DS9 S02E15 & S02E16

In this installment:
(viewed Sunday, August 2nd)

Star Trek:  Deep Space Nine, S02E15 - "Paradise"
Star Trek:  Deep Space Nine, S02E16 - "Shadowplay"

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"Paradise"

• This episode gives us another of early DS9's frequent "two people in a runabout" plots.  In this episode, Cmdr. Sisko and Chief O'Brien are surveying Class M planets near the Alpha Quadrant entrance/exit of the Bajoran Wormhole for sites that might be suitable for (presumably Federation) colonization.
• During the opening discussion between Sisko and O'Brien, they discuss getting Jake ready for Starfleet Academy.  As we learn later in the series, Jake's talents lay in a different direction--writing and journalism.  That makes sense, given that Sisko describes an test in which Jake placed "in the lower third" in mechanical aptitude
  
  Of course, O'Brien says that he did too and we all know that he turned into a genius.  I guess even in the 24th Century, standardized testing can only tell you so much :P
• "It was a matter of figuring out how to get a field transporter operational in 10 minutes, or wind up being a Cardassian prisoner of war."
  
  That's pretty good motivation, I suppose.
• Space hippies.  It's aaaaaaaaaalways space hippies.
• The ship that landed the accidental colonists on the planet was the SS Santa Maria (BDR-529), was an Erewon-class transport.  We never get to see an intact version of this class, but there are official-looking dorsal and side profile images available for it (I believe from Star Trek Fact Files, probably).
  
  
  
  (The Erewhon / Erewon class)
  
  The registry of the Santa Maria is an in-joke:  It's the license plate number of the Bluesmobile from the film The Blues Brothers.
• "Cassandra", one of the survivors from the crash of the Santa Maria, is played by Julia Nickson.  She previously played Ensign T'Su in an early episode of TNG, "The Arsenal Of Freedom".  I best remember her as Co, John Rambo's ill-fated Vietnamese guide in Rambo:  First Blood Part II--one of my favorite childhood films*.
  
  * - I had an older brother and parents who didn't pay a lot of attention to what movies he was showing me.  It didn't suck.
• "'Ben and Miles'?  Uh...we prefer 'Commander' and 'Chief', people."
• Did I say space hippies? I meant space Amish (albeit involuntary space Amish, I guess).
• The runabout that Sisko and O'Brien took to the Gamma Quadrant was the USS Rio Grande, the last surviving member of Deep Space 9's original three-runabout compliment.
• Dude...these crazy space Amish totally have a sweatbox.
• It's not space hippies or space Amish.  It's a space cult!
• Benjamin Sisko is more patient than people give him credit for.  I probably would've punched Alixus in the neck.
• "You got a better idea?"
  
  "I'm the science officer.  It's my job to have a better idea."
  
  <3 Lt. Dax
• "Okay, see.  Here's the thing.  We're Starfleet officers and combat veterans.  We're part of the command crew of one of the most strategically important installations in the Federation.  You might think that you've got us isolated here, but we have some genius people working on that station of ours.  When the find us and rescue us, you're totally going to prison for like...a really, really long time.  Nobody puts Commander Benjamin Lafayette Sisko in a sweatbox, sister!"
• Nobody wants your crummy clothes or your water, Space Jim Jones.
• I'm not a big fan of Sisko's whole nonviolent resistance tactic here.  I'd prefer if he and O'Brien used their combat experience and general awesomeness to trick, overpower or otherwise get the upper hand on Alixus' stupid cult and kill the lot of them.  But I'm a bit of a bastard.
• Miles Edward O'Brien:  He can totally knock you out so it won't hurt at all, and then make a gourd compass.  Seriously, isn't he just the coolest?  /swoon
• "Perhaps a lie can lead to a more important truth."
  
  Thus spake every demagogue and charlatan in human history.

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"Shadowplay"

• Constable Odo does not understand the foolish humanoid preoccupation with "romantic coupling", and he doesn't care for gossip either.  Apparently.
• "I'm sorry, but after seven lifetimes the impersonal questions aren't much fun anymore."
• Omicron particles/radiation:  One of the 70,000 various special particles or special radiation that they have in the Trek universe.  Thank goodness we only have a few to worry about.
• Meanwhile, on the station:  Quark is trying to pull a heist, and Kira ain't having it. 
  
  "Not like you?  You collaborated with the Cardassians, you cheat your customers and you're a danger to this station.  I don't just not like you, I despise you."
• Dude, Ben.  I don't think the kid wants to learn anything about engineering or go to Starfleet Academy.
• "Taya", the young girl on the planet where Odo and Lt. Dax are investigating the omicron particles (and later mysterious disappearances), is played by Noley Thornton.  She previously played Clara Sutter on the TNG episode "Imaginary Friend".
• Yeah, it's not exactly going to have to work hard to talk Dr. Bashir into spying on Quark.
• Vedek Bareil coming to see Kira?  Brown chicken, brown cow indeed.
• "There's no such thing as Changlings.  They're make believe.  Everyone knows that."
  
  "Well...I'm not make believe."
• "Miles O'Brien:  Badass Engineer" is a lot better than "Miles O'Brien:  Cellist".
• "The people are made up of omicron particles too."
  
  FAKE SETTLEMENT, BRO.
• Rurigan tells Odo and Dax how he came from Yadera Prime, but fled when the Dominion conquered the system and came to the unsettled planet to create a holographic copy of the life he new back on his home world.
  
  This is yet another in the long line of bread crumbs that lead us from the first whispers about the feared Dominion to the ultimate confrontation with them later in the series.
• "I don't want to join Starfleet."
  
  "Since when?"
  
  "Since forever.  Starfleet is too much like you.  I need to find what's me.  Does that make any sense?"
  
  "Perfect sense."
• "For my next trick, I will turn into this weird spinny-top toy you have!"