Star Trek: Deep Space Nine — 2x13 — Armageddon Game

Aired 1994-01-30

SpaceOpera.com rating:5

Average reader rating:5.31

Synopsis

Bashir and O'Brien work to rid two alien races of deadly weapons, unaware that their hosts intend to sacrifice them as part of the peace process.

Filler rating: good filler

There's no essential plot or exposition in this episode that renders it unskippable, but it's a decent episode, even though it could have been better.

Remarkable scenes

O'Brien and Bashir discussing women and marriage.
Bashir offending O'Brien by mentioning his marital problems.
Dax describing reading Bashir's journals.
Quark's tribute to Bashir and O'Brien.
Keiko discovering the recording a fake.
Sisko faking out the aliens with the other runabout.
Keiko realizing that her coffee clue was nothing but good luck because O'Brien does indeed drink coffee in the afternoon.
Rules of Acquisition; 57. Good customers are as rare as latinum. Treasure them.

Review

This episode facilitates more bonding between Bashir and O'Brien, due to their being stuck on a desolate planet with O'Brien slowly dying. Unfortunately, the reason for their misfortune was terribly conceived. The plan to kill Bashir and O'Brien just because they possess knowledge of the harvesters was simply ridiculous. As Bashir and Sisko said, what's the damn point? Oh well, despite the annoying premise, the good moments between Bashir and O'Brien do well to brighten up the episode.

6 reader comments

A few comments --
One is just a gripe about a rather consistent habit in Trek to make all people of a certain race have the same hairstyle. The Romulans, for example, always have black hair (except Sela), and always have it in a short bob with bangs (sometimes with a peak in the bangs). Is this realistic? It's not always like this. Probably just a budget issue, and a desire to differentiate different aliens from each other.
The other is that I liked seeing Quark's generous side. Nice touch.
Overall I kind of liked this episode. I liked seeing further development between Bashir and O'Brien, and the twist at the end about the coffee made me laugh out loud.
Also, I liked seeing Keiko's reaction to the news of her husband's death. She was obviously distraught, but she didn't burst into tears uncontrollably. Maybe it's something to do with her Japanese heritage. Also, you could tell (great acting, Rosalind!) that she never quite believed it--call it intuition or whatever--you could see just a hint of doubt on her face when she receives the news. Anyway, another nice touch.
The whole thing of killing everyone involved with the harvesters was kind of dumb. Once the jig was up, and Sisko knew of the plot, the aliens didn't really take seriously that killing two starfleet officers was an act of war that would carry serious repercussions. They're just like, "no everyone involved has to die, blah blah blah," as if there were ever a chance that even if O'Brien and Bashir knew enough about the harvesters, they would misuse that information. Pretty audacious!
by DJB | 01/24/2009 at 10:28 pm

Another episode devoted to the unlikely pairing of Bashir and O'Brien. That is not such a bad thing though, as the pair have an obvious chemistry that works for both conflict and camraderie.
The plot is fairly basic and uninspiring with easy solutions all around. That and the fairly slow pace drag this episode down to below average.
by Bernard | 03/07/2011 at 9:14 pm

Sorry, guys, but this episode makes no sense.
We are told at the beginning that these "harvesters" are terrible, devastating weapons that must be wiped from the face of the galaxy. The current crop of aliens is literally willing to kill to rid the universe of this weapon.
Two issues, one minor and one huge:
First issue: Clearly, since O'Brien is infected with the harvesters, the last batch was not successfully destroyed. Some of it clearly remains. There are ways to deal with this, but it is never explained.
Second issue (and this is the biggie): O'Brien is actually infected with the harvesters. And what happens? Does he die a horrible lingering death? Not at all! Several days later, while seriously sick, he is still strong enough to stand. And then when he makes it back to the station, Bashir fixes him up just fine!
Given the fact that the Federation obviously possesses the technology to counter the harvesters, why destroy them at all? They are obsolete. Instead of destroying them, simply make the cure available!
And any putative grasp at the Prime Directive would be useless: The Federation is already interfering by assisting in the destruction process. Why stop at half measures? Simply make the weapon irrelevant.
This creates a logical,issue big enough to drive a truck through.
by Jeff Browning | 10/19/2011 at 5:04 pm

I was mostly annoyed by how amazingly easy it was to cure O'Brien after he was infected by the harvesters. The whole episode was about how dangerous these things are, how they must be destroyed, how everyone who knows about them must be killed -- and then when O'Brien gets sick, no worries! It's no problem whatsoever to find a cure -- not even really a plot point. We'll fix him right up!
Kind of ruins the premise of the episode.
by Abigail Chappell | 09/15/2019 at 9:51 pm

I had no issue with the idea that the aliens wanted to kill everyone who knew anything about the harvesters, I thought it was a clever surprise. Exploring the idea of aliens who think very differently from humans is classic Star Trek. But the handling of the harvesters is terrible, I agree with previous commenters that it makes little sense for the aliens to launch their plot before the final harvesters are destroyed, and the main point of the episode is nerfed by making the harvesters be so easily cured.
by Christopher Alexander | 07/19/2020 at 4:36 am

I just logged in to review this episode after watching it, only to find that I received it in 2015 and said the same thing, haha. I stand by my previous review. The fact that they could so easily cure O'Brien after being infected by these oh-so-deadly harvesters made the entire episode pointless. Why would you need to make such a big deal about destroying a biological weapon (and everyone know who knows about it) that leads to an easily curable disease??
by Abigail Chappell | 06/11/2021 at 7:02 pm