What a lovely homage;-)

Hey, maybe after Pierce Brosnan steps down, they could hire Alexander Siddig....

I'd *love* to see Sid as Bond, with Malcolm MacDowell as the villan...

Then, for the second Sid as Bond movie, Andy Robinson as the villan... :0)

Mark

As a a big fan of James Bond I must agree. This was a great episode. Alexander Siddig's accent and the music made it seem just like a Bond film.

I loved the way they spoofed 1960's spy movies.. (I wonder if Alexander Siddig can sing like Dean Martin?)

The title is a play on the Our Man Flint movies.

Usually when someone plays a holoprogram they have to use the name of the main character, but here Julian used his own name? Does this mean that Picard didn't have to call himself Dixon Hill, or Data have to call himself Sherlock Holmes, if they chose to use their own names? ("Look, it's the world's greatest consulting detective, Data Soong, and his friend, Dr. Geordi La Forge.")

I like the name Mona Luvsitt, its reminiscent of Luvey Cravesit of, at least, two of the Matt Helm films.

O'Brien says that there is a problem with the warp core and it won't shut off, then it is said that there has been sabotage. Hmmm, didn't the same thing happen in Little Green Men? Were the writers just lazy and decided to reuse the same problem, or does The True Way use the same saboteur as Quark's cousin Gaila? (I believe he has an ad in the 24th century Yellow Pages.)

Just before the runabout explodes, does Worf say, "Magnatic Interlocks have failed"?

They need to erase memory to save the patterns, but the computer keeps the holosuite running? Plus it selectively chooses certain characters' patterns to erase and replace with the crew's patterns. Didn't Quark in Meridian take Kira's physical pattern out of the computer memory to use in his holosuite program? If the crew's physical patterns are already in computer memory, why not erase and replace them?

Lights all over the station dim, but there is no apparent change on the holosuite until Major Kira shows up with a bad Russian accent. Shouldn't there have been, at least, a visual flicker in the Holosuite.

If the holosuite program has Colonel Anastasia Komananov asleep on Bashir's bed, then why didn't Mona tell Bashir that she was there? Shouldn't the valet for a spy know if someone was in the bed of her boss?

Bashir thinks that if Dax dies then the computer will erase her pattern, but when Mona dies her body (pattern) just lies on the floor.
Bashir is wrong about the computer erasing the patterns anyway since Vic gets Kira's physical pattern from this program in His Way.

How do these holosuite programs work anyway? I would assume that they are like some kind of CD Rom, and the main program can't be changed, just the saved game that you are playing. However, in His Way Vic took Kira's pattern from this game. So is this game stored on the station's computer, or one of those little rods?

Boy, those holoprogram villains are written pretty dumb. They have guns pointed at the good guys, then when Anastasia's earring explodes, instead of shooting, they try to punch the good guys.

When the Holosuite safeties are on, would the Holosuite still produce drugs which would render someone unconscious?

I wonder if, in the holosuite, Garak & Bashir hear the same musical score that we the audience hear?
Garak: The music has changed.
Bashir: Yes. That means trouble is approaching.
(I think that would be so cool. ;-)

Dr. Honey Bare was cutting it pretty close by checking on the laser and leaving with ten seconds to go.

Dr. Bashir and Garak escape from the cave, which should be filling up with molten lava, by running into a fairly level tunnel, then they stop and talk for a long time. If the cave is filling with lava, then why isn't it licking around their ankles?

Why are they worried about calling for the exit? Earlier Julian tried to restore Anastasia's appearance and failed, then he tried to "freeze program" and failed. If calling for the exit interfered with the program, wouldn't that command fail too?

For a race whose skin tends toward pale white, Garak's blood seemed awfully red.

When Dr. Noah's computer showed the Earth flooding, shouldn't the mountain ranges of the world be the last places flooded?
Dr. Noah's refuge was at 25,000 feet. K2, the second highest peak in the world, rises to 28,238 feet. Communism Peak in Tajikistan is 24,590 feet. Aconcagua, Argentina is 22,831 feet. Mt. McKinley in Alaska is 20,320 feet and Logan in Canada is 19,524 feet. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa, is 19,340 feet. I didn't get the episode on tape, but that map probably doesn't conform to the actual topography of the world.

How did Odo regain computer control so easily? All the memory was wiped. Is there some kind of automatic reload sequence?

On page 331 of the DS9 Guide, Phil comments that Rom has somehow managed to beam physical patterns off a hologrid, something which the Enterprise crew failed to do in Ship In A Bottle. I believe in Ship In A Bottle, it was holodeck created matter which could not be beamed off and reconstructed, since it had no physical pattern to begin with. Whereas in this episode, the physical patterns of the crew were stored in the holosuite until they could be retrieved.

Palandine noted Garak's leer at a Bajoran woman in "Broken Link" under that topic, but my personal favorite of Garak's leers at women was directed at Mona Lovesitt in this episode -- he looks *right* down her shirt. Not even an *attempt* at subtlety. He looks more like he's assessing the constuction of her underclothes than her body -- you can practically see him thinking, "What is that, duct tape?"

For my favorite Garak leer at a man, see my comments on "Past Prologue". :0)

• Why were Sisko & company returning from a conference in a Runabout anyway? If the story didn't require a shuttle's explosion to advance the plot, I'd wager they'd've taken the Defiant and you can't blow up the Defiant in a frivolous situation like this.
• I can understand one to two senior officers, but there were five senior officers in attendance of the conference but why did these four officers other than Sisko: Worf, Dax, Kira and even O'Brien have to tag along? I know the Defiant is the safeguard vehicle that protects DS9 from surprise threats like the Dominion, but they never let that reason stop them before to travel to non-combat missions.
• Why didn't Eddington figure to transfer their patterns to the Defiant in the first place (beside there being no story)? The Defiant sustained no harm from the feedback overload.
• KAM: Dr. Honey Bare was cutting it pretty close by checking on the laser and leaving with ten seconds to go.
Coming out of a commercial break, the next shot of the countdown time began at t-minus 3:45. From there I started my countdown timer and Dr. Bare entered the cave at approx. 2:52.
• The next close-up of the timer showed Garak and Bashir has 8 seconds remaining while according to my timer, they still had 39 seconds remaining. But your point is valid, KAM. Whether it 2 minutes or 8 seconds, she was cutting it close. She didn't plan on Bashir distracting her, but this contingency was probably incorporated into the program even under normal interactive use.
• I hope it was easier to Dr. Noah's men to deliver Garak and Bashir to the laser cavern than it was for them to esacpe. Here they are zigzagging sometimes on all-fours up unlevel paths. Is this how Dr. Bare left the laser cavern? Climbing?
• Well not only did no lava fill the caverns and follow Garak and Bashir up their escape route, but the concussive tremors were all-too brief.

I'm sorry KAM.. I thought I was correcting you for implying she ENTERED the cavern with ten seconds to go when you clearly said she was LEAVING with that time left. I stand corrected.

KAM: Dr. Honey Bare was cutting it pretty close by checking on the laser and leaving with ten seconds to go.

That's the whole point, the program is designed to be like James Bond movies, it's programed to cut it close like that.

In fact, a number of nits from this episode can be explained away because the holosuite was behaving like one of those classic spy movies. So, it's not really a nit that the goons didn't try to shoot Bashir because that kind of stuff happens in those movies so that the hero can survive.

GREAT LINE: "Bashir...Julian..Bashir" Bashir in his "Bond-mode"

I must add that the musicians added some Bond-type music for fun.

Garak barges in on Julian’s programme and says that until then nobody knew what the programme was about. So how did he arrive wearing a tux? Did the holosuite dress him according to the programme, i.e. were the clothes holographically projected on top of whatever he was wearing when he walked in? Or did he sneak in, take a look around and then nip out and replicate himself a tux before coming back in?

Russian Kira whispers “Earrings” to Julian just before they kiss but afterwards Julian says that he bought the earrings for her and he seems to imply that he knew what they were capable of. So why did ‘Kira’ need to remind him?

Just a guess, but if Garak saw Bashir wearing a tux before going into the holosuite he might assume that he should wear a tux too.

Actually while we've seen people go in & out of holosuites wearing their play clothes wouldn't some kind of adjoining changing room be more appropriate?
(Guy in a duck suit walks through the station)
Kira: What the...?
Dax: Worf rented a Disney holoprogram.

Just imagine someone doing a michael jackson or Modonna music video.

Russian Kira whispers “Earrings” to Julian just before they kiss but afterwards Julian says that he bought the earrings for her and he seems to imply that he knew what they were capable of. So why did ‘Kira’ need to remind him?

Maybe just to draw his attention to the fact that she *was* wearing them...

Remember, this is a holodeck program created to let people pretend to be a fantastic spy. Like many games, it probably prompts the user and gives little hints.

Good point.

I know it's a difficult area to discuss, but does anyone else think that O'Brien should be missing an eye after this ep? Falcon was...

At the end of the episode, Garak asks Bashir if they can have dinner at Bashir's "Office in Hong Kong". It's a nice idea, but, "Hong Kong" is now under 1,000 feet of water (or more) because Bashir "destroyed the world" by using Noah's lasers to create the earthquakes.

I've heard of having sea food...but having it under the sea is a bit much

Life here is better
Down where it's wetter
Under the Sea!

I'm sure the program has a reset button. DS9 centranly does.

ANOTHER GREAT LINE

"What could possibly go wrong?" Garak to Bashir.


(My reaction? HA! Obviously Garak isn't familiar with Holodeck "hiccups")

How would Garak be familiar with holodeck "Hiccups"? He never set foot on the Enterprise, let alone spent any time in a holodeck (they have holosuites on DS9).

It's been some time since I've seen this episode, can you refresh my memory on what a holodeck hiccup is exactly?

Crusher: How would Garak be familiar with holodeck "Hiccups"? He never set foot on the Enterprise, let alone spent any time in a holodeck (they have holosuites on DS9).
Luigi Novi: What's the difference? The only apparent difference is the name, which seems to exist solely because the word "deck" is used to denote that one is a location on a ship, and "suite" is is located in private business establishment. If the technology of holodecks are is prone to such malfunctions, is it such a stretch to conclude that suites would be too?

Yea but how many times did we see a real malfunction of the Holosuites on DS9 before this (or after for that mattter)? This episode was not a malfunction.

And my point in the above post is if there wern't any malfuctions in the Holosuites on DS9 before this, how would Garak be familar with them as John A Lang seems to think Garak should be.

there was that malfunction that gave sisko the power to weird on the tear...

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I think he's refeering to that time the console shorted out and zapped him as he was trying to save a file. That's the suites version of saying bad command or file name.

I just watched this episode on Netflix and noticed a lot of the music was the DS9 theme done in a Bond-esque style. Very nice touch!

MGM, the studio that produces the Bond movies, was less than pleased with this episode, and let the DS9 producers know. More on that here.