The Badlands do indeed look cool.  But they went through some changes as the effects got better.  In the VOY premiere they look kind of like the pink/purple slime tendrils from Ghostbusters II, but from here on out, the pillars are made of flames, so it really does look like hell or something.

Well in Season 5 alone there are titles like: The Darkness and the Light, In Purgatory's Shadow, By Inferno's Light, Ties of Blood and Water, and Children of Time.  There were also some jokey titles, which I like just for being something slightly more than just one word from the episode or something.
 
Next season we…

The Glory of Death, The War Time Escalation, The Card Meddler.

The real-world answer was that it made production easier.  In-universe, again, it was the 80s and the Halloween paranoia was at its height.  In E.T. they trick or treat before sunset too.

Eh, Natural Prime Numbers 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21, and 22 weren't as good.

And this is demonstrably true, save for very few exceptions (and the TOS era, and season 1 of TNG).  The movies and the TNG era post season 1 are remarkably consistent with stardates.

But I wouldn't really call it an O'Brien Must Suffer episode like The Assignment or Hard Time or Whispers.

Empok Nor is more about Garak and Nog.  O'Brien just happens to be the boss of that job.

I remember that.  And I remember that Auberjonois got it wrong.  Shadowplay was of course in season two.  It was one of those episodes that forshadowed the Dominion threat.

I know someone who recently saw his first episode of Star Trek.  He looked up what episode to see and decided that concensus suggested The City on the Edge of Forever.  He was blown away.  I'm thinking of recommending The Inner Light and The Visitor to him for similarly epic stand-alone science fiction Trek stories. …

Do they ever say that O'Brien's Catholic?  He's Irish, but in the future, who knows?  Besides, TNG, and even TOS, sure make it sound as though we've abandoned faith in the supernatural and organized religion.  I would think this mindset would only grow after Kirk's many encounters with god-like beings that turn out to…

He is his species' one of the 100.

RE: the idealism of farming: that's probably Ira Stephen Behr.  He's not fond of replicators and other technology that he feels has a dehumanizing side effect.

That's assuming monogamy.  In rebuilding a population, I'm pretty sure that has to go out the window.

Speaking of Hannibal, next week we get a Bryan Fuller episode: Empok Nor.

It has "The Assignment" though.  O'Brien suffers there.

This episode actually reminds me of the second episode of Daria.  Both have similar functions in that they have a party as an excuse to get as many of the characters together as possible, so they can introduce them to the audience.

The rank and the "ex" should be a clue.

@avclub-0c3e626d1a287cdc48c77515c8dcc243:disqus That could be why TOS and ENT decided to have the first officers perform dual functions as science officers.  Worf was also first officer of the Defiant, but he too had a different job and a thorough backstory.

Note to self: Title future Trek episode "Qtsy Title."