Re-Watching DS9

[Lord Garth]

I'm finally over the cold, but I had to take care of some things in Real Life and make up for lost time over there. But now I'm back at it here!

There's also the news. How shall I say it? It's like watching a train-wreck in slow motion. Why am I mentioning the news? Because it perfectly dovetails into the opening teaser of:

"Dust to Dust" (B5 S3E6)

Spoiler

The opening teaser of this episode is like a mini-episode in and of itself. A member of Nightwatch is harassing a merchant on the station for having a poster that protests President "Total Scumbag" Clark. That's my nickname for him. Sheridan stands up for the merchant, and the guard reluctantly backs down, but you can tell there's going to be continuing and ever-growing tension between Sheridan and the Clark Administration. I typed Trump Regime without even thinking about it and then had to correct myself.

Then there's another moment, completely unrelated, where Londo threatens the Drazi, saying the Centauri could do the same thing to them as they did to the Narn. To quote That Orange Guy, who was himself quoting mobsters, "It would be a real shame." "There will be consequences."

Anyway, enough about how much the above relates to someone I've typed enough about and onto the Main Plot.

Bester returns! It looks like Bester is turning into a frenemy on Babylon 5. Sheridan doesn't like him. Ivanova wants to hurt him. Franklin starts to think it's not such a bad idea. Garibaldi can't stand him. Whether they want to admit it or not, I actually have to agree with Bester. They work well together.

But that's getting ahead of myself in the episode. Before Bester reaches the station, Sheridan reminds everyone that they have so much more to hide from Bester than they did before. What they know about Clark, how they leaked that information out, and having a secret resistance of their own are all things Bester can't find out about. To say nothing about the rouge telepaths they helped last season. That all got me imagining about what Bester would do if he found out and how he'd react! The solution to have a bunch of Minbari Telepaths to block out anything Bester can sense is golden. A quick fix before Franklin can give Bester an injection to suppress his telepathy for a few hours.

This time, Bester is after someone who the command crew of Babylon 5 would also like to see arrested: someone, and a main distributer at that, supplying a drug called Dust. It enhances the strength of Telepaths for several hours, and can potentially give others telepathic abilities. If you invade someone else's mind while using dust, you experience everything they experience. The distributor is preparing to sell dust to alien governments to be used as weapons.

G'Kar buys dust off of a dealer, hoping it will harness telepathy in Narns. A twist when the dealer asks who G'Kar will test the drug on and then, after the dealer leaves, G'Kar uses it on himself! G'Kar's eyes turn black. He sees things in a stylized MTV music video way. Then he looks like he's wigging out.

One of the best exchanges when Bester and Garibaldi are looking for the distributor comes from when they're interrogating a suspect who might know where the distributor is, and the suspect denies knowing anything and pulls the old "I have rights!" card. Bester, even without his telepathic abilities can see right threw him and says, "Officially, he has rights. Unofficially, he's lying." Line of the episode! Bester bluffed and got the suspect to tell them everything about where the dirstributor is.

Then comes the scene of the episode! G'Kar goes to Londo's quarters, tosses aside Vir, and heads straight for Londo. G'Kar looks like he's going to tear Londo limb-from-limb. Then the episode cuts away to Garibaldi and Bester catching the Dust Dealer, before cutting back to Londo, who's on the floor. I like that they cut away because now I can imagine G'Kar doing things to Londo that would've been censored for violence on daytime cable TV in the '90s.

After that, G'Kar enters Londo's mind. The black background while G'Kar's in there is perfect. Why? Because there's nothing else there. It's just Londo and G'Kar. He finds out that the only reason Londo was on Babylon 5 was because no one else was stupid enough to take the job. He taunts Londo about it, but it makes him more than just a little bit hypocritical, because G'Kar took the job too!

After the taunting, G'Kar looks through Londo's deep, dark secrets, and finds out that he conspired with Morden. Then G'Kar becomes enraged. He wants to know everything. "All of it, Mollari!!!! ALL OF IT!!!!!!!" Then the images flash by fast and frantically, at the same pace that G'Kar is taking it all in. "ALL OF IT!!!!!!!!" Such an intense scene!

Riding right off of that, G'Kar suddenly sees his father, who's hanging and dying. Then his father tells him, "Honor my name." That would've been bound to send him over the edge for sure. Until Kosh projects an avatar of a Narnian Angel to tell G'Kar to break the cycle of hatred. That was a twist that I didn't see coming, but a twist that had to happen since JMS wasn't going to have G'Kar kill Londo and have Londo be written out of the show.

In the aftermath, G'Kar is sentenced to 60 days in jail. 60 days for drug use, two assaults, and one mind invasion? Ummm... I like G'Kar, but the Judge basically gave him a slap on the wrist. Though I think she only did it because Sheridan stuck up for G'Kar.

Overall, this is another one of my favorite Babylon 5 episodes. Definitely in the Top 5. I would've loved this episode if I'd seen it when I was 16. This series keeps getting more and more exciting as they keep getting deeper and deeper in. It's like a page-turner now. I give it a 10.

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[Lord Garth]

"Exogenesis" (B5 S3E7)

Spoiler

In a Nutshell: This wasn't just a flop. It was a belly flop! And it was just as painful as the real thing would be if you jumped off the diving board and landed right smack-dab on your belly.

The A-Plot: Some weird parasite that looks like a Ceti Eel but it isn't, gets onto some random person's back and dissolves itself into his vertebrae while he screams? This looks like it's going to be a stupid one. But I'll keep an open mind. Interesting shots of Franklin conducting the autopsy, after this person has died.

Marcus gets a storyline devoted to him. He's trying to find out what's going on with his contacts Downbelow. They're not acting normal. Garibaldi essentially blows him off. But Franklin is willing to help. It took until half-way through the episode before I realized that the Marcus Story and Franklin Story were connected. If this episode had held my attention better, I think I would've made the connection a lot sooner.

Marcus and Franklin find a bunch of people Downbelow taken over by the parasite. Just like the Ceti Eels in TWOK, these parasites take over people's minds. I know that in TWOK it only made them highly receptive to suggestion, but you understand what I'm getting at. They weren't in control of their mental faculties.

These people in Downbelow take Marcus and Franklin prisoner. Franklin is then taken to try to cure one of them who's dying from the parasites. Marcus breaks free but no awesome fighting; he just breaks free. Then he finds out the people who've been infected by the parasites are worse than he thought. It goes from feeling like TWOK to feeling like "Conspiracy" (TNG), as they surround Marcus.

Then the parasites give some noble, holier-than-thou speech about what they're doing. I'm not buying it. Franklin is skeptical but says they'll run tests on them. I've stopped caring.

The B-Plot: Someone is promoted to Lieutenant. I can't remember his name, but I've seen him around. Sheridan wants Ivanova to feel him out to see if he can be trusted with top-secret information. That's a stupid, stupid, fucking stupid idea. Just because he's promoted to Lieutenant doesn't mean he's ready to be part of Sheridan's War Council. If anything, he's more likely than not to blow their cover.

Ivanova invites the Lieutenant over to her quarters to get to know him better. He thinks Ivanova might want to go out on a date with him. Which could've led to bad sitcom-level misunderstandings. But it doesn't. What we get isn't ridiculous (which could've been entertaining) but just flat. Ivanova wants to know how he'd react if following orders and protecting Earth conflicted with each other and he said it wasn't for him to make those kinds of decisions. He'd report anyone who goes against orders. She dismisses him and that's it. Now she can tell Sheridan something they both should've already known.

Button On the Episode: Ivanova got flowers from someone earlier, she figures out they were from Marcus, then she gives them back to him and says, "Keep them!" The End.

Overall: By the 35-minute mark, I was struggling to still watch. I kept resisting the urge to either turn it off or skip to the end. And it's bad when I take a break around the 40-minute mark and switch to watching YouTube Videos of pediatrists removing callouses and corns from feet. Seriously, that's what I watched instead for a bit! But after that, I ended up finishing the episode and the whole thing felt anti-climactic.

This one really hurts. Especially coming off of last episode. To go from one of my favorite episodes to what I think is one of the worst episodes ever. Is it worse than some of the worst of Season 1? Well, let me put it this way: I don't remember them feeling this bad! It was a struggle to keep track, a struggle to watch, and a struggle to even care. None of it felt satisfying. Could it have been worse? It can always be worse. But this was pretty bad. I give it a 2.

Yes, you read that right. Not my kind of episode. As bad as a 3 is, it's still watchable. Even if I'm thinking, "What the Hell did I just watch?!" Any worse than that and it becomes a real struggle. With this one, I just had such a hard time getting all the way through it. That's why it's a 2. Hopefully this is the worst episode of the season.

"So what does a 1 look like to you?" You're going to find out, when I get to "Threshold"... Coming Soon!

And with that, I've closed the four-episode gap between DS9/B5 and VOY. So, my next review is going to be "Prototype" over in the VOY Forum, before I come back to DS9 for "Crossfire".

 

[Frightscape One]

David Corwin was the one getting promoted.

The reason for the Ivanova subplot does make sense.

Spoiler

Since he will now be in a position where he is much more likely to find things out simply because his scope and level of responsibilities increase, Sheridan needed to know if Corwin could be trusted enough to not rat them out. If he was, they have another person they can rely on. If not, they would need to take extra measures to make sure he doesn't find out what they are doing.

I do agree it's a pretty weak episode, but I tend to give this one a 4. I can assure you, though, that this is the only weak episode of the season. (And season 4, for that matter.)

Of course, that statement is subjective, and you might find another one really weak. (Though I sincerely doubt it.)

 

[DonIago]

Spoiler: Exogenesis

I agree that it's not B5 at anywhere near its best, but a couple of points:
-The flowers were from Corwin to Ivanova. Ivanova assumes they were from Marcus, which is a bit of a sitcom-level misunderstanding.
-The aliens are symbiotic, not parasitic, so it would be more fair to compare them to Trill symbionts than the "Conspiracy" aliens (of course, in the novelvese those two are connected).

For me the biggest weakness of this story is that it's another case of B5 introducing a concept that might have some long-term story value but that's ultimately never going to be referenced again after the closing credits.

 

[Gore-ac]

Spoiler: Exogenesis

I agree that this episode is terrible and about as enjoyable as stepping in dog shit but there are still parts that amused me, in particular during the opening sequence of the shuttle docking one of the voices is doing a Sean Connery impression. (I'm easily amused)

 

[Lord Garth]

"Crossfire"

Sometimes when I'm watching an episode of DS9, it's worked better for me in my 40s than when I was in my teens... but this isn't one of those times. It's actually the opposite. It worked better for me in my teens than it does for now, and it makes sense that I would've liked this episode when I was 16 because that's the level it feels like this episode was written at.

Don't get me wrong. It's a very well put-together episode, and it's interesting to watch Odo be distracted and see how that affects everything around him. Quark not being able to keep up a betting pool because Odo's off his game. Worf catching a criminal trying to assassinate Shakaar instead of Odo. Sisko telling Odo that Odo's made mistakes he doesn't expect from him.

Unfortunately, the root of all of this is Odo being jealous, upset, and even enraged because Kira and Shakaar have become romantically involved, while Odo doesn't have the courage to say anything. Instead of just being happy for Kira, he slips in his job, he goes on a rampage in his quarters and starts sulking.

In one of the best scenes of the episode, Quark tells Odo what he needs to hear. He either has to tell Kira how he feels or forget about it and move on with his life. That's the scene of the episode.

At the end, Odo decides to stop going over security reports with Kira every week even though Kira likes doing it and it gives her an excuse to hang out with Odo. And because, when you get right down to it, he's jealous of Shakaar and can't bear Kira being in a relationship with him.

This is a long way from the Odo of the beginning of the series who said he wasn't interested in relationships. The whole scene from "A Man Alone" where Odo talks about "too much compromise". And he clearly didn't have an issue with Kira being in a relationship with Bariel, even though I don't think Odo truly realized his feelings for Kira until after Bariel died. But still. To act up and then stop meeting with Kira just seems like a very juvenile thing to do.

The turbolift scene was fun, I don't deny that, as was watching Odo stop the turbolift from descending any further.

The constant paranoia about Shakaar's safety going from one spot to another was also interesting to watch, especially as Shakaar kept making Odo's job harder and harder by wanting to go everywhere.

On the subject of Kira and Shakaar being in a relationship, I like Kira/Shakaar better than Kira/Bariel. Shakaar has more in common with Kira, they agree on a lot more things, and even the actors themselves seem to have a pretty good and natural chemistry, which is always a plus.

Overall, though, this episode is hampered by the fact that I don't agree with how Odo takes things and how adolescent his behavior is. Very immature. If I can't agree with the premise of the episode, and I can't respect how Odo acts, then I can only rate this episode so high. I give it a 5.

 

[DonIago]

I think Odo's actions here are a bit more forgivable if you think of him as someone who not only has never even been in love but never even considered the possibility, so he's been caught off-guard and unprepared at a point in his life and being the kind of person who doesn't easily share his feelings even with his ostensible friends.

Which doesn't mean his 'resolution' is a great one, but it kind of follows.

I could never quite get over the fact that the actor who played Shakar was the same man who played Beverly's ghost lover once upon a TNG. I didn't really ever find his acting in DS9 all that impressive either, but maybe he was told not to come across as an especially strong character.

 

[Frightscape One]

I think Odo's actions here are a bit more forgivable if you think of him as someone who not only has never even been in love but never even considered the possibility, so he's been caught off-guard and unprepared at a point in his life and being the kind of person who doesn't easily share his feelings even with his ostensible friends.

Which doesn't mean his 'resolution' is a great one, but it kind of follows.

I could never quite get over the fact that the actor who played Shakar was the same man who played Beverly's ghost lover once upon a TNG. I didn't really ever find his acting in DS9 all that impressive either, but maybe he was told not to come across as an especially strong character.

Agreed. This is Odo's first real venture at romantic feelings for someone else, so he has no experience on how to act or be when Kira falls for Shakaar.


Regarding Bareil: I think she was better off with him than Shakaar. Shakaar and Kira... I didn't really feel the chemistry. Plus, Bareil was an important step for her in terms of becoming a more centered person.

 

[The Vorta-lak]

My interpretation is that the episode was designed to be a meditation on envy and obsession, and Rene Auberjonois played it to the hilt. He knew his job was not to make the character "look good," but make the drama good.

 

[Lord Garth]

I could never quite get over the fact that the actor who played Shakar was the same man who played Beverly's ghost lover once upon a TNG.

Up until now, I never made that connection. Although, in my defense, I've only seen "Sub Rosa" twice ever. In 1994, when it first aired, after which I tried to push it out of my mind as far as possible. And then in 2019, when I re-watched every TNG episode before Picard, by which time my memory of DS9 was very faded.

But now that I can see it in my mind, I can't unsee it!

 

[DonIago]

Up until now, I never made that connection. Although, in my defense, I've only seen "Sub Rosa" twice ever. In 1994, when it first aired, after which I tried to push it out of my mind as far as possible. And then in 2019, when I re-watched every TNG episode before Picard, by which time my memory of DS9 was very faded.

But now that I can see it in my mind, I can't unsee it!

You're welcome?

I'd love to be able to say I only ever saw it once, because it's just a terrible episode...but I did a Trek rewatch starting with TOS and I'm pretty sure we did make it through all of TNG.

 

[kkt]

Yes, Odo's behavior is explained to me by the fact that Kira is the first person he's really been attracted to. Most of us humans go through that around 13 or 14, and start learning coping strategies for whenour crush object is attracted to someone else. Coping strategies from trying to ignore it, keep your head down and do your job, up to and including take some days off. So not only has Odo never had that experience before, but there hasn't even been anyone in a position to talk to him about it. Dr. Mora certainly wasn't going to talk to him about romantic feelings at all, let alone the finer points about unreciprocated feelings and jealousy. The Cardassians, Bajorans, and the Federation staff wouldn't talk to him about that either. Where's he going to learn from - Micky Spillane?

Odo is fully intelligent but emotionally he's more like a middle schooler, and that shows very well in this episode.

 

[Lord Garth]

"Messages from Earth" (B5 S3E8)

Spoiler

This episode has a lot to set up and a lot to bring us up to speed about. It's taking different pieces and moving them into place as Sheridan prepares to take bolder moves against the Shadows and against Clark, who they know who is working with the Shadows.

The A-Plot
Underscoring the gravity of the situation, military drumbeats are heard when a key main guest character arrives, Dr. Mary Kirkish, an interplanetary expeditionist. Seven years ago, she made a discovery that a Shadow ship had been underground on Mars for 1,000 years. The creators of this episode took a "show don't tell" approach to heart and showed her discovery back then. The visuals in the flashback of the Shadow ship digging out the 1,000-year-old Shadow ship are stunning. And I don't just mean they look stunning for '90s CGI. They look stunning, period.

The Earth Government knows about these ships and they're trying to find out who else knows. Garibaldi was also there seven years ago and scavenged a Psi Corp ring he found. So, the B5 command crew finally piece together what we've already known for a few episodes: that the Earth Alliance and Psi Corps are secretly working with the Shadows. The Earth Alliance has discovered a Shadow ship on Ganymede, a Jupiter Moon. Sheridan wants to stop President Clark from gaining access to a Shadow ship.

Military drumbeats are heard once again when Sheridan leaves with Delenn on the White Star. No uniform, nothing to identify him as he goes on this mission. Complete with a cover story if things go wrong. The drumbeats work on two levels: 1) It makes it feel like Sheridan's going to war, and 2) A sense that Sheridan is breaking away from President Clark and away from the Earth Alliance and marching to the beat of his own drum. Sheridan in the brown leather jacket reminds me of Admiral Kirk in the brown leather jacket in TSFS, when he also went off on his own way. Nice homage if that's what it was intended to be.

When the White Star approaches the Shadow ship, Sheridan's tactics are on full display. He knows he can't outgun the Shadow ship, but gambles that he can outsmart it. Sheridan takes the White Star into Jupiter, the Shadow follows, and the White Star escapes while the Shadow ship is destroyed by the pressure from Jupiter! I loved this battle sequence. First because Sheridan won with brains instead of brawn, and second because this type of battle would've fit right in on Star Trek. The best part is, unlike Star Trek from this same era: no technobabble! Sheridan gambled and won. As Kirk said, "Risk is part of the game if you want to sit in that chair." And as Adama said, "Sometimes you just have to roll the hard six."

I'm glad they had the twist afterwards of the Agamemnon, of all ships, coming up and opening fire on the White Star, not know what it is or who's on it. The strategy Delenn suggests to get them out of this situation without surrendering or firing back was perfect. Babylon 5 opens a jumpgate while still in Jupiter's atmosphere, which is equally as risky as what they just did earlier, and manage to get away. Once again, outthinking instead of outgunning.

The B-Plot
Vaughn Armstrong, who's been in a ton of Star Trek stuff, plays a senior member of Nightwatch. Since I couldn't find a name for him when I tried to look it up, I'm just going to call him "Armstrong". The character openly has a God-complex in his mind. He thinks he can do and get away with anything. Armstrong instructs Nightwatch to be suspicious of anyone, although anyone in Nightwatch is exempt from suspicion because they're acting in Earth's best interests (yikes!) and any Babylon 5 crew are exempt unless they're acting suspiciously. Then, one of the characters just has to bring up Sheridan, because they don't know about his whereabouts.

Later on, Armstrong meets with Zack in private and tells him that the Captain disappearing for four days is extremely suspicious, and he thinks Garibaldi is "in the Captain's pocket" to paraphrase. Armstrong wants Zack to find out what he can from Garibaldi, even though Garibaldi doesn't trust him as much anymore, but Zack doesn't want to because he sees Garibaldi as a friend. Armstrong puts Zack in a tough spot where he tells him he has to choose between his friends and his career. It's like Armstrong's putting salt on a very conflicted Zack's wound.

Character Moments
At one point while on the White Star: Sheridan, not being able to sleep, especially on a Minbari bed that's elevated at an angle, tells Delenn about how what he misses about Earth is hearing rain, and then Delenn makes it so he can hear rain. It helps Sheridan to be able to sleep. Sheridan and Delenn hold hands, showing their ever-growing bond.

This one scene works on so many levels: learning a little bit more about Minbari culture, Sheridan and Delenn getting closer, and getting to see Sheridan miss things that we, as the audience living on Earth, take for granted. We never have it go long without it raining. And not only does Sheridan miss the little things on Earth but, by going against Clark, now it's likely to be a long time before he's ever on Earth again.

The situation is changing so fast that, back on the station, Ivanova feels like she doesn't know where she fits in anymore, where Babylon 5 fits in anymore, and it's like the whole world has been turned upside down. Marcus represents that uncertainty because she doesn't know where he fits in either, since he's outside the command structure.

The Closing Scene
In the ultimate cliffhanger, Ivanova tells Sheridan to turn on the TV, where it's been reported that President Clark has declared Martial Law on Earth! Roll Credits.

At the beginning of the episode, G'Kar said "Everything out there has one purpose: to distract us from ourselves." Looks like everyone in this episode was distracted, because the Martial Law declaration caught everyone off-guard!

Overall
This episode covered a lot of ground and masterfully moved things into place. It's not a knockout but everything it does is great, and we get to see how Sheridan and Delenn are able to think on their feet. Meanwhile it's like the walls are closing in on them. I can't wait for the next episode. I give this one a 9.

I can't wait to see what happens in the next Babylon 5 episode! Nice recovery from whatever the Hell "Exogenesis" was. I'm willing to treat "Exogenesis" like the "Let He Who Is Without Sin" or "Profit and Lace" of B5. A blip in an otherwise stellar season.

 

[Lord Garth]

"Return to Grace"

Upfront, this episode is telling is to just go along with it, when Kira's going to aid the Cardassians against the Klingons. It's explained away that Shakaar had to get Kira drunk to agree. Really drunk. That's about the size of it. Then, here comes Dukat, who's been demoted to a freighter captain, small "c", after the revelation of Ziyal. His mother disowned him, his wife left him and took his children, oh, and let's not forget about his demotion.

Dukat's in as low of a position as he can be. His ego's wounded, so is his pride, and now he's driven. "Everything I have lost, I will regain." He never gives up. He doesn't give up on going after Kira either, using any pretense he can come up with to have dinner with her. Dukat notes that Kira likes men in power (between Bariel and Shakaar), then says it's more incentive for him to regain his power. Kira thinks it's a joke, but Dukat is just like Trump. He never jokes.

And he hates the freighter that he's on, that can't blow up anything. The Klingon Bird of Prey that uncloaks in front of them doesn't bother to fight Dukat's ship because they don't consider him a threat, which bruises Dukat's ego. What they didn't say that I think probably happened, is that the Klingons were amused that Dukat would try to fire back at all, impressed with his courage, laughed it off, and then decided it was time to go to warp. If it's true, and Dukat found out about that, it would hurt his ego even more!

When Kira helps Dukat to better arm his ship, he says that his reputation will be restored, and he'll have her to thank for it. I'm so glad Kira said she'll try not to think about that. She doesn't like this at all, nor should she. Dukat's trying to make sounding like his rising from the ashes would be a good thing and it's the exact opposite.

And Dukat just won't shut the fuck up about Kira's choices in men. "How can you like him? Why don't you like me?" This is hard to watch. In a good way. Dukat's that fucked up narcissist going after Kira because he can't have her and becomes more obsessed with her the more he can't have her. Hopefully Kira's mad at Shakaar for making her go through all of this.

Once they figure out how to get from Dukat's freighter to a Klingon Bird-of-Prey, use the transporters to have the crews switch places, and Dukat destroys the freighter, he gloats about having the Bird-of-Prey. He gloats about having power again. All that's missing is the villainous "Hahahaaa!!!!!" Of course, he's not a cartoon character yet, that's two seasons from now. Here, his ego's inflated only do be deflated when the Cardassian government wants to negotiate with the Klingons instead of fight them. So, Dukat wants to go it alone. Then turns to Kira again, this time wanting her to fight with him side-by-side.

Here's what Dukat doesn't get about Kira. He thinks Kira likes to fight. Kira only fought because she had to. Once the Cardassians were off Bajor, she was done with the fighting. She wanted to see what she could do next. The Federation coming along wasn't what she had in mind, as we saw early in the series, but she came around to it, and Bajor is still free and independent, which is what she really wants. She doesn't live just to fight. But that's the only context Dukat knows her in, so I can see how he'd make that mistake and think she lives for the fight, regardless of whatever the fight is.

Earlier in the episode, there's a scene where Kira is teaching Ziyal the difference between a Cardassian rifle and a Starfleet rifle. Even the way the weapons are designed gives a good examination of the difference between Cardassian and Federation philosophies. The scene is also great because it's not the type of scene you'd normally see with two women. Ziyal wants to help her father and Dukat thinks her place is at his side. But she doesn't know how to fight. When she tries to do a play knife-fight with Kira, she doesn't stand a chance, and Kira tells her the best way to handle yourself in a knife-fight is to not get into one. It made total sense why Kira would want to get Ziyal out of there and have her on the station and out of constant harm's way. Thankfully, Dukat agrees. Not thankfully, Dukat uses that opportunity to tell Kira that their lives have now become deeply intertwined.

Thanks to Ziyal's appearances having been spread out, I didn't think about the actress change. It only registers with me because I know she was re-cast.

And a shout out to Damar in his first appearance! I don't have anything else to say about him here, because he doesn't really do much. But we all have to start somewhere.

Overall, everything about this episode is solid, all the points are very good, Dukat's becoming someone I can't stand the more he tries to make us love him, and things played out the way they should've played out. I give it a 9.

EDITED TO ADD: By the way, I remember that a few times in the past I've said I thought Mid-DS9 made Dukat seem like he wasn't that bad. Obviously my memory was very faded, because I wholeheartedly take that back!

 

[kkt]

Well... Dukat mid-DS9 wasn't as awful as he was at the beginning or at the end, but he was still pretty bad.

Jeez, Dukat, even as the captain of a modest Cardassian military vessel, you're still a reasonably powerful man. I bet there's still some women who'd go out with you. Just Kira is not going to be one of them.

D: But, but, Odo didn't have a chance either, but after six years he wins her over! That's what a little time-travelling bird tells me, anyway.

Answer: Odo didn't kill millions of her countrymen.