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DS9

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The Search, part I

Episode

47

Director:

Kim Friedman

Written by:

Ronald D. Moore

Story by:

Ira Steven Behr & Robert Hewitt Wolfe

Stardate:

48212.4

Synopsis:

Feeling the threat of an imminent invasion by the Dominion, Commander Sisko takes the U.S.S. Defiant, a prototype anti-Borg warship into the Gamma Quadrant to make peace with the Dominion. On Deep Space Nine, Odo has been relieved as Chief of Security by Lieutenant Commander Michael Eddington, but Odo joins the Defiant just before departure at Kira's request. However everything turns nasty after Dax and O'Brien are stranded on a Dominion relay station with the Jem'Hadar, and the Defiant dead in space after an attack by the Jem'Hadar, Odo takes Kira and a shuttle to fulfil a compelling feeling telling him to go there.

Rating:

B+

Notes:

This is the first appearance of the U.S.S. Defiant. Martha Hackett, who plays T'Rul, is later cast as Seska in Voyager. Michael Eddington reappears frequently throughout the next two years.

The Search, part II

Episode

48

Director:

Jonathan Frakes

Written by:

Ira Steven Behr

Story by:

Ira Steven Behr & Robert Hewitt Wolfe

Stardate:

Not Given

Synopsis:

After Sisko and Bashir's shuttle is picked up by Dax and O'Brien, Sisko learns that the Federation and the Dominion are signing a peace treaty, but he the negotiations have sinister undercurrents as the Romulans are the only major power in the Alpha Quadrant who have not been invited to join the negotiating team, and the treaty would place Deep Space Nine and Bajor under Dominion control. After his pleas to higher-ups at Starfleet Command fall on deaf ears, Sisko, Dax, O'Brien, Bashir and an unlikely Garak are killed while collapsing the wormhole to prevent Dominion reinforcements coming through. Meanwhile, deep in the Gamma Quadrant, Odo has found his home planet, in the Omarion Nebula. While trying to communicate with Sisko, Kira discovers several terrifying truths, including the fact that Odo's people are the Dominion.

Rating:

A-

Notes:

This is the first episode of DS9 directed by Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker). We discover that Odo was sent from his homeworld as one of 100 infants to explore the galaxy. He wasn't expected home for another 300 years.

The House of Quark

Episode

49

Director:

Les Landau

Written by:

Ronald D. Moore

Story by:

Tom Benko

Stardate:

Not Given

Synopsis:

To enhance his reputation, Quark lies about the death of a drunk Klingon in his bar during a disagreement over his bar tab, claiming he killed him out of self-defence. However, Quark gets more than he bargained for when the Klingon's widow, Grilka, arrives on the station and forces Quark to return home with her to become her new husband. Eventually she managed to persuade the High Council to allow her to lead her house (normally, Klingon females are not allowed to lead their own houses - they need a husband for that), and she divorces Quark then and there.

Rating:

B

Notes:

Grilka returns to repay Quark for his help in "Looking for par'mach in all the wrong places".
Quark's Rule No. 286: When Morn leaves, it's all over.

Equilibrium

Episode

50

Director:

Cliff Bole

Written by:

René Echevarria

Story by:

Christopher Teague

Stardate:

Not Given

Synopsis:

During dinner with Sisko, Dax begins to pick out, seemingly at random, a tune which she becomes preoccupied with, and it follows her into some disturbing hallucinations of masked figures. A medical examination reveals some deficiencies in the chemical links between Jadzia and the Dax symbiont, necessitating a trip to the specialised medical facilities on the Trill planet. Though she shows favourable response to her initial treatments, Dax goes into shock when the computer aboard the Defiant displays a picture of the Trill composer of the song that has been on her mind. Sisko and Bashir try to seek out the mysterious link with the long-dead musician and Dax only to have all the official channels closed in their faces to protect a devastating secret, the cost of which will be Jadzia's life.

Rating:

A-

Second Skin

Episode

51

Director:

Les Landau

Written by:

Robert Hewitt Wolfe

Stardate:

Not Given

Synopsis:

Kira is captured and transported to Cardassia Prime, where she wakes up with the features of a Cardassian. She is told time and again that she is, in fact, a Cardassian by birth whose deep cover spying assignment necessitated her cosmetic alteration to look like a Bajoran rebel named Kira Nerys who was captured and killed. But she begins to worry when the Cardassians' efforts to make her believe this story seem to go above and beyond their normal brainwashing techniques, including the arrival of a high-ranking Legate who claims that Kira is his daughter. Kira doesn't have any information that the Cardassians would go to these lengths to retrieve and begins to wonder if perhaps the history of which she has just learned is true.

Rating:

A-

Notes:

Kira is from Bajoran province Dahkur and her parents died in Bajoran refugee camps.

The Abandoned

Episode

52

Director:

Avery Brooks

Written by:

D. Thomas Maio & Steve Warnek

Stardate:

Not Given

Synopsis:

Quark finds a Jem'Hadar boy in the wreckage of the ship, and after discovering that the Jem'Hadar are genetically programmed to obey Changelings, Odo tries to bring him up to prove the point that Jem'Hadar don't have to be violent by nature. However, after the boy grows at an astounding rate, Odo ultimately fails, and the Jem'Hadar leaves the station to rejoin the rest of his race.

Rating:

B

Civil Defense

Episode

53

Director:

Reza Badiyi

Written by:

Mike Krohn

Stardate:

Not Given

Synopsis:

O'Brien accidentally triggers a Cardassian security program designed to halt a Bajoran slave uprising while working in one of the Ore processing plants. This program alerts Gul Dukat, and he comes to the station hoping to gloat over Kira, but his superiors had obviously thought out the program thoroughly, and so when Dukat attempted to leave again, he was stopped and the self-destruct program was activated.

Rating:

A

Notes:

Rule of Acquisition No. 75: Home is where the heart is, but the stars are made of latinum.

Meridian

Episode

54

Director:

Jonathan Frakes

Written by:

Mark Gehred-O'Connell

Story by:

Hilary Bader & Evan Carlos Somers

Stardate:

48423.2

Synopsis:

While charting a starless system, a planet appears out of nowhere. Its inhabitants seem friendly, and invite Sisko, Dax and O'Brien to beam down and visit. They discover that the planet Meridian and its peaceful inhabitants spend sixty years in a non-corporeal form, and emerge into solidity in our dimension for only a few days at a time. The crew sets about trying to find out why Meridian disappears, and discover a possible way of keeping the planet around longer the next time it reappears in physical form. During the extended visit, Dax falls in love with Daral, but Meridian will be gone again before its existence in either plane can be stabilised, and Dax wants to stay with Daral - whether it means him leaving Meridian, or Dax shifting into a non-corporeal life form with the rest of the planet's residents. However, the treatment for Dax to move into their dimension fails, and nearly costs her life.

Rating:

C

Notes:

This is the second DS9 episode directed by Jonathan Frakes.

Defiant

Episode

55

Director:

Cliff Bole

Written by:

Ronald D. Moore

Stardate:

48467.3

Synopsis:

Tom Riker (see TNG's "Second Chances") arrives on the station, pretending to be his duplicate, Will. On a tour of the defiant, he stuns Kira and manages to escape the station with the Defiant, which he intends to deliver to the Maquis. Meanwhile, Sisko travels to Cardassia Prime to work with Gul Dukat to stop the Defiant - at any cost.

Rating:

B+

Notes:

Tricia O'Neill, who plays Korinas, was previously cast in TNG as Captain Rachel Garrett in "Yesterday's Enterprise" and as Klingon Kurak in "Suspicions".

Fascination

Episode

56

Director:

Avery Brooks

Written by:

Phillip LaZebnik

Story by:

Ira Steven Behr & James Crocker

Stardate:

Not Given

Synopsis:

Ambassador Lwaxana Troi arrives on the station for the annual Bajoran Gratitude Festival, and a large number of romantic emphatuation spring up: Dax and Sisko, Kira and Bashir, Jake and Kira, Bareil and Dax, Quark to Keiko and Odo to Lwaxana. It turns out that she has been affected with Xanithi fever, a Bajoran ailment that causes her to project her feelings (of love, for Odo, in this case) on to others, causing subconscious attractions to surface.

Rating:

B-

Notes:

This is the second DS9 episode directed by Avery Brooks.

Past Tense, part I

Episode

57

Director:

Reza Badiyi

Written by:

Robert Hewitt Wolfe

Story by:

Ira Steven Behr & Robert Hewitt Wolfe

Stardate:

48481.2

Synopsis:

After travelling to Earth to attend a Gamma Quadrant symposium, a transporter accident strands Sisko, Bashir and Dax in the 21st century in San Francisco. Sisko and Bashir are picked up and dumped in a Sanctuary District, high-security ghettos for the unemployed and homeless. Meanwhile, Dax is befriended by information mogul Chris Brynner, who assists her in the search for her friends. Sisko realises that they have arrived days before a historical even known as the Bell riots, when an uprising was quashed by the National Guard, although the hostages were kept safe by a man called Gabriel Bell. However, Sisko realises he's got a problem when Bell gets killed in a brawl trying to stop Bashir from being injured. To preserve history, Sisko must assume Bell's role.

Rating:

B

Notes:

Rule of Acquisition No. 111: Treat people in your debt like family ... exploit them.

Past Tense, part II

Episode

58

Director:

Jonathan Frakes

Written by:

Ira Steven Behr & René Echevarria

Stardate:

Not Given

Synopsis:

Sisko takes charge of the hostage situation as Bell, insisting that the sanctuary's residents demand more than just a way out for themselves. He meets with a government official and demands that employment acts be reactivated that would allow the unemployed to be productive members of society, eliminating the need for the sanctuary districts. In the sanctuary, tensions rise between the hostages and their captors, and Sisko and Bashir have to keep both parties in check. When the government storms the sanctuary district, Sisko finds himself in the same position as Gabriel Bell did, according to the history books - he will mostly likely be killed in the raid and become a martyr. Meanwhile in the 24th century, O'Brien and Kira have figured out what happened and have discovered a way to beam in and out of different centuries - but the number of times they can do this is limited - and they have more times to try than opportunities.

Rating:

B+

Life Support

Episode

59

Director:

Reza Badiyi

Written by:

Ronald D. Moore

Story by:

Christian Ford & Roger Soffer

Stardate:

48498.4

Synopsis:

Vedek Bareil is severely injured in an accident aboard a Bajoran transport ferrying him and Kai Winn to groundbreaking peace negotiations with the Cardassians. Bareil dies, but Bashir is able to jump-start the Vedek's brain again, reviving him with some very unconventional surgical techniques. Winn needs Bareil's advice, as only he is fully conversant with the treaty being discussed, but the prospects of keeping Bareil alive without putting him in stasis are not hopeful, and despite Bashir's strictest protests Bareil will not rest or allow himself to be put into stasis. As the peace talks reach a critical stage, the only option left to keep Bareil's knowledge of the treaty available will rob him of his humanity and eventually his life.

Rating:

B

Heart of Stone

Episode

60

Director:

Alexander Singer

Written by:

Ira Steven Behr & Robert Hewitt Wolfe

Stardate:

48521.5

Synopsis:

Tracking a lone Maquis ship to a deserted moon, Kira becomes trapped by a growing crystal formation that will eventually kill her. After nothing works to free her, and it appears she is going to die, Odo confesses his love for her, but it turns out that it isn't Kira at all - it's the female changeling, who was trying to crush his love for Kira so that he will return home.

Rating:

C-

Notes:

This is the second appearance of the female changeling.

Destiny

Episode

61

Director:

Les Landau

Written by:

David S. Cohen & Martin A. Winer

Stardate:

48543.2

Synopsis:

The first joint scientific venture between Bajor and Cardassia is to be a communications relay satellite placed at the Gamma Quadrant end of the wormhole, and two Cardassian scientists - with an observer from the Obsidian Order not far behind - arrive on DS9 to deliver the payload. As if the unease about the new Bajoran-Cardassian peace accord isn't enough, Vedek Yarka arrives from Bajor to inform Sisko - still regarded as the Emissary in Bajoran culture - that prophecy predicts the Cardassians' presence will result in calamity, not the least of which will be the closure of the wormhole. As the mission progresses, it all starts adding up as prophesied, including the appearance of a comet which could damage or destroy the wormhole, although its results are ultimately far from deadly, and the prophecy comes true.

Rating:

A-

Notes:

Starfleet successfully installs a subspace communications relay on the far side of the wormhole, allowing them to communicate with the Gamma Quadrant.
Rule of Qcquisition No. 34: Peace is good for business.
Rule of Acquisition No. 35: War is good for business.

Prophet Motive

Episode

62

Director:

René Auberjonois

Written by:

Ira Steven Behr & Robert Hewitt Wolfe

Stardate:

Not Given

Synopsis:

Grand Nagus Zek arrives on the station a changed man. He's written a book of completely new Rules of Acquisition and intends to reform the entire Ferengi way of life. Quark refuses to accept the sweeping change proposed by the Nagus, discovering that the pinnacle of Ferengi avarice acquired a missing Orb from the wormhole and then visited the wormhole itself, making contact with the aliens there who were reviled by Zek's greed and reverted him into an earlier, kinder and gentler stage of Ferengi development. Quark wants the Nagus to be returned to his old, greedy, disgusting mannerisms right away!

Rating:

E

Notes:

This is the first episode directed by René Auberjonois (Odo).
Rule of Acquisition No. 10: Greed is eternal.

Visionary

Episode

63

Director:

Reza Badiyi

Written by:

John Shirley

Story by:

Ethan H. Calk

Stardate:

Not Given

Synopsis:

While preparing for the arrival of the Romulans, O'Brien is exposed to a mild form of radiation poisoning, which causes him to move back and forth between the current time and about six hours in the future - where his witnesses the station's destruction at the hands of cloaked Romulan vessels and his own death. He returns to provide Julian with vital medical information and Sisko on how to prevent the station's destruction.

Rating:

A

Distant Voices

Episode

64

Director:

Alexander Singer

Written by:

Ira Steven Behr & Robert Hewitt Wolfe

Story by:

Joe Menosky

Stardate:

Not Given

Synopsis:

On the eve of his 30th birthday, Bashir is left in a coma, dying after an alien attack. To recover, he must make a journey through his mind - the different aspects of which are represented by the station's senior staff.

Rating:

C+

Notes:

The Ullians possess a similar ability to project themselves into the minds of others, which threw Counsellor Troi, Commander Riker and Dr. Crusher into comas after Jev invaded their minds in TNG's "Violations".

Through the Looking Glass

Episode

65

Director:

Winrich Kolbe

Written by:

Ira Steven Behr & Robert Hewitt Wolfe

Stardate:

Not Given

Synopsis:

Abducted into the mirror universe by O'Brien's double, Sisko is forced to stop the alternate Jennifer Sisko from finishing a sensor array that would mean an end to the rebellion against the Cardassian-Bajoran Alliance. Although many of the rebels feel that Jennifer should be assassinated, Sisko does his best to keep her alive and yet not betray the rebellion.

Rating:

B

Notes:

Tim Russ makes a guest appearance as the mirror Tuvok.

Improbable Cause

Episode

66

Director:

Avery Brooks

Written by:

René Echevarria

Story by:

Robert Lederman & David R. Long

Stardate:

Not Given

Synopsis:

Odo's investigation into an explosion in Garak's shop points to a much larger plan engineered by the Romulans. Odo and Garak now set out to find ex-Obsidian Order mastermind Enabran Tain on Garak's hunch that Tain may also be an assassin's target, but they are intercepted en route by a Romulan ship carrying Tain as a passenger. Tain invites Garak to rejoin him on a joint mission of the Obsidian Order and the Romulan Tal Shiar to attack the Founders of the Dominion on their own turf - and Garak accepts.

Rating:

B-

Notes:

This is the third DS9 episode directed by Avery Brooks.

The Die is Cast

Episode

67

Director:

David Livingston

Written by:

Ronald D. Moore

Stardate:

Not Given

Synopsis:

One of the first priorities of the alliance between the Cardassian and Romulan secret police is to extract whatever information on the Founders that Odo may possess. At the wormhole, they briefly appear to the crew of DS9 as they decloak; Starfleet orders Sisko to keep the Defiant at the ready in the event of Dominion retaliation against the Alpha Quadrant. Starfleet is also sending more ships to the station as well. Sisko, however, deducing that Odo and Garak are aboard one of the ships, decides to leave DS9 ahead of schedule and retrieve Odo. What he does not know is that the Dominion has planned for the Cardassian-Romulan assault for a long time, and that he's about to take the Defiant into the biggest space battle the galaxy has seen since Wolf 359.

Rating:

B+

Notes:

Michael Eddington returns.

Explorers

Episode

68

Director:

Cliff Bole

Written by:

René Echevarria

Story by:

Hilary J. Bader

Stardate:

Not Given

Synopsis:

On a visit to Bajor, Commander Sisko is intrigued by a Bajoran ship which somehow travelled to Cardassia in ancient times. He builds a replica of the sailship to recreate the journey, but Jake seems reluctant to join in. Sisko also receives a strange warning from Gul Dukat that the journey is too hazardous simply to satisfy curiosity. Despite all these odds, Ben and Jake set out on the journey - and discover how the Bajorans managed to travel to the Cardassian so quickly so long ago.

Rating:

A

Notes:

Bashir would have been class valedictorian instead of runner-up salutatorian at Starfleet Medical if he hadn't mistaken a pre-ganglionic fibre for a post-ganglionic nerve.

Family Business

Episode

69

Director:

René Auberjonois

Written by:

Ira Steven Behr & Robert Hewitt Wolfe

Stardate:

Not Given

Synopsis:

Quark's bar is audited by the Ferengi Commerce Authority when he is charged with negligence in taking care of his mother. As it happens, she has made profit from a secret business deal, so Quark and Rom head home to deal with the problem. While Rom can't help but admire his mother's lobes for business, Quark is prepared to stop at nothing to wring a confession out of her. If she doesn't surrender her profits, Quark will have to pay.

Rating:

C

Notes:

Penny Johnson's first appearance as Kasidy Yates, Sisko's love interest.

Shakaar

Episode

70

Director:

Jonathan West

Written by:

Gordon Dawson

Stardate:

Not Given

Synopsis:

Kai Winn is appointed First Minister of Bajor's Provisional Government, but when a small group of outlaws threatens to disrupt her transition into power, Kira intervenes, but sides with the farmers from Dahkur province when she discovers that their leader is an old friend.

Rating:

B+

Facets

Episode

71

Director:

Cliff Bole

Written by:

René Echevarria

Stardate:

Not Given

Synopsis:

Quark's ongoing efforts to prevent Nog from joining Starfleet Academy are interrupted by a call to attend a meeting being held by Jadzia. She is about to undergo a ritual in which the memories of each of Dax's past hosts is telepathically transferred to another person so she can come to understand them better. Problems are anticipated when it comes to encountering Joran, the mentally unstable host preceding Curzon who was a murderer, but no one expects that Curzon himself will cause any problems. However, once the mind and memories of Curzon Dax find themselves a new home in the form of Odo, Sisko's crusty old mentor doesn't have any intention of relinquishing his new body.

Rating:

A

Notes:

Jadzia is the only Trill initiate to be readmitted to the initiate program after being washed out.

The Adversary

Episode

72

Director:

Alexander Singer

Written by:

Ira Steven Behr & Robert Hewitt Wolfe

Stardate:

48959.1

Synopsis:

After the party surrounding Sisko's promotion from Commander to Captain is cut short, the crew learn that a changeling saboteur is on a mission to spark a war between the Federation and the Tzenkethi, thus keeping those two powers too busy fighting each other to defend against a Dominion invasion. Naturally, the task of tracking down and fighting the intruder falls to Odo, who will become the first changeling to break with a sacred tradition and kill a fellow changeling.

Rating:

A-

Notes:

Odo returns home under the influence of the Founders to be judged for this murder in the final episode of Season 5, "Broken Link". This season closes with everyone wondering what's going to happen about the impending Dominion invasion...

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