Let's start with the good: Nick Tate does some excellent acting in his final scene, and there's a fantastically fluffy cat. Now for the bad:
Very little of the plotting here stands up to any critical thought. Intelligence work is *all* about confidence, so they wouldn't be using the Chief as an agent in the first place -- for all the reasons that tickle us for suspense here: he has to lie about almost everything about himself, and he has a family to consider. Does anyone really imagine Keiko allowing him to take such a mission?
Not surprisingly, the secret element of plot-holium comes to his rescue, over and over. The script has Bilby seeming to be shrewd or not, as the plot requires; he's confident and commanding one moment, then quivering and obsequious when the boss shows, then totally trusting of his brand-new sidekick. But if Bilby's character has no consistency, neither does the agent who has given O'Brien this mission in the first place. The only trustable character in this mission is O'Brien, and most of what he says we know to be lies.
It's not impossible to successfully port in a script written outside the Star Trek universe, which seems to be the case here. But this doesn't even feel like Star Trek. So we have:
- an insufficiently-developed script that
- violates the continuity and character of a main role and
- doesn't feel like Star Trek.
That being said, it's a largely functional gangster story with some awkward character continuity and nice photography. 10/10 it could never be, but IMO it can't even really be Star Trek; there just aren't any DS9 characters who could have been given this role (with the possible exception of Odo).
5/10 for good sets, lighting, decent acting within scenes
