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!

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!

Date: July 3, 2020

Season 3, Episodes 11 and 12

Musical Accompaniment: A violin suite by Marc Coppey playing Bach

Interstellar News: I watched Hamilton for the first time tonight and it was wonderful.

Favorite Quotes:

Chris: Don’t worry, your friends are fine. That’s the whole point of the Sanctuary. To give people in trouble food and a place to stay.

Dax: If that’s all it’s for, then why is there a wall around it?

Dax making a damn fine point and Chris giving the eye twitch of the century

Snarky Sisko: “You get on my nerves and I don’t like your hat.”

Doctor’s Orders: “How could they have let things get so bad?”

Bashir: It’s not your fault that things are the way they are.

Lee: Everybody tells themselves that, and nothing ever changes.

Bashir trying to comfort Lee, but she knows the truth.

Part 1, “The name is Bell. Gabriel Bell.”: The team is headed to Earth to give a report on the GQ situation. Dax, Sisko, and Bashir beam down but are transported to 2024 and separated. They arrive during a bad spot in American history before the Bell riots, but it’s a pivotal time that eventually gets Earth to where it is as we know it in the 24th century.

Dax is saved by a kind stranger and we can see why she’s so good at gambling because she has an excellent poker face and would make a very good improv artist. She passes off her spots as a Japanese tattoo and cons her way into an ID, some credits, and a place to stay. At a party she finds out that those without IDs get sent to a Sanctuary District and figures that’s where the others wound up. Sisko and Bashir are, in fact, sent to a Sanctuary District and asked to fill out forms. The social worked explains they are “gimmes”, people who actually want to work, but she can’t really help them because of the economy so they just have to fend for themselves. Conditions in the district are appalling and the boys spend the night on the streets but are able to exchange clothes and make some friends. Unfortunately they run into trouble and a man gets killed. The man was Gabriel Bell who was the inspiration for the riots, so Sisko assumes his identity as the riots begin.

Back on the Defiant O’Brien figures out what happened through a shit-ton of technobabble which means he and Kira have to time travel. He figures out how to do it but they lose contact with Starfleet because history has been changed. Dun dun dun.

Part 2, “I can be as eloquent as the next guy.”: Inside the building BC has taken six hostages but Webb and Sisko embed themselves and have some other “gimmies” help out because BC only is out for himself while the other two want to help everyone get back on their feet. Webb and a detective begin to negotiate. Dax and Chris watch on the net and she wants to help so she breaks into the district and is reunited with the boys. She asks Chris to help the district members tell their side of the story and she sets up her combadge to send a distress signal.

O’Brien and Kira travel back in time to the 1920’s, 1970’s, and a few others until the return to the Defiant only knowing it’s sometime before 2050 which narrows it down to three choices. They have one shot so O’Brien picks at random and, because it’s television, they find Dax. Bashir and Sisko are holding things down but the national guard is called in and Sisko is shot. The cops are disgusted by the violence and allow the boys to leave, swapping out their IDs with two of the dead and the timeline is restored as everyone returns.

My Thoughts and Impressions: I guess the Grand Nagus is going to have to wait for his favor. I was warned that this was a social commentary episode and was kind of thrown at the subject matter given it’s a very real problem we are still facing today 25 years later. Sisko and Dax were clearly meant for undercover work but they also have the most experience, poor Bashir is not cut out for a life on the streets. He is the one who wanted to work in “frontier” medicine, however… so I guess he really got his wish. O’Brien has to use so much technobabble I really can’t imagine how many takes it took to get the language down, but I do love that Kira is like anyone who listens to a doctor and then goes “so what does that mean?”. Jargon can certainly be great for relaying a lot of information in a short amount of time, but if those who you are talking to doesn’t understand what you are saying, you have to repeat yourself using other words… sigh. I enjoyed how much this episode highlighted how important it is to have experience and know your history before time traveling, then again Bashir didn’t have any advanced warning so there is that. I will admit this episode was a bit of a downer but knowing that those riots led to some serious change give me just a little bit of hope for the actual future. The year 2020 has not been kind and so much has happened in the first half of the year that I can only hope people start taking things seriously. We’re in a global pandemic, American citizens of color are being marginalized, and we keep taking money away from education and other things that could help our society in favor of more violence. Overall these two episodes were quite solid and are applicable today just as they were when I was but a wee lass, so they get 8 slices of chocolate cake with yummy buttercream frosting.

I’m going to end this post with a phrase I’ve taken from several of my favorite movies: “Be excellent to one another, party on dudes, live long and prosper, and may the Force be with us all.”

TA Out!

Date: July 2, 2020

Season 3, Episodes 9 and 10

Musical Accompaniment: Marvel Movies Greatests Soundtracks

Interstellar News: Today I enjoyed a wonderful walk, excellent Italian food, and wonderful dessert.

Favorite Quote from “Defiant”:

GUL DUKAT: I cannot allow a group of terrorists to just walk away after invading our territory and…

SISKO: Then you must decide which is important to you. Your sense of Cardassian justice or the information contained in the Defiant‘s sensor logs.

DUKAT: I do want that information, Commander, and I would be willing to return your wayward ship. But someone has to pay for what’s happened here and I don’t want that someone to be me.

Sisko trying to cut a deal and Dukat explaining the line the won’t cross.

So what had happened in “Defiant” was…: Riker shows up and takes over the Defiant, but he’s not the one you think, he’s the one that goes by Tom. Gul Dukat is called in because Sisko believes Tom is part of the Maquis and that Cardassia is in trouble. Sisko heads with Dukat to Cardassia Prime to try and track down the Defiant where they talk about being fathers and are greeted by the Obsidian Order. Meanwhile Kira is stuck on board and tries to sabotage the ship and get into Tom Riker’s head. In fact she outright states he’s a bad terrorist while Sisko figures out where they are headed, but the Order tells them they can’t go and apparently has military ships when they aren’t supposed to. Sisko convinces Dukat to let Tom surrender, which he does, and to take the death penalty off the table.

“Tough little ship.”: I had completely forgotten about Thomas Riker and remember thinking this might be a legit consequence when he was first found and decided to stay in Starfleet. There were a lot of things that had to happen in order for their plan to work and where did they get all of their information from? How do the Maquis know things that Gul Dukat seemed utterly shocked by. I’m also a little confused by how quickly everything comes to a head, how Tom just decides to surrender after he was so gung-ho, but maybe he thought about the others on the ship. I also don’t understand why he kissed Kira before he left, maybe it’s just a Riker thing. For all of its flaws, there’s a lot of interesting things that happen here. Dukat is shown to be more of an actual person rather than a flamboyant know-it-all and we also see what he really cares about, Cardassia. It’s nice to see the Federation and the Cardassians can work together and it’s interesting to see what the Obsidian Order is up to given that we know so little about them. I also am really enjoying Sisko doing everything he can to keep the peace, avoid violence, and still get the best deal. 6 pieces of decadent cheesecake for this episode.

Favorite Quote from “Fascination”:

Sisko: Jake, the whole point of the Festival is to put all your troubles behind you and make a new start.

Jake: I could use one. Okay, I’ll go.

Sisko: Good. That’s the spirit.

Jake: But I’m not going to have any fun.

Typical teenager.

So what had happened in “Fascination” was…: Mardah has been accepted into a science academy on a different planet, so Jake is brooding. We’re finally going to see the Bajoran Gratitude Festival and lots of folks are visiting the station for it: Bareil, Molly and Keiko, and Lwaxana Troi. Bareil and Kira have sexy fun time while Lwaxana is all over Odo. The O’Briens have a bit of a fight and poor Molly is sick but on the mend. Kira begins the festival and suddenly people start acting weird. Jake falls for Kira, Bareil falls for Dax, and Odo is swaying to music. Keiko and O’Brien have another fight because Keiko might have to stay on Bajor longer and O’Brien is an idiot.

Keiko and offers to resign, but she tells him to go to the party Sisko is throwing. At the party, Dax starts to hit on him but she checks out after an exam by Bashir. Bashir and Kira get lightheaded and start making out, much to the chagrin of Odo who is sent to fetch them. Keiko arrives sometime later in a killer red dress and makes up with O’Brien, but Quark falls in love with her. It turns out Lwaxana has Zanthi fever which is throwing off her telepathic mojo and affected everyone else on board who had some sort of attraction before all this happened. Bashir saves the day through a correct diagnosis, and everyone will be cleared up in a day or two.

“I know what it’s like to be attracted to someone who doesn’t necessarily feel the same way.”: This was a tame Lwaxana episode and not one of my favorites as something was off about her. I will say that each time someone fell in love with someone new I screamed “NOOOOOOOOO” from the couch. I knew something was up but I was focused on the opening ceremonies because that’s when everything started to hit, so I thought something happened to the fire that Kira lit at first. I will admit I was a bit tired so I didn’t quite catch on that it was all Lwaxana’s fault, but she also didn’t get to say her line about the Chalice of Rixx or whatever, so I blame that. One thing I don’t understand is why O’Brien hasn’t been to Bajor to visit Keiko like he said he would, it’s only a three hour trip after all. If I lived only three hours away from the man I loved, I’d see them a hell of a lot more often. While this was a ridiculous episode we do learn that Jake has a type, Bareil is not a saint, and Dax is complicated. 4 great big salads for this episodes, pick your favorite dressing.

TA Out!

Date: July 1, 2020

Season 3, Episodes 7 and 8

Musical Accompaniment: Lots of Billy Joel. Heaps of Billy Joel. Tons of Billy Joel. Loads of Billy Joel. I think you get the point.

Interstellar News: It’s been six full months of this blog, woo hoo! Hopefully I’m still on track to finishing this goal by the end of the year.

Favorite Quote from “Civil Defense”:

Quark: Two hours ago you told me I was the most devious Ferengi you ever met.

Odo: I thought we were going to die. I was trying to be nice.

I absolutely love Quark and Odo together, they are just so wonderful.

So what had happened in “Civil Defense” was…: Jake and O’Brien are purging old Cardassian files as Sisko comes to get them for dinner and level one of Jumanji, I mean security countermeasures, are enacted and a pre-recorded video of Gul Dukat comes online. Sisko tries to surrender but no one has the right codes so Jake goes through the pipe to get them out before the killer gas comes through, though that triggers a station wide alert and we split off to three story lines.

Bashir, Kira, and Dax are stuck in Ops with some other station personnel. Dax tries to hack into the computer but she initiates level two. Garak figures out his codes allow him to move through the station and he encourages Kira to blow up life support to give them more time, but that initiates level three and the two-hour self-destruct window. Garak tries one more thing which initiates level four with a random death ray that takes out an honest red shirt. Gul Dukat randomly shows up because he got a distress signal from himself but when he tries to beam off his access is revoked by another Cardassian’s prerecorded message since it appeared as if he was abandoning ship, or is that station. Dukat tries something that actually works and they get all of the force fields dropped.

Sisko, Jake, and O’Brien are stuck in a room with ore but they MacGuvyer their way out of that room. When the force fields are dropped they are closest to the reactor so they attempt to stop it. O’Brien and Sisko have to travel through fire, but O’Brien has to be rescued by Jake and Sisko has very limited time to divert the blast to the shields, but he does save everyone. In the meantime Quark and Odo are trapped in security, have a few tender moments, and then act like an old married couple as the credits roll.

“I never knew how much this man’s voice annoyed me.”: This was a super fun episode because I kept expecting the guy from TV infomercials to come over the screen and exclaim “BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE”. It was hysterical that Gul Dukat recorded all of these contingencies and his voice just kept going, and going, and going. I love that Kira is still a woman of action and was happy to shoot things. Garak is a hoot, as always, and he totally called out Dukat on flirting with Kira… it was epic. Though most of the time was spent in Ops, it was good to see that O’Brien can MacGuyver his way out of anything and that Sisko and Jake were willing to help out where they could, those Sisko men are good people. The least amount of time was spent with Odo and Quark but every scene they were in was filled with comedy gold and I could probably watch a show with just the two of them bickering, like in the The Odd Couple. I give 8 high fives to Dax for being the only one to keep her eyes on the prize and constantly come up with things to try.

Favorite Quote from “Meridian”:

Quark: I’m working on a simulation of Ops. People want to know what goes on up there, and they want to imagine themselves fending off a Cardassian attack, or facing a fleet of Jem’Hadar ships.

ODO: Naked, I assume.

QUARK: Isn’t there some petty thief you can harass?

ODO: Just you.

Again, I love these two so damn much,

So what had happened in “Meridian” was…: Kira is drinking coffee and asking Odo if he’s ever tried food when a man named Tiron comes over and hits on Kira, so she uses Odo a beard to fend off the unwanted attention. Tiron tries a holosuite but really just wants Kira so he asks Quark to create one for him. Quark tries several schemes to get her scanned for the program but they all fail so he hacks into her files. Odo and Kira find out but decide to surprise Quark, so they wait until Tiron goes into the program and put Quark’s head on Kira’s body. Tiron storms out, Quark doesn’t get paid, and Odo and Kira have a good laugh.

Meanwhile, everyone else is surveying the Gamma Quadrant when a planet just randomly appears. They are hailed by the inhabitants, who are from another dimension, and beam down to join them for First Meal. In their other dimension they are non-corporeal and do not age or procreate, but every 60 years they get to enjoy life as humanoids. Unfortunately every time they are in the GQ their time gets shorter and shorter and they understand their time is limited unless Starfleet can help. Dax meets a man named Deral and they fall in love while figuring out how to stop the shift so they can stay in the GQ and have a future. Deral wants to leave with Dax and stay in the AQ with her, but then decides he needs to stay so Dax alters her molecules so she can transition with them. She says goodbye to everyone and beams down but the planet won’t shift with her on it so she’s beamed back to the Defiant and I sense she’s going to drown her sorrows in A LOT of ice cream.

“Yes, we’re both very lucky.”: There are basically two complete separate stories going on, one on the station and one off in the Gamma Quadrant. On the station Kira is a badass but also completely oblivious that Odo is completely in love with her. It’s wonderful that they’ve known each other for so long that Odo can quickly fall into step and play along with her ruse, but it gets super sad super quick when he’s staring at his hand where she touched him. I’m sure he’s completely confused because being in love is super fucking confusing, especially when it’s the first time you’ve felt it, but I wonder if it’s a different feeling than when he had liquid puddle sex with the female changeling back in “The Search“. Kira and Odo make a good team thwarting Quark in his devious exploits, but I am reminded of an episode of Babylon 5 where the commander wasn’t so lucky.

The story out in the GQ is an interesting one, but gets wrapped up in a love story because that was apparently the theme of this episode. I thought it was nice Dax was finally meeting someone closer to her own age, but it’s always hard for me to get behind a couple who’s been together less than 30 TV minutes. I will admit I totally thought Dax was leaving the show and I missed something, they really had me going until the very end. I also really felt Dax being scared of heights when she was in the tree, really diving in deep to her new relationship, and really being utterly heartbroken when Deral had to leave without her. Overall, though, both stories were super “meh” and I can’t go higher than 3 mini Reece’s cups.

TA Out!