The Way of the Warrior - SISKO IS BALD. He and Kira are hunting a changeling on the station. It's just Odo; they're doing a changeling hunt drill. They're not very good at catching him. Sisko has a date with Kasidy Yates (she approves of his smooth head.) They're interrupted by the new Klingon flagship arriving at the station and a General Martok(!) wanting to talk to Sisko. He asks if his men and come onboard...then a whole fleet of Klingon ships decloaks. NEW TITLES: the music's more exciting! You can see little men climbing the pylons! Michael Dorn's name is there for some reason! And the Defiant flies through the wormhole at the end. They're good changes, though the music sounds a bit jarring listening to it for the first time in a while. Quark tells O'Brien and Bashir he's worried that the Klingons are being too quiet. Andrew Robinson gets a well deserved "special guest star" credit. Martok insists on blood testing Sisko and Kira before talking to them. He says the Klingons are here to help fight against the Dominion. Kira goes to the holosuite with Dax but doesn't enjoy it because it's not real. She totally kills the mood by bringing up the Occupation. Odo and Garak have breakfast (following up from last season!) and Odo shows off how he can pretend to be drinking when he's really just eating his own body. Garak has heard worrying rumours of uprisings on Cardassia. They stop some Klingons from beating up Morn (the jerks.) They beat Garak up at his shop later. Kasidy's freighter is tractor beamed by Klingons. The Commander tells Sisko he's searching for shapeshifters under Gowron's orders. The Defiant prepares to fire but the Klingons back down. Martok walks into Sisko's office and slams a knife down on his desk. Dax explains that Martok had the Klingon commander who held Kasidy's ship executed for disobeying orders. The Klingons are out of control and the only person who can handle Klingons is another Klingon...
It's Worf! From Star Trek: The Next Generation! This is after Generations so the Enterprise is gone and Worf's been on extended leave in a monestary (he's a real party dude.) He's considering resigning from Starfleet but will do his duty as Sisko's Klingon expert. He orders a prune juice and Quark laughs at him. He aggressively plays darts with O'Brien and Bashir and is introduced to Kira and Dax who are still playing Holosuite games and wearing silly clothes. Dax flirts with him but that'll probably never go anywhere. He beats up Martok's dick son and steals his knife. Martok comes to see him and Worf confronts him with his recent dishonourable behaviour (the hosue of Martok is supposed to be an hounourable one.) Worf fights Skeletor in the holosuite and Dax comes to join him (it's her program.) They have a bat'leth fight to get to know each other. No one on the homeworld will talk to Worf but Dax suggests going to someone who owes him a favour and he drinks, sings with and headbutts an old friend of his father's. He tells Worf the Klingons are here for a glorious battle. Worf and Odo meet for the first time (Odo has been spying on him because that's what he does.) They don't get on as well as Worf and Dax. Worf reveals what he's learned to Sisko: there's been a coup on Cardassia and the Klingons believe the Dominion are behind it. They're going to attack Cardassia to protect the rest of the quadrant. Sisko confronts Martok who reveals they don't actually know anything for sure but they're goin to attack Cardassia anyway. The Federation oppose this, of course. The Klingon ships leave the station and head straight for the Cardassian Empire. The Federation can't warn the Cardassians because the Klingons are still the Federation's allies. But who knows who'll be next after the Klingons attack the Cardassians? Could be the Federation. So Sisko invites Garak to the Wardroom to measure him for a new suit, while they discuss details of the Klingon attack on Cardassia. It's a great moment. Garak then contacts Dukat to warn him and we get some good Garak/Dukat banter.
Gowron (and his crazy eyes) makes a surprise appearance at the station wanting to see Worf. He greets him like an old friend: he wants Worf to come with him to Cardassia and win glory in battle. Of course Worf refuses because of his oath to Starfleet and Gowron tells him he's turned his back on him and won't be welcome in the Klingon Empire anymore. Yep, Worf's house has once again lost its honour after taking several seasons of TNG to win it back. O'Brien joins Worf for a drink and they talk about old times on the Enterprise (they couldn't get the Holodecks working right!) Wof is resigning from Starfleet and he's definitely not changing his mind this time. Sisko won't accepted his resignation yet. Sisko tries to contact the Cardassian Civilian Government...and gets Dukat. He's the military advisor to the new government. Sisko offers to rescue the members of the Cardassian government from the Klingons. Just as Sisko's leaving to do this he hears from Kasidy that she's leaving the station soon, but promises to meet up with her soon. (They mention that the Defiant's cloaking device isn't meant to be used in the Alpha Quadrant and decide just not to tell the Romulans.) They find Dukat's ship under attack. Sisko has no choice but to give the order to decloak and attack the Klingons to save the Cardassians. The Defiant destroys a couple of Birds of Prey in a nice action scene but a bigger Klingon ship shows up. Worf uses a clever tractor beam trick on it while the Defiant has to lower its shields and beam the Cardassians over. The Defiant's new ablative armour doesn't hold up but they head back to the station chased by Klingons. Bashir blood tests Dukat and the others (there's nice continuity with Bashir still having little tolerance for Dukat after 'Cardassians' back in season two.)
We get the classic "root beer" scene between Quark and Garak back on the station (I think I posted this in the "Things You Love About Star Trek" thread!) Showing these alien perspectives on the Federation is something DS9 does very well. The Defiant arrives back at the station as do dozens of Klingon ships. Starfleet is sending a relief force but of course they won't get here in time. Sisko oders "BATTLE STATIONS" and we get scenes of everyone preparing for the Kingon attack: Odo warns Bashir that the Klingons won't hesitate to kill a doctor, Quark finds that Rom has dismantled his phaser, Garak goes to protect the Cardassian Council members with Dukat (more fun bickering!) Gowron and Martok ask for the Cardassians to be turned over, not caring now if they're changelings or not. The Klingons attack and the station's new weapons system is activated. Lots of Klingon ships explode. But the Klingons fight back and stuff starts exploding on the station and Klingons beam into Ops and the Promenade. Lots of Odo's security guys (hey, where's Eddington?) die. Bashir saves Odo's life. The fight in Ops is a bit of a stretch as it's kind of hard to buy Kira beating up huge Klingons (not being sexist!) but she does get stabbed pretty quickly so I'll allow it. O'Brien nearly dies but Worf saves him (and does some nifty stabbing moves.) Garak and Dukat fight back to back in a cool moment. Starfleet is on its way but Martok vows the Klingons won't surrender. Sisko and Worf make passionate please to Gowron and he finally stands down despite Martok's protests (this Martok guy really wants a war, huh.) Sisko goes to see Worf and make one last attempt at talking him out of leaving. He tells Sisko that he nearly quit after his wife's death but the only way to get rid of the pain is to face it. Of course Worf really wants to stay and becomes the new Strategic Operations Officer (in a red command uniform!) Dax tells Sisko that the Klingons are here to stay (in Cardassian space) but Sisko says "AND SO ARE WE."
It's almost a second pilot episode, with a new threat (Klingons!) introduced and no mention at all of Bajor joining the Federation or anything like that. Worf joins and he fits in pretty well. Obviously it's an attempt to get some TNG viewers watching DS9 but of everyone in TNG he fits in best here. There's a lot in this episode but it doesn't really feel too long. Okay, maybe they could have cut some scenes like Kira and Dax on the Holosuite, but a lot of the early scenes are there to introduce the characters to new viewers. And the episode delivers on the action in the end: have we ever seen as many ships as when the Klingon fleet is attacking in the station? Okay, maybe in 'The Die is Cast' but this feels bigger. The writing is great throughout giving everyone some great character moments (that Quark/Garak scene!) and really the only bit I kind of got bored was when Worf started talking about his family's honour and his conflicted loyalties again. That feels a bit too familiar because we got so much of it in TNG, but it's an important part of Worf's character and it's necessary to let new viewers know what he's all about. It's a great start to the season.
SCORE: 9.5/10