1×11 — Vortex — Odo themed episodes are interesting. Odo felt like the new Data, a man on his own with no family to speak of. This episode gave some hope as people from the Gamma quadrant spoke of Changelings. Since it’s the first time Odo found out he had a race somewhere else it’s also significant in that this is the first episode where Odo smiles. One of the other cool things that I never noticed until watching it this time through is they used Odo’s shapeshifting really well. In the scene where Quark is meeting with his associates he brings a liquid with five glasses but there are only four of them there. Because Odo is that fifth glass.
Morn is officially named in this episode and told to be quiet because he spoke too much, which is a good running gag.
I feel like Star Trek has used the bigger ship blows itself up in the nebula gag many times so the ending seemed a bit usual to me.
Rating: C
1×12 — Battle Lines — This episode isn’t the greatest but it has one of the most important decisions they made. Kai Opaka wasn’t a great character and getting rid of her for a much better Kai was an incredibly good decision. This episode has similar themes as many other Star Trek episodes, War is Hell, people will fight for no reason. All that stuff, and it gets into the hate that Kira has inside of her which is flushed out much better in later episodes. I don’t really have much to say on this one, this is a middle of the road episode.
Rating: D+
1×13 — The Storyteller — The best thing that happened for Bashir was O’Brien, this is the first time they paired the two but in future episodes their pairing becomes one of the most important parts of the show. I’ve said earlier that this current form of Bashir is quite annoying, luckily he takes his enthusiasm and channels it better later on. O’Brien as well gets a little annoying in this episode just because he’s so gruff, so annoyed by everyone and everything. Once both characters relax they become much better characters overall. O’Brien in this episode ends up becoming some sort of spiritual leader for a day in order to protect some people who’s old leader has passed on. As a cool note, apparently the script for this episode was pitched during the first season of TNG. It stayed on the shelves until the first season of DS9 came around.
The other side of the episode has one of the other great pairings in the show, that of Nog and Jake. Nog is an interesting character because the creation department at least in my estimation, never found a way to use Jake, but they did find a way to use Nog in what they likely would have wanted Jake to do. To be the son who follows his own path. Both Jake and Nog follow their own paths but Nog was a bit more successful at it then Jake was. It’s fun how there are a lot of seeds in these first couple episodes.
Rating: C-