DS9 S04E02, S04E03

In this installment:
(viewed Saturday, December 6th)

Star Trek:  Deep Space Nine, S04E02 - "The Visitor"
Star Trek:  Deep Space Nine, S04E03 - "Hippocratic Oath"

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"The Visitor"

• This episode is widely regarded as one of DS9's finest, akin to TNG's "Inner Light".  While my personal favorite won't arrive until the sixth season, there's no denying that "The Visitor" is an amazing piece of Trek history--a brilliant story, brilliantly acted.
• And yes, the actor who plays old Jake is none other than Tony Todd--best known to Trekkies as Kurn, and best known to non-Trekkies as either Candyman or one of the mercenaries in The Rock.
  
  He also plays Starfleet admiral (and eventual Commander-in-Chief) Ramirez in the upcoming fan film Star Trek: Axanar, the preview for which ("Prelude to Axanar", which includes a stirring wartime speech by Todd-as-Ramirez) is available on YouTube.  I highly recommend checking it out.  This ain't like other fan films, folks (not that there aren't some good ones out there, but Axanar looks like it's set to be the best of the bunch).
• The young author who comes looking for Jake, Melanie, is played by Rachel Robinson--daughter of actor Andrew Robinson (Garak).
• A subspace inversion?  That seems totally safe.
• "Sisko to engineering...engineering, report!"
  
  How is "let's take the Defiant to the Gamma Quadrant to watch the wormhole do something weird" the one time you don't take Chief O'Brien with you?
• "Dax, better stand by to eject the core."
  
  "We can't, the ejection system's offline."
  
  The ejections system is always offline.  ALWAYS.
• "So I'm seeing my dead father in my quarters."
  
  "Yeah, we'll...uh, scan your quarters.  Go back to sleep."
• The Bajorans and the Cardassians in a mutual defense pact?  That seems like an odd choice.
• Temporal signatures are such finicky bastards.
• "Look at me...I need to know you're going to be alright."
  
  Excuse me.  I've got something in my eye.
• I enjoy that adult Jake Sisko is played by Tony Todd, and adult Nog is still played by teeny, tiny Aaron Eisenberg.
• "At the age of 37, I went back to school and studied subspace mechanics."
  That's a hell of a gear change.
• Although some ships are shown to be in service for decades, the Defiant--the most modern of starships at its launching--is apparently in "mothballs" 50 years after Sisko's accident.
• The future uniforms show in this episode are the same shown in TNG's finale, "All Good Things...".
• "Read the dedication."
  
  "'To my father, who's coming home'."
  Damned dust in my eye...
• "Jake, you didn't have to do this.  Not for me."
  
  "For you, and for the boy that I was.  He needs you more than you know.  Don't you see?  We're going to get...a second chance."
  
  Okay, now I'm just crying.
• It's kind of interesting watching this episode after having seen Interstellar.  I won't go into a huge amount of detail, but the theme of "parents are ghosts for their children" is as present in this episode as it is in the newer film.

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"Hippocratic Oath"

• Worf is cranky because Odo has thrown Quark in prison.  News at 11.
• And Chief O'Brien and Dr. Bashir on a mission together in a runabout?  That always ends so well.
• "Why can't she be more like..."
  
  "More like?"
  
  "...a man.  More like a man."
  
  "So, you wish...Keiko was a man?"
  
  "I wish I was on this trip with someone else.  That's what I wish."
  
  The banter between O'Brien and Bashir (at least once their friendship evolved beyond its early "Bashir always annoys O'Brien" stage) is one of my favorite things about DS9.  It doesn't quite rival the banter of the classic Kirk-Spock-McCoy troika, but it comes close at times for both depth of humanity and humor.
• "Do not move.  You are prisoners of the Jem'Hadar."
  
  That's never a good way to start your crash landing survival adventure :-\
• O'Brien's rank is identified in this episode as chief petty officer.
• ...in which the Jem'Hadar enlist Dr. Bashir to cook dope for them.
• "The Klingons have also attacked three more outposts along the Romulan border.  In short, they're reasserting themselves all over the quadrant."
  
  Klingons on the move.  KLINGONS ON THE MOVE.
• Would you leave Odo alone and let him do his job, dude.  Sheesh.
• "I have fought against races who believe in mythical beings who guided their destinies and await them after death.  They call them...'gods'.  The Founders are like gods to the Jem'Hadar, but they don't talk to us.  And they don't await us after death.  They only want us to fight for them, and to die for them."
  
  This episode fleshes out the "culture" (if you can call it that) of the Jem'Hadar, including their relationship with the Founders.  And it broaches the age-old moral question about a culture designed for warfare:  Are they nothing but killers, or can they become more than that?
• Odo's the bag, Worf.  Odo is always the bag.
• Chief O'Brien's escape into the forest and evasion from the Jem'Hadar soldiers is basically like John Rambo's kiting sheriff's deputies through the woods in First Blood.
• "You are a soldier?"
  
  "I have been."
  
  "Then you explain."
• "Let's just say that DS9 has more shades of grey.  And Quark...is definitely grey."
•  "Tonight's supposed to be our weekly darts game."
  
  "Don't worry, I don't feel much like playing either."
  
  "Maybe in a few days."