Best of Star Trek: Deep Space 9---The Maquis & the Jem"Hadar

I've completed watching season 2. We are introduced to new threats to the Federation---The Dominion, The Maquis, and the Jem'Hadar.

"The Maquis" is a two part episode from season 2 and was written by

Teleplay by	James Cocker (Part I) Ira Steven Behr (Part II)
Story by	Rick Berman (Parts I & II) Michael Piller (Parts I & II) Jeri Taylor (Parts I & II)

info courtesy of Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Maquis

The Maquis is a resistance group made up of colonists along the demilitarized zone near Cardassian space. The Central Command of the Cardassian government are supplying weapons to the Cardassians on the colonies also inhabited by Bajoran and other races in a treaty pact with the Federation. The Maquis are fighting the Cardassians in the guise of self-defense but are also acting in, what Commander Hudson says, (stationed by the Federation at the demilitarized zone and good friend of Commander Sisko's,) "retaliation."

Hudson is actually a member of the Marquis and is part of the renegades that have abducted Gul Dukat, believing him to be involved in weapons transportation. However, a member of Central Command pays Sisko a visit to the station and says that he knows that Dukat has been running weapons and will pay for his crimes. Neither Sisko or Kira believe him, but at least he did admit that someone in Central Command is supplying weapons to the demilitarized zone.

Sisko and his team rescue Dukat and inform him about what Central Command said, accusing him of acting alone and supplying weapons. In one highlight of the episode, when Dukat learns about the betrayal, he offers to help Sisko stop the weapons flow if Sisko helps him stop the Maquis. Sisko agrees. This comes after they have a discussion about Cardassian justice and trials. A person is accused and deemed guilty before the trials. Why bother with trials? asks Sisko. "Because the people demand it." Sisko asks what if the person is innocent. "Cardassians never make mistakes" Dukat replies. "I'll have to remember that" says Sisko. Later we see this type of justice in action in the episode "Tribunal" where O'Brien is accused of terrorist attacks against the Cardassians.

In another highlight, one of the Maquis collaborators is a Vulcan woman who hires Quark to supply weapons for her in exchange for payment. The Vulcan is put in the brig after she is knocked out by Dukat during the abduction. Quark is put in there with her after Odo makes him give him the list of weapons he procured.
Quark gives the Vulcan a lecture in logic, saying that the time is now to negotiate while each side has equal firepower. To wait any longer, the conflict and violence will escalate, making the price of peace that much higher.

In the final standoff, Sisko and Hudson get into a battle of wits in space, each one disabling the runabouts of the other and Sisko allows his former friend back into the demilitarized zone. He and the rest of us are left wondering if they stopped a war or just delayed the inevitable.

"Jem'Hadar" is the last episode of the second season and was written by Ira Steven Behr.

Commander Sisko takes Jake to the Gamma Quadrant to do a planetary survey as a science project. Jake also, despite Sisko's reluctance, invites Nog along. Quark, hearing that, decides he's going too in hopes of convincing Sisko to allow him to broadcast merchandise for sale on the station's com system to increase profit.

The first half of the episode is a humorous romp in testing Sisko's patience with the two pesty Ferengi's on board. Quark develops allergies to the planet's fauna while admiring the planet's exploitable resources. Then he whines about bugs in his supper. "I thought Ferengis ate bugs" says Sisko. "Only certain bugs--Ferengi bugs" replies Quark.

Then he accidentally catches himself on fire at the campsite. Nog, embarrassed, runs off with Jake following suit. The two men are left in a heated discussion when suddenly approached by two aliens, one the prey and one the hunter.

As the two boys search for their dad and uncle, the men, and the alien prey, are left in a force field held captive. The woman, who has telekinetic powers, is wearing a collar to suppress those powers. She tells Sisko that her people were scattered through the quadrant after the dominion took over their world. She is captured to be used as an example to those who think about running away.

Here, we learn for the first time that the Dominion use an alien race called the Jem'Hadar to carry out their brutal takeovers. Sisko enlists Quark to use his lock picking skills to get the collar off their fellow prisoner. Once this is accomplished, she uses her telekinetic powers to release the forcefield.

Meanwhile, Jake and Nog follow a trail of tracks and see the Jem'Hadar guards. "The don't look friendly" says Nog. "We need to get closer" replies Jake. "I dont' think that will make them look any friendlier" says Nog. After several unsuccessful attempts to bring the runabout through the wormhole on autopilot, they head back on impulse power.

A Jem'Hadar transports onto the station and tells the crew their commander is being held and will be used as an example of what happens to anyone who interferes with the Dominion.

A starship arrives at the station to engage in the rescue of Sisko with the space station crew in tow in runabouts equipped with extra armament. O'Brien hails the runabout piloted by Jake and beams over to bring them back to the space station. The starship is destroyed via a Jem'Hadar ship committing a suicide maneuver. Sisko tells the crew in the runabout that it was a message to let them know what they are willing to do.

Quark also figures out the collar worn by their fellow prisoner contained no such technology to stop her telekinetic powers. Sisko realizes it was all a ruse to get her to the station and into Federation space to spy and confronts her. She transports away but her whereabouts can't be traced.

Thus, the Federation is now vulnerable to a new threat as dangerous as the Borg.

This episode was both exciting and funny. I liked how the two main story lines (the science field trip and capture by the Jem"Hadar) come together. And it also has the audience anticipating an exciting next season.

In the Maquis, we see an alliance forming between Sisko and Gul Dukat. We also see the Cardassian government is splitting, with members of the high command breaking the treaty with the Federation. Needless to say, shit's getting interesting.

Worst of Star Trek: DS9---The Alternate

"The Alternate" is the 12th episode of the second season.

A Bajoran scientist who worked with Odo in a research facility arrives at the space station and informs Odo that he picked up traces of a substance containing DNA similar to Odo's which may hold clues to Odo's origins.

He, Odo, and Dax arrive on the planet in the Gamma Quadrant and find and retrieve an entity and plan to bring it back for study. Their otherwise uneventful trip is interrupted by a violent earthquake that releases gases that render the crew unconscious except for Odo.

As the crew are recovering back on the station, Chief O'Brien puts the alien in a glass containment field.
It continually goes through metamorphosis and grows, eventually breaking out of the container. But later the thing escapes and O'Brien finds what was once the alien hiding in a duct. It had turned to a liquid that looks like the consistency of oatmeal. O'Brien states it is dead.

Later, Dr. Bashir is almost attacked in his lab by a massive blob. This blob resembles Odo in his transitional phase and affects the thermal temperature of its surroundings. The science team collects some residue and sees the DNA patterns matches Odo. The scientist tells Odo this and warns him he may be captured and put on display as some type of freak unless he comes back to the research facility with him. Odo has a psychological and physiological meltdown. Odo becomes the monster again and is contained in a force field. The scientist is able to talk him down.

Later, the gas that affected Odo's physiological structure is removed.

I found this episode confusing. It left many unanswered questions. For one, why did the team remove the pillar from the planet instead of taking images of it and samples to study? The earthquake eruption occurred when the away team transported the pillar to the shuttle. Was the earthquake related to the removal of the pillar?

Second, it doesn't answer who or what the life was that they took back to study. Is it like Odo or a similar life form? That's never made clear. The episode became more about Odo's relationship with the scientist rather than Odo's origins, which are pretty much forgotten by the end.

Another thing I noticed that isn't mentioned much in previous episodes. O'Brien asks Sisko and Kira if security cameras picked up anything during the alien's escape. Funny how security cameras are hardly referred to any other time unauthorized beings enter the station. One example was when an alien entity enters the body of Bashir in "The Passenger" and wonders around the station undetected.

Best of Destructive Vermin---Voles, Cardassian Style

In "Playing God," the space station crew are dealing with two threats--an expanding mini universe and VOLES. Not just any run of the mill voles, but Cardassian ones. Apparently, they've been breeding on the station since the occupation and are worming their way through the conduits and circuitry.

                                GIFS courtesy of http://startrekgifs.tumblr.com/tagged/playing_god

Dax Gives Kira Epic Smackdown in "Paradise"

In "Paradise" Jadzia Dax and Major Kira discuss ways to retrieve and board a runabout going at warp speed, creating a rather amusing cat fight.

Best of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine---Whispers

"Whispers" is the 14th episode of the second season and was written by Paul Robert Coyle.

We follow Miles O'Brien through his routine day at the station as security preparations are being made to hold a peace conference between two rival factions.

What makes it anything but routine for O'Brien is that all the chief officers are acting strange, even suspicious of him and to him. Even Keiko is acting abrupt, getting up earlier than usual, and whispering something seen but unheard to Commander Sisko as Miles walks by the promenade on his way to do daily maintenance checks.

While piloting a shuttlecraft, the story is told in narrative form as Miles relates how the crew was acting toward him. He's on his way to warn the delegation about the strange behaviors of the crew and that they may be in danger.

Conclusion: As Miles lands on the 2nd planet in the system, he sees Sisko and Major Kira have arrived before him. He holds them at phaser point while receiving assurances from the crew that he's not in danger and among friends. He is shot by one of the members of the indigenous peoples as Dr. Bashir and Miles (the real one) appear and we learn that the Miles we followed and listened to all along was a replicant, sent to commit an act of sabotage or even murder at the conference. That implanted directive would have been activated during the meeting.

I found this episode intriguing and even a bit creepy. Part of me was wondering if the crew had been taken over by an alien much like the ones from TNG episode called "Conspiracy."

But there is a clue early on, the same one the replicant Miles states in his logs on the shuttle, that his nuclear family weren't acting the same. His little daughter shirks away from an embrace by him and runs to her mother. Having seen this episode in 1994, I was thinking maybe the child was perceptive and knew this wasn't her father. But I couldn't remember it very well and decided not to over analyze the show but instead go on the journey with O'Brien and see where it would take me.

The story had the added bonus of not having a side story to distract from the main focus. One highlight was dinner time with Keiko and Miles. Was Keiko trying to poison him with the stew she prepared for him? Or was Keiko just acting weirded out because there was something actually wrong with her husband?

Best of Star Trek: DS9---Necessary Evil

"Necessary Evil" is the eighth episode of the second season and was written by Peter Allan Fields.

SUMMARY

A woman named Vaatrick Pallra offers Quark five bars of Latinum for retrieving something left by her late husband hidden on the station. She won't go to the station herself because she doesn't want to face Odo again. Years before, Odo had suspected her of murdering her husband but found no supporting evidence.

When Quark, with the help of Rom, retrieves the box, a man hired by Pallra to follow Quark, gets the box from him and then shoots him with a phaser, seriously injuring him. Quark and Rom did have a chance to see the contents of the box beforehand---a list of names, all Bajoran.

Now Odo must investigate the attempt on Quark's life while retelling the original investigation, through flashbacks, on how he was hired by Gul Dukat to investigate the murder of  the woman's husband.

Here, we get more background story of the space station during the occupation and Odo's and Kira's first meeting. Turns out Kira knew the victim.  His wife suspected an affair, but Kira has a different story. Odo senses she knows more than what she's telling, but is she telling the truth when Odo checks logs and confirms her alibi at the time was that she was committing an act of sabotage of an ore processor?

But as the investigation unfolds, Odo is conflicted about where the case is taking him and whether or not he wants to go there. "There's no room in justice for loyalty, or friendship, or love. Justice, as the humans like to say, is blind. I used to believe that. I'm not sure I can anymore."

And what about that list? It contained names of collaborators to the Cardassians. Pallra's late husband was part of that group. She was running out of funds and decided to use the names for blackmail to maintain her lifestyle.

Dukat hired Odo because of his neutrality, being neither Bajoran or Cardassian. Dukat wanted to protect the names of his collaborators.

What I liked about his episode is 1) it was fun watching the mystery unfold---like a detective novel in space. 2) we get more character development here, particularly in the back stories of Odo and Kira. We also learn of their great fondness for each other. Kira questions Odo, after her involvement with the murder is revealed, whether or not Odo can ever trust her again. He assures her that they are still friends. But apparently, trust is something she will have to earn again.   

Worst of DS9---Invasive Procedures

"Invasive Procedures" is the 4th episode of the second season.

SUMMATION

The station has been evacuated because of a violent space storm and left with a skeleton crew. Quark thinks he's about to do the business of trading rare merchandise and arranges, unbeknownst to the crew, to have a shuttle craft dock.

The craft however is carrying two rogue Klingons and a Trill who plans on stealing Jadzia's symbiot. Odo is forced into a container and the rest of the crew is surrounded, and outgunned, by the bandits.

The Trill named Verad is with a woman alien named Mareel who plans on forcing Dr. Bashir to transplant Jadzia's symbiote into Verad. Trouble is, Jadzia could die as a result. If they don't go along and plan another strategy, then the Klingon mercenaries will kill them all.

Quark gets into a scuffle with one of the Klingon's and pretends to be severely injured. As the Klingon looks on in the sick bay, Bashir sneaks up behind and disables him with a hypo.

Meanwhile, Sisko plays on the emotions of Mareel and manages to convince her that Verad is no longer interested in her. It's plain that he was just using her to help him get the symbiote and plans an escape without her. As a result, she helps the crew capture Verad as he leaves to the escape shuttle and the symbiote is put back into Jadzia.

The most annoying thing about this episode was John Glover's performance as the unjoined Trill. He hardly seems capable enough to lead a team of rogues and thieves, let alone be taken seriously by them. He's whiny and lacks confidence. The leader of the pack was obviously Mareel, who in the highlight of the episode, kicks the crap out of Major Kira.

Even as Verad Dax, he's pompous and one dimensional. Seems to me that a symbiote with that much past experience would have been displaying some remorse and guilt through the body of Verdad to create conflict and a multi-dimensional personae. Instead he becomes a fighter for his own sake with no regard for his previous host.