Move Along Home (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9), S1 E10) was recommended by nazzy (she/her), who said: I cannot believe nobody has asked for this one yet!

One of the earliest criticisms of DS9 was that it didn't "boldly go", and in its first two seasons in particular, there were a lot of episodes whose basic synopses read "Weird alien(s) come to the station, hijinks occur." And being a DS9 fan as always meant knowing that criticism is always just around the corner, which meant that for episodes like "Move Along Home", the standard response was an embarrassed shrug and a 'yeah...it hadn't found its feet yet. It got better!'

And "Move Along Home" is the ur-example of this type of story. Weird aliens come to DS9, and introduce Quark to a strange board game of chance that traps members of the senior staff in a bizarre game world??? And that's the episode?!

But then I read a review of "Move Along Home" that reframed the episode for me in a very meaningful way. "Move Along Home", it said, is basically a TOS episode. And that made so much sense! Is Commander Sisko having to play hopscotch and sing a children's song that different from the crew of the TOS Enterprise being forced to fight in "Plato's Stepchildren"? Or acting strangely to break the brains of the androids in "I, Mudd"? Suddenly, it made perfect sense, and "Move Along Home" is no longer embarrassing.

Move Along Home first aired on March 14, 1993, written by story by Michael Piller, teleplay by Frederick Rappaport, Lisa Rich and Jeanne Carrigan-Fauci, and directed by David Carson

Quark plays a board game with the Wadi, a newly encountered species from the Gamma Quadrant, and the lives of the crew seemingly depend on the outcome.

The Joy of Trek is hosted by Khaki & Kay, with editing & production by Chief Engineer Greg and music by Fox Amoore (Bandcamp | Bluesky)

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