#the sword of kahless

[spockvarietyhour]

Star Trek Deep Space Nine "The Sword of Kahless"

[filmjunky-99]

s t a r t r e k d e e p s p a c e n i n e created by rick berman, michael piller [the sword of kahless, s4ep9]

'For a thousand years, our people have dreamed of this moment.' - kor

[hitchell-mope]

He’s very overdramatic isn’t he?

[sshbpodcast]

Character Spotlight: Dax (all of ‘em!)

By Ames

We give Deep Space Nine a lot of credit for fleshing out Trill culture after the confusion that was TNG’s “The Host.” Trill characters become so much more interesting when the joining gets retconned to be more of a personality melding than an overwrite, and we’ve got Dax to thank for that. All the Daxes! Sure, we’ve also been frustrated that every Dax-centered episode seems to rewrite how being a Trill works, but we’ll get into that in a second.

Your hosts at A Star to Steer Her By decided to clump all the Daxes together for this spotlight, so we’ve got your gorgeous Jadzia, your cute-as-a-button Ezri, and even some mentions for Curzon and other bonus Daxes to round out our Best and Worst Moments lists! Check them out below, listen to our discussion in this week’s podcast episode (jump over to 1:09:24), and find out if the spots do go all the way down.

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Best moments

A different kind of worm pouch, er, hole! Deep down, Jadzia is just a science nerd who wants to science, so it’s only fitting that she’s the one who does all the heavy lifting when it comes to discovering the wormhole in “Emissary” (not to be confused with “The Emissary” from TNG). Her study of the orbs leads her down the rabbit… er, worm hole until she and Ben go investigate and accidentally start this whole series!

We were just… wrestling One thing the show makes clear about Jadzia early on: she fucks. This girl is unapologetic about how she seeks consensual sex, and good for her. In “Playing God,” she has clearly just struck the mat with her wrestling coach in a scene meant to raise eyebrows, but she’s so forthright about it that viewers go right past feeling titillated and straight to accepting that she knows what she wants.

You are the only one who can give yourself another chance The rest of “Playing God” is spent appraising her Trill initiate, Arjin. And while she’s more polite and forgiving than Curzon would ever be, she’s also upfront with the little dweeb. She tells him that if he’s only looking to become a joined Trill for other people’s sake and not his own, then he’s bound to fail both himself and a symbiont. He should do what he wants to do.

A Klingon blood oath can never be broken It’s in “Blood Oath” halfway through season two that Jadzia truly emerges as a powerhouse character. Not only does she fight like a true warrior, but she stands up for herself when her old Klingon friends are wary of honoring the blood oath they made with Curzon. It’s the first time Jadzia does something for her after a couple seasons of us questioning her character’s agency, and she slays!

I don’t want to lose you, not again The next really epic, character-defining moment for Jadzia comes in “Rejoined” when again she is fighting for something she desires, even if it will mean the end of the Dax symbiont’s legacy. But screw it, Jadzia lives for love, and her relationship with her old partner Lenara Khan is so deeply felt that we really root for them, and feel all the more crushed at the end.

The only adult in the room Jadzia’s character is so frequently marked by the experience of several lifetimes that she just has this maturity and wisdom about her sometimes. Especially when everyone around her is acting like children, like in “The Sword of Kahless” when Worf and Kor were being selfish brats about finding the legendary bat’leth and Jadzia has to shut them both up. With a phaser.

Kahless hearts Lukara Jadzia’s sort of a hopeless romantic sometimes, so it’s only fitting that she try to earnestly help her friend Quark woo his lady love, the glorious Grilka in “Looking for Par’mach in All the Wrong Places.” When it’s not enough to teach Quark some Klingon languages and how to fight with a bat’leth, she even brilliantly concocts an optronic relay to allow Worf to fight for him remotely.

If this story had an unhappy ending, I would have never forgiven you Sure, it’s mostly a Jake Sisko episode and Jadzia has pretty much just one actual scene in it, but there’s just something about her talk with Benjamin in “...Nor the Battle to the Strong” that’s so sweet. Sisko is stressing out about Jake being in a warzone, and Jadzia tells him one of her past host’s parenting stories to put him a little more at ease, like a good parent would.

Retreat, acquire, confront, evade As we saw in “Looking for Par’mach in All the Wrong Places,” Jadzia’s friendship with Quark has always been well depicted. In a show in which we’ve complained (multiple times) about racism against Ferengis, Jadzia is the only one to give Quark the time of day, and also the one closest to him to tell him to stop weapons dealing in “Business as Usual” because she cares.

Oh baby, I hear the blues a’calling Sadly for us, we lose Jadzia after season six, but happily, there are a couple good moments for the next Dax, Ezri! The first counseling gig she picks up is a bit of a doozy, as she tries to help Garak work through his claustrophobia and his feelings of identity crisis in “Afterimage.” And like all mental health battles, it’s an ongoing one, but she at least gets things started.

The killer in Dax We don’t get enough of the character to see the consequences of summoning that psycho Joran in “Field of Fire” but we can tell it’s noteworthy. Ezri is the only Dax who gets tested by that murderer who briefly had the Dax symbiont, and watching her stand up to him, refuse to give in to the lure of wanton homicide, and solve a case is impressive indeed. If only the episode weren’t otherwise drek.

The Klingon Empire is dying. And I think it deserves to die. Insert any Dax here and they probably have a better understanding of Klingon culture than Worf, but it’s Ezri who really schools him. In “Tacking into the Wind,” she throws in his ridged face just how crappy Klingon politics are and how Gowron is sending the whole empire down the shitter, giving Worf the peptalk he needs to go murder the hell out of that bulgy-eyed fascist.

—

Worst moments

The prosecution rests Early-seasons Jadzia hadn’t yet found her agency, which was the biggest character facet she was lacking. A good representation of this in the episode “Dax,” in which she ostensibly should be the focus character, but spends her entire courtroom hearing refusing to speak for herself and allowing a room full of men to dictate her fate. I rest my case.

Don’t call me Benjamin For some of these Worst Moments, we’ve dipped into other hosts of the Dax symbiont to round things out a bit. And that includes that prick Verad Dax, even if he only has the symbiont for a little while in “Invasive Procedures.” But what an asshole! This guy hires goons to help him kidnap the symbiont, forces Julian to perform surgery, and would have left Jadzia to die.

Talk about an earworm! Here’s another alternate host who does some nasty deeds. We learn in “Equilibrium” that Dax had a secret host, Joran, who happened to do some murdering in order to get/keep the symbiont. It’s still unclear to me what his deal was because later episodes “Facets” and “Field of Fire” retcon his character all over the place until we have no idea how many people this guy even murdered!

And then we can count each other’s spots I’m vomiting in my mouth a little over the cloyingly sweet romance in “Meridian.” While we can commend Jadzia for being sex positive in our Best Moments list above, it’s also incredibly tiring how boy crazy she seems sometimes. It’s like the writing staff can’t help but define Jadzia by the men in her life, and falling so hard for a milquetoast guy like Deral in like a day is proof.

The way to a man’s heart is through his ears Yes, I will include on my Worst Moments list every time women give a Ferengi oomox. Bev did it. Lwaxana did it. T’Pol did it (and I’m sure I’ll mention that when we get to her spotlight). And when Jadzia sensually rubs Quark’s ears in “Facets” to convince him to take on a role in her zhiantara, I find it disgusting because it’s a woman engaging in sexual acts only to titillate the audience. Gross.

You were so young, so lovely We’ve got another guest host to give a piece of our mind to, and that’s Curzon Dax. In “Facets,” he reveals that he washed Jadzia out of the Initiate Program because he was in love with her, and that’s just awful. This guy should have recused himself if he couldn’t remain unbiased in his assessment. Poor Jadzia, always being seen through a sexual lens by men, on and off camera.

What if there was a way for you to kill your brother without killing him? Dax’s heart is in the right place when she tries to find a better place for Kurn when all he wants is to die with honor in “Sons of Mogh.” But the option that she offers to wipe his memory to give him a fresh start is SO MESSED UP. Kurn has no consent in the action that Jadzia and Worf (and Julian, whom we’ll point the finger at next week) impose on him. Dishonor on their houses.

There are some things in life you can’t control, and one of them is me We gave Worf a lot of stick for how badly he treats Jadzia, especially in an episode like the notorious “Let He Who Is Without Sin,” which last we checked had the lowest IMDB rating of all of DS9. And for good reason! It really makes us judge Jadzia quite a bit for staying with Worf when he treats her like his property, which is no good foundation for a relationship.

How do those boots taste? Jadzia struggling through Lady Sirella’s rituals in “You Are Cordially Invited” is demeaning, even in Klingon culture. It shocks me that Jadzia going to grovel to the lady of the House of Martok wins her favor. Instead of rewarding bootlicking, there should have been a more Klingon twist: it should have been a test of how long a prospective house member can put up with shit before they snap and do battle! That’s how you honor a house!

I’m sorry, the baby… Jadzia gets killed off in “Tears of the Prophets,” and it feels like a damn waste! It’s always sad for a beloved character to die, but for Kosst Amojen to take her out like a mere bystander brings up memories of Tasha Yar all over again. And then for her death to get undermined by her and Worf’s plan to procreate just feels like we’re back to Jadzia being defined by her relationships after all that progress.

Anyone can steal a shuttlecraft We’re fairly critical of Ezri Dax on this podcast, and some of that is unwarranted. But when Ezri does stupid shit like stealing a runabout to go save Worf in “Penumbra,” we raise an eyebrow. And when she and Worf bicker like old lovers, we roll our eyes. And when she and Worf have sex instead of dealing with trauma in a healthy and mature manner because it’s all a story trope, we lose some respect for these characters. Dammit.

If Worf hadn’t come along, it would have been you Ezri is barely here for a whole season and already she’s paired up with two of the male crewmembers. In “Afterimage,” Ezri tells Julian that Jadzia was into all the constant flirting, but she isn’t. But by “What You Leave Behind,” they’ve hooked up anyway, and it just feels like smashing the two dollies together to make them kiss. Can she be a character first before she hops into bed with the male character, please?

— Time to put this symbiont back in its pouch and call it day. As alluded to, we’ve got more DS9 characters to spotlight, following with Julian Bashir next week! So stay tuned here for that, follow along on SoundCloud (or wherever you get your podcasts) for more Enterprise watchalongs, hail us on subspace over on Facebook and Twitter, and stop retconning how joined Trills work already!

[entertaiment-sites]

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[nerdknowledgepool]

This one is a real killer.

[asexualjedi]

Insane episode??! It was bad. I think I hate worf now. Damn if you worked on the enterprise and moved to deep space nine season 4 is going to make u unlikable/hated (worf and O’Brien) or a missing person (keiko)

[toby-35]

I AM MAKING THE SWORD OF KAHLESS

[walkingstackofbooks]

DS9 4x06 The Sword of Kahless thoughts (I’m re-watching, so beware spoilers for future episodes!)

[2 July '23]

Is that a lethean? How did Kor survive? I thought their attacks were always fatal - Julian being the exception? [edit: Julian actually says "almost always fatal"; and I assume they can control it and wanted Kor alive?]

"What about you, old man? You want to go along for the adventure?" "Hard to pass up a good quest." I love these two :3

Kor is just the sort of Klingon Worf would look up, to with his penchant for romanticising Klingon culture

"Commander" - idk I guess there's sitting sweet about Worf calling Dax that now, knowing what they become to each other later

Well that was easy to find... too easy....

It is interesting having Kor of the Old Ways and Worf of the New Ways arguing with each other

"Then we have a bit of a problem. There's only one sword and you both want it." Ohhh, Kor listening in the background, there's gonna be trouuuble

No wonder you're exhausted, Jadzia, you've been wrestling with these two's hostility all day!

More power to Dax for shooting them both. Bets thing to happen all episode :P

.....So they were not influenced by, like, the sword having magic powers or something? No mind control? That was just how they chose to act? My, the famous Klingon self-control... /s

This was a short one. It was enjoyable enough, I liked Kor at the beginning and Dax is always wonderful, but Klingon episodes just don't do it for me, sorry :/

[astralbondpro]

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine // S04E09: The Sword of Kahless

[quasi-normalcy]

Star Trek episode titles referencing specific characters or species:

So I've been through the list of every Star Trek episode ever, looking for titles that specifically reference characters or species. I'm talking specific references here, i.e., name drops, rather than just allusions. So, for example, I didn't count "The Squire of Gothos", but I would have counted it if the episode had been called "Trelane"; I counted "I, Borg", but not any of the episodes called things meant to evoke the Borg (e.g., "Collective", "Assimilation", "Drone", etc.).

Anyways, my results are as follows:

Characters:

Of the ST episodes named after specific characters, a plurality (17 out of 56) were named after what I am calling "minor" characters, which I am here defining as those who appear in only 1 episode. These included: "Charlie X," "Miri," and "Elaan of Troyius" (from TOS); "Bem" (from TAS); "11001001" (which is technically the names of the 4 Bynars) and “Aquiel” (from TNG); “Melora” (from DS9); “The Caretaker,” “Jetrel,” “Tuvix,” and “Alice” (from VOY); “Rajiin” (from ENT); “Jinaal” (from DIS); “I, Excretus” and "In the Cradle of Vexilon” (from LWD); and “The Trouble with Edward” and "Ephraim and Dot” (from Short Treks).

Q, of course, led the "major" characters, with 8: "Hide and Q," "Q Who,” “Deja Q,” “Qpid,” and “True Q” (from TNG); “Q-Less” (from DS9); and “The Q and the Grey” and “Q2” (from VOY)

Next was Data, with 4 episodes to his name (“Datalore” "Elementary, Dear Data” “Data’s Day,” and "A Fistful of Datas," all from TNG)

There was a 2-way tie for fourth place between Harry Mudd ("Mudd's Women" and "I, Mudd" from TOS; "Mudd's Passion" from TAS) and Spock ("Spock's Brain" from TOS, the movie Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and "Spock Amok" from SNW), each having 3 episodes to their name.

Bashir was the only other character to have multiple episodes to his name ("Our Man Bashir" and "Doctor Bashir, I Presume?", both from DS9

An additional 20 regular or recurring characters had one episode named after them. These include: Lore ("Datalore"), Sarek ("Sarek"), Troi ("Menage a Troi"), Ro ("Ensign Ro"), Okona ("The Outrageous Okona), Dax ("Dax"), Quark ("The House of Quark"), Shakaar ("Shakaar"), Khan (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan), Kahless ("The Sword of Kahless"), Morn ("Who Morns for Morn?"), Dr. Chaotica ("Bride of Chaotica!"), The Doctor ("Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy"), Su'kal ("Su'Kal"), Vox ("Vox"), Boimler ("Much Ado About Boimler"), Kayshon ("Kayshon, His Eyes Open"), Paris ("We'll Always Have Tom Paris"), Badgey ("A Few Badgeys More") and Ascensia ("Ascension" (not quite, but I'm counting it)).

Species

Here, I counted not just the proper names of alien species, but the proper names of their homeworlds/dimensions as well. And here, again, "minor" species who appear in only one episode dominated the category, with 11 out of 44 episode titles: "The Gamesters of Triskelion," "Elaan of Troyius," "The Mark of Gideon," and "The Lights of Zetar" (from TOS); "The Magicks of Megas-tu" and "The Slaver Weapon" (from TAS); “Angel One” and “Galaxy’s Child” (from TNG); “Meridian” (from DS9); “The Swarm” (from VOY); and "An Embarrassment of Dooplers" (from LWD)

Q, which is, after all, the name of a species as well as a character, again leads the "major" entries, with 8 episodes: "Hide and Q," "Q Who,” “Deja Q,” “Qpid,” and “True Q” (from TNG); “Q-Less” (from DS9); and “The Q and the Grey” and “Q2” (from VOY)

Tribbles came next with four episodes to their name: "The Trouble with Tribbles" (TOS), "More Tribbles, More Troubles" (TAS), "Trials and Tribble-ations" (DS9), and “A Tribble Called Quest” (PRO)

The Ferengi (“Ferengi Love Songs” and “The Magnificent Ferengi” from DS9; “Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place” from LWD) and the Prophets ("In the Hands of the Prophets", "Prophet Motive", and "Tears of the Prophets", all from DS9) tie for fourth, with three episode apiece

There's a three-way tie for fifth place between the Vulcans ("The Infinite Vulcan" from TAS and "The Vulcan Hello" from DIS), the Borg ("I, Borg" from TNG and "Let Sleeping Borg Lie" from PRO), and the Andorians/Aenar, whom I am treating as one species ("The Andorian Incident" and "The Aenar", both from ENT), each with two apiece.

The Tholians ("The Tholian Web"), Orions ("The Pirates of Orion"), Cardassians ("Cardassians"), Jem'Hadar ("The Jem'Hadar"), Caretakers ("Caretaker"), Xindi ("The Xindi"), Species 10-C ("Species 10-C"), Mugatos ("Mugato Gumato") and Illyrians ("Ghosts of Illyria") get one episode each, mostly just boring noun titles

A few interesting things are of note here. First of all, outside of the one-off appearances and simple one- or two-word noun titles, the episodes of Star Trek that are named after specific characters or species are overwhelmingly done for comedic purposes (which probably explains why Q, Mudd, the Tribbles, and the Ferengi all tend to put in relatively strong showings). When things are serious, Star Trek across all series overwhelmingly tends to prefer more oblique or poetic titles. Notably, even the more "serious" episodes with Q ("Q Who" being the major exception) tend to forego the standard punny names.

Secondly, with the exceptions of Data and Spock (and to a lesser extent Bashir, Dax, Quark, the Doctor, and Boimler), Star Trek really doesn't like to name episodes after its opening credits regulars. None of the captains, for example, appear on this list: apparently you can name a series after Picard, but if you want to do an episode about him going on vacation, you call it "Captain's Holiday" rather than "Picard's Holiday."

Finally, it's remarkable what species aren't name-dropped in titles. The Vulcans, the Borg, the Ferengi, the Q, and the Cardassians (namesake of only one rather unimaginatively named episode) are all certainly among the major parts of the setting, but the Federation's oldest enemies--the Romulans and the Klingons--are nowhere to be seen; nor are the Changelings, the Bajorans, the Trill, the Betazoids, or any of however many other species to be featured prominently on their respective series. Star Trek typically seems to favour more oblique or thematic references when it comes to its antagonists (the aforementioned "Drone," "Collective" or "Assimilation" for the Borg; titles like "Heart of Glory," "A Matter of Honour," or "The Way of the Warrior" for the Klingons; titles like "The Neutral Zone," "The Enemy," and various allusions to political tension or spycraft for the Romulans; two separate episodes referencing the colour green for the Orions, and so on); titles that tell you what you can expect from these guys, rather than that they themselves are in it.

[spockvarietyhour]

and Worf came along.

[filmjunky-99]

s t a r t r e k d e e p s p a c e n i n e created by rick berman, michael piller Dahar Master Kor [the sword of kahless, s4ep8]

'Let this moment be remembered. For on this day, we three, Kor, Dahar Master of the Klingons, Jadzia Dax, a joined Trill of seven lives, and Worf, son of Mogh and thorn in Gowron's side, together stepped forth into the eye of destiny.' - kor

[hitchell-mope]

Don’t turn on him now you old git.

[mythologyolympics]

Mythology Olympics tournament round 1

Propaganda!

Hero is from the Greek myth Hero and Leander. Hero, a priestess of Aphrodite dwelt in a tower in Sestos on the European side of the Hellespont, and Leander, a young man from Abydos lived on the opposite side of the strait. In the story, Leander falls in love with Hero and swims every night across the Hellespont to spend time with her. Hero lights a lamp at the top of her tower to guide his way. Leander's soft words and charms—and his argument that Aphrodite, as the goddess of love and sex, would scorn the worship of a virgin—convince Hero, and they make love. Their secret love affair lasts through a warm summer, but when winter and its rougher weather looms, they agree to part for the season and resume in the spring. One stormy winter night, however, Leander sees the torch at the top of Hero's tower. He attempts to go to her, but halfway through his swim, a strong winter wind blows out Hero's light, and Leander loses his way and drowns. When Hero sees his dead body, she throws herself off the tower to join him in death. Their bodies wash up on shore together, locked in embrace, and are then subsequently buried in a lovers’ tomb.

Molor is from the Klingon myths from Star Trek. According to his story, he sent five hundred warriors against the city of Qam-Chee. The city's garrison fled, leaving only Kahless and the Lady Lukara to make a stand in the Great Hall. Kahless and Lukara emerged victorious, after which they commenced the greatest romance in Klingon history. Kahless and Lukara were also nearly killed by Molor's troops shortly after they were wed. This battle was commemorated by the use of ma'Stakas in the traditional Klingon wedding ceremony. The final confrontation between Molor and Kahless took place at the River Skral, which became the subject of a popular Klingon drinking song. Kahless slew Molor with the first bat'leth, which came to be known as the Sword of Kahless, and founded the Klingon Empire. After Molor was slain, the shrines to him were abandoned and built over. The ones that survived were shielded to prevent detection. Followers of Molor continued to exist into the 23rd century; one custom among them was to pour an extra drink and light it on fire.

[fast-moon]

DS9 Season 4 Thoughts

The Dominion is eeeeverywhere! No one knows who we can trust! So going into Season 4, our problem is...

the Klingons? Really? Guess old habits die hard WITH HONOR.

1-2. Way of the Warrior: New season, new intro! The Klingons show up to invade Cardassia under the pretext that the Cardassian government has been replaced by Changelings and they're simply "liberating" it. So Sisko gets his own Klingon in the form of Worf to stand against them. And unlike Riker last season who was just a one-off, Worf is here to stay.

3. The Visitor: Jake acts out the plot of several Doctor Who episodes where Sisko bounces through time while Jake takes the long way around, and upon Jake's death of old age, the timeline resets and it's like nothing ever happened.

4. Hippocratic Oath: O'Brien and Bashir get captured by the Jem'Hadar, but they decide not to kill them since neither one is a redshirt. Although O'Brien may not be a redshirt, he does seem to be increasingly red-pilled, as his sexism and xenophobia were on full display here.

5. Indiscretion: Kira and Dukat go road-tripping together, where the real treasure is the Cardassian asses we stabbed along the way.

6. Rejoined: Whoa, a same-sex kiss played completely, er, straight in an episode from 1995? Neat. Although, by the rules laid out in this episode, shouldn't Dax's continued friendship with Sisko be forbidden, too?

7. Starship Down: Sisko for some reason takes the entire senior staff with him just to renegotiate a trade deal between Quark and a Gamma Quadrant trader, and they once again all end up in deadly peril because he had the bright idea to fly the ship into a gas giant.

8. Little Green Men: Quark and Rom accidentally stumble upon yet another new method of time travel and get transported to post-WWII earth where they're mistaken for Martians. It's no wonder Starfleet offers a specific "So, you've found yourself displaced in time" course, with how seemingly easily and frequently this happens.

9. The Sword of Kahless: Worf gets invited on a treasure hunt, but ends up being a buzzkill. Though they rightfully conclude that returning a legendary artifact won't unite the empire, just cause it to devolve into chaos while everyone bickers over who gets to have it.

10. Our Man Bashir: Garak acts as the gatekeeper for spying while Bashir plays out a James Bond fantasy with the rest of the crew unwittingly cast in the supporting roles.

11. Homefront: Changelings have infiltrated Earth, with the aim of sowing enough distrust that people give up their freedoms willingly in the name of security. This episode is pre-9/11, by the way.

12. Paradise Lost: Sisko finds out that Starfleet had been lying about the caravan of Changelings crossing the border, bringing their murderers and rapists, eating the dogs and eating the cats of the people who live there, in order to justify declaring martial law.

13. Crossfire: Fresh off losing the hypotenuse in the last love triangle with Kira, Odo finds himself in another one, spending the entire episode hearing about how everyone appreciates him but nobody loves him. At least he got a hug.

14. Return to Grace: Dukat enjoyed his road trip with Kira 10 episodes ago so much they go on another one, and now he wants to be another leg in her love polygon.

15. Sons of Mogh: Worf gets in trouble for consensual acts between himself and his brother, so ends up non-consensually violating his brother's autonomy in order to not run afoul of regulations.

16. Bar Association: Rom forms a union and then goes on strike against Quark to protest for healthcare, paid vacation, and overtime pay. Americans watching are like, "Wait, those are things?"

17. Accession: A Bajoran pulled from 200 years in the past comes through the wormhole and Sisko is all too happy to hand over his "Emissary" title to someone more deserving. Until that guy starts trying to Make Bajor Great Again.

18. Rules of Engagement: The Klingons accuse Worf of going "It's Worfin' time!" all over a civilian transport, but it turned out the victims were all crisis actors. Alex Jones rejoices.

19. Hard Time: O'Brien commits a minor offense and is implanted with memories of spending 20 years in prison as punishment. Then he becomes a walking case study in why, if the end goal really is to stop crime, that mere incarceration is counterproductive.

20. Shattered Mirror: Sisko gets kidnapped by the Bad Fanfic Universe again, stuff happens to the Bad Fanfic versions of the characters, nobody cares.

21. The Muse: Jake gets entranced by a creepy woman who's after his braaaaains. And somehow in the future, people not only still know how to handwrite things, but write in cursive as well. Meanwhile, Odo and Lwaxana get married in order to give him paternity rights to her child, is now Dado.

22. For the Cause: Kasidy is suspected of being a Maquis infiltrator, but ♫it was Eddington all along♫. Meanwhile the show tries to set Garak up with a teenage love interest young enough to be his daughter, which for some reason they consider more appropriate than just letting him be gay.

23. To the Death: No! To the Pain. Anyway, the Jem'Hadar ransack DS9, and while on the way to kick their asses, they run into some other Jem'Hadar who have a beef with those Jem'Hadar, so they end up working with those Jem'Hadar to beat up the other Jem'Hadar. Jem'Hadar.

24. The Quickening: Bashir stays behind on a planet with a pledge to cure a planet-wide congenital plague in a week, but best he can do is make it so that no one in the future is born with it but everyone alive now is still screwed, so close enough.

25. Body Parts: Quark gets excommunicated from Ferengi commerce for not being enough of a predatory capitalist piece of shit. Meanwhile, the wrong cast member gets pregnant in real life so they need to BS a reason for Kira to be pregnant instead of Keiko.

26. Broken Link: The Founders infect Odo with "I'm melting, oh, what a world" disease, forcing him to go back home for treatment and receive punishment, which was the same punishment Q got for being a naughty boy: forced to become human and unceremoniously dropped naked in front of the Captain. #JusticeForOdo?

All right, halfway done with the series! Still pretty good so far, but some of the writing choices in this season kind of rubbed me the wrong way, particularly about O'Brien. Originally I liked O'Brien because I sympathized with him as the put-upon engineer who always has to clean up everything constantly breaking around him. But in this season he started getting... I dunno... kinda more generally mean-spirited and selfish. It almost felt like the writers were worried that the Bashir/Garak relationship was coming across as "too gay", so they performed some kind of "conversion therapy" for Bashir by making him hang out with O'Brien instead, and had O'Brien show off how a straight and manly man is supposed to act to a toxic level.

I'm not terribly fond of the new intro theme song. It sounds like the old intro theme song, just slowed to like 3/4 speed, so doesn't have as much "excitement", I guess.

There were also some cold opens that were "all the regulars are contractually obligated to a speaking part in every episode, but this episode isn't about them, so here's a random scene with them" to a distracting level. The one about Dax rearranging Odo's furniture was a particularly egregious one, because... what?

Other than that, the show continues to be scary prescient about current society, especially predicting security policy post-9/11 five years before it happened. And also the episode about the new Emissary who ran on regressing Bajoran society by 200 years for the benefit of a privileged few. In both cases, unlike reality, the ones advocating for those things eventually admitted they were wrong and stepped aside. If only.

But now, Changelings are everywhere! Infiltrating top levels of government and sowing chaos! And now that Odo isn't a Changeling anymore, does that mean his Putty Privilege is also revoked when it comes to dealing with the Dominion? We shall see in Season 5!