To Boldly Stay...

STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE
SEASON FIVE

by Matt Brown
October 7th, 2003

The first apparent issue for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in Season Five was to tie up the abortive Klingon War, which had been introduced into the plotline as a delaying tactic to keep the Dominion War from heating up too quickly. Hence, our premiere episode gets us into the thick of things with the Klingons.

But at the time, "Apocalypse Rising" seemed like a fairly tame season opener. Its only major hook was the Klingonizing of Odo, Sisko and O'Brien, and the revelation that Martok was not who he seemed to be. Otherwise there wasn't much momentum to it, and I was disappointed... until I realized where the production staff's energies were actually going.

They didn't give a shit about the first five episodes of this season. They were all working on the sixth.

1996 was the 30th anniversary of Star Trek. The second Next Gen movie, First Contact, hit theatres, while simultaneously, Voyager gave George Takei his big shot at that Captain Sulu series he always wanted, with the "Flashback" episode.

But all of that was absolutely meaningless next to what would become latter-day Trek's greatest hommage to the original series, the Deep Space Nine episode "Trials and Tribble-ations."

I first heard about this from a fellow fan. Her direct quote: "they're gonna use the Forest Gump technology to put the DS9 crew into "The Trouble With Tribbles."" Sounded pretty hokey to me, but then I saw the results.

First of all, the above description ain't quite adequate. "Trials" is its own storyline, that just happens to take place simultaneously with "Trouble." This meant that the production staff did what they never could with Next Gen's Scotty episode, "Relics," and actually rebuilt several of the sets from the Original Series. Vintage costumes and props were recreated with meticulous detail. Even 60s-era hairstyles were back, with my personal favourite being the greased wipe on Bashir's forehead.

Second, Forest Gump be damned - this is some impressive visual effects work, particularly for television. Sisko and company do, indeed, find themselves wandering into shots that were filmed back in the 1960s. There is at least one notable conversation between a captain of today and a captain of yesteryear. And it's all absolutely flawless - "Trials and Tribble-ations" fires on all thrusters, with no weak moments. The revised bar-room brawl, which now integrates Odo, Bashir, O'Brien and Worf, is one of my favourite scenes of the whole series. Hell, it's one of my favourite scenes of anything, ever. (Just listen to the panic forming in Odo's voice as he says, "what are you doing....?")

Of course, "Trials" is really just a detour, a time-out (no pun intended) in the building story to allow for some celebration of Trek's roots. Season Five is one of the series' strongest years overall, and "Trials" is only one portion of a canon of episodes that stand out from the pack. In fact, DS9 is notable over all other incarnations of Trek in that, really, it improved in almost every season, over the season before. (Sure, Three was weaker than Two, and Seven ain't quite as good as Six, but that's quibblin'.)

The fifth season is where we can finally see DS9's extraordinary, extended ensemble being rounded out. Through its seven years, the series picked up the largest coterie of principal, regular and recurring characters of any Trek series to date. The result is entire episodes built around non-principals, carried off well, thanks to the fact that even the smaller roles are being performed by some truly exceptional actors.

(For the record, the significant characters of Deep Space Nine are: Sisko, Kira, Worf, Jadzia Dax, Ezri Dax, O'Brien, Bashir, Odo, Garak, Quark, Rom, Zek, Ishka, Nog, Jake, Keiko, Brunt, Weyoun, Eddington, Kassidy Yates, Martok, Gowron, Lwaxana Troi, Female Changeling, Dukat, Damar, Joseph Sisko, Kai Opaka, Vedek Bareil, Kai Winn, Vic Fontaine and Enabran Tain... and god knows I must be forgetting somebody.)

Perhaps the most satisfying arc of any of these belongs to Nog, who began as little more than a nuissance for single-father Sisko and evolved to become one of the series' shining stars. Or maybe it's Andrew Robinson's always-awesome Garak, who was so good, he could probably be placed above Q on all-time Trek guest stars.

But it is the breadth and range of these characters that make Deep Space Nine so special, allowing us to really understand and enjoy the community that has built up around this old space station. It's a very different type of show.

Season Five allows for some great character building, particularly for Odo and Bashir. Odo is stil human after "Broken Link," and my only complaint with the storyline is that it's too short. It's been concluded by the 12th episode of the season, "The Begotten," not nearly enough time to really plumb the depths of what this unique change could have offered the character.

The key to Odo has always been that unlike Data, he has no desire to be human. This is toyed with whenever he comes in contact with other shapeshifters, who challenge him for retaining humanoid form, mingling with humans and enjoying human relationships. This may be true, but Odo is resolutely, devoutly non-human. His "you humanoids" catchphrase is key: he is the constant, and happy, observer and analyst.

The Odo-as-human arc is responsible for one of the season's great episodes, "The Ascent," which is essentially the (platonic) consummation of Quark and Odo's longstanding love-hate relationship. It also features some breathtaking location photography that amps the production value through the roof, and is just genuinely one of Trek's most enjoyable adventure stories, an "Odd Couple" buddy flick in the finest tradition.

Dr. Bashir's signature moment, on the other hand, comes a bit later, in "Dr. Bashir, I Presume?" where it is revealed that the impossibly good doctor is, in fact, impossibly good. He's genetically engineered that way. This is a genius move that redefines the character completely, and gives him an enormous added weight through the series' final seasons. The episode also features a kick-ass guest turn by Robert Picardo as Dr. Zimmerman, egomaniacal creator of the Voyager's Emergency Medical Hologram. The relationship between those two characters - creator and creation - gets further exploration down the line on the sister series.

Season Five also offers a couple of great kickers for one of the series' better guest stars, Kenneth Marshall as the traitorous revolutionary Michael Eddington. With the Maquis obliterated by the Dominion, we get "For the Uniform" and "Blaze of Glory," where Sisko (who really, really, really doesn't like Eddington) confronts his old Maquis nemesis for the final time. It's great character work, and whaddaya know? The little bugger's from Canada.

"Looking for Par'Mach in All the Wrong Places" is a signature entry from the best DS9 writer, Ronald D. Moore, whose moniker as "the Klingon guy" ain't exactly fair. He's a great writer all around, but he really knows how to write for Klingons, and particularly, our favourite lunkheaded turtlesmack, Lt. Cmdr. Worf.

"Rapture" is a very noteworthy episode, and not just because the crew gets their kickin' new uniforms. This is the episode where Sisko finally, completely ascedes to his calling as the Emissary - essentially the moment when our staid Starfleet captain becomes a holy man. This is a big event for Star Trek, traditionally so secular it was starting to hurt.

And episodes don't get much better than "In Purgatory's Shadow" / "By Inferno's Light." There's a gleefulness to the storytelling here (particularly the reveal that Bashir ain't Bashir) that has become the hallmark of the series. It brings Martok (the real Martok) back into the fold, has some great character work for Garak and Worf, and is great, thrilling fun from start to finish.

I'm ranting about goodness, and it's hard not to. There are some bad episodes in Season Five - "Ferengi Love Songs" is as bad as the title, "The Darkness and the Light" is worse than the title, and "Let He Who is Without Sin" is only marginally better than the title. On the whole, though, the work is strong, and if an episode isn't a home run, it's still done with enough style and panache to be enjoyable ("In the Cards," "Empok Nor," "Things Past").

The season concludes with "Call to Arms," which is everything it ought to be: the launching point into the war proper, a truly magnificent piece of screenwriting wherein everybody - and I mean everybody - gets a worthy moment. The last five minutes are nothing short of electrifying - the reveal that Jake has been left behind, Kira greeting Dukat on the Promenade, and that big, big, big shot where the Defiant swings around, joins the Federation fleet, and gets ready to really kick some ass. Season Six's magnificent payoff is just around the corner.

"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.