I slapped myself in the forehead and said "duh!" when September revealed that. What show have I been watching? This is Fringe for fuck's sake! What else were the Observers going to be except a bunch of scientists who are in over their heads?

It helps that they don't harp on it too much either. They integrate it with his character, sure, but he remains basically the same guy. Julian's pretty well defined by the time we get to "Dr. Bashir, I Presume?" and he's still basically himself afterwards. He hangs out with the Chief, does his doctoring and gets on…

I'm finding that on this re-watch of the series. Earlier episodes which really don't have a whole lot to recommend them on their own merits have thowaway references to this or that. And that's pretty nice. "Dax" is like that, if only for the Trill Rules, with a surprisingly good Fionnula Flanagan performance. "Q-Less"…

You're exactly right and…

Likewise, it was a bit early to do something like the Q episode,
intended to distance DS9 from TNG..

SPOILERS, natch.

I'd say "Cardassians" is legitimately good. "Rules of Acquisition" and "Melora" are pretty painful though.

@avclub-92a4841c9f86965effbc29fa6eae9f77:disqus For what it's worth, I started my DS9 Relaunch reading with Unity and it was all pretty coherent. I guess reading a blurb about what happens in Rising Son couldn't hurt, but it was all very easy to follow.

I've seen that episode like 10 times and I still get literal chills when I watch that. It's batshit insanity at its finest.

The clock is indeed awesome but the baseball's better for what it represents for Sisko.

Granted, that was pretty good. Credit where it's due.

He's not supposed to make sense. He's supposed to be "Hey look! It's Q! We're on episode 6, why aren't you watching this yet?!"

I've seen most DS9 episodes several times but I don't think I'd watched "Babel" more than once or twice before today. One thing I noticed is how despite the pretty boilerplate Trek plot, there's lots of early subtle hints to the history of Deep Space Nine/Terok Nor and Bajor.

"Hammock time!"
"Yo!"

Actually, my favourite stuff of Lofton's comes in "Homefront/Paradise Lost". He's not exactly integral to the proceedings, but the chemistry between he, Brooks and Brock Peters is awesome.

That clock is really the star of "Dramatis Personae". But then, that episode really isn't that bad. Ira Behr thought it was a pretty good show and said that it was "a third season episode that we tried in the first year." I don't totally agree, but he has a point.

If Tosk were rocking an amphibian briefcase he would have totally slayed.

Yeah. We all sit around talking up Jeffery Combs and how awesome he is and…

@avclub-e4e009abf54577f493010e8274557e52:disqus just needs to bide his time. He's going to be a big hit when the reviews get into the home stretch.

From a story standpoint, "The Passenger" is par for the course for DS9 season one. Pretty average, inoffensive stuff. But I hate the episode for Siddig's performance. It's the most awkward and terrible thing I've ever seen. I literally can't watch it again.