“His Way” is episode twenty of season six of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
The episode opens on DS9 in what looks very like a mid 20th century lounge bar, with the senior staff watching the performance. It’s a hologram of course. Vic Fontaine – a hologram who knows that he knows he’s a hologram. The hologram proves quite adept at reading people, but doesn’t say what he sees when he looks at Odo and Major Kira.
Dr. Bashir arranges another meeting at the lounge bar the next night, but Kira has to beg off as she’s going to Bajor. To meet the First Minister, which Dax accidentally discloses. Bashir tells O’Brien that, thanks to the hologram, he was able to get a date with someone who had turned him down three times. Odo overhears this and seems to ponder something.
Odo is still interested in Major Kira, of course. Quark points out that it’s over a year since Major Kira split with the First Minister, a year in which Odo could have made a move. But didn’t. Odo doesn’t want Quark’s opinion – but Quark points out that Odo asked for it. Quark then points out Odo’s shortcomings when it comes to interpersonal interactions. So Odo asks Quark if he can use Bashir’s new holosuite programme.
Vic tells Odo that he could see that the latter was crazy about Kira, but was afraid to do anything, and that Kira just thinks of Odo as a friend. But all is not lost – woman can change their mind and Kira already likes Odo. He just needs to get her to see him as something potentially more. Which means stop acting so cold and emotionless (‘Nanook of the North’ is what Vic calls him) for a start. Beginning with playing the piano.
So, most of the episode revolves around Odo taking advice from a hologram of a lounge singer from the Sixties. With quite a bit of appropriate music from the era as well, as Vic helps Odo come out of his shell.
A rather lighter episode than some recent ones.