Mar 6, 2019
One of the reasons we love Deep Space Nine is its consistent tendency to defy our expectations. This episode is no exception, as it brings Jonathan Frakes in for a guest starring role, but defiantly casts him as Tom Riker instead of Will Riker, and then defies your expectation yet again by making this Tom Riker-starring vehicle into a Sisko-Dukat caper. We are reaching Maquis levels of sadness yet again here, thanks to this episode where everything is complicated and nobody really wins. But apart from our sadness for the fate of ol’ Tommy Rikes, it wouldn’t be a Reopening the Wormhole discussion without brief forays into things like 90s handheld video game console Sega Game Gear, unnecessary Twilight Zone references, another discussion about nature vs. nurture vis a vis Tom Riker, and, of course, Jonathan Frakes’s undisputed masterpiece of filmmaking, Clockstoppers. Barm joins us for this depressing, exciting, and entrancing episode of Deep Space Nine.