Move Along Home

Haven't seen this in a long time and it is not the best episode of DS9, but like early TNG episodes, early DS9 episodes tent to get better over time.

When this episode and DS9 first aired, I did not like it very much, now I like it. When Voyager first aired I did not like it either and I hoped that the same would happen, what happened to DS9 a couple of years earlier. But it never happened.

This is actually very entertaining with kind of a surprise ending. Just watch it, you will like it. The characters are not fully developed yet and feel fresh.

"Move Along Home," is often dismissed as one of the series' more eccentric episodes, but I find its charm undeniable. Yes, it's quite silly, with an unusual premise: the crew, especially Sisko, Kira, Dax, and Bashir, are unwillingly pulled into a bizarre game by the Wadi, an alien species fascinated with chance and challenge. However, the episode's fun lies in its surreal, almost whimsical atmosphere. Watching the crew try to solve strange riddles and puzzles adds a playful, unpredictable vibe uncommon in Star Trek. It doesn't advance any major story arcs, but it gives the actors a chance to show new sides of their characters, caught in an absurd, almost dreamlike scenario. Sure, it lacks depth, but "Move Along Home" is pure enjoyment-an amusing change of pace that proves even a serious sci-fi series can afford to take a lighthearted detour.

First contact has been made with aliens called the Wadi in the Gamma Quadrant and they are on the way through the wormhole and to the space station. Where do these aliens want to go but Quark's for some gambling. That's what these folks are all about games of all kinds.

But Quark cheats a little as he considers these people rubes. But when they catch him at it, the aliens have him play a game of their own. Sisko, Kira, Dax, and Dr.Bashir find themselves as pawns in a game of the aliens faced with all different kinds of perils. How they do depends on how well Armin Shimerman spins the alien dice.

The story is a bit silly, but the cast regulars and guests do sell it.

Seriously the look on Siskos face when he has to do hopscotch is hilarious, it's like he wants to strangle whoever wrote the episode lol. Also the new aliens look terrible, as someone else has stated they clearly cheaped out on the costumes for this one. Fairly forgettable but not as bad as some people say.

Years ago in the British series called "The Prisoner," Patrick McGoohan was thrust into a world where there were obstacles around every corner, in a kind of "Through the Looking Glass" motif. He never knew who is friends or enemies were or where he was heading. Here, a new alien race shows up and demand that they find "games." Of course, Quark runs a gambling establishment and a kind of holographic house of ill repute. He embraces them and sets off a series of events that are incredibly bizarre. That said, it serves absolutely no purpose other than to force the main characters participate in a fantastic game. Anyway, it struck me as something a writer came up with with for no other reason to play out a scenario.