#DS9 Rewrite

[gayatticusfinch]

What if the children of an android, a Nagus, a Starfleet captain, a lizard nazi and an incel Klingon were all friends on a space station called ‘Deep Space Nine’?

[leohtttbriar]

the snow-melted and it's sunny and it's spring and that makes me feel some type of way so here's a kiradax springtime fic featuring the fascinations of a nature-walk and jadzia dax as a sort of ms. frizzle:

On a bright day like this, Kira was happy to be handing out juice boxes.

Sure, she would’ve preferred to have been part of Keiko’s field-trip party, with the older students on a rock-climbing mission to observe cliff-side fungus. But Keiko had been a little too bright-faced and excited as she tucked her climbing shoes into her backpack and gathered all the older kids together for a lesson in knot-tying and rappelling, and, almost immediately, Miles had begged Kira to swap chaperone positions so he could trail after his wife pretending to be worried about the cliffs on which she was leading an educational expedition but really interested in just documenting ‘the moment,’ as he called it.

“When Molly starts to be embarrassed of us,” he said, turning on his camera and smirking as Keiko demonstrated a very long finger-hold on a nearby boulder, the strained muscles in her forearms and shoulders not even appearing to shake. “I want evidence that we’re actually cool.”

“Well, one of you is,” said Kira. “You mostly play games with Julian in your free-time.”

Miles shot her a dirty look but then Keiko was calling her group to start on the hike and he was scampering after her.

So Kira was left with the younger kids on a much less dangerous nature walk that didn’t involve rock-climbing. But she was happy about it. The day was bright, crisp air with warm sun, and she didn’t have to do much more than make sure the little ones stayed on the path and hand out juice boxes. And, really, they were all too mesmerized by Jadzia to misbehave or wonder off.

Kira couldn’t exactly blame them, though. Jadzia had turned up in a shirt covered in colorful scientific illustrations of various Bajoran insects, a giant hair clip that looked like one of the stone-caterpillars that Kira used to make into a stew in her hungriest moments during the war, and a box of tiny, kid-sized binoculars which she handed to each student with all the sincerity and solemnity of a general handing out medals of honor to soldiers. She oo’d an ah’d over every little thing and all the kids were following after her like she was personally responsible for putting a flower in their path to look at.

“Oh, look at that!” gasped Jadzia, pointing up at what looked to be a normal tree limb with such drama that every single kid was gasping with her despite, Kira assumed, not knowing what it is they were gasping at. They gathered around Jadzia, following to where her finger pointed, their little mouths open in awe.

“What?” asked one of the more impatient kids. “I don’t see anything.”

“It’s an aerial succulent,” said Jadzia, bending down. “See, between the stalks, there's a film which will expand and catch on a breeze if the plant needs to move.”

“Like wings?” asked another kid, taking rigorous notes in her notebook (Kira was able to read she had just added plant flying color green pretty in uneven block letters).

“Yes! Exactly like wings!” said Jadzia, as if this comparison had just occurred to her.

“Wow.”

Jadzia had them all draw a picture of the succulent, a star shaped thing with a sparkly veil between each point, tipping this way and that on the tree branch but yet holding steady. Kira attempted a drawing herself, as Jadzia had made sure to provide her with a “field notebook” and binoculars, along with the kids. It was not a good drawing, but Kira liked it. After, they continued shuffling along the path and Kira helped a couple kids not to trip on their feet as they traversed forward, binoculars glued to their eyes.

When Keiko had suggested a field trip, Kira had not expected to be asked to help. But it seemed Sisko was of the opinion that she needed “a break,” or something like that. And so he had volunteered much of his chief staff to help out with the trip to Bajor and even extending the offer of the supervised field trip to some of the schools that would be nearby their educational expedition. As the morning progressed, Kira couldn’t help but be thankful for it. There were worse ways to spend a day. And Jadzia had been very happy when Kira had turned up, which always made Kira feel warm in more ways than one. She might've switched assignments, anyway, if Miles hadn't asked.

Eventually they ended up by a stream and Jadzia instructed everyone to be on the lookout for fossils.

“I know there are fossils,” she whispered triumphantly to Kira, once the kids were darting back and forth on the bank like the intrepid explorers they were. “I scouted the trail—this watershed area is almost nothing but limestone.”

Kira bent down to examine the earth herself, picking up an angular yet smooth-cornered rock and rolling it around in her palm.

“Limestone has more fossils in it?” she asked.

Jadzia plopped down next to her. “Yep,” she said. She reached over and gently guided Kira’s fingers to hold the rock so the angle was pointed up. Then she poured a splash of water on it, smoothed away some dirt, and pointed to an imprint in the stone. “See?” she said. “A shell.”

“Oh,” said Kira, looking closer at the strangely patterned whirl. It looked like the aerial succulent.

“Limestone is a graveyard, for organic life,” said Jadzia, halfway to soft but still cheerful. “It’s got a bit of a sacred history on Trill, but I never bought into all those sad poems. Trills only seem to know how to write sad poems”—she rolled her eyes, and Kira bit the inside of her cheek to contain her grin—“and I just don’t think fossils are things to be sad about anyway. True, this”—she indicated the rock in Kira’s hand by cupping Kira’s knuckles and pushing gently against them, causing Kira to, embarrassingly, blush—“is made of the compressed bodies of ancient marine life, but it’s not as if they’re gone. There they are.”

Kira turned her gaze away from Jadzia’s open face and back to the dirty rock in her palm. She didn’t like to think of it as a graveyard. Death was a strange, conceptual thing for Bajorans—as all things are and have been and will be all at once, so eternal ending is just one edge of infinite reality, which has many edges stretching on and on.

“It’s just evidence that they were,” she found herself saying. “But they also are. Just—are.”

Jadzia tipped her head, her eyebrows pinched together. “This might be one of those temporal perspectives I don’t get,” she said.

Kira smiled. “I mean,” she said. “In some way, this…shell?”

“Crinoid.”

“This crinoid,” said Kira, still biting back a grin. “Is swimming around now. In the sea.”

Jadzia looked at her, eyes sparkling. “Okay,” she said. “Then limestone isn’t a graveyard at all.” She picked the rock up out of Kira’s hand and placed back on the ground but replaced its weight with her own palm. “Everything just adds and adds, in every direction.”

Kira’s smile couldn’t be stopped. She curled her fingers around Jadzia’s wrist. “Yes,” she said, leaning in close, tracing the line of sun lighting up the dark hollows on Jadzia’s face and the soft hairs on her jaw.

Jadzia tilted her chin down, their noses now millimeters apart. The sound of the stream and the sound of her breath on Kira’s mouth washed over her. “Nerys—” she said, voice sweet.

Then, “Da-ax!”

They leaned away from each other quickly.

“Yeah?” called back Jadzia, wiping her twitchy hands on her shorts.

“I fell in!” said one of the kids while all the others laughed.

Kira snorted. Jadzia pressed her palm against Kira’s once more before launching to her feet.

“Duty calls,” she said, dramatically. “Remember me fondly.”

She walked off, already lecturing all the kids about the joys of an impromptu swim and the subsequent chance to dry off in the sun, and soon Kira was being bombarded by tired students in search of snacks.

She slipped the rock in her backpack, when no one was looking. An eternal touch of a swimming creature and the warmth of Jadzia's hand--everything just added on. It was a bright day.

[topshelf2112-blog]

Love them for ending on such good Odo-Quark interaction, but I choose to believe it’s because they were cowards and couldn’t show us Julian and Garak making out under the control panel while Dukat leered in jealousy/horror, refusing to outwardly show how impressed he is with that infuriating tailor.

[docholligay]

OH MY GOD OH MY GOD did Garak just do it??? Sisko's face seems to suggest this is a surprise to him, and while of course he should be acting this way in front of his crew if he did okay it, I don't think that's what's happening here. Also, storywise I think this would be a bridge too far for many viewers. Someone dewlling in this kind of moral grey isn't always well received despite people saying they want the moral greys. People don't like it when characters they think of as 'good' do something they find personally reprehensible, unless they are a villain or gay and then they were literally abused as a child or whatever justification.

Anyway, Garak did the murder and doesn't feel bad and I think that's very sexy of him.

[laundrybiscuits]

Tagged again by @2btheanswertothequestion!

Rules: in a new post, show the last line you wrote and tag as many people as there are words

I'm not sure this particular WIP is actually ever going to be posted, because despite spending many hours of my life watching TOS/TNG/DS9/LD, I still don't feel like I know enough to write confidently in this universe. Nonetheless...

Steve shrugs. “You know what they say about Orions.” “What the hell, Steve!” Robin whacks his arm, and he yelps defensively. “Not like that! I just mean—maybe he’s got, like, shady pirate contacts he’s hiding out with?” “Steve,” says Dustin sternly. “That was not a statement befitting a Starfleet officer, and I hope you can take this opportunity to reflect on your biases. But yeah, Eddie’s mentioned a pirate friend once or twice, let me see if I can find anything in the databanks.”

[hopeful-bat]

Watching Ezri and Julian’s flirty awkward thing more like I Am Going to Kill Myself And It’s Their Fault.

[fooltomery]

oh i finished ds9 btw it was good i liked it i need to watch it again so i can burn this fantastic show into my brain.

so mad that they gave julian the geordi treatment. not necessarily throwing him around like a ragdoll and torturing him on screen (well maybe a little with the amount that he gets pinned to walls) but doing a forced hetero romance at the end. him and ezri are nice whatever. julian is bisexual this is obvious. it should have been him and garak. i dont fucking care how that makes me sound they should have gotten together they have so much more chemistry than him and ezri like. "if it wasnt worf it wouldve been you" shut up no it wouldnt have they literally had a friendship idk what to tell you ds9 you wrote it like that for multiple seasons. i want to say it shouldve been him and miles but i like that they remained friends at the end. so julian is with ezri bc we cant have a female lead who isnt a romantic interest and garak is with nobody bc hes gay (i am ignoring EVERYTHING with ziyal that shit was for forced tension). i wanna be glad for him that hes back on cardassia but i also dont want to believe that it solved all of his Mental Issues like he thinks. the ending to this show isnt infuriating like tngs ending its just Fine. Passable. enjoyable At Points. also sisko took a vacation to heaven.

[pygian-weapon]

on a scale from Rejoined to whatever Quark is doing with the slug-o-cola CEO, how badly aged is your queer making out

[garaks-padded-bra]

Ds9 s7 rewrite where the dax symbiont doesnt show signs of dying after being removed from jadzia so they just keep the worm around as a pet. Julian walks around with it in a satchel and feeds it silk cut purple 100s. When sisko is unavailable it still captains the defiant btw. Sits on the captains chair and everything. SOPPING wet

[swimmingwolf59]

A collection of my spones fics! My personal favorites are bold and brash blue!

Series

Between Worlds. Spones raise Joanna on board the Enterprise. 9 fics. Ongoing.

After the Fire. Spones get-together centered around the original series movies. 2 fics. Complete.

Doubt and Trust. Mirrorverse spones - first fic is a tos s1 rewrite in mirrorverse. 2 fics. Ongoing.

Family. Old married spones and their relationships with Sarek and Amanda. 2 fics. Complete.

Canon Compliant

If the Stars Looked Down. Ace!Spock chronicles. Complete.

The Houseboat. Spones go on shore leave together. Written for summer of spones 2021. Complete.

Lines Around Your Thoughts. 5+1 McCoy loves Spock's art <3 Complete.

The Logical Thing to Do. Spones retelling of the DS9 episode "Change of Heart". Complete.

Every Stitch. McCoy knits Spock a sweater. Written for 12dos 2021. Complete.

The Importance of Keeping Your Vulcan Awake During Sehlat Hibernation Season. Old married spones and their pet sehlat. Written for 12dos 2021. Complete.

Held Together. McCoy proposes to Spock when he's half-asleep. Written for summer of spones 2022. Complete.

More Than Adequate. Trans!Spock gets a massage from McCoy after binding too much. Written for summer of spones 2022. Complete.

Just a Pinch of Salt. Spones get into a dumb argument while making breakfast. Complete.

Traditions of Intimacy. 5+1 spones making a meal for each other. Complete.

First Impressions. Spones through canon but ALSO mainly 5+1 McCoy meets Sarek :DDD Complete.

AUs

Spock 'n' Roll. Rockstar!Spock. Complete.

This Mysterious World. Pokemon AU! Also a series lol. 2 fics. Ongoing.

Take Me Out. Baseball AU - M rating. Written for summer of spones 2022. Complete.

Peach Melody. Stardew Valley AU. Written for summer of spones 2022. Complete.

Entangled. First contact AU. Written for the spones zine "We Go Together" vol. 1 issue 1. Complete.

Not Safe for Vulcans

Surgeon's Hands. Spock gets a taste of them surgeon's hands. Complete.

Bones. Post the tholian web, if you catch my drift ;) Complete.

Behind the Mask. Matchmaker Chekov convinces Spock to go to a masquerade party. Complete.

QPR

Whatever Gets You Through the Night. Post man trap + QPR mckirk. Complete.

Not Explicitly Shippy

Of Gods and Ghosts. Missing scene at the end of the Final Frontier. Spock and McCoy talk about loss. Written for 12dos 2021. Complete.

Weight of the Universe. Two scenes post some disastrous weddings. Written for summer of spones 2022. Complete.

AOS

Reciprocal Averaging. Sarek uses statistics to figure out Spock's most suitable mate. You'll never guess who it is. Complete.

[lizardsfromspace]

Watching people rewrite history to claim fans loved DS9 when it first aired. The Nitpicker's Guide included a long, whiny essay about how the writer had to pretend DS9 was a unrelated show called "Bajor: Terok Nor" in order to accept it as a TV show. "How can it be STAR TREK when they don't GO ANYWHERE" was a thing. I had people telling me that around the time of the Abrams movies lol. DS9 fans were a cult thing for ages, its status as a near-universally beloved show is actually really recent

[star-trek-fandom-confessions]

Confession #83

"If there is one DS9 episode I could delete from my memory, it'd be "Let He Who Is Without Sin..."

Could've been a funnier episode with a good script doctor, but no, gotta flanderize Worf instead. I know he can be an uptight prude sometimes, but this episode was too ooc even for him.

Don't get me wrong, Leeta crushing on Rom was cute and the ending with Worf and Dax was kinda funny. But those were the only good parts of the episode.

Honestly, that one fanfic rewrite on Ao3 of the episode, that's based off the movie, The Hangover, was better. Heck, if Michael Dorn cameos as Worf in Lower Decks and lampshades how embarrassing he was on Risa, that'd be funny too."

[ur-friendly-nbhd-cardassian]

Double standards

What?

I went fishing for evidence to shut up haters and found this. I haven't read everything there is to know about DS9 on Memory Alpha - yet. So this had me like 👀

We notice - I mean 'we without bias, using more than 2 braincells' - some double standards in the show itself (that's part of what I was fishing for in here): Kira commits murder, outright says the Resistance was killing their own people (reasons aside), but is excused. Sisko commits genocide, is excused. Garak has done gods-know-what during his glory days and enjoyed it, is excused.

But when it's a Cardie Rick and Ira don't like, thEy'Re eViL.

Feels like:

✔️ We like these guys, so they get away with everything and we understand all their shady reasons. They are complex characters, they make mistakes, but we still love them. ❌ We hate these guys, so they deserve to be punished for every bit of wrong they've ever committed, and we don't care about where they're coming from, even if its valid.

I should include this bit of unused canon story in my sequel. And rewrite the bit in TC where I briefly mention Damar's parents getting killed by the Dominion, bc this is wayyy better (read: worse).

This stopped me in my tracks, I had to share it. We've never even learned what happened to Damar's family before the very end of the show, and that was only part of it, bc as we know they live in multigenerational households.

The poor man didn't even get a first name until bestie Andy gave him one.

Also: the grandpa was just out gardening 😭 Of course this doesn't say whether he was a good man during his productive years - which I'd like to know how they handled in this unused story (if at all) - but since I made Damar a self-made man, I'm deciding it anyway: grandpa got blown up by mistake, but certainly earned The Resistance some rage from Damar jr.

This is turning into a rant, lol, so let's wrap up.

Let me know if you have any thoughts on this, or if you're willing to share some evidence to my point so I don't have to sift through the whole Memory Alpha for it 😂. I'd like some ammo I could readily shove down haters' internet connection cables whenever I encounter "bUt DamAr waS a bAd GuY".

Getting that about Dukat pisses me off, because people don't even hate him properly, they just dismiss him, and such a complex, memorable character doesn't deserve that - but when they say that about Damar, it's sending me into a bloody rage 💀

[lesbiancalkestis]

Having a favourite TV show is so weird. I don’t mean a show you think is the best, I mean your favourite. Sometimes they’re the same, but not always.

My housemates and I just finished DS9. I love DS9. I still think it’s one of the best shows ever made. But now we’ve moved on to Voyager. And truly, for me there’s just no feeling like it.

I’m coming out of just those first few episodes buzzing with happiness and emotion. Not that much has even happened yet in the scheme of things, but I know what’s coming. I can feel the excitement in my bones. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve seen this show. I still know the dialogue before it happens.

I cringe at some of the writing and acting in the first episode, and yet I’m sitting there hoping my friends like it in spite of that. It’s not the same hope that I had with ds9, where I knew they would love it if they just gave it a chance. This is a whole other level of vulnerability.

I accepted having a terrible time at work tomorrow without a second thought, just to fit in one more episode.

I could not tell you why in all of the many media productions that exist, this show is just it for me. Actually, I could. But it wouldn’t be logical in the least. It’s subjective as hell and the subject is me.

I don’t think it’s the best show ever made. I think the first few episodes especially are clunky. I think about how I might do them in my dream rewrite. And yet none of that matters at all when it comes to what I’m feeling.

I’m just… home.

[thegeminisage]

IT'S TIME FOR. a star trek update. and BOY am i behind. wednesday we watched tng's "frame of mind," friday we watched ds9's "progress" and tng's "suspicions," and last night we watched ds9's "if wishes were horses." i am so thrilled to announce that despite the high amount of episodes including tng episodes i have almost NOTHING to complain about this update. like a little, but not much.

frame of mind (tng):

first of all we must acknowledge this gifset, which according to the timestamp i saw with my eyeballs near the end of january which (and i checked) was right after the episode where picard is like yeah worf should kill himself. IN the course of the episode worf asks riker to assist with his suicide which is both the most horrible and romantic thing that's ever happened with them. so i went into the ship tag. found it most bereft except for this gifset. i have been DYING to know for a MONTH AND A HALF what's going on in this ep. i finally cracked recently and read the summary which only made me more excited.

so. drumroll. DID THE EP DELIVER..............???

yes.

yes, with VERY minor caveats.

i think my only real complaint about this episode is that it was a me problem. like i was picturing some scene where worf tenderly (for him) talks riker down from a fit of madness and also he was the real worf. i built it up too much in my head. that's not what happened. in my mind palace it is. i'm a little tempted to do a rewrite of it to make it happen but i barely have time to breathe so that will remain a wistful thought for now. like, i knew the enterprise setting wasn't real, but regardless of the amount of worf/riker (e deanna) ship content it was just kind of disappointing to learn that the mental facility was ALSO not real because the worf and data that rescued riker were not real and the beverly that snuck in to see him was also not real and his experiences there also weren't "real" in the physical sense, even though he very much did still experience them. very "it was all a dream!" of them

OTHER THAN THAT. i was really into it. i loved everything about it. i loved riker's break from reality. i loved that crazy lady with the spoon. i loved how even data got weirded out at riker's antics. i love that the part of riker that is his feelings is represented by deanna and the part of him that is action is represented by worf WORF E RIKER E DEANNA REAL! i didn't like picard being his logic. spock should be everybody's logic. get that guy outta here

also, what a great touch to have very chill very normal very laid back riker be like yeah if i don't tear this set apart with my bare hands before i sleep i really WILL go crazy 🙃

side var didn't beverly say people were coming to clean it up in the morning...what happened to the ship cleaning itself smh. justice for the invisible janitors and housekeepers of starfleet

also, why did this episode make me slightly into riker and beverly as friends with benefits...the whole trill boyfriend situation adds so much fun complication to that as well depending on a multitude of varying and equally valid interpretations of that event. like, girl, forget picard's two-timing ass. what's he ever done for you except knock you up with an affair baby. join the worf e riker e deanna polycule. they could make better husbands. shit, i could make a better husband. forget him girl! you don't need him

progress (ds9):

holy fucking shit.

this episode BLEW me away. easily a must-see on my spreadsheet, when i (eventually?) catch up. every single thing they do with kira is AMAZING.

the old guy was so instantly likable. he was likable even when he was being sexist BECAUSE he was being sexist specifically to wind kira up because kira was playing bad guy. their chemistry was so good. i was just as worried about him as kira was the whole episode long

what a brilliant way to discuss war, not by showing the violence or the gore or the death but by simply showing us this guy who won't leave his farm and sleeptalks during his nightmares and these other two who can't speak but WILL kill you with pitchforks. like, you have "chain of command" with picard and the four lights and then you have this, and both of them are so important in our understanding of the cardassians and what they do.

sisko was so absolutely kind to kira. like, he outlined her struggle perfectly - she's no longer the underdog, and in some ways that sucks, because she now has no idea how to behave. her morals and her logic and her heart are all telling her different things.

AND LIKE. SISKO. KNEELING DOWN. TO BE EYE TO EYE WITH HER. i cannot possibly express how important that is. HE IS SO GOOD!!!

i'm actually really glad she got teary eyed but DIDN'T cry. we just watched her ugly cry in that episode with kai opaka and i think to do it twice together so soon would have been too much. but it DID need that emotional beat, and they struck the perfect balance.

the through-line of the fucking kiln. every time i saw them building it. wah.

the ending was so shocking and so horrible...actually, my one tiny nitpick with this ep is that there wasn't really the proper setup for it. the air will be poison if those guys tap the moon, but surely the ostensible utopian starfleet is not gonna tap it with even one holdout...? though i guess bajor isn't in starfleet proper? tng often has too MUCH technobabble and exposition but this didn't have quiiite enough - i feel like forcefields or masks or other scifi tech might have solved this problem and i didn't REALLY believe the only two solutions were to let this guy die on the moon or forcibly relocate him, especially when kira brought up a slower way to get the energy they needed - but maybe that's the point, that she ended the fight before it could become one, idk. i also wish he had said "as long as this house is still standing" a little earlier - having him say it right before the end sort of gave away what kira was gonna do before she did it, though i DIDN'T expect her to start with the kiln.

other than though it was so good. it says so much about the nature of the cardassians as a group, and bajorans as a group, and about kira herself.

also, sorry, jacket coming off hot.

suspicions (tng):

THERE WERE SO MANY WOMEN IN THIS EPISODE??? let's count

beverly, and it's a beverly-centric episode

hot klingon lady who threw beverly around like a sack of flour (again: beverly is bicurious)

VERY snooty vulcan lady with the human??? husband????? sorry but doesn't he have a refractory period how do they get BY during pon farr? ok. none of my business. moving on

nurse ogawa who helped commit women's wrongs

guinan, beverly's confidant and pretend tennis elbow haver...

deanna also had a few lines which i'm choosing to count in the spirit of things

also, that green alien guy? long feng from atla.

anyway, i was tickled with this episode. not only because they finally wrote a ferengi who isn't racist, showed another vulcan/human couple, included a bunch of women, AND gave beverly the main role, but also because the mystery was perfectly done. it gave us just enough information to stay interesting, and i figured out long feng faked his own death RIGHT before the reveal - not early enough to bore me but early enough to make me feel smart

i didn't really understand why beverly chose to end ferengi racism in a field that she wasn't even in but i support her so much. also, she got to do an illegal autopsy and steal a fucking shuttle. GOOD for her

again i want to state that this klingon lady TOSSED HER AROUND it was so fucking sexy. get it beverly. i so rarely have so much fun with a tng episode and we got two good ones in a row!!

if wishes were horses (ds9):

this is a sequel to an episode of tos i mostly don't like, "shore leave." tng also had a "shore leave episode" (the one where picard's mom showed up and i think some ensign got spliced into the floor) so we have done "our thoughts manifest as reality" twice now and i assume will continue to do it in every star trek series going forward. so far i have not liked any of these episodes because of the redundant and irrelevant nature of them (oh look! a random tiger!) but ds9's is probably my favorite out of the three

i just feel like you have the potential to get so real and do such character work when thoughts are manifested as reality and instead it's always this crazy shit. i think tng tried to do it with more gravitas, but it's tng and early tng at that, so i've yet to see star trek do one of these successfully and i doubt i ever will.

ANYWAY. number one complaint with this is of course the fake dax. i think it's really funny that she keeps gently but firmly shooting julian down, and while julian is a likable cringefail loser i NEVER saw him as a creep, not even with repeated attempts to ask her out...and then this happened, and it was very touch and go for a second there. i'm glad his instinct was to fight dax when she was compromised, really horrified when he "gave in," and then was extremely relieved when they were interrupted. he tried i guess. i'm gonna try not to hold it against him. if i can forgive geordi i can forgive julian.

we ALMOST got it working right. dax was like you know julian in a way i kind of feel like we invaded YOUR privacy it's not as though you can help having fantasies and they should have been safe in your head which was like. ok great take actually! we are being adults! but then the fake one showed back up and tried to pick a catfight with the real one and SSSSIGH

keiko and o'briens little daughter is SO cute. i mean she is SO fucking adorable. rumpelstiltskin was easily the dumbest part of this episode but that little baby is so adorable it was almost worth it to see her. i also didn't like that obrien didn't immediately say no as a kneejerk reaction to selling his daughter. girl what's wrong with you

i DON'T like that there's no baseball in the future. number one i refuse to believe americans could ever fall out of love with baseball even if it's only in a "let's bring back this vintage game" kind of way and number two it's one of the only sports i kind of like and understand. sisko being a nerd about an ancient dead sport is so funny though. good for him.

THAT SAID. i was kind of hoping sisko would see his dead wife. we got a great little moment where kira imagined an explosion and a guy on fire, which touched on something she probably actually has seen, and it was a fun way to give a stupid and silly concept some gravitas, but when everything got quiet there at the end i was expecting sisko's wife and no, it was just mr baseball again

shoutout also to odo running around with two real live birds on that set, quark fucking the birds after they turned into ladies, and then odo imagining quark in jail. truly a series of events, though given quark offering to make him a changeling lady friend in the holosuite (refreshing that at least in ds9 they acknowledge it as a sex toy), i kind of expected a serious moment with him too where he got his wish unwillingly.

and finally, i had SUCH a hard time following the plot of this episode.

the ending of this...eh. the power of positive thinking got rid of the rift = funny? the power of positive thinking is why a bunch of aliens showed up to wreak havoc = ehhhhh. the closest we came to having that serious moment i wanted was kira's .5 second scene and it JUST wasn't long enough. probably my least favorite ds9 episode yet, if we don't count the one with q, but still not as excruciating as some of tng's duds - it was entertaining enough not to make me hate existing for a single watch.

TONIGHT: tng's "rightful heir" (worf episode???👀) and ds9's "the forsaken" (deeply not looking forward to this...the summary says LWAXANA TROI is supposed to be mencing my best boy odo. please save him please get the tng out of my ds9 please please pleeease)