Deep Space Nine 3x2 "The Search, Part 2"

rating: ****

the story: Odo learns who and what his people the Founders really are, while Sisko experiences what a Federation/Dominion alliance would look like.

what it's all about: "The Search, Part 2" is part deconstruction (the station crew and mission are dissected piece by piece) and character study (Odo discovers for the first time the true joy of being a shapeshifter), and it works brilliantly. 

As a continuation of its predecessor, the episode is a lot like "The Best of Both Worlds," the iconic Next Generation two-part thriller involving the showdown with the Borg: the second half of the story explores an unexpected way to conclude something sensational.  Part of it might be easy to dismiss in hindsight as a "reset button," because the Federation/Dominion alliance doesn't really happen in anything other than the minds of Sisko and his command crew, but evokes real emotion, the most emotion Sisko has exhibited all series.  It's downright spine-tingling when he unloads on Admiral Nechayev on his feelings about what's been happening, a stark contrast to the vaguely unsettling tension he showed toward Picard in the first episode of the series, "Emissary." 

It's worth noting that for as many appearances as she made across Deep Space Nine and Next Generation, Nechayev never has a better showing than in "The Search, Part 2."  She was always a proud member of the Bad Admirals club, which Deep Space Nine would finally break with Admiral Ross later in the series, but this whole scenario is a perfect representation of the compromised, almost political nature of the rank, and why it so often produced this type of character.  It doesn't hurt that Natalija Nogulich always seemed so deliciously pleased with herself playing Nechayev, which itself kind of informs the later recurring character of Weyoun, and not to mention Dukat.

But the biggest news of the episode is that not only has Odo finally found home, but his people are the bad guys!  He and Kira (and as of this episode they're officially on their way to becoming a romantic couple) have a hard time reconciling his elation with the realities of the situation, but in the end, it is what it is, and the Founders are in fact the leaders of the Dominion, which will put Odo in a lot of compromising situations as the series progresses.

It's almost easy to overlook how important this development is, because it's by far the less sensational, and in fact almost numbingly mundane, half of the episode, but for those keeping score, it's ultimately hard to ignore. 

The whole thing is what the remainder of the series looks like in a nutshell.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - This is what it looks like when a story comes together in Star Trek.
• series - This is what the Dominion in its totality looks like.
• character - Whether Odo, Kira, Sisko, or even Nechayev, this episode's got them all covered.
• essential - Do you really need to ask?

notable guest-stars:
Salome Jens (Female Shapeshifter)
Andrew Robinson (Garak)
Ken Marshall (Eddington)
Natalija Nogulich (Nechayev)
Martha Hackett

Deep Space Nine 3x1 "The Search, Part 1"

rating: ****

the story: Sisko introduces everyone to the Defiant, a powerful new Starfleet warship he's taking into the Gamma Quadrant to confront the Dominion.

what it's all about: What always set Deep Space Nine apart was that it was, well, set aboard a space station.  Did that really change in the third season with the introduction of the Defiant?  Well, no.  Occasionally it would be used to tell more traditional Star Trek stories, but for the most part it remained an extension of the station dynamic.  But it was by its very nature a clear signal that this was a series that wouldn't outright condemn war so much as explore its many facets. 

It was also a kind of redefining of Sisko himself, who proudly announces his role in its development, and that he'll be its commanding officer (he wouldn't gain the rank of captain until the end of the season).  This whole episode begins the third season's strong characterization of Sisko, which was the series' best characterization of him to that point, and arguably from its whole run.  Sisko first appeared as a broken, lost man, and while accepting the space station assignment gave him new purpose, it didn't really fix him.  He and son Jake acknowledge that they've now found themselves a home, in the episode.  Sisko had purpose before, but now he has a reason to live.

But others are less happy about what's been happening.  Odo, for instance.  "The Search, Part 1" is also the first appearance of Michael Eddington, a seemingly minor and yet increasingly significant character in the middle portion of the series.  At first he's important because to Odo it's Starfleet's ultimate rebuke of his role as the lawman of the station.  This was something that bubbled up in the previous two seasons, but comes to a dramatic head with Eddington.  Odo doesn't particularly care about Eddington himself (he ends up working alongside him just fine) so much as the fact that once again he's being forced to confront his status as the unwanted "other."  Which leads him, unexpectedly, not only to resign but show up to take part in the expedition, because he once and for all is convinced that his origins, another long-teased development, really do lie in the Gamma Quadrant.

By the end of the episode, the mission has turned into a disaster, but Odo has discovered exactly what he sought: the Founders, and the forever-unnamed Female Shapeshifter who is destined to change the course of his life forever...

Unlike how the previous season began, with that historic three-part episode that ran out of steam and authentic developments well before its conclusion, "The Search" packs a strong one-two punch, with a strong beginning (here) and conclusion (next episode).  Both halves are distinct in and of themselves, although of course inextricably linked.  They both focus on Sisko and Odo, besides, setting them up one moment and knocking them down the next, to remarkable effect.  What was previously reserved for strong episodes was now beginning to settle on strong characterization.

Given how big the Dominion story ultimately became, it might be tempting to dismiss how it began and increasingly irrelevant.  But that would be a mistake.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Seldom has storytelling been this forceful and assured in Star Trek.
• series - Iconic elements are falling into place at last.
• character - Sisko and Odo are front and center.
• essential - And having some of their best-ever material.

notable guest-stars:
Salome Jens (Female Shapeshifter)
Ken Marshall (Eddington)
John Fleck
Martha Hackett

Deep Space Nine 2x26 "The Jem'Hadar"

rating: ****

the story: Sisko takes his son, Quark, and Nog on a trip to the Gamma Quadrant, and they end up regretting it considerably, thanks to the formal introduction of the Dominion.

what it's all about: It's amazing how quickly the series ended up finding out what it was finally going to be like moving forward, after a lot of false starts and formative material that never quite seemed to lived up to potential.  It's highly appropriate that this happens in a Quark episode, MVP of the second season, that also involves Sisko, who as of "The Jem'Hadar" had definitively found his place not only in series lore but for the franchise as well.

Simply put, and this is incredibly easy to say in hindsight, but the Dominion arc ended up defining Deep Space Nine.  Over the course of the next five seasons, tensions rose to all-out war that enveloped the final two seasons of the series.  All that begins with the introductions of not only the eponymous shock troops of the Dominion, but the continually enigmatic (a trademark characteristic of the series) Vorta as well.

Naturally, the Jem'Hadar make the more dramatic debut, ostensibly as the Deep Space Nine answer to the most sensational new threat of its Next Generation predecessor, the Borg.  A Jem'Hadar ship, pointedly, takes out a Starfleet vessel the same class as the Enterprise-D with almost ridiculous (if suicidal) ease.  You'd have to wait until the terrorism of Enterprise's "The Expanse" to see something like that again.

But what exactly the level of threat the Dominion poses would have to wait until later.  Instead, the episode revels in the contrast between Sisko and Quark, who couldn't possibly be greater polar opposites (another series trademark, which Quark also shares with Odo).  Both have an unerring sense of duty, but the ways they exhibit themselves, again, couldn't be more different, so naturally it falls to another generation to help them find common ground.  It's the rare reminder, post-first season, that Jake and Nog still matter in this series, in ways that would push both of them in surprising new directions, which like the other events of this episode begin to come to a head in the following season.

All this might seem insignificant compared to what it leads to, but "Jem'Hadar" is a great reminder that big things start small.  The Gamma Quadrant had existed in series lore since the start, but it wasn't until this episode where it truly begins to matter, after all.

Which, again, is a polar opposite in and of itself, too.  The season began with an ambitious attempt to turn around the Bajoran side of the series premise into something that could truly be reckoned with.  And yet, the season ends with something new that lands with a definite, immediate impact, all in the course of a single episode, which actually teases far more than it reveals.  For fans who think Deep Space Nine worked best in its serialized storytelling, it's a refreshing reminder that one story really can make all the difference.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - The Dominion instantly becomes one of the defining villains in all of Star Trek.
• series - It also instantly becomes a cornerstone of Deep Space Nine.
• character - All while keeping a tight focus on Sisko and Quark as everyday people.
• essential - Any of that means this is a classic, folks.

notable guest-stars:
Aron Eisenberg (Nog)

Deep Space Nine 2x25 "Tribunal"

rating: ***

the story: O'Brien is put on trial in a Cardassian courtroom.

what it's all about: There's a rich tradition of trial drama in Star Trek lore, from the two-part "Menagerie" from the original series to Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, and many other examples from every series (not the least of which being Enterprise's "Judgment," which closely echoes Undiscovered Country).  "Tribunal" is one of the best examples, if for no other reason than the starkness of its presentation, the utter helplessness of O'Brien's predicament and the ruthlessness of its presentation of Cardassian culture, which after more than a few episodes in the second season might have begun to seem a little too soft for a species with such a nasty history.

"Tribunal" boils down to Cardassian duplicity, it's true, but it also forces every character who appears, including Odo, who steps in to defend O'Brien, and Keiko, O'Brien's wife, who is justifiably horrified by the whole experience, to step up their game.  It features perhaps the second most successful example of a spy finally exposed at the end of an episode, after Arne Darvin in the classic "Trouble with Tribbles," featuring the rare mustache in Star Trek (hey, it's a pretty notable mustache!).

But in the grand tradition of lets-torture-O'Brien episodes, this one's probably the most literal, and so there's that going for it, too.  At one point he literally has a tooth extracted as part of the processing procedures leading up to his trial.  Overall, a very different kind of episode, both for the series and franchise, a real sense of urgency, which is usually hard to pull off, but then also kind of necessary when Cardassian trials usually declare their verdicts first, and of course O'Brien is announced as guilty!

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Part of a grand Star Trek tradition.
• series: Readjusts Cardassians into a less friendly light, which at this point was necessary.
• character - Maybe doesn't say much about O'Brien himself, but when he suffers we all kind of suffer along with him.
• essential - Still, it doesn't say much of anything new, even if it's all very impactful.

notable guest-stars:
Rosalind Chao (Keiko)
Richard Poe (Evek)

Deep Space Nine 2x24 "The Collaborator"

rating: ***

the story: Kira finds herself caught in the middle of Bajoran politics.

what it's all about: "The Collaborator" is basically the Bajoran edition of the Cardassian-centric "Duet" from the first season, Deep Space Nine's first acknowledged classic.  "Collaborator" is a huge step forward from the awkwardness of the Bajoran trilogy that opened the season, a sign of the increased maturity the series experienced during the course of the second season.  It definitively closes out the original Bajoran narrative that had been embodied by Kai Opaka in the series premiere, "Emissary," who was eventually supplanted by Vedek Bareil and the eventual Kai Winn, who are engaged in bitter politics throughout "Collaborator."  Actually, the episode may best be summed up as a commentary on the nastiness of election cycles.

It's a very Deep Space Nine story.  Next Generation had a Klingon saga including similar battles, and on a smaller scale, the battles over Worf's personal honor.  But "Collaborator" ratchets up the stakes by pitting two familiar recurring characters against each other, one who had been portrayed as a good guy all long (Bariel) and the other a bad guy (Winn).  Since it's Bajorans, who tend to be about as lively as your average Vulcan, don't expect to be jazzed by the results.  It's cerebral material, and as with the best of Deep Space Nine, explores moral gray areas, so that you're no longer sure whether good guys are so easy to identify.  It's an episode the series desperately needed, not just another Bajoran problem but one that deepened the species and its status as victims of Cardassian oppression for decades.  Suddenly matters aren't quite so simple.

After this one, Winn's role in the series had been solidified, and she finally becomes one of its great characters, villain or otherwise.  That's reason enough to care, right?

criteria analysis:

• franchise - You don't need to care about the rest of the franchise to like this one.
• series - A big one for the perennial Bajoran problem.
• character - It's Winn who wins.
• essential - By revealing just how delightfully nasty she can really be.

notable guest-stars:
Louise Fletcher (Winn)
Philip Anglim (Bareil)
Camille Saviola (Opaka)

Deep Space Nine 2x23 "Crossover"

rating: ****

the story: A follow-up to the classic episode "Mirror, Mirror."

what it's all about: This is the level of confidence, and audacity, the second season of Deep Space Nine had introduced to the series.  Well before the prequel nature of Enterprise made it easier to provide follow-ups to previous episodes of the franchise, let alone sequels to episodes of the original series, "Crossover" began a whole tradition in Deep Space Nine, a whole series of episodes set in the so-called Mirror Universe.

What started with "Blood Oath" a few episodes earlier, in which three actors who portrayed Klingons in the original series returned," culminates with "Crossover."  The curious thing about the series, which is a problem that persists today, is that fans question its faithfulness to the Star Trek tradition, because it departs to dramatically in tone.  And yet episodes like this easily evoke not only its fondness for that tradition, but its faithfulness.  In "Mirror, Mirror," Kirk is forced to confront a reality in which the moral decisions he has long taken for granted from those around him are not a given.  Yet, it's him who sets a new standard.  In essence, he's in the same predicament as he's always in.  Yet in "Crossover," it's the Mirror Sisko who makes the difference, despite the presence of Bashir and Kira from the standard reality.  He'd been as corrupt as anyone before they showed up, but he suddenly discovers his moral compass pointed in the right direction because of their influence.  Where we only suspect Mirror Spock has indeed taken Kirk's parting message to heart, "Crossover" is an active demonstration of all that classic Star Trek hope for the future, even if it seems anything but.

It's not so much that "Crossover" provides a follow-up to "Mirror, Mirror," but that it proves things aren't so easy to fix as Kirk could sometimes suggest.  More than a century later, his actions in the Mirror Universe have drastically changed things, but not as he imagined they would.  Humans have become an embattled species.  Sure, the whole thing allows the series to present familiar characters in unfamiliar roles (Kira becomes doubly iconic thanks to this initial appearance of her Intendant counterpart, the most sensational and successful variant, although Odo's one-off take is pretty darn shocking, too), but it's a whole exercise in demonstrating what Deep Space Nine would be like moving forward, what the season had hoped to accomplish all along but hadn't quite managed to nail until the last few episodes.  Basically "Crossover" is a massive tease for the rest of the series, its confidence now unshakeable. 

You can watch "Crossover" on its own, ignore all its follow-ups, and still feel its impact.  If you somehow thought Enterprise's two-part "In a Mirror, Darkly" was the only "Mirror, Mirror" spin-off worth remembering, think again.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Again, it's a sequel to "Mirror, Mirror."
• series - And yet it's completely relevant to Deep Space Nine itself.
• character - The debut of Intendant Kira.
• essential - A classic sequel to a classic.

notable guest-stars:
Andrew Robinson (Garak)
Dennis Madalone

Deep Space Nine 2x22 "The Wire"

rating: ****

the story: Bashir learns about as much about Garak as anyone will ever truly know.

what it's all about: This episode right here, "The Wire," is Deep Space Nine in a nutshell: it's the first time the series does what only it could in this franchise, which is devote a whole episode exclusively to a recurring character.  It's one thing, like Next Generation's "Ensign Ro," to heavily feature a new character to help set them up, but until the penultimate episode of that series, "Preemptive Strike," Ro never received that kind of treatment again.  Now, by the time "The Wire" first aired, Garak had already made a few appearances, all of them teasing the big mystery of just who and what he really is, a mere "plain and simple" tailor as he suggests, or perhaps a former Cardassian spy, which is what intrigues Bashir so much about him.

The fact that Garak is able to occupy a spot as neither a good nor bad guy in the series for the duration of the series (comes in handy for "In the Pale Moonlight"), is what the series is ultimately all about, the ability to interpret Star Trek past the simplicities it had once and would generally be again (the third season of Enterprise was a big challenge of that, too).  "The Wire," in fact, is what happens when the series realizes what it is, something the second season had been struggling with from the start, trying to do something new but not quite realizing what that something should be.  Well, that something new looks a lot like "The Wire."

Bashir benefits a great deal from his relationship with Garak, of course.  At first a cocksure recent graduate of Starfleet's medical program, he had a lot to learn, and by this point he'd already learned a lot through his emerging friendship with O'Brien, who he at least had serving in Starfleet as a shared experience.  But Garak is that big enigma, the lone Cardassian occupant of the station, a reminder of the past who tries to keep to himself as much as possible, keeping himself busy, having friendly conversations with Bashir, sure, but...What's the truth about him???  This is the episode where we come closest to finding out, in the whole of the series.  It's not just a matter of whether or not he was a spy (he was) but why he stopped being one, and whether it's worth having sympathy for him.

The episode concludes, rightly, that it is worth it.  "Duet" from the first season showed what a "good" Cardassian looked like, one so riddled with guilt about the Bajoran Occupation he was willing to impersonate, like a warped version of "The Conscience of the King" from the original series, a bad guy just so someone would be punished for the atrocities his people had carried out.  But "The Wire" is more subtle.  By the time Garak's secret, not what he used to do but why he's been in so much pain, the sympathy he evokes is earned, is as real as anything this franchise has ever accomplished.

If the series can produce something like this for a recurring character, when it's finally figured itself out, "The Wire" is really saying, just imagine what's in store later in the series.  This one's what it's all about, folks.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - As good as storytelling gets in Star Trek.
• series - The sheer confidence of the storytelling endlessly enriches Deep Space Nine as a whole.
• character - This is why everyone loves Garak, and Deep Space Nine recurring characters in general. 
• essential - Proves this series does characters better than any other Star Trek.

notable guest-stars:
Andrew Robinson (Garak)
Paul Dooley (Tain)