It’s gray alien week on Trekabout! In “Second Skin”, Cardassians kidnap Major Kira and try to convince her she’s one of them. In “The Abandoned”, Quark finds a Jem’Hadar baby and Odo tries to convince him he doesn’t have to kill. Plus! Remember Worf? Boy, he was a shitty father, right?
Trekabout Episode 173: Second Skin/The Abandoned
Jenny
-‘Second Skin’ would’ve sort of worked if Cardassians and Bajorans were /races/, not separate /species/? It’s a good episode… that doesn’t make much sense once you think about it after.
Another little thing that doesn’t add up – if Cardassia is this surveillance state, and there’s no reason to assume it isn’t … how did Sisko and Garak – a Human and an /exile/ – manage to get to a Legate’s apartment undetected? How’d they manage to /escape/? I guess they were beamed down nearby, far enough from the transporter suppression field?
It is also pretty striking, to me, that the Obsidian Order is going to these lengths not only on /suspicion/, but also specifically for /internal security/. Like, whatever information they gain from kidnapping the XO of DS9 is /secondary/, is an /added bonus/ – the primary goal here is to uncover a local dissident. Not even someone they think is a foreign spy – just someone who they think wants to overthrow the government. [Admittedly, it’s quite possible that they might think that the dissident movement /has/ to have foreign backing – that no ordinary Cardassian would be a dissident, because the system /works/, so it has to be a result of foreign influence. But I’m not sure how much they buy into that?]
I’m always amused at that bit where Ghemor and that other dissident are busy praising each other’s sacrifices – ‘you’re a great man’ “no, /you’re/ the real hero.”
Nana Visitor absolutely /loathed/ the Cardassian makeup – it took forever to put on, it was claustrophobic, it got too hot under studio lights.
COMMENTS!
Eric Brasure
-“It’s a good episode… that doesn’t make much sense once you think about it after.”
Like so much of Star Trek! But it’s one of the reasons I love it so much.
Richard
-I think you mean “gralien week”.