Season Six---The Days Before the Crew's Return to DS9

The first six episodes of DS9 were more like a continuing saga rather than a series of separate story lines as the crew, those not left behind on DS9, are assigned (in "A Time to Stand") to a rebuilt Jem'Hadar ship to enter Cardassian space and blow up a factory manufacturing the White that the Jem'Hadar use to survive.

In "Rocks and Shoals," they are successful but the ship pays a heavy toll as it's caught in the aftermath of the explosion and crash lands on a nearby planet. Nog and Garak are captured by Jem'Hadar also marooned on the planet with a severely injured Vorta. The Vorta bargains with Garak--get him a doctor in exchange for their freedom, but first Captain Sisko must come along. The Vorta betrays the Jem'Hadar soldiers who are running out of White and will become hostile before turning on the Vorta and each other. The soldiers are killed by the crew and the Vorta offers himself as a prisoner and thanks them by giving them a communications system to repair.

Rescued by Martok's ship, the crew station themselves at the nearest starbase. In "Sons and Daughters," Alexander Rozhenko makes a surprise visit on Martok's ship in which Worf is second in command. He claims to want to be a warrior but fails to prove it, specially to himself, when both Worf and Martok test his skill with the batleth.

Worf orders Alexander off the ship but when a plasma leak occurs due to an encounter with an enemy ship, Alexander proves himself more of an engineer than a warrior. In a ceremony, he is accepted into the House of Martok. Meanwhile, Kira is trying to form a resistance cell as Dukat's daughter Ziyal returns to the station.

In "Behind the Lines," Odo becomes too personally involved with the female founder who had linked with him previously. As Kira and Rom plan to sabotage an anti-graviton beam, it was supposed to be Odo's task to put the computers off line for a "routine maintenance" check.  Unfortunately, the plan is foiled because Odo is still melding with the other Changeling and Rom is caught and arrested. Meanwhile, Dax is leading the crew in a mission on the Defiant to destroy a sensor array used by the Dominion to track Federation ships.

Despite these few successes, the Federation has lost countless lives and several ships and are losing the battle overall. Moral is sinking because of their attack and retreat strategy. In "Favor the Bold," Sisko has come up with a new idea for getting everyone energized---retake DS9! Worf and Martok undertake the task of getting Gowron to agree to committing as many Klingon ships as possible. Meanwhile, Jake gets a message out to his dad that a return to the station must come soon because the Cardassians have figured out a way to eliminate the mine field in the wormhole. The mine field is the only thing keeping the Dominion from coming in droves to the Alpha Quadrant.

In "Sacrifice of Angels," the Cardassians suspect Kira may be a co-conspirator with Rom in the sabotage of the anti-graviton sensor and she, Jake, and Rom's new wife Leeta are arrested. Quark knows that something must be done before it's too late and enlists the help of Ziyal in a plan to break them out of prison.

Meanwhile, the Klingon ships arrive just in time to give the Defiant room for breaking through the barrier set up by the Cardassian and Dominion ships and many are sacrificed. And  now that Rom is free, he is able to disable the weapons systems, but not in time to stop the mines from being destroyed. With little time left, Sisko decides on a suicide mission into the wormhole to stop as many Dominion ships as he can. Fortunately for him and the rest of the crew, the wormhole aliens eliminate the Dominion ships and the rest of the Dominon fleet in the Alpha Quadrant stands down. The crew returns to DS9 as the Dominion and their allies evacuate the station.

The celebration is cut short for Kira and Garak who learn of Ziyal's fate. She is killed by a Cardassian right- hand of Dukat as a traitor, leaving Dukat sick with grief and out of his mind on the station.

I spent all Saturday afternoon watching these shows, riveted to the screen wanting more. I liked the way the two-story lines in each episode (one focused on the Defiant crew and the other on the space station under Dominion control) came together at the end of episode 6. The non-talkative Morn even played a part in winning one for the Federation by getting a hidden message to Sisko via a wrapped package believed intended for his mother--the message telling Sisko of the Cardassian plot to destroy the mine field.