The Delta Flyers - A Time to Stand

Episode Date: June 23, 2026

The Delta Flyers is hosted by Garrett Wang, Robert Duncan McNeill, Terry Farrell, and Armin Shimerman. In each podcast release, they will recap and discuss an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.This week’s episode, A Time to Stand, is hosted by Garrett Wang, Robert Duncan McNeill, and Terry Farrell. A Time to Stand: Sisko and his crew embark on a secret mission in a captured Jem’Hadar warship.We would like to thank everyone who makes this podcast possible, starting with our Production Managers, Megan Elise and Rebecca McNeill.Additionally, we could not make this podcast available without our Executive Producers:Stephanie Baker, Jason M Okun, Luz R., Marie Burgoyne, Kris Hansen, Chris Knapp, Janet K Harlow, Rich Gross, Mary Jac Greer, Mike Gu, Tara Polen, Carrie Roberts,Tom Paynter, Sandra Stengel, AJC, Nicholaus Russell, Alex Mednis, Holly Schmitt, David Wei Liu, Roxane Ray, Tim Neumark, Ian Ramsey, Feroza Mehta, Jenny Cordina, Ryan Mahieu, Izzy Jaffer, Francesca Garibaldi, Jonathan Capps, Chris Dellman, Sean T, Cindy Woodford, Tamara Evans, Shawn Robbins, & Francis Our Co-Executive Producers:Liz Scott, Sarah A Gubbins, Trip Lives, Utopia Science Fiction Magazine, Elaine Ferguson, Captain Jeremiah Brown, Deike Hoffmann, Anna Post, Cindy Ring, Lee Lisle, Holly Smith, Amy Tudor, Mark G Hamilton, KMB, Dominic Burgess, Normandy Madden, Joseph Michael Kuhlman, Darryl Cheng, Elizabeth Stanton, Tim Beach, Victor Ling, Shambhavi Kadam, Donna Runyon, Nicholas Albano, Andrew Duncan, Randy Hawke, Penny Liu, Matt Norris, David Smith, Heath K., Andrew Cano, Robby Hill, Kevin Harlow, Jeff Allen, Londyn Henning & Risa EinsidlerAnd our Producers:Philipp Havrilla, James Amey, Jake Barrett, Ann Harding, Samantha Weddle, Paul Johnston, Carole Patterson, Warren Stine, Carl Murphy, Jocelyn Pina, Chad Awkerman, AJ Provance, Brian King, Maxine Soloway, Heidi McLellan, E & John, Brianna Kloss, Dat Cao, Stephen Riegner, Debra Defelice, Alexander Ray, Jason Potvin, Sarah Thompson, Gabriel Dominic Girgis, Renee Wiley, Maria Rosell, Dominique Weidle, Jesse Bailey, Mike Chow, Matt Edmonds, Miki T, Heather Selig, Steph Davies, Stephanie Aves, Seth Carlson, Amy Rambacher, Jessica B, Annie Davey, Jason Eberl, Jeremy Gaskin, Sarah Dunnevant, Charlie Faulkner, Estelle Keller, Eddie Dawson, Lauren Rivers, Jennifer B, PJ Pick, Preston M, Rebecca Leary, SnazzyO, Karen Galleski, Jan Hanford, Katelynn Burmark, Cade Solsbery, Timothy McMichens, Cassandra Girard, Andrea Wilson, Slacktwaddle, Willow Whitcomb, Mo, Leslie Ford, Jay Furness, Jim Poesl, Scott Bowling, Michael Jones, Ed Jarot, James Vanhaerent, Nick Cook-West, Kilian Trapp, Kit Marie Rackley, Gordon Watson, Andrew Golden, Damien O’Donnell, Michael Bourguignon, Patricia Welsch, Shannon Gregg Lucky, Ken Guthrie, Michelle Fox, & Jeff Schmedinghoff Thank you for your support!This Podcast is recorded under a SAG-AFTRA agreement.“Our creations are protected by copyright, trademark, and trade secret laws. Some examples of our creations are the text we use, artwork we create, audio, and video we produce and post. You may not use, reproduce, or distribute our creations unless we give you permission. If you have any questions, you can email us at [e-mail] Sponsors:* Check out Progressive: https://www.progressive.com* Check out Quince and use my code quince.com/tdf for a great deal: https://www.quince.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

So everyone, welcome to the Delta Flyers journey through the wormhole with Quark, Dax, and their good friends. Tom and Harry, join us as we make our way through episodes of Star Trek Deep Space Nine. Your host for today are my fellow Trek actors, Robert Duncan McNeil, Garrett Wong, and of course, myself, Terry Farrell. For the complete and exciting and amazing and stupendous and thrilling version of this podcast, please check out patreon.com forward slash the Delta Flyers. sign up to become a patron today. Hello.

Hello, gang. Hello, gang. I'm loving my Earth Cafe mug. I love how only the logo is there. Yeah, it's like a space mug. I swear, as soon as we started this, I didn't even mean to, but I started buying everything green. And now it's like, I just had a thing for green. You know how you suddenly have a color you're like into?

Yes. But it's made my choices on what to wear very limited. It does limited. It does. It's so funny that you say that, like, you go through color phases. Like, I'm into these earth tones now, as you can see. Like, everything is brown and desert looking. Yes.

But you're not the only one into it. The fashion designers are into it. That is, like, sort of the in color right now. Oh, it is? Oh, my gosh. So many earthy tones. You're very hip. But brown and black, navy, navy, and.

in black. It's, they all kind of, it's a good wardrobe thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Tere Fair, you just came back from a little solo vacay. Um, where did you go again to let us know? Let everyone home. Oh my gosh. I went to St. John. Mm. Yes. Which you've been to before. Right? I've, or no. Yes, I have. I have a, um, time share there. Oh. And it's one week during Thanksgiving. But when I got the timeshare, there was a package deal to get a little trip if you said no to getting a property. But I was there with my business manager and she made sure I got this little week, this little five-day trip. And of course, I haven't gone through this for such a long time, but I had this wild vacation mental trip. Like at first I was thinking, oh, I got to be home.

and I have all these things to do, so I was stuck in my list. And with each day, I relaxed. Started to relax a little more. Right. Yeah. And by the penultimate day, I woke up and I thought, oh, no, I don't want to leave tomorrow. Yeah. Five days is way too short because you have travel on either end.

So it's way too short. And St. John is such a beautiful place. It's like paradise. It really is. It is. And the people are so kind. I stay at the Weston. It's a Weston resort.

And they're amazing. I think it helps that one of the managers there is big Star Trek fans. Star Trek fans. Yes. Doesn't hurt. Does that help? Does that help a little bit? Okay.

Well, because in this package, they couldn't guarantee the spot that I have when I have my time share, which is either a pool view or a beach view. but she got me into the beach view. And I was super happy to be on the second floor, not the first floor, especially being by myself. I don't know why. I just felt a little safer. Yeah. And I had a great view of the bay.

Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. It was awesome. It's so funny, like solo vacations or solo traveling can be such an odd experience, like such a head trip, you know. Yeah. You think about what you should be doing.

Oh, I could be home doing this and that. Or you feel a little lost, like, you know, what do I do with my time? Yeah, you got to think about it, right? Because you were just in New York. Yeah, I was just in New York and had some of that kind of time of wandering around sort of aimlessly. And I was like, I did. I went to the Whitney. Went to the Whitney, did that.

I stayed at this great super hip hotel. I feel like we're doing commercials for vacations on this podcast. But we're not. It's not commercial. Yeah. The Weston has not contact. us. And what hotel were you at? The super cool hotel? It was at Rockaway Beach, which is kind of like the Venice Beach of New York. It's where all the surfers. It's very artsy. Yeah, Rockaway Beach.

And there's a hotel called the Rockaway Beach Hotel. You feel like you're in Soho. There's art and great pool. But it's at Rockaway? Yeah. Rockaway Beach. So how long did it take you to get into the city, the train? There's a ferry from Rockaway. You get on this ferry for $4.50. And it's a 45-minute fair. ride that goes by Coney Island and by the Statue of Liberty and it's beautiful. Wow. It is and I had a friend of mine who lives in New Jersey. I said, come into the city, we'll meet in the city in the morning and we'll take the ferry

back and you can hang out at the beach. Oh, he did that and he was like, this is incredible. I can't believe I've never discovered Rockway Beach and it's ferry because you feel like, you know, you get on the ferry and you just kind of relax and breathe and then suddenly you're at the beach and it was great. That's so cool. Great trip. It's so great.

Yeah. I have two back-to-back cons, one in Philly for creation and one in the Rhode Island Comic-Con. Uh-huh. But I was thinking about... Going to New York? Maybe. Go to New York. Go to the Rockaway Beach Hotel.

Highly recommended. And I'm not getting paid for this ad. Going from Rhode Island to Philly early. Yeah. And then seeing if there's, because that's where we used to go all the time from Hershey, we'd go to the opera, or we'd go see, like we saw her case there. Oh, I bet there's tons. Yeah, tons to do. Tons to do. And I have a girlfriend who has a grandbaby that lives there. So she's there often. But that's what I was thinking of doing. But I usually go to, is it the bro? Not the brood. There's a great museum there. It used to be in a house, in a neighborhood, in Philly. And it used to be. in Pennsylvania in it. Yeah. And it's really famous.

Like an old mansion or something. Yes. And it was a famous art collector. Yeah, that's how a lot of them start. Very wealthy collectors. And then they open it up to the public. And that's how the Gattie started. Same time.

Yeah. I can't think of the name of it. But they moved it to Philly. And I've gone, I went, I've gone there every time I've done a con there. And I go and I look and I have lunch by myself. And there's this beautiful little garden you overlook. Anyway, there's some amazing things. I just have to remember to bring a book with me.

Yes. Traveling alone. Always have a book. Always have a book. Yes. Have to. Is it the barns? Yes.

Is that it? No, no. It moved. It was really hard for the neighborhood. Oh, I'm sure. Yeah. I mean, it's like, I'm mad at, Imagine living next to the Greek.

Yeah. I don't think that would be great. That would take me off, especially with all the traffic. My son used to live right by the Hollywood Bowl, and it was a nightmare when they'd have shows at the Hollywood Bowl. Getting in and out of his neighborhood. Yeah. Here we are season six. I can't believe it.

Oh, my gosh. I'm, like, kind of flummoxed here. I know. We're all flummoxed. It's just, it's been coming by so quickly. But we do have some birthdays a weekend to go through right here. Yep, starting off with June 22nd. That's the birthday for good old Penny Leo. So happy birthday, Penny. Happy birthday, Penny. Happy birthday, Penny. And Stephanie Baker, June 24th. I love you, girl. Best time walking to, I can't remember what drugstore was, Walmart or...

CVS or something. CBS or something in Vegas. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. Happy birthday, Stephanie. Have a great day. Happy birthday, Steph. And on June 24th, we also have, Cassandra Gerard's birthday. Happy birthday, Cassandra. Happy birthday, Cassandra. Wow, went on the same day, June 24th. Party. Happy birthday, Cassandra.

On June 25th, that is the birthday of Jeff Schmettinghoff. Happy birthday, Jeff. Happy birthday, Jeff Schmendinghoff. I love saying your last name. Yay, Jeff, happy birthday. We hope you have a great day. Thanks for watching and listening to the Delta Flyers. And last but not least, on June 27th,

Happy Happy Happy Birthday to Anne Harding. Happy birthday, Ann. Happy birthday, Anne. Have a great birthday, Anne. Hit us with your lovely Limerick, Robbie Van Meele. I do. I have a little poetry for the opening of season six. My limerick goes a little something like this.

Undercover, they hid in plain sight, planting a bomb like a thief in the night. With their engines near dead and a long trip ahead. Ed, will our heroes ever be able to reunite? Yeah. Good job. Yeah, thank you. Very good job.

I love it. Jeffrey, you guys on for us? Here is my poem. Although our chances are slim, we hold on to hope, we hold on to each other, when we must, or our existence is over. Oh, I like that. Yeah. Yes. Well, that's almost like a haiku in a way, you know?

Yeah, I did. It felt a bit, yeah. A bit hykuish. A bit haikuish. I'm doing a poetry hykoo. Slam. Okay. All right.

Speaking of haikus, here we go. My haiku for time to stand. Dominion can't lose. Cisco stops the flow of white. Warp gone. Long way. home. Nice.

Thank you. Who is the Patreon-submitted poetry winner? Well, it's a haiku submitted by Amy T. Crew takes captured ship to destroy Ketrasel White, stuck in enemy space. Nice, Amy. Yeah. How about they didn't warn us? This is another.

There's another part to this. Yes. The cliffhanger made me go, are you kidding? I know. I know. What are they going to do? I don't know, but these last two episodes, like, I want more episodes like this. Okay, I'm sorry.

We'll just... Okay, Garrett, tell us all of the nut nut, sure. The nut nut nut, tell us the nut nut nut. The nut, written by Iris Stephen Bear and Hans Baimler, directed by Alan Craker, our good friend Alan Craker, guest stars Andrew J. Robinson is Garrick, Jeffrey Combs, as Wei Yun, Mark Olimo as Golda Kot Aaron Eisenberg is Knogg J.G. Herzlur as Martak.

Casey Biggs as DeMarre. Barry Jenner as Admiral Ross and Brock Peters recurring as Joseph Sisko. As we know, this is a beginning of a multi-episode arc. This is the Dominion of War. We're in the middle of this.

Now, we do see in memory of Brandon Tardukov, who was the former chairman of Paramount Pictures. He passed away. And it was originally Tardukov. that approached Berman to do a new Star Trek series, and it was his idea to do a stationary show instead of on a starship. So I did not know that, that Tardikoff. I didn't either.

I had that idea, yeah. I didn't know that either. Thank you, Brandon. Yeah, yeah. Rest in peace. I appreciated the job. Brandon Tardikoff, I feel like in my memory of show business back in those days, Brandon Tartikoff's name really popped when he took over the network.

It was NBC, I think. Yes, yes, yes. That's how I know his name. Yeah. Everybody knows because he was very innovative, Brandon Tardukoff. He was the first network executive to start the studio, or sorry, the network tests where they would have the actors come in in front of a team. He was very team-oriented, as my memory. I think that works really good.

Oh, so he's the one that started that. Yeah. So when you went in for network testing. in front of a whole bunch of executives that he was the one that came up with that idea. I think before then it had just been the studios pick their people and then they submitted the names. This is who we want. And this network would say, okay, great. And he was the one that said, no, at the network, he kind of took his studio experience and kind of put it into network policy.

And then everyone started following that. So he was very innovative branded Tartagoff. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that makes sense, too. Yeah. Then you're not hearing it secondhand about a performance. Yeah.

You get to watch it, talk about it, meet the people. You get to sense of that person. But to be perfectly honest, from an actor's standpoint, that was so nerve-wracking. To be in front of all those suits. People that you hadn't seen, you know, before the process, you meet the casting director, then the showrunner, people that you start getting used to seeing. And then all of a sudden, you go to the network meeting and all these people are in that room. Yeah. And they're all wearing suits.

And none of them are laughing. They're just staring at you. And you're sitting there going, oh, my God. So it's a little anxiety-ridden, at least, for my experience. What I liked about it was, I don't remember who told me this, but think of it as when you walk through a door for an audition that you're going through the proscenium. Oh, like on to the stage. Okay. Okay.

Yes. And always looking, like, if you're looking out. If you're looking out above their heads, whatever. Because for me, and I bet it is for you too, the nerves were about, oh, my God, I'm so close to getting what I'm so excited to have. That too. So you have to drop all of that and just go in and perform it. I'm not saying there isn't a little part of you in the back of your head going, just breathe. But it does.

All of those things, right? Yeah. I think the worst part is if you don't get nervous, then when you walk out and it hits you, it's like you almost hope on the way there that you're nervous. Yeah. And every network seemed to have a different setup.

Like, I remember going to Fox to network at Fox and they were just in a conference room over at Fox Studios. I think NBC was the same thing. CBS, you went to network in front. It was like a screening room over in Television City. Oh, my gosh. That did feel like a stage, though. Yes, yes.

It really did. I liked that one the best. That was my favorite one too. Because you felt like you were actually performing on a stage. Yeah. CBS was great. You were more comfortable for that, right? Oh, yeah. For Becker, I was in the executive's office.

And for deep space, it was that conference room. Yeah, the Star Trek conference room. Also, I remember the Star Trek testing room or that conference room. The air conditioning was horrible. Oh, my God. That's right. We tested for Voyager. It was just.

July or August, so it was hot. And that room was, and the sun would come in, and it was just so hot and still and muggy in there. Yeah. Rob, did you know? This is one of the longest recap segments in the history of Star Trek up until this point. Is it really? Yes, it is. Yeah, but it was important.

It was very important. And it's interesting because, yeah, there was a ton of action. And it was good that they reminded everybody about how big that was because I feel like it was the biggest, the end of season five. was maybe the biggest battle sequence we've ever seen. Oh, yes, 100%. It was film worthy. And a reminder that Starfleet has abandoned the station, that Dukad is there with DeMar and Wei Yun and they're in charge.

And Odo and Kira. And the fans have been waiting for at this point what months to see this season premiere, correct? So it's a long wait. Yeah. Recap is good. So now the opening shot, we see a very damaged, ships coming back. Remember, so this is the, yeah, this is the very, very first year. Isn't that gorgeous? Oh my word. But remember, we've thought, when we left the season

ender, we thought, oh, this is going to be a great battle because there were so many Starfleet ships. Yeah. And it looked like they were headed for the station. Yes. And then this opening scene, everyone is damaged. There's a, there's a ship being tractor back. Yeah. It has no impulse power. And And everybody has damage. And it does not look like the same amount of ships either. A lot less. And also, there's some of the ships even have fires going. Once again, effects are...

Yes. Love it. Love it, love it, love it. Yes. And again, as a reminder, this episode is really the last time that we see the usage of actual physical models. The only thing that was CGI in this episode was the Defiant. Everything else was still a physical model. And the team spent a lot of time building ships just to, you know, to, they just created all types of random ships.

Did they say how they did the fires then with the... That I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, I'm not sure how they did that. Yeah, it was very cool. Well, they're heading back. We have our recap. And then we cut onto the Defiant Bridge and our team's all there.

Cisco is exhausted. Everybody's exhausted. And we learned that it's three months later that they've been through a lot of. of battles. At this moment, they've been up 78 hours straight. And Nog is on the bridge of the Defiant. He seems like he's a senior Starfleet officer to me, which I was like, wait, did we ever see him graduate? Yeah, I thought he was still in Starfleet Academy. Yeah, I thought so too. But maybe because of the situation. Yeah, that's true. He got an upgrade. We have to level him up because we need him. Yeah. So it's a great experience for him. He's like an understudy.

in a play he had to step up well only it's like he's in every other scene yeah exactly in the play because it's important what he's doing yeah yeah yeah he seems the most awake yes he does he does everybody else is exhausted evidently the last three months is that the number that we have here yeah yeah oh brian says it yeah three months later yeah that's a long time and it's just been it's been the same thing it's It's engage, retreat, run. Engage, retreat, run. It's just back and forth. And they haven't won really anything.

They've lost pretty much every battle, it sounds like. Yeah, and they mentioned the seventh fleet that they haven't even heard from the seventh fleet. Yeah, it seems like Starfleet is just taking, you know, damage after damage, loss after loss after loss. Yeah, we're getting a beating. We're getting spanked. Yeah. We go into the supply room back on the Defiant in the back. and it's a oneer, a very long oneer here with Garrick,

who's come to Bashir because he bumped his head. There's a little fancy, a lot of movement going on here. They're moving around all the time in this oneer, but they still manage to have close talking, classic Starfleet's close talking, which I thought was great. Garrick is very edgy in this scene. He's very impatient with Bashir. It seems like now in this season we're leaning into Bashir's genetic and

enhancement, you know. Wow, we leaned hard. Hard, right? In this episode. Yeah, it was like suddenly he's being super shamed in this scene. Yeah, he's like a computer. He's literally, you know, able to do math in his head or statistics. This is where it bothers me about the history. Yeah, we've never seen anything. It just doesn't make sense. Yeah. Unfortunately. It did feel a little inconsistent to me. It should have been in the Bible in the beginning. And he should have been, you know, Offering up some of these calculations, but trying to keep it secret or there should have been some hints to it. And it seems like suddenly. Like having him pretend to make it be more work for him.

We should have seen that, though. Yeah, I agree. It's just incongruent. How did you two interpret Bashir's mood? Because I kind of felt like he'd thrown in the towel already. It is what I felt like. He seemed a little defeated, a little angry. Yes.

Yes. there was anger too. And Garrick, too. Like, they were bickering. The two of them were going at each other. Well, and maybe this is an example of being in the war for three months. Yeah. And you've got to show it different for each character, has to have, you know, part of the story tell the truth about what it feels like to be in this situation.

Right. Yeah. But also, because Bashir knows, I mean, they get to the point where they're talking about the percent. Is this that scene? Yeah. Of our chances? Yes. Yes.

Yes. 32.7% chance. And when he knows that, not everybody can hold on to hope that long every day. So when he actually knows it's 30. 37.2. 32.2%. Sorry. 32.7.

That's what I meant. There you go. Less than 50%, far less than 50% chance of winning. of course, I think that would really weigh heavy on you. Yeah. Especially when you know that's the reality. Yeah. Not that you're kind of making it up.

It's like he knows that's the reality. And that's terrifying. Definitely. And he's young. So he's kind of checked out a little bit. He's probably compartmentalizing. He's protecting himself. Yes.

He's checked out a little bit, although when Garrick says, you're not just, you're not genetically engineered. You're a Vulcan. And then he pops over real close to his face. He goes, well, if I'm a Vulcan, how do you explain my boyish smile? He gets very playful. It's very playful there at the end of the scene. That's good, although I wish he would have smiled a little bit more.

But yeah, great comeback from Garrick, not so boyish anymore, doctor. Yeah. Good, good line. Yeah, because he wasn't in the scene. I really liked that scene. Yeah, it was nice. And the fact that it was such a long oner. I see Alan Craker doing a lot of oners like this.

lately. Really well done. Yeah. Yeah. We go into the mess hall and the defiant Martak and Worf are returning from the Klingon ship. They're coming over. They've been craving a rack to Gino, we learn. But Worf has something else on his mind. It's about the wedding. Dax is worried he's getting cold feet, but he says no. You know, the schedule is messed up. You've got the ritual sacrifice of the Targ. After the wedding feast, it's not traditional. And Dax is like, wait, we haven't seen each other for five weeks. And that's what you want to talk about? The schedule.

I, wait, I loved how. I remember this too. You do? Talking with Michael about me jumping in his arms. Yeah, I want to talk about that. Oh, yeah. And he was, I was like, are you sure you can hold me? And he's like, feral.

He did. He's a strong man. Yeah. I was very impressed. Because honestly, when you jumped up, it's almost like you two were made of Velcro. Like you just stuck to him immediately. And there was no effort. He looked like it was effortless.

Michael didn't fall back. Michael didn't do any adjusting. It was totally the smoothest leap into an arm I've ever seen on film. Sexy, right? Super freaking sexy. Was it the first take? Did you guys get it immediately? I would imagine so.

I don't know. So, it was so good. So. So. So in the script, it says, Dax leaps up and runs over to Wharf. Worf, she says. She encircles him with a bear hug. Oh, so you.

It was not scripted. No, I think that was us. Yeah. And it might have been Michael's idea. I think it might have been Michael's idea. Yeah. I wonder if, because in the script it says, Dax leaps leaps up and gives him a hug. But maybe the word leaps gave somebody the idea.

Why don't you just leap into my arm? I really think it might have been Michael because it would seem that he's the one that's gauging that he can do it or not, right? Yeah, yeah. They work out their wedding ceremony schedule and then they take off for some private time. And Cisco has to comment as they leave, try not to break any bones with a big smile on his face. Did I cross my fingers or wink at him? I think you did both. A combination of both.

Yeah. I like how I let them in on stuff, too, like something about having the wedding I always wanted and pointing at Wharf. Because really, it doesn't matter to her as much as it matters to him. Bashir comes in. We learned that they've been ordered to report to Star Base 375 for reassignment. And I found it odd that, like, how did Bashir get this information? That he's got news about the 7th Fleet that only 14 ship. made it back.

I didn't clock that. I didn't clock that. Good catch. Yeah, like. Yeah, why is Bashir knowing? Why is Bashir suddenly the communications officer from the medical bay or whatever? It was kind of odd. And he's very irritated in this scene, Bashir.

He's got news of this reassignment. He seems at the end of his rope. He even gets a little feisty with Cisco. But this is where we find out about the 7th Fleet because we didn't know what happened to them. Only 14 ships made it back to our lines. Out of 112? Yeah.

That's horrible. That's horrible. That's 98. 92% destruction or something like that. Well, no wonder he's pissed off. Yeah. He's pissed off and he says to, he kind of snaps at Cisco. He says, we can't keep taking losses like this, sir.

Not if we expect to win. Yeah. And then Cisco dismisses him patiently but firmly. You know, thank you. That will be all. Yeah. Yeah. Don't snap at me.

Right. So he's not the only one that snaps because Cisco snaps. Everyone snaps at one point or another, it seems. Cisco like slams the counter after he leaves. All right, so we've got a Dukot log. Duquette says permanent documentation file, Duquette SG. Each day brings reports of new victories. The war continues to go well.

The enemy is retreating on almost all fronts. It's only a matter of time before the Federation collapses. And Earth becomes another conquered planet under Dominion rule. All in all, it's a good time for Cardassia and the Dominion. Very confident here. He is. I also love how he paced that last sentence. Robbie, I don't know if you clock that.

He says, all in all, it's a good time for Cardassia and the Dominion. He throws the end of the Dominion. Yeah, yeah. Of course he did. He's playing the long game. He totally is. They're going to be in the dust sooner or later. Yeah.

What does SG stand for? What would you say, Robbie? Ducat S.G. I don't know. Supreme. General? General. Oh, maybe.

Maybe. Super general. Okay, got it. Senior general? Senior general. Maybe. I don't know. I don't have my phone.

I can't look it up. Well, we go to the ward room. Wayoon is there. He seems very pleased, thinks everything's going super well. Damar does not agree. And by the way, Damar is very serious. He doesn't have a lot to say, but when he does, boy, he's the heavy here. Yeah.

And the contrarian a lot of times. He's always, like, disagreeing with people. I find him very interesting. Kira comes in, though. She wants Bajoran security. She wants them armed. And Dukot says absolutely not. Very good tension here with Kira.

Oh, you can tell she doesn't like him personally. Yeah. I mean, I think she just uses that 100%. Yes, she does. She does. Yeah, it's an interesting dynamic between Dukat and Kira. I love it. I mean, I feel badly for her because he was difficult for her to work with.

but it's so powerful. Definitely for the show. Yes, yes. I mean, sucks personally, but dang, it looks good. In this scene, Wayune does express this concern about what Odo thinks of him. Like, he's very, very concerned about Odo's opinion. It's so cute. And Keir is like, well, why don't you ask him?

And he's like, oh, no, no, no, no, I can't waste his time with that. I mean, he's so like, just tiptoeing around. On eggshells. Oh my gosh. It's hilarious. So Kira basically leaves the scene. And now we just have Wayun, Dukot, and of course, Damar. And I love, I love when Jeffrey Combs puts Casey Biggs in his place.

And the scene, it was the best. Yeah, when he kicks him out. Don't look at him. Don't you look at him. Yeah. It was almost like a parent talking to the kids. Like, don't you look at them? No, you get out.

Yeah, it was, oh, it was brilliant. I don't want to hear it. Yeah. Yeah, Wayoon. Once Kira leaves, Weiun is all business here. He's like, he tells Dukot, you know, you assured me you'd be able to dismantle that minefield within a month. And that was two months ago. And Duccott explains about these mines, which is very helpful.

He says they're not ordinary minds. Every time we deactivate or destroy one, its neighbor replicates a new one. So these minds. It's complicated. Yeah. They did a good job. mining this wormhole. Yeah, and all because of Rahm's suggestion, if you recall from the last episode. Rom, myself and O'Brien. That's right. You guys put it together. But Duqat says he'll deal with a minefield.

He does defer to Wee in there, but very reluctantly. We get a glimpse of what's happening in this war because, you know, definitely Descartes has this feeling of superiority. This is like, you know, we're definitely winning. And we even reminds him. He's like, yes, we're winning for the moment. But we need reinforcements and we need new supplies of Ketrasol White soon because they're running out of this. And that's the only thing that is keeping the gem Hidar going. You stop that. They basically die. So that is, that's the end of them. Yeah. Well, we go into Quarks next. We've missed Quark. And it's busier than ever there. Very busy. Do you see how many Gem Hadar are sitting around there, by the way? I was thinking about the makeup department. I realized, oh my gosh, now they're going to have to be

doing lots of Gem Hadar constantly and Cardassians and the way you know. A lot of makeup. There's a ton of makeup. Very expensive. Yeah. I was thinking of it. The smell of that latex. The latex smell.

Oh my gosh. I think this is quarks only scene. Is it his only, okay, so this is his residual scene? Yeah. Yeah. I think so too. I felt, I mean, I liked it, but I also didn't like it because he already explained this. If you recall in a prior episode, he was saying that, oh,

When the Gem Hadar show up, what am I going to do? They don't eat. He's already gone through this whole thing. They don't have fun. Yeah, he's trying to charm the Jim Hidar. He's offering to take their photo to send him to Hollisweets, Dabo, any of that, nothing. So they're just sitting at the bar doing nothing. Nothing.

They don't eat. They don't drink. It's just the Ketra Cell White that keeps them going. That's it. So it's like having a vampire sitting at the bar. Yeah. But a vampire that has no feelings or emotions or likes for anything because he's trying to entertain them. You can go to the Hallis Suite, but they don't care about that either.

So it's like, oh. But then again, the question is, why are they even sitting there? Shouldn't they just be in their ship or just hanging out in guard duty or something? Why would they even go to quarks? I don't know. Well, I also don't understand that quark later on says things are busier than expected. Here, I'll buy a drink on the house. Yeah.

Where's the busy? They're not doing anything. It seems a little bit flip-flopier. Are there Kardashians there spending money, though? That's the only people that are there spending there. It's Cardassians. It's got to be Corrassians. And there's Bajorans on the station.

Dumb. Yeah. Then we move on to Odo and Kira. And I just want to say, wow, they're like completely pals again. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, they are. So is that shocking to you because of what happened before in a way?

Well, it just felt like I'm sure they're assuming time has gone by, but not that much. Yeah. Because it was awkward back when we saw. them last. Yeah. Well, wait a minute. It's been three months. So I guess in three months. And they're the only ones like everybody else is left. Correct. It's weird for us as the audience because we haven't had three months, right? So yeah. Okay. And if they kept saying something about three months, it would be like, oh my gosh, we got it. We're not stupid. Yeah. Well, they have they have a nice long talk, secret talk. And by the way, I loved the lens choice that Alan Craker made on these clubs. And

close-ups. It was a long lens, which puts the background very out of focus. And it really felt like you were in this bubble of the secret conversation. It was very flattering lenses. And I thought that looked great. Yeah. Yeah. But they talk about, you know, what's going on. We learn that Kira doesn't trust Wayune at all. Big surprise. But she trusts him more than Dukot, is what she said. She trust, yes, she trusts he's a heart. Yeah, she's, she's not sure about Wayeum, but she trusts him more than Dukot. I think it's because she knows about the connection with Odo that Wayne thinks of Odo as a God. So I think there's leverage there, but not really trust. Correct. Odo does comment about her smile at one point. He says, I'm glad that you can still

smile. And her response is only when I'm with you. So a very kind of romantic. It is. It's rom-comy here. Yes. Yes. He made such a smart move going, hey. Nothing's going to happen. Yeah. Quark comes back over, talks about things are going well. He reminds them, you know, things could be a lot worse. There's no prison camps here. It's not like the old days.

Yeah. Yeah. And the Dominion, quarks, like the Dominion seems to really want everyone to think that they're friendly, that they're good people. Kira is not so sure. If they're so friendly, why won't they let us have Bajorn security on the station? She's really focused on that. Awesome. Awesome point.

We go into Cisco's office, which is at Star Base 375. Admiral Ross is showing him his new space because he says, as of right now, you are no longer in command of the Defiant. Oh, bum, bum, bum. I thought he was getting demoted. I'm like, what's going on? Me too. I didn't understand why he said. And then where's the Defiant?

Is it in repairs? It felt a little bit like a fake out, honestly. Yeah. Like, you know, the writers wanted us to feel like, oh, no, he's not, you know, he's being demoted. And then we learn later on. They've got a mission for him. But he's got an office, not on the station anymore. He's got to be at Star Base 375.

Can we talk about Admiral Ross very quickly? I wanted to just say, I think you have some trivia for us, don't you, Gawa? I do. His uniform, it still matches the older TNG-style uniforms. A new Admiral's uniform had not yet been designed. design. Also, the budget was already kind of taken up with all the special effects that have been going on. So a very pricey episode. But Barry Jenner, this is his first appearance as Admiral William Ross in this episode. After he finished shooting, Ira Stephen Bear took him aside and said, we've had other admirals on this show. We're glad we found you. Sorry it took five years. He was a really nice man. Yeah. So Bear said of Jenner, he said, quote, he brings a gravitizing. us to the role, and yet you can see there's a man behind the uniform. I think that Barry Jenner is

one of the unsung heroes of the show. One of the pieces of the puzzle that might not be readily apparent to the audience, but he's part of the glue that makes our job easier. What a compliment for a guest actor. Honestly, guest actors like that, it makes our job easier too. Yes, it helps the series regulars. Yeah. I liked him. I remember liking him. And it's interesting. The thing is, They didn't want to spend money on a new admiral. But you know what? But he looked great, so it didn't even matter. They refit him in somebody else's uniform.

That's very funny. Didn't it? I think all the other ones were shorter than him. He was a tall man. Tall guy. He is a tall man. Yeah. A little bit later, we're still in Cisco's new office.

And he's filling Dax in on what's going on. Dax can't believe he's relieved of command. Cisco says why he didn't say why. So we don't know yet what the plan is. And she reminds Cisco that he needs to call his dad and fill him in on Jake. So that issue finally comes up, which I was like, I've forgotten that Jake had stayed behind on the station. And it's a great segue from this scene to the next. But I also, before we move to the next, I do want to compliment Terre Fair on the beginning of this scene.

Because she has the first line. And you always have to bring that level of you've got to be there, right? If you're not, if you don't have the bright energy in the very beginning, a scene will fall flat. So just your first line of relieved of command why you really you brought it. So I mean, it's a small detail, but still you did a great job on that. Yeah, it was really good. Yeah, your chemistry with Avery is great. The sense that you guys are old friends.

Thank you. Really plays well. Yeah. I miss him. We're still in his office and Cisco is talking to his dad. Joseph is mad here. He's worried about Jake. Of course.

How could you leave my grandson on that? stationed with this horrible bloodthirsty enemy. Like he's he's not happy at all. And he makes one comment in the scene, Joseph does, where he says, you know, you always talk about space and, you know, the endless, what is you show?

Space is big and endless frontier filled with infinite wonders. Well, if that's the case, then you think it'd be a lot, it would be more than, there'd be more than enough room to allow people just to leave each other alone. And I was, yes. Exactly.

It's great. It's so true. Yeah. It's so true. Because without warp, man, it's like, you remember at the end of the last episode, it would take them 17 years to get to the closest star ship. Holy cow. The closest Starfleet station, right? Yeah.

With an impulse. So without warp, it's, you can't get anywhere. Everyone is so far apart. Just leave each other alone, people. But. But we are guarding the wormhole. Yeah. Now with Terek Nore again, but I think that's what makes this specific part of space so important and valuable is the wormhole.

Just a reminder. Yes, that's true. That is very true. I like at the end of the scene, too, how they say they love each other. You know, I love you. I love you too. It was just really nice human detail. Yeah.

They both get quite worked up in this scene, definitely. Yeah, they do. Rightly so, though. Joseph needs to be reminded that. that he is now considered an adult. And he's going to make decisions just like Cisco did that don't always make you happy when they're young. Yeah. Yeah.

And also I think- It's just part of becoming adulting. Right. But grandpa also still sees Jake as a little boy, I bet. You know what I'm saying? He doesn't really think of him as an adult. No, no. Of course.

But those things you have to remember because it's a time. I'm going through it right now. Max graduates on Saturday. And, whoa. You know, there's choices they make that could cost you money too. Yeah. And you have to, like when they learn to drive, you have to stop thinking, oh, my God, what if they get in an accident?

Or you can't get through the day. Yeah, you would pull your hair out. Yeah. You just have to trust that they learned what you taught them and their mistakes won't be too big. Yeah. I also liked in this scene how they can get angry with each other, but they shake it off very quickly. Yes.

You know, Cisco asks about the restaurant and Joseph makes a joke. Mm-hmm. You know, on the heels of being passionate about Jake. Yes. Important stuff. How's the restaurant doing? Sisko says. Joseph goes, oh, it's all right.

It's been three weeks since I poisoned anyone, which I thought was very funny. So great. So great. Yeah. A healthy family. Yes. Good banter. Good ability to be passionate but not take it personally.

Yeah. It's good. We go to the promenade. we transitioned into Jake's story here and Jake is trying to interview Wayoon. It's another long oner, walk and talk. Wayun doesn't like the wording that Jake has been using. He keeps calling it an occupation and it is. It is.

But he doesn't like that word. And so he says, I haven't allowed any of your writing to be transmitted yet. And Jake's very upset about that. He's like, what about freedom of the press? Yeah, that idea doesn't work with the Dominion at all, so they don't even know what that means. No. He laughs. Read them?

Yeah. Freedom? What? What's freedom? And basically they end it with Wayune saying, you know, I'm not going to send anything, but keep writing and I'll read them. And I'll keep reading, yeah. And I'll keep reading.

If you can stop calling us an occupation, maybe I'll transmit it. So, yeah. I also noticed in the scene how Sirok is so much taller than Jeffrey. Oh, my God. Oh, right. He's such a Delini. Bean. He's like a fawn. It's almost like he's bit.

Or giraffe. Yeah. It's still very thin and agile. Yeah, a little gawky sometimes. But he's hunching over. He's not standing straight up because I think he even feels like, oh my gosh, Jeffrey Combs is so much shorter than me. Quite honestly. Do you know what it is? You can't hear someone. Oh, so he's been. When I'm friends with people that are like 5-2 or 5-3, like I used to lean down, Just to hear what they're saying.

Yes. Yes. All righty. That makes sense. We go to Cisco's office on the space station. We learn about their new assignment. There's a storage facility with lots of catcher cell white. Isn't that where they make it?

Well, it's like a distribution center. Yeah. Oh, okay. Storage facility. Well, that would make more sense. Right. Which is running out of their supplies because no resupplies can come through the wormhole because it's been mined. So they're slowly getting less and less.

They're basically going to take this captured Gem Hadar ship and go undercover. Very exciting. I was super excited about this. I like Bashir's question. He goes, do you even know how to fly that thing? This goes like, not yet, but I intend to learn. Well, he's not flying that thing. I am.

Yes, exactly. And I had a lot to learn. You've got to fly it. Nog's got to do some fly. But I like that it's an attack ship. It's not just a Gemhadar ship. It's a Gemhadar attack ship. it looked pretty cool so i was kind of looking this up because this whole idea of using the

alien ship as you know to be undercover the trojan horse kind of thing um it's been used before and so okay so this aired in 1997 september so you guys filmed this still in 1997 so this did happen after independence day because that was the big sort of plot point in the movie Independence Day, if you recall. It was Will Smith, who flies, who pilots the alien ship back up to the mother ship to release the virus. Isn't Brent Spiner the mad scientist? He is Professor Okin.

Same last name as Jason Okin. Oh, that's hilarious. But it's 1996 guys that Independence Day came out. So the writers saw that. And then here's this 97 episode using the ship. So they kind of reused that idea, I think, from the movie. It had to have been, right? I mean, you know.

Well, whatever creative influence, it's a compliment. Yeah. And the same thing was used in the series Falling Skies. Well, like you said, it's a Trojan horse. It's a classic storytelling probe. That's right. So the original was the Trojan horse story, which predates Independence Day by a few thousand millennia. So maybe it was just a Trojan horse idea rather than having anything to do with independent.

Day. Right. Yes. Exactly. Exactly. It could have been that too. Right. Well, we go on to the Gem Hadar control room and they're preparing this Gemhadar ship. Nog mentions he wants chairs. He's like, where's the chairs on this ship? Oh, I love this. That's crazy. Miles mentions there's no food replicators. Dax is talking about no windows. You can't see anything. No view screen. Yeah. Bashir wants an infirmary. This is this is not going to be an easy ship to live. They didn't even talk about waste extraction. I don't even know if there's waste extraction here on this. Oh, well, just open a window. There's no windows.

I love, though, the realistic moment of them having an ordinary, ordinary conversation that anybody would have in this situation. Yeah. Really, I think you need those moments when you're under that kind of stress to complain about some small things. some inconveniences. Well, even like Nogsland and he says, well, I'd love to see a Jim Hedar soldier on the Defiant and see how well he does. Like, yeah, it's very, it feels very relatable in the midst of all this techno babble. Relatable. Great word.

Yeah. Bashir wants a surgical tissue regenerator because he says this could get ugly. I actually thought that was a good reminder of like the seriousness. Like everybody's talking about chairs. Right. like, you know, more, more lighthearted things. And Bashir's like, no, what we need is to be able to save lives. Because he's downer Dave in this.

He's a downer. But realistic downer. Yeah. So he's a shot of reality, basically. But they go back to lightness after that. He talks about the tissue generator. And Dax goes, maybe, but right now I'd settle for a view screen. Nog goes, or a chair and O'Brien, or a sandwich.

So they go right back into their little thing. Who wants to talk about maybe dying? Right. We've been living this for months now. And we know. And we've been in war before. This is not our first hold your breath. This could be it.

So Downer Dave, back to the, back to your room. While they're talking about sandwiches and all that, Cisco arrives with Garrick. They prepare to leave. He has to put this headset on so he can look on the little screen and we start to see the POV. They've got these cuts to that little square. Yeah. That is the view.

screen because there is no view screen. Yes. And it's a bit of a bumpy takeoff. I do like actually when O'Brien's line where he says, Garrick's, you know, joining them. And O'Brien says, pull up a chair. I laughed. Yeah. Yeah. No chairs. And I liked my bumpy. Oops. Oops. Yes. He's like doing the best I can. Little lurch. Yes. Want to make every make sure everyone's awake. But I thought too, that's realistic because of it being a new thing. And it would be. I just, I kind of boggle it how many languages they must speak to know all of the controls. Yeah. Yeah, I wonder if they've got like, a universal translator for language, but I wonder if there's like some device or no.

Well, I mean, you know what is what? Well, I'm sure the tricorder probably just you can, right? But we don't see us using it. We never talk about it. But nobody speaks Jem Hedar. You know what I'm saying? I mean, they don't know that, and they don't know the language or the written language. They'd have to have something that translates it.

They did duolingo. They did quick duolingo course, and they're good to go with Jem Hidar language. Well, we do it with the Kardashians, and we've done it with the Klingons. Although I imagine Dax knows Klingon. We go back to the space station. Kira goes to see Dukot, who's called for her. She arrives. He basically is saying, you know, we haven't had much time together.

He starts getting kind of creepy. She's like, I don't have time for this. Goes to leave and he kind of puts his foot down, says, I have not dismissed you yet. So he's got a creepy sort of like, I'm the boss, but I want you to like me. It's a very, yeah, it's a very. And she's freaking excellent in this.

She's so good. Death daggers in her eyes. Yes. And when he goes to touch her, I was like, when he touched her arm. I know. He touched her face. Oh, her face.

Oh, yeah. She's like, yeah. Yes, I'm sure that was real. Yeah. Yeah. Well, he tries to clear the air in this scene, says the Kardashians were losing everything,

and now they have the entire Alpha Quadrant, basically with the Dominion. And he says, I can make things pleasant for you. Ew. That's when she kind of loses it and basically says, I'm always going to hate you. And he goes, we'll see. Be patient.

I like to, though, and he says, yes, we will. Oh, I could. make things very oh that pleasant and she says you could start by doing something about your breath yes that was like what a perfect thing to say you could not that is one of those hard things to say about to someone like do you hand them a piece of gum offer them a mint but also it's just so demeaning and shaming and it was great to go back to the gem had our control room Cisco has a headache now from that headset that dang headset it's made for jem had not for humans and Garrick offers to wear it thinks maybe you know on the Cardassian it won't

have the same effect and Cisco sort of reluctantly agrees when Nag says hey I'm picking up a starfleet vessel and Cisco knows exactly who it is the ship um it is char his good friend charlie Reynolds but uh oh the centaur the USS centaur don't you think they would have briefed Charlie Reynolds that, hey, there's a secret mission going on right now. Don't go so secret that they can't even brief? Thank you. Oh, my God. Thank you.

But then how do you identify which one? Yeah, that's true. You're not going to know which one's going to have the crew in there. That's true. Well, they end up in a battle. Charlie Reynolds, Cisco's friend, thinks that they're a jemadarship, as you would. So he starts firing and then they, Cisco reluctantly sort of exchanges fire. He's trying not to destroy the ship, but he wants, he's got to fight back.

And he knows Charlie's habits. He knows what Charlie's going to do, how he's going to hang closer. I love that. Yeah, that was cool. And in the middle of this exchange of fire, suddenly the centaur runs off. And we pick up three Gem Hadar ships coming in. They fly right by us, right by our Gem Hadar ship. Because to get away from Charlie, we had to go into Dominion space, right?

He couldn't go too deep. Well, he's heading back because he detects other Gemmador ships coming at him. That's why he turned around. He didn't care about crossing into the space. He kept firing at Cisco and company. Remember that? Exactly. Thank you, thank you.

But I almost felt that Cisco could have easily said, okay, use that aft tail light to flash out a Morse code signal to him. You know, like, hey, we are Starfleet. Yeah, because, you know. Do they have tail lights? We needed a foreverance and on our show. Whatever. If you had been on the bridge, you could have suggested that. I could have told Cisco that.

Yes. Harry Kim would have saved the day there. Harry Kim definitely would have. And then Cisco has to decide, do I help, you know, my buddy Charlie, or do I just keep going on my mission? He decides to keep going on his mission. Oh, he has to. We can't suddenly, what are we going to do? Yeah, what are you going to do?

In a Gem-Hadar ship, we're going to attack Gem-Hadar. Right. That'll spill the beans right there. Yeah. Yeah, and how big is the fleet that's going to come when that happens? Yeah. Yeah, Dax says, I wish we could help. But Cisco says he's been in tight spots.

He'll figure it out. So they're back to their mission. We cut back to the DS9 in the security office, Keir's telling Odo that basically in the scene, he should demand Wayune restore his pejoran deputies. Because Odo's sitting in his office going, I'm not doing anything. Yeah.

Why am I here? I don't have deputies. I don't have a staff. Why am I even? What am I doing? Yeah, what am I doing? And could you imagine having your, higher power be a physical entity that you could have a conversation with.

That would be cool. That would be cool. Not just one in your head, but literally. And Kira says at the end of it, you know, you've got this power as a changeling. Yeah. And what good is that power if you're not using it? You've got to use it. Exactly.

It's not power unless you stand up for it. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Odo goes to visit Weyun. But in the beginning, he's not in that scene. So it's just it's just Ducotte and Wayune going back and forth, right? Well, the very beginning, Ayun is giving the Gem Hadar some Ketracel White.

Yes. He's feeding them. And I think that was smart to reinforce, yeah, us remind us. Yeah, us remind us that it's running low. And you can see when they put it in their little slip thing, they go, they get a hit of it. And then that's when Odo enters Damars. He says he's been very insistent on seeing you. Odo comes in and he immediately goes straight to Waye.

Wayune actually walks towards Odo. And he's so honored. His personality changes completely. Founder, I'm honored by your visit. Is there some way I can be of service? And Odo's like, I want my majoring security office reinstated. And Wayune's like, consider it done. I mean, without even skipping a beat.

It was great. You can have that. You can have that. And Dukat tries to protest. He tries to say, well, I'm not sure about that. And Weyung just shuts him down very quickly. Oh, thank you to keep out of it is what he says to him. Oh, yes.

So good. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. From now on. Wayun's like, now that I've done something for you, maybe you can do me a favor. So he's. Oh, did you not like go, oh, no. What is that going to be?

What do you want? Well, we learn in the next scene in quarks that Wayune has offered Odo a position on the station ruling council. So not only. is it a favor, but it's more power. It's great. It's so great. And thank you, Kira, for pushing him in that direction. I mean, it is great, but Kira also says, well, it's a mixed blessing because if you sit on this council, it's going to validate the dominion. So what? I agree with you. Here's a little, she's conflicted about it. Well, the pluses outweigh the minuses. Yeah, is what it is. Yes. And you know what side you're on. Yeah. He knows. And it's not like Odo's

going to spill beans about anything. And he's. And he's. And he's. And he's. And he's, does say, you know, maybe before when it was the Cardassians running this place, I was on the, you know, the bad guy's side, but now I'm not going to be alone. I've got you to help me. Yes. Yes. She's got him. And then they hold

hands, right? Doesn't she take his hand? Oh, yes. She does. I forgot about that. Oh, no, they do that little like, bam, we're a team. I thought you meant. She's not looking at him. It was kind of a weird staging because she's kind of facing away and she takes his hand and sort of

Right. Yeah, but it's still significant. It's more than a high five. It's like it's camaraderie. Like, look, we're a team. We're together on this. Yeah, yeah. I secretly love you, you know, kind of thing.

But also, like, what Odo learned from the first occupation and how he wished, we've already heard about how he wished he would have had. Yeah. Listen to himself and done things differently. So it's like he has an opportunity to do better this time. To correct it. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. That's an amazing opportunity when life hands you that. Well, we go back to the Gem Hadar control room. They're orbiting around an asteroid and they're watching another ship re-supply. Cool, freaking shot. Do we know the names of the people who did all of that work? Because they should all be celebrated because that is insane. It seems crazy to me that I don't know their names off the top of my head. I don't either. I don't know the whole team. There was probably lots and lots, dozens and dozens. You're talking about the Viz Effects team? is what you're saying? Yes.

Yeah. All of these exterior shots are mind blowing. Yeah, it's beautiful. They're so good. Well, they keep cutting back and forth. They're watching this other GemHadarship resupply the Ketra-Sel-White. They're timing it. They're looking at all the details.

And while they're taking notes, O'Brien is getting the bomb ready. And they see that it took 92.3 seconds for the exchange last time. So they get their bomb ready. Garrick requests a resupply for their ship. And it seems like the plan seems to be working. Right. So they get the resupply and they beam down the empty canisters with the bomb down to the planet. Oh, but the empty canisters.

Got it. For a second, I was like, how did that happen again? Right. That's how they did it. They snuck it in because they watched, Garrick is listening into all the communications of the other Jim Hedars. And he's doing great with that. That I piece. He's doing really good.

But then they come across a problem. After they have everything, they've already dropped off the bomb. And all of a sudden, the defense net or the force field goes back up. They're like, what are we going to do? And we're inside this bubble. Right. So they're like, can we deactivate the defense shield? Can the net go down?

They're like, no, we can't do that. But the explosion will deactivate the net. Yeah, Cisco thinks of all this, right? Cisco's kind of putting that together. He's put together, and he realizes they can still get out of there. If they time it where they're at full impulse as they're heading towards the net, the net has to go down and then they'll punch out. They'll be through, which is really very dicey, honestly.

Okay, we're saying this, and it just gave me a huge zap of anxiety. Oh, it's definitely anxiety. Basically, they're going to try to ride the shockwave or something, right? They're trying to surf the shockwave out of there. But if they time it wrong, they could. It's smack. The force field. Yeah, they can hit the force field.

They could, all kinds of things can go wrong. They needed a moment like on Voyager with Bologna and Janeway when they're talking this through. And then they go, warp particles. Yeah. Yeah. That's a, that's a Voyager reference. I wasn't ready for that. I know.

Yeah. Timing is everything on this, though. But we've been here before. Yes. I do like that Dax is trying to do some scienceing here where she says, well, a radio geodesic in a 30, Cochrane Warpfield contracts normal space at the rate of, and Bashir's right on top of it. He's like doing math in his head, his genetically engineered brain. We have to go 1.3 seconds before the bomb detonates.

And then I like how Cisco doesn't trust him. Yes. And I see the computer agrees with Julian. But it is kind of annoying. Yeah. It is. It is annoying. Downer Dave, go back to your cave.

Downer Dave. But all of these. calculations are they go out the window because the explosion happens sooner than they expect. Remember that? It goes, like, oops, it already exploded. So they then start booking it to the, to the get out of there as fast as they came. I don't understand, though. How did, why did the explosion happen?

Like, there's a lot of confusion in this moment. Well, why are we talking about how many seconds we have left? 1.3 seconds before the bomb. 1.3. That's nothing. So then we talk about it. 1.3 seconds are gone. He says 1.3 Dax,

and then I'm configuring it with the computer and this whole little conversation, 22 seconds until the explosion. Yeah, there's a lot of confusing math in here. And I think that was one of my criticisms of this. It seemed to suddenly, you had to absorb a lot of information. And I'm not really sure.

Like, why did the bomb explode early? Why did the... But it's... We have to go to 1.3 seconds before the bomb detonates. And we have 22 seconds until the explosion. Right.

But we're not looking at a clock going... I mean, I am, but obviously we didn't calculate it at the right moment. Well, I think they're saying when the generator is destroyed, the net will come down. And that from the bomb exploding

to the net coming down is 1.3 seconds. That's how much time you've got. Okay. That makes sense. There's no explanation. for why the bomb goes off early, but I'm going to assume that whoever set the charges on there, something malfunctioned.

That's the only explanation. That seems crazy to me. Or maybe it got set off because whoever was... They detected it. Yeah. That's what I was assuming, but there's a lot of assumption. Yes. But they make it out.

They do. They do make it up barely with a lot of damage. Yeah, the entire warp course tried. Oh, like the explosions look in. insane. You know, a really good job there. Really good job. Except for, again, does that happen in space? Because there's no oxygen. Right. I mean, we just have to. But it looks cool. It looks cool. It looks cool. It did. And it felt like, oh, my God, we're not going to get out of there. No. But you survive, but the core matrix is fried.

Garrick asked how long it's going to take to get back. Downer Dave says. And Downer Dave Bashir says 17 years, two months, and three days, give or take an hour. I like that last part. And then it ends. And then it ends. And then it ends. What a crazy cliffhanger. It really is.

Yeah. Yeah. I loved it. All right. It's time for our theme slash lesson slash more of this episode. Terfair, what was yours? Mine is look for the most essential and keystone of the enemy and attack. Oh, interesting.

It's always the bottom line. It's like a lawyer. What's the most important thing? Yeah. What is the operative word kind of thing? it's the white. I like that. Yeah. Taking care of the Ketrasel white. Mine's kind of in the same neighborhood.

I said fortune favors the bowl because they are making an active decision to go to the enemy as opposed to sit back and wait until they come to defend. So going on the offense is another way of saying. Sometimes you have to go on the offensive. Robbie, what's yours?

Mine is when things get challenging, creativity is the answer. Oh, I like that. I like it. Our Patreon poll winner for themes, slash lesson slash moral of this episode is submitted by Lori Ulster. Lori says, Resistance is not futile. So the old Borg saying, but tweaked a little bit.

Thanks, Lori. Okay, honorable mention for theme and moral is submitted by Nicole Brutel, and that is United We Stand, Divided We Fall. Ain't that the truth? Thanks, everyone, for tuning into this recap and discussion of a time to stand, and join us next time when we will be recapping and discussing the episode Rocks and Sholes with Armin and Terry. Yay!

It is really special when both of you are on at the same time. It's like, oh my God, they're together. Okay, so. Yeah, it's fun for me too. All right, so for all of our Patreon patrons, please stay tuned for your bonus material. And for everyone else, we'll see you next time. Thank you. Bye-bye.