Quodo in Every Episode discussion: "Emissary"

[chacusha]

This week we have another season 1 episode (we're really tearing through this season!), and a two-parter. I didn't mention this earlier, but I've changed it so that discussions for two-parters will last two weeks, so the next episode discussion will be posted on December 1st. (Also, random, but Imgur deleted my screencap for the last episode ("If Wishes Were Horses")! I've rehosted it on Dreamwidth for the time being, but lol, Quark's women were apparently too spicy for Imgur. XD)

Anyway, for the next two weeks, we're discussing... episode 1x01/02 "Emissary"!

Episode synopsis: The series pilot! Following the death of his wife three years ago at the battle with the Borg at Wolf 359, Commander Benjamin Sisko is assigned to administrate a Bajoran space station to prepare the newly emancipated system for Federation membership. An encounter with a Bajoran religious artifact has the potential to completely change Bajor's future... if Bajor and the Federation can find the Temple of the Prophets before the Cardassians do, that is.

What The Boys are up to in this episode: Quark is being blackmailed by Sisko into keeping his bar open on the Promenade in exchange for the release of his nephew Nog. Odo is doing various security things and accompanying several senior officers to the Denorios Belt, where he was initially found. The two have a couple of short scenes together: one in Odo's office where Sisko is asking Quark to become a community leader, and one where Quark hands a "bag" (actually Odo) to the Cardsassians to sneak Odo onto their ship.

One screencap from this episode:


Transcript: http://chakoteya.net/DS9/401.htm

Quodo fics tagged with this episode: There's one in the tag, but it's a multi-episode fic and not eligible: https://archiveofourown.org/works/49491202

Tell us:
- What did you think about this episode?
- Have you written a fic set during/after this episode?
- Do you know of any other fics set in or that build off this episode that weren't linked above?
- What do you see as the Quodo potential for this episode?

Anonymous comments are on, so feel free to chime in even if you don't have a Dreamwidth account! If you prefer, we are also available on Discord:
https://discord.gg/VaCnMYvKu6 (18+ proship Quodo Discord - there is a dedicated channel for this event)
https://discord.gg/Htz4crCdCt (general Quodo Discord)
Event info & rules
Fic masterlist

Comments

[chacusha]

Random thoughts:

- Lol, love the opening crawl here.

- It's neat getting to see a Vulcan captain, and Sisko as the ship commander here.

- Oh god, yeah, I remember now that there's a LOT of shaky cam in this episode.

- The shot where you see what a shuttle/escape pod being ejected from a ship looks like from the inside of the shuttle is really neat. I love that shot.

- Love Jake looking all Huckleberry Finn over here. Also, Jake going from "I don't want to live on a space station" to "Space station looks cool 👀" XD

- Oh my gosh, Odo's voice is so different. XD

- Oh man, the Buh-JOR pronunciation is back again! Only with Picard, though.

- Okay, not to be salty about the show Picard BUT: Picard really tried to also feature a "Wolf 359 survivor being rude to Picard" scene and like... it didn't really add anything beyond what was already in the DS9 pilot, sorry to say. Hate to say it but I gotta say it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

- "AND a thief." -- I feel like Quark and Odo's petty enemies dynamic is already shining here, lol.

- Kira is great in this episode. Just... every line/scene.

- I always like the detail that there's a forcefield in front of the orbs that has to be turned off before people can have an orb experience. Also, that this orb is very carefully hidden to avoid it being taken by the Cardassians.

- Picard is such a great boss. It's fun seeing the contrast in his interaction with Sisko vs. O'Brien.

- Lol at O'Brien axe-kicking the computer to get it to transport.

- I like how excited both Sisko and Dax are to have discovered an unprecedented wormhole. NERDS!

- Love O'Brien's relationship with the computer being established in this episode. XD

- Odo is such a cranky, cynical old man in this episode and I love it.

- Wait... *squints eyes* Is Vulcan captain... J. G. Hertzler?? Omg it is!! I didn't recognize him until I heard a very Martok-like line delivery.

- Love Sisko saying, "I was afraid you'd ask that," when asked to explain baseball. XD That info is unfortunately very... inside baseball. *ba-dum-tish*

- I like the dynamic of Kira commanding the station in Sisko's absence. The team works pretty seamlessly under her, which, given most of them only arrived a couple of days ago(?), shows how competent and professional all of them are, including Kira, who is naturally just very authoritative and confident, even when all of the cards are stacked against her. GOOD CHARACTER-ESTABLISHING!

- I don't think Jennifer's actress is particularly good at acting -- and that weakness shows when they brought her back for a mirror universe episode -- but I DO think she is actually pretty good in this episode as (mainly) (1) a woman weirded out by guy behaving strangely and (2) otherworldly alien.

- And of course it's interesting that Sisko, once he's gotten closure about Jennifer's death, is able to let go of a lot of the anger he holds toward Picard, too.

- I like the "character-establishing outro" here -- Quark hitting on Kira who is having none of it; Bashir being very Young and Odo being alarmed at the mention of phasers (Odo and Bashir don't have a lot of interaction in this episode but what we get is really good!); Sisko, O'Brien, and Dax elbows-deep in fixing up the station; etc.

- I forgot to mention it earlier, but I always liked how this episode establishes that Bashir is painfully young and green throughout most of this episode, but when he's in his element as a doctor, he's actually surprisingly mature, competent, and authoritative. I always thought that was a good bit of characterization.

- Overall, this episode is packed, but it's very good. There's even a lot of characterization notes for Odo and Quark to be made here, and they're far from the main characters being featured here.

-- For one, Kira, Quark, and Odo all obviously go back quite a bit even at this point, and I think that's fascinating. I LOVE the part when Kira smiles at Sisko and says, "Quark knows a good bet when he hears one" -- they obviously go way back. And same when Odo, Quark, and Kira pull that trick to sneak Odo on board the Cardassian ship -- you can tell by their facial expressions that they've done this kind of operation together before and everyone knows their roles, they don't really need to communicate, and they already know how likely it is to work. I feel like they kind of dropped this dynamic later in the show, though! I mean obviously Odo and Quark go way back and Odo and Kira trust each other a lot/are close friends, but later you no longer really get the feeling that all three of them are compatriots the way you strongly get in this episode. While we do get "how they met" backstory when they barely know each other, we never really see onscreen what dynamic they had in the later days of the occupation but when the station was still under Cardassian rule, and I would LOVE to see more of that.

-- Another interesting characterization note for me is how protective Quark is here of Nog. Later, we see that Ferengi society is quite cruel/cutthroat in its attitude toward family relationships -- a lot of backstabbing and within-family hierarchies, and not a lot of obligation toward family members when it interferes with making profit, etc. So it's kind of interesting that not only does Quark feel responsible for Nog's wellbeing here (even as his uncle) but that Sisko is culturally *banking* on this being the case, that family duties of care are going to be highly motivating in this situation. Kind of fascinating to me! I'm not sure if that's because there's like a distinction in Ferengi culture that family can hurt family but there's an honor culture where outsiders are not permitted to hurt family, or if there are strong family obligations in Ferengi society generally, but they just don't apply when trying to earn profit specifically. Or something else I'm not thinking of? I feel like you do generally get the feeling that Ferengi regularly share business opportunities with their family members out of familial obligation/nepotism, and that's pretty normal. Anyway, just some thoughts I had on Ferengi culture from watching this episode!


Thoughts on Quodo potential:

- They do have exes vibes in this one...

- A bit borderline for this challenge, but you could probably use this episode as a springboard for some Quark/Odo backstory, like go back in time a little bit and kind of show what was happening with the two of them during the twilight days of the occupation when the Cardassian regime was about to collapse, or what they were doing during the Cardassian withdrawal and handover, etc.

- You might also be able to do something about Quark or Odo's feelings about Quark possibly leaving the station. Like, the "You know, at first, I didn't think I was going to like him" line could be Odo reveling in the new station commander being a hard-ass towards Quark, orrrrr it could be Odo stealthily expressing his pleasure/relief that Sisko found a way to get Quark to stay on the station when Odo's own efforts at doing that hadn't been successful. Like, have a conversation where Quark and Odo discuss Quark's original decision to leave or something?