The first scene of the episode "One little ship" (season 6 episode 14). This makes me laugh out loud every time i watch it :D Also i love Nana Visitor's acting, she's one of the finest actors in Startrek i've ever seen.
I love the fact that Sisko is getting such a kick out of Kira's laughing that HE starts laughing. Then Worf and Nog's protestations make him crack up more.
Yep, they knew it was a daft plot device. They knew the audience would know, too. So rather then try and find a way to make it seem serious they just went, "yeah, its silly and we know it. So just have fun with it!" Smart move.
Zulu Romeo "It is an absurd premise, and Kira's reaction acknowledges that. It's like a signal to the audience: 'This is kinda silly folks, and we know it's kinda silly, but try to run with us on this one.'" - Ronald D. Moore
It definitely sounds like the actress is legit laughing hysterically in this scene rather than acting, though it's possible it was still scripted for Kira to laugh and someone was simply doing something very silly off screen.
I can't remember where but I read that the writers put that in the teaser on purpose as a tongue in cheek to the audience that, yes, we realize it's ridiculous, just enjoy it.
I agree, Kira is REAL because she reacts as all us ordinary mortals would to such a situation. The Starfleet science lot are all taking it very seriously, talking about "strategic advantages" etc etc but Kira is right - it IS hilarious!!
There was a similar scene in the first season where the Starfleet officers are in a dangerous but mysterious situation, while they are all exploring and scanning, she stands there and says something along the lines of "I'm sure you Starfleet types find this all fascinating but I'm a Bajoran administrator. THIS IS NOT WHAT I SIGNED UP FOR!"
@@ptonpc I always appreciated when the writers used the fact that Kira is an uneducated child soldier from the backwater of the galaxy, and despite the progress she's made collaborating with Starfleet, she still doesn't quite "get it" when it comes to the science/exploration part of their mission. But it's heartwarming to see her tag along on this mission and get excited about it, just because her friends are really small.
Y'know what woulda been REALLY funny, is if Sisko was giving his Captain's Log, and then in the middle of it, it just stops when you hear Kira snort, then it cuts to inside the Defiant with her looking away and playing innocent, and then cuts back to what's going on outside as he continues the log entry. lol
Nog, Worf, Sisko, All Starfleet officers who had to go through some serious science training in the Academy: "This could have some serious scientific implications..." Kira, an actual full-on military officer with not a hint of a scientific background: "...we're shrinking...them...to the size of cardassian voles...and that's our official mission brief- HAHAHAHAHA" Worf, the Tallest Guy on the ship: "There is nothing funny about being small." Nog, the Smallest Guy on the ship (for the next few minutes anyways): "I agree." ...the characterization, direction, and writing for this scene is pitch perfect :D
The best scene of this episode is in the end where Odo says to Bashir and O'Brien that they seem smaller than before. And Quark chiming in with that he wasn't going to mention it, but yes. And when the two officers run of to the medical bay. Quark turns to Odo and says "And they say, that you don't have a sense of humor" whereupon they share a chuckle together.. That was chemistry in acting.. :)
I just realized: using Rubicon for this was clever. The Rubicon River was small, so small we don’t actually know which modern river it was. Clever choice for which of the station’s runabouts to use for this episode.
This episode is a real relieve from the horrible war with the Dominion: Y'all remember Worf's great poem about Jadzia's adventure? "There was a little ship, that took a little trip."
this just shows the connection sisko and kira have. he knows she's trying to keep it in and part of him is trying to break her. and when she finally gives in, sisko cracks up along with her.
The plot magic was strong with this episode. It really should have been a shark jump moment but I think we all just .. laughed and new this was silly and went with it..
I always thought Kira was one of the best characters in Trek. I know they were trying to hold to Roddenberry's ideals with Trek, but surely there was room for more characters like her.
lol Kira's ''It's a very important research....'' *tries hard but failing to maintain her cool* Also bonus to Work's reaction when Dax calls *Damn it woman I'm a tough warrior*
I didn't see what Kira found humorous about the shrinking process. But when Nog said he didn't understand what was funny about being small, I burst out laughing.
The situation is not very casual either, especially for Kira, she doesn't know about science and it is one of the first times she sees Starfleet at its original mission. Also it might be that the writers wanted her to breach the 4th wall and be the audience there. Other option: Nana Visitor couldn't control herself and tried her best to integrate her laugh into the dialogue and as it blended well they kept it.
I watched this episode, and all I could think of is all the military uses of this matter growing and shrinking nebula. They could shrink electrics to a microscopic level since it obviously had no adverse effects to the runabout processing power. The could manufacturer thousands of tiny ship frames, then just grow them to size and add electronics. You could grow a turret to launch larger and more powerful weapons. The fired phasers while small inside the defiant, and it only took out a person. That means they shrunk the power of the phasers, which means enlarging should grow the power? I could go on forever. I don't think this episode should exist in the star trek continuum. Whoever controls this nebula would have a massive advantage. Star trek does this all the time, but I thought this one was just too much.
There is the square cube law to consider doubling the size of something quadruples stress on said thing. About the only things that benefit from the square cube law with little to no downsides are airships and explosives.
I wonder, do you think she actually was supposed to laugh, or do you think she just couldn't help it and they decided not to use that take in the episode?
She was supposed to laugh because the writers knew that most of the viewers would find it comic. Given that the concept was bounced around for a long time and was only made here as a stop gap I don't think they had much faith in it.
Nog and Worf's ignorance over the shrinkage joke reminds me of how I sometimes need an explanation as to what's funny about a particular joke.....Sometimes
I always liked seeing her happy and having fun. I had a huge crush on Kira back in the day. I imagine that this was Nana Visitor briefly breaking character and laughing and then everyone just started laughing, thinking it was a flubbed take, but they kept rolling and they kept it in just because it made the scene that much more fun.
Love this! Yeah, heck of a show. The story actually has some real world basis, too. I remember coffee cups crushed down to thimble size on deep dives with Alvin back in the 60s or 70s. They're using a spatial anomaly instead, but I get the principle. (In the spatial anomaly people can do this and remain alive!)
It was an idea that had been hanging around since TNG but finally made it to screen when they had to pull the plug on doing a musical episode (as Buffy did one first (well a year after LEXX))
Like Nog and Worf, I don't see the humor of being small, but it's still a delight to see Kira laughing so openly since it's so rare. But as I learned over the years "we all laugh at different things" so Kira finds small people funny I guess since it's *scripted* that she genuinely finds this funny.
As a nice little touch- Sisko can't help but chuckle a little bit at the sheer weirdness of their mission. Nerys, bless her heart, is trying so hard not to laugh.
The character of Kira Nerys had a very grim temperament. Not surprising, considering how harsh her life had been. It wasn't often that Kira laughed on the show. It was nice to see. :)
I love Kira. She is a character I really respect. She's warm and reasonable, but also strong and fierce. Not someone to mess with. She'd make a great Captain. I also have a lot of respect for Sisko. Picard is stuffy and self-righteous for my taste. And Janeway, she's fine, but something about her stirs up my aggression, we'd be clawing each other's eyes out before long.
Fun fact: just before Voyager when they were casting for that show, Nana Visitor decided she really wanted to play Janeway. Unfortunately she was still also playing Kira at the time and she couldn't do both because of time constraints. I also would have loved to see her as a captain.
From my analysis, I concluded they picked the actors of DS9 based on talent, looks had very little to do with it, even though it always plays a part in the selection. That's why the acting is amazing throughout the whole series.
Oh, I wished you kept the part with Nog 'covering' for Worf when Sisko asks Worf about the poem. "Now, is it my imagination or did the kid just cover for Worf?" Sisko: I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship
I know Sisko says it's a welcome change of pace for them not to be doing combat missions, and I get that . . . but there are _real_ science ships flying combat missions, shouldn't this job have gone to one of them? Still, just as well, seeing as even this ends up turning into a combat mission in the end.
that's a general problem with the "hero ships" in star trek - they're always the only ship in reach. sure, any oberth- or olympic class (or even intrepid tbh) would've been better suited for a research mission like this, but that wouldn't have been as cool as having the defiant do it ;) the use of a slightly larger ship makes even more sense considering the runabout they use as test vessel. sth like an intrepid or olympic-class has its own shuttels in the hangar bay, specifically for uses such like this. having a second ship travel along the main one is kind of a security risk in case of a dominion attack, given that those smaller vessels have less powerful shieds and weapons. a shuttle can be pulled into the main ships hangar bay for the crew's safety, but this runabout would be kinda helpless against a jem'hadar cruiser...but that's just my personal opinion, of course^^
No no no, you don't get it! It's the Federation doing one good thing - keeping Benjamin "Don't Fuck with" The Sisko out of combat, so that the Cardassians and the Dominion think they got a bit of breather and start acting recklessly. And then immiedietly call Captain back to his duties.
my argument to that is: we don't know where the anomaly is located. It could be in a possibly contested area, too close to Dominion controlled space, or too far away from a dedicated science vessel.
Starfleet Admiral 1 - "So hey, we need to investigate this anomaly. Should we send a Galaxy-class or some other ship that has atleast some decent scientific labs on board?" Starfleet Admiral 2 - "Nah, let's send a ship that was specifically designed for combat and which was solely built for that singular purpose."
Well, Nog doesn't thing being tiny is funny because he's a Ferengi. I'm just gonna assume that Worf doesn't think it's funny because as far as Klingons go, he's a runt. I hate to put another fandom in this, but AWWWWW! He's like an angry little slice of pie!
The thing I never understood about this episode is why the heck are they examining this thing with one of the most powerful ships in the Federation? Just send 2 Runabouts- or an Oberth class i.e non-combat ships
sometimes you can't dispatch the right ship for the right task, and you go with what you have, with the best tools available..... some other times, even the best ship for the task ends up screwing it up.... Pegasus ring a bell?....
onehandyguy Yeah.. Pegasus rings a bell. Two Pegasi-named Ships ring a bell, actually, one with it's you-know-what in development, the other not even being from Star Trek.
