Quodo in Every Episode discussion: "Melora"

[chacusha]

This week we're discussing... episode 2x06 "Melora"!

Episode synopsis: Doctor Bashir is excited about the arrival of Ensign Melora, an alien from a low-gravity world who needs mobility aids in order to navigate high-gravity worlds. Meanwhile, Fallit, one of Quark's partners in crime who took the fall for an illegal shipment and went to prison for eight years, comes aboard the station seeking revenge.

What The Boys are up to in this episode: Quark (+ Odo at points) has a whole subplot here where he makes several unsuccessful attempts to appease Fallit. As part of this, Quark goes to Odo for help, who gives him a combadge to use in case of emergency but otherwise can't really intervene. Quark eventually ends up an unwilling accomplice in an armed robbery and then hostage of Fallit as he tries to escape to the Gamma Quadrant, before he, Melora, and Dax are able to retake control of the runabout.

One screencap from this episode:


Transcript: http://chakoteya.net/DS9/426.htm

Quodo fics tagged with this episode: There seems to be one in the tag:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/41854404

Tell us:
- What did you think about this episode?
- Have you written a fic set during/after this episode?
- Have you read any of the fics linked above? Let us know if they fit! 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:

- Oh interesting, Armin Shimerman also does a weird elbow bump as a kind of deal-sealing handshake in this one.

- I was going to say that the romance in this episode doesn't feel too creepy relative to Bashir's one-episode romances, because there's a nice balance between Melora and Bashir where they're both kind of confident and also competitive/ambitious people. But nope, I forgot that it gets creepy at the end. Bashir wanting to be both her doctor and her boyfriend is so uncomfortable to me.

- There's a nice shot of various people in Quark's bar. Fun costumes!

- Why does the Klingon chef have more personality than Kes? 😂

- Interestingly, there is a cut line in the script. Dax talking about the last time she made romance work in Starfleet, 150 years ago -- Melora says "That's a long time." In the script, Dax says, "She was a hard act to follow." This line was cut! And another line later in the same scene: "Smile, Ensign, you're in love."

- "Oh. It's you." "Don't be so happy to see me." "All right, I won't." -- Why are they so flirty? XD

- "Odo, there's a desperate criminal on board the station." -- I always wonder if this was supposed to sound like Quark is referring to himself toward Odo, lol. It's such a weird thing to say.

- The first but not the last time that Odo expresses the intention to buy a desiccated disc of Quark after he dies, lol.

- Gratuitous foot shot nooo 😂

- Hm, I was wondering when was the first time Quark starts getting his new season 2 outfits. I think this episode might be the first appearance of one of the new ones (the one with a jacket featuring brownish squares and green pants).

- Man, I was just thinking (in the context of consent_issues_exchange) how Quark has such whump/menaced-by-villains potential because of his tendency to deal with sketchy characters (and piss them off), and somehow I completely forgot to include Fallit Kot in that set of sketchy characters. The scene in Quark's quarters... And then I was looking at Fallit Kot's Memory Alpha page and found this:

The scene in Quark's quarters was originally intended to be longer, showing him psychologically toying with Quark. As Somers explained, "Megsy [sic] was going to kill Quark by using the Ceti eels introduced in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, but this variety didn't cause mental vulnerability for mind control […] Megsy [sic] had Quark pinned and he was going to insert the creatures in Quark's ears. I thought that would be a fitting, torturous end for someone who had caused eight years of suffering. But in the aired version, Fallit Kot just strangles Quark. It's not quite titanic enough." (The Official Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Magazine issue 62)

("Megsy" here referring to an early version of Fallit Kot's name.) You're telling me that in the original script, Fallit Kot was going to put eels in Quark's EARS?? Omg.

- I think one thing that would make this episode less uncomfortable if it was clearer from the way the dialogue was written / when information was dropped that Melora knew before she began treatments that she would be giving up the low-grav environment and still was really excited about going through with them. That way it would make her later reluctance feel more ambivalent and easier to dismiss as nervousness/cold feet or just an expression of frustration at the difficulty of the transition. But they really only introduce this plot point AFTER the treatments are already underway in a way that makes it feel like either (1) she wasn't given this info from the start (HUGE issue), or (2) she was given this info but was always kind of ambivalent. Anyway, if I were fixing this episode up a bit, I would have Bashir say the thing about not being able to go back to low-grav environments in an earlier scene and Melora be like, "Well, sure, that's fine" and then later realize she was underweighting how important her planet and her identity as a low-grav person who navigates a high-grav world is to her.

- I can see why this episode has a couple of Jadzia/Melora fics written for it -- the two of them have interesting scenes together, and I feel like there's a bit of a push-and-pull between Jadzia (supporting Melora remaining the same) and Julian (supporting Melora changing) when it comes to Melora. Anyway, I ship it.

- This is another episode where there really should have been SOME consequences for Quark, being involved in an armed robbery gone bad, even under duress... (Like... did that Yridian die...?)

- I wonder what all the Klingon chef singing means in this episode.

Overall, this episode is a bit of heavy-handed 90s style political correctness tackling disability issues, which is both a bit cringe and also well-meaning. While one of those early-season episodes that get easily forgotten later, this one sticks out in my memory a bit because I like Melora's character and Quark and Odo's interactions in this one are amazing (especially their banter when Quark first shows up at Odo's office and Odo's slow smile when Quark say Kot wants to kill him lol). I also have a fond spot for episodes where the A and B plots intersect in interesting ways, so I like this one!


Thoughts on Quodo potential:

- I feel there's a LOT of Quodo potential in this episode! You could add a scene where Odo reacts to Quark almost getting killed. You could add a scene where Quark is upset Odo is being so callous toward him, like a joke between them gone too far. You could have protective!Odo. You could (again) have a fic explaining why Quark isn't in jail, or maybe a follow-up where Quark is investigated for his role in the robbery and ultimately acquitted, featuring Quark and Odo interactions. You could have a sequel where Fallit breaks out of whatever new jail he got sent to and is out for revenge 2.0. The hurt/comfort potential of this episode!

- Alternate version of their conversation in Odo's office where Quark thinks the "desperate criminal" Quark is referring to is Quark ha.

I read the fic linked above, and it fits (coda to this episode where Quark is still scared of Fallit), so I added it to the masterlist!