Star Trek: Deep Space Nine — 7x23 — Extreme Measures
Synopsis
Bashir gets inside the mind of Section 31's Sloan in an attempt to find a cure for the Founder's disease.
Filler rating: not filler
Numerous major long term plot threads are serviced here.
Remarkable scenes
- Julian and O'Brien telling Sisko of their plan for a cure.
- Bashir capturing Sloan.
- Sloan telling Bashir a garbled sequence for the cure.
- The scene of friendship and camaraderie after Bashir and O'Brien got shot in Sloan's mind.
- Sloan enticing Julian at the end.
- Bashir, regarding the bottle of the "good stuff": "This is older than I am!" O'Brien: "What? I'm drinking with a child!"
Review
Another illusions plot and the first bit of real filler in a while. The whole Section 31 attempting to commit genocide on the founders thing is the best use of Section 31 ever done though, and the plot of this episode, while a bit slow, is enticing. We get great character development for Bashir and O'Brien and the way Sloan met his death is just the kind of thing we've come to expect from Section 31. Bashir manages to cure Odo, but if it weren't for O'Brien, Bashir would have fallen for Sloan's trap and died with him. So in the end, it's O'Brien's friendship with Julian that saves his life and in a way this entire episode celebrates their friendship over the course of DS9's run. So ultimately, it's hard to rate and review this episode. It lacks the expected Dominion war plot, aside from the necessary curing of Odo, but as a substitute it offers something very touching.