UNCUT - Whispers (DS9 S2E14) | Star Trek Journey 305

I gave up on DS9 a long time ago, but, one night around 2AM, this came on as a rerun on cable. I gave it a chance and was blown away! It was even better because it was way past bedtime and I was all alone. It almost, but not quite, got me back to watching the show. I'm glad I finally got back into it because of this channel and pleased to see your thoughts on it now that I've gotten this far.

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 Quark 3 Chief 1 Keiko 1 Odo 1 Kira 1 Bashir 1 Jadzia 1

I love this one too. Doesn't really appear in anyone's favourites for some reason.

Well, having just signed up I have a lot of catching up to do now! This is a fantastic episode and they do such a good job of keeping the twist right until the last scene. They give nothing away and keep you guessing what's going on. Brilliant stuff!

Okay, I signed up just because I couldn't wait for youtube to catch up on this one. Here I am. Pretty much everyone believes it's the station that's the problem, and there's some kind of conspiracy, because the show does such a great job of making everything Miles' point of view. And the final twist is just executed so well. That episode is a great. Meanwhile, Miles is an everyman hero....except he's also: - Genius engineer. - Combat veteran - Passable hand to hand combat and marksmanship skills - Solid Snake level infiltration skills - After Odo, he is genuinely the most capable and dangerous man on the station.

Trivia for you. The woman who played Admiral Rollman was Leonard Nimoy's spouse.

Mind officially blown when Josh said the DS9 intro is the same length as TNG having watched both shows at least a thousand times. Like Alex, DS9 intro seems much longer to me

"Why would Molly do that?" I guess you have never dealt with a sulky preschooler.

DS9 is the only Star Trek series I never seen fully, I tried but never got past season one. Thanks to you guys for giving me a reason to watch... My watch of this episode for the first time is it's so well done but pretty sure Keiko made O'Brien his fav food was captain orders to test how real is this clone is and same with Quark referring back to an earlier episode when he was actually testing clone O'Brien if he had the same memories.

I got worked myself I completely forgot about this ep while watching it with the Reaction lol

GET WORKED SUCKERS Super satisfying because normally you guys see right through it. Man, DS9 has some stories to tell huh?

It seems you probably haven't learned it yet or if you did you forgot, but Michael Pillerr and co would open up fans and just anybody from the public to submit scripts for TNG, DS9, and Voyager. Some of them became executive producers like Jeri Taylor. So it doesn't always mean that they called in script writers. Many good episodes were simply submitted. I don't know if this one was or not, but the one-off writing credit for DS9 makes me think it could have been. Even if he was a legit professional script writer.

Perfect mystery!!

O'Brien must suffer!

Late here, but I have fond memories of the day I watched this as a rerun the summer after it aired. Just one of those things where I can distinctly remember the time and feeling. I was into NFL, and the pre-season had started so this would have been august. I was watching it in the kitchen for some reason, my sisters were using the TV in the living room. Anyway, late for it but some memory alpha notes. The premise started off as O'Brien waking up to find Keiko and Molly gone and no one on DS9 remembering him. It turns out there IS a Miles O'Brien in starleet but he's still assigned to the Enterprise D and never transferred to DS9. This episode was great, but that also sounds like an intriguing premise for an episode to me. The premise was changed to O'Brien waking up with amensia and having no memory of his recent mission, but it becoming increasingly clear that the rest of the crew was hiding something from him about the time he had lost. O'Brien tries to recover information about his missing days and it becomes clear the crew is trying to hide the information and misleading him about what happened. The main focus is on him trying to reconstruct whats missing from his memory. The writing staff couldn't get this to work, so they dropped the amnesia apsect and decided to reimagine it as a paranoid political thriller in the vein of the movie The Parrallax View, which had similar elements of a character trying to unravel a mystery with paranoid political undertones that were present in the 70's revolving around the Parallax corporation which was in fact brainwashing people to be "mancurian candidates", people who had a hypnotic trigger implanted to be assassins without their knowledge. Another inspiration was Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I'm a fan of the whole franchise, and paranoia and people beind replaced is a major theme. The central premise there was what if it looks from our POV character's view that there's a bodysnatcher thing going on where people are being replaced/compromised, but the ironic and tragic twist being the POV character IS the replicant body snatcher without realizing it. Ira Behr wishes that were more time for the show to explore this premise, and there were more ideas for things that would happen and things to explore that were limited by the time limit of the episode. There were apparently production issues with the difficulty of the episode being unusual in that they had to take care that everything shot was from O'Brien's perspective, in that the show basically never has to shoot everything from one character's perspective. Even in "Remember Me", there are some brief shots that shouldn't be there when Crusher leaves that shows the other characters but this is less of an issue in the sense that the bubble universe isnt a simulation but something that "exists" but was created and framed by Crusher's thoughts, so those versions of the other crew have in some sense their own existence in that insane universe." But here, since the entire thing is O'Brtien's log entry, anything he didn't directly see or experience can't be shown on camera which turned out to be tricker then you might expect. Of course O'bren probably didn't mention "I walked past some Pakleds" in the log, but for the sake of playing by the rules of the narrative which was key, everything had to be essentially O'Brien's memories. There was a shot of O'Brien singing "The Minstrel Boy" aboard the runabout to calm himself and think of happier times which had to be cut due to a visual continuity error which wasn't noticed till the last minute. There's also a mistake in terms of the runabouts, where the ship chasing O'Brien was referred to as the Rio Grande while O'Brien was in the Rio Grande and being pursued by the Mekong. The Rio Grande has a slightly different configuration then the other two runabouts, being slightly larger with an extra pod on top, presumably and enahnced sensor module. We could chalk this up to O'Brien just having a slip of the tongue being stressed, tired and paranoid. Admital Rollman appears for the second time her first appearance being way back in Past Prologue. This is the first reference to the Cardassian-Federation "demilitarzed zone" which takes the place of the "neutral zone" with the romulans and formerly Klingons. A "demiliraized zone" is an area where it's agreed by treaty neither side will have weapons in a border region which ironically leads to (as is the case with North Korea and South Korea) the areas just outside of the demilitartized zone as some of the most heavily militarized areas. In other cases we have references to a Federation/Cardassian border, but this seems to be an area of former disupte where it was preumably agreeb by treaty neither side would put any any military assets in without either side having a strict claim to that area of space. At some point when its no longer spoilerish, I'll link to the canon maps of the galaxy in Trek (different eras/different maps). Its tough because certain locations are spoilerish. I would guess that's the sort of thing you guys wouldn't be into, but I lovr maps, and am familair with general trek "local space" of the area that straddles the Alpha and Beta Quadrant where most of our stories take place. Answering their questions, runabouts have a max "speed" (I've explained before how warp isnt actually a speed but a degree of warping of space where speed is relative to the curvature of space the field exists in) of warp 6. Also, the rule of acquisition is a confirmed canon one. There was a book published of the Rules of Acquistion at some point in DS9's run that included on screen stated rules and other rules not mentioned that was considered partial canon. DS9 is seen firing green instead of yellow phasers here. presumably these were the old Cardassian weapons and they later get replaced with Federation standard yellow phaser beams. We get a lot of O'Brien lore here. We learm he wasn't an engineer who enlisted, but rather essemntially listed a a soldier for th Cardassian war and learned his engineering on the fly. In off canon sources, the invasion of Soukara is a turning point in the war. The Cardassians after the military take over expanded and conquered for resources, when their expansion hit the federation there was war, eventually the Federation gave up with negotiations and decided to launch and invasion as power was the only things Cardassians redcognized. The invasions and occupation of Soukara lead to a sort of end of the war but there were still skirmishes till the treaty was signed after two years in tng. Given the gillworm invasion, we can assume the treaty would have happened faster if it weren't for the gillworms weakening starfleet and decommisioning ships. So after the treaty is signed and Starfleet withdraws from Soukarra, the Cardassians take two years to recover, then start messing around again as we saw in the Wounded. O'brien was able to pick up transporter skills in the war as he described and despite being an enlisted man was promoted to cheif tactical acting officer of the Rutledge. Off canon sources say he was able to hijack Soukara's planetary transporter system to transport starfleet troops and to mess wit cardassian deployments, and his contributions being so key, he was assigned as an acting officer's commision as the Enterprise's transporter chief. His experience with Cardassian tech was no doubt why he was assgined to DS9. But it's interesting he wasn't an engineer who enlisted, but basically a randok civilian who enlisted as a soldier for the way and picked up engineering skills during the conflcit that distinguished him. Other changes- in the initial script it started with O'Brien running but unlike the finished product, O'Brien's motivation was very much also a mystery to the viewer and the design was more that we were supposed to unsure of everything. Changing to to solely O'Brien's POV where we see why he thinks thing are sus was a huge improvement, as opposed to the original concept where we werent sure who to trust. as Josh said, Making O'Brien the POV character who we obviously trust was perfect and made the episode work. If we had been suspicious of everyone including O'Brien, then understand O'Brien's motive, that lingering suspicion of whether he was a reliable narrator would have changed the effect of the whole thing. I think it's fascinating going through these iterations of how a story was developed. We can see how something became great when it could have been less so, or how a decent concept gets muddied up and changed into something else and poorly executed like the the "Isabella" story. This show was also mostly a bottle episode (shot on existing sets) and a money saver. The director went for a noir feeling and intentionally tried to make it rushed and paranoid, which mostly worked but David Livingston felt there were things that could have worked better if they were slowed down, and they made this episode so fast he was nervous about it. In his opinion, the exposition heavy denoument didn't work as well as he thought it could have if there were more time.

Okay it's Thursdy and I watched it with you. Great we o end the day. Now Lower Decks.

First time I saw this one, I know something was wrong wtih O'Brian when the admiral told him to go back, there was no way all of Starfleet was under some control. I figured the Chief must be under some hallucination drugs of some kinds and they would bring him out of it. but the ending was so much better. Great watching it again

great trek parody song about apocalypse now https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky3brdoP-6I&list=RDZWJutMTIyUU&index=4

Way back during your early TNG reactions I knew you guys had a soft spot for O'Brian. You would make special mention whenever he had any substantial screen time. I knew I couldn't give any spoilers but inner me was always screaming "OMG you guys wait until DS9. HE'S PART OF THE MAIN CAST!" Take this kind of story is a strong indication of the direction the series is heading in. There are still a couple of clunkers coming up but overall the season finishes in fairly good shape, with almost all of the pieces put in place to begin a revolutionary (at the time) series structure - an artful blend of episodic stories and stand-alone episodes that weave together into an overarching seasonal narrative.

Looking up Paul Robert Coyle on IMDB, it looks like he was a steady working writer from the late 70s to the early 2000s. He has some one or two shot scripts for series' , with the most for one being 14 episodes for the Hercules show from the 1990s. He wrote five Xena episodes as well and did a fair amount of writing for police/detective shows in the 80s (CHIPs, Simon and Simon, Barnaby Jones, Crazy Like a Fox, Jake and the Fatman, totaling 21 episodes across them all). As far as the episode itself, this is a keeper for sure. Quality acting, good hooks, and a solid ending. Was there a B plot? It's hard to really find one.

One of my favorites, I've been waiting for this one! Glad you enjoyed it!

Get used to this kind of quality...

The second episode in a row where Keiko thinks something is off about her husband and was right but for the wrong reason. I wonder how much Keiko's testimony about him not eating his favorite meal went into confirming their suspicion that he was a clone, when really he didn't eat it because he thought she did something to it.

Love this one! This is where I started wondering if I’d just forgotten how awesome Chief was in TNG, rewatched and realized he just was criminally underused. But DS9 gives him a great platform to shine.

One of my favorite episodes. Chief has gotten so much more development on DS9.

One might almost suspect this Colm Meaney guy was one of those genuine movie stars or something. (Seriously, do yourselves a favor and watch some of his films.)

I’m glad TA liked this one because I’ve always really liked it, and some of the reviewers I’ve listened to in the past really don’t like it, which I just don’t understand.

I actually didn't think Keiko sent Molly away because she was going to "blow it", but because she didn't trust Faux-Brien with her daughter and wanted her well out of the situation. I think that's what she was angrily discussing with Sisko when they were seen.

You guys owe that admiral an apology

He was the Manchurian Candidate

No C-Soup for you today!! I knew you guys would love this one, but the fact that neither of you guys guessed the twist was excellent. I’m always concerned that one of you will guess the twist and say it out loud.

Coupled with adjacent episodes, part of what I think of as a mini 'O'Brien must suffer' arc.

My first time watching this episode via your reaction, unfortunately the twist was spoiled to me but holy crap, the episode is so good it doesn’t even matter. I love how Sisko was the only one who almost convinced chief, which makes sense given how he’s the commander, and conversely how Keiko and Molly are the most out of character, which also makes sense. Not going to lie, the ending made me tear up.

Excellent episode. Excellent reaction. This show is peak Trek, and you two have barely scratched the surface. Promise.

Your reaction to this episode makes me so, so, so very excited for the future. I loved it as much as you, absolute S tier - and it doesn’t even make my top 30 of DS9!

A+ for me. I can't give it a S because it really does nothing for the DS9 story as a whole and as you guys said it could be anywhere, not only Star Trek. It would eventually have been different if the aliens weren't random but players already important for the show. But maybe that also would have overloaded the plot too much.

The elation over the racketball continuity lol. You're gonna wanna make love to this show.

Amazing episode, and I remember back in the day on my first watch, my guess was that the aliens from Conspiracy finally made a return here. The reveal of O'Brien being a clone is even better, spectacular conclusion to a mystery, which is the hardest part to land.

Y'all were so blown away with the writing, the characters, the mystery and the twist, you didn't comment on the alien make up.

My first watch as well. My God! Honestly, first DS9 episode I can't wait to rewatch! That "Usual Suspects/Sixth Sense" style twist at the end. If Shyamalan directed Star Trek.

I know I'm not adding anything new to the conversation, I gotta praise Colm Meaney's acting! So natural and believable. Suspension of disbelief is so easy when it's this good. One of my favorite examples was "Remember Me". I felt Worf & Riker seemed in on the joke, so to speak. Meaney (and Stewart!) played it so naturally it was enough to bring a tear on rewatches.

As for Molly, it never occurred to me that she would just sense it wasn't her daddy. Very well could be that. I always read it that the crew gave Keiko the heads up, and maybe she said something to Molly too.

Completely random thought, but imagine if instead of the story we got, it was the real O'Brien but those aliens from TNG Season 1 'Conspiracy' were back at it and had infected most of our crew? Maybe it turns out that they're from the Gamma Quadrant?

Quark not knowing the number of a Rule of Acquisition is an excellent way of making us think there's something seriously wrong with him. Maybe Quark was informed about replicant O'Brien after all, and was just too nervous to remember the exact number? I'm still not sure.

works great, on a second view when you know the twist, seeing it from their prescriptive knowing he a sleep agent

About the writer of this excellent episode maybe could somehow contact him and get a short interview ? Impressive he managed to write such a peak star trek episode. He nailed everything about the characters

I want to say, you talk about this episode not being indicative of Star Trek, and I think that is a key thing about Deep Space 9. Here, Duet, Necessary Evil. None of these episodes have been "This is Star Trek". Deep Space 9 takes the universe TOS created and TNG fleshed out, and is at it's best when it takes the universe and does a "Not Star Trek" story within it.

It has been so many years since I last saw this episode. I only had a vague memory of it and completely forgot what was going on so I got to go on the ride with you guys. It was a wild experience feeling like I was watching a new episode of DS9 decades after I watched the series on its first run.

Remember when Bashir perfectly mimicked what he thought O'Brien was about to say and got it exactly right? At that point, the crew was still trying to confirm if the intel about O'Brien being a clone was true. Imagine what the conversation in Sisko's office must have been like after that interaction, especially since O'Brien also passed his physical with "flying colors." The skepticism must have been high, but they had to take the allegations seriously. This also makes the dinner scene with Keiko even more important. As Josh mentioned, O'Brien was suspicious of the food and thought Keiko might not be his real wife. At the same time, Keiko was likely thinking, "Wait, he's not eating one of his favorite meals... is this the proof that he's the clone?" For the crew, this likely could have been the best evidence that O'Brien is a clone. Even then, it is not much to go on. I think that even after O'Brien escaped in the runabout, there was still uncertainty on the station about whether he was the original or the replicant. It was only a coincidence that two Paradan rebels found the real O'Brien when they did and brought him to Parada II, where they could safely contact Sisko.

This episode is in my top 10 of all Star Trek. Good news is that most of the rest are yet to come! I wish today's ChatGPT style "A.I." would work like Starfleet's computers; very good at picking up context, give concise answers, no "trying to act relatable", ...

I knew you'd both love this as much as i do. Ever since early TNG when you both said you love the Chief i've been thinking ' wait until you see an episode like this one'. Even though i think Season 2 has a lot of great episodes this is my favourite. S.

The plot hole here is how did they make such a sophisticated robo-clone. The most similar creations in ST are the duplicates in 'What Are Little Girls Made Of' (ancient advanced alien technology) and Data & Lore (unprecedented achievements by Dr. Sung).

Lol... just finished the episode. Haven't gotten to the dicussion... but man. ENJOY THE REWATCH, fellas. We did. 🥰🖖🫂🤣

Great episode, very well written. A+

The runabout USS Mekong that replaced the Ganges (destroyed last episode) debuts in this episode.

I don't know if anyone has said this yet, but "O'Brien must suffer" is the OG "*Character* Must Suffer" meme. DS9 started it with what they've already done with O'Brien in episodes like Captive Pursuit, Rivals, Armageddon Game, and this one. Things like "Troi Must Suffer" came way later. Also for me, this episode is the first of many awesome end of season bangers. It's not a straight run unfortunately. The next few episodes still have some problems. But in general, Season 2 starts out strong, has a crappy middle, but ends stronger than it started. And this episode is an example of the quality of the better ones to come this season.

I remember watching this episode when it came out really clearly. I was with my boyfriend, and when Molly started flipping out, I said oh it's O'Brien who is the fake. There is an old Superbly story (likely from the 50's or early 60's that has Superboy thinking everyone (Lana, Pete, his parents) are acting weird, and Krypto reacts by growling at him. It ended up he was an early version of the later Superman Robots (yes there were superman robots), who due to some accident ( I honestly don't remember) believed he was the real Superboy. My boyfriend then said, I think the twilight zone did a similar episode (he was a big fan of the twilight zone, in almost the same way I was with Trek (just not as psychotic about it). So I got an extremely solid well crafted episode, but one that didn't have the jolt that you two got. It's still an A from me though. It is a well crafted episode.

one of my favorite shots in the entire show is that extreme close up of keiko staring at him eating the stew

This may have been said already so forgive me if it has, but they famously accepted scripts from fans routinely. This could have been that kind of situation.

Wow! Watching your reaction has given me a completely different perspective on some of the scenes in this episode that I never thought of, the dinner scene for example. Great job Josh. Thanks

I haven't seen this one in a while, but remembered the twist, anyway so it's got great rewatchability. This time I realized that Jake didn't know at first but after Kira saw him asking O'Brien for help, they had to let him in on it. So she told him to go see his father right away. Not sure though if Odo knew the whole time. Was he just humoring him at first or was he told after he arrived?

I'm super, super glad y'all liked this episode. It certainly brought out one of the best reactions out of all Target Audience, and you both were clearly blindsided by the "twist." I did in fact appreciate this episode better while watching you two react to it. I don't have a visceral memory of my first reaction to this, but if I just let myself suspend disbelief and buy the replicant as the "real" O'Brien (because for all intents and purposes, he is) then I don't have to perceive the 40+ minutes as a "waste." It's still a legit character analysis, and there are lots of ways to interpret the scenes. "Did Keiko attempt to POISON Miles at dinner?" One could guess one way or another, but these questions can be asked regardless of the ultimate twist. That's something to be respected. Thanks for helping me appreciate the episode more~

This is a great episode! I rewatched all seasons recently idk when? Was still on Netflix then?

I stand to be corrected but I believe this episode was the product of Michael Piller’s policy (just as you guys guessed) of allowing fans and/or aspiring writers to submit spec scripts/story ideas, which I believe lasted through most of Rick Berman’s tenure.

I don't think there was anything in the food. I think Keiko was just trying to keep the clone happy.

I have just one thing to say: SSSHHFFWOOOOOOHHHHH (fire pen sound effect)

I'm not going to be able to watch this till Thursday or Friday. I took an early look here to see your reaction. To say you did not disappoint would be an understatement.

that was the only thinfg, youd think he'd see he didnt have access to the logs before they plyed

they said he had a "trigger" that wuldbe activated during the talks

Loved this reaction! So glad you didn't figure it out!

I just KNEW you guys were going to give this an S. On top of being O'Brien centric, having this huge body snatchers mystery, and the twist at the end, it ends on the scene. For me, I'll give it an A+. It's a great episode, but not iconic in my book. Also find it funny that such a big deal was made of Keiko thinking Miles never drinks coffee in the afternoon, and here we see him(or someone exactly like him) drinking tons of coffee at all hours. Keiko just does not pay attention😂. I'd also agree that she didn't actually do anything to the food. They all seemed to be just trying to keep him pacified at that time. If they really wanted to they could have stunned him and put him in a cell. This episode always caused just a bit of existential horror for me. Imagine finding out one day that you weren't you? Just a copy. Scary thought. Not much more to say. It's a great episode that speaks for itself IMO.

Just FYI in case no one said it already: Admiral Rollman is the same admiral from the second episode of s1, Past Prologue, and was played by Leonard Nimoy's wife Susan.

Yes, the Cardassians named their access conduits after Gul Jefreez, so we can still called them that. :D

They showed the Chief's super-specific coffee order several different times. Was that a subtle tip-off? If I'd been observant enough in previous episodes, would I have known that wasn't his usual brew?

"Coffee, Jamaican blend, double strong, double sweet" is now alongside another signature order "Tea, Earl Gray, hot".

I wonder if M. Night Shyamalan watched this episode before writing "The Sixth Sense."

Had the best time watching you guys watch this. S+ writing and brilliantly acted. And yes, every rewatch is great.

Sisko was saying they have confirmed he was the replicant just when he escaped in the runabaout, that's when the Paradans informed them they had the real Chief. You were in shock at the time so you probably missed it. What a great reaction, I was was so happy you didn't figure it out, I was just waiting for one of you to say, "Wait what if it's the Chief?" Regarding the Jeffries tubes, they are only on Starfleet vessels (maybe stations as well), as they're named after a human. Since Chief is crawling through Cardassian station it's probably named differently, if at all.

Don't worry, guys, there aren't too many who defend that ridiculous warp speed limit. :)

I am with Josh on the Keiko food thought - it wasn't drugged. She was just watching the replicant closely to see how it would act with Miles' favorite dish.

I’m with Josh - imo Keiko didn’t do anything to the food but it’s a test to see if it’s really Chief.

That reaction was better than the episode...which was also really great! Can't imagine that story working with anyone else in the crew. Favourite bit: those close up shots of Keiko and O'Brien staring each other out over the stew.

AWESOME THE REACTION! Nice reworking of The Manchurian Candidate plot, like Mind's Eye in TNG, but with conspiracy/paranoia thrown in. This has got to be in the overall top 3 Target Audience reactions since you guys started Star Trek. Great, guys! LOVED IT!

Bashir also bringing up O'Brien's parents, to see if he knew that his father had died. So great, because it looks like Bashir is the imposter having forgotten O'Brien's father's death, but he was really just testing Chief's knowledge.

Great episode. What's great is that if you rewatch it with full knowledge of what is happening, it feels like an entirely different episode. You said it in the recap but it needs to be said anyway.

There was originally a scene of O'brien singing 'the minstrel boy' to himself on the runabout while being pursued, but they had to cut the scene because they noticed at the last minute that there was a continuity error depicted in the scene.

That face when you realize that they "ended on the scene" because they were not on DS9 when the ending happened and it would have been weird to pan out to see the random planet they were on at the time.

That ending was a real shocker for me back in the day. And tragic. You can't help feeling awful for the clone that truly believes it was the real O'Brien, dying like he did.

Great reaction. Yes, I would say the Twilight Zone comparison is apt. Get ready for a couple more to be added up there this season. One ep just became my favorite on this rewatch, so I can’t wait for that video.

I'm glad you guys didn't figure out the twist before the reveal. I remember watching the film "Impostor" with Gary Sinise back in 2001 where the twist at the end is rather similar, and thought they ripped off this episode. Of course, it turns out the film was an adaptation of a short story by Philip K. Dick back in 1953, so it was actually the other way around. Whoops lol. They execute it really well here, however, with the "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" vibe. Disagree on the rewatchability though. It feels like they really didn't want to give the twist away, and left the reactions really ambiguous. And given there's no way they would tell Molly, why would she know anything is wrong? It begs a lot of questions on rewatch, in my opinion. But it's such a memorable first watch.

When Deep Space Nine is firing on all cylinders, it is a show that is hard to beat.

Adore this episode everything works…. Remember Rosalind Choa as a standout for being so slightly off and creepy too. Love the final scene too.

This whole disk is full of bangers!!!!

This one is an S for me. It's the best episode this season IMO that isn't part of a multi-parter (Necessary evil is a close second). I do think it's odd that they decided to torment the o'briens 2 episodes in a row though

Good episode

Damn I got so giddy over how hard you guys popped at the end credits.

When i introduced my brother's family to SMALLVILLE 20 years ago, I picked a specific episode, invited them over for pizza, and 15 people were hooked. In all, I've probably got 25 total hooked over the years. When I say hooked, I mean, they tell me every time they rewatch the SERIES, all 10 seasons. I hooked maybe 5 people to TNG back when it aired. And also introduced TOS fans to the later series'.

A season 2 banger.

Gah! You guys always post when I'm out and about. :P I gotta rush home to watch this. Been waiting for this episode! I'll say it now though. A+ Not QUITE an S for me, but it's close. It hits ALL the marks, and it's probably the best mystery episode of the franchise.