UNCUT - Dramatis Personae (DS9 S1E18) | Star Trek Journey 273

DS9 sex scoreboard catch up version No scores that I saw (remember I am only catching up with the short versions) The sex score board Chief 1 Keiko 1 Quark 1 Odo 1 DETAILS: Now there is one thing that must be addressed. This should affect the sex score but since it is likely only prof moff understand this we will not count it. I will put the extra in the reply. DO NOT read it if easily offended cause we are talking 90's rap (well earlier actually).

Pretty entertaining. Compared to pretty much all of TNG s1 this is hugely entertaining. I feel like people are way too harsh on ds9 s1.

This is part of the reason why I think when this originally aired I got 3/4 of the way through season one of Deep Space 9 I left and continued Star Trek the next generation and never came back to DS9. I do know later seasons get more interesting but this seems to be pretty much common fair for a lot of the episodes. But that’s must my opinion.

I have never thought about your transporter question before, but I do have a possible explanation. When transporting onto the ship or station, the equipment in the transporter room is what is needed to remove bacteria, viruses, or any other unwanted contaminate and to remove or deactivate weapons. Also, when transporting from the ship to a planet or wherever, the transporter room equipment again removes any bacteria, viruses, etc. so as not to contaminate the place to which they are transporting. Or maybe it is just a cool Sci-Fi tech gimmick. Yeah......probably the latter.

And yeah, i didn't find that cargo bay ending satisfying at all. It actually kind of bothered me. First off, as you said, that's kind of irresponsible because that thing is out there ready to affect whoever else picks it up. But second, it actually contradicts the science that they made a big deal about with the cargo bay scene in Disaster. Surviving the bay opening up like that isn't a matter of "just hold on to something." Everyone in that room would have been dead or near death. That's why in Disaster all the tension came from knowing all of the body extremes that Beverly and Geordi were enduring in order to repressurize the bay in time before they died. None of that is here. They just wanted a quick resolution without much thought.

If we're going by a beverage equated Tier List, I'd have to place this in the "Water with Mio flavoring". Better than plain water, which is as baseline as anything can be, but not quite into that banger territory, which would be sparkling water with flavoring, 7-up or some other low-grade soda. Coffee is A tier and Diet Dr. Pepper is S Tier. Tea is E tier (come at me I said it).

The crew isn't just randomly acting aggressive. The episode is called Dramatis Personae because the telepathic matrix is basically having everybody act out characters in a play. Or in this case, it was a real event. It wasn't vague roles that kept happening over and over in this society. It was one historical event that ended up killing the entire planet off. Basically there was a real power struggle on that planet in the gamma quadrant with real people/characters. The orbs the Klingons found documented that power struggle telepathically. So whoever encounters the orbs, the orbs force them to take on the roles of the real people involved in the original power struggle, and act it out. It's as if everyone is being forced to perform King Lear, or Julius Ceasar, or renact the Holocaust, only we don't know what King Lear, Julius Ceasar, or the Holocaust are, or who any of the people/characters are supposed to be. But even then, it's not a one to one renactment. It forces whoever is affected to adapt their role to whatever current situation that they are currently in to mirror the power struggle. How exactly was anyone ever supposed to learn from this? Who created this thing? The Chief was acting so weird because he was probably playing the role of the original King's most loyal advisor. Sisko was the crazy King not fit to lead. Kira was the lead of the King's rival faction. Julian was that society's doctor. Dax was an old airhead friend of the crazy King. As for the message of this episode, there is none. That's part of why I think it sucks. The closest thing this episode has to a message is the same message as Arsenal of Freedom. That by this old society acting this way, they all destroyed themselves. And the orbs were meant as a warning to not repeat their mistake, because this type of behavior will always lead to self-destruction. But yeah, this episode has no effect on the characters either, so it's a massive waste of time. The only enjoyment comes from trying to figure out what's going on, and if you enjoy seeing the characters act this way. I personally don't, so this whole episode just feels like massive cringe for me. I'd seriously rather watch Move Along Home. Both episodes make me feel the same level of boring and cringe, but Move Along Home only feels like that during it's last half, while this episode feels like that the entire time. And as for Dax, I'm pretty sure all of the stories she was starting to tell weren't even Dax's own backstory. They were the backstory of the absent minded friend on the dead planet, and their memories of bonding wih the crazy king. That's another reason why they kept getting cut off, they don't matter. As for Dax referring to her/himself as "I" in these stories, assuming we're talking about actual Dax experiences, that is the "Dax" part talking. Jadzia is essentially two people. "Jadzia" and "Dax." But they function together as one blended person. Jadzia is new, but the Dax part has had these memories and experiences for multiple lifetimes. So when Jadzia Dax tells a story about a past life, it makes just as much sense for "Dax" to tell the story as "when I was Curzon" as it does for it to just say "when I." It's like if we are telling a story about ourselves from childhood. We are essentially a completly different person now, but we still have all the childhood memories, and we still think of ourselves as the same person. So when we tell a story from our childhood, we can tell it either as "when I was a child" or "when I" and it doesn't make much difference to us. It's just with Dax, those differences are more extreme to outsiders because they literally were different lifetimes and different people instead of just figuratively. But to "Dax" nothing has changed for it. It's still the same Dax, it's just grown. So "Dax" talking about a past lifetime feels to Dax like how we talk about ourselves when we were kids. Or like with past life regression. If you believe in any of that, then the soul is the same and learns lessons through multiple lives. But each life is a different person. You could be a slave in one life, and a slave owner in another with a completely different personality and belief system, and yet you're still the same soul wanting to experience both of those opposite experiences. It's like two completely different roles being played by the same actor. Or each life is a video game character you create played by the same player. Only the soul doesn't regard these lives as roles or characters, but as all a part of itself. So a person doing a past life regression might say something like "I'm ploughing the fields. I'm passing out from exhaustion." and then "now I'm beating the slave." These are both real experiences for the soul even though they were two different people. It's to the point where Ghandi and Hitler could have been the same soul. We don't know. We definitely wouldn't consider those people to be the same person, and yet they both could have been played by the same actor. They could have both been the same soul having different life experiences. So is the soul just itself, one, both, or all three? Being a joined trill is like if we all remembered being the soul, but also all of the lives our soul has lived, in addition to the one we are currently living. Can you imagine if someone put a slug in you right now, and suddenly you remembered all of your past lives as well as the experience of being the soul choosing those lives and growing with each one? Who would you be at that point? The difference with the trill is it's more like they are taking on someone else's soul and lives experiences so they can add to it. They're not receiving their own, which is even more of a mental mindfuck. It's one of the reasons why Trills have to train so hard and compete if they want to do this. They have to be trained and be very strong and mentally stable in order to know what they are getting into and handle that.

All these comments trying to draw current political parallels are cute. Naive, but cute.

This season is a slog but it does get much better

The beginning of this episode with Kira and Sisko makes me think of the real world suspicians Iran is developing nuclear weapons. How far to go to assess if they really posess it, how far can another nation go to determine that? Wait too long and its too late?

Honestly, pad to pad should be the only way the transporter works. If they are transporting from non-pad to pad, what is actually turning them into energy? If they are transporting from pad to non-pad, what is turning them back to matter?But, of course, that wouldn't work from a writing perspective, where the transporter is there to streamline the plot (and sometimes be the plot). I always assumed a "site to site" transport was just two transports back to back. You go from non-pad to pad, and then pad to non-pad.

Trill are a joined personality. 'New' each time - yes, but only in terms of what the new host brings to the table. The old memories and personalities are still there in the symbiote, and with each new host that is added to. Neither the current host nor symbiote are dominant. But just there as part of a new whole.

Josh: "Chief I gotta take a shit! Can you beam me to the toilet?" Think Josh, Think!: "Chief, beam the shit directly outta my colon"

Evil Kiera makes me feel funny.

Regarding the question about why they have transporter rooms - my theory is that the transporter room is like security at the airport. If it's an admiral or diplomat, you can send someone like Troi to sweeten them up before you meet them. If it's some jabroni, send them to transporter room 3 where you know The Chief is on call at all times and will deck the shit out of them if needed.

This was kinda DS9's Powerplay TNG episode, I liked this a bit better than Power Play you notice OBrien Played a similar "Baddie" in both

On the question about transporter rooms, I always assumed it was a matter of reliability. Star Trek is pretty consistent with saying that transporter accidents are very rare, but 'rare' is a relative term. I assume that if beaming from transporter pad to transporter pad only goes wrong one in a trillion times, then beaming from pad to ground or ground to pad goes wrong one in a billion times, and beaming from ground to ground goes wrong one in a million times. Yeah, they all work, and they all work reliably. But when the risk is that you might die as a screaming abomination like in the The Motion Picture transporter accident, it makes sense to take the safest option as often as possible. But when the dramatic situation calls for it, our characters can still set up a transport from anywhere to anywhere (within range).

Haven't watched their reaction yet, but I feel like I can tell how much they liked a particular episode just by how long the video is. 1 hr means they just thought it was OK. Over 1 hr 15+ means they really liked it. That's my theory anyway. 😄

This episode should have been called "The Inner Darkness."

regarding your "its good for ds9 season 1": I agree, and its really a good season one episode and I enjoyed the rewatch today. Still... if someone ask me to name my personal top 125 DS9 episodes it won't make it ;) the fun part of rewatching it with you guys is that you often remind me of what I was thinking myself when I first watched it and didn't know what else will happen on the show or even how many season there would be. fortunately the first DS9 season aired before the sixt TNG season (in germany) because jumping back and forth (in quality) every week would not have been fun... In a magazine back then I had read: "DS9 gets the budged, TNG the good writing" I think the alien virus only amplifies what the people were thinking at the moment of the possession. So Kira was "against Sisko", O'Brien felt protective, Dax was distracted by thinking of something from the past and Bashir was asking himself what the hell this tension in the room was about and which side he would choose if it would escalate. And the point of contention for everyone was the valerien ship.

@Tinman Modern TV is way more character focused, set up in advance with character arcs, etc and not a syndicated show that didn't even know if an episode was going to work until a few weeks beforehand and don't even know who the characters are yet. Also, I would absolutely hate to see a show with such few episodes waste time with possession stories. I had to look up the TOS episode to remember it. A better take on what I want would be Mirror Mirror, a few episodes later but in the following season. Time between seasons helps solidify who characters are in people's minds. That's why when people binge things, they forget them easier.

Thank you for pointing out the mixed messaging on Dax/The Trill. It bugs me.

Guys, we promise you will not regret it to dive trough the prologue. Yes, prologue. We will notice you when the show really starts.

"Dramatis Personae" is an old theatre term. You'll often find it listed at the front of a play's script. It's the list of characters who appear in the play. May have some bare bones description. Might also list the actors playing them. It's a quick way to get the audience up to speed on who the characters are and acts as a reference guide. In that way, it is a spoiler title, as it basically tells you what's going on is a cast of characters acting out a scenario.

Sometimes, episodes are just fun.

I like this episode and I think it's above average (for Season 1). I wonder if that's because on re-watching it after seeing DS9 in it's entirety multiple times, I don't feel the "possession isn't warranted because we don't know the characters". I honestly don't recall my initial thoughts on the episode when I saw it for the first time.

People claim to love character growth, yet, people only love the end of the journeys on ds9. Even the 'slow' start seasons build up these characters. Without the groundwork on seasons 1-3, seasons 3-7 don't work ☹️😔😞

Not a bad episode, just not memorable. I had to look up the description of this one just to remember it.

Season 1 just ain't that good, unfortunately. Hopefully the next episode was a highlight for you guys (I think you've seen it by now?). Almost to season 2, thankfully. I doubt it knocks your socks off, but I suspect you'll appreciate the improvement to Season 1.

Episode 19 is where DS9 truly begins. I cant wait for the reaction.

I have a feeling you won't like DS9 as much as many other ST fans. While many say that season 1 is the bad one and that it gets better afterward, I have a slightly different view. Season 1 depicts the initial situation. Freshly liberated, new meaning (wormhole), loss of the old stable religious leadership, who's who ( for people new to ST ), + new contact of the week. With the season changes, the presented situation changes. Without the old one being completely forgotten. The later seasons are also considered so good because of what came before. Or to put it another way, in my opinion the season order is much more important in this series than in other ST series.

I am in the minority but I kinda dislike DS9 season one more than TNG season one. I just prefer weird, creative shit over something boring and generic

THE DOLEMITE IS MY NAME!

This is one of my favorite reaction videos. Especially when O'Brian cuts off Dax's story. Love your faces.

Huh.. Just after the cargo bay doors go down, sisko has his combadge back on and then next time it's on him it's gone again.. I'm Normally blind to continuity errors lol.

Wayyyyy too early for our characters to be acting weird since we don't fully know them, but at least it's not the second story like Naked Now. The good stuff for the characters we know and love is coming... It just takes a bit. Remember that Terry Farrell herself in that Cameo video said this is the best Trek for characters. She wasn't lying.

*paces intensely*

Was Dolemite a joke? Futurama made a similar joke. “dolomite; The tough black mineral that won't cop out when there's heat all about.”

As your experience with TOS and TNG has well proven, you will always, ALWAYS, have patreons claiming "this is the last bad episode," "this is the best EVAH," "this next one is where it gets good!" Then, you will always have patreons like me, who would like to explain to you that Majel Barrett was also the voice of the computer on TNG, AND Nurse Chapel in TOS. I bet you didn't know that.

They try and use transporter rooms as much as possible due to energy considerations. Remotely projecting the angular confinement beam takes hundreds to millions times the energy depending on the details of the setup.

Based on my memory of reading the TNG technical manual as a kid, I think the transporter pad is still needed. When you do a site-to-site transport, you're essentially first beaming someone to the transporter pad, but then instead of rematerializing them you immediately beam them from the pad to another location.

I love this goofy drama so much…a guilty pleasure and honestly, my favorite from Season 1. That speaks more to the weakness of the season than it does how good the episode is, though.

I think the whole transporter room thing is that the signal is more stable than just beaming to any other part of the ship, though to be fair, there was a TOS episode where they attempted intraship beaming for the first time (was it Day of the Dove?), so I guess 24th century transporter technology has made some advancements.

And remember, season 1 is NOT the amazing show everyone loves and is talking about. While season 2 is way better than season 1, the REAL feel, look and vibe of the show doesn't really start until season 3 and then solidified in season 4. VERY much like TNG. That said, as bad as I think this episode is....it's sure not boring!

This episode does reach B tier for me for a couple reasons. First, while it doesn't advance the characters much, it does let the actors cut loose a bit more, and especially Avery Brooks gets to ham it up a lot. Second, Odo get to shine a bit here. I love the way he's able to play everyone's paranoia against them so well that he gets basically everyone to trust him. That's quite a feat under the circumstances. So it's not like none of the characters had anything to work with. In retrospect I prefer this to Power Play. I don't really understand the criticism of saying these types of stories should be later in the show to work. If anything being this early on when you don't fully know the characters preserves the mystery a bit longer. Beyond that, Possessed O'Brien in PP was basically just angry O'Brien, but non stop. Troi was just sadistic and monotone, and while Brent Spiner tried to differentiate a bit, it's hard not to see him as essentially Lore. So I don't think the possession worked the best there. At least here it's a bit different in that they're still the same people, just their motivations are being changed by this telepathic possession, and they still manage to change up their performances more. As the the actor that bridges both episodes, I think Colm probably had more fun in this one. Still while I do like this episode, 5-7 this season are still better. If the last 2 don't do anything for you though, all I can say is... "Shaka, when the walls fell"

The only time they tried “intra-ship beaming” in TOS was in Day of the Dove, when Kang’s Klingons were sealed off in Engineering. It was explained that in that era it was considered dangerous. I guess they kept transporter rooms around later on out of sheer architectural inertia.

C1, C2, C3 tiers?

Best of the average episodes. Onwards and upwards!!!

Don't worry about being overly harsh on Season 1 DS9. I remember people being annoyed at how critical you were of S1 Picard as well, but as soon as the show started to improve you changed your minds about him, and I'm sure the same will happen here. Honestly, watching these back, later DS9 seems like a completely different show to Season 1. IMO, your critiques are valid. It took me a while to really get into the show too. Thanks for the reaction!

"Ultima Thule" makes me laugh, cause I'm such a Poe fan, even though it has been used elsewhere in other contexts.

Seeing Odo's head turning it self inside out was a bit unsettling.

DS9's Naked Now ep

Next episode is S tier the real DS9 begins

And now that is out of the way - a great block of episodes coming up crossing s1 and s2

This is **actually** the last bad/mid episode of DS9 for a while. For reals this time. (Or at least, it should be the last of the "generic recycled Star Trek script" feeling ones. You know the kind, the ones that feel like low-mid TNG seasons 1-2 episodes and/or failed TOS plots.) The final two episodes of season one are legit good to great, and season two starts strong (and for the most part, stays strong.)

I rate this episode as be for better Good Odo episode

Listening to your opening ramble - what’s the point of reacting and reviewing if you’re not giving honest opinions. Never understand why people criticise opinions. Actually finding it more fun than i remember

Don't ever hold back. season 1 is rough as fuck. It is better than TNG season 1 but, everything is.

I love this episode. The haters have no joy