The Sound of Her Voice

Thankfully, I didn't have the high expectation burden of knowing it was the 500'th episode. This episode exposes some of the crew's insecurities in an interesting way. Nice side story involving Quark and Odo. It also offers a break from the space battle action scenes and heavy war life or death situations.

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.

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.

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.

So this episode has the defiant and all the regulars respond to a distress signal coming from a female captain stranded on a distant planet and running out of air. So they have to race to try and save her. Along the way they manage to establish communication and they all end up chatting to her for hours, I won't go into specifics but the dialogue is very well written and quite heartwarming. Nice ending, and the woman who voices the strandee did a great job. Yes.