Weekend Trek “Change Of Heart”

Wikipedia tells me this episode was originally going to have a subplot where Rom’s ex-wife, AKA Nog’s mother, comes to the station that would have been, according to the writer, hilarious.  It got cut.

Instead, there was something about O’Brien and Bashir trying to beat Quark in a Ferengi game of chance.

I’ll just cover the B-plot real fast since it ended rather early.  The script, wisely, opted to cut out the more humorous moments later on as the episode got more serious.  I think that was a smart move.  Basically, O’Brien observed that Quark was on a huge win streak for the Ferengi game of chance Tongo, a game that only Ferengi play, though Dax is allowed to play because, well, she’s Dax.  O’Brien likes a challenge and would like to beat Quark, but Bashir seems to pick up the game more quickly, what with his genetically enhanced brain.   Can he beat Quark?  Nah!  Quark can just psyche him out and win easily.  It’s probably a good thing money is meaningless to the Federation, otherwise the guys probably wouldn’t have taken it in stride the way they did.

But the main plot is about Dax and Worf going to pick up a Cardassian double agent with intelligence they need to fight the Dominion.  And, once again, I ask myself why this happened.  OK, it’s not quite so baffling as O’Brien’s going undercover for Stafleet Intelligence.  This should be a simple pick-up job, and Worf and Dax are both experienced officers who should be able to do what they need to do.

But who thought it was a good idea to send a married couple out on a mission together?

I get that the reason is basically that the series wants to explore what happens with these two, and there’s no drama if Starfleet didn’t send a married couple out to do what started off as a simple mission to get some intelligence and come back.  That it turned into a retrieval mission wasn’t exactly expected, but after a Jem’Hadar ambush leaves Dax injured in a manner that will kill her without getting her medical treatment, of course Worf is going to scrap the mission to take care of her.  That is, like, the only thing that might make Worf scrap a mission.

In fact, it seemed outright laughable when the Cardassian, asking for an extraction, bemoaned that he was getting promises from a Klingon.  Dude, Klingons don’t seem like the type to generally go back on their word.

So, really, when Sisko ends the episode by pointing out that A) Worf will probably never be given a command after abandoning the mission and getting the Cardassian killed and that B) he won’t let Dax and Worf go on missions together again but that C) he would have done the same thing for Jennifer, I couldn’t help but wonder why they only decided then not to let the two go off on a mission together.

That said, this episode does offer a nice glimpse into married life for the two of them, and I got to see Worf behaving a little flirty while they discussed honeymoon options.  Worf even insists he was one of the funniest guys on the Enterprise…maybe Dax was right about it being a dull ship since I don’t recall anyone being particularly intentionally funny.  However, yeah, I didn’t get why they were allowed to go together since a little common sense suggests they might be too worried about each other’s safety to the extent it might interfere with the mission…and that’s exactly what happened.

Man, I hope the next one doesn’t have me questioning the episode’s very premise like this again.  That’s two in a row…