Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 2.04

Invasive Procedures

A skeleton crew remains aboard Deep Space Nine while most everyone else has been evacuated due to a plasma storm. A ship arrives bearing four people. They take over the station. It soon becomes clear that Quark helped them get aboard and provided them with information about the crew of Deep Space 9.

Verad, a Trill and the leader of the group, feels as though he should be joined with Dax. He doesn't care that removing Dax from Jadzia's body will kill her within hours of the procedure. Jadzia submits to the procedure after Verad threatens to kill her friends. Dax is removed from her body and implanted in Verad's.

Verad has a whole new level of confidence once Dax is part of him. He bonds with Sisko but refuses to reverse the procedure. Mareel, Verad's companion, experiences doubts about her relationship with him, after the procedure.

Quark fakes an injury. He makes enough of a show of it to be taken to Doctor Bashir in sick bay. Bashir tricks and sedates the Klingon mercenary that is keeping an eye on sick bay. Bashir and Quark free Odo from the containment where he was placed when Verad and his group first arrived on Deep Space 9.

Verad discovers that something is amiss. He leaves Mareel guarding Sisko and the others. Sisko convinces her that it would be best if Dax is removed from Verad. She gives him her weapon and he uses it to confront Verad and force him to undergo the procedure. Dax is transferred back to Jadzia.

Thoughts

Jake was not in this episode.

Megan Gallagher played the part of Mareel. I know her best from the first two seasons of Millennium. This is one of two episodes of Deep Space Nine in which she appeared. She also appeared in an episode of Star Trek: Voyager and in one of The Outer Limits (1995).

John Glover played the part of Verad. I didn't recognize him but he was the voice of the Riddler in Batman: The Animated Series, The New Batman Adventures, and Superman: The Animated Series. He has been in a few movies I have seen but he wasn't the lead character in any of them. He was in an episode of Tales from the Crypt and in one of The Twilight Zone (1985).

One thing that struck me as a bit odd about this episode is that there is just the skeleton crew aboard the space station (as in the previous episode) but this time it was explained by saying that there was a plasma storm. There was no mention of the Bajoran threat from the previous episode.

This is a better episode than I was led to believe that it would be. It isn't great but I think that it is a good one even though it felt as though they did gloss over or ignore a few things. I thought that Megan Gallagher and John Glover were both very good in the roles they played. A couple of strong guest stars can make all the difference in a show like this.