The Niners

Story: Take Me Out to the Holosuite
Written By: Ronald D. Moore
Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Year: 1998

I absolutely love “Take Me Out to the Holosuite”. I think of it as DS9’s own “Trouble with Tribbles”. Granted DS9 did have a tribble episode, but that was terrific for nostalgia reasons and its own comedy…this one is hilarious and has more of DS9 spirit, whereas “Trials and Tribble-ations” is a spirit of TOS. So fo classic comedy episodes, DS9’s pinnacle is right here.
Captain Solok, a Vulcan captain of an all Vulcan ship, comes to the station for repairs, and challenges Sisko to a game of Baseball…that he has been training his crew in. solok is an academy rival of Sisko’s…and he jumps at the chance to win this game, his game, in order to finally best the Vulcan.

It is a Bad News Bears situation…the crew of DS9 barely know the game, have only seen it once or twice with Sisko in the holosuite, but now they are expected to learn the game in two weeks in order to defeat a team of Vulcans, who are clearly stronger and faster. It is hilarious seeing these aliens attempt to learn the game, even humans haven’t played in centuries so Bashir and O’Brien are equally puzzled. The episode has some of the best lines of the series; Worf’s taunting of “Death to the opposition”, Bashir exclaiming that Ezri’s trick catch was a “Fancy Dan”, Odo kicking Sisko out of the game “read the rules but read ‘em in the stands your OUTTA HERE!” and the whole crew celebrating when they get a point in the 9th inning…1 point vs. 10 and they carry Rom off the field!

It is a classic episode, and a nice divergence from the war…even if the war hasn’t been explored too much in this season so far.

NEXT TIME: Return of the Mutants