DS9 S01E02, S01E03

In this installment:
(viewed Sunday & Monday, June 1-2)

Star Trek:  Deep Space Nine, S01E02 - "A Man Alone"
Star Trek:  Deep Space Nine, S01E03 - "Past Prologue"

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"A Man Alone"

• Just a quick reminder:  I'm watching these and labeling the episode numbers in the order in which they're listed on Netflix.  So even though "Emissary" is generally considered to be E01-E02 of DS9's first season, and "Past Prologue" aired right after that, "A Man Alone" is listed on Netflix as E02 (it was produced before "Past Prologue", and they list "Emissary" as a single episode).
  
  So the episode names will always coincide with Memory-Alpha, but the episode numbers may not.  Don't blame me, it's Netflix's fault and I'm just trying to watch a whole lot of Star Trek without going crazy trying to figure out what was produced first, what aired first and what counts as a single episode.
  
  For the purposes of my commentary on the series, at least (I watch those on Netflix; the movies I own on DVD or BR), Netflix is the law :P
• They have all of these little rooms all over the station where people can do weird stuff like study orbs and meditate with giant floating balls of goo.
  
  Correction:  This appears to be an actual holosuite.
• "Julian, you and I need to have a talk about Trills and relationships."
  
  "Fine, we'll do it over supper."
  
  I don't think he gets it.
• I like the DS9 theme, but I always slightly lamented the fact that none of the series after TNG got a "These are the voyages..."-style prologue.
• I'd forgotten that they plant the seed for Chief O'Brien and Keiko's domestic tensions fairly early in the series.  I always, always hated Keiko; not because I'm automatically siding with the man or think that O'Brien wasn't a jerk to her sometimes.  She just grates on my nerves.  During the series' original run, I kept rooting for him to leave her, or for the ship she took on one of her many excursions to Bajor or back to Earth to be attacked by the Jem'Hadar :P
• "I'll never understand the humanoid need to...couple."
  
  "You've never...'coupled'?"
• "I decide who has rights and who doesn't on this Promenade!"
  
  I...don't think that'll sit very well with either the Federation or the Bajoran Provisional Government.  This ain't the Cardassian occupation anymore, buddy.
• "What do you want, hu-man?"
  
  "You don't know it yet, but we're going to be super-good friends."
• C'mon, kids.  No likes a Garanian bolite attack.
• This isn't a bad episode, but the "whodunit" is relatively easy to figure out early on.
• The display on the Bajoran transport on which Ibudan arrived at the station contains an inside joke that reinforces my assertion that the rivalry between Star Wars and Star Trek is more imaginary than real--especially among production staff.
• "I can't imagine any parent not welcoming the opening of a school here."
  
  Well, I don't think you know some of the parents very well...
• Well, you have to respect Odo for suggesting that he's a suspect before anyone else does.
• And this is also the first time we hear Odo's need to regenerate every 18 hours (this figure is later revised to 16 hours) by returning to his natural liquid state.
• And with the second episode of the series (third, in order of when they aired), we already have the establishment of "Keiko's School for Wayward Space Station Children".
• This episode is also the first appearance of Rom.
• "I'll take care of my own best interests."
• They really set up the "special relationship" between Odo and Quark from the beginning of the series, and it's probably my second favorite character dynamic on DS9 (after Bashir and Garak).
• The thing in the vat?  Gross.
  
  
  
• I didn't notice it in "Emissary", but Morn is present in the background at Quark's right from the beginning of the series (although he won't be named for quite some time.)
  
  The name is an anagram for "Norm", George Wendt's character on Cheers.
  
  As someone who has been compared to Norm at some of the bars I frequent, I've often said that I'm "more of a Morn than a Norm".  I guess they're really the same thing ;)
• The only person on DS9 that I hate more than Keiko is friggin' Molly.
• Bajorans are a grumpy bunch.  I mean, I know they were terribly oppressed and persecuted for like...60 years.  But still, that's no excuse to be a butt-face.
• How is the door to Odo's security office not shatter-resistant?
• It's nice to see that--while Sisko's trying to talk down the crowd of angry Bajorans--O'Brien and Kira are pretty much always down for a fight.  When a scuffle breaks out, they're both just kind of like "Oh, we're throwing down?  I'M IN."
• FREAKING CLONES!

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"Past Prologue"

• It's Garak time!  It's Garak time!
  
  Seriously, the early intrigue with Garak's backstory is really enjoyable.  It's one of the highlights of the early seasons of DS9.
• "Thank you, Mr. Garak."
  
  "Oh, it's just plain, simple...Garak."
  
  
• Tahna Los and his involvement in the anti-Cardassian resistance movement and the more radical "Kohn-Ma" terrorist group are the first in a long line of "Kira's past comes back to bite everyone in the butt" episodes.
• Kira going above Sisko's head to take her concerns directly to a Admiral Rollman?  That seems kind of out-of-character for her.  Of course, at this stage of the series they're still establishing exactly what her "character" is.
  
  And from the later conversation that Rollman has with Sisko, it doesn't sound like the admiral appreciated it :P
• Speaking of Adm. Rollman, here's an interesting tid-bit:  She's played by Susan Bay, wife of Leonard Nimoy and cousin of Michael Bay.
• Chief O'Brien's smoldering dislike of the Cardassians, first showcased in TNG's "The Wounded", crops up again and again on DS9.
• Hey kids, it's Lursa and B'Etor!
• "Go over my head again, and I'll have yours on a platter."
• "There's a time for levity my young friend, and a time for genuine concern."
• Is there anything you can't do with an anti-matter converter?
• The name of the runabout Yangtzee Kiang is a slight misspelling of the compromise name for the Yangtze River decided upon in the early 20th Century by Western cartographers.
• The Bird-of-Prey that rendezvous with the Yangtzee Kiang is presumably the same "D-12" class ship later destroyed in a battle with the Enterprise-D (Star Trek:  Generations).
  
  This episode gives us a pretty good idea of the scaling between the Danube-class runabout and the Bird-of-Prey. 
  
  
  
  
  Given that Trek effects artists tended to scale the BoP up and down at will to suit the needs of the script, this comparison is far from iron-clad (see also Ex Astris Scientia's excellent article on the "Bird-of-Prey Size Paradox").  But I tend to think that the Duras Sister's ship is a good example of the smaller "scout class" Birds-of-Prey. 
  
  These are sometimes referred to by fans as the "B'rel" class, to differentiate them from the larger "K'Vort" class cruisers.  Although both names appear on-screen at various points, there's no canon evidence to suggest that one refers to a smaller type and another to a larger variant.  I do tend to refer to the smaller scout-type BoP as the "B'rel" and the larger cruiser-type BoP and the "K'Vort", but these distinctions are entirely non-canon.
• The Ganges, the runabout on which Cmdr. Sisko and Chief O'Brien are lying in wait, is the first occurrence of one of the runabouts being outfitted with a rollbar--sort of a scaled-down version of what we see on the Miranda class.  In later episodes, we do see runabouts fire weapons (presumably micro-torpedoes) out of these modules.
  
  
  
• Starfleet really doesn't do a whole lot to discourage the Cardassians from sending ships over the border into Bajoran space sort of willy-nilly, do they?
• Benjamin Sisko has no time for Cardassian I-told-you-so's.
• This is the first of many, many plots by various folks to blow up the Alpha Quadrant entrance to the Bajoran Wormhole.  When things get dicey with the Dominion, even Starfleet considers blasting the hell out of it.