marchionessofmustache (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
marchionessofmustache) wrote2024-08-16 09:46 pm
marchionessofmustache) wrote2024-08-16 09:46 pm
Entry tags:
DS9 S1E03: Past Prologue
Hecks yes, we're back!
So, this episode starts with Julian hanging in the uh... cafe-ish place having some tea, when the 'last remaining Cardassian on the station,' Garak, who owns a tailor shop on board, sits down to, well, blatantly flirt with him.
He even gives him a little shoulder rub and tells him how happy he is to have made such an 'interesting new friend.'
Julian, however, thinks Garak is a spy for the Cardassians and is interested in him for that reason. But he seems a little all too giddy about the prospect of being the spy's target -- he skips around the bridge cheering about it and telling everyone.
Is this our DS9 OTP???? It's almost like they're pushing for us to ship them with the way this interaction started off. I haven't gotten far enough in the series (or don't remember -- don't tell me anything!) to know if Garak actually has ulterior motives for sensually befriending Julian, but it'll be cool if he really is just lonely and wants some... uh... companionship.
There's ships all around (and I don't mean starships) in TOS and TNG, but I don't really have that urge to see people together in DS9...? I mean, this is only episode 2 but I'm talking about when I watched previously to season 2 :P
Anyway, let's move on.
A distress call comes from a Bajoran scout ship being relentlessly attacked by a Cardassian warship -- in Bajoran space! A big no-no from their treaty. The ship gets destroyed, but O'Brien is able to beam the dude aboard before he blows up with his ride.
The guy requests political asylum, and then meets eyes with Kira. Seems the two know each other.
WAIT, IS THIS ANOTHER SHIP??
Then the theme song plays.
Apparently this guy is a Kohn-Ma terrorist named Tahna Los, basically a dude who kills Cardassians for fun and vengeance, and has committed tons of heinous crimes against the Cardassians. I guess Kira and he used to be freedom fighters together in the underground. Turns out Tahna is STILL pursuing violence against the Cardassians and is proud of it, making him quite the wanted terrorist.
Gul Danar, the Cardassian daddy of the day, demands he be handed over, and Sisko is placed with the task of deciding whether or not to grant asylum to the terrorist. At first it seems like he's strongly considering it, with his stern reaction to Kira admitting Tahna is Kohn-Ma. They have a little row, but then O'Brien tells Big Ben that you'd never want to hand a man over to the Cardassians for any reason.
It's been established in TNG, but if you're unaware, Cardassians are like the ultimate sadists. Masochists rejoice, they're not just physically sexy! The get off on torture and making sure their victims stay alive to endure it painfully.
Didn't seem to shut down our buddy, Los, though. He keeps on fighting.
But yeah I think the premise of the decision is quite an interesting one. Does Sisko obey the laws of justice of the region and turn over a wanted terrorist? Or does he play the part of the compassionate, and spare the man the hell that will befall him if he's released to the Cardassians? It's a little more complicated than just that, too, as his decision will affect how the Bajorans see the Federation and the provisional government. So he has that level of diplomacy to consider as well.
Kira and Tahna have some shirtless closetalky time and you know I'm a fan of a hairy chest. For some reason it reminds me of injured Snow from that FF13 scene. Anyway, Kira leaves so Sisko can talk to him.
Our terrorist friend expresses his ongoing hate for the Cardassians, almost taking pride in his 'hundreds' of assaults against them which he continues to this day post-occupation and war, admitting he's still a terrorist. But then he says he's honestly "tired of the fighting" when Bashir tells Sisko that the guy needs rest now.
That one little "tired of fighting" line seems to have convinced Sisko that the guy has reformed his ways and deserves asylum, and in his meeting with the lovely Danar, he sends the Cardassians packing.
I really wish they would have played this out a little more, made the decision seem a little more heavy. But Sisko seems to agree with Kira in the end that handing over Tahna would destroy what they're trying to build with Bajor.
Well, I guess the rest of the episode wouldn't have had time to play out if they focused on that decision more.
Kira and Tahna have a little bit of tension because Tahna is still all freedom-fighty-terroristy (though he claims not to be now), against the idea of Federation involvement in Bajoran's fight for independence, and Kira has submitted to Federation's help to build Bajor. Kira assures him that she's fighting to get amnesty for him and other terrorists that follow him, to encourage him to become a social leader for the people. At this point we're still not sure where Tahna stands. Interesting.
Then there's a little commotion because some Klingons have arrived on the ship and refuse to disarm. After a little confrontation with Odo, however, they decide to give up their weapons. Turns out they're the sisters from the House of Duras, which was part of a whole thing explored in TNG, in which they tried to get their long-lost brother appointed leader of the council, which in short, led to Klingon civil war for a bit.
It seems the sisters have been recently trying to gather money to support their weaponry or something (I already forget what exactly Sisko said, but important thing is they want money). They go hang out on the promenade for a while.
Since this is my first Trek blog, let's talk a little about the sex appeal of Klingons. Some people may pin them for sadists like the Cardassians, but they're quite different, even if they may be rough and destructive in bed. They're more feral, succumbing to their instincts and going hog-wild. Though they are a violent warrior race of people, so their mating is matchingly aggressive. Both Cardassian and Klingon sex would result in you getting torn apart, but for different reasons.
I think I'm more drawn to Cardassians, as you'd get to be a helpless victim, whereas a Klingon would expect you to keep up, and I can't imagine even trying to keep up with a Klingon.
Either way, your takeaway should be 'Klingons are hot' and the Duras sisters are no exception to this rule. (And for some reason they have boob windows???)
Julian oh-so-happily and readily meets Garak for drinks, in which he talks about how he's quite observant of the population, as he's interested in clothing, and then tells Bashir that the Klingon sisters' 'outfits' require close 'attention' or something like that. So, I guess Garak isn't just sweet on Bashir, but is wanting to give some kind of tips to Starfleet or something? I don't know. But let's pretend it's partly BECAUSE he's infatuated with the good doctor, ok??
But it seems Tahnar and the sisters are doing some shady stuff -- apparently he has money for them that he... somehow acquired in his little rendezvous with the Cardassians... but it won't arrive til tomorrow and the sisters are being all threatening to him.
Odo had Animorph'd into a mouse and had been keeping tabs on them, though. I think that's one thing strange about the shapeshifter -- he can not only change his shape but drastically change his size. I mean how small is he able to go? Could he morph down to a pinhead? Wouldn't that make it easier for him to infiltrate stuff than being disguised as a moneybag? And how big can he get? And speaking more lewdly, how big can he get? I'd really like to know all this.
There's a short scene with Kira and Sisko in which he threatens her for "going over his head" (a little thing that happened earlier that I didn't think to mention), but then we're shown to Garak's shop where the Duras sisters enter. He offers them some silk lingerie to which they get quite offended.
Basically they're here because they think of him as a contact to the Cardassians, and they want to hand over Tahna for money. Upon hearing of the idea, Garak offers them a price, to which they spit at him, offended yet again, but he insists they haggle on the price of Tahna. So is Garak really a spy after all? Or is he just interested in making a quick buck (er... latinum bar)? Maybe he should be flirting with Quark instead -_-; His stance is still unclear at this point. (Please just tell me he has a crush on Julian and chose him as his insider... not just because Julian is naive LOL)
We see Kira and Tahna chatting after she guaranteed his amnesty -- when he reveals he actually has a secret plot and is still loyal to Kohn-Ma, but now the violence is truly over and he just wants her to arrange a small ship capable of warp drive for him. But he won't detail the rest of his plan to him just yet.
Sisko hears of Tahna's dealings with the Duras sisters (omg this is quite difficult to follow lol, I'm so glad I'm typing this stuff out at each commercial break LOL) from Odo, and assumes the gold he's waiting on is coming by the two "peace followers" that Kira told him about.
My ship is sinking already, I can't believe I forgot how fragile it was already (to be fair, it's been like 15-20 years since I've seen this). But Garak wants Bashir to help him figure out what's going on with the two Kohn-ma who have appeared on the ship, because Bashir will "know what to do with the information" when they discover it. Of course this probably has something to do with his deal with the Klingons, right? He tells Julian to come to his shop at 20:55 exactly to "buy a suit," and Julian's poor innocent heart thinks he's literally asking him to come buy clothing out of nowhere.
So it looks like Garak chose Bashir not because he's crushy-crushy, but because he's naive and gullible, and most importantly, easy to manipulate and intimidate. I'm still holding onto the rudders of this ship, though. We're not going down without a fight.
Anyway, Odo and Kira have a little (er, big) discussion -- she goes to him for a bit of roundabout advice. Seems she's not sure whether she wants to betray the Kohn-Ma or the Federation, but she has to make a choice. The discussion is a little lengthy and very intense, and we get to see a little more of Kira's vulnerable side. Very cool. I can't really describe it all here, but I really liked that scene. Then Odo calls Sisko and says Kira needs to talk to him.
Cut to Garak/Bashir. The Cardassian shoves the doctor into a fitting room to overhear his conversation with the Klingon sisters, where he gets them to reveal more about Tahna's plans. Sounds like he's buying what boils down to the ingredients for a WMD bomb from the Klingons.
And it looks like this was what Garak was after. Not handing over Tahna to the Cardassians, but rather exposing him, and using Julian as his vessel to convey that information to Starfleet.
Kira pretends to go along with Tahna, but she gave away his plan to Sisko after hearing Julian's accusation. Sisko alerted Danar, who had an "I told you so" in store for him. Sisko and O'Brien head out on a roundabout to interrupt Tahna and Kira along with the incoming Danar. When Kira learns that Tahna was indeed planning on using a bomb, they get in a bit of a scuffle, and he takes her hostage, demanding she take him to the wormhole, or else he'd bomb Bajor or DS9 instead. Seems like his goal all along was to collapse the entrance to the wormhole, not to cause any harm to any people, but either way, Kira fights him long enough to get through the wormhole so his bomb explodes harmlessly on the other side. Sisko catches up with them and apprehends Tahna, who only agrees to come peacefully because he doesn't want to be otherwise handed over to Daddy Danar. Maybe he prefers Jasad, too.
Whew. A lot went down in that last little bit. Kira tells Tahna that the old ways don't work anymore, and one day he'll understand why she did what she had to do for Bajor. He calls her a traitor as they shuffle him away. The episode ends with her and Sisko walking away in silence, and I cried a little.
And speaking of crying, I also cried when Picard and Sisko shook hands near the end of last episode, so that brings the current Cry Count to 6. Two (or three depending on how you see it) episodes in, and I've cried six times. Huzzah.
This was quite an engaging episode. I remember being bored and annoyed at this series when I watched it before. But the opening has been quite exciting so far. I loved both "Emissary" and "Past Prologue" quite a bit. When does it get dumb again...? Well, I know we're getting to the hopscotch episode soon enough.
I talked about DS9 being less episodic and more story-driven, but the fact of the matter is even this series is going to have a lot of episodes that don't really move any main plotlines further. I mean, in a way, this one didn't even do that, but it did expand greatly on the lore and develop Kira's character quite a bit. I'm surprised we got THIS much character insight in only the second episode, to be honest.
But yeah, I'm enjoying quite a bit. Time to get a snack and start another episode!
MASTERPOST
So, this episode starts with Julian hanging in the uh... cafe-ish place having some tea, when the 'last remaining Cardassian on the station,' Garak, who owns a tailor shop on board, sits down to, well, blatantly flirt with him.
He even gives him a little shoulder rub and tells him how happy he is to have made such an 'interesting new friend.'
Julian, however, thinks Garak is a spy for the Cardassians and is interested in him for that reason. But he seems a little all too giddy about the prospect of being the spy's target -- he skips around the bridge cheering about it and telling everyone.
Is this our DS9 OTP???? It's almost like they're pushing for us to ship them with the way this interaction started off. I haven't gotten far enough in the series (or don't remember -- don't tell me anything!) to know if Garak actually has ulterior motives for sensually befriending Julian, but it'll be cool if he really is just lonely and wants some... uh... companionship.
There's ships all around (and I don't mean starships) in TOS and TNG, but I don't really have that urge to see people together in DS9...? I mean, this is only episode 2 but I'm talking about when I watched previously to season 2 :P
Anyway, let's move on.
A distress call comes from a Bajoran scout ship being relentlessly attacked by a Cardassian warship -- in Bajoran space! A big no-no from their treaty. The ship gets destroyed, but O'Brien is able to beam the dude aboard before he blows up with his ride.
The guy requests political asylum, and then meets eyes with Kira. Seems the two know each other.
WAIT, IS THIS ANOTHER SHIP??
Then the theme song plays.
Apparently this guy is a Kohn-Ma terrorist named Tahna Los, basically a dude who kills Cardassians for fun and vengeance, and has committed tons of heinous crimes against the Cardassians. I guess Kira and he used to be freedom fighters together in the underground. Turns out Tahna is STILL pursuing violence against the Cardassians and is proud of it, making him quite the wanted terrorist.
Gul Danar, the Cardassian daddy of the day, demands he be handed over, and Sisko is placed with the task of deciding whether or not to grant asylum to the terrorist. At first it seems like he's strongly considering it, with his stern reaction to Kira admitting Tahna is Kohn-Ma. They have a little row, but then O'Brien tells Big Ben that you'd never want to hand a man over to the Cardassians for any reason.
It's been established in TNG, but if you're unaware, Cardassians are like the ultimate sadists. Masochists rejoice, they're not just physically sexy! The get off on torture and making sure their victims stay alive to endure it painfully.
Didn't seem to shut down our buddy, Los, though. He keeps on fighting.
But yeah I think the premise of the decision is quite an interesting one. Does Sisko obey the laws of justice of the region and turn over a wanted terrorist? Or does he play the part of the compassionate, and spare the man the hell that will befall him if he's released to the Cardassians? It's a little more complicated than just that, too, as his decision will affect how the Bajorans see the Federation and the provisional government. So he has that level of diplomacy to consider as well.
Kira and Tahna have some shirtless closetalky time and you know I'm a fan of a hairy chest. For some reason it reminds me of injured Snow from that FF13 scene. Anyway, Kira leaves so Sisko can talk to him.
Our terrorist friend expresses his ongoing hate for the Cardassians, almost taking pride in his 'hundreds' of assaults against them which he continues to this day post-occupation and war, admitting he's still a terrorist. But then he says he's honestly "tired of the fighting" when Bashir tells Sisko that the guy needs rest now.
That one little "tired of fighting" line seems to have convinced Sisko that the guy has reformed his ways and deserves asylum, and in his meeting with the lovely Danar, he sends the Cardassians packing.
I really wish they would have played this out a little more, made the decision seem a little more heavy. But Sisko seems to agree with Kira in the end that handing over Tahna would destroy what they're trying to build with Bajor.
Well, I guess the rest of the episode wouldn't have had time to play out if they focused on that decision more.
Kira and Tahna have a little bit of tension because Tahna is still all freedom-fighty-terroristy (though he claims not to be now), against the idea of Federation involvement in Bajoran's fight for independence, and Kira has submitted to Federation's help to build Bajor. Kira assures him that she's fighting to get amnesty for him and other terrorists that follow him, to encourage him to become a social leader for the people. At this point we're still not sure where Tahna stands. Interesting.
Then there's a little commotion because some Klingons have arrived on the ship and refuse to disarm. After a little confrontation with Odo, however, they decide to give up their weapons. Turns out they're the sisters from the House of Duras, which was part of a whole thing explored in TNG, in which they tried to get their long-lost brother appointed leader of the council, which in short, led to Klingon civil war for a bit.
It seems the sisters have been recently trying to gather money to support their weaponry or something (I already forget what exactly Sisko said, but important thing is they want money). They go hang out on the promenade for a while.
Since this is my first Trek blog, let's talk a little about the sex appeal of Klingons. Some people may pin them for sadists like the Cardassians, but they're quite different, even if they may be rough and destructive in bed. They're more feral, succumbing to their instincts and going hog-wild. Though they are a violent warrior race of people, so their mating is matchingly aggressive. Both Cardassian and Klingon sex would result in you getting torn apart, but for different reasons.
I think I'm more drawn to Cardassians, as you'd get to be a helpless victim, whereas a Klingon would expect you to keep up, and I can't imagine even trying to keep up with a Klingon.
Either way, your takeaway should be 'Klingons are hot' and the Duras sisters are no exception to this rule. (And for some reason they have boob windows???)
Julian oh-so-happily and readily meets Garak for drinks, in which he talks about how he's quite observant of the population, as he's interested in clothing, and then tells Bashir that the Klingon sisters' 'outfits' require close 'attention' or something like that. So, I guess Garak isn't just sweet on Bashir, but is wanting to give some kind of tips to Starfleet or something? I don't know. But let's pretend it's partly BECAUSE he's infatuated with the good doctor, ok??
But it seems Tahnar and the sisters are doing some shady stuff -- apparently he has money for them that he... somehow acquired in his little rendezvous with the Cardassians... but it won't arrive til tomorrow and the sisters are being all threatening to him.
Odo had Animorph'd into a mouse and had been keeping tabs on them, though. I think that's one thing strange about the shapeshifter -- he can not only change his shape but drastically change his size. I mean how small is he able to go? Could he morph down to a pinhead? Wouldn't that make it easier for him to infiltrate stuff than being disguised as a moneybag? And how big can he get? And speaking more lewdly, how big can he get? I'd really like to know all this.
There's a short scene with Kira and Sisko in which he threatens her for "going over his head" (a little thing that happened earlier that I didn't think to mention), but then we're shown to Garak's shop where the Duras sisters enter. He offers them some silk lingerie to which they get quite offended.
Basically they're here because they think of him as a contact to the Cardassians, and they want to hand over Tahna for money. Upon hearing of the idea, Garak offers them a price, to which they spit at him, offended yet again, but he insists they haggle on the price of Tahna. So is Garak really a spy after all? Or is he just interested in making a quick buck (er... latinum bar)? Maybe he should be flirting with Quark instead -_-; His stance is still unclear at this point. (Please just tell me he has a crush on Julian and chose him as his insider... not just because Julian is naive LOL)
We see Kira and Tahna chatting after she guaranteed his amnesty -- when he reveals he actually has a secret plot and is still loyal to Kohn-Ma, but now the violence is truly over and he just wants her to arrange a small ship capable of warp drive for him. But he won't detail the rest of his plan to him just yet.
Sisko hears of Tahna's dealings with the Duras sisters (omg this is quite difficult to follow lol, I'm so glad I'm typing this stuff out at each commercial break LOL) from Odo, and assumes the gold he's waiting on is coming by the two "peace followers" that Kira told him about.
My ship is sinking already, I can't believe I forgot how fragile it was already (to be fair, it's been like 15-20 years since I've seen this). But Garak wants Bashir to help him figure out what's going on with the two Kohn-ma who have appeared on the ship, because Bashir will "know what to do with the information" when they discover it. Of course this probably has something to do with his deal with the Klingons, right? He tells Julian to come to his shop at 20:55 exactly to "buy a suit," and Julian's poor innocent heart thinks he's literally asking him to come buy clothing out of nowhere.
So it looks like Garak chose Bashir not because he's crushy-crushy, but because he's naive and gullible, and most importantly, easy to manipulate and intimidate. I'm still holding onto the rudders of this ship, though. We're not going down without a fight.
Anyway, Odo and Kira have a little (er, big) discussion -- she goes to him for a bit of roundabout advice. Seems she's not sure whether she wants to betray the Kohn-Ma or the Federation, but she has to make a choice. The discussion is a little lengthy and very intense, and we get to see a little more of Kira's vulnerable side. Very cool. I can't really describe it all here, but I really liked that scene. Then Odo calls Sisko and says Kira needs to talk to him.
Cut to Garak/Bashir. The Cardassian shoves the doctor into a fitting room to overhear his conversation with the Klingon sisters, where he gets them to reveal more about Tahna's plans. Sounds like he's buying what boils down to the ingredients for a WMD bomb from the Klingons.
And it looks like this was what Garak was after. Not handing over Tahna to the Cardassians, but rather exposing him, and using Julian as his vessel to convey that information to Starfleet.
Kira pretends to go along with Tahna, but she gave away his plan to Sisko after hearing Julian's accusation. Sisko alerted Danar, who had an "I told you so" in store for him. Sisko and O'Brien head out on a roundabout to interrupt Tahna and Kira along with the incoming Danar. When Kira learns that Tahna was indeed planning on using a bomb, they get in a bit of a scuffle, and he takes her hostage, demanding she take him to the wormhole, or else he'd bomb Bajor or DS9 instead. Seems like his goal all along was to collapse the entrance to the wormhole, not to cause any harm to any people, but either way, Kira fights him long enough to get through the wormhole so his bomb explodes harmlessly on the other side. Sisko catches up with them and apprehends Tahna, who only agrees to come peacefully because he doesn't want to be otherwise handed over to Daddy Danar. Maybe he prefers Jasad, too.
Whew. A lot went down in that last little bit. Kira tells Tahna that the old ways don't work anymore, and one day he'll understand why she did what she had to do for Bajor. He calls her a traitor as they shuffle him away. The episode ends with her and Sisko walking away in silence, and I cried a little.
And speaking of crying, I also cried when Picard and Sisko shook hands near the end of last episode, so that brings the current Cry Count to 6. Two (or three depending on how you see it) episodes in, and I've cried six times. Huzzah.
This was quite an engaging episode. I remember being bored and annoyed at this series when I watched it before. But the opening has been quite exciting so far. I loved both "Emissary" and "Past Prologue" quite a bit. When does it get dumb again...? Well, I know we're getting to the hopscotch episode soon enough.
I talked about DS9 being less episodic and more story-driven, but the fact of the matter is even this series is going to have a lot of episodes that don't really move any main plotlines further. I mean, in a way, this one didn't even do that, but it did expand greatly on the lore and develop Kira's character quite a bit. I'm surprised we got THIS much character insight in only the second episode, to be honest.
But yeah, I'm enjoying quite a bit. Time to get a snack and start another episode!
no subject
Garak/Bashir is easily the most popular DS9 ship. I know more about them than anything else DS9 related, and I know the actors even in the last few years have talked positively about it. Garak's actor wrote a official tie-in novel that apparently spends a lot of time waxing very quasi-romantic feelings towards Bashir. I haven't read it myself, but my roommate did.
Maybe Garak sees Julian as both gulliable and easy to use, but also cute and earnest. No reason he can't develop feelings for his little patsy.
no subject
Yeah, shortly after posting these I saw an entertainment article in my news feed about Garak/Bashir lmfao. It was like "Star Trek's first gay couple that wasn't" or something weird like that. I didn't read it, of course, but it was there XD