#like the episode of ds9 trials and tribbleations

[foolpoof]

“Is that a matter transporter- like Star Trek!?”

“Yes- we have to visit them sometime!”

Doctor Who Star Trek crossover when

[marxistgnome]

Ok so everyone in the ds9 crew were in their ELEMENT in trials and tribbleations. First of all the trouble with tribbles was absolutely PERFECT for them to go back to because it is just so conducive with ds9 style shenanigans. Then everyone enjoying their outfits had me screaming and obrien causing a powrcut cos he cant operate 23rd century tech and julian freaking out over whether he needs to fuck is great grandma OH and the fact that julian said mccoys catchphrase thing had me SCREAMING. also all the fangirling over kirk to the point of interferibg with the timeline was wonderful and dax was just winning this whole episode bcos this was just nostalgic for her and it made me so happy to see her excited at the chance to revisit people and things from her past. AND SHE FUCKED MCCOY. BRUH. Also as soon as this episode started i had my fingers crossed odo would get a tribble and HE DID and he liked it so much he reintroduced an invasive species to ds9. And everything about worf and the fact that the tribbles falling out the chute into kirks head was just dax and sisko throwing them I LOVE THOS EPISODE

[protectspock]

Okay so I've firmly established my new trek (discovery, Picard, lower decks, snw) wishlist basics

more filler episodes

more insane costumes

more levity

less overarching plot more overarching character development

(Lower Decks actually has most of these and Discovery is showing some signs of improvement. Picard needs a LOT of the above, and SNW remains to be seen.)

But I'd like to add to the list:

CROSSOVER EPISODES

Granted, we didn't get a lot of these between TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, and ENT, but it was very nice when we did! Obviously, there's the issue with all of them taking place in different time periods, but if I had creative control, this would be my proposal:

Ideas for Discovery

A historical holodeck episode. Either they're trapped within one or they have to search for the answer to a problem by observing historical events (like "Flashback" in ENT or "These are the voyages.") This would work best for a Discovery/Picard crossover or a Discovery/SNW crossover. Discovery/LD would be harder in this scenario for obvious reasons.

a hologram or other lifeform with the preserved likeness/personality of a character from Picard makes an appearance, similar to the Voyager episode with the EMH. This would work best for a Rios hologram, but it could also work for Soji, if she was somehow preserved for ~750 years.

Ideas for Lowerdecks

Lower Decks has INCREDIBLE crossover potential because of its format. We've already had some trek characters appear without having to worry about their age since all we need is their voice, and the more of this we get, the better. Lower Decks takes place only 19 years before Picard, 10 years before Rios is discharged, and 7 years before the Romulan Supernova. So what I'm saying is, any Picard character (with the exception of Elnor and Soji) could show up in Lower Decks. Actually, Rios would be about the same age as the Lower Decks crew. Give me Ensign Rios. Raffi would be about 35, so also no reason she shouldn't show up.

Lower decks also has a good set-up for a time travel episode. Why shouldn't they travel back to SNW, or forward to Picard or Discovery? If it's Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, and Rutherford we're talking about, they probably did it on accident while doing something they shouldn't have, and may therefore be reluctant to tell anyone with real authority about it when they get back. (Mariner: Spock had a SISTER? Did anyone else know about this? Geez, how many secret siblings can one dude have?). Also, then we get to see those crews animated and also in a light-hearted one-off which would RULE.

Ideas for Picard

I could see the Picard crew incidentally traveling forward to Discoveries period or back to SNW, although there may be some narrative hurdles. Imagine Elnor getting to see Ni'Var, experience the reunified Vulcan/Romulan state, and find out that the Qowat-Milat is still going strong! <3 Or imagine a Trials and Tribbleations style ep where Picard gets to bump elbows with Pike and interact with Spock when he was young!

Picard could also pull off a "historical holodeck" episode with SNW or S1-2 Discovery characters.

Ideas for SNW

Granted, we don't know the exact tone of SNW yet, and because all the other shows are happening in the future and unlike LD we can't bring on younger versions of the characters without scary CGI, the only way they could host a crossover episode would be through traveling forward in time. Now, this would take some classic star trek hand-waving to pull off, but they've done it before and they'll do it again. I would personally enjoy young Spock on La Sirena or getting to see Michael again :')

Final thoughts about Lower Decks

One nice thing about the main Lower Decks crew is that the voice actors all convincingly resemble the characters they play. So while it wouldn't be practical to have a live-action episode in which the deck of the Cerritos and every character would need to be live, having one of them, or just the four of them show up in SNW, Picard, or Discovery as time travelers or as holograms could actually be pretty easy to pull off.

[gayspock]

also more trek thoughts:

- clunker episodes are like sooo few and far between at this point and tbh theyre not even like. BAD bad, you know what i mean?i feel like, at this stage of ds9, most clunker eps are just kinda listless..

- anyways despite julian and quarks lil outfits i did NOT really like Let He Who is Without Sin. i think i would have been relatively ambivalent but bc, at this point, theyre on such a roll it just feels really offputting to me, like...

- it just feels so weak? and im not entirely sure if there's one singular reason for that (my one big gripe notwithstanding - but i'll elaborate on that) but just overall. the fella protesting on rosa - whilst not an angle im against, it just felt... off somehow? i can buy that someone would be against risan culture, due to their own values; and i do want to see tension rising from within the federation... but i dont know. it doesnt feel quite right here.

- maybe its because its less about that, and more about jadzia and worf. and like. thats still not something im against: i like to see some natural conflicts within relationships, and it makes sense that jadzia and worf might argue like this; and i wouldnt mind seeing worf's own opinions and biases be preyed upon, in this context, by the protestor guy... but it feels.... unfocussed nonetheless? too much emphasis on the wrong things here and there and it feels. just. frivolous and a bit petty of him which. of COURSE he'd be being a dumbass but its like... theres too much fuss about julian and leeta and quark and etc. and yeah i think it needed to be a lil more compact

- anyways my actual solid gripe though. i hate the whole: worf killed a kid reveal... i dont know. like for the record- im not, like, against characters having done shit like that. im more, hm, whats the word? like i feel like.. its just a little lazyish and shock valueish and its like-

- its like worf already has plenty of reason to be the way he is: his no nonsense behaviour is a consequence of who he is anyways... a klingon who lives among humans and is trying too hard to adhere to his people who dont want him, and who he also doesnt have any true experience of properly living with and this and this and this and that and its like... i feel like we KNOW that. you dont need to hinge it all on that? like you have plenty of fleshed out, realised characterisation - but thats HARDER to succinctly put, i suppose, so you just... reduce it down to some singular event, and add some shock value and tragedy to it. i think it also just reminds me very much of like. RPing as a teenager and that a lot of people's OCs (and a lot of my own) would have some sort of horrible dark secret thats just "they killed someone :/" and god not even just that i hear this shit from characters ALLLL the time and its just so? uninspiring? and its like- again theres nothing... inherently wrong with that but its like trtying to pin all of his characterisation on a single event. AGAIN when we already have a much richer context its like ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

- and so im like eh -_- whatever

- and it differs from the next episode wherein we see odo responsible for people's deaths: because that's moreso... enlightening us to a new perspective on odo. we dont see a lot of him and his more questionable behaviour during the occupation. now we do and we can see what he did and again we're not... boiling down his entire character to this singular event but its just another dimension that isnt fully realised and feels more like an example of many you know bc thats another thing about worf like. we have known worf for literally 8 and a bit seasons worth of television at this point - thats a LONG time - and it also feels so weird to like... introduce such an integral part of him NOW like that even if he is more reserved and tng wasnt so like that idk idk idk

- anyways im just rambling omg

- i never did properly talk about trials and tribbleations i really liked that it was good fun and i think its definitely an ep that i rate highly MOSTLY bc of the cleverness of the editing and mixing it with the old ep and it being a love letter to tos than it being an actual ep of ds9 thats got substance but personally im absolutely fine with that sorta thing once in a while :3 its endearing and it still took talent and creativity just in a different way than usual

- also going back more: i really did like nor the battle to the strong. i like that they'd explore jake more - i really do. i dont like it when like... characters kinda just exist as family members? i mean ok. OK. like obviously there are minor characters that sometimes hang about but i mean like- long term stays like jake and stuff, who's so important to sisko... like i feel like, you know, if a character is important to another like that, on that level, then they need the development too and i really do like what we get of jake. its not a lot - it shouldnt be a lot, of course - but the two eps we've had of him... yeah, yeah, yeah. i like him. lil dude, you know.

- which is why, on the contrary, im still upset abt keiko not getting her proper dues :( esp when she DOES do some really cool stuff early on in DS9. even then they never properly explored it from her perspective and i whined abt it already a few days ago BUT the way shes been getting even less... i still LIKED the assignment but i thought i might get a keiko episode. instead it was a miles and rom ep - and it was GOOD, dont get me wrong - but its just like. sigh. imagine if they'd done the opposite and made miles the one taken over by the wraith and keiko had to cover his tracks as he worked... -_- something- ANYTHING for my missus... its so annoying that shes existed for so long without getting a single proper ep to herself. like i said, for gods sake, lwaxana's had TWO ds9 eps. which im not mad abt but GIVE KEIKO LIKE... ONE???? PLEASE? PWEASE?

- anyways thats all i have to say rn love and light

[thebreakfastgenie]

whichever star trek you like, for the fandom asks!

ok I can’t pick so i’m gonna to TOS and DS9

the first character i ever fell in love with: Spock

a character that i used to love/like, but now do not: I can’t think of any of these either

a ship that i used to love/like, but now do not: honestly can’t think of one!

my ultimate favorite character™: Spock. Spock for life.

prettiest character: Uhura

my most hated character: I’m not wild about that woman who hooked up with Spock when they were high on flowers

my OTP: Kirk/Spock

my NOTP: I can’t get into Spones man

favorite episode: Journey to Babel

saddest death: Spock in Wrath of Khan. Does it “stick?” No. But it “counts.”

favorite season: 2

least favorite season: 3 I guess but I would die for them all

character that everyone else in the fandom loves, but i hate: 

my ‘you’re piece of trash, but you’re still a fave’ fave: Sarek for certain definitions of trash

my ‘beautiful cinnamon roll who deserves better than this’ fave: Spock, Bones

my ‘this ship is wrong, nasty, and makes me want to cleanse my soul, but i still love it’ ship: this is niche but Chekov/Joanna McCoy. Joanna was supposed to be in The Way to Eden and have a romance with Kirk (yeah.) but she ended up being replace with Chekov’s love interest Irina. I want to see Joanna back but keep the romance with Chekov. 

my ‘they’re kind of cute, and i lowkey ship them, but i’m not too invested’ ship: Scotty/Uhura

the first character i ever fell in love with: Julian Bashir

a character that i used to love/like, but now do not: hmm I can’t think of any

a ship that i used to love/like, but now do not: ok so when I watched the pilot I was like maybe Julian/Jadzia would be cute? And like five minutes later I was repulsed. They ARE bros forever. 

my ultimate favorite character™: Julian Bashir! I pick ‘em and I stick to ‘em

prettiest character: Kira Nerys

my most hated character: Rick Berman

my OTP: Garak/Bashir.... no purer moment than when Stamets called Culber “dear doctor” on Discovery and all the Niners screamed in unison on the astral plane. 

my NOTP: Julian/Dax of any kind

favorite episode: I like to say Move Alone Home to be contrary... I genuinely love it because it feels like TOS. Maybe Trials and Tribbleations, maybe Civil Defense, maybe In the Pale Moonlight. Or the two parter in the Dominion prison that I’m forgetting the name of. 

saddest death: Jadzia :(

favorite season: hmmmm. 5?

least favorite season: maybe season 7 because I miss Jadzia and Garak and Julian were in full no homo by then

character that everyone else in the fandom loves, but i hate: I don’t know if anyone LIKES him but people say Eddington was right and maybe so but I hate him. The broader franchise answer, and he technically appears in the pilot, is Picard, who I don’t exactly hate but I don’t like a lot. 

my ‘you’re piece of trash, but you’re still a fave’ fave: Garak.....

my ‘beautiful cinnamon roll who deserves better than this’ fave: Kira

my ‘this ship is wrong, nasty, and makes me want to cleanse my soul, but i still love it’ ship: like. I don’t want to ship Quodo. But. 

my ‘they’re kind of cute, and i lowkey ship them, but i’m not too invested’ ship: Rom/Leeta, Sisko/Kasidy

[weerd1]

Star Trek DS9 Rewatch Log, Stardate 1908.25 Supplemental: Missions Reviewed “Trials and Tribbleations,” “The Assignment,” and “Let He Who is Without Sin.”

“Trials and Tribbleations” opens with Temporal Investigations agents Lucsley and Dulmer investigating an accidental time travel incident on the Defiant. When retrieving the “Orb of Time” from Cardassia, the ship also took on a passenger, and older human, who activates the orb and takes the Defiant back 100 years in time. It turns out the human was no human at all, but Klingon agent Arne Darvin who plans to change history. Darvin was exposed trying to sabotage Federation efforts to colonize planets near Klingon space by Captain James Kirk, shaming the Klingon forever. The Defiant is now orbiting Deep Space Station K7, and having to find Darvin while avoiding detection by the crew of the 1701. 

When a group of Klingons arrives on the station, the mission is complicated, and even more so when a trader allows a species of small animal known as a “tribble” to begin to breed out of control. Worf reveals the Klingons hunted the little beasts to extinction, but in this time period, they are still a problem. While Kirk and crew try to protect the station’s store of grain, Sisko and crew discover Darvin has put a bomb in a tribble; this makes it touch to find them as both Spock and Dax have calculated there are one million, seven hundred seventy-one thousand, five hundred sixty-one tribbles on K7- and most of them are in the grain. As Kirk opens the bin allowing the tribbles to spill out, Dax and Sisko are in the compartment above his head, but locate the bomb beaming it into space. Sisko, in the 24thcentury reports to Temporal Investigations that his only indulgence was taking a moment to meet Kirk, but that otherwise the timeline was preserved.  When the agents are gone, Sisko, Dax, and Odo go to the promenade…which is full of tribbles.

This episode was produced in honor of the Original Series’ 30thanniversary, and honestly it holds up beautifully. The scenes integrating the DS9 crew with the TOS crew still look seamless, and the story, with tongue firmly planted in cheek, moves along well. Lots of winks to the audience, not the least of which is the first time Trek begins to acknowledge the Klingons on TOS looked like humans! Worf’s explanation? “We don’t discuss it with outsiders.” Enterprise will come along a few years later and give us a surprisingly plausible explanation, but I would love to see Worf go up against some Discovery Klingons. (Maybe I just want more screentime for L’Rell.)  A great homage to the classic, and make sure you keep your eyes open for David Gerrold, the author of the original “The Trouble With Tribbles,” in a red shirt, petting his ORIGINAL tribble prop he kept from the 60s. Dr. Bashir even gets a, “I’m a doctor, not a…” in!

The annual “Let’s Screw With Chief” episode hits with “The Assignment.” As Quark is telling Rom he will never get off the maintenance night shift, O’Brien has gone to meet Keiko at the airlock after a trip to Bajor. She tells him that she is in actuality an ancient non-corporeal being, a Pah-Wraith, which will destroy Keiko’s body if O’Brien doesn’t do what he’s told. Seemingly trapped, O’Brien begins to make subtle alterations to the station.  With the being’s time running short, O’Brien recruits Rom to help, but swears him to secrecy. When Dax notices the changes, O’Brien gives up Rom.

 Rom protects O’Brien, but wants to know why they are creating a beam that will kill the wormhole aliens. It turns out the Pah-Wraits were of the same species as the Prophets, but cast onto Bajor, imprisoned in the Fire Caves. This one plans to kill the Prophets to allow it’s group to return to the Celestial Temple. O’Brien takes Keiko/Pah-Wraith and a Runabout to go activate the beam remotely from a Runabout. As the wormhole opens though, O’Brien targets their own ship, killing the Pah-Wraith possessing Keiko. When all is revealed, Rom’s ability to perform and how he was able to figure out the Pah-Wraith’s plot are recognized, and Rom is promoted to day shift.

The tension is nice in this episode, and as each season when Chief gets screwed with, Colm Meany’s performance is great. You really feel how nervous he is the Pah-Wraith might hurt Keiko, or worse yet Molly.

  I still am not sure I buy that he was unable to tell anyone what was happening; despite the one time he decides to tell, Keiko heading him off, there seem to me to be plenty of opportunities, even right after the Pah-Wraith throws Keiko off a ledge. This does introduce us to the idea that if there are gods in the wormhole, there are devils on Bajor, and that will play out strongly in subsequent seasons. Nice to see Rom’s advancement as well. The “Ferengi Pit Boss” from the pilot has already come a long way.

“Let He Who Is Without Sin” brings Worf and Dax to the pleasure planet of Risa, with Quark, Bashir, and Leeta in tow. Worf and Dax are having some struggles in their relationship as Worf feels she’s a little TOO free spirited and isn’t taking their relationship seriously. Dax is not going to let Worf tell her how to live. Rather than find a chance to gel on Risa though, Worf gets taken in by a man pushing a “back to moral values” agenda, protesting on Risa. 

Meanwhile, Bashir and Leeta are using Risa to fondly end their own relationship. All is going well until Leeta reveals she has in fact been thinking about another man: Rom. Bashir decides he needs to enjoy more Risa. Meanwhile, Worf and the purists have decided to show folks that Risa is a sham, and sabotage the weather grid, causing rain. Dax confronts Worf about why he is so reserved and he reveals that as a Klingon growing up with humans, there was a time when he was 13 and did not retrain himself, accidentally killing a classmate in a soccer game. As he and Dax start to work through his trauma over that, the Morals group decides to use the weather grid to wipe out Risa completely and make a statement.

 Worf takes back the device he made to do so, and when the man attacks him, Worf rather casually throws him aside. Later, the environment restored, Dax asks Worf if he wants to swim, but he regrets he did not bring a suit. “I won’t tell if you won’t,” she says.

A cute episode for Jadzia and Worf, with a pretty moving story about Worf’s childhood. The group that wants to “restore Federation values” comes off as a little hamfisted, and everyone seems to be a little too eager to move past their ever escalating antics. Love that they are setting up Leeta and Rom though, as that will later be one of my favorite relationships on the whole show. It is kind of a fluff episode, that possibly could have gone a little more seriously into groups that think they are the moral arbiters for everyone around them, but let’s face it: DS9 has it’s share of darker episodes and benefits periodically from lightening up a little.

NEXT VOYAGE: Time slips again for Dax, Sisko, Odo, and Garak as they find themselves in the middle of The Occupation and have to deal with “Things Past.”

[sigynpenniman]

Anyway

I am lucky enough to have a channel that plays Star Trek every night and they just run through the series in order and I let it run pretty much every night and fall asleep to it and have for like, 2+ years now

The side effect of this is that I have at this point seen DS9 all the way through like 3 or 4 times at least and there’s just. I’m Here, I’m Queer, I Love Dr. Bashir, there’s so MUCH there’s so many little subtle moments he has that you don’t even catch the first time or maybe even the second

He fiddles with his hands constantly when he’s talking or listening. He puts his feet up on consoles a LOT. People always call him Doctor or Julian or Dr. Bashir but no one ever calls him “lieutenant” (which is his actual rank) except for Enabran Tain. He’s the first person, and one of the only ones in the whole series, who takes Kai Winn to task directly to her face and he does not give a shit while doing it. In the first mirror universe episode where he gets sent to ore processing he gives his food to one of the other prisoners. In the episode where Odo turns into that monster thing and attacks him they ask him if there were any issues with the lights and he says he has no idea because he never turned them on for fear of disturbing his patients. In general as soon as he has a patient to care for he throws his own self preservation concerns right out the window. People try to intimidate him constantly but no one ever actually does. At one point he calls Dukat “Offensive” to his face. When Jake is hurt in the cave in in Nor The Battle To The Strong, when he comes to Julian is gently stroking his forehead. The amount of time he spends on the planet caring for Ekoria in The Quickening isn’t like, a couple of days, but several weeks. It’s one of the more legendary gifs from my blog but in that one shot from Trials and Tribbleations he really does have a middle aged male Bajoran officer basically in his lap with the guy’s head resting on his thigh. He IS already friends with O’Brien but the level of gentleness and caring that he actually shows Miles when he’s hurt or afraid is genuinely really special when you take it out of the context of the show and take their genders into consideration. Go watch a couple of the scenes from Visionary when Miles is waking up afraid in the infirmary and Julian is reassuring him and try and envision a male doctor looking at his middle aged male patient in real life even slightly like Julian is looking at Miles in that episode and process how unique whatever’s happening there actually is. There’s just SO MUCH there’s so much fridge content, so many things he does that are genuinely exceptional or unique, so many subtle GNC things and parts of his character that are so much more interesting when you take gender into account, so many little subtle things to unpack that tell you about him and so much of it is so easy to miss because it’s either quick or subtle or you don’t think twice about it in the show but it feels different when you reframe the context, try to envision any of it in real life. he’s just. He’s so special. You know he’s special from moment one but the more times around you take the show, the more little details you have the chance to notice the more special he seems.

I’m so glad most of you are here BECAUSE you want to listen to me talk about Julian Bashir incessantly because if you were here for any other reason I would be sure you were tired of this but this way I can be unleashed

[beardedstarfishpuppy-blog]

Star Trek Discovery Weird Klingons Theory

Ok, so if you’re a big Star Trek fan, then you know that, in the Star Trek universe, there was supposed to have been a genetics war in the 1990s. Then, during Star Trek Enterprise, the Enterprise crew has a run-in with Dr. Soong (grandfather of the Dr. Soong who invented Data), who tries to continue those experiments with genetically augmented humans (Augments). This all goes terribly wrong, many lives are lost, and we all learn a valuable lesson: any human who believes that they are intrinsically better than other humans will commit acts of genocide.

Skip forward to the Enterprise episode Divergence. The Klingons try to use Dr. Soong’s research to create Augment Klingons, but they just create a crazy, deadly virus that is threatening Klingon civilization. Naturally, they kidnap Dr. Phlox to help them fix it. He comes up with a cure, but one of the side effects of the virus, since it was based on human augments, is that the Klingons who got the virus have smooth-foreheads and look very human-like.

At the end of the Divergence episode, we know that a lot of Klingons have been infected. Although Phlox’s cure will keep them from dying, they can’t necessarily stop the virus from spreading and, since it affected them at a genetic level, any children they have will also be changed.

So, essentially we have two sets of Klingons now: smooth and original recipe. We know that, during Kirk’s time, the Klingons you see are the smooth kind, like the ones in The Trouble with Tribbles. However, in TNG, we only see the original kind and in Trials and Tribbleations, it becomes clear that, not only have the DS9 crew never seen a smooth Klingon, they haven’t even heard of them. So, we can assume that, by the time of DS9, Klingons have either figured out a way to reverse the change or they have killed off all changed Klingons.

My Theory about the Discovery Klingons: Discovery takes place around 90 years after the initial virus incident. My theory is that the virus continued to spread and that actually a lot of the Klingon Empire ended up being affected. So many, that it was impractical to just kill all of the affected. So, the Klingons have been working ever since on genetic manipulation to try to change back. I think the ones we see in the discovery trailer are perhaps the result of a failed experiment or the result of inbreeding among a group of klingons who have quarantined themselves from the affected colonies and planets. My thought here is that there are probably a lot of very different looking klingons at this time as some of them are the smooth kind, some of them are descendants of both kinds, some are the original kind, and others are the result of a myriad of genetic and cosmetic experiments to try to reverse the damage.

Or... the makeup team just got it super wrong. Could be that too. 

[combustion-man]

So for the ultimate star trek asks: 21, 26, 32, 39, & 43. (Or some combination thereof if that's too much).

21. Would you consider joining Section 31?

Probably not because while I like the romanticized idea of being a spy that’s probably a terrible life and I’d have conflicting emotions about most of my missions tbh

26. Favorite DS9 scene?

In The Pale Moonlight at the very end when Sisko deletes the whole log about what he did. I don’t agree with the decision but that’s a pivotal moment in his characterization and even though you just got really intense insight into his mind, that’s the final bit of icing on the cake that really enforces the measures taken during war. I don’t think I’m explaining it as well as I want but if I did I would probably end up writing a full length essay on it. 

32. Would you consider traveling with Q for eternity?

I would definitely consider it and maybe even go for it but Q would drive me insane after like a week so who knows how long it would last

39. Which two characters would you want as your parents?

Hmm… Spacedad Sisko for sure because having a good relationship with a dad is such a weird concept to me??? and Beverly Crusher because if she can put up with Wesley’s shenanigans then I am a dream child

EDIT: also I'd be down for gay space dads Sisko and Tuvok 43. Favorite DS9 episode?

I’m gonna defend Trials and Tribbleations as overall the best episode of Star Trek

[weerd1]

Star Trek DS9 Rewatch Log, Stardate 1909.11: Missions Reviewed, “One Little Ship,” “Honor Among Thieves,” “Change of Heart,” and “Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night.”

The Defiant is on a rare scientific mission when “One Little Ship” begins, escorting a Runabout with Bashir, Dax, and O’Brien into a subspace compression, which will actually objectively compress their molecules until they are comparatively miniaturized. This experiment may lead to advanced in transwarp technology, but must be preformed precisely, with the Defiant keeping them under tractor beam to pull them out exactly along the path they went in. Suddenly the Runabout is shaken, and the Defiant loses control of them.  When they do find the Defiant, it was captured and attacked by the Jem’Hadar, and the Runabout is now about three inches long.  They know they have to help and actually use a venting port to fly their ship inside the Defiant. There they observe that the Jem’Hadar is forcing the crew to fix the warp drive, damaged in the Dominion attack. They realize that Sisko and crew are faking much of what they’re doing, trying to recapture the bridge controls.  The Wee Folk decide to help, and go fly stealthily to the bridge where O’Brien and Bashir have to enter a computer to reroute control to Sisko. 

The Starfleet takeover is made easier as the Dominion has now engineered new Jem’Hadar in the Alpha Quadrant, and the “Alphas” and “Gammas” among them are developing an unhealthy rivalry.  With control directed to Sisko, and a couple of anti-personnel photon torpedoes from a tiny Runabout, the Jem’Hadar are killed, and the Defiant can take the shuttle back to the Compression to excise it properly and restore them to size.

 When telling the story at Quark’s later, Odo mentions that he thinks Bashir and O’Brien may be a few centimeters shorter. As they rush out to the infirmary to check, Quark smiles at Odo. “And they say you have no sense of humor.”

It’s “Fantastic Voyage” come to Trek and in an episode that wisely doesn’t take itself too seriously.  The effects are neat, as is the crew interaction as we get to see the crew working their subterfuge against the Jem’Hadar from the “miniature” perspective. The sets for when Bashir and O’Brien are in the computer are appropriately absurd.  The introduction of Alpha and Gamma Quadrant Jem’Hadar is a neat idea, but unfortunately one that the show will never revisit.  As technobabble filled as this episode is, the acknowledgement that oxygen molecules would be 2000 times too big for them to breathe is neat, as is Dax’s solution of beaming a pocket of miniaturized atmosphere from the ship into the sealed computer space.  It does make me wonder why a fully stocked Runabout—miniaturized or not—doesn’t have spacesuits O’Brien and Bashir could wear.

Time to screw with O’Brien again in “Honor Among Thieves,” as his technical acumen has made him the best person to work a mission for Starfleet Intelligence. He’s to approach some low-level operatives in the Orion Syndicate, earn their trust, and find out about a mole the Syndicate has in Starfleet. While on this mission, O’Brien begins to genuinely like the mid-level boss, Bilby (and his cat), but is assured that Intel just wants him to go to jail, after they find the mole.  

That actually proves fairly easy, and O’Brien is ready to go home, when the next level boss introduces Miles’ gang to a Vorta, who is planning to have the Orion Syndicate pull a mission of some sort for the Dominion.  Intel extends O’Brien’s mission, and he finds Bilby is to assassinate the local Klingon ambassador and make it look like Gowron did it to sow discord in the Empire and have them pull away from the Federation again. O’Brien reports, and his handler tells him that they have warned the Klingons, which means Bilby will be killed rather than arrested. O’Brien tries to warn Bilby, but the criminal knows he is a dead man anyway because he vouched for O’Brien. Bilby goes to meet his fate, and O’Brien returns to DS9 with his cat, unsure of the moral outcome of this work.

Sure, it’s Star Trek’s “Donnie Brasco,” but it is also well done and performed well by everyone involved.  Anyone with a HUMINT background will feel for the Chief and the dreaded situation when a source is going to get burned. Interesting to note that the Starfleet intel agent is actually Michael Harney who plays Healy on “Orange is the New Black” with Kate Mulgrew from “Voyager.” I suppose my only real complaint here, it like the Alpha/Gamma Jem’Hadar in the last episode, we don’t see O’Brien’s new cat again as I recall.

“Change of Heart” also brings Starfleet intel into the fray as Worf and Dax, while planning their honeymoon, are sent to retrieve a message from an operative in the Cardassian government.  When they get the message, he tells them he knows how many Changelings are in the Alpha Quadrant, and where they are.  He won’t share though until he is extracted. 

 Worf and Dax agree to try, and are rather enjoying their mission together, crossing a jungle to meet the spy, until they are ambushed by Jem’Hadar. They prevail, but Dax is wounded, and thanks to the nature of Jem’Hadar weapons, she is infected with an anti-coagulant, and will likely bleed out. She tries to continue mission, but simply cannot. She tells Worf to go ahead and get the Cardassian, and she will wait for him to come back. Each knows she will not last the time it will take to get the spy, get back to this position, and then get back to the Runabout. Worf goes as duty demands, but can’t continue.

 He goes back and saves Dax, extracting her, and leaving the Cardassian to be killed when he tries to re-enter his base. Worf tells Sisko he knows he did not perform either his Klingon or Starfleet duty��but Dax was more important.  Sisko sympathizes, but reprimands Worf, effectively pulling him off the command track for his future career.

A very well told episode, and the writing/performances of the Dax and Worf marriage here are very strong. Their banter and romance are heartwarming and believeable, and heartbreaking when Worf has to make the decision to leave her to die. Yet he cannot, and a lesser show would have somehow had him save her AND the Cardassian agent. This show doesn’t give tidy endings however, and it’s a better tale for it. There is also a B-story about O’Brien and Bashir deciding to play Quark at Tongo, but Tongo psyches out the genetically “superior” Bashir by reminding him that he loved Jadzia and let her get away.  This becomes more relevant next season after…Oh god, I’m not ready.  It just matters later, OK?

In “Wrongs Darker than Death or Night,” Kira is preparing to celebrate what would have been her mother’s 60thbirthday when she mysteriously receives a call from Dukat who confesses that he had an affair with her mother years before. Kira doesn’t believe it, and uses the Orb of Time (previously recovered in “Trials and Tribbleations”) to go back 28 years in time to Dukat taking command of Terok Nor, and taking Kira Maru on as his “comfort woman.”

 Major Kira is appalled and joins the contemporaneous resistance, planning to put a bomb in Dukat’s quarters when she sees Maru get a message from Nerys’ father, who thanks her for what she’s doing, as they are receiving more food for the kids (including little totes adorbs Nerys) since Maru took to Dukat’s bed. Kira has a flash of conscience, pulling both Maru and Dukat out of the blast zone before the bomb explodes, but with the explosion, returning to her present in 2374. She is torn about what to think of her mother and debating whether it was collaboration or just protecting her family.

So, this is one of those exception to the rule episodes.  I find this one actively awful. First of all, it seems quite a stretch that form 2346 when the station was commissioned until 2369 when the Cardassian Occupation ended and the Federation moved in that Dukat was the ONLY prefect Terok Nor had.  And yes, they insinuate that Dukat was all about Bajoran babes, but he stayed with Maru SEVEN YEARS, and then there was Ziyal’s mom and then there was at least one other Bajoran mistress, all while somehow being the prefect of Bajor, commander of Terok Nor, and managing to have a wife and seven kids of his own on Cardassia.  In ‘The Maquis’ they told us he took command of the station in 2360, but he was apparently living there for 14 years as prefect first and …it just doesn’t make sense in the end, and as much as I wanted to see Dukat remain a foil for Kira rather than Sisko, making her mother his mistress seems particularly contrived. Indeed, now we know he saw Nerys in 2346 several times, yet he doesn’t seem phased when he will see her again on DS9 in “Necessary Evil” after he appoints Odo as chief of security, or when he repeatedly sees her when she takes over as First Officer of DS9.  At least when they almost bonded over Ziyal, you would think he might have mentioned there was a closer family relationship than she knew, either through her mother or the mysterious bomber woman. And as for Kira, sure, you hear something freaky about your mom so your first reaction, and actual plan, is to GO BACK IN TIME. Even using Bajoran methods, this sounds a little risky.  Indeed, she tries to kill Dukat! Surely, as pissed off as she might be, unraveling ALL OF ALPHA QUADRANT HISTORY is a little overreaction.   This timeline doesn’t work for me, this situation doesn’t work for me, and dammit, Kira Nerys deserves better. When Nana Visitor in a slinky dress can’t fix your episode, it is wayyyyyyy broken.

NEXT VOYAGE: There’s a traitor on Deep Space Nine and a Starfleet investigator is ready to make an “Inquisition.”

[trisscar368]

Part of me really wants the bunker kitchen because we’ve already had this implication in s11 that the kitchen (Dean’s safe space and the anchor of their home) is a location/piece of Castiel’s heaven-memories.  It would certainly be the simplest thing to film.

I’m all for @consulting-cannibal‘s Walmart Empty theory; it’s simple to film, there’s a poke at Gabe over the years... but in the long run, what we’re going to see of the empty depends entirely on who Cas will be talking to.  The show relies a lot on perception; Heaven isn’t made of white corridors, that’s just what the humans (both our pov souls, like Bobby, and the audience) can understand.  We’re not going to see a trueform angel because it’s not something humans can comprehend in-show.  If Cas is going to be talking to himself... honestly?  I’d want SPN to pull a DS9.

There’s an episode a few seasons in called Trials and Tribbleations.  The show took a classic Star Trek Original Series Kirk era episode (Trouble with Tribbles) and blended shots and cgi so that the crew of DS9 was in the story of the Kirk era episode.  The film crew matched sets, uniforms, they picked scenes and wrote around the original dialogue, so it looked like a genuine time travel “they were there” scenario.

I’d want Cas and alt!Cas (or the being wearing Cas’ form >.>) to be going back and looking at events since Cas rescued Dean from Hell; walking together through happy moments and mistakes; the things Cas has avoided looking at or thinking about since The Man Who Would Be King.

Of course if it’s another character, like Death or Metatron or Gabriel or Chuck (>.> pls not Chuck) or hey Amara (because Empty = nothingness = Darkness), that could still work, but the themes they’d be drawing from would be different, so... s8 used Naomi’s white office very sparingly (short clips, not frequent) until the tension was established, because repetitive (and simple) set design with just dialogue is a great way to lose audience attention.  Unless they somehow give us the same tension as “oh nu Castiel is having weird visions what the HECK STOP STABBING DEAN”, repetitive sets (like, say, black curling mists) seem too risky for spanning three or four episodes.

We have talked a lot about what, or rather who cas might have to face in the empty. (Some people, including myself, believe that it’s going to be some iteration of himself. I’ve also seen a case being made for Chuck, Billy or Gabriel.)

But I don’t think it’s been discussed yet what the empty itself might actually look like, even though that might be a very interesting question.

As I understand it from what Billy said, the empty is essentially simply nothingness. But how do you visualize nothingness?

They might just keep it simple and either have Cas walk around in complete blackness or complete whiteness, but that would disappoint me a little.

So what might be the alternative? What might be an effective way to visualize the void? Maybe it will all hinge on Castiel himself, on his moods, his state of mind. What do you think?

I’m tagging a few people I think might be interested in this discussion, but really, I’d be happy for anyone’s input here!

@magnificent-winged-beast @gneisscastiel @tinkdw @amwritingmeta @woahthisguy @starsinursa @antisocialarchives @bend-me-shape-me @trisscar368 @helianthus21