To Boldly Sew is a recap of DS9 episodes, with a specific focus on the fashions of the many aliens and other characters that make up the series. Feel free to discuss matters of plot and general Star Trek things in the comments.
All screenshots come from trekcore.com, which is the same place as the original TNG fashion blog (http://sttngfashion.tumblr.com/).
At Quark’s, Quark is trying to sell pieces of a dead Ferengi named Plegg, who apparently started the holosuite industry. Odo comes in and asks how much he’s asking. A mere three strips of latinum. His potential buyer walks away.
Quark was trying and failing to sell to this grumpy-looking Ferengi, who is wearing a greenish jacket with an interesting pattern and some contrasting blue stripes. It’s held closed with some very utilitarian looking bit of metal, and he also appears to be wearing some mustard colored pants.
Quark himself is wearing my favorite outfit – a multicolored jacket that reminds me of stained glass.
Odo claims he’s interested in humanoid death rituals. Quark is skeptical. Odo says he finds the Ferengi tradition of selling off pieces of the dead to be quite interesting, and he’s thinking of buying up pieces of dead Ferengi entrepreneurs and putting them in a display case in his office. He’s also got a space reserved for Quark.
To Quark’s surprise, Odo holds out three strips of latinum, so Quark prepares to hand over the goods. Odo asks how he knows for sure it’s Plegg. It says on the label. Is there a letter of authenticity or something? Quark says there’s a Ferengi seal of dismemberment. Odo is skeptical – what if Plegg is still alive?
Quark is confused. Odo says that he tracked Plegg down elsewhere and told him about Quark’s scheme – Plegg was amused, but Odo is not. Quark says he’s a victim – he bought the disks in good faith. He has 5,000 disks in his storeroom! Not Plegg! Then who? Odo promises to investigate.
A man comes in and calls out to Odo. Odo recognizes him – Dr. Mora.
Mora says it’s been too long. They have the same hairstyle. Mora says Odo looks well. He holds out his hand and they shake hands. Odo asks why Mora didn’t let him know he was coming. He says it was a last minute arrangement. Odo is skeptical and points out the trip from Bajor is 5 hours.
In some previous episode – I think the one with Lwaxana Troi – Odo shared that he copied his “hairstyle” from the Bajoran scientist who studied him and “raised” him. I thus immediately knew who this guy was – his hairstyle is the same as Odo’s – short and slicked back. He’s wearing a top that’s half checked and half solid – the two colors go together well despite the fact that it’s a weird style.
Quark interrupts to ask Mora if he can get him something. Mora says he’d like Deka tea, so Quark, grinning at Odo, goes to get it.
Mora examines Odo more closely, critiquing his ears (“haven’t quite managed them yet”), and asking questions about whether his clothes or boots are part of him or real. Quark comes back with the drink and tries to initiate conversation, so Odo explains that Dr. Mora is the Bajoran scientist who was assigned to Odo after he was found. Mora says he was responsible for his development during his formative years.
Quark is happy, calling this a family reunion and saying that Odo’s dad is welcome at Quark’s. Odo starts to correct him, but Quark just continues speaking to say that Odo is doing a wonderful job on the station and is about to start a fraud investigation. Odo finally yells at him and pulls Mora away, excusing them. Quark yells after asking the Doctor to let him know if he can do anything for him.
On the promenade, Mora says that Odo seems to have overreacted, and Quark was trying to present Odo in a positive light. Odo says he doesn’t know Quark. Mora thinks Odo has trouble with social integration. Odo says he integrates as much as he wants to. What does that mean? As much as he wants to.
Odo explains that Quark is a theif and con man. They go to the replimat and have a seat. Mora asks about this “police thing,” and Odo explains he’s chief of security. Mora, unimpressed, says he’s “chief” at a random way station in the middle of space. Doesn’t Odo miss their work? Odo says never. Mora doesn’t believe it. He says the work and the exploration of Odo and who he is and where he came from must never be far from of his mind.
Odo admits it’s true. Mora says good, because he came there counting on that.
CUE THEME
Sisko is at home reading. Jake tries to skip out without a conversation but Sisko stops him.
Jake is wearing a purple and blue jumpsuit. Not his best, not his worst.
He says he’s going to see Nog. He has studied the whole Klingon opera and is going to ace his music test. Sisko says that he can’t learn about Klingon opera by cramming for a test the night before.
Jake asks what he’s ever going to use Klingon opera for. Sisko says that he doesn’t know what he’s going to be when he grows up – maybe he’ll be a musician or he’ll be around Klingons at some other job. Jake says they probably won’t be talking about opera! When was the last time he listened to Klingon opera? Sisko admits when he was Jake’s age.
Jake says just because he suffered through all that studying doesn’t mean he has to. Sisko disagrees. The door chimes and Odo comes in. Sisko says that he should invite Nog over to listen to Klingon opera together to study for the test they both have to take. Jake sighs but goes back to his room.
He invites Odo to sit down. Odo does so, and says he’d like to request the use of a runabout. Sisko agrees and wonders why. Odo says that Dr. Mora Pol from the Bajoran Institute of Science has asked his help. Why from Odo? Odo explains their relationship and says that going through channels would have taken a long time, but Mora is anxious to investigate something in the Gamma Quadrant. Odo wants to go along.
Sisko is curious. Odo says there’s not much to tell. A Bajoran science probe has investigated a planet about 6 light years from the wormhole. It picked up some unique and familiar DNA patterns like Odo’s. The Doctor thinks this may be a clue to the origin of Odo’s species and Odo himself.
On the runabout, Dr. Mora is speaking to Dax, talking about the discovery of Odo. At first they didn’t know what they were dealing with. A shapeless, viscous mass of fluid. Dax asked how he realized he was dealing with a sentient life form.
Odo says he didn’t – he taught him that himself. Mora laughs and says this is true. Odo says it was a dilemma – he’d never seen creatures like them before. Mora interjects to say that “seen” isn’t the right word, as Odo had no eyes at that point. Odo says he was trying to describe in simple terms. Mora says perceived. Odo says he transformed himself.
Mora interjects and picks up the story. Every morning he’d go into his lab and Odo would be in a petri beaker, and one morning he went in and Odo was gone. The beaker was empty, but next to it was an identical beaker – a perfect replica.
He says it hasn’t been the same since Odo left.
Dax notes that they’re approaching the planet, which is designated L-S VI. This other Bajoran guy who’s on the runabout as well starts to scan the planet.
Mora is wearing the same outfit as before, so here’s the other guy on the runabout. He’s wearing a boring all one color outfit, either dark blue or maybe purple. He doesn’t have a lot of lines.
Dax notes there’s a lot of seismic activity – maybe volcanic. They move into synchronous orbit and beam down.
There are some buildings that might have been dwellings at some point but are ruins now. They fan out and scan things, looking around.
This scene looks exceptionally fake to me. The background appears to be like a painting, the walls of the ruins made with papier-mâché.
Odo finds an obelisk with some writing on it. Mora asks if the letters on it mean anything to him, but Odo says no.
The pillar is sort of vaguely triangle shaped, with a circle at the top, and some markings running down the sides of the triangle.
Mora thinks the pillar is important based on its position in the ruins, in the center of the other buildings. Dax suggests they take it back to the station, where the computer might be able to decipher the inscription. Mora agrees this is a good idea, and then searches for the other Bajoran, whom he calls Dr. Weld.
Weld calls to them from another part of the ruins, where he has found some material. It’s a silicate based substance that Mora theorizes might be “Odo Jr.”
No idea how Weld found this stuff, given that it looks like a small bit of sludge on a rock, but I suppose he was scanning for organic material and it popped up?
Dax beams up the pillar, and immediately afterward an earthquake begins. It’s long lasting, with rocks falling from buildings. They all run to safety. A vent opens up in the earth, expelling noxious gas. Everyone but Odo begins coughing and falls down. The computer finally is ready to transport, so Odo commands it to energize, and they are beamed away.
Back at DS9, Bashir treats the injured.
This is the first time I think I’ve seen Starfleet medical personnel use anything that looks like an oxygen mask, so I suppose the lungs were badly affected.
They are stable for now – Dax is in fair condition but the Bajorans are more seriously affected. Maybe they were exposed to more of the gas, or maybe there’s something about Trill physiology – he’s not sure. Odo is fine.
Bashir says that the gas induced a paralyzing agent when it was inhaled into the respiratory system, but Odo doesn’t have one so he’s fine.
Sisko says everything has been loaded to the science lab from the planet so they can start studying it. Odo looks closely at Dr. Mora and asks if he’ll be okay.
Bashir says the molecule has an unstable structure so it might be temporary. Odo leaves without saying anything else.
He goes out to the promenade. Sisko follows and shares a story about how his dad got sick and he was weak and how that made him feel. Odo says he appreciates the thoughts but Mora isn’t his father.
Odo goes to the science lab, where O’Brien is studying the sample they brought back from the planet. O’Brien says the computer is having a hard time classifying the life form because it keeps changing. It goes through a metamorphosis when it reproduces, and it reproduces very often. O’Brien says it’s multiplied so much he had to change containers.
It just looks like red dust in a dome to me, but okay.
He says he’ll put it in a security field overnight, but wishes Dax could look at it.
Odo goes to look at the pillar they brought back. O’Brien asks if he has any idea what it is. Odo says he hopes it’s a key – a key to his past.
Sisko is sleeping when a call from Kira wakes him up. She says they need him in the Science Lab, so he heads out.
Everything in the Science Lab is chaotic – there are people and things all over the place.
The life form is missing and the container is broken.
Sisko asks if there was a break in. Kira says no, the security seal was in place when she arrived. O’Brien says he’s not sure why anyone would want to steal it. Sisko asks if he thinks the life-form broke out? O’Brien says he doesn’t know what to think. The room was locked and it’s gone.
Sisko tells Odo to run a security scan on the station. O’Brien points out that the security scan might not find it – the metamorphic qualities of the life-form were confusing the computer. Maybe run the sweep several times. Sisko says to go to Yellow Alert.
Odo tells Kira to review the security camera records and heat sensor readouts for the lab and surrounding areas. She agrees.
O’Brien reads trace elements near the ventilation ducts and thinks the life form might have left that way.
Dax comes in. Sisko asks if Bashir gave her the okay to leave? She says Bashir hid her clothes, so she sneaked out of the infirmary and back to her quarters in a hospital gown that wouldn’t close in the back.
She asks what’s going on. Sisko says the theory is that the life-form is responsible. Dax doesn’t believe it. “Good,” he says. “Find me a better theory.”
Dax tells Odo that Mora is awake and wants to talk to him.
Odo goes to see Mora, who says he heard something about the lab.
Mora is wearing what I suppose counts as a hospital gown on DS9. It looks like it might be made of a papery or cheap material like hospital gowns are, but with random red stripes, reminiscent of the Bajoran uniform.
Odo brings him up to date that the sample is missing and they don’t know how or why. Mora is upset. He tries to get up and help, but he’s still weak so Odo makes him lie down again.
Mora says that he’s the expert on shapeshifters. Odo says aside from himself and he’s investigating. And they’re not sure it is a shapeshifter. Are there signs of intelligence? Mora asks, and Odo says not unless you count wanton destruction of the lab.
Mora says this might be – don’t dismiss any possibility.
He notes that Dr. Weld has not yet regained consciousness, and he feels responsible.
Weld is still sleeping with the oxygen mask, wearing the same hospital outfit that Mora is. He’s being watched over by a nurse, who is stuck with the unfortunate nurse’s uniform of blue and ugly orange.
Odo says Bashir is doing what he can. Mora falls back to sleep.
O’Brien has climbed inside the duct and found the same trace elements there, so he’s following the trail while Sisko and Odo look at computers. The scans of the station haven’t produced any evidence, and the security cameras in the lab stopped working for 43 seconds right as the alarm sounded.
O’Brien thinks someone turned them off. Sisko thinks there was a power interruption that might have affected the security field around the light form. O’Brien asks about the heat sensors at the same time. Sisko says there was a six degree temperature increase during the 43 seconds the cameras were out. Then back to normal.
O’Brien thinks they might be dealing with an entity that absorbs low frequency RF energy and feeding off their power. Odo thinks a drain should show on their scans, though. O’Brien starts to talk about something else, but then he hears something ahead. Sisko and Odo don’t hear it on the com line, and there’s nothing showing on the scans near him.
Chief moves closer to whatever he’s hearing, telling the others not to tell his wife. Sisko tells Odo to pull some security backup nearby so Odo calls them. O’Brien keeps talking about his wife and how he doesn’t tell her the truth about his days and he doesn’t think she wants to know.
He sees a damaged section of the ceiling (looks like a pipe maybe?) and determines it’s a structural breach. He reaches out to touch it and some kind of liquid spills out on to his fingers, causing him to cry out. Alarmed, Sisko orders him to report.
O’Brien says he’s fine and has found the missing life form. Only it’s dead now.
Sisko updates the log and informs us that engineering teams have been searching the conduits for 15 hours but have found no more evidence of the alien life-form.
Bashir and Dax are discussing this in the infirmary.
Bashir says that the life form would have required more carbon dioxide than their atmosphere provided. Dax asks if it was capable of destroying the lab. Bashir says it’s not impossible – the environmental impact might have taken some time to take effect. Dax wants Mora’s opinion. Bashir says he’ll be up and about the next day. She asks him if he’d like a raktajino before they call it a night. He declines, having some things to wrap up.
After she’s gone, Bashir talks to himself, lamenting that Dax did not want to sleep with him, basically, but then he hears a noise from another room. He goes in to the space where Dr. Mora is sleeping but doesn’t see anything unusual. Behind him, though, something is descending from the ceiling. Bashir doesn’t see it, but then it grabs him around the neck and drags him to the ground.
Bashir grabs a laser scalpel from the floor and tries to fight back.
The whole scene is very dark and there are no good screenshots of anything, so you can have this shot of Bashir being an action hero with a laser scalpel.
Mora wakes up and sees a dark shape slithering back to the ceiling. Bashir taps his com badge and says, “Emergency. Intruder alert.”
O’Brien studies the vent in the ceiling the thing came out of while Bashir tries to recount the experience. It was behind him and then gone and it was big. He doesn’t know if he managed to injured it at all, just hit it once in the arm or leg or tentacle or whatever it was and then it went up the wall and was gone.
Mora thinks the life form survived and has grown into something interesting.
Mora is apparently feeling well enough that he’s not only gotten out of bed, but put his clothes back on. I wonder if Bashir okayed this or if he had to search for them.
Odo asks if Bashir noticed anything out of place or unusual when he entered the room. Bashir says no. Was it warm? Now that you mention it, yes.
He didn’t try the lights though, because he didn’t want to disturb the patients. Odo suggests they check the RF energy flow and see if there’s a power interruption, like in the lab. Sisko agrees.
Dax reports that there are no blood or flood traces, but she does see a very slight trail of organic residue, which they didn’t see last time. She’s going to try testing.
Sisko calls Ops and tells Kira to restrict non-essential personnel to their quarters and go to red alert. Odo suggests they close the Promenade. Sisko agrees.
Mora finds it cute that Sisko calls Odo “constable.” Odo says it’s a nickname he barely tolerates. Mora says it’s an expression of affection he finds it difficult to accept.
Mora says that Odo was impressive in being attentive to the investigation. He thinks the scientific method and the scientific method have a lot in common. Odo says he’s never thought of it that way. Mora says that they look for the obvious and follow that through. If something looks out of place, it probably is. They go along step-by-step.
Odo admits this applies to criminal investigation as well. Mora says he’s proud of Odo.
Odo and Mora head to the lab. Dax says the computer is having trouble with the DNA chains.
Mora asks about the pillar and if the computer had success at decoding the encryptions. Nope. The computer is having a bad week.
Odo has to go shut down the Promenade, but before he does he asks if the pillar was in a different place before. Dax says it was in her way, so she had it moved. Odo accepts this and departs.
Mora asks if Dax has compared this new organic material to the samples they took initially. Enough to know they’re not the same. He’s interested to see if there are any similarities. She agrees to run an analysis.
He asks if she knows Odo well, and she says not very well as he keeps to himself a lot. Mora says he’s not surprised. He didn’t realize until he saw him that he misses him. They didn’t part on good terms. Odo wanted to leave but they had work to do. Mora now wonders if leaving was the right idea for him – he’s come so far.
Dax says that Odo is invaluable around the station. Mora admits that he never thought Odo could integrate successfully and thought he’d return to his lab eventually. He says he’d best get used to the idea Odo’s not going to.
The analysis comes back. Mora agrees it’s not the same entity and has different nucleotide sequences. There’s some similarity suggesting that, at best, they could be distant cousins.
The computer has also broken down the DNA chain on the new sample.
Dax decides to run an analysis to see if it will match any other life form in the computer. It’ll take 2-3 hours. Mora says to let him know, and then leaves.
Mora goes to Odo’s office. Odo tells him that Dr. Weld regained consciousness and will be okay. Mora says that he’s relieved, but Odo is skeptical. Mora is impressed that Odo can tell that he’s not relieved and compliments him.
He then says there’s so much about Odo they don’t understand. Odo asks him to get to the point. Mora says the computer has broken down the DNA chain from the sample they found in the infirmary. He knows what it is as he’s seen it before – it’s from Odo.
Mora says that the attacks occurred about 16 hours apart. Is Odo’s rejuvenation period still 16 hours? Odo says he was in his pail rejuvenating during both attacks. But was he? Mora thinks Odo is in the position of having to track down himself.
Odo is confused. Mora asks if anything like this has happened before. No. Any unsolved crimes on the book. Always. Then the possibility exists. Odo says it is not in his nature to commit criminal acts. He then wonders if the gas on the planet is the cause.
Mora agrees they can investigate that. Odo wants to go to Bashir and have him investigate. Mora says that Bashir won’t understand. He thinks they won’t know what to do with him but put him in a high security prison or quarantine him on a deserted asteroid or put him in a zoo! Odo is alarmed. He says he doesn’t believe him.
Mora asks who Odo has been able to trust except him. Odo snarls back “What makes you think I trust you?” Mora says he resents it after the time and attention and education he gave Odo. He gave him anything else in his life and he walked away, and now he doesn’t trust him.
Odo is very upset. He says he’s not going back to the center. Mora doesn’t understand why. Odo says no. He slams his hands on the computer desk and starts to howl and melt.
In Ops, Chief O’Brien reports a power failure in Security. Sisko calls Odo, but Odo doesn’t respond. Kira tells all deputies to report to the security office.
Chief says there’s a power drain in the life support conduit above the security office. If it’s feeding off power, he might be able to shut off the primary flow.
Security calls and the deputy says there is no one there and no sign of Odo. Mora rides the turbolift to Ops.
He says he can help. He says Odo is the creature and there must have been a reaction to the gas on the planet.
Sisko asks if they can communicate with him. Mora doesn’t know. He says it’s not Odo really, it’s different and separate, but it’s also aware of Mora. Kira asks how he knows that. Mora says he thinks the incident in the Science Lab was an attempt to rescue the life forms he’d placed in containment.
The second encounter was in the infirmary where he was asleep, and the third happened after a heated discussion in Security. He thinks even Odo would arrive at this conclusion, given the evidence, and the creature is aware of him on some instinctual level.
Sisko says they might conclude it has hostile intentions toward Mora. Mora agrees.
O’Brien says the power shutdown is complete and Odo or whatever has stopped moving through the ducts. Sisko asks if they lure him out, can they set up a forcefield to hold him? O’Brien suggests reversing polarity on the energy fields, a classic Star Trek maneuver. He admits it’s only a guess.
Sisko says to set it up on the Promenade. He says he wants a lot of room. He tells Kira to station security teams along the perimeter.
Kira asks how to get him to come out of the conduits. O’Brien suggests using RF energy bursts to attract him. Mora says there’s only one way to attract him into a trap and it’s Mora. It’s after Mora.
On the promenade, security people are running about. Sisko calls to ask Chief how it’s going. O’Brien says that the Odo-Life-Form-Whatever is following the trail of breadcrumbs he’s leaving and is right near them.
Sisko says that on his signal, open the vent. He then tells Kira and Mora, who are with him, that they’re not sure which vent he’ll come through. Hopefully the first one available. If not there are 17 others that he might choose. They’re not putting officers near anyone as they don’t want to scare him off. He tells Mora just to get him to the forcefield and they’ll do the rest.
Mora agrees. Sisko and Kira walk off. Sisko tells Kira that phasers should be on maximum stun. If Mora seems to be in jeopardy, he’ll open fire. If maximum stun doesn’t bring him down, they’ll switch to kill. Kira is appalled. Sisko says he knows but those are his orders, so she doesn’t argue, just moves to tell the others.
Sisko calls O’Brien and tells him they’re ready. O’Brien releases the conduit seal.
Mora says he’s ready and waiting. All goes quiet. Everyone is waiting and watching to see what will happen.
Mora speaks into the quiet and asks what he’s waiting for. He says he’s here and not going anywhere.
Something is behind him, having dropped down from the ceiling. It’s an amorphous blob. There’s a “howling woosh” as the captions describe it. The blob gets bigger.
It moves toward Mora, who raises his arms to protect himself, and then the forcefield wall stops it. Mora falls down.
The blog howls as electricity crackles. Mora watches it and wonders what he has done – made Odo a prisoner.
The blob keeps changing. Sisko tells O’Brien to drop the forcefield. The blob gets smaller and becomes Odo again. He falls, gasping, to the ground. He’s looking very wet. Mora holds him and says they have a lot to talk about.
In the infirmary, Bashir says he hasn’t the vaguest idea what happened to Odo so he’s not going to try to explain it, but with Mora’s help, they’ve managed to eliminate all traces of the gas from his cellular structure. He prescribes rest, because it’s hard to go wrong with that one, but there’s not much more he can do for Odo.
Bashir leaves. Mora says he’s going home. Odo says he wants to be sure he understands that he had no idea. Mora says he had to speak in a voice loud enough for him to hear. Odo says he’s sorry. Mora says he’s sorry it was necessary.
Mora says that he’d like to be part of his life again in a small way. Maybe they could talk about things that matter to them both from time to time. Odo says he’d like that.
Stray Thoughts:
* Sorry for the lack of good screenshots in this recap, but everything took place in the dark!
* I looked up RF Energy: It’s basically a form of non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation, but in layman’s terms, it’s radio waves. Why crazy Odo wanted that? No idea.
* The way Odo spoke of Mora in the past, I was expecting him to be a bit more callous and evil, like viewing Odo as an object rather than a person. Instead I found him to be something like an overzealous parent who continues to praise their thirty year old for having completed basic tasks. He seems still astonished that something he originally thought of as an amorphous blob is a functioning being integrated with society, which I guess is understandable, and kind of similar to what parents experience when they look at the tiny, stupid, helpless thing they once produced and compare it to a fully grown adult.
* I’m not sure why Dr. Weld was there at all. Surely they could have found the organic life-form without him. And the pillar, though mysterious, had no part to play in the main conflict of the story.
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