This is a very unnerving political and physcological action thriller. Basically a Klingon ship comes to "Deep Space Nine" in need of repair, but the ship explodes near the station causing some minor impact damage to the station, and the lone Klingon, says the familiar Klingon montra: "Victory," and dies. The episode then proceeds with the crew trying to find out what happened to them. After all, alongside the Cardassians, who are more advanced than the major 3 powers, and the Borg, who are the most advanced, these are the Klingons, so although allies, they have to have interest - Klingons aren't exactly trustworthy. Trying to analyze the information, weird things start to happen with the crew. Dax is unusually carefree. Apart from that, everything, at least on the surface is normal. Odo and Quark discuss business, usually with Odo being displeasured with Quark as usual. A telepathic source is on the entrance door to Quarks and it tries to capture Odo, but given that Odo is a solid and can resist the effects of it, it doesn't affect him.
Odo then goes to Bashir, and now Bashir is showing strange behavior, and he ominously warns Odo that tensions will flare. At first, it's not a completely unrealistic assessment. After all, the episode does start with Kira upset that Sisko has to play by the book (however, Sisko doesn't give her the cold shoulder in the beginning; he just has to be impartial because he's a Starfleet officer, this is a contrast to what he does later). Kira suspsects a Valerian cargo ship is selling ammunition to the Cardassians, which already stokes the threat of war, as we've seen major advanced colonial powers do this in the Old World. This would naturally upset some of the Bajorans, who know Kira, who are already at tension with the Federation and are not as forgiving as she is. It explains why some of them who weren't Kira were already ready to cause trouble. They're not Starfleet officers. But Odo is taken aback by this, because Bashir is usually neutral and dispassionate in such issues, and he always tries to be a mediator in situations.
The crew have a meeting at the bridge, Sisko shows disinterest. This sets off a series of events, and Odo is starting to sense something bad is happening. A scramble for time then begins and Odo does everything to investigate the acts. He starts to suspect the telepathic powers are affecting everyone, but he must be able to confirm it first. This classic episode, which aired in New York on WWOR, then juices up the story. Kira starts to get violent. She attacks Quark (which again is not unusual in her line of thinking because she can't stand him to begin with, but she's never violent towards him, though she has made threats to him, such as a later episode where Quark messes with the replicators) violently. Kira then tries to persuade Odo to commit insubordination (again the temptation is not unrealistic, as Odo, in the pilot, was actually angry with Sisko, and wasn't friends with him yet, and neither is Kira's offer; she has had a history of going behind Sisko's back in certain acts regarding the Bajorans). It's what this episode so chilling. The telepathic powers, bring out the worst in the crew.
Mind you, this episode is a little bit more unbelievable than the "Allegience" episode of "TNG" (with the exception of Picard, SOMETIMES, and Geordi, Worf, Wesley and Ro, the crew are completely unlikable altogether, so the worst aspects of Picard are somewhat shown, he's tyranical to some decree in this episode, when Riker confronts him, and there was a similar episode sometime in season 5 that showed this as well), and is more like "Living Witness" on "Voyager," which aired, 5 years after this episode aired, on UPN. The only exception, again, is Sisko. Kira is not convincing as someone evil, although to be fair, her acts are justified. Sisko, on the other hand, while not an evil guy, is not a pleasant person to be around sometimes either. The episode draws on her worst traits. Sisko can be quite tyranical, although mosto f the time it's justified. Take, for instance, the episode "Captive Pursuit," where the prime directive is dealt with, and issues of cultural arrogance in the culture that equates honor with bravery (the episode had the aliens as a weird cultural mashup between the old Allied countries and Japan, in which a samurai showing any sign of a weakness was seen as a cowardly act, for instance, during the Tokugawa/Edo era). Sisko ends the episode by being scolding O'Brien for breaking the Prime Directive, but the way he threatens him is somewhat in a malicious way. Sisko has an anger issue too. And you can make the argument that by Starfleet standards, Sisko doesn't epitomize good leadership (although as a wartime captain, he's the man for the job). It's what makes this show such a great show, as the characters are flawed, and real, and there is conflict. Janeway is unlikable in the "Living Witness" episode (well she's unlikable usually) but since when does a ship commit war when they're trying to go home (that episode was hilarious in that respect, though being a good episode)? (But) similarily this doesn't reflectly badly on the episode.
Anyways, Odo does what he can to get the Klingon ship officer's logs together. The result is an explosive buildup and climax, plus conclusion I won't give everything away but this was a blockbuster episode that bought in big ratings for all the stations that aired this show (WWOR for instance). You must see it.
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