History Recap / StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS02E06Melora

* AlienLunch: This is the first appearance of the Klingon restaurant on Deep Space 9. The food appears to be live worms, black lettuce, and slices of dubious-looking fruit all dumped by hand into a small pile.

Bashir is excited that a new officer, Melora Pazlar, is set to arrive at the station. She is Elaysian, from a planet with extremely low gravity, which will force her to use a wheelchair on the station that Bashir is preparing for her. Bashir greatly admires her from what he's read and anticipates that she won't want to receive any special treatment for his disability. Even he, however, is taken about when Melora arrives and behaves with brusque condescension toward even the slightest insinuation that she needs help.

* BizarreAlienBiology: Fallit Kot has a ridge linking his nose to his chin, meaning his species somehow evolved a trait which would hinder the act of eating. The episode even showcases it by having Fallit eat during the episode, something that isn't particularly common on the show.

While all this was going on, Fallit finally ambushes Quark and forces him to buy his life back with the proceeds of a big sale that Quark is negotiating. Fallit accompanies Quark to the trade and then steals both the merchandise and the payment. He drags Quark to a runabout to make his escape, hijacking the one that Melora and Dax hace just landed.

While performing a survey of the Gamma Quadrant, Melora chats with Dax about her predicament. She likes the idea of getting freedom from her chair, but she doesn't want to be forever exiled form her homeworld. Dax likens her to ''The Little Mermaid'', who turned her back on the sea to for love on land. It didn't work out so hot for her.

* ZeroGSpot: Bashir and Melora make out when she turns off the gravity in her quarters. It's heavily implies that things got steamier from there.

A new officer, Melora Pazlar, arrives at the station. She is Elaysian, from a planet with extremely low gravity, forcing her to use a wheelchair on other worlds. As she and Dr. Bashir become close, he conceives of a "cure" for her.

* AlienLunch: This is the first appearance of the Klingon restaurant on Deep Space 9.

* BizarreAlienBiology: Fallit Kot has a ridge linking his nose to his chin, meaning his species somehow evolved a trait which would hinder the act of eating.[[labelnote:*]] The same thing would be seen with the Tak Tak race in ''Voyager'''s "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E11Macrocosm Macrocosm]]".[[/labelnote]]

* DueToTheDead: Odo says that, if Quark is killed, he'll buy one of his vacuum desiccated remains.
* KickTheDog: Fallit Kot shoots Melora with a phaser, after Dax has told him that she can't function in their current gravity, and leaves her to lay on the ground.
* NoSuchThingAsAlienPopCulture: Averted. Melora and Dax listen to some Vulcan tunes while on the runabout.

* SpaceWhaleAesop: Dax compares Melora gaining the ability to walk but being unable to return to Elaysia to the story of ''[[Literature/TheLittleMermaid The Little Mermaid]]'', and relays it as the mermaid giving up her life under the sea for a pair of legs so she can walk on land. When Melora questions if she lived happily ever after, Dax's facial response implies not. The intent to try and use ''The Little Mermaid'' as a cautionary tale falls apart with just a glance at the original story -- while the Little Mermaid does die, it's because she failed to win the prince's heart and he fell in love with someone else, and her turning into sea foam and becoming a spirit makes it a BittersweetEnding in spite of her failure.[[note]](Possibly the writers were using the then-recent [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 Disney adaptation]] as their reference, as that version ends with the title character gaining legs and being able to marry the man of her dreams, but at the cost of having to give up her friends and family from her life as a mermaid, which would more fit the analogy that Dax is making)[[/note]]

* ZeroGSpot: Heavily implied between Bashir and Melora when she turns off the gravity in her quarters.

* ChekhovsSkill: A variant--Melora's low-gravity background puts her at an advantage over her would-be kidnapper when she disables the artificial gravity on the runabout.

* SpaceWhaleAesop: Dax compares Melora gaining the ability to walk but being unable to return to Elaysia to the story of ''[[Literature/TheLittleMermaid The Little Mermaid]]'', and relays it as the mermaid giving up her life under the sea for a pair of legs so she can walk on land. When Melora questions if she lived happily ever after, Dax's facial response implies not. The intent to try and use ''The Little Mermaid'' as a cautionary tale falls apart with just a glance at the original story -- while the Little Mermaid does die, it's because she failed to win the prince's heart and he fell in love with someone else, and her turning into sea foam and becoming a spirit makes it a BittersweetEnding in spite of her failure.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: It makes little sense that Elaysians, a species which has evolved on a planet with low gravity, would look exactly like humans (except for the [[RubberForeheadAliens rubber forehead]]).
** Additionally, Bashir states that it's Melora's motor cortex that prevents her from functioning normally under higher gravity, and stimulating it is all it takes to enable her to walk unassisted. This is ignoring the fact that it's her actual musculature, connective tissue, and skeleton that would be unable to tolerate the increased gravity.

* CreatorsPet: The writer of the episode was using Melora to vent [[AuthorAvatar a lot of his own frustrations]], which probably explains why the character is treated so reverently despite being snappish, rude, and insubordinate. For just how fully this is in effect, take a look at the recap page and see how many other episodes of this series are outright named after a character.

* CreatorsPet: The writer of the episode was using Melora to vent [[AuthorAvatar|a lot of his own frustrations]], which probably explains why the character is treated so reverently despite being snappish, rude, and insubordinate. For just how fully this is in effect, take a look at the recap page and see how many other episodes of this series are outright named after a character.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: It was the original intention to have a wheelchair-bound alien as the science officer on the station, but it was decided that it would be too complicated for filming purposes, so they went with a Trill instead. They kept the idea in mind, though.

* HeyItsThatGuy: Three years later, the actress playing Melora would swap a starship for [[Recap/DoctorWhoTVMTheTVMovie another]] kind of spaceship.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: It makes little sense that Elaysians, a species which has evolved on a planet with low gravity, would look exactly like humans, except for the [[RubberForeheadAliens rubber forehead]].

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: It was the original intention to have a wheelchair-bound alien as the science officer on the station, but it was decided that it would be too complicated for filming purposes, so they went with a Trill instead. They kept the idea in mind, though.

A new officer, Melora Pazlar, arrives at the station. She is Elaysian, from a planet with extremely low gravity, forcing her to use a wheelchair on other worlds. As she and Dr. Bashir become close, he conceives of a "cure" for her.