DS9 S03E17 & S03E18

In this installment:
(viewed Sunday, September 28th)

Star Trek:  Deep Space Nine, S03E17 - "Visionary"
Star Trek:  Deep Space Nine, S03E18 - "Distant Voices"

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"Visionary"

• I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this probably isn't the first time that Chief O'Brien has woken up on the floor of Ops with a "mild" case of radiation poisoning from a blown plasma conduit.
• Drunk Klingons are the best Klingons.  They're also the only Klingons.
• Romulans and Klingons on the station at the same time?  No way that goes badly.
• "We are not interested in your accommodations, Commander.  We are here for your intelligence briefing, nothing else."
  
  So...Ruwon seems like a happy-go-lucky kinda Romulan.
• "You do have one problem.  If all you can hallucinate about is Quark's maintenance problems, you have a sadly deficient fantasy life."
• Ruwon states in this episode that "...the Dominion represents the greatest threat to the Alpha Quadrant in centuries", despite the fact that his home--the Romulan Star Empire--isn't actually located in the Alpha Quadrant.  In fact, of the major powers that eventually end up in the Federation Alliance during the Dominion War, only the Federation itself is located within the Alpha Quadrant (and even it spills over into the Beta Quadrant, where the Romulan and Klingon territories are located).
  
  During the course of this show and others, "the Alpha Quadrant" became convenient short-hand to represent the parts of the Milky Way Galaxy that were occupied by familiar peoples...but in reality, those peoples are spread pretty evenly across both the Alpha and Beta Quadrants.
  
  
  
  (map courtesy of Ex Astris Scientia)
  
  The Federation, the Cardassian Union, the Breen Confederacy and the Ferengi Alliance are among the major powers located wholly or mostly within the Alpha Quadrant (and Bajor and the Bajoran Wormhole are also located within the Alpha Quadrant).
  
  The two major antagonist powers in Star Trek--the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Star Empire--are both located entirely within the Beta Quadrant.  And of course the Borg dominate the Delta Quadrant (spilling into the Beta Quadrant) and the Dominion is the major power in the Gamma Quadrant.
  
  First Edit:  After reviewing some material, I'm reminded that exactly which planets/governments are located where is a matter of some uncertainty in the Star Trek universe.  Almost all apocryphal sources (such as many novels and the Star Trek Online computer game) place the Klingon and Romulan empires entirely within the Beta Quadrant.  But the on-screen evidence is mixed, and there are some references to both Romulus and Qo'noS being in the Alpha Quadrant.  And even if the homeworlds themselves--and even all or most of their territories--are located within the Beta Quadrant, it could probably be said that the Klingons and Romulans could be included in any list of "Alpha Quadrant powers" due to the political and military influence they exert and their relationships with major Alpha Quadrant governments like the Federation and Cardassia.
• It may seem odd to people watching this show in 1990s America, where we're supposed to be offended that someone would assume that all members of a race were complicit in actions of any large group of people of that same race. 
  
  So the Romulan delegation's assumption that Odo would be able to tell them anything about the Founders' plans because he happens to be a Changeling is a little off-putting.
  
  However, it's important to remember that Romulan society is not like human society.  They seem to be fairly homogenous, and are probably quite accustomed to drawing broad assumptions about entire groups of people based on superficial characteristics like race.
  
  That doesn't make it okay, but it makes it easier to understand.
• MILES O'BRIEN CAN SEE THE FUTURE.
• "And Major, when you're with the Romulans...try to be diplomatic."
  
  "I'm always diplomatic."
  
  Queue next scene, wherein Kira is yelling at the Romulans.
• What's better than one O'Brien in a fight?  Two O'Briens in a fight!
  
  
  
• OH HAI I MOVED THE ROMULANS TO THE QUARTERS WERE O'BRIEN GOT LASER-ZAPPED.
• "You think Quark had something to do with this?"
  
  "I always investigate Quark."
• People who see the future pretty much always see the ship or space station where everybody lives and stuff blown up.  Every time.
• "We might be able to calibrate the decay constant of the isotope we inject you with to match the frequency of the singularity.  And with a few minor adjustments, we can control how far you jump into the future."
  
  Or, you know, some other magical bullsh*t.  We'll figure it out.
• "Julian, there's a message in my quarters for Keiko if, uh..."
  
  "...it pretty much just says 'I never loved you and you ruined my life. Regards, Miles.'"
• {past O'Brien looks at future O'Brien}
  
  "But if you feel bad and you're the past me, shouldn't I feel bad too?"
  
  {in unison}
  
  "I HATE TEMPORAL MECHANICS."
• Sneaky Romulans and their sneaky singularity-driven Warbirds.
• Everybody wants to collapse the damned wormhole.  EVERYBODY.
• "Quark?  'Dabo'."

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"Distant Voices"

• "I thought you liked mystery stories?"
  
  "I do...human mystery stories.  The problem with Cardassian 'enigma tales' is that they all end the same way:  The suspect is always guilty."
• Letheans have taser hands?  That's kind of a bummer.
• We learn in this episode that Cardassian hearing is not as keen as human hearing.
• We also learn that Deep Space 9 is creepy as hell at night.
• They really love to do a "Hey guys, we're in someone's mind for this whole episode!" episodes every once in a while.  It's a little dull, to be frank.
• He's fallen down, and he can't get up.
• I wonder whose idea it was to make Garak sing "Happy Birthday"?
• They did do pretty good old-guy makeup on Alexander Siddig for this episode, and he played it up pretty well.  I'll give them that.
• "Remember, Doctor.  I am inside your head.  I know all about you."
  
  "You know, except for that little secret about you being genetically engineered.  Apparently I didn't pick that one up."
• And apparently the great sorrow of Dr. Bashir's life is being a doctor instead of playing tennis.
• "And what I find interesting is how your mind ended up casting me in the role of the villain."
  
  "Oh...I wouldn't read too much into that, Garak."
  
  "How can I not?  To think, after all this time, all of our lunches together...you still don't trust me.  There's hope for you yet, Doctor."