Interesting to make this so explicitly a sequel to "Mirror, Mirror," a world altered by its events so specifically that Other Kira recaps its events for audience stand-in Kira. Previous TOS connections were more like, oh, yeah, this guy /would/ still exist in the world.

Another rock solid hour of Star Trek.

#startrek #ds9

Strong choice to dedicate the final hour before the end of the show to a chapter in the Maquis story that will ultimately be two other shows' responsibility to carry on with. TNG will end, but Deep Space Nine and Voyager still have twelve seasons left to come.

Ro Laren's defection here really works for me, and it all makes the Maquis even more sympathetic.

(Not that it really feels like TNG is actually working towards an ending, mind!!)

#startrek #tng

Love Kira's righteous fury at the DS9 equivalent of a concentration camp guard.

(Man, fuck Kai Winn.)

#startrek #ds9

If it's possible to nail a finale more thoroughly than this, I haven't seen it. Picard does "The Constant," a big ol' sci-fi idea — but ultimately what we care about is these /people/.

Beautiful way to sign off. :')

#startrek #tng

The whole business with the Cardassian courtroom is a bit over the top, but the danger to O'Brien always feels very real, and ultimately it's a good episode because it's a series of compelling angles on every character who gets caught up in it.

#startrek #ds9

The "the Siskos and the Quarks go camping" comedy episode turns into a big season finale spectacular halfway through. Top 10 anime betrayals. Strong episode to introduce a bunch of big new stuff in. Armin Shimerman is really good in this one.

(Blowing up a Galaxy-class ship to show the Enterprise would've got fucked here, too, is maybe a little "did we learn nothing from how quickly the Borg became too strong to deal with.")

#startrek #ds9

The vibe shift as the station prepares for war is palpable. Unlike anything TNG ever could have done.

Everyone gets good little moments here. A good little Sisko speech, how upset Odo is and everyone trying to help him, Quark knowing exactly where not to be but Sisko knowing exactly how to play him. Everyone talks each other into everything. Love these nerds.

#startrek #ds9

Odo's crush on Kira caught me off-guard last season, but now that they're clearly doing it on purpose, I'm totally on board with it. It'll never work out, though, of course.

#startrek #ds9

Love watching Quark get swept up in some absolute nonsense for no reason other than his own hubris.

This episode never sacrifices the integrity of its characters or world for a laugh while still being a great comedy episode.

#startrek #ds9

This could easily have fallen into the familiar "episode where people don't behave like themselves for the whole hour" problem the era falls into so often, but instead it's a great little character study — Kira is always gonna be Kira no matter who they try to make her believe she is.

#startrek #ds9

The Brigadoon planet that only exists once every sixty years is a fine planet of the week type of thing — though I found Ben and Dax's goodbyes very moving — but the B-plot of Quark trying to con Kira into letting him record her holo-image for a richo is (creepy, yeah, but) a hoot.

#startrek #ds9

RE: https://beepboop.one/@Alexis/116216501934688697

"a bit" turned out to be "three days"

Love Riker walking in on the setup for a pretty basic Kira Nerys' Day Off episode like he's the hottest babe on syndicated television.

Love, then also, the twist of which Riker.

#startrek #ds9

The kind of episode that's just, yeah, I'm sure this kind of silly nonsense happens on DS9 kinda all the time, but just about the only thing that stands out here is it's good to check in on Miles and Keiko's marriage. It doesn't quite pull off any of the rest of it.

#startrek #ds9

"Same year as it was yesterday, 2024."

woah, the Bell Riots. you know they're gonna come up eventually, but I don't think I knew they actually went to them.

Now that's an episode of television.

#startrek #ds9

Doesn't quite live up to the first half, but still, just a great hour of #StarTrek.

#ds9

Ahh, a fresh new Star Trek show.

This is the 90s Trek I'd seen the most of before this go-around — for a few years it was just on all the time right when I'd come home from school, which means I have a fondness for #Voyager specifically that no wider reputation will ever beat in combat.

It'll be interesting to see how well I remember it — this pilot matches my memories quite well, though only now do I realise it crosses over with #DS9.

#startrek

remember when I declared Tasha Yar the real main character of TNG

my new slightly deranged hot take is Neelix and Kes are the main characters of Voyager

#startrek #voyager

This is a good second episode premise — it's not at all about the other ship, which just turns out to be themselves, so it has all the space it needs to be almost entirely about how these people have to learn to work together.

anyway, look what they did to my boy

#startrek #voyager

A good effort at just a fairly standard Star Trek story, but in that way also fails because it's not doing anything TNG or DS9 couldn't have done just as well, if not better.

#startrek #voyager

"Lungs stolen, holographic lungs put in, the crew has to go get the lungs back" is such a funny horrible thing to do to Neelix specifically.

A fun bantery one.

(I also just find the Emergency Medical Hologram's ongoing plight, which really comes into the foreground here, really compelling.)

#startrek #voyager

Nog is such a good little dude.

And the Odo story here is just beautiful stuff.

#startrek #ds9

This is the first time since establishing the whole Gamma Quadrant situation they've really brought up that they're rationing, but by playing it for comedy — Neelix's better-than-coffee sludge, Janeway's coffee quest — it really fails to land as the serious predicament they're in.

I do like how this one establishes Janeway's captaining style — she /wants/ to be close with the crew in ways Kirk, Picard, Sisko never let themselves be.

#startrek #voyager

(Obviously the Chakotay spirit animal material chafes, in the context of the show's Indigenous American advisor being a fraud who'd already been exposed years before the show.)

#startrek #voyager

Finally we check back in with the Emissary story. Sisko just sort of refusing to acknowledge it while actively and constantly working with and around people who worship him does seem unsustainable.

#startrek #ds9

Only six hours into the "lost, far away from home, in an unexplored quadrant of the known universe" show, and already we're doing "anyway, here's a Romulan"?

I liked it as an hour of Star Trek — the twist that he's in 2351 instead of 2371 is great, and also I obviously love all this stuff with the EMH figuring out how to be a person — but, hm, already, really?

#startrek #voyager

The Grand Nagus moves in with Quark and devotes his life to non-capitalist benevolence, causing Quark and Rom to think him insane. Meanwhile, Bashir is up for an award they never give to people at his point in their careers, but then everyone around him gets his hopes up just because they like him.

Solid mid-season comedy episode, of the exact kind you lose in the 10-episode streaming model.

#startrek #ds9

A Holmes story with sci-fi bits glued on happens to Tom Paris. Fine — though we don't quite know Tom Paris well enough yet to know what's atypical behaviour — but we're not exactly in the Delta Quadrant here, are we.

Knowing the EMH's ongoing quest for a name of his own ends at him being called "The Doctor" for the next 900 years and counting doesn't make his earnest desire for an identity any less endearing — but it does make it funnier.

#startrek #voyager

In this one, Harry demolishes an entire planet's belief system just by showing up.

There's some nice big Star Trek ideas here, but it just doesn't really add up to anything.

#startrek #voyager

Finally, an episode of #Voyager that actually really deals with the show's premise — barred from accessing technology that would get them most of the way home by another culture's prime directive, how far will the crew of Voyager go to achieve their own goals regardless of how the Sikarians feel about it? Or how the rest of Voyager feels about it?

Tuvok siding with the conspirators is where this really clicks.

#startrek

Seska being a spy isn't /that/ surprising, in part because of her tone about Starfleet and its rules last episode, in part because in the past 31 years I've never once heard anyone say the name "Seska" without also shaking their fist at the very thought of her.

Do wonder what exactly her plan was, though, if it falls apart at the first sign of blood test.

#startrek #voyager

An easy complaint to level at this one would be that it's set almost entirely inside Julian's head and tells us very little about him we don't already know.

And, look, I always want an episode like this to redeem itself for me in the back half, but unfortunately it's set almost entirely inside Julian's head and tells us very little about him we don't already know.

#startrek #ds9

Love the reframing of the mirror universe's narrative role from "an accident that happens to them" to "something that actively comes to get them," and with that, making it a known danger zone that needs to be navigated.

Making it about his wife is, like, yeah, that's the exact button you push on ol' Benny Sisko to get him to do exactly what you want. But she's not /her/, Ben, come on, you know this.

#startrek #ds9

The holodeck episode that dares to ask, what if we just did exactly this three to six times a year.

The EMH's first taste of a name, taken away by the same holonarrative that gave it to him, is a touching note in what is otherwise already fairly paint-by-numbers stuff. Fun hour of Voyager, mind.

#startrek #voyager

who would dare hurt garak, the local sweet, innocent baby who never did anything wrong

> it was garak

never, I say, not a single thing wrong, I say

#startrek #ds9