Date: August 13, 2020
Season 6, Episodes 7 and 8
Musical Accompaniment: Yesterday was cellos and today it’s violins…
Interstellar News: Six more backers are needed and that will be seven short stories, four novels, a vignette, and a partridge and a pear tree (on top of the original two novels) up for very little support on your part. Consider backing “Lucky Devils and Witchy Ways“.
Favorite Quotes from “You Are Cordially Invited…”:
Martok: Do you still love her?
WORF: Of course. However, in this case, that may not be enough. Anyone can see that we are hopelessly mismatched. She is a Trill, I am a Klingon. She has had five marriages, this would be my first. When she is laughing, I am sombre. When I am happy, she is crying. She plays tongo with the Ferengi bartender. I can barely stand him. She mocks everything, while I take everything seriously. She is nothing like the woman I thought I would marry.
Martok: We are not accorded the luxury of choosing the women we fall in love with. Do you think Sirella is anything like the woman I thought that I’d marry? She is a prideful, arrogant, mercurial woman who shares my bed far too infrequently for my taste. And yet I love her deeply. We Klingons often tout our prowess in battle, our desire for honor and glory above all else. But how hollow is the sound of victory without someone to share it with. Honor gives little comfort to a man alone in his home and in his heart.
And this, my friends, is why Martok is now listed as one of my favorite DS9 characters.
Today is a Good Day to Die: “We don’t embrace other cultures, we conquer them.”
So what had happened in “You Are Cordially Invited…” was…: Alexander is going to be transferred to another ship so Dax and Worf decide to get married at Quark’s. Dax has been through five Trill weddings so she’s fine with Worf planning this one and Jake has sold his first book. Worf will do the Kal’Hyah, described as a four-day Klingon bachelor party and Dax will meet with Martok’s wife, Sirella, to be judged. Worf brings Martok, Sisko, Bashir, O’Brien, and Alexander to the holosuite to give them sticks, make them sweat, have them fast, and go through six total trials that eventually make Alexander pass out and cause O’Brien and Bashir to fantasize about killing Worf.
Sirella doesn’t want an alien to join the house and does everything she can to cause Dax to fail. Dax has a party, Odo and Kira finally talk, and Sirella crashes the party and is challenged by Dax. Dax and Worf call off the wedding. Martok tells Worf he’s made a mistake and Worf goes to try and talk Dax into taking him back. When Dax refuses, Sisko talks her into it. The wedding commences, with bat’leths no less, and O’Brien and Bashir are super excited to beat up the newlyweds.
“Do you have any idea how much paperwork a Supreme Commander has to do?”: So the parts I loved were fantastic, and I’ll outline them first. The running gag of “use your imagination” about a Klingon bachelor party and everyone likely being completely wrong was fun. Alexander being completely klutzy but owning it was fantastic and I’m glad he and Dax got to meet. I absolutely loved the way Martok clearly loves his wife and is even a bit scared of her. The bit where Dax finds a historical inaccuracy in Sirella’s family line is very Dax but it also showed she was going to do things her way and wasn’t actually interested in letting Worf really plan everything out. Sisko reading Dax the riot act was fantastic because he’s just that good at yelling at people and getting them to see the error of their ways, he’s a wonderful motivational speaker. Lastly, I am totally Nog at the ceremony who is trying to look over the tall people to see… I really laughed at that a lot.
Now, unfortunately, for the bad. Why is there not one single line of dialogue about Worf’s parents or the crew of the Enterprise? All you have to do is say something about the war keeping them from being there, but they can’t even Skype in? You can also do the quickie ceremony now and then have a big ass party after the war, so they could have mentioned something about the other family members and friends they may have wanted to invite. And what, O’Brien can’t spend one minute talking about how his wedding to Keiko was off again and on again? Come on! Sirella also apparently is won over by Dax, but we never see it, and we have another mystical Klingon Hallmark moment. I’m also sad that Odo and Kira’s conversation is never seen and there’s not one joke about them being in the bathroom or closet or whatever all night long. This episode has so much potential to be an awesome, lighter story after the heaviness of the last few episodes, but it just fell short. At least I got to find out how the Klingons destroyed their gods… 5 Ma’Stakas and a few var’Hama candles for this episode.
Favorite Quote from “Resurrection”:
Bareil: You’re crazy.
Intendant: Oh, we know what I’m like. What about her?
Bareil: I am not going to discuss this.
Intendant: Oh, please, please. I really want to know.
Mirror Kira is certifiable, and I love her.
So what had happened in “Resurrection” was…: Dax is trying to get Kira to bring someone to dinner when Mirror Bareil beams into Ops and takes Kira hostage. Kira beats him up, takes him to security, and he asks her to destroy the device so he can just stay in their universe. Mirror Bareil is nothing like Vedek Bareil, though he does decide to check out Bajoran temple services and he and Kira spend time together both at the Worf-Dax residence and in bed that evening. He tells Kira he wants an Orb experience but after it’s finished we see the Intendant in his room because they’re there to steal the Orb. Quark warns Kira who busts Bareil just as the Intendant waltzes in wearing Kira’s uniform. Bareil has a change of heart and stuns Mirror Kira and the two return to their universe.
“But eventually I’d find some way to ruin it.”: The entire time I was thinking this was a con and it totally was, I didn’t buy his escape story for one minute. At first I thought less of Kira for buying it, but for her there were a ton of emotions wrapped up into Bareil, especially since she was essentially widowed when he died. There’s something that happens when someone you are dating and think you might spend the rest of your life with suddenly dies and it stays with you forever. You always think about what might have happened and if they thought of you the same way. No matter how different Mirror Bareil was, he still looked like the late vedek and that may have been enough to cloud Kira’s judgement. You also have to think about the fact that she had a rough few months with the occupation, Odo’s betrayal, and Dukat’s creepiness, so I’m giving her a lot more leeway than I would. I also liked this Bareil better than the one we had, the performance was much less stiff and it’s always fun when someone impresses Worf. I feel like they’re just coming up with stuff for Bashir to do, but he hasn’t really served a purpose in the last few episodes. I’ll end with two thoughts: I wonder what the Mirror Universe wormhole aliens are like and how are we just now finding out Bareil’s first name is ‘Antos’? 4.5 orbs for this episode, the last one being whole but unable to be opened.
TA Out!
To Boldly Go Where Everyone Has Gone Before 