Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Difference between revisions

* [[Auction]]: Done in both "Q-Less" and "In the Cards".

* [[Avengers Assemble]]: "The Magnificent Ferengi", complete with holding up fingers as each new member joins the team to save Moogie.

* [[Awesome but Practical]]: The prototype TR-116 Rifle from "Field of Fire" which is basically a sniper rifle modifed with a transporter to fire bullets through walls.

** Presumably, the ethical dilemma of Starfleet condoning a weapon whose main application would be for covert assassinations are why they never took this weapon beyond the prototype stage.

* [[Brief Accent Imitation]]: O'Brien does a particularly impressive one of Bashir in "The Armageddon Game".

* [[Building of Adventure]]: The titular station.

* [[Came Back Wrong]]: Weyoun 6, who was considered to be "defective" as he believed the war with the Federation was a mistake and defected. The Vorta are genetically engineered to serve the Founders, however they didn't count on him reinterpreting that directive as also being applicable if he's ''working for Odo''.

** Part of Ezri Dax's story arc revolves around the fact that she's had several lifetimes dumped into her head and she was never trained to be a host.

** There are a lot of moments, often involving the Ferengi, which consider Roddenberry's peaceful and non-capitalist vision of the future (of humans) and the potential downsides of it.

** The episode "Valiant" is a deconstruction of the original ''[[Star Wars]]'' film (aka ''[[A New Hope]]'') and derivative works. One tiny ship manned by young, inexperienced but brave heroes runs down the trench of a giant superweapon ship and uses a super torpedo on its [[Weaksauce Weakness]]...{{spoiler|only for it to fail, their ship to be blown up and most of them killed}}.

* [[Defictionalization]]: Beyond the examples shared with other Trek media, the scifi novel "Far Beyond the Stars" from the episode of the same name was later written and published.

* [[Definitely Just a Cold]]: Odo after contracting the Founders' disease.

* [[Divorce Requires Death]]: In "Second Sight", we meet a famous scientist who has everything... except his wife's love. And she comes from a culture that doesn't permit divorce, so she's slowly killing herself instead. The episode ends with him killing himself instead, so that she will be free.

* [[Doesn't Like Guns]]: Odo states this preference in "Captive Pursuit" and his [[Mirror Universe]] counterpart apparently did not agree with concerning this. However, Odo would at the very least wield phasers in later episodes such as "Second Skin" and "Heart of Stone."

* [[Don La Fontaine]]: He doesn't do the voice, but Quark does a pretty good impression of the stereotypical Don LaFontaine-voiced movie trailer in "Business as Usual". Which is then subverted by Dax's interruption.

{{quote| '''Quark:''' Where I'm going, you can't follow. What I have to do, I have to do alone. ''One man...'' who's had enough... who's going to stand up and say...<br />

* [[Enemy Mine]]: Quark and Odo in "The Ascent".

** Dukat envisions himself and Sisko as something like this in the episode "Waltz". The truth is he's just nuts and running out of self-delusions

** Also Sisko, when confronted by Q (see above).

** Odo's grabbing a thief without using a weapon and shouting "Who the hell are you?" to Sisko is another one.

* [[First-Name Basis]]: Sisko and Jadzia, Bashir and O'Brien, Dax and Kira, Jadzia and Bashir, Odo and Kira eventually.

** Bashir tries to establish this early on with O'Brien, insisting that he call him Julian rather than "sir". At this point, O'Brien still found him incredibly irritating and so makes the first name sound even more formal and awkward than "sir" ever could. At the end of the episode, Bashir gives in and tells him to just drop it and address him how he likes.

* [[Flaunting Your Fleets]]: There were a few shots like this, especially later in the series as the Dominion War (and the CGI) picked up.

* [[Flawed Prototype]]: The first ''Defiant''.

* [[A Form You Are Comfortable With]]: The Prophets. Pai-Wraths are fond of this, too.

** Depending on how you look at it, Odo could be said to spend almost all of his time in one of these.

** Admiral Ross is no slouch in this department either, especially by the [[Obstructive Bureaucrat|usual standards]] we've come to except from Starfleet flag officers.

* [[Framing Device]]: The story of "Trials and Tribble-ations", being told by Sisko to Starfleet Temporal Investigations.

{{quote| '''Worf:''' We were like warriors from the ancient sagas. There was nothing we couldn't do.<br />

'''O'Brien:''' Except keep the holodecks working right. }}

** He outright transforms into a cloud of sparkling gas at one point to give Kira an idea of what the Great Link is like. It's safe to say this is not the first (or last) time his shapeshifting skills have been used for kinky purposes.

* [[How Many All of Them]]: A particularly chilling example.

'''Odo''': She doesn't. But if she wanted you dead, you ''would'' be.<br />

'''Garak''': You do have a point. }}

* [[Impostor Exposing Test]]: The blood screening for changelings. {{spoiler|Not only does it not work, it turns out to have been suggested by a changeling in the first place.}}

* [[Insistent Terminology]]: DS9 is not a Federation station... it's a Bajoran station under Federation administration. This is repeated several times by Sisko and ''especially'' Kira in the early seasons.

* [[Klingon Scientists Get No Respect]]: Rom.

* [[Kneel Before Zod]]: Dukat, endowed with the strength of the Pah-Waiths, commands Sisko to bow before him.

* [[La Résistance]]: Kira's resistance cell. In Season 7, Damar's movement to free Cardassia.

* [[Last Day to Live]]: Quark is told he's contracted a deadly disease. In an effort at settling his debts and earning a place in the Ferengi profit-based afterlife, he sells his corpse. Of course, after he learns that he's going to live, he finds out that his arch-nemesis bought said corpse {{spoiler|after paying off the doctor to tell Quark he was going to die to begin with}}.

* [[Platonic Life Partners]]: Sisko is fond of calling Dax "Old Man." He was a close friend of the male Curzon Dax, and the friendship carried over when the symbiont was transferred to Jadzia and Ezri -- both female.

* [[Playing Cyrano]]: Worf trains Quark in how to woo the Klingon Grilka, the Ferengi's one-time wife. Worf is infatuated with her himself, but he is an exile and cannot pursue her..

* [[Pragmatic Villainy]]: the aforementioned [[Planet of Hats|Ferengi]]. They'd never practice mass slavery or genocide--because people who are enslaved and/or dead can't buy things.

** This argument also helped push forward feminism, but only '''very''' late, after millenia of hardliner male chauvinism.

** Additionally, a combination of contract issues and simple "show fatigue" made Terry Farrell want to move on from the show at the end of season six, leading to {{spoiler|Jadzia getting killed}}. This is something the head writing and directoral staff didn't even ''want'' to do (Ira Stephen Behr straight-up said "I didn't want to {{spoiler|kill Jadzia}}; to me, that had very little to do with good storytelling") but they felt they had little choice.

* [[Rearrange the Song]]: The opening credits and main title theme were modified between seasons 3 and 4.

* [[Recurring Character]]: Lots of them. The fixed location of the station meant that quirky aliens would need to come to them, not the other way around.

* [[Reconstruction]]: The Ferengi were rebuilt into a more robust fictional society, and the innate contradictions in their culture were acknowledged and addressed on their own terms over the course of the show. For example, their subjugation of women was ended in order to gain new workers and an expanded consumer base instead of for ethical reasons.

*** Funnier still because [[Bizarre Alien Biology|Bajoran labor is usually quiet and easy]].

* [[Romantic False Lead]]: This became the whole purpose of Shakaar Edon's role after he was paired up with Kira.

* [[Running Gag]]: Morn, an alien extra who was in a lot of episodes but never spoke. It got to the point where in later seasons they would lampshade it a ton. There was at least one full episode devoted to filling in some of his backstory. Yet he still never spoke a word, despite people mentioning [[Informed Ability|what a great singing voice he has and how he's always the life of the party offscreen]].

** Humorously played up by Quark who says that once Morn starts talking, he never shuts up.

** Later, he is turned into a "solid" human by his people as punishment (for half a season).

** The Founder's Disease does this to all Changelings during the war, though most of the ones at home just stay in liquid form anyway.

** Morn is an anagram of Norm, from ''[[Cheers]]''. It was entirely intentional.

** In the comedic episode "Trials and Tribble-ations," the two agents who show up to investigate Sisko's [[Timey-Wimey Ball|time traveling shenanigans]] are named Dulmer and Luscly, [[X Files|anagrams of "Mulder" and "Scully."]]

** While Worf drinking prune juice is a [[Continuity Nod]], it's amusing that he's one of the few who don't drink raktajino, since it's described several times in the show as "Klingon coffee."

* [[Treasure Chest Cavity]]: Morn hid liquid latinum in one of his stomachs.

* [[Trickster Mentor]]: Garak was one to Bashir.

* [[Tsundere]]: Keiko O'Brien. She appears in relatively few episodes, but when she does it is mostly to be cranky and domineering. There are many other episodes in which she antagonizes her husband, Miles, from somewhere off-camera. Her bouts of 'mushiness' are mostly limited to self-important meddling in the affairs of others.

** Kira Nerys. Oh ''[[Oh My Gods|Prophets]]'', Kira Nerys. [[Fiery Redhead|Fiery Redheaded]] [[Badass]] who goes positively ''kittenish'' at certain points with her romantic interests - particularly Odo.

* [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]]: {{spoiler|Eddington. At least, this is one possible character interpretation of him.}}

** Also most (if not all) of Section 31. Also qualifies as [[Utopia Justifies the Means]], since they're willing to commit any crime, no matter how monstrous, to protect the Federation.

** "The Search, Part I and II", the first part ending on a cliffhanger with Sisko, Dax, O'Brien, and Bashir's seeming death or capture, the brand new Defiant seemingly destroyed, and Odo finally meeting his people. The next part reveals {{spoiler|the Changelings are the Founders, the head of the Dominion}}.

** "Improbable Cause"/"The Die Is Cast": Garak blew up his own shop, Tain is working with the Romulans to destroy the Founders, Garak is willing to forget that Tain tried to kill him and rejoin the Obsidian Order, Tain orders Garak to torture Odo and he ''does'', Odo admits he wants to rejoin the Founders, the leader of the Tal Shiar is actually a Founder and the entire plot was a means to eliminate both the Obsidian Order and the Tal Shiar in one fell swoop... whew.

*** Of course, there's a second part to that rule: "Insult something he cares about instead."

* [[Your Normal Is Our Taboo]]: Trill marriages are "until death do us part". Too bad if you die and come back from the dead: The love of your life is now taboo forever. Even worse, the cycle of life in the elite circles of Trill society is based on a kind of reincarnation. Jadzia falls prey to this in one episode, falling head over heals in love with her ex-wife. Nobody even notices that they are of the same gender, the ethical/cultural problem is all about them having been husband and wife in a previous life.

* [[You Shall Not Pass]]: concerning the deaths of both Eddington and Kor. Also happens in "The Homecoming", where a few of the Bajoran prisoners stay behind and hold off the Cardassians so that Li Nalis can escape from prison.

* [[You Talk Too Much]]: in "Vortex"