An Empires Lullaby

Detective Maza from Gargoyles guest stars on Deep Space 9 and Sisko is smitten. Briar tries not to go on tangents about dopamine and epigenetics. Matt talks about the cultural origin of terraforming.   Visit Mixolydian Gray on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-561680672

CW: policing, the fascist Cardassian occupation of Bajor When Quark is shot an nearly killed, Odo investigates his attempted murder and is reminded of a murder from five years ago. Matt and Briar talk about Odo's past, his responsibility, and his position of authority within an occupation. Briar gushes about Nana Visitor again. Visit Mixolydian Gray on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-561680672

In this episode, Grand Nagus Zek returns and sends Quark and a waiter at Quark's bar on a quest filled with capitalism, love, and surprise twists! Dax is a good LGBT ally. Quark isn't straight. The straights aren't alright. Briar muses about the opposing worldviews of dismantling capitalism and adding women CEOs.

CW: disability, accommodations, ableist frameworks Ensign Melora arrives on DS9 and the senior officers are bad at handling the accommodations she needs. Matt and Briar use life experience to talk about what Starfleet does wrong, what they do right, and how to do it better.

CW: Surgery, invasive medical procedures In the midst of a space storm, someone comes to steal Dax away from Jadzia. Tim Russ and John Glover guest star. Matt points out the contemporary allegory to white male entitlement. Briar points out how Jadzia's character is mistreated.

Starfleet tries to hold the fort on DS9 while Kira and Dax smuggle key evidence to the Bajoran prov. government. Briar talks about palukoo and refutes Sisko's approach to Li Nalas. Matt. Matt gushes about relationships, and uncovers something shocking about the moon in this episode. Derek Holley joins the team and adds music - as well as final polishing touch.

CW for The Circle: Torture We welcome our first guest, Will Nguyen (@BoomerNiner on Twitter) as we watch The Circle. Will brings a specifically Marxist framework to our leftist podcast, and -among other things - explains how The Circle fails as a class revolution for Bajorans. Briar keeps gushing about Nana Visitor. Matt is just glad Briar hasn't unfriended him over the podcast.

CW: concentration camps, forced labor, genocide An Empire's Lullaby is back to rewatch season 2 of "Deep Space 9"! This season premiere introduces the beginnings of a Bajoran civil war. What might be the first Star Trek 3-parter on syndicated television kicks off with Major Kira rescuing a Bajoran war hero named Li Nalas from a Cardassian labor camp, as a terrorist group called The Circle begin causing havok on Bajor and DS9. Briar begins to realize that the Bajoran culture may be theocratic rather than only theistic and Matt deconstructs the national myth.

It's our Season 1 retrospective and Q&A episode! Matt and Briar answer a handful of questions submitted by people. Matt reveals a secret project to be completed, and hoarse Briar is slightly hoarse, of course. Please enjoy this bonus episode, we'll be back for Season 2 in a week (or two).

In the finale of DS9 Season 1, a Bajoran spiritual leader with lofty political aspirations arrives to shake things up on the station. Matt and Briar compare the issues Vedek Winn brings up to real-world conflicts between faith and secularism to point out what works, and what could have used a little extra time in the writing room. Thanks for listening this far! Before we start on our season 2, we have our Q&A/Retrospective to do. Listeners have a last-minute chance to send us questions and comments through our email and social media.

This episode deals with war crimes, particularly concentration camps, forced labor, and genocide, as well as questions of structural complicity. Our discussion explores these topics further, working from both the episode’s fictional depiction and the real-world parallels to the Holocaust.  We will not be going into the graphic details of any genocides, real or in the show, however, Deep Space 9 has scenes where characters go into graphic detail about the conditions in the Gallitep labor camp.For those of you unfamiliar with this practice, we include content/trigger warnings in our show in order to increase accessibility. These warnings let our listeners who may have trauma and triggers decide whether or not they want to engage with the content, and if they do decide to engage, these warnings let them take whatever preparations they need to in order to engage safely.A special thanks to Briar's friends: kerys and Tali for helping us write out the content warning. It would not have been nearly as well-written without your assistance.

In episode 17, the crew members start to adopt caricature-ish personalities. Rene Auberjonois carries the episode, but Matt and Briar carry on with their nitpicking. With only two more episodes left in season 1, our Q&A is approaching fast! Please send us questions, comments, and the like!

Deep Space 9 plays host to a group of illustrious ambassadors - including TNG alumna: Lwaxana Troi, who has her sights set on Odo. Complicating the diplomacy, an unidentified probe appears from the other side of the wormhole, and downloading its computer causes havoc with DS9's systems! Briar and Matt namedrop Twitter follower @MCSerf to talk about a very good point he made a couple months back. Briar rants that Lwaxana can't keep her character development, but Majel is praised for her voice acting as the computer interface.

Everyone's imaginations are becoming real. Rumpelstiltzkin! A demure Jadzia Dax obsessed with loving Dr. Bashir! (not to be confused with the real one) A baseball player in a onsie uniform: Buck Bokai! Matt and Briar talk about shared reality and Simulacra and muse about trained emus.

When Kira is forced to remove a farmer from a Bajoran moon, she finds her loyalties divided. And when Jake and Nog start a futuristic version of "The Golden Bird" the tone of the show is also divided. Matt teaches Briar about the predominant culture of Bajor. Briar just wants more ecologically-sustainable energy extraction.

Jake and Nog help a state leader act her age, and even give her some of the help she needs to negotiate with the leader of a rival faction. And when Dr. Bashir fails to save an ailing old man on Bajor from death, O'Brien is roped into fulfilling his role in the village. But who's that staring literal daggers into his back? Briar and Matt talk about Good Teens (TM), tulpas and Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan, and lament the fact that certain aspects of this show were left unexplored.

It's a Bottle Prison Episode! On the Kai's insistence, Sisko makes the questionable call to take her into the gamma quadrant. Matt and Briar discuss the role of prophecy in Bajoran Society, and the crisis of faith Kira finds herself in. We're both feeling a little under the weather this episode, but luckily, we'll be better in no time. Hope you all wash your hands and stay safe out there!

In "The Vortex," Odo finds out just a little bit more about his origins from a scruffy stranger. Sisko fails at diplomatic relations with an isolationist people. And Matt and Briar kinda just aren't feeling it. Also: Is the twinned Miradorn phenomenon cultural or telepathic? Why are Faberge eggs so highly valued in space? Is there an ethical dilemma in using a single-cell colony of mimetic organisms as a key? We can't answer these questions canonically, but we're starting to gather up questions for our Season 1 retrospective and Q&A episode! Send questions and comments to: empireslullaby@gmail.com

It's episode 10! And half of it is all about dads, dads, dads~! In "The Nagus," Quark becomes Grand Nagus and navigates political intrigue and attempted assassination. Commander Sisko shares fatherly talks with other dads on the station, and Jake gets up to secrecy! Also: Is there more than just a surface-level connection between Maihar'du and Homn? Just how good is Sisko's aubergine stew? We can't answer these questions canonically, but we're starting to gather up questions for our Season 1 retrospective and Q-and-A episode! Send questions, comments (and any fanfiction about Dax living and thinking without a host) to: empireslullaby@gmail.com

In what might be Briar's most controversial favorite episode: "Move Along Home", DS9 is visited by the mysterious game playing Wadi. Quark displays surprising empathy. The senior officers are forced to act like children. We name-drop jammerreviews. Odo blows on Quark's dice for luck. And Briar issues a challenge.

"The Passenger" takes Matt and Briar on a whirlwind ride of paranoia and sci-fi possession - as long as they don't think too hard about it. Two individual stand-ins for the Federation get humbled, and Briar gloats. Once again, Matt dips into what makes technobabble work.  Commander, how do I hegemony!?

Episode 7 Dax takes an existential look at the nature of Jadzia Dax's personhood. Briar is beginning to wonder if Starfleet has any kind of Human Resources department or sexual harassment policies. Matt talks about how to debate. Bajoran gavels are cool, and we are *VERY PROFESSIONAL* this episode.

In DS9 episode "Q-less"; Matt learns what Marvel movies feel like to non-comic book fans. Q, the inter-dimensional super-being, returns to the series along with Vash, and a host of other call backs to The Next Generation. Briar is unimpressed, and argues that Q a B-tier trickster god. Neither Q nor Sisko are taught humility, though Q might have learned to respect Commander Sisko. Also, The Ferengi are given room to breathe, and be fleshed out characters rather then one note villains. Finally the effects of Gravitons is questioned.

O'Brien makes a friend from the other side of the wormhole and goes on an adventure. Briar accidentally calls O'Brien "Brian." Briar and Matt muse on shield polarity and on the scope of the Prime Directive. They do not come to a solid conclusion. The moral of this DS9 episode is that fox hunting is bad.

In DS9 episode "Babel;" O'Brien is run ragged. And thanks to a Cardassian device, a deadly virus sweeps the station that causes people to babble. An investigation into the pathogen reveals a twist: the sabotage was Bajoran in origin! Major Kira saves the day with petty-ness. Also, Commander Sisko standees.

Matt and Briar discuss Major Kira's skills of manipulation and the relationship between Dr. Bashir and Garak. Matt muses about Bajor's potential real-world parallels again. Briar is disappointed in Odo's inconsistent ability to replicate fine details and the fact that she's exhausted and sick in this episode really doesn't help soften the blow. Also, Runabouts.

Matt and Briar discuss "A Man Alone." Keiko O'Brien's qualifications are questioned. A throwaway joke by Briar becomes a prophecy for the ending of the Star Trek episode. And is Dr. Bashir's thirst out of hand?   Rest in Peace, Rene Auberjonois.

Cardassians and ethereal Prophets. Linear time? Matt and Briar talk about the ending of "Emissary," and Briar is disappointed.

Matt and Briar introduce themselves and remark on the opening of Deep Space 9 and its main characters. (transcript coming soon)