This episode goes to show why you shouldn't have married couples in sci-fi programmes. Keiko has always been a spare part, and no matter how much they protest her realtionship with O'Brien is a best an inconvenience. This is the third or fourth attempt to make a storyline round her and it is just excrutiatingly awful. The only excuse the producers have is they had to deal with Nana Visitor's preganancy (something dealt with in other series - such as Voyager - by shooting the character from the chest up or from behind). This story line is bad, and should have been shot down when first floated.

The episode is only saved by some more fun and games with the Ferengi. Jeffrey Coombs appears again as Brunt from the FCA, adding to his many varied appearances in the Star Trek universe in a bizarre plot line ruined only by the sentimental ending where everyone turns up to help Quark out. Without the Ferengi, this episode would rate a very poor 3 or 4.

Dr Who clearly divides its fans as well as the population at large. Whilst probably not the best episode ever, it certainly isn't the worst. And to suggest it is worse than any episode with Bonnie Langford in is a travesty.

It worked well as a standalone episode, giving appropriate weight to all the guest stars (except for the lovely Bernard Cribbins), and Kylie was, well, Kylie. Love her or hate her she's Kylie, and Russell T did an excellent job of writing a part for someone of that star status. Try to imagine Madonna wanting to appear in an episode of DS9 as a lead character and you understand the problem, - a lot of people are going to watch the programme who haven't watched it before (eg one of my work colleagues made a point of watching it purley because Kylie was in it, never having watched Dr Who before) so it has to be accesible to new viewers.

I'd only say don't be put off by the negative reviews. Tennant's brilliant, the dialogue is good, and the plot (yes there is a plot) clips along nicely. Production standards are high and it looks great. All the cast give good performances, and it doesn't take itself too seriously. All in all a worthy way to spend 70 minutes on Christmas Day.

I've rated it 9.5 to offset those people of questionable taste and spelling who rated it so lowly.

Awful isn't really adequate a word. Don't know why I gave it a three. Not sure what is plot and what is sub-plot, but it is just plain painful. Between them the entire cast seem to lose all form of acting ability, not helped by a story line which is poor beyond all imagining. Majel Barrett has been a grat servant to the series, and Mrs Troi can be amusing, but she is totally culpable for this one, given that she helped write it.
One can't help feeling that if the plot ideas came from anywhere else it would never have made it to the screen.

Okay, so the basic premise is a bit silly (well, a lot silly) but this episode shows that the team can do comedy every bit as well as they do straight episodes.

So it doesn't move the story arc on? So what? The Original Series thrived on one off episodes.

There are a lot of fine performances in this, - not just Alexander Siddig, but Nana Visitor's over the top Russian female KGB Colonel also deserves special mention. And to put Garak, the real world spy, in as counterpoint to the Bondesque silliness was a stroke of genius. A cardassian in a DJ. Classic.

It had everything, - silly gadgets, fist fights, an over the top plan to rule the world and also Terry Farrell's remove the glasses and shake the hair moment.

To criticise this episode as one reviewer has done because there's no logic to it rather misses the point. An excellent antidote to some of the po-faced episodes that surround it, such as Starship Down.

This episode is just plain dreadful. From the clunking dialogue to the wooden performances and the dreadful makeup there's very little right about this. Only a very big fan of the show with an obsession with one of the minor characters could even start to like it.

Where to start? It grinds so badly as it is told mostly through static dialogue with the occasional flashback. The dialogue between Jake & Melanie is stilted and poorly delivered, - there's simply no chemistry between them, no real reason why he should open up in that way, even given he is going to die. How many times does he have to cry in one episode?

As for the ageing makeup, - Brooks is just bout passable, & Dax is excellent but Bashir? Rubbish.

Consign it to the bin of history.