30th Anniversary DS9 Discussion Marathon

[Nate the Great]

DUKAT: Don't push me, Odo. My superiors would have me solve this murder by rounding up ten Bajorans at random and executing them.

In retrospect we can see that this shows how important this case is to Dukat, because usually he wouldn't care about executing random Bajorans.

COMM [OC]: Attention, all bio-organic materials must be disposed of according to regulations.

Isn't "bio-organic" redundant?

KIRA: Odo. We haven't picked up anyone at the airlocks. I can't hold up outbound traffic any longer.

Why not? I get that there's a standard contract for all ships that visit DS9 explaining the procedures, but why doesn't it include special provisions for an active crime investigation?

ODO: All right, let's try again. Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Clear your mind of everything in it, if there's anything there. Breathe. Breathe. Now, what do you see?
ROM: The bar.
ODO: Yes?
ROM: With my name on it.
ODO: The past, Rom, not the future.

Always a funny exchange.

KIRA: Let me tell you something. Unofficially or not, you're working for the Cardassians. Sooner or later, you're going to have to decide whose side you're on.
ODO: I don't choose sides.
KIRA: Everybody has to choose sides, Constable.

Exactly. Odo seems rather dim in retrospect.

QUARK: Listen, I feel you and I, we've gotten off to a bad start here. Let me make it up to you. You need anything? A little ginger tea? No, you don't drink. Chocolate? Maybe companionship?

Kira mentioned ginger tea earlier. Maybe I'll buy that Bajor grows a plant that's close enough to ginger that the Universal Translator will call it ginger, but chocolate is a different thing. Sure we've seen that it's spread through the Federation, but Terok Nor isn't part of the Federation at this point, and I doubt that Quark or the Ferengi in general maintains trade routes through the Federation at this point in the past, especially since the Ferengi has barely made first contact with them.

ODO: Interestingly, every one of them has transferred exactly one hundred thousand Bajoran litas into her bank accounts within the last twenty six hours.

Only mention of Bajoran litas in canon. They get a few mentions in the novels. Most notably a short story states that 35,000 lita=12 hecapates. "Progress" states 7 tessipates=5 bars. Assuming a base ten system I estimate that 1 hecapate=10 tessipates, or (35,000/120) lita=(5/7) bars=>400 lita=1 bar=>250 bars per person she's blackmailing. She just swindled these people for an amount larger than what Quark makes in a year!

ODO [OC]: Nobody ever had to teach me the justice trick. That's something I've always known. A racial memory from my species, I guess.

This really doesn't fit with the Female Shapeshifter's claim that he wants order, not justice.

ODO: It's over, Rom, over. You're a hero.
ROM: I am?
ODO: You saved your brother's life.
(Rom screams again, and Quark smiles.)

Hehe.

KIRA: You were working for the Cardassians.
ODO: I haven't been for more than a year. You've had all that time to tell me the truth.
KIRA: I tried to tell you the truth a hundred times. What you think of me matters a lot. I was afraid.
ODO: That might affect our friendship? Maybe it doesn't have to.
KIRA: Will you ever be able to trust me the same way again?

Lots of people compare this to the ending scene of "Things Past", somehow equating them. That's a long screed by itself and I think I'll save it for "Things Past". For now I have to say that Kira's feelings needed more validation.

Memory Alpha

* There's a deleted scene that reveals that Pallra was having an affair with Dukat. Whether or not it should've been kept is up to interpretation, but I feel that the episode was already full of different kinds of relationships and strained loyalties that introducing another would stretch out everything else.
* Kira calls Odo "constable" in the past. I call this a major nit. That term is well established as a pet name from Sisko, and what's an Earth term doing in Cardassian space during the Occupation?

Nitpicker's Guide

* Rom says that he'll show Odo the specific panel. Why, the thing is still on the floor and the wall has a hole in it!
* Phil wonders why they would trust a Bajoran scientist to study Odo instead of shipping him back to Cardassia Prime. Well, that's another screed that I won't write.
* Rom describes the name using English letters when the name is Bajoran and presumably he's speaking translated Ferengi. I think we can apply the MST Mantra to this one.
* So Pallra has no power so she's reduced to using candles, yet her automatic doors still have power. Oops. You'd think the Bajorans would prefer manual doors anyway. They wouldn't be Amish-levels of technophobes, but they do seem to prefer avoiding nonessential tech.
* Bashir calls for an antigrav stretcher for Quark, but didn't they just establish that Federation antigrav tech doesn't work on the station? I'm not worked up on this one, it's reasonable to think that they just use Cardassain antigrav stretchers.
* Why is Bashir using a stretcher in the first place and not a site-to-site transport?
* Pallra's house features a Ressikan pot from "The Inner Light". This is one use of prop recycling that just doesn't work.