The other key point about this is the return of another Next Gen character - Varsh, the archeologist who was porked by Picard. She's an interesting character, but it does draw attention to the fact that DS9 is focussing on familiar situations or old characters a lot, rather than developing new story arc's.
Yeah, there was quite a lot of that in the first season. I guess it was just to ease viewers into what was a very different series, because they stop using TNG stuff after the first year.

'Q-Less' is a bit of fluff, but I do like the gag with Q as the waiter annoying Bashir - "By GOD your impertinent!"