When we last left our hero (me!), he was still in shock, having been so startled to find a three-part episode (Trek’s first!) so soon in DS9 that he was rendered speechless for eight straight days. We rejoin him now as he tackles the next chapter in this three-part adventure, The Circle (The Circle is the next chapter, not the three-part adventure).
The Circle at Memory Alpha
Kira getting replaced turns out to be Kira getting promoted! On her own merits? Not really. Bajor wants Li Nalas away from Bajor and away from The Circle, where he’ll be safe. This sets us up, almost immediately, for a reminder that DS9 has a Circle problem of its own - sprayTERROR paint on the Siskos’ door!
Odo finds Kira packing up to go and calls her a quitter, reminding her of whom exactly it is that never wins. Dax comes in, ostensibly to return a bottle of lotion, Dr. Bashir, space friend, comes in to offer his warmest regards, sweet Miles comes in to do the same, Quark comes in hoping for some alone time with Kira, but decides a party is just as good, and then Vedek Bareil-Neeson shows everybody how it is done by inviting Kira out to his monastery for some meditation and relaxation, bow chicka wow-ow.
At ops, we learn that Li Nalas does not want the job, and Sisko aims to get Kira back on the crew, but for now, she has to head down to Bareil’s monastery and arrange stones in a river (poorly).
Finding her stone-arranging skills are not up to par, Vedek Bareil decides it would be more productive to show her a glowy space orb. Well, he calls it an orb, but it’s more of a low-fi hourglass shape. Anyway, it gives Kira a Trek-style dream which amounts to the naked-in-front-of-the-whole-school dream, only somehow more meaningful (seriously), and later, Bareil-style nakeouts. I have to wonder of the good Vedek was tweaking the orb somehow. I mean, really.
Quark has discovered an exciting secret! Some space florists are secretly supplying weapons to The Circle on Bajor. Space florists! I wonder if it is a front for the space mob. Odo quickly blackmail-deputizes Quark to learn more.
In further Bajor adventures, Vedek Winn is at the same monastery as Bareil and Kira, and is still grasping desperately at the Most Passive-Aggressive Trek Character award. What a wonderfully horrible character!
There is a lot going on at this point: Kira is kidnapped by the circle, which turns out to be run by Minister Jaro, Odo stows away aboard a space florist ship and finds out that The Circle’s weapons are coming from the Cardassians, and Sisko, acting on new intelligence from Quark, is leading a rescue party to Bajor after Kira.
As it turns out, The Circle doesn’t know that the Cardassians are supplying them. The Cardassians just want The Circle to drive out the Federation, so the Cardassians can move back in and take over Bajor again. Li Nalas wants to turn public opinion against Jaro and his Circle, but the station cannot communicate with Bajor, so it is looking like he has to go down there in person.
Down on the surface, Jaro is trying to win Winn (hee hee hee) over to his side with all the diplomacy and tact of a thirteen-year-old boy asking his crush out on a date.
As we leave off with another TO BE CONTINUED, Bajoran assault ships are demanding that the Federation evacuate DS9 and Sisko is hitting a Prime Directive wall with Starfleet command. He decides to follow the order to evacuate, but decides to take everything Federation-y with him, which Miles says could take days, which is far longer than the seven hours that the Bajorans have given them. I smell an exciting standoff coming, but it’ll have to wait for next time!
- It’s funny how the ops turbolifts are either fast or slow, depending on whether the scene calls for a dramatic slow descent or a curt quick one.
- Odo disguises himself as a rat again. It’s still great that rats are acceptable disguises, even in space.
- The Prime Directive is one of Star Trek’s main plot devices, but the more times it gets violated, the more it telegraphs exactly what the characters faced with it will do (ie violate it)