Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 7 created by Rick Berman and Michael Piller (1998-1999)
7 September 2006What a way to go out. I can’t believe I stopped watching this show in it’s original run so early on, because I can honestly say this is the best Star Trek since the Original Series. This show was so different, and so much darker, with such deep characters that went through such a change through the course of the 7 seasons because of the continuing story-line that it really made a sharp turn from Trek and it is really too bad that their was not a trek after this that was anything near as good, and it so easily bested the stories of next generation as well, which followed so much of the original single shot stories with the same characters, instead of this show, that even with it’s single shot stories there were always plot-threads that were ongoing, and with the Dominion war that lasted multiple seasons I don’t think you will ever get another trek quite like this.
For anyone who at all likes trek and missed this show I have to say it is well worth checking out, be it on DVD or reruns or anything. This is such a well done show with great characters that it would be a shame to miss it.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
The season starts with IMAGE IN THE SAND where Colonel Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor) has been put in charge of DS9 until Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) returns, if he returns. Kira is dealing with a Pah wraith cult that is growing in power on the station and on Bajor, and the cult worships the arch enemy of the prophets, or wormhole aliens most Bajorans take as their gods. People are turning to the Pah Wraiths since the orbs have all closed. Admiral Ross arrives (Barry Jenner) arrives to tell Kira to make space for the Romulan Senator Cretak (Megan Cole).
On Cardassia Leget Damar (Casey Biggs) the leader of Cardassia, is drinking Canar very heavily under the watch of his Dominion overseer Wayoun (Jeffrey Combs) who is a clone bred to see the FOunders as gods, and serve them in all things.
Sisko is at his father Joseph’s (Brock Peters) restaurant on Earth with his son Jake (Cirroc Lofton) trying to figure things out, and not doing much, till he has a vision from the prophets that send him to the world of Tyree to find the Orb of the Emissary which will still be working, and a vision of a woman named Sarah, who claims to be his mother. Joseph won’t talk about it, but it turns out she really was Ben’s mother. Ben decides to go find the orb, and his family decides to go with them, but they get one more to go with them. A shy Trill named Ezri (Nicole De Boer) shows up and it turns out to be Dax IT seems on the way back to Trill, the ship was attacked and the Dax symbiote was hurt, and had to be put into the only trill on the ship, one who was not prepared and was in fact a ship’s counselor in training.
Next we have SHADOWS AND SYMBOLS where Sisko heads to Tyree with Jake, Jospeh and Ezri who is totally confused as to who she is.
Meanwhile Worf (Michael Dorn) has decided to go on a glorious mission to assure his dead wife Jadzia Dax makes it into Klingon heaven, and to his chagrin Bashir (Alexander Siddig), O’Brien (Colm Meaney) and the Ferengi Quark (Armin Shimerman) come along, but with the help of General Martok (J.G. Hertzler) they complete their mission. While Kyra deals with Romulans putting weapons on a Bajoran moon.
Sisko finds the orb on Tyree, though he is acting really crazy and before it opens he gets a false vision from the Pah wraiths that tries to stop him from opening it by making him Benny Russell again in the 50’s in an insane asylum, but he opens it, and fixes all the orbs, and he is ready to return to DS9, where everyone meets Ezri.
AFTERIMAGE is about Ezri getting used to life on the station and Worf ignoring her, and also trying to help the Cardassian Spy Elim Garak (Andrew J. Robinson) who is having issues with betraying his own people which is coming out as claustrophobia. Ezri ends up deciding to stay in starfleet and on DS9.
TAKE ME TO THE HOLOSUITE is a fun episode about a rivalry between Sisko and a Vulcan Captain Solok (Gregory Wagrowski) were they play a baseball game which Sisko takes too seriously until he realizes it is all about having fun.
CRYSALIS is Julian Bashir coming up with a plan to try and wake the genetically engineered Sarina (Faith C. Salie) from her stupor she has been in since she was enhanced, and of course the other enhanced weirdoes Jack (Tim Ransom), Lauren (Hilary Shepard-Turner) and Patrick (Michael Keenan) show up as a well for fun. Bashir wakes up Serena, and falls in love her, but she turns inward again because he is too much for her, and must let her leave and find her own way in life now that she no longer needs to be in the institute.
TREACHERY, FAITH, AND THE GREAT RIVER is about Odo (Rene Auberjonois), when he goes to find a Cardassian contact he thought was dead, but it turns out to be Weyoun, though not the one that he knows, another clone, who is defective and wants to defect, but to save Odo he kills himself as the Founders wished.
ONCE MORE UNTO THE BREACH has Bashir and O’Brien obsessing over Davy Crocket and a new holosuite, while Worf receives a visit from Kor (John Colicos) who has lost all clout in the empire. Against Martok’s wishes Worf gives him a position of 3rd officer and Martok is pissed because the crew reveres him, but in an attack when Worf and Martok are wounded Kor takes command, and calls for his dead friends and causes them great damage, and is disgraced. On the way back they are being chased by Jem’Hadar ships and Worf volunteers to suicide and stop the ships, but Kor takes his place, and manages to distract 10 ships and save the other ships, and he dies a hero of the empire once again.
THE SIEGE OF AR-558 is about Sisko and the defiant going to check in on a Federation outpost in the badlands where they have captured a DOminion communications decide, and are trying to decode it, but the Federation soldiers their are in bad shape and have lost more than a 3rd of there men, Sisko and his crew end up staying with them to help with the siege and manage to hold off till re-enforcements arrive though Nog (Aron Eisenberg) loses his leg.
COVENANT is about Kira being kidnapped by a old Vedek she knew and taken to the DS9 abanded sister station Empok Nor where Gul Dukat (Marc Alaimo) is leading a group of Bajoran worshipers of the Pah Wraiths who follow him blindly even when it is seen that he sired a son to a married couple there, but when he plans to kill all his followers so he can move on Kira manages to expose his duplicity, but is scared because she sees he does believe in the Pah Wraiths.
IT’S ONLY A PAPER MOON is about ensign Nog when he returns to the station he is having a problem with his new leg hurting though it is all psychological, and he ends up moving into a holosuite with Vic FOntain (James Darren) and starting a virtual life there, and he does grow and use his leg, while Vic loves it, because he is on so long he gets a real life. Eventually thanks to Ezri Vic kicks Nog out and he can return to his life, and Nog convinces Quark to leave Vic on all the time.
PRODIGAL DAUGHTER. When O’Brien disappears illegally searching for the wife of Bilby the man in the Orion Syndicate he feels he betrayed, and it is in the territory of Ezri’s family, so she has to go find O’Brien and deal with her family. She sees her mother Yanas TIgan (Leigh Taylor-Young) and her older brother Janel (MIkael Salazar) who is running things and dealing with the Orion Syndicate and younger brother and artist Bokar (John Paragon) who is doing the books, and self destructing. It turns out that Bokar in fact killed the woman O’Brien was looking for instead of paying her off more money, and must go to prison, and Ezri manages to become more sure of herself.
THE EMPEROR’S NEW CLOAK is about Quark and his brother Rom (Max Grodénchik) ending up in the mirror universe trying to save the Grand Nagus Zek (Wallace Shaw) and brining a cloaking device, and dealing with the gay Ezri in that universe. I am not much a fan of the DS9 mirror episodes.
FIELD OF FIRE is another Ezri episode where to solve a series of murders on the station Ezri must release her hidden former host Joran (Leigh J. McCloskey) and learn about being a killer, and solve the crime she does.
CHIMERA is about Odo meeting another shape shifter named Laas (Garman Herzler) though not a founder, another of the 100 that the founders sent out like Odo, but this has been out for many more years, and is cynical and hates solids, and wants Odo to go with him, and he almost does, but when Kira helps Laas escape after he kills a Klingon, Odo realizes how much he loves her and can’t leave her.
INTER ARMA ENIM SILENT LEGES is about Bashir going on a mission to Romulus and being recruited by Sloan (WIlliam Sadler) of section 31 the dark ops Intelligence unit of the federation, and Bashir falls into a trap, thinking he is fighting sloan, but instead dooming Cretak who helps him, and putting a secret Federation into power, which is totally against federation law.
BADDA-BING BADDA BANG is another Vic Fontaine episode where a hidden part of the program to keep it interesting kicks in and the mob moves into Vic’s Vegas, and the whole crew including Sisko must band together to save Vic and get back his Vegas. Damn these episodes are just plain fun!
PENUMBRA has Sisko buying land on Bejor, and proposing to Kasidy Yates (PEnny Johnson) though he has a Vision that says that he cannot marry her and doing so will only bring sadness. Meanwhile Worf’s ship is lost and Ezri runs off to save him, and finds him, but they crashland on a planet, end up having sex, then get captured by the Breen.
TIL DEATH DO US PART continues Sisko and Cassady, where he calls off the wedding, only to put it back on. Meanwhile Worf and Ezri are tortured by the Breen and given to the Dominion, but not before they find out just how deep her feelings are for Bashir.
STRANG BEDFELLOWS has the Dominion allying with the Breen, which makes Damar uneasy as he sees the Cardassians becoming less and less important to the Dominion, and evnetually we see him save the prisoners and send them on their way as he becomes a rebel trying to free his land. Meanwhile Kai Winn (Louise Feltcher) has a prophet vision that leads her to a new man who turns out to be Dukat in disguise, and the vision was from the Pah Wraiths which she agrees to follow.
THE CHANGING FACE OF EVIL has Exri and Worf return to the station, and things get uncomfortable with Bashir. MEanwhile Damar plots to free Cardassia, and Kai Winn works to free the Pah wraiths from the fire cave where they are imprisoned, but she finds out who Dukat really is, and tries to break from him.
The Federation goes to attack, but the Breen have a new weapon that destroys the defiant and every ship but 1 Klingon and it is a while new war.
WHEN IT RAINS O’Brien has figured what happened to the ships, and the Klingons ship are all able to work now. And Damar needs help to fight a guerilla war, so they send Kira (the last one who wants to teach this to the Cardassians), Odo and Garak who has a deadly sickness that the Founders also have, but is still able to function and is trying to hide it from Kira. Bashir and Ezri also flirt.
TACKING INTO THE WIND follows Kira with Damar an dhis wmen, while she has trouble with them, because they don’t listen to her. Odo is also getting very sick because he is shape changing too much. On the Station Bashir is working on the Cure, but getting no where, but realizes that it was section 31 who infected Odo while he was at Starfleet Medical on earth, and thus they must know the cure.
Kira plots to get a Dominion ship with the Breen weapon so they can get it to the Federation. Kira has trouble with Damr’s right hand, but Damar is prooving himself and saves Kira, he just might make a great leader. Odo is too sick, but they manage to get away with the ship.
On the station Chancellor Gowron (Robert O’rielly) has come to promote Martok and take over from him, but he is sending the Klingons and Martok on suicide missions, so Worf challenge and kills Gorwwon, but he gives the position to Martok who he knows will lead well.
EXTREME MEASURES has Bashir and O’Brien sending a false report saying they found the cure for Odo in order to get Section 31 ,and Sloan shows up, and they kidnap him, and are going to use a Romulan Mind probe, but he commits suicide, and they must delve into his mind to find the cure, which they manage to do, but Bashir realizes if O’Brien had not been there he would have been tricked by Sloan and would have died with him. And quickly Odo is cured.
THE DOGS OF WAR has a new defiant arrive, which will be immune to the Breen weapon.
Damar, Kira and Garek head to a meeting with other Cardassian Gul’s, but they are betrayed and the whole rebellion is killed save them, and they hide in Garak’s old house with his maid.
Quark gets a message from Zek saying he intends to make him Negus, but he didn’t know about all the Ferengi reforms and is even more surprised when Zek shows up and makes Rom the new Negus.
WHAT YOU LEAVE BEHIND is a 2 hour episode that ends the series once and for all. It has Ezri and Bashir having finally hooked up and being in love, as O’Brien plans on leaving DS9 with his wife to teach at Starfleet. Kai WIn heads to the Fire Caves with Dukat to release the Pah Wraiths, but though she tries to sacrifice him, they chose him.
Meanwhile the Federation alliance decides on a final offensive as the Dominion pulls back. And on Cardassia Kira, Damar and Garak plan to attack the headquarters as the Dominion kills off innocent Cardassians, and they manage to take the female founder (Salmoe Jens). The war is brutal, but the federation is winning, but the dominion won’t give up till Odo beams down and links with her and she gives up and signs a peace treaty and goes to trial but Odo has agreed to leave Kira and go to his people and cure them and change them, though Kira goes with him to see him one last time.
They celebrate victory at Vic’s, but Sisko runs to help the prophets on his own, and battles Dukat, and with Kai Winns help before she is killed manages to stop Dukat and the Pah Wraiths and would die, but the Prophets take him for something else. His friends search for him, but can’t find him, but he comes in a vision to Kasidy Sisko and tells her they have a plan for him, and are going to teach him so he will be gone for a while.
The war is over, O’Brien leaves, Worf becomes the Federation Ambassador to Klngon and leaves with Martok and Kira takes over the station, and things go on, changed, but still going on.
•••••
THis could be the best season of Star Trek ever. Really. It is that good. So dark, so epic, a continuing story with great characters and an amazing and depressing ending. The Space battles are fantastic. This season is so good. WOW!!
The disc also comes with docs on the final season, the ending, Sisko and Jake, all of which are interesting and have great footage.
It is sad to have it over, and actually makes me want to read the books that continue the story! Ha!
And how impressive is it that I managed to watch this entire series, all 7 seasons in less than a month! THAT IS NUTS!! HE HE HE HE!!
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