Quodo in Every Episode discussion: "By Inferno's Light"

[chacusha]

This week we're discussing... episode 5x15 "By Inferno's Light"!

Episode synopsis: The continuation of "In Purgatory's Shadow" -- Bashir, Worf, and Garak have to figure out how to escape the Dominion camp and alert the station of the Changeling Bashir, which is more difficult now that Tain is dead. Meanwhile, Dukat announces that Cardassia has made an alliance with the Dominion. The Federation, Klingons, and Romulans prepare for a big confrontation with the Dominion at DS9, but the Dominion has another plan involving just one runabout piloted by the Changeling Bashir.

What The Boys are up to in this episode: Quark has a single scene with Ziyal in his bar where he complains that the imminent Dominion victory will ruin his business opportunities. Odo is mentioned a couple of times but never appears!

One screencap from this episode:


Transcript: http://chakoteya.net/DS9/513.htm

Quodo fics tagged with this episode: None (https://archiveofourown.org/works?work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=Episode%3A+s05e15+By+Inferno%27s+Light&work_search%5Bexcluded_tag_names%5D=&work_search%5Bcrossover%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=&work_search%5Bwords_from%5D=&work_search%5Bwords_to%5D=&work_search%5Bdate_from%5D=&work_search%5Bdate_to%5D=&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&commit=Sort+and+Filter&tag_id=Star+Trek%3A+Deep+Space+Nine)

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?

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Event info & rules
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Comments

[chacusha]

Random thoughts:

-

Kira: Dukat, stop trying to be a hero. Get back to the station.
Dukat: Your concern is touching, Major.

Lol, a very Dukat moment. I feel like this is a common dynamic he has with characters, which is him being like, "Ah yes, I know you like me uwu" to a character that consistently hates him.

-

Dukat: That space station you're so fond of was built by Cardassia.
Sisko: Funny, I thought it was built by Bajoran slave labor.

Iconic Sisko moment.

- I like how full of false cheer Garak is in this episode. I think that's something that makes him relatable to people, like the difference between how badly things are going on in the inside vs. how "This is fine 🙃" dog he is on the outside.

- "For all we know the Vorta could be gluttonous, alcoholic sex-maniacs." -- All right, but who's writing this?? XD

- I like how there's always tension between Vorta and Jem'Hadar. Also, love the casual introduction of the Breen here!

- Interesting how there are two plotlines in this episode: in the camp and out of the camp. Well, I suppose there's actually three plotlines, because the camp plotline is separated pretty distinctly into the Jem'Hadar ring fights with Worf and Martok vs. the struggle with claustrophobia with Garak, Bashir, and the other two cellmates. Unfortunately, I felt like all of the plots here were just kinda boring! Like with a lot of Star Trek two-parters, I felt the first part (the previous episode) was really strong and this second part was just a bit underwhelming. There's a lot of repetition/situation-getting-gradually-worse in a way that's a bit boring IMO, and the way that Kira and Dax stop the Changeling Bashir, for example, is just a bit anticlimactic. Also, not a great episode for Quodo (even Quark's scene here feels very unnecessary and like it could have easily been cut). So yeah, just a kind of meh episode.


Quodo potential:

- I feel like Odo could use a scene in this episode. It's even an episode about a changeling infiltrator, too! Maybe you could think about what security measures Odo was taking to try to figure out who on the station might be a changeling, or have him interact with Changeling Bashir in any way, and then talks to Quark about his success, lack thereof, frustrations, etc. Maybe Odo suspects Quark of being the changeling, or maybe Quark gives advice on security, or Odo asks Quark if he's noticed anyone being suspicious or something like that.

- Or they could have a conversation after the changeling is discovered, like did either of them notice something was off about the doctor, would either of them notice if the other was replaced, etc.