Fairly strong continuation from the previous episode. The scale of the situation builds really well, and Avery, Colm and Rene work their magic and sell the crap out of every scene they're in. Some fun Quark stuff was also welcome, and the double act with Odo is getting stronger.
Maj. Kira was actually pretty under-utilised considering how much of the plot affects her, and some of her scenes crept further into cheesy than compelling.
I really hope we get a villain turn from Bareil because if he's legit the good-guy that the series has set him up to be, using the prophet orb to sexually manipulate kira is creepy as hell.
I find Winn and the leader of the circle to be really boring villains. They're so one-note and they both talk with this affected Shakespearian drawl that results in all their scenes feeling. Very. Slow. It dampens the political intrigue a lot, and the story should be a lot more interesting than it ends up being. The abuse of the church being used to affect political power is a really strong premise.
The Cardassian involvement is a nice touch and gives some great Federation stakes that Sisko has to wrestle with, although i don't quite buy that the Prime Directive gets in the way of defending Bajor when they have evidence of the Cardassians arming the uprising.
Just as a matter of record, Bashir in the caves fight was poo, and they seem to have basically removed Dax from having any story involvement at the moment - she was noticeably pushed into the background.
Surprised to see another to-be-continued. Can't think of many other three-parter serialised episodes in Trek history.
Maj. Kira was actually pretty under-utilised considering how much of the plot affects her, and some of her scenes crept further into cheesy than compelling.
I really hope we get a villain turn from Bareil because if he's legit the good-guy that the series has set him up to be, using the prophet orb to sexually manipulate kira is creepy as hell.
I find Winn and the leader of the circle to be really boring villains. They're so one-note and they both talk with this affected Shakespearian drawl that results in all their scenes feeling. Very. Slow. It dampens the political intrigue a lot, and the story should be a lot more interesting than it ends up being. The abuse of the church being used to affect political power is a really strong premise.
The Cardassian involvement is a nice touch and gives some great Federation stakes that Sisko has to wrestle with, although i don't quite buy that the Prime Directive gets in the way of defending Bajor when they have evidence of the Cardassians arming the uprising.
Just as a matter of record, Bashir in the caves fight was poo, and they seem to have basically removed Dax from having any story involvement at the moment - she was noticeably pushed into the background.
Surprised to see another to-be-continued. Can't think of many other three-parter serialised episodes in Trek history.