[Nate the Great]

MELORA: My speech wasn't intended to attack you personally.
BASHIR: I'm sure you never set out to attack anyone personally, but you do seem to attack a lot.

Exactly. What was her rant supposed to accomplish? Had I been Sisko, I would've said, "Fine, you don't want special accommodations. You won't get any. If you fall out of that chair you will not be transported to the infirmary, you will have to crawl back into it yourself. That way you can lie in your own filth without violating your closeminded opinions."

(Bashir pays with coins that the Chef bites to check they are genuine)

Yikes is that out of place.

BASHIR: Actually, first I started to study tennis.
MELORA: Tennis?
BASHIR: I really thought about making a career of it.
MELORA: You must be very good.
BASHIR: Well, I used to think so, but then I went to my first major competition. my opponent served first and I heard the ball bounce past me. The computer announced it was good and I realised I was in trouble. Turned out I had more talent at medicine than tennis.

Of course his augment status (and I still wince every time I have to use that word) wasn't established yet. I wish it never had. So he subconsciously tried to fail and it didn't work, so he realized that eventually he'd be in a spotlight that he doesn't want.

MELORA: What kind of an architect would deliberately design a raised rim at the entrance to every door?

I imagine the cog doors are easier to seal for security purposes, to defend against rioting Bajorans. But we all know that they're there to make the place look more alien.

MELORA: It was so. Flopping back and forth like a broken toy. I didn't want anyone to find me like that but I couldn't get up by myself.

And you couldn't reach your commbadge...because? There wasn't a secondary emergency button on the wheelchair...because? You didn't program the station sensors to alert you if she ever leaves the chair...because?

(Melora kisses Bashir. 53 more things to do in zero gravity?)

One of Oolon Colluphid's best sellers, don't you know. Along with Where God Went Wrong, Some More of God's Greatest Mistakes, and Just Who is this God Person Anyway?

MELORA: Tell me something, Lieutenant. You think there's room for romance in Starfleet?
DAX: I think so.
MELORA: You've made it work?
DAX: Now and then.
MELORA: I mean, really work.
DAX: Oh, really work. Well, for that I'd have to go back a hundred and fifty years.

And here we go. Single episode romances rarely work, and especially this time because they spent so much time dealing with her hangups and mobility issues that there hasn't been enough time to develop a proper romance. At least in the Gemworld novels her relationship with Reg Barclay had more time to develop.

MELORA: What about career conflicts? Two friends of mine from the Academy got engaged even though they knew they were being assigned to different starships.

And they couldn't ask to be assigned to the same ship...because? Not all Ensigns are prodigies that go directly to senior officer status like Harry Kim did. No, they're belowdecks where one ship is more or less like another.

MELORA: I finish my mission here, I move on to the next one. What kind of future is that for a romance?

So you ask for a longer-term assignment. Duh. I'm sure that given DS9's future upgrades they could retrofit the station for her if given more time.

MELORA: Racht, anyone?

So racht are just bigger, nastier-looking Klingon bloodworms. I still don't understand why they were invented when bloodworms already existed. How about one of the other dishes mentioned back in "Heart of Glory", like pipius claw? At least do rokeg blood pie!

MELORA: This could actually work?
BASHIR: No more servo-controls, no more chair.

You will note that Bashir isn't bringing up the "oh, and you can't go back to your planet anymore" thing. He has a bad habit of omitting details in the name of keeping the mood up. Which is a key reason why I think it was absurd to base an EMH model on him.

MELORA: It's starting to wear off again. I don't understand myself. How could I possibly have second thoughts? This would mean real independence. It's everything I ever wished for. But then I start to think about home and how I won't be able to go back. Well, maybe just for a short visit, but never really go back.
DAX: The Little Mermaid.
MELORA: Mermaid?
DAX: It's an Earth fable by Hans Christian Andersen. She trades her magical life under the sea for a pair of legs to walk on land.
MELORA: Didn't she live happily ever after?

People seem to forget that in the original version part of the Little Mermaid's transformation included the side effect that every step would bring her pain like she was stepping on knives.

One problem with Melora's quandary about never being able to return home is that we've never seen her home. We have no idea what life is like on Elaysia, so we don't know what she's giving up.

DAX: I'm sure Julian will understand. Besides, he can still publish the results from your first treatments.

Yikes is this a bad time to bring that up. Melora's happiness is more important than any fame Bashir would get through writing this paper, and acting like it's a fair tradeup is incredibly insensistive!