Another important marker in the development of the series, the start of the friendship between O’Brien and Bashir. It’s been said before by others, but what the writers (and Siddig el Fadil) did with the Bashir character here is very brave. They started out with a deeply unlikeable, arrogant person, and then over the course of several years put him through a series of experiences that changed him. The best example of this is the relationship with O’Brien – here it’s hard to imagine them ever becoming friends.
The episode itself is once again solid, but not spectacular. If I sound like a broken record in these reviews it’s because DS9 seems, so far, unprepared to take many risks. But there’s good development of several characters, and we can see still more of the ‘arc’ approach here – Nog is already a very different character to the one we saw in the pilot, for instance. The actual story is pretty forgettable, leaving only the inter-cast interactions to make this one somewhat worth watching.
268 down, 469 to go.