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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 Worf - Michael Dorn 
OTHER SEASONS Season 1 Season 2 Season 3 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 Way of the Warrior - Part OneA Klingon fleet arrives at the station to provide support in the fight against the Dominion. Whilst the soldiers cause trouble wherever they go, it becomes pretty clear pretty quickly that the fleet are there for a reason other than defence of the wormhole. Sisko brings in an old friend of Chief O'Brien's to help find out what that is. Normally, politics in DEEP SPACE NINE has been a sure sign of a dull, dull episode. Klingon politics has always been a bit different however, and when it is revealed that the Klingon intent is an invasion of Cardassia then politics turns to war and that is rarely dull. The arrival of Michael Dorn as Worf, original member of the Enterprise in STAR TREK:THE NEXT GENERATION comes as a welcome surprise, though the character does not appear to have evolved at all. Certainly the choice that he is presented with at the end of the episode will have little resonance with anyone who has not followed the character through STAR TREK:THE NEXT GENERATION TopThe Way of the Warrior - Part TwoWith the Klingons breaking through the Cardassian defences, Sisko makes the decision to go into the war zone to rescue Gul Dukat and the new leaders of the Cardassian government. One ship against a fleet of Klingons is not great odds. The concluding part of this two-part tale is exciting stuff and about as good as the show has been to date. There is a space battle between the Defiant and Klingon ships and a full scale assault against the station by the fleet of Klingon ships including hand to hand combat on the bridge and promenade. The tension and action is full on and high quality. It was hard to imagine before this episode that the show was capable of this quality. The episode also makes it clear that Michael Dorn is going to be a permanent fixture in the crew and it is hard to say whether this is a good thing or not. Time will tell. TopThe VisitorAn accident on the Defiant drags Captain Sisko into subspace. At first he is thought dead, but then he appears to Jake, briefly. Jake tries to live his life, but when his father reappears later, he abandons his life, wife and career to find a way to get him back. When schedules are tight there's an old trick of writing a story around a minor, or new, character in which the major characters appear only from time to time, allowing them to work on bigger appearances in other shows. This feels like one of those episodes. There is some fun in seeing the cast of characters aged up, but the sentimentality is so overpowering that it ought to come with a warning for diabetics. The spoilers are there for who gets to grow old before the big reset switch is thrown and time goes back to normal - a get out clause that is predictable from very early on. TopHippocratic OathDr Bashir and Chief O'Brien find themselves prisoners of the Jem'Hadar, but the commander of the small group is not like the others. He has managed to break his addiction to the drug that enslaves the soldiers and keeps them loyal to the Dominion. Now he wants Dr Bashir to find a cure for his men, but finding a cure will lead to uncertain results. Ah, shades of grey. The idea is that Dr Bashir must balance his oath to save life and heal people against what the Jem'Hadar might do if they are no longer under the control of the Dominion. This doesn't seem like much of a conflict of ethics and so the question doesn't really rivet the attention. The subplot of Worf coming to terms with his new role is just plain dull. TopIndiscretionMajor Kira is contacted by a disreputable trader who has information about the location of a lost prison ship. The Cardassians insist on sending someone to join her search - Gul Dukat. During the search, Kira learns that Dukat is in search of his daughter by a Bajoran mistress, a daughter that he intends to kill. Cardassian villain Gul Dukat is not the devil incarnate. The whole episode is constructed to show that point and if we hadn't gotten that before now then this puts the message in very large neon letters for the hard of understanding. As a result it is neither convincing nor all that interesting. The sub story of Captain Sisko's ongoing romance with a freighter captain is played for mild comedy and is therefore mildly amusing. TopRejoinedWhen Trill symbionts change hosts, they are forbidden from taking up old relationships or loves. This is to continue their acquisition of new experiences not just reliving old lives. The penalty for such a relationship is exile from the Trill homeworld and no new hosts for the symbiont. When an ex-wife appears on the station, Jadzia Dax finds it hard to suppress her emotions. In STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION episode The Host, Dr Beverly Crusher fell in love with a Trill host but baulked at continuing the relationship when the next host turned out to be a woman. The hint of lesbianism was a bit too much for the show. How times have changed. Not only is there a hint, but there is full on lip locking between Jadzia and her former love. It is, however, all part of a surprisingly affecting love story and only slightly gratuitous. Before it, there is a lot of longing looks and significant pauses. Terry Farrell also proves to be remarkably adept at conveying her inner devotionn. Its intensity is never in doubt. What is in doubt are the stupid rules that govern the Trill. For starters, why should it be so taboo to meet up with former loves? The change in bodies alone makes it seem unlikely that the same relationship could honestly continue and as the hosts are also so very different in personality it would present new experiences and thus the taboo makes no sense. The penalty, though, is utterly draconian. The penalty for in aimproper relationship is death? Not right away, of course, but when the host dies the symbiont is allowed to die too? How does that fit in with Federation principles? TopStarship DownThe Defiant is attacked by a couple of Jem'hadar warships and they all plunge into the atmosphere of a gas giant where a deadly game of cat and mouse begins. One Jem'hadar ship is destroyed, but Defiant is badly damaged, Captain Sisko is injured and Quark is left with a live warhead in his lap. This episode steals from both STAR TREK 2:THE WRATH OF KHAN with the limited sensor game of cat and mouse and the STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION episode Disaster with its crew scattered and working out how to save the day, but we're going to complain about this lack of originality less than usual because it takes the 'influences' and puts them together into an entertaining and, at times, exciting episode. The Major Kira/Captain Sisko thread is, however, pretty nauseating. TopLittle Green MenIt's time for Nog to go to Starfleet Academy and Quark agrees to take him to Earth in his new shuttle. Unfortunately, the shuttle is sabotaged and throws the family back in time, back to a place called Roswell. Using Quark and his family as the aliens supposed to have landed at Roswell is inspired. Bonkers, but inspired. It leads to a story of supreme silliness, but supreme silliness can also be fun, which this is. Inconsequential yes, but highly entertaining. TopThe Sword of KahlessOne of Jadzia's klingon blood brothers arrives on the station with the news that he knows the whereabouts of the ancient weapon of Kahless, most revered of Klingon historical figures. He, Jadzia and Worf go off in search of this icon that could unite an empire, but instead find a sword capable of bringing them to each others' throats. The sword of Kahless has been lost for thousands of years and yet this trio manage to find it in less than twenty minutes. There is a forcefield that a whole Vulcan survey team couldn't get past and yet Jadzia has it switched off in less than a minute. Unbelievable doesn't even begin to cover it. Once the sword has been found, however, things start to look up. Like a cross between THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE and the one ring in THE LORD OF THE RINGS, the corrosive nature of the weapon's allure has some interest, but that descends into repetitive bickering so that the audience doesn't actually give a damn who gets hold of it. If you haven't seen the many Klingon political episodes of both STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION and DEEP SPACE NINE itself then much of the background will be completely lost on you. TopOur Man BashirDr Bashir is joined in a holosuite recreation of a James Bond style adventure by Garak at the same time that the runabout carrying the rest of the bridge crew explodes. A transporter malfunction transfers the crew into the holosuite programme, forcing Dr Bashir to find a way to get to the end of the adventure without anyone dying. Hands down the best DEEP SPACE NINE episode ever. The cod-Bondian plot is absolutely sublime even without the added fun of the other crewmembers playing roles within it. O'Brien, Dax and Worf, don't come off too well, barely changing at all, but Nana Visitor's russian siren is an absolute delight and Avery Brooks is more believable as a camp supervillain than as the straight-laced Starfleet captain. There is even a wonderful faux-Bond music score. The time of the holosuite programme also gives us women in tiny skirts and dancing in cages, a wonderful respite from the inescapable political correctness. Both Dr Bashir and Garak get some great lines both within the frame of the fantasy and in their 'real' roles. For sheer fun, this is going to be very hard to beat and when Dr Bashir suggests that his spy character will return we can only pray that he is right. TopHomefrontCaptain Sisko and Odo are summoned back to Earth, not to give briefings about the Dominion and the changelings, but to take over Starfleet security on Earth adnd find ways of defending it against infiltration by the changelings. This means the use of measures that go against all the freedoms that humans have enjoyed there for a long time. When all power to the defences fails, it is clear that an attack is imminent and martial law is required. Alien beings who can look just like us, but are working against us? Wonder where they got the idea for that? It's a timely subject that recent events haven't made any less relevant. How much freedom are you willing to give up in order to protect freedom? Fortunately, it's not as dry as the subject matter suggests, but this is clearly a set up episode and so it doesn't exactly move with any great pace and the family issues between Captain Sisko and his father are not very affecting. The showdown over blood tests is extremely unconvincing. The determined manner in which Nog's interest in and rebuffal by the elite cadets in the Academy is kept low key makes it clear that this has to be central to the resolution of these events. TopParadise LostWith martial law firmly in place, the Dominion attack doesn't take place before Earth's defences are brought back in place. Captain Sisko and Odo start looking into how the sabotage took place and learn some disquieting things - things that will bring Starfleet ships to fire on Starfleet ships and a Captain to put his career on the line to bring down an Admiral. The terrorist message is hammered home a little harder and with less subtly than in Homefront, but there are still more than enough shades of grey for the story to be morally interesting. A little more action along the way might have helped and a few less family homilies, but on the whole the episode stands up well. TopCrossfireOdo is forced to face his feelings for Major Kira when Bajor's First Minister comes to the station and starts to show affection for her. It begins to interfere with his work and the only person who understands and can give advice is Quark. It's hard to give a nuanced performance with only your eyes so hats off to Rene Auberjonois for making a good job of showing Odo's pain and confusion at the unfamiliar emotions that are overwhelming him. It's the only point of interest in a soap opera storyline that even reduces Worf to head of security again because the writers don't seem to know what to do with him now that the Klingons are gone. TopReturn to GraceMajor Kira is to attend a conference with the Cardassians to discuss the Klingon threat and her escort turns out to be the disgraced Gul Dukat. The conference, however, has been destroyed and everyone killed by a Klingon ship. With only a lightly armed freighter, Dukat and Kira take on the Klingon ship and Dukat makes her a surprising offer. And so the tables are turned. Gul Dukat, once the evil dictator of the Bajoran occupation, is turned into the desperate freedom fighter of a subjugated race. For once we get to see a more rounded, less evil and more believable Gul Dukat thanks to some good writing and a nice performance from Marc Alaimo, far removed from the usual sneering villain. The situation that he finds himself is also a nicely written one that is a little more subtle and complex than is often the case. TopSons of MoghWorf's brother comes to the station in disgrace. With Worf siding with the Federation over the Empire, the emperor has stripped the family of their land, rights and honour. Kurn wants a release from his life and Worf is willing to give it to him, even though it might lead to a charge of murder. Klingon honour is quite often beyond understanding and a code of honour that drives a man to suicide, but then makes suicide dishonourable is just plain crazy. What this episode is, though, is dull, which is quite bizarre considering how much plot there is pushed into it. Watching a man beg to be killed for an hour isn't a brilliant form of entertainment and Kurn isn't familiar enough to us for us to care that deeply about his issues and so tedium sets in and never lets go. TopBar AssociationWhen Quark uses the lack of customers due to the Bajoran period of cleansing as an excuse to cut his staff's wages, his brother does something unthinkable to a Ferengi and creates a union. When Quark fails to end the strike that follows, the Ferengi authorities move in to do it for him by any means necessary. Labour relations? True that science fiction holds a distorting mirror up to present day concerns, but it ought to be holding up an entertaining distorting mirror. This is not entertaining and is far too simplistic to prove educational. There is one final scene where Quark's brother finally chooses to follow his own path in life and that is a lesson worth learning. TopAccessionA Bajoran poet lost in space centuries before comes drifting out of the wormhole to announce that he is the real emissary. Captain Sisko is only too happy to hand over the position, but when the newcomer announces that the Bajorans will have to return to a strict caste system that will take Major Kira from the station and ruin any chances of Bajor joining the Federation, he begins to regret that decision. Bajoran politics has provided some of the more boring tales in the series, but this episode is more about one man's personal misgivings about being a religious icon and leader. On that level, it is more subtle and has more depth than some of the other episodes, but it also one of the slower ones. The adding in of new marriage issues for Chief O'Brien certainly doesn't live things up any. Anyone coming to the series at this point would not find much to persuade them to stay. TopRules of EngagementFollowing the destruction of a civilian transport by the Defiant during a firefight, the Klingons send an advocate to sue for Worf's extradition to the Homeworld on charges of mass murder. The courtroom is a natural source of drama. The adversarial justice system automatically creates conflict and the system is purpose built for theatrics and final minute revelations. Rarely, though, has there been a case as dull as this one. It's obvious from the outset that the case has been doctored and the Klingon advocate even has the kindness to reveal why it has been done early on. The flashback structure of the evidence being given is obvious and clunky and the final revelation this time comes as no surprise to anyone, only that it is so laboured. TopHard TimeChief O'Brien is wrongly convicted of espionage (it's Miles O'Brien, we know he didn't do it) and sentenced to a long prison sentence. The alien race is too 'enlightened' to actually make him serve the sentence so they implant memories of the sentence in his mind. As he returns home to the station, for him it is as if he spent 20 years in jail. It's been a while since DEEP SPACE NINE genuinely surprised us, but this is not just a surprise, but a revelation. An entire episode is devoted to the slow mental unravelling of a major character and the experiences that lead him to the brink of suicide. That's right, a STAR TREK character considering eating a phaser blast. It's a very fine piece of character drama and it is anchored by an excellent performance from Colm Meaney as the bluff irishman who can't face the horrors of what he has experienced, but more importantly what those experiences have driven him to. This is probably the most complex, hardest time that he's been given in the role to date and he rises to the occasion spectacularly. The camera is on him in almost every scene, but he carries it off easily. When he's in pain, you feel it and when he looks down the barrel of the phaser you know that it's for real. At the same time as his downward spiral, there is a mystery to uncover, a mystery that is the key to his pain and his potential recovery. There are also moral issues around the idea that imposing a virtual sentence could possibly be somehow more acceptable than a real incarceration. How anyone could believe in that is hard to fathom. This is one of the finest episodes that the STAR TREK franchise has produced in any of its guises. TopShattered MirrorWhen Jake is fooled into visiting the mirror universe where an alliance of Cardassians and Klingons hold the Terrans in slavery, Sisko is forced to follow him and agree to work out the bugs in the mirror version of the Starship Defiant before an alliance fleet arrives to destroy the newly-freed station. The previous visits to the mirror universe (Crossover and Through the Looking Glass) were pretty fun, but this doesn't quite live up to those, mainly because Nana Visitor's completely off chart sexy villainess doesn't appear until late on and spends most of her time in a cell. Instead, Sisko is faced with coming to terms with the mirror image of his wife and her new connection with Jake. It's really not as much fun, but at least we get a bit of a space battle at the end to perk things up. TopThe MuseLwaxana Troi arrives on the station with the surprising news that she is pregnant and on the run from a husband who wants to take her baby away. Odo finds that the only way that he can conceivably save them both is to marry her. Meanwhile Jake is attracted to a woman who can bring out his writing talent, but at a deadly cost. Two ho-hum stories combine to create a ho-hum episode. The idea of a muse being able to give an artist immortality in return for their life is a nice one, but too drawn out, whilst Lwaxana Troi is the least fun that she has ever been. TopFor the CauseCommander Sisko's relationship with a civilian freighter captain is put under threat when allegations are made that she is running supplies to the terrorist Maquis. Ben sets out to prove it, but finds that he is being betrayed by more than one person. The Maquis are one of the things that drags this version of the STAR TREK universe out of perfection and into the real world of shades of grey. Terrorists to some and freedom fighters to others, they provide some much needed contradictions that make the situations they appear in a bit deeper than the usual crises. For anyone to get one over on the big leader is rare in these shows, but for two to give it a try and one to succeed is pretty much unprecedented. Moral grey areas aside, the story isn't really compelling. TopTo the DeathAn attack on the station takes the Defiant into the Gamma Quadrant in chase of a shipful of Jem'Hadar. When they find the ship it turns out the attackers are renegade Jem'Hadar planning to open up an alien portal and make a life for themselves, a life that is likely to destroy the Federation. The only solution is for the Federation crew and Jem'Hadar soldiers to fight as allies. Another episode in the ongoing attempt to make the Jem'Hadar a less two-dimensional enemy, this proves to be less convincing than it would like, the reasons for the joining of the two forces being sketchy at best. Once they are together, it is clear that neither side is going to be able to come to terms with the other and the amount of information that we learn about the Jem'Hadar that we didn't already know is minimal. It does, however, go to show just how shaky the Dominion's control over its own soldiers is and that perhaps the Jem'Hadar unrestrained are a scarier prospect than the Jem'Hadar under Dominion rule. TopThe QuickeningOn a biomapping expedition into the Gamma Quadrant, Dr Bashir and Dax find a race of people afflicted with a terrible disease from birth as a punishment for standing up to the Dominion. Dr Bashir sets out to find a cure, but finds that the task may be beyond him. Perhaps all he can offer is hope for the future. As STAR TREK stories go, this is surprisingly brutal and unsentimental, something that improves it no end. Not only is the great Dr Bashir set a challenge that he might not be able to overcome, but he causes the deaths of several test subjects (not deliberately, of course). This is about disease and the horror that is biological warfare. Be warned that people are going to die and going to die badly. It's not pleasant and it's not pretty and that's as close to reality as the show ever gets. The story is even willing to sacrifice its major players at the moments of (partial) victory as well. The pregnant woman that Bashir is determined to take to full term barely gets time to register that her baby is born, let alone free from the disease before she expires, certainly without the time for the usual thanks and goodbyes. This is tougher stuff and, following Hard Time shows a real maturing of the show. TopBody PartsQuark returns from Ferenginar with the news that he is dying of a rare disease and has only six days to leave his affairs in order. Following tradition, he offers up his body for auction to the highest bidder. When he learns that the diagnosis was wrong and that he is not dying he is relieved, right up to the point where the buyer arrives and insists on collecting his goods. The Ferengi are the comedy relief of the show and this is another light episode, although the dilemma facing Quark (destitution or suicide) has its darker twin in the real world. The fact that Quark chooses destitution and then finds out that his greatest assets are his friends is all very IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, but it sure beats the other story where Chief O'Brien's baby is transferred out of his injured wife's womb into Major Kira. TopBroken LinkOdo is taken ill by a disease that threatens to leave him as a pool of uncontrolled liquid. The only solution appears to be for him to return to the home of his people to face their judgement for his killing of one of his own kind. Garak comes along for the ride and is faced with the realisation that here is a chance to end the Dominion threat forever. The series finale is usually the moment to open up a story and leave it on a knife edge to be finished off in the next season, but this one is a little different. The story of Odo's return home, his judging and his punishment is a good one with plenty of pathos for the poor constable but also tension as the Jem'Hadar surround the Defiant with dozens of warships. Garak's realisation of the extent of the Founders' inhumanity is chilling as it brings home their threat to whole Alpha Quadrant in a way that hasn't been managed before. What's missing is the cliffhanger. The story ends, but it does leave a situation brewing that will clearly form the start of the next season and one that makes DEEP SPACE NINE an almost unmissable proposition for the first time. Top |
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