DS9 S03E13 & S03E14

In this installment:
(viewed Friday & Saturday, September 19-20)

Star Trek:  Deep Space Nine, S03E13 - "Life Support"
Star Trek:  Deep Space Nine, S03E14 - "Heart Of Stone"

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"Life Support"

• Now that Jake's dated a dabo girl, his confidence is through the roof.  An old friend shows up at the station?  KLINGON RESTAURANT DATE.
• Constable Odo, Chief O'Brien, two Bajoran deputies and a Starfleet security guy come sprinting out of the security office, yelling at everyone to get out of the way?
  
  That's probably not good.
• An accident aboard a Bajoran transport and Kai Winn escapes pretty much unscathed but Vedek Bareil is mortally wounded?  Not terrifically interested in karmic justice, these Prophets of theirs :P
  
  That being said, I never cared for Bareil.  His measured speaking tone somehow managed to be both boring and irritating at the same time.  Plus, if he never kicks the bucket then Major Kira never gets a chance to hook up with Odo.
  
  Sorry pal, but it had to be done for the narrative ;)
• OR HE'S TOTALLY NOT ALL THE WAY DEAD YET.
• Jake and Nog go on a double-date?  Cue sitcom laugh track.
• Legate Turrel:  Another Cardassian officer that we'll never see again.
• "I can't do this without Bareil.  If he dies, then peace with Cardassia dies with him."
  
  Okay, listen:  We all know that you're an absolutely crap leader.  But shouldn't you think you're good at doing leader stuff?
• Teaching a young Ferengi boy all of that awful cultural sexism and then letting him date non-Ferengi girls just seems kind of mean.  Funny, but mean.
• Oh, holy cow.  This just hit me...
  
  Jake's friend and date on his disastrous outing with Nog, Leanne, is played by Lark Voorhies.
  
  Lark Voorhies played Lisa Turtle, the object of Samuel "Screech" Powers' adorable crush and/or creepy obsessive behavior on the show that most of our little sisters really, really liked in the 1990s...Saved By The Bell.
  
  
  
  
  That's it, folks.  I've found the Star Trek-to-Saved By The Bell connection.  Game over.
• One of the things I liked about Dr. Bashir from the very beginning (and it only gets more pronounced as the character matures) is how willing he is to speak bluntly with people, regardless of their position.
  
  Spiritual leader of the Bajoran people?  He gives zero craps.
• Gah.  HOW MUCH DO WE HATE KAI WINN?!?
• "...and Doctor?  I won't forget what you said here."
  
  "Neither will I."
• Ugh.  I didn't like the casual tolerance of Ferengi sexism when I watched these episodes for the first time as a young person, and now that I've grown into a bit of a feminist in my old age I like it even less.  It's a fictional show, and there are other things about the Ferengi that I like...but how other characters tolerate that aspect of their culture (at least right up until late in the series, when Quark's mother and other Ferengi women start openly challenging the status quo) bothers me.
• "Odo, I'd like you to do me a favor.  I'd like to be arrested."
  
  I like that Odo actually helps Jake with his little ruse to re-befriend Nog.  It's one of the hundred little things they do with his character that make him seem like less of a robot and more of a real personality :)
• "Bareil..."
  
  "Yes, Major?"
  
  "How are you feeling?"
  
  "Awake.  Everything's...different."
  
  Yeah, we totally replaced most of your brain.  GOOD LUCK WITH THAT.
• "In traditional Ferengi homes, the females soften the food with their teeth before they give it to the males."
  
  
  
• I forgot until this episode that the Cardassian Union and the Bajoran Provisional Government actually sign a formal peace treaty in between the end of the Occupation and the outbreak of the Dominion War.  It was totally there, just really, really short-lived.
• Oh, okay.  NOW HE'S DEAD, GUYS.

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"Heart Of Stone"

• Early in this episode, when Major Kira and Constable Odo receive a distress call from a Lissepian freighter under attack by a Maquis interceptor, Odo describes the interceptor as a "modified Peregrine-class courier".  This is the only time that name is used, and it connects in Trek canon the type of ship most frequently used by the Maquis to the Federation attack fighter that we'll see in heavy use during the Dominion War.
  
  
  
  (image from Ex Astris Scientia)
• Haha!  Nog choosing to purchase the apprenticeship required to complete the Ferengi Attainment Ceremony, and deciding that he wants to be the first Ferengi in Starfleet?
  
  Not only is he kind of an adorable little troll when he's hatching a scheme, but this turns out--as we all know--to be a major turning point for his character.  This seemed a little ludicrous when we first saw this episode, but it didn't seem so ludicrous when he was a Starfleet officer and a combat veteran with a prosthetic leg.
• We learn in this episode that persons who are not citizens of the Federation must obtain a letter of recommendation from a command-level officer before they're permitted to take the entrance exam for Starfleet Academy.
• "So, Kira's boyfriend died in the last episode.  And we're not quite ready to jump off with the Dominion yet.  What do you think we want to do this episode?"
  
  "Kira gets her foot stuck in a crystalline landmine?"
  
  "Yeah, that works."
• "Of course it's your fault.  Everything that goes wrong here is your fault.  It says so in your contract."
• Oh boy, it's a good thing they packed their covariant oscillator aboard the Mekong.
• "He sings?"
  
  "He says it's necessary to establish a proper paddling pattern."
  
  "This gets better and better.  What does he sing?"
  
  "Ancient human sea shanties, for the most part.  He's particularly fond of one called 'Louie Louie'."
• You know, I don't buy into the old-fashioned notion that one person has to "earn" the love of another person...but literally shielding someone with your awesome, shape-shifting body is pretty good.
• This is the episode in which Odo's name is an abbreviation of the Cardassian word odo'ital, which means "nothing".
• "You have to get out of here."
  
  "Don't you understand?  I can't!"
  
  "You have to.  Odo, please."
  
  "No.  I won't leave you."
  
  "Why?"
  
  "Because!  Because...I'm in love with you.  So...now you know."
  
  "Odo...I'm in love with you, too."
  
  Well, that just got weird.  Nice going, you two.
• The 18th Rule of Acquisition:  "A Ferengi without profit is no Ferengi at all."
• Nog's recognition of how Rom's lack of opportunities led to him living an empty life chasing profit instead of being able to live a fulfilling life as--for example--an engineer is one of the pivotal moments when the writers started to flesh the Ferengi racial personality out significantly.  Nog started the series as a little twerp and a buddy for Jake, and he turns into a major developmental instrument for an entire fictional species.
• Whoah.  Fake Kira, bro.
• Whoah.  Female Changling, bro.
• "No Changeling has ever harmed another."
  
  "There's always a first time."