PATRON TAKES - DS9 S1E4
Added 2025-03-31 12:44:07 +0000 UTCTAKES WILL BE READ 4/22
Comments
Same for me, watched a vhs in the UK at a Star Trek club in a local library that had been sent over from the US. It was the only way to see DS9 before official VHS tapes came out.
Paul Rymer
2025-04-29 14:10:09 +0000 UTCLooking forward to this one.., It holds a special place in my heart because it was one of the Episodes that Aired on the 1st night I attended our Local Star Trek Club, you now back before the Networks wised up & started cracking down on public broadcasting copyrights ;p That & I thought the 'Story device' was quite original in its day
Laurie Rebisz
2025-04-29 13:48:17 +0000 UTCBest thing about this one is it's showcasing of Odo's character, who's one of my favorites. Interesting mysetery too ig. Not one of the best though. 6.9/10, C Tier, Good. Below TNG's The Masterpiece Society and above TOS's The Deadly Years
Steven Cressler
2025-04-21 22:44:15 +0000 UTCThis is an episode that got worse with a rewatch for me. Learning more about these characters for the first time is the highlight, and most of the episode is average. But It's the ending and "twist" that really bring "A Man Alone" down for me. C-
River Acheron
2025-04-21 14:29:12 +0000 UTCAs a trans person, I resonate with Jadzia in a lot of ways, but in particular in this episode with the discomfort people have sometimes felt around my transition. "I suggest that you allow yourself to feel comfortable with your discomfort. Time can do the rest." is actually pretty good advice. I know lots of people don't care for this episode, and it's not amazing or anything, but I like Odo, and Quark, and murder mysteries, and how Real the O'Brien marriage is. so for me it's a pretty solid 7/10 (B)
awktopus
2025-04-21 10:47:25 +0000 UTCI dont have time to write it, and you don’t have time to read it. C for “couldnt care less”.
Column Meanie
2025-04-20 09:58:05 +0000 UTCOne of the few episodes of DS9 that I find not just poorly executed but poorly made. A few scenes have abrupt edits, like they didn't have enough coverage, and the acting and directing are both stilted. Saved from an E by the Odo-Quark relationship. D.
John M.
2025-04-19 22:43:59 +0000 UTCOdo has great incite to couples , too many compromises! Laws change , justice is justice, a good murder mystery
DataL0re
2025-04-19 22:08:20 +0000 UTCOn Netflix this episode is the one after the pilot. Don't know why.
Sam Langanke
2025-04-19 19:52:18 +0000 UTCLove getting deep dives into characters like this. Odo is so well written.
Aramis Calcutt
2025-04-19 19:39:24 +0000 UTCThis should have been shown after the pilot but they decided to have the previous episode on first. It creates minor continuity errors in dialogue and also seems odd to not see Keiko sooner.
Paul Rymer
2025-04-19 17:47:31 +0000 UTCRikers clone never experienced a single second of life.
Tony B
2025-04-18 16:34:02 +0000 UTCIt always seemed to me that killing a clone that had never experienced a single second of life was different than one that was up and about.
Tony B
2025-04-18 16:33:31 +0000 UTCMedioCre detective story that sends in the Clones. The Odo persecution stuff is much Better. Don't care for Keiko as a teacher. traditional school Desks and a bell? come on! Quark was right, hooman inDoctrination!
TinMan_7B9
2025-04-17 14:59:26 +0000 UTCI love the scene where Quark tells the bajorans that he, as Odo's adversary, is probably the closest thing Odo has to a friend. Love that
Andreas Schmitt
2025-04-16 13:47:52 +0000 UTCI can see this story working great for TNG
Badger
2025-04-13 05:49:50 +0000 UTCAgreed, not a high bar, but better than TNG S1. Season one is defensible, but its definitely got its warts and rough spots.
D Gyre
2025-04-10 19:19:49 +0000 UTCAnother B- for me. Overall it's not quite 'banger' level but there's too many good character moments, and new lore about Odo plus continued lore about Miles & Keiko, plus the mystery plot does *just* enough. It isn't terribly surprising that Odo didn't do it, or the ultimate resolution, but there is some fun and twists in how we get there. Overlooked Awesomeness: Keiko's pitch to Rom framing the benefits in a very Ferengi way.
D Gyre
2025-04-10 19:17:15 +0000 UTCSo one of the things I appreciate about this episode is the subtle ways DS9 develops characters without turning them into caricatures. Juxtapose the dinner scene with the O’Briens with their scenes from the Wounded. They have to point at the fact that they’re from different cultures with obvious dialogue and the subtext that Keiko’s food is weird. The DS9 dinner scene illustrates that they’re a blended family by just having O’Brien casually eating with chopsticks. It shows growth from that first dinner scene, without outright pointing to it. Also, love Nog’s line “I know who you are.” Really illustrating the things Nog is expected to know vs Jake. They didn’t point at it, like all the Worf scenes from the early TNG seasons. And then their little plot just illustrates that they are just boys goofing around. I really like that.
Sainjl
2025-04-08 20:14:40 +0000 UTCThis one really falls flat for me. The Odo storyline is fine, but the mystery isn't particularly interesting and the episode's focus character isn't that involved in solving it. And the Keiko storyline is just weird. She's a botanist, why would she start a school as opposed to, like, an arboretum? Y'know, like the one she happily worked in on the Enterprise? C for the main plot but I think the Keiko stuff pulls it down to a D.
Jen A. Blue
2025-04-08 04:40:20 +0000 UTCPerhaps you can best say that "under Bajoran law" killing your clone is murder, since the space station is in Bajoran space and not technically part of the united federation of planets.
Kristopher
2025-04-06 14:14:26 +0000 UTCUp the long ladder, Riker killed a clone. This was made before Past Prolog (1993) But was aired after. Aron Eisenberg's (Nog) opening credit is misspelled as "Aron Eisenerg". The typo is fixed in some later releases. When Odo is checking Ibudan's activity log in his quarters on the transport ship, a couple of the events listed on the log are "Departure from Alderaan Spaceport" and "Dinner with Della Santina". Alderaan is a planet from the Star Wars galaxy. "Della Santina" is coordinating/line producer Robert Della Santina.
empirejeff
2025-04-04 00:20:25 +0000 UTCThis was pretty boring. It wants to be a mystery but doesn't play it up, it wastes time on a lame B Story that has nothing to do with anything important, and it's all on the dull side. Also, minus points for kids and Ferengi, but at least this Ferengi doesn't scamper.
Ken R
2025-04-03 09:56:32 +0000 UTCWhile I'm not a huge fan of these early episodes, I respect what they were trying to do. We are already getting both an A Story and B story that deal with developing their main characters.
Nathan Walker
2025-04-02 03:48:32 +0000 UTCI feel like if a federation officer is commanding it, that's pretty clear that it's federation run and subject to their laws.
Evan Guthrie
2025-04-01 22:18:32 +0000 UTCI enjoy any episode that gives Odo more screentime, and this fleshes him out better than the small tidbits from the last few. Future episodes do better, but this is a good focus episode nonetheless, solid B.
cricketlenny
2025-04-01 20:45:04 +0000 UTCI'm not sure if the station is subject to Federation law. I would explain why but I'm worried it would be the most minor of spoilers. I think we can infer that Bajorian Law and Federation Law are similar as they are applying for Federation Membership
Loot Narsbaar
2025-04-01 14:52:33 +0000 UTCNo, why would they? Bajor is not part of the federation, every crime committed in their space falls under their jurisdiction, federation law is irrelevant.
Phillip Grischa
2025-04-01 05:54:47 +0000 UTCUp the long ladder is best erased from trek, but if you must have it, realize that whatever bad science they were using to clone had dead lumps of flesh with no sentience. It looked like half formed clay with no life signs. In this case there is an individual, who seems very individual, sentient, and alive.
Crankygrandma
2025-04-01 04:01:47 +0000 UTCUp a long ladder….erase from canon!
Crankygrandma
2025-04-01 03:50:05 +0000 UTCAren't they subject to Federation law?
Evan Guthrie
2025-04-01 02:25:38 +0000 UTCPretty glaring plot hole in this episode. Choose one and stick with it.
Evan Guthrie
2025-04-01 02:25:00 +0000 UTCOdo + Quark in this episode was so good! QuOdo? But honest question, do you think Jake got a whooping after he ran from Sisco? Lol, not a top episode but a banger all the same !
Sixto
2025-04-01 02:19:38 +0000 UTCOdo arrested Ibudan for murdering his clone, but I thought we established in Up The Long Ladder that killing your clone wasn’t murder. It’s set up pretty clearly that those on the station are subject to Federation law.
Evan Guthrie
2025-04-01 02:10:36 +0000 UTCApparently there’s some really weird court case in int the back story of the universe establishing killing your own clone is murder. Is is jut me or does that seem like a case for Samuel T. Cogley?
Matthew McKinnon-Gray
2025-04-01 01:58:04 +0000 UTCDeep Space Nine's First Season is--objectively speaking--better than TNG's. But it's far from perfect. The show is a spinoff, and it strives to find its own identity while also juggling a new bunch of characters. If DS9 S1 has any major faults, it's being kinda... boring for the most part. Competent dullness. This episode is an example of that. Clearly, Odo is meant to be a mysterious character, so an installment that is designed to "shed some light" on a character this early on who is meant to be mysterious is going to go... mostly nowhere. It's mostly the pacing of this episode that bothers me. I'll still defend DS9 S1... for the most part. I personally believe the show "takes off" in S2 (most people will probably say S3), with the writers and actors displaying WAY MORE confidence in the characters. Still, S1 has its gems... just not this one, lulz.
Shortskirtsandexplosions
2025-03-31 22:45:16 +0000 UTCYeah, Trek really talks out of both sides of its mouth on that issue
Forbidden Donut
2025-03-31 22:45:09 +0000 UTCWait, I though DS9 was supposed to be the 'dark' one!! What the hell Gene!!
#MaxwellDidNothingWrong
2025-03-31 22:38:02 +0000 UTCThe best part of season one is how the first few episodes they pick a character, write a story for them and their background, then sprinkle in supporting character interaction. Last week was Kira, this week it was Odo.
#MaxwellDidNothingWrong
2025-03-31 22:37:16 +0000 UTCLynch mobs outside a school house... Miles, where the hell did you take your wife??
#MaxwellDidNothingWrong
2025-03-31 22:35:57 +0000 UTCThis is one of my least favorite episodes of season 1. Nothing about the story is engaging to me. I think Odo is a fantastic character but this episode doesn't really do him justice. It's a part of those early season growing pains that every Trek in the Berman era went through.
Spencer Loften
2025-03-31 22:29:43 +0000 UTCI remember watching this when it aired and being so bored. It's mostly world building, decent, but not great.
Cobheran
2025-03-31 21:56:34 +0000 UTCHere we find out that more and more of the stations past is coming back to haunt them. But just more world building but fun.
Jason Biggs
2025-03-31 21:48:09 +0000 UTCFairly forgettable, really, but it establishes that (at least on some planets) killing your own clone is murder. Makes you wonder about “Up the Long Ladder.”
tyranusfan
2025-03-31 21:39:12 +0000 UTCThis is the first good story for Odo!
Ron Hubbard Jr
2025-03-31 20:37:51 +0000 UTC“Killing your own clone is still murder” unless you are William T Riker 😉 #upthelongladder
Jon1701
2025-03-31 19:17:03 +0000 UTCFor me, it's specifically the way that one Bajoran half smirks as he says it, almost like the actor is struggling not to feel embarassed.
Nolan
2025-03-31 19:14:30 +0000 UTCEarly in the run of this series you get some DS9 does TNG (much as TNG did TOS in s1). The clone reveal is 50% that. C-tier for me.
Loot Narsbaar
2025-03-31 19:06:35 +0000 UTCNow that we can see that we are sitting in just one place and that the relationship between the Bajorans and Cardasians is a lot more complex than we first thought... The idea of a criminal faking his own murder and pinning the whole thing on Odo as a way of avenging himself is an interesting story, but something about how this episode plays out just feels a little corny to me. Don't worry though, the show does get better. Like how early TNG took some time to settle in, DS9 has it's own share of early growing pains. Hang in there and I'm sure you'll come to love it more as it continues.
Kristopher
2025-03-31 18:15:21 +0000 UTCA note: these takes are for episode 403 "A Man Alone" as episodes 3&4 were switched on airing, and it's hard to know that based on the DVDs
Nolan
2025-03-31 16:48:09 +0000 UTCWe continue our looks at these new characters by shifting over to Odo. A fairly standard murder mystery, which I suppose we haven't really seen since TOS. You may or may not be ahead of the characters. We also get more of Keiko (remember when you guys thought she'd never appear again?) Which brings me to something that will make Josh lose interest in the show: DS9 is set up like a Western town. The Promenade is main street, with a saloon, sheriff's office, doctor's clinic, schoolhouse and businesses. Our characters fall into those roles as well, Sisko as Mayor, Chief as Blacksmith, etc. All right on the frontier of unexplored space.
Nolan
2025-03-31 16:46:26 +0000 UTCOh no Odo working as a po po must work solo 'cause Sisko acting like a dodo and solve the case pro bono I find this episode so so. C for clones
Groovybaboon
2025-03-31 16:34:05 +0000 UTCThe real start of Odo's character development and story, from our perspective. As well as his back-and-forth with Quark, and his mysterious back story. What are your thoughts on Odo as a character so far, and how would want to you see him developed?
The Ninth Doctor
2025-03-31 15:28:46 +0000 UTCIt's a pretty dull episode to be honest, though at least they gave Odo an episode. The great thing about DS9 is pretty much the entire main cast and even a few secondary characters got solid development throughout the show. There weren't really any characters that felt neglected by the writers like Uhura/Chekov/Geordi/Troi.
Timothy Nikiforovs
2025-03-31 15:08:46 +0000 UTCThis episode was produced before "Past Prologue", which is why Odo's makeup and Kira's hair both revert somewhat to what they looked like in the premiere. Easter egg: Ibudan's itinerary that Odo looks at includes "departure from Alderaan spacesport".
Steven Linden
2025-03-31 14:43:24 +0000 UTCI remember this being a solid episode, and starts the Quark/Odo dynamic, the best of enemies, in that they may be opposite sides, by they respect each other for what they are, and them being good at it.
Thomas Cole
2025-03-31 14:43:07 +0000 UTCOdo! Now that we're a few episodes in, what do you think of our "outside looking in" character? You guys were speculating about one a few weeks back and you got your wish! Except this time, he isn't even humanoid, he just "passes himself off" as one, as he says. As the show goes on, would you prefer he meet fellow shapeshifters at some point or have it stay a mystery that never gets solved, despite him trying? Both could make for good stories, I think.
THE LORE!!!
2025-03-31 14:28:20 +0000 UTCOdo episode. I liked it. A bit of a who dunnit. Establishes the difference between Worf on the Enterprise and Odo on DS9. Worf is a security guard. Odo is more of a detective/investigator.
Darin Wagner
2025-03-31 14:24:33 +0000 UTCIKR!!?? Sometimes, my husband and I will just randomly shout it out..
Nina
2025-03-31 14:20:00 +0000 UTCSecond this
Ian Meyers
2025-03-31 14:14:02 +0000 UTCThe second episode produced after the pilot I think, it’s fine some fun scenes and I like the end nice to see the impact on Keiko. For me the best part of the episode is seeing the character dynamics continue to evolve.
Darren Seal
2025-03-31 14:13:46 +0000 UTCThe biggest thing I remember from this episode is "SHIFTER!!"
Nina
2025-03-31 14:12:30 +0000 UTCDS9 is the American wild west, but though a futuristic sci-fi lens. We dive into our sheriff character this episode.
Mel Primus
2025-03-31 14:00:47 +0000 UTCKilling your own clone is still murder ... Riker is lucky he didn't phaser Riker and Pulaski junior on Bajor.
Phillip Grischa
2025-03-31 13:49:48 +0000 UTCThese first few are really taking one character at a time and trying to develop them.
Phil Ken Sebben
2025-03-31 13:45:29 +0000 UTCI remember this one, but only vaguely as being kinda... boring. I mean, obviously, Odo was an expensive special effect, so maybe they were going to write him out of the show, but he's also a credit character, so. there was never much tension as to whether or not he did or didn't do it. There's a couple of later mystery episodes where the one who claims innocence may or may not actually be innocent, because they're a guest character, as opposed to a main character.
John
2025-03-31 13:08:39 +0000 UTCDS9 deals heavily with racism. Do you feel that it's a good shift for Trek to examine that more in a cross-species way, where "oh they're romulans" or Ferengi, or Klingons was more easily passed off in earlier series? (Consider Bones' language towards Spock)
Ross Townsend
2025-03-31 13:04:55 +0000 UTCClassic murder mystery but there is also a lot of background stuff and ideas and character dynamics and nuances being brought on so the show is still kind of building its world by the 4th episode. I love the subtle mention that the Bajoran citizens on the station who trashed Odo's station and attacked him for no reason issues no apology after discovering he was innocent. It is a little nugget to once again establish this station as a more rough and not a pristine place to be. No wonder Keiko is mad Obrien moved here from what she sees they'll get mugged on the first day.
Fedora The Explorar
2025-03-31 13:04:13 +0000 UTC
