#ds9 3x05

[walkingstackofbooks]

DS9 3x05 Second Skin thoughts (I'm re-watching, so there may be future spoilers)

"If you must know I'm waiting for Major Kira." For a date, right???

"I'm kinda looking forward to it." <3 Even though you hate holosuites, because you're spending time with Jadzia, right? :P

OH IT'S THIS EPISODE.... Time to traumatise Kira again...

That fake fellow prisoner telling her he remembers her... that's terrifying, being made to doubt your own memories like that

Sisko being so soft with her <3

There's a Garak in this episode! :D

I think this episode was better the first time round with the suspense, but it is interesting knowing what's going on and seeing what manipulations are at play

"I was wondering if you'd like to join me for a late night snack." WE know that that's code for I have something important to tell you but Julian doesn't, so is Garak offering a late night snack just a normal enough thing for Julian, or is he just oblivious?

Interesting the connections here of Iliana being very artistic, while Nerys is awful at art despite her djarra

Oh man, knowing Ghemor is not pretending but really believes she's his daughter makes him so much more likeable throughout the episode.

Sisko is very good at blackmail.

(I feel cheated we didn't get Garak and Julian's conversation and skipped straight to this)

"I'll go along on your fool's errand, but I want one thing to be perfectly clear. I have no intention of sacrificing my life to save yours. If it looks like we're in danger of being captured, if there's any signs of trouble at all, you're on your own." // "Mister Garak, I believe that's the first completely honest thing you've ever said to me."

Ghemor is a Good Parent

Kira's distress, ohhhh Kira 💔

How DOES Entek know about her private memory? (Can the Obsidian Order instil memories like they say, and they just gave her this one, specific thing when she arrived on Cardassia?)

"he quarters on this vessel are rather claustrophobic." Oh, Garak, that's possibly not just an excuse...

"It was just something I overheard while hemming someone's trousers." Sometimes I think this sort of line is overused in fanfiction compared to canon, but actually, no, Garak really is like this All The Time XD

>>>>> Also, the use of trousers is pretty British English, right? It's almost like Garak's spending too much time hanging out with a Brit.... 👀

KIRA NO MY HEART

"You're my daughter, Iliana. There's nothing I wouldn't do for you. Even if it means losing you again." HE'S SO SOFT

Despite the Massive Stress she's under, Kira's still able to put everything together and work out what's really going on, what a legend <3

That Odo trick was Extremely Slick

"Don't worry, he's on our side... I think." XD Yeah, valid 

Tekeny <3 "No I want you to have it" - so sweet

"I realise now you're an honourable man. And I think your daughter must have loved you very much." Oh Nerys. My heart. The Feelings this episode creates... ❤️❤️

Fantastic episode. Kira is everything <333333

[killer-wizard]

TRANS COLOURS

[asexualjedi]

“The major is the least of ur trouble entek!! It’s me garak!!!”

[lonely-night]

bawling my eyes over kira and her adoptive cardassian dad

[fictionz]

The top 31 spookiest Star Trek episodes (according to the Internet)

It's spooky season and I'm also a Star Trek nerd and a list nerd, so here we go!

I asked in a Star Trek discord, ran a bunch of searches, and assigned a point each time an episode was listed among the scariest/creepiest in Star Trek. The episodes are ranked from least to most spooky, so watch in this order if you want to build up to the spookiest stuff. I cut off the list at 31, one episode for each day in October.

So without further ado...

Spookiest episodes of Star Trek*:

TOS 1x05: The Enemy Within

TOS 1x25: The Devil in the Dark

PIC 2x07: Monsters

VOY 2x08: Persistence of Vision

ENT 3x16: Doctor's Orders

DS9 3x26: The Adversary

VOY 4x25: One

VOY 5x18: Course: Oblivion

ENT 2x10: Vanishing Point

VOY 3x12: Macrocosm

VOY 3x18: Darkling

VOY 4x07: Scientific Method

TNG 7x14: Sub Rosa

ENT 2x04: Dead Stop

TNG 3x26: The Best Of Both Worlds, Part I

TOS 1x01: The Man Trap

TNG 7x06: Phantasms

DS9 5x05: The Assignment

DS9 2x14: Whispers

DIS 1x03: Context Is For Kings

TNG 6x21: Frame Of Mind

TNG 7x19: Genesis

TOS 2x14: Wolf in the Fold

VOY 6x25: The Haunting Of Deck Twelve

TOS 2x07: Catspaw

VOY 2x23: The Thaw

TNG 4x17: Night Terrors

TNG 1x25: Conspiracy

ENT 3x05: Impulse

DS9 5x24: Empok Nor

TNG 6x05: Schisms

Shorter list of the the spookiest episode from each of the 11 series:**

TOS 2x07: Catspaw

TAS 1x01: Beyond the Farthest Star

TNG 6x05: Schisms

DS9 5x24: Empok Nor

VOY 2x23: The Thaw

ENT 3x05: Impulse

DIS 1x03: Context Is For Kings

PIC 2x07: Monsters

LD 1x06: Terminal Provocations

PRO 1x12: Let Sleeping Borg Lie

SNW 1x09: All Those Who Wander

Data used to collate these rankings:

Star Trek Discord

https://www.handitv.com/lists/18-eerie-disturbing-and-downright-scary-star-trek-episodes

https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/the-scariest-star-trek-episodes/

https://screenrant.com/most-disturbing-star-trek-episodes-ranked-horrifying/

https://screenrant.com/most-terrifying-star-trek-episodes-halloween/

https://movieweb.com/scariest-star-trek-episodes/

https://screenrant.com/scariest-star-trek-episodes-ranked/

https://gizmodo.com/12-scariest-star-trek-episodes-strange-new-worlds-alien-1849136069

https://aiptcomics.com/2020/10/22/the-ultimate-star-trek-horror-episodes-guide/

https://www.startrek.com/news/9-underrated-spooky-star-trek-episodes

https://gizmodo.com.au/2022/07/the-12-scariest-episodes-of-star-trek/

https://gamerant.com/star-trek-episodes-sci-fi-horror/#enterprise-impulse

https://www.monstercomplex.com/blog/Star-Trek-Scariest-Episodes

https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/ent/scariest-star-trek-horror-episodes.html

https://www.slashfilm.com/910821/10-terrifying-star-trek-episodes-to-watch-after-this-weeks-strange-new-worlds/

https://www.cbr.com/star-trek-spooky-halloween-episodes/

https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/ent/star-trek-halloween-scary.html

https://redshirtsalwaysdie.com/2017/10/26/star-trek-horror-episodes/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8BXCo9XKw4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXsvbp9EahI

...

* There was a 12-way tie for the final 8 slots, so the final 8 in the first list are randomly selected from among those 12 episodes.

** PRO did not make an appearance on any of the lists I found, so I selected an episode that felt most appropriate. Other series only had one suggested episode and are in the list by default.

[cicaklah]

picard thots 3x05

wanging on about star trek under the cat

🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈

poor picard, forever alone until the last two weeks when TWO lady loves come back into his life and say 'oh yeah turns out we could have been in love but you fucked it up without realising it'. (not to ignore his current lady love who is the only one with the spine to let him NOT fuck it up without realising he is fucking it up).

(I can't believe we are STILL paying for patstew feeling emasculated in the early 90s. the male ego: not even once.)

Ensign Ro is one of those characters that TNG fans have Strong Feelings about, and I am one of those, because I love Bajorans and Cardassians as the true ds9 stan I am. I love seeing Michelle Forbes in things. I hope she was paid a lot to come reprise the character she's seemingly spent her whole career running away from. I suppose that, and the fact that this is a show named after Picard, that the focus will always be on her relationship with Picard. It was the most interesting part of what we got about her, along with our general introduction to the Bajoran faith and people, but we had 7 years of development of them and none of her, I always assumed she was killed when the marquis were slaughtered by the dominion as a favour to the cardassians. Lucky escape, though of course she got killed off. she had her story beat: time to die. (cash that cheque, never look back).

Anyway, not that Picard would have ever done anything with her, due to being Noble Space Coastguard Man who outranks her by about 40 years, but I quite pruriently like the wow wrong bad hot of that dynamic, in a dead dove way. Like as usual I wish we could spend more time in these characters' heads, because god I love people who fail at starfleet more than anything, they are my favourite characters in any show. The dysfunctional relationship between starfleet and those within it is fruit ripe for picking. Picard breaking the rules to sleep with Ro would be absolutely out of character in the most delicious way, to the point I kind of want to write it. Like that is tragedy, highest nobility and loyalty to an institution vs the desires of the human flesh. Genuinely the best. Awful dysfunctional relationship between man who projects wildly onto a younger woman and the younger woman who clings to older man in authority as symbol of the authority she is a bad fit for. Neither of them ever actually engaging with each other as people, therefore doomed to failure.

At the ~ revelation ~ that omg changelings are EVERYWHERE, when Ro says starfleet is corrupted to the highest level I went "what, AGAIN?" Its been 2 years since Romulans took over the top level of starfleet, and now its changelings. I mean, I still think the changelings have been there for twenty years, since the attempted coup in homefront/paradise lost.

I wish this series was...25% less ambitious prestige tv.

Anyway, glad that Jack said something to his mum that he's fucked and seeing things, but all this red and doors and stuff is synth-as-fuck, and honestly it makes no sense for Jack to be a synth even in this series. They can't do synth stuff without agnes and they ruined agnes by making her borg. it makes me miss narek, my problematic fave though. god, remember season 1? seems so long ago.

(IMAGINE IF SEASON 2 HAD BEEN ABOUT REINTEGRATION OF SYNTHS INTO SOCIETY AND EXBORGS AND JUST IN GENERALY NOT WHATEVER IT WAS GDI)

all these close ups of Jack's eyes is really highlighting that he is DRAMATICALLY miscast as a 23 year old, its just funny now. Man has more eye wrinkles than I do and I'm 36.

as we are introduced to more older characters the more I am changing my mind on gates mcfadden's face lift, I think its so uncanny it keeps throwing me out of her scenes because I keep analysing her face. can't do anything about it, and she does look good...if REALLY uncanny.

Worf and Raffi continue to be good, if a little boring. The timelines are converging. It was nice to see Charlie from Fringe as a Vulcan gone bad though. Been a little bit of a fringenaissance on TV this year, with anna torv in tlou and Charlie in this. more of that please. they deserve better.

I still like Shaw, but I like the bad apple captain trope best of all. Remember when we had Lorca and I got so excited about how Disco was going to be a show about actually working under one of the Bad Captains of the Week from TNG era?! Maybe I'm getting it.

(I also think that there's interesting things to unpack about Shaw and Seven's relationship that PERHAPS I might also write something about because mmmm he's a dick, she's bullheaded, what the fuck is she even doing in starfleet other than falling into the trap that so many failed fleeties have before, deconstruction of the protagonist hero trope, seven deserves better but how can she get better when she is in the military, which cares not for individuality?! Like the dichotomy of man who after trauma finds peace in conformity and playing by the rules, vs the woman who knows that conformity is seductive and ends up seduced by it again, and ends up in this job that she is ill-suited for even if she is technically good at it, because she is essentially self-harming by joining the military, the acceptable collective????

failed fleeties, my absolute fucking favourites. Right in the vein, please.)

anyway are we half way through? I think we're half way through. Wonderful.

[fullmetal-angelgrace]

ICON

[the-goofball]

[pouncequick]

It really is such a little extra jab that Iliana was an artist, or could have been, like Kira’s mother, while Kira herself has no talent at all.

[chacusha]

DS9 Companion liveblogging (5/14?)

First half of season 3 (3x01-3x10):

Interesting context on the first part of season 3, which was the only time when DS9 was the only new Star Trek show on air (between the end of TNG and beginning of VOY): Quark and Odo were apparently the favorite characters, people wanted more travel outside the station, and were lukewarm toward the Bajoran religious and political plots. Fascinating.

The Defiant was originally going to be called the Valiant but that name was vetoed because it was too similar to Voyager. Both ship names come from TOS episodes.

Some interesting notes on the reveal that the Founders are Odo's race: Behr and Wolfe joked about the Founders being Odo's people throughout season 2, then Michael Piller separately floated the idea to them and they cracked up and decided to propose making that happen. And Auberjonois was worried about the reveal because he'd always joked that the day Odo's backstory is revealed, that's when he's getting written out of the show. But he was reassured that they had more directions to take Odo's character post-reveal.

^ I'm sorry, it will always be funny to me that Bareil had a sizeable fan club. Interesting notes about why Eddington was brought in. (Eddington's character is apparently influenced by a character of the same name in the film In Harm's Way. I am unfamiliar with this film though.)

3x01 "The Search Part I": There's a note here about how Armin Shimerman didn't like the scene where Sisko asks Quark to kiss the nagal staff since there is an air of mocking Ferengi culture to it, but I love that scene. 👀 (For horny reasons lol.) Also apparently the prop sculptor (Dragon Dronet) based the head of the staff on Quark since he was given Quark's picture as a reference and didn't realize the prop was meant to belong to another character entirely.

Oh yeah, I forgot about Jadzia's very short-lived hairstyle in this season opener. Apparently it was controversial so it was changed afterward.

3x03 "The House of Quark": Love this episode because of all the ridiculous drama of Klingon noble houses and inheritance law meeting very polar opposite Ferengi sensibilities. There's some notes here on how Gowron's actor Robert O'Reilly was pleasantly surprised to transition to DS9 after TNG ended. Also, this is sweet:

Looks like Keiko's temporary departure from the show was to free up Colm Meaney for film projects (mentioned earlier) and to allow more focus on the Bashir/O'Brien relationship.

The story behind 3x04 "Equilibrium" is so funny. Basically, a producer got really into a stage magician and bought a pitch for a DS9 episode that just had the magician as a guest actor and his act involving masks, and the writing team had to create a whole plot around it: "Moore recalls that the original storyline had something to do with 'the circus coming to Deep Space 9, and this magician was in it, and we thought, "Well, we're not gonna do that."'" -- lmao. Initially it was about Odo before they realised that masks worked better as a metaphor for Trill hosts.

Apparently, the original plot of 3x05 "Second Skin" involved O'Brien as the secret undercover Cardassian instead of Kira, but the writer couldn't make it work with the Keiko/Miles marriage resulting in a human baby. Also some interesting thoughts on a more ambiguous version of the ending we got, where it is Kira's determination to be Kira and Bajoran that is what makes her so:

(The theme of this episode is that everyone is wearing a fake deceptive appearance (i.e. a second skin): Kira, Ghemor, the Defiant and Sisko, Garak, etc.)

Wow, lots of interesting notes on 3x06 "The Abandoned" -- so many I can't really summarize them all. Briefly: a lot of teenagers growing up/maturing in this ep including Jake, the Jem'Hadar, and Odo himself; Avery Brooks (who directed this ep) felt it was very much an allegory for how to deal with a generation of troubled, addicted, and potentially violent youths and what it says about society if it gives up on them (very much grappling with race and class issues although through sci-fi allegory and not direct analogy); Mardah's time on DS9 spanned from 2x17 "Playing God" to 3x10 "Fascination"; the way people worry about the age difference and Mardah's job but no one in this episode blinks an eye at her and Jake's interracial relationship, a casual depiction of a post-racial world; Jake gets a new outfit; Sisko also gets a dignified three-piece outfit for the dinner with Mardah, to indicate how seriously he's taking meeting Jake's girlfriend and how he doesn't want to embarrass Jake.

Also some interesting notes on Odo getting quarters in this ep (including the scene where Kira gives Odo flowers that he puts in his old bucket, and later flings that bucket/vase in 4x13 "Crossfire" -- Auberjonois added that detail to the "Crossfire" scene) and also makeup restrictions on babies/children, which constrained the young Jem'Hadar looks.

I like how the synopsis of 3x07 "Civil Defense" only covers the A and B plots of the Ops group and the ore processing group, making no mention of the Quark and Odo C plot. It's okay -- the two of them literally contribute nothing plot-relevant to that episode lmao. Reading the summary, I really love this episode. It's one of my favorites just for the ridiculousness of the security program that has Dukat cringily chastising rebelling Bajoran workers and responding to an increasingly severe hypothetical uprising in a way that manages to come off as both smug and panicked, and his boss publicly shaming him for abandoning his post lol. Like, nothing about this security program makes sense; it's all just done for the lols and for the sake of making things increasingly dire. I suppose maybe it establishes that there is just something buffoonish about the way the Cardassian military (/fascist governments more generally) operate. But mostly it's just a very silly plot.

On polishing the script for 3x07 "Civil Defense": "'He [Michael Piller] hated it, he hated it, he hated it,' states Behr, likening the tortuous experience to one he and the other staff writers on TNG went through to turn 'Yesterday's Enterprise' into a solid script." -- So surprising to hear this, because the final result (of both episodes) is so good! I am considering reading whatever is the TNG equivalent of this book because I have so many questions about what they were thinking / what was going on in some of those episodes and plotlines...

^ O-omg... 😂

^ I always wondered about this... I like the look without the belt better too, although maybe if it were around longer it would have grown on me.

^ I agree. 3x10 "Meridian" sucks. It has some interesting cinematography because Frakes directed it but the romance in it is so painful and unconvincing.

Dang, I didn't realize the alien in this episode was Jeffrey Combs' first Star Trek role ever. (Apparently, Frakes cast him because he remembered him from the Riker audition! -- according to Memory Alpha, not this book.)

^ I always kind of wondered (1) when did the writers first get the idea to make Odo's feelings for Kira romantic, and (2) when in the timeline of their relationship did Odo develop his crush (kind of wondering the same question, just from a Doylist + Watsonian point of view). For (2), I think this is the earliest explicit moment (it has kind of a "I hope this doesn't awaken anything in me" kind of vibe going on with Odo), although I suppose the feelings could have started earlier. But it looks like the answer to (1) is sometime after this point. Interesting!

(Also, I feel kinda bad for Quark in this episode as I think a lot of the humor is a bit mean-spirited/at his expense. But at the same time, Kira and Odo ganging up on Quark is a great dynamic (see also: 2x24 "The Collaborator").)

Some interesting notes on 3x09 "Defiant" on where the story idea came from (they wanted to do something with Tom Riker and have a plot where the Maquis are gaining strength due to his help/leadership); the humanization of Dukat; Tom's characterization (vs. Riker); that this episode sets up that the Obsidian Order are planning something but what exactly was not decided at this point; and the dangling plot thread of what happened to Riker. I agree that it always bugged me that you never find out what happened to Tom (Frakes says he envisions Kira would at some point get sent to Cardassia to get him out of his sentence). He and Kurn are two great TNG characters that DS9 brought back just to do something vaguely depressing with, and I'm honestly tempted to just render those plotlines non-canon. 🤷‍♀️

Some interesting notes on (1) 3x10 "Fascination" being an homage to A Midsummer Night's Dream, and (2) how the set design and costumes were played with in light of that:

Also, OMG:

^ I mean, Quark does have cartoon character energy... Shimerman's evaluation of the episode is a bit cranky but he's not wrong.

More on the earlier note about Odo's crush on Kira from "Meridian": "And it ["Fascination"] openly reveals a plot point that only had been hinted at previously: the fact that Odo loves Kira. Interestingly, this was a case where an actor's performance strongly influenced the producers. 'There was a moment in 'The Collaborator,' Behr recalls, 'where Rene [Auberjonois] does a take with Nana that we hadn't been expecting. And we all looked at it and said, "Odo loves her. That's what he's playing!" Recognizing the rich story possibilities, Behr's team took the ball and ran with it, giving Auberjonois plenty of material to play with in the coming seasons." (I'm guessing he was referring to "Meridian," not "The Collaborator.")

Oops, I have to end this post a bit early because apparently I am hitting Tumblr's limit for images in posts. (Also, I know I focus on Odo and Quark a lot in my notes. I am biased.)

[keanu-reeves]

things my bf has commented while he gamed and i watched ds9 3x05 “second skin”

do cardassians have apple?

cardassian taylor swift

garak is like those coupon websites. sometimes they’re great, most of the time they don’t work, and sometimes it’s a virus

[datasoong47]

Just watched “Second Skin” (DS9 3x05), and my biggest question is: how would this “surgically alter Cardassian agents and implant them with false memories to infiltrate Bajorans” work?  It makes no sense.  Even if you could get enough information from interrogation and torture to create reasonable memories, they wouldn’t have all the person’s memories (I mean, if the Cardassians were somehow able to record people’s memories they’d have no need for interrogations in the first place), and their cover would fall apart at close investigation.  The only way it might work is if you created the illusion that the person being replaced had been traumatized to the point where they couldn’t remember their own past.  Which would limit how useful they’d be as infiltrators.  On the other hand, if they retained their own memories, knowing who they really were, they could fake their way past any potential exposure.  Surgical alteration would still work there, more or less.  Although, it’s rather doubtful that they’d be able to be precise enough to copy a specific individual.

Secondly, Cardassians are different species than Bajorans, but the surgery would only be cosmetic.  What happens the first time one of their agents needs medical treatment?  Since they wouldn’t even know themselves who they were, they’d have no reason to avoid doctors.  So, their true nature would show up the first time a medicine has an unexpected result (because different physiology) or the first time a surgeon discovers that the internal organs aren’t quite where they’re supposed to.  And what if they were to have a child with a Bajoran?  Their child would be half-Cardassian to everyone’s shock.

So, the whole concept makes no sense, and the episode just falls apart under its implausibility.  And, honestly, the whole “surgically altered to look like an alien race” trope kinda bothers me.  Like, it’s just lampshading the whole “humans with bumpy foreheads” thing.

[asexualjedi]

Kira: thanks not-dad you’re a real one

[cicaklah]

Disco 3x05

Wow, five episodes in??? I’ve been in my new job 5 weeks. That has gone fast.

Anyway delayed but I bloody loved this one!

Look, this was a great episode but most of all we are three seasons in and we just saw Burnham fucking command a starship and turns out WE DID NEED THAT, I take back all my Saru positivism, MICHAEL FOR CAPTAIN, CAPTAIN BURNHAM FOREVER, OH CAPTAIN MY CAPTAIN, CAPTAIN BURNHAM FOR DISCO CAPTAIN 3K89.

REALLY loving the continued TNGification of Disco. Also loved that the show IS doing what I wanted it to do, which is shed some weight and split the crew. I liked Nhan well enough, and she’ll likely be back at the end of the season to tie it all together.

Okay lets be real the second best part of this episode is outing the bunch of nerds as shipspotters of the highest order, just yes please, character development in a way I really loved, I am going to watch that section again like, 10,000 times. Also one of the ships is called the USS NOG and SIX HUNDRED YEARS LATER the idea that lovely Nog could be a famous starfleet icon along the lines of Kirk makes me so happy and also so sad that we won’t get that story, although I really hope it gets addressed in perhaps a beta canon novel (everyone drink).

Third best part: Georgiou vs David Cronenberg, including the bit where she learns that the terran empire fell apart without her and ultimately fell and the terrans became slaves, and no one has come through since ds9 era. I went and looked up what we know about the Section 31 series and its a Georgiou centric last stand, and yeah okay, maybe I’m a little bit more into it. Especially if its her trying to get back to the mirror universe maybe?? 

Ultimately there was a LOT to love about this episode, although I can roll my eyes at the “what is the burn” thing, the “ooh this piece of MUSIC must MEAN something” ugh I want it to be the disco version of a rickroll, just a massive, ridiculous search for fucking toxic by britney spears.

I ended up watching the preview for next week on youtube and I am SO HYPED for it, it looks so good. 

[fullmetal-angelgrace]

mmmmm ds9 3x05 second skin.... love me some psychological torture that makes a person question their entire existence 🙃🙃

[the-goofball]

I’m… kind of looking forward to it.