The Delta Flyers - In Purgatory's Shadow

Episode Date: March 17, 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, In Purgatory’s Shadow,, is hosted by Garrett Wang, Robert Duncan McNeill, and Armin Shimerman.In Purgatory's Shadow: In order to ward off a Dominion invasion, Sisko must close the wormhole, leaving Worf and Garak stranded in a Jem'Hadar internment camp on the other side.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, Nicki T, Roxane Ray, Tim Neumark, Ian Ramsey, Feroza Mehta, Jenny Cordina, Izzy Jaffer, Francesca Garibaldi, Jonathan Capps, Chris Dellman, Chris Garis, 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, E & John, 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, Andrew Duncan, Randy Hawke, Penny Liu, Matt Norris, David Smith, Stacy Davis, Heath K., Ryan Mahieu, Andrew Cano, Robby Hill, Kevin Harlow, Megan Doyle, & Jeff Allen.And our Producers:Philipp Havrilla, James Amey, Jake Barrett, Ann Harding, Samantha Weddle, Paul Johnston, Carole Patterson, Warren Stine, Jocelyn Pina, Chad Awkerman, AJ Provance, Maxine Soloway, Heidi McLellan, 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, Robert Allen Stiffler, 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, Jim Poesl, Scott Bowling, Michael Jones, Ed Jarot, James Vanhaerent, Nick Cook-West, Kilian Trapp, Kit Marie Rackley, Gordon Watson, Andy Bruce, Andrew Golden, Daniel Friend, Damien O’Donnell, Michael Bourguignon, & Luke PachaThank 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://progressive.com* Check out Quince: https://quince.com/TDFSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-delta-flyers/donationsAdvertising 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, Armin Sherman, Robert Duncan McNeil, and myself, Garrett Wong. For the complete and exciting version of this podcast, please check out patreon.com forward slash the Delta Flyers and sign up to become a patron today. Hello, gentlemen. Hi. Hello. Hello. I was thinking while I was watching the show the other day that, oh my God, we're more than halfway through all seven seasons. Congratulations. Oh, yeah. Yeah, look at that. Yeah, congratulations to you. Thank you. I wasn't, you know, I only share them with Terry. You're there at every single one. Right. Yeah. But congratulations on this new experience of watching your show. I mean, now that we're more than halfway through, how does it feel like globally, like taking a bird's eye view of white? watching the whole show. It's better than I remember it, although I must say that I hadn't watched it for decades. So to be reintroduced to episodes that I couldn't remember at all, including this one. I love this episode, but I don't remember doing it. I didn't have much to do in it, but

what was what there is is choice. And it's a great experience. I actually understand now why a lot of people tell me DS9 is their favorite. Forgive me, boys. No, I got, I, I agree. with you i understand i didn't understand it because i had this presumption oh it's a soap opera it's just a bunch of people stuck on a space station it's a soap opera it's gonna be like that it's not it's got big ideas it tackles story areas that i don't think any other star trek show has done as sophisticated as you guys did and one thing that for me a bird's eye view is as i watch this show i feel like your show maybe like all the trucks you kind of go through cruise control a little while and then suddenly there's these things like this episode i feel like oh my god the whole

you know all the rules are changing again and you guys have done that a few times already on the show it's interesting yeah uh ira and company the writers uh used to shake it up quite a bit um yeah i mean there's a couple of uh oh my god moments in this episode we went whoa i certainly i didn't remember it but if for the audience watching it for the first time that must have been it comes a shock. It's very good. And you're right. All the Star Trek's that I've ever seen start off slow. They're looking for their footing. They eventually find it, usually sometime early in the first season

or the second season. And then they take off. Ours is certainly one of those. And I'm very glad for Michael Dorn, who brought a lot of the audience back to Deep Space Nine. And that was the reason, in my humble opinion, why they hired him. Not that Michael isn't a wonderful actor in a great addition to the cast, but they knew that somebody from TNG would spark people to come back and just check him out on the new show, on the old show. And they did, and they found out, well, this is better than I remember it. And now, me watching it 30 years later, I am very proud of the work we did. Yeah. Yeah. You should be. It definitely, this show definitely pushes the envelope more than the other tracks. And we are. And if I may, one more, excuse me, Derek, but one of the

things that happens in this episode, that happens in other episodes, I don't think it happened that much on others. I'm not an expert, but this episode is propelled more by our recurring guest stars than it is by the series regulars. The series regulars, of course, take part and have quite a bit to do. But it is the recurring characters that make this episode so wonderful. Yeah, I agree. I think the heart of this episode is not with necessarily the series regulars, but the heart of

the emotional core is with recurring characters. And that's unusual, very unusual. Yeah. And it's because we stayed in one place. Everybody got to know these recurring characters really well. They didn't disappear. We didn't fly off and leave them behind. They were always there.

And they could take over, as they do in this episode, and push the envelope and do it extremely well. Yeah. Agreed. And as you said before, Armand, because Voyager started right after T&G, ended it gave ds nine or at least ira the opportunity to sort of not work with somebody over his shoulder watching him entire time so he was able to do some things that um other showrunners could not so yeah waste extraction yes exactly all right uh we've got some birthdays yes our first birthday is nick cook west on march 18th nick happy birthday happy birthday happy birthday nick

Happy birthday, Nick. Next up on March 19th, a day later. What a wonderful day because that's the day that Shannon Bain was born. Happy birthday, Shannon. Happy birthday. Happy birthday, Shannon. All right. Let's get right into this with some poetry synopsis starting off with Robbie and his limerick. You know what? I am so proud of myself these days. I just want to bask in the glow of my own self-love right now because I, it took me. me like, how long have we been doing this podcast, Gareth? Okay. Six years? Yes. And I've always tried to capture the entire plot, like the A story, the B story, and make it

funny in the end. And I've abandoned that and I went to, I've been inspired by Terry's heartfelt poetry. All of the other stuff, I've been inspired just to go, no, what moved me and focus on that? Okay, so here is my limerick, my heartfelt limerick for this episode. Garrick's lies and deceit are an art. It appeared he had a... truly selfish heart but his softness slipped through when a mentor he knew said i was proud son and it mended his heart excellent excellent as an acting teacher pardon me yeah back and do that again and hit

the word appeared yes i can let's see how that sounds yeah all right garrick's lies and deceit are an art it appeared he had a a truly selfish heart, but his softness slipped through when a mentor he knew said, I was proud son, and it mended his heart. Yeah, that's better. Thank you for the note. That's so cool. Maybe that should be part of it from now on. Armand directs us in our poetry.

No, no, no. It's just incredibly important in Shakespeare when you're doing Shakespeare, that the difference between what they call substance and shadow is made clear, appear is shadow, purgatory shadow, shadow as opposed to substance. The substance was the good heart. The appearance is what's different. And you have to, in Shakespeare anyway,

in order for an audience to understand, you have to make that really clear. Contrast it very, yeah, very clearly. Oh, good. Thank you for the note. All right, here's my haiku for in purgatory's shadow. Garrick must fine tain Real Bashir

Martak captured Uh-oh, spaghetti Too many syllables in that last where he couldn't finish it But that is to show that it is a cliffhanger Exactly Because I missed the... Get it?

No Because I like it That was Megan's idea She was like, what if you did this And then you didn't said the Oh, because that meant It continued to another episode to be continued i said hey why not so that's great i like it excellent megan

there we're excellent garrett and now with a little etymology from armin okay so speaking of latin uh the word purgatory uh comes from the latin for those of you who speak latin forgive my poor pronunciation purgator ium purgatorium that's the latin uh it is a condition or place of spiritual purging and purification in Roman Catholic belief, a state in which souls who depart this life in the grace of God suffer for a time because they still need to be cleansed from the venial sins they have to pay for.

So that's the Roman Catholic definition of purgatory and the OED's definition of purgatory. The word was first used in English in what looks like 1225. So purgatory, obviously, has been around for a long time because it's been part of the Catholic Church for a very long time. One of the differences between Catholicism and Protestantism is Catholics believe in purgatory and Protestant stuff.

Right. Shadow, the word shadow. From the Teutonic Shad, again, forgive me from my poor German pronunciation, but also from Frisian and modern Dutch. So those are the root languages for the word shadow. The OED defines it as comparative darkness, gloom, unhappiness, a temporary interruption of friendship, and something that obscures the luster of reputation. I think that's important for the episode.

It also has a definition of an unreal appearance, a delusive semblance, or image, a vain, unsubstantial object of pursuit. And what's interesting to me is in Shakespeare, the word shadow often means actor. Oh, right. You know what else? That's great, the Shakespearean reference. The other thing that came to me immediately is Carl Jung's psychology and the shadow side of all of our personalities, which is the part of us that we hide, repress, or deny. Which also fits this story.

Yes. That we are hiding from others. Yeah. Oh, it's a better title than I thought now that we've dove into it. Yeah. It's appropriate. It's absolutely appropriate. I someday have to ask Ira who came up with the titles?

Who was the master of the titles? Because they do whoever they were, whoever he or she was, probably because there were no women, whoever he was, did an excellent job. Yeah. Yeah, agreed. This is written by Iris Stephen Bear and our good friend Robert Hewitt Wolf. This is directed by Gabrielle Beaumont. This is the first episode and the last episode that she directed. So she only came in one time.

But, you know, I think the actors really liked her from what I've read, but I don't know why. Do you know why, Armin? No. And again, I have no memory really of this episode. So I don't. I don't know. I don't know. All right. Let me just read a little quick quote just to talk about Gabrielle Beaumont. This is from Melanie Smith, who was the actress that played Torres Zial in this episode.

She says, first of all, Melanie Smith enjoyed working for director Gabriel Beaumont, commenting. I had a real natural affinity towards her. I thought she was a wonderful director, and I was really pleased with the work she got out of me. I think that says a lot. Probably an actor's biggest compliment is that they like what they did with them. She was just a delight. So, you know, glowing reviews from the guest star. So that's a nice thing right there.

And she got wonderful performances from everybody in this episode. Yeah, agreed. She really did. Agreed. She really did. Okay, let's talk about the guest stars. Andrew J. Robinson is Garrick. Mark Alimo as Golda Kott.

Melanie Smith as Torres-Zi-L. This is the very first appearance as Torres-Zi-L here. Obviously, we saw Tori-Zi-L played by Siobatton first and then Tracy Middorf. And now the third. the third actress to play Zial, and from what I understand, this is the final actress to play Zial, and Zial will make an appearance in further episodes of this show. J.G. Hurtzler as Martak, James and Horan as Ikat-Ika, Ica, Ica. Paul Dooley as in Auburn-Tane. We have co-stars as Carrie Stalber as the Bromelan, and Jim Palladino as the Jim Hedar Guard.

So there we go. And James Horan and I were about to do 12th night together while I was still living in New York, so that's a long time ago. So it was a delight to see him when he came on the set. Let's go through some trivia here. First of all, Siraclofton does not appear in this episode. Which is my only fault with this episode. Oh. And I'll tell you more about that later.

Okay. Okay. The earliest, earliest origins of this episode involved Michael Eddington. The plan was to do an episode inspired by the 1963 John Sturge's film The Great Escape with Eddington in the role of the escapee. Yeah, that was the original plan, but there were some talk about whether or not the fans were behind the character of Eddington, because there's a bit of a flip in that, you know, plan to do the great escape in that Eddington becomes the hero in a way, that everyone's supposed to follow him. So they didn't have faith in that. So they were like, okay, we're going to pivot a little bit and not do that. Also, the author, Judy Class, who has written a lot of different Star Trek novels, pitched the concept of Tain

being Garrick's father. She commented, though I did not get on-screen credit for it, it was the idea that Garrick was the illegitimate son of Vinaubran Tane. And that was one more reason why he's a double or triple agent and a chronic liar. He has had to spend his whole life pretending not to know that the man who is his patron and a friend of the family is his father. Robert Hewitt Wolfe was a gentleman and called me a year after I pitched the idea as a basis for an episode to tell me that they were using it, tucked inside another episode, and paying me for it. Class received money for that pitch. So that's kind of nice for him to do that, right?

Yeah. He didn't have to. So the question is, does she get any residuals when this episode? place. I don't think so. Her name's not on the episode, unfortunately. That's a bummer. But she did get that, you know, that stipend or whatever, that payment for that. And that's very honorable, I think. Some people might call that blood money, but okay. Yeah. Yeah. Also, this episode marks the first appearance of the real Martauk. Previously, we have only met Changeling Mark talk. So this is the first time. I love the way that they've played.

this out and left these little Easter eggs. I love it. It's so cool. Yep. They used to call that on CBS on those procedurals when I would do a CBS procedural. The network would say, well, our audience likes to play along. So make sure you shoot the story in a way that they can play along at home. And at the end of the crime solving, they can guess. And they can, you know, that was the play along was their rule. This feels like a play along. Yeah. This whole, this whole thing. And even in the writing, there are times when there's a complete turnaround where it seems to be going one way and then the writers switch, pull the rug out from underneath the audience for a moment. There's one early on. And when it comes up, I'll point it out to you.

There's others as well, but there's one specifically. Great. The final bit of trivia that I say for the very last is a sad bit of trivia, and that is this episode is dedicated. to the late Derek Garth. This is a grip who was killed in a car accident while on his way to work to film this specific episode. Ira commented that Garth was the most positive person on the set.

So he was basically the morale officer, the Neelix of the DS9 set of the DS9 crew. And it's just absolutely so tragic. What do you remember, Armin? What I remember is it was a lot of this happening. And what is this? I've forgotten the name, somebody's rule. It was called something's rule.

What it was is that crew members were working not only in our show, but on other shows at this time, very, very long hours. And then they tended to live far away from the studio. They tended to live within an hour or an hour and a half of the studio. And so after a very long day, after a very long week, after a very long year, they would be very tired driving home or coming to work. they would not get as much rest as they should.

I don't think they had the 12-hour turnarounds that the actors have in their contract. And not a lot, but some people were dying in car accidents. And Derek is one of them. But there wasn't one particular grip that this condition was named after. And I remember thinking, oh, there's another one. Derek being another one. And he was missed. Yeah.

Yeah. Part of the reason why they live so far out is because They're priced out of, yeah, you can't buy a property or a house that's closer to the studio because of the, you know, exorbitant cost of real estate. So they would live literally in Saugas, in Valencia, Magic Mountain area where the theme park is an hour, an hour and a half, or hour to an hour and a half to get to work every time. And so at the end of a, you know, sometimes the actors would complain about going past 12 hours. so we'd go maybe 16 hours. But the crew was there sometimes before us and certainly after us. Correct.

Maybe not after me, but after others. And then they had to drive an hour and a half home and had to get up an hour and a half earlier than I did in order to get to work the next day. We will dedicate this recap to Derek Garth and all the people that were victims of long hours in those days. It's still long hours, but certainly better than it used to be. But science fiction, I'm prejudiced, usually had longer days than others. Certainly more better than sitcoms.

That's a given. But because of science fiction and everything had to be thought through. An ashtray had to be thought through. We just had much longer hours. Well, we start in Odo's quarters. Odo's moving all his stuff around. Kira comes in with a box. He's moving his solid stuff out.

and his changeling stuff back in because as we learned last episode with the baby, now he is a changeling again. He's a shapeshifter. And it's good that the writers reminded us. It's good to say, okay, we haven't just changed it.

Now we move on. They're reminding us of what happened in the episode before. And it's great timing, I think, because it seems like this is one of those scenes where, oh, yeah, we're just reminding the audience about Odo's story, but it dovetails into,

the threat of this episode beautifully, that it's subconsciously we start off with shapeshifters in our head. You know, we're we're kind of in that zone anyway. So it's very smart. Well, Kira's helping him. She sees some books, which I love this moment, on some pads lying around. She takes a look at it. How to win a mate is what this book is. And Odo's very embarrassed. Kira says, don't worry about it, you know. Don't worry about it. He says, I only read a couple of chapters. I really, really not interested. Well, he kind of says, I don't need it now because I'm back to being a shapeshifter.

But she says there's plenty of, there's plenty of potential mates on this station that would love to be with you, even as a shapeshifter, is what she's trying to push. So the question in Maimon watching the scene, and Nana did it so well that I can't tell. Was she aware of the subtext, or was she just? trying to make him feel better. I don't know. I can't tell from her performance. And that's what's good about it is that you can't tell. It isn't.

And so you yourself have to make up your mind, and I haven't as yet. Got it. Yeah. Yeah, you could guess that maybe she's flirting with him a little, but it was so sincere. Her, you know, she wasn't putting on an act. It was, you're right, it's hard to tell.

It could go either way, which is perfect. Mm-hmm. At the end of that last scene, Dax does make a call to Odo. We want you to look at something in Ops and the Akira and Odo head out. We go to Ops. They've picked up an encrypted Cardassian code

being broadcasts from the gamma quadrant. They don't know if any Cardassians are there. The Cardassians did go in for this battle, but they all died supposedly, right? There shouldn't be any codes coming from there. Correct. It was the one shape shifter, the female shapeshifter that came into,

if you recall that one episode, she told Garrick, she goes, all of them. They're all dead. They're dead. So this is shocking news, an encrypted Cardassian signal, but they can't break it. That's when Odo suggests Garrick.

Garrick's a coat breaker. If anybody could do it, he could do it. Cisco agrees, and they head out. We go to the Repliment next, where we see Bashir, sitting with a new Torah Zial a new actress

I'll say generally in this scene I was like so far so good hopefully she'll stick around because she seems it seems pretty good she seems older than the other two like they've aged up this character by the third actress

by 10 years it almost it feels like yeah so far so good hopefully she has a job so funny hopefully she'll stick around this time hopefully she'll like a Star Trek people and stick around yeah yeah garrick shows up and he's sort of giggling explaining that this message was a five-year-old planetary survey they were so worried about this you know encrypted message from cardassians and

it was just a five-year-old planetary survey report no big deal he thinks it's hilarious but sure seems very suspicious though like garrick why weren't you more disappointed hmm you know you lost so many friends when the Cardassian fleet went there and they all perished. So Bashir's on to him. Garrick says there's a time to accept reality. He leaves. Zial says her father would be very mad, but she really likes Garrick.

So we get she's got a crush on him. We can tell from this scene. Another great performance by Alexander Sidig. I watched that this episode twice this week and not knowing what to expect the first. first time I saw it because I totally forgot this episode. Yeah. So watching it a second time, I was really intrigued by the way Sid played this scene because

knowing what I did know, I thought, oh, there's some of that in there. There's some of that in there. Really? I didn't watch it twice. I just watched it the one time making notes. I would like to go back and rewatch it and see if there's little hints or clues. There's just, there are clues. Sid is very smart.

He's laying in some stuff that at least I think he is. And I'll give him credit. He's a wonderful actor and a great guy. So I think he was doing that. Armand, do you think that Bashir, this Bashir, this version of Bashir, knew that the message was from Tain? No, but I think he makes him a little bit more suspicious because he is not the real Bashir. Right. I think you can see that in Sid's performance.

Yes. Or it's just me putting into his performance. I don't know. But I think it's possible, as I said earlier, I think. Sid is slightly playing, oh, and doesn't believe Garrick's explanation for it not being important. Well, according to what I read, they kind of gave Sid the news fairly late in the game. So the time that something gets switched out, he didn't know until I think really this script came out is when he figured it out. Or when they told him.

You know, we do get hopefully 24, 48 hours to read this. script right before we have to get in front of the camera yeah uh so he had to know the ending of the script and and and and who knows when they shot this segment whether it's at the beginning or the end i think it's a credit to gabriel beaumont the director because now we've seen a pattern kira sort of playing very subtle flirting boucher playing very subtle suspicious bishir like that that starts to be a pattern that that i would give credit to the director you know less less, less, less. Hide it, hide it. But a good pattern, a good pattern, though.

Very good pattern. Very good pattern. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Okay. We go to the airlock. Garrick breaks into a docked ship. Again, I'm going to comment on Gabriel Beaumont. Nice shot sequence here. She builds up his journey to getting into breaking into this with a number of shots

before he gets in and Bashir as a phaser. A lot of times on Star Trek, we'll see one shot of that. We'll see. Somebody comes down a hall. they break in a code and exit and suddenly they're inside. She did four, five, six shots to build up the anticipation of him finally walking in and then undercut it with Bashir. Great work.

Nice. In this scene is where, emphatically, they pulled the rug out from underneath the audience. Garrick is trying to convince Bashir to go with him. And he says, yeah, let's go. Pause, pause, pause. to Cisco's office. And I thought, that's the entire episode for me was that one thing you're expecting

and all of a sudden it goes in a different direction. And I thought that line reading, whether it's from Cid or whether from Gabrielle, was absolutely right as indicative of what I thought the whole episode was about being surprised constantly. I have a question. Why did they send them in a runabout

and not the defiant? I know they need the defiant later. The first time I watched it, I thought they were on the, they're defined then i would realize no they're not yeah at the end they he sends kira out in the defiance i was like wait a minute i thought they were on the define no they're on a runabout if they're going into a potentially deadly anyway we have that's that's warf and that's later but i'm just thinking yeah yeah that there's there's a couple of things like that that my eyebrows went up uh on

but i i i so love this episode i forgave them i agree i agree same yeah good catch robbie why send them in the Humvee when you can send them in the tank, right? So it makes no sense. When everyone is so worried about them going into the Gamma Quadrant. I know they need the defiant later and they, you know, they're going to need it later. So they don't want to send it and have it stuck there with those guys getting captured. We're jumping ahead in our story. But yes, they, they, the writers made the smart move for the long game.

But in the short game, it's like, we. Great scene with Garrick and Bashir. we go to the captain's office, Garrick's explaining that he in Tain were the only ones that had that code. Garrick says there could be more survivors. Cisco agrees and sends him with somebody, he says at the end of the scene,

I do have someone else in mind. Again, pulling the rug at, one assumes, Garrett assumes that it's going to be Bashir and then Cisco says no, it's going to be somebody else. Who wrote this episode again, Garrett? Ira, Robert Hewitt, Wolf.

And I believe actually, David Weedel also had an input in this. And it's not in your script, Garrett, but I believe David has something to do. Okay. Well, they had the A-team on this because, yes, you're right, Armin. It's really great writing. And balanced with tension, drama, and light moments as well. It's so well-balanced, my favorite kind of track episode. Cisco has someone in mind. We don't know who and we cut into Warf's Cabin. This is great. Dax is pissed. He's going on a very dangerous mission. And he didn't tell her, but he seems unmoved by her panic and frustration and her anger at not being filled in

on this danger. So she decides to borrow his Klingon operas while he's gone. Very funny. He gets very nervous. He's not nervous about dying. But the Klingon operas get his attention. She gives him a very romantic kiss and as she exits, says, go ahead, die gloriously or don't. It's up to you. Such a fun scene. It is. It is. They both did stellar work. And I can empathize with Dax because she's really upset and he's not at all moved. He's just cleaning his weapon. And I would make, that would make me even more frustrated. And I know my wife has often gotten very frustrated with me when she's upset about something. And I don't think it's very important. And through my actions him saying so. But I thought it was really good. And I love the fact. I love the twist. Another twist

that he's more interested in his in his opera collection than he is either in dying, one or two, that she's upset with him. Yeah. It's a classic, it's a very relatable, almost sitcom premise. One partner is like, you didn't tell me you made plans. You have to check with me in the relationship. Very relatable. We've all been in relationship. Or somebody makes a plan doesn't tell you and then you're like wait a minute what do you mean we're going to dinner with the smiths i don't want to go to dinner there's that side you can relate and then as you said armin wharf is doesn't think this is important you some people can relate to that side of the of a relationship you know oh you're all doing it not so big a deal great scene i love it and i think

terry is just getting better and better and better yes she is yeah and michael is learning to vibrate within that prism. He's very good in this episode, and I think extremely funny. Yes. The comedy from those two is great. It's effortless. It's relaxed. It's real. It's very real. You feel them both in their own skin, as you said, very comfortably and without pushing. So far, I think Gabriel Beaumont, the writing, whatever it's taken, five seasons in, whatever it's taken, and everything is just effortless and elegant and so well done. The only quam, and that's all it is, a quam that I have with Ms. Beaumont's direction

is it tends to be very static. It's two people talking. There isn't a lot of movement. Usually there's one or two scenes later on where she does make them move around and I'm really happy about that. But this is just like two heads talking. And maybe because they don't have to worry about blocking the actors

can get more involved in the relationship, maybe. Yeah. So we're now in the cafe, and it's Garrick, it's Zial talking. And basically, Garrick is trying to just tell Zial that, look, I'm spending all this time with you because you remind me of home. You're the only, you're the only half Cardassian, partially Cardassian, on this entire station. And she's, you know, she's clearly crushing on him big time. But while this conversation happens, out of the blue, Garrick gets grabbed by, somebody and guess what? It's Descott. Decaut is extremely

upset that his daughter is talking to Garrick. He basically leans him over the railing as if he's about to throw him off of the mezzanine level and says, you know, don't you dare. If you touch my daughter again, I will kill you. Derek calls his bluff. He says,

go ahead, kill me. Then she will never forgive you. And that he's got him. He's got him. There's nothing that he can do at that point. Cork breaks it up. Cork comes up. and says, come on, let me, let me, let me get you a drink. Let's, let's move away from the situation. They're acting like clingons. Yeah. Exactly. And he uses that, that term, cling on. You guys are

a pair of clingons right now. And then, obviously, when Cork and Garrick have left, Zial is still pleading with her father. Like, he's, he's a good man, dad. You're wrong. You're wrong. And Descott is, is still not happy. But the whole reason why he's there on the station is he just, as we know, he's still a renegade. He's still fighting the Klingon Empire on its own. So he just had a skirmish with a battle cruiser. His ship was damaged and he's on the station for repairs, but also the second reason is to see his daughter. And again, if we look at the whole episode, this excuse may not hold up.

It's great writing. It's great writing. You think that he's there randomly and his, his, invested only because of his daughter. And that's part of this. It is. But also, there's another thing going on that he suggests that I'm sure we'll pay off later. So it's great.

One of the great things about this episode is we have this macroscopic event happening, this invasion, the threat of the Jim Hedar attacking the Alpha Quadrant. But we also have these family issues woven into the episode as well. So we have a microcosm and a macrocosm of. plot line that I really enjoyed. They were able to weave these two together. I really enjoyed the, I mean, it's not just the Descartes, it's also the Garrett and his family. And if I might say, there's a scene, you know, referencing the O'Brien's in their family as well. I love the fact that we have the macrocosm and the microcosm being woven together so skillfully. Yeah, agreed. There's a world

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Explore opportunities in more than 60 countries, learn about benefits, and apply at peacecore.gov, forward slash serve. All right, we go to the corridor next, and Cisco tells Worf, giving him orders about his journey. He says, avoid conflict. very important, very serious. Just find out some information and return alive. I like that Worf says, does the same go for Garrick? Disco thinks he's joking. He says, I assume you're joking, right?

And Worf, as he walks away, we will see. We will see. That's a brilliantly funny moment. So funny. And so real and so well done. Yeah. It is. What a great line.

At first sign of betrayal, I will kill him. But I promise to return. the body intact. He's not going to know. I'm sorry. And again, you could, you know, if it were me, I would have made a meal out of it. But he's very restrained. He lives in that, that, that. Those parameters, right? Those parameters. That is Wharf and still is able to make it very funny in Worf's own way. Yeah. Well, we go on to the runabout next. And Garrick is begging Warf to sponsor him for Starfleet Academy, which comes out of left field. This is a, this is a, great scene with blocking, Armin. I don't know. Yes, it is. This is one of them. This is one of them.

Yeah. Garrick is moving around. The camera's panning and he's coming into that Raking 2 shot. Great, great staging, great direction. Warf says, you can't join the academy. You were a spy. Garrick says, I want redemption. Finally wears him down. Warf agrees. And then Garrick pushes it. He goes back to sitting down. You know, maybe I could start as a commander. You could serve under me. And then Worf realizes, oh, you were just playing me. One of my first. favorite moments in this whole episode, Garrick confesses, yes, I was lying. If you want to be good at something, you have to keep practicing one of my favorite lines. Brilliant. That's a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant line. And Andy plays it very well, because you do believe it. You do believe it.

I did. He's turned over a leaf. He really does. And then he just pulls the rug out from me. It's just practicing my line. Yeah. We go to the Repliment next. DuCott is very mad at Kira. He says that she had promised to look out. for Zial, but Kira says Zal's a grown woman, she can make her own decisions. Dukad's mad, though. He says, I will not forget this betrayal. And Kira says your threat is not very

impressive. So a nice little chess match between those two. And a threat from Dukad at the end. If you talk about Dakot and Kira as sort of the old Cold War U.S. and Russia, they were against each other forever. And then there's a couple of episodes where they kind of started

bonding, where they were less, you know, argumentative and less enemies, and it almost seemed like they were going to become allies. And then now this episode just throws it right back into antagonistic all over again. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. I think that's when they had a common enemy, yes, they could do that. Right. Not now. That's dissipated.

We go back to square one. All right. We go back to the runabout. Garrick doesn't like the dining on the define. He's complaining about the Earl Gray. tea, whoever this fellow Earl Grey is, tell him, I want to tell him a thing or two about tea leaves. That's a dig. That's such a dig on TNG. It's hilarious. It's just, because everyone knows who drinks Earl Grey. We all know this. Warf says they've got to turn back. He had strict orders to avoid risk.

And the source of the signal is far too deep in Dominion territory. It's too risky. And they're only in a runabout. And they're in a runabout. If they were in the defiant, they could have the cloaking device. they could do all this, but they should have taken the divine. But Garrick now is panicking. He reminds him of all the Starfleet ships that disappeared here. And he... I don't think that's panic. I think that's deliberate.

Oh, very deliberate. He doesn't want to turn around. He wants to go. So he tugs at Worf's sense of honor. He says, we've got to go. We can't abandon these people. There's Starfleet. There's, you know, my Cardassian friends.

We have to do this. Find out where this message came from. Worf thinks about honor and they head deeper into space. And I love the space shot as they head into the nebula. It's one of the prettiest nebulas I've ever seen that purple nebula. Can I give you a little trivia? Please. Yeah.

Here we go. Here we go. So the nebula where Worf and Garrick encounter the Dominion fleet is actually one of the background plates of the Mutara nebula as seen in Star Trek 2, the Wrath of Khan. But it is slightly recolored and flipped upside down for DS9. So they changed it up a little bit, but it is gorgeous, though. Well, that makes sense that it came from a movie because it looks head and shoulders, you know, nicer than the average nebula. That's why I made a note of it.

I was like, wow, that is popping. Because they had the money. Yeah, they had this feature-level effect that they reused is very smart. Yeah. Later on, we cut back inside and they run into the Gemha-Dar, a ton of them, basically. They're headed straight for them, some evasive maneuvers. a lot of action stuff here. They basically get caught.

They get tracked here. They try to get a message to Deep Space Nine. Oh, that's right. And they're not sure it's gone through. Well, they're in a runabout. If they were in the defiant, their message would be stronger and it would have gone through. Well, they're in the nebula. They told us before they went in the nebula that messaging was going to be different.

Yeah, there's interference. That's right. Well, they try to do that with the Gem-Hadar beam on board. Garrick tries to sweet-talk them when they first land. he gets punched in the face. Great shot Gabriel Beaumont of that gun blacking out the... Right on the lens, yeah. Yeah.

Smacked in the face with a rifle. Do they put some protective something on the front just in case the actor is a little too aggressive and ends up... You know what I'm saying, Robbie? Like, is there a way to... Here's one way that you might do it. Okay.

You might shoot high speed, meaning slow motion, and you might actually have the actor... Let me use my water bottle. Yes. You might actually have the actor go slow right to the lens, wherever my lens is, slow. And then in post, you would speed that up. So it looks like a fast, but they don't have to do it regular speed.

They can go slowly and deliberately and black out the lens. And that way, he can come right up to the lens. Yes, exactly. Without actually hitting it. And then speed it up in post. So it looks like, right. That's one way. What's the other way?

I don't know. Is that the main way? That's how I would. That's off the top of my head. That's how I would do that. Because when you've got something going right at the camera, sometimes cars, if you've got a shot of a car screeching into a close-up, you'll shoot at high speed and you'll have the car go slowly

so it doesn't run over the camera. And God forbid an operator if they're there. So you have the car go very slowly. Then you cut. And then in post, you can have the car come. Right. That would be the way I would do that. Thank you.

Old school, Dukes of Hazard tricks. Yeah. that's you go to a turbo lift back on the station Kira is talking to Dax she thinks the baby knows who she is again great writing we're touching on all these storylines this is the best your show has ever done it

I think Armand everybody's getting some attention Kira talks about the baby thinks the baby knows who she is Dax says no the baby's barely a month old it's not possible I did have a criticism of this moving in the lift close-ups I'm sure the lift was not moving

They just had it parked there and they were pretending to be moving and then dropped back to let them walk off. But it needed some sense of lights or shadows or something to me. To show movement. Yeah, I missed some interactive light on the actors to feel like, oh, I didn't know if they were just standing against a wall or if they were...

As I remember the lifts, and they could have created a different one, but as I remember the lifts, it would have been very hard to get a camera in there. I mean, we had two working elevators, one in ops and one on the promenade. and they were very clunky. I mean, it was always like this when you wrote the elevator.

Yeah. I think just some light would have helped this little, it's a short scene, but I just was, when they stepped off, I was like, oh, they were supposed to be moving, but it didn't feel like it. It just felt like they were standing still. But again, this is a little segment about family,

about the microcosm, about relationships that have nothing to do really with the macrocosm, but they do, but they do. Yeah. Well, we go in ops, Dax gets an urgent, message from the Gammer Quadrant, Cisco comes out. Miles is trying to read this garbled message. All he can make out is Gem Hadar, Garbo, Garble, Garble, build up, garble, garble, imminent. And that's when Cisco says, notify Starfleet command. He sends Kira in the Defiant. Luckily, they didn't take the

Defiant. He says, go find war, find out what's going on. I loved Avery's delivery at the end. God help us all. If they get here, you know, God help us all. Great delivery. It feels epic. Your show feels epic right now. So good. I wish there would have been more than Kira on the Defiant. If it was a rescue mission, usually on our show, when there's a rescue mission, and all the series regular, everybody goes.

So we're sending Kira into a dangerous situation all by herself. And she's quite capable of taking care of herself, but I wish she had had more backup with her. This scene, I have a thought about that. This scene would have been a great place for one of the added scenes that I was thinking. Anyway, yes, I agree. There should have been more people on it. there. We go to the internment center. We find this place for the first time. They arrived at us. Beautifully shot. Beautifully shot. Gabrielle was a theater director. So it feels theatrical here.

It feels, you know, the tableaus, the beautiful architecture. It's beautiful. Was this on your third stage, you think? Could have been. Yeah. Soundstage nine. Yeah. But not nine. Ten. You were nine. You were nine. You guys were on nine, right? We were in 17 as our third stage. We had eight, nine and 17. Eight nine were primary. I think ten was our third stage. Okay. Well, they arrive at the space. Garrick tries to sweet talk again, but he gets choked by one of the Gem Hadar. Worf tries to help, steps over, grabs the Gemmaidar. Garik says, please, Worf just back away. Ikatika, James Horan, says that this is an internment camp and you're stuck here in this bubble. There's no escape except death. And we we've seen it from up above. That's what it is. It's a little bubble on this asteroid. On an asteroid.

Nowhere to go. All right. So we go to ops next, a very tense moment. Something's coming through the wormhole. And it's Kira in the Defiant. She says that she found trouble. Lots of great tension here in the scene. What's going to come through? We know there's Dominion forces that could be coming through, but it's the defiant. So well, well orchestrated. Again, we get the, we assume it's it's the Amada coming or something coming and it turns out to be friendly friendlies it's kira on the defiant not what we expect and not certainly what the people on ops expect either but they're happy to see her of course yeah one of my go-toes when i'm directing and i'm prepping or looking at a script is i i use the term turn but i always look for a turn in the scene where the

circumstances turn where a character's awareness is suddenly turned because every scene should have a turn a dramatic turn that's what i would say that's what they were so good at in this episode the writers that every scene had a turn pull the rug out whatever term you want to use but every scene had a turn in it from where we start suddenly there's something we didn't expect and now we're headed in a different direction really well done all right we're uh on the promenade now we have dakot who is actually waiting outside the temple for zeal to the shrine excuse me not the temple the pejoran shrine um she comes out And she says, well, where are we going to go grab dinner?

And DeKat says, no, let's just not even talk about dinner. Let's talk about you packing because it's time for you to leave. And she's like, what are you talking about? Well, the Dominion fleet is headed for the wormhole. This is no longer safe. And I'm going to take you back to Cardassia, which is the last thing that Zial, the last place that Zial wants to go to. She feels like that there's really, there's nowhere on Cardassia where she will be accepted.

And she does not want to go. And this is where the microcosm and the macrocosm merge. This is where the family matters. He's trying to protect his daughter. That's the microcosm. Merges with the macrocosm, which is the upcoming threat of invasion. And I think it's essential for what happens later on. And one sees in Mark Alimo the care that he has for his daughter.

And again, on our show, characters were never black and black. white. They were not all good. They were not all bad. They were gray areas. And this is, this is Descartes having affection and concern about his daughter and trying to help her out. She, of course, has affection and concerns other places. We go to the internment camp next. And they're warned again, not to leave the dome. It's just a vacuum of space. And they walk beautifully shot through this kind of large hallway area. And they discover a small fighting ring where a cleft. We're a Klingon is fighting a Jim Hedar. And Worf looks closely.

He sees that it's Martak fighting. And Martak loses and he rises up. Worf introduces himself. Martak says that he's heard of him. He says, if he is Worf, then he turns to Garrick. He says, then you must be Garrett. And he finishes the scene with, he said he would come. So you're like, wait, what?

What is happening? How is Martok here? How does he know that this, is Garrick like some plan some solution or something and there was one moment when I went what is that I don't know what that means maybe you guys can tell me while they're fighting there's a little podium thing in the right the way you come in and out there's not surrounded by lights and martuck hits that and then continues to fight and I wondered what is hitting that do What does that mean?

Why did he hit it? Did he hit it because he was thrown there? Or is that some way of saying I've had enough or? That's what I thought. It was I'm tapping out and the Gem Hadar keeps pummeling him. And then the other Gemadar says, enough. He's going to die. Okay.

That explains that. Thank you. That's what I thought. Okay. We go into the barracks next. There's a couple of romulins, a brein. And someone on a bunk covered up that we... Breen.

The Breen. That's the brine. Oh, yeah. Sorry. I'm sorry. There was a Breen, but there was someone else that, again, beautifully shot by Gabriel Beaumont, the reveal of who's under this blanket. And Martak leads them in. Garrick finds Tane under the blanket, very weak.

He's on a bunk. Tane asks where the others are. He asks Garrick, and Garrick says, it's just him, just me and Worf. And Tane says, well, you've failed then. DS9 has made you soft. And Garrick says, you know, a thank you would be nice. You know, maybe I'm maybe in, I'm proud of you. But Tane says, no, all you've done is doom us both.

So very disappointed. His mentor is very disappointed in him. I'm going to go back to the Breen. I kept thinking that something was going to happen or that maybe I would read some notes that under the Breen was actually Irish Stephen Bear. Like I kept thinking the Breen makeup and hair, but nothing ever happened with the Breen. What I kept expecting something to happen. Yep. But it's a two-parter, and I haven't seen this second part, so I don't know.

That's true. Hey, hey, hey. That's true. I mean, they make such a big deal of this brain. I got to believe there's something happens. Something's going to happen. Okay. We go back to DS9.

We're in the ward room. Ducott joins them for this big meeting. And Kira's not happy about that. What's he doing here? That's a very good question. What is he doing there? How does he know about this invasion? It's not like he's their best friend.

I don't understand this, but it's a small quorum. It's a tiny quorum. Yeah. Dukot says Cisco invited him, so Cisco must have, well, Cisco does say a dominion invasion in the Alpha Quadrant will affect Cardassia every bit as much as it going to affect us. But he's not part of Cardassia anymore. He's not. He does say we need all the help we can get.

So maybe that's the logic. Just we need everybody, even the bad guys helping us. Yeah, yeah. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Yeah. Well, Cisco gives them the bad news. It will take two days. for reinforcements, and even if the reinforcements could get here, they're going to be beat up from

the Klingon War and some Borg attacks. So reinforcements aren't going to help. We're on our own. They say that Professor Kahn has found a way to temporarily seal the wormhole. So that's their strategy. They're going to try to temporarily seal it. And Wharf and Garrick will be sealed inside if they do this. Dax is worried about Worf. Kira's worried about the prophets. But Cisco insists, he says it's the only way. We have to seal the wormhole. Oh, it feels like your whole, you know, station is there by the wormhole for the wormhole. Now we're going to shut it down. Well, yes, the station has prospered because of the wormhole, and now you're cutting, you know, you're cutting off the access to the gamma quarter.

And Cisco has an attachment to the prophets as well. So he's cutting off that, which is very lovely portrayed by Kira, that you're cutting off our religious of things. beings. And as the emissary, his response is the prophets always find a way to connect. So he's got the authority to say that and we can believe it. It might have been nice to see that. That's great. That idea. Would have been nice to have seen that as the emissary for the prophets that Kira goes, yes, yes, emissary. Yeah. That would have made it a little bit easier for to accept them doing this. Yeah. We go back to the barracks. Martak explains how Tain sent the message in this he found a hiding spot he brings up that he used a life support system embedded

in the walls and spent hours working months on end and figured this out so so we get a little backstory and how the message was sent and then a romulan arrives says they're releasing him from isolation so romulan is a prisoner they're releasing some other prisoner from isolation but we don't know who we cut to another part of the camp and a guard orders this prisoner to move move, it's Bashir. What? I thought he was like a stowaway or something. I didn't, like, in this moment, I was like,

well, he was on the shuttle earlier, so maybe he stowed away, but didn't we just see him in the... But then you saw the old uniform, right? And you didn't notice that he's not wearing the new gray. I didn't catch that. Oh, okay. So that's how they realized that he was swapped out. Well, they don't really realize until he shows him his blood.

Yes. Correct, correct, correct. But I'm saying that's how fans watching can catch the fact that when, you know, when he was swapped out, it was during the time of the old uniform. Holy crap, that's a long time ago. It's been a little while now. So all those Bashir's that went to Riza that did all the things, that was a... They said the conjecture or the thought process is that the Bashir that operated on Cisco's brain injury was the Changeling. Also, Bashir Changeling was there when the changeling baby died.

You know, he didn't save that baby or was unable to save that baby, whatever. So, yeah, so Changeling Bashir's been around for a while. Wow. You know, that's another small quibble. I can understand replicating the body. I can understand that. But they can't replicate the thoughts. The knowledge.

The knowledge. So the ability to do things like brain surgery, that's a little hard to believe. but it's a small call. Cut back to the barracks. This is where they're doing the blood test. Bashir tests everybody's blood. He screened everybody and basically says, it appears that we are all who we seem to be.

So we're starting to get a sense of they're testing the blood to make sure they're the real people, but why are they doing this? And it's revealed that they were kidnapped and all replaced by changelings where they were kidnapped from. What? My brain exploded. Yeah.

There's a line where, where Bashir talks about, he just went to sleep and woke up. I don't know if that's here or not. Maybe it's a little... Yes, it is. It is here? He says I was... I was attending a burn treatment conference on Meisen Four. I went to bed one night and woke up here. And then Martak says the same thing happened to me, except I was hunting a saber bear out in Kang's Summit. Little did I know I was being stalked as well. And now I'm told the changeling that replaced me caused the death of countless clingons.

Okay. So, yeah. So let me just read this part. Since Bashir said he went to bed one night woke up in prison. Ronald D. Moore commented, he must have been very tired and fallen asleep in his uniform. Because he's wearing a-oopsie-dazy. Worf says they have to return right away. They've got to warn Cisco somehow before they carry out their mission, whatever their mission is. So now we're kind of, again, a turn. They pulled the rug out from under me because I was totally surprised by this.

Well, we all were. Huge. Yeah. Huge surprise. We go to Ops, creepy Bashir. No, I'm calling him creepy Bashir. Is on the lift heading into Ops, and there's that profile shot of him with a creepy smile on his face. Miles and Dax are working on preparing to seal the wormhole. Bashir brings snacks, though.

A couple sandwiches or something. I thought they were poisoned. I did, I did too. I think that's what you're supposed to think. Yes, of course. Dax and Miles are very, very grateful. O'Brien even says you're a gentleman and a scholar. So very warm.

And I think they say they've been working on it for 16 hours, which ironically is just about what our day was. Yes. Yes. Good catch. Very good catch. So it's kind of like their craft service second meal, these sandwiches. Yeah, exactly.

No pizza. Yeah. When you work a long day, everybody listening, when you work a long day on set, they bring in a second meal or some hot snack later in the day because you haven't eaten in eight hours. hours so they bring in some food. Yeah, that's what Bashir's doing right here. Um, we go to, we go to the airlock next. Ducaut is waiting for Zial. She arrives. She tells her father she's staying that she's part Bajoran too. And DuCott says, you've got to leave. Things are changing. They're going to change on Cardassia. And she asks what things. And he says, just trust your

father, basically. But this was a moment where I went, oh, Duke caught, that makes sense. No, yeah, he's aware. He's helping them, working with them. Yeah, so he's not that much of a rebel as we think then. Is that what you're saying, Robbie? Yeah. Yeah, we're picking up on some other information.

That's funny, I didn't have any of that. Oh, wow. Interesting. But that's, you're just smarter and I'm. I didn't think of him. Maybe I assumed the wrong thing, but I feel like he knows that there's a battle about to happen. How would he know that? Yeah.

Just from that meeting, he'd say. seems like he knows more than that to me. I feel like maybe, maybe it was just what he learned in in that one briefing. We all appreciate, you know, what we get. You know, I had no problem. But, but what you just said makes perfect sense. I'm playing along at home. This is the play along at home episode. Yeah. Yeah. I'm trying to figure out, you know, the who done it, the murder she wrote version. Right. Yeah. Well, she, she says no, she's not going to leave. DuCott says if an enemy of our family is more important than listening to your father than stay and be damn he was pretty rough on her just for having a crush that's the old ducat that's that's the dakot we knew at the beginning of the

series okay so back at the interment camp uh garrick and bishir are talking and garrick is very unhappy uh with with tain he hasn't gotten any any um thank you or you know uh forgiveness uh he says i forgave him but Why can't he forgive me? And Bashir says, well, you taught me a lesson, you know, don't trust sentiment. But that's when Martak comes in and says if you need to- And Bashir says, that's a lesson I don't want to know. Yes, yes, exactly. But then Martak comes in and says, if you want to speak to Tain, you better do it right now.

You don't have much time. Yeah. He's dying. Yep. Tane is dying. We cut in the barracks. Tane's dying. Garek sits close to him.

Tane gives him some advice, you know, who to trust, who to kill. kill and promise to get revenge for me when you get back. Promise to live. Just don't die here. And Garrick says, well, I will if you ask me as my father. My head exploded. I thought this was like the horrible, you know, sadistic mentor in your life. It's your father?

This is his dad. But Tane doesn't give up anything very easily, but they talk a little more. Tane is definitely dying here. And this special day comes up. where I think, you know, Tain says, I can still see you riding on the back of that riding hound. You must have fallen off a dozen times, but you never gave up. And Garek says, you held my hand. And Tain's response is, I was very proud of you that day.

Oh, and then he dies. That's his last words. The original scene was written a little bit more straightforward where Tane is sort of like, okay, yes, I love you, son. I'm so proud of you and all this stuff. And then it was Ira who changed it around. He said, I've got to make it less dead on. I've got to be a little bit more beat around the bush for Tane, which is kind of in character.

Tane's always been very mysterious, you know, in a way. So I think it was well done, the rewrite. And look at what Paul Dooley did. He's not allowed to move an inch ever in this episode. He goes through all this and it's very moving. It not only moves Garrett and moves us as well. Yes. It's extraordinary performance in less is more by Paul Dooley.

And even his last seconds, he doesn't go and die. He just drifts off for a second. His eyes are open and then they slowly close. It is a lovely moment, whether it's Dooley's or Miss Beaumont's. Whoever came up with the idea, kudos. Yeah, yeah. One little interesting bit of trivia here. Due to the long hours in shooting this episode,

both J.G. Hurtzler and Kathy Dubono fell asleep at certain points, such as the scene where Tane dies, they fell asleep. That's funny. Understandable. Where was Kathy Bono? There's no reason for Kathy Bono, unless she was dressed as something else. Because Kathy is Terry's stand in. Oh.

Oh, okay. Not stunt double? That too. Maybe because she's going to do some stunts. It may be. Or she's dressed up as something else. Maybe she's the brain for all we know. She could be the brain.

Oh, hey. Hello. Oh, you might. I mean, she's laying down more power to her to falling asleep. Who cares? Right. But, uh, J.G, that Cardassian makeup was god awful. The Klingon makeup, you mean?

Excuse me, Klingon, yeah. The Kardashian was worse. I'm sorry. Than the Klingon? But the Klingon had its, you know, it was also. Also, as Martok, he had to have an eye covered. So now he's lost. Even more prosthetics on him.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we cut to, uh, space. We see DS9 in the station. We hear, uh, captain's log. A full-scale dominion invasion appears to be imminent. Still, I remain confident in my crew's ability to face this crisis

as they have so many others with dedication and with courage. So Cisco's kind of the drama, the Shakespearean, kind of epic nature of his lines and his voice and his delivery. We feel like we're building up to something major. Very Shakespeare in the sense that he's playing the chorus. Yes, he is. Yes, 100%. We go into ops, they're losing the relays on the other side.

So, you know, getting closer, they're losing them as they get closer. They're taking out relays on the other side. So they know the Dominion's about to come through. They fire this weapon to close the wormhole. And it seems to work at first, but then it breaks. And Miles goes over to a panel, says someone sabotage the emitter array. And Cisco says, well, battle stations. And the GemHadar Fleet comes out.

There we go. Part two. I can't wait to see it. Here is one of the, I just was tickled by this line when I saw it the second time. When this is all happening, just before they hit the button to close the wormhole, Bashir's line, Changeling Bashir's. Creepie Bashir? Yeah, creepy Bashir. Thank you. What does he say?

He says, here goes nothing. Good catch. I mean, I didn't write that line. Oh, my. I love it. It is delicious, isn't it? Here goes nothing. I mean, it's a line going, okay, we're going to do this.

But no, if you really think about it, knowing all the facts, it's something else. Totally. Wow. Great. The saboteur, the lines of the saboteor coming out. Here goes nothing, because it's going to be nothing. I love it. So good.

And here is again where the Maquam came in. Okay, he looks like Bashir. Even if he is Bashir, how does he know how to sabotage the electronics? Well, there could be other changelings. Who else is there? We don't know. Yeah, it's true. That's true.

That's true. That's true. That's true. Yeah. Theme and moral? Yeah. What is your theme of moral, Robin McNeil? Well, as in my poem, I focused on Garik's experience.

I really felt like that was the heart for me of this episode. So my theme or lesson is healing deep wounds can be cathartic. Hmm. Okay. I like that. Armin. Armin says life doesn't get easier or more forgiving. We get stronger and more resilient.

Oh, I like that too. I like that. My lesson theme moral of this episode is expect the unexpected. Well, that's the truth. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. This entire show. It's like, what, what, what?

Yeah. Okay, the Patreon poll winner for the theme slash lesson slash moral of this episode is submitted by Andrew Kaplan, do not go searching for answers if you are not ready for the truth. You know what I find interesting about these lessons from all of us and our patron poll winner? They're all very different. And I think that's a testament to the scope of this episode. There's so many stories that you can relate to. And everyone's found a different way in, which I think is so great with Star Trek. It's the parable of the blind men and the elephant.

Each blind person is trying to figure out what this thing is, and each has a different answer for what an elephant is. Right. All right. Well, that's it, gentlemen. We finished that. Thank you for all the listeners who have been tuning in. Join us next time, and we will be recapping and discussing the episode by Inferno's Light. And that will be with Terry.

We want to thank Armand for joining us for this one. Thanks, Armin. Thanks, Armin. Thank you. Always good to see you. Yes. And for all of our Patreon patrons, please stay tuned for your bonus material. And yeah, for everyone else.

We'll see you next time.