Thoughts on Season Six.

Starfleet prepares for what might be its final battle.

Deep Space 9's fifth season ended with the start of the Dominion War. Deep Space 9 fell under Dominion control, with Gul Dukat once again in command - though facing a promise from Sisko to return. This season ends with the station back in Starfleet control, but with the war still raging and victory far from assured. Along the way, two major characters die, another is changed forever, and the series generally continues to raise its already very high stakes.


"IT IS THE ORDER OF THINGS": WAGING WAR

I complained in Season Five that Apocalypse Rising too easily resolved the Starfleet/Klingon conflict within the space of just one episode. This season does not repeat that mistake. Sisko retakes the station... but only after a run of six episodes, in which all the characters face trials. The Founders offer Odo everything he ever wanted, and he briefly falls to that temptation. Kira finds herself in another Occupation, this time as the very type of collaborator she has always despised. Sisko leads an assault knowing full well that most of those following him will not survive, and even that isn't enough - He's ultimately forced to be not a Starfleet officer, but the Emissary, confronting the Prophets and pushing them to intervene.

That intervention wins Sisko back his station, but it doesn't end the war. Just a few episodes later, Dr. Bashir and a group of emotionally damaged geniuses deliver the devastating news that it is mathematically impossible for Starfleet to win this war. Throughout the season, we see people reading casualty counts, and watch the regulars grow quieter and more isolated as they learn of the losses of people they knew. Planets fall to the Dominion, and only a desperate deception by Sisko is enough to put the enemy on the defensive.

The season ends with Sisko choosing to be a Starfleet officer instead of the Emissary - the exact opposite of the choice that won him back the station. The personal cost to him is devastating, and he fails as a Starfleet officer at the same time. Even though the season finale portrays what should be a major Starfleet victory, it feels like a defeat - and ends with the sense that the hardest part is still to come...

In the Pale Moonlight: Sisko is haunted by difficult
choices in the season (and maybe the series)'s best episode.

"THE MOST DAMNING THING OF ALL? I THINK I CAN LIVE WITH IT": THE CHARACTERS

Deep Space 9 has never shied from putting its characters through the wringer, but Season Six is even more unforgiving to the regulars than previous years. Feeling depressed and powerless, Sisko experiences a vision of life as an African-American writer in the 1950's, getting a taste of true powerlessness. A few episodes later, he resolves to bring the Romulans into the war on Starfleet's side - but to do so means compromising everything he believes in... And at the end of the episode, he decides that the price was worth it.

Meanwhile, Kira learns that everything she learned about her mother as a stalwart member of the Resistance was a lie.  The Orb of Time reveals her mother to have been a woman who willingly became Gul Dukat's mistress in exchange for comfort for herself and food for her family. Kira probably only survived her childhood because of her mother's actions - but by her own strict code, Kira can only view her as a collaborator. This is only about half a season after she wrestles with fears that she has herself become a collaborator for urging Bajor not to resist the Dominion.

Odo is not only tempted by the female changeling (Salome Jens) - He gives into that temptation, betraying his friends. He snaps out of it when the female changeling overplays her hand by threatening to execute Kira. But that doesn't change his actions at the time, without which Sisko's appeal to the Prophets would have been unnecessary.

The characters are tested repeatedly through the season, and they don't always pass their tests. Or - as with Sisko's gambit to bring the Romulans into the war at a steep moral cost - it's left open to debate as to whether the choices made were right or wrong... Or wrong but sadly necessary.

Profite & Lace: Quark gets in touch with his
feminine side in the series's most notorious episode.

"HOPE AND DESPAIR WALK ARM IN ARM": QUALITY CONTROL

Season Six opens with a stunning run of episodes. The weakest installment of the first seven is Sons and Daughters, which suffers from a weak plot, but remains watchable thanks to good character material. So of the first seven episodes - more than a quarter of the season - the weakest episode is "okay," and the remainder vary between very good and outstanding.

It was a given that the entire season wasn't going to keep up that level. Once the Dominion Occupation is resolved, the season returns to the series' normal hit rate - which is still pretty darn good and refreshingly varied even around the central Dominion War thread. The Magnificent Ferengi delivers one of the series' better comedy outings, followed by Waltz's redefinition of the character of Gul Dukat, followed by the enjoyable caper Who Mourns for Morn?, followed by the truly remarkable Far Beyond the Stars. All of these are good episodes, and despite their stark differences in tone and style, they all fit perfectly within the series' framework.

It's become sadly standard for the last third or so of the season to see a sharp increase in filler episodes or episodes that feel like filler, and that trend does continue in Season Six.  Change of Heart and The Reckoning should be big episodes, the first doing some important character work for Worf and Dax, the second directly laying groundwork for the season finale... but neither episode fully hits the mark, with Change of Heart feeling small and stagy, and The Reckoning deteriorating into silliness.  Time's Orphan is pure filler that feels like something left over from Season Two or Three.  And it's made all the worse by coming immediately after Profit and Lace, which may not quite have lived down to its disastrous reputation but was still a pretty bad episode.

Still, if that last bit of the season feels a bit stretched, those weaker installments become easy enough to forgive when you reach a gem like In the Pale Moonlight or Tears of the Prophets.  And a quick survey of the scores I awarded this season show that it isn't hard to find gems in Season Six.

Dax and Worf struggle to balance their
relationship with mission priorities.

"I HAVE TO MAKE THINGS RIGHT AGAIN": SEASON SEVEN WISHLIST

I'll admit: I'm worried about introducing a new Dax in Season Seven. That's not a knock on Nicole de Boer, who is both a perfectly fine actress and a likable screen presence. I just can't help but feel that it's a bit late in the day to introduce a new character - particularly when the series has so many plot and character threads to tie up. I'll keep an open mind, and I'm actively curious to see how Ezri integrates into the crew (I have never seen a single Season Seven episode)... But my instinct is that it's too late in the day to properly develop a new character and that when they killed Jadzia, they should probably have killed Dax at the same time.

Beyond that, it would seem presumptuous to have a wish list for a show that so consistently impresses me. For the most part, Season Six has felt like a series at its absolute apex. I tend to suspect Season Seven won't quite match its heights (though I'm eager to be proved wrong!). Regardless, it is breathtaking to see just how good a Star Trek show can be when it's willing to take risks and follow up on plot and character turns, rather than simply resetting everything on a weekly basis.

A wake for the fallen.

Deep Space 9 is more than just a great Star Trek series. This is one of the finest science fiction television sagas I have ever witnessed. I look forward to watching the unfolding of its final chapter.

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Thoughts on Season Five.

Deep Space 9 prepares for war.

At this point, it's become almost monotonous for me to observe that each season of Deep Space 9 has been better than the last. Season Four raised the bar quite high.  Season Five clears that bar by a considerable distance, delivering a consistently exciting series of episodes that exploits the series' strengths as it builds steadily toward a riveting conclusion.

PRELUDE TO WAR

One of the season's few disappointments is how quickly and easily the Klingon conflict is wrapped up. The Klingon hostilities dominated Season Four, but now are all but brushed away in the season premiere. Only the events of Nor the Battle to the Strong keep it from feeling like a reset - And that "reset" feeling comes right back again when encounters with Klingons through the rest of the season are just the way they were during the show's first three years.

Still, if the resolution of the Klingon thread is a disappointment, it's more than made up for by the consistent excellence of the Dominion arc. The Dominion were introduced slowly, first as a name attached to ominous whispers before being revealed as a tangible threat. Seasons Three and Four were built around that threat, with the Dominion gradually making itself a presence in the Alpha Quadrant. This enemy worked subtly, sparking conflict with the Klingons and destabilizing the Cardassian government, often as effective because of others' paranoia about their abilities as through overt action.

By Season Five, they have gained enough strength in the Alpha Quadrant to become more brazen. The Ship, only the second episode of the season, sees open conflict between Sisko's landing party and a group of Jem'Hadar. A changeling replaces Dr. Bashir, patiently spending months playing that role to perfection until the time is right to act. With the fall of the weakened Cardassia, the Dominion establishes an official foothold - and from that moment, the war that's been threatened for more than two seasons becomes an inevitability.

The season ends with the start of that war - and thanks to the Dominion's machinations, Starfleet is almost without allies. Only the Klingons, who were enemies one short year ago, fight alongside, and that's only because Sisko was able to reveal the changeling hands pulling the strings of the conflict. Had Sisko failed, or been manipulated into killing Chancellor Gowron, Starfleet would stand alone, and would be left to a choice between the indignity of surrender or the impossibility of fighting two wars simultaneously.  It took less than three years for the Dominion to evaluate the weakest threads in the Federation's tapestry of alliances, and to sever nearly every one of them to leave Starfleet in as weak a position as possible.

Odo reveals his feelings to Kira.

LEADERS, SOLDIERS, DIPLOMATS, AND TRAITORS: THE CHARACTERS

As strong as Deep Space 9 is on story, the series' greatest strength lies in its characters. Not only does this series have a large regular cast, it also has the largest retinue of recurring characters of any Trek series. Every year, I find myself more and more impressed by the show's ability to not only make use of this rich and varied ensemble, but to develop and reveal new things about each member of it.

Kira, somewhat underused in Season Four, is back to the foreground this year. The Darkness and the Light reminds us of the things she did during the Occupation, and that she remains unwavering in her belief that all of those actions were justified. The Occupation remains a button that's all too easy for someone to push to get a reaction from her, something Gul Dukat exploits ruthlessly in Ties of Blood and Water. Her friendship/non-relationship with Odo is also effective: The final scene in Things Past, the mirror image of an equally outstanding moment in Season Two's Necessary Evil, completes the circle of each seeing the worst of the other; her shock upon learning of his true feelings in Children of Time is convincing, and it being not that but the alternate Odo's actions that push her away feels exactly right.

Every character gets some terrific material: Quark's brief foray into arms dealing reveals the conscience we already knew he had; Jake experiences the horrors not only of war, but of his own fear, but is able to use the experience to push himself into writing with more honesty and courage than he had before; Bashir and Odo have dark secrets from their pasts revealed; Worf and Dax grow closer as a couple, with Soldiers of the Empire reminding us that Dax may well understand true Klingon culture (as opposed to the ideal of it) better than Worf does; and dependable, decent O'Brien is pushed into becoming a soldier once more.

That's not even mentioning the recurring characters. Dukat begins the season as an uneasy ally, a powerless exile from his own home world. He ends the season as a bitter enemy, having regained his home world by selling it out to the Alpha Quadrant's worst enemy. Kai Winn's convictions are thrown into disarray when Sisko's visions make her reevaluate her dismissal of his role as Emissary. This ruthless manipulator ends the season looking into the eyes of Weyoun, chilled at encountering someone so much colder, more calculating, and more ruthless than she is - Maybe as terrified at the glimpse of herself that she catches as of Weyoun himself. Speaking of whom, Weyoun is resurrected from the dead, in a way that manages not to feel like a cheat - And which quickly pays dividends as it takes only a few episodes for him to become one of the most entertainingly frightening adversaries the Trek universe has seen.

...Given the rich resource of these wonderful characters, exactly why didn't they try at least one Deep Space 9 movie when the TNG ones started to founder?

Odo finds, and attempts to raise, an infant Changeling.

QUALITY CONTROL

Overall episode quality in Season Five is staggeringly high. I've awarded almost as many "10" scores as in the previous four seasons put together. All of the following earned full marks: Nor the Battle to the Strong, Things Past, In Purgatory's Shadow, By Inferno's Light, Children of Time, In the Cards, Call to Arms.  That's seven episodes - More than a quarter of the season. Other notable installments include: Trials and Tribble-ations, Rapture, The Darkness and the Light, For the Uniform, Business as Usual, and Ties of Blood and Water. Not to mention the many other solidly engaging stories that build up character and plot strands to allow the "big" episodes to be all that they are.

Sure, there are a few duds. Let He Who is Without Sin... is an appalling hour of television; Ferengi Love Songs is, in my opinion, even worse. There are also disappointments, episodes that have good material and ideas but which don't quite properly gel, such as Doctor Bashir, I Presume and Empok Nor.  But the bulk of the season is solid at worst, and often excellent.

Sisko struggles to balance his spiritual role
on Bajor with being a Starfleet captain.

SEASON SIX WISHLIST

It's hard to develop much of a wish list when the series is this consistently good. All I really want to see is for the events of the finale to be properly followed through. I already know that Season Six will not repeat Apocalypse Rising's mistake of wrapping up a long-running arc in a single episode. I look forward to seeing how the Dominion War develops, and to watching how the scattered characters fare in their new environments.

I strongly hope the series takes some time before reuniting them. Odo, Kira, and Quark on the re-christened Terok Nor, once again under the rule of Gul Dukat, is a situation worth milking for a few episodes. Jake's situation should be worth at least an episode. Worf serving on a Klingon ship again, this time without Dax as a buffer, should be interesting. Sisko's promise to Dukat should be fulfilled - but that payoff should be delayed, with us made to wait for it. And when it comes, it needs to be worth that wait.

Beyond that, I just want the series to continue to do what it's been doing: Develop its character strands and story strands with a steady patience that allows each new development to spring naturally from the ones before, and to lead to new developments down the road. At this point, my confidence in the series is such that what I want is largely just to watch the narrative unfold.

Sisko meets Capt. Kirk.

I'll close this review by repeating my opening: Each season of Deep Space 9 has been better than the one before. At this point, I don't know how much better the show could possibly get - but I certainly hope to find out!


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Thoughts on Season Four.

Season Four of Deep Space 9 is the best so far. That's enough of a surprise, given how very good Season Three was. It's even more of one when you consider that this is a season which undergoes changes made for purely commercial reasons. Shifting emphasis and adding a new character, both on the record as having been done strictly to boost ratings, are the sorts of actions that usually lead to disaster for series television. Instead, the new elements are used in a way that builds on and ties into what went before. 


WHEN A RELAUNCH ISN'T A RELAUNCH: THE CHANGES

Season Four of Deep Space 9 begins with a feature-length episode that, in many respects, seems to act as a second pilot for the show. The Way of the Warrior is designed as a jumping-on point for new viewers, re-establishing the world of Deep Space 9 and resetting its rules. Worf is added as a regular, the Klingons are redefined as adversaries instead of allies, and there is suddenly much more emphasis on action. 

Though this shake-up may have been motivated by ratings concerns, real thought has gone into using it to enrich the show. The season premiere may appear to be a "second pilot," but The Way of the Warrior also takes care to weave its plot around existing threads, so that the Klingon complications build on what has already come before. Time is devoted to Worf finding his place on the station, and time is spent on the renewed animosity with the Klingons. By the middle of the season, though, it becomes clear that the series has not redefined itself around these new elements. The Dominion remains the foremost threat, with an ambitious mid-season two-parter showing how the Dominion presence sparks paranoia even in the heart of the Federation.

The Klingon arc is born from the Dominion threat, as is made clear in The Way of the Warrior. Even so, for most of the season it does feel like a digression, something running alongside the larger arc. The season finale takes that digression and folds it back into the main story, making it clear that all the developments involving the Klingons are part and parcel of the story and doing so in a way that promises even more interesting developments in the future.

In short, what starts out looking like a second start for Deep Space 9 is made part and parcel of the series as it already existed. The action builds as much from events in Seasons Two and Three as from anything created this year. The relaunch isn't actually a relaunch; the digression isn't actually a digression; and both new and old elements come together in a way that makes both more interesting than they would be individually.


WARRIOR, TAILOR, DOCTOR, SPY: THE CHARACTERS

Deep Space 9 continues to excel in using its ensemble. Sisko, the Star Trek captain who probably least idealizes the Federation self-image ("It's easy to be a saint in Paradise!"), nevertheless proves a strong protector of its ideals when his old mentor prepares to launch a paranoid coup. He continues to be protective of his son's welfare, emotional as well as physical, whether the situation involves the Mirror Universe's counterpart of his dead wife or an alien muse, feeding off Jake's creative energies. This is most evident in the season's standout episode, The Visitor, which may be the most successfully emotional episode of Star Trek ever made.

In the supporting cast, Garak continues to steal every scene he's in and almost every episode that features him. Likely in response to the character's popularity and to Andrew Robinson's wonderful performance, he is featured more and more often. Amazingly, the writers manage to do this without undermining the qualities that made him so much fun to start with. We still don't know all that much about him, and what we do know hardly inspires trust - yet he remains impossible to truly dislike. He might slip a knife in your back, but he'll be enormously entertaining company right up until the second before that happens.

Strong material is spread among all the regulars, with Odo having to deal with consequences from killing a changeling; O'Brien, facing the prospect of becoming a father a second time; and Bashir facing tests of not only medical skills, but also of his principles and his character. On the downside, this is the weakest season yet for Kira, and the only season to date in which she does not end up being a standout character. She still gets good material, particularly when put opposite Marc Alaimo's Gul Dukat (also underused this year), but she has noticeably less to do than in previous seasons. 

Season Four is probably best remembered as the season that brought Worf onto the show. His introduction in The Way of the Warrior is exceptionally well-handled, giving him a dynamic first DS9 episode that makes use of his background from the Klingon episodes of TNG without allowing him to overshadow Sisko and the other regulars. It's an excellent episode, one of the series' best, and an outstanding introduction to Worf.

After The Way of the Warrior, however, there are several episodes in which the writers don't seem entirely sure what to do with Worf. I suspect many of these scripts had already been completed, or at least outlined, before the decision to add him was made, as there are more than a few cases of "a Worf scene" being tacked onto an episode that otherwise has no use for him. 

This tendency does improve as the season goes along, however, and Worf gets some strong episodes and subplots. His friendship/budding relationship with Dax has potential for development of both characters, and his respectful but sometimes strained working relationship with Odo. Even at the season's end, I don't think the show has fully found a place for Worf - but I do think this is likely to be rectified in Season Five.


BAJOR WANING

When I wrote my Season Three overview, I observed how far into the background the Bajor arc had been pushed by the rise of the Dominion threat. Seasons One and Two were heavily centered around Bajor and its political entanglements in the wake of the Cardassian Occupation. Season Three saw that focus reduced, with only a handful of episodes continuing to follow up on Bajor and the machinations of Kai Winn.

Season Three at least continued to develop this thread, though, with the Bajoran/Cardassian peace treaty and the rise of Shakaar, Kira's old resistance cell leader, to First Minister. In Season Four, what few Bajor-centric episodes exist are just placeholders, installments which may entertain, but which don't really alter the status quo. 

Really, as the show becomes less about Bajor and more about the Dominion, it stands out just how well the series has done at weaving the Klingon, Dominion, and Cardassian stories together with that of the station. All of those threads feel like parts of  single, dynamic whole. Bajor, which was the focus of the series when it began, does not feel like part of that same whole, and in Season Four its situation has ceased to be as dynamic as the rest of the series' elements. Continuing to namecheck Bajor has become an obligation of a series that has moved on to other things.


SEASON FIVE WISHLIST

Don't get me wrong when I observe that Bajor has waned in importance at this point. I not only don't foresee a return to a Bajor-centered series, I also don't want that. The central arcs of the series now are genuinely compelling, and the show feels like a richer place than it did in its early days. What I would like is for the Bajoran threads to be woven into the larger story. If this could be done with the Klingon arc - which initially seemed like a colorful digression - then it could certainly be done with Bajor. 

Beyond that, the series has gotten so good at this point, it's almost impossible to wish for major changes. I not only would like, but I genuinely do expect, to see better use made of Worf in seasons to come. I also hope to see Kira return to her former prominence.

Past that, I just hope the series continues to do as well as it has in balancing its many characters and stories, and in keeping them feeling like part of the same whole. 

Even in Season One, I was impressed by how good this series often was. In Season Four, Deep Space 9 has become genuinely excellent television. My biggest wish is for it to remain such, so that I can continue to enjoy the ride.


Review Index

Thoughts on Season Three

PREVIOUSLY ON DEEP SPACE 9...

Season Two took the most promising elements of the series' first season and built on them.

The Bajoran political situation became more tangled. Things became really messy with The Collaborator, as the fanatical Vedek Winn (Louise Fletcher) was anointed as the spiritual leader - effectively ceding control of the planet to the worst possible person. We got more insight into the past of the space station itself, and into the pasts of the various characters (notably Kira and Odo). Two strong recurring characters, the charming but untrustworthy Garak (Andrew Robinson) and the militaristic Gul Dukat (Marc Alaimo), were given added depth, making both far more interesting than they previously had been. Meanwhile, the show's regulars were allowed to steadily come into their own as characters. By the end of the season, Deep Space 9 had become a rare ensemble show that had no real weak link.

In the background, we also started to hear about a new threat from the Gamma Quadrant: The Dominion. And in the second season finale, the Dominion showed itself to fully merit that buildup, allowing the year to end on an ominous note.


SEASON THREE: A SHIFT IN FOCUS

The events of The Jem'Hadar demanded followup... something the show's producers recognized. The opening two-parter follows directly on. In a brilliant stroke, the writers make the leaders of the Dominion changelings, tying this entire strand of the series directly to Odo. The Dominion aren't just a physical threat to our heroes - They are an emotional threat to Odo, one that will doubtless reverberate throughout the remainder of the series.

The Search doesn't tie everything up neatly. Though there is a return to "business as usual" as the season progresses, with regular expeditions to the Gamma Quadrant, the Dominion remains a threat. They are mentioned throughout the season, even in episodes that don't involve them. They are left mainly as a background menace in Season Three, a looming conflict which Starfleet is trying to prepare for. But we see just enough of them in action, particularly in The Die is Cast and The Adversary, to recognize that Starfleet is almost certainly outmatched.

The Dominion storyline is wonderfully handled, progressing enough to pave the way for future developments without overshadowing the individual episodes. But it does represent a shift in focus. Previously, the series seemed to turn on Sisko's mission to prepare Bajor for admission to the Federation. Most of the best episodes of Seasons One and Two revolved around Bajor, its messy political situation, and the wounds left over from the (still very recent) Cardassian Occupation.

In Season Three, Bajor often feels like an afterthought. Only three episodes significantly deal with the Bajoran/Cardassian situation: Second Skin, Life Support, and Shakaar. The second of these mainly serves to tie off the Bajoran/Cardassian conflict, probably to avoid splitting focus between that and the Dominion. The peace agreement offers dramatic opportunities of its own, but so far those haven't been seriously addressed. Shakaar ends up being the only Bajoran-centered episode of the season that promises future developments.

Don't get me wrong: I am genuinely enjoying the Dominion arc and look forward to seeing where it goes.  But I would hate to see its development come at the expense of the Bajoran story.


THE CURIOUS PROBLEM OF COMMANDER EDDINGTON

As a series, Deep Space 9 has been pretty good so far about making use of the opportunities its individual episodes provide. Intriguing guest characters become recurring characters who become fixtures, such as Gul Dukat and Garak. Events that should have implications have a tendency to get followed up on - a rarity in other Trek shows, and a delight to see happening in this one.

But this season introduces one missed opportunity, and that is Commander Eddington.

Eddington is introduced at the season's start, in The Search. His addition represents a shake-up for station security, with Starfleet security matters being taken away from Odo - a shift that creates a lot of potential for tension. But after The Search, Eddington is neither seen nor mentioned again until The Die Is Cast, fairly late in the season. To be perfectly honest, I forgot all about the character by the time he reappeared!

We really needed to see more of him, particularly in the first half of the season. In The Search, Odo resents his coming so much that he almost leaves the station. By The Adversary, the two have forged a reasonable working relationship - and done so entirely offscreen. At least one more appearance in the first part of the season, something to show Odo coming to accept and even respect him, would have been welcome - as would have been mentions of him in episodes where things should have concerned Starfleet security, particularly when Odo "adopted" a Jem'Hadar.

Thankfully, the last part of the season indicates that the writers have not only remembered Eddington's existence, but actually might do something with him. The Die Is Cast and, particularly, The Adversary show that both the character and actor Kenneth Marshall have the potential to work well within the fabric of this show. His conversation with Sisko in the season finale hints at frustrated career ambitions, and his prominence in that episode gives me hope for some interesting developments for the character next season.


SEASON FOUR WISH LIST

It's becoming difficult to come up with much of a "wish list" for Deep Space 9. The series has done such a good job of building on its own successes. Season One was a promising start. Season Two was a huge improvement, cementing this as a quality series. I'd rate Season Three as even stronger, with the best hit rate yet and the strongest sense of events that are building to something more. When a series is so successful at keeping its universe interesting and its overall story moving, it seems almost churlish to impose some list of preferences on it.

Still, I hope (and expect) to see the Dominion start to emerge in the foreground, instead of simply being whispered about in the background. Odo's final line from The Adversary demands follow-up, as do his actions in breaking the changelings' single greatest law. I look forward to seeing how those events will unfold.

I also hope that Bajor is allowed some episodes, maybe even another multi-parter, to keep its story alive. Bajor became an afterthought in Season Three. I really hope better use is made of the Bajoran situation in Season Four. Kai Winn has most recently attempted to take control of the civilian government. She's been rebuffed, but it seems certain that she should attempt to extend her influence in more underhanded ways. With Shakaar, an adversrary of Winn's, becoming the head of the civilian government, there is plenty of potential for good storytelling. I would like to see that explored, and not just through a token episode here or there that amounts to the show saying, "Oh, here's a Bajor episode!"

Maybe the Bajoran story could even be tied in with the Dominion one in some way, so that it all becomes one great narrative?


IN CONCLUSION

Aside from my reservations about the treatment of the Bajoran thread this year, Season Three was yet another fine season of Deep Space 9. At this point, the show is not only my favorite Trek spinoff, it has the potential to topple TOS as my absolute favorite Trek. So above any wish list, I'm currently content just to go wherever the show takes me. Based on the first three seasons, it's bound to be interesting.


Review Index

Thoughts on Season Two

Season Two of Star Trek: Deep Space 9 opens as it closes: with a run of extremely strong episodes. The sustained run of quality shows from Season One's Duet through to Cardassians is one of the greatest in all Star Trek, matched only by the run of episodes from Blood Oath to The Jem'Hadar at the season's end. A full half of the season is accounted for within these two sequences, in which every single episode ranges from very good to excellent.

And those sustained runs of quality in Season Two? They don't even account for midseason gems such as Necessary Evil or Whispers, both of which rank among the very best episodes of the series.

So having opened this review by lavishly praising 15 episodes of a 26-episode season, I've probably already tipped my hand that most of my feelings about Season Two are positive.


Midseason Filler

Let me now turn to one of my few major criticisms of this season: The midseason has an awful lot of filler. This is hardly endemic to Season Two of Deep Space 9, and goes back to a point I've raised in my reviews of TNG and Enterprise: 26 episodes per season is simply too much. Shave about ten episodes off that - heck, even six episodes - and you would have far fewer instances of filler centered around guest characters with minimal impact on our regulars; or stories that consist entirely of "B" plots, with one strand centering on a racquetball game between Bashir and O'Brien and another on Quark encountering a business rival. These sorts of episodes fairly cry that there just weren't enough story ideas to fill 26 slots.

This isn't really disastrous, given the wonderful episodes that start and finish the season. But with so much filler in between, the show seems to lose its way during the midseason. Around the time of Rivals, I could feel my interest waning. That interest came back in full force after Blood Oath and The Maquis, of course - but with lapses of weeks in between new episodes on original airing, having so many of the new episodes in the middle be inconsequential fluff likely contributed to declining ratings.


Characters in Full Focus

I praised TNG's second season for finally getting the characters right, even in the midst of continuing uneven quality. That isn't so much an issue for Deep Space 9. Most of the characters worked pretty well by the end of Season One, and the show could probably have continued to be strong just by maintaining what was already established.

Which makes it all the more impressive how much deeper Season Two goes into the characters. Sisko emerges even more as something of an outsider within the Federation hierarchy. He does his duty, he obeys his orders. But it's clear that he often disagrees with those orders, even memorably complaining about the naivete of Earth when stuck in the position of enforcing a frankly rotten treaty. It would be very interesting to see Sisko's frustrations with Earth cause a deeper rift - maybe even putting him in the position of truly disobeying orders? I'd love to see that, though that sort of thing might be too ambitious for a Star Trek show.

Kira, Odo, and Quark all receive additional depth and shading this season. Duet hinted that Kira had done things as a freedom fighter that she probably would rather not think about. Necessary Evil brings some of that into focus, as we learn of at least one murder she committed while on a mission. Her hotblooded pursuit of Cardassian collaborators also comes back to haunt her, when Winn uses it against her in The Collaborator. Odo gets even better character material. Necessary Evil is a bravura character piece, filling in a lot of the blanks of his backstory and demonstrating how he came to be trusted by Kira even while working - honestly and genuinely working - for Gul Dukat. The Odo/Kira relationship is developed, with their friendship both tested and deepened. We also see Odo's authoritarian side, casting him a genuinely unpleasant light when he advocates police state measures in The Maquis, stating that the station was "safer" under Cardassian rule. "Unless you happened to be Bajoran," Kira is quick to add, with evident bitterness.

Quark's backstory receives some attention, as well. We learn that he risked his life to help Bajoran refugees during The Occupation. Presumably for profit, but it does show evidence of a form of personal integrity. He may sell out people for profit  - but he will only go so far in doing so. At any time Quark starts to seem like a joke, the show suddenly gives us scenes of real character depth. With no way to escape an assassin in Necessary Evil, he responds with surprising courage to seemingly certain death. Reunited with a woman he loves, he rises to the status of... well, maybe not hero, but antihero at least. And he gets that showstopping monologue in The Jem'Hadar, standing up to Sisko while proudly declaring that the Ferengi "are nothing like humans. We're better."

Recurring characters are also well-treated. Gul Dukat goes from a one-note villain in Season One to a full, and very interesting, character by the end of this season. The similarities between Dukat and Sisko are nicely explored by The Maquis, which also makes use of the difference between them - Sisko will go further than the average Starfleet officer, but he still won't go as far into amoral territory as Dukat. Andrew Robinson's Garak returns multiple times this season, and is a delight in every appearance. Cardassians and The Wire develop the friendship between Garak and Bashir.  Garak's character is also developed, without ever actually disclosing his true backstory. We don't know much about him... but by the end of the season, we start to feel that we know him. An amusing Season One guest character has become a complex, fascinating figure, someone who we know must have done terrible things in the past. Then again, so did Kira. As the show continually reminds us, it was war.


Actions and Consequences

It was war. That's the really fascinating thing about Deep Space 9's setting, when properly utilized. This is a show set in the aftermath of war, the aftermath of a brutal occupation. The Cardassians aren't melodramatic villains, the Bajorans aren't noble victims. Both are complex creations, represented in the show by multilayered characters. We are encouraged to like Kira and Garak - even though we know both have killed, and almost certainly have killed innocents. We are encouraged to dislike Winn and Dukat - even though both characters stand for order, albeit with themselves at the head of that order. The villains are as complex as the heroes.

Actions have consequences. TNG, Voyager, and most of the first two seasons of Enterprise would largely like to forget that. The characters have the adventure of the week, the problem is solved through technobabble, moral speeches, and handwaving, and then everything is reset for the following week. Deep Space 9 occasionally indulges in this, too... but an advantage of its stationary setting is that it can't do it regularly. It has to deal with consequences.

In the first season, Kai Opaka was removed from Bajor. This creates a steady drumbeat of consequences, with Vedek Winn using every tool she can find to manipulate her way to succeeding her. Despite Winn's manipulations, Opaka's choice - the progressive Vedek Bareil - seems certain to be the next Kai. But Opaka's own past actions have consequences, and Bareil's respect for her memory causes him to withdraw rather than see Opaka's name tarnished. Doing so is a tacit admission of guilt by Bareil to a crime he never committed... something that seems itself likely to have consequences next season.

Starfleet made a treaty with the Cardassians, one which left Federation colonies under Cardassian rule. This action has consequences. Cardassians will not allow Federation settlers to truly govern themselves. They will rule like Cardassians, because that is what they know and even what they consider right. When the settlers rebel against Cardassian abuse, and the Federation refuses to back them, then this also has consequences. The settlers, and some Starfleet officers who see the situation and sympathize, create a rebel movement, one with the potential to spark a new war.

Sisko and Dax discovered the wormhole, and Deep Space 9 and Starfleet have encouraged exploration and settlements within the Gamma Quadrant. But the Gamma Quadrant has forces of its own, forces who don't necessarily appreciate the Federation encroaching on its territory. The Dominion's response is violent, but not unpredictable. From the perspective of the Dominion, it may even have some justification.

In all cases, we see the same thing, rarely seen in Star Trek shows. The actions of the past - even of the first season of the series - have consequences, ones which continue to build as the series moves from its second to its third season.


Season Three Wishlist

It's tough to have much of a wishlist for the next season when this season was so good. I would like to see fewer filler episodes. I don't mind if they run through a stock Trek plot here and there to pad out the episode order - but give those plots a bit of a twist to make them fresh again. This season's Shadowplay stands as an excellent example of how to take a stock plot and turn it into something that feels fresh. That's the kind of filler I don't object to.

Past that, I hope to see real fallout from some of the events of this season. Bajor is in the worst possible hands, with Winn having become Kai. That cries out for consequences, particularly given the weakness of the provisional government (something still not adequately explored, save for the opening 3-parter). The Dominion has announced itself as a formidable enemy, and has issued an edict making the wormhole off limits. I would hate to see everything be "business as usual" next season. Let's see Starfleet test the Dominion, and perhaps find a way to fight back against them or negotiate from a position of strength. Maybe the Maquis could complicate things by obliviously using the wormhole, and inciting a violent reaction from the Dominion in doing so? Just an offhand thought.

Mostly, I just would like to see the show keep up the good work. This is the darkest and most interesting Star Trek show by far. At its best, this is the only Star Trek show that is often better than the original. I hope to see it at its best even more often in the future.


Review Index

Thoughts on Season One

In my overview of Enterprise's first season, I observed that it had done everything that the first season of a series needed to do, but not much more than that. Well, Deep Space 9's first season goes well beyond that level. It does everything it needs to do, but it also does quite a lot more, telling some excellent stories and layering a surprising amount of depth into its characters across its 20 episodes.


"I'm Not Picard"

I know that some fans who enjoy the other three Star Trek spinoffs actually dislike Deep Space 9. It's fairly obvious from my reviews that I'm not among this number, but I do somewhat understand why. Deep Space 9 may take Star Trek: The Next Generation as its starting point. The series that emerges, though, is more a cousin to Babylon 5, and that's not even a reference to the controversy surrounding its genesis.

This is a much darker Trek, featuring characters with genuinely unpleasant qualities, not all of whom entirely like or trust each other. Even likable and essentially honorable characters, such as Sisko and Kira, have clashes of personality and differing agendas that mean that they're not always on the same side.

To me, at least, that makes it interesting. There's a feeling of reality to the DS9 universe that is often absent in other Trek shows. Other Treks present us a future utopia, in which people are "better." Even Enterprise, the only post-9/11 Trek series, opens by telling us that we've eliminated crime and warfare in the future. Deep Space 9 has plenty of crime, and is set against a background of war wounds. It's a future of battle scars, misunderstandings, and culture clashes. In short, it's a future that actually seems believable.


Ensemble Piece

In its first season, Deep Space 9 may already be the most successful Trek series in terms actually using the entire cast. There are no Mayweathers here. Everyone gets something to do. Different episodes bring different characters to the fore and leave others in the background. Even there, most episodes manage to give at least 5 or 6 cast members reasonable roles.

Look at the episode Dax. It's a spotlight episode for Dax, which also offers a meaty role for Sisko as the redefinition of the friendship between these two is explored. It offers a solid role for Odo, as he investigates the crime for which Dax is charged. In a lot of Next Generation and Enterprise episodes, that would be about it for the regulars, with everyone else getting a stray line here or there. But Dax also provides a couple of good scenes for Dr. Bashir, while also opening with a sequence that gives almost everyone something to do that shows their expertise and character traits. There's even a scene for Quark, one which shows off his character and his relationship with Odo in such a way that it is an integral part of the whole and not just an "Armin Shimerman gets paid this week" scene.

Admittedly, this is one of the season's strongest episodes. But that sort of balance of the ensemble is visible in more than half of the season's episodes. Each character emerges with unique quirks, and they all get used at some point. Even Jake, who is there largely as a plot device because the story requires Sisko to have a son, gets a couple of amusing subplots with Nog.


Of Setting and Backstory

The major element that sets Deep Space 9 apart from its Trek stablemates is the setting. The space station provides a fixed setting for the series. The space station is located in Bajoran space, just after the brutal Cardassian occupation of Bajor. The Occupation has left deep scars in the Bajoran psyche, something particularly reflected in Major Kira's character (which is probably why she gets the largest number of "spotlight" episodes). There is a provisional government in place, but it is not stable. There are religious factions and, with their common enemy gone, we see those factions starting to tear at each other in a power struggle at the season's end.

Finally, there is the station itself. This is not a Bajoran station. It's not even a Starfleet station. It was built by the Cardassians, the equipment on the station is Cardassian, and the representative of law and order on the station is an alien who held that same position under the Cardassians. The station itself has to be a reminder of the painful Occupation - something alluded to in the hostility directed at Odo in A Man Alone, though I would like to see the series actually do more with that aspect.

Starfleet is there to ease the problems... ostensibly. But it is made clear in the premiere that Sisko's job, as far as the Federation is concerned, is to eventually make the Bajorans part of the Federation. Not all Bajorans want to be part of the Federation. As scary as she is in most respects, Vedek Winn may actually have a valid point when she says that Bajor should not allow itself to be sucked into that role.

But Bajor is stuck. If Starfleet leaves, the Cardassians will come back. If Starfleet stays, many on Bajor - and probably many in Starfleet, as well - expect their world to simply be subsumed by the Federation. This leaves some resentment of Starfleet. For many Bajorans, the Federation is not so much their savior as simply a more benign occupying force.


Season Two Wishlist

The complex setting provides a lot of grist for excellent drama. Season One delivered some of that. The last two episodes of the season were particularly strong, promising lingering issues that will not necessarily improve in every instance.

But Season One also had several generic episodes. The Storyteller could have been an episode of any Trek show. Q-Less and The Forsaken pandered to TNG fans by thrusting TNG characters into major guest roles, in the former case at the expense of most of the regulars. Episodes such as A Man Alone and The Passenger were both generic and forgettable.

In Season Two, I would like to see a lot fewer generic runarounds, and a lot more episodes in which Sisko and his crew actually have to deal with the tenuous situation into which they've been thrust. Sisko has a fine line to walk, between having to please Starfleet and work with Bajor. I would like to see the two agendas, that of Starfleet and that of Bajor, be put into direct conflict. So far, Sisko has largely been able to get out of even complicated situations with no real negative consequences. It would be interesting to see him have to deal with a situation where any choice he makes will result in something bad happening.

I would also like to see some episodes address the status of the provisional government. It's only been mentioned here and there in passing. We know there is a government, we know it's not a permanent one, and we have heard that it is more stable at some points and less stable at others. That's a situation ripe for drama, which has been thus far all but ignored. It wouldn't be a bad area for a few episodes to focus on.


In Conclusion

Deep Space 9's first season is a very promising freshman year. The actors are good, the characters are interesting, the setting offers potential for years of good drama. I had vague memories of several Season One episodes as I watched, but I don't think I ever did watch Season Two, save for a few stray episodes in reruns. Really, between here and Worf's arrival (Season Four?), I could probably count on my fingers the episodes I watched... meaning that I have relatively little idea what happens next.

The strength of the first, and reputedly weakest, season has me looking forward to finding out.


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Season One Review Index