Review

A fantastic episode to begin the season. This episode gets across one message clearly: war is ugly business and it's spread out over vast distances. There are numerous character threads moving about right now. There's Kira and Odo thinking of a way to undermine the occupation, there's Jake trying to get a story out to the Federation, there's Dukat and Weyoun's constant bickering, there's Dukat and Weyoun trying to destroy the minefield, there's Sisko and his crew fighting on the front lines, and there's Worf and Martok fighting on the front lines. While granted we don't much of Worf and Martok in this episode, this episode does a great job of outlining the rest. These are very exciting times for DS9. As a final note, I love how the writers are openly using Bashir's genetic enhancements now. He's kind of like a replacement for Data. Cool. :)

Review

An episode exploring the morality of conduct during war. On the station, the monotony of Kira's daily routine is depicted and we begin to see her slowly realize she's becoming a collaborator. In the end, she decides to go against Sisko's advice and form a new resistance after Vedek Yassim kills herself publicly to protest the Dominion occupation. More interesting though is Sisko and crew's situation stranded on the planet they crashed on. The Vorta leader, Keevan, decided to betray his own men by giving Sisko and crew his exact plan of attack so that instead of being stranded on the planet, he could surrender as a prisoner of war and spend the war resting comfortably in a Federation prison. Sisko is left with the choice of whether or not to go through with Keevan's plan. He doesn't like the shady morality of it, but he realizes that "given the choice between us and them there is no choice." He tries one last time to appeal to the Jem'Hadar's wits, informing them that Keevan betrayed them and that they'll surely all die if they decide to fight this battle. But instead of surrendering, we're shown instead just how insanely loyal Jem'Hadar soldiers are. They knew Keevan betrayed them and they walked into their own deaths knowingly, and proudly. Because obeying the command structure and the "order of things" means more to them than their own lives. A fantastic episode.

Review

Kira walks the collaborator line again, Jake is frustrated with his inability to send news to the Federation and wants to join the resistance, and we get another episode taking place largely on the Rotarran. Unfortunately, this particular combined rehash is kind of a miss compared to the originals. While I enjoyed the basic story and appreciate its contribution to the current arc, the episode leaves one somewhat underwhelmed. I appreciate the basic theme. The episode title "Sons and Daughters" refers to Alexander and Ziyal. Alexander is having trouble gaining acceptance as a soldier and Ziyal is having trouble gaining acceptance as a student. I'm also glad the writers are tying up the whole "Hey, you know Worf has a son, right? What's up with him?" loose end. Other than that the episode is kind of unremarkable. Even the battle with the Jem'Hadar seemed routine.

Review

A large improvement over the last episode; the Defiant crew has a fetish for collecting empty phaser power cells they use up, the resistance movement on the space station is starting to take shape, the female shapeshifter has appeared again to manipulate Odo, Sisko has been promoted to a fleet captain, and Rom got caught trying to sabotage the station because Odo's being manipulated by the founder. All in all, a complicated episode, but well placed within the arc and thoroughly entertaining. Once again, I'm a bit annoyed that like in DS9: Soldiers of the Empire there's this big buildup at the beginning of the episode concerning a mission against the Dominion, and once again we don't get to see that mission action, only the aftermath.

Review

Another spectacular performance by Salome Jens as the female shapeshifter, manipulating Odo, as well as Jeffrey Combs as Weyoun, manipulating the Cardassians. Even Dukat and Damar get great roles in this episode. We get to see how dedicated Damar is to his job and how maniacal Dukat can be. We get to actually see the Defiant on the front lines for the first time since DS9: A Call to Arms, we get numerous tidbits of cool information and factoids regarding the Dominion, and the episode slowly but surely builds to the best cliffhanger since TNG: The Best of Both Worlds, DS9: A Call to Arms, and Voy: Scorpion.

Review

And so ends the DS9 occupation arc. This episode is the biggest roller coaster ride ever displayed on Star Trek so far. The massive space battle is indescribably awesome, and the immense use of characters was truly sublime. This episode is everything the conclusion to this magnificent arc should have been and more. Aside from general declarations of the episode's awesomeness, there are some interesting details I'd like to point out. For one, I enjoyed watching Garak fight for the Federation all through the arc. From Call to Arms and onward, Garak chose his side very clearly. He's no longer the ambiguous player of both sides he was in the first season. Another detail I enjoyed was how it was Odo and the Bajoran security officers that ultimately allowed Rom to sabotage the station's weapons and kept the Defiant from being destroyed. If you remember back to earlier in this arc, Dukat and Damar expressed dismay about the idea of armed Bajoran security officers on the station. Seems their fears were justified. :) Last, but not least though is Dukat. The way he fell apart at the end of this episode was absolutely perfect. He went from being absolutely sure of victory, to confused, to realizing he'd been defeated, to despair over Damar murdering his daughter, to totally insane and disconnected with reality in the span of a few minutes of on-screen plot. One of the most brilliant performances I've seen on Star Trek. When you add it all up, this episode is a stroke of utter brilliance.

Review

A fair episode. Everyone is in a giddy mood because they have the station back. And Worf and Dax get married. The little feud didn't interest me much, and the episode has no other contention to offer. I mostly gave it extra points for the hilarious Klingon stuff. The wedding itself was fantastic, as was O'Brien's and Bashir's role in the episode.

Review

This is the worst mirror universe installment yet, mostly because it doesn't actually take place in the mirror universe. Mirror Bariel and mirror Kira show up on DS9, trying to steal an orb, for no discernible reason. They claim they'll use it to form a religion to unite the mirror Bajorans in which they're the central religious figures, but I think that it's questionable whether or not the stolen orb would function at all in the mirror universe, especially the capacity they were expecting. That said, the episode was actually doing pretty good until mirror Kira showed up. The writers just can't stand to waste an opportunity to use that character for some reason. Nana Visitor does a fantastic job playing as her, but the character was totally inappropriate for this story. It would have been a much better story if Bariel really was trying to escape the mirror universe and ended up playing some kind of semi permanent role on the show in later episodes. Instead, the episode was one cup filler with a tablespoon of cliche. In the middle of the Dominion war no less!

Review

This is a great episode with a remarkable set of new guest stars. A group of four genetically engineered "mutants" with mental disorders from their genetic background are taken to the station in the hopes that Dr. Bashir can help them assimilate better into society. Together, the five start working for Starfleet Intelligence, making grandiose predictions about the Dominion. As the episode progresses, their predictions get more and more grandiose to the point where they predict the Federation can never beat the Dominion. In the end, Bashir convinces them that their assumptions might have been flawed, and that they can't predict everything. The experience, however, leaves them feeling like they've finally contributed something, as some of their analyses were very useful to Starfleet. Most remarkable about the episode though was the characters. First there's Jack, an energetic, athletic, egocentric, super smart, fast talking guy unstable guy who seemed unable to control his behavior. Then there's Lauren, who seems to be sexually attracted to every man she sees... to the extreme; unable to think of anything else. Then there's Patrick. An old man who still acts like a child. And finally, Sarina, who seems unable to focus her attention on anything. She just stands and stares. All things considered, this is one of the most original and entertaining episodes I've seen in a long time.

Review

Marvelous; the best Ferengi episode yet. Good connections with DS9: Ferengi Love Songs, with regards to Ishka's relationship with Zek, good connections with DS9: Empok Nor since we get to see Empok Nor again, and good connections with DS9: Rocks and Shoals; we learn the true fate of Keevan. It's a shame we don't get to see Quark tell Sisko the story. I think Sisko would have said something like, "Keevan got exactly what he deserved." Iggy Pop's cameo as Yelgrun was fantastic; the musician makes one hell of a Vorta! The episode features good continuity all around and the team of the six "magnificent Ferengi" is wonderfully constructed and brilliantly played out. I couldn't be happier with this wonderful episode that mixes humor and danger so successfully. Bravo!

Review

A great episode that shows us just how truly sadistic Dukat has always been. The dialog between Dukat and Sisko in this episode is very well crafted; Dukat clearly has always had this obsession that goes far beyond rivalry with Sisko. While I liked the episode in the sense that it shows us what happens to Dukat, which was kind of a loose thread, it is kind of a cheap way to get Dukat out of Federation hands and back into bad guy land again. And I would've liked to have seen the battle between the Cardassian ships and the Federation ship Dukat and Sisko were on, so I subtract from the score a bit.

Review

An episode focused around a minor character. Not just any minor character though, the episode is centered around Morn. To fully comprehend the greatness and hilarity of this episode, you have to understand the Morn character. In DS9 season one, he was an extra, usually seen in Quark's bar. To fill background space. Eventually, people started to notice that he appeared in virtually every episode. He kind of stuck out like a sore thumb because of his odd alien appearance. So the writers attributed him a name and a small backstory over the last five years. Finally, the inside joke culminated to this point, where the writers thought it would cute to write an episode all about him. The thing is though, part of the fan attraction to Morn's character was the fact that by tradition he's not ever spoken one line. Not one word. He's never once spoken anything onscreen, even though the writers have other characters make references to his talkativeness. So the greatness surrounding this episode is that the writers managed to craft an episode around Morn without ever giving him a single line. And there you have it, the inside joke is complete. Very well done.

Review

Another fantastic episode in a season that's shaping up to be phenomenal. Far Beyond the Stars is an episode exploring perseverance in the face of insurmountable opposition. A war weary Sisko receives a vision of the prophets in which he is the main character in a story of racism in 1950s America. If Bennie the writer can persevere, then Bennie the soldier can persevere as well. There are drops of humor in this episode with regards to the odd behavior of the displaced crew, O'Brien was my definite favorite, but the subject matter is quite serious and Sisko's performance during his breakdown at the end is marvelous. Up there with the kind of performances we've seen from Patrick Stewart as Picard in TNG: The Inner Light or TNG: Chain of Command. This episode is a fan favorite for these reasons, but I'm slightly more critical. I'm not fond of "it was all a dream" plots, as I've noted in DS9: Distant Voices and Voy: Waking Moments. Despite my objections to the premise though, the episode is well done and very original. Another shining star of a spectacular season.

Review

An interesting episode. It justifies the shrinking by claiming that the space between their atomic structure is actually decreasing. I was equally impressed with Bashir's claim that the oxygen molecules outside would be too large for a one centimeter man to breathe. So this episode is in the tradition of TAS: The Terratin Incident in more ways that one. First, we have crew shrinkage, and second, we have exceptionally good science for it which is very pleasing. The rivalry between the gamma quadrant and alpha quadrant Jem'Hadar was not pleasing though. I found it all quite annoying. But it was a necessary plot device to create a way for Sisko and crew to escape with the Defiant. In the end, it does little to spoil the awesome ride. This episode takes full advantage of the visual effects that Star Trek is now capable of and features several very impressive external shots of the Rubicon, the Defiant, and the Rubicon within the Defiant. Another fantastic showing for a great season.

Review

An Orion Syndicate episode in the tradition of DS9: A Simple Investigation. Though this version of the plot is far more successful. O'Brien begins working for Starfleet Intelligence, attempting to infiltrate the syndicate to try and find out who the traitor to Starfleet is. In this process, he discovers the Dominion is working with the syndicate, and so his mission is extended to discover the full extent of the Dominion's plans. But by the time he finds out, he realizes that he'd have to betray Bilby, the man he worked so hard to earn the trust of all this time. Feeling that it would be dishonorable to let Bilby die like this, O'Brien warns him. But Bilby knew his fate was already sealed. O'Brien let him go reluctantly, but as a final honorable gesture, when O'Brien left he honored Bilby's request to look after hist cat, Chester. I love the final scene, showing a distraught O'Brien petting Chester. A moving episode.

Review

A moving story showing how dedicated Worf is to his wife. It must have been incredibly difficult for Worf to make the choice between saving family and saving the mission, and I'm sure it was hard to have Sisko chew him out in the end like that. I rather liked how Sisko told him he would have done the same thing though. The B plot regarding Quark and his unending Tongo winning streak was nice as well for some light hearted humor to cheer up a depressing story. I just wish that Quark had actually lost in the end instead of manipulating Bashir so cruelly. In the end, it ended up being fairly average and borderline filler.

Review

Another "flashback to Terok Nor" episode, and all because Kira wants to know if Gul Dukat and her mother were really lovers. Not that I'm insensitive, but isn't this all a little pointless? The only contention the episode presents is the possibility that Kira might alter the future, but as the episode progresses, it becomes clear that the only thing she could do is kill Dukat or her mother. She'd either alter several seasons of Star Trek's history, or erase herself from history. Both options were obviously not going to happen, so the ending was obvious and anticlimactic. A total dud.

Review

Introducing Section 31: an autonomous branch of Starfleet that answers to no one, established 200 years ago when the Federation was founded, sanctioned by the Federation charter. It is the equivalent to the Romulan Tal'Shiar or the Cardassian Obsidian Order. Bashir has been "recruited" into it by Sloan, who is seemingly their leader. The episode ends with this; it's obviously meant to be the start of a longer term arc. While the ending is somewhat unremarkable, the ride taking us there is a decent amount of fun to watch. I was worried this would turn into another TNG: The Drumhead, but fortunately Sloan wasn't a crazed madman but in fact had an ulterior motive, and quite the ulterior motive at that. In the end, the episode is a pretty balanced mix of annoying and cool. It all kind of averages out. In the end though, I just plain don't like misdirection plots, which I ranted about in Voy: Waking Moments. The writers shouldn't have to create layers of deception and revelation to hold an audience.

Review

In the Pale Moonlight exemplifies everything that made DS9 great. It's an episode in the middle of the Dominion war, which is the best arc ever written on Star Trek and it's a pivotal episode in that arc. Also, it manages to stand on its own very well; even without the backstory as a premise, it would remain most touching. For Avery Brooks puts up one of his best performances ever as Sisko in this episode behind some of the most spectacular directing ever featured on Star Trek. Moreover, the episode's narration is unique. Few, if any Star Trek episodes are told in this original manner, nor is there is a single bit of wasted dialog. Every line is carefully crafted. Every discussion is nicely pointed.

But most importantly, this episode examines the moral center of the human condition at its deepest levels. Captain Sisko is overwhelmingly distraught over the nonstop casualties the Federation is facing in the war with the Dominion. He knows that if the Federation doesn't procure an advantage, a big advantage soon, the Federation will either crumble before the Dominion, or exhaust most of its resources defeating the Dominion. To rectify this situation, Sisko decides he must determine a way to bring the Romulans into the war on the Federation's side. But convincing an empire of billions to go to war for you is no small task...

Well, that's where Mr. Garak comes in. How fitting for the best episode of DS9 to center itself around my favorite character? Sisko approaches Garak, asking him to steal proof from his former homeland that they're planning to attack Romulus so the Romulans will join the war. Garak responds by saying that such a mission would use up all the favors owed to him on Cardassia. And that would be a very messy, very bloody business. Garak asks Sisko if he's prepared to accept the consequences of his services. Sisko responds by saying he's already involved in a very messy, very bloody business. It seemed Sisko didn't realize at first the full extent of what Garak was proposing, perhaps consciously anyway, but subconsciously Sisko knew he was willing to do anything to lessen Federation casualties and if that meant cooperating with Garak in some shady business, then Sisko was willing to do it.

Even more interestingly though is Garak's plan in the first place. Garak knew exactly from the beginning that blowing up Vreenaks's shuttle and making it look like the Dominion did it would be the only way to get the Romulans to declare war on the Dominion. From the impressions I get from Garak, he'd have already done something similar to this deed by now if he had the chance. Yes, Garak skillfully manipulated all of the events of this episode to achieve the result both he and Sisko wanted, even if the means weren't quite what Sisko expected. I saw it in his eyes from his very first scene in this episode: Garak was actually using Sisko to get the Romulans into the war just as much as Sisko was consciously or unconsciously using him.

In the end, Sisko and Garak both knew the same thing: winning the war was going to require the assistance of the Romulans. And as Sisko said in DS9: Rocks and Shoals, "given the choice between us and them, there is no choice." There's no choice but to pay any price to get the Romulans on his side. In this episode of deception and great moral dilemmas we get to see the darkest side of Sisko's personality. We watch as he turns a blind eye to atrocities like murder because the "cause was righteous" and the ends most certainly justified the means.

But even when it was all over, that wasn't the end of our story. Sisko couldn't personally forgive himself for his actions and he felt that maybe recording it all in his log would make him feel better. In the final scene, Sisko tries to convince himself that he can live with what he did, but it's clear that he's having trouble doing just that. So instead of trying to live with it, he tries instead to forget it all by erasing his entire log entry. That act signifies the hypocritical nature of human morals and how easily we abandon them when the situation calls for it. That said, there is certainly enough evil done in this episode in the name of good. And so you have it, the best episode ever done on Star Trek.

Review

Well, all I can say about this episode is "finally!" DS9 fans have had to wait for five years for Odo and Kira to finally realize they're in love with one another. While I'm not fond of the episode in general, nor am I all that fond of Vic Fontaine, the fact that this episode finally brings Kira and Odo together is worth a few extra points. Talk about tying up a loose end.

Review

A prophecy predicts that if the Prophets are able to defeat the Kosst Amojan at the gate to the Celestial Temple, a golden age of peace and prosperity will be bestowed upon Bajor. The prophecy comes true, and the battle is waged on Deep Space Nine. But just as the prophets are about to win, Kai Winn interferes and stops the fight, revealing just how evil she really is. She claims to walk the path the prophets have laid out for her, but her motivations are purely greed and the desire for respect and power. As Kira said, she couldn't stand the fact that the Emissary had a stronger faith than she did, and that he would sacrifice his son to exact the penance the Prophets asked of him. There are many nice details in this episode, contributing to this overall theme. For example, Kai Winn admits that the prophets have never spoken to her. My favorite detail, however, is when Kai Winn begs the Prophet within Kira to speak to her, it utterly ignores her. It's disgusting and a little sad, but Winn did what she did as a sort of petty revenge against her gods for their disrespect of her. And she did it to protect her power. She said herself, that the golden age of Bajor would no longer require a Kai. She's so incredibly nasty. A great episode.

Review

An episode exploring groupthink. Some of the greatest tragedies in our histories were the result of groupthink, a consensus driven mindset in which achieving unity in decisions is more important than making the best decisions. In this case, Captain Watters was a bad captain. He was driven too much by his pride and the crew blindly followed him, despite the fact that some of them knew he was in error. This leads me back to quote Tuvok made in Voy: Year of Hell. He told Seven of Nine never to question the captain because "the captain is always right." At what level is groupthink tolerated and even promoted in Starfleet? This tragic story is but one example of how powerfully negative groupthink can be and it's very touching and well acted all across. Nicely done.

Review

An episode that's so bad that it's embarrassing to watch. The whole thing is an excuse to get Quark in drag. I can't believe Armin Shimmerman agreed to do it. The only thing that makes this episode worth watching is Zek passing a law allowing Ferengi females to wear clothing and earn profit.

Review

Keiko's return! We haven't seen her since DS9: The Begotten and it's a welcome reunion. I'm kind of miffed that Keiko hates Chester, but I suppose it's only natural. After all, O'Brien "acquired" him without her consent. What a control freak. :( Getting to more serious topics, this is Molly's episode. An innovative and original premise to make Molly prematurely grow up. Michelle Krusiec does a superb job playing the older Molly, convincing the viewer that she was a feral child for the last ten years. The ending is the obvious best moment for the episode; there's no doubt in my mind that she knew what she was doing when she sent her younger self through the little time portal. That's one of those moments that makes you sad and happy at the same time. Well done.

Review

A moody episode on the Defiant, a fun episode on DS9. The point about how DS9 could lose a crewmember to the war at any time is well made and the foreshadowing is effective and moving. It was also awesome to see the Defiant's shuttlepod. But the real fun in this episode was the story that developed between Quark and Odo. This episode is all about respect, and in a quirky way, Odo has a deep respect for Quark and visa versa. I've talked about their half adversarial half friendship relationship before, and this episode exemplifies it. I almost couldn't believe it; Odo let Quark get away with smuggling out of a sense of guilt. He felt he owed Quark something. I also found it rather amusing that Odo didn't let Quark know he was letting him get away with it; rather he let Quark think he won. He did this because Quark told Jake in confidence that he respects Odo and he tries to be his friend when he can. The circle of respect is complete.

Review

Got mixed feelings here. It was rumored quite a bit before the season finale that Terry Farrell wanted to leave the show because of her inability to come to terms with the producers regarding a contract for season 7. So they had to kill her off in this episode and the writing reeks of a scramble to achieve that goal. As a result, we have a story where Sisko leaves Bajor at a critical moment, allowing Dukat to attack the wormhole, to seal off the Bajorans from their Celestial Temple and he kills Dax in the process. While I love the way the writers wove everything together, there is one major inconsistency. Why is Dax on the station at all? And Bashir for that matter? Bashir and Dax always joined the Defiant for missions. Personally, I find it funny how Kira goes and they don't. Oh... wait... I remember... the writers had to kill off Dax and they needed them to stay. ;) Aside from this minor inconsistency, the story is pretty concrete. I'm willing to bet they already had the finale written and that they revised it to include Dax' death. Though perhaps it is unwise to speculate about what the writers did and did not intend. The idea to get the Dominion to appeal to the Pah-wraiths was intelligent writing and despite my unhappiness with how Jadzia died, the episode is fantastic. I loved watching Dukat meticulously carry out his plan, I loved the anguish in Sisko's eyes when he realized he never should have left, and the battle for Chin'Toka was spectacular. I like how Garak once again very clearly chooses his side, he's a bridge officer on the Defiant in this battle! I may complain, but this season finished off with just as big a bang as it began with. This has possibly been the best season ever done on Star Trek.