Normally I wouldn't do this in the middle of the day (middle for me, anyway), but I have the day off, so why not? Warning: I'm not following the traditional format for this review. 
"Battle Lines"
Jonathan Banks, a.k.a. Mike Ehrmantraut from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. His character in this episode is called Shel-El, or whatever, but I'm calling him Mike!
I've got some stuff to say about this episode, but first let me hand it over to Mike Ehrmantraut. Mr. Ehrmantraut, what did you think of this episode? "These people were in the game and, for them, the game never ends." Anything else you want to say? "This episode was a paycheck, I needed a paycheck, simple as that." Nothing else? "Not really. Spaceships, outer space, the moon landing, I've never been that interested. I thought it was a waste of money. My boy, Matty, wanted to be an Astronaut when he grew up... but he followed in my footsteps, became a cop instead, and... We're done. We're DONE!" Sorry!
I think I see someone else around, Gus Fring, owner of the very successful restaurant chain Los Pollos Hermanos. Mr. Fring, even though you weren't in "Battlelines", what did you think of the episode? "It is acceptable." Wow, high praise coming from Gus! "Would you like to try our Spice Curls?" Sounds like Spice Girls. Was that intentional? I can't say I'm into their music, but I do like spicy fries, spicy anything actually, so why not?
And that's our Breaking Bad / Better Call Saul portion of the review!
Next up we've got Kai Opaka. How did you feel about the episode? "I knew it was my destiny to leave Bajor, go through The Wormhole, and find a new chapter in my life." Is that why you wanted to go through The Wormhole? "I don't get out that often." Okay, makes sense. I like to get out and find some excitement every now and then too. It wouldn't be to a prison moon, but I get it.
Then there's Major Kira. Are you doing okay? "I'm crying! Not just because we lost Kai Opaka, but because now we'll have to deal with Kai Winn for the next several years! How could this happen?!" I think we'll just leave the Major alone for now.
And now to get serious, though I'm still going to call Jonathan Banks' character Mike.
Sisko, Kira, and Bashir take Opaka through The Wormhole on a runabout, pick up a signal, and end up crashing on a Prison Moon. Two factions are fighting each other in a never ending war where they die and keep coming back to life. A prison moon is basically a prison planet where everything is hopeless, so this is kind of like Alien 3, minus the resurrection part (unless you're Ripley, but that's a whole other story). The ever-ending war with two factions, on the other hand, feels like something that would've fit in during the middle of TNG Season 3. "Battle Lines" and "The Vengeance Factor" would go together perfectly! Except for one critical difference at the end of this episode, which I'll get to later.
Then, they connect with the leader of the faction this episode focuses on, Mike Ehrmantraut himself! This guy reminds me so much of what Mike would be like in a Star Trek episode.
Sisko, Bashir, and Kira agree to help the people on this world. Meanwhile O'Brien and Dax are in a runabout of their own, looking for them. But they're having trouble locating them. Dax says what's causing the technobabble problem, then O'Brien says "That would foul up our long-range scanners." If this were Breaking Bad, he'd be saying, "That would fuck up our long-range scanners!" Then O'Brien finds a solution. And, if Jesse were there, he'd be like, "Hell yeah! That's right! We found them, bitches! Mister O'B, magnets for the fucking win!!!"
Sorry, I had to get the Breaking Bad stuff out of my system!
Serious Mode: I really appreciated the heart-to-heart between Kira and Opaka when Opaka said Kira if she sees herself in these people. Kira says she fought to live, whereas these people are content to die (over and over), and that it was to fight to be free. She didn't enjoy any of it. She doesn't want Opaka to get the wrong idea of her. But that wasn't what Opaka was talking about. What Opaka was getting at was what Kira finally says: all she's known in her life is violence. Opaka says Bajor has much to learn about peace. Then Kira cries in Opaka's arms. Some very good acting on Nana Visitor's part. And Bajor will really lose something in Kai Opaka with her not returning.
How can I say this? I feel like Kai Opaka was left behind in an Unmoderated Internet Comments Section. This doesn't seem like destiny, it seems like being condemned to Hell.
Anyway, do I have any other thoughts? Yeah, I think -- speculation only -- the writers were looking for different ways to have more character conflict on Bajor. By getting rid of Opaka, now there are different factions on Bajor that compete for power. Kai Opaka was like George Washington, who unified all Bajorans. Now, we're going to be left with different parties, like when the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans emerged. So now we'll have the Bajoran equivalents of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, who both had very different ideas about what to do. But that's getting ahead of myself.
What do I give this episode? I can't say I agree with all of what happens in it, and Jonathan Banks takes me out of it (even though it's not the episode's fault, I just associate him too much with Breaking Bad now), but there's some very good acting, especially from Nana Vistor, and Kai Opaka here shows a strong contrast to Kai Winn, who we'll see later on.
So... I give this episode an 8.
Some other things before I finish. The uproar from Bajor about Kai Opaka leaving the planet, going through The Wormhole, and ending up lost. Even though we don't see the Bajorans reacting, Rene Auberjonious really sells it when Odo tells Dax and O'Brien about their reactions. O'Brien and Dax tell Odo they're doing the best they can, but that sure isn't going to make anything any easier for Odo to deal with. That shot of Dax and O'Brien on the turboshaft as they leave Ops, with the camera facing upwards towards Odo conveys that they're about to descend into Hell to find Opaka. Which is where, as far as I'm concerned, she actually is! Figuratively if not literally.
"Battle Lines" is probably the most "This isn't TNG!" episode so far. If this were an episode of TNG, even a dark one, these people would get a chance to end their lives permanently. DS9 leaves it ambiguous as to whether or not this will ever happen.
"Battle Lines"
Jonathan Banks, a.k.a. Mike Ehrmantraut from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. His character in this episode is called Shel-El, or whatever, but I'm calling him Mike!
I've got some stuff to say about this episode, but first let me hand it over to Mike Ehrmantraut. Mr. Ehrmantraut, what did you think of this episode? "These people were in the game and, for them, the game never ends." Anything else you want to say? "This episode was a paycheck, I needed a paycheck, simple as that." Nothing else? "Not really. Spaceships, outer space, the moon landing, I've never been that interested. I thought it was a waste of money. My boy, Matty, wanted to be an Astronaut when he grew up... but he followed in my footsteps, became a cop instead, and... We're done. We're DONE!" Sorry!
I think I see someone else around, Gus Fring, owner of the very successful restaurant chain Los Pollos Hermanos. Mr. Fring, even though you weren't in "Battlelines", what did you think of the episode? "It is acceptable." Wow, high praise coming from Gus! "Would you like to try our Spice Curls?" Sounds like Spice Girls. Was that intentional? I can't say I'm into their music, but I do like spicy fries, spicy anything actually, so why not?
And that's our Breaking Bad / Better Call Saul portion of the review!
Next up we've got Kai Opaka. How did you feel about the episode? "I knew it was my destiny to leave Bajor, go through The Wormhole, and find a new chapter in my life." Is that why you wanted to go through The Wormhole? "I don't get out that often." Okay, makes sense. I like to get out and find some excitement every now and then too. It wouldn't be to a prison moon, but I get it.
Then there's Major Kira. Are you doing okay? "I'm crying! Not just because we lost Kai Opaka, but because now we'll have to deal with Kai Winn for the next several years! How could this happen?!" I think we'll just leave the Major alone for now.
And now to get serious, though I'm still going to call Jonathan Banks' character Mike.
Sisko, Kira, and Bashir take Opaka through The Wormhole on a runabout, pick up a signal, and end up crashing on a Prison Moon. Two factions are fighting each other in a never ending war where they die and keep coming back to life. A prison moon is basically a prison planet where everything is hopeless, so this is kind of like Alien 3, minus the resurrection part (unless you're Ripley, but that's a whole other story). The ever-ending war with two factions, on the other hand, feels like something that would've fit in during the middle of TNG Season 3. "Battle Lines" and "The Vengeance Factor" would go together perfectly! Except for one critical difference at the end of this episode, which I'll get to later.
Then, they connect with the leader of the faction this episode focuses on, Mike Ehrmantraut himself! This guy reminds me so much of what Mike would be like in a Star Trek episode.
Sisko, Bashir, and Kira agree to help the people on this world. Meanwhile O'Brien and Dax are in a runabout of their own, looking for them. But they're having trouble locating them. Dax says what's causing the technobabble problem, then O'Brien says "That would foul up our long-range scanners." If this were Breaking Bad, he'd be saying, "That would fuck up our long-range scanners!" Then O'Brien finds a solution. And, if Jesse were there, he'd be like, "Hell yeah! That's right! We found them, bitches! Mister O'B, magnets for the fucking win!!!"
Sorry, I had to get the Breaking Bad stuff out of my system!
Serious Mode: I really appreciated the heart-to-heart between Kira and Opaka when Opaka said Kira if she sees herself in these people. Kira says she fought to live, whereas these people are content to die (over and over), and that it was to fight to be free. She didn't enjoy any of it. She doesn't want Opaka to get the wrong idea of her. But that wasn't what Opaka was talking about. What Opaka was getting at was what Kira finally says: all she's known in her life is violence. Opaka says Bajor has much to learn about peace. Then Kira cries in Opaka's arms. Some very good acting on Nana Visitor's part. And Bajor will really lose something in Kai Opaka with her not returning.
How can I say this? I feel like Kai Opaka was left behind in an Unmoderated Internet Comments Section. This doesn't seem like destiny, it seems like being condemned to Hell.
Anyway, do I have any other thoughts? Yeah, I think -- speculation only -- the writers were looking for different ways to have more character conflict on Bajor. By getting rid of Opaka, now there are different factions on Bajor that compete for power. Kai Opaka was like George Washington, who unified all Bajorans. Now, we're going to be left with different parties, like when the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans emerged. So now we'll have the Bajoran equivalents of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, who both had very different ideas about what to do. But that's getting ahead of myself.
What do I give this episode? I can't say I agree with all of what happens in it, and Jonathan Banks takes me out of it (even though it's not the episode's fault, I just associate him too much with Breaking Bad now), but there's some very good acting, especially from Nana Vistor, and Kai Opaka here shows a strong contrast to Kai Winn, who we'll see later on.
So... I give this episode an 8.
Some other things before I finish. The uproar from Bajor about Kai Opaka leaving the planet, going through The Wormhole, and ending up lost. Even though we don't see the Bajorans reacting, Rene Auberjonious really sells it when Odo tells Dax and O'Brien about their reactions. O'Brien and Dax tell Odo they're doing the best they can, but that sure isn't going to make anything any easier for Odo to deal with. That shot of Dax and O'Brien on the turboshaft as they leave Ops, with the camera facing upwards towards Odo conveys that they're about to descend into Hell to find Opaka. Which is where, as far as I'm concerned, she actually is! Figuratively if not literally.
"Battle Lines" is probably the most "This isn't TNG!" episode so far. If this were an episode of TNG, even a dark one, these people would get a chance to end their lives permanently. DS9 leaves it ambiguous as to whether or not this will ever happen.
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