DS9 S03E01-02

In this installment:
(viewed Sunday, August 10th)

Star Trek:  Deep Space Nine, S03E01 & S03E02 - "The Search" (Part 1 & Part 2)

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"The Search" (Part 1 & Part 2)

• "We're in trouble, people.  We've run seven simulations and they all come out the same: The Jem'Hadar overwhelm our defenses and board the station within two hours."
• "It's definitely a Federation ship, but I've never seen that design before."
  
  "A Federation ship...with a cloaking device?"
  
  C'mon Chief O'Brien, you were on board the Enterprise-D during the Pegasus retrieval.  You know it's possible, just super, super illegal (TNG, "The Pegasus").
• The ship in question is, of course...
  
  (drumroll please)
  
  The USS Defiant (NX-74205):  The lead ship of an experimental new class of pure combat vessels, originally designed to counter the threat from the Borg.  It's very small compared to other Starfleet capital ships (around the same size and crew compliment as the smaller iterations of the Klingon Bird-of-Prey; i.e. technically classified as a "scout" or "escort"), but it packs a punch equal to just about any of its larger cousins.
  
  
  

  (images courtesy of Ex Astris Scientia)
  
  
  
  (images pulled from Star Trek Fact Files via Ex Astris Scientia;
  specs pulled from multiple sources, including EAS and Memory-Alpha)
• Although this episode introduces the Defiant, it still uses the original (well, post-pilot) title sequence in which a runabout departs the station and enters the wormhole.  Eventually (I don't recall when), that end sequence of the credits will be changed to show the Defiant undocking from the station and entering the wormhole.
• "Five years ago, Starfleet began exploring the possibility of creating a new class of ship.  This ship would have no families, no science labs, no luxuries of any kind.  It was designed for one purpose only:  To fight and defeat the Borg."
• This episode is also the first appearance Lt. Cmdr. Michael Eddington, a Starfleet security officer posted to the station along with the new Defiant.
• Along with Eddington, we also get Romulan Subcommander T'Rul, on loan from the Romulan Star Empire (along with the Defiant's cloaking device).  T'Rul is played by Martha Hackett, who will later play Seska on VOY.
• Constable Odo?  Not super-pleased the the new security arrangements.
• Sorry, Major Kira.  You really, really can't pull one over on Odo.
• "I'm a little confused, Commander.  You want me to go with you?  To the Gamma Quadrant?  To help you locate the Founders?"
  
  "See?  It's not so confusing after all."
  
  "You're joking with me, aren't you?  Havin' a little fun with Quark?"
• "Now, there's no way you can legally force me to do this."
  
  
   
• "Besides, I think we would all feel better with someone here to watch over Quark."
  
  "I take that as a personal insult, Doctor."
  
  "You should."
• The Karemma are especially sniveling and irritating.
  
  "All I know is that the Vorta say to do something, and you do it."
  
  "Why?"
  
  "Because if you do not, they send in the Jem'Hadar.  And then you die."
• The Omarion Nebula:  If your shapeshifter buddy is suddenly drawn to a mysterious region of a distant quadrant of the galaxy, you should probably take note of it.
• Leaving behind Dax and O'Brien at the relay station is very much not like Sisko.  He's usually all about disobeying orders when it's The Right Thing to Do™.  I think it demonstrates his determination to complete this particular mission.
• Three Jem'Hadar attack ships?  Okay, maybe.  We'll blow one up real good and the others will back off a little.
  
  Oh, three more?  Yeah, we should go...
• Although they'll show reverence for him later on, the Jem'Hadar who board the Defiant (apparently) do not immediately recognize Odo as a Founder.
• The Defiant will carry a couple of types of "embarked craft" (a term covering shuttlecraft, shuttlepods, captain's yachts, etc.), and a couple of them are of unusual design.
  
  The shuttle in which Odo and Kira escape is a Type 18 shuttlepod, an oddball little craft.  I think it's clear that the effects department intended the shuttlepod to mirror its parent ship's appearance--with the tucked-in nacelles and overall compact shape.
  
  
  
  (image from Star Trek Fact Files, courtesy EAS)
• "Where are we?"
  
  "We're approaching...the Omarion Nebula."
  
  "You should've taken us back to the wormhole!"
  
  "You didn't object at the time."
  
  "I was unconscious."
• A rogue planet in the middle of a mysterious nebula, deep in the heart of Dominion space and tens of thousands of light years from friendly space?  What could possible go wrong?
• As Odo looks upon the Great Link (although he doesn't know what it is at the time), we see one of the Founders and leaders of the Dominion (known to us only as "the female changeling") emerge from the Link and bid Odo "Welcome home." 
  
  
  
  
  She'll become a major antagonist for the remainder of the series.
  
  She's played by Salome Jens, who also played the ancient humanoid in the TNG episode "The Chase".
• In the second half of this episode, Odo finally gets (most of) the answers he's been seeking for his entire life:  Where he came from, if there are others like him, etc.
  
  I really feel bad for the guy when his people turn out to be interstellar despots :(
• Cmdr. Sisko and Dr. Bashir have abandoned the Defiant in another Type 18 shuttlepod, although Sisko questions its ability to get them back to the wormhole.  The shuttlepod taken by Odo and Kira didn't seem to have any trouble reaching the Omarion Nebula, even though these smaller shuttlepods typically do not have warp capability.  It may be that the wormhole is within the operational range of Sisko's shuttlepod, but it took some damage escaping from the besieged Defiant.
• This episode features the first use of the Founders' pejorative "solids" to refer to lifeforms that cannot change their shape (i.e. "monoforms").
• If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times:  Admiral Nechayev is never good news.
• The Vorta masquerading as a Founder is called "Borath", and he's not nearly as entertaining as the other Vorta with whom we'll spend most of our time later in the series :)
• "There's an old saying on Cardassia:  'Enemies make dangerous friends.'"
• "I'm really glad you made it home, Odo.  I know everything is going to work out just fine."
  
  Or totally, totally not :-\
• "I have a dream that one day, all peoples--human, Ferengi, Cardassian, Jem'Hadar--will stand together in peace...around my dabo tables."
• In the, uh, "scenario" that includes the peace talks between the Dominion and the Federation, Lt. Dax is transferred to the USS Lexington as their new science officer.
• ...and Starfleet pulls out of the Bajoran Sector, ceding it to the Dominion.
• Hey look, Odo figured out how to do birdies!
• In this scenario, the Bajorans and the Romulans--both finding themselves left out of the peace negotiations--forge a pact to fight the Jem'Hadar (and their Federation and Cardassian allies).  It's not the massive, interstellar war that we finally do get on DS9...but it's a pretty scary prospect nonetheless.
• "If it means anything Commander, I happen to share your feelings about this Dominion treaty.  I've thought about it a great deal, and the only explanation I can find is that our leaders have simply gone insane."
• Subcommander T'Rul is shot by the Jem'Hadar (and presumably killed by them, as their weapons notoriously do not have stun settings) in this simulation, but for all we know she's actually killed by the Dominion in reality too.  We never see her again after this episode, and Starfleet operates the cloaking device on the Defiant without Romulan supervision (although I believe they do reference the requirement of only operating it in the Gamma Quadrant once or twice more, before giving up on that premise as well).
  
  Correction:  T'Rul is shown briefly on one of the stretchers along with the rest of the crew of the Defiant when Kira and Odo find the subterranean cavern where the simulation is being run.  But she's not seen after that at all.
• If you need to bust someone out of jail and make an escape?  You could do worse than Garak.
• This isn't the first or last time that the choice to collapse the Bajoran wormhole--stranding the Dominion forces in the Gamma Quadrant--is considered.
• "Well, I guess this means the end of our Starfleet careers."
  
  "Oh, I wouldn't worry about that, Doctor."
  
  "That's easy for you to say."
  
  "You misunderstand me, Lieutenant.  I meant that it's a little foolish to worry about your careers at a time like this, when there's a good chance that we're all about to be killed."
• "I'm glad to see the plan is going well."
  
  "What plan?"
  
  "You mean no one told you?  You see...I pretend to be their friend, and then...I shoot you."
  
  <3 Garak
• Aww, simulated Garak goes to the great tailor's shop in the sky :(
• "You belong to the Dominion, don't you?"
  
  "Major, the changelings are the Dominion."
  
  "You're the Founders..."
• "I admit this 'Link' of yours is appealing.  But you see, I already have a link--with these people."