DS9: “The Quickening”, “Body Parts”, and “Broken Link”

Date: July 23, 2020

Season 4, Episodes 23, 24, and 25

Musical Accompaniment: Star Wars soundtracks, because I can.

Interstellar News: We are at the end of Season 4 and, as such, my Rankings page has been updated. Only two movies and three more seasons to go before I begin Voyager.

Favorite Quote from “The Quickening”:

Bashir: These people believed in me and look where it got them. Trevean was right. There is no cure. The Dominion made sure of that. But I was so arrogant I thought I could find one in a week.

Dax: Maybe it was arrogant to think that. But it’s even more arrogant to think there isn’t a cure just because you couldn’t find it.

Dax telling Bashir the truth he needs to hear.

So what had happened in “The Quickening” was…: Dax, Bashir, and Kira are in the Gamma Quadrant and respond to a distress signal on a very desolate planet. A woman is dying and asks to go to the hospital, but it’s really a place where a man named Trevean offers physician assisted suicide. 200 years ago the planet was ravaged by the Jem’Hadar and giving a blight that everyone eventually dies from one the spots on their face turn red. Bashir is horrified and they go to leave, but a pregnant woman wants their help and they decide to stay and try to find a cure. Unfortunately the first round has everyone die and Bashir is devastated. Dax leaves but Bashir decides to stay and eventually the woman gives birth to a child born without the blight, he created a vaccine.

“Well, I’d like to think it’s my bedside manner.”: This episode really followed the pattern of a lot of medically-driven episodes. Doctor wants to do a thing even if it seems impossible, stuff progresses well at first but they need more bodies, the people don’t want to until the doctor does “magic” and then they come around. Of course something terrible has to happen and it does twice, once when the first group dies because Bashir didn’t take into account the Dominion’s pettiness and again when the woman dies a minute after giving birth. I do hope they eventually sent a team to try to help the people still alive instead of just those who were going to be born soon, but I’m sure it will never be followed up on again.

There were some excellent bits: Bashir speaking jargon and Dax translating, the one rude guy turning around to show up to volunteer, Trevean looking hopeful instead of tired at the end, and Sisko getting to come in just to say “atta’ boy, Bashir” because he’s just that awesome. The opening bit, however, blew everything out of the water with Quark “advertising” and then Worf coming in with the mug, it was pure awesomeness. The rest of the episode, however, was nothing extraordinary and not as entertaining or inventive. I’ll offer this a number 6 with onion rings and a root beer, please.

Favorite Quotes from “Body Parts”:

Brunt: A weakness that makes me loath you, not for what you’ve done but for who you are, what you are.

Quark: A bartender?

Brunt: A philanthropist.

Quark: I am not!

Quark is soooooooo mature.

Kick-ass Kira: “Everything’s okay. The baby just had a change of address, that’s all.”

So what had happened in “Body Parts” was…: O’Brien is upset that Keiko, who is pregnant, went off with Kira and Bashir. The three return but Keiko’s in surgery and Kira is now carrying the O’Brien baby until he’s due. Keiko is sad about missing out on being pregnant and when Kira comes to visit they ask her to move in. Kira moves in and becomes “Aunt Nerys” and it’s the most adorable thing ever.

Quark returns from Ferenginar and has been given a week to live so Rom encourages him to sell his desiccated remains per Ferengi tradition and Quark accepts a bid for 500 bars of gold-pressed latinum. Quark gets the news the doctor made a mistake but then Brunt comes to collect on his bid and threatens to ruin Quark if he doesn’t pay up. Quark asks Garak to kill him but dismisses every simulation because he wants to be surprised. He has a dream involving the first Nagus and Brunt and ultimately decides he’d rather live, so Brunt takes everything away. As Quark and Rom sit in an empty bar, the rest of the station comes to help reopen it with some ale, ugly drinking glasses, and “spare” furniture.

“Nah, she doesn’t like me that much.”: In real life Nana Visitor was pregnant so this was a fun way to incorporate her being suddenly pregnant by the First Minister – though I’m sure it was an interesting conversation to have with Shakaar. “Honey, I’m pregnant and it’s O’Brien’s”, yeah I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall during that conversation. What Kira did goes above and beyond the call of duty and the O’Briens do all they can to be accommodating, grateful, and not too clingy. An excellent way to Trek up surrogacy and I like it.

Quark’s face at the end reminded me of the Grinch and he’s the real (excuse my pun) heart of the story. He thinks he’s going to die but is being practical since he has only one week to put all of his affairs in order, while Rom is more emotional and doesn’t even say one thing about inheriting the bar. Quark wants to be the best Ferengi he can be, but he does everything he can (not consciously) to be at odds with that. He opened a bar on a Cardassian military station, not-so-secretly helped Bajorans during the war, stayed on the station after the turnover to Starfleet and has had to make several concessions to keep that relationship going. This leads him to be an outcast among his people despite his obvious longing to fit in, and it reminds me a lot of Worf. Worf, Quark, and even Odo want so much to be with their people but cannot for one reason or another (I’ll discuss Odo in the next episode). Their chosen family, however, comes through for them no matter what.

Favorite Quote from “Broken Link”:

Garak: But what are our lives compared to saving the entire Alpha Quadrant?

Worf: We are not here to wage war.

Garak: I’m not talking about war. What I’m proposing is wiping out every Founder on that planet. Obliterating the Great Link. Come now, Mr. Worf, you’re a Klingon. Don’t tell me you’d object to a little genocide in the name of self-defense?

Worf: I am a warrior, not a murderer.

Worf explaining the difference between Klingons and Nazis.

So what had happened in “Broken Link” was…: Garak attempts to play matchmaker with a Bajoran woman who likes Odo but Odo collapses and Dr. Bashir realizes Odo’s body is having a hard time keeping shape. They realize they need to go to the GQ, even Garak comes along, and eventually encounter the female changeling who explains that Odo needs to be judged by the Great Link. The two changelings plus Bashir and Sisko transport down to the new home world and wait for Odo’s judgement. On the ship, Garak tries to blow up the Founder’s planet due to the threat of the changeling against Cardassia and the AQ, as well as no survivors being reported from the last attack, but he is stopped by Worf. Odo is judged and turned into a human, Garak makes Odo a uniform and then will spend the next six months in a holding cell, and Gowron blasts a message to the quadrant. Odo, however, recognizes that Gowron is a changeling.

“If there’s one thing Cardassians excel at, it’s conversation.”: Let me get two things out of the way first. THEY CAN’T JUST MAKE HIM A SOLID, THAT’S NOT A THING THEY CAN DO… right? Sigh. Also, I FUCKING CALLED IT AND I have it in writing! Gowron makes a HUGE change in character from “House of Quark” to “The Way of the Warrior” and I asked if anyone had checked to see if he was a changeling. There’s absolutely no way Gowron risks a war in the AQ, he’s too keen for that.

There are some great moments: Odo being hit on (twice), Kira sneezing, Quark checking in on Odo before he leaves, Garak regaling Odo with his tales of past criminal activity, I mean gardening skills, and Bashir almost throwing a rock at the pool of changelings. Garak is truly the absolute best and I’m so glad he’s in the show. No matter who he interacts with he’s just so fantastic and can deliver a line like nobody’s business. Despite these awesome bits and the jaw-on-the-floor ending, there seemed to be a lot of filler in this episode and also a lot of missed opportunities. What happened during the judging, how do changeling communicate when they are in one big puddle of goo? How did the Founders infect Odo? I think this will be an important set up to the next season, but it certainly left me wanting. I give it a combination of 7 stuffed teddy bears, dragons, and tigers… oh my!

TA Out!