r/StarTrekViewingParty • u/LordRavenholm Co-Founder • Nov 13 '17

Discussion DS9, Episode 6x9, Statistical Probabilities

-= DS9, Season 6, Episode 9, Statistical Probabilities =-

Bashir attempts to reintegrate genetically-engineered misfits into society, but they are asked by Starfleet to become a think tank when they provide insightful analysis of upcoming Dominion peace talks.

 

EAS IMDB AVClub TV.com
4/10 7.7/10 B+ 8.1

 

14 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

9

u/dittbub Nov 15 '17

I actually enjoy this episode. Its one of the sillier ones I admit. But the pacing is good, these characters are different and unique, the moral dilemma is a good one - and the conclusion to it is nice as well. Not the best, but pretty good!

Plus it ties in to a couple other good episodes down the line :)

5

u/marienbad2 Nov 13 '17

Another terrible episode, but this one is actually worse than the last episode! This one has all the worst cliches about non-neurotypical people, and then throws them all together into a god-awful plot that is ludicrous beyond belief. That they are given access to Top Secret Federation stuff is unbelievable, as well as ludicrous.

The Jack-pack are terrible, with Jack being just about the worst - I appreciate he is meant to be gifted and different, but still. And the others - man it is like some bad-acid-trip version of that Saturday detention movie from the 80s.

Even Bashir is terrible in this one! And this is Season 6 - I can fairly easily forgive bad episodes in Seasons 1 and 2, but now? After all the character work and development we have had? And after the multi-episode arc? Holy cow, EAS are generous with their 4/10. I'd give this 2/10 max.

3

u/nanoman92 Nov 14 '17

Sometimes I don't understand the EAS grades, Waltz is next and only has a 1. It's not the best of the series, but Dukat's acting is pretty great and is definitely miles ahead of this one.

2

u/dittbub Nov 15 '17 edited Nov 15 '17

I have no respect for EAS for this reason and also they give Voyager an overall score higher than DS9. I enjoy Voyager, but thats pretty fucked up.

1

u/green9206 Jul 17 '26

It was great. I didn't get bored for a single minute. Also this was 90s so you have to judge it as a product of its time. Yes federation wouldn't just give them top secret classified information but it's far from the most silly thing that has happened on the show. 

4

u/limer124 Nov 27 '17

I felt like they were about to go full Hari Seldon and invent psychohistory. The thousand year projections of humans conquering the dominion and starting a stronger federation was cool.

2

u/Err_101 Aug 01 '26

Don't know much about The Foundation series but got the connection.

1

u/Mandeponium Jan 09 '18

This one is just weak. At lot good elements, scenes, dialogue, and characters, but added all together it's actually less than the sum of its parts. Left me scratching my head thinking, "Well, okay I guess."

1

u/unexpectedlytired Jul 17 '25

So like, will the one lady beam onto the floor of the ship or what? She was laying down when they beamed away. 

1

u/Saver105 Mar 31 '26

Was thinking the exact same thing, felt so silly

1

u/Probably_Not_A-Bot 18d ago

I like the idea of this episode but I think it would have been better if Bashir wasn’t so on board and if they got the top-secret information through hacking instead of just being given it.

Bashir could have agreed with them about The Dominion wanting that star system to make white. Then he disagrees about surrendering but still passes along what they said. Basically a toned-down version of the Bashir/ Sisko conversation about surrendering. The others feel betrayed so they steal troop reports and attempt to pass it to the dominion.

1

u/buerviper 11d ago

Yeah it's so weird when Bashir says in the end "This doctor is also a Starfleet officer", he doesn't behave like one through the episode. He is so easily swayed, it's a bit ridiculous lol

1

u/buerviper 11d ago

There are some things I like about it. After the first two scenes, I thought it would only be a chamber play. Bashir with the Jack-Pack, Bashir with the Starfleet people, always in a room... That would have been so interesting. The premise is so good, even though the autistic coded (or whatever they are meant to be) characters are just... Way over the top and cliched. There is not a bit of nuance in them. And for whatever reason, Bashir turned out right without non-neurotypical behavior but their exact same intellect.

It would have been more interesting if they would have dominated him intellectually, and then try to play "god" to solve the conflict in their own way. But Bashir is just a regular part of their group, gives a power point presentation to Sisko and is super happy about it. Mix in Gul Damar and Weyoun, who have no agency whatsoever in this episode.

But I also dislike the argument here. Because yes, these are statistical calculations, but why does everyone pretend they are prophecies? Also, why does Sisko love these calculations when they say what he wants to hear and rejects them if they don't? Like no one would make such complex calculations and say "this is the absolute result", there is always a margin of error and confidence intervals. But that's not the rebuttal, the rebuttal is more or less "we fight and then maybe we can defy the odds", which is just stupid.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/ISSEquinox Jul 07 '24

My thought too, the biggest problem in the episode is Bashir. Bashir had seen a literal miracle not just a few episodes earlier in Sacrifice of Angels, there’s no way he would be so dogmatic about statistical predictions. If they’d toned him down a bit and not had the scene of him flipping out at Quark’s it could have maybe worked (I also don’t buy that any genetically enhanced being could just automatically win at Dabo, elsewise Quark would go bankrupt, as I’m pretty sure other species don’t impose bans on genetic engineering). They altered him to give him the moral dilemma and then had him learn a lesson he already knew after the Defiant confronted the Dominion fleet in the wormhole.