SDS9 – S5E1: "Apocalypse Rising" (Patreon)

This episode was recorded on November 19, 2024.

Sam and Scott recap the season 5 premiere, "Apocalypse Rising," where the DS9 crew do Klingonface to save the Federation.

SDS9 seasons 1, 2, 3, and 4 can be found wherever you stream Southpaw. Season 5 is only available to paid subscribers.

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Transcript

[Note: Transcripts are autogenerated and may contain errors.]

This is Southpaw Deep Space Nine, Season 5. We are your hosts. We made it. Scott and Sam. On this Stardate, November 19, 2024, we are discussing the Season 5 premiere of Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Apocalypse Rising. It's a very intense title. Scott, can you tell us about this episode?

Yes, but first I have to pretend like it's a Doors song. Apocalypse Rising.

Don't you feel like that title is a little intense for a very fun episode?

Yeah, it's not an appropriate name for what it is, but we're just getting you excited, you know?

Yeah, yeah. The song Segway is perfect, actually.

Yeah, we're just having a nice, whimsical time. Ben, Sisko, Jadzia, they return to Deep Space Nine. They've been dodging Klingon attacks left and right. As we know, the Klingon Empire is warring with the Federation Starfleet, and Starfleet is calling him in because, if you remember from the season finale,

Odo has a suspicion that Chancellor Gowron is probably a changeling, and that's sort of creating conflict. On Deep Space Nine, Ben tells Kira that they've got a mission. It's time to infiltrate Klingon headquarters and expose Gowron for the changeling he might be. Ben is looking for Odo. Odo's at Quark's.

Quark is making money off of war and notes Odo is depressed since becoming a solid. He was punished for killing a changeling, and now he's a humanoid with all this stuff. And, you know, watch the season finale of season four. And now Odo is drinking, enjoying mortal pleasures, and is interested by the

whole act of eating and drinking. Though he finds everything less enjoyable, you don't have to be a clinical therapist to know that he is depressed. So Ben asks Odo to come with him and find the fake Gowron. Odo's like, I don't know, but he convinces him. At the briefing, Ben, O'Brien, Worf, Odo,

You know, they decide they're going to go deep cover, undercover. At Tygo Corps, get busy, get action-packed, do what they got to do. Worf is like the Garon's security, the Yana's left. They're tough as F. And they're not going to let any closeness happen. And they got this weird stuff over blood. But Starfleet has the secret tech.

And Ben has Polaron emitters that will reveal if Gowron's a changeling. But they'll only get one shot, because that's how plot works, and this exposure could be lethal, and it's very hard to do this. It's dangerous. Kira's worried that sneaking in is going to be the hardest part, but obviously Ben has a plan.

They're going to use Ducat's Bird of Prey, and Kira gets Dukat to Deep Space Nine, throws him off, tells him that she's pregnant with O'Brien and Keiko's baby, takes him to see Ben, Odo, and Brian, and you see that they have been surgically altered to look like Klingons. The squad is ready,

and Dukat wants to take a hologram like Polaroid of the team as Klingons because he thinks it's very hilarious. Dumar, however, thinks they're all going to die, and Miles just talks about how good Klingon security is. Worf asks that their cosplay be picked to go to the Order of the Batleth,

which is both like a super awesome Klingon society fraternity and also initiation party. And Deep Space Nine, Kira, Bashir, they talk about everything going on and worry about the squad returning and if they'll even be able to become human again. which is somewhere a metaphor, I'm sure. On the bird of the prey. Bird of the prey?

On the bird of prey. Worf explains how to be Klingon and practice mores and behaviors and actions and how to slap and how to talk and how to drink. And Odo is not a convincing Klingon. Odo worries that he's going to make everybody dead weight. Ben offers that the pity party has to end.

It's time to get back to the work. However, the bird of prey is hailed and Dukat's holographic filter that basically is like a zoom filter that makes him look like a certain way. It malfunctions. The ship can be seen. Panic ensues. Worf is like, I'm going to larp my way out of this.

I'm going to talk it down. Dukat is like, no, you're not going to lie enough, which is a big surprise. And instead, he fires on the ship, destroys it, orders a quick escape. The filter is down. Dukat is like, peace, I'm out of here. And you go to Taegu Kor and I'm leaving Klingon space.

Ben objects, but Dukat points out that, hey, if the mission works, they won't even need a ship. And if it fails, they're dead. And Ben and his team beam down and get moving. The order of the Batleth ceremony rages in the Hall of Warriors. Our team is nervous, but people are having a great time.

And also, they have these inhibitors to keep them from getting drunk on blood wine. Deep Space Nine, Bashir, and Jake talk about the vibes of war. Bashir is called in to deal with some damaged ships and assuages Jake that everything will be okay. Back at the jam, everyone is celebrating.

Worf kind of lets them know that this is... As much of it is a party, it's a test. It's an endurance initiation. Everyone has to drink and stay up and not fall asleep and show they are cool, badass warriors. Then Ben punches someone for celebrating the death of his friend.

And then we see Martok, who is big in the Klingon world. He rolls up. And Ben and his team is sweating bullets that they're going to recognize him. So Ben hits him with a kapla. And Martok keeps it moving. Martok sees O'Brien, Miles, and is like, I feel like I know you from somewhere.

And Miles plays it cool. He's like, yeah, we fought together at Mempah. And Martok seems satisfied. Miles tries to get his emitter. Odo fumbles it. A curious Klingon picks it up and is like, what's this? That's exactly what he says. What's this? That's not how he said it. They ask what the emitter is. Worf is like, what?

You don't know what this is? It's a Vulcan toy. drums beat people get busy galron shows up and is like celebrating the cool klingons and talks of stong and story and glory hoping these men will be brought into the order so then galron starts naming names for them to come ben is about to

omit when he is called to enter the order and theoretically he's now a member of the you know the batleth squad Odo is trying to do his thing. Ben is then about to start the emitter again when he is noticed by none other than Martok. They lock the doors. They throw him in the barracks.

Martok is very disappointed that Ben and his people are going to die for stupid reasons and thinks it's silly. Martok is reluctant to kill them, except no one believes that Gowron is a changeling, and Gowron has confiscated the emitter, which is definitely something a changeling would do, they say.

So then Martok reluctantly admits that he actually does believe Gowron is a changeling, but can't prove it. So they decide that if they kill Gowron, he will return to his changeling form, and that's what they'll do. So they do a little prison break. They go to the hall. They beat up soldiers. They're living the life.

Martok stops Odo from coming in to be part of it and does a little changeling racism. Worf challenges Gowron to a battle to the death. Obviously, Gowron agrees. They start fighting. Martok says something that is curious. Why aren't the Klingons just shooting him? And that's when something goes off for Odo because Klingons don't shoot. They aren't cowardly.

They live by an honor. They live by a code. And changelings, we don't really know what their code is. I mean, we know that they do some not great things to the Jem'Hadar and the Vorta and They do some questionable eugenics, but we don't know that that's all of them.

But yeah, the founders are not really that cool. That's when Odo realized Martok, not Gowron, is the changeling. So as Worf fights Gowron, Odo bursts in shouting, Soylent Green is people. Just kidding. He says, Martok's a changeling. The exposed Martok attacks Odo, Ben shoots, and the other Klingons join in, and they take him down.

Gowron realizes this was the plan of the Founders, the Dominion, the changeling. They would have Starfleet kill him. That would make Martok, the guy, escalate the war, which would allow for the Dominion. Because if the Klingons and the Starfleet are battling, it's easy to do their Dominion thing. Ben suggests total peace.

Gowron's like, I want to keep some of the Klingon games. And they're like, we'll just talk about a negotiation. which ends in a ceasefire. Gowron thanks Ben, thanks Odo, and warns Worf that he really shouldn't have let him live. On Deep Space Nine, Bashir is able to undo the plastic surgery. The ridges are gone. Everyone is joking.

Ben's like, I kind of miss the fangs. Bashir is like, Odo, do you want a new face? But Odo decides to stick with his old face.

Can I ask you, Scott, for your rating on your relative scale for this episode based on the season and knowing the later seasons are better than the early seasons?

So this is a solid three. Yeah, actually... I'll say it's a three and a half. Yeah, it's three and a half. It's nothing that amazing. except it is a Klingon episode. And I love Klingon episodes. And we know Ronald D. Moore gets more and more involved in Deep Space Nine as it goes on. And he loves Klingons.

So it's fair to know that there's going to be Klingon episodes. So the fact that it's a Klingon episode, I really liked. But I just wasn't that into it. I think, you know, because... We're just piggybacking off of the end of season four, which was so exciting and really revealed a bunch of lore and created some high

stakes with Odo having heart and lungs and stuff. And I just honestly wasn't that excited about it. What about you?

So that's what I wanted to get into first was that I thought it was a good, solid episode, but a good, solid, regular episode. Exactly. It didn't feel like a premiere. So if I just watched this, I wouldn't have known this was a season premiere.

So I guess that's why I had to highlight that it's a relative scale, right? I think that's why you changed it to a 3.5. But probably, honestly, as a premiere, because we are in the better parts of DS9, then yeah, 3 makes sense too.

Yeah, I mean, I'm not really that invested in it being a 3 or a 3.5. You know, I'm going to stick to my original. It's a 3. And that's what I'm going to do.

And that's how I took it. It felt like a solid episode. As far as the premieres, I think the last season had a really solid premiere. And what made this episode solid was it was fun, but also serious. Yeah. What I liked most was how I learned a lot about Klingons, not by being told about Klingons,

but by contrasting Klingons from the DS9 crew we are already so familiar with. Even Odo, who seemed very Klingon-ish to me, and I think that was how he was portrayed. Having that contrast and seeing the differences between Odo and the Klingons was a good way to explain Klingon culture and the nuances.

It's not enough just to be a curmudgeon.

I love Klingon lore. I love when Worf is able to show the pride of his culture. So that was cool.

One of the ways we as humans learn is by comparison. And this was really effective and fun. Since I work a lot with pedagogy, I like to bring up how what makes learning effective is when it is fun because fun is engaging. I saw the characters engaged in the learning material. Then the twists on top of twists.

We ended last season with a twist. Gowron was a changeling. Then we found out that was a long con rather than changing their mind on a previous plot point. They added to it and made it better, in my opinion. But I guess it was a long con in the gap between the seasons,

but it went directly to it in the next episode, which also like they could have dragged that out a little longer and made it more impactful. But there was a payoff for education in this episode. Odo spotted the real changeling because he had learned so much about Klingon culture. He was a great student.

This was an educational episode. This is why it's good to learn theory, kids. Then another contrast, how Gowron treats everyone compared to Worf. Because you have different expectations for your in-group than out-groups. but also the tension Warp feels about the Federation and the Klingon Empire, identity versus duty.

It ends with a conclusion, but then also reminds us there is still tension. There's a kind of fun to Klingon culture, which you often bring up, but on top of the fun is realism as far as this episode. Even if the ball gets rolling because of a misunderstanding or a mistake, but the ball is now in motion.

Gowron was explaining how despite it all happening because somebody was a changeling, it's already done. Things have already happened. So now what? That's real. That's something we'll run into in daily matters, personal matters, or political matters. But just because you get to the source of something, it's not the same as resolving something or reconciling something.

If it only were that easy. So I like that they didn't end the show neatly despite getting to the source of the conflict. This is something DS9 has already done a couple of times, differentiating why something happened versus how you deal with the results. So I think there's a lot of emphasis on why, but...

probably as far as material reality what matters more is how do we deal with that okay now we know why but what do we do now right right and and also yeah it's like

it is exciting to look at it from like a pedagogical perspective and i think something that's like going on right now is as at least in in the world and in america there's this seeming um you know, schism between left and right and, and different sort of things. And something that I find really interesting is that,

you know, people on the left, like in like the socialist Marxist communist left are, are like, let's learn, let's read, let's do praxis just how like, you know, the, the, the black Panthers were, were, In Chicago, we're feeding, we're giving people clothing, we're giving people reading material.

And then a lot of people on the right are proud that they don't do praxis. They don't do reading. They're just like, oh yeah, we just don't like this stuff. And it's certainly a lot easier to to go on one side, but I think talking about the importance of practical application is very important these days.

And I think that's a good point, right? a political position in Huntington Beach. And then his first post was like a pile of paperwork. And he's like, boring. Reading is boring. And that's so much what, you know, even like the Andrew Tate crowd says, especially like, I feel like young leftists, new leftists saying that kind of stuff.

It's like, did you really get that from your intuition? Was that homegrown or was that conditioned into you because we live in a reactionary society that these people that we're talking about have influence in and have cachet in, right? And it's like, you can't do an A-B test and no,

because we've only lived in that one reality where they grew up with that social media, right? So if you don't learn, you don't have to read. There's a lot of ways to learn without just reading, right? Discussion groups, conversations, like podcasts, like what we were doing, right? So there's a lot of ways to do it.

So the rejection of that, where is that coming from, right? So that's something else to consider. I think that's a great point that you're bringing up.

Yeah, and that's what's super bizarre about Andrew Tate and people that talk about the greatness of the Western world when half of it is that reading and writing and learning is one of the great advancements of everything. So it's interesting to... be like, yeah, we don't learn. I remember finding out once that Kanye West didn't read books,

and I was like, oh, that does explain some things. I think there's many ways to learn, and it's so awesome that there's TikTok and Instagram and Wikipedia and Tumblr and Reddit and all these great ways to learn, but It is awesome to learn. I know really simple stuff.

To piggyback on what you're saying, there's this initial idea that I guess to some people feels right, but if you really dissect it, this idea of lived experience and that's enough and that'll radicalize you, it also erases and assumes as if reactionaries and right-wingers don't have lived experience. There's an assortment of reactionaries of all kinds.

It's not just rich white people. That would make it a lot neater, but it's not just like that. They also have a diverse coalition and a lot of them are also poor. They've also been marginalized. They've also been oppressed, right? So there's our proof. Like lived experience does not automatically radicalize you, right?

So in saying that's all you need, it erases so much and it denies so much, right? Because then over the course of a few generations of people being poor, everybody should be automatically radicalized, right? So that's not enough. So how do we fill that void? How do we do better?

I guess how I think of education is it's very broad and open-ended. There's no one way to be educated, but that's how you fill that void, right? And that education is how we do praxis in a way that doesn't replicate reactionary tendencies.

And this is why we're an awesome podcast.

Yeah, this is good stuff. Now, one thing I haven't mentioned so far is the acting, because the actors had to still act like their characters while acting like other characters. That's really hard and impressive, which also revealed a lot about the original characters.

So, Scott, tell me what you thought about the acting in this episode, because it was very meta.

I enjoyed it. I love the meta narratives. I love the actors being able to play different roles and have some fun. And I love when these wonderful actors get to cosplay a little.

Cole Meaty, right? He was playing O'Brien, playing a Klingon, right? That's not easy.

That's hard.

Something else I learned is Odo is a changeling, but he's not a very good one. And I didn't really appreciate that, but he's not good insofar as even when he had his changeling powers, he could change into something else. But he was still the same Odo and didn't know how to be different. He's not a social shapeshifter.

That differentiates him from other changelings. In fact, he was the worst at that type of shapeshifting compared to the rest of the crew. This was an episode about shapeshifting and out of the bunch, Cisco was the best one. And he's shown that ability in other episodes as well, like mirror episodes, which is also very telling about Cisco,

how good he is at manipulation to attain a goal. We've seen this a bunch of times and how he will cross even moral lines with seemingly.

Yeah, he's with it.

And speaking of morals, there's also the moral question of whether it is right to pretend to be another race if you have the right intent. Even if it is sci-fi, that's a question that's worth exploring for viewers. We know Cisco will do whatever it takes to get a job done. Does that make him good in my opinion?

No. But it tells me a lot about this character and going forward, I have no idea what he's capable of. With him at the helm of DS9 and the Defiant, I have no idea to guess what he's capable of doing. And I think that leaves the show with a lot of options.

So they told us a lot in this episode. He's capable of a lot. Scott, how important is this episode to canon and to the rest of the storyline for DS9?

I don't think, I think it's like lightly important that you get just like a little like world building. You're able to see like what you get to see, like Gowron and Worf continuing to not get along and you're seeing, yeah, that Odo is like, not well and not right, and you're able to see this idea of infiltration.

But yeah, it's not like... I mean, sometimes I remember things incorrectly, but I don't particularly remember it being too important, to be completely honest.

Can you tell us about the next episode?

Yeah, you know, Shipwreck, Jem'Hadar, what could go wrong?

Until then...