Ignore the attempted tangent. There was a better thread.

You can't beat City on the Edge of Forever as best single episode, IMO. Mirror, Mirror and A Piece of the Action are close 2nds. From TNG, I'd take the one where holodeck Moriarty takes over the ship, or Best of Both Worlds.

I think a TNG thread would be fun, but I'd rather see Shax do A B5 thread.. having someone go through the series that hasn't seen it before would be pretty fun.

Back to the topic at hand....

Past Prologue
Episode 2

Plot summary:
Bashir makes 'friends' with Garak, a Cardassian that stays on the station that everyone things as a spy. As he's telling everyone, a Bajoran ship appears, being chased by Cardassians.. they are able to save the guy just before his ship blows up, and he requests political asylum.

The Cardassians say he's a terrorist, and Sisko has to figure out what's going on. He quickly decides to grant asylum after being assured by the Bajoran he's not a terrorist anymore. Kira talks to him some, and we get the standard 'you've changed'... 'No, I haven't' type interaction.

It seems the Bajoran has business with the Klingons... that can't be good. The sisters are working both ends, and go to Garick to see if they can sell him out ot the Cardassians.

Kira fights with Tahna (the Bajoran).. who wants her to help him steal a ship. They have the fight again.

Garak asks Bashir to make sure he buys a suit at exactly 20:55... interesting.

Kira goes to Odo for advice, talking out what to do.

Meanwhile, Bashir spies on Garak's meeting with the Sisters, and gets the real scoop... Tahna is buying explosives from the sisters. They decide on entrapment.. it doesn't go as planned, naturally. Tanha and Kira fight on the ship, and Kira wins, more or less, and Tanha surrenders to Sisko, rather than the Cardassians.

Running Commentary:
– Bashir is cute... kinda makes me throw up in my mouth a bit.
– So they can't sense a ship until it's in transporter range? Seems kinda short.. Enterprise has WAY better sensors than that.
– What the heck are Lursa and B'Etor doing there?? Random TNG characters FTW!
– Whatever they call the market area, it sure is weird.. lots of big gold posts, and sorta a balcony.. not sure what the look is supposed to be.
– Rats? That's random... ahh, it's Odo.. nice. Though are there really Rats in deep space?
– I thought Klingons didn't bargain? I guess Lursa and B'Etor are exceptions to rule (that's OK)
– Shax was right, Kira's pretty cool. Also, Nana Visitor is probably the best actor in the cast (so far, anyway)
– Doesn't seem like radiation from a bomb in space should do anything... too heavy on the analogues

While this was a bit heavy handed, it seemed more together and cohesive than the 1st episode, and we see the beginnings of a long term plot. Interestingly, other than everyone mentioning how badly they treat prisoners, the Cardassians aren't such bad guys in this one... interesting way to go in just the 2nd episode.

Ahh.. I didn't realize they mean DS9 to be 'not pretty'... I thought it just needed repair.

I remember the Q episode... he shows up there with Picard's ex-girlfriend, right? It definitely got me to watch when it was new, though I don't recall it being good.

As far as the Klingons go, it's not just Worf... other Klingons deifnitely refused to make deals with Picard at times because it was un-Klingon... definitely happened on Enterprise, too. Lursa and B'Etor are also certainly depicted as sneaky Klingons, though, so it does sorta make sense.

Both, really. But they're in a part of space where the Federation doesn't yet have a presence, so it's Sisko attempting to bring the Federation to Casa Blanca (along with the unexpected religious overtones) in all its seediness and danger.




Possibly my least favorite episode, largely because Sisco can't hold his own with Q anywhere near as well as Picard could.




Most humans won't sell you cocaine, but there are a whole bunch who will.

Watched "Past Prologue" today. I can't promise that I'll regularly keep up with your viewing, but I had the time today.


I was initially surprised to see you speaking favorably about the episode, as I'd remembered disliking it, but I've never gone back to rewatch the first season (other than "Emissary") because I generally didn't like them upon first viewing. Looking back now, that dislike came more from an inability to understand what DS9 was about than from the actual execution.

In hindsight, I can see why it was so incredibly important to give Kira an episode to debate her loyalties, even if it felt contrived and pointless because we knew all along where she'd land. But it makes her progression in the series that much more believable, and that uncomfortable tension between her and Sisko in the final shot, refusing to offer to a definitive reconciliation, was priceless. There's will become one of the more compelling interpersonal relationships of the series.

Could have done without that whole ambush though. Hard to believe they went in with absolutely no plan, and warp speed chase scenes are always so darn boring.

Loved Bashir in this episode as well. It's so obvious here that he was prepared to thrive in a Next Generation setting but is at a complete loss to cope with the uncertainty and rough edges of a loosely policed non-Federation culture (let alone a plethora of them). He serves an important symbolic purpose aboard DS9 as the naivite of the Federation, isolated in its comforts and simple ideologies that don't readily apply to a place like this.

Didn't realize Garrack appeared so early on in the series. His motives, allegiances, and actions are all a little too explicit here. He'll become a delightfully more opaque character as the series progresses.


All in all, a very strong second episode so long as one can appreciate what DS9 is trying to accomplish and not judge it by Next Gen standards (as I once did).



Minor Details:

- Kira was originally supposed to be Ro Laren (from TNG), but Michelle Forbes declined to reprise the role.

- This was the third produced episode, even though it was the second to air.

- Look closely in Garrack's tailor shop. In addition to seeing Quark's jacket hanging, I'm pretty sure that's Neelix's suit that he'll ultimately wear on Voyager. I'd always known Paramount was good about recycling sets, but I wouldn't have expected them to pull out a costume after four years in storage.

Ro Laren would have been terrible in the role Kira is in... I'm glad they didn't do that. By this time on TNG, Laren was pretty much just a good little Starfleet officer, (and I never liked her much, anyway).

I agree 100% with your critiques, I think it more about standards, I didn't like the show much when I was expecting it do be as good as TNG at it's peak. Watching it with lower expectations is much better

@ Dupersuper: Really? Not a holodeck fan? They certainly got carried away over time, but the 'Data-as-Holmes' ones always touched my fancy, and Moriatry was super-well done, IMO. MUCH better than the current psych version everyone likes so much.