Dominion War Episodes

[00:00:03] Speaker A: Discovery, go at throttle up. [00:00:10] Speaker B: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. [00:00:26] Speaker A: Hello again. Welcome to the Star Trek Warp Top 10 podcast. What is going on, everyone out there? I am your host, Phil Rizzo, joined by Brian Parks. What's going on, Bomber? How's it been, baby? [00:00:38] Speaker B: How the hell are you? Ready for some Star Trek talk here? You know, I'm pumped up. [00:00:43] Speaker A: We're talking track, man. We're doing during the top 10 pod, ladies and gentlemen. I know maybe some of you heard our first supplemental pod that we put out there with Brian Parks watching encountered Farpoint. So we're going to continue to do that. Brian has watched the first five episodes now, I believe, of Next Gen. So we're going to record those, his impressions of those episodes and get some little, little supplemental pods out there to supplement the normal top 10 list. How's, how's that going, Bomber? I know that we talked about it a little bit, but you just started watching Next Gen, you know. [00:01:17] Speaker B: Yeah, it's going good. Unfortunately it's all on streaming, so I can't get my money back. But I, you know, it's, it's, it's been an adventure. Yeah, no, I'm enjoying it. It's fun, you know, and I know, like you said, I know the first season is tough to get through, you always say, but it's so far it's been fun. So I can only imagine it's going to get better. What can we do? [00:01:34] Speaker A: Yeah, and you guys have heard me say this ad nauseam, but I mean the caveat is that, you know, the first season is, you know, what made me fall in love with Star Trek. But obviously, you know, it's 1987 television, it's a first season of a show, it's got some flaws, but no, I liked it. Right now I will take. You're not put off by it right now, that's a win and that's fine with me. Now you keep pointing this out to me. I'm not giving you enough credit, Bomber, that you're an old school TV guy like me, you enjoy watching old. It doesn't bother you. For some reason I have this complex when I try to get new people in the Trek that if they try to watch one of the 90s shows or even obviously the original series, that they're going to be put off by like the quote unquote cheesy effects. But I really got to stop doing that. Like it's a good show, is a good show, good stories are good stories and good characters are good. Characters. And, you know, I'm going to kind of let that one go. [00:02:21] Speaker B: It's almost like. No, I agree. I'm trying to think of, like. I know it's not television. It's more like a movie. But I keep thinking of, like, something like Superman with Christopher Reeve, you know. [00:02:30] Speaker A: Which, by the way, I have falsely said was called Superman the Motion Picture. On this pod, it was Superman the Movie. I was. I was confused. [00:02:39] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, okay. [00:02:40] Speaker A: The Motion Picture. [00:02:41] Speaker B: Motion Picture. [00:02:42] Speaker A: I was making fun of the fact that, you know, we're still amazed that pictures still move. But it was. It was called Superman the Movie. So just a little sidebar, but go ahead. You were talking about Superman. [00:02:50] Speaker B: Yeah, No, I was just thinking about, you know. Yeah. You know, like, I love the. The original movie, but I love Part two even better because there's this, you know, he really battles the villains in the city and all that. That was outstanding. But. But, I mean, some of the effects of him flying are obviously rough because it's, you know, whatever, 1970, whatever. But. But, like, you know, I don't know if it was just that time where it's like, you know, it didn't really bother me or you kind of let your disbelief go, especially for, like, you know, for something. And that's a movie like, let alone a TV show where it's like, you know, so that's never been something where I'm like, oh, my God, what the hell are we doing here? You know, like, it's just. It adds to the kind of fun of it, I guess. I don't know, you know, 100%. [00:03:25] Speaker A: And I tell you what, like, the tagline for that movie, I don't know if you remember or not, like, on a lot of the posters and stuff, the tagline was. And it's a beautiful tagline. It's. You will believe a man can fly. And that was a testament to, like, where they got to with the special effects for that film. Because that for 1978 or whatever, I think was 78 or 79. [00:03:44] Speaker B: I mean, phenomenal. [00:03:46] Speaker A: I thought it looked absolutely amazing. Like, the helicopter scene is still iconic scenes in comic book slash action, slash movie history. Like, I'll never get tired of seeing that scene with the music and the people of New York seeing Superman for the first time. It was fucking great. [00:04:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:02] Speaker A: And just the effects in general. Like, you know, I rewatched it recently, and it's not. I mean, it looks pretty damn good. Like, him flying. Like, it looks, you know, some of these special effects from the 70s and 80s we can do now with cell phones, right? Like, but that's one of the ones that, like, even if, you know, we have a green screen and we mess with it and stuff, like, we still might not be able to make it look as good as that did in 1978. Now, I'm talking about with no money, of course, and just a phone and maybe a green curtain. But, you know, I think, against my argument, I think stuff from that era gets a bad rap. And I really think that we should be able to watch that stuff with like a. I guess the same way we do with social commentary, right? Like, we watch these movies from the 60s, from the 30s, and obviously they're not going to be as sensitive politically as movies today. But you got to take that with a grain of salt. I'm not forgiven. [00:04:54] Speaker B: No doubt. [00:04:55] Speaker A: But by the same token, I'm not going to get mad at Superman because it looked a little cheesy when he was flying above the earth and waving to us in the end credits to your statement. I just wanted to say real quick, like, for years, two was my favorite as well, just because of that action scene. He's fighting the three dudes. But I think from a movie standpoint, like a cinema standpoint, like, I think one is definitely the stronger film. [00:05:23] Speaker B: Even if I agree with you there, that's like. That's like First Blood for me, you know? Like, I think First Blood is a better movie. But. But. But Rambo 2 is fucking the best, man. It's just the best. You know, there's nothing great comparison. [00:05:37] Speaker A: That's so true. First Blood's the better film. Rambo is the more fun movie. 100%. [00:05:41] Speaker B: No doubt. Even. Even three is funny. They're all ridiculous, but it's just fun. I mean, you know, but I was gonna say, what is your. What do you think we should do, John? Well, surrounding him's out. You remember the ending when they're surrounded by like a million fucking tanks and shit, you know Rambo 3? Yeah, it's trout. [00:05:59] Speaker A: I thought you. I thought you jumped ship to Superman 3, which was equally. [00:06:02] Speaker B: Oh, no, no. Well, Superman 3 is easily it. Actually, it's a good parallel, too, because Superman 3 is ridiculous. Got Richard Prior in that movie, which is just unbelievable. And he's great, you know, but, you. [00:06:12] Speaker A: Know, Robert V. Richard Prior. [00:06:14] Speaker B: Robert Vaughn was the villain. And I'll tell you what I will say to give you this about part three. The thing that freaked me out the most is that woman that turns into, like, a robot in the end. What kid didn't have nightmares our, our age watching that movie that freaked me to out man 100%. [00:06:26] Speaker A: I, I totally did. I think we talked about this on the pod before too. Like that scene me up. [00:06:32] Speaker B: Yeah that was brutal. [00:06:33] Speaker A: I went the whole way home like what the was that? Why would they put that in the movie? I felt so bad for her and the way she petrified. It was terrible. It's terrifying. [00:06:41] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah but I was good. I was gonna say we're going back getting, getting back to next gen on the Star Trek pod here I. It is, it's funny because I know you mentioned your facts and stuff. It hasn't really been to me that much. First of all it's I'm images interested in that. There's a very little action to me so far in the show which I don't know if that's necessarily something that Star Trek is known for his action. I don't necessarily put it with that but it's more about the. I feel like I've noticed it more to be about the more I don't know mental game with going you know there is an intelligence to the show I think that is different than a lot of other things. Does that make any sense? [00:07:18] Speaker A: Totally does. Yeah. That's a good call because you know for years I mean that was kind of what like some people didn't think Star Trek the TV show had enough action. Right. Like that was the comparison with Star wars. Like Star wars was actually Star Trek was more cerebral. Now the movies obviously they take liberties with action. Like do you know any Star Trek movie I really the only exception I could think of is really maybe the Motion Picture didn't really have any like action set pieces per se. [00:07:45] Speaker B: Right. [00:07:46] Speaker A: But every other movie has had action set pieces, battles and movies just have to do that and, and you know the next gen movies and then the Kelvin timeline movies are no exceptions. Like they're very action heavy because it's a movie audience and you want to keep them engaged and blah blah blah but for the most part next gen at least it's definitely more explorer, less battle, less action. That isn't to say that there isn't some cool action coming your way because there is. [00:08:12] Speaker B: Right. [00:08:13] Speaker A: I'm sure on the other shows there's even more D space 9 is very actiony. But yeah, no. So yeah you're going to get more of the let's explore, let's examine the human condition. Let's figure, let's think our way out of this as opposed to let's fight our Way out of this, which, you know, which apparently did the trick because a lot of people, you know, obviously love that. Love that show and that. That philosophy. [00:08:36] Speaker B: Right. [00:08:36] Speaker A: So, yeah, so that's good. So you're enjoying Next Gen. We're going to keep going with that, folks. Brian and I actually also attended the Trek tour convention a couple weeks ago. [00:08:44] Speaker B: I was waiting for you to get involved in this. Yes. [00:08:46] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. You know, from. Right here in New Jersey, baby. Brian lives about 25 minutes from. From the Meadowland. So we just shot over there and had ourselves a good time, man. We saw some good panels. We. We actually interacted with a couple Trek celebs, and we walked around, saw some good merch, talked to some fans, a lot of fun. What'd you think? [00:09:04] Speaker B: I agree. Even though I don't know, you know, I didn't know a lot about. Obviously, I don't know anything about compared to everyone else there. But what I thought was fun, funny was, first of all, they had every main character or main actor from Next Gen, except for Patrick Stewart and LeVar Burton, really. Right. [00:09:19] Speaker A: I mean, 100% right. Yeah. [00:09:21] Speaker B: Everyone else was there, and. And they had a few lower decks people. They had. What was the other show? [00:09:27] Speaker A: They had a Eugene Cordero and Tony Newsome for lower decks were there from, you know, DS9. Terry Farrell was there, you know, Jerry Ryan was there from Voyager. [00:09:38] Speaker B: Yeah, Jerry Ryan. [00:09:39] Speaker A: There were. There were so many. So many. So many people there. And there were some. Some, you know, actors like Robin Curtis from Star Trek 3 and 4. She played Savic, Chris Alley's role, and Jerry Ryan. Yeah, Jerry Ryan. We saw her on the panel with. God, I'm sorry. [00:09:56] Speaker B: No, I was just gonna. I just wanted to keep saying her name. I was just gonna keep saying her name. I was like, I can't believe she was there. It was amazing. And, you know, what else was gonna say was, I never. I just learned this out that. That Gregory Peck's grandson is in one of the new Star Trek shows. What's his name again? Peck. [00:10:12] Speaker A: Ethan Peck. So. And yeah, and Strange New Worlds, you know, was represented, too. Anson Mount. The great Anson Mount who plays Captain Pike. Yep. You have Anson Mount, who also played, you know, Black Bolt in Doctor Strange 2 and on the Inhumans. Ethan Peck was there. Christina Chong, Jess Bush, Celia Rose Gooding, they were all there from Strange New Worlds. I mean, almost every show was represented. It was really, really a lot of fun just to see them interact with fans. And we also got to talk to Jeffrey Combs and, you know, Casey Biggs and Max Groden Chick and. And a lot of these, these recurring characters in DS9. It was, it was a, it was a Trek fest, man. I was loving every minute of it. It was so surreal to see all those actors just kind of hanging out. [00:10:56] Speaker B: And we met another podcast there with the women, wasn't it? Was it, Was it the women talking? [00:11:00] Speaker A: Yeah, the women at Warp. It's a great podcast. So, you know, we introduced ourselves and we, you know, we exchanged our little, Little, Little pod. Pod business cards there and yeah, Women at Warp is a great. It's a great pod. Actually, I failed to mention that Michelle heard from Picard was the one interviewing Jeri Ryan on her panel. And Michelle Hurd has been on Women at Warp, I believe. [00:11:21] Speaker B: Who was the one. Who was the one from God, Picard Season 3 that was there with the, with the. She was hilarious. Very nice with the wacky hair kind of thing. A big hair. What the hell was her name? [00:11:33] Speaker A: Oh, you mean the one who played. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. What was her name? It was the character she was played, Picard. [00:11:39] Speaker B: She was with Jerry. [00:11:40] Speaker A: That was in season two. [00:11:42] Speaker B: Okay. She was with Jeri Ryan on the panel, I think. [00:11:44] Speaker A: Oh, that was Michelle Hurd from Picard. [00:11:46] Speaker B: Oh, that was Michelle Hurd. [00:11:47] Speaker A: That was all three seasons of Picard? [00:11:48] Speaker B: Yep. Oh, she was. I didn't realize that she was. [00:11:50] Speaker A: Her and Jeri Ryan were in all three seasons of Picard now, whereas the original cast was. Most of them were only in season three. [00:11:58] Speaker B: Now, two things I want to bring up before we move on. I don't know if you want to move on here, but I got bring up about this thing. First of all, the cosplay was quite creative at this thing. Now, I don't know the best one of the one, I shouldn't say the best part of the worst one, even for a die hard Star wars fan, was the guy dressed up in the robe that. First of all, this guy had a brown robe on and Phil was just trying to figure out what the hell episode this guy was from. And then eventually we went up to him and asked him and he turned around and he had. It was basically Obi Wan Kenobi outfit and he had a sign hanging around his neck that said Star wars is better. Right. Isn't that what it was? [00:12:35] Speaker A: Star wars is better. Yeah, he had to. He had to come to the convention just to let us know. Little did he know that we are a cult of acceptance, tolerance and we take all opinions and we were more than happy to have Obi Wan at our Trek convention. Not a problem. [00:12:50] Speaker B: And we had the one guy that was all out with the boar costume. That was phenomenal. [00:12:54] Speaker A: He won. He won the cosplay contest. Yeah. That was amazing. [00:12:57] Speaker B: I like that they had the contest. That was pretty cool, you know, because. [00:13:01] Speaker A: And next year, I'd imagine will be even bigger now that this year was a success. This was the way I got doing it here, folks. [00:13:07] Speaker B: And they said, they announced it almost at the beginning. They were like, it was already so overwhelming to them that they're like, it would definitely coming back next year. Right. That was pretty good turn based on. [00:13:13] Speaker A: Just based on the Saturday ticket sales. They already said that it's worth it for them to come back next year. So that's great. So this will be a. This will be a yearly thing that we can kind of do and hang out. And I already told Luke and Troy no freaking. There's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. They're coming next year. We're going to have some fun. The four of us are going to go have the blast. [00:13:29] Speaker B: And I gotta tell you, this reminded me of the New York Comic Con we went to. I wish they had a cosplay competition there. I would have voted for every Poison Ivy I saw, I gotta tell you that. But no, but I was gonna say the other thing. The other thing that made me laugh about the cosplay thing was there was one dude that looked like Spock. I don't know, you know, he looked exactly like him and he was amazing. He had costume changes, which I thought was hilarious. At one point he wore the roaring gangster, roaring 20s costume. Then when he went into the. For the competition, he wore like the Julius Caesar time outfit. What do you call that? I don't know. [00:14:05] Speaker A: Yeah, he looked. Yeah, he looked like a Roman. It was from one of the episodes. Obviously, folks, you know, I'm not as versed as in original series, but yeah, this guy was committed, man. So. And you credit to you for noticing him knowing it was the same dude in different outfits, like, it was pretty crazy. Well, you know what? [00:14:18] Speaker B: Only because there was one time I stepped out of where we were and I saw him again. This is after the cosplay competition, and he had another outfit on. And for the goddamn life of me, I can't remember what the hell it looked like because I knew if I mentioned it to you, you would be like, oh, yeah, that's from this episode. But it was just a completely different outfit. I was like, what the hell are we doing here? You know, and the other thing I got to say is I. I gotta go ahead and I'm gonna go and do something a little different here. I'm gonna give myself a pat on the back here. [00:14:42] Speaker A: Go for it. [00:14:43] Speaker B: I gotta give myself a pat on the back because I want to see you do that. Only because. Let me see if I can. If I can physically do it here. That's not really. [00:14:51] Speaker A: Well, but he's taken. [00:14:56] Speaker B: I was gonna say, or maybe only because I had just watched the episode in my beginning of Trek that I. I noticed. I noticed the family dressed up as. What do you call it? The jellyfish. What do you call them again? [00:15:07] Speaker A: At the far point station organism. Far point station, whatever they're called. [00:15:12] Speaker B: Yeah, he spotted up folks. [00:15:14] Speaker A: He was like, you know, they look like. They look like those jellyfish from the. The egg counter at Far Point. I was like, oh, really? I thought they were this. And they were the jellyfish from. They didn't call themselves jellyfish, but they were from the pilot episode of Next Gen. Bomber caught his first cosplay. You know, you caught your first cosplay answer. I guess that's. I've never said anything worse in my life. [00:15:37] Speaker B: No, we'll go with it. [00:15:38] Speaker A: Finally, you were able to recognize somebody from an episode you'd seen. That was pretty cool. [00:15:43] Speaker B: I felt like I was initiated into the family right there, you know, And I was going to say, this is. [00:15:47] Speaker A: Your second convention already. You already been to two more conventions than Luke and Troy have, so. Well, well, the. [00:15:53] Speaker B: The first one was a Comic Con, so it wasn't really all Star Trek, like you said. But, you know, we did go to Star Trek panels there. So, you know, what are we doing here? [00:15:59] Speaker A: Saw some. Saw some trailers drop for the first time. That was. In some ways that was more exciting only because it was like, you know, we were. We were getting news about upcoming seasons events, that kind of thing, which is really what a lot of people are into, what I was into. But this was more intimate. This was just more like, oh, this is so cool. Look how close. You know, I'm. Jonathan Frakes is right there interacting with a fan. It's a lot of fun to see them. And, you know, I'm 50 years old, folks. Like, I'm past the point where I need to, like, take a selfie or get. Or get an autograph. But, like, I'm not gonna lie to you, it was thrilling being so close to so many of the. The actors, especially some of the ones that I've admired for decades. It was Pretty. Pretty fucking cool. So I can't wait to go back again next year. [00:16:39] Speaker B: And the last thing I want to say was there was one woman that made you laugh at the cosplay thing with the. She was a baseball player. She'd shouted out a line from the show. I remember you were D at that. [00:16:47] Speaker A: Great. Yeah, yeah. So she went. She was dressed as one of the Vulcan Niner. She was dressed as one of the Niners. So there's a baseball episode of D Space nine. And like, she was dressed as one of the. One of the players from that. But the host. I can't remember her name, but whoever was. Oh, Bonnie Gordon was the host. Okay. [00:17:06] Speaker B: Yes, that's right. [00:17:07] Speaker A: She does the voice of the ship on lower decks. So she was the computer voice. I believe that's her. I'll double check that. But as soon as she saw that outfit, folks, she yelled, death to the opposition. Which, yeah, had me dying. Because that was Worf's, a Klingon's equivalent of, hey, bad about it. You can't swing, you know, talking trash in baseball. Another one of his was find him and kill him. That was another one of his. So Troy and I laughed. I've laughed about that for years. So that. That was hilarious hearing her say that. So clearly she thought that was as funny as I did. [00:17:38] Speaker B: Nice. [00:17:39] Speaker A: That was fun. Can't wait to do that again. And if we catch another convention between now and then, that'd be even better. You never know. So, yeah, folks, and real quick, before we get started, I just do want to mention now, look, today's top 10, I had one all ready to go. I had top 10 data episodes ready to rock, and it's still locked and loaded. All right. But I feel like we've given TNG so much love lately. Last night, I'm sitting here, I'm excited about doing the Data episodes, and I'm like, you know what? We've not given DS9 any love at all recently. Now, I know what a lot of people are saying out there, and by a lot, I mean the three of you that are listening. What you're saying is, yeah, you don't give the original series or Enterprise or any of these other shows that much love either. It's all fucking Next Gen D Space Voyager. Yes, it is. I agree. However, you should know that we, like I said, we are working on a lower decks top 10. I want that to come out when the finale comes out in December. So we're going to try to line that up. I did start rewatching Enterprise so I can compile my 10. This is my third watch through Enterprise, so I'm putting a 10 together there. I'm working on original series and Discovery. So, yes, folks, once I get a little more acquainted with those episodes, we're going to start branching out a little bit more into those other. Those other Trek shows that are certainly deserved. Deserve it, of a top 10 of their own. But for now, DS9 hasn't gotten any love lately, so we're doing a little DS9 bomber. I know this is probably. This and Voyager are the two episodes that I talk about all the time, but that you probably don't know really anything about. [00:19:14] Speaker B: Well, DS9 is the one where I always mix all this shit up. But isn't this the one. We're at the station, right? They're not on the ship. [00:19:19] Speaker A: That's correct. Yeah. D Space nine is. That's the name of the station. So think of it that way. DS9 is the station. You got Avery Brooks, that first African American captain, at least to lead a show. And we'll get into all that. But, yeah, we're gonna give DS9 a little love today. And, you know, without further ado, let's just go ahead and tell you, this is one that. So, like I said, I'm on the couch last night. I'm like, ah, Data episodes. It's gonna be fun. Then I'm like, you know what? Let's give data. So I came up with a top 10 right on the fly. Put it together, matched it up, move things around, and today we have the top 10 Dominion War episodes. All right, this is something I've never thought of doing before. So for anyone, including Brian, who doesn't watch Deep Space Nine, so the chief antagonist on DS9, for the most part from the season three on, is pretty much the Dominion bomber. D Space Nine is a space station. There's a wormhole right next to the station. You go through that wormhole, you go to the other side of the galaxy. On the other side of this galaxy is this vast empire called the Dominion. And once they realized that everyone existed on this side of the galaxy, the only thing on their minds was, you know, dominate. Take them over, absorb them into the Dominion. Just keep conquering. That's just how they roll, right? Think of them as the Roman Empire, maybe, right? [00:20:37] Speaker B: The Genghis Khan of the. [00:20:39] Speaker A: That's even better. A better, more apt analogy. Thank you very much. Genghis Khan had to. He rolled over Europe and Asia and had to conquer every. You know, kill every last Persian that kind of stuff. So. Yeah. So. [00:20:52] Speaker B: Banged everyone. [00:20:53] Speaker A: Pretty badasses. He did. He banged everybody. You and I are probably descended from Genghis Khan. [00:20:58] Speaker B: We're brothers. I was going to. I was going say too, before we jump into the Deep Space nine thing, I was going to say, you know, I don't want to give you a shovel, you know, don't fault yourself too much. I was just like, don't forget, I know Luke has a lot going on. Unfortunately, he's not able to do this. Was. But he was more of the original series kind of expert than you were. Right. I mean, you know, I'm trying to. [00:21:15] Speaker A: Think of what, like, knew it better than me. [00:21:17] Speaker B: Well, I was going to ask you about Troy, where his thing lie. And I'm sure exactly. If they both knew it better than you. So it's like, you know, I know your forte is that. So it doesn't. Was Next Gen and Deep Space and, you know, Voyager. So I, you know, and you're rewatching. You've seen all the original series and Enterprise, so, you know, but you're rewatching. We'll get there, you know, don't kill yourself too much, you know. [00:21:38] Speaker A: Well, for now, it's gonna be 90s love from me, folks. So. Yeah, so. So just to fill you in a little bit. So like I said, so the Dominion is this, this big empire. And at the end of season five, all the leading up to this big war that they've been talking about for a couple seasons finally started and it lasted for two seasons. So, you know, they could have just made it like a three episode arc, done and done, move on to something else. But they made this war last two seasons, two full years, TV wise. Pretty wild stuff, you know. So we'll get into it as we go along with my top 10. But here's. Here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna parrot sketch. Not included. This is. I've never done this before. We are parrot sketching, not included. The last 10 episodes of the series. Here's why. Yes, they're all Dominion War episodes, but you know what? In a lot of ways, there's no way to kind of distinguish between them. There isn't. There isn't. Right. So I'm thinking at some point we do a separate pod for these 10 episodes. It just lines up perfectly. But these 10 episodes were like one long story. So each episode led right into the next episode. And it was a fucking phenomenal way to end the show. They tied up every loose end, include not Just the war, but all of the threads that have been hanging on D space 9 with these 9, 10, 15 characters for as long as it went on. So I excluded those from this top 10 list. [00:23:00] Speaker B: The whole list? The whole. The whole last fucking season out? [00:23:04] Speaker A: No, no, just the whole last 10 episodes. [00:23:06] Speaker B: Oh, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. [00:23:08] Speaker A: It was, I want to say it was a 22 or 24 episode season, season seven. So just the last 10 episodes, which is one long arc. So we'll get into that on another day. So don't worry about wrapping your pretty little heads around that, folks. We' what we're going to do is take any of those Dominion War episodes from the end of season five. Or of course I'm going to cheat a little bit the middle of season five all the way to season seven when the final arc begins. Don't worry about it if you're head spinning, Bomber. I know a lot of people's are. We'll talk about it. We'll get into the nitty gritty of it. But before we do that, I'm sorry. [00:23:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I just completely zoned out on everything you said. Can you start all that over again? I know, I know. [00:23:50] Speaker A: Dennis from Always Sunny, he did that. He was ranting at D at Caitlin Olsen for a bunch of shit. And then Danny DeVito comes out. He's like, hey, I was in the bathroom. What did you just say? He's like, frank, I just spoke for five straight minutes. I'm not going to repeat the whole fucking thing for you every time. That reminds me. Listen, folks, listen. Hit us up on Instagram and TikTok at STWARP10. Give us an email at SDWARP10gmail.com Let us know what's going on out there. Check us out. Bomber, you ready to get into this? Let's do this. [00:24:21] Speaker B: I'm ready, Dominion. [00:24:22] Speaker A: All right, so a couple things about this list. One, except for one exception, the IMDb rating goes from the lowest to the highest on my list. It's never happened, Never been that close before. [00:24:34] Speaker B: Wow. [00:24:35] Speaker A: So the way I have my list structured, we start at like 7.1 and we end at 9.5. And there's only one little juxtapose in. [00:24:43] Speaker B: Between there, by the way, 9.5 is one of the highest rating I think I've ever heard of on IMDb. It's pretty high. [00:24:48] Speaker A: It's pretty high. I mean, there's. The highest one I've ever seen is 9.9, I think. And I want to say that is from Breaking Bad's finale, Felina. But there's also a lot of 9.8s out there. There's a couple from Community, none from Star Trek, but there are some 9.8s out there. Anyway, so I'm taking a little liberty with these first two here and I purposely stacked them 10 and 9 not so I could line up these ratings, which is interesting, but so I can kind of lead into the war. So these two episodes do not happen during the war, per se, but they do lead right into the war. Okay, so I had to pick them one because they're two of my favorite episodes on the show. I have to imagine I know at least one of them was in my top 10D space nine episodes when I did that a couple years ago. Anyway, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Let's dive in. I'll explain as I go along. You ready to rock? [00:25:40] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Let's do it. [00:25:41] Speaker A: Let's do it. Number 10 is an episode called Rapture. Okay, now this was from Season 5. Like I said, the finale of Season 5 started the war. This was early in Season 5, but let me tell you, Rapture 7.1 on IMDb. Here's the summary. Cisco begins having visions that may show him how best to help Bajor. But they're killing him. Nothing wrong with being shortened. Shortened to the point. So Cisco, the Captain, he begins getting these visions and these visions are showing him everything that's going to happen in the future. He's kind of coming close to understanding the fucking universe kind of thing, right? It's one of those spiritual things you can't explain. So Sisko is considered a religious icon by the Bajoran people. The Bajoran people play heavily on D space 9. Technically, they own the station that was formerly occupied by the Cardassians. Blah, blah, blah. Don't worry about memorizing any of this. Anyway, so this is a great episode for a couple reasons. One, it does give us a glimpse as fans into the future of the show, right? Because he's dropping these little bombs and nuggets and hints like, oh, I see. I see what's going to happen to Bajor. I see the coming war with the Dominion. When he said those words, there was no guarantee that we were going to have a war on this show. But just by him saying that really set up a great foreshadowing for the next two. Really? The next two and a half years on the show. I didn't think it would last two and a half years. I thought it would last till the end of the sixth season, but. So he was dropping those nuggets, right? So. So all of this is sort of a preamble, like, you know, to the credit to the writers, actors, producers. Like, you could feel a palpable underlying threat during this whole season, right? Like, almost like it was inevitable that war was coming. And that's. They really were leading up to that. That. That was premeditated. And I think that's really ballsy television for. What was it, 1996, 1997. That was really, really ballsy. The show was not a ratings darling. It was a critical darling, but it wasn't a ratings darling. And one of the reasons why is they had syndicated storytelling unlike Next Gen. Again, not better or worse. I like Next Gen, where these episodes were standalones, you know, it was okay, yeah, Planet this week, this Species this week, this spatial anomaly this week. D Space Nine had those two. To be sure. Every Star Trek show does. But this was also like, no, no, we're gonna tell six episodes in a row. It's gonna be one story. No Trek had ever done that before, ever. Nothing. Nothing come close. Next Generation Partners. [00:28:09] Speaker B: I was wondering what show was the first one to do that? Like, it's gotta, like. You know what I mean? Like, what's. I can't think of a team show in general that was not. Like. I think about, like, I'm trying to get, like, action shows, like the A Team came in my head for some reason or like, you know, obviously I was big Deuce of Hazard fan, but I'm trying to get shows like, from the 70s, 80s that. That even 90s that. Where it's like, you had to see every episode. You couldn't just. If you missed, like, 10, you could jump in on the 11th episode. You've missed nothing if you know the show. You know what I mean? [00:28:36] Speaker A: Like, the only I can think of are, like, soap operas, right? Like Dynasty, Dallas. Like, those were like. [00:28:41] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I remember those leading into the next. [00:28:44] Speaker A: When something crazy happens at the end of this episode. But again, not really, not to the point. I mean, obviously it's not gonna be. Dallas is gonna be like Law and Order, where, like, every episode is a completely different case structured differently, you know. But, like, I do remember, like, episodes happening where, like, at the end, you know what Joan Collins is like, you know, calls, you know, someone else a bitch. And, like, that was a big deal in the next episode, you know. Yeah, that kind of stuff. But for the most part, I agree, like, shows weren't doing it. Like, streaming largely changed that. [00:29:12] Speaker B: No Doubt. [00:29:12] Speaker A: Not just streaming dvd, a lot of things. Like Battlestar Galactic, for example, which came out in the early 2000s. Alias 24, obviously. 24. Like, shows like that Sopranos, when they really started that. That quote unquote, golden age of television that started with the Sopranos, that's really when we started seeing it. But yeah, that's only been in the last 20 or so years. [00:29:32] Speaker B: I was even going to say, even when you say season. Like, I don't know if DVD started that. Like, I don't remember referring to shows as having seasons until like that, but maybe they did before then. I don't remember that, but you know what I'm saying? Like, you know, oh, like in 1995 we'll be like, oh, yeah, a team. Season two, when fucking BA slaps Murdoch. I don't know, you know, I mean, like, I don't ever remember referring to a show with a season until, like, DVDs came out. But maybe I'm wrong. Or maybe Sopranos or Oz, Like, I don't know, you know, what was the first show that really did all that shit? I don't know. But anyway, I know this is a sidetrack thing, but. [00:30:02] Speaker A: No sidetracks. Fun. Look, look. I remember hearing the word season referring to TV shows, but I don't remember. I agree with you. I don't necessarily remember back in the day being like, like you said. Yeah, oh, Hulk. Season two was way better than season one, right? There was. There was no Internet, There was no like. So we didn't have any way for our minds to wrap our heads around categorizing these seasons. When X. X Files was the first TV show that I remember becoming out on DVD as a full season. And when that happens, that blew my mind. I was like, I can watch every single episode in this season and not miss anything. Like you folks. We didn't have that back then, guys. Like, you know, I was the biggest fan of Dukes I had. I mean, you were probably bigger, but you know what I mean, me and Drew watch that every Friday, but we probably miss 60 episodes. You know what I mean? [00:30:45] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. [00:30:47] Speaker A: You just. You didn't like, even. But that was even more. That was even before VHS for us. But the point is, I agree, like, you know, I don't remember ever referring to seasons quite like this, but now that we have that. So that proves my point, right? What I was just saying 2000s, right? When it really started. Well, this was D Space 9, started in 1993, and it went until 1999. So it had a 10 episode arc, you know, to finish their show right around the same time the Sopranos premiered. So take that for what you will. DS9 was kind of a visionary show, in my opinion and. [00:31:20] Speaker B: Oh, good. [00:31:21] Speaker A: No, please, no. [00:31:22] Speaker B: I was only to say, you know, getting right back into the rapture thing or even just the whole war thing in general. This whole thing. Now again, I don't. I know the show takes place D. Space 9 is the station itself. So as I know, I always think of it like as the cantina bar in Star Wars. Like that could be its own show that you just have a show or there. You know what I mean? But, but, but I feel like, what is the war? So, but they don't just stay there, they branch out. Like, like. So in other words, is the war happening all around and, you know, they're, they're, they're dealing with it at the bar. Or do you get out into ships and you go out, you actually do get some battles going on out there? [00:31:54] Speaker A: Oh yeah. The best battles I've ever seen on TV before since honestly. [00:31:58] Speaker B: Oh, wow. [00:31:59] Speaker A: Yeah, the only show that came close for me and again, I don't watch every sci fi show it's ever made, but the only show that came close for me was Battlestar Galactica with their battles, their space battles. So, yeah, that was good, so. Oh, really good. Yeah, yeah. So actually I was thinking about that. I gotta, I gotta start that rewatch too. That, that was, that's such a good fucking show. But yeah, no, the war took place all over the, all over the quadrant of the galaxy. So I mean, it was like, you know, there were battles, there were battles on Earth, there were battles on Council, Troy's planet and Beta. Said there were battles in Cardassia. There was. So it was a, it was a, it was, you know, in treklore, it was the biggest war that had ever happened in the galaxy. It was like fucking, I don't know, like 500 million dead or something. It was all said and done. Like it was insane. So, yeah, so that, that's, it's pretty big. So, yeah, even though it's a station, in season three, they got themselves a ship, they got the Defiant, so they do find time to like go to a planet and do this and that, you know, I think that was largely because a lot of fans were like, you know, it's not like Next Gen, it's not like the original series, you know, give them a ship, they need to go explore. What do you got? You got something on your mind? What are you. What are you laughing at? [00:33:01] Speaker B: I just can't get out of my head now the way you were describing this thing with all these 500 million dead, whatever the fuck it was. I don't know if I mentioned this before on the pod. I probably have if you guys were talking about this kind of shit with Luke back in the day, but I'm picturing you in like eighth grade when they're like doing a history report and like, pick a, pick a fucking someone to do a book report on or about history or battles and you come into the fucking room with like, Cisco in the battle of the Dominion or some shit, you know what I mean? Like, and like the Phil we're talking about, you know, real life shit, you know, Grant Lee, I don't know. You know, like, you're coming with Dominion. I don't know, you know, dude, you want. But I love it. [00:33:32] Speaker A: Sure. I'm sure I've told you this before. My buddy Dave Peruzzi and I, when this is back in elementary School, 5th grade youe know, we, we want a little extra credit for social studies so we, we do our fucking extra credit on the Lost Ark is what we do. So I bring in my fucking, my Lost. My figures and shit and we went to the Encyclopedia fucking Britannica because that's. We had no fucking Internet and we just Everything about those. So we read shit about the Lost Ark and I was showing the class what it would look like and we're doing all this fucking Indian Jones shit. Extra credit. [00:34:03] Speaker B: Oh my God. The fact that we did that. [00:34:06] Speaker A: I literally did that. I'm a fucking geek. Geek through and through, bitches. [00:34:11] Speaker B: Nice. [00:34:12] Speaker A: All right. Yeah. [00:34:13] Speaker B: So. [00:34:13] Speaker A: The Rapture. So what else can I say? So, a couple other things. So real quick. So what's great about this episode? Like I said, who doesn't like the idea of someone who could see the future and is like trying to grasp, you know, like it's killing him? Okay. But he's still trying to hold on to that because to him the knowledge is almost worth dying over. Like, he just needs that understanding of the universe. He's never even tapped into that before. So here he is seeing everything that's laid out in front of him. So he knows how to keep Bajor, the planet right next to the station, safe. He knows how to keep the Federation, how the Federation is going to win or lose the war. Just a cool concept in general. And of course his, his girlfriend, you know, Penny Johnson and oh, and of course Siruk Loftin who was also At Trek Tour, Jake Sisko, who I got a little picture of. I'm a little ashamed to say that I yelled Jake instead of Siroc Adam. And he looked up and I got his picture, but. So they're begging him to stop because it's killing him and nothing's worth dying over. But he couldn't. Couldn't let it go. Just a cool concept for an episode. One more little footnote about this episode. I wonder if anyone else out there can kind of remember this, but this was the first episode in which they started wearing the new uniforms. The. Everyone wore the same color uniforms. I know you saw a lot of them at Trek Tour, where it was the black and just like the purple, serrated and. [00:35:27] Speaker B: Yes. [00:35:28] Speaker A: No red, gold, or blue anymore. It was just. [00:35:29] Speaker B: Everyone had that. [00:35:30] Speaker A: So they wore it in First Contact, and that came out. Right. Star Trek, First Contact, the movie that came out in 96 with the next Gen crew. And then that. This episode must have aired right around there, because from then on, D space 9 was all that First Contact uniform. So this Rapture, I believe, was the episode in which they started wearing that for the first time. [00:35:47] Speaker B: So they just wanted to sell more jerseys to champs or something. You know, I was gonna say, you know, what you made me think of was Indiana. I don't know why I went here, but Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull. The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I don't know why we need to bring this up, but I was just thinking about. Cate Blanchett was the big villain. [00:36:08] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:36:09] Speaker B: I want to try the actress. Right. The. At the end of the movie with the, you know, the aliens and everything. The idea was she was. I don't know. I can't try to remember the whole. It was kind of a weird ending there, but, like, the aliens are. All. Their brains are all coming together or something. But she seemed like this. She was after this knowledge that. It's almost like the knowledge was like. She was so greedy to get that, where it's like, you know, that's what you reminded me of, this where it was like you. You put everything else away because it's right there and you can get it. You know what I mean? Is that what this is kind of similar to that? [00:36:37] Speaker A: 100%, 100% the same thing. So I wonder if they were with your. [00:36:41] Speaker B: I wonder if they influenced this. Was him an influence on that? Maybe. I don't know. [00:36:45] Speaker A: Well, the thing is, this isn't. This isn't a new concept. I just like it. I can think of, like, lawnmower I think of a few other movies in my head where like, that kind of happened. [00:36:52] Speaker B: That was a lower next episode. Science fiction thing. [00:36:56] Speaker A: Yeah, I think it's one of those things that like, you know, you know, the entirety of the universe's knowledge is in your head, but, you know, there's no way a human can grasp all that. So you'll pretty much die, you know. [00:37:05] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:37:07] Speaker A: So, yeah, so that's rapture, folks. Not exactly inside the war, but, you know, certainly a precursor to the war. So let's go with number nine, which is my last example. This is literally right before the war started. This is the. This is the penultimate episode of season five. It's called in the Cards Bomber. Without any doubt, this is going to be one of your favorite episodes of D space 9 when you get there. No question about it. This is a funny, Fun, relatable episode 7.7 on IMDb. Here is the synopsis. Jake and Nog go through hell and high water, from participating in an auction to dealing with the Dominion to receive a Willie Mays baseball card, all in order to cheer up the war fatigued Captain Cisco. So Cisco is a huge baseball fan. Baseball doesn't really exist in the form that it did, but they still play it in pockets here and there. So he's a giant baseball fan. He recreates the games on the holodeck. He goes and sees the 27 Yankees, you know, face the 58 Dodgers wherever the, you know. And his son is into it as well. So this is right before the war started, right before the finale in season five. So everyone's depressed. They know war's coming and there's just this dread over the station. So Cisco's son Jake and Quark's nephew Nog, his best friend, both young, they decide to try to get this. Try to buy this Willie Mays baseball card at an auction for Captain Sisko to cheer him up. But in doing so, they lose the bid to another guy. So they go to the guy and they say, hey, we need to buy it off you. He's like, all right, I'll tell you what, I'll let you buy it off me if you do this for me. And they go to do that task, but then that guy gives him another task, right? So they're hopping around the station, trying to do everything for everybody, just. Just to get back to again. Not a new concept. I've seen this in sitcoms and that kind of stuff before, but it's refreshing to see it in a genre like this, in this format. And When I tell you the comedy here was fucking really great. Like Sirach Lofton and the late great Aaron Eisenberg really pull off the comedy in this episode. And it's just fun to watch somebody in the 21st century try to track down a Willie Mays baseball card. I think that's so fucking cool. It's so relatable. And it always reminds us that like we're not too far, you know, 40 years in the future is not too far from where we actually are. So just a really fun episode. You know, there's a lot of fun character moments. You know, Bashir has some funny moments. Fucking Quark has some funny moments. O'Brien has funny moments. It's just fun to watch these characters. You know, both get lull. Get conned by these two kids trying to get all this shit, but also use them for what they kind of need. These little favors they need them to do. [00:39:42] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:39:43] Speaker A: A lot of fun. And this, again, this is a cheat putting it on this list as a Dominion War episode. But like I said, the whole impetus for the episode is because the war is coming right now. It's at our doorstep. So I thought. And leaving. That would be, would be pretty cool. Leaving it in. What do you think? [00:39:59] Speaker B: Yeah, well, you know, it reminds me of like, you know, you always hear this thing if you listen to a lot of people dissect like films or filmmaking or especially horror films where they're like, we want to introduce a light moment or a comic moment to kind of counteract the you're about to see. So I feel like this sounds like this episode did. This was like, we're gonna give you this little thing here because after this we're gonna go to fucking battle here. You know what I mean? [00:40:25] Speaker A: You're nailing it. And you don't realize you are, you are. Well, that's today, mama. Let me tell you. [00:40:29] Speaker B: That's what I. Oh God, yeah, because that, Tell me please. [00:40:34] Speaker A: That baseball episode and there's a holodeck gangster episode that happens right before that 10 episode arc. The baseball episode was earlier in the season. But like I always think of that fun. It's called Bada Bing, Bada Bang. I always think of that episode as like, let's have one more light hearted, chill out, relax, have a few laughs episodes before we really hit the shit. It's a fan with these, with these war episodes. So that's so true. And then that's. That's smart television. Think if you're about to go into, you know, this dread this corridor of, like, four really, you know, somber episodes. Why not have a lighthearted one? Why not have a comedy one that makes so much sense. And, yeah, you're tapped in. You nailed it. [00:41:14] Speaker B: Well, I think that, you know, also it gives you. I remember you were telling me something about the other show that Ethan Peck is on where they did, like, something like they did a musical episode or something. Like, I'm like. I'm thinking about. I'm thinking about the idea of even the actors on the show, like, for this, it must be. It must have been a breath of fresh air for them, too, to be like. And if they're feeling it, we're feeling it. You know what I mean? Where it's like. Like, this could be a little something different than what we're used to doing. Just. And I. I love when they have shows where you have something like that, that it exists. It's a nice thing to just have that one, you know, make it a little different than everything else, you know? I don't know. I kind of like that idea. And also, I was gonna say, I think Willie Mays just died not too long ago. Didn't even the last year or two. I think he died. [00:41:51] Speaker A: He did, right? Yeah, yeah, he died recently. Yeah. So that was kind of nice. Not that he died, but, you know, that. That, you know, this. [00:41:57] Speaker B: No, Right, right. Yeah. Yeah. [00:41:59] Speaker A: He was a big Billy Mays fan and obviously being an African American actor and captain, you know. [00:42:04] Speaker B: Sure. Yeah. [00:42:04] Speaker A: It's great that he's going to admire, you know, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, you know what I mean? It's. Didn't look up to growing up, or maybe he did. You know, they weren't alive, obviously, when Cisco was growing up, but being in the love of baseball, he must have idolized these guys. [00:42:17] Speaker B: By the way, you know, I'm trying to remember where the hell we were coming back from, but me and Allison were driving back from, fuck, I don't even know, maybe Niagara Falls. We went to Niagara Falls at one point, like, the Finger Lake, something. We were driving back from way upstate. Oh, no, no, no. I'm sorry. You know what it was? We had to be out of the state. We were in Rhode island, and we were driving back from Rhode island, and for some reason, we were like. We saw a sign for Foxwoods. We're like, oh, let's stop there. I had never been there. She never been at the casino in Connecticut. [00:42:43] Speaker A: Yeah, Connecticut. [00:42:45] Speaker B: So we went in there and, you know, threw a few bucks around and didn't have any luck. But I did. They had a baseball card store there. And in the. [00:42:55] Speaker A: In the. [00:42:56] Speaker B: In the window on display right there was not Willie Mays, but they had a Mickey Mantle rookie card sitting and. [00:43:03] Speaker A: It was worth $50,000. [00:43:05] Speaker B: Well, they. I'm telling you right now. I don't know if this was like a unique one or. I feel like it's the one that you would know his portrait. Like the one. This thing. I could have sworn. If my memory shows right. I thought it said like 300 grand on that. On that. [00:43:18] Speaker A: You might be right. My $52,000 is etched in my memory from when I was in like fucking eighth grade. And that's how much he was when I used to look at the catalog. So I don't know why I said that. [00:43:27] Speaker B: No. [00:43:28] Speaker A: You know, 30 fucking years ago. So. [00:43:29] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:43:30] Speaker A: Jesus, five years ago. [00:43:33] Speaker B: Well, let's not. Let's not think about that. Yeah. [00:43:36] Speaker A: Big baseball card, guys. We. That's all we did was collect them. [00:43:39] Speaker B: It was fun. We were big. Well, obviously we were more into the football cards, way more than baseball. But we always talk about. I remember the tops, like 1989 or top 1990. I could picture the front of it now. You open up the package. We always talk about the bubble gum. Like the fact that we ate that man. Our. Wonder why my teeth are all up now. I probably raptured them back in the day, is what I did. [00:44:03] Speaker A: It was. They were so hard and they would. They shattered like glass in your mouth. [00:44:07] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I know. It was like, awesome, awesome. [00:44:11] Speaker A: I missed that. Well, you remember the. It's funny. You remember that episode that I was talking about, if school care. If you don't, this will be on the Data Episodes one, the most toys were that guy, Kivas Faggio. He kidnaps Data and makes him be like this part of his collection of all unique things he had. It might have been a Willie Mays card and. But he preserved the bubblegum scent with the card. That was a. That was. [00:44:32] Speaker B: That's hilarious. That. That is hilarious. That's cool. [00:44:35] Speaker A: All right, so. Yeah, let's move on, folks. So. All right, now, I promise these are all episodes now. We're in the thick of the war. [00:44:42] Speaker B: We're in the war now. All right. [00:44:44] Speaker A: In the war. Number eight. Favor the Bold. An 8.5 on IMDb. Yeah, that's right. We're only on number eight, and it's already at 8.5. That's how good these last two seasons of D Space 9 were. Let me tell you a fact that I mentioned to Melanie Smith who played Zial on D Space. Now we're going to get to her. But she was also at Trek Tour. [00:45:05] Speaker B: That was the. And is that the shrinkage woman from Seinfeld? [00:45:09] Speaker A: That's right. She was also Rachel from Seinfeld. She saw George's shrinkage shrinkage up close and personal. So she was a delight. She was so much fun to talk to. I gave her a couple of our cards. Maybe she's listening to the pod. Who knows? Melanie, if you're listening, it was a pleasure talking to you and you did a great job. We're going to talk about you on this pod. [00:45:27] Speaker B: And your panel was great. [00:45:29] Speaker A: It was great. [00:45:30] Speaker B: Yes, she was entertaining. [00:45:31] Speaker A: Yeah, she managed to be entertaining. Yeah, it was just her standing up there talking, but that was good. So anyway, Favor the Bold 8.5. Cisco mounts an attack to retake Deep Space Nine while ROM faces charges as an enemy of the Dominion state. So a lot going on here. So I mentioned the 10 episode arc at the end of season seven. So season six started with a six episode arc. They'd never done that before, never attempted it before. But at the end of season five, actually we will get to that. The end of season five, they have to abandon the station. The Dominion attacks them and they have to abandon the station. So the Dominion takes control of the Space 9 for a good six episodes. It was again another bold storytelling. Like imagine the Cheers bar being taken over by fucking Reggie's for six episodes. Like, it's crazy, right? [00:46:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:46:18] Speaker A: So obviously we follow. We follow our crew, you know, in other parts of Starfleet while they're at Starbase is, you know, getting ready for the war. But Cisco wants to retake D space 9 because that's the key to the Alpha Quadrant. It's right at the mouth of Dominion and it's right next to Bajor. So this was the fifth episode out of those six in that first six season six arc. Again, folks, I know I'm throwing a lot of fucking. Oh, the six episode arc in season five and this is the end. Don't worry about any of that. It's just me talking. This is a cool episode because Cisco wants to retake D space 9 by force and he comes up with the plan and they launch. And the end of the episode is a great cliffhanger into the final episode of this quick little six season arc where they realized that. I think they realized that the Klingons aren't going to make it to fight alongside them, you know, but they said, well, we got no choice. We got to fucking go. The Dominion, right before the Federation left the station, they mined the entrance to the wormhole. So they put literal like, like landmines out in space. So if anybody came through the wormhole, boom. So the Dominion was about to take those landmines down. So they had no choice but to get to D space 9 and attack it and try to take it back. Even without the Klingons, they gotta. They gotta give it a try. And fortune, let's hope fortune favors the bold. Right? So Cisco said something to that effect at the end of the episode. So that was a pretty kick ass episode and it certainly got us excited for the finale of that six episode arc that we will get to. But for now, let's go with number seven Rocks and shoals. So this is a really different episode of D space 9 and 8.5. Same as favor the Bold. Sisko and his crew crash on a barren world when their commandeered Jem'Hadar ship is shot down. They encounter Jem'Hadar who crashed there earlier and have taken Nog and Garak hostage in exchange for medical aid and for their Vorta Overseer. That must be like Chinese algebra to you. Which is fine. [00:48:20] Speaker B: Yes, it is actually. I would probably understand that better, but go ahead. [00:48:24] Speaker A: In one of the episodes during the war, they have a Jem'Hadar ship, an enemy ship that they've. They got from season five. Great callback to a season five episode called the Ship. So that's still sitting there. It's kind of like Independence Day when they realize that they have the ship from 1940. Roswell. [00:48:40] Speaker B: Right, right. [00:48:41] Speaker A: So they have this Jemadar ship. So they take it and they try to infiltrate. They go on a mission, blah, blah, blah, doesn't matter. The mission succeeds, but at the end they get shot down and they crash land on this planet. 17 years from Federation space unless they repair the Warp Tribe. Right. So they're just pretty much marooned on this planet. Turns out there's a gem at our detachment that crashed on this planet too. So now there are bare bones just trying to make camp and you know, come up with strategies to defeat each other. There's a lot of backstabbing. And you know the Vorta who control the Jemadar, the evil soldiers, he's trying to get the Federation to kill the Jem'Hadar because they're going to run out of draw. You know what it's a whole lot of they're going to run out of white. Well, the Jem had are controlled by drugs. The Jem had are the Soldiers. The Vorta are the commanders and the Founders are the. The Overseers. The rulers of the Dominion. Three parts. And the Vorta knows he's running out of the Ketra cell White. The Geminar are going to go into withdrawal and shoot at everybody. They're going to go bananas. So he says the only way out of this is the Federation kills the Jemadar first. Long story short, it's a really cool intimate episode on this one. Like dirt planets like Tatooine. And they're all just trying to like figure out how to stay alive and how to get back to the Federation and what to do about these. The moral conundrum of do we just slaughter these Geminar because the Vorta tells us to, but they got no choice. I'll let you watch the episode to see it. But just a really great intimate episode. Rocks and Shoals. [00:50:12] Speaker B: Yeah, I was going to say now that you put that, that vision in my mind, everything you just said there, it just completely gave me the visual of walking into a classroom and seeing this long ass gigantic algebra problem on the board and just going, yeah, I. This is going to be a while for me to get this, you know. So it sounds exciting, but I don't know what the hell you're talking about. But I'm looking forward to eventually getting there and checking it out. I mean, I do know the idea that they get lost on the ship crashes and they got to find a way to get back. I'm just around, but. But I. It sounds awesome. And I gotta say, for the Trek fans watching this, you had to be like. It's had to be like a Christmas day every, every episode to be involved in something like this while the show was on. You know what I mean? Like, because you have a war going on every episode. You must be like, this is awesome that we're in this. Like, you know what I mean? I don't know. It must have been awesome to experience, I guess. [00:51:00] Speaker A: I tell you what, my father and I thought it was really exciting. The girl I was dating at the time, she was getting into Star Trek. She loved it. Like, we were really digging this part of D space 9, specifically this one section of season 6. I remember we watched it at her house. Like every Sunday night. We would watch the AT. They would replay it at like 11:30 at night. They play like D space 9 and then they play like Earth Final Conflict was the show that was on at the time. So they would play, we'd watch both of those. And. And that was a lot of fun. And I remember she was into it. Me and my father were into it. There are some fans who didn't dig on D space 9. There were some fans who never got behind the Solitary Station. There were some fans. Fans who never. There's some fans who never moved off of the original series, but there were some who only liked Next Gen. It's something for everybody. I've always said that, you know, so. But I loved it. I thought this was some of the best TV I've ever seen in my life to this day. [00:51:48] Speaker B: Wow. [00:51:49] Speaker A: So, yeah, so let's. Let's get into. Let's keep going. Number six. [00:51:52] Speaker B: Let's go. [00:51:52] Speaker A: Is tears of the profits. So this is the one exception. This goes from an 8.5 down to an 8.2. [00:51:59] Speaker B: Okay. [00:52:00] Speaker A: But after that, it's all. It's all up from there. So when Cisco is picked to head up an attack on the Cardassian homeworld, the Prophets appear to him in a vision warning him of impending doom if he leaves the station. So this was the finale of season six. Like I said, Cisco was not only, you know, a great captain, but he was also the emissary to the Bajorans. He was like a religious icon to them, like a savior type prophet, maybe, you know, you might say so. And he would get visions from time to time and these visions would really create a great conflict in him conflicting with, you know, his Starfleet duties and his role as this religious icon. Right. So what does he do? Does he listen to these visions and protect Bajor? Does he do his duty and go on this fucking mission and attack Cardassia? He goes on the mission and shit goes down and, you know, spoiler alert. I'm sorry, Bomber. You're going to hear this. Everybody, if you don't want to hear this, you know, unplugged for about 10 seconds. But this is the episode in which Judzia Dax died. Terry Farrell, who we met at Trek Tour. So, yes, she died in this. Dies in this episode. You know, for years I had thought that she left to do Becker because she was on Becker with Ted Danson. [00:53:14] Speaker B: Ted Danson, yeah. Yeah. [00:53:16] Speaker A: But she mentioned at this track, like, when she was talking. I can't remember if she was in a panel or what, but. Oh, yeah, she was. She was on the panel. She was talking to Jeffrey Combs and Max Gro Chick and those other four guys, Vaughn Armstrong and Casey Biggs, by the way, were the other four. It was so much fun. If, you know, Star Trek, you know, all those names Vaughn Armstrong has been in so many Trek series. He played. He was the admiral on Enterprise. That. That's his main role. Anyway, she mentioned they wrote her off, so I don't know why they would do that. I always thought from way back in the 90s that she. Hey, guys, listen, I want to do this other show. It's time to move on. Yeah, write me off the show. But she said she made it sound like she didn't want to leave, and they wrote her off, so it is what it is. But that was. That was tough watching that. So he leaves and his. His best friend, who was her, dies. You know, they succeeded in their mission, but, like, the personal loss was great. The war wasn't over yet. This is only the end of season six, but, you know, this was a great finale, great action. They attacked Cardassia, the Cardassian homeworld, and they. They pretty much occupy Cardassia from what I remember, or I'm sorry, or at least one of the adjacent planets or something. Anyway, it was. It was a success. It was a win for the Federation for now, but the war wasn't over. But Jadzia dies and it was. It was tough to watch. I really like Terry Farrell. I like Dax. I like the Trill species in general. You know, the good thing about the Trill, though, is we did. Whereas Chad Zia died, Dax didn't. So a new actress came on in season seven, had the same Trill symbiont inside them. Still was Cisco's best friend. And all that was just a different person. It's kind of hard to wrap your head around, but the Trill can. You know, the Trill being lives on forever. It just gets different hosts. [00:55:01] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:55:02] Speaker A: Trill 101, you know, it is what it is, if you remember. Folks, if you want to hear more about Species and my love of the Trill, check out our pod in the first season called Top 10 Trek Species. Anyway, that was Tears of The Prophets Season 6 finale. Great action. [00:55:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:55:16] Speaker A: Great personal stories and, yeah, it kind of had everything going for it. [00:55:21] Speaker B: How about Tears of the Podcaster? Because I'm crying. Are we still talking about this? This is ridiculous. You know, can I. [00:55:30] Speaker A: Give you nothing to comment on there. Like, you're dead right? [00:55:32] Speaker B: No. [00:55:33] Speaker A: What did I do? Except to make things. I'm talking about. [00:55:37] Speaker B: I. No, but I'm sure that this is what the fans want. They probably want more of that than the nonsense. But I was gonna say, you know, when you hit that at another podcast episode, you maybe want to ask you. Because I forget now I have to go back a little. Where did you land Cisco? On the captain's list? He had to be in the top five, right? [00:55:53] Speaker A: He was in the top five, but he been five five. [00:55:57] Speaker B: Yeah, I can't remember now. Yeah, I know. Janeway was up. [00:56:01] Speaker A: Janeway, Kirk, Archer. Cisco, I think. [00:56:04] Speaker B: And what show was Archer on? [00:56:06] Speaker A: Enterprise. Just Enterprise. [00:56:08] Speaker B: Oh, just Enterprise. Okay. [00:56:09] Speaker A: Star Trek Enterprise. Yeah. They flew the. The original prototype Enterprise and this was like 100 years from where we are now. It was only like in the 2200 2100s, so it was like the earliest chronological Trek show that they had. [00:56:25] Speaker B: Okay. [00:56:25] Speaker A: They were still wearing like NASA jumpsuits and so it was pretty relatable. [00:56:28] Speaker B: Oh, wow. [00:56:30] Speaker A: Enterprise got a bright future on this pod, let me tell you. I like it more each time I watch it. And I just started watching the first couple episodes again and I'm really digging them, so I'll be putting together that top ten. It's gonna be fun. All right, we got five left. Let's bang it out. [00:56:43] Speaker B: Top five. Here we go. [00:56:44] Speaker A: Number five, baby. A time to stand. 8.5. So this was the episode that preceded the one where they crashed land on the planet. So. Okay, try to keep that together. Try to keep it together. [00:56:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:56:55] Speaker A: So 8.5 on IMDb borrowing a captured Jemadar attack ship, which I mentioned, Cisco and crew embark on a mission to destroy the hidden base where all of the Ketra cell white is stored for the entire Alpha Alpha Quadrant. Ketra cell White is that drug I was telling you about that the Jem'Hadar need. So these soldiers need this drug to live. Turns out they really don't. They're just addicted to it. But whatever. That's all another story. [00:57:19] Speaker B: But okay. [00:57:20] Speaker A: Okay, so the theory was to destroy all the Ketchell White in the Alpha Quadrant. With the wormhole mind, no one can go in or out. So if they get rid of all the drugs in this quadrant, the Jemadar will just die off and they'll win the war. That was the theory. So they took this Gemidar ship and they went and did that. Listen, this was the premiere of season six. This was right after they had abandoned the station because they got attacked and they had to. So they're on a star base, they have this captured ship. They send our crew on this mission. It was kind of cool. It was really cool. I know. I don't know if you remember listening to the the ship designs pod that we did, but the Jem Hadar ship, it's got no view screen. It's got no chairs, it's got no bunks, it's got no med bay. So it's fun watching the whole crew just kind of deal with this. You know, they have this little eyepiece that lets them see outside the ship. The doctor's trying to cobble together what he thinks is like a sick bay, but nothing's working. So you have this kind of cool. Would you ever see U571? That submarine? [00:58:21] Speaker B: I know of it. I never saw it. No. [00:58:23] Speaker A: Really good. And there's this really intense moment when the American crew first gets on the U boat and they can't fucking read the German language and they're freaking out and people are firing and they got to find a way to fire these missiles and drop these depth charges, but they don't know what the fuck they're doing because it's somebody else's ship. This reminded me a lot of that. Like. Yeah, it wasn't so much a frantic display though, because they were just kind of gearing up for the mission. But they had to learn all this shit, you know, new again. They had to figure out what was going on with the ship. So that was cool. Some cool action when they finally took off and destroyed the Ketchel White base and all that stuff. Great start to what the war became. So this was basically the start of the war. The war started when they attacked Key Space 9 in season five, but this was the beginning of season six. This was the first episode of the six episode arc that launched really the Dominion War season. So just a really great episode, a lot of fun. And who doesn't like the inclusion of Garak? So we haven't talked about Garak much, but we're going to in a couple episodes coming up. And Garak, my favorite recurring character of all time, remember that? From our second pod ever. Like, Garak is just the. [00:59:25] Speaker B: Wow. [00:59:27] Speaker A: An infinitely intriguing character. The way he was written, the way the actor Andrew Robinson performed it. If you don't know who he is, he actually played the bad guy in the first Dirty Harry. He was the killer in the first Dirty Harry. [00:59:40] Speaker B: Oh, wow. [00:59:41] Speaker A: Don't know if you recognize the act. Oh, oh, he got. He got punched by Stallone at the end of Cobra. He was that annoying cop. [00:59:49] Speaker B: Oh my God. [00:59:49] Speaker A: Really? With the glasses. That's Andrew. That's Andrew Robinson. Yeah. He plays Garak. Oh, yeah. Just sneering and, you know. But he plays. He plays a spy or is he blah, blah, blah on D Space nine and just he's Cardassian, so his Knowledge of going into enemy territory just made sense for him to be on the station, so. And to be on this mission, actually. And he had no place to go because the Cardassian wants him dead. So when. When Cardassia and the Dominion attacked the station, he had to flee with Federation. So including him in this was. Was just brilliant. [01:00:20] Speaker B: Wow. Yeah. And I was gonna say, you know, if they. If they kill the drugs for these people, you know, you're actually just helping them, you know, get over their fucking habit and then become even more powerful. So this might have been something that could backfire on them. Right? [01:00:33] Speaker A: You know, it's true. Yeah. Yeah, it's true. They. They get over their addiction. The funny thing is they didn't know they were addicted. They thought they would die without it until they realized that they didn't die once. They didn't have it for a long time. So that was kind of a whoopsie on the point of the Vorta and the Dominion. But you can't lose control of your super soldiers. They will fuck you up. [01:00:51] Speaker B: Wow. [01:00:52] Speaker A: Anyway, so that was. Yeah, so that was a time to stand, number five. So let's really get into the fucking meat of this war. [01:00:58] Speaker B: All right, there we go. [01:00:59] Speaker A: Yeah, here we go. This is the. I'm not making comparison to Steven Spielberg, but this is like. This is like kind of the, you know, the Saving private Ryan opening 20 minutes of the Dominion War. So this is like. [01:01:11] Speaker B: This is the D day, you know, what? [01:01:14] Speaker A: Not of the war, chronological order, but in, like, the grittiness of it and getting deep down into the trenches. So this episode is called the siege of AR558. It's an 8.6 on IMDb Captain Cisco and his away team volunteer to stay with a besieged unit at an isolated outpost. So there's this Federation detachment that's been protecting this communications array. They've been warding off the Dominion for months. They've had no relief. They've had. Rations are down to almost nothing. Just this haggard crew with scars and ripped uniforms and, like, they've seen shit, right? These are. This is Rambo after the Vietnam War, right? This is. They've seen some shit and they're fucked up, but they're still there and they're hanging on. So the DS9 crew shows up and they're like, yeah, we're just here to drop this off. We need some intelligence and peace out. And they're like, what, are you fucking kidding me? You fucking leave us here again? Like, when's our relief coming? And they're like, we don't know. So they make the decision to stay and fight off this. Jem had our attack. That. That's imminent. It's about as dark and gritty as Star Trek gets. You know, maybe with the exception of like couple Strange New Worlds episodes or maybe a couple episodes of Picard. But like, for the most part, I mean, Certainly in the 90s, this was about as gritty as it gets. So these guys were just, you know, worn down, you know. Tuco from Breaking Bad is in this episode. Some great character actors playing the soldiers. I wish I'd remember his name. I love him. He's. I love him in everything. [01:02:46] Speaker B: Yeah, I think Danger. [01:02:49] Speaker A: Yeah, he's. He's a great actor. He was in fucking Training Day. He was one of the dudes who had a hawk in the bathtub. The guy's in everything. I love this guy. He plays Tuco and Breaking Bad and on Better Call Saul. So he's great. I'll remember his name for next time, I promise. But, yeah, just all these actors are just in there and, you know, and here's our crew getting a real glimpse of this. This isn't like firing phasers from a ship. Right? [01:03:12] Speaker B: Right. [01:03:12] Speaker A: You got your phaser rifle, you're in a ditch, and these jemadars are charging at you with fucking blades. [01:03:18] Speaker B: Yeah, it's like. It reminds me of like a video game where you're trying to ward off the fucking zombies or something. They just keep coming at you kind of thing. [01:03:25] Speaker A: Yeah, 100%. Yeah. And this, and this is, you know, and of course they hold it, but like many casualties, you know, and it's pretty crazy. Some really, really, really great sort of conflicts and themes about war and the human condition and what happens to humans or people when they're in a war for a prolonged period of time. Some really great post traumatic stress stuff was an amazing episode. [01:03:50] Speaker B: I just looked up. His name is Raymond Cruz. [01:03:53] Speaker A: Thank you. Raymond Cruz. Love him. Great guy. [01:03:57] Speaker B: Great guy. [01:03:58] Speaker A: Drove me to the airport once. [01:04:01] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I like the. I like the, you know, the idea. The episode sounds like a. Like a awesome idea, but I was laughing at the idea of them, like, dropping off and going later, you know, like they're just bouncing. [01:04:13] Speaker A: Well, I'll tell you what, I've mentioned this before. That's how I sold Luke on. Not that I would have had to sell him on watching Lower Decks, but he hadn't started watching it. But then I told him about the opening credits and he laughed so hard he went home that night and started watching it. So the opening credits of lower decks, obviously, it's not the Enterprise. This is the fucking Cerritos. This is the ship they're on. And the opening credits is like the ship pulls up and there's like a Borg battle going on with the Klingons and Romulans and the ship just goes and just flies away. Doesn't help or anything. It's exactly what you just said reminded me of. [01:04:49] Speaker B: That's hilarious. [01:04:50] Speaker A: Love those opening credits are so good. It's the opposite of what any Enterprise, you know, show would be, you know. [01:04:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:04:57] Speaker A: All right, so listen, that was number four. We're getting down to it now. Yeah. So Siege of AR558. Anyone who's D Space 9 fan, you know, knows that that episode as kind of what it is, this gritty episode. And not only that, like one of the, one of the crew loses a leg in that episode. One of the characters in DS9 and that has repercussions in seasons for the rest of the season, which is season seven. [01:05:18] Speaker B: That's. That's what you're saying about this? Like one of the. As dark and gritty as it gets, I guess. [01:05:22] Speaker A: I mean, as far as war goes, yes. I think my number one is the darkest Star Trek's ever gone, ever. But we'll talk about that in a second. And anyone who knows me and has listened to this pod, you know what my number one is anyway. But let's, let's move on. We're doing number three here, folks. And these are all nines on IMDb baby. So number three, a call to arms. This is 9.0 on IMDb with Dominion warships continuing to enter the Alpha quadrant, D space 9 prepares for a confrontation with the Dominion and Cardassia. So this was the season five finale that actually started the war. [01:05:58] Speaker B: Oh, wow. [01:05:59] Speaker A: Dominion and Cardassia attacked D space 9 and the war starts there. That was the first, that was the first battle. So, yeah, so this episode, so it's really cool. So this is when they see these ships coming through the wormhole. They're not at war yet. Technically, you know, Bajor has a non aggression pact with the Dominions just to keep them safe. So these ships are coming through and they're flying off, but there's a lot of them coming through and they're going to Cardassia. Cardassia signed an agreement with the Dominion. Cardassia, the only species that betrayed the Alpha Quadrant and sided with the Dominion against the Federation alliance. The Federation had the Klingons and the. Not the Romulans. Yet. But the Klingons, the Federation and like they were allied against the Dominion of the Cardassia. A huge war. So these ships are coming and they're just. Just massing in Cardassia. So they got to do something they can. So that. This is when they mine the entrance to the wormhole for the first time. This causes the Dominion to take action and say, you can't do this. We won't allow it. And SIS was like you, I'm doing it anyway. And they attack. They try to attack in time to stop the. The entrance being mined but they didn't do it in time. And like I said, that leads to the other episodes we talked about already. But this was the finale. This was great. This was. They finally take action. They mine the entrance to the wormhole. They are forced to Flee D Space 9. [01:07:18] Speaker B: Wow. [01:07:18] Speaker A: But Kira, Odo and Quark who are not technically part of the Federation and like I said, Bajor or Bajor signed a non aggression pact with the Dominion so they stay on the station. So the Evading force arrives and some of our characters just stayed there because they kind of have to. So that's a weird dynamic. Over the next six episodes here's Kira, Odo and Quark who love the Federation and now they have to do the bidding of the Dominion because they live on the same station with them. Quark still serves people in his bar. Odo still doing security and Kira's still working on the. On the. It's not the bridge on D Space nine. It's ops. Just so you know, so you don't gotta worry about remembering the bridge there. [01:07:56] Speaker B: Good. Good. [01:07:57] Speaker A: And Jake Sisko stays behind because he wants to be a reporter and he's an idiot so he stays behind on now. Thank God the in, you know, thank God for. In Trek universe that the Dominion had no interest in harming him. They weren't gonna like harm him to kill Cisco or anything. They were pretty respectful of him and they kind of let him do his reporting. To be honest, the Dominion was an interesting foil. It's really. We'll get more into them at some point. But yes, they're these overlords and they want to rule everything but at the same time they like. They think what they're doing is just. The Founders who rule the Dominion, they think they're right and they just want everyone to, you know, they think rule and order are what everybody needs. They're just trying to give it to them. Obviously. Sounds like another regime that we dealt with in the 20th century. But it is what it is. [01:08:47] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [01:08:48] Speaker A: I'm not saying they're good. I'm saying like, you know, they thought they were good. [01:08:52] Speaker B: So. [01:08:52] Speaker A: Yeah. So not much to say about this episode. Like I said, so they're forced to flee these base 9. Some great, great battle at DS9. It tops the battle from the season 4 opener when the Klingons attack D space 9. It's just really well done by everyone involved. A heartfelt, you know, Cisco telling everybody on the station that they will be back. Because don't forget it's not just Federation people there. It's Bajoran civilians, shop owners, people live on the station as part of like, their livelihood. So he's leaving all of them and vowing that he would come back. He's the religious icon. Imagine, you know, not Jesus per se. Like imagine like a religious icon. Like, all right, I gotta go. I don't know what's gonna happen, but I'll be back at some point. You're like, oh my God. What? [01:09:36] Speaker B: That would cause chaos. I would imagine would. [01:09:38] Speaker A: And it kind of did in a lot of ways. But it did set up this great. Like Dual Ed set up the Federation, you know, regrouping and coming back to attack D Space nine and Kira, Quark, Sisko, Rom, Odo, all planning the resurrection from inside. So it was like a. Was like a cool six episodes there where they were all working to get the Dominion out of. Out of the D Space nine. Really great episode. A Call to Arms. [01:10:04] Speaker B: Yeah, I was gonna say. I know, I know A Call to Arms is like a famous kind of saying or something but, you know, but. But I feel like the first thing I thought of was there was a Looney Tunes thing, but Call to Arms. You remember this episode? [01:10:16] Speaker A: No. [01:10:16] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. Well, I vaguely have a memory of it, but like it's people. No, I don't think there's any main like star of it like as far as like a Looney Tunes character. But it's like they're in a. In the movie theater and it's like Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall on the movie screen and they're kind of like talking to the screen or something. But I remember being the title of it is called Bacall to Arms. Were saying it's. But yeah, no, it sounds like a. It does sound like, like an action packed episode. I don't know. [01:10:41] Speaker A: You know, a lot of these are action packed episodes. If you're talking for action. [01:10:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:10:44] Speaker A: This is the corridor where you want to see it. Like the last two, Season nine had some of the best battles I've ever seen on TV ever. Reminds me of like what Buffy did for hand to hand fighting on tv. Like, this is for space battles. [01:10:57] Speaker B: So this is like the last 40 minutes of temple of Doom really is what we're talking about. [01:11:01] Speaker A: He really is. Yeah. All right, the best Indiana Jones movie. [01:11:07] Speaker B: Let's get to the top two here. [01:11:08] Speaker A: All right, here we go. Number two. Sacrifice of Angels 9.0 on IMDb the Federation attacks D Space 9 in hopes of keeping the minefield at the wormhole intact while the Dominion waits entrance to the Alpha Quadrant. Okay, so I'm seeing that someone wrote this wrong on dsm because I just copy the text from there. Someone wrote this wrong on IMDb, I should say. [01:11:31] Speaker B: It sounds like it. Yeah. [01:11:32] Speaker A: I'm gonna. I'm gonna wing it. The Federation attacks DS9 in hopes of keeping the minefield at the wormhole intact. All the while, the Dominion fleet is waiting on the other side of the wormhole to come through and finish the job with the Federation. I added my own little ending there because the IMDb thing was written a little wrong. But the point is, so there's this race against time where the Federation is trying to get to back to D space 9 and take it over again before the Dominion bring down that minefield because there's thousands of Geminar ships just waiting to come in and join the fight. Can't allow that to happen. So a lot going on here. So this is. This is the culmination of that six episode arc that started season six. No Trek series had ever done it before. Even come close. I want to say D Space 9 did a couple three parters, but no one had ever done more than two or three. This was a six episode arc, really well done. And this culminated in the Federation retaking D space 9, pushing away the Dominion. You know, Jeffrey Combs, who we met at the Trek tour, he was on the station, you know, commanding it along with Goldu Cott. They're forced to flee. Gul Dukat's daughter, Melanie Smith, who played Zial, who we met on Trek Tour, this was her. This was her shining episode. She was in a bunch episode. She did a great job. But this was the episode in which, spoiler alert, she was killed. Hence the sacrifice of the angel. So she was this innocent. She was half Cardassian, half Bajoran. That had never happened before. She was an orphan. She was Goldicott's daughter. And you know, Kira, you know, took her as like a daughter of her own. Kira and Dukat hate each other but they. They did what they could for Ziel. So now the time comes for her to make a choice. Do you stay with D. Space9 and Bajorans or do you flee with your father in Cardassia? She opted to stay. Dukat was fine with it. And then all of a sudden she was shot by. Yeah, by someone else. I know who it is, but I'll leave that open anybody wants to watch it. So, yeah, it was, it was a crazy episode. You know, she wasn't a main character but she was a recurring character who you cared about. She was an innocent and it was hard to watch her die. So here's this bittersweet moment when they retake the station. People are cheering, they're so glad the Dominion's gone, the Federation's back, Cisco's back. But then, you know, here's, here's Garak looking for Zial. Who they were. They were intimate. They were kind of in love and turns out, you know, she's dead, so he's mourning her and. [01:14:07] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was just a. [01:14:10] Speaker A: Really great, such a satisfying conclusion to that first arc. Like you really knew something special was coming. When you, when you saw how this six episode arc sort of ended and you knew the war wasn't over yet so you knew there was just more things to come. It was just a great, great way to end this. The action, the emotion, the. I mean, it looked phenomenal. Like, you know, talk about the cheesiness and talk about next year, like this, this looked amazing. These battles looked great for 1997. They, they really looked cool. So what else can I say? Sacrifice Angels is a great episode. You know, Melanie Smith was a big part of that and one of the things I told her at the Trek tour was like, I think season six of these Space Nine is one of the best seasons of television ever. And I wasn't lying when I told her. And I think you're a huge part of that. So well done. [01:14:59] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it sounds like, like you said, like this is the moment was kind of touching. It sounds like, and like you said, like the idea that the war wasn't over yet, this was just a, you know, a part of the whole thing. Like you said, it ended that arc, but, but I don't have to describe it. It's like I can't think of anything else in television that has something like this. It seem it was very impactful. I mean, you know, I think it was. [01:15:21] Speaker A: I think it was phenomenal. I Couldn't wait to get home and watch the next episode. It was so well done. Yeah. So, hey, what else we got left? Number one. So, number one. [01:15:29] Speaker B: Nothing else. But here we go. [01:15:31] Speaker A: Nothing else. No surprise to anyone who listened to my D space 9 episodes pod. This is in the Pale Moonlight. [01:15:40] Speaker B: I've mentioned this title before, many times. The Batman line and everything. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:15:46] Speaker A: Okay, so this is a 9.5. A well deserved 9.5 on IMDb to save the Federation in a critical scheme, Cisco comes to realize that he must violate its fundamental principles to do so. So listen, spoiler, if you don't want to watch. If you want to watch this, this episode without hearing anything spoiled just like us, follow us and shut it off right now because this episode is an absolute fucking treat. But I am going to spoil it now. So Sisko is getting casualty report after casualty report. They're on D space 9 and they're doing fine. This is the end of season six, but friends, family, planets are just dying all over the place. The war is taking its toll. It's going terribly. And the only way Sisko can figure on leveling the playing field or giving the Federation a shot is to bring the Romulans into the war on their side. The Romulans were this. This vast empire that, you know, I know you've heard us mention the Romulans before, but they were. They signed. They similarly, like Bajor, signed a non aggression pack with the Dominion. They were happy to just watch these two people fight it out, kill each other. You know, it's like you're a fucking Giants fan and the Redskins and the Cowboys are playing and you're like, well, best I can hope for is an earthquake to take both teams out. Really? [01:17:01] Speaker B: Yeah, right, right. [01:17:02] Speaker A: One of them is going to win. So that's funny. Our teams are playing tomorrow, by the way. [01:17:07] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:17:08] Speaker A: Dallas. Washington. Dallas is a ten and a half point favorite. Like that. I never thought. See that. [01:17:13] Speaker B: No, Washington is. You mean. [01:17:15] Speaker A: Yeah, that's what I meant. That's what I meant. Washington. [01:17:17] Speaker B: Yeah. Because the commanders. Dallas is brutal. They sound like they got rocked. [01:17:23] Speaker A: They released Daniel Jones today, the Giants. Did you see that? [01:17:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I did see that. Yeah. Which, you know, a lot of my buddies are busting me like, oh, I guess Dallas will be getting them. I'm like, you know, shut the hell up. [01:17:34] Speaker A: Right, right. [01:17:35] Speaker B: For the guy, you know. Anyway. Yeah, go ahead. [01:17:37] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah. [01:17:39] Speaker B: I was even gonna say. I was trying to give, like. I'm trying to think if I Not that I really know a lot about history, but. So almost like us getting the French to come over and help us out in the revolution. Right. Not that we had a big rivalry with France, but. Right. You know, like, without their help, we probably would be fucked. You know What I mean? [01:17:54] Speaker A: Yeah. 100. Right. It's like, you know, it's like, like, you know, one country is. Or one. One empire is content. They just kind of sit back and watch and wait and see who wins before they pick. [01:18:03] Speaker B: Yeah, right. Right, right, right, right, right. [01:18:06] Speaker A: So Sisko said, that's not going to work. The Romulan Empire could really tip the scales, tip the balance of power in the Quadrant during the war. So him and the aforementioned brilliant Garak come up with a scheme to trick the Romulans into thinking that the Dominion was going to attack them first. A preemptive strike. So they literally fake evidence, show it to the Romulans. The Romulans call them out. They realized it was fake and said, we'll never fucking be a part of this alliance, blah, blah, blah. Garak knew that was. Knew this was coming. And he, instead of going with that plan, which Siskel thought would work, he puts a bomb on the shuttlecraft, blows up this Romulan and frames the Dominion for it. Then the Romulans come in. So basically what I'm saying is Captain Sisko was an accessory to murder. He lied to an Empire, tried to. Tried to fake his way, try to fake it to the Romulans, joined the Empire, and it turns out was even worse than that. He actually helped get somebody killed for the purposes of getting them in there. And the whole episode is. I'm sorry, go ahead. [01:19:15] Speaker B: No. And you want me to root for this fucking guy? No, I'm not doing it. I'm not watching the show. Fuck it, I'm out. Just imagine I'm just like you imagine. [01:19:23] Speaker A: You just close your computer and walk away. This is like. This is an antihero. This is. This is what? This is what? Tony Soprano. [01:19:32] Speaker B: Yeah, personified. [01:19:33] Speaker A: Right? This is. This is what Walter White and Tony Soprano are now, right? These antiheroes, these ones you root for that do unspeakable things, Right? Now, Cisco is obviously not Tony Soprano. He's not Walter White, but. But he's a Starfleet fucking Captain. You know what I mean? Like, Starfleet don't. Officers don't lie. They just don't do it. Like, honesty is one of the tenets of fucking the Federation. And here he is seeing thousands and thousands and thousands of people die every week. He's like, I don't fucking care. Like, I could live with this. I mean, turns out he can. But, like. And the whole episode is told through, like a. Like a personal log that he's speaking to himself in his quarters, right? He's, you know, personal log. I want to talk about the events of the last couple days. It's. The framing device is him in his quarters with a drink saying this. Like, I can't believe this happened. I did this. And at the end, a brilliant ending. I mean, what a mix of writing and acting. At the end, the end, the last line is. And I can live with it. And then he looks right at the camera, he goes, I. I can live with it. And it's like, I. I've seen people take that two different ways. Like, it's so ambiguous. Like, I love the way they did it. It could be like, no, no, no. I could live with it. This is the choice I've made and I'm standing by it. Or it could be him trying to convince himself that, yeah, right, Just turn down a path that he'll never get back from again. You know, a brilliant bit of writing and acting. [01:20:57] Speaker B: Well, it's one of those things where, you know, I don't know if you got. I'm sure Star Trek fans have done this in their mind, but, like, what. What does Picard do there? What does Kirk do there? You know, like, is there. You know. You know, would they. Would they play the same cards there? Or is this. You can't really compare it that way. [01:21:11] Speaker A: I think you can. I mean, that. That's the fun. That. That's kind of what I'm saying. Like, now, Picard, even though Picard was in the Dominion War, like, you know, they didn't show him. But, like, during Star Trek Insurrection, they mentioned they were taking a detour from the war to, you know, so I kind of like that they still honored, like, the Trek lore that's going on at the time, because Insurrection came out in 1998, right. When season six was going into season seven for D. Space Mod T. Space. [01:21:35] Speaker B: Oh, wow. [01:21:36] Speaker A: So, yeah, so they. They all. It's all one big fucking universe, and I love that. But, you know, I don't know if Picard and Kirk had seen the devastation that Cisco did. He. Cisco's on the front lines, right? So he's at the Space 9. He sees the Dominion every day. But I don't think Picard and Kirk would have made that choice. That. That's kind of why it's such a crazy, bold Thing to have. Janeway. Jamway would have. Jamie definitely would have, and I think Archer would have too, but. But they didn't. Cisco did. And that's why it's, it's pretty groundbreaking, Mom. I mean, think about it. Like. No, no. I mean, no Star Trek captain had ever come close to doing that. You know, and then all of a sudden you do what you gotta do for the fucking. For your way of life. It was, it was a crazy episode, but so much fun to watch. A brilliant episode. Brilliantly acted, written, filmed. It's. It's absolutely top notch Star Trek, like of all time, like any show. [01:22:31] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a, it's a brilliant episode. [01:22:32] Speaker A: And it had to be. I couldn't parrot sketch it like, because it's such a part of the domain. This was the turning point of the war. Him getting the Romulans to come in on their side, I'm. [01:22:42] Speaker B: I'm sure. Yeah. I mean, you know, it sounds like. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, I mean this is, it's, it's. [01:22:49] Speaker A: Yeah. So it's great. I love it. 9.5. I mean, that's just it. I, I don't think there's any other Trek episode higher than that. I don't think. Do not quote me on that. There's definitely a lot of nines, but I feel like 9.5 might be the highest. I don't know. I think Yesterday's Enterprise is a 9.3. There's a lot of good episodes out there, but this is one of the highest and deservedly so, a great television. [01:23:14] Speaker B: Definitely the highest one you've read since we've been, you know, looking up those things while we're doing a pod. Like, you know, I think that's true. [01:23:20] Speaker A: Right. And I did talk about this episode before. I don't think I was doing the ratings at the time, so. Right. I think that's. [01:23:24] Speaker B: Oh, that's true. That exactly. That is true. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know what to say. I mean, you know, it sounds like definitely something I would be, you know, pumped up to check out. So. [01:23:33] Speaker A: You know, I think you will someday. I think by the time you get into next gen, I think you'll be like, all right, like, what's next? You know? [01:23:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:23:39] Speaker A: And I mean, it'll be fun for you to see like Picard in that first episode of D Space Nine. Like, it'd be funny. You'd watch him pass the torch, you know. [01:23:45] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:23:47] Speaker A: Similarly to like when, when Voyager. Voyagers first episode, they start out on D Space 9. It's a lot of fun. Big one, big MCU before the MCU. You know what I mean? [01:23:55] Speaker B: Yeah. I was surprised they didn't have Kirk do that to Picard in Next Gen. [01:23:59] Speaker A: You know, Remember I told they had Bones do it. Bones was. In the first place. [01:24:04] Speaker B: They did it. That. That's right. That's right. That was awesome. That was a nice scene. [01:24:07] Speaker A: Yeah. That was a tradition they did until, you know, until Enterprise, but Never Prize was a prequel, so they kind of couldn't do that. But anyway, folks, that's our top 10 this time around, man. A lot of fun. Bomber, I apologize if I know this. This show is pretty alien to you. You're kind of just hearing me say these words and hanging on for the ride. Appreciate that. No pun intended. [01:24:29] Speaker B: Listen, it's fine, you know, this is what I. I knew this was. I was getting into here. I don't know dick about most of these shows and, you know, but it's fun to just listen to it and, you know, throw my bullshit around when I can, you know? [01:24:42] Speaker A: I love it. Folks, you got. Look at you. You can look forward to a couple more supplemental pods coming out in the next couple months. We're gonna do our lower decks top 10 episode around mid December, so go ahead and get ready for that. In the meantime. Yeah, check us out on Instagram and tick tock stwarp10. Shoot us an email, swarp10gmail.com we'd love to hear from you again. Thank you so much for listening. We so appreciate it. And, yeah, Bomber, please. Your final words. [01:25:11] Speaker B: Well, you know, Cisco might be able to live with it, but I don't know if I can. I'm gonna have to think differently about this. I'm gonna have to take me some time to get there, but I'm looking forward to checking this out. [01:25:21] Speaker A: Sounds good. Take care, everybody. Thank you. [01:25:23] Speaker B: Peace.