Worst of Star Trek DS9---His Way

Did the writers and producers temporarily run out of good ideas?

So we the audience are treated to endless elevator music in a holosuite program in which Odo accesses without Dr. Bashir's knowledge (it was Julian's program to start).

Major Kira is visiting Bajor for a few days to meet up with her old flame Shakar. Odo's going out of his mind with disappointment. Quark sneaks the program to Odo in hopes the charming lounge singer Vic Fontaine will give some advice to Odo on how to win over the love of his life.

Wouldn't a better premise have been a disaster involving the Dominion war, a severe malfunction of the station's life supports, or another trauma involving Odo's bio-functions to bring them together? Maybe the threat of loss to bring them closer instead of a night club fantasy featuring a 20th century lounge singer?

But I suppose the passionate kiss at the end made up for the previous 45 minutes that could have been better spent.

Best of Star Trek: Deep Space 9---In the Pale Moonlight

"In the Pale Moonlight" is the 19th episode of season 6 and was written by Michael Taylor.

One of Captain Sisko's weekly routines is posting the casualty list from the Federation/Dominion war. Dax  is upset that a friend of hers was killed in Romulan space by a convoy of Jem'Hadar. They know that to get the Romulans on their side they would need evidence that the Dominion is plotting an attack on them---evidence that probably doesn't exist. If it did, it would be in the central command station on Cardassia Prime.

Sisko enlists the help of former Obsidian Order spy Garak to find such evidence. Garak makes contact with operatives who owe him favors. Unfortunately, they are all killed by Jem'Hadar when their communications are intercepted.

So, on to Plan B. Garak knows someone being held in a Klingon prison who can fake realistic hologram scenarios in data rods. Why not just invent the evidence?

Starfleet approves the plan, especially after word gets out that Betazed has been invaded, but the ways and means Sisko goes about faking the evidence is left undocumented because of its devious nature.

While the released prisoner works on creating the fake evidence, Sisko and Garak plan for the arrival of a Romulan Senator. As Sisko and the Romulan are in discussions, Garak is quietly executing Plan C---planting a bomb on the dignitary's ship and planting evidence to suggest sabotage by the Dominion, all without Sisko's consent or knowledge.

Things come to a head when Sisko learns of the Senator's death and confronts Garak with a sock to the jaw. There's little he can do however, seeing the operation was covert and it did get the Romulans involved in the war against the Dominion.

This episode expands Sisko's character into a multidimensional and complex man, one who is willing to bend the rules and do whatever it takes to keep the Alpha Quadrant from falling to an enemy that seems unstoppable. Making up shit to win would have seemed unthinkable to him at one time. But with mounting casualties and the possibility of  being ruled by an authoritarian regime, he decides it's worth the risk.

As he explains in his personal log:
 I lied. I cheated. I bribed a man to cover the crimes of other men. I am an accessory to murder. But the most damning thing of all, I think I can live with it.

Worst of Star Trek DS9---Change of Heart

Or a more appropriate title would be "Change in Characterization."

Worf and Dax are assigned to take a runabout on a mission to meet up with a Cardassian operative who has information about the Dominion's tactical strategy and the whereabouts of hundreds of Changling spies. He informs Worf and Dax via subspace transmission that Vorta commanders are becoming suspicious and they agree to meet a rendezvous point on a nearby planet.

Once they land, several hundred meters from the meeting place to avoid detection, they head out on foot. But they are spotted by Jem'Hadar soldiers. One of them critically injures Dax with an anti-coagulant. After a while, Worf is forced to leave Dax behind because she's too weak to continue and their journey only furthers her bleeding.

He arrives at the meetup spot to await the arrival of the operative, only to go back and get Dax to the space station for treatment. He saves her life. But at great cost to the operative who is killed by the Dominion, taking with him all the vital information that could have helped the Federation.

The episodes redeeming feature is the side story involving O'Brien's new found obsession with defeating Quark at the Tongo wheel. He enlists the help of the genius doctor Bashir. However, both men underestimated Quark's talent for distraction.

The banter between Worf and Dax is amusing as well, but doesn't really save the episode from the dramatic left turn Worf takes in his duty to Star Fleet. In the past (TNG) Worf wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice a major player to preserve the survival of the Federation, let alone the Enterprise. Failure of a mission, particularly one of such magnate, would have brought about disgrace to the proud Klingon. Would saving one individual, even a mate and putting ones personal feelings above the call of duty, be an acceptable alternative to a Klingon--a species who prides itself in knowing that the highest achievement is to die in battle?

I'm calling BS on this one.

Best of Star Trek: Deep Space 9---Waltz

"Waltz" is the 11th episode of the sixth season and was written by Ronald D. Moore.

Captain Sisko is a passenger aboard the Honshu, a ship transporting war criminal Gul Dukat. Sisko pays Dukat a visit and offers his condolences on the death of Ziyal. This ship doesn't make it's destined stop to starbase 6 because it is attacked by a convoy of Cardassian ships.

The crew on DS9 learn about the attack. A rescue mission, lead by Worf, takes the Defiant in search for survivors. Sisko has been badly injured from plasma burns and Dukat helped him escape in a pod. They land on a isolated planet and Dukat assures Sisko, after he regains consciousness, that he has managed to repair a distress beacon.

We quickly learn that Dukat isn't totally recovered from his breakdown as Wayoun "shows up" and taunts him about screaming every night in his sleep. He fires his phaser and destroys the apparition. A Cardassian officer "shows up" and tries to persuade Dukat to kill Sisko as a means of gaining favor once again with the Cardassian high council for killing the Emissary of the enemy. While this is taking place, Sisko discovers that the distress beacon isn't functioning and tests Dukat's sincerity by asking him to run a full diagnostic. Dukat assures him everything is functioning normally. "That's all I wanted to know" Sisko says.

Dukat fixes supper for Sisko and as they talk, Kira "shows up" and it's then that Sisko sees Dukat is still mentally unstable. The argument with the imaginary Kira reveals Dukat's true disdain for the Bajoran people, his resentment at their disloyalty during the occupation, and his anger at the lack of respect from others he feels he deserves. He totally loses it when he discovers Sisko was able to get the beacon working behind his back and attacks him and destroys the beacon. Sisko tells Dukat that he will no longer play his game or give him absolution for his past crimes.

"I should have turned their world into a graveyard of the likes of which the galaxy had never seen!" Dukat yells as he ponders his resentments. "I should have killed them all!"

Sisko manages to sneak up on the deluded Dukat and strike him on the head and knock him unconscious. "And that is why you're not an evil man" says Sisko.

The two struggle once again as Sisko attempts to get the shuttle off the ground. Dukat gets the upper hand and leaves the injured Sisko on the planet but sends out a distress signal that the nearby Defiant picks up. They rescue Sisko but the crazy Cardassian is long gone. Sisko vows to Dax that his number one priority now is to make sure Dukat doesn't carry out his plan to turn Bajor into a graveyard.

What I liked about this episode was how the writer used the character of Gul Dukat to outwardly express the justification for acts of violence and tyrannical control. He, like many true life occupiers, viewed himself as superior, offering something"better" culturally for their unwilling subjects of rule. Many conquerors don't view themselves as evil, but merely as friends who are ultimately unappreciated, leading to more conflict and bloodshed.

It was also like a great stage play witnessing one man watching the slow and harrowing decline of another. Very well acted by both Marc Alimo and Avery Brooks.

Best of Star Trek: DS9---The Magnificent Ferengi

This was both funny and adventurous. It was written by Ira Steven Behr and Hans Biemeir.

Quark learns his mother has been kidnapped and is being held prisoner by the Dominion. He attempts to get a group of soldiers together made up of Ferengi including Rom and Nog. When simulation battle scenarios show them to be incapable of defeating the Jem'Hadar, Rom suggests that why don't they do what Ferengi do best---negotiate.

With Captain Sisko's help, they use the creepy Volta Keevan to take for trade. Keevan is not to crazy about being part of this deal, as it is customary for Volta to commit suicide when capture, something he failed to do. When they arrive at Empok Nor where the trade is to be held, they are surrounded by dozens of Jem'Hadar soldiers. Quark tells the negotiator Yelgrun that they'll complete the transaction when they send the Jem'Hadar away with the exception of two as Yelgrun's body guards. He agrees.

In the meantime, Quark's cowardly cousin Gaila is freaking out and upset when Rom slips that the Grand Nagus offered 50 bars of latinum as a reward, not the 20 Quark told them. He tries to shoot Quark and instead ends up killing Keevan.

 Fortunately, Nog learned something about neural stimulators and fakes Keevan being dead in order for the trade to proceed without getting everyone else killed. The sociopathic eliminator Leck kills one of the Jem'Hadar as the rest of the band, including "Mookie," head for their ship parked right outside the dock.

This was a fun episode with action and adventure and a welcome reprieve from the heavy drama that began the season with a series of continuing storylines involving the takeover of the space station by Gul Dukat and the Dominion. This episode too involves the Dominion but when you have a story that features the Ferengi, you know it will feature strategy of how to get out alive with your latinum intact.

If They Were Human...

Captain Sisko has a vision in which his neural pathways are scrambled pretty much like they were in "Rapture." This time he's trying to sort out his life and career in another time frame 400 years into the past as a science fiction writer creating a story about a space station with an assortment of interesting, non-Earthling characters. 

Sisko is seriously thinking about quitting when the realization that the Dominion war is still ongoing and one of his best friends was killed. That's when the prophets send him a message in a series of astral dreams.

His colleagues, all human, resemble their story counterparts. I had to cheat on one of them---didn't recognize him. Looked up the story write-up on Wikipedia.  

Before he was Garak...

Before he was Garak, Andrew Robinson played a psychotic killer in "Dirty Harry" starring Clint Eastwood.