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 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 7x18 "'Til Death Do Us Part"

rating: ***

the story: Dukat enacts a deception against Kai Winn, posing as a simple Bajoran farmer to gain her trust.

what it's all about: Putting aside Kasidy and Sisko dealing with last episode's engagement and this episode's wedding, and all the angst therein between, given how the Prophets don't think it's in Sisko's best interests...The real meat of this episode is the beginning of the Dukat/Winn arc in the final arc of the series, which is possibly the most fascinating thing either character ever got to do.

Winn was a character who never gave much room for sympathy, from her first appearance in the first season finale "In the Hands of the Prophets" to her most callous and selfish moment in the third season's "Life Support," really it was only in the previous season's "The Reckoning," the first time she crossed paths with the Pah Wraiths, where Winn might have found some.  In that episode she was finally and at last presented with something that she couldn't muscle beneath her.  So it's ironic that it's the Pah Wraiths, or perhaps appropriate, that put her in such a position again.

With Dukat, this was a character who'd struggled to find his footing from the very start, and with him it's not really worth referencing a first appearance or any particular subsequent one, because he was always being thrown off-kilter.  It was only when he embraced his role as the Emissary of the Pah Wraiths that Dukat regained the confidence he'd once had as commander of Terok Nor (the name of the station when it was still under Cardassian control).

What made Winn so ironic was that she was the main representative of the Bajorans, a hugely religious people, and yet she was never particular religious.  No, she was the consummate politician, so caught up in her ambition that it never occurred to take her faith seriously except as a stepping stone ("kai" is akin to the Catholic pope, by the way!); at one point she was also First Minister, but she lost that position in the third season.

So she never realized how important the Prophets were to her until she finally had her first vision. Or so she thought.  Really, it was a deception cooked up by Dukat and the Pah Wraiths, one of the most brilliant maneuvers, really, ever featured in the series, something that seems downright inevitable in hindsight, so at least it happened in the final episodes, which also seems appropriate.

Seeing Dukat and Winn together, at last, is one of those perfect moments.  Winn had had previous climactic associations (way back in the three-episode arc at the beginning of the second season, when she worked alongside Frank Langella, one of the biggest acting coups Star Trek ever landed), but this was the climax of all climactic moments in a career of evil.  Of course, she had no idea she was getting in bed with the devil...

So I love this particular episode in the arc.  The ending also reveals the Breen as having joined the Dominion, after a few more moments of Ezri and Worf struggling to reconcile their relationship, which sets up Damar's defection later. But because this is serialized material, more on all that later...

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Still pretty convinced that this arc is impenetrable to casual fans.
• series - Though to Deep Space Nine devotees, it begins to work better and better.
• character - Dukat and Winn own this one.
• essential - They've been waiting for this moment since they first debuted.

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

Deep Space Nine 7x17 "Penumbra"

rating: ***

the story: Sisko proposes to Kasidy; Ezri goes in search of the missing Worf.

what it's all about: Here's where the series begins its endgame, the start of ten heavily serialized hours (including the two-hour final episode, "What You Leave Behind").  "Penumbra" is one of the few episodes in this stretch that have a definitive story within it, which is Sisko plotting a future that he won't get to enjoy, settling down with Kasidy and plotting their home on Bajor.  Parallel to that certainty is the doubt between Ezri and Worf, who've had problems all season reconciling their relationship, since Ezri is the next host of the Dax symbiont who was once married to Worf as Jadzia.

Of the two, Ezri and Worf have a more compelling story, considering that they finally confront the messiness of their relationship, something Worf has long avoided.  If anything complicates it, the fact that they get caught by the Breen, who are soon revealed as new allies of the Dominion, which ultimately has nothing to do with Ezri or Worf, and that Ezri undertook Worf's rescue without the rest of the crew, diminishes "Penumbra" as a definitive moment, if that makes sense.  While the element has more weight to it, you almost wish Sisko and Kasidy had been allowed to have their moment.  Sisko is forced to wonder if he's made the right call, but only because his Prophet mom gives him a vision of doubt, but that doesn't end up meaning anything until the final hour of the series, which is still a long way off.

There's also Dukat surgically altering himself to appear as a Bajoran, which has more significance once we learn why he does it.  He meets with Damar, who has become an alcoholic, which has more significance once we learn what that leads him to.  And the Female Founder is suffering from a plague, which has...you get the point.

The problem with these serialized episodes is that they're so serialized that they don't stop to tell any single story in a single episode.  Even if the six-episode arc at the start of the sixth season had some strong and some weak material, there were still standout episodes that stood alone within it.  I don't think that's the case in the coming episodes.

But I'll continue giving my thoughts about what each of them adds to the arc, and whether or not they provide something that might sell them individually.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Even though there's at least one big moment general fans might appreciate, it's buried in a lot of other material that you need to keep watching to appreciate, and thus meant squarely for fans.
• series - Which by definition means there's a lot of significant things happening.
• character - To a lot of characters, but most obviously Sisko & Kasidy, Ezri & Worf.
• essential - Sisko finding new and lasting happiness is something that was unthinkable when the series began, and this is the culmination of that journey.

notable guest-stars:
Penny Johnson (Kasidy)
Deborah Lacey (Sarah)
Marc Alaimo (Dukat)
Casey Biggs (Damar)
Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun)
Salome Jens (Female Founder)

Deep Space Nine 7x15 "Badda-Bing Badda-Bang"

rating: ****

the story: The crew has to come to Vic Fontaine's rescue.

what it's all about: Pretty much the ultimate holodeck episode.  Holodeck episodes became notorious in the franchise because they so often involved some convoluted malfunction that changed the rules holodecks were supposed to follow. Deep Space Nine technically didn't feature a holodeck but rather a holosuite (just as Voyager tried to change the term to holonovel), but all the same, its characters were always going into the holodeck and even had classic holodeck malfunction episodes ("Our Man Bashir").  "Badda-Bing" shares heritage with the classic "A Piece of the Action" and Voyager's "Worst Case Scenario," where insane things had to been seen through to the end (actually, that goes for "Our Man Bashir," too, and even Next Generation's "A Fistful of Datas").

What sets "Badda-Bing Badda-Bang" apart is that it's such a celebratory moment, the last opportunity for Deep Space Nine to have a little fun before things get really dark as the series wound down to its final episodes.  Unlike "Take Me out to the Holosuite" before it, "Badda-Bing" plays itself straight, but it's just such a fun concept, a heist story (years before the rebooted Ocean's Eleven, I might add), and such an unexpected one, that it becomes easy to enjoy on just about every level. 

Let's start with Vic.  This was the lounge singer introduced last season in "His Way," but who took on much greater significance earlier in the seventh season, thanks to "It's Only a Paper Moon."  I wouldn't be surprised if "Badda-Bing" was envisioned while the producers were working on "Paper Moon," as a thank-you.  Vic was a character who should never have worked as well as he did, much less deserve so many spotlights, as the series was coming to an end.  I mean, Deep Space Nine was never exactly hurting for supporting characters, and of all of them, Vic doesn't seem like he warrants so much special attention.  I mean, he's a hologram who admits he's happy living in his holoworld!  And "Badda-Bing" is all about the crew saving that world for him!  I mean, what's the point? 

It's about family.  Vic quickly became symbolic of the family Deep Space Nine cobbled together, a voice who could bring everything into perspective.  And so helping him out is really about putting the emphasis on that family, seeing everyone come together, because in the episodes ahead, they all get flung in opposite directions.  When he and Sisko duet at the end of the episode, it sends chills down your spine.  Next time they're all together, it's the final hour of the series...

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Classic change of pace, light material.
• series - Everyone comes together for this one.
• character - It's Vic's spotlight!
• essential - Classic romp.

notable guest-stars:
James Darren (Vic Fontaine)
Penny Johnson (Kasidy Yates)
Aron Eisenberg (Nog)
Robert O'Reilly

Deep Space Nine 7x4 "Take Me Out to the Holosuite"

rating: ****

the story: Sisko fields an unlikely baseball team against an old Vulcan rival.

what it's all about: Of all the episodes set during the Dominion War that didn't seem to notice that, y'know, a war was going on, it seems "Take Me Out to the Holosuite" would be the most egregious example of wasting such a unique platform, doing the exact opposite of what the producers should've been busy doing.  And granted, they were always going to have to shuffle in some episodic material with the hope of roping in casual fans, but this?

Well, yes, this.  It's such an unexpected episode and flies in the face of everything Deep Space Nine was supposed to be, that grim and nasty and dark series most fans probably didn't really have to worry too much about as they ignored its existence...But it was always the series with the most range, too.  I mean, it was always standard, from the very stark, to let loose a little.  "The Trouble with Tribbles" is the classic of all classic examples, surely.  But "Take Me Out" goes well, well beyond that.  And it's not technically a "Ferengi episode."  It does pivot around Rom's participation in the climactic ballgame, but it's really an episode for the whole cast, centering around Sisko, naturally.

Sisko's obsession with baseball goes all the way back to the very first episode ("Emissary") in which he actually explains linear existence to the Prophets with a baseball metaphor.  He had a baseball sitting on his desk throughout the series!  So at some point, the series was actually going to have to feature baseball.  Directly.  So that's basically what "Take Me Out" is.

It's also a kind of morale story, which is definitely a war story, a way to take weary minds off the heaviness of the conflict.  Only to redirect it to learning a game that in the future has almost entirely died away.  So it's a funny, fun episode as Sisko tries to explain how to play it to people (Worf's "Death to the opposition!" rallying cry is of course a classic) who couldn't possibly appreciate it as much as he does. 

Including their Vulcan opponents.  Having Vulcans as the "bad guys" is pretty interesting.  Until Enterprise the franchise never really got around to exploring just how humans and Vulcans actually get along.  Aside from Spock and Tuvok (Voyager), who pointedly were always pretty isolated from other Vulcans, Star Trek never really got around to exploring Vulcans.  Until, of course, Enterprise.  A lot of fans got very angry about how Enterprise presented them, but the roots of that were planted in "Take Me Out."  Is it really wrong to suggest Vulcans are arrogant, condescending?  How would you expect them to present themselves?  To my mind it's an entirely logical (heh) interpretation, so I think the episode nails that, and this depiction in it is a creative breakthrough worth celebrating as much as Sisko getting to celebrate baseball itself.

I'll admit that other fans will probably dispute a lot of my conclusions for "Take Me Out," but that's true for any episode.  This is merely my case for its credentials.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Between the spirit of the episode and the presence of Vulcans, I think casual fans should be interested.
• series - Presents a look at how to blow off pressure during wartime.
• character - Sisko!  Baseball!
• essential - An episode that in hindsight seems completely inevitable.

notable guest-stars:
Max Grodenchik (Rom)
Penny Johnson (Kasidy)
Aron Eisenberg (Nog)
Chase Masterson (Leeta)

Deep Space Nine 6x25 "The Sound of Her Voice"

rating: ****

the story: The crew must keep communications open with a Starfleet captain stranded and in desperate need of help.

what it's all about: If the preceding episode ("Time's Orphan") was a nice if safe sci-fi episode in a series that usually geared itself more toward human stories, "The Sound of Her Voice" manages to be both, and by the time you've seen its ending, I think you'll agree that it's a classic, too.

It's an example of a sci-fi twist that deepens rather than cheapens the impact of the storytelling, what M. Night Shyamalan later made a whole film career around.  No, I won't spoil it here, but speaking of spoilers, it's also the rare chance for Star Trek to allude to future events, in this case the very next episode, "Tears of the Prophets," the season finale in which the circumstances of "Voice" are echoed in bittersweet fashion. 

It's a kind of slice-of-life episode, since part of what the plot enables is the crew talking about their problems, so that on one level it's just an episode about people talking, which would seem boring, but again, once you make it to the end, you'll find it poignant beyond belief. 

I don't mean to dance around what happens in "Voice," but seeing it for yourself is kind of vital to the experience.

So in the meantime, Deep Space Nine gets to do what it does best, which is just spend time with its characters, a luxury Next Generation attempted at various points, to mixed results, and what Voyager and Enterprise subsequently wove into their storytelling as well, so that the characters really mattered and weren't just there to serve the plot.  That is Deep Space Nine's greatest legacy, and in a lot of ways, "Voice" is where you might best see it in action.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - A great twist casual fans will love.
• series - Reflective of what Deep Space Nine was all about, and what it passed on to later series.
• character - Every member of the cast gets a chance to shine.
• essential - Just too clever to deny.

notable guest-stars:
Debra Wilson (Captain Cusak)
Penny Johnson (Kasidy)

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 5x10 "Rapture"

rating: ****

the story: Sisko begins having visions that lead him to a hidden Bajoran city.

what it's all about: "Rapture" arrives with a thunderclap, and leaves a massive void in its wake, one that isn't really filled again until the seventh (and final) season.  It is at once a culmination of Sisko's journey to date in the series, and a massive hint as to where it goes next.

It's also visually different from every episode before it, for one very important reason: the revised Starfleet uniforms first seen in Star Trek: First Contact are seen in a TV series for the first time.  This would be because it's the first episode to air after the movie had settled comfortably into the collective fan imagination ("The Ascent" actually debuted a few days after the film's release, but it also focused primarily on non-Starfleet personnel and would've made a far less dramatic reveal, plus the timing would've given the movie less of a chance at establishing the new look, which was its right).

It helps the episode look bigger than anything that came before it, and it helps that the story is kind of bigger than anything that came before it.  Sisko had always been reluctant to embrace the trappings of the Bajoran culture he'd been forced to represent as commander of the station tasked with bringing it into the Federation fold.  This was complicated by the fact that the Bajorans immediately declared him a religious figure, which tended to baffle him, even if he became comfortable with it over time.  Yet, he'd never previously exhibited any particular ability to warrant it, until now. 

The visions, and Sisko's obsessive need to follow them, recall to mind two key episodes: "Explorers" (in which he builds an ancient Bajoran solar sail ship) and "The Visitor" (in which his son Jake obsessively pursues Sisko's rescue from a predicament no one else understands).  That both involve Jake is also key to "Rapture," since while Starfleet and Bashir are reluctant to embrace Sisko's new vocation, it's Jake who ultimately must make the call to end it.  This is the last great Sisko/Jake story, and while it leans more heavily on Sisko than previously, it also finally pushes him in his own direction, a culmination, too, of the new drive he'd discovered at the start of the third season, where he and his son had begun to drift apart.  They needed one last moment together, one last big emotion to be shared, before being thrust in opposite directions.

In the seventh season, Sisko discovers that his mother was actually a Prophet, the nonlinear "wormhole aliens" the Bajorans worship as gods, and the source of his designation as Emissary over them.  This comes with visions, too, tellingly.  Left unsaid but certainly implied is the connection back to "Rapture."  This is far more deft storytelling than was managed earlier in the season with "The Assignment," which featured the introduction of the Pah-wraiths, who would also factor prominently in the seventh season.  It's just as if "Rapture" were produced as a reset button, after too many episodes in which the future of the series was left in question despite an earlier drive to make it clear (appropriately enough in that third season).

What general fans will appreciate about "Rapture" is that it revisits a very old trope of the franchise, which is what to do with a character who suddenly "evolves" to a new level and seems to become a problem.  From "Where No Man Has Gone Before" (the second pilot) to "Charlie X" (another of the earliest episodes of the original series) to "The Nth Degree" (Next Generation), Star Trek always seemed to think this was a terrible thing, just as everyone does around Sisko in this episode, even though with the benefit of hindsight and knowing how it's knitted directly into the fabric of the series, we know how important and resonant a moment this really is, not just another in a series of random moments, so therefore once again an opportunity to showcase how it's different from the rest of the rest of the franchise.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Seems to embody a typical trope.
• series - But portrayed in-line with the material around it.
• character - Hugely significant to Sisko.
• essential - Another elevation of the whole series.

notable guest-stars:
Penny Johnson (Yates)
Louise Fletcher (Winn)

Deep Space Nine 4x22 "For the Cause"

rating: ***

the story: Kasidy is suspected of being a member of the Maquis.

what it's all about: For whatever reason, Star Trek became hugely interested in double-crosses around this time.  The Maquis, members of Starfleet and the Federation who decided to declare war on the Cardassians, were ripe for this kind of character, whether the most famous example of Ro Laren (Next Generation's "Preemptive Strike") or the triple-agent Seska in Voyager.  Yet the most surprising betrayal came from the character no one saw coming: Michael Eddington.

Eddington had been a minor recurring character since the start of the third season.  I always liked him; he'd managed to be a security officer assigned to the station who was perfectly comfortable working alongside Odo, the Bajoran-affiliated constable who had previously chafed at any such Starfleet maneuvering.  The series had even had another double-cross in the first season, with a character who made a few appearances before revealing her true alliances, but her name and impact are minimal, and represent the nascent relative failures of what would later characterize the series. 

The thing that makes Eddington's turn so genius is that it exploits one of the weaker elements of the fourth season, attempting to introduce drama in the relationship between Sisko and Kasidy Yates, another character who debuted in the third season.  Kasidy was unique from the start, an independent freighter captain, a human at that, who not only managed to stick around, but establish the first Star Trek romance with a lead character that actually went not only more than one episode, but all the way to the end of the series.  But their chemistry was so instantly winning that it was a terrible idea to try and introduce friction into it.  This episode redeemed the idea, however, in not only exploiting Kasidy's unique status, but revealing that any mistrust cast her way was in fact a deliberate and calculated play on Eddington's part, who by this point knew the station as well as anyone.

But this isn't really Eddington's spotlight.  This is a necessary link in a greater story (like "The Muse" before it), with a dynamo payoff next season in "For the Uniform" (and to a lesser extent, "Blaze of Glory," which is kind of a rehash of the unrelated "Defiant," which was a Deep Space Nine Maquis story the series didn't technically have to do after having previously used the rebels to help set up Voyager, thereby proving that they really did have storytelling legs).  There's a b-story about Garak's pursuit of Dukat's daughter Ziyal (a permanent actor still had yet to be found to portray her, and so once again she won't be listed in the "notable guest-stars" section), which likewise diminishes the immediate impact of the episode, dulling it to look more routine than it really is.

"For the Cause" is no "Preemptive Strike" (much less "State of the Flux," the Voyager episode where Seska reveals her true loyalties), but that's in part because Eddington's story is really only just beginning.  Until this point he hadn't seemed like he had much of a point at all, just a pleasant familiar face who showed up every now and again, more akin to how recurring characters appeared in the original series than how Deep Space Nine radically changed the concept.  In a lot of ways, that made him the perfect character to revisit an aborted concept from the franchise's past: the Vulcan conspirator Valeris in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country had originally intended to be Saavik, a character Gene Roddenberry had decided couldn't be handled in such a way, as to his mind she'd reached "beloved" status in her several movies appearances.  Valeria made a huge impact in her single appearance; retaining the lack of expectation, Eddington allows fans to see the whole process, which makes the betrayal ten times worse...

The idea would be revisited again in the series with Martok, but handled totally differently, with far wider-reaching results.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - The Maquis (although by no means the sole proprietors of this) claim another double-cross.
• series - A brilliant repackaging of a recurring character.
• character - It seems to be about one character, but turns out to be the defining moment, to that point, for Eddington instead.
• essential - The weakness of the episode, actually, is that it seemed to think it was necessary to double-up on the swerve. 

notable guest-stars:
Ken Marshall (Eddington)
Penny Johnson (Kasidy)
Andrew Robinson (Garak)

Deep Space Nine 4x5 "Indiscretion"

rating: *

the story: Dukat joins Kira on an unlikely rescue mission while Kasidy decides to take a job that will leave her a permanent resident of the station.

what it's all about: It never really occurred to me how radical a change the fourth season was for the season until I started writing in-depth about it.  This is the second episode, after "Hippocratic Oath," that proves how much someone wanted to change Deep Space Nine to correct perceived shortcomings and make it more approachable to fans.  But the result was a kind of neutering, in some respects, which is no big surprise, because by the time the Dominion War kicked off in the sixth season, the pendulum swung radically in the other direction, letting the series enjoy what made it special in a sometimes smothering fashion.

Case in point?  The one-two-three punch of "Duet," "Necessary Evil," and "Second Skin" from the firsts three seasons find their fourth season answer in "Indiscretion," which on paper seems like the perfect way to finally ground that tradition in the emerging continuity-heavy nature of the series.  And yet as a standalone experience, divorced from what later came of it (and several actresses portraying Dukat's heretofore hidden Cardassian/Bajoran daughter Tora Ziyal later), it seems like a wimpy start to the arc that changed the character's arc forever.  And no one really seems to have known just how big the consequences of this episode would be.  Surprisingly, this won't be the only time the producers get something like this wrong.

Long story short: Dukat's daughter alienates him from the Cardassian establishment, and his scrambling to redeem himself leads the Cardassians into the arms of the Dominion, and thus the Dominion War...and then Dukat officially becoming Sisko's opposite number, the emissary of the Pah-wraiths (their introduction is equally bloodless in "The Assignment" next season and exactly what I was alluding to earlier).

...But the biggest problem with Dukat's characterization this episode is that it ignores all the character work accomplished last season, and leaves Kira in a predicament that plays poorly against every other such example of her trying to make peace with the complicated past between Bajorans and Cardassians.  It's a Dukat story, basically, that really wants to be a Kira story, too, but can't figure out how, and doesn't really try.  So it's just setup, with little indication of how severe any of this will affect the duration of the series.  It's the opposite, too, of how well Dukat featured into last season's "Defiant," which for all intents and purposes is much the same story.

Anyway, if that weren't bad enough, Sisko and Kasidy's relationship hits a predictable hiccup when she decides that taking up permanent residence isn't such a bad thing, but he does.  In fact, all of this uncharacteristic behavior merely for the sake up trumped up drama just had me downgrade the episode to one star, when I'd originally pegged it for three and decided to settle for two given my dawning reservations...

The good news is that this early season shakiness settles down very soon.  The producers obviously had a rough time adjusting to new expectations, but they did figure it out.  Hey, there are always rough episodes, right?  At least with these last two, it's easy to see why they happened.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - This is a Deep Space Nine story.
• series - It's just kind of fails at being one.
• character - Still, some relevant groundwork is done for Dukat.
• essential - But in the grand scheme you don't have to watch it to understand what comes later.

notable guest-stars:
Marc Alaimo (Dukat)
Penny Johnson (Kasidy)

Deep Space Nine 4x1/4x2 "The Way of the Warrior"

rating: ****

the story: The Klingon Empire readies for war against the Dominion, which causes Sisko to request Worf's assistance.

what it's all about: People tend to have a bad habit of assuming that when story elements are mandated, this inevitably results in a story that can't possibly work.  Look, this is all a part of the creative process.  If you can't figure out to make someone else's idea work, then quit frankly you're not very creative.  It's as simple as that. 

This is relevant to "Way of the Warrior" because Paramount, in the interests of shoring up flagging ratings for Deep Space Nine, requested the show's producers insert the Klingons, and Worf, into the series.  This wasn't what the producers had been planning for the fourth season, something they'd already been denied to do at the end of the third season (relax, though; it'd finally materialize in the two-part "Homefront"/"Paradise Lost" near the middle of the season).  And in a lot of ways, "Warrior" is a rephrasing of not only the third season finale, "The Adversary," but the two-part "Improbable Cause"/"The Die is Cast" from earlier that season, plus the ambitious three-part "The Homecoming"/"The Circle"/"The Siege" that started out the second season.  But does all this mean "Warrior" is worthless rehash and creatively bankrupt?  Far from it!

The fourth season begins with a bang.  Introducing the Klingons turned out to be one of the best things the series ever did.  Klingons were involved in the first-ever sustained serialized storytelling Star Trek, during the middle of Next Generation, which is probably why Deep Space Nine happened to begin with, a whole series that would eventually embrace serialized storytelling as its mandate, so in that sense, formally introducing Klingons into the mix (they'd appeared sporadically before this) was at the very least a nod to Deep Space Nine's origins.  It was also the first time the Klingons really got to return to the epic nature of their Next Generation heyday, complete with Gowron pleading with Worf to once again consider what was in the best interests of the Empire, an echo of exactly how it all began, resonance that's the key to all great storytelling.

That General Martok makes his debut in "Warrior" is also one of the best things that happened in the story, especially the way he does.  He doesn't appear again until "Apocalypse Rising," the fifth season premiere, which eventually leads into one of the most pivotal recurring roles of the series.  So all that begins here.  As does Michael Dorn's addition to the regular cast, making him the only Star Trek actor to be a regular in two series.  Worf's solitary nature became prominent in his appearances throughout the rest of Deep Space Nine, putting him in an entirely new light, as a character who belonged in this series.  "Warrior" not only picks up the Klingon thread from Next Generation, but Worf's role in it, and out of it.  This was a series full of outcasts, and that's exactly what Worf always was.  That he had a family among Picard's crew, where fans will always remember him best, is also a fact of the franchise, but it cannot be discounted how well Worf fits in with his second family.

The siege of the station, once fighting breaks out, is one of the most thrilling sequences of the whole series, more than making up for its predecessor in "The Siege," which ended a three-part affair with more of a whimper than a bang.  This is what the series needed to give credibility to its Dominion ambitions, a preview of the war that was to come.  It neatly outlines the stakes of the conflict, and how things would work from then on. 

But for anyone coming merely for Klingon drama, it fills its quota of that, too, amply contributing to a fine Star Trek tradition.  Plus, you get to hear Quark compare the Federation to root beer.  If you never love a Ferengi in any other scene, I think you'll agree how well this one works.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - The grand Klingon opera continues!
• series - Although it's just beginning in Deep Space Nine!
• character - Enter: Worf!
• essential - Puts everything in new perspective.

notable guest-stars:
J.G. Hertzler (Martok)
Robert O'Reilly (Gowron)
Penny Johnson (Kasidy Yates)
Marc Alaimo (Dukat)
Andrew Robinson (Garak)
Patricia Tallman

Deep Space Nine 3x23 "Family Business"

rating: ***

the story: Quark and Rom have an uneasy reunion with their mother while Jake sets his father up with freighter captain Kasidy Yates.

what it's all about: The lead story of "Family Business" is kind of a sequel to "House of Quark early in the season, hilariously reversed, in which Quark realizes all that revolution he brought to a Klingon's house has no place in his own...!

But this is one of the most important episodes of the season, introducing three important new characters to the series: Ishka (Quark's mother), Brunt (the Ferengi toad who becomes Jeffrey Combs' first recurring character of the series), and Kasidy Yates (who would eventually marry Sisko and thus give the widower the permanent grounding he'd been headed toward since the season premiere).

Ishka is a hoot, every bit the force of nature you'd expect behind such an ambitious troublemaker like Quark, who could conceivably also have given birth to Rom, who seems to contradict everything about his brother.  The big knock on the Ferengi is that they seemed to be such obvious parodies of capitalism, once Deep Space Nine had sold (heh) its revision of the Next Generation failures originally intended to be straight-up villains.  The term "Ferengi episode" became an epitaph in Deep Space Nine for instant duds, which to my mind was ridiculous, because they were always some of the best material, epitomized by "Family Business." 

At this early juncture, Ishka already presented herself as an iconoclast destined to revolutionize Ferengi society, a feminist who wouldn't sit still for her culture's sexist attitudes.  If you think that comes off as too in-your-face (as an allegory, it's actually almost too in-continuity to be embraced by general viewers; which the later "Profit in Lace" seeks to remedy in the most obvious terms possible, which alienated Star Trek fans so much it became lambasted as one of the worst episodes ever; clearly this was a very tricky subject even for theoretical progressive folk like these twenty years ago), just wait to see some of the best interactions between Quark and Rom of the series, a callback to their second-season-stealing glory days.

Brunt may not be Weyoun (the Vorta toad as opposed to the Ferengi toad Combs portrayed multiple times), but e helps ground the insanity of Quark's family without making it too serious; you never really expect his petty functionary to be anything other than a roadblock (though later appearances would surely challenge that).  But it's clear Combs had instantly become a beloved presence in the series after having found a character that truly suited him (his previous appearance as a one-off character this season was more off-putting than anything, through no fault of his own), only to quickly find another.  And eventually, he would find a third recurring character in Enterprise's Shran to solidify his place as one of the all-time most compelling recurring actors of the franchise.

Penny Johnson's Kasidy Yates, though, brings the greatest impact.  Following "Explorers," the father-son team of Benjamin and Jake Sisko were on a roll, and given how strongly the season had focused on Sisko, it was high time to find him a replacement for the dead wife who'd haunted him at the beginning of the series, and the lively Yates was exactly the unlikely candidate, who immediately connected with the baseball-obsessed Sisko when it's learned her brother actively plays the ancient Earth game (in Star Trek lore, baseball actually ended sometime in the early 21st century, presumably in the run-up to WWIII). 

It's hard to imagine all this working let alone fitting into a single episode, but it all does!

criteria analysis:

• franchise - For series fans only.
• series - But they'll love it!
• character - Three important new characters!
• essential - Did I mention "important"?

notable guest-stars:
Penny Johnson (Yates)
Max Grodenchik (Rom)
Andrea Martin (Ishka)
Jeffrey Combs (Brunt)

The Next Generation 7x13 "Homeward"

rating: ***

the story: Worf's foster brother forces everyone into a difficult position when he takes it on himself to relocate an entire alien race about to lose its home.

what it's all about: A lot of fans kind of never could tell the difference between "Homeward" and Star Trek: Insurrection.  So let me clarify: they basically two completely different stories.

Insurrection is about Starfleet being manipulated into trying to relocate an entire alien race because of a blood feud with another alien race that turns out to be the same one.  "Homeward" is about, well, what I said above.  You'd have to make pretty broad generalizations to confuse the two, and I just don't see the point, except as a matter of convenience for fans who have little time for nuance and are really just trying really hard to be dismissive.

No, "Homeward" doesn't need to be thought of in association with Insurrection at all.  Instead, it's a trademark episode of the seventh season, in which matters of family become disentangled from the past...and tangled in the present.

This time we get to meet Worf's foster brother, the son of the humans who took him in after the Khitomer disaster he experienced as a boy.  This is always a tricky thing to accomplish, because fans don't like to have someone brought up they spent...six seasons having nothing to do with.  But Star Trek, especially episodic Star Trek, which Next Generation most assuredly is, is uniquely suited to overlook such quibbles, if you have the mind to, and just let you worry about how Worf and his brother just don't get along, because although they grew up in the same house, they became totally different people.

Because we spend so much time with Starfleet officers in Star Trek (that was always one of the key advantages of Deep Space Nine, in that there were plenty of individuals who had nothing to do with it), it can sometimes be hard to imagine that there are people who matter in the future who aren't in Starfleet.  Worf's brother is one of them.  When we met his Klingon brother previously, that kicked off a whole Klingon opera in the series.  Here, it's less complicated but no less emotionally taxing.  Because Worf's human brother also has different ideas about how to conduct himself, and how he might contribute to galactic affairs, like Worf.

There's the whole matter of the Prime Directive to be considered.  Worf's brother doesn't take it as seriously as Worf and the rest of the crew.  If this had been the original series, Kirk probably would cheerily have done the very same thing, with some intense debates with Spock and McCoy, no doubt.  But this is another instance where Next Generation gets to explore the greater complexities of such situations, not just with words but actions, not by interfering in wars but the basic process of living.  This is a matter of deciding whether or not it's right to condemn an alien race to extinction.  Enterprise made a more direct pitch with "Dear Doctor," and ultimately, fans are better off thinking of "Homeward" in relation to that than Insurrection. 

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Speaks very well to classic Star Trek dilemmas.
• series - Relevant to the whole season.
• character - Certainly relevant to Worf!
• essential - But you don't have to think too much about how important it is.

notable guest-stars:
Paul Sorvino
Penny Johnson
Brian Markinson