User Reviews

So often on Star Trek there are disposable supporting characters- nameless "red shirts" who die simply to demonstrate the stakes of a situation. I've always admired this episode for giving some weight to those supporting characters. O'Brien's concern for Muniz and Sisko's speech at the end lend an emotional weight that's often lacking in episodes like this.

What starts as a fairly standard away mission looking for minerals in the Gamma Quadrant becomes a fight for survival when a Jem'Hadar ship crashes and as the away team search it another one turns up. The runabout in orbit is destroyed, one member of the away team is killed and another is seriously wounded. Surprisingly the Jem'Hadar don't storm the ship and the Vorta leading them invites Captain Sisko to talk, he claims salvage rights but she does not recognise his claim. It becomes clear she couldn't be trusted when a Jem'Hadar enters the ship and attacks O'Brien and Dax, luckily for them they are saved by wounded crew member Muñiz. The team struggle to get the ship in to a flyable state as well as trying to keep Muñiz from dying. The Vorta makes another offer to Sisko, this time she says they can have the ship on condition that they cam take a certain unnamed item first. Sisko refuses sure that they can't be trusted and that if such an offer were to be serious the item must be of enormous value so was worth fighting for.

This was a gripping episode; as there were people on the away team who weren't main cast members it seemed likely that some of them might not make it, although I thought Muñiz would survive as he lasted so long after being wounded and had appeared in a couple of episodes already. F.J. Rio did a good job as Muñiz, it seemed like he was really suffering, Kaitlin Hopkins was also good as Kilana, the Vorta Sisko had to deal with even if she showed more of her impressive cleavage that was strictly needed... not that I'm complaining. When we learn what the precious cargo is it isn't much of a surprise but still it provided a good ending to the episode. While this episode doesn't really have a secondary plot there was an amusing scene where Odo arrests Quark and Dr. Bashir for smuggling just before Kira sets off in the Defiant to rescue the away team.

This episode is a bit of a throwback to TOS era in the way that most of the runtime is contained on one set and involves dialogue leading to conflict and this is my type of trek formula.

There is a nice commentary on the fallout that deception and suspicion can cause. It's a quality message to make if you can overlook the fact that the Dominion blew a starfleet shuttle out of the sky before landing on the planet.

I enjoyed seeing the torch put to the starfleet crew and getting to see a few pressure cracks surface. It's a bit of balancing act for me ---- I don't want hyper realistic star trek but I do enjoy a dash and pinch of realism from time to time.

I was having an internal debate on whether or not Worf was being a big jerk or if he was just being Klingon? They certainly have a unique perspective on how to approach death.

This episode wouldn't have worked had there not been for the interactions between O'Brien and Muniz. That's why TOS always worked so well for me ---- I was sold on the genuine friendship between the crew so it would always heighten my engagement in the episode when they got into trouble.

My recommendation to the Vorta would be to not shoot down a starfleet shuttle if you plan to negotiate with Ben Sisko. What do you expect him to do after that?

I enjoy this one. I have been experiencing some pacing issues with recently reviewed episodes but this one had a great flow to it.

I've been binge watching DS9 and this is my favorite episode so far. Star Trek episodes have a tendency toward neat, tidy endings. Not this one. This episode doesn't flinch from the consequences of a leader having to make hard command decisions. There's no sudden cavalry riding in at the end to make everything all right. Even the right decision sometimes costs more than we would like to pay.

One of the things I appreciate about Deep Space 9 is that it's conclusions are sometimes messy and unpleasant. This episode perfectly encapsulates that dark essence of difficult decisions and facing the repercussions of them up close and personal. Part of me wishes there had been a bit more engagement with the losses prior to this episode, but I think the acting, writing, pacing, and story were all excellent while tapping into exploring deeper struggles. I definitely appreciated the arcs for Warf and O'Brien, there dichotomy with how they processed and approach death was exceptional, and I also liked this side of Sisko where his iron clad resilience to making it out of a situation with duty intact comes to bear.

My No. 1 problem with this episode is contrivances. Sisko and company are in the Gamma Quadrant but somehow manage to send a message to DS9 calling the Defiant to the scene. They don't bother to explain how this is possible.

The Jem'Hadar ship crash lands on a planet and comes to rest upside down and partly buried. Yet the Starfleeters manage to get it running. Scotty had nothing on this bunch.

The Defiant is capable of using a tractor beam to pull the crashed ship off the planet and into orbit. Hard to believe, even by Star Trek standards.

My secondary gripe is that nothing was shown of the exterior of the Jem'Hadar ship when Sisko and company were trying to make it move. And nothing at all was shown when the Defiant tractored the Jem'Hadar into orbit.

However, I understand why this was so, as the cost of creating such scenes would have been prohibitive.

The worst part of the episode is the last scene where Dax tries to cheer up Sisko, who feels bad because five Starfleeters died on the mission. I guess it's okay to have a scene like that, but the DS9 writers didn't pull it off. After two minutes I found myself reaching for the remote to end the pain of watching.