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Star Trek DS9 - Season 3 - Episode 18

Star Trek DS9 - 3x18 - Distant Voices

Originally Aired: 1995-4-10

Synopsis:
Comatose and dying after an alien attack, Bashir must access different parts of his personality, which take the form of crew members, to save his life. [DVD]

My Rating - 2

Fan Rating Average - 3.38

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Filler Quotient: 3, bad filler, totally skippable.
- Unless you're dying to see the first episode to mention bio-memetic gel or you're incredibly curious to see how Bashir and Garak each regard Bashir's 30th birthday, there's nothing to see here.

Problems
None

Factoids
None

Remarkable Scenes
- Bashir expressing more misgivings for Cardassian literature.
- Quark and the Lethian approaching Bashir asking for bio-memetic gel.
- Bashir: "You represent my doubt and my disbelief." O'Brien: "No I don't!"
- Bashir and Garak playing tennis.
- The Lethian belittling Julian, telling him he gave up on tennis even though he was good enough, he purposely answered a question wrong on his final medical exam because he didn't want the pressure of being first, and he gave up on Jadzia, he could have tried harder to bag her.
- The final scene, where Garak praises Bashir for still not trusting him.

My Review
Oh, my favorite! An "it was all a dream" plot! *rolls eyes* All right, I'll give it some credit, plots like this can be done successfully. TNG: The Inner Light comes to mind. That said, this episode's basic premise has been done before and it has been done better before. The episode has redeemable qualities though. I'm fond of the Lethian's speech belittling Bashir for decisions he made in his past and of course Garak's involvement in a story always brightens it up. I'm a little dismayed to note that this is the second episode this season in which Garak has been a character in a dream event, the first being DS9: The Search, Part II. Overall, as I've already alluded to, I'm not fond of episodes which are mostly big dreams, but DS9: The Search, Part II, and this episode avoid some fatal mistakes. Just like in TNG: The Inner Light, the audience is made well aware of the fact that events are occurring within a virtual reality, so the episode becomes less an obvious reset button and retains a certain level of thrill and mystery. That said, I'm not particularly fond of this one at all.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

  • From Kyle on 2015-05-19 at 12:56pm:
    Actually, bio-memetic gel, was mentioned before in the TNG episode Firstborn.
    It didn't seem to be tightly controlled then as Riker used 1/2 gram of it to trade for some ore from a Yridian.
  • From Azalea Jane on 2021-12-12 at 11:32am:
    Hey, it's "Remember Me" but this time it's for Dr. Bashir instead of Dr. Crusher, and half as interesting!

    I do like the exchange at the end, when Garak essentially commends Bashir for continuing not to trust him.

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