DS9: “Destiny” and “Prophet Motive”

Date: July 5, 2020

Season 3, Episodes 15 and 16

Musical Accompaniment: Paul Simon, Graceland: The African Concert.

Interstellar News: I think everyone should try Manhattan Special at least once in their lives. You have not lived until you’ve drunk coffee soda.

Trakor’s Third Prophecy from “Destiny”:

When the river wakes, stirred once more to Janir’s side, three vipers will return to their nest in the sky.

When the vipers try to peer through the temple gates, a sword of stars will appear in the heavens, the temple will burn and the gates will be cast open.

Prophecy via the Orb of Change

So what had happened in “Destiny” was…: Two Cardassian scientists are set to help establish communication to the GQ but a vedek arrives with a warning about a prophecy. The prophecy begins to manifest as a third scientist joins the group, though it’s clear she’s not friends with the other two. Odo explains to Sisko that the vedek lost his title soon after protesting the peace treaty and Kira comes to terms with balancing her religious beliefs at work. The team heads through the wormhole and spy a comet that resembles the next part of the prophecy. During a test the wormhole opens and changes the trajectory of the comet. O’Brien and Gilora are adversarial in engineering but then realize they’ve had a huge cultural misunderstanding and are able to work together. Dejar, however, is from the Obsidian Order so she sabotages O’Brien’s fix and now the comet is in three pieces. Kira and Sisko grab a shuttle to help guide the fragments while the Defiant heads back to the AQ. The communications test comes through because the prophecy did come true, but not in the way the vedek believed.

“It’s hard to work for someone who’s a religious icon.”: This episode was pretty meh but I did like a few parts. Ulani and Gilora were very likable Cardassians and I think that led to why O’Brien was so much better around them, well that and they were women. Watching O’Brien stammer and get klutzy was fantastic. It was nice to see a Cardassian who wasn’t really a part of the military and they just wanted to do cool things FOR SCIENCE rather than for the glory of their planet. I also liked how Sisko does his best to respect Kira’s beliefs and Kira does her best to work within Starfleet parameters. Despite all those interesting exchanges, I knew something was up with Dejar by the way the others said the word “colleague” and that she traveled separately. This wasn’t a very gripping episode, so it only gets 5 chocolate croissants.

Favorite Quote from “Prophet Motive”:

Bashir: There must be some mistake. As far as I know, my name wasn’t even up for consideration.

Dax: Oh, it was up for consideration. I submitted it myself through an old friend of Curzon’s.

Kira: You deserve the nomination, Doctor. Your work on biomolecular replication was both audacious and groundbreaking. According to Dax, anyway. She’s the only one who understands it.

Kira has such a way with words.

So what had happened in “Prophet Motive” was…: Bashir has been nominated for a prestigious award but he thinks he’s too young and doesn’t stand a chance. Bashir and O’Brien play darts and they push each other’s buttons as do Odo, Dax, and even Quark later on. Despite originally believing he shouldn’t have even been nominated, he works on an acceptance speech and gets his hopes up just a little. Bashir is disappointed when he doesn’t win, but he handles it well – at least outwardly.

Elsewhere on the station Grand Nagus Zek is back and is acting strangely, including having revised the Rules of Acquisition to be more like the parts of the Bible that tell you to be kind to one another. Quark and Rom are super confused and Quark believes something is wrong with Zek. After Bashir clears Zek medically, Quark is shown that Zek came into possession of an Orb and intends to gift it to the Bajorans. They travel through the wormhole and Quark encounters the aliens that live there who share they’ve reverted Zek back to a time where Ferengi weren’t so interested in profit. The aliens, who are all played by the senior staff, and Quark come to an agreement. Zek is restored and Rom made off with a lot of Zek’s money, which makes Quark proud.

“I have a friend at Starfleet Intelligence and she has a friend who has a cousin who’s married to the assistant of one of the members of the Federation Medical Council.”: I fail to see what Bashir’s plot line had to do with the Ferengi plot and it seems like it was just in there for some filler. I also don’t understand why Bashir gave any serious thought to the fact that he might win when he was so adamant that he hadn’t done much yet and it’s supposed to be something akin to a lifetime achievement in medicine award. While Bashir has done some amazing things he certainly doesn’t have the experience or the ability to specialize that usually qualifies you for awards like that. I did very much enjoy the exchange between Odo and Bashir, as well as the dart game, but otherwise there was no substance to that story.

The Ferengi story is actually quite interesting because it not only shows us the power of the prophets/wormhole aliens but it also shows Quark’s problem solving abilities as well as his ability to exaggerate. It was also fun to see how forlorn Maihar’du was, crying in the background and drinking his troubles away, but he also go to “speak” when one of the wormhole aliens took on his form. I found it interesting that at one point in the Ferengi history they were more benevolent but that wasn’t their final form and their evolution took them to focusing on profit. Not sure what it means but it was certainly interesting. The opening sequence where Quark is getting an ear massage is a little funny because Rom ruins it for his brother and later Zek ruins any chance Quark had with the girl. The closing sequence where Quark is surprised at his brother’s stealing tendencies, for reasons unknown given how much stuff from the bar was in Rom’s room, was a cute moment between brothers. 4 drinks for Maihar’du and Hom, Bluto can come along too.

TA Out!