Kira the needlessly defiant is being defiant again, though it is unknown as of yet if she is needlessly so. She’s objecting to Valarians docking with the station because they ran “dolomide”[1] to the Cardassians. Chief O’Brien’s wife has taken her class to Bajor on a field trip. Kira asks Odo to spy -err, keep an eye on the Valarians. What’s this!? something’s coming through the wormhole! It looks like an old Klingon vessel. Sure enough, it was a Klingon vessel, one which wasn’t due back yet. It blows up and a Klingon beams over says, “Victory!” and promptly dies. Whew! A LOT went on there in the cold opening. Exciting!
Dax was oddly daydreaming when they were dismissed from the meeting to take a runabout to find the ship’s recorder. Odo is tasked with finding out about the ship’s mission, a bio-survey. The Valrians are asking to dock and Kira observes that their route so far has matched the one used by the dolomide runners. Heh, the next stop would be the purification plant at Ultima Thule[2]
Odo probes Quark for information about the Klingons. Quark tries to bargain a price for the information, but Odo uses his government powers to strong-arm him into giving the information for free.
They said that they would return “with something that would make the enemies of the Klingon Empire, tremble.” Odo then has some sort of medical “attack,” and Quark runs to get Dr. Bashir. Dr. Bashir has no idea what’s going on with Odo, since his biology is so different from anything we know, but Odo says he feels fine now. Bashir then strangely warns Odo that there’s going to be some trouble between Kira and Sisko.
Kira says that the Valerian ship was at the Ultima Thule station a week ago and thus has been running dolomide. Sisko and Kira seems to be at odds about the situation.
Dax and O’Brien are looking for the recorder, and O’Brien exhibits some strange, aggressive-sounding behavior regarding Kira and the Bajorans.
Kira then tries to get Odo to go behind Sisko’s back to spy on the Valarians. I do remember this episode, but it obvious that there is some “contamination” that is pitting the station crew against each other, as must have happened on the Klingon ship. This reminds me of a Tomorrow People story, The Blue and the Green. I was familiar with it back then too, so I would have had a similar realization at the time. At this point I can say that I’m getting a bit bored of the episode, since I’ve seen this story before in something else. It may surprise me, but I’m tired of the whole “conflict is an external force, and getting along is our natural tendency” messaging.
O’Brien and Dax have recovered the damaged log, and everyone at the meeting is acting uncharacteristically. Odo notices.
Quark is found in his bar mixing a drink.
Dax is the recipient of the drink and Kira comes over to try to “recruit” Dax to her “cause.” Oh, a good shot of the earring thing, which I just now notice curiously resembles a menorah.
Dax is stuck in reminiscing mode, almost like she’s going senile. Kira says she’s getting rid of Sisko, Quark drops something, as if in shock to something he overheard, and Kira takes violent exception to it. Quark shows up in Odo’s office with a neck brace asking to file charges against Kira. He’s of course trying to sue her for money, but Odo clues in on the odd behavior of the station crew and is more immediately concerned about that. He goes to find Sisko, and instead finds O’Brien in Sisko’s office. The recording from the Klingon vessel is playing, and it is clear there was a power struggle on board, and something about the energy spheres they were looking for. Odo then goes to Sisko’s quarters to talk to him. Oh and there’s a 3d chess set!
Sisko’s just acting weird. Almost like he’s high. He tells Odo to go talk to O’Brien. Now this seems like some sort of program that infects people to have them act out Shakespeare.
Odo goes back to his office where he finds Kira has made herself at home. She is going on about her agenda to get rid of Sisko and O’Brien, and mentions the important character trait that Odo cannot be corrupted. Kira leaves and Odo tries to contact Starfleet and Bajor, contact to Starfleet was prohibited by Kira and contact to Bajor was prohibited by O’Brien. The journal has been reconstructed and Odo finds an entry describing these power spheres, which contain some telepathic archive of a power struggle.
So, what is that green thing behind Odo?
I realize it’s just set dressing, and there’s more of the green in other parts of the station but the one in his office has that weird octagonal window frame with what looks like air jet nozzles attached. What’s it supposed to be? I also like the design on the computer panel behind him. I’ve watched enough DS9 that seeing the panel feels a little like home.
Sisko and O’Brien discuss their plans to escape the Bajorans, and then Odo goes to get the autopsy results from Bashir, who is apparently on the Bajorans’ side. Odo uses clever subterfuge to get the info from Bashir, and get him to solve the problem. Fighting then ensues in the command center. Chase scenes ensue with subterfuge. Excitement builds. Odo gets them all into cargo bay 4 and then activates he program to drive out the telepathic influence, and the sounds effect sounds really neat in my headphones. By really neat, I mean it just creeps me out enough to get the point across. The telepathic influences are driven out and then Odo blows them out the airlock.
Final grade C
Okay, that ended up being pretty exciting and wasn’t the take from the Blue and the Green – which wasn’t bad in its own right, but I generally hate seeing the same story elsewhere, unless they put a new take on it, or it’s really really good and deserves a retelling. It was more like the Shakespeare idea. It had a lot of cringey moments though. It can’t be that great of an episode if I’m staring at the backdrop.
1. Not to be confused with dolomite CaMg(CO3)2
2. Not this Ultima Thule, is it?