A Season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in 13 Episodes - Season 6

6x01	A Time to Stand
6x02	Rocks and Shoals
6x03	Sons and Daughters
6x04	Behind the Lines
6x05	Favor the Bold
6x06	Sacrifice of Angels
6x11	Waltz
6x13	Far Beyond the Stars
6x15	Honor Among Thieves
6x18	Inquisition
6x19	In the Pale Moonlight
6x22	Valiant
6x26	Tears of the Prophets

“And this is where condensing DS9 became supremely difficult.” Or so I thought.  But this season had some very strange tonal shifts, as if the showrunners were afraid to go too serial (South Park pun intended). The first six are a long mini-series leading to the retaking of the station. They had to stick. “Rocks and Shoals” is on my list of top 5 episodes of the series. 3^rd Remata’Klan is an outstanding character. It is a gripping section of the show that I can watch over and over. “Sons and Daughters” is another look at the Klingon culture from the inside, but in a Bad News Bears type of way. We also start getting our CGI ship battles cranking in “Favor the Bold” and “Sacrifice of Angels.”

This past week, with a bit more spare time, I threw Season 6 into the DVD player and watched. Disk 3 is where I realized the cuts were going to start.  Yeah, I cut Worf and Dax’s wedding. Not that I hated it; it does so much for Martok’s character, I nearly kept it. But the rest of it, while a nice entertaining break from the seriousness of the previous 8 episodes, kills the forward momentum of the Dominion/Cardassian storyline. The same goes for “Resurrection”’s  Mirror Universe episode, “Statistical Probablities,” and “Magnificent Ferengi.”  Magnificent Ferengi is delightful, comedic story, and I love it, but even Iggy Pop guest starring couldn't save it from the 13 episode drive. The last two actually have some bearing on the overarching story, with “Statistical” nearly making it in because of the genetically enhanced, autism-spectrum-like analysis of the Dominion War.

“Who Mourns for Morn” is such an odd, odd show to be placed between “Waltz” and “Far Beyond the Stars.” It reminds me of the 1970s Disney movies where the bad guys were comically so and always an ensemble effort.  I get its light-heartedness and why they chose to base an entire show about a voiceless background character. Somewhere I had read that the episode came from fan mail, asking for more of Morn. I think it goes to show how letter campaigns about fan favorites are really the voice of a REALLY loud, but very small minority.  Ultimately it is a mediocre show.

“Waltz” is magnificent story telling that focuses on Dukat and pounds home the “mirror darkly” foil of Ben Sisko’s character. It also sets up the fraying edge of Dukat that will lead the way for Season 7. “Far Beyond the Stars” is another bonifide classic. Avery Brooks had been pushing to get Star Trek to be controversial again, to push big ideas. The episode is a great science-fiction story about science fiction, but the narrative cutting between DS9 and the 1950s and getting to see the cast “unmasked” was great. It is truly one of the great episodes, perhaps top 10 of all trekdom. Plus, the series goes on to build quite heavily on this episode, so it had to stay in.

Again, DS9 goes for counter programming from dramatically heavy episode to a light, comedic one, but binge watching just emphasizes the odd tonal shifts. “One Little Ship” is an Innerspace flavored DS9 episode and easily cut. But it’s follow-up, “Honor Among Thieves” is one of the best O’Brian episodes of the series.

“Change of Heart” and “Wrongs Darker than Death or Night” were very easy cuts. The latter is a time travel episode that does some good work revealing why Dukat has such a fascination for Kira, but honestly, it was unneeded. Dukat’s icky feelings for her were fine just being icky, and the time travel means a giant reset. The former though… that is going to need some spoiler text.

Terry Ferrell (Jadzia Dax) was looking to leave DS9. She had gotten a part on Ted Danson’s sitcom Becker. According to Memory Alpha, she wanted to stay for Season 7, but only under certain conditions. Rumors at the time mentioned contract disputes were a factor (The same rumors popped up on Becker, where she was fired after 4 seasons). Later, she was written into the series finale, but demanded an outrageous salary for her images and her role, and the producers declined. I say all of that to say this: The episode is built on Dax and Worf going on a mission where Dax is near mortally injured and Worf has to choose between duty and his wife. He chooses his wife… 9 episodes before we kill her in the finale. The finale makes her death senseless, but if Worf had chosen duty and had to deal with losing his par’Machai, or even better had Worf chosen his wife and she STILL dies in this episode, it would have been better. To lose a main character in the middle of a season would have been mind-blowing to mid-90s audiences who know stuff like that doesn’t happen mid-season.  The episode is fine, but in the scope of things it is a wasted episode.

“Inquisition” introduces us to Section 31 and the great Sloan, played by William Sadler who apparently beat out Martin Sheen for the role.  In the greater scheme, it is a great continuation of Bashir’s storyline and pushes at what DS9 always did best: questioning the Federation’s paradise.  “In the Pale Moonlight” is another fan favorite. Sisko and Garak try to get the Romulans into the war.  That’s all you should need to know to immediately hit play.

And now for a run of cut episodes. “Profit and Lace,” “Times Orphan,” and “The Sound of her Voice” were easy cuts. The first two are terrible, near “Meridian” terrible, and the last one a character breathing space before the finale—nice, but ultimately unneeded in a short season. “His Way” is a controversial episode for a number of reasons. It advances the Kira/Odo relationship, but does so by introducing Vic Fontaine, the 1960’s hologram program that is a bit too sentient. The 60’s hologram and casino will be a place for the characters to unwind in future episodes and actually places a great role in Nog’s story next season, but when getting to 13 episodes, some things had to go. At the time, fans loved him or hated him, and some of the criticisms of the last seasons often cite the 60’s holoprogram as a down trend. Ultimately it helps that I cut most of the Fontaine episodes next season.

“The Reckoning” is a harder cut to justify. It plays into the coming religious themes that will dominate the last season. It features Kai Winn, who we love to hate.  Honestly, I should probably replace the “Valiant” with this episode, but the problem comes in its deflating end. The episode features Kosst Amojan, the Bajoran devil spirit, who is here to start the Bajoran Apocalypse by inhabiting Jake Sisko and starts fighting a Prophet-possessed Kira…but then gets interrupted by technobabble. The episode feels like wheel spinning. Maybe in a shortened season it would play better, but looking at what I put together for Season 7, I felt justified in cutting it.

So, if I should have cut “Valiant” for “The Reckoning,”  why did I keep “Valiant”? It is a great Nog and Jake episode that highlights how far Nog has come and still must go AND his desires to be an officer, Jake’s position as a civilian in this show that mostly follows the military side, and brings back Red Squad from the 4^th season. The episode shows a crew not at its best. One of the better episodes of Voyager “Equinox” takes this same idea of “what happens when you have a crew that isn’t as good as the crew we normally follow.”  I love “Valiant” so I kept it in my list.

“Tears of the Prophets” continues the big story and, in the continuing serialization of the show, sets up Season 7. I have issues with Gul Dukat and a misplaced dramatic conclusion. It nearly sticks the landing, but it fumbles a bit. The show is going to continue the story of the war, but on a slightly parallel track.

As I said before, if Season 3 was the Season of Odo, and Season 4 Worf, Season 5 is the Season of Shit Getting Real, Season 6 is the Season of War. Star Trek has talked about wars in the 24th century, but each of those are short lived, television-wise, and rarely impact our characters for any length of time. For the first time we get to see its impact.