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 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/).
In Ops, Dax is demanding cargo space from Kira for a shipment, who says they are running out of storage space. Then O’Brien says the Byzallians want to move their conference up by a week. Kira hasn’t read the previous night’s reports yet. Anything else to know?
Silence from the others. Dax finally admits that Starfleet wants a really complex computer report from them by tomorrow. Kira sighs.
In the infirmary, Bashir complains to Kira that he needs medical supplies but things are delayed. He wants to take a runabout and go to Vulcan to pick them up so he can set up a field hospital for a new colony but Kira says they can’t spare a runabout.
Kira, clearly frustrated, yells that he can’t have the supplies or the runabout and the colonists can make do with bandages. She starts to storm out but Bashir stops her with a stern voice.
They stare at each other contentiously for a moment and then Bashir asks when she had a day off last. She snaps that she doesn’t know; what does that have to do with anything?
He says if she can’t remember it’s been too long and she’s off duty. She says he can’t do that. He says he can since he’s Chief Medical Officer. Kira tries to apologize and play it off as no big deal, but he says she’s stressed and exhausted.
Bashir takes Kira to Quark’s, where he serves her juice and crackers, a holosuite program, jumja stick, and gambling tokens. Bashir says that at least two items must be used and fully enjoyed before she leaves the facility.
Quark is wearing one of my favorite outfits here.
Kira again tries to protest, but Quark promises to report on what happens. Bashir then says that if she doesn’t relax and enjoy herself, they’ll do it every night until she does. He hands her the jumja stick, says “Have fun!” and leaves.
She picks up the juice to drink it and a familiar voice asks if that’s all she has planned and says he hopes she’s got room for the unexpected. It’s Riker!
CUE THEME
Riker meets with Sisko, who asks what’s brought him to DS9. Riker says he’s got about 3 months of leave and was order to take it. Sisko says DS9 isn’t much of a vacation spot, but Riker says he’s passing through on his way to Risa.
It’s only when these two are standing next to one another that I note they have not got the same type of uniform. Also, the DS9 Starfleet uniforms involve a turtleneck (you can see Sisko’s grayish-purple one here, and you can often see the cuffs of their shirts) but Riker’s style does not have one. Is the older style just a shirt, or is the undershirt just hidden better?
Last time, Riker says only spent a few hours at Quark’s, but he had a great time and wants to try his luck again. Sisko says the dabo wheel has been stingy and one of the girls is dating his son, so Riker considers the holosuite instead.
Out in Ops, Dax asks Kira (who I guess relaxed enough to go back to work?) who is talking to Sisko. Kira refers to Riker as “Will.”
Dax also knows Riker and says she met him playing Dabo at Quark’s. She asks if Kira knows him. A little – she met him at Quark’s last night. She says they talked. Dax expects something happened aside from that, but Kira says they just talked for three hours. He’s warm and charming but she’s involved with someone. Dax accepts this but wonders why she keeps glancing back at the office.
The doors open and Sisko and Riker come out, Sisko inviting Riker to dinner with him and Jake.
Dax says she hope he’s not there for a loan. Riker doesn’t remember at first, but she reminds him that she gave him some latinum when his winning streak ran dry, and he says the night is still a blur, but remembers she is Dax and asks how she’s been.
Riker excuses himself to let them all get back to work, and leaves. Dax gives Kira a meaningful look.
Kira literally bumps into Riker on the Promenade. He says he wasn’t in the mood for Quark’s so was just exploring the Promenade. She says she’s getting off duty and preparing to call it a night.
Also, if he’s on vacation, why doesn’t he stop wearing his uniform? Maybe he literally doesn’t own any other clothing? I feel like if you wear your work clothes on vacation, you’re just asking for your vacation to be interrupted by work things.
They part ways, and then Kira stops and calls after him, offering him a tour of the station.
There’s this random shopkeeper lady behind him, who I assume is Bajoran because she’s wearing a rather traditional lacy crocheted sweater which is common among Bajoran civilians. She’s also got an updo with some sort of headband or something.
He grins and asks where to start. They decide to walk along the Promenade.
Riker asks if they can look at the new ship, the Defiant. She agrees.
They go to the airlock and have to give their voice print and hand prints in order to enter the Defiant. Identities confirmed, the door opens and they pass through.
Inside, they find O’Brien working on some stuff. He says he wasn’t planning to be on board, but had some work to do. He is surprised to see Riker.
Riker is very cold to O’Brien, giving him this angry face.
He says he has nothing to say and he thinks O’Brien knows why. Kira is surprised and says maybe they should come another time. O’Brien says he was just leaving, gets his tools and goes.
Kira asks Riker what all that was about, but he brushes it off and says it’s a long story, so she starts showing him the tactical systems and they start talking about the ship’s systems.
He wants to see it all on the tactical display, but you need a command code. Kira grins and says it’s a new security procedure, and orders the computer to release Bridge lockout, giving her command code. Lights come on and everything seems to be working.
Riker says “Thank you,” and then shoots her.
He starts pushing a bunch of buttons and beams in two other people.
One is a man, the other a woman. The man is wearing a grayish vest over an orange shirt, over a purple shirt, with brown pants and lighter brown boots that come up to his knees. I much prefer tall boots to short boots, but I’m not sure what I think about that vest.
The woman has a longer vest, and her shirt looks like some sort of red-purple combination that I can’t quite explain. She’s also got brown pants and tall brown boots.
In Ops, an alarm starts going off, and Sisko comes out of his office to ask what’s going on. Dax says she’s not sure but apparently the warp core on the Defiant is going to breach in less than a minute. He asks if anyone’s on board.
She says O’Brien was there this morning but… Oh, there’s an incoming signal from the Defiant, and Riker is calling them. Sisko orders it on screen.
Riker says that there’s been an accident – a plasma conduit exploded and Kira has been injured. There’s smoke in the background so it’s totally believable. He asks for the docking clamps to be released so he can move away from the station.
Sisko agrees, saying they’ll beam Kira and Riker away once they’re clear of the station. Dax releases the clamps. Riker engages the thrusters. The ship moves away from the station and starts to fly away.
O’Brien comes into Ops at just that moment and heads to his usual computer station. Sisko orders him to beam Riker and Kira out of the ship. O’Brien says he can’t get a lock. The shields are up.
Sisko is shocked. They watch as the Defiant flies away and then goes to warp, vanishing.
On the Defiant, Riker orders the woman, who has taken over piloting, to lay in a course to the Badlands. He tells the man, whom he refers to as Tamal, to secure a conduit. The woman says they’ll be at the Badlands in 6 hours.
A better look at the woman’s vest, which looks like it’s trying to have shoulder pads, but isn’t? Also, it looks like the purple part of her shirt is actually a cut-out, which I don’t really understand the point at all.
Riker goes to sit down in the captain’s chair, and pulls off his sideburns, revealing that he is a slightly less bearded Riker?
Early episodes of TNG have a Riker without a beard and it is so weird to watch those now. I was sort of hoping he’d pull off all his facial hair, but I guess a Riker is always a Riker, and the beard is a necessity now.
The woman grins back at him and says “you did it, Tom.” He grins also but says “it’s not over yet.”
Back on DS9, Odo explains that a transporter accident 9 years prior created two William T. Rikers. One went back to his ship, the other was marooned.
Sisko then says that two years prior the marooned Riker was discovered, and he chose to go by his middle name, Thomas, to distinguish himself. The two men are identical and have the same DNA, so there was no way for the computer to know that it was Thomas and not William.
Dukat, to whom they are telling the story, finds it all entertaining, but is not sure why he’s hearing it.
Dukat is clearly enjoying himself with a glass of what I assume is not water. Ah, an amusing story about Starfleet screwing things up. Better than the opera, maybe.
Sisko says they think Thomas is a member of the Maquis.
Odo says he was on the starship Gandhi and he began to express opinions supporting the Maquis and their goals.
Dukat is astonished. He spells it out – one of the most heavily armed warships in the Quadrant is is now in the hands of Maquis terrorists.
They don’t contradict him.
Dukat wonders about what Central Command will do. Sisko expects they’ll send some ships to the Demilitarized Zone to conduct a search, but any entry must be a joint operation. Dukat thinks the Central Command won’t be interested, and won’t believe the story about the Rikers.
They’ll assume Starfleet wanted the Maquis to have the Defiant and will respond accordingly. Odo asks what that means.
Dukat says they’ll seize the opportunity to eliminate the Maquis. They’ll send a huge fleet.
Sisko says that Starfleet will cooperate in a search, but they won’t let the Central Command use this as an excuse for an invasion. Dukat agrees, and says they’ll send their own fleet in to protect Federation colonies. At some point the two fleets will meet. Nerves will be frayed and someone will make a mistake. Sisko says they’ll have a war. Neither of them relishes the prospect.
Odo says they need to work together to not let that happen. Dukat says he needs to bring something back to Central Command to prove their good faith and willingness to help stop the Defiant, nothing will prevent the conflict.
Sisko says to bring him as he can do both – he was in charge of the shipyard where it was built and helped design it. He knows its vulnerabilities and weaknesses.
Dukat is skeptical Sisko will help destroy his own ship, but Sisko says he wants to try to disable it. Dukat says he’s in no position to bargain. He wants Sisko to help him destroy the Defiant.
On the Defiant, Kira is awake and talking to Tom Riker. She says she doesn’t care who he is or his name. He says he’s sorry about lying to her and using her, it was an operational necessity. He tries to appeal to her resistance fighter roots.
She points out that Starfleet and the Cardassians are likely looking for them and how far is he going to get before they find him? He thinks farther than they think.
The woman calls him, identifying herself as Kalita so now she has a name, and says that they’ve reached the rendezvous point. Riker says he’s on his way and leaves Kira.
On the bridge, Kalita says that the other Maquis ships have arrived and Tamal says the teams are ready. Riker says to lower shields and beam them aboard.
Tamal reports that the ships are heading for the border.
Tamal’s vest is quilted. Also the sleeves of his orange shirt are shorter than the sleeves of his purple shirt worn under the orange shirt, and it looks silly.
Kalita says everything is operational and warp power is standing by. Riker sits in the chair and tells them to head for Cardassia at Warp 8. He says the ship was built to fight and it’s time to use it.
Meanwhile, Sisko updates his log to say that he’s arrived on Cardassia Prime with Gul Dukat and he’s going to help an enemy hunt down one of their own ships.
Dukat shows him a big room with a bunch of Cardassians working at computers. He says that he can control basically everything from that room, and he’s going to be looking for the Defiant there.
This is the Cardassian version of Ops, I guess.
They’re interrupted as a woman comes in he introduces as Korinas, their observer from the Obsidian order. She welcomes Sisko to Cardassia and the tells one of the Cardassian workers to secure his console while the human is around, and tells the others that anything classified Level Four or above should be secured.
Korinas is wearing gray on gray on gray, with some big shoulder pads. I give them credit for not trying to make her outfit in the least bit sexy.
She says that although they respect Dukat’s decision to bring Sisko there, they must take precautions. Sisko says he understands and would have done the same, but also would have been more discreet. She then says that he should begin by briefing them on the Defiant’s defensive capabilities and asks him to explain the weapons systems.
Sisko cuts her off and says there’s a more urgent matter – the Defiant has a cloaking device. She claims she already knows; Dukat is surprised.
Korinas says that the Order has known some time that the Romulans loaned the device to the Federation. Dukat is incensed that the Order didn’t share the intelligence with Central Command. She says the Order didn’t think it was a huge threat to Cardassia.
Sisko explains that the agreement with the Romulans was that the cloaking device only be used in the Gamma Quadrant, and only in exchange for all their intelligence on the Dominion. Dukat says Riker isn’t likely to honor that agreement; and they cannot locate a cloaked ship. Sisko says that there might be a way.
He explains that the Dominion penetrated the cloak by using an antiproton beam of some sort. Dukat asks for specifications. Sisko doesn’t have those – but he can give them everything from their sensor logs, which might give them a chance to find the Defiant before she attacks.
On the Defiant, Kalita reports they’re approaching the security perimeter. Riker orders Red Alert and cloaking device on.
In the tiny quarters where she’s being held, Kira sees it get dark and knows what’s happening. She goes over to the miniscule replicator and starts taking it apart.
On the bridge, the crew is preparing for their attack. Five minutes from Cardassian sensor range.
On Cardassia, one of the underlings reports a perimeter alert, so Dukat orders it on the main viewer. He asks who’s commanding the nearest outpost. Gul Toran is the answer. He says he’s identified the vessel as the Defiant.
Dukat orders all vessels in the area to converge on the Defiant, but Sisko suspects something is wrong. Why wouldn’t the ship be cloaked? He asks for sensor information and it’s displayed.
The underling reports that the Defiant is attacking the outpost; Dukat says to tell Toran that he has permission to pursue the ship into the Demilitarized Zone.
Sisko says not to pull ships off the border. Dukat starts to argue, but Sisko says that it’s not the Defiant, it’s a decoy; they’re trying to pull patrol ships out of position. He says they’re sending a fake warp signature and explains why.
Dukat starts to tell the underling to tell Toran to break off pursuit, but just then they get a report from a different outpost that’s detected a cloaked ship with their antiproton beam. Dukat says to tell Toran to head for that outpost.
The Defiant de-cloaks and attacks the second outpost; they lose contact shortly thereafter.
Gul Toran sends a message saying the Defiant has recloaked and relaying the last heading. Dukat notes it’s the heart of Cardassian territory.
Korinas says Sisko should be commended and she wishes they had someone with such keen tactical instincts who could have prevented this. Dukat says nothing.
Oh, Korinas is actually not wearing gray shoulder pads, they have some sort of pattern on them of colors and blue. Interesting. Still not sexy.
On the Defiant, Riker has figured out that the Cardassians are using antiproton beams to scan for them and gives some technobabble fix to the crew.
Tamal reports that they took six hits and there’s been minor damage to the outer hull, but everything is operational. Riker orders them toward the shipyard at Omekla III.
The ship shakes violently, lights dim, alarms begin blaring. Kalita reports that they’ve lost main power and the cloak is off-line. Two plasma conduits blew out in crew quarters. Riker realizes it must have been Kira.
Riker figures out that Kira crossed the replicator’s power converter with the plasma manifold, and compliments her ingenuity, but says they’ll bypass it in 30 minutes. She retorts that they’ll be visible for 30 minutes, but he says they’ve gone into a nebula anyway.
One of the Maquis has been tending to her wounds. Riker says that she’s lucky to have only gotten singed, as the whole plasma relay could have exploded. She says that was the idea.
Kira is lucky to only have one sleeve of her uniform damaged, while the rest is unharmed.
He says she’s fought Cardassians so she must sympathize with his cause. She says she fought them because they invaded her home and he doesn’t live in the Demilitarized Zone or have family there, so why is he in the fight?
Riker says because people are dying in the Demilitarized Zone and Starfleet isn’t doing anything about it. She says that taking the Defiant only raises the stakes and the Cardassians will send a fleet after him and kill more people hunting him down than during the border raids.
He says the Defiant isn’t staying in the Demilitarized Zone and brings her to the bridge where they can keep an eye on her.
On Cardassia, 15 outposts have checked in and a bunch of ships have scanned a lot of space and there’s no sign of the Defiant. Sisko says maybe they’re under cloak, maybe they’re laying low and waiting for some reason.
Dukat is not listening but was thinking about his birthday – it’s his 11th birthday and Dukat was going to take him to an amusement center he’s always wanted to go to but never had the time. He promised his son he would make the time.
Sisko says he had a similar experience with Jake and he hopes one day they’ll look back and understand. Dukat says his son will look back and only remember that a Federation officer on a Federation ship invaded his home and kept his father away, and he will look back with hatred, not understanding. Sisko doesn’t have anything comforting to say.
Meanwhile, the Defiant has gotten the cloak to work again, but the damage has caused a neutrino leak. It might be detectable.
Riker says they’ll have to take the chance and resumes them on course to Omekla III at Warp 8.
Kira recognizes that Omekla III is a shipyard and says there have to be better targets. Riker says he hopes the Cardassians have a similar reaction, trying to figure out what he’s doing and why. She sees that he’s trying to keep them off balance and guessing. Why?
He says they’ve heard rumors about shifting loyalties in the Cardassian government – some people unsatisfied with the Federation treaty and are doing what they can to get rid of it. They have an intelligence report of a suspected military buildup in the Orias system – a secret buildup that Central Command isn’t aware of.
Kira is astounded – they’re doing all this to attack a base that might not even exist? Riker says he’s convinced it does and they’re building an invasion fleet and if they finish it, the renegade Cardassians will use it.
He goes to sit back in the command chair. Kira says he’s not cut out for being a terrorist and isn’t very good at it – he’s acting more like a Starfleet officer interested in intelligence reports and politics than hurting Cardassians. She says he’s got one of the most powerful ships in the Quadrant under his command – why not use it to attack every Cardassian outpost on the border.
Riker says the stakes are greater than the border outposts. She disagrees and says the Maquis are terrorists so all they care about is attacking the enemy. She was a terrorist and if she’d had this ship she would have destroyed DS9 and hit the Cardassians so hard, they would have screamed for peace – she wouldn’t have flown off on a wild goose chase.
He says they’re different kinds of terrorists. She says he’s trying to be a hero and terrorists don’t get to be heroes.
Sisko and Dukat review the locations of where Cardassian ships are right now. Sisko figures that the attacks were designed to draw attacks away from a specific sector, leaving it defenseless.
Korinas says nothing aloud but looks concerned and turns away. Dukat says there’s nothing of value in that sector. Sisko says there must be something – are there any M-Class planets?
Dukat says there’s Orias III, but it’s uninhabited and desolate. Sisko says it might be worth it to send a ship there. Dukat agrees. He starts to tell his underlings to contact the Gul in charge and dispatch a ship.
Korinas interrupts, saying “no.” She says not to send any ships to the Orias system. Dukat says she’s an observer and has no authority. She says the sector is under direct control of the Obsidian Order and he won’t enter it. Why?! The matter is classified.
Dukat says she can file a complaint with the Central Command later and again commands his underlings to contact Gul Ranor. She says any warship sent will be destroyed. He asks if she’s going to fire on a Cardassian ship? She says the Order will take whatever steps are necessary to protect the Orias system and so will she.
She’s got some interesting beads (I think) in her hair that I don’t think are really noticeable in the front-facing images. This is the Cardassian version of the fancy updo, I suppose.
Dukat tells Sisko that he’s spoken to some friends at the Central Command and they haven’t gotten any answers from the Order either. Sisko says they must answer to someone. He says that, in theory, they answer to the political authority of the Detapa Council, just as the military. In practice, they run their own affairs.
Sisko doesn’t think that’s very efficient but Dukat says it’s worked for five centuries.
There’s a message then from the warship Kraxon saying they’ve found an unusual neutrino signature that looks like radiation from a damaged warp plasma relay. It’s not moving but they’re scanning with the antiproton beam.
They check to see and the Kraxon is not far from the Orias system, so Sisko still thinks that’s where the Defiant is heading. Dukat says he can’t risk pulling ships away from other areas until they know for sure that Orias is the target.
On the Defiant, Riker and his crew are keeping an eye on the Kraxon as it comes around for another pass. There are 9 cruisers about 6 light years away. Any other ships between them and Orias? No.
Oh look, Kalitas is not wearing an updo, just a ponytail. I guess terrorists don’t have time for hairdressers.
Kira points out that if they make a run for it, the Kraxon will see their neutrino signature change and will call the nine ships and they’ll chase him all the way. Riker says they can chase him as long as they don’t catch him.
On Cardassia, the underling says that the Kraxon reports that the neutrino signature has changed and is moving at warp speed toward Orias.
Dukat orders the Kraxon and all other ships to pursue at maximum warp.
Kalita says that they’ll reach the Orias system before the Kraxon.
Riker wants to see everything in the Orias system and asks them to start scanning it.
Dukat points out to Korinas that he could have prevented the Defiant from getting to Orias if he hadn’t interfered, and she should make sure to mention this in her report to the Order.
Korinas, unconcerned, says they won’t reach Orias.
The underling tells Dukat that three other Cardassian warships have appeared near the Orias system – Keldon class. Dukat demands Korinas tell him whose ships they are because if they were military ships he would know about them, so they must be Obsidian Order ships.
Sisko says he thought the Order didn’t have ships. Dukat says they’re not supposed to and in fact they’re explicitly forbidden from having military equipment of any kind.
Korinas doesn’t say anything.
Riker is preparing to fight his way to Orias. Kira thinks he’s crazy stupid.
She says the ships are going to start shooting and they’ll have to fight back. Riker thinks it’ll be easy to beat them in the Defiant. Kira says that even if they destroy all three ships, it’ll slow them down and then ten ships behind them will catch up.
He says they’ve come too far to turn back. She says he’s an experienced Starfleet officer – analyze the situation! Going to Orias is suicide and they should make a run for it.
Riker says that maybe that’s what Will Riker would do, but he’s not going to, he’s going to continue the mission. She says it’s not the mission he’s thinking about – it’s about him and he’s looking for a way to set himself apart from the other Will Riker.
Tom says not to go fishing, she won’t catch anything.
Sisko tells Dukat that he knows how to find out what’s going on in the Orias system – give Riker a chance to surrender. The Defiant has scanned the system so the logs can tell him what he wants to know.
Dukat says he’d be happy to accept the surrender but he doesn’t think Riker will turn over the logs. Sisko says he will if Dukat releases Kira and turns the ship and the Maquis over to the Federation. Dukat says this is impossible – he can’t allow a group of terrorists to walk away after invading Cardassian territory.
Sisko says he needs to decide what’s more important – his sense of Cardassian justice, or the information in the Defiant’s sensor logs. Dukat admits he wants this, and he’s willing to return the ship, but someone has to pay for what’s happened and he doesn’t want that person to be himself. Sisko promises a trial for the Maquis.
Dukat is unimpressed by a Federation trial. He says he’ll hand over Kira, the Maquis, and the ship, but not Riker – he led the mission. If he can bring him to justice and get the information from the Defiant, that might be enough for Central Command.
Sisko says he might be able to get Riker to do it on one condition. They both know Cardassian sentences are determined well in advance of the trial, and he wants one other than death. Dukat sighs heavily and says he’ll have to clear it with the ministry of justice. He goes off to do that.
The Defiant approaches the first cruiser. Riker has them slow down, de-cloak the ship, and prepare to fight. They fire at one of the Cardassian ships and it’s damaged. But then they’re hit back by another ship. The shields hold.
Riker orders torpedoes to hit the ship – its defense systems go offline.
Three more cruisers appear in the Orias system, which means 5 ships ahead and ten behind.
Riker says to resume their original course and put all power to the shields.
A message comes in from Cardassia Prime. It’s Dukat and Sisko. Riker agrees to take the call.
Dukat says that if they surrender the ship, none of them will be harmed. Riker is skeptical. Sisko comes on screen and says that if he surrenders the Defiant and its crew will be handed to a Federation starship at the Cardassian border. Riker wonders why the sudden generosity.
Sisko says that they want the sensor logs on the Orias system, and those are worth more to Dukat than the Maquis prisoners. Riker is still skeptical. Sisko agrees someone has to pay the price.
Riker knows it’s him. Sisko confirms he’ll be tried in a Cardassian court and then sentenced to spend the rest of his life in a labor camp. No death sentence? He admits that must have taken some doing. He asks for a minute.
The screen turns off.
Kira pulls him aside and says he should take the offer – the only reason not to is if he wants to die. Riker says he has a mission to complete. She says the mission is over and he’s not going to get to Orias – there might be 50 ships waiting ahead of them in the Orias system that they don’t know about. She pleads with him to think of his crew.
Riker seems to agree. He goes back to Sisko and Dukat and says he agrees. They tell him to reverse course and surrender to one of the ships behind him, as the ships coming from Orias are not under Dukat’s control.
Dukat says the Kraxon will put shields around them and they’ll be safe. Riker agrees and tells the pilot to do that.
On Cardassia, Dukat notes that the ships from Orias are faster than the ones he’s familiar with in that class.
The Defiant prepares to meet up with the Kraxon, and the captain calls them to tell them to cut their engines and they’ll extend shields. Riker agrees. The pilot complies. They come to a stop beside the Kraxon and are shielded.
The Orias ships approach. From Cardassia, Dukat wonders if they’re going to fire on Cardassian ships. Nothing is said, and then they leave and go back to Orias.
Riker tells Kalita to send over the requested sensor logs and tell them to prepare to beam him aboard. He turns command over to Kira, and then tells her to see that the crew gets a fair trial. She agrees and tells him they’ll get him out of there.
He goes over and kisses her, then calls the Kraxon and tells them to beam him up.
Kira takes the command chair and orders them to head back to the Federation.
Stray Thoughts
* Sorry this took extra time this week – bunch of stuff going on in life, tired, caught up in Avocado drama more than I should have been. Anyway, here it is.
* This is an interesting episode in that it seems to focus mostly on Tom Riker, a character whom we’ve seen before if we’ve watched The Next Generation. Which, I presume, is probably the majority of the viewers. Memory Alpha says that this episode aired in November of 1994 and the episode of TNG where Tom was introduced (“Second Chances) aired in May of 1993, about six months earlier. So if you were following both shows, I guess this would have been relatively fresh in your memory. It’s kind of neat that this is a thing Star Trek can do, but I also feel like focusing on older shows ends up hurting DS9 a little. Even Kira and Sisko, who get the bulk of the lines here, play a back seat to Thomas Riker, and the resolution revolves around appealing to his better nature. And I can’t help but think that if I wanted to watch Johnathan Frakes playing Riker, I would have just watched TNG.
* After last week’s discussion of romance, I feel obligated to mention that kiss that Tom and Kira share at the end. After some obvious flirting in the beginning, the idea of Kira having feelings for him is thankfully dropped during the action on the Defiant. The kiss felt sort of tacked on at the end, but then, it is Riker, so it worked better than if had been Random Guest Start #285.
* What does Will Riker think of Tom’s actions, I wonder. I think I’ve seen the episode where the two Rikers meet, but it’s been awhile. I also assume most people know that there are two Rikers and that Tom is not Will, but I could see some people reading a report about how “Riker helped the Maquis” and thinking they meant Will, and then Will having to explain that it’s actually his transporter twin.
* Can’t really complain about Johnathan Frakes. He does a good job hamming things up and being Riker’s usual charming self. None of his crew seemed to have anything to say about his decision to abandon the mission and surrender, or his decision to keep going with the mission and go down in a blaze of glory.
* What went down between Riker and O’Brien? It’s never explained. Also, O’Brien seems to have a thought as he’s leaving the Defiant like he suspects something, but he doesn’t tell anyone about it.
* I might have to start sharing the Netflix descriptions of episodes. This one is basically just “Kira gives Riker a tour of the station, including the Defiant.”
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