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šŸ––Star Trek DS9 3x21-22 Full + Watch-Along (Patreon)

Published:
2026-01-23 16:00:13
Edited:
2026-03-25 00:54:31
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Content

S03E21 The Die is Cast S03E22 Explorers

*Watch-Along (no copy needed to sync) available! LINK BELOW

This week the Cardassians and Romulans walk right into and trap and then we get a father-son space road trip! Engage! šŸ––

šŸ––** Full Watch-Along (no copy needed) available HEREšŸ––

Direct link to Full Reaction

*Note: You can change the quality of the video by clicking the settings icon (little cog) and making it a higher resolution!*

Files

ST DS9 3x21-22 Full Length Reaction

Main Channel https://www.youtube.com/@jenmurrayxo

Comments

Summer

Yes!

Fanchman

Thank you for the early posting. šŸ˜€ I may not have power this weekend. šŸ˜³

Ian

Awesome Jen trek uploads ready for the weekend just perfection šŸ”„šŸ–– Jen's the Vulcan best

GƔbor Ɓrki

I'm so looking forward to Jen's reaction to the beard. šŸ˜ Also reiterating my suggestion from last week, I highly recommend not watching the main title sequence for 4x01 as it main spoil things early on.

Collinson

So early I'm not even home from work! Can't wait to watch this tonight. :)

Banes

The Die is Cast was mindblowing to me when it came on TV. The scale of the space battle was so much bigger than anything I'd ever seen on TV. It doesn't hit the same now probably - we've all seen so many amazing visuals since then.

Banes

Love that final scene in The Die is Cast, with Odo in the mirror. What a visual. And the idea that Garak protected Odo's secret, and that Odo realizes that he is alone, and Garak is alone in a similar way. Quite moving. Not to mention the intense scene of torture earlier. Shocking!

Michael Tuffin

Nice..usually don't expect this till much later in the evening.

Camron

I can't believe Netflix Canada dropped Star Trek right as Jen is getting into the good stuff. šŸ™ƒ

Fanchman

Technically, only forces of the Romulan Tal Shiar and Cardassian Obsidian Order were destroyed. Those were the secret intelligence agencies for both governments. The main military forces should still be intact, but obviously significantly weakened without their intelligence assets.

Hok'Tar

I agree with many others Jen. You should not watch the opening title credits for S4E1

Julian San

Damn, breakfast mit Jen!

Kristin

She just needs to look away from the screen during the theme music, and she'll be good.

Kristin

She just needs to avoid watching the screen during the theme music and she'll be good.

Banes

Oh, you have to accept your flowers for predicting that the opening scene in part one, with the Julius Caesar conversation would come back at the end of the story. Garak didn't believe a king like Caesar would be dumb enough to not see betrayal coming. In the end, Tain the spymaster was completely fooled and destroyed by the Changelings. You called it - it just took an extra week for the story to get there.

Curran Dobbs

It was part of my motivation to order the complete series on DVD. Ordering the series was something I wanted to do for awhile anyways, but the show leaving Netflix as well as following reaction videos of the series finally spurred me into actually doing it. The Die is Cast is the first reaction video of Deep Space 9 I watched on streaming.

Ian

Jen's been aware for months so you have no need to worry šŸ‘

Summer

Good job knowing the Dominion was ready for them ā€œthe fault is not in our stars but in ourselvesā€ is Shakesphere

Kat

It never really occurred to me, but after rewatching it now, I wonder if that conversation between Julian and Dr. Lense about the differences of long-term projects on DS9 vs. jumping from system to system on the Lexington was supposed to be a little bit of meta-commentary on the differences of the show DS9 vs. the more episodic TNG and Voyager. šŸ˜

Curran Dobbs

They wanted better ratings so they put the commander in a beard. It worked for TNG. "Growing the Beard" is actually the term for the moment/episode in a series where it takes a leap in quality, basically the opposite of "Jumping the Shark" and it's named after Star TreK: The Next Generation when Riker came back with a beard.

TC Green

I was worried about the Season 4 opening title spoiler glad others warned you about it. As for this weekā€™s episodes, two more great ones. The end to a great two parter and then the father-son bonding episode which is just one of my favorites of the show. A lot of fans call Sisko ā€œspace dadā€ because of episodes like this.

Curran Dobbs

Warp Rainbows would be a good name for a band...

Summer

I say for the baby room something astronomy related, something he can grow into. For my fellow Niners who have seen it all, the Lexington is supposed to chart unknown space, think of that in a few seasons this reminds me of something. Jen realized before Sisko that they had gone into warp.

Sykonee

'Die Is Cast' is possibly one of the best 'Part 2's Trek had done to that point, made even more remarkable that it wasn't even an episode they'd planned. Story goes 'Improbable Cause' was supposed to be a stand-alone, with the resolution involving some sort of data blackmail (the isolinier rod gag was a dig on it). Then the writers realized there was a *lot* more meat on this bone, so went ahead and made it a two-parter. Which is kinda' why 'Die Is Cast' takes such a major Big Stakes twist from 'Improbable Cause's more grounded plot.

Dean

Of the many things I love about DS9, the episode ā€œExplorersā€ is what could usually be considered a ā€œfillerā€ episode, but it isnā€™t! No spoilers, but even though nothing catastrophic or insane happens, things in the episode *matter* to the characters and the overall plot. I agree with Jen that Slice of Life episodes are usually peak Trek. Also, ā€œThe Die is Castā€ was when I realized the Defiant was going to become my favorite Trek ship. It rocks SO friggin hard.

Henchman Twenty1

Another nod to a callback to the original series. In the opening scene of 3x21 Dr. Bashir is enjoying a bowl of plomeek soup, which is a Vulcan dish. Nurse Chapel made some for Spock in "Amok Time" but he threw it against the wall. The soup will turn up a number of times throughout the Trek franchise.

Senzu Bean

Jen's DS9 uploads are like desserts being served when you're craving them and on a friday too. This is where the show 'grew it's beard' in a literal and figurative sense, akin to William Riker growing his beard and that's the point where TNG became good. But tbh, the start of season 3 is where the quality of the show increased: there were plenty of standout episodes prior to Sisko's beard making an appearance. On that note, there is something to know about Sisko's new look. But that tale will be told after you've seen the first episode of season four. Like many have said: DONT watch the starring-credits of S4E1 when the theme is showing.

George Foot

The directing in this episode was so good, especially that final scene - a single take with no cuts, close up on Garak, edgy lighting, slow pacing, no background music to distract, just letting the actors shine and giving the viewers space to listen to the oblique conversation

jon bolton

Thank you Jen, i love it when you are able to post these on a Friday, i just wish i'd checked 6 hours ago lol. I love The Die is Cast, i'm sure partly because Cardassians and Romulans are my favourite species.

Desmond

Yeah, I always have taken it to mean that those were the parts of both empires that the Dominion were most concerned with. Decimating the Obsidian Order AND Tal Shiar is not a bad day's work.

Desmond

I've had the complete DS9 dvd sets forever; like, since they were first coming out lol. Just a shame that a HD remaster doesn't seem to be in the cards.

Bobby Coolbreeze

I canā€™t wait to get home and watch these with you. The Die is Cast is one of my favorite episodes! So basically I think you know where this is going with the Dominion. We knew when they Destroyed the USS Odyssey, they were an eminent threat and they put a real scare into the Alpha Quadrant major powers. This is only the beginning as they foreshadow the Federation and the Klingons as a threat to them! Buckle up Jen! Also the dynamic with Garak and Odo is fantastic! Donā€™t be too hard on Garak. There is a lot going on there with him. As far as the episode Explorers. This was a neat episode for Ben and Jake with a little Bajoran history thrown in. We also get to see Benā€™s goatee make its debut lol

Bobby Coolbreeze

Iā€™m going to add my weekly reminder that you must cover your eyes šŸ‘€ when the Season 4 premiere opening credits hit! Particularly at time stamp 7:35 to 7:45 at least the US version on paramount plus.

jon bolton

So nice to hear you say it was making you want to hang out with your dad, even though i always had a better relationship with my mum. I bet over the years you and your kid will have as many great times as Ben and Jake share, and i'm sure you'll cherish every one.

jon bolton

Now Jen can you imagine Bones and Scotty, or Crusher and La Forge getting drunk together and having a sing song like the Chief and Julian...who don't 'hate each other'? There's is one of my favourite Trek friendships.

Desmond

Yeah, I'd say up to this point, the part 2s in Trek have usually been a bit of a letdown compared to the first. But this one is very, very strong. The spectacle of the battle, the interplay between Garak and Odo...stellar stuff.

jon bolton

I thought similar for the nursery, like maybe blue and purple ceiling, which are relaxing sleeping colours, maybe with some planets and stars dotted around. The Lexington has already had a number of mentions, there was even a Lexington mentioned a few times in TOS (as i'm sure you know only too well, SummeršŸ˜‹).

Sean Ellingham

Your mention of Trek not usually doing battles due to not having the budget is basically correct, though there's a little more to it. The big reason was that all the ships were physical models, which took significant time to work with - shots of Starfleet hero ships required at least half a dozen motion-controlled passes to shoot to get all the different mattes and lighting to composite together. The use of physical models also meant that they has limits on how they could position the ships, prevented them from easily getting different ships to interact with each other, and they didn't have enough models to create fleets of more than a handful of ships. However, by this point of DS9 and the start of Voyager, CGI was now getting good enough to be used instead of physical models, which opened up the possibilities for large fleet battles as we saw here - the CGI models allowed for more flexible shots than could be accomplished with the physical models in the same time-frame, and of course once you have one CGI model of a ship creating a fleet of them is easy.

Laura Thornley

Season three is incredibly stacked with great episodes. And the winning streak will continue!

Opti_Frog

Is The Die is Cast the best episode of the season? For me, i think it's a toss-up between it and The Search, Part II. What really gives me chills from The Die Is Cast, and especially the reveal that Lovok was a changeling, are the much, much wider implications... I really like Explorers. Bashir and O'Brien are fun. Sisko and Jake have great chemistry, and is this the first time we meet Leeta? Also, the Cardassians can be awesome when they want to be, but i have one major issue with the episode. It can probably be dismissed with technobabble, but how could the ancient Bajoran ship, Jake and Sisko survive or remain temporally unaffected by FTL travel without a warp bubble?

Bobby Coolbreeze

The Defiant really flexed šŸ’Ŗ her muscles this week. She is no joke! She was my favorite Hero ship tillā€¦.wait that will be another reaction in the near future with some old friendsšŸ˜‰

Wesley

The history nerd in me loves the episode Explorers. It's a pretty direct reference to Thor Heyerdahls Kon Tiki voyage, and the boatload of other experimental archaelogists making historical ships, to prove that ancient peoples could have sailed great distances. I also love the line from Kira about how the Cardassians (and even the Federation) refuse to believe a "primitive" people could have technology that preceded their own. Just goes to show how downtrodden the Bajorans have been, and how amazing their history is.

Chris Biebel

They didn't need a warp bubble because they weren't using a warp drive, which distorts the space around them by creating the warp field ("warping space"). They were being pushed by tachyons, which travel faster than light.

Chris Biebel

I think the reason why The Die Is Cast sticks the landing better than other two parters is because many of the other Trek two parters are between seasons (Like "Best of Both Worlds"). In those cases, they often wrote a big episode to set up the cliff hanger without knowing how they were going to resolve it. It was a lot harder to write a solution to a strong cliff hanger than it is to write the actual cliff hanger. BTW, a bit of trivia regarding a new character. Leeta (played by Chase Masterson), who was the woman hitting on Bashir at the beginning of the episode, was originally supposed to be the Dabo girl that Jake was dating, but Avery Brooks objected because he thought she looked too old to be dating a teenager. It was a "she's not going to be dating MY son" situation. šŸ˜‰ I had seen her at a few conventions, and she was really nice.

Chris Biebel

Brooks had originally wanted the beard, as well as...*spoilers*. It was his normal look (think of his time as "Hawk" on "Spencer for Hire" and "A Man Called Hawk" ). However, at the time, the suits thought that a black man looking like that looked too "scary." The fourth season proved that type of thinking was silly.

Opti_Frog

Yes, that's what the dialogue in the episode tells us, but it doesn't answer my question. I wonder specifically how Sisko and Jake could survive FTL travel without a warp bubble. Nothing can travel through spacetime faster than the speed of light (we'll ignore tachyons since they are hypothetical particles). But this does not apply to spacetime itself. That's why a warp drive creating a warp bubble is theoretically possible. The ship rides a "wave" of spacetime, allowing FTL travel. But a spaceship that travels faster than light unprotected THROUGH space? If the spaceship even could survive, the occupants surely would experience massive, massive time dilation? The main cast except Sisko and Jake should be years, perhaps decades or centuries, older once the ship somehow got out of warp speed.

Sykonee

It's totally one of those 'don't worry about the science, the episode isn't about that' plot contrivances, which is fair. Let's just say The Prophets willed it or something. ;)

John DiGiantomasso

Two very different episodes, and two excellent reviews. Well done!

Opti_Frog

"What the hell is that Emissary doing now?" šŸ˜…

Kev Longley

Yes, but the question i why weren't they affected by time dilation since they have no warp field. Travelling faster than light should have caused them to actually travel backwards through time. But of course it's not really important for the story. Similarly, without deflector shields, travelling at FTL space dust would tear the ship to pieces.

Brett Whittaker

Guys I'm at 28:40 of the die is cast and a mouse came running across the kitchen floor! Anyone have a cat I can borrow!?

SirJohnCard

I always liked this part of Season 3 as we see some hints of serialized episodes. The Cardassian ships being built from the Tom Riker episode "Defiant", and in Explorers, we get some character points, like Sisko's beard and Jake's writing.

Christopher Lamont Harris

I'm glad you're enjoying third season of Deep space nine and pretty soon you have four more episodes to go and you'll be right to the fourth season, so all I can say is, enjoy ā˜ŗļø

Desmond

Apparently full impulse is something like 0.25c. Because any faster, and time dilation would start to kick in. So it's not completely ignored on Trek, unless the writers forget. And you're right about deflectors, and why all Trek ships have them. Without deflectors, even tiny particles colliding with the ship at multiples of the speed of light would have catastrophic consequences.

Kristin

Jen, I agree that it's nice to see a series/story spotlight a good father. I was blessed with an awesome father, and I miss him every day. I always enjoyed this aspect of the show.

Opti_Frog

Must admit, didn't even think about space dust. But ultimately, none of this matters to the story which is obviously written by fan of Thor Heyerdahl.

Colin Davis

I canā€™t remember whether or not they mention it previously, but Sisko was a prominent shipwright and actually designed the Defiant in the interim between Wolf 359 and his assignment to DS:9, so Explorers shows his love for shipbuilding and engineering! I also love that the episode speaks volumes about our societyā€™s skepticism towards our past, especially nowadays with so many people now questioning the validity of ancient wonders like the pyramids, dismissing the ancient egyptians abilities to create such complex structures, and Kira makes a great point to Oā€™brien that the skepticism is actually based in a racist mindscape of dismissing other cultures intelligence or ingenuity! (also i teared up a bit when jake said he wasnā€™t worried about himself going to Earth, but rather how Sisko might feel like he lost the last of his family. just goes to show how much Jake has matured since the Pilot)

Colin Davis

Also I wanted to clear up some confusion about the Battle of the Omarion Nebula at the end of ā€œThe Die is Castā€. The Romulan-Cardassian fleet consists of 20 ships (both Cardassian Keldon and Romulan Dā€™Deridex classes), and the ships themselves actually belong to the fleets of the Spy organizations of the Cardies (the Obsidian order) and the romulans (the Tal Shiar). Those ships represented a very small portion of both of the nations fleets. The Dominion victory is more of a strategic and morale win than a ā€œtotal destruction of the cardassians and romulansā€. both nations still hold a lot of power, but now they both will think twice before deciding to side against the dominion in the future. hope that clears some stuff up!

Slate

And Sisko's Beard has arrived! Explorers is a fun father-son episode I've always enjoyed, especially since I'm father to a young man myself who isn't much older than Jake. And of course, The Die is Cast gives you just the first real taste of more action to come later on. Speaking of which, I think Garak originally chose to stay with Tain not to turn against anyone but rather to avoid abandoning Odo.

Bernie Zwicky

One idea for your nursery might be a model of the Enterpriseā€¦just to give something to dream about!ā¤ļøšŸ˜Š

William Rosmer

what would picard have done vs what would sisko have done (also kirk and all the other commanding officers) in a situation is a fun little debate the fans have all the time they mentioned it when sisko showed up with the defiant. he spent at least some time working at the main federation shipyard as a designer. brooks was extremely determined to play a black man on tv as a good father, and he went to the mat with the writters and producers to keep it that way.

Lee

Haven't seen anyone mention this yet, but the Obsidian Order fleet that the Jem'Hadar destroy in "The Die Is Cast" was built in the Orias system. That was where Thomas Riker was heading in the episode "Defiant." So this episode pays off more than "Improbable Cause" had set up.

SteelPookie

Iā€™m sure my bias for DS9 and the belief that itā€™s the best Trek hands down without a close rival has led me to this believe that the writers were making a little joke at TNGā€™s and possibly TOSā€™s expense by having Julianā€™s ā€œrivalā€ from the Lexington basically admit that ā€œTrekkingā€ across the stars doesnā€™t automatically equate to excitement especially when compared to an out of the way space station next to a wormhole. I was an original fan and remember how much nonsense was made about the boring space station show when compared to the more commercially successful TNG. If I were a DS9 writer Iā€™m sure I would have taken a petty jab or two, lol. Again, best Trek ever and canā€™t wait for your reactions to the coming seasonsā€¦..Voyager, Enterprise pretty please šŸ˜.

Fr. Brench

Wow Jen, you're really on Sisko's wavelength this episode! (e20) It's a palette cleanser for sure, but it's so much fun.

Marcus Hicks

It also severely weakens the Secret Police of both Empires, thus reducing their ability to control the populace.

Clay F

S3E21 - what a banger episode. Agree a great landing of part 2 for the two-part story.