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Ben Sisko - Avery Brooks Kira Nerys - Nana Visitor Jadzia Dax - Tarry Farrell Odo - Rene Auberjonois Julian Bashir - Siddig El Fadil Quark - Armin Shimerman Jake Sisko - Cirroc Lofton 
OTHER SEASONS Season 1 Season 2 Season 4 Season 5 Season 6 Season 7 OTHER STAR TREK SHOWS Star Trek The Next Generation Voyager Enterprise OTHER TREKS THROUGH SPACE Babylon 5 The new Battlestar Galactica 
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The Search - Part Onecommander Sisko returns to Deep Space Nine with a new cloaked warship and a new mission; to enter the Gamma Quadrant and make contact with the Founders in order to make peace. The Jem'Hadar seem more intent on making war and a full-blown battle leaves the warship adrift in space and Odo and Kira alone on a planet of shapeshifters. Season 3 of DEEP SPACE NINE gets off to a dramatic and exciting start. Taking up a few months after the climactic events of The Jem'Hadar, the scene is quickly set and the mission into the Gamma Quadrant begins. It's tense, edgy stuff right from the start with the odds firmly against the Federation team and uncertainty all around, uncertainty that is transmitted to the audience. Once the Jem'Hadar get wind of what's going on, tension gives way to action. The battle sequence is dramatic, brutal and explosive. The cliffhanger situation is ripe with interest and for the first time we'll be certain to tune in for the next episode. TopThe Search - Part TwoDax and O'Brien locate Sisko and Dr Bashir and take them back to the station where it becomes clear that the mission to make peace with the Dominion has succeeded. The Federation is readying a treaty with the Founders, but Sisko wonders if the terms are not too high a price to pay for that peace. Odo, meanwhile, learns some very disquieting truths about his origin. There's something about this episode that doesn't convince from the start. People are acting too far out of character, questions remain unanswered and it's obvious that something is going on. Of course, the resolution to the story explains all that, but the audience is never fooled by it. Odo's story is much more interesting. The changer of his people from hunted refugees to the biggest threat that the Federation has ever faced is a surprising, but completely logical one. Rene Auberjonois plays this beautifully, even behind all the latex and gets excellent support from Nana Visitor. The Dominion threat recedes for the time being, but it is clear that they will be back. TopThe House of QuarkA drunk Klingon takes offence at Quark's demand for payment and pulls a knife on the Ferengi, but is so drunk that he falls on his own blade. In order to boost profits, Quark claims to have bested the Klingon in mortal combat. This lie ends up with the bartender married to the Klingon widow and stood in front of the High Council to fight another, not so drunk, Klingon. This is an episode of two halves obviously (oh so obviously) crafted to mirror each other, but of unequal quality. Whilst Chief O'Brien's marriage problems prove to be excrutiatingly dull (and haven't we been down this particular road before anyway?) the story with Quark's adventures on the Klingon homeworld are positively fun, brimming with energy and surprise. Armin Shimerman is managing to make the comedy Ferengi into a fully rounded character. The best and the worst of DEEP SPACE NINE in the same episode. TopEquilibriumDax starts to hear music that she knows but has never heard before and have hallucinations of a figure in a mask. Her upset threatens her link with the symbiont and so she returns to the Trill homeworld. The indications are that there is something about a previous host that is affecting the current Dax, but nobody is willing to talk about it and the doctors are willing to sacrifice Jadzia for the sake of keeping the secret. With heavy, heavy overtones of the STAR TREK:THE NEXT GENERATION episode Dark Page only with suppressed Trill memories of a previous host replacing Betazoid suppressed memories of a lost child, the story spins out into a basic investigation tale that is solved so quickly that you can't believe that nobody has found out the truth before. The implications for Trill society are extreme and Sisko's threats are very unFederationlike. Even so, the lack of originality that has been a problem for this particular incarnation of the franchise is something that continues to need working on. TopSecond SkinMajor Kira finds out that there are records of her being interned a cardassian POW camp that she has no memory of. She goes to check it out, but is kidnapped and finds herself on Cardassia Prime with a Cardassian face. She is told that she is a Cardassian deep undercover agent whose memories have been erased to help her cover, but now she must return to her Cardassian ways and tell them all that she knows about the station. Being altered to appear to be one of the enemy and being shown that everything you believe to be true is actually a lie is an old ploy used in any number of science fiction shows. This hardly adds a great deal of glory to that roster, but it does have some very nice things about it. The first is seeing Nana Visitor as a Cardassian. At first disconcerting, by the end of the show you can almost regret her being changed back again. The second major asset is the character of Garak (played with great relish again by Andy Robinson) who is becoming an ever more delightful character the more that we see of him. It is doubtful that we will ever learn the truth about him and, to be honest, that's just fine with us. TopThe AbandonedQuark buys a load of space salvage from the trader from the Gamma Quadrant. Amongst the junk he finds a baby, but a baby that quickly becomes a child and then a young adult. Unfortunately, it is a young adult Jem'Hadar. Starfleet want to study it, but Odo has some ideas about offering it alternatives to being either a killing machine or a lab rat. The story of this episode really doesn't convince. Odo has some high ideals, but it is clear from the outset that the child is far too tightly programmed for him to ever reach it. The other strand of the story about Commander Sisko finding out more about his son through his girlfriend is just painful. TopCivil DefenseSisko, Jake and O'Brien are exploring the station's nether regions when they manage to set off a recorded self-destruct system left over from Cardassian days. Each deadly trap that they manage to circumvent just makes the situation worse until the whole station is moments away from destruction. Now there's a lot of fun to be had with this situation and the episode really takes the opportunities it offers. The arrival of Garak helps not as much as he would like to believe and when Gul Dukat turns up to demand terms to save them and then finds himself caught in his own trap it really is delicious. Lightweight, then, but a very welcome piece of fun. TopMeridianOn a survey into the Gamma Quadrant the crew of the Defiant come across a planet that emerges from another dimension every 60 years. Whilst meeting the creatures that inhabit this planet, Jadzia falls in love with one and determines to stay with him when the planet shifts again. It's the DEEP SPACE NINE version of Brigadoon and it is tedious. The love story between Dax and the planet's inhabitant is exceeded in embarrassment factor only by the parting scene between Jadzia and Sisko, both actors overemoting as though their lives depended upon it. Episodes as bad as this ought to come with warnings. TopDefiantWill Riker, first officer of Starfleet flagship Enterprise, comes aboard Deep Space Nine and makes quite an impact on the female contingent. He makes more of an impact on Major Kira when he kidnaps her and steals the Defiant, heading deep into Cardassian space. Commander Sisko is forced to team up with Gul Dukat to hunt down the ship, but in the process discover that there are secret factions within the Cardassian government who are secretly arming for war. At first it is nice to see Johnathan Frakes back in uniform as Will Riker, but it quickly becomes clear that this is not Will Riker, but the twin created by a transporter accident in STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION episode Second Chances. This Riker has a lot of hangups about his 'twin' and the career that ought to have been his and his desperate mission is as much about that as it is about finding out what is going on in Cardassian space. For once it really pays to have seen Second Chances before seeing this episode as, whilst a potted history of the events in that show is given to Gul Dukat, the history behind the man is important to his motivation and the eventual outcome of the story. It's much more subtle and better if you have seen the other show. If you haven't it might be a little underwhelming and not very believable. TopFascinationIt's a festival of thanksgiving on the station, but everyone seems a bit down. Jake's girlfriend has gone away, Odo's day with Major Kira is spoiled when her lover arrives and O'Brien's wife Keiko comes for a visit, but is too tired to enjoy the visit. Then Lwaxana Troi arrives and people start forming attachments that are not at all their usual. This is a plot that crops up sooner or later in almost all genre shows. Usually it's everyne falling for a single person, but here it's everyone falling for someone else. It livens up considerably when Jadzia makes moves on an appalled Sisko and Major Kira gets physical with Dr Bashir, but by then we've had to wade through more of Chief O'Brien's marriage problems, something that not even Majel Barrett's delightfully batty Lwaxana Troi can save this from. TopPast Tense - Part OneSisko is visiting Earth when he, Dr Bashir and Jadzia are intercepted in their beam down and transported to the year 2024, a time of severe social problems in the USA. Sisko and Bashir are placed in an internment camp where there is due to be a society-changing riot, but end up being saved by the man who would wreak those changes. Unfortunately, he dies in the attempt, leaving the Defiant stranded in a future where Star Fleet never existed. Now this is an original idea. OK, time travel stories are two a penny in Past Tense - Part TwoSisko and Bashir are now in the heart of the hostage situation with Sisko playing the part of the hero that saved the people, but died in the attempt. It's a role that he knows he has to play out right to the end. O'Brien and Major Kira search through time for them. Whilst time travel might be theoretically possible, it ought to be impossible just to ensure that stories like this don't happen. For a hostage situation that turned into a pivotal event of the 21st century it's pretty damn dull. Even the moment where Sisko loses his temper with one of the hostages misfires because it is so over the top. Jadzia waltzes in and out of the zone through the sewers because the people locked inside never thought of that and O'Brien and Kira's tripping into the past is just plain embarrassing instead of the light relief it's supposed to be. TopLife SupportAn accident on a Bajoran transport leaves Vedek Barriel in critical condition. The Vedek was involved in secret negotiations with the Cardassians towards peace, negotiations that can't succeed without him. Dr Bashir is forced into ever more drastic actions to keep him alive. What value a man's life? Apart from showing once again the depths of selfishness that Louise Fletcher's Bajoran religious leader is capable of, there is very little here that is of interest. Certainly not Jake Sisko's double dating history. Nana Visitor gets a chance to flex her acting muscles around some suffering, but nothing else really seems to have a point. TopHeart of StoneOdo and Major Kira chase a Maquis ship to an unstable moon. Following the fugitive into a maze of tunnels Major Kira becomes trapped by a crystal growth on her foot. The crystal continues to grow and nothing Odo does can stop it. In the last hours that she has, Odo attempts to comfort her. This leads to some surprising revelations. An original story that relies on the mythology established by this show and the characters in it and nothing else? What will they think of next? More episodes like this and we might start really appreciating this new incarnation of the The sub plot of Nog, the young Ferengi, requesting entrance to Starfleet is also surprisingly strong. TopDestinyThree Cardassian scientists come aboard Deep Space Nine to take part in the first joint venture mounted in support of the new peace treaty between Bajor and Cardassia. A Bajoran spiritual leader also comes aboard to warn of dire consequences if the project goes ahead, forcing Commander Sisko to confront his position as religious icon The Emissary. The Bajoran religion has been distracting and detracting from the show since it began, but for once it proves to be the most interesting aspect of the episode. It can't be easy to be the living embodiment of a religious idea and Sisko's unease with that is the most human side of the character yet revealed. The uncertainty in oneself caused by having your future foretold is interesting to behold, even if it has been done before elsewhere. The secondary plot strand with a Cardassian woman getting the hots for O'Brien is also fun. TopProphet MotiveThe Grand Nagus is back in Quark's life again, but it is not the scheming, conniving, brilliant Ferengi leader that Quark knows and fears. This Grand Nagus wants to spread peace and light around the galaxy and has no interest in profit. His rewritten rules of acquisition are likely to bring the Ferengi empire crashing down and get both him and Quark killed in the process. Quark is usually good value for light entertainment and fun, but not in the deep and meaningful stakes. That's what this episode proves to be, light, fun and instantly forgettable. The sub-story of Dr Bashir being nominated for the greatest medical award in the galaxy is, by contrast, pretty dismal. TopVisionaryFollowing some sort of accident, Chief O'Brien finds himself being thrown forward in time by five hours to see a brawl, himself being killed and the destruction of Deep Space Nine. Apart from the fact that the episode reworks the kind of plot that was too familiar back in its STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION days, this episode is well enough done that it keeps the audience interested. The phenomenon causing O'Brien's time shifts is worked out by any audience familiar with the STAR TREK universe long before the crew of the station do, but that's just a quibble. TopDistant VoicesAn alien tries to procure a controlled substance from Dr Bashir and is rebuffed. The alien later attacks the Doctor who wakes up to find that he on a station that is almost completely abandoned and peopled by crewmembers who are merely facets of his own personality. Not exactly originality personified, this episode is a purely average one. There is some space for surreal imagery and the makeup of Bashir's ageing is very effective, but on the whole there is very little to get excited about. TopThrough the Looking GlassChief O'Brien kidnaps Commander Sisko and takes him to the same parallel universe that Major Kira and Dr Bashir so enjoyed in the season two episode Crossover. In this universe, the Sisko that was leading the rebellion against the Klingon/Cardassian alliance has been killed, but is needed to stop a leading scientist from developing a sensor array that will effectively destroy the rebellion. The reason that they need Sisko to do it is that the scientist happens to be his wife who didn't die in this mirror universe. Oh but the cast and writers of this episode clearly enjoyed writing and performing their alternate personalities. Nana Visitor loves turning the cartoon villain sexiness up to 10 and this time we are introduced to the alternate Bashir, Dax and even Tim Russ as Tuvok from STAR TREK VOYAGER for no readily apparent reason. It is unnerving seeing Sisko get it on with Dax and Sisko's wife betrays all that she has been working for with much too much ease, but on the whole this glimpse into an alternative world continues to amuse and we can hope htat this won't be the last time we get to visit. TopImprobable CauseGarak, the Cardassian tailor/spy is injured when his shop is ripped apart by an explosion. Odo, frustrated by the lack of help from his victim, locates a suspect who is shortly afterwards killed, apparently by Romulans. Odo links the attack to the deaths of several other Cardassians, all linked in Garak's past. Garak and Odo set off to save the last name on the list, but find that all is not as it seems. We at the SCI FI FREAK SITE have always like Garak as a character and the show is always enlivened when he is about. This is no exception. The banter between Garak and all the other characters is sharp and witty, but it is backed up by a stronger than normal plot that is given more time to breathe by being the first in a two-part story of much more epic consequences for the Alpha quadrant than is usual. The turn around of events at the end is somewhat exciting. TopThe Die is CastA fleet of Romulan and Cardassian warships goes through the wormhole in order to find the planet of the Founders and annihilate the Dominion in one single strike. On board, Odo is being held prisoner and Garak is forced to torture him for information that he does not have. Sisko is not willign to standby and abandon Odo and so disobeys direct orders and takes the Defiant through the wormhole to get him back. Unfortunately, the Jem'Hadar have other plans for all of them. After the excellent Improbable Cause, this episode takes the storyline established and sets about creating a situation that is not only stunning in its own right but sets up the ongoing Dominion plot arc for the future. The epic nature of the story is furthered by a climactic space battle that is both exciting and the biggest use of special effects that the series has come up with to date. This is the kind of thing that BABYLON 5 did so wonderfully well in its main Shadows storyline. It is no coincidence that the set up for DEEP SPACE NINE echoes that of the other space station saga, but this is one of the first times that the show has approached the excitement and drama of that revolutionary series. It also has a much harder, darker edge than most of the series to date. The scene where Garak tortures Odo is especially disturbing. If this is what the Dominion arc is capable of producing for the show then perhaps all of the episodes ought to feature it. TopExplorersBack from a holiday in the oldest library on Bajor, Commander Sisko sets out to prove that ancient Bajorans were able to sail solar ships at sublight speeds as far as Cardassia Prime. The voyage gives him time to find out some new things about his son. Father and son bonding is a fine subject for drama, if it is done right. Here it is done exceedingly tediously. The support story of Dr Bashir worrying over the visit of the one doctor that makes him feel second best is equally tedious. Only the beauty of the solar ship proves any respite from the tedium. Hell, even the Cardassians finish of the episode with a fireworks display! TopFamily BusinessThe financial authorities come calling to Quark's with disturbing news. His mother is accused of making profit, something that is against Ferengi Law. Quark must get her to confess or she will be made a slave and he will have to pay reparations. When it turns out that she has made more money than Quark could ever hope to repay, he is left with no option but to denounce her. This is the first sight of Ferenginar and a deeper look into the society and ways of the Ferengi. They have been the light relief for the franchise for a long time, but it needs to be remembered that they created an empire and you don't get to do that without being more than a bunch of clowns. Sadly, though, it is mainly played for easy laughs and clowns is still all that we are left with. TopShakaarMajor Kira's Bajoran nemesis Kai Winn is made the first minister of the government. One of her first decisions brings her into conflict with some Bajoran farmers who decide to defy her. She asks for Kira's help as she was in the same resistance cell as the farmers, but matters progress until a massacre of either ex-freedom fighters or current security forces seems inevitable. Bajoran politics again and it is still tedious in the extreme. The fact that it brings back Louise Fletcher's delightfully devious and malicious Kai Winn is not enough to save it from the fact that it is so terminally dull, dull, dull. TopFacetsJadzia undergoes a Trill ritual in which her previous hosts' memories are implanted into her closest friends allowing her to interact with them in a whole new way and learn new things about herself. This means that she must confront the man who was a killer, but the most difficult is Curzon Dax, whose joining with Odo turns out to be something a bit more permanent. Characters' navel-gazing is never the most entertaining basis for drama and that proves to be the case here as well. It was fun, I'm sure, for all the actors to get to play someone else for a while, but it is much less fun watching them do it. Avery Brooks does a passable Hannibal Lecter impersonation and seeing Rene Auberjonois as Curzon is a curious thing, but the character of Curzon who was always talked about as if he was a veritable force of nature turns out to be a damp squib. The minor story of Nog, the Ferengi, taking his starfleet academy exams proves to be more interesting with barely five minutes screen time. TopThe AdversaryCommander Sisko is promoted to Captain, but immediately receives word of a coup in a neighbouring area of space that could lead to all out war, destabilising the area and making things easier for the Dominion. A mission into enemy space is mounted, but it turns out that a changeling has turned the Defiant into the very weapon that will start the war. Taking its lead from John Carpenter's film THE THING this is a study in paranoia. The enemy could be anybody and so you can trust nobody. The only way to test is through blood exactly as in the film and the scene even plays out much like in the film (without the dismembered arms). Whilst it is hard to believe that the new Captain would undertake a mission without some sort of backup confirmation, the rest of the episode is tense and exciting and leaves with the thought that the Federation has been infiltrated and compromised. Where do we go from here? We've not been so excited about finding out where DEEP SPACE NINE is going to take us at the end of any of the previous seasons. Top |
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