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

1-4. A Man Alone

THE PLOT

With the Cardassian rule increasingly a memory, and with the traffic created by the wormhole, more and more people are passing through the station. Among them is Ibudan (Stephen James Carver), a Bajoran who acted as a war profiteer during the Cardassian occupation. Odo sent him to prison after he killed a Cardassian. But, as Odo notes, to the Bajoran provisional government "killing a Cardassian isn't much of a crime these days," and Ibudan has now been set free.

His freedom doesn't last long. Within an hour or so of Odo confronting him at Quark's, the man is dead. And as the investigation proceeds, it quickly becomes clear that there is only one obvious suspect - Odo!


CHARACTERS

Commander Sisko: Still being written mostly as a "generic commander," and Avery Brooks' performance is still often rather wooden. After a strong showing in The Emissary, it's disappointing to see his performance be so weak in the actual series. Right now, of the four Trek series I am watching, Brooks' performance is a distant fourth out of the four leads. I know he gets better - a lot better - but I suspect I'm going to get very impatient waiting for that point. He at least does well with the scenes in which Sisko loses his temper; and three episodes in, "short fuse" does appear to be one of the commander's few established defining traits.

Odo: Rene Auberjonois was quietly excellent in the first two episodes. I strongly considered singling him out in my Past Prologue review, on the strength of the superb scene between him and Kira, but I decided to wait since his first "spotlight" episode was the very next one up. Thrust to center stage this outing, Auberjonois does not disappoint. He has a precision of movement that accentuates Odo's alien status while also retaining a sense of both tension and dignity. His line deliveries are also a little bit clenched, as if he's always fighting to keep down some layer of anger. We also discover that many Bajorans regard him with some suspicion, given that he was security chief under the Cardassians.
This episode also establishes what will become a wonderful love/hate relationship between Odo and Quark. Before the plot kicks in, there's a marvelous little scene between the two, in which Odo discusses what he's observed to be the nature of "compromise" within a couple. A charming moment of humor and character bonding, which helps to further enrich an already interesting character who will grow further as the show develops.

Dax: Very much in the background of this episode, but we do learn more about her background. Her friendship with Sisko as Kurzan Dax is expanded upon, and it seems obvious that Sisko regrets the loss of his old mentor, and is trying perhaps a little too hard to fit the current Dax into the same mold as the previous one. It's confirmed here that the Trill is actually a hybrid personality - a merging of the personalities of the Trill and the host. Thus, Kurzan Dax (or should that be Kurzan/Dax) would be a genuinely different individual than Jadzia Dax - and Dax is clearly conscious of the strain these differences put on the friendship with Sisko.

Dr. Bashir: Gets a slightly better episode here than the previous two. The stupid "comedy relief" bits are still there, unfortunately. His early scenes, with his puppy-dog crush on Dax, were outright painful to watch from both a writing and acting perspective. But he's much better when playing the utterly competent doctor, which he does for most of the episode. I'm hoping the writer quickly noticed how much better Siddig was when not written as overenthusiastic comedy relief, and tailored their scripts appropriately sooner rather than later.

THOUGHTS

The first even somewhat "weak" episode of Deep Space 9, there's actually a lot that is good about A Man Alone. Not least of these things is the focus on Rene Auberjonois' Odo, a character and actor well up to the task of anchoring an episode - though one hopes that next time around, he gets a better episode than this one. Still, we get more backstory on Odo, Dax, and Quark, and flesh out some of the tensions surrounding this show's universe, particularly the resentment some Bajorans hold toward Odo for having worked for the Cardassians. Even the fairly weak "B" story, with O'Brien's wife starting a school, makes sense within the show's context, as it is a reasonable move for the station to make.

The first half of the episode mostly works pretty well. A murder mystery framework is generally a reliable structure around which to center a story. I was glad to see that Odo did not try to cover his tracks when he realized he was incriminated, as it made both character and episode a little bit more interesting. And with Bashir and Dax investigating the bio-matter left by Ibudan, a nice melding of mystery elements and science fiction elements was achieved.

The second half is much weaker. Once Odo is suspended pending the investigation's outcome, the story finds itself with nowhere really to go. The crucial discovery is left to be made by Bashir, leaving our central figure suddenly passive. Writer Michael Piller attempts to raise some suspense and social commentary by having a Bajoran lynch mob target Odo. The result is not particularly suspenseful, and all but useless as social commentary (did you know that lynch mobs are, apparently, bad?). After this, Bashir makes his breakthrough and then Odo catches the bad guy all too easily, making for a rather limp and unsatisfying conclusion.


Rating: 5/10.

Previous Episode: Past Prologue
Next Episode: Babel


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Review Index

1-3. Past Prologue

THE PLOT

When a Cardassian warship pursues a Bajoran ship into Bajoran space, Commander Sisko orders the pilot beamed out of the disintegrating vessel. The pilot is Tahna (Jeffrey Nordling), a Bajoran freedom fighter who is a member of an infamous Bajoran terrorist group which has continued perpetrating violence against the Cardassians even after the Cardassian withdrawal from Bajor.

Tahna claims to be done with violence, and requests asylum. Not wanting to cause a rift with Bajor, Sisko grants the request despite his own doubts. But when Security Chief Odo observes Tahna meeting with two Klingon terrorists, and a Cardassian spy (Andrew Robinson) passes additional information along to Dr. Bashir, it becomes clear that action will need to be taken - and soon - to prevent disaster.


CHARACTERS

Commander Sisko: Though he's in a lot of the episode, this actually is not a very good episode for him. The writers don't appear to have figured out who Sisko is yet. There's really nothing about his handling of the situation that differs from what Picard would do. Avery Brooks does show a bit of spark when he tells Kira exactly what will happen if she ever goes over his head again. But with the exception of that scene, it's a mostly wooden performance, as if the actor can't find the character or simply is aware that the character isn't there this time.

Major Kira: In a pleasant surprise, she still bristles under Sisko's command here. When Sisko won't commit to granting Tahna asylum instantly, Kira attempts to go over his head to his superiors. This shows that she still doesn't trust him to make the right decisions, at least not when it comes to issues close to her own background. It shows something else about Kira. She may have experience as a fighter, but she is politically naive if she truly believes that breaking chain of command simply to express personal disapproval will have any positive result for her. The admiral's response - to warn Sisko that he has "a problem" with "that Bajoran woman" - is not unpredictable, and anyone with an ounce of political sense would have known better. Nana Visitor gives the episode's best performance, a good thing given that this is a "Kira spotlight" episode, and anchors the show quite strongly.

Dr. Bashir: Still largely being written as an overeager fool, bad comedy relief more than anything. The scene in the teaser in which he runs to the bridge, overexcited at being contacted by Garak "the spy," is pitiful. I felt pained both for the character, embarrassing himself to the amusement of the other regulars, and for the viewing of a scene that strives so hard for comedy and fails to achieve it. The actor is capable of better, and my viewing of Trials and Tribble-ations assures me that he'll eventually get better material... but for now, he's actually looking like the weak link in this show's cast.

Garak: Andrew Robinson debuts as Garak, the Cardassian tailor who is the sole Cardassian still on the station. In his first appearance, he's already an intriguing character. He puts up an innocuous front, but has no problem in all but directly letting the Federation people on the station know that he actually is the spy he's reputed to be, so long as he's working through Bashir. Robinson, a veteran actor, gives an effortlessly excellent performance. With actors such as him and Rene Auberjonois around, I'm thinking this is easily the best Trek cast - no serious weak links, and several actors with very respectable careers already behind them.


THOUGHTS

Though not quite as strong as Emissary, this is a good Episode Two. Enough exposition is still flying around that anyone tuning in for the first time here would get all the information needed about the show's background to continue to follow future episodes. At the same time, the episode presents a solid standalone plot that feeds on the backstory of the series and the events of the pilot. The discovery of the wormhole, in particular, is a major plot point for this episode.

The episode is at its weakest with the Sisko character. Neither the writers (at least of this episode) nor the actor seem entirely comfortable with him here, and the episode feels very much as if it was written for "generic commander." Fortunately, it's at its strongest when dealing with Kira, who actually fares better as a character here than in the pilot. We find that her issues with Sisko and Starfleet were not entirely resolved at the end of the pilot, and we learn more about her backstory as well. Nana Visitor is extremely good, particularly when she reacts to Tahna calling her a "traitor" at one point (a splendid nonverbal reaction from Visitor).

With a solid guest turn by the reliable Jeffrey Nordling, and a plot that - while somewhat predictable - moves along at a decent pace and directly impacts one of the show's leads, this is another promising installment in DS9's first season.


Rating: 7/10.

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Next Episode: A Man Alone


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1-1, 1-2. Emissary

THE PLOT

After literally decades of resistance, the Cardassian occupation of the Bajoran homeworld has finally ended. The provisional Bajoran government has requested a Starfleet presence on Deep Space 9, the Cardassian space station orbiting their world, to help make the transition... well, possible.

Commander Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks), a veteran of the battle against the Borg at Wolf 359, has been assigned to command the space station. It is not a task he relishes. Left widowed after his encounter with "Locutus of Borg," Sisko has focused his attention on raising his young son, and prefers duties that give him time for that task. He finds Deep Space 9 a less than ideal environment.

Nothing he sees when he arrives changes that impression. His first officer, the Bajoran Major Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor), resents his presence almost as much as she resents Starfleet's. The Cardassians have left the station in disarray, and it is all his Chief of Engineering, O'Brien (Colm Meaney), can do to get everything on-line and functioning. With Bajoran spiritual leader Kai Opaka (Camille Saviola) talking about Sisko having a "destiny," and a new (surprisingly stable) wormhole appearing near the station, Sisko finds that he has walked into a political and religious minefield.

And with the implications of a stable wormhole granting access to a distant quadrant of space - and back again - the Cardassians, led by former station commandant Gul Dukat (Marc Alaimo), suddenly find themselves with a renewed interest in the territory around Deep Space 9...


CHARACTERS

Commander Sisko: Avery Brooks doesn't look right with hair. He needs to start shaving his head immediately. That said, Sisko has much that is interesting, right from the get-go. He's resentful of Picard, more than a little jaded with the Federation, and already contemplating taking an early retirement. He's quite willing to bend the rules to make his job workable, offering Quark a deal to stay that effectively allows the Ferengi to operate outside Starfleet regulations ("We're just here to administrate"). The episode does over-sell Sisko's relationship with his son, but otherwise manages to create an interesting central figure who has some shades of grey unusual for the lead of a Trek series.

Capt. Picard: Patrick Stewart does some terrific acting in the scene in which Sisko reveals exaclty where they have met before.  His bearing instantly changes when he learns Sisko was a veteran of Wolf 359, and he spends the rest of the scene trying (and never quite succeeding) to regain his natural authority. There isn't much else for him in this episode, save for a nicely subdued farewell to Chief O'Brien, but Stewart plays what he's given as well as ever.

Major Kira: Has spent her entire life fighting for Bajoran independence from the Cardassians. As a result, she sees Sisko's arrival, and the Federation's, as simply a new occupying force. Sisko gains her respect over the course of the episode - a process that's arguably a bit too fast, and something I would rather have seen played out over a good chunk of the first season. Still, she retains an inherent brittleness, which is something that could be used to good effect.

Dax: The lovely Terry Farrell is Jadzia Daz, the Trill scientist who is also an old friend of Sisko's. Farrell's performance is actually a bit uneven here, with her lack of substantial acting experience perhaps showing in some of technobabble-heavy scenes she is given. She does have a natural screen rapport with Avery Brooks, however, and a natural good humor which eases over some of the bumps in her acting. Beyond which... How to put it? It's a lot easier to forgive an actress a few bad line readings when she looks like Terry Farrell.

Quark: Armin Shimerman, who was the principal Ferengi in that race's disastrous debut in The Last Outpost, does much better in playing the Ferengi merchant, Quark. In an early interrogation scene, he carries himself in a manner reminiscent of a small-time mobster in a police procedural, right down to his dress sense and his baiting of Constable Odo ("If I'm a thief, you never proved it. For four years"). Shimerman doesn't get a lot to do in this episode, but he registers strongly on screen, gets several humorous moments, and is given a strong role to play in the series' development as a community leader whose shady doings will be overlooked - to a point - in exchange for his aid in maintaining the station's economy.

Dr. Bashir: Siddig El-Fadil (aka, Alexander Siddig)'s first appearance as Dr. Bashir is not an entirely auspicious start. For a character who would become quite fun, and an actor who would prove himself not only on this show, but in other work such as Kingdom of Heaven and Syriana, this is a rather disappointing debut. Siddig overplays Bashir's nervous stammer in his early scenes, and Bashir's enthusiasm for "the frontier" is over-written in these scenes as well. He does do well in the only scene in which he is called upon to act as a doctor, coming to the aid of a severely wounded woman during the climactic attack, and summoning up a natural authority that has been entirely absent in his performance up to that point. Thankfully, that one good scene is good enough to raise hopes that the weaker elements of both character and performance will recede over time.


THOUGHTS

And so begins the darkest, grimiest Star Trek series, certainly the best of the spinoffs and, on its best days, the only Trek series that can lay claim to being as good as the original series. I've long felt that the later Trek movies made a mistake following the popular, yet shallower, Next Generation cast. The Deep Space 9 cast and setting had, in my opinion, more weight on which big-screen movies could balance. And they wouldn't even have had to have Worf making multiple inexplicable trips from DS9 to justify his presence.

I was all set to write a review talking about how startling it is that such a comparatively rich series came from rather generic Trek spinoff beginnings. But you know something? A lot of what made this series great is there in the pilot. The characters have shades of grey. The commander doesn't want to be there (something, disappointingly, that is resolved within the pilot, when I'd have preferred that to be an ongoing element as well). Further, he's willing to bend rules and turn a blind eye to Quark's past goings-on and even potentially to his present ones as long as the Ferengi doesn't go too far. Kira has a huge chip on her shoulder, and obvious problems with authority. Both station and planet are given enough history within this pilot to make them interesting, and not every issue is resolved. For instance, the provisional government's instability is never resolved within this pilot. Beyond that, the wormhole itself will clearly open up new complications. This is a darker and grittier Trek, and the potential is clearly there even in this opening installment.

The standalone plot is passable, if less than remarkable. The discovery of the wormhole and Sisko's opening of communications with the intelligence therein are rendered in a visually interesting manner. I enjoyed the intercutting between Sisko's perspective - a barren wasteland - and Dax's persepctive of a lush garden setting. A reflection of their mental states, perhaps, with Sisko's bitterness and closed-off nature contrasted with Dax's embracing of everything life has to offer? I also thought the production team showed some imagination in Sisko's communications with the nonlinear entity. Some of the bits in that "conversation" went on a bit long, but the cutting between settings that were part of the commander's memory, and the use of different figures from his past to express different attitudes, was intriguing.

It's not perfect, but this pilot holds up very well. It's far better than the 2-hour pilots for Next Generation or Enterprise (and neither of those were bad, by the way). It's not as good a story as The Cage was for TOS... but with strong moments for every character, it's probably a better pilot to an ongoing series.


Rating: 8/10.

Next Episode: Past Prologue


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