Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV Series) Take Me out to the Holosuite (1998) User Reviews

For a filler episdode its a lot of fun

[snarky-trek-reviews · 8/10 · 8 March 2019]

In this episode we take a break from the war for a game of baseball against some Vulcan's. Let's have a meeting about the game.

Worf Zinger #1: "We will destroy them."

And now we will take a moment to watch the crew learn the rules and say silly things. Oh look, Rom and Lita want to play, but Quark is being a party pooper.

Okay! Time for practice! We've got a very different side of Sisko here. He's all business, but in a fun way. Looks like we've got a lot of work to do.

Reluctant Umpire Odo is reluctant. Ouch everyone is hurt. Sisko is still excited though so he recruits his girl friend. Hey hey! Things are looking much better. Except for Rom, he's having struggles.

Frustrated Sisko is frustrated. Rebellion is fomenting. Scotch infused gum is Scotch infused. And now we get the story behind Sisko's rivalry with Solak. Its pretty funny. Sisko makes Cassidy promise not to tell the rest of the team. She promises. Cut to Cassidy telling the team.

Oh good! That game is starting! Let's hear some chatter 9ers!

Worf Zinger #2: "Death to the opposition!"

Fhew, this game is tense. The Vulcan's are playing to win today, that's for sure. Odo is killing it as an umpire. Hotheaded Sisko just got thrown out leaving O'Brien to take the reigns. Lita pulls a Fancy Dan! What a game!

Quark fields, throws to Worf at first! Worf throws home! He didn't touch the plate! Unbelievable!! Nog doesn't know what to do! I've never seen anything like this before!

Worf Zinger #3: "Find him and kill him!"

He's out!

New inning. Nog's on third, the 9ers could score! What's this, Rom is pinch hitting for Jake?! Unbelievable! Are you inspired? I'm inspired! He's got the crowd on his side that's for sure, let's see if he can deliver. Ouch, two strikes. The team wants him to bunt but he doesn't seem to understand. Its a hit! Nog might make it home! Vulcan scoops it up! Nog slides! Safe! The 9ers brought home a run! He did it! Rom did it! And now Solak is getting ejected for contact with the ump! What a game! What a game!

The team throws a party to celebrate their victory. Emotional Vulcan's are emotional. Nice fade out at the end.

As filler goes this is as good as it gets. I wish the producers of Discovery would watch this one. Star Trek used to be fun. The writers were confident enough in their characters to not take themselves seriously all of the time. I miss that.

Verdict: Death to the opposition!

Great episode to see the whole cast interacting

[phiburke · 8/10 · 28 November 2017]

I must say any negative reviews of this episode can not be made by a true Star Trek fan. This is quintessential trek.

Take some alien sci-fi, mixed with some down to earth humanity, throw in some humor. Voila half of the original series followed that model in some shape or form.

I would have given this episode a 9/10 except the ending struck me as hollow. It's a hilarious ending, with the crew taking jabs at the Vulcan, all the while his emotions seeping through his cold exterior. But then Julian hits the nose on the head "To manufactured triumph!" There is no real moral to the story, other than I guess that people can be happy and find solace in friends and family, even after a defeat. I just expected a more concrete point to the story.

I guess ultimately it is meant to be light heart-ed, and the flimsy moral to the story serves to be light heart-ed as well.

Also I love seeing the entire crew together on camera at the same time. Makes for a deep scene with lots of real emotion. The camera panning to "catch" Lita kissing Rom at the end is perhaps my favorite moment of the episode.

Underrated

[coreycitn63 · 8/10 · 10 February 2022]

I know many people trash Take Me Out To The Holosuite but it was a nice break from the Dominion War. The only downside was Rom. They could have made him the best player instead of him being the comic relief. Max Grodenchik was the best baseball player of the cast but the producers and writers made him left handed so he would be horrible. I would have loved if they allowed Rom to shine.

It's just fun!

[joeyg-149-99444 · 9/10 · 17 December 2019]

Nothing more, well maybe a little. I will start off saying that there is nothing in this episode that has to do with the main story arc whatsoever. Some will review on the fact that Vulcans don't act emotional, yet we have seen that some do to an extent. Remember, they suppress their emotions, it's not that they don't have any. I have seen plenty of times where Spock himself and Tuvok have shown annoyance with others and arrogance as well even if ever so slightly. So having a Vulcan Starfleet captain of an all Vulcan crew showing a bit of arrogance over a human captain is not out of the realm of possibilities. There are a lot of lighthearted moments and funny moments. All in all I enjoyed it.

Endearing

[deedeebug-69437 · 9/10 · 21 March 2020]

I love this episode, in the midst of a war they have a little break. This episode reminds us to not take things too seriously. Word's line " find him and kill him" makes laugh even after watching the episode a dozen times!

Silly and it knows it

[cmsrcommerce · 9/10 · 16 September 2020]

An episode of almost pure frivolity, as filler eps go this one is one of the best, and certainly the most fun. Yes it's mostly very silly, but it knows that it's silly and doesn't really care. You don't have to know about baseball, but I will admit that it helps. There is one truly heartfelt moment near the end concerning Rom, and to hear Worf (kinda) yell "Death to the opposition!" makes the entire episode worth watching. A must for those who get the lighter side of Trek.

Lighter episode that takes a break from the war

[Tweekums · 6/10 · 1 January 2010]

Amid all the darkness and despair of the Dominion War the occupants of Deep Space Nine get to have a bit of a break when the captain of a passing Vulcan ship challenges Sisko to a game of baseball. He readily accepts the challenge before realising that apart from himself and his son nobody else on board has any idea how to play. He has two weeks to teach his players how to play the game before taking on the Vulcan's who are naturally stronger and faster anyway.

Being a lighter hearted episode there are a few good laughs; Odo practising giving people out was hilarious as was Chief O'Brien getting into the spirit of things by chewing gum... which he had flavoured with Whisky. I was rather surprised however that Quark wasn't running a book on the outcome of the game.

I had expected to dislike this episode as I dislike most episodes which take place on the holosuite and I'm not that interested in baseball. However as I watched the story grew on me and the ending wasn't the cliché one might have expected.

I love this episode

[bravesfan35 · 10/10 · 10 August 2009]

It doesn't have anything to do with the storyline in season 7, but it's still a great episode. Being a huge baseball fan, I really enjoyed watching the DS9 crew learn how to play the game. Though I was rather surprised O'Brien knew so little about baseball since he's human. I'm not surprised at all that Rom and Quark didn't know the first thing about baseball since there's no profit in it haha. It would have been nice if the DS9 team actually won the game, but it teaches a good lesson in humility. The Vulcan couldn't understand why they were celebrating when they lost, but that's Vulcans for you. They don't know the first thing about emotions since they don't use theirs, so the idea of keeping your chin up after a loss is foreign to them. Overall a great episode that I highly recommend.

lightweight but amusing episode

[d-millhoff · 7/10 · 29 November 2008]

A 'comic relief' episode that takes you mostly out of the ongoing 'Dominion War' story arc of the last season.

DS9 was already well past its prime by this time, but the characters were well-established, and the goings-on and subcultures and whatnot of a busy space station made for good background stories.

In this episode, another badly-overused plot device, a holodeck, allows the crew to accept a challenge to a baseball game form an old associate of Captain Sisko, but that's not the fun part.

The fun comes in the relationship between Sisko and his onetime colleague, between Vulcans and Humans.

There seems to be a largely-understated antipathy between the races. Vulcans can be annoyingly condescending, while they find Humans utterly inscrutable.

Sisko's Vulcan roommate in the Academy was a competitive rival with a clinical interest in human psychology. To Sisko's annoyance, he occasionally found himself the involuntary subject of his roommate's papers and theses.

Years later, knowing Sisko to be a lifetime baseball fan, his rival challenges Sisko and his crew to a game. Sisko accepts the challenge. He knows the Vulcans will be studying his team (DS9 crew) and probably get a bit annoying, but he can't resist a baseball game and the crew needed a diversion...

The Vulcan team, with no concept of 'fun', naturally plays to win. What other purpose could there be to play?

Sisko and crew play to have a great time.

Imagine the Vulcans' hollow victory, chagrin and befuddlement when the game is over and the DS9 team parties, celebrating its loss.

Not into Baseball? Just Skip it!

[deiboier · 1/10 · 4 May 2018]

This episode solely revolves around the crew of DS9 competing in a baseball match against some Vulcan crew currently docked at the station.

It adds absolutely nothing to the series or the larger plot and there's no character development what so ever. If you don't know the game you'll just sit there most of the time wondering what's going on on screen.

Since I neither know the rules nor get any of the supposed in-jokes the whole episode just didn't make any sense to me.

There seem to be others who did like it so if you know baseball this might be an episode for you. If you don't - just skip it.

I love Trek. I love baseball. This episode is great.

[piratecannon · 8/10 · 3 June 2021]

This episode is completely intended as a comedy, and it absolutely works. It's cheesy, yeah, but it's a whole lot of fun. Worf is comic gold here, too; once you watch it, you'll see what I mean.

Has the writer ever seen an episode of DS9?

[Tyypo · 6/10 · 8 May 2020]

I ask this for the simple observation of this: Julian is a genetically modified human with enhanced hand-eye coordination and intellect. He should be a ringer in this game, but they play him as an uncoordinated oaf. *He* should have been the pitcher, and that should have guaranteed a 9-ers win. Plus, he should have been impossible to strike out, but you see him swing clumsily at balls that should have been homers for him. Really, I was looking forward to seeing him surprise the Vulcans a bit. Disappointed in the lack of continuity there.

Other than that, it is a sort of enjoyable one-off episode that does nothing to establish characters or further the general plot of DS9. It was nice to see Benjamin learn to let go of his longstanding feud and just have fun with his crew, but that really didn't make any sense. Worf has some great one-liners that are probably the highlight(s) of the show.

Baseball?

[student_points · 4/10 · 2 December 2021]

To anyone who is not American this episode is not interesting. Mostly, cause hardly any one outside the USA plays this game, and therefor does not understand the rules. It was boring.

The only interesting thing is that we see the cast interact with each other.

What were you doing, regenerating?

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 14 April 2023]

It's more about crew camaraderie than anything else...

Odo was the perfect Umpire.

I've seen the Padres play worse...

Vulcans vs The Emmissary. Ha! Note that the Niners have Mets style uniforms. Didn't distract the Vulcans though. Neither did Worf's tauntings. Ezri had some fancy dans though.

And then suddenly Miles is in charge.

Sometimes it takes a guy like Rom to remind us what the game is really about.

What had be giggling were the Ferengi oversized baseball caps.

You never know what's gonna happen!

Try explaining the game to the Wormhole Al... Er, I mean The Prophets.

Aggressive... Adversarial!

Goof

[donnieddd-67192 · 8/10 · 6 May 2019]

In Quarks at the end there is clearly another Klingon sitting behind Bashir. They are trying to pass him off for Worf but it is not Michael Dorn!

Reasonably fun episode

[snoozejonc · 6/10 · 6 August 2023]

Sisko arranges a baseball game against a crew of Vulcans.

For me this is a relatively amusing episode that helps if you are into baseball and DS9.

I think for fans of the sport there is a lot to take out of it, as it has a nice underdog plot and we see all the characters involved in a fun way.

I live in a country where the sport has limited exposure, but through pop culture I can appreciate certain gags such as Odo using his voice to great effect as an umpire. I also like the visual storytelling and humour in the various scenes of characters training and the game itself.

The concept of a rivalry with the Vulcan commander is a decent idea, but I think the writers overdo Sisko's desperation to win and the backstory between the two characters. It is the key concept that drives the plot and most of the humour and for me it runs out of steam quite early. I think if they had included more of the character Solok's arrogance in the buildup to the game it would have worked better. In fact, I find Sisko a bit annoying in certain scenes and after one in particular I actually want the Vulcans to win.

Rom is the only one of the 'Niners' I actually feel invested in, so it ends in a positive way.

All cast are on good form and I think the baseball scenes are put together well for a TV production.

Missed Potential

[zombiemockingbird · 6/10 · 11 May 2023]

I think this could have been a little better than it was. The premise of Vulcans playing baseball was illogical to begin with. It's just not in their character, although I'm not sure anyone would have worked. Romulans? Klingons? Ferengi's maybe, if money was involved. Kira and Worf, both very athletic, should have been better players. Bashir with his genetic engineering should have been better. It was kind of boring, but when Sisko put Rom in to hit, he proved they were there for fun and camaraderie and that changed the whole atmosphere. Solok touching umpire Odo and getting thrown out was poetic justice. The end where they were celebrating, even though they lost, seemed to also put Solok in his place. Overall, a somewhat decent episode.

Pretty bad, sadly

[Mankoi1701 · 3/10 · 19 July 2013]

While I like baseball, I really can't stand this episode.

Like most things, the comedy can be kind of hit or miss. Worf's parts are often funny, but the rest of it is pretty bland.

In terms of structure, the episode seems a little bit confused, and the plot itself is rather contrived. While Vulcans can certainly be annoying, the one in this episode pushes it farther than the usual Vulcan arrogance into very odd illogical, having apparently trained his crew to play a sport that's no longer even played by humans, just so he can rub it in Sisko's face when they win. While that seems like a pretty illogical waste of time for one Vulcan, how he convinced an entire team of Vulcans to do this, when they could be doing just about anything else, is totally beyond me.

Also, while I can't really be nitpicky enough to hold it against the episode, it is kind of funny to watch Odo try to make second base calls from behind home plate. The camera doesn't very well hide the fact that he's way too far away, and Jake is between him and the base. Although Rene's dancing about to try and get a good look doesn't even try to hide it, so maybe it's an intentional, if subtle joke.

Also, props to many of the actors for their attempts to look like they don't know how to swing a baseball bat. No one quite stands up to Nana Vistor, who apparently is genuinely quite bad at baseball, but it's a hard thing to fake, and they put a good effort into it.

**Spoilers for the Ending**

Ultimately the episode would just be a bit dull, unless you really, really like baseball, or the jokes hit home. What drags it down is the ending. After the DS9 crew has lost the game fairly badly (I would say pathetically, but, as a long time Royals fan, I've seen worse), they all meet up at Quark's bar for a round of drinks, when the Vulcan manager walks in. Rather than actually showing the team as being happy, having had fun in spite of losing, they all seem rather bitter instead. What actually looked like the crew having a good laugh suddenly turns into mocking the Vulcan manager, but without any undertones of good humor behind it. Instead of actually showing they can be cheerful in defeat, the whole thing seems to be a bitter, angry show of "happiness" and forced laughter, all done out of pure spite. Certainly the Vulcan deserves it, but instead of the episode showing us how humans aren't inferior to Vulcans because they can have fun even without winning, we see how humans aren't inferior to Vulcans because they can be bitter, spiteful, and pissy in the face of losing.

I'd rather take a line drive into my teeth than see this terrible episode yet again!!!

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 26 January 2015]

I am currently re-watching all the episodes of all the "Star Trek" shows. I know this isn't exactly a noble pursuit, but so be it. When it comes to "Take Me Out to the Holosuite", it's THE episode I remembered more than any other--and NOT for a good reason. I remember it as the absolutely worst episode of the series--one that is 100% irrelevant and which embarrassed me the first time around. Being a reasonably fair person, however, I am making myself watch it again--just in case my recollection is in error.

When the show begins, you see Captain Sisko and his previously never mentioned arch-nemesis, some haughty Vulcan who commands an all- Vulcan ship for the Federation. Out of nowhere, the Vulcan suggests his crew battle DS9 in a baseball game--and Sisko quickly agrees. Sure, he loves baseball but the game is extinct on Earth and no one else on the station knows much about how to play--let alone beat the Vulcans.

So, is it as rotten as I remembered? Yep. The episode is the epitome of the term 'lightweight' and is evidence that the series might just be jumping the shark! Too many more like this, and you'll be praying for the end of the series! Yuck!!

And still my vote for the single worst episode of "Star Trek: Deep Space 9".

Not Worth a Lot

[Hitchcoc · 5/10 · 9 November 2018]

The Sisko/Vulcan rivalry is at the core of this. Sisko's lifelong Vulcan adversary has taught the game of baseball to his crew. They have polish and understanding of the game. Jake and his father are really the only ones who have a knowledge of the game. Baseball can be pretty complicated to one who has no experience with it. To play the game it takes some skills practiced over time. As a lifetime fan and player, there are some things that don't wash. One is Worf's inability to even touch the ball with the bat. He is the Zen master and has that second sight. I thought it would have been fun for him to hit a 500 foot home run. The others, for all their good intentions are as hapless as can be. It's an interruption from the intense issues of the war. But as a baseball episode, it doesn't do very well.

Meaningless fluff

[robert3750 · 3/10 · 25 February 2021]

The episode has its amusing aspects, or at least it tries to have them, but the jokes fall flat. It's riddled with (if you'll pardon the expression) lack of logic. The Vulcans don't act like Vulcans. Taking up an old Earth game just so one of them can gloat to Sisko? Nonsense. And what's up with Bashir? With his genetically enhanced abilities, he should have been the virtually unhittable pitcher, and an awesome hitter. But he bumbles along with the rest of them. Bleah.

Blah, it's baseball...

[Dandeleo · 3/10 · 24 January 2022]

You can tell a series is going through a rough patch when they do dross like this. Unless you are either an American or a baseball fan, this episode does nothing for the series and progresses nothing with it's jingoistic slosh. It's so cringey that unlike the rest of the episodes I've seen many times, this I could barely watch once. I know it's an American show, but this just alienates viewers from the rest of the world.

The show has jumped the shark.

[captkirk_4 · 1/10 · 4 September 2022]

I have re-watched most of DS9 on Netflix over the past decade with repeated viewings of some of the best episodes. However I had pretty much avoided season 7 since suffering through debut broadcasts in the late 90s and when this episode came on the rerun station at my moms house this weekend I knew exactly why. The show had simply jumped the Shark by then with silly plot-lines like Dukat leading a "Heaven's Gate" type cult, endless holodeck episodes, endless dumb "parallel universe" episodes, the Dukat becomes Bajoran and romances Kai Winn, the mousy little girl with a boy's hairdo they forced on us after refusing to renew Terry Farrell's contract, the nonsensical relationship between Odo and Kira when it was very clear it was a one way longing never to be consummated.

This has to be one of the worst episodes of all. Must be some of the screen writers own hobby horse interest in baseball or something, none of the cast really fit into this mess. Just a gratuitous attempt to force unnecessary silliness from the whole ensemble onto the show. Nor is it even believable that everyone would bother to be part of this dumb thing. The Quark we knew from the show would never walk out on his beloved business to goof off with this while the underlings embezzle the day's profit. Just dumb, if you were already sick with the endless out of place Vic Fontaine episodes, they found a way to make one even worse.

Get me out of this ballgame

[thevacinstaller · 5/10 · 10 December 2021]

I think I would have enjoyed this episode more if 'Lower Decks' did not exist. Lower Decks is by far my least favorite star trek series because it is an embarrassing lowbrow joke at the expense of references that we the viewer collectively understand. This episode is a joke episode like Lower Decks but it at least reaches mediocre results and does make me throw items at my television set.

This is clearly an episode to break up the doom and gloom of the dominion war and I did truly enjoy the jerk vulcans. Call me the fun police but I just did not find the baseball humor to be funny.

I know --- I am a real stick in the mud. I like my star trek to be mostly serious with little moments of levity ----- (Dr McCoy constantly jabbing spock, Spock verbally eviscerating people, Data messing up human interactions, all of these are great in proper doses)

Swing and a miss.