*SPOILERS*

*SPOILERS*
I may be remembering wrong but the only redeeming thing about Shadowplay was the hints it dropped about Odo's origins and the Dominion. I watched bits of DS9 as a kid so I always knew what the deal was with both of those but watching the whole thing as an adult I really started to appreciate the little hints…

While the last third of S2 definitely picks it up a notch (Maquis is one of my favourites for what Sisko says about Earth being paradise), S3 starts strong with Search part 1 then crashes with Search part 2.
I remember S3 being a bit hit and miss but the standouts for me were Search part 1 and Defiant but the best of…

My go-to good Bashir episode is Inquisition from S6

Agreed, one of my favourite things about the show is that Nog and other characters like Rom gradually evolve in the background. There's rarely an episode entirely about them but they make progress and make the whole thing more believable

haha, I just spent far too much time trying to work out the episode list from those descriptions. Reckon I agree completely, especially The Maquis two-parter

Had a look on memory alpha, apparently he was semi-pro in high school but turned it down in favour of acting. In the episode he has to bat left handed because he was such a god-damned amazing player that he physically couldn't pretend to be bad at baseball!

It's a tiny point but I really like how the opening music changes at the start of season 4. Somehow speeding it up slightly and adding more of a tempo helps show that it's now a more confident and established series and adding the Defiant makes it seem like there's more going on generally. Adding the sense that DS9 is…

Rules of Engagement is almost worth it for the badass chewing out Sisko gives Worf at the end of the episode.

Interesting fact, Max Grodenchik (Rom) is apparently an amazing baseball player IRL

You mean Improbable Cause/The Die is Cast right? A Simple Investigation was poor as I remember

they happen in the same episode (or about 30 minutes apart to be precise)

Explorers has one redeeming feature though (in addition to the Sisko/Jake stuff which I like):

Start of season 4. Beard appears towards the end of season 3 and there are a strange 2-3 episodes of hair and beard together

Agreed about Kira and Dukat, that was one of my favourite things about the whole [*SPOILERS*] DS9 occupation arc at the beginning of season 6 when she had to work with Dukat for several episodes at a time.

That was my assumption as well, that they're learning English

A beautiful scene…only slightly ruined by thinking about exactly how the universal translator must work

Thanks for posting that, fascinating read

[SPOILERS AHOY]

I thought Vortex was a nice oasis in a desert of mediocrity (unless I'm remembering the wrong episode, the one where Odo thinks he might have found where he comes from right?)