New life forms and new civilizations? Check. O'Brien suffers a bit? Check. Needlessly mysterious aliens? Double-check. Strong, moral idea at its core?

...uh-oh.

There's a lot to be said for this week's aliens. Like, "Is there a planet full of filthy gym socks in this universe?" and "Can those aliens go and suffocate in its core?"

It's fun, but I feel like we stretch a bit to get the story beats we want and it's ultimately unsatisfying. Am I being too harsh? Should we just accept Sisko's decisions here as being reasonable, in-universe?

Nine Deeps of Space is a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine watchalong podcast. New episodes go up Wednesday evenings at 10 PM CST (except when it   doesn't). Episodes are hosted  on Anchor, but are available on most podcast platforms.