DVD REVIEW

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Complete Fourth Season  (1995-96)

Starring: Avery Brooks, Rene Auberjonois, Michael Dorn, Terry Farrell, Cirroc Lofton, Colm Meaney, Armin Shimerman, Alexander Siddig, Nana Visitor

Rating: NR

Distributor: Paramount Home Entertainment

Release Date: August 5, 2003
Review posted: August 13, 2003

Spoilers: Minor

Reviewed by Dennis Landmann

Orbiting the liberated planet of Bajor, a Federation space station (Deep Space Nine) and its crew guards the opening of a stable wormhole to the far side of the Galaxy. In this season the Klingon Empire becomes an additional threat to the Federation, who already has the Dominion and the Jem'Hadar to worry about.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Season 4 opens with the exciting 2-hour episode called The Way of the Warrior. Right from the start viewers are treated to witness a new, powerful threat to the Federation, not to mention DS9, in the form of the Klingons. Word in the Klingon Empire is a recent overthrow on Cardassia is the work of the Dominion. The head of the Klingon Empire, Gowron, orders his entire fleet to invade Cardassia, but faces strong opposition from the Federation. Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) feels the Klingon situation is out of his range and requests Commander Worf (Michael Dorn) to help out and assist in every way possible. Not only does this episode introduce Worf as a new character to the show, but it also establishes the time of war. Now that peace is over, the mood of DS9 is more intense and imminent danger looms at both ends of the wormhole.

As with the previous three seasons, Deep Space Nine – Season 4 includes stand-alone episodes devoted to the individual characters. They focus on things like family life, and further enrich the characters and relationships, such as Kasidy Yates and Captain Sisko, Worf and the Klingon Empire, Odo and his people, Quark and his brother Rom, etc. Still, these episodes more or less fit into a larger context that drives the main story of the season. The other episodes fit more directly into the season’s story arc, namely the continuing threat of the Dominion and the war against the Klingon Empire. A new story arc revolves around Worf with his decision not to help Gowron invade Cardassia. Gowron discredits Worf’s name, making him hated in his home world, and removing one of his family members from the Klingon high council. Wartime and a number of surprise episodes make Deep Space Nine – Season 4 the best one to date.

It should be noted I might have skipped an episode or two, although I watched the last 10 episodes in a 10-hour stint. So here is a rundown of almost all of the season’s 26 episodes. The Visitor is a heartfelt and quite emotional episode about Jake Sisko (Cirroc Lofton) growing up (and I can’t give away more than this—you have to see it for yourself). In Hippocratic Oath, Miles O’Brien (Colm Meaney) and Dr. Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig, formerly billed as Siddig Al Fadil) crash-land on an unknown planet to find a group of renegade Jem’Hadar soldiers who are trying to reverse their addiction to the white. Indiscretion follows Major Kira (Nana Visitor) and Gul Dukat (Marc Alaimo) on a mission to search for survivors from a doomed Cardassian prisoner transport. Rejoined is about the return of one of Curzon’s past lovers now in the form of a woman, and how Dax (Terry Farrell) still has strong feelings for this person, resulting in an episode that reflects an issue in today’s society. James Cromwell guest-stars in Starship Down, which follows the Defiant as it is badly damaged and must fight its way to safety from two enemy spacecrafts and rescue a lost allied ship. In The Sword of Kahless, Dax and Worf team up with an old, famous Klingon warrior in search for the sacred Klingon sword.

The two-episode story arc in Homefront and Paradise Lost continues the Dominion threat and deals with an attempted military overthrow of Earth, making for two exceptional episodes. Crossfire finds Major Kira falling for the visiting Bajoran Minister Shakaar, and Constable Odo (Rene Auberjonois) trying to cope with this situation by suppressing his affection towards her (there is quite a powerful scene with Odo alone in his quarters). Return to Grace sees Major Kira and Gul Dukat teaming up again, but this time onboard a Cardassian freighter ship, although circumstances turn dangerous as they encounter a Klingon bird-of-prey. In Sons of Mogh, Worf’s brother shows up on DS9 asking Worf to kill him. Accession finds a Bajoran poet from 200 years ago exiting the wormhole and proclaiming to Captain Sisko he is the original Emissary. In Rules of Engagement, Worf is on trial for ordering the Defiant to shoot (and destroy) an unarmed Klingon freighter during a battle with the Klingons. Miles O’Brien gets another great episode in Hard Time where he’s released from a 20-year espionage prison sentence. He must cope with the aftermath of his realization that the entire time in prison only took a few hours thanks to a new virtual-reality program that manipulates the mind to interpret the 20 years as an eternity.

In Shattered Mirror, Captain Sisko returns to the parallel universe to rescue a kidnapped Jake, but before returning must help the Rebels finish the Defiant in time to fight off the Alliance’s large fleet heading towards DS9. In For the Cause, Captain Sisko finds out Kasidy Yates (Penny Johnson) is a smuggler for the Maquis and Commander Eddington (Kenneth Marshall) turns out to be a Maquis sympathizer, while Garak (Andrew Robinson) befriends Gul Dukat’s outcast daughter Ziyal (Tracy Middendorf). In an interesting episode, To the Death, Sisko and crew team up with a select group of Jem’Hadar soldiers to prevent renegade Jem’Hadar from establishing a (galaxy) gateway that could make them virtually invincible. The Quickening finds Dr. Bashir and Dax on a planet trying to find a cure for the people who die from a deadly blood disease engineered by the Dominion. In Body Parts, Quark finds out he’s dying and sells his body, but when he finds out he’s not he must decide whether to break a contract or die, while the O’Brien family sees a drastic, new development involving Major Kira.

Broken Link is the season finale and offers yet another cliffhanger ending, although I’m not going to divulge it. In the finale Odo falls victim to a strange disease and must return to his homeland as it is the only place for him to receive treatment. Captain Sisko takes the Defiant into Dominion space and one of the Founders guides them in the right direction. Since Odo is the only changeling who has ever harmed another, he agrees to let the Great Link judge him for his actions. If his judgment is not the ultimate twist, wait until Sisko and crew return to DS9 where they find out the truth about the Klingon Empire. Broken Link is just as effective as last season’s cliffhanger episode The Adversary, if not even more so, and excites me very much for Season Five. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine proves itself once again why fans and critics consider it the best Star Trek series of the franchise.

Also, Season Four includes fun episodes, namely Little Green Men and Our Man Bashir. In Little Green Men, it turns out Quark, Rom (Max Grodénchik), Nog (Aron Eisenberg), and Odo are the Roswell aliens, which makes for a humorous and clever stand-alone episode. Our Man Bashir is one of those good old fashioned holosuite episodes. Bashir is playing a James Bond-type secret agent with Garak showing up suddenly, making him the unlikable sidekick. The twist, however, involves several DS9 characters, including Captain Sisko and O’Brien, who are trapped inside the holosuite program. The bad part is the program’s safety option is turned off, meaning any character killed inside it will actually die. On the outside, Rom, Odo, and a few other officers try to find a way to save the Captain and the others. Both episodes clearly display the fun the writers have with some aspects of the show.

In addition to the greater, more dangerous storyline(s) in Season Four, as well as improvements of the show’s writing, the special effects are much more advanced and flexible, not to mention the apparently bigger budget of the show at this point in the series. Making an interesting appearance not as an actor but as a director of some five episodes, if not more, is LeVar Burton, who played Geordi LaForge on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Burton directed To the Death, if I remember correctly. The episode is strong not only in its writing, but in its execution as well. In fact, the episode is among one of the better episodes of the season. Returning directors are Les Landau, David Livingston, Avery Brooks, Alexander Singer, and others, all doing a very good job. So from the previous standpoints, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Season Four is the most exciting season to date (surely I’m repeating myself here, but so what). I can’t wait for Season Five to arrive!

The following are all 26 episodes of the third season (1995-96) running an estimated 19 hours and 43 minutes at circa 45 minutes an episode.

Disc 1: “The Way of the Warrior,” “The Visitor,” “Hippocratic Oath”
Disc 2: “Indiscretion,” “Rejoined,” “Starship Down,” “Little Green Men”
Disc 3: ‘”The Sword of Kahless,” “Our Man Bashir,” “Homefront,” “Paradise Lost”
Disc 4: “Crossfire,” “Return to Grace,” “Sons of Mogh,” “Bar Associate”
Disc 5: “Accession,” “Rules of Engagement,” “Hard Time,” “Shattered Mirror”
Disc 6: “The Muse,” “For the Cause,” “To the Death,” “The Quickening”
Disc 7: “Body Parts,” “Broken Link,” and Special Features

>>Continued on Page 2 (Video, Audio, Extras, Overall).

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