If you’re listening to The Delta Flyers podcast, you’ll know they completed their run of Star Trek: Voyager this past year prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike. After the strike concluded, they announced they would be doing a run of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Joining hosts Garrett Wang and Robert Duncan McNeill are DS9 stars Terry Farrell and Armin Shimerman, who swap out between weeks reviewing episodes of the series in the order they aired.
Where I did not join their Patreon during the Voyager run, I decided to join it for the DS9 run, which in addition to letting me listen on Spotify, also allows me to listen to the extras like their score, overall impressions, and other neat info. So I thought I’d also rewatch DS9, but an episode each week as it used to come out back then, and as they release a new episode each week.
Below will be each season and episode, with an excerpt, a spoiler-cut of my impressions, and my personal score. I will not give out the scores from the hosts since that is part of their paid bonus material, so if you want their impressions, subscribe to their Patreon.
SEASON ONE
S1E01-2 “Emissary”
A Starfleet commander who survived in the Battle of Wolf 359 is assigned command of a recently-annexed Bajoran space station following the Cardassian occupation of their world. There he must learn to work with mixed Federation and Bajoran crew as they uncover an ancient artifact that will change the entire sector and balance of power.
You know, at first, I didn't think I was going to like him.
The pilot to Deep Space Nine is one of two Trek episodes I have on VHS tape from their original home video run in the 1990s that I bought for cheap from Columbia House’s employee store in 1998 when my father briefly worked for one of Sony’s smaller outfits. It remains one of Trek’s best pilots and a real one-two punch in the performance of Avery Brooks as an officer and father split between duty and care of his son. The way he handles his grief over Wolf 359 with Picard and reconciles at the end is great, and you come to see how this performance continues to manifest over the coming episodes.
I’ve probably watched the pilot so many times over the years, and every time I do I always tend to notice something new. Like how rough they made Odo’s face compared to later seasons. Armin noted in the podcast a lot of that was influenced both by the actors not wanting to be in a ton of makeup and prosthetics for long periods of time, but also by efficiencies in the process. But it was these sessions between Armin and Rene that allowed them to form a friendship and by virtue drive Quark and Odo’s love/hate relationship. So it’s fascinating to hear this all be told each week in the podcast.
Score: 9/10
S1E03 “Past Prologue”
A Bajoran whom Kira used to work with in the resistance shows up on the station with questionable motives that the crew must uncover, including the station’s resident Cardassian “tailor”.
Oh, it’s just Garak. Plain, simple, Garak.
This is the first episode where the show starts to explore what many of the Bajoran resistance fighters, like Kira Nerys, did after the occupation. While it’s a very good look into that aspect of the returning soldier, the episode felt particularly weak around the edges. The saving grace was the introduction of Garek, a character shrouded in mystique, and has been the constant talk for decades of his bi-sexuality and perhaps love for Bashir.
Score: 6.5/10
S1E04 “A Man Alone”
Odo is accused of murdering a Bajoran citizen who used to be a weapons smuggler during the occupation.
Laws change depending on who's making them, but justice is justice.
This is one of many early DS9 episodes where the B-side or C-side stories end up being more interesting than the A-side story. It could have been a fairly interesting murder mystery case for Odo, but when it comes around to Odo being the target, and there being even more Bajoran dissidents not happy with whatever this week, it just fills time in the episode that could have been better spent on the mystery.
Score: 5/10
S1E05 “Babel”
The crew races against time to stop a virus planted on the station from the occupation that causes aphasia and death.
Rom's an idiot. He couldn't fix a straw if it was bent.
While this episode isn’t in my speedrun list, it’s an episode I quite like because of my own challenges with my son’s ASD. Communication is so important, and like TNG “Darmok”, it spends good time on the crew having to take on those challenges to save the day. That said, I agreed with Robbie in the podcast when he said that it was resolved a little too quickly at the end, and they could have shaved dead space from the middle to serve a more climatic ending.
Score: 6.5/10
S1E06 “Captive Pursuit”
O’Brien tries to help an alien from the Gamma Quadrant who is being hunted.
Don't call me 'barkeep'! I'm not a 'barkeep'! I'm your host, the proprietor, a sympathetic ear to the wretched souls that pass through these portals.
Some might say this was the first of the “O’Brien Must Suffer” arc, but I disagree. This was just a simple alien-of-the-week story and perhaps a precursor to Voyager’s Hirogen species when it comes to the whole “hunting prey” shit. It felt like one of those “We’re a sci-fi show, so we need to remind you we have aliens in the show” sort of episodes, but it wasn’t quite pitched as well as it would be in later seasons.
I had to agree with Robbie again in this week’s podcast, this episode could have been better if they had a little more comedy between Tosk and O’Brien. The episode had a lot of good guest alien acting, as well as good runs by Brooks and Shimerman. It just doesn’t stack up to the rest of the season as well for me.
Score: 6/10
S1E07 “Q-Less”
The crew returns from an expedition to the Gamma Quadrant with an unlikely passenger, and an old foe. Where they go, uneasy shenanigans follows.
Picard never hit me!
This was the one, and only, Q episode of Deep Space Nine, and as Armin theorizes in the podcast, this may have been due to how the writers felt about importing The Next Generation themes and characters into a show that has nothing to do with them. These kind of crossover episodes tend to be more fanservice and less substance, and Armin notes that he felt the story was lacking and didn’t really start until the fourth act when the orb began draining the station’s power.
While the trio scored this episode around a 5-6, I am willing to spring for a 7 because although they did reuse some TNG themes in this episode, I felt that Vash really played well with Quark in the middle acts, and had they brought her back for subsequent episodes, we could have had more of Vash’s Indiana Jones-esque adventures, but with Quark’s greed instead of Picard’s integrity. I do agree with them though that as far as this episode goes, it was entirely written to feature Q moreso than any real plot or dilemma, and so early in the season makes it just feel like they were trying to woo TNG viewers over to DS9.
Score: 7/10
S1E08 “Dax”
After a very brash kidnapping attempt by authorities of a planet accusing Dax of murder by her previous host Curzon, a trial is held on the station to determine her fate, and what happened in her previous lifetime.
I intend to be here until supper, not senility.
In my DS9 Speedrun, I consider this an essential episode because, insofar as this first season goes, you don’t know much about Dax, her Trill lineage, Curzon and Sisko’s relationship. While this episode doesn’t drill into as much detail as we kind of wish it would, especially after the trial, you do get some excellent performances from Avery Brooks passionately arguing for her despite her roadblocking him entirely on what happened until the very end.
But also, compared to earlier episodes, this was a much better use of Odo’s investigative abilities that aided the crew’s efforts to exonerate Dax. Part of both Odo and Rene’s charm is he plays a very good straight-nose detective, never wavering, with a strong sense of justice. He is easily Trek’s noir cop and it’s often downright criminal they did not do more to expound on this as they did with Picard’s Dixon Hill holodeck adventures.
Score: 7.5/10
S1E09 “The Passenger”
A criminal scientist fakes his death in order to complete an important business deal with Quark, using an unwilling ally on the station.
I have my eye on you, Quark.
It’s a good murder mystery episode, but not much else beyond that. One of the interesting things you can catch is in the scene where the shadowy figure pulls Quark back, you can just briefly make out Alexander Siddig. Robbie mentioned in the podcast that when he noticed this, he suggested you likely would not have seen it during its original premiere due to how film and television was back then, and our viewing these episodes on higher-definition screens cause us to notice new details.
Score: 6.5/10
S1E10 “Move Along Home”
A new Gamma Quadrant species comes aboard the station and treats Quark to one of their games of chance, with real consequences.
Allamaraine, count to four. Allamaraine, then three more. Allamaraine, if you can see, Allamaraine, you'll come with me!
Perhaps on its own, this episode isn’t going to move many pieces, pun intended. But it ended up being one of the more fan-favorite fun episodes from the series much in the way TNG had a couple similar episodes in its first few seasons. The Allamaraine bit is parodied again in Lower Decks.
Score: 7/10
S1E11 “The Nagus”
The Ferengi’s head honcho, The Grand Nagus Zek, visits Deep Space Nine with a business preposition for Quark, and one he cannot refuse.
Have you forgotten the First Rule of Acquisition?
Wallace Shawn is a real treasure in this role, and I wish the boys could recount more how he got into that role. This is one of the earliest Ferengi character episodes that plays an integral part in later Ferengi episodes and Quark’s overall character arc.
Also you have to really give it up to Max Grodénchik and the late Aron Eisenberg. Armin of course plays the title Ferengi in this show, but Rom and Nog really round out the power trio of Ferengi in the series, and I love how Rom was given a little room to be more Ferengi than he usually is as the bumbling sidekick.
Score: 7.5/10
S1E12 “Vortex”
Quark is once again caught up in a botched business deal when his broker and buyer engage in a firefight in toe holosuite. Odo is then tasked with trying to resolve the case diplomatically.
What an interesting theory, Rom.
Another decent, but rather midding Odo mystery plot. Again, I do like Odo’s sort of Trek-themed “police procedurals”, and it would make a really good Lower Decks mini-arc. It just didn’t completely gel for me here, and a lot of that just comes down to the way they structured the aliens and the overall plot. Some good zingy one-liners from Quark though.
Score: 4.5/10
S1E13 “Battle Lines”
Sisko, Bashir, and Kira escort Kai Opaka through the wormhole, but crashland on a planet embroiled in civil war, with a twist.
We're all prisoners on this moon.
Oh Kai Opaka. We hardly knew thee. But then she had to be cast aside so we could experience the disdain and duality of Louise Fletcher’s Kai Winn. There isn’t much to this episode really, no B-side other than Dax and O’Brien searching for them, and once the verdict that the Kai and the others could not leave the planet landed, as you probably could have guessed, it didn’t really land with any gravitas.
Garrett did note however, that in Star Trek Online, they did revisit this planet, and Kai Winn had successfully brokered peace between the two sides, and converted them to the Bajoran religion.
Score: 5.5/10
S1E14 “The Storyteller”
O’Brien and Bashir travel to Bajor to aid a colony with a medical crisis, while Sisko and Kira host two other Bajoran groups on the station negotiating a land dispute.
He's Nog. I'm Jake.
Armin is a harsh taskmaster when it comes to these episode reviews, scoring lower than the other two, but in line with most of the Pateron group’s ratings. His hangups are mostly with the fact that they could have done a better job with the A-story with O’Brien and Bashir and I tend to agree. The point was for O’Brien to sort of channel a story passed down through the village elders, but instead he tries to science it, and almost gets stabbed for it.
The B-story with the land dispute ends up being the better of the two, because it features a girl forced to become a strong leader but lacking the conviction to lead herself. Not convincing Sisko of her girlboss abilities, she ends up befriending Jake and Nog and learns how to instead channel her girlfailure abilities to come up with a good compromise. As Armin says, the theme of this show is family, and they do a much better job showing it on the B-side than A-side.
Score: 6/10
S1E15 “Progress”
S1E16 “If Wishes Were Horses”
S1E17 “The Forsaken”
S1E18 “Dramatis Personae”
S1E19 “Duet”
S1E20 “In the Hands of the Prophets”