To Boldly Stay...

STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE
SEASON TWO

by Matt Brown
April 1st, 2003

The second season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was, unliterarlly, the show's make-or-break period.

"Make" - the first full season, the season which ran concurrently with the final year of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and as with all second seasons for all series everywhere, the chance to really get the show moving.

"Break" - The newness wears off, and the need for an identity becomes crucial. Ironically enough, Deep Space Nine perched on the precipice of perfection for a few brief moments of Season Two... then zinged off in a completely different direction. It was jarring - and put me off the series until around Season Six - but in retrospect, the change was vital, and in re-viewing the series in its DVD collection, the mytharc becomes even more absorbing.

Season Two opens with one of the series' all-time great events, the "Circle Trilogy," a three-part season premiere dealing with a complex political coup on Bajor. It would be the series' first experimentation with carving multi-episode story arcs, which it would perfect by Season Six. (Pause review for a moment to drool over 10-episode arc in Season Six. Mmmmm.... Season Six.....)

The "Circle" three-parter features some fantastic action sequences, neat guest performances by Frank Langella and Louise Fletcher, and a whole lot of my favourite Major, Kira Nerys. As such it remains one of my favourite slices of DS9, a bold attempt to create a political thriller in the style that had worked so favourably in Season One's finale, "In The Hands of the Prophets," but now on a much wider scale. This is a story with stakes, as the crew of DS9 are forced to defend everything they've spent the last year building - a make-or-break point for the characters, as much as for the series.

It is the subject matter here, however, and the development of the character of Vedek (soon Kai) Winn, that makes the Circle Trilogy important. Gene Roddenberry was a noted secular humanist, and during his tenure on The Original Series and The Next Generation, he crafted several stories that were militantly anti-religious, and vetoed several more that could have suggested the place of faith in the 24th Century.

No longer: Deep Space Nine continuously put faith front and center. It began conveniently enough, making the Bajorans a spiritual people, and therefore not dirtying the Federation with notions of ongoing religious preoccupation. In this manner, the series managed to address faith frequently and with great sophistication, without ever stepping outside the "rules" set forth by Trek's creator. By the end of the series, however, Sisko himself has been drawn into the Bajoran faith, and the place of spirituality in Star Trek has been increased significantly, an audacious and thrilling direction for the show to take.

Although many fans think (probably rightly) that Roddenberry would have pooh-poohed the change, it really is a defining aspect of this part of the saga. The difference between mythology and just competent storytelling has always been the place of the relationship between mankind and the spirit, and by including the spiritual aspect, DS9 wends closer to myth, and greater illumination.

When not carving a new direction for Star Trek in general, episodes in the second season faithfully continued Season One's dedication to strong storytelling with unique premises. All the while, however, the stories moved ever closer to presenting the Trek drama as more character-driven than on The Next Generation.

The Circle Trilogy is immediately followed by "Invasive Procedures," a nifty "bottle" show where the senior staff, alone on the station, are held hostage by a team seeking to steal the Dax symbiont. Great character moments for Quark, Jadzia and Julian make for some fine entertainment, and John Glover turns in a great guest performance as a psychotic Trill obsessed with Dax. It's one of the rare episodes that unites the entire principal cast, including Quark, in the attempt to solve the Big Problem, and is all the more exciting for it.

Things take a temporary downturn from here. "Cardassians" brings the welcome return of Andy Robinson as Garak, but the loopy story about Cardassian orphans on Bajor doesn't seem to be properly fleshed out - there are some missed opportunities here. "Melora," an attempt to revisit an early concept that had a permanent DS9 crew member confined to a wheelchair, isn't much more than a gimmick, nor is the gender-misindentity Ferengi love story of "Rules of Acquisition."

The latter is, however, the first time we hear of "the Dominion." One of the great pleasures of watching Deep Space Nine again is watching the forces slowly marshal together into the recipe for the series' final three seasons, and the introduction of the Dominion is like seeing the opponent's Queen move into position on the chess board.

The various problems in Season Two, then, may stem from the fact that like Season One, it remains largely confined to the Next Generation breed of storytelling, which, we are beginning to realize, doesn't really work for Deep Space Nine.

Philosophically, DS9's a different animal: while Next Generation is about forward projection, boldly going, blazing a frontier, DS9 is about boldly staying, the moral imperatives of character that lead one to say, "this is my place, this is where I want to be." Developed in the shadow of the '92 Los Angeles riots, the series carries a strong theme of rebuilding a community (the post-occupation Bajor, in this case) and returning to spiritual awareness.

As such, the story craft of the series would begin to alter as Seasons Two and Three progressed, away from premise-of-the-week sci fi episodes, and toward, again, character-driven drama. On any other Trek series, character drama doesn't really work, because the characters are merely ciphers for science fiction and metaphor. On Deep Space Nine, the characters are drawn with more complexity.

Case in point: Standing out in the mid-season dregs is "Necessary Evil," the first of several DS9 episodes which allow us to visit the station in the past, during the Occupation. It's a chilling story detailing Odo and Kira's early lives and first encounter, and boasts magnificent production design and photography. But it is the episode's central triad - Kira, Odo and Dukat - that makes the show really powerful.

The same dirty-up-the-station techniques would be used to even greater effect later in the season, in "Crossover," the first Mirror Universe tale on Deep Space Nine, which would become a running plotline over the course of the show. Nana Visitor's portrayal of the Intendant Kira has justifiably become a fan favourite, although Visitor insists that the entire performance came from the high heeled boots.

Two comfortable mid-season shows bring out some great character moments, for O'Brien and Bashir developing relationship in "Armageddon Game," and for Dax in "Playing God." In fact, the latter is essentially an extended essay on what it would actually be like to be a Trill - and that's neat-o. It's an unassuming episode, but one of my favourites.

Sisko gets his best work of the season in "Paradise," which also features an amazing guest turn by Gail Strickland as the fanatical leader of an anti-technology community. The Maquis, who would form a major plot point for both DS9 and Voyager, are introduced in a two-part episode which probably should have been a single one to speed up the pace, but which does feature the ever-increasing prominence of Marc Alaimo as the deliciously satanic Gul Dukat.

But for just about everyone, the Season Two episode that will go down in history is "Blood Oath." Not only is it the second-best Original Series crossover episode ever, featuring the return of Classic Trek's big three Klingons (reprised with vigour by William Campbell, Michael Ansara, and the late, great John Colicos), but its riveting storyline features the hitherto-friendly Jadzia Dax going on a vicious vendetta, to which she swore herself in a former life. It's solid gold from start to finish, and gets better every time I watch it.

Avery Brooks takes the director's reigns in the penultimate episode, "Tribunal," which like "Chain of Command" on Next Gen, takes the Amnesty International approach in showing how Cardassians treat their prisoners. It's strong work, and Brooks would continue to helm some of the series' finest hours in years to come.

The season closes with the introduction of the Jem'Hadar, which was the major left turn I referred to earlier. The Jem'Hadar, and the Dominion itself, would become integral parts of the show by Season Five, but also spelled the end of the "safe" DS9 storytelling that had been the mainstay of the first two seasons. Things were about to change.

"To Boldly Stay..." has been an ongoing review of all seven seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The complete series is now available on DVD.

You can access the complete series of reviews on the left.