STAR TREK DS9 The Ascent + Rapture 5×9/5×10 REACTION |

This episode is one of the few “concrete” timeline references to “spoiler spoiler spoiler-spoiler” from a future episode when a specific character is shown wearing a uniform of the previous design…

From memory it’s never made 100% clear as to when character got captured and replaced, but the advent of the new uniforms thanks to first contact is the main concrete reference to knowing I h hi de sight when x-character has been replaced 🙂

I can't remember if I responded or not. Anyway Ascent is a fun one. And though the "Odd Couple" thing is done to death it's kind of good to have the Ferengi be the responsible one and the "hew-man" the kind of lazy entitled idiot. (In some ways I think Jake is like Nog in that he was maybe born in the wrong culture. He had "the lobes" in the early No-Ja continuum episode so maybe should have seen if he could enter Ferenginar business culture as Nog entered Starfleet.)

On one level Rapture is great, but I had some mixed feelings. Sisko basically is the Bajoran Messiah now. Not just thought of such because of culture etc. Bajoran religion is real, empirically so. The episode with Quark in the Wormhole certainly leaned toward the idea they might just be strange aliens, but nope they are "The Prophets." (Making the then Vedek Winn of Season 1 kind of…right? I mean not on the violence, but on the nature of the wormhole.) Sisko is the chosen one with visions, empirically so. I felt some uncertainty on that. I've mentioned I am of a religion, but a part feels this was not an entirely good idea or at least it doesn't fit in the Trek universe that well. Even thinking in terms of religion in the real-world of religion we can't just go to a cave and summon God or angels or Bodhisatvas in a way that can be scientifically measured. For another it felt a bit too big a break from Trek. On the plus side though it was kind of cool and allows for some more mythic/epic feeling. As well as avoiding the Trek tendency to make religious people out to be stupid. In many ways Bajoran religion is pretty reasonable. This episode is also a rare look at a sympathetic side to Kai Winn. She really suffered for her faith. So it might make sense if she's even been resentful to Kira, Bareil, or even Opaka who got more glory but maybe suffered less than she did. It still doesn't make her good or anything, even when justified resentment can be a bad thing or at least lead to a bad path, but explainable.

I love how Sisko and Rom have been pushed into a sort of very unlikely friendship because their sons are best friends. They have practically nothing in common, but they have fun interactions when they are together. 😄

Also, regarding the uniforms, this episode aired shortly after Star Trek: First Contact came out, which introduced the gray uniforms as the new standard look for Starfleet officers. So Deep Space Nine has now made the switch to the new look as well. They'll all be wearing this style of uniform through the remainder of the show.

The Ascent: the Jake/Nog story was ok. It was good to get Nog back, but them clashing when they became roomies was a very cliched story. It was ok, I just wish it was in another episode because to me it seemed like the Quark/Odo could easily have been fleshed out into a full ep.

Spoilers if you haven’t seen the next couple episodes. Ollie says he has, so:

In The Begotten, Odo gets his powers back. I wasn’t surprised that happened, but it seemed too soon. This ep did a good job of showing Odo’s humanoid weaknesses, but it seems like that could have really been fleshed out (so to speak) a lot more, as well as his/Quark’s relationship.

Pagh’tem’far makes another appearance in Star Trek: Voyager.
Pagh’tem’far b’tanay.

This is a holy time: B'tanay, the time of awakening. Return to that dark place from which all life springs. A primal energy charges your blood, an energy of rebirth. The mind awakens, and focuses on its task.

The Orion Syndicate are the green people from TOS. Mostly "pirates", though the homeworld is… interesting.

I love the new uniforms (commonly referred among fans as the “First Contact” uniforms). It does look weird the way Sisko has his jacket done all the way up to the neck and has his commbadge on the gray part, but this gets sorted in a few episodes. I’m sure I read somewhere that it was because Avery Brooks had got used to slapping his badge on the older uniforms, so kept missing it on the newer uniforms in rehearsals because the badges had to be lower due to the gray parts being bigger.

These new uniforms are the best Starfleet uniforms ever designed. Enjoy them!

I have one nitpick about Cassidy’s appearance in this episode, that no one else seems to have issue with. Why was Cassidy in jail longer than Garak?

Uniforms change and evolve in Star Trek, you'll seem them evolve over seasons, even in TNG

Orion syndicate is from Orion which was first mentioned in TOS and mostly depicted in additional beta content such as novels and video games.
It's the Star Trek equivalent to the Hutts in Star Wars, a crime organization based in the Orion system -the green guys.
The uniforms are now the First Contact era uniforms.

CONTINUITY & PRODUCTION ERRORS I FOUND ALL BY MYSELF 😁

THE ASCENT (IMDb Rating: 7.6)

4:05 Quark tries to talk Odo into a game of Fizzbin.

Fizzbin is a fictious game invented by James Kirk in "A Piece of the Action" and it certainly isn't played with those cards.

9:23 That explosion destroyed a lot for such a small explosion: The replicator, the environmental controls, the com system, the navigational array, the environmental suits (except for one), the food rations (except for two) …and it caused a hull breach.
That was unlucky.

RAPTURE (IMDb Rating: 7.3)

28:35 The uniform vest Sisko is wearing is not seen in any other Star Trek episode.

In a nice bit of continuity, these new uniforms were used only after they were introduced in "Star Trek: First Contact". This is the first episode aired after that movie.
It's hilarious that Bashir calls attention to them. (28:32)

28:57 Jake says Cassidy was in prison. The Federation has rehab colonies, not prisons.

Quark offers Odo to play a game of Fizzbin, which is the fake card game Kirk made up to get the drop on the gangsters that were holding him, Spock, and Bones, in the TOS episode "A Piece of the Action". Either someone made an actual game or Quark is trying the same trick on Odo, except Odo isn't buying.

37:08 – 37:13 When we see the shadow from the inferno's light , we'll get that answer.

i love "rapture", this is when sisko's story arc really starts to evolve. also i love those movie uniforms.