The Delta Flyers - The Quickening

Episode Date: November 11, 2025

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, The Quickening, is hosted by Garrett Wang, Robert Duncan McNeill,and Terry Farrell.The Quickening: Bashir combats pessimism and fear while trying to cure a fatal genetic disease the Jem'Hadar inflicted on a Gamma Quadrant planet 200 years ago.We would like to thank everyone who makes this podcast possible, starting with our Production Managers, Megan Elise and Rebecca McNeill.Additionally, we could not make this podcast available without our Executive Producers:Stephanie Baker, Jason M Okun, Luz R., Marie Burgoyne, Kris Hansen, Chris Knapp, Janet K Harlow, Rich Gross, Mary Jac Greer, Mike Gu, Tara Polen, Carrie Roberts, Sandra Stengel, AJC, Nicholaus Russell, Alex Mednis, Holly Schmitt, Roxane Ray, Tim Neumark, Ian Ramsey, Feroza Mehta, Jonathan Brooks, Matt Norris, Jenny Cordina, Izzy Jaffer, Andrew Cano, Francesca Garibaldi, Jonathan Capps, Chris Garis, Sean T, & Cindy WoodfordOur Co-Executive Producers:Liz Scott, Sarah A Gubbins, Utopia Science Fiction Magazine, Elaine Ferguson, Captain Jeremiah Brown, E & John, Deike Hoffmann, Anna Post, Cindy Ring, Lee Lisle, Sarah Thompson, Holly Smith, Amy Tudor, Mark G Hamilton, KMB, Dominic Burgess, Normandy Madden, Joseph Michael Kuhlman, Darryl Cheng, Elizabeth Stanton, Tim Beach, Victor Ling, Shambhavi Kadam, David Wei Liu, Donna Runyon, Nicholas Albano, Andrew Duncan, Randy Hawke, Penny Liu, Stephanie Lee, David Smith, Stacy Davis, Heath K., Ryan Mahieu, Kevin Harlow, Megan Doyle, Jeff Allen, Tamara Evans, & Linda Paige. And our Producers:Philipp Havrilla, James Amey, Jake Barrett, Sab Ewell, Ann Harding, Samantha Weddle, Paul Johnston, Carole Patterson, Warren Stine, Carl Murphy, Jocelyn Pina, Chad Awkerman, AJ Provance, Maxine Soloway, Heidi McLellan, Brianna Kloss, Dat Cao, Stephen Riegner, Debra Defelice, Alexander Ray, Vikki Williams, Kelly Brown, Gabriel Dominic Girgis, Renee Wiley, Maria Rosell, Michael Bucklin, Sarah, Lisa Klink, Dominique Weidle, Jesse Bailey, Mike Chow, Matt Edmonds, Miki T, Heather Selig, Steph Davies, Stephanie Aves, Seth Carlson, Amy Rambacher, Jessica B, Annie Davey, Jeremy Gaskin, Sarah Dunnevant, Charlie Faulkner, Estelle Keller, Eddie Dawson, Greg Kenzo Wickstrom, Lauren Rivers, Jennifer B, Robert Allen Stiffler, PJ Pick, Preston M, Rebecca Leary, SnazzyO, Karen Galleski, Jan Hanford, Katelynn Burmark, Timothy McMichens, Cassandra Girard, Robby Hill, Andrea Wilson, Slacktwaddle, Willow Whitcomb, Mo, Leslie Ford, Jim Poesl, Daniel Chu, Scott Bowling, Michael Jones, Ed Jarot, James Vanhaerent, Nick Cook-West, Brian Heckathorne, Kilian Trapp, Nelson Silveira, Ming Xie, Kit Marie Rackley, Gordon Watson, Andy Bruce, & Durrell Bishop.Thank you for your support!This Podcast is recorded under a SAG-AFTRA agreement.“Our creations are protected by copyright, trademark, and trade secret laws. Some examples of our creations are the text we use, artwork we create, audio, and video we produce and post. You may not use, reproduce, or distribute our creations unless we give you permission. If you have any questions, you can email us at [e-mail] Sponsors:* Check out Progressive: https://www.progressive.com* Check out Uncommon Goods: https://uncommongoods.com/tdfSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-delta-flyers/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Delta Flyers journey through the wormhole with Quark, Dax, and their good friends, Tom and Harry. Join us as we make our way through episodes of Star Trek Deep Space 9. Ooh, your host for today are my fellow Trek actors, Robert Duncan McNeil and Garrett Wong. And of course, myself, Terry Farrell. Ooh. For the complete, exciting, and supercalifragilistic, expialadocious version of this podcast, please check out patreon.com forward slash the Delta Flyers and sign up to become a patron today. I had to match Terry's woo. Wow. Woo-hoo. We're wooing today. We're wooing.

Hi, guys. And the supercalo. Hey. I just went to my 40th high school reunion. I just got back from that. how was it? Oh my gosh. Okay. In Memphis? In Memphis. So in prior years, we've had like a 10th reunion was at this nice hotel. The 20th was at the something something museum. So they've had like, you know, destination kind of reunion. Yeah. But then this one was at. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah, that's cool. But this one was at one of our classmates' houses in Arlington, Tennessee on like 20 acres of land. And it's like, yeah. And when you got, so I was thinking like, this has got to be like a ranch or farm. We get there. The actual house itself was straight out of architectural digest. It was just so well done. I mean, like it looks like a ranch home, but it's modern.

If that. So once you walk in the door, you're like, oh, my gosh. You're like, what? It's beautiful there. But from the outside. No, the outside is also kind of modern, but still ranchy. Like it fit. Even though it was modern, it still looked correct or right in the setting.

So he's doing well. He's doing very well, yes. Is that close to where you went to high school? Does he still live close? Yeah, Arlington's like about 30 minutes from the high school. So 40 minutes. Did you go to, did you go see your high school? Yes, we did.

So we went, I went on a tour with maybe four or five other students to the high school given by one of the teacher slash student alumni. And so we walked around. and they've added some other, you know, things here and there. There's like, when you walk in, there's like a digital screen that has everything. So it's modernized now. A lot more resources for the students. And the ethnic breakdown, completely different.

But when I was there, it was me, my sister, Yang Yun, a Korean guy in my grade, and his sister, the same grade as my sister. We were the only four minorities in the entire school. Now it's 40% African-American, 40% percent. 40% Caucasian American and 20% other, which includes, you know, everything else, I guess, with Asian. Wow, that's amazing. Yeah, much more diverse. And then, Robbie, we went out in the football field and I said to my friend Frank Gray, who was on the tour with me, I said, Frank, I just want to try to run the 40 real quick.

Just like they do the NFL Combine. And he's like, are you sure you want to do this? And I said, yes. And so the rest of them are standing there. Were you guys drinking? No. Not yet. Not yet. No. And so as everyone is standing on the sidelines, I'm getting ready to run and they're timing me. And I can hear someone in the sidelines who said, this is not a good idea.

He's going to pull a muscle. You're going to hurt yourself. Yeah. Well, when they said start, my body said run. Sorry, my brain said run. But my body was not, it felt like it was in quicksand. I was like, I'm not even running right now. And I was pushing as hard as I could. And I just, and I, at the end, oh, my gosh, I think it was like seven seconds, which is horrible. I mean, that's like a lot forever to get to, you know, like world class, four point two seconds is like the fastest NFL combined time. Oh, still seven is not bad. I'm almost double that. Right. So, yeah, compared to somebody who's a professional athlete. Yeah, I think seven's amazing.

Oh, my gosh. And how about being in traction afterwards, right? Yeah. Did you pull anything? No, because they told me to stretch beforehand, which I did. So I stretched and got everything ready to go. So you're more fit than you thought. I guess, but I was also.

Do you remember what your old time was? I've never been timed on a 40 before in my life. So then why are you saying that's a bad number? You're insane. I have a funny, I have a funny. I'd be proud of just finishing it without weighing my pants. Okay. I have a funny race story.

I'm going to digress for a minute. Oh, God. So on Resident Alien, Alan, Tudik and Judah Preen, who plays the little boy, Max, they would argue all the time about who was better at this or that. And at the end of the series, at the end of the C, no, season three, I think it was, they made a bet that after they wrapped, they would go to the track and race the 40, just what you did, and whoever one would have to buy the other pizza.

Oh, my God. So, Rebecca and I went out and we filmed the whole thing, and we made, like, signs. We were in the stands. It was hilarious. Oh, my God. And they were warming up and we were doing all this. So they do the race. Yes.

And it's like three, two, one, go. Carissa, Alan's wife is the starter. Yeah. And Judah takes off and Alan takes off. And like five steps into the race, Alan goes, oh, oh, he pulled a hammy. He's like limping down the track. Oh, my goodness. Moked him.

So he, so he did he do that on purpose? No, he really did. Oh my God. Alan was like, Alan. He's younger than me.

He's in his mid 50s, I would think. Oh, right. So not so far behind us. Yeah. So just a little younger. A little younger, but he pulled a hammy and he had to buy Judah pizza and it was hilarious. I mean,

it wasn't hilarious that he got hurt. No, but it's such a sweet thing. But it was the same mindset of like Alan going, Yeah, I could just go to this 12-year-old kid and beat him. No. Oh, and used to be like a rubber band back then. Yeah.

Yeah. Like a dragonfly. Zing, zing, zing, zing, zing. Oh, my gosh. Well, speaking of, you know, aging, reunions, getting older. Yeah. We have birthdays this month. We do.

This is the perfect segue. Good segue. Robbie McNeil from the clan McNeil. Okay. First of all. And this is our favorite month to celebrate, isn't it? Yes, it is. Well, it has to be, because it happens to be the birthday month of y'all as well.

So, okay, starting off with Dica on November 10th, happy birthday, Dica. Happy birthday, Dica. Happy birthday, Dica. Also, on November 11th, we have Dominique Wiedel. Happy birthday, Dominique. Happy birthday, Dominique. Happy birthday. Dominique. And don't forget Scott Bowling. November 13. Lucky 13, happy birthday, Scott.

Happy birthday, Scott. Happy birthday, Scott. November 15th is a special day because that happens to be Morgan Ayala, Rantiria's birthday. Happy birthday, Morgan. Happy birthday, Morgan. Oh, that was cute. You don't need singing lessons. Happy birthday, Morgan. Our last birthday is, Annie Davy on November 16th, happy birthday, Annie. Happy birthday, Annie. Happy birthday, Annie. There you go.

I like that. We also would like to welcome a brand new profit. That would be Jenny Cordina, not new to Patreon, but new to the profit level. Welcome to the profit level, Jenny. Wow, Jenny. Welcome, welcome. Yes, Jenny. Thanks for being a supporter of the podcast and welcome to the profit level.

all right let's get right into it everyone let's go with our limerick oh you have one okay cool i do it's elementary but i did it how about we let shall we let terry go for let can we hear yours first why don't we start with your poem okay yes yes okay love of healing has my heart reeling to conquer the blight is my fight. Alas, I can't save all. My crest is my fall. Oh, very deep. Nice. Thank you. I was trying to work crust falling in there because it was at the end. Oh, thank you for getting it. I was like thinking, I hope that's clear. Yes, I like the play on words there. Very nice. That is poetry. Here is a little limerick for the quickening. Our favorite Dr. Bashir is quite bright. He sought

cures with all of his might. But the plague wouldn't yield till his humility healed. And hope led to the defeat of the blight. Oh, yes. Very nice. Thank you. I really like that a lot. Thank you very much. I wanted to finish with the blight. Yeah, I like that. Yeah, thank you. Yeah. I am going to give you a quick haiku. Yes. And unfortunately, I wrote this last night, but I didn't write it down, so I forgot the second stanza, so I had to make another one up. I was like, what was the second one? Because it ended, my second stanza ended in rebelling, and it didn't, I could not figure out how I did that. No, each line is called a stanza. I'm sorry, each verse. I'm sorry, the second verse. Yeah, I said that incorrectly. Here we go. My haiku for the quickening. Dominion virus.

rebels made example of come to quarks it's fun i could i couldn't get the whole thing in i like that you've got quirks commercials in there that's good thank you very good that's like the perfect segue for us really starting the whole episode yeah it's pretty darn good well done thank you written by naren shankar directed by rene objeunwa his second his second episode that he's directed guest stars Ellen Wheeler as Ikoria. Ellen Wheeler, I want to pause in Ellen Wheeler for a second. Let's talk about it. I did all my children in the 80s with Ellen Wheeler.

And Ellen won an Emmy. She came on to play the very first, as I understood it then, and I remember, as I remember it, the very first HIV-AIDS storyline for a character. Ellen was phenomenal. Ellen is a very talented. actress, and she became a writer and then a showrunner of daytime dramas, I think, including as the world turns or guiding line.

Wow. Wow. It became a big writer showrunner level of soap operas. Yeah. I'm not surprised. Yeah. That is so cool. So I...

She was great. And she was a very nice person when I did all my children with her in the late 80s. She was very sweet, really talented. And she played a character dealing with AIDS, is what you were saying, right? Her character had AIDS? Yes. Very interesting because there is an AIDS connection in this episode as well. So 100%.

I wonder if they had seen her play that story. Oh, I'm sure. It must be on a reel. Oh, yeah. It was a big deal. And I remember. And her performance of that, I wonder if the writers are casting. I remember watching her.

Yeah, she was great. You know, I remember when I was in to daytime television watching her and thinking she was excellent. Nice. And being in the show, watching it again, it's so weird to not remember, like, all of it. It's like, but chunks. But I remember that our supporting cast were kind and fun and easy to work with. We were so, we just had a really good time despite the, you know, depressing elements of the show. Yeah, for sure. Okay. Next up, we have Dylan Haggerty as Eprin. We also have Michael Sarazen as Treveen, the pain stopper.

I had the biggest crush on him. Oh, they said he was definitely... I had the biggest crush on him. Well, as a kid, right? When he... Right. Yeah. Right? I just remember thinking, oh, my God, he's like so... He's almost like fascinating. He was fascinating to look at when he was. He was young, too. It was big lips and big eyes, and he was super sexy in a softer way than a lot of times you see characters, you know, for actors. Wasn't he the lead, romantic lead, and they shoot horses, don't they? The film? Yes. Yeah, he did a lot of big movies.

I'd like to see that again. Yeah. But very cool to work with him, just one of those. Obviously, I chilled on the crush because I did. know he was so much older than me you know what i mean when you're young you don't put you just have them in your head in a certain way yeah yeah you know certain age like parents or relatives you know you sort of have them at this like age and then when you see them age it's like no you're supposed to stay 40 forever yeah he was he was uh he passed away at 70 years old uh from cancer and um and yeah

Canadian actor. This is what Renee Ischavaria said. Having Michael Sarazen was terrific. He came in and auditioned and just blew the room away. There was no question of auditioning anyone else. Women love this man and still swoon over him down on the site. Or women. Women.

Yeah, I said, I had the M.E.N. in there. Sorry. Women. Women. Women. Yeah, not woman, but women. Yeah, he was a big. He was a big.

A big movie star in the late 60s and all through the 70s and then sort of his career turned to TV, more TV in the 80s and 90s. Yeah. But he was a big movie star. Mm-hmm. He was partners with. It was a big deal. Yeah, he was with Jacqueline Bissette was his girlfriend or his partner for many, many years.

Wow. He can't be a movie star. Yeah. And she's great. Look at that. It's like two sexy people. Kind and beautiful. Yeah.

I love that. Okay. Well, Michael Sarazen, it was great to see him. Yeah, all right. Co-stars. We have a big list of co-stars. Heidi Margolis as Norva. Lauren Lester as the attendant, Alan Eshavaria as patient. I'm guessing this is a relative of Renee, or is it coincidental, maybe? No, no, I think it's got to be. I'm sure. It's got to be. Okay. And also Lisa Moncure as Latia. Those are our co-stars. All right. Let's go through some trivia real quick. Okay. So the concept for

This episode originated with Iris Stephen Bear after watching the 1995 Michael Hoffman film Restoration. The theme of the movie and the idea that Bear wanted to bring to the world of Deep Space Nine was what would happen when an inherently moral doctor is placed in a situation he is unable to control. This led Bear to propose that Bashir should be placed in the middle of a planet-wide epidemic, and no matter how hard he tries, he simply cannot come up with a cure. Also on Bear's mind was the fact that Greg Duffy Long, and office assistant had just died of AIDS. According to Bear, my wife, Laura,

works closely with AIDS Project Los Angeles, and the whole AIDS thing was on all of our minds, so we just wanted to come up with the disease that breaks your heart. Because he was too busy himself, Bear hired Noreen Shankar to write the teleplay. Although Shankar ultimately decided to drop the AIDS metaphor, I didn't give the sense that the people were outcasts or pariahs, which is how AIDS patients are often. perceived. So that's a little bit of trivia on the origin of this. I mean, if you think about the

timing of this episode, this was probably 96-ish around there. And, you know, HIV and AIDS in the 80s was a mystery, a complete mystery. People were dying. They could not figure out anything scientific to combat it. And it wasn't until the early mid-90s. So right around the time of this episode that partial breakthroughs were happening, just a hope. And I think that that probably influenced this episode because it's not a complete, you know, Bashir doesn't come up with a cure for this. He just comes up with a partial way to stop.

future of it. And that's kind of what was happening then. So it definitely does, even though maybe they took the AIDS metaphor out directly. I think it definitely was influencing and relates to what was happening in 96, 95, 96. The air date of the show was May 20th, 1996. Okay. So we would have filmed this, I would guess, around Christmas time. Yeah. The working title of this episode was the healing touch. This title was given to the episode by writer Noreen Shankar, but it was changed by René Ashavaria because the producers felt that it implied Bashir would be successful in his fight against the blight. Eshavaria chose the new title of the quickening as a pun, which is interesting because Terry's poem had that play on words of Crestfallen fallen crest. And Eshervaria chose

the new title of the Quickening as a pun. In the context of the episode, to Quicken, means that the disease has become active, but to quicken in reality also means to come alive. So the title refers to both death and birth, Eshaviria was particularly proud of this double meeting. Oh, yes. That just gave me goosebumps, actually. That's huge. You guys remember where Bashir talks about the story of the teddy bear named Kukalaka in the episode? Yes. Yes. All right. Well, the name Kukalaka was chosen by Renee Eshavaria. However, it came from a mistake on his part. According to Eshavaria, he thought Kukalaka was the name of his best friend's invisible childhood friend. But after the friend saw the episode, he informed Eshavaria that Kukalaka was actually the

name of a cat belonging to an ex-girlfriend of his. Oh, my gosh. That's kind of cute, I thought. That is very... Kukalaka. Kukalaka. Oh, this is interesting. I didn't write this down, but...

Trevian is an anagram for veteran and a choreo. which is the original name of Akoria, is an anagram for rookie. These names were created by Noreen Shankar, who noted, small things like that helped me to focus when I'm creating characterization. So I thought that was very interesting. Yeah.

And the fun... Yeah, it's like the inside secret of how he was kind of thinking about these characters as a veteran. I like that. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. All of the outdoor scene... Oh, do you have something?

Terry, go ahead. I do. While the two men share a last name, there is no public information linking actor Alan Atcheveria to screenwriter Renee It's a coincidence. They appear to have separate career and family histories. Wow. That is pretty amazing.

Small world. It's so random too. Yeah. Well, like I'm not related to Colin Farrell. Right. Right. Or Will Ferrell or Mike Farrell or. Yeah.

That's a good point. Or Bob Farrell. I don't even know him. Maybe you are really. So you may be related somewhere way back in the tree, you know. That's true. Yeah. Yeah.

Oh, my God. It'd be interesting to find out. Wouldn't that be weird? Yeah. Very interesting exterior shots here. So all of the outdoor scenes were shot at the Santa Susanna Field Laboratory in Ventura County, Southern California, where rockadine had performed shuttle testings that resulted in the earth being burned and scorched by the heat and flames of rocket engines. I know exactly. Exactly where that is.

You do. We filmed one of the hero sets for a show I did up just below that rockadine testing grounds. And there's all this land that they also were doing nuclear tests up there. So there's radiation. I remember when we were filming quite often up there, they'd have to put out like a separate sheet on the call sheet saying, everything's been tested. Don't worry, crew.

You're all fine. But the crew was like, no, that's bad news over there. That's like the asbestos on sets. I wonder if they were filming this episode at Rockettine. And, you know, back then if the safety was, if it was safe. I'm sure it probably was, but I always get nervous around those kind of places filming. I don't remember traveling there. Isn't that weird?

Yeah, that's I was going to ask you. It's out past Chatsworth. So if you go out. A 118 freeway? Yeah, but it's still within the range, right? So we would have had to have a big drive. Yeah. But it would have still been in the range where they didn't have to send us there and spend the night.

Yeah, the filming zone. So my guess is that we were just so overtired that that's why I can't remember it. Because I do remember working on deep space where at one point I had to pull over on the 101 and just close my eyes. and just close my eyes for a while. And I'm sure it was like this half an hour. I think it might have been because this makes sense. They probably had you drive a long way out to a parking lot that was in the zone. And then they would probably shuttle you to the set.

That's often what you would do to get around that rule. Or what if they drove to Paramount and then they shuttled them from there all the way? Maybe. But then she wouldn't have been tired on the 101. Oh. Probably not. Yeah. No, I don't think.

I don't remember taking shuttles. places, unless we were at, you know, parking, and then they got us from parking to, yeah. Yeah. Okay. One little last piece of trivia. That would be most of the later stage, disfiguring caused by the Tepland Blight was done in post-production by multi-layer compositing under the supervision of Gary Hutzel. This meant that on set, rather than elaborate makeup, actors had dots attached to their faces,

which allowed their motion to be recorded precisely and which could then be replicated exactly in the computer. This was an early form of the type of sophisticated motion capture software and motion capture suits that are used regularly today. So it started... Aren't we amazing? I'm surprised by that. Are you?

I'm surprised because if you did the... Just having been a producer or director on these kinds of things before, you work out the cost of both options, and then you go with the cheapest one. Yeah, and that's kind of crazy that that was the cheapest one. That's crazy to me. I mean, I think that maybe they did some enhancement, but I can't imagine that all the makeup was done digitally.

I think it was probably a combo package of like when you wanted to see the throbbing or the growth of something. Those special shots probably were. Yeah, but before the quickening, it looked like it was just painted on. Yeah, for sure. The only makeup that stood out that did not look great to me in terms of the detail. The detail was when, you know, remember the boy with the broken arm? I made a note on that. Oh, wow.

Yeah. Like you could see the highlighted white and I thought, who did that makeup? Oh. I made a note on that. And I thought it was because he was a kid and kid hours. You got to get him in and out of the chair. Right. So they were just like, yeah, we'll do kind of a. A quick version of the makeup on him because it looked like face painting class. Yes, it did. It did. It's funny.

It's like we're at a fair. Yeah. Yeah. Two final, final last trivia bits. Of course, this is another episode in which Sirak Lofton does not appear. And this is the only episode in which Jedziah Dax wears her hair loose from beginning to end. Wow, because she gave away her little brooch. or whatever, the bread, right off of that.

Was Avery in it? I don't remember seeing Avery. Yeah, the very end. He kind of says, good job, Bashir. I have some thoughts about that scene. Let's talk about that then. Let's talk about that then for sure. And let's jump. Robbie, jump right into this, will you? Well, let's jump in.

So we start off in the ward room. Miles and Kira are working on a replicator. We don't know what's broken about it. Then Odo brings Quark in. And they, Kira turns on the replicator. And there's a commercial with a little job. jingle for Quarks. How's it go?

It goes, come to Quarks. Quarks is fun. Come right now. Don't walk, run. Yeah. Come to. It's very. Yeah, it's so cute.

Very cute. I loved it when Quarks sang along with it. Yes. When he comes in and character fronts him and plays it back for him. Yes. And then he's so proud of it. He's so proud. He's so proud.

Doesn't he say, I like how my name spins around. Yes. The end. Gosh, Armin was just hilarious in this. Very funny. His residual scene, but it's very funny. Then Worf arrives with a mug in his hand that's got... His residual scene.

Yeah. Fork's face is all on it, and he tilts it sideways, and it plays the same jingle that was on the commercial. Oh, my word. Kira's mad about this. She's really mad. Yeah. Yeah.

Just get rid of these ads, or she'll take care of him when she gets back. And she grabs him. him by the by the uh the coat the lapels there that's a little excessive i think i mean this isn't an illegal activity i mean he's not meant to do these advertisements i get it he did it he did it without any approval but he's not cheating anyone he's not smuggling anything so right why is curate him yeah but she's threatened to beat him up he's like i'm gonna like really well she needs therapy but we can't deal with that right now i agree with you garret i will say that this This is a throwaway comic scene, and I would have played this much faster and for the comedy.

Agreed. Because with the weightiness of these long pauses and just too much. Don't need it. But also, was it weird that Dorn was just like when they don't show anyone exiting, it would have been cooler to see maybe her just stage it a little differently. So either you see Michael still, or Dorn Wharf still. listening or you see him exit while she's but i don't know it just felt like where'd he go yeah i okay so you want different blocking basically so well yeah because it was weird to me that you

you see her leave yeah and you don't where did michael doran's character go right if or why is he not following or just show him leave when he after he does the mug show him leave right it just was weird to me in a i don't know it was just odd to me. Okay. That's fine. That's fair. It's not the end of the world. It was just a tiny thing. She takes off. Everybody takes off and Quirk is very quick to help Miles fix this and take the he actually drops out of frame. Quark's like, what does he say at the end? He's like, let me help you with that, Chief. And he does a pop down, classic comedy staging. I thought that was on point with the comedy. I don't know if that was Armand's idea or Renee, but

But that kind of stuff, this was, yeah, the scene to me was kind of mixed up with comedy and real pathos or stakes that were dramatic and it felt a little like it was not sure of the tone. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Like the actors are in different stories. They were all playing different tones. Yeah, yeah.

Armin did a great job of, let me help you with that chief and popping down. It buttoned the scene beautifully. Yeah. I thought that was great. I thought was great. All right. We cut into the runabout. through the wormhole, the runabout whooshes into the gamma quadrant.

We cut inside. Bashir is very excited about these new scanners. They're going to be able to pick up all kinds of new information about the gamma quadrant. Kira just wants to get back to the alpha quadrant. And Bashir thinks the gamma quadrant's amazing. He's like a little boy. He's so excited. Aren't the stars brighter here?

Yes, exactly. And Dax, I like Dax's line. Is it my imagination? Or has Julian lost his mind? But that was very funny. And then we had a giggle. I thought that was great. Yeah.

Yeah. That he hit me with his pad. Nicely played scene, a little, you know, transitional scene to get us in there. This begins a series of time cuts to me, though, in this episode, in the writing of this episode, that I found distracting. We're like in the same set, and we're jumping times constantly. And I don't think the writers found a good way of. writing these transitions, and I don't think that Renee found a great way, because this is the beginning of a lot of these. I don't think they were well executed because we're just kind of

jumping time constantly. Anyway, that's a criticism. Even this kind of felt odd, jumping from the scene in the replicator and all of that with cork to suddenly where the three of us are flying, like, why are we doing that? Why are we out there? I don't know why we're out there. Just like zooming around hoping to find a distress call yeah yeah it's well it's they're surveying i guess the gamma quadrant but it just it doesn't seem clear it seemed bumpy i agree with you yeah and it seemed like we were not on our way home but because we cut to that like we're on a voyage yeah so it was confusing to me there um it would have been nice to us coming home yeah for example if kira says fix this before I get back and then and then Cork says let me help you and we cut to the station

and we see the we see the the shuttle go into the you know leave the station and go into the wormhole wormhole I think it would have been clearer but when they just pop out I'm like wait where are we where is disoriented a lot yeah me too I don't yeah I don't like that in sci-fi when you're disoriented because there are already enough moving parts yep that you're you know suspending disbelief with. So if you're not helping me suspend it, then you're taking me out and I'm back in the room going, where are we?

Where are we? Exactly. Where are we? It took me a minute into the scene or the second part of the scene before I realized, oh, we're in the gamma quadrant. Anyway, they do get a distress call. Whoever's calling them says that our home world has been attacked and Kira scans. It's just outside, or no, DAC scans.

It's coming from the Teplen system. just outside of Dominion's Bay. So it's not the Gem Hadar, we don't think. It's not the Dominion. So they decide to go help them. So they set a new course. Off they go. So, yay, we have a mission.

Yes. We cut down to this planet. It's a war zone. It's like, you know. Dysopia. Dysopia. They're walking through the streets, but no one's really paying them much, much attention. Which that's got a little odd too, right?

Yeah. Especially with how they react as we get into it. Yeah. They should have named this town, Rockadine. Yes. Rockadine. Well, also consider how we look. It just isn't.

Yeah. You look totally different. You're obviously strangers. We appear out of nowhere. Yeah. Yeah. And I didn't love the zoom out shot to reveal this place. I don't know.

At the very top of the scene, you're up on a cliff and you sort of look and the camera just zooms out. It felt very dated. It felt old, old fashioned to me. Well, it is. It was 30 years ago. I know, but it felt like the 1940s or something. Yeah, it did have a little Orson-Wells vibe. Yeah.

But, you know, I kind of like that about it. It reminded me of a shot we did for Hellraiser, where we were in a time. What we filmed was just a tiny segment. And the rest of it was like a painted. Yeah. And that's what it. looked like to me. It didn't look like, yeah, it looked like that to me. And I guess that's what makes it look dated. Yeah. But at the time, it was really cool because it was a way of making

you see another world without them having to build it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, they walk through this village. Nobody's talking to him. A woman with really bad veins all over her face, these red veins is in pain. She's suffering. She wants to go to Trevian, she says. I need to, you know, take me to Trevian. Dax goes to find out where Trevian is, and Bashir gives her some pain meds. And the stranger, Eprin, walks up. I thought he was going to get into a fight with him. He immediately seems like combative, you know. But he says there's nothing you can do for the blight and that they should just leave.

When she says, Norva says, help me, take me to Treveen. Bashir goes Treveen, and Norvis says, hospital, I thought that Treveen was there slang for hospital. I did. I did too. Or the name of the hospital. Or the name of the hospital. Yeah, exactly. Or the doctor at the hospital. Yes. Kind of. We go to this hospital, which feels more like a lounge or a spa. There's music. Or a smoke den. Or a smoke den. There's candles. Seriously, people are laying around. Yes. They're very, you know, out of it. Yeah. Well, we go inside. They bring in this very same.

lady who wanted to go to Trevian and the attendant says, oh, she's quickened. And so they have to take her to Trevian. And we look around and they all have these veins. We're starting to see that everybody here has veins and a lot of red veins. And Trevian arrives. And there's a patient to Marr there who thanks Trevian for making him so comfortable. Thanks Trevian's awesome. Then Trevian explains to them their civilization was once very advanced and they had technology they were you know advancing themselves and then the jem had darr destroyed their world and left them with this disease this blight as punishment for their defiance and they they all die from it trevian explains they're born with it and they die with it and then suddenly tamar the guy who was you know toasting treviant before and

saying how great he was he suddenly convulses and dies and bishir and daq realized that he gave them poison and Bashir's very upset about this. And that's when Trevian says, you're going to have to leave. Does it mention when or how long they've been dealing with this? Two centuries ago. So 200 years. 200 years. Okay.

Does this remind you? It made me think of Dr. Kovorkian, but I thought, I don't really remember the whole story with that. But he helped assist suicide for people who were in a lot of pain, right? Yeah. People that were, yes, correct. This episode, and especially this scene, because he means well, reminded me of Dr. Kavorkian, that it was very controversial, but he took people out of their pain.

Yeah. I wouldn't want to live with pain like that. No, not at all. Not at all. And you understand why they think that he is a healer in a way, because they can't cure this thing. So he's ending, he's healing their suffering. and pain, giving them some choice over it all. I think that's a very good word, choice over it all,

especially when they're seeing their friends and family die in extreme pain so that he's become like a savior to them. I initially thought that when he said we had sophisticated equipment once, I felt like that a lot of this episode was playing against that. As if, because they acted like they've never, ever seen any type of advanced. Well, it's been a couple hundred years. And I guess is that enough time to not know what anything is in 200 years, I suppose? Were their pictures?

You don't see pictures. None of their computers were working. So how would they be reminded, right? And later we see me admiring a picture that someone painted. Yes. We'll get there. Yeah. He had to trade his boots to get paint.

That's how... To paint a picture to remind people how it used to be. Yeah. Okay. All right. Hey, Garrett, Warp Speed has officially turned into TransWarp Speed. Holiday shopping season is officially here. Uh-oh.

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Do gooders. Do gooders. They get kicked out. They're walking through town. We see bodies on carts along the way. Dax says that she's found the source of this distress call and that this is a message that's been transmitting for a couple hundred years. How's that even? Okay.

It's like an automated. I get that. Well, I did say that it has its own energy source. Yeah, I get it. Might be solar. Maybe. Oh, pishaw. Pishaw.

Get into the Star Trek universe. We're making it all possible. Well, this thing has been, but that makes sense to me that why they don't believe that anybody's going to be able to fix this. They've seen this before. This message has been going out for 200 years. Other people have showed up. Nobody's been able to fix it. So when they first walked through town, that's why everybody was ignoring.

throwing them. This actually makes sense to me. It's good. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And also, um, they've been taken advantage of too by these people, by some of these people. That's why they don't care to go, hi, welcome. Who are you? They just, they've seen this before. Yeah. It made sense to me. Yeah. You keep your snake oil. You've started exactly. Yeah. Exactly. But she's at the point where he's like, I guess we should leave because nobody wants our help and doesn't look like we're going to be able to do anything. And that's when a Coria shows up. She mentioned she's never met a doctor before, but she's pregnant. She's doing two months. And she says there's a woman in Nicalia who makes a medicine that helps their pain and maybe

helps them live longer. There's some hope there. But she says it's far away and she'd welcome his help to help them get there. And that's when Kira calls and says, uh-oh, two Gem Hadar ships are heading this way. We got to figure this out, do something. But there's Ellen Wheeler. That was my first view of Ellen Wheeler. I was like, oh my God. I worked with her. And I'm thinking, oh my God, I remember working with her. She was so nice. And it was so cool to have those like fun memories back, you know, relating to how you guys share about what Voyager felt like for you to watch back. It's just. I always felt with Ellen, knowing her on the soap opera when I was young and being so impressed with her talent in the mid

mid 80s especially with that format of storytelling holy cow that's hard phenomenal and I thought when I was young that woman is going to be a movie star she is a movie star that's how good she is and I'm just surprised like she's good in this as well she's so good I'm surprised that you know her career path took her down soap operas and she became a showrunner and you know i'm sure was very happy and very successful there but it's interesting to me i think she could have been a movie star she's yeah good she really is great and beautiful and interesting beautiful looking not like common like there's something ethereal about her beauty yeah yeah Like Meryl Streep, that same kind of...

Yes. Yeah. That's what I thought of her as a young... That's the kind of level I thought of her when I was 20 years old and she was... I get it. Not that much older. She was maybe five, six years older than me. But I was like, oh my gosh, she's going to be a movie star.

Yeah. Yeah. Did either of you wish that these aliens had some alien something about their face? They have been... This entire time, they're huge. Human. They're exactly human. And whenever everyone sees our away team, they're like, oh, my gosh, you guys are clearly off worlders. Well, how would you really know other than looking at the uniform? Because the face- Well, I have my spots. Yeah, that's true. But again, it just bugged me that they were not alien. It was budget. I'm sure it's budget. I know. I know. I know. It's just a nip- I didn't mind that they were human. Because, I don't know, we see aliens all the time and we don't bump into human beings. on other planets, and why not? Right.

Why not just paint them green or something? Just a color, a hue. Too much work. Too much money. Too much work. Because wouldn't they say like, oh my gosh, you guys are very human-like like we are or something? Yeah. Like work.

Give them one tooth. Yeah. Like one tooth. Give them one tooth only, like Bugs Bunny. The Gemitar are on their way. Bashir and Dax being back up onto the shuttle. And they scan. the area, looks like the Gemhaidar patrolling the whole area. They're going from one spot to

another, but they're going to be near us very soon. So Bashir says, these people down there need my help. And Kira says, well, this could take you too long. The Gem Hadar are going to be here. And Bashir says, reminds her that on Baranis 3, they figured out how, in an hour, how to solve this medical problem. And in three days, they had the whole population inoculated. So he's Like, if I can make a difference here, it may not take that long. So Kira's going to take the shuttle to the Jankata Nebula, hang out there, avoid the Jem Hidar, and they're going to head down to the planet for a week. Oh, I'm so happy you said that because, you know what, in watching it, I even watched it, I

rewombed it and watched it again. I just wish I guess that she would have, it was because I thought she was taking us to the Jankata Nebula. and I thought, then how are we ending up in the same spot? So I can't detecting the Ron. Instead of saying, I'll take it, maybe I'll go to that nebula so that I'll be waiting there for a little more clear in her language in the writing. They should have laid it out a little clearer.

It was not clear. No, it wasn't. She's going to go hide out. How are we going to get back to those people if we're going to the Jen Kadar Genkata nebula? How are we getting back to those people? That confusion. Like, where are we in space? What, you know, where?

What are we doing? Where was she hanging out? Like, just above the atmosphere. Yeah. I guess. Look at the look on your face, Garrett. You just look frozen. You're just like.

Sorry. I like the, I like the Jim Hedar nebula better than the Genkata nebula. So I'm going to go. Oh, well, yeah. That was cute. I try to mix it up. I do. All right. Well, we go down to the back to the planet. We're in this communal room. There's kids are. I did like this opening that Renee did because you see the kids run. They're looking at the door. The kids run and they say, oh, they're here. They're coming. They're very excited. And the kids running around is what motivates the camera to pan the room. And we see all these people's. And then it comes back around to seeing Dax, Akory and Bashir entering. So I did like that.

There are a lot of lingering more movie-type shots in this episode. Well, also, it starts with an action that isn't part of the dialogue. I like that when you feel like you're in the environment a little bit rather than just words cut, words cut. And you're like, you know what I mean? He did a lot of that in this episode. I like that. Yeah, I did too. Well, the kids run around.

Bashir starts to set up his medical. equipment, Dax sees this painting, a little framed painting. And Akoria explains... That we were just talking about. Yes, yes. Acoria explains it's from her husband. Her husband painted it before he died last winter. Which when she said that out, suddenly I was like, wait, you're pregnant.

How is your husband died last winter? Well, who's kid is this? She had a little comforting or she got comforted. And then it took her two years to give birth. It could with aliens. They may have a long gestation period. Someone could have a comfort her in her grieving process. Yeah, it could.

Oh, wait, but no, no, no. She says she hopes he looks like her husband, right? No, it's her husband's kid, for sure. But we don't know how long these aliens gestation is. Yeah, it could be a two-year gestation period. So it could be a two-year pretext. But it did bump me a little, again, a little lack of context and clarity. Don't they have a team of people reading them?

just for these kinds of little errors that we're talking about. You would hope so, yes. You would hope so. Well, she explains her husband painted this beautiful spot to give everybody hope. She talks about a mural. He did a big mural of it so that everyone would see this beautiful place and give them hope, something to hope for. And then a coria volunteers to help Bashir run some biosprectural analysis.

He needs this analysis from an asymptomatic individual. So she volunteers. Dax makes a joke about waiting for the doctors. You can have a seat and wait for the doctor. And, Corey doesn't get it. She's like, what are you talking about?

Which I thought was, I thought it was very funny. If you just have a seat, the doctor will be with you in a moment. They'd love to keep you waiting. It makes them feel important. It made me laugh, but Akoria didn't get the joke.

No. Yeah. Yeah. And why would she? Yeah. Why would she? They don't have any doctors. She's,

Corey said, I've never met a doctor. You didn't know what a doctor is, practically, yeah. And a sweet moment at the end where Bashir says, you know, would you like to see a picture of your baby? Oh, I love that. Yeah, very sweet. Another time passing cut in the same place.

A little later, Bashir's isolated the virus. Now he's going to look for an antigen. And Acoria brings out a case with lots of jars of food in it, a special case. They comment, oh, it looks like a feast. and she says, yeah, that's what it was supposed to be. It was meant for my death, but now I have hope, and maybe I won't need this. So it was going to be her last meal kind of thing.

I got hopeful. Didn't you get hopeful? 100%. Back in the apocalyptic village, the ruined town, Bashir, is not figuring this out. No luck finding the quickening volunteers. And Eprin bumps into them. And Eprin is very skeptical. He's skeptical that he really wants to help.

He thinks he's trying to con them. And Bashir says, look, I have technology to try. And to prove it to him, he fixes a broken arm that this little boy has in a sling to show them that they have this technology. Epparin is impressed. And yes, this is the little boy that had the bad makeup. You could, it was not good. Sorry. His face painting.

Earlier when Eprin talks about the cure or that, if, Bashir says he's working on the cure. Eppertz says, oh, yeah, well, what will it cost me? A good coat. A tilo of oil. I love that the writer's made up of a measurement. A tilo. Yeah, a t-lo.

Instead of a kilo, a kilo, it's a t-lo of oil. Just change the consonant. That's all you need. It could have been a me-lo, a p-low, a we-low. It could have been anything. A j-lo of oil. That's funny. Oh, ahead of its time.

That would have been funny. Yeah, that would be hilarious. Trevian arrives after the broken arm bit. Trevian shows up and says, look, other people have made promises just like you, just because you have this tech. You're not the first one. They've never helped. And Bashir does say, I'm not promising I can do anything.

And Trevian then is like, well, you better not promise because others that have made false promises have had deaths a lot worse than the blight. So he's very threatening there. That is a huge threat. Yeah. We cut back into this house where Bashir's hanging out. He set up his stuff. He's tired.

He needs more tissue samples to find a cure. And that's when Acoria says, maybe you should just go home. You know, my people basically have come to worship death. They wish for it. They've accepted it. And it's only since she got pregnant and since she's going to have this baby that she feels different. She always felt that way too. Like, I welcome death.

I might as well just be dead. And the baby's given her some hope. And she said, I hope she'll look like her father. and I want to be there to watch her grow up. And that's when Dax shows up and says, hey, more people have arrived. More people are kind of believing in you. And they've shown up.

But Eprin shows up. He's got red veins now. He does. Yeah. He looks really bad. Yeah. His name also sounds like a nasal spray brand. So, Epirin. Yeah.

I'll take some Eperin right now. What about Nora Ephron? Nora Effron. Nora Eifrin. Yes. There you go. But he said he canceled his death for Bashir. That's huge.

He was really looking forward to it. Like they talk about, they welcome it. And he wanted just to go to Trevi in and be done. Right. He had it all scheduled. But the tough guy. The tough guy. The tough dude.

Yeah. But he's going to give Bashir a shot. So another time passage moment. And Bashir's giving a 3 milligram injection and explaining what she needs to do. And she goes to give him. it to everyone in the room. He thinks Eprin has given him what he needed this to help figure out an antigen. But Eprin's getting worse. And he and Dax talk for a moment. He says he likes Dax's spots. She says, yeah, you've told me that before. So clearly he's losing it. He keeps repeating

himself. Hey. No, I'm not saying he likes her spots. I totally saw that. But he just keeps repeating. Hey, you handed that to me. You totally handed that to me. On a platter, actually. Right, and it was silver, solid. Sterling. It was. Highly polished platter, too.

I love you, Robbie. No, thanks. Love you. Dex says Eprin is further along than the others. That's why he's just not turning a corner, they think. And they're hopeful about this antigen. They're hopeful about the drug. But they say, you know what, let's not tell everybody that we've found a cure.

until we're sure. And Dax tells Julian, you know what, take a break. You've been working nonstop. Yeah. So he steps outside, warms his hands by the fire pit. And Acoria comes out and tells Bashir that Dax said, Eprin's white blood cell count is up. So everything's looking good. Sounds good. Yeah. Really good. Right? Yeah. Good news. And, uh, and he tells her, you know what, you're good with patients and she says well i was just trying to be kind she wonders why he does this why he's a doctor and he says you know he'd prefer to confront death instead of accepted and try to chase it away for another day and this is where he tells the story of the teddy bear which is so sweet i love how he tells this story he does it so well it's it's a great story it felt like he definitely had some

uh he was visualizing substituting something yeah yeah a great name too really good name this is the cat name yes it's the cat yes but it was but it's so great it's wonderful it's a great backstory on Bashir to know like when

like he's wanted to be a doctor since he was a kid yes Kukalaka performed his first surgery patched him up Akoria asked where's Kukalaka now Bashir says oh I don't know

maybe some closet somewhere She gives him a look, and he's like, okay, it's on a shelf in my room. Right. Yeah. He still loves that bear. But then Dax runs out and calls for Julian, something is wrong. No. Oh, it was too good to be true.

Yes. Kind of had a feeling something like this would happen. It has to. It's not far enough in the show for us to go, wah, we're done. Exactly. And there's no B storyline happening. No, which is a, I wish there had. had been, would have been helpful, I think.

Especially with the time jumps. Yeah, it would have helped just to... I think that's what we're used to. That might have been the missing element that we're all used to showing the time jump is literally jumping from the A storyline to the B storyline. Obviously, we assume time has passed. And without that, it's really... I can understand what that would make it super challenging for Renee.

Yeah. Yep, agreed. Well, Epren's in agony. The virus is mutating. He's begging for help. Bashir realizes it's the EM fields from our instruments. It's the technology that they've brought that is interacting with this antigen. The whole room starts writhing in pain.

They shut them all their equipment off. But Epren dies. Bashir is doing CPR furiously trying to bring him back to life. Dax says, stop. He's done. And that's when Trevian arrives. Trevian sees this. Oh, boy.

He gives her his poison. She dies. There's more screaming. And Bashir is just left in the room in shock. He's just... Poor guy. Yeah. Poor Bashir going through these ups and downs and having people's lives and they're suffering in his hands.

It's a practice. Yeah. It's a practice. Some time passes again. Bashir just feels enormous guilt here. And he said he saw changes in the base pair sequence when he was doing his research. He should have known that was the clue that the EM Fields would have reacted that way. So he catches himself in a mistake, even though it was not an obvious mistake, but he catches it in hindsight.

And Dax does say, it's not a crime to believe in yourself. You thought you had found an answer. Bashir says the dominion made sure that this was uncurable, that it's impossible to fix this. And he admits that he was arrogant, I think he could do it. And Dak says it's even more arrogant. I love this line. I do too. It's really honest.

It's really important for a solid friend to be this straightforward. Yeah. That she says it's even more arrogant to think that there wasn't a cure just because you weren't the one to find it. Like that, that was a great distinction and a great perspective. It was one of my favorite moments, just ideas in the whole episode. And a little painful because you can imagine how gut-wrenching that must have been for Bashir to hear that from Dax. Like, wow, that shakes you back to reality. That's a part of the story I wish that had been explored more is the idea of ego and I've got to be the hero and kind of self-centering yourself in a lot.

other people's problems rather than realizing that you're not God. Yeah. And his character has had that issue since the get-go. And so that's why this line was so important. Yeah, powerful. Yeah, powerful. Really well-written to help his character see a blind spot. Yeah. And how he views the world and himself in it. Yeah. And typically Dax, Dax doesn't serve as a reality check in prior episodes. But in this episode, she really is. She's just there to say, hey, this is the deal. Plain and simple.

Yeah. This is the deal. Sometimes she is, but this is very powerful way. Very much. It is. Yeah. She's not usually so exacting. This is precise.

This is just so crystal clear. And I love that they put this idea at the very end of the scene. It's perfectly placed. It's the idea. because for the audience, you kind of go, oh my God, you're right. Yeah. Like, he thinks if he can't do it, then no one can.

Yeah, and you're not really hearing that until she says that. So she says it. And it shifts how he moves through it from this point on. 100%. Yeah. Well, we're back in the town. He's walking through the streets. People are really not happy to see him now.

They're not just ignoring him. He's an outcast. He's just wandering, people kind of mumbling and talking about him. Anyway, he ends up in front of that mural that Akoria talked about. And Akoria is there. She thanks him, says, you gave me hope. And she starts to leave. And he goes, wait, wait a minute, don't leave.

And we cut up to the runabout. And he says, he's telling Kira and Dax, I'm going to stay, basically. And Kira says, okay, well, call the station and we'll be here within days. so this is an open-ended he's committed to going down there and doing whatever it takes to get something but he's also risking his life like when he was walking through that ruined town he comes up against the mural i kept hearing trevian's words and guess what if you give false promises your death is going to be worse than if you had the plight so i thought why is he walking around right now he's going to get stoned any second but yeah he's risking his uh his uh his livelihood. It's funny. I was thinking about the hero's journey model of storytelling just yesterday. I was thinking about it and thinking how

in the hero's journey, a character's old life has to die before they can experience change. And Bashir is basically in the hero's journey here kind of going, I'm going to stay. My life on DS9 on the station

that is going to die for now. I'm going to be here maybe forever. Maybe be who knows for as long as it takes as long as it takes and so this is that moment in that hero's journey arc where he he's going that old life of being the doctor on the station is gone i'm this is my life now well could could the death part could that also be the death of the initial um attempt to find that cure with everything failing you know in that way too well it's also the death of his ego yes and i you know i think we're all

All on a hero's journey because every time you reinvent yourself or you learn something big about yourself. Yes. You do become a different person. And sometimes even our friend groups change as we evolve because of that too. Yeah. Okay. Well, many times. I mean, that happens.

Yes. Yeah. I mean, not all of your friends. You know what I'm saying. Right. So we cut back down to the planet. and there's Bashir beaming down with lots of cases of supplies so that's the button of that moment that story beat here's Bashir about to camp out for a while he's going to be here for a while

inside the house socoria is now getting sicker Bashir is doing things the old-fashioned way he's concocting you know beakers and burners and things like that he says her immune system is rejected the latest antibody and she's getting worse. Another time passes in the same place. Bashir's cooking this salve and he's checking her vitals, says the baby's probably going to be here in about six weeks. And she's really getting worse. She says, I won't make it that long. And he agrees he can induce labor in two weeks. And she says, okay, two weeks. I like how they even had him use that old instrument to listen to the baby. Yeah. Not a stethoscope. Stethoscope. Well, yeah. Like, but, but.

Pre-stethoscope. Yes. Yeah. It almost looked like one of those old-fashioned, like a hearing-a-shot glass where one's, right? One's an ounce. One's two ounces. My grandparents had one of those.

They were stainless steel. You do. You're so hip. I can't wait to go to your bar. I know. I have a good bar. I'm very excited. Yeah, so they agree two weeks.

So it looks like the clock is ticking for poor Acoria here. Another time. passage. He's putting the salve he's been making onto her lesions and her veins. Treveans. Trivians doing it. Oh, sorry. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Which I was like, oh, God, what is he doing there? I know. Don't get into him. Don't let Dr. Kovorkian enter. That's right. Treveen's doing it. He offers to end her suffering. And that the baby will never suffer. Yeah. Right. And she says no. No. She wants a baby to have a shot. It's the baby, baby to have a shot.

Bashir arrives. I like his comment about, I didn't know you made house calls. Yeah. Treveen thought that maybe she was so bad off that she couldn't come find him and he just wanted to check. So he is being kind. They're both being, you know, both Trevian and Bashir are doing what they believe is kind. Yes.

Which is what Akoria said. I was just trying to be nice. I was just trying to be kind. Yeah. We go another time passage in the same place. she's now giving birth to the baby. Which was horrifying at first. Oh, my God.

When she was screaming, I'm like, is she dying? I didn't know that she was giving birth right away. Also because she sat up in the bed to give birth. And I'm like, you can't give birth that way. I don't think. I'm not an expert on that. But that is not a typical way that you see someone sitting up in bed giving birth. We don't know how.

Maybe he's helping her push. I don't know. I had a C-section. I still had to push, but I didn't have any of that drama. I was laughing. laughing so it was hilarious it was i couldn't feel anything these time jumps are definitely confusing because now you're supposed to realize it's two weeks later and the birth is happening so that's why when she jumps up you're like is she dying is she oh she's giving birth it's now two weeks later so

it wasn't stabbing pain of the quickening it was stabbing pain of giving birth yeah and it was weird after two i got just just just say this um several things in this show having to do with the medical um and we'll go specifically with the birth we've watched so many medical shows now in our time now in the 21st century that it's really hard to watch how short and truncated i mean he said push without breathe without it just felt like this was written by somebody who's never seen an actual woman giving birth because it just felt so off-putting to me after watching real medical shows, well, medical shows where they're more driven, like the latest Noah Wiley one, where they are just more about procedural.

Yeah, like the reality. Thank you. Yeah. It's the reality, the medical process, like there's steps to it. This felt very truncated and like, wait, what's happening? We're in a TV show and she's having a baby. Not, we're watching a baby being born. Yeah.

Just felt too inaccurate. Yeah. Yeah, I think that if there had been a B story and you could have even quick cut back and forth, then the time jumps wouldn't have felt so. Well, it would help time look like it's going quickly too and things are happening. That would have some momentum. Yeah. Well, the baby is born, and Bashir realizes that the, that the baby is blight-free.

There's no veins, the antibodies he realizes were all absorbed through the placentia, placentia. That's a town in California. Yeah. The placenta. Not through placenta. Thank goodness for the placenta. All the antigen went from the gamma quadrant to the alpha quadrant in placentia, California, where it was absorbed. Yes.

I wonder if that's where placentia came from. Probably from placenta. There were a lot of birth. There's a lot of birth there. So they were like, Pocentia, that's too dead on. Let's say, let's make, let's have fun with that. Yeah, we'll go with that. I also felt bad for Ellen Wheeler in this scene because she had to give birth.

And then hear that the baby is fine, look at it for a second and then suddenly seize up and die. But also while looking for a second, be super happy because she was super happy. because she was super happy. It was a lot going on. And then the true professional that Ellen is, she dies with her face towards camera. Yes, she did soap operas. She knows how she was on it.

Yeah. Yeah. Unrealistic journey, but we made it. And then what happens? Well, then Bashir at the hospital with everybody, explains that this vaccine is going to save all the newborn children. And Trevian is in all. all here. He can't believe. Yeah, he's so elated. Yeah. And Bashir says, I'll show you how to make it,

how to administer it. You can make it yourself. And Trevian says, this will, this will not be hard. This will be a privilege. So you see how grateful and emotional, like in these short little scenes that are jumping without any great transitions, but they're capturing some great story moments and performances. I thought it was really great. What I liked about Trevian's, um, transformation was it really made you see how he lost hope yeah he just lost hope so he was doing the best he could with what he had yeah and this you could see it it even made him seem younger when he was he was yeah just so relieved like uh like um it was a miracle yeah this was a It was very moving. Very moving. I was going to say, I like how at the very end after Bashir hands over the baby to Trivian, Trivian lifts up the baby as if it's the lion king, you know, and shows everybody. So that everyone's like having that good, that was a real good moment at the very end, I felt. It was a great shot because it was on a crane arm, I could tell. And it sort of, you know, flew over the crowd as people are gathering to see the baby. He holds them up. And then it.

And it pushes past into Bashir, watching from a distance. This was a very effective moment. Well, we go back to the infirmary back on DS9, and Bashir is working still. He's still working on it. He's trying to cure, not just the preventative vaccine, but a cure for the people that are still alive and suffering. And Cisco arrives and steps into the doorway, congratulates Bishir. And Bashir says, you know, there's still people dying. And there's kind of an awkward silent moment.

And Sisko leaves and Bashir sits down and gets back to work. Reshuffling, initiate reshuffling sequence. Yeah. I thought this last scene, honestly, it felt like they had shot these pieces of coverage on different days. It didn't feel like they were, they had been shot together. Okay. it felt like they could have shot maybe shot this in the first scene

to shoot Avery out so he could go to New York it almost seemed like it was shot before the whole show was filmed. Did you get that feeling? Something was disconnected about it and you never saw a shot of Avery and Sid in the same shot so I was like they could have shot this on different days different times. Maybe the two shot didn't work or they didn't have

enough time. I don't know. It did not pull me out as much as it did for you Oh, Robbie, I just thought it was very bittersweet that, look at him. He's still trying. His last lines are initiate reshuffling sequence. He's trying again, still very bittersweet for me. I thought Sid was really good in this. I will say I thought Avery was a bit disconnected, and that's why I wonder if they were shot on different days.

Okay. Well, it does end with a very bittersweet and kind of sad. You know, he can't celebrate his win because it's not 100%. Yeah, so he hasn't completely gotten the message about the ego and you can understand the pain of not being able to cure everybody or make the vaccine for everybody

and but he is created he has created a new generation possibly of healthy people. It will take a long time though for those babies to get big enough to have babies. So that's a long time coming yeah but again this is such a divergence from what we're used to in star trick episodes which is they always find a cure and in this one it he couldn't find it which is what makes this episode

strong because it is like real life you know sometimes you can't get get what you want you just can't so yeah all right well we did it guys we got to the end of this about theme, lesson, moral for this episode. Robbie, what do you have? I wrote down sometimes a partial solution is better than no solution at all. So, you know, I think for all of us, it's a good lesson. We can't always have outcomes that are perfect in our minds, but, you know, one step forward is better than nothing. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Ter. I think it's important to celebrate our wins even it's not so different than what you're saying but celebrate the win it was a huge win what he did yeah and um so celebrate the wins and dropping your ego it's so hard for all

of us it's just a constant job for the rest of your life but it's imperative to get a bigger picture is to drop your ego and be grateful whatever contribution you can give i like that right Garrett. Mine is choose humility over arrogance in all that you do and say.

I like it. Yeah? Yeah. Thank you. All right. Well, I think Terry has the Patreon poll winner for less than theme

more of this episode. It looks like I do. This is submitted by Chris Hansen. True arrogance is thinking there is no solution just because you couldn't find it. The line from the episode.

Yeah. The powerful line, Dax's line. Yeah, we love it. Okay. Well, we have come to the end of our episode. Thank you to Terry for joining us again. Thanks, Terry, and thanks for that great hat. Always.

Oh, my gosh. Thank you. That's how you say in Canada. Your toque is amazing. Your took. My friend Amanda's daughter made this for me for my birthday. Wow. Yes.

Last year for my, I think the last year for my birthday, yeah. That could be a Star Trek. costume that could be like some planet could have i'm an alien and this is my hair i don't have this human hair she's a rainbow alien she has all the time of rainbow hair yes you are it's a it's a it's a great looking for those of you are listening to the podcast and not viewing it another reason to become a patron subscriber you can look at this beautiful gorgeous uh knit uh what do you what do we say what do we say it's like a beanie beanie we say beanie in the u.s uh touc in canada so it's gorgeous really yeah thank you all right thank you molly yeah patreon patrons please stay tuned for your bonus material

for everyone else join us next time when we'll be recapping and discussing the episode body parts with armin but everyone else you uh no yeah ooh do you want to ooh armin and party parts all right we like that uh all right patreon patrons stay tuned for your bonus material everyone else Have a great day.