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Accession

Due to its story content, the best title for this episode might have been "The Emissary", but sadly that was already taken by the series' double-length pilot. Sisko's role as a mythical figure in Bajoran religion is challenged, and he has to deeply examine the dangers of both accepting and rejecting it. This aspect of the story is very nicely done and creates a good television hour of drama.

Of course, the subject matter brings up all the usual Prime Directive questions that are by now a staple of the main situation with Bajor, making me wonder once again if logically Starfleet would ever actually tolerate this situation to begin with. Most of the points I might discuss here already seem to have cropped up in various season one and two episodes, and there seems little point in repeating myself.

However, only at the end does this episode contribute a brand new twist to the problem. It is revealed that the Prophets are of Bajor.... and so is the Sisko. Exactly what that means is left vague for now, and makes one want to get into a few more episodes to find out. Nice. But if Sisko is, perhaps in some spiritual, re-incarnated soul way, indigenous to Bajor, that would kind of put a new twist into the Prime Directive questions and allow him to embrace a more active role in shaping Bajor.... which just might prove more dramatically interesting. Fascinating new twist. I like it.

In retrospect, this episode does seem to mark a bit of a shift on Deep Space Nine and possibly the Star Trek franchise in general. There will still be some Prime Directive considerations to discuss in various upcoming episodes, but the tendency will be for the episodes to handle these things as subtle strands within larger stories, typically not actually mentioning the directive by name. Perhaps of greater interest will be the role that Sisko gradually embraces, beginning here, more directly concerned with spirituality and what it means. To some extent, it is a fantasy that all these races would not be extremely interconnected in ways that make an idea like the Prime Directive impossible to adhere to, and as this show moved further and further away from stand-alone episodes, it became more obvious. Sisko will be involved in Bajoran spirituality. The question will be more of whether his influence will be wise or misguided. "Accession" is a lovely episode marking the turning point, and highlighting the choice.

Sadly, this episode also dips into Star Trek's usual time-travel problems as well, and most unnecessarily I must say. Did we really have to drop the episode's challenger back 200 years into the past? It seems many other fates would have been equally if not more satisfying for this character. Most importantly, would it not seem mighty suspicious that just when Sisko has decided to challenge the guy, they met discreetly one night, and then the guy was never seen again, with only Sisko's account of what happened to stave off suspicion that maybe he vaporized the guy with a phaser or something? Hmmph.

Of course the real kicker is that we are subjected to a past that is now changed, and in contradiction with Kira's memory. This is just Star Trek wallowing in its own ignorant rut. I'm sorry, did Kira borrow Quinn Mallory's timer to slide to a new branching timeline with alternate history that doesn't match her memory? I don't think so. That line about Prophets moving in mysterious ways isn't going to cut it. I might buy that Sisko came out of the wormhole into a different universe, but that still won't explain Kira, who stayed at home the whole time. Time travel can be so much more eloquent in science fiction if writers would just lose the magic and start thinking instead. For all that this bit of coda did for an otherwise satisfying episode, it would have been better to leave it out. I shake my head in dismay.

Many of season four's most exciting stories are packed into the end of its run, and the year is able to go out on a high note. Nice.

1. Accession (This touches the very heart of DS9, finding a clever sci-fi premise to use to examine Sisko's participation as the Emissary and how other characters relate to that role. Kira is very well-served in this one, and we have an enjoyable and important subplot with O'Brien, Keiko, Molly and Bashir. The small temporal gaffe at the end is hardly noticeable. Very healthy marks today.)
2. Shattered Mirror (I expected I would like this less than its Mirror-Universe predecessor due to where each leaves off at the end, but I have to say that this episode has a lot of advantages. It doesn't rest on a large deception, so all the characters can be honest, and seem to be written far more true to themselves. The turns in the plot are more logically worked out and have a better flow. Production value skyrockets with plenty of creative eye-candy space battle scenes. And there's an emotional integrity to the ending that really does outdo "The Visitor". I think this episode bests "Through the Looking Glass" to take first prize amongst DS9's Mirror Universe adventures.)
3. Return to Grace (I think this is my favourite Dukat story in all of DS9, the one in which my hopes for his turn to the good side were at their highest. The interplay between Dukat and Kira was top notch, Damar is introduced here, Ziyal gets a good solid role to play, the action and strategy are unique, satisfying, and full of production value, everyone starts off with good motivation [except Bashir's medical anachronisms], and we reach a good place for our ending. Season Four's best story so far...)

4. Broken Link (This season finale is a bit odd in that it depicts an experience for our characters much more so than any kind of struggle to overcome a set of challenges, as TV episodes, movies, and stories often do. Nonetheless, it takes the characters and the viewers through uncharted waters, and remains more fascinating and engaging than most other tales this season. It features a good dose of eye-candy and production value, and mostly sticks with good behaviour from all characters. Yes, this is a good one.)
5. Changelings on Earth: Homefront / Paradise Lost (After a slow, padded start, Sisko's Dad proves to be right about everything... except how spicy food should be before each person has added their own flavourings to taste. This puts our regular main cast on the wrong side of many things for an awkwardly long stretch. For my tastes, too many of Earth's social structures depicted here in this story are anachronistic, with health care looking particularly ludicrous this time around. The story gels considerably and improves as it comes to a cliffhanger and builds to final confrontation. And it does have a very worthy moral stance to expound upon. We also have yet another example of the would-be saviour secretly creating his own problem.... Does this help audience members recognize and counter real-life occurrences of this pattern, or does it merely train their subconsious to accept and energize such patterns in our collective creation matrix? I want to give the overall story points for recognition training, but I'm not sure its energy was invested strongly enough and long enough on the good side...)
6. Our Man Bashir (A brilliant idea to turn Julian Bashir into James Bond, packed full of eye-candy production value, and using a really creative way to involve the rest of the cast. Rom and Eddington get some surprisingly good material here. Not all scenes truly milk the concept as much as required though, while others need to hang on to their context to stay free of subversion on more obvious levels.)
7. "The Visitor" (Though I'm no fan of Trek's overused formula for mangling the science in time/choice mechanics in order to facilitate the usual unworthy patterns of maudlin drama, and this episode does fit that mold, it also manages to transcend the usual patterns. In part, I think it's Tony Todd as older Jake Sisko putting his own real personal catharsis on screen for us to empathize with, as well as some daring work from the director and some very emotive music, while today's science of time/choice mechanics is weird and unique enough to provoke much less argument from me than usual. It's not my favourite episode, but okay, it's got something going here... It can easily leave you in an emotional place immediately after a screening, but looking back with a cooler head at season's end, was this really about anything all that worthy? In fact, the more I think about my disapproval of Jake's self-destructive final solution, which makes little actual sense and therefore sets a bad example for viewers, the more I think I'll have to shift this episode down a few pegs in rank to where it is now...)
8. Bar Association (This is pretty much THE definitive Rom episode, balancing what we've seen and heard of him since the beginning of DS9 with all that is to come and making good sense of it. And it's mostly all fun and humour with all our regulars - an enjoyable hour. Not that I'm big on unions, but the example in this episode is not an entrenched organisation with systemic corruption in its leadership, it's an organic spontaneous response. The episode also contains good long term developments for several characters. Very enjoyable.)
9. Sword of Kahless (Cor's best return to Star Trek, and too bad Kang and Koloth didn't return for this one as well. Unlike "Blood Oath", our characters are on their principles as they make their plans and set off on a proper quest. The story also has a worthy greater moral to tell, making it true satisfying Trek. However, something important is missing. No one ever clarifies what "Lord of the precious Ring"-like effect the sword is exerting to drive our characters all that far around the bend, or exactly what nullifies that effect for the final scene. So... a minus mark for wasting time to go a bit too far instead of taking that time to better flesh out an important turn.)
10. For the Cause (This story zips along through two significant, interesting, unusual plots at a very efficient pace; well done. And it's a more subtle form of gut-wrenching than usual; simply finding out what people really stand for, and watching the inevitable rifts open up - most of this is well handled today, and can be taken as a solid character study. Long term world building is taken care of well, with the concept of industrial replicators as a starting point for creating and/or re-building a post-scarcity society, and various levels of aid past and present contrasted. Some facts get skewed, surrounding what it is that makes one a citizen of the Federation, or who the Maquis may have harmed to date, but are these "slips" deliberate to aid character? Ultimately, the gross injustice of the colony-swap treaty that no colony agreed to, crushes the limp argument about loyalty to a chain of command or to organizations that wandered so far off of their founding principles. Possibly the right side wins this one, by a slim margin in philosophical debate and a larger margin in the complex tactical games.)
11. Starship Down (This one takes a common idea and sets it on board the Defiant, which turns out better than the equivalent on Enterprise D in "Disaster", but not quite as good as on the DS9 station in "Civil Defense". All four threads prove worthy and interesting, and spring organically out of the plot, getting something good out of the characters. The early season 4 run is starting to pick up...)
12. Little Green Men (Not half as funny as it probably wanted to be, but mostly wholesome nonetheless.)
13. Rejoined (Terry Farrell and the Borg Queen give fantastic performances in this one, and a believable, tasteful, compelling relationship is put on screen here, delivering everything that "Meridian" wanted and failed to do. Even today's science is far better, not in raw technobabble, but in the visuals which draw upon our familiarity with the standard wormhole effect we're all used to by now and create a nice contrast, and the science challenge is also properly integrated into the story. All this helps to elevate the episode amongst season four's dry early opening stretch. But here is born a bizarre Trill taboo, probably not thought-out beyond a cheap way to create more drama for this episode. Is there any true sense in it, considering no one cares how much both Curzon and Jadzia chum around with Sisko, or later that both Jadzia and Ezri work and socialize with the entire DS9 crew, and maintain and/or further develop romances within that small group? Plus, this is a total 180 degree turnaround from TNG's "The Host", which first created the Trill to facilitate the very idea that is now taboo. Maybe we didn't need the taboo at all; other sources of drama seemed ripe. Maybe Jadzia jumped in too deep at the end; I'd have sooner believed them both cautiously stepping back. And maybe this would have worked better cast as a man and woman... chemistry and performance always being a factor of course; I can't help wondering. But it is surprisingly better than I'd remembered or would have guessed.)
14. The Way of the Warrior (It's good to see Worf make an official crossover and appear on DS9, and he has some good scenes with the DS9 regulars, particularly with his old acquaintance O'Brien. But it seems the price for giving him something worthy to do was to upset all the political relations on the show and declare a war between allies, and show that our heroes are failures in their attempts to prevent it. Not great. Though this becomes an action and special effects extravaganza like DS9 had never done before [and maybe not since either], the Klingon knife-based action really is more of a turn off for me, and I'm not really invested in any of the action since it is between forces that should be allies instead. This fourth season opener is not a story that inspires any of Trek's traditional philosophical optimism at all. These characters all do much better elsewhere.)

15. Hippocratic Oath (This episode contributes a second piece of the Ketrecel White puzzle begun last year in "The Abandoned", and gives Dr. Bashir some interesting ethical conundrums to think through. Worf's plot is a welcome one, even if it lacks energy, as it shows him adjusting into his new role, and not remembering that it isn't security. All that is good, making me like the episode mostly. However, the action on Bashir's Gamma Quadrant planet is a bit aimless and lacking in drive. The final rift between Bashir and O'Brien, and its cause, seem pointless - an albatross around the episode's neck dragging it below many season 3 outings that I much prefered. I felt that this episode crashed out of its interesting sci-fi set-up without exploring it properly or enticing anyone to ever return to it via some interesting discovery or development, just to give us a forgettable reset-button ugly moment in the Bashir/O'Brien friendship. Two deadends, lathered in unpleasantness and lame action.)
16. The Muse (Odo and Lwaxana steal this show somewhat, not that their story here is grand, but they play a lot of the moments quite wonderfully and give us rewarding character bits. Meanwhile, Meg Foster's character seems to have only one note: creepy. Creepy is done quite well, but I can't say I like watching it all episode long. Still, Jake makes huge progress on his big novel from "The Visitor", so something here turns out worthwhile for him. A weird episode overall, but with a few worthy bits.)
17. Indiscretion (Both the A & B plots manage to produce a bit of redeeming material without being all that attractive or exciting. Dukat seems to be starting his best arc here, but is still flaunting his poorer side at the wrong times. I don't think I like Kassidy Yates in this one, nor Sisko's pandering to her. Overall, this episode is an okay piece of the larger canvas, but not a particular favourite. Except I enthusiastically enjoyed the laughing scene. Dukat should maybe play most of his scenes as having just sat on a thorn, particularly after "Waltz" in season six. Maybe I'll re-imagine it that way from now on...)
18. To the Death (Weyoun finally makes his first appearance, and Iconian gateways are once more at the center of the plot... but this one is really all about getting to know the Jem'Hadar better on a joint mission, which produces a weird episode. First of all, I'm surprised no one kicked the tires more thoroughly on Weyoun's wild tale of what's going on and what needs to be done; he just comes off as so untrustworthy that we should have had to dig through more of a web to get to the truth. If the Jem'Hadar are fighting each other, do we really know enough about it to have picked the right side? I don't see any way to know without hearing from BOTH sides first. Ultimately, a lot of behaviours common to the next few years debut here in a rough format, but at this later stage, it's advanced mostly to those things I never did like about DS9: too much soldiering, fighting over territory, fighting with knives instead of beam weapons. It's all slipping downhill into the dumpster here, and I'm not impressed. Starfleet should have a chance to salvage and celebrate Iconian technology, and this episode glosses over its awesomeness just to give us another boring fight. Okay there's a location shoot and some other character highlights. Not bad, but a bit too "blech!" nonetheless.)
19. Rules of Engagement (There's nothing all that wrong with this one; it's just a bit dull, and much too serious, to generate any great enthusiasm, or make us feel like we've spent good time with the DS9 crew. It's a tour de force for actor Ron Canada playing the Klingon lawyer, perhaps, but that's all. It seems to leave us right back where we started in the end, but better to skip "Sons of Mogh" and get the gist of that story inside this one.)
20. Body Parts (The B-story expanding the O'Brien family is a weird, slightly clever production contrivance that manages a few good worthwhile moments... so not bad. The A-story for Quark starts off very slow and padded, while mired with unhealthy ideas and directions. Gradually it improves somewhat, but never manages to succeed. Brunt's final action looks like a re-run of what he did last year around this time. The final scene plays out a nice sentiment, but the underlying problem is not dealt with here. I'm left quite confused as to what Quark is supposedly allowed to do now, vs. what unmemorable non-arc is supposedly put in play... so not good. Brunt's next episode nearly a year later seems to be the only one substantially affected by anything begun here; it's business as usual for Quark in the interim.)

21. Hard Time (Well, there's a clever structural move here in taking what might normally pass for a concluding mind-bending sci-fi twist, and giving it to the audience right away at the beginning as an opening premise, and letting the story be about the consequences of that premise. Great so far.... But then where can this go such that it can build to a powerful conclusion? I found the main journey dull, its sense of drive dissipating and evaporating as it went. The "fake guilt-fest" begun in the last episode "Rules of Engagement" continues here to depressing effect. Eventually it just kind of lodges itself in a sordid place, with a half-hearted attempt to put a positive spin on things that does little more than state the obvious. Ho hum, and all is forgotten by the next episode. This one is not as great as some of the hype might suggest.)
22. Crossfire (Very well acted, directed, and realized on screen. But the content... Not many positive votes from me for something so determined to wallow in loser mentality, which festers in the B-plot until it smothers the A-plot right out of the story, at which point I feel I have to flip the A/B labels around. I'm calling this out as a very unhealthy hour, best watched just once and then skipped during re-watch runs.)
23. The Quickening (Well, the complete tale told here today isn't terrible or irredeemable in total, but precious little screen time is spent on anything I want to see or know about, and a number of awful concepts are flaunted. For sheer imagery, I give this one a failing grade and recommend viewers avoid it, or limit it to a one time view, never to be included in a re-watch. The concept of the Trevean character is insidious subversion that really shouldn't get any airtime.)
24. The Sons of Mogh (There are some decent bits to this episode, such as Kira & O'Brien's subplot, but inventing "cultural" rubbish on the fly just to facilitate depressing subversive drama like the main thread in this episode ranks about as low as you can go with me. It does nothing for Worf's arc that doesn't feel like a re-run of everything he's already just been through since TNG began, and it wasn't all that riveting the first time. Rarely does it get any stupider than this. Hard pass on this one.)

Well, why not another one of the following charts, because I can do it easily if I do it now. As before, I think this nicely demonstrates how much I value Season 3 (my favourite of DS9) so much more than Season 4 (which was still decent). This time around, much of season four seemed to cluster right in the lower middle of season three's episodes, indicating less of a range of quality. Particularly the early episodes of season four seemed to be based on interesting sci-fi ideas, but then got lumbered with plots of failure or unpleasant character turns, or something to knock them down several pegs. Late season four stories showed greater range, and more out-and-out successes, but as a whole the highs of year four didn't outdo those of year three.

No.	DS9 Year Three	DS9 Year Four
1.	The Search, Parts 1 & 2
2.	Explorers
3.	Voyager: Caretaker
4.	The Abandoned
5.		Accession
6.	Destiny
7.		Shattered Mirror
8.	Shakaar
9.	The Adversary
10.		Return to Grace
11.	Heart of Stone
12.	Equilibrium
13.	Through the Looking Glass
14.		Broken Link
15.		Changelings on Earth: Homefront / Paradise Lost
16.	Defiant
17.	The House of Quark
18.	Civil Defense
19.		Our Man Bashir
20.		The Visitor
21.		Bar Association
22.		Sword of Kahless
23.	Movie - Star Trek 7: Generations
24.		For the Cause
25.		Starship Down
26.		Little Green Men
27.		Rejoined
28.	Odo & Garak: Improbable Cause / The Die Is Cast
29.		The Way of the Warrior
30.	Visionary
31.	Second Skin
32.		Hippocratic Oath
33.		The Muse
34.		Indiscretion
35.	Fascination
36.	Prophet Motive
37.	Family Business
38.	Facets
39.		To the Death
40.		Rules of Engagement
41.		Body Parts
42.	Distant Voices
43.	Meridian
44.		Hard Time
45.		Crossfire
46.	Past Tense, Parts 1 & 2
47.		The Quickening
48.		The Sons of Mogh
49.	Life Support

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season Four (1995-1996): 26 episodes @ 43 minutes each. Get your copy of this 7-disc DVD set from the links below: DVD Extras include: Crew Dossier featurette: Worf Charting New Territory - season 4 "Section 31" barely hidden featurettes DS9 Sketchbook - John Eaves Michael Westmore's Aliens
U.S. Region 1 NTSC	Canada Region 1 NTSC	U.K. Region 2 PAL	U.K. PAL (Slimline Ed.)

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