Anika and Liz discuss the DS9 episode “Things Past”, in which Sisko, Dax, Odo and Garak find themselves at the centre of an ugly incident during the Occupation. While Garak demands to see the manager, Odo has some guilt to work through. It turns out the Occupation was … bad.
Along the way, we discuss:
- Odo’s place in the hierarchy of the Occupation (and his claim to not have a place at all)
- how are Odo and Quark even allowed to be part of Bajoran society now?
- somehow Dax’s storyline is both peripheral AND the most compelling part of the episode
- DS9 versus Babylon 5; Liz’s extremely secret Trekkie shame
- (it’s not much a of a secret, she likes B5 better)
- we pitch a prequel comic about the Occupation
TL;DR we say, “It was really frustrating!” about 35 times.
Content note: given the presence of Gul Dukat in this episode, and his behaviour towards Bajoran women in general, there’s a lot of discussion of abuse, grooming, Harvey Weinstein and other unpleasant matters throughout the whole episode, but particularly around the 39 minute mark.