DS9: Babel

         I will be the first to point out that viruses don't usually have antidotes, but maybe medical science is different in the future? I really enjoyed this episode, the way it keeps taking out major characters with the virus makes you pay attention to each line to see when the next one will slip into nonsense. The subplot about the freighter captain desperate to leave the station starts on the first scene and turns into a major crisis right at the end. I wish other shows could pull of a B story half this well. 
         The story opens with O'Brien rushing around trying to fix all the things. People are stuck in an airlock, a freighter captain can't leave because his warp drive needs a service, the station nav computer is constantly giving out incorrect data, and the replicators aren't working correctly across the station. While repairing a replicator on the command level we see a device buried inside turn on after O'Brien get the machine working again. Quark's is almost empty without working replicators so Quark hacks the computer to find one that O'Brien has fixed already. A little while later Kira and Dax notice his place is open for business and packed full since he seems to have the only working replicator on the promenade. Sisko thanks a clearly tired O'Brien, but he replies with total nonsense and doesn't seem to be able to understand what they are saying to him either. 
         Bashir figures out it is some sort of aphasia. Kira finds the device that caused the infection and they find that all the crew are infected. It turns out the replicator Quark was using was infected too so all the visitors are now quarantined as more and more people come down with the aphasia. The device Kira found appears to be Cardassian but Bashir figures out that the engineered virus is Bajoran in origin and given that the device dates to the construction of the station by Bajoran slaves that would make sense. More and more people come down with the virus so Kira starts trying to track down the creator of the virus. She eventually finds that the guy who made it is dead, but his assistant is now in charge of a medical center. 
         The assistant refuses to help so Kira leaves the station on a runabout to go get him. It is just Odo and Sisko at ops when the freighter captain from the opening decides to leave without permission and starts firing his engines while still clamped to the station. The clamps overload and will require manual disconnection. Just then Sisko comes down with the virus leaving only Odo and Quark to save the day. Quark beams Odo into the freighter where he drags the captain to safety before blowing the clamps just in time. Kira kidnaps the former assistant and he is able to use Bashir's notes to make an antidote to the virus and save them all.

         Review: An exciting and tense story with more good character bits. Quark is on his way to being one of my favorite characters both for his determination to meet his own goals and his willingness to work with the opposition to save the day when necessary.

7 out of 10