The Sound of Her Voice

Lesson #1 - No one involved in illegal activity thinks of themselves as nefarious.

Lesson #2 - Probing energy barriers can trigger surges of metreon radiation.

Lesson #3 - If your stranded on an L-Class planet you're going to need trioxin.

Lesson #4 - One month anniversaries are still a thing in the 24th century.

Lesson #5 - Wanted men change their com system protocols after each use.

Lesson #6 - If you can't talk to your friends and you can't talk to your wife, you should probably talk to a counselor (or a stranger stranded alone on an L-class planet).

Lesson #7 - Power from the phasers can be channeled to the warp drive in case of emergency.

Lesson #8 - Don't mix your personal and professional lives.

Lesson #9 - Always remember the 285th rule of acquisition: "No good deed goes unpunished."

Lesson #10 - If you need to penetrate a layer of subspace metreon radiation use a shuttle.

Lesson #11 - Subsapce metreon radiation can time-shift subspace signals.

Lesson #12 - A proper burial is a burial among friends, preferably on a space station.

This episode is very satisfying. The Odo Quark dynamic is further evolved with Jake and Kira in supporting roles. Sisco, Obrien, and Bashier get some well written character development.

Verdict: An entertaining and heartwarming penultimate for the season.

"The Sound of Her Voice" is the 500th episode in the "Star Trek" franchise. So, after tons of "Star Trek", "Star Trek: The Next Generation", "Star Trek: Deep Space 9" and "Star Trek: Voyager" they've finally hit this huge milestone. Unfortunately, while a very good episode, it wasn't as resounding a success as the show a few seasons back created to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the series ("Trials and Tribble-ations", 5.6).

The show's main plot involves a long distance distress call. A ship's captain, Lisa Cusak, has begun sending distress calls to anyone who might respond. It seems that something odd about the atmosphere of some planet caused her ship to crash and the Defiant is many days away from rescuing her. There is a problem, however, because the crash site is a class L planet--with a thin atmosphere that necessitate Cusak using all her available oxygen...and then perhaps some. So, it's a race to the planet and the crew of the Defiant take time to talk with Cusak and keep her spirits high.

The other plot is ill-defined. For some reason that makes zero sense, Jake and Quark are working together on some smuggling. This plot DID end well, but otherwise is far inferior to the Cusak one in every way.

So is it any good? Yup. But for a 500th episode I guess I just expected more. Still, it is worth seeing.

Very boring episode. Reminded me of the movie "Frequency" where a man talks to his dead father from the past on the radio made possible by some kind of temporal distortion. But this one at least was interesting and action packed.

Here, the crew talks to a Starfleet captain that survived a crash on an alien planet. Unfortunately the Defiant needs several days to reach her. In the meantime the crew takes shifts in talking to her which feels like a session at the psychiatrist. Very boring after a while because nothing actually happens.

Sisko completely acts our of character when he is all cold and distanced towards Kassidy. He would have reacted differently to her if he felt that he is not able to perform his duties as a captain when she is around on the ship.

The Defiant answers a distress call from a stranded Starfleet officer.

The writers use a solid sci-fi concept to present a number of reflective character exchanges between various regulars and the guest character. Some of the conversations are more interesting than others, but it has a lot of heartfelt moments about friendship that works well and builds up to a strong finish.

As for the B-Plot, it is pretty light hearted, but continues the positive vibes about how people should value each other. You would have to be an extreme cynic not to raise at least one smile.

All actors are on good form, particularly the guest star Debra Wilson who exhibits great charisma in her voice performance.

Upon my first viewing of DS9 many years ago, this episode was one of the ones that stuck with me. Not necessarily because it was an "upper-echelon" episode on its own, not because anything universe-altering happens, but because Debra Wilson managed to create such an immediately likeable and memorable character in Cpt. Lisa Cusak.