Deep Space Nine 7x25/7x26 "What You Leave Behind"

rating: ****

the story: The war ends, and Sisko finally confronts Dukat to settle up between the Prophets and the Pah Wraiths.

what it's all about: This is it, the final episode of Deep Space Nine.  I've always found it by far the most satisfying finale of the franchise.  Of the ones specifically designed to provide end statements, none of them are particularly disappointing, to me.  But they don't really give proper send-offs, aside from "What You Leave Behind."  The second hour is devoted to the crew going their separate ways.  That's all but absent in Next Generation's "All Good Things..." (which is a celebration of the crew itself), Voyager's "Endgame" (which completes the journey home just in time to end the episode), and Enterprise's "These Are the Voyages..." (which really only marks a goodbye to the show's best character, Trip Tucker).  Fans have always kind of bagged Voyager's for leaving the farewells unsaid, and Enterprise's for spending so much time with Next Generation's Riker and Troi (I have literally never had a problem with their inclusion), and thought Picard joining the rest of his crew in a poker game was sweet, but everyone knew there were movies in their future, so there was no perceived need to round out their adventures, except conclude Q's trial from the very first episode ("Encounter at Farpoint").

Deep Space Nine, however, kind of knew this was the end, so there was no reason to send everyone home happy.  Where some have been disappointed that Sisko never did get Bajor into the Federation (ostensibly the whole point of his posting in "Emissary"), it's hugely appropriate to end things in a moment of transition, because that's where things began, too, with everyone adjusting to radical new circumstances.  By the end of "Leave Behind," Sisko has joined the Prophets, Odo the Founders, O'Brien headed off to Starfleet Academy (as an instructor), Worf accepting a post as ambassador to the Klingons, and Bashir finally in that relationship with (a) Dax that he'd always yearned for.  The ending, with Quark remarking the old adage "the more things change..." and Kira and Jake Sisko looking off to the wormhole, wondering what the future holds...It's perfect. 

The conclusion of the war itself is classic.  Things finally come to a head with the Cardassians, as Damar becomes a martyr and the Dominion subsequently level heavy reprisals on the rest of the Cardassians as they rebel in his name, which puts them exactly in the situation Bajor was in at the start of the series.  That, if anything, is the element that rounds out the experience, with one of those planets finding themselves at some logical conclusion based on everything they'd been up to during the course of the series.  If everyone assumes it had to be Bajor, that doesn't mean they're right.  And even Bajor is posed for a more hopeful future, with Winn finally out of the picture, her epic downfall at last complete.

Speaking of Winn, her scenes with Dukat are somehow the best they are in the whole concluding ten-hour arc, Winn increasingly uncomfortable dealing with Dukat but dealing with him all the same, deluded to her last moments that she's still got the upper hand, even as she enacts a final redemption in doing the right thing, unequivocally, turning against Dukat as Sisko appears.  The encounter between Sisko and Dukat is itself a signature element of the episode, going totally against expectations.  We'd seen a version of this play out already in "The Reckoning," a full-on duel between Prophet and Pah Wraith powers.  But that was never Sisko, who was never Kirk, who was always game for a physical fight.  Sisko was game for that sort of thing, but his was always a more cerebral way, much more like Picard, the Picard in the movies, maybe, but more mature, measured, than Kirk ever managed.  When Dukat proves that he's willing to use powers he's all too eager to assume, a role he's all too eager to embrace, it proves all over again that for all of Sisko's doubt across seven seasons, he was still capable of doing the right thing, even if it meant sacrifice he became increasingly willing to make.  It's to be remembered that in the beginning, Sisko was a broken man precisely for a sacrifice he never accepted, the death of his wife.  Leaving his second wife, Kasidy, and their unborn baby, is the very symbol of his growth.

Vic Fontaine justifies his existence one last time in serenading the crew just before everyone splits, in the best scene of the best farewell in Star Trek history.  Sisko all but acknowledges Deep Space Nine fan conviction that this was the best series of the franchise, regardless of how fans in general would ever consider it.

Just a lot of great scenes piled up on each other, one after the other, everyone having a chance to shine, and nearly every recognizable face present and accounted for, too many for me to make labels for everyone, alas.  But a complete listing is below.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - It's the only final episode to date that allows fans to linger in the goodbye.
• series - The story comes full circle from the very first episode beautifully and imaginatively.
• character - Everyone gets a chance to shine.
• essential - To my mind the best final episode of the franchise to date.

 
notable guest-stars:
Rosalind Chao (Keiko)
Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun)
Salome Jens (Female Founder)
Penny Johnson (Kasidy)
Andrew Robinson (Garak)
Casey Biggs (Damar)
Marc Alaimo (Dukat)
Aron Eisenberg (Nog)
J.G. Hertzler (Martok)
Barry Jenner (Admiral Ross)
Deborah Lacey (Sarah)
Hana Hatae (Molly)
James Darren (Vic Fontaine)
Louise Fletcher (Winn)

Deep Space Nine 7x24 "The Dogs of War"

rating: ***

the story: Zek finally names his successor.

what it's all about: Parts of "Dogs of War" act as the first act of the final episode, "What You Leave Behind," which like the final episodes of Next Generation and Voyager is already two hours long.  You get Damar preparing to be the leader of a full-scale Cardassian resistance movement in the basement of Garak's childhood home, Kasidy announcing her pregnancy, and the build-up to the massive final battle.

All that is well and good.  It's also the final "Ferengi episode."  Ha!  "The Emperor's New Cloak" seemed like the final "Ferengi episode," but buried at the end of he final ten hours of the series is another!  Unlike "Cloak," "Dogs of War" gives the Ferengi some closure.  In the first-ever "Ferengi episode," in the first season ("The Nagus"), Zek visits the station intending to announce an heir, convincing Quark he's got the job when it was really just a ploy.  This time he finishes the job and it's...Rom!

Yeah!  "Ferengi episode" became something of an epitaph, a signal that the good qualities of the series were going to vanish and a bunch of weirdo business freaks would spend the hour wasting time with nonsense.  That's how some fans found it, anyway.  But these were some of the best character work of the series, doing everything no other aliens had ever really gotten, a full series arc and a dramatic revision, a chance at redemption.  "Ferengi episode" became a thing well before Deep Space Nine even began, after the Ferengi made a dismal debut in Next Generation as the would-be successors to the Klingons.  Obviously that never happened, so they became something else, such a broad sketch of a society that their stories could literally be about anything, as long as it ridiculed...our worst failings. 

The funny thing is, it was always Quark who showed the most depth, but his brother Rom who got all the credit for it, willingly bucking every Ferengi tradition while Quark seemed to uphold it.  Quark has no real moment in the final episode, so his career statement is in "Dogs," where he seems to claim he'll continue being a true Ferengi even as Zek and Rom and his own mother Ishka have smashed tradition all asunder.  Sounds like he becomes the character who least develops during the course of the series, right?  Well...

He's actually the one who had the shortest distance to cross.  He'd already been willing to work with fate in whatever shape it took.  He was the most adaptable resident of the station, even if the one with the seeming least amount of scruples.  But by Ferengi standards (all this is spelled out in "Body Parts," by the way), he was a very bad Ferengi indeed, no matter how things looked.  He was the ultimate opportunist, and because of him, his brother was allowed to develop into the new-style Ferengi he became. 

Anyway, I think Quark ends on a good note, the usual chaos around him as always driven by his actions, regardless of the outcome, which here means the very idealistic vision Gene Roddenberry always expounded, that the future will always be better than the past.  And that leaves the series with nowhere else to go but the end. 

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Casual fans will never forgive the Ferengi for being such an epic disappointment, but it will forever be their loss.
• series - The conclusion to an arc that began all the way in the first season.
• character - Quark's closing argument.
• essential - Things turn out well for his family.

notable guest-stars:
Casey Biggs (Damar)
Jeffrey Combs (Brunt/Weyoun)
Aron Eisenberg (Nog)
Max Grodenchik (Rom)
J.G. Hertzler (Martok)
Barry Jenner (Admiral Ross)
Salome Jens (Female Founder)
Penny Johnson (Kasidy)
Chase Masterson (Leeta)
Andrew Robinson (Garak)
Tiny Ron (Maihar'du)
Wallace Shawn (Zek)
Cecily Adams (Ishka)
Vaughn Armstrong

Deep Space Nine 7x23 "Extreme Measures"

rating: **

the story: Bashir's last confrontation with Sloan.

what it's all about: I've always had a difficult relationship with "Extreme Measures."  For one, it's an abruptly episodic episode in the midst of the final ten-hour arc of the series, which is ironic, because I think the arc could've used more distinctive individual material in the arc.  But not like this.  Especially after such a brilliant Sloan episode just before the arc, "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges," "Measures" could almost do nothing short but fail.

Of course, it's also the final Bashir/O'Brien episode, and that's as tall an order as any.  Of all the bonds in the series, the one between Bashir and O'Brien was the best, one that took time to develop, but had been essential to both of them, hitting its peak in a drunken sing-along during the third season's "Explorers."  They end "Measures" having shared a more embarrassing moment, having to acknowledge how important they are to each other, and it's more awkward than heartwarming, which is an odd note to end things on.

Sloan's quick suicide means they have to use technobabble to get inside his head, but there's not much interesting going on there except a few feeble mind games.  It would've been nice, in hindsight, if he'd done something about the Alamo, which was used as a portent in the final episodes in the form of a model Bashir and O'Brien had.  At least then one of them could've played Jim Bowie, the dying defender who still put up a fight.

Anyway, it just feels like anticlimax, and that's not really want you want to see in one of the final episodes.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - General fans had a far, far better Sloan episode a few episodes earlier to savor.
• series - Technically this experience provides the cure to the illness plaguing Odo and the Founders, which becomes important in the final episode.
• character - Technically the final Bashir/O'Brien episode, and Sloan's final fate.
• essential - ...Not essential.

notable guest-stars:
William Sadler (Sloan)
Andrew Robinson (Garak)

Deep Space Nine 7x22 "Tacking Into the Wind"

rating: ****

the story: Worf must confront Gowron over his approach to the war, which seems aimed at bringing the Klingon Empire to ruin...

what it's all about: This is arguably the most accessible episode of the ten-hour final arc of the series, not only because it features a well-known franchise character (Gowron, who first appeared in Next Generation) but his final fate as well, finally elevating a well-established Deep Space Nine character (Martok) to succeed him. 

It's also the most focused and self-contained, in a truly rewarding sense, episode of the arc. "Extreme Measures," which follows "Tacking Into the Wind," handles a similarly episodic moment, but in a less satisfying way.  I mean, it's really hard to compete with Klingon politics, which arguably provided some of the best material of the franchise across several series and movies. 

And it finally gives Worf that truly definitive moment in Deep Space Nine.  Until this point he'd been completely out of place, even managing to retain that status when he found true love with Jadzia Dax, which is somewhat hugely impressive.  This began to change when he bonded with Martok, but until one was in the position to truly affect the fortunes of the other, they remained in a holding pattern. 

That changes in "Wind."  Martok is the source of Gowron's rage, a politician jealous of a warrior, and willing to destroy everything in order to exact revenge against his honor.  The Klingons never really had that full-blown war, either, just like the Federation, just like Star Trek, and so to see how things turn out even for a character like Gowron who had always been a fan-favorite, is to see just how significant the Dominion War really is.  You can ignore, if you like, everything else the war accomplishes, but when even Gowron isn't safe, it changes everything.

Anyway, the episode also has Kira and Damar very pointedly grappling with the irony of their present circumstances, Kira helping the Cardassians mount a resistance movement, and Damar grappling with breaking faith with his people, realizing that he isn't merely defecting from the Dominion but rejecting all the old ways that had once defined him.  With all due apologies to Garak, this completes Damar's transformation into the most sympathetic Cardassian ever.  It's the culmination of everything the series had tried to do with Bajorans and Cardassians from the very start.

Since the start of the war in the sixth season, the series had struggled to find moments like these, always playing it safe, knowing the box had to be replaced more or less exactly as it had always been.  But, with only a few episodes left, finally it was time to break some eggs.  And "Wind" does it in spectacular fashion.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Classic high Klingon drama!
• series - The defining moment of the final arc, in some ways.
• character - Martok and Damar both make permanent marks.
• essential - The final fate of a franchise icon (Gowron).

notable guest-stars:
Robert O'Reilly (Gowron)
J.G. Hertzler (Martok)
Casey Biggs (Damar)
Andrew Robinson (Garak)
Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun)
Salome Jens (Female Founder)
J. Paul Boehmer

Deep Space Nine 7x21 "When It Rains..."

rating: ***

the story: Kira is assigned to help the Cardassians mount a resistance movement.

what it's all about: The final arc continues to heat up as the most ironic development of the series finally happens.  Kira is Bajoran.  Before the series began she was a member of the Bajoran resistance to Cardassian occupation.  Do you begin to grasp the irony?  Between Garak, who was always presented as sympathetic, and Dukat, who when he wasn't being a scoundrel or worse flirted with being a good guy, and not to mention experiences like "Duet" and "Second Skin," Kira spent a lot of time around Cardassians who contradicted the ugly history between their peoples.  So in a lot of ways, this development was almost inevitable.  All it needed was for the Cardassians as a whole to find themselves in a situation where they matched the unique circumstances Kira kept finding.  And this being the Cardassians, it was definitely inevitable.

Which still makes this a powerful moment, and one of the defining stories of the final arc.  The way the arc developed is something I haven't always appreciated.  You may remember me complaining about the somewhat arbitrary opening acts.  At this point everything seems justified.  It becomes clear how the arc presents every member of the sprawling cast with situations that push them to their limits, things they never thought would happen in a million years.

Also in this episode: Winn catches Dukat spying on the Pah Wraith book she's been guarding jealously, and laughs at the irony of his being struck blind for it.  Bashir realizes that Odo (and the other Founders) were infected by Section 31, which will lead to him finally getting his revenge against an organization that has crossed paths with him one too many times.

And, Gowron comes back into the picture.  This is the big one, at least at accessibility goes.  Gowron was one of the reasons why Next Generation's Klingons redefined the signature Star Trek aliens.  He'd made a few Deep Space Nine appearances, but he never really seemed like a fabric of the series.  That changes starting with "When It Rains..." (and if you don't know how it ends...).

All these arcs continue and get bigger in the episodes that follow, and that's how you know the arc has really begun to click.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Gowron begins his most significant appearances in this series.
• series - The final arc continues to sizzle.
• character - Kira comes full circle in the way she least expected.
• essential - Everything that happens here really pays off in other episodes, one of the drawbacks of heavy serialization.

notable guest-stars:
Robert O'Reilly (Gowron)
Louise Fletcher (Winn)
Marc Alaimo (Dukat)
Andrew Robinson (Garak)
J.G. Hertzler (Martok)
Barry Jenner (Admiral Ross)
Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun)
Salome Jens (Female Founder)
Vaughn Armstrong

Deep Space Nine 7x16 "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges"

rating: ****

the story: Bashir is tricked into working for Section 31.

what it's all about: "In times of war, the law falls silent."  This is kind of a cult-within-a-cult-within-a-cult sort of deal.  If Star Trek became a cult sensation, and Deep Space Nine became a cult sensation within a cult sensation, then "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges" became the episode that was the cult within the...well, you get the picture.

In the preceding season, "Inquisition" introduced Luther Sloan and the concept of Section 31, Starfleet's answer to the long-established Tal Shiar of the Romulans and Obsidian Order of the Cardassians, a secret spy organization subject to no one and capable of anything.  It was itself a classic piece of work, and yet it's an achievement that pales in comparison to "Silent Leges," the episode that perhaps crystalizes the Deep Space Nine approach to the franchise.

This was always a series that took a different look at the lore, a more nuanced one, that dared to suggest there was more to Gene Roddenberry vision of a utopian future than met the eye.  While attending a conference on Romulus, Bashir is confronted with the idea of Section 31 all over again, and he becomes determined to expose it.  Except he doesn't take into account just how clever it really is, and that's what's so special about the episode, really, how it takes what was always one of the hallmarks of Star Trek and turned it on its head, the idea that geniuses could work miracles.  The miracle of "Silent Leges" is that it explains how and why Section 31 exists, as a support structure for Starfleet's highest ideals.

In these days of constant revelations about what real world organizations like Section 31 have been up to, it's hard to appreciate that they were founded to do that kind of work, that there really is justification for what looks so awful in the news.  "Silent Leges" serves as an argument in their favor even as Bashir can only consider Section 31 with disgust, as a necessary evil.  And yet (there's even a classic episode with that name in the second season), that was a concept at the very heart of the series, so "Silent Leges" is kind of the final statement of the series about that, in such a sensational, new way that it becomes, well, a cult within a...well, you know.

It's all the more ironic that it's Bashir who stars in the episode, as he was at the start of the series the most naïve Star Trek character ever, so gung-ho to take a posting "at the edge of the final frontier" (so the premise was originally posed) that he was actually fascinated by the idea of Garak, a Cardassian spy who never got to come in from the cold, that he never even considered the danger posed by such an individual.  (It's to be reminded that these dangers were eventually explored in the third season.)  So to become entangled in the very real depths of spy business, the messiness of the frontier, of Starfleet's mission in general, is a way for Bashir to take the series out of the war context it had become immersed in and would end its run exploring. 

It's an ideal episode to view Deep Space Nine at its very best.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - When Star Trek Into Darkness later brings Section 31 to the masses, it's this episode that made the organization truly relevant.
• series - This is what Deep Space Nine was all about.
• character - Shows how far Bashir has come in the course of the series.
• essential - An episode you could sell the whole series on to a reluctant fan.

notable guest-stars:
William Sadler (Sloan)
Andrew Robinson (Garak)
Barry Jenner (Admiral Ross)
John Fleck
Adrienne Barbeau

Deep Space Nine 7x12 "The Emperor's New Cloak"

rating: ***

the story: The chronologically finale Mirror Universe episode.

what it's all about: In hindsight it kind of seems inevitable.  And hugely, hugely appropriate.  Deep Space Nine's fifth and final Mirror Universe episode (sequels to the classic episode "Mirror, Mirror") is also a "Ferengi episode."

Let me briefly explain: in the first three series Mirror Universe episodes, a Ferengi dies.  First Quark then Rom then Nog.  (That's the big three Ferengi in the series, by the way.  But it was all the Mirror Universe counterparts.  Brunt's counterpart dies this time to continue the tradition, by the way.)  So it was only a matter of time, really, until things finally worked out for the Ferengi (mostly) in the Mirror Universe.

But it's also a "Ferengi episode."  At this point in the series, it was considered Deep Space Nine's greatest creative liability, especially after the perceived fiasco of last season's "Profit and Lace."  In fact, it's the only "Ferengi episode" of the final season.  When Ferengi congregate, things tend to go a little silly.  Basically, the Ferengi were the Jar Jar Binks of Deep Space Nine (and maybe the franchise as a whole).  I never had that problem.  I loved the guys, and their episodes were always highlights for me.

If "The Emperor's New Cloak" seems weaker than previous Mirror Universe episodes, it's because the tone is so different.  But it's also the big bombastic finale of the whole thing, and it pokes fun at the whole thing, and is the kind of statement the final season needed, because in five more episodes, everything was going to become a lot more grim, and there was never a guarantee of a happy ending.  So the Mirror Universe saga finally concluding ("Crossover" in the second season proved how "Mirror, Mirror" ended up with different results than Kirk anticipated) with a decisive win for the good guys is worth celebrating, regardless of its creative departures.

I like how everyone gets to let loose.  Michael Dorn, especially, seems to have enjoyed the opportunity, giving Worf his most energetic scenes in the whole series.  And for the record, the Vic Fontaine who's not a hologram but rather a flesh-and-blood (and very quickly dead) guy, I have a theory for that, and it's simple enough: Bashir based the lounge singer on a real person.  Maybe not a singer, but, y'know.  Simple.  Obvious.  Sends everyone home happy!

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Again, the final sequel to "Mirror, Mirror."
• series - Which ends a Deep Space Nine tradition, too.
• character - I think this one was just meant to be fun.
• essential - And to my mind, wildly succeeds.

notable guest-stars:
James Darren (Mirror Vic Fontaine)
Jeffrey Combs (Mirror Brunt)
Andrew Robinson (Mirror Garak)
Chase Masterson (Mirror Leeta)
Max Grodenchik (Rom)
Wallace Shawn (Zek)
Tiny Ron (Maihar'du)
J.G. Hertzler (Martok)

Deep Space Nine 7x3 "Afterimage"

rating: ***

the story: Ezri tries to get used to being the new host of the Dax symbiont.

what it's all about: It's tough being the new kid in town.  Especially in Star Trek.  No series has ever had a dramatic shakeup in its cast.  Few have left, few have been added.  Being added in the last season is an especially difficult task, an honor experienced by...Ezri Dax.  And...actually, she's the only one, really.

So three episodes in the seventh and final season, she gets her story told for the first time.  In a lot of ways, it may be her best episode, too.  It's one of the most complete introductions of a Star Trek character ever, actually.  The audience by now is more than familiar with the Trill joint species concept, so it's the host concept that's really explored for the first time, the need to integrate the memories of others, not to mention trying to figure out how you fit in, not just around others but in your own life.  That's "Afterimage" in a nutshell.  Not too shabby!

Ezri is easily the most shaken main cast member of any series until Hoshi in Enterprise, in this episode.  That makes it a tougher sell, in some respects, because Star Trek was always about confident people boldly, you know, going.  But it makes her relatable, in ways that don't always happen in the franchise.  But the episode has an answer to that: Garak.

Because this is a Garak episode, too, his last real spotlight of the series, really.  It's the last time we see the character traits that made him famous in "The Wire," all the way back in the second season.  Not only is he in exile now, but actively working against his fellow Cardassians, which makes a rough existence, well, rougher.  It's a perfect counterpoint to Ezri's arc.  Actually, Garak's arc is a nice nod to the ongoing war that so often since it began tended to fall into the background when not the active focus of a story.  You'd hardly know it was even still happening, sometimes.  Here its inclusion is so casual, it may in fact help "Afterimage" be the best example of life during wartime in the series.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Ezri's regular debut might be a little Deep Space Nine specific.
• series - Nicely ties in with the war.
• character - Ezri's fill introduction; also features Garak nicely.
• essential - An important moment in the season and series, really.

notable guest-stars:
Andrew Robinson (Garak)

Deep Space Nine 6x26 "Tears of the Prophets"

rating: ****

the story: Dukat makes a fateful decision, which affects both the wormhole and the future of the Dax symbiont.

what it's all about: Well, that's how to ramp things back up.  Actually, it might be argued that this is the first episode of the seventh season, and the depiction of the Dominion War as it would be seen throughout the final season.  Season finales are always a little tricky.  Sometimes they're meant to provide a climax for a season.  Sometimes they're meant to provide a cliffhanger.  But "Tears of the Prophets" is different.  If you don't consider it in the context of the next several episodes, from the next season, you might not fully appreciate it.

But it's a big, big moment, too, all on its own, because this is the death of Jadzia Dax.  Jadzia was a regular in the series from the very start.  She was the current host of the Dax symbiont, and everyone knew it thanks to Dax's previous friendship with Sisko, who referred to Jadzia as "Old Man" in tribute to the previous host, Curzon.  Although it's sad saying goodbye to Jadzia, in a way there could have been no more perfect arc for the character in the series, passing the symbiont off to someone else, so we could explore what exactly it's like for the symbiont to move on.  But more on that next season.

Jadzia's death is the third major death in franchise lore, and second to be permanent (Spock came back, after all), a series regular KIA (Next Generation's Tasha Yar in "Skin of Evil"), not just a subtraction from the cast (which is also rare in Star Trek, but temporarily happened to Crusher and then permanently for her replacement Pulaski in Next Generation, and then Kes in Voyager, who like Wesley in Next Generation ended up appearing again). 

The drama surrounding her death can seem a little exaggerated.  She and Worf celebrate the news that they're going to have a baby.  Bashir and Quark lament the news (but they'll still be talking about Dax and Worf next season, so that's some of the strong connective material).  The baby adds extra pathos (melodrama) to the death.  Apparently the producers thought and rethought how Jadzia would die, but I think they probably overthought it, even if they came up with a pretty good version in the end, a random death for a random cast departure (Terry Farrell decided she'd had enough, and walked away from what turned out to be one remaining season). 

The impact of the death ends up meaning a great deal to Sisko.  Finally, the war becomes truly personal for him, and connects to his role as the Emissary of the Prophets.  This is more of how the next season follows this material so strongly.  Dukat briefly becomes Emissary of the Pah-wraiths (the Prophets, or wormhole aliens' opposite number) so he can shut down the wormhole, and in the process kills Jadzia.  It's the closing of the wormhole that's the most impactful event of the episode.  The wormhole was sometimes a matter of convenience in the series, taken for granted as just another way to get around, and yet it was a unique element of the series, and proved to be important in ushering the threat of the Dominion.  Yet it becomes most important not because of the Dominion but for what it always was, a conduit to the bigger concepts of the series, the godlike beings and the decidedly human ones trying to contend with them. 

To have it suddenly taken away rips something important from Sisko.  The Prophets never conformed to the expectations of godlike beings elsewhere in the franchise, and "Tears" reflects how significant they are even in their absence, how Sisko has no power over them, and how he's equally free to make his own decisions. 

Anyway, it's big and important, but it leads to bigger and more important things, which makes "Tears" arguably one of the most successful season finales ever in Star Trek.  In one episode a season's worth of sometimes lethargic developments in the most important arc of the series, the Dominion War, becomes transformed into something that speaks on multiple levels and leads directly to the final episode ("What You Leave Behind").

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Death of a major character, truly epic season finale.
• series - Transforms the war arc and prepares the way to the end.
• character - Obviously important to Dax, but to Sisko as well.
• essential - What could have been obvious storytelling is transformed into something greater in the context of ensuing episodes.

notable guest-stars:
Marc Alaimo (Dukat)
J.G. Hertzler (Martok)
Andrew Robinson (Garak)
Casey Biggs (Damar)
Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun)
Aron Eisenberg (Nog)
Barry Jenner (Admiral Ross)
James Darren (Vic Fontaine)

Deep Space Nine 6x19 "In the Pale Moonlight"

rating: ****

the story: Sisko uses lies and deceit to get the Romulans into the Dominion War.

what it's all about: There's a moment in the third season two-part premiere, "The Search," where Sisko and Garak are talking and they suddenly realize how strange it is, because until then they hadn't really spent any time together.  This was the period where the producers were catching on to the fact that scenes like this could lead to entire episodes.  It's not inconceivable that "In the Pale Moonlight" began to gestate that very moment.

"Moonlight" may in fact be the signature episode of the whole series.  Its story is framed by Sisko recording a personal log in which he struggles with everything he's done.  By the end he decides that he's okay with his decisions, and he deletes the log.  It's an incredibly bold creative statement that's downright unthinkable in any other Star Trek context.  Because his decisions seem to go against every Starfleet principle, and therefore every franchise ideal.  And yet the ends do seem to justify the means.  Without the Romulans, the Federation would likely have lost the war.  Even by the final episode of the series, it's not until the Cardassians defect from the Dominion that the good guys can be assured victory.

Which makes "Moonlight" as integral to the Star Trek meditation on war as anything else the franchise ever did.  The original series was famously conceived during the cultural tumult of the '60s, generally coming up on the same side as the counterculture that thought the Vietnam War was abhorrent.  At the time "Moonlight" originally aired, the Afghanistan and Iraq wars were several years in the future, but the same arguments people made against Vietnam were just as relevant then, too.  There had finally come a point where civilization generally seemed to think war was no longer justifiable. 

And yet, "Moonlight" is an episode that justifies war.  Make no mistake about it: this is a story set deep into a war well underway.  It's the Romulans who are asked to fight, not the Federation.  But imagine it's the other way around.  What if it were Sisko needing to convince Starfleet to entire a Romulan war?  The results would be the same, wouldn't they? 

"Moonlight" has long been considered one of the major creative statements of Deep Space Nine, an episode with a lot of cool moments (a Romulan senator creating meme-worthy material when he hisses, "It's a faaake"), and of course Sisko grappling with his conscience, and his getting in bed with Garak, who for the first time since the third season willingly involves himself in morally questionable behavior.  It should be most shocking to watch Garak in this kind of material, as he has otherwise meticulously given himself an ambiguous presence, a past he never really talks about but deeply rooted in the messy affairs of a foreign spy service with a terrible reputation...And he's spent all this time looking like a good guy regardless, even quickly backing off of his decisions in that third season adventure ("Improbable Cause"/"The Die Is Cast"). 

So why should it be so easy to love an episode like this?  And what does that say about fans?  In the end, "Moonlight" isn't anymore an approval of war than the whole of the Dominion War arc itself, but tacit acknowledgment of its infinite complexities, and it's the embodiment of those complexities in its most viral state.  This one's hard to ignore.  It has all the elements necessary to explain in a nutshell what the war was really all about, the study of the human condition that Gene Roddenberry first set out to explore, whether in "The Cage," with Pike's experiences amidst fantastic illusions, or "Where No Man Has Gone Before," where Kirk's best friend turns into a mad god.  Sisko's demons are more terrestrial, more personal.  There are no tricks involved here, just oneself. 

It's Star Trek at its essence.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Tackles the big question at the heart of the whole idea.
• series - The Dominion War arc boiled down to its core concepts.
• character - Sisko's finest hour.
• essential - Arguably the best episode of the series.

notable guest-stars:
Andrew Robinson (Garak)
Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun)
Casey Biggs (Damar)

Deep Space Nine 6x6 "Sacrifice of Angels"

rating: ****

the story: Sisko retakes the station in spectacular fashion.

what it's all about: If "Favor the Bold" feels weightless, war-for-the-sake-of-war (and in turn, action-for-the-sake-of-action), what fans who never really watched Deep Space Nine assumed the Dominion War arc to be, then "Sacrifice of Angels" fulfills the promise of the concept, tying everything together neatly.

An unexpected callback to the wormhole aliens, or Prophets, who come to the rescue as a kind of deus ex machine but in a fashion that has considerable impact later in the series (one almost wonders if Sisko actually released the Pah-wraiths when he asks the Prophets to make the Dominion fleet disappear), bridges nicely with the physical act of winning back the station, a thrilling sequence of events that might have made a dramatic series opener.  Star Trek, to this point, was always afraid of action, aside from fight scenes that more often than not were poorly choreographed.  The Borg invasion from Next Generation's "Best of Both Worlds" happens mostly off-camera.  Deep Space Nine's pilot, "Emissary" actually features more of the battle at the heart of that invasion than was previously seen, but only as Sisko loses his ship, his wife, and his life (for a time).  The Cardassians were more or less wrapping up the Occupation at the same time, thus opening up the station to Starfleet in a bloodless coup.  Twice, during the course of the series, the station needed defending on an epic scale, but this time it had actually been lost.  In terms of significance this is huge.  Even Odo's temporary loss of his shape-shifting ability didn't seem this important when it happened a season previous. 

The action becomes deeply embedded in the history of the series, and its future as well.  Besides Sisko's future hassles with the Pah-wraiths, and Prophets, there's Dukat on a collision course with destiny, too.  Damar completes his journey to becoming a truly significant character when he betrays Dukat, murdering his daughter Ziyal, who collaborated with Kira and the other good guys who'd remained at the station (I talked previously about the importance of collaborators in the series, but this is easily the most dramatic example of them).

It's a big, big moment, and it justifies everything that preceded it, even the parts that seemed to be dragging their feet in an effort to make a big continuous arc, the longest in franchise history to that point, where one episode led directly into the next.  Some of the episodes in the arc didn't seem to contribute much to it, the producers still uncertain about the studio's willingness to let them pull it off, perhaps.  Or maybe they just weren't ready yet.  The minefield dilemma, however, does manage to justify all of it, sort of like the need for Obi-Wan Kenobi to deactivate the tractor beam in Star Wars in order for Luke, Han, and Leia's escape from the Death Star to be possible.  What was needed was a big ending, and that's what's accomplished here.

Arguably, Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan works as well as it does because of Spock's death at the end of it.  I'd argue that Ziyal's death functions in much the same way.  Obviously Tora Ziyal is nowhere near as important a character as Spock, but her death greatly affects her father's future.  Dukat begins a descent into madness at the end of "Angels" that carries over into "Waltz," which permanently bonds him to Sisko, which finally crystalizes one of the most important arcs of the series, where Sisko's destiny as the Bajoran's Emissary (that term from the pilot) ends.  Again, that sequence with the Prophets makes that all the more important, too.

The Pah-wraiths are the enemies of the Prophets.  Dukat eventually becomes their Emissary, Sisko's opposite number.  They'd previously appeared in "The Assignment," but were relatively impotent, directionless other than their vague feud with the Prophets.  My argument is that whatever was keeping them in check previously ends when the Prophets directly intervene on behalf of Sisko.  This is big storytelling, somewhat beyond the scope of anything else Star Trek ever attempted, except maybe the abandoned Temporal Cold War arc in Enterprise.  To find anything like it, you'd need to watch Lost and wait to find out about Jacob and the Man in Black, and still end up with a fairly ambiguous explanation of a similar mythology...

The point, however, is that "Angels" ushers in a bold new era for Deep Space Nine, and the franchise in general.  It's the moment the whole serialization concept truly clicks, and as such is directly responsible for the image of the series as it persists today.  Actually, there was far less serialization than fans tend to assume; recurring characters tended to have a lot more of an impact than their ongoing stories, many of which don't really exist.  The one ongoing thread of the series is actually Sisko's role as Emissary, which of course is something that is touched on in "Angels," somewhat tellingly.

So anyone looking to see what the series is all about really could do far worse than catch "Angels," which could very well open up the whole concept for them.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - In some respects, it's the must-see moment that could just as easily define the series for fans and skeptics.
• series - It's the lynchpin of the serialization concept.
• character - A defining moment for Sisko and Dukat.
• essential - Kind of the definition of can't-miss.

notable guest-stars:
Marc Alaimo (Dukat)
Casey Biggs (Damar)
Melanie Smith (Ziyal)
Max Grodenchik (Rom)
Andrew Robinson (Garak)
Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun)
J.G. Hertzler (Martok)
Salome Jens (Female Founder)
Chase Masterson (Leeta)

Deep Space Nine 6x5 "Favor the Bold"

rating: ***

the story: Sisko decides to retake the station.

what it's all about: The strength and weakness of serialized storytelling is that it's a commitment that becomes inevitable, something that must be stuck with regardless of whether or not you've really figured it out.  To my mind, that was always the problem with Babylon 5, Deep Space Nine's cult doppelganger, some grand vision J. Michael Straczynski came up with but really never had the tools to execute properly (and I'm not just talking about the budget).  Whereas today you have people watching something like The Walking Dead or Game of Thrones and it's the spectacle of the thing that's really the driving point of interest, the uninitiated viewer will be left wondering about its quality if individual episodes plod along without any real heft to them.  Especially in the binge age, weaknesses can be hidden by a yearning just to experience something. 

But even a novel needs to be consistently compelling to be an overall pleasurable experience, and TV serialized storytelling is basically the filmed version of a novel.  The fifth episode in the initial six-episode Dominion War arc betrays some of the weaknesses in its storytelling.  Whereas the previous entry, "Behind the Lines," contributed something meaningful to the overall plot by acknowledging not just the arc itself but all the material that had come before it, "Favor the Bold" feels like something the producers decided to do just to help wrap up the arc, having done nothing appreciable in the preceding four episodes to introduce what is otherwise an obvious development: the retaking of the station.  Considering two big stories in the series had already featured a similar moment ("The Siege" at the end of the three-episode arc at the start of the second season; "Way of the Warrior" at the start of the fourth), it almost feels too inevitable to register as the climax it needs to be.

Yes, there's still the rest of the season, plus another season besides that, before the war itself ends, but that's kind of beside the point.

In these five episodes, nothing substantial is done to bridge the twin plots of the arc: Sisko leading a crew fighting the war, Kira leading a crew leading the resistance aboard the station.  Now, having the impetus of Sisko's decision being the imminent destruction of the crucial minefield blocking the wormhole and thus Dominion reinforcements, that's a pretty big deal.  But it comes off as random, and while Kira's crew has been struggling with the issue of the mines all along, Sisko's crew has been doing anything but.

It just comes off as weak.  The version of serialized storytelling "Bold" represents is akin to soap opera, not space opera.  Things in some respects just kind of continue in this episode that've been introduced earlier.  The big development is merely that the station will finally be retaken; everything else just kind of exists.  Odo's weird relationship with the Female Founder, so crucial to "Lines," continues.  Even Tora Ziyal, who is one episode away from her crucial murder, doesn't seem to be anything but a character experiencing things merely to experience them.

All of this is quibbling, to a certain extent; it's clearly setup, so that the payoff next episode can focus on the good stuff.  So to a certain extent, it's an episode that needs to be seen in conjunction with the next one.  That actually makes it more of a two-part story than the fifth of six, which is how "Bold" and "Sacrifice of Angels" were originally presented.  It's just as clear, though, in hindsight, that this six-episode arc started something significant.  And that the producers didn't quite, yet, have the creative power to pull it off.  The ten-episode arc at the end of the series is a much better example of the kind of storytelling these installments are attempting.

Does all that make sense?

criteria analysis:

• franchise -  For this one you really need to be invested in the Dominion War arc to care, I think.
• series - A crucial moment in said arc.
• character - I don't think any one character truly stands out in the episode; you'll see a ridiculously extensive set of guest-stars below.
• essential - Unlike past versions of seeing Sisko fight to reclaim the station, this one is entirely earned, and so seeing where and how it begins is important to what follows, and to the series experience as a whole.

notable guest-stars:
Max Grodenchik (Rom)
Andrew Robinson (Garak)
Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun)
Marc Alaimo (Dukat)
Aron Eisnberg (Nog)
J.G. Hertzler (Martok)
Melanie Smith (Ziyal)
Casey Biggs (Damar)
Chase Masterson (Leeta)
Barry Jenner (Admiral Ross)
Salome Jens (Female Founder)

Deep Space Nine 6x2 "Rocks and Shoals"

rating: ****

the story: Sisko faces a difficult predicament when he and his crew are marooned on the same planet as a contingent of the Dominion, and they're forced to confront the intricacies of the enemy.

what it's all about: First - a litany of episodes, from this series alone, where things are relatively comparable:

"...Nor the Battle to the Strong," "The Ship," "The Siege of AR-558," all dealing with the realities of war.  This is the one that takes place during the initial six-episode arc of the Dominion War.  "Ship" is the most comparable in that it also deals with the Dominion specifically (and even features the origin of the ship Sisko and crew crash on the planet here).  But the episode that most comes to mind is actually "Hippocratic Oath," in which Bashir is forced to try and come up with a cure for the chemical addiction the Founders engineered into the Jem'Hadar.  That's an episode I felt worked somewhat horribly.  The good doctor is called upon to work on the same problem in "Rocks and Shoals," and once again ("To the Death" is another good example) the viewer is asked to take the Jem'Hadar as something other than the enemy, more akin to the nuanced Klingons as they came to be known over the years.

And that's really the story of the episode, a last redemptive look at the foot soldiers of the Dominion, and the complicated nature of "the enemy."  (A b-story has Kira revisiting the thought process she had during the Occupation, and how it compares to life under Dominion rule aboard the station, and so complements the material well.)  There was never a recurring Jem'Hadar character in the series; every episode featured a new one, and so they have the somewhat unique distinction in Deep Space Nine as addressing a species rather than individuals, of whom there were representatives clamoring for respect of just about every iteration, and so illustrate the need to look beyond familiarity even when that seems the only way to make progress.  "Rocks" in fact makes that case most clearly.

For that reason it's possibly the easiest Dominion War episode to recommend to viewers leery of the bulk of the material to see what the series was saying about war, the nature of the enemy, when it might have seemed the war arc glorified or even glamorized something the franchise otherwise tended to condemn.  There are plenty of "stuck with the enemy" episodes across Star Trek where the context is entirely contained in the one story.  This is a great example of seeing that same message put into context.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - A good example of Deep Space Nine making a classic Star Trek template its own.
• series - A good example of the best Dominion War storytelling.
• character - Kira gets the nod here for her personal breakthrough.
• essential - All of it combines nicely for a transcendent experience.

notable guest-stars:
Phil Morris
Christopher Shea
Aron Eisenberg (Nog)
Andrew Robinson (Garak)

Deep Space Nine 6x1 "A Time to Stand"

rating: ***

the story: Sisko leads a risky mission while Odo and the others still at the station adjust to life under the Dominion.

what it's all about: The thing that made Deep Space Nine great is also what made it hard to penetrate among more casual Star Trek fans.  Case in point: "A Time to Stand," the first episode of the Dominion War (after a setup in "A Call to Arms" at the end of the previous season), immerses itself directly in the minutiae of series continuity.

Like Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and Star Trek Into Darkness, it features a ship you kind of need to know how it ended up in the hands of Starfleet (Voyage Home had The Search for Spock; Into Darkness makes a vague and somewhat unsatisfying reference to Harry Mudd).  This is a Return of the Jedi scenario; where the Rebels somehow acquired an Imperial shuttle, Sisko has a Jem'Hadar ship on his hands.  Of course, series fans know the ship was confiscated memorably in "The Ship" (appropriately enough) last season, but it'll just seem convenient to anyone just popping in, whether or not they have any knowledge about the prior episode. 

It's admittedly cool to see Sisko and crew (including Garak, playing a new role in the series as someone who gets to actively participate in the adventures of the good guys) operate inside a Jem'Hadar ship, as they figure out how, but it also seems like if it's a season premiere, these guys ought to be in the Defiant, something iconic to the series.  Enterprise later had the same problem with its third season premiere, setting up the regular threat of the Xindi in an episode called "The Xindi," in which Archer and company spend time...in a garbage dump.  Sometimes the glamour and romance of a situation is essential to selling it properly.

The episode drops viewers in the middle of a seemingly hopeless war with a mission that's supposed to turn things around; it's not exactly the message that will sell the concept.  By the end of the initial six-episode arc opening the season, the real objective to begin the war becomes reclaiming the station, as was hinted at in "Arms," and seems pretty obvious for a series named after the station at its heart.  It's a slight creative misstep to ignore that in a season premiere.

But the station does appear in  the episode, of course, with all the characters who are still there, including Odo, who thanks to a little prodding from Kira manipulates himself into a major player among their new Dominion hosts.  Somewhat more interesting and relevant to viewers from 2017 is Jake's problem of getting all his articles for the Federation news service blocked by Weyoun "because they betray a bias against the Dominion."  Well, of course they do.  Weyoun's actions amount to censorship, which is something Donald Trump flirts with now, or so his detractors fear. 

Funny how something produced two decades ago gains new relevance...

criteria analysis:

• franchise - An episode that curiously lacks awareness that general viewers might exist.
• series - Nonetheless hugely important as it sets up the new status quo of the initial Dominion War six-episode opening arc.
• character - You'll notice some names in the guest star credits who are making their debuts (or debuting on a more permanent basis than previous), but will appear often in future episodes.
• essential - Key to an understanding of what Deep Space Nine set out to accomplish.

notable guest-stars:
Andrew Robinson (Garak)
Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun)
Marc Alaimo (Dukat)
Aron Eisnberg (Nog)
J.G. Hertzler (Martok)
Casey Biggs (Damar)
Barry Jenner (Admiral Ross)
Brock Peters (Joseph Sisko)

Deep Space Nine 5x26 "Call to Arms"

rating: ****

the story: The fifth season draws to a close with the start of the Dominion War...

what it's all about: And thus begins, officially, the signature story of Deep Space Nine.  On the surface, "Call to Arms" might almost be seen as similar to "The Best of Both Worlds," the Next Generation episode that is half the definitive Borg story of that series, a big wartime scenario that was resolved one episode later.  But the Dominion War does not end in two episodes.  Or three.  It engulfs the two final seasons of the series.

Is this glorifying war?  Is this an affront to the very tradition of the franchise?  Is this, as many fans have complained about the Abrams-era films, featuring action at the expense of the cerebral heart of Star Trek?  To all three, I say, absolutely not.  The Dominion War, as "Arms" makes clear, continues the franchise tradition of putting the human experience first.  Actually, it helps explain how Deep Space Nine did that better than any Star Trek before or after it (arguably). 

At the episode's heart is actually Rom, the one-time bumbling Ferengi, lackey brother of irascible bartender Quark, whose evolution was a key part of the development of the series itself, beginning as so many elements of the fifth season did, in the third season.  He comes up with the idea Starfleet needs to secure the all-important wormhole that was always the reason the station became so strategically significant: a minefield (a technobabble minefield, naturally).  He also gets married to Leeta, a Bajoran who like him used the station to start a new life for herself.  How does Rom end up being the reason the Dominion War happens?  Because these are stories where character matters

Also involved is Jake Sisko, who makes a fateful decision about his own future, too, once it's becomes clear that the war has begun and Starfleet is forced to evacuate the station: he's going to stay.  It's the biggest decision he ever makes, beyond opting out of joining Starfleet.  Obviously it puts him in an extreme amount of danger, but it also means Jake has once and for all dedicated himself to the writer's life, as a journalist.  Maybe it's not the novelist everyone wanted him to be ("The Visitor") but it makes the character relevant as perhaps never before, and that's good enough, finally.

Of course: the war.  With every other major power forming pacts with the Dominion, Starfleet feels backed into a corner.  Rom's mines cut off access to the Gamma Quadrant, where the Dominion is based, making it totally reliant on resources, for the moment, from the Alpha Quadrant, including the resources already transferred there, including the increasingly signature Vorta representative Weyoun, as well as his main Cardassian ally Dukat, who has at last found his defining role in the series, too.  The Federation finds its ally in the Klingon Empire, finally putting to rest all the hassles of the past few seasons (and thus completely redeeming them, in the figure of General Martok, who becomes one of the most iconic Klingons of the franchise in the process).

When you put aside the morality of war itself, the complications of war can thus be explored.  The first of these in the series is Sisko having to make peace with his son's decision, which in some ways mirrors where both characters were at the start of the series, victims of the aforementioned Borg threat in "Best of Both Worlds."  Seems appropriate, right?

It's a must-see moment, even if you don't want to invest in the rest of the arc.  It also provides one of the most poetic images of the series, as Dukat discovers that Sisko has left his signature baseball on the desk he's been forced to vacate.  Clearly not just a war but a pitched battle for the station itself will be coming...

criteria analysis:

• franchise - The start of a wild new look at the nature of war.
• series - The start of the signature arc of Deep Space Nine.
• character - From Rom to Jake, surprising characters define this moment.
• essential - The definition of can't-miss.

notable guest-stars:
Max Grodenchik (Rom)
Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun)
Marc Alaimo (Dukat)
Andrew Robinson (Garak)
Chase Masterson (Leeta)
Melanie Smith (Ziyal)
J.G. Hertzler (Martok)

Deep Space Nine 5x24 "Empok Nor"

rating: **

the story: A small crew visits an abandoned Cardassian space station identical to DS9, where things spiral out of control and Garak is turned into the enemy...

what it's all about: This is one of those episodes that have so little to do with the arc of Deep Space Nine itself, and that can be enjoyed almost entirely on a visceral level, that general Star Trek fans will probably find it accessible, while fans of the series itself will probably consider "Empok Nor" ultimately inconsequential.

And don't get me wrong, all of that is as true of the episode as anything else you could say about it, which is why I'll try to make a case for series fans to consider it in a different light, too.

Clearly a "bottle episode," using standing sets to tell a story to save some money, in this case the station minus even most of the extras (somewhat reminiscent of "Distant Voices" from the third season because of that), "Nor" quickly introduces another station that won't factor into the series again until the seventh season, and even then as something Starfleet apparently never considered drafting into the war effort, a failure of storytelling logic that makes its existence kind of pointless...But it becomes the setting for a story that is so completely disconnected from the Dominion arc around it, or anything else for that matter, it's the last time this season, and in the series, where episodic nature of the classic Star Trek tradition exists in Deep Space Nine, and so there's a dubious distinction to celebrate on that score.  It's also a horror story, and in that sense mirrors the later Enterprise episode "Impulse."  Actually, there's a distinct Enterprise flavor to the whole episode (giving further credence to my personal opinion that Enterprise was always envisioned to follow the Deep Space Nine model).

But Cardassians appearing as generic villains, entirely unconnected from the recent revelation that they've joined the Dominion and are literally two episodes away from the start of a war...is a really questionable creative decision, and again reflective of so many such calls throughout the season.  Also unwieldy is the decision to pair up O'Brien and Garak. These are characters who literally had no past or future together.  As much as it made sense to have O'Brien in the story itself, clearly Bashir should've been in there somewhere, too.

It's Garak, however, who redeems the episode.  This is the one episode of the whole series where he has an opportunity to be the villain he always seemed he might turn out to be.  Other than his cartoonish shenanigans in the Mirror Universe episodes (he's one of the best elements in them because of that, actually), Garak had a similar chance in the third season (making this another of the fifth season's callbacks to that season) in "Improbable Cause"/"The Die is Cast," in which he seems to defect back to the Cardassian side, only to realize he simply doesn't have the stomach for it anymore.  In "Nor" he has no such freedom, as he finds himself coopted by a psychotropic element, and thus reverts to his base instincts.  We finally get to see what he's capable of when all the stops are let loose.  Thank goodness he's on our side!

The episode is really a reward for the character, acknowledgment of the fact that he's become so important to the series over the years and especially the last few seasons.  While it doesn't really say anything new about him, "Nor" allows Garak to have a little fun, which is to say, behave like just another member of the cast.  In the Mirror Universe he's just another of the egos running wild.  Here Garak is the center of attention, merely because he's a memorable personality.  I suppose if anyone had to deal with this side of him, it'd be the perennially hard-luck O'Brien... 

criteria analysis:

• franchise - A horror story any fan could appreciate.
• series - Strangely pulls away from everything else that'd been developing.
• character - A nice spotlight for Garak.
• essential - Because it lacks any real context it can seem to be pretty throwaway.

notable guest-stars:
Andrew Robinson (Garak)
Aron Eisenberg (Nog)

Deep Space Nine 5x15 "By Inferno's Light"

rating: ****

the story: The Federation mends fences with the Klingons as the Dominion threat comes into focus.

what it's all about: Basically, "By Inferno's Light" completes the reclamation of what Deep Space Nine was originally about with what the studio attempted to make it with the insertion of Klingons into the fourth season in an ill-fated effort to ramp up its popularity and/or accessibility.   With Dukat finally assuming full authority over the Cardassians and completing his journey to becoming the definitive Cardassian in the process (it's shocking to think it really did take this long to achieve, with considerable work done during the third and fourth seasons to set it up), the original premise of the series, that Starfleet was coming to Bajor to help it recover from Cardassian oppression, becomes an integral component of the Dominion arc that had at times seemed sidelined by the Klingons.

Yet, at no point in franchise lore had the Klingons truly become such ready allies with the Federation as they do by the end of this episode.  Picard seemed to have special sway in Next Generation, but that translated to one man, a limited scope that kept relations at a distance.  Gowron, the Klingon leader whose debut in Next Generation helped set the tone of the warrior culture moving forward, passes the torch to Martok here, Martok whose earlier appearances couldn't really give an indication of his later significance.

That begins to change in "Inferno."  His relationship with Worf deepens as they grow to depend on each other in a Dominion prison camp.  This is also, primarily, Worf's best Deep Space Nine moment, by the way.  He becomes forced to compete in a series of fights with Jem'Hadar soldiers, persisting even when he begins to break down because of his famous pride.  He's never been pushed like this before, never been forced to demonstrate just how far he's willing to go.  As a Klingon, he'd always represented his people well, but he was more often than not constrained by the oath he took to Starfleet.  Too often, even in Deep Space Nine, his Klingon loyalties ended up seeming like a weakness.  There's no such hesitation here.  His prowess in combat, only hinted at elsewhere, becomes as much a focus of his arc in the episode as his legendary resolve.  While Martok is there to support him, this is totally Worf's show.

There's also Garak finding out that Dukat has singled him out in his efforts to reclaim Cardassian honor, but by making it clear he thinks Garak has no honor, and no place in the new Cardassia.  This is much as Garak had experienced in recent years anyway, but he also went to extreme lengths, in this two-part episode, to prove his loyalty to his people.  Shows what integrity gets you.  Somewhat surprising is that for the first and only time, he and Bashir share an adventure together ("Our Man Bashir" doesn't count), but it's not an experience that's particularly relevant to their bond.  Increasingly, Bashir moves off in his own direction (see the next episode, "Doctor Bashir, I Presume?" as well as "Inquisition," which ironically integrates him into the world of spies, which he'd only previously known about from his suspicions about Garak's past). 

This is a big, big moment in the series, where the war becomes positively inevitable.  It ends somewhat tidily, but by the end of the season, everyone knows such developments won't be possible anymore, which makes this somewhat the last of the happy endings in Deep Space Nine...

criteria analysis:

• franchise - A big moment in Federation/Klingon relations.
• series - A big moment in Dominion relations.  And Cardassian relations!
• character - Arguably Worf's finest moment.
• essential - This is self-explanatory, given the above statements.

notable guest-stars:
Andrew Robinson (Garak)
Marc Alaimo (Dukat)
James Horan
Melanie Smith (Ziyal)
J.G. Hertzler (Martok)
Robert O'Reilly (Gowron)

Deep Space Nine 5x14 "In Purgatory's Shadow"

rating: ****

the story: Garak receives word that his mentor Tain is alive after all, but finding out for sure leads him directly into a Dominion trap...

what it's all about: This is the unofficial start of the Dominion War.  It's also the culmination of all Garak's appearances to this point in the series. 

It's funny, but after the awkwardness introduced into the series by a studio interested in the familiar (bringing in the Klingons for the fourth season), all the scrambling to rediscover the beating heart of Deep Space Nine led to a remarkable turn of events: two dramatic reveals in this episode help drive the significance of not only what has come before, but what will come later.  In a way, the episode is also a preview of Ron Moore's later Battlestar Galactica reboot, where a series of big reveals across the span of that series constantly rewrote the book on what fans did and did not know about the characters they were following, with many of them turning out to be Cylon sleeper agents.  Moore wasn't by any means the sole creative voice behind Deep Space Nine (to my mind a series defined by its remarkable stable of writers, which included Moore but also, among others, the ones responsible for "Purgatory," Robert Hewitt Wolfe and Ira Steven Behr, the latter of whom was arguably the most important and driving voice for the whole thing), but he was clearly inspired by the material most fans don't even realize he had anything to do with.  Ask any fan and they'll tell you Moore's main contribution to Star Trek lore was his expansion of Klingon culture.  But I ask you, do you see Klingons represented in his Battlestar Galactica?  Or changelings?

Anyway, the two characters rediscovered in this episode are Martok, who had made two prior appearances, and Bashir.  Martok was by far the more successful discovery, as he goes on to become a major recurring character and the most important Deep Space Nine element of Next Generation transplant Worf's legacy.  Bashir, meanwhile, is thrown in as more of a curveball.  There's no foreshadowing of this one, and to make it work you have to do a lot of mental gymnastics with his appearances earlier in the season, and still be left guessing as to when the switch was made.  It's another of the clumsy creative decisions that plagued the transition from what the studio had forced upon the series to the Dominion War that would come to define it. 

But putting aside Founder (the aforesaid changelings, and runners of the Dominion) shenanigans, this is a Garak episode.  Going back to his breakthrough appearance in "The Wire" at the tail-end of the second season, this "plain, simple," Cardassian tailor had come to define the intangible qualities of the series.  In the third season, his leading role in the "Improbable Cause"/"The Die is Cast" two-part episode, which was the prequel material for "Purgatory" and its "By Inferno's Light" follow-up, was the material that most advanced the Dominion arc to that point, so it's only fitting that he's also at the center of the discovery that the evil alliance is finally moving forward with its plans at invasion, first hinted at in the third season premiere "The Search," which had been far less conclusive in where things would be headed.

Garak became for Deep Space Nine what Guinan had been in Next Generation, the intriguing character in need of an explanation, and when that explanation finally came (Guinan's, alas, remained somewhat ambiguous, atypical of her series and therefore indicative of its general lack of interest in advancing much beyond episodic material), a clue as to where everything would go. 

It's ironic that it wasn't Moore who wrote this, because the impact of "Purgatory" is very similar to Moore's Klingon work in galvanizing a series.  It's perhaps not a coincidence that the Klingon material previously foisted on Deep Space Nine is roundly perfected as it's put in entirely new context, led by Worf being given material that seems relevant to a bold new direction, not only for him but, again, for the series.  Tellingly, this is material later echoed in the war arc itself, as was the best of the fifth season in general.  Aside from his relationship with Dax, Worf stubbornly remained aloof from the things happening around him, until he's paired with Garak to find out what Garak found out.  In this context he meets the real Martok, rather than the changeling imposter from their previous encounters.  It also feels like the first time, above and beyond Martok, that Worf is presented as a Klingon without needing other Klingons around to help prove it.  But more on that next episode.

Garak's arc across the two episodes is pretty evenly split between the one involving his mentor ("Purgatory") and what amounts to a second exile ("Inferno"), which itself serves as a link to Worf, too, who had been twice-exiled from his people as well (the second time during his Deep Space Nine debut in "Way of the Warrior").  In contrast, Dukat is about to return home, back to a villainous role the series had consciously drifted away from in that all-important third season.  But, more on that next episode...

Making her debut this episode is the last actress to play Tora Ziyal, Dukat's daughter: Melanie Smith.  The character, like Martok, had appeared several times already, but had never really stuck.  It's another way of seeing "Purgatory" as a definitive changing point.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Part of the tradition of game-changing episodes.
• series - The Dominion War arc all but begins.
• character - Significant to Garak, to Worf, to Martok, to...
• essential - A truly defining moment.

notable guest-stars:
Andrew Robinson (Garak)
Paul Dooley (Tain)
J.G. Hertzler (Martok)
Marc Alaimo (Dukat)
Melanie Smith (Ziyal)
James Horan

Deep Space Nine 5x8 "Things Past"

rating: **

the story: Odo and several colleagues relive one of his investigations while the station was still under Cardassian control.

what it's all about: This is something of a curious clunker.  One the one hand it was always nice to revisit Terok Nor, the station's name under the Cardassians, because the Cardassians were always ridiculously compelling in this series.  On the other "Things Past" seems like an unnecessary duplication of the second season classic "Necessary Evil."

One gets the sense that the producers were struggling to rediscover the tone of the series, and so they revisited a point at which everything clicked into place so compellingly.  But the timing is extremely curious.  Odo is four episodes away from regaining his shapeshifting abilities, one away from finally receiving a spotlight at all relevant to their absence ("The Ascent").  The big question: why now, for a story like this?  What does it say about him now?  Except as a vivid example of his uncertainty, the newfound doubt introduced by his fellow Founders, it has nothing at all to do with his present circumstances.  Still further along in the season, "A Simple Investigation" reads like a hugely lost opportunity, Odo doing, well, an investigation, which would've been a hugely compelling lead story at a time when he couldn't use his shapeshifting tricks, but instead comes off equally trackless...

In a lot of ways, the Dominion War brought badly needed focus to the series, and you can see it in the ways the fourth and fifth seasons so often didn't know what they should be doing to advance a plot that had been disrupted by the studio, that had built to such a crescendo in the third...The producers were told they needed to broaden their scope.  But it only introduced, well, doubt.  And episodes like "Things Past" happened as a result.

This is not a bad episode.  But it's brought down considerably by the certain knowledge that it could've easily been better.  Even Deep Space Nine wasn't at a point where setting an episode, with no gimmicks, in the past could've been possible. Enterprise later helped lead such storytelling innovation with "In a Mirror, Darkly," a two-part romp set entirely in the Mirror Universe, while Lost would deliver several episodes offering self-contained narratives.  The episodic mindset is a hard thing to shake, the fear of alienating viewers who might have no idea what's going on if they sample a random episode and find something that's not at all what they expected.

The idea would be revisited again in the sixth season ("Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night"), this time with Kira in the lead, and while I don't think that one hits the high notes of "Necessary Evil" either, at least it has a fresh perspective and something to say about a character, directly rather than obliquely.

Still, as I said, Cardassians!  Cardassians everywhere!  Regardless of their moral caliber, always fascinating to watch, especially when they think they're in control of a situation...

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Not a good episode to sample randomly.
• series - Fits into the general framework of Deep Space Nine.
• character - A sort of allegorical look at Odo.
• essential - Still, an unnecessary duplication of previous material, and otherwise ill-placed.

notable guest-stars:
Marc Alaimo (Dukat)
Andrew Robinson (Garak)
Kurtwood Smith

Deep Space Nine 4x26 "Broken Link"

rating: ***

the story: Odo finally faces the repercussions from "The Adversary."

what it's all about: This episode marks one of the most questionable creative decisions of the series: stripping Odo's shapeshifting abilities away from him (for about half a season).  It's such an odd thing to do: on the one hand, does this character really need to feel more isolated? on the other, it's sort of a vital component of how the series eventually ends.  But it's still a tough decision to embrace.

"Broken Link" is kind of like Next Generation's "Sins of the Father," the pivotal episode where Worf finally rejoins Klingon society, only to be completely rejected by it.  What makes "Link" all the more odd is that it's literally a sequel to the third season finale, "The Adversary," so that a whole season happened without anyone really realizing that this probably should have been something that happened far, far sooner.  And thus we find the real loser of the creative shakeup at the start of the fourth season, where the studio wanted the Klingons, despite the producers already knowing what they wanted to do, which is why "The Adversay" happened at all, delaying "Homefront"/"Paradise Lost" and introducing, well, the Klingons...

Actually, the best timing found in the episode is Garak's role, where he gets a chance to find out what happened to the Cardassian/Romulan invasion fleet from "Improbable Cause"/"The Die is Cast" in the third season, although the response turns out to be a lie (as revealed during "In Purgatory's Shadow"/"By Inferno's Light" mid-fifth season)...You can see the serialization represented in all of that, the continuity, how the series artfully rolls it out.  Unlike Odo's plight.

That plight began in "The Search" at the start of the third season, and was somewhat reluctantly followed-up in a few scattered later episodes.  "The Adversary" finds Odo breaking a sacred rule of the people he still barely knows: "No Founder has ever hurt another."  And yet he's forced to, after once again choosing the "solids" over his people, killing one of them, and bringing on the judgment of "Link."  Eventually.

When looked at in the context of the whole series, it just comes off as clumsy.  Later, when Section 31 has introduced a virus into the Great Link (the Founders as a collective), it's clearly something inspired by this experience, a vulnerability the leaders of the Dominion never anticipated (arrogance, alas).  But that's another strange layer of the episode, too: the fact that the Dominion, in a season finale no less, is no closer to instigating a war, and in fact even allows Odo to revisit.  To teach him a lesson???  It just seems incomprehensible in hindsight, like the producers really had no idea what they were doing at this point. 

I'd dock it to less than three stars, but I don't want to force my impressions, but rather make them known.  Generally if it can reasonably be interpreted another way, I'll let it slide.  After all, there's redemption to the ideas of the episode, and one great payoff ("The Begotten") looming. 

Also included, even though strangely the Klingon war introduced in that status-shifting season premiere "Way of the Warrior" isn't otherwise relevant (goes to show how little the producers cared about it), is an appearance by Gowron, and an apparent revelation that also ties a lot of plots together (all the doubt the Founders sought to spread), but plays out differently than you might expect in the fifth season premiere, "Apocalypse Rising."

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Sort of like "Sins of the Father."
• series - Links (heh) a lot of moments together.
• character - A crucial moment for Odo.
• essential - Creatively, I just don't happen to agree with it.

notable guest-stars:
Salome Jens (Female Founder)
Andrew Robinson (Garak)
Robert O'Reilly (Gowron)