Deep Space Wine: A Star Trek Deep Space Nine Companion
Like a fine wine, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine has only gotten better with age. Join us as we recap and decode every episode of the overlooked stepchild of the Star Trek universe. Each episode we share a bottle of wine, wind down, and then wind ourselves up again with our strong opinions about DS9. Because, in our social experience, people love nothing more than when someone talks at length about Star Trek or wine.
Deep Space Wine: A Star Trek Deep Space Nine Companion
Starfleet Savior Complex: EMISSARY (1.01)
Cole contextualizes DS9’s 1993 pilot against the collapse of the Soviet Union; Lily mocks Jake’s onesies and Captain Sisko’s weird intonation choices. But we’re both thrilled to discover that “Emissary,” like a great wine, is bold, rich, and even better with age.
🍷 Wine pairing: Village Pinot Noir from Gentle Folk
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These aliens don't even know what pleasure is they gotta live a little like what are they doing? Come on guys. Yeah, what are you doing? What do you exist for wormhole aliens
Unknown:orbs out your wormhole?
Cole:Hey everyone I'm Cole Paulsen and
Unknown:I'm Lilly Rossen. Welcome to Deep Space Wine, a podcast that attempts to recap and decode every episode of Deep Space Nine, the Forgotten stepchild of the Star Trek universe. Each episode we will share a bottle of wine wine down, and then wind ourselves up again with our strong opinions about DS nine. Because in our social experience, there is nothing people love more than when someone talks at length about Star Trek or when
Cole:you and I have known for years that we enjoy drinking wine together. And I think we did. We're about halfway through a bottle one night when we also discovered our mutual love of Star Trek. Yeah, but you had not watched Deep Space Nine. No surprise. Yeah. So it took years of convincing and you finally started watching. And now we've got this pocket. Yeah, no regrets. Our destiny is fulfilled. Yeah, much like Benjamin says. And you have chosen a wine to pair with this first episode. Yes.
Unknown:And I'm really excited. Tell me about it. So tonight's wine is 2022 Village Pinot Noir. This is by one of my favorite producers gentle folk, which is located in basket range, which is in Adelaide Hills in South Australia. They make minimal intervention wines. But they're always so like clean and classic tasting. They don't taste like dishwater. Like a lot of natural organic lands. Can not all they can.
Cole:Can I try it? Yeah, yeah.
Unknown:Let me crack it open. ASMR noises so I do have a bunch of tasting notes for it. Yeah. Okay. Looks delicious. Yeah. So, so I'm gonna Adelaide Hills. So it's like quite a cool climate like a lot of Pinot Noir. And these are some notes from the producers. They say it has a lot of drinkability and a dance of tannin across the palate. But it's a bit more structured and breeding than previous vintages structured and brooding Yeah, I got a TV show that sounds like that too. Right. I think it was kind of perfect. But yeah, I did also look up a bunch, a bunch of other tasting notes, and they said that it has good smash ability. So I think that's important too.
Cole:A few characters on Deep Space Nine have good smash ability as well.
Unknown:So detail No, no, no, let's wait. Just great. I mean, which one man step at a time. So I thought maybe we could go into a little bit about our personal experiences with Star Trek and our relationship with Star Trek together.
Cole:I would like nothing more cheers. Toward episode one. Woof. Woof, waiting. I'm feeling brooding structure dancing on my palate. A dancing tan is a brooding dance. Yeah,
Unknown:it actually has like a little bit more talent than I was expecting. Maybe it just needs to open up a little bit. Let's do like a lot of fruit. It's very, smashable.
Cole:It's delicious. Thank
Unknown:you. So, Star Trek, you want me?
Cole:Sure. Maybe I'll start because I think my relationship with Star Trek started years and years before yours. I mean, I've only been drinking wine for a decade, but I have known that Star Trek is the meaning of the universe. I was just a little kid. Yeah, I have been a Trekkie nerd since elementary school, but it wasn't till Deep Space Nine actually that it became my life for a few years. Okay, do you remember those posters in the 90s that would go everything I need to know in life. I learned from dot dot dot. Everything I need to know in life. I learned from Star Trek as a young impressionable. It's that age where you're, you're starting to form your own worldview. Get a sense of what you think is important and how to understand the world. And this show about humans trying to do just that. Was there for me.
Unknown:Wait, can you like can you paint me a little picture of preteen Cole, just for the presets that
Cole:was acuity. Here's a little Chubbs Jeremy, Oh, he didn't have loads of friends. So he spent his time staring at maps of the world and staring at the night sky. I grew up in Colorado, we would sit around the campfire and my favorite thing to do was truthfully stare up stars. And I I was I was an imaginative sort I enjoyed creative writing and things and I would look at a star and I would imagine In an alien race that has is populating that solar system, and I just think what's going on in that completely different corner of the galaxy. I have so much to say about what Star Trek told to this confused, curious little 12 year old who wanted to seize the universe's full potential, but also wanted to make sense of things and wanted to wanted to do things right. And I think a good Star Trek hero wants to experience the universe but in a way that you know that you don't see heroes living with their values on their sleeve in most shows and movies. And it meant a lot to me that the conflict each week wasn't you know, are we using the right sort of gun on these aliens? But it was, are we doing the right thing? Yeah, right.
Unknown:The stakes are low but
Cole:are the stakes are sometimes incredibly low. But that doesn't mean for your humanity. Our officers aren't wringing their hands because we got to do the right thing about the microbes ascension.
Unknown:Well, that's amazing, because preteen Lily was just like wearing sparkly crop tops and looking for the next Shania Twain single. Feel like a very elevated young person? I was like, What am I gonna wait for the next blue light disco?
Cole:Sounds like a lot more fun. And when did you discover Star Trek? So
Unknown:I was pretty late to the party. I think I was about 24. And I was working a ski season in Whistler back when I was pretending that I could do that kind of thing. And like, I didn't have a terrible immune system. And the cold just like literally makes me so sad. So yeah, I got sick a whole bunch of times in Whistler, and one of the times I was like convalescing on the couch and decided to give Star Trek Next Gen a crack. I'd heard some things about it. I'd had a similar experience with Star Wars when I was about 19. Watch that for the first time. But that was pretty good. I got a bit obsessed with it. So yeah, late to the party. But yeah, I was basically just in a fever with various infections, like a sinus infection and throat infection and ear infection. And I put on Star Trek Next Gen. And then like, kind of fell asleep in a fever for the whole first season, which I realize now really benefited me because that is
Cole:the right way to watch Star Trek Next Generation.
Unknown:But yeah, sort of came to you around season two, and I was hooked. I loved it. I think for a lot of the reasons that you expressed was that but there's also something
Cole:comforting about Star Trek that I want to get into also in the course of this podcast. It's the chicken noodle soup for the little notes soul. Yeah. And it's what I turn on. I go through periods is my friend needs Star Trek with another time. Great. And after the 2016 election, I just needed weeks of Star Trek. Things are a little rough. But don't worry sometime in the future. And
Unknown:at some point in the future. This is what it'll be
Cole:right. In a post capitalist society. How great does that sound? Yeah,
Unknown:sounds wonderful. But yeah, I get what you're saying. It's sort of the weekly format, the low stakes, the sort of ponderous philosophical questions. Yeah, I think I think actually, though, a lot of this applies more to next generation and Voyager for me. So yeah, I watch next gen. And then eventually, I watched Voyager. And it actually took a bit of convincing from coal. Who
Cole:took years of work. Yeah, what turns you off about Deep Space night? Look.
Unknown:I'm not gonna lie. I did fall asleep a bunch of times in emissary but what's it? Like? Yes, I tried. I know. Can you
Cole:look at you now know how far you've come? I'm so proud. Deep Space Nine is my one Star Trek love. But I'm so glad I got you on board with it. Because as I'm going to talk about a bit in this first episode, I think it dares to ask questions that the more comforting Star Trek's are too afraid to ask questions that keep surprising, even the most committed Star Trek viewer who's ready to question the human existence and our purpose and our ethics. But at the same time, it's just amazing storytelling. It's great. And I actually got maybe obsessed right around the end of season five, beginning of season six. And I just just little 13 year old was like, this is the best thing that's ever happened to television. And it also set me on a course of just storytelling in general, because I think Deep Space Nine tells stories, amazing stories that other Star Trek series have failed to do. Star Trek shows can make you think, but Deep Space Nine tells incredible stories, and it's made me obsessed with what makes a good story. This thing is that even 30 years on, they do really well.
Unknown:That's amazing. I use it as a company. What a sleep aid.
Cole:Oh yes, a classic Lily called Deep Space Nine marathon actually involves really falling asleep 30 minutes through. So I'm impressed that you were even able to get through a whole episode and put some thoughts together to make it all the way through. Look,
Unknown:it's pretty dense. So it is dense. It's dense, and it's ambitious.
Cole:Well, let's get into it emissary parts one and two. Happy 30th anniversary to this episode. No, this episode aired 30 years ago, this year, happy birthday, happy birthday Emissary. And it had a really hard job to do. And what was amazing to me is that it did that job even better than I realized. And that job was, firstly, it had to prove that the world needed another Star Trek. The next generation was still going and it was a smash. And so why do we need another show. And it actually got me thinking this was this was 1993. And the world had changed pretty dramatically in just a few years. Og star trek back in the 60s, was at the height of the space race, height of the Cold War. And it's all about oh, we can all come together and explore the stars. And the world that Deep Space Nine showed up in was ready for different Star Trek, and it delivers in this episode. And then the second thing it had to prove is that you can still be Star Trek on a space station. So this is the third Star Trek show ever. And the first two are the enterprise flying around exploring strange new worlds seeking out new civilizations. And then suddenly, there's going to be a new Star Trek show about sitting on a space station. Yeah, or just a space hotel as Gene Roddenberry actually, allegedly called it at one point. And I've got some interesting things to say about that. But so this episode not only says yes, we need a new different Star Trek, but it needs to be on a space station to continue pushing Star Trek in new directions. And what amazed me is that emissary does that in some ways that I hadn't realized.
Unknown:Amazing. I mean, my sister she won't watch it because she finds it too claustrophobic and complex, Deep Space Nine. Yeah. So if I am watching it as a comfort watch, she makes me switch over to Voyager where literally nothing happens. But yeah, I think you're right. It does. It does have a totally different feel. Yeah, it's giving the world something different.
Cole:A lot of writers who had been writing for Deep Space Nine tried to write for Voyager as well and had to leave in a frustration because they wanted to tell us more intricate stories. And they were told, sorry, Voyager is an episodic show. Tell a cute little story in 40 minutes, and they said no, I'm gonna go back to Deep Space Nine because that's really real.
Unknown:You know, tell a boring story about Tom Paris.
Cole:And the most boring ones are about Tom Paris.
Unknown:Alright, so should we dive in?
Cole:Let's do it. The emissary emissary parts one and two January 1993. Let's go back. Yeah.
Unknown:So I've got a little intro here. Please. Emissary parts one and two in which we meet our main players. See what the future holds for civilian fashions. Spoiler. It's a lot of onesies, so many onesies and tunics. Get an incredible amount of exposition about Bajor in social, political and religious context and find out about Benjamin Sisko's destiny. O'Brien rolls up his sleeves. Kira proves that she is a strong 90s brand feminist. Dax is a hottie but she had Bumbles about offending everyone walk reopens his boss slash gambling house slash hollow brothel. Sisko receives trauma counseling from wormhole aliens. And odo stares at people off winningly. Yeah, so like I said, this is a dense text and an ambitious two part first episode.
Cole:It's two hours and not only do you have to set up each of these eight characters, but this incredibly complex geopolitical situation and sci fi on top of it the good heaping of just classic Star Trek on top of it. Yeah. And it does it all in a way that I think was that was actually really impressive. Yeah.
Unknown:Thanks for summing up what I what I just said. So, should we roll up our proverbial sleeves
Cole:please? Great. Take another sip of wine. Action. All
Unknown:right, open on a Star Wars style crawl exposition. It's just Star Wars, explaining the events when Captain John Luc Picard was taken by the Borg and surgically altered to become Locutus he leads an assault on Starfleet at Wolf 359 And I think this is season three of SEMG
Cole:right and of season three.
Unknown:So what's happening is Sisko is in a command role on board a ship being attacked by the Borg and there's lots of up
Cole:lots of ups
Unknown:Yeah, you get a classic Star Trek Bridge explosion with buddies dislike flinging everywhere.
Cole:My mom always says why weren't they wearing seatbelts?
Unknown:But she's she's right there just like rolling all over the consoles. She's going crazy Sparky Marquis and the Walker is damaged. And in this scene were introduced to Benjamin Sisko's perfect diction, his son Jayco. And the buddy of his dead wife, Jennifer. Right.
Cole:That's a lot. Yeah, yeah. Yeah,
Unknown:she did. Yeah.
Cole:And so we are suddenly thrown into this horrific attack. The Borg, of course, are this relentless, relentless leave trying to pursue simulating perfection and assimilation, sort of like a big PacMan just come along, chewing up everything they can. How great is it that the Borg are Star Trek favorite nemesis, maybe overused on other shows, they were the villain for every single season, but the recent Star Trek Picard. So I think it's amazing that this is the only time they're even mentioned on Deep Space Nine. That being said, I think it's perfect to just have this reference to one of the most iconic moments of next generation. But also, I think, putting the Borg here at the beginning is also really important in terms of what the Borg represent, and how they are this antithesis to humanity. And I think what they what they symbolize for Star Trek actually comes back in some interesting ways for the rest of the episode. Oh, yeah.
Unknown:All right. I'm excited to hear about, but what I really want to talk about is Benjamin Cisco's intonation, saying you're not you don't like it? It's always surprising and you never know what's gonna come. And I will do an impression. Oh, I'm ready. All right. So say like, you're trying to help your wife, the body of your wife who's like, underneath all this rubble, and there's like a Blue Ensign, and you're like, hey, Blanton, it's
Cole:a Bolian go on.
Unknown:That's gonna be a theme. Where any if you would like, help me, how would you say that? Would it be? Help me?
Cole:Another line, sir. Great. Look. Cisco is just joining the pantheon of great Star Trek captains who speak very vehemently. He's trained in the School of Kirk. Alright, Spock, fire the Pacers? Yeah, I mean, come on.
Unknown:I just I like the Shakespearean tones of because I'm a Picard lover. Sorry. He's grown on me. I won't lie. He's grown on me. But look, this is great. So Jennifer's dead. His wife is dead. He's managed to get Jake out of there. They made it to the escape pod. And Sisko watches from the window the pod as his ship explodes a defeated man. A broken man. Yeah, yeah. And then as a cut to start 84637913 years later, and we get a lovely wooden scene between Sisko and his son Jack on the dock of a lake doing some fishing. Sisko's apparently breaking the news to Jake that they're moving to a space station near beta. Sisko is comms badge lets them know that they will be ducking out Deep Space Nine. And we get the title of the show. I mean, look, I've skipped over this. Wouldn't interaction between the two.
Cole:Yeah, that's fair. I think it's I mean, I will just say, Wesley Crusher. Great. This kid on the next generation was famously not a hit with fans. It got to the point where even his mother got sick of him and said shut up, Wesley. Yeah. And yet, right after the failure of a child's character, they have another child on the main cast. And I will just say it's one decision that I'm not totally sure was the right one.
Unknown:Oh, Jayco. But we do get his amazing. The first of his amazing future high waisted onesies.
Cole:The kids got some great fashion and it only gets better. Right. But so many things about Deep Space Nine cigs tunics just get better and better.
Unknown:So they exit the holodeck. And we see through the window the first view of Deep Space Nine. When we think about the design of Deep Space Nine, I
Cole:love it. Yeah, the design of the station, I will say one of so many really bold decisions that I think pay off like the creators of the show, knew they couldn't just do another cool Federation spaceship zooming through space, and they said we got to make this different. And you have this claw space station. And alien space station has been abandoned by its predecessors, but we'll get into that. I love the design. What do you think? Um,
Unknown:yeah, bold, I think is the right word. It's like it's kind of spider isn't it? Definitely spider a spider a claw like little bit like a fidget spinner.
Cole:I mean, it's sort of it's meant to evoke this sort of alien unsettling eerie place and that is where we're gonna live. Yeah, we're gonna live with these characters for seven years and even that just settling into the discomfort almost is what is what Deep Space Nine is about. Now the opening Credits. Song is probably the only time they need discussing on this podcast. But if the goal was to show that space can be cold and empty and quiet, then I think they nailed it.
Unknown:Yeah, but I think I think you're right. It is about settling into the discomfort of DS nine. Like, next gen is like, just light and bright. And
Cole:motion. This ship is zooming through space. Yeah, it's got places to go. And this station is just sitting here.
Unknown:It's here, we're still looking at it from very different viewpoints.
Cole:And again, a lot of viewers when they heard Star Trek was gonna be on a space station. They were understandably concerned. Like, do we want to just sit around and it's kind of amazing that the opening credits say You know what? You do? You do, and you're going to be grateful you do and damned if they weren't right. Yeah. So love this score. For what it's worth. I think it's the most beautiful Yeah,
Unknown:score triumphant horns. Yeah. All right. So now we're on commander, Benjamin Sisko's first station lock, and he gives us some exposition about the provisional bazaar and government establishing a presence near beta following the withdrawal of Cardassian occupational forces,
Cole:and he arrives on a promenade and it's just in tatters and ruins and I was actually reading that the the episode was written by the creators Rick Berman and Michael Piller, and they actually had a big fight about this. And Michael Piller insisted, he needs to arrive to a broken station, Deep Space Nine needs to start in ruins. Because this is a show about rebuilding. And Rick Berman is like, No, I mean, this the new setting of this show, needs to it needs to be clean and full of energy and sleek and he's like, that's, that's not the show. I want to tell. So
Unknown:perhaps like Sisko themselves. So next, we're introduced to the fact that Miles O'Brien from Star Trek Next Gen is one of Sisko's officers. I think he's the head engineer. What is it? What's his
Cole:tabulation of operations?
Unknown:Apologies. And miles already has his sleeves rolled up. So you know, she's about to get done.
Cole:The guy gets to work and he's already struggling with some, some ODN conduits. And I tell you when you've had a bad day with some ODN conduits, the poor guy, he suffers.
Unknown:Oh, man, we've also got a creepy old Victorian religious dude with a skullcap and he appears and tells the scope that the prophets await you. But Sisko rebuffed him with another time perhaps,
Cole:because he's a Starfleet officer. And Starfleet. As we know from two shows, do not mess with religion. Religion is old fashioned and outdated and traditional. And we are men of science. It's like currency you Yeah. And Sisko just says, Don't you know you're on a Star Trek show. We don't talk about religion here. Get away from me. And old man just just nods knowingly Yes, coax off.
Unknown:Miles takes the opportunity to complain about his wife, Keiko? Who is one
Cole:of many running themes in this complex show
Unknown:pool miles. I mean, maybe he thought things are gonna be different with life in the enterprise, but it's looking the same.
Cole:It is not a lot of room for characterization in the opening, but I love that he's his sleeves rolled up. He's a enlisted officer. So all the other Starfleet officers went through Starfleet Academy and learned command and science and in geopolitics. And O'Brien needed a job. So he got hired to fix things on starships. And I think it's actually sort of cool that he adds just that flavor of, of the maintenance guy. Yeah, to this show. It rounds out in an interesting way.
Unknown:Yeah. I mean, he was he was just like running the transporters on the enterprise.
Cole:I mean, the poor guy, he finally escapes transporter room to you know, yeah, he did love it, though. He was there a lot.
Unknown:So then, after this, miles tells Cisco that Picard wants to see him on board the enterprise and Cisco is not pleased with this news. Is there a beef but who doesn't like Picard, right? Or what could be the possible reasons? And then Cisco does some pretty strange parenting with Jake. And he does one of my favorite things in this episode, which is like a weird little come here, the hand gesture, you mean
Cole:incredibly acted hand gesture go on.
Unknown:And it made me think does some of their scenes kind of feel like Sisko is flirting with Jake? I'm gonna say that a lot. I often think people are flooding with someone, but just the way he is with him. It's like it's sort of off putting
Cole:well and so maybe I'll mentioned Avery Brooks, the actor who never wanted to work in science fiction, I don't think you'd ever dreamed of being a Star Trek captain. But when the roll was offered to him, and he saw that it was a single black father. He thought this is an incredible story that you don't see on TV and he wanted to be a black father with this On who cares deeply about and looks out for because that is something you didn't see a lot of on American television in the 90s. And so when you see every Brooks as Cisco, put in that, that love and affection with his son, even if it doesn't always read, right, because Cisco's acting choices are, you know, there's their choices. Wow. It's, again, something that is revolutionary and in 1993.
Unknown:Okay, great. I'm glad you're here to tell me because that has put me in my place.
Cole:How dare you criticize the relationship between Sisko and Jake. Go on. I
Unknown:mean, that is a beautiful bond, and all their scenes acted perfectly. And
Cole:we love everyone better.
Unknown:Sorry. Yes. Okay, so cut to the command center. So we see that for the first time, it's got the Cardassian architecture, the temperature is set to 32 degrees Celsius, which sounds amazing. Good. That seems like it hot. Yeah. And O'Brien sort of wondering why it's designed this way. And Sisko points out that all A's have to lead up to the fact that the person in command?
Cole:Yeah, so he's the Starfleet officers have taken over this abandoned station. But even the architecture of the station is based on an ideology that is the opposite of Starfleet in so many ways. It's about hierarchy. And it's about control. And you see these humans put in fish out of water environments. And I think even the set design is really interesting.
Unknown:In that respect, it's not just Keiko, who's upset with this is everybody he can't blame
Cole:Keiko for living in that spider claw.
Unknown:They will try to blame Keiko for everything. Okay, who
Cole:suffers more miles or Keiko? An ongoing question
Unknown:but equally so then miles one Cisco about the spicy nature visual and women before meeting major Kiera?
Cole:Can we talk about that line? Because O'Brien says well Sisko is on the way to meet his first officer this visual and women major Kira, have you served with any visual and women before? Me chuckles knowingly. Now, I think when this line was written in 1993 by a white guy, it was probably meant to be characterization for major Kira, like, Oh, she's gonna be a firecracker. But I actually love the line because it tells you so much about O'Brien.
Unknown:I mean, he's a dirty, great misogynist. He's like my wife's always nagging. And then he is a lady who is in command.
Cole:And he again, this guy did not go into Starfleet to explore the stars. He was a maintenance worker who wanted a job. And he's actually been to war. He's served in war against the Kardashians and has some scars, mental and physical to prove it. And I think he's one of many actually really interesting human characters put on Deep Space Nine, to tell an interesting story and more for that now, but I love that O'Brien said that even if it was It wasn't even intended, but go on.
Unknown:Yeah, I mean, he is kind of cagey about his misogyny is any? Yeah, he doesn't come right out and say it. So then we have the first scene between some of the best over actors of all time.
Cole:Oh, and I will, I will defend not visitor, but not Sisco. I will defend both of them. Yeah. Maybe because as a 12 year old actually thought, I remember thinking that no, no visitor deserved an Emmy for this. Oh, but also Okay, overacting. Why because she's angry. Is that why you're mad at her? Because she's angry just needs to calm down, okay? Because she just, she just spent her whole life fighting and the resistance to get rid of occupiers. And look what just happened. She got some more occupiers.
Unknown:I look, I understand the motivations of the character. I do think she's an overreactor. They're both trying to out enunciate each other.
Cole:It is like they never made the transition from stage to screen. Yeah. Yeah, there's still It's like someone told them that Star Trek is Shakespeare, which you hear a lot from actors like the technobabble just think of it as beautiful Shakespeare, but it's technobabble in front of a camera. And I think neither these two actors really got that memo. But I love this scene.
Unknown:Yeah. I mean, it's a very 90s view of feminism. Isn't it like that she's the strong female character. And she sort of has to explain to people that she is a greedy truth teller. She wants to take action, and most people don't like her for it. She
Cole:does. In fact, there's multiple times in this episode where she has to tell people that she's angry. Yeah. And it is a shame that you can't just let a powerful actor do that. Now, you do know who this character was originally supposed to be right?
Unknown:I think you told me but now listen. So the
Cole:first officer in Deep Space Nine was originally intended to be row Lehren, who was a majority woman introduced on the next generation, played by Michelle Forbes, who was a fantastic actress and Ensign row just commands this quiet presence and gravitas and it would have been fantastic. For her to be On the show, but unfortunately she wanted, she didn't want to do a series and so she declined. And she, they begged her, but she declined. But I will say, I think Ensign Ro and Sisko actually have similar energy. They're quiet, but intense people having the two of them Cisco and Row being like both quietly seething. But you get this balance here where they're both hella intense people, but one of them is shouting when the other is emphatically emphasizing Yeah, and it may be it works out for the best look,
Unknown:the 12 year old call inside of you would offend this time. I love you and yeah, so in this scene, Kira explains that she fought for a bizarre and independence and she disagrees with the colonial attitude of the Federation helping the Victorians right after they've finally gotten rid of Cardassian occupation. I think she has a point. We can delve into Federation paternalism, but maybe we don't have enough time. Oh,
Cole:oh, well, I'm a doe. But I do love that. Sisko says the Federation is only here to help. Yeah. Kira says the Cardassians said the same thing. 60 years ago, really? Yeah.
Unknown:But Sisko tells her he requested a bizarre nationalist is number one, and that they will have to learn to compromise. And he seems very amused by the interaction. He's like, Oh, I'm Brian was right. She's spicy.
Cole:If I an apologist for Sisko doesn't want to be here. And as he's gonna say soon, dude, I am raising a son. I don't want to be here. I don't think he's even taking this post. Seriously. I checked out and if he's just sort of rolling his eyes Akira I think he hasn't even taken her or Pedro. Seriously yet.
Unknown:Yeah. All right here. So this discussion is interrupted by a calm on screen from odo who is the station's conventionally chief of security. Or at least it's Otto's death mask from season one.
Cole:The actor was cast mere days before shooting began, Rene
Unknown:de I'm gonna botch his I always want to say aubergine Yeah, okay
Cole:Renee aubergine famous for roles such as the French chef on Little Mermaid for example, and many other I mean, the guys the guys a veteran, but he was cast days before and so they didn't have time to screen test his mask, which is why he looks rough. Why is it and it just gets progressively better, but it's a death mask and the poor guy that's not a shapeshifter mask. That's a death mask. But see, I have reasons for everything go on.
Unknown:This is why we're good to go. So yeah, he's alerting here to a threat. And there is some thieving afoot. Yes, so and then it cuts to a scene where odo is stopping a Buffy looking demon and a young Ferengi who is nog by the final season is a beloved treasure who I would die for Reiner do
Cole:well Nog never amounts to more than thieving that one. Yeah,
Unknown:yeah. But right now he's just a little cranky guy. Doing some doing some crimes. And that stealing something and then we get some a great Alex Mack CGI technology.
Cole:Well, we needed a reason to learn that odo is a shapeshifter to dodge that crazy mace.
Unknown:Yeah, so buff guy, like throw something in his head. And then it'll Alex buddy shapeshifts. Yeah. And on a side note, the security outfit for the station is a lovely vomit brown vomit beige onesie. Yep,
Cole:fashion choices. So here's a redhead and so they put her in a red tunic. And otoscopes weird. was sort of golden brown. Like fake hair on top. Where's gold? And I did always think it was absurd decision that I call it a goat.
Unknown:I mean, it's a crow spade.
Cole:Let's go back to gross beige. But why both of these characters had to be like mono chromatic effectively was strange. But again, apologist Cole, isn't it cool? Isn't it cool that the first officer and another officer on the senior staff aren't even in Starfleet? Amazing. Yeah. Deadly. Like this show is not fashion choices aside. You think you've seen Star Trek? A bunch of Starfleet officers going around saving the universe? No. How about a show with some of the characters in charge aren't even Starfleet and don't even like Starfleet. I love it. Yeah, that's great. We'd
Unknown:love to see it. So in this scene introduced odo nog and also Kwok
Cole:yeah, there's a Frankie main character. All they did on next generation was start out menacing with whips and then very quickly become a sort of bizarre, anti semitic troll archetype. Yeah. But now we're gonna we're gonna learn to love the Ferringhi and Deep Space Nine I guess. Maybe that's the that's the goal.
Unknown:Well, there's certainly enough episodes but LM
Cole:I don't know if we're gonna recap every
Unknown:quack Yeah, he's an interesting guy. Yeah, so quack explains to Cisco that nog is He in fact his nephew? And then they do some classic for NDA snarling hissing. Which I mean, he doesn't come up that often. It's very I think it's a throwback to next gen
Cole:when they were supposed to be villainous. Gen, but
Unknown:they're crouching and snarling,
Cole:right. Yeah. But they do. They're wonderfully alien. I'll say that much.
Unknown:Yeah, it's not just like a little nose range or forehead bump.
Cole:They don't have a forehead bump. Yes,
Unknown:they've got many bumps.
Cole:So many lobes.
Unknown:Anyway, so Sisko sends nod to the bridge with the wily notion that he can negotiate something from work in return. Maybe Cisco has started getting investment.
Cole:He's seeing where his natural command skills can be
Unknown:It's gotta play. Yep. Yeah. Meanwhile, Miles is on useful. Sisko's case about catching up with Picard. And Cisco is all fine. I'll do it. But I don't want to
Cole:guard against Picard. Because the man, we're gonna find out. Let's find out. Oh, but very quickly in this scene. Yes. Cisco fires a phaser to end this fight. And odo is livid. And he says, absolutely no guns on the Promenade, which I love odo putting this human in his place, but I also just love. It's just another way that a human has shown up at this alien environment, doing what he's used to doing, firing a gun to make things better, and being told what the heck do you think you're doing? Yeah, that's not how we
Unknown:do it. That's not how we do things. I turn into goo and everyone runs away.
Cole:Alright, go on. Excuse me. All right. So then Picard summons him?
Unknown:Yeah. And then we got to the conference room on the enterprise. The measles scene? Yeah, tell me about Yeah. It's light and bright and pastel to different show. Totally, totally different compared to the gritty dark.
Cole:DS nice, comfy pink armchairs. I want to hang out on this show. Is this a show? I can watch? Yes,
Unknown:you can. seven seasons, great seasons. Yeah. Basically, they meet and greet. And Cisco is his chance. And he kind of drops the bomb that he met Picard when Picard was Locutus. And Picard doesn't really acknowledge this
Cole:Patrick Stewart's face. When Picard is like, you're another one of those people. I think that's actually what goes through his mind really? Because Cisco's like, oh, yeah, no, I met you. And you were the cutest?
Unknown:No, I think he's like, I think he's taken aback.
Cole:I think he's annoyed AF.
Unknown:Oh, I think Picard you I saw her interest with Prakash.
Cole:Oh, no, I'm very generous. I think he has every right to be annoyed. Tell me. I think Cisco is completely out of line in this scene. Interesting.
Unknown:Okay. Okay.
Cole:All right. Because if the guy got a simulated against his will. And now people are blaming him for this horrible attack and Picard was one of the victims even 2030 years later, Picard season three, and Captain Shaw has the exact same energy like oh, the cutest. I mean, this, this Hans Picard for the rest of his life completely.
Unknown:I suppose I suppose he doesn't acknowledge it, though. And I think that, that, yes, he's a victim as well. But clearly, this is a victim in front of him.
Cole:You know, I will say something I'd wanted to mention before.
Unknown:The white teapot is fancy, of course, is
Cole:making a delicious tea. But just very quickly about how Picard was assimilated by the Borg becomes Locutus and then leads the Borg attack. And Locutus is then this identity that haunts Picard for the rest of his career. Now, Locutus is kind of the emissary for the Borg. This is a show called emissary in which Sisko earns a title that he never asked for enhancing the rest of his career, no matter how he tries to shake it, and also becomes part of his identity. And I think it's really interesting that you have these two Starfleet captains who get hamstrung with these liaison roles. Look,
Unknown:I love Picard in the scene. I feel like he is acting and reacting. I think it's beautiful.
Cole:I think he's he's disgusted by Cisco's unprofessionalism
Unknown:Do you think that's what's happening? No, no. See, I feel like it's still too fresh with Picard. And he's, he's feeling the guilt. He's feeling the responsibility. I don't think it's discussed. Yeah,
Cole:maybe I have 30 years later. I want Picard to give himself a break. Okay, no, Yeah, that might be happening. But okay, I think the scene is also really, really interesting for what they actually discuss.
Unknown:Yes. Yes, yes. Yes. So their discussion is about the majority relief effort. And Pedro has been depleted, left depleted of all resources. So the Federation has stepped in.
Cole:Well, and he also says, he says, you know, Picard, he says, I have gotten to know the Victorians and I deeply care about them. And it is your job to bring them into the Federation, essentially, collect them for the Federation. And even this is a bit of a paternalism. They're like, Oh, but the Jordans are beautiful people. And he's saying we love them. That's right. And he's not saying, get to understand the Jordans. build strong relationships with them. He says, do everything short of violating the prime directive to bring Baker into the Federation to assimilate Bajur. And that is, that is the opening mission of our character on the show.
Unknown:And Cisco's response is that you should probably find someone else for the job. Yeah,
Cole:he says, I never wanted this. This is I have to raise a kid on this alien space station alone because of you. Yes, I'm not inspired by this job. I don't want to be here. I'm not an administrator. And Picard says, Do your job until I find someone else.
Unknown:Okay, then we cut to the security office. And it's like a negotiation between quark and Cisco. Not the first of many, do they interact much in the series? Very rarely. Yeah. So basically, Cisco wants Quark to stay on board DS nine to keep the civilian life afloat as a community leader, basically, as a business owner. And to sort of like create commerce.
Cole:You actually just pointed out this is the first time you see Cisco actually starting to engage, engage and see his value and make some good decisions. And we know if you've seen the whole series, very often, Cisco makes some very ethically dubious choices and they get more and more questionable to the point that a lot of Trekkies find a very controversial, but I was blown away that it's actually right here in this episode. He's, he's compelling this dude. To to encourage Commerce on the station by keeping his nephew in jail. Yeah, he's using this little kid as a bargaining chip. Yeah. So it was all there dudes. It was right there. Cisco is doing it from from day one. I mean, yes, this guy go. And
Unknown:look, he's speaking for ranking language. So maybe he's had dealings with him. And he knows that there has to be the chips on the table is good. And
Cole:it works. Is it morally perfect? Not entirely, but maybe that is what makes Cisco one of the most compelling leaders of Star Trek
Unknown:she can get. It sort of sets up the way things have to operate on DS nine,
Cole:you're on an alien station, you got to play by different rules,
Unknown:sometimes by the aliens rolls like differently. And just like just a quick nod to the fact that both quark and odo, as we previously discussed are like unrecognizable. The design totally changes. Whatever Malkia happens becomes way better.
Cole:You know what it is fun fact. Great. The actor Armin Shimerman, who we all know and love as the principal on Buffy, among other things, he hadn't got his nose fitted yet. And so he's actually wearing wrong his brother's nose in this first episode, so if you've seen that nose elsewhere, that's his brother. roms nose.
Unknown:Amazing. So meanwhile, Kira is proving that she's a hands on gal. By getting her hands dirty. She's cleaning up debris and she's taken off her jacket and she's in her little fancy white tank top under shirt.
Cole:I mean, great fashion, we get to see that that little woven under shared time and time again because it means Kira is doing the hard work when she's in her
Unknown:wife's like is a man going to do this. I guess I'll just do it. Better take
Cole:off my overshirt Yeah. Oh, I will do it. And they're both picking up this this. Debris picking up good work. You're too. It's the hard work.
Unknown:Yeah, running. I often think there's sexual tension in the scene as in das nine between these two? Yeah, I mean, anyone? Oh,
Cole:it's because Star Trek is so neutered. They just they all want to have sex and the series won't let them Yeah, I would love to discuss why Star Trek is so sexless. I'm sure that'll come up on this podcast.
Unknown:So in the same Kyra predict Civil War. She thinks that the visions are too divided. And that the only person that can possibly bring them together is Kai opaka who says Cisco? This is the spiritual leader. We love coyopa
Cole:Come on now visitor the actress when she's like Cisco, you don't even know who the chi is. Have
Unknown:you done research much like me for this podcast schmuck
Cole:comes in settling in and he doesn't even know anything about my people. These are just more occupiers. Yeah, great.
Unknown:And then the creeper bizarre guy pops his head in and says it's time to go. And he whisks him off. And then we cut to a shot with basil in ruins
Cole:in ruins. It's nice because you see this shot of beige or a lot, but it did clean themselves up. And I it was a nice touch that I hadn't noticed before. But obvious landmarks are in ruins.
Unknown:And this guy walks through a spa like room. It is sort of quite breaking down. There's one guy in the corner moving some bricks. thing to do in this episode. It's got a fancy little pool in the middle, and then Kai pocket and it's looking like every capable daily lady you've ever seen. Maybe that's why I love her. Like, oh god, she's so friendly. She can give me a slice of salami.
Cole:Oh, Puck is great. I think she the actress brings it i the visual and religion. The fact that it even exists in this show is interesting. But the fact that they've so clearly drawn elements from human religions to make this made up religion. You've got the Chi who's basically the Pope. And then she feels Sisko's pa which is Chi. You know, his lifeforce. Yeah,
Unknown:but it's in the ear. Right. She's doing she's doing some like pretty intense ear touching.
Cole:Yeah, that's a little too intimate for Cisco.
Unknown:He's kind of into it, though. Yeah. There's a bit of an ear fetish in this series. Oh, definitely. Not just the Frankie and the Yeah. And the PA the power. So Right. So yeah, pie pocket, explains that the pot is lifeless. And it's replenished by the prophets. And she checks his ear with some painful squeezing and tells him ironic one who does not wish to be among us is to be the emissary.
Cole:Well, that's the title of this episode.
Unknown:And then she reveals that the fancy pool is a secret staircase and Cisco has embraced
Cole:Cisco Mike's a little impressed face like okay, but joins maybe you're not so pathetic after
Unknown:she takes him underground. And from a cute little vanity shows Cisco the first orb, the tear of the prophets. Not
Cole:unlike almost like, like an ark of the covenant. Yeah.
Unknown:It's kind of a beautiful thing.
Cole:I think a lot of this lighting is great. At and it is interesting, because the writers decided after scenes like this that actually feel really nice. We don't want this person to have nice things. And they they very quickly throw a whole wrench into budget and religion and the Chi. Because Cisco shouldn't have it nice hanging out with this cute deli lady.
Unknown:No, no, it's too smooth. Yeah. So he goes to look at orb and is immediately transported into well,
Cole:a very fashionable tunic hits gorgeous. They love the four color. Four tone tune looks like
Unknown:high contrast colors. So yeah, he's on a beach and he's holding some drinks. And he's got bent feet. And this is when he meets his wife, Jennifer for the first time. And she's a bait.
Cole:She is a verb. Like Jennifer and she's rightfully annoyed that this weirdo just kicked sand on her. Yeah,
Unknown:she's annoying, but even in this like sort of strange memory interaction where he's like realizing it's the first time they've met. She's into him.
Cole:I mean, have you heard how emphatically he speaks? emphatically okay, but this is the see that I think the guy is a brilliant actor. When he realizes that he gets to relive the moment he first met his wife and he lets out that noise. Patrick Stewart would never do that. He would never thank you every brex You're hired.
Unknown:No, you write this. Like, this is a beautiful thing. And he so he sort of delve straight back into wooing her. Me he doesn't want to ruin it. He
Cole:he doesn't want to ask why. What's going on? He just knows how precious it is. Time.
Unknown:He's like, I've got game. I'm gonna do this.
Cole:He does have game. He's got lemonade.
Unknown:Oh, Jennifer's hot.
Cole:I mean, that bikini could pass in. In 2023.
Unknown:Yeah, the 90s fashions have come around again. So there's two things. There's two things I'd like to mention. When he tells her that your mother is going to adore me. I love that line. Yeah. And then also my father. Excuse me. I
Cole:did have something else to mention. Yes. Looking at other four tone tunic.
Unknown:I was getting a couple behind. Beautiful onesie. Yes, this goes into toothpaste. Yeah, no. The other thing I wanted to say was my father was a gourmet chef, which is hilarious. Why? Well I'm a chef and you don't actually know no one says that. Maybe you did in the 90s. But when I was born in
Cole:89, so when I brag about you, I say that you're
Unknown:a chef, my friend, Lily's a gourmet chef.
Cole:Is that bad? I would love some more gourmet wine. Yeah. Crazy thing. There's so many really impressive things about this episode. But you have a job of setting up eight new characters and a very complex situation. But this episode spends a lot of time in Cisco's head. And I'm just so glad let's just sit there with him. Yeah, yeah,
Unknown:it's the Cisco show. So sparkly lights cut back to the underground visual. And our pocket is like looking knowingly at Cisco. Like she's just slaps a lot of pressure. And she tells him that nine orbs have appeared over the past 10,000 years, but the Kardashians have stolen all of the other ones is the last one the Jordans have and says Cisco needs to find the celestial temple before the Kardashians do.
Cole:Now upon a close watch of this? Did the urgency of the Kai's requests seem a little forced? Oh, why is she suddenly saying quick you need to find a template before the Kardashians do because the Kardashians have probably been looking for it for for 60 years when they've been in Beijing.
Unknown:I mean, the guy seems to know that that's his goes to the emissary that he's arrived. From what she said before about how she checks his power and it's all you don't even want it. But here you are. How ironic. So she she's got some intel. She knows that, that he's got a destiny.
Cole:And that's where I arrived at. I thought this this assignment this. The stakes don't make any sense. But then I remembered just what you said she knows he's the emissary, whatever that means. And she might know that what what bade your needs right now is an MSA
Unknown:Okay, yeah. And then she tells him that this is the journey. So we're back on Deep Space Nine for some some quirks high jinks, so quarks is reopened. There's Dabo there's mine. There's a guy playing
Cole:a water fountain.
Unknown:There's a sexy alien lady.
Cole:There's underboob how often do you see underboob
Unknown:in the 90s? Rarely. Look,
Cole:I've seen 15 series of RuPaul drag race and you don't see underboob she's doing it that's
Unknown:killing it off. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we see more on more on the Barfly
Cole:of well mourn. Not only is the most beloved character on this series, but he symbolizes so many things, and perhaps we won't even realize what they symbolize into the last episode of this podcast. Thank you mine.
Unknown:Anyway, there he is.
Cole:What happens in this scene? Oh, yeah. One of my favorite lines of the episode never trust Ale from a God fearing people. Or a Starfleet commander who has one of your relatives in jail clock.
Unknown:He's a deep one. He gets it. And he also has the best outfits and the one he's wearing looks like it's button with a giant safety pin. And it's very Vivienne Westwood. And over the series, I was like God, he was so many good boleros.
Cole:Korg special is one of the best it's great, really thick safety pin belts, right? Yeah, it pops.
Unknown:Okay, and then Whoa, so quickly. We meet Jadzia DAX, the station science officer and Dr. Julian Bashir and they have arrived
Cole:two new characters.
Unknown:So first impressions of the two.
Cole:Well Jadzia DAX is maybe my favorite character on the show.
Unknown:When women as a game
Cole:but the character had not been formulated yet. They knew you know, the powers that be a paramount knew they needed a hot woman and so they hired this woman who'd been working in modeling Terry Farrell, and she she talks about having panic attacks her first few weeks on the job. She's in overhead with technobabble she's a science officer on the station, and half of her lines are technobabble. But then on top of that, she's given a very, very complex character who even the writers haven't figured out yet. Yeah. She was said that she was told that Jadzia Jax is a combination of Grace Kelly and yoga. No, yada. There's the wine kicking in. Combination of Grace Kelly and yoga
Unknown:is yoga. I can see that I can see that. I mean, she's just like very confident and very hot.
Cole:But confident and hot. Does not interesting character make
Unknown:No. So then Cisco says to her because she is just like, awkwardly hit on her. Yeah. And then Cisco says did you tell him about that slug inside of you? Why, which is a hilarious way to introduce the trail species. Although I think the trail do come up in next gen. I feel like Crusher has a romance with a drill and then finds out he's all slug inside.
Cole:So the trill it very Yeah, they're very cool species where you've got a slug inside you that retains the memories of its former hosts. And when the slug gets put in you, you have all the memories of those former hosts. So Jadzia DAX might look like a hot 28 year old lady.
Unknown:But she lived to 320 A girl has lived. And
Cole:you're right it was. The species was introduced on the next generation. Bit of a controversial mixed bag episode. But in part because it was a ham fisted attempt at a transgender identity. It's about Crusher, falling in love with a man. And by the end of the episode, she's a woman and 1991 Beverly Crusher just says, Nope, can't do this. I cannot date this woman who used to be a man. And that's where the episode ends. And they've taken this this basically symbol of the transgender experience and made it a main character. Maybe just because it sounded cool to the writers. But it becomes a pretty cool vehicle for some very interesting storylines. Once they figure out how to tell the story of decks. Yeah.
Unknown:And that is for her to have hot scenes where she makes out with a variety of people.
Cole:I mean, let's just say that Jadzia DAX said yes. When Beverly Crusher said no, yeah, that's right.
Unknown:Okay, so she's going DAX knew each other when DAX was the previous host Karazhan is the other
Cole:like yes Cisco used to hang out with with her when she was an old man.
Unknown:So we got to beshear checking out his new smash up infirmary and he seems thrilled. And he says that he could have done anything because he's so brilliant, but he always wanted to do frontier medicine in the wilderness. And this deeply offends Kira, rightly so and it's very classic season one. Beshear I
Cole:love this scene. Beshear is is just a naive little schmuck. And the show wants us to know it. But here really laying it out is another human coming to the station. Who thinks he's on the wild frontier? Yeah. Ready to go into the wilderness and be a hero. He basically says I'm here to be a hero. This is where the adventure is. And Kira points out just what a one sided perspective that is. It's great.
Unknown:So Cisco gets she's a science officer. So he's he's gonna get stacked onto the old conundrum. And then he uses his cute little nickname for her old man. And she calls him Benjamin and it's it's a lovely relationship
Cole:they have it is a nice friendship on the show. Yeah,
Unknown:I love it. And then so there's a lot of science babble that's not really my area.
Cole:Actresses area either Porthos
Unknown:I yeah, I empathize. And then Jadzia looks at the orb and flashes back to the joining that she had with decks the same via Thank goodness
Cole:she looks at the orb so the audience can all see what this symbiont transferal surgery looks
Unknown:like. Yeah, and it looks like she's lying there and you can see all her spots. And she's she's looking at an incision happening and she's looking at old cars on the old man who's about to have like old sluggy slow cut out of him because he's about to die. And then we yeah, we get to see we get to see the slug.
Cole:Hey, Dex Dex is the sexiest character look at that beautiful slug
Unknown:Oh yeah. So Karazhan dies and we see slug the slug get put into Javea
Cole:just sort of like, wait.
Unknown:And she's scared but she loves it. It feels great.
Cole:We learned in I think a later season that she's been training for years for this moment where suddenly her brain is inundated inundated with the memories of of eight other people. Yeah.
Unknown:And look for for an actress who's never done it before and she was a model. I feel like she plays inscrutable quite well. She plays complexity.
Cole:I think she does great. Yep.
Unknown:She's not given a lot. No, that's it.
Cole:She's She's given Grace Kelly meets Yoda. And even before the writers knew it, she injects a little mischievous nervous and while Yeah,
Unknown:yeah. So we're back on board the enterprise and my
Cole:pink chairs. Yeah, so that's a nice, comfy leather
Unknown:carpet everyone. And our brands sort of is maybe looking around to say goodbye to Picard because we all know their special relationship of the zero signs that they
Cole:developed over six years. Yes, those two like the card the credit legend and he knows everyone on a ship. He does
Unknown:know everyone and I think he enjoys Miles's brevity.
Cole:All aboard, Captain Yeah,
Unknown:loves that. So Miles is about to depart and Picard. He just He won't let that happen. He's come running to the transporter room to say goodbye. It's kind of like best friends
Cole:like in a rom com and someone chases you to the airport, because they don't go yet. And then he tells the other transporter chief, he just says, Hey, we need a moment and she nods. Does she just gonna stand in the hall? Where does she go out?
Unknown:tells you to do something, you do it and he's having a motion or
Cole:motion an Englishman and an Irishman in a transporter room having emotions Yeah.
Unknown:Maybe they shake hands. He's the a Frenchman excuse
Cole:me a Frenchman?
Unknown:Yeah, and then he asked him permission to disembark and then apparently Picard knows how to work a transporter. It's
Cole:it's year two of the academy. I guess the scene is just it's just to say goodbye is just a nice little moment to send O'Brien literally from the next generation of Deep Space Nine.
Unknown:Picard looks genuinely sad. Like maybe that was his best friend. Shakespeare. Yeah. reacting. Back on Deep Space Nine. Oh,
Cole:there goes the enterprise, leaving Cisco to his own devices.
Unknown:Yes, we're back on Deep Space Nine. And this is when we meet golf cart.
Cole:We've seen some key players here we've got mourn. Now we've got to caught
Unknown:and it's a really short scene for how much of a player
Cole:he will be it is the first of many, many times where Kira delivers to cut
Unknown:to cut now this is a kid Sen who he looks like a penis. discus
Cole:looks like or acts like
Unknown:both. Yeah, boy, he's a huge penis.
Cole:This is what I learned the word megalomaniac as a 13 year old Yeah, great. And now many many years on I understand to cut psychology even more. And I know that he used to be the commander of Deep Space Nine and now he has to walk in to the command room as a guest and this is the most humiliating thing that could ever really do. Kardashian
Unknown:this is yeah, it's like a it's a death. Yeah, but he's he's still managing to be super smug about it. And to give some veiled threats
Cole:and Cisco has another veiled threat he's like we're right next door and I'll make sure I'll make sure our dog doesn't pee on your lawn Yeah.
Unknown:But yeah, so to cut reveals that he knows Cisco met with Kira pakka and took an orb so like, it's very, lots of underhanded spy work,
Cole:which more steps more urgency. Yeah. So
Unknown:and we'll and we'll learn more about that later. Cisco denies it and he's like, oh, what?
Cole:And here he loves it. He
Unknown:loves stuff like I'm here I've written the sexual tension is thick. Again, I just feel like everyone is wanting to both
Cole:characters just need an outlet and the writers don't give it to them.
Unknown:Maybe it's why it's such good watching because
Cole:the tension is so palpable
Unknown:to a backward DAX, she has discovered that the denarius belt is probably where the celestial Temple is, with some seemingly like pretty standard calculations. So it's surprising the Kardashians haven't found it. She's like, I entered it into the computer. Yeah,
Cole:so the science officer Google's neutrino,
Unknown:right. Oh, god. Yeah. I'm gonna be very honest. This is not what I mean Star Trek for. And I know that upsets a lot of people.
Cole:I'm not in it for the neutrinos either but I'm in it for characters like DAX to kill it at things like science. Yeah, because how often does a hero get to do like science? I got my hero because right. Jackson stem, so I'm not gonna complain again. Shame on you.
Unknown:I'm a terrible, terrible so then we're back at quarks, the Kardashians are all there. They're having a grand old time, but Kieran O'Brien is shutting it down after the Kardashians have won a huge pile of Latinum and quark is all you can't do this and there's like a you know bit of back and forth about that. But eventually he bundles up the Latinum for them in a hessian sack.
Cole:Yes, a very, very sturdy hessian sack to hold all that heavy Latinum
Unknown:Yeah, nothing to see here with this here. hessian sack. So
Cole:the Frankie bartender gave the Kardashians is hessian sack does that mean that the bartender was in on it on it so they've got this this cool extra Frankie dude like in cahoots with odo
Unknown:well rom couldn't do it because his noses on someone else knows in
Cole:any scene with quartz shows up.
Unknown:Yeah, so these high jinks play out and turns out to be your routes shapeshifted on board the card Sen. ship and he is the hash and sack
Cole:So, you know, plot stretch number two to show that odo is a shapeshifter, and he has us and he's can do things other than be cranky about guns and look like death. Odo is like a Marvel superhero in in the Star Trek universe, which sometimes he feels a little out of place with just how utterly like super power Yeah super powers and
Unknown:but he's just like not very ambitious. He just wants to be a security officer on board and out of the way
Cole:and I thought we could talk more about that I think the next episode is actually about him. But why does the superhero just hang out on a deadbeat Space Station in you know, the wilderness as Dr. Bashir says,
Unknown:Yeah, I think I see interesting question Yeah. So yeah, anyway, he's he's gotten on board to like shut down their homing technology or something.
Cole:Oh, gets his moment. Thanks, Soto.
Unknown:Yeah, I like smacking in the house and then they Oh, yeah. Yep. So yeah, Cisco in there
Cole:often to track down those neutrino emission.
Unknown:They're off to the whim home. The what? What, but first, we were trying to get her to back on board. And there's some malfunctions
Cole:better call O'Brien pedicle
Unknown:O'Brien just
Cole:moved his wife and child here to fix malfunctions.
Unknown:But I have nothing to say about the scene except there's a hilarious bit where the transporter isn't working and he just kicks it and then it works. It's like classic O'Brien
Cole:like we've all been there with the vending machine it's like all these other characters are having these crazy you know these beautiful characterization moments about their motivations and O'Brien's moment is kicking the bulkhead
Unknown:and he's back and he's safe and everything's fine
Cole:oh no has no emotions is
Unknown:he's got no emotions but Karen friendship then maybe because
Cole:odo nodded at her which is most he's given anyone. Show? Yeah.
Unknown:So then Jackson says go after the denarius belt is belt, and they enter a wormhole.
Cole:Okay, Lily, of course. Yes. Who discovered the wormhole? Wow, who's like, let's go. Let's lay on these coordinates because of all these neutrino emissions. And let's go and see what we can find. Was it Jadzia DAX who discovered the wormhole? Yes, it was. This is my biggest nit to pick with this episode. But
Unknown:if we if we want to split hairs about it, like Cisco's in command, and he delegated,
Cole:you told Jadzia to find the wormhole. And then Jadzia mother f and DAX. It's Hermione all over again. Yeah. Harry's been anxious and emotionally, but it's his story. And then women are just over there doing science and being competent. And they're like, Oh, you're welcome.
Unknown:I guess. She's not looking for the glory. She's just out to experience life. Well, I
Cole:give you glory. Look,
Unknown:if you believe in hierarchy, technically, he did the job because someone did it for him. And I know about that. I'm a chef.
Cole:All right. All right. Well, Jesse, I see you and I know you don't need it because your zen and you're not esteem sensitive because of other lifetimes, wisdom, but they find a wormhole.
Unknown:And just quickly, the design looks like a 90s bowling alley.
Cole:And it's like an arcade game.
Unknown:And then they wind up 70,000 light years from beta. What?
Cole:Yeah, a wormhole to the other side of the galaxy. Wow.
Unknown:You're gonna just like pick up Voyager millionaire night runs that wrong side. And then they hypothesize that this is probably how the orbs arrived in visual and that this might be the first stable war wormhole known to exist,
Cole:which is pretty cool.
Unknown:So what happens I tried to go back through the wormhole, but wind up somewhere which is maybe the celestial temple. It's
Cole:all starting to add up. Is it everything they are talking about? Googled is lining up DAX know how to Google.
Unknown:Hey, Google, have you seen something weird? So they go back, they go back and then they wind up in this spot that Cisco sees it as like a scary stormy hellscape. But DAX is viewed as of like a BEAUTIFUL PRISTINE
Cole:English Garden. Isn't that interesting? So what was your take on on that little moment where they get out of the runabout Cisco sees this horrible rocky landscape and Gen Z is in sort of paradise?
Unknown:Um, that's an interesting one. I mean, I suppose it Cisco seeing reality or is death. I
Cole:guess my interpretation besides just cool opportunity for CGI and like whoa factor is that we know that Cisco is in some rough headspace. He I lost his wife three years ago. He doesn't want to be in Deep Space Nine. He, he's a pessimist right now. And he's assuming the worst of everything. And so it's almost like if you were to land on an unknown alien planet, like he'd almost expect this, you'd be like, Well, yeah, go figure.
Unknown:Here we are. There's like Rocky crevasses and terrible lightning storms.
Cole:Right? Whereas Jadzia we've already talked about how she's, you know, Grace Kelly and Yoda combined is pretty stoked to be in this wormhole in this paradise. Now, you discovered the channel. Thank you, if you will indulge me for perhaps my favorite Easter egg of the entire episode. I would love it if the location scout of the series actually did this on purpose. But it'd be insane. This park that Jadzia sees is the exact same Los Angeles Park. Because as we all know, Star Trek isn't about exploring the universe. It's about exploring Los Angeles parks. Correct. It's the same park that is the location for the episode in Season Three, where it's Brigadoon in space, okay. And Jadzia falls in love and is so happy that she's ready to abandon her Starfleet career and the chill world. And she is happier than she could ever conceivably be. Now nerdiness almost over, we learn that these aliens in the wormhole have no concept of time, time doesn't exist. So they already know that Gen Z is moment of pure bliss is on this planet. And that's what they show her when she arrives at the wormhole. Well, and there's 102% chance that that's a complete coincidence
Unknown:that that one scouting location for this TV shows like what
Cole:well done location scout. Thank you for indulging me.
Unknown:So what happens next? Oh, yeah, so floaty orb approaches them and like gives them like a little probe, and then gets more punchy and punches doubts out. And she sort of starts to see the hellscape that Cisco is saying. And then it sort of puts her somewhere and it swallows Cisco, who fades out to wait.
Cole:Now this is okay, what happens next is very strange to me.
Unknown:Yeah, so out of the wormhole comes shooting the orb. The scanners pick it up back onto you. There's a sign. And DAX makes it back onto the space station courtesy of the ARB. It just like kind of beams her back.
Cole:And what did you make of this? I thought it was utterly absurd that suddenly they just packaged DAX into a tiny little orb and sent her back home.
Unknown:I mean, look, it's a bit of a Deus Ex, Ex Machina. Definitely.
Cole:And I again, I guess I'm just here to defend DAX. But it makes no sense to me. And I will give the DSN. And writers credit that seven years later in the last season of the show, they actually explain why Cisco sticks around the wormhole. And a little bit more about why the prophets are so interested in Cisco, which definitely the writers had not thought about in this episode. But the show runners who go on for the next seven years do the work and actually close some of these loopholes, which I find very impressive.
Unknown:I mean, look, I guess, as a layman, I didn't really question it. And like off, you go down,
Cole:this is the seventh.
Unknown:So DAX is safe on board, ds nine. And meanwhile, Cisco is flashing through memories of his life. And then we find out this is the way the celestial beings communicate, which is through his personal memories, particularly with people in his life. And the interactions he's
Cole:had. I honestly love this.
Unknown:It's amazing. And beautiful, like even Jayco shines in this
Cole:he does doesn't mean yeah, what is this?
Unknown:So there are different species, and they don't understand the concept of time because they don't exist in a linear way. And he's gonna have to explain the concept of time. And
Cole:bizarrely, even though this is the strangest thing that's happened the whole episode. This is just classic bread and butter Star Trek. Since the 60s, Star Trek is all about running into crazy, omnipotent aliens, who communicate telepathically and make you see weird visions. Even every almost every pilot episode of Star Trek is about running into some crazy omnipotent being. So even though this is the strangest thing has happened. It's like oh, yeah, this is this
Unknown:territory. Yeah, it's like less gritty, sexual, political kind of drama.
Cole:And yeah, interestingly, I mean, Cisco is pulled out of the nuts and bolts of convincing cork to open a bar, getting his first officer to calm down, and he's suddenly sort of on trial, defending humanity, which is exactly what Picard did the first episode of next generation que the omnipotent being puts him on trial to defend humanity.
Unknown:So the rest of the episode now jumps between scenes on Deep Space Nine and C goes encounter with the wormhole alien. And I'm assuming that Cole has done a close reading of the flashback Cisco sequences. So maybe I'll sort of just move between the scenes but Come at me as you are a call so on DJ sign here wants to move the station to the mouth of the wormhole mistake claim for the bizarre and so it's very like yeah,
Cole:so back on backwards, you know corporeal entities are just trying to get by, they got this problem to solve and it's a nice character moment for Kira. She's the first to realize the value of the wormhole. She has been cranky this whole episode, but she's like, Wait, there's a wormhole in Bitcoin space. I need to capitalize on this for my people. Yeah. And I like that. And then of course, we learn a little bit more about odo.
Unknown:So he reveals that he was found in the denarius belt, which is like a bit of foreshadowing. And he thinks the answers to the questions that he has about himself might be through the wormhole. And they just might be
Cole:Joe's might be I mean, the writers think they just might be the writers actually have no idea. But do they? They have no idea.
Unknown:Look, you give the writers a lot of credit. Can we just
Cole:well, I'll give the writers this much. They created a show with a lot of unanswered questions. And then over seven years, came up with answers to those questions, unlike last last.
Unknown:I mean, look, a lot of the questions are quite character driven, and sort of small stakes. So it's a maybe more achievable than like a huge thought experiment. But again,
Cole:I don't kissing the feet of the writers, the odo question of where he came from is a very small character driven question, that becomes a massive answer that guides the course of the entire series. And that's credit to these writers just thinking like, how do we answer this question that we posed? And what we can do when we go down this go down this wormhole of thought, oh,
Unknown:how much wine Have you had? I mean, I feel like a little fuzzy, just
Cole:the right amount. It's great. I mean, maybe it's right that by the time I'm on my third glass of wine, Cisco is defending humanity and the child against noncorporeal lifeforce, because things are getting fuzzy things, getting
Unknown:real fuzzy on screen filters, and also in my brain. So the celestial beings suggest killing Sisco, because he's a corporeal being who threatens annihilation. And this is spoken through the memories of Picard and Locutus.
Cole:And I think maybe I'm getting predictable. But these aliens, they say, We exist to seek contact with other life forms. They actually admit this basically admits to sending these orbs out to contact other life forms. And they see humans as aggressive and invasive. And the link I went to is humans at the beginning of every Next Generation episode saying, We are here to seek out new life and new civilizations. And then they come up against antagonists, like the Borg. And the prophets are accusing Cisco and humans of the same thing. Yeah.
Unknown:Amazing. Yeah. So So Cisco's defending humanity, and he argues that people are some of their experiences. At that same time, he's sort of realizing that the beings are not linear. So he has to explain what this is, and that his existence is linear, and therefore that makes him not a threat. Right.
Cole:And it's a bit of a tenuous case. Cisco, I think you're really grasping at straws.
Unknown:Meanwhile, back on DSI, by the way, can
Cole:I just say, like the baseball player, whose like, only line in the show is with this Boston accent list. Aggressive, adversarial, adversarial. My best friend in fifth grade and I we just spent one whole summer walking around yelling aggressive, adversarial to each other. That brings me back to listening. Yeah, Doug, thank you for listening to this podcast and thank you for watching Deep Space Nine with me.
Unknown:You're a big reason for why we're here tonight.
Cole:Truth.
Unknown:Meanwhile, O'Brien is on DSN he's grumpy and he's getting shit done. He's leaves her up. And long story short, he manages to move Deep Space Nine closer to the wormhole says go on those celestial beings discuss death in a linear existence through the character of Jennifer. Cisco says that each day affects the next and he also brings up the concept of pleasure.
Cole:And these these aliens don't even know what pleasure is they gotta live a little like what are they doing? Come on guys mix it what are you what are you doing? What do you exist for wormhole aliens orbs
Unknown:out your wormhole?
Cole:So many choices that I've seen that actually make this whole sequence really beautiful. I love that the prophets discover for themselves that they are characters in Cisco's mind they don't even know they've sort of gone into Cisco's mind telepathically and they're learning. We are all individuals. We all have relationships with this Cisco person. And the Jennifer profit. I feel like she even starts to develop these feelings. She she learns how much Jennifer meant to Cisco and she starts just to understand human love. Yeah. And it's really cool. Yeah. And
Unknown:they can't believe that people exist in a linear way and then and then just die one day.
Cole:It's just the most simple thing. Outrageous, which is fact. Yeah. No, okay. When actual Jennifer and actual Cisco are having a cute picnic and they talk about domestic inquiries. Flirting to ever hit television.
Unknown:Let's get back to the beach Star
Cole:Trek writers learn sexual tension and don't talk about domestic inquiries. That being said, Is it
Unknown:sounds strange people talk to each other. You tell me
Cole:Star Trek nerds flirt with each other.
Unknown:So now we've we've flashback to the day that Jennifer dies back in the memory with a Boolean.
Cole:That blue guy. Go on.
Unknown:So Blue Ensign, he's like walking down. And he's he's looking into the room where where Jennifer's Body is.
Cole:He says I don't want to be here.
Unknown:I don't want to be here. But why do you exist here? She just walks out in her bikini bikini
Cole:cat, Jennifer, like walks out of the fire. I mean, I guess I think it's sort of why she's confused. She's like, Why do I have to be dead here. But I'm in a hot bikini. They're like, I am Jennifer. Right? And he tries to explain loss again. And then something really interesting happens. A Kardashian ship who has been tailing Cisco enters the wormhole, and disrupts the proceedings. Suddenly, everything is unstable. And the wormhole aliens are upset. And then the wormhole closes. And the aliens explained to Cisco that when corporeal beings invade the wormhole, it disrupts them. Question mark.
Unknown:So why have they chosen to do it?
Cole:Which I think just maybe, maybe I'll stick a pin in that question. Because that's, that's, we wouldn't expect that based on what happens after the show. Yeah, but they go on to you know, continue about philosophy and
Unknown:they're back on the beach. And then he's back with because they're gonna kiss is actually that close. But yeah, Cisco sort of argues that every choice has a consequence. And when you live in a linear fashion, you have to know that you'll have consequences for everything that you choose to do. Yeah, I guess it's knowing what will happen.
Cole:It's it is again, a strange defense. Like we mean you no harm, because we have no idea what we're going to do.
Unknown:Yeah, that's what he's saying. And then it becomes him like, hetero propaganda about people getting married and having babies and that that's the point. The procreation is the it's sort of like the point,
Cole:I think, well, I guess I just see love is the point. But you know, the aliens get procreation or like, oh, procreation. Sure we do that. They bring up baseball. I love that baseball is present in the very first episode of Deep Space Time. All right. All right. Well, I mean, first of all, it's for the rest of the show. It becomes an amazing use of symbolism. Yeah,
Unknown:I mean, so yeah, right. Now they're using it as a metaphor for how linear life existence would work. Because actions have consequences.
Cole:Yep. But the profits see it as competition and aggressiveness, aggressive adversarial, which, frankly, like sports are aggressive and adversarial. So the profits know what's up. Yeah. But baseball is also like, the most American sport ever. It's like apple pie and baseball. And
Unknown:he's not just Federation. He's an All American man. And
Cole:I think so often in Star Trek, when you're talking about like the Federation and humanity, like you're actually talking about the United States. Yes. And so here we are. Cisco is basically defending American colonialism, yes. And manifest destiny. Defending why we go to the final frontier while we go out into the wilderness. We want to be heroes, the shears of the world, it's almost like America becomes on trial.
Unknown:About time. Absolutely. I mean, I guess he's also making an argument for the sanctity of life. Being linear and being finite. I think that's what I get. As a non American that's what
Cole:so if you are a wormhole alien, why would you be compelled to Okay, like, they think their lives are precious. Why are they not threat?
Unknown:Because they kind of like a fly. Live for a few days, and then they're done. Yeah, my existence is way more complex.
Cole:I guess they're seeing that Cisco is a complex little fly. And he's you know, he's obsessed with his wife, his son. Moments of love moments of loss, that he's not obsessed with assimilation.
Unknown:Yeah. And that they, they can empathize they, they find some similarity because Cisco hasn't actually been living in a linear fashion. He's been living in the past. Yeah,
Cole:so it ends the Cisco is trying to teach them the whole time. He's trying to teach them about humanity. But they ended up showing him that he is nonlinear that he's stuck at this moment where his wife died. And he has to concede where he's at right now. His mental state is nonlinear. He's hung up on the loss of his wife. And it's actually fascinating that that's the very final interaction you see in this episode between Cisco and the aliens. They sort of nod when he concedes that his life is not linear. And then the next thing you know, Cisco comes out of the wormhole, and says, we can travel through the wormhole as much as we like.
Unknown:The negotiations, not even in there.
Cole:It's not even featured in the episode. And what happened and why did the aliens misconception that Cisco's life isn't linear, and that he's frankly, traumatized and that kind of trauma loop and Yeah, and he's working through grief? That's what convinced them to allow these pesky Lance to travel through the wormhole. Yeah.
Unknown:It's like when we as humans watch the movie ants are like, hang on. I'm Woody Allen so there's the B story happening as well with Kira who is dealing with a diplomatic nightmare.
Cole:Oh girl just saw I'll just saw he's the man
Unknown:I mean, he's very skin colored
Cole:it's you know, the MVP of acting for this episode is great. He does a lot with what he's given. He's just so indignant. If I were one of them. I would make it my goal to just try to piss off gold just saw it as much as possible.
Unknown:I feel like I'm do cut. Well, we find out later is like super individual and women. But just odd is like a racist. He hates Jordans. Okay, I just thought humans but he's like, Don't you think he's just like a permanent Snia he is just like outraged that anyone is even speaking to you.
Cole:I feel like the actor is just like my motivations to sneer Yeah, and he nails it I love gorgeous side
Unknown:so yeah, what happens is he doesn't believe that the Kardashian ship that's disappeared and gone through the wormhole he doesn't believe that like that little line about how it's gone through the wormhole. When was the last few years yeah easy is it that and then he does a classic trope of you have one hour to make them Arabia or whatever. And then Kira less gold you sad into thinking that they have the ability to defend themselves? Like I guess since attack pewpewpew I don't really care about battle scenes.
Cole:You can talk about what matters is that DAX gets to be clever. O'Brien gets to kick some bulkheads. Here. He gets to strategize and we see the the teamwork, you know, being teammates.
Unknown:I feel like this year fixes this small wound. Oh,
Cole:yeah, we haven't even so again eventually just gets pissed off and starts pupi puing. Yeah, it's to the point that like a lot of bulkheads fall on bystanders allowing Bashir but I
Unknown:thought that Kira and CSGO dealt with the bulkheads by like throwing them around places to
Cole:put them back up in the ceiling, only for them to fall again on the passers by nearly got to clean it up. More and more clean up but it's what we do in episode two, the picking up more bulkheads.
Unknown:Spoilers, sorry. Tell people about the bulkheads. What matters
Cole:is that we see Bashir mending people, and we learn ah, this man is a good doctor, which will come in later in later episodes. Yeah, because he's a good doctor. It's important. Yeah. So he's a good doctor. characterization. Yep.
Unknown:So then the web haul reappears. And Cisco house DSN comes back on board and going
Cole:to cut ship in his way. Yeah, a little fu to the Kardashians. Like I know you guys don't like us, but we're gonna save you and in our tractor beam
Unknown:while we're talking about it. We don't know what happened with the wormhole aliens. Do we know what happened with this go into cut.
Cole:It's i It makes me wonder and I've actually researched deleted scenes on there's no explicit just all sex scenes. There's there's a number of deleted scenes, but none of them have more interaction between the wormhole aliens or Are you caught? So we don't know what the heck happened to cut ship in the wormhole or in the Gamma Quadrant. But more interestingly, we don't know how Cisco finally convinced the profits to let people go in and out. And because I mean, now we've got access to the Gamma Quadrant, and it's going to revolutionize commerce and socio politics for beige or for the rest of the series. And how these aliens who created the wormhole are okay with it. We never actually learned Yeah. And all I can speculate is that they've really taken a look inside Cisco Sol. And he's he's shown them really what Captain Kirk and Captain Picard, tell us at the beginning of every Star Trek episode opening until now, which is humans are here to seek out new life and new civilizations to explore strange new worlds, to boldly go where no one's gone before. This is This is humanity. This is what we're here for. And the prophets see Him and believe him and let him keep doing what starcher captains have been doing for all of Star Trek,