The Storyteller

This DS9 story has the action shift to Bajor as Commander Sisko is brought in as a mediator to settle a dispute between two Bajoran communities. Back during Cardassian occupation the river that was the boundary line was diverted and one community was left with a lot less turf. "

Avery Brooks's problem is that the new head of one faction is a 14 earth years Bajoran girl who really has not had much time to just be a kid. Oddly enough his son Cirroc Lofton and Aron Eisenberg help with that.

And Chief O'Brien gets a job he doesn't want as savior of a village from a monster. What is the monster? Refer to Forbidden Planet for the answer.

I read the other reviews and I disagree. I enjoyed how it showed character development plus the strength of friendship and compromise. And I certainly don't understand why everyone is so down on Jake and Nog. I get a kick out of them. True friends, despite all the odds against them. This was not an action driven episode. Both stories were about relationships. You don't have to blow things up to make a point. And it's alright to be a little bit lighthearted once in awhile.

We have in this episode the potential for civil war between 2 factions if they don't come to some sort of an agreement on the space station moderated by Commander Sisko. Wait.....didn't we just have a civil war episode?

Notice: There is a Laugh Out Loud moment here when O'Brien dons a cape and goes onto a hillside to give the natives a pep talk to dispel a monster. No, I'm not kidding.

Notice: Jake Sisko's friend (the Ferengi boy) Nog tells Jake he doesn't want to go to a holosuite and play baseball because it is so stinking boring. Nog even reminds Jake that humans have not played baseball for several hundred years. I wonder what has happened to professional football and basketball in the future?

Chief O'Brien ends up on a planet where once a year a threat appears. Something that looks like some Pillsbury dough gone ma shows itself in the sky. It fires laser shots at the people. An old man stands on at the top of some steps and yells at it and it goes away. The problem is that he is dying and when the inevitable happens, Chief O'Brien is at hand and is given the title the old guy had. Of course, he is helpless to do anything. This is a silly situational thing. What is this thing and why is it malevolent?

O'Brien and Dr. Bashir are sent on a mission to assist the Sirah, a spiritual leader who controls a monster, the Dal'Rok, by sending it away as it approaches the town each year. Oddly, however, the Sirah is thrilled to see O'Brien and indicates HE is his successor...and the Sirah then dies. But O'Brien has no idea how the old man controlled the weird creation and soon he's shocked at the instant devotion the villagers have towards him.

The other plot involves some negotiations between two Bajoran tribes. It seems that their boundary was a river--and the Cardassians re- routed it. So where is this new border? Well, as for one group, their leader is an obnoxious and extremely immature young woman who seems to delight in arguing during these important negotiations--and Sisko is baffled how to deal with her. At the same time, Nog and Jake are infatuated with her and spend time lusting after her and eventually befriending her.

Both plots seem very inconsequential and rather dull--particularly the one about boundaries. Relying so much on the boys make this one particularly unimpressive and insignificant. And, as often is the case in this show, the Bajorans are an incredibly annoying race, as they are almost constantly fighting and arguing. It also didn't help that the 'monster' in the other plot was created by a special effects person who dumped cream into another liquid and played it back very slowly. All in all, there are quite a few things about this one that make it sub- par and a bit silly.