DS9 is on a tear with the great episodes right now! And sure, this is no commentary on race relations in modern times, but it is super fun and very clever. And when I say fun, this is honestly Tribbles level fun. The final fight in engineering where the salt shaker sized runabout shoots miniature photo torpedoes at Jem'Hadar soldiers is pure gold. Not to mention Odo and Quark totally getting O'Brien and Bashir in the very end of the episode. And this has been all about the A story so far. The B story is all about the Defiant being taken over by Jem'Hadar and Sisko having to learn to exploit the conflict between Alpha and Gamma Quadrant Jem'Hadar to keep them from taking his ship back to the Dominion.
We begin with the Defiant on a mission to investigate an anomaly rather than fight the Dominion for once. The plan is to send a runabout into the anomaly which will shrink them down around 99% but restore them when they are carefully pulled out the same way they went in. To keep control of the situation a tractor beam will connect the two ships. Dax, O'Brien and Bashir are on the runabout but only Miles seems worried about getting stuck being tiny. They head in and everything seems fine, but suddenly the tractor beam fluctuates. Cut to the Defiant which is under attack but the Dominion. Sisko is determined not to lose the runabout, but it is too late. Jem'Hadar beam on board and take control of the ship, but from the first moment it is clear there is conflict among them. A new first has just taken over and the old first is now second and not happy about it.
On the runabout systems are damaged and Dax his hurt, but not badly. They make it out of the anomaly but sensors are down. Finally Miles gets the windows open and they find themselves staring at a huge hull plating on the Defiant, they are still super small! O'Brien manages to sneak them into a plasma vent and almost gets them cooked, but Dax's nimble piloting saves the day. The Jem'Hadar need the warp drive working and despite the protests of the second the first assigns Sisko and the bridge crew to the job. This is what the runabout crew find in engineering when then emerge from an access panel. O'Brien quickly realizes that Sisko is having Kira actually work on the warp engines while the rest of the crew are trying to seize control of the ship via the command codes. But it isn't going to work.
Luckily O'Brien realizes what is wrong and how they can help. Dax flies the runabout to the bridge and into a panel. Inside Miles and Bashir rewire the ship to make it possible for Sisko to take over the ship. It seems they are too late though. The second figures out the engines have already been repaired but gets into an argument with the first about who's fault it is. Just then the runabout bursts through the door and opens fire on the Jem'Hadar. A fight breaks out and with the help of the tiny ship Sisko takes control of engineering and floods the ship with knockout gas. Back on the station everything is back to normal, well, other than O'Brien and Bashir being terrified that they are still too small...
Review: After such a dark season it is nice to have some relief. And in this case in comes in the form of a well told, witty adventure story. I am actually glad these are the exception, but it is really fun to get to see them when we do!
9 out of 10
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