Deep Space Nine, season 6

FOUR-STAR EPISODES: 4
AVERAGE EPISODE RATING: 2.7
-A Time to Stand ****
-written by ira steven behr, hans beimler
-directed by allan kroeker
Well-seasoned with guest spots (martok, joseph sisko, garak, dukat). The new cardassian occupation of Bajor is relatively benign, while the Federation is losing the war. Sisko is given a captured jem'hadar ship to raid a ketracel depot. Jeffrey combs (ENTERPRISE, THE MAN WITH TWO BRAINS) come into full bloom as weyoun, balancing heartless autocracy with unilateral obsequiousness. Tight and dangerous.
-Rocks and Shoals ****
-written by ronald d. moore
-directed by michael vejar
This...is one badass episode. Sisko's stolen raider is forced to crash onto a planet where a jem'hadar ship has crashed. The lone vorta (christopher shea - 'TIL DEATH, MR. SUNSHINE) knows that the ketracel-white will soon run out, at which point the jem'hadar will kill everyone and themselves. He offers sisko an easy chance to kill them. Just when you think the grim ending will be averted, they choose to die, knowing full well they've been sold out. The landscape is barren and beautiful. The acting and writing provide one punch after another. Phil morris (STAR TREK III, SEINFELD) is haunting as the jem'hadar leader. Meanwhile, kira is stunned by a suicidal protest into realizing she's become a collaborator.
-Sons and Daughters **
Serving with his son, worf finds their relationship strained (and that on a new series with a new actor, alexander episodes are still lame). Kira and dukat experience acrimony on the reoccupied station.
-Behind the Lines **
Ensorcled by a renewed experience with the Great Link, odo betrays the resistance on DS9. A promoted sisko relinquishes command of Defiant to dax, leading to perhaps the most mawkish, uncomfortable acting moment of terry farrell's career. She gives a gung-ho speech, and it rings excruciatingly false. Bad acting in a situation the creators never should have handed her.
-Favor the Bold ***
Sisko plans a daring recapture of DS9, while rom faces Dominion treason charges.
-Sacrifice of Angels ***
Breathtaking. The Federation sends a fleet to liberate the station, in hopes of keeping the minefield intact. They fail...until the wormhole aliens erase the thousand jem'hadar ships coming through. Dukat's moment of triumph dashed, he sees damar cut down a treasonous ziyal before his eyes. Odo repents, sisko returns, and a deranged dukat babbles...
-You are Cordially Invited... *
Funny, i feel more "colonically invaded". The wedding (and bachelor parties) of worf and jadzia, who is put through hell by her prospective mother-in-law. Even with jadzia's interest in the male party entertainment, this one won't stand any test of time. To actual people of the 24th (or even 22nd) century, these attitudes on marriage and monogamy will be chillingly barbaric.
-Resurrection **
Bareil is back from the dead! Or not. Kira takes this atheistic thief from the mirror universe into her bed anyway, blind to his real intent. Say what you will about Bajor's spiritual retardation (and i do), they at least have a more evolved sexuality, with far less hangups and possessiveness.
-Statistical Probabilities ***
Four genetically-enhanced, socially-maladjusted geniuses who have been institutionalized most of their lives are sent to the station. Julian is able to make their genius more accessible. A sweet episode made so by hyperactive tim ransom (DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN, COURAGE UNDER FIRE), compulsive flirt hilary sheperd (ADDAMS FAMILY REUNION, THE 40 YEAR-OLD VIRGIN), personal space-ignorant michael keenan (DALLAS, PICKET FENCES), and cataleptic faith salie (ALIEN AVENGERS, WILD THINGS 2).
-The Magnificent Ferengi **
Quark's mother must be rescued from the Dominion! Adding leeta might have saved this one (well, maybe), and made their number seven, which would have justified the title, oh producer morons.
-Waltz ***
A scorching psychological drama between sisko and dukat. Escaping from an attacked ship that had been carrying them to a hearing, dukat rescues sisko, who has plasma burns and a broken arm. Stranded on a planetoid, they play cat and mouse. Dukat is deranged, and hears voices. One star lost for the decidedly non-TREK nonsense about "good and evil".
-Who Mourns for Morn? ***
A dead bar patron leaves everything to quark...including four scheming, dangerous associates who crawl out of the woodwork (or the mudbath). This one's done so well, you might laugh out loud. Let's raise a glass to mark allen shepard - 93 episodes as the same character (on three different series). Five or six hours a day getting in and out of makeup, every single time. He finally gets a storyline, but does he get an ACTUAL line?
-Far Beyond the Stars ***
Sisko has a vision of being a sci fi writer in 1950s California, struggling to publish a story about a black space captain. The only episode to show the entire cast as humans...which is wonderful, especially for a cast which is percentage-wise more hidden by alien makeup than any other TREK. It's particularly wonderful to see, after nine years, a non-klingon, non-dour michael dorn.
-One Little Ship ****
-written by david weddle, bradley thompson
-directed by allan kroeker
A lovely execution of a fantastic idea. A runabout enters an anomaly that shrinks it to a teeny fraction of its size. Outside the anomaly, the Defiant is captured. The shrunken runabout (with jadzia, julian, and o'brien aboard) must fly inside the Defiant to help liberate it. A rollicking good time with wonderful visuals - the only time a runabout has ever moved the excitement meter.
-Honor Among Thieves **
O'brien goes undercover in the Orion Syndicate. Even if you're willing to buy the premise of an engineer spy, and the ease with which he achieves his infiltration, the relationships play out falsely - an execution that feels contrived, and a friendship that feels too shallow to justify all that follows (including a non-execution that feels...contrived).
-Change of Heart ****
-written by ronald d. moore
-directed by david livingston
Worf and jadzia are assigned to retrieve a cardassian defector. They hike through 20 kilometers of jungle - the visuals are strikingly beautiful, and the couple have never been more natural and playful. After they're forced to ambush a jem'hadar patrol, jadzia is critically wounded. Worf can complete the mission, or save her. His choice results in a dead would-be defector, plus a loss of military intelligence that could have saved millions of lives. As a consequence, he'll likely never again being promoted - a realistic, messy character choice which rings true (and perhaps never would have been shown on TNG). Perhaps the deftest touch comes after sisko gives his reprimand. Ben says that had he been in the same situation, he would have done the same thing to save the woman he loved...and it's not kasidy he invokes, but jennifer (the writing staff was willing to tell the truth, on more than one level). And what does it say about how far we've come, that it's probably never occurred to you that this episode shows a black man and white woman cavorting in bed? The power of science fiction...
-Wrongs Darker than Death or Night **
Kira goes back in time to find out whether her mother was a collaborator. In some ways (seeing a youthful dukat in charge of the occupation), this tale is charming. The writers inject shades of grey into nerys's black and white world...but perhaps not quite enough to underscore the point that under brutal oppression, it's pollyannish bullshit to hold people up to any "normal" measure of moral accountability. The point should have been given to sisko at the end, perhaps by simply cutting kira off with "She saved her family." And then cutting her off with the same line once more.
-Inquisition **
Section 31 arrests bashir on suspicion of treason. An ambitious effort, trying to encapsulate the notion of moral ambiguity and the end justifying the means. It's a worthy argument. But despite some high points, one more rewrite was needed.
-In the Pale Moonlight ***
How bizarre. Two episodes in a row presenting an identical theme. It is too much to hope that the next one will be the four-star version? This one is darker, and more believable. To bring the romulans into the war and save the alpha quadrant, sisko violates the Federation's most basic principles. Garak is shown at his most efficiently, chillingly amoral. Again it's tempting to get drawn into the debate, as though morality has some meaning in war. One of the most pernicious and blinding of all conceits is the notion that there is a moral way to conduct immorality.
-His Way ***
The romance between odo and kira never quite pops...in no small part because their separate characters never pop. But this one's pretty damned sweet. He spends the episode being coached in love by 50s holodeck lounge singer vic fontaine (james darren - GIDGET, T.J. HOOKER). Cool cat vic will return for seven more episodes. After years of buildup, these crazy kids finally kiss.
-The Reckoning *
Sisko deals with disturbing prophecies, and bajorans who are uncomfortable with an alien emissary. I think the creators had to be concerned about the franchise losing its path (or its audience), because they rarely let DS9 get so nauseatingly religious as this. Perhaps they wanted to backpedal, but knew they couldn't entirely, and so loaded all their festering ovum into a few baskets.
-Valiant ***
A ripper...that could have been an all-time classic with one more rewrite. Jake and nog are chased by jem'hadar into Dominion territory. The Valiant, a defiant-class training starship trapped behind enemy lines, rescues them. Their officers dead, the cadets are running the ship. Nog becomes chief engineer, as they try to finish an impossible mission. But tensions are high, and questionable choices are made. The destruction sequence is molto impressivo.
-Profit and Lace **
Grand nagus zek becomes a feminist...and is deposed. Quark is surgically-altered to pose as a female (if you have nightmares, don't say i didn't warn you). Henry gibson (LAUGH-IN, THE BLUES BROTHERS) joins the fun, and this weak product ain't his fault.
-Time's Orphan **
Molly o'brien is caught in a time displacement, and returns much older, having grown up alone in the wild. This one very possibly claims the all-time TREK plot hole record - orifices of every ilk that almost beggar description. Saved from one-star land by a feral female asian teen in a bar fight, and a sweet child-rearing subplot with worf and jadzia.
-The Sound of Her Voice ***
Perhaps TREK didn't do often enough what this episode does - play upon the quieter end of the emotional spectrum. Take away the excitement and danger of exploration, and the concomitant moral dilemmas, and ask yourself - how often does TREK feel like a mirror for our own quiet, lonely humanity? Part of that is unavoidable, if you accept the notion of a healthier human future. If so, the average 24th-century earthling will be far less neurotic and damaged than us. How do we then use TREK as a mirror, as good drama must? Two ways - use aliens as substitute humans, and put humans in exceptional circumstances...in this case, a crew that has been at war for months, with no end in sight. The Defiant speeds to the rescue of a stranded officer (debra wilson - MADtv, AVATAR) slowly asphyxiating. Everyone takes turns talking to her. They arrive to discover that she's been dead for years, an atmospheric barrier having time-distorted their communications. They each face their own loneliness and mortality, and her death becomes a metaphor for something the war has killed in them all.
-Tears of the Prophets ***
Jadzia is killed by dukat as he frees a pah wraith, sealing the wormhole. It's moving, but terry farrell's death feels a little forced. A jam-packed season finale, with nearly every standout recurring actor. Stunning space battles. The symbiont lives...