Shadows and Symbols

Originally Appeared Here

Coming from Exile on Bourbon Street(1) and dad just wants to see a face(2)
Says he hope we can endure the heat, 'cause Tyree is the place
Comb the desert like the Spaceballs, but you know we ain't found shit(3)
Until Ezri throws his baseball, dad starts digging where it hit
Meantime on DS9, it's another case of Cuban Missile Crisis(4)
Keep weapons out of commission like Gary Seven and Isis(5)
Romulans are early, or maybe Cretak's math is wrong
And Worf's upset his better half is gone,
But vengeance isn't cold like in the Wrath of Khan(6)
Mercury line, it climbs as the temperatures get higher
With an attack like K'ratak and The Dream of the Fire(7)
Annihilate like Ensign Taitt(8), solar ejection at Monac
Say a prayer, he's outta there, try to outrun the blowback
While Benny Russell writes the words and the wormhole reopens
Bajorans lost to despair now find reasons for hopin'.

1. Famous street in New Orleans, near Joseph Sisko's restaurant.
2. "I Just Want to See His Face" is a song from the Rolling Stones album Exile on Main St. This refers to the face of Sarah Sisko previous episode "Image in the Sand".
3. When ordered to literally comb the desert in the sci-fi parody Spaceballs, one of the troopers replies with this line. He is portrayed by Tim Russ, who would go on to portray Tuvok on Star Trek: Voyager.
4. 1962 confrontation between the USA and Cuba, arising when the USSR attempted to place nuclear missiles on the island, similar to Romulan efforts to arm their facility on Derna with plasma torpedoes.
5. In the TOS episode "Assignment: Earth", Gary Seven and his cat Isis intervene to prevent the United States from launching a nuclear weapons platform in 1968.
6. In Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Khan famously quotes the Klingon proverb "Revenge is a dish that is best served cold."
7. Classic Klingon novel, once given to Data as a gift by Worf.
8. Junior Enterprise-D officer and expert on solar dynamics. In the TNG episode "Descent, Part II" she triggered a solar eruption to destroy a Borg ship, much as Martok's crew does here.