Deep Space Nine 3x26 "The Adversary"

rating: ****

the story: The crew takes the Defiant into enemy space, only to find the enemy aboard the ship in the form of a Founder who, as a shape-shifter, could be anyone...

what it's all about: Fans tend to forget how awesome "The Adversary" is, because in a lot of ways it was rephrased and blown to even more epic proportions in the fourth season premiere, "The Way of the Warrior," which has the distinctions of not only bringing in the Klingons, but introducing Worf into the series.  By contrast, "Adversary" actually features a one-off alien threat that's not even seen.

But it creates its own history, quite decisively, too.  The first and most obvious way is in Sisko promotion to captain.  It's the culmination of everything the season accomplishes for Sisko, rebuilding him into the strong center of Deep Space Nine in every way possible.  As the only lead character (until Star Trek: Discovery some twenty years later) of a Star Trek series to not be a captain in the pilot episode, Sisko always seemed to be at a disadvantage.  Well, by the end of the third season, not only does he run a station, but his own warship, and so of course he finally gets the big promotion.

But that's really only in the running for most interesting thing about the episode, because this is the one that really ramps up the threat of the Dominion.  Curiously, after the second season ended with "The Jem'Hadar" and this one began with "The Search," the Dominion had all but fallen by the wayside, lost to a number of other intrigues that only sometimes intersected with it.  This was a season of making sure fans understood what the stakes were.  So by the end of it, the threat of the Dominion can be revisited, and vastly intensified, as the nature of the Founders becomes chillingly apparent for the first time.  These are villains who will stop at nothing.  The fourth season's "Homefront"/"Paradise Lost" would pick up on the paranoia aspect, but most importantly, Odo is forced to do something that would later have a cataclysmic impact on his life, and all because of this Founder oath: "No changeling has ever harmed another."

Which of course means Odo is forced to kill one.  We've already seen how conflicted he is over the revelation that his long-sought-over people run the Dominion.  To then be forced into a situation where his outsider status is made about as stark as it can be...It's high drama.  It's matched by the first real sustained action-oriented drama of the series, which would of course later feature two final seasons entrenched in the Dominion War, making "The Adversary" the first true preview of what was to come.

That makes it hugely significant, and another chance for more hesitant fans to catch a glimpse of what all the fuss was about.  That makes it a classic.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - To that point , really on "The Best of Both Worlds" had given fans a glimpse of this kind of storytelling in Star Trek.
• series - But it's just a glimpse of what would become Deep Space Nine's hallmark.
• character - Sisko's promotion, Odo's fateful moment...
• essential - It's a classic, okay?

notable guest-stars:
Ken Marshall (Eddington)
Lawrence Pressman

Deep Space Nine 3x25 "Facets"

rating: ***

the story: Jadzia undergoes a ritual to "meet" every previous host of the Dax symbiont.

what it's all about: What might have come off as a silly gimmick (while consistently amusing, many of the hosts come off merely as too comedic) proves infinitely compelling when two specific ones grab "Facets" and push it to greater heights.

The first and comparatively throwaway is Sisko embodying the rogue host uncovered in the earlier third season episode "Equilibrium," instantly selling the whole concept as far more chilling than its predecessor had managed.  It gives Sisko, and by extension Avery Brooks, yet another compelling, previously-unthinkable moment in a season full of them.

But by far, Odo's portrayal of Curzon Dax is what the episode, and the series, really needed.  Curzon is easy to overlook in his importance to series lore.  He's the "Old Man" Sisko is constantly referencing when he addresses Jadzia, the host of the Dax symbiont who came immediately before her.  Other episodes had attempted to tell compelling stories around him ("Dax" in the first season, "Blood Oath" in the second), but without having Curzon himself represented, they always circled back to Jadzia herself.  Not only does "Facets" solve that, it also demonstrates the pitfalls of host selection far more effectively than previous attempts ("Equilibrium" and "Invasive Procedures"), namely by making it immediate, personal, and downright heartbreaking.

Simply put: during the course of the episode, it's revealed that Curzon flunked Jadzia out of the initiate program, and eventually that he did so because of a conflict of interest, namely that he'd fallen in love with her.  That's the beating heart of a story that breaks new ground for Jadzia as more than the quirky hotty she'd kind of become somewhere along the way (actually, that would be "Playing God," thank you very much), and it paves the way for the ultimate host episode, "Rejoined," early next season, perhaps the boldest episode the series ever attempted, a direct rebuttal of "The Host," the Next Generation episode that introduced the Trill in the first place.

Incorporated into this is Odo's own self-loathing, one of the running themes of the season, and even his as-yet unrequited crush on Kira (by way of suggestion).  The B-story complements this by having Rom finally show some backbone and acknowledge the huge achievement his son Nog has made by gaining admittance (the first for a Ferengi) into Starfleet Academy. 

This is one of those breezy efforts from the season, where the newfound confidence the series had found could really blossom.  It's not overly crucial to the course of things, but it's also indicative of why any of it mattered, because Deep Space Nine really had invested time and effort into its characters, so that it could.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - This one's for fans of Deep Space Nine, thank you.
• series - Well, like I just said...
• character - Technically focuses on Jadzia.
• essential - But has plenty of room for others to shine, too.  Good character work overall!

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

Deep Space Nine 3x24 "Shakaar"

rating: ***

the story: Kira is reunited with a friend from the Resistance, who will become a significant part of Bajor's future thanks to a power play from Kai Winn (just not in the way she thinks).

what it's all about: Bajoran stories at their heart were always a mix of church and state, and so in that regard they may actually be the most fundamentally American stories of the whole franchise.  The trick was always to find a balance between these impulses, which had already created compelling figures and arcs earlier in the series, but had failed to find a truly likable figure, outside of Kira, with which to rally stories around.  Well, "Shakaar" finally finds that figure.

Dipping into Kira's past (and present), which some might consider a cheat since until this episode the title character somehow didn't exist at all, despite a lot of heavy drama surrounding Bajor in the early seasons (the Bajorans will always be the Kazon of Deep Space Nine; Voyager fans will know what I'm talking about).  Putting that aside, he comes at an opportune moment.  Kai Winn had just vanquished the other likeliest contender to her personal little Game of Thrones in "Life Support," where the perennially bloodless Vedek Bareil finally ran out of luck with the writers.  She used a lot of political reasoning then, too, just as she attempts to use here, but Kira won't let her get away with it this time, which is actually kind of ironic, since Winn actually enlists her into the cause, given Kira's past association with the man hogging all the valuable farm equipment Winn wants to use to bolster her public image, I mean support Bajor's future (of course!).

Duncan Regehr is instantly a more charming actor than just about everyone else (besides Michelle Forbes and Nana Visitor) who's ever played a Bajoran in Star Trek.  It's good, too, because he was last seen in the franchise playing a thankless role in one of the worst episodes ever, Next Generation's "Sub Rosa.  But a lot of the story falls, as usual, on Kira, who is once again asked to mediate a difficult situation (it turned out horribly in the first season, but apparently Winn never heard about that).  Eventually it becomes a full-blown Bajoran Western.

It's good stuff.  It works on every level that usually falls apart in Bajoran episodes, and even manages to give the poor world a break, a happy ending for a change, when Shakaar is elected to the role of first minister, which Winn had attempted to usurp and thereby control everything for her people.  It's the easiest Bajoran episode to recommend, so of course it comes from the third season.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - This belongs more to the fantasy TV genre of perfect political figures than to Star Trek.
• series - It works wonders for the Bajorans.
• character - Once again Kira proves to know what's best for her people.
• essential - It's the episode any fan should watch who would otherwise groan at the prospect of a Bajoran adventure.

notable guest-stars:
Duncan Regehr (Shakaar)
Louise Fletcher (Winn)
Sherman Howard
William Lucking

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)

Deep Space Nine 3x22 "Explorers"

rating: ****

the story: While the Siskos experience some one-on-one bonding time, Bashir reluctantly reunites with an old classmate.

what it's all about: When it comes to episodes featuring the unique bond between Benjamin and Jake Sisko, most fans will be able to tell you all about the classic episode from early the next season, "The Visitor," but few will remember "Explorers," which really only comes a few episodes earlier, and in some ways, in its breezy simplicity, is better.

Next Generation could sometimes drive itself nuts trying to create a slice-of-life episode that hit all the right marks, but never came close to something like this.  Not only are the Siskos in the spotlight, but Bashir in what is by far his most appealing story of the season, and perhaps the all-time great B-story of the whole franchise featuring the all-time greatest drunken duet of the whole franchise....It's really, really hard for me to undersell this episode, which has always been one of the key reasons for why I love this season so much, and how it helped me fall in love with the series itself.

Jake Sisko will always be the youthful character of the franchise that somehow managed to avoid the curse of becoming a grating, obnoxious recurring presence, who was listed as a regular throughout the series but somehow ended up being featured and feeling like a recurring character, and by far the most subtle one.  In some respects he existed to ground his father in a reality most Star Trek characters never really get to experience, as the kind of Wesley Crusher we always wish we had, merely the reminder of a tragedy that must inevitably happen in Starfleet families, the loss of a parent and the need to soldier on.  And yet by this point Jake had made the decision to forego Starfleet and committed himself to the life of a writer (in fact, a lot of this episode is dedicated to his formative development in that regard, and as such always had natural appeal to someone who was just beginning to realize that's what he wanted, too, for his future).  He'd seen his best friend, who seemed to have far worse prospects, make exactly the opposite decision and convince everyone it wasn't just a mad pipedream.  And with a father who had become more involved in his own life than he had been in years, Jake now wonders if it's time he move on, accept a scholarship that will take him away from the station (in some ways, the course of Jake's whole arc in the series mirrored the one that brought everyone to the station to begin with, because in fact he never leaves).

The Ben Sisko who appears in "Explorers" is by far the most appealing he ever was, a warmed-in version of the one who showed up in the season premiere, "The Search," with the same kind of fervor for a new project early seasons only hinted at.  He decides to throw himself into recreating an ancient Bajoran solar ship, and once that's completed actually taking it into space with his son.  By that time the episode really settles in, and becomes ten times more appealing, a lark that never really feels the urge to become more complicated than it needs to be, allowing father and son plenty of time to bond.  When an emergency does break out, it feels organic, and when Dukat shows up to congratulate them on showing how ancient Bajorans really could have been as impressive as the ship itself suggests, it's the best moment of the season for showing how politically hypocritical the Cardassians can be (same as politicians ever are), but in a good way.

And anyway, Bashir's angst about where his career has landed has been a subplot all season, whether the award he thinks he's too young to win or the sudden awareness that he's actually getting older...But being confronted with an actual specter of his past, the embodiment of the one decision he regrets, having charged with the fullness of youthful abandon at the prospect of the "frontier" instead of taking the most prestigious posting available upon graduation from medical school...This is the guy's lowest moment.  He gets drunk, sings with O'Brien (what's with O'Brien getting all the best singing moments in Star Trek, anyway?), and then...discovers how wrong he's been.  Well, of course.

This right here is the depth of the series, the simple moments somehow writ large, because for Deep Space Nine it really wasn't about the big moments (even though the Dominion War was about as big as you can get in Star Trek), but the small ones, the ones that are all about, and only about, its characters, and why they matter, for the fact that they exist and nothing else.  And yet it would be a huge mistake to say this is soap opera material, because soap opera wishes it could be this endearing.  Soap opera lives for shock value.  There's nothing shocking about a father telling his son his writing has a long way to go.  But there's plenty of profundity in it.

Surely the most unlikely classic in a franchise better known for its sci-fi twists...

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Unlike anything else you'll see in Star Trek.
• series - Or this series, really.
• character - But it's all about what's always important about this series.
• essential - The characters.

notable guest-stars:
Marc Alaimo (Dukat)
Chase Masterson (Leeta)

Deep Space Nine 3x21 "The Die Is Cast"

rating: ****

the story: A joint Romulan/Cardassian war party enters the Gamma Quadrant as Garak's betrayal continues to sink in.

what it's all about: Where "Sins of the Father" sowed the seeds of a continuing Klingon arc in Next Generation, famously, the exact moment Deep Space Nine transitioned from episodic to serialized storytelling, which eventually became its trademark, is far harder to determine.  One might argue the general introduction of Winn in the first season finale, "In the Hands of the Prophets," or the Dominion in the second season finale, "The Jem'Hadar," but the later Dominion War that became the hallmark of the series really owes its greatest debt to the two-part "Improbable Cause"/"The Die Is Cast," in which the Alpha Quadrant actually declares war on the Gamma Quadrant first.  This was an arc that had quite a few claims to a beginning (the most obvious ones would be "Defiant," where we first learn about a secret Cardassian fleet, or "The Wire," in which we learn a little of Garak's mysterious past in a Cardassian espionage ring called the Obsidian Order), but if you really want to pin the origin of the series as it became known, you'd probably want to settle on "The Die Is Cast."

Yes, it continues the story from "Improbable Cause," which concludes with Garak betraying his friends aboard the station and reuniting with his old mentor (and father) Enabran Tain.  Before this (and after) Garak was best known for his incredibly ambiguous presence in the series, in some ways the very heart of a series that came to be defined by its ambiguousness, never comfortable with the much more definite conclusions found in most other corners of Star Trek as a whole.  If Garak was never a main character, he stood at the forefront of a rich cast of supporting characters, who when he did appear always had something worthwhile to do, and never moreso than in "Die Is Cast," the one moment in the series he flirts with being unambiguous, a suitably villainous Cardassian at last.

This is ironic, because this was the season the Cardassians took a turn for the friendly, something that would sit just as uncomfortably as it seems even now, until the fifth season when they joined the Dominion and thereby officially ushered in the war that would encompass the rest of the series.  Only the unabashed heroic reversal of Damar would ever truly and permanently redeem them.

No, Garak was never a hero, but when the sequence that defines this episode finally begins, you begin to see just how unique he really is in Star Trek.  He tortures Odo.  It's horrible.  I mean, torture is always horrible, but until The Passion of the Christ I would never again see anything approaching what Garak does to Odo in this episode.  In some ways, though, it's directly responsible for crystalizing the third season's efforts to bring out the best of the series, and the incredible depths it would explore later.  When we discover the torturer has no taste for his art, that he desperately wants Odo to give him something, anything, so he can stop, because he genuinely does want to stop, we learn that the lie wasn't to his friends, the lie was to himself, and the cost was too great to further pursue.  In the end, like Next Generation's answer to why Picard means so much to Guinan ("Time's Arrow"), it's such an obvious conclusion it still seems impossible: Garak is a good person who was asked once too often to be something else, and it nearly broke him. 

We would see echoes of this conclusion later, but in no greater form than in this episode.  And why is the war the defining element of the series?  For the same reason.  Garak's torture forces Odo to admit, for the first time, that he yearns to return to his people, the Founders, who run the Dominion.  This is itself an act of betrayal, and that's why Odo fights so hard to suppress this desire, and yet it's a pure one despite how others might interpret it, and that's why Garak finds in him a kindred soul, something pure that exists in the midst of something awful, such an inexplicable existence and yet this is a series jam-packed with such individuals, broken lives struggling for redemption (the parallels with Lost are why I found that series so hugely rewarding, too).  People remember the war.  Well, this is where it begins, and everyone's implicated, even Starfleet: it was Starfleet's decision to partner with the Romulans in the acquisition of a cloaking device for the Defiant that emboldened the Romulans in the first place.  This is why the war happens, not because of anything else prior to "Die Is Cast," certainly not the what-if scenario of the season premiere, "The Search," which for everything it helped set up still exhibited safe storytelling, compared to the pipe bomb of this episode, but for the direct provocation everyone all but willed to happen.  For the first and only time in franchise history, war is declared inevitable, a crucible in which truth finally stands revealed. 

This is exactly where you look to see what the whole series was about.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - War! What is it good for?
• series - Well before the Dominion War itself begins, this is where it began.
• character - Where we finally find out the truth about Garak.
• essential - For the torture sequence alone, this is a classic.

notable guest-stars:
Andrew Robinson (Garak)
Paul Dooley (Tain)
Leland Orser
Ken Marshall (Eddington)

Deep Space Nine 3x20 "Improbable Cause"

rating: ****

the story: Garak's shop is destroyed in an explosion, and Odo attempts to learn how it happened.

what it's all about: "Improbable Cause," and its sequel "The Die is Cast," is essentially a continuation of the second season episode "The Wire," the one where the Cardassian tailor Garak finally stands exposed as anything but "plain and simple," as he'd tried to argue in his earlier appearances.  It's also the culmination of a whole series of hints and suggestions about whether or not the audience should really trust him, however jovial and innocuous he may appear, and as such represents the first time Deep Space Nine's serialized storytelling reaches a climax.

We'll confine our thoughts to "Cause" rather than discuss it in conjunction with "Cast," and so that means not just talking about Garak but Odo, who until this episode had begun to hurtle every more deliberately to a fairly narrowly-confined arc concerning his people, the Founders, and Kira, with whom he would eventually form a romantic relationship.  Yet he remains constable aboard the station, too, and as such is responsible for law (toward which he is ambivalent, unless it's his law) and order (which he holds as a kind of religion).  Usually that means butting heads with Quark, but "Cause" (and especially "Cast") finds Odo matching wits with perhaps his ultimate opponent Garak.  For all his love of order, Odo is actually once of the biggest proponents of ambiguity in a whole series of ambiguous characters and situations, none of which really match the mercurial Garak, who by the end of the series remains as decidedly invested in his own particular interests, whatever they may be, as he ever was.

So to see these two forces of nature finally collide is to witness one of the great events of the series take place, another decided feather in the cap of the ambitious third season overhaul that saw a dramatic leap into Deep Space Nine's full potential.

And it seems so simple, and because it seems so simple, of course it involves Garak, who along with all his other attributes is also his biggest enemy, a man of infinite self-loathing and -sabotage.  Fans typically associate "The Wire" as his greatest appearance, but really it's the one-two punch of "Cause" and "Cast."  Bashir was always far too trusting (if not to say gullible, as we'd learn definitively in his most ambiguous tales, featuring Section 31, later in the series, none of which, strangely, involving Garak) to provide the effect the one great Cardassian in the whole franchise worth rooting for needed so much to blossom.  So again, enter: Odo.

Odo's investigations tended to produce great material, besides, with the previous season's "Necessary Evil" providing the best standalone example.  The security chiefs in other Star Treks never really got to have this level of fun.  As such, that's another level of how well and how completely this particular series in the franchise worked.  Because there were so many such elements, it's far too easy to gloss over them.  And yet when another series hits one note relentlessly, however brilliantly, you can see the extent to which one-note storytelling resonates.  In that regard, you can probably see one of the many reasons Arthur Conan Doyle wanted so desperately to end the adventures of Sherlock Holmes.  I'm not saying Odo is Sherlock Holmes, or that "Cause" can be mistaken for a truly great mystery, but for its relentless focus on known characters, known characteristics, its resonance works on a different level entirely.

All of which makes the end of the episode more of a punch to the gut...But more on that later.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - One of the great mysteries of all Star Trek reaches a climax.
• series - A sequel to an earlier episode without really having to make it obvious.
• character - A portrait in full of Garak, and Odo.
• essential - A hugely underrated moment in the series.

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

Deep Space Nine 3x19 "Through the Looking Glass"

rating: ****

the story: Sisko is brought to the Mirror Universe to confront the most unlikely foe: his dead wife's doppelganger.

what it's all about: What's even more unlikely than Deep Space Nine producing one classic sequel to the original series classic "Mirror, Mirror" (last season's "Crossover")?  Producing a second.  (And, also, a third: next season's "Shattered Mirror," completing arguably the best trilogy of the whole franchise.)

You really only need to look at the story summary, a truly genius move that few other shows would even consider as a possibility.  What's most brilliant about it is that the actress whose minor appearance as the late Jennifer Sisko in "Emissary," the first episode of the series, returns, for a far more substantial role.  It's a gamble that absolutely pays off.  Even if you don't think the actress nails it, Avery Brooks does.  It's one of the key performances in a season full of them, a season that redefined Sisko as the true lynchpin of the series, after a few seasons in which that was never a certainty.  It happened with Picard, too, but Sisko's accomplishment is the greater for having so much demanded of him in one season and every time proving to be up to the challenge, as if all of Picard's best moments were in the third season.  (I mean, there's still "Pale Moonlight" and "Far Beyond the Stars" in the sixth season, but it's still incredibly hard to stack anything up against Sisko's appearances this season.)

"Looking Glass" at last tackles the elephant in the room, which two previous seasons had danced so badly around, Sisko's devastating loss, the central element of the very first episode, for him.  Seeing it finally revisited, and brilliantly, was a moment that really had to happen, but the way it happened is the genius of the episode, in another trip to the Mirror Universe, the signature alternate reality of the franchise (revisited several other times in the series besides, plus the two-part Enterprise entry "In a Mirror, Darkly").

The third season scored so well with Sisko because it constantly put him in discombobulating situations, and each time he proved worthy to the task.  The Mirror Sisko we met in "Crossover" was about as far from the Sisko we knew then, and later, as you could get, so to see that character reverse-engineered, not even to talk about the Jennifer element, is to see exactly how Sisko goes about making decisions.  That's probably the best way to view the episode if you don't particularly care for the greater implications, which is what you should be able to say about classics, whether they can work on multiple levels, and how much they challenge the viewer.  Anyone who thinks this might just be a Mirror Universe rehash will have to admit that it adds significant new wrinkles to the formula.

But the Jennifer element is definitely good enough to warrant classic status all on its own.  Everyone in the episode clearly enjoys the possibilities given them.  This one is really hard not to love.  If none of what I've already said sells it for you, just think of this: "Looking Glass" also sneaks in the craftiest interseries character appearance ever, with Voyager's Tim Russ appearing as Mirror Tuvok, with no one really drawing attention to it.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Another fruitful trip to the Mirror Universe.
• series - Another in a fruitful series of Deep Space Nine trips there.
• character - Sisko comes face-to-face with the specter of his dead wife.
• essential - Too darn good to ignore.

notable guest-stars:
Felecia M. Bell (Mirror Jennifer Sisko)
Tim Russ (Mirror Tuvok)
Andrew Robinson (Garak)
Max Grodenchik (Rom)
Dennis Madalone

Deep Space Nine 3x18 "Distant Voices"

rating: *

the story: Bashir is attacked, and then finds himself aging rapidly.

what it's all about: One of the most famous Star Trek tropes is a character aging (or de-aging) rapidly, which began all the way in the original series episode "The Deadly Years," and can be found in every TV incarnation, sometimes with the variant of simply seeing a main character in an aged state.  Most of the time this involves atypically horrible prosthetics that are not the least convincing.  "Distant Voices," unfortunately, continues that trend, too.

What's worse is that it nearly undermines a character who had really started to come into his own, Bashir suddenly seeming a lot more mature than when we first met him.  This is a whole episode that deals with the same issues as a number of vital B-stories elsewhere in the season, but in a metaphorical sense, having a birthday and feeling the years creeping upward.  The worst thing about it is that it exposes the limits of an otherwise impeccable actor, Alexander Siddig, especially by the time Bashir is an enfeebled old man; Siddig doesn't seem to have figured out what to do other than stammer a lot more.  No one wants to tell an actor that it's not enough to convincingly portray the physical aspects of such a state but also to come up with a voice to match it.  In the classic episode "The Visitor," Tony Todd plays an equally aged character with considerably more grace.  That's just the next season, Sid.

But if that sort of thing doesn't bother you, the story does sort of preview a far better episode later in the season, "Facets," in which Dax's previous hosts are embodied by the main characters so Jadzia can meet them.  I don't mean to spoil "Distant Voices" for you, but everything ends up being inside of Bashir's head.  That's actually the best part of the episode.

This is one of those episodes that could just as easily have occurred in the first season, when random sci-fi plots happened all the time, rather than in the third, when the series had really come into its own.  You'll be happy to know it's also the last time this season such an episode occurs.  The rest of it matches or exceeds the average quality that would come to define Deep Space Nine as a whole.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - General Trek fans will probably get a kick out of it.
• series - But more specified ones probably won't.
• character - I'm convinced it's not a good Bashir episode.
• essential - I don't think anyone would argue that this is a great one by any means.

notable guest-stars:
Andrew Robinson

Deep Space Nine 3x17 "Visionary"

rating: **

the story: O'Brien keeps jumping into the future, where things are spiraling wildly out of control for the whole station.

what it's all about: "Visionary" is an episode that is so fun it almost doesn't matter that it could have happened in any series, which is usually a knock against Deep Space Nine trying stuff like that, but here is anything but.

The crux of it is the classic template of let's-torture-O'Brien!, a reliable source of material if there ever was one.  Let's just get that out of the way.  If anyone can sell material like this, it's O'Brien, who gets to enjoy yet another scenario that's so entirely bonkers only science fiction can get away with it.  By the time he starts putting two and two together, seeing his own future self, replacing himself, the fun just explains itself.

The rest of it is vaguely centered on series elements, like the Romulans complaining about Starfleet not living up to its end of the bargain (I may not have previously mentioned that the station's new warship, the Defiant, comes equipped with a cloaking device on loan from them), but it's really just an excuse to let loose all manner of mayhem, including more Klingons than you can shake a stick at (although the Romulans certainly try).  This was before the Klingons were really an intrinsic part of the series, so it does come off as fairly random to involve them here.

But don't worry about such things!  Just run with it!  Because it's a pretty fun episode, and that's all you really need to know.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Stands proudly in the tradition of fun sci-fi storytelling in Star Trek.
• series - Inessential to Deep Space Nine, however.
• character - Although it's prime O'Brien material.
• essential - Keep calm and just watch it already.

notable guest-stars:
Jack Shearer
Dennis Madalone

Deep Space Nine 3x16 "Prophet Motive"

rating: ***

the story: Quark is horrified when Grand Nagus Zek totally overhauls the all-important Rules of Acquisition against every known Ferengi principal.

what it's all about: This is one of the finest examples of a "Ferengi episode" you'll find, as well as one of the best appearances by Wallace Shawn as the mercurial Zek.  Shawn's legacy will always be found in Princess Bride, but his Zek was more or less the Deep Space Nine equivalent of Q, an oddball recurring character who more or less made one appearance a season throughout the whole series.  What works so well this time is that his part is minimal, completely dominated by Quark's outrage at his every decision.  An outraged Quark is a very fun Quark to watch.

"Ferengi episodes" eventually became derided by fans as counter to the dark tone of the series and thus irrelevant, but they were also essential to the series, a constant reminder that things are as complicated as they seem, but in ways that could have a far greater variance in tone than fans tended to admit.  In a lot of ways, "Prophet Motive" is the "Trouble with Tribbles" of Deep Space Nine, though I wonder how much general appeal it has, because it speaks so directly to a peculiarly Deep Space Nine element: the rules by which Ferengi govern themselves, a trademark of the series, something that was always being quoted (and eventually compiled for an actual book).

"Prophet Motive" is also the first time the series hints that Ferengi society is bound for a drastic overhaul, and yes, it will center around Zek.  As Grand Nagus he's supposed to represent the perfect Ferengi, but the more we see him, the less true this becomes, especially when he at last meets Quark's mom (whom we'll meet late in the season, in the only possible purely "Ferengi episode" that could top this one in the third season).

What's interesting about the episode is that it ties the Ferengi in with the Prophets (as the title suggests), the wormhole aliens who serve as the often-unseen center of the series, noncorporeal entities who periodically visit Sisko to let him know how things are going (basically).  It's a little odd seeing someone else visit with them, let alone Quark, but the Ferengi actually took the most active early interest in the Gamma Quadrant, thanks to Zek, traveling through that other signature element of the series, the wormhole that's technically the reason anything important happens at the station.

The B-story revolves around Bashir, once again showing how far he's come, now suddenly pessimistic about his career, having been nominated for what amounts to a career achievement award and not convinced in the slightest that he has a chance to win.  But no one else believes that, which becomes quite amusing, a signature look at how life aboard the station operates differently from a starship.

It's a pretty fun episode all around.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Another episode general fans don't necessarily need to worry about.
• series - Although it spotlights Deep Space Nine at its most dynamic.
• character - Works for Quark, Zek, and Bashir!
• essential - It's one of those episodes ideal to sample if you want to see how interesting the series really is.

notable guest-stars:
Wallace Shawn (Zek)
Max Grodenchik (Rom)
Tiny Ron (Maihar'du)

Deep Space Nine 3x15 "Destiny"

rating: ***

the story: A Bajoran religious leader tries to convince Sisko that an ancient prophecy is about to be fulfilled.

what it's all about: Unlike "Life Support" a few episodes earlier, "Destiny" strikes a fine balance in its exploration of continued Bajoran/Cardassian relations, mostly because there the Bajoran element centers around Sisko while the Cardassian element features O'Brien or further inter-Cardassian intrigue. 

The intrigue is the lighted material, actually, so let's treat that first: Like a lot of spy-based storytelling in the franchise, and with the considerable ramp-up of Cardassian spy storytelling this season, there's plenty of suspicion cast about, but where "Destiny" earns points is by refusing the harsher tones typical for these scenarios.

So let's move on to juicier stuff.  There are a number of Cardassian scientists running amok in the episode, which in and of itself is a nice change of pace (like Next Generation's "Suspicions," which featured a Ferengi scientist; you just don't tend to think of these aliens in such roles).  The whole third season had a thread woven through it trying to soften the image of the Cardassians, and other than the increased profile of Dukat, "Destiny" best represents that thread.  O'Brien develops an unlikely rapport with one of the scientists, leading to an amusing clash of cultures when he becomes convinced she has the hots for him.  For a character like O'Brien, who in Next Generation's "The Wounded" was given a background of animosity against Cardassians from war-time experience, this is a welcome light treatment of the kind of depth the series was known for.

But the meat and crux of the episode belongs to Sisko, who's given one of his rare opportunities to stare that vexing declaration from the first episode - he's the "Emissary of the Prophets" - in the face.  An overzealous Bajoran badgers him throughout the episode concerning what he should be doing, which is tough enough for a Starfleet officer, I'm sure, but moreso when you're a Starfleet officer who's been deemed a religious figure and you still haven't figured out what that even means.  This was an element of the character that had never really gelled before, but "Destiny" goes a long way in explaining it, and how it continues to affect Sisko, without asking anything more from him, this time, than grappling with its religious overtones.  But the big payoff, which is rare for material like this, is at the very end of the episode, when the Bajoran, having realized he was wrong, proceeds to rattle off more prophecies...Deep Space Nine was surprisingly good for tossed-off punchlines like that, very much in the spirit of how the original series would conclude on some jab between Bones and Spock.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - This one's really for series fans.
• series - An amusing look at ongoing concerns.
• character - Sisko's enigmatic religious significance returns to the spotlight.
• essential - This is an early look at the more lighthearted side of the series.

notable guest-stars:
Erick Avari
Tracy Scoggins

Deep Space Nine 3x14 "Heart of Stone"

rating: ***

the story: Odo and Kira are forced into a peculiar dilemma, while Nog decides he wants to join Starfleet.

what it's all about: Part of me wants to downplay "Heart of Stone," because so much of it is kind of frustrating to watch, but another part of me wants to trumpet how significant it all is, and that it's worth whatever hassle it might otherwise represent.

The trouble spots all occur in the Odo/Kira scenes, which after a while become tedious: Kira becomes trapped in one of the Planet Hell cave sets, literally stuck in stone, and Odo must desperately find a way to free her.  It becomes more all the more bizarre, because the stone grows around her. 

This is another instance where the B-story really should have been the lead story, something that was no doubt increasingly difficult to decide in a series where multiple stories increasingly became the norm, a truly serialized nature that to that point was unprecedented in franchise lore.  The B-story is recurring character Nog's equally desperate attempts to convince anyone that he's serious about joining Starfleet, that it isn't just another of the kinds of jokes he used to bring to B-stories all the time.  No doubt this decision to relegate him to the B-story, despite the fact that his plight had far more interesting material to explore, was motivated by the fact that he was a recurring character.  When Garak received a whole episode to himself in "The Wire," the producers probably let it slide because a series regular, Bashir, was every bit as essential (to a certain extent) as he was to its plot.  Nog kind of ping-pongs through most of the rest of the cast.  He wouldn't be trusted to truly carry an episode until the final season ("It's Only a Paper Moon"), at which point those producers were probably kicking themselves.

When the Odo/Kira lead story reaches its climax, it ends up being nicely justified, although in an odd way.  It was nice to force them into an isolated experience, but the ending reveals that they were never free to truly express themselves to each other, because one of them wasn't really them at all, but the Female Shapeshifter merely pretending to be Kira.  But it's at least a story that acknowledges what had really only been teased and hinted at previously, that Odo is desperately in love with Kira.

Would this have been better to simply cut to the chase and have Odo talking with the Female Shapeshifter directly all along?  Again, I think it was the producers not yet willing to trust themselves, because after all this was what they'd already done at the beginning of the season in "The Search," and so they were probably afraid of duplicating their own efforts.  Wasn't the Female Shapeshifter merely checking up on Odo?  Well, no.  This was her finding out, along with the rest of us, the source of Odo's internal conflict, why he would reject the long-wished-for prospect of returning to his people in exchange for a continued life of inexplicable exile among people who generally fear him and what makes him different.

It's an odd episode, then, but another crucial one.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - This one's for fans of the series, folks.
• series - It helps demonstrate what sets Deep Space Nine apart.
• character - By going deeper with these characters than had been done previously.
• essential - It's a crucial one, really.

notable guest-stars:
Aron Eisenberg (Nog)
Salome Jens (Female Shapeshifter)
Max Grodenchik (Rom)

Deep Space Nine 3x13 "Life Support"

rating: ***

the story: Bashir agonizes over the need to preserve Bareil's life at the expense of his soul.

what it's all about: This is one of the best episodes of the series and yet it's also not particularly necessary to the series, almost a deepened version of the first season random death of Kai Opaka in "Battle Lines."  But it's also a powerful answer to one of Next Generation's most troubling episodes, "Ethics."  Is that intriguing enough for you?  So let me explain.

They key to any character can sometimes be summed up by their occupation, and doctors in Star Trek are thusly strongly geared toward medical dilemmas (Phlox features perhaps the best, and yes most controversial, one in Enterprise's "Similitude").  "Ethics" was a rare episode where a guest character was doing all the heroics, but Dr. Crusher wondered if it wasn't at the expense of morality.  Usually in this franchise, it's the main characters who're inexplicably capable of solving any crisis, sometimes debating internally the implications of their actions (this would be a more or less accurate summary of the entire original series), so half of what made "Ethics" so impactful was that this standard was completely subverted.  I mean, it's another Star Trek standard for its main characters to question the implications of other people's actions, so that in itself wasn't really the crux of "Ethics," so much the fact that this was a case of those actions clearly leading to a beneficial outcome, but still being capable of being wrong.  It was one of the first steps to broadening the scope of Star Trek storytelling, which Deep Space Nine was by definition committed to exploring in full.

So "Life Support" was an episode that needed to happen (alas, poor Bareil!), whether or not it had anything to do with the course of the series itself.  I mean, the death of Bareil was one step in making the budding romance between Odo and Kira possible, and the portrayal of Kai Winn's cold logic was key in her development, but at this point, with Bajoran/Cardassian relations taking a backseat to the emerging threat of the Dominion, it was almost beside the point.  That the negotiations Winn needs Bareil so badly to keep going are not themselves the lead story is telling.  If this had been a second season episode, say, they would have been

But the whole point is to present Bashir with a medical dilemma so awful, even he backs away from it eventually.  This was in effect the death of Bashir's innocence, an arc in and of itself throughout the season.  He began the series a hopeful and painfully naïve young doctor, the most eager new resident of the station by far, who helped mire the first season in a tone that was later difficult to reconcile with what would follow.  When asked to replace one and then another and then another organ of the unfortunate Bareil, he begins to wonder how much he can take away before Bareil is no longer Bareil.  He reaches the point when asked to replace the poor man's brain.  Too late?  Probably.  But that's not the point. 

There are Star Trek fans who think Deep Space Nine is just too dark to like, and perhaps more than any other episode "Life Support" reflects that view, because maybe it is too dark.  Winn's callous disregard of Bareil's life is hard to watch after a while.  Here she truly becomes a villain, a role she'd been flirting with since she debuted at the end of the first season, but one she embraces with seeming relish during the course of the episode, without ever looking back.  She never really regains a sense of the ambiguity that otherwise defines the series around her.  That would probably, more than anything, explain why it's hard to give an episode like this my full support.  Like Bashir, I stand in horror of it.

If there's anything standing in the way of all that, it's the B-story, which features Jake Sisko standing in equal horror of his friend Nog, as if he's just discovered that Nog is a Ferengi.  It's a turning point for them, too.  They'd never be the mischievous friends who were such a defining aspect of the early seasons again.  This is the point where Nog begins to turn his life around, the start of another season arc.  It seems only fitting.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Stands in the great tradition of Star Trek medical dilemmas.
• series - Seems a little out of step with the rest of the series.
• character - Still, features strong material for Bashir and Nog.
• essential - It's a turning point for them, a true defining moment.

notable guest-stars:
Louise Fletcher (Winn)
Philip Anglim (Bareil)
Aron Eisenberg (Nog)

Deep Space Nine 3x12 "Past Tense, Part 2"

rating: ****

the story: Sisko and Bashir must figure out how Gabriel Bell originally resolved the historic hostage crisis that helped end the oppressive Sanctuary Districts.

what it's all about: The second part of the story is obviously the resolution, but it also serves to emphasize the significance and impact of "Past Tense" as a whole.  Technically, Gabriel Bell is a character we barely glimpsed last time.  We spend this episode with Sisko posing as Gabriel Bell, and yet for any fan of the series, this becomes an iconic name.  So does B.C., the guy who antagonizes him every step of the way, the guy who makes it so easy to believe all the assumptions that made the Sanctuary Districts possible.  Which is to say, why it's so easy to believe stereotypes, believe whatever you want to believe, the worst of everything, without even needing someone like B.C. to confirm it for you.  He becomes a convenient excuse.  But there's Sisko/Gabriel Bell, fighting that idea tooth and nail, summoning all his great abilities, but mostly his humanity, to end the cycle of oppression we find it so easy to impose on ourselves.  (I write this particular review days after the election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States.  The irony of this is not lost on me.)

If the first part of the story spelled everything out, the second part is about realizing that the first part wasn't kidding around.  The desperation of the hostage crisis, which in and of itself is a fairly common trope in storytelling, is amplified by its context, not merely the desperation of an isolated individual or even criminals, but the fight for positive change.  If this seems like wishful thinking, so be it.  That's Star Trek in a nutshell, which always put forth the theory that the path to radical change involved radical events, such a third world war.  Actually, in a lot of ways "Past Tense" might be viewed as a dramatic retelling of the classic episode "Mirror, Mirror," in which change comes about because someone finally took a moral stance on an immoral situation.  That both happen to feature characters literally ripped away from their own realities and forced into nightmarish scenarios is merely a quirk of fate, like the rest of it.

But "Past Tense" may best be understood as the clearest statement of the third season on the nature of Sisko's leadership, of Sisko himself, who stakes a personal claim on the battles he wishes to win.  In the later Dominion War it became personal because the enemy literally beat at his doorstep.  Here he willingly internalizes someone else's struggle, regardless of the possible consequences to himself.  That goes beyond the impulsive heroics of Kirk, the intellect Picard usually employed, the sheer willpower of Janeway, or fearlessness of Archer.  This is not so say he was better than any of them, but this speaks to why Deep Space Nine came to mean something more to its fans, why it remains a cult within a cult.  It has uncommon courage, both in storytelling and characterization.  It wasn't afraid to make a stand.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - The social element, again.
• series - The characterization.
• character - Of Sisko, chiefly.
• essential - It's a classic.

notable guest-stars:
Frank Military (B.C.)
Clint Howard

Deep Space Nine 3x11 "Past Tense, Part 1"

rating: ****

the story: Sisko, Bashir, and Dax end up in early 21st century San Francisco, where they are confronted with the horrors of the Sanctuary Districts.

what it's all about: If it sometimes seems I express the merits of Deep Space Nine with excessive hyperbole, I want you to understand that nothing could be further from the truth with the breakthrough two-part "Past Tense."  This is the "City on the Edge of Forever" of thfranchisee Next Generation era.  It's brilliant, timeless social commentary that's still very much relevant today, when we're still grappling with issues of economic equality, brought home in the most deliberate manner when Sisko must assume the identity of the man who's not only destined to play a huge role in the historic moment everyone realizes change is necessary, but is also destined to die in the effort...

Talk about desperate straits!  Star Trek at its best almost should be preachy.  It's one of the few creative outlets that actively embraces, not merely on an occasional basis, but as a general rule, the need to advocate for a better tomorrow, even the newer movies that tend to be dismissed as generic action vehicles despite being anything but.  But being preachy and actually earning it are two different things.  At its worst, the franchise's efforts could be considered a little on the nose, but "Past Tense" is a deliberate, considerate contemplation on poverty and how easy it can be to dismiss it as a necessary evil of a functioning society. 

This was one of the rare instances where Star Trek visited the present, well almost the present, so that there could be no mistaking because of the way people were dressed that it was addressing the here and now.  The first part of the story is all set-up, of course, and finds its best material as Sisko and Bashir struggle to understand what's happened, and just how significant everything is.  There may be a level of convenience built into the story, but that shouldn't distract you from its impact.

Besides, the fun really begins next episode...

criteria analysis:

• franchise - The best tradition of Star Trek's social conscience.
• series - It's hard to imagine another series doing something quite this deep.
• character - Fun fact!  Alexander Siddig was originally considered for the role of Sisko.
• essential - One of the best episodes of the whole franchise.

notable guest-stars:
Frank Military (B.C.)

Deep Space Nine 3x10 "Fascination"

rating: ***

the story: Lwaxana Troi's visit unleashes a lot of awkward romantic confessions...

what it's all about: "Fascination" is one of those episodes that could have been a disaster.  If it had been done in the first season, it would have been a disaster.  In fact, it looks almost exactly like a first season episode, except the third season saw such an advanced understanding of the series, this would have been very hard to accomplish.  So while it's something of a farce, "Fascination" also happens to have the distinction of being grounded thoroughly in the lore of Deep Space Nine, with a lot of interesting and fruitful observations to make.

The presence of Lwaxana is itself a notable aspect of the episode, even though it serves in that regard as somewhat trivial compared to the two other episodes of this series she appears in ("The Forsaken" and "The Muse"), she at least helps Odo realize that he has feelings for Kira, which is crucial to the whole series arc for both of them.  For the rest of the episode, Lwaxana is a glorified McGuffin, the magical reason why everyone's acting strangely.

So let's put her aside.  There's also Bareil, the normally stuffy, repressed Bajoran love interest of Kira, who joins everyone else in the complicated tangle mentioned in the story summary above.  But it gets better!  There's Jake Sisko admitting he loves Kira, which is one of the most hilarious things the series ever did, and because this is how complicated things get, Kira's too busy kissing Bashir to really notice (Alexander Siddig and Nana Visitor were married for a time after this; must have been terrible days on set!).  And so on.

But the real meat of the episode, it turns out, is O'Brien and Keiko continuing to hash out the status of their relationship, which was a recurring element of the season.  While everyone else is worried about whether or not they're being honest, these two are agonizing over very real concerns, and it grounds the whole thing nicely.  That and a look at Bajorans celebrating one of their favorite holidays, one of the few times a holiday is celebrated at all in Star Trek lore.

"Fascination" is indeed fascinating.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - This one looks like a typical anything goes farce you'll find elsewhere.
• series - But it's another one perfectly grounded in Deep Space Nine logic.
• character - Good character work all around, especially for the O'Briens.
• essential - I'll stop short of calling it a classic, because it points more than it leads.

notable guest-stars:
Majel Roddenberry (Lwaxana Troi)
Philip Anglim (Bareil)
Rosalind Chao (Keiko)
Hana Hatae (Molly)

Deep Space Nine 3x9 "Defiant"

rating: ****

the story: Thomas Riker returns and defects to the Maquis.

what it's all about: One of the most unique crossover episodes in all of franchise lore, the transporter duplicate Thomas Riker from Next Generation's "Second Chances" returns, having once and for all decided the course of his own destiny, and it's one of the great Maquis episodes.

The Maquis were created for Voyager, and set up in Next Generation's "Preemptive Strike" and Deep Space Nine's own two-part "The Maquis," from the previous season.  In a lot of ways, "Defiant" is exactly the same story, but improved a thousand-fold, addressing the problem of trying to tell a story like this with an entirely new character, and even restating Dukat's role in it.  This time, as with the rest of the third season, he's so well understood, "Defiant" is as much his episode as Riker's, and even Sisko's.  That it works for them plus Kira, it's an episode that fires on so many cylinders, of course it's a classic.  There's just no question about that.

Much like Next Generation's "Chain of Command Part 2," it's also a peak into Cardassian culture, as the crisis of Riker's hijacking the eponymous ship causes Dukat to miss a crucial birthday celebration.  Dukat musing on how his son will react is a classic moment in and of itself, and it's another moment you see an alien culture becomes fully three-dimensional, a depth that was fast becoming a trademark of the series thanks to material like this.  While Dukat expresses his incredulity over this and other alarming developments (some of which is set-up for later episodes, "Improbable Cause" and "The Die is Cast," which earlier Garak material had also worked toward; this was the true beginning of serialized storytelling in the series), Sisko is witness to all of this, demonstrating his grace under pressure, his command ability, and his willingness to cooperate with anyone.  If you ever wondered how he stacks up with the leads from other Star Treks, this is a good episode to watch.

But this is really Riker's episode, and Kira's.  In his previous appearance, Thomas is merely a reflection of what Will Riker used to be.  "Defiant" finds himself as his own person, with all the complications therein.  While he's once again grappling with the notions of legacy, this time he's taking an active role, making his own decisions, forging his own convictions.  But Kira questions him at every turn.  This is her reflecting on past lives, too.  She knows what this sort of thing looks like, and wonders if Riker is making these decisions out of conviction or desperation.  Which she knows about, too.  She helps guide him into harder decisions, brave ones.

It's a bold episode, completely indicative of the best of Deep Space Nine.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - If this were the Avengers movies, this is a moment you'd really love.
• series - But as much as it's relevant to the greater franchise, it's also important to the series.
• character - Focuses on four different characters.
• essential - Brilliantly.

notable guest-stars:
Jonathan Frakes (Thomas Riker)
Marc Alaimo (Dukat)
Tricia O'Neil

Deep Space Nine 3x7 "Civil Defense"

rating: ****

the story: A old Cardassian security program is accidentally triggered, endangering everyone in the station.

what it's all about: I consider this one of my favorite episodes, perhaps a little unreasonably so, much like "Conundrum" from Next Generation, a story that's so ridiculously clever and exceptionally executed, you can overlook the fact that it's a pretty throwaway experience in the grand scheme.  Although in that regard, its singular nature is right in line with classic episodic Star Trek storytelling, just not in the ways fans tend to think about it. 

It's also a kind of reintroduction of Gul Dukat, a character who had made a few appearances in the early seasons, but who hadn't really distinguished himself from other Cardassians who had appeared in Deep Space Nine or Next Generation yet.  "Civil Defense" defines his charismatic arrogance to a "t."  He's such a unique character in franchise lore, almost as if Q were mortal instead of insufferably all-powerful, but not really interested in what other people think about him despite how he can sometimes pretend otherwise.  Q's insatiable need for approval was the secret underlying fact about him, something I bet few fans realize even now, but not just his relationship with Picard, but even the later one with Janeway, betrays this over and over again.  There's no reason at all for Q to care about either of them, except he needs their acceptance, something he never gets from the Q Continuum, for example.  Humanity's ability to look at his meddling with irony intrigues him.

But why am I going on and on about Q in an episode that doesn't even feature him, in a series that featured him once, and failed to establish any such connection as I was just talking about?  Because of Dukat, of course, and the irony of the situation he finds himself in, which takes a "Disaster" (Next Generation) scenario and grounds it thoroughly in series lore, something that by the third season had become a trademark of Deep Space Nine, and in Dukat finds its best material.

Watching the station turn on everyone is fun enough (no, really!), but when Dukat shows up and then realizes he'd actually programmed the defense subroutines to ignore his attempts to disable it, thereby putting him in the same jeopardy as everyone else...It's classic.  It turns a good episode into a great one.  You don't even need to know where the character goes later in the series, his overall significance, to enjoy his role in "Civil Defense."  In a way, it's an allegory for failing to realize the traps we set for ourselves in our limited thinking, which we do all the time.  But even Q frequently got himself into trouble.

But I'll mention "Conundrum" one more time.  Like "Civil Defense" it's all about taking what we normally take for granted, the regular operations of the crew, and throws it into delicious chaos.  Reason enough to love both of them, really.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Harkens back to fond memories of other episodes.
• series - But embedded directly in its own surrounding material.
• character - Turns into a terrific character study of Dukat.
• essential - Manages to introduce him all over again, like the whole season a new starting point.

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

Deep Space Nine 3x6 "The Abandoned"

rating: **

the story: The station inadvertently becomes home to a Jem'Hadar youth.

what it's all about: A bit like the Next Generation classic "I, Borg," "The Abandoned" unexpectedly introduces sympathy for the devil via an innocent.  But the comparisons end there.  Where "I, Borg" was a stark contrast to every other Borg appearance (until Voyager's Seven of Nine, of course), "Abandoned" actually introduces a lot of interesting wrinkles, many of which would be improved upon later, to the concept of the Dominion.

This was still early in the existence of the Dominion in the series, mind you, and so "Abandoned" is also kind of a cheat and/or placeholder until someone decided just how far the story would really go.  Where "I, Borg" felt momentous (even if followed up poorly in the "Descent" two-parter), "Abandoned" in retrospect feels like it doesn't really belong in the greater arc except as a matter of convenience to establish a few basic elements of Dominion lore. 

As the first manifestation of the Dominion, the Jem'Hadar were immediately presented as formidable warriors, the first true rivals to the Klingons for this class in Star Trek lore (this wouldn't go unnoticed later, trust me), but they were also instantly presented as virtually interchangeable, guided in all things either by the Vorta or Founders.  In fact, "Abandoned" begins to establish just how guided, whether by genetic engineering or drug addiction (an interesting social commentary I'm not sure the series ever really did enough with).

But the real benefit of the whole experience is what all this has to do with Odo.  As established in the two-part "Search" season opener, Odo's people are the Founders, and as such anyone from the Dominion has to defer to Odo or risk offending their "gods."  (Deep Space Nine's commentaries on religion, begun with the Bajorans, are thus ratcheted up an impressive degree.)  The rebellious Jem'Hadar youth can only be contained in his violent impulses by Odo, which actually makes this more of an Odo episode than an exploration of the Dominion.

Where it fails is, again, because it exists in a vacuum, because the Jem'Hadar youth really has no useful direction to go at the end of the episode except to disappear and never be seen again (which is actually a shame, and one of the great missed opportunities of a series that had few of them).  Why this happened in the third season rather than the first or second is only because the creators only thought of it then.  Otherwise it's an almost embarrassingly random event that's otherwise not indicative of how Deep Space Nine tended to work.

The perhaps better element of the episode is the B-story, in which Jake begins to exert himself by introducing Sisko to his risqué Bajoran girlfriend, who works at Quark's bar.  It's a hilariously awkward subplot that shows how much better the series had gotten at exploring this unique father-and-son duo, and actually does everything the main story did but, well, better.  A good setup for the later-in-the-season classic "Explorers."

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Superficial similarities to "I, Borg" not worth totally acknowledging.
• series - It does establish some useful things about the Dominion.
• character - It's a good way to further establish Odo's odd relationship with the Dominion, too.
• essential - But all of this would be done better later ("Treachery, Faith, and the Great River").

notable guest-stars:
Bumper Robinson