The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From rpeh on 2010-07-30 at 8:12pm:
  I *want* to hate this episode but I can't. It's a totally pointless James Bond parody, but it's done so well that you have to love it.
  
  There are so many references to real Bond movies you can't count them all: the basic plot is Moonraker; the gem identification scene is a rework of the fish identification scene from The Spy Who Loved Me; Doctor Noah -> Doctor No; the music could come from almost any 60's or 70's film; "You should have killed me while you had the chance"... and so on.
  
  This could have been such a dreadful failure that I cringed when I realised what was going on, but as it played out I got more and more engrossed. It's a perfect melding of Trek and Bond, and the actors get into their roles so well, and I'm such a fan of both series... that it gets a 9.
• From Mike on 2011-06-06 at 7:53am:
  If it takes the entire station memory to store the neural patterns of the crew, how did Scotty manage to keep his pattern in electronic stasis for 50 years?
• From Hugo on 2012-04-18 at 7:32pm:
  Loved it! What a great show, especially Kira, Sisko and O'Brien - and Bashir of course. Garak is one of my fave characters, but he was mostly whining in this episode. Interesting that Eddington (what a dull character...) got to play a bigger role this time.
• From L on 2013-05-24 at 8:28am:
  The emergency scenario was just an excuse for them to have some fun, and it was.
  Being they were in a scenario based on Bond-logic, Bashir and Garak were never in any real danger as Bond's ability to get out of certain-death scenarios would be part of the program, but it's fitting that Garak was overly-concerned about coming to harm, as never having seen any Bond films he wouldn't know this.
  It was funny the way they had to outwit the cliches to keep everyone alive, especially to ensure Kira and Dax would both survive - one of the two women always dies and he ends up with the other one, but it's never certain which.
  Sisko's normal over-stated acting style made him perfect to play the villain.
  Love Rom's patchwork fixes for the holosuite.
  "Where's the core memory interface?"
  "It's... right behind the spatula."

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From JRPoole on 2008-11-13 at 5:08pm:
  While I like the idea of the hunt, I don't like the hunter aliens. I find it hard to believe that Sisko would tolerate them tearing up his station in pursuit of their quarry.
  
  What I do like about this episode is O'brien's growing dislike for Bashir. Notice how he completely cuts off Julian's speech in Ops? DS9 is better at continuing character development and plot threads in filler episodes and alien-of-the-week episodes than TNG ever was, and that's one of it's strengths.
  
  The review above wondered whether these races are part of the Dominion. Tosk certainly is reminiscent of the Jem Hadar to come....
• From Bernard on 2009-11-22 at 1:59am:
  Strongest episode since the pilot. Tosk is magnificently portrayed too aswell as providing a good outing for the Chief.
  
  I love the way Sisko reacts to O'Brien's subterfuge, gives him a blasting but he agrees with him.
  
  Sounds like I'm copying the review above ... but I found it to be spot on. Solid 6.
• From John on 2011-09-07 at 11:05pm:
  Additional factoids:
  
  At the time of this episode, about 300 people live on Deep Space 9.
  
  At this point in time, DS9 has traffic of about 5 or 6 ships per week.
  
  
• From Dstyle on 2013-08-25 at 12:57pm:
  Man, those universal translators are magic! First contact with a brand new species, and they understand and are understood completely!

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Captain Keogh on 2013-05-05 at 5:45pm:
  The one problem I have with this episode is the beginning, very trivial, when the USS Saratoga is hit by the Borg vutting beam, it hits the sensor dome, but when Sisko asks for the damage report, the tactical officer says it hit Decks 1-4, I will be looking forward to any insight into this.
• From James T Quark on 2015-08-16 at 2:28am:
  A good start. On my first viewing I had hoped that the whole "spiritual / emissary / religious" aspect wouldn't be a pivotal plot point, but I sure was wrong!
  
  As well, I'm not too fond of the whole Bajoran back story ie the Cardassian Rape of Bajor, so one might as "why watch?" Simple.
  
  The stories are excellent. If you can tolerate the religious overtones and perhaps skip over a few of the less important "Oh those poor, unfortunate Bajorans" episodes, this is a great series.
  
  While TNG will always be my favorite ST series, this would a close second, or maybe even first if they had made the Bajorans a stronger species, and not so deluded by the wormhole aliens magical powers. Imagine the series if it wasn't Bajor that was invaded and occupied but a race like the Romulans or the Klingons! Now THAT would be some good, albeit most likely DARKER, Trek.
  
  All in all, a very good addition to the franchise and a must see for any Trekerie!
• From Allen on 2021-04-17 at 9:50pm:
  Odd how I found this site. I was looking for the propose of the chest/crest rise on the cardassian uniforms. It lead to here. Very thoughtful comments about DS9. I'm revisiting DS9 shows because I missed some of them on the first broadcast. Due to comments. I might have to re-watch the first.
  
  I was there from the beginning of Star Trek. I was a kid when I watched the first Star Trek show on our B&W TV in the 1960's. Some of them were scary to me, being at that age even though I knew it was just a show.
  
  It was the right time for it. The "space race" was happening then.
  
  I am not a "Treky" I don't go to the conventions. I just like watching most of what has been produced on the original Star Trek story and all of the other SyFy built after it.
  
  Here's a question. Would "Star Wars" have happened had Star Trek not have?
• From Kethinov on 2021-04-19 at 3:05pm:
  Glad you found it! I would guess that Star Wars would not have happened without Star Trek becoming such a cult success in the 60s, since pop culture phenomenons tend to build off of each other. I would also guess that Star Trek would not have been revived had Star Wars not been so successful.
  
  Regarding DS9, it remains my favorite Trek show even decades later. Like all Trek shows, the early seasons are rough, but the last few seasons of DS9 are Star Trek at its finest with deep, nuanced writing that remains unrivaled to this day. I recommend to you and anyone else reading to give it a go. It aged well in a way that much of the rest of Trek before and after did not.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From David Chambers on 2009-11-26 at 9:58pm:
  Is it me, or does the actor that played Alexander look a lot like Tom Cruise?

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From JRPoole on 2009-02-09 at 5:36pm:
  I find this episode interesting because it signifies a change in Trek's philosophies to a certain degree.
  
  TOS and (especially) TNG were both very anti-religion. The show's philosophies about science and rationality over religion and faith are clearly evident in many, many episodes. That starts to change a little on DS9. Sisko has always been uncomfortable with the role of Emissary, but here he begins to grow into it a little, and the plot of this episode suggests that there is something to the Bajoran faith beyond ancient mumbo jumbo. But even before this, Sisko has a more balanced view of such things than Picard ever did. For example, the episode in which then-Vedek Winn threatens Keiko's school makes it clear that while Sisko doesn't believe in the prophets as such, he understands their importance to the Bajoran people.
  
  Even if the "prophets" are explained in scientific terms as non-corporeal beings who live in the wormhole and exist outside of linear time, this episode makes it abundantly clear that their fate is tied to that of Bajor and that the ancient texts are in some ways "true," and that the Prophets are somehow (perhaps without their knowledge) guiding Bajoran society through their interactions with the orbs.
  
  This is an interesting wrinkle, and DS9 is definitely the most fully-realized series in the franchise, but I have to wonder if Gene Roddenberry would have approved of the new direction.
• From djb on 2009-05-22 at 8:27pm:
  I agree that DS9's exploration of religion is interesting. But in a sense, it's not a religion. Not to get off on a spiritual/religious rant here, but in my mind, the very definition of "spiritual" (despite its Latin roots meaning "breath") refers to that which is non-material, and which is not subject to scientific/empirical verification (for better or for worse).
  
  The Prophets, AKA Wormhole aliens, are non-coporeal, but still exist in the material universe, and are observable. In other words, there is nothing sacred or holy about the wormhole aliens; they simply are very, very different from humanoids.
  
  The fact that ancient Bajorans didn't understand the true nature of the wormhole and its inhabitants, and decided to worship them as gods, to me, seems nothing more than superstition, even idol worship. Primitive people often deify, and therefore worship, that which they cannot understand, so arguably the Bajoran religion is nothing more than a vestige of pre-scientific ignorance.
  
  The way the "prophecy" in this episode fulfills itself reminds me of the ancient Greek story of Oedipus Rex. The prophecy was fulfilled by Oedipus' very act of trying to avoid it.
  
  Similarly, Vedek Yarka foolishly tries to avert a prophecy given by the Prophets, and of course, in doing so, helps to fulfill, or at the very least is completely ineffective in stopping, the prophecy he set out to thwart. This was because he did not take into account that if the Prophets can see past, present, and future, they would have seen his efforts to avoid the inevitable, and then THAT would be the prophecy itself. Fascinating.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From MJ on 2011-02-19 at 7:33pm:
  Overall, a great episode.
  
  I was a bit bothered that Odo could simply take Quark into custody and bring him to a Grand Jury without telling him why. It seems the Federation justice system would require that; however, given the fact that it involves the Orion syndicate, the secrecy may have been necessary (although, as it turns out, unsuccessful).
  
  The first time I saw this one, the subplot involving Jake and Nog was uninteresting, but after seeing the whole series and the many turns their friendship takes, this was actually a very nice addition. Jake and Nog are interesting characters as it is. Jake, one of the few Human characters in Star Trek not to be in Starfleet, and Nog, the first Ferengi to do so, make for a fun pair. I enjoy the Huckleberry Finn/Tom Sawyer nature of their friendship.
  
  But this is obviously about Odo and Quark, and it doesn't disappoint. I really love when DS9 stretches Quark's character a bit. So often he provides comic relief, but in episodes like this (and Siege of AAR-558) his more serious nature kicks in, and it's very nicely written and acted.
  
  And (spoiler alert), this episode is further proof in my mind that the writers completely fumbled the parting between Odo and Quark in the finale.
• From Krs321 on 2011-07-14 at 4:20pm:
  I just watched this last night and I'm about 90% sure Quark asks Odo if he wants to play "Fisbin", Kirk's fictional card came from "A Piece of the Action".

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From christopher wright on 2011-12-10 at 5:48am:
  Did anyone else find Silaran similar to Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs? I half expected him to say, "It places the lotion in the basket."
• From Selador on 2013-06-03 at 2:10pm:
  As usual, we disagree...
  
  I kept wishing throughout the episode that Major Kira was played by a different actress. Nina Visitor is incredibly annoying. A very average episode as well, and the 'evil' Cardiassian character was such a cliche. If only he'd succeded though...

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Krs321 on 2011-08-24 at 12:38pm:
  This episode offered a ton of potential but squandered it on poor writing. The idea of a bunch of intelligence savants is intriguing but used kind of foolishly. They only had 1 hour to build an arc so I can't complain too much but the conflict/resolution could've been so much better.
  
  Never has an existing inside joke had a better chance at being used in an episode centered around Julian (and his relationship with O'Brien): the Battle of Britain.
  
  Instead of having Julian get punched and released by Deus Ex Sarina (b/c of Love? lame):
  - Julian wakes up and is found by Miles.
  - Miles says he was going to find Julian to go "play" (derisive joke from earlier) the Battle of Britain in the holosuite
  - Julian has an ah-ha moment
  - Cut to Julian intercepting the augments and dropping some logic on Jack about how all their statistical methods predicted certain defeat for England in the face of a German invasion in 1940. That way we can at least give some kind of credence to the fighting spirit of humanity/the Federation rather than Julian just proving the already obvious fact that probability estimates are just estimates. Zzzzz
  
  I wanted to like this episode and I'm glad they stayed away from the "Julian starts to over identify with the augments and everyone gets mad at him" trope, but they left a lot on the table.
• From John on 2011-09-24 at 6:30pm:
  I have to say I really enjoy this episode, though I do think the writing is a bit ridiculous.
  
  I like the way Jack is depicted as a sort of Mad Hatter, while Lauren is a genius nymphomaniac. Patrick is more along the lines of a classic, introverted autistic personality. We don't learn a lot about Sarina in this episode, but I'm glad they included her, because the later episodes will feature her more prominently.
  
  It's also interesting to note how the group of them become a sort of "Bletchley Park" for the Federation in the Dominion War. In case you don't know, in WW2, Bletchley Park was where the Allies had their code-breaking operation: a lot of mathematicians worked there, trying to crack the German Enigma codes -- by all accounts these analysts were brilliant, but quite quirky. Kind of neat to see the Federation with such an operation of their own.
  
  It does lose a point from me though, only because the savants (especially Jack) are written so over-the-top.
• From Zorak on 2016-06-22 at 6:31am:
  I didn't read Asimov's Foundation series until I was in my 20's, well after DS9 ended. When I did read it I could tell I'd seen it's theme referenced (or simply mirrored) by something I'd previously seen or read. It seems to have been this episode. Asimov's idea of predicting the future through probability and statistical data is very interesting, but it's a bad fit for Star Trek. Aside from that annoyance (which was made more annoying by how seriously it was taken, and then completely dismissed), this was a fun episode. I enjoy the group of misfit "mutants".
• From Armsauce on 2017-06-11 at 1:01am:
  When Sisko dismisses Bashir's surrender proposal, he should have brought up the prophet's actions in Sacrifice of Angels. There's no way the mutants could predict something like that, and it showed that there's no real way to know how the war will turn out.
  
  It really seems like something Bashir would have realized himself but it seems like everyone would rather forget about it.
  
  
• From Tooms on 2021-04-08 at 7:13am:
  A decent idea sunk by awful writing and even worse acting. Siddig wasn’t able to carry the episode and the mutant crew is just plain bad. The knockoff Twelve Monkeys Brad Pitt act is painful to watch. One of my least favorite DS9 episodes & I’m honestly puzzled that people liked it.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From JRPoole on 2009-02-24 at 4:38am:
  This episode should have won an Emmy or a Hugo for art direction; the ship is a cool idea and it's rendered beautifully. It's done so well I don't really mind the technical problems.
  
  
• From JRPoole on 2009-02-25 at 4:58pm:
  I wanted to add that the only problem I have with this episode is timing. The proverbial shit just hit the fan in the Delta Quadrant and the dominion pretty much destroyed the Tal Shi'ar (sp?) and the Obsidian Order. They alsod made it clear that the Federation and the Klingons were next. I find it a little hard to believe that Sisko would make a journey like this one with all this going on.
  
  The ship itself is awesome. I don't really mind the technical problems. We can rationalize that the lumber was for unexposed parts of the ship, and it might even be that the ship itself wasn't blasted into space or designed to return to Bajor through the atmosphere. Sisko seems obsesses with recreating it exactly, and it seems that the ship is already in space when he boards it. Perhaps the ancient Bajorans had rocket technology and assembled the ship in orbit somehow. Regardless, this is still a good episode, one of the most memorable stand-alone episodes in DS9, perhaps in all of Trek.
• From djb on 2009-10-28 at 6:59am:
  I liked this episode too, though it seems strange that an "ancient" Bajoran solar sailing ship would be sophisticated enough to be ... IN SPACE, yet not have an onboard computer navigation system. Kind of backwards.
  
  Anyway, I'm mainly commenting to complain about the spoiler you put in your review, about the future between Sisko and Yates. I did not know about this, as I am watching the episodes in order and have not seen much of DS9 at all before watching it now. I prefer to let the show unfold at its own pace and not know what happens later. Naturally a few spoilers are almost inevitable, but this was a big one and was unnecessary in my opinion. I enjoy reading reviews on your site, but will stop if you continue to put spoilers like that in.
• From Kethinov on 2009-10-28 at 10:40am:
  Sorry. :(
  
  You will see a few more here and there but they are rare and accidental. I've been working to strip them out.
  
  Be advised that comments posted on reviews will not be held to the same standard.
• From rpeh on 2010-07-29 at 8:30pm:
  The first time I watched this episode it really annoyed me. Second time around.... it annoys me a bit less.
  
  The technical problems with the solar sail make the whole idea cringe-worthy. Rigging? Rigging was for sailors to climb, not to adjust sails with! The sail is nowhere near large enough and far too complex. Compare to the more sensible description of a sail used for manned transport in The Mote in God's Eye (book) where the sail is roughly as large as a moon. More, you don't just gain propulsion from light, you gain it from the solar wind - and you can't tack against it. It's like this whole script was written by somebody who had heard the phrase but never got beyond that. You can even hear the "wind" rippling the sails in the exterior shots, and the "fireworks" in space at the end. Good grief!
  
  On the sail ship, they consult paper charts. This is in a series where huge storms appear with no warning just about anywhere, yet the charts are treated as accurate. Jake refers to losing the "jib and port mailsail". Just.... look that up so I don't have to describe how wrong it is. I could honestly write about another 1000 words about the technical problems here.
  
  The timing, as another poster mentioned, is just awful! From full-on, 100% action we get to an episode where the characters have to fill time by mentioning there's no sound, not even an engine! You can almost hear the gears on the DS9 engine grinding as the change-down occurs.
  
  Second time around, the timing issue didn't matter as much, but it made me watch the B-plot more, and... it doesn't really exist. A few scenes with no real character development.
  
  The technical issues are almost inexcusable! We *know* how to make solar sails, so the details can be accurate for once! The other plot details are inconsequential. But... somehow I quite like this episode. If this had been a TNG show, there'd have been loads of preaching nonsense. In this show, it just happened. I'll give it a 5.
  
  Okay... I'll stop ranting now.
• From Popescu on 2010-08-24 at 11:03pm:
  People, please stop whining about this episode, especially about the science behind it.
  
  I've just watched the special features released for each season of DS9 and the guy who created the solar sailing ship described these issues and why he choose to make it that way. He was aware of the things you are posting about here.
• From John on 2011-09-13 at 11:13pm:
  blah blah blah the science is all wrong blah blah blah WHO CARES!?
  
  This is a delightful and very well-done character-driven episode focusing on Ben and Jake Sisko. I have always loved the way the writers dealt with the Sisko family relationships, and the way Avery Brooks and Cirroc Lofton (and later Brock Peters too) portrayed it. I realize that some folks don't particularly care for the Jake character, but I've always liked him. His presence helps add depth to the otherwise straight-up badass Sisko. Don't get me wrong -- I love badass Sisko -- but it's nice to know that's not all that he is.
  
  This episode isn't about the science of solar sailing, it's about bonding between father and son. If you can watch it with that in mind, and ignore the "bad science", you'll actually enjoy it quite a bit.
• From Shaa on 2012-04-07 at 9:18pm:
  But, and please bear with me, what about the freaking sails? Why were they necessary? According to Newton, without friction, that ship would go just fine without a need for sails. Also, when they jumped into Warp, they should've stayed at that speed. The sails wouldn't have slowed them down, there would be no friction causing resistance in the sails to slow the ship down. They should've flown forever. Also, how would the ancient Bajorins have taken off??? No motor, just sails, how would they achieve any sort of upward motion? I am so confused! Am I not understanding some underlying concept here. Because based on my high school knowledge of physics, this doesn't make sense.
• From Lt. Fitz on 2012-06-26 at 12:10am:
  I've noticed a few times in Trek when an engine goes out or power is lost, space vehicles slow down. It's hard for my mind get past this, but I just have to accept that it's the physics in the Trek universe. Space has friction.
  
  I really loved this episode. I said to myself as soon as it was over, "This was a great character-driven episode, not a great sci fi episode."
• From Gul Ranek on 2012-12-26 at 11:17am:
  The solar sail is actually based in real world science - the Sun emits a stream of particles (mostly electrons and protons) which could actually propel a craft. See more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_sail
  
  This was a decent character episode, and I agree that it was a bit out of place compared to the events of the previous two episodes, but so are the next three episodes before the season finale, I guess.
  
  While I love every appearance of Gul Dukat (Marc Alaimo is simply brilliant in the role), I was surprised when the Cardassian government threw a firework display and so openly congratulated Bajor on their accomplishment. I expected for Dukat to have the lightship towed back to DS9, saying that it violated Cardassian space, or something to that extent.
• From Dstyle on 2013-10-24 at 6:32pm:
  I don't want to jump on the "bad science" bandwagon, but... the solar ship jumps to warp, faster than the speed of light, and somehow Jake and Sisko DON'T end up splattered to bits all over the back of the ship? So I guess the ancient Bajorans didn't have the technology to create an artificial gravity net, but they somehow had inertial dampeners?
• From Dubhan on 2014-07-20 at 4:55am:
  What? No mention of the fact that this is the episode where Sisko "grew the beard!?"

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Dave on 2007-07-17 at 10:36am:
  Just a minor detail. Surely when Captain Cusack tells the crew when her ship left to go exploring deep space eight years ago, they would have looked it up and realised that the time differential much earlier than they did. Doesn't spoil what was a great episode, however. Just a niggle.
• From Christopher Wright on 2012-01-21 at 10:51pm:
  I agree with the previous comment about the lack of record of the vessel, but the writers might have been making fun of their own plot hole with all the complaints about how the federation keeps such precise records on everything. Perhaps they are so full of records and logs that sometimes things get lost. Maybe the vessel that crashed had a typo on one of its records. It does seem to be quite a big plot hole though.
• From Damien Bradley on 2013-02-25 at 5:57am:
  Just a little nitpicky thing: one month isn't an anniversary. You could call it a "one-twelfth year anniversary," I suppose ...
• From Axel on 2015-05-24 at 7:14pm:
  One of the most amusing things to me about DS9 is all the subtle digs that O'Brien makes at his time aboard the Enterprise. In a previous episode he mentioned how bored he was as a transporter chief there, and I think when Sisko was promoted, O'Brien hailed him as the finest captain in Starfleet :) In this episode, he takes a swat at ship's counselors. It's hard to ignore the possibility that the writers, or simply the O'Brien character, had Troi in mind during that whole segment perhaps hinting at the character's uselessness in many cases. Or maybe it's just my imagination. Either way, it was funny to me.
  
  This one turned out to be better than I thought it would be at the start. Some depth given to all the characters in this episode, both on the Defiant and back on DS9 with the Quark/Odo relationship.
  
  
• From ChristopherA on 2021-04-17 at 12:18pm:
  My wife found Captain Cusack's neediness really annoying and couldn’t stand her. I didn't think she was quite that bad but still had little interest or empathy for her and didn't really care much about the plot. The resolution was clever but, as other commentators have pointed out, it didn't make any sense they wouldn't have already figured that out.
  
  The plot with Odo and Quark felt odd and made me realize how little we understand the stakes of the “game” that Odo and Quark had been playing during the show. This episode seems to say that we should feel good that Odo decided to be kind and allow Quark to break the law with impunity, implying the laws Quark is breaking are basically meaningless. Is that really true? What laws are these anyways? Is the Federation in the habit of making things illegal just because they're a bunch of controlling killjoys? Are these regulations Bajoran tariffs and Odo is basically giving Quark a free gift from the Bajoran treasury? Is he smuggling dangerous goods and some random person we know nothing about is going to get blown up in order to make Quark happy? It just seemed odd that a lawman would not only let Quark off the hook, but would intentionally let the crime be committed. For the morality of this show to make sense you have to assume that the laws Quark is breaking are mostly petty bureaucratic nonsense, but it would be less disquieting if they would actually come out and say so.
  

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From JRPoole on 2008-12-26 at 6:05pm:
  This two-parter is perhaps the best DS9 offering to this point. Good stuff.
• From JJ on 2010-08-03 at 6:20pm:
  There is a problem here: the Zeppelite ship canrun at warp 9,8.
• From John on 2011-01-08 at 6:54am:
  I love Sisko's speech: "The Problem is Earth..." I love what he says, and I love the way he makes Kira shut up. Kira needs to shut up more often in my opinion.
  
  Here we see the emergence of Sisko as a total badass -- fantastic.
• From Bernard on 2011-04-05 at 2:58pm:
  Solid episode that finishes off the set up from the first part nicely. Unfortunately it doesn't do much more than that.
  
  I too enjoy Sisko's 'the problem with Earth' speech, I also enjoy Dukat who has been a joy throughout both parts.
  
  "What's that phrase? 'Shoot to kill'?"
  
  The Maquis, are an excellent addition to the Star Trek universe and stories will make very good use of them over the next few seasons.
• From Hugo on 2011-11-12 at 10:35pm:
  Not too fond of Avery Brooks' acting in this two-parter, and he is totally outplayed by Dukat. Sisko just comes out as a whiny, grumpy tight-ass.
• From Hugo on 2011-11-12 at 11:10pm:
  I also like that Dukat comes out as not only a villain, and it nuances the image of the Cardassians. On the space battle - it was ok, but felt a bit like a computer game at times...
• From Matt on 2012-06-10 at 8:00am:
  Did anyone catch Hudson's Shatner-esque delivery of the heading towards the end of the episode?
• From Bronn on 2013-07-05 at 6:01pm:
  This was an excellent two part episode and represents the very best of DS9-there's a very complicated issue here and you can sympathize with all sides, even with what Dukat is trying to accomplish. But the Maquis storyline always bugged me because if you're setting up something complicated, it deserves a good resolution.
  
  Obviously you can't resolve the Maquis storyline here because it's still setting up Voyager. But it fails to reach a real resolution at any point. After taking direct action here to stop the Maquis, blowing up some of their ships, Sisko and the DS9 crew are largely going to ignore the Maquis for the next few years, save for a couple of episodes per season. They're more concerned with the Dominion. In the end the Maquis is going to be gobsmacked completely off screen by the Dominion. It's this loose thread that's dangling for a long time that never was completely pulled into place, so it got lopped off when they ran out of stories to do with it.
  
  I feel that Federation leadership takes a bit of unjust blame here. There's degrees to which I can understand them being out of touch, but they're dealt a rough hand. First they finally managed to sign the peace treaty with the Cardassians and setting up a DMZ. This was apparently a fair enough deal with both sides having to concede colonies. They tried to relocate their citizens, but those people refused to move and said they're rather live under Cardassian rule than give up their land. So they leave them...and then they blame the Federation when the Cardassians treat them like crap in attempt to make them give up their lands. Then the Federation is stuck in a position where they either have to go to war, or attempt to police their citizens who start their own shooting war. The Federation breaking a peace treaty with the Cardassians would open a whole new can of worms for them because of their treaties with the Romulans and whatever tenuous agreements they had with the Tholians.
  
  What I wanted to come out of this, at some point, was Starfleet policy to retain some clarity. Either they would go to war to protect their citizens, or they would disavow responsibility for them completely and tell the Cardassians to use their own discretion in dealing with the Maquis. We never got a real resolution to the Maquis situation on Voyager either, since the fact that there were Maquis crew members there mattered for maybe 4 episodes.
• From bodner on 2014-02-14 at 5:59pm:
  @John
  I thought Kira's speech to Sisko was way more brave, to school her superior officer about Cardassians like that.
  Siskos speech to her was most cowardly, he should have said that to the admiral not someone who agrees anyway.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From djb on 2009-11-15 at 8:39am:
  A DS9 version of TNG: Disaster! Awesome. It was a little disappointing to see the Defiant practically incapacitated so easily, but they made up for it. Always nice to see Jem'Hadar ships destroyed too.
• From Krs321 on 2011-03-28 at 12:26pm:
  I was really hoping for a sonar ping sound while running the 'active scan'.
• From Jeff Browning on 2011-11-02 at 2:07am:
  Although it was difficult to tell with all that makeup, the Karemma representative, Hanok, was played by James Cromwell, a very well known star from many films and TV shows. It would be hard to identify a single work that Cromwell is most known for, he has been in so many. He plays the farmer in the movies "Babe" and "Babe in the City". He is a major character in the movie The Green Mile. Also a major character in the movie Star Trek: First Contact (where he plays Zefram Cochrane). Also a major character in the Movie I Robot. He also appears in TNG: The Birthright Parts 1 and 2 as Jaglom Shrek and TNG: The Hunted as Prime Minister Nayrok. A very, very well known actor in other words. Here, it is pretty hard to recognize him, but his voice is quite unmistakable.
• From Gul Ranek on 2012-12-28 at 8:30pm:
  As the review says, a Star Trek submarine episode. I also liked it a lot (season 4 so far has been more or less perfect as far as storytelling goes).
  
  The only thing that slightly annoyed me was when Bashir "absolutely had to" close the door on Deck 2 because it was so crucial for the ship, and ran out to get Dax, drag her into the turbolift, taking his time to shut the door, which took more than 30-40 seconds, while nothing of consequence happened to the ship. He could have easily grabbed her and dragged her back with everyone else, but the writers obviously needed to get him and Jadzia to be alone...

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From carsonist on 2009-01-24 at 11:44pm:
  I'm amazed this only got a 4. Some good drama, and the election of a new Space-Pope is hardly "zero plot development". In hindsight, it may seem obvious that Kai Winn will be elected, but it's an enormous change for those watching the episodes in order.
  
  The episode had me believing that Bareil had been a collaborator, in the sense of sacrificing the few for the benefit of the many. The double turnaround made for some good emotional responses from Kira.
• From Tallifer on 2011-03-20 at 10:06am:
  10/10
  
  The religious politics combine with the social repercussions and aftermath of an occupation. This story was consistently exciting through every minute.
  
  Plus we get to see some more hotness from Keera Narees.
• From Bernard on 2011-10-22 at 6:43pm:
  Another strong outing involving Bajoran politics!
  
  This is a well constructed episode with good performances from Kira, Winn and Bareil.
  
  I'd give it an 8.
• From Discordius on 2011-11-09 at 7:28am:
  In context of the political development of Bajor the plot develops not zero but close to 100%! Also, the recent history of Bajor is well integrated with a very tough decision: is it justified to let a small number of people die so that much more can live? Indeed, it could be expected that Vedek Winn eventually prevails in the Kai competition. However, it was a surprise that Kai Opaka was the "collaborator" and not Bareil. His relationship with Kira: her doubts and inner conflict are well acted. A really good episode, deserving rating 8.
• From ChristopherA on 2020-07-20 at 11:51pm:
  I could see how you might find this slow but I found it full of tension and felt that the plot developed at an adequate pace the whole way through, making it a solid episode. Not the most thrilling, but it raised a good moral question and developed some interesting religious politics on Bajor.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Remco on 2008-12-01 at 9:16pm:
  This was a fantastic episode throughout. I really liked Odo and Jadzia at the end talking about what happened that day. Jadzia and Odo now have a real bond. Odo knows what it is to be a humanoid (and probably kept some of that love from Curzon), and Jadzia remembers being liquid and the joy of pestering Quark. :)
  
  One minor quibble I have is that it wasn't two hours long. Some of those host scenes were way too short. But this isn't the kind of story that lends itself to a cliffhanger, which seems to be a prerequisite for two-hour shows.
• From Shamin Asaikar on 2012-04-16 at 6:17pm:
  Just a question. Considering Joran's memories are allowed to re-surface in Equilibrium (Season 3, ep4), shouldn't he have found a personification too?
  
• From Kenneth on 2014-04-12 at 7:35pm:
  Great episode but leeta being involved in the ceremony as one of jadzias closest friends felt really forced. Quark steals the show again. Shimerman may be the best actor on the show.
• From Dubhan on 2014-07-26 at 5:49am:
  And of course, one of the great things about this episode is, as usual, Rene Auberjonois. He's always great as Odo, but as Curzon Odo he really gets to shine in a more emotive role than usual. His performances are always so fluid (pun intended) that you never see him "acting". I wish you could say the same about Nana Visitor.
• From Shani on 2014-09-27 at 4:01am:
  Why did Jadzia not remember that Curzon was in love with her? I understand that she didn't have his memories when he was joined to Odo but prior to that shouldn't she have known the real reason she was dismissed from the program?
• From Ravenlord on 2015-09-26 at 6:27am:
  Rom losing his shit at Quark is one of my favorite moments for that character.
• From Azalea Jane on 2021-12-16 at 3:24pm:
  "Magnificent scoundrel" -- perhaps foreshadowing for the later episode "The Magnificent Ferengi"?
  
  Curzodo was something to behold! It's always fun to see the actors get to act out of character. It was fascinating watching Sisko coach Jadzia on how to stand up to Curzon. It's interesting thinking about Dax's former hosts as metaphors for a person's different "sides," so to speak.
  
  Rom standing up to Quark was wonderful. Such a payoff after seeing him be such a doormat for nearly three seasons now.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Benjamin Baxter on 2008-07-15 at 8:18pm:
  Problem: Sometimes when Nog walks, he's limping with the wrong leg. At least, that's what it looks like it.
• From Remco on 2009-07-25 at 11:13pm:
  I didn't get the impression that this episode was about holodiction. The prolonged holodeck time only had a positive influence on Nog. If we've seen anything before, it's 7 years of counseling sessions with Deanna Troi. I thought this was a fresh spin on both holo-issues and psychological counseling.
• From S. Egil on 2009-08-20 at 5:32pm:
  Regarding the problem of veterans' post-traumatic stress syndrome, the writers get many things right in this episode. Listen to Nog's breakthrough confession to Vic about his battle revelation that he too, though young and eager, was mortal and vulnerable. Combat veterans will certainly find much truth in this. The play of Nog's mortality against Vic's supposed (hollow)immortality makes for an interesting and subtle story. But why weren't the other crew members, most of whom had seen grueling combat themselves, more skillful and empathetic in helping Nog?
• From rpeh on 2010-08-04 at 8:18pm:
  One minor problem: in the scene just after Nog moves into the Holosuite, and the staff are discussing Bashir's programs, Ezri's collar insignia changes. It starts as a Lt. JG but with the black pip to the right, then it cuts away to Jake. When it cuts back again, the pips are the right way round.
  
  Having demonstrated my amazing powers of observation, the episode falls a bit flat. I agree that Ezri would have been a better choice for counsellor, but they did kind of explain that when Nog told her that all he'd done was talk to people about his feelings.
  
  I'll give it a 4.
• From Krs321 on 2011-10-04 at 12:22pm:
  Have to disagree with this review and your opinion of Vic in general.
  
  1. This episode isn't about Vic and his trivial holographic life. It's about PTSD and Nog. The fact that Nog could escape to a literal fantasy world is what makes the episode.
  
  2. Vic is the, what, 3rd sentient Hologram now? Shouldn't Starfleet be flipping out and studying this phenomenon?
  
  3. Vic is a better counselor than Ezri. Honestly, they should've introduced Vic a long time ago. He's more interesting than Jadzia or Ezri. They just need to spend less time showing him sing.
• From Omcn on 2012-01-10 at 12:48pm:
  
  This is one of my fav. ep. in the season if not the entire series. This is a classic example of how Trek has an excellent way of pointing out the flaws in modern (and apparently for centuries to come) treatment to mental illness. Does Ezri show off her stuff? No. Why not? Cause with a problem like this it needs to be handled in an extreme way and the holosuite is the perfect place with Vic the perfect hollow character. I think that the way Nog reacts to doctors telling him the pain he feels is "all in his head" is very believable. I love that as soon as Nog reacts violently Ezri is ready to end the experiment of allowing Nog to let things run its course in the hollowsuite, that is so realistic. Vic (not a "trained" counselor) knows better and stops her from removing him. A violent outburst is often a show of the road to recovery and modern (as well as in the future) always view violence as a negative progression of mental illness. This ep. rounds out nicely with Nog finding his purpose again, not as a soldier but as a businessmen which again fits in with his character nicely. I love this ep. for the commentary on mental illness and in dealing with physical impairment.
  
• From Harrison on 2012-08-29 at 1:58am:
  Watching a self-absorbed depressed Ferengi adolescent mope around a holosuite isn't my idea of good TV drama.
  
  Blech.
• From Esper on 2014-04-04 at 7:48pm:
  I think this was a magnificent episode.
  The episode handled PTSD suffering and healing process perfectly and the whole ride made Nog's character more alive and likable persona whom you can relate with.
  
  I also liked Vic a lot considering he is entirely made by Bashir's genetically enhanced doctor brain, so no wonder he knows a thing or two how to handle PTSD patients.
  All and all I give this episode 9/10. The duo brought both of them both alive, each in unique way.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Remco on 2009-05-06 at 3:24pm:
  I thought this was a very gripping episode. The first part was a bit like a good ER disaster episode: you never see the disaster itself, but you see the bodies coming in. You know it's right around the corner. And then Jake got caught in the cross-fire. Without military training, he panics of course, and he feels that makes him a coward. But as we saw in the first part, not even soldiers are able to cope with battle. In the final battle, when running was not an option, Jake fought instinctively. It was not out of some sense of heroism. It was just survival.
  
  I absolutely believe in Jake's assertion that the line between heroism and cowardice is very thin. I hope I never have to find out where I stand.
• From Christopher Wright on 2011-12-06 at 12:25am:
  This episode may have its moments where the emotions seem a little forced, but overall a rewarding episode. It was nice to see Jake showing some maturity to balance out his naive enthusiasm. One of my favorite themes in narratives is redemption and how we are not defined by our past. We have all done things we regret or even find downright disgusting, but we should always have the chance to redeem ourselves. Jake at first tries to justify his cowardice, but as the soldier Jake meets after the shelling reminds him (and us), life doesn't work that way. It is only in humility and being honest with oneself that redemption can begin its work. The episode leaves us with some hope for Jake and even the soldier who shot himself to avoid fighting.
  
  I love these reviews - they are an excellent companion to the series, especially for someone like me who is experiencing DS9 for the first time.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From JRPoole on 2008-11-17 at 5:11pm:
  I cringed at the thought of this episode because I'm generally anti-Ferengi. At their best, they're little more than comic relief. At their worst, they're silly and borderline offensive.
  
  This, however, is pretty solid. Yes, it's mostly aimed at laughs. Yes, the Ferengi are what they are. But this is done pretty well, and we get good character development of Rom, Quark, and the Ferengi at large. On top of that, it's entertaining from top to bottom, so it all falls together well.
• From Bernard on 2009-11-25 at 11:17pm:
  Excellent episode! One of the strongest of season one, though that really isn't saying much.
  
  Ferengi lore is started in earnest during this episode and remains throughout the seven seasons. I for one enjoy what you might call the 'Ferengi story arc'.
  
  Two important recurring characters get a good grounding here. One is the Nagus, delightfully played by Wallace Shawn. The other is Rom, who despite earlier appearances gets more to do here.
  
  Surprised to see the fan average below your score here, but many do not like the ferengi storylines. I'd give it a solid 7.
• From Jeff Browning on 2011-10-18 at 1:39pm:
  I thoroughly enjoyed this one, not the least because of the great contribution of Wallace Shawn, the exceptional character actor who plays the Grand Nagus. (Shawn is possibly best known for his role as Vizzini in the Rob Reiner film "Princess Bride", but he has a long list of credits to his name. See the IMDB database for more information.)
  
  One comment on the idea that the Ferengi represent American capitalism. Having traveled extensively, I find the Ferengi more like the capitalism in places like Hong Kong or Singapore than the US. The fact that the Ferengi despise trade unions for example, and their extremely repressive attitude towards women are certainly not typical of the US. However, I see the point. I think Star Trek in general tries to portray the Federation as a more evolved version of the USA, absent the drive for wealth and status (although this analogy breaks down at times). Thus, the Federation is a symbol of our aspirations, while the Ferengi are perhaps symbolic of our dark side.
  
  At any rate, I generally enjoy episodes where the Ferengi's are heavily involved. (I find the relationship between Quark and Odo as rich and fulfilling as any in Star Trek, including that between Bones and Spock, or between Geordi and Data.)

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Harrison on 2013-02-18 at 2:51am:
  This fine episode boasts what is probably the signature performance by Andrew J. Robinson, as Garak.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From JRPoole on 2009-06-09 at 6:54pm:
  Good episode. I don't have much of a comment except to say that O'brien makes one ugly Klingon.
  
• From Jaap on 2010-09-21 at 7:27pm:
  There is a problem: how come Gowron and a lot of other Klingons did not recognise Worf?
• From Christopher Wright on 2011-12-05 at 5:35pm:
  So if Odo is a solid now, does that mean a Changling can harm and kill him? I guess it does because Odo would have killed had the Changling attacking him not been killed. If Odo isn't considered a Changling anymore then why did the fake general hold him back and let the others in the room (other than it being a plot device)?
  Overall, a great episode, and I love the new Dukat with his Bird of Prey. The consistency of writing in the characters so far has been amazing, considering all the different writers and directors. By the way, I am just now, in late 2011, seeing DS9 for the first time via Netflix.
• From Selador on 2013-04-24 at 8:10pm:
  This is not a good episode - it's full of problems, is completely unrealistic and the actual story is lame. One problem was that the Klingons didn't seem to notice that the DS9 crew didn't speak Klingon (except for Worf but he didn't say much). I undertand that the Universal Translator would translate their English into Klingon but doesn't answer the problem for two reason: 1. They would still know that they're speaking a different language because of mouth shapes ect. 2. They actually say some Klingon words... then switch to English.
  
  Another problem was how easy the crew got into the Kingon base. If their intelligence and epionage skills are that good then how did they not know of the Klingon plot to attack Romulus and the countless other things that they don't know?
  
  Also the whole Odo being down thing is getting really old. It's about the fifth time he's told Sisko that he's not up to the job for various reasons.
  
  A really annoying episode and it didn't even include Major Kira.
• From L on 2013-07-25 at 11:24am:
  The exposition in the opening scene was really forced and obvious.
  But when this happened,
  - "Tough assignment. Who are they sending?"
  - "Me."
  all was forgiven.
  
  They really over-did Jake's teeth.
  Must have been an in-joke among the crew or something.
  
  
  
• From L on 2013-07-25 at 12:03pm:
  (whoops, wrong Sisko. *Benjamin's* teeth.)

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From djb on 2009-02-28 at 3:31am:
  This episode was supremely well-written and well-acted. Garak is a great character; it's good to learn more about him. Also great to get some more depth to Quark's character. Also, this episode seemed to go on much longer than 42 minutes, in a good way. I love it when I get so interested and involved with a story that I lose proper sense of time!
  
  I give it a 9.
• From Mark McC on 2009-04-27 at 3:45am:
  I really disliked this one. It's yet another case of "let's write an episode where x falls in love". Trek handles romance so much better when it does it low-key and over a longer time, such as the mostly unspoken romance between Picard and Crusher, or even Odo's feelings for Kira.
  
  Even episodes that do have characters falling head-over-heels in love with the alien of the week usually aren't as full of painfully overlong embraces and clichéd pulp fiction dialogue as this one. Much as I like Quark as a character and think Armin Shimerman does a great job playing him, I just didn't get a sense of any real spark between him and the Cardassian guest star.
  
  As with a lot of episodes in this season the presence of Garak makes up for the failings of the main story.
• From Bernard on 2011-03-29 at 12:39pm:
  I really enjoyed this episode and that's no small thanks to the talents of Armin Shimerman and Andrew J. Robinson plus the writing of their respective characters.
  
  In the hosts review the finger is pointed at how acceptable it is for Quark to forget about profit.. well there are many examples of this over the series. That is the beauty of the character, that if you burrow down deep enough beneath the surface there is quite an un-ferengi like person. Take his actions during the occupation for example, not mercenary but almost charitable. He does it again during the dominion occupation of the station in season six. what I'm trying to say is that he is complex and it is no more ridiculous than any 'lover of the week' storyline that Trek gives us.
• From Abigail on 2019-09-25 at 9:34pm:
  I found it odd that Garak killed someone at the end, and we just all rolled along without worrying about it. It's okay to just kill someone??? Am I supposed to assume that no one knows that happened? Wouldn't an alarm go off with him having fired a phaser on kill? Or, if nothing else, the Cardassians would notice that one of their officers was missing, never to be seen again?
  
  I also felt like Garak had a pretty abrupt change of heart from wanting to do whatever it took to be removed from exile to wanting to do what's best for Cardassia because Cardassia is his "true love". It wasn't the most believable shift.
  
  Besides that, I really liked the episode. Good storyline, great character development for Garak and Quark both.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From MJ on 2011-02-13 at 12:30pm:
  DS9 was ahead of its time, really. The '90's were a time of peace, so the topics the series grappled with-the horrors and stresses of war, injuries in combat, and losing comrades-were incomprehensible to most Western viewers. Since 9/11 and the Iraq War, these issues have been thrust into public discourse, at least more so than they were in the recent past. This makes it very interesting to go back and watch DS9 episodes like the Siege of AAR-558.
  
  The episode gets a lot of things right, and is surprisingly realistic given the time period in which it was produced. I agree that Nog's loss of a leg is not the same in the future as it would be today, although I do think the injury is at least more relevant to the viewer this way. The real beauty of this episode is the changing Nog. Nog has always been pretty gung-ho about joining Starfleet, but this will shake him to the core. Nog is actually one of my favorite characters for the same reasons Worf was in TNG: the first of his kind to join Starfleet, somewhat scorned by his people for doing so, and the issues he faces along the way.
  
  On another note, I really enjoyed the lighting of this episode. I notice things like this because of my profession, and providing lighting in an environment that is supposed to look dark can be challenging, but I really thought they did a great job with this set.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Pete Miller on 2006-07-09 at 9:25pm:
  This was an awful episode. First of all, the moral "dilemma" was ridiculous. Are we to say that every time we make a decision such as deciding to move to another part of the country we are killing thousands of people who never got the chance to live? Or every time you use a condom you're killing hundreds of people? The whole idea is just stupid and annoying. And I agree about the farming scene at the end. That was very cheesy. This episode felt like a poorly done TNG episode stuck in the middle of DS9.
• From John DC on 2011-01-15 at 1:04am:
  This really was just awful. I don't know exactly why I hated it so much, but I did. Perhaps it's because it's a reset-button filler episode in the middle of the Dominion War story arc. Strange thing is, it's filler, but it obviously wasn't cheap to produce either.
• From Mario on 2012-04-23 at 7:44pm:
  This doesn't make any sense at all. How can they "change" anything that has not happened yet? The present part (or the future from our perspective) only happenes once. Either they travel through time or not. If their descendants are there, that means they did and it already happened and nobody can change that - whatever happened, happened. If they don't, their descendant should never exist at all - not exist and then cease to exist.
  Haven't they watched LOST? I know it aired a few years later, but with time travel, apparently, everything is possible...
• From GregVB on 2012-08-17 at 3:45pm:
  First time commenting.
  
  For me this is the best episode so far of DS9. I actually think its very interesting that this got a 5 from the host, all the comments are negative, yet...yet... this has almost twice as many 10 votes as any other.
  
  I believe this episode represents the difference in the hard core Trek fans, and the sci-fi fans. Yes the story has some time travel issues, no great continuity, but for me, you have to suspend disbelief to believe in time travel anyway (or aliens, warp speed, etc...).
  
  For me this represents some of the best character development i have seen so far. An earlier comment stated that this was like a bad TNG episode, and I agree that it does feel very much like a communal "TNG:Inner Light".
  
  Another said it was filler. So was "Inner Light", "Tapestry", and "Family". These are only episodes I have given a 10, along with the TOS movie "Undiscovered Country". For me its a nine, and like I said earlier, the best episode (so far) of my DS9 watching.
• From Bernard on 2012-08-19 at 10:23am:
  Response to GregVB mainly here.
  
  Firstly, I wouldn't put much faith in the fan rating scores for DS9 as I think our webmaster has suffered some sabotage in that area. Just take a look at the season 7 scores - all the zeroes that have been recorded go way above what you would normally expect. I have already mentioned this in another review response and I believe the same has happened to this episode except 10's and 9's being registered.
  
  You have mentioned that dreaded word... filler. I hate that word used in relation to Star Trek episodes. Star Trek, in the main, is not a serial. It consists of mostly stand alone episodes, although DS9 did write longer reaching story arcs.
  This means, to me, that you cannot have 'filler'. You can have poor episodes that do not reach many levels but since any episode of Star Trek on any given week could be a stand alone episode then we cannot really band around the word 'filler'. So in this respect I agree with GregVB. The majority of TNG is 'filler', you have to accept that it is merely the stand alone nature of Star Trek.
  
  As for this episode.
  I would rate it fairly highly actually. Probably an 8. The only reason it does not score higher is because of the slightly contrived and forced plot points and also because the episode loses my interest at points.
  There are strong performances that really carry the episode though. In particular Rene Auberjonois and Nana Visitor but also the guest cast, Colm Meaney and Avery Brooks.
  
  Overall, if this episode had been slightly less contrived and slightly more polished it would be up there as one of the best DS9 episodes.
  
  
• From Inga on 2013-02-05 at 7:51pm:
  Oh, Dax, after five years on Star Trek you still think that going through some weird energy barriers is a good idea...
  
  Also, if they actually stayed and got thrown back in time, wouldn't they have lived differently anyway? They have the knowledge the original crew didn't have. There's a possibility a great deal of those 8000 people would seize to exist just because they'd be replaced with different offsprings. Well, taking into account that anything would change at all, since this theory does sound silly... It would've made quite a temporal paradox as well.
  
  
• From Xavier on 2013-06-01 at 4:15pm:
  This episode is offensive. Not just we going into Time Trek again, but in such an idiotic way it annoyes me. Everything is "okay", til Dax discovers it is a ploy from "new" Dax and the time travel will not produce a duplicate. Was a wasted potential in a different way made by the reviewer... Let´s imagine they actually had this Quantum duplication happening. Instead of a bunch of BS about the "needs of many", we would see them IN THE PAST. And wondering if the "new" Dax would have lied to them, thinking he did. Maybe they, after a few years in the hardships of the colony, finally realized they weren´t lied by him, the quantum duplication actually happened. But we just see this episode from their point of view, the duplicates we will never see again.
  
  About they have seen already the colony and it changed the timeline already, well, is not the first time Time Trek happens to have contact with a timeline and had no effect whatsoever, so it doesn´t matter so much. Time Trek is a pathetic concept by itself, but if you´re going that way, at least make something less contrived than telling the same story all over again. And really, rset button stories deserve nothing less than a zero. I want Star Trek. When they derived from it to do a Reset Button, is pretty much fanfiction made by the current hired writer, and that is ofensive.
• From Mandeponium on 2013-09-06 at 3:07pm:
  I agree, Xavier, downright offensive, for several reasons. I can't believe O'Brien, after watching some kids play, has a change of heart. He is being completely disloyal to Keiko, Molly, and Yoshi. I suppose he's thinking, "You know, I guess I could f*** that ensign from Engineering after all."
  
  The Quantum Duplicate plan disturbed me too. Why does no one think to ask, "But which version of the Defiant will "I" be on? I don't want to be the one stranded on the planet while my duplicate gets to go home."
  
  They could have done something like TNG's "Yesterday's Enterprise" and made the story about sacrifice: The 8000 sacrificing themselves for their ancestors. Instead Sisko and Friends decide to throw themselves away for a population that shouldn't even exist. Someone has to make a sacrifice here and it's pretty clear who (you know, for the show to continue).
  
  But then O'Brien lets his emotions get the best of him and the writers get to eat their cake and have it too. Make the "right" choice and feel good about it, but still press the Reset Button.
  
  I would give it a 0 if not for the absolutely beautiful exchanges between Kira and Old-Odo.
  
  
  So 1.
• From Axel on 2015-05-23 at 3:52pm:
  An average episode. The main moral dilemma doesn't bother me as much as other reviewers. Yes, it's ridiculous for us to go through life second-guessing every decision and relationship based on the hypothetical offspring we're stopping from being born. This episode is different though: those offspring aren't hypothetical, they are real. It's harder to make that decision when there is flesh and blood in front of you, and I think that's all the episode was trying to point out.
  
  I do agree it's not the same as killing, though. This isn't murder or genocide, so evaluating the morality of one's actions on that basis is pretty ridiculous. It's more a matter of denying them the chance to exist given they already do. These kinds of temporal problems only happen in the Star Trek universe. It's interesting to think about, but that's about it.
  
  What bugs me most about this episode is Yedrin Dax's ridiculous plan. It doesn't make any sense at all, even before they found out it was a hoax. Using the barrier to create a second ship that crashes, consigning that Kira to die and forcing that crew to go through the same anguish runs into the same moral problems that the crew ends up facing anyway when they find out the plan wasn't going to work. There's also the question of how they would ensure that crash plays out exactly like the original did, as the main review points out the timeline has already been altered as well.
  
  Interesting, but not completely flushed out by the writers. Good acting though.
• From James T Quark on 2016-02-29 at 3:46am:
  This episode is much better than most people give it credit for. If you delve too deeply into the whole time issue, you'll drive yourself crazy. With Star Trek, often we have to suspend our criticism over reality and just enjoy the episode. This is one of those cases as it is truly a good story, if you don't start trying to unravel the issue of them affecting their own future by knowing their descendents survive as well as their own fates. Just sit back and enjoy a good story. LLAP
• From Zorak on 2016-06-11 at 6:19am:
  So much negativity towards this episode. I don't get it. Sure it got the slightest bit cheesy and over the top by the end, but so what? It was a great episode. One of my favorites. This is how drama on Star Trek should be. I also want to add that I love every scene with Rene Auberjonois. I don't mean in this episode (although he was great in it). I mean every scene in DS9. Odo is just the best.
• From Jan on 2019-02-28 at 7:48pm:
  This episode doesn't make a lot of sense:
  
  First of all, despite the crew of various Trek episodes trying to leave the past "intact", there are also many suggestions that there are "alternate timelines", or even different branches of said timelines.
  Though it isn't explored often, there are certain examples in TNG (like Yesterday's Enterprise), but also the so-called "Kelvin Timeline".
  
  This means that whenever something has been changed in the past, a new branch of the same timeline is created reflecting that change, but all events from the "unchanged timeline" don't suddenly cease to exist as if they never happened.
  
  If it WAS the case, then Sela would have never have been able to exist.
  Or even "Old Spock" in the Kelvin-verse movies, since Quinto-Spock can never become the same "Old Spock" even if he wanted to.
  
  Writers however just do as they please. This episode they're basically telling us that alternate timelines cease to exist, or don't exist in the first place. But that creates the paradox that these 8000 people couldn't possibly exist since the Defiant never went back in time and didn't crashland.
  
  So this episode doesn't make sense in my opinion. It tries too hard to make us feel for these people on a false premise.
  
  Just my two cents

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Remco on 2009-02-14 at 2:41am:
  Now we've had two Star Trek shows failing to address the issue of euthanasia acceptably, and that only mere weeks apart. Voyager's Tuvix was a lot more disturbing than this, even though in this episode someone is euthanizing on a massive scale. The difference is that it is voluntary.
  
  "What is the point of prolonging life when life is always painful and there is no hope of a cure?"
  
  This is exactly the discussion with euthanasia. Are we supposed to allow the voluntary killing of loads of people who are incurably suffering? Should we instead allow them to suffer? It's a bit of a stalemate. No argument is going to change anyone's mind. But you could still present the arguments nicely.
  
  The thing that saves this episode, is that there is at least some productive opposition to the euthanization. Bashir doesn't agree with the status quo, so he tries to find a cure.
  
  The big problem with "Tuvix" was the lack of differing opinions. In "The Quickening" we can see the moral ambiguity shine through the characters' opinions, even if it doesn't shine as bright as it could have.
  
  I'd rate it a 4. Missed opportunity, but not offensively so.
• From John on 2011-09-20 at 11:02pm:
  One thing I liked about this episode is that we get to see some growth in the relationship between Julian and Dax -- the days of him pining for her, and of her constantly teasing him, are largely in the past at this point.
  
  I didn't mind that the aliens (once again) looked exactly like humans -- I guess I've just gotten so used to the fact that they can't all be Cardassians or Ferengi.
  
  I do, however, agree that this episode would have been much more interesting if the morality of euthanasia were explored more.
  
  6/10
• From hugo on 2012-06-12 at 10:40am:
  I gave this a 7, the story was a tad flat, but I liked the direction, the acting, the light and the sets. The matte paintings are gorgeous, and I loved those giant round buildings.
• From Gaius Gracchua on 2021-12-27 at 4:18pm:
  This actually isn't pure filler. The Quickening comes up in S7E16 "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges" as the purpose behind Bashir giving his medical presentation.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From JR on 2012-06-12 at 6:25am:
  I've never considered myself a trekkie by any means, but I always liked TNG re-runs and the movies, and watched Enterprise when it aired. With netflix carrying all the shows, I have really caught up and just have the rest of DS9 and Voyager to finish.
  
  So, even though I never really thought of myself as a trekkie, I've seen a lot of it and the Eugenics war timeline given in this episode seems really screwy compared to the rest of Trek.
  "The admiral: "200 years ago we tried to improve the species through DNA resequencing. And what did we get for our troubles? The Eugenics wars. For every Julian Bashir that can be created there's a Khan Singh waiting in the wings."
  
  As soon as I heard that line my mind started crunching numbers. The admiral is saying that the Eugenics Wars happened in the mid 22nd century. However, I thought the Eugenics wars were time stamped by TOS to be in the near future of the 1960's, meaning around the 1990's. I took it to mean that genetic experiments during the then present day 1960's would lead to 20-30 year old superhumans that took over the world in the 90's before being deposed. That was before WWIII of the mid 21st century.
  
  Any ideas on this? Just an error and the admiral should have said 400 years? I figure the writers did not want to confuse the non-trekkie audience by keeping the Eugenics wars in the 1990's since that would have put it in the "present/past" when this was made in 1997.
• From Hugo on 2012-09-08 at 9:35pm:
  JR - this was was a screw-up by the writers - there is a comment by Ron Moore quoted on Memory Alpha.
• From Selador on 2013-06-11 at 11:01pm:
  I have a feeling a certain someone has a problem with this episode since the 16 zero fan ratings doesn't really make sense otherwise. Was there no way to implement a one vote per ISP voting system?
  
  A fantastic episode and classic trek - a great sci-fi moral conundrum, excellent characterisation and a nice sub-plot. Also wonderful moments of humour. Gets a 9 from me.
• From Kethinov on 2013-06-12 at 4:56am:
  I do some filtering to prevent multiple voting. But there's nothing I can do about someone with access to 16 different computers on 16 different IPs.
  
  If you like, I can start taking credit card and passport info before accepting a vote. ;)
• From Ant on 2013-09-12 at 10:03pm:
  This one is a filler if I ever seen one where DS9 go cheap soap opera. One of the few episodes where I strongly disagree with Kethinov.
  
• From Gaius Gracchus on 2021-11-18 at 10:44pm:
  Great cameo from Robert Picardo as Dr. Zimmerman/EMH, great Rom B-plot. And Alexander Siddig absolutely knocks this one out of the park, such pathos in the scene where he breaks down in anger at his parents for giving up on him, and the response from Fadwa El Guindi tops it off.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From packman_jon on 2012-05-15 at 1:57am:
  Watching this episode made me think about how lucky Miles is having him live in the 24th Century versus late 19th or early 20th century. Having him go undercover in a gang/mob/crime syndicate indirectly lets him experience what life might have been like for someone of his heritage - mostly if he would have grown up poor as an Irish-American - would have had to do to make ends meet. Another good DS9 episode!
• From hugo on 2012-12-31 at 11:39pm:
  So is this classified as an "O'Brien must suffer" episode? I liked the setup and the setting, but I felt the ending was a bit dull. And everything was a bit cliche too. I don't think the emotional trust/connection between Bilby and O'Brien came out really in the buildup to the end.
  
  @packmanjohn - don't exaggerate, you make it sound like most poor irish-americans (one of the biggest immigrant groups!) were mobsters...
  
  
• From L on 2013-08-07 at 7:55am:
  A genre episode that didn't quiet work.
  They laid on the male-bonding/betrayal of trust dilemma so thick that it was hard to tell if it was a spoof or a homage to the trope. It was just a bit much.
  The Vorta being so 'evil mobster'-like seemed really out of character for what they were supposedly cloned to be.
  
  The most interesting thing was the remote hacking via implant.
  Still, I like O'Brian episodes.
  
  
• From Dave on 2016-04-18 at 2:28am:
  This episode is basically Donnie Brasco in space. Very strange.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From spock on 2007-01-07 at 11:51am:
  Entertaining, but unnecessary. I don't think we needed an entire episode devoted to showing how evil Kai Winn is. The ghostbusters style showdown was truely the worst piece of writing since "profit and lace"
• From Curtis on 2009-11-29 at 3:53am:
  I thought this one was pretty awful. That "battle" was pure baloney and, again, we didn't need a whole episode to show that Kai Winn was evil. This one just seemed to heavy-handed to me.
• From L on 2013-08-13 at 3:23am:
  This is where my mild dislike of the spiritual/religious theme in DS9 turns to outright contempt and DS9 really loses me. (though I'll finish the last season before starting on Voyager)
  
  Sisko is willing to let his son be killed for the sake of a ridiculous light and dark battle of some sanctimonious and patronising energy aliens (who don't even exist in linear space and time or understand cause and effect, so how would that even work?), because 'it's the will of the prophets'? Screw that.
  
  The willingness to subjugate one's will and self to a mysterious force simply because it's bigger than you has no place in Star Trek or any supposedly enlightened future. How many times has something god-like turned out to just be a fallible energy alien that lives on a different scale to us?
  
  Any sympathy I had for Bajoran culture is gone as all I can see is a superstitious people's brain-washed chanting.
  
  It is true that our tendency to repeatedly fall for this nonsense and find something to worship so as to ease our tiny little frightened minds is the human condition, and so it is perhaps where the traditional idealism of Star Trek really ends and maybe the writers wanted to take it in a more realistic direction. It can be excused on that level if it's being presented as a common tendency of all sentient beings alone in the universe, but it seems to be presented here as a noble quality with all the talk of 'faith' and so on.
  
  I thought at least Dax was the one hold-out with her "They'll always just be 'wormhole aliens' to me" line, but even she prays to them in the last episode.
  
  Maybe the final season exposes and properly condemns this fetishising of the abandonment of rational questioning in the name of 'spirituality' and payment for the granting of favour. I certainly hope so.
• From Alex on 2021-03-18 at 11:31pm:
  The initial conflict of Sisko taking away the stone tablet was so artificial. Why did they need to take it with them at all? Energy readings (of which there was none) could've been examined at first with the tricorder, and since the inscriptions were the focus of attention, couldn't they basically work with a photo? When the need to return it becomes pressing enough, apparently Dax can work just fine with a holographic projection of the tablet. Why not just work with that from the beginning?
  Yeah, he had to shatter it. But he just as well could've beamed down to the cave with a sledgehammer, or something.
  An annoying episode. Sometimes there's slow episodes, silly episodes, or ran-out-of-material episodes. This one is more "characters ignore basic logic and fumble cluelessly for half an hour before something anticlimactic happens". For me it's 4, at most.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Pete Miller on 2006-07-06 at 6:45pm:
  These are the damned UGLIEST uniforms ever made on star trek. Why in the HELL would the producers decide to do away with the colors that have defined Star Trek for years, and go to these drab, hideous excuses for uniforms??? I absolutely hate them as I hated Picard's overcoat in the later seasons of TNG. I just can never get why the producers switch the uniforms so much. The armed forces of most nations rarely change their uniforms, but apparently Starfleet changes theirs every 4 years.
• From JTL on 2008-08-12 at 10:15pm:
  Absolutely hideous episode. This is a science fiction show about the future, and the subplot of the 'emissary' is both damned annoying and almost entirely illogical. The philosophy of Star Trek on religion has, up until Deep Space Nine, been to be as open-minded as possible while still holding true to the principle that God is improbable. No scientifically explainable method of action exists for these idiotic visions Sisko experiences, except for the extremely tenuous hypothesis that the Prophets imparted this information to him subconsciously.
  
  I liked this show about as much as I liked TNG up until this point. Maybe I'll enjoy it again once the Dominion War begins in earnest, but this is the point where Star Trek stops being science fiction and begins being fantasy. I give it a 0/10.
• From JRPoole on 2009-06-17 at 6:23pm:
  JTL's comment nails my concern about DS9 on the head. I think that it's a better show than TNG overall, but this religious mumbo jumbo gets old and it doesn't seem in keeping with the theme of Trek. It seems to me that Trek got a little new-agey and lost its ant-religion stance somehow after Gene Roddenberry's death.
  
  Up until now, it's been possible to rationalize away the religious aspects of DS9. The Prophets are really just non-corporeal entities living in the wormhole, not really gods at all. The Orbs have scientific properties that expand the mind, etc. This episode makes that rationalization difficult, and all but verifies the Bajoran religion as fact. Still, it's a nicely constructed episode, and the Cassidy's return is handled well, if a little too quickly.
• From Phillip Watson on 2009-08-06 at 7:12pm:
  A problem I have in this episode is that due to the change in Uniforms(Bashir wears the old one later in the series) then Sisko was operated on by the Changeling. Why didn't he take the oppurtunity to have him die on the operating table
• From ZeuS on 2011-07-16 at 2:35am:
  Absolutely hideous and completely out of place for a Star Trek series religious nonsense.
  
  0/10 simply because there is no negative score that I could give.
• From Bernard on 2011-07-17 at 11:43pm:
  Okay, the time has come to comment here!
  
  I alluded to this episode when commenting on season four episode 'Ascension'. 'Ascension' was the last episode about the wormhole aliens and also the first glimpse of the prophets. 'Rapture' to me is where the wheels come off this particular story arc and we are fed superstitious nonsense instead of science fiction.
  
  Early on in the series the Bajorans religious beliefs are portrayed realistically. The reasons behind those beliefs are realistic and clever (i.e. they believe in prophets that are actually just non-corporeal aliens living inside a wormhole adjacent to Bajor. These aliens had, up until this point, no idea about corporeal matters least of all the Bajorans). That is clever and you can make clever stories to illustrate the differences between religious fanatics and pure science/scientists just like in the episode 'In the Hands of the Prophets' between Vedek Winn and Keiko. What happens in this episode and hereafter flies completely in the face of all of that and tells us that actually the wormhole aliens DO take an interest in Bajor and they ARE in fact the Prophets. Gene would truly be rolling in his grave. Oh, and I'm not exactly a total lover of Roddenberry philosophy by the way. In fact I think many aspects of the various series' were allowed to become far more realistic and less idealistic and preachy once the great man had passed away.
  
  Sisko loses respect too as a result of all this nonsense, although Avery Brooks is acting his behind off throughout so tip of the hat there. Kai Winn is excellent in this episode as always too. Ultimately it is all an act of futility because I agree with the last commentator, this episode can only ever receive zero from me.
  
  0/10
  
  
• From MJ on 2011-07-23 at 5:17pm:
  I agree with other comments here, for the most part. I've never been a fan of DS9's Prophet/Wormhole story arc, and I think it goes against the Star Trek tradition. But one thing I did like about this episode was its portrayal of Kai Wynn. Throughout the series, she's incredibly manipulative, calculating and arrogant. For this episode, though, we get something a little more complicated. Wynn's remarks to Kira about courage and faith as means to resist Cardassian occupation made for a very nice moment, and her efforts to help Sisko with his visions actually seemed genuine instead of obviously selfish. Her conversation with Kira at the end about not having certainly anymore was also solidly done. It was probably the only episode where I didn't cringe when Wynn had something to say. And Brooks did a great job acting here...not overly dramatic.
  
  Still, the episode retreated into the New Age mysticism that is DS9's trademark and worst contribution to the Star Trek series. Fortunately, we get enough great episodes dealing with other story arcs like the Maquis, the Dominion Wars, and relationships between characters to more than compensate for this.
• From RodimusBen on 2011-10-30 at 3:48pm:
  The reason this episode is a favorite of mine is precisely the reason others seem to hate it-- it brings the spiritual aspect of Deep Space Nine to the forefront. Spiritualism is one of the reasons that DS9 is the best Trek series. It doesn't ignore this essential part of the human experience, but embraces it and shows how science and religion can coexist in the same worldview.
  
  Everything that happens in this episode can be explained through the information we've been given (or will be given in later seasons) about Sisko and the Prophets. If you choose to see it from a scientific perspective, that's fine. If you see it as an allegory for human spirituality and our own religious faith, then you can do that too. The most poignant moment of the episode is in ops, when all the regulars are talking about Sisko's situation. Worf and Kira, people of faith, "get it." Dax and O'Brien don't. And that dichotomy between the faithful and the faithless is about as close to a universal truism as Star Trek gets.
• From Wes on 2012-04-03 at 1:49pm:
  My absolute favorite Star Trek uniforms!
  
  I also like this episode quite a bit. The symbolic prophecy is pretty awesome and chilling when we get to the end of this season and beginning of next season.
  
  DS9's spirituality has validated the spirituality of any Star Trek character who was spiritual. Before DS9, they were almost depicted as silly for their beliefs.
• From Lee on 2012-04-08 at 11:28am:
  I neither hate nor love this episode. I don't think it "violates" the true spirit of Star Trek, since it IS Star Trek, and as such it has rewritten this spirit, at least in DS9. (I hope this sentence makes sense)
  
  TNG was anti-religious, VOY was anti-religious too, but didn't make such a huge "foofaraw" around it and DS9 was spiritual and religious. I don't have a problem with that.
  
  Don't get me wrong, I don't like the prophets, pah-wraiths and the Bajorans either. But I accept it as part of the storyline and as long as it creates suspense I like it. I don't rate this episode bad, because it's an exciting and moving episode.
  
  I don't get it when people try to impose their view of "true Star Trek" on some episodes. I also like the much-hated series Enterprise so far, although it wasted a lot of potential. But it's a part of Star Trek, whether you like it or not.
• From Selador on 2013-06-03 at 10:37pm:
  That's a pretty big spoiler right there Phillip Watson, cheers for that.
  
  The problem with this episode is similar to the one with BSG. I'm not giving it a 0 since it was exciting and had some really good scenes, Sisko's descriptions were at times pretty poetic, but mainly because I choose to believe that a rational explanation for Sisko's visions can be found within the episode. They're not gods that are revealing these things to him, they're wormhole aliens: surely gods wouldn't need to mess with brain polarity or whatever.
  
  I reckon that Winn is not as evil as she seems, she's misunderstood.
• From Dstyle on 2013-11-17 at 5:39pm:
  Did anyone else wish they could move Sisko's communicator? He seems to be the only one who can't figure out where it goes on the new uniform.
  
  I have a lot of thoughts about this episode, but before I get into them, I want to express my extreme disappointment in this site right now re: spoilers. I'm watching DS9 for the first time, and for the most part I've enjoyed coming on this site after each episode to read other people's reactions and share my own if I have any I feel are worth sharing. I've come across the occasional spoiler and just soldiered on, but I think the comments on this episode are the last straw. Specifically, the comment by Phillip Watson, which seems to casually give away what I can only assume is a major spoiler (based on the downthread reaction by Selador) to make some minor observation about the new uniforms. What annoys me most is that this spoiler has been sitting there in the comments since 2009 and the site administrator hasn't done anything about it. There are all kinds of things that can be done to hide spoilers while preserving the original comment, and I think those sorts of things need to be done if this site is going to be a place where all fans--new and old alike--can come together to discuss the episode. Fans who are rewatching the series need to respect the experience of those viewing it for the first time, and the site administrator should do whatever he can to make this site usable for first time viewers. After this I'm probably going to stop coming here after each DS9 episode, which I'm a little sad about.
  
  That said, I'm a bit surprised about the negative reactions to this episode. Sure, it dealt with religion and spirituality, but that has been a theme of this series from the very beginning: it's not like DS9 is suddenly betraying it's core principles or something. DS9 had to put up or shut up about the emissary, and after it seemed on the verge of shutting up last season with Accession, I was very happy to see them put up in a big way here. I obviously haven't seen this whole series so I don't know how the prophets/WHAs act in future episodes, but I don't think Sisko's prophesies necessarily mean the WHAs have suddenly taken an interest in Bajor, just that they're aware of them and what happens to them. Sisko, who obviously does care about Bajor, can act on that awareness which has apparently been bestowed upon him as well.
  
  And the new uniforms are better than the old uniforms, in my opinion. The old uniforms just looked like pajamas to me.
• From Mike on 2016-11-02 at 2:01am:
  A lot of reviews here have already discussed the religious/spiritual side of DS9. My comment is geared more toward the "spoiler" issue.
  
  DS9 had been around about 10 years when reviews started popping up here, and by now, it's been almost 20. I understand a new generation of fans is watching the show for the first time. But given that the show is reviewed and analyzed in every corner of the internet dealing with Star Trek, it's reasonable for long-time fans to discuss details about the entire show without having to worry about "spoilers".
  
  The Bashir changeling/uniform problem that Philip Watson mentions is also mentioned on many other sites and is one of the things fans discuss whenever the DS9 timeline comes up. Rather than expect people to tiptoe around these potential spoilers, a first-time viewer should just watch the show and then browse the internet for reviews and forums later on.
• From ST on 2017-04-22 at 7:17am:
  I kind of liked how the religious experiences weren't just Sisko being granted special powers. Whatever alien technology was affecting him, it didn't discriminate. The process would have killed him, even when the believers thought he would have lived. So though others here think the episode was mindlessly accepting about religion, it was actually kind of critical at the same time without rubbing it in your face. What if your religion did revolve around alien technology so that it actually appeared to work? Wouldn't that have its ups and its downsides?
  That's kind of what I like about DS9 in particular--the clash of cultures and beliefs is so much richer in DS9 than it is in other Trek series. There's no naivete about culture: no finding the secret supercomputer, destroying it, then having the residents up and abandon thousands of years worth of culture as if it were nothing.
  
• From Armsauce on 2017-05-30 at 10:07pm:
  I find it really hard to rationalize Sisko's behavior in this one. He seems really out of character even taking the visions into account.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Bernard on 2009-12-06 at 10:57pm:
  Why? Why, oh why did I just subject myself to this episode again?
  
  Truly horrendous.
  
  Yes there are good moments for a couple of the characters, but we've already established that Kira doesn't like being on the opposite side to the 'little guy' in Past Prologue so we don't really gain anything from it that we havn't already seen. The B plot has nothing to do with the A plot and it is also mundane.
  
  Low point of the season surely.... though I've just seen what is next.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Chris Wright on 2011-11-29 at 3:46am:
  I liked this episode a lot, but it would have been nice if mirror universe Worf had confronted Sisko face to face. I also see this episode showing us how incredibly powerful the Defiant is. If the Federation can make one it can makes thousands and never worry about the Klingons or the Dominion. Loved the Bashir-as-Han Solo-you're all clear kid-moment.
• From L on 2013-05-27 at 10:21am:
  I missed the episode that set all this up due to a scratched library dvd. So in the alternate universe everyone's a jerk and inappropriately sexual? Got it.
• From McCoy on 2017-01-21 at 12:32pm:
  Well, that was a horrible episode. I really like DS9 more than other series (exept TOS - this one is my fav), but all the mirror episodes are just bad. However I like one moment in this episode - Worf: "Make it so!".
• From Armsauce on 2018-07-15 at 7:05pm:
  Mirror Nog is great

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Bernard on 2009-12-31 at 4:07pm:
  Quite a sweet episode, everything seems to tuck into place neatly by the end. Marvelous performances by both Rene Auberjonois and Majel Barrett Roddenberry ultimately carry this episode to it's decent score from me, a 7.
• From Fan on 2011-08-12 at 6:38am:
  I was going to whine a little about how Odo being contained in the folds of Lwaxana's dress was unrealistic, but I figured it out - her dress would just have to be made out of some kind of non-porous or micro-porous material, and the whole matter would've had to have been kind of sloppy (which would actually add to the story some, because it works even better as a kind of double entendre for something else that's messy and private and involves trust and vulnerability, and also makes the whole event even more significant for Odo, with Lwaxana's active efforts saving his life).
  
  Maybe some of this should've been hinted at in the actual episode instead of just having that shot of Odo melting into the folds of her dress?
  
  Anyway, this episode was quite good. There was a lot of good humor, as the review suggests. Odo's facial expressions and body language in the elevator is priceless. O'Brian's plan to adopt the non-biological lifeform by creating a stimulating "doghouse" program - that was pretty great too. Oh yah, Bashir getting the commendations at the end from the "Ambassadors of Unhappiness" - also good
• From Abigail on 2019-08-30 at 10:19pm:
  I actually thought this episode was really boring. The Lwaxana/Odo interaction was somewhat entertaining, and we got some good backstory about Odo, but that was about 5 worthwhile minutes out of a 45-minute, generally dull and pointless, episode.
  
  I do seem to be in the minority with this opinion, though, it appears!