Deep Space Wine: A Star Trek Deep Space Nine Companion

View Hallooo!: CAPTIVE PURSUIT (1.05)

• Lily Rossen & Cole Paulson • Season 1 • Episode 5

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Recreational hunting is the target in this episode that, for exactly once in the whole show, lets Chief O’Brien have some fun. Meanwhile, Doctor Bashir is permitted half a line of dialogue, which is no more than Season 1 Bashir deserves. And Lily and Cole ask: what does it actually mean to be sentient?

🍷 Wine pairing: "Charlie-Foxtrot" Gamay Noir from Ravensworth
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Lily:

I feel like it's very easy to imagine toss sleeping at the foot of O'Brien's bed. And Caicos like, Don't lay him on the bed.

Cole:

Oh, miles.

Lily:

Hi, everyone, I'm Emily Rossen.

Cole:

And I'm Cole Paulson. And welcome back to Deep Space One, 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 DSX nine because in our social experience, there is nothing people love more than when someone talks at length about Star Trek or wine. It's true. Do you have a lot to say about tonight's episode captive pursuit?

Lily:

I've got some things to say. There's a lot of fashion. There's,

Cole:

I know, I knew you'd be happy because of all the fashion. But

Lily:

ya know, I suppose this is just a really good episode. So I didn't have to delve too deep on finding some weird feminist lens or

Cole:

Yeah, I mean, GS nine gets its very first visitor from the Gamma Quadrant prime directive prime directive might be violated by one of our heroes could be this is a very tried and true formula for a Star Trek episode. I mean, I thought about even trying to think all the Star Trek episodes that have this exact same plot. You encounter a new alien species, and they seem fine, but they suddenly have a very reprehensible, at least to humans custom. And someone on on the crew is so morally outraged that they violate orders and even the prime directive to do what they think is right. Yeah,

Lily:

right. Molech the prime suggestion. Definitely not the first person to make that joke. Very cool. Sorry.

Cole:

But it's fun because someone always steps up and does the right thing. And then of course, they get in trouble at the end of the episode, and you never know just how much trouble they're gonna get in. Like, they're gonna get a slap on the wrist or a demotion or like a slap on the wrist and then a promotion. Yeah, go

Lily:

either way. Yeah, and I suppose the premise is always sort of people are different from us. And then the end is like, people have different remotes.

Cole:

Was like this sort of interesting moral relativism question, but then someone just does the right thing. And kind of gets in trouble but then doesn't because you're like, You're the real hero. Wink wink. But you know, we love we love to see people breaking rules to do what's right. That's pretty much like, do what you feel like admirals are there to be disobeyed. The prime directive is there to be violated? Yeah, right.

Lily:

That's why we love it. That's why we're here. Yeah, so this episode, any other thoughts that jumped out to you?

Cole:

I was also very surprised. It's the first O'Brien centric episode. And it's also maybe the only O'Brien episode where he's not horrifically suffering.

Lily:

He is having a blast this episode confer I was quite happy for him. Yeah, yeah,

Cole:

he's not doing 20 years of hard labor. His wife isn't possessed by a demon. His daughter doesn't get turned into a cave woman. Yeah, he's just making friends

Lily:

Keiko doesn't even show up although although everyone seems to know about their marriage gets brought up quite a lot it's a small place stations a small place

Cole:

it's nice that they throw Brian this one bone given you know, his his awfully miserable marriage shaft.

Lily:

And then you know, in the later seasons when his only solace is this sort of weird relationship friendship with beshear? Yeah. Yeah, not ship that friendship.

Cole:

I know you don't I know you're down. That's O'Brien's real cross to bear. Yeah, this lovely. Okay. I'm glad you liked it. I maybe I found it a little simple.

Lily:

Yes. I think that's sort of where I went. But it's a romp we love around morality gets questioned. Love that. Most importantly, people wear some outrageous outfits.

Cole:

And I think you clocked like me that the inspiration for this episode was the most dangerous game. Yeah, I had to look up about that story. I was vaguely familiar with the title of it. I

Lily:

had to look it up. But I knew it in sort of modern lexicon and I knew what it was.

Cole:

Apparently it is the most popular short story in the English language. Yeah.

Lily:

I mean, it's a great story.

Cole:

Have you read it? No,

Lily:

I haven't read it. But read a synopsis.

Cole:

I read the Wikipedia synopsis.

Lily:

But the concept is pretty familiar to everyone. Like rich person who has no moral compass and too much money hunts for sports. Yeah.

Cole:

But I didn't know is that he hunts a game hunter in the short story. Yeah. And so it's sort of this karma has come along. It's exciting, right because the prey also knows how to prey is sentient.

Lily:

I guess the other thing with a dangerous game was also the fox hunt,

Cole:

which we can get into so it seems like you caught the more or a message of the episode? It's like I watched it and then Googled, did you catch the costume clues? Yeah, I

Lily:

did. I'm very excited to talk about it. But yeah, so I looked at what the traditional drink to serve with a foxhunt is and its port. But we're not insane. So we're not going to sit here and drink a whole bottle of wine. So I just bought something else. Okay, you were excited love

Cole:

from Portugal, but I tried every possible

Lily:

well, I can promise you the polish up there was no report from Portugal. Like terrible Australian, which you don't want. So I still feel like I made the right choice.

Cole:

So in a fog sound do they drink the port before after the hunt?

Lily:

They drink it before and then they yell tallyho right? Yeah, so

Cole:

they get tipsy. They get on their horses they shout tallyho I think started

Lily:

foxes. Yeah, they drink from like a weird spirit cup. I don't know what that is. But I looked it up does

Cole:

tallyho mean anything? Onward.

Unknown:

Yeah, great.

Cole:

I got sorry.

Lily:

That That ends my my range of

Cole:

geographies foxtons. All

Lily:

right, so what what we're drinking tonight is a 2022 Gamma Noir from Ravensworth is the producer in Marin Bateman, which is in New South Wales, about 30 kilometers from Canberra is called Charlie Foxtrot. Which in military terms means a chaotic situation. So basically, much like our podcast like a clusterfuck and I and foxes in the title and honestly, I struggled a little bit this week. port was an idea and then there was this and also we'll put a photo up on the gram of the label and it's a it's like a beautifully done label. That is butchery scene.

Cole:

Oh, of something that's been hunted and getting chopped up for that. Yeah,

Lily:

so I think it's based on sort of the beautiful 17th century kitchen scenes in painting. Yeah, it's quite beautiful in its own way. But yes, definitely meat that has been slaughtered. Is

Cole:

it ethical to hunt if you're going to eat what you kill or is all hunting unethical? Really.

Lily:

These are the questions call.

Cole:

I have questions. Look at the cute little kitty though trying to like get it bite of deer. That's a bit of awful he's eating that awful. Awful is like that like stomach or something awful.

Lily:

It is just the parts that that the prime cuts. Yeah, so yeah, a lot of the time in liver. Yep.

Cole:

Cheeks. Cetera awful.

Lily:

Yeah, tasting notes. It's a gimme.

Cole:

I don't think I've ever heard of gamma gamma.

Lily:

It's kind of like this spicy cousin of Pinot Noir. Okay. Yeah, it's like a little bit spicy. Lots of fruits. You've got strawberries, berries, floral notes, lilac violets. It's quite light bodied. You can see the color. I have prepared this one actually. So everyone because apparently it's better with like a little bit of air. light bodied, fruity. It's, yeah, predominantly made in Beaujolais in the Loire Valley. But this one is from New South Wales.

Cole:

So again, is a French Friday. Yes.

Lily:

Correct. Yeah, get a should we

Cole:

drink it? We do it. Cheers. Yes. Tallyho.

Lily:

View Hulu. That's it. That's a term from the fox hunt.

Cole:

But does it view Hulu?

Lily:

And I know what for Mary Poppins.

Cole:

What does it mean?

Lily:

Is the fox there?

Cole:

It's like when you find a fox and say, God fox hunting is weird. It's bloody weird. It's real nice. Yeah, it's kind of peppery. Yeah,

Unknown:

yeah. Yeah.

Lily:

He says with 10 question marks in his voice.

Cole:

I haven't dared to try to interpret these these what's it called when you like try to like look for notes and stuff. Tasty?

Lily:

I haven't tried it. Haven't tried tasting it. You just been drinking?

Cole:

A story of my life.

Unknown:

Oh, let's unpack that later.

Lily:

Yeah, this one from the producer. They say it's juicy, crunchy glow red fruits and spice and an underlying sense of purpose law wrapped in a super juicy palate. I look I love wine writing. I find it. It's sort of definitely more of an art than a science

Cole:

an underlying sense of purpose. Yes, genuine question. Can a wine can a taste of wine have an underlying sense of purpose? I know it takes another sip. You tell me if you insist. I'm gonna find it. very relatable. By the way, should we give a shout out to our in studio audience?

Lily:

So yeah, let's do it. So tonight we are performing for a live audience. First

Cole:

time get your tickets for the next one. Your sister has gotten shout outs I think multiple times already.

Lily:

Yeah, she's she's a central figure in both of our lives.

Cole:

So we Is he here with us and we've got my housemate Louise, who has seen exactly one episode of Star Trek oh two I just made her watch the Star Trek strange and worlds musical and she tolerated it.

Lily:

I love when people you know, tolerate an episode of Star Trek

Cole:

actor friendships. I love my love language. All right, shall we?

Unknown:

Shall we dive in? cued up tallyho? I'll stop saying that. No, no,

Lily:

I've written Telly her like about 40 times.

Cole:

The games begin. Right, so we start with a bizarre, troubling, completely out of place scene that goes nowhere else in the episode.

Lily:

Is it completely out of place? Sorry, continue.

Cole:

So a new Davo girl is filing a sexual harassment complaint to Cisco towards her employer. There's apparently a hidden obligation in her employee contract for sexual favors for cork.

Lily:

Yikes. Yeah.

Cole:

I mean, the good news about this scene is that both of the actors and the director seem to be taking it very seriously. They do in a way. Yeah. But then at the same time, this plot goes nowhere. So I can only conclude that it's written as a sort of like, day in the life of GS nine, like, oh, corks up to his old tricks.

Lily:

Is that how you read it? Yeah, I

Cole:

can't. There's no other explanation.

Lily:

If there had been some sort of follow up, I would say that maybe it's I'm questioning the kinds of way that people can be preyed upon. Oh, it's my feminist lens tying it

Unknown:

all together, am I But

Lily:

look, I am but if they'd finished book ended it with something about dealing with this is dealing with quarks predatory behavior, it would have been chef's kiss. Yes. But no, no, they don't bring it up ever again. But really, let's just like shelve that. And can we just talk about what she's

Cole:

wearing? At least they gave us that. Incredible. So

Lily:

I wrote wo Dubow. And everything about it is perfect. But my favorite is like the tiny little gold bow

Cole:

boats on the top of her scalp

Lily:

because she's got like a really big forehead with an incredible receding hairline right for her and at the back of that is bright red permed hair and these crazy wispy red eyebrows.

Cole:

I mean, she's looking great.

Lily:

She's fat. She's making like bold choices. What do you make an old appreciate that?

Cole:

Yeah. What do you make of her sort of ruffled What do you even call this set top?

Lily:

I said it's a shroud black tunic on top with puff pirate sleeves, like something perhaps a high school art teacher would wear. The bottom half is a maroon skin type velvet onesie. And I just appreciate it. I think we both give it all the thumbs. I love her and look not to blame the victim. But you know. Clark zone Lea Ferringhi muret All right, fellas, jokes. Only

Cole:

Lily. Here's my fun fact. This fantastic daba girl. Tell me she's played by the actress Kelly Curtis who is Jamie Lee Curtis his sister.

Unknown:

Whoa. What Sarah What else has she done?

Cole:

I mean, she did she did hasn't won an Oscar for her work. And she's Yeah, Janet Lee's daughter. She's a double girl on Deep Space Nine. And we're proud of her. We're

Lily:

proud of her. But I also feel kind of bad.

Cole:

I thought she did a great job.

Lily:

I thought she did a great job. But maybe it was some wasted talent. But

Cole:

okay, just one more nail in the coffin of this scene. Apparently the first draft of it ended with her saying, Thank you, Captain. Why don't you come by and see me sometimes. Yeah, yeah, they cut that. Yeah, apparently was a big debate in the writers room about whether or not to keep it

Lily:

well, and the one woman in there was like, Oh, sweetie, you

Cole:

think there was a woman on the right?

Unknown:

Yeah.

Cole:

So I guess I mean, Cisco gets to be hero, does

Lily:

he though, because he kind of just pushes her out. He's like, Yeah, I'll deal with that later. And then we don't hear that it's been dealt with.

Cole:

I'd like to assume he follows up Yeah,

Lily:

I think calling him a hero is maybe a bit of a stretch. That was sarcasm. I find it hard to know you do love Cisco.

Cole:

Well, I'm glad I'm bringing you around to Cisco. But no, this is obviously really shitty 1993 writing about what a male hero does and he takes sexual harassment claims seriously Yeah, he's

Lily:

like oh look into the fine print on that. Yeah, no, no not important now baby. Got

Cole:

other matters to attend to. But we stand her gold little pussycat tie.

Lily:

We sand the whole fit. It's perfect. Yeah, great.

Cole:

Okay, so they're interrupted by Kira because the wormhole has just burst open. An unidentified ship is coming through.

Lily:

Yeah, shooting out the window.

Cole:

There's one lifetime onboard. We hail him and uh, On the screen were introduced to cute little alligator friend and his ship is badly damaged. He doesn't want to dock because he seems to be in a bit of a hurry. But O'Brien practices some beautiful bedside manner and helps tractor beam the ship in Yeah, he's really got some some nice bedside manner he says, study now friend. Yeah,

Lily:

so begins his labored use of the word friend really loves, loves calling this guy friend to the point where you like you can imagine him

Cole:

friend. It's like the writers were like, well people know that O'Brien is forming a friendship with a friend and beat that dead. But Brian says, Lower your shields friend. Just relax and enjoy the ride and get some to safety. Cisco, who is good at reading the room is really impressed with Brian's likability factor, and follows taxes advice to dispense with the usual first contact procedures and just let O'Brien go down and greet the guy on his own

Lily:

at the airlock. Prime Directive be damned.

Cole:

Seems a little shy. So screw the rules. Yeah.

Lily:

But it's alright. Cool. Because it seems like a lizard alligator guy immediately trust. So Brian's vibe, he's got a nice friendship connection connection straight away. Yeah.

Cole:

We'd love to see it. And that's that's the captivating teaser to this episode.

Lily:

And it's great. I'm captivated. The other thing I wrote was that Cisco does his whole diplomatic spiel, and that he's really practiced it in front of the mirror and help it heal it. Tell it

Cole:

you're coming around the Cisco act. Yeah,

Lily:

I really am. Yeah, this podcast is changing. Changing, changing opinion. Getting out the little Cisco pillow that you got for me. Do

Cole:

you still have the Cisco? I'm so glad Yeah,

Lily:

it was. It was in storage, but I recently Yeah,

Cole:

and I think it came with a note like, I promise you'll like him or when he's bald.

Lily:

Yeah. I didn't really but I do now.

Cole:

So after the intro, O'Brien boards, the aliens ship, but our alligator friend is nowhere to be seen. Where that rascal go.

Lily:

His toolbox makes a second

Cole:

I knew I knew you'd like to

Lily:

continuity that's what I'm in this for.

Cole:

O'Brien brings out friend again, friend. Are you here? You've got nothing to worry for me. Is this also the most Irish O'Brien episode? He's very Irish in this episode. Maybe

Lily:

it's just because he gets to talk so much. Yeah, I

Cole:

mean, either Irish or is also just very blue collar. Like, it's a lot of like drinking beer and bonding over like mechanics. And

Lily:

that's how men do it.

Cole:

So he can't find the alien. But he gets distracted by some really cool looking engines. He starts talking to himself and saying what a great engineer he is because he can recognize how the engines work.

Lily:

He's got good self efficacy.

Cole:

Isn't that nice? Yeah. Am I good enough for him? Is that a plasma injector? And offer axes field controller? Oh, when then suddenly, our alligator alien appears out of thin air behind him. I guess he's got a personal cloaking device. But he's not menacing. He's adorable. Yeah. And poor O'Brien is startled and bangs his head on the panel. Dang. He says you can't sneak up on people friend. It's an Alpha Quadrant rule. Which is not. He promises to help this guy fix his ship. The alien seems pretty anxious and in a hurry to get on his way. Also incredibly robotic. I mean, I just I called him like the robot alligator. In my notes throughout this he does identify himself as tosk What's your species? What's your name? He just says I am Tosca. I am task. Very. I am Groot before I am Groot was cool, right? Oh, yeah, totally. He also seems to be obfuscating about what happened to his ship claiming that it was the wormhole passage that might have roughed it up and O'Brien knows he's unlikely he's hiding something. But then O'Brien gets him out of the ship lures them out of the ship with this sort of disarming Irish brogue and I thought it was almost like he was talking to a pet dog. In or out.

Lily:

Yeah, yeah, he's definitely speaking down to him a little bit in a in a very friendly manner. Yeah,

Cole:

it's also the first time first of many I thought where they are trying to make this link between tosk and an animal Yeah, and even O'Brien sort of like talking down to like your boy here. Yeah. And he clearly he looks like an animal to obviously right. So that's definitely

Lily:

yeah, while we're on that, can we just quickly talk about the outfit? I

Cole:

would love nothing more Gamma Quadrant fashions. You heard it here first.

Lily:

So his his actual skin? Yeah, sort of scaled like an alligator with like, little plates on the back of his head. But he's also in a very form feeding outfit. That's a bit like a second skin. I mean, is it the skin of a different animal? Wow. It's

Cole:

like a snake skin is that and I hadn't noticed that and it's got it was it made out of dead tusks. Oh,

Lily:

yeah. It tusks of the forefathers. But it's got a beautiful plunging scoopneck which I like, as well as he he has built a bit like a rugby player with some big thighs. So, you know, it's quite a choice.

Cole:

I don't think it complements his figure. No,

Lily:

but he's doing it. Maybe it's practical. I don't think he has much like the rowing zoot suits. It's a

Cole:

leisure really it's form over function. I thought this one.

Lily:

What else? Oh, yeah. When he introduces himself, he says my name is O'Brien. And Tosca immediately gets confused and says, Oh, Brian, and I love it. I think that should have been the title of that.

Cole:

Because if you watch the episode with subtitles, Tosca always says, oh, Brian. Which I guess is charming. Yeah. And then

Lily:

the music as well. Did you notice the music? I didn't. So the music I thought was quite Hitchcockian. Wow. Yeah, it's a it's very film noir. It's almost like, like the score from vertigo.

Cole:

So his task the femme fatale. No.

Lily:

Sorry. The femme fatale. Why, well, the ingenue. Okay.

Cole:

Why is there Hitchcock music playing? When O'Brien is meeting his blue collar buddy in the shop room?

Lily:

I think it's a denoting that something is amiss. There's a mystery. There is a mystery. Yeah,

Cole:

I think he's the fan photo. Not all femme fatales are dangerous despite the word.

Lily:

I don't know. He's cool. Screams ingenue to me.

Cole:

He's a person with a checkered past. Yeah, he

Lily:

is caught up in something that an O'Brien doesn't know how involved he wants to get. Yeah, but he will help. He will. Yeah, because he's

Cole:

a good hearted like Sam Spade. Yeah. All right. Wow. Cool. you're scraping back the layers. I am scraping something just like tusks. Fin fin snake. So, O'Brien brings Tosca down to the promenade. They pass through a metal detector. I call it Chekhov's metal detector. The weapons detector goes off because of a Brian's phaser which very much peaks tusks interest.

Lily:

He also gets really scared by it and does like this cute little doubletake jump in the air that kind of looks like he's busted a move.

Cole:

He's got this brings out his claws. He's kind of got cat like energy.

Lily:

Yeah, it's cat like and it's sort of like hyper vigilance. Yeah.

Cole:

Like prey ready to be Yeah, leapt on it anytime. O'Brien is trying his damndest to be disarming and funny. You know, he explains this phaser saying, well, but when you go into an alien ship, if you don't know what you're gonna find maybe an invisible alien. Am I right? Yeah. I mean, tosk asks, What the station is for an O'Brien jokes like, well, you know, sometimes I look around and I think it's the flea market to

Unknown:

the sector. And he's not wrong.

Cole:

And then poor task, stares at him. Just an incredibly long time

Lily:

isn't him and he also has no sense of personal space.

Cole:

But then finally gets Brian's joke. Oh, Brian's joke. Yeah.

Unknown:

You made a joke. Yeah. Yeah.

Cole:

Tosca is really fascinated by the infirmary and then really fascinated when cork throws out. Someone who's been cheating at the casinos.

Lily:

Bolian Lily,

Cole:

I'm so proud. Yeah, I was gonna quiz you what's in Dalian.

Lily:

Bluegill? Well, guy, you're learning gender? I don't know. Great question.

Cole:

I do know that. They have multiple spouses. And they can be in same gender relationships. Oh, sorry. Boolean

Lily:

fun facts about Boolean so much more progressive.

Cole:

And, you know, the barber on Enterprise D is a Boolean. So they've got and it's ironic because they're bald, but

Unknown:

yeah. All right. Well, both

Cole:

ends. Yeah. Great. Task is taking it all in. But he's still very much about any details of his life or what he's running from. He won't even say what His purpose is. He just keeps saying I am task. Yeah,

Lily:

he is task. He's task. What is it? 30 seconds later. He's like, Yeah, you know, like, so it seems Yeah, something like that.

Cole:

O'Brien takes task to his guest quarters. O'Brien immediately apologizes about how poorly the room is decorated. I mean, like classic Irish hosting anxiety. Yeah, I guess. I guess.

Lily:

Maybe Keiko cuja could have prettied it up with some flowers or something she's Keiko.

Cole:

I don't know why O'Brien just immediately went to the interior decorating of the quarters.

Lily:

I think he's nervous and making tons of jokes. Yeah. Oh, because he's got a little friend crush Yeah. And falling very flat but he keeps going.

Cole:

It's like me on first dates. Oh, everyone on fit. Sometimes I tell you about the interior decorating. He points to the bed but task doesn't see much point of a bed. He says he only needs 17 minutes of sleep. A day yeah O'Brien can't relate you need to classic eight hours normal eight hours like me.

Lily:

Same O'Brien. Preferably nine.

Cole:

Tosca also doesn't need a snack because he's got liquid nutrients stored and plasmic fibers inside his body. Oh butter Brian's got like grandma hosting energy and he still wants to brag that the replicators can make a mean bowl of oatmeal.

Lily:

It's very Irish, isn't it? You're right. Yeah. Very Irish bowl of

Cole:

oatmeal. And also, I thought that you can't blame O'Brien for being really proud that the replicators are working after last week's debacle. Yeah, he's been through it with

Lily:

these ones won't give you a virus one virus. What?

Cole:

You won't die. Way link. callback. I forgot to ask is just a keen been to get working on ship repairs. But he is grateful. He says thank you. But when O'Brien leaves Tusk goes immediately to the computer in his room and start snooping around, trying to get info on where the weapons are stored. Seems cute, but he's really into guns,

Lily:

you know? And then the computer just tells him Yeah,

Cole:

the weapons are stored in this secret locked cabinet with

Lily:

security of all time.

Cole:

We've got an information access policy in the future. Yeah. Freedom of Information Act. Yeah.

Lily:

Well, good.

Cole:

All right. So up in Cisco's office, O'Brien is telling Cisco that he hates to prejudge anyone. law, law, Brian. But a man who's always looking over your shoulder is waiting for trouble to find him. Yeah. And thanks task might have

Lily:

a checkered past. Well, ingenue femme fatale.

Cole:

I think tosk is a femme fatale. Yeah, all right. Cisco just says keep an eye on him. I'll have to keep an eye on him too. Because O'Brien still doesn't sense any trouble from this guy. anything nefarious? Yeah. So they're down and tasks ship and the bonding over engines teaching each other about RAM scoops and

Lily:

RAM scoop piece of cake and notes.

Cole:

Oh, piece of cake is just an idiom task. Yeah, it's it's classic buddy comedies. Classic buddy comedy. Yeah. So they've got a plan to replicate some missing parts. It'll still take a day or two though. Tosca is hella impatient, because he really does not want to wait around even to test the equipment. He's got to get going. He's in a hurry. Or Brian comes in with another joke like, well, if you don't test it, and it fails, I'll have a bad reputation and the Gamma Quadrant. I think this is the only episode O'Brien tries to be funny. And

Lily:

he's I really empathize. It's like someone is giving you nothing. And it just makes you nervous. And you have to keep rattling off jokes.

Cole:

Yeah, a lot of my first dates. Yeah. says man, you're the most natural straight man I've met in ages. Yeah. Which actually made me think like, I mean, what about data back on the enterprise? like Star Trek loves this type of better chain

Lily:

link a whole month since he's hung out with data? Sure. He's He's wanting it because everyone's a bit spicy on DSM. And like, you're like, is odo a straight man? No odor is sarcastic as fuck

Cole:

yeah. No, no, he's odo brings the comedy. Yeah, he's not the data I used to think he was but he brings the comedy. Why does Star Trek that why is Star Trek so fascinated with characters who struggle to emotionally connect?

Lily:

I mean, Gene Roddenberry. He knew about neuro diversity before the rest of us. Yeah,

Cole:

Spock really does seem like a coded neurodivergent character. And data is just the new Spock, in every single show seems to have that on the spectrum neuro division character who just finds human emotional complexity, utterly bizarre and unrelatable. Yeah,

Lily:

I guess it's a good lens as well, to sort of look at the silliness of what we do.

Cole:

Yeah, I guess it's just that pure curiosity. Lets you just sort of question things yourself like, never thought what never thought about oatmeal.

Lily:

Why does O'Brien hate his nagging wife Keiko?

Cole:

as well so he finally convinced his task to at least take a break and go take a load off in quarks get a beer, let's get a beer friend we bonded and let me get you a cold one. They walk into quarks, right as some dude, I guess just one Davao.

Lily:

And I do love when it's a combo of people, and they they win it Dabo and then just immediately walk away from the table. They don't collect their winnings, they walk straight out of the bar, laughing extras,

Cole:

your job is to cheer and immediately, we want because if you have any lines of dialogue, we'll have to pay you more. Get out of here. Five

Lily:

in there. It's the flea market more than is there.

Cole:

More than one is the epitome of fun. Yes. I mean to ask is just utterly fascinated. can't relate. Apparently fun doesn't exist in the Gamma Quadrant or r&r. Yeah,

Lily:

and I also think he he's like an incredibly hyper vigilant creature. It's a bit of an odd place to take someone like that. I think it's a little bit rude.

Cole:

Yeah. And you're always looking over your back. That's actually a really good call. I mean, maybe that's my tasks are the lazy James O'Brien. He says, All right, you sleep a full third of your rotation. You rest and relax while you're awake. If a quadrant has far too much downtime, yeah,

Lily:

and no brands or like, my wife would find that funny. Because any chance to throw her under the bus and he will,

Cole:

and then he's surprised people think his marriage is miserable. Like, How does everyone know? We just listened to you? O'Brien O'Brien someone's the barkeep. Which quirk is deeply offended by. He is the proprietor of this establishment. Thank you very much.

Lily:

Don't call me back a

Cole:

sympathetic ear to the wretched souls who pass through these portals. It's very Shakespearean. Yeah, that's exactly what I thought. You see the Falstaff the?

Unknown:

Yes, absolutely.

Cole:

Yeah, O'Brien's kind of a jerk to him. I mean, I guess quark is sort of rotten. He did

Lily:

at the top of this episode, right? Sexual harassment into a contract.

Cole:

Yeah. You know, maybe O'Brien just just heard. His sister

Lily:

Jamie says Jake, go there, man. Honestly,

Cole:

O'Brien warms Tosca. Qwirkle. exploit any vices you may have. And Tusk says, I am sorry, I have no vices for you to exploit. I just thought, yikes. This guy like has a crippling need to people, please. There's sort of like a clue like, right? Yeah, it still hasn't told us why he's right. Exactly. Tusk even declines to try out the house sweets. He says I have no use for fantasy adventure. I live the greatest adventure one could ever desire. Oh, yeah, but he still won't give us any more deets and O'Brien is charmed but frustrated and

Lily:

the saint tales that they ordered are served in some ceramic purple mugs that I want from my house.

Cole:

I buy them for you on Etsy

Lily:

just entails get you drunk. Great

Cole:

question. We'll put that one to our listeners because I don't know. Yeah,

Lily:

I feel like in in next gen. They talk about how as well as currency like getting drunk isn't something that yeah, currency,

Cole:

meat eating and maybe getting drunk. Yeah, but we've seen I mean, we've seen some characters kickback. So that's a good question.

Lily:

The other thing is that clock says that the holiday sweets are designed by the brothers coop? Yeah.

Cole:

Like cork is his last name. I guess. So is his brother's name. Robert work. Yeah, I guess I had the exact same. And

Lily:

then they design it together. They're writing all the sexy programs. Writing the sexy programs. I

Cole:

don't want to look in either of their fantasy brands. Yeah, maybe maybe more nice the episodes. Yeah,

Lily:

I think he's got good tastes got a fertile mind.

Cole:

Up in opposite Brian is discussing task with the senior staff. Bashir gets exactly one line in the episode and it gets interrupted. It's so amazing. He's like, Oh, well, if he's not talking, people tell doctors things. They don't tell anyone else. So Brandon's

Lily:

cuts him off, immediately cut. So

Cole:

it sort of made me wish that that dynamic between the two had stayed like that for all seven years,

Lily:

I've write the exact same thing. Like I love O'Brien is having absolutely no time for this year. And just having to ask is his best friend? Yeah,

Cole:

it even made me wonder if like VA shares contract with the actress contract means he needs at least one line per episode. So I got Sure well interrupt you because it's a stupid line. Yeah. Brian admit that he's really taking a shine to this guy. He's almost naive. He says like the guy. No, but his ship will be ready tomorrow. So we'll just have to send him on his way, I

Lily:

guess. And there's some interesting stuff that happens with Cisco in this episode, where he is once again really settling in to the power structure. And a lot of scenes end with him climbing up the stairs and looking down at his subservient he

Cole:

loves towering over his staff does he's settling in. Well, he's got a power trip. He's no, Picard. No,

Lily:

he is not Picard.

Cole:

Yeah, really good observation. Like the the Cardassian space station is sort of creeping into him. Yeah. Also, Dax is just criminally underused five episodes and she's done nothing. She gets like three lines in this episode. Is

Lily:

it the whole first season, they don't really do much?

Cole:

They just don't know. They don't know what to do with wise, beautiful women. Welcome to the world. And

Lily:

you know what, let's not get a woman writer in that room because they have nothing to say about that. A wise

Cole:

woman. We don't know how to relate

Unknown:

a boobs.

Lily:

I love Star Trek.

Cole:

Let it out. So down in a habitat record or though tosk is trying to hack into the station systems. What is he up to it? He

Lily:

shouldn't trust the abstract paintings on the wall. No, no.

Cole:

Look out for that abstract painting. Because it's Oh, no.

Lily:

Does this happen? Every episode of season one.

Cole:

Okay, I've genuinely been thrilled on this rewatch with how often? Odo suddenly shifts out of something. Yeah. Because for whatever reason, I think they just forget that he can shape shift or they have to make budget cuts or something. But I was like, oh, yeah, odo loves hiding his stuff.

Lily:

I actually have a fun fact. Okay, okay. Well, this gets chilly. It's a it's it today. aggression. It's a fun fact I learned from tick tock the other day. The TV show Alex Mack came out in 1995 So I've been calling this Alex Mack technology and the whole time it's been odo technology auto inspired by Alex man,

Cole:

I always knew that show is a bit derivative

Lily:

19 For our Alex Mack podcast,

Cole:

give us time we went to each episode we'll wind up with crack and then crack into another episode. Right it's so I did think that last episode, we got to do Freudian analysis of every characters speech, photos, because he didn't get the virus. Yeah. So we get a chance to do a little Freudian analysis. I thought of the art he chose

Lily:

to camouflage itself as okay, what is it I actually didn't investigate?

Cole:

I think it's sort of ruined cave relics. It

Lily:

sort of it looks like maybe some stalactites, stalagmites maybe. Yeah, but

Cole:

with some some ancient runes. I'm seeing abstract but anxious and mysterious. melty, melty, melty all because then actually, odo does just sort of melt into this delight sites. And then

Lily:

right in the center of the painting is a black tiny little black hole. Let's ask our audience to know

Cole:

what is that black hole? Is it Louise? Any thoughts? On what this piece makes you feel?

Lily:

Let's keep it clean. Guys. Keep it clean.

Cole:

You're the one who talked about the black hole.

Lily:

I'm talking to myself

Cole:

great, you know, I thought I had some skill. So well done. You're a good shapeshifter, odo and look,

Lily:

he's very in control in this scene, and when order is like very controlled, and on top of it. That's when he's the most attractive to me.

Cole:

most attractive. I didn't even know you thought he was attractive. I

Lily:

don't. But if I had to find him attractive. If I like had to smash, it would be moments like this.

Cole:

I mean, no spoiler alerts, but apparently he's quite a lover. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he's got those shapeshifts and can do whatever you want. You can turn into that goo. Um, keep it clean. So odo interrupts tosk task instantly goes in his invisible cloak mode. But the poor guy is no match for the forcefield that Oda puts up and he's trapped. Tusk says, I did nothing to you. I must prepare for what I am task. Yeah, I know that just says, I'm sure you are. Yeah. And you're so attracted to him when he says that, aren't you?

Lily:

I look, I like competent, sarcastic man. Wow, a lot of my time.

Cole:

I can't wait for this crushed, to grow. By task promises not to fight back, and is even willing to be led away by odo, which is sort of interesting. He really doesn't put up any signs of fighting, you get the impression, you could probably take out these these crappy vigilant security guards, but he just says

Lily:

we can all see those thoughts.

Cole:

Can see them very clearly through his thin onesie. And so he's he's led to a holding cell. And poor task is caged by the forcefield. Cisco asks why he was trying to access the station's weapons locker task is clearly offended at the suggestion that he's a criminal or that he's fleeing arrest for crimes. I am toxic. He says indignantly, which sort of makes me think maybe he's almost even wired to not break the law, because he's so offended that he could be a law breaker. Yeah.

Lily:

Like he's clearly got his own strict moral code that isn't understood by this culture. Yeah.

Cole:

And like he's limited by it. I mean, limited, more limited than humans who tried to evade the law. He just keeps saying I did nothing to you. But Cisco can't accept that. He just says, we're going to have to hold you here and see if someone shows up looking for you. And when Cisco and odo step out of the room, or Brian tries once again to get some answers, and tasks just begs O'Brien to let him out saying, allow me to die with honor. Well,

Lily:

why? Why are you being like that? Tough? Just tell us what the deal is

Cole:

task. Tell

Lily:

friend O'Brien.

Cole:

Oh, Brian. Oh, Ryan O'Brien goes into odos office and says he's climbing the walls like a trapped animal. Again, that sort of animal. Yeah, illusion. Yeah. Oh, no. Can't be fucked. He's like, Well, sorry. Our jail cells aren't to his liking. You love that, don't she? Lily. Naki or Brian feels responsible. And he says I kind of feel like I adopted him. Oh,

Lily:

right. Adoption kiss Dre. Never heard anyone.

Cole:

He's convinced task means no harm. And it just is really driving on this point that he's a stray little little puppy. Just then another ship emerges from the wormhole. In ops that try to hail it but getting a response It's some crazy beam scans them. Cisco lets them do it without raising shields which I don't understand why he's like let

Lily:

them see. I don't be it's a prime directive thing.

Cole:

Sure. Like don't try not to be evasive.

Lily:

Yeah okay try not to be the aggressor. You are a wise woman sometimes

Cole:

you're scared off the Deep Space Nine writer. But then the aliens dropped some crazy wild radiation that reverses the polarity of the shields. Whoa. which I guess means cuts right through the shields. And that's bad news. And suddenly some aliens are beaming onboard the promenade. And odo rushes out of his office just in time to see these crazy aliens beam down straight from a 1950s B movie.

Lily:

Hang on. There's one bit I do. First there was the Star Trek turbulence which is a class

Cole:

Oh yeah, I

Lily:

always love that.

Cole:

It's nice when you can tell the actors are just shaking, shaking.

Lily:

And then quick. It's a red pirate shirt. All right, that's it

Cole:

a little glimpse of the best fashion ever

Lily:

continue. Okay, so

Cole:

these these be movie Aliens beamed down and frankly, their appearance just embarrass me. Really because it truthfully, I was at the dentist last week. And they queued up my favorite show. And I was watching this episode of the dentist. And these guys beamed in and I was like please dentist and dental hygienist don't look up at the TV because this is so embarrassing. Don't

Lily:

say these like 1950s Tron boy out of War

Cole:

of the Worlds and they just look so hokey and retro.

Lily:

What is happening? Oh, great. Dashing

Cole:

great different strokes.

Unknown:

Like I would wear

Cole:

complete with like the little alien helmet. I'd

Lily:

have the helmet but I'd take it off when I go inside it's like thigh high silver boots. It's amazing. Oh,

Cole:

something in this episode. The good news is I think the dentist was focused on my teeth. He didn't know they

Lily:

weren't catching up on Star Trek Deep Space. I

Cole:

didn't feel the need any three. I felt the need to be like Oh, thanks for putting on my favorite comfort TV. That's that's it this

Lily:

is I definitely don't have a podcast about it. Just

Cole:

I'm not taking mental notes. deep analysis of this episode Okay, Kara, and O'Brien and Cisco rushed into the promenade. Cisco tries to talk to them but aliens don't engage. And then one of them smacks odo and his shapeshifting face I

Lily:

didn't know you could punch Oh, no.

Cole:

Thank you just I mean look, you'd think if this were a higher budget odo would like go around Hey, this is not the matrix this yes, this is Lo Fi and then there's a phaser fight and lots happens here. I mean Kira, even overreact and a phaser fight like the way she points her phaser and darts away. Yeah, that was like kabuki theater. Yeah, the aliens are super tough. They can repel phaser fire with like their forearms.

Lily:

Yeah, those those outfits aren't just for looks.

Cole:

You think they're just high fashion? Because Go Go boots.

Lily:

cura Oh, and then odo grabs keywords boom.

Cole:

Wait, wait for it. Yes. Odo grabs, cures boob. But first, they have a little Best Friends club. They do. Because first he's like, nobody's abducting a prisoner out of my break as long as I live, which is that was just more of his like, sort of weird job air.

Unknown:

Yeah, Justice thing.

Cole:

Certainly I will talk to them. Like it's not about serving justice. It's about like pride in his job. Yeah, I can show my prisoners. Yeah. I don't care is like oh, no, take a phaser. And he says that he never uses phasers. Yeah, he doesn't, which I never clocked that. But apparently he never uses a phaser for all seven years. Yeah.

Lily:

I wonder why that choice was maybe the actor. Maybe

Cole:

the actor. That's a nice thought. My thought it was like sort of like in next generation. They had a blind guy piloting the ship. Here. They have a security officer who doesn't use a gun. It's just sort of interesting. Yeah. I think odo also made me want to extend it. He sees the danger of guns. Sure, because he was really cranky when the humans were just firing phasers, willy nilly. The first episode Yeah,

Lily:

look, he's got a point. I'm on board. Yeah. And this one, yeah.

Cole:

But then yes. He gets knocked down. Odo grabs her boob and pulls her to safety. Yeah. And then the aliens friggin blow up the door to OTOs office. March right on in. Oh, man. We got this guy. Yeah, one of these aliens marches into the brig task is invisible. He's trying to hide with his fancy cloak. But he's no match for the aliens. Night Vision Goggles well, and he gets spotted in his cell.

Lily:

I love the little the little bleep loops on the bell. Oh this guy there's some

Cole:

good bleep loops on the alien. Alien vest. They're doing a lot of important technical technology in there.

Lily:

It's a bit Doctor Who as well, isn't it?

Cole:

Yes. Our guys Russian just in time to hear the alien say, I have tosk alive. It is over. And then what a disappointment No. And after such an entertaining beginning, I guess the aliens had great fun shooting guns at our guys. He's like they put up a good fight. But then suggest that task violated his oath of silence to get their help. Oh, he takes his helmet off sadly. And he's he's just a guy who kind of looks like a like a half alligator.

Lily:

Like it fancy looking tusk? Sure. Sort of like an aristocrat

Cole:

refined aristocratic task. Yeah. And he tells task to see you here caged helpless. How could you allow this it is a disgrace to all task. The most disappointing hunt in memory. Cisco is understandably very perturbed by this. Finally, the alien bothers to even acknowledge Cisco's existence when he butts in but still barely gives them the time of day looks to knock him down. Yeah, turns back to task and says for this dishonor you will endure the greatest humiliation toss can know to be captured and brought home alive. You will live out your existence on public display. Children can make fun of you toss you scraps of food, which is more than you deserve. Yeah, so I guess going in like throwing tosk in a zoo

Lily:

and tosk looks absolutely shattered, shattered. And then he does little snort

Cole:

he does like this like Gamma Quadrant snort like he's a crazy alien who's

Lily:

snorts whether snorting aliens

Cole:

like that sort of thing we and we snort the alien orders task to be released which really gets his goat. He's like you disrupted life on the station for the pleasure of your hunt. I'm not inclined to take orders from you. Oh, good. Also, you blew up odo Thank you. You blew up odos office let's not forget that. But the alien can't even believe it. Cisco would even want to defend this dude is pathetic little tosk. And they march off to talk. And Brian sands, believe it. And Tosca is sad. That's his friend. That is literally what's happening the whole time. When he called him he called him his friend many times, not his friend, friend. He called him friend devastating up in Cisco's office, Cisco talks to the head hunter or the head hunter. And this is where we get into the meat and potatoes of the episode. The head hunters like surely you've got something like this, you've got to hunt in your own culture. And it is moral outrage time. Well, Cisco says that long ago, humans used to engage in blood sports and kill lower creatures for sport. But we would never hunt a sentient being. The Hunter is like, look, Tosca is only sentient because the hunters made him that way. He's actually been bred for this. That's his entire reason to exist. To make it as exciting and interesting as he can for the hunters. Says Cisco says I have no tolerance for the abusive any life form. And the hunter brings in this counterpoint the counter moral relativism, he says, we honor tosk We don't abuse them. Yeah, they're actually the symbol of all that is noble and courageous. They train all their lives for this event and they're proud of the role in our culture. Sure they are. Yeah, right. It's like okay, sure. aristocrat in Cisco is like, alright, moral relativism. Yes. Sorry,

Lily:

Michael Jackson glove.

Cole:

Well, and okay, did you look up at Foxhunters? Where they were black?

Lily:

I think, well, I know, they wear the red coats and like the jumpers and things right.

Cole:

Yeah. So apparently, this was intentionally minus the alien helmets. Yeah. And the Michael Jackson who

Lily:

Jackson was also an influence.

Cole:

Yeah, I mean, Cisco is like, Look, I can't judge what is right and wrong on your world. But on this station, I get to make the calls.

Lily:

And he's livid about it. He hates it. Yeah. Okay. So

Cole:

my thoughts on this. I mean, if the moral really is about fox hunting, then why bother making tasks sentient? Is it just the idea that like, you shouldn't hunt something that talks back to? Like, if it's about hunting, cute little animals? They have this discussion of sentience, which they love to talk about on Star Trek, they do. So little your Star Trek fan? Define sentience? You're welcome. But you're on the spot.

Lily:

What is it self awareness?

Cole:

Sure.

Lily:

Is that what it is? You know what that was the defining quality.

Cole:

So here's the fun thing. I tried to look it up. And apparently Star Trek actually uses it wrong. Sure. In the 21st century, definition of sentient is feeling and sensing. Yeah, so actually, any animal that you can hurt is sentient. And on Star Trek, they use it to mean self aware and intelligent and self conscious. And actually, the closest thing apparently, to intelligent would would be say PMT. Yeah. So I guess like a computer is Sapiens because it's intelligent, but it's not feeling and an animal is sentient. And so human would be the middle of that Venn diagram. Yeah, we're intelligent and feeling. And so Star Trek is looking for that combination, I guess. Sure. But if this whole episode is about you shouldn't hurt things, then does it matter that tosk can make friends with O'Brien? If that's not really the point, the fact that he's like, buddy buddies, and befriending someone distracts from the fact that hunting animals is wrong, which I think is what they're trying to say. Am I overanalyzing this? I just didn't feel that I didn't think a fox sender would be compelled to stop hunting watching this because the foxes don't drink beers with them. It's

Lily:

interesting. I guess. It's just a clumsy metaphor, isn't it? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. We have a question from the audience.

Unknown:

Yeah, you can make friends with an animal. Cash your dog. Yeah,

Cole:

I was actually thinking about that. Like, what if they're just giving the universal translator to a pet in this episode? And what if this was an episode about a dog or a cat? I mean, a dog wouldn't get a Brian's bad jokes, because they're not funny. But he would. Yeah, and so maybe that's it. Exactly. It's just humanizing truly sentient life forms who can feel and feel fear and hurt? Yeah, I think that's spot on. Thanks, Susie.

Lily:

Thank you.

Cole:

It made me think about hunting versus raising animals for livestock. What's actually worse because this episode doesn't go after raising animals to eat apparently 23rd century humans are vegetarian just a day use replicators. Yeah. And Riker even says once enslaving animals for food is outdated and barbaric.

Lily:

Yeah. Now I have to think about the cooking that Cisco does with his father. It's a lot of seafood. Yeah, he's cleans all those mussels and oysters that time.

Cole:

Maybe they're replicated muscles. But it's a good question. Yeah. Like, do you think Joseph Cisco would be deeply shamed by his neighbors for actually using muscles? I really liked on Star Trek Discovery, the calpheon character, who was basically a cow, and his whole species is used for chattel, and then he escapes the cow planet and people realize he's deeply intelligent and now he's he's captaining a starship. That was pushing Star Trek thoughts in a new way. Yeah. I really liked it.

Lily:

One good thing about Star Trek Discovery one good thing about Star Trek. Anyway, that's not what this podcast is about. But yeah, so

Cole:

I think even Star Trek can get really sloppy with how important it is to be sapient. Like, they don't really say if you should protect life, if it just feels versus if it's also self aware. Look,

Lily:

I honestly think the writers were like Tony Blair, fox hunting. Right. But how can we make those up, Fitz really pop and he likes fox hunting outfit

Cole:

and who wants burgers for lunch? I think that's so then Cisco emerges into ops to announce that he's actually agreed to release tasks to these guys. And O'Brien is rightfully dismayed. I personally think is totally wrong call on Cisco's part,

Lily:

but you know what, he's at the top of the stairs. So he makes the decision. There he is on the

Cole:

stairs, saying he's going to hand some prey over to some hunters. First of all, these hunters blew up OTOs office and they're not getting thrown in the brig. Yeah, all Tosca. It was metal with some computer console, but it's their culture. It's fine. Yeah, it's almost like Cisco is even dehumanizing and devaluing task is cute and cuddly. And these other guys are like, Oh, you have bigger weapons, so I'll respect you more. And it's cura of all people to be like, Tosca. Just asked for asylum. Should have been really obvious. I mean, so many characters in Star Trek, ask for asylum. But look, they're

Lily:

all caught up in their various emotions. And for once she is not. Yes,

Cole:

I'll throw Cisco a bone because these are the first aliens to come through from the Gamma Quadrant. Just that speech in the mirror. He was practicing his little speech in the mirror. But O'Brien is thrilled by the idea of task asking for asylum and trots off to tell them to do just that. But unfortunately, task refuses. He says predictably I am task. I cannot hide here behind the protection of your federation. It is against everything. I believe. It would be an even greater dishonor than being caged on display back home. He says I am tossed I lived out with the hunters for another day to survive until I die with honor. I will not deny my existence as tosk.

Lily:

I mean, it's an interesting one because it's it's been the aristocratic snorter and Cisco debating his fate. Your sister never even bothered to ask to us. Oh, it's actually O'Brien. kind of

Cole:

awful. But I guess that's the point that quite often your superiors are going to miss the mist the trees for the forest and you need to stand up for what's right, which, you know, this is a quintessential Star Trek plot and we love it. Yeah, Brian sees tasks sapiens and sentience. There should be a word for that, but we leave task to his fate. I feel like that would have actually made a more interesting episode if O'Brien was trying to like save him from his What do you call it? Victim identity? Yeah, like and actually say you should be an engineer you should get a job on the station actually. And if tosk had that choice more, because it's

Lily:

like, okay, well just because toss sense of identity is that death is the noble pursuit doesn't actually mean that. That's right. Brian has literally been bred and created for this thing. Oh, yeah. And that reminds me of the other thing I want to talk about. The Jem Hadar. Yes, yes,

Cole:

I've considered mentioning it, but I thought I was nerding out. But there's another Gamma Quadrant species who has a cloaking device a built in self cloak. And they look just like rhinos, and they've been bred, and they've been bred for a specific purpose. And one of the writers actually says, oh, yeah, the Gemma dogs were bred by the same sort of geneticists that bred tusks. Yeah. So good spot. Did you did you connect those two dots? Yeah. Yeah, I didn't even think about that. They're both bred for purpose. Yeah. Yeah, I guess so. Brian, you could argue that, uh, Brian was just really respecting his friends wishes when tasks said I live to evade the hunt and to die with honor. And you could say that O'Brien was actually better than any of us just saying I respect what you think your life purpose is. And I will let you do that even if I think it's it's awful and sad. Rather than trying to like deprogram and make him more human. Sure. Great. Back in quarks course, complaining that none of the visitors from the Gamma Quadrant about a drink. He's not impressed with a tourist trade from the Gamma Quadrant so far. O'Brien has gone there to sulk. He just says Shut up. Barkeep. Quark assumes it's more trouble with the little woman.

Lily:

And he's all this nothing wrong between my wife and I would ever give you the idea. So miles, we totally believe you.

Unknown:

The lady does.

Cole:

He's like, if there were a problem between me that offensive my Irish accent. If there were a problem between me and my wife, I sure as hell wouldn't want to talk to some barkeep about it. But I was very bad Irish accent it's great. Yeah, hitting cork red hurts. Cork just says your face gets very pink when it gets aggravated.

Lily:

And it's so nice. And someone needs to remind me to say this the next time some guy is in my face yelling at me.

Cole:

I just thought it was another Irish slur faced drunk. But cork wants to practice his Gaiden barkeeper skills. Like talk to me about your troubles. He's

Lily:

like, you're saying that I'm the problem. But you were aggravated when you walked in? Yeah, so let's let's unpack that. Yeah,

Cole:

Brian says forget it. It's just the rules of the game. Everyone's playing by their rules them and us and tossed is caught in the middle. If the Ferringhi don't like the rules they just get to change them and then before court can actually pull a guy in and and be useful. O'Brien gets his own light bulb. He says change the rules. Thanks barking

Lily:

and clock is chuffed that he has helped someone he's so pleased. I guess that's what he wants to do as well as sexually harass his employees.

Cole:

He wants his life to have purpose beyond the sexual harassment and coercion beyond like,

Lily:

Hey, little girl, boy, Lady touch my year holes, or whatever for Enkidu. Yep.

Cole:

character growth. Short. Yeah. So O'Brien goes and changes the rules by doing something to a power grid connected to a certain security checkpoint. He's up to someone. And then it's over to his office and the hunters have put a humiliating metal collar around tusks neck and a leash. Yeah, to march into his ship. They claim it's customary when a task is captured alive. It's the custom with the gross leash on the task with a prime directive says to respect other cultures, Lily, hey,

Lily:

I guess we're doing this.

Cole:

Orion dashes in and tells odo that he's been asked to escort the hunter and tosk off the station instead of odo saying it's a Starfleet matter. Odo is so happy about it that he storms off to complain to Cisco. Or Brian says, Oh, we just want to smooth things over by providing a nice escort service or a nice nice service off the station. Yeah. What do you think of Brian's up to you talking all right. And he leaves his CON badge behind it. Oh, storms into Cisco's office outraged and then the two of them figure out that uh, Brian's pull the ones over on him. I mean, played. So task is being led through the promenade and humiliation. They get to that security checkpoint we see exactly one other time in the series. And right when the hunter tries to go through it, whoa, it overloads and the hunters hurled backwards. Whoa, whoa. And then O'Brien steps in with an uppercut. Punch. It's

Lily:

not in the ghee, Irish

Cole:

hygiene. He's like glass jar. Now I know why you wear that helmet. Lily loves burn. He antastic skip off. The hunter alerts his comrades. The hunt has resumed and darned if he sounds kind of excited about it. All right. And then we finally get to see tosk in his action mode. Just a little jumpy kicks when the hunters start chasing him down. He does his fling thing looking like a flying Komodo dragon great toss right up in OPS has a report that the fights broken out. And DAX in her fourth line all episode says there's two life forms running away and one of them she says with a big smile is human. And shit. I mean, Dax is loving it. This is delicious.

Lily:

I would just like to know what's going on with her outside of this episode.

Cole:

She's probably having some great alien cat I think, you know, she is Yeah, and we we stand and we cheer her on. Odo dashes off to stop or Brian when Cisco winks and says yes, no hurry is there so quickly, and odo so

Lily:

it's like pantomime slow walk.

Cole:

He's so slow on the uptake and that is like robot walk backwards is the funniest episode. O'Brien and Tasker like sneaking away through an escape hatch? Or Brian gets his collar off task says, now you are tasked as well O'Brien. Yeah, Brian loves it made me think like, oh, maybe, maybe he's trying to escape his wife, the old ball and chain.

Lily:

Get those chains off simpler.

Cole:

But I mean, the two of them leap into a corridor and tosk takes out another Hunter.

Lily:

Hunter is not very good, is

Cole:

the worst action sequence of tasks literally just falls on this Hunter and knocks him out

Lily:

like so the tasks spend their lives training is trained to the event, supposedly, around drinking martinis on the island. If this were

Cole:

like a modern episode with a bigger budget, you know, they'd be bringing out the stunt doubles and the action choreographers, but this is like fall on the hunter. Yeah.

Lily:

But it is classic statuary.

Cole:

The Headhunter finds them and this is phaser fight and man it gets even worse. Because this task is I'll stop. The Hunter is mine to shoot. He lifts his gun and pointed at the hunter. Like I've been training my whole life and he honestly like points his gun and shoots it like about as well as I would Yeah, that's like really saying a lot like he's

Lily:

but he does a lot of good leaping.

Cole:

He's the lead. He shoots and the headhunter he's dead he gets shot

Lily:

done his body smoking just

Cole:

desserts we say that's a task and Brian make it to task ship performance. Like what now? Task SAYS THE HUNT goes on. And then invites O'Brien to come along with

Lily:

it. Ah, see, I would watch that show. Yeah, like

Cole:

the ultimate buddy comedy. Like two tasks. Yeah. Free from the ball and chain. Yeah, two tasks. No, okay. Go Yeah. running from the cops to tasks no cake. Yeah. But Brian says no, thank you. And Tusk says for well by saying die with honor O'Brien O'Brien and I think trying to die with honor is what O'Brien has been trying to do ever since. Tom task makes his getaway

Lily:

and it's maybe the best friend O'Brien has ever had or ever will have. This is the

Cole:

only fun I think they give the guy that whole series except his torturous friendship with someone who is not right.

Lily:

They are so run together. Anyway.

Cole:

Should we be talking about engines with Tosca?

Lily:

They've just got so much in common. A similar physique. I mean, I ship them so many parting glances.

Cole:

Yeah. And then the Deep Space Nine theme sort of plays in this warbling french horn or something like that the noble friendship. The final scene it's time for Cisco to give Brian his dressing down for of course breaking the rules and making a mess of things. But O'Brien says what everyone was thinking or at least what I was thinking, which is like, these guys wanted a fight. They wanted a chase. And we gave them a chase. Yeah, it's a win win win. Like honestly, what why didn't Cisco think of just releasing tosk? Like, how long was it going to keep them locked up from messing with the control panel? I think O'Brien has a very valid point. No, he was just gonna hand him over. Why? Because the other guys have bigger guns.

Unknown:

I don't know. It's horrible. I mean, the bullies I guess

Cole:

it's respecting the bully is irrelevant. Yeah, but Cisco says Save it. You ignored me you even ignored the prime directive.

Lily:

Yeah, that's really good. Super fast delivery line.

Cole:

He says another stunt like this and your wife won't have to complain about the conditions here anymore. Do I make myself clear even

Lily:

Cisco knows their marriage is on the rocks. I mean,

Cole:

I thought he was like threatening to kill Keiko No, it took me then I got it. I got a Brian takes it on the chin but pipes up. Um, by the way, I was sort of surprised that I breezed right through all the security checkpoints. I thought for sure. You guys would have put up some force fields. And Cisco's like, I guess that one got by us wink shrug. And it's not until O'Brien says thank you leaves that Cisco gives himself although little cheeky smart vehicles

Lily:

smack and a nod. It's quintessential

Cole:

trek. If you don't like this story format, you're not going to like Star Trek. No wonder, you know,

Lily:

nobody ever gets fired for this kind of junk. This is it just par for

Cole:

the court. The court marshals are threatened sometimes. But then the captain goes like nice work. Let me promote you actually. Yeah,

Lily:

because there's the kind of cheeky son of again that like doing Star Trek, right? Yeah. And then they follow up with that Dubbo girl storyline? No, wait, they don't end of episode but

Cole:

you'll never see the double girl again. Cork is never punished. And it's hilarious that he bakes sexual coercion practices into his employee contracts. So real credit, but he's like really good to talk to you. So it's a good year to lean on for support. Look,

Lily:

it's a great episode.

Cole:

Yeah, you liked it. I did good. I truthfully, I started this series in like season five. And I've got such a bias against early episodes. And so it's nice to be reminded that someone who started the show does find so much to love from these, these more Lo Fi simpler stories.

Lily:

I mean, don't get me wrong, it's pretty boring. Not a great deal happen.

Cole:

But even when the action happens, it's really bad actually. Yeah,

Lily:

look, I think the nature of this podcast is really forcing me to find something interesting. And some quick pirate shirt dashes. Thank you so much for pointing. Sorry I just like kept interrupting your entire narrative because I knew pirate chat was coming up probably Richard

Cole:

just running away from the aliens. Because one second screen time what it would have led you

Lily:

to think he was an extra from a different show and it was fun. Like

Cole:

he was he was caught on set when they yelled played the wrong place.

Lily:

off camera back to Disney's Robin Williams film

Cole:

so yeah, final thoughts most dangerous game Star Trek edition. Maybe not as thrilling as that but we're glad tosk escaped and we're glad O'Brien has one moment of joy. Yeah,

Lily:

look I think it we've been teased with a bit of O'Brien I'm talking about in previous episodes get a bit of O'Brien content with we learn a little bit about his backstory and snippets. But he really gets to shine in this. And I think that he and the actor who plays tasks Yeah, I think they have a really good report. I think it actually works yeah,

Cole:

I apparently a lot of a lot of fans find O'Brien to be the most charming character like to be the fan favorite character.

Lily:

Right. Interesting.

Cole:

The most relatable I guess he was the most relatable Yeah, so it's nice just to see him play like he's O'Brien being a Brian rather than O'Brien put through horrific suffering, which is what the writers end up doing with him almost every other episode.

Lily:

The other question? Oh, snotty aristocrat headhunter? No Prince. Yeah, he tells them that they won't be using the wormhole to hunt anymore, but then the hunt resumes. But does that go out to everyone? Does that go out to all of the hunters or just the ones on his ship? So have they already been given the directive that they won't be using that Quadrant for the hunt? So he's task running off on the hunt and no one's actually following and he just gets to be like a free people out in the world. Actually,

Cole:

I don't know if it's like comedy or not like Tosca, just felting his way through the avocado and on the run and literally no one is chasing life looking for it. That's actually almost sad or like has no purpose

Lily:

where you guys like on the farm or something like Olly olly oxen

Cole:

free. Over here. The other thing foxhunting did actually destroy Australia's ecosystem, right? Because the Brits who moved in wanted to have their fun and so they brought foxes over and they brought not only foxes but rabbits. Yeah for for the foxes to chase and feed on. Yeah. And then both rabbits and foxes ended up completely terrorizing the ecosystem was wiping out indigenous species. Yeah,

Lily:

the British they did some things great

Cole:

call guys.

Lily:

I had to tell you what,

Unknown:

you What is it? View Hello.

Lily:

I think you hit the nail on the head with the metaphor being a bit confused.

Cole:

I do really love the comment. Why can't you be friends with your pet? And maybe that's why tosk is treated like a pet who are our little built in translator lets us communicate with but he's a terrified animal. And it's it's pretty fucked up that he's running for his life. But then of course the counter argument is well that's what he's made for and like what a fox be bored if no one was trying to hunt him I don't know are they bred now just like

Lily:

my pit bull metaphor. They you know bred for fighting or whatever. But I know a bunch of pit bulls and they are just cuddly little baby. Yeah, when they don't have to fight, just like sleep in the bed.

Cole:

I feel like it's very easy to imagine toss sleeping

Lily:

at the foot of O'Brien and Caicos like, don't blame him on the bed. Right? It's like, oh, yeah,

Cole:

task is just like, oh, Brian. Oh, I think your household is broken. Oh, oh, miles do we get to do fashion watch

Unknown:

fashion watch?

Lily:

I don't know. Okay, thanks. I thought a jingle would be good. But that was just off the cuff.

Cole:

It'll come. Yeah,

Lily:

I mean, it's pretty obvious.

Cole:

The alien helmets from but I think we love the gold ribbon on Google. Poor Kelly Curtis's Yeah. I think the character's name is a Mississauga, Mississauga and her art teacher ruffles. Yeah. Especially runnerup. Shout out to pirate boy.

Unknown:

Pirate boy.

Lily:

And look tosk He went there.

Cole:

He wore that reptilian skin suit. Yeah,

Lily:

points for a bold daring look. Yeah, I

Cole:

did not find it becoming.

Lily:

But it didn't. We're not here to buddy. Shame. Tough.

Cole:

Fashion shaming. Dress for your body. It's all I'm sad. Now just to impress. Great. Well, Foxhunters wine has gone down a treat. Thank you for that. Yeah,

Lily:

I think we did really well. Charlie Foxtrot.

Cole:

Great Fox. Alright, signing off, signing off. See you next week everyone,

Unknown:

bye bye.

Cole:

Deep Space wine is hosted by Lily Rawson and myself co Paulsen music by secular nouvelle or work by Daniel Nelson. And special thanks to bloom. Louise Delaine and Izzy Rossen loyal friend of dogs and cats.