[Nate the Great]

February 22nd, 1993, "The Passenger"

Oh, I don't like this one...

No fiver

The Episode

KIRA: She was dead. The tricorder clearly showed
BASHIR: Ah yes, well, tricorders. Very accurate with live people, not so accurate with dead ones. We learn that first year medical school.

What is the purpose of this? I'm really asking! I've said it before and I'll say it again, being able to detect alive vs. dead with 100% accuracy for all known species should be Priority One before you send these things out to be used.

BASHIR: And well you should have been. I impressed myself on this one actually. I can't imagine what other doctor would even consider examining the scapular nodes for parasitic infection. I just seem to have a talent, I suppose. A vision that sees past the obvious, around the mundane, right to the target. Fate has granted me a gift, Major. A gift to be a healer.
KIRA: I feel privileged to be in your presence.

Why was Bashir written this badly? I'm really asking! Furthermore, how did these actors ever find time to fall in love when they were given scenes this bad?

QUARK: Iced raktajino, extra cream.

I get that raktajino serves a similar purpose to coffee, but it can't taste THAT similar. Similar enough to work with Earth cream, anyway.

DAX: Thanks.
(Dax leaves)
QUARK: Poor woman. She's obviously infatuated with me.

Quark's crush on Dax never made sense to me. Ever. For that matter, his taste in women in general never made sense to me. He made it clear that when it comes to women he was interested in a traditional Ferengi marriage with occasional hired prostitutes or strings-free flings on Risa. Jadzia doesn't fit into any of these categories. Furthermore it's in his best interest to stay on the good side of the senior staff. It'll take years for Kira to warm up to him, Odo will never accept him as anything other than a lesser evil and occasional informant, he can't afford to be on the bad side of a THIRD officer.

For that matter, at this early stage she was still in her more intellectual phase, making her even more unappealing to Quark. Feel free to repeat Gaston's speech about reading, thinking women here.

ODO: You're deluding yourself.
QUARK: There's nothing wrong with a good delusion. I sell them upstairs to dozens of people every day.

A good line.

ODO: Dax? She has ten lifetimes worth of friends to call on before she calls you.

Does she, though? Curzon was joined in 2286, so all friends would be his or Jadzia's. And for that matter, would any of Curzon's friends be interested in hanging out with a young woman?

ODO: And every man on the station would like to be buying her a raktajino.
QUARK: Ah, but I'm the one with the raktajino machine.

I'm pretty sure you can replicate raktajino. If not, they needed to establish that.

PRIMMIN: (Starfleet Lieutenant) Interesting technique. Do you always get ready for an important operation by leaking word about it to the local black market?

I NEVER liked Primmin, the guy's an idiot. Furthermore, he shouldn't be here. By all means make sure things coming to and from the station are secure and satisfy regulations, but the Promenade is not his job. It's Odo's job.

As for informing Quark, I think the idea was that such information was going to be leaked to the criminal element anyway. Telling Quark this early allows you to control HOW the information is leaked. This means that you can better predict the actions of the criminal element and stop them.

PRIMMIN: I would like to talk to you about the deuridium shipment from the Gamma Quadrant.

We have established trade routes coming in from the Gamma Quadrant already? I thought that we didn't have established trade relations until the Ferengi/Karemma alliance next year.

Only appearance of deuridium, not to be confused with the metal duridium (like I was).

SISKO: I'm sure almost everyone knows about the shipment by now. Odo was probably making sure Quark knows we know he knows.
PRIMMIN: It's not they way they taught us at the Academy, is it, sir. If you want my opinion
SISKO: Actually, I don't. You and I are guests of the Bajorans, Lieutenant. You don't have to forget what you learned at the Academy, you just don't throw it in anyone's face here.

Exactly.

SISKO: The Kobliad are a dying race. They need deuridium to stabilize their cell structure. It prolongs their lifespan.
DAX: The Federation's been working to supply them with deuridium, but even the new deposits from the Gamma Quadrant aren't enough to service the whole population. It's so scarce that some of the Kobliad have gone underground to get it.

PRIMMIN: Before we get started, I want to apologise for us getting off on the wrong foot.
ODO: Think nothing of it.
PRIMMIN: Listen, I know this is your bailiwick. I don't mean to be throwing my weight around.

Yikes. "Baliwick." They had no right to use that word. Being a complete nerd who likes to study the evolution of language I know what it means (a person's area of expertise or assigned range of influence), but the common man won't. This is the screenwriter being pretentious. Just say "jurisdiction!"

SISKO: But you have to realise that Starfleet is not going to take command of a station in deep space without assigning some security to protect its interests.

I don't have a problem with the basic premise, I have a problem with Primmin taking the job without a comprehensive briefing with Sisko and Odo about who covers what.

KAJADA: I have trouble sleeping. Last night was particularly bad I used an alpha wave inducer to help me.
BASHIR: You should be careful with those. They're only meant for occasional use.

You'd think these things would be programmed to transmit a usage log to the person's doctor. That and have an autoshutoff after X minutes unless the doctor overrides it.

DAX: Here's the hypothesis. The body dies, the consciousness lives on.
BASHIR: In another brain?
DAX: Possible?
BASHIR: The closest thing I've encountered is synaptic pattern displacement. But that's never been done by a non-Vulcan.

Really? Off the top of my head I can think of Sargon's group, Janice Lester, and Roger Korby (and Ira Graves, sort of). It's well established that "souls" can move between bodies.

DAX: Well, it might make sense if you wanted to send a bio-coded message along the glial cells of someone's nervous system all the way to the brain. My guess is that's what Vantika was trying to do.

Glial cells are the part of the central nervous system that transmits impulses between the neurons that do the actual work.

DAX: Julian? Computer, location of Doctor Bashir.
COMPUTER: Doctor Bashir is in the Infirmary.
(He's left his comm. badge behind)

I've ranted enough about how locating via commbadge should only happen when a person is on a planet. On the station sensors should be keeping track of everyone via biosigns. Or at the very least the computer should detect when someone takes off their commbadge.

Memory Alpha

* Primmin was introduced because Colm Meaney was away doing a movie.
* Supposedly this episode was the first time Quark did something blatantly illegal. I'm dubious on that one.

Nitpicker's Guide

* Primmin's actor also appeared back in "Brothers" as an ensign. Phil jokes that they must be the same character who was promoted since then. Except that he played a guy called "Kopf" back then.
* Vantika only wanted the deuridium to prolong the life of his original body. Once he transferred to Bashir he didn't need it anymore, so why is he still trying to steal it?
* This episode establishes the number of Dax hosts at ten, when it was really seven (plus Joran). Oops.
* Mere minutes after saying that tricorders aren't great at IDing dead people, he uses one to declare someone dead. Oops.
* Kira tells the runabout computer to beam four people when runabouts only have two transporter pads. Oops.
* Phil also brings up the replicated raktajino problem. The only explanation he can think of is that you can't replicate iced raktajino.
* Bashir tells someone to use an antigrav generator to move heavy things, but in "Melora" we're told quite clearly that antigrav tech doesn't work on DS9. Oops.