And so do we! As mentioned a few weeks ago, a two-partner snuck up on us forcing some last-minute rescheduling, and today is the result. So buckle up as the SSHB crew tackles three episodes at once!

First up: it's Odd Couples week on DS9 as Quark and Odo are stranded on a hostile world, while Jake and Nog try the roommate thing in "The Ascent". Next up, art + electricity = Sisko going full Jesus in "Rapture", but will his new clairvoyance prove deadly?! Finally, it feels like maybe jumped back to an earlier season as Kira seems to have forgotten some of her character growth in "The Darkness and The Light".

Also this week: Chekhov's dish and herbs, the return of Fizzbin, and Shakaar is gross.

[Timestamps: "Ascent": 02:38; "Rapture": "28:33"; "Darkness/Light": 53:31]

Just don't travel in "Trek", it never ends well. First up, Dax tries to get Worf to chill by going to Risa, but he instead throws in with a bunch of fun-hating fundie puritans in "Let He Who Is Without Sin...". After that, something goes wrong on the way back from a conference (what?! NEVER!) and we're left exploring Odo's darkest secret in "Things Past".

Also this week: how Worf is Hank Hill, Dukat's truest love, and US proxy-colonialism!

[Timestamps: "Without Sin": 00:43; "Things Past": 32:53]

Everything's varying levels of familiar this week on DS9. First up, it feels like "Power Play" but the wrong O'Brien has been possessed in "The Assignment". After that, DS9 goes all "Forrest Gump" and "Back to the Future II" into TOS to celebrate the 30th anniversary of "Trek" in the classic "Trials and Tribble-ations"!

Also this week: Bajoran MacGuffins, swinging shifts, and a LOT of TOS chat!

[Timestamps: "The Assignment": 00:59; "Trials and Tribble-ations": 22:26]

It's extremes of emotion this week on DS9! First up, everyone's looking to get with Klingons when Quark's ex Grilka shows up in "Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places"! After that, Jake sees war up close and finds fear his primary companion in "...Nor The Battle To the Strong".

Also this week: improved Dax, sassy solid Odo, and Quarktajino!

[Timestamps: "par'Mach": 00:42; "Nor The Battle": 34:22]

It's all Dominion all the time for the start of Season 5 on DS9! First up, having discovered Gowron is a Changeling agent in the previous finale, Starfleet Intelligence sends in a crack team of non-spy non-assassins to infiltrate a Klingon party and murder the Chancellor in "Apocalypse Rising"! After that, Sisko and his team witness a Jem'Hadar ship crash, and then enter a tense standoff with the retrieval team sent to reclaim it in "The Ship"!

Also this week: makeup stories, Klingon traditions, and giving O'Brien another sad.

[Timestamps: "Apocalypse Rising": 1:44; "The Ship": 34:47]

It's big losses all around for everyone's favorite DS9 ship this week. In "Body Parts", Quark preemptively sells his desiccated corpse after a terrible doctor's visit, but the buyer still wants to collect even when it is discovered the bartender is fine, and to refuse is to be banished from Ferengi society! After that, Odo is forced to face the judgement of his people as the only Changeling known to have harmed another in "Broken Link".

Also this week: missed opportunities, Garak the Gardener, and wrapping season four!

[Timestamps: "Body Parts": 01:32; "Broken Link": 35:33; S.4 wrap: 1:17:53]

We're borderline topical this week as, just in time for season two to premiere, we're taking a look at the first season of Disney+ juggernaut "The Mandalorian"! When an enigmatic bounty hunter finds a target too adorable to just hand over to creepy Imperial Werner Herzog, he finds himself on the run in search of solace and space bucks. Soon he is encountering old friends and foes, making new ones, and trying desperately to outrun the Easter Eggs. Oh, and of course, Baby Yoda is there.

Also this week: all the blurrg chat, so many comedians, and a TV that would make Millie Montag weak in the knees!

The candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long, which one could say applies to the Jem'Hadar that Sisko and company find themselves having to reluctantly team up with to prevent a splinter group from obtaining a powerful tool in "To the Death". But candles can burn others, and centuries ago other Jem'Hadar left a terrible disease on a once-great world that Bashir has vowed to destroy in "The Quickening".

Also this week: from "Aliens" to "Stargate", come to Quark's, and the inevitable "Lion King" joke.

[Timestamps: "To the Death": 01:04;"The Quickening": 33:25]

Relationships seem to be the real focal point this week on DS9. First up, Lwaxana is having marriage trouble and Jake has fallen in with a dangerous older woman in "The Muse"! After that, Sisko has to grapple with the fact that his girlfriend might be a traitor while Garak worries Ziyal might be out for blood in "For the Cause"!

Also this week: whispers of TOS, upsetting age gaps, and Chris & Caitlin did a thing!

[Timestamps: "The Muse": 02:22; "For the Cause": 30:50]

So right off the top, big CONTENT WARNING. An episode contains attempted suicide and we discuss it.

This week on DS9 everyone is having their psyches attacked. First up, time to put O'Brien thru the ringer again with the episode that has come to epitomize his suffering: "Hard Time"! After that, Jake has to deal with his mother being back from the dead, but not really because it's an alternate dimension her...but he's still going to get way too close way too fast and we know it can't end well in "Shattered Mirror".

Also this week: Jake in the morning, inevitable "Inception", and Supernintendo Kira!

[Timestamps: "Hard Time": 02:17; "Shattered Mirror": 45:03]