The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Mike on 2016-11-19 at 3:53am:
  It was interesting to see Quark launch on another passionate defense of his people's ways to those who seem to look down their noses at the Ferengi. In DS9: The Jem'Hadar, he does this with Sisko/humans, pointing out that the Ferengi never engaged in genocide, slavery, or nuclear war. Here, he tries to convince the skeptical, slightly annoyed "Prophets" that there are good reasons for Ferengi avarice.
  
  Overall the episode was okay. I enjoyed seeing Quark figure out what happened to Zek. And it's always a bit boring to me when Sisko or others interact with the Prophets. Seeing Quark interact with them was a nice change of pace, both funny and intriguing.
  
  The Bashir award subplot had some funny scenes, especially when Odo takes interest.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From chrisw357 on 2006-06-17 at 1:01am:
  Some fans may not know this, but Morn's name came about because of his role as a bar regular. It's an anagram for Norm, the bar regular in "Cheers". :D
  
  Goodbye, sweet Morn! :(
• From Christopher Wright on 2011-12-21 at 1:52am:
  I wish the writers of Enterprise were as good as the ones for DS9...they would have also realized that gold was worthless to the Ferengi and Capt.Archer could have never used it to lure them in that god-awful episode.
• From hugo on 2012-12-21 at 7:16pm:
  great episode! Not too fond of the seductive lady, but the other characters were great - especially the alien brothers!
• From Zorak on 2016-06-23 at 5:01am:
  Wow. Morn's name really is an anagram and intentional reference to Norm. It's so obvious. I don't know how I never realized it.
  
  
• From Mike on 2016-10-27 at 4:48am:
  Re: Zorak,
  
  And, to make it even more fun, Morn's corner spot in Quark's bar is similar to Norm's corner spot in the Cheers bar.
  
  My favorite exchange:
  
  Quark: Why would the Royal family of Luria give Morn that kind of money?
  
  HAIN: He was the Crown Prince.
  
  Quark: Morn was a prince?
  
  HAIN: You didn't know?
  
  Quark: Morn was a prince?
  
  HAIN: That's what I'm saying.
  
  Quark: Morn was a prince.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Remco on 2009-01-25 at 7:06pm:
  One thing that struck me watching the scene with Odo's belt, is that Odo has walked around naked his entire life! That must provide for additional weirdness-factor for the people on the station.
  
  It also means his comm-badge is really just him. How would it feel to be part-computer? If we think this through a little further: how would it feel to be Sisko's briefcase in Homefront? How would Odo know when to turn back into his humanoid form? Bags don't usually have ears, or brains to process sound.
  
  I would like to hear explanations to these things instead of the throwaway technobabble that we sometimes get to hear.
• From Krs321 on 2011-04-18 at 3:28pm:
  Why not just beam VIPs to and from locations instead of all the security hoopla?
• From Hugo on 2012-04-30 at 6:21pm:
  I have been wondering why we don't see Odo doing more Reed Richard's routines (or plasticman etc). I thought that if shifted shape he would not necessarily take on the properties of the object he turns into - but this time his hands in the elevator...
  
  I liked this ep though, and great that it didn't focus on the assassination.
  
  Best moment : Quark in PJ's
• From Gaius Gracchus on 2021-10-04 at 3:27pm:
  In a season that hasn't really missed with an episode yet, this one has not aged well. "Odo the incel" is a pretty yucky plot, one we are able to more accurately diagnose in 2021 than a writers room in the mid 90s could. The development of the overarching Odo-Kira subplot could have been handled much better than this.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Inga on 2013-02-05 at 6:51pm:
  One of the most boring episodes of Star Trek I've seen so far... And that bed scene was unbelievably cheesy.
• From Mandeponium on 2013-09-02 at 5:30pm:
  Sigh, in this episode Odo has sex as a changeling shortly after losing his human ability to ejaculate. Why? Why does he fall in love with this random person? This episode would have been better if he were still human. It might make more sense.
  
  Imagine if Star Trek were on HBO. There'd be so much weird alien sex; the bedroom was super tame compared to what I'm imagining sex with a shapeshifter to be like.
  
• From Rob UK on 2013-11-23 at 2:35am:
  A hard episode to watch, in nregards to Odo centric episodes as you mentioned being like detective shows I agree, this is sometimes done okay like an homage to the greats in the style but i'd prefer the level of Columbo or Monk rockford files or even Murder She Wrote but no sadly not a patch on Jessica Fletcher on her worst day (seriously not a fan of MSW at all BTW just incase anyone was not getting my dry British sense of humour) this was akin to Diagnosis Murder merged with an imaginary late 90's BBC low budget remake of Heart to Heart.
  
  Now then onto the part which could have redeemed the episode and instead destroyed it, the sex, or more accurate the lack of it, i know TV censors n stuff i am not expecting some Reed Richards-esq shlong action pinning her to the ceiling in a low gravity room as Odo morphs into a thousand different phallic object spearing her from every angle anywhere she wants it and more but at least some reference to it expanding her horizons in some way sexually instead it was like she had taken the virginity of a shy young boy and was his moms friend. When she found out it was his first time and she said she couldn't tell?!? Seriously Odo never swelled up the shape shifting manhood once inserted? I am trying to keep it pg13 here but you get what i am saying surely, how did Odo even know what to shape down there? I always thought he'd be like an action man figure or a ken doll, cough cough, not that i was checking that my action man had a schlong or not as a kid or anything but i remember when i found out that he did not have one i was concerned for my action man, why does he not have a little soldier like the rest of us boys? Never trusted action man after that, anyhoo slight distraction to my review / comment there but in a slightly altered reality it is all totally relevant. Thankfully a good Quark episode next if anyone out there like myself who has to watch them in sequential order for the good and the bad.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Hugo on 2013-05-03 at 6:12am:
  So the Dominion is retreating into Cardassian space - what about the Breen - couldn't the Federation et al attack Breen space (or is it too far away?)
• From Damien Bradley on 2013-09-28 at 7:55am:
  A minor problem: When Kasidy reveals she's pregnant, they say something about one of them forgetting an injection, presumably the modern method of birth control for men and women. Sisko admits it must have been him. But both partners have to be taking an injection for it to work? That doesn't make sense. If both partners were on it, it would serve as redundant protection in case one person forgets. Even now, we have methods that work for months or years at a time; wouldn't they have permanent reversible birth control for both sexes by the 24th century?
  
  Otherwise, I'm really enjoying the suspense leading up to the finale! I've been making my way through DS9 (with breaks here and there) for a few years now. Enough time to start the series over again! This time leaving out the bad filler (so thanks for your filler quotient ratings!).
• From ChristopherA on 2021-08-26 at 2:36am:
  The story of the Cardassian rebels continues to be exciting and well done.
  
  They are starting to wrap up the series, starting with the Ferengi, but I don't really see why they thought it was necessary to wrap up the Ferengi at all. It was a good idea to complete the “women’s liberation” storyline because the idea of naked Ferengi females is basically of an awkward legacy of the silly cartoonish TNG-style Ferengi. It was really inconvenient that you could not film Ferengi females because they were naked and thus could barely have female Ferengi at all. And the whole idea didn't seem to fit well at all with the DS9 recharacterization of the Ferengi. Their purpose was to be absurdly ruthless businessmen, having them be misogynists didn't add anything interesting to this and was mostly just annoying. So it made a lot of sense to just wrap this up and get rid of it.
  
  But having Ishka completely transform the whole society and political system in, apparently, a year or two just seemed trite and hard to believe and entirely unnecessary, it only seems to weaken the usefulness of the Ferengi as an element in future stories. And making Rom the Grand Nagus is, again, overly trite. Sure, it does cap off the long running storyline that Rom starts as the dumb subservient brother and grows into the smarter, more dynamic brother. But it has been well established this is partly because Rom’s genius lies in engineering rather than business. And while he has been shown to have grown courage at standing up to his brother to promote social causes, he is still an engineer with self-confidence, not a politician. It would be more believable to assume that Moogie is now the real Grand Nagus behind the scenes, with Rom as her nepotism puppet.
  

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From David on 2008-08-07 at 10:37pm:
  I was wondering the same thing about the Defiant - the first thing that came to mind was that since Trill is 36 hours away even in the Defiant (which can go quite fast if I recall correctly), maybe they figured the risk of permanently losing a key staff officer + losing 2 other key staff officers for many days (or even weeks) in a slower runabout was worth losing the Defiant for a few days.
• From JRPoole on 2009-01-10 at 10:37pm:
  This is decent. The flashbacks are genuinely creepy, the Trill trivia is cool for the most part, and it all goes down fairly easily.
  
  I don't read Star Trek novels, but it occurs to me that there's probably a DS9 novel out there that goes into all this business with the symbionts and how their relationship with the Trill evolved, which would probably be interesting. If anybody knows of such a novel, let me know.
• From rpeh on 2010-07-28 at 9:20pm:
  Total borefest. It's as if the writers realised that they had enough material for 20 minutes so added everything they could think of to pad it out.
  
  I don't agree it's even good Dax development - it doesn't depend on anything that goes before, doesn't add anything very important, and doesn't create anything new for the future. Pure padding.
• From peterwolf on 2013-11-09 at 9:34pm:
  Not a very outstanding episode, but the beginning with the cooking and party preparations shows why I like Sisko more than all the other Star Trek captains (except Kirk, because he is the first one and a totally unique character). Sisko as played by Avery Brooks appears to be a credible human being with weaknesses, true emotions, and what I like best, more humour than the other captains. The Dax conspiracy story is not too bad, I only wish that the painted Trill city, like Cardassia or Kronos capitals depictions, would be replaced by some appropriate graphics in future, augmented versions, similar to enhanced TOS.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Bronn on 2013-07-29 at 12:03am:
  One thing that might count as a small problem is Sisko telling Kira that Garak still has contacts back on Cardassia. In that episode, he claimed to have burned them all attempting to obtain proof that the Dominion was planning to attack Romulus. He told Sisko that every single person he spoke he was dead. They did need to bring Garak into this story, but they probably could have found another way.
• From Armsauce on 2017-07-09 at 12:26am:
  I've noticed we haven't seen much of Sisko during this arc. I suppose there's just too much going on with all the other characters but I would have loved to see more of his reaction to how everything has unfolded.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From rpeh on 2010-07-30 at 6:12pm:
  The overreaction to this episode speaks volumes about Trek fandom. It's okay for Kirk, Riker et al to snog their way around the galaxy, but show one brief kiss between two women - who *first* became attracted when they were different genders - and the whole world collapses.
  
  It's true that the episode isn't particularly interesting, but judge it on its own merits, not on prejudice.
• From Jeff Browning on 2011-11-02 at 1:06am:
  The other joined trill in the romantic relationship with Jadsia was Dr. Lenara Kahn. This character was played by Susanna Thompson who played the Borg Queen in four Voyager episodes: Voy: Unimatrix Zero Parts 1 and 2, and Voy: Dark Frontier Parts 1 and 2. Interestingly, she did not play the Borg Queen in ST: First Contact, the only other Star Trek title that includes the Borg Queen. In First Contact, the Borg Queen was played by Alice Krige. Personally, I thought that Susanna Thompson did a better job.
  
  I agree with the comment that this episode does not deserve to be rated as low as a 2. There was some pretty good stuff here. Certainly, Jadsia's heroics were entertaining. There was some decent acting. The onscreen kiss was provocative and actually kind of hot.
  
  But our reviewer is correct that this is not up to the best that DS9 can offer. The main issue was that is was rather slow. I got tired of seeing the two joined trills incessantly doing their thing. They were so boring! I actually related to Bashir in Quarks when he got so bored.
  
  Certainly, it is nowhere near other episodes in season 4 such as DS9: The Visitor (which I would say is the best single Star Trek episode ever). Or even DS9: Hippocratic Oath which was also completely terrific.
  
  I gave it a 4 personally.
• From Psycroptic on 2012-03-28 at 7:48pm:
  The kiss? Disturbing? Definitely not the word I'd use for it.
  
  All in all a pretty dull episode though.
• From hugo on 2012-04-05 at 7:38am:
  I found this a decent episode. Good acting from dr Khan and good chemistry with her and Jadzia.
  
  But - why couldn't they just beam her out from engineering... ?
• From Azalea Jane on 2021-12-24 at 9:11pm:
  The reason I love this episode is not as much because we get Trek's first same-gender kiss, but more because literally nobody in the entire episode brings up their genders as a Thing. The taboo in-show is reassociation. As a lesbian, I love seeing a sapphic love story where it's treated just like any straight love story. This ep could have been basically the same if Lenara or Dax were a man. And that's pretty much the goal of LGBTQ+ activism: that normal variations in human(oid) sexuality and gender identity are treated as that: normal. Kind of how some people are left-handed or hate cilantro. It's just one of many value-neutral facts about them.
  
  And honestly, the scenes between Jadzia and Lenara were wonderful for me. Their kiss was amazing to watch. The actors nailed it, IMO. I totally don't blame anyone else if they're not excited about it, but for me, even in 2021, seeing a WLW love story where their gayness is treated as 100% normal in-universe is still quite refreshing. Also, this episode establishes Jadzia as canonically not-straight. Take that, Rick Berman! :D Note: Roddenberry wanted a gay character on TNG, but Berman blocked it until Gene's death. Berman continued to block gay characters throughout the rest of the series he produced, so the writers and cast had to sneak it in. Garak and Bashir, for example, are _definitely_ gay (or bi, as the case may be) for each other, the actors intended it that way, but they couldn't state it outright.
  
  I tend to agree that the in-universe taboo against reassociation is absurd, but I think that may be part of the point. The real-world taboo is homosexuality, which WILL get you exiled or killed in certain parts of the world, including here in the US. (The number of homeless LGBT teens kicked out by their bigoted parents is utterly sickening. And those are the ones that don't die by suicide. Lawmakers are trying to pass anti-trans bills as I type.) Sisko rightly points out that, regardless of the morality of the situation, there will be a cost to Jadzia being in the relationship she wants. And for many gay people, that is all too often intimately, depressingly true. I can't blame Jadzia for being willing to face the cost. And I can't blame Lenara for being unwilling, either. When faced with severe, irrational societal pressures against us being true to ourselves, we cope how we cope.
  
  My little quibble here is not with this episode, per se, but it's this tendency for Dax to make these rather impulsive decisions around romance. This might not have bothered me if Meridian had never aired -- where Dax is ready to throw everything away to go join Brigadoon In Space -- but here her willingness to face exile and the deaths of two symbionts is less convincing because of that episode. I tend to agree with Lenara on this. Jadzia loves hard, and she WILL love again. Surely Lenara will too. I did appreciate the explanation for Jadzia's impulsivity, though: Curzon. This is especially insightful given us just having seen "Facets" and getting to know Curzon (albeit fused with Odo) in the flesh. Of all the characters we barely see, Curzon is one of the most interesting. I enjoyed the scene where Sisko speaks his mind but then says he'll be loyal to Jadzia whatever she ends up doing.
  
  I also wondered about the transporter thing. They could have easily waved it off with a bit of technobabble like "there's a subspace field that would scatter a transporter signal" or something. The transporter only works when it serves the plot!
  
  Side note: I said "I can't tell if Worf is messing with us" right before Kira said the same thing! ????

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From JJ on 2010-08-06 at 9:27pm:
  There's not really a problem in that they are able to destroy the wormhole with photons as it's not real but part of the illusion.
  
  The pillar in the background when the female shapeshifter is explaining Odo's history to him is the same as in the previous episode where the DS9 crew collects some shape shifting matter from a planet and bring is to the station!
• From John on 2011-01-09 at 2:20am:
  I enjoyed this episode a lot, with the exception of the scene where Kira is talking to the "arboretum" about her plans to send a disguised message from the runabout. She knows that the Changelings don't like or trust her, and she has no idea if one of them could be one of the forms in the garden, listening to what she's saying.
  
  She's normally a lot more cautious than that when dealing with anyone who isn't a Bajoran.
• From Lt. Fitz on 2012-06-24 at 1:59pm:
  Yeah, this episode was a real downer. Here I thought they were going to get really bold with the collapsing of the wormhole (I thought they would find some Star Trek Magic way of opening it back up again, perhaps “spiritual” communication with the prophets from Bajor or something), but then it became this silly Matrix thing which took all the suspense out of it. The founders needed to see how far the federation would go to defend themselves? The fact that they lost an entire starship rescuing TWO people from the nearby planet the last time you met them didn’t convince you that they were gutsy? And then to top the whole thing off, the founders just LET THEM ALL GO. This following the dominion showing that they are willing to fly their own ships into starfleet vessels to prove their ruthlessness! This made no sense! Why let them go? So they can just go and prepare to defeat the Dominion when they finally get around to invading, which I assume is coming in the future? Kill them while you have them! Destroy what’s left of the Defiant! They kill the entire crew of the USS Odyssey (in the most edge-of-the-seat scene of the series so far – I literally shouted “WHOA!” in my living room), but then they are all, “OK! Take ’er easy! We’ll kill you… I mean see you later!” It totally reminded me of the James Bond cliché of the bad guy having Bond for dinner, giving him a comfortable room, and letting him walk freely around the moon base or whatever. I mean there’s evil arrogance and then there is plot convenience. I know that they couldn't kill off the cast of the show, but they needed some other ending that had some level of plausibility. I even thought that maybe the admiral lady and the fed security guy might have been replaced with replicants or something and perhaps Dax and Obrien also, which would explain the sudden and easy return to the station and the hidden and quick pro-Dominion result to negotiations. At least then there could have been some sort of more realistic ending in which the non-replicants fight back on the station and truly prove the tenacity of the federation-bajoran alliance, pushing the first intrusion of the dominion back into the Gamma quadrant. But, no. They were never at the station, any of the good writing during those scenes is simply gone. Reset button time. Total bummer of an ending to such a stellar season opener!

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From MJ on 2011-08-04 at 5:59pm:
  J.G. Hertzler and Jeffrey Combs...did DS9 strike gold when it hired those two or what? Fantastic, versatile actors.
  
  I do agree this episode fails to explore some very interesting story arcs. At the very least, Laas could have showed up later in the season having found a couple more Changelings and that could've been worked in somehow...maybe to the sequel instead of wasting it on the ridiculous Pah Wraith/Prophet arc.
  
  But overall I really like this episode. Laas' behavior is understandable, and gives us some insight into why the Changelings have such a distrust for "solids". It's likely they experienced everything Laas did, and much worse, throughout their history. Laas proposal to form a new link is exactly what I would expect a Changeling in his position to want to do. I do think it was a bit absurd that he kept baiting humanoids, being deliberately confrontational. He had to know by now what the outcome of such behavior would be. More likely he would want to avoid them entirely, but of course that wouldn't have been much of a story.
  
  I give it a 6.
• From John on 2011-12-22 at 6:30am:
  You have to love the irony of Laas complaining about how humanoids recklessly "displace all the life forms around them", while his people are trying to take over the entire galaxy and have killed billions of people and destroyed entire planets in the process.
  
  It seems to me 'the great link' is just the ultimate form of narcissism in the galaxy, and Odo is the only one who can see it for what it is.
  
  J. G. Hertzler does a fantastic job at portraying the arrogant and incredibly rude Laas here -- that alone makes this episode one of the best of the seventh season.
• From 0mcn7 on 2012-01-09 at 10:51am:
  I loved Quarks commentary on why humans are so suspicious of anything out of the ordinary and also showed how Quark despite the constant rivalry really does care for Odo.
• From Chris Wright on 2012-04-30 at 5:26pm:
  I can't believe this episode wasn't rated higher or that anyone on here hasn't pointed out the allegorical representations in the episode. While it has its problems (like why don't jails in the 24th century have surveillence cameras?), this epsiode excelled at beauty. It was beautifully acted, beautiful symbolism, and some of the lines are beautifully quotable. I gave it a 9.
• From JR on 2012-07-02 at 4:19am:
  This is one of the episodes I remember fairly strongly from the first time I watched the series way back when. I thought it came much sooner though...I was expecting it in season 3 or 4.
  
  When Laas becomes fog and the Klingons take offense, I could swear that is Rene Auborjonis (Odo) playing the Klingon that Laas stabs in the chest. It greatly resembles what he looked like as a solid turned Klingon by Bashir in an earlier episode. I checked the credits and only one of the two Klingons is listed as a Co-Star.
• From Bronn on 2013-07-26 at 3:32am:
  I think this was poorly executed. It could have been a good episode, but they missed a lot of things. There's some people acting out of character in order for this story to work. Sisko is out of character-he wouldn't have handed over Laas to the Klingons for a trial that wasn't equitable. It's a callback to the extradition hearing in "Dax,"-he knew there wasn't a fair trial on the other side of it, so he wasn't about to let that trial happen. And while I can understand O'Brien being irritated by some of Laas' baiting, Bashir ends up biting on it too, which is unlike him.
  
  They also fail to address the obvious issue-people mistrust Laas not because of his inherent nature as a changeling, but because the changelings are leading an oppressive government that has declared war on the entire quadrant. The Klingons are persecuting him in much the way they did Odo during "The Way of the Warrior." They think he's one of the Founders. The fact that's unaffected by a virus which has only been revealed through third-hand sources isn't convincing to them.
  
  (also, you have to wonder what happens to Laas after this episode-he presumably catches this virus by linking with Odo...then probably dies not long after this)
  
  Moreover, I wish we'd taken time to explore the moral dilemma that spurs the conflict of this episode-the death of the Klingon. I felt like that could have been a really interesting use for this guest character. The Klingon tried to stab him, but it doesn't affect him much since he has no vital organs to injure, then he kills the other Klingon. Was he reaching for a knife, or for his disruptor? Laas COULD have responded with less than deadly force, as we've seen Odo do countless times-he could have extended his arm and disarmed the Klingon instead of stabbing him. The Klingons attacked, but did they attack with deadly force, and was he justified in responding with deadly force? It's kind of a staple of cop shows, but the dilemma there is always whether the other person had a gun or not. Using a changeling makes you really ponder the question of how imminently he was threatened, even after he'd been stabbed once. That was more mentally engaging to me than the main plot of the episode.
• From L on 2013-08-17 at 8:28am:
  Wow, a non-lesbian homo-erotic subtext, that's pretty rare.
  Interesting episode.
• From ChristopherA on 2021-06-20 at 11:04am:
  My main issue with this episode is that it appears to have been written by a Founder as a tract against the solids, with most everyone being written out of character (as Bronn pointed out) so that Laas can make his diatribes without contradiction. The idea that solids are genetically unable to tolerate changelings comes from nowhere, there's never been any sign of that in any previous episode. They just seem to have suddenly thrown that into justify his disdain for coexisting with the solids. The reason changelings are feared has always been that they are incredibly powerful and extremely xenophobic.
  
  The one part of the episode that did make a lot of sense was that the Klingons would be hostile towards him. That could have been a more interesting episode, contrasting the arrogant disdain of Laal for inferior lifeforms, and his hypocritical demands that they treat him with respect, with the paranoid fear and anger of the Dominion’s victims towards someone who looks and acts exactly like a Founder, but nevertheless isn't one and hasn't ever done anything to harm them. Instead it seemed they were trying to awkwardly shoehorn in an unconvincing allegory of Odo being a persecuted minority who was putting up a false front and afraid to show his true self.
  
• From floreign on 2022-09-15 at 6:27am:
  To me this is an episode that outstretches the arc. Like the Voyager "year of hell" episode that could replace a full year of the season, and not as elaborate as TNG's "All Good Things" which stretched in three time periods. I have the distinct impression that at that point it was known that the show will end with the current season.
  Another comparison is Stargate:Un iverse. The first season and half was subpar, but the last half-season was amazing because it had a lot of good material that was added due to the show having been canceled.
  
  Well, soon the finale (episodes 16-26) starts, so you know I am right. It offers a possible direction for Odo if he were a few centuries out, and left one companion or a few behind (yes, it resembles Highlander here.)

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From JRPoole on 2008-12-03 at 2:59pm:
  I give this 3-parter a 9 overall.
  
  This is DS9 coming into its own. Vedek Winn is scheming, we get to learn more about Bajoran society, and the bit with Li Nalas' legend having little to do with his reality is smart. Plus, this trilogy is chock full of action (the dog fight, the mission to Cardassia 4, the fire fights on the station) and humor (Quark lugging around his suitcase of latinum, Rom selling his seat, etc). The middle part does lag a bit, but other than that, I don't see what's not to like here.
• From Bernard on 2010-02-08 at 7:52pm:
  This final part pays off all of the build up from the previous two and a bit episodes and does it quite well too.
  
  There are particular highlights, such as the bajoran general, Quark, Dax and Kira. A very enjoyable romp.
• From Gul Ranek on 2012-12-11 at 10:39pm:
  The three-parter was mostly decent, as the above comment said, the first hints of what DS9 was going to be about. However, the ending of the entire story was wrapped all too quickly and conveniently in less than five minutes - Kira and Dax bring the evidence to the Bajoran council, the General on the station is instantly notified and gives DS9 back to Sisko, and Nalas is killed.
  
  There might have been a more elegant way to finish the story off... I mean, the cargo manifest that proved that it was all staged by Cardassians could very well have been faked by the Federation in order to break up the rebellion and keep DS9 in the hands of the Federation.
  
  Also, there were never any consequences for Minister Jaro or anyone else involved in the overthrow of the government, which is a major failure on the screenwriters' part. Too bad we won't get to see Frank Langella again.
• From Gemini on 2020-07-01 at 7:49pm:
  Jaro literally kidnapped Kira and was revealed to be leading this extremist Circle in the last episode and he gets no consequences thrown at him for this nor does Kira call him out on it in front of the government? Very weird.
  Otherwise the episode was fine.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From MJ on 2011-08-04 at 8:17pm:
  The beginning of this episode moves a little fast. I would think the Chief would try to establish who-or what-has taken possession of Keiko almost immediately. I know they were trying to reveal the Pah-Wraith thing slowly but I ding it a little bit for this since it didn't make sense.
  
  Very nice episode for Rom, though...and I guess now Miles and his wife have something else in common: they've both had their bodies taken over by other life forms (see TNG: Power Play).
• From Selador on 2013-05-12 at 7:51pm:
  I gave this episode a 10. I thought everything about it was superb.
  
  I knew this was going to be a special one when wraith-Keiko immediately warned O'Brian that any attempt at some techno deus ex solution would fail. It became apparent that ti had access to all of Keiko's thoughts which put O'Brian on the back foot - and there he stayed throughout the episode right until the very end.
  
  He never had an opportunity to do anything but follow wraith-Keiko's orders, and I really liked see him struggle with what he was doing. He couldn't refuse to do its bidding so played it straight while al the time desperately looking for a way out.
  
  The script writing and the acting were excellent throughout the episode, there were some beautiful dark moments and some hilarious light relief (Rom: "I will refuse even to tell them my name!" O'Brian: "Rom, everyone on the station already knows your name." Rom: "Oh... then I will refuse to confirm it!").
  
  I nearly fell off my chair when Odo later complained it had taken 40 minutes for him to get Rom to confirm his name.
  
  I can't comprehend how you gan give this a 5 and Apocalypse Rising a 7, but I guess that this sort of difference of opinion can only be a good thing since it shows that DS9 is just oozing with quality everywhere and that different kinds of episodes appeal to different people.
  
  I'm so glad to have watched this straight after the abomination that is Into Darkness, it really lifted the sould, but more on that after you've given it your review... (it's getting a non-canon 0 from me)
• From Zorak on 2016-05-28 at 3:27am:
  I have to complete agree with Selador's comment. This episode was amazing. I barely even remember this one from when I was a kid, but re-watching it now as an adult, I was completely blown away. A definite 10 from me. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From djb on 2008-12-04 at 6:44am:
  I wouldn't call this episode filler, at least not as much as "Move Along Home" or "If Wishes Were Horses." It definitely had some redeeming qualities.
  
  First, I liked how people started to just act slightly out of character at first, gradually growing into their alternate characters. I also liked how these characters they were playing out weren't complete departures from the original people; you could still sense some of their original personalities present. I liked how I couldn't really tell where in the episode the characters became not-themselves. For example, Kira's increasing frustration with Sisko about the Dolamide on the Valerian ship seems in character, until before you know it she's openly plotting against him. Well done.
  
  Odo saving the day is definitely fun to watch.
  
  The whole "telepathic sphere" thing was slightly farfetched, granted, but that's par for the course in Star Trek. I kind of like the loose end of what the Klingons had been talking about before they entered the wormhole -- what was that all about?
  
  One nice touch worth mentioning is the title: Dramatis Personae. It's a Latin term meaning "cast of characters," and the main place I've seen the term is at the beginning of Shakespeare plays, where the list of characters is given at the very beginning. The crew, over the course of the episode, begins to act out characters as if they are in a play. Very clever.
  
  I'd give the episode a 5.
• From Bernard on 2010-01-03 at 11:56am:
  How strange that you seem to have adopted the term 'filler' when describing episodes that are not particularly good. DS9 never was an ongoing story, even later on in the series when they adopt longer story arcs most episodes can stand on their own. Certainly at this point in the series we have barely any ongoing arcs, so what exactly are these episodes supposed to be filling? Food for thought there.
  
  Anyway, This episode is no worse than some of the earlier outings of the season. I agree that it is out of place and so I docked it a point for that. But no more than that since it is still not a bad effort in it's own right. Just because it would have been more appropriate earlier in the season doesn't mean that it can't happen later in the season. There are characters that are fascinating whilst under the influence of the telepathic sphere such as Kira, Bashir, O'Brien. Unfortunately and ultimately what spoils the episode for me is Sisko and Dax. The latter stages of this episode could have been a real power struggle between Kira and Sisko and some real tension should have been built. Instead we see him making a clock... gripping stuff.
  
  Another average 5 for me, good elements, good idea and good moments but lacking overall.
• From Abigail on 2019-08-31 at 11:29pm:
  Another "the whole crew goes crazy" episode -- Every Star Trek series had at least a couple of these, and they all kind of drive me nuts. I don't need to see the whole crew acting nutty for 45 minutes and then see it cleared up as being a (fairly pointless) "telepathic sphere".

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Krs321 on 2011-09-12 at 12:18am:
  Problem: The Bajorans have an orb that allows you to travel through time now? WTF?
• From Cory on 2011-11-10 at 5:08am:
  Yes, The Orb of Time was introduced in Trials And Tribble-ations. However the fact both the Bajorans and Sisko will risk altering the timeline just so Kira can figure out for sure if Dukat and her mother were lovers is the biggest problem which knocks the episode down to a 1 in my eyes
• From Armsauce on 2017-06-16 at 12:57am:
  It didn't take much for Kira to convince Sisko. There's no way he'd agree to her plan like that, at least no so easily.
• From Jan on 2019-03-18 at 7:59pm:
  I didn't think the episode was that bad, but this 'Orb of Time' is way too powerful in the wrong hands.
  
  A bit of nit-picking: As we all well know, Nerys has dark brown eyes, but 3-year-old Nerys had very lightblue/grey eyes.
  It's possible that this is one of these 'differences' between Bajorans and humans, but I don't believe that.
  I AM aware that eyecolour can change even after a child hits one-year-and-a-half, but they won't turn from light blue to dark brown.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Remco on 2009-07-28 at 8:51pm:
  Did Ron Moore get the idea for a virtual Six in Baltar's head on BSG from this episode?
• From JR on 2012-07-02 at 2:39am:
  I don't understand how the crew jumped to the conclusion that the tritanium bullet was fired from close range.
  O'brien: " According to these readings, the bullet only traveled 8 or 9 centimeters."
  Sisko: "Then the killer must have fired at point blank range."
  Odo: "I don't think so; there are no powder burns on the body."
  
  A bit of circular logic there...what exactly is the tricorder detecting to if not powder burns? The bullet's odometer? If that were the case, Obrien would say 8.63 cm, not "8 or 9 cm".
  
  Taking it one step further, why wouldn't some of the powder be present anyway. If it is as conventional as Sisko claims, there would in fact be hot gases expanding right aside that bullet at the muzzle and they would be transported as well.
  
  I liked the episode's premise, but between the Xray snooper scope, the false logic, and the very abrupt ending (Joran immediately convincing Ezri that particular Vulcan was the killer out of 28 possible, and actually being correct) I don't think it was particularly well done. I'd give it a 5 or 6.
• From Lt. Fitz on 2012-07-07 at 10:01pm:
  Not a great episode. It seemed too easy to find the murderer, and Joran annoyed the heck out of me with his weird and creepy muttering. Lots of good bits, but just it didn't fall together for me.
• From Damien Bradley on 2013-09-25 at 6:32am:
  This was a nice episode, but I'm surprised at its 10 rating here. The suspense was pretty well done, especially right as Ezri sets her sights on the Vulcan setting sights on her.
  
  Some things didn't work well for me: first, Trek has a penchant for ridiculously powerful weapons. A phaser that can disintegrate a person in one blast is a long-standing staple, and now a gun that can deliver a high-speed bullet anywhere in the surrounding area, complete with a headset that can see anywhere? That's arguably more powerful than a phaser. I'm surprised no one's thought of it yet. Even the headset alone means goodbye to privacy for anyone. But that's one of the unfortunate effects of technology in Trek. So much of it is so over-the-top powerful that the writers haven't really thought through the ramifications of it all.
  
  I really wanted there to come something after the climax. The Vuclan said "logic demanded it." I wanted to know his reasoning and some kind of epilogue to the whole thing.
  
  I felt the dynamic between Ezri and Joran was a little cheesy. So the Trill have a ritual they can do to where they can temporarily hallucinate one of their past lives and converse with them? And they have to do another ritual to make it go away? I would have preferred something more subtle. (I don't remember if we've seen this ritual before.) I also would have liked Joran to be a little less one-dimensional.
  
  Anyway, it's nice we're seeing lots of Ezri. She has a lot of catching up to do in terms of character development (and yes, she's cute as a button, maybe too much sometimes).
• From Axel on 2015-06-06 at 3:27pm:
  I agree with Damien's point about the Vulcan's motives. I was hoping to know a bit more, aside from the archetypical Vulcan "logic demanded it" response. That's the lazy way to wrap this up. Clearly there was some emotion behind what he was doing stemming from the loss of his companions. The inclusion of Joran was a fantastic story element, but his murderer profile was dragged on at the expense of the Vulcan.
  
  I do disagree with the point about the high-speed bullet, though. Phasers would have a lot of other advantages over projectile weapons. It's easier to control the intensity, you can charge them rather than continuously load them, and they are no doubt lighter and more wieldy.
  
  Overall, good Trill episode, good Dax episode, and good suspense. Murder mystery is rare for Trek, but this was done very nicely.
• From ChristopherA on 2021-06-17 at 4:30pm:
  I thought the episode had pluses and minuses, it had a decent murder mystery flow with good suspense and somewhat interesting acting between Ezri and Joran, but I also thought it was overly contrived attempt to emulate one of those “Silence of the Lambs” stories where the heroes have to work with a killer to catch a killer. The idea that because Joran is a disturbed murderer, he must therefore be an expert homicide detective, is just silly. And there didn’t even seem to be any reason whatsoever to believe that Joran was similar in any way to the mysterious killer.
  
  I agree with the previous fan commentary about the abrupt ending and the super scope. Think of all the times they were sneaking around looking for the enemy instead of just using the scanner to view the entire station from a safe location and attack without reprisal. I can't be too critical because it is extremely common in Star Trek to invent incredible advanced technologies and completely forget about them later. However, in most cases these inventions are essential to the plot and are sufficiently foreign, experimental, or situationally specific to kind of handwave them away. In this case the superweapon was absolutely not required for the plot, the villain could have used any means to commit murders, so inventing a superweapon to do the job seemed a bit like lazy writing. Still, if you ignore the implications, the idea of two people with ultimate sniper technology trying to hunt each other down, and ultimately firing simultaneously, is an interesting idea that could have made a good science fiction short story.
  

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Pete Miller on 2006-07-26 at 3:15am:
  I think your dislike for Vic Fontaine is obscuring your judgement here. If the reason for giving this a 1 was that it is filler in the middle of the dominion war, then you should have given "Take Me Out to the Holosuite" a 1 instead of a 10. This episode is extremely entertaining, and is a wonderful use of Vic's character. Obviously they couldn't have done this episode EARLIER because they invented Vic during the Dominion War arc.
  
  I especially like that this episode demonstrates that the characters still have personal lives amidst all the turmoil, and that they can still have fun. I wouldn't care for episodes 15 and on to be solely dominion war arc episodes. That would be boring, and not Star Trekish enough.
  
  Sisko's comment about black people in the sixties also shows that this episode isn't just filler. Not only does it make a point about racism in the sixties; it also shows how hypersensitive Sisko is to anything regarding racism. Great character development episode all around, and it's always fun to watch one of these holodeck malfunction episodes. I love them!
  
  Just because you didn't care for it isn't justification to give it a 1. I mean, come on. It's not THAT bad, even if you hate it.
• From Kethinov on 2006-07-26 at 6:46am:
  This episode fails to measure up to "Take Me Out to the Holosuite" in a number of ways.
  
  Firstly, it was redundant. We already have a comedy episode in the holodeck in this season. I forgave it once, and only because "Take Me Out to the Holosuite" was so unusually profound.
  
  But more importantly, this episode was inferior. The situation in this episode was a result of either holosuite error, or simple diversion, depending on how you look at it. Neither situation is a good premise for the episode. In the middle of the Dominion War, I don't want a "holodeck malfunctions" episode, and I even less want a "let's all go to Risa" episode. This episode was an excuse for slapstick comedy.
  
  Conversely, the situation in "Take Me Out to the Holosuite" was brought on by an external player (the Vulcan captain) with an arrogance problem. Sisko didn't ask for any of this, he simply faced it. And it taught him a lesson about the value of one's principles, reinforcing his seemingly weaker hand in the entire Dominion war.
  
  Ignoring the timing of this episode, yes, it deserves a higher rating. But as is so often said, timing is everything. This episode's timing was unforgivable. Such diversions are only acceptable when an episode has something truly profound to say, and guess what, everything it had to say was said better in other episodes!
  
  You speak of the crew having a personal life. Well, we're made aware of that in "Take Me Out to the Holosuite." We're also made aware of it by Vic's various cameos across the later episodes. You also speak of the episode making a statement about racism. But that was easily done better in "Far Beyond the Stars."
  
  Fnally, yes, I am fully aware of when Vic's character was created. That doesn't justify the episode's placement in the timeline and certainly doesn't invalidate my criticism that an episode like this was better suited in an early season. The episode had plenty of intrinsic value. Replace Vic with any other hologram, rebrand an early season episode, and not only is it now a good episode, it's better because it's less out of place.
  
  And that's just how it is. "Badda-Bing Badda-Bang" was filler of the worst kind. It's underserving of a zero solely because it has no technical problems. It sure would have been worth more points in an earlier season, but alas, it's smack dab in the middle of season 7. So there you have it.
• From Pete Miller on 2006-07-27 at 2:46am:
  I was very pleased that you responded to my commentary, and I'll have to say you cleared it up a bit for me. I will concede that the timing does lower the rating substantially. And you're right, some of the character development-type things are covered in other episodes, so I guess this one is dispensable in that manner as well.
  
  I still hold that it doesn't deserve a 1, because it isn't as horrible as something like "Move Along Home", but I take back what I said about your rating being based on your dislike for Vic. I see your point about the timing, but I guess it's just a matter of how important that kind of thing is to you. If you hold sequence and timing of episodes in high regards, then I guess a 1 could be appropriate. For me, however, a 5 is more like it.
  
  But thanks for the response. Always awesome to hear different viewpoints on Star Trek!!!
• From Kevin on 2009-06-07 at 2:06pm:
  One of my least favourite DS9 episodes for sure. The Vic Fontaine character was a fun novelty for one episode, but has certainly worn his welcome by this point. Now we have a whole episode about him? Also, holodeck malfuntions of any kind are so cliche. Vic Fontaine and holodeck malfunctions... guess the writers were feeling really lazy that week. (Or were simply bad writers)
• From Remco on 2009-08-01 at 3:43pm:
  I guess your enjoyment of this episode really depends on whether you like Vic. The same was true for "Take Me Out to the Holosuite". To enjoy that episode, you needed to enjoy baseball.
  
  I absolutely hated "Take Me Out", because I find watching baseball (or watching any sports) utterly boring. I skipped through most of the episode, and I wasn't entertained by all the sports movie cliches. I know that they were deliberately paying homage to such movies, but I just couldn't stand it.
  
  Because of that experience, I can completely understand your sentiment in giving this a 1 while giving "Take Me Out" a 10, even though they are essentially the same episode. That's an aspect of ratings, which makes averages meaningless. I would give this episode a 7 for being a very entertaining, if not very relevant episode. A rating I would have given "Take Me Out" if I wasn't so completely bored by it.
• From rpeh on 2010-08-05 at 11:55am:
  I think everyone is being harsh on this episode.
  
  It's true that the timing isn't ideal, I don't particularly like Vic Fontaine either, and I don't particularly like holodesk episodes, but beyond that it's probably my favourite holodesk episode.
  
  One thing you all seem to have missed is that it's *not* a holodesk malfunction - we're told that Felix designed the takeover to stop the program from getting boring. The way all the senior staff (bar Worf) get into the spirit of things for a hologram shows their spirit of friendship to great effect, and the way they resolve the situation is well-done and a lot of fun.
  
  I'm only giving this a 4, but I felt I had to speak up for this episode because of all the vitriol it's received up until now!
  
  One extra little thing. The "stirred, not shaken" point was picked up in the West Wing too, where the president points out that shaking a martini would chip the ice so Bond was really "ordering a weak martini and being snooty about it". Perhaps Bashir is a *real* man?
• From Psycroptic on 2012-07-20 at 12:41am:
  The timing was definitely not right, but it was still an extremely entertaining episode.
• From Bronn on 2013-07-29 at 6:15am:
  I actually really liked this episode. "It's Only a Paper Moon" is a personal favorite of mine because I see a lot of myself in Nog in that episode. He escapes into a fantasy world because the real world is really tough and scary, and he's faced it for the first time. But I like that it's not really a holodeck malfunction episode, because those are tired and stupid. It's just a holodeck story in which they have to solve in a holodeck manner, and nothing is at stake except for Vic Fontaine's program.
  
  I don't know where else they could have timed it, though. They wanted one last bit of fluff before they got back to the serious war plot to close out the series. The problem is that the war plot has been sitting ignored for too long-the last episode that really dealt with it was "Paper Moon"...which was also the last Vic episode. They wanted to introduce Vic as a recurring character, so it seems like he gets shoved down the audience's throat a bit. And the episode in which he introduced was a fluff episode in which they used musical numbers basically as filler, not a good way to introduce him to the audience.
  
  This episode had to take place after "Paper Moon," because that's the only episode when the audience really started to care about Vic-if at all. It would have been nice if "Paper Moon" hadn't been so recent, since it was an episode in which two non-regular cast members were at the center of the plot, which might be why some people were irritated about it. What they needed was a good stand-alone episode involving the war plot to air prior to this episode just to let the audience know that they hadn't gotten distracted. We probably could have done with "Prodigal Daughter" or "The Emperor's New Cloak" or "Chimera" and still had a solid season. If it were me, though, I'd have pushed back "Once More Into the Breach," Kor's last episode, and aired it just before this one. That was another one which didn't prominently feature the main cast members, but then you follow with this one, in which most of the main cast gets to operate together. It would have kept the war fresh, and I don't think people would have been as irritated at the war plot settling into the background for just one episode here.
• From L on 2013-08-18 at 12:16am:
  A pointless novelty episode that made me cringe.
  Not that a 'caper' genre episode was necessarily a bad thing, but I just hated it. Maybe it was just the context of it coming this late in the series, and that the one before it actually explored some interesting issues through science-fiction, as Star Trek should.
  This is just pointless indulgence in bad-taste americana.
• From spline on 2013-09-14 at 11:17am:
  This ep was great. It wouldnt work in an earlier season because we'd have had no connection to the characters. It's a simply fun ep that allows the cast to show off, combined with great music and great direction. Dont take it so seriously, and just love it for what it is!
  
  The best is yet to come!
• From mandeponium on 2014-08-03 at 12:04am:
  This was actually one of my favorites. I watch it as a farewell episode: the last fun holodeck romp before the final episodes running-up to the series finale. The end of this one gives me tingles when they are all alone in the lounge with Vic. They are still dressed up and as the camera pans over them Sisko sings "The Best Is Yet to Come."
  
  The viewer knows DS9 is almost over. This is such a hopeful episode and the second half of the season does not disappoint. They even copy the lounge scene in the last episode doing it all over again with Vic and the final farewell.
• From Axel on 2015-06-07 at 10:54pm:
  I don't see the appeal of Vic Fontaine. He was okay in "It's Only a Paper Moon" because that story served a purpose: Nog's post-injury recovery. But he's overused to the point of being annoying. It gets really bad in the finale when he takes up a ridiculous portion of the episode.
  
  This one, though, is bad for several reasons. They already had a wonderful holodeck episode in "Mr Bashir, I Presume?" So that angle's been done. The timing in the story arc is also poor as pointed out. Not everything has to be about the Dominion War, but this is just too silly. Finally, it doesn't even really feel like Star Trek. From a purely entertainment point of view, I guess it works but it's hard to ignore the context of the episode, which you have to do to enjoy it IMO.
  
  I'd give it a 2 for the acting, but it's by far the worst overall episode of the season.
• From ChristopherA on 2021-06-13 at 4:35pm:
  I really didn't much like watching this episode, and I wasn't quite sure why. There have been holosuite episodes I've liked in the past, the caper itself really isn't bad. I agree with others that the timing of the episode just didn't seem very good, while watching the series in order I was really feeling like it was time to return to the Dominion war, not to have yet another offbeat standalone episode.
  
  I agree with Axel that the episode really doesn't seem connected to Star Trek, and the episode doesn't compare that well to “Mr. Bashir, I Presume”. Somehow that episode felt like the homage was more fun, and felt like you were exploring the Star Trek characters placed in an unusual environment. Whereas this episode felt more like you were watching an ordinary miniature heist movie that just happened to feature the Star Trek actors, but could have been put on with any actors and it wouldn't have been any different. The only attempt to tie it to DS9 at all was the idea that they were coming together to do it for their friend Vic, which really didn't come across as a very dramatically interesting reason, especially since Vic is kind of a questionable character to begin with, and because the show seems unable to clearly confront the question about whether Vic is a sentient being or not. If he is sentient why are the characters so unable to perceive or acknowledge it, and if he is not sentient then the justification for the episode is pretty silly.
  
  Also, in all of the better Vic Fontaine episodes he is being used to significantly change the lives of the DS9 characters by offering them good advice or a different perspective. In this episode he seems totally pointless, he doesn't have any purpose other than to act as a MacGuffin to get the characters into a heist movie.
  

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Azduel on 2010-03-31 at 2:16am:
  This is one of my favourite episodes ever. A 10/10! This episode gives an in depth look at the unwavering devotion of the Vorta to the Founders. The meta exploration into the relationship of the Vorta and the Founders is brilliantly conducted through Weyoun's interaction with Odo, where Weyoun's obvious jubilation of simply being in his presence Odo is depicted. This episode further exceeds my expectations with its unorthodox delivery of insight to one of my favourite antagonist powers, the Dominion, and one of my favourite antagonist characters, Weyoun. To top off this 'magnus opus' of DS9 season 7, 'stubborn old Odo' in the end gives Weyoun what he so desperately wants, his blessing. In the end, Odo's blessing of Weyoun 6 brings meaning to his existence. Bravo!
  ...and the side story is entertaining to boot, offering much needed comic relief to the intrigue and intensity of the Odo Weyoun study.
• From MJ on 2011-03-03 at 6:33pm:
  I enjoyed everything about this episode.
  
  Jeffrey Combs has the role of a Vorta down so well it makes one wonder if he came up with the concept for the race. The smooth speaking delivery, the cautious, diplomatic language, the ability to feign sincerity in both word and expression, and unflinching devotion to the Founders...he does it all flawlessly.
  
  This episode was an interesting twist for the Weyoun character, exploring whether his (or rather, Weyoun 6) doubt of the Founders is partly due to a cloning flaw, or if, despite their cloning, the Vorta are capable of questioning their gods. It also was a nice continuation of the very complex relationship Odo has with his people.
  
  The subplot was a perfect balance to the main plot. Nog's skillful navigation of the "Great River" was hilarious and very...Ferengi-like. I guess there's a little Ferengi in all of us!
• From hugo on 2013-02-28 at 6:46pm:
  i understand it as all communication through the wormhole is cut off for the dominiom, including reinforcements.
  
  Then - how do they know that the Great Link is contaminated?
  
  Otherwise a great ep!
• From spline on 2013-09-10 at 9:45am:
  Hugo, Wayoun likely got the information from the female changeling that is on Cardassia at this time, who knows of the sickness because she is herself sick, and the extent of it due to information revealed later in the season...
• From Axel on 2015-05-17 at 7:49am:
  I enjoyed the Nog/O'Brien subplot immensely. Throughout much of TNG and DS9, the Ferengi obsession with profit has been portrayed in a negative light, and given Star Trek values, this is understandable. But here we have a situation where Ferengi skills prove highly useful, and it adds another dimension to their race. It was really imaginative on the part of the writers to add the "Material Continuum" element, giving the Ferengi some cultural depth. And, it's all done in a light and funny way that makes for an enjoyable storyline.
  
  Alongside this, we get a better glimpse of the Vorta in this episode as well. We find out about their background, about their cloning process, and about their utter reverence for the Founders. Jeffrey Combs, who seems to have been born to play the role of a Vorta, again just nails it in this episode and shows his versatility by acting as both Weyoun clones.
• From tigertooth on 2017-01-20 at 8:08pm:
  This is another episode where I feel like the average rating is rigged. Most of the user ratings are quite high... except for the fact that there's over 100 zero votes.
  
  You might think about dumping those zeros since it seems likely somebody spammed the rating.
• From Kethinov on 2017-01-21 at 7:27pm:
  There is a big update to the site coming in February and I will be doing exactly that among other things.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Pete Miller on 2006-05-22 at 3:31pm:
  I'm surprised that eric didn't take off more for their dropping of the Dosi race, never to be seen again.
• From Bernard on 2010-10-12 at 12:58pm:
  Since revisiting Season One episode 'Nagus' and thinking it was one of the strongest episodes of that season I looked forward to revisiting this one. It didn't disappoint.
  
  Simultaneously blending the exploration of more ferengi social structure, teasing out another tidbit about the dominion and creating a plot twist nicely, this episode is excellent.
  
  I love the part where Pel is revealed and Zek cries out! Brilliant stuff.
• From Wes on 2012-12-01 at 2:08pm:
  Notice in the scene above the bar where Kira returns the earring to Zek and then Quark and Pel come up, that you can see the tape on the floor marking where Kira was supposed to stand.
• From Dstyle on 2013-09-09 at 2:36am:
  There were Pakleds at Quark's! I only wish we could have overheard a bit of their conversation.
• From Dstyle on 2013-09-12 at 2:59pm:
  I feel silly now that I got so excited about seeing Pakleds at Quark's: as I continue to watch this season, I've been seeing Pakleds all over the station. Perhaps they were around the station in the first season or earlier in the second season and I just didn't notice them, but I always love seeing them: they're such a fascinating and absurd species. What are they doing at DS9? Looking for things? Things they need? Things that make them go?

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Rob on 2008-04-27 at 1:46am:
  I love how Ezri's analysis takes in all of Worf's history and, in effect, all of the history of the Klingon Empire. Not in only DS9, but all the way back to the third season of TNG and Duras' involvement in the High Council. Fantastic long-term continuity...!
  
  
• From Pemmer Harge on 2010-03-22 at 11:56pm:
  The best episode of the Final Chapter by quite some distance. Most of the others are at least good, but this one is just better written and more intelligent.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From djb on 2008-12-19 at 9:45am:
  I'm coming to LOVE the character of Vedek Winn. Not because she's likable, rather the opposite. She's superbly acted and written, so much so that every time I see her I literally want to reach into the screen and rip her throat out. Excellent!
  
  Other than that, I'd agree with Kethinov... not a whole lot more to this ep than building up to some hopefully momentous conclusion, which I haven't watched yet.
  
  Also nice to see good character development for Kira, and nice to see how much Kira and Sisko have grown close over the previous year. Also cool to see Odo and Quark (gasp!) working together? Neat orb sequence too.
  
  A solid 5.
• From Bernard on 2010-02-08 at 1:18am:
  This episode is unneccessarily drawn out to the extent that it almost ruins the gathering pace of plot created by the climax of season one and homecoming. Solid 5, but should have been so much better! If only they had dared to concentrate more on the Bajoran politics and less on our heroes doing boring things such as rescue missions.
  
  Which just reminds me, exactly what is our good Doctor ordered to do when he finds Kira? Slap a com badge on her and call for transport. What does he actually do? Starts treating her wounds! Fortunately this kind of gaffe is actually IN character for him.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Bernard on 2009-11-23 at 3:44pm:
  This is another solid outing. A couple of red herrings thrown in for good measure to keep you guessing.
  
  Worth watching back to see how Vantika is acted by his 'host' as you don't really watch for it first time around. Speaking of which, isn't this another review where you give away what has happened to Vantika? After all, we don't find out until very near to the end of the episode who is carrying Vantika's mind.
• From Paul on 2010-08-31 at 11:04pm:
  'Vantika did the exact same thing on Rigel VII' - isn't that where kang and kodos from The Simpsons are from?
  
  Also Bashir states that humanoids use very little of their brains - this is untrue. All of the brain is used by humans, but not all of it at any one time. Different parts are used at different times. He has been reading too many urban legends and not enough Starfleet Medical textbooks
• From Bryan on 2011-03-29 at 12:10am:
  I have to confess that this episode is painful for me to watch. I find Siddig's performance as the posessed Bashir to be extremely wooden, forced, and silly. It ruined a good episode.
• From greeh on 2011-08-11 at 11:30pm:
  This was a painful one, the first painful one in the series. I'm not sure if I can really explain why. Pretty much everything seemed unbelievable, not well-explained, and too convenient for the sake of moving along the plot...
  
  Somehow it had a weird kind of fairy tale quality to it (maybe some of the usual production staff were sick?)
  
  The red herrings and Bashir being the host was a good twist, but then the possessed acting - and here I agree with another commentator, and disagree with the reviewer - was unexceptional... at best.
  
  I give it a 3.
• From Jeff Browning on 2011-10-16 at 6:12am:
  Pretty obvious problem: If Bashir is possessed by Vantika, why does he continue to talk in the phones British accent? Wouldn't he talk like Vantika did at the beginning of the episode. I also agree Bashir's acting was pretty bad.
• From Shani on 2014-01-09 at 1:01pm:
  I'm not really a fan of Siddig at all at this point. He's performance here was terrible. TNG had much better actors. DS9 characterisation is better (the characters actually have flaws) but that doesn't make up for the difference in acting ability.
• From Axel on 2015-05-10 at 6:39pm:
  When Vantika/Bashir first makes contact with Quark on the upper level of his bar, there is a part where he hurls Quark forward. You can just barely catch a glimpse of Bashir's face as the camera pans up. It's so fast and the angle makes it hard to tell it's Bashir unless you freeze frame at just the right second.
  
  I agree the Vantika-possessed Bashir isn't well acted, though. Siddig's improvement as an actor seems to have happened throughout this series :)

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Bernard on 2009-11-21 at 1:53am:
  I thought this was a fairly drab outing, with a quick fix ending. Lots of cliches and a very poor effort at injecting the suspense needed toward the end of the episode in the shape of the captain trying to escape the station.
  
  Chances at character development largely missed out on because they were talking jibberish!
  
  On the bright side, it's watchable and it's not the worst outing of the season....
• From AW on 2015-11-26 at 7:55am:
  You have to consider the scene in which - Sisko tells Odo "There's no hurry" and then Odo proceeds to walk super casually to the turbo lift - a remarkable scene.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Orion Pimpdaddy on 2006-08-27 at 2:16am:
  This episode contains elements we'll see throughout the series. Kira's past causes her to make tough decisions, Garak is scheming, and runabouts are used for the climax.
  
  Garak and Odo are great in this episode, but I gave it a 4 because it still seems to have that "pilot feeling."
• From Bernard on 2009-11-15 at 10:54pm:
  I don't remember ever liking this episode, but viewing it now I can see that it is a fairly strong episode. Character development is the order of the day and this has it in spades, even for guest characters (the wonderful Garak in his first appearance).
  
  Bajoran politics are continuing to be featured and that usually makes for decent episodes. I gave it a 6.
• From Jeff Browning on 2011-10-14 at 4:12pm:
  This episode along with "Progress" in this season, and numerous episodes of other seasons of DS9 exposes one of the annoying aspects to Kira's character: She "goes stupid" whenever she is around a former "hero" of the Bajoran resistance, any Bajoran religious leader, anyone bucking the establishment order or the like.
  
  Admittedly, Nana Visitor is not the greatest actress to start with. (Witness her terrible overacting in "Progress" after Mullibok gets shot.) Whenever Kira gets that starry eyed look, one begins to cringe: You know something embarrassingly lame is coming.
  
  It's like this girl has no common sense whenever she is confronted by one of these guys. She simply cannot accept that they are human beings. Over and over she expects them to behave in a manner which accords with her delusions. And she is constantly and consistently disappointed. Yet she stubbornly refuses to admit defeat: The next time one of these guys comes along: Wham! There she goes again, all strarry eyed and deluded.
  
  The plot device is way, way overused, and it does no credit to Kira's character. It just makes her look stupid.
• From Bernard on 2011-10-15 at 9:22pm:
  And Jeff has put in a nutshell while talking about Kira exactly why I prefer characterisation in DS9 to that in TNG.
  
  Yes she is stupid. Yes she is stupid often. That is exactly how the character is! She is consistant, although as the seven years go on she does eventually mature somewhat. I prefer watching an imperfect character like this over the perfect people we had in TNG.
  As for Nana Visitor as an actress I have to disagree with Jeff as I find her to be spot on almost all of the time during the shows run.
  
  But hey, that's the great thing about opinions!
• From Jeff Browning on 2011-10-18 at 8:01pm:
  Bernard:
  
  I love the dialog! Thanks so much for your response to my post. My issue with Kira is not just that she is stupid: She is stubbornly and aggressively stupid. After a while folks tend to learn. Kira does not seem to do so that much (although I will keep watching and see what she does in later seasons).
  
  But I also agree with you. DS9 characters rock compared to TNG characters whio become cloying and sickeningly sweet at times. (The funeral schene for Tasha Yarr being one glaring example) DS9 characters seem more real, and for that reason more appealing. Bashir is such a blatant man whore (in a way Riker never was). Dax is so much more edgy and ambiguous than Troi. And as I have said in other posts, I absolutely adore the relationship between Quark and Odo.
  
  I still maintain though that Nana Visitor overacts blatantly at times, though. ("Progress" is a good example.)
• From John on 2012-03-20 at 4:51am:
  I agree with Bernard. Nana Visitor does a fine job playing Kira. Unfortunately, Kira, as a character, is stubborn, willfully ignorant, and pretty much one-dimensional. It's not entirely her fault though.
  
  In order to like Kira -- to sympathize with her whining about the Cardassians and appreciate her as a loyal Bajoran, you actually have to like the Bajorans. This is nearly impossible, as most Bajorans are depicted as helpless sheep who are WAY too religious, and generally weak. If this was TNG, Picard would find himself disgusted with their blind faith and rigid dogmas. Frankly, I do too.
  
  I admire and respect that Kira is tough, but that's the only thing about her I like at all. Other than that I find her shrill, ignorant, and generally annoying.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From djb on 2009-01-03 at 1:25am:
  I enjoyed this episode quite a lot, even though it was in the old "oh-crap-someone's-taken-us-hostage-what-do-we-do" plot vein.
  
  It was cool to learn more about the Trill. What was especially cool was seeing the change in Verad, and how Sisko knew from the start that it would change him, most likely to Sisko's advantage. Verad, of course, was so myopically focused on his goal of getting a symbiont, that he had failed to really appreciate the full ramifications of joining. That, of course, is probably related to the reasons he was denied a symbiont in the first place. Mareel, not being a trill, had no idea, and seeing her gradual acceptance of what Sisko knew all along is great.
  
  It was pretty interesting to see Jadzia, who is normally so confident, in such a vulnerable state-- it added some depth to her character.
  
  One thing that bothered me was Quark seeming to get off so easily. We hear Kira say he's through at the station toward the beginning of the episode, but this talk goes away by the end. Maybe he redeemed himself just a little by helping the doctor sedate the Klingon and by cracking the lock on the box Odo's stuck in... who knows.
• From Bernard on 2010-03-30 at 1:31pm:
  Good episode for all the reason listed in the main review.
  
  Timing is not fantastic since this is the second episode in a row where the station is evacuated! But we'll forgive that because I like to assess each episode on its own merits.
  
  Interesting to see how all the characters react to the situation. Can you see the same thing playing out later in the series? The interaction between Sisko and Verad Dax is especially pleasing and well done. Solid episode, 7 for me.
• From Zaphod on 2011-04-17 at 11:27am:
  Problems
  none
  ???
  Seriously?
  How could you overlook the possibility of putting Jadzia in a stasis pod? How could Bashir miss that?
  
  Very big flaw, but at least the time pressure wasn't overemphasized so it didn't ruin this otherwise very entertainig episode for me.
• From here@there.us on 2011-08-21 at 2:52am:
  I thought this was a really fantastic episode, that belongs more in the 8/9 range.
  
  There are many absolutely exceptional performances here, starting with the actor portraying Verad. The symbiote integration is depicted perfectly. One gets a very clear sense of who Verad is before the joining (and again at the end, when it's reversed), and a very clear sense of the new entity, Verad Dax.
  
  The really astonishing thing is that the viewer can sense that it isn't exactly a "new" entity at all - we're all very familiar with Dax already, as Jadzia Dax, and the portrayal of Verad Dax conveys that uncanny continuity. The effect is really quite an impressive bit of writing, directing, and acting.
  
  Not only does this episode provide more information about Trill society and Symbiote joinings, but we get a direct, emotional sense of what such integrations really mean for the Trills who undergo them.
  
  - - -
  
  There are a handful of other fantastic performances - including Sisko's convincing affections for Jadzia, anger towards Verad, and frustration towards the helplessness of the whole situation. His "temper" outbursts have not always been very compelling in previous episodes, but I love the scene when he goes berserk on the Klingon mercenary.
  
  Bashir also has a great dramatic part to play - he is forced to violate the Hippocratic oath and remove the symbiote from Jadzia, who he is obviously in love with. As the reviewer mentioned, his chewing out the Klingon makes for a remarkable scene. Do not get between a doctor and his patient, even if you're a Klingon holding a disruptor pistol.
  
  Finally, I thought Quark's character was portrayed even a bit better than usual. Perhaps feeling personally responsible for the hijacking (which he certainly was), he puts his lobes on the line and hatches a plan that is both daring and devious. It's quite entertaining to see him launch himself at a Klingon 3 times his size, then feint an excruciating ear injury. There's a few brilliant comedic moments around this ear injury, but it's also a clever and successful plot to free Odo ("Do we really have to?"), and ultimately help Sisko take back the ship.
  
  
  
• From Jeff Browning on 2011-10-18 at 11:21pm:
  A couple of other problems mar this otherwise excellent episode:
  
  1. The ion storm. In my experience of watching Star Trek ion storms requiring the evacuation of a station are exceedingly rare. Did Verad create this one? If not, his appearance at this particular point in time when the station is almost abandoned is conveniently coincidental and therefore not believable.
  
  2. We see Verad as a mediocrity, and absolute milk toast. He cannot even manage without support from his woman. Yet he somehow managed to accumulate enough wealth to obtain a spaceship and pay to Klingon mercenaries, as well as mastermind a brilliant crime. I find no capability like this in Verad pre-joining. Where is he getting this? It just does not fit with the rest of his character.
• From Gul Ranek on 2012-12-12 at 4:13pm:
  Nobody noticed Tim Russ as the Klingon? Seems really strange for the part, too calm, very different than other Klingons on the show. He was good in the role of Tuvok, though. Maybe that's why his acting seems strange to me.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Orion Pimpdaddy on 2006-05-13 at 2:33pm:
  When Dukat is about to kill his daughter, at the end of the cave, look carefully at the right side of the screen. Something appears to crawl down the camera lens and then crawl back up. It may be a drop of water, but that does not explain how it changes direction. It is probably a spider.
  
• From John on 2011-01-11 at 7:28am:
  Another Kira episode. It plays out like this:
  
  Kira hates Cardassians and won't shut up about it. Gul Dukat shows up. Kira is outraged. Dukat is arrogant. Kira gets defensive and self-righteous -- this goes on for about 20 minutes, as usual. Kira puts her foot in her mouth and finally shuts up for a little while. Dukat shocks everybody (except the audience) by proving once again that he's even more evil than they thought he was, but not quite super-evil (yet). Kira witnesses all of this but doesn't learn anything (as usual). The end.
• From Rob UK on 2014-03-03 at 9:36pm:
  I was just watching this episode and just after Dukat sits on the thorn all is not right, i edited out the scene and uploaded it, check this out
  
  Good bit of humour i thought
  
  http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1ehovn_major-kira-anal-fisting-gul-dukat_fun
  
  No copyright infringement intended purely for fandom and entertainment purposes only ;) Thanks for sharing that little snippet of sanity Kethinov

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Pete Miller on 2006-06-01 at 6:24am:
  So how exactly does the universal translator work? I realize that it's just an easy way for them to all speak english on the show, but is there any science at all behind it? Does it just immediately interpret the person's language, and then rebroadcast it in english to Sisko or whoever, and also make their lips appear to be moving with the english words??? This is a rare instance of me siding with Star Wars over Star Trek. In Star Wars they simply have the language 'galactic basic'. If you're civilized, you speak it. Much easier to explain.
  
  This makes me wonder: So every time the romulans speak to someone in the federation, are they really speaking romulan? And when does the universal translator know when to allow it to stay in their own language, like when the Klingons have certain ceremonies in their native tongue. How does it know not to just translate it for everyone else? This, to me, is a ridiculous device that we have to put up with because of the original Star Trek's limited budget. George Lucas learned from Gene Roddenberry's errors on this one. But Star Trek is still waaaaay better than Star Wars :)
• From JRPoole on 2008-12-10 at 3:23pm:
  Ditto the comment above. I've always sort of assumed that the UT rebroadcasts speech in real-time, presumably through the comm badges, a step we thankfully don't have to sit through every time. It's sort of clunky when Haneek begins actually speaking English (whoops, of course I mean Standard) words.
  
  A decent, if flawed, episode altogether, though.
• From Bernard on 2010-10-17 at 10:53am:
  I enjoyed an explanation for the universal translator, further explanation will come in episode 'Little Green Men' of course.
  
  This episodes falls down at the point when the Skreeans lose the viewers sympathy as Eric already pointed out. Otherwise I'm sure it could have scored more highly as, like the last episode, it was fairly original.
• From Tallifer on 2011-03-19 at 5:45am:
  The most unrealistic part of this story is that they can find an empty, freely available and hospitable planet nearby. With all the countless races and cultures in this quadrant, with all the sexual fecundity of those races, with all the military, commercial or imperial ambitions of these races: how could a perfectly good planet remain unclaimed and unsettled?
  
  (Which brings us to another perennial problem with Star Trek: the overabundance of habitable worlds.)
• From Jeff Browning on 2011-10-19 at 6:30pm:
  This comment affects many episodes where Bajor and its situation are discussed, including this one.
  
  In this episode and many others we are told that Bajor is devastated, its citizens are starving, and so forth. I have been privileged to travel the world and have seen many areas where poverty, starvation, and disease prevail.
  
  Whenever we see an image of Bajor, we see none of this: We see prosperous, well fed, well dressed, clean, healthy Bajorans in idyllic, beautiful surroundings. The Bajorans who show up on DS9 are similarly prosperous looking. I am left to wonder: Where is all the devastation folks keep talking about? Where are the naked, starving, filthy, diseased children I have seen in places like India, China, Africa, and Latin America?
  
  It's kind of like the DS9 writers and editors did not have the stomach for it. They did not believe that their viewers could withstand a realistic depiction of a devastated society. Certainly, there is no indication within the frames of DS9 that this is the state of Bajor, at least from what we are allowed to see.
• From Selador on 2013-01-20 at 9:51pm:
  The scene directly after the one where the terrible famine on Bajor is mentioned we see Skreeans queuing up to use a replicator. Ridiculous.
  
  This episode also is a good example of why the universal translator is such a flawed idea.
• From Axel on 2015-06-24 at 3:22am:
  Some interesting comments on this episode.
  
  In response to Tallifer, I don't think it's unrealistic for a planet like Draylon II to be available. The Kepler spacecraft recently searched a tiny total portion of the sky for planets. If there were 8 Earth-like candidates found out of 1,000 identified planets and 150,000 stars, that extrapolates out to billions of potentially habitable planets orbiting their stars in this galaxy even by a pessimistic estimate. This is also why I've never been *that* annoyed by Star Trek's "alien of the week" stuff, although it's always nice when they actually develop an alien race over the series.
  
  As for the Bajorans not being shown living in squalor all the time, I guess I disagree here too. There are quite a few people in places like India and Latin America living in material comfort despite poverty and famine there. Or take post-WW2 Germany. Its cities bombed and in ruins, people broke and often starving, and itself under military occupation. It certainly rebounded quickly, at least in West Germany. Bajor has probably had significant help from the Federation and maybe others in rebuilding, too.
  
  All that said, the Skrreans were crappy guests/refugees. Haneek probably felt under the gun to find the Kentanna planet for her people, which is understandable. But I like how in the meeting with the Bajorans, Sisko keeps on throwing out Draylon II. The Skrreans *never* come up with a good reason to reject it, and their insistence on Bajor makes no sense at all.
  
  A decent episode with some nice moments, but that's about it.
• From Harrison on 2015-07-18 at 12:58am:
  I'm genuinely surprised the reviews for this episode are so poor. Of course it is easy to dislike the Skreeans -- they were not intended to be completely lovable characters, with their flaky skin, their ingratitude, and their inconvenient needs & beliefs -- doesn't reflect badly at all on the writing or acting, both of which I think are excellent.
  
  In truth I found the episode refreshing, and pleased that the writers found the courage to depart from the politically correct.
• From Andy Mu;oz on 2018-08-29 at 12:36am:
  As Peter said, this is an unusual episode. Me as a non trekkie, this is a weird episode. Showing how a relationship between collegues, not even friends, could meant a lot, a huge lot, becouse you are tied with an idealogy (of justice) instead good or bad, its huge in itself for television.
  And this early in the series. My friend, a trekkie begs me to wait to season 3, but Im already an adept. And this is like that like in a lot of episode from this season. As people told me, Im awaiting for the best to come

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Mark McC on 2009-02-19 at 3:02am:
  This is a nice fun episode that ties in nicely with TNG, and provides some light-hearted relief from the relatively heavy mood set by the batch of DS9 episodes (compared to much of TNG anyway). The plot doesn't do much except update us on what Vash has been up to on her travels. The real highlight is, as always, John de Lancie's performance. There doesn't seem to be any real reason for Q being there, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable.
  
  My favourite moment of this episode is Q's little double-edged jibe at O'Brien. "Weren't you one of the little people?". It highlights the fact that O'Brien has moved on from his lesser role in TNG, where he was a minor character who was never far from a transporter console; one of those "little" people who beaver away in the background to keep everything running. It's also a nice reference to his Irish ancestry, "little people" being another name for the leprechauns of Irish legend (as in the hokey Disney movie "Darby O'Gill and the Little People").
• From Bernard on 2009-11-24 at 1:57pm:
  There is a reason that Q never returned to DS9, he doesn't really work does he?
  
  I'm glad they stopped rehashing TNG villains because there was absolutely no reason for Q to be in this episode just like there was no reason the Duras sisters needed to be in 'Past Prologue'. It's nice when they tie in to TNG, but at least make said tie in relevant to the plot (I know they think Q is behind everything that is going on but we all know he isn't and that's getting very old by now - see TNG's Deja Q for this false blame type of thing).
  
  Vash on the other hand is central to the plot and fits into the underworld of DS9 perfectly. Overall a fairly satisfying episode with a mundane plot, I'd give it a 4.
  
  'Picard and his lackeys would have solved all this technobabble hours ago', love that line.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Pete Miller on 2006-04-15 at 4:36am:
  I'd give it a 2 instead of a 1 because it does have some fairly comical moments
• From JRPoole on 2008-11-17 at 3:40pm:
  My (admittedly now vague) memory of DS9 is that it was the high point of the Trek franchise, so it's been a bit surprising to me in my current run through the series to find that, after the promising pilot, the early part of the first season flounders with some truly unremarkable episodes.
  
  "Dax" is a bad episode and doesn't really even get to accomplish the character development it shoots for because the episode is handled so badly. "The Passenger" is lackluster because we pretty much know that Julian is the one carrying Vantika's consciousess from the very beginning.
  
  Then we get this mess: Annoying, ridiculously over-the-top alien-of-the-week. What amounts to a recylced holodeck-malfunction-puts-crew-in-danger plot, and then there turns out to be no real danger at all. On top of that, none of this really makes any sense. At least there are some comical moments.
  
  Also, what's with Primmin? I have no recollection of him, and I can only assume that he goes away quietly after a few episodes. Was he simply a replacement for O'brien during his short stay away from the station?
• From Bernard on 2009-12-02 at 7:03pm:
  Couldn't bring myself to watch this one again in my current 'revisiting' of the series. So it must be bad.
• From John on 2011-01-06 at 12:58am:
  It cannot be overstated how much I completely hate, Hate, HATE this episode.
  
  The worst show of the entire series. The only good thing you can say about it is that they got it out of the way early.
• From Tallifer on 2011-03-08 at 6:22am:
  This story is similar to "The Celestial Toymaker" from early black & white Doctor Who, and believe it or not, the hoary 60s show did it far better. In the Whovian story, there was a real threat that the characters would be trapped forever as toys of the game-playing Toymaker. The games were equally silly and easy to overcome, but the dialogue and the villain were more convincing.
• From Zaphod on 2011-04-16 at 10:18am:
  I really enjoyed watching the first season of DS9 so far, much better storytelling than any other Star Trek series and more interesting characters than the one dimensional ones TNG had ... except for Ro Laren, love her, a real shame that she didnt want to play the Kira character (but Nana Visitor is awesome too).
  
  And because DS9 was really great to this point I am very offended by this terrible episode.
  I think the biggest problem is that Odos reaction to the game didnt make any sense. If he really feared that these aliens would play with the lives of Sisko and the others why didnt he force them to end this immediately? But no, they played along and gambled for their lives! That's just bloody stupid and even vicious. I cant find words for how much I hate this lazy written bullshit episode!
• From Shani on 2014-01-12 at 12:50pm:
  I watched every episode of ds9 when I was a child. For some reason this is the only episode I can remember clearly. Now that I'm re-watching this episode it does seem a little ridiculous. But I still like it for some reason (probably nostalgia more than anything else).
• From BV on 2015-10-28 at 5:35pm:
  Glad to see I am not alone in being appalled by this episode

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From bernard on 2010-10-16 at 9:05am:
  I agree, interesting episode but somewhat 'flat' and pedestrian.
  
  Not sure I liked the way Avery Brooks played it either, if this episode is supposed to 'deal' with his feelings about his wife then it fails badly. (We still await the rejuvenated Sisko that is due to appear complete with shaven head later on). He fawns after Fenna and then when he realises she is married... nothing. It's like setting up some sort of betrayal and then just dropping it.
  
  Perhaps this could have played better using the Defiant later in the series too. There could have been slightly more tension between Sisko/Seyetik/Seyetik's wife and also Sisko might have felt more responsibility for what happens...
  
  I'm clutching at ideas here, it's a pretty poor episode and that's it really.
• From Jeff Browning on 2011-10-19 at 10:13am:
  This episode represents yet another example of Star Trek's use of the "onesie", the tight, form-fitting, one piece outfit worn by young, attractive females for the purpose of pandering to the male prurient interest.
  
  Not that I am complaining. As an attractive young female, Fenna does not disappoint. It seems obvious to me tha Sisko is not in love with Fenna (at least not yet); he simply has the hots for her. (And who can blame him?)
  
  Other uses of the onesie: Troi after losing the micro-mini outfit she wore in TNG: Adventure at Farpoint, Seven (of course), Kira (although it doesn't really work with Kira, Nana Visitor is not that hot), TNG: Legacy where the main guest character, Ishara Yarr (Tasha's sister) gets an electric blue onesie (with a color coordinated phaser holster!) to show off her smoking' hot bod which is given oodles and gobs of airtime by the camera folks.
  
  The onesie is a reminder that, for all its pretensions, Star Trek is largely for us horny, sexually repressed geeks.
• From John on 2011-12-08 at 5:19am:
  Wouldn't it be a better idea to just consider the nonsense of "TNG: Force of Nature" to be the problem, and not hold it against all future episodes when they blatantly ignore the stupid "warp drive destroys the universe" premise? I mean, If you're gonna give "Force of Nature" a zero rating, why should you consider it a problem when nearly every subsequent episode ignores it? I rather like future episodes not reminding me of such an arbitrary "rule."
  
  Anyway... I found this episode to be pretty boring. Not because it was a romance episode, but because I just wasn't buying the Fenna character. Her calm demeanor seems way too studied to work with Sisko's boisterous/laid-back dual nature.
• From Bronn on 2013-07-02 at 6:38am:
  It's episodes like this that made my friends describe this show as, "Soap Opera in SPACE," back during its run. Sisko is getting over the death of his wife, and he meets a new woman! But a twist! She's Married! But another twist-she's not really Fenna, she's a psycho-productive illusion of Fenna! Oh, how will our crazy cast sort this out?!
  
  I have no issue with a romance plot, and no issue with Sisko dealing with his grief. Those are good human issues to explore. This kind of cheesy plot manipulation, trying to shove both of those down our throats in order to set up a lame, uninteresting twist, is what this show wasn't meant to be about. I adored Cassidy Yates when she showed up later, because she actually made more sense than Sisko falling for the AOTW.
  
  And yeah, I agree with the sentiment that the B-Plot for the week was much more interesting. This would have made a much better episode without the Fenna character.
• From Martin on 2014-03-19 at 4:31am:
  As i understand it, a gigantic, massive thing as a star has only so many ways to "die". None of wich includes becoming something like we see in this episode...looks more like a gigantic dead planet or something, no light emitted of any sort. So i looked it up, turns out there's this theory that tells us that a white dwarf star (what a small-middle sized star becomes after it dies) cools down over the eons and it's supposed to become a "black dwarf star", cristalized, solid and with no light emitted whatsoever.
  Anyway, besides the fact that we couldn't see this type of dead stars and we clarly see it on the viewing screen of the Prometheus, it's quite impressive to me that the writers took so many detail on this sort of thingies...loved it.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Bernard on 2009-12-03 at 10:29am:
  Interesting premise done badly, and I agree that the Kai is just thrown in there as a convenient way of setting up the ongoing bajoran story arc. I'd hardly say misuse of a great character though, she was only in the pilot for about five minutes!
  
  The three regulars are all well within character though and I liked Kira's reaction to Opaka's death, unfortunately because the viewer has not grown to know the Opaka character well enough any emotional impact is lost for me so you cannot share in her grief. It smacked much more of a TNG plot however with the convenient escape at the end. I gave it a 4, mainly for all the interesting moments and good characterisation throughout.
• From John on 2012-03-24 at 8:06pm:
  This episode is pretty bad. Not nearly as bad as 'Move Along Home', but still pretty bad. It has the additional distinction of being the episode which open the doors for Winn's rise to power. This is also a bummer.
  
  However, it does have one redeeming moment: when Kira reads her Cardassian intelligence file and discovers they didn't consider her much of a threat, she flips out, and I laugh every time. Yet another example of Kira taking things way too seriously.
• From Nathan on 2013-10-12 at 9:42am:
  This was a filler episode, and it was pretty awful. I think it might be my least favorite in this season (possibly even worse than move along home).
  
  About the only redeeming quality this episode had was setting up the Kai election at the end with Opaka's demise. Additionally, her end was thankfully brief- I hated every scene with her in it. She was a one dimensional character that spouted meaningless mumbo jumbo. People say she was a character that didn't get the chance to be developed. I say I am glad she didn't get more time and that they got rid of her when they did.
• From tigertooth on 2016-08-08 at 3:03am:
  Mike Ehrmantraut!
  
  I also thought I saw Hack Scudder (John Savage) in there as leader of the Nol-Ennis, but maybe it wasn't him.
  
  Anyway, did they ever follow up on the microbes that keep people from dying? You'd think that would be a major discovery.
• From Abigail on 2019-08-29 at 9:52pm:
  I just rewatched this episode. I didn't hate it as much as anyone else. Sure, it was a rather unfitting end for the Kai, but it's not like she was a hugely developed character prior to the episode. The main thing that bugged me is the way they didn't explore this new nanite technology at all. You'd think they'd be staying there to study it, doing anything they could to recreate it so the people could leave that world. It was weird how they discovered how the people returned to life, realized they'd die if they left the surface, and then were just like, "Oh, well. We'll leave the Kai here and never think about it again!"