The title of “Distant Voices” is oddly metaphoric for its central problem. This was an episode that always held me at arm’s length. It’s obsessed with its own premise, but unsure how to spin up its plot. My wife, a solid Trek devotee, gradually moved toward skipping it altogether. I stuck through it, but I can’t say I blamed her when she made good on her threats.

The problems start right off the bat, when Garak and Bashir’s actually-interesting conversation about aging is interrupted by Quark and some alien. Read the rest of this entry →