Enterprising Individuals

Turn down your lights (where applicable) because DS9 is going noir for "Necessary Evil"!Existence is Futile hosts heelmary and Gooey Fame join the show this week for a look at an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine that takes us back to the Cardassian Occupation, where talk is cheap and lives are even cheaper. Odo has been called to Terok Nor by the Prefect of Bajor, Gul Dukat, to investigate the death of a Bajoran shopkeeper under suspicious circumstances. Meanwhile on DS9, a vicious attack on Quark leads Odo to reopen his old case, and to look deeper into the involvement of a young freedom fighter named Kira Nerys!Having "Space Cop" Odo on the show is a great excuse for a hard-boiled detective yarn, and this episode hits every trope in the noir canon, from the femme fatale, to the private eye inner monologue, to the seedy bartender, and a Macguffin everyone's chasing. During our discussion, we talk about the ambitious dual-timeline structure of the episode, DS9's similarity to post-WWII Europe, Odo as the