Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Season 4 (DVD)
APPROX. 1183 MINS. - PROD. YEAR: 1996 - MPA RATING: NR
" The show’s shift in focus from “there is peace” to “there is war” was almost enough for me to give Season Four an “8” for its Film Value.
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Paramount was one of the last major studios to support the DVD format, but it certainly knows how to release TV shows on DVD. The studio is doing fans a great service by releasing entire RUNS in one calendar year. 2002 saw the release of all seven seasons of "Star Trek: The Next Generation", and 2003 will see the release of all seven seasons of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine". Coupled with the special edition re-releases of the "Star Trek" feature films, there´s an average of one new "Star Trek" release every month--a definite cause for celebration.
"DS9" focuses on the Federation presence in the Bajoran system. The Cardassian Empire left Bajor after a brutal sixty-year occupation. The withdrawing Cardassian forces left behind a space station orbiting the planet, re-named Deep Space Nine by the Federation. Starfleet dispatches Commander Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) to oversee DS9. His arrival in the Bajoran system was foreseen by Bajor´s spiritual leaders, who think that he is the Emissary to the Prophets, the gods of their religious system. Sisko´s arrival on DS9 triggers the opening of the Bajoran wormhole/Celestial Temple, the only known stable wormhole in the universe (i.e. its beginning and end points don´t move or disappear). The "discovery" of the wormhole, which connects the Alpha and Gamma Quadrants, suddenly turns Bajor into a strategically important planet.
Sisko runs DS9 with the help of First Officer Major Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor), the Bajoran liaison and a former freedom fighter. They are joined by Chief of Operations Miles O´Brien (Colm Meaney from "TNG"); Science Officer Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell), a symbiont with a worm living inside of her; Dr. Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig or Siddig El Fadil--the man changed his name sometime during the show´s run); the shape-shifting Security Chief Odo (Rene Auberjonois); the Ferengi barkeeper, Quark (Armin Shimerman); Rom, Quark´s brother; Nog, Rom´s son; and Jake Sisko, Benjamin´s son. Recurring characters include the Cardassians Gul Dukat and Garek, DS9´s tailor.
The "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" Season Four box set includes the following episodes:
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 Association".
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".
I´ve had problems with the way that some seasons of "Star Trek" turned out, but I´ve almost always enjoyed the way that each season of "Star Trek" began. Season Four is no different with its thrilling two-hour opener "The Way of the Warrior". In that episode, a Klingon invasion fleet arrives at Deep Space Nine in order to establish a military presence near Bajor. Reports of an uprising on Cardassia Prime give the Klingons an excuse to invade Cardassian territory because they want to see if the Dominion is responsible for political instability in the Alpha Quadrant. The Federation frowns upon the Klingons´ aggression, so the two powers effectively go to war. Since Deep Space Nine is on the frontlines of an intergalactic conflict, Starfleet accommodates Captain Sisko´s request to have Lt. Commander Worf (Michael Dorn), a Klingon raised by humans on Earth, transferred to the station. "The Way of the Warrior" ends with a spectacular assault on DS9 that includes hand-to-hand combat inside of the station itself.
It follows with reason that the best moments during Season Four involve some amount of fighting. You´ve got Starfleet fighting the Klingons. You´ve got the Klingons fighting the Cardassians. You´ve got everybody fighting the Dominion. You´ve even got a Starfleet admiral who wants to take control of the Federation in order to root out any changeling infiltrators.
Season Four introduces some key recurring characters, including Leeta (a Bajoran dabo girl), Ziyal (Gul Dukat´s half-Bajoran/half-Cardassian daughter), and Weyoun, the smooth-talking Vorta who functions as a go-between guy for the Founders and their Jem´Hadar soldiers. We also learn about the social structure of the Dominion, which has "The Founders" (changelings like Odo), the Vorta, and the Jem´Hadar as the nucleus of the establishment that rules other planets and races in the Gamma Quadrant. The Jem´Hadar are genetically-engineered to think of "The Founders" as gods, the Vorta administer an addictive chemical to the Jem´Hadar soldiers in order to keep the latter in check, and the changelings destroy any race that doesn´t want to toe the party line.
Have you heard of the saying, "Too much of a good thing..."? Well, that´s what Season Four basically gives viewers--too much of good things. There are too many Ferengi- and Klingon-based episodes. I found it tiresome listening to Ferengis talking about making profit and scamming everyone else, and while the Klingons can often provide comic relief, they also got on my nerves with their constant shouts about honor and fighting. Another rather irritating occurrence was yet another instance of script-recycling--this time, "Starship Down" basically re-played what happened to the Enterprise-D during "TNG", with various sections of the Defiant cut off from each other, necessitating each section to do their best to keep the ship from exploding. As with the "TNG" episode, Worf is the one who eventually takes charge of the situation.
