Category: DS9

While exploring a planet in the Gamma Quadrant, the crew watches a Jem’Hadar ship crash land nearby. After they’re overrun by Jem’Hadar, the crew retreat inside the ship and patience begins to wear thin.

With the Klingon conflict becoming more and more desperate, Starfleet orders Sisko to infiltrate the Klingon leadership and expose Gowron as a Changeling.

We’ve made it to the end of the fourth season of DS9! It’s been Clay’s first “full” season of a Trek series (he missed only Rejoined and Starship Down) so we get his thoughts about watching 24 episodes of a single series. We also discuss a YouTube trailer for the fourth season, and try to determine how so much could have changed without us realizing it. The fourth season of DS9 has been the best single year of any Trek series to this point, so we wrap things up with a discussion of our favorite moments and memories!

Odo suddenly loses his ability to maintain a solid form, so the Defiant goes into Dominion territory in order to find a solution. Once there, the Founders explain that Odo must be judged for his previous murder of another Changeling and the penalty is yet another example of loss that has defined the season. Clay joins the show to discuss Changeling-Jem’Hadar interactions, everyone onboard the Defiant, and the stage fighting match of the century!

Quark is diagnosed with a terminal illness, and the O’Brien’s beam their unborn child into the fertile womb of Major Kira! Ferengi episodes have their pitfalls (goofy culture, uneven comedy), but Body Parts manages to work as an illuminating character piece for Quark. Meanwhile, the show takes another stab at meandering melodrama with the O’Brien/Kira story, which reminds Wes of when ‘Friends” jumped the shark. Clay joins the show to discuss talking without a cold, the Quark-Rom dynamic, and the guys debate whether or not Miles O’Brien is a “good” character!

Bashir and Dax discover a planet where the inhabitants have been punished by the Dominion – they’re cursed with an incurable plague that can strike you dead at any time. Bashir’s Trek-ian optimism is put to the test when he finds that a culture of death may prevent him from ever discovering a cure. It’s an old-fashioned “beam down to a planet and fix a problem” episode, but that’s a tried and true narrative device that worked very well on TNG – will it still work at this point in DS9? Clay joins me to discuss episodes with a slow burn, saving your makeup budget for a single scene, and not being impressed with 24th-century medicine!

The Dominion make a dramatic reappearance with a feisty group of Jem’Hadar and an oily Vorta named Weyoun! When DS9 is attacked by rogue Jem’Hadar, Sisko must make a deal with the devil to punish those responsible. It’s an episode designed to make the Jem’Hadar seem scary again, but To the Death also serves as an episode that redefines the Dominion and its member races. Clay joins me to discuss failing to make an impact, the technical mechanics of “the white”, and useless bags!

The politics of DS9 get even more topsy-turvy when Kasidy Yates is accused of being a Maquis smuggler. Also, a Starfleet officer plans to defect to the Maquis and prolong the Cardassian Empire’s suffering. For the Cause is a very modern piece of television writing, and it’s excellent script highlights subtext, character development, and different perspectives. Clay joins me to discuss the wink-wink-nudge-nudge of Jake Sisko, not being able to go to Risa, and revealing your plan through viewscreen!

In this very special ASMR episode of Star Trek: Deep Space 9, Jake gets the tingles while rustling some papers and Odo gets the tingles of love in the place where his heart should be! Jakes writing gets a bump from a very odd creative vampire, and Mrs. Troi returns to the station to teach Odo about bizarre alien childcare rituals. Clay joins the show to talk about being unfamiliar with Lwaxana on DS9, what Odo wants in a relationship, and Jake Sisko: F*** Machine!

Back to the Mirror Universe we go! When Jake is taken to the MU by the MU version of his dead mother, Sisko follows him there and becomes embroiled in the human resistance against the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance. People get slapped, people make dinner, and people fly spaceships! It’s all fun and games in DS9’s Mirror Universe, I guess. Clay joins me to discuss the sexual dynamism of Cirroc Lofton, the serialization of the MU, and cutting the legs out of a story!

After being falsely accused of a crime, O’Brien is punished by having to serve a 20-year prison sentence… but only in his mind! In a dark companion piece to TNG’s “Inner Light”, O’Brien has to deal with the aftermath of his brutal sentence. Can he put his life back together, or will he be shunned by his friends and family? Clay and patron Matt join me to discuss the problems with melodrama, how to yell at children, and what exactly was a part of O’Brien’s mind and what was a part of the punishment program?

After Worf accidentally destroys a Klingon transport carrying over 400 civilians, the Empire sends out their best lawyer to bring him back to Kronos for punishment! Trek usually misses the mark when it comes to courtroom drama (see Court Martial and Dax), but Rules of Engagement bucks that trend (sometimes) as it focuses on character work at the expense of logical judicial proceedings. Clay joins me to discuss the Klingon plan to discredit the Federation, breaking the fourth wall, and ineffective Vulcan judges!

Sisko relinquishes his role as the Emissary of the Bajoran people, and O’Brien tries to relinquish his family! A long-lost Bajoran poet tries to return Bajor to its past, and the O’Brien family is about to get even bigger. It’s time for the annual Bajoran episode: does it manage to do anything different? Clay joins me to discuss the O’Brien family’s hostility, Kira on the sidelines again, and returning without the other guy!

When Quark’s hostile management tactics send his brother to the infirmary, Rom decides to organize a labor union! The annual Ferengi episode reveals itself with an episode that takes a serious and complicated subject and explores it in a very unserious and simplistic way. And it’s not even all that bad! Plus, Worf gets another chance to mope around the station. Clay joins me to discuss the problem with Ferengi stories, Worf’s sparse quarters, and the magic of Jeffrey Combs!