Fascination

It's a Lwaxana Troi episode, which means its a skip. But on top of that, you get a moping Jake, O'Brien's bratty wife and Kira's creepy milquetoast boyfriend.

O'Brien's wife bitches and moans like a spoiled brat, Jake mopes, and Troi is... well... her usual unbearable self. Probably the worst episode in the series.

Everyone goes crazy and starts lusting after each other. Jake is in love with Kira, her lame boyfriend lusts after Dax, and Dax can't keep her hands off of Sisko. Meanwhile Miles and Keiko argue and complain (as usual). It's all very awkward and weird and total filler. The mystery is obvious and easily solved.

Sisko calling Dax "old man" while she gropes him is kind of funny I guess. Otherwise you miss nothing by missing this one.

If you've always wanted to see A Midsummer's Night Dream performed by the cast of Deep Space Nine... first, you have an exceptionally rich and potentially unique imagination. Second, you'll have a blast. For all others, viewer discretion advised. Its like they distilled all the annoying parts of every character than exclusively amplified those. Not saga relevant, good skip.

This was really remindful of a Restoration comedy. It has all kinds of interconnected romantic attractions that cause distress to one of the partners. I won't comment much on this. Yes, it is filler. When a series goes on so long and a much more intense episode is coming up, it's not unusual for there to be a lighter motif. Lwaxana is one of my least favorite characters. The whole Betazoid thing is hard to take. But there are some funny moments and some that are a bit touching. It's hard for me to get all out of joint over a few minutes of lightheartedness. Especially, if things get back on track soon.

Some Bajoran festival is about to be celebrated on Deep Space 9 when the show begins. What follows is a relationship all about relationships--and several couples are highlighted. Odo is horrified when Lwaxana Troi shows up and she's NOT about to accept no for an answer. Major Kira is about to get her groove on with Bariel--though completely out of the blue Jake Sisko professes his love for her (and this made no sense whatsoever), Bariel has some weird fascination for Jadzia Dax and, finally, Keiko returns to visit with her husband-- and with every word between them, it's more and more obvious that the marriage is pretty much over...and don't even get me started about Dax and her love interest!! The worst moment was when Keiko dropped a bomb (so to speak) on Miles and when he rightfully got upset, she told him he was acting like a child (oooh...low blow time). The bottom line is that by the end, EVERYONE is pretty miserable in their relationships! It almost seems like someone has spiked something on the station!!! What the heck is going on here?!

While none of this makes sense, later it DOES--and it makes for a rather funny and enjoyable "what if" episode. Well worth seeing.

This episode goes back to the very earliest Lwaxana TNG episodes where she was a silly horndog. Those were extremely bad and this basically feels like a remake of one of them.

Lwaxana had some good stories late in TNG's run, and she had a remarkably touching story with Odo previously on DS9. This episode squanders that Odo moment and even jokes about it.

I didn't care much for the use of Bareil here either.

There are some fun bits here, particularly with Jake, so it's not a compete loss.