The Delta Flyers - The Homecoming

Episode Date: April 30, 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 is, In The Homecoming, hosted by Garrett Wang, Robert Duncan McNeill, and Armin Shimerman.The Homecoming: Kira is intrigued when Quark presents her with an earring he claims was delivered from Cardassia Four.We want to thank everyone who makes this podcast possible, starting with our Production Managers Megan Elise & Rebecca McNeillAdditionally, 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, 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, Gemma Laidler, Rob Traverse, Matt Norris, Stephanie Lee, Izzy Jaffer, Jan Hanford, Sam Mikelic, & Thomas IrvinOur Co-Executive Producers:Liz Scott, Eve England, Sab Ewell, Sarah A Gubbins, Luz R., Dannielle Kaminski, Utopia Science Fiction Magazine, Courtney Lucas, Matthew Gravens, Captain Jeremiah Brown, E & John, Deike Hoffmann, Anna Post, Shannyn Bourke, Tom Paynter, 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, Kayla Knilans, Tim Beach, Victor Ling, Shambhavi Kadam, Tae Phoenix, Donna Runyon, Nicholas Albano, Daniel O’Brien, Danie Crofoot, Steven Lugo, Penny Liu, David Smith, Lisa Hill, & Stacy DavisAnd our Producers:Philipp Havrilla, James Amey, Patrick Carlin, Richard Banaski, Ann Harding, Meredith Hudes-Lowder, Trip Lives, Samantha Weddle, Chloe E, Paul Johnston, Carole Patterson, Warren Stine, Carol Murphy, Jocelyn Pina, Mike Fillmon, Chad Awkerman, Mike Schaible, AJ Provance, Captain Nancy Stout, 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, Rob Johnson, Maria Rosell, Heather Choe, Michael Bucklin, Lisa Klink, Dominique Weidle, Justin Weir, Jesse Bailey, Mike Chow, Kevin Hooker, Matt Edmonds, John Richardson, Heather Selig, Rachel Shapiro, Clark Ochikubo, Stephanie Aves, Seth Carlson, Amy Rambacher, Jessica B, E.G. Galano, Tim Neumark, Will Forg, Jeremy Gaskin, Ryan Tomei-Sigurðarson, Charlie Faulkner, Estelle Keller, Carmen Puente-Garza, James Lyszczek, Russell Nemhauser, Lawrence Green, Greg Kenzo Wickstrom, Lisa Gunn, Lauren Rivers, Jennifer B, Dean Chew, Linda Daireaux, Mars DeVore, Jennifer Vaughn, Walkerius Logos, PJ Pick, Preston Meyer, Ryan Mahieu, Andrew Cook-Feltz, Karen Galleski, Constance, Loretta Reyes, Timothy McMichens, & Francesca GaribaldiThank 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, distribute our creations unless we give you permission. If you have any questions, you can email us at [e-mail].”Our 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 today are Garrett Wong, our Forever Ensign. Armand Shimmerman, our creative entrepreneur, and myself. your favorite pilot and helmsman Robert Duncan McNeil. Welcome, Armin. Great to see you.

Nice to see you. Nice to be back. Yeah. Always so much fun to have you. Just before we got started, I'm jumping right to this. You are, but look at you. I'm jumping right to this because Armand just before we started recording, mentioned this. The lead guest star, Richard Bamer, who's in this episode, was the original Tony.

Not the original Tony. The Tony in the movie. The feature film Tony. The feature film to me. The original movie. I guess, not the Stevensville Rema. Say the movie, Robbie. West Side story. He was Tony.

He was Tony. Maria Maria. I just met a girl named Maria. Oh my gosh. Armin brings this up and both Robbie and I were like, what? Yes, they didn't believe me. They didn't believe me. It can't possibly be.

But they looked it up and sure enough, I was right. I can't believe it. I wonder if he did sing, though, because you know, in those old Hollywood movies, they would have other people dub in. There was a woman that did. There was a woman that sang all the feet. female leads, Marnie, somebody that's saying...

Marnie Moseman. Marnie Moseman. No, no, I don't know. That's John Delancey's wife, right? Oh, that's right. He's a wonderful stagher, by the way. She's an incredible singer, she's a good singer. Marnie could have sung, definitely.

She has a great voice. She could have, yes. Well, the lady that's saying in West Side Story and the King and I and all... Right, that's right. Martin Nixon is her name. Oh, my goodness. So you're saying the men as well at that time? were being someone else would sing for them.

And then were also being dubbed. It doesn't mean that they were. It doesn't mean that Tony, excuse me, that Richard didn't sing Tony. It's just possible. But it's possible. I don't know. It's a question.

Oh, my God. So this is something that Armand doesn't know, but Robbie probably knows. On the set, when we were filming on the Ridge on Voyager, oftentimes I would sing the Maria song, but the beginning of the Maria song, but I would put Chacote in there. Yes, he did.

Chacote, I just met a boy named Chacote. I would sing that on the set as all the time, a joke. And now you got the real Tony. So excited. Oh, my gosh. And see, that's the difference between your set and ours. I don't think anyone ever sung anything. Oh, we sang a lot, Armin. You know, you had Marvin Rush the first two seasons as your DP. Yeah. Marvin was with us the whole time. He came over to us. And when we were wrapping up, I've said this before, Marvin told me when we were rapping about to finish the seven-year run of our show, he goes, you know, we're going to miss you guys, but we're really ready to move on.

you guys are exhausting. You just goof off all the time. Yes. He didn't hold back. He's like, we've had enough of the joking and the river dancing. Yes. Yeah, we were a less cavorting group of people. Now, I must correct something.

I said there was no singing on our set, and I will stand by that. But in the trailer, I listened to Max Redenczek sing practically every other night. So there was a lot of singing in the trailer, but not on the set. And so where Marvin wouldn't have heard it. Right. He wouldn't have known about that. We do have a birthday for Matt Norris on April 29th. We just want to shout out to our good Patreon friend, Matt Norris.

Thank you for supporting us. And happy, happy birthday. Happy birthday, Matt. Happy birthday, Matt. And I take advantage of this and wish my brother Mark a happy birthday on April 11th. Oh, there you go. Happy birthday, Mark. Let's start with Homecoming. The Homecoming is the name of the episode. I keep leaving the the

out. Remember, in the hands of prophets? It's actually in the hands of the prophets. The Prophets. The Homecoming. Okay. Yes. Which is also a Harold Pinter play. The Homecoming? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. That I saw at the Matrix Theater with Greg Yudson. Yes. I did too. I saw that at production as well. Let me synopsize this episode in a poem, please, with an earring, quark. is enthralled. Then from a labor camp, Nalus is hauled. Nalus tries to escape because he feels like a fake. Then Kira gets bluntly recalled. Lovely. Oh, that was slick. Okay, here we go. Here's my haiku. And the funny thing is when I wrote Nalus is in there, his name, right? Yes. It auto-corrected to Nacassoni, as in the Nacassoni building from Diehard. So it says Lee Nacosone and my

my haiku, but I'm going to correct that. That must mean that you that you type a lot of diehard stuff into your computer. I don't know what. No. You must be obsessed with diehard. That's what that's revealing. Yes, that's what it is. Okay, here we go.

My haiku for the homecoming. Lee Nalas alive. Circle leaves brand on corks head. Kira must go home. That's it. Wow. Very nice. Excellent.

Yeah, we'll talk about that tattoo on my head. Yeah, okay. Yes, we will. So I broke this down into two words, home and coming. Home, one's own country, one's native in the British colonies to mean Great Britain or the mother country or the old country. The definition of coming means access or approach. Now, the idea of going back to the mother country, I think, is indicative of this episode that, Ninalis does indeed go back to his homeland.

Yes. And in fact, we're also learning whether or not the characters on our show have access to information. Absolutely. Yep. That's interesting that home. Can you read the definition of home again? Home used by Britons abroad by meaning inhabitants of the British colonies to mean going back to Great Britain or the mother country or the old country. Wow.

And that, of course, all these definitions come from the Oxford English Dictionary. primary reference, not only for this, but when I'm teaching Shakespeare as well. It's an amazing tool. The OED is an amazing historical facts of how words evolve, because the way that we use a word now is very different than it was used when Shakespeare wrote or in different times. Right. And the OED sometimes has either Middle English or Old English, which I can't read. I can read actually Middle English. When that opera with Eschura, a Souta, the Druth of Marche, perce to the Rota. That's Middle English.

But old English, and OED will list old English citations of the words, but I can't read it. It's like letters will read to me. Yes. Okay. So Middle English is from what time period to what time period? I don't know when it starts, but it sort of ends at Chaucer. Chaucer is about 100 years before. Shakespeare grew up, was born, I think, in what?

Forgive me, I should know this. 1564, I believe. So let's say 100 years before 1564. So 14, sorry, 1464 was the end of middle English. And it's the influx of various cultures coming into England. And that's what changes the language. Wow. And then Old English would be maybe like 800?

It might be. It certainly you would have to do with the Celts, the invasion of the Vikings coming in, changing the language. Certainly the language changed in 1066. When the French invaded England and a lot of French words came into the English language. That would be the Battle of Normandy. No, not the Battle of Normandy. The Battle of Hastings, the Battle of Hastings.

No, what is it? The Battle of, oh, I should know this. 1066 wasn't the Battle of Hastings? Is that what the Saxon? Maybe was, I should know, I'm not saying it isn't, but I'm not saying it is. Right. But didn't the Saxon King die in that at all? King Harold, I believe it was.

King Harold died with an arrow through the eye is what happened in that one, I remember. It might have been that battle, It's not for giving me, it might have been. Robbie's face. Okay, Robbie, just to you know, my first five years of schooling was in a British private school. So we knew everything about England. Yeah, I know all the history of England, basically. I see.

Robbie's face was hilarious. He's like looking back and forth and like you two. Like, what are you guys doing? This is like a historical date. This is deep in the weeds of history. And I love history. I love a historical plaque. He does.

He does. Thank you for that. description. Yes, yes, absolutely. Let us, shall we just jump into this episode by saying that the opening shot is amazing? That first shot was so cool. It starts out on the upper level of the promenade, right? It slowly moves in, and I did not know this, but Quarks, oh, I do know that Quarks is multi-level, but I didn't know that it's almost like an open patio on that second level for Quarks. There wasn't a physical door. You see what I'm saying? It's just, you see the tables immediately. And then all sudden it tilts down and you see the gambling tables that area. So I love

that. I thought it was very interesting that, that opening shot, I didn't see Odo or Quark or anyone. No one. There's nobody. There's no. It's literally just an establishing shot of Quartz, which we never did. You don't do that on our show. On Voyager, we didn't do that. But that was really good. But it was a nice opening shot. Before we start, we should give credit to the Baron, Oh, Rynrich Colby, who was the director. Yes. Oh, yes. Sorry, we forgot that.

Yes. Directed by Rick Colby. Who we called the Baron. I don't know what you called him, but we never called him Rick. We always called him the Baron. Well, we know that because that is what we heard Marvin Rush call him. We heard Marvin say the Baron, but we never used that for Rick. We just called him Rick.

That was it. But this episode was written by, I think it's story by. Jerry Taylor. Barry Taylor and Ira. Iris Stephen Bear and Jerry Taylor story by but teleplay written by Iris Stephen Bear. We also should talk about guest stars before we jump into this. So obviously we have Max Gredenczek as Rom, Mark Alimo as Golda Kott, Richard Bamer as Lee Nalas. See, we got so messed up because Robbie just I couldn't help myself.

He couldn't help it. No, I was very excited. Richard Bamer, who was, I can't believe it. He was West Side Story as Lee Nalus. Michael Bell as Borum. Frank Landon. Frank Langella. Frank Langella.

Who is not listed in the credits. He's not, why is he not listed in the credits? Ah, that's a good question. Let me just say the other people. Leslie Bevis as Boslett Captain, Paul Nakauuchi as Roma Dweck. And let's go back to Frank Langella as the uncredited Minister Jarro. Before we do that, before we do that, there's another uncredited actor, John Fleck, who plays the Cardassian Guard, who gets knocked out by Kearro. knocked out by Kira, John Fleck.

Fleg is in Jerry Fleck, same last name? Same last name. John Fleck did multiple Star Trek series and was very big on Enterprise later on. But anyway, I didn't know why John Fleck's name wasn't listed as well. Armstrong, why were these actors not credited? I don't know about Mr. Fleck.

I did do some investigation about why Frank Langella wasn't listed. I called Rick Berman up this week to find out. He didn't have an answer. He suggested I call Ira Bear and find out, which I haven't done. So I can't respond to what Ira might or may not have said. But it bothers me, actually. Yeah.

It bothers me a great deal that Frank Langella didn't get credit. I'm sure that's his choice. I'm sure the production of the studio would have been more than eager to say and guest starring, you know, Frank Langella. So why didn't he do that? And my nefarious brain ends up with he didn't want his name associated with the show. That's, yeah. But then why would he take the job if he doesn't want his name? And the reason he took the job, that I can't answer.

That's known. He took the job because his kids were so in love with Deep Space Nine that their dad decided that he wanted to do the show. Now, of course, and I don't know if they were married at the time, but his wife was on Next Generation for many, many episodes. She also was a bartender. And maybe that's why Langella took it. Langella also was a very close friend of Renea Bersianwasse. They were very close friends. So maybe he took it for Renee as well. But that said, I am aggrieved and upset, angry that Mr. Langella didn't feel that he would want to share his notoriety with the show. That bothers me a great deal. I hope it's not true, but that's my surmise.

Remember, this is the beginning of our second season. Yeah. We didn't have any legs at this point. The reviews or the word of mouth was not particularly good about Deep Space Nine. So he may not have done it for that reason, so he didn't want to be associated with a failing show. He was wrong, of course, but those may be the reason. Maybe. It's all surmines. Well, Armin, this episode, spoiler alert, this episode ends with a cliffhanger, and he's in that scene. I assume he comes back for another episode.

episode. Your assumption is right. Yeah. Okay. I have been a fan of Frank Langella's work as long as I have been watching film and television. Basically, I've seen, whenever he comes on screen, I am happy to see it. When he came on screen in this episode, I was like, no way. Are you kidding me? I love Frank Langell. I was so excited and I was so envious, Armin. I kept thinking, we got Andy Dick. Nothing against Andy Dick. But it's not, Hannity Dick is not Frank Langela. I mean, oh my God. And then the episode before, Armand, which we reviewed with Terry, we had the Academy Award winning Louise Fletcher on that episode.

You guys got some good. You guys got some heavy weights. Heavy weights. That would be like us getting, you know, Al Pacino on Voyager. So, you know, is what I feel like. So I felt, I felt so excited and also jealous of DS9. having that. He did a great job in his role as well. I mean, he nailed it. He nailed it as Minister Jaro. Come on, you know. He was very good about walking a very fine line between a less than

likable character and a just and a likable character. He was both likable and unlikable at the same time. He was very charming. That's what I mean by likable. He was enormously charming. But the same time, we got the feeling that there was something happening, a secret that he was keeping that we would find out more about later. Carmen, you'd agree on this. Not a lot of actors are able to walk that fine line as adeptly as he does. He's nimble. He's nimbly, nimbly crossing that line.

And it is a fine line. You're right. Let's go into our first scene. We're in quarks, that great shot that you were talking about. And Odo finds quark tells him basically that his tip on the smuggling ring was correct. He busted the first officer and some crew on this transport vessel. But he still doesn't trust quark. He thinks he's up to something.

And then he leaves. And Rom approach very. confused, ask what's up, and Quark quotes, the 76th rule of acquisition. We just jumped so many rules. They aren't linear. They're never linear. That's the biggest number I've heard on your show so far. They get higher. I'm sure they do. But the last one we heard, Armand, was single digits. So we had a single digit one the last time we heard one. And now we're in 72 now. So we're like, 76 now. Excuse me. Yeah.

76th rule of acquisition, which is occasionally declare a piece. It confuses the hell out of your enemy, Quark says. And then he goes upstairs and meets this purple-haired female alien captain. She's got this earring. She shows Quark from a Cardassian who said that she should take it to Bejor. They'd know what to do with it. And she says, well, this is a Bajoran station, so maybe you can find out for me. Yeah.

So, Armand, at the end of the scene, you lean over and you kiss her on the cheek. And I thought that was going to go somewhere. And it doesn't really go anywhere, at least in this episode. Now, it is continued. But was that something you did or was that scripted? I don't remember. I don't remember if it was scripted or not. It's possible that it was scripted.

I mean, very little that we said or did wasn't scripted. Yeah. But that does look like something that I might. do, Armand might do. And so that might have just jumped out. There's a sense in that very brief scene that we are flirting with each other. Absolutely. So the climax of that, forgive me for the word, but the climax of that, it should be something slightly sexual. So a kiss on a cheek is quite continental, but diamonds are a girl's best friend. My take on that scene, Robbie, is that They have history, clearly, and that this is someone that Quark has been intimate with in the past.

Hands down. I mean, this is what else could this be, unless they just flirt all the time. I just feel like there is some knowledge of each other. I wanted to see more. I mean, I guess what I'm saying is the kiss made me want to go, I want to see these guys. Yeah. I don't have facts, but as I understand it, through the rumor mill, the writers wanted to give Quark, not necessarily Ira or Berman or the other writers.

But they wanted to give Quark more of these sort of romantic moments. And the powers of B, whoever they were, decided, no, no more girlfriends for Quark. We will have one or two more during the course of the show. But that sort of relationship has been, is eliminated starting in the second season. Again, it's rumor. It's just something that was once said to me and it stayed in the back of my head. I have no facts on that. That would be something I would have to ask, Ira.

And, you know, how do you go about starting that conversation? Is it true that you didn't allow me to have any romantic scenes after? Whereas everybody else in the show had them. Armand, let's rewind a little bit and let's talk about the beginning moments of this scene. Sure. What are your comments on that? Well, one of the things I like about these opening moments, both with the freighter captain and with Odo, is that Quark appears to be mellowing out a little.

He seems to be less confrontational than he has been in the past, less Ferengi-like. And despite the fact that he quotes the 76th rule, it seems that he's mellowing out a lot. And I think that's thematic for the rest of the show. The tension between Quark and Odo, is mirrored in the tension between the Kardashians and the Jorans. Oh, interesting.

That the relationship is beginning, the wheels are being greased, and both sides are looking to be a little bit more agreeable with each other. Now, that's a false facade. And I think, according to 76 rule, is, again, indicates that's a false facade. Right. Yeah. What seems to be is not the real underlying truth. Yeah.

And I think that's thematic in the show. Yes. Okay. Yes. Yeah. I do love this whole opening interaction with Odo and the fact that, and then you learn later that it's the 76th role of acquisition is why he's being so nice. So it's kind of, it's like we get to see how the sausage is made after we see that.

Exactly. And look how clever the baron is, Rick Colby, is about keeping ROM in the shot all during the conversation with Ode. He's got his ears wide open. And the Friggy, if you don't know this by now. excellent hearing. They have supernatural hearing. They can hear pin drop in the next

city. So you know, and there's Rom listening to every word. Yeah. Wow. I'd love to see more of that. It makes sense that you say that, but it hasn't been explicitly played in that superpower of hearing is

beyond everyone else. I wish that was played a little more. Maybe it will be at some point. Well, would I be correct to say that if you can, if Ferenghis can hear pin drop in another city. Are Ferengi's the worst sleepers ever? They probably are. I have no idea how long the sleep cycle is for the Ferengi. Whether they sleep at all. I guess they must. I guess they must. But I don't know how long the sleep cycle. Soundproof bedroom. That's the only way. It has to be. Or huge on top of the rubber to keep the sound sound. Earmuffs. I'm just trying to see if

Like in the future, Dr. Dr. Dre's beats are still in, you know, still a company. But then the Ferengi size, there's the size of frisbees. They're massive on their ears. Right. It's a very funny image. Okay. So we go to Kira's quarters next. Kira is praying in front of her shrine.

Is that what that is? I don't know if it's praying. I don't think it's praying. It could be. It could be. I wonder if it's yoga. I thought it was Bajoran yoga. I thought it's Bajoran yoga moves.

Oh, interesting. Possibly. because did she say, does she say anything, Robbie? She didn't say anything. She just stands there and does this. That's like a exercise yoga move, I thought, you know. Or a meditation. Or a meditation.

Okay. Let's go with meditation. But I wouldn't meditate with my arms up because my shoulders would get so tight. But you have Bajoran. That's true. That's true. But Jorans have very strong shoulder muscles. Yes.

There's a doorbell. Quark arrives. She is not friendly with Quirk in this. No, she's had all. And he sort of follows. near the bedroom and then she stops him in the threshold and I love the way the baron shot the scene there's no shot of her in the bedroom yeah we don't know what it's happening in there no but we see we hear her going get out of here you better get out of here yeah he just stands there and then she

grabs him ultimately she comes out of the bedroom yeah re-enters the shot grabs him by the collar and and then he asks what what is this earring for you know basically shows her the earring and she's in shock and ask where he got it and then she leaves. Right. She leaves. And who's left in the room? You.

You? Right. And she's just said to me, I don't want you looking in the bedroom. No. But she leaves the room. And then you look back. I caught that look back.

Because you say at the very end, you say, consider it a gift. And then you turn back and look at the bedroom. I'm sorry, writers, directors. That's just stupid. You should have ushered Quark out of the room. She should say, come here, get out. Get out.

Exactly. And that's, I'm spoiling it for my video reaction, but that's what I, in one of my video reactions was exactly that. I said, well, that's interesting. Now, Cork is still in her room. He can now go take a nap. Snoop around, whatever he wants. Steal whatever he wants to steal.

Yes. Steele and still, he's tired enough to take a nap. And with his superhearing, it'll only be a 30 second nap anyway. So that's right. That's right. It is. And she just takes it. You didn't even give it to her.

And I probably should have said, considered a gift in a different way because looking at it this time i went i should have played you just took something that in a sense belonged to me right right and was valuable potentially very exactly so you when she grabbed that from you you pretty much saw your profit go out the window it's like she doesn't you don't even have that in your possession any longer you can't make a deal with it so yes right she doesn't ask for it she just takes it and as much as i I like Nana Visitor and her portrayal of Kira. I just think why, again, this antipathy between sides,

which is indicative of our show. Our show is about how people who don't like each other are forced to live together. That's part of the theme of Deep Space Nine. But I just thought that she could have been nicer about taking it. Yeah. She's nicer to me later in the episode, but even then it's sarcastic. Yes.

Yes, I noticed that. I noticed that. We go to the promenade next. Jake finds Cisco wants to talk to his dad, and Cisco initially thinks it's about baseball. So he's talking about baseball, talking about his algebra test, talking about kid things. And then Jake brings up dating, and Cisco is thrown.

I love this whole B story with Jake and Cisco. Yeah, that as a dad, he's just not ready for his kid to start doing adult things. And you know what's also great about this? that Sirak has also aged as well. He is now taller. You can see that, you know, you can tell, you can sense that facial hair is beginning to happen, you know, everything. And so it's perfect.

It is perfect for this scene to happen now. It's just ideal. That summer hiatus did him good. He actually grew a little bit more, filled out a little bit more. Couldn't agree more. And I think in the first season, we have Jake converting with Nog and looking at the wormhole and the ships coming out. And Cisco plays upon that and says, well, you can take the girl up and you can look at the ships coming through the Wernhors.

Yes, yeah. Don't do that anymore. That's boring, dad. Yeah. Yes. Yeah, but Jake says he's got a date. He's got this girl. And Cisco's fumbling.

And Jake says, clearly, dad, you're not ready to have this conversation, which I love that line. And he says that just as Kira arrives and she's got to talk to Cisco. So they head off to the replamette, I think. Replomat, yeah. Yeah. I just want to say good job to Saraclofton in this scene, too. Yeah, he was great. He's a joy to watch.

One of the great things about doing our show, the Delta Flyers, is a rediscovery of how phenomenally good Sorok Lofton is Jake. It's a great. Well, Cisco and Kira go to the replemate. Cisco orders a drink. I forget, what does he order? He orders. Ractaginio with a lime peel or something, lemon peel.

Can I just say it the way? He goes, yeah. One Rectadigino with a jaccharine peel. That's what it was. And then he gets dessert with it. He gets a Ikeberry tort, I think. Yes. Yeah.

Now, that's a mistake. Why? There's a mistake there. Here's the mistake. We see him get the Racta gina. He goes to the table. Then he turns and he goes what looks to another replicator. Yes.

In order to get the dessert. Now, in the brief master shot, There's only one replicate. Oh. And yet the way the baron shot it, it looks like. It looks like there's multiple. Yeah. And there's only one.

Wow. As if he went to the beverage one and then he went to the food one. You know. Oh, my goodness. Rick Colby, tricky, tricky, tricky Rick. They sit down with, Cisco's got his racked. Did you know his tort dessert? And Kira wants to borrow a runabout, but.

Sisko asked why. She says, well, I don't think you want to know why. You don't want to ask me that or something. Eventually, she reveals that she's got this earring of some Bajoran prisoner of war. And she thinks it's Lee Nalas. And he was a big resistance hero that everyone thought was dead, but she wants to rescue him from Cardassia 4. And she's already talked to this Bajoran provisional government, she says.

She tells Cisco that, but they are not willing to go to war over this. potential rescue overnearing they're too busy infighting amongst themselves to do anything about lee knollis yes but she does think that because of all that infighting lee nalus is the leader that they need yes you'll have to help me out guys is that not a new theme now in deep space nine about the infighting of the yes it's new to me this is something that writers must have come up with during the hiatus this is where we're going to go into second and third season why is it not new to me me. Maybe you just assumed it from something, but I don't think ever explicitly they were talking

about Bajoran infighting and things. This is, this feels like a new story. Really? To me, yeah. It seems to watch season one all over again to make sure that both of you are absolutely right about that, but I feel like, okay. You need to watch all 19 episodes starting as soon as we finish this. 22, 22.

22 episodes. Go watch them. As soon as we wrap this episode, you're sitting down in front of the team. going to wait. I'm going now. I'll see you guys later. Okay, see you later. Okay. So Miles called. They're sitting there. Yeah. Cisco's, you know, tempted by this potential leader that can bring everybody together. And then O'Brien calls and says he needs Cisco and Oda to come see something in the habitat ring. So we head up there. And there are some graffiti on the wall. Very bright yellow, by the way. Yeah. The graffiti is from this alliance for global unity,

which is Bejor for Bajorans only. They don't want any other aliens on their planet. And it's a fringe group, I guess. But like a terror, not a terrorist group, but a, yeah. A very nationalistic group. Yes. I mean, with xenophobic, you know, platforms. Yeah.

But Odo says it's the first time he's seen it on the station. And I love this shot where Odo kind of comes in the foreground. And Cisco is just played in the background. There's no close up on Cisco. It's Odo being Odo, sort of looking around and sussing everything out. I love the barren shot there. I thought it was great. Good job, Rick Colby.

Yes. Cisco thinks that the reason that there's this graffiti is because they're trying to show that the station is vulnerable. And so he says in the end, from now on everywhere, every part of the station is on alert for this. So I feel like that's something that's coming up in this part, too. I'm just going to go on record. And again, you're right. And again, you're right. Okay.

I've watched TV shows before. I know how this works. And is it also because you saw the title is The Circle for the next episode, maybe? Oh, no, I didn't. Oh, you didn't see that, Robbie. Oh, I'm sorry. No, I did not. Well, if you had seen that, sir, you would have thought that then.

Yes, you would have thought that. Yeah. All right. Yeah, we go to Commander's Office next. And Asisco is tossing a baseball, but the way he's tossed. it. It's like, it's like tricks and boop, boop, boop, boop. I thought he was rolling dough at a pizzeria is what I thought he was doing. I was like, this is the, he's making a pizza right now. Yeah. Okay. It felt a little, like he was mad at this baseball. Like, he was punishing the

baseball. He was. I wonder if it's scripted that he's playing with a baseball, whether it's idea to play with the baseball, or whether it was Avery's idea to play with the baseball. And to the extent that he played with it, whose idea was that? this is where yes where if I'd had the script I would have okay this is scripted this is there or did somebody come up with this did the director or the actor come up with this maybe the action of playing with the baseball was Avery or someone else but Dax does say in the scene he because he says to her when she comes in he says hey I wanted to talk to you about something and she goes oh is it about baseball she doesn't want to talk about baseball

so there is some dialogue about baseball that leads me to believe he probably, you know, the script may have just said he's holding a baseball, looking at a baseball. And Avery may have turned that into the tricks or doing the same like, yeah. Okay. Yeah, I think that's a good point, though, Norman. But anyway, he says, no, it's, it's not about baseball. He tells Dax, I want to talk to you about how tough this assignment is. And he's trying to kind of beat around the bush.

He's talking about uniting Bejor and bringing stability. And then Dax goes, is this about Kira in the runabout? Just let her have the runabout. which I thought was funny. I love that. It's the beginning of a little runner of, he was told everybody and Cisco is unaware. Cisco's like, how did you know about that?

And she basically says, I promise not to tell. So she's telling, but she's not telling. And Dax also brings up the idea that, you know, well, if he's there, then the Kardashians have lied about releasing all the Bajorn prisoners. So she establishes that understanding,

that assumption that they made, a deal that they released everybody and maybe they didn't it's a very important uh idea they find out that he's on cardassia four and that got me thinking why is it called cardassia four is it a fourth planet under the cardassian rule is it a moon yeah uh that's that's i had the same thought i had never really thought about i'm sure i heard about it certainly but yeah uh i thought how many planets, moons are in the Cardassian Empire. Yeah. And if it's Cardassia for, then the assumption is there's not just one Cardassian planet,

but they have named multiple planets or places Cardassia. It would be like saying Earth 2 or Earth 5 or, you know. I think the more plausible explanation is Cardassia is its own planet, but Cardassia 4 is the fourth moon of the Cardassian planet. That's how I took it when I was watching this episode. Or if these are people that took over Bayshore, it is reasonable to think that they also attacked other worlds as well, and perhaps rename them after themselves. Oh, that's another way to look at it.

They were the colonizing Cardassians, so there you go. Okay, that's possible. But in my head, I thought for them not to know about this or this, this is the most remote of the Cardassian moons. It's so far away. No one even checks on these guys. They didn't even know they have an outpost there. They didn't even know they have a labor company longer.

So I thought it's got to be a moon. But you're right. What if this is a planet that was taken over by the Cardassians in some type of war? And they said, this is another, we claim this in the name of Cardassia. This is new Cardassia, whatever it is. Right. So we go into ops and Dax basically walks over and gives Kira a very knowing sort of a wink, sort of like, hey, your plan's approved, kind of a nonverbal communication.

And I love how Cisco goes, chief, Major Kira needs a runabout. So now, O'Brien answers, oh, so she's going to Cardassia 4 after all. So everybody on the station knows about this plan. And Cisco's like, is there anyone on the station that she didn't tell? Which, again, very, very funny. There is some concern, though, because you can't just fly a runabout towards Cardassian airspace and not be picked up on their sensors. O'Brien has a plan.

He's going to modulate the engine's power emissions. And he's going to make it look like it's not actually a runabout, but a freighter. Lesapian transport, actually, to be precise. And so that's the plan. And it's kind of exciting. I like that Cisco says, oh, you've already thought about this. Like, O'Brien has a plan. Yeah.

He's already, I'm going to change the power emissions, and I'm going to do all this. And not only does he know what Kira was doing, but he's already figured out how to help her do it. Cisco is losing control. He thought he was the commander in chief. He's not. Exactly. He is, but he's still the last one to know. He is literally the last person.

Quark is the last. Oh, cork is that, yeah. That's all that's right. There is that line. Is that in this scene? No. It is in the scene. Oh, that's right.

As far as cork is concerned, she's going to laminate a prime to bring back mineral samples. That's right. So quark is the very last person. In this scene, he is. That's right. And I would venture to say Rom will be the very last person. Rom is the very last one and know everything.

Okay. Or mourn. Maybe mourn. Maybe mourn. Okay. So next is Kira's quarters. Kira is in civilian clothes, which we don't often see her in.

No. No, very different outfits. Cisco and O'Brien come in. O'Brien's also in civilian clothes, which as soon as I saw O'Brien, I had flashbacks of Tom Paris in civilian clothes. I don't know why. Probably the same clothes.

It's the same outfit. It looked like an outfit that I wore at some point. That Tom Paris wore. Yes, it did. They must have recycled it. Bob Blackman going, I think I have something from Deep Space Nine we can use on Voyager.

Exactly. Cisco does tell Kira that O'Brien's going to join her and says that he wants Lee Knollis back as much as she does. So she is reluctant at first, but then she agrees. But he only assigns O'Brien because O'Brien's a better pilot. That's the whole reason. He felt like O'Brien can help out. But at this point, I'm thinking,

why didn't he assign a Starfleet or a Bajoran commando team as well? Why is it just the one pilot guy? Did anyone think that at all? And not only that, an engineer, forgive me, this is something Picard would not do. Not that I'm in love with Picard, but he would not assign a very needed engineer to go on a risky volunteer mission. Exactly. You find the red shirt. So we're in the runabout in the next scene. This leads me to this point. Kira's there. It's a short scene, but she says to O'Brien, there's only two outcomes here, O'Brien.

Either we succeed or we don't come back at all. So either we're going to do this. or we're going to die. And he just seems to go, gotcha, I'm in. He's got a family. He's got a daughter, a wife. He's a needed engineer. I was just like, that was very cavalier. Forgive me because both of you are Starfleet people,

but it is flagrant Starfleet behavior. You know, they don't care about their lives. It's a suicide mission. I volunteer. I never understood that, ever. But that's the military, though. If your commanding officer gives you an order and says, look, you know, this is the deal.

You just say, yes, sir, yes, ma'am, and you're done. But the commanding officer had different options. We just went through that. Yeah, I agree. Could have gotten another guest star to do this. You're right. You're right. It doesn't make sense.

It doesn't make sense for O'Brien to be there. Yeah, because you're right. The one thing that Cisco said to Kira is, I don't want to lose my runabout. Yes. Yes, I know. Either we get Linalus or we don't come back. And neither does the runabout, by the way. Right.

Yes, exactly. Yes, exactly. Later on, they're still in this runabout. Miles says they're 30 minutes from Cardassia 4. And then they get scanned by some Cardassian navigation post, and they decide to bluff them. So the Cardassian comes on. He says their power signature seems to be malfunctioning. Kira says that they're Lusepian transport, the Martuk.

And the Cardassian wants to send a repair ship out to help them. He's like, hey, your warp engines aren't working properly. We'll send a repair ship. And they're like, no, no, no, no, that's okay. Because, and then she makes it this story about some guy named Gull Moraine is waiting on the shipment that they have. And they don't want him to be angry. And the cadrasin goes, oh, yeah, I get it and lets him go. And then Miles says at the end, who's this Gullmerang guy?

She goes, oh, I just made him up. Yeah. Well, when she said she just made him up, To justify that, I thought, okay, she tried a human delicacy called the lemon meringue pie. And she was like, meringue. Go meringue. Is how she got that one. And my mind went somewhere else. Where'd you go?

Alla meringue. Al-a-Morraine. Oh, yes. One, two, yes, from that classic episode. That classic episode. Did anyone else catch the Lusapian transport name that they gave, that name for the transport? The Martok? Well, they pronounced it Martock, which is the name of the Klingon general played by J.G. Herzlertzler.

So I thought that was a little weird, you know, that they would do that. She was vamping. She was making this up on the fly. There you go. But I feel like if this is a security outpost of the Kardashians and you give a fake name, it seems like it would have been a little harder. Like, you know, if there had been a little back and forth there of Gull Marine, or goal, it's not a security outpost, though, Robbie. It's a navigational control post. So it's almost like, you know, when an airplane flies across the state of the country, they will go, they'll talk to different towers like St. Louis Tower come in. This is United Flight, you know, 4-9.

We're now, and they'll tell them, oh, go to this altitude or whatever. Okay, so they wouldn't know necessarily. Okay, then I buy it. I was a little skeptical. I was like, that was an easy bluff. It's too easy, right? That was a little easy. Go meringue pie.

I mean, go meringue is who it is. All right. But they do get down on this planet. They arrive. They scan the labor camp. Actually, before, they arrive in orbit of the planet. They scan it, and it's not just one guy. They pick up dozens of Bajoran prisoners.

And Kira's like, well, we can't beam them all up without, you know, we can only beam up a couple of the time. And that'll blow our cover. So they decide to land covertly. They're going to land and go physically there to save his dozens of prisoners. I know, Armand, that you were not in this scene on this Cardassia 4 set or outdoor location. But do you recall where they went for this? Because this does not look like Vasquez Rocks.

This does not look like even Griffith Park to me. So any clue? I have no clue. And in fact, in my notes, while watching... watching the episode. That's exactly what I wrote. Where in the hell did they shoot this? Doesn't this look like Colorado or something like that? It does. It does. Robbie, any way in on this? It looks like some kind of quarry and I don't know. I mean, it could be out in, you know, I don't know. Okay. Riverside County or something. It looks like kind of a quarry or a yeah. I don't know. I have no idea.

I guess I was hoping too much that your last trip to L.A. where you actually were in the same set that the last episode was the outdoor set. When we recap the last episode with Terry, I'm watching the episode, making my notes. And it gets to the Bajoran, it's like a monastery garden or something. And I'm watching the scene. I'm like, God, that looks familiar. What is that? Literally a week before, I'd flown out for 48 hours to see my granddaughter for a birthday.

And we had gone to a park at Griffith Park, a playground. Yeah. And there's that creek that goes down, that little stream. and there's a turtle pond and all that. And I was like, I was just there last week and now I'm watching it on the show. So I had a picture. I pulled it up for Terry and for Garrett.

I was like, look, this is me at the same place. I don't know about Voyager, but they loved the fifth park on Deep Space Night. Yeah, we did too. We did too. We went there quite a bit. Yeah. But they do come down to this quarry pit.

They're basically loading rocks into baskets. It must be some kind of minerals or something. Yeah. The guard is very mean to them. there's a few guards, Cardassian guards around. O'Brien and Kira come up near the fence, the invisible fence, I guess.

Forest Field. There you go. There's still in the same civilian clothes. And then you see, you kind of see the strategy they're going to play. Kira's sort of posing and, you know, primping and, and O'Brien even says,

I doubt there's a Cardassian alive that could resist you. So you know that she's going to try to seduce these guards or something. They approach. This overseer, this is John Fleck, I recognized him immediately. Did you direct him on Enterprise as well? I did, yeah, yeah.

I love it. He's great. John Fleck is a fabulous theater actor as well. He was one of the, back in the 90s, one of the N.A.5, I think. It was those performance artists that the Congress was going after their offensive performance art. And John Fleck was one of those performance artists that they found offensive and tried to take away funding from the National Endowment of the Arts. Anyway, so the overseer's there.

He tells him to halt. She basically says she's there for an appointment with the prefect, the boss. An appointment for a date. She's going to have a date with the prefect. And the overseer starts questioning them. And then he wants to have a date with her as well. He wants to inspect the date property. Yeah.

So he lets her in, but turns the force field back on so Miles can't come through. And then she pretends to unbutton her shirt or something. So he's looking down, and that's when she bunks him in the face. And there's a big, you know, hand-to-hand with him. She turns off the force field, firefight. She did get a double-fist original series. A classic Dennis Madelow. Yes.

But instead of coming down, it went up. It was an upward move, which is rare you don't see that one. I love to see in this firefight when all the Kardashians are getting shot and they're falling back. It's almost like when you get shot by a phaser, you have to jump in the air and then kick your feet back. It's like a, it's the same move when all the Kardashians went. They just kind of, they like pop up in the air.

Yeah. One other thing I've noticed about all of Star Trek that is not consistent with modern military organizations is that depending on the environment, the uniform changes color. But yet in Trek, it's always the same. Like, for instance, here they're in the quarry, they should have had kind of stone gray type of looking Cardassian uniforms.

You know what I'm saying? Like if our military goes to the desert, they have desert. Desert fatigue. Yes, and Star Trek never does that. You don't see whether it's Cardassian or Starfleet or Klingon. No one changes their fatigues, basically. It's always the same. And just a side note, my non-sequitur for today.

Interesting. There's a firefight with the great shots that happen and the Cardassians popping up in the air and then they grab Lee Nalas, they start running out. Lee is wounded on his way out. But it's not just Lee Nalus. There's another Cardassian there as well. Yes. Yes.

Yeah, there's a prisoner that gets... A Cardassian prisoner? A Bajoran, sorry. A Bajoran gets killed. Who says he was the one that sent the earring, and that's Michael Bell, and I don't know what the character's name. The actor's name is Michael Bell.

Yeah. Michael Bill gets shot in the back? He doesn't get shot. No, no. He's the one that says to Lee Nalus. You go ahead. You go ahead. Yeah.

He's one of the four that's left. That's right. That's right. Yeah. But there is a guy that gets shot, though, Robbie. Yes, to Lee Nalus does. There is a guy that gets shot, and they leave him, by the way. They pick up Lee Nalus, and he's got shot too.

But somehow he gets picked up. But the other Bajoran that gets shot, who doesn't have any billing, and probably not a very good agent. No. just gets left there. And so, okay, we got the, we got the important one. We don't need that guy. The nondescript one. They have to get Lee Nalas because he can sing Broadway show tunes.

They know that's true. There's that. They need to bring the guy back with the voice. They have to cast an opera. Exactly. As a future as an opera singer, as a pejoran opera singer, but, you know, the other guy can't even hold a tune. No, he can't.

He's gone. He's pitched show. That's the arm and shimmerman role. He can't hold a tune. Howdy goes. The reason why I know it's Michael Bell is that Michael Bell and I, God bless him, for years have done a video game together

called Ratchet and Clank. My character is called Nefarious, and he has a butler, and the voice of the butler is played by Michael Bell. And the irony is, although we've been doing this for close to two decades, I have never worked in the same studio at the same time with Michael Bell. That's how the video games are like that.

You don't meet anybody else. Oh my goodness. That's a great little side story or a little factoid for people to know. I did not know that. Ratchet and what is the name of the game? Ratchet and Clank. I've heard of the title. I think I came on, the Ferrius came on in about the second, maybe third game.

I believe there's close to nine or ten games. We did a movie. We did a TV pilot. We were going to make a pilot presentation of it. That didn't happen. Various, excuse me, Ratch and Clank is a very popular game. And I often get asked at conventions, you know, the various questions. You said they made a movie.

There's a feature film out of the same name. I'm going to go check this out. I'm shocked. I don't even know about this. John Goodman is in it as a voice actor. It's an animated film. Yeah. And a number of wonderful actors in it.

Great. Including myself. And I love what they did with my character in the movie. But that's neither here. Yeah. And Michael Bell. The Bajoran? Yeah, I don't think Michael's in the film.

But he's in the games, though. Yeah, the character's name is Lawrence. Michael Bell says, you know, you guys go back to safety and we'll hold them back here and we cut inside the runabout. Kira's waiting by the runabout door. She wants the others to join. But not the guy that got shot in the back, by the way.

Yeah, they don't care about him. They're not waiting for him. He can't sing. They don't want them. No. Miles says two warships are about to enter orbit. at any minute they've got to leave, and Lee Nalus says you can't leave them behind. Kira's struggling, but she decides to go and they head back home.

She was really feeling it, though. She was like, oh, hi, yeah. All of this is kind of helping to establish Lee Nalus is very concerned about others. At this point, already, we hardly know him. And he seems like such a big, hearted, good person. He cares about it. We cut right to the back to the station. We're in the airlock quarter.

they're coming out with these Bajorans they rescue. Lee is in pain. He's been injured. But of course, he's worried about the others. He's not worried about himself. He's asking about the others. And Bashir calls Dax for an emergency transport back to the sick bay because he's got to get treated as he collapses.

They beam out. It was an interesting shot by the Baron because it was kind of moving as they as they beamed out. And it was not just a lock off. It was a moving shot that I thought was interesting. Is there a little inconsistency from the prior scene just because the one guy gets shot and he's down for the count and Lee Nalus gets shot and he's still running? It's like how, you know what I'm saying? I'm guessing because they're prisoners, they don't want to kill them.

They want to stun them, right? So the first guy gets stunned unconscious and Lee Nalus has stunned a lot, just totally with all his wits. It's a little off, yes? I think people get injured in different ways in a battle. I would buy it. Okay. You're buying it. I buy it.

Here's what I don't buy. Yes. O'Brien said, warships are approaching. Yes. And they've got to take this Starfleet runabout, get past warships, get past the navigation post that they lied. They kind of skip over what was a very probably challenging return home. And they just cut to the station, oh, we're here.

We made it back. Oh. But, man. So that's a scene that you would like to see later on. Yes. I thought so. I think I think I have a better. scene, though, but yeah.

But that's a good missing scene, too, though. So, yeah, the missing story. That would be a whole episode, probably. Would be. Well, while Lee Nalas is suffering on the ship, they're trying to get through. That would have been an interesting scene to see. It would have to care for him. And yet at the same time, we're being attacked by foreign forces.

Yeah. Yeah. We go into the commander's office next, I think. Kira bursts inside. Gall-Ducat is on the screen, and so she sort of stops. She feels like, uh-oh. He didn't mean to walk in on a conversation. But Cisco says, no, no, no, you should hear this.

And Goldaqat basically apologizes for these prisoners being held, that the labor camp was a violation of their rules. And he's returning all the other prisoners that they didn't rescue, returning everybody to Bejor, and he really apologizes. He says they're going to punish the people that did this, that this was against their rules. And it's not just Goldaqat that's apologizes. And it's the Cardassian High Command that has, they've issued a formal apology.

So this is, this is, everyone knows about this. This is out in the open. So it's a, it's a huge deal, really. It's a big way. It seems like a huge deal. But then when he hangs up, Kira's like, they're both surprised, but Kier's like, I don't trust this. Like, what's, what's going on?

The 75th rule. Yes. Sometimes declare peace. It confuses the hell out of your enemies. That's, I thought the same thing. Maybe that's what that comment was about. That's going to comment on this moment, and this moment, we're looking toward problems. So you're saying this scene is still part of the 76th rule of acquisition.

They're making nice. They're making nice. All right. But Kira doesn't buy it, and I don't buy it either. Okay. We go to the infirmary. Bashir is healing Lee Nalas. And Bashir's really interested as soon as he gets them all wrapped up and he's good. Bashir wants to talk about all these heroic stories, these battles and everything. but Lee does not want to discuss his past.

He says, other people are more interested in that than me. I'd rather just take a shower. And he does something. Again, I'd love to know whether it's in the script, whether the actor decided to do it, whether the Baron decided. He very slowly unwraps the bandages

that he had to have for the excavation he was doing on the prison planet from his hands. It's a very slow, methodic, wonderfully naturalistic, perfectly understandable piece of action. And I thought it says a lot about his character. It's a really good choice. It's a great choice. And I'm wondering who came up with that great choice. Yeah. Yeah, I wonder who. I wonder because it is a great choice. It's without any words, it says a lot about what's happening to him and the new. The change is. matriculating from being on a prisoner on a prisoner planet to being on a on a

pejoran station it it's a lovely lovely metaphor and i want to say this about mr bamer's performance it it's more like film acting than it is about tv acting he takes enormous pauses yes he does i notice that too and they let him do that yeah and And it's more powerful to me because I'm seeing a much more naturalistic performance than one sometimes gets in, you know, an eight-day, one-hour dramas. Yeah. You know, the other weird thing is they've been there for 10 years, 10 years in that labor camp. But yet their hair seems to have been cut on a regular basis.

I feel like that should have been a salon. There's a salon there. I mean, even though it's really horrible conditions, there's a very nice salon nearby that they go to. I think it's supercuts. It's not that nice. It's like a chain. Cardassia IV supercuts?

Yeah, they imagine being the manager of Cardassia. So supercuts of the Cardassia four location. Okay. All right. Anyway, that's my... That's a franchise. I think my avatar would be interested in. Yes.

I can set something up. Perfect. We go to the promenade next. Lee is healed. He's touring the station with Kira and Cisco. And he's amazed. at the changes because he worked on the station when in the ore processing

part of it when the Cardassians have it and he's really blown away and then Odo arrives and the transport with the Bajorn minister Jarro is arriving Odo says Cisco tells Kira that she should have the honor of welcoming

this very important and uncredited minister Jaro. Academy Award nominee. Academy Award nominee. Germany without a credit. But Kira goes off to meet the uncredited minister, and we go to the replemate, and Cisco takes Lee over there for some food, and Lee's tired.

He says, I'm tired. I just want to go to my quarters. Turns around, and there's this group of Bajorans that are just staring, kind of creepily. Oh, my gosh. A little creepily. They didn't, they just seemed, yeah. Kind of like Stefford-wide? Like vultures.

Yeah, vultures. That's one way. We go to the corridor. Kira is going to meet the minister. And there he is, Frank Langella. I was shocked, too, because I hadn't seen his credit. So shocked. I worked with Frank for months on a movie.

Because I didn't see his credit, I thought, is there another actor that looks like Frank Langella? That's his cousin? Is there a Vinnie Vangelia? Langella? Maybe Vinny Langella is what this is. I didn't know. Yeah.

But he's great. I mean, Frank is really good in this scene. He's very good. He walks a fine line. Yes. He kills it. He's the best. Love it. He wants to see Lee Nalus. He's very excited. He does tell Keir that some of the ministers are angry at her, that she declared war on Cardassia. And luckily, they did not return the favor. So he sort of reprimands her a little. But then he says on a personal note, I'm grateful for what you did. So you can see that he's playing politics here already. And then we go back to the reprimat. This is where the crowd has grown. It's a much bigger crowd. Cisco and Odo think that he should talk to these people.

So he reluctantly makes this speech, very brief speech. Well, it's only brief because Jaro shows up, right? So that's the- Jaro shows up and says, you know, as a politician, this would be a great time for me to say a few words. And basically, Jaro takes over, which I thought was very funny. And Lee's happy about that. He's like, please speak for me.

Did you see the eye roll at the end of the scene? By Lee? By Lee, yeah, by Lee, because Jaro says something like, this day, you will tell your grandchildren that you were there. And he's doing this like overdramatic politician speak. And it cuts back to Lee Nalas and he's his, it's the biggest eye roll I've ever seen on DS9. On track. He's like, oh, my God. It's very funny.

I did see that. We go into some guest quarters, Cisco is showing Lee these quarters. Lee is just overwhelmed by the luxury of this place. Yeah. And he does ask. Cisco, how's Bayjor doing now? Cisco says mostly good, but they really could use a leader. And this is what Cisco was into when this first came up, this whole idea.

It's like, hey, maybe this will, you know, bring everybody together. If we can have somebody that can unite Bayjor and calm all this chaos. Isn't that outside of his responsibility? Yes. Yeah, completely. You know, isn't the first, the prime directive, about not getting involved. I had the same, same thought.

Exactly. Hmm. I had the same thought. Cisco could get reprimanded for how involved he's getting in, you know, the mechanics and the politics of this planet. Absolutely.

This is the scene where Lee Nallis, Richard Bamer, uses the acting technique of focusing on a prop. And so this is where he picks up that little flower. Oh, the flower, yeah. Just, he's saying all his lines. not looking at Cisco and just focusing and concentrating on that flower and having a lot of inner life and smells it and does that thing, which is, you know, that's a Bob Picardo special. Robert Picardo is

always grabbing any prop he can find on a set and playing with it. And it does. You create business. You make that scene come alive. You do. Yeah. Yeah, it was good. The flower bit and the way that the baron shot it was great. Yes. That kind of low angle right with a flower in the foreground was great. I love how we're calling him the Baron now because of that. I know. We never call him. that but he's the baron to us now he's the baron he's the bearers all right we go to quarks it's after hours it's payday i love this scene i you hear as the camera pans slowly through an empty corks you hear one for you six for me one for you six for me and you don't know who quark is talking to and you see it's it's rom rom's getting one quarks taking six and again robby

these kind of scenes right here, because I know Armin as a human being, these scenes hurt me. Because every time I see Quark being Quark, it's just like, oh, that's not Armin. And a little piece of me dies inside. I'm like, that's another scene like this. Because he's a good actor. He's a good actor. I get it. But I know Armin Sherman first before Quark.

Now I'm being introduced to that, Garrett. Yeah. And I will talk about this scene when you guys are done. I'm done. I'm done. We're done. Take over. I hated this scene.

because of the content or because of the execution both first of all it has nothing to do with the episode nothing to do with the themes of the episode it's antithetical to how quark starts out in the episode of declaring peace of being somewhat of a of a rick from casa blanca you know uh all that sort of is there and i loved all of that that was terrific this is just me being ugly although fair. I will say fair with rum. Why fair? Because obviously

the Frankies don't do anything without a contract. This is the contract. I get six, you get one. It's my bar. Yeah. I'm not...

Until it says ROM's out there, you're not going to get in any difference. It's already set. That's right. I don't know what that particular scene is about. Why it's there. Couldn't we have had the time to have that runabout scene

that we were talking about, before. I know that they, that what's about to happen. I know that has to happen. That's important. Yeah. But, but this being, this just, I don't know why it's there. And, and Garrett, you're right. It, it hurts me as Armin to, to portray Quark that way. That's an old stereotype that I think is worn out by now. Yeah. I will say that I agree with you that the scene, the content of the scene, the writing of the scene, the only thing I can imagine is that they were trying to show Lee Nalus is this selfless, almost, you know, too perfect a human. And here's the antithesis of that, someone who is selfish or self-serving or, you know, but I think it did harm to your character,

the content. But I will say, the way that you guys did the scene, I think the execution, you did your assignment and you did it beautifully. I thought the scene was played really, really well, really well. And it's a tribute also to Max, who's always part of the equation and makes the whole thing much better because of his abilities. You guys were great.

Rom ends up leaving. He says, I'm going to go dream of someday where we'll have equal shares and it was so heartfelt and heartbreaking that moment. And then Quark turns around is surprised by three caped figures with masks on. Not the first time that's happened. Yeah.

I think there were three. I could have miscounted, but there was a group of them. They throw him to the floor, they gag him, and then they start doing, they're using a tool, like, you know, a laser type tool or something. We don't, yeah, we don't know exactly what's happening, but it's painful. And, yeah, Quark is gagged and screaming, silent screaming.

But these, this gaggle of, of, of, individuals that come in to do this. They're in robes and they have these interesting sort of faceless masks on that they're wearing at the same time. Do you know what it looked like? I'll tell you what it, well, to me, what it looked like. My immediate reaction is this is like an episode of Doctor Who to me, like the way they're dressed and out. Because, you know, it's just with Doctor Who budget, you know, UK budget compared to Hollywood budget, they don't have the money to do extensive, you know, whatever. So put a mask on, put a robe on.

So it looked like a Doctor Who episode to me. What did you think of? when you saw that it was eyes wide shut to me oh okay the movie the stanley kubrick film eyes wide shut when they go to that sex party or whatever yeah there's people in red robes just like this with the same exact masks okay and i wonder i think eyes wide shut was released around the same time so ira was watching it and he inspired for this this design of these people the eyes wide shut I don't know. But it looked identical to me as that. Okay. I love it how I have the sci-fi reference and you have the pop culture, the Kubrick reference. I love it. We do find later on we come

back, medical help has arrived. We see that Quark has this branding, this circle with the shape the same as the same symbol that was graffitied up in the habitat ring. Yeah. So the same people. So we immediately make that connection. It's this terrible. terrorist group, this separatist group. Bashir is healing him. Quark is very panicked that he's going to have a scar. Cork is very worried about this. But were dermal regenerators just invented

the year before, the month earlier? Because I thought that was the norm for us. Yeah, it's a known thing. The minute it comes on our scars or lesions, they're repaired immediately. So I don't know why cork would be that worried about it. Armin, if you can weigh in on this, I would be interesting. I could weigh in and I could come up with something off the top of my head,

but there's no point because it would just be hypothetical. You're absolutely right. For all the science fiction we've seen about replacing people's appearance, you know, changing everything, a brand on someone's forehead should be really easy. I suppose it's his vanity, which is most important, not so much the scar, but will there be a mark left? I wonder, Armin, if he's almost protesting a bit too much, because later on, he says, well, you know, this circle people, they better be organized because I intend to sue them for financial compensation. I laughed out loud.

Yeah. Because everything, I feel like Quark is constantly looking at everything through the lens of, how can I profit? How can I turn this to my advantage somehow? Absolutely right, Robbie. And that's his moral code. Yes. moral code. Yeah. The code is of acquisition. The moral code of the Ferengi is that, and he's following his moral code. Yeah. That's why I buy the outrage and the panic and all, because it's setting up,

it's leveraging a payout somehow. What would have worked better for me for Cork to be so freaked out is if the branding did not happen on his forehead, but his actual lobe itself. The most important part of the phrenge is the ear, not the forehead. And I could see him going like, oh my God, you know, that's a huge part of, you know, of a pharynge. That would have been a good place to do it. But it would look a lot better on the forehead than on the, on the ear. On the lobe, on the ear. With all the crevices and things. Yeah. More clear that it is a brand because the ears are, there's all kinds of different levels. Right. I can't remember what it. Yep. Well, Bashir does finish his

operation on you and I love as they're leaving or calls Kira back how do I look and she grudgingly says or sarcastically I guess says as handsome as ever I'm not happy with my reaction they did everything right I wish I could do it again really knowledge her sarcasm oh I played it straight as though oh well that's a compliment coming from Kira good I'm happy about that yeah no I I think that's now in hindsight and having seen it, I would go, oh, no, no, I should acknowledge the sarcasm. Yeah. I should acknowledge the sarcasm.

Okay. We go to Cisco's quarters next. Cisco comes in. Jake is moping. The date stood him up because her father says that Jake's not a pejoran. So this kind of racism, this division is spreading. The circle is spreading. The circle's teachings and thought processes are spreading.

I like this scene a lot because I feel like a. Avery really was able to use the metaphor of bias and racism in a very naturalistic performance with Sarrac in this scene. And how painful it must be to tell your son about racism against your son. It's a lovely performance by both of them. It's very good writing, and it's really one of the highlights of this episode. I like the idea that Cisco brings up and that Avery delivers. beautifully. He says, you know, this is not your fault. You don't deserve this. And he says,

no one does. And the honesty of that exchange, to me, really, really hit home. After he continues to be ugly to the Ferengi, but he'll put that aside. Yes, we'll put that aside. Call comes in from a freighter that's still docked, that there's a stowaway, and then he pulls the stow away into the frame to show the commander. And it is Lee, Nalus, was trying to escape. what that made you laugh that made me laugh when he was a little gets out of frame and he pulls Lee and to me it was like um isn't there you know some I don't know it just it was funny to me it felt a little low budget watching up until now we knew that he has a problem with his legend with what yeah yes yes he was reluctant this is this is the next step in the discovery of

of what that secret is that he's been keeping yeah yes there's a little time We're still in the commander's office. Lee's explaining to Cisco why he's running. He admits that his legend is a lie, basically, in this scene. That he accidentally stumbled on this Cardassian gulls, Zarel, Zerral. And I guess the Cardassian was swimming. He was in his underwear. Lee says he, like, fell down a hillside.

He had stumbled, tripped over himself for something. Yeah, before, I'm just going to stop you. This is the longest monologue that any guest star of any Star of any Star Trek show has ever had it's a long story it's like more than a page literally you know on a script it's more than a page to me but he basically says i literally fell yeah into into this guy right but what's cool is this the falling part of it you can imagine your head that he slips and he's like ah oh and he's making all types of sound which normally normally someone would turn around and oh there's somebody falling down the mountain. But because

Galsaral was bathing in underwater, that was what was so awesome. He lands and all the rocks and everything and stuff stop making noise and he's totally quiet and that's when the guy rises out of the water to see like, oh, there's a pejoran in front of me with a phaser, you know, so.

It's excellent. That is excellent. Yeah. Yeah. It's a beautifully described story. But the bottom line is he feels like he's not a hero. He literally fell into the sky. Yeah. And then when they arrived and saw that he had shot this guy out of self-defense right sort of by accident yeah they

make up this whole story his pejoran friends and everyone yeah and the story gets spread and gets you know amplified and so uh he's ashamed of this story it's not the truth but cisco says the pejorans still need you they need a symbol they need something to believe in so they can see the best in themselves and i love that idea that yeah you know sometimes the bird burden of being a role model. Yeah. Sometimes we feel like we're frauds, right? Yeah.

That we can be a fraud, but that symbol that we represent or others represent or whoever is important. It's important for people to have these. It's a lesson that all of us here need to take to heart. It's a lesson of what you carry when you're a celebrity. Let's all agree that we need to commend Richard Bamer for getting through that monologue and painting such a great picture, at least. And slowly and methodically.

It is, again, this film performance that fits perfectly with everything else in this show. It's a really lovely, heartfelt performance. Bravo to him. Yeah. I still can't get Tony out of my head right now. I can't right now. Maria, I just met a girl named Maria. Okay.

Anyway, so he basically says, I'm a fraud and I have been a slave. He's almost, he resents this legend because he says, I've allowed myself to be a slave to this reputation for all of these years. And now I've had enough. And so, you know, that's, that's where his head's at. I love the way that Cisco reframes it in a way, like you said, Armin, that we have to respect how important these symbols are to people. and yeah Cisco does a great job we go to ops next

I think this is our last scene with Jaro and Nalas come in Frank Langella the uncredited minister walks in with Nalas and some they've been De Bejor Nalas has been given a new title

the Navark I think is how you pronounce it Navarck but the Navarck I don't know I don't know it's made up so we can call it whatever we want i think speaking of which very quickly yes when we had these sort

of names and and uh in our scripts um did anyone on your show say okay we're all going to say this we're all going to say it this way no because i've in this episode i heard the planet called bejor bejor bejure with a jure yeah it's all different and i thought didn't anyone just decide we're going to call at this? No. Yeah. No. And it's Kira, who always says Bayjor, the J sound, not the Z-H sound, right?

So I've stuck with Bayjore like Nana Visitor. Like Kira says, yeah. Kira does, yeah. I would believe she would know. I'm going to believe Kira, yeah. Of everybody. Yeah. But we're in ops, this last scene, the minister, Nal has come in.

He's been to Bayjor. There's been a big celebration. Thousands of people came to see his return. He was given this new title, the NAVARC. And Lee says, yeah, it was a short celebration because we had to return to the station here. Jaro says that Lee Nalas is now the new Bajoran liaison on the station, and Kira has been recalled to Bayjorn.

Was that the first time she heard that? Because I'm looking at Kira's face, and I'm trying to figure out, just trying to read it. I was like, is this the first time she heard this? I think so. I think it's the first time. Yeah. Okay.

She's in shock. Yeah. So maybe that's what I was reading. Just stunned. Stund. Stund. Yes. There's more to come, people.

TBC. To be continued. Okay. Robbie McNeil. What is your overall theme or lesson from this episode, Homecoming? I think we hit it in that second to last scene when Cisco reframes for Lee Nullis what. what he means to the people of Bejure. Bejure.

Bejure. I'll cover all of them. I think the theme is that people long for symbols to inspire them. People need that. People, aliens, everyone needs symbols and heroes

and role models, whatever word you want to fill in the blank. But I think that's, it's critical that people have those in their life. If you don't, it's hard to see the best in yourself. It's hard to know how to envision and aspire to what you want to be if you don't have an image of what that aspiration is. So to me, that's the theme of this episode for me.

Okay. Armand. I absolutely agree with what Robbie said. I think the episode actually gives us the theme. Legends are as powerful as any truth. So it's exactly what. what you're saying in a different way. But that's a line from the episode.

Legends are as powerful as any truth. I think that's the thing. What I like about your theme is, legends can be positive or negative. They are as powerful as truth. Like, I mean, we see it in our current politics and our current world. Like, you say things enough,

the legend becomes true and it has power, whether it's real or not. Whether it's true or not, you're repeated enough, you reinforce it enough, you keep saying it and that becomes a reality that becomes truth precisely yeah Garrett what do you got there you seem perplexed I'm more perplexed because like when you know I don't like to call it a theme I like to call I like to find a lesson like what do you learn

what what was your lesson my lesson is more about there's two one is never give up hope just because of the fact that they were in the prison labor camp for 10 years yeah or give up on hope. And the other one is that I think all societies need to constantly keep a vigil when it comes to racism and prejudice. That's something that has literally just tore the foundations down of multiple countries and societies is prejudice and racism, you know, nationalism or whatever you want to call it. It's just, it's always there. And so I think people, this is the one thing that I would like that the lesson from this for everybody is just everyone has a job to try to stamp out racism or prejudice because it's it's never ending the circle is is a group that should not

be perpetuated the circle is is is is toxic we're going to see what happens to him in the next we will yes the patreon poll voted for this lesson and it is submitted by heath k and the lesson is legends are as powerful as truth from Benjamin Sisko Armin Armin nailed it nailed everyone else

look at that wow look at that yeah I agree I think Armin and Heath are the winners that that covers it all it encompasses all of the lessons

that Garrett knew and I wouldn't forget what Garrett just said I wouldn't forget that thank you I appreciate that all right everyone thank you so much for tuning into this episode of the Delta Flyers as we journey through the wormhole.

Join us next time when we will be recapping and discussing the DS9 episode, The Circle. And for all of our Patreon patrons, please stay tuned for your bonus material, where we will be covering all kinds of cool, fun things that everyone should be privy to. All right, everyone else, see you next time. You know, B. B. B.

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