Star Trek DS9: Wrapping Up Season Five

Time travel, the Maquis’ last hurrah, a 90’s-style thriller, a wacky bottle show, and a war begins to finish off the fifth season of DS9.

• It’s “back to the future” in “Children of Time”. Stay with me—the Defiant discovers a planet inhabited by their descendants! The ship will be thrown back in time and crash, leaving the a small settlement that lasts until the 24th century, including a small group of quasi-Klingons who worship Worf. Oh—and the Odo from the settlement declares his love for Kira, who’s going to die due to more technobabble if they don’t escape. It turns out the settlement’s leader (a Dax descendant) wants them to crash, so the settlement will exist. After a lot of speechifying and farming, they decide they can’t kill the settlement, and agree to follow fate and go back in time. However, the flight plan changes, and they escape—due to the older Odo, who wanted Kira to live. The two Odo’s linked, so our Odo knows what happened. Oooooh! 
• The Maquis return (and this time it’s personal) in “Blaze of Glory”. They have sent cloaked missiles to destroy Cardassia, forcing Sisko to get the traitor Eddington to help him. They wind up in a shuttle with a lot a dialogue—we get Sisko doing his OVER E-NUN-CI-A-TION bit as well. A few skirmishes in the Badlands later, they reach the missile launch site—and find the Jem’Hadar and a Maquis massacre. They find some survivors, and Eddington announces there were no missiles—just a final escape plan for his followers. In the end, Eddington sacrifices himself to save the others, but the Maquis is finished.
• There’s technobabble trouble on DS9, so it’s off to identical station “Empok Nor” for parts (a good way to reuse existing sets near the end of the season). O’Brien, Nog, Garak (remember him?), and some metaphorical red shirts enter the other station. I’ll give you two guesses on who survives. Two Cardassians on psychotropic drugs (turning them into killing machines) were left in stasis on the station, and now they’re awake. Two of the redshirts are taken out, but Garak kills one of the soldiers—and takes the drug himself to even the odds. A third red shirt is killed, then the fourth one is attacked—by Garak! The story becomes a cat-and-mouse game. O’Brien uses engineering knowhow to take out Garak, who is then purged of the drug.
• The lead up to a Trek season finale tends to be a “bottle show” (use of existing sets and characters, no special effects) in order to spend more money on the finale, and this season is no exception. “In the Cards” features Jake trying to cheer up Sisko (it appears war is imminent—aren’t they already in a war?) by purchasing an old baseball card at Quark’s auction. Of course, it doesn’t go as planned. Quark is tone deaf about the card—he misses a great opportunity to butter up Sisko. We meet a mad scientist who believes he’s cracked the secret of immortality. Senior officers let Jake walk all over them. There’s a bit about how Earth has abandoned money—while the rest of the galaxy hasn’t. Not sure how that can work. Jake ends up risking his life—all to give his dad a baseball card. Shockingly, the B-story is about a potential non-aggression pact between Bajor and the Dominion. Overall, the episode is too wacky—even for DS9.
• So, onto the season finale—“Call to Arms”. The episode switches back and forth between military drama and soap opera—we get a lot of character moments. The Dominion is massing in the Alpha Quadrant, so the Federation authorizes Sisko to mine the wormhole. Of course, no reinforcements are provided, so DS9 is on its own. Odo and Kira decide to hold off their relationship until the hostilities are over. The Dominion demands the mines be removed, so it’s war. Bajor signs the non-aggression pact after Sisko recommends they do so—the Feds can no longer guarantee their safety otherwise. Meanwhile, Rom and Leeta hold their wedding, just before she leaves as part of an evacuation of the station. Dukat arrives with a huge attack force, and he is reminded by Weyoun that the Dominion is in charge. We get to enjoy a HUGE space battle. Sisko orders that DS9 be abandoned. Dax tells Worf they will marry after the war—she’s off to the Defiant, and he’s off to a Klingon ship. The evacuation is completed, and a secret Sisko program takes out the station’s critical systems before the Cardassians board. SIsko leaves his baseball on his desk—he’ll be back. The final shot is the largest set of Federation and Klingon ships seen onscreen to to this point in Trek history, and the last using any practical (physical) models—everything after this is CGI. 

 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (and all the Trek series) is available on Netflix. 

Star Trek DS9: Season Five Rolls (Trudges?) On

Odo noir, Quark comedy, Kira drama, and Klingon battles in this batch.

• Odo deals with a dangerous dame in “A Simple Investigation”. This is yet another variant on the “Sam Spade” story—woman seduces the private investigator to get what she wants. The new angle? She has a “data port” on her neck, so she can directly interact with computer systems. She and Odo end up in a physical relationship—including some shape-shifting (ewww!) There’s a minor B-story with Bashir and a holodeck which is frankly more interesting than Odo’s story. 
• Meh—another Quark episode. “Business as Usual” has the desperate Ferengi (remember, he was drummed out of Ferengi society earlier in the season) joining the arms trade as a salesman. The actual transfer of weapons occur offsite—Quark just demonstrates holosuite versions. Steven Berkoff plays the arms kingpin—he’s mostly known for directing and acting in film. He’s also Shatnerian in his overacting here. Movie veteran Lawrence Tierney cameos as an alien regent. In the end, Quark’s conscience finally catches up with him, and he double-crosses the bad guys.
• Kira welcomes an old friend in “Ties of Blood and Water”. He’s Ghemor (Lawrence Pressman), her Cardassian quasi-father from the third season episode “Second Skin”. Unfortunately, he’s dying, and Cardassia (currently under Dominion control) wants him extradited before he can foment any opposition. Ghemor decides to tell Kira her secrets before he dies, so the Federation can use it against their enemy. The episode is all about family, and secrets, and a hospice situation—a rather touching script with impressive performances, if a bit slow.
• Again with Quark! “Ferengi Love Songs” finds Quark beset with a) Rom marrying Leeta and b) Ishka (Quark’s mom) stepping out with the Grand Nagus. Cecily Adams replaced Andrea Martin in the mother role—Martin apparently couldn’t handle the prosthetics. Even for a Ferengi-centric storyline, this is a goofy episode—it's like a Three’s Company script. Also—why would the Ferengi build their homes so people would have to crouch all the time? Makes no sense. There is a cute reference to action figures, though.
• It’s more Klingon mumbo-jumbo in “Soldiers of the Empire”. Worf joins General Martok (who was recently broken out of a Dominion prison) on a Bird-of-Prey to fight the Je’Hadar. Mindy noted that the Dominion “menace” seems to come and go, allowing silly Quark episodes to play out in the middle. Also, it seems like Worf can drop in and out of his role on DS9 whenever he wants—as can Dax, who comes along for the ride. How can two senior officers just drop out of their duties during wartime? 

 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (and all the Trek series) is available on Netflix. 

Star Trek DS9: Even More of Season Five

Maquis, a galactic battle, and holodoctors in this batch (after we took a multi-month break)--

• Starfleet security officer turned Maquis "terrorist" Michael Eddington is back in "For the Uniform". We also get a new gimmick--the "holo-communicator"--that can bring up a 3D image of the person at the other end of the line. It's like the CNN gimmick, but better. Eddington uses it to lecture Siskp after knocking out the Defiant's systems. Starfleet takes him off the Eddington case--and he's less than happy to say the least. When he gets word of another attack, Sisko takes the damaged Defiant--Nog has to act as a living message courier. Maneuvering is like NASA--everything is manual. Sisko finally plays on Eddington's dreams of being a hero by putting Maquis systems in danger--Eddington surrenders to stop him.
• It's another two-parter, starting with "In Purgatory's Shadow". A coded message from Cardassians in the Gamma Quadrant sends Garak and Worf on a reconnaissance mission--and get thrown in a prison for their trouble. They find Klingon General Martok (remember, he was replaced by a Changeling), Cardassian Enabran Tain (now close to death), and--Bashir?? Turns out he was replaced by a Changeling weeks earlier. We learn that Garak is Tain's son just before he dies--that's why Garak was so loyal to him. Meanwhile, with a Dominion attack imminent, Sisko makes plans to seal the wormhole as a last resort--but the faux-Bashir sabotages their efforts. Scenes with the various couples act as "hamburger helper" to stretch out what otherwise could have been a single episode.
• Part two, "Inferno's Light”--the Casdassian fleet arrives--and pass by the station on their way to Cardassia. Turns out they have allied with the Dominion--Dukat led the negotiations and is now the head of their government! Meanwhile, the Dominion prisoners continue their efforts to escape, while Worf is pulled into an Ultimate FIghting competition--with his life at stake. Garak has to fix some technobabble to save them, despite severe claustrophobia. The Klingon fleet shows up at DS9, with Gowron aka Barney Google leading them. Sisko gets him to agree to work together. Dukat threatens to take over the station. Faux-Bashir does everything but twirl an imaginary mustache, but continues to fool the crew. Worf manages to impress the Jem'Hadar in battle, and Garak fixes the doohickey just in time to beam them back to the runabout, so they can warn DS9 about Faux-Bashir. He's busy about to blow up Bajor's sun, but the Defiant stops him. The whole Dominion attack was a ruse, designed to concentrate all Starfleet forces in one spot and destroy it. Unfortunately, all they did was bring the Federation and the Klingon Empire back together.
• Another Trek doctor drops by in "Doctor Bashir, I Presume"--should I get my sonic screwdriver? The other doctor, Zimmerman, is the template for the holographic doctor on Voyager, already in it's third season by that time. He's dropping by DS9 to offer Bashir the role of the new template. We get some impressive shots of dual Bashirs and Zimmermen as the holodoctors are tested. Bashir, who's normally rather boastful, doesn't want Zimmerman to interview his parents as part of the process. Zimmerman ignores him, and the parents suddenly arrive on the station. Bashir has a dark secret--he's the result of illegal genetic manipulation, which enhanced his intelligence and helped to make him the brilliant doctor he is. His father, who never owned up to anything before in his life, accepts a short prison sentence in order to save Bashir's career. A rather silly episode quickly turned into a serious social commentary. There's a B-story about Leeta and Rom--they finally get together.

 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (and all the Trek series) is available on Netflix.

Star Trek DS9: More of Season Five

Death and birth in this batch of episodes...

• Odo and Quark's relationship comes to a head in "The Ascent". Odo is taking Quark to a distant planet for a grand jury. Unfortunately, they find a bomb on the runabout, which takes out the ship's systems, forcing them to crash on a savage world. WIth the main distress beacon down, they have to go up a mountain to get a signal out. During the hike, Odo realizes Quark is a witness in the trial, not the defendant. They continue to bicker until they come to blows. Odo's leg is broken during the fight, so Quark drags him up the mountain on a litter, then must go on alone. He succeeds--to Odo's annoyance. The B-Story is all about Nog, who's back on the station for a field study. He and Jake are now roommates--and Nog is now the responsible one. It's a wacky sitcom!
• Emissary Sisko is having bad visions in "Rapture". He somehow manages to find in a Bajoran painting the location of a legendary city after getting zapped in a holosuite. Bajor is about to be accepted into the Federation, but Sisko is missing the hoopla. He's searching for the city--and finds it! He starts to have stabbing headaches, can now read minds, and has more and more visions. His brain activity is killing him--but he won't stop. Kai Wynn helps Sisko through his visions with one of the Orbs. He warns Bajor NOT to join the Federation, then passes out. Jake gives Bashir permission to do the surgery to save him. The visions cease--Sisko is distraught--and Bajor holds off on joining. During all this, Kasidy returns after her prison sentence, and Starfleet sent over new uniforms so they matched the type used on Voyager and the later TNG movies as of this episode.
• Kira's life is in danger due to "The Darkness and the Light". Her old Resistance buddies are getting knocked off one by one--could she be next? Kira gets a mysterious message after each death. She's torn between her duty to Bajor and her role as pregnant mother (remember, she's carrying Keiko's baby), finally charging off to track down the killer. He turns out to be a Cardassian physically scarred during a Resistance attack--and Kira has no remorse about it. There's a whole "Silence of the Lambs" thing going on. We do get a rare transporter accident with grisly results, as well as some new backstory for Kira. There's also a minor B-story with the bickering Klingon/Trill couple.
• It's baby time in "The Begotten". KIra's going into labor, while Odo gets a baby Changeling from Quark (huh?). Bajoran birthing ceremonies are as weird as their other religious events--it involves playing musical instruments to generate a regular rhythm for the baby. Her story ends up being comic relief for the Changeling story. Odo has a long monologue with the "baby"--basically a pile of goo--and becomes quite attached. Odo's old "professor" Dr. Mora (he originally studied Odo) gets involved--to Odo's dismay. There's a great sequence where Odo shows the "baby" various simple shapes to try out. They bicker and play mind games with each other, but team up in the end. Unfortunately, the Changeling baby doesn't survive--but it transfers it's essence to Odo--he's a Changeling again!

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (and all the Trek series) is available on Netflix.

Star Trek DS9: Season Five Continues

In this batch of episodes, the fan favorite for the whole series...

• We start with a Keiko and Miles episode--"The Assignment". She's back from Bajor--and she's been possessed by a evil non corporeal entity! Haven't we seen this MANY TIMES before on Trek? She forces Miles to do her bidding--and not tell anyone what they are doing--or Keiko dies. He has to keep the charade going during his own birthday party, making it even more difficult. Dax discovers the changes to the systems, forcing Miles to implicate Engineer Rom, who was just trying to help. Rom, the idiot savant, figures out the changes to the station will fire a beam that kills the wormhole Prophets. Of course, Miles figures out how to shoot Keiko with it instead--and promotes Rom for his help.
• We move on to the classic episode, "Trials and Tribble-ations". You know--the one where they go back in time and save James T. Kirk from a Klingon agent bent on revenge, done as a tribute for Trek's 30th anniversary? The amazing visual effects--dropping the DS9 cast into existing footage from "The Trouble with Tribbles" and interacting with the TOS cast--is similar to the footage in Forrest Gump.  This wasn't green screen work--they actually rebuilt sections of the original set! In-jokes abound.
  • The "temporal investigators" are reminiscent of Mulder and Scully from The X-Files
  • Kirk's seventeen "temporal violations"
  • The different look of the Klingons, which Worf refuses to discuss
  • Bashir: "I'm a doctor, not a historian"
  • Bringing tribbles back to the 24th century to repopulate the species, just as Kirk did the same with humpback whales
  • The original Arne Darvin, Charlie Brill, reprising his role
• It's a hassle to rewind a show on Netflix, but in this case, it was worth it to watch some scenes twice. One question--Dax has to hide her Trill "spots" before going over to NCC-1701, but she states she "met" McCoy as a previous symbiote. So why hide the spots? Maybe the Trill weren't in the Federation yet, and so couldn't be in Starfleet? In any case--if you haven't seen the episode (or seen it lately), stop reading this and do it now.
• Dax and Worf are having issues in "Let He Who Is Without Sin…". Jadzia talks Worf into going to Risa (the pleasure planet), Worf refuses to get into the spirit of RIsa--he won't change out of his Starfleet uniform. Vanessa Williams (early in her acting career) guest stars as old of Dax's old lovers. Throughout the episode, Worf and Dax bicker over how each is respecting their relationship. Unfortunately, a fundamentalist group wants to shut down Risa and return to traditional values. They prove their point with a fake attack, then set off a rainstorm (Risa is normally weather-controlled)--and Worf is helping them?  His argument with Dax comes to a head, and Worf performs a monologue about losing control as a child and killing another. The fundamentalists move onto an earthquake, so Worf and Dax have to shut them down. Bashir, Dabo girl Leeta, and Quark have a B-story about ending relationships.
• Sisko, Dax, Odo, and Garak relive Terek Nor's "Things Past". They find themselves back in the Cardassian days of the station, and everyone sees them as Bajoran. But are they really there? Their bodies are found on the runabout--alive but unresponsive. Back on Terek Nor, Odo seems to be having visions. Dax is taken by Dukat as a possible concubine, while the other three are working in Quark's. Odo recognizes their Bajoran names--they were implicated in an assassination scheme (although they were innocent), and who were killed as an example. Yikes! Kurtwood Smith guests as Terek Nor's security officer (the one before Odo had the job). Turns out the whole thing is in Odo's mind, fueled by guilt about his initial response to the event, with the others' minds dragged in through technobabble and telepathy.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (and all the Trek series) is available on Netflix.

Star Trek DS9: Moving onto Season Five

The fifth season of the show begins with...

• …the conclusion of the Klingon/Changeling cliffhanger, "Apocolypse Rising". The war has begun, so Sisko is sent on a secret mission to expose Gowron/Barney Google as a Changeling. He uses Dukat's stolen Klingon ship (from last season), while Bashir makes up Sisko, O'Brien, and Odo as Klingons (of course Worf joins them). Odo isn't dealing with his change to "solid" status well--he wants to retreat from life, but Sisko won't have it. The team sneaks into a Klingon warrior ceremony--it's like WWE in SPAACE. They've got some technobabble that can destabilize Changelings, but are caught before they can set it off. In the end, Gowron's lieutenant Martok turns out to be the Changeling, and all the Klingon warriors take him out--just like that, the war is over. It seems rushed at the end, which makes sense, because it originally was to be a two-parter.
• A crashed Jem'Hadar warship becomes quite the prize in "The Ship". It's found on a world in the Gamma Quadrant, and both our heroes and Dominion forces want it. The interior ship scenes reminds me of the Alien movies. There's a new character, Engineer Muniz, whom we are clearly supposed to emphasize with, and who obviously is injured in a battle. There's also a new Dominion member Kilana, who jumps from threatening to apologetic to romantic. They learn the bad guys want something on the ship, not the ship itself. There is dialogue throughout that would be more at home in a WW2 movie. At least Muniz gets a dramatic monologue before his death scene. The prize on the ship? A dying Changeling hiding as a bulkhead of the ship. The wrecked ship is towed back to the station.
• It's back to wackiness in the episode "Looking for Par'Mach in All the Wrong Places". Quark's ex-wife Grilka is back, and Worf is interested in her--uh-oh! He doesn't have a chance, though, since his Klingon house is dishonored. Quark wants to rekindle the romance, but doesn't know  how to woo her. Worf becomes Cyrano (with Dax's assistance), prepping Quark for his big "date". Of course, since Klingons are involved, it ends up in a duel to the death--wah-wahhh. Only Dax's technobabble saves his bacon. She also finally gets through Worf's thick skull about her feelings for him--they are now officially a couple. Meanwhile, Miles and Kira are fighting over the baby--he's being a bit too overprotective, and Kira resents it. Then they seem to become intimate--it becomes rather inappropriate. Keiko doesn't seem to have a problem with it--hmmm…
• Here's a combo we haven't seen before--Jake and Bashir in "…Nor the Battle to the Strong". Jake has a paper to write, so why not put him in danger? Well, that wasn't the plan, but a Klingon attack on an outpost forces the issue. While the doctor handles the wounded, Jake is introduced to the horrors of war. Mindy called it "Star Trek: MASH". During a trip back to the runabout, Jake panics and runs away--ending up next to a mortally wounded Federation soldier who then dies in front of him. We get a lot of internal monologues from Jake throughout the episode--he believes himself a coward. The Klingons invade the compound, and by chance becomes the "hero" through wild phaser rifle fire. Jake writes his story, and all is inexplicably well at the end.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (and all the Trek series) is available on Netflix.

Star Trek DS9: Wrapping Up Season Four

Four down, three to go…

• Kasidy Yates (Sisko's squeeze) is smuggling "For the Cause"--that being The Maquis. We get several discussions on terrorism and some scenes in "the Badlands" (as referenced on Voyager, which was also on the air by that time). Sisko is torn between his duty and his girlfriend. In the end, Sisko follows her to the Badlands to catch her. Meanwhile, Federation security officer Eddington takes over the staton and swipes some replicators--he's a Maquis! It was all a scam to catch Sisko flat-footed, and it worked. Sisko also has the unhappy duty to send Kasidy to prison. Meanwhile, Garak starts to woo Gul Dukat's daughter--remember her? Kira's not happy about it. Finally, we get another goofy "future sport" involving handball and force fields.
• The Dominion and the Federation teaming up? Rogue Jem'Hadar attack the station, which means there's a fight "To the Death". Dominion member Weyoun (Jeffrey Combs) is introduced in this episode--we'll be seeing a lot of him. He quite the politician and wheeler-dealer. Turns out the rogue bad guys found an Ikonian gateway (a super-transported introduced in TNG), so they have to be stopped. There's a scene that looks a lot like Star Wars "Death Star exhaust port" sequence. The combined team wins the day, but the Jem'Hadar will be back…
• It's Bashir to the rescue in "The Quickening". Dax joins him on an alien world where a pandemic has been going on for 200 years, caused by the Dominion. Their civilization has regressed--a "hospital" is the place where you go to die peacefully, with a "doctor" to make death painless. They have lost hope and worship death--Bashir manages to turn the tide of hope. Unfortunately, the "EM field" from their tech just hastens the disease, and the local "doctor" steps in to "take care" of them. Regardless, Bashir decides to stay and fight the virus without tech. In the end, he's able to stop the virus in the next generation--just inoculate the pregnant women. It's cold comfort to Bashir.
• Quark's gonna die?? No suck luck in "Body Parts". He's incorrectly diagnosed, so he thinks he has an incurable disease. It's time to sell off his remains in advance of his death--it becomes complicated very quickly, and ends up like "It's a Wonderful Life". I know the Ferengis were brought on as a commentary on our current rampant commercialism, but they became comedy relief very quickly. Meanwhile, a shuttle mission goes wrong, leaving Keiko's baby in jeopardy. Bashir is forced to transfer the baby to Kira! I guess they can do that with Starfleet tech. It also allowed the show to handle Nana Visitor's actual pregnancy (with Alexander Siddig). Keiko and Miles have a big problem with this, which is surprising--we use surrogate mothers today. Why would this be an issue in the 24th century--considering the alternative was for their baby to die?
• An Odo episode finishes up the season--"Broken Link". He's got a virus causing him to lose his shape, forcing him to return to the Founders world in order to save his life. He has to be moved to the Defiant for the trip, and he insists on walking under his own power. Bashir didn't want to use a transporter, but they didn't have a cart or wheelchair handy? There's also the Klingons to worry about--they are ready to go to war. It turns out the Founders infected Odo with the virus so he would return home--and be judged for his crime (he killed another Changeling in an earlier episode). Due to his sense of justice, he agrees and returns to the "Great Link". The judgment? They make him a "solid" humanoid--albeit with the same make-up as before. Odo will have a lot of adjusting to do. Meanwhile, the Klingons decide to declare war--and Odo realizes that Klingon Chancellor Gowron (aka Barney Google) is a Changeling! Tune in next season… 

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (and all the Trek series) is available on Netflix.

Star Trek DS9: Season Four Rolls On

Back to our favorite dysfunctional sci-fi family…

• Worf screws up the ""Rules of Engagement", and ends up in a Klingon trial for murder. It's "DS9 Law". We get testimony via flashbacks--with characters directly talking to the camera when replying to the attorney (shades of House of Cards), which is very unnerving. Sisko is, of course, the defense attorney, and a Klingon plays prosecutor. Avery Brooks over-enunciates at a Shatnerian level. At one point, Worf's son Alexander is mentioned--oh, yeah, whatever happened to him? In the end, Odo comes up with evidence that the Klingons were setting Worf up.
• O'Brien does some "Hard TIme"--or does he? Apparently, 20 years have gone by--he looks like the "IT'S" guy from Monty Python--but it's all in his mind. Alien correction technology makes you think time has passed when it hasn't. Colm Meaney really gets a chance to shine in the episode. He tells everyone he was in solitary conferment over the virtual 20 years, but that's not really the case. He had a cellmate--who Miles killed (in his mind, of course). He wants to kill himself to save the rest of the station--but Bashir talks him off the ledge.
• It's back to the "mirror" universe--but now it's a "Shattered Mirror". Mirror-Jennifer Sisko shows up and spirits Jake back to the other universe--all in order to get Sisko help them fix their Defiant. The cast plays their dopplegangers with gusto--and since he joined the cast, Worf gets in on the fun as the "Regent". Mirror-Kira is now a prisoner of the rebels (albeit with perfect makeup)--she does every villain move but twirl a mustache--and shoots shoots Mirror-Jennifer at one point. There's a whole "Han Solo" moment when Mirror-Bashir comes in to save the Miirror-Defiant in battle. In the end, Sisko sees his wife die--again.
• Lwaxana Troi is back--and she's got a Betazed bun in the oven--in "The Muse". No, Odo's not the father! Daddy is from a race where they keep the sexes separate until they are adults--and the child is a boy. She's come to Odo for help. There's a great moment when Odo asks if she would like to take a walk--Worf, stuck in a conversation, says "I would". Odo's solution involves a fake wedding--and he gives a heartfelt speech about her at the ceremony. This is Majel Barrett Roddnberry's final Trek onscreen appearance, although she would continue doing the compute voice of the computer for another decade before her death in 2008. Meanwhile, there's a weird story about an older alien woman and Jake--she seems VERY interested in Jake's writing. At one point, Jake writes on paper--how in the galaxy does he know cursive? People barely know it today. The older woman? She's a soul vampire who sucks the life out of young creative people--yes, really. Sisko saves his son in the nick of time. I think either story could have stood up on their own.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (and all the Trek series) is available on Netflix.

Star Trek DS9: Even More of Season Four

Making progress…

• Gul Dukat is back for his "Return to Grace". He and his half-Bajoran daughter have been banished to escort duty, and now he's escorting Kira to a conference. Before she leaves, there's a wacky scene involving inoculations and nausea. The routine mission becomes an emergency after a Klingon attack. Kira and Dukat become unlikely allies and resistance fighters against the Klingons. There's a lot of banter throughout--why is every male in the quadrant in love with Kira? Improbably, Kira and Dukat--on their own--board and take over a Klingon warship, while beaming the bad guys to the smaller damaged ship. Unfortunately, the Cardassians have decided on a diplomatic solution--so Dukat decides to go rogue with his stolen ship. HIs daughter isn't ready for that kind of life, so she returns to DS9 with Kira.
• Ugh! Get ready for more monologues on honor and duty for the "Sons of Mogh". There's also some flirtation between Worf and Dax--is this sci-fi or soap opera? Worf's brother Kurn then arrives--their family has been kicked off the High Council since Worf sided with the Federation. So, Kurn wants to commit ceremonial suicide (with Worf's help). They are partly successful before Odo and Dax intercede. There's a subplot regarding Klingon cloaked mines, forcing Worg and Mogh on their own secret mission. In the end, it's clear that Kurn will not live with dishonor, so Worf takes the extraordinary step of having Kurn's memories wiped--wow!
• Is it Norma Rae or Rom? Frustrated with Quark's management policies, he decides to form a union in "Bar Association". This seems to be a wafer-thin concept to base an episode on, but with some "day in the life" B-stories, they manage to eke it out. The Bajorans are holding a one month cleanse, Bashir and O'Brien are off on another holodeck adventure, Worf is tired of all the chaos on the station, Rom has an earache… Sisko seems to have become a "bad cop" for the station with little else to do--was Avery Brooks working on other projects at the time? In the end, Rom quits the bar and gets an engineering job, while Worf moves his quarters to the Defiant. The latter reminded me of Greg Brady moving his bedroom to the attic...
• Who's the real Emissary? In "Accession", an ancient Bajoran poet (Richard Libertini) arrives to take over the job. According to Memory Alpha, the producers had to fight the studio to do another Emissary show--viewers had problems with religious-based episodes, apparently. Sisko seems quite happy about getting out of the religious icon position. Unfortunately, Bajor had a strict caste system back int he poet's time, and he wants to return to that culture. Kira's family was in an artist's caste--and she proves she's no artist. In the end, both Emissaries go ask the wormhole what to do. A quick vision later, and Sisko's back in the Emissary business. Also, Keiko (remember her?) returns after a year on Bajor--and she's pregnant. Fortunately, it's quickly established that it is Miles' baby.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (and all the Trek series) is available on Netflix.

Star Trek DS9: More of Season Four

Continuing to trudge through the fourth season…

• Shades of TNG! It's holo-wackiness when the doctor becomes "Our Man Bashir". We do learn that breaking into someone else's holosuite is illegal--since when? Anyway, the whole episode is a Bond parody, all the way down to women's names with sexual innuendo (Mona Luvsitt?) Coupled with the holosuite problems is a transporter accident that puts the senior crew's images into Bashir's fantasy. Nana Visitor does her best Natasha Fatale impression (you know, "moose and squirrel"?), and Sisko makes quite the Bond villain as "Dr. Noah". Overall, it's a goofy episode.
• Things get a bit more serious in a two-parter starting with "Homefront". A Changeling terrorist attack on Earth turns Starfleet paranoid enough to declare martial law (keep in mind this episode aired years prior to 9/11). They also put Sisko in charge of Starfleet security--adding blood screenings and phaser sweeps. Odo helps out despite a natural hesitancy from the Ferderation. A number of subplots were added as "episode helper" in order to make it a two-parter, including one with Sisko's father (Brock Peters, also played a Starfleet admiral in two Trek movies).  The first part ends with the Changelings disrupting Earth's power grid, and martial law going into effect.
• "Paradise Lost" continues the story with Starfleet's "Red Squad" (an elite group of cadets) who fall under Sisko's suspicion. It turns out they were responsible for the power outage, and that Starfleet Command put them up to it. Admiral Leyton (Robert Foxworth) plans to overthrow the government in order to "protect Earth", so Sisko has to find evidence to take them down. Colm Meaney gets a juicy cameo as a Changeling to irritate and scare Sisko. After various machinations on both sides, a lot of speechifying, and a ship battle, the good guys win the day.
• Kira, Odo, and a Bajoran minister are in a triangle--although Kira doesn't know it--in "Crossfire". The whole "Odo's unrequited love" storyline is annoying--either tell her or forget it! Even Quark has Odo figured out--he's in the "friend zone". At one point, Worf and Odo compare notes on how to establish order on the station and in their lives--they are more alike than they thought. Odo's shapeshifting power seems to have improved--he somehow stops a falling elevator by becoming a metal brace. The whole episode has a vibe a la "The Bodyguard".

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (and all the Trek series) is available on Netflix.

Star Trek DS9: Season Four Continues

Moving on…

• Dax has to deal with one of her past hosts (again) in "Rejoined". In this case, it's another Trill that used to be Dax's wife. Unfortunately, there's a a Trill taboo about their later hosts getting back together--it's a whole "don't ask, don't tell" thing. There's a also the point that they are both now female--after they throw technobabble and sweet nothings at each other, it results in one of television's first same-sex kisses. This is what Trek does best--cloak current issues in sci-fi trappings. Meanwhile, I've noticed that Worf isn't getting a lot to do on the show--he had a bigger part on TNG.
• The Defiant is attacked by the Jem'Hadar in "Starship Down". They are forced to go into the atmosphere of a planet, which means plenty of CGI. It basically becomes a submarine drama. At one point, Dax and Kira move to another station on the bridge--since the stations are just touch displays on glass, why not just reconfigure the one you're in front of?  In a later attack, the bridge is cut off from the rest of the ship, and so engineering (O'Brien) thinks they are dead. I'm not so sure I would assume that. The episode provides a number of character moments, as they say what could be their last words.
• Ugh--another Quark episode! He and the other Ferengis become "Little Green Men" after they end up on 1947 Earth. Darn that time travel! We get to hear Ferengi language minus the universal translator--it's all gibberish to the "Earthlings". It's the same for the Ferengis. Quark, of course, sees it as a great chance to make a fortune. There's a lot of social commentary throughout the episode--nuclear weapons, the danger of cigarettes, and what's allowed under "national security". There's a cute reference to "Hangar 18"--where aliens supposedly are stored. The US Army General is played by Charles Napier--who also played one of the "space hippies" in the TOS episode "The Way to Eden".
• Worf finally gets something to do in "The Sword of Kahless". Get ready for endless discussions about honor and Klingon history! John Colicos drops by as ex-Commander Kor--his fourth Trek appearance over three series (TOS, The Animated Series, and DS9). He gets Worf and Dax to follow him on a quest for the famed weapon. Colicos provides a Shatner-level show of scenery chewing throughout. There's a whole "Indiana Jones" thing going on as they figure out traps and fight off bad guys. It then turns into "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" with each of them fighting for the Bat'leth, which apparently has the ability to influence minds (?!?). In the end, they beam it into space.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (and all the Trek series) is available on Netflix.

Star Trek DS9: Starting Season Four

After a bit of a break, we're back to Deep Space Nine...

•  …and we start with the two-parter, "The Way of the Warrior". They sped up the opening theme--it was a big slow--and added more CGI. It's Klingon "Fleet Week" at the station, and Sisko needs some help--from a certain Starfleet Klingon looking for work. Worf (Michael Dorn) ioins the series with this episode, and much of the action surrounds him. The Klingon Empire attacks Cardassia, using an insurrection there and the previous Dominion war as an excuse--and breaks off diplomatic relations with the Federation. It's more honor and duty hoopla, and Barney Google aka Gowron (Robert O'Reilly) drops by. There's a big battle with the Defiant, Cardassians, and the Klingons--and it seems the station got yet another set of weapons upgrades. There's even hand to hand combat on the station--looks like Call of Duty--I don't think Gene Roddenberry would have approved. In the end, the Klingons and the Federation are essentially at war.
• After all the action (and expense) of the last episode, we go to a character story--"The Visitor"--starring Benjamin and Jake. The elder Sisko gets pulled out of technobabble phase, and Jake lives the rest of his life without him with rare exceptions when Ben drops in and out of his life, each time only for a few minutes. The older Jake (Tony Todd), now dying, is visited by a young writer who wants to know why he stopped writing. We get an alternate future where a) DS9 is handed off to the Klingons; b) Jake moves to Earth and marries a Bajoran girl; c) she leaves him due to his obsession to find Ben; and d) Captain Nog (?!?!) and the crew (with lots of old-age makeup) return with the Defiant to save Ben. More technobabble and a suicide later, this history is erased, Ben is saved, and all is back to normal. It's widely considered to be one of the finest episodes of DS9--not sure if I would agree, it seems a bit maudlin.
• Bashir gets a chance to shine in "Hippocratic Oath". He and O'Brien are captured by a Jem'Hadar group, and our doctor ends up running drug rehab for them. There's a whole "Bridge over the River Kwai" vibe to it--Bashir is torn between his job to heal and his orders to fight the Dominion, while O'Brien has no interest in helping them. There's also a B-story with Worf falling into old Security Chief habits, which means he butts heads with Odo.
• We get two views of Love, Federation Style in "Indiscretion". Kira and Gul Dukat look for survivors of a prisoner ship--he's there to find and apparently kill his daughter, who the result of a tryst with a Bajoran. There's a lot of dialogue between them--looks like they needed to save more money on the show. There's an obscure race--the Breen--who appear to have the same outfit as Princess Leia while she was rescuing Han. Meanwhile, Sisko is getting cold feet as Kasidy Yates pushes him to move their relationship forward. Mindy noted that it was lucky that the only two African-Americans in the Federation found each other.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (and all the Trek series) is available on Netflix.

Star Trek DS9: Season Three Wraps Up

Let's finish up the third season...

• Sisko, having nothing better to do, builds a ship with his son in "Explorers". He apparently also had time to grow a goatee. Many internet geeks complained that the "solar sail" ship they build is impossible--the sail needs to be hundreds of times the size shown for it to actually work. There's a "building the ship" montage designed to fill time in this "day in the life" episode. Jake announces he's been accepted for a literary scholarship, but unfortunately wants to wait a year (rats!), They manage to get the ship to Cardassian space, where they are treated to an (impossible in space) fireworks display. The B-story is about Julian and an old female schoolmate at the academy--she was the valedictorian. There's a great scene with a drunk O'Brien and Bashir singing together as the doctor commisserates. Turns out the other doctor, the CMO on a Starfleet ship, would rather have Bashir's job.
• Blech! Another Quark-heavy episode in "Family Business". The Ferengi is being audited--which is even worse in their society than in ours. HIs mother (Andrea Martin) is being charged with "earning profit"--illegal for a female. Andrea sounds like Edna Boil from SCTV. His old home reminds me of "The Hobbit"--lots of small circular doorways. The B-story is about Jake fixing up his old man with freighter captain Kasidy Yates (Penny Johnson Jerald). Turns out they're both into baseball.
• While the rest of the crew play darts (don't they have work to do?), Kira runs a special mission for Kai Wynn in "Shakaar". Kira's old resistance cell are now farmers, and they're holding onto macguffin devices Wynn needs to secure her position in the government. Louise Fletcher continues her mustache-twirling ways as the Kai--she tries to play against all sides and fails miserably. Of course, Kira gets way too deep into the situation as always--she spends weeks as a fugitive before turning the resistance leader into a politician. As for the B-story, the dart game is rather goofy--it really went nowhere.
• Dax has a visit with past hosts in "Facets". It's a Trill ritual that involves loaning the other host's memories to others, with the rest of the cast as guinea pigs. They all get to play a new character--it's rather like audition monologues for genre actors! For no reason, they include the murderous host in the ceremony, hosted by Sisko--Avery Brooks gives him a whole Hannibal vibe. Host Curzon (hosted by Odo) decides to hang around--oops! The whole concept makes no sense--why is she asking questions of her previous hosts, when she should already have their memories. Leeta (Chase Masterson), a Dabo girl, has apparently become part of the inner circle with little explanation--I guess they needed another female role on the show. There's a B-story with Nog training for his Starfleet academy entrance tests. As usual, Nog is goofy but earnest.
• All this dart playing, ship building, and mind-swapping have paid off--Commander Sisko is made a Captain in "The Adversary". His first mission involves the Defiant, a planet in crisis, and an ambassador (Lawrence Pressman, a Trek veteran) who's not really an ambassador. It turns out a Changeling is on the Defiant, and it's trying to start a war by taking over the ship. No one can trust another, since any of them (or anything on the ship) could be the Changeling. It's time for the ol' Self-Destruct sequence! We also get the "who's the real Odo?" sequence. There's a Changeling fight and a whispered secret to Odo--"we are everywhere"--which takes us to the end of Season Three.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (and all the Trek series) is available on Netflix.

Star Trek DS9: Season Three Rolls On

Time jumps, old age makeup, alternate universes, and military intrigue...

• O'Brien becomes a "Visionary" after a radiation accident lets him jump into the future. Romulans are on the station checking out intelligence reports on the Dominion (part of the trade for borrowing cloaking tech to the Defiant), and he sees the destruction of DS9, only a few hours away.  The time jump storyline is rather complicated, but the producers pull it off well. Our heroes keep trying to stop Miles' events from happening with no luck. Of course, there's a technobabble explanation for whole thing. We also get a great sequence with the station exploding--no CGI, it's a real model blowing up, per the Memory Alpha site.
• Bashir starts hearing "Distant Voices" after he is attacked by an alien junkie. The station is mostly deserted and trashed--he only finds Quark and Garak. He starts rapidly aging (a favorite Trek trick). He finally finds most of the staff, bickering with each other. A damaged communication system starts emitting the crew's voices--it turns out he's in a coma, and the "others" with him are actually different aspects of his subconscious. The alien takes out each of them, removing a bit of Bashir's mind when he does so. In the end, he repairs the ship and stops the alien--all in his mind--to save himself. This is really a tour de force for Siddig.
• Speaking of favorite Trek tricks--we return to the Mirror Mirror universe "Through the Looking Glass". Mirror O'Brien kidnaps Sisko and takes him back--he's needed to replace the now dead Mirror Sisko to complete a rebellion mission, Unfortunately, the mission is to convince Mirror Jennifer Sisko (who's was killed by the Borg in the normal universe) to stop work on a Macguffin device--or kill her. There's a lot of overacting, especially from Mirror Kira. We also meet Mirror Dax, who's Sisko's mistress. Vulcan Tuvok (Tim Russ) from Voyager also guest stars. Our Sisko seems to have no trouble slipping into the pirate role--even remembering all the details of his alternate. There's a very Star Wars-ian chase through Terek Nor (DS9), then the self-destruct gambit is used for our heroes to escape. You can tell the cast loves these episodes. Frankly, I think this storyline is better than the main series.
• Another two-parter begins with "Improbable Cause". There's an attempted assassination of Garak, and Odo is on the case. The attack is tracked back to the Romulans, who have apparently hired new tailors--the huge shoulder pads are gone. A Cardassian "deep throat" provides more backstory, and Odo confronts Garak. There's a whole "Obsidian Order" angle involved. A trip to track down Garak's mentor Enabran Tain (Paul Dooley) ends in their capture by the Romulans, who are working with the Cardassians to take out the Dominion. Garak sells out Odo to Tain, and we're onto part two--"The Die is Cast". The Cardassian/Romulan fleet move to DS9 and the wormhole while Tain and Garak talk over old times. Starfleet, of course, wants DS9 to stay out of it, and Sisko, of course, ignores it. There's a power play between Garak and Tain as the former's loyalties are tested regarding Odo's torture, and a technobabble device that stops Odo from changing his shape used to provide the torture. In the end, the Jem'Hadar trap and destroy the Cardassian/Romulan fleet--the Romulan commander is actually a Founder. Odo and Garak use the confusion to escape, with the Defiant giving them a hand. Apparently, this story was made into a two-parter at the last minute--and it shows. There's a lot of dialogue designed to stretch out the story rather than advance it.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (and all the Trek series) is available on Netflix.

Star Trek DS9: Even More of Season Three

The cast is in peril, as well as the station, in this next group of episodes.

• Let's spin the Wheel of Character Death in "Life Support".  The winner--or loser--is Vedek Bereil, who's advising the Kai on Cardassian negotiations when a shuttle accident almost kills him. The episode turns into "Medical Center", with Bashir standing in for Chad Everett. More and more experimental procedures are tried to save Bereil's life, to the point of replacing his brain with positronic implants. In the end, there's just too much to replace, and Bashir refuses to go further. There's also a B-story with Nog and Jake--I hate the Nog character.  I also noticed yet another Kira hairstyle--she's the Troi of DS9.
• Now let's put a main character in peril--Kira--in "Heart of Stone". She and Odo are on a shuttle run and run into a Maquis battle--she ends up in a cave stuck in a crystal that threatens to envelop her (seems kind of goofy). There's even more technobabble than usual in this episode. Odo works furiously to save his friend, and when it seems all is lost, finally admits his love for her. Of course, it turns out "Kira" is just a Changeling, trying to find out why Odo wouldn't join them--the real Kira is fine. Meanwhile--Nog's back (ugh!) and he wants to go to Starfleet Academy. He's afraid he will end up like his father, shilling for Quark.
• Could a Bajoran warning of doom be DS9's "Destiny"? A rogue Vedek arrives, stating that a joint Bajoran/Cardassian scientific mission is part of an apocalyptic prophecy. Sisko and Kira ignore it until the parallels start to spook the Bajoran officer. She tries to convince Sisko to scrap the mission, and he starts to believe the prophecy too. It turns out the Obsidian Order is involved, and Sisko aka "The Emissary" has to save the day.The B-story involves one of the Cardassian scientists (Tracy Scoggins) and O'Brien butting heads on engineering--then she starts to hit on him.
• Blech--another Ferengi-centric episode! Did anyone think their antics were funny? Grand Nagus Zek (Wallace Shawn) has a "Prophet Motive", and it involves a rewrite of the "Rules of Acquisition" and a missing Bajoran Orb. Quark is forced to move in with Rom--can two Ferengi share quarters without driving each other crazy? The B-story is about Bashir and a Federation medical award. Overall--this is a terrible episode. According to the Memory Alpha site, the plotline came from an unpurchased Taxi spec script, which explains a lot.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (and all the Trek series) is available on Netflix.

Star Trek DS9: More of Season Three

Guest stars and time jumps in this log entry--

• Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) drops by the station in "Defiant"--or is he? Nope--it's his transported-created clone Thomas Riker, now working for the Maquis. He plays William to get Kira to give him access to the Defiant, swipes it, and starts attacking the Cardassian empire. Why didn't the security systems recognize the difference? Sure, William and Thomas have the same DNA, but when Thomas went AWOL, wouldn't the systems be updated with this info, track William, and see if another William showed up? Thomas doesn't have the full beard--just a goatee (making him the evil Riker, per TV rules). There's also a silly subplot about Gul Dukat worrying about his son's birthday. In the end, Thomas surrenders to save others.
• Love is in the air--unfortunately, it's a disease--in "Fascination". The episode is set against a Bajoran "Gratitude Festival"--seems like a lot of new-age nonsense. The aforementioned disease brings suppressed desires to the surface--Jake's got a crush on Kira, while her main squeeze Bereil wants to be with Dax, and she in turn wants to be with Sisko. Also, Miles and Keiko are feuding (she's back from a Bajoran mission). It's all due to the presence of Lwaxana Troi--so it's a problem for Odo as well. When did this show become a soap opera? I also noticed that the crew each have one set of "off duty" clothes--you see them over and over. Why wouldn't they just replicate different clothes each time? Finally, just how far is DS9 from Bajor--why can't Miles just shoot over there to see his wife?
• It's yet another two-parter: "Past Tense". Dax, Sisko, and Bashir have a bad transporter trip--and end up on Earth in 2024. While Kira and O'Brien spout technobabble, Sisko provides exposition about this era, where the homeless are pushed into gulags, and the rich enjoy the good life (of course). Actually, based on current trends, I wouldn't be surprised if this is what the real 2024 will look like. Dax has a better time of it--a rich plutocrat takes a liking to her, and she seems to easily lie about herself. Sisko also knows that a major riot is about to happen. We hear about a "Starfleet Temporal Displacement" policy--rather like the Prime Directive for non-interference, but for the time stream. When the leader of the upcoming riot is killed defending Sisko (played by Brook's stunt double), our hero has to step into that role in order to allow Starfleet and the Federation to exist in the future. (The Defiant, with Kira, O'Brien, and Odo inside, is protected from the nonexistence of the Federation due to a technobabble bubble.) Dax and O'Brien beam back to 1930 (to the same point Kirk and Spock went in "City on the Edge of Forever", per the Memory Alpha site), 1960 (where they meet some hippies), and 2048 before they figure out the right time to rescue  their comrades. This is a "big message" story.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (and all the Trek series) is available on Netflix.

Star Trek DS9: Season Three Continues

We get a number of genre TV tropes in this batch of episodes...

• Is Kira a deep cover operative?  In "Second Skin", our Bajoran liaison/renegade learns that she had been leaving a double life--with the other as a Cardassian spy. They gave her false memories to perform her role in the Bajoran underground, and have now brought her back to the fold and "restored" her Cardassian features. There's even a doting father (Lawrence Pressman), trying to convince her. They show her the corpse of the real Kira--kept on ice?  Seems like a real waste of resources, just in case you would need it. Meanwhile, our heroes and Garak go on a mission to save her--they keep doing the stealth thing in the Defiant, making their way across Cardassian space. It turns out the Obsidian Order was after the father--he was the suspect. This "double life" story has been used several times on the various Trek series.
• Quark buys some ship wreckage--and winds up with a Jem'Hadar orphaned baby--in the appropriately named "The Abandoned". The baby is growing at an accelerated rate--needed to move the story along and a staple of genre television. Meanwhile, Kira is uncharacteristically perky and upbeat at one point when trying to get into Odo's quarters. Speaking of the shapeshifter, he the only one able to stop the now-teenage Jem'Hadar, who appears to know he is a Founder. Odo is assigned to care for the child--the episode turns into a lesson on racial tolerance. There's also a B-story about Jake and a Dabo girl--with Sisko trying to break it up.
• O'Brien trips an old security program in "Civil Defense". It decides the station's crew are renegade Bajorans, and locks down an ore processor, trapping O'Brien, Sisko, and Jake. It also starts locking down other systems on the station. Gul Dukat's pre-recorded messages keep playing, telling the rebels to surrender. When they manage to escape, the whole station shuts down in retaliation. Ooo and Quark are stuck in the security room and Bashir, Kira, and Dax and stuck in Ops. It's the ultimate "bottle" show. The "trapped cast" storyline is a constant of genre TV.  The real Dukat finally shows up to save the day--and ends up getting trapped on the station as well. Sisko and Co. manage to stop the station from self-destruction.
• It's Brigadoon in SPAACE in "Meridian". The Defiant is exploring the Gamma Quadrant--and a planet suddenly pops into existence. It shifts between dimensions. The planet and inhabitants become energy when they go to the other dimension, but come back into existence when they return. Of course, Dax falls in love with one of the inhabitants--I would think she is too logical to do that. They figure out how to stabilize the planet--but not before it shifts again and won't return for 60 years. The B-story is about a alien (Jeffrey Combs) smitten with Kira--he pays Quark to make a holosuite starring our Bajoran. The problem--he doesn't have a scan of Kira, and stoops to his normal underhanded ways to get it. Combs will return in other roles on DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (and all the Trek series) is available on Netflix.

Star Trek DS9: Onto Season Three

The third season begins…

• …with the two-parter "The Search". In a misguided attempt to improve the show, Sisko returns to the station with an experimental ship, the Defiant. It was built to fight the Borg but then mothballed. The Feds managed to get the Romulans to loan them a clocking device--and an officer to go along with it. Now the cast can run more conventional Trek ship missions--they start with a search for the "Founders" in the Gamma Quadrant, and hopefully defuse the whole Jem'Hadar issue. Sisko bullies Quark into joining them, but then he almost immediately decides to return--the whole script seems like it was written by a committee. Odo makes quite a fuss when a new security officer arrives, but I don't see why--if I was Starfleet, I would be nervous about Odo too. He starts to obsess about a nebula--as if he had a homing instinct. During a battle, he grabs Kira and a shuttecraft. They find a rogue planet with a lake of goo--it's others of Odo's race, and they greet him warmly.
• Part Two begins with Sisko and Bashir on another shuttle--they abandoned the Defiant. Dax and O'Brien manage to find them, and learns that the Dominion and the Federation are writing up a peace treaty back on the station. Meanwhile, Odo is trying to understand his new race, and is getting frustrated. He then gets some "Changeling" history from one of the others, and we get some "Changeling After Dark" action. Back on the station, the Federation is making plans for an alliance with the Dominion, the Jem'Hadar are running roughshod over the station, and the Dominion are taking over the Bajoran sector--and the wormhole. Sisko and the crew are being reassigned--so they go rogue and destroy the wormhole. Odo and Kira finds the crew all safe and sound--the whole thing was just a simulation. It turns out the Changelings are the Dominion! Odo rejects them and joins our heroes back at the station.
• Quark's wackiness meets Klingon mumbo-jumbo in "The House of Quark". The Ferengi accidentally kills a Klingon at the bar, and ends up in an arranged marriage. Googly-eyed Klingon leader Gowron (Robert O'Reilly) guest stars, as does Mary Kay Place as the scheming widow. Meanwhile, Keiko loses the teacher gig (families are moving off the station due to the Dominion), and Miles wants to cheer her up. The solution is a botanist job on Bajor, which also provides an excuse for Rosalind Chao appearing so rarely on the show (only 19 episodes all together).  Seems like they needed a cheap episode to counter the costs of the two-parter.
• Dax's history catches up to her in "Equilibrium". Dax's normally serene character gets a chance to be hostile and confrontative in this episode. She also has some hallucinations that reminded Mindy of a Doctor Who episode involving masks. The whole thing turns into a medical drama--will Jadzia lose her symbiont? We do get to see the Trill home world and hear more of her back story. Trills (the symbioses, not the hosts) apparently breed in weird underground pools. The whole thing turns out to be a Trill conspiracy involving a murder and a botched joining. The fix is to send Jadzia into the weird pool to "absorb" a lost host.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (and all the Trek series) is available on Netflix.

Star Trek DS9: Closing Out Season Two

Let's wrap up the second season of Deep Space Nine--

• It's a trip to a parallel universe for Kira and Bashir in "Crossover". They dropped into the "Mirror, Mirror" universe from TOS--you know, where Spock had the goatee. Mirror Kira is in charge of the Terek Nor station, where the "Terrans" are slaves. Nana Visitor wears a black catsuit and overacts at a Shatnerian level. Speaking of him, our Kira learns how James T. Kirk got Spock to preach reforms--and got the Empire overthrown by the Bajoran/Klingon/Cardassian alliance for his efforts. It's strange how everyone in the Mirror universe knows about the Kirk incident--seems like they would have kept it a secret. Garak is Kira's lieutenant, Sisko is a collaborator, Quark is still a bartender (but got caught for helping the Terrans), O'Brien is a simple maintenance man, and Odo is a slave overseer. Mirror Sisko helps them back to the normal universe. We'll see this universe again several times in the series.
• Kira gets another big role when her boyfriend Vedek Bareil (Philip Anglim) needs her help in "The Collaborator". He's about to be named Kai, but he's accused of being--well, a collaborator with the Cardassians. There's a lot of Bajoran mumbo-jumbo, dream sequences, and political machinations. Louise Fletcher as Vedek Wynn is like a viper--always scheming. Bereil is no saint either--he sacrificed a group of Bajorans to save many more (the needs of the many…)--or did he? Turns out he was covering up for the recently deceased Kai Opaka. He steps down, and Wynn is the winner.
• Miles' wartime past catches up to him in "Tribunal". While on vacation (who needs a vacation in the 24th century?), Miles gets nabbed by the Cardassians and is tortured--all because an old buddy (John Beck) uses him as a patsy to help the Maquis. Rosalind Chao gets the biggest role she's had for quite a while. We learn a lot about Cardassian justice--trials are pre-determined, in order to be "efficient". Odo steps in to save him--he still has clearance from the Cardassian occupation. It turns out that his "buddy" was a Cardassian spy, and they use that to spring Miles.
• Finally, it's the season finale--"The Jem'Hadar". They are the soldier class of the mysterious Dominion, and they nab Sisko and Quark while on a (misadvised) trip with Jake and Nog to the Gamma Quadrant. Like all multipart episodes, there's a lot of fluff. Quark worming his way onto the trip. The arguments around the campfire. A mysterious telepath. The annoying Nog character in general. There's also a recurring character--Morn--a silent alien barfly at Quark's--with a recurring joke that he will eventually speak. I assume the name of the character is a take on Cheer's Norm. Back at the station--the Jem'Hadar arrives, telling them Sisko is being held for questioning, and to stay on their side of the wormhole--they wiped out a Bajoran settlement there just to make the point. Replacement Captain Keogh (TV veteran Alan Oppenheimer) arrives to take command. There's a space battle, Sisko's rescue, and the destruction of a Galaxy-class ship. TIme to get ready for the big battle--dunn-dunn-dunn…

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (and all the Trek series) is available on Netflix.

Star Trek DS9: Season Two in the Homestretch

Ka'Plah!

• It's Klingon old home week in "Blood Oath". Three Klingons from the original series--Kor (John Colicos), Kang (Michael Ansara), and Koloth (William Campbell) meet at the station to plan for a final mission. Dax accompanies them, since she knew them in one of her former lives. The big question--how did these three change from the swarthy aliens of TOS to the bumpy-heads of TNG and the movies?
• We get another two-parter in "The Maquis". There's political intrigue, sneaky aliens, long boring dialogue, and an uneasy alliance between Sisko and Gul Dukat. He gets kidnapped, so Sisko takes Kira and Bashir to save him--it doesn't go well. The finale is a showdown in space. This is the first appearance of the Maquis terrorists, as well as the "Badlands" which will later be the site of the Voyager premiere. Bernie Casey guest stars as an old Starfleet buddy of Sisko's, and Bertila Damas as a mysterious Vulcan woman.
• Tailor/spy Garak is under the weather--or is it an addiction?--in "The Wire" (not the one in Baltimore). It's "Lost Weekend"--in SPAACE! Garak trashes the infirmary--why didn't Bashir have him under restraints, like anyone going through withdrawal? Bashir and Garak finally have it out, and we learn more about Garak's backstory. Paul Dooley guest stars as a Cardassian intelligence officer. In a subplot, Dax needs some help with a sick plant, and we get a McCoy callback from Bashir--"I'm a doctor, not a botanist". 

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (and all the Trek series) is available on Netflix.