Babel

Any good Star Trek series needs to have an episode where the crew are affected by some alien virus that makes them act totally different than normal.

This episode scratches that itch (a future episode in season 1 goes even further).

There are several moments that made me laugh out loud. But then, the virus gets deadly.

Quark (Ferengi bar owner) shows his true Ferengi qualities and his relationship with Odo (the shape shifter) is revealed to be more than only adversarial.

These early episodes are essential with character development and DS9's actors teamed with the awesome cohort of writers/producers do a stellar job giving 1st season viewers a foundation from which to build a personal bond with the characters.

This episode, as with many Star Trek series episodes, has dire live or die consequences if some act of heroism isn't performed by a member of the crew.

Cosmic principles for discussion (especially for Bible-believing viewers): relate what happens with this episode to the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel.

This is an Underrated Star Trek episode. If I watched it in another time period, I would not understand its value. However, there is currently a worldwide pandemic. In a way befitting a science fiction; It has shown very well what will happen in a pandemic. The process is lifelike, just faster. With the importance of the situation, the tempo in the episode was successful. With real life experience, I was very excited while watching the episode. An important detail was the unexpected spread of the virus. As a result, Star Trek is always one step ahead.

A strange virus infects DS9. At first it involves aphasia and a kind of distorted, nonsensical speech, and the serious physiological consequences. Unfortunately, as the crew begins to fall away, Kira seems to be the only one that can save them, but it takes some pretty heavy handed actions to make it happen. Odo is front and center as a trader becomes a threat to the station, due to his selfishness. This is a pretty ordinary episode, but it is engaging and keeps one's interest.

This episode seems like it could have been better with an extra few minutes to tell it's story. Which is interesting. More often it feels the episodes could lose about 10 minutes.

What I wish the episode included was a scene showing the Bajoran doctor discover the cure from Bashir's initial work. This is kind of the climatic moment the story was leading up to. And they just kind of skip it and just tell us via Sisko's log that it happens. I call that a downer.

The other scene I would have liked to see would have been a scene addressing whether the Major's action of capturing and infecting the bajoran doctor against his will was or wasn't acceptable or ethical.

But overall the contagious babeling storyline was good. And It has some interesting twists in determining the provenance of the contagion.

Overall it seems do deserve a 7. But it seems a few easy changes I recommended could have make it a 9 without much difficulty.

Great episode. pretty unnerving though how relevant this still is in 2020.