My Watering Hole: 3 in Q-Less (Deep Space Nine S01-E07)

No wonder you're not commanding a Starship.

I forget. Did Captain Picard ever do the jamaharon with Vash?

The onetime entanglement of Captain Picard resurfaces from the wrong side of the wormhole: Lt. Dax found her in the Gamma Quadrant. She said she was stranded for 2 years - probably pre-wormhole - which should have been a warning but getting lost was not a crime. In any case, Vash has dependably brought trouble aboard the station along with her previous ride to the Gamma Quadrant: Q.

This episode is a momentum killer as much as momentum can be in an episodic TV series. We’ve seen glimpses of Bajor, tackled some history of the DS9’s Bajoran crew; Tosk was just the first of what could be beyond the wormhole.

Well, technically today’s trouble came from the wormhole, but with old faces from The Next Generation it felt more like a bridge than a road to new adventures.

Case in point, the episode’s most memorable line is: I am not Picard. It’s a cry that says I am a different kind of Star Trek, but Star Trek nonetheless.

Here are the 3 things that stand out in the Episode.

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Starfleet Medical Finals gets them everytime

Fascinating

Above is Doctor Julian Bashir impressing a Bajoran date with all sorts of medical jargon, telling what happened in his Starfleet Medical Finals presented like it was life and death. And it worked. But why is she a doctor?

Like what the Doctor did I did try not caring about editing myself once on a date. All the weird geeky things in my head just came out, not as a technique because I have none, it’s where the conversation took me. Of course my date didn’t say fascinating like Julian’s date, but I knew she hung onto every word. It was the nicest feeling.

Here’s my question: Geordi La Forge of the Enterprise once fell in love with a hologram, now why is it that I even though Doctor Bashir goes out talking to real people, risking humiliation with counterintuitive dating lines, I find the latter unimpressive.

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He’s like a child chasing and getting swatted every so playfully (in her eyes at least) by Jadzia Dax. Ironically compared to him, his dates look like children, intellectually speaking. Why does that prevent me from wanting to be him? Am I being unfair?

Until I find an answer, I will give credit to the good doctor. He keeps on trying, and he won’t bend over just to impress.

Are we talking Abusive Relationships?

I'll leave you now to reconsider my offer of friendship

What I remember of Q is that he’s mischievous. He does not kill on a whim in order that lower beings worship him, because if so the Enterprise would be destroyed long ago. Q creates games, and the Enterprise crew has no choice but to comply, all the while disproving concepts that led to Q’s creation of those games to begin with.

Q doesn’t have a question here. He didn’t rope in the crew of DS9 for his version of fun.

Q is chasing a woman who rejected him 2 years ago, which he then left stranded in the Gamma Quadrant as payback – a red flag. 2 years stranded away from one’s own are of space with none of your species to talk to is akin to mental torture. Vash keeps repeating I want my life back before I met you (Q) – another red flag.

I only considered the dark side of relationships with the 3^rd red flag when Q turned Vash into a withered old woman. Would that have equaled to pointing a gun at a woman? Isn’t that an ‘accept me or else’ threat?

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Because Q didn’t keep the threat for prolonged periods, because Vash didn’t describe any specifics of abuses much less walk around like she has PTSD, Q comes off as just annoyingly persistent. The witty repartee between them makes it look like a game. It’s never a dark episode when it comes to Q.

As much as I admire the wit that comes with his appearances, I always ask what is the point this god in an episode? After giving up the chase, Q and Vash agree that it was a good run, with Q did say something remotely romantic if only it was his first experience at love.

All right. If you insist. But things won't be the same without you. When I look at a gas nebula, all I see is a cloud of dust, but seeing the universe through your eyes allowed me to experience... wonder. (grumpy) I'm going to miss that.

Quark: The lady and I are having a private conversation
Sisko: It can wait.

Vash, the Tomb Raider for Profit

Mister Quark, I believe you're trying to take advantage of me.

Did Vash ever had a smooth relationship?

She’s caught the fantasy of the great Captain of the Enterprise, mister no-children-on-my-bridge himself. To get a good percentage from Quark she immediately went for his balls, sorry I meant ears, but is there a difference? She’s hunted by many governments, seen the gamma quadrant before everyone else, and to top it all Q fell in love with her.

When that relationship failed and Q didn’t accept the rejection properly, she stood up as consistently as she would against other men.

Julian’s date is a beautiful woman, nice dress, plus she’s interested medical jargon notwithstanding. I know she has no backstory, it's an apples and oranges comparison without it, but Vash gets the wow. She gets to be anywhere she wants, gets chased around, while the date gets forgotten after the opening theme.

It never is simple isn’t it.