Star Trek: Deep Space Nine — 2x01 — The Homecoming

Aired 1993-09-26

SpaceOpera.com rating:6

Average reader rating:4.88

Synopsis

Kira risks her life, and war with the Cardassians, to rescue a mythical Bajoran hero from a distant prison colony.

Filler rating: not filler

This arc sets up a number of long term plot threads, including Bareil's relationship with Kira.

Remarkable scenes

Odo unable to explain Quark helping him crack a case.
Quark visiting Kira's quarters.
Sisko and Jake talking about Jake's first date.
Dax one step ahead of Sisko in their conversation about whether or not to give Kira the runabout.
Kira making up a high ranking Cardassian to fool the border police.
Gul Dukat's mysterious cooperative mood.
Quark being tagged by the terrorists.
Li Nalas telling his story to Sisko.
Sisko trying to convince Nalas to be the symbol Bajor needs, even if he's not a great leader at heart.
Rules of Acquisition; 76. Every once in a while, declare peace. It confuses the hell out of your enemies.

Review

More Bajoran politics. Kira's successful mission to Cardassia IV to rescue Li Nalas was lots of fun, especially with Dukat's odd cooperation. The characters of Li Nalas and Minister Jarro were quite compelling overall. Li Nalas' desire to stay out of the spotlight and Minister Jarro's desire to use the spotlight to his own political advantage were a nice counterpoint. Likewise Jake's failed attempt to go out with his Bajoran girlfriend was a touching way to put a human face on an abstract political struggle. Jarro's abrupt reassignment of Kira was a nice cliffhanger; demonstrating that there's more to Jarro than meets the eye. I feel like stories like this fleshing out Bajoran politics are what should have filled out the first season, but oh well. At least we're getting it now.

3 reader comments

I like the way they decided to continue on from the end of season one with more Bajoran stuff. One would have thought that after a fairly lacklustre first season that they would begin season two with something quite generic and 'easy' for non-trek fans to get into, I'm glad they did not.
This is by no means a standout offering, but it is steady enough and keeps the interest flowing into the next installment.
by Bernard | 01/20/2010 at 10:47 pm

You don't consider The Best of Both Worlds and Family a three parter?
by Amaterasu | 12/08/2010 at 2:44 am

I thought this was an excellent episode. I think Chief O'Brian being sent on a successful special ops combat mission, and personally dispensing several guards, deserves a mention in "Remarkable Scenes." Quite a change of pace for him from repairing food replicators and the like.
His deceptive pimping of Kira was also amusing. (How the hell does he do such a convincing job of being so unsavory? Are there other sides to old Miles that we haven't seen yet?)
Everything just seemed nicely lined up and well executed. I really liked how there were a few things on the side that fit in the with the major plot lines, like Quark's mentioning Rule of Acquisition #76 in the very beginning, "declaring peace for the sake of confusion," which ties into Gul Dukat's conciliatory reaction at the end. Also, Jake's date's father not letting them see each other because Jake isn't a Bajoran (ties into xenophobic extremism spreading on Bajor).
There were also some great tidbits of continuity, for instance Miles being eager about, and then actually participating in the Cardassia IV mission. This ties in with his having fought Cardassians before on Setlik III under Captain Maxwell, and personally witnessing atrocities there (TNG: The Wounded).
And another tiny bit of continuity when Quark walks in on Major Kira in the middle of a Bajoran ritual… In the previous episode she talked about wishing her faith was stronger.
To cap this all off, I thought the acting was all around very good - even though there weren't any intensely dramatic scenes. I thought it was all very smooth and even, perhaps just half a notch better than most episodes. In almost every other episode (thus far) I find Avery Brooks' performance of Sisko to be kind of mechanical and… jumpy or something… not quite convincing, at least in certain moments. But here Sisko is very consistent and believable. I hope it holds from here on out.
Anyway, good episode. 8 or 9.
by Gul Duviewer | 08/17/2011 at 10:37 am