#deep space nine the die is cast

[bagheerita]

When Sisko takes the Defiant to the Gamma quadrant against orders to rescue Odo from Garak's "old friend" and Kira's like, "We're getting a message: it's the Admiral calling to remind us he ordered us not to go to the Gamma quadrant." And Sisko's like, "No, you don't know what he said because we didn't get that message because of all the interference." and she just stares for a minute before she's like, "yeah... interference... must have been an ion storm." like the thought had never occurred to her to lie, and I lost it because "sorry can't hear you, going through a tunnel" apparently still works as an Earth excuse in the future 🤣

[ladyylavenderrr]

Me, very vocally, at my television screen when Enabran Tain threatens to hurt Mila in TDIC

[eew101]

I just love the sheer pathos of this scene... it's one of Garak's saddest lines.

[usstrekart]

Starting today and running for the next two weeks is a special limited time sale in my Threadless shop. I have had many requests to make a lot of my Star Trek episode posters available as prints so I am doing just that! I am starting with some of the most popular and most requested posters from Deep Space Nine for this first run. 

If you want more than a print, each piece is also available on magnets, stickers, shirts and more! You can find the collection at https://doctorheadly.threadless.com/collections/limited-time

For more of my episode-by-episode rewatch that has been the origination of these episode posters visit TrexReExamined on Twitter/X (for full episode live-tweets and episode posters).

[quarkspeed]

per your request for Star Trek asks: any thoughts on what was going through Julian’s mind when he gave garak those chocolates? or what was going through Garak’s mind then? ^_^

I honestly love that scene very much and there is a lot to unpack about it in my opinion!

Specifically about the chocolates, what I’m thinking is that (besides the fact that it was simply a sweet gesture) Julian had some clear intentions for giving them (back) to Garak. Garak would undoubtedly think of Julian when he carefully unwraps the chocolate while on the mission (I can just imagine his little smile T_T), and thinking of him would:

1. I guess in a way calm him down (because Julian is someone he genuinely enjoys being with and even though they’re bickering all the time and Garak has more trust issues than a Romulan, Julian is the person he’s closest to on DS9). Thinking of him and his sweet gesture might be soothing.

And also:

2. Give him reason to come back from his mission (alive). The chocolates were actually intended to be a gift from Garak to Julian (as discussed in the beginning of the episode) but now Julian is giving them back. For me this kind of implies that Garak would have to make up for it eventually and give Julian the chocolates he’d promised him, but for that he’d obviously have to come back from the mission first. So basically it’s Julian, once again, indirectly telling Garak that he should be careful and come back (and well, I guess not rejoin the Obsidian Order) because he’s waiting for him. Julian is super worried about him as we can see in the beginning of The Die Is Cast ;)

I kind of would’ve loved if the episode had ended with Julian finding the chocolates in his quarters or the infirmary (maybe Garak purposely didn’t eat them so he could give them back right away?), though that’s just the garashir-shipper in me and I do like the original ending of the episode very much.

Bonus: I love how their hands touch when Julian gives Garak the chocolates before he leaves! And the way both keep smiling at each other throughout that scene makes ME smile so much too ♡

Bonus Bonus: Why does this shot look like Julian’s gonna propose?? lmao

Thank you for the ask, though I might’ve gone overboard a little haha ♡

[sshbpodcast]

Character Spotlight: Garak

By Ames

No one here but us plain, simple tailors this week on A Star to Steer Her By. We’re finally scrutinizing fan-favorite recurring character Garak, who’s definitely more complex and nuanced than even some main characters we’ve discussed before. As we assembled our classic Best and Worst Moments lists, we found that Garak has the most moments that somehow end up in both. That’s how morally (and physically) grey this guy is.

So let’s get our measurements taken as we spotlight DS9’s resident Cardassian spy, played so stunningly by Andrew Robinson (have you read his book yet? It’s amazing). Scroll on below or decode some ciphers with us on this week’s podcast discussion (jump over to 48:23). Of all the moments we’re spotlighting, which are the best and which are the worst? My dear reader, they’re all best moments. Even the worst moments? Especially the worst moments.

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Best moments

Let us haggle Our very first introduction to Garak in “Past Prologue” sets him up as mysterious, sneaky, and downright sassy. It’s always nebulous just how far his covert information extends versus how much he’s ever just toying with Julian, but in this early episode, he helps the doctor uncover some shady dealings that the Bajoran terrorist Tahna Los has been engaging in. And it’s delightful.

Schemes within schemes Garak and Bashir team up again in the season two “Cardassians,” in which Garak sees through decades’ worth of Cardassian scheming (the best kind of scheming) to expose Dukat’s war orphan plot. The details are convoluted and Rube Goldbergy, but the tailor puts together all the pieces and concludes that Dukat is looking to undermine Gul Pa'Dar, some-freakin’-how.

Personally, I find this style a bit too radical Listening to Garak’s smoothtalking is always extra fun because he’s always saying more than is just on the surface. Even when he doesn’t have to! In his own way, he warns Quark that Natima Lang is in danger in “Profit and Loss.” By the end of the episode, he goes so far as to shoot Toran, saving Quark’s lady love and her students before they go “out of fashion.”

My best friend, Elim The first episode to appear on both lists is “The Wire” because it’s just so Garak. While he never tells Bashir the truth once, he’s at his most vulnerable when he’s telling his various Elim stories. In his own Cardassian way, he connects with his dear doctor and expresses things about himself that, though not empirically true, are him at his most real. And the shippers rejoice.

Major, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you looking so ravishing We give Major Kira major props for her role in the stunning “Second Skin,” but Garak plays a large part as well. When Kira and Ghemor’s backs are up against the wall, Garak comes through for the DS9 crew. And like when he killed Toran in “Profit and Loss,” he’s able to put his Cardassian patriotism aside to kill the hell out of Entek and quip about it at the same time.

The spy who loved me It’s no wonder people ship Bashir and Garak so much when there are episodes like “Our Man Bashir” to fan the fires. And when things go awry in the holodeck, Garak is able to quip his way through the Bond-style holoprogram that they find themselves trapped in, all the while mocking what Julian seems to think the spy world is actually like. And he pulls off a tux pretty well too!

Excuse me, my dungeon awaits So many times that Garak saved the day have seemed to just be convenient for the character, but he’s especially heroic in “By Inferno’s Light.” He fights through his fears to go into the claustrophobia closet in the Jem’Hadar prison and remote into the waiting shuttle. Without Garak doing what needed to be done, surely the Jem’Hadar would have killed them all.

I promise you I will come back While the relationship between Garak and Ziyal always seemed kind of one-sided to us, we must admit that it was good for both characters to have someone whom they could relate to on the station. We see between “In Purgatory’s Shadow” and “By Inferno’s Light” that they care about each other, though sadly Garak never understands why before her untimely death.

A very messy, very bloody business Another episode that belongs on both lists is “In the Pale Moonlight.” We already gave Sisko some guff for this one, so let’s start off by being impressed by the layers of Cardassian scheming Garak does. Sure, it’s unethical and kind of monstrous, but it’s also a thing of beauty watching all the pieces of Garak’s plan come together to trick the Romulans into getting into the war. Not only can he live with it, but he sleeps like a baby.

Alan Turing, eat your heart out Garak uses some of his Obsidian Order talents to do some code breaking for the Federation in “Afterimage.” His arc in the final season of DS9 is a hell of a journey because he knows the work he’s doing for Sisko and crew will hurt the Cardassia he loves, but he also knows it’ll be for the best in the end to rid the quadrant of the Dominion so they can start rebuilding.

We might have a revolution on our hands Speaking of the Cardassia that Garak loves, he joins Damar and Kira’s little resistance in “The Dogs of War” and goes down to the planet to incite a revolution against the Dominion. When even Damar has opened his eyes to the atrocities the Founders are commiting in the Alpha Quadrant, then you know that it’s got to be something worth fighting for.

The last Weyoun In the siege of Cardassia Prime in “What You Leave Behind,” Garak gets to be the one to shoot Weyoun 8 after the two chirp at each other first. Turns out this is the last of the Weyoun clones, which Garak has firmly put to rest as the Federation ousts the Dominion forces from Cardassia. Garak’s story finally complete, his exile has ended in time to return to the ashes.

—

Worst moments

Nothing to look forward to but having lunch with you We’ll also see later in the series that Garak isn’t one to prioritize his mental health, so his abuse of his feel-good wire in the titular “The Wire” portrays how bad he is at taking care of himself or getting help when he is at his lowest points. When he attacks his friend and doctor when he’s going through withdrawal, you just wanna see him get better because this isn’t healthy, Garak.

Initiating counterinsurgency program level four Though Garak apparently has access codes that no doubt Sisko revoked after “Civil Defense,” he still utterly fails to stop the station’s counterinsurgency program from locking out the Starfleet personnel. In fact, per the “Attention Bajoran Workers” protocol, he’s made things that much worse by insisting they have to shut down life support only for a laser ball to replicate in Ops.

You can’t waterboard a goo It’s hardest for us to forgive Garak from ruthlessly torturing Odo in “The Die Is Cast” just to get back in the good graces of Daddy Tain… but we’ll probably do so anyway. We see just what Garak is capable of with these glimpses into his Obsidian Order past. We can absolutely easily picture how he could torment someone with just his unblinking stare. His eyes. HIS EYES!

But have you considered… murder? I may have found it adorable for Garak and Bashir to play spies in “Our Man Bashir,” but he has no idea how holoprograms work. Garak is so fast to jump to the conclusion that they kill everyone that it leaves one’s head spinning. This isn’t real-life spying, Garak. This is Julian’s sexy adventure, so of course the answer is seduction, not murder, and you should’ve known that.

Is this a date or an assassination? Ziyal is looking for company and invites Garak to sunbathe on rocks like the lizards they are… and Garak spends the whole of “For the Cause” caught up in highschool drama of what Ziyal’s inventions are. Does she like him or LIKE him? Or does she just want to lure him in to present his head to her father later? It’s all below Garak, frankly, when he could just, I dunno, talk to her.

Something swift and painless and preferably bloodless I gave Quark most of the stink for this one, but I can’t let Garak off the hook either. It’s a complete missed opportunity for “Body Parts” to necessitate Quark asking Garak to assassinate him when instead he could have enrolled Garak into some even more nefarious scheme. Garak himself should have suggested faking Quark’s death and it would have been excellent.

They’re dead. You’re dead. Cardassia is dead. I always found Garak’s plan in “Broken Link” to be tenuous at best and contrived at worst. He tags along to the Gamma Quadrant for seemingly no reason, then it turns out he wants to ask the Founders if any of the Cardassians from “The Die Is Cast” are still alive (a possibility never alluded to before), then he straight up tries to destroy the Founders’ planet until Worf beats him into submission. Huh?

It looks like I’ve captured your last piece, Chief The pretty decent horror episode “Empok Nor” has got a lot going for it, but every single time they made the kotra metaphor more and more blatant, I started checking out. Dear writers, your metaphor stood on its own without you announcing it twenty-five times. Have a little confidence that your themes are working because it was a good one… until it wasn’t.

Do you feel lucky? Do ya, Chief? But that is far from the worst thing Garak does in “Empok Nor.” The psychotropic drug is mostly at fault here, but that doesn’t mean Garak feels completely innocent. He straight up murders the Cardassian sleeper guards AND crewman Amaro in cold blood, and then kidnaps and threatens Nog so he can get at the Chief, taunting him like a serial killer the whole time.

Star-crossed lizards The sweet friendship Garak strikes up with Ziyal belongs on our good list for sure, but frankly the romance between them never quite gelled for us. We see in “Call to Arms” that they kiss goodbye when she flees the station before the Dominion swoops in, and it just feels… unearned? Garak admits in “Sacrifice of Angels” that he doesn’t know what that was all about, and neither do we.

When the devil asks you to dance, you say yes I may have marveled at Garak’s precarious plan in “In the Pale Moonlight,” but that doesn’t mean I condone any of it. Even the writers make it clear in Sisko’s actions that he finds it reprehensible how many casualties there were to pull it off: the cold-blooded murder of Vreenak (and his innocent guards!), the assassination of Grathon Tolar, the deaths of literally all of Garak’s contacts. This one’s on Sisko’s list too of course, but he at least knows it’s wrong.

You’re not worthy of the name Dax One final episode that’s on both lists. Classic Garak, playing both sides. In this case, it’s more evidence that Garak does not seem to value his mental health because, when he’s suffering panic attacks and more claustrophobia in “Afterimage,” the first thing he does is lash out at his therapist, Ezri Dax, who certainly doesn’t deserve it! The poor thing.

—

Well I hope we got in some cutting remarks about the good tailor of Deep Space Nine. Next week we’ve got another frequent guest star of the station to spotlight: Keiko O’Brien! Stay tuned for that while also tuning in every week as we venture through Enterprise over on SoundCloud or wherever you podcast. You can also quip with us over on Facebook and Twitter, and remember: the truth is usually just an excuse for a lack of imagination.

[best-star-trek-character]

[spectraspecs-writes]

Parmak mention

[hitchell-mope]

I still want Garak to fry in hell.

[foone]

So, Bashir and Garak from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, won't you?

Bashir is the man who has one big secret and it's his entire life, and he has always assumed it will destroy him if it gets out.

Garak is a man made of fractal secrets. The cast-out student (and secret son) of the head of an empire-wide spy agency. He's stolen secrets from every power in the alpha quadrant. His own personal history is nothing but lies, possibly even to himself. He lies so completely it took Bashir visiting GARAK'S DAD to figure out that "Elim" is his first name.

If truth was a river, Bashir's is wide and free-flowing, with a real big meander where it goes kilometers out of its way to avoid a huge rock that we don't ever talk about.

Garak has dammed his river with endless pebbles of lies. There's no truth there, only more lies. This is a man who lies reflexively, who once claimed (in one of the few true things he ever said) that lying is a skill you must practice constantly.

Garak is such a liar I don't think he really understands how to tell the truth. When he was dying from his addictions, instead of admitting the problem he made of stories to try and scare his doctor off, to let him die. When an assassin showed up to kill him, he got the local police involved by attempting to (almost) assassinate himself first. Garak carries a big hammer labeled "lying" and every problem is a juicy nail.

These are not two different people, this is the same person at different scales. Bashir is one big lie in a Star Fleet uniform, Garak is a multitude of tiny lies in a lizard suit and a very fashionable outfit of his own design.

In Ancient Greek Mythology*, humans were single souls split into two bodies, male and female, forever searching for their other half so they can be whole again.

They may have been wrong about the gender and species, but Bashir and Garak are definitely two parts of the same original material. They were chiseled from the same piece of marble, cut from the same cloth, split from the same soul. They deserve to be together, not because they'd be good for each other (dear God, no. They are terrible for each other in many ways!) but because they're incomplete without each other.

* not to be confused with Star Trek, which is Ancient Geek Mythology.

[libraflyter]

Random Garak thoughts

Lets talk Improbable Cause/The Die is Cast as a piece of television. A major two part episode arc in season three of Deep Space 9 is focused entirely on the development of a guest character.

The two-parter is 100% Garak’s story; main cast member Odo also shares screen time but as a supporting character in Garak dealing with assassins, trying to save Enabran Tain, and then having to confront if he really is the ruthless Obsidian Order operative he once was or if his time in exile has changed him.

These episodes aired in late April 1995; my approximate understanding is that would be just before or during the late spring “sweeps period” which was a crucial part of tv ratings calculations and therefore a time you’d aim to put a big draw on schedule. Which suggests the producers on DS9 thought their audience would be extra inclined to tune in if they were promised a Garak centric story. Bold choice for 90s network tv that’s still leery about heavy serialization. At that point, Garak had only been in 10 of the past 60+ episodes (just 8 if you exclude Mirror!Garak).

It is a testament to Andy Robinson’s performance - he took a one off character and made him so memorable that by season three, Garak was considered a good choice to carry an arc critical story about the Dominion threat and collapse of the Obsidian Order.

Anyways in conclusion this is exactly why when you say “Garak was only in 37 episodes of deep space nine” people are surprised.

[ladyylavenderrr]

It takes Garak an entire day to return to his shop.

———

A short novelization of the ending scene of The Die Is Cast

[eclecticbasementenemy]

I just finished watching "the die is cast" from deep space nine, and I think it's one of my favorite episodes ever. I wouldn't have anticipated the Garak/Odo interactions to be some of my favorites but it was incredible.

And what was really fascinating is that during the interrogation scene GARAK is the one that breaks first. For his whole stay in exile he's been spinning lies, but the innermost layer of lies, so deep even he's convinced himself that it's true, is that he wants to go back to his old life. And Odo makes him admit that lie, he refuses to give Garak anything. Hes smart, he knows Garak would accept even an obvious lie because Garak knows he doesn't know anything useful and this is all a game Tain is playing. He could make something up and get him to stop. But instead he looks him in the eye and says "what, I thought you WANTED this!"

Until Garak finally breaks and begs for HIM to make it stop. This is arguably the most vulnerable Garak has been through the entire series up to this point. And explicitly or not it's him saying please you're right I don't want this for the love of God make it stop I don't want to have to do this.

And only THEN does Odo break too and give up HIS innermost secret, almost more like an exchange than an interrogation. Garak wasn't torturing him, they were torturing each other.

And after all that, you see Garak sitting with his head in his hands, coming to the realization that maybe, just maybe, he's become a different person than when he was in the obsidian order. Maybe he doesn't really want this as much as he thought he did.

[bnbc]

"Your padawan will be back in the Temple at nine!" vs "Your padawan calls me Master too"

sith Kou before and after retrieving the Emperor's holocron :3

what? this AU DOES have a plotline and I think it's time to share it. It's a bit messy (as all of my info dumps lmao) yet you can get an idea!

Cast and Lore

The Emperor (played by Saburo Arasaka)

The Evil Guy. Had been ruling the galaxy with terror and fear for ages until the day his flagman ship Michiko The Discipline was crushed into the black hole. The survivors, mostly soldiers and some officers were punished accordingly for letting the Emperor die.

Widely known as a wise man and great strategist, left a lot of relics and holocrons after his death.

The Heir (played by Yorinobu Arasaka)

The son and apprentice of the Emperor, he took his father’s place and kept it for years despite not being the strongest guy among the Sith elites. He follows the Dark Side ways, and perfectly wields his anger and hatred, yet he tries to reform the Empire, slowly, because the elites could rebel to keep the status quo.

Has an apprentice, a young zabrak named Kou, to whom he pays much less attention than to the Empire problem, sure that her fear of him is unbreakable.

The Smuggler (played by Goro Takemura)

Ex an imperial navy officer, and a witness to the Emperor's death. Managed to escape imperial justice with a help of a group of force-blind rebels. Fought on their side for a couple of years but they had more losses than wins, so, tired of pointless fights and losing friends, Goro left the Empire’s space to become a smuggler.

Bitter and disappointed, he appears to care only about money, but deep inside his chest the old secret — the truth that the Emperor was killed by his own son — still burns, asking for vengeance.

Lord Kou (sith on her way to become Darth, played by Kou Okada)

Kou started her way as a Jedi padawan; since she was a youngling she had severe problems with discipline but was strong with the Force and loyal as a dog, and her master truly believed she would make a great Jedi knight one day. 

Unfortunately, it wasn’t going to happen: during the mission on Nar Shaddaa she followed her temptation and left the safe house. Kou got herself into trouble, her master came to save her but opened his presence in the Force to a powerful sith. Kou ended up whitnessing her master being killed, and it was her fault, at least that's what she was told by his murderer. The sith noticed her potential and took her as an apprentice. It took Kou some time to realize how “lucky” she was — her new master turned out to be the Heir, the ruler of the Empire.

Her hatred towards the Heir was strong, but her loyalty never belonged to him, so she was looking for ways to kill him and break free. She managed to break into a secret room inside his chambers and steal some powerful relic, which connected her to a Force ghost.

So Kou found an unlikely ally: another victim of the Heir, not only killed by him but attached to the relic, unable to dissolve into the Force. The ghost was eager to take revenge and promised Kou to teach her the ritual that would weaken the Heir’s connection to the Force so she would strike him easily.

The Heir was paying little attention to his apprentice business so she managed to gather all the necessities for the ritual and attacked her master. The Force ghost didn’t lie: the ritual weakened the Heir and Kou had her win over him. But what the ghost didn’t say was that this ritual would also open a way for him to possess the Heir’s body.

The moment it happened Kou knew that she committed an act of irreversible evil. She felt the presence again, the one she was used to since she was a kid and the one that disappeared the day the Emperor died. 

Scared of what she’s done she fled away to hide and heal and to think what to do next. She wanted to break free but instead, she returned the biggest slave owner back to the world. And this spot in her mind that felt empty after the force ghost took a new body… she felt it all the time, her long leash, the force connection that wasn’t broken; she knew her new master could pull it any moment.

But to strike the evil she must have found his secrets and weak points, so she had to come to Korriban. She needed a ride, and she got it: the smuggler took her to Korriban, but surprisingly decided to stay and help her strike The Heir once more. Kou was ready to use her new asset, so she kept the truth of the Emperor's return away from the smuggler's ears. However, during the Emperor’s relics hunt the hidden truth was discovered, and the fragile bond that was growing between the Sith and the smuggler, got broken. 

They parted their ways, but the Force had its plans for them, and after time they met again: her, with a lead for the most precious Emperor’s holocron, broken mind and some dull pain inside her soul she didn’t know how to name, and him, cooled down, reminded by his old rebel friends of who was truly responsible for the Empire injustice to force blinds citizens, and this surprisingly strong joy of seeing her again.

Partners once more, they hunted and reclaimed Saburo’s holocron, the only thing left was to study it and find a way to strike the old evil… and not lose themselves.

[stitching-in-time]

Voyager rewatch s3 ep7: Sacred Ground

This episode is one of the most woo-woo mystical storylines Voyager ever did, but it's not a genre that really works for Star Trek, at least not outside of Deep Space Nine. Plus, it's truly bizarre anti-science stance is honestly baffling for a science fiction show.

I didn't mind this one as a kid, but as an adult, it really doesn't hold up, on any level. First of all, using Kes as a damsel in distress is not my favorite thing. At least it was Captain Janeway who had to rescue her and not a male character, but still, if they needed a character Janeway would feel protective and motherly toward to go rescue, it could as easily have been Harry Kim. But a storyline where no one had to be the sleeping beauty damsel would have been better.

But the biggest problem I had with this episode was that this script felt like it was preaching to us to cast aside our foolish godless atheist belief in science and embrace blind belief in a mystical higher power that knows what's good for us. Which is gross in general, but doubly gross to say to Star Trek fans. For one thing, the assumption that you can't believe in science and believe in any kind of god is weird and totally wrong, and the assumption that seeking to understand something will ruin it's magic or whatever, is bizarrely backward, and literally the exact same reasoning that theocracies use to maintain their stranglehold on power.

This episode was obsessed with the idea that it's desperately important for everyone to have 'blind faith', but unquestioning loyalty to any religious doctrine is the anathema to the cooperative future that Star Trek imagines. Any idea that's set above question, beyond the reach of empirical evidence, is ripe for any charismatic, unscrupulous person to twist for their own gain and use to divide and conquer. Science, meanwhile, is not a belief system, and it's not comparable to a religion, in that science still exists, whether you believe in it or not. Science is simply observation of the world around us, and it's always struck me as odd when some religious people take offense to that. If you believe a god created the world, aren't you honoring your god by learning about their creation? Anyone who forbids or discourages learning is always trying to maintain power over others. Romanticising ignorance or blind faith, and ridiculing those who seek to learn and understand the truth is always ill-intentioned, ALWAYS. This episode natters on about how Janeway supposedly needs to find some faith, but when she expressed her absolute confidence in her ability to find a scientific explanation for everything, she was expressing faith, in her own way, but still, the supposed 'ancestral spirits' in this episode mock her, and disdain the faith she already has, just because it isn't faith in them, and their power. This story fell apart, right there.

These 'spirits' are obviously not benevolent if they'll only help people who worship them blindly, and the people on the planet absolutely were assholes to not let the Voyager crew just scan the energy field in the first place. If saving an innocent person's life would 'offend the spirits', then your spirits are assholes, dude! They don't deserve anybody's worship, considering they're happy to let someone almost die, and her whole crew worry about her, just to teach some passing strangers a lesson about how blind faith in them is the only way- and it wasn't! Science literally would have fixed it immediately! Once again, this script hurts itself in it's confusion!

I did think the part about the trials in the ritual being whatever the individual person invented for themselves was an interesting concept, since a lot of times, people do believe that they have to suffer to gain something they seek, and put themselves through needless torment. That was a much more interesting concept to explore, especially for Janeway, but it was steamrolled by the constant, condescending, holier-than-thou crap in the rest of the episode.

Having Janeway be sad she found out the scientific explanation at the end was the most ridiculous, out of character nonsense I can think of. Even if she'd have said she was glad to know, but didn't really need to this time, that would have been fine, but to have her literally be like 'boo, finding out how it works ruined the magic!!!' was the dumbest thing ever, and no scientist would think that, ever. Does the writer of this ep really have such lack of poetry in their soul that finding out the science behind a rainbow makes the rainbow less beautiful and miraculous to them? Because that's what I'm sensing from this godawful script.

There was some nice dramatic lighting, and the temple design was atmospheric, but that's about all I can say in this ep's favor.

Tl;dr: A truly bad faith take on the nature of both science and faith, that manages to be offensive toward both concepts. It wanted very hard to be deep, but it felt more like an evangelical sermon than a Star Trek episode.