6-6. Sacrifice of Angels.

Sisko engages in a desperate battle!

"Cannon to the right of them,
Cannon to the left of them,
Cannon in front of them,
Volley'd an thunder'd."

"Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the Jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred."
-O'Brien and Bashir, reciting the last poem you want to hear when charging into battle.


THE PLOT:

Sisko's fleet, already short its full strength because of the need to rush the attack on Deep Space 9, has come face to face with a Dominion blockade that outnumbers them two-to-one. Sisko attempts to create a hole by sending fighters against the Cardassian forces, in hopes that they will become angry and chase their attackers. It's a strategy that plays right into Gul Dukat's hands. He sees his adversary's plan and obliges by creating the hole, with the intent to close it hard. Sisko recognizes Dukat's strategy in turn - but the clock is ticking, and this may be the only opportunity that presents itself, so he takes the bait anyway - Willfully sending his entire attack force into a trap that may well destroy them all!

On the station, Dukat and Weyoun begin planning for the sustained occupation that will follow their all-but-assured victory. Dukat orders the arrest all those he suspects of conspiring to sabotage his plans: Kira, Jake, and Leeta. But no one spares a thought for Quark, who seizes the opportunity for some surprisingly strong action of his own.

All of which may be for naught, as Sisko's forces are crushed, the Defiant only barely clearing the blockade. Rom and Kira race to stop the efforts to bring down the minefield, as the Defiant races to Deep Space 9. But as that ruthless clock keeps ticking, Sisko turns for help in an unanticipated direction...


CHARACTERS:

Capt. Sisko: The episode opens with him commanding a fleet, but only the Defiant is able to make it through the blockade. The episode opens with the Dominion still blocked by the minefield surrounding the wormhole - but that minefield is being steadily disabled. Left with nothing but one ship, Sisko makes his most desperate plea of all, one whose cost will be very steep - particularly seen in light of Sisko's words about Bajor in the last episode.

Odo: Odo finally gets back off the fence, thanks to Kira. Not because of anything she does here - but when the female changeling announces that Kira will be executed, just to cut off her influence with Odo, it completes what started at the end of Favor the Bold. Odo now recognizes that however much he may hunger for the Great Link, he cannot support his people's actions. He does not want to subjugate the Solids, and he will not allow Kira's death. He gathers together his security force - the Bajoran officers he convinced Weyoun to restore to him in A Time to Stand - and uses them to make sure Kira and Rom are able to break through the Jem'Hadar guarding the area of the station they hope to sabotage. When Kira asks why, he answers both for his original betrayal and for his coming to her rescue now: "The Link was Paradise. But it appears I'm not ready for Paradise."

Quark: With Kira and the others arrested, he is the only one left on the station who can take action. He enlists Ziyal's aid and stages a commando raid on the cells. Quark bursts in, a gun in either hand, looking like he just stepped out of a summer action movie - only in a script that recognizes the ridiculousness of the cliche. Some mild comedy follows, as Quark tells the Jem'Hadar guards to freeze, then unlock the cells, and then has to tell one of them to un-freeze so that the second order can actually be followed. Eventually, they charge - and Quark looks ready to have a heart attack after he pulls both triggers, and actually hits both targets!

Damar: In Seasons Four and Five, I largely dismissed Damar as a minor extension of Dukat. Starting with Call to Arms, and building in earnest since Behind the Lines, he has emerged as a strong character in his own right. He is loyal to Dukat, but more rigid than his mentor. He sees the world in black-and-white. Dukat gives a command, it must be obeyed - Hence, his attempt to forcibly drag Ziyal to him.  In the face of an obstacle, he falls back on force as a first resort... But he's not a dumb thug, or else he would not have figured out how to deactivate Rom's minefield to start with. When it's clear the Federation is about to retake the station and Dukat calls once again for his daughter, he instantly recognizes the truth: That Ziyal will not choose to leave. But his black-and-white view and propensity for violence leads to a shocking action, one that makes sure that Damar is not a character I will ever dismiss again.

Weyoun: Throughout this season, he's been presented as the person keeping Dukat in check. In A Time to Stand, Kira and Odo acknowledged his importance in restraining the Cardassians from mistreating Bajor or its people. He has been the voice of reason and diplomacy. But it's tactical rather than benevolent; when tactics call for ruthlessness, it's no surprise to see him advocating it. When talk shifts from winning the war to holding the territory, he eyes a star map with a clinical eye and calmly insists that Earth's population must be eradicated to break their enemies' will and spirit. This reverses what has been the standard relationship of the two men, with Dukat now trying to curb Weyoun's ruthlessness rather than the other way around.

Gul Dukat: "A true victory is to make your enemy see they were wrong to oppose you in the first place. To force them to acknowledge your greatness." So Dukat intones to Weyoun, giving both the Vorta and us a direct look into the way his mind works. In Dukat's mind, he is a hero - More than that, a savior. But it's not enough simply to win - Everyone else must see him as he so desperately wants to see himself, or else the victory is meaningless. In his mind's eye, he sees it all: The Alpha Quadrant at his feet as he enjoys the adulation of not only Cardassia, but of Bajor and Earth as well, all with his adoring daughter at his side. In the span of about ten minutes, he goes from touching with his fingertips the edges of that dream, to watching it be irrevocably destroyed before his eyes. What is left is broken, leaving Sisko no real sense of victory when he reclaims his prized baseball - Merely a sort of disgusted pity at this shell of a man, beaten less by his enemies than by the crushing weight of his own ego.


THOUGHTS:

Sacrifice of Angels does not finish the Dominion War arc. Starfleet is still in a hard situation, particularly with the heavy losses suffered in this episode at the hands of the Dominion blockade. The Dominion still hold Cardassia, and they still have enormous resources at their disposal. Starfleet has finally won a battle, and a big one - but the war is far from over.

This episode does finish the Occupation of Deep Space 9, however, and does so in spectacular fashion. The battle scenes are large-scale and chaotic. As Sisko throws his fleet at the blockade, exploding ships punctuate every frame - most of those ships, Starfleet's. I love the way the episode treats the strategies of Sisko and Dukat in this battle. Neither man outthinks the other. Dukat recognizes Sisko's strategy, and orders his men to take the bait in order to set a trap. Sisko recognizes Dukat's trap, but orders the fleet to take the bait because it may be their only opporunity. Since Dukat is not diminished, being shown as Sisko's equal in strategic terms, Sisko's ultimate victory feels much more deserved.

Marc Alaimo's performance as Dukat has been a consistent series highlight, ever since the character evolved from "recurring villain" to 3-dimensional character back in early Season Two. This episode lets him run the gamut, from absolute arrogance to absolute ruin. Alaimo is stunning throughout, and in a very real sense it is Dukat who holds this episode together. It's a testament to Alaimo's performance, every bit the equal of the richly complex character Dukat has become, that I find at least as much tragedy as satisfaction in the moment at which Dukat's relinquishes of Sisko's baseball to him, officially handing him back the station.

The entire episode is stunning. I'm sure some have taken issue with the way in which Sisko regains the station. But I found that to work as well, a way of tying what has largely been background mythology for the series into the foreground arc. And we are told that Sisko's victory will come at a price - Something I look forward to seeing delivered on.


Overall Rating: 10/10.

Previous Episode: Favor the Bold
Next Episode: You Are Cordially Invited

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6-5. Favor the Bold.

Sisko prepares to re-take Deep Space Nine!

THE PLOT:

The war is not going well for Starfleet, which keeps pulling back and retreating in the face of the Dominion forces. Dax complains that even the Klingons are starting to wonder if this war is winnable. A big victory is needed to restore morale. Sisko has just the target in mind: A bold strike that will retake Deep Space 9!

Back on the station, Quark and Kira try desperately to save Rom after his arrest for attempted sabotage. Orders left by the female changeling (Salome Jens) make it impossible for them to see Odo, and Weyoun insists that Rom must be executed, as much for making the self-replicating minefield possible in the first place as for attempting to halt efforts to bring it down. Kira prevails on Gul Dukat's daughter, Ziyal (Melanie Smith), to beg her father for a pardon - but Dukat flatly refuses, insisting that enemies of the state must be punished.  Barring a miracle, Rom's fate appears sealed.

Bad news becomes worse when a test of Damar (Casey Biggs)'s plan to deactivate the mines proves successful, and work to bring down the minefield begins in earnest. If all goes according to the Dominion's plan, the wormhole will be clear within a week - And the full force of the Dominion will be ready to come through!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Sisko: "When I go home, it will be to Bajor." The Sisko who was so reluctant to take the assignment to Deep Space 9 and who hated having the role of "Emissary" thrust upon him has transformed remarkably over the last five years. He now pores over Bajoran prophecies, hoping for some guidance, and muses about taking a couple weeks in a Bajoran monastery after the war is over. He directly states that Bajor is his home, extolling its virtues with poetic descriptiveness: "There are parts of the Eastern Province that are like Eden itself: Lush green valleys covered in wild flowers that seem to spring up overnight; hundreds of small, crystal clear ponds interconnected by waterfalls."

Major Kira: She is furious at Odo for his betrayal. Every time Quark pins his hopes for saving his brother on reaching Odo, she shoots him down: They can't reach Odo because of orders left by the female changeling; and even if they could, she insists it would make no difference. That same anger drives her through the rest of the episode. She is impatient when Ziyal insists that, now that she recognizes Dukat for what he is, she will never go back to him; and when Damar pushes her one time too many, she lets loose all the violence she's been holding back for months now, leaving the Cardassian battered and bruised, and saying that it will be up to him what happens next.

Quark: For all his years of mocking and mistreatment toward his brother, Quark is determined to save Rom from his death sentence. That his faith in Odo remains strong even when Kira's has been shattered speaks volumes about the genuine regard he has for his sometime nemesis, making this a key Quark/Odo episode even though the two don't share a second of screen time. Quark is too shrewd to let his concern be public knowledge, however, and he continues to play the mercenary Ferengi for Damar, using prodigious amounts of kanar as lubrication to keep the flow of information coming.

Odo: Has sex with the female changeling to demonstrate the solids' notion of intimacy. She reacts with amusement at how limited it is, and is surprised that Odo doesn't agree. When she gets a bit over-vehement in pronouncing that the solids must be broken of their attachment to their freedom, Odo recovers enough of himself to see her for what she is - Though his awakening comes too late for Kira to even listen to his attempted apology.

Weyoun: In an effective quiet moment, we see Weyoun musing over one of Ziyal's paintings. He looks at it from every angle, as if willing himself to see it. When Kira walks in, he reveals that the Founders kept all sense of the aesthetic out of the Vorta's genetic makeup, likely finding it irrelevant. He reacts hotly to Kira's suggestion that the Founders "made a mistake," but wistfully acknowledges that he sometimes wishes he could carry a tune.

Gul Dukat: Though he adores his daughter, a virtue even Kira will acknowledge, there is something dangerous in the way he demands to know if she had anything to do with Rom's attempted sabotage. When she asks for mercy for the Ferengi, he instantly suspects some culpability on her part and does not believe her when she (truthfully) pleads innocence. He does, at least, trust Kira to protect Ziyal's welfare. When Damar comes back from his attempt to retrieve the girl having sustained a beating by the major, Dukat knows that his man must have stepped out of line in some way.


THOUGHTS:

Favor the Bold opens with action, as an apparently cripped Defiant braces itself for a Jem'Hadar attack, only to pull a bait-and-switch on the Jem'Hadar and trap them with practiced efficiency. It's a teaser that grabs the viewer right away - desperate action, followed by a subversion of expectations. The entire episode takes a cue from that, building momentum throughout.

As with Behind the Lines, there are two main plot strands: Sisko, preparing an assault on Deep Space 9; and Kira and Quark, desperate both to save Rom and to stop the deactivation of the minefield. The Kira/Quark thread is the stronger: Kira's situation, having to work with the enemy while also trying to undermine them, is just inherently more dramatic, and her constant anger in this episode adds a wonderful additional level. But the Sisko material is also quite good, as we see just how thoroughly he has thought through his proposed attack, bringing all of his determination to bear to secure the agreement of Starfleet and its sole remaining ally.

Writer Ira Steven Behr and Hans Beimler even manage to adroitly connect the two strands. Learning that the minefield's deactivation is imminent, Kira and Quark manage to smuggle a message to Sisko (in one of the more plot-relevant and amusing uses of Morn). This pushes Sisko to initiate the attack before all of his forces are gathered. The episode ends with Sisko leading an incomplete fleet into battle against a vastly superior force, all because time has left no other option.

"To all ships, this is Captain Sisko. There's an old saying: 'Fortune favors the bold.' Well, I guess we're about to find out."


Overall Rating: 9/10.

Previous Episode: Behind the Lines
Next Episode: Sacrifice of Angels

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5-26. Call to Arms.

Deep Space 9 under attack!

THE PLOT

The Dominion is preparing for war.

This has been true for some time, but now it seems imminent. Convoys of Dominion warships are coming through the wormhole on a weekly basis, further reinforcing their already strong presence in Cardassian space. More and more Alpha Quadrant governments are signing non-aggression pacts with the Dominion, with the Romulans the newest addition to a growing list. If this continues, Sisko knows, the Dominion will become unstoppable. So he orders his crew to mine the wormhole; and when Odo protests that this could start a war, he acknowledges as much but points out that they are "losing the peace."

Rom comes up with a plan to create cloaked, self-replicating mines to prevent the Dominion from simply vaporizing the minefield from the mouth of the wormhole, and Dax and O'Brien are quickly able to make that idea into a reality. But the Defiant has barely begun the painstaking work of laying the mines before the Dominion learns of their plans. Weyoun comes to the station, for once devoid of grins or patter. He is there to deliver an ultimatum:

"Either you remove the mines, or we will take this station from you and remove them ourselves!"


CHARACTERS

Capt. Sisko: Lives up to his role as the Emissary by endorsing the non-aggression pact between Bajor and the Dominion. As he confessed to Kai Winn in the previous episode, and repeats to Kira in this one, the Federation cannot guarantee Bajor's safety. The only way to protect the planet and its recovery is to keep it out of the fight. Left to hold off the Dominion with limited resources, Sisko relies on tactics and surprises. He orders Martok to warn him when the Dominion but not to engage until he gives the word. He uses the station's upgraded defenses to engage the enemy while the Defiant finishes the minefield. And he prepares a final surprise to avoid anything useful being left on the station - along with a last message for Gul Dukat. Avery Brooks is superb throughout, and his expression at the end of the episode is genuinely, frighteningly fierce.

Kira/Odo: Have been avoiding each other ever since the revelations of Children of Time - which would have been nice to actually see, given that their only interaction since (in Blaze of Glory) seemed entirely friendly and comfortable. Here, the awkwardness is obvious - though much alleviated once Odo reassures her that he will make no move to change the nature of their relationship, at least not until after the crisis has past. Kira visibly relaxes, and Odo cannot help but make an ironic observation about how comforting it is to only have to deal with imminent war, rather than a (gasp) relationship crisis. They are once again firmly established as a team at the episode's close; and where things leave off, they will probably need to rely on each other quite a bit over the next season.

Rom: The episode's limited "B" plot sees Rom and Leeta finally get married... Something Rom frets over even as he works with the station's command staff to make the minefield work. A very amusing scene sees Rom switching between random wedding jitters and brilliant solutions to the problems posed by the minefield: One sentence of "Rom the Idiot," followed immediately by one sentence of "Rom the Engineering Genius," and back again. It works, thanks equally to Max Grodenchik's delivery and his co-stars' nonplussed reactions as he basically solves all of their problems as an afterthought!

Weyoun: A false and smarmy good cheer has marked Weyoun's every appearance to date - which makes it all the more effective when he arrives in this episode, still and humorless and entirely determined to get his way. The scene between Weyoun and Sisko is masterful, as each man first tries to intimidate each other, then goes through the hollow motions of a diplomacy both recognize as pointless before leaving to prepare for battle. Weyoun is equally firm with Dukat. When the Cardassian wants to attack Bajor, noting that Cardassia did not sign a non-aggression treaty, weyoun has to remind him very firmly that as a part of the Dominion, he is bound by their treaties. Weyoun jerks Dukat's leash a second time, at the end, reminding him that the Dominion's highest priority is not the station but the minefield Sisko has left to block further reinforcements.

Garak: Muses about how, when the Klingons attacked Deep Space 9, he and Gul Dukat fought side by side. "At one point, he turned his back to me - And I must to admit that, for a moment, he made a very tempting target." When Odo asks if Garak regrets not killing Dukat, he replies bluntly: "Before this day is over, everyone on this station is going to regret it."

Gul Dukat: From his perspective, the assault on Deep Space 9 is simply re-taking that which is rightly his. He wants to push on to Bajor, as well, and Weyoun has to remind him that Bajor's non-aggression pact with the Dominion is binding. This scene and others show signs that Dukat is starting to resent taking orders from Weyoun and the Dominion. I suspect he's already looking for weaknesses, since a man like Dukat isn't going to be satisfied serving under an outsider's rule for very long...


THOUGHTS

The fifth season draws to a close as the Cold War with the Dominion, which has built up over the past three seasons, finally erupts. In a big way, too. Deep Space 9 has consistently raised the bar on Trek combat sequences.  The Die Is Cast was the biggest space combat scene yet seen in televised Trek (or a lot of movie Trek for that matter); The Way of the Warrior was bigger.

The combat sequence that makes up the last third of this episode makes both of those look almost small by comparison. The station is under attack by an unstoppable force, and the effects work and editing allow us to see Deep Space 9 as a small speck engulfed by a locust-like cloud of enemy ships. Jay Chattaway's excellent score, the editing, and most importantly the context built up by the carefully-constructed script all combine to make the scene as desperate and exciting as the situation demands.

What really makes the battle so effective is the groundwork laid by the first two-thirds. Stalwarts Ira Steven Behr and Robert Hewitt Wolfe take time to make sure we understand the stakes, and create a scenario where it's entirely believable that Deep Space 9 has been left to deal alone with this overwhelming force. The script also finds plenty of time for human moments: Rom's wedding jitters, and his insistence on watching out for his brother; Odo and Kira, agreeing to avoid exploring any romance until after the crisis has past; Quark, smuggling in Cardassian yamok sauce in preparation for the station's inevitable fall; Sisko reflecting on how the place he hated to be assigned to has become a home he hates to leave. This is done consistently: A big scene establishing the larger situation, a small scene showing how individuals react to it. We get to see the larger tapestry while at the same time viewing several of the individual threads.

The battle itself is splendid, but even better are the closing scenes. The last part of the episode acts as an epilogue to the combat, and it also sets the stage for next season. The characters are scattered, each becoming ready to fight his or her own part of the war that has officially begun. Some will work from behind enemy lines; some will fight on the front lines; others will stay with the main fleet to help coordinate. It's a tantalizing set-up, one which leaves me eagerly anticipating the season to come.

The final three shots could each have served as a memorable ending shot: Gul Dukat, pondering the message Sisko has left for him; Sisko, seeming to give a glare that can cut through light years to reach his nemesis; and the actual final shot, of an enormous joint Starfleet/Klingon fleet. Two nations that had been at war at the start of this season, now firmer allies than ever as they prepare to face the most formidable foe they have ever encountered.

Any one of the three shots would be a fantastic closing. But what's even more impressive is how each builds upon the one before, until the slow fade to black that leaves you desperate for the next installment.


Overall Rating: 10/10.

Previous Episode: In the Cards
Next Episode: A Time to Stand

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