“Babel” Ep. 5 Deep Space Nine

I am really not a fan of these types of episodes. Virus spreads and messes everyone up, threatens their lives, and then someone finds a simple cure. I disliked the TNG episode Darmok, which is slightly different from this one, though both are communication breakdowns. In TNG its about understanding the way another race (The Tamarians) communicate and Babel is simply about aphasia.

The interesting thing about this episode is that the aphasia bomb was planted by the Bajoran underground to kill the Cardassians on DS9. It was planted 18 years ago when Cardassians still occupied Bajor. Nice dark touch. This was not something random, but it was meant to be a destructive force.

SPOILER: Of course, they find a quick cure and save everyone in the end. Or mostly everyone.