As the Dominion continues to gain footing in the Alpha Quadrant, Sisko puts his foot down. The crew start placing mines around the wormhole to prevent more Dominion ships from entering the Alpha Quadrant and fortifying Cardassia. The Dominion responds and sends Vorta ambassador Weyoun (Jeffrey Combs) to DS9. Weyoun tells Sisko that unless the Federation removes the mines, the Dominion will take the station. Sisko refuses, leading to a battle at the station. The minefield is completed just in the nick of time, but Starfleet is forced to abandon DS9, which is taken over by Dukat, Weyoun and the Dominion — with Kira, Odo and Quark left behind. Then, Sisko, on board the Defiant (and Martok and Worf, on a Klingon ship) join a massive fleet of Federation and Klingon vessels, armed for war.

Why it’s important

This is another instance in which the summary pretty much explains the episode’s importance. The long-simmering hostilities between the Federation and the Dominion finally boil over and war begins. While extended conflicts involving the Federation had occurred in the past, they had only been covered in dialog. With this episode, the DS9 creators set a course for two seasons of war that would really define DS9 and its contribution to Star Trek (aside from perhaps the spiritual stuff).

There’s also the quick bit about the Romulans signing a non-aggression pact with the Dominion, the Alpha Quadrant foothold that finally pushes Sisko over the edge. Of course, the Romulans’ place in the war is a huge, huge domino going forward …

What doesn’t hold up

The big conceit of the episode is that Starfleet wouldn’t do more to fortify DS9, described by Sisko next season as “the key to the Alpha Quadrant”. In this episode, Starfleet’s resources are used on another mission. Hmmm.

Beyond that, I find it somewhat hard to believe that O’Brien, Dax and Rom are the only people who work to figure out a way to mine the entrance to the wormhole. It paints Starfleet, generally, as having a pretty weak bench and really lacking in foresight. Hell, why not bring in more engineers from the DS9 staff, even? Given that Rom’s considered an engineering genius at this point, I guess it’s OK that he’s there …

I’m also unclear as to how DS9 can just be taken over by the Dominion. A big part of this episode involves Sisko getting the Bajorans to sign a non-aggression pact with the Dominion, as Sisko doesn’t think he can protect Bajor in a war. That’s all well and good, but does signing a non-aggression pact allow the Dominion to take over Bajor’s only space station? Keep in mind that Sisko’s instructions didn’t — as far as we know — tell the Bajorans to let the Dominion do whatever it wanted. Starfleet was on the station at Bajor’s invitation. Was such an invitation offered to the Dominion?

There’s also the matter of Garak leaving with the Defiant at the end of the episode. While he would have almost certainly been put to death by Dukat had he stayed on the station, shouldn’t Garak have asked Sisko to join the crew before the absolute last moment? What if Sisko had remembered how Garak tried to use the Defiant to commit genocide back in “Broken Link” and simply kicked him off the ship? And, actually, who approved Garak coming on board before Sisko? I suppose it could have been Bashir, but it likely wouldn’t have been O’Brien or even Dax.

Oh, and finally, this episode, once and for all, shows that Starfleet consists of a LOT more vessels than was implied in TNG (where the loss of 40 ships was seen as a huge blow) or even early DS9. The fleet the Defiant joins at the end of the episode is MASSIVE. Keep in mind that this is the same year in which Starfleet lost a lot of ships to the Borg (in “Star Trek: First Contact”) and at least some to the Klingons. One possible explanation is that in preparation for the war and all the other conflicts, Starfleet recalled a bunch of vessels in deep space. But that’s just a theory that’s not backed by any dialog. And we know it takes YEARS to build individual starships. Maybe Starfleet pulled a bunch of ships from moth balls — which would explain why we see a lot of Miranda- and Excelsior-class vessels in the next two seasons. Again, though, that’s never actually stated.

Last, last point: Did Sisko leave the runabouts on the station? It’s interesting that the runabouts were deployed in anticipation of the Dominion attack (which never happened) in “By Inferno’s Light”. They might have come in handy in this episode — and it certainly would have made sense to not leave them behind. But during the attack, and when the Defiant and Martok’s ship leave, we see no runabouts.

Final thoughts

One character we finally get to talk about is Weyoun, who showed up in a few episodes before this but none that we considered tapestry worthy. Jeffrey Combs playing opposite of Marc Alaimo‘s Dukat (along with Casey Biggs‘ Damar) into next season is one of DS9’s high points, as they have great chemistry. Combs, of course, played a ton of different roles in Trek, but Weyoun was his most memorable.

There’s also the matter of Jake’s decision to stay on DS9. Jake was DS9’s most underused character, despite some good stuff here and there in episodes like “Nor the Battle to the Strong”,  “In the Cards” and (though Cirroc Lofton is only in part of it) “The Visitor”, which is DS9’s best episode. Making Jake a journalist and having him decide to stay on the station, without telling his father, was an interesting choice, but the results were mostly underwhelming, as we’ll discuss.

Frankly, it’s kind of amazing there are so many plot threads in this episode, many of which we’re not even mentioning here. “A Call to Arms” is extremely plot heavy, but it’s one of DS9’s finest hours. Definitely worth a watch for any fan.

Coming later this week …

The war, well, it’s not going well for our heroes.

Part one: Worf and Garak head to the Gamma Quadrant in a runabout after receiving a message from our old bud Enabaran Tain (Paul Dooley), assumed killed by the Dominion back in “The Die is Cast”. They stumble upon a huge fleet of Jem’Hadar ships and manage to get a message to DS9 before they’re captured. As Sisko starts readying the station for a Dominion attack — and loops in Gul Dukat, still apparently engaging in a private war with the Klingons — Worf and Garak are taken to a prison camp where Tain is being held, along with General Martok (J.G. Hertzler), who apparently had been replaced by a Changeling before we first met him in “The Way of the Warrior”. Even more surprising, Bashir is being held there(!) meaning he’s been replaced by a Changeling back on the station. Sisko decides to close the entrance to the wormhole — Starfleet’s not in a good position to fight a war — but the efforts are sabotaged (almost certainly by the Bashir Changeling) and as the credits roll … the Dominion fleet enters the Alpha Quadrant.

Part two: The Dominion fleet, takes a hard look at the station and then heads directly to Cardassia. Dukat follows them in his ship and tells a horrified Kira on the viewscreen that he has been in negotiations with the Dominion for months and Cardassia has … joined the Dominion. Shortly thereafter, Dukat announces that he intends to take back all of his people’s property — including DS9. A Klingon fleet limping back from Cardassia after getting beaten up by the Jem’Hadar stops at DS9 for assistance and Sisko gets Gowron (Robert O’Reilly) to agree to reinstate the alliance with the Federation and make a stand against the Dominion. Meanwhile in the prison camp, Worf is being repeatedly challenged by Jem’Hadar and Garak must overcome his claustrophobia to adjust the transmitter Tain used to send the message — Tain has died — to signal the runabout. He’s successful, and the prisoners escape, allowing Bashir to send a message to the station, allowing Sisko to figure out that the Bashir on the station is a Changeling. By this point, the Federation and Klingon fleets have been joined by a bunch of Romulan vessels, awaiting the Dominion attackers — and the Bashir Changeling has stolen a runabout with the idea of causing Bajor’s sun to explode, destroying the station and the fleet. Kira, on board the Defiant, is able to stop the Changeling, and the escapees from the prison camp make it home. As the episode ends, Dukat contacts Sisko, setting up the inevitable showdown between the two of them, and between the Federation and the Dominion.

Why it’s important

Well, I’m not sure I even need to explain, given the summary. But the events of these two episodes set up the final 2 1/2 seasons of DS9. Much of the rest of the fifth season is about the lead up to what feels like an inevitable war and the final two seasons are about the war.

The sides of the conflict are drawn with the Cardassians and Dominion on one end and the Federation, Klingons and (later) the Romulans on the other. Remember that before this episode, the Federation was really tighter with the Cardassians than the Klingons, as the Federation was providing assistance to beleaguered Cardassia in the fourth and fifth seasons . This episode sets all of that on its head in a (mostly) satisfactory and compelling way.

It also sets up the Sisko/Dukat rivalry that is a major thread throughout the rest of DS9. Since the second season, Dukat had been a sort of strange bedfellow of the DS9 crew, even helping Sisko and Co. infiltrate Klingon space in “Apocalypse Rising”. Here, he becomes the series’ main villain. It was a bold choice that paints Dukat as the ultimate pragmatist and opportunist. Although I’m not a huge fan of where they take the character later, Dukat selling out to the Dominion to gain power is totally believable.

I didn’t get into it in the recap, which was long enough, but there’s also the evolving relationship between Garak and Ziyal (Melanie Smith, the third and final actor to play the character), which was a subplot back in “For the Cause” but really takes off here. Ziyal’s love for Garak (a sworn enemy of Dukat) is a big part of what happens over the course of the next season.

What doesn’t hold up

Buckle up. This is gonna be a long one.

Part one mostly works on its own — with one huge exception — though I’ve always wondered how Worf and Garak just happened to land at the same prison camp as Tain, Martok and Bashir. There’s a line in part two that sort of indicates the camp is just for Alpha Quadrant prisoners. But why would the Dominion do that? And, frankly, the prison camp itself is ridiculously lax. Shouldn’t there be some sort of surveillance? Also, why are the prisoners being held in the first place? There’s no indication that they’re being interrogated. I suppose there might be some value in them later …

But let’s talk about what I would consider DS9’s biggest continuity error, and possibly the biggest continuity error in all of Trek.

When we meet Bashir in the prison camp, he’s wearing the DS9 uniform we saw in the first four seasons and into the fifth. Essentially, it’s a mostly black jumpsuit with the Starfleet color differentiators (red for command, blue for medical, etc.) across the shoulders. Beginning in “Rapture”, the DS9 characters started wearing the updated versions (first seen in “Star Trek: First Contact”) which have grey across the shoulders and the color differentiators in the turtleneck undershirts. I know this isn’t the most exciting thing to discuss, but stay with me. That real Bashir is wearing the older uniform means we can fairly easily determine when Changeling Bashir first appeared on DS9 — before “Rapture”. And, people, boy does that cause some issues.

The Bashir Changeling was apparently on DS9 for four episodes, “Rapture”, “The Darkness and the Light”, “The Begotten” and “For the Uniform” (in which Alexander Siddig doesn’t appear). We only reviewed one of those episodes, but here’s a quick summary of what Changeling Bashir did in them:

— “Rapture”: Sisko starts having visions and needs Bashir’s help to save his life. So, the Changeling infiltrator would need extensive knowledge of human brains and medical abilities to fool everybody. Right.

— “The Darkness and the Light”: The only episode in which Changeling Bashir appears that isn’t eye-rolling in retrospect — assuming you buy the overall conceit that Changelings can act like anyone at anytime without raising suspicions.

— “The Begotten”: An episode in which Changeling Bashir helps with the delivery of the O’Brien’s child (carried by Kira) and the recovery of an ill, infant Changeling who eventually dies and integrates into Odo to make Odo a Changeling again. This raises so many questions that I can’t even cover them all here. But holy hell …

Really, the creators just blew it here. They used the uniform thing as a way to help the audience distinguish between the two Bashirs. But that could have been done with Bashir wearing off-duty clothes in the prison camp, if it needed to be done at all. Big picture, the Changelings’ seemingly magic abilities to mimic anyone and anything were always a stretch, but the creators stretched them beyond belief here.

One other thing. Sisko mentions the recent “Borg attack” in this episode, an apparent allusion to “Star Trek: First Contact”. The stardate in that movie puts it much later in the season (small thing, I know) and we never hear anything about how Worf took the Defiant to Earth and helped, you know, save Earth. There’s also the bit about the Defiant being heavily damaged in that movie. We never hear about it needing repairs or how it returns to the station.

Part two is where things go even further off the rails because of problems within the episode as opposed to continuity with other episodes/movies. First, let’s talk about the renewal of the Federation/Klingon alliance.

Sisko, apparently, without any higher authority, just renews the treaty with Gowron. Now, Gowron is the leader of the Klingon Empire, but Sisko’s just a (relatively important) Starfleet captain. Could he really do what he did here?

Beyond that, the renewal is (apparently?) part of the Dominion’s larger plan. The Bashir Changeling stands by and lets it happen, perhaps with the idea that it would bring the Federation and Klingon fleets to DS9 to be destroyed. But it’s clear that only parts of both fleets show up. So, sure, the supernova would have wiped out a lot of ships (and the station) but it also would have renewed a power alliance that opposed the Dominion.

There’s also the bit about Changeling Bashir modifying a runabout to carry out his plan. I’m sorry, but if security was that lax — the runabout’s shields were upgraded and a protomatter device was installed! — then the Dominion could have defeated the Federation in about 20 minutes.

Then, there’s the prison camp stuff.

Let’s assume that Garak (and Tain, before him) really could use the old life support system near our heroes’ cell to send out a signal that the Dominion (apparently?) couldn’t detect. Why, in the HELL, did the Dominion LEAVE THE RUNABOUT PARKED NEAR THE CAMP?

I remember watching in 1997 and wondering earlier in the episode how the writers were going to pull off the escape. When the camera simply panned up from the camp to show the runabout, I believe I threw a remote at the television. Unless you figure that leaving the runabout was some sort of Dominion plot, there’s just no reason to do this. And even if it was a Dominion plot, how did Garak et. al know where the runabout was? Argh …

Lastly, we have Sisko’s amazing powers of deduction at the end of the episode. Consider that he’s standing in ops waiting for a major attack. There are Starfleet, Klingon and Romulan ships ready to fight and sensors are detecting enemy vessels. Then, a non-visual transmission from the Gamma Quadrant comes from Bashir (in part one, Sisko was skeptical that a similar transmission from Tain was genuine). Sisko, correctly, figures out that the Bashir on the station is a Changeling. But, but, but … how did he do that? Wasn’t it just as possible that the message from the Gamma Quadrant was a fake?

I suppose Sisko figured it out because the computer told him Bashir had last been at a runabout pad, and Sisko could have figured that the real Bashir wouldn’t have ever been there at that point in time. But Sisko’s next actions are odd. He tells Kira (on the Defiant) to destroy the runabout, not to just stop or capture it. In other words, there’s no doubt in his mind that the Bashir on the station has been a Changeling.

Finally — and props to you, if you’ve made it this far — where in the hell is Odo in these episodes? He shows up at the very beginning of part one and then is only mentioned in dialog. In all other episodes involving Changeling infiltrators, Odo is a huge part, and the return of his shapeshifting abilities could have made for some interesting scenes here. Not seeing him much in this two-parter isn’t necessarily an error, but it’s odd.

Final thoughts

So, I realize I just tore this two-parter to shreds. Funny thing is, I also really enjoy watching it. I actually think it’s incredibly representative of DS9.

That is, the two-parter was incredibly ambitious — frankly, to a fault. It stacked the deck so high that the only way for our heroes to win was with some really ridiculous plotting, i.e. the Dominion parking the runabout near the prison camp and Sisko’s amazing deductive powers. Now, I’ll take “ambitious to a fault” over “boring and episodic” any day — wait until we get to Voyager, people — but I need to point out faults when I see them. And there are just a TON in this two-parter.

It’s too bad the creators didn’t avoid the uniform nonsense, had found a more plausible way for the prison camp gang to escape (a stolen shuttle?) and for Sisko to have more obvious clues. None of that would have been that difficult, but the creators just got sloppy. Shame.

Coming later this week …

A much shorter review, we promise. Eddington’s back!