LizstarTrek - DS9 Season 6, Episodes 11 - 15

Every Sunday my Twitch subs and I watch Star Trek in my Discord. Here are my reviews and thoughts on each of the episodes as I see it. If you’re curious about a nerd’s views on Star Trek episodes, please read on, I go quite in depth with some of these episodes! I’ve watched some Star Trek before but not all of it!

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Waltz - DS9 10/10

We start with Benjamin walking into Dukat’s jail cell. He’s being transported to a starbase, for a warcrime case. “You think I did warcrimes?” Uh, yes. I do. We all do. Because you did. Anyways he’s doing better! Psychiatric therapy is working, and he’s no longer… AS unstable. Just… kind of unstable. He accepts Ziyal’s death, and is trying to look forward, for his sake and for her’s. I like how this show keeps teasing and hinting that Dukat can and COULD be a good person… but he keeps making the worst decisions you possibly could.

Anyways this ship they’re on is attacked and blown up. There are known survivors, because they know that some shuttles and escape pods made it out, but… no one knows if Sisko is alive. I mean, we do. We see him and Dukat. JUST him and Dukat. Sisko is severely injured, shattered arm, sick, unhealthy. Dukat EASILY could have left Sisko, OR killed him. But he didn’t. He probably views Sisko as a friend, in that twisted Dukat way, and as a worthy adversary, this isn’t “fair”. So he’s taking care of Sisko, and doing what he can. He also has a general distress call out, neither Dominion nor Federation, “to make it fair”.

But also Dukat is clearly NOT doing as well as he says or seems. He’s seeing Weyoun, who’s mocking him and telling him to do murders. And Sisko isn’t making it easier, by basically insulting Dukat. I mean, y’know, he’s just being himself, but… there’s a huge fear and anxiety about whether Dukat will snap and kill Sisko, and Sisko isn’t really aware of it… At least, until Sisko finds out that Dukat never actually set up the distress call and was lying about it. So now he has to sneak around about it too, as Dukat is off discussing things with imaginary Damar. And keep in mind, again, he is very injured. And Dukat is eratic, and pops in and out all the time.

After Sisko realizes that Dukat is yelling at an imaginary Kira, he is far more willing to play the game, but Dukat is too far gone, and when he finds out that Sisko had fixed the distress signal, he lashes out, and hits Sisko with a pipe.

Now there’s no pretenses. Everything is out, and it’s a full on argument, a literal debate. Dukat wants, NEEDS Sisko to realize and tell Dukat that all of the deaths of Bajorans wasn’t his fault. So now it’s a nearly dying Sisko and a WILDLY unstable Dukat, explaining why he had to do fascism. He HAD to! HE WAS FORCED TO! HIS HAND WAS FORCED!!

This episode is fucking amazing. It’s also worth mentioning that this episode’s title with the developoment crew was “Dukat’s Head”. DUKAT’S BRAIN. I FUCKING LOVE IT. This episode, and this scene, has a LOT to say about colonialism, and fascism, and it’s… EXTREMELY heavy and loaded, and very, very good. When I talk about why I love Dukat and he’s a great villain, he’s acted so well, he’s FUCKING EVIL and VERY good to watch. It ends with him shouting about how he should have KILLED THEM ALL! Sisko hits him over the head, and escapes to the shuttle craft, but is caught again by Dukat.

Gul Dukat leaves in the shuttle, after declaring that “Bajor is dead”. Damn. This is going to be VERY important in the future. And Sisko declares, as he is rescued (they see Dukat leaving and find out Sisko was there), that it’s Dukat or him. He now knows what evil is. And he fears no evil. He will NOT let him destroy Bajor.

This episode is very very good, and is interesting a literal response to the fact that Trek fans liked Dukat. And I like Dukat, but fans liked Dukat in a different way. Like, they were defending his actions on forums. And the writers were like “oh no. Well, we did it. We made a good villain, but he might have gone too far”. And some people claim they went too far in the OTHER direction to fight that, and Dukat’s descent into an insane omnicidal maniac is off the wall, but uh, no. It fits. I am excited to see how it progresses from here, though.

Who Mourns for Morn - DS9 8.5/10

Odo comes in and yells at Morn about not doing a thing he was supposed to do, but Morn won’t even respond, which is wild, because Morn is such a little chatterbox. But no, it’s not actually Morn. Morn’s been on a business trip for two weeks, so Quark set up a hologram of Morn sitting in his chair, because Morn is “the mascot”, and when he’s not there, people wonder where he is, ask about him, are worried about him.

This episode, and Morn, is all a giant joke. He’s a background alien who was given a name. That’s it. And he was put in his spot every episode, a popular location for shootings, so he’s been seen a lot. And as he was seen a lot, people ended up liking him. And since they liked him, he was given some background information, and all of that information was meta jokes at the concept of him. He talks a lot (he never speaks a single time), he’s a big ugly alien but he is constantly SWIMMING in pussy. He seems to somehow be rich, even though he literally never leaves the bar. And this episode is just a giant addition to the joke, a large conclusion to the punchline.

Turns out Morn is dead.

Everyone on the station shows up for the funeral proceedings. Quark makes a big talk about Morn’s seat, and sits a random person in the seat… who is Morn’s actor, out of makeup. This episode is filled with jokes like that. It’s a deepcut episode for huge nerds. I am a HUGE fucking nerd. We learn a lot of small fun things about Morn. Dax had a crush on Morn, but was turned down. IMAGINE. DAX, THE HOTTEST WOMAN IN SPACE, NOT BEING ENOUGH FOR MORN. Well Morn WAS a stunning bachelor.

Anyways, Morn left his entire estate to Quark. All the rotten beets he had in storage. His room, which just has a mud bath. But INSIDE the mud bath is Morn’s wife, who is here to explain that Morn had a shit ton of money hidden away somewhere, and she wants some of it. She comes on VERY strong.

We also start finding MORE people who are very interested in Morn’s assets. Two sleezy alien brothers who are VERY friendly and VERY threatening. And then an officer of some jurisdiction, who claims Morn was a prince of his planet, and all the money was the money he got as a gift from his parents. All of them are harassing poor Quark, who’s trying to get all of the money issues squared away at the same time.

Eventually it all comes to a head, ALL of it a lie. They were actually all bank robbers. Years ago the four of them, and Morn, robbed a bank. Morn betrayed them all and ran with the money. Now, years later, the statute of limitations was up, and they wanted their damn money. But they still need Quark to actually get the money from the bank delivery. But once he gets it open and shows off the latinum, they all turn on each other and start firing. Quark flees into the case of Latinum, and then Odo comes and bails him out. They’re all going to jail, and the latinum is ALL Quark’s, all 1000 bricks of it! He’s RICH! Oh, wait, no, it’s all just USELESS GOLD, someone sucked all the latinum out of them.

It also turns out that Morn is still alive! He faked is own death, and threw poor Quark under the bus, hoping he’d get the robbers taken care of. And well, he did. But Quark is PISSED. Morn is going to explain himself, but Quark doesn’t even want to HEAR him right now. But when Morn vomits up some liquid latinum, which he’s kept hidden in his second stomach for six years, Quark is okay with it. It’s practically 100 bricks worth.

This episode is goofy and fun. It’s a little slow around the middle, which is why it’s not an all timer, but it’s FILLED to the brim with fun jokes.

Far Beyond the Stars - DS9 11/10

This is one of the big ones. Maybe the biggest one. This is possibly the most acclaimed Star Trek episode of all time. It’s certainly top 5. I’ve never seen it. Let’s go.

Sisko is overworked and stressed. Friends are dying in this dumbass war, and he feels like the entire alpha quadrant’s future is on his back. And he’s also going nuts. He’s starting to see visions, people walking around DS9 clearly out of place. After he has some kind of attack, Bashir explains he seems to be havign teh same effect as when he was having visions from the prophets last season. He’s looking into it, but then.. Sisko is in the dream.

Sisko is now Benny Russell, a struggling sci-fi writer in the 1950s. He’s a black man in the big city, and is struggling. His coworkers all like to tolerate him, but of course he’s harassed the cops. But the thing is, every other actor is an actor from DS9. Kira, O’Brien, and Quark are all co-writers of his. Odo’s his boss. Martok is the artist who writes things to help give them ideas. Dax is the secretary. Nog is the news boy. Worf is a baseball player after Benny’s girlfriend, who wants him to give up on being a writer and join her at the cafe. Dukat and Weyoun are cops who assault him for no reason. And Sisko’s father is a preacher on the street, talking to Benny directly. Telling him to write the story. Write the story.

What’s the story? Benny writes a story called Deep Space 9. It’s a bright future, a happy future. …It’s a future with a black captain. Odo, the boss, refuses to publish it. I mean, he’s SYMPATHETIC to the black cause, sure, but come on, Benny. He can’t publish this! It could cause race riots! RACE RIOTS! IMAGINE IT! What’s next, a black woman as the communication officer?!?! Quark’s actor is the best here, he’s the one who keeps sticking up for Benny, he’s a loud Jewish guy. Him and Kira are most vocal about it beign good, cause y’know, they’re minorities too. Others are sympathetic, enough, y’know. They don’t See Race :) You know how it is.

We get scenes from this man’s life. Him fighting for his story. Him trying, and failing, at trying to survive in a world that hates him. It’s very, very heavy, and EXTREMELY good and powerful. We see him win his story, but then the owner of the paper cancels the entire paper and fires him for even TRYING to write about a black character. I mean, come one, he was kind enough to even allow this colored man to work here, and he gets all UPPITY. This is after Benny is beaten near to death by cops for daring to cry about his friend getting shot and killed.

And then we get maybe the best scene.

I know people who mock this scene, and say that Avery Brooks is a bad actor. They need to shut the fuck up.

Benny is carried off after his nervous breakdown, and then Sisko wakes back up… he has a lot to think about. His vision from the Prophets is over, and now, where can he go from here? What if, instead… he IS just the figment of a man’s imagination? It says the quiet part out loud, it was always a theme and concept, a what if, but it puts it directly out there.

This episode is obviously one of the best. I don’t even have much to say about it. It stands on its own. It’s not an episode neccesarily for me, but I love it regardless.

I’m sure it was all the actor’s favorite episode too, because they didn’t need to sit in the makeup chair for hours.

One Little Ship - DS9 8/10

Hey, we’re doing something NOT related to the Dominion for once! We’re doing some science! They’re testing an anomaly that SHOULD make the ship that goes into it tiny and smol. They tether onto it, holding it so it doesn’t fly into the anomaly. Dax, Bashir, and O’Brien are tiny and smol in the shuttle, and studying it. Unfortunately, things get bad. Yeah, I lied, the Dominion show up, beat the shit out of the Defiant, which is trying to keep the shuttle from falling into the anomaly so it can’t fight back, aaaand boom. The shuttle falls into the anomaly. They’re dead.

No, obviously not. They’re just tiny. They DID escape the anomaly, but they’re now tiny.

Anyways, the Jem’Hadar control the Defiant now. Something is new with the Jem’Hadar. They’re breeding a new race of Jem’Hadar, Alpha Jem’Hadar, who are “specifically bred for psychological profiles and combat readiness in this sector”. Whatever that means. But that ALSO means that they invented racism, because the Gammas and Alphas are kind of at each other’s throats. The Second, an Elder, is angry that the First, an Alpha, is the First now. And also not immediately killing Sisko. I dunno why he wnats to kill Sisko so damn bad, but they need Sisko to get the Warp Drive back online. So they get Sisko, Kira, Worf, and Nog to work on the Engine. The Second does not trust Sisko and his men to ACTUALLY work on the Warp Core…. and he’s right, they’re trying to get control of the ship from Engineering and hoping no one notices.

Someone does notice… The shuttle. They snuck in through the exhaust. I guess its just open to space, sure, and get into Engineering. So they’re going to basically act as the little angels trying to save the crew. They go to the bridge and sneak around, using clever tactics, like booping the door to distract the Jem Hadar like it’s fucking Skyrim.

They beam into a computer to change the circuits in there. This must have been very fun to shoot.

The shuttle manages to reroute control, and then goes in guns blazing, blasting Jem’Hadar with fucking photon torpedos. The ensuing chaos allows them to regain control. The episode ends with some fun jokes about being smol.

This one was a little goofy and fun. Weirdly, the Alpha and Gamma Jem’Hadar stuff will never come back.

Honor Among Thieves - DS9 8/10

O’Brien is undercover in a seedy bar in the armpit of the universe. Why is it O’BRIEN? Dunno. Just had to be. O’Brien is good at what he does, I guess. He’s not an INTELLIGENCE SPY, and he’s also kind of famous, but it’s fine. Anyways, he’s under cover, watching some Orion Syndicate peoples. He gets an in with them when he spikes one of their little brain connector thingies, and then saves them. Boom, he’s got an in.

Meanwhile, on DS9, everything is falling apart. Y’know, cause O’Brien is gone. Yeah, as you’d expect.

O’Brien is playing the quiet, kinda awkward type. He’s almost playing Smiley. He gets in with Bilby, one of the small bigwigs in the Orion Syndicate. He’s an old, relatively pleasant guy. He’s kinda generous, has a sense of humor. Totally willing to work with O’Brien, who’s a genius who can fix anything, cause hey, he needs some stuff fixed. Who doesn’t.

The episode is as follows. O’Brien hangs out with literal gangsters, who are friendly, and then we see them blast a guy in the stomach for selling them shitty merchendise. And then he goes to a smoky alley and meets with his handler, giving him information.

It all takes a biiiit of a turn when Bilby covers for O’Brien. This means that if O’Brien is a rat (which he is), Bilby is dead. This IMMEDIATELY starts weighing on O’Brien. Bilby’s not a bad guy. Sure he’s doing bad, illegal things, but like, he doesn’t seem to really want to be in this life. He just can’t get out. He’s a sad man living alone in his apartment with his cat. He can’t see his wife and kids, cause of his work with the Syndicate, and if things go wrong, they’re dead, and it’s his fault. It’s a rough life.

O’Brien finds out a lot. He finds who the Orion Syndicate man’s on the inside is. He finds out the Dominion is working with the Syndicate. He finds out that the Syndicate is going to assassinate a Klingon, to cause instability. And when he finds that out, his handler takes him out. He’s in too deep, getting too sympathetic… so he decks his handler, and goes to warn Bilby.

But there’s nothing he can do. Bilby is in too deep. If he tells the Orion Syndicate its a trap, he’ll still be killed for sticking up for O’Brien. If he runs, his family will be killed. He could kill O’Brien, but he just… can’t bring himself to. So he asks O’Brien to look after his cat, and goes to die. O’Brien is shattered, but life goes on. He killed a man, but life goes on.

I really liked this episode, it was tense. The rest of the watch party didn’t, I was alone here. It does feel weird, a bit out of place. It’s not very Trekky. And parts of O’Brien feel out of character. But I still liked it, what can I say.