The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From MJ on 2011-02-25 at 6:18pm:
  A decent two-parter.
  
  First, this Romulan ploy to hide weapons on the Bajoran moon seems a bit forced. I know the Romulans are supposed to be the deceptive chess masters always looking to one-up the Federation with some clever ploy, but it seems out of place here considering the Romulans are already at war with the Dominion. And Kira would be much more believable if she was just a tad bit anguished over this whole situation rather than arrogantly sure of herself through the whole thing. Ever see the movie “Thirteen Days”? In the real world, I’d imagine Kira is losing some sleep over something as significant as the Romulan Empire building up weapons on her homeworld’s moon. Instead, she acts more like Maverick at a game of poker. I don’t buy it.
  
  Sisko’s mission to find the Orb of the Emissary and his false vision was enjoyable. I’m usually not a fan of this Emissary story arc, but this is one of the rare times it was well handled and intriguing. I like the idea of explaining Sisko’s connection to the Prophets by having him be a descendant of them; it grounds the story a bit more and removes some of the supernatural. And I always LOVE when Brock Peters guest stars. He’s a fantastic actor.
  
  The third subplot, where Worf and the DS9 comrades go on a mission to get Jadzia into Sto’Vo’Kor is the best, though. I like the petty bickering between Bashir, O’Brien, and Quark, especially over the mess hall incident. And Worf’s apology is a nicely done scene. Their destruction of the shipyards was a very good action sequence, and made for a fine plot addition.
  
  In the end, the three subplots work well together; I even like the occasional flash to Damar and Weyoun.
• From Lt. Fitz on 2012-07-05 at 5:02pm:
  The whole Trill thing is weird.
  
  It seems a bit unfair that keeping a symbiont alive can entail what seems to me to be the enslavement of a Trill host. She didn't want to host Dax? Then it should have died. I mean, Ezri already had a life. She was in Starfleet, for goodness sake. She obviously wasn't planning to be a host. Now she is stuck with the symbiont. And, why didn’t they just put the symbiont in Stasis until they could find it a willing host?
  
  Also, it has been established that when symbiont and host are put together, they basically become a new person. Shouldn't that new person have to be reconsidered for Starfleet? It's not the same Ezri after all. What if Dax had ended up in a Trill like Joran?
  
  I know. It's a TV show. I'm probably thinking it through too much. :)
  
• From Lt. Fitz on 2012-07-05 at 6:17pm:
  I don't get it. I watched the very first episodes after watching this one, because it seemed to me that the prophets were being very inconsistent. In the first episodes, the prophets don’t know what linear time is. They don’t seem to know what Sisko is. They even conclude that he must be destroyed! He has to argue with them to save himself! Now, late in the series they are written to have reached far across the quadrant to take control of a human woman to produce Sisko himself. Making Sisko what exactly? A human/prophet hybrid? The son of the gods? The savior of the wormhole? To do all this, it seems to me a species needs to have a pretty firm grip on what linear time is. It’s clear that the writers have gone too far with the whole emissary thing. Throughout the series it seemed like they were really pushing to go too far with it, and in this episode, they finally did it.
  
  I now understand why a lot of Trek fans had problems with DS9. It was mostly working for me when I could frame the prophets as a difficult-to-comprehend race of aliens that the Bajorans were mistaking for gods who must have been inadvertently interacting with the Bajorans simply because their planet was in the vicinity of one end of the wormhole. But now, I don’t know what to think. Their nature is so inconsistent and unclearly defined that they have become completely inconceivable to me. When a story includes such opacity, it strikes me as carelessly written. Even the most bizarre circumstances in the previous series could always be explained in general scientific terms within the rules of the Star Trek universe as it had been defined. But in the DS9 universe, literally anything can happen and no explanation is required. DS9 definitely took Star Trek from science fiction to space fantasy, which is a bit of a downer for me since I greatly preferred Star Trek being science fiction. If I wanted space fantasy, I could always turn to Star Wars.
  
  This is not to say that I dislike DS9. I generally like it. But, as I read someone else comment, it’s not really Star Trek. I just wish that it would have remained consistent within its unique universe, but it idn’t.
  
• From Hugo on 2013-02-13 at 7:56am:
  I was a bit disappointed with the events on the Rotarran - I was expecting there to be some point where Bashir and Quark would be useful for the completion of the mission - now they were just passangers. The Chief, on the other hand, got to contribute...
• From James on 2014-06-05 at 11:45pm:
  Seems like someone is sabotaging your rating system. All of seas 7 episodes have an inconsistent amount of zero votes. I really doubt that seas 7 is so hated that the majority of people would give all the episodes a zero. So, for this season I think I'll depend on YOUR ratings for my guide. Someone obviously has a lot of time on their hands. Too bad they are using it to skew the results on, IMHO, the best Star Trek review site on the Web.
• From Axel on 2015-05-11 at 4:46am:
  Maybe it's just me, but the Romulan decision to defend their hospital with torpedoes seems perfectly justified. If I were in their place, I wouldn't trust the defense of a crucial hospital facility to the antiquated ships the Bajoran militias use. Maybe they were a bit too secretive about the whole thing, but it's not exactly an act of war. Kira and the Bajorans come across as unreasonable by demanding outright that the Romulans remove the weapons rather than work something out. I guess you could explain it as the Bajorans having deja vu about an outside power starting a military occupation in their space, but that part of the story didn't really work IMO.
  
  Still not sure what to make of this whole Prophet/Pah-Wraith thing. I agree it gets a little carried away in Season 7, although in this particular episode I think it made for a good plot.
• From McCoy on 2017-03-05 at 2:06pm:
  I really liked return of Ben Russell. Seems like the writers know that their idea of Sisko being Prophet is silly. After all Russell is insane during writing this story:)
  I'm probalby in minority but I regret they didn't kill Jadzia earlier. Never liked her irritating behaviour. In this one episode Ezri is better written, performed and more interesting character than Jadzia in previous six seasons alltogether.
• From ChristopherA on 2021-04-26 at 4:41pm:
  I found the plot on the Rotarran excessively silly. It just seemed rather unrealistic for Quark, in particular, to go on a suicide mission he cannot contribute to, just because he thinks it would vaguely honor Jadzia’s memory. He never really seemed all that obsessively smitten with her before. I could believe Worf, but it just really came across to me as though O’Brian, Bashir, and Quark mainly went along because they knew that the scriptwriters wanted them to go and weren't really going to kill them, so it was worth a little inconvenience in honor of Jadzia. And it was also pretty silly that Quark was allowed on the bridge during combat, where he served no purpose other than as a distraction.
  
  I felt the idea that Sisko was basically descended from one of the Prophets was weird and pointless, it didn't seem to serve any purpose other than to pad the runtime. I don't see how this in any way improves over the more straightforward assumption that he is an ordinary man, and the Prophets picked Sisko to be the Emissary purely because they can see outside of linear time and knew he was going to be the right man in the right place at the right time for their purposes.
  
  Aside from this, though, I did kind of enjoy how Sisko took some time off to visit the restaurant and go on a holy quest, the episode did have a sort of grandiose feel to it.
  

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Jaap on 2010-11-15 at 7:54pm:
  Why do doorbells on Empok Nor have a Starfleet tone?
• From Omcn on 2012-01-09 at 10:19am:
  
  While it is true that this ep. did not fit in a whole lot to the overall storyline of the series (other then a look at what Mr crazy man has been up to since he killed off the last dax). I saw this episode as a social commentary on the dangers of many of the negative aspects of organized religion. Viewing it from that perspective I thoroughly enjoyed it.
• From Psycroptic on 2012-07-18 at 2:27am:
  I agree with Omcn, definitely not the best episode, but it had a good message.
• From Harrison on 2012-08-28 at 11:42am:
  I thought it one of the better episodes of the closing season, with particularly strong performances. It was a lucid and memorable commentary on injustice and manipulation.
  
  Empok Nor is displayed at a slightly evil tilt simply to distinguish it at a glance from DS9.
• From L on 2013-08-17 at 12:07am:
  The Bajorans are credulous superstitious peasants. How did they ever qualify for membership to the Federation?
  
  This episode was probably a pretty accurate portrayal of the dynamics within a cult.
  Loved the mural of Dukat.
• From Alex on 2021-03-22 at 9:33pm:
  Why is it a "problem" every time that Empok Nor is shown at an angle? It's a scenic technique... to signify something that's perhaps odd, irregular, out of "order", broken. In Empok Nor's case, it's an odd/dark counterpart to DS9. So, it's shown at a different angle, it fell out of the normal loop, it's the "wrong" station.
  
  My 'problem' actually is how Dukat is wearing a snake/alligator skin like coat. Isn't it like... if humans were wearing ape skin coats? Cardassians are reptilian...

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Orion Pimpdaddy on 2008-11-18 at 9:30pm:
  Do we have to see Odo herding animals three times? The first time it was funny, but not the second or third.
  
  The conversations with the ball player were so boring!
• From Jake on 2012-05-22 at 2:46pm:
  although I agree that this was a lame episode I always thought that the alien species were the prophets trying for the first time to figure out the the way corporeal existence. Sisko even gets the baseball at the end that play a role in several important future episodes.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Pete Miller on 2006-06-22 at 4:32pm:
  I agree with the problem about the Jem'Hadar's rapid growth. Bashir tells us that his cells have an extremely high metabolic rate. All that means is that his body processes almost 100% of the food it intakes and his cells divide accordingly. Metabolism should mean nothing if the body is not taking in any food. If his body was somehow altered to still maintain the high metabolic rate even when no food was consumed, he would simply die. His cells would start to break down his body's own proteins and muscle tissue in the absence of food. The only way to achieve growth like this Jem'Hadar has would be to have him on an I.V. of pure sugar water 24/7. And even then, the rate at which he grows is simply absurd. To go from an infant to a young boy in a matter of days is like watering a plant once and it blooming in two seconds. It's just absurd growth that defies the laws of nature.
  
  That's just a Biology major's point of view. I can certainly suspend my disbelief so the Dominion can be cooler! :)
• From JRPoole on 2009-01-14 at 12:21am:
  I have similar problems to the ones listed here, but they don't take away from the episode too much in the end. This is a bit of a rehash of "I, Hugh" from TNG, but it's well done, and we needed to more about the Jem Ha'dar.
• From MJ on 2011-02-08 at 6:06pm:
  Two episodes in a row that have hints of TNG in them, eh? First DS9: Second Skin (also known as TNG: Face of the Enemy) and now DS9: The Abandoned, also known as TNG: I, Borg. The writers must have been watching a TNG marathon back in October '94!
  
  I'm just ribbing, of course. There were quite a few TNG episodes (especially in Season One) with hints of TOS in them.
  
  In my review I'm kind of incorporating DS9: Chimera from Season Seven, in case anybody reads this and would prefer a spoiler alert.
  
  In both episodes, Odo fails to convince a Dominion race to accept the people around him as he has done. This Jem'Hadar (and Laas the Changeling) not only fail to share Odo's tolerance for the DS9 humanoids, they actually scorn him for the life he has chosen. I like both of these episodes, in this case because it doesn't have the "happily ever after" ending where the Jem'Hadar learns to love the Federation and settles down to a peaceful life. Also, as in DS9: Chimera, the people on DS9 do not warm up to this Dominion life form; instead, they are terrified of him, and want nothing to do with him.
  
  What this does is add dimension to the Odo character. In both episodes, Odo is really the only one who sympathizes with the visiting alien. Also, in both episodes, we actually see Odo is willing to leave his life on DS9 for them. In Chimera, it's to find the rest of the Hundred and link with them. Here, it's to reform a Jem'Hadar and prevent him from rejoining the ranks of the others. These episodes show that Odo is not firmly in the Federation camp. He has grown to love Kira and admire several of the humanoids, but he is not so invested in his life on DS9 that he doesn't consider leaving if a suitable alternative presents itself. DS9 almost loses Odo several times, and it shows how torn Odo must feel, and how isolated. He seems desperate for someone else from the Dominion to choose, and therefore, perhaps, to validate, the same life he has chosen. Not only is he isolated and torn, he is unsure. He is in a state of disorder, the ultimately unacceptable feeling for a Changeling.
  
  On another note, how mad must Admiral Nechayev be after this episode? First, Picard helps a young Borg become healthy and then leave, and now Sisko does the same for a Jem'Hadar. After this, I'm sure Nechayev made a new rule that any abandoned kids from Federation enemies are to be turned over to her pronto!
  
  The subplot had potential but didn't really take up enough screen time to get interesting. It was really overshadowed by the much more fascinating issue of having a Jem'Hadar on board. Still, Jake would seem to have a thing for Bajoran women!
• From zex on 2011-09-07 at 2:43pm:
  I actually thought this was quite a poor episode, largely because the Jem'Hadar "child" was portrayed unconvincingly. I think if that role could've been written, cast and performed a lot better.
  
  There were other problems too... The idea of a rapidly developing humanoid could've been interesting... But this was never really explored. Instead the boy's mind just somehow matured "without external stimulus," which makes about zero sense, advanced genetic engineering or no advanced genetic engineering.
  
  Another missed opportunity was the weird cloaking capability they seem to have. It would've been interesting to get into that.
  
  Instead of anything really intriguing, we get some lame, lazily choreographed fight scene in a holosuite.
  
  The "enzyme addiction" thing is kind of interesting, but doesn't really make too much sense. I could see how genetically engineering a species to be dependent on a unique substance could be useful, but not so much in the way it's portrayed here. How would making your well-honed killing machine irritable, anxious, and with an elevated heart beat help you control it? Wouldn't that just make it desperate, angry, and even more violent than usual? That's just about what we see here when "the child" starts going into withdrawal. Really doesn't make much sense.
  
  Here's another thing that doesn't make sense: DS9 security can't apprehend a lone Jem'Hadar without killing him? I understand that Sisko was under pressure from Odo and his own conscience, but that conflict and its resolution just wasn't portrayed very well. He comes out with a team, his phaser ready, then suddenly does an about face and agrees with Odo that they have to let him go in order to avoid bloodshed. Isn't that what the stun settings are for? Again, I get that he probably didn't really want to apprehend the guy, but that part wasn't really conveyed very well on screen.
  
  So, this wasn't much of an episode, IMHO. Mostly because the Jem'Hadar child just wasn't a very convincing or sympathetic character. That topped by some problems with the plot.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Azduel on 2010-03-31 at 1:45am:
  This episode is definitely exciting and entertaining. It's great because it gives a bit of a break from the intensity of the Dominion war, and also because it develops an "out of uniform" look into the characters. However I hate to nitpick, but there are a few elements to this episode I found annoying. Firstly, why is Bashir so bad? He should be better than any of the Vulcans, as he is genetically engineered for coordination etc. Second, why is Worf so terrible? Worf presumably spends all of his downtime in the holosuite improving his prowess as a warrior. Surely a lifetime of physical training should produce someone who can hit a ball with a bat, he should be able to knock it out of the park every time!
• From rpeh on 2010-08-04 at 3:28pm:
  I'm not a big fan of baseball - it's just rounders played while wearing pyjamas - but this was pretty fun to watch even so, and it's good to see the writers not falling into the trap of having the Niners win.
  
  One lovely touch was Quarks signature on the ball at the end, with a little pair of ears on the Q.
• From MJ on 2011-01-29 at 12:39pm:
  Overall, a great episode. Parts of it were painfully embarrassing to watch, but most of it was hilarious. I think I cracked up after every single one of Odo’s calls (Ball Three! Steeeerrrrrike Two! Yooouuu’re outta here!) Auberjonois did a great job putting so much gusto into it...Odo approaches every task wanting to get all the little details right, and this time it made for some nice comic relief to see him imitate an Earth umpire. And Worf’s “death to the opposition” and “find him and kill him” were classic. Somehow I think rugby would be more to a Klingon’s liking than baseball.
  
  This episode also showed the Federation isn’t really a big happy family. Even species within the Federation sometimes look down on each other, which I think is more realistic than pretending they all get along just fine and dandy. They may share a desire for peace and exploration, but think about it: no matter what country you go to in the world today, people in different regions of that country tend to look down on other regions. Star Trek is just carrying this to the galactic level, and it makes perfect sense.
• From Damien Bradley on 2013-03-02 at 6:48am:
  I almost skipped this episode when it became clear it was going to be a holodeck/holosuite filler episode. But then I came here and skimmed your review, and how could I skip an episode you rated a 10? Anyway, I sure am glad I watched it. It kept me laughing well into the next day. I could almost predict by the time the game was underway that they were going to get creamed, but my hunch was right that somehow Sisko would call it a victory anyway. I love how much Odo got into his role, and you could see he took pride in being impartial, but you could also see the smile on his face when he ejected the Vulcan captain from the game. The exchange in the bar toward the end was priceless.
  
  Worf: "Death to the opposition!"
• From Keith on 2013-08-27 at 12:13am:
  Enjoyed this episode but it falls into a trap many series fall into in that the main characters are the only people who exist. Captain Sisko commands a space station and a star ship he has to have more competent crewmen than Nog for instance. And Quark is not a member of his crew. I understand that the series is about the lead actors but if Sisko wanted to win (which he did before he learned the heart warming lesson of camaraderie) he would have put together a much better team.
• From mandeponium on 2014-01-02 at 8:01pm:
  A baseball episode was inevitable and I'm just glad it was as good as it was. This is the kind of episode that works best late in a series and would not have had the same punch if they had done it in season 2 or 3.
• From Armsauce on 2017-06-30 at 1:22am:
  Why was Solok allowed in the holosuite unannounced?
• From Jason on 2020-11-25 at 6:27am:
  "This episode is one of many which confirms the idea that Starfleet largely segregates their facilities and starships by race. Evidence: all Vulcan crew starship T'Kumbra."
  
  I always figured that, for the most part, the Federation recruits its armies by having individual members recruit them. In the American Civil War, military units were organized by, and came from, member states -- both for the Union and the Confederacy. Hence, the 3rd New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry Regiment, or the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. Members of a unit were primarily from the state that organized them. Although there was no rule against joining another state's regiment, it was of course easiest to join one's own. The United States Army also had their own Federal regiments, not organized by a single state.
  
  In StarFleet, then, some ships and wings might be organized by individual members, like the Vulcans. Some might be organized by Humans. And yet another set of the top-line ships might be run by the Federation directly.
  
  Particularly in a giant war like the Dominion War, I could see how individual units from member states would be brought into the main force during the conflict. It is not clear, however, whether, for instance, the USS Enterprise NCC1701 was a Federal ship or an Earth/Hew-mahnn ship, nor with Deep Space Nine.
• From ChristopherA on 2021-04-23 at 3:25pm:
  It annoyed me that the episode couldn't quite seem to make up its mind on the nature of the baseball game. The episode clearly seemed to be saying that Sisko was being unreasonable and over competitive when he dropped Rom from the team, as if it were a team building exercise or other casual game where everyone regardless of skill level participates. But in every other way the episode shows it is a fully competitive baseball game play strictly according to the rules, which would include definite rules on the size of the team. And he even mentioned having tryouts. Which would mean that if he had allowed Rom to be on the team, then one of the players who actually made it onto the final team would have to be rejected from the team instead. Which means that what all the other players on the team really wanted was for Sisko to play favoriates and unfairly permit an incompetent player onto the team just because they like him, and reject a more competent player who actually qualified for the position.
  
  This problem could easily have been solved by minor story adjustments, such as by establishing that Sisko replaced Rom by strongarming someone onto the team who didn't even want to play.
  
  Aside from this, though, I did actually enjoy the nature of the rivalry between Sisko and Solok, and how Sisko was able to overcome his demons and find victory in defeat at the end.
  
• From floreign on 2022-09-15 at 7:00am:
  This to me is the absolute nadir of the show. I still have nightmares about how bad it was, many years after having watched it first. I tried it again once, and didn't get any better; I am skipping it every time since. But again, I am not a baseball fan.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Matt on 2008-03-19 at 11:14pm:
  This episode is a tribute to the musical "Brigadoon". Which might help to explain the way Dax acts. Much of the main plot points are similar. Also, like the original play, it kinda sucks.
• From JRPoole on 2009-01-14 at 2:33am:
  The A plot love story is one of the most embarrassingly bad moments in all of Trek, and that's saying something. The dialogue is lame,and Jadzia's decision is ridiculous and way out of character, as is Sisko's reaction, though Avery Brooks acts it well.
  
  The B plot is uproariously funny, if a bit cheap. It's the only thing this episode has going for it, so I gave it a 1 just for that.
• From djb on 2009-05-01 at 6:31am:
  I agree, Dax's behavior in this episode is way out of character. After 7 lifetimes, anyone is going to be smart enough not to confuse infatuation with love. All Jadzia and her new boyfriend have is infatuation; they know practically nothing about each other, what to speak of them being different species. And she's ready to leave everything and everyone she knows behind on a whim? Silly.
  
  I like it when different plots in a single episode somehow tie together or are related; unfortunately plot A and plot B had nothing to do with each other, even though plot b was indeed rather humorous.
• From rpeh on 2010-07-29 at 9:38am:
  This episode is so crammed with technobabble it's almost leaking at the seams. Intersecting dimensions, singularities in the quantum matrix.... give me strength! It didn't help that I kept thinking of Deral as the bible-thumping Vice-Presidential candidate from the West Wing.
  
  The B-plot is funny, though, and the end scene just priceless!

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Bernard on 2009-12-03 at 10:28pm:
  Two moments of sheer genius in this episode, otherwise it is atrocious.
  
  The first is Nog's practical joke involving the bucket...
  
  The second is the knife fight involving Bashir, O'Brien and the bajoran! Watch it again, it's like something from Naked Gun!
  
  What I love about the relationship between Bashir and O'Brien at this point in the series is that they are written to be idiots. O'Brien is outrageously rude to Bashir in this episode whilst Bashir is so self important up to this point. That's where DS9 is such an improvement on TNG, the characters are flawed and therefore seem more real and you can relate to them.
• From John on 2011-12-06 at 2:26pm:
  One question kept nagging at me the whole time I was watching this episode: How can the Bajorans possibly have a 10,000-year-old, warp-capable civilization when their people are this stupid?
  
  Sadly, we will see numerous other instances of stupid, easily-led Bajorans throughout the series, so this aspect of the show never really improves.
• From Abigail on 2019-08-29 at 10:27pm:
  This one was pretty absurd. The idea of inventing a monster to fight every so often - which only one person knows is not actually a real monster - in order to bring people together is .... questionable. If nothing else, surely the townspeople would figure out it was all a hoax at some point??

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Pete Miller on 2006-06-08 at 4:21am:
  I will definitely agree that seeing Obrien phase Alixus would have been wondefully satisfying. However, as annoying as this episode was, I rather liked the ending. Having those two children stand there at the end was like a final statement against the lunacy of the 'community'.
  
  Never trust governments that sacrifice the rights of the individual for the good of the whole.
• From EKH on 2007-04-30 at 2:29pm:
  "No EM activity down here."
  Umm, hello? How do explain the simple fact that you can still see, then, Mr. O'Brien?
• From curt on 2010-05-12 at 2:12pm:
  The people on the planet were former starfleet members right?(Atleast I think so) If so i find it odd that they would be quick to result to torture. Even if there leader tells them to.
• From Ry-Fi on 2011-01-27 at 9:46am:
  Problem? Why did the Orinoco have to lasso the Rio Grande out of warp? Hasn't Trek established ages ago that their starships are remote controllable, provided one knows the ship-specific security command code? I was expecting Kira and Dax to simply remote to it and tell it to drop to impulse.
  
  Naturally I'd just assume that each of the runabouts could remote any of the others, cause well, why the hell not, for obvious tactical and safety reasons! My assumption must be wrong, otherwise this is a glaring moment of writer's oversight...
• From Bernard on 2011-03-14 at 8:54pm:
  Hmm...
  
  What to say about this one!
  
  Very ordinary. The part where Sisko goes and locks himself back in the box is played out to be a really important moment of the episode... but all it achieves is to make him look stupid.
  
  The characters on the planet are fairly well fleshed our though, shame the plot never really got the most out of them.
• From Zaphod on 2011-04-20 at 10:36am:
  Um...
  So for 10 years she exploited us like laboratory rats for her own little social experiment?
  Well, I'm okay with it, no hard feelings, let's keep that "community", I like it...
  
  I'm speechless, didn't expect that ending, that was really really really bad, mind-boggling, abysmal, WOW!
  
• From Bronn on 2011-10-22 at 5:32pm:
  Zaphod's got the right of this. I have no freaking idea how "Whispers," a beautifully executed episode with an exciting premise, rates a 4, while this episode, with a freaking terrible premise and an ending that defies any rationalization, rates a 5.
  
  This is probably my least favorite episode of DS9 ever. I'm insulted that they attempted to write this character off as sympathetic. For one, Star Trek is a horrible venue for a "Technology is Evil," Aesop, when technology has solved ALL of Earth's problems. Clean, safe, renewable energy, along with groundbreaking medicine and the ability to easily feed every starving person everywhere. Yeah, damned technology.
  
  And Alixus deserved to be tried for murder. Yeah, trap people on a planet without their consent, force them to suffer and die from snakebites and harsh conditions because SHE rejects modern medicine-that sounds like a heinous crime to me. But the ending makes it seem like we should agree with the crap she's peddling. This episode was a ridiculous mess. DS9 can do so much better, and they know it. What bugs me the most is Ira Steven Behr wondering how she failed to be sympathetic. Yeah, shoving Sisko in a box because O'Brien "hurt the community," through his "selfishly wasted time," trying to contact the runabout so that he could get some medical assistance for the dying girl. How snobbishly selfish of him to agree to the rules of a society where he was stranded in two days ago, and for hoping that he might someday see his child again.
  
  It's insulting that the writers and producers wanted her to be likable.
• From Drac on 2013-02-02 at 1:32am:
  I totally agree with the review. I would personally make up whatever to get them off the planet, because 10 y of brainwashing clearly affecting their judgment. They don't even have enough people.
• From Domi on 2014-08-17 at 5:32am:
  I didn't think they could make a more unlikable character than Haneek from Sanctuary but they did it. I wanted to smother Alixus with a pillow until she suffocated.
• From Axel on 2015-06-23 at 5:07am:
  I share the desire to have seen Alixus on the business end of Miles' phaser. She certainly had a hold on these people Branch Davidian style. And it was also disappointing to see the ending where her unwitting pawns basically accept their role in her little social experiment.
  
  I do agree with Pete Miller that the very ending scene was nice, and I think it redeems the episode a bit. Sure, the writers give Alixus a chance to get on her soapbox and preach her nonsense, but in the end, the community's children are already questioning things. Who knows, maybe down the road they escape that planet while the rest of the community finds themselves suddenly under Dominion occupation :)
  
• From ChristopherA on 2020-07-19 at 9:31pm:
  The episode was generally interesting but I found Sisko excessively passive. They made very clear that the leader was a charismatic evil cult leader with a mesmerizing hold over the colony, and Sisko just doesn’t do much about it. They desperately needed Kirk or Picard to come give some dramatic speeches telling off the colonists for following that psycho, both in the middle (instead of just passively going into the box) and at the end (instead of just abandoning the brainwashed colonists).

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Damien Bradley on 2013-03-03 at 1:41am:
  I liked this episode quite a bit, except for one scene: the music scene. I'm sorry, but no matter how genetically enhanced your brain is, you don't sound like that after a near lifetime of not speaking, let alone not having your voice trained. That scene was painful.
  
  Aside from that, it was some great character development (even so late in the series) for Bashir. I feel bad for him. Aside from his short-lived relationship with Leeta, he's been pretty lonely, and now he finally meets a woman like him, whom he can really relate to! Too bad she has no experience with relationships, and yes, he did move awfully fast and make a whole lot of assumptions about what their relationship would look like! Rather presumptuous. But understandable, given his character and given how lonely he's been.
  
  The episode reminded me of the movie "Awakenings," where several catatonic patients are given a treatment that temporarily allowed them to function and interact. I was afraid that this episode would end the same way, with Sarina returning to her original state. I thought that her not returning to her original state, but not staying on the station, was a good middle ground. The moment when Bashir is talking to her while she was pretending to be unresponsive, and then her responding to his "do you love me" with "I don't know!" was quite touching.
  
  One little note: maybe this episode was produced before the scientific consensus was that the universe will actually expand forever rather than collapse inward on itself. Or maybe in 400 years there will be new evidence for the "Big Crunch?" Or, maybe Jack is onto something the rest of us aren't? Funny either way.
• From Selador on 2013-09-22 at 4:17am:
  Oh wow. This episode has 10 written all over it. Just superb. So many beautiful scenes and the overall story was immense. I think I might like this even more than In the Pale Moonlight.
• From Dr. Philip Channard on 2015-06-10 at 12:07pm:
  Sarina reminded me of Tiffany from Hellraiser.
• From lumzi23 on 2017-01-22 at 11:09pm:
  Gotta disagree with Damien. The music scene is one of my favorite scene in all of DS9 (or even in all of ANYTHING!) It was amazing.
• From Scott Nolan on 2018-10-23 at 12:41pm:
  Sarina is played by columnist and frequent “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” panelist Faith Salie.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Popescu on 2010-08-22 at 2:45pm:
  Completely agree about Keiko and O'Brien's problems.
  
  About the telepathic influence affecting only the senior staff... At the party there were other personnel who were kissing and/or hugging in the background... Were they also senior officers? If they were, shouldn't we know something about them?
  
  With all the bunch of characters in DS9, it's quite hard in an episode like this to focus on more non-essential ones, maybe just showing them in the background is enough. Also, Bareil is not an senior officer, neither is Jake or Quark :)
  
  I don't think this is a problem... The episode just focuses on the most important characters, many of them being part of the senior staff.
• From Ry-Fi on 2011-02-06 at 6:08am:
  Great episode. I LOVE the directing/cinematography of this one! Way to go, Avery Brooks! There are so many long, moving shots, and the DS9 set is really shown off far better than in any other episode that's come before. This one must've been a hoot to make, and I'm sure somewhat challenging for the actors.
  
  As always, Majel Barrett is a pleasure to see (I love that woman, and her portrayal of Lwaxana is divine).
  
  Finally, this episode really adds credence to the fact that Keiko O'Brien can be a real bitch. Her way of talking with Miles and resolving issues sure rubs me the wrong way. I'm not entirely fond of her, and sure don't understand what Miles sees in her. Their relationship does come across as fairly realistic - it's just too bad it doesn't seem like a great one...
• From Gul Ranek on 2012-12-23 at 9:58pm:
  I guess this is DS9's version of The Naked Time/The Naked Now, although a bit more fun. When I read the recap, I thought it was going to be a disaster, but turned out not to be all that bad. The only problem for me is the almost-cartoonish scene when Bareil punched Sisko who responded by blocking his subsequent punches like Neo in the Matrix, after which Dax knocked Bareil out. As for the question why only the senior staff was affected, I guess it could be argued that Lwaxana had her outbursts only when she was present around them.
  
  P.S. How come you stopped doing the filler count halfway through the second season? This episode, for example, could be marked as the starting point for the Kira/Odo romance.
• From Kethinov on 2012-12-24 at 3:27am:
  I'm currently doing a DS9 rewatch and slowly altering my reviews to tweak things and add the filler quotients. You'll see more added in the coming months. I expect the project to be completed by June.
• From tigertooth on 2016-09-27 at 4:15am:
  Respectfully, I disagree completely with Gul Ranek. The "fight" between Sisko and Bareil was my favorite part! It was indeed slapstick, but it also makes sense: Bareil could never go toe-to-toe with Sisko. And it's a silly episode, so they should have gotten silly in the final scene. If anything, the problem is there wasn't *more* ridiculousness.
  
  Does anybody have a gif of Sisko's reaction to Bareil's punches?
• From C on 2017-04-19 at 2:19am:
  Avery Brooks' acting when Dax is seducing Sikso is so perfectly genuine. I enjoy this one overall.
• From Gaius Gracchus on 2021-08-16 at 9:04pm:
  A fun romp in the vein of The Naked Time/The Naked Now. Works better than the TNG variant because it comes along after the characters and relationships are established.
• From Azalea Jane on 2021-11-29 at 10:13am:
  I could have done without O'Brien being a jealous jerk to his wife... again. They really get lazy with O'Brien sometimes. They just make him suffer and/or super moody. I was completely with Keiko in this one (as I usually am). It was touching he was willing to resign for her, though perhaps a bit over-the-top. At least he came around. (And apparently he's a pretty good lay.)
  
  I would have been more sold if the "love vibes" affected different people differently, depending on their self-awareness and maturity. One redeeming aspect of The Naked Now was that some of the more "serious" officers were more in control than the others.
  
  I feel Dax has been sloppily written recently. She falls in love with a stranger in Meridian and is ready to throw her life away for him. Then two episodes later she's under this amorous influence toward Sisko seemingly without any self-awareness or sense that something is amiss. But normally she should be one of the most self-aware and self-controlled people on the station, what with eight lifetimes' worth of memories. It also seems Bareil, who is supposedly a contemplative holy dude, completely loses himself. I did like how Kira and Bashir, though they couldn't stop making out, kept saying they needed to stop, but couldn't stop!
  
  Agreed with the commenter above who said the bit with Sisko deflecting Bareil's blows was their favorite scene. Mine too. Bariel is not a fighting man! Sisko didn't even get mad, he just got exasperated.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Fenix on 2011-01-30 at 9:51pm:
  Just wanted to point out that Captain Sisko's acting at the end of this episode was spot on. Imagine -- to read the beginning of a work that he had, in The Visitor, only heard of shortly before witnessing Jake's death as an old man. There are complex emotions in Sisko as he tells Jake that he is sure Jake will get back to writing, emotions that are very well portrayed.
• From L on 2013-05-28 at 7:43am:
  An 'alien-energy-vampire' metaphor exploring the relationship between creativity and drug use, wrapped in the generally taboo subject of the sexual dynamics between an older woman and a younger lover. Interesting territory for Star Trek to be exploring, but not ultimately that interesting as an episode.
• From Zorak on 2016-05-19 at 4:30pm:
  Personally, I can't get enough of the Odo/Lwaxana dynamic. I think they're great together. She seems to bring out the best in Odo. I really couldn't stand her in TNG, but in DS9 she is fantastic.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From rpeh on 2010-08-02 at 10:06pm:
  Dreadful episode.
  
  Having built up the tension of the Dominion war then taken a quick break to let Worf and Dax get married as they had always promised, one expects a return to action. Instead... we get a banal episode in the awful mirror series that takes the story nowhere and just acts as a method to assist sleep after a late night Trek-thon.
  
  I'd like to know if *anybody* was surprised by the plot "twist". He's from the mirror universe! Of *course* he's going to be evil!
• From Rob UK on 2023-12-06 at 12:56pm:
  This gets my vote for worst DS9 episode, definitely puts it in contention for worst Star Trek episode too, right up there with Move Along Home, i'm sure we all remember that one
  
  Allamaraine, count to four, Allamaraine, then three more, Allamaraine, if you can see, Allamaraine, you'll come with me.
  
  But this episode is bad for totally different reasons, it is as if Disney bought it for a single episode with the intent of destroying the mirror verse storyline and then gave it back.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Psycroptic on 2012-07-14 at 1:52am:
  What's up with all the zero ratings for this season? Spammers I'm guessing. Inconsistent but still a great opening to the season.
• From Bernard on 2012-07-14 at 10:07am:
  Yes, it appears someone has deliberately been trying to sabotage our good webmasters statistics! Perhaps he can see when all these zero ratings came about and who put them on because all these episodes were rated much more highly before.
• From Bronn on 2013-07-27 at 5:28am:
  One of many episodes that really ruin the Bajoran prophets.
  
  Let's think about this for a minute: The prophets basically possess a woman, drag her to meet Sisko's dad, keep her possessed until she marries him, gets pregnant, has a kid, and the is one year old. Then finally she wakes up one morning no longer possessed, having had her body used as a walking incubator to give birth to someone. In short, the prophets used Sisko's father to rape her, AND used to give birth to the baby then take care of it for a year. That's disgusting.
  
  It gets worse...I guess. I mean, it might be best to imagine this was like a three year coma she woke up from, though she'd still have had her body changed since she became a mother sometime while she was asleep, but it's been previously shown that people possessed by the Prophets (and Pah Wraiths, basically the same beings except for being evil) are AWARE and remember what goes on while they're possessed. It might be somewhat forgivable if, say, this was a Bajoran who was a very willing vessel for the will of the Prophets, even if she signed on for a lot more than she realized, but this was a human woman who didn't know the Prophets existed and wasn't at all a member of their faith. So they raped a casual bystander just to get Sisko born. AND HE NEVER CALLS THEM OUT FOR IT! Nobody does. It occurred to me the first time Sisko's parentage was mentioned, and never fails to occur to me every time it's mentioned...but it doesn't seem to bother anyone.
  
  The writers originally had the idea that the Prophet temporarily took corporeal form, but nixed that idea-I guess it seemed a bit too confusing about exactly what the prophets were. Somehow they thought this disgusting idea was better-I really don't know what they were thinking. Basically any episode that mentions this plot point gets an automatic 1 from me, no matter how good the rest of the episode is, just for reminding me of that awful concept.
  
  I'm not anti-religion. I like some of the religious plotlines in the story-in fact, as a conceptualization of "plot magic," they're far preferable to technobabble that often does similar things. But that the Bajoran faith is so often idealized even when they're behaving like entitled fundamentalists is really grating. I was able to deal with that from the Bajorans from time to time, but when the gods themselves are horrifying...I really wish they'd just had Dukat kill them all instead of letting the Prophets win.
• From Kethinov on 2013-07-27 at 6:35pm:
  I get what you're going for, but it seemed pretty clear to me in the story that the Prophets merely influenced Sisko's mother without her knowledge rather than force her into actions she was unwilling to do. As such, she probably wasn't aware she was possessed. When she left Sisko's father after no longer being possessed, the story strongly implies that she probably just thought she fell out of love. As such, since she didn't feel coerced by external forces, she wasn't raped.
• From Bernard on 2013-07-28 at 1:16pm:
  I'm in agreement with Bronn in one respect.. I dislike any parts of the story involving the wormhole aliens/prophets from the episode 'Rapture' onwards because this marks the point in the series when the writers make the deliberate decision that the prophets have, do and will continue to take an interest and influence the Bajorans on PURPOSE and not by accident.
  
  This is quite contrary to the initial encounter with the wormhole aliens in 'The Emissary' where Sisko has to explain virtually every concept of linear existence to them! So I guess they were just messing around with him in that episode?
  
  Just to point out, I don't mind if they'd portrayed the prophets as beings that consider the Bajorans to be their 'children' from the start but they didn't. I also don't mind if the Bajorans thinks of the wormhole aliens as prophets (gods) but they aren't really... it's a theme shown time and again in the various incarnation of Star Trek, a less developed race thinks of another more developed race as godlike but in actual fact they are not their gods... except the writers decided from 'Rapture' that the prophets WERE the Bajorans gods and started writing it as such. That is when the prophets storyline turned into absolute drivel and they had to start coming up with obscene ways for the prophets to affect our characters lives. It's ridiculous and it was the worst and weakest part of DS9 by a mile.
• From Bronn on 2013-07-28 at 9:14pm:
  I'm not sure I agree with that assessment, Keth, especially given the one Prophet that keeps showing up as Sarah Sisko and claiming to be Captain Sisko's mother. It's like she's the one taking credit for creating him, not all the Prophets as a whole subtly influencing one woman. The Sarah Prophet also refuses to share credit with the real Sarah-SHE'S Sisko's mother, not the corporeal woman named Sarah. She also says that Sisko is "A part of her," which doesn't make sense unless she's the same Prophet who possessed Sisko's mother.
  
  I can't say I really see the evidence supporting your version. We haven't seen direct evidence of the Prophets "subtly directing" someone in the story before-they've used orbs, they've used visions, and they've used random electification that makes Sisko have crazy visions. You can argue we don't always see the less overt influences, but if so, you'd think they'd have attempted to give some guidance to Kai Winn at some point, who was genuinely faithful despite her hopeless ambition. Instead they let her experience direct visions from the Pah Wraiths and fall under Dukat's influence. What we have seen, though, is that people can be possessed by Prophets and Pah Wraiths, and they don't even have to be completely willing-like Keiko and Jake Sisko were possessed at different times.
  
  And if this woman just "fell out of love," it's weird that she completely abandoned her baby and made no effort to ever contact him again, isn't it? She lives in the super-ideal version of earth, so it's not like she abandoned him because she couldn't take care of him. She was in a relationship, had a baby, and then walked out one day without ever getting back in contact with the baby-it's really unusual behavior. It makes much more sense that she was possessed, finally woke up free one morning, was horrified at having been raped and used, and ran far, far away, never wanting again to be reminded of what happened to her, especially not wanting to see the baby she was forced to bear.
  
  I can't see it as anything other than the most unfortunate of implications ever conceived of in Star Trek, and somehow nobody noticed or commented on it. That's why I went from fairly neutral about the Prophets, to utterly loathing them.
• From Bronn on 2013-07-28 at 9:55pm:
  Also, from memory alpha, here's a quote from René Echevarria, Executive Story Editor: "We originally thought that Sarah was a Prophet – there was no human woman involved. But we ultimately nudged the idea into something a bit more oblique, saying the Prophets could take over another person's form."
  
  http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Image_in_the_Sand_%28episode%29
  
  So even the WRITERS thought they were telling the story about a being taking over a woman's form, so that she could have sex with the right man and give birth to the baby. Yuck!
  
  Deep Space 9 is usually a smart show about recognizing implications in its continuity-that's why I really like it, and think it's overall better than Voyager. Garak goes nuts when he realizes he's basically acting like a traitor to the Cardassian people to whom he'd been loyal, Worf is forced to deal with the fact that he's isolated from other Klingons, Nog had an emotional crisis about losing his leg that didn't even end when he got a replacement leg (one of my favorite episodes-Nog probably experienced the most character growth during this series of any Trek character ever written), and Sisko was forced to deal with the dual problems of being a religious icon and a Starfleet officer. But somehow they missed this? Despite it coming up repeatedly in several episodes?
  
  I'd like to pretend it never happened, but they keep reminding us about it later.
• From Kethinov on 2013-07-29 at 5:30pm:
  There's no evidence whatsoever to support your claim that what happened to Sarah was abuse. You're basing all of your conclusions off of wild speculation based on a whole host of assumptions that the story doesn't go into at all while ignoring the two most obvious pieces of direct evidence contradicting your hypothesis: 1. the characters in the story didn't see what happened to her as abuse, and 2. as you yourself just stated, neither did the writers.
  
  Don't get me wrong. I'm with you on the storytelling related to the Prophets being annoyingly arbitrary and vague at times and this episode is no exception. But you really are just projecting this abuse hypothesis onto a story that didn't intend that interpretation at all, which is kind of ridiculous given that the other interpretation fits just as well if not better.
  
  Sure, they could have made it more explicit, and they certainly should have. But the slightly sloppy writing here pales in comparison to several much more heinous examples elsewhere in the series. It seems odd to pick on this episode when there are so many other worse examples throughout Star Trek of vague and arbitrary plots leaving things open to interpretation in unintended ways.
• From L on 2013-08-13 at 8:44am:
  How can Worf smashing up a virtual holosuite bar be cause for complaint? It's a programmed environment that can be reset at the touch of a button!
  
• From Selador on 2013-09-19 at 11:25pm:
  "1. the characters in the story didn't see what happened to her as abuse, and 2. as you yourself just stated, neither did the writers."
  
  That is a very strange argument for concluding that what happened wasn't abuse.
  
  The fact that neither the writers nor the characters considered what happened to Sarah to be abuse does not mean that is it wasn't.
  
  It is amazing that it never even crossed their minds that a women being possessed then forced to have a baby against her will was wrong. Because Bronn is so obviously right with this regard - it is clearly very, very wrong.
  
  I find it incredible that no one at any stage of production said or thought this: 'Wait, this is Star Trek, the core values of which are things like respect, understanding, fairness and freedom. Here we have gods - and not just gods but good gods, the good guys - taking over a woman's body and making her have sex with a man and give birth against her will. Are we insane?'
  
  And it clearly is against her will - the clue is in the word 'possessed'. Also she leaves once the prophets let her go and doesn't want anything to do with her son, so it wasn't a case of somthing like Possession Stockholm Syndrome (that is, she didn't come to accept and like the situation she was in after a while, thinking it was all for the best in the long term).
  
  This is the only logical interpretation of events and I fail to see how anyone could rationally argue that what the prophets did to the poor woman did not constitute a heinous crime. It would surely be illegal on every planet in the universe. It is, in essence, slavery.
  
  To claim that it wasn't abuse because the writers didn't consider it to be abuse is the same as claiming that Tintin in the Congo is not racist on the basis that Hergé didn't consider it to be racist. (It clearly is by the way - don't know if Tintin is popular in the states?)
  
  (Disclaimer: I am in no way accusing Kethinov of anything at all here, in case someone jumps to that erroneous conclusion)
  
  The prophets are without a doubt the worst thing about this series. Space Religion is also where BSG went so catatrophically wrong in the end, quasi-religious nonsense that is both offensive and annoying.
  
  ...
  
  Apart from all of that (!) I really enjoyed the first two episodes of this series. Some great stuff involving Quark, O'Brian and Bashir ('The Three Musketeers'), new Dax is pretty cool and I loved the Romulan treachery. I bloodly love the Romulans full stop.
  
  Also anything involving Weyoun is gold - especially liked the scene when he said "charming woman" about Damar's mistress with such earnestness a few second after threatning to execute her!
• From Kethinov on 2013-09-20 at 2:27am:
  It's just more complicated than you guys are making it out to be.
  
  Your whole argument is based on the faulty assumption that Sarah exerted no free will while she was "possessed." That's certainly possible, but the opposite is equally possible. The episode doesn't tell us one way or the other.
  
  What exposition the episode does give us uses language like the prophets "shared" her existence and "guided" her to Joseph. That's not unilaterally coercive. She may have had a choice in the matter.
  
  For all we know the prophets may have "possessed" a dozen different women before one was sufficiently moved by their influences to willingly enter into a relationship suitable for their goals.
  
  Since it's clear that the writers did not intend the actions of the prophets to be interpreted as abusive, I think we owe them the benefit of the doubt of the more generous interpretation, while also criticizing them for not making the more generous interpretation more explicit.
  
  A nuanced position is called for here, folks.
• From Bronn on 2013-10-27 at 10:54pm:
  I just don't think it's sufficient to say that the writers and production staff didn't think it was offensive to conclude otherwise. I mean, the writers probably didn't think Angel One was offensive, even though it was.
  
  This also isn't the first time in the TNG era we've seen aliens forcing impregnation and everyone pretended it was okay-look back at TNG's "The Child." The writers apparently had NO problem with Troi getting raped and knocked up by an alien influence, since we were supposed to think that was a fairly benign alien in that episode. The writers missing the implications of their story is something that happens sometimes, especially when there is a group of male writers creating what would be a serious woman's issue. They didn't possess Joseph Sisko so he could knock up Sarah-which would have been infinitely less invasive-they had a woman knocked up and possessed throughout her pregnancy.
  
  And again, I think the implication is fairly clear. We've seen direct evidence of people being possessed by Prophets and Pah-Wraiths-Kira, Jake, Keiko, and Dukat by the time THIS plot point is introduced. I don't see why we shouldn't interpret this as being basically the same thing. If they wanted to clarify this point, they could have just had the real Sarah show up at some point, but she ran away and had nothing to do with Joseph or Ben Sisko the rest of her life...which is essentially what a rape victim would do. It's harder to imagine a woman actually abandoning her son and never making any attempt to contact him again than it is to imagine that she was used against her will.
  
  That's why I hate this plot point. They could have at least TRIED to do something that wouldn't offend my sensibilities so much. They did not.
• From Kethinov on 2013-10-28 at 9:01am:
  It's equally valid for me to say that you should at least try to imagine other possible interpretations which wouldn't offend your sensibilities.
  
  In this thread I've laid out several alternative interpretations that are equally valid and less offensive. None of them are ruled out by the established facts of the plot.
  
  If you still choose to believe there's only one possible interpretation, then that's your problem, not the episode's.
  
  I think we can all agree that the episode should have made it more clear. But you're jumping to conclusions.
• From peterwolf on 2014-01-22 at 9:18pm:
  Sisko´s birth is controversial and deserves a more thorough analysis than simply saying "his mother was forced by the prophets to be raped". At least one motif behind the Sisko/emissary story is that he is a messiah for the Bajorans. One may interpret some actions of the wormhole aliens as wrong. However, if time has no meaning, and the existence of Sisko was inevitable, do categories like good or evil matter at all?
  Anyway, it is a pity that the fan rating of season 7 has been spoiled by improbable counts of "0" for every single episode.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From JRPoole on 2008-11-12 at 7:52pm:
  I'm in almost total agreement with the review, so I don't have a whole lot to say here. I do, however, absolutely hate the scene in which Jake and Nog let loose the flea-like insects as a prank. It works until the victims start rapidly changing color. I just don't see how this is possible, and it reeks of bad sci-fi: weird situations and improbable outcomes just for the sake of being strange.
  
  One of DS9's main attractions (and often a thorn in its side as well) is the galactic melting pot that it represents. The strange-looking aliens are almost all exectuted well, but it sometimes borders on the ridiculous, the way the bar scene with the intergalatic lounge band in one of the Star Wars movies does. Here's an example of that kind of visual stimulation getting corny.
  
  Wow. I just spent two whole paragraphs bitching about a throwaway scene.
  
  I do like Keiko's decision to start a school on the station, as it fits with the roll-up-your-sleeves-and-pitch-in aesthetic established by the rest of the crew.
• From Bernard on 2009-11-16 at 12:22pm:
  I know that the reaction of the bajorans on the station is overplayed here to create the tension that the episode needs. I forgive this with the view that they are developing Odo's character and background and it would have been very pedestrian without any threat. The interplay between Odo and Quark is marvelous even at this early stage in the series. How well did those two actors nail their characters so quickly?
  
  Again, this episode is only hinting at how good DS9 can be. I gave it a 5.
• From Bronn on 2013-06-10 at 10:36pm:
  It creates a bit of discontinuity with the later characterization of Odo that the Bajorans were able to so quickly incite a mob against him. Later on it's established that all the Bajorans who ever visited DS9 believed he was a hero who stood for justice within the corrupt Cardassian system.
  
  This was also before they'd established a few facts about shape shifters-Odo wouldn't shed skin cells like a humanoid. It's not to say that shape shifters never leave cells of their DNA behind, we don't actually learn that. But a big plot point of the show is that any part of a shapeshifter that becomes disconnected from their body reverts to a gelatinous state, so it wouldn't remain in the form of hair or skin cells.
  
  Those little continuity gaffes don't bug me because it was very early, and once they'd figured things out, they did stay consistent with them. What does bother me about watching this episode is that Terry Farrell's performance is VERY wooden for most of the first season. Her line reading is bad here, and was just as bad in the pilot. She got better, fortunately, but it's surprising she was ever cast with some of these early performances, especially since the producers made the decision to redesign Trills specifically because she had a pretty face that they didn't want to cover up.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From JRPoole on 2009-06-15 at 6:24pm:
  I agree. This is pretty lackluster stuff, but it's a good idea with one exception: isn't Worf's action criminal? Do you really think Star Fleet would allow one of it's officers to essentially commit an act of terrorism against a Federation world without wanting to prosecute?
• From McCoy on 2017-02-02 at 5:56pm:
  I never was a fan of Worf (don't like Klingons...), but here I'm with him. All that Risa stuff is just bad and lacks morality. Everyone romancing everyone? Well, if this is civilised progress, I'm choosing old anachronic boring mentality:) Plus I liked thst soccer story! We need to control ourselves, because we may hurt someone. It's all about responsibility.
• From Mike on 2017-04-29 at 3:39pm:
  I get that "what happens on Risa, stays on Risa" but I have a hard time believing that sabotaging the planet's environmental systems turns out to be consequence-free. What's more, Worf attends the Essentialist rally and joins their sabotage all while wearing a Starfleet uniform! He is very lucky that the planet seems devoid of both media and competent legal authorities.
  
  The Essentialists are an interesting idea for an episode and I wish more would've been done with them than simply having their leader foolishly take a swing at Worf. It was a cheap and easy way to discredit them so that Worf can conveniently break from their movement, reunite with Jadzia, and get off the planet. Even Arandis has a sobering moment of realizing that maybe the Risian way of life has a cost. But we never get to explore that because, of course, the Essentialists are just a foil for Worf and Jadzia's relationship.
• From Jadzia Guinan Smith on 2018-05-05 at 7:23pm:
  Maybe when she saw a Trill (any Trill) she assumed it was Dax because she was the only Trill expected on Risa at the time? As head administrator (or whatever), she would probably be aware of this stuff. (I'm just retconning, though. I totally agree this was an error).
• From Gaius Gracchus on 2021-10-21 at 8:40pm:
  I disagree that the Essentialists weren't handled well. They were treated as silly and childish, which is perfectly fitting for how overly concerned they are with how other people spend their free time. Perfect depiction of their ilk.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Psycroptic on 2012-07-20 at 10:22pm:
  This is probably my favourite arc on DS9, so much going on and so much great character development. A bit too much time spent on Ezri and Worf's bickering though.
• From Bronn on 2013-07-28 at 10:32pm:
  I loved Martok telling the proud warrior story of a proud warrior's wife and his proud warrior, honorable targ...that's basically the tale of a door being left open so the dog gets away. It's amusing the way Klingons put their stories into a framework. J. G. Hertzler gives such a great Klingon performance.
• From L on 2013-08-18 at 8:13pm:
  Kai Winn and Dukat making pillow talk in bed together is the single most disturbing thing I've ever seen in Star Trek; because they've been so well-written as characters over the series we know how truly ruthless they really are and that together they will be a major force of evil.
  
  I continue to hate the religious messages as the show still seems to be tacitly approving them, rather than showing how stupid blind obedience to authority is and how contrary to notions of humanity's freedom to choose their own destiny within the larger universe, but it's still a very compelling dramatic build-up to the final conflict.
  
  I don't know how but Ezri seems to get cuter every episode.
• From Scott Nolan on 2018-11-18 at 6:49am:
  I’m surprised that no one has mentioned the excellent acting of Louise Fletcher (Kai Winn) in this episode.She was brilliant in 5he scene where she was begging the Prophets to speak to her. She thinks she’s being religious, but she’s really being self-absorbed.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Benjamin Baxter on 2008-07-16 at 5:43am:
  Problem: Julian's comment that the lock to Quark's isn't that complex, contradicting a scene from an earlier episode that involves a very complex lock created by Rom. Ironically, that's a lock that Julian and O'Brien tried to pick in that episode, if my memory serves.
• From MJ on 2011-01-29 at 1:56pm:
  On it's own, I like this episode a lot. But the way this whole thing gets swept under the rug is a bit too much for me to give it a full 10. Bashir lures a member of Section 31 to the station, kidnaps the guy, tries to use an illegal device to scan his memory, keeps him alive for the sole purpose of scanning his memories, and then eventually the guy dies in what could only be considered murder...or at the very least, manslaughter. And not only does nothing ever happen to Bashir, but it isn't even mentioned. Ever again.
  
  At first I thought it might be because Section 31 is secretive and also frowned on by the Federation. But secret or not, it seems to hard to believe they wouldn't send their own people after Bashir having so closely guarded the cure to the changeling virus for so long. And as we find out in the next episode (spoiler alert), the Federation Council apparently approved the changeling virus anyway, so clearly Section 31 has plenty of sympathizers that they could use to help stop Bashir.
  
  That aside, I like the episode. The Odo scenes are nicely done, and it was good to see Bashir and O'Brien have one last adventure together before the series ended.
  
• From Gaius Gracchus on 2021-12-25 at 7:41pm:
  This is a nice episode - a light comedic break in this final nine-episode arc. Has heart, giving us some more of that bromance between O'Brien/Bashir, and doesn't take itself too seriously - the writing as the two are about to enter Sloan's mind is just so deadpan about a very silly premise. Simultaneously, it builds towards the conclusion, curing the morphogenic virus and tying up that loose end of Section 31. Not a great standalone episode, but at this place in the story it is most welcome.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Kyle on 2015-05-19 at 4:56pm:
  Actually, bio-memetic gel, was mentioned before in the TNG episode Firstborn.
  It didn't seem to be tightly controlled then as Riker used 1/2 gram of it to trade for some ore from a Yridian.
• From Azalea Jane on 2021-12-12 at 4:32pm:
  Hey, it's "Remember Me" but this time it's for Dr. Bashir instead of Dr. Crusher, and half as interesting!
  
  I do like the exchange at the end, when Garak essentially commends Bashir for continuing not to trust him.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From 0mcn on 2012-01-12 at 7:25am:
  
  Ok, can we remember that when Worf and the "other" Dax first had some hanky panky they both were injured... severely, broken ribs etc. Take a look at Worf standing next to Ezri. Ummm it is not believable that she would have been only slightly injured, she would have been totally crushed... I am just saying...

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Tallifer on 2011-04-30 at 10:27am:
  The overall story is good but there are several bad moments:
  
  Dukat and Winn kiss. Shudder.
  Ezri and Worf have lovers' quarrels. Blech.
  Sisko is an indecisive dork.
  
  I hope the Breen plot twist will play out better than in these past two episodes.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Remco on 2009-05-22 at 12:14am:
  The episode wasn't too bad, but it ran out of juice about half way in. After 20 minutes it was clear where the plot was going. Then it just kind of meandered. Maybe it would have worked better as a special half-hour comedy, complete with laugh track. ;)
• From Jaap on 2010-10-08 at 11:28am:
  Am i wrong or is Quark's mother played by another actress than in the previous episode (3x23)?
  I wasn't too impressed with this one and think the other acted much better.
• From Christopher Wright on 2011-12-14 at 5:36pm:
  I think this episode deserves a much higher rating. Sure, it was a little slow-paced, but it actually did what Star Trek and many sci-fi shows and movies often don't - show that species are not so singular. The following episode, "Soldiers of the Empire" tells us that not all Klingons are courageous - some are cowards and some are weak. Just as Star Wars showed us simplistic planets (Hoth - totally frozen, Tatooine - totally desert), such simplistic representations aren't realistic as life thrives on diversity.
  
  This episode showed us that Ferengi are capable of self-sacrifice. Sure, we've seen it in them before, but the two story arcs of Quark and Nog having to sacrifice a lot for those they love helps us to fully realize that they are not so simplistic a race.
  
  I loved the humor at the end with Brunt in the closet and Quark playing with his action figures.
• From Selador on 2013-06-18 at 11:39pm:
  I hate the Grand Nagus. He makes my skin crawl. If Quark wasn't such a great character and actor, I would hate all the ferengi.
  
  Whoever wrote this episode must have been drunk at the time, it's truly terrible and full of bad jokes and weird script.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Marie Douceur on 2011-08-19 at 8:10am:
  I'm not to fond of any of the DS9 mirror universe episodes, this one included. However, I disagree with the assertion that the lesbianism here is "over the top". In fact, I found it, well, disappointingly tame. There was a fairly simple kiss between Mirrors Kira and Ezri, a vague show of tenderness between them, and a rather gentle innuendo between Mirrors Ezri and Leeta at the end. Mirror Kira herself was over-the-top, as always, and that was grating. But, as a bi woman, I was hoping for something a little more... sweeping and romantic... or at least, a portrayal as suggestive as hetero romances have gotten. I mean, "Rejoined" was much more "lesbianist" than this episode, and even then, that came with major caveats.
  
  It's always been pretty disappointing to me that characters with non-hetero sexuality never got much (or really any) showing on Star Trek. I hate to be on a soapbox, but it seems like that would be part of the "enlightened 24th century". It's really too bad for those of us who'd like to see the girl get the girl at the end sometimes.
• From John on 2011-12-22 at 2:56am:
  I'm not a fan of mirror universe episodes either, and this one is no exception. Personally, I think it's a shame that this is the last "Ferengi" episode, because it's nowhere near as good or entertaining as the others. Granted, we do get a little bit of Ferengi intrigue -- and we get to see Zek again -- at the very end of the series, but this is the last proper Ferengi episode, and it's kind of boring. The only thing "new" here is Mirror Ezri (who, I have to admit, is a total fox).
  
  But it's still lame, and we still have to deal with Mirror Kira and Mirror Julian, who are somehow even more annoying and than their 'regular' counterparts.
  
  2 points for Quark and Rom, 2 points for hot Mirror Ezri and 1 point for being the LAST Mirror Universe episode (thank god) = 5/10
• From Inga on 2013-06-21 at 9:31am:
  I agree with Marie Douceur - the lesbian moments were too tame.
• From Bronn on 2013-07-26 at 1:30am:
  I actually don't think this one was too bad. The inconsistencies are annoying, but the Ferengi episodes and Mirror Universe episodes are all just there for the sake of fun. It was nice to combine them and get them both out of the way at once to avoid disrupting the overall seriousness of the plotlines in season 7.
  
  
• From L on 2013-08-17 at 4:40am:
  
  Mirror Worf is the only mirror character I don't hate (apart from Ezri, rowr) - he's very entertaining as a bombastic fool.
  
  Loved Rom pointing out the logical inconsistencies, very 'meta'.
• From ChristopherA on 2021-07-31 at 3:28pm:
  I rather like this episode, I thought the exploration of a family with a specific type of dysfunction was a good one and generally made for a good Ezri character episode.
  
  You are right that the tie-in of this episode to Honor Among Thieves is largely irrelevant. This episode is about Ezri’s family, not the Orion syndicate, and O’Brien is only there to fulfill the mandatory “B Plot” requirement.
  

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From MJ on 2011-02-12 at 9:16am:
  There have been quite a few DS9 episodes that took on too much, and had to suddenly tie up an otherwise good episode. This one did very nicely, though. I didn't think anything was resolved too quickly between Ezri and any of the others. Interesting that Garak was the one chosen to be her first serious counseling effort aboard DS9, and his problem is a big one. His breakdown as he realizes what is truly bothering him is wonderfully acted, as only Andrew Robinson could.
  
  I thought the reconciliation between Ezri and Worf was handled perfectly. It involved few words, and Worf right to the point with expressing his feelings, but without being too vulnerable, which is exactly how you'd expect him to do something like that. You can understand his pain, too. It's confusing for him: in his culture, the custom is to honor a loved one who is dead, and Dax doesn't quite fit in to the typical situation.
  
  All of this explains the deeply cutting remarks to Ezri made by both Garak and Worf. That, combined with Sisko's "tough love" would certainly push a person.
  
  I know that when DS9 was on the air and in the years since, there have been mixed fan feelings about Ezri Dax. Many people became attached to Terry Farrell and Jadzia, understandable after six seasons. But I really like the introduction of Ezri Dax. The character gives the show a chance to explore another side of Trill society: what it's like when a host isn't prepared for the symbiont, and is flooded with centuries of memories...not to mention having to face many of the people one of the previous hosts knew. And fresh-faced, perky but humorously befuddled Ezri is a good choice for this new host.
• From Krs312 on 2011-09-22 at 12:49pm:
  I also think that Ezri is a more interesting character than Jadzia.
• From Rob UK on 2023-12-08 at 10:57am:
  Personally i've always struggled with both Jadzia and Ezri Dax, even back in the 70's we all knew what a Mary Sue was (if you don't belive me go and watch Police Academy 1 and pay attention to the name of the new mayor), never mind in the 90's when this was produced.
  
  The Trill symbiote makes an almost plausable excuse for why any female who gets one can take on any modern man of any race both physically and mentally at the drop of a hat no practice needed by channelling the very convenient multi talented previous hosts (they become like Cartman trying to play Ronin and end up with all the powers). This even applies in direct hand to hand combat against multiple mighty klingon warriors trying to gut her, where actually Klingon warriors are dying all around her but these weaklings have no chance for she has the powereth of previous male hosts inside her.
  
  Am i just too old and jaded now hahahahahaha

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Morax on 2019-04-02 at 7:01pm:
  I really like Ezri way more than Jadzia, but I HAVE to agree with her mother: "I hate your hair!".
  
  But that's actually the only thing I like more about Jadzia...

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Paul on 2007-05-16 at 8:28pm:
  Remarkable scenes:
  
  Maihar'Du and Uri'Lash facing off.
  
  As for the rest of the episode...the less said about it the better.
• From EKH on 2007-07-13 at 8:15pm:
  A wonderful set-up. What a shame that it wasn't followed up on. Ferenginar conquered by the Dominion? That would have made for an interesting story, and hopefully would have finally gotten Ishka, Zek and Brunt killed off so that we didn't have to ever see them again, except in reruns. What we get, instead, is not only the worst episode of DS9, not only the worst of Star Trek, not only the worst science fiction episode ever, but the single worst hour of television ever written. An hour that really, truly hurts, in the most physical, literal and direct sense of the term. An hour that, luckily, I shall never, ever have to ever watch ever again, ever. Now, to suppress all memory of this travesty...
• From rpeh on 2010-08-03 at 8:25pm:
  I think most of what needs to be said has already been said. This is a very, very bad episode.
  
  There's one bit that made me laugh. Shimmerman's timing to deliver the final joke is absolutely spot on. Otherwise... what were they thinking???
• From Tallifer on 2011-04-21 at 10:29pm:
  Don’t listen to the critics! This episode was hilarious!
  1. Each rival Nagus has his own tall silent servant.
  2. Rom reveals his feminine side to his disconcerted friends. The look on his wife’s face was priceless.
  3. Sluggo Cola: the slimiest drink in the galaxy.
  4. How the initally annoying feminism of the episode is subverted: Quark persuades the Ferengi to clothe the females because they will become irrationally voracious consumers.
  5. Countless other offensive jokes about gender relations.
• From OmicronThetaDeltaPhi on 2014-06-30 at 12:49am:
  I guess I'm in the minority, but I thought this episode was quite entertaining. Now, I do wholeheartedly agree with the critics, that the cross-dressing thing wasn't funny at all. But most of the jokes WERE funny. And as usual, Armin Shimmerman gets 110% out of the script.
  
  Not a masterpiece by any means, but a decent (pardon the pun) episode nevertheless. I would give it a 5.
• From tigertooth on 2018-02-27 at 4:11am:
  I think this was a decent idea for an episode, but the execution was awful. Every now and then the humor worked -- the main example being Rom teaching Quark how to be female -- but most of it missed the mark big time. The Nog gag where he was running around the hallways made no sense. Why was he having such a hard time following a guy who was walking? And why would a Starfleet cadet be so out of shape? And even if you ignore that stuff, it just wasn't funny.
  
  They hardly even worked the obvious "Quark learns how hard it is to be a persecuted Ferengi female" angle. They sort of hit on that at the end, but again, it was done really poorly.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From EKH on 2007-04-29 at 4:15pm:
  The gravity in the scene in Melora's quarters were inconsistent, too, switching between low gravity and no gravity at least once.
• From djb on 2009-01-06 at 1:46am:
  I have to disagree with your review, dear Kethinov. I loved this episode! It definitely had its flaws, which I'll go into later, but first I'll say why I liked it.
  
  This was obviously an episode that wanted to deal with "disability" issues. Melora is predictably rough around the edges and fiercely independent, and very walled off. Bashir's ability to worm his way in through her defenses was beautifully written and acted, and we see behind Melora's rather off-putting exterior is a vulnerable person who's rather insecure about her qualifications. It's actually great character development for Bashir.
  
  I also liked that they pulled off a low-gravity scene. It's the first I've really seen since Star Trek VI (I may be wrong), and you'd think you'd see more of them, seeing as how most of the gravity we see in Star Trek is artificial. Of course, this is a budget issue. If, every time an away team boarded some disabled ship or derelict, they had to be weightless, as would be most realistic, the budget would go through the roof. Oh well.
  
  Anyway, it's nice to see Bashir turn his attention away from Dax for a little bit! It was also nice and realistic to see a hostile alien follow through on his threat to kill a hostage (even though she didn't die). I also liked how she saved the day, and how an analogy to an ancient earth story got her to reconsider undergoing those treatments.
  
  Now to the faults: As Kethinov pointed out, Melora's appearance is rather unrealistic. A planet with such low gravity would have to be extremely small (smaller than our moon), and would probably hold next to no atmosphere, which would probably make any species living on such a planet A) very tall, and B) able to live on very little air. Melora would probably find the atmospheric pressure on DS9 unbearably high. Maybe her species migrated from some other planet and hadn't evolved past its original humanoid appearance; who knows.
  
  They could have done it some other way; they could have made her born with some genetic muscular defect that required her to live and grow up in a low-gravity environment, but Star Trek, despite its many strengths, has always required a bit of suspension of disbelief. Some more than others.
  
  The other flaw is one not intrinsic to the episode, but another unfortunate theme in Star Trek: we never hear from Melora again. The theme of exploring a romantic interest in an episode only to have it forgotten in the next isn't new (see TNG: Lessons, The Game, etc.), and it's rather irritating! Oh well. I still liked this episode a lot.
  
  
• From Bernard on 2010-06-15 at 10:41pm:
  Solid episode. Great to see Bashir getting some nice character development, also great to see another strong female character in DS9. DS9 was particularly good at independent women but Melora is fantastically prickly, driven and stubborn. Quite similar to Ensign Ro in her first appearance actually, but I have to agree with djb that it is such a shame that we never see her again.
  
  On the down side slightly obvious plot developments lets the rating of this episode slide. I'd give it a 5 or 6.
  
  Again, suspension of disbelief is an absolute requirement when watching Star Trek. I always feel that, as long as they don't break too many of their own rules, then I'm happy with it. If you get too upset by the science of Star Trek then you'll have to switch off every time they use the transporter surely?
• From John on 2012-03-29 at 3:28am:
  While I don't always agree with our host on episode ratings, I completely concur with the 2/10 rating on this one, as well as the reason for such a rating.
  
  The character of Melora is quite irritating, and Bashir, with his constant professions of awe about her gets old pretty quick too.
  
  The high point of the entire episode for me is the Klingon chef -- I wish they had featured him, if not prominently, then more regularly in the later seasons. As it is I don't think they even gave him a name.