We start with more of the Quark and Odo team...
- Everyone's favorite Ferengi is creating trouble again in "Vortex". He's dealing with a Miradorn "raider", and Odo is his usual paranoid self, so he shape-shifts into a bar glass (how can he change his mass as well?) to spy on them. Bumpy-headed alien Croden (Cliff DeYoung) arrives and shoots one of the Miradorn. Croden mentions that Odo is a "changeling", and has seen others of his race in the Gamma Quadrant. Meanwhile, Sisko and Dax goes to his planet to resolve the legal issues, and they demand Croden is brought there for his "myriad" crimes. Croden continues to string Odo along about his race. Conveniently, Sisko orders Odo to return the prisoner to his planet. There's a whole "Silence of the Lambs" vibe during the trip. It turns out Croden was just trying to save his daughter, and he and Odo manage to save each other during a battle. In the end, Odo hands both Croden and his daughter off to a Vulcan ship. The "Changeling" subplot will become a major storyline over time.
- Our heroes are dragged across "Battle Lines". Kai Opaka--the Dalai Lama of Bajor (Camille Saviola)--shows up announced on the station, and Sisko agrees to take her on a trip through the wormhole. Sisko, Kira, and Bashir stupidly investigate a signal, get Opaka killed (?!), and end up trapped on a prison moon. After an attack, Opaka returns to life--she was somehow reincarnated! It turns out their jailers have figured out how to make people immortal via technobabble. It's the punishment for the inmates--eternal imprisonment and war against other factions on the moon. It's kind of like the TOS episode "Day of the Dover", except it went on for generations. Sisko gets the chief inmate (Jonathan Banks) to talk to the leader of the opposition by agreeing to get them off the planet. Opaka councils Kira about her martial nature, telling her to move beyond it. The peace talks do not go well.. Bashir figures out the technobabble reanimating them only works on the moon--if they leave, they die. This means Opaka can't leave either. It's a moot point--she decides to listen to the "call of the prophets" and stay there to help them move toward peace. Bashir offers to "save them" by reprogramming the technobabble so they can die, but Sisko stops him despite their pleas.
- O'Brien becomes a spiritual leader in "The Storyteller". He and Bashir are sent on a medical mission to a Bajoran village--Miles isn't happy about it. The village's high priest (Kay E. Kuter) is dying, and they need him to fight off a bizarre mythical creature. Isn't Bajor an advanced civilization? During the "battle" with what looks like an angry cloud, the elder collapses and gets O'Brien to take over the ceremony, telling him what to say. He then passes away--Miles is now his successor! Bashir enjoys the whole thing immensely until they figure out how much danger they're in. Turns out the elder's assistant was to be the real successor, and he has an artifact that controls the cloud--it concentrates the villager's thoughts, creating and then destroying the menace. It was used to unite the village. The apprentice has to step in save O'Brien in the end. Meanwhile, Sisko works with Bajoran factions to avoid a civil war (one of their leaders happens to be a 15 year old girl, played by Gina Phillips). Nog is entranced by her, but it seems she has eyes for Jake. They teach her to be a kid, and she decides Sisko can help her in the negotiations.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (and all the Trek series) is available on Netflix.