Deutsche Version | Season 5 | Season 7
Disc 1
A Time to Stand
Synopsis: The war has been going on for three months and the Federation had to take heavy losses. But the minefield is still in place and seemingly unbreachable. Starfleet developes a plan to destroy the Ketracel-White supplies of the Dominion. Without the drug the Jem’Hadar won’t be able to fight anymore. Sisko takes a commandeered Jem’Hadar ship behind enemy lines to accomplish the task.
My Opinion: This is the beginning of a six-part arc, it’s the first time on Star Trek that they did something longer than a two-parter. While Sisko’s mission was interesting it also was “just another mission”. I found it more interesting to observe how the different characters on the station behaved. And I liked how Jake tried to be a reporter and how he and Weyoun discussed the “freedom of the press” in times like these.
Rocks and Shoals
Synopsis: Sisko’s heavily damaged ship crashes on a planet in an uncharted nebula. Most of the crew survives but now they are stranded with no means of communication. And they have another problem: They are not the first to crash there. A group of Jem’Hadar and their Vorta leader are also there and the Jem’Hadar are running low on White which makes them all the more dangerous. On DS9 Terok Nor life goes on. Kira works within the military hierarchy of the Dominion (Dukat has taken command of the station again) and Odo is a member of the ruling council. But that all changes when some Bajorans begin to demonstrate against (what they feel is) the occupation.
My Opinion: It’s seems that you can’t genetically engineer certain attributes together in the same DNA. The Vorta are cunning and shifty and good negotiators but at the same time they aren’t as nearly as loyal to the Dominion as the Jem’Hadar. I liked it how Sisko tried to prevent the bloodshed and although they are the enemy it was a bit sad that the Jem’Hadar had to be slaughtered. But Keevan (the Vorta) will get was he deserves in a later episode.
Sons and Daughters
Synopsis: Alexander Rozhenko – Worf’s son – starts as crew member abourd the IKS Rotarran and Worf has to deal with him, since he is the XO of that ship. But Alexander and Worf have never been close and until now Alexander denied his heritage as a klingon warrior. So why is he there? Meanwhile Dukat has brought Ziyal back from Bajor and to the station.
My Opinion: It was nice to see Alexander again whom we haven’t seen in nearly four years. And I also liked that they didn’t make him suddenly into the perfect warrior. I also liked how Ziyal tried to re-create the triangle relation between her, her father and Kira. But this time it had to fail and it was good that Kira didn’t continue this absurd charade.
This was the second episode that was cut due to the BBFC. About 20 seconds are missing at the end where the three Klingons conducted their hand cutting ritual.
Behind the Lines
Synopsis: Quark learns that Damar (Dukat’s second) has found a way to disable the minefield and Rom (who designed it) confirms that this could work. The resistance cell (consisting of Kira, Odo, Rom, Leeta & Jake) plans to sabotage the station. But then the female founder comes to the station and that changes everything. Meanwhile Sisko was promoted to Admiral Ross’s assistant and Dax takes over the command of the Defiant and she takes it to a very dangerous mission.
My Opinion: This episode was an average one until short before the end. When I first watched it I expected that maybe not everything was going as planned but that they would succeed eventually. It really surprised me that Odo let them down just to get into a link with the other shapeshifter. But that makes the situation aboard the station all the more interesting.
Disc 2
Favor the Bold
Synopsis: Starfleet is fighting the battles and has to retreat all the time. But Sisko has developed a plan to re-take DS9 and thus re-taking control of the wormhole. He assembles huge parts of three fleets to hit the bajoran system in a decisive strike. But he’s also running out of time, Damar will take down the minefield within a week and Dukat has a fleet to intercept Sisko.
My Opinion: Finally they strike back! And they use an appropiate number of ships. 650 Starfleet ships versus 1254 Dominion ships! That’s how fleets are supposed to look like in space. Let’s get ready to rumble!
Sacrifice of Angels
Synopsis: The battle has begun and Sisko tries to punch holes in the Dominion line to get through to DS9 but both the Jem’Hadar as well as the Cardassians hold their line. Sisko needs a miracle to save the Alpha Quadrant and he even gets two of them. Finally the Klingons show up and they show why they call their spaceships “Bird of Prey”. But against the 28,000 ships on the other side of the wormhole only divine intervention will help.
My Opinion: As much as I liked this entire arc since the end of season 5 and as much as I liked these last two episodes I felt that the conclusion was very dissatisfactory. “Deus ex machina” means literally “god from the machine” and that’s exactly what they did. They invented a fleet of 28,000 Dominion ships and suddenly had no clue how to resolve that problem so they used the Prophets/wormhole beings to get rid of them. 
But I liked the twist that Dukat went insane after he was so sure to already be the master of the AQ and after losing his daughter. This will give the character yet again a new direction and is the basis for a number of good episodes.
A while back I found this fan-made trailer about Favor the Bold and Sacrifice of Angels and I think it’s very well done:
You Are Cordially Invited
Synopsis: Worf and Dax decide not to marry after the war but within a week. For this Worf invites Martok, Alexander, Sisko, O’Brien and Bashir to his “klingon bachelor party” while Dax must get the approval of Martok’s wife to get invited into the House of Martok. And of course she has her own kind of bachelor party…
My Opinion: After all these fighting that was a nice change of pace. I found it so funny how everyone imagined a “klingon bachelor party” and how it really was. Especially O’Brien should have known better because he had been to some of Worf’s rituals and they were never fun. 😉 And I really liked the wedding ceremony and the legend about the two klingon hearts – it sounded like real klingon mythology.
Resurrection
Synopsis: Mirror-Barail beams onto the station and Kira is quite shocked to see him. But that Barail is nothing like her Barail – and he is a thief. Kira tries to help him find his way on this side of the “mirror” and she can’t resist being attracted to him. He is seemingly willing to change but even though Kira might be blinded by his appearance, Quark can see right through him and suddenly Kira finds herself in front of … Kira.
My Opinion: This episode was not so interesting even with the appearance of Mirror-Kira.
Disc 3
Statistical Probabilities
Synopsis: A doctor from a mental institution brings four of her patients to the station. All had been genetically anhanced when they were children but they weren’t as lucky as Julian and something went wrong. The doctor hopes that Bashir can create a form of bond to them and is able to help them. He actually manages to establish a relation with them and together they analyze a holo recording of the current negotiations between the Federation and the Dominion and they are able to help. But then they discover something horrible.
My Opinion: This was a great episode. The actors played their eccentric characters very well and it was a joy to watch all these different characters. And I really liked it how Bashir showed that statistics can’t predict every turn of events and how one person can change the course of history. In Germany we have a saying: “Don’t trust a statistic you haven’t faked yourself.” 😀 And I look forward to see these guys and gals again. 🙂
The Magnificent Ferengi
Synopsis: Quark’s and Rom’s mother has become a prisoner of the Dominion. Quark wants to free her with a Ferengi-only group to prove that Ferengies are just as good warriors as – let’s say – Klingons. But his team (consisting of himself, Rom, Nog, cousin Gaila, Brunt [formerly FCA] and the mercenary Leck) doesn’t even pass the holodeck simulation. So they fall back on what they can do: They offer a trade: Ishka in exchange for the Vorta Keevan.
My Opinion: Yet another great episode. Except for the Nagus every Ferengi who had a guest appearance on DS9 was in this episode. It was so funny to watch them which was a good break from the war episodes. Too bad they couldn’t find a seventh Ferengi – it would have been the perfect number for this episode. 😉
BTW: The Vorta in the episode picture is Iggy Pop!
Waltz
Synopsis: Dukat, whose condition hase been improved, is to be brought to a POW facility and Sisko escorts him there on the USS Honshu . But then the ship is attacked by the Dominion. Some people can escape in pods. Somehow Dukat has managed to get aboard a shuttle and he saves the unconscious Sisko. But they crash-land on a planet. From there they try to send a distress signal and have a “nice”, long chat.
My Opinion: This disc is already my favourite disc of the season. The acting of Marc Alaimo (Dukat) was awesome. He played the insane and yet evil Dukat who tries to justifiy his actions by blaming everyone else perfectly. Even though Sisko was there this entire episode was carried by Dukat and his discussions with his hallucinations (and Sisko). “I wanted only the best for Bajor but these terrorists gave me no choice!” – Excellent.
Who Mourns for Morn?
Synopsis: Morn – one of Quark’s regular guests – has died in an accident and he has made Quark his legal heir. His personal stuff isn’t worth anything and he has quite an outstanding bill at the bar. But then his ex-wife shows up and implies that Morn was quite rich and she wouldn’t fight Quark over the money as long as she gets a share. Now the treasure hunt for a thousand bricks in gold-pressed latinum begins. But with every day there are more people who want their share of it.
My Opinion: Morn has been a customer of the bar since the pilot episode. It has become a running gag on the show to claim that Morn is quite the chatterbox while the actor has never uttered a single word on screen (and he never will, not even in this episode). Up until now he has just been an extra but an extra that made the entire show more real because he is the prove that there is a regular station life outside the focus on the main characters. And luckily for us he isn’t dead after all but will be there until the end of the show. 🙂
Disc 4
Far Beyond the Stars
Synopsis: Sisko receives a vision of the Prophets and he suddenly finds himself in another time and space. He’s Benny Russell, a “coloured” science-fiction autor in the 1950s United States. He works for a monthly magazine but it must never come out that he is black – or that K.C. Hunter (Kira) is a woman. When their illustrator shows him a picture of a space station, Benny devlopes the idea of a black captain and a space station called “Deep Space Nine”.
My Opinion: I liked this episode a lot, it felt really like the fifties and Brooks played the role of Benny very well. But the others were great, too: Jake as this young crook, Worf as this baseball player who’s only acepted because he can play, Dukat and Weyoun as the white, racist cops and Quark and Odo always on one another’s throat. Great.
And I also liked to see the main characters without masks for once:
Brunt, FCA
Dukat
Martok
Nog
Odo
Quark
Weyoun
Worf
One Little Ship
Synopsis: To explore the possibilites of transwarp technology the crew of the Defiant uses a natural phenomenon to shrink a runabout and its crew to matchbox size. But then the Defiant is taken over by the Jem’Hadar and Dax, Bashir and O’Brien try to help them as “the fly on the wall”.
My Opinion: This was an OK episode with all the gags and puns that miniaturization brings along. The funniest scene was O’Brien and Bashir crawling inside a computer terminal with huge chips and optical cables and O’Brien trying to re-route them.
Honor Among Thieves
Synopsis: O’Brien goes undercover as a “tinkerer” who’s had bad luck in recent years. Her infiltrates the Orion Syndicate by repairing some items for them. His objective is to find out who the person is that sells Starfleet internal information to the syndicate. But he also has to learn that the syndicate and the Dominion have become partners.
My Opinion: Yet another OK episode. But it was a chlichéd episode. “Even in the Mafia the bad guys are normal people with family and they aren’t all totally evil” so that you can sympathize with them.
Change of Heart
Synopsis: The Defiant is patrolling when Kira receives a new order. Dax and Worf take a runabout to fly deep into cardassian space to extract a defector who has vital inside information. To get to him they have to march through 20 kilometers of jungle to avoid detection. And when Jadzia gets severely hurt Worf has to make a choice.
My Opinion: This one I liked again because they took the time to focus on Jadzia and Worf and their marriage. And I am in the same position as Sisko: Officially it was a really bad choice to abandon the mission. The information from that man could have saved countless lifes. But I can also understand that Worf couldn’t leave his wife behind. But such things also explain why Worf was never promoted to commander or above.
Disc 5
Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night
Synopsis: It’s the birthday of Kira’s mother who died during the occupation when Nerys was 3 years old. But then Dukat contacts her from an unknown location and claims to have known her mother and that they even were lovers. That unnerves Kira so much that she uses the Orb of Time to look into events that happened nearly 30 years ago. And there she finds a Kira Meru she didn’t expect.
My Opinion: It must be hard to have an idealistic image of someone that gets not only crumbled to ashes but turns into an perverted inversion of that image. She was a collaborator and I believe that’s the one thing Nerys can’t forgive. Unfortunately they will never pick up on that topic again, it was a “one gig only” kinda thing.
Inquisition
Synopsis: A security breach has happened, someone transmitted secret information from the station to the Dominion. Deputy Director Sloan from Starfleet Security investigates all of the senior staff. Soon his prime supsect becomes Bashir who has quite an impresive number of “coincidences” in his history.
My Opinion: Ah, Sloan and “Section 31” (the Federation’s secret intelligence service). Finally. 😉 It was interesting to see how Sloan tried to trick Bashir into admitting that he was a collaborator and how Bashir dismissed it out of hand despite the presented “evidence” and even after “Weyoun” “rescued” him.
In the Pale Moonlight
Synopsis: The war gets worse with every week. Even Betazed has fallen to the Dominion’s advance. Sisko and Starfleet devlop a plan to convince the Romulans to join the war. But for this they need Garak and Garak has his won ways in doing things and these ways are most certainly not in accordance with the self-perception of the Federation.
My Opinion: This was certainly one of most interesting episodes of the entire show because everything was so morally ambiguous. Garak hit the spot as he explained to Sisko why Sisko came to him. “The first victim of war is the truth.” This sentences matches perfectly to this episode. And I really liked how hard it was for Sisko to bend the truth so much. But there was nothing to be gained by telling the truth after Garak had killed the Romulan.
To every critic of this episode out there: Yes, this episode had nothing to do with Roddenberry’s vision of a Federation full of perfect people who will do always the right thing bud sadly there will always be a “necessary evil”.
His Way
Synopsis: Bashir has brought a new holosuite program to the station: Vic Fontaine. Vic is more than your run-of-the-mill program, for starters he’s aware of being a program and he has basic computer access – he can end his own program, can communicate with people outside the holodeck. And he’s a ballroom singer.
My Opinion: I said I have no interest in Odo’s love life but I still liked this episode a lot because it was so lovely how Vic played the “matchmaker” (I have a weaknes for romance movies you know). And Vic has a nice singing voice, too.
Vic Fontaine is a homage to Frank Sinatra and was played by James Darren (T.J. Hooker) who’s a good friend of Frank Sinatra jr. and he will re-appear in that role from now on.
Disc 6
The Reckoning
Synopsis: Monks have found a 25,000 year old tablet under the ruins of the city Sisko once found. And that tablet mentions the Emissary and an upcoming Reckoning on which the future of Bajor will be decided. Sisko takes that tablet back to DS9 for studying but Kai Winn interfers and demands its return. But that tablet contains more than just a vague prophecy.
My Opinion: Have I mentioned that I hate Kai Winn? And it won’t get better in the seventh season. Unfortunately the number of “Emissary” and the “Winn” episodes will increase towards the end of the end of the show. Too bad.
Valiant
Synopsis: Nog – the only Ferengi in Starfleet – has been assigned to deliver treaty proposal to the Great Nagus and Jake accompanies him. But they run into a group of Jem’Hadar ships and have to evade. But this leads them directly into Dominion space where they meet the USS Valiant. The Valiant was presumed lost eight months ago but it’s still there and the crew – Starfleet Academy’s cadet corps “Red Squad” – is fighting the war behind enemy lines.
My Opinion: Eight months ago the war had already started and it’s very unlikely that a real Starfleet would give a Defiant-class ship to a bunch of cadets instead of using it on the front lines. But the overestimation of one’s own capabilities is exatcly what I would expect of “Red Squad” cadets. And its easy to get sucked into a group that is very self-assured. It was interesting to watch this group and seeing Jake as the voice of reason or rather as Cassandra since no one listened to him.
Profit and Lace
Synopsis: Brunt has dethroned Zek and installed himself as acting Grand Nagus after Zek has issued an amendment to the Ferengi Bill of Opportunities that allows women to wear clothes. Zek tries to assemble the other FCA commissioners on DS9 to prove to them how profitable his move could be and to convince him to reinstate him. But when Quark’s mother has a hard attack he needs another women to speak on their behalf.
My Opinion: I’ve seen better Ferengi episodes. But I have to say I am surprised that it had been so many of them. I knew there were quite a number of them but I had forgotten that it had been so many Ferengi shows over the course of DS9. But if memory serves, this was the last one.
Time’s Orphan
Synopsis: The O’Briens go on vacation to a lovely planet. But then Molly wanders off on her own and falls into a cave and through an ancient time portal – 300 years into the past. But when O’Brien and Dax find a way to beam her through that portal and through time she comes out as an 18-year-old. She’s spent 10 years on that planet alone and she’s changed. While Worf and Dax are babysitting Kirayoshi, Miles and Keiko try to reconnect to their daughter.
My Opinion: Again the main plot wasn’t as interesting as the side plot. I liked to watch Worf babysit and him trying to prove to Dax that he could be a good father. But the most interesting thing was the fact that abandoned time portals just seem to stand around on every other planet. 😉
Disc 7
The Sound of Her Voice
Synopsis: The Defiant follows a distress signal of a woman whose ship was destroyed. Her escape pod made it to a planet but it can barely sustain life. The Defiant has six days to reach her before she dies. While they try to reach her the crew of the Defiant talks to her because she’s alone out there and scared. Meanwhile Quark tries to pursuade Odo to celebrate his and Kira’s first month anniversary in order to sell some illegal goods when Odo is distracted.
My Opinion: This was a well-told episode. I really liked the idea that everyone got the chance to talk about the things that were laying heavily on their mind. And I also really liked how Odo let Quark get away with his scheme because Quark has helped him with Kira.
Tears of the Prophets
Synopsis: Starfleet has decided to abandon their defensive strategy and strike back against the Dominion. Sisko develops a plan in which a combined fleet of Starfleet, the Klingons and the Romulans attack the Chin’toka system on cardassian soil. But Sisko also gets a warning from the Prophets that he shouldn’t leave DS9 in this critical time. And right they were: Dukat is back and he has found a way to attack the wormhole beings directly.
My Opinion: They killed Jadzia! 
I find it often hard to see someone leaving a show. I can accept it when it’s due to dramaturgical reasons, because it was necessary. But I hate it when it’s due to financial issues. And while the battle scenes were great again I also hated the author’s decision that it was an error on Sisko’s side to be a Starfleet officer instead of the Emissary.
The Season – My Opinion: All in all this was a great season. The number of episodes I didn’t care for is on an all-time low. Unfortunately it won’t go on this way. The death of Jadzia marked a turning point for me and from now on it will go downhill. There are just too many developments in the seventh season I don’t like.