Bajoran Lightship

Story: Explorers
Written By: René Echevarria and Hilary J. Bader
Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Year: 1995

“Explorers” is a beautiful episode. It is one of the best Father-son stories this series ever had, I personally like it more than the fan favorite from season 4, “The Visitor”. Sisko gets obsessed with building a Bajoran Lightship, something that is debatable ever even worked. So Sisko decides to build this thing, and he and Jake go for a ride all the way to the Cardassian territory. It has some great bonding between the two, and the ship really does have a cool and unique design. It was nice to have a story that didn’t really have a big looming threat or villain…just a kinda shaky dangerous trip.
The B-Story involves Bashir getting snubbed by a former classmate, and it leads to some terrific scenes between O’Brien and Bashir. Their great friendship in this series really begins here. There are hints before, little things that lead to this moment…but this is really the moment where they become best friends. With booze.

Only drawback o this episode is that it introduces the recurring Dabo girl Leeta. She is kind of annoying, and this is the first hint of her and Bashir’s relationship, which will eventually go nowhere.

NEXT TIME: On Ferenginar