Extreme Measures

This episode reminds me of the movie "The Cell" with Jennifer Lopez, where she enters the mind of a psychopath to find out where he locked up his latest victim. But unlike "The Cell", we don't see disturbing images and dreamscapes but rather corridors and quarters of DS9 as metaphor of the twisted mind.

Bashir and O'Brien lure Section 31 agent Sloan to DS9 to find out what he knows about the cure against the plague that has infected Odo. While Sloan is captured and secured within a force field, he kills himself - he rather dies to give away any information that could destroy the Federation. Since his brain is still alive (at least for a while) Bashir and O'Brien enter his subconsciousness in the attempt to find the information they are looking for. Here, we meet two Sloans: One that is good and chastened and wants to help them and another one that is evil and devious and plays mind tricks on them to keep them occupied.

Bashir's and O'Brien's bromance plays out again quite nicely in this episode. The different characters work well together and complement each other. Over the course of the show, the bond between the two really enriched the episodes which focussed on them. O'Brien's grumpy attidue and his engineering skills are a great counterbalance to Bashir's ever optimistic thinking and medical skills. While Alexander Siddig is not the best actor and his acting often appears crude and wooden (especially in dramatic and emotional scenes), Colm Meaney is spot on and carries the scenes. Those two have much better interactions and chemistry than Worf and Ezri.