Jake and Nog playing cards in the back(?) of Quark’s bar after hours(?) while Quark and Rom enter while Quark is giving Rom a dressing down. Nog gets an idea for making some profit from what he overhears Quark say. A nicely worked scene despite those setting oddities.
Stardate 46844.3: Bajor is about to tap the molten core of its 5th moon Jerido. There’s a Bajoran bureaucrat overseeing things. Dax and Kira are on a runabout going on their next inspection, but it isn’t clear if they’re inspecting the moon or the planet. Wait, Morn asked Dax out? Hmm. They find people there that were supposed to be evacuated, and Kira beams down to find herself at pitchfork point. The apparent leader of this village is played by Brian Keith.
Jake and Nog make a deal for some self-sealing stem bolts in exchange for Quark’s Yammuk sauce that he didn’t want Rom to buy.
More dealings on the farm, which turns out is on the moon. The family refuses to leave and will die when they tap the core in 7 days.
Nog gets the Yammuk sauce from Quark after begin chastised for providing a free drink for a gambler who had spilled it.
We hear more of the Pioneer’s story, with tankards:
My dad got a tankard like that around the time this aired, I think.
Back to Nog and Jake’s Barter Emporium, where they try to find out what self-sealing stem bolts are. Nog cleverly supposes that they could sell the stem bolts to the Bajoran who ordered them, but couldn’t pay full price.
Kira’s back on the station explaining to Sisko and the Bajoran bureaucrat how the remaining 3 Bajorans are not going to leave the moon. Kira is ordered to evacuate them, and it doesn’t go well. The Pioneer gets phasered, and the security guys get stabbed by farm implements.
The “Nog and Jake Consortium” contact the Bajoran who ordered the stem bolts, and barter a deal for some land. Nog has a strange concept of profit, in that it only constitutes having latinum. “Land is just dirt.” Granted, land might not be as valuable in the future, as they are able to find more of it, but it’s not worthless, and could theoretically be worth more to them than the Yammuk sauce or stem bolts. Whoever wrote this appears to have no concept of what profit actually is. Even granting that Nog is a teenager, he should understand the concept of profit.
Dr. Bashir is tending to the Pioneer, and Kira decides to stay and build the kiln for him and tend to him. I like the design of the homestead set. The cottage has a pretty style and the door is interesting with a hexagonal design that hangs vertically when open.
Sisko comes down to give som sort of pep talk to Kira, and then leaves.
Jake and Nog are playing cards again. Odo is trying to find the NoJay Consortium as the government wants to buy the land and they are looking for that party. Nog offers to cut Quark in on the deal for 5 bars of latinum.
Kira and the Pioneer finish the kiln. Kira then destroys the kiln and burns down his cottage to force him to leave, and then they beam up. The end.
Final grade: Difficult to C.
Whew lads, there was a lot going on here but not a lot of story. The Jake and Nog Barter Emporium was the fun sub-plot which made the main plot bearable to watch, well that, and Brian Keith’s superb acting. He was known for his roles in the Parent Trap and A Family Affair. One of the nice things about reviewing a TV show is that there will be opportunities to highlight actors like this. The main plot was very depressing, kicking an old man out of his home for the “greater” good. I don’t really know what the point or moral of the story was supposed to be. Life sucks, but the government knows best, maybe. That’s some real BS there.
Addendum: Parts of the episode I loved like A, and parts I really kinda hated, like F. In the end it left me confused so I graded it a C. When I originally saw it I felt similarly, but probably about different parts.