DS9 S02E04 & S02E05

In this installment:
(viewed Sunday, July 13th)

Star Trek:  Deep Space Nine, S02E04 - "Invasive Procedures"
Star Trek:  Deep Space Nine, S02E05 - "Cardassians"

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"Invasive Procedures"

• "Batten down the hatches during a storm and then bad stuff happens".  It's an old--but effective--sci-fi/fantasy/horror/action trope.
• Also?  This exact iteration of the aforementioned trope (the space station and/or starship that is home to our intrepid heroes is evacuated and being run by a skeleton crew, and someone shows up to try and steal something) was used in the TNG episode "Starship Mine".
• We learn during this opening conversation between Odo, Quark and Chief O'Brien that the latter has two brothers.  Please feel free to make your own joke about large Irish families.
• "Plasma storms are extremely rare."
  
  Really?  Because it kind of feels like they happen all the time.
• I bet you can pretty much always get work as a mercenary if you're even a half-way decent Klingon warrior.  It's gotta be nice to have that kind of job security.
• Speaking of which, the first Klingon mercenary out of the airlock (who grabs poor O'Brien by the shirt collar) is "T'Kar". 
  
  T'Kar is played by our old pal Tim Russ.  He played a bridge officer on board the Enterprise-B in Star Trek:  Generations, but of course is best known for playing Lt. Cmdr. Tuvok on Star Trek:  Voyager.
  
  Interestingly, he also appeared in the aforementioned TNG episode ("Starship Mine") as Devor (I guess he has a thing for playing mercenaries?).
  
  He's also directed and started in Star Trek: Of Gods And Men, a not-half-bad fan film made in 2008.  I've heard that he's also working on something called "Star Trek: Renegades", presumably also an unofficial "fan" production.
  
  Oh, and he was the "We ain't found sh*t!" guy in Spaceballs :D
  
  
  
  
  My point is that Tim Russ is awesome :)
• Oh hey, someone actually anticipated the shapeshifter causing problems and thought of a way to neutralize him.  Shocker!
• Quark, you a**hole.
• "I want Dax."
  
  "The symbiont, Benjamin.  He's come to steal my symbiont."
  
  "SO HI.  WE'RE HERE TO STEAL HER STOMACH-WORM.  ANY PROBLEMS WITH THAT PLAN?"
• Verad seems like a stuttering, unstable mess.  I'm completely shocked that they didn't pick him to be joined with the Dax symbiont.
• On the other hand, the Symbiosis Commission does sound like kind of a drag.
  
  
  
  The emblem of the Trill Symbiosis Commission.  It's a worm in a torso.  Get it?
• While I'm sure stunning O'Brien was a random act of violence meant to motivate, it was actually well-selected.  Because the Chief doesn't know it yet, but Dr. Bashir is pretty much determined that they're going to be BFFs.
• "I know, Benjamin.  You'll do everything you can.  And just in case it isn't enough, I want you know...it's been fun."
  
  Jadzia Dax, class act.
• Sisko is no slouch in a fight, that's for sure.  This isn't the last time he goes toe-to-toe with a Klingon and comes out on top.
• How does Bashir not think of holding the symbiont hostage once he's removed it from Jadzia?  I mean, that's the whole reason Verad is there.  If Julian's just all like "ONE MOVE AND I TOSS THIS WORM ON THE GROUND AND STEP ON IT", then it would at least put them on even ground with the mercenaries, hostage-wise.
  
  Of course, threatening the life of an innocent, sentient lifeform (even if it is a worm) is probably all kinds of in violation of his professional and personal ethics.
• "He used to visit the accommodations house where I worked.  I used to help him relax."
  
  Oh, you're a hooker.  I gotcha.  I mean, not that there's anything wrong with that.
• "Remember all of that awesome stuff we did when you were Curzon Dax?"
  
  "Oh, yeah.  That stuff was great!"
  
  "Remember when me and the woman you used to be who you also totally just murdered discovered the wormhole?"
  
  "Hey man, not fair."
  
  WOMP.
  
• Quark's attempt to redeem himself by distracting and attacking T'Kar is kind of awesome :)
• This other Klingon?  "Yeto"?  He's not so bright.
• "We have to get Odo out of this boxy thing.  If only we knew the code!"
  
  "Well, I'm kind of a master criminal.  STAND ASIDE, SIR!"
• "You'd better take a hostage."
  
  "I'll go."
  
  "I'd love to have your company Benjamin, but somehow I doubt you have my best interest at heart.  Kira, I hate to inconvenience you.."
  
  "That's alright.  If Odo's free, there's no way you're getting off this station."
• "Don't call me Benjamin."
• Listen, I know you're sad.  But this is why we don't take other people's stomach worms without asking first, buddy.

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"Cardassians"

• Ooh, a Garak episode!  Hooray!
• "Then why would this boy attack poor Garak?  An amiable fellow, if ever there was one."
  
  Ha!  This is worth a good chuckle, given how much Gul Dukat actually hates Garak :)
• Oh.  Awesome Garak episode turns into sad child abuse episode.  And also racism.
  
  You can't say that the DS9 writers were afraid to tackle two tough topics in one episode, I guess :-\
  
• "They won't hurt you.  They're humans, not Cardassians."
• "Tell me Doctor, is there a single trait you would ascribe to me and my fellow Cardassians?  Would it not be our attention to detail?  Do you think we simply forgot about those poor little orphans when we left Bajor?  Do you think they simply...slipped from our minds?  And who would you guess was in charge of the Cardassian withdraw from Bajor?"
• "Perhaps you had better remind my friend Garak that the withdrawal from Bajor was a decision made by the civilian leaders--one which I clearly opposed."
  
  There are some parallels here between the Cardassian Union's voluntary withdrawal from Bajor and its ceasefire with the Federation, its subsequent diminished prestige, power and economic potency and the collective yearning to be "strong" again (led by men like Gul Dukat, who opposed the "disgraceful" decision by their civilian leaders to withdraw in the first place) and the series of events that took Germany from the end of the First World War, through the rise of the Nazi Party and the disaster of the Second World War.
  
  One of the reasons I like the Cardassians so much (they're probably my second-favorite Trek aliens, after the Romulans) is because of how well-detailed their history and society are.  Just as Trek writers drew on tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union for the initial description of the relationship between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, they drew on our own history when telling the story of the Cardassian people.
• "He's not like that.  He's really very gentle."
  
  "'Gentle' was bred out of these Cardassians a long time ago."
  
  Careful, O'Brien.  Your racism is showing.
• Cooking a Cardassian stew for your husband (who hates Cardassians) and your self-loathing Cardassian house-guest?  Not a popular move, Keiko.
• Chief O'Brien's family appears to be one of the few remaining human families to do things "old school".  In previous episodes (I believe on TNG), he references how his mother actually handleda nd cooked "real" meat (as opposed to replicated meat).  And in this episode, he indicates that his father practice corporal punishment (at least occasionally).
• Rugal gives us our first look at a figure for the death toll of the Cardassian occupation of Bajor:  "Over ten million".  He doesn't specify if that's strictly civilians who were exterminated or died in forced labor camps, or if that includes starvation, combat deaths by resistance fighters, etc.  Still, though :(
• Garak sneaking into your room in the middle of the night?  That's never good.
• "I assume this couldn't wait until the morning?"
  
  "No, sir.  I need to use a runabout."
  
  "I'm waiting."
  
  
  
• The little Cardassian girl who asks if Garak has come to take them home to Cardassia is kind of hurty :(
• "I believe in coincidences.  Coincidences happen every day.  But I don't trust coincidences."
• "I thought you might be interested to know Gul Dukat has just arrived on the station."
  
  "Yes, I'm interested to know that.  I will always be interested to know that.  You make sure you let me know any time that sumbitch gets anywhere close to the station.  Sisko out."
• Hearing a Cardassian politician prattle on about the good of "the children" is even less convincing than watching a human politician do the same thing ;)
• You have to hand it to Dukat.  This was a pretty complicated and far-ranging plot just to take revenge on a political rival.
• And if it weren't for pesky Garak, he might've gotten away with it too!