Star Trek 320: Armageddon Game

320. Armageddon Game

FORMULA: The Arsenal of Freedom + The Armageddon Factor + The Tholian Web

WHY WE LIKE IT: Building the Bashir-O'Brien relationship even more.

WHY WE DON'T: Silly hairstyles. Over-analysed coffee.

REVIEW: Another episode that builds on the Bashir-O'Brien relationship is of course welcome. These complete each other in more ways than one. Obviously, there are the opposite branches of engineering and medicine, but the seasoned veteran (falling back into his soldier's habits here) singing in the praises of family life makes a great foil for the brilliant rookie who rails against marriage. O'Brien's answer to everything would seem to be "wait til you grow up, kid." Both characters get to be very good at what they do, and a new respect grows between them, though O'Brien gives no quarter when later asked about (what happens on the road, stays on the road).

We also get to learn about both men's pasts, especially Julian's. If you're looking for proof Bashir was meant to be a mutant from nearly the start, Armageddon Game offers some: A fear of success sends him to the frontier rather than make chief of surgery within 5 years, he cures the harvester virus in a week, and is tries to use engineering skills he should only be vaguely familiar with in the first place. We knew O'Brien more going in, but there are great character touches, such as his wanting to die on his feet.

If the episode has flaws, it's mostly with the aliens of the week, a pair of paranoid peoples with silly aerodynamic hairstyles. They're forgettable (and forgotten!) and really take their time executing our two friends (and never try again, ever). In fact, the cast is way too smart for them, with the final runabout gambit a particular smart way to use the smaller ships DS9 is saddled with. A lot of the station-side story has to do with the reaction to the two men's reported deaths, and that packs a lot of punch, thankfully. Even though you know they're still alive, the reactions are beautifully played (even for comedy, as in Quark's case), especially the Sisko-Keiko moment. Under-writing the scene was the perfect thing to do. Her grasping at straws and "solving" the murder via the scan of a coffee cup, well, that's a little convenient, but at least they have the good sense to later show she really was deluding herself.

LESSON: Sometimes a cup of coffee is just a cup of coffee.

REWATCHABILITY - Medium-High: While the set-up isn't particularly memorable and the solution a tad silly, the Bashir-O'Brien stuff is always good, and the stationboard scenes rather touching.