“Empok Nor”

This episode really isn't great, but it's hard for me to hate anything with Garak involved. Probably would've given it 3 stars just for that.

I second that, Garak always commands the screen, even in a mediocre episode!

Garak is now probably my favorite character in the entire Trek canon, but I still didn't like this episode. Even early on in the Runabout scene I was 100% sure that all four "new" chaaracters would die. And as you said, what's the point of having Garak go crazy if it doesn't have any consequences? Psychotropic drug or not, murder is still murder.

I like that this episode is at least referenced again next season in Rocks and Shoals (I think that's the name of the episode... It's the one with Kevan, the vorta who is willing to sell out all his Jem Hadar soldiers in order to get medical help) when Nog tells Garak that he can walk next to him, or in front of him; but he'll never let him out of his sight again.

Also, this episode actually managed to freak me out the first time I saw it! It was very low budget horror movie the way it was played out. It wasn't exactly stellar, but I thought it was entertaining enough.

And finally, I concur with all of the above statements about Garak! I love both Garak and Nog, actually.

I just wanted to add one other thing to my last comment. That little scene in the beggining where Nog and O'Brian are fixing whatever they're supposed to fixing at Quarks is pretty hilarious, only because it kind of comes out of nowhere. I didn't see it coming the first time, and I forget that it's there on repeat viewing. So, it always gets a bit of a chuckle out of me.

My only complaint to add to Jammer's accurate observations is this: Garak and O'Brien had that conversation about O'Brien's heroic soldiering, on the runabout a long time before Garak was under the influence of any drugs.

But his attitude at that point was very antagonistic toward O'Brien, and while I know Garak is always playing mind-games when he talks about people's pasts, in this case it was way more aggressive and just plain mean than normal, and I don't think O'Brien's done anything in DS9 to make Garak hate him more than anyone else.

It really felt like he was already on the drugs before they entered the abandoned station, which of course was impossible, but the writers seemed to get Garak's personality *completely* wrong in that initial discussion.

One of the things about this epsiode was Andy Robinson take on Garak and how it is similiar to his portrayal of Scorpio in Dirty Harry

I personally thought this episode was worse than "Let he who is without sin", although that one was quite bad. But at least that episode had some attractive women in swimsuits. This episode's premise is completely ridiculous. In addition to what Jammer has mentioned, I just couldn't get past one particular conversation between Pechetti and Stolzoff. How can a Starfleet officer with several years of training point her rifle at an ally casually, then respond to his "Do you mind not aiming that at me" with a "Don't worry, safety's on". An engineer no less, who should know that all machines can and will fail at some point. Lazy writing in a lazily done episode with no real consequences. I'll pass.

Neil, I thought that conversation gave a nice bit of insight into Garak. He's lived on the same station with Chief for five years, but he's never shown any antagonism toward him. Yet Garak, despite being exiled, is a patriot and cares about his fellow Cardassians, and Chief is famous for killing himself a whole bunch of "Cardies." Garak rarely exposes how he really feels about things, but here you can see how he resents that and would like to match himself up against O'Brien and get a little payback -- if only in a board game -- for his people.

It could have been good as a spookhouse episode but really once the drug came into play, it was downhill. I guess it gives the writers a chance to have Garac murder someone and get away with it just to annoy people, who don't go for those excuses. Also, without redshirts, I guess the new tip-off is blue people; if there is a blue in your crew, you probably won't make it. And I think Garac just antagonizes O Brien early just because he is getting tired of people trusting him or liking him, I don't think he really cares about anything but him.

Echo much of the above comments but surprised no one yet has mentioned the spoonhead remark made by one of the yellowshirts. I liked it, it felt very in the moment and an evolution of the chief's cardies remarks throughout the series (and a nod to thing's past).

I had misremembered this episode, thinking much of it was spent in the (First Contact surplus) spacesuits, when only one brief scene uses one. I was also mistaken as to its overall quality: like Jammer at the time, I thought it was hollow and pointless, but upon reviewing I like it more.

As a "screw with O'Brien" episode, this is more revealing than, say, "Whispers" or even "Hard Time." That angle would've been lost if the antagonist hadn't been someone who knew the chief well, which is why Garak had to be the bad guy.

Between this and "The Ship," it's clear Beimler enjoyed showing O'Brien's interaction with regular joes. (Might've been better if the security and engineering joes had been more clearly delineated, but that's the original series' mistake of putting them both in the same color shirts.)

I thought this one was alright.

Not great but good action entertainment.

Would have benefited from a better musical score.

Jammer, I'm usually with you, but I liked this one better than and most of the others. It's not great DS9, but it's good. 3 stars.

This one is sort of a guilty pleasure for me. It's not very deep, but I do enjoy it.

Also re: Grumpy's comments about engineering and security staff wearing the same colour, that always bothered me, but it really stuck out in this episode. Science and medical I can sort of understand, the line between the two can be quite flexible. Engineering and security though is just confusing. On top of that, you've got the vague position of Operations Officer for Data and Harry Kim, a posting that seems to require both science and engineering, yet is also yellow. And another sidenote, flight controllers like Ro, Wesley and Tom Paris wear red, I suppose because it loosely falls into the "administration" side of command, as Memory Alpha points out.

None of this is inconsistent, but it's not very clear. A couple more colours would have been nice! In fact the TOS-era movie uniforms had a good array of department colours, although that patch was much less obvious.

Starfleet divisions, it seems to me, parallel divisions in real-life space programs. Command is the equivalent of NASA's pilot astronauts (who steer spacecraft and command missions); Sciences the mission specialists (NASA's first group of scientist astronauts included MDs as well as geologists); and Operations is like Russia's engineer cosmonauts. If the series had been more conscious of this parallel -- or even of the naval distinction between engineering and gunnery! -- we wouldn't have seen bilge rats wearing security guard uniforms. Or maybe it's vice versa.

I enjoy this one, though I concede most of Jammer's objections. On the conversation on the Runabout at the beginning: it made me realize we've never seen Garak and O'Brien interact much on the show before, which is interesting. Both men have become close to Bashir over the last 4-5 years, but not to each other. Why? Maybe because of what leaked through in that scene: Garak resents Chief's reputation as a Cardie-killer, and Chief still isn't particularly comfortable around Cardassians.

This one's mindless action. Good mindless action, but not much to it. They brought along redshirts to die, of course. That much was obvious. One of the reasons I don't like this one or The Ship is because of that. When there's redshirts, the episode is usually not very good. DS9 usually avoids redshirts, which is one of its strong suits, but sometimes we have episodes like these.

A decent episode, although I wish they didn't kill off all of the young engineers.

6/10

O'Brien has gone from someone who hated Cardassians to one who, if he doesn't necessarily like them, can see them as people. Garak likes to get under people's skin, needling them to see how they react. I don't think he was seriously disturbed by O'Brien's war record, Garak just saw this as a soft spot to poke. By observing reactions, he can see who is a potential enemy or a potential friend, and under what circumstances they might be friend or enemy. Essentially, Garak was asking "I'm a Cardassian and you've fought Cardassians. Where do I stand?"

Under the effect of the drug, Garak's needling is morphed into seriousness. When people are whipped up into a frenzy, any excuse will do. Garak was going to start attacking non-Cardassians either way, he just clutched at whatever was the nearest excuse. There is a point where he observes that it felt good to kill the Cardassians. If he had realized at that point that he was under the influence of a drug, he might have been able to control himself.

It just seems that events are glossed over too easily. Even if Garak was not held accountable for his actions, it seems implausible that he would have been able to go on with his life on the station normally.

@K'Elvis, I agree, but I think O'Brien's history may account for why he is so forgiving. a) he know what it is like to be, essentially, possessed (TNG's "Power Play"); b) he knows what it is like for a *loved* one to be possessed ("The Assignment"); c) he knows what it's like to have his personality altered in a damaging way that is not actually his fault ("Hard Time"). And in general, I'm reminded of what he said in "The Wounded": "I don't hate you, Cardassian. I hate what I've become." The episode's concept is that Garak encounters a substance left over from the war (or, the past, at least) which renders him xenophobic and a killer-soldier, and so part of the story is "about" the way hatred from wartime doesn't go away but can be reawakened. O'Brien is sympathetic to what Garak goes through, because it reminds him of his own difficulty dealing with what he did in the war, and the part of him that was permanently changed by the war. Some of what Garak did is based on traits that are actually in Garak, and so it makes sense that he feels bad (and that, SPOILERS Nog doesn't trust him in "Rocks and Shoals"), but ultimately he is a victim of forces greater than him, and O'Brien understands that very well by this point. I think O'Brien would probably put a word in in Garak's defense, and as the leader of the team I think this would go a long way.

Now, Garak getting like six months imprisonment for *attempted genocide* in "Broken Link" is another story....

I agree with Jammer on this one, the setup dialogue, sets, lighting etc in the first half are all great but are all wasted with a poorly scripted 2nd half that spirals down a predictable, pedestrian, gruesome and frankly "by the numbers" crew member goes insane path, a waste of the actors time and also seemed to lose all the tension and momentum from the first half. Would be interesting to hear what happened to the script and shooting process to see what happened.

This episode is asymptomatic of a mostly recurring theme of the fifth season. That theme seems to be to start with a great idea and then falter in the execution story-wise. Whether its the whole episode or smaller plot details.

I suppose this was fairly entertaining enough. Andrew Robinson and Colm Meaney are always reliable in their respective characters. Of course simply enjoying a performance can't save an episode from itself. I can't help but feel the drug-induced angle to the plot could've been much better utilized in terms of overall plot. The way it's handled here leaves me with the sense that Garak was made to be evil for evils' sake.

Good potential with great directing, reliably good performances and absolutely no follow through on premise. Entertaining but ultimately disappointing.

2 stars.

You mean symptomatic?

Yes I do mean 'symptomatic'. :p

I saw the board game scene very differently. I saw Garak reaching out to O'Brien. It's no secret that O'Brien is wary of Cardassians. Especially because his reputation precedes him. I think Garak was acknowledging that reputation, and offering respect as a fellow soldier. Also, I think Garak was saying "We're not so different. Let's play." This is the same message he was communicating under the influence of the drug, too. The game just got real.

Am I the only one who wishes Garak would have killed Nog? It would have had more of an impact and I wouldn't have to constantly roll my eyes in seasons 6 and 7 every time nog is on the bridge of the defiant while presumably still receiving reading lessons from Jake.

What's not to like here for me. Another Garak heavy episode!!

Interesting we never learned the answer to this:

"GARAK: I'm not convinced Stolzoff was right about our Cardassian friends. Why would anyone voluntarily seal themselves into a stasis tube, perhaps for years, just to guard an abandoned station? Even the Third Battalion isn't that fanatical. Something else is going on."

I'll rate higher than Jammer, I liked the second half of this episode. The Garak v O'Brien match-up was intriguing.

Of course, Robinson most aptly chews the scenery with everything he's given in this one.

3.0 stars. Probably 3.5 had there been a reason for those Cardi-cubes on Empok Nor...

A great-looking episode with an interesting premise, but the poor writing and unbelievable third act really hurt it. The actors do what they can but it doesn't add up to much. If they dropped the whole "evil Garak" idea and stayed focused on the Cardassian soldiers and why they were there, O'Brien and Garak still could have worked out their issue by going after the killers together.

Just saw this again last night. I think the powers that be were really trying hard to get Andrew Robinson to channel his inner Scorpio Killer again (from Dirty Harry). While my daughter definitely liked the episode, I do feel it falls a bit flat in places. A two star review is a pretty good assessment.

This episode was fun to watch, it was kind of like DS9's version of Resident Evil. As so many people have commented before me, Garak makes every episode he's in. The death of the red shirts and the whiney Bolian was predictable but still gave the audience a rueful grin, although I too wish that they hadn't ALL been killed.

One of the most interesting things here is seeing how the Chief's character has developed since his initial appearances in TNG. People here have compared him to his reaction to Cardassians in 'The Wounded,' which is admittedly what I think of every time I see him interacting with any Cardassians - in this case Garak. He's come a long way since the prejudiced, PTSD officer who baulks at Cardassians.

Another thing is Garak's comments on Setlik III and his constant reminders to the rest of the away crew, and in fact the rest of the DS9 members during the whole run of the show, of how race is such a huge part of our identity that it can never be completely eradicated. How far can friendships and prejudices go? I just finished watching 'For the Cause' yesterday, where Eddington makes his amazing speech to Sisko - "Everyone should want to be in the Federation." For them, if you're not with the Federation then you're against them.

Ultimately DS9 is a how about how people struggle to overcome their racial boundaries and prejudices, but realise that they can only go so far. Worf is a pretty good example - all Ferengis and Cardassians to him, for instance, are by default 'dishonourable', and the decent Ferengi or Cardassian is to him the exception rather than the rule. In 'Looking for par'Mach,' I felt a bit annoyed when he constantly belittled Quark for being a Ferengi during the first half of the episode. In 'What you leave behind,' when Bashir attempts to comfort Garak in the aftermath of the destruction of Cardassia, Garak tells him "Spare me your insufferable Federation optimism." DS9's a realistic reminder, in contrast to the kumbaya optimism of TNG and VOY, that races are and always will be that different, and that those differences can never be truly reconciled, only temporarily buried.

Great review by Jammer. I thought this episode was a bit like a DS9 equivalent to TNG's "Schisms"--it was an episode with an overall horror feel, although this one was much more like a conventional B-horror-movie, what with all our red-shirt extras being killed off. That was bad writing, in a way, and not only because it was incredibly predictable, both by the canons of horror and of Trek. I don't like horror as a genre, but every now and then it's interesting to see something really different from the usual Trek fare.

This episode doesn't make a lot of sense. 2 killers out there vs a group of not well trained officers. Instead of making the Cardassians their top priority, Miles split them up and made them do other minor tasks so that they got picked off. Was Miles really a soldier?

I don't think going after the Cardassians as a team would have made much of a difference, not with Crewman "Unsafety First" Stoltzoff on the team. She managed to keep her phaser rifle pointed at the one person in the room who she wasn't meant to shoot while protecting him, even AFTER he asked her not to! I was glad when she got thrown over the equally unsafe Promenade upper railing...

Empok Nor was always shown at dutch angles, even in other episode, apparently so it looked different to DS9. But wouldn't having it be a station of a different type to DS9 make more sense anyway? Terok Nor was originally an ore processing facility over Bajor, so what could Empok Nor's function have been given that it was seemingly sat in open space, or at the very least not in orbit of one of the Trivas System's planets?

I found Garak's needling of O'Brien a little odd at the beginning of the episode -- it was just a bit more aggressive than the more indirect modes he tends to use to have fun with others around him. The idea that Garak might have been put off by O'Brien's war record and wanted to talk to him about killing Cardassians might make some sense, but it still seemed too blunt somehow. Then Garak started asking O'Brien why he and Bashir spend all those hours in the holodeck together, and it clicked: Garak is jealous that O'Brien is Bashir's BFF now, and so is poking holes in O'Brien as friendship-rival, on a completely different playing field. Ha.

Anyway I talked about this episode a bit above. I think that the metaphor of the psychotropic drug is that is has to do with how nationalism, xenophobia and bloodlust can be brought to the surface in times of conflict and war, and it makes a particular amount of sense to do this story right now, now that Cardassians are overtly enemies of the Federation again. Garak feels a certain pull toward his people which he is not even consciously aware of, and the battle cry burrows into him. The Cardassian government attempts to create a kind of mass psychosis in Cardassians to make them better soldiers, which after all is what extreme militaristic governments do. The sudden shift of allegiances, and the horror of that, actually gets at the feelings of betrayal the AQ peoples are bound to have over Cardassia's change in loyalties, while also, through Garak, suggesting the way individual Cardassians can be swept up in a kind of mass militaristic psychosis by their leaders. O'Brien has to call on his ex-soldier while also integrating it with who he is now, and unlike Garak can think clearly outside the war. ("I'm an engineer.")

Still, I can't help but think that having Garak go to the other side via drugs would have worked better if the Garak-as-villain actually paid off what Garak's actual villainy is like. Garak used to be a torturer and assassin; I don't think he was a thug who wanted badly to get into fights-to-the-death. "The Die is Cast" had Garak go through the motions of torture even though he no longer enjoyed it, but this episode could have added to the character and our understanding by showing something of what Garak may have behaved like when he was younger, more violent, and more secure in the absolute rightness of hurting and killing for Cardassia. I tend to think that Obsidian Order Interrogator Garak would be scary as hell, and I think current Garak would prefer not to think about the fact that he used to hurt and kill people but also actively enjoyed it.

I enjoyed the final scene between Garak and O'Brien, particularly Garak asking O'Brien to send his regrets and apologies to the wife of the man Garak killed. I think O'Brien mostly gets Garak here, as I said in my previous comment on the episode. Garak is suitably chastened, I think because to some degree he only brought up the Setlek III needling of O'Brien because he really did think that both their fighting days were far in the past, and had not recognized what could be brought up.

The episode is heavy on atmosphere and Vejar does some effective work. I like the way the various goldshirts are given distinctive personalities, too. And some of the ideas here are fine. But the episode doesn't end up meaning much, and the final struggles get more and more ridiculous as they go on. 2 stars sounds right.

I would have preferred if this episode never existed. Why does Empok Nor look exactly the same as DS9? It's incredibly lazy and detracts from the feeling that DS9 is a unique station. Now it's just another carbon copy of all the other Cardassian stations dotted around the Alpha Quadrant.

Imagine if TOS showed us dozens of identical Enterprises, all out there exploring and boldly going. It would have devalued the sense that we were watching something unique. That's what Empok Nor did for me, knowing that DS9 came off the factory line instead of something with its own architecture and history behind it.

By the way, Babylon 5 did this concept before and did it much better. They visited Babylon 4, the previous station to be built. It looked different, inside and outside. As a result it was a much more interesting episode and enriched the franchise's universe.

"Why does Empok Nor look exactly the same as DS9? It's incredibly lazy and detracts from the feeling that DS9 is a unique station."

I don't see what the problem is. The Enterprise D has several sister ships including the Yamato which we saw destroyed in TNG as early as season 2. The Cardassian stations probably had the same architect, but at least we know Turok Nor was built by Bajoran slave labor.

Yes I understand the in-universe explanation, I just think it is lazy on the show's part. In TNG's case, it was probably that they didn't want to go to the trouble of building new ship models for one episode. Since DS9 is CGI, that shouldn't be an excuse even though the interior shots look identical to Terok Nor. It would have been a more interesting episode had it not been shot on sets we have seen every week.

DS9 isn't CGI. If you read the memory alpha entry for the show you can see the original handmade DS9 model along with sketches. And CGI can be extremely expensive if you want it to look realistic, which would've been quite a feat in the Toy Story 1 era when this episode aired.

Also, they really added some new sets for this episode and changed the lighting and atmosphere of the usual set. I'm not sure how that's lazy on a technical level.

Yes, it would be cool if they gave us a brand new station model for this single episode, but there are thin budgets for most broadcast TV shows, so we as the audience need to be reasonable.

Essentially a haunted house story with a horror movie feel. Unusual enough for DS9 but stymied by a flawed execution. The major problem is that if Garak has gone paranoid enough to be knifing people in the guts then he is not going to simply take Nog hostage - but of course we know the supporting cast is expendable, so that's not going to happen. Garak's dialogue is also increasingly risible as the episode continues, and it all builds to a somewhat melodramatic and overwrought conclusion.

The score is also intrusive to boot. 2 stars.

O'Brien, Nog, Garak and four walking skeletons..... erm, I mean four never-before-seen crew members.... go off to a really spooky abandoned station that just so happens to be haunted.... erm, I mean inhibited by deranged, psychotic killers. Gee, I wonder who's going to survive this little tale. :-P Seriously folks, this is easily the worst case of pointless red-shirt deaths that "Deep Space Nine" ever gave us. This is legitimately TOS: "The Apple" territory right here! All four new characters are murdered in one way or another and all three previously established characters manage to survive. Give me a freaking break! Though, I suppose "Empok Nor" does have two elements that "The Apple" didn't. It does have some social progress on display, as the female (non-white female, I might add) character is allowed to die; that's at least something, I guess. And it's not total shit.

The atmosphere of this episode is phenomenal! On that alone I can't justify giving it a below-average score, because it is simply sumptuous. The lighting, the mood, the directing, the editing, everything gives the episode a true sense of unreality and dread that permeates every single second. Given that everything takes place on the exact same sets we see week in and week out, that is quite an accomplishment. Jammer is absolutely right that Empok Nor really does feel like a different station than DS9.

Unfortunately, the only other good thing about the episode is Andrew Robinson's performance. He does sell "crazy Garak" reasonably well, but given that this is the exact type of role that made him famous to begin with (as the Scorpio Killer in "Dirty Harry") it's not surprising that he could make it work. Still, even if Robinson can make something from nothing, at the end of the day we're still left with nothing. This simply isn't the way Garak should be used. He's at his best when spinning elaborate deceptions and sparring with others in a game of wits. Turning him an out-of-his-mind villain just for the sake of zany shenanigans is a real disservice to the character. And the plot really does go off the rails once Garak kills the final Cardassian. Why were the soldiers left behind? Why were they exposed to such a questionable drug? How are O'Brien, Nog and Garak rescued? Were they able to get all the parts they needed for the DS9 repairs or just the one critical part? How are the families of the crew members murdered by the soldiers responding to this? Who cares?! Garak is acting loony! Sorry, but that's just not enough, a good performance not withstanding.

Tonally it's an absolute masterpiece. Story-wise.... not so much.

6/10

I like this episode a lot! Just rewatched it yesterday and it still works for me. Yes, there are clichés, as Jammer wrote, but it's well directed and well acted.

Plus the terrible "Ferengi love songs" still burns my memory... so this is gold!!!

Lighten up. If you're gonna have a character go wacky psychotic on you, Garak's the one.

You have three categories of things you need: Very important, so so, and take it or leave it. I would think that an engineer would have the brains to go after the very important things first, not divide up into three equal teams and go after each category simultaneously.

What's the downside to picking up souvenirs?

Curious what federation law is here -- can anyone really go after anything that's been abandoned, as salvage?

If I had just lost a third of my crew, I probably wouldn't be saying to those remaining, "Everything will be fine."

Why did everyone keep on turning on the flashlights on their guns? It's a pretty good way to give away your position.

It would have been a significantly better episode if the dialogue over the game at the beginning had really played out. Nog could have found a way to defeat Garak by using a defensive position, or something.

What was the goo that got on Garak's hand and infected him, and why was it just sitting around on a bannister?

3 stars - DS9 does genre and does it well. It's atmospheric, pacey and the characterizations are on point.

Why didn't the guy who Garak stabbed contact O'Brien with his communicator after he was attached? Later in the ep we see that the communicators work fine for conversation.

Psychotropic drug or not Garak still killed a Federation engineer/soldier. If I were his wife or relatives I would demand consequences. Maybe just maybe if circumstances were extenuating enough I could forgive but I'm not sure here.

Who can say there isn't some other drug or substance that can make Garak go crazy. The man is really too dangerous to be doing anything besides sweeping plasma conduits without armed supervision.

He's such an elite and uncanny operative I wouldn't trust him with my shoelaces.

Maybe on these assignments Sisko should have had him watched or I dunno put a tag on him.

@Luke: "It does have some social progress on display, as the female (non-white female, I might add) character is allowed to die; that's at least something, I guess."

Mate, I usually enjoy your posts, but I seriously don't see your point here?

"Now that all the minor characters are dead, let's head for home."

Hello Everyone!

@R.J.

Heh, I just got done watching this, checked the comment stream, and here was your timely post that had me laughing out loud and my wife looking strangely at me. :)
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I really didn't remember too much about this episode at all. When they were on the runabout, I thought "These aren't all redshirts, are they?". Yep, they were. That was a bit disappointing. The one (1) time the entire command staff weren't there...

Speaking of which, this station is in an, uncomfortable, area of space, where Jem Hadar ships visit from time to time (but not lately and not today). Still, if these items were that important, in a potentially hostile area, why not take the Defiant?

And I agree with those that didn't like O'Brien splitting his forces...

BOQ'TA: We're going to split up?
O'BRIEN: We have to. If we don't send out a signal, we're never going to get off this station.

That... isn't much of a reason to split up. Yes, they had to get a signal off, but taking a bit longer while making certain your people are safer is of paramount importance. Heck, O'Brien still had to do most of it himself, since the other engineers ended up dead. They weren't starving yet. Keep the remainder of the team together with two or three holding phasers while one works.

You know, I really do think there is a connection with somewhat hokey horror movies. You see the folks on screen doing something stupid and you're yelling "Don't go in the Basement! Don't hide in the Cemetery! Don't Split Up!". I got the same feeling watching this, except these folks already knew there was a danger and STILL did stupid things.

I believe that even though O'Brien outsmarted Garak at the end, the remainder of the episode was a disservice to Miles and his tactical knowledge.

Your mileage may vary, of course. :)

RT

@RandomThoughts

The same thing has crossed my mind many times when watching this episode. But you know, they point out right in the episode why O'Brien makes this mistake. He was thinking *too much* like an engineer and not enough like a soldier. From an engineering perspective, his decision to split up was the most efficient. From a tactical perspective, it made almost no sense. However, I say all this with the caveat that O'Brien did succeed because of his engineering skills.

Let's just say that the writers both wanted us to see the importance of keeping your guard up while at war but at the same time not losing yourself in it. I think and O'Brien and Garak play out those two perspectives very well.

You know an episode is going to be bad when within the first 10mins you contemplate just skipping it altogether.

That's how I felt about this episode and unfortunately not even Andrew Robinson can save this one from being on my "do not rewatch" list.

How Jammer could rate this higher than Ferengi Love Songs is beyond me.

If you rewatch Ferengi Love Songs you get to look forward to so many great lines from Quark, Brunt & Zek before getting to the Marauder Mo toys at the end.

For Empok Nor, honestly why would you watch it again? Is it to see the 4 "red shirts" (TOS terminology for "dispensable characters" you know will be killed in the ep) killed again?

Is it to see Nog fire the awesome rifle he's been holding all throughout the ep? (He never fires it)

Is it to hear a great speech from the villain? (There isn't one - not great anyway)

Is it to see the epic fight scene between O'Brian and Garak? (It isn't)

In short, there's no reason to watch this episode again. You may fool yourself into thinking Garak said something cool when he becomes the villain but he honestly doesn't say anything of substance.

Vols were promised at the start of the episode and not one makes an appearance. Empok Nor could have been a great episode if they tried to mimic the film "Aliens" and had a space station absolutely teeming with vols that were hyper aggressive enough to warrant Nog and everyone else using their rifles. The deaths of the 4 crewman could have happened by panic falls or even friendly fire (which would have taught Nog a lot about the true horrors of war).

Instead Empok Nor had a couple of silent and pointless Cardassian hunters who get taken out by Garak who then becomes villain for the last 15mins or so.

Sad to say this but one of the worst Trek episodes ever, even "Let He Who Is Without Sin" had some redeemable qualities in its speeches and motivations - Empok Nor is basically "I know what you did last summer" with Star Trek uniforms.

2 stars

This one started out with promise. The teaser featuring Nog and Obrien's budding mentor/mentee friendship and working on upgrading older systems on station was good. Then the idea of needing replacement parts and thinking of salvaging them from another abandoned space station --good. Having Garak tag along was also a fun idea and the fact he has integrated himself among the crew and is seen as a vital asset also good

Then you get to Enpok Nor and the episode still is holding my attention with the horror atmosphere created--blackened station sets, runabout destroyed, the team trapped with some force hunting them down picking them off one by one. So here I am thinking Im in for a treat with a very well done horror/mystery standalone with suspense and tension(the Cardassian suddenly crashing through the glass killing the officer made me jump) then it takes a hard turn into mediocrity with an unsatisfying reveal--the hunters are Cardassian soldiers on drugs Then they had to go make Garak into Psycho Garak thanks to exposure to the psychotropic drug and from there it was all downhill. I wasn't the least bit interested in seeing psycho Garak having some grudge, hinted at earlier in the runabout and coming out of the blue, over Obrien and Setlik III which hasn't been mentioned in years and in which they subsequently play out a tiresome game of wits with Nog as hostage

Very disappointing

The only thing that was worthwhile from this episode was establishing the existence of Empok Nor which WILL be put to good use next season

4 stars for me!

I love this episode. First, it involves my favorite DS9 character: Garak, and second, I loved seeing him go crazy and taunting Nog and O'Brien. I also like that the episode started w/Garak being kind of sad that ppl are no longer leery of him as they were in the past. Well, that changed after this episode. Haha!

When I first got my series DVDs for Christmas, this was among the first episodes I sought out to watch, incl. The Wire, ITPM, Duet, and the Visitor. Any episode involving or centering around Garak is a great episode to me. LOL! This episode was no exception - IMO.

I like this episode, and really enjoyed Garak going full-on evil. He's truly the best character on this show, and though I love all of his witty dialogue all the time, my favorite moments are when we are reminded that he's the most dangerous character on the show, however much he has reformed and been humanized over the years. I really appreciated the camera work at the moment when O'Brien tells Garak he "doesn't look like a tailor", and at that moment, it's very true. The following shot has him looking decidedly dangerous.

I actually could have gone for more time in the episode devoted to Garak being full-on scary. I would have liked the sense that O'Brien was getting scared. Though, the way O'Brien acted (cool-headed) does fit with his personality and fighting experience. Truthfully, I don't care that much about O'Brien and Garak together, though I know this episode was meant to highlight them. I really wish either Bashir would have been on the station, or at least we would have had a scene between Bashir and Garak (constrained on a bio-bed) at the end, before Garak was cured. I want to see Bashir straight-up frightened of the crazy-eyed infected Garak. To sum up, I thought Garak was freaking scary, and I wanted one of the characters on the show to appear to experience the full effects and once again be reminded that Garak is just on a leash, but is still just as dangerous as ever.

A very simple idea here -- perhaps too simple -- but it is well-executed. Enough suspense and plenty of Garak and O'Brien, 2 of the better characters in DS9, however, nothing exceptional here.

Seems odd that the Cardassians would leave an entire station deserted -- would have liked to get some more background on that. So there was some experiments with psychotropic drugs that went wrong and thus the Cardassians had to abandon an entire station?

The problem for the episode for me is that it spent too much time hunting around in the dark. Slow-paced for long stretches without a good enough payoff.

Garak's falls under the influence of a psychotropic drug -- this gives Andrew Robinson a chance to bring a different aspect of the Garak character to life -- a more sadistic and cruel one. I think Robinson does this effectively. The idea of the warrior nature in each person being brought to the surface is an interesting one and it is kind of contrived up here. But it doesn't really prove anything or go anywhere special. (Nothing exceptional here).

Robinson and Meaney are both good actors and the part at the end with Garak hospitalized leads to a good conversation. I thought O'Brien would have just set the explosion to stun Garak but he admits it was meant to kill him.

2.5 stars for "Empok Nor" -- plenty of "redshirt" deaths as O'Brien's engineering team gets killed by Cardassians/Garak but of course we know O'Brien/Garak/Nog won't die, which does take the sting out of the endgame of this episode.

"Die Hard 9"

I did kind of enjoy seeing a "Red Shirts to the Slaughter" episode again, even if nobody was wearing red. There was even a little bit of slasher movie in this. I would have liked to see more of the ruined station (a la The Constellation in The Doomsday Machine... we know they are the same sets only redressed, which is part of the fun). Garak should have only almost killed that guy... pushed the envelop a bit too far for me. And for all that talk of booby traps, there weren't enough. I would have preferred no soldiers and all booby traps, myself. I enjoyed how the episode was filmed... very unTrekian.

I really enjoy "Empok Nor", but it devolves too quickly into horror cliché. The episode successfully builds a creepy atmosphere inside the titular station, but fails to do anything interesting with the setting. The 'redshirt' trope was on full force in this episode, and it really blunted the impact. Of course the only 3 to survive are Nog, Garak, and O'Brien. How convenient.

2.5 stars.

I liked the episode, but found Colm Meaney's performance too flat. He had a mutiny and 4 crewmen killed under his command. Yet he doesn't really have a reaction besides "we'll kill Garak if we have to". O'Brien isn't in charge that often, I think the show missed a big chance to explore a very bad day for O'Brien. I think the episode would have been stronger if we'd seen his report to Sisko, instead of his weak tea visit to the infirmary at the end.

Good for what it is: Your standard thriller - something is after our heroes in a dark spooky place. They start dropping off, one by one . . .

Entertaining. Robinson puts in a great performance, as always.

I cannot for the life of me understand why season 5 is always voted so highly against past trek seasons. So far for me this has been the weakest of all DS9 seasons, finding myself annoyed and rolling my eyes just as often as I feel that old DS9 sense of "wow".

This episode was ok, though in a way I wish there had been a little more of the "real Garak" in there, especially after his willingness to torture Odo at the prospect of being readmitted to the Obsidian Order. Never quite knowing if he's on 'our' side is what makes him so fascinating, and in a way this episode kind of denied us that.

Another episode where the sum doesn't quite equal the parts.

The setup is fairly interesting and logical; DS9 needs replacement parts, which (for the usual technobabble reasons) can't be replicated or substituted for. So a trip to an abandoned Cardassian station (handily built with the same layout as per DS9) to salvage them seems logical.

Though that does raise an interesting question: it may have been mothballed by the Cardassians, but it's still technically owned by them - and heavily booby trapped, to boot. Sending a salvage team over to it during a cold-war scenario which is just a hair-trigger away from going nuclear seems somewhat... foolhardy.

But still, it's a nice little set up for a horror-themed episode, as the woefully underprepared Engineering crew find themselves facing off against a set of psychopathic zombie-warriors[*]. Which naturally, they deal with by charging around a darkened station with bright torches in small groups. Or to put it another way, easy pickings for psychopathic zombie-warriors lurking in the shadows...

In the end, the engineering red-shirts are all eliminated, so that the episode can focus on Garak, who's been exposed to the same psychotropic drug as the zombie-warriors. And naturally, he becomes obsessed with Miles and decides to play an odd little game with him.

Truth be told, Garak is always a fascinating character, and evil-Garak is even more so. But I do wish that O'Brien's solution had been a bit more... cunning. Outsmarting Garak by having him draw a /third/ phaser would have arguably been more apt and amusing.

Sadly, all the build up is somewhat wasted by the ending, which makes liberal use of the reset button. Garak gets to go back to his shop, and the deaths of the engineering team is hand waved away. And while there's a mildly amusing callback to this episode by Nog a few episodes later, that's pretty much it for the impact his actions have on the wider story.

And that's why the sum is less than the parts...

[*] Ok, ok, they're not zombies. But this episode channels Alien and Friday the 13th in equal parts, so I'm dubbing them Jason 1, 2 and 3! And I'm going to ignore all the hand-waving that the episode does around just /why/ there's a bunch of psychopathic zombie-warriors sat in deep freeze on the station...

If it had just been the 'Cardies' in this episode it wouldn't have been up to much, but like everyone else here I feel Garak's presence definately elevated the episode, and ends up enjoyable because of his performance.

One thing always annoyed me about this ep though.. no external communications and no shuttlecraft.. How long did it actually take for them to get off the station?

This episode is exactly why we’re better off with modern Trek and our other favorite shows having shorter seasons and higher production value. This script would be passed over today. Or they’d take the best ideas (like Empok Nor itself and open dialogue between O’Brien & Garak, the game of Kotra, and possibly the idea of experimental elite Cardassian soldiers) and throwing away the rest. Possibly combining this script with another. Whatever. The point is that 10 - 13 episode seasons with higher production value and a clear story arc is the norm now and we’re all better off for it (Thank you, HBO). Sure there are duffers, but there are fewer to suffer through.

You didn't just claim that modern Trek has better writing then DS9, did you? Modern Trek gave us clear story arcs? Seriously?

While it is true that shorter seasons *could* have the effect of more focused writing and tighter story arcs, this isn't what we got in reality.

In his review, Jammer says he'd have preferred if this episode stuck with its original premise, in which the Federation simply hunted some rogue Cardassians. I think I'd have preferred that too. The rewrite, in which Garak and Miles essentially "devolve" into past roles, one now a bloodthirsty Cardassian, the other a pseudo-racist Federation soldier, always struck me as the kind of superficial "subversion" that DS9 occasionally liked to dabble in.

And so much of this episode plays like a rehash of TNG's "Starship Mine", only here we have two highly trained warriors using guerilla tactics to best each other. It should be tense and thrilling, but the effect is mostly sleazy; the episode delights in rubbing its nose in human baseness and barbarity. After all, the episode says, this is what happens when you put animals on a different station, a different cage, and pump them full of the right biochemical cocktails. Savagery! Barbarism! Murder!

But the episode doesn't earn that lesson. Everything feels contrived to get you to Empok Nor and then to get you to a one-on-one battle between Miles and Garak. That an advanced civilization like the Federation can't fix a technical problem on DS9 without raiding Empok Nor for parts seems silly. That a group of Federation personnel can't use their brains and their wits to outsmart some deranged Cardassians seems sillier. That Miles can't figure out a way to technobabble Garak into a jail cell likewise.

Still, there's some good stuff here. While the episode mostly moves from one action cliche to the next, almost everything with Nog is good, and its fun seeing him develop as a character across the season. It's also nice getting a glimpse of Garak-the-killer, though I'd preferred he not be subjected to the mind-altering drugs. More effective, IMO, to keep him working with the Federation, and simply focus on his cold and methodical dispatching of the enemy Cardassians, his cheerful, affable veneer juxtaposed against the highly trained, highly skilled agent underneath.

One neat detail: when in the runabout, and still docked inside DS9, you can see the walls of the hangar outside the runabout's windows. I never noticed that little detail before (aren't the windows usually just blacked out?). Some of the "off-kilter" shots of Empok Nor also look neat, though such tilting and "listing" doesn't make much sense.

Just as Voyager began weaning itself off of the bioneural gel pack things in favor of presumably replicatable standard technology almost from the start, so too should DS9 have been steadily phasing out Cardassian technology in favor of Federation replacements. Perhaps not a new Federation replicator in every single living quarters, but certainly in Operations and other key singularly important locations.

I actually like this one. Classic claustrophobic sci fi. And Garak would alone carry anything, even the most mediocre episode.
I liked the characters involved because they make sense. A squad of engineers suddenly turned into shaky soldiers. Nog, a cadet in need to show his value in a real life combat situation. O'Brien, a veteran who is forced into a situation which brings memories he'd like to forget. On the other side, Garak, a shady former assassin who shows here his darkest Cardassian side. And Cardassians work amazingly as villains.
Not consequential, but very entertaining.

OmicronThetaDeltaPhi - What Justin said was "higher production values," but I don't know what those are. He also seems to think that stronger serialization makes a better show. Personally, I think DS9 had the right balance of serialization vs. episodic content. I wish Discovery, for example, could reach this quality, and I by no means think this is top quality DS9.

If "production values" means lots of CGI and unusual camera angles, those to me are no improvement at all, in fact they're distractions.

Not great, but Meaney/Robinson/Eisenberg play very well off each other as O'Brien/Garak/Nog. It's a winning matchup.

From the beginning, with all these minor new characters' chummy banter, it was obvious they would either all die or this would be some Lower Decks kind of story.

Aside from the story weakness, it struck me that Garak getting onto O'Brien about O'Brien's Cardassian war experience just seemed out of character. That made it look like Garak was unhinged BEFORE arriving at the station. Those lines should have come later while on the station as the first hint there's a problem.

Is this the first "crazy versions of cast members" show on DS9 which isn't a mirror universe episode?

Definitely not the first. Remember "Dramatis Personae" in Season 1?

"It's...A CLOCK!"

A silly premise strongly boosted by great atmosphere, suspense and strong performances. The episode is more than the sum of its parts.

Although I agree with SF Debris comment on Stolzoff's careless handling of her rifle. One of the dumbest moments in Trek history. One doesn't need to be a gun expert to know why that is reckless behavior

The premise is incredibly reminiscent of the DS9 novel Station Rage by Diane Carey, in which a group of Cardassian warriors led by a cult hero are found in a forgotten corner of the station and awakened from stasis. The novel actually came out two years BEFORE this episode aired. It was set before all the Dominion stuff.

I doubt that she got royalties for inspiring the episode.

I'm halfway through this but I have to vent this off...

So, you know there are two highly skilled, stealthy warriors on the loose, just itching to rub you out.

1. If you're paired with somebody, you do NOT say "Hey, let me go upstairs to check out that sound." Man, that was the worst idea in the history of bad ideas, maybe in the history of ideas period. Shocking someone as hot as that chica could do something so moronic. Then again, her rifle skills were reprehensible so maybe I shouldn't surprised.

2. When you find two of your crewmen killed and you're down to four, you do NOT split up the four into pairs and send them off on different missions, Smiley, you absolutely f!@ing IDIOT! You stick together, with two people, maybe even just one, doing the work and the rest standing guard, shooting first and asking questions later.

ARRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Let me guess: The blueface and the baldy will get killed, too, and then... - I don't know. Exasperating.

Loving the rest though!

Just finished it. Yes, it was all over the place, but I enjoyed it. Garak's being in it is alone worth at least three stars. He's just fantastic.

As far as there was "not enough insight," puh-lease. Sometimes you need a good action-packed eppy that keeps you on the edge of your seat and have you screaming at the T.V. This one sure does that!

Well, this almost "here's Garak" (Robinson) was well done. Also, it was very much Colm Meaney's and Aron Eisenberg's good acting that made it viewable but somehow the scrip was to poor.

Wait...how did they get back to DS9 without a runabout?

Yeah, I know, a rescue party probably went out after not being able to communicate with them, but still--those damn Trek 5-minute wrap-up endings always irritate me ;)

This was an awful episode...just a one-dimensional horror/zombie story. The characters were also painfully stupid. Why split up if there are people after you and there isn't an immediate hurry to complete your job? Apparently this episode was originally much worse and more of a horror cliche, but Ira and Andrew objected and it was rewritten/fixed up somewhat (but not enough).

I really dislike this episode, despite being fascinated by the basic idea of an away mission to DS9's derelict sister station (the simple sight of Empok Nor on its side hanging in space is striking).

What really ruins this episode for me is the nasty hit job that is done on the character of Garak. 'Psychotropic compound' or not, it's clear to me that the intention was to indulge the idea that if you strip away a veneer of respectability, people inevitably become sadistic monsters. That in and of itself is a topic that Trek could cope with and handle well, but this episode squanders the premise - it ultimately turns Garak into a caricature of our expectations of him: that is, the mild-mannered tailor who is really a spy is, in fact, really a cold-blooded predator.

I know the episode tries to explain it by saying that Garak is simply reverting into a kind of Cardassian concentrate, and that it's the inherent xenophobia and paranoia of Cardassian culture that is bubbling to the surface rather than Garak, but it doesn't work. At all.

So Garak is turned into a gleeful murderer (and Andrew Robinson plays it terrifyingly, disturbingly well), and then there's the reset button even though Garak actually killed a Starfleet crewman.

I just really don't like it.

By coincidence I watched "The Ship" this morning. Didn't like that episode, but it was supposedly about not losing crew members to futile risks. Upon rewatching it, the premise didn't even work, because none of the characters made any meaningful choices that led to the situation they found themselves in, except for mining on some planet that happened to have a warship crash.

O'Brian especially featured in that episode, feeling guilty about the death of Muniz/Munez. And yet here we are, a few episodes in and everyone is "ok, let's go to plunder an abandoned but also booby trapped Cardassian space station for some heating pipes, because what could possibly go wrong" and all the crew dies.

Didn't even watch the ending. It's probably irrelevant.

I wouldn't have minded one bit to see more of Garak trying to corrupt Nog though!

"You're right. im not a soldier anymore...I'm an engineer..."

KABLOOOEY
Most ice cold O'Brien line

I completely agree with Jammer. The last third of the episode was completely ridiculous.

My ongoing beef with the whole Star Trek franchise since it’s inception is the slaughter of countless Star Fleet “Red Shirts” over the years, the killing of so many promising but faceless young Star Fleet crewmen, only because of unfamiliarity with viewing public, Ratings cannon fodder.

The Star Trek (Gene Roddenberry) writers just can’t get through an episode of any series that contains third-tier casted “Red Shirt “ actors without killing all of them off prior to the conclusion of the episode. It’s as predictable as WWE wrestling, or a Putin presidential election in Russia.

I mean, to be cast as an unknown “Red Shirt” on a Star Trek episode is certain single-appearance television contract death. And an ominous trend has been forming in these recent years; A good percentage of these episodes that start out with multiple Red Shirts (3-7, average 4) in amongst the landing parties, are all being completely wiped out per episode.

(The term “Red Shirt” refers to an anonymous Star Fleet crew member nobody’s seen in prior episodes and positively won’t be alive by the end of their episode. Doesn’t matter the plot of the story, the color of their uniform, or occupation with Star Fleet either)

If they are on a sketchy away team or landing party episode they are, and this is an absolute certainty; are utterly DOOMED. It is established that only fan and viewer recognized, reoccurring characters on any Star Trek series are allowed back on board the starship alive.

The rumor has it this hard and fast network television policy comes down straight out of the book of Tribble, 17th chapter, verse 21; of the ancient and all powerful: “Scrolls of The Roddenberry.”

Definitely a weak episode. Like Jammer, I was intrigued by the premise, but rapidly lost interest.

(Also the very tired Trek trope of any episode involving stasis pods; there's likely to be a corpse in one of them. Brrr!)

One of the worst episodes in DS9.

- Sending engineers to scavenge on a derelict ship. Is everyone suddenly absolute idiots? Can Odo not spare a few deputies, at least?

- Why also accept a child, or a young man who's the size of a child who can barely hold a rifle, on a very dangerous scavenging trip on a booby-trapped, damaged ship? Is everyone absolute idiots?

- Of course this derelict station is a DS9 replica, so the production can save some money and can re-use the same set with darker lighting and custom built stasis chambers that the show keeps going back to in the most mundane shots possible.

- Why would the former occupants of Empok Nor, who were seemingly doing super soldier experiments, put these stasis chambers on the "promenade", and not literally anywhere else that actually has more doors and walls for additional security? Are they suddenly idiots too?

- The psychotropic drug is designed to heighten Cardassian xenophobia. So, in another peculiar instance of racism, xenophobia is implied to be genetic, not learned. Is everyone an actual idiot?

- A Starfleet officer expresses a racial slur, no one bats an eye, and that ADRed line is, by far, one of the worst written and acted lines in the entire show. If a viewer hears that line, after having just watched two of this engineer's crewmates being murdered to death in horrific ways, and think that line was well acted, your tastes are bad and you should feel bad.

Behr and Berman didn't hear the line until later, but kept it, because they felt it expressed the pressure of the situation and was appropriate. Did they hear the line out of context, given how extremely poorly it's delivered, and how the extra seems to talk as if his crewmate, who just died horrifically, has been dead for years, and he's just reminiscing suddenly, like he feels nothing at all besides "good memories". Were Behr and Berman actually drunk during ADR?

I could go on, but I don't care to because others have expressed the idiocy of this episode, and there are too many to willingly recollect. Unlike Jammers and others agreeing with the supposition that this episodes starts off well with a "good premise", I'd argue that it's stupid from the start. I was not surprised at all that the original premise was changed, and then the 1st script was rewritten. This episode smacks of that disorganized hackery.

And no, Garak/Andrew could not save it. It's even worse, given how his character is dumbed down, much to the actor's own quoted unease. We've already seen Garak lose his mind twice before, in two of the best episodes. Did they really have to do it again, for a weird Die Hard + Aliens ripoff? Awful enough to skip on series rewatches, and you will miss nothing, because there's hardly any meaningful consequences to anything that happens in this episode, besides Nog feeling uncomfy from Garak's leering eyes.

"So, in another peculiar instance of racism, xenophobia is implied to be genetic, not learned."

It would be shocking if it wasn't to some extent frankly.