Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Episode Guide - Season 6
Right, so if you’re living in the 21st century and going through the entire Star Trek: Deep Space Nine series but you’re not binge-watching season 6, well … you’re either Vulcan or well more strong-willed than your typical non-Augment.
This season starts the viewer on seat’s edge: Dominion ships have been creeping into the Alpha Quadrant, prompting Sisko to mine the wormhole, and ultimately for war to be declared. The result is probably the single darkest of all ST seasons (though Enterprise season 3 is in the running), 26 episodes of tense ‘n’ compelling stuff that further pushed forward the notion of heavy continuity on American television.
Also of note: “In the Pale Moonlight” and “Far Beyond the Stars” are both in this season of DS(, and both are among the greatest ST episodes ever – all hail the mighty acting skills of Avery Brooks, too.
1. A Time to Stand – Three months later. Deep Space Nine is controlled by the Dominion. While Odo remains chief of security now under his third (fourth?) distinct chain of command, Jake has gotten an assignment with the Federation News Service, what with his proximity the front line and all. Sisko et al, increasingly resembling their mirror-universe counterparts, meanwhile take a Jem’Hadar ship to destroy a key manufacturing facility. ***
2. Rocks and Shoals – Sisko, Dax, Bashir, O’Brien and Nog crash-land their stolen Jem’Hadar ship on an alien planet … not far from a like-crashed Jem’hadar ship with a crew dangerously low on White. Meanwhile, Kira feels angst and that maybe she shouldn’t be working under the Dominion anymore. (Duh.) ***
3. Sons and Daughters – Worf’s son Alexander (Remember him? Worf blew him off for a good long while, didn’t he?) returns, as he seeks to join General Martok’s ship along with Worf in the fight against the Dominion. In a subplot, Kira, Odo and even Dukat (!) work in establishing a resistance to Dominion control. ***
4. Behind the Lines – Exactly what the title says: Sisko looks to take out some key Dominion technology, while most of the rest of the former Deep Space Nine bridge crew work on subverting Cardassian/Dominion relations from aboard the station. ***
5. Favor the Bold – As Martok’s ship and Dax’s Defiant play cat-and-mouse with Jem’Hadar ships, Siksko rallies them to retake Deep Space Nine. ***
6. Sacrifice of Angels – Holy Fek'lhr, this one includes the mother of all Star Trek space battles: Six hundred Federation ships take on 1,200 Jem’Hadar and Cardassian ships in the effort to keep the wormhole mined and to retake Deep Space Nine. ****
7. You are Cordially Invited… -- Worf wants to marry Dax, but must answer to the matriarch of Martok’s family, as he’s been initiated into that Klingon house. ***
8. Resurrection – Okay, this is officially the point at which the Star Trek franchise stretched the mirror universe concept beyond its breaking point, giving us the counterpart of a DS9 fourth banana. Said banana takes Kira hostage and … ah, whatever. **
9. Statistical Probabilities – Bashir is tasked with helping four genetically altered peers of his better adapt to greater society. ***
10. The Magnificent Ferengi – When the Dominion captures Quark’s mother, the Grand Nagus offers a sizeable reward – 50 bars of gold-pressed latinum – for her safe return. Quark thus sets out to rescue here with a crew made up of essentially every other key Ferengi character on DS9. ***
11. Waltz - Sisko meets with the former Cardassian leader Gul Dukat, now a prisoner, as he awaits a war crimes investigation.***
12. Who Mourns for Morn? – A funny in-joke becomes a hilarious and suspenseful episode. The station is informed that Morn, DS9’s resident barfly, has died. On top of this, Morn’s will calls for his incredibly large estate to be bequeathed unto Quark. This in turn leads to several interested parties, including two fish-looking dudes doing Jack Nicholson impressions, coming out of the woodwork to try and bag part of Morn’s massive stash of latinum. ****
13. Far Beyond the Stars – A just gut-wrenching out-of-continuity story (okay, so there’s the bookended intro and coda involving Sisko, but this makes up maybe 10% of the screen time) telling of a science-fiction writer with grandiose ideas for a story set on a far-off space station called “Deep Space Nine.” Problems ensue when the editor insists that the commander aboard the station be, likesay, White. *****
14. One Little Ship – A runabout with Dax, Bashir and O’Brien aboard runs afoul of a subspace phenomenon which shrinks the ship to four inches in length. The usual shrinkage-related hijinks ensue. Silly stuff. **
15. Honor Among Thieves – The Orion Syndicate, a band so often name-dropped on DS9, finally gets some quality screen time, as O’Brien goes undercover to investigate a Starfleet turncoat. ***
16. Change of Heart – Worf and Dax undertake an undercover away mission while Bashir and O’Brien train to beat Quark in a game of tongo. Things end badly for both mission and game, and somehow only afterward does it occur to Sisko that sending betrotheds alone on an away mission was a good idea… ***
17. Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night – A terrible title leads to the question, “Why does everything involving Kira turn into soap opera?” In this one, Dukat comes up to her and says, basically, “Oh yeah, your mother and I used to be reeeeeeeeeal close.” This leads to panicky time travel. Bleagh. *
18. Inquisition – Head trip for Bashir: One his way off to an interplanetary medical conference, Bahsir is instead arrested and interrogated by Federation law enforcement officials accusing him of spying for the Dominion. With a fairly major plot twist before every break, this one definitely keeps the viewer in suspense. ****
19. In the Pale Moonlight – Lest ye forget, Avery Brooks is a classically-trained actor. Watch him flex those thespian muscles in this frame story about political intrigue framed within a Shakespearean-style monologue. Sisko shoves ethical considerations aside as he teams with Garak to trick the Romulans into breaking their non-aggression pact with the Dominion. Nearly as brilliant as Brooks here is Andrew J. Robinson, whose Garak gets some nifty dialogue and monologues of his own. A highlight of the entire ST universe. *****
20. His Way – Introducing Bahir’s latest holosuite program, a 1960s Las Vegas lounge complete with lounge lizard Vic Damone, who, get this, consoles Odo on his love life. Bleagh. *
21. The Reckoning – An ancient tablet is discovered on Bajor; upon translation, it tells an apocalyptic story of doom to come. By episode’s end, the Pah-wraiths haunt the station for a bit, but the prospective bagging of Vulcan by the Dominion is far more distressing… ***
22. Valiant – While on a mission to Ferenginar, the Defiatn occupied by Jake and Nog is attacked by a Jem-Hadar ship which is in return destroyed by cadets manning a starship due to the war effort. These cadets naturally seek to be of further assistance. ***
23. Profit and Lace – Beguiled by Quark’s progressive-thinking mother, the Grand Nagus is under fire on Ferenginar for advancing the notion of equal rights for females. He comes to Quark, who really should be getting quite a bit more financial recompense than he does for assisting in these sorts of situations, for help.***
24. Time’s Orphan – Don’t get too invested in this episode, or you’ll end up as tormented as O’Brien. Little Molly O’Brien gets hit by the dreaded temporal anomaly. She then spends about 12 or 13 years living by herself on a hellish planet. When given a chance to reverse the effect of the anomaly, thereby preventing the incident in the first place, O’Brien must face an ethical dilemma. Lots of tear-jerky moments in this one. ****
25. The Sound of Her Voice – Captain Cusack of the doomed ship Olympia contacts the station, and several members of the bridge crew task themselves with keeping her spirits up, informing her about the war, etc., via com link. Except.. there’s a twist. ****
26. Tears of the Prophets – Some serious haranguing between Romulans and Klingons ultimately leads to these two plus Federation forces getting into a helluva space war with Dominion ships. Despite the victory, however, Sisko has a crisis of conscious and a cliffhanger of sorts has him firmly planted back in New Orleans. ****