DS9 S1E01~02: Emissary
Aug. 16th, 2024 12:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marchionessofmustacheHello everyone. Welcome to my DS9 watchthrough *throws confetti*. If you're coming off any of my other watchthroughs/playthroughs, you know I never finish anything (hey, I finished Pokemon Red Revenge!)
Anyway, I want to jump right in, so to put it short: I'm going to be watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and blogging about it. I have watched the first 1.5-2 seasons or so of this in the past, but don't even remember much about it other than getting bored of it. So hopefully I stay interested this time...! Everyone promises me it gets better. So I'm looking at y'all with a death glare right now. IT BETTER GET BETTER.
Sadly, I can't easily get screengrabs from Paramount+ streaming, so I'm going to be using the ones over at TrekCore for now, until I can figure something else out. The extensions I've tried don't screencap properly. So I'm stuck with whatever TC gives me for now. Will try more later. I'm gonna be hotlinking the images at first; if it fails, I'll have to download them, resize them, and host them myself which is annoying but hey.
I'm kind of a dummy, and I can barely follow the story of the Pokemon anime, so we're going to be trying to follow the story of a much much more narrative-driven show filled with complicated lore. Yay. Expect to be dumbfounded by my dumbness.
So, let's get right to it. I'm actually stopping part-way through episodes to comment... whenever seems like a good stopping point between miniarcs or whatever. I guess maybe where they would have run commercials...? I'm about 30 minutes into the first double-parter episode now, entitled "Emissary" (not to be confused with "THE Emissary," the TNG episode)...
So, we start off with Borg!Picard attacking the something-something number-number, where we're introduced to our lead hero, Ben Sisko. Cisko? Sisko. Right. He's the commander on the Starfleet ship being attacked and assimilated by the Borg.
Now, I've watched TOS, TAS, and, more relevantly, TNG, so I know what the Borg is. I'm not going to explain stuff here that we're supposed to already know.
But I do think it's funny that they try to shoot the massive Borg Cube thing with their dinky little lasers. They should have prioritized escape sooner IMO.
But yeah, place is gettin' blown up and Sisky and friends are gonna escape through the pods. We learn the good commander has a wife and kid, but wifey dies and kid survives. I actually cried when he was trying to rescue her despite her being already passed. If you don't know me, just know that I cry at literally anything relatively emotional, even if the acting or direction is bad or whatever, if they wanted you to feel something, then BRING ON THE WATERWORKS.
Fast forward to three years later, Sisky is being assigned to command on a space station orbiting a planet called Bajor. AND SUDDENLY LOTS OF LORE IS THROWN AT US! So, from what I can gather and what I can remember from watching in the past... the uh... bad bad aliens (omfg... let me look up the Memory Alpha entry for this episode to help me along LOL) oh yeah THE CARDASSIANS. IDK how I forget this, Cardassians are like... a huge thing in this series lol and were prominent later in TNG as well.
Anyway, Cardassians are the meanie aliens. They occupied Bajor, who had been fighting for independence from their tyranny. Somehow they got kicked out (maybe Federation kicked them out? IDK I already am failing to follow this story) and now the Bajorans are living under a provisionary government that is expected to fall. Now that they're no longer united against the Cardassians, old feuds have cropped up and they're at the brink of civil war again.
On the way out, the Cardassians ravaged everything, and Bajor and the space station we're not occupying is in disarray.
The Federation has been assigned to the once-Cardassian vessel to help Bajor regain their independence, but the Bajorans are wary and distrusting of their "help," as that's basically the same story of how they fell under Cardassian occupation back in the day. I think it was 60 years ago? IDK. What even is a Bajoran year? Is it like an Earth year? We don't know. They just think "years" sounds nice to give us an idea of how long ago it was even though it could mean virtually anything. OK.
So, here we have our hero, Benjamin Sisko. We're introduced to him as a serious guy who wants the best for his family, which is now just his son, Jake.
Here's Deep Space Nine, the space station where most of the series takes place :) One thing that's interesting about DS9 as a series as opposed to the other five 'classic Treks' (I don't know anything about the new stuff, which I want to watch but need to 'clean up' the old stuff first) is that the entire series pretty much revolves around a single location in a single plot. The other series are about exploring (or being lost) and going from place to place, visiting "strange new worlds." But in DS9 we don't really explore, we just... hang out over Bajor a lot.
It's an interesting break from the formula. On one hand, I like the idea of a focused narrative like this -- we can get a lot more over-arching story, whereas with the previous format the show was a lot more episodic and we didn't have as much ongoing to worry about. Of course, my peabrain appreciates the episodic, as I don't have to keep track of as much.
Ol' Ben and Jake arrive at DS9, where everything is a mess. Jake whines because his bed isn't good enough and the food isn't good enough and etc. But anyway, we're introduced to our first other major character, Chief of Operations Miles O'Brien. O'Brien is a shitty background character from TNG that they for some godforsaken reason decided to make a FULL-ON MAJOR CHARACTER in DS9. I warn you now, O'Brien fans, I HATE THIS GUY. It doesn't help that he reminds me of an "ex" and by "ex" I mean the grown man who "dated" me while I was still in high school. At least O'Brien ain't a pedo though. But yeah, he's tolerable in his first couple scenes, just giving us info on why the place is so broken and stuff, and basically just being a guide for the station. But in general his attitude sucks, his personality sucks, he's super annoying, he's really ugly, he's a dick to his wife, and he doesn't even have a good wife -- even his family is annoying. Everything about this guy is crap and I hate him.
So this old dude pops up and is like "THE PROPHETS WILL SEE YOU NOW" and Sisko is kinda wtf about it and tells him no. We get a beardly old man and HE'S NOT EVEN THAT CUTE. My biggest beef with DS9 is there's no masculine eye-candy. We got a couple hot ladies but sometimes you want the stache, you know? Well, I always want the stache, but like... Sisky's babyface is not cutting it, and O'Brien makes me want to gag just looking at his stupid big ugly head.
I will try to be open to O'Brien this time, I promise. But it's gonna be hard.
Jake whines some more and Ben does this "OK" in a whiny voice to mock him and I laughed.
O'Ugly shows Sisky to his commanding room thingy, where we meet our next major character.
It's Major Kira! (wiki time... ok "Kira Nerys" is the full name)
She's definitely a cutie, but boy is she an angy lady. We're introduced to her fighting with the provisional government somebody, and then she's all snippy with Sisko, who tries to be polite or something, but she will have NONE OF IT. She does not like or trust the Federation in the least, and doesn't want him here. But she's assigned as his liaison officer. Funtimes. Lots of fun tension between her and Sisko. Not the sexy kind though, just the stressful kind.
Kira is probably my favorite character from the bit I've seen. I was first watching DS9 when Nintendogs came out on the DS (the original one!) and I named my first dog Kira because I liked her that much lol. But yeah I tend to fall for the characters with a chip on their shoulder, and she brings a lot to the lore/story, so she's quite interesting. Her personality is fun, and it's always heartwarming to see the angry character in their rare smiling form.
We don't get to see that now, though. She's just snarky and mad all the time.
Before we can get too far in their conversation, we get word that some kind of theft crime thingy has happened in the promenade! Oh no! So we rush there, where we get to meet our next dude.
Security Chief Odo, who isan Animorph some kind of shapeshifty something-something; we don't really learn about it here, but we do see him morph his head into some kind of goop so a projectile weapon goes right through him. Cool, I think?
Odo is angry like Kira but he's more like a grumpy little dude, whereas Kira is like PASSIONATELY angry. Odo is probably the hottest guy in the show, which is sad, because he's pretty mid. But maybe his shapeshifting could lead to some interesting scenarios in the bedroom. Er, quarters. Do they even have bedrooms? Yeah, Jake was whining about his bed being a futon or something.
He's arresting these two non-humans who did some stealing. Bad bad aliens. One is some weird thing that gets away, and the other is a little kid Ferengi.
Yay Ferengi :\ This is a race that gets way too much screentime in the series. They're basically the personaification of capitalism, which is cool that we get to see criticisms of capitalism, but like they're SO ANNOYING.
They're also quite ugly. But here's our next main character. Yup, it's Quark. I guess if you had a thing for ears they might look cool to you but... nope. Bad noses and round faces, not for me.
So, Sisko demands the little Ferengi (I forget if they said his name) go to prison for his little robbery, then later bargains with Quark for his freedom lol. It's a capitalist tactic!!!!! But yeah, he wants Quark to stay behind and help rebuild the social scene of the station. He's reluctant to do so, but wants to free his nephew, so... (to be honest I think it's kind of ooc for Quark to even care about the stupid kid LOL but maybe Quark develops later or something lol and it makes sense? idk)
In between the robbery and the negotiation, though, Sisky meets with Jean-Luc. FINALLY A HANDSOME FACE. Look at this lovely baldy. I love him. Anyway, Ben makes it clear he does not want the assignment and is only doing it because he is ordered to. He would rather be on civvy duty with his son on Earth so he could focus on his family.
There's also some tension between the two (again, and sadly, not the sexy kind) because it was Borg-Luc who destroyed the ship and killed Ben's wife three years ago.
OH YEAH I wanted to mention that like, the uniforms don't fit well or something because every single time someone in uniform stands up, they have to like adjust their top. It was like this on TNG too. You just kinda get used to it, but I hadn't seen it in a while, so seeing Picard adjust his top was nostalgic and funny for me.
Oh, another thing, when Sisko stood up and said he'd perform his duty to the best of his ability or whatever, I cried.
Then Kira wears a sleeveless top. She's helping clear all the debris from... whatever section of the ship they're in (are they still in the promenade? IDEK what is going on at this point)... And she's all like "I bet Starfleet officers aren't used to getting their hands dirty." and then Sisko picks up ONE OBJECT and sets it down and is all like "HELLZ YEAH LOOK AT ME" but I think we're not supposed to think it's funny.
We then (wow so much more happens here than in Pokemon lmao) learn more about the Bajoran conflict that I mentioned earlier as the two work on cleaning together. Kira is a little less angry. A little.
She mentions that... (wiki for spelling...) Kai Opaka is the only hope of uniting the people of Bajor. I guess a Kai is like their spiritual leader, and Opaka is her name. Anyway, the religion is the only thing holding the people together, and if Opaka says work together, they'll WORK TOGETHER. But she's some kind of crazy hermit who won't talk to anyone.
But I guess she wants to talk to Big Ben, because not-THAT-cute-beardman comes back and is like "NOW IS THE TIIIIIME" and Sisko just knows what it means and gets up and goes with him ?????? LOL
Opaka like rubs Sisky's ear (???) and like talks about his "pagh" (had to look up spelling lol) which is uh... some kind of... spiritual... thing... that she wants him to explore. Maybe it's like his spirit itself? I don't know. Don't ask me. I'm trying not to research TOO much in fear of spoilers lol. Just looking at the blue words on the Memory Alpha page for this episode and not clicking or reading much LOL. I guess it's a "lifeforce." IDK!!!!!!!!
Anyway, they try to communicate but it's really derpy, and then she shows him a weird box with a glowy thing in it, which is some kind of magical orb thing? And I guess there are uh... several of these (I think 9? I forget) and the Cardassians stole all the other ones, and somehow they'll lead to some temple... but that's bad... and Sisko is supposed to find the temple first? But the only clue where it is is like... the orb thingies? I don't know, my understanding was really falling apart at this point and then I went and got a snack before writing this, so uh... ???? But it seems like this is going to be an ongoing story so it will probably become more apparent and obvious what's going on later since we'll likely hear much more about it.
But yeah, when Sisko looks at the orb, it makes him relive the first meeting with his wife on a beach.
They get uncomfortably close for people who just met and honestly Jen (the wife) should be telling this man to stay VERY FAR AWAY because he is acting super weird and creepy. But instead she like... shows interest in him? Anyway, the flashback thing doesn't last long (it's not really a flashback, it's like he went back in time to relive the moment?) and he's back talking to Opaka (I keep wanting to say O'aka) about the orbs. Doesn't ask why he saw the vision or whatever just happened. Just kinda goes with it.
Then she just PICKS UP THE BIG BOX THING with the orb in it and gives it to him????? Like it's half his size LOL and I guess she just expects him to carry it all the way out of the temple thing they're in and back to the station idek lmao.
We cut forward to Ben telling Jake he looks like his mother and then caressing him, because that's not weird, and then Kira calls and tells him to go to the promenade because there's "something he might like to see."
And, uh, I feel like it's only been a few hours but there's like an entire bar and gambling establishment set up with people all around? I don't know how much time is supposed to have passed... but the promenade is now a happening place, with Quark behind it all. I don't even know where all these people came from suddenly...? And other parts of the ship are still just a wreck, so... yeah.
The Enterprise is here and dropping off some peeps and picking others up. We get to meet a few more characters (so many main guys!) and there's a little scene of O'Brien saying goodbye to Picard. When he asked for permission to disembark, I cried.
First we get introduced to Dr. Julian Bashir, the new head doctor dude. He's a quirky happy-go-lucky guy who I really love a lot, even if he's sooooo not attractive physically lmfao. I actually hated him at first because I thought he was ugly (lolll) but I guess a lot of fans find him attractive...? But I have weird tastes, so...
Anyway, he's all like "I'm doing yeehaw frontier medicine" and Kira gets on him because he's viewing her home as some kind of "fun frontier" and they have some again-non-sexual tension, and Julian seems a little overwhelmed by Kira.
Next we meet with the new chief science officer, Jadzia Dax, another looker. Between the two, Jadzia is probably the hotter one, but Kira is like... the more interesting one? But maybe Dax develops more later. Dax is a Trill, and her previous host was an old man named Curzon Dax, of whom Sisko was well-acquainted it seems. I'm not going to explain Trills because they were introduced in TNG, so hopefully you just know what this means :)
Jadzia is assigned to learn more about the magical orb thingy. When she reaches out to it, she has her own flashback moment of the time she changed hosts from Curzon to Jadzia. Then she zaps back to reality and faintly smiles. Doesn't question WTF just happened to her. Doesn't seem alarmed or confused. Just a little smile and goes about her business.
Oh, and Julian likes Jadzia.
Sisko meets with Gul Dukat, though I'm not exactly sure why. He's basically the Cardassian that was kicked out of the place a couple weeks ago. Also he's very hot. I guess there is a little masculine sex appeal to DS9 after all. Kinda forgot about this guy. The hottest Cardassian was some short-lived character on TNG, but this guy is pretty fine, too.
CLOSEUP
He "encourages" interchange about the orbs, though Sisko denies knowing anything about them. He says something about how the nearby Cardassians are willing to help out??? I don't... really understand the position of the Cardassians right now. Like, I mean, they're baddies but like... I still don't fully understand what forced them to leave Bajor and why they can't just come back...? Or maybe it's the threat of the Federation keeping them away? I don't know. The Federation doesn't have very much power out here, so I feel like they wouldn't be much of a threat??? I can't follow stories, HELP
Anyway, Jadzia learns of a clue about the orbs, that five of them were found in some belt, where a former Kai also claimed to have almost been swallowed by the heavens or something. So Sisko wants to get in closer, but the Cardassians will see him, so they have Odo shapeshift into a bag of money and go onto the Cardassian ship nearby to turn off their sensors for a moment, and Sisko is able to get away for a bit undetected.
Meanwhile, it's O'Brien's job to transport Odo back to the ship via transporter, but he can't seem to get it to work, so he straight up kicks the console, and then the good Constable appears. I wish I was kidding, but that's really how it works! It reminds me of when I had a laptop whose fan would make noises sometimes, and I'd just punch the side of the laptop, and it would stop (with the fans still running!) But yeah, always trust the Donald Method.
Then... a bunch of stuff goes down.
I don't even know where to begin explaining this, but basically Jadzia and Sisko on their little ship get sucked into a something that turns out to be the first-known stable wormhole in the known universe, or so they assume. They come out some forever away place, then turn back around to try going back in. On the way through back, though, they "land" somewhere and an orb comes and to be honest I really don't know what happens, but the orb like merges with Jadzia and sends her back to DS9, while it like... attempts some kind of communication with Sisko???
Jadzia informs the crew of the wormhole, and then Kira decides it would be nice if Bajorans got to it first and not Cardassians, so they decide to move the entire space station across the way to the wormhole, which should take like months or something, but they do some kind of technowonder to make the ship lighter so the thrusters can take in there in a short time. The 'problem' is this could easily destroy the entire station and kill everyone on board. But they don't seem to think it over, they're just like, 'yeah cool good idea' and start doing it. Like not one objection. All because Kira wants to. She didn't even have to get that angry!
Meanwhile, the entity that is orb-like tries communicating with Sisko. They determine he is corporeal and assume he wants to destroy them, even though they seem to want to peacefully communicate with other lifeforms. But they don't understand linear time and don't believe that another lifeform can exist in such a manner. So Sisko is trying to explain linear time to this being that exists at all points in time, through a communication method of sharing audio-visual inputs with his mind or something.
Yeah, idk.
Basically, he "sees" various things in his past (interestingly enough, not his future, though it would kind of make sense if he could see that in this... realm?) and talks to the people there, and the being uses those people to talk back.
Meanwhile, Kira and co. take another little ship to try to rescue Sisko, but they also find out that Dukat seems to know everything that's going on, from the opening of the wormhole, to Sisko's communication with the orb beings. Well, their sensors and stuff are back online, but that's pretty impressive, really. Kira and friends try to warn Dukat that the wormhole may be dangerous because of the hostile lifeform they encountered, but he doesn't care, thinking they're trying to keep the Cardassians away from the wormhole selfishly.
We keep seeing Sisko trying to negotiate with the orbies, which is actually quite fascinating. I'm not going to explain it all here. But eventually he starts to get through to them with baseball -- explaining that linearity is exciting because we are ignorant of what is to come.
And meanwhile meanwhile, Gul Dukat goes into the wormhole, and then the orbies collapse it. The even-sexier-than-Dukat Gul Jasad appears and demands to know what happened, then accuses Kira and crew of destroying the warship carrying Dukat. I don't think Jasad will ever appear again but the way his mouth moves is laksdjflkasdjf. He demands that they surrender the entire station to the Cardassians, and gives them only one hour to prepare. O'Brien tells Bashir "you know what they do to their prisoners" and I know and I want Jasad to do it to me.
Also, can I applaud the acting by Nana Visitor here for a moment? I normally don't like noticing this stuff because it takes away from the immersion to think about acting quality, but considering most of Star Trek is questionable or campy acting, I noticed I got really caught up in Kira's nervousness once Jasad told her she had one hour and onward. A really great performance that really pulled me in.
The orbies keep communicating with Sisko, seeming to almost come around, but then asking him again why he exists in the moment his wife was killed. He doesn't understand what they mean, but eventually realizes he hasn't moved on from that moment in his life, which is "not linear" and then he sobs "IT'S NOT LINEAR BOOHOO" and it's funny but it's not supposed to be funny but I also cried at the same time?????? That's 4 cries in this one episode so far 8);;; Well I guess it's technically two episodes.
Kira and O'Brien and buddies decide to fake out Jasad by somehow emulating a response to show they have lots of weapons and stuff, but he calls their bluff, and they get attacked. Julian rushes down to the promenade to assist with the injured people. He has Odo hold onto a neck wound on a woman on the ground, and he starts to get very nervous, and Bashir is like "JUST DO IT >:I" and it's kinda cool. Shows a different side of each of them, if only for a moment.
Just as about as Kira is going to submit to surrender, the wormhole opens back up and Dukat and Sisko come through. Dukat signals for his ships to disarm and go away, and the Enterprise shows up a bit afterward. Apparently Sisko got through to the non-corporeal orbies and they've not only released him, but decided to leave the wormhole open as a means of transportation for everyone.
And that's the setting for the series -- now that the wormhole is here, we're no longer out in the boondocks of space assisting Bajor, but Deep Space Nine is now a vessel at the mouth of a very important portal, making it all of a sudden a prime place for commerce and diplomacy. But all the while, the Cardassians are breathing down our necks, and the Bajorans still don't completely trust Starfleet, or even each other. The episode ends showing the bustling space station. Oh and there's a little scene of almost-sexual tension between Kira and Quark lmfao. Well, more like she threatens him and he gets turned on. Don't blame him at all. Kira can threaten me all she wants.
And here's some more Jasad for good measure. He can threaten me, too.
But yeah, wow, what a doozy. I actually found it very thrilling and fun -- I don't remember enjoying it this much my first time. I don't know what other people think about this premiere episode(s) but I certainly enjoyed it this time around. I think it gets a little less great for a while, though. At one point they're going to be like... singing a rhyme and skipping hopscotch to like... get a door to open or something. IDK. It gets really stupid. And there will be Ferengi episodes. And Lwaxana Troi makes an appearance for some reason. We do get a Q episode, though! I don't want to spoil too much though (actually that's about all I remember anyway lol).
Looking forward to continuing this. I might start another episode now, though I'm not sure if I have enough time to finish it before bed...
MASTERPOST
Anyway, I want to jump right in, so to put it short: I'm going to be watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and blogging about it. I have watched the first 1.5-2 seasons or so of this in the past, but don't even remember much about it other than getting bored of it. So hopefully I stay interested this time...! Everyone promises me it gets better. So I'm looking at y'all with a death glare right now. IT BETTER GET BETTER.
Sadly, I can't easily get screengrabs from Paramount+ streaming, so I'm going to be using the ones over at TrekCore for now, until I can figure something else out. The extensions I've tried don't screencap properly. So I'm stuck with whatever TC gives me for now. Will try more later. I'm gonna be hotlinking the images at first; if it fails, I'll have to download them, resize them, and host them myself which is annoying but hey.
I'm kind of a dummy, and I can barely follow the story of the Pokemon anime, so we're going to be trying to follow the story of a much much more narrative-driven show filled with complicated lore. Yay. Expect to be dumbfounded by my dumbness.
So, let's get right to it. I'm actually stopping part-way through episodes to comment... whenever seems like a good stopping point between miniarcs or whatever. I guess maybe where they would have run commercials...? I'm about 30 minutes into the first double-parter episode now, entitled "Emissary" (not to be confused with "THE Emissary," the TNG episode)...
So, we start off with Borg!Picard attacking the something-something number-number, where we're introduced to our lead hero, Ben Sisko. Cisko? Sisko. Right. He's the commander on the Starfleet ship being attacked and assimilated by the Borg.
Now, I've watched TOS, TAS, and, more relevantly, TNG, so I know what the Borg is. I'm not going to explain stuff here that we're supposed to already know.
But I do think it's funny that they try to shoot the massive Borg Cube thing with their dinky little lasers. They should have prioritized escape sooner IMO.
But yeah, place is gettin' blown up and Sisky and friends are gonna escape through the pods. We learn the good commander has a wife and kid, but wifey dies and kid survives. I actually cried when he was trying to rescue her despite her being already passed. If you don't know me, just know that I cry at literally anything relatively emotional, even if the acting or direction is bad or whatever, if they wanted you to feel something, then BRING ON THE WATERWORKS.
Fast forward to three years later, Sisky is being assigned to command on a space station orbiting a planet called Bajor. AND SUDDENLY LOTS OF LORE IS THROWN AT US! So, from what I can gather and what I can remember from watching in the past... the uh... bad bad aliens (omfg... let me look up the Memory Alpha entry for this episode to help me along LOL) oh yeah THE CARDASSIANS. IDK how I forget this, Cardassians are like... a huge thing in this series lol and were prominent later in TNG as well.
Anyway, Cardassians are the meanie aliens. They occupied Bajor, who had been fighting for independence from their tyranny. Somehow they got kicked out (maybe Federation kicked them out? IDK I already am failing to follow this story) and now the Bajorans are living under a provisionary government that is expected to fall. Now that they're no longer united against the Cardassians, old feuds have cropped up and they're at the brink of civil war again.
On the way out, the Cardassians ravaged everything, and Bajor and the space station we're not occupying is in disarray.
The Federation has been assigned to the once-Cardassian vessel to help Bajor regain their independence, but the Bajorans are wary and distrusting of their "help," as that's basically the same story of how they fell under Cardassian occupation back in the day. I think it was 60 years ago? IDK. What even is a Bajoran year? Is it like an Earth year? We don't know. They just think "years" sounds nice to give us an idea of how long ago it was even though it could mean virtually anything. OK.
So, here we have our hero, Benjamin Sisko. We're introduced to him as a serious guy who wants the best for his family, which is now just his son, Jake.
Here's Deep Space Nine, the space station where most of the series takes place :) One thing that's interesting about DS9 as a series as opposed to the other five 'classic Treks' (I don't know anything about the new stuff, which I want to watch but need to 'clean up' the old stuff first) is that the entire series pretty much revolves around a single location in a single plot. The other series are about exploring (or being lost) and going from place to place, visiting "strange new worlds." But in DS9 we don't really explore, we just... hang out over Bajor a lot.
It's an interesting break from the formula. On one hand, I like the idea of a focused narrative like this -- we can get a lot more over-arching story, whereas with the previous format the show was a lot more episodic and we didn't have as much ongoing to worry about. Of course, my peabrain appreciates the episodic, as I don't have to keep track of as much.
Ol' Ben and Jake arrive at DS9, where everything is a mess. Jake whines because his bed isn't good enough and the food isn't good enough and etc. But anyway, we're introduced to our first other major character, Chief of Operations Miles O'Brien. O'Brien is a shitty background character from TNG that they for some godforsaken reason decided to make a FULL-ON MAJOR CHARACTER in DS9. I warn you now, O'Brien fans, I HATE THIS GUY. It doesn't help that he reminds me of an "ex" and by "ex" I mean the grown man who "dated" me while I was still in high school. At least O'Brien ain't a pedo though. But yeah, he's tolerable in his first couple scenes, just giving us info on why the place is so broken and stuff, and basically just being a guide for the station. But in general his attitude sucks, his personality sucks, he's super annoying, he's really ugly, he's a dick to his wife, and he doesn't even have a good wife -- even his family is annoying. Everything about this guy is crap and I hate him.
So this old dude pops up and is like "THE PROPHETS WILL SEE YOU NOW" and Sisko is kinda wtf about it and tells him no. We get a beardly old man and HE'S NOT EVEN THAT CUTE. My biggest beef with DS9 is there's no masculine eye-candy. We got a couple hot ladies but sometimes you want the stache, you know? Well, I always want the stache, but like... Sisky's babyface is not cutting it, and O'Brien makes me want to gag just looking at his stupid big ugly head.
I will try to be open to O'Brien this time, I promise. But it's gonna be hard.
Jake whines some more and Ben does this "OK" in a whiny voice to mock him and I laughed.
O'Ugly shows Sisky to his commanding room thingy, where we meet our next major character.
It's Major Kira! (wiki time... ok "Kira Nerys" is the full name)
She's definitely a cutie, but boy is she an angy lady. We're introduced to her fighting with the provisional government somebody, and then she's all snippy with Sisko, who tries to be polite or something, but she will have NONE OF IT. She does not like or trust the Federation in the least, and doesn't want him here. But she's assigned as his liaison officer. Funtimes. Lots of fun tension between her and Sisko. Not the sexy kind though, just the stressful kind.
Kira is probably my favorite character from the bit I've seen. I was first watching DS9 when Nintendogs came out on the DS (the original one!) and I named my first dog Kira because I liked her that much lol. But yeah I tend to fall for the characters with a chip on their shoulder, and she brings a lot to the lore/story, so she's quite interesting. Her personality is fun, and it's always heartwarming to see the angry character in their rare smiling form.
We don't get to see that now, though. She's just snarky and mad all the time.
Before we can get too far in their conversation, we get word that some kind of theft crime thingy has happened in the promenade! Oh no! So we rush there, where we get to meet our next dude.
Security Chief Odo, who is
Odo is angry like Kira but he's more like a grumpy little dude, whereas Kira is like PASSIONATELY angry. Odo is probably the hottest guy in the show, which is sad, because he's pretty mid. But maybe his shapeshifting could lead to some interesting scenarios in the bedroom. Er, quarters. Do they even have bedrooms? Yeah, Jake was whining about his bed being a futon or something.
He's arresting these two non-humans who did some stealing. Bad bad aliens. One is some weird thing that gets away, and the other is a little kid Ferengi.
Yay Ferengi :\ This is a race that gets way too much screentime in the series. They're basically the personaification of capitalism, which is cool that we get to see criticisms of capitalism, but like they're SO ANNOYING.
They're also quite ugly. But here's our next main character. Yup, it's Quark. I guess if you had a thing for ears they might look cool to you but... nope. Bad noses and round faces, not for me.
So, Sisko demands the little Ferengi (I forget if they said his name) go to prison for his little robbery, then later bargains with Quark for his freedom lol. It's a capitalist tactic!!!!! But yeah, he wants Quark to stay behind and help rebuild the social scene of the station. He's reluctant to do so, but wants to free his nephew, so... (to be honest I think it's kind of ooc for Quark to even care about the stupid kid LOL but maybe Quark develops later or something lol and it makes sense? idk)
In between the robbery and the negotiation, though, Sisky meets with Jean-Luc. FINALLY A HANDSOME FACE. Look at this lovely baldy. I love him. Anyway, Ben makes it clear he does not want the assignment and is only doing it because he is ordered to. He would rather be on civvy duty with his son on Earth so he could focus on his family.
There's also some tension between the two (again, and sadly, not the sexy kind) because it was Borg-Luc who destroyed the ship and killed Ben's wife three years ago.
OH YEAH I wanted to mention that like, the uniforms don't fit well or something because every single time someone in uniform stands up, they have to like adjust their top. It was like this on TNG too. You just kinda get used to it, but I hadn't seen it in a while, so seeing Picard adjust his top was nostalgic and funny for me.
Oh, another thing, when Sisko stood up and said he'd perform his duty to the best of his ability or whatever, I cried.
Then Kira wears a sleeveless top. She's helping clear all the debris from... whatever section of the ship they're in (are they still in the promenade? IDEK what is going on at this point)... And she's all like "I bet Starfleet officers aren't used to getting their hands dirty." and then Sisko picks up ONE OBJECT and sets it down and is all like "HELLZ YEAH LOOK AT ME" but I think we're not supposed to think it's funny.
We then (wow so much more happens here than in Pokemon lmao) learn more about the Bajoran conflict that I mentioned earlier as the two work on cleaning together. Kira is a little less angry. A little.
She mentions that... (wiki for spelling...) Kai Opaka is the only hope of uniting the people of Bajor. I guess a Kai is like their spiritual leader, and Opaka is her name. Anyway, the religion is the only thing holding the people together, and if Opaka says work together, they'll WORK TOGETHER. But she's some kind of crazy hermit who won't talk to anyone.
But I guess she wants to talk to Big Ben, because not-THAT-cute-beardman comes back and is like "NOW IS THE TIIIIIME" and Sisko just knows what it means and gets up and goes with him ?????? LOL
Opaka like rubs Sisky's ear (???) and like talks about his "pagh" (had to look up spelling lol) which is uh... some kind of... spiritual... thing... that she wants him to explore. Maybe it's like his spirit itself? I don't know. Don't ask me. I'm trying not to research TOO much in fear of spoilers lol. Just looking at the blue words on the Memory Alpha page for this episode and not clicking or reading much LOL. I guess it's a "lifeforce." IDK!!!!!!!!
Anyway, they try to communicate but it's really derpy, and then she shows him a weird box with a glowy thing in it, which is some kind of magical orb thing? And I guess there are uh... several of these (I think 9? I forget) and the Cardassians stole all the other ones, and somehow they'll lead to some temple... but that's bad... and Sisko is supposed to find the temple first? But the only clue where it is is like... the orb thingies? I don't know, my understanding was really falling apart at this point and then I went and got a snack before writing this, so uh... ???? But it seems like this is going to be an ongoing story so it will probably become more apparent and obvious what's going on later since we'll likely hear much more about it.
But yeah, when Sisko looks at the orb, it makes him relive the first meeting with his wife on a beach.
They get uncomfortably close for people who just met and honestly Jen (the wife) should be telling this man to stay VERY FAR AWAY because he is acting super weird and creepy. But instead she like... shows interest in him? Anyway, the flashback thing doesn't last long (it's not really a flashback, it's like he went back in time to relive the moment?) and he's back talking to Opaka (I keep wanting to say O'aka) about the orbs. Doesn't ask why he saw the vision or whatever just happened. Just kinda goes with it.
Then she just PICKS UP THE BIG BOX THING with the orb in it and gives it to him????? Like it's half his size LOL and I guess she just expects him to carry it all the way out of the temple thing they're in and back to the station idek lmao.
We cut forward to Ben telling Jake he looks like his mother and then caressing him, because that's not weird, and then Kira calls and tells him to go to the promenade because there's "something he might like to see."
And, uh, I feel like it's only been a few hours but there's like an entire bar and gambling establishment set up with people all around? I don't know how much time is supposed to have passed... but the promenade is now a happening place, with Quark behind it all. I don't even know where all these people came from suddenly...? And other parts of the ship are still just a wreck, so... yeah.
The Enterprise is here and dropping off some peeps and picking others up. We get to meet a few more characters (so many main guys!) and there's a little scene of O'Brien saying goodbye to Picard. When he asked for permission to disembark, I cried.
First we get introduced to Dr. Julian Bashir, the new head doctor dude. He's a quirky happy-go-lucky guy who I really love a lot, even if he's sooooo not attractive physically lmfao. I actually hated him at first because I thought he was ugly (lolll) but I guess a lot of fans find him attractive...? But I have weird tastes, so...
Anyway, he's all like "I'm doing yeehaw frontier medicine" and Kira gets on him because he's viewing her home as some kind of "fun frontier" and they have some again-non-sexual tension, and Julian seems a little overwhelmed by Kira.
Next we meet with the new chief science officer, Jadzia Dax, another looker. Between the two, Jadzia is probably the hotter one, but Kira is like... the more interesting one? But maybe Dax develops more later. Dax is a Trill, and her previous host was an old man named Curzon Dax, of whom Sisko was well-acquainted it seems. I'm not going to explain Trills because they were introduced in TNG, so hopefully you just know what this means :)
Jadzia is assigned to learn more about the magical orb thingy. When she reaches out to it, she has her own flashback moment of the time she changed hosts from Curzon to Jadzia. Then she zaps back to reality and faintly smiles. Doesn't question WTF just happened to her. Doesn't seem alarmed or confused. Just a little smile and goes about her business.
Oh, and Julian likes Jadzia.
Sisko meets with Gul Dukat, though I'm not exactly sure why. He's basically the Cardassian that was kicked out of the place a couple weeks ago. Also he's very hot. I guess there is a little masculine sex appeal to DS9 after all. Kinda forgot about this guy. The hottest Cardassian was some short-lived character on TNG, but this guy is pretty fine, too.
CLOSEUP
He "encourages" interchange about the orbs, though Sisko denies knowing anything about them. He says something about how the nearby Cardassians are willing to help out??? I don't... really understand the position of the Cardassians right now. Like, I mean, they're baddies but like... I still don't fully understand what forced them to leave Bajor and why they can't just come back...? Or maybe it's the threat of the Federation keeping them away? I don't know. The Federation doesn't have very much power out here, so I feel like they wouldn't be much of a threat??? I can't follow stories, HELP
Anyway, Jadzia learns of a clue about the orbs, that five of them were found in some belt, where a former Kai also claimed to have almost been swallowed by the heavens or something. So Sisko wants to get in closer, but the Cardassians will see him, so they have Odo shapeshift into a bag of money and go onto the Cardassian ship nearby to turn off their sensors for a moment, and Sisko is able to get away for a bit undetected.
Meanwhile, it's O'Brien's job to transport Odo back to the ship via transporter, but he can't seem to get it to work, so he straight up kicks the console, and then the good Constable appears. I wish I was kidding, but that's really how it works! It reminds me of when I had a laptop whose fan would make noises sometimes, and I'd just punch the side of the laptop, and it would stop (with the fans still running!) But yeah, always trust the Donald Method.
Then... a bunch of stuff goes down.
I don't even know where to begin explaining this, but basically Jadzia and Sisko on their little ship get sucked into a something that turns out to be the first-known stable wormhole in the known universe, or so they assume. They come out some forever away place, then turn back around to try going back in. On the way through back, though, they "land" somewhere and an orb comes and to be honest I really don't know what happens, but the orb like merges with Jadzia and sends her back to DS9, while it like... attempts some kind of communication with Sisko???
Jadzia informs the crew of the wormhole, and then Kira decides it would be nice if Bajorans got to it first and not Cardassians, so they decide to move the entire space station across the way to the wormhole, which should take like months or something, but they do some kind of technowonder to make the ship lighter so the thrusters can take in there in a short time. The 'problem' is this could easily destroy the entire station and kill everyone on board. But they don't seem to think it over, they're just like, 'yeah cool good idea' and start doing it. Like not one objection. All because Kira wants to. She didn't even have to get that angry!
Meanwhile, the entity that is orb-like tries communicating with Sisko. They determine he is corporeal and assume he wants to destroy them, even though they seem to want to peacefully communicate with other lifeforms. But they don't understand linear time and don't believe that another lifeform can exist in such a manner. So Sisko is trying to explain linear time to this being that exists at all points in time, through a communication method of sharing audio-visual inputs with his mind or something.
Yeah, idk.
Basically, he "sees" various things in his past (interestingly enough, not his future, though it would kind of make sense if he could see that in this... realm?) and talks to the people there, and the being uses those people to talk back.
Meanwhile, Kira and co. take another little ship to try to rescue Sisko, but they also find out that Dukat seems to know everything that's going on, from the opening of the wormhole, to Sisko's communication with the orb beings. Well, their sensors and stuff are back online, but that's pretty impressive, really. Kira and friends try to warn Dukat that the wormhole may be dangerous because of the hostile lifeform they encountered, but he doesn't care, thinking they're trying to keep the Cardassians away from the wormhole selfishly.
We keep seeing Sisko trying to negotiate with the orbies, which is actually quite fascinating. I'm not going to explain it all here. But eventually he starts to get through to them with baseball -- explaining that linearity is exciting because we are ignorant of what is to come.
And meanwhile meanwhile, Gul Dukat goes into the wormhole, and then the orbies collapse it. The even-sexier-than-Dukat Gul Jasad appears and demands to know what happened, then accuses Kira and crew of destroying the warship carrying Dukat. I don't think Jasad will ever appear again but the way his mouth moves is laksdjflkasdjf. He demands that they surrender the entire station to the Cardassians, and gives them only one hour to prepare. O'Brien tells Bashir "you know what they do to their prisoners" and I know and I want Jasad to do it to me.
Also, can I applaud the acting by Nana Visitor here for a moment? I normally don't like noticing this stuff because it takes away from the immersion to think about acting quality, but considering most of Star Trek is questionable or campy acting, I noticed I got really caught up in Kira's nervousness once Jasad told her she had one hour and onward. A really great performance that really pulled me in.
The orbies keep communicating with Sisko, seeming to almost come around, but then asking him again why he exists in the moment his wife was killed. He doesn't understand what they mean, but eventually realizes he hasn't moved on from that moment in his life, which is "not linear" and then he sobs "IT'S NOT LINEAR BOOHOO" and it's funny but it's not supposed to be funny but I also cried at the same time?????? That's 4 cries in this one episode so far 8);;; Well I guess it's technically two episodes.
Kira and O'Brien and buddies decide to fake out Jasad by somehow emulating a response to show they have lots of weapons and stuff, but he calls their bluff, and they get attacked. Julian rushes down to the promenade to assist with the injured people. He has Odo hold onto a neck wound on a woman on the ground, and he starts to get very nervous, and Bashir is like "JUST DO IT >:I" and it's kinda cool. Shows a different side of each of them, if only for a moment.
Just as about as Kira is going to submit to surrender, the wormhole opens back up and Dukat and Sisko come through. Dukat signals for his ships to disarm and go away, and the Enterprise shows up a bit afterward. Apparently Sisko got through to the non-corporeal orbies and they've not only released him, but decided to leave the wormhole open as a means of transportation for everyone.
And that's the setting for the series -- now that the wormhole is here, we're no longer out in the boondocks of space assisting Bajor, but Deep Space Nine is now a vessel at the mouth of a very important portal, making it all of a sudden a prime place for commerce and diplomacy. But all the while, the Cardassians are breathing down our necks, and the Bajorans still don't completely trust Starfleet, or even each other. The episode ends showing the bustling space station. Oh and there's a little scene of almost-sexual tension between Kira and Quark lmfao. Well, more like she threatens him and he gets turned on. Don't blame him at all. Kira can threaten me all she wants.
And here's some more Jasad for good measure. He can threaten me, too.
But yeah, wow, what a doozy. I actually found it very thrilling and fun -- I don't remember enjoying it this much my first time. I don't know what other people think about this premiere episode(s) but I certainly enjoyed it this time around. I think it gets a little less great for a while, though. At one point they're going to be like... singing a rhyme and skipping hopscotch to like... get a door to open or something. IDK. It gets really stupid. And there will be Ferengi episodes. And Lwaxana Troi makes an appearance for some reason. We do get a Q episode, though! I don't want to spoil too much though (actually that's about all I remember anyway lol).
Looking forward to continuing this. I might start another episode now, though I'm not sure if I have enough time to finish it before bed...
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Date: 2024-08-16 05:06 pm (UTC)I hope you're watching this with tissues and staying hydrated.
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Date: 2024-08-16 07:21 pm (UTC)Last night some fellow fans were like "it doesn't get good until 4 seasons in" and I'm like... so like half of it is bad? LOL
But yeah, I keep water next to me and I've already cried 5 times. Maybe I'll make a cry counter LMAO
Or do you mean tissues because of Jasad...????????????????
Thanks for reading! Have you watched any Trek before? I've probably asked before but I can't remember XD