Deep Space Nine 7x25/7x26 "What You Leave Behind"

rating: ****

the story: The war ends, and Sisko finally confronts Dukat to settle up between the Prophets and the Pah Wraiths.

what it's all about: This is it, the final episode of Deep Space Nine.  I've always found it by far the most satisfying finale of the franchise.  Of the ones specifically designed to provide end statements, none of them are particularly disappointing, to me.  But they don't really give proper send-offs, aside from "What You Leave Behind."  The second hour is devoted to the crew going their separate ways.  That's all but absent in Next Generation's "All Good Things..." (which is a celebration of the crew itself), Voyager's "Endgame" (which completes the journey home just in time to end the episode), and Enterprise's "These Are the Voyages..." (which really only marks a goodbye to the show's best character, Trip Tucker).  Fans have always kind of bagged Voyager's for leaving the farewells unsaid, and Enterprise's for spending so much time with Next Generation's Riker and Troi (I have literally never had a problem with their inclusion), and thought Picard joining the rest of his crew in a poker game was sweet, but everyone knew there were movies in their future, so there was no perceived need to round out their adventures, except conclude Q's trial from the very first episode ("Encounter at Farpoint").

Deep Space Nine, however, kind of knew this was the end, so there was no reason to send everyone home happy.  Where some have been disappointed that Sisko never did get Bajor into the Federation (ostensibly the whole point of his posting in "Emissary"), it's hugely appropriate to end things in a moment of transition, because that's where things began, too, with everyone adjusting to radical new circumstances.  By the end of "Leave Behind," Sisko has joined the Prophets, Odo the Founders, O'Brien headed off to Starfleet Academy (as an instructor), Worf accepting a post as ambassador to the Klingons, and Bashir finally in that relationship with (a) Dax that he'd always yearned for.  The ending, with Quark remarking the old adage "the more things change..." and Kira and Jake Sisko looking off to the wormhole, wondering what the future holds...It's perfect. 

The conclusion of the war itself is classic.  Things finally come to a head with the Cardassians, as Damar becomes a martyr and the Dominion subsequently level heavy reprisals on the rest of the Cardassians as they rebel in his name, which puts them exactly in the situation Bajor was in at the start of the series.  That, if anything, is the element that rounds out the experience, with one of those planets finding themselves at some logical conclusion based on everything they'd been up to during the course of the series.  If everyone assumes it had to be Bajor, that doesn't mean they're right.  And even Bajor is posed for a more hopeful future, with Winn finally out of the picture, her epic downfall at last complete.

Speaking of Winn, her scenes with Dukat are somehow the best they are in the whole concluding ten-hour arc, Winn increasingly uncomfortable dealing with Dukat but dealing with him all the same, deluded to her last moments that she's still got the upper hand, even as she enacts a final redemption in doing the right thing, unequivocally, turning against Dukat as Sisko appears.  The encounter between Sisko and Dukat is itself a signature element of the episode, going totally against expectations.  We'd seen a version of this play out already in "The Reckoning," a full-on duel between Prophet and Pah Wraith powers.  But that was never Sisko, who was never Kirk, who was always game for a physical fight.  Sisko was game for that sort of thing, but his was always a more cerebral way, much more like Picard, the Picard in the movies, maybe, but more mature, measured, than Kirk ever managed.  When Dukat proves that he's willing to use powers he's all too eager to assume, a role he's all too eager to embrace, it proves all over again that for all of Sisko's doubt across seven seasons, he was still capable of doing the right thing, even if it meant sacrifice he became increasingly willing to make.  It's to be remembered that in the beginning, Sisko was a broken man precisely for a sacrifice he never accepted, the death of his wife.  Leaving his second wife, Kasidy, and their unborn baby, is the very symbol of his growth.

Vic Fontaine justifies his existence one last time in serenading the crew just before everyone splits, in the best scene of the best farewell in Star Trek history.  Sisko all but acknowledges Deep Space Nine fan conviction that this was the best series of the franchise, regardless of how fans in general would ever consider it.

Just a lot of great scenes piled up on each other, one after the other, everyone having a chance to shine, and nearly every recognizable face present and accounted for, too many for me to make labels for everyone, alas.  But a complete listing is below.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - It's the only final episode to date that allows fans to linger in the goodbye.
• series - The story comes full circle from the very first episode beautifully and imaginatively.
• character - Everyone gets a chance to shine.
• essential - To my mind the best final episode of the franchise to date.

 
notable guest-stars:
Rosalind Chao (Keiko)
Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun)
Salome Jens (Female Founder)
Penny Johnson (Kasidy)
Andrew Robinson (Garak)
Casey Biggs (Damar)
Marc Alaimo (Dukat)
Aron Eisenberg (Nog)
J.G. Hertzler (Martok)
Barry Jenner (Admiral Ross)
Deborah Lacey (Sarah)
Hana Hatae (Molly)
James Darren (Vic Fontaine)
Louise Fletcher (Winn)

Deep Space Nine 6x24 "Time's Orphan"

rating: **

the story: Molly O'Brien is lost on a planet, but when she's found again it's from ten years in the future, and time hasn't been kind to her...

what it's all about: This is one of those episodes that will probably please casual fans, a time travel plot that's as faithful to the general sci-fi origins of the franchise as you're liable to find in Deep Space Nine.  It's also the only episode of two different series (this one and Next Generation, where she was born) that centers around O'Brien's daughter Molly.

There's not much sense talking about the plot of the episode.  There's Starfleet failing to learn from its past again (shades of Next Generation's "The Offspring," in which Data builds himself a daughter and Starfleet wants to take her from him, where Starfleet apparently has failed to learn from the earlier "The Measure of a Man," which Starfleet still hasn't learned from by the time of Voyager's "Author, Author"), trying to step in where it shouldn't be meddling.

So anyway, it's the Molly O'Brien episode.  Molly was literally born during the course of Next Generation ("Disaster"), and actress Hana Hatae ended up playing the role, aging with the character, straight through the final episode of Deep Space Nine.  Even Naomi Wildman in Voyager was played by a couple young actresses, and artificially aged somewhere along the way, just like Alexander in Next Generation.  Hatae wasn't cast to be an actor, but rather to be adorable, and she kept on being adorable in all her appearances.  But she was too young even by the end to be expected to do much acting, so she was always incidental to any given story (she threw up once, off-camera, on Lwaxana Troi, "Fascination").  Until a gobbledygook plot sci-fi plot, of course.

While the older Molly in "Time's Orphan" isn't asked to do much more acting than Hatae ever did (she's feral, alas), the story is still about her, which is about good enough.  It's kind of the same trick the series played with Morn earlier in the season ("Who Mourns for Morn?"), making the sixth season not just the dawn of the Dominion War, but the season the writers pulled off the impossible.  Twice!

criteria analysis:

• franchise - The standalone nature and sci-fi friendly storytelling here will be ideal for casual fans.
• series - Has nothing at all to do with the Dominion War.
• character - The one episode to focus on Molly!
• essential - It does what it has to, which is about as perfunctory as Deep Space Nine can get.

notable guest-stars:
Hana Hatae (Molly)
Rosalind Chao (Keiko)

Deep Space Nine 5x12 "The Begotten"

rating: ****

the story: Odo finds himself in possession of an infant Founder.

what it's all about: Every time a character gives birth in a TV show, it's big news, one of the biggest events of the whole series.  And yet, when Kira finally gives birth to O'Brien and Keiko's baby (it's sci-fi, not your traditional surrogate route), the event is completely overshadowed by the summary I just gave above, and this is a very, very good thing.

Tangentially it solves the needless problem of Odo having lost his shapeshifting ability at the end of the previous season as a punishment from his fellow Founders.  Without comment it also reflects a story thread about the Founders, that they sent off hundreds of infants into the galaxy long ago to explore space and find out what the "solids" were like again (Odo himself was one of these infants, and he meets another in the seventh season's "Chimera").

But it's really about Odo finally finding some peace in his life, a sense of closure that finally allows his relationship with Kira to move forward (she herself becomes open to the idea in part because of the aforesaid birth, which presents a void in her life Odo is able to fill, which the end of the episode subtly reflects).

This is achieved by his second reunion with Dr. Mora, the Bajoran scientist we first met in "The Alternate."  Mora was responsible for studying Odo when he, too, was merely a lump of indeterminate matter, which the infant Founder seems to be without having learned anything about its nature on its own.  In fact, Quark is once again the agent of discovery (he was with a Jem'Hadar infant, too, in "The Abandoned"), handing off to Odo what seems to all intents and purposes already a lost cause.  Odo refuses to give up, but he makes very little progress until Mora shows up offering his advice.

Yet Odo remains extremely bitter about his treatment under Mora's care, regardless of the results.  Despite the fact that he retains the general appearance of Mora to this day (notably, the hairstyle), Odo's resentment at being considered a science experiment, with all the implied indignities, has never abated, and their prior reunion certainly did nothing to change his mind.

This is a season of remarkable change, however, perhaps most symbolic in "Begotten" itself.  A war was about to be shown in Star Trek for the first time ever, and this necessitated bold storytelling in order to justify, with all the safety nets frequency imposed in the franchise removed.  For the first time, there would be acknowledgment that even something a character thought was an immutable wrong had in fact been a good thing.  This is the very antithesis of Gene Roddenberry's original vision, and yet it shines boldly on the core of that vision, which is the search for humanity at all costs, the shattering of all illusions.

Anyway, this one always struck me as one of the defining moments of the series, even before I had properly experienced Odo and Mora's previous encounter in "Alternate."  It's hard not to be choked up when the infant Founder mimics Odo's face, or when the poor little dude dies.  It's a true cathartic moment.  You'd never think a face thickly covered in prosthetics could be so expressive, and yet this is one of Rene Auberjonois's best such feats.  For that matter, although James Sloyan (Mora) appears a number of times in the franchise with a variety of faces, this is his best performance.

Shakaar makes one final appearance, but unlike Bareil before him Kira finds it relatively easy to say goodbye, and that's another indication that everything is about to change...

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Come for the birth, stay for the miracle.
• series - One time everyone loves changelings in this thing!
• character - One of Odo's defining moments.
• essential - As I mentioned above, this is a true catharsis.

notable guest-stars:
James Sloyan (Mora)
Rosalind Chao (Keiko)
Duncan Regehr (Shakaar)

Deep Space Nine 5x5 "The Assignment"

rating: *

the story: Keiko is possessed, forcing O'Brien to comply with an insane request.

what it's all about: It's wildly curious that the debut of the Pah-wraiths should come off like a bad remake of the Next Generation episode "Power Play," which also features alien possession and the O'Brien family caught in the crosshairs...

A far more menacing version of this story appears late in the sixth season, "The Reckoning," which basically corrects all the horrendous missteps of "The Assignment," featuring a far more menacing possession and a much smarter plan on the part of the Pah-wraiths, just before Dukat appears in the sixth season finale ("Tears of the Prophets") and effectively sets up their integral part in the eventual conclusion of the series.

But really, it's hugely baffling that something like this could happen.  Clearly the producers had no idea at this point how important the Pah-wraiths (cast-out wormhole aliens the Bajorans worship as the Prophets, and as such the devil to their god) would turn out to be, and is one of the more egregious examples of how the series developed as it went along rather than was figured out from the start (Babylon 5 fans get a point in that regard).  Not that this is a bad thing, because in most other respects such organic growth actually helped make it feel more natural.

The worse part is that Odo's life as a "solid" is featured, as he attempts to figure out what O'Brien's up to.  If this had somehow involved Odo being more important to the plot rather than an add-on, this would've been better.  If, say, he were investigating someone close to Kira, but that's not the case, and another lost opportunity is found in one of the most pointless arcs of the series.

If you don't want to worry too much about the significance of...anything and just want to sample characters and concepts from Deep Space Nine, this is a curious way to do it, but I suppose it is available for such viewing.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - That this could've happened in any series is hardly a positive note.
• series - Inauspicious as it is, this is still the debut of the Pah-wraiths.
• character - Useless spotlights on the O'Briens and Odo.
• essential - One of the most truly poorly-developed episodes of the whole series.

notable guest-stars:
Rosalind Chao (Keiko)
Hana Hatae (Molly)
Max Grodenchik (Rom)

Deep Space Nine 5x3 "Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places"

rating: ***

the story: Quark is reunited with his blushing ex-bride, who happens to be a Klingon, which leads to Worf and Jadzia realizing they love each other.

what it's all about: "House of Quark" was brilliant.  "Looking for par'Mach" is a somewhat unnecessary follow-up, but it's a terrific excuse to get Worf and Jadzia to realize they're a match made in...the celestial temple.  Besides Quark, there's also an awkward subplot involving Kira carrying O'Brien's baby, which is one of several creatively suspect decisions made around this period.  Consider this the period of Deep Space Nine, in some respects, that corresponds with the third season of Lost, which frustrated fans so much the creators ended up doubling down on the mythology in the final three seasons, advancing the story at lightning speed, which is also what happens after all these curious decisions in this series, which began after the studio forced the producers to insert the Klingons, and the producers really had no idea how to do it.

Well, the answer is, figure out a way to integrate them into the fabric of the series.  Helpfully, Jadzia Dax already existed.  Jadzia was host to a symbiont, and the previous host had been Federation ambassador to the Klingons, which led to the awesome "Blood Oath" in the second season, in which three original series Klingons return for one last glorious adventure.  It was one of the best Klingon episodes of the franchise, from a series that to that point otherwise had literally nothing meaningful to do with Klingons.  Then the studio mandated Klingons, and brought Worf along to seal the deal, and the producers had no idea what to do with him, and then...someone realized, perhaps during "Sword of Kahless," that there really was an obvious solution, which was to link Worf with Jadzia.

And obviously, this is the episode where it finally happens.  This was another in the inordinate number of lasting romantic liaisons made during the course of the series, the first being Sisko and Kasidy in the third season and the last was the long-simmering Odo/Kira, which poignantly (actually they both did) helped close out the series.  Worf and Jadzia meanwhile...

The important thing is, not only was this good for Worf, but good for Jadzia as well.  Jadzia had already been transformed from just another pretty face to one of the strongest women in Star Trek history (second only, perhaps, to Kira, and then Voyager's trio of Janeway, Seven, and B'Elanna Torres), a multidimensional character capable of adapting to any situation, and brave enough to do what Troi in Next Generation never could, which was to deliberately pursue Worf.

So this episode is where all that happens, how they realize what they mean to each other, in the midst of unusually crazy business.  I think if there's any justification for the craziness, it's that the pursuit of love often seems crazy, but these were two of the most grounded characters, utterly sure of themselves in most respects, and so it would've been more awkward having them embody the crazy.  So it was shifted to other characters.  If anything, Quark ends up looking like the buffoon fans typically thought of Ferengi, a stereotype dating back to their botched debut in Next Generation, which Quark otherwise totally obliterated.  That's called irony, I think.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - At last another Klingon story unique to Deep Space Nine, so in some ways it's not strictly relevant to general consumption.
• series - See the above statement, okay?
• character - Worf and Jadzia.
• essential - One of the key developments of the series happens here.

notable guest-stars:
Rosalind Chao (Keiko)
Mary Kay Adams
Phil Morris

Deep Space Nine 4x25 "Body Parts"

rating: ***

the story: Quark auctions off his body when he thinks he's dying.

what it's all about: This is probably the episode to watch if you want to see the extremes of Ferengi society, to see just how far their greed really goes, and how far Quark is willing to go...and how he's ultimately not as stolid a member of that society as he might sometimes think...

When it comes to aliens in Star Trek, it's kind of expected that if the character's in the main cast they're going to represent a fairly traditional member of the species, even if there are extenuating circumstances that otherwise present them as outsiders.  Spock, for instance, was half-human as well as half-Vulcan, but he seemed to only take his Vulcan half seriously, except his bond with Kirk (and McCoy) that betrayed a certain illogic that crept into his life over the years.  Worf was certainly Klingon, but he was raised by humans and thus actually associated better with humans than Klingons, even though he took Klingon culture very seriously. 

This was different in Deep Space Nine (as with pretty much everything else).  Kira was definitely Bajoran through and through, but it didn't take long for her to be able to accept Starfleet ideas that didn't always align with Bajoran orthodoxy, or to question decisions her people made that she didn't always think were in their best interests.  But Quark, he seemed as Ferengi as they could possibly come, certainly compared to his brother Rom and nephew Nog, both of whom eventually made a complete break from Ferengi norms.  Quark seemed to cling to tradition almost out of protest.  And yet, loathe as he would be to admit it, he was greatly influenced by Federation ideas.  He became less and less apt to sacrifice all for the sake of Ferengi tradition.

That's basically what this episode's about, regardless of what else may be going on.  In some ways it's the logical conclusion of all his experiences from the past two seasons, what his brother and nephew had decided, and his mother, and whether he in the end was what he thought he was.  And "Body Parts" seems to agree that he is as Ferengi as possible, but then Quark kind of has a Frank Capra moment.  He realizes his friends aboard the station are probably better than whatever he might get from the likes of the very Ferengi Brunt, for whom this is a culmination, too, for two seasons of demonstrating how much Quark does stray when it's so clear he doesn't.  So this is their epic showdown, once and for all, and so if you really want to know all about Quark, all about Ferengi, this may be the perfect episode to catch.

Also factored in is the funny subplot where Kira ends up carrying O'Brien's baby.  No, not because they have an affair, but because this is sci-fi and they literally transplant it from O'Brien's wife Keiko to Kira.  Nana Visitor was pregnant, but Kira was hardly likely to become pregnant (her lover, even if she doesn't know it yet, is a shapeshifter who couldn't help with that even if he wanted), so they came up with a solution that's pretty unique and actually helps soften the character further from the hardcase she'd been at the start of the series but really hadn't been for a long time.

So it's pretty appropriate to have these stories converging, if only for one episode.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - General audiences need not necessarily apply.
• series - Important moment in the arcs of two characters.
• character - Who would be Quark and Kira.
• essential - You caught "important," right?

notable guest-stars:
Max Grodenchik (Rom)
Jeffrey Combs (Brunt)
Rosalind Chao (Keiko)
Hana Hatae (Molly)
Andrew Robinson (Garak)

Deep Space Nine 4x19 "Hard Time"

rating: ****

the story: O'Brien is sentenced by an alien culture to have a virtual memory implant of a quarter century prison sentence, which leaves him suicidal in the real world.

what it's all about: Let's-Torture-O'Brien was a favorite theme of not only Deep Space Nine but Next Generation, too.  This is the ultimate Let's-Torture-O'Brien episode.  As Colm Meaney gave the most relatable performances of any actor in the franchise, the sadistic rules of storytelling meant he'd be sympathetic enough to sell this concept over and over again.  Starfleet personnel suffering unjustly under alien penal concepts is hardly a unique concept, but "Hard Time" brings the trope, and Let's-Torture-O'Brien, to truly epic proportions, thanks to Meaney's ability to sell the emotional damage and O'Brien's increasing isolation.  In a lot of ways, it's a PTSD episode before "It's Only a Paper Moon" in the final season.

Because the fix was truly in, O'Brien's family, which had been absent for about a season's worth of material, was right there to experience the torture along with him, as is Bashir.  The trauma they share this time, unlike "Hippocratic Oath" earlier in the season, occurs organically rather than as a random instance of their diverging thought processes.  There's every justification for every creative decision in the episode, in other words, and it's as devastating to watch as it is for the character to endure.  I can think of only one other episode in the franchise, Voyager's "Mortal Coil" (which centers on Neelix, of all characters, the Jar Jar Binks of Star Trek), that plumbs this existential depth, despite numerous other attempts, which I won't mention, at the same basic concept.  This is the emotional maturity of Deep Space Nine at one of its highest points, a kind of mirror image of "The Visitor" earlier in the season.

"Hard Time" is also a kind of answer to the earlier "Whispers," in which O'Brien (or a replicant who thinks he's O'Brien) finds himself equally isolated, but so convinced he can gain control of the situation he never freaks out.  Well, "Hard Time" is one long, fascinating freak-out.  Think of Spock's bloodlust in "Amok Time," but without a cathartic fight ready to take it out of him, or a handy fake-out aided by a sneaky doctor friend.  That's the big difference between the storytelling of Deep Space Nine and the rest of the franchise (other than another Voyager episode, "Latent Image"), that the characters never get easy solutions to their problems.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Part of a long tradition of Starfleet officers suffering because of the decisions of an alien culture.
• series - As well as the running theme of throwing the worst at O'Brien in Deep Space Nine as well as Next Generation.
• character - Needless to say, is an important O'Brien experience.
• essential - It's kind of O'Brien's greatest traumas, and those of the other characters in this series, condensed into a nutshell.

notable guest-stars:
Rosalind Chao (Keiko)
Hana Hatae (Molly)
F.J. Rio

Deep Space Nine 4x17 "Accession"

rating: ***

the story: Sisko unexpectedly finds a challenger to the role of the Emissary.

what it's all about: The most revolutionary thing Deep Space Nine ever did was include as one of its central elements the idea of religion as something to be embraced rather than dismissed, as it is in virtually every other corner of Star Trek.  In the first episode ("Emissary"), Sisko finds himself identified as the savior of the Bajoran people, the embodiment of their gods, the Prophets (whom Starfleet refers to as "wormhole aliens," since they reside in the wormhole that sits just to the side of the eponymous station).  He immediately chafes at the idea, and it takes him seven seasons, really, to figure out what it really means.

"Accession" is one of the few episodes to tackle the idea headfirst.  In the third season, he's tasked with determining whether or not a prophecy is true in "Destiny," which is the first time he takes Bajor's faith seriously.  In the fifth season, he gets a sense of the mystical nature of the role during "Rapture."  Yet in "Accession," he's forced to decide whether he personally takes the idea seriously. 

The wormhole spits out a Bajoran poet two hundred years after he disappeared.  Anyone who steps out of the past will affect the present, but this is an extreme case, and it's one of the episodes where we really get a sense of what it means to live in Bajoran culture when the poet-cum-Emissary tries to set back the culture two hundred years, basically to what he used to know.  Seeing Kira humbled is an unusual experience, and probably this is the only time we see it played out, but somehow she is, and it's the mark of her evolution as a character that she no longer fights everything, as she did at the start of the series (Voyager's characters actually had a similar arc, but fans always had a hard time with that). 

Meanwhile, O'Brien is reunited with his wife Keiko, who announces that she's pregnant, but as much as he hated the idea of her leaving last season, he's grown comfortable with the freedom he's had to live the bachelor life again, which is what helped solidify his bond with Bashir (the absence of which was what made "Hippocratic Oath" early in the season so jarring).  "Accession" actually marks the beginning of the rest of the series for O'Brien and Bashir, and even Keiko's new willingness to live peacefully at the station, so it's ironic, and clever storytelling juxtaposition, to watch this unfold as Sisko struggles with whether or not it's okay to walk away from his role as the Emissary.  Whereas "Destiny" had him realize the prophecies aren't always what they seem, here he learns that sometimes the truth is exactly what it always seemed.

It's definitely an episode for the thinkers among the fans, which is to say, the truly dedicated Deep Space Nine fans.  Best easter egg for those fans?  An appearance by the warmest Bajoran presence the series ever had, Kai Opaka, who was written out all the way back in the first season.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Kind of directly smacks the face of Star Trek tradition.
• series - A necessary story in the overall arc of Deep Space Nine.
• character - If the whole season were a crisis of faith, this is the episode where it's dramatized by Sisko.
• essential - Crucial to a deep understanding of a deep series.

notable guest-stars:
Rosalind Chao (Keiko)
Hana Hatae (Molly)
Camille Saviola (Kai Opaka)

Deep Space Nine 3x10 "Fascination"

rating: ***

the story: Lwaxana Troi's visit unleashes a lot of awkward romantic confessions...

what it's all about: "Fascination" is one of those episodes that could have been a disaster.  If it had been done in the first season, it would have been a disaster.  In fact, it looks almost exactly like a first season episode, except the third season saw such an advanced understanding of the series, this would have been very hard to accomplish.  So while it's something of a farce, "Fascination" also happens to have the distinction of being grounded thoroughly in the lore of Deep Space Nine, with a lot of interesting and fruitful observations to make.

The presence of Lwaxana is itself a notable aspect of the episode, even though it serves in that regard as somewhat trivial compared to the two other episodes of this series she appears in ("The Forsaken" and "The Muse"), she at least helps Odo realize that he has feelings for Kira, which is crucial to the whole series arc for both of them.  For the rest of the episode, Lwaxana is a glorified McGuffin, the magical reason why everyone's acting strangely.

So let's put her aside.  There's also Bareil, the normally stuffy, repressed Bajoran love interest of Kira, who joins everyone else in the complicated tangle mentioned in the story summary above.  But it gets better!  There's Jake Sisko admitting he loves Kira, which is one of the most hilarious things the series ever did, and because this is how complicated things get, Kira's too busy kissing Bashir to really notice (Alexander Siddig and Nana Visitor were married for a time after this; must have been terrible days on set!).  And so on.

But the real meat of the episode, it turns out, is O'Brien and Keiko continuing to hash out the status of their relationship, which was a recurring element of the season.  While everyone else is worried about whether or not they're being honest, these two are agonizing over very real concerns, and it grounds the whole thing nicely.  That and a look at Bajorans celebrating one of their favorite holidays, one of the few times a holiday is celebrated at all in Star Trek lore.

"Fascination" is indeed fascinating.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - This one looks like a typical anything goes farce you'll find elsewhere.
• series - But it's another one perfectly grounded in Deep Space Nine logic.
• character - Good character work all around, especially for the O'Briens.
• essential - I'll stop short of calling it a classic, because it points more than it leads.

notable guest-stars:
Majel Roddenberry (Lwaxana Troi)
Philip Anglim (Bareil)
Rosalind Chao (Keiko)
Hana Hatae (Molly)

Deep Space Nine 3x3 "The House of Quark"

rating: ****

the story: After Quark accidentally kills a Klingon patron at his bar, he is forced to settle matters for the dead warrior's family.

what it's all about: As the MVP, the most consistent presence, the glue of the second season, Quark could hardly have expected to follow that up with something so awesome the next season, but here it is, arguably the best Quark episode to this point in the series.  It's all about those pesky unexpected contrasts that the character was built to represent, not just against Starfleet norms, which of course he had in spades, but against Klingons norms, which are so obvious it almost seems unnecessary to dedicate a whole episode to exploring them.  Yet the results are brilliant.

After "Blood Oath" last season, it hardly seemed likely there'd be much cause for another Klingon episode in this series (the call to introduce Worf into the fourth season hadn't been made yet), and since Next Generation had already done the iconic aliens so well it probably seemed downright unnecessary.  And yet, "House of Quark" stands right up there with the best of Next Generation's efforts as one of the best Klingon episodes ever, one that revisits the matter of honor and rival clans previously mined in "Sins of the Father" in such a unique way that it hardly seems possible to work so well, especially since even fans of Deep Space Nine still tended to groan about "Ferengi episodes."  Which not only does a disservice both to one of the best continuing threads of the series, but the incredibly rich and diverse storytelling it represented, a direct reflection of the series itself.

All of which means, "House of Quark" is a lot of fun.  Seeing Quark get into trouble is always fun, because he's one of the cockiest characters in Star Trek and so it's always interesting to see him thrown for a loop.  Yet he recovers brilliantly, and never sacrifices his scruples, and still comes out looking better than he has any right to, coming up with one clever solution after another to the mounting series of complications from the premise roughly outlined above, not the least of which is another unlikely romance, which works better here than in the previous "Profit and Loss," which may in the end have tried too hard to subvert character expectations.  There are no such problems here, and the season is just getting started with Quark!

The B-story involves Keiko's continuing troubles in fitting in at the station.  She was never comfortable with O'Brien's assignment there, feeling every bit as isolated as Sisko did.  It was only fitting, then, that she take Sisko's place, now that the new season had finally helped him feel at home.  This was always a difficult and courageous thing for the series to explore, Keiko's discontent, because there was always the risk of her being dismissed as a nagging shrew, and yet instead just the opposite happens: she ends up joining the proud Deep Space Nine tradition of strong women.  As a character who first appeared in Next Generation, which tended to keep women in supporting, nurturing roles, Keiko's development in Deep Space Nine was a crucial sign that it really was a bold new era for the franchise, and this is yet another thing the third season took great strides at correcting.

(Those looking for parallels with later developments would note the synergy of the two stories, as Quark helps a woman claim head of household, which is something he'll struggle with later when it comes to his mother...)

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Fans of Klingon episodes in general shouldn't miss this one.
• series - Fans of Ferengi episodes shouldn't, either.
• character - Nor fans of Quark, nor of Keiko.
• essential - Just go ahead and watch it already!

notable guest-stars:
Rosalind Chao (Keiko)
Max Grodenchik (Rom)
Robert O'Reilly (Gowron)
Mary Kay Adams

Deep Space Nine 2x25 "Tribunal"

rating: ***

the story: O'Brien is put on trial in a Cardassian courtroom.

what it's all about: There's a rich tradition of trial drama in Star Trek lore, from the two-part "Menagerie" from the original series to Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, and many other examples from every series (not the least of which being Enterprise's "Judgment," which closely echoes Undiscovered Country).  "Tribunal" is one of the best examples, if for no other reason than the starkness of its presentation, the utter helplessness of O'Brien's predicament and the ruthlessness of its presentation of Cardassian culture, which after more than a few episodes in the second season might have begun to seem a little too soft for a species with such a nasty history.

"Tribunal" boils down to Cardassian duplicity, it's true, but it also forces every character who appears, including Odo, who steps in to defend O'Brien, and Keiko, O'Brien's wife, who is justifiably horrified by the whole experience, to step up their game.  It features perhaps the second most successful example of a spy finally exposed at the end of an episode, after Arne Darvin in the classic "Trouble with Tribbles," featuring the rare mustache in Star Trek (hey, it's a pretty notable mustache!).

But in the grand tradition of lets-torture-O'Brien episodes, this one's probably the most literal, and so there's that going for it, too.  At one point he literally has a tooth extracted as part of the processing procedures leading up to his trial.  Overall, a very different kind of episode, both for the series and franchise, a real sense of urgency, which is usually hard to pull off, but then also kind of necessary when Cardassian trials usually declare their verdicts first, and of course O'Brien is announced as guilty!

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Part of a grand Star Trek tradition.
• series: Readjusts Cardassians into a less friendly light, which at this point was necessary.
• character - Maybe doesn't say much about O'Brien himself, but when he suffers we all kind of suffer along with him.
• essential - Still, it doesn't say much of anything new, even if it's all very impactful.

notable guest-stars:
Rosalind Chao (Keiko)
Richard Poe (Evek)

Deep Space Nine 2x14 "Whispers"

rating: ****

the story: O'Brien starts to suspect a massive conspiracy has been woven against him.

what it's all about: This has long been one of my favorite episodes of the whole franchise, on the basis of its cleverness alone.  That and the fact that it's one of O'Brien's best episodes (which tend to be among the best of the franchise, too).

The whole thing is a mystery, and yes, you find out what's really going on at the end, and yes, it absolutely delivers, in a way that surpasses any other Star Trek mystery you could think of, because suddenly everything makes perfect sense without even needing to be explained at any great length.  In the meantime, however, "Whispers" also functions as one of those quintessential O'Brien-is-having-a-hard-time episodes.  You'd think, because he technically just had one of those (with Bashir) in the previous episode ("Armageddon Game"), the impact might be dulled.  But this was a character who thrived on having miserable experiences (there's another near the end of the season!).

At heart, O'Brien was one of the most relatable characters in the franchise, which is why this sort of thing was so easy to pull off.  It's not so hard to imagine things going wrong in your life, is it?  O'Brien was known for being humble (eventually retconned to be one of the few crewmen, which is to say he enlisted Starfleet, to be regularly featured, which is why in Deep Space Nine he's referred to as "Chief" rather than by rank).

So anyway, for the majority of this episode he's faced with, yes, a massive conspiracy that just seems to get deeper and deeper, so that he can't even trust his own wife Keiko.  The clever thing about this is that it may be the first time in the season Sisko is portrayed in a way that truly flatters him.  There were moments when even Picard was less than fair, at least apparently, to his crew, when otherwise he was presented as the consummate professional.  But here's Sisko being the most professional of anyone aboard the station, not only as he should be, but in a way that is totally in-character for him, certainly as he was originally depicted, someone who came to the station just to do a job, who has yet to find a real reason to care, but who nonetheless performs his duties impeccably and with remarkable compassion.  The same goes with O'Brien in this case, even though O'Brien eventually sees through it.  (In a lot of ways, Sisko's first few seasons saw him behave in exactly the way management in the real world was to start performing thanks extensive corporate training, although never as well as he did, but then Sisko had the benefit of being a fictional character.)

I'd rank "Whispers" with the likes of Next Generation's "Conundrum," an unexpectedly stellar experience that seems to have nothing much to say, just excellent storytelling behind it, the kind of sci-fi Star Trek often aspires to but doesn't really nail as often as you'd think.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Can easily be held up as exemplary of Star Trek storytelling.
• series - By exploring O'Brien's plight you get a window into the whole series.
• character - But this is certainly an O'Brien showcase.
• essential - A typically great one.

notable guest-stars:
Rosalind Chao (Keiko)
Hana Hatae (Molly)
Susan Nimoy

Deep Space Nine 2x13 "Armageddon Game"

rating: ***

the story: O'Brien and Bashir bond as they attempt to survive a civilization's purge of its deadly past.

what it's all about: It's sometimes tough to summarize in a single line what an episode's about, which you can tell was a particular challenge for "Armageddon Game," which is probably as close to an original series episode as Deep Space Nine ever got, a commentary not only on the ludicrousness of war but how people who want to end it tend to act about as ruthlessly as those who participate in it. 

But more than that (although that's a valid reason to value the episode, too), it's the episode where O'Brien and Bashir finally become friends, a friendship that ends up helping define the rest of the series.  This is classic franchise material, too (Enterprise's "Shuttlepod One" and 2009's Star Trek are two examples of this same story archetype).  Watching as they struggle past their differences even as they struggle just to survive is surprisingly fun.

But more than that is some excellent Keiko O'Brien material, too, one of the few times she was not, for all intents and purposes, depicted as a shrew or a helpless bystander (whether in Deep Space Nine or Next Generation before it).  In fact, "Armageddon Game" can obviously be viewed a lot of ways, but as arguably the best Keiko episode, perhaps best of all.

In that regard, it features one truly classic scene, at the end of the episode, no less.  The whole subplot involves a ruse on the part of the aliens O'Brien and Bashir helped and were betrayed by, their attempts to kill them and also tell the Federation they were dead already (it's so complicated, just keeping track of that is a fun part of the episode, too!), that Keiko is informed her husband is dead, but refuses to believe it, even coming up with perfectly logical justification for believing the aliens are, if not outright lying, hiding something, and she becomes convinced because of one thing she's absolutely sure about: O'Brien never has coffee in the afternoon, which the recording she's shown features him doing. 

Except in the final scene, she learns that he does.  It's one of the classic scenes of the whole franchise.  If it weren't for the fact that "Armageddon Game" doesn't particularly represent Deep Space Nine as a whole, it would be very easy to call it a classic. 

But fans of the series have ample reason to remember it fondly all the same.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Ironic observations about war, a favorite topic of the franchise, to be found within.
• series - A series, however, that ended up with its two final seasons in a war ended up viewing the topic with additional, and ultimately unrelated, nuance.
• character - This is a big episode for O'Brien and Bashir.
• essential - But an even bigger one for Keiko!

notable guest-stars:
Rosalind Chao (Keiko)

Deep Space Nine 2x11 "Rivals"

rating: ***

the story: Quark's status as the premier gambling proprietor of the station is challenged.

what it's all about: "Rivals" is such an interesting episode.  It's actually kind of the episode that represents what could only have been possible, in the best sense, in the early seasons when everything about the series hadn't been figured out.  It's actually one of the few that just runs with one of the most famous elements of the original Deep Space Nine premise; the existence of Quark's bar and its importance to the Promenade, and the station in general.

What happens when...Oh, it's right there in the name of the episode: "Rivals."  When it was still possible to merely introduce a random element and let it play out, without really wondering about, say, its significance to the Dominion or Bajor, which is to say, have a one-and-done adventure in the classic Star Trek sense, "Rivals" is probably about as good as any such story could get, especially because it does also play so well into the series itself.

Quark was clearly the MVP of the second season, the go-to character when other elements of the series weren't so easy to figure out.  Not only was he easy to interpret, but he was also open to interpretation, in other efforts like "Rules of Acquisition" and "Profit and Loss."  He also gave a valuable assist to "Necessary Evil," which "Rivals" is kind of an answer to, a lead story where he's getting up to the kind of trouble you expect of him.  Only this time, the script has been flipped, and someone is using Quark's own playbook against him!

The other great thing about "Rivals" is that it helps develop another continuing element of the series, which is the friendship between O'Brien and Bashir.  In fact, the name of the episode equally applies to the B- as to the A-story.  That should always be the case.  I understand the impulse to add a layer that some producer thought was missing from the initial one, but more often than not, the new layer sticks out like a sore thumb and threatens to ruin an otherwise pleasant experience ("Data's Day" over at Next Generation and "The Catwalk" over at Enterprise are two such examples, for much the same reasons, trying to shoehorn unnecessary drama into a situation that was already sufficiently complex).

Anyway, "Rivals" ends up being the last statement on the engineer and doctor's frictions that typified their relationship until "Armageddon Game" only a couple of episodes later; and actually, their later friendly competitiveness comes from "Rivals," too.

So it's an extremely satisfying episode for fans of the series, one of those potential entry points for skeptical viewers still trying to figure out the appeal of Deep Space Nine.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - I don't think you need to like anything else in the franchise to like this episode.
• series - But it's a good one for series fans.
• character - Good for fans of Quark, Bashir, and O'Brien.
• essential - Good?  Great!

notable guest-stars:
Chris Sarandon
K Callan
Rosalind Chao (Keiko)
Max Grodenchik (Rom)

Deep Space Nine 2x5 "Cardassians"

rating: ***

the story: A Cardassian orphan raised by Bajorans becomes caught in the middle of continuing efforts to heal old wounds.

what it's all about: "Cardassians" on the surface seems like a somewhat unnecessary duplication of Next Generation's "Suddenly Human."  I mean, it's pretty much exactly the same story.  But the thing "Cardassians" proves is that Deep Space Nine's interest in grounding stories in a continuing background, rather than the traditional serialized format of the franchise where most episodes can be viewed in a vacuum, has considerable merit to it, and it's arguably the first episode of the series to prove so.

Like the second season in general, it's a tentative step forward into the full potential the series was going to explore later.  It's Garak and Dukat, two diametrically opposed Cardassians who nonetheless represented the best of the series in their own ways, tentatively working their way into the tapestry Deep Space Nine was still just beginning to weave, in a story that doesn't necessarily need either of them, except to give depth to the Cardassian side of things, when it would've been much easier to simply dismiss them as the back guys.  That's the series in a nutshell, everything you need to know to understand why so many fans have come to love it over the years.

"Cardassians" otherwise is not something to make too big a deal about, but it certainly deserves credit for helping the series become the best possible version of itself.  Incidentally, for those interested in seeing what happens to the Cardassian youth caught in the middle of this episode's dilemma, they should definitely check out Una McCormick's insightful novel The Never-Ending Sacrifice.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - I'll dock it here just because I don't want to say it's a classic.
• series - Though it's hugely important to the series.
• character - Certainly for the recurring Cardassians in the series.
• essential - Note "hugely" important above.

notable guest-stars:
Marc Alaimo (Dukat)
Andrew Robinson (Garak)
Rosalind Chao (Keiko)

Deep Space Nine 2x3 "The Siege"

rating: **

the story: The rogue Bajorans calling themselves the Circle have sieged Deep Space Nine!

what it's all about: The biggest problem with the ambitious three-part episode that opened the second season is that it spent so much time focusing on Kira, it kind of almost totally forgot Sisko.  Now, this is a problem.  A lot of fans think Sisko in the early seasons is pretty weak, and while on the whole this isn't really true, his appearances in material like "The Siege" certainly don't help.

Again, this is a problem, because by this third episode in the arc, it's arguably Sisko's turn at driving the story, and instead it just seems as if he's trying desperately to play catch-up the whole time.  And thus we discover the essential weakness of this arc: the series was by no means ready for it.

As we would see later in the series, whether in "The Search" or "The Way of the Warrior" (which are, essentially, similar stories that opened the third and fourth seasons, respectively), or even the comparatively minor but vastly superior "Civil Defense," getting Sisko right is absolutely imperative in pulling off a story like this.  If you put the station in peril, its commander has to have a commanding presence.  Which just doesn't happen in "Siege" (not to be confused with the seventh season "Siege of AR-558," another episode unfortunately regarded as vastly superior). 

Simply put, if you're going to pull the trigger on a big moment, such as putting the station in peril, you really need to think it all the way through, especially if you try to do it so near the beginning of the series.  This is probably the very episode the producers started to realize the importance of this, because by the end of the season, a truly credible threat (the Dominion) was introduced, and it ended up defining the series far more than Bajoran politics.

Again, this is not to say fans who think Bajoran politics ruined the early seasons are right.  Clearly they could produce great drama, with or without direct Cardassian involvement (although that's another gaping hole in this episode, the absence of Gul Dukat, which even by the two-part "Maquis" later in the season, and the Dukat-heavy third season and beyond, had been identified by those same producers).  But you can't let Bajorans overrun the station.  You just can't.  I don't care how many admirals are telling Sisko they can't do anything about that sort of development. 

Or maybe I'm wrong. Maybe this was exactly the episode that needed to happen, not just to galvanize the storytelling, but to clear the Bajoran problems that were the original basis of the series.  The bottom line, though, is that "Siege" feels like an underwhelming conclusion to what should have been a shining creative moment for the young series.  There's something wrong with that, anyway.

Still, the best moment in the episode, Dax joining Kira in some antiquated fighter unit, helps shine a renewed light on Dax, her lively personality, which would come up again later in the season ("Playing God").  Seeing these two women bond is probably one of the better moments hindsight can give, from an era where that has become increasingly important.  This had never happened before in the history of Star Trek, but soon, in Voyager, it would become a welcome new staple.  So that's the best way, probably, to think of "Siege."

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Not essential to the franchise per say.
• series - Pretty important to the series.
• character - Has good character work from Dax and Kira.
• essential - Not essential.

notable guest-stars:
Frank Langella
Rosalind Chao (Keiko)
Hana Hatae (Molly)
Steven Weber
Louise Fletcher (Winn)
Max Grodenchik (Rom)
Aron Eisenberg (Nog)
Philip Anglim (Bareil)

The Next Generation 6x7 "Rascals"

rating: *

the story: Picard, Guinan, Ro, and Keiko are de-aged.

similar to: "One Little Ship" (Deep Space Nine), "The Counter-Clock Incident" (The Animated Series), "Before and After" (Voyager), "Too Short a Season" (Next Generation)

my thoughts: This is one of those episodes I have a real conflict with.  On the one hand, it's the rare episode that reverses one of the franchise's favorite tropes (characters aging).  On the other, it's akin to episodes like "Genesis" (Next Generation; characters devolving), "Threshold" (characters evolving), and "One Little Ship" (characters shrinking).  On the other hand, it's actually got its own tradition ("Counter-Clock Incident" from The Animated Series, "Before and After" from Voyager, and "Too Short a Season" from Next Generation itself).

But "Rascals" remains pretty unique, in that it literally features young actors taking the place of established ones.  To me, it's as tough a concept as "Threshold" has always been ("Threshold" is routinely listed as one of the worst episodes in the whole franchise).  I can easily stomach "Threshold."  "Threshold" is, ultimately, less of a gimmick episode and more of a concept episode (what happens when you pass Warp 10?).  "Rascals" has to live and die, ultimately, on its own merits.

The young actors as a whole are pretty terrible.  This was the last era in which casting directors could get away with this sort of thing.  By the end of the millennium (Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense), they'd starting looking for real talent.  The actor playing the young Picard is particularly egregious. 

What makes this worse is that it's such a pivotal character episode.  It's the last regular appearances of Ro and both O'Briens in the series, and one of Guinan's last (before two appearances in the movies, Generations and Nemesis).  It's insane that this moment is all but ruined by having child actors perform the roles for the majority of the episode.

And yet, and yet...It's good for Ro's character, and good for Keiko's.  It positions the O'Briens for how they would interact throughout Deep Space Nine, and is the first time we see Ro as meaning anything as an individual since, basically, "Ensign Ro." 

And we get that nice little scene where the young Picard pretends to be Riker's son.

So as you can see, I have a conflicted relationship with "Rascals."  I group it most with "One Little Ship" because it's an absurd gimmick of an episode that really shouldn't work, and yet it kind of does.  The worst, in the end, that can be said about it is that Alexander, in a whole episode filled with other kids, is once again reduced to being relatively pointless in an episode where he should have been one of the most important characters.  Anyway...Let's just move on.

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential

notable guest-stars:
Colm Meaney (O'Brien)
Rosalind Chao (Keiko)
Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan)
Michelle Forbes (Ro)
Brian Bonsall (Alexander)
Hana Hatae (Molly)

The Next Generation 5x15 "Power Play"

rating: **

the story: Alien assume control of Troi, Data, and O'Brien, and attempt to free the rest of their colleagues from their prison on a remote planet.

similar to: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

my thoughts: The best thing to be taken away from this episode, I think, is Marina Sirtis's commanding performance as the possessed Troi, a far more confident poise than she been allowed to take previously.  It's later built on by "Face of the Enemy" and Captain Jellico's famous edict that she dress like everyone else, which finally breaks the sexual overtones that dominated her for years thanks to her ever-present cleavage and reliance on emotions (regardless of her role as ship's councilor).

Other than that, it's a pretty standard possession episode, a franchise trope to be sure, from Kirk's experiences in "Turnabout Intruder" to Enterprise's "Observer Effect."  More interesting is the penal colony the crew turns out to have discovered, aping The Final Frontier's revelation that "God" is there on Sybok's world for similar reasons.

(I hate the name "Bryce Shumar," by the way.  Just hate it.  It's the name of the Starfleet captain the lead villain claims to be.  The last name is already unusual enough.  But pairing it with an equally unusual first name just makes the whole thing sound horribly artificial, and terrible.  But it doesn't ruin the episode for me.  Probably should.  But it doesn't.)

Anyway, aside from all that, there's Ensign Ro being used in a fairly routine capacity again.  I guess it's fine, because that was kind of the point of "Ensign Ro" to begin with, and the majority of her appearances are Ro being, basically, just another member of the crew (again, Voyager haters, Ro is a far more flagrant offender of character integrity than anyone in Janeway's crew).  Well, besides her, there's O'Brien being a part of the possessed party, just so he can menace Keiko.  I mean, literally, that's all he's there to do.  Data, meanwhile, is there to add muscle.  There's an inconsistency to how easy it is to do this sort of thing to him.  One minute ("The Schizoid Man") it's incredibly easy, the next ("Silicon Avatar") it's incredibly hard, because his positronic net can easily handle multiple personalities...Add in "Masks" and...

So this is an episode you can enjoy much more if you don't think about some of its limitations, because on the whole it's really not that bad.  In a very strong season otherwise, it's obviously filler, but it could be worse.

(Glowing endorsement: "It could be worse!")

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential

notable guest-stars:
Michelle Forbes (Ro Laren)
Colm Meaney (O'Brien)
Rosalind Chao (Keiko)

The Next Generation 5x12 "Violations"

rating: ***

the story:  A visiting alien delegate may be violating people's thoughts.

similar to: "Fusion" (Enterprise)

my thoughts: This is the episode the series had been trying to tell with Troi, as previously attempted in "Tin Man" and the abysmal "Night Terrors."  This time, the story serves the empathy, figuring out how to organically integrate her into itself, and still finding compelling material to explain how it fits in with everyone else.  While it doesn't do much to explore Troi, it's another in the series of latent continuations of the slice-of-life episodes from the fourth season.

With characters like Keiko O'Brien around to help sell the concept of a telepath with seemingly remarkable abilities helping the whole crew, if they'd like, remember fond memories, the nightmare sets in when many of them begin to experience nightmares from their past, or in Troi's case, something that never happened at all.  The whole thing really feels like a direct apology for "Night Terrors," actually, especially in that regard.

Nightmares and dream sequences are another Star Trek trope, one Next Generation regularly mined (with Data in particular, in "Birthright" and "Phantasms").  Yet "Violations" is more akin to Enterprise's "Fusion," in which deviant members of Vulcan society are performing the forbidden mind meld experience, which in their hands is as destructive as what Troi experiences.  There's also an echo of what Shinzon and his Viceroy later do to her in Nemesis.

This is an instance of a seemingly minor episode being more significant than it seems.  It's one of Troi's better showings, and a sign that she would get better material in the future as well.

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential

notable guest-stars:
Rosalind Chao (Keiko)

The Next Generation 5x5 "Disaster"

rating: **

the story: Various members of the crew share experiences as they attempt to recover from a ship-wide emergency.

similar to: "Civil Defense" (Deep Space Nine)

my thoughts: Perhaps the last effort from the fourth season push to find more slice-of-life stories to tell ("Data's Day," "Family," "In Theory"), "Disaster" is another fine experience in that sequence (even once again involving a major event for Miles and Keiko O'Brien, as their daughter Molly is born, just as they were originally wed in "Data's Day"), but the episode lacks the overall significance of the finest moments from it (Picard's emotional recovery being the crux of "Family," for instance).

The best, or at least most memorable sequence from the episode involves Picard once again grappling with his unease at spending time with children.  Possibly a nod to Wesley's impending return ("The Game," "The First Duty"), it's also another chance for the series to redeem its frequent, and frequently mediocre, attempts to craft a reasonable episode around kids (seriously, the last such effort, "Rascals" from the sixth season, is possibly the most questionable effort of all).  Yet Picard's interactions with the three kids he's forced to shepherd circumvent the worst aspects of other efforts by presenting everyone in a useful, rather than labored, even endearing, manner.  The scenes become less about the kids and more about how comfortable Patrick Stewart is portraying Picard at this point, regardless of the circumstances. 

Less successful is the first chance Ro has, since her debut in "Ensign Ro," to prove that the series will have further interesting things for her to do.  If fans really want to complain that Voyager blew it with the Maquis members of Janeway's crew, they may want to remember how clumsily Next Generation presented Ro's further exploits.  Clearly unwilling to give her an immediate second spotlight, the series instead plays it far too safe, almost cuddly, in attempting to demonstrate that she still has to work out how to interact with people not named Picard on a favorable basis, in just one of several plot threads, easily forgotten.  Well, anyway, "Conundrum" is a much better use of her potential, and that's nine episodes away...

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential

notable guest-stars:
Michelle Forbes (Ro Laren)
Colm Meaney (O'Brien)
Rosalind Chao (Keiko)