I Can Live with It...Ranking the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Episodes...Part V

by The Octopus Man

So now it's all down to this...We've tromped through 138 episodes of this series in the previous four installments (links below), and now we're staring down the disruptor barrel at the top 35 entries in the show's catalogue. It's been a long, long, long list, and we still have plenty more miles to cover, but thanks for sticking it out this far.

Again, the methodology - technically 176 episodes of the show were produced, but three of those were aired as two-hour presentations. Those three are counted as one episode each, and all other episodes are counted separately, even if they were part of a two-part story (or more). That leaves us with 173. BTW, two of those three two-hour episodes have already been ranked, but one's still floating out there.

Here are the past four entries...

Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more...

35. "Defiant" - Season 3, Episode 9 (11/21/94)

"No, you're trying to be a hero, and terrorists don't get to be heroes." - Maj. Kira Nerys

This is a tightly wound little episode. Of course, the big draw is the presence of Jonathan Frakes, who had just finished up a seven-year run as Cmdr. William Riker on TNG. With that show having recently ended, any Trek fan watching this episode would probably figure the Paramount bigwigs had planned a Riker appearance as a way of 1 - boosting ratings and 2 - passing the torch to the newer series. This is certainly what it appears is going on until Riker acts like a penis toward O'Brien, which seemed odd, then holy crap, he just stunned Kira (with a phaser, not his muy macho beard) and stole the Defiant. (I do love the detail of Riker removing his full beard disguise, which takes it down to a suitably evil goatee.) Pulling Thomas Riker, Will's transporter duplicate from TNG's generally solid "Second Chances", into the Maquis storyline is both a nice character turn and a risky decision from a production standpoint, since who knows how many people in the audience happened to catch "Second Chances". (Note - I saw this episode before that one.) Risk aside, Tom and Kira make for a pretty solid duo. The episode does a great job of establishing who this Riker is, with Kira playing amateur psychiatrist and pretty much hitting the nail on the head. Add to that more excellent scenes between Sisko and Dukat (trying to stop the renegade Defiant from doing any serious damage) and the Obsidian Order doing Obsidian Ordery things, and you've got a taut little political thriller reminiscent of The Hunt for Red October.

Trivial Note - Sisko's role in the story was based off the Cold War thriller Fail Safe, where the American President has to help the Soviets destroy an American bomber before it nukes Moscow. Of course, Stanley Kubrick's classic Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb pretty much features the same plot point, just presented very differently. The Tom Riker storyline had been percolating in the writing staff's mind-grapes for a while before this episode was filmed, but they seemed very uninterested in returning to the character. Jonathan Frakes was willing to return for a "Rescue Tom" episode, but the series largely forgets about Tom after this. Quantum torpedoes make their first appearance in Trek in this episode. The city where Dukat wanted to take his son for his birthday is Lakarian City, the same city that's destroyed by the Dominion in the show's final story arc, thus cementing Damar's Rebellion. And, humorously, Tom Riker's quote about the Defiant - "Tough little ship." - is the same thing Will Riker says about it in Star Trek: First Contact. Ronald Moore had a hand in writing both scripts.

34. "Our Man Bashir" - Season 4, Episode 10 (11/27/95)

"Well, who am I to question Julian Bashir, secret agent?" - Elim Garak

Of all the holodeck/holosuite-based episodes in Star Trek (and there are many), this one is the best. I stand by my assertion that the show needed some out-and-out fun to counter-balance the grimness that sets in with the Dominion storyline and only grows from there. 173 episodes over seven years allows for inessential, yet stylistically distinguished episodes like this, "Badda-Bing Badda-Bang", and "Take Me Out to the Holosuite". And this one has style to burn. The technobabble story that places Sisko, Kira, Dax, Worf, and O'Brien into Bashir's spy program is intentionally ludicrous, and I think the show does a fair job of lampshading the whole thing. While Bashir and, to a lesser extent, Garak play heroes in the program, Eddington, Odo, and Rom are the real heroes, as they do all the techno mumbo jumbo that saves the day just in the nick of time. (You'd think Eddington would bring this up to Sisko at some point after "For the Cause".) But in the program, Alexander Siddig does a pretty credible James Bond-impersonation (especially the cheekier Bond from the 60's and 70's), while Avery Brooks is hilariously over-the-top as the impressively named villain Hippocrates Noah and Nana Visitor somehow turns up the sex even more from her Intendant episodes. Great moments abound, but my favorites are O'Brien's first appearance as the Falcon and the super-brassy arrangement of the show's theme song that plays during the climax. That's one of the best music cues in Trek history.

Trivial Note - More of these were planned, but MGM (which owns the rights to the James Bond movies) sent an angry letter to the producers after this episode aired. The only other episode where we see this setting is season five's "A Simple Investigation", where it's used for a quick scene between Bashir and Odo that has little to do with the program. This is similar to TNG's issues with the Sherlock Holmes rights-holders, which cropped up after seasons two's "Elementary, Dear Data" and kept the show from returning to the Moriarty character until season six's "Ship in a Bottle". The second of those is the best of TNG's holodeck episodes, and is another valid choice for best holo-Trek episode overall. Obvious allusions to various Bond flicks can found all over, but the title is actually a play on the film Our Man Flint, which is also a Bond parody. Due to the sets, stunts, and extras, this was a very time-consuming and expensive episode to shoot, though everyone ended up loving it when they saw the finished product.

33. "Once More Unto the Breach" - Season 7, Episode 7 (11/11/98)

"To Kor, a Dahar Master, and noble warrior to the end!" - Lt. Cmdr. Worf

The introduction of Kang, Kor, and Koloth to the series back in season two's "Blood Oath" placed the Klingons at the fore of DS9's storytelling for the first time, but in a way altogether different than what we'd seen of Klingons before in the franchise. As major antagonists on TOS and in its related movies, then (mostly) as allies on TNG, the Klingons were mainly depicted as vibrant, boisterous fighters. TNG started a running plotline in "Sins of the Father" that picked at the underbelly of Klingon politics, showing a far less glamorous side of the Empire, one that persisted onto this series after Worf's arrival in season four. But the addition of the three Dahar masters to the show saw the writing staff dive headlong into a tale about aging Klingons, warriors who'd seen their best days and lamented what had become of their beloved Empire over the decades. Kang and Koloth are killed in that episode, but Kor, the first Klingon we ever met in the franchise, lives to fight another day. That other day first came in season four's "The Sword of Kahless", but a glorious death in the heat of battle finally awaits him in this episode. It can't be that simple, however, as first we're treated to a story that once again depicts an aging warrior grappling with his place in the universe more than he is grappling with any tangible foe. General Martok's role in all of this only adds more fuel to the fire, as he represents Kor's past coming back to haunt him. In the end, though, a glorious warrior earns a glorious death in a battle sequence that was wisely left off camera. Harkening back to the excellent discussion about Davy Crockett between Worf, Bashir, and O'Brien in the teaser, the episode doesn't need to give us the details on Kor's death (or of the rest of the crew on that Bird-of-Prey). We know what really matters. He died a warrior's death, protecting his shipmates from a bloodthirsty foe that had him severely outnumbered. It's a death befitting a legend. Anything less and he would just be a man, and it would not matter how he died.

Trivial Note - The Davy Crockett conversation at the beginning is a continuation of an old debate about the frontier legend. Historians believe it likely that he survived the Mexicans' assault on the Alamo, only to be executed the following day after surrendering. Most TV and film depictions of the event show him dying in battle, which has been a widely held belief among many Americans despite any academic claims to the contrary. No one really knows for sure, as all evidence that points in either direction seems at least somewhat untrustworthy. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, a classic Western starring Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne, also served as an inspiration for this episode, as it had for season two's "The Homecoming". This was John Colicos' final role, as he passed away the following year. And, of course, the title comes from Shakespeare's Henry V.

32. "Second Skin" - Season 3, Episode 5 (10/24/94)

"Treason, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder." - Elim Garak

This is yet another excellent pre-Dominion War character piece. The twists and turns of Major Kira's relationship with Cardassia provide the series with deeply compelling material for the entirety of the series' run, but this episode may provide the biggest twists and turns of any. The relationship she forges with her "father" Legate Ghemor speaks to a warmth and compassion that was present in the character, but had been repressed for years due to the extreme circumstances she'd always found herself in. By this point in the series, we'd already seen her view of Cardassians soften in the excellent "Duet", and her view of other Bajorans harden in episodes like "In the Hands of the Prophets", "The Circle" trilogy, and "The Collaborator". What was formerly a black-and-white world was becoming very gray for Kira, and this episode blurs those lines as far as possible. That the story gives you all of this excellent shading with her and Ghemor, yet still also manages to pack a wallop both with the Cardassian political storyline and Garak's general awesomeness is a testament to how sharp Robert Hewitt Wolfe's script was. It covers a lot of ground without sacrificing any of the compelling character work or spy-game drama.

Trivial Note - O'Brien, a noted non-fan of Cardassians, was the original protagonist of the story, with the idea being that he would've been revealed as a Cardassian deep cover sleeper agent. This was dropped as it created too many inconsistencies, so Kira was subbed in. Originally, the character and audience would've been left unsure of Kira's actual identity (is she Bajoran or Cardassian?), but the producers removed that ending from Wolfe's story. On the Defiant, Garak refers to the cabins as "claustrophobic". He is revealed as being claustrophobic in season five's "By Inferno's Light". Coincidentally, actress Nana Visitor actually does suffer from claustrophobia, which caused great discomfort during the scenes where she wore the heavy Cardassian makeup.

31. "Hippocratic Oath" - Season 4, Episode 4 (10/16/95)

"He's their commander. They trusted him; he can't leave them." - Chief Miles O'Brien

This episode is the first of two in season four that further establish the Jem'Hadar as more than mindless killing machines. Now, they're still killing machines, mind you, but episodes like this manage the difficult task of filling in their blanks without sacrificing the aspects of the characters that make them so terrifying. Many a TV show or film over the years has unwittingly ruined a good villain by feeling the need to explain too much about him/her/it/them. Somehow, DS9 managed to actually improve on the Jem'Hadar even as they were revealed to not be the real power behind the Dominion and as dependent on a drug that basically made them slaves to the Founders. Scott MacDonald (who played Tosk in season one's "Captive Pursuit") returns to series as Goran'Agar, and again takes a minimalist role and knocks it straight out of the park. Throw in more great work from Colm Meaney and Alexander Siddig, pitting O'Brien and Bashir against each other for the first time as friends, and you've got one of the show's most underrated actors' showcases. The final resolution of the Dominion War partly hinges on the Founders mistakenly thinking the Cardassians to be as replaceable as the Jem'Hadar or Vorta. While that story plays out nicely, episodes like this (and a couple of others) make me wish this characterization of the Jem'Hadar had played more of a role in the series' endgame.

Trivial Note - The script was cobbled together from two different pitches, with one of them being heavily inspired by the classic film The Bridge on the River Kwai. This was produced before "The Visitor" but aired after it. The reason for this was Colm Meaney's filming schedule. Because of this shuffling, the directors of the two episodes were swapped. Rene Auberjonois had prepared to helm "The Visitor", but was assigned to this script instead, which caused him to feel nervous. As a relatively inexperienced director, he wasn't completely comfortable with the material given the short prep time, though his work ended up being excellent. This is also the episode in which ketracel-white, the drug the Jem'Hadar are dependent on, is first named.

30. "Bar Association" - Season 4, Episode 16 (2/19/96)

"Workers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!" - Rom

A crackling Ferengi farce, "Bar Association" stands as one of the finest moments for one of the show's most underrated characters, Rom. Max Grodenchik is excellent throughout the series, as his oddball take on a Ferengi masks the character's technical expertise in the early seasons, and episodes like this one show the promise that's buried underneath his doofiness. Rom's general likability and wasted potential play well in Nog's big speech to Sisko in season three's "Heart of Stone", and once the show began moving Nog in such an interesting direction, it was a welcome addition to take his father down that path, too. Grodenchik's timing and delivery were always impeccable, and from this point onward, the show isn't afraid to give him more to do as a character than just be Quark's stooge. Pairing him with characters he hadn't had much of a chance to interact with before (O'Brien, Bashir, especially Leeta) also helped broaden his horizons a bit, and having the fallout from Rom's strike draw some of the Starfleet characters into its wake just re-emphasizes how important Quark's bar and the people who work there are to the station as a whole.

Trivial Note - The chemistry between Grodenchik and Chase Masterson (Leeta) was an unexpected by-product of this episode. It was so apparent to the production staff that they made the decision to eventually romantically pair the two together, which had not been considered as a possibility prior to this point. Armin Shimerman (Quark) is a huge fan of this episode and its depiction of labor relations. He's a member of the Screen Actors Guild Board of Directors. The name of the Ferengi homeworld, Ferenginar, is finally established in this episode. And Rom's admission of performing oo-mox on himself is the only mention of masturbation in Trek history.

29. "Crossfire" - Season 4, Episode 13 (1/29/96)

"Funny, for a minute there, I thought you were talking to me as a friend." - Constable Odo

This such a sharp little character piece. The fluid nature of Odo's biology is countered by the rigidity of his personality. This is an odd contradiction that sits at the heart of all Changelings, as evidenced by their inherent love of order. Here, we spend a full 45 minutes deconstructing who Odo is, reducing the Constable to a disheveled mess before a pep talk from Quark snaps him out of it. While the plot here is fairly low-key (by DS9 standards at least, as the head of a planetary government is almost assassinated in this episode), visual touches from director Les Landau cement this as one of the most well-staged episodes of the entire series. While the stray hairs hanging over Odo's face at the end may seem like an incorrect character choice, I think the visual is powerful enough to overcome any logical problems it may cause (and I think the idea that Odo had to try to look that way, whereas a Solid in that situation would look that way on accident and not care, is an interesting character detail, not a flaw). But even before that, Odo is increasingly filmed in ways that make him seem like less of a man, only highlighting the personal turmoil he's trying to hide from the rest of the crew. Plus, his interactions with Worf in this episode are uniformly excellent, as their stern-off provides a fairly heavy episode with some solid levity.

Trivial Note - Odo destroys the plant that Kira gave him in "The Abandoned" during his tirade at the end. The plant had been kept in his former regeneration pail, which was also destroyed. Many of the producers were not happy with Odo's hair being mussed at the end, for the logical reasons that I alluded to above. This was an improvisation by Rene Auberjonois, who based the look off a piece of Japanese artwork. This wasn't the only time he emulated artwork in his performance. While the episode is generally considered one of the show's stronger outings, the presentation of Shakaar was disappointing to showrunner Ira Steven Behr and may have led to the character only appearing in one more episode after this.

28. "Rapture" - Season 5, Episode 10 (12/30/96)

"What I believe in is faith. Without it there can be no victory. If the Captain's faith is strong, he will prevail." - Lt. Cmdr. Worf

The so-called Emissary trilogy concludes with this episode, and it's the strongest of the bunch. Sisko is named Emissary of the Prophets way back in the pilot, but not until season three's "Destiny" does that role, and its related conflicts, really stand front-and-center in an A-plot. Season four's "Accession" dredged it back up for a stronger episode, and now season five's "Rapture" pushes Sisko even further down the path to acceptance. Along with some doomy foreshadowing of the coming war with the Dominion, this episode places Sisko's growing faith in the Prophets squarely against his role as Captain of Deep Space Nine, whereas "Destiny" and "Accession" had merely made his handling of both roles somewhat uncomfortable. His mission, as given to him by Capt. Picard in "Emissary", is to bring Bajor into the Federation. He's mere seconds away from completing that mission before he himself is the one that sabotages it in order to follow the will of the Prophets. The guy playing the Admiral isn't exactly Laurence Olivier, but his (and Starfleet's) displeasure with this development is clear. And none of this even mentions the conflict Jake faces in this episode, as his father's life is possibly placed in his hands, with sound medical advice on one hand and his addled father's potentially insane wishes in the other. Throw in Kai Winn's always obfuscating presence, and add in the conversation between Kira, Worf, Dax, and O'Brien that's partially quoted above (one of the show's all-time best scenes), and you have the best of the Bajoran religion episodes, one that promises major ramifications for several plotlines going forward.

Trivial Note - Because of his actions here and the soon to erupt Dominion War, Sisko never truly completes his original mission. Bajor isn't part of the Federation by series' end, but it does join in the post-finale tie-in novels. This is the first episode to feature the gray-top Starfleet uniforms that debuted in Star Trek: First Contact. Again, considering that Bashir is found wearing a blue-top uniform in the Dominion prison in "In Purgatory's Shadow", this makes it likely that the highly complex surgery that was performed on Sisko here was done by a Changeling. Knowing that adds to the complexity of the story, as Bashir advocates for the surgery throughout the episode. Several of Sisko's ramblings foreshadow coming events, especially the lines about locusts stopping over Bajor and Bajor needing to stand alone to survive. The locusts are the Dominion, who come through the wormhole at the end of "In Purgatory's Shadow" but then move onto Cardassia Prime in "By Inferno's Light", as the Cardassians join their ranks in the latter episode. To avoid becoming the first world conquered by this new alliance, Bajor negotiates, then signs a non-aggression pact with the Dominion in "In the Cards" and "Call to Arms", something they wouldn't have been able to do if they were part of the Federation.

27. "Progress" - Season 1, Episode 15 (5/9/93)

"I told you; my life's here. If I leave here, I'll die, so I'd rather die here." - Mullibok

"Duet" is rightly considered a classic, but it wasn't the first great episode of the series. This episode aired just over a month before and stands as one of the show's early triumphs. There had been a few solid episodes prior to this - "Past Prologue", "Captive Pursuit", "Vortex" - but "Progress" really focuses the show on its earliest strength, Kira Nerys. "Past Prologue" had already laid out the central conflict of the character nicely, a former terrorist now having to work for the ruling class, but this episode put a face on that conflict. That face is the weathered old visage of character actor Brian Keith, who nails the role of Mullibok. Mullibok is a farmer, a storyteller, a consummate bulls#!t artist, and a former fighter. So many things about him remind Kira of herself, or of people she'd admired in the past, right down to the stubbornness. And when two people who're this stubborn square off against each other, you can expect it to end in tears. Peter Allan Fields is the credited writer of this episode, and between this, "Past Prologue", "Duet", and "Necessary Evil", he laid much of the groundwork for the show's running plotlines involving Bajor, Cardassia, Kira, and Odo. And the biggest key to his script for this one is that the ending doesn't pull any punches. No compromise, no having it both ways. Kira has to do her job, as distasteful as she might find it to be.

Trivial Note - The B-plot to the episode centers on Jake and Nog trying to make profit off a surplus of Cardassian yamok sauce. This was inspired by the character Milo Minderbinder from the classic novel Catch-22. Wheeling and dealing by Nog and/or Jake would come up again on the show in two of my favorite episodes, "In the Cards" and "Treachery, Faith, and the Great River". Despite the warm reception the episode received, Peter Allan Fields wasn't happy with the way Mullibok was depicted. He had envisioned the character as a much less likable, manipulative, stick-in-the-mud type of guy. I don't think the more overt conflict that type of character would've provided Kira would've improved the episode. Also, on another Breaking Bad note, the actor who played the Bajoran functionary in this episode is Michael Bofshever, who also played Jesse Pinkman's dad.

26. "Improbable Cause" - Season 3, Episode 20 (4/24/95)

"The truth is usually just an excuse for a lack of imagination." - Elim Garak

The best part about this foundation-rattling two-parter is how unassuming the whole thing seems to be at the beginning. Most of the "event" episodes of the series begin with a portentous log entry or some overt sign that a big battle or revelation or something is coming. Sure, this episode begins with an explosion, but given Garak's checkered past and the many, many ne'er-do-wells who populate Deep Space Nine's fringes, this type of thing couldn't have been expected to turn into the multi-government-spanning covert military operation revealed by the end of Part One (much less the even more extreme places Part Two goes). The pairing of Odo and Garak works like a charm in both episodes, and Odo, in particular, gets to be balls-out awesome in this episode. He has contacts everywhere, in every government, and his ability to get to the truth (even when dealing with deeply untruthful people) is second to none. And of course, bringing out more of the cold-blooded spy in Garak definitely pushes things in an interesting direction. This is one of Trek's all-time best two-parters, as both episodes are excellent and satisfying in their own ways.

Trivial Note - Funny enough, this episode wasn't intended to be a two-parter until very late in the game. The original concept had the Obsidian Order come after Garak as payback for his actions in "Second Skin". The first three acts wrote the story into a corner, though, and the writing staff couldn't think of a satisfactory resolution. Michael Piller suggested making the episode a two-parter, and the episode lost the "Second Skin" connection and instead tied in to "Defiant", which had left the mysterious loose thread of the Order's secret buildup in a remote part of Cardassian space. This is all largely why the episode starts out small, then suddenly becomes a major, status quo-shifting two-parter. It's also why this is the first explicit two-parter in franchise history to not use the same title for both episodes (plus part one or two to differentiate them). Oddly enough, the series would never use that titling format again, as all future multi-part stories feature distinct titles for each individual episode.

25. "In the Cards" - Season 5, Episode 25 (6/9/97)

"Even in the darkest moments, you can always find something that'll make you smile." - Capt. Ben Sisko

The friendship between Jake and Nog isn't something that I would consider a cornerstone of the series, at least not in the same way as the O'Brien/Bashir friendship or the father/son relationship between the Siskos, yet it still stands as a key strand in the show's fabric. The two characters go through a lot on their journey to adulthood, with Nog turning from a scheming Ferengi prankster to a battle-hardened Starfleet officer and Jake growing from a little boy to a young professional author. Through it all, there's a warmth to their friendship that keeps you rooting for the two characters through the dark hours they each face. Dark hours are pretty much what everyone's about to face throughout "In the Cards", as the increasingly doomy atmosphere around the station provides a critical backdrop for the wheeling-and-dealing shenanigans that propel the story. This is one of the show's most crackerjack scripts, briskly moving from deal to deal and character to character with the energy of one those classic M*A*S*H episodes where Radar or Klinger has to make logistical magic happen. We encounter an unusually sympathetic Kai Winn, the always welcome villainy of Weyoun, and one of the franchise's all-time loopiest characters in Dr. Giger, with the show's regular ensemble also getting several moments in the sun. What keeps all these comings-and-goings moving in the right direction at the right speed is the episode's editing, which may hit a series high-point here (and editing is and shall always be the unsung hero of TV comedy). It's a wonderful, perfectly timed episode, as things get pretty hardcore after this.

Trivial Note - The Willie Mays card that spurs the episode's plot is very valuable in real life, so if you come across one, take good care of it. The whole idea behind this episode was to invert the normal formula of A- and B-stories, with the A-story being comedic and the B-story being dramatic. This was the franchise directorial debut of Michael Dorn (Worf). His work here was excellent. The sole purpose for Giger's name was to make that lions, tigers, and bears joke, which isn't the episode's greatest moment. The painting that Morn leaves the auction with is the same one Quark inherits in the next season's "Who Mourns for Morn?". As with Quark's comic version of a serious Picard line from Star Trek: First Contact in "The Dogs of War", Jake similarly quotes another of the Captain's bits of dialogue from that movie during the exchange with Nog about the Federation eschewing money, "We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity." Both episodes and the movie were all at least co-written by Ronald Moore.

24. "Homefront" - Season 4, Episode 11 (1/1/96)

"You actually thought I was one of them, didn't you?!" - Joseph Sisko

The genius of this episode may not have been completely apparent until after September 11, 2001. While Part Two of this story doesn't quite keep the momentum going, this is one of the most socially relevant episodes in Trek history. Admiral Leyton aside, seeing two of the show's "heroes", Sisko and Odo, be the mouthpieces for martial law is one of this series' most powerful moments. They realize the error of their ways in the next episode, but everything this script allows the audience to see makes their paranoia and panic seem entirely justified. It's only really Joseph Sisko (a critical piece of this story's puzzle) who stands against what seems so obvious to the other main characters (aside from maybe Jake). The Changeling Cold War that bubbles through seasons four and five of the series allows for some of the show's strongest allegorical storytelling, as it pertains to fighting an untraceable enemy from whom there is no such thing as total security. While "Paradise Lost" provides the audience with a specific point-of-view on this matter, one of this episode's strengths relative to that one is that it doesn't answer the question for the viewer. It leaves us twisting out there along with the characters, just as we so often are in real life when faced with issues like these. And remember, this episode aired a full five years before 9/11, yet speaks to our world now much more than it spoke to that world then.

Trivial Note - As mentioned before, this was originally planned to be the season three finale, before the studio requested that the series avoid cliffhanger endings to seasons. It was then slated to be the premiere of season four, but the studio then requested a narrative shakeup take place, which ended up being the introduction of Worf and the Klingon conflict to the story. In its earlier form, the episode would've seen the Federation nearly pushed to the brink of civil war, with the Vulcans going so far as to leave the Federation entirely. After being pushed back to mid-season, the budget couldn't sustain such a story, so a political thriller plotline similar to that of Star Trek VI was introduced. That film coincidentally featured actors Brock Peters (Joseph Sisko) and Rene Auberjonois (Odo) as two of the conspirators. The presentation of Federation President Jaresh-Inyo didn't sit well with the production staff, so the character never appears again after this two-parter, with future dialogue establishing that he's out of office before the series ends. The character was originally based on former President Jimmy Carter.

23. "The House of Quark" - Season 3, Episode 3 (10/10/94)

"I am Quark, son of Keldar, and I have come to answer the challenge of D'Ghor, son of...whatever..." - Quark

On the broad spectrum of Star Trek alien cultures, the Ferengi and the Klingons are about as diametrically opposed as possible. One of the underrated aspects of DS9's storytelling is its willingness to examine Trek races beyond their basic concepts and throw them up against other Trek aliens just to see what happens. This early season three episode is arguably the strongest and clearest example of that, as something that happens far too infrequently happens here - the Ferengi and the Klingons have to play in the same sandbox. This is all played for some of the series' finest comedy, as Armin Shimerman really brings the comic heat as Quark and director Les Landau stages some of the show's finest visual gags. The best of those is probably the image of a room full of decorated Klingon warriors struggling with Quark's financial presentation in the Great Hall, but that's just one of several excellent bits found in the episode. Plus, the final scene between Quark and Rom shows how much the former's experience with the Klingons seems to have changed him. It's a rare sweet moment between the brothers.

Trivial Note - This, oddly enough, is the only time the Klingon homeworld of Qo'noS is seen on DS9. All of the future action involving Klingons takes place elsewhere, with only a couple of episodes featuring any Klingon-controlled territory at all. The scenes in the Great Hall are deliberately staged similarly to the scenes set there in TNG's "Sins of the Father", which introduced the setting to the franchise. Both episodes were co-written by Ronald Moore and directed by Les Landau. Also, Stephen Hawking (who cameoed in TNG's "Descent") visited the set during production and took a photo with Armin Shimerman and Carlos Carrasco while they were in costume as Quark and D'Ghor.

22. "The Siege of AR-558" - Season 7, Episode 8 (11/18/98)

"There's only one order, Lieutenant. We hold." - Capt. Ben Sisko

It's debatable which episode of DS9 is the furthest removed from the franchise's traditionally idealistic viewpoint. "In the Pale Moonlight", "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges", and a few others are all in contention, and this episode is right in the thick of that discussion. While the tactics used by both the Starfleet and Jem'Hadar troops in this episode seem very anachronistic for a 24th century war (Houdini mines aside, they basically fight it out like a World War II or Vietnam battle),  that narrative "error" only serves to reinforce the point of the episode. Following on from the very de-glamorized view of combat presented in prior episodes like "The Ship", "...Nor the Battle to the Strong", and "Rocks and Shoals", "The Siege of AR-558" takes several of the show's greenest characters (most notably Ezri and poor, poor Nog) and tosses them into an old-school, "don't fire 'til you see the whites of their eyes"-type of ground battle. Sure, wide-beam phasers, orbital bombardment, and any other of a number of Trek technobabble innovations should've figured into the fight, but that misses the point. As much as the Federation and its allies are the good guys in this war, that only matters to a point. Ina fight like this, eventually there are no idealogical debates, no attempts at diplomacy, and no moral hangups over doing whatever is needed to survive. The enemies, weapons, and tactics may change, but war is still war, and war sucks.

Trivial Note - The 558 in AR-558 comes from the episode's production code. Not giving the planet a real name works in the episode's favor, as it only reinforces how otherwise worthless this rock was. Writers Ira Steven Behr and Hans Beimler developed this episode over the objections of several people who were involved with the franchise in some capacity. From their perspective, the battle was based on the WWII Battle of Guadalcanal, one of the most significant engagements to take place in that war. Director Winrich Kolbe, a Vietnam veteran, based the look of both the planet and the combat sequences on his own experiences, with the Battle of Khe Sanh serving as a loose template. Nog was originally supposed to lose both legs, but Rick Berman requested that he only lose one. The Vic Fontaine song that plays before the shooting starts is his rendition of "I'll Be Seeing You", which was a very popular song during World War II. Among the guest stars are Bill Mumy, who plays the engineer Kellin, and Raymond Cruz, who plays the unstable Marine Vargas. Mumy is best known as Will Robinson from the original Lost in Space series. He also played Lennier on Babylon 5, a 90's sci-fi show with similar themes to DS9, and he appeared in two notable Twilight Zone episodes, the more famous of which is the deeply unsettling "It's a Good Life". Cruz is probably best known for playing Tuco Salamanca on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, but he's been a reliable character actor for a couple of decades now.

21. "For the Cause" - Season 4, Episode 22 (5/6/96)

"You know in some ways you're even worse than the Borg. At least they tell you about their plans for assimilation. You're more insidious. You assimilate people, and they don't even know it." - Lt. Cmdr. Michael Eddington

This episode succeeds on several levels. First, the story smartly uses multiple bait-and-switch techniques on the audience, with the setting up of Kasidy and the ultimate reveal about Eddington. Second, the use of Kasidy as a red herring draws out some real emotion from her and Sisko. Their relationship to this point had been nice, but not an essential part of the show's storytelling. Maybe it never became completely essential, but this was the episode where you started to feel what kind of place they each occupied in the other's life, with Sisko in particular caught between love and duty. The scene where he tries to convince her to go with him to Risa is an underrated showcase for Avery Brooks. He really makes you feel Sisko's desperation in that moment. Third, after all the twists have twisted and the turns have turned, the audience is left with Eddington's parting shot. The speech partially quoted above is one of the first times we the Federation really taken to task by someone who's not mustache twirling-ly evil. Eddington, by design, was never a beloved character, but seeing someone in a Starfleet uniform compare the Federation to the Borg and and make at least some sense was an unprecedented move for the franchise. (Plus, using the Borg to make his analogy must've stung Sisko extra-deep, given what happened to his first wife.) The script for this episode is among the show's best, as it deftly manages to tell both a very large story (a new day for the Maquis) and a very small one (Sisko and Kasidy, plus the burgeoning personal rivalry between Sisko and Eddington).

Trivial Note - This is yet another example of Ira Steven Behr's desire to deconstruct the Federation. Note how many times the word "paradise" is used in these episodes to describe the Federation, with almost every use of it carrying a negative connotation. "The Maquis, Part II" featured Sisko's, "It's easy to be a saint in paradise," line, which started this tradition. "Paradise Lost" features it right there in the title, and Sisko again has the key line, "Paradise never seemed so well armed." Eddington gets this episode's mention, during his speech at the end, "Nodody leaves paradise." The Eddington reveal in this episode was the culmination of the writers' desire to use him as a red herring in the Changeling storyline, with many audience members only suspecting him of being a Changeling spy. They wanted to take him in a direction no one would expect. The original influence on the story was the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995, but much of the subtext that alluded to that bombing was removed from the script.

20. "Duet" - Season 1, Episode 19 (6/13/93)

"You have no idea what it's like to be a coward...to see these horrors...and do nothing..." - Aamin Marritza

Any questions about what sort of identity DS9 would cultivate in the shadow of its successful older brother The Next Generation melted away after "Duet" aired in June of '93. I stand by my assertion that "Progress" is the first really definitive episode of the show (it aired about a month before this one did), but "Duet" is rightly considered an early benchmark for the series. Diving headlong into the aftermath of the Cardassian Occupation of Bajor, the script features some of the show's most memorable bits of dialogue, with much of it coming from the mouth of guest star Harris Yulin. Yulin's been one of those actors you always see popping up here (Scarface) and there (Ghostbusters II), and his performance here is very sharp. He plays a meek, ordinary man who himself is playing a blustery supervillain. The dual layers of his performance are note-perfect (and the highly quotable dialogue might seem overwritten until you realize the character himself would've rehearsed this over-the-top persona). Also, once again Kira continues to be the standout of the show's early days, and, if it wasn't already the case, this episode firmly establishes the relations between Bajor and Cardassia as the show's best fastball in its pre-Dominion era.

Trivial Note - The Shakaar Resistance Cell (with whom Kira fought during the Resistance) is mentioned for the first time in this episode. It's unclear if the writers had decided that Shakaar was a person whom the cell was named after, which season three's "Shakaar" establishes is the case. The episode was conceived as a bottle show (an episode that uses few locations, special effects, or guest stars in order to save money). It came near the end of the season, and episodes like "Emissary" and "The Storyteller" had drained the series' budget with the season finale still looming.

19. "Heart of Stone" - Season 3, Episode 14 (2/6/95)

"Save her if it suits you, but it won't make any difference. She's never going to love you. How could she? You are a Changeling." - Female Changeling

The series deployed its Changeling-related tension effectively. Red herrings populate several Changeling scares, and very few actual impostors are revealed considering how ever-present that threat is throughout the final five seasons. Sure, we find out that characters like Martok and Bashir have been replaced by Changelings in a couple of season five episodes, but only two times does the series truly play the "Ha! It was a Changeling all along!" card. Considering the nearly limitless potential Changelings offer for cheap twist-based storytelling and plot hole-spackle, this restraint is admirable. It's even more admirable that one of the episodes where a Changeling randomly twists its way into the resolution isn't a big, super-important Dominion War story, but is instead a low-key, character piece fueled by desperation and survival. I'm cool with a twist from time-to-time, as long as it's earned, and I think this was earned. We'd learned in "The Search, Part II" how much the Founders valued Odo, and that value persists until the series finale. With that in mind, it makes narrative sense for the Female Changeling to use her shapeshifting not as a way to start a war or gather military intelligence, but as a way to really figure out what makes the Constable tick. Rene Auberjonois gives one of his strongest performances as an increasingly desperate Odo, and Nana Visitor does more than admirable work as the Changeling-as-Kira, especially considering how difficult her part proved to film. Odo would only allow himself to be fooled so completely if it was Kira in danger, not anyone else, and the script really takes a couple of different storylines to interesting places in these scenes. Couple that with one of the two finest true B-plots in any episode (Nog's desire to join Starfleet, thus kicking off one of the show's most impressive character arcs), and you have one of the show's strongest character pieces.

Trivial Note - Everything about this episode is a favorite among the many of the cast and crew, with the notable exception of the rock prop that was used to slowly encase Nana Visitor. Visitor, who is claustrophobic, especially hated it, but no one else, from director Alexander Singer to the show's producers, was particularly fond of it, either. We find out how Odo got his name in this episode, and we also see him brandish a weapon for the only time in the series. Unsurprisingly, Aron Eisenberg (Nog) lists this as his favorite episode of the series. Nog's character arc from here on is incredible. In that storyline, we get the first spoken confirmation of Rom's engineering skill, which had been hinted at in multiple prior episodes.  We also see the process that Federation outsiders like Worf and Ro Laren must've gone through to be admitted to Starfleet Academy. Finally, special mention to Salome Jens (Female Changeling), who agreed to be credited in the closing credits in order to hide the twist ending. Too many times, the actor involved in a twist is credited up front, leaving audience members waiting for him or her to show up.

18. "Little Green Men" - Season 4, Episode 8 (11/13/95)

"You mean your people are going to invade...Cleveland?" - Capt. Wainwright

Of all the Ferengi farces found in Deep Space Nine, this one is the best. On the surface, an episode featuring Trek aliens time-traveling back to 1947 Area 51 is a very risky proposition. It could easily have been too cutesy, or too stupid, or too narratively inconsistent, or too anything, but instead we got an offering that was about as good as its jokey premise could ever allow it to be. Armin Shimerman, Max Grodenchik, and Aron Eisenberg continued their generally strong Ferengi work in the episode, but the casting of the guest stars was both highly important to the episode and highly successful. The good guy 1947 humans played by Conor O'Farrell and Megan Gallagher are as likable as the script needs them to be, but the less warm-and-fuzzy military officers played by Charles Napier and James G. MacDonald really push the episode to another level. Napier (who was stuck playing a space hippie in his only other Trek role, in the s#!t-awful TOS episode "The Way to Eden") gets to play the intimidating-just-by-walking-in-the-room kind of guy he made a nice, long career out of playing, but MacDonald (a character actor who popped up on a lot of TV shows around this time) steals most of his scenes as the no-nonsense Captain Wainwright. His scene with the three Ferengi that's quoted above is one of my all-time favorite Trek scenes (as is the one featuring Rom's pure, uncut Colombian technobabble when he keeps Quark's ship from crashing, along with Quark's response to it). I've said repeatedly that season four is DS9's finest, and episodes like this show how in control of all of its storytelling modes the series was during that year.

Trivial Note - I have a fondness for old sci-fi and horror B-movies, as the producers of this episode obviously also seem to have. Three of the 1947 humans were named after B-movie actors of the 50's and 60's (General Denning, Nurse Garland, and Professor Carlson). James L. Conway's direction also deliberately attempted to evoke the science fiction movies of that era. Ira Steven Behr (who co-wrote) fought with Paramount for the right to depict the 1947 characters smoking cigarettes, which was a reference to both the real world and the movies of that time, where it seemed like everyone was smoking all the time. Generally speaking in the mid-90's, cigarette smoking on TV was a big no-no. Aside from B-movies, the other major influence on the episode was probably the Original Series episode "Tomorrow Is Yesterday", which also featured time travel and featured the phrase "little green men" in its dialogue.

17. "For the Uniform" - Season 5, Episode 13 (2/3/97)

"I think it's time for me to become the villain." - Capt. Ben Sisko

Sisko's journey in this episode is one of my favorite character beats in the series, as I find it to be strangely applicable to everyday life. Everybody (well most everybody) walks around thinking they're the main character in the story of their life and probably the hero in that story, to boot. Eddington takes that to a certain extreme in this episode, as his romantic-for-a-lost-cause nature surely casts him as the grand Robin Hood or Jean Valjean-like hero fighting against the monolithic government and its Sheriff of Nottingham or Inspector Javert-like stooge, Sisko. Honestly, he acts like Malcolm Reynolds would act several years later on the beloved sci-fi series Firefly. For Sisko, the only way out is through, as he has to embrace his role as villain and be willing to bring the full power of Starfleet to bear on the Maquis in order to put a stop to them. Anything less would let them squirm away, ready to fight another day. The ride there is suitably melodramatic (in a good way), with Sisko's over-the-top supervillainy really selling his actions to a shocked Eddington. Avery Brooks is pretty out there in general in the episode, but this is a case where that sort of broadness is what's required by the story. There is an old-school grandiosity to this episode, which continues the surprising development of the once-bland Eddington into one of the series' most compelling antagonists.

Trivial Note - This episode and "In the Pale Moonlight" represent the peaks of Sisko's morally compromised decision-making. While this type of ethically gray storytelling was a favorite of many members of the regular writing and production staffs, both episodes feature writing credits for Peter Allan Fields, who was working as a semi-retired freelancer at this point (he had been part of the writing and production team during the first two seasons). Aspects of the classic films The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and Run Silent, Run Deep made their way into the episode, with the first two informing Eddington's character and the latter inspiring the submarine-style sequence where Nog is used to relay communications between the Defiant bridge and its engineering staff. It was also during filming of this episode, in which his only scene was cut for time, that Alexander Siddig found out that Bashir had been replaced by a Changeling at some point prior in the story. This would be revealed to the audience in the next episode, "In Purgatory's Shadow". Siddig had played the role without knowing of the Changeling switcheroo in "Rapture", "The Darkness and the Light", and "The Begotten", which are the three episodes prior to this where general logic holds that Bashir had been replaced. (The show never fully address how many episodes feature the Changeling Bashir, though the amount of time he was held captive by the Dominion was established in "By Inferno's Light" and "Inquisition".)

16. "Tacking into the Wind" - Season 7, Episode 22 (5/12/99)

"The Klingon Empire is dying, and I think it deserves to die." - Lt. Ezri Dax

Easily the strongest of the episodes found in the series' final arc, "Tacking into the Wind" concentrates most of its energy on two of the most fascinating storylines present in the closing hours of the show - the long-running Klingon political drama that started way back in season three of TNG and the ever excellent Kira-trains-the-Cardassians plotline that had just begun in the previous episode. Focusing so much of this entry on Worf, Martok, and Gowron on one hand and Kira, Damar, and Garak on the other was bound to make for a strong episode, but the real winner of this episode may just be the much-maligned Ezri Dax. Her come-to-Kahless speech to Worf about the Klingon Empire (partially quoted above) was just the breath of fresh air the big lug needed to do what needed to be done. Worf had played a long, very high stakes game of give-and-take with the Klingon High Council over the years and had suffered immeasurably as a result, yet still continued to put his idealized vision of the Empire first. Ezri, a character uniquely constructed to put a fresh, less romanticized spin on Curzon and Jadzia's vast knowledge of Klingon culture, throws a bucket of cold bloodwine in his face by forcing him to face a truth he didn't want to consider. Couple these developments (and the generally awesome ascension of the totally kickass Martok to role of Chancellor) with a similar bucket of kanar being thrown in Damar's face by Kira, and you have an episode that forces characters we generally sympathize with to face some cold, hard realities about the societies they love. The show earned these moments by putting in so much time on both the Klingon political machinations and the Bajor-Cardassia backstory (which both began on a different show).

Trivial Note - Originally, Worf would've merely convinced Gowron that he was wrong, after which Gowron would return to Qo'noS and put Martok back in charge of the war effort. This didn't go far enough in writer Ronald Moore's opinion, so the Klingon quotient was upped with Worf killing Gowron in single combat. It also bookended Gowron's reign as Chancellor with Worf killing someone, as Worf's defeat of Duras in TNG's "Reunion" is what put Gowron in charge in the first place. Also, it was around this time that the writers decided Odo would actually become sick from Section 31's virus, as the original plan was for him to only be a carrier for the disease. The woman who plays the female Vorta Luaran is Kitty Swink, Armin Shimerman's wife. She also appeared as a Bajoran government official way back in season two's "Sanctuary".

15. "The Die Is Cast" - Season 3, Episode 21 (5/1/95)

"Do you know what the sad part is, Odo? I'm a very good tailor." - Elim Garak

The phrase "the show would never be the same after this" can be applied to multiple DS9 episodes, and this is definitely one of them, but this outing has a different feel to it than most of the rest. Yes, there's a big firefight between the Cardassians, Romulans, Jem'Hadar, and the Defiant at the end, and the events of this episode bring about tremendous political upheaval going forward, but this episode is more personal than the others. If you read the trivial note for part one of this story, "Improbable Cause", you know that these episodes were only turned into a two-parter late in the game, and the decision to pay off the Obsidian Order's mysterious actions in "Defiant" came even later in the game. All the quadrant-rattling events that take place here spring from those two decisions, so in some ways, those are the afterthought portions of the episode. The meat is the interactions between Garak and Odo, which were also the highest of lights in Part One. The interrogation scene between the two is one of DS9's most powerful sequences, featuring tremendous acting from Andrew Robinson and Rene Auberjonois, strong script work from Ronald Moore, and impressively upsetting prosthetics from the makeup team. Use that as the foundation for a story that also massively raises the stakes in multiple running plots (Changeling Cold War, Cardassian politics), and you have a satisfyingly unique game-changer.

Trivial Note - This was the first episode to feature Ira Steven Behr as executive producer, and one of his first requests was for the series to show more on-screen space battles. Budget and effects limitations had forced the previous Trek series to talk about battles that happened without ever showing them, but DS9 had the money and the technology on-hand to bring the battles to the screen. The Battle of the Omarion Nebula was the largest space battle sequence seen in the franchise to this point, and the series would top it several times over the course of its run. Garak and Bashir discussed Shakespeare's Julius Caesar in the cold open of "Improbable Cause". Garak, despite professing his disappointment with the play, paraphrases one its key lines to Tain during the battle with the Dominion, "I'm afraid the fault, dear Tain, is not in our stars, but in ourselves." The title of this episode is also drawn from a famous quote attributed to Caesar. Eddington's secret orders from Admiral Toddman only served to detach him further from the main cast in the audience's eyes. This perception of him as a "company man" and Sisko's mention of trusting someone in "that uniform" set the stage for his Maquis turn in seasons four and five. While the Tal Shiar seem to at least somewhat recover from this debacle, the Obsidian Order is completely wiped out, which causes a sea change in Cardassian politics, leading first to a civilian government, then to them joining the Dominion, then to Damar's Rebellion, and eventually to their near annihilation in the series finale.

14. "To the Death" - Season 4, Episode 23 (5/13/96)

"I am First Omet'iklan, and I am dead. As of this moment, we are all dead. We go into battle to reclaim our lives. This we do gladly, for we are Jem'Hadar. Remember, victory is life!" - First Omet'iklan

This may not be the greatest of all DS9 episodes (though it is extremely good), but it's certainly the most badass one. We'd seen the Jem'Hadar a few times before this aired late in season four, with two of those episodes, "The Abandoned" and "Hippocratic Oath", revealing much about their culture and biology. This episode and season six's "Rocks and Shoals" function alongside those to form a loose quadrilogy of stories that provide the audience with an intriguing sketch of Trek's most militant species. Particularly notable are the ways in which they're shown to differ from the Klingons, Trek's next most militant species, as any grand concepts like honor and glory are missing from the Jem'Hadar culture. Instead, they function as a lean, mean, professional killing machine, with victory standing as their only goal (not honor, not glory, not even survival). Contrast that further with the other notable introduction in the episode, the first of the many Weyouns we see over the course of the series, and you begin to see the manner in which the Dominion both has succeeded and will eventually fail. From a Starfleet perspective, this episode stands opposite from the later battle story "The Siege of AR-558", which intentionally featured several of the show's least experienced fighters, by bringing the heat in the form of Sisko, Worf, O'Brien, Odo, and Jadzia, all of whom are seasoned combatants (with Eddington having just defected, Kira is the only experienced soldier missing). This amount of testosterone may not normally be Star Trek's bag, but given how balanced it is by sharp writing, it makes this episode truly stand out, from both action and character standpoints.

Trivial Note - As mentioned above, Jeffrey Combs makes his first appearance as Weyoun in this episode. Obviously, he was planned to be a one-off character, seeing as how's he disintegrated and all, but his performance was such a hit the writers cooked up the idea that the Vorta are clones so he could return to play more Weyouns. It is later established that he is Weyoun-4, and Weyouns-5, 6, 7, and 8 all eventually appear on the show. The script clarifies that, under orders from the Founders, Weyoun infects Odo with the virus that manifests itself in "Broken Link". He does so by clapping his hand on Odo's shoulder, but the scene in question is unclear in the finished episode. The big fight sequence at the end was edited for content, which was likely the first time in Trek history that had occurred. Opinions are split on the edit, as most of the production staff were irritated, feeling that the battle was built up and then given short-shrift as a result. Jadzia was to be a particularly spectacular fighter during the battle, killing at least 10 Jem'Hadar on her own. Terry Farrell herself felt that maybe this was overkill, and thus supported the edits. I should also note that Brian Thompson, a great sci-fi and horror show character actor, played the Jem'Hadar Second who kept getting into it with Worf. Thompson played a Dosi in season two's "Rules of Acquisition" and appeared on TNG and Enterprise. Outside of Trek, he played two different Buffy the Vampire Slayer villains, the recurring alien bounty hunter on The X-Files, and, perhaps most importantly, one of the German dudes in Three Amigos!.

13. "In Purgatory's Shadow" - Season 5, Episode 14 (2/10/97)

"Stay here if that's what you want! Stay here and be damned!" - Gul Dukat

As pure two-parters go, "In Purgatory's Shadow" and "By Inferno's Light" may stand as the finest duo in Trek's history. (Yes, they may even eclipse the mighty "The Best of Both Worlds" from TNG.) As I wrote about season six's "Favor the Bold", this episode serves as the appetizer for the thunder that's following in Part Two, but it's still a damn good appetizer. Similar to how "Improbable Cause" succeeded both as the first half of a larger story and as an episode on its own, the (actually, truly) shocking reveal of Bashir in the prison camp at the end puts a nice bow on this outing and makes you salivate for the next one. Along the way, we get some excellent banter between the under-utilized Worf/Garak pairing, some nice character drama between Garak and Tain, some wonderfully testy (and portentous) scenes featuring Dukat, and the revelation that both Tain and General Martok are still alive (the former if only for a while).  The show had been teasing the Dominion War for ages by this point, but the teasing was about to stop.

Trivial Note - The prison storyline in this two-parter initially involved the recently captured Michael Eddington ("For the Uniform" directly preceded this episode). The writers were unable to crack that storyline, so his next appearance was shuffled down to "Blaze of Glory" while the prison break aspects were fobbed off onto Garak, Worf, Bashir, and Martok in "By Inferno's Light". Also, the revolving door of Ziyals finally stops with this episode. Cyia Batten played the character in season four's "Indiscretion" and "Return to Grace", with Tracy Middendorf taking over later that season in "For the Cause". Melanie Smith debuts in the role in this episode, and portrays the character in all subsequent appearances. Different reasons were given for the recasting, but the most likely (and practical) was the sense that the prior actresses didn't come off as believable love interests for Garak due to their age.

12. "Treachery, Faith, and the Great River" - Season 7, Episode 6 (11/4/98)

"Tell me I haven't failed...that I've served you well." - Weyoun-6

The most evocatively titled DS9 episode, "Treachery, Faith, and the Great River" continues the series' generally impressive dialogue on matters of faith from a non-Human perspective. Jeffrey Combs was a treasure on this show (and in the franchise in general), and the series gives him a real showcase episode in its final season. A "defective" clone, Weyoun-6, attempts to defect to the Federation, but is pursued by the agents of his successor, the more typically loathsome Weyoun-7. Along the way, we get what passes for the Vorta creation myth, several nice sequences between Weyoun-6 and Odo, and a major revelation about the Founders. All of this is run through the standard Vorta-worship-of-Changelings filter, complete with Odo's deep reluctance to take on the role of someone's god. Juxtapose that with the much lighter B-story, yet another of Nog's wheeling-and-dealing schemes, this time in search of a missing part for the Defiant. While it may come off as fluff to counterbalance the heavy stuff going on in the A-plot, this storyline features the first truly serious examination of why the Ferengi are the way they are. We'd heard about some of their religious concepts before - the Divine Treasury, the Blessed Exchequer, the Vault of Eternal Destitution - but these were always presented in a comic way, as money-based stand-ins for Heaven, Hell, and so on. The Great Material Continuum (or the Great River) isn't an entirely original idea, but it does give the Ferengi a much less despicable background for their mercantile nature while not seeming like a jokey riff on something that commonly exists in many religions. Beyond these socio-theological concerns, the episode is well-acted by it's four main leads - Combs pulling double duty as two very different Weyouns, Rene Auberjonois as an even more uncomfortable than usual Odo, Colm Meaney as an exasperated O'Brien, and Aron Eisenberg as a philosophically scheming Nog - and it stands as yet another fine example of the series attempting to understand its aliens on their own terms.

Trivial Note - Odo and Weyoun-6's runabout is the Rio Grande, which means Big River or Great River in Spanish. The Cardassian contact Odo thinks he's meeting in the beginning is likely to be the same unseen informant he met with in season three's "Improbable Cause", though the episode never confirms it. Jeffrey Combs compared the different Weyouns to different slices of the same pepperoni pizza. Coincidentally, Weyoun-6 attempts to eat a slice of pepperoni pizza (with chopsticks) in the episode. The morphogenic virus (which we later find out was manufactured by Section 31) makes its debut in this episode. At this point, there weren't any plans for Odo to suffer from it, but those plans changed. The writers also felt that Odo's reluctant acceptance of his godly status in Weyoun-6's eyes sowed the seeds for his return to the Great Link in the series finale. This is also the first time we see an overt display of irritation from Damar over the losses the Cardassians had incurred in the war. It definitely wouldn't be the last.

11. "Sacrifice of Angels" - Season 6, Episode 6 (11/3/97)

"I forgive you, too..." - Gul Dukat

Series finale aside, this is probably the grandest episode of the series (and arguably of any Trek show). The picture above is from the instant the giant space battle in the episode begins, and it's probably still the finest space battle in Trek history. If that's all there was to the episode, it might be enough, but the story is packed with subplots that had been simmering for five episodes. Quark's growing dissatisfaction with Dominion rule, Rom's new-found heroic nature, Kira's resistance, Odo's temptation to rejoin the Great Link, Damar's growing suspicion of Ziyal, Dukat's overconfidence, the intervention of the Klingons, and a surprising and satisfying appearance from the Prophets all come to a head in this episode, and the results are a near-symphony. As far as the deus ex machina ending goes (where the Prophets banish the Dominion reinforcements to the land of wind and ghosts), I think it's completely earned. It literally is a deus ex machina, by definition, but it isn't one in the sense of the negative connotation that phrase usually carries. Sisko's points during his rant at them in the wormhole are completely logical and valid, and it would make little narrative sense for them to just not care about the war at all, seeing as how they went to all this trouble to keep Sisko on the path of the Emissary. I see it as a series using all of its narrative abilities to create a compelling, large-scale tapestry of a story, one that complements both what came before and what would come after.

Trivial Note - Several things here - Bashir and O'Brien quote "The Charge of the Light Brigade" before the fighting commences. The penance the Prophets exact on Sisko in exchange for their help in the battle comes to pass in the series finale, as does the Female Changeling's prediction that Odo would rejoin the Great Link in time. The Prophets refer to "the game" when talking with Sisko, which continues the baseball metaphor he used in the pilot episode. Their demand for a penance was based off the Biblical story of Moses, fated to lead the Israelites to the Promised Land but punished by not being allowed entry. The writers also once again riffed on The Searchers with this plot turn, basing it off John Wayne's character's fate in that film. Dukat's strategy of intentionally opening a hole in the battle line, only to envelop any ships that tried to take advantage was based off a tactic the great Carthaginian general Hannibal used against the Romans. And of course, Sisko gets the baseball back that he left on the station in "Call to Arms". That baseball is really what won the war.

10. "Necessary Evil" - Season 2, Episode 8 (11/14/93)

"Will you ever be able to trust me in the same way again?" - Maj. Kira Nerys

My favorite episode of the show's early years (basically its first three seasons), "Necessary Evil" quietly establishes several key elements of the series. This is our first chance to see what Terok Nor was like during the Occupation, and it paints a suitably bleak portrait of the time period. We'd heard about the casual Cardassian brutality of the era from multiple characters, but seeing it is important for the viewer. This is also our first chance to see just how Odo came to be the station's security chief without becoming an object of scorn to the Bajorans. This backstory is key to understanding the character, and it's nice to see his first meetings with both Kira and Quark. For her part, Kira's arc in the episode is an absolutely pivotal one for the character. The show doesn't shy away from the rough edges her past life as a freedom fighting terrorist required, and this episode is the tip of that iceberg. Without the morally murky ending, this episode fails. Again, the show does a great job at understanding its characters on their own terms, not our terms. Kira shouldn't and wouldn't have to apologize for her past, as she felt what she did was an absolute necessity. Lying to Odo muddied the waters for her, but it doesn't change her feelings about her actions. We have all that to chew on, but just as important is the episode's presentation of Dukat. We'd seen him a few times before, but his full presence wasn't felt until the flashback portions of this outing, as we finally see every ounce of his strutting, oily charisma. It's another crucial development for a major character in an episode chock full of them.

Trivial Note - The episode deliberately attempts to cultivate a film noir feel, as it apes the style of the Mike Hammer novels Odo had begun reading on O'Brien's recommendation. Odo continues to read them off and on throughout the series. We also see him pull the classic Columbo "Just one more thing..." trick. This episode's writer Peter Allan Fields also wrote for that series. We find out that it's Kira who first applied the term "Constable" to Odo, even though prior episodes seemed to indicate it somehow came from Starfleet. This episode also features the first hint that Rom is smarter than he lets on, at least in mechanical and engineering matters.

9. "The Way of the Warrior" - Season 4, Episodes 1 and 2 (10/2/95)

"A Starfleet officer. That's what I am, and that's what I'll always be." - Capt. Ben Sisko

This is such a kickass episode. The producers of the show were instructed to shake things up by the Paramount brass between seasons three and four, and that shakeup came in the form of a sudden influx of Klingons. Considering how out of left field this plot turn is, especially since three of the third season's later episodes really worked hard to establish the Dominion as the show's major antagonists, the cast and crew pull it off especially well. While the other two hour presentations (the pilot and the series finale) don't maintain their momentum from front-to-back, this one roars all the way through its runtime. We get the introduction of Worf to the series, which wasn't necessary but definitely added to the show's deep bench of awesome characters, as well as a whole new status quo going forward. This may ultimately be a stall to where the series was originally headed (for about a year and a half, the Cardassians are good guys and the Klingons are bad guys before dramatically switching places halfway through season five), but the arrival of the Klingons on the scene injects the series with a certain verve that maybe we didn't know it was lacking. Plus, through all of this, Garak and Quark find the time to have one of Trek's all-time greatest conversations, which is generally referred to as the "root beer" scene. It's a wonderful piece of writing and acting that shines as one of the clearest examples of how this series took the time to explore different viewpoints, with two morally questionable, yet fascinating outsider characters casting some of the franchise's major powers, especially the Federation, in a different light.

Trivial Note - The root beer scene was added to the episode to fill out its running time, but was then almost cut for time anyway. Writer/producer Ronald Moore (not a credited writer for this outing) fought for the scene, as he felt it was the best sequence in the episode. The Klingon attack on the station was the largest battle sequence in Trek history to that point, topping the battle in "The Die Is Cast". It would be re-topped in "Sacrifice of Angels". Sisko's new look, shaved head and goatee, is how he looks for the remainder of the series, and with it seems to come a new assertiveness that becomes essential to the character going forward. And, of course, we find out that the Martok we're introduced to in this episode was a Changeling impostor in season five's "In Purgatory's Shadow".

8. "It's Only a Paper Moon" - Season 7, Episode 10 (12/30/98)

"Look kid, I don't know what's going to happen to you out there. All I can tell you is that you've got to play the cards life deals you. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but at least you're in the game." - Vic Fontaine

Hated by some and loved by others, Vic Fontaine is one of the show's most polarizing elements, but this episode should remove any doubt about his place in the show's fabric. Vic and his nightclub are such a disarming way to address Nog's trauma that the show's heaviness is able to sneak up on you a little bit. Sure, you can tell as soon as Nog walks back onto the station that this episode is going to be serious, but the Vic scenes seem to counterbalance it, for a while at least. This makes the big conversation between the two at the end just hit harder, as a character the audience has no real investment in suddenly becomes a powerful influence on a character the audience has every investment in. Aron Eisenberg's performance as Nog is spectacular and is a culmination of the great work he had done with the character from the outset. I don't know if I can confidently say who the show's best character is, but Nog is definitely in that discussion. His story arc covers as much ground as anybody's, as he goes from snotty kid to grizzled war veteran over the course of seven years. This episode is the most pivotal stop on that journey, as the show somehow combines a space war, a traditionally greedy alien race, and a holographic lounge singer into a story that's one the most potent post-traumatic stress disorder tales you'll ever see on television.

Trivial Note - This episode was originally a multi-plot piece that featured several story threads running through Quark's bar. Over time, the setting was changed to Vic's club, and the Nog PTSD plot became one of the storylines that would take place there. The others were to be more humorous in tone, but Nog's tale became so heavy and dramatic that the others had to be cut out of the story entirely, lest the show have another episode like season three's tonally jarring "Life Support". After the episode aired, Aron Eisenberg reported being contacted by multiple war veterans who complimented him on the accuracy of his performance. The episode also makes an overt mention of The Searchers, the classic Western that had influenced a couple of the show's plotlines.

7. "By Inferno's Light" - Season 5, Episode 15 (2/17/97)

"Cardassia will be made whole. All that we have lost will be ours again, and anyone who stands in our way will be destroyed." - Gul Dukat

After a tremendous set-up from "In Purgatory's Shadow", this episode drives all the hanging plot threads home with a flourish. You can quibble, perhaps, with a few things (Why did the Dominion leave the runabout operational? Why didn't they just kill their prisoners in the first place?), but the plot turns and character beats in this episode are strong across the board. Worf's gladiator-style combat with the Jem'Hadar, Garak's struggle with claustrophobia, Dukat's betrayal, the Bashir Changeling's plot, and the whole battle fake out at the end all flow briskly into one another, leaving us with one of the show's most impactful episodes from a plot standpoint and a nice character piece. As I've mentioned before, I don't care that much for the evil path Dukat takes in the middle of season six, but his shenanigans here stand as one of the series' strongest character turns. If you were paying close attention, you could see this brewing in his head (not the Dominion alliance per se, but a desperation to return Cardassia to its prior heights). Throw in the return of the Federation-Klingon alliance, and the story creates a ton of forward momentum for the show. I also really enjoy the prison break storyline, with the actual prison break itself being a tidy, well composed action sequence. Remember, never turn your back on a Breen (something the main characters all seem to forget in season seven). All told, this (along with "Call to Arms" and "Sacrifice of Angels") is DS9 at its most symphonic, as it takes most of the pieces on its chessboard and moves them forward in satisfying ways.

Trivial Note - The riff on The Great Escape that was originally developed to be a Michael Eddington story was mostly applied to this episode, with Garak taking on the Charles Bronson role. Andrew Robinson is actually claustrophobic, so filming those scenes was very difficult for him. Writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe based much of his depiction of Cardassia on Germany, with parallels to the World War I-era Kaiser-led Germany (Cardassia prior to the events of "The Die Is Cast"), the Weimar Republic that poorly managed the country after WWI and before Hitler's rise to power (the Detapa Council, a civilian government which ran Cardassia between the destruction of the Obsidian Order and Dukat's power play in this episode), and the Third Reich (Dukat's move of allying with the Dominion). Also note Dukat's use of the term "alliance" with the Dominion, which is a view of the arrangement the Dominion won't share going forward. One of Sisko's predictions from "Rapture" metaphorically comes true in this episode, with the locusts (Jem'Hadar fleet) pausing over Bajor, then moving on to Cardassia (as allies). Luther Sloan questions Bashir about the convenience of the Dominion leaving Worf and Garak's runabout in orbit, but this colossally stupid decision is never explained (and let's face it, it can't be).

6. "Trials and Tribble-ations" - Season 5, Episode 6 (11/4/96)

"Before I leave I just want to say, it's been an honor serving with you, sir." - Capt. Ben Sisko

For a show that was so often accused of straying too far from Gene Roddenberry's vision for the franchise, DS9 sure did manage to craft the finest love letter to Roddenberry's original creation of them all (and there have been multiple attempts from both inside and outside the franchise). It was certainly risky to take an episode as beloved as "The Trouble with Tribbles" and use it in such a fashion, especially with the limitations of a TV budget and 90's technology, but the production team really knocked this episode out of the park. Every element works, from Dax's fanboy squee-ing, to Bashir and O'Brien getting caught up in the original episode's bar fight, to Worf and Odo's banter, to the humorless Temporal Investigations guys, to the exquisite production design. That last part may be the real MVP of the whole thing, as the crew packs as many easter eggs as possible into the episode without completely overwhelming it. The mixture of DS9's more muted vision of the future and TOS's colorful, atomic age aesthetic alone makes the episode worth watching. The script works a buttload of winking references in, too, while still managing to tell a coherent story in between all the nerding out it does. From a certain viewpoint, this is all of Trek's finest achievement, and something only it and maybe Doctor Who could ever hope to pull off.

Trivial Note - Of all the episodes, this one easily has the most trivial factoids surrounding it. This was done to mark Trek's 30th anniversary, as The Original Series began airing in 1966. Multiple other concepts were considered by the producers, but Rene Eehevarria's idea to revisit "The Trouble with Tribbles" won out over the others. In an extraordinary coincidence, members of the writing staff were at a pizza joint discussing casting options for the episode, when Charlie Brill, who played the Klingon spy Darvin in the original episode, happened to walk in to pick up an order. Ira Steven Behr approached him and was pleased by Brill's enthusiastic response to the episode's concept. Tremendous effort went into the set design and image compositing that was required for all this to work. I won't even start listing off any of the easter eggs in the episode, as there are too many to count, but Worf's response when questioned about the other Klingons' appearance is my favorite bit of Trek nerdiness in the story. Enterprise would actually combine O'Brien and Bashir's suggestions for the change in Klingon appearance for the official explanation given in that show's fourth season. Also, the scene with Sisko and Kirk at the end was taken from "Mirror, Mirror" instead of "The Trouble with Tribbles". Lastly, the names of the two Temporal Investigations agents (Dulmur and Lucsly) are near anagrams of Mulder and Scully, of X-Files fame.

5. "Rocks and Shoals" - Season 6, Episode 2 (10/6/97)

"It is not my life to give up, Captain, and it never was." - Third Remata'Klan

Episodes like this one run throughout the series, with "Hippocratic Oath", "To the Death", and "The Ship" all serving as excellent examples of stories with similar themes. This is the best of the bunch, though, for both subtle and obvious reasons. The casting of the guest actors here is perfect, especially the jarring dissonance between Phil Morris' noble Jem'Hadar Remata'Klan and Christopher Shea's especially wormy Vorta Keevan. Avery Brooks is also excellent, and his interactions with Morris are uniformly tremendous. From this point on, we don't really get anymore of the Jem'Hadar as real characters (with the possible exception of "One Little Ship", which isn't good), and that's a shame. Every episode that had presented them as such was excellent, with no exceptions. The other element that separates this one from the pack is the B-story that takes place on the station. It's just as strong as the A-story, and in concert, they may serve as the finest pair of storylines in any one episode of the series. Kira could easily be argued as the character closest to the series' heart, and both the subtle and overt ways she's basically been assimilated into the Cardassian-Dominion routine are wonderfully presented, as is the jarring moment that snaps her out of it. Every one of the top six episodes on this list could be argued as the series' finest without any gripes from me, and this one may be the most quietly powerful of them all.

Trivial Note - This episode was difficult to write because the location filming required it to be shot after "Sons and Daughters", but air before it. Getting the story straight for the Terok Nor scenes in both episodes was very difficult. More difficult was the location shoot, which saw the production return to Soledad Canyon for the final time. This was the hottest and least hospitable of all their trips there, with time literally running out on the crew before a scripted scene with Worf rescuing the survivors could be filmed. The ending closeup shot of Sisko was forced to be the final shot, but after seeing it, everyone involved with the episode ended up loving it. Writer Ronald Moore didn't know exactly what the phrase "rocks and shoals" referred to when he chose the title, but he knew of the phrase and thought it sounded appropriate. The phrase was the informal name for the U.S. Navy's former code of justice, which involved the use of very harsh, old-school methods of punishment often traditionally associated with navies. This code of justice is no longer in use.

4. "Call to Arms" - Season 5, Episode 26 (6/16/97)

"He's letting me know...he'll be back." - Gul Dukat

Similar to "By Inferno's Light", "Call to Arms" is a symphony from the series. Several seemingly disparate elements are all marshaled together into one epic, sweeping season finale, which like any great episode, feels like both a complete tale of its own and a teaser for what's to come. What's to come in this case would be the six-part "Re-Taking Deep Space Nine" story arc that kicked off season six, but all the greatness that's too be found there could only happen as a result of the greatness found here. We get a stirring battle sequence (which the good guys technically lose), some wonderful character moments, some legitimate comedy (much of which comes from Rom), and some romance. This was an episode where the show used every club in its bag effectively (which wouldn't always happen with such episodes), and the ending lets the audience know that it's about to see something on a scale that Star Trek had never operated on before. After literally years of teases, the Dominion War was finally here.

Trivial Note - Sisko's baseball plays its most prominent role here, as the Captain makes sure to leave it behind for Dukat to find. Dukat's no fool, so he knows exactly what Sisko meant with this maneuver (and he keeps the ball with him for the entirety of the following story arc). After everything we see in this outing, a baseball may be the important thing in it, narratively speaking. (That's amazing to me.) Rom's spazzy moment where he alternately frets over his impending wedding and comes up with the technical innovation that keeps the Federation from losing the war is perhaps Max Grodenchik's finest moment. Also, never forget how important Rom proved to be to the war effort. Without him, the entire Alpha Quadrant is conquered, literally. The second of Sisko's predictions from "Rapture" comes to pass, as Bajor's non-aligned status keeps it from being attacked in this episode. This is also the first time we see Weyoun directly overrule Dukat, a clear indicator of how the Founders and the Vorta feel about Cardassia. This, like Rom's efforts in this episode, proves to be extremely critical. The famous final shot of the fleet was mirrored by the opening shot of "A Time to Stand", the season six premiere, except that in that episode, the fleet has just had its ass kicked.

3. "Far Beyond the Stars" - Season 6, Episode 13 (11/11/98)

"For all we know, at this very moment, somewhere far beyond those distant stars, Benny Russell is dreaming of us." - Capt. Ben Sisko

Words really can't fully explain the importance of this episode, but I guess I'll try. Star Trek has always prided itself on representation. No, the franchise's record in this area isn't at all perfect, but the successes still outweigh the failures. Casting an African-American to play Sisko was a big move for DS9. We'd seen different cultures represented on the previous two shows, but to put a person of color front-and-center was a whole 'nother thing entirely. Slowly, as the show went on, Sisko's racial identity began to inform the character more (Jake's, too). That culminates in this mid-season six episode, which was directed by Avery Brooks. In a different context, the show once again calls back to the pulpy post-WWII era of science fiction that so heavily informed season four's "Little Green Men". The difference here is that the episode tells a story about the creators of those imaginary worlds, not the worlds themselves. Each of the writers in Benny's office, including Benny himself, are variations on real science fiction authors of the 50's and 60's (sometimes more than one). And the world depicted in the 50's-set sequences is very much in keeping the real world of that time, a period of tremendous strife for certain segments of society but also a period of boundless imagination as to what the future might bring. So much of science fiction even today is still informed by this particular era of history. Against this backdrop, we see a remarkably imaginative story that simultaneously functions as a paean to old-school science fiction, a harsh and realistic depiction of the intolerance of the era, and a stirring epic about one man's indomitable spirit. For those who believe Brooks goes too far over-the-top during his big meltdown at the end, I say, "Shut up." This is a story that doesn't require subtlety. It's a story that's supposed to hit you like a freight train exactly because it doesn't shy away from what society was at this time (and for many people, still is). This is a beautiful episode, and one that is really, truly unique, not just for Star Trek, but for television as a whole.

Trivial Note - Again, there are far too many factoids to list. I strongly recommend looking into this episode (and "Trials and Tribble-ations") further. Anyway, the Benny Russell character is based on African-American sci-fi author Samuel Delany, whose career really took off in the 60's. Kira's analogue Kay Eaton is a composite of Catherine Moore and D.C. Fontana, both of whom were women who published stories under their initials to hide their gender from their readers. O'Brien's Albert Macklin is a spin on the legendary Isaac Asimov. Quark's Herbert Rossoff is based on the notoriously prickly Harlan Ellison. Bashir's Julius Eaton is a riff on Henry Kuttner, and Odo's Douglas Pabst is a take on the famed writer/editor John W. Campbell. Campbell really did tell Delany that the audience wasn't ready for a Black protagonist in the late 60's, and Asimov's first novel was picked up by a publisher in almost exactly the same way Macklin's is in this episode. The magazine they write for in the story is fictional, but the magazine Russell buys in the intro was real, Galaxy Magazine, at which several prominent authors got their start. In addition, Worf's Willie Hawkins character is based on Willie Mays (who may be the greatest ballplayer of all time), and many of the things said about the Giants were true of the 1953 version of the team. The building they work in is the Trill building, a dual reference to both Dax's species and the Brill Building in New York, which was better known for housing famous songwriters. There are also tons of in-references to Trek throughout.

2. "In the Pale Moonlight" - Season 6, Episode 19 (4/15/98)

"Garak was right about one thing - a guilty conscience is a small price to pay for the safety of the Alpha Quadrant." - Capt. Ben Sisko

This episode stands as both one of Trek's finest moments and the perhaps the exact instant Gene Roddenberry's ideal vision of the future died. The story utilizes the normally hacky flashback narration structure to watch a man slowly compromise himself and everything he stands for and then try to make sense of it all after the fact. It's that last part that really makes the episode sing, and it's also why the flashback structure suits the episode so well. Sisko's plan to get the Romulans to enter the war slowly pulls him down deeper into the muck in such a way that he doesn't even realize it until it's too late. When Garak chides him at the end about the true nature of their plot, Sisko is forced to realize that while he managed to maintain some air of plausible deniability about the whole thing, deep down inside he knew what he was getting into and the kinds of people he was getting involved with. It's a stunning performance from Avery Brooks, and in many ways, this was the episode "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges" didn't quite manage to be. Here we see Garak used to his fullest potential, while we also see one of our heroes (and really THE hero of the story) actually get this hands dirty in a way most series avoid. There's intrigue and suspense to burn, but the real drama is inside Sisko's head as he records that log entry, trying to come to grips with what he had just done. He's telling us he can live with it, but who's he trying to convince?

Trivial Note - The title comes from the famous line in Tim Burton's Batman, which both The Joker and Batman say to one another. Jake was to be the main character in multiple earlier versions of the story, but uncredited teleplay writer Ronald Moore decided to drop his role in the story as he didn't want to try and break the Siskos' bond. The use of Betazed as the planet that falls to the Dominion, finally pushing Sisko past the point of no return, is crucial. Vulcan was originally to be the planet in question, but the producers felt it would be too weighty to have Vulcan fall, so Betazed was chosen instead, due to its familiarity to viewers of The Next Generation. Sisko's line about being able to "live with it" at the end was inspired by The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. It also gives this list its title.

1. "The Visitor" - Season 4, Episode 3 (10/9/95)

"To my father, who's coming home..." - Jake Sisko

This is probably my favorite episode of any TV show (even if I probably wouldn't consider DS9 to be my favorite series full-stop). It doesn't have the epic sweep of "Call to Arms" or "Sacrifice of Angels", it doesn't feature the trenchant social commentary of "Far Beyond the Stars", nor does it feature the great ethical questions of "In the Pale Moonlight" or "For the Uniform". What it does feature is a deceptively simple story of the bond between a father and a son. Cirroc Lofton, Tony Todd, and Avery Brooks are all magnificent here, as the series builds upon the three-plus years it had put in establishing the warmth of the Siskos' relationship. The subtle alterations in the dynamics of their encounters throughout the episode are an excellent feat of writing, acting, and directing, as it's the ease with which Jake slips from productive and successful author to obsessed loner that propels the story without ever allowing it to slide into melodrama. There are just little touches here and there that reinforce what we're seeing (Sisko's face when he appears for the final time, his super cute desire for grandkids, the way Tony Todd plays the revelatory scene at the end, Avery Brooks hitting the right amount of desperation in the "Promise me!" scene). It's a universal story, but it's told in a way only Star Trek could tell it, using just the right amount of Trek's particular brand of technobabbly futurism to make it feel both uniquely like a Trek show and like a story that just about anyone anywhere should be able to appreciate. As far as DS9 is concerned, stories like this are what set it apart from the rest of the franchise. Allowing Sisko to be a family man (no other Captain is in the other Treks) provided the series with the kind of emotional stakes the other shows just don't quite have, which is just one of the ways in which this one is the best.

Trivial Note - The main inspiration for the framing story was an incident where the ever-reclusive J.D. Salinger gave an interview to a high school student who simply showed up at his house. Melanie, Jake's fan, was played Andrew Robinson's daughter, Rachel. Robinson played Garak in the series, but didn't appear in this outing. Sisko's "death" in this episode, where he's essentially pulled out of linear time, is similar to his "death" in the series finale. In both instances, the series features a shot of Jake looking longingly out a Promenade window with Kira at his side, but the perspectives of the two shots are reversed. The one in the series finale is the final shot of the series. This episode also predicts a future where several terrible things do not happen. The Dominion War doesn't occur in this timeline, at least not within the next fifty or so years after the series' primary time period ends, which means Jadzia doesn't die fighting in it. The Klingons do however take control of the station and hold onto it for several decades, which indicates that the alliance between the Federation and the Empire does not heal after the events of "The Way of the Warrior". It also means that Bajor doesn't have any chance of joining the Federation anytime soon. The presentation of the bad things in this future was obviously intentional, but the dodging of the Dominion War and Jadzia's death was unintentional, particularly the Dax thing, since there were no plans for her to be killed off at this point.

Well, that's it. I didn't plan for it to happen, but coincidentally the new Star Trek film, Star Trek Beyond, opens tomorrow, so go see it. I didn't like the last two movies either, but this one looks like it'll be better. Obviously, rest in peace Anton Yelchin, who passed away while I was writing this mammoth. That was a real tragedy.

I want to thank everyone who read this thing, or even part of it. I hope you'll take the time to comment on the list. I'd love to read your thoughts on the show, the list, or both. I also want to acknowledge several invaluable resources. Memory Alpha contains almost everything you'd ever want to know about Trek, so visit it if you're at all interested in the franchise. Many of those factoids I didn't have time to include in the list can be found there. Keith R.A. DeCandido's rewatch reviews of the series for Tor are also wonderful, so I suggest hitting those up. I think they have them for all of the series; I know they do for the first three shows, which are the three best, anyway. Otherwise, I'm glad to have had a chance to write this, so thanks to Jeff at Atlanta Classic Comics for giving me the platform. As always, the Great River pushes you to Atlanta Classic Comics on eBay, where any kind of cool, geeky science fiction, fantasy, or comic book material you want, the River will provide. I'll be writing something else for the site soon, though probably not as intense as this. Anyway, thanks for indulging me...

Computer, erase that entire personal log...

I Can Live with It...Ranking the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Episodes...Part IV

by The Octopus Man

Welcome back, everyone. This is gonna be the best Part IV since Rocky IV. We've traipsed through 103 of the show's 173 episodes, so that means we have...hmmm...carry the one...um...70 episodes left...that's right...70. So, hows about we press on?

Once again, the methodology is every episode counts as a distinct entry on this list, even if the episode in question was part of a two (or more)-parter. The only exceptions are the pilot, the series finale, and the season four premiere, which all aired as two-hour presentations. Those are counted as one entry for the list (note that they count as two when I list their season and episode numbers). So, we're about three-fifths of the way there. Let's dig into Part IV.

Part I | Part II | Part III

70. "Family Business" - Season 3, Episode 23 (5/15/95)

"And when it comes to profit, this female is a better Ferengi than you'll ever be!" - Ishka

This late season three entry introduces two fairly important elements to the series. First, and the one that most explicitly gives the episode its title, is the story of Quark and Rom's mother, Ishka. We'd heard bits and pieces about how male-dominated Ferengi society was, and we'd definitely seen most Ferengi on this show and TNG be chauvinistic in an 80's Wall Street sort of way, but this is the first time we see the full extent of how poorly women are treated on Ferenginar. And who better to demonstrate this than the other new recurring Ferengi character introduced here, Brunt? Brunt's a perfect weasel, and Ishka's a perfect little firecracker. While this episode represents the high point of the Ferengi Equal Rights plotline, this story carries on to the series' next-to-last installment and is generally rewarding despite some of the dire episodes it gets trapped in. The other major element introduced here is one Kasidy Yates, who persists as Sisko's love interest for the remainder of the series. His early interactions with her were cute without being too cute, which got the relationship off to a good start.

Trivial Note - Jake mentioned setting his father up with a freighter captain in "Explorers", the previous episode. Ishka is played by Andrea Martin (best known for SCTV) in this outing. She wouldn't return to the show for reasons I'm not aware of, and Cecily Adams would take up the role in all subsequent appearances. Jeffrey Combs had played an alien sleazeball in "Meridian" earlier in season three. His performance went over so well that he returns as Brunt here. Brunt is a recurring antagonist in the Ferengi episodes for the rest of the series. Combs would also take on the role of Weyoun, another recurring antagonist, beginning in season four's "To the Death". He plays both roles in season seven's "The Dogs of War".

69. "What You Leave Behind" - Season 7, Episodes 25 and 26 (6/2/99)

"Ah, it's like I said - the more things change, the more they stay the same." - Quark

I'll try to keep this under 1,000 words. The series finale of DS9 is one the most jam-packed episodes of any show you'll ever see. We get weighty resolutions to the Dominion War, the Cardassian Rebellion, and the Pah-wraith storyline, while just about every significant relationship on the show is tied off in some way or other. What works - the Battle of Cardassia is an excellent set piece, both in the large-scale ship-to-ship combat scenes and the boots-on-the-ground Cardassian Rebellion scenes. The two play together well, with Damar getting a fittingly noble death, Weyoun getting his final death, and Odo making the move that really brings about the end of the fighting. The sequence where the Cardassian ships turn on the rest of the Dominion fleet is totally awesome and earned. Most of the character bits work here, as well, and the show makes you feel how terrible this ordeal was for the Cardassians in the end. Also, Vic's performance of "The Way You Look Tonight" is super cool. What doesn't work - after years of buildup, Sisko's grand purpose as Emissary was pretty anticlimactic. The timeline of the Dukat/Winn plot was wonky throughout the entire final arc, and that's only magnified here, as they enter the Fire Caves of Bajor and apparently stay there for several days without food or water, given how the episode is edited. The whole thing feels like too much of an afterthought considering how huge the show wanted the conflict between the Prophets and the Pah-wraiths to feel. Also, maybe ease back on the montages a bit, guys.

Trivial Note - There are too many to list. Terry Farrell and the producers couldn't agree on compensation for her image, so Jadzia awkwardly doesn't appear in any of the montages. Casey Biggs wanted Damar to have a final line, as the script just called for him to die in the fighting. He improvised "Keep..." as that's all he could come up with on the spot, but it seems oddly fitting. Most of the extras during the final scene at Vic's were recurring actors out of makeup or crew members, and the scene morphed into a wrap party after shooting finished. Avery Brooks actually hit Marc Alaimo in the sequence where Sisko ineffectually punches the possessed Dukat. Brooks jacked Alaimo's face up pretty bad, but Alaimo kept going until the scene was over. Shooting had to be delayed for a few days to allow Alaimo to heal. Quark's line quoted above is the final spoken line of the series. The scene between he and Vic was the final scene shot. And the shot of Kira and Jake looking out one of the Promenade windows is a reversal of a similar shot in "The Visitor", with both coming after Sisko has "died" (really he becomes displaced from the timeline in both instances). Final note, Sisko's stay with the Prophets after his battle with Dukat was originally intended to be permanent (a sort-of death, in that sense), with Kasidy's pregnancy meant to represent a continuation of Sisko (as we've seen in other shows and films over the years). Avery Brooks objected to the idea of an African-American man leaving his pregnant wife, even under these circumstances, so Sisko's fate was made more vague. I left several out, but my fingers are starting to bleed.

68. "Past Prologue" - Season 1, Episode 3 (1/10/93)

"It was so much easier when I knew who the enemy was." - Maj. Kira Nerys

And from the final episode we transition almost all the way back to the beginning. "Past Prologue" is an underrated offering from the series, both in terms of quality and importance. Shot after "A Man Alone" but aired before it, this episode settles into the type of low-key, character-driven storytelling that propelled the series in its early seasons. Until the Dominion War arc began on this show, Trek had always made a habit of showing the aftermath of things. Aftermaths are often a budget-conscious story choice, as it's cheaper to hear about a war than to see it, but they also provide some compelling characterizations for the people who're left to pick up the pieces. Here, it's Kira picking up the pieces of her life as a freedom fighter and re-shaping them into a career as a significant member of the ruling organization. It's a difficult transition for her to make, and for Bajor as a whole. And thus begins a storyline that provides the series with much of its structure going forward.

Trivial Note - Peter Allan Fields wrote the shooting script for this episode, and he introduced several key elements to the series in it. Kira's friendship with Odo is first noticeable here, which was Fields' idea. He'd add to that relationship a bunch more with season two's "Necessary Evil". Garak also appears here for the first time, and he has his first interactions with Bashir. They'd also become a key pairing on the show. Garak working as a tailor on the station was added to his story as a way to differentiate him from the Cardassians who had appeared in the pilot or on TNG, all of whom had been military men. Fields wrote for The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and the spy organization in that series used a tailor shop as a front, to which Garak's choice of profession serves as an oblique reference.

67. "The Begotten" - Season 5, Episode 12 (1/27/97)

"I was going to teach you how to be a Tarkalean hawk, remember..." - Constable Odo

There are two distinct, but related, storylines in this episode, but one of them far outweighs the other. Kira goes into labor with the O'Briens' baby, and things pretty much go as you'd expect, with a little pointless sparring between Shakaar and the Chief added in to pad the story out. The real focus of the episode instead goes to Odo, Dr. Mora, and the infant Changeling. Despite the two of them coming to some sort of terms with each other in "The Alternate", Odo and Mora's relationship is just as fractured as ever here, but again, the writing really nails the deep-seated bitterness present in their interactions. Take their father/son-like bickering from "The Alternate" and now add a son/grandson to the mix. And while it seems too easy for the dying infant to absorb into Odo's body and allow him to be a Changeling again, it makes for a beautiful climactic scene.

Trivial Note - Odo's first transformation after regaining his Changeling mojo is to become a Tarkalean hawk, which was the most mentioned form he wanted the infant to learn. It was also a nice continuity touch by the producers to make sure you see Odo's uniform fall off when he transforms. All the prior morphing scenes with him hadn't needed to keep track of his clothes, since they were part of his body. This was an actual uniform, which would've been easy to forget. Nana Visitor objected to the notion that Kira would happily give up the baby to the O'Briens after she'd carried him for five months, so the final conversation between her and Odo was changed.  Also, the generally accepted theory on Bashir's time in the Dominion prison camp holds that any episodes that aired after "The Ascent" but before "In Purgatory's Shadow" feature the Changeling Bashir. This was due to the uniform change that occurred starting with "Rapture". If this is true, then it's Changeling Bashir who delivers Kirayoshi O'Brien and who attempts to save the infant Changeling in this episode. That's creepy.

66. "Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places" - Season 5, Episode 3 (10/14/96)

"I'm surrounded by corpses, my shoes are dripping in blood, and you want me to feel romantic?!" - Quark

Season five starts out pretty heavy with "Apocalypse Rising" and "The Ship". ("...Nor the Battle to the Strong" follows this episode, and it's pretty heavy, too.) So it's nice that the third episode is both romantic and funny to counter-balance the offerings that surround it. First off, the title is one of Trek's best, making an exceedingly rare reference to country music in the franchise (this, in fact, may be the only one). Then we call back to one of season three's best episodes (and one of the show's best comic pieces), "The House of Quark", with the return of Grilka. Mix in a little Worf and Dax, particularly Worf's general cluelessness regarding Dax's feelings for him, and a dash of Cyrano de Bergerac, and you have the perfect countermeasure to the increasingly doomy astropolitical climate around the station. The scene where Worf throws Morn out of his seat at the bar is magnificent, and the scene pictured and quoted above is wonderful, as well. Worf and Quark should've been thrown together in more stories, but this'll do.

Trivial Note - Andrew Robinson (Garak) directed this episode. He's the third of five cast members to join the directorial ranks, after Avery Brooks (Sisko) and Rene Auberjonois (Odo) and before Alexander Siddig (Bashir) and Michael Dorn (Worf). He was the only recurring player to ever direct, though, and this was his only time behind the camera during the series' run (though he would direct a couple of Voyager episodes). It was Michael Dorn's idea to base an script off of Cyrano de Bergerac. Armin Shimerman did most of his own stunts in this episode, having practiced with the bat'leth for over a week before filming. He was very proud of his work, particularly the pains he took to make his fighting seem like he was being controlled by Worf. The B-story with Kira and O'Brien's sudden infatuation with each other puts a lot of people off, but I think it's actually a fairly believable story considering the circumstances, especially since cooler heads prevail before they do anything they'd end up regretting.

65. "Accession" - Season 4, Episode 17 (2/26/96)

"That's the thing about faith. If you don't have it, you can't understand it. And if you do, no explanation is necessary." - Maj. Kira Nerys

In the entry for season three's "Destiny", I mentioned the rewarding, low-key character drama found in the Emissary storyline (at least up until the end of the show). This episode and another one next season are the two highlights of that storyline. The Prophets remain as mercurial as ever, shown here to be pulling yet another morally dubious maneuver (removing Akorem Laan from his time period and bringing him forward to the show's present, which indirectly leads to at least one death) in their continuing effort to keep Sisko on the path. As had occurred in "Destiny", Laan's arrival on the station and claims of being the Emissary raise some prickly questions about Sisko's place in Bajoran culture vis-a-vis his role as a Starfleet officer. You also get a fairly potent metaphor about imposing old-school religious ideals onto a society that has moved beyond them. If that seems harsh toward religion, know that the episode presents all of this in a very open-minded way, highlighted by Kira's quote above (which paraphrases St. Thomas Aquinas), taken from a conversation with Odo. It may just be a way of saying "agree to disagree", but it sums up the show's back-and-forth about faith nicely.

Trivial Note - The credited writer of this episode is Jane Espenson. She sold this pitch as a freelancer, before moving on to bigger and better things. She would soon become part of Joss Whedon's regular group of collaborators, and she was a particularly big part of Buffy the Vampire Slayer's writing team. She also wrote for Ellen, Angel, Firefly, The O.C., Gilmore Girls, Battlestar Galactica, Dollhouse, Game of Thrones, Torchwood, and Once Upon a Time, among many others. That is a damn eclectic group of shows. David Warner was the first choice for Akorem Laan, but the producers had to settle for Richard Libertini (and they've been very candid about their disappointment with this development). Akorem piloted the same type of ancient Bajoran ship that the Siskos did in "Explorers". This is also the episode where the important phrase, "You are of Bajor," is first heard in reference to Sisko. The producers always had to fight to get episodes about Bajoran religion made, and this was no exception. Paramount executives felt that "The Collaborator" and "Destiny" had underperformed ratings-wise due to audience skittishness about religion. I'm very glad the producers kept fighting to tell this story.

64. "Apocalypse Rising" - Season 5, Episode 1 (9/30/96)

"What's wrong, Dukat? Haven't you ever seen a Klingon before?!" - Capt. Ben Sisko

Season five of DS9 continues down the path laid out for the show late in season three and throughout season four. The Changeling Cold War that caused the total destruction of the Obsidian Order and the severe wounding of the Tal Shiar in "The Die Is Cast", the war between the Klingons and the Cardassians that started in "The Way of the Warrior", and the near coup on Earth in "Paradise Lost" ramps back up again, as those sneaky Shapeshifters intentionally led Odo to believe that Gowron was a Changeling infiltrator in "Broken Link" only for our intrepid heroes to discover that it was actually General Martok all along. This plan plays out well on screen, even if it's a little too much like your typical convoluted evil genius plan, requiring seemingly impossible knowledge of future events to actually succeed. The Founders must've thought highly of Sisko and the boys, since the show posits the mission to learn the truth about Gowron to be nearly suicidal at several points in the episode. Discovering the truth about Martok is actually easy compared to the crap the heroes had to go through just to get in the room with those guys. Still, the tension is thick throughout, and I love how successful Sisko is at playing Klingon, with O'Brien sorta getting by at it, and Odo barely able to give a s#!t until the very end.

Trivial Note - J.G. Hertzler's general Captain Hook-esque awesomeness as Martok led the producers to decide to bring the real Martok into the series in "In Purgatory's Shadow". It's established there that the Changeling had begun impersonating him before the events of "The Way of the Warrior", so the audience had never seen the actual Martok prior to his discovery as an impostor in this episode. Michael Dorn was eager to see some of his co-stars go through the Klingon makeup process, but Colm Meaney was so vocally displeased about it that everyone agreed never to put him in alien makeup ever again. Gowron says the Klingons can't just end the war with the Federation immediately, for concerns of honor, which basically allows for "...Nor the Battle to the Strong" to happen. Also, he chides Worf for not killing him when he had the chance, claiming that there won't be another. (Yeah, about that...) Kira's playful accusation that her pregnancy is Bashir's fault exists mainly as a meta-joke, since Nana Visitor was actually pregnant with Alexander Siddig's baby at this time. Also, while his turn in "By Inferno's Light" is one of the show's masterstrokes, I could've gone for more Space Pirate Dukat, who only really appeared in "Return to Grace" and this episode. Yet another tragic waste of a space pirate.

63. "Blood Oath" - Season 2, Episode 19 (3/27/94)

"Perhaps...it is a good day to live." - Kang

After nearly two full seasons, the show finally got around to letting Dax carry a quality episode. For reasons that aren't completely obvious, the Trill never quite establish themselves in the Trek pantheon of great aliens, but the series circumvents that by hitching Dax to the most established of all Trek cultures, the Klingons. Any discomfort Terry Farrell may have exhibited with her role in the early seasons melted away completely after this episode aired. For a Trill, she made a hell of a Klingon. Assisting her are three of Trek's most distinguished alumni, Michael Ansara, John Colicos, and William Campbell (as Kang, Kor, and Koloth, respectively). All three turned Original Series antagonists into proud, noble heroes in this story, and Farrell keeps up with them every step of the way. It's not the best Klingon episode the show ever did, but it was the first to place them front-and-center in an A-story, which was a welcome addition to series' storytelling. They would soon become an indispensable part of DS9's fabric.

Trivial Note - While they play the same characters, all three of the returning Klingons masters look and act differently than they did on TOS. The difference in behavior can easily be attributed to age, as aging Klingons soon become a significant part of the series in general. The difference in appearance is obviously due to the makeup overhaul the Klingons underwent between TOS and the film series. DS9 never fully addresses this (in any of the Kor episodes, nor in "Trials and Tribble-ations" when both types of Klingons are seen), which is for the best. Enterprise later cooked up an in-universe explanation, which only served to confuse matters further.

62. "Paradise Lost" - Season 4, Episode 12 (1/8/96)

"Paradise has never seemed so well armed." - Capt. Ben Sisko

This episode, while quality, is a fair example of a Trek two-parter that doesn't quite maintain its momentum all the way through. While the subtext of the episode (and its predecessor) is powerful, most of the climax involves watching Sisko and Leyton sit around and have stilted conversations. Avery Brooks and Robert Foxworth don't quite bring the right tone to those conversations, as both actors seemed more comfortable with Part One's material. Still, this is a notable episode, which would become a stronger part of the series' legacy a couple of years after it went off the air (I'll get into this more in the entry for "Homefront", which is a stone-cold classic). Plus, the scene where Sisko drops a bucket of verbal acid on that snotty cadet is wonderful, and the Brock Peters Rule mentioned in the write-up for "Image in the Sand" still holds.

Trivial Note - This was due to be the season four premiere, with "Homefront" the season three finale. Two things got in the way. First, Paramount decided to stay away from cliffhanger season finales on DS9, so "The Adversary" was produced as a smaller-scale version of the same basic concept. Then, during the summer break, the studio requested that the writers shake up the series. This two-parter was to be the season premiere, a la "The Search" in season three, but was now pushed back to midseason. The shake up came in the form of the Klingons, with "The Way of the Warrior" now serving as the premiere. The midseason slot led to a smaller budget, which both Ira Steven Behr and Robert Hewitt Wolfe are still upset about to this day, as that led to the static nature of this episode.

61. "Captive Pursuit" - Season 1, Episode 6 (1/31/93)

"The hunt...goes on." - Tosk

This is a real gem from the show's early days. With most of the cast still feeling their way around their roles, it's no surprise that Chief O'Brien was one of the few characters to appear fully-formed in the first season. We'd seen enough of him during his numerous guest spots on TNG to have a good sense of who this man was, which helped anchor this episode tremendously. The script isn't all that different than one you might've seen on TNG, but the violent nature of Tosk's situation and the sense that the episode allows Tosk and the hunters to exist on their own terms (and not ours) both give this episode a distinctly DS9 feel. Scott MacDonald, one of Trek's great utility players, sells the hell out of the Tosk role, which wasn't easy, and he establishes a real connection with O'Brien in just 45 minutes. With such a minimalist character, that's quite a feat.

Trivial Note - Tosk and the Hunters were the first Gamma Quadrant species to be seen on DS9 (discounting Odo, whose origin was unknown at this point). This also marks the first time a Gamma Quadrant species undertakes hostile action on the station. The lead Hunter was played by Gerrit Graham, who was the second choice for Odo. MacDonald appears in multiple Trek roles over the years, effective each time, and returns to DS9 as a Jem'Hadar in season four's "Hippocratic Oath", where he again shares many scenes with Colm Meaney. Finally, Odo firmly establishes that he doesn't carry a weapon, on-duty or off. The only time he ever does (even when he's a Solid in season five) is in season three's "Heart of Stone", and that's in an unusually desperate situation.

60. "The Wire" - Season 2, Episode 22 (5/8/94)

"Never tell the truth when a lie will do. That man has a rare talent for obfuscation." - Enabran Tain

The quote above more-or-less tells you all you need to know about "The Wire", and really about the allure of the plain, simple tailor Elim Garak in general. Even though his mentor Tain gets this particular quote, Garak himself gets to deliver more than his share of similar pearls of wisdom both in this episode and over the course of the series. The show wisely never pulls the curtain back too far on Garak's past, leaving him just a little bit mysterious even by the series' conclusion. Even here, with Bashir moving heaven and earth to save his life, Garak remains delightfully opaque to the end, practically reveling in it during his final conversation with the good doctor. Speaking of Bashir, he quietly kicks a lot of ass in this episode. From the perspective of a doctor who'd never give up on a patient, this is Julian at his best (along with "The Quickening"). "Cardassians" wasn't quite the success it could've been, but this episode firmly established both Garak on his own and the Garak/Bashir pairing as major elements of the series going forward.

Trivial Note - It's sorta hard to believe, but this episode contains the first mention of the Obsidian Order and Cardassia Prime (we obviously knew there was a Cardassian homeworld, but this was the first time it was named or seen in any Trek series). Along with the Order, and Garak's obvious connection to it, the ever-mercurial Enabran Tain is introduced, played by the great character actor Paul Dooley. Like Andrew Robinson, Dooley was only supposed to appear in one episode, but was so well received, he was brought back.

59. "Blaze of Glory" - Season 5, Episode 23 (5/12/97)

"Does anyone know a good song? Something rousing?...Too bad!" - Michael Eddington

Michael Eddington only appeared in nine episodes of the series, but all of them were quality. This is the third of the three outings that chart his involvement with the Maquis and serves as a button for that arc. The Maquis were an interesting concept for Trek to take on, but their impact on TNG was minimal as they only appeared in the final weeks of that series. Voyager was to be their main home, and in a way it was, but the show never used that story element to its full potential. So, it was left to DS9 to carry the mail on this front, and Eddington shoulders most of that responsibility. Given the false starts to the plotline (the failure of the Cal Hudson character, the squandering of the Maquis characters on Voyager), "For the Cause", "For the Uniform", and this episode do more than admirable work to give the story some real oomph. Kenneth Marshall made Eddington a nice little antagonist, sympathetic in ways and irritating in others, but human and relatable all the way through. There's a sense of high-opera to the Sisko/Eddington encounters that Marshall and Avery Brooks handle well, and their bickering here carries a story that twists and turns it way to a reasonable conclusion. This is the weakest of the Eddington trilogy, but it's still a solid, well-acted offering that brings a real sense of closure to the storyline that works both on its own and as part of the growing Dominion War narrative.

Trivial Note - The quote above comes from Eddington's death scene, which was based off the movie The Sand Pebbles. The B-story features Nog trying to earn a modicum of respect from General Martok and some of the other Klingons. Apparently, this was only included to reassure the audience that Martok was still on the station after "Soldiers of the Empire". I'm not sure why we would've thought otherwise. The visual gag with Nog getting caught between Martok and Worf is gold, though.

58. "Take Me Out to the Holosuite" - Season 7, Episode 4 (10/21/98)

"Death to the opposition!" - Lt. Cmdr. Worf

Holosuite/holodeck episodes tend to draw eye-rolls from many in the Trek fan community. Personally, I'm pretty "live and let live" toward them, as they're really no different than any other general type of Trek story - some of them are good and some aren't. There's no surefire Trek success formula, so I don't have overwhelming confidence that ridding the franchise of holosuite diversion episodes would've led to an influx of hard-hitting masterpieces taking their place. Frankly, considering how grim this show gets during the Dominion War, an episode like this could be considered necessary. Plus, I like baseball, and it's nice to see sports and Trek mix at all. Particular highlights include the zeal with which Odo performs his job as umpire, both of Worf's big lines (one of which is quoted above), the goobery way Bashir says, "Now that is a Fancy Dan", Rom, and the willingness to show the Vulcans to be pricks. Spock's general awesomeness isn't necessarily the rule with Vulcans, as many had been shown to be officious and distant in the franchise before this (Sarek, for example), and Enterprise would steer heavily into that ditch for most of its run.

Trivial Note - The script for this episode was largely based off an episode of Fame that Ira Steven Behr had written. Avery Brooks, Cirroc Lofton, Armin Shimerman, Aron Eisenberg, and Max Grodenchik were all more skilled at baseball than they let on in their performances. Humorously, Grodenchik was easily the best player of the group, though Rom, his character, was easily the worst. That's why Rom is shown as left-handed, as Grodenchik would've appeared too natural at the game right-handed. Ernie Banks' son Joey organized the team that portrayed the Vulcans and coached the DS9 actors. (Ernie, of course, is a baseball legend.) The weird symbols on the back of the Vulcan uniforms are supposed to be the players' names written in Vulcan, which had never been depicted on screen before as far as I know. Also, this episode marks the only time the Federation's anthem is ever heard on screen. That you hear it at the only team sporting event depicted in the franchise and not any of the numerous official government functions we see is deeply amusing to me. (Where are you most likely to hear the anthem in the present day? A stadium.)

57. "Doctor Bashir, I Presume?" - Season 5, Episode 16 (2/24/97)

"You don't know what it's like to watch your son...to watch him fall a little further behind each day." - Amsha Bashir

The show's effort to take Dr. Julian Bashir apart piece-by-piece hits its clearest note during this mid-season five effort. The good doctor, who had just returned from spending a month in a Dominion prison camp, is selected to be the model for a new medical hologram, only to have the process dredge up his deepest secret. The episode is sharply funny in stretches, particularly the scene pictured above, what with its holograms of multiple people in the room, but that's just a feint so the writers could smuggle the Bashir family secret into the story without the audience seeing it coming. This is yet another example of showrunner Ira Steven Behr's desire to deconstruct utopia, and the performances by the actors who play Bashir's parents really sell what Behr and his team were going for. As a bonus, the revelation in this episode doesn't contradict anything we'd heard about Bashir before (and may actually explain a few things), nor does the series conveniently forget about it going forward. This is solid work by the writers and actors involved.

Trivial Note - Several things - this episode finally fully explains the mistake Bashir made at Starfleet Medical that kept him being valedictorian of his class (introduced in "Q-Less" and brought back up in "Distant Voices"). Bashir's mistake was intentional, as he didn't want anyone to grow suspicious of his abilities. Originally, the script called for O'Brien to help Bashir keep his secret, but Alexander Siddig requested that the truth come to light, as he didn't want to play Bashir with a secret in future episodes. Robert Picardo crosses over from Voyager to play Dr. Zimmerman and the Emergency Medical Hologram. The actress who plays Bashir's mother is named Fadwa El Guindi, and she's really an anthropologist and a noted spokeswoman for Arab-Americans. This is her only professional credit, but her speech at the end defines the episode. Finally, in the Rom-Leeta-Zimmerman B-plot, we both find out about Rom's ex-wife (and Nog's mother) Prinadora for the first time, and we see Rom and Leeta finally become a couple. There are several more, but I'll leave them for you to read about on your own.

56. "Indiscretion" - Season 4, Episode 5 (10/23/95)

"I just wanted to say, 'Thank you, Major, for a most interesting journey.'" - Legate Dukat

Even though the idea is gross in many ways, episodes like this one make it easier to understand why some fans wanted Dukat and Kira to get together (and why many liked Dukat so much in the first place). He's a very charismatic character in multiple ways, and this is the period in the series when he's at his most sympathetic. (It should be noted that he was thisclose to shooting his own daughter at the end.) His rapport with Kira is near its best here, and there's a real chemistry between the two throughout, especially in the scene where she pulls the needle out of his butt (not an expression). Add in a nice mystery and some solid action at the end, and you've got a strong episode (one of many here at the start of season four). As far as Dukat being sympathetic goes, this episode kicks off a character arc for him that's soon to make him far less warm and fuzzy.

Trivial Note - This is LeVar Burton's directorial debut on the series. He starred in TNG and had directed episodes of it and Voyager prior to this. He would become one of the show's regular directors going forward. The Breen make their first on-screen appearance in this episode, as the villains at the end. This comes after around five years of random references to the species on multiple Trek shows. Their voices were based on Lou Reed's amazingly horrible album Metal Machine Music. This is the second of four episodes to partially film at Soledad Canyon in Southern California. Conditions again were terrible. Fortunately for Nana Visitor (who'd already endured shooting "The Homecoming" there), she would not be involved in the canyon-set parts of "The Ship" and "Rocks and Shoals". Also, this episode's plot is basically a riff on the John Wayne classic The Searchers, which is one of the greatest movies of all time.

55. "Whispers" - Season 2, Episode 14 (2/6/94)

"All I could think of, as I looked at her, was that this was not my Keiko." - Replicant Chief Miles O'Brien

Season two doubled-down on O'Brien suffering, as the previous episode was "Armageddon Game", where the Chief was infected with a horrific biological weapon. This episode keeps the suffering going with O'Brien feeling like he's caught in a vast conspiracy involving all of his crewmates and even his family. This is another solid early outing for the show, one that doesn't have all the hallmarks of traditional DS9 episode, but is still well-made and tautly written and acted. The reveal that the Chief we've been following through the whole story is actually a replicant works as a solid surprise ending without feeling unearned or nonsensical (problems that plague many twist endings). Up until then, the piece is a sharply constructed slice of 70's-style paranoia, with Colm Meaney hitting all the right notes with his character. Special mention should be made of Rosalind Chao's work here as Keiko, who pulls off the difficult task of acting like she's acting. Also, Bashir's overlong physical of O'Brien at the beginning is a nice use of the duo's early bickering in service of a scene that also strongly hints at the episode's resolution.

Trivial Note - The original story called for O'Brien to basically run through the plot of that Liam Neeson movie Unknown (several other movies use this plot, as well), where no one remembers who he is (it should be noted that Unknown was made well after this). This angle was difficult to develop, so instead the story changed to a conspiracy theory (a la the film The Parallax View, among other examples). There is no B-plot, as the story's nature necessitated that it develop entirely from the Chief's POV. This caused the episode to run short, so the in media res aspect of the story was introduced. A scene where O'Brien sings "The Minstrel Boy", a big part of his backstory from TNG, was added to pad the episode out, but then had to be cut due to a too-late-to-be-fixed error involving the names of the runabouts used in the scene. The term "replicant" is used for the O'Brien double, as a reference to the classic film Blade Runner and because the term had never been used in Trek before.

54. "Badda-Bing Badda-Bang" - Season 7, Episode 15 (2/24/99)

"Robbing casinos isn't part of any Starfleet job description I've ever read." - Chief Miles O'Brien

Ocean's Nine takes place right at the end of the series. In fact, this was the last episode of the series produced before the final story arc kicks in with "Penumbra". (Because it looked so good, the studio aired it during sweeps and before "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges", which was the last episode to air before the final arc.) In many ways, this episode is like eating a fluffy dessert before the main course. All the episodes that follow are the show at its heaviest ("Inter Arma..." included), so this was a nice way to give everyone one final romp before s#%t gets real. And it is a pretty episode. Everyone's clothes look sharp as hell, the story is fun and propulsive, and the actors they hire to play the Vegas goons all give the heist story an air of legitimacy. I also enjoy Sisko's initial reluctance to get involved, as he makes a very salient point about the lily-whiteness of 60's Vegas. Everyone seems to stay in character in a story that's very out of character for the show, and the whole thing's a fun way to spend an hour.

Trivial Note - The original Ocean's Eleven obviously served as a major inspiration for the plot. I refer to this episode as Ocean's Nine as there are nine people involved in the heist (Vic, Sisko, Kira, Odo, Bashir, O'Brien, Ezri, Nog, and Kasidy), which is fitting. Frankie Eyes basically says to Kira the exact same thing Hyman Roth says to Michael Corleone in The Godfather, Part II (a towering film) about Vegas and Bugsy Siegel (Siegel's the real gangster who basically founded Las Vegas, while Roth credits it to Moe Greene, the Vegas gangster seen in the first Godfather, who was clearly based on Siegel.) Robert O'Reilly, who played Chancellor Gowron on this show and TNG, appears out-of-makeup as the countman who's poisoned by Ezri during the heist (the actual heist, not the run-through). He's credited as Bobby Reilly. Sisko and Vic sing "The Best Is Yet to Come" at the end, which refers to the coming final story arc.

53. "The Magnificent Ferengi" - Season 6, Episode 10 (1/1/98)

"I hate Ferengi..." - Keevan

One of the obvious high points of the Ferengi episodes, this season six outing builds a ridiculous premise on a ridiculous foundation and gleefully doesn't care. There's no good reason for the Dominion to take Ishka (or any Ferengi, except Nog and maybe Quark or Rom) prisoner, nor is there a good reason why Quark is so adamant that only Ferengi be used on the rescue mission. But whatever...This episode is great all the way though and sparkles with the best parts of the Ferengi stories. Quark's at his snarky best. Rom's at his doofy best. Brunt's as snide and loathsome as ever. Ishka never stops trying to earn profit, even when faced with near-certain death. Gaila and Leck make nice impressions for characters we don't know all that well, and Nog is the perfect little by-the-book Starfleet Academy greenhorn. Even the two Vorta here, Keevan and Yelgrun, are consistently funny. The quote and picture above both come from a darkly hilarious sequence, and I especially love the way Quark uses Nog's hero-worship of Worf to convince him to join the mission. There's a lot of good, dumb fun to be had in this one.

Trivial Note - As has been the case with the last three entries, this is also a riff on a famous movie. In this case, it's a comic take on the classic Western The Magnificent Seven (which is itself an uncredited remake of the Kurosawa masterwork The Seven Samurai). Counting Ishka (which doesn't really work, but still), there are seven Ferengi in the episode. The writers claimed that any similarity was unintentional, but actors Armin Shimerman and Max Grodenchik watched both films as prep material for their roles. Yes, that's noted Trek fan Iggy Pop as the Vorta Yelgrun. Zek is the only recurring Ferengi not seen in the episode. He was the original kidnap target, but Wallace Shawn was unavailable, so Ishka was subbed in his place. And in the most subtle of all bits of foreshadowing for the show's final arc, Yelgrun irritably compares negotiating with Ferengi to dealing with the Breen, which hints at their eventual alliance with the Dominion.

52. "Return to Grace" - Season 4, Episode 14 (2/5/96)

"I am the only Cardassian left, and if no one else will stand against the Klingons, I will." - Gul Dukat

Another wonderful character piece for Kira and Dukat, "Return to Grace" serves as a more-or-less direct sequel to "Indiscretion". After sparing his illegitimate daughter's life in that episode, Dukat appears in this one as an object of scorn, demoted by his government, left by his wife and legitimate children, and disowned by his mother. As "Indiscretion" was the unofficial kickoff of Dukat's season five heel turn, this is the first episode where you can begin to see it developing. (To be clear, his season five heel turn is a great bit of writing and acting. His seasons six and seven heel turn isn't. Also, I feel like I should write it in all caps, it's so loud and obnoxious.) Dukat is a broken man at the beginning of this episode, and his journey from there to renegade space pirate by the end is legitimately stirring in places. That he gets to verbally joust with Kira (his true nemesis, not Sisko) is an added joy, as their banter is again excellent. (His response to her comment, "Why is it whenever you smile I want to leave the room?" pretty much puts their dynamic on a platter.) You almost want her to join his crusade by the end. It's only later that you realize that this is still former war criminal Dukat, so him regaining his mojo may not be a particularly good thing.

Trivial Note - Dukat's spiel about Cardassia being made whole again is first brought up here. That becomes his rallying cry when they join the Dominion in season five. Dukat and Kira's maneuver of using a transporter to switch the crews of two battling ships is similar to Capt. Kirk's gambit in Star Trek III. The enemy vessel in both cases was a Klingon Bird-of-Prey. Dukat's line about being the only Cardassian left (quoted above) is a play on Sitting Bull's famous quote about other Indians. Coincidentally, Dukat asks Kira to do the very thing she does in the show's final arc (teach Cardassians to fight a guerrilla war). And finally, this is the episode where Damar is introduced. Arguably the show's most pivotal character in season seven, Damar is presented here an anonymous crewman. Casey Biggs was initially unhappy to be cast as a glorified extra but was assured that the writers had significant plans for his character going forward.

51. "The Abandoned" - Season 3, Episode 6 (10/31/94)

"Major...about the boy...you were right." - Constable Odo

The Jem'Hadar remain an unqualified success for most of the show's run. The early appearances of the species only work to reinforce their uber-badassery and why our heroes should be afraid of them. This episode, along with season four's excellent "Hippocratic Oath" and "To the Death" and season six's also excellent "Rocks and Shoals", helps establish them as something more than terrifying killing machines, without sacrificing their brand of steely-eyed horror. Charting the rapid development of a Jem'Hadar child serves to remind the audience of several things. 1 - The Founders are unbelievably ruthless, given what we find out about Jem'Hadar physiology in this episode. 2 - Fear is the natural and appropriate reaction to a Jem'Hadar's presence. That's their mission. And 3 - The Jem'Hadar are single-minded to a degree only previously seen in the Borg. The first and last of those are keys to understanding the dilemma the Federation will soon find itself in when fighting the Dominion. This type of ruthlessness and implacability hinder the Federation's most powerful weapon - diplomacy. This is something Odo comes to realize at the end, as even a character as practical as he gets a storyline where his good intentions are thrown right back in his face.

Trivial Note - Ketracel-white, the drug the Founders use to control the Jem'Hadar, is introduced here (but not named). Avery Brooks directed this episode and based his work around racial tensions. Odo places the flowers he receives from Kira in his former regeneration pail, which comes back up in season four's underrated "Crossfire". And in the B-plot, Sisko pays off his promise to Jake from "Playing God" that he'd have dinner with Mardah. Mardah was originally to be played by Chase Masterson, but the age difference led the role to be recast. Masterson was later brought onto the show as Leeta, who became a much more significant character. Also, this is the first time Jake's writing abilities are mentioned on the show. This becomes a major part of his character arc going forward.

50. "Rejoined" - Season 4, Episode 6 (10/30/95)

"I mean, I'm looking at a different face, hearing a different voice, but somehow it's still you." - Dr. Lenara Kahn

The best of the Trill episodes was also a major envelope-pusher for Star Trek. For a franchise that always prided itself on representation, the general lack of any homosexual characters (or any member of the LGBTQ+ community) has always been a sore spot in the eyes of many. We could be here forever talking about some of the reasons why this has been the case (David Gerrold's vetoed script for "Blood and Fire" on TNG, Rick Berman's discomfort with depicting homosexuality on TV, the awful ending to TNG's "The Host"), but it's sadly been the case. TNG's "The Outcast", the episode where Riker begins a relationship with an androgynous alien, stood as the only real attempt by the franchise to even go near this topic, and it was a bit of a noble failure. "Rejoined" is far better, serving as both the best use of the established rules of Trill society and giving us what feels like a real relationship between two people. Terry Farrell and guest player Susanna Thompson both do strong work to make Dax and Kahn come across as former lovers with a real history. The couple is, in many ways, not truly homosexual since their marriage occurred when their symbionts were in a male and a female, respectively, but even seeing two women kiss on Trek is a landmark for a franchise that has always shied away from representations of gay characters. (Both the next film and TV series in the franchise will address this.)

Trivial Note - Everyone involved with the production downplayed the lesbian nature of Dax and Kahn's relationship, insisting that it was about love in the face of a societal taboo (in this case, the Trill taboo about interacting with people from the lives of a past host). This is one of four instances where a regular character gets a chance to somehow rekindle an old romance that was cut short by a death. Sisko reconnects with Jennifer, his dead wife's Mirror Universe doppelgänger, in "Through the Looking Glass" and "Shattered Mirror". Dax and Kahn nearly fall back in love here. Kira and Mirror Bareil have a short romance in "Resurrection", and Worf and Ezri make love in "Penumbra". As you'd expect, none of these work out very well.

49. "Hard Time" - Season 4, Episode 19 (4/15/96)

"But when it came down to it, when I had a chance to show that no matter what anybody did to me, that I was still an evolved Human being...I failed." - Chief Miles O'Brien

This is a difficult watch. O'Brien Must Suffer goes to its furthest extreme in this episode, where a heretofore unmentioned race named the Argrathi implant false memories of twenty years imprisonment into the Chief's head. His re-adjustment back into society is prohibitively difficult, as everyone else can only pretend that any time has passed (as opposed to if twenty years had actually gone by). Couple that with his guilt over murdering an imaginary cellmate, and the stalwart Chief of Operations comes thisclose to ending it all. The only major failings here are that Keiko doesn't get more to do in the story (some of Bashir's lines were originally Keiko's, particularly the final confrontation, but the producers wanted a series regular to have that prominent a role) and that the series doesn't really follow up on this afterward. I think it's to the story's credit that O'Brien isn't magically cured by the end, as getting past this development would take a very long time, but we could've seen or heard about it more going forward. It's a quibble, though, and something Trek had done in previous otherwise strong episodes (TNG's "The Mind's Eye", for example).

Trivial Note - This story was pitched to the producers by freelancers way back in season one. Then showrunner Michael Piller wasn't interested, but staff writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe liked the idea and kept bringing it back up. Eventually, he convinced Ira Steven Behr (who replaced Piller as showrunner) to develop it into an episode. By this point, Voyager had done a similar story, with the writers of the original "Hard Time" pitch claiming plagiarism. They received proper credit for this episode, with Wolfe re-writing their pitch and combining with a different story idea he had worked on. This involved Ensign Jaxa, who was presumed dead after the events of TNG's "Lower Decks", re-integrating into society after time in a Cardassian prison camp, during which she murdered her cellmate. That last aspect was added to O'Brien's story, and the Jaxa character was dropped. This is for the best, as leaving her dead makes the already excellent "Lower Decks" more powerful.

48. "The Ship" - Season 5, Episode 2 (10/7/96)

"They chose a life in Starfleet. They knew the risks, and they died fighting for what they believed in." - Lt. Cmdr. Jadzia Dax

Expendable, unnamed extras seemingly get killed all the time on TV. Star Trek is one of the worst offenders, as the The Original Series gave this concept its name - redshirts. Those are the rando Ensigns and Lieutenants and Crewmen who accompany Kirk and Spock down to the planet, then are immediately killed by whatever the episode's threat is going to be. Both of the prior Trek series, as well as this one, had been somewhat inconsistent with the treatment of redshirts. TNG had a great episode like "The Bonding" where a random crewwoman's death is the catalyst for the entire story or "Q Who" where Picard lays into Q for effectively sacrificing 18 people to the Borg just to make a point. But you always had random security personnel getting vaporized by Romulans or assimilated by the Borg or being killed by some ridiculous phenomenon. DS9 did this, too. This episode is the most direct attempt by the franchise to make the audience feel those deaths, and to make us feel that Starfleet doesn't have an endless supply of nameless personnel ready to be disintegrated at a moment's notice. It becomes powerful stuff, especially when tacked onto an already tense standoff with the Dominion. The audience gets to see some of our regular heroes have a bit of a come apart, and the story doesn't soft-pedal anything when it comes to the reality of the situation. That the Vorta and Jem'Hadar outside have just as much (or more) skin in the game at the end just makes the episode even more effective. The war wasn't even on yet, but it was already hell.

Trivial Note - This was the third episode to be partially filmed in Soledad Canyon, north of L.A. Again, it was unbearably hot, especially for the actors, who were all in either a full Starfleet jumpsuit or under heavy Vorta or Jem'Hadar makeup. The series returns here for the final time for season six's "Rocks and Shoals", which is an even better episode than this one, while using similar themes. Coincidentally, the Jem'Hadar ship recovered by Sisko and company here crash lands again to kick off the plot of that episode. For whatever reason, the writing staff was unsatisfied with the episode, which may have been what inspired them to try again with "Rocks and Shoals". The Muniz character, in particular, seems to have disappointed them, but I don't have any problem with him. He had appeared previously in "Starship Down" and "Hard Time".

47. "...Nor the Battle to the Strong" - Season 5, Episode 4 (10/21/96)

"But when it comes down to it, there's only one explanation. I'm a coward." - Jake Sisko

DS9 continues on its "war is hell" jag with this episode, one of the most important Jake episodes of the entire show. He accompanies Bashir to a medical conference, but the duo ends up responding to a distress call from a Starfleet outpost that's under heavy fire from the Klingons. At this point, a mixture of multiple literary classics breaks out (more on them below). Jake was an effective character on the show, even though he appeared in less than half of its episodes. The series managed to give him something rewarding to do in almost every season (for whatever reason, season seven is a major exception to this). Here, we get a pretty affecting "innocence lost" story, as an eager-to-see-some-action reporter gets to see some action and doesn't like what he finds out about himself as a result. I also like that the story throws Jake and Bashir together, as they really hadn't had that many scenes together before this. There's a real sense of truth to this episode, and I appreciate that the show was willing to take Jake to such a place.

Trivial Note - The story is a melange of three classic war novels - Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage, and Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front. The title comes from the Biblical Book of Ecclesiastes. With "Trials and Tribble-ations" looming, two significant alterations were made to the original concept for budgetary reasons. First, the hospital was supposed to be Cardassian, run by a group of Cardassian women who considered males to be inferior in the fields of science and medicine (as is the case in Cardassian society according to season three's "Destiny"). Second, Jake's sequence in the foxhole was originally supposed to pair him with a blinded Klingon warrior, who would bond with Jake during their time together but eventually reject him when he discovered Jake had abandoned Bashir on the battlefield. These characters were all changed to Human Starfleet personnel to save time and money on makeup. I really would've liked to see that sequence with the Klingon in the foxhole, even though the use of the Starfleet Marine was still effective.

46. "Past Tense, Part II" - Season 3, Episode 12 (1/9/95)

"How could we have let this happen?" - Vin

Part One of this story successfully established the crappy early-21st century world Sisko, Bashir, and Dax find themselves in, even if it spent a little too much time establishing it. Part Two is where the story really gets to sing, as Sisko, in particular, gets to kick butt throughout. Again, tonally, this is more in keeping with TOS or TNG, but the social commentary remains powerful. We'd all like to think that this sort of thing is just the stuff of dystopian science fiction, but there's more than a little reality depicted on screen in these episodes. You can call it on-the-nose if you want, but there are real parallels to the current socio-political landscape on display here, and again, this episode's only set eight years from now. I think the 21st century characters are far more interesting and nuanced in this episode than in Part One, and as hectoring as it may be, the last conversation between Sisko and Bashir still carries a lot of weight. Also, I don't know where Clint Howard's character came from, but the "Whoosh, I'm invisible!" part is still pretty great.

Trivial Note - Trek-world notes here - One of the years Kira and O'Brien visit is 1930, and you can see a poster for a boxing match on the wall. That year was the setting for "The City on the Edge of Forever", a TOS time-travel classic. That episode has ads for a boxing match between the same two fighters. Also, Sisko and Vin discuss baseball, contrasting the 1999 New York Yankees and the 2015 London Kings. The '99 Yankees did win the World Series, but the '98 Yankees were better. The Kings were first established in a TNG episode that also featured Dick Miller, who played Vin in this two-parter. The one bit of timeline weirdness is that these episodes take place in 2024, but Star Trek: First Contact establishes that World War III happens after this, decimating the world's population. I'm not sure how the good vibes that come from the Bell Riots would've survived that war and still led to the founding of the Federation.

45. "A Time to Stand" - Season 6, Episode 1 (9/29/97)

"We can't afford to take these kinds of losses, sir, not if we expect to win this." - Dr. Julian Bashir

The six-part "Re-Taking Deep Space Nine" arc that begins season six features some of the show's finest work. This episode, which begins both the arc and the season, checks in on the many developments that occurred in the final two episodes of season five (both also great) before launching the crew out on a desperation mission behind enemy lines. Despite the way "Call to Arms" painted its events as a success for the good guys, this episode opens up with things in a pretty grim place for our heroes, with dialogue like the above-quoted outburst from Bashir making no bones about the situation. The Starfleet crew's subsequent mission into Cardassian space is chock full of tension and action, but in many ways, the most intriguing material in the episode (and all six episodes of this arc) takes place back on Deep Space Nine a.k.a. Terok Nor. Seeing Kira, Odo, Jake, Quark, and Rom adjust to life under Dominion rule is fascinating from front-to-back, and this episode lays the groundwork for what's to come in that storyline nicely.

Trivial Note - The Jem'Hadar ship that Sisko and the gang take into Dominion territory is the one the crew recovered (at great cost) in season five's "The Ship". There was dialogue in the original script that further clarified how this ship could approach Dominion space unchallenged (they should've known it had been captured), but it was cut. Dukat is super-oily toward Kira in this episode, too. This and "Sons and Daughters" may see him at all-time oiliest. More trivially, Dukat records the only log entry ever heard in the franchise from an antagonist's POV. In the log, he refers to himself as Dukat, S.G. The tie-in fiction sometimes takes this to mean his first and middle initials are S.G., while in other instances it's accepted as referring to his status as Station Gul. Dukat's first name is never mentioned on the series (the series is fairly inconsistent with Cardassian naming traditions), but some novels give it as Skrain.

44. "The Search, Part II" - Season 3, Episode 2 (10/3/94)

"We will miss you, Odo, but you will miss us even more." - Female Changeling

In the grand scheme of the series, "The Search" two-parter is often forgotten. After the terrifying appearance of the Dominion in the season two finale, the face of the series is altered forever. It gets altered again at the end of this episode, as we come to find out Odo's newly discovered people are actually the Founders and therefore the principal villains of the series going forward. This is some pretty cruel stuff, but the series never ducks it. In fact, the push-and-pull between Odo's loyalty to the station crew and his desire to be with his people provides the show with thorny, complex character drama for the its duration. The main knock on the episode is the sort of oddball station-set plot. While Odo and Kira chill in the Omarion Nebula, Sisko and company conveniently wake up after Part One's events back on the station with a Dominion-Federation alliance already brokered. It's all a Dominion setup, sure, but the reveal that everything we just saw was a simulation plays sorta weird on screen.

Trivial Note - Borath, the Vorta who runs the simulation on Sisko and the others, was originally scripted to be Eris, the first Vorta we met back in "The Jem'Hadar". Actress Molly Hagan was unavailable, so the role was altered. This would happen again in season five's "The Ship". Considering that all the station scenes weren't real, this is only one of two episodes of the series that are entirely set in the Gamma Quadrant. The other is season five's "Children of Time". And on the Changeling's homeworld, you see a monolith that looks like the monolith that Odo, Dr. Mora, and Dax encountered on a different Gamma Quadrant world in "The Alternate". Given what we find out about the Changelings in "The Die Is Cast", it's likely they had to abandon that world for reasons similar to why they eventually abandon this one. Also, not trivial, but Garak's joke about being a spy and his line, "I read about it in a book once," are two of my favorite Garak moments on the show (and this Garak isn't even real).

43. "Explorers" - Season 3, Episode 22 (5/8/95)

"It's almost like being on the deck of an old sailing ship, except the stars are not just up in the sky, they're all around us." - Cmdr. Ben Sisko

This is a sweet episode. The relationship between Ben and Jake Sisko is one of the cornerstones of the series, and it's something unique to this series in the world of Trek. For much of the series' run, Sisko's previous posting at the Utopia Planitia shipyard doesn't come up that often, but I always enjoyed the stories that depicted Sisko the Engineer. This one may bring that aspect of the character to the fore the most. Plus, there's real care that goes into the depiction of his relationship with his son. Jake's remarkable as a character because most kids in TV or film are depicted as either unrealistically good (Wesley Crusher) or so angsty and irritating that the audience wishes ill upon them (also Wesley Crusher). Jake never really falls into either of those categories, yet still feels like a real person with a believable personality. On the whole, the relationship between Jake and Ben (and Ben and his father, Joseph) is a warm one, and that warmth spreads out to the rest of the show. This episode also features another bromance subplot between Bashir and O'Brien, which is always fun.

Trivial Note - The solar ship was based off of the Kon-Tiki, the primitive sailing ship Thor Heyerdahl used to sail from Peru to Tahiti in 1947. The episode's old-school "man going out to sea" vibe really works in its favor. Sisko rocks his kickass goatee for the first time in this episode. This is probably the most purely sympathetic Dukat ever gets in the series, as he seems to be legitimately concerned for the Siskos' safety, and his little fireworks show at the end is actually a little touching, in a game-recognize-game sorta way. Two major relationships are made possible in this episode. First, Jake mentions a freighter captain that he'd like his dad to meet, which ends up being Sisko's future wife Kasidy Yates, first seen in the next episode "Family Business". Second, Leeta appears for the first time in the cold open. Her role, a makeup casting as she was removed from the role of Mardah earlier in the season, was to be limited to just this one scene, but the producers liked her so much she became a recurring character. She first dates Bashir for a brief period, but eventually marries Rom in "Call to Arms".

42. "Children of Time" - Season 5, Episode 22 (5/5/97)

"He did it for you, Nerys. He loved you." - Constable Odo

Star Trek has made a regular habit of tossing complex questions of ethics at its audience for half a century now. Of all the many examples of this throughout the franchise, "Children of Time" may feature the thorniest ethical dilemma of them all. The real strength of this episode lies in the resolution, where the writers resist the temptation to find a way to have their cake and eat it, too. Far too often in situations like this, a TV show or film will establish a tortuous conundrum like this, then find some crazy way where everybody wins in the end. There is no win-win scenario here (even though they tease us with one), and while there's no way anyone should've ever expected the crew to actually stay marooned on that planet, the fact that Future Odo basically wipes a small civilization out of the timeline entirely just to save Kira still hits you like a ton of bricks. There's a lot to chew on throughout the episode, with several nice discussion sequences. The group debate about what to do on the Defiant is well-written, as are the little character bits like Kira's willingness to accept death, both Dax's feelings of guilt, and Worf's eventual bonding with the Sons of Mogh. In many ways this plays like a TNG-style story run through a DS9 filter, and the episode plays to both storytelling styles' strengths.

Trivial Note - The story for this episode was originally pitched for season three, but the producers didn't feel it was the right time for it. After giving some space between time travel episodes like the "Past Tense" two-parter and "The Visitor", they felt the time was right for the Odo/Kira angle near the end of season five. Originally, Yedrin Dax was responsible for changing the Defiant's flight plan (and the episode feints in that direction, with Yedrin's guilt over Jadzia's mistake), but Ira Steven Behr requested that Future Odo be made the culprit as a way to create some character conflict going forward. This is one of two episodes to be entirely set in the Gamma Quadrant ("The Search, Part II" is the other, though it features simulated scenes on DS9). Coincidentally, this is the last episode to even be partially set in the Gamma Quadrant until the series finale, as the entirety of the Dominion War is fought in the Alpha Quadrant. Also, the notion that Odo was cured of Section 31's virus when he was changed into a Solid in "Broken Link" is reinforced by this episode, as Future Odo lived for 200 years without the virus affecting him at all. He will be reinfected in season six's "Behind the Lines".

41. "The Dogs of War" - Season 7, Episode 24 (5/26/99)

"If we stand together nothing can oppose us! Freedom is ours for the taking!" - Legate Damar

While the final arc is up-and-down, two episodes really, truly stand out. This is the first of those to appear on the list (the second to air). Three of the series' best writers receive credit for the script - Peter Allan Fields (who was a major factor in the show's early seasons, and wrote a few stories as a freelancer in the later ones), Ronald Moore, and Rene Echevarria (who both appeared on the scene in season three and became indispensable parts of the writing and production staffs). This episode touches on several of the show's final storylines, and even adds one that doesn't appear in the other episodes (the Ferengi Grand Nagus drama), yet still manages to flow briskly from scene to scene, without all the bagginess that marred some of the other episodes in the final arc. The quote and picture above are taken from Damar's awesome rallying speech in the streets, which is one of the show's best moments, and the Ferengi storyline presented here is excellent. Grand Nagus Rom has a really nice ring to it. Even the Bashir/Ezri drama moves nicely in this episode. It does a fine job of moving the pieces into place for the finale, yet still feeling satisfying on its own terms.

Trivial Note - The decision to make Rom Grand Nagus was made late in the game. Initially, Quark was to ascend to the post, a development that would be reminiscent of "The Nagus", the season one episode where Zek first appears. Ira Steven Behr felt that Quark's presence meant too much to the station, so Rom was tabbed as Nagus instead. The script went through a few rewrites to come up with a satisfactory way for that to happen. Part of Quark's rant about the death of Ferengi culture includes the line, "The line must be drawn here! This far, no further!" This is a comic take on Capt. Picard's line about the Borg in Star Trek: First Contact. Both this episode and that film were co-written by Ronald Moore. And finally, Jeffrey Combs appears as both of his recurring characters, Brunt and Weyoun, in this episode. This is the only time an actor plays two different aliens in the same episode in Trek history.

40. "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges" - Season 7, Episode 16 (3/3/99)

"Someone has to protect men like you from a universe that doesn't share your sense of right and wrong." - Luther Sloan

Of all the episodes on the list, this is probably the one most people will disagree with. It's rightly considered a classic, and I have no beef with that. I feel like every episode from about number 75 up could be argued as a classic, and every episode above 60 is inarguably great. The show features a deep well of great episodes, and this is one of them. My main issue with it is that Alexander Siddig falls into the same trap that often plagued Avery Brooks. When they had to get really preachy and morally superior, their performances sometimes came off as over-the-top. Siddig is much more natural in his early scenes with Garak and most of his back-and-forth with Sloan, but his big confrontation with Admiral Ross at the end just doesn't quite get there. Still, it's a strong episode that continues to take a bat to Gene Roddenberry's vision for Star Trek, plus it features my favorite conniving bastards, the Romulans. May they forever be a gray, drab beacon of cold, stern ruthlessness.

Trivial Note - Bashir's translation of the title is not literal but carries the same meaning. The words in the title can apparently be said in any order and still retain their meaning (I admittedly know little about Latin grammar), so writer Ronald Moore placed them in the order he thought sounded best. The plot itself is a riff on The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, a John le Carre novel that was adapted into a 1965 Richard Burton film. The standing sets for Voyager were used for Ross's ship, as it was of the same class. B-movie star Adrienne Barbeau (The Fog, Escape from New York) plays Senator Cretak, replacing a frankly less interesting performer who played the character in "Image in the Sand" and "Shadows and Symbols". While his conversation with Bashir at the beginning is wonderful, I can't help but be sad that Garak wasn't more directly involved. He never interacted with Section 31 once, which was a missed opportunity, and an episode with Sloan, Garak, and the Romulans would've been an orgy of obfuscation.

39. "The Search, Part I" - Season 3, Episode 1 (9/26/94)

"Welcome home..." - Female Changeling

Yay, we finally get to meet Odo's people! It's all gonna be sunshine and lollipops from here! "The Search" two-parter alters the face of the show in ways large and small. First off, we see brand spanking new combadges for all the Starfleet personnel. That...would be a small change. Perhaps more importantly, the Defiant shows up for the first time. There's a new aloof Security Chief in the from of Michael Eddington. And everyone's raring to go hunt down the Jem'Hadar, seeing as how the last interaction with them went so well. Odo, already grouchier than usual, gets even more chapped when Eddington's arrival is announced (and he dumps pure acid on Quark in a scene that may stand as Odo's all-time crankiest moment). This episode goes for the gut more than Part Two does, sending the Defiant directly into another pummeling courtesy of the Jem'Hadar before hitting us with the Changeling reveal (the first of two reveals about them in quick succession). In a world where twist-based storytelling is common, there is an admirable elegance to the decision to reveal the Changelings here, then reveal their true place in the Dominion in the next episode. It's a clean revelation, not overly foreshadowed but not dramatically unearned either. More shows could stand to learn from this example.

Trivial Note - Rene Auberjonois was initially displeased with the idea of Odo finding his people. After finding out about the revelation coming in Part Two, he changed his mind. The deal mentioned with the Romulans involving the use of a cloaking device on a Starfleet ship was pretty much the deal the writing staff had to make with Rick Berman to get approval for the concept. He didn't like the idea of a Federation vessel "sneaking around" but ultimately approved the idea. (It should be noted that Sisko violates this deal on multiple occasions with no consequences.) For his first episode on staff, writer Ronald Moore got to name the Defiant. After his suggestion of Valiant was vetoed, he chose Defiant, naming it after a ship that appears in the TOS classic "The Tholian Web". The Eddington character was initially only introduced to fill in for a missing Chief O'Brien (Colm Meaney was shooting a film at this time), but he would become significantly more important over the next three seasons. This episode also marks the first time Sisko expresses a real passion for Bajor and its security. This would be almost as important to the series as the Changeling reveal would be.

38. "Paradise" - Season 2, Episode 15 (2/13/94)

"We have found something here that none of us is willing to give up." - Joseph

This is an important early episode for Sisko. The Commander (later Captain) of Deep Space Nine develops somewhat slowly. Avery Brooks even considered leaving the series during the first season, as little of the show's eventual identity had manifested at that point. Casting an African-American as the lead was a big deal for DS9, as very few science fiction or fantasy shows have featured an African-American lead before or since. The Sisko of the first season-plus wasn't really written as a black man, though. I understand the impulse here, as you absolutely wouldn't want to define the character simply by his race. Developing him as an officer and a father were smart instincts, but episodes like this allowed for his racial identity to inform the character in subtle ways that only served to strengthen him. O'Brien (who was there) or any of the other characters could've endured what Sisko endured here (and most of them endure something similarly terrible at one point or another), but having these acts of committed civil disobedience be carried out a person of color adds another layer to what the audience is seeing. I appreciate the way characters like Sisko and Bashir are never defined by any racial stereotypes, yet still feel like characters who significantly draw from their racial and cultural heritages. This episode is a major part of that undercurrent of the series for me.

Trivial Note - Michael Piller was drawn to the idea of a cult-based story, as a relative of his had joined a cult at one point. On the whole, I think this is a much stronger outing than DS9's other cult episode, "Covenant". Hans Beimler was one of five credited writers for the episode, and he was asked to join the show's permanent staff during production. He declined this first offer but did join the writing and production staffs starting in season four.

37. "Favor the Bold" - Season 6, Episode 5 (10/27/97)

"There's an old saying, 'Fortune favors the bold.' Well, I guess we're about to find out." - Capt. Ben Sisko

This is a classic Part One-type episode, as nothing is really resolved here. Everything that needs to be in play for "Sacrifice of Angels" is put into play, and the episode ends with a massive tease for what's about to happen. While it may all seem like a glorified intro, "Favor the Bold" is pretty damn entertaining on its own. The Terok Nor drama continues to impress, with Odo realizing the error of his ways, and Kira and her merry men preparing to swing into action while a suspicious Damar has plans of his own. The simmering conflict between Dukat and Ziyal (with Kira and Damar on the periphery) starts to come to a boil, as does Quark's growing desire to bring the Federation back to the station (while his brother awaits execution). There's some mild clunkiness in the Starfleet portions of the episode, as it's here where you can sense the only real filler material in the story, but Sisko's plan is prepared, Martok and Worf head off to plead with Gowron to send reinforcements, and generally everything starts to come to a head. If you don't watch "Sacrifice of Angels" right away afterward (which people in 1997 did not have the option to do), then this episode may leave you cursing at the screen, but it's all worth it.

Trivial Note - This was originally planned as the final episode of the "Re-Taking Deep Space Nine" arc, but writers Ira Steven Behr and Hans Beimler realized during the scripting process that they weren't going to be able to squeeze everything into 45 minutes, so another episode was added to the arc. The Admiral Coburn character (the guy who's afraid to leave Earth vulnerable) is named after actor James Coburn, who plays a similar character in Midway. If Sisko's speech about planning to live on Bajor after the war seems a little tossed off, it's because it was added at the last minute to fill out the episode. The speech does represent an even stronger affection for the planet on Sisko's part, and he puts his plans to build a home on Bajor into action in season seven's "Penumbra".

36. "The Jem'Hadar" - Season 2, Episode 26 (6/12/94)

"You have no idea what's begun here..." - Eris

Neither the audience nor (to some extent) the production staff of DS9 knew what had begun in this episode. Probably the biggest knock on "The Jem'Hadar" is that we see both the title aliens and the Vorta (who aren't named in this episode) do things we never see any Dominion flunkies do again. There's no more stepping through forcefields, no more Vorta telepathy or X-Men-like projectile energy blasts, and no more transporting out of the quadrant (though we do see a device that allows for long-range transportation in "Covenant"). So, for those reasons, this episode is sort-of an outlier. Many aspects of the Dominion storyline hadn't been cooked up yet by the writers (like the whole Changeling/Founder reveal that would follow in "The Search" two-parter, thus explaining why Eris DGAF about Odo in this episode). The length of time this storyline would be allowed to run hadn't even been determined, and I'm sure some on the staff expected the whole thing to be taken care of soon after the show returned for season three. Fortunately for us, that would not be the case, and the more lasting parts of the episode resonated all the way though the coming conflict - Jem'Hadar badassery, Vorta treachery, and a sense that something super-duper formidable had been stirred up by our heroes (see the Odyssey going boom in the final act). In the middle of all that, we manage to see a few nice character moments for Sisko, Quark, Jake, and Nog (especially Quarks rant about humanity's past), which help keep the episode grounded.

Trivial Note - While Dax snidely made sure Capt. Keogh had evacuated all non-essential personnel before heading into the Gamma Quadrant, a lot of people get blowed up in the final battle. You'd think we'd hear more about this in the future, but we really don't. (Trek had made this mistake before, like when over 1,000 people are killed in the teaser for TNG's "Contagion" and everyone promptly forgets about it.) The destruction of a ship of the same class as the Enterprise-D was an intentional move by the producers. This 1 - established how big and bad the Dominion was and 2 - scared TNG fans when they saw the explosion in the teaser ads for this episode. The Jem'Hadar personal cloaking device uses the same visual effect as the cloak that Tosk used in "Captive Pursuit". Writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe came up with an unused backstory that claimed the Dominion genetically engineered the Tosk for the Hunters, just as we later find that the Jem'Hadar and Vorta are genetically engineered. While sticking to the Changelings, Vorta, and Jem'Hadar helped focus things, it would've been nice if we'd seen any other Dominion races in the series (as far as I know, aside from the big three, we only ever see the Karemma).

Deep breath...and that's all for Part IV. Hopefully I didn't break you, 'cause Part V's a-coming to finish off this whole dog-and-pony show. Prepare thyselves.

A good way to prepare is to check out Atlanta Classic Comics on eBay. We've got plenty o' Trek stuff, like comics (some from as far back as the 70's), merchandise, and more. And with a new movie on the way, we should have more stuff coming in, so keep your ears open and your eyes on the mark.

Part V