Explore every episode of the podcast Deep Space Wine: A Star Trek Deep Space Nine Companion
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| We Can Be Heroes: THE SIEGE (2.03) | 15 Oct 2026 | 01:31:39 | |
Our Patreon is LIVE! Join our community, get into feisty discussions about costumes and character arcs, and decide if you’d like to support the podcast and earn exclusive perks. Thank you in advance for helping us keep the lights on! All the info here, or at the link in bio: And in the meantime, join us for the swashbuckling good fun of The Siege, the triumphant conclusion to the so-called Bajor Trilogy. Kira and Dax give us their best Han and Chewbacca impressions trying to get a hunk of junk flying, while Sisko and company lead a guerrilla resistance dressed in dungarees and parachute pants. Kira’s heroic flight to save Bajor from fascism is, believe it or not, a tale as old as time. Her quest throughout the trilogy aligns with the age-old saga of the Hero’s Journey, popularized by Joseph Campbell in his 1949 book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Join us for a journey from Campbell to Carl Jung to a veritable feast of comparative lit, including The Barbie Movie, Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, The Odyssey, The Wizard of Oz, The Matrix, The Devil Wears Prada and so much more. You’ll get a crash course in the three stages of the hero’s journey, how they map to the three-act storytelling structure pervasive in modern screenwriting, and maybe more references to Frozen 2 than you’d prefer. But don’t say we didn’t warn you. 🍷 Wine Pairing: Jim Barry Assyrtiko 2025 🎥 Watch us on YouTube! Deep Space Wine channel ❤️ Find us on Insta or Facebook: deepspacewine_podcast | |||
| How to Be Useless: THE CIRCLE (2.02) | 24 Sep 2026 | 01:08:24 | |
The Bajor Trilogy continues, as Kira's journey of self-discovery leads her to explore woodcrafts with a sexy monk (whose sexiness remains a deep point of contention). In their discussion, Lily and Cole link the simmering civil war on Bajor to proxy wars waged in so-called banana republics during the Cold War, and to the ways proxy warfare continues to shape the geopolitical landscape today. The Cardassian conspiracy to funnel weapons to extremist groups to sow instability isn't so far from policy the United States quietly continues in the 21st century. Also discussed: our nominations of Vedek Winn for Real Housewives of Bajor, and Odo for cutest rat ever. ❤️ Find us on Insta or Facebook: deepspacewine_podcast | |||
| Back in the Saddle: THE HOMECOMING (2.01) | 10 Mar 2026 | 01:08:16 | |
We're back, nerds! Ready for a whole new season of jumja sticks, underboob dabo ladies, and hot takes on our favorite Star Trek series. "The Homecoming" takes its inspiration from a 1960s Western, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. But the tale about false narratives holding more power than truth feels more relevant today than ever. And of course, this episode kicks off an epic three-parter, Star Trek's first-ever trilogy. Lily and Cole are here to cheer on Major Kira as she sets out to save Bajor from fascism -- looking fab in Ren Faire swashbuckler chic while she does it. 🍷 Wine Pairing: 2023 S.C. Pannell Montepulciano ❤️ Find us on Insta: deepspacewine_podcast Also, a cheeky plug for some other podcasts Cole dabbled in during the hiatus: News Swap https://open.spotify.com/show/6ncfiIkr2gjyzJkbkhtU9N?si=96f3bc5fc12c4aa6 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/news-swap/id1834581051 Deviants https://open.spotify.com/show/0gxEebzE7cSwm6XMBhiCoB?si=eb4fb77287c84220 | |||
| Season One in Review: The Golden Jumja Awards! | 06 Mar 2025 | 01:15:05 | |
Yes, it's the award show you never asked for but didn't know how badly you needed. In this DS9 Season 1 retrospective, Lily and Cole bestow awards for acting, costumes, makeup, props, and more -- including best and worst episode (but spoiler: neither goes to Move Along Home). It's the glitziest night in the quadrant, and you don't want to miss it. 🥂 Drink pairing: Roku gin and Schweppes soda ❤️ Find us on Insta: @deepspacewine_podcast | |||
| In the Hands of Your Podcasters: IN THE HANDS OF THE PROPHETS (1.19) | 30 Dec 2024 | 01:41:52 | |
Jumja sticks! Sexy Vedeks! The Sydney Opera House as fashion accessory! It’s the explosive season finale of DS9, and Lily and Cole are as fired up as a schoolhouse on fire. Showrunner Michael Piller intended “In the Hands of the Prophets” to serve as a bookend to the pilot, “Emissary,” revisiting Sisko’s relationships with Bajor, the Prophets, and his devoutly religious first officer, Major Kira. In turn, we use this super-sized podcast episode to revisit some of the recurring themes of Deep Space Wine’s inaugural season, including: Lily and Cole’s will-they-won’t-they dynamic; lamenting the sorry state of Miles and Keiko’s marriage; and endlessly debating which characters are smashable. (Lily’s taken by a certain cherry-red kimono.) | |||
| The Duality of Man, the Banality of Evil: DUET (1.18) | 27 Nov 2024 | 01:35:44 | |
Intended as a low-budget ‘bottle show’ to save money before the season finale, ‘Duet’ devotes most of its runtime to two characters steeped in conversation with each other. But this dense story of a tug-of-war between justice and vengeance has come to be regarded as one of the finest hours of Star Trek.
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| Sound and Fury: DRAMATIS PERSONAE (1.17) | 16 Sep 2024 | 01:28:12 | |
Is this unhinged tale of intrigue, betrayal and horology giving more Shakespeare or soap opera? We say both, and all the better for it. And though there's plenty of camp silliness on the surface, naturally Lily and Cole dive deep. Cole sees the 'play within the play' setup as a revealing metaphor for television acting, using it to interpret what each DS9 cast member brings to his or her respective character. Meanwhile, Lily teaches Cole that the sci-fi conceit driving the episode's plot actually isn’t so far-fetched, connecting it to the concept of social contagion and mass psychogenic illness, mass hysteria, and groupthink. Oh, and not to be outdone by the drama onscreen, Lily also gifts us with a Shakespeare reading. Fasten your seatbelts, once more unto the breach -- it's going to be a bumpy night. | |||
| ...The Rest Is Drag: THE FORSAKEN (1.16) | 02 Aug 2024 | 01:25:20 | |
Get your Kleenex ready - it’s time for the episode that makes all of us melt into a puddle. And if you haven’t got your pail nearby, thank the drag gods that Lwaxana Troi is here to scoop you back up. Lily and Cole deep-dive into Lwaxana’s drag queen energy, what her fabulousness brings to the comparatively sterile world of Star Trek, and particularly what her arrival means for queer-coded self-acceptance on DS9. We also pay tribute to actress Majel Barrett, First Lady of Star Trek. | |||
| Manifest Density: IF WISHES WERE HORSES (1.15) | 25 Jun 2024 | 01:25:29 | |
Thought this episode was nothing but Rumpelstiltskin and rabid emus? Think again! Lily plumbs the depths of the station residents’ imaginations to psychoanalyze their deepest desires and greatest fears, uncovering some surprising insights along the way. Meanwhile Cole revisits The Secret, the runaway 2006 self-help bestseller all about "turning thoughts into things," to evaluate just how powerful the human imagination really is. | |||
| Cogs in the Wheel of PROGRESS (1.14) | 11 Jun 2024 | 01:18:42 | |
What’s one stubborn farmer standing in the way of progress for an entire planet? Everything or nothing, depending on how you measure value. Nog and Jake spend the episode measuring it in wrappages of yamok sauce, bars of latinum, and gross of self-sealing stem bolts. Meanwhile, Major Kira is forced to reassess her values in a postcolonial Bajor where the black and white of wartime have blurred into an uneasy gray. For our discussion, we draw from A Short History of Progress by Robert Wright, Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, and the history of the Three Gorges Dam project in China. | |||
| DAVID LIVINGSTON: Exclusive Interview (Part 2) | 30 May 2024 | 00:52:28 | |
In the second half of our conversation with Star Trek director and producer David Livingston, we turn a spotlight on his directorial credits 'The Nagus' and 'The Storyteller.' Along the way he shares behind-the-scenes casting insights, reveals his favorite character relationships, and argues what, in his opinion, makes Deep Space Nine the most enduring and addicting Star Trek show. | |||
| DAVID LIVINGSTON: Exclusive Interview (Part 1) | 20 May 2024 | 00:50:30 | |
If you watched any Star Trek in the 80s, 90s, or 2000s, you've seen David Livingston's name countless times on the bottom of your TV screen. Working behind the scenes from the very first episode of The Next Generation, he quickly graduated to the role of producer for all seven seasons of The Next Generation and began directing in that series' fourth season, starting with The Mind's Eye. | |||
| Of Syrah and Oatmeal: THE STORYTELLER (1.13) | 29 Apr 2024 | 01:13:59 | |
🧙♂️ A good story can be a powerful thing—it can rally us around a shared cause, give us hope, or even vanquish our fears. But of course, a story is nothing if it’s not told well. In this tale of monsters and myth-making, the medium is the message. “The Storyteller” serves up two charming stories, which both play like Bajoran folktales: while Bashir and O’Brien unwittingly reenact Rudyard Kipling’s “The Man Who Would Be King” in an isolated village, Jake and Nog go…beyond the pail to impress a visiting diplomat. We draw on “monster theory” to decode the metaphors at play, taking detours along the way to appreciate great robe game and, yes, ponder Lord of the Rings copyright infringement. | |||
| A Special Place in Hell: BATTLE LINES (1.12) | 05 Mar 2024 | 01:06:56 | |
Kai Opaka, the spiritual leader we all deserve, returns to DS9 to suffer a tragic crash and embrace a messianic destiny. We trace the episode’s influences from Greek mythology to the New Testament to Dante’s Inferno. Also covered: Sisko’s daddy energy, and Star Trek’s toxic relationship with cave sets. | |||
| Don't Hate the Changeling, Hate 'The Game': VORTEX (1.11) | 21 Feb 2024 | 01:12:26 | |
In "Vortex," Odo gets an unwitting lesson in manipulation and seduction from a wily stranger promising him answers about his origins. So today, Lily schools us in every pickup tactic the episode pulls straight out of the pickup artist playbook. Meanwhile, Cole points out all the western genre motifs drawn from the classic film that inspired "Vortex," 1953's The Naked Spur. | |||
| Never Trust a Sicilian (or a Ferengi): THE NAGUS (1.10) | 06 Feb 2024 | 01:33:26 | |
The Godfather meets The Merchant of Venice meets West Side Story meets … the inconceivably talented Wallace Shawn. But first, we need to address the golem in the room: just how problematic are the Ferengi? | |||
| Move Along, Homer: MOVE ALONG HOME (1.09) | 22 Jan 2024 | 01:24:38 | |
It's the episode everyone loves to hate -- but would it be so Allama-wrong if we sort of loved it? Get out your klon peeg sticks and join us for a riveting game of chula — or what Sisko and company might call the world’s worst team-building exercise. (Just a fair warning: we pre-gamed with plenty of wine beforehand to psych ourselves up for this one...) | |||
| Space/Off: THE PASSENGER (1.08) | 19 Dec 2023 | 01:16:07 | |
Yikes! What possessed a certain actor in "The Passenger" to give us this, uh, questionable performance that will live on forever in infamy? (Unlike the supervillain Vantika, as hard as he tries.) In their review, Lily and Cole decide that the episode may be a silly grab bag of horror tropes, but it still makes for a worthwhile ride. | |||
| Keiko's Mom's 100th: DAX (1.07) | 05 Dec 2023 | 01:16:19 | |
Who are we with and without our memories? And are we always sentenced to inherit intergenerational trauma? It’s debate club hour on DS9, and Lily and Cole are going deep. We also propose an in-universe explanation for why Jadzia acts like such a wet sock in season one! (Warning: excessive references to 90s courtroom dramedy Ally McBeal.) | |||
| XOXO Gossip Chief: Q-LESS (1.06) | 25 Nov 2023 | 01:06:39 | |
Two familiar faces from the Enterprise arrive on DS9, and O'Brien is ready to spill all ☕️ the ☕️ tea! | |||
| View Hallooo!: CAPTIVE PURSUIT (1.05) | 11 Sep 2023 | 01:12:14 | |
Recreational hunting is the target in this episode that, for exactly once in the whole show, lets Chief O’Brien have some fun. Meanwhile, Doctor Bashir is permitted half a line of dialogue, which is no more than Season 1 Bashir deserves. And Lily and Cole ask: what does it actually mean to be sentient? | |||
| Freudian Sips: BABEL (1.04) | 11 Sep 2023 | 01:04:50 | |
Cole gets triggered by airborne viruses, quarantines and lockdowns, while Lily has apparently repressed the entire COVID pandemic. (Who else is jealous of her?) We also briefly dip into the Old Testament before tracing the evolution of the rom-com form, from Jane Austen to When Harry Met Sally to its pinnacle in modern storytelling (Odo and Quark). | |||
| The Tempest and the Wormhole: PAST PROLOGUE (1.03) | 09 Sep 2023 | 01:13:33 | |
Lily and Cole hail Star Trek as modern-day Shakespeare, only with more Klingon cleavage. Also featured: Moral Foundations Theory, seasonal color palettes, and everyone’s favorite plain, simple pansexual tailor, Garak. | |||
| Best Friends Club: A MAN ALONE (1.02) | 07 Sep 2023 | 01:13:12 | |
Lily invokes Atticus Finch and completely changes Cole’s mind about this multi-layered episode involving a very tennis-obsessed murderer. We also dare to ask the question: is it still champagne if it’s bottled on Koris I? | |||
| Starfleet Savior Complex: EMISSARY (1.01) | 07 Sep 2023 | 01:39:22 | |
Cole contextualizes DS9’s 1993 pilot against the collapse of the Soviet Union; Lily mocks Jake’s onesies and Captain Sisko’s weird intonation choices. But we’re both thrilled to discover that “Emissary,” like a great wine, is bold, rich, and even better with age. | |||