[Nate the Great]

KEIKO: And they were just looking for trouble. Those kids have no reason to be hanging around the Promenade.
O'BRIEN: It's about the only place they have to go. You can't keep them locked in their rooms.
KEIKO: This isn't like a starship, Miles. The kind of freedom children have on the Enterprise just won't work on a space station. There are too many ways to get into serious trouble here. What this place needs is a school.

Yeah, this sort of thing should've been sorted out before the Federation arrived. It does make one wonder why a portion of the Habitat Ring can't be isolated as a family-only section with places for children to go. Perhaps with a backup sickbay with a dedicated pediatrician.

Then again, I do wonder why there were children on board during the Occupation. They can't work in the ore refineries, they were just there using up precious resources that could be used by the Cardassians instead.

KEIKO: That's not exactly true, Jake. There are twelve other children on board, ranging from eight to sixteen. The problem is there's no structured activity for them. Don't you miss the schools you used to go to, Jake?
JAKE: No. I guess. Studying alone on the computer, it kind of gets boring sometimes.

Starfleet doesn't have Teams meetings via subspace for remote teaching yet? Yeah yeah, Teams is still twenty years away at this point.

SISKO: You'll have them. I hope you realise what you're getting yourself into. I can't force the Bajora, the Ferengi or anyone else to send their children to your school. And even if they do come, every one has a different culture, a different philosophy.

I'll be calling out every usage of "Bajora". Are there Ferengi children on board besides Nog? We never got that impression.

ODO: It's a pretty neat package. His calendar shows he was planning to meet with me at the time of the murder. No one except a shape-shifter could get into the holosuite. And since I'd obviously be called there after the body was discovered, traces of my DNA wind up at the scene of the crime.

Since when does Odo have DNA? You'd think of all species a Changeling wouldn't be leaving fingerprints or hair follicles around to be traced.

ODO: Major, I have to return to my natural state every eighteen hours to regenerate. To be quite honest about it, I was in a pail in the back of my office when Ibudan was killed.
KIRA: The killer might have known your regenerative cycle and planned the murder accordingly.

Does Odo make his sleep cycle public? By all means Quark would keep tabs on this stuff, but it should be news to anyone else outside the station officers.

KIRA: Who might want to frame you for murder?
ODO: I can think of about five hundred different people, but I haven't seen any of them around the station recently.

Five hundred seems a little extreme. That would be something like a person every week. I wouldn't even mention this if it wasn't Odo, he doesn't seem the type to exaggerate.

ROM: Little lady, little lady, what do you know of Ferengi education?
KEIKO: I understand you employ a work-study approach, Mister Rom, with apprenticeships in a wide range of business and economic fields.

Yeah, some imposter has replaced Rom. Maybe the same guy who called himself the Ferengi Pit Boss a couple weeks ago.

This work-study approach would make sense for the Ferengi, so why is Nog here if he's old enough for that?

ROM: It can't work. He will not listen to you.
KEIKO: Why not?
ROM: You are female.

Ugh. The speech I could give on this exchange.

ZAYRA: I can't believe you're defending him, Quark. You're his worst enemy.
QUARK: Guess that's the closest thing he has in this world to a friend.

This exchange always stuck with me.

KIRA: You're going to relieve him of duty.
SISKO: I don't see any other choice.

I do wish that the precise relationship between the Bajoran Militia and Starfleet had been established by now. Shouldn't this be Kira's job?

ODO: Who will be taking over the investigation?
SISKO: I've placed Major Kira and Lieutenant Dax in charge.

There aren't ANY Starfleet security officers on board?

BASHIR: Just how many different lives do you think she's led?
SISKO: I don't even know. He'll go, she'll go through a list of them, then out comes another one in a later conversation. I'd guess that Jadzia is probably the sixth host.

Not counting Joran, Jadzia is seventh. I'd expect Sisko to know this by now.

BASHIR: You care for her a great deal, don't you?
SISKO: Dax and I are just friends, Doctor. If you're interested, you have nothing to fear from me.

Really? Further events in the first season will poke holes in that idea.

MOLLY: Can I come to school?
KEIKO: I wish you could. At least I'd know one student would be coming. But you have to wait a year or two.

Molly's first day of school would've made an interesting episode.

ODO: What happens to this one?
BASHIR: In about two days, he becomes a living, breathing member of Bajoran society.

Who looks like a criminal. I'd hate to be that guy.

ODO: Killing your own clone is still murder.

Comparisons have been made between this episode and "Up the Long Ladder." That's a kettle of fish that I don't care to go into.

Memory Alpha

* Piller and Behr were wondering if it was too soon for a murder mystery, but they justified themselves by saying that this was a spinoff where the world was known. I would argue that the world of DS9 is NOT known this early, much less the characters. Nothing in this episode resembles anything in TNG in the slightest.
* The creative staff was proud of the murder mystery. I wouldn't be. There wasn't enough time to do it properly, and as SF Debris says, far too much time was spent on explaning why the only culprit could be Odo that it became laughably obvious that it couldn't be. Plus there's the whole question about how Odo could've sneaked a knife in there.
* Rom says "hew-man" instead of "hew-mon". Chalk this one up to Early Installment Weirdness.

The Fiver

Jadzia: Do you think we should still be friends?
Sisko: Well, if you left the series, whom would Worf marry?
Jadzia: Hmm...Leeta?

That's an image I didn't need.

Sisko: That's enough fighting and out-of-character behaviour!
Odo: These are still early days. I can act however I want.

"It's in my contract!"

Odo: Leave me alone!
Mob: You're outvoted.
Sisko: Stop or I'll give my speech.
Mob: We'll stop.
Sisko: I'll give my speech anyway.

"It's in my contract!" OR "As main character I have the right to speechify whenever I want!" Whichever you prefer.

Ibudan: And I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling kids!
Odo: You are under arrest for murder, theft, conspiracy, betrayal, cloning....
Ibudan: We'll be here a while.

"...And impersonating Tayar!"

Tayar was one of Lore's Borg, played by the same actor as Ibudan. I thought I was due an obtuse and obscure joke by now.

Nitpicker's Guide

* The computer in Ibudan's quarters on the Bajoran ship uses stardates. That's weird, and the dates also say that the events of this episode took place over two weeks. Oops.
* Doesn't the Federation require teachers to have teaching licenses?
* Phil has a problem with Quark using the phrase "in this world". What world would Quark be referring to? I don't see the problem, obviously Quark was speaking methaphorically to the world of the living.
* This time Phil did the stardate math. Everyone calls Molly three years old when she's only 15 months.
* Sisko warned Keiko about Bajoran beliefs, and yet she won't actually alter her thinking before "In The Hands of The Prophets."
* Phil points out Dax's hypocrisy. Jadzia will make an offer to let a man "count her spots" just a few years from now in "Meridian."
* In this episode Odo says he has to regenerate every 18 hours, in the future it'll be 16 hours.
* Phil wonders why there isn't DNA from users prior to Ibudan in the holosuite.