Star Trek: Lower Decks 1x6 “Terminal Provocations” Review

 rating: **

the story: Another junior officer totally screws up.

review: Weirdly, I’m actually feeling less patient these days with modern Star Trek that feels too much like classic Star Trek. The second episode of Discovery’s third season, “Far From Home,” for instance, has a subplot that would have substantially played exactly the same way in nearly every other TV incarnation of the franchise, and now this, the second time in this inaugural season of Lower Decks, I find the results to be a little too standard. This is the “holodeck malfunctions” episode.

It would actually be a little more interesting than that, since Rutherford and Tendi are the lead characters in that half of the episode, based off of Rutherford creating Badgey, an instructional aide much like the paperclip from Microsoft. But it sort of becomes far more about Badgey’s glitch descent into cartoonishly murderous intent than any real insight into Rutherford, Tendi, or their relationship.

Boimler and Mariner, meanwhile, have a friend who turns out to be a huge screwup, which is the source of the holodeck malfunction. I was actually hoping he’d at least turn out to be a secret agent of the aliens the crew desperately tries to contend with (as represented by J.G. Hertzler, most familiar to fans as Deep Space Nine’s one-eyed General Martok; he’s the other bit of fun casting this episode features, along with Jack McBrayer as Badgey, just the opening salvo of a tide of familiar voices in the second half of the season).

criteria analysis: 

>franchise - Casual fans might enjoy the animated version of the holodeck trope.

>series - Boimler and Mariner’s friend is a sort of cautionary tale, and his fate will in hindsight foreshadow the end of the season.

>character - I don’t think any of our the four main characters particularly shine this time.

>essential - Nope.

notable guest-stars:

Jack McBrayer (Badgey)

J.G. Hertzler

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 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 7x20 "The Changing Face of Evil"

rating: ***

the story: The Defiant is destroyed by the Dominion's new allies, the Breen.

what it's all about: Well, this certainly never happened in Star Trek before.  Yeah, Voyager would later do it with the Delta Flyer, too, but Deep Space Nine got there first.  It destroyed one the franchise's signature ships, during the course of a series.

So that makes "The Changing Face of Evil" one of those essential moments in the closing arc of the Dominion War.  I guess, at this point everything seems like an essential moment in the arc, the serialization taking shape at last to feature big moments each episode and not mere running material for the sake of it.  Each one has its own specific purpose.  This one makes it clear that the war is definitely still being fought. 

Other big things are the news that Earth has been attacked, and that Winn has made the big decision to commit herself to reading a Pah Wraith book, thereby committing herself to Dukat's plan.  And that title?  Yeah, she's found out that the Bajoran farmer who's been helping her was Dukat all along.  Oh, and news has finally gotten out that Damar has defected from the Dominion.

This is an installment that deepens existing plot threads more than anything, raising the stakes just a little more. 

criteria analysis:

• franchise - I'm not sure the loss of the Defiant, or the replacement that shows up in the final episode, is something that's communicated properly for general fans to really care.
• series - The war heats up!
• character - Winn's role in these final episodes is perhaps the best she is all series.
• essential - The loss of the Defiant is a powerful symbolic gesture.

notable guest-stars:
Louise Fletcher (Winn)
Marc Alaimo (Dukat)
Casey Biggs (Damar)
Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun)
Salome Jens (Female Founder)
J.G. Hertzler (Martok)
Barry Jenner (Admiral Ross)
Aron Eisenberg (Nog)
Penny Johnson (Kasidy)

Deep Space Nine 7x19 "Strange Bedfellows"

rating: ***

the story: Damar decides enough is enough and defects from the Dominion.

what it's all about: With all the heavy serialization, each episode in the final ten-hour arc needs to have a definitive character moment to stand out, and, well, as my summary above suggests, "Strange Bedfellows" is Damar finally coming into his own. 

Damar was a character who first showed up in the fourth season, a seemingly unimportant ally of Dukat's in "Return to Grace" who kept appearing, a little like Martok, until he became indispensable.  When he took over for Dukat as the lead Cardassian in the Dominion, he was a familiar presence, but gradually this strangely reticent Cardassian turned out to be the rare Cardassian who cared more for the fate of his people than his grandiose ego (even beloved Garak was always more concerned about his own fortunes).

It was a subtle arc.  He was shown drinking.  We'd seen Garak use elaborate coping mechanisms, so that wasn't out of character for a Cardassian.  But the drinking got a little out of control, and finally in "Bedfellows" he realizes that the Dominion doesn't care about the Cardassians at all.  He becomes the ultimate incarnation of the sympathetic Cardassian the series had been searching for all along, since "Duet" in the first season, someone who finally takes a definitive stand for the sake of justice, regardless of whether or not it's for his own people. 

There's a bunch of other stuff going on, too, but this is the plot thread with the most weight to it, and the most significance.  Competing with it, on any level, is the continuing crisis of faith from Kai Winn, who's dealing with the mysterious Bajoran (who's really Dukat) and whether or not it's the Pah Wraiths rather than Prophets who've come whispering in her ear.  It's the clearest parallel to Damar's story: Damar chooses to do the selfless thing, and Winn one last time decides to be selfish...

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Yes, it's a version of the classic defector scenario (see Next Generation's..."The Defector"), but without a conclusion in the episode itself I wonder how much casual fans will care.
• series - Regardless, Deep Space Nine fans will eat it up.
• character - Damar finally commands the spotlight.
• essential - Which proves important through the end of the series.

notable guest-stars:
Casey Biggs (Damar)
Louise Fletcher (Winn)
Marc Alaimo (Dukat)
Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun)
Penny Johnson (Kasidy)
Deborah Lacey (Sarah)
Salome Jens (Female Founder)
J.G. Hertzler (Martok)
Barry Jenner (Admiral Ross)
Aron Eisenberg (Nog)

Deep Space Nine 7x14 "Chimera"

rating: ***

the story: Odo meets another changeling who never joined the Great Link and thus didn't become a Founder of the Dominion.

what it's all about: Regardless of when it finally happened, "Chimera" is one of those episodes that always needed to happen, ever since Odo found out the truth of his origins in the third season premier, "The Search."  Turns out he was one of a hundred children sent off to explore the galaxy.  In some alternate version of the series, he would've spent the rest of it trying to find the rest of them.  In this one, "Chimera" is where he finally encounters one.

What's fascinating about it is that the episode allows Odo to retread familiar material but from a fresh perspective.  Between his own experiences and obviously what the rest of the Founders chose to do, fitting in among "solids" always seems to be a problem.  Until "Chimera," though, we really only had the Female Founder's word for that.  It might have been mere propaganda on her part, playing on Odo's vulnerabilities, but as it turns out it's probably pretty accurate.  (Although it certainly would've been interesting to do a variation of "Heart of Stone" where Odo thinks he's found one of his lost siblings, but it's really such a Founder trick.)

So instead we get to revisit what exactly makes Odo so inherently interesting, his sense of alienation but also how he's managed to work around it.  At this point he's very much centered that around Kira, and the episode ends sweetly with them sharing an intimate moment that means something for both of them.

Nitpickers insist there's a huge continuity goof, however, based on developments later in the season, where we learn Section 31 used Odo as a carrier for a fatal virus against the Founders.  At the point he meets the stray changeling in "Chimera," Odo has always been infected and passed it on, starting with the Female Founder (which backdates the infection to at least the sixth season, the last time they spent time together), which means he passes it along to the innocent changeling, too, who will have no idea Odo's friends find a cure that he soon enough passes along to the Great Link...So, bye-bye Laas?  It certainly seems that way.  That implies the point we last see him he stops developing.  If there'd been a follow-up with the character, there's always the possibility that his experiences with Odo inspire him to get past his prejudices, and he finds someone or a community that could help him.  Or perhaps some Starfleet cleanup team tracks him down.  I mean, if Section 31 could engineer the problem, Starfleet could just as easily undo it, once it proves possible.  A thought, anyway.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Like a lot of excellent Deep Space Nine material, it's pretty specific to series.
• series - It's an alternate look at familiar elements from past seasons.
• character - Odo's last chance to reconsider his bond with Kira.
• essential - An episode that needed to happen.

notable guest-stars:
J.G. Hertzler (Laas)

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 7x7 "Once More Unto the Breach"

rating: ****

the story: Kor discovers that it's a good day to die.

what it's all about: This is the episode Deep Space Nine kind of tried making for four seasons, and finally got it right.  This is its answer to "A Matter of Honor," the Next Generation episode where Riker serves aboard a Klingon ship, and as such is as close to a Klingons-only episode as Star Trek is ever likely to get. 

It's also a follow-up to the earlier "Blood Oath," in which original series Klingon warrior Kor (plus a few others) returns to the franchise for one last glorious adventure.  In "Blood Oath," Kor is among friends and as such has trust that he'll be taken at face value.  When he next resurfaces, in "Sword of Kahless," he first comes across Worf, who represents the current generation he probably has been shielded from for years, and they quickly develop a rivalry.  In "Once More Unto the Breach," it isn't Worf that's the problem, but Martok.

Like the last few episodes, this is another guest-star spotlight, and it falls both on Kor and Martok, for whom this serves as his most personal episode, in which we learn about his background and how it's connected to Kor (not in a positive way, alas).  It's the first time two guest-stars of any species dominate an episode, so it's nice that it happens for the Klingons, long a franchise favorite.  It's a little weird that Worf plays second third fiddle in such a Klingon-heavy episode, but that also speaks to how he's finally found Klingons (well, Martok anyway) he's completely comfortable around.

Anyway, this is also an episode about aging, which is something Star Trek has done before (we can start the conversation with Kirk, really), but never before quite this intimately, with the subject of the study in such a vulnerable position.  When we saw Sarek (in the eponymous Next Generation episode) in a similar predicament, the main thrust is placed on a debilitating illness, not his age.  The whole matter becomes especially poignant for a Klingon, of course, because Klingons have some pretty rigid expectations about dignity, as we've seen elsewhere.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - One of the great Klingons episodes.
• series - A war story that necessary.
• character - Operates as a Kor and a Martok episode.
• essential - And as a study of aging, in a way that had been done before.

notable guest-stars:
John Colicos (Kor)
J.G. Hertzler (Martok)

Deep Space Nine 7x6 "Treachery, Faith, and the Great River"

rating: ****

the story: Weyoun's latest clone goes rogue.

what it's all about: So, Deep Space Nine never got the memo that Star Trek is supposed to be unfriendly in matters of faith.  This usually took the form of the Bajorans, but there were many branches, and one of them involved the Dominion, which although it's known as the element of the series that took it in a completely different direction from the show's origins, actually complements it quite nicely.  Because the Dominion, among other things, consisted of the Founders and the Vorta.  The Founders, who turned out to be Odo's people, engineered the Vorta, and others, to view them as gods.  This proved to be a somewhat nebulous concept, except, finally, in "Treachery, Faith, and the Great River."

This is also, by the way, the Weyoun episode.  I call it that, even though Weyoun as a character goes back to the fourth season ("To the Death"), because this is the one real spotlight the character had in the series despite numerous appearances.  It only figures, because Weyoun was, generally speaking, an unapologetic bad guy in a series that found shades of gray in nearly everyone.  Weyoun certainly had less than completely adversarial appearances ("In the Cards" is actually pretty relevant to the b-story in the episode, but more on that in a bit), but those were the exception that proved the rule.

What was most fascinating about Weyoun was that he was a clone.  The first time we see him he's already gone through nearly half a dozen iterations.  The one present during the sixth season war arc occupying the station apparently died off-screen prior to "Treachery."  The one that is featured in "Treachery" is "defective," deficient in the programming the Founders use to ensure loyalty.  The results are a little like the Next Generation classic "The Defector," in which a Romulan comes to Picard requesting asylum and with a lot of useful information (or so he thinks).  This Weyoun wants to tell Odo what he knows, too, and that makes him a huge target, so the episode spends its time with him and Odo hunted by the next Weyoun, all the while Odo having the most peculiar conversation he'll ever have.

Because Odo has long struggled with the legacy of his people, above and beyond their relationship to the Dominion.  That it means he's invariably treated as a god, too, when confronted by representatives of the Dominion has been as uncomfortable to him as Sisko's relationship to his role as the Emissary.  But like "Chrysalis" before it, "Treachery" is less about the main character featured in the episode, and more about the guest-star (again breaking the rules).

It's fascinating, compelling stuff, and suspenseful!  And heartbreaking.

And there's a b-story, too, and it's equally good, even if it has a completely different tone.  It features Nog getting to get his Ferengi on, which is something that had been denied him ever since he decided to join Starfleet.  There were flashes of it in "In the Cards," but it's alarmingly and awesomely on full display in "Treachery," which proves all over again how unique Nog has become.  He may not subscribe to Ferengi notions of greed anymore, but he still believes that business is a unique phenomenon and if respected can pull off miracles.  He proceeds to make a series of incomprehensible deals to pull off yet another war story that Deep Space Nine was wise enough to pursue, other than the business of war itself (which will also come home to roost for Nog, soon enough), how to come up with needed supplies when the supply line has been stretched thin.  It's also a fun way to watch more day-to-day concerns come to the surface, which was another thing Deep Space Nine so reliably did well.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - A completely unique Star Trek experience.
• series - Yet another unique war story.  Or two.
• character - It's the Weyoun story you never expected.
• essential - A classic is defined by the ability to do the previously unthinkable, and that's exactly what this one does.

notable guest-stars:
Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun)
Aron Eisenberg (Nog)
Casey Biggs (Damar)
J.G. Hertzler (Martok)
Salome Jens (Female Founder)
Max Grodenchik (Rom)

Deep Space Nine 7x2 "Shadows and Symbols"

rating: ***

the story: Sisko searches for the Orb of the Prophets, but finds himself plagued by visions from the Pah-wraiths to prevent him from succeeding.

what it's all about: This is probably the biggest creative leap of faith the series ever did.  In "Shadows and Symbols," a direction continuation of the season premiere ("Image in the Sand"), Sisko discovers that his mother was actually a Prophet, which means that Sisko is the Emissary of the Prophets in kind of the same way, well, Jesus was the son of god.  That's right: the main character of a Star Trek series becomes a truly messianic figure.  Kind of smacks in the face of just about every franchise tenet, right?

But that's what Deep Space Nine was all about, challenging every assumption, in the very best Star Trek tradition.  Gene Roddenberry created a platform that allowed any concept to be explored.  The fact that often he and his follow creators in the original series tended to come down on a certain side of cultural conclusions did not make those conclusions the only possible ones; it was the ability to explore the ideas that defined the vision Roddenberry gave birth to, not the conclusions.  Only Deep Space Nine really seemed to get that. 

But I'll probably grant that not every fan will be willing to admit that.  Not every fan is willing to admit a lot of things about the franchise.  Most fans are in fact "protective" of the franchise.  They think rejecting a series or a movie protects the legacy of the franchise.  Right.  If the franchise needs to be protected, it doesn't deserve protecting.  Interesting little conundrum for you.

There's other stuff going on in the episode, by the way: Worf winning a great victory for his late wife Jadzia, spending time with the next Dax host (Ezri), Kira pulling a Kirk against the Romulans...and a kind of sequel to last season's "Far Beyond the Stars."

In "Stars," the Prophets send Sisko a vision about a life where he must choose to rise above his circumstances to reach his full potential, confront doubt and discover certainty.  In "Shadows," the Pah-wraiths try the same trick, except their vision is perverse; the doubt Sisko faces isn't external, as it was in "Stars," but internal.  He's made to believe he's crazy.  In a lot of ways, it's a kind of Wizard of Oz story.  In the controversial 1985 film Return to Oz, Dorothy is made to believe that her experiences in Oz were all a delusion.  In a way, not only Sisko's experiences as a 1950s pulp fiction writer named Benny Russell in "Stars" but all his time at the station and being declared the Emissary, they're all called into question.  It's as big a character moment as Sisko ever had.

I wish the whole episode had dealt with it.  Instead we have other moving parts, which I think is the main weakness of both "Shadows" and "Image" before it.  This was a story that should've focused entirely on Sisko.  To try anything more is to dilute the potential, which is exactly what I think happens.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Casual fans may be confused or even worse, offended by this episode.
• series - But it's a crucial development for Deep Space Nine.
• character - A lot of other characters have things going on, but this is Sisko's episode.
• essential - While I wish it had been done differently, it's still the biggest thing to happen to any Star Trek character...ever, really.

notable guest-stars:
Deborah Casey (Sarah Sisko)
Brock Peters (Joseph Sisko)
Casey Biggs (Damar)
Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun)
J.G. Hertzler (Martok)
Barry Jenner (Admiral Ross)

Deep Space Nine 7x1 "Image in the Sand"

rating: ***

the story: Sisko receives a puzzling vision of the future while Kira adjusts to temporary command of the station.

what it's all about: I don't know how impactful "Image in the Sand" is as a season premiere, especially since its story continues into the next episode ("Shadows and Symbols") before breaking off into a string of standalone episodes.  It's kind of a place-holder, a slow burn beginning.  On one hand it's kind of a status update.  Kira, for the first time ever, is in charge of the station, and finds that all over again she has to learn how complicated everything really is (kind of her life story over the course of the series). Sisko, meanwhile, is kind of moping at home on Earth, before being thrust into what will turn out to be a kind of radical revision of the character (more on that next episode).  There's also some of how Worf's dealing with the death of his wife, Jadzia Dax.  Plus the soft introduction of the new Dax.

All of it combines for an episode that feels far more like a continuation than anything.  Which at this point is probably just about right for a series that had been creeping toward serialization from the start.  As I said in my thoughts for the sixth season finale ("Tears of the Prophets"), the producers seem to have finally decided to move forward at any cost with their storytelling, which meant they were no longer waiting around for fans to catch up with them.  Which is just as well.  This was going to be the final season anyway; there was literally nothing to lose.

The only thing truly odd about all this is that "Image" and "Shadows" really should have been a two-part episode, like "The Search" at the beginning of the third season and "Way of the Warrior" at the beginning of the fourth.  The fifth began with a complete standalone ("Apocalypse Rising") while the sixth had a six-episode arc to help kick off the Dominion War.  The war, meanwhile, just sort of exists in the background of "Image," even though "Tears" had just made a point of Starfleet looking to ramp up the offensive.  Kind of weird.  But again, "Image" was a lot of character work, the hallmark of the series.  Which seems appropriate.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Casual fans might find the episode somewhat impenetrable.
• series - Dedicated ones will suffer no such confusion.
• character - Sisko and Kira find themselves at turning points.
• essential - Sisko's on the verge of a big reveal, so this material is pivotal.

notable guest-stars:
Deborah Casey (Sarah Sisko)
Brock Peters (Joseph Sisko)
Aron Eisenberg (Nog)
Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun)
J.G. Hertzler (Martok)
Barry Jenner (Admiral Ross)
Casey Biggs (Damar)

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 6x13 "Far Beyond the Stars"

rating: ****

the story: Sisko experiences the life of a struggling black science fiction writer.

what it's all about: The above description makes "Far Beyond the Stars" sound like Next Generation's "The Inner Light," and to a certain extent it is, but it's perhaps more akin to the classic "The City on the Edge of Forever."  At any rate all three are about on par as far as transcendent Star Trek experiences go.  For me, because of its direct commentary on a real scenario from the past, "Beyond the Stars" resonates further, an evolution of the two-part "Past Tense" from the third season, which postulated a near-future San Francisco with "sanctuary districts" for the poor.  This is the only episode that addresses contemporary racial issues, which obviously haven't gotten much better than when it originally aired some twenty years ago.  It was basically Sisko in a "black lives matter" scenario.

And yes, it gives us a chance to see the cast, and a selection of the familiar guest cast, without makeup or prosthetics, but that's almost beside the point.  "Beyond the Stars" helps the sixth season compete with the third in terms of dynamic spotlights for Sisko.  Along with "Waltz" it's one of his best dramatic turns of the whole series, regardless of whether or not race is considered.  The moment where he breaks down is sometimes cited variously as Avery Brooks' best and worst acting of the series, but either way it epitomizes the scope of the episode and its ambition.  Sisko was even more controlled emotionally than Picard (but far warmer than any Vulcan), so to see him lose control is fascinating, and it's completely justified.

The greater point of the episode, that the experiences he has as a 1950s pulp fiction writer, is actually tied into the Dominion War, and as such doesn't have to be viewed on one level alone, is also part of its brilliance, that it works beautifully on multiple levels, and as such reflects the complexity of the series itself.  Now that the war has been going on for a while, Sisko begins to reflect on all the death mounting up around him, and this is before...

No, sorry, if you don't know what's coming up at the end of the season, I'm not going to spoil it.

Even if you want to view it as a neat trip to an earlier era, the pulp fiction era, before the problems really mount, that's fascinating, too, because that's the root of Star Trek, too, which is its own layer.  As much trouble as Sisko gets into, you're reminded that women had it rough then, too, and you're all the more grateful that Deep Space Nine ushered in a new era for the franchise where strong women were in crucial command positions.  Fans tend to forget that.  If they give Voyager any credit at all, they acknowledge the obvious fact of a woman in the captain's chair.  Kira got there first.

criteria analysis:

• franchise  - Joins an elite and storied group of Star Trek episodes.
• series - Reflective of the Dominion War from a unique angle.
• character - One of Sisko's best episodes.
• essential - One of Avery Brooks' finest hours.

notable guest-stars:
Marc Alaimo
J.G. Hertzler
Jeffrey Combs
Aron Eisenberg
Brock Peters
Penny Johnson

Deep Space Nine 6x7 "You Are Cordially Invited..."

rating: ****

the story: Worf and Dax marry, with a few hurdles.

what it's all about: Amazingly, through six TV shows and thirteen movies, "You Are Cordially Invited..." is the only story in the whole Star Trek franchise where two main characters get married, where that is the sole focus (Tom Paris and B'Elanna Torres get a quickie in Voyager's "Drive").  The next closest example is the marriage of Miles and Keiko O'Brien in Next Generation's "Data's Day," but that was years before O'Brien was a regular in Deep Space Nine and besides, as the title implies, it was more about Data than anything.

So this one's a milestone.  It's also the first episode of the series since the penultimate one from the fifth season to take a break from the Dominion War, including the first six of the sixth season.  And it's a good excuse for a change of pace, as good an excuse as there ever was, obviously, as indicated above, another example of how importance the lives of the characters in the series were.

It's also a Klingon episode, sort of like "Amok Time" if everything (eventually) works out.  In terms of further fleshing out Klingon society, what it would be like to live it every day and not just as a warrior, "Invited" is a great episode on that score alone.

But it also gives Worf and Dax, especially Dax, a wonderful spotlight, after a few seasons of courtship that was fortuitous for both of them, Worf in terms of integration into the series and Dax in finally doing something with the Klingon connection that'd been there from the very beginning but until Worf had been relegated to one standout episode ("Blood Oath") but otherwise mostly ignored.

It's really a Dax episode.  Jadzia Dax would be dead by the end of the season (spoiler alert?), so this was kind of the last opportunity to revisit and explore in depth what made her tick.  Surprisingly or not, she finds that being familiar with Klingons and actively trying to join one of their families are two different things.  The whole experience is a reminder of what helped make her stand out to begin with (especially in appearances like "Playing God"), as something other than a pretty face, a strong personal drive that was just as apt to get Dax in trouble as lead to another of her epic memories (it would probably be safe to argue that it would be very tough to find a Trill who enjoyed being joined more than Jadzia Dax).

It's also a fun chance to see Martok relax a little, the first real chance he's had since returning from a Dominion labor camp last season and struggling to reintegrate himself back to his old life.  Which is to say, this is a rare chance to just hang out with the guy, as if he were just another member of the large station family, and not a Klingon who only appears when there's a fight brewing somewhere (admittedly frequent enough during a war).

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Klingons!  You can't be a Star Trek fan and not love them.
• series - A big moment for two series regulars.
• character - That would be Worf and Dax, in case you forgot.
• essential - A truly unique moment in Star Trek lore.

notable guest-stars:
J.G. Hertzler (Martok)
Marc Worden (Alexander)
Chase Masterson (Leeta)
Aron Eisenberg (Nog)
Max Grodenchik (Rom)

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 6x3 "Sons and Daughters"

rating: **

the story: Worf reunites with his son Alexander, who's struggling to integrate into Klingon society.

what it's all about: This is an episode I've struggled with for twenty years.  The return/introduction into Deep Space Nine of Alexander is something not to be considered lightly.  Alexander was a significant recurring character in Next Generation, who almost existed outside the sphere of his father (Worf).  Theirs was a difficult relationship at the best of times, and when we last saw them together ("Firstborn") Worf came to a tentative peace about that.  So, in his third season as a regular in a different series, Worf finally meets up with his son again...and things aren't any better than they ever were.

There's a difference, though, and it's a big one.  Child actor Brian Bonsall, who portrayed Alexander in nearly every other appearance, has been replaced with a noticeably older Marc Worden.  It'd be one thing if Bonsall had played the part long enough to have reached puberty, but he was still just a kid when he last appeared (and "Firstborn" actually features a different actor playing a time-traveling adult Alexander for most of the episode, eclipsing Bonsall's final turn in the process).  Worden's Alexander is older but wimpy, painfully inept, and reconciling what the character has become with how we last saw him is a large part of how to interpret "Sons and Daughters."

I used to hate the idea of the new Alexander.  I thought it was a terrible mistake, one that came off as clumsy and dismissive of everything that had come before it, or merely needlessly duplicative.  The fact that Alexander makes only one more appearance in Deep Space Nine (a few episodes later, "You Are Cordially Invited") is an odd legacy for a series that usually went out of its way to develop characters like this.

But it's still kind of interesting.  This Alexander isn't really so different from the host of Ferengi who appeared and evolved throughout the run of the series, notably a different father-and-son combo, Rom and Nog.  So in essence, "Sons" is kind of a war story that couldn't otherwise be told in a series that had already gotten past that point with the two characters (two others, Sisko and Jake, too, come to think of it) who would've otherwise best exemplified it.

"Firstborn" featured an Alexander who'd just begun considering the possibility of embracing his Klingon heritage.  This was a kid who'd previously been raised by a mother who wanted to keep him as far from it as possible, an extension of an arc that had otherwise been cut short by her death.  Part of it was always about Worf, and his own feelings of alienation from a childhood that found him raised by humans, which forced him in the opposite direction his son later took.  He became obsessed with all things Klingon, and so he became an exemplar Klingon.  Alexander, not so much.

So to illustrate that, when Alexander finally embraces his father's life, it's bound to be awkward.  He comes at a disadvantage.  It's kind of good that he looks so different in this appearance, because a huge leap is necessary to see him struggling where he'd always resisted.  Although only a few years have passed, a lot has changed.  Worf lost a family when the Enterprise-D was destroyed (Star Trek Generations), and his life spiraled out of control.  In a lot of ways, since he ended up so important to two different Star Trek series, Worf's life was always going to be hard to keep track of (he still appears in both First Contact and Insurrection despite appearing in Deep Space Nine at the same time, with minimal effort to explain how).  So imagine how chaotic Alexander's life was during the same period.

Despite that, Alexander made the most important decision of his life, and make the commitment he'd long avoided.  Of course it makes a good war story, a family reunion under the worst circumstances.  This is not the best franchise episode set aboard a Klingon ship.  It doesn't have to be.  The more I think about "Sons," the more it makes sense.  Of course Alexander would stumble, badly.  If the story seems haphazardly executed and sort of dropped in out of nowhere, maybe that's how it should feel, the only way Alexander's story would continue.  By the end, he's at last proven himself, and been accepted into the House of Martok (there's a number of things worth discussing about that, but this is already a pretty lengthy write-up), the same as his father before him.  It only seems appropriate that Alexander effectively vanishes from this point, because he's finally found peace with himself, his father, and his future.

That's the kind of closure worth celebrating, even if in a muted way.  Also muted is the return of Tora Ziyal, Dukat's daughter.  A few episodes in the future she becomes hugely important, but here she's just kind of thrown into the mix to help round out Alexander's story, as Kira struggles with Dukat's overtures.  It would almost have made a better lead story, and Alexander's the supporting material, given what happens later.  But I guess it's also kind of appropriate, because unlike Alexander, Ziyal's story was never her own...

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Too specific to appeal to fans of Klingon stories in general.
• series - Somewhat tangential to the war arc.
• character - A big moment for Worf and Alexander.
• essential - It's the closure Alexander needed, just not the way anyone ever imagined it.

notable guest-stars:
Marc Worden (Alexander)
J.G. Hertzler (Martok)
Marc Alaimo (Dukat)
Melanie Smith (Ziyal)
Casey Biggs (Damar)
Gabrielle Union

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)