DS9 does plenty to establish that the Changelings don't really consider Odo to be a mature adult. That he's considered as such by the humans and Bajorans (and consequently the audience) he serves with is our failure to understand.

This is the one big flaw about the Reckoning for me, too. Jake already distrusts the Prophets, and now his dad's okay with throwing him to them… and no pushback at all from Jake except a teary resolution? That's not the conflict-okay DS9 we've grown to love.

SPOILERS LIKE MYSTERY BOOKS

I just think the existence of modern tech like Siri kind of erodes the line of criticism about how weird the reaction is to Vic. We're okay with Siri because we know her answers are written, and we're okay with the Enterprise computer being super smart because it still sounds generated, but how fluid does the…

Yep. "The Circle" arc is pretty awesome, and probably the last time the Bajoran stuff really drives the plot.

SPOILERS

I agree, but what to do when the whole premise of why the relationship is interesting is from the prospective of the male character. I don't know; it's a valid point but from the show's perspective it's not the main reason they're forced to resolve the Odo/Kira tension, because having spent almost no time on her…

I suppose someone thought "but their gods are REAL and deeply weird aliens!" would cut it, without realizing that it just made the Wormhole Aliens the subject rather than the Bajorans.

That too.

One of the downsides of this being "Trek" is that in the early seasons they were always struggling to find the sci-fi angle in the Bajor stories… and there just aren't many to be found. They're essentially stand-ins for humanity.

I'm pretty sad about it too.

Some other random thoughts about why "His Way" is great.

I said I was going to defend "His Way" and I am. First, let's get this out of the way: as a wee pre-teen I had a lot invested in the Odo/Kira ship. Odo is the Spock 'outsider identification figure' yes, which is always teenbait but his particular brand is marked by a deep cynicism about whether or not it's even worth…

I've always interpreted Carson to be straight because of his relationship with Mrs. Hughes, but yours might be the better reading. Hm.

Actually, when they aired you never heard that plinkity music or saw the ending screencap. They had entirely different end credits that were on black cards and then squished so NBC could run promos.

Contra position: I voted against her because of her foreign policy views, which have since been tempered by her time as Obama's Secretary of State. Prior to her service under him, I think I made the right call in that primary.

If it came back, it would probably get huge ratings. When NBC cancelled it, it was low performing but would now be in the top 10 - and that's assuming it wouldn't pick up viewers from all that Netflixing.

"Hottest, coolest pairing of 1999" nails it.

I end up skipping this show often and I don't know why, because I love the adult cast. They seem to have found a sweet spot with the Bert character where he's on just enough to be cute and not enough to annoy the fuck out of me, like in the first episodes. And I'm often surprised how funny (and raunchy?) the Kate/Pete…

So much this. Also, on 'The West Wing', the main characters get outmaneuvered and often out-argued on a bunch of issues. It's impossible to imagine anyone in the 'House of Cards US' being an equal match for Underwood, let alone beating him.