Station log: stardate unknown

Bradley Thompson and David Weddle pen this episode from a story by Robert Lederman and David R. Long, which first aired on 28 October, 1996.

When Keiko (Rosalind Chao) returns from a trip to the Fire Caves of Bajor, there’s definitely something wrong with her. It seems she’s been taken over by an alien life form, and is holding it hostage until her husband, Miles O’Brien (Colm Meaney) carries out a mission for it.

She is being held by a Pai-Wraith, a non-corporeal being, the enemy of the Prophets in the wormhole, expanding a little bit on the Bajoran religion, claiming they are demons.

Under its orders Miles tampers with a number of things on the station, working to complete the tasks while trying to find a way to save his wife.

We get a look at some of the changes that have taken effect around the station, including Quark’s (Armin Shimerman) brother, Rom (Max Grodenchik) now working with the engineering department. The Ferengi is working to fit in, and prove himself, and it’s a lot of fun to see the character growing.

Unfortunately for Rom, he gets pulled into the possession story, when Miles asks him to do something secretive, and things get very serious for everyone involved, with Keiko’s life hanging in the balance. And it’s the Ferengi who discovers what is being done by Miles and reveals it to the Ops officer who puts it all together, and comes up with a way to save the day and Keiko.

Station log: stardate 4523.7

One of the best episodes of DS9 EVER is Trial and Tribble-ations, written by Ronald D. Moore and Rene Echevarria from a story by Ira Steven Behr, Hans Beimler and Robert Hewitt Wolfe. It was first broadcast on 4 November, 1996. It was created to celebrate Trek’s 30th anniversary, and sees the crew of the Defiant traveling back to the 23rd century, and encountering James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and the crew of the Enterprise as they seek out a Klingon spy as seen in the classic episode The Trouble with Tribbles.

Captain Sisko (Avery Brooks), Dax (Terry Farrell), O’Brien, Bashir (Alexander Siddig) and Worf (Micheal Dorn) all must find a way to blend in and not disrupt the timeline, and what we get is a tour de force episode that blends the characters from Deep Space Nine seamlessly into footage from The Original Series.

The sets, the props, the costumes, the lighting, the look of the episode, looks amazingly like the Original Series. One cannot help but sit and enjoy everything that happens in this episode.

I also believe this is the first introduction of Temporal Investigations officers.

This is episode is just s much fun, there’s a lot of humor, and there are countless priceless moments. A perfect celebration of Trek.

And the Human Adventure continues Thursday as I continue my travels with Voyager, and then next week I continue to explore Star Trek: Deep Space Nine The Complete Series on DVD now available from Paramount Pictures.

Boldly go…