TheGodBen Revisits Deep Space Nine
- Thread starter TheGodBen
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I love Call to Arms. I think it's pretty rare that a show like this can do something that is genuinely exciting, and remains so even years later, when I rewatch the episode. Also, even though it's a defeat for the Federation, it feels like a triumph because there are so many awesome little moments, like Kira sabotaging the station and Martok de-cloaking to protect the Defiant.
I love the scene where Dukat discovers that Sisko left the baseball behind. And then the final shot of the Federation fleet, of course. Great stuff.
Considered purely as a single episode, it's actually a bit uneven. But... as the culmination of several seasons worth of build-up, it's awesome. I think this episode and the occupation arc at the beginning of season 6 together make up my favorite stretch of Star Trek episodes.
I love the scene where Dukat discovers that Sisko left the baseball behind. And then the final shot of the Federation fleet, of course. Great stuff.
Considered purely as a single episode, it's actually a bit uneven. But... as the culmination of several seasons worth of build-up, it's awesome. I think this episode and the occupation arc at the beginning of season 6 together make up my favorite stretch of Star Trek episodes.
I know I say this after Call To Arms in nearly every Watch Thread, but now you should properly experience the wait for S6, hold off on watching A Time To Stand for 3 months like we all had to first run.
Oh wait, you already have long abscenses these days. Never mind.
Oh wait, you already have long abscenses these days. Never mind.
Back in the day three months would be some sort of Chinese torture. These days I've lost several months with the birth of my nephew, starting a new full-time job, and moving to a new place with my partner. If I can even remember I was watching something three months ago these days it's a miracle. Bloody grown-up life, I tells ya.
I was just remembering the scene where Kira blows up the station. Such a wonderful moment, as it was great paybaclk to the Cardassians being as they left it in a similar state for Starfleet. And of course, Kira coldly welcoming her new overlords was a chilling moment.
Things like the baseball being left behind were great wee scenes that just helped make the whole thing seem big, yet very personal to all the cast we got to know over the time.
Its up there with the best of the best of Star Trek, its a classic that just makes you scream out for more, loved every second of it.
From watching through again recently, its the beginning of some great ST TV, the final 3 seasons of DS9 were brilliant, and had me glued to it the whole way.
You're lucky I don't take another year-long gap like I did with Crusade.I know I say this after Call To Arms in nearly every Watch Thread, but now you should properly experience the wait for S6, hold off on watching A Time To Stand for 3 months like we all had to first run.
Oh wait, you already have long abscenses these days. Never mind.
Season 5 Review
I know you've been waiting on these graphs, so here's your reward for being patient:
The average score for this season is 6.808, yet another record-breaking score for a season of Star Trek, but it still doesn't beat the score I gave for season 4 of Babylon 5. The reason why is plain to see, two stalactites of suckiness that are Let He Who Is Without Sin... and Ferengi Love Songs. Without those episodes this would have been the highest average score I ever gave to any season, Ira Behr's love of comedy episodes seems to have scuppered DS9's last, best hope for beating Babylon 5's record. (On the plus side, DS9's overall average is now 6.221, which puts it ahead of Babylon 5's overall average for the first time.)
The trendline is pretty level, so this was a very consistent season.
As you can see from this graph, the two aforementioned bad episodes were anomalies in an otherwise excellent season. Almost all the episodes were rated above average, with a record six episodes given a rating as series classics, and this is only the second season where I rated two episodes with a score of 10 (the other being Enterprise's third season).
I rated two episodes this season below average, two were average, and twenty-two were above average.
Best episode: Call to Arms
Worst episode: Let He Who Is Without Sin...
The Writers
There's two new writers this season, Bradley Thompson and David Weddle, but all their teleplay credits are together so they'll be rated as one. I'm very interested to see how they'll do in the rankings because they went on to work on Battlestar Galactica and wrote many great episodes of that show.
Ron Moore returns to the top-spot this season with an incredible score of 7.833, but Rene Echevarria isn't far behind on 7.8. That's a really strong showing for those two, they're the highest average scores achieved by any writers for a season since Jeri Taylor got 8.5 for in Voyager's first season, and she was only credited with two episodes that year. Next up is Wolfe who gets of score of 6.75 for his final season as a staff writer, although he writes one more episode as a freelancer in season 7. Thompson and Weddle are next with a score of 6.5. Ira Behr's score is 5.875 while Hans Beimler's is 5.25. Peter Allan Fields writes his final episode of DS9 which got a score of 5, which is disappointing for him.
Something unexpected happened this season with Moore actually overtaking Field's lead, which I had previously thought was insurmountable. They both have an amazing score of 7.25, but Moore is credited with more episodes so he gets a technical lead. With Fields final score now set, Moore will have to maintain this level of quality in the final two seasons to stay ahead. Echevarria is in third place with a score of 6.769, while Thompson and Weddle's debut score of 6.5 puts them in fourth. Wolfe is up next with a score of 6.187, then Behr with 5.844, then Beimler with 5.667. Piller remains in last place with an average of 5.5.
Statistics
Runabouts Lost: 7 (+3)
Form of... : 31 (+3)
Wormhole in Peril: 7 (+3)
Sykonee's Counter: 34 (+15)
Stupid French Things: 4 (+1)
Season 1 Average: 5.211
Season 2 Average: 6.231
Season 3 Average: 6.192
Season 4 Average: 6.4
Season 5 Average: 6.808
Overall Average: 6.221
Voyager Average After 5 Seasons: 4.915
Enterprise Overall Average: 5.206
Babylon 5 Overall Average: 6.121
In Summation
There's still much debate today about what the best season of DS9 is, but most people place season five as either their favourite or second favourite season of the show. It's easy to see why. Ignoring all the story arcs and epic plot twists season five brought, at it's core it is a very solid collection of episodes, and arguably the most consistent season of Star Trek ever. There are some weak spots, and Let He Who Is Without Sin... is a contender for the position as one of the worst episodes of the series, but that's an exception. This season is the work of a group of writers at or near the top of their game, and that's why it might just be DS9's best, and one of Star Trek's best.
That being said, this season also makes noticeable one of DS9's biggest flaws: the fact that it's stuck between being an episodic show and a serialised one. Important storylines and character arcs rear their heads, then disappear only to surface again at a later date. By Inferno's Light, an episode that dramatically redefined DS9's political landscape gets followed up by an episode about Bashir's hidden genetic engineering, which also suddenly disappears the following week. I understand why the show is like this, but when you compare DS9 with other serialised shows, especially the ones we get today, it comes off looking amateurish. And while some will blame the studio or Berman for these problems, I think that the writers still could have done a little more to make the show just a little less schizophrenic.
Thankfully, one thing that the show can rely on right now is the characters, at this point in the series they are all well defined and have good chemistry with one another. That's a backbone that the show needs now more than ever as they head in a new uncertain direction with the Dominion war and the loss of the station. Which character stood out the most this season? I think that Sisko gets the edge here once again, the character is the centre of the show in a way he wasn't in the early seasons. Of the extended cast, Nog has grown a lot this season and has become more interesting than some of the main cast, while the new additions to the extended cast, Martok and Weyoun, have made a strong impression. DS9 isn't content with having a cast of great characters, they insist on adding and fleshing out even more.
Now, onwards to season 6...
Onwards indeed! Still the best review threads on the board, TGB. 
I'm sure even the most ardent Fiver would understand not wanting to finish that one off.You're lucky I don't take another year-long gap like I did with Crusade.
Interesting you have B5's S4 ahead of DS9's S5. I recall DS9S5 beat out B5S4 in my thread. Mind, DS9S5 didn't face off against the end of B5S4, so maybe that's why. On the other hand, the end of B5S4 did go up against the beginning of DS9S6 (the Occupation Arc). It'd be interesting to see those two compared according to your numerical values.
(random stumbles into thread, wonders what's up with all the license plate numbers)
It's interesting, but I did seem to rate B5S4 higher than most people, so that might explain it. I actually rated DS9S5 with more 9s and 10s than B5S4, and B5S4 only had one episodes rated as 4 with none below that. It really was just Let He Who Is Without Sin... and Ferengi Love Songs that held DS9S5 back, but overall I think they're both comparably strong seasons.
A Time to Stand (****½)
I think it was Jammer who said in his review of this episode that A Time to Stand is like TNG's Yesterday's Enterprise, except all of this is really happening to the characters and there's no easy reset button. That's part of the reason why this episode works so well, it's almost exciting to see these characters so downbeat with victory far off on the horizon, it's an unusual direction for Trek to go down. The episode starts with a fantastic six-minute teaser that has the characters depressingly contemplating their deaths and the destruction of their civilisation, and it gets Sisko so upset that he shatters a sheet of transparent aluminium. It's a powerful sequence that sets a tone for this arc. If Star Trek is a franchise about what it means to be human, then DS9 is finally going to address what it means to be human when our backs are against the wall, and that's the signal of intent that we get from this episode.
The main plot of this episode isn't anything special, the high score is all about the tone of the episode and how the characters react to the current situation. In truth, telling a smaller story in this episode helps to reinforce that this is the new normal and that the show's not in a hurry to get Sisko and co back to the station. Instead of Sisko pleading for resources to take the station back, he and his crew go where they're told, and in this case that means using a captured Dominion ship to blow up a ketracel-white storage facility real good. They fly the ship right-side up, they shoot at a centaur, then they blow themselves up. Good stuff.
But the real treat of this episode is all the delicious scenes between Dukat and Weyoun as the tensions between Cardassia and the Dominion begin to show. Dukat is such an egotistical bastard that watching him get cut down by a smarmy little worm like Weyoun is delightful, but it's also fascinating to watch the wheels of Dukat's mind turn as he rewrites the present in his own mind to better suit his image of himself. It's a pity that Dukat goes whacko at the end of this arc, I would have loved to have seen him and Weyoun tear each other apart as the proverbial hits the fan. But I guess we get the Damar/Weyoun conflict instead which is a worthy substitute.
A Time to Stand (****½)
I think it was Jammer who said in his review of this episode that A Time to Stand is like TNG's Yesterday's Enterprise, except all of this is really happening to the characters and there's no easy reset button. That's part of the reason why this episode works so well, it's almost exciting to see these characters so downbeat with victory far off on the horizon, it's an unusual direction for Trek to go down. The episode starts with a fantastic six-minute teaser that has the characters depressingly contemplating their deaths and the destruction of their civilisation, and it gets Sisko so upset that he shatters a sheet of transparent aluminium. It's a powerful sequence that sets a tone for this arc. If Star Trek is a franchise about what it means to be human, then DS9 is finally going to address what it means to be human when our backs are against the wall, and that's the signal of intent that we get from this episode.
The main plot of this episode isn't anything special, the high score is all about the tone of the episode and how the characters react to the current situation. In truth, telling a smaller story in this episode helps to reinforce that this is the new normal and that the show's not in a hurry to get Sisko and co back to the station. Instead of Sisko pleading for resources to take the station back, he and his crew go where they're told, and in this case that means using a captured Dominion ship to blow up a ketracel-white storage facility real good. They fly the ship right-side up, they shoot at a centaur, then they blow themselves up. Good stuff.
But the real treat of this episode is all the delicious scenes between Dukat and Weyoun as the tensions between Cardassia and the Dominion begin to show. Dukat is such an egotistical bastard that watching him get cut down by a smarmy little worm like Weyoun is delightful, but it's also fascinating to watch the wheels of Dukat's mind turn as he rewrites the present in his own mind to better suit his image of himself. It's a pity that Dukat goes whacko at the end of this arc, I would have loved to have seen him and Weyoun tear each other apart as the proverbial hits the fan. But I guess we get the Damar/Weyoun conflict instead which is a worthy substitute.
A Time to Stand is a brilliantly dark start to the season. It just wasn't what I wa expecting at all when I first saw it, as it played against all of he established Trek stereotypes. I remember excitedly renting the first video of the season that had the first two episodes on. I couldn't believe how the storyline carryed on.
Rocks and Shoals (*****)
If A Time to Stand was a statement of intent to bring DS9 to a darker place, Rocks and Shoals is the proof that they're not messing around. Betrayal, suicide, and a dozen pointless deaths on a lifeless rock. But perhaps even darker is the realisation that Kira has sleepwalked her way into becoming a collaborator. She's the last person you would expect that would happen to, but in her attempts to keep Bajor out of the fighting she has been working with the Cardassians, defending the arrival of Dominion officials on Bajor, and even attempted to prevent a peaceful protest. What's great about this storyline is that you understand why she's doing what she has been doing, and you're almost on her side as she argues with Jake and Vedek Yassim and makes them look naive. But it takes the shock of Yassim's dramatic suicide to jolt Kira awake again, to make her realise that she has become the sort of person she used to detest. This is great material, a hugely important moment for Kira's character, and one of the best stories crafted for a character that has already had a lot of great stories in the past. Kira is a character that just keeps on giving, Berman and Piller had a good day when they came up with her.
Meanwhile, Sisko and co coincidentally crash-land on a planet within only a few kilometers of a Dominion ship that crashed a few days earlier. I know that all of you are aware of just how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big space is, and how unlikely is is for this to happen, but it leads to a great story so I can't be bothered to give a damn. Part of what's so great about this episode is that it humanises the Jem'Hadar in a way that past episodes focusing on them failed to do. It did so not by having the Jem'Hadar rebel, as in Hippocratic Oath or To the Death, but by having them strictly adhere to the order of things. They die not because they dared to believe in freedom, but because they dared not to. They rejected the choice to have a choice, and consequently marched stoically toward their own suicide. Just like the Kira story, there's some really meaty material here to chew over, and this is probably the best Jem'Hadar episode of the entire series.
The stories are great, but that's not all, this episode works on all levels. The writing is great, there's some really good dialogue here and a lot of memorable lines. The cinematography is great, there's a lot of fantastic shots and some great editing, this is one of the best-looking Trek episodes ever produced. The musical score is also great, there's a slow brood to it that perfectly matches both stories. David Bell was the composer for this episode, and I know that he goes on to score Sacrifice of Angels and In the Pale Moonlight, so his musical style best represents the Dominion war for me.
If A Time to Stand was a statement of intent to bring DS9 to a darker place, Rocks and Shoals is the proof that they're not messing around. Betrayal, suicide, and a dozen pointless deaths on a lifeless rock. But perhaps even darker is the realisation that Kira has sleepwalked her way into becoming a collaborator. She's the last person you would expect that would happen to, but in her attempts to keep Bajor out of the fighting she has been working with the Cardassians, defending the arrival of Dominion officials on Bajor, and even attempted to prevent a peaceful protest. What's great about this storyline is that you understand why she's doing what she has been doing, and you're almost on her side as she argues with Jake and Vedek Yassim and makes them look naive. But it takes the shock of Yassim's dramatic suicide to jolt Kira awake again, to make her realise that she has become the sort of person she used to detest. This is great material, a hugely important moment for Kira's character, and one of the best stories crafted for a character that has already had a lot of great stories in the past. Kira is a character that just keeps on giving, Berman and Piller had a good day when they came up with her.
Meanwhile, Sisko and co coincidentally crash-land on a planet within only a few kilometers of a Dominion ship that crashed a few days earlier. I know that all of you are aware of just how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big space is, and how unlikely is is for this to happen, but it leads to a great story so I can't be bothered to give a damn. Part of what's so great about this episode is that it humanises the Jem'Hadar in a way that past episodes focusing on them failed to do. It did so not by having the Jem'Hadar rebel, as in Hippocratic Oath or To the Death, but by having them strictly adhere to the order of things. They die not because they dared to believe in freedom, but because they dared not to. They rejected the choice to have a choice, and consequently marched stoically toward their own suicide. Just like the Kira story, there's some really meaty material here to chew over, and this is probably the best Jem'Hadar episode of the entire series.
The stories are great, but that's not all, this episode works on all levels. The writing is great, there's some really good dialogue here and a lot of memorable lines. The cinematography is great, there's a lot of fantastic shots and some great editing, this is one of the best-looking Trek episodes ever produced. The musical score is also great, there's a slow brood to it that perfectly matches both stories. David Bell was the composer for this episode, and I know that he goes on to score Sacrifice of Angels and In the Pale Moonlight, so his musical style best represents the Dominion war for me.
That line takes on a new meaning when rewatching the show.
Agreed. I think the writers realized here that we needed to get a sense of who the Jem'Hadar are when they accept their role in the Dominion's plan, as the majority clearly do. More than simply humanizing the Jem'Hadar, it also helps cement our understanding of the Dominion and the threat they pose during this war. We might sympathize with the Jem'Hadar, but if previous episodes like the two you mention gave the impression that "freeing the Jem'Hadar from exploitation" would be a possible solution, this episode shoots the idea down, in a way makes the Jemmies less able to relate to the heroes even as it makes them more relatable. That's pretty complex writing, and serves to up the stakes as well as let us invest in the Dominion emotionally. Pointing out that Jem'Hadar are exploited gets you nowhere - they already know it, and accept it as their purpose. We're in the uncomfortable position of seeing them find dignity in it, preferring the comfort of their intended purpose to any attempt at freeing themselves. That's what makes this plot work so effectively; the regret that the most relatable and honourable traits in the Jem'Hadar are those that make them harder to reach out to, rather than easier. It's really a tragic situation, and it's impressive how much more three dimensional this single episode makes the Dominion.
I suppose the Kira plot also works very well alongside it, showing how Kira herself almost slips into an arguably similar mindset. Her purpose is to keep Bajor safe, keep the peace under their treaty with the Dominion...and she finds that she's been led into working within the Dominion's plan with the best of intentions, almost, as you say, becoming the sort of person she always fought against, almost justifying that mindset to herself. Overall, I think the episode works because it makes the Dominion a more complex threat; not just a force of military ships and soldiers but the sort of power that can eclipse freedoms in other, more subtle ways. We begin to truly get a sense that the Dominion is a functional empire that truly could subsume the alpha quadrant.
Keep up the great reviews, was around a year ago I was at the point your at now, and loved every second of it. Season 6 starts off brilliantly dark, and as you said, I was looking forward too (and thought) that there would be a huge show down between Dukat and Weyoun at some point, although can understand how Dukats arc went the way it did.
One of the things my writing course taught was, as fiction writers, you're in the business of telling the fantastic and coincidental. It's often a necessary evil to have situations 'just happen' in order to set up the problem because real life usually doesn't work that way (and when it does, that's where non-fictional works like biographies or historicals come into play). In fact, some of the best fiction comes from characters realistically reacting to circumstances created by the fantastic.
So yeah, huge coincidence how this episode sets itself up, but the resulting drama from it makes it all the worth while.
Sons and Daughters (**½)
Sons and Daughters isn't a bad episode, but it has the misfortune to follow on from four of the best episodes of the series, perhaps the best run of episodes in the franchise, and fail to live up to their standard. It also has some niggling continuity issues.
Alexander has reached the ripe old age of 8, and now he's ready to become a warrior on a Klingon ship. Fair enough, Klingons are a rather dumb species, maybe they reach maturity faster than humans because they historically didn't spend as much time having to learn things. Learn to talk, learn to walk, learn to throw rocks at things: congratulations, you're now a mature Klingon! However, Alexander seems to have lost track of time and thinks that Worf abandoned him five years ago when I only count three years, but maybe that's because Alexander left school when he was 8 and didn't learn to count properly. Admittedly, it has been a long time since I've rewatched TNG, and during my most recent rewatch I skipped most of the Alexander episodes because they're shite, but I don't remember Worf being as bad a dad as Alexander makes him out to be. He was never going to win the title of galaxy's best dad, but he did try to relate to Alexander, he did learn as the series progressed, and he did come to accept that Alexander didn't want to become a warrior. But now Alexander does want to become a warrior for some reason that's never explained. Go figure.
I can understand why DS9 chose not to include Alexander when Worf joined the show (because Alexander episodes were shite, and that bears repeating), so Alexander does have a bit of a point when he says that Worf abandoned him, and I'm glad that DS9 finally got around to addressing that Worf is a father. But this was not the time nor best way to address these issues. And the solution is rather lame; Alexander becomes a made man in the Martok family. Yay?
The Kira story is a better, but also poorly placed in the arc. Following on from her reawakening in the previous episode, she dozes off again, and her work in forming a resistance cell is put on hold so that she can hang out with Ziyal. Bringing Ziyal back to the station is important set-up for her death, and the episode puts the pieces in place well enough that you barely even notice what's really going on. Dukat's sleazy charm is also entertaining to watch, and Kira's bluntness in rejecting him displays some of the qualities that make her character so great. The episode could have done with a bit more of Kira and Odo organising their resistance in the background to keep the arc moving, but it's okay without that.
Sykonee's Counter: 35
Sons and Daughters isn't a bad episode, but it has the misfortune to follow on from four of the best episodes of the series, perhaps the best run of episodes in the franchise, and fail to live up to their standard. It also has some niggling continuity issues.
Alexander has reached the ripe old age of 8, and now he's ready to become a warrior on a Klingon ship. Fair enough, Klingons are a rather dumb species, maybe they reach maturity faster than humans because they historically didn't spend as much time having to learn things. Learn to talk, learn to walk, learn to throw rocks at things: congratulations, you're now a mature Klingon! However, Alexander seems to have lost track of time and thinks that Worf abandoned him five years ago when I only count three years, but maybe that's because Alexander left school when he was 8 and didn't learn to count properly. Admittedly, it has been a long time since I've rewatched TNG, and during my most recent rewatch I skipped most of the Alexander episodes because they're shite, but I don't remember Worf being as bad a dad as Alexander makes him out to be. He was never going to win the title of galaxy's best dad, but he did try to relate to Alexander, he did learn as the series progressed, and he did come to accept that Alexander didn't want to become a warrior. But now Alexander does want to become a warrior for some reason that's never explained. Go figure.
I can understand why DS9 chose not to include Alexander when Worf joined the show (because Alexander episodes were shite, and that bears repeating), so Alexander does have a bit of a point when he says that Worf abandoned him, and I'm glad that DS9 finally got around to addressing that Worf is a father. But this was not the time nor best way to address these issues. And the solution is rather lame; Alexander becomes a made man in the Martok family. Yay?
The Kira story is a better, but also poorly placed in the arc. Following on from her reawakening in the previous episode, she dozes off again, and her work in forming a resistance cell is put on hold so that she can hang out with Ziyal. Bringing Ziyal back to the station is important set-up for her death, and the episode puts the pieces in place well enough that you barely even notice what's really going on. Dukat's sleazy charm is also entertaining to watch, and Kira's bluntness in rejecting him displays some of the qualities that make her character so great. The episode could have done with a bit more of Kira and Odo organising their resistance in the background to keep the arc moving, but it's okay without that.
Sykonee's Counter: 35
God I hate Alexander. He was in so many sucky episodes of TNG, and then sudddenly here he is, stinking up DS9's amazing run. I'd have preferred it if they'd just left him forgotten, a I rally didn't like the direction that him and Worf supposedly took after TNG.
I also hate the dumb trope of children aging much more quicker than usual on TV, purely for the sake of 'interesting' stories. Feh.
The other half of the episode was better.
I also hate the dumb trope of children aging much more quicker than usual on TV, purely for the sake of 'interesting' stories. Feh.
The other half of the episode was better.
Yeah, Sons and Daughters is sadly pretty bad compared to the rest of the occupation arc. According to Memory Alpha a quite funny sounding scene involving Dukat imitating Damar was cut from it too.
You can't prove that's your opinion until you do a TNG rewatch thread so you can put their ratings in a graph.
You can't prove that's your opinion until you do a TNG rewatch thread so you can put their ratings in a graph.
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