As soon as I saw the title of this episode I was sure it was the one where Worf joined the crew and I was correct. And what an episode! I think this has more action in it than any pair of episodes anywhere else in all of Trek to this point. The Dominion war gets serious too, but not for a few more seasons. I had completely forgotten that the episode with the Defiant standing up to several minutes of weapons fire with its shields down was the same one that debuted the new badass defense systems of DS9. I admit I had been looking towards Worf's return with a bit of dread since I knew it was also the point in the show where the main story slows down a bit, but in hindsight he is a good enough addition to the series to more than make up for it.
We begin with the crew fanned out across the station searching for a changeling with guns drawn. But as was apparent from it being a cold opening chase it is actually a training and Odo is the one they are looking for. Afterwards Sisko has dinner with Kasidy but she can't stay long, her ship leaves the next day. Before they can enjoy each others company too much the Klingon flagship decloaks right next to the station and requests to be allowed to shore leave. Sisko agrees, but something is going on. The Klingons head to Quarks, but aren't their usual boisterous selves. General Martok meets with Sisko but requires a blood sample first from both Sisko and Kira. He claims to be there to help defend against the Dominion, but as Sisko points out, there have been no indications of an imminent invasion. At the replimat Garak and Bashir are having their usual lunch when they are interrupted by some Klingons lead by Drex. They try to start something the Garak but aren't willing to do it in public. That night they show up in his shop and break a bunch of his ribs.
Garak isn't willing to press charges, but then they get a call from Kasidy's ship. Sisko jumps into the Defiant to investigate and finds her ship being held by Klingons. He fires a shot off their bow and they let her go, but it isn't over. General Martok walks into Sisko's office and hands him the captains dagger signifying that he was executed for failing to search the ship. Sisko puts out a call to Starfleet asking for some assistance with the situation so they send Worf. Worf has been hanging out in a Klingon monastery and tells Sisko he is thinking of leaving Starfleet and Sisko tries to talk him into staying but pointing out how close he came to leaving after his wife's death. Worf confronts Martok trying to get an answer out of him about what is really going on, but gets called a traitor for his trouble. Dax finds him in the holosuite using her Klingon combat program and at first he refuses to accept that she is a competent fighter, but they spar and he wins, but she puts up a good fight.
At Dax's suggestion Worf calls one of his friends on a Klingon ship over and asks him what is going on implying that it would be a huge favor to his family. He tells them that the Klingons have discovered that a coup has taken place on Cardassia and think the Dominion is behind it. And they plan to invade. Sisko confronts Martok, but he refuses to stop the invasion and sets it into motion as soon as he gets off DS9. To try and save some lives Sisko calls Garak in "for some measurements" as they openly discuss the invasion and Garak takes the hint and calls Dukat as soon as he is out. Gowron shows up to try and convince Worf to join the invasion, but Worf is unwilling to give up his promise to Starfleet.
Sisko contacts the new Cardassian government and gets through to Dukat who has switched sides. He offers to get the government to safety and Dukat agrees. They all jump into the Defiant and cloak before heading in at top warp. When they arrive they find Dukat's ship in bad shape with three Klingon ships attacking. They decloak and start attacking first shooting out engines, but that isn't cutting it so they start shooting to kill. It will take two minutes to beam Dukat and the council off the Cardassian ship but the Defiant apparently has super armor that, along with some disruptor disrupting by Worf, buys them the time they need. The cloak is damaged though so they are pursued as they head back to the station. They make it but a Klingon fleet arrives as well. There is a totally badass battle between the station and Klingons with boarding parties trying to take the station directly but Federation reinforcements are close enough the Gowron is forced to withdraw his fleet. After all that Worf still seems to want to leave Starfleet so Sisko shows up in his quarters to give Worf a long talk about how running away from your problems tends to not help in the long run and Worf agrees to stay as a tactical officer moving from yellow shirt to red.
Review: What a crazy episode. Not just a lot of action, although it has a ton of that as well, but a lot of character. Garak and Dukat are great and actually spend some quality time together fighting Klingons. Worf and Dax seem to be hitting it off nicely and Quark is busy being Quark. We see that Bashir cares about Odo and Sisko seems to be getting along with Kasidy very well. Also, did I mention space battles???
9 out of 10
No comments:
Post a Comment