaking plans with Nog. Nog instead suggests a double date so Leanne brings Riska, but the date is a disaster and the boys fight. Sisko encourages Jake to make up with Nog, so Jake asks Odo to arrest them both. Nog sees right through it, though and the boys make up and agree to no more double dates.

Meanwhile there’s an emergency on Kai Winn’s ship and Vedek Bareil is severely injured. At first Bashir can’t save him but then something happens and Bashir is able to revive Bareil. Winn has had Bareil negotiate with a Cardassian Legate for the past five months and this was to be their first in person meeting to discuss a treaty and peace. Bareil refuses to be knocked out and Winn insists on getting Bareil’s input, which Bashir is not happy about. An experimental drug helps a bit but then starts shutting down his organs and part of his brain. Bashir does all he can but soon after the treaty is signed Bareil lapses into a coma and dies, with Kira by his side.

“Please feel free to submit a complaint to the management.”: I think the decision to embed Jake and Nog’s dating woes and test of friendship during an episode where a main character’s partner dies is in bad taste. I understand something else has to be going on but show more of the negotiations or have O’Brien and Dax review if it was sabotage, I mean there are so many other things you can do. For that part of the story I thought it was an opportunity for them to share about each other’s cultures but instead they were typical teenage boys who decided to ignore of the issue and never speak of it again.

For the main story at first it appeared as if Winn was really turning a new leaf and she really was trying her best but her facade crumbled as soon as she had the conversation with Bashir. Winn really is a bastard and I’m not sure there’s anything she can do to redeem herself. I find it terribly interesting that even in the 24th century they still don’t know enough about the brain and I suspect there’s so much we will never know. To Bashir’s credit he proves again he’s a force to be reckoned with when it’s his patient, he has the same zeal Dr. Crusher had on TNG even if it wasn’t going to help the most people. Bashir didn’t care that he was talking to the equivalent of the Bajoran pope, he only cared about Bareil and made that clear to both Winn and Kira to various degrees of success. I am glad that Kira got a chance to say goodbye but it was also a tough episode for me because I know what it is like to lose someone you are romantically involved with. There were ways they could have done this better but it wasn’t terrible so it earns itself 5 raviolis in vodka sauce.

Favorite Quote from “Heart of Stone”:

Quark: You said it might overload the system. Might.

Nog: He tried to warn you, Uncle Quark. You should’ve listened to him.

Rom: No. It’s my fault. I should have explained it better.

Quark: Of course it’s your fault. Everything that goes wrong here is your fault. It says so in your contract.

Of course Quark has that in Rom’s contract, sigh.

So what had happened in “Heart of Stone” was…: Nog has the Ferengi equivalent of a bar mitzvah and now needs an apprenticeship with a role model, so he chooses Sisko because he wants to join Starfleet. Nog is very serious but won’t tell anyone why, so Sisko decides to test Nog by asking him to inventory an entire cargo bay by himself and unsupervised at that. Dax reports that Nog completed the whole thing in five hours and nothing is missing. Nog finally explains that he doesn’t want to be like his dad, neither of them have the lobes for profit but they’re both technically minded. Sisko agrees to write the letter of recommendation and Rom is super proud of Nog, despite Quark’s complaining.

Kira and Odo are on a runabout heading back for the station when a Maquis ship comes across their path and they follow it down to a moon. The moon is super unstable but the two separate in order to find the fugitive. Kira gets stuck in some sort of crystal and it begins to spread. They try everything: shooting it with a phaser, using the transporter, and a makeshift generator but it’s no use. Odo shares a bit with Kira regarding him and O’Brien kayaking in the holosuite but when she orders him to leave he won’t and tells her he loves her. She replies back in kind but then Odo’s bullshit meter goes off and he starts to put together the clues because he’s super observant. Turns out it was the female changeling and she wanted to know why Odo stayed with the solids. Odo saves the real Kira and they get out of there.

“Just a slip of the tongue. Nothing important.”: I’m going to start off with the most intriguing thing about this episode, when there’s a dude who is pregnant. Sisko and Bashir are absolutely adorable and it’s ridiculous that I don’t know more about Ensign Vilix’pran because I am fascinated. I mean O’Brien is throwing a baby shower and Bashir had the presence of mind to get Garak to work on baby clothes… how fucking cute is that? Okay so maybe it’s not the most intriguing thing but it was such a natural work conversation and I want more of that please! Seriously though, both parts of the story line were awesome. Nog is very cognizant of his abilities and he has a mission in mind. DS9 continues to be littered with amazing fathers, like Rom, who not only allowed his kid to be educated by a human female but also is super supportive of Nog’s choice to join Starfleet.

The big story is not-really-Kira and Odo because the female changeling is suuuuuuuuuuper good at changing her shape. I love hearing the story of how Odo got his name, how grumpy he is with Kira about making decisions about dinner even though he doesn’t eat, how damn adorable it is that he’s a bit embarrassed about going on a bro-date with O’Brien, and how he finally shares his feelings with Kira… even though it’s not really her. There are a lot of feels in this episode and it’s nice to see Odo finally opening up while also not losing his tenacity for detail and for things to make sense. Odo is amazing and I think I would love to see a show with him, Data, and Spock getting together to solve crime or some such. I really enjoyed this episode on so many levels, so it earns 8 slices of homemade garlic bread.

TA Out!