Very sleepy episode. It starts strong with a one-two punch of action and intrigue, but it soon gives way to a bit of a muddled story that is never... bad... but just never gets good, either.
The core conceit of the historic power struggle affecting our crew via telepathy is a fine, silly scifi concept. I'm in. I'm on-board. But there are so many odd choices and unanswered plot holes that we don't have time to solve. And yet somehow we do have time for Sisko to build a never-explained clock across some excruciating long and overacted scenes.
I guess if we just accept that the telepathic personalities all had backstories and traits that we can't possibly have time to explore, fine, but that doesn't mean you just play it as if you're waving a giant neon sign above your head with the one character trait they bothered to attach to each personality. There's no depth or mystery to the performances. Terry Farrell's choices in almost every scene are particularly annoying. Ham acting and no explanation, ever.
Odo as the main character again is something I can get behind, but the mystery he unravels is simply boring.
I am going to generously ring my Good Bashir bell 🔔, however, as he, Colm and Nana (for the most part) are the only ones who manage to play their unique personalities with nuance and subtlety.
Odd episode. Very unsatisfying. What about the entire rest of the population of DS9? What was the point of the valerian ship being this absolute nothing of a mcguffin? How can a telepathic field phase through matter, but still be blasted out an airlock?