The Delta Flyers - Blaze of Glory

Episode Date: May 19, 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, Blaze of Glory, is hosted by Garrett Wang, Robert Duncan McNeill, and Armin Shimerman. Blaze of Glory: Sisko must enlist the help of Starfleet traitor Michael Eddington to locate the launch site of Maquis missiles aimed at Cardassia. 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, Sandra Stengel, AJC, Nicholaus Russell, Alex Mednis, Holly Schmitt, Roxane Ray, Andrew Duncan, 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 RobbinsOur Co-Executive Producers:Liz Scott, Sarah A Gubbins, 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, David Wei Liu, Donna Runyon, Nicholas Albano, Randy Hawke, Penny Liu, Matt Norris, David Smith, Heath K., Andrew Cano, Robby Hill, Kevin Harlow, Chris Garis, Jeff Allen, & Londyn HenningAnd our Producers:Philipp Havrilla, James Amey, Jake Barrett, Ann Harding, Trip Lives, 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, Kelly Brown, 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 WelschThank 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 Quince: https://quince.com/tdfAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Hello, 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 9. Your host for today are my fellow Trek actors, Armand Shimmerman, Robert Duncan McNeil, and myself, Garrett Wong. For the complete and exciting version of this podcast, check out patreon.com. Ford slash the Delta Flyers and sign up to become a patron today. You will not regret it.

do it. Hello, everybody. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. You like the blanket? Yeah, I was noticing that.

It must be cold up there, is it? It got cold again, yes. Yes. As weather does, but that is definitely very colorful, and you don't wear anything like that, typically. I don't see you. No, it even has a hood. I could, let me see. Yeah.

Does it go? That is so cool. I feel like a Bajorn monk or something. You are a Bajorn. Sure Monk or a surf bum, one of the two. But I love the fact that they took the standard, you know, native blanket, whatever you want to call that, and made that into a hoodie. Wow. Amazing.

Is it still the blanket material? Yes, it feels like I'm wearing a blanket. It's so cozy. Now you know what my costume on Deep Space Nine felt like. Oh, my gosh. Yes. It's a lot like, that's what it feels like, like a blanket. There is a lining, though, right?

So it's not the rough. of the blank? Oh, it's just a regular blanket? Very much. Yeah. Where did you get it? Where did you get it? I don't know. Rebecca got it. She found it somewhere. She has good taste. Yes, good taste. Online. She found it online. Probably. Right? We live up on the top of a mountain, so pretty much everything is online for us. There's no stores around. There weren't any vendors coming by walking around any boots. No. No traders coming by with their carts and horses. Was there a flea market?

right there in your little... A fort? A fort where you can go and buy that? We went to the trading post. Yes. Did you go to Fort McMurray and trade for that? Okay. All righty. Very funny.

Do we have any birthdays coming up? We have one. Mr. Gordon Watson. May 18th. So I just want to say, Happy, happy, happy birthday to Gordon. Gordon, many happy returns. Happy birthday, Gordon.

Have a great day. I would be remiss not to say also May 18th is the birthday of my sister Laura. So happy birthday to Laura as well. Happy birthday, Laura. And two days before is Kitty's and my anniversary. Oh, May 16th. My goodness. All right.

Happy anniversary. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. We are going to jump into a little bit of poetry here. Starting with Robbie's Limerick. I have found my groove this year with my poetic inspirations. You have.

You are the American laureate. Here we go. Here is my limerick for Blaze of Glory. Their differences were not simple or clean. Justice lies somewhere in the gray in between. One had faith in a cause. One stood firmly with laws. Who was right is still yet to be seen.

Very nice. That's lovely, Robbie. I would have a quam, though. I have a quam, too. A quam. Yes. I would change the word justice to truth. Oh, truth lies somewhere in the grade.

Oh, interesting. I'm doing it right now. Are you changing it? Oh, my goodness. Look at that. I'm taking your note and I like it. It's better. Truth is better.

I do like this. This is a classic Trek story about kind of a moral dilemma and the arguments of, you know, is it ego? Is it a righteous cause? who's standing on more solid ground here. I think it's an interesting episode. I think so too. It is in the vein of things that I watched Art Trick for. Yeah.

Because both sides have very valid points. You could side with either, really. And you see in the end, a spoiler alert, but you see in the end that Cisco is swayed. He's moved. Oh, thank gosh. Because let's face it, in the past, when Cisco has dealt with Eddington,

and it's been just the hammer. Wham! I'm so mad at you. I can't stand you. You deserve to be court-martialed, and you're the worst human being ever for betraying me and having turkey dinner with me without telling me that, this is your true nature.

These are your true feelings. And how smart of our writers have been watching dailies and watching those sort of responses from Avery Brooks and realizing we should write about that. And putting it in the mouth of editing, He was genius, genius. Here we go with my haiku for Blades of Glory. Maquis message found.

Eddington goes with Cisco. Nog loves him some squid. Lovely. Great. Were any of you, McKee, forgive me for not knowing. No. Chiquet was. Oh, you were.

I had been with Maki that I betrayed them. I had played both sides. Tom Paris, not me. Yeah, he's team Tom Paris. It's you personally, Robbie. He was part of the marquee and then he, yeah, he flamed on them. He bailed on them too. Yeah, he did.

He's not reliable. Forgive me, but I think our show invented the marquee for you guys. I think that's, I think that is that true? He showed up just before Voyager started shooting. Okay. And then when I saw what Voyager was about in the first couple of episodes, I went, oh, well, that's why we invented the McKee. Ira invented, not we. Yes, a little bit of quick trivia here. Ira wanted to be done with the marquee completely.

He wanted them, all of them to die in this episode. It was Rick Berman who said, no, no, no, no, some must be kept alive in case we are to use them in a storyline on Voyager. Oh, interesting. So they were always thinking about both shows. But that little tiny group that they find that pocket at the end of Machi members was all because of Rick saying, no, absolutely not. You cannot eliminate every single marquee. But as far as Deep Space Nine is concerned, they're never made mention of again after this. So this is the ending of them. Jumping ahead again, sorry.

That attack when they walk in and notice that all these maquis are dead from the Dominion, that message was actually sent to Chiquet in an episode of Voyager saying, hey, all of your compadry. have been massacred. So that tracks there. And that was on purpose, which is very cool that they track between the two. Very cool. Etymology time. Yes.

Etymology. Okay. It's rather simple this week. The word blaze, Blaze of Glory, is from the old English, Blase or Blaze, or from the Teutonic Blasant.

That's a little French, but forgive me. And it means a torch or a firebrand. a bright, glowing flame, or fire, i.e., on fire, in flames. That's what Blaze means. It was first used in the English language in 1205. Glory, the second word, is chiefly Scottish in origin. It's, again, I'm going to sound a little French, because that's what I'm most familiar with, glor, or glor. The original definition is the disposition to claim honor for oneself. A boastful spirit

in the sense of vain glory. And that word of glory was first used in 1362. Also, there's a secondary definition, which is glory means the desire for fame or ambition. Sort of plays for both Eddington and Cisco, a desire for ambition or fame. Certainly, those arguments are used in the episode. And Blaze of Glory is a classic phrase. like, go down in a blaze of glory. You know, it's sort of foreshadows the ending for Eddington, at least, you know.

Exactly, exactly. I wish I knew how they chose the titles for episodes. It would be really informative for me just to know. And all I know is almost always the titles are absolutely appropriate in several senses for the episode that they're attached to. Yeah, I don't know. Every writing staff I've ever worked with kind of where it does titles differently. Often they will not have a title until the very end.

You know, they've written the script and they're like, oh, crap, we've got to come up with a name. You know, and then they just kind of brainstorm a bit. Sometimes a writer may have a title as kind of a thesis up front and kind of keep it secret and, you know, write around that idea a bit. So I don't know how they did it on on DS9, but yeah, the titles are often really appropriate. Yeah. Very resonant. They resonate with the episode.

And I will admit a personal fact, I am horrible with titles, like remembering titles of shows. Someone will say at a convention or something, they'll throw out a title and I'm like, what happens in that? Like, tell me what. Because the title means nothing to me. But actually, your etymology is helping me to. attach the title more concretely and remember it a bit. Thank you. Well, Robbie, there's always one title that you'll never, ever forget.

And that would be threshold. That's true. You'll remember that for the rest of your life, Robbie. There's a few. There's a couple. Yes. All right. The Patreon submitted poetry winner for Limerick, as submitted by Andrew Cano.

Here's the winner. They'd sooner die free than assimilate. Spat out the root beer, refused to placate. The Federation's pen condemned all of them The Dominion just carried out their fate Nice Very nice

Robbie, will you go through the Patreon Submitted Poetry Honorable Mention Submitted by Amy T and the haiku goes like this Freed for a Mission Eddington deceives again A blaze of glory Oh Nice

Amy. It's time to talk about who wrote this. This was written by Ira Stephen Bear and Robert Hewitt Wolf. Directed by Kim Friedman, the one who taught us how to shake correctly. Guest stars, Kenneth Marshall, as Michael Eddington again. J.G.

Herzlach as Martok, Aaron Eisenberg, as Nog, and Gretchen German as Rebecca Sullivan, who initially Robbie, I thought that was the same actress that played in the pool, all with you.

The gal that was sort of on your... Oh, yeah. I can't remember her name, but again, I thought, oh, same actress. But no, Gritchin-German is not that same actress. I thought she was really good, Gretchen Gervyn. She did. Yeah. I thought she was really naturalistic and felt like the right kind of match for

Eddington. Yeah, I wish she had had more to do, and perhaps they had meant for her to do more. Certainly, Berman wanted... perhaps because he wanted the McKee to come back. That's true. I thought the acting on this episode was superb. I did too. And we have to lay that, I think, at Kim Friedman's feet, because they were all just really quite good.

Host are Majel Barrett as computer voice. Which is unusual because what I've learned on DS9 is you don't have Majel on the station because it's a Cardassian station. There's another computer voice. But because this is a Starfleet runabout, Majel is. is the voice on the runabout, I would assume. Correct. Okay, a little bit of trivia.

This entire B story was really put in to this episode just to remind viewers that Mertok was still on the station. Some people thought maybe because the prior episode that Marton was heavily favored that he wasn't on there anymore. But he was. He still is. That's so funny because it's such a great Aaron Eisenberg episode. It's such a great Nog story.

that it's interesting that it came from How do we keep Martok? Yeah. Because it doesn't feel, I mean, it feels like Martok is in service of a Nog story. Yes, I agree with that. And we attribute that to Aaron who took this role for this episode

and between his teeth and ran with it. He did. I think a lot of the stuff that he did was quite, quite good. In fact, I have some qualms every now and then where I think the writers betrayed him. But Aaron shone like a star. Oh, God. I was on the floor laughing when he was on the floor.

When he said he couldn't get up until they laughed at me, just like, oh, my God. What's amazing to me, and you often do this, Armin, and I'm not just blowing smoke or whatever, what's amazing to me is that Aaron could have the highs of comedy, and he nailed it. It was sharp. It was real. It was great comedy moments. And he also had some really moving moments in a modest B story. It wasn't a big, there wasn't a ton of, you know, real estate to play with.

But he had the highs and the lows in this simple story. And I thought it was great. And his character had some gravitas, which I always appreciate as well. And that was very nice. And, you know, it's very hard when you're short of stature, whether it's Aaron, who was shorter than I was or myself. It's very hard. This problem with Martak is really indicative of short people having to deal with tall people all the time. and getting not respect necessarily,

but that for taller people to acknowledge shorter people, that they're actually in the room, that they have something to say, that they're as valid as tall people. There is a prejudice, it's me speaking, there is a prejudice against short people, and for Aaron, it was doubly so. And to do that, you need as much gravitas as you can find.

Yeah, he grounded it beautifully. He gave it. And we'll talk about it, about it very quickly because it happens in the first scene, but he just comes out of the gate with comedy, with energy, and also with gravitas that's very, you know, is going to set up this whole story. Okay, let me jump into the very first scene then. How's that? Okay, all right, so we start off in Cisco's quarters, and it's time for dinner. Cisco has made dinner. Nogg is there, Jake is there. We start off with Nag exclaiming how much he loves squid. I just have a question, though.

It starts off in a close-off of Nog. He's standing over by the window, tasting the food. Yes. And then he moves with his plate in his hand, and then he moves to sit down. I was just like, that makes no sense. Why is he standing with a plate in his hand? Did he just serve it from something off camera? He went to get more second helping is what I was thinking.

Oh, really? I just, how do you know? I don't know. The blocking seemed a little. bit forced for a shot to me. Okay. It didn't bother me so much, but you were already disturbed when you saw that. It just felt forced. Yeah, the opening shot, because I'm like, why is he standing in the middle of the room? You know, start on the plate and pull back or something. Right. They're all having dinner. I don't know. Right. Okay. So as he's eating this squid, he's also talking about how the sauce is very familiar tasting.

Cisco says, well, it should be familiar to you because it's puree of tube grubs at which point Jake literally has a bit of a upheave, upchuck moment and makes a sound into his napkin. I don't know if he actually does. Do you think he actually does? No, no. He just makes the same like he's like, oh my God, I can't believe I. Did you notice the napkins that they had? I kept looking at the napkins were like shiny material.

And I'm thinking, Oh, no. You'd just be rubbing it. It's like slippery. Like, it's a metallic napkin. So.

How is that going to absorb any grease or anything? Right. So set design thought it's got to be futuristic looking. We'll make it metallic. Yes, but it's not, it's not useful at all these napkins. No.

The bottom line is Jake is not happy about two grubs. And Cisco says, look, if Nog is willing to try our food, we should be willing to try our food. we should be willing to try his food. Logical, logical. As the conversation goes on, we do find out that it is Nog, who's a little unsettled

because he feels like he's getting zero respect from the Klingons. Yeah, he's working security now. Is that where he got assigned immediately? I thought he was somewhere else. I don't think we even talked about this before. So this is a new thing. It was new to me, too, that he was on security. I may have missed something, but that was new to me.

I don't think you did. I think they just sort of moved him off camera sometime from one area. I don't know what his assignment was exactly before. He was just interning or apprenticing with- He was interning, yeah. He's still interning now because they still call him cadets. So he's not even done with Starfleet Academy. Am I correct to say that?

That's right. Okay, all right. Well, this is the moment, though, that I'm talking about Armin, where he says, they never look me in the eye when I try to talk to them. They just stare over my head and pretend I'm not even there. I hate it when they do that. The way he delivered that one line had so much sweetness. He broke my heart.

It was, it set up this story. I was along for the ride because it was so authentic. He was great. Cisco empathizes. He says, I can see how that might be annoying. You know, usually Cisco dismisses a lot of this stuff, but here he does have some empathy. Yeah, he says stand up to him.

Next time that happens, stand up to him. And then Martak arrives in the room, Knox ready to stand up to him. Not now, not. So she yanks him down. No, no, no, this is the wrong time. It's so funny. But Martak is bringing this intercepted message. And it's from someone named Rebecca, which is, I was like, oh, oh, that's wonderful.

Do you feel that at the end scene, too? Yeah, I did. They did. It's a message from someone named Rebecca. She says these Maki group has launched some missiles that are going to kill a lot of Kardashians because they've attacked them. And Martak says, you know, we gave the Maki cloaking devices. We thought that it was going to help them, you know, fight the Cardassians and all that. But they may have put the cloaking devices on these missiles. So how are we going to find these missiles? And Cisco says, well, this could start a war that destroys everybody. So stakes are set. It's a big deal. It's a big deal. But also, we have never, ever had that concept presented to us where they take cloaking devices and throw them, which are meant for ships, but put them onto missiles.

I didn't even know that was even possible, but boy, I guess so. So here's my thing, though. They've launched these missiles. They're going to Cardassia. It's going to take 13 days. to get there. It says in the message. Right. But don't we later find out that,

no, I guess it was the defiant engines were giving a warp signature or something. I was like, well, why can't they look for the warp signature? If the defiance... Because they were cloaked. That's what we're supposed to think about the cloaking devices that you can't see any of it. It's going to be hard to find these missiles

and there could be millions dead. And if Cardassia's, yeah, if Cardassi is attacked, then the Dominion's going to be. try to take revenge and it could destroy everybody. So this is not good. No. And then we go to the opening credits, which I watched, which I watched. I like your song.

I like your credits. We go up to ops next and Worf and Dax are returning. They've been searching in the badlands, but they've got nothing. Turns out that the defiant engines ionized the nebula gases in the badlands. So they were running away from Jem Hadar patrols constantly. They couldn't, they can't go searching in the badlands because of the nebula gases or something. Which I liked Dax's reference to a Lagorian Mastodon moving through a forest. Now we learn their 11 days from their target.

And Cisco is like, all right, well, we need some help. I think I know who can help us. That's when he goes to the star base. I thought he was being held in a brig on DS9. He's not. He's on a star base, another location. To me, it looks very similar to the one that Martak and Bashir were on at one time. The Starbats?

It looked like that kind of station, actually. Yeah. And I believe that station was taken from the original Star Trek. Yeah, this Star Base is actually reused stock footage of the regular one space station from Star Trek to the Wrath of Khan, the FutureFoe. Oh, it also looked like the original series to me. It looked like the Trouble with Tribbles episode. What is that? I mean, a version, not exactly, but it was kind of in the vein of that.

Older Viz effects. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't like the bright glow behind it, whatever that stock footage was of the star base. It looked like it looked like it was a nuclear reactor in this. That was glowing. Yeah. I don't know if I felt a little too much. On the brig, we are basically, we have a scene with Cisco and Eddington.

And Robbie, that brig is basically a redress of the USS Voyager brig. Is it really? It's our brig, yes. Used for the Star Base instead, yes. Well, that's probably a set that went up and down and they could have just moved it over to your stages, or they came over to our stage. Probably it would be easier just to go over and shoot it. Yeah, you guys probably just came over very quickly. Well, that's interesting that it was our brig because Pablo,

one of our regular background in Stannes. Pablo is in, he plays the security officer. It's so funny. When Robbie and I watch DS9 episodes, as Pablo comes in, we'll go, oh, there's Pablo. There goes Pablo. Like, we always notice that. We notice Pablo everywhere.

As in sometimes in DS9 episodes, I sometimes see Mark Shepard out of makeup who plays Morn. Oh, really? There's Mark. There's Mark. Well, Pablo is a lot of, back at the security station. Did you notice he and the other security

officer are always looking down and away? Yeah. It was kind of odd. Yeah. Don't you think that Kim would have said, hey, every now and then an important part of this dialogue,

look over at Cisco or at the prisoner or something, right? It seems like they were both told, since they both were looking away, it seems like they were actually told not to look up. Which I don't know why that would be the direction. It actually pulled me out, to be honest.

Yeah. I kept staring at them going, why is he not? What are they looking at? Yeah. Like, the scene is happening right in front of them. There's a conversation. Look up and look to each other. Agreed.

Anyway. Agreed. Yeah, Eddington is very cocky in this scene. He's happy to see Cisco and spar with him, as he always is. I wondered, why is Eddington wearing a winter jacket in the cell? He's wearing this very cool, like, Rebel Without a Cause leather jacket. I'm like, he's in a... Maybe that's the point that he's a rebel.

Maybe that's... Yes. I did not notice that at all. It was a little heavy for an interior of a nuclear reactor space station, which is clearly very warm. It's out in space, which is, you know... Yeah, space is cold. Space is cold.

Yes. It looks cool, though. It looks very cool. And that's the only reason that you need. It looks cool. It looks cool. Cisco has this message, though. He shares it with Eddington.

He says... I think this was meant for you. Eddington doesn't even listen to the whole message. He goes, no, I don't know anything about that, not interested. He cuts it short, and he says that they're in the cell, listening to the Cardassian, the news of the Cardassian attack, and all of his friends and everyone he cared about, was killed. And so he's not interested in this.

He's basically, you know, I'm a dead man. Like, I have no interest. I have no reason to live. Cisco offers him a deal, though, to get freedom. Freedom. Did you like the way he read that line, by the way? Yeah, I did, actually. It was interesting.

I forget the line, but when he said the word freedom. When Cisco says that? Okay. Yeah, he's got a line where he says. It's not about me. Do you want your freedom or not, that line? Yeah. How do he say it?

I think a typical reading of that line would be, do you want your freedom or not? Yeah. Right? Something like that. But he didn't read it that way. Do you want your freedom or not? It worked for me, though. Do you say it didn't work for you, Robbie?

I liked it. Sometimes I don't like the jazz version, but that one I did. It's not about me. Do you want your freedom or not? Something like that. Do you want your freedom or not? It was an interesting read. Anyway, Eddington says no.

No deal. He has nowhere to go. It's a very long scene, by the way. It is. And the actors are so good that you never realize. realize it's long until you look at your watch. Yeah. I think that they held my interest the whole time.

There was a sparring going on that was very good. I think that Kenneth inspired Avery and Avery inspired Ken to do their best work. That's what happens when a good guest star comes on the show. It raises the game for the series regular. And I think that's what was happening here. I agree. I don't know how they got along in real life. I don't either.

I never had any scenes with Ken. ever. But they really complimented each other as actors in this story and in this episode a lot. I thought they brought, they pushed each other in just the right ways and in good ways. One of the things about, uh, Ken Marshall is that, um, he's a Juilliard graduate, like yourself. Oh, that's right. That's right. We interviewed him. We actually interviewed him. Yeah.

Eddington basically says, I don't care if everyone dies. I'm already dead anyway. So I'll just sit here and, you know, wait for the Gem-Hadar to blow this place to pieces. not going to help it's very good writing and the actors ran with it was very good it was very good and and and kim too a lot of the shots were broader there weren't a lot of close-ups and so i got the feeling that kim was really telling the story i liked the way she shot it you may not but i did i was mixed about it honestly i i think she stayed out of the way um you know sometimes directors can and i'm sure i've been guilty of this too try to accentuate something or you know lean into a certain quality or an idea.

And you can actually hurt this story. I think like a good doctor, she did no harm. I'm not sure that she added to... I agree with you. I don't think she added, but she didn't get in the way. That's for sure. You saw the performances and she said, you know, let's just shoot this. And they did.

Yeah. We go to the infirmary next. Cork has been hurt. He's panicking, really. He's just very upset. But Shere is treating... It looks like a minor cut for a very long time, I want to say. I've seen these medical devices wave over and you're fixed in two seconds.

You're talking about the dermal regenerator, Robbie. Yes. But perhaps Ferengi genetics is different than human genetics. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. You need to do that. Perhaps. Perhaps.

Yeah. Or perhaps we just needed to give Sid something to do. I think that's what it was. I have to ask you, Armin. How did you? How did you like this scene for yourself? Your performance? And myself, I did like it.

I did too. Oh, I liked it too. Started with your careful, that hurts. And it was from a different place. There's a little bit of, you know, more tenderness. And it wasn't as, it wasn't what we typically expect from court. It's vulnerable. Yes, that's what I'm trying to say.

And it was really wonderful, Armin. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I was very happy with it. Yes, absolutely. I was too. I thought you did really exceptional work in the scene.

Yes. Honestly. It was really good. And there wasn't a lot to sink your teeth into, let's say. Yeah, it's incredibly nuanced is what it was. And it was such a light, deft touch that you put into the acting. I was very impressed with this scene. You guys are too kind.

Thank you very much. We love you. Well, we learned that quirk scared, mourn. Morn freaked out because Odo and Kira are there. And Kira says she was at a Bajoran shrine. She was meditating when she says he burst in stark naked, fell to his knees, crying out to the prophet for protection. And Bashir says, mourn of all people. Who would have thought he'd snapped like that? That image in my mind of mourn.

Naked? Yes. And pleading. Naked. Pleading to the prophets. And screaming and yelling and talking. And talking, yes. And saying words.

I love this whole concept and this description. I didn't quite understand what the writers were going after. Why is Kira and Odo so upset about a bar fight? My God, there are thousands of bar fights in quarks. And somehow I've done something dastardly because I've talked about the reality of being attacked. Which is what the A story is all about. So I went, what's the problem here?

Yeah, it seems like this scene was literally just for some comedy and to give Quark something to do. And to give Kira and Odo and Quark of residuals. Residual scene. Yeah. It kind of stands on its own. It does. It doesn't connect to any other story per se.

Right. I guess it does in a way because Quark's concern about something's going to go down does feel like it does feed into the A story. Yeah, it feeds in a little bit. but it kind of stands on its own. Anyway, Quirk got, you know, noticed that the military was preparing or seems like they were starting to look nervous and Quark got nervous. I love how you slowly reveal what you said, which was, you know, the station's going to be the first target and we're all dead. And we all knew that.

Anyone who's watching the show knows that. It's common knowledge. It really is. So maybe more is just a little bit slower in picking that stuff up, maybe. Who knows? I did like your teamwork in the two shot of Sid was looking down at something as you're revealing the story. And then Sid's slow take up to you. He did a nice slow take, sir.

Yeah, well, Sid's a wonderful actor. Yeah, I think Dax calls. Cisco's got an incoming transmission, so Kira needs to come back to ops. We go up to the captain's office. Cisco is going to deactivate the missiles. Eddington is with him. He's on the view screen there. It was a nice reveal.

Yeah, I thought it was interesting because it's the video call of Cisco talking to Kira on the screen. And then he just sort of turns and it racks focus back to Eddington, which was a nice reveal, but I thought, oh, is that how all the video cameras are set up like cinematic shots on the runabout?

Like, no. Robbie, Robbie, it's TV. Robbie, it's TV. Let's try to remember. It's TV. Robbie, on the runabout, there's a toggle switch. It says cinematic mode and standard mode. Rack focus to the background or not.

You could choose. Yes. Well, actually, you know what, like on video conferencing now, the camera will sort of zoom in and follow you on your laptop or your phone or whatever. Yes, yes. Apple does have that, right? So this could be the advanced. The future.

Yes, the future. It's made to shoot cinematic shots for your video calls. We go to the runabout. It's dinner time now. Cisco brings some food over for Eddington. It's replicated protein modules is what Eddington says, which he knows the order number of this meal. He says replicator entree number 103, curry chicken with rice and a side of carrots.

He knows the menu. Perhaps, perhaps. To me, it sounded more like this is... Sarcasm, sort of... Sarcasm, this is, you know, this is acting 101. You know, that sort of. Yeah, I could have that. You could be right. I could be right. I also like the fact that Eddington is on my team with this theory that all the replicator food is just recycled from waste extraction. Just so you know, everybody, that's all I could think about when I watched this scene was Robbie.

And Robbie's explanation to everybody that whatever you eat from the replicator, it's basically you're eating recycled waste. Waste. Human waste is what it is. I think so. Not necessarily human either. Oh, it's true. Recycled waste, alien waste, human waste, everyone's waste. Recycled.

Yeah. Okay. Yep. He's on. replicator poop team with me. So, so, so I thought it was quite, quite good of Kim to have Eddington take the food and dump it off stage, which Cisco follows a little bit later and does this. Yeah, neither one of them seem to want to eat this replicated waste extracted, extracted stuff.

I will say, though, I feel like Eddington should have been more restrained. Like, it didn't feel the handcuffs on him didn't feel. I don't know. It felt a little soon for him to go from being in the brig under high security with two security guards there too. Now he's on the ship with the captain and he's got a couple of loose. No, isn't he still handcuffed at this point? He's still handcuffed. He doesn't get away until he wait later.

I've seen other movies where they take handcuffs and choke somebody and, you know. I just watched No Country for Old Men in the opening scene. Oh, that's right. That's right. I mean, just because your handcuff doesn't stop you from doing damage. So I don't know. I felt like he should have been more restrained. That's all.

It did seem a very quick transition. Or if there had just been a moment where Cisco literally says, I'm taking a risk here. And I'm trusting you. Oh, yeah. Or something. They just, because it, yeah, it felt like a quick, quick jump to this level. And if, and that scene that you're just describing. does happen pretty soon after where he just says, I'm going to take the handcuffs off and trust you

and make a bet. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Eddington tells us that Cisco dragged him out of his cell to help, and then they end up sparring over who's more deluded and who's more ego-driven. It's a great debate, you know, they make it personal for a while. And then Eddington reveals that Cal Hudson was killed, was one of the marquee, and Cisco reacts to that because he knew him very well. That lands. That definitely lands. Yeah. I was very happy with, I wish there were more moments for Cisco in the episode like that, where he realizes, wait, if my friend died because of actions that we took, I wish there had

been one or two more like that so that the ending, skipping ahead, the ending would have had more impact for me. We have a lovely shot at the end of this scene where we see Michael Eddington thinking about the things that Cisco has told him. I would have liked a little bit more of that from Cisco as well. I wish the writers had given him that or Kim had given him a little bit more of a moment to really think about, you know, was I wrong about what I did with the McKee? Yeah, they both sort of blame each other's ego. You know, Eddington says, oh, it's all about you. It's all about you and your ego. And, you know, that's why you had to get me and win the prize. And Cisco says the same kinds of things about Eddington. You just want to be the hero. It's almost the same argument from both sides,

isn't it? And that's good. Yes, it is. I like that a lot. Because on our show, no one is just black or white. That's right. There are shades of gray. And we have to appreciate Michael Editington's argument. Yes. Just as we have to appreciate Cisco's argument about Michael Eddington. Yeah. And it's interesting, like in this scene at one point, Eddington says, remember that Thanksgiving dinner you cooked?

Like those little specific human, you know, and relationship kind of histories that they have together. I like that, you know, the idea that Cisco cooks a fresh meal for, for his senior staff. I wonder if that was American Thanksgiving or Canadian Thanksgiving? Starfleet Thanksgiving. or yeah who knows

or badgeron Thanksgiving or be Canadian Robb because Edington talks about his he's from

Canadian loony is his little lucky loony he does we get to that I thought that was a lovely moment

I thought that was going to pay off but it didn't it did not oh I think it does pay off where

where where well he says my lucky loony and he's not lucky at the end of this

episode to me that's why he didn't have it with With him. Yes. Where's my personal stuff?

I want my lucky loony. Yeah. Okay. All right. All right. We go to Quarks next. Nog is leaning back in a chair. It's like an old Western.

Which is really hard to do on that floor, by the way. I would think so. It's not a solid floor. It's a grading. Yeah. You could see that in the wide shot. And I thought, I thought about that. And then I thought they must have put a little hinge on the back legs of that chair so it wouldn't

slide around so that it would just tip wherever it needed to go. But yeah, Nog's leaning back in the chair and the Klingons are headbutting each other. Martuk comes in to give them some coaching on headbutting techniques. Why would they do this? Why would Klingons just bang each other in the head? I have issue with this. This is really just kind of showing, depicting Klingons as being Neanderthals. And that's, it is, you're right, Rob. why is there any unless it's unless it's a self-defense move or something that they're doing but this looks like fun party tricks that they're doing right here they're doing it in a bar they're not in training for no and it's just it's just it's the clingon um what do you call it cliche clingon yeah cliche i think is right stereotype stereotypical clingon behavior which is really not cling on behavior in my book so and and jay says, you know, that must hurt, and he's right, it must.

Perhaps Jake or Nog should have said, why are they doing this? Yes. Why are they just standing there in front of the bar doing this? Yes. And Nog has every right to say it's wrong. You know, it's not only loud, it's just, it's, it's getting the way of other people's enjoyment of why they're in the bar. Yeah, if we're in a restaurant, someone is making a scene like that, it just disrupts everybody's

meal. Yeah. Well, Nog says that there's, um, there's rules. on the station and he's waiting for them to get over 70 decibels and then he can lock them up and finally they do they make a lot of noise he goes great they did it and he moves to to get up and instead he falls back lands on his butt the clings think it's hysterical and he just lays there and says tell me when they're gone because i'm not getting up until they do they do and and that was one of the moments i know you guys like it for the comedy and and it is very

funny and Aaron does a very good job with it. I'm thinking, why undercut him there? He's going to stand up. He's gotten his gravitas. He's going to do the right thing. He's going to confront them. And then they give him a rather slapstick sort of thing to do. I felt sorry for not only Nog, but I felt sorry for Aaron that he had to go through that

because I would have loved for him to have done something. And then something foolish could have happened, absolutely. but that that just seems so slapstick to have to him turn over backwards in the chair and and i don't i understand him saying i'm not going to get up until until they leave that makes sense um but but i just thought why undercut nog there i appreciated the comedy of it i liked the physical comedy of it and it felt like just a building block toward where he needs to go it you know but it did feel a bit like like there for comedic purposes, as ridiculous as the headbutting is.

The whole scene felt a little bit broad. Absolutely. Broad for sure. I don't know if anyone else will catch this bit of trivia, but the way that Nag rocks his bar chair in this scene was an homage to Henry Fonda's character in my darling Clementine, which I've never seen before.

Western, yeah. It's Western. There we go. Yeah, that's great. I mean, DS9 writers aren't. the only ones that do it every writing staff I've ever worked with does it but they often talk about movies that they love when they're breaking the story and writing the scenes and these moments will get pitched in the writer's room as they're talking about yeah it's kind of like in henry henry fonda and

my daughter clementine there's no he's the sheriff he's waiting for him yeah and then they steal the same bit so let me ask a question of the two of you oftentimes in our discussions we Garrett tells us that this is a reference to a film or TV show, but mostly films. As I listen to this, and because I'm not as familiar with films as perhaps the two of you, or as the writers were, I asked myself, why didn't they put in this script? This is an acknowledgement of something from my darling Clementine. And the reason I asked this is, on Buffy, another TV show, I had to, to do a scene that was a reference to Apocalypse Now.

And Josh Whedon put in the script, this is a reference to Apocalypse now. And so I went out and looked at Apocalypse now in order to understand the reference. If they had said that to me during the course of Deep Space 9, perhaps it would have been a little richer for me if I had known what the references. And perhaps if, and I'm only saying if, If the writers were disappointed that we didn't accomplish the reference as well as we could have, if they had given me the reference and I had looked at it, then I would know we would all be on the same page. Does that make sense?

It totally makes sense. We did that on Chuck. There was a lot of episodes of the show Chuck that I did that were basically taking, you know, die hard, the movie. and they're going to basically mimic that whole movie in the big box store, you know, on our show. All the beats of that movie, we were doing our version of it. And they would tell the directors and they would tell the actors. In fact, often it would be in the title or it would be, you know. And so the director knew the movie that we were echoing and homageing, you know, that this was an homage to.

And it was super helpful because then you could have fun and you're all on the same page. I wonder if the Star Trek writers just felt like it was cheating or something. I don't know. Also, it's interesting when I've done my research for Voyager episodes, there's far less homage-speak than with DS9. I almost feel like Iris Stephen Bear that that was his shorthand in the writer's room, this homage language that he kept saying, hey, and it's this film. Because over and over again, in researching every DS9 episode,

there's always an homage to some type of older film or series or something by this writing staff that did not occur consistently with the Voyager writing staff. And would that knowledge have gone into the tone meaning? Would Ira have spoken to Kim in this case and said this is an homage, shoot it this way, or give us that kind of feeling? I hope so. I hope they did that. That would be very helpful for the director,

because just like you felt as an actor, if you weren't aware of something, don't tell me afterwards that I didn't shoot it the way, you know, if I'm the director, don't tell me that I didn't shoot it like my darling Clementine because you never mentioned that before. You got to tell me. And then I'll I'll know what that looks like. Right. Well, we're back in the runabout now and they're going into the bad lands. I love this, these bad land shots. And it reminded me and this time's out about right. I remember in season two or three of of Voyager which would be around now for you guys season five or so i remember dan curry had set up this uh visual effects shot one day as a second unit where they built this box

that was about 20 feet long and and it was all fireproofed on the inside and they were shooting they were filming flames flame they were blowing wind and they were filming elements flame elements flame elements and they had to have the big door open. I remember I was there doing a second unit shoot for something else and I went over and watched them shoot the flames, but I bet it was for this bad land stuff. Wow. Because it looked, there was tons of flames and swirling flames and flames that looked like they were, you know, on the roof of this big 20-foot box that was long and rectangular. So you just randomly came across Dan Curry doing this second unit shot and you're like, Hey, what's going on?

I think it was on a second. You know, remember we used to have every couple of weeks. They'd have a second unit day. Yeah. Where they'd be doing... On stage nine or wherever on the side. Yeah. We'd be somewhere else.

That's right. Yeah. And I don't know if I was there for the second unit or if I was there for first unit, but I saw them doing this. They were over on 16 or 17, whatever 15, whatever our... 16, our planet stage was. Right. And the stage door was open because they had to have the box outside and they couldn't do

all this firework. in the stage. So the stage door was open. It was kind of sticking halfway out. And I was like, what are you doing? What are you doing? It was this. It was all this flame stuff.

There you go. Maybe. Maybe it was. It sounds about right. Time wise. Yeah. Well, Eddington's sleeping in the runabout. Cisco wakes him up, says the Gemha-Hadr are approaching.

And they both are kind of playing it cool. Now the strategy the game they're playing is, I don't care. Jim Harnar are coming. Not my problem. Cisco's like, yeah, not my problem. I'm going to get a rag to Gino. Eddington's like, what are you doing? What are you doing?

It's getting closer, closer. Finally, Eddington jumps up, takes the helm. He's got his handcuffs on still. Hits three buttons. It's three buttons and they magically escape the Gem Hedar. And at the end of the scene, he's like, okay, fine. I will help you stop these missiles. I'll help you find, you know, the landing pad and all that.

But then I'm going to kill you. That's how the scene ends. Why is he doing that, though? Yeah, exactly. Why is Cisco playing this game of, nope, you know the bad lens better than me. You do it. I'm just going to sit back and do nothing. Well, Cisco could have died.

Yes, but so why was he doing that, though, Robbie? What was your take on that? Like, why is he doing this? I'm not going to touch a single control. I agree with you. Why is he doing it? But if I had to talk about it, which I'm doing now, I think he wants to prove that Garrett, that Eddington doesn't have a death wish.

Yes. that he does want to live and this will prove it. That does track later, yes. I think that's the point. Okay. But why is he doing this now when he risks not only his mission? He's the only one looking for these missiles out there. Exactly.

But his life and Eddington's life as well. I went, really? I know you're a series regular, but you know, you should at least give the impression that there's a possibility that you may die. A little too casual. Very cocky. And at the end of the scene where Eddington says, okay, I will help you. I went, this is too quick. Okay, you proved that I didn't want to die. And now I'm going to help you. And I went,

there's got to be, from what we were told in the first scene, in that wonderful first scene, there should have been a little bit more resistance, even here in this scene, to helping Cisco get his mission done. I guess it's a backdoor resistance because Eddington's final line is, I don't intend to fight you, Captain. I intend to kill you. So that's sort of the last bit of resistance there. And I don't know what prompted that either. It just kind of came out of left field. I know he doesn't like him and thinks he's got a big ego and all of this is very personal,

but does he blame Cisco for all these Kardashians killing all these maquis? He does. But even so, why announce the plans if that's what he really wants to do? And two, I just, after the scene is over, he says, I'm going to kill you. And I went, if you really wanted to kill Cisco, you would have let the Jim Hidar shatter the ship. That's true. Well, after a commercial in the old days, we come back, they're still on the runabout. They discuss Eddington's personal items here.

This is where he talks about his lucky loony. Cisco says, I think it's packed away or something. While they're talking about that, the Jim Hidar show up again. Eddington wants to turn the tables. He says, all right. I've got a plan. It's a risky plan. But if he can realign the impulse flow regulators...

A lot of technobabble in this scene. Basically, they have to do it while they're flying, and someone's got to do it. And he says, now you've got to go do this, Cisco, while I try to outrun these Jam Hadar. Yep, it's the impulse flow regulators. And Cisco finally reluctantly agrees, but he says, hold this ship steady.

I don't want any accidents. This is very risky. We cut to a Jeffrey's tube. Cisco crawls through. We hear Majel's voice. Cisco reroutes the tubes. It's very bumpy. It gets really bumpy.

It was a pretty simple prop to play with, by the way. It was like, let me just these five tubes. That belied the danger. I don't care how bumpy it is. It shouldn't be that hard to go from one tube to another tube. Just, just. Yeah. And there were only four of them.

There should have been a more complex process. Yeah, it was very simple. And it could have been rocking and rolling. Anybody could have still attached that tube, even if you were moving around. It wasn't that delicate of an operation. Yeah. And it felt like they were those fiber optic tubes.

But if they had had something coming out of them, or, you know, as he pulled it out, it starts sparking or, you know, something. Then you could think like, oh, that's dangerous. Yes. If he gets bumped and, you know, points it toward himself, it could hurt. But it didn't seem. It didn't look like there was any danger. No.

Danger low. seen. No. But anyway, it gets bumpier and bumpier. Cisco's mad about it. I told you to hold the ship steady. Eddington says we ran into a pocket of boron gas. Then suddenly there's a big bang and they're getting fired at. But somehow Cisco finishes those little fiber optic tubes. It's a miracle. It was so hard to do. He finishes. And then he's three. And then he's three, thrown to the side in the Jeffries tube, which that was a cool shot because we know those Jeffries tubes can't be moved, but they made it feel like with the shaking of the camera and the way that he rolled to the side. It was very simple, but...

believable. Believable. Yeah. It was really good. We come back on the bridge of this runabout. Eddington's trying to call Cisco. Doesn't get an answer. He's outrun the GemHadar, but he doesn't get an answer. Suddenly, Cisco shoves Eddington into a, grabs him, shoves him into a console. Very nice makeup. I really like the makeup on his forehead. Yeah.

It looked great. It looked great. It was good. Like a gash up there. I felt like he got back too quickly. You're in a Jeffries tube and you're injured. And all sudden, as Eddington's like a computer, locate Captain Cisco, computer, internal sensors are offline. He's like, of course they are.

And immediately, Cisco's right there. And he throws them in the against it. It's like, really? You climbed out of that Jeffrey's tube and made it all the way back to the bridge. It's a runabout. It's around the corner. I would buy it. Okay, I'll buy that then.

I would buy it. It's pretty small, smallish. Cisco's mad, though. And Eddington seems to be enjoying this a little bit. As he should. We go back to the promenade, Jake Nogger talking. Jake's upset. He's like, give me a heads up when you're coming back to the apartment.

Because he's got a, if he's got a girl over. Yeah. Something might happen. Yeah. never know. You need to leave the necktie on the dorm door. Or the sock on the door. Or the sock. Classic roommate talk, though, here. I did like how Jake says, well, that's a scurrilous lie. Scurlus. The word scurlis. He's a writer, after all. He's a writer. Yeah, that's to remind us that he's into big words. Nog's response is scurrilous. Is that worse than a regular lie?

Very funny. Yeah. Nice roommate banter here. Kudos to Aaron. Having spoken about what the writers did to Aaron earlier in the show, I think they meant for Aaron to not know what the word meant. Scurrilous, is that bigger than a, is that bigger than regular life? But that's not the way he played it. No, he did. Aaron. He played it as though he knew exactly what the word was and was accused of his roommate.

Yeah. But I would venture to say, and it's a guess, and forget. Give me writers, if I'm wrong, that they meant for, for Nag to be just a little less literate. Yes. Or a lot less literate than Jake. To play a dumb. To play the dumb choice. He didn't play the dumb choice.

I agree with you. All right. So they're talking. Nog looks up, though. He sees the Klingons are standing in his spot. He's very territorial. He goes to confront them. And he does.

He cites the regulation and he tells them to move on. And Martok looks, Nag, right in the eye. and he says, you are either very brave or very stupid Ferengi. Nog's response is probably a little of both. But they do, they leave. And he's very proud of himself. Jake is very impressed. They kind of lean out for a moment over their kind of their old spot.

That was the irony of the situation of this scene to me, is that they always loitered in that spot before the two of them. And now he's pushing the Klingons off of their spot. in a way. And that little line, you're either very brave or very stupid, is a tribute to the 1960 movie, the Blue Max, where that line was first used. And I would venture to say I have a very similar line. Quark has a very similar line in House of Quark, where I'm confronted by Gowron, and I think I answer something very similar to that. Interesting. Oh, interesting. And if I may, one of the things that I thought, oh, no, no, that's wrong. While Nog is confronted

the Klingons, we have a background person coming down the promenade and passing them gently as if nothing happened. There's a discussion going on, what seems to be an important one, and the extra, it's not the extra's fault. She just did what she was told to do. But I thought, no, if something like that is happening, you would sort of be aware that this is happening, Even if you had to get someplace, you would maybe move a little further to the side to get past them as quickly as you could. And I thought, no, that's not such a good moving, blocking thing for the background person. I shouldn't call them extras. We don't call them extras anymore.

We call them background performers. Background performers. Yeah. And I was responsible for that, but partly anyway. At the union, I was part of the committee that discussed that we want to give them a little bit more respect. Nice. Good, good for you. Which they deserve. And it is a very respectable career.

Pablo, who we pointed out was in the security in the brig scene. Pablo has made a career out of doing background work and commercials. He does a lot of commercials, but he is going to probably be retiring soon. And he's made his career as a background performer and a commercial actor. There are, because I served on the union was part of that committee, there are a lot of people who do that. David Levinson, who you saw briefly in the bar when I wasn't there when the Klingons are butting heads, is exactly the same thing. He was on from the first day of Deep Space Nine to the last day. In fact, eventually they gave him a line, I think, in the last episode. And there are a lot of

people who are professional background performers who also appear in commercials where they sometimes speak. Yeah. It's not a demeaning career. It's one they chose and one they're happy with. Yeah. And as you point out, there's also some responsibility. It's not like as the as that background actor was walking by nog and Jake, it's part of their responsibility to pay attention and to interact and react to telling the story. And so, you know, just like a principal actor, sometimes they succeed. Sometimes they, you know, fall a little short. Maybe that was a moment where that background actor should have been more engaged in the environment. Or the second should have said to them if they didn't, as you pass them, be aware that they're fighting or that they're arguing or that something's going on. Robbie, I don't know if you recall, but if it wasn't Pablo, then it was Lemuel. It's one of the two, but one of them wrote a book on how to be a successful background actor. Oh, wow.

You recall this? No. I don't remember. I'm pretty sure it was Pablo. And one day, maybe season five, he goes, hey, I don't know if you've seen this before. And he hands me this book. I go, what is? He goes, the book I wrote.

I go, what? And it's all literally just, it's laid out step by step, how to, you know, navigate the entire background acting industry, in essence. And it was, it was very informative. I was very impressed by it. Interesting. All right. We go back to the runabout.

We're in space at first. I love this shot. We're looking down at sort of the nebula. and the runabout flies in underneath it and then it tilts up to see this very foggy looking planet. Beautiful, beautiful shot. Inside it's Eddington and Cisco looking at the planet. I will give props to Kim Friedman here on her oner.

Beautifully kind of slowly wraps around and pushes in as they talk about this fog-bound piece of rock in the middle of nowhere. Sensors can't detect anything. But Eddington says there's a shuttle pad not far from the launch site so we can just go land there and they had down. Simple, elegant, cinematic. That sequence of space shot and the wander inside, I thought was really well done. Now we cut into our classic tunnel, our cave sets.

Wonderfully lit, by the way. Yes. I really like the lighting in these tunnel scenes. The lighting and the special effects fog that we're about to sort of see a lot of. I thought this was really well done. We learned that Eddington helped dig these tunnels, he says. man-made tunnels and he helped dig them himself. They climb up out of this pit or something and climb out of this well. Very foggy set, hard to see anything. They try to get their bearings when

they see some Gem Hadar, two Gem Hadar walking by. They're spotted and a gunfight ensues very quickly. They hide behind some barrels made of Deridium. Luckily, there's some Deridium barrels nearby, so they're not going to get blown up. And Cisco decides, I'm going to take this pipe and I'm going to go create a distraction. And he's got this dangerous plan. He's going to use the pipe, draw their attention and catch them off guard. Edding thinks it's stupid. How are you going to attack two Jempedar soldiers with a pipe?

Cisco says, well, it could be worse. And Edding says, this line is, yeah, I know. It could be me holding the pipe. More comedy. There's a lot of vaudeville. There really is. There's a lot of multicam, joky joke, even in these moments. Yeah.

Strategy works, though, you know. And here is a moment the journey of the relationship between Cisco and Eddington, I thought could take a slight turn. Instead of the comic, it's not me, it's, for me, if I were directing, if I were writing, I would say that Eddington goes, I see, you're going to risk your life, Cisco, and leave me with the gun. And even though I've said I'm going to kill you, there should have been a slight respect. That's the wrong word, but an acknowledgement that maybe their relationship is slightly changing now because of the bond that has happened. between the two of them and that Cisco is willing to be the sacrificial lamb in order to get this

done. I mean, Eddington has the gun. Cisco has the pipe. He's going to be the sacrificial lamb. And I wish that they had clocked that so that we would understand more of the development, the arc, the arc of the relationship between these two people in the episode. I feel like the writing about this issue about their, they're talking about their separate positions could have gone a little deeper and more personal, more personal, I guess. That's the part of it, rather than so kind of heady and philosophical all the time, that they could acknowledge the common connections. Something was happening.

Yeah, that something was happening. Yeah. Cisco goes around. The fog plays great. Eddington can hardly see where Cisco is. Cisco knocks one down. Eddington takes one out, but now it's Cisco kind of, you know, scuffling with one of the Gem Hadar.

And the Gem Hadar knocks Cisco to the ground. And that's what gives Eddington the idea that, oh, that Jim Hedar is going to probably be the winner there. So he shoots. What a gamble. Yeah. Even says to him, just waited to see which of you was knocked down first and I shot the one still standing.

I love that. Oh, my goodness. Now they start making their way through various alleys and tunnels. Book trivia, as they're making their way through, this whole marquee base is basically the exact same set that was used in the previous episode, Children of Time. So they just redressed it and used it again as the mockery. It worked.

I thought the base looked great. Well, as they're going through, Eddington says we're getting close when Cisco suddenly says, wait a second, and he sees a body on the ground. And when they cut to the wide shot to reveal the body, I'm like, well, Eddington was the first one there. Why didn't he see the body? That's a little odd.

But maybe his attention was on the path in front of him or something. Eddington knows this person, though. It's Vance. He was a shuttle pilot and a friend, and he's kind of moved by this. And then he goes to see more bodies and comes around a corner. I did like this reveal that Kim did of pulling back and looking down a tunnel of bodies just scattered on the floor.

It's a massacre. Eddington is in shock. He blames himself. He blames his leadership. Cisco tries to reassure him. Cisco says, you know, maybe we could have done better. Maybe we failed them. I don't know.

It's going to take a lot of soul searching, but we've got to finish this mission. We've got to stop these missiles. And Eddington's response is basically, I wish I knew of killing you would make me feel better. But that'll have to wait for another time. So Eddington still blames Cisco for all of this. this, this massacre, everything that's happened here. But they move on. Eddington says, I found it.

I found the spot. Cisco starts to get suspicious here because it's a locked door. Eddington has a secret code. They go inside. It's survivors. It's a bunch of marquee hiding behind this locked door. And we meet Rebecca, Rebecca Sullivan, Eddington's wife.

That's a big shock. That was a big turn. Yeah. Not a lot of marquee left, though. A dozen or so, maybe at most. A little later, Cisco wants to stop the missiles. Eddington explains this was, there are no missiles. This was a fallback position.

This was our plan if things went bad. And Cisco's mad about this. He's been tricked. He's been duped. And so he punches Eddington, who falls down. They start to fight. But Rebecca says, no, no, no, we don't have time for this. We'll finish this later.

Rebecca says, we got to stick together. We got to get out of here. So as they're moving through the Maki settlement, Cisco says you should have told me the truth. If I knew that Gem Hadar were going to be here, I would have brought more men. Eddington says he didn't know that the Gemadar were there. Yeah. I think Rebecca says they showed up two days ago or something like that.

Yeah, exactly. She says three days ago they landed. We tried to fight them off. So the Gem Hadar, yeah, this was a secret base in the middle of all this fog. They shouldn't have been found. Doesn't the Rebecca say she says they kept all the leaders a lot? They were going to make a present of us to the Cardassian government. So they, I don't, what?

So they put them in that room and locked it and then, then. Oh, maybe they lost it. I was like, huh? I'm a little confused. Yeah, I thought that this was the red alert plan and the message was the missiles was code. I'm in the panic room. Come get me. Yeah.

Yeah, exactly. The question is, did they lock themselves in? Did the gym the dar do it? You know, who locked them in there? It really doesn't matter. They're locked. And she sends the message probably from the locked room. Right.

In order to get a rescue. Yeah. Well, Eddington says he's not going back to prison and neither are they. So he's not giving up. Cisco even says, you never give up to you. And Eddington says never, very emphatically. Suddenly one of the maquis shot in the back. Now we get into a big firefight here where Eddington takes cover.

He tells Rebecca to leave. says, I'll be right behind you, get going. And Eddington and Cisco start shooting. And in the middle of this firefight, they start having this conversation. I didn't know you were married. Oh, yeah, we held a ceremony two weeks before you capture me. Bang, bang, bang. Not much of a honeymoon.

I suggest we fall back. Bang, bang, bang. They had a missed opportunity. And that one part where he says, you never give up to you, Mr. Eddington. Eddington says never. Cisco says move. He could have said, move. What's the, what's the guy from the, the inspector that keeps chasing someone for a silly.

Cluoso? Yeah. No, not Cluso. They made the reference before. Eddington was saying this is from, was it Les Miserables or what was the? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So Cisco could have said, move Javert like that.

He could have thrown that in there saying that you're going to give back. Yeah, call back to their earlier conversation. Yeah. Well, they start to move, but Eddington gets wounded. here and he tells Cisco to go to to to go join the others get them out of here i'll hold them back basically a scene where eddington admits only one of us was coming back from this mission and it looks like it's going to be you so go um very heroic to save everyone very heroic move it's right out of um oh senior moment something in the sundance kid what is it which cassidy which cacistie yeah uh

It's really that. It's that I'm going to go out in a blaze of glory. Yes. And the trivia here, Armin, is that Iris Stephen Bear based this death scene of Eddington's on Steve McQueen's death scene in the 1966 Robert Wise movie, The Sand Pebbles. Oh. Interesting. Well, Cisco does go grab Rebecca and the gang. He tells her he's not coming. We have to go. back at the settlement, Eddington's trying to hold them off. So he pretends to have backups. He calls for Crenshaw and Ewan, circle around to the left. There's nobody there.

He's all by himself. Right ahead him from behind. So he's delaying the Gem Hidar. He does say, it seems like a perfect time for a song. So you see a little bit of that gallows sort of insanity starting to happen here. He knows he's cooked. And he tries to think of a song. And he stands up and gets squibbed.

all over the play all these spark squibs go off he shouldn't have stood up simple simple simple plan don't stand up in the firefight that's all well but i think he wants the hero's uh death suicide yeah i think he wants that all right i got the feeling that the wound they got was a little bit more crucial uh that he knew that it was it was mortal and that he was going to go out in a blaze of glory yeah well he stands up takes a bunch of shots falls down we got a close up of him saying rebecca The very last words. Rebecca. Back on the runabout,

Cisco's piloting and the camera sort of pans across the injured maquis, ends up on Rebecca, who's very resigned. She knows, you know, Eddington has sacrificed himself here. Very sad, sad ending. Back on the promenade, Nog is returning Kira's earring. Martak acknowledges cadet, he says. And Nog says, General. and Kuras

like, what is that all about? Nog says respect. I like that. Yeah. Nicely staged, nicely played, a little button to his victory scene for Nog there. His B storyline, the button on the B storyline. Yeah.

Our last scene is with Dax and Cisco sitting in his quarters, talking about how they respect Eddington in a way. Sisko feels some empathy for the Maki. Dax says he was a romantic. Nothing more romantic than a glorious death in defense of a lost cause. Cisco talks about how he died fighting for what he believed in, and he's got to respect him for that. And they mentioned, you know, could there be more marquee?

Back to our reference to Voyager and wanting to keep the Machia alive, this feels like the Rick Berman note of, let's remind the audience that the maquis could be out there. There could be more maquis. Jacks leaves and Cisco goes to the wind. wondering, are there more Maquis out there? Time for our theme slash lesson slash moral of this episode. Robbie, what is yours?

Mine is being a leader is complicated and takes deep soul searching. Arman? I agree. I think it's about leadership. It's hard to be a leader. You just have to stand up for what's right. You have to have the courage to stand up. Now it's time for our Patreon Paul winner for theme slash lesson slash moral of this episode. And that is submitted by Katie McCarty.

Your enemies may share more qualities with you than you realize. Good lesson. Excellent, excellent, excellent. We also have honorable mention for theme and moral, and that's for Megan H. And it is, you don't have to like someone to respect them. Very true. All right, well, that's it. We've come to the end of our discussion and debate over this episode, Blades of Glory.

Thank you again to Armin for joining us for this one. and everyone join us next time and we will be recapping and discussing the episode M. Pucknor and that will be with Armin yet again. Looking forward to that for all of our Patreon patrons, please stay tuned for your bonus material. And for everyone else, we will see you next time.