The Delta Flyers - Rivals

Episode Date: July 16, 2024

The Delta Flyers is hosted by Garrett Wang, Robert Duncan McNeill, Terry Farrell & Armin Shimerman. In each podcast release, they will recap and discuss an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. This week’s episode, Rivals, is hosted by Garrett Wang, Robert Duncan McNeill, & Armin ShimermanRivals: Quark meets his match when a new rival opens a casino opposite his bar on the Promenade. We want to thank everyone who makes this podcast possible, starting with our Production Managers Megan Elise & Rebecca McNeill.Additionally, we could not make this podcast available without our Executive Producers:Stephanie Baker, Jason M Okun, Marie Burgoyne, Kris Hansen, Chris Knapp, Janet K Harlow, Heidi Mclellan, Rich Gross, Mary Jac Greer, Mike Gu, Tara Polen, Carrie Roberts, Tom Paynter, AJC, Nicholaus Russell, Lisa Robinson, Alex Mednis, Holly Schmitt, James H. Morrow, Nicole Anne Toma, Roxane Ray, Andrew Duncan, David Buck, Ian Ramsey, Feroza Mehta, Jonathan Brooks, Rob Traverse, Matt Norris, Stephanie Lee, Izzy Jaffer, Jan Hanford, Sam Mikelic, Thomas Irvin, & Jonathan CappsOur Co-Executive Producers:Liz Scott, Sab Ewell, Sarah A Gubbins, Luz R., Dannielle Kaminski, Utopia Science Fiction Magazine, Courtney Lucas, Elaine Ferguson, Captain Jeremiah Brown, E & John, Deike Hoffmann, Anna Post, Shannyn Bourke, Jenna Appleton, Lee Lisle, Sarah Thompson, Holly Smith, Amy Tudor, Mark G Hamilton, KMB, Dominic Burgess, Mary Burch, Sandra Stengel, Normandy Madden, Joseph Michael Kuhlman, Darryl Cheng, Elizabeth Stanton, Tim Beach, Victor Ling, Shambhavi Kadam, Tae Phoenix, Donna Runyon, Nicholas Albano, Daniel O’Brien, Danie Crofoot, Steven Lugo, Gemma Laidler, Rob Traverse, Penny Liu, David Smith, Stacy Davis, Timothy McMichens, Kevin Harlow, & Hailey LugoAnd our Producers:Philipp Havrilla, James Amey, Patrick Carlin, Ann Harding, Trip Lives, Samantha Weddle, Paul Johnston, Carole Patterson, Warren Stine, Carol Murphy, Jocelyn Pina, Mike Fillmon, Chad Awkerman, Mike Schaible, AJ Provance, Claire Deans, Maxine Soloway, Barbara Beck, Brianna Kloss, Dat Cao, Stephen Riegner, Debra Defelice, Vikki Williams, Cindy Ring, Alicia Kulp, Kelly Brown, Jason Wang, Gabriel Dominic Girgis, Maria Rosell, Heather Choe, Michael Bucklin, Lisa Klink, Dominique Weidle, Justin Weir, Jesse Bailey, Mike Chow, Kevin Hooker, Matt Edmonds, Miki T, John Richardson, Heather Selig, Rachel Shapiro, Stephanie Aves, Seth Carlson, Amy Rambacher, Jessica B, E.G. Galano, Annie Davey, Tim Neumark, Will Forg, Jeremy Gaskin, Charlie Faulkner, Estelle Keller, James Lyszczek, Greg Kenzo Wickstrom, Lisa Gunn, Lauren Rivers, Jennifer B, Dean Chew, Linda Daireaux, Mars DeVore, Robert Allen Stiffler, Jennifer Vaughn, Walkerius Logos, PJ Pick, Rebecca Leary, Ryan Mahieu, Andrew Cook-Feltz, Karen Galleski, Constance, Loretta Reyes, Kyle Freund, Cassandra Girard, Francesca Garibaldi, Andrea Wilson, Carol Ramsey, Willow Whitcomb, Jadzia Mehari, Mo, Leslie Ford, Travis Campos, & Douglas Lawrence-PlantThank you for your support!“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 Mint Mobile: https://mintmobile.com/TDFSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-delta-flyers/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Greetings, everyone. Welcome to the Delta Flyers Journey Through the Wormhole with Quark, Dax, and their good friends, Tom and Harry. Join us as we journey through episodes of Star Trek Deep Space Nine, your hosts along this journey. Include Terry Farrell, our brilliant science officer, Armin Sherman, our creative, small businessman, Garrett Wong, our eight-time deceased ensign. Let me repeat that. Eight times deceased he was as an ensign.

And myself, your favorite Warp 10 mutant, Robert Duncan McNeil. Today we have Armin with us. Welcome, Armin. Thank you. Glad to be here. I have a question. What do you mean he was deceased eight times? What does that mean?

Well, here's the amount of times that Harry Kim died on our show and then came back to life miraculously. Oh, isn't science fiction wonderful? Yes, go ahead. Eight times. He died. Yeah, go ahead. I also hold the distinction of being the first Voyager series regular to die and come back to life.

So that's another thing that I have a record for. You were the first and you were the most. And the most. I just have to ask Robbie, when did you come up with this new intro? This morning. This morning. I just thought of it. Sitting on the can, you're like, I think this will be funny.

yeah all right so harry died first time when the ship was duplicated in deadlock he was in the other reality and the real harry kim died and the duplicate was left that wasn't the first time no emanations was the first time emanations yeah season one eminations does it make it nine does it make it nine i don't think i have emanations i'm like a cat i have no i do have emanations i do have all right you died in deadlock You died when Voyager exploded in relativity. Yeah. Future Harry dies in the shuttle explosion in timeless. You also died in an accident and returned to San Francisco by aliens responsible for it in non-sequitur.

In emanations, you died so you could come across the vacuels and then the doctor revived you. Yes. Brought you back to life. In endgame, you died when Janeway goes into the past. in year of hell you died and in course, oblivion you died. Eight times. Okay, Armin, I just want to ask you,

what's the death count for Quark in seven years, which you said? Oh, you did. There you go. I did die in the mirror universe, but I don't know whether the writers loved you or hated you that they killed you off in a night time. Eight times.

But they brought you back. On our show, you could do that. There was a race called the Vorda, which you haven't met yet, I don't think. No. And they come back. Ask Jeff Combs. who probably has your record beat all holes.

Oh, really? He's probably died more than any Star Trek actor ever. Jeffrey Combs. Okay, I'll talk to Jeff about that. But, yeah, one death for Quark. I think that's great. You only had one. Only one.

Although many times I wish I had died. We hear you. We hear you. Right on. I'm going to come up with an equally funny one when I do the intro, and I will get you back for sure. I'm going to make sure that you have a funny thing, too.

You will kill me is what you would do. No, I will be so funny, I will die. And I will die laughing. Okay. Shall we do birthdays? Yeah, we got some birthdays. Okay. Some birthdays to talk about.

Whose birthday is it? We just want to say a very, very happy birthday to Carol Ramsey on July 17th. Happy birthday, Carol. Happy birthday, Carol. Happy birthday, Carol. We also have Debbie D. Debbie D. Your birthday is on July 19th. Happy birthday, Debbie D. Happy birthday, Debbie D. Happy birthday, Debbie. And last but not least, we have Anna Post, our good friend, Anna Post, whose birthday is on July the 21st. Happy birthday, Anna.

On a happy birthday. Happy birthday on a lot of birthdays. A lot of summer birthdays are happening. on our birthday count. What was happening in the fall of the year before? People were getting warm. Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back. Let's start with your Limerick, please.

Yes, Limerick goes a little something like this. Conman Martis arrives on the station. Easy money was his only fixation. Miles is feeling. some shame because Bashir has got game. And Quark sent Martis on disembarkation. Very good. Tight. Yeah. Thank you. Good flow. I like shame and game. That's very nice. Shame and game. Yes. Bashir's got game. What can you say? Here is my haiku for rivals. Martis, the con man. Doc and Miles swing rackets.

gambling spheres destroyed there you go nice thank you very nice very nice what is our etymology this week armin

interesting word rival or rivals it's from the Latin rivalis one living in the on the opposite bank of a stream from another

the first time the word was used in English was in the 15th century The obvious definition is one who is in pursuit of the same object as another. One who strives to equal or outdo another in any respect. However, there are other definitions. One who or that which disputes distinction or a noun with some other person or thing.

Now, the obsolete definition is, and this was very interesting, but it goes back to the Latin, Rival means a small stream. The last definition, which is the definition of the verb, rival is the noun. Rival can also be a verb. The verb is to enter into competition with, to contend or vie with, to strive to equal or excel another. There is my etymology. It's interesting this stream analogy. Yeah, the people on the other side of the stream.

That's your rival, the other bank. Yeah. And that actually the first use in the 15th century actually has more to do with a stream than it does with competition. Yeah, it's interesting because probably the way that it evolved into competition was by being on the opposite banks of a stream, you're competing for the food in the water. You're fishing, you're trying your luck to see if you can get more fish, you know, out of that stream. Well done. Well done. Yeah. All right. Let's talk about the story. The story is by Jim Trumbetta. So the story that he sold to them, the pitch that he sold to them originally did not have Chris Sarandon's character in it. So it was supposed to be Quark who found this new sphere. And it was this, yeah, it was an artifact in some dig that was found some ancient device thing that he incorporated into his, into Quark's bar. And the whole luck came. And then.

then it went, you know, kind of. So it was all supposed to be just quark. But then Michael Pillar kind of like tweaked it a little bit. He's the other person credited on the story, teleplay by Joe Monoskey. But when Pillar tweaked it, he added Chris Sarandon's character. Martyrus. Yes. And now this is what's crazy. Martis was supposed to be the wayward son of Gynon, of Gynon, the character played by Whoopi Goldberg. Okay. So there were reference to Gynen all throughout the script. And also, she was supposed to be in this episode, evidently, but she was unavailable.

So they pulled all that stuff out, including the references to Gynon. So that's interesting. That's too bad. It would have been interesting for Quark and Gynon, well, if she had been there, to have discussions about bars and customers. Definitely.

Later on, that's the scene that's missing. Okay. There you go. There you go. Directed by David Livingston. Good old David on this one. And if I may, before we start, just to give some background for me anyway, Chris and I did a pre-Broadway show together.

It was called Broadway. And he was one of the leads. I was his sidekick. And we worked together for, I would say, about three months. I was very excited that Chris was going to be the guest star on the show because I had not seen him for years. And for me, when I watch one of the scenes with the two of us, I think, oh, yes, Armand's playing on old history. I can see it in my eyes.

I can see I'm playing on something way back from the production of Broadway. I should go on to say that I had two other friends as well on the show. K. Callan, who Kitty and I spent many a delicious night together, cooking food with K. Allen, who's a lovely lady that we had known almost from our first arrival in Los Angeles. I don't know how we met Kay exactly, but Kay was one of our original friends. And Barbara Bosen, she and I and Kitty all were members of the Screen Actors Guild Board of Directors. Barbara was married to Botchco.

Oh, Stephen Bosco. Wow. And in fact, Barbara, Bocco, and Renee all went to college together. they were in the same class as far as my goodness wow wow a lot of connection thank you arman for jumping into guest appearances let me go ahead and just list them right now just tris sarandon is martis max credensic is rom rosalind chow's keiko o'brien barbara you say boson how does she is that how she barbosin as rowana we have k kalan your other friend as alzia or alcia i'll see i don't remember her name exactly how you pronounce it but alcia sounds right yeah and then

Albert Henderson as cause. That's the alien that dies in the brig. That has the ball, has the ball. Yes. I have a question for you, Armin. Is Kay Callan, your friend Kay Callan, also an author? She may be, I don't know. I haven't spoken to her really for quite a long time.

I, yeah, because I can swear that she, she wrote a book about agents in Hollywood. I think you're right. I think you're right. Because I bought that book and it would, and it's awesome. Awesome, because she breaks down every agency in Los Angeles and New York, actually. And she has, I think, the Los Angeles agency book and also the New York agency book. And it talks about how it was founded, who the principals are, what they focus on.

So it kind of gave me a blueprint of who do I want to submit my headshot resume and my intro letter to to try to get representation in the beginning. So Kay Callan was an invaluable resource for me when I was young. Yeah, she's a lovely lady. she's remembering way back when i think we met her through a theater company here in los angeles called uh theater west okay oh huh and and i think she was a member of theater west at that time and we had mutual friends i believe the mutual friends is who introduced us to k and as i said k k and kitty and i and our friends we all used to get together once a month and cook new dishes try new dishes on each other that i love that well you know it's funny while you were talking about

k k k k khan when i googled her book Yeah. And it's interesting you say that you love to get together and cook and try different dishes because another book that she's written is called The Life of the Party by Kay Callan. It's about how to throw a party. Oh, well, she knew how to do it because we always had a good time. We always had a good time. Robbie, I thought you were going to say.

And the other book she has is My Dinners with Armin and Kitty by Kay Callan. What? It's all about how to throw a party tips on first. getting the house ready for the party, getting guests there. Look at that. Yeah, getting guests to leave. She's got a whole book. Getting guests to leave.

Got to read that chapter. Got to read that chapter. Get the guests to leave. Oh, my gosh. Good old K. Love that. Okay. It's very good.

Very good in the episode. Very good. Yeah. Robbie, have you directed any of these other guest acting like Chris Sarandon or worked with as an actor, Chris or Barbara or Kay? I don't think so. Now, Chris Sarandon and I had the same agent. Okay.

They were represented by Susan Smith. Susan Smith. And I remember meeting Chris Sarandon in the office because back then you'd go to the office to get your scripts for auditions and things like that. Yeah. Susan had a little box outside of her office. If you came after hours, you'd open the box and look for your little package. You met him at the box? I met him inside the office.

If you could go during hours, you'd go inside and get it. So I met him in the office quite a few times we crossed pads there. And friendly, cordial? Oh, super nice guy. Nice. Very nice. And speaking of Susan, he, of course, is Susan Sarandon's first husband. Oh, that's right.

Right. That's how she has the last name, Sarandon. Oh, okay. By marriage. There's no, it's not brother's sister. It's marriage. Okay. Got it.

And the show that we did, we did in Boston. It was on its way to Broadway. And I'll tell that story very quickly if I can. Yeah, please. Because this episode is about luck. So our real experience in Boston, it was an out-of-town tryout for a Broadway show, and there were two shows playing in Boston at the same time, competing with each other. One was our show Broadway, with a number of people in it, and the other show across the way was a show called Tribute with two actors in it, one Jack Lemon, and the other one, Bob Picardo. And they wiped us off the map.

Everybody went to see Jack Lemon. Maybe they went to see Bob as well. But at that point, I think they just went to see Jack. And we lost a ton of money. And we came into New York after playing in Boston for several weeks, expecting to start rehearsal for our Broadway opening. And the producers called us up and said, we lost so much money we can't afford to open in New York.

So that's the end. So bad luck for us. Good luck for Bob. Well, I think Bob did tribute. He did tribute. He was in a play called Gemini. Yes, he was. I saw that too. Yeah, started off Broadway and became a huge success, one of the longest running straight plays in Broadway history, at least for a long, long time. And Bob was doing Gemini with a great ensemble cast, and that's where he got the cast and the role tribute as the son. And we all rehearsed in the same Bill Hilding.

Before we went to Boston, we rehearsed in Minskoff studio. Oh, Minskoff. Yeah. They were in the other rehearsal room. We were in one, but they killed us. I loved those studios. I missed those. Those were, yeah, those were the Broadway rehearsal studios. They became the MTV Studios for a long time. Oh, really?

Total Request Live, TRL. TRL. Broadcast from the corner in Times Square, and that was the old Minskopf rehearsal studios. And they were way up. They were like the 42nd, 43rd floor of the Minskopf building. And I remember for a different show, different show, a friend of mine, my mentor, my role model, we were going to rehearse in the

Minskhoff Studios and he was afraid of heights. His name is Phil Bosco. You should all remember this name. I know. Great, great. Yes, great actor. Beyond great. But he was afraid of heights. And when they said, we're going to rehearse in the Minskoff Studios, he said, well, then I'm out of the show. Gee. I can't get in the elevator. Wow. So we changed it to another studio where you only had to climb seven flights of stairs. Yeah. Kind of 890 Broadway or something like that. Yeah, exactly.

That's exactly where it was. Yes, he had to walk up all those stairs. Oh, the old days. The old day. Wow. All right. Well, let's talk about the episode. The first scene is in Quarks Bar.

We see on the upper level, an older woman is being whined and charmed by this younger man. She tells this handsome man how she saved lots of latinum for years and she's going to invest in this mining concession. He's very interested, charming her. He's listening intently with such, you know, focus and attention that she's very charmed by him. Anyway, Odo appears, hauls him away. Before he appears, David did some particular camera work that is extraordinary.

I never seen that before. I don't know if it happens again, but you're nodding your head, so I assume you saw it as well. Yeah. Which is this, while they're talking way in the background, out of focus, is the Odo figure just on the regular floor, in the main floor. And he starts to climb the stairs. And about halfway up the stairs, he comes into focus. And we follow him until he finally claps his hand on Chris's shoulder.

Yeah. Yeah, it was an interesting shot. So basically, the opening of the scene was a oneer, Armin. Yeah, yeah. Where the camera started on the woman, sort of pulled back and wrapped around to hold a two shot and kind of feature the man. And then it reversed itself and moved back in to this 50-50 and went right between their faces where you saw Renee out of focus, as you said.

And then as he started coming up the stairs, it racked focus to him. So it really told this story in a very elegant way. I will nitpick a little bit like Jason Oaken. It bumps me when a camera does what I call a yo-yo, where the camera, moves one way and then moves back the other way as opposed to like just reverse like a yo-yo it goes out and it goes back in it goes out those shots to me they lose some of their elegance in that yo-yo move i wish that he had sort of wrapped it in a in a continuous move rather than turning it around and reversing it that would have to me if he had added a little something to that why is it not

as well why is it not as elegant to do that in your it feels like you're pumping the brakes on a car Like you're driving and all of a sudden, you go, whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm going back the other way. Okay. To me, it just, it always draws my attention. So it's a little jarring. It pulls you out of the scene a little bit, doesn't it? Okay. But he, but he, he redeemed himself when he, the reason he was going back in was to find

Renee in the back. And I think Renee, doing what he did with Renee, tells that story really well, from Renee's point of view anyway. And we get the sense that there's something slightly wrong that René's. is climbing the stairs, you know, something is about to happen. Yeah, he's looking for this guy, Martis, who is Ellorian, the same as

as Gynens, I'm guessing, right? So that's the reason. Why, he's such a good listener. That's part of the thing. They talk about that, his race. Yes, they do. They do. A good listening. Is his, is that race, uh, telepaths? No. Or a telepath adjacent or something? It seems like,

it seems like, they're sensitive. They're sensitive to other people's tones of voices. I think, if i can put it that way okay and and i don't think they're telepathic though i think i think they're just sensitive to people's feelings and emotions and the way they speak that makes sense i'm looking it up right now allureans were a spacefaring humanoid species originating from the allorian system a long-lived race of listeners they possessed perceptive abilities that extended beyond the normal space time continuum so extremely extremely perceptive race, which includes Geinen.

And the fact that Chris Sarandon was supposed to be her son is, boy, that would have changed this episode if Whoopi Goldberg was in this. My goodness. And if Quirk was the one they found the ball. Yes. That would have been another totally different episode. It would have been. How do you feel about that?

I feel that Michael Pillar made the right choice. You do. I do. I do. I'm not fond of this episode. And I have a lot to do in it But that sounds like I would have had more to do in it I'm glad I didn't Yeah, I'm kind of not to

Not to, you know, reveal the end of the story But I'm a little bit with you Although there's some qualities of this episode That redeem it for me And I'll cut to the chase It's the comedy. It's the humor and comedy in this episode The stuff with Bashir and Miles is very funny.

And there's a lot of funny stuff in it. And you've got a lot of great comedy moments in this episode. There is a lot of, yes, comic moments. And we'll get it to the summation later on. Yeah. Well, we go out of that first scene. Odo's taking Mardis away. We go to a holding cell, throws him in the holding cell.

Martis wants to chat, though, because you can tell he's a good listener. He's going to be perceptive. He's going to persuade Odo. He wants to use his skills to persuade Odo in this scene, but Odo does not want to talk. So, yeah, Martis is in jail. And I think, if I remember correctly,

Renee finishes that scene with a traditional film. Yes, he does. Which is his signature, sort of, I'm not amused, comment. Yeah, he's got his grunt in the background of the leaves. Now we go to the racquetball court. And first we see Miles walking down the hallway. And the camera sort of starts on a racket swing through. Before the racket, he starts on a very shoddy pair of shoes.

I remember thinking, really? You couldn't replicate better shoes than that? Perhaps those were shoes he wore in earlier times when he played racquetball. Yeah. Okay. That's a good. His lucky shoes. That works for me.

Yeah. Yeah, Miles is walking down a hall in shorts, I think. Was it shorts? this i know he wears shorts maybe not in the first one no not in the first sweatpants or something yeah sweatpants yeah later he shows shorts yeah and more later

actually yes miles shows a lot of skin in this episode but but he's coming down the hallway swings the racket nice little opening i like that transition in off the floor and the shoes and the racquetball swing up to miles reveal miles walking somewhere

and he enters a racquetball court and love as it pans around and the door opens you see Bashir on the floor doing some sort of like a move. Some martial arts move or whatever it is. This whole scene was just hilarious.

It's very funny. They had a hard time shooting in this court, this racquetball court. And because of the expense that went into putting this thing up and taking it down, they decided that they were not going to play racquetball again after this. It was just too difficult. And also, the way they designed the court, It wasn't a traditional racquetball court, which is a rectangle, okay?

This was, this had all these other edges and angles. And so the note, I mean, the complaint was this. They put all the other walls that are at angles, weird angles, to make it look more sci-fi. But because of that, when they were filming, every time they tried to play, they could never ascertain where that ball was going to come back. Was it a real ball? I figured they put a Viz-Effects ball in there. you think it was Viz-EFex? I would venture to say it was a real ball,

but probably somebody off-camera was throwing it to them, exactly. It wasn't, they weren't receiving it off of the wall. Does that make sense? They would hit it, but someone else would throw, someone would catch it, the other person would throw another ball, is what I'm thinking, is the only way that they could make it.

Maybe it was a combination, like when it was supposed to be a very specific shot that went well for Bashir or something. And that would be a Viz-Effects ball because you'd never get it to go. Would that be cheap? Would that be very expensive? at that time in the 90s to do a Vis-Fex ball?

No. No. Okay. Whenever you shoot scenes with balls and sports, like ping pong or tennis or racquetball, even basketball sometimes, it's easier just to do a fake ball. Okay. Than to spend the time trying to get the sport to work. Interesting. It's hard to do.

Yeah. But I love his funny warm-ups. I love his costume. I want to talk about costumes in this episode, but his costume I really love to. It's a nice costume. but isn't that hotter than heck to play racquetball in? Beauty must be pinched, as my wife would say. Well, it fit him well.

I did feel like that outfit, Garrett, you may agree. It looked like the racing uniform a bit. From Voyager in a way. From Voyager, which I loved our racing uniform. This looked like an erotype of that same, because we had a uniform that looked almost identical, made from not a stretchy spandex fabric, but more of a wool and things.

Same designer, same designer. Same designer, yes. Similar color scheme, you know, the gray and the white and the piping and things like that. Yeah. But Bashir is very energized. He reveals he was team captain at Starfleet Academy. He does some very funny warm-ups at one point. He says something like, some of the toughest players I've come up against didn't really

know what they were doing. O'Brien's getting insulted here, really. Bashir says formally, I mean, you know, hey, whatever works. This exercise, for example, and then he pops below frame and comes back up. I thought it was so funny. Sid was on fire comedically in this episode. Yes, he was. It's just quickly back to the uniform.

So basically, this was film before we wore those uniforms. So I feel like this maybe was the origin of our uniform from that episode drive where it was in Bob Lippon. That is the meaning of prototype. Yes, it was because I think that ours was perfected. I think this one was still kind of in the drawing room, you know, a little bit. Yeah. But I do feel Bob Blackman remembered this uniform

and thought, hey, let's use something like that in drive. I do feel that could have been the case. Yeah. Well, Miles is very nervous. He sees that Bashir is very confident and very intense. Bashir's energy in the scene is just, he's like manic almost. He's so excited to play. My question is, Cullen played this when he walked in to the court.

like he didn't know who he was going to play. Or perhaps he was going to practice and there's somebody there. But I got the feeling from watching a column that when he walked in, he was surprised that Bashir was there. And perhaps the uniform helped surprise him. I think the intensity, like the seriousness, he thought he was coming for a fun little, you know, amateur match. And here's a guy in a spandex uniform doing weird stretches.

I think that's how I interpret. Maybe, maybe, yes. Yeah, and I feel like that uniform was probably like a professional, you know, sports team uniform. And here, O'Brien shows up in sweats. He's so cash. And so he is shocked that Bashir is decked out, ready to go, you know, in his gear and everything. And all the warm up moves. So I think, yeah, maybe that's it.

I used to, I'll digress a little anecdote here. When I did, I worked on the show Chuck for years. And some of the crew, we decided we were going to have a mountain biking day. where we'd go out mountain biking together, we'd call the Chalk Fat Tire Club. Wow. This was at a time where I was biking a lot. And I loved the paraphernalia bike,

like having the right shorts, the right, you know, all the things. All the Lycra? Yeah. I show up with our crew guys to go on the Mountain Bike Day. And I've got the Lycra and, you know, the leg warmers. You were Bashir. And this is like a bunch of grips and camera guys

and like these rusty old bikes in their. They've got shorts on with Doc Martin boots or something. I mean, just like, you know, they're not even looking like they're going to go on an exercise, a run or a bike. But you were ready. I took it very seriously. I love it. Did they rib you later on? Yes, they did.

I printed up t-shirts, long-sleeved t-shirts with a Chuck logo on a mountain bike. And it said, Chuck Fat T-Hire Club. I gave it. I told the guys, I said, if you come out and we all go mountain biking, you get a t-shirt. I was trying to get guys, you know, whoever. to come out. Made t-shirts. I was Bashir.

You were Bashir. You were Bashir on steroids because Bashir did make t-shirts. That's right. That's right. You got prizes if you came out with me. Thank you for that. Yes.

You can picture me in spandex on the mountain bikes. Oh, we can see all of that now. Thank you for that. Afterwards, I want pictures. Yeah. Please show Armand. Send some. Email him some so he gets to see them.

Okay. Well, Bashir serves. and fires a rocket. Does O'Brien even move? I don't think he even moves, right? He gets aced immediately. He gets a iced, flies by. That's why I thought it was a Vizafx ball.

That shot for sure. That shot alone. Okay. It had to be, because it flew like inches from his face. Got it. Yeah. But that's how we end. We know Miles is in trouble.

You go to the holding cell next. There's Mardis in the cell. Another prisoner is snoring. He's laying down, faced away from us. We can't see him. this alien who will learn his cost he looked like an early prototype of the kazon from our show do you remember the hair like you know it looked like a kazon prototype i have a different what i thought it looked what did you think it was okay uh honestly a combination

between tosk the guest star from ds9 the lizard guy toss at the thing yes and that the thing, the makeup thing, yeah. Well, you know what I'm saying. He was the guy, he was the, on the hunt. They were hunting after him, right? Okay, so Tosk, who's very kind of lizard-looking, right, the face-wise, mixed with the cowardly lion from Wizard of Oz. We did look kind of cowardly lion.

If you take Cowardly lion and Tosk from DS9, you get this alien cause. And you saw, you saw an early, early version of Kazon, which is funny because the Do you see that, Armin? Yeah, I do. Yeah, I do. Yeah. And I feel badly for, is his name, Albert? Albert, that must have been a ton of time in makeup.

Oh, God. And hair. And hair. Yeah. Yeah. Well, he's snoring. Koss is snoring. Yeah, because he's been in the makeup chair for eight hours. He's so tired.

He can't even act in his scene. That's so funny. Martis is not happy. He's like, friend, friend. You know, pardon me, friend. Trying to wake him up. Finally, he, like, kind of knees him or something. He goes off.

and sort of like shoves him and this old ragged alien wakes up Marta's thought he was dead because, you know, although he's snoring, so he can't be dead. He just looks like death warmed over. Yes, he looks like a homeless person. He does look like a home.

I think that was the point that he looked like a homeless person. Yeah, yeah. But he wakes up and he, you know, tells Koss about his bad luck in life that once he had everything, he had wealth, he had looks, but he lost it all. gambling with this sphere, this thing in his hand. And he pushes a button on the sleeve.

Did he say he had looks, too? I thought he did. I don't remember looks. I nodded. I nodded agreement because I thought I don't remember that. But okay, Robbie's ahead of the show. I'll agree with him. I thought he did.

I'm going to let me just read this. He said, I had youth, vigor, fame, wealth beyond measure. There's no looks there, Robbie. Well, I would say youth and vigor. implies that you had some looks. Next week I'll do an entomology on looks and vigor and youth.

All right, let's go. But he had it all going on. Yes. And then he gambled and he lost everything. Yeah. And he pushes this button on this. What were those little balls? There was a toy that was like this

where you'd push buttons. Yeah. Are you talking about Simon? Are you talking about Simon? Simon, maybe that's what I'm thinking. You copy the, it was like, beep, pop, pop, pop, and you had a hit beep, ba, pop, but it's Simon, for sure. Look like that. Kind of.

Maybe it's too early even to say this, but these things didn't make any sense to me, any sense to me, because I went, what is the fascination? What are, what is the, you don't get any money. You don't get anything out, but a beep. And although that would be pleasant, I agree with what my character says later on. It's a child's toy. go, what is the, what is the fascination with this toy? But he made it into a gambling device when he opened up Club Martis, right?

And people were coming in there. Yes, but that's further on. That's for Martis. I'm talking about cause. We know that he, he lost a lot of business ventures. Yes. But, but I'm going, are you, I understand addiction. I understand it. But I don't understand this addiction. I don't understand what fascinated him so much with this. It reminds me of slot machines.

I have the same feeling about slot. But you win something on a slot machine. Yeah. Yeah. You do. But what if some people might just want to play slot machines at home? Have a little toy slot machine that they play at home. What do you get out of this?

I agree with you. I did not see the fascination. Unless you were to say, I mean, it's obtuse at the very end. He says it's all about luck. If he somehow had told me, me personally, as a viewer, this improved my luck. Yeah. But if I had been told that, then I'm going to go, oh, that's the fascination with this. But I wasn't told that and have to come up with that ad hoc, different from everything else.

Yeah. Yeah, it was confusing. Okay, so basically what happens to Martis is what happened to cause in the beginning. Everything went well for cause in the very beginning when he had. had that sphere, correct? And then as time went on, because the sphere is there, I guess it's that tiny version where all the neutrinos start turning the spinning the wrong way. So then he had this streak of completely the opposite of good luck. He had the worst luck ever, which is what does he know the tour had as an affinity with luck? Does he know that? No, I don't think so. I think he's totally

oblivious to that. Yeah, it's just about the blinking lights going off. Yeah. And you either get a blue light or you get a white light and you win, you get a blue light and you don't win. I agree with you, Armand, I don't understand. They need to explain a little more for me because I don't quickly pick up on, oh, you know, games of luck are just fascinating within themselves. I want to know, like, what's the logic and the purpose of all this? Definitely. I wonder if it's like if I had a pair of dice in my pocket that I carried everywhere. And I just wanted to practice throwing dice and see if I got numbers that.

would win me something if I were playing a game. But I spent my free time just rolling the dice and I didn't roll a good one. I'll do it again. That's what it felt like to me. It's like, oh, he's just rolling dice. And look, see, it shows me I have bad luck or I have good luck. So is this, what you're saying is it's compulsive behavior. Yes, a little bit. Okay. Yeah. That makes more sense to me. Okay. Yeah. Compulsive behavior. Yeah. Like I kept thinking when I was watching him cause mess with it in the beginning i kept thinking about because it's shaped like a sphere you remember magic eight ball that you could buy in america you'd shake that thing up and it would tell you a little thing like you would ask it a question you'd shake it up it was almost it was very

reminiscent of of that whole yeah it looked like a magic eight ball a little bit yeah in a bit it just reminded me of that so much watching this episode for sure and no one gets anything from the magic eight ball you don't win anything you just you know it's just a little thing well you get an answer to your question, even though often the questions are... That's the payoff, right? And in my experience, you shake it up three or four times, and then you put it down and you forget about it for a year and a half. But some people carry that thing around everywhere.

Some people carry that thing with them wherever they go. They're not going to make a move unless the Magic A ball says, do it. A life well spent. Yes. So the old guy's got this fear. He gambles, he loses, and then he wins. He gambles again, as he's telling his story, you know, rolls his, you know, rolls his his ball or whatever and he wins and it's like too much for him he literally oh no no no no i didn't

get that at all go ahead finish your thought i have a different i thought he was so shocked that he had finally after years of bad luck rolled a good role that he dies he literally it kills him the shock of it what's your take arman that's interesting that's interesting it's very valid very valid here was my take was that life had had really sucked for him really sucked And so the good luck was he was dying and he was getting out of this sucky life. Oh, I love it. So the ball almost like duplicated the fact

that he was finally getting out of this. He was finally getting out of this measm of that rat race. Exactly. Yeah. Okay. Interesting. Wow. Robbie's idea is equally valid.

I'd like yours too, Armand. It's really, that's amazing. But I think they both can be true. I think they both, both ideas. He is shocked. Oh, my God, I've got good luck. And the good luck is I'm going to tie in. This is all going to be over.

Right. Either way, let me ask a question of both of you. If you were always losing with this ball, always losing, and you're now in a cell where you can't get anything, there's no more trade deals to be had. There's no more relationships to be had. Why do you hold on to it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, it's compulsive behavior. It goes back to addictive behavior in my mind. So again, an addiction. He dies. artist goes over and looks at this ball, this sphere, and he's fascinated with it, kind of has some thoughts, calls for the guard, tells us the guard, you've got a dead prisoner, and we go out on Koss, with his eyes wide open, dead on the bench. That was sad.

It was sad. I liked that performance a great deal. I did too. I thought he did a very nice job. So kudos to the actor, Albert Anderson. Good on you, Albert. Yeah, he was great. I think the whole guest cast was really strong.

Yeah, they were very strong. They were very strong. So off of the dead cost and Marta stealing his fear, we go to O'Brien's quarters. Miles comes in sweaty. He's angry. Keiko's there. He's lost every match. He's just frustrated.

Thinks he's out of shape. Now we get some skin. He takes off his shirt in this scene. Brave. Nice. Nice, calm. I don't think I ever take my shirt off. Can I read this, Robbie?

Of the decision to have O'Brien appear shirtless, Director David Livingston commented, I thought it was important. He represents the common man on the show. And common men, when they get sweaty, take off their shirts. And so what, if he doesn't look like Fabio? He looks real, like a human being.

And later on, he has this nice loving moment with Keiko where she hands him his shirt. I fought for that. I agree with David on that. I agree with that, too. And absolutely. Colum's character, Miles O'Brien, is the common man of the show. He is the foundation.

He is the person we look to be the most human. Yeah. Yeah, and I think it's very, I don't know what Colum's attitude was about it, but he seemed to do it without any, you know, embarrassment or neurotic behavior. It seemed very comfortable. And how nice for Rosalind Chow as well. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Keiko is laughing. Speaking of Rozschild, she's laughing at him how wound up he is during the scene. Yeah. And Miles does say he thinks he needs to get back into shape. So this is getting at his ego and his age. And, you know, I thought that was a nice touch.

It's a wonderful family scene. It's a wonderful scene between a husband and wife. Really very realistic, very true to the nature of the situation. and kudos to both of them because it's very simple and very telling. Yeah. But he does say at the end of the scene, he just couldn't get his shots to land this time. So we know that there's going to be more racquetball, more sport to come. One other thing for David, excuse me, before we move on,

when he takes his shirt off, the camera is below him. And we get a sight of what the top of the room looks like. and there are set designs that I have never seen before. I went, whoa. Oh, interesting. That was interesting. And so they had to build that as well. Well, David, David does love wide-angle lenses.

He uses some very wide-angle lenses later in this episode. But, yeah, with using those kind of lenses, you've got to have ceilings in there, good ceilings, because you're going to see everything. So, but we go to the Repliment next. Bashir and Dax are there eating and talking. We see Bashir's side of this. he fills dachs in he thinks miles was just terrified you know um to play he thought he was going to have a heart attack is what he's going to have a heart attack he was going to die right there got die in the

match he even says i tried to stop i tried to like quit but miles wouldn't let him miles was obsessed with trying to beat him uh a brian wants a rematch we learn and bishir is very nervous doesn't want to humiliate him which is very kind and miles's racket even broke in that one talks about he had to go replicate another one and made him wait until he came back to continue yeah is this the scene where where this is where he goes over and gets salt from a table yeah this is the scene yeah yeah i loved that yes exactly yeah he went to two tables went to two tables one he apologizes too he says can i have that or something like that the other one he just takes it uh but lovely for david to to work out you know that blocking so because it is it is it is

It takes away from just two people sitting at a table. Yeah. It was very, very smart of David to do that. Well, I'm looking in the original script, which now I have access to all these original scripts. It is not scripted. No, it's David's idea. That is all David's idea. There was even a line where Bashir says, may I?

When he goes to the first table. The first time. And I wonder, I'm looking for that line. It's not in there. They added that. My goodness. I'm sure, I'm sure Judy Brown, our script coordinator, was on the phone and says, can we do this? Can we add? Oh, yeah. Yeah. We put a may eye in here. I love it. Yeah. I love that bit of business, though. The domestic detail of that felt just really unusual for Star Trek. Good job, David.

It made a static scene, a non-static scene. You know, he gets him moving around. He does all this thing, and it's, it's lovely. He does all this thing to prepare the sandwich, and then at the end of the scene, he doesn't eat the sandwich. He brings it and he puts it down. It's a classic actor move with food in the scene. Don't want to match continuity. We've all done it. We've all done it. Come on, guys. We've all brought the fork up to our mouth and then stop and start talking again.

Yeah. But again, I thought Bashir, you know, Sid was hilarious in this scene. He's very comedy in the pacing and his tone of delivery and just especially the pacing. he was fast he was just popping out the comedy you know the jokes and the and the the light comedy sid had an exceptional ability to memorize lines and spit them out both he and cullen were the two really rapid memorizers on our on our set and sid probably had it worse because he had more medical technical babble than anybody else he had more technical babble than anybody else but but he was able to to memorize like that and perhaps

because Sid probably was the youngest member of the series regulars on the show. It's funny when I was watching this episode, every Sid scene that was there, I knew Robbie was laughing his butt off. I know Robbie loves this scene. I know Robby like this is what too. And when he pops up in the first scene out of the car, I go, Robbie is falling off the couch on this one. Rob really is great. It's funny. Like, I will tolerate. a mediocre or bad story if the actors are entertaining me and making me laugh and they keep my attention. I want to see the next funny thing. Yes. And that's what Sid did throughout this entire episode. He was great. And Colin as well, both of them. And you, Armand, you had a lot of funny.

I would quibble with that, but certainly the other two, absolutely. Well, they had a whole storyline that was that was really mostly comedic until the very end until it sort of helped the turn of the problem in the episode but otherwise it was just there for great comedy so we go to the holding cell again martis is playing with his sphere he's winning every time he pushes the button every time he rolls the dice he's winning and then otto arrives and tells him that the The elderly couple, the Pythron couple, has refused to press charges. So he's going to let him go. And I love Martis at the end.

He says, didn't I tell you? They're my friends. So it's also interesting. He plays the game. He wins. And Odo comes in and says the charges have been dropped. So his luck, the game has told him he's lucky. And there it is.

His luck is on his side. because the couple has dropped the charges. Yeah. Yep, his fortunes are definitely changing. He was thrown into jail very quickly, and now all of a sudden, life is going to go, going great. We go to Quarks next, and Quark is playing some kind of dice in a cup game with Morn. It's like heads or tails, I think. It's one piece, it's not multiple pieces, right?

And when you shake it up and flip it, if it lands on the blue side or the other side. House wins. Was that right? Yeah. Yeah, that's right. That's right. It's, you know, either win or you lose. It's a flip of a coin, basically, in a cup. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So Quark rolls. The house has blue, I guess, all the time. Quark mentions this. The house always takes blue. Always takes blue. He rolls and beats Morn in the game, wants to go double or nothing. And then we see Mardis enter. He bets quark for a drink.

He wants a drink. Quarks, like, how are you going to pay? He bets him, says, if I win, I get a drink. If you win, you can have this sphere. So we're assuming from Quark's reaction that he has encountered Martis before, that he knows that he can't pay for his drinks. Now, he's also read a file. Yeah, he mentions later. I got the great sense.

This is what I said earlier. This was me playing upon our old history. This was me bringing up things that we had done. together. We were actually relatively close during the rehearsal of this play in Boston. And so I was drawing upon those connections as I'm doing this scene with Chris. Whether he was doing the same, I can't tell you. But I certainly remember doing that. Yeah. Okay. What was the dynamic with your characters in that play? He was the boss and I was the sidekick. I was his gunsel. And he told me what to do and I did

it. But when we weren't rehearsing, we spent a lot of time together. In fact, I remember one evening, he introduced me to, I think at that point was his ex-wife, Susan Saranda, and we all watched the Academy Awards together, just the three of us. Oh, nice. Wow. Well, you take him up on this bet, you roll the flip of a coin dice, and Mardis wins. And so you pour him a drink, and then Mardis says, you know, this sphere would be a good addition to your casino cork is interested in this but he tries the game cork tries pushing the button and doesn't get the the white light so he loses he's his luck is going to be bad we can tell already uh martis keeps pressing the button and he's winning over and over and over so cork offers him a small

amount pulls out like a piece of latinum one piece or something no it's more than one piece it's about two or three yeah two or three pieces and he says it's a tidy amount yeah martha says it's a tiny Yeah. So he offers him that, but Martis is not interested. He says it would have to be much more a hundred times that. And Martis is trying to sell hard this thing, which I thought was odd that he was ready to give away this thing that seemed to be the key to his luck. It's, you know, like knowing a super secret. Has he done that? Has he realized it's the key to his luck?

I mean, all he's winning is white lights or blue lights. When do the characters realize that the machine can change people's look? When does that happen? I don't know. I don't think it happens until Dax and Cisco walk in the room. I think you're right. I think you're right. And phaser it.

Yeah. Yeah, we don't really put that all together. It would have been good if costs gave a little more detail. I mean, we didn't need to know everything about it, but we needed to know a little bit more. You know, I was very successful while I had the white light. And then things. change when I continually got the blue light yeah and and maybe they couldn't put that in because as as martis begins to get more and more non-white lights blue lights yeah um he he doesn't know

that that signals that his real luck is changing it's a complicated idea yeah that in my opinion they didn't solve very well yeah i agree i agree well um martis wants to sell for lots more but Quark is not buying it. He's not going to buy this sphere. Cork, I think, does offer a couple of, a few more pieces of Latin. Yeah, he does. You do offer a little more. You come up a little, but it's not enough.

Marta says no, and he leaves. He says that tell is the offering of the free drink. Yes. Again, indicating that they've spent some time together because he would know that, if he just met him, he wouldn't know that Quark doesn't give anything away for free. yeah yeah yeah that would be interesting to know what that it would have been nice if there had been a little dialogue or reference to to having encountered each other before doesn't he say at some point you know i've known for my generosity or something and he says i'm sure you are so that to me felt

like they'd never have met before at this point oh interesting but but you have done the work on him you've researched him you have his file but um from that little quick dialogue do you guys remember that part. I certainly do. And I thought just the opposite actually. Really? I thought him being very sarcastic. I know you too well. Of course. Yes, yes. So that's what I thought. But again, both ideas about him. Yeah. Do you think quark, Armand, do you think quark as new people come in and seem to be, you know, potential customers or clients? Does he do this all the time? Is he constantly looking at who's coming in? Who's checking? You know, I've never thought of that, but I wouldn't put it past him.

Yeah. I wouldn't put it past him. The question is, how does he get these files? The only person who would have the files are Odo. So does he have some sort of secret way into Odo's computer? You do. You have that whole file, that drawer full of little things that gets you to do. Yes, the little lials that gets you into everything.

You have, you've got a skeleton key to the entire station is what you have, cork. Yeah, I think he would. I think he'd be looking at manifest constantly. Yeah. How can I profit from this new person coming on? You know, what can I get? What will serve me and my profits with this new person on the station? I think he does all the research.

I think he's so, he has files upon files of every single human, every single alien and human and whatever race comes across DS9. Quark knows about them. That's my belief. To me, that sounds stressful to a pharynge. That sounds like heaven. But to me, I'd be like, oh, my God. But don't we, when we work with other people on camera or on stage,

don't we do a little research? I do. I do a little research. Who is this director? Who will I be working with? Yes. Who's this other actor that I have never met before? Yeah.

What are they like? Yeah. Yeah, I think we all have a little incentive to do that. Yeah. There used to be a great website that I would use. I don't know if it's still around. where you could, it was kind of like an IMDB website, but you could put your name in or any two names

and see where they work together. That was IMDB. They used to be able to do that IMD. You could put one name in another and it would bring up any common credits. Wow. I used to use that a lot. I used to like if I was going on a show,

I go, okay, put my name in and, you know, all the people that were the guest stars or their series regulars just to make sure I didn't space out that, you know, and forget. For me, it was always directors, because I can never remember, sorry, I can never remember director's names. And so, if I'm going to work on a show, I go, have I worked with this director before? Yeah.

Yeah, I don't know if that, if you can do that on IMDB anymore. Yeah, I don't think you can't. You used to be able to do it, but I don't think you can do it anymore. Yeah. We'll be right back after this message from our sponsor. Hey, Garrett, have you been traveling this summer? Oh, my gosh, so much already. I don't always travel, but this summer's been insane.

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See Mint Mobile for details. All right, we go to the promenade next. Before we do, Marta's orders Prosecco, I thought, that's the most, that's a real drink. The most unscifed. We get, yeah, non-sci-fi drink you come up with. And I thought, they didn't, he didn't want a Ractogino or something. You know, any of the things that we make up? Do you think it's possible that when Joe Minoski was doing the teleplay?

He typed in Prosecco thinking, I'll just put in a regular drink here, and I'll come up with a nice sci-fi drink later. But he never ended up to and let it in, yeah. Yeah, that's true. Although it does sort of Prosecco and champagne, like those kind of drinks imply sort of, you know, culture to me, you know. They do, right. Bobby, but they've never, I mean, every time someone orders a drink on any sci-fi, any Trek show, it's always exotic. It's never, I'll have a, you know, a Galendian, blah, blah, blah, whatever.

It's never, I'll take a blue moon. I'll have a Budweiser. I'll have a this, you know, no one's. I'll have a one-core breach. Yes, exactly. Can you imagine? I'll take a Coors light cork. I mean, who's going to say that?

Nobody. So it's very funny that they use Prosecco, a real dream is that we can order in a bar right now in our era. It's very funny. It's so good. Prosecco is so delicious. It's lasted all those years. Okay. I'll buy that too.

We go to the promenade. We see O'Brien Miles Jogs pass at the opening of the show. That's lovely. I love that, John. Yes. He's got wrist weights. Yes. And then it reveals Mardis there.

And Mardis notices that the shop is being closed up. And he sees this Bajorn woman shutting it up. He goes over to Charmed. harmed this lady and we realize her name is Rowana and she kind of seems sad to me because the hat she was wearing because of the hat I'd be sad too by the way she seemed a bit in mourning or sad and he so he thinks that's about business is really bad and she says oh no business is great it's not the business I'm basically saying I got plenty of money which is always a turn on for him But she explains her husband died recently and her heart's just not in the shop anymore.

And then he picks up a crystal and they end up holding it together. And I guess he's such a good feeler. He just picks up. He's so intuitive that she realizes that she says she, that he understand. She's like, you understand me. Okay. That's where I was like, is that a telepath? Is he talking to her?

But what's the question? thing for. Why is he picking up the crystal to hand to her? I thought he was going to buy it from her or something. I don't understand what's going on. Yeah, it's her crystal. It's her crystal. I don't know what the. He's like, here, this is your crystal. To me, it was just weird. I didn't know why. Let me hand you this thing that you own. That you just that you already own. Totally. So to me, that bit of business meant, meant I didn't understand it. I said, why is he doing this? Is it something? Is it is it, is it, is it cond Is it a crystal that, that sort of you can feel energy, other people's energy? A conduit, exactly. That's what I thought, maybe. Maybe. Maybe. Yeah.

I don't know. When you saw the hat, though, Armand, did it, did you feel, for me, it felt like, gosh, it kind of looks like, like this is from the 40s or the 30s. Like, did you feel like a period piece feel in terms of her overall look? And the way it was worn on the side. On the side a little bit, yeah. I was waiting for her to start talking like from the old black and white films like that, You know, to, to Marta.

My husband died, see? My husband died, see? And now I've got the shop, see. And it's all vacant. Yeah, that's what I thought was going to have. I don't think Bob Blackman did Barbara any favors with any of the costumes that he, she, he gave Barbara. Oh, you didn't like any of them, I take it. No, I didn't like it.

Oh, okay. I thought, I thought the dressier one looked nice. The one where she was in the, when she came in. Like my red queen? Fine. Okay. I like, okay. the dressier one when things are still going good inside her the bar slash gambling hall it looked up better than really wow really well okay it really looked to me like the red queen from alison wonderland i got it all right that's funny though well off of this romantic moment of of them both holding a crystal that she already owns um we cut to the racquetball court and now bashear is the one that he misses a return and miles realizes he's purposely

trying to lose this match. It's a short scene, but I laughed out loud. I wrote down, they are so with lots of O's funny. So funny. Great chemistry with these two. Yes, great chemistry. And I love Bashir when he misses the shot. And he's like, damn, pretending.

It was such bad act. It was like Bashir trying to be a bad actor. Oh, so funny. It is. But O'Brien gets it. He says, I'm not that stupid. I know you're faking this and I don't need your charity. And he's like, next time, play your best game or don't play it all.

So O'Brien really wants a real game. He wants to win a real game, not be handed it. There's a feistiness to Cullum that is part and parcel of Cullamini. Yeah. That I thought he got to play in this scene. He got to play his can't. tankerousness that is, I think, very much part of him. And it was lovely to see it.

Because usually he has to cover all that up as he's playing Miles of Brian. But here was Cullum in his, as Cullum. Yeah, it felt that way. In all his glory. In all his glory. And it felt like Sid was playing Cid a little bit. Yeah, absolutely. Very loish, very loose.

Yes. Very English. Yes. You know, very suave and sophisticated. Yes. The next scene is on the promenade, Odo's patrolling, I guess, here. He's looking around, making sure things are running smoothly. And Quirk runs up.

He is beside himself. He has an exclusive contract for gambling establishments. He wants Club Marta's shut down. Oh, he wants Mardis arrested, is what he was. Yeah, he wants what he's asking for. Yes. I like when Quark looks over to Mardis, who's just thousands of people Filing into this place

Never seen so many people wanting to go into a shop But everybody's going in there It's all those neon lights around the door Yes, yeah, yeah But Quark looks over And there's no line You don't have a line at the end of the scene

But you see him go, welcome, friends, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome a club artist Cuts back to Quirk And you like wave your hands You're like hilarious Thank you You're going to say you didn't like

it, right? No, I did. I did like it. I did like it a lot. But the geography bothered me. Here's why. If you watch the show enough times, you know exactly where Club Martis is, is the opening to the Bajoran Church. Church, yes. I mean, we've seen that. We know that that's the church portal. That would not be Club Martis, then. I had the same club artist. I had the same thought, because when you go inside, it looks like a repurposed version. of that church. And I'm trying to remember if they repurpose Quarks to make it Club Martis, because it sure looks, there are elements of the set that are very, and they couldn't have rebuilt. It just would have cost too much money to have built a new set. It's Quarks repurposed,

but even so, there's so many things missing. I thought, well, maybe it is a different room, but I can't tell. But that was the church opening for sure. Yeah, the church opening, absolutely. So, Armin, he should have said, welcome to club church. And that would have made you feel better. Okay. Yes, it would have. And that's why the monks were out in Quarks later on because they didn't have their church anymore. Yeah, yeah.

That's funny. But Quark does run up following Cisco. He tells Cisco that Martis is a crook and a con artist. Cisco has a lovely line. He said, one more won't make a difference. Yes. Like, out. Not again with a quark.

shots. Oh. No, it's good for David. I don't remember ever a turbo lift working from the up in that area from the upper level to where it came down. And it's one shot. We get in the turbo lift. The door shut. It pans down and then they, yeah. And I for the life of me, cannot imagine how that worked. Because those turbo lifts were always jerky. Very. jerky. And maybe we did it several times. Maybe. I'm hypothesizing that we did several takes and this was the one that worked. Well, you said you don't remember a lift there. Is it possible that you ran down some stairs and fake... No, no, no. It's a lift. We start... There's a lift. There's a... There's a... We start on the second level and we're talking and then we come out talking and it's all one shot. There's no cutaway. Yeah. But I think what Arm is saying is that that that lift is traditionally so jerky in its movement that it it's never smooth the timing is never that it's not sort that is what i animated but that's not what i'm saying oh the only turbolift that i remember working operative

was in ops that i don't remember any turbo lift on the promenade that was ever there so they must have created this for some reason now was it there and i'm just old and i don't remember very possible But I just don't remember a turbillift on the promenade where they have it in this episode. But what I'm saying is I think you could be right. There was no turbo lift there. There might have been some doors that David said, oh, what if they go in there? We put a couple flats to look like they're going in a turbo lift. And then they'll run down the stairs.

Yeah. And we'll have a flat on the bottom. There may not have been a functioning turbo lift. It happened so quickly. I can't imagine Avery and I are running down the stairs. Although that's an answer. That's an answer. You could put a cut in there.

You could pull that together the timing by putting a cut in there. There's a way to do that without building a turbolift, is what I'm saying. So if you could be right that there wasn't. If you could do that, maybe it's just we ended it and then we picked it up. Penn down, pause, yeah, lock off, now move you down below and come out. Yeah, because building a functioning turbolift is an expensive venture. Absolutely. I think you could be right that there wasn't one.

there. And David just wanted to be clever, which he often is and found a way to tell the story that there is one there when there really wasn't. Maybe. Thank you for that. That answers that perfectly. Yeah. Well, I wrote down. We go down to the lower level, nice transition on the turbo lift shot that we just talked about. Quark says that Cisco begged him to stay on DS9 when he first, when Cisco first arrived. And Cisco corrects him and says, no, I blackmailed you. That's his parting shot. No respect, Armin, for this quark guy.

Right. It's a tribute to our writers. That little comment, I was so taken with that comment. Because can you picture Picard saying I blackmailed somebody? Right. It is a tribute to that we know that our characters have good sides and bad signs. And here, Sisko is admitting to something that was a little less than noble that he did. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Interesting catch. Well, Martis escorts ROM as Quirk turns around, Cisco leaves him. Quark turns around. Martis is escorting ROM out of Quarks and across to his church club. To be his new employee. His new employer. Partner, excuse me, one quarter of the prophets is gone. going to go to Rom now to come work with him. I love how Quark is so frustrated that he actually

he yells, he goes, careful Martis, he shaved the latinum. And Ron goes, I do not. And then as he's walking out of frame, not much, a little not much. Yeah, Max is very good at that. Very funny moment with Rom. Also a funny moment for Quark in this scene where Rom says, make me a better offer. Quark responds, a bidding war over you? Don't make me laugh. The laugh, but it was so, it was like painful because Quark realized it was like the funniest laugh. You were panicking about this new competition, but you were trying to cover it with this laugh. Oh, so funny. There were a lot of levels going on, but it was very funny.

We go inside Club Martis next. We see that the woman from earlier that we met, what was her name, Arley? Is it Alcia? Alcia? Yeah, I don't know. Something like that. She's there. She is distraught.

She tells Marta's that she needed, now she's being required to pay for some kind of study of this mining operation, but all her money is wrapped up in this deal. So Marta says, well, I know a friend who might be able to help you, but he's going to need a return. And she promises 10 times the investment if that friend will help her out. She's thrilled. She leaves. And then Rom shows up with some snacks on a tray and a waitress. Rom thinks Quark might have put an intestinal bug into the snacks, which I thought was very funny. But Martis isn't worried.

He's cocky because he's got all this good luck going on. So he put hands on the tray, grabs the waitress, spins her onto his lap, which I thought was very forward of him. But then Rwana arrives and he literally like tosses her off his lap. What does he say? he says something like and make sure you clean it up next time or something like that right right yeah well neatness counts that one neateness counts never think it doesn't yeah uh i must say as bad as i think bob blackman was to barbara bosen he was nice to max grudencek the the sort of lame jacket that rom has in club martyrs uh is really quite nice very yeah it is

And in fact, it's not just wrong. It's all the employees, all the male employees have that. And I went, oh, you went to an extra expense to create. I mean, he could have just, Max could have just worn his old costume. But no, they gave him a new uniform. Yeah. Yeah, and it was very well tailored. Yes, it was.

It was very flattering. Very flattering. Well, Rowan arrives and Mardis goes over to charm her again, toasts to her and proposes to her basically with this gift an earring. It's like, let's make this, let's formalize this relationship. She accepts this beautiful earring. And then she asks about these machines that we see all over the bar. They're like half spheres, these big, much bigger than the small sphere. They're, you know, I don't know, three feet, four feet wide or something. They're big. Yeah. A couple feet. Three something.

Yeah, I'd say two or three feet. Yeah. For sure. And she asks about these machines that everybody's gambling at and he said he replicated them these copies from the small sphere that he got from costs so now he's got this game replicated all around the bar and people are loving it what are they getting out of it they must be betting they're gambling because he's making money yeah he's making money off of it but he proposes to yeah but he proposes to her to marry him not to be proposing to be my business partner correct it was not married clear it felt romantic it felt like a proposal but it wasn't it wasn't really clear yeah well because she she says are you proposing to me he says what do you think so now it is very unclear you don't

he's uh he's good with words he really is he's and i don't know what the present of a pejoran earring means to a pejorin i was there long enough i have no idea what that means if you gave me an earring garret i would be very flattered would you would you actually wear it though Would you wear it? No. And she starts to replace the one she has. Yeah, she's taking off. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right. So it seems like Martis' luck is really good right now. We go up to ops. Dax. I love Dax's staging here.

Her feet are up on the console. She's drinking a mug of coffee. It reminded me of Tom Paris. It was a very Tom Paris moment of sitting down there. She probably got it from you. I don't think you were around yet. We weren't even around yet. Maybe I got it from her.

Yeah, maybe you did subconsciously. Yeah, but she's drinking her coffee, talking with Kira. And suddenly this program that she's been searching for couldn't find it buried in the computer system suddenly appears. So we realized, oh, there's more good luck going on here. Dax is having really good luck. This thing she could not find. She even says at the end, it's more like it just found me. I guess I'm just lucky.

So luck is playing a part in everybody's lives here. Back to the racquetball court, my favorite storyline. It starts with O'Brien on his back on the floor, growing. The camera pulls up. I'm sorry, this is the funny, because we don't know what happened to him, but we do finally find out is that O'Brien stepped on a ball mid-flight, and that's what calls him to actually fall down on the ground and lose consciousness.

And that Bashir has never, ever seen that happen in the entire time he's ever played the sport. So that to me is hilarious. His delivery, Sid's delivery on the low, you slipped on a ball. O'Brien's like, I slipped on a ball. Yeah, stepped right on it mid-flight, never seen anything like it. So funny.

Oh, good. Yeah, but he can't remember anything. And then suddenly a crewman calls Bashir. needed in the infirmary right away. He says he's got to go. And by the way, he doesn't want to play racquetball anymore. Bishir says, I just don't enjoy this game like I used to. But he doesn't go right away.

He turns around, which bother me. If there's an emergency, he should go. You know, in every other scene, when there's a medical emergency, he's gone. Unless, Armin, this was his way. Remember how he told... I thought that at first, Gary. He set it up, right? Maybe. Yeah.

I thought that at first, until you... hear a little bit later about what's happening people are yeah people are getting injured everywhere yes that makes sense okay so it wasn't a setup then it wasn't a setup maybe not maybe not it did feel like a setup though in this scene it did it did it did feel like coincidentally quitting playing you know he's right he's trying not to embarrass right right that's one of the things they missed in this episode we i really wanted to see all these people with broken legs broken feet uh you know all the injuries that we hear about, I would have loved to have seen that. And then I asked myself, where does he have the time to play tennis if he's treating all

these people for their injuries? Yes. Yeah. All right. We go to Quarks next. The place is empty. Quarks bar has never been emptier. Quark is having very bad luck this episode.

Miles O'Brien limps into quarks. Everything hurts. And Quark says, you know, tell me your problems. Talk to me. So he's really inviting this conversation. Miles tells him the story about racquetball. And you see Quirk, you know, cueing him, encouraging him. Keep going.

Keep going. Keep talking. Miles tells him the whole story about racquetball and feels much better. He says, thank you. And Miles leaves. And Quark just says at the end of the scene, Quark's, House of Champions. I don't know. What he's going to do with this idea?

but he's definitely got an idea. Yeah, two things. One is it was rare that Cullum and I ever had a two-hander scene together. So that was very nice. It's always a pleasure to work with a consummate actor like Cullamini. And so I was delighted by that. And as I watched that scene, I thought, too over the top, Armament, two over the top.

Really? A little bit less, yeah. Oh, I bought it. I thought that, I know how you guys feel and I respect your feelings, but for me, I went, oh, there's a lot of times in this episode, it was way over the top. Oh, my goodness. No, I don't think this. Yeah, yeah, that's over the top, but that's okay.

That was great. That's okay. That's one of my favorite moments in the whole episode. So good. Quark has this idea. Quark's House of Champions. He's going to rebrand himself. We go to ops next.

Kira's mad because her terminal just broke and she, lost this big report and Cisco even comments wow it seems like a lot of people are having bad luck stories lately so words getting around that there's definitely good luck some good luck and a lot of bad luck happening isn't this where kira falls isn't this off camera yeah yeah dax dac says well i've been having great luck lately and kira says i don't believe in luck you make your own luck she's very confident in delivering that line and then turns walks off camera and you hear and a crash. Like Bob Picardo falling on a bicycle?

Is that what it was? Kind of like that. Now, I have to say, it's scripted, of course, and there's that. But the levels in Ops were trippy. You had to be careful when you walked around Ops. They were all steps and different levels. And if you weren't aware, and of course, you're dealing with the camera cords as well, it was an easy place to trip was Ops.

I heard the levels fairly, I mean, it's a big step down from one. to the next would it be as i remember there were two steps up uh from from where they're standing in this scene to the next level up and then sometimes and then sometimes there were ramps uh on the side and there was just and of course there's equipment you have to squeeze by all these panels and stuff like that right it was an easy place to trip if you weren't if you didn't uh keep your wits about you i guess my question was when you step from one level down to the next how much of a drop off is Two steps. Two steps. So I would say, you know, maybe altogether. Two feet. No, no, no, no. More like maybe a foot and a half, one foot, maybe at the most. Really? Yeah. And the reason why all those levels were there, I was told, was because on TNG, there was just usually one level or a ramp. And it was very hard to put a camera anywhere and have different heights. So they put different heights in so that the camera would have some different platform. where they could be and shoot it differently.

Yeah, because if I look at your show and I compare it to our show, on our bridge or our our ops, we have three levels. We have the back level, the captain level, and then the Robbie level. Okay. So you basically cross from one level to a next. It's literally only a step worth of a height to go to get from one level to next. Yours looks super steep to me. It's two steps.

It's two steps. I definitely remember there's two steps. Okay, I felt like they looked like maybe even more than that. Not just two, but they were long steps. Does that make sense? Like they were higher. Like ladder style or something. Yeah.

I don't know. I'd have to go back and look. You can't do that anymore. Now, I'm short, so it always seemed like they weren't huge steps to me. So if they weren't huge steps to me, I don't think they were that big. Okay. But if you took them wrong, if you stepped wrong, you could indeed. Like Kira did in this scene. Like she did.

Well, off of Kira's Prat fall off stage, Dax and Cisco run to help her. And we cut back to Club Martis, everybody's screaming. Everybody, you know, it seems like everyone won. At the exact same time. Yes. And Martis even says they all hit the jackpot at once. So, yeah, he's very upset about this. And emulates Quark's behavior when he's.

turns to Rahm. It says, there's any way I can blame you. Blame use on you, yeah. Lines right out of my mouth. Yes, it is. Poor Rahm. He just creates this relationship everywhere he goes. Martis is very frustrated.

We go over to Quarks, and Quark is kind of working out some name choices, challenge of the galaxy, match of the century. I like Wonder of the Wormhole best. Yes, that's good. That's the best. Wonder of the Wormon. Yeah. Yeah, he rolls the dice and gets blue.

So he knows. luck is on his side now so he'll move ahead with his plan we have a little time cut and we come back to quarks and he's basically hosting a battle of champions Bashir and Miles walk in they were called for some emergency they both have matching lunchboxes in their hands you know they both walk in with the same little it looks like a little Starfleet that's a little Starfleet kit they both have one the cork is telling the crowd what he's going to do that half the funds are going to go to the bejoran fund for orphans yeah and the match will be tomorrow and uh after he finishes he invites everyone and while you're here when you go play some bets have a good time right so uh they the crowd disperses and cork comes over

to talk to uh Bashir and miles who have never heard about this match until this point yeah no no And they don't want to do it. They don't want any part of this. No, no. And Quirk is very, uh, gilts them into it. Yeah, he gilts them into it, exactly. Do it for the orphans. Yes.

Blankets. Blankets. Blankets for the children. And I love the monks leading Bashir and miles off at the end. Because they want Club Martis to be their, their church again. Yes, exactly. They want Martis to close down as much as Quirk does. They'd rather have.

Club Church. Okay. Got it. I do love this last moment where Cork looks across to the club church. There's Mardis standing across the promenade and Cork just gloats. And then he turns to walk away and you did a little ear touch, a little, little delicate ear touch. You're very happy with yourself. Very, yes, literally that's what that means. Very happy with himself. Yes, exactly. Back up to Ops, Dax's program has now disappeared, the one that magically appeared when she was having good luck and dax and cisco talk they don't understand what's going on kira

returns comments that she does not believe in in bad luck uh but she does say that more minor accidents are showing up at the infirmary and cisco thinks it's got to be some kind of anomaly that's affecting people and machinery and tells dax to look into it so why why why is the stream of logic on that like yeah yeah i mean i'm kind of in the kira camp of like i you know i don't believe in luck i really don't i would be more like kira whereas i'm guessing garrett you would be more like cisco and going hmm there's some energy yes feel the vibes there must be something so maybe armin it's like it depends on people that are open to that idea as a possibility i don't They're dealing with a, I mean, she says it, they're dealing with a Cardassian computer.

It has glitches. She still hasn't mastered it. She says that in the episode. So, okay, so chalk it up to the fact that you're inexperienced with this computer. And people are falling down and having accidents. Never in a million years would I equate those two together. No. Just never would.

But, of course, this goes much smarter than I am, and he has a script in front of him. So, but this is just one of the many problems where my mind just went. Yeah, I don't think they sorted out. I don't think they dealt with the sci-fi concept of this luck machine and how it worked and how our characters make these leaps to figure it out. We can visualize the bad luck, people getting hurt, computer not working. I just don't know where the good luck. What's the, what is the demonstration of the good luck?

Besides winning a club artist, so they won and they have to be paid. That, okay, that I understand. But up until then, I don't know how this machine works. No one ever talks about that. They don't talk about how you win. What's the, you know, how do you lose? How does it work? You don't know anything.

We don't even see money being put on the table, do it? No. Right. If they're betting against each other and the, whatever, when the lights come on, you win or you lose, somebody's got to win, someone's got to lose or the house or it's the house against okay fine but we don't see any of that we don't know how this works

it would have been interesting when Quark is chasing around Odo and then Cisco if Quark could have been the one to say it's got to have something to do with that ball that Martis wouldn't sell oh yeah like it's got to have something to do with that because I couldn't get that thing

to work for me and my luck's gone bad like if there have been somebody to say or I checked around and that ball came from this planet and they have these problems with luck or something. There needed to be something to kind of tie this together. Yeah. Right.

And perhaps we should have seen a scene where before everything goes perfectly right in Club Martyrus, perhaps we should have seen a scene where people are winning and because of that, because the word of mouth is you can win at Club Martis that people are streaming into Club Martis' story. to win because they only have a 50-50 chance in quarks. Yeah, it needed more flashing out the logic of this whole premise. But the tennis match, the racquetball is great.

The racquetball is awesome. It's awesome. So funny. We do go back to Club Martis again, and now it's deserted. And Rahm is sort of chasing Martis, basically telling him all these childhood, you know, sad stories.

The story that he tells, how horrible. On my naming day, Quark substituted old vegetables for my presence. Then he sold the presents for more than our father had paid for them. That's horrible. It's just like, oh my God. This to me was just, I don't know. I know it's brushed over. Horrible for you, but good forangi practice.

Clearly, clearly, yes. But what's horrible to me is that the kids made fun of him because he had small lobes. Smaller lobes. That was kind of mean, too. All that stuff was me. Well, that's, yeah, that's me. that's me yeah well martis tells him to shut up a lot like uh he's in the same relationship he was with cork yep and martis puts his head on the waitress's chest for comfort um which i just thought

was a little creepy and she says nothing never speaks never speaks uh you know just give give her a line or to you know and pay her to be a principal as opposed to background uh uh just didn't make any sense all through this episode this this lady is featured and and she doesn't get a chance to say a word it's wrong it's wrong it's also it doesn't do martyrs any favors as a character because it makes him seem smarmy very smarmy yeah um not that he's not smarming but it it's it's a different kind of smar me than the greed and chris who's a wonderfully nice man of a kind uh gentleman i i love every time i meet him see him. But he tends to play characters that are a little smarmy. So, you know, just giving him

even the tiniest opportunity with the smarmy, it's going to be multiplied because of Chris's persona. He's also very handsome. He's gracious and charming, but he can be smarmy, yes. Interesting. I'm just looking back at the original script because when Martis put his head on her chest, read the script. What did you find? Basically, Rom says a bad streak. It happens. Mardis says not to me, it doesn't. And then it describes Martis takes a deep, frustrated sigh. The Dobbo girl he was flirting with earlier standing nearby, idle because of the lack of visitors,

Marta smiles and steps over to her. I require the comfort of a compassionate soul, Mardis says. And he nozzles his face across her chest. It's in the script. It does say that. Wow. Glances up, sees Rowana standing at the doorway, glaring at him, and then it continues. just seems like I mean he did what was scripted as often we as we always did I wish he had just gone in for a hug or put his head on her you know put his head on her shoulder or something yeah it just felt very intimate it felt very but they had to do that to make Rwana go like I knew you or whatever so he had to go yeah you had to push the the envelope there a little bit I feel on purpose maybe I don't know would Rwana make any would Rwana make any would Rwana

Vana's protesting the fact that, yeah, her reaction, I, you know, don't think I didn't see you right from, see through you right from the start. That line wouldn't work if he was just, I don't know, next to the Davo girl, next to the waitress and not, not nuzzling against her breast. I mean, it had to be intimate, even though it was creepy. Yeah, it had to inspire that reaction. Absolutely. Again, there's a scene missing. I want to know how, what's gone wrong. between in their partnership she's all for him the scene before and now she's all against him and it

can't be just that i can understand that's the that's the tipping the final straw yeah but what happened between those two scenes you know what what what is she suspecting him of and and is the club making money is it obvious not there's nobody there now so is she upset because of that that her investment has gone south that's a scene i would have liked to have seen sure Yeah. Well, she does arrive. She's very mad at him, says she never trusted him. She, you know, she could see right through him before and wants him out of this space or her shop that she owns the church place. She wants him out. Yes. Yeah, she's got the lease. She wants him out by tomorrow and she says, take your dumb machines with you.

He's bad luck. Go out on the promenade. He chases her out, but Rwana's gone and sees all. Alsea and gets an idea. Back in Club Martis, Martis is giving Alcia the 10,000 Icic, but he says, I expect 10 times as much back. And she promises they, we're all going to be rich, rich, rich,

takes the money, and out the door she goes. And the button of the scene, he hits, he's given all his money, everything he has. He hits the button on the machine, the sphere machine, and he loses. Do both of you buy the fact that he gets scam

by her, because I would always feel that if you are a con man to begin with, you can recognize other cons coming at you. I think that he would have a little bit more awareness, so that this is one of the things that kind of bothered me a little bit about this episode. Well, you're absolutely right. And that's commented upon in the last scene between Martis and Quark, where Quark indicates that's the pleasure that you got scanned by somebody else. But you're absolutely right.

He should have known better. and especially someone who has, forgive me, but the superpowers to be very sensitive to what people are doing. Definitely. Exactly. Yeah. Although there's a version, you could argue that a con man also can get too cocky sometimes. Yes.

And feel like they're always going to be in control. It's not an accident that he always comes on to widows. Right. Older women who are widows who are in times of need. So he probably thinks that's his advantage always. but but that said he should have been aware of this yeah i but i must say i wasn't aware of it k did it very well i didn't think that she was a con artist until until until the last scene okay well then it's okay if some people didn't you know see that i i definitely felt it was something

i felt it honestly it's funny you say that arman because in the very first scene the very first scene, the opening scene, I turned, I paused to make my notes, and I turned to Rebecca and I said, I think she's, she's conning him. Because I could tell he's being that sort of charming con man guy. And I was like, I bet this is going to flip by the end. But it was more just a guess, a wild guess. It wasn't her performance. It was more about how do they tell stories. Usually, they want you to think something that's the opposite. And you were right. And you were right. I got lucky. I got lucky. I'm on a lucky street. we go to a

Brian's quarters next for a great scene of him psyching himself up in a mirror I love this scene yeah yeah

it's a great scene it feels like a samurai going to war going to battle or something he's already thinking about every single move what he's going to do

I love it yes yes it's great Kiko's there she's you know basically saying

win or lose we're going to celebrate tonight very romantic and loving she ties the scarf around his head and they kiss great scene kick his butt kick his butt see i don't think anyone has ever said that in voyager no one's ever said kick his butt and so i just i just love the this sort of slang that's being used here that we've never got to use on voyager i mean kick his butt also like to hear ross chow i would say

kick his butt was just delicious it was so fun yeah yeah yeah But it's, again, a wonderful example of a husband and wife relationship. Yes, yes. She's being very dear. She knows what it means to him. She's being very dear. And it's promising sexual favors when he comes back. Yeah.

He's going to get nooky. No matter what. We're going to have some romance tonight. Yeah, we're going to celebrate tonight. Yeah. We go to the infirmary next. Bashir is doing push-ups on the floor. This is that super wide-angle lens.

There's no way to have a camera on the ground and see someone in the foreground, even though Bashir was dipping in and out of the frame, which was also funny. There's no way to hold that shot of full figure of someone standing right by them and someone on the ground unless you're on like a 10 millimeter fish guy lens or something. Classic David Livingston, wide angles that he loves. But yeah, Bashir's doing push-ups here. Quirk brings a drink-in from the monks, he says. and he's pushing Bashir to drink this.

Bashir decides to analyze the drink and realizes there's some kind of tranquilizer in it. Bashir's mad. You're trying to fix this match. Quirk begs him, he says, look, throw the match. The house wins. And then the orphans get the blankets. Win, win, win.

But Bashir refuses to throw the match, says he and Miles will be very mad if these orphans do not get these blankets, no matter what. So, Quirk's little tricky plan looks like it could backfire here. Yeah. Good. It could.

Yeah, I like this scene, though. That was a fun scene with the two of you. I had more scenes with Sid than with Colum, but even so, it's very rare that I actually got a two-hander with Sid. Yeah, you were both great. It was a lot of fun. And David did a great job. That wide angle lens, the shot inside the, you know, from behind the console when he's analyzing it. Yeah, yeah. Very cool. We go to ops again.

Dax sees these solar neutrinos are spinning oddly. They should be spinning kind of 50-50, 50% one way, 50% of the other way, but it's very off. So this feels like it's a scientific proof of this problem they're dealing with. Because outside the station is normal, but inside the neutrinos are spinning. So it's got to be inside the ship that's causing this. Now we go to a kind of an intercut sequence. The racquetball game starts. Bashir serves and O'Brien returns it beautifully,

just like he practiced in front of the mirror. He does exactly what he was kind of psyching himself up to do. Inside Quarks, the game's on a big screen. It feels like a sports bar or a casino in the sports book at a casino. But the very first point that they play, it's Bashir's racket that breaks. So now he's having the bad luck. Yes. So let me ask you a question because this is my problem with this episode.

Okay. So Bashir's having the bad luck. O'Brien is having good luck. Mm-hmm. How do the machines decide who gets the good and who gets the bad? Yeah, that's true. If the neutrinas are all going in the same direction or mostly, how does... Yes, you're right, Armin.

According to what you're observing, both Bashir and O'Brien should be. having both luck it's right luck it shouldn't just be one person having good and one having bad everyone should be having bad right now that's right yeah they should both be falling down and needing to go into the infirmary yes i agree miles is doing beautifully already it's two zero corks has not a rousing start for the doctor back in club martis martis is very worried i'll see it was supposed to be here with his money and this is when rom wants his quarter share uh rome wants his quarter share uh rome wants his quarter share, but Martis, you know, gambled all the money. And Martis explains, well, it's a quarter share after expenses. It's net. And he starts sounding a lot like quark. So Rom decides to

go back to Quarks. At least he'll be cheated by someone in the family. And he takes the girl, the dabble girl with him, which was cute. Back to the game, Bashir runs into a wall, nearly knocks himself out. Quark says another bad break for Bashir, nine to three now. So we've jumped ahead in this game. Miles is really winning. And then Miles O'Brien says, you know, Quirk, I'm going to cut the transmission. Quark says, no, no, you can't. And O'Brien says, watch me.

And then he takes his racket and smashes the camera. Oh, I didn't think that. I thought he pushed the button. He turned the top off is what he did with it. Oh, I pushed it off. Yeah. Just turned it off. Oh, I thought he just, because it looked like he smashed the camera.

No, it looked like he shoved it. Yeah, the racket came up. He wasn't breaking it. He just came up and pushed it, turned it off. Oh, I see. Or something. Oh, I thought he was like. Breaking it?

I thought so. I'm with Garrett. Okay. All right. Let's see. Back on the racquetball court, Miles asks Bashir, you know, I don't understand how I'm playing better than I ever have. Even the old days, I never played this good.

Better than when I was younger. Miles says to Bashir, take this ball and throw it at the wall. Just bounce it off the wall. So, Bashir. throws the ball, and he's ready to catch it when it bounces back to him, but instead it bounces to Miles. And then Miles throws the ball

trying to get it to go bounce over to Bashir, but it goes to Miles. Every every move they make, the ball keeps coming back to Miles. Yeah. Don't they call Cisco in at this point, or no? Yes, they do. They bring Cisco and Dax in

and they try and figure out what's causing it. Dax thinks it's something or someone on the ship who's causing it. We don't know how they're going to find it, but Dax does say, I think I know how to find this. We cut inside Club Martis. Dax is scanning, finds the source. It's the club. It's the machines. Martis explains they all came from the small one that he got in jail and that he replicated these bigger ones. Those machines to me look like a repurposing of inside Ferengi vessels, their control panel is that half. That's good. Yes. Oh, interesting. Absolutely. I never thought of that, but it's exactly right.

Yes. I imagine they're exactly the same. Yes. They just changed a couple of the doohickeys on the outside to end colors. Good catch, Garrett. Thank you. Very nice, Garrett. You get the MVP.

Yeah. Well, you know what? Anytime prop department doesn't have to build something from scratch, they're pretty happy. Absolutely. There you go. Very good connection. Well, the Dax realizes the machines. And so what do they do?

They reach on their holster belts where they always, carry phasers, not, and they pull them out and they shoot them. Why did they? Why would they have phasers on them? Not only why, it's just, it's not allowed. It's illegal. Yeah, you can't even have them on the station. You can't have weapons on the problem. I knew that. So, oh my gosh. I was like, whoa, this is not making sense to me. No, there's a total hole in that script. Yeah. Goodness. Okay. Yeah, but they do. They blow them all up. Yep, they just, they vaporize everything. Yeah.

And as soon as Cisco starts to blame Mardis for this, Martis is like, you have nothing. You can't prove anything. And that's when Odo arrives and says, well, the elderly couple changed their minds. They are going to press charges. So, Martis's luck really ran out. Yep.

And the final scene in a holding cell, Alcia is led in by Odo. The first woman we started the episode with. She tried to scam quark. Yeah. And quirks. It's on to her. Yeah.

He's on to her. She got arrested. Martis asked money, ask Quark for money to leave. Or he's going to stay. He's basically threatening quirk. Like, if you don't give me some money to get out of here. I'll stay. I'll stay here.

And you'll hate that. So they do negotiate a price. Another hole. Uh-oh. Odo says they press charges. How is, how can he leave? Yeah. He's under Odo's custody.

He's jail. Oh, my God. That's so obvious. You're so right. Good catch. Yeah. He can't leave. He can't leave.

He's in custody for the crime that he committed. Exactly. That Odo has been after him since the beginning of the episode. Oh, yes. Yes. And now somehow he's going to be able to go. Make a deal with Cork and be able to leave the drain. Yeah, that's not going to.

No. It's not going to happen. Oh, my goodness. Good catch. Sloppy. It's a little, it's, the script has a lot of sloppy holes in it. Yeah. But I laughed a lot.

And that was the point, Robbie. That was the point. Okay, good. That was the point. What's your theme or lesson from this episode, Robbie? What do you, what do you get from this? My lesson, it's a tricky one, but my lesson is be careful of believing. in things that are too good to be true.

I think, you know, a lot of people wanted to believe, oh, you know, even Dax, wow, that report just came to me. Wow, aren't I lucky? I know, something's up. If you couldn't find that reporter, like don't believe that it's that simple. Stick around. There's lots more after this message from our sponsor. Armin?

I also thought this was tricky. And I came up with a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, which pretty much imitates what you just said Robbie but the quote from mr. Emerson he says it much better than me I'm sure he says shallow men believe in luck or in circumstance strong men believe in cause and effect so don't don't believe in something that just shows up it's just it's probably a fantasy yeah so believe in what's real not not in something as as ephemeral as luck is we were talking about luck before and about the differences between the two of you about how you feel about luck i stand in the middle i have always believed in my heart

of hearts i truly believe this that i am a very lucky person now i don't believe in luck as far as gambling or as far as anything else but i've always said my parents gave me a lucky gene and that i truly do believe in i'm gonna i'm gonna take a step further i think what you're experiencing is gratitude more than luck because i think everybody has things they can be grateful for and look at as good fortune in their lives everybody even the smallest things it's a it's a question to me of attitude i still think the world is random and sometimes good things happen sometimes bad things happen And I think we can have cause and effect on some things, but some things were totally out of control. It's just the randomness of the universe, you know.

The traffic's bad. It's, you know, there's nothing we can do about it. We're powerless over it. There's no cause we can have to affect that, you know, the rush hour traffic. When talking about being successful or making it onto a TV show as a series regular, people talk about, well, you got to be lucky. And there's always someone saying, well, there's no such thing as luck. Luck is really when preparation meets opportunity. That's the one phrase I hear over and over again.

That's excellent. When it comes to getting on a show or whatnot. And I do believe that. I do believe you need to have preparation and opportunity meeting intersecting. And when it comes to things like, you know, dabo, gambling, whatnot, preparation is also important there. Because I think if you go in, a lot of people go into a casino and they'll sit down at a blackjack table. They don't even know anything about the game. They'll just sit down and just randomly throw their money on the table, these chips, and just bet them.

It's like, really? Why don't you study a little bit about this before you sit down? You spend more time deciding what car you're going to buy and doing more research into which kind of vehicle you're purchase than you do about putting your good, hard-earned money onto a blackjack table or a roulette table or a craps table. You don't know a thing about it. So, you know, due diligence, and which comes to my theme or a lesson of this story. is, you know, buyer, buyer slash investor beware, beware, basically. Buyer beware. Do your due diligence when it comes to any type of offer that's being put on the table in front of you. Like Robbie said, things that seem too good to be true are often

usually are. Too good to be true. Yes, usually are. Yeah. Our Patreon poll in terms of the theme slash lesson slash moral of this episode submitted by Jenny, if it seems too good to be true. It is. There you go, Robbie. You nailed it. Nice. We're on the same page, Judy. Yeah. Thank you, everyone, for tuning in to our recap and discussion of rivals. And for those of you who are our Patreon patrons, please stay tuned for your bonus material. For everyone else, we will see you when we recap and discuss our next episode, The Alternate with Terry. See you then. I'm going to be B.

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B, Bhop, B, B, B, B, B, B,

B, I'm going to be B. B. B. B. B. B.

B. B. B. B. B. You know,