Thoughts On: Star Trek DS9 Season Four

•  Changeling: changes from being a chair cushion Sisko & Kira: watch, get knocked back. Um... what. ("The Way of the Warrior")
  
• Ah, training. Explains it.
• When he asked for shore leave I don't think anyone expected him to mean for his entire fleet..!
• 'We will be ready for them!' If there's any scenery left!
• Of course, being a successful rebel operative would require a great deal of imagination, to be able to think up plans and back up plans and to think of ways out of sticky situations on the fly. It's just a different angle of thinking.
• ...'I can't take the uniform off; I don't need clothes - I make my own.' Technically, Odo does everything naked!
• ....I don't think that's Cassidy....
• I like how they've woven in references to the movies in in such a way as to not completely alienate those who haven't seen them. Still not going to myself though =P
• Quark is braver than he thinks he is; laughing at a Klingon! Even if that Klingon is Worf.
• Good luck retrieving that dart! Impressive!
• The Klingons are using the Dominion threat as a front/excuse to attack the Cardassians, on the assumption that they're colluding with the Dominion and that's why they've closed their borders. Hence the attack on Garak - Klingon see Cardassian, Klingon fight him; no matter which side of the border he is on.
• Oh I do so enjoy being right.
• Of course, considering this action would severely weaken both the Cardassians and the Klingons, how can he be so sure it's definitely Gowron he's receiving the orders from? Everyone is behaving so sketchy this episode! It's... uncomfortable...
• Oh that's so clever! I don't think I've ever seen this in anything else - using the fact that no-one really thinks about the 'help' (tailors, maids, waiters etc) to discreetly tell them things in a plausibly deniable manner so they can pass messages.
• And here Worf proves himself a better friend to Gowron than any of the other Klingons he surrounds himself with; a true friend tells you when you're doing something stupid instead of going along with it.
• A decent engineer is never 100% certain about the machines he works on. You can never be certain something won't go wrong and you can never account for every possibility; to try is madness!
• I was thinking why not use the tractor, but I wasn't thinking to use it like that... genius!
• Garak's sarcasm is so thick you could serve it as a dessert!
• I mean, say what you will about Quark; least he has his priorities straight.
• Nog: 'I.O.U 1 disruptor pistol.'
• Should probably have subs on for the Klingon only bits but not knowing exactly what they're saying kinda adds to the immersion IMO.
• Humans: o.o Klingons in general: o^o Gowron: O^O
• This one I had to watch in two chunks. Was it supposed to be one single hour-and-a-half episode or was it originally a two-parter that was merged into one by whoever uploaded the series to the site I got it from? (No, I didn't pirate it what are you talking about)
• Jake: 'Let me tell you a story, all about how...' ("The Visitor")
• Wait, how would a healing device erase the blood that's already bled from a wound? I mean, I get that it's just a way to show that the wound is all healed but the blood would still be there, just the cut would be closed... I'm thinking too much on this...
• "The worst thing that could ever happen to a young man happened to me: my father died." So your mother is just some woman then huh... Though I guess it's a different kind of sad? A little 'old patriarchy' seeming though...
• Ah I see... Jake couldn't 'move on' from his father's passing because he wasn't killed, just displaced... So I guess this one is gonna be about how this all only technically happened because they'll do something that prevents it all occurring in the first place.
• I love the whole characterisation of Morn being an endless chatterbox while the character himself never actually has any spoken lines in the whole show!
•  Incoming Dad to cock-block in three...two...one...
• Kinda sad this episode is the only time we'd ever see old Jadzia, considering how they chose to end the character's story when the actor left.
• Bisexual O'Brien confirmed! ("Hippocratic Oath")
• You can only ever really keep a promise if that promise is to try; any other promise is definitely going to be broken at some point unless it has a definite deadline or end. That's how I think of it, anyway. I only ever promise to try because I know too well if I promise something more certain I'll only end up breaking that promise.
• Nothing like a very-soon deadline to do the improbable.
• If Goran'Agar has a genetic mutation meaning his body can create it's own 'White', couldn't Bashir use his blood or something to synthesise a cure from?
  
• For an engineer, O'Brien is a very simple thinker...
• Said: "You explain." Unsaid: 'I mean, all this is partially your fault. If you hadn't melted the equipment the doctor could have found what we wanted.'
• Bashir: I'll just prank the hell out of you for the next couple months instead.
• 'Come visit, Kira!' Because invitations from old friends, especially one as dodgy-looking as Razka Karn have always turned out well... ("Indiscretion")
• Jadzia Dax, Yatesko Shipper-in-Chief!
• Kira: 'I'll be right with you, Dukat, I just need to go throw up.'
• Gods, they make getting a job at all sound easy... "20 minutes into the interview and... they asked 'when can you start?'" I mean, technically a quarter of all the interviews I've ever had have ended up in a job but those were merely until the government subsidy for employing a disabled person ran out, and I've only gotten to the interview stage on eight of the must-be-about over 50 jobs I've applied for in the last couple years... (I don't see the point in applying for most of the jobs that are out there simply because they're all either management or healthcare, which I am either unsuited or unqualified for respectively.)
• Graves suggest survivors... at least at the time.
• Poor Dukat, feeling a little... butt-hurt?
• Sisko: 'Since when was my son so insightful?'
•  'Oh no, a dangerous situation - let me just remove my helmet.' Because that's the smart thing to do.
• Three-and-a-bit seasons and it still seems weird when Sisko refers to Dax as 'old man'. ("Rejoined")
• Flummoxing Quark with sleight-of-hand will always amuse me!
• Bashir: 'One day I'll learn how to say no to a pretty face...'
• Well, they certainly don't seem to make clip-on earrings like they used to... We had a pair once that were just little white ovoids and they always slipped off within a minute. Spring had gotten slack probably...
• Looks like one of those giant jungle flowers that stinks of rotting meat...
• Given how things ended with Torias and Nilani, it's no wonder things are still the way they are between Dax and Kahn. They never got proper closure.
• Well I can imagine the uproar after this episode... but then people still have trouble with women in same-sex relationships today so I can also imagine the reams of 'wow they're such good friends!' comments.
• Reading through the episode's page on Memory Alpha and found this which I think I love: 'Steve Oster recollected that a man called the show and complained, "You're ruining my kids by making them watch two women kiss like that." It was a production assistant who took the call. After hearing the man's complaint, the PA asked if the man would've been okay with his kids seeing one woman shoot the other. When the man said he would be okay with that, the PA said, "You should reconsider who's messing up your kids." (Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Companion (p. 279))''
• I don't think the wormhole was meant to do that...
• With a title like "Starship Down" I was expecting more rabbits...
  
• Are we really meant to believe that humanity has forgotten sonar in the future purely because technology has improved 'beyond' it?
•  Remember what Scotty said, O'Brien: tell them it'll take longer than it actually will so that when they give you a ridiculously short time frame to do it in it seems more miraculous that you did it!
• Quark: "Rich beyond our dreams..." Like you already have?
• Regretting your fast now, huh Kira?
• Dax: 'Thanks for trying to rescue me; now I won't die alone.'
• Those poor engineers; going from working with a leader to a boss...
• Yay, it didn't explode!... oh no, it didn't explode...
• Not sure I like the new decor in the mess hall. Really clashes with the space theme.
• Wow, the smile on Kira's face when Sisko invited her to a baseball game - glorious!
• Quark is going to crash that thing within five minutes of leaving dock... ("Little Green Men")
• Ooooh think I know which one this is now!
• I was going to comment on the possibility of them forgetting to edit the green-screen behind Quark, but the next scene proved it part of his chair. Thank goodness for inertia delaying my pausing the episode!
• Of course, all that means no profit from the kemocite... damaged goods and all that - if there's any left to sell!
• I like how they did the whole 'one race talking and the other can't understand' and vice versa thing they did. Clever.
• Nog you little slut. Right in front of her fiance too!
  
• Oh great. Not only is Odo stuck with them, he also has to help them steal a nuke.
• Are we seeing the birth of the Mirrorverse..?
• Carlson: 'Do all non-humans lack eyebrows?'
• Ok, maybe not steal a nuke, but still. Flying directly into the blast of one...
• Kor: 'I know I said don't tell anyone but Worf isn't just anyone!' ("The Sword of Kahless")
• Well that settles his fate then; dreaming of lost friends pretty much guarantees you'll have joined them by episode's end!
• Well, obviously finding the sword wasn't the difficult part, judging by the fact that it's only 3/8 the way through the episode.
• The sword is cursed; any who hold it believe themselves to be the one meant to wield it in power. The only real solution to things like that is to destroy the object itself...
• Kor: 'Why did we park so damn far away?!'
• This episode is so dark I can't see much of what's happening. Probably need to adjust my screen settings.
  
• Had a fiddle, nothing can really be changed. Oh well; was worth a try.
• I'm surprised the sword is still whole, let alone usable. Human weapons after 1200 years are usually pretty ruined, even when they're well kept - take Tutankhamun's meteorite dagger, for instance. Seems pretty intact - it's even still quite rust-free - but I don't think it could take heavy impact (as if from blocking an attack, for instance) very well. (Ok, maybe not the best example, but it's the most similar one I could think of!)
• I'm having GoT s8 'long night' flashbacks - nothing much beyond movement visible and lots of 'Aaargh! Hurgh! Oof! Biff!'...
• Well that puts a whole new meaning to 'space sword'.
• "I wonder what scared her away?" Bashir: 'Probably the guy who looks somewhat like he's been in the bath for an hour too long.' ("Our Man Bashir")
  
• Poor Garak is going to be so disappointed when he learns that the real MI6 is nothing like the holosuite's depiction! (Apparently involves a lot more paperwork, for one!)
• Eddington: 'Oh shit; I exploded the senior staff.'
  
• Ominously eye-patched O'Brien isn't quite who I was expecting to appear either - I thought it would have been Sisko. But then again, this way does have a better effect...
• I'm surprised they didn't think of the holosuites before, to be honest. They know that they have to be high-tech to run properly in the first place, so of course they're the perfect place to store people's transporter buffer patterns.
• A very fast acting drug, that they are rendered unconscious immediately at the mere contact with it!
• Garak: "This decade truly has no taste." Oh wait until you see what they thought looked good in the seventies! (carpeted bathroom, anyone? It even runs up the side of the bathtub!)
• Something tells me the original Hippocrates Noah was an unflattering near-caricature of a Chinese person, as they usually were portrayed in media of the 60s.
• Do you think Noah would have one of these on his car?
• 'Or what? You'll shoot me?' - man who was shot.
• You can tell they had fun with this one - they all were chewing so much scenery I'm surprised there's enough left to finish the season!
• Messing with Odo's stuff is just cruel; they're basically intentionally triggering someone with rather extreme OCD and getting upset when he freaks out. ("Homefront")
• Must be some hella good transmitters if they can have instantaneous chat like that with that much distance between DS9 and Earth.
• War-front promotions, such as Sisko's to 'acting head of security', are always somewhat awkward, I think. No-one really wants to be promoted during war time since it usually means the previous owner of the rank/title died fairly recently...
• How the extras in the back can watch that loving reunion and just continue on as though they'd just seen a pigeon fly past the window I don't know... IRL seeing that would bring a smile to any face!
• Nog: 'I'm really starting to struggle at the Academy and I'm not making friends and I'm embarrassed about that because I'm supposed to be doing so amazingly well.' That's a feeling we've all had at some point... at least, I have...
• It's the same problem everyone has. 'We need to do something about [x].' "We should do [y]; it works." 'That's too disruptive/expensive. We won't do it.' Then later 'Why is [x] still a problem you were supposed to fix it.' "sigh" And then, even later. 'We did [y] and it solved the problem. You should have said something sooner.' "SIGH"
•  "Paradise Lost". Now that's an ominous decision of episode title...
• Oh dear - another fancy squad of cadets is in trouble. Though this time, sounds like, it's for being the unwitting pawns of the Dominion.
• (I'm almost regretting my choice in new headphones; they make my head heavy, my ears ache, and they keep catching on my hair...)
• Seems like the cadet has that recessive gene that causes your ears to seem pointed...I thought that was just a story, like Alexandria's Genesis...
• There's always quislings in every war; people who are deluded into thinking they'd benefit from the enemy winning, be it financially or influentially.
• You're willing to become the very thing we're fighting against? Becoming the monster to fight the monster never works.
• I like the apparent seamless integration of original buildings and future-modern construction in the city. It's very organic and realistic, in a way. City planners IRL seem all too eager to knock down and rebuild on top of historic structures, though, no matter the apparent importance of what was originally there. I'm sure the people of Boston would have considered Scollay Square a 'historical location of some importance' had it not been bulldozed to build a load of government buildings on. (And all the salty Fallout fans who cosplay Hancock who can't do any 'Goodneighbor' photo-shoots because of it!)
• People who've served with Sisko have a horrible habit of becoming bad guys...
• When people like Leyton talk about loyalty, they usually mean the blind kind.
• Odo doing everything he can to see Kira smile... that's just adorable. ("Crossfire")
• Surely, though, Odo would understand that rigid routine is, in itself, a security risk.
• The Red Herring approacheth...
• Ah, a small child; the deadliest weapon of them all!
• My god... to be able to portray such heavy emotion so well through such thick prosthetics... the Emmys are too narrow-minded when it comes to award-winning acting.
• Perhaps a group hug with Odo is in order? Ensure a softer landing?
• ...I guess that works too. LOL.
• Odo.exe has crashed. Please shut down and restart the program.
• Quark, can't you see? He's not sitting alone in the rubble. He's sulking... aesthetically...
• "Fuck you!" he said with love. "Fuck you too!" he replied with equal sentiment. I think I have a new favourite friendship dynamic!
• 12+ vaxes in one go - I hope they were able to remove all chances of side effects by whichever century this is otherwise Kira is gonna suffer for the next few days... ("Return to Grace")
• Oh dear... obviously not... See this is why we try to merge them together (like the MMR one [measles, mumps, rubella]) so you don't have to get stuck so many times!
• Least they only seem to last a few hours, unlike some which can last days (the Covid one, for instance - though I've been lucky with them so far; just a sore arm for a few days each time.).
• At least you get out more than you would if you were still in government, Dukat. If I could go see other planets in such an easy manner as people are able to in ST you'd never get me home again...
• Well, the Klingons have something to laugh about, at least. Spreading happiness, wherever you go!
• It always amazes me somewhat that they have these conversations within full earshot of the crew and/or whoever else is nearby and somehow expect to not be heard. Especially when the characters are supposedly having a private conversation that the other people nearby don't hear despite the fact they don't particularly bother trying to be quiet! There are some things I cannot suspend disbelief on...
• It is so much more difficult to concentrate when you can't reach the keyboard well because of the tiny dog on your lap using your right wrist as a pillow...
• I've probably said this before, but Cardassians seem to be such good parents.
• "Sup bro long time no see. Kill me!" Klingons are strange... ("Sons of Mogh")
• Oh, let the Klingon Empire be shifty in peace!
• 'Quick, we have to interfere with Worf's native culture, as it doesn't align with ours!' What was that part of the Prime Directive, again? No interfering with alien culture, however it differs from our own?
• Alright, fine. Here's a solution for everyone. Let Kurn die - but only for a minute or so. Then revive him. He died, so his honour death thingy is fulfilled but no lives were actually lost so no murders.
• I'm glad I don't have such a bad identity crisis as Worf; sounds impossible to live with!
• If starships could speak, they'd all be screaming the Klingon for "OOOOHH SHHHIIIIIITT!"
• "How come you get to be High King?" IDK, maybe because it's an Irish battle, and he's Irish!? ("Bar Association")
• The Ferengi method of business is far too similar to modern capitalist business methods...
• Oh to have such job security as O'Brien!
• It's a bar; there's gonna be some 'Klingon debates' every now and then. Makes it worth the night out!
• 'Stop using my own words to hurt me!'
• No-one can hate you quite as much as someone who loves you!
• Oooh a broken star-sail ship! ("Accession")
• 'But if you are the Emissary, and I am the Emissary... then who's flying the plane!?'
• Well, it took him 200 years to get out the wormhole; no wonder the Prophets chose a new Emissary!
• ...until it turns out he's a Changeling here to cause chaos...
• And suddenly Sisko realises being the Emissary isn't so bad after all.
• 'Miles, I can't work with you moping; go play with your boyfriend for a bit.'
•  Somehow I immediately knew this was a nightmare Worf was having and not a cold open on an actual thing that happened. ("Rules of Engagement")
• Wait; it was both? Have I missed something?
• It's definitely an interesting perspective to have, that the court of law is another form of battle. And not a totally incorrect one either, I think.
• For a race that's a master of keeping their emotions in check, the Vulcan admiral looks so bored.
• Or maybe a Founder was aboard the transport and was like 'Today I shall cause trouble on purpose.'
• Surely one way to throw the Klingon advocate off would be to ask him whether he's been in any actual combat situations. See how much he likes the 'what would you have done' line then.
• That's provocation and therefore any case he was trying to make with that doesn't count, surely?
• What does it mean? Well, you can't murder someone who is already dead...
• Aaaand gottem.
• Oo think I know which one this is. ("Hard Time")
• I didn't know that others were aware of his 20yr mental imprisonment thing though. Having not actually seen this episode I thought it was just another thing that happened to him that everyone helps him work through.
• Ugh I don't even want to imagine having to deal with the trauma of being incarcerated and the institutionalisation without the actual imprisonment happening.
• Gotta love when you look up the episode on Memory Alpha to check the spelling of a name and get spoiled by the summary at the beginning of the page. At least now I know why he doesn't mention Ee'char to Bashir.
• What if the AR that the prison is is one big program and Ee'char was another real person going through the AR prison, and he wasn't killed by O'Brien, his 'sentence' just finished so they added that little detail as extra punishment for Miles?
• "It's a sonic screwdriver. Forgotten by some weirdo traveller in some blue box. Had a cool coat and a penchant for running." (The best part of this joke is there is a legit crossover comic out there!)
• They really should have bothered with makeup for the over-the-shoulder shots with Ee'char; it's a little too obvious it's just some actress with her hair in a scruffy bun... and very different from what you'd actually see, judging from the 'Miles POV' shots. Plus the very definitely pink skin tone compared to the green/grey of the prostheses.
• Sadly, you can't escape your own brain no matter how much you might want to; believe me...
• The worst part of this is the Prime Directive means that they can't do anything to the Argrathi (like suing them) for reparations.
• Well that would be the weirdest thing to happen to anyone; walking home and bam! There's your dead mother, sitting on the couch and smiling at you! ("Shattered Mirror")
• Y'know, I should have guessed from the episode title it'd be a Mirrorverse episode. Sigh; guess I should prepare myself for some unnecessarily evil shenanigans.
• This would make things with Kassidy even more complicated...
• See; told you. Unnecessarily evil shenanigans.
• I've said it before and I'll say it again: the Mirrorverse episodes are just unnecessary. It made for a good episode of TOS but it should have been left at that.
• Yeah yeah I know; if I hate them so much just skip them. But it wouldn't be a proper watch-through, would it?
• At least you got a proper goodbye this time, Sisko.
• Odo: the original Surprised Patrick! ("The Muse")
• Poor man's such a sucker for the puppy eyes..
• Just that little moment with Lwaxana and Odo... so sweet.
• I knew solo alien chick would be some sort of emotion feeder or something!
• Get you a man who'll switch to your pillow when you get up before he does! ("For The Cause")
• Sheesh, Sisko just can't catch a break when it comes to romance! I really hope that it turns out that Kassidy isn't the smuggler; that's it's someone on her ship who's just using her as a cover/patsy.
• Garak, she's a bit too young for you. You're being just a bit creepy.
• Oh you know he hurting when he won't talk to his best friend...
• Don't be so damn heteronormative, Quark. That's so 1990s of you.
• Even if we hadn't worked it out by now, it's so painfully obvious that those orders were not from Starfleet. There's no way an organisation like Starfleet would change plans for an operation like this at the last minute like that.
•  Ugh, can't be away for five minutes without something going horribly wrong... ("To The Death")
• Just met Weyoun for the first time. Hate him already - somehow slimier than Dukat!
• So I've just realised that the new "Kelvin-verse" Klingons look more like Jem'Hadar than they do Klingons...
• Something the Jem'Hadar would do well to learn: every soldier that survives battle is one more experienced man for the next one; so surely trying to keep as many on your side alive as possible would mean a better battle the next time and so on?
• ...Has Dax already forgotten the Jem'Hadar child from the previous season and how he was a full grown, near feral adult within days of finding him?
• One down, x many to go..!
• So... you're not going to try to find any of the stuff they stole..? You know, the whole reason you went after them in the first place!?
• I mean, random native is probably right - don't want to risk taking some new xeno-plague with no known cure back to DS9. ("The Quickening")
• The native doctor has a point though - dying of a cureless illness slowly and painfully? It's better caring for them to euthanise than to try to drag their life out for longer. It's just as cruel to prolong a human's painful death as it is an animal's.
• The worst part of this episode is watching it post 2020/21 and just knowing that there'd be some pregnant people who would refuse the vaccine because 'I can't pronounce the names of the ingredients therefore they're evil poisons' and other extremely stupid bullshit. (Just writing that sentence made me ridiculously mad.)
• 'It's horrible! The doc said I only have 20, 30 more years to live!' ("Body Parts")
• "That's terrible!" Says Rom with the hugest smile on his face!
• Well, at least she's still a somewhat believable size for someone who's gone from not-pregnant to about three/four months pregnant in a couple hours! This is a plot point that would not have worked had Nana Visitor been further along.
• Yes, you're gonna live; yes, you can sue the doctor for malpractice; but you'll have one upset bidder to deal with when they realise they're not going to get the nice set of Quark remains they paid for!
• D'you think Jeff Bezos watched this episode in college and was like "I wanna be just like the Ferengi when I grow up!"? And succeeded in being worse.
• Well that was fucking terrifying. ("Broken Link")
• I think the best obfuscation you can offer sometimes is just the straight truth!
• Unfortunately due to simple cultural osmosis I already knew the whole "Gowron is a Changeling" twist; but wow, what a way to end the season!

   So watching this season took a lot longer than I was hoping it would, mainly due to trying to be less nocturnal - watching during the day is difficult as I'm always interrupted (but only when I'm trying actually watch something - I can bum around doing not much for hours and not a peep but as soon as I load up an episode, or a podcast, and put on the headphones suddenly I'm the numero uno conversation target...)  Still, helps get some knitting done. Working on a scarf in a herringbone pattern right now and I have to be very careful to keep the tension loose... My usual tension is a little too tight for this stitch but it looks so good.

   Hopefully I'll be able to get a start on season five before April...lol