User Reviews

I am glad that someone else got the Donnie Brasco reference in the story. The rather facile comments about "why O'Brien?" misses the point that most viewers would not be too interested in a story based around some Kevin from plant management on Deep Space "choose your own number"! We want to see our heroes push the envelope. O'Brien is a character who has always been a bit more questioning of things, whilst still as his foundation accepting the Federation as the only option. He is one of the nuts and bolts that make the machine work, hence engineer; a human engineer. So, here he is and we want to see how he would cope. He copes by showing his natural affinity to see the best in people and he sees the best in such a flawed character as, Bilby. Just like Donnie Brasco, who was also based on real situations, he cannot stop caring for the one he ultimately has to turn in. But, both he and Bilby have their role to play, and as the episode title suggests both O'Brien and Bilby have their own code of honour to live by. All the actors involved did a fine job, but of course the leads, Meany and Tate shine through. The short episode format means things have to push along, but altogether a fine story told.

It's an interesting episode. The mind ponders if working for a clandestine organization always results in the agents lying to the marks and then being lied to by the handlers.

It hindsight this episode seems to be setting up section 31 for greater prominence in future episodes and shines a bit of a spotlight on the murky ethics and compromises made in such organizations.

I could buy into starfleet using O'Brien as a replacement agent in the field. The agency had been compromised and O'Brien has battlefield experience, starfleet training, and is a capable engineer. That all checks out for me ---- and well, and it's a tv show.

I just love this episode because it is obviously a big quote to the movie Donnie Brasco. And I love this movie. It's a nice episode and outstanding from the normal lore with the Dominion. However, even the Dominion becomes a small part of this story. And I also like to see O'Brien as the main character.

Miles Edward O'Brien gets tapped by Starfleet Security to find out how The Orion Syndicate is finding and killing Starfleet's undercover operatives.

There is no explanation of how O'Brien is on this Planet, a whole planet which looks like Turk Street in San Francisco. The Bar O'Brien is in is so much like several places I used to sit down in to have tankards of various ales on Geary Street.

While three crooks try to get a free meal out of a 24th century ATM machine, O'Brien "Spikes" one of the crooks, "Krole" (Carlos Carrasco, who was also in "House of Quark") who has a computer interface built in to his brain, making electric toast out of his expensive Lo-Jack.

And so Miles is slowly accepted into Bilby's band of outlaws. Bilby (Nick Tate) is not your regular crook: He is not an evil man, he is a lot like O'Brien: A family man, and cares for his family, and his cat, Chester.

The reversal here, is that Bilby is shown to be a man of high standards and morals, of a sort: But O'Brien's Federation Handler, he is a real piece of work - Right out of the Bourne stories, a real scumbag.

"A simple investigation" gets more complicated when Bilby "Witnesses" for O'Brien in front of a man named Raimus (Joseph Culp): Raimus is a true representation of "Gangster."

Bilby has gotten hold of three Klingon Disruptors, which were broken, no problem for O'Brien to fix. But what in blazes does Bilby's boss Raimus need with these things? The Federation Handler "Chadwick" (Michael Harney) keeps O'Brien on the job, to find out, even though O'Brien has already done his part of the bargain.

But it is not so Simple for O'Brien, who has taken a liking to Bilby and wants to help him. He gets Chadwick to loosely promise that Bilby will be arrested and put in a "safe prison." But Chadwick is just yanking O'Brien's chain by this time.

This is one of the stories, where you want to root for the Bad Guys to be able to get away: Until Raimus brings a visitor to Bilby: A Vorta named Gelnon (Leland Crooke)- And the creep wants to assassinate the Klingon Governor of the planet, and make it look like Gowron did it, so that maybe The Klingon Empire will pounce on The Federation like a pack of Targ - Or Ferengi.

John Davis Chandler in one of his last Television roles is Flith, Bilby's other henchman. But he has done some "private business" behind Bilby's back and had not paid the skim to Bilby. The Vorta had found out about this somehow, and has Raimus assemble his men at The Bar: When The Vorta points out O'Brien, Flith speaks up and is shot by the Bartender in the back, so it's a close call: For Bilby too, as Bilby had never witnessed for Flith.

Chadwick sets a Trap for Bilby, where The Klingons will most surely kill him. Miles can't have that, so he tries to get Liam Bilby to abort the assassination and come with him.

The True Friendship that was developing between O'Brien and Bilby, is what makes this a great episode: O'Brien is always a man who is Straight-Forward: and like James Cagney, will look you in the eye and tell you the Truth. And so he hates this whole assignment. So he tells Bilby everything, but there is nothing that can be done except for Bilby to do his Job so that Raimus will never know that he knew O'Brien was a spy. He gives Chester, and his family by implication, to O'Briens care.

As "out of place" this episode is, as inexplicable as O'Brien's presence on that Planet is, none of that needs to be explained. We simply do not need to know about any of that, it is a situation that O'Brien has found himself in, and the limits of his own personal Honor are tested to the extreme. And it is one of Colm Meany's finest moments, especially the interaction between Colm and Nick Tate, two master Character Actors.

I loved everything about this episode, it was a highly welcome change from the Dominion War. The Vorta "Gelnon" was previously seen in the episode "One Little Ship"

This episode opens in a disreputable looking bar with a few disreputable looking characters discussing business; quietly watching them is Chief Miles O'Brien. One of the men tries to hack in to a computer terminal but the Chief causes it to 'spike' giving him a nasty shock and fuses his equipment… it is lucky Miles is there to help. As he leaves he meets another man and we learn he is involved in an undercover investigation into the Orion Syndicate. Back on DS9 the chief is being missed as only he can keep the station running smoothly. It looks as if the Chief's work is good enough and Bilby trusts him; soon he is being asked to fix faulty Klingon disruptors. Bilby uses one of them to kill the man who sold them to him. Soon the Chief is accompanying Bilby to see his boss Raimus, who is accompanied by a Vorta and a Jem'Hadar; the Orion Syndicate are working for the Dominion. That isn't the Chief's only problem; Bilby has told him that the Syndicate have a member of Star Fleet in their pocket who has given them the names of previous agents. By the time the Chief discovers what the Dominion want Bilby to do he has grown close to him and warns him that the Klingon's are ready for his assassination attempt, by telling Bilby who he is there is a chance Miles will be killed.

I rather enjoyed this episode, it was very different to most episodes, and it felt more like a crime story than science fiction. Colm Meany was good as always as the Chief and Nick Tate was good as Bilby, it was interesting to see him getting closer to Bilby even though he was working to get him arrested. The final scene between the two where the Chief tells him who he really is was very touching, especially when he still went on with the attack even though he knew he would be killed.

I loved this episode. Is it the best one? No. But I do believe it is one of the top few episodes in DS9.

I found the acting to be great, and although there are a few clichés in there (family is the most important thing etc.) overall this episode had an emotional impact on me.

So very sad. <3

God bless those who have been shunted between a rock and a hard place that they may find space and peace.

Ok, this isn't the best episode of DS9 by any stretch, the story kind of plods along. It feels almost like another "make O'Brien crazy" episode. But, it does raise an interesting question about duty and being human. I really felt for O'Brien at the end, when he came clean to Bilby in an effort to save Bilby's life. Tough situation that the Chief was put in again, and it showed how good of an actor Colm Meaney is. Anyway, it's a good, not great, episode that does little to advance any overarching plots, but does provide some more insight into O'Brien.