“By Inferno’s Light”
Written by Ira Steven Behr & Robert Hewitt Wolfe
Directed by Les Landau
Season 5, Episode 15
Production episode 40510-513
Original air date: February 17, 1997
Stardate: 50564.2
Station log: We get a précis of “In Purgatory’s Shadow,” then see Kira take command of the Defiant. Along with the remaining two runabouts and Dukat’s Bird-of-Prey, they get ready to defend the station. But then the Jem’Hadar fleet changes course away from the station and toward Cardassia. Dukat breaks formation and goes after the fleet—but, as he reveals in a communication with Kira, not to attack it, but to join it. Dukat reveals that he’s been engaged in secret negotiations with the Dominion for months, and now Cardassia is part of the Dominion.
In the prison camp, Bashir and Martok show Worf and Garak where the life-support system that Tain modified is. It’s accessible via a wall panel next to Tain’s bunk, a very tight space. Worf’s plan is to modify Tain’s juryrigged transmitter to send a signal to the runabout and beam them to it. But Garak’s the only one with the expertise to do the work.
The prisoners are then summoned before Deyos, the Vorta in charge of the camp. He frees all the Cardassians, and congratulates them on their new status as Dominion citizens. However, Garak is not free to go, as Dukat wants him to stay right where he is.
On Cardassia, the ubiquitous propaganda screens are showing Dukat, explaining how incredibly awesome things will be now that Cardassia is part of the Dominion. He also pledges that within a week, no Klingon will be left alive and no Maquis colony will be left intact within Cardassian territory.
On the station, the bad news continues to pile up: the sabotage of the emitters created the opposite effect intended, and the wormhole terminus is actually more stable now, to the point where even explosives wouldn’t seal it off. The changeling posing as Bashir then makes the ballsy suggestion that they do more blood screenings, since there’s obviously a shapeshifter on board. (Ahem.)
While Garak works on adjusting Tain’s transmitter in the very tight crawlspace, Worf is brought into the ring. Ikat’ika explains that this is a training exercise, and urges his soldiers to analyze and learn for when they face Klingons in battle. Worf is hoping to face Ikat’ika himself, but Martok says that will come in time. Martok also reveals that Ikat’ika’s the one who cost Martok his left eye.
Worf fights a Jem’Hadar, their youngest and least experienced. Worf makes short work of him. Meanwhile, Garak is obviously not doing well—his pulse is racing, his blood pressure is through the roof—and Bashir insists he take a fifteen-minute break every hour.
Kira has a heart-to-heart with Ziyal, who doesn’t know what to make of her father’s latest actions, and just wants Garak to come back. Kira sagely reminds her that the only way to judge someone is not by what they think or what they say, but what they do.
A big-ass Klingon fleet arrives from Cardassia, having been chased out by the Jem’Hadar. Gowron himself is leading the fleet, and requests medical assistance. Sisko convinces Gowron to restore the alliance with the Federation. A Starfleet task force is en route, and Gowron’s fleet can be added to it, standing united against the Dominion.
The Bashir changeling—who was actually helping Sisko encourage Gowron to re-ally with the Federation—starts sabotaging the Yukon.
Worf wins his fifth straight match. He also has some broken ribs, and Bashir urges him to stop fighting, but he won’t. He might die, but he won’t yield. Meanwhile, Garak starts rebuking the lights when they flicker, and then has to convince himself not to give in to his claustrophobia, at which he’s not entirely successful. He starts banging on the wall in a full-blown panic attack, forcing Bashir to yank him out.
On the station, more of Gowron’s fleet shows up. Kira reports that Odo discovered a use of an industrial replicator by the saboteur, who got away and wiped the memory of the replicator, so they don’t know what was fabricated. Sisko orders double shifts for all security staff, and suggests asking Gowron for additional personnel.
Dukat then contacts Sisko, telling him to convince the Federation to follow Cardassia’s course to joining the Dominion. He also wants the station back. Out of consideration for the times Sisko saved Dukat’s life, he’s willing to give Sisko a chance to surrender the station. Sisko, to no one’s surprise, does not go for this, and tells Dukat to bring it on.
Worf wins two more victories against Jem’Hadar opponents, even with his busted ribs. Martok is so impressed with Worf’s valor that he promises to have a song composed in Worf’s honor. He’ll even make sure there’s a verse about Bashir, the healer to who bound the warrior’s wounds. Garak then gets up and says that a verse about the Cardassian who panicked in the face of danger would just ruin Martok’s song. So he goes back in.
Finally, Worf gets to face Ikat’ika, who deems Worf a worthy opponent. For his part, Deyos is confused. After all Worf’s been through, he still wants to fight. Ikat’ika points out that he himself is the same, but the Jem’Hadar are bred for combat—all that motivates Worf is a “barbaric sense of honor.” Ikat’ika says, “Victory is life,” Worf says, “Today is a good day to die,” and then they fight. As they battle, Garak keeps working, muttering that he wishes Tain were still alive—mostly so he could be in there instead of Garak. As he works, three Jem’Hadar enter the barracks and demand that Garak be produced, as he’s to be put to death (probably on Dukat’s order). They find the tool they’ve been using to pry the panel open, and kill one of the Romulan prisoners to get Bashir to talk. Then one of the Jem’Hadar finds the wall panel. The Breen prisoner manages to grab a Jem’Hadar pistol and kill two Jem’Hadar before the Breen is also killed. Bashir uses the tool to stab the final Jem’Hadar.
Worf is totally getting his ass kicked by Ikat’ika, to the point where even Martok is telling him to stay down. But Worf keeps getting back up, keeps fighting, and now Ikat’ika is also telling him to stop fighting. Worf refuses to yield—so Ikat’ika yields instead. “I cannot defeat this Klingon. All I can do is kill him, and that no longer holds my interest.” Deyos then orders both Worf and Ikat’ika killed, but that’s when Garak finishes his work, beaming Worf, Bashir, Martok, the Romulan, and himself to the runabout.
Gowron’s fleet is in place, a Starfleet task force led by Admiral Gilhouly has arrived, and Kira takes out the Defiant. Also supporting are the two remaining runabouts—but the Yukon’s crew has been killed by the Bashir changeling, who is now piloting it.
A whole mess of Romulan ships decloak, requesting permission to join the fleet just as sensors detect a fleet of Jem’Hadar and Cardassian ships are ten minutes away. But there’s no visual sign of the fleet: lots of warp signatures, but no targeting locks.
Then O’Brien gets a call from the GQ from Bashir. Sisko immediately queries the computer for Bashir’s location. He’s told that Bashir isn’t on the station, and was last known to be on the Yukon. Sisko orders Kira to go after the Yukon, which is headed straight for the Bajoran sun. Dax detects a huge-ass explosive on the runabout, which would cause the sun to go nova, destroying Bajor, DS9, and all three fleets, thus crippling the Dominion’s enemies without a shot being fired.
The Defiant warps to the sun and gets the Yukon in a tractor beam, pulling it away from the sun so it explodes harmlessly. The warp signatures are now gone—it was a fake, the Dominion/Cardassian fleet never was there. It was all a lure to set them up for the sun going boom.
The runabout comes home. Garak and Ziyal are reunited, as are Dax and Worf. O’Brien is appalled to realize he’s been hanging out with a changeling for a month (though he says the signs were all there—for starters, the changeling was a lot easier to get along with). And Gowron agrees to leave a garrison of Klingon ships at the station, with Martok in charge—the latter at Sisko’s request, based on Worf’s recommendation.
Dukat contacts Sisko to congratulate him on foiling the Dominion’s plot. Sisko tartly reminds him that his daughter would’ve been one of the casualties if the plan had succeeded, but as far as Dukat’s concerned, she’s no longer his daughter. He also promises that Cardassia will be strong again, and this isn’t the last time they’ll clash.
Can’t we just reverse the polarity? The Bashir changeling goes for overkill, creating an explosive that includes trilithium (established as an unstable explosive in TNG’s “Starship Mine”), protomatter (established as unstable and dangerous in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock), and tekasite (that’s a new one).
The Sisko is of Bajor: When Sisko gets a call from Bashir in the Gamma Quadrant, and then determines that Bashir isn’t on the station and was last seen on a runabout he wasn’t assigned to, he doesn’t hesitate—there isn’t time to—and immediately tells Kira to find the Yukon and destroy it.
Don’t ask my opinion next time: Fittingly, it’s Kira to whom Dukat reveals his sooper-seekrit plan to have Cardassia join the Dominion. He ends the communiqué by saying that him and Kira on the same side never was really right, which is one of those rare instances where Dukat is absolutely right. Kira later tells Ziyal that if her father said that rain was wet, she wouldn’t believe him.
There is no honor in being pummeled: Worf makes up for ten years of getting his ass kicked by winning fight after fight after fight, to the point where even the Jem’Hadar First thinks he’s a badass. What I especially like is that he does feel the effects—when Martok waxes rhapsodic about how even the heroes of legend couldn’t have endured what he did, Worf painfully adds that heroes of legend probably didn’t ache so much—but gets past them. He isn’t being a steel-jawed stoic, but he’s being true to his nature. He’s a warrior, and he’s not going to let anyone get the better of him, no matter how much it hurts.
Rules of Acquisition: Quark laments what he sees as a likely Dominion takeover of the station, concerned that neither the Jem’Hadar nor the Founders eat, drink, or have sex, which doesn’t say much for his financial future. Ziyal cheers him up by reminding him that the Vorta could well be gluttonous alcoholic sex maniacs. (Plus, of course, the Cardassians are now part of the Dominion, and Quark knows full well how much they like to eat, drink, and have sex, so what’s he worried about?)
For Cardassia! In his propaganda speech, Dukat refers to Cardassia and the Dominion being “equal partners,” a statement that sounds—and, over the next two-and-a-half years will prove to actually be—optimistic, naïve, and totally wrong. (At some point, somebody probably should have showed him the dictionary definition of the word “dominion.”)
Plain, simple: Garak comments that the space he’s working in would make for a dandy interrogation chamber: tight quarters, no air, bad lighting, random electric shocks—it’s perfect. His claustrophobia is almost overwhelming, but he manages to complete his work and beam everyone to the runabout.
Tough little ship: Kira risks having the Defiant go to warp inside a star system to get to the Yukon in time to stop the changeling’s sabotage of Bajor’s sun.
Victory is life: The fights in the ring are meant to be training exercises for the Jem’Hadar. Ikat’ika understands and appreciates Worf’s warrior spirit. Deyos, not so much—he’s baffled as to why Worf keeps fighting against the odds, and as to why Ikat’ika doesn’t just finish him off. The disgust in the Vorta’s voice when he orders Ikat’ika and Worf both to be killed is palpable.
Keep your ears open: “Think of it. Five years ago, nobody had ever heard of Bajor or Deep Space 9 and now all our hopes rest here. Where the tides of fortune take us, no man can know.”
“They’re tricky, those tides.”
Gowron and Sisko, together again for the first time.
Welcome aboard: Back from “In Purgatory’s Shadow” are Marc Alaimo (Dukat), Cathy DeBuono (Breen prisoner), J.G. Hertzler (Martok), James Horan (Ikat’ika), Andrew J. Robinson (Garak), Melanie Smith (Ziyal), and Carrie Stauber (Romulan prisoner). We’ve also got Robert O’Reilly returning as Gowron, Barry Wiggins and Don Fischer as the Jem’Hadar guards, and Ray Buktenica being delightfully smarmy as Deyos.
Trivial matters: In this episode, Cardassia becomes part of the Dominion, giving that latter a foothold in the Alpha Quadrant, and the Klingons reenter the Khitomer Accords, restoring the Federation-Klingon alliance and ending the Federation-Klingon conflict.
One of Sisko’s visions in “Rapture” was of a huge swarm of locusts pausing over Bajor before proceeding to Cardassia, which predicted the actions of the Jem’Hadar fleet in the teaser.
The claustrophobic Garak’s having to work in an enclosed space was inspired by The Great Escape, in which Charles Bronson’s “Tunnel King” has to do something similar. To add insult to injury, Andrew J. Robinson was suffering from the flu on the day of filming and has a touch of claustrophobia himself. Robinson later said, “I didn’t have to act. I was there.”
The tremendous convenience of the runabout Worf and Garak took to the GQ being right there in orbit will be addressed in “Inquisition.”
Dukat reminds Sisko of the times the latter saved the former’s life—to which Sisko’s disgusted response is, “Don’t remind me.” Those occasions include “The Maquis, Part II,” “Civil Defense,” and “The Way of the Warrior,” and Sisko also greatly aided Dukat in “Defiant.”
Una McCormack’s novel The Never-Ending Sacrifice shows how the Cardassian people responded to suddenly becoming part of the Dominion following this episode. (That novel also helped set up the Garak-Ziyal relationship by showing how much of an outcast Ziyal was on Cardassia between “Indiscretion” and “Return to Grace.”)
There’s a peculiar obsession in fandom, and also in the tie-in fiction, insisting that the Klingon Empire and parts of the Federation are in the Beta Quadrant, one that was codified by the (generally very excellent and wonderful) Star Charts map book by Geoffrey Mandel. It’s based solely on one open-to-interpretation line in Star Trek VI, and your humble rewatcher has never bought it, mainly because the phrase “Beta Quadrant” is never spoken on DS9, a show for which quadrant-based political entities are kind of important. In particular, Gowron’s line in this episode is about how the Dominion absorbing Cardassia has ramifications “for the entire Alpha Quadrant.” If the Klingon Empire was entirely in the Beta Quadrant, as so many have postulated, then Gowron’s line would of necessity have to be different. The fact that he only mentions the AQ is the best evidence that the Klingons are also only in the AQ.
Walk with the Prophets: “Armageddon will have to wait for another day.” Even if the rest of the episode was terrible—and it isn’t—it would be worth it for the magnificent double-fakeout of the teaser. What’s especially impressive is that they didn’t just pull it out of their asses—the Jem’Hadar fleet turning toward Cardassia was seeded back in “Rapture” in Sisko’s visions, not to mention Dukat’s cagey comments in the previous episode. We’re so sure that it’s an invasion that an alternative never even occurs.
And that alternative is so much worse for everyone. Well, except the Dominion, anyhow. I’m sure the Cardassians think it’s better, too, in much the same way the poor and starving citizens of the Weimar Republic of the 1920s thought that guy with the Charlie Chaplin mustache had some good points and was worth getting behind.
But having the Dominion gain territory in the Alpha Quadrant just makes everything worse (with Dukat being in charge of Cardassia the cherry on top). This shit just got real.
What’s even more entertaining is that there has yet to be a large-scale military action taken by the Jem’Hadar. The Obsidian Order and the Tal Shiar were wiped out by a plan of Tain’s, although the Lovok changeling facilitated it to make sure they were taken out in the nebula. The Federation-Klingon alliance being sundered was the result of the Klingon invasion of Cardassia, again facilitated by the Martok changeling, but still due to someone else’s actions. Martial law on Earth was accomplished by the detonating of a single explosive in a conference, and ongoing conflicts among the Cardassians, Federation, Maquis, and Klingons have weakened everyone—and none of it involved a single overt military engagement by the Dominion (with the exception of the destruction of the New Bajor colony in “The Jem’Hadar”).
Even the battle in this episode is entirely one of brinksmanship and covert ops: the Dominion only pretends to send a huge-ass invasion fleet to DS9 while the Bashir changeling is going to blow up the sun. Fake with the big thing, really do damage with the small thing—it’s been the Dominion’s MO from jump, and it makes them a far more effective and dangerous opponent.
Which makes the way they run their prison camp all the more maddening. They can impersonate a talented doctor well enough to fool all his closest friends (not to mention, y’know, his patients), they can fake an invasion fleet, but it never occurred to them to put surveillance equipment in their cells? Seriously? What kind of imbeciles don’t have a security camera in a friggin prison cell? This is something that we have now in 21st century Earth, and which Odo has on DS9, so why does the super-advanced Dominion not have this incredibly basic technology? And even if you accept that they don’t have basic surveillance, why did they just leave the runabout sitting near the prison? For that matter, how’d the single runabout get out of Dominion territory unmolested?
It’s maddening because the Dominion generally is miles ahead of our heroes, but in order for the prison-camp part of the plot to work, they have to be spectacularly stupid.
Which is too bad because once you get past that particular idiocy, the prison stuff is superb. Watching Worf push himself is compelling viewing. Yes, it’s a training exercise for the Jem’Hadar, but it’s one for Worf, too, as he’s learning more about how the Jem’Hadar fight just as they’re learning about Klingons.
But the main point is that he won’t yield. There’s a saying in Asian martial arts circles, a Japanese phrase, “nana kirobi ya oki,” which translates to “seven times fall down, eight times get up.”* Worf embodies that spirit in this episode, refusing to yield even though every bone in his body (the few that are still intact) is crying out for him to stop, because to do so would be to truly lose. And Worf has always been the ideal Klingon, so he has to push it even farther. Martok is telling him that honor’s served and to just stay the hell down, his own opponent is telling him to stay down, but he clambers to his feet anyhow. It’s a thrilling example of a strong spirit refusing to be broken and some very nicely understated work by Michael Dorn. He doesn’t go for bluster here, he just keeps getting back up.
* I actually appropriated it as a Klingon saying for The Klingon Art of War, only I made it “eight times fall down, nine times get up,” because Klingons must do everything bigger.
Worf isn’t the only one whose spirit rises to the occasion, either. We find out that Garak is claustrophobic, a revelation that kinda comes out of left field, but there hasn’t been anything prior to this that contradicts it. (And even one throwaway line of dialogue about the Defiant cabins being claustrophobic in “Second Skin” to back it up.) Andrew J. Robinson is stellar here, selling Garak’s breakdown beautifully. What’s especially impressive is that this is the first time Garak has been in any way heroic—but he never does violate his credo of self-preservation uber alles. His main goal is to get himself out of the prison camp—especially once it’s revealed that he’s had a death sentence passed against him. But in this case, he’s also serving a higher purpose, and he’s not doing it under protest for a change.
In addition to everything else, we end the Klingon conflict (which is fine, I like the Klingons better as allies) and get ourselves another new compelling recurring character in J.G. Hertzler’s Martok, who will continue to be a fantastic, regal presence on the series going forward, thanks to the supreme gravitas and energy that Hertzler brings to the role. The status quo has been set on fire again, which is delightful, and sets up so many more possibilities. The Dominion fleet going to Cardassia wasn’t the only thing Sisko predicted in “Rapture,” after all, he also predicted a “coming war with the Dominion,” and it just got a whole heckuva lot closer.
Warp factor rating: 9
Keith R.A. DeCandido will be one of the guests, alongside Nelly Reifler, Tor.com’s own Emmet Asher-Perrin, and host Ryan Britt, for “Lust For Genre: Classic SF&F Readings form Our Favorite Humans,” a week from tonight, the 27th of June, at Singularity & Co. in Brooklyn at 7.30pm. We’ll each be reading, not our own work, but the work of one of our favorite classic authors. Come on by!
I love this episode, but another thing that’s always bothered me besides the prison escape is the plot with the sun. How is blowing up a sun going to wipe out the assembled fleet? The wormhole is farther out than Bajor, correct? So it would take some time for a shockwave to even get to Bajor, let alone out to the fleet. Starfleet might try its best to evacuate DS9 and parts of Bajor before the blast got to them, but does anyone think the Romulans or Klingons would stick around and lose a large chunk of their military force? Rule of Drama, I suppose.
“Think of it. Five years ago, nobody had ever heard of Bajor or Deep Space 9 and now all our hopes rest here.”
That siungle line sums up the core of why I love DS9 and its arc.
The show starts off as a backwater assignment in a politically unstable region of space — and then everything changes with the discovery of the Wormhole.
Like the Stargate, they’ve opened a doorway to a brave, new world — but not one without ancient dangers and evil.
And by the end of the show 7 years later, these plucky heroes are at the center of a galactic war with the fate of the UFP hanging in the balance.
It’s grand, epic stuff and I stand by what I’ve said before: This series is
the franchise’s best example of space opera.
I was also bothered by the plan to blow up the sun, but for a somewhat different reason. If all it takes to nova a star and fry it’s attendant planets is one small ship loaded with explosives, then why isn’t this being tried more often? It’s obviously hard to defend against. Maybe Starfleet has scruples against this sort of thing, but clearly the Dominion doesn’t. And how about the Cardassians, the Breen, etc. For that matter, wouldn’t the attempt on the Changeling’s home planet be far cheaper if made by a dozen small ships (or large missiles) cloaked and remotely controlled?
The only rationale I can come up with for the stupidity of the prison camp is that it’s because it’s being run by the Jem’hadar and overseen by a Vorta, while the overall strategic operations and infiltrations were planned and carried out by the Founders, they simply can’t be bothered to double check a lowly prison camp, no matter who is kept there.
The Jem’hadar and the Vorta are no where near as clever as the Founders (probably by design, oops) and are much more prone to succuming to overconfidence. This kind of makes sense when you look at what they have done (and will do). The Founders infiltrate and disrupt their potential enemies so that the overwhelming force of the Jem’hadar fleets are able to deliver the kill stroke soley on the power of numbers and combat ability.
In this case, however, the overconfidence of the Jem’hadar in allowing the prison escape is what tips off Sisko to the Founder’s plan, causing it to fail. Had it not failed, the combined Cardassian, Jem’hadar fleet would have been able to attack right away and quickly finish off the other AQ powers.
“At some point, somebody probably should have showed him the dictionary definition of the word “dominion.” – ahahahaha, that made me laugh :)
@3 And funny enough, the Klingons do use a star as a weapon at the beginning of season seven, causing that massive solar flare that destroys the Dominion shipyard.
A friend of mine pointed something else out years ago that I’d forgotten until now. Wouldn’t causing Bajor’s sun to go supernova possibly destroy the wormhole, too?
Worf is my favorite Star Trek character of all time so I’m sure my post gets taited by that fact but….
This is the best Worf episode thus far on DS9. He’s had a few good one liners but I really feel this got back down to the essence of Worf. I absolutely love the relationship that develops between Worf and Martok in this episode.
“Fall down seven times, get up eight.” I’ve heard that expression a ton of times and it is one that has never made sense to me. It should be, “fall down seven times, get up seven.”
Unless you started out on the ground….
Actually, there are apparently four runabouts assigned to the station at this point: Rubicon, Rio Grande, Volga, and Yukon (destroyed in this episode). Three are clearly visible at the end of this episode, and athree names are given by O’Brien over the comm system in the “runabouts launching” scene.
@3 Destorying stars with with missiles was Soran’s thing Star Trek: Generations as well.
This is the episode that made me like the Breen. Or at least that one Breen prisoner. Sneaky devil.
Perhaps other threatening powers dont go randomly destroying suns because they want the solar system, planets and resources intact. The Dominion only has one big issue: they hate solids. In the Gamma Quadrant, they are law and dont have major powers as enemies anymore. So they are content letting the solids live under their strict rule.
You could even argue that the whole reason for their determination to destroy the federation is to get Odo to come back home.
So i dont think they really care what they do to the Alpha Quadrant.
Isnt Betazed in the Beta Quadrant? My sister always said so and i just took her word for it since its name was Betazed.
The Breen prisoner’s presence here always made me wonder if his doppleganger back in the AQ was responsible for the developments that will come late in the series.
It’s kind of surprising how little action or even mention the Beta Quadrant gets in Star Trek. The Alpha, Delta, and Gamma Quadrants get plenty of press. What’s up with Beta?
Didn’t that get lampshaded in one of Titan‘s post-Destinys books?
I can’t remember which one it was.
@11. LuvURphleb
It’s not just hating solids, it’s desiring to control their environment and every other evironment. If they met Species 8472 they would still try to war with them, we have no reason to believe they would be successful against a telepathic race of polymorphs.
Yeah, they’re the ultimate control freaks.
That’s one aspect that’s always made the Dominion interesting. The Founders are basically suffering from PTSD thanks to the GQ solids’ treatment of them.
I’ve always wondered what an encounter between the Founders and another race of shapeshifters or energy/gaseous beings would be like. Would they recognize them as kindred spirits or at least not as solids?
I don’t know where I got the idea, but I always thought that the Beta Quadrant was basically The Romulan Star Empire+The Romulan Star Empire’s sphere of influence+Who knows what on the other side of Romulan Space. Which could easily include small chunks of Klingon space, since they fought enough wars to necessarily share a border somewhere…
A couple thoughts on this episode:
– This, along with Birthright Part 2, is probably one of my favorite Worf episodes. The power and depth of Worf’s determination is seen here, and his strength in confronting the Jem’Hadar confirms once more that Klingons are far more than just “shout and hit people” warriors. Also, Worf is a BAMF.
– I always find it interesting that the Jem’Hadar were able to develop such a sense of honor… I wonder if this was their own free will or the Founder’s design.
-The address to the Cardassian people by Dukat was the first time watching the series I really got the “Oh, he’s Hitler” message. I mean, he’s literally making an irredentist call for Cardassian lebensraum. (Although, an argument could be made that he’s Stalin, since he is a totalitarian bastard who pairs with other totalitarian bastards, not realizing that the other totalitarian bastards hate him)
-I did kind of wish that we had seen Dax worrying about Worf more. They are in a pretty serious relationship after all.
-Andrew J. Robinson once more with a magnificent performance. He is one of Trek’s finest actors, without a doubt.
-I absolutely love the sheer contempt in Kira’s voice when she says, “Dukat” at the end of the episode. Nana Visitor really pulls of Kira’s absolute disgust for him.
“There’s a peculiar obsession in fandom, and also in the tie-in fiction, insisting that the Klingon Empire and parts of the Federation are in the Beta Quadrant, one that was codified by the (generally very excellent and wonderful) Star Charts map book by Geoffrey Mandel. It’s based solely on one open-to-interpretation line in Star Trek VI, and your humble rewatcher has never bought it, mainly because the phrase “Beta Quadrant” is never spoken on DS9, a show for which quadrant-based political entities are kind of important.”
That’s not all of what it’s based on, for the Federation at least. We know that the division between Alpha and Beta Quadrants is defined by a plane perpindicular to the galactic plane that passes through the galactic core and near to, possibly intersecting, Sol. That means that either Sol is near a border of the Federation, which contradicts a ton of stuff refering to its location relative to Federation territory as a whole, or some Federation territory _must_ be in the Beta Quadrant.
Also, it’s not true that “Beta Quadrant” was never spoken on DS9; that’s where Captain Cusak’s ship crashed in Sound of Her Voice, implying that DS9 must be at least within easy travel distance of the Beta Quadrant.
I almost wish there was a third part of this episode which would detail the flight from the prison camp back to the Alpha Quadrant. I suppose that you could have had the planet also have a collection of stolen spaceships Just as the guards train against prisoners then perhaps they also keep shuttles, fighters, etc there for study. Regardless the escape to the runabout and easy flight back is a plot hole.
Another plot hole is where did the changeling get all of those explosives. If they are as unstable and dangerous as they are made out, I’d have to imagine that they wouldn’t be regularly kept on board a space station but rather highly secured somewhere deep in Federation space. And if the dominion had planted it somewhere so the changeling could have it, how is it these sorts didn’t detect it until the runabout was heading towards the sun?
there were some phenomenal performances by Michael Dorm, Hertzler ad Robinson in particular, but some giant plot holes as well
MikeKelm @21: Re: the source of the explosives; presumably, that’s what was made in the industrial replicator before the records were wiped.
Also, a nitpick, KRAD: it’s über alles, with an umlaut.
About the Alpha/Beta quadrant stuff: I don’t really have a problem with the idea that half of the Federation and most of the Klingon Empire are in the Beta Quadrant; to me, it doesn’t really contradict any canon.
First of all, with the UFP only one of the many powers in the galaxy (and not the biggest), it’s patently ridiculous to assume that ANYONE else uses the same galactic coordinate system as them. I’d be very surprised if the Klingon Prime Galactic Meridian didn’t pass through Quo’nos, and so on. With different coordinate systems, they’ll all have their own ideas about where the quadrants are and what they’re named. But having to re-establish those differences every time you have a conversation with a foreign officer would be a pain … so it’s only reasonable that the Universal Translator would have a subroutine to translate the terminology. So when Gowron talks about the Alpha Quadrant, he’s not talking about the same thing that the Federation technically considers the Alpha Quadrant. He’s talking about whatever designation the Klingons have for the region shared by Bajor/UFP/the Empire. This assumption covers pretty much any case where a non-native-English-speaker character talks about the Alpha Quadrant (including the Borg Queen in Voyager, who would be even less likely than the Klingons to have the same names for galactic geography).
And cases where we can’t chalk up the terminology to the Universal Translator? Meh, even there I think references to the Alpha Quadrant are well within the sloppy language that real people use colloquially. Federation citizens who are galactically-east of Earth probably call the whole Federation “the Beta Quadrant,” and those who are galactically-west (including near Bajor) call the whole Federation “the Alpha Quadrant.” Just because it’s convenient terminology.
If we divided the Earth into quadrants rather than hemispheres, I can totally imagine people in Guam referring to Hawaii as part of their “Pacific Quadrant,” even though it’s technically on the other side of the International Date Line.
Sigh
Come on, just come on here. At this stage its farcical
How is attempting to commit genocide against the Bajorans (as an opening gambit to wipe out non-Bajorian ships) not an act of war by the Dominion? Really? And our heros are still not going to mine the wormhole entrance, and are going to let at least 4 more convoys of ships(per Call to Arms) through to Cardassia. (And will coming crawling on their hands and knees looking for a Romulan military bailout in the next year). Honestly, how is this defensible? What am I missing? The Federation is protecting Bajor. The Dominion has attempted to annihilate the planet. So…war?
I’ve never understood all the stick that Janeway gets for losing her ship, and yet very few people bring up Sisko’s inactions. This is much worse.
This is where DS9 really kicked into high gear. Yes, there are a couple of plot holes, but the place the episode takes the rest of the show more than makes up for it. Having Martok and Worf lead an armed breakout and stealing a Dominion ship might have made a little more sense, but I can live with what we have. As others have noted, the reason for the lack of surveillance in the cells is simple arrogance. For me the weakest moment is the all too obvious “Garak manages to beam everybody away just as they are about to be executed.” It’s too much of a trope and was completely expected.
I look at that photo of Garak/Andrew Robinson and feel a great surge of sympathy. (And for me, the most uncomfortable, squirmy part of Aliens isn’t necessarily to do with facehuggers or chestbursters, but when Bishop just about squeezes into that pipe and has it sealed behind him…)
It’s a nerdy nitpick, but I wonder if Ben saw and could have warned about the founder’s sun-exploding ploy in Rapture? Maybe he didn’t see it because it didn’t succeed, or maybe that’s when he had to get his head patched up and lost the visions.
On the topic of quadrants, if you go looking online there are a lot of Star Trek galactic maps and most of them are different, but most show the Federation straddling the boundary between alpha and beta quadrants, fairly evenly. Maybe they’re all influenced by Geoffrey Mandel? I dunno. Either way I agree with McKay @@@@@#23: it doesn’t bother me too much.
I’ve also got a sneaking liking for the maps that show the entirety of ‘known space’ of the major local factions (Feds, Klingons, Romulans, Cardassians, etc.) to be only a fraction of the size of a quadrant, whether located in the alpha, beta, or both. (And much smaller than either Dominion, Borg or Hirogen space, too.) Makes sense if ships stranded in the gamma or delta quadrants would have to travel so long to get home, and intrigues me that space halfway (or even thirdway or less) across the alpha quadrant is as mysterious and unexplored as space at the other end of the Bajoran wormhole or a Caretaker scoop.
On that note: @@@@@#17, gamma and delta quadrant space in Ds9 and VOY respectively, is usually defined by their proximity to the alpha quadrant and Federation space, but what about their proximity to eachother? Some maps I see show Borg and Dominion space at least as close to eachother as either to Federation space. What if they somehow encountered eachother, given the Founders’ apparent wormhole-unaided exploration as far as the Federation, and transwarp travel?
I second the unfortunate plot convenience of the prisoners/runabout escape. But in an otherwise excellent episode, I can live with it.
Another item that bugs me but I can live with: was the Founder really going to sacrifice himself? Even to kill millions/billions of solids, it doesn’t seem like it would be worth it from the Founders’ point of view.
I like to add to the story in my own mind that a cloaked Romulan ship was waiting near the sun to beam away the Founder to make their getaway. This would also jive nicely with why the Romulans showed up at such a critical moment – a Founder tricked them into it. The same Founder that directs a romulan ship to stay cloaked near the Bajoran sun.
And since I’m griping, one more minor nitpick – the Founder had retrofitted the runabout with über shields, so how was the Defiant able to lock on a tractor beam so easily?
Ok, in the words of the great Joel Hodgeson, it’s just a show, I really should relax…
I put the state of the prison down to Dominion arrogance. Like it didn’t matter to them if people plotted and schemed and possibly even escaped, though it might be less convenient. They knew they’d win anyway (to their way of thinking).
This is one of my favorite episodes. The acting is outstanding, and they finally let Worf show his mettle.
One other thing that’s bugged me is that part of me still wishes Sisko had told Gowron to go f*** himself when he asked for assistance.
Yes, it was necessary to get the Klingons allied with the UFP again in the wake of the invasion.
But it irks me that no one calls out Gowron for his role in this mess. The Dominion gaining a Cardassian foothold is his fault (though the line for the blame game ultimately starts with Tain).
If Gowron hadn’t given into paranoia and policial pressure (to say nothing of ‘Martok’), this probably wouldn’t have happened.
That being said, the Dominion had to know it would need an AQ base of operations within reach of the Wormhole. The Cardassians were, alas, the best candidates.
@24. Eoin8472
“How is attempting to commit genocide against the Bajorans (as an opening
gambit to wipe out non-Bajorian ships) not an act of war by the
Dominion?”
Same reason that so many other potential acts of war in the real world are not automatically taken as acts of war. The other players in the game are not ready to go to way. You don’t just flip a switch from “peacetime” to “war” any time another nation does something despicable, even if it is truly horrendous. There are a huge host of other considerations to factor. Not the least of them is “have we a hope in hell of winning”, not to mention “do we really have no other options”, and the always popular “if we declare war, can the enemy hit us hard before we hit them”? That is why there is nearly always the same slow dance leading up to war, there is the last gasps of trying to dodge it, the shifting of reserves (while trying not to be seen as shifting reserves), the ramping up of production of war necessaries, etc and so on.
At this point, as DS9 is a Bajoran station and Bajor is an independant power which is not part of the Federation, this horrible attack would be more than sufficient for Bajor to declare war, but it is dubious if it is enough to consider it an automatic declaration of war on the Federation. It is *just* that side of the line where the Federation (still reeling from a second Borg attack) has *just* enough hope of either getting a diplomatic solution or giving them still time to move resources. Bajor could respond militarily, but then they’d be kerb-stomped by the Dominion and they want to avoid that.
Note that in the end Bajor is mostly ignored during the Dominion war, and that when the Federation is forced to go to war, they get pretty beaten up. If they’d commited early all they may have done is be easier targets.
Granted, some of the plotting is tricky on this one. The Dominion really had to overlook some simple measures in order for the plot to work, but I find it easy to overlook them most of the time.
Inferno is a brilliant conclusion to this two parter. Trek finally did away with the reset button on this one. No beating the Dominion back into the wormhole this time. Dukat’s alliance changed pretty much everything. We, as viewers, can finally witness some actual long-term consequences. This was the day Star Trek truly broke away from episodic television and into serialized storytelling. Like Dax, I was shell shocked when Dukat made the announcement.
And Behr and Wolfe fill the hour with some brilliant character work, particularly on Worf’s side.
They finally make up for all the ass kicking Worf received on TNG (thanks in no small part to Ron Moore and Brannon Braga; They even acknowledge it in one of the commentaries: want to show the alien’s strong? Have him kick Worf’s ass).
And they finally provide a supporting character which Worf desperately needed. The man idolized Klingons all his life, but never had a proper role model. Martok fills that void beautifully, brilliantly played by J.G. Hertzler, an actor who I’m glad Ira always looked to use even if not in the same role.
Like in the Cause/Cast two parter, back in season 3, you can say Garak had a really bad couple of weeks this time around as well. Losing a father figure, followed by dealing with crippling claustrophobia has to be a harrowing experience, which Robinson sold perfectly.
Definitely, one of Trek’s all-time best two part episodes. And it cemented DS9 as the best Trek show.
@30 Random22
Ds9 is in the Bajoran system. The Founder was attempting to initiate a supernova in the Bajorian sun. If he/she/it had succeeded, there would be no Bajor to declare war. It would have been destroyed. Thats, probably, a billion innocents killed. I would surmise that that, is at least subtext enough to immediatedly mine the wormhole and not allow 4 more convoys of ships through (which was stated they have done in “Call to Arms”)
The Dominion attempted genocide in this episode. That has to be an act of war. Never mind the previous triggering of the Klingon-Cardassian and Klingon-Federation wars, also due to the Dominion. I may sound like a beaten record in earlier epsiodes, but dear god, this was Death-Star/Alderaan stuff here.
Perhaps someone told him about Canada?
Personally, I would like to know why no one in the entire Alpha quadrant seems to be able to design a changling-detector, despite the fact that they have a completely different biological basis to every single other species in the show.
@32 The Dominion attempted genocide in this episode.
And given that Bajor was under the Federations protection, it could have used that to legally justify a war if it wanted to. But if it didn’t want to, it didn’t have to. An act of war justifies a response; it doesn’t require one.
@26
I like those maps too. As previously mentioned, the Quadrant system was established in the The Price and Star Trek VI adhered to it as well. So that the Excelisor could jsutify being the only ship in the Quadrant. I think the situation with the Klingon/Romulan Empires being actually in the Beta Quadrant is like references to the USA as being “America”.
Maybe those Empires are going straight down the Quadrant line or something. Or that most of their intersteller politics is with the AQ powers and they have no major BQ neighbours otehr then each other.
Didn’t Voyager at some point cross into the Beta Quadrant, around season 6/7? I think it was calculated somewhere that it had, but that the showrunners want to keep referring to them as being lost in the Delta Quadrant. Could be wrong though. And even if they got to the home Alpha Quadrant, say around the Galactic core, thats still about 26000 LY from Earth. Voyager would still have a lot of distance to cover and the Federation is only…1000 Ly across, right? (I really want to ignore Star Trek V here. It so screws with everything else, what with Kirk and Syboks merry jaunt to the Core in just a few days)
@34
True, it doesn’t require a response, but the Federation at this stage must know that a war is inevitable. The longer they wait to act, the worse their respective position gets before it starts in a hot war. (Relative to the Dominion as they increase their assets in play in the AQ from convoys through the wormhole). At this stage the Federation should mine the wormhole now, before any additional convoys arrive. Maybe they don’t even have to declare war if they don’t want to. just leave the minefield up. (And not have to scramble to invent the technology at the last minute, like they do at the season end). I’d say the Dominion gains far more from any delay in Federation action, then the Federation does. Now maybe the Federation has to, I don’t know, convince their populance of the need for a war. But given that it is the Dominion who actually attacks first in Call to Arms, I don’t think they would need to.
On parts of the Beta Quadrant being called Alpha Quadrant: most of Europe is in the eastern hemisphere but is still called the West. It’s a convenient shorthand.
I always used to think Dukat was a fool. He brought Cardassia into the Dominion to protect it from the Klingons — but it was the Dominion that manipulated the Klingons into invading Cardassia in the first place. And they probably did that to achieve exactly this goal, to make Cardassia feel weak enough to be receptive to an alliance with a powerful state like the Dominion, so that the Dominion could get a foothold in the Alpha Quadrant. So Dukat was partnering with the ones responsible for Cardassia’s suffering in the first place. I always wondered why Sisko never pointed that out to him. But now I think it wouldn’t have made much difference. Dukat probably knew and didn’t care, because he’s really just a hypocrite out for his own power.
Let me mention that I interpreted the “Worf fights the big Jem’Hadar and refuses to yield” scene as a reference to a similar scene in the movie “Cool Hand Luke”. Luke, a prisoner, fights Dragline, the biggest and strongest prisoner, in a boxing match, surrounded by a ring of onlookers; Luke gets beaten and bloody, keeps getting knocked down, but keeps getting back up; the onlookers and then Dragline himself display disgust and tell Luke to just yield, but he refuses and says he’ll have to kill him; finally Dragline yields because he would rather not continue injuring Luke, and Luke is “victorious”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLKYkdco0sY
@27 I don’t know if it’s necessarily without precedent. The Founder in “The Adversary” seemed more than willing to die to spark a war between the Federatin and the Tzenkethi. And the one in “The Die is Cast” might have perished, too.
Dukat’s obsession with power, and especially with being seen as Bajor’s “savior and protector”, were a driving force behind this deal with the devil.
Fortunately, the alliance also had the unintended effect of turning Damar into a major character in the franchise.
And despite the heated debate over the Maquis’ actions in For the Uniform, it’s ultimately meaningless as the Cardassian/Dominion alliance was pretty much a death sentence to them. A casualty that actually had some minor repercussion on Voyager.
@27: The Dominion has really long range transporters (remember Eris transporting off of DS9 at the end of “The Jem Hadar” and Kira being transported from DS9 to Empok Nor in “Covenant”), so I assume the Founder was going to be transported away.
Also, after the Founder is killed and the runabout destroyed, there is no physical evidence of the plot to destroy the sun. The Federation would need to have a bloody shirt to wave to the other powers that were later mentioned in Call to Arms that had signed non-agression pacts with the Dominion. As it was, those AQ powers that were already distrustful of the Federation would go over into the Dominion camp before the war.
As for the Founders death, when the Female Changeling explains the linkto Odo she seems to imply that when they are in the link they have a collective consciousness (“the ocean becomes the drop”…etc. ) so when they are individuals, how individual are they? From their point of view, the individual changeling is just part of the whole and not truly sacrificing since the link is still there.
This was probably the point where Starfleet Command starting planning that war opening attack on the Dominion ship yards at the end of Call to Arms after seeing just what the Dominion is truly willing to do to achieve their aims.
@36 True, but that is no more an act of war than the Berlin Blockade, and they should have done that whether or not the Dominion had tried to destroy Bajor’s sun.
@43
Oh yes! I most certainly agree.
No argument there from me at all.
Re: the changeling being willing to die. We also find out in S7’s Chimera (and it’s somewhat implied in S3’s Heart of Stone as well, I think) that changelings can transform themselves into substances such as fog and fire, as well as into creatures that can fly in space without the protection of a ship. I don’t know that it’s a huge leap to speculate that the changeling was planning to transform into something that could either protect him from that explosion or allow him to ride it out somehow (even if he was willing to die if that failed or he didn’t have time to affect the transformation), given what we’ve seen of the Founders’ abilities to date.
I forgot to mention that it’s really pretty cool how they turned an ordinary psychological challenge — claustrophobia — into a respectable antagonist in this episode. Like Stark’s panic attacks in Iron Man 3. It’s not so much the fact that they did it; it’s the fact that Robinson sold the terror well (even if he says that was effortless on his part), and that Bashir and Martok respect so much what he is going through to work on the transmitter. I’m a little sad KRAD didn’t include Martok’s quote, complimenting Garak on wrestling with his own fear.
@24: I always assumed that after this point, Sisko was doing everything in his power (off-camera) to get the Federation to prepare for war. You’re right, it’s pretty much inevitable at this point, and frankly any delays are probably an advantage to the Dominion, thanks to their mass-production techniques (of Jem’Hadar, at least). On the other hand, it’s possible that the delay turned out to be a blessing in disguise since it let tensions between the Cardassians and the Dominion fester. In any case, this part of the story in no way changes my estimation of Sisko as a much better captain overall than Janeway. But yes, this is definitely an act of war, in a way that no previous episode has been. Alderaan-level, indeed. And yes, I hope Sisko is trying to figure out an effective way to mine the wormhole, off-camera, even if he doesn’t figure it out until Rom’s help in a later episode.
@28: In the previous episode, didn’t Itak’ita even say that the prisoners might be able to escape, but would just be stranded on an airless rock anyway? Arrogance, spot-on.
@29: Gowron is, as Martok later states so adequately, a consummate politician. Sisko figures that out much more quickly than poor Worf was able to, and treats him accordingly. Gowron doesn’t have his respect, but Sisko can manipulate him to do the right things without being burdened with trying to turn him into a good guy. Really, it’s not that different from how Sisko has dealt with Dukat all along.
@31: Good point on how groundbreakingly non-episodic Inferno’s Light is. And while I’ve praised Martok many times for being the Klingon-iest Klingon who ever Klingon’ed, I’d never thought about how that made him a role model for Worf as an important aspect of their friendship. Good insight.
@35: Meh, I think the Excelsior being “the only ship in the quadrant” has to get ignored along with the Star Trek V “Galactic Core” stuff. TOS used “quadrant” to mean something completely different, with no hint that it ever meant a quarter of the entire galaxy. What’s more, it kind of treated the entire galaxy as a relatively small place; if I were to draw a map based on just TOS, I’d make the Federation as big as all of the Alpha/Beta powers together are in later maps. And I like those later maps better, so I just ignore TOS geography entirely.
And I don’t think Voyager ever got as far as the Beta border. Maybe you’re thinking of a line about how the Hirogen territory/outposts reach into the BQ?
Finally, I like to think that the Klingons and Romulans had more going on with their BQ neighbors than we ever learn about in the shows. It makes complete sense that the Romulans, at least, would never pass that information along anyway. But if their “eastern” borders were pretty quiet, then yes, that would make even more sense for their adoption of “Alpha Quadrant” to describe themselves.
@37: Good call on the Europe analogy. And yeah, I think Dukat has officially now passed the point where he might have cared about patriotism more than his own power and position, enough to care about how the Dominion has already hurt Cardassia. We’ve seen some glimmers of sincerity in his monologues before, but in this episode when he tries to convince Sisko that the Dominion is best for everyone, it’s pure hypocrisy. I guess I’m really just agreeing with Kira where she would no longer believe Dukat that rain is wet.
@39: Based on the fact that Tain survived, I’d be pretty sure that the Lovok-impersonating Founder survived too, even if we hadn’t ever seen some of the Dominion’s long-range transporter tricks.
@42: Interesting, I wonder how much the Dominion was planning to obscure the real facts behind the supernova.
This is from The Never-Ending Sacrifice, and is rather tragic in retrospect:
Great episode, one of the most memorable hours of TV I’ve ever seen.
As for the prison break, I agree they should have had some surveillance in the cells. Even a throwaway line about how Garak’s father had successfully circumvented the camera or some such would have helped. As for the runabout being nearby, totally buy it. A secret facility would need to limit the traffic heading in and out and it would make sense the runabout would be kept there until they’d secured the wormhole and they knew there wouldn’t be any Federation (or other Alpha Quadrant power’s) ships in the quadrant that could spot it.
And getting back to last weeks’ discussion about why they didn’t kill these guys instead of taking them prisoner, consider the Cardassian prisoners. Now that they’ve ‘allied’ with Cardassia they can release them and even score some public relation points. As far as I can tell, aside from those prisoners used for hand to hand practice, they didn’t abuse the prisoners which will enable them to be released and avoid headaches down the line once they’ve ‘allied’ with their governments as well.
@47, Yeah.
If only any of those civilians knew what was coming…
I’ve never liked the ending of this one. Part of it’s the idiotic prison escape thing so many others have mentioned. Part of it’s that there’s so much buildup, but all that comes of it is one blown up runabout with some plot holes of its own. Talk about a letdown.
But there’s also the curious presence of the Romulans at the end. They’re willing to join the war here, but then they sign a non-aggression pact that remains in effect until In the Pale Moonlight. Did nobody think to contact the Empire and open up a dialog with them after this? They’re ready for war and ready to fight alongside former enemies, but the next day they take a trip to nope, f-thatville? I’m being nitpicky now, but they also only have a bunch of D’Deridex warbirds show up. Come on Romulans, we know you’ve got more ship designs than that. The whole thing with them arriving is just weird. It builds up more tension and makes the letdown even harder when there’s no battle with lots of ‘splosions.
@50: Actually, prior to this episode, the only other 24th-century Romulan ships we’d seen were the small scout ship in TNG’s “The Defector” and the science vessel (a modified scout ship) in TNG’s “The Next Phase.” So actually the D’Deridex was the only Romulan capital ship class that 24th-century Trek ever established prior to Nemesis, where the Valdore class was introduced.
Also, it’s not hard to imagine that whatever small faction within the Star Empire that wanted to send support to this battle lost its influence, after it became clear that they’d been manipulated by changelings into almost condemning Imperial capital ships to a fiery death in a supernova trap.
Ikat’ika is actually the only Jem’Hadar to appear in more than one episode.
Yes, some plot holes, but 2 of the last four episodes featured Kira, then Sisko, being reckless, irresponsible, selfish assholes that I wanted to slap the shit out of, so it was nice to have this glorious 2-parter to set things right as to who the good guys are. Loved Worf finally getting a fair shot at kicking ass, and proving his mettle. Bad ass Son of a Mogh .
It’s funny how the Founders first try to split the Federation and the Empire apart and then try to bring them back together again, because either way serves their interests. Did Worf ever get that song since he’s dishonoured? I’m surprised Bashir was able to kill so easily and not even bat an eyelid. How did Bashir send a message to the station if the listening posts in the GQ have been destroyed? Dukat does sound a bit like a (bad) Bond villain at the end and even he becomes disillusioned with the Dominion in time. Why are Gowron and Sisko together again for the first time KRAD? I wouldn’t count Civil Defense as a time when Sisko saved Dukat’s life. 6: O’Brien said trilithium explosives couldn’t destroy the wormhole now. 31: it was Kira who was shocked by Dukat’s announcement and it was more like a week for Garak. 35: I don’t think Voyager ever crossed into the Beta Quadrant, although in Timeless, Chakotay and Harry discover the remains of Voyager on a planet in the BQ 15 years in an alternate future. 41: I think he was a suicide bomber.
Those poor people on the run about. And of course, nice of the dominion to tow the run about to the prison and leave it in orbit.
Everyone on high alert not noticing one of their own flying towards the sun? Must’ve been distracted.
No attempt to save any of the other prisoners. Typical Starfleet.
Dukat killing his daughter. At least they addressed it. But doesn’t quite fit unless he wasn’t in control of the plan. Would’ve been sweet for Sisko to call that out.
Got to give the show credit. Still an amazing episode even with the gaping plotholes.
I’m late to the game but I have to comment that this is one of my all time favorite DS9 episodes, and probably ST too. Plot holes and all. The depth they get into with the characters is just wonderful. Even the small roles such as the other prisoners are acted and handled well. Garak sells his fear and the way everyone reacts is believable and it’s explored in enough depth to make it a real plot point. Worf and Martok are amazing. Worf vs Ikat’ika is all over the place delightful as even though they are enemies they both have a depth of nobility the Vorta can not understand. I pictured Ikat’ika as possibly being a little more independent such as a step in the direction of the Jem Hadar that went out on their own. I was sad he died. All the plot twists were fun and riveting. I loved the dialogue, filming and sound effects when they launched the runabouts. It’s like the Navy and Marines equivalent fighting force are on the way and someone says bravely “launch the dinghy!” It showed such spirit. The music was wonderful too – really nice emotional builds and hit points, especially with Garak’s scenes. I cheered when the Romulans showed up. Ziyal’s spirit with Quark was hilarious. She’s been through so much in some ways it isn’t surprising that she’s learned to be calm and see the positive in any situation. Dukat starts the build to losing it. Just phenomenal performances and writing. I can live with the plot holes.
As a whole, this episode was very good. Just some nitpicking here and there. For example, how was Tain able to crawl into that tiny space, that hardly allows Garrak to move around?
Why was that runabout in orbit and ready to go to warp immediatly? That doesn’t make sense.
And why blow up a sun, anyway? Sure, this would make every planet inhabitable, but a solar system is HUGE. Just think about it, distance from earth to sun is 149.6 million km. How long will it take for a shockwave to travel all that distance? It even takes light about 8 minutes and shockwaves don’t travel at the speed of light. Warp, however, is faster than light. Any ship getting destroyed because of the shockwave of a super nova deserved to be destroyed.
waka: Even if the fleet could escape, DS9 would still be toast and the Bajoran system crippled. It’s a win regardless.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
Still love that infirmary scene where Gowron reactivates the Khitomer Accords while the Bashir-changeling looks on.
Gowron: We could stand united against the Dominion … and if we do …
Changeling: We *might* have a chance.
The look on the fake Bashir’s face at the end was great.
Lockdown rewatch. A fantastic two parter, if I am honest I preferred part one, but this still is more than a worthy follow up.. yes the plot holes are there, not least wouldn’t the super nova destroy the worm hole thus cutting the Dominion troops off from reinforcements and crucially supplies of White for the Jem Hadar? I know they said the sabotaged attempt to seal the worm hole had actually strengthened it, but strong enough to survive a super nova?? But in the end this doesn’t matter as it is all about the performances from absolutely everybody and of course the major plot point that does work, Cardassia joining the Dominion. Dukat really becomes one of the great TV villains for the next season and a half… (until the damm par wraiths stick their nose in anyway) All the regulars are superb particularly Worf, Sisko, Kira and Bashir, Garak it almost goes without saying is played to perfection by Andrew Robinson JG Hertzler is immense as Martok.. and amongs all this it’s also one of the best Worf episodes on DS9 or TNG. great stuff.. 9 out of 10.
Dukat ending on “We will make Cardassia strong again.” has some unfortunate parallels now.
@62,
Yeah, it definitely hits differently now after the last half five years than it did back in 1997.
Babylon 5 and the President Clark/Nightwatch arc plays similarly now, too.
@63/Mr. Magic: Or Kenneth Johnson’s V. Or any of the dozens of other allegories about fascism that have been published or filmed in the last 70-80 years. Science fiction has been warning us for generations that the rise of fascism in the ’30s would repeat itself in the future if we ever let ourselves forget the lessons of the past. And despite all their warnings, we did forget. That’s the problem. It shouldn’t feel different now than it did at the time. We should’ve taken it just as seriously then, rather than waiting until it was too late.
@64,
True. The further 1930s Europe receded in the rear view mirror, the greater the danger was of subsequent generations forgetting that lesson — and I’m worried the same will happen here in the coming years.
I mean, I was born in the mid-Eighties as the Cold War was winding down and with Nazi Germany becoming more and more of a memory.
It was one thing to hear testimony and see footage of those horror — and don’t mistake me, it was horrifying. But it’s also quite another to actually live through those same circumstances — and to then re-watch those stories and warnings from Trek as an adult. It’s been disquieting to see so much of DS9-era Cardassia reflected in the last decade.
And it’s not just later generations forgetting those lessons. There was also a question I’ve asked repeatedly in the last few years to older Boomers I know who, ah, went to the Dark Side.
And it basically went like this: You all grew up in the aftermath of the Second World War and the horror stories of the lead-up and duration. Did all those stories and accounts mean nothing to you? Do you even care you’re championing the very same evil your parents and their generation sacrificed everything to stop?
The answers were, shall we say, not exactly satisfactory.
“Make America Great Again” was a slogan of the KKK and Bund before certain groups too.
So it was a direct nod to them, IMHO.