Summary[]
When evidence is discovered that a bomb explosion at a conference between the Federation and the Romulans has been caused by a Changeling, Sisko and Odo are summoned to Earth. President Jaresh-Inyo is reluctant to agree to more security measures against the Dominion threat when Odo impressively demonstrates how easy it would be for one of his people to infiltrate the President's office. Odo and Sisko meet with Commander Benteen and Admiral Leyton. Some time later, Odo uncovers the admiral as another Changeling. Meanwhile, Captain Sisko's father Joseph has been arrested for refusing the blood screening which, in his view, is useless to actually recognize Changelings. The following night all power systems on Earth go offline. Sisko and Leyton urge Jaresh-Inyo to declare a state of emergency on the planet, leading to the transporters on the Lakota filling the streets of every city on Earth with phaser-equipped Starfleet officers.
Errors and Explanations[]
The Nitpickers Guide for Deep Space Nine Trekkers[]
Plot Oversights[]
- In the first part of the episode, we learn that Dax periodically moves the furnishings in Odo's apartment a few centimeters just to bug him. Near the beginning of the episode, Odo storms into Quark's looking for her. I guess he forgot he could ask the computer to give him Dax's location. He just wants an excuse to vent his anger.
- Near the end of this episode, Sisko and Odo offer that the Dominion may have cloaking technology. They recount the events in The Die is Cast, and speculate that the Dominion may have salvaged it from the destroyed Romulan and Cardassian fleet. In my humble opinion, the Dominion doesn't need Romulan cloaking technology because they had cloaking technology long before the Tal Shiar and the Obsidian Order decided to attempt to obliterate the Founders. Remember the end of The Jem’Hadar? Sisko deduces that Eris is a member of the Dominion and tries to take her captive in Ops. Eris simply taps her forearm and transports away. O'Brien can neither trace the transporter signal nor find any nearby ships. So where did she go? Possibly she had a person- al transporter and beamed herself someplace else on the station to await extraction. Possibly she had a personal transporter that transported her all the way back to the Gamma Quadrant. More likely, though, she was beamed off the station by a ship that belonged to the Dominion. And since O'Brien couldn't find the ship, it seems reasonable to conclude that the Dominion has cloaking technology. Perhaps it was hidden using some kind of phase inverter! CdnTim 1611 EST 5 Feb 2021 - I think its pretty clear that the Dominion carefully managed their introduction to the Alpha Quadrant. Presumably they had arranged to have an extraction transporter nearby, either on a visiting Gamma Quadrant, or on an Alpha ship they'd coopted. The whole episode was about intimidating the Federation and confusing them, which would also be why they apparently simulated telekinetic powers in Eris.
- Attempting to convince Federation president Jaresh-lnyo to declare a state of emergency, Odo contends that destructive fear will grow in the people all over this planet, huddled in the dark..." if the president doesn't give them a sign of hope. Excuse me. I have no desire to defuse such an emotional moment, but ...I believe that only half the people on the planet are huddled in the dark. The others have daylight! Odo was speaking metaphorically!
Changed Premises[]
- In this episode Bashir and O'Brien, dressed as Spitfire pilots, approach the bar in Quark's. They've just come from a holosuite simulation of the Battle of Britain. O'Brien yells for Quark as they draw near, using the term of affection "barkeep." Evidently this doesn't bother Quark any longer. In Captive Pursuit O'Brien calls Quark "barkeep" and Quark reacts quite vehemently to the term. Quark may have been persuaded that the term was a compliment! CdnTim 1624 EST 5 Feb 2021 - Apparently it grew on him...O'Brien and Bashir didn't used to be friends, either.
- Shortly after greeting Sisko's arrival on Earth, Leyton says that Earth is in danger—maybe the greatest danger since the last world war. Obviously Leyton isn't too well versed in recent history. V'ger almost wiped out all life on Earth in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The whaleship almost did it again in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Alien parasites almost took over Starfleet in Contagion (TNG). And the Borg almost assimilated humanity in The Best of Both Worlds Part 2 (TNG) Maybe Layton truly believes that the Dominion is more of a threat than V’ger, the whaleship, the alien parasites and the Borg!
- The Federation must be downsizing. In this episode the president's office is much smaller than the one shown in Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country. In that episode the president's office was as big as Ten- Forward on the Enterprise-D! (And looked just like it! Wink, wink.) The staff in the adjoining rooms may have needed more space, requiring the president to give up some office space.
Equipment Oddities[]
- At the end of this episode Leyton and Sisko speak of using the communication and transporter systems of the Lakota exclusively to implement their plan to protect Earth. I hate to ask this, but is this the only ship that's current- ly in orbit? (It's the Star Trek movies all over again! In several of these, the Enterprise was always the only ship in range to help with a problem.) Using only the Lakota would allow Layton to maintain proper control of the situation.
Continuity And Production Problems[]
- For some reason, the creators have Sisko wear a (NextGen)-style uniform as soon as he arrives on Earth. Perhaps the coloured shoulder design is a limited issue. CdnTim 1625 EST 5 Feb 2021 - This is consistently applied on DS9, so its not really a nit. We even see the TNG uniforms as late as a pre-battle briefing in the Dominion War.
- When Grandpa Joe refuses to take a blood test, Sisko tries to convince him otherwise. The discussion soon becomes heated, and Grandpa Joe accidently cuts himself while preparing food for his restaurant. He walks over to a sink to wash his finger and then asks Jake to bring the dermal regenerator. However, when he sees Sisko inspecting the knife to see if his blood is real, Grandpa Joe becomes irate. He accuses Sisko of seeing shape shifters everywhere and suggests that a clever shape shifter might just steal a human's blood and keep it on hand to release in case someone ordered a blood test. The scene stays tight on Grandpa Joe's face during this speech, and either Grandpa Joe's got an eye twitch or he's reading from a set of cue cards. He’s probably trying to supress his natural anger.
Nit Central[]
- Spockania on Monday, January 15, 2001 - 11:36 pm: Admiral Leyton says that among other things his men have been stocking "personal force fields". Why do we never see these at any point? Even if they are brand new and he's been limiting the supply to Earth right now, why don't we see them later, like in the siege of AR-558? It's technology we never hear from again. Perhaps they proved unworkable.
- BrianB on Monday, April 08, 2002 - 4:43 am: Are tube grubs now thriving on Earth? Otherwise how does Grandpa procure the Ferengenar grubs? Interplanetary commissary shipment? Nog won't eat them if they're not alive. LUIGI NOVI on Tuesday, April 09, 2002 - 1:32 am: Which episode established that? And why can't they be shipped alive? Also, in one episode, he had dinner with Jake and Ben Sisko in their quarters on the station, where Sisko made squid served with a sauce of pureed tube grub. I assume that tube grubs that have been pureed are no longer alive. :) BrianB on Tuesday, April 09, 2002 - 12:13 pm:Luigi, it was this episode. Nog said, "Your father [Grandpa Joe] is the only person on this planet who can get me live ones." and "Cook them?! What good are tube grubs if they don't wiggle on the way down?" So in not so many words, Nog prefers live grubs. Also Luigi, my off-hand remark about the interplanetary commissary shipment meant Grandpa goes to great expense for his one Ferengi customer and the grubs are imported alive. CdnTim 1627 EST 5 Feb 2021 - 24th Century Earth is clearly a very cosmopolitan place, and the Ferengi are trading with the Federation by this point. Once Joe Sisko wanted to order them, it's not surprising that he could find a source. Probably no one else wanted to go through the hassle for a single Ferengi customer.
- On Enterpise, is the Federation undergoing foundation? Because here, Sisko says a Dominion army invasion on Earth will wage a war Earth has not seen since the foundation of the Federation. So if the Federation has yet to be founded, are we going to see such a war on Enterprise? Klingons? I doubt it. Not with Sisko's meaning. That would be -- like – continuity! KAM on Monday, April 08, 2002 - 4:53 am: I believe he's referring to the Earth/Romulan war which supposedly led to the founding of the Federation.
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