I can understand budget cuts scaling down on big ideas, but how much money would it take to just have our characters talk to Sloan, rather than jump about in his head
The strange thing about the show's budget problems is that
The Dogs of War contains a completely unnecessary visual effect of an extra transporting into ops. It's a cool shot, but considering the fact that the previous episode had been scaled back, and the finale was going to have to use stock footage for some of the battle sequences, where did the money for that unnecessary effect come from?
The Dogs of War (***½)
After the mess of
Extreme Measures, the show only has one episode left with which to set up the finale. The first bit of set up is the introduction of the new Defiant and its terrible carpet. Who decided that purple was a good colour for the interior of a starship? What is this, the freakin' Andromeda?
On Cardassia, Kira, Garak, and Damar somehow escape a Dominion ambush. Thankfully, we don't see their exciting escape or their daring journey to the capital, we get to see them hang out in a dark basement. Seriously though, bringing back Mila was a wonderful bit of continuity, and she's instantly memorable even though she only appeared in one scene back in season 3. Unfortunately for Damar, his entire band of merry men are wiped out by a Dominion attack. How did this happen after Kira reorganised the rebels so that precisely this sort of thing couldn't possibly happen? We don't know, and Kira seems to think it doesn't matter, probably because she's embarrassed her plan didn't work. On the plus side, Kira manages to convince Damar to turn the rebellion into a full-scale revolution, and Damar gives an inspiring speech about FREEDOM!! while Kira watches from the shadows. Kira has finally achieved what she has always wanted, she's blowing up shit on Cardassia real good.
So that the Section 31 arc isn't a total loss, Odo has a few great scenes in this episode that get to the core of what the previous episode should have been about. He's none too happy that Section 31 attempted to commit genocide against his people, and is further aggravated by Starfleet's refusal to hand over the cure to the Founders. It's an understandable decision for Starfleet to make given the circumstances, but Odo makes the wry observation that the Federation clearly isn't motivated to do anything to stop Section 31 while they serve the Federation's interests.
In order to get it over with at long last, Bashir and Ezri finally hook up. Hardly the best story DS9 has ever produced, but an interesting parallel to Bashir's introduction on the show where he was leering at Jadzia.
Quark has been sadly forgotten during most of this final arc, and this episode does its best to complete his character arc with a certain amount of dignity. Not much dignity, mind you, but he gets about as much dignity as a Ferengi ever gets. I don't completely buy that Ferengi society underwent such rapid reforms in the space of a couple of years, or that Quark has been so busy thinking about Ezri that he didn't pay attention to what amounts to a revolution for Ferengi society back home. But these things are just a means for Quark to give one final bombastic speech about the marvels of greed. I also struggle to imagine that Rom would be accepted as Nagus by the majority of Ferengi, and I fear he will end up dead within 2 years, but since there's only 1 episode left the show wont have to deal with the sad consequences of this decision.
The Federation have developed a countermeasure to the Breen weapon, so Dead Fish has decided to withdraw all Dominion forces back to their space. Sisko decides that now is the best moment to go on the offensive, and because he's such a badass the leaders of three massive empires decide to do as he tells them. The final battle awaits...
Oh, and Sisko forgot to take his pill and accidentally knocked up Kasidy. They're doomed!
