Station log: stardate 46925.1

The Forsaken, written by Don Carlos Dunaway and Michael Piller from a story by Jim Trombella, first aired on 23 May 1993, and sees Lwaxana Troi (Majel Barrett) arriving on the station.

She and another number of Federation ambassadors have arrived to have a look at the wormhole as well as conduct visits to Bajor. On arriving on the station, however, Lwaxana is rather taken by security chief, Odo (Rene Auberjonois).

Things are complicated for the changeling when he and the Betazoid ambassador are trapped together because of the effects of an probe near DS9.

O’Brien (Colm Meaney) and Sisko (Avery Brooks) have their hands full with station faults, the computer is causing problems thanks to the probe, and also trying to deal with, or rather work on avoiding the ambassadors, leaving them to Bashir (Alexander Siddig).

I’ll be honest though, Lwaxana is beginning to wear thin for me, and I really didn’t need to see her in DS9, in fact, I would have been content to let the character go. I know Majel’s history with Trek, but at this point I don’t need her in either series except for the voice of the computer.

This one is a less than stellar episode which is too bad considering how strongly the series started. Still, there were bound to be a few clunkers. It’s just too bad that they all seem to be coming towards the end of the season.

All good, because I know the series gets better and better with each season.

Station log: stardate 46922.3

Joe Menosky penned this episode that first aired on 30 May, 1993.

This episode lets the crew play themselves as variants of their characters, when the station is infected with a telepathic imprint of a culture that wiped itself out. They all become power-hungry, scheming to outwit and destroy one another, leaving Odo the only one unaffected.

He tries to figure out what is going on, and hopefully before it claims any lives.

Very quickly, all the characters are plotting, maneuvering and making things uncomfortable and tense on the station; alliances are forged, mistrust is everywhere and no one is safe.

I rather like Meaney’s turn as O’Brien in this episode, it’s intimidating, dark, and very threatening. Everyone is behaving out of the ordinary, Kira (Nana Visitor) is scheming to seize the station, Bashir seems to be a bit of a puppet-master, and Sisko, when roused is easily violent.

I quite like this episode, and love the clock that Sisko creates.

Thursday we come up on the close of Season One of DS9 as I continue my viewing of The Complete Series on DVD, now available from Paramount Pictures.