DS9 S01E07 & S01E08

In this installment:
(viewed Tuesday & Wednesday, June 16-17)

Star Trek:  Deep Space Nine, S01E07 - "Dax"
Star Trek:  Deep Space Nine, S01E08 - "The Passenger"

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"Dax"

• So...Chief O'Brien leaves to escort Keiko back to Earth for her mother's 100th birthday, and the whole place falls apart?  I know that O'Brien is an engineering badass, but it's not like there aren't any other Starfleet (or Bajoran Militia, for that matter) engineering personnel on board Deep Space 9.
  
  Why in the world would they have science and medical officers (senior science and medical officers, at that) studying and conducting station repairs?  IT MAKES NO SENSE.
  
  (You know, except for that special kind of TV series writer-sense where you have to get main characters to perform unlikely tasks in order to set up the opening scene.)
• I believe this is the first time that we see the station's senior staff drinking Raktajino, a Klingon coffee which will become a favorite of station personnel for the remainder of the series (and will be referenced on VOY as well).
• I guess this isn't Lt. Dax's lucky day in terms of creepers.  She's got Dr. Bashir being creepy right to her face, and a pair of stalkers spying on her from behind a wall.  Not cool.
• "'Not necessary, Julian'...but not forbidden, either!"
  
  Uh, no dude.  I think she was just being polite, rather than telling you to stuff it.
• I guess one of the downsides to living multiple lives over the course of many centuries is that there's always time for your mistakes to catch up to you :-\
• Well, that was actually a fairly exciting little chase sequences through the station.  The poor Klaestrons almost got away with it.
• "'Extradition?'  I call this kidnapping and assault."
  
  Well, that's not what we call it in the U-S-of-A, buddy.
• Cmdr. Sisko admonishes Dax's initial refusal of help, reminding her that both treason and murder are punishable by death on Klaestron IV.  I'm a little bit surprised that the Federation would sign the "unilateral extradition treaty" that Ilon Tandro references with a government that still uses capital punishment.
• No extradition treaty with the Bajoran Provisional Government?  SAD TROMBONE.
• The wife of the man Dax is accused of murdering is played by Fionnula Flanagan, who also played Data's "mom", Juliana Trainer (that TNG episode, "Inheritance", actually takes place after this one).
• Curzon Dax:  Intergalactic home-wrecker.
• Damn it, Benjamin.  Even Curzon thought you had a bad temper.
• So Jadzia--the young host to the Dax symbiont--holds degrees in exobiology, zoology, astrophysics and exoarchaeology?  Well, I guess you can't say that she's not qualified to be the chief science officer at Deep Space 9.
• No one likes it when the mommy shows up and ruins their extradition hearing :(
• "Live, Jadzia Dax.  Live a long, and fresh, and wonderful life."
  
  Or, you know...six or seven more years, at least!

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"The Passenger"

• "Ah yes, well...tricorders.  Very accurate with live people, not so accurate with dead ones.  We learned that first year at medical school."
  
  "Well...I was very impressed, Doctor."
  
  "And well you should've been.  I impressed myself on that one, actually.  I can't imagine what other doctor would even consider examining the scapula nose* for parasitic infection.  I just seem to have a...talent, I suppose.  A vision that sees 'round the obvious, past the mundane, right to the target.  Fate has granted me a gift, Major--a gift to be a healer."
  
  "I feel privileged to be in your presence."
  
  "Glad to have you along."
  
  Again, Bashir...this is why no one likes you for like, three seasons.
  
  (* - I think this is what he said?  Now I'm picturing someone with a nose on their shoulder.)
• All good adventures begin with a distress signal.
• "MAKE...ME...LIVE..."
  
  Well, that's pretty ominous.
• "Every man on the station would love to be buying her a raktajino."
  
  "Ah, but I'm the one with the raktajino machine."
• Oh, poor Lt. George Primmin of Starfleet Security.  Don't step on Odo's toes.
• The Kobliad are an entire species who are suffering the slow death of their race due to cell deterioration, and the only thing that slows the process is the application of deuridium--a rare element of which we'll never hear again ;)
• I like how, even this early in their relationship, Cmdr. Sisko has recognized that Odo knows his stuff and it's not smart to go around the place tossing their Starfleet weight around.
• "Database Services Not Available"
  
  Yeah, I've had that happen.  It's not good.
• This Vantika cat is like...really creepy.
• In discussing the possibility of Vantika having discovered a way to transfer his consciousness into another brain, Dr. Bashir mentions "synaptic pattern displacement" and says that he's never heard of it being done by a non-Vulcan.  He's referring to the practice of transferring the katra "when the body's end is near" (as referenced in ST2/ST3).
• Everybody loves a glial scan!
• Before he got replaced by a changeling, Dr. Bashir got body-possessed by a Kobliad.  Oh yeah!
• The freighter Norkova is listed as an Antares-class cargo vessel, although there's some debate about what the real "Antares" class/type is.
  
  
  
  (courtesy of Ex Astris Scientia)
  
  But the type seen as the Norkova in this episode is seen frequently throughout TNG/DS9/VOY.
• I...wonder...how...they...talked...Siddig...into...talking...like...this...
• Beaming one dude's brain thingies out of another dude's brain and into a micro-whatever field?  It's a good thing Lt. Dax has all of those advanced degrees.