More Excelsior? - The Official Starships Collection Issues 158 and 159

Blurring the line between bonus and regular editions, issue 158's Excelsior concept might well be seen as a pathfinder rather than an abandoned idea.

Conceived in 1983 for the third Star Trek movie, this second Nilo Rodis-Jamero design retains a few of the hallmarks of the first version seen in issue 152 while also being different enough to warrant an edition all to itself.

Opening up with the expected saucer section, the USS Excelsior Concept II steers more in the direction of the USS Prometheus than the Enterprise with a slender secondary hull and four spiky warp nacelles to power her on. The length of this one is considerably shorter than the Concept I with the large saucer section sweeping straight into the engineering section which is a feature that would be recognised more some 12 years later with Voyager and then the Enterprise-E.

The saucer itself is well detailed with a light grey given more depth with a two darker greys used to raise hull panels against the paler base colour. It also has a more familiar pair of red decals curving around the primary hull as they would on the later, final version, broken by the black lettered and red bordered ship registry (see Assimilated Voyager you can have red letter edging...). 

The increased number of phaser banks (three up to five) for the Excelsior Class are also marked prominently in yellow as are the reaction control thrusters at the saucer rim. The metal saucer deflector grid isn't lost under the triple colour paintwork and is pretty clear all the way across. One thing that does appear a little different to the final version is the width of the central island including the bridge module. It's a lot wider with a less defined blue/grey paint scheme around the edge. 

The bridge itself appears much larger and there are a good amount of subtle hull mechanics around it and back along the spine-like centre piece equally defined by a pair of red stripes. Now while the final Excelsior and the Enterprise would have their impulse engines mounted at the back of the saucer, the Concept II has a huge oven-shaped quad-exhaust port unit dominating the rear third of the top of the ship. It's a big lump of tech and very noticeable with its fiery red slots one of the first things you seem to notice.

The detail of the metal work and painting are great with the definition of the engine section to the hull marked out with a darker grey and with the impulse engine sweeping up and out from the back of the ship. Stabbing out from the hull and more like wings than pylons, the metal gives way to four inserted plastic warp nacelles. Their blue insets for the warp grilles gives them some form of design lineage to the movie refit USS Enterprise but the form is quite different with a more rounded finish to the front and then sweeping to pointed rear points. Also take a look at the pennants on the warp engines here - a stylised and never used Starfleet design that has so far only turned up on this model. 

On the underside the most significant link to the final design is the drop away hull with the segmented blue panelling in front of the "outboard" deflector dish rather than behind it. Actually the bottom of the Concept II has a lot of the look of the underside of the final Excelsior with the dual torpedo launcher and the rear hull design swung round to face forward. 

Again its this detail which makes these rarities well worth the punt and I'm loving how the secondary hull has a familiar feel of the NX-2000 yet manages to still be incredibly unique. Eaglemoss have included docking ports and a range of windows on this droopy engineering section which is capped to the rear with the largest shuttlebay door ever. It's absolutely massive stretching the whole height of the secondary hull and bearing the serrated edges to indicate the clamshell opening akin to the Enterprise.

Both this and the underside of the saucer continue the multi-shade colour scheme from the top with the primary hull also carrying a prim and proper two-tone blue ring recessed into the bodywork. This is one more feature that made it into the onscreen Excelsior, completing the design alongside the standard striping and registry. The build quality of the ship is superb. Join lines are barely visible and there's a lot of surface detail at every point. It feels like a complete design and for your money you do get a decent sized ship that fills out the packaging. 

The mix of plastic and metal works well and even that odd little outslung deflector dish on the bottom of the secondary hull is secured well.  In the magazine you'll be strapped to find much to go on with the first few pages skipping any kind of information on the ship and dealing solely with new CG images before turning to focus on the work of Nilo Rodis-Jamero across the franchise from The Search for Spock, The Voyage Home and The Final Frontier.  It's split into two pieces - one dealing with Rodis-Jamero's background and then a second, larger article looking more closely at his work, sketches and influence on the Star Trek universe. A strangely sparce read for this one however the model is definitely the star of the edition much more than the background material. 

Next - and from one classic to another with a flashback to 1988 and the Batris freighter from The Next Generation's first proper Klingon story, Heart of Glory. 

The Batris doesn’t have the same flair as the Excelsior Concept II bearing a much more singular and basic design. More rectangular, the Batris is much more functional with a series of cargo pods slung underneath the main hull for easy loading and unloading. 

The most exciting part of the design might well be the pointed nose before it develops into a series of straight lines but what the Batris lacks in design inspiration it makes up for in its detail. The brown hull is tipped with a striking red stripe to the front also bearing a series of alien markings at the lower edge and then windows on the second, upper half of the marking.

The brown base coat is broken and scuffed right across the hull which provides a sense of age to the ship as well as a feeling that it’s been battered about in space hauling cargo from here to there. Even the brown coat has a second tone to it emphasising that well worn impression. On top of that we then have a series of greyed call outs across the upper hull which are themselves weathered to match the fading hull colour. 

There’s a lot going on with the hull of the Batris beyond just an impressively aged paint job. The detail in the mechanics attached to the surface are really rather good from grilles to piping to panelling, it’s all here and perfectly displayed. There’s no real definition between the cargo pods and the main hull but that paint job is such a wow you do sidestep it a bit. 

In fact that worn hull wraps right around the hull and into every crevice and there's a lot to take in even on the bottom. This is one of those models which feels complete from every angle and doesn't have a straight, uniform finish along the central axis. Even to the rear the three large engine units look like they've taken a battering over the years - ok, at least on the hull-coloured sections - the middle exhaust rods do look fairly clean!

There's some real character to the Batris and the multitude of surface depths, colouring and combination of materials works exceptionally well for such a bland design. Admittedly there is some slight misalignment of the windows and striping on the nose however it's not as glaring as we've seen on many a Federation starship over the years of the collection.

It's odd but I am quite drawn to this one and the fact that the hull is so delicately executed. The stand grip too is one of the more functional, gripping the hull at the rear of the underslung cargo pods and providing solid balance to the Batris for display.

The issue 159 magazine recounts the brief onscreen lifespan of the Talarian freighter but what does become clear even from the first few pages is how different the model looks to the CG of the magazine. 

On the page the Batris is a lot cleaner, crisper in its finish and has lost a lot of that characteristic weathering but it has picked up a lot of surface detail. It is very apparent once you line the two up that there is some definition missing from a considerable amount of the surface technology but the sheer amount of it that's crammed in probably works against making that detail well executed and distinguishable through the paint scheme. 

The nose detail especially seems lost with the panel definition washed out against the precision CG and the plan views reiterate just how much has been lost under what could be some fairly uneven paintwork...

The magazine does cover off Heart of Glory and the role in which the errant Klingons play. Turning the page actually reveals a whole section dedicated to discussing why and how these foes of Kirk and the original USS Enterprise were brought back to The Next Generation when originally there was no intention to see them again. 

An interview with the late Maurice Hurley fills the back six pages for the issue detailing his work on the first two seasons (mainly season one and the Borg) and the stresses and strains of running The Next Generation as well as writing several scripts for it during those early years.

It's a good read to understand the control that Gene Roddenberry had on the show and how things developed under Hurley and would later take massive steps under Berman, Piller and the rest.

Loving the Excelsior concepts? Want more freighters and service vehicles? Let us know below!

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The Core: News and Opinion September 2019

It seems like an age since I've dropped a piece on Some Kind of Star Trek just to have a good old chat.

Y'see there's been a lot going on in the news, a lot of things to review, read and test out which has meant that in recent months the site has been a tad overloaded with product and not with discussions on the Star Trek universe.

However, in a week that's seen the franchise win it's first ever Emmy for Outstanding Makeup and three Saturn awards - Best Streaming Science Fiction, Action and Fantasy Series plus Best Actress in Streaming Presentation for Sonequa Martin-Green and Best Supporting Actor in Streaming Presentation for Doug Jones it seemed like a good time to just drop thoughts onto the page.

The internet is constantly alive with rumour. Twenty-five years ago you would have had to scour a magazine for news which would be 80 - 90% accurate but with YouTube channels pumping out all sorts of spoilers and rumours it's good to know that Star Trek is flourishing better than ever with these awards and is certainly nowhere cancellation or in dire trouble as we might be led to believe.

Picard itself has now finished principal photography and is months from arriving on our screens. In fact, today is the 32nd anniversary of the first airing of Encounter at Farpoint and where the franchise is now is at least a quadrant away from the synth-tracked, spandex days of that pilot episode. We will of course be getting to see Riker, Troi, Data, Seven and Hugh Borg all back on screen but there's no Michael Dorn for season one even though his signature was on a clapper board marking the end of the shooting schedule.

Whether he'll drop by in season two we don't know although I'm 100% convinced now that the Worf series will not be happening because of the choice to head in directions new with Picard. What has come to light via a cast jacket is that the new ship for the series might well be called the La Sirena and that Riker and Troi's daughter could even be appearing - but hey, conjecture, conjecture, conjecture.

What has been taking up some time while I'm waiting for Picard is Attack Wing. Rumours of its imminent demise seem to have been far too early with a trickle of card packs over the last year and now the arrival of two long-awaited faction packs highlighting the Borg and The Animated Series. 

My love for the game has continued unabated for some time now and any chance to grab some of the earlier wave releases has to be taken - so far my best picks have to be the USS Equinox and the Hideki Fighter Squadron. Both have been played to some sort of success as part of larger Federation and Dominion fleets although I seem to end up on the losing side more often than not. Even a test run using the Borg pack utilising the included first part of a two part scenario ended in a rather crushing defeat for my Scout Cube and USS Voyager against a significantly more weighty Assimilated Target Prime and Borg Sphere - please bear in mind that my opponent was seven years old...but does that make it any better or worse a defeat...?

Playing Attack Wing does mean that on occasion you do need some extra players and for the last year I've encountered a few of them through the local Star Trek group. Born from the will of James Smith, the Stoke on Trent Star Trek Club has gone from strength to strength if you will allow the age old cliche.  Funnily enough the article I wrote over five years ago in regards to the death of Star Trek groups in the UK is still one of the most popular pieces on SKoST. In there I bemoaned that there seemed to be a lack of groups especially in the Stoke area but now that's quite the opposite and with more Star Trek on the horizon this could well just be the beginning.

Running memorabilia nights, the odd Attack Wing battle, quiz evenings and mini-screenings, the club has near trebled in membership in just over 24 months with a lot more to come. I've even managed to drag my dad down a few times and it looks like he'll be a regular soon enough if only to serve as Chief Engineer to any ailing AMT model kits or Eaglemoss Scimitar's that need some care and attention - and a dab of superglue. That said, the group now has its very own club starship in the shape of the USS Reginald Mitchell named after the Supermarine Spitfire designer who was born locally.

Now meeting monthly, the club is thinking a lot more about what to do in the coming months and for 2020 - any groups out there that have some good meeting ideas let me know because it's definitely growing!

We will be attending Destination Star Trek next month in force and a report on that event plus some chats with creators, bloggers and more are planned. Fingers crossed this year that time is kind to us!

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Discovery Dorns?

While I may have wished for Discovery to etch its own personal niche in the Star Trek universe, each report seems to twist the story in a new direction.

When it comes to Star Trek projects it has been a bit of a downer this week but let's start with the new series. Delayed from January to May and now probably Autumn (Fall) a looming writers' strike might push it back once more which could mean that the January airdate becomes a reality - if only 12 months later than planned.

That January airdate now looks utterly ridiculous since three quarters of the castings were only finalised after the original deadline. The internet continues to pour derision onto the as yet unaired show and without good reason. I think I've read it all - it'll be cancelled after a year, CBS have abandoned the project to its own fate and have no faith in it; great to see the fanbase getting right behind the series and giving it a chance.

Then there's the Michael Dorn story. So according to the actor himself there were talks about him appearing in Discovery as an ancestor of his The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine character. Dorn is no stranger to this situation having played a predecessor to the Klingon in The Undiscovered Country but this time the pay deal was not what he expected and the prospect collapsed.

Now if I recall they offered something like 0.4% of what Dorn earned per episode on The Next Generation which either a) is ridiculously small or b) just goes to show how much this guy was taking home at the peak of Star Trek's golden age in the '90's. It suggests that if the money had been right Dorn would have taken the gig but again I have this niggling concern that Discovery isn't forging its own identity and really is relying on the back catalogue of episodes and characters (Harry Mudd, Sarek...) to bolster fan support and attract older fans to the series.

I have spoken before about the fact that Discovery needs its own identity and while I am in no way against the new show and simply cannot wait to see what it delivers in September/October/November/whenever it does seem to be clutching at straws. Sarek I understand but Mudd still gives me a shiver. 

Maybe Dorn's decision not to go - apparently based on the financial package - is actually a good thing. At this stage such a big name from the franchise's past could do the show more damage than good. However the first year turns out we can almost certainly guarantee that season two will be tweaked to counter any issues that might arise. I don't think Discovery needs Dorn in fact I would go as far as to say that his appearances in Star Trek have been exhaustive; more than any other character in the franchise and that's amazing considering how his addition to the Enterprise crew for Encounter at Farpoint was almost an afterthought. Discovery needs to be Discovery not The Next Generation II.

Just at the time that we might be stepping into a new second Golden Age of Star Trek we might not even get a spark of a chance. Seems that Zachary Quinto stuck the proverbial cat amongst the pigeons stating that there was no guarantee of a Star Trek 4. 

After the lukewarm box office response to the excellent Beyond (just over $336 million vs $467 million for Into Darkness) it's not the biggest shocker to be announced. Maybe the news that Chris Hemsworth was pretty much signed for number four and that it was a go before Beyond even turned a frame was a bit cocky. I'm optimistic this is just a blip but perhaps the studio are looking to see how CBS' new series is taken by fans. If it's a winner they may jump on the back of its success and seek to make up for the disappointment that Beyond seems to have been.  At the end of the day it's not their money being ploughed into a huge TV show that's going to be the cornerstone of CBS All Access. 

There's no point getting horribly worked up about the situation with either the fourth movie or the series. If it all goes to pot then it goes to pot and that was that. It might all be one of the biggest TV disasters ever if it does but I don't believe CBS would ever allow that to happen nor would they have brought Star Trek back if they didn't believe it would work or that there wasn't as audience for it. Let's let this show happen people, ditch the negativity. I know it keeps Discovery in the news but Star Trek has some of the grumpiest, negative fans I've encountered especially when it comes to the new series. Still shocks me.

Currently it seems that with the absence of any decent news these two points are getting madly recycled and if not, fan pages and sites are now being clogged with old images, the old basic questions of "When will it be out...?" and the like. For now you'll just have to settle back and enjoy Q Who for the umpteenth time or rewatch that teaser launch trailer again.

Anyway, at least Doug Jones is still excited about the show posting a single image on #AlienDay and giving absolutely nothing away about the show...

The End: The Finality of Deep Space Nine Season Seven

After the excitement, action, adventure, character building and general all out war, season seven of Deep Space Nine had a lot to live up to.

Shame is that it followed the greatest season of Star Trek ever produced which meant it was on the back foot to start with and, honestly, it never recovered. Season seven is still brilliant and a fitting way for Deep Space Nine to end with a true closure of the multiple arcs that had run through the show since Emissary but it would be a heavy trip to the finale.

Opening with the two-part continuation to Tears of the Prophets from season six, Image in the Sand and Shadows and Symbols take us to the heart of Sisko's dilemmas as visions, a stabbing and the return of Dax all happen within the space of 45 minutes - and then we get a yomp across the desert planet of Tyree and a spin off into the world of Benny Russell just to top it all off. As season openers go it's low on the bangs and effects but ticks the box for edge and sparkling story whether it's the Sisko line or effectively the alternate A-story with Kira holding the fort on the station with the Romulan Empire trying to assert its position.

The revelation that Sisko's mum was a prophet might get him on Jerry Springer in the 20th Century but for some reason it's not that hard to believe thanks to the arcs and threads woven through the previous six seasons of the show. It's a good one with a very different feel most likely due to those scenes on the desert planet. 

The thing is that introducing a new character in Ezri this late in the game was always going to be difficult but Afterimage does go some way to fill in the new Trill beyond a bout of space sickness and a badly fumbled, hasty joining. Garak is clearly the stronger character in the odd pairing but it's great to see the inexperience and exuberance of the new arrival attempt to take on the super-enigma of the Cardassian tailor/spy. Ezri is a great character but the series doesn't insist on spending a ridiculous amount of time introducing her and focusing on her as Voyager lavished on Seven of Nine. 

Instead we just get on with things. Take Me Out to the Holosuite is a cunningly little diversion from the upcoming finale, divulging us into the possibilities of the holodeck and also exploring those competitive tendancies that exist within Sisko. Facing him off against Captain Solok is a high point of the year and he might be the most unemotional Vulcan we've ever met - and that's saying something. 

Season seven does avoid the family thread that The Next Generation chose to weave in its final year but it does manage to tie up all those bits we've wondered "what happened to..." and Chrysalis is a perfect example. Following on from the introduction of the Jack Pack from Statistical Probabilities it's much more about the relationship between Bashir and Sabrina once she reconnects with the world. In the literary Star Trek universe this pairing is still going strong today (at least it was in the last Section 31 novel, Disavowed).

Likewise the later Prodigal Daughter rounds out the "Bilby" storyline from season six's Honor Among Thieves with O'Brien's involvement with the Orion Syndicate taking another turn as he tries to track down his former, deceased associate's wife. Simple enough but then this is Star Trek which also means it somehow manages to link up with Ezri's unsurprisingly dysfunctional family. Oddly this is an O'Brien episode where he's not in some sort of severe mortal peril and manages to survive dying at least once which makes it a good year for the chief but not so brilliant for the story quality.

Ezri does get one final solus episode in season seven with Field of Fire. It's something very different but draws on Dax's darkest rebirth using Joran to help catch a killer. Not being directed to the guilty party from the beginning is a hard call in the story but finding him isn't what this is about. The gun is pretty cool and the way in which the killings are taking place is cleverly executed. Joran's effect on Ezri's personality is fairly marked and Nicole De Boer puts in a fine performance here. 

While season seven rounds out stories it just manages to hit the mark on brilliance. Treachery, Faith and the Great River and Once More Unto the Breach which follow it really encapsulate a lot of the best and worst of the year. Both are effective follow-ups and round outs to stories, the former giving us a more insightful look at the background and origins of the Vorta while the latter closes off the "Kor Trilogy" which has taken us through Blood Oath and The Sword of Kahless to this point. Both have original, unique stories but somehow the greatness that was instilled into the sixth season just isn't quite there. 

Jeffrey Combs is superb as the faulty Weyoun defector and it does manage to also explore Odo's feelings about his connection to the Great Link and where he really stands with his people and those who regard them as deities. In a sense Chimera also touches on that aspect with JG Hertzler heavily disguised as Laas a Changeling with a far more advanced use of its shape-changing abilities. Laas is a much softer character for the Martok actor to play and I don't think he's 100% successful at it. Nor is the story a winner with Odo having to battle with his conscience and the ideals of his people all over again. It's a path that's been trodden numerous times especially since season three's The Search.

Perhaps it's expectation lets them down and even now I still feel a bit deflated watching this season - because I have some very clear recollections of these stories, because I'm just bidding time until the ten-parter and thirdly because I just know it's not totally delivering. Looking at it another way there is a lot that needs to be tied up and there may well have only certain manners in which this could be done and still leave enough to provide a decent final dash to the line with the closing arc but more on that in a bit.

Covenant too is a sequel of sorts although if it was necessary I'm never totally sure. It does follow on from Empok Nor and reminds us of the many talents of Dukat but it doesn't seem to give anything at the end and reflecting on the later episodes and how the former Cardassian gul is portrayed I'm not sure that this exposure was required. It does mean that Kira gets one last chance to go head to head with him and who can scoff at any opportunity to see Visitor and Alaimo sparring once more.

Continuing the sequel and closure aspect of season seven is the atrocious Emperor's New Cloak. Now Resurrection last year was poor and Bareil tended to leave me cold on a good day but this one is my low point of the whole season and one of the lowest of the show as a whole. The Mirror Universe was a brilliant addition to the Deep Space Nine mythology and made it feel a lot closer to The Original Series than The Next Generation thanks as well to those classic Klingons and a magnificent 30th anniversary episode. Yet once we'd closed the show on Shattered Mirror and taken a season break from the adventures of Smiley and the Terran rebellion it all seemed to take a slide didn't it?

Making this a Ferengi Mirror Universe episode frankly took the p**s. Sorry, yes I swore but there's no excuse for this one and having Vic Fontaine turn up was butt-clenchingly awful and shocker, Ezri appeared too. All a bit convenient and self-indulgent. I bet Avery Brooks was glad he'd been killed off over there after Crossover.

But then there are some stunners that kick where it matters. The mid-year eps are a bit average yet The Siege of AR-558 is brilliant. Dark, uncomfortable and horribly close to the bone in its portrayal of ground war it contrasts starkly with the space-bourne warfare we're usually accustomed to. Nor the Battle to the Strong in season five had shown the aftermath of a ground battle but here we see the beginning, middle and end in all its gory detail with It's Only a Paper Moon two stories later dealing with the fallout as only Deep Space Nine can. While these two can make uncomfortable viewing they highlight the show at its finest and I can never imagine The Next Generation and certainly not Voyager ever attempting to deal with such events and then have the balls to tackle it again all within the space of a few episodes of the final year. Kudos where due, a great move.

Another hat-tip has to be made to Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges or, "In Times of War the Law Falls Silent". With the benefit of hindsight you can see where the Section 31/Bashir arcs have evolved from because this is Julian playing the spy game for real. He's indulged in holodeck adventures as a secret agent but the reality is nearly as bleak as The Siege of AR-558. Adding in the Romulans just teases the excellence of the episode and having it all turn a bit sour for the doctor is a nice move - again as with It's Only a Paper Moon, only Deep Space Nine could have nailed it this well.

Which brings us, triumphantly to the final spread of episodes encompassing all from Penumbra through to What You Leave Behind. And what an arc that is. It seems that everyone gets their fair share of action here so let's head on through.

Starting out with Worf missing and Ezri determined to find him leads us into the revelation that the Breen are now allied with the Dominion which then narks off Legate Damar who finally sees that the writing is on the wall, makes it clear he's going rogue and leads to the formation of the Cardassian terrorist group and a visit from Kira, Odo and Garak. Of course there are two memories we all carry from this line of the story - Damar's "For Cardassia!!!" and Colonel Kira getting herself a Starfleet field commission.

Back on the station Sisko gets married and discovers he's going to be a dad and then leads the fleet to the Cardassian homeworld where the war is put to rest and Martok gets to sup some blood wine. Sadly that's not the end of the road because as we know, Dukat has been wooing Kai Winn and turned her, successfully, over to the Pah Wraiths. Cue ultimate showdown between Sisko and Dukat and the captain's apparent demise as he enters the Celestial Temple.

Jeez. That was the briefest summation of all time. Now I adore the final ten episodes of Deep Space Nine like no other multi-episode arc. It is still unrivalled in Star Trek history in terms of scope, continuation, finality, characterisation and overall damn greatness. The 10 part arc does everything you could expect and more - even to a point where I felt disappointed by What You Leave Behind... because it was so final. I love what the novels have done since 1999 however the show is a perfect bottle, a beginning, an end and one heck of a middle. Look at what is achieved here and you realise how much had gone into the seven seasons and how the producers ensured that the viewers were paid off as best as possible and as fully as possible. 

Rom becomes Nagus, Bashir and O'Brien nigh on cose down Section 31 and Garak gets to go home. Even a couple of straggly bits from The Next Generation were closed (Gowron!) but the pace never slowed and there was still character evolution to the bitter end especially around the brilliant roles of Kai Winn, Odo and Dumar who all take big steps within the overall story here.

I have no doubt I will cover off the arc in more detail in a separate pot in the future because a season overview is the last place I'll do it any justice but here are some of Deep Space Nine's strongest stories, its most inspired moments and heartbreaking goodbyes. All even better a second, third or fourth time round. This was the first time I've watched it all the way through from Emissary and certainly you do appreciate the box-ticking closure that Deep Space Nine attempts in season seven a lot more than either The Next Generation or Voyager managed effectively.

For everything it got right or wrong though, season seven of Deep Space Nine is the strongest and most concrete ending to any Star Trek series ever. There is nowhere left to go, the character arcs are resolved and we have a firm conclusion to 176 episodes both with the 10 episode arc and the double-length finale.

So that's it for Deep Space Nine. I'll leave the season one Voyager review over to Matt but I'll return shortly with my look at the second year of Janeway and crew in a short while.

Fan of the final season? Was it the best closing year of any Star Trek show?

Actions and Reactions: Deep Space Nine: Season Four

The Visitor, Hard Time, Broken Link - just three of the golden episodes that graced the fourth year of the increasingly impressive space station series.

By this point when I first watched the show I was absolutely questionning how I could ever have considered turning it off back in the "dark" days of season one. Then someone reminds me about Move Along Home and I nod, sadly.

But lo, the crew were too late and the Founders were everywhere - or so Odo declared at the end of The Adversary. Odd thing is that they're so damn good at hiding we barely see them all season as just about everything else steps into play.

It's impossible to discuss season four without talking about Worf - which is why I dedicated an entire post to that thread a while ago - and while I can now slip out of that stranglehold, it has to be said that Deep Space Nine would have been an incredibly different show if it wasn't for his arrival post-Generations. The tone changes, the lights are darker and there's a little bit more growling going on as soon as he steps into Quark's and lays out Martok's son, Drex (and we never saw him again did we...?). There's no escaping that Deep Space Nine is the show which shows up the faults in the universe and instead of paving over them it decides that making those faults a bit more obvious is the answer. Hey, they confront a lot and a lot gets resolved.

Opening with the unpresidented double-length The Way of the Warrior, it was a season that meant to cement the show in our consciousnesses, even if they did initially rely on a certain Klingon to do that job. The premiere was and still is a thrill ride every step of the way and the closing battle scene demonstrated that the game had been stepped up. The episode is one of the best and most gripping and one of only two book adaptations that I own, the other being the pamphlet thick Trials and Tribble-ations. No other season opener packs as much in or attempts to set as much in place as The Way of the Warrior and nor does any after it try to.

But it's best not to dwell or laud over Worf's transfer because this is a season which ensured that every single one of the regular cast excelled - and some in ways that we didn't expect. He does take centre stage for The Sword of Kahless but gets slightly upstaged by the mesmerizing John Colicos as Kor in his second of three appearances and again in Sons of Mogh which brought back brother Kurn and Rules of Engagement.  The Visitor for one covers that perfectly. Coming straight after the season opening The Way of the Warrior no-one expected the tour de force that oozes from every line and shot of this beautiful episode. I've watched this more times than it's been repeated on TV and each time I love it a bit more. For me this is better than The Inner Light, more gut-wrenching than The City on the Edge of Forever and Tony Todd hits every emotional button in his arsenal to make this one of my top ten Deep Space Nine episodes of all time. 

Back in the day it was all about those fascinating glimpses into the future - Morn at the bar, Dax and Bashir married - but as I reach the middle of my thirties with children of my own it resonates in a very different way. Not that I expect to be sucked out of time and revisit my son every few years for ten minutes, but I do value family a lot more than I ever did before. For me The Visitor will always be one of the best.

As for Jake, Cirroc Lofton gets both this episode and later, The Muse to have a stretch of his acting wings. Both are a decent weight and steer clear of the more light-hearted occasions we might have seen him in before. I was never that keen on The Muse in the 90's because there's no big action beat and nothing significant to the overall arc happens (unless you count that Jake writes Ansolom which was mentioned in The Visitor) and now I do see it as a character piece to give Jake a bit more maneuverability after the earlier episode's success. I like The Muse now because Lofton and Meg Foster seem to work well and having carried these, Nor the Battle to the Strong in season five would really raise my admiration for Lofton's abilities on the show which made him a more rounded and able character than Welsey ever was in The Next Generation. The same can be said for his partner in crime, Nog, whose arc potentially is a mirror to Worf's early years in the fleet as the only Klingon. On the flip of that I actually utterly hate The Muse because Lwaxana is back and if there's one Troi I really detest....

While Lofton got to expand the role, Bashir appeared more constrained, attempting to cure both the Jem'Hadar of ketracelwhite addiction in Hippocratic Oath and then a mystery Blight (also linked to the Dominion) in The Quickening. While I could say that it limited the doctor I find both of these brilliant episodes. Namely with the former because it failed to pacify the Jem'Hadar which The Next Generation had done with the Borg in I, Borg and Voyager would attempt with Species 8472 in In the Flesh. 

Addicted or not they were born to fight. Hippocratic Oath does add to the Jem'Hadar backstory significantly and on this viewing it refreshed a bit of Jem'eral knowledge (jeez...pun out) as well as giving me an "ah" moment when the O'Brien/Bashir ruckus happens towards the end. It's a big tick box because even after four years of their relationship flourishing Deep Space Nine could still remind you that not everything is always sweetness and joy. Things happen and people do have different attitudes and not every week can we skip merrily back to the station. 

Probably the big winner for Siddig this year was the brilliantly entertaining Our Man Bashir. Genius and one of those episodes alongside Far Beyond the Stars which let the cast stretch their acting legs a little. Total nonsense but magnificent from start to finish and certainly a lighter moment ahead of the Earth-centric mid-season two-parter. Brooks chews it up as Doctor Noah and Garak's role as the sidekick and some of his words of wisdom are perfect as the spy gets to play his role once more.

Kira of course ended the season pregnant with the O'Brien's child in Body Parts to hide Visitor's real life pregnancy and that would play a part in her onscreen appearances the following year. In season four we have more material which seeks to change her mind about the Cardassians, in both Indiscretion and Return to Grace both eyeing up her relationship with the ever-changing Gul Dukat. The introduction of his half-Bajoran daughter, Ziyal wasn't that necessary but her flourishing friendship with Kira and Garak in later stories again forces the major into a position where she has to examine her opinions of the former occupiers of Bajor. Being Dukat though it's never straight-forward and both these stories add dimensions onto the already multi-layered villain of the series. 

Kira's tales for this season don't give her much more room to go except on that Bajor vs Cardassia line which she's been dragging along for four years. Luckily, again, season five would rectify that to some extents. That's not to say that Kira wasn't key to the season; far from it as Visitor is one of the best actors in the show but you do feel her role was cut down to allow Worf more screentime since he does her job for Starfleet.

An example of that is Worf's new position as alternative commander of the Defiant when Sisko is away (Paradise Lost) which would have been assigned to Kira a year earlier. It does make more sense for a Starfleet officer to command a Starfleet vessel but his appearance in the series makes it more evident at this time that Worf and Kira are effectively playing the same part. That two-parter throws a lot of questions in the air and also means that the later Section 31 make a lot of sense. Starfleet admirals are reknowned for being a bit mental right back to the days of Kirk and neither are conspiracies anything new after, well, Conspiracy but knowing about the ever-creeping shadow of the Dominion makes you forget all those possibilities. Earth is a realistic target and to be fair you do realise how much of a sitting target it might well be. Robert Foxworth's Admiral Leyton  isn't the typical slightly unhinged senior officer we might have expected and his argument even seems fairly reasonable especially when you look at what the Breen accomplish in season seven's Penumbra. Deep Space Nine always excelled at instilling a wave of paranoia over its viewers in these darker Dominion days and the Homefront/Paradise Lost duo are are shining example I enjoy year on year. Barely set on the station itself, it's a Sisko story which adds weight to the occasionally sidelined captain and also looks at the bigger picture surrounding the imminent threat from the Changelings and their brethren from the Gamma Quadrant. A great double-header though and not even a season-closer.

Talking of Kira, season four was the last time before Enterprise's In a Mirror, Darkly, that we got a decent Mirror Universe episode. Both Resurrection and the final season's The Emperor's New Cloak were tedious, dull episodes which offered much and gave nothing in return. The Mirror Universe in the first three Deep Space Nine takes are great, fun and totally indulgent with Garak sucking up to Regent Worf here and the alternative Kira playing everyone like a fiddle where she can. 

The problem after here is that the ideas seem to dry up and giving us a Mirror Bareil and later allowing the Ferengi across the dimensional threshold were two unforgivable errors of judgement. Given that Little Green Men, The Bar Association and Body Parts are decent Ferengi episodes which mix humour with enjoyable plots and a point, making them into bumbling cross-universe sales merchants was a step too far in my opinion. Here the Mirror Universe is a real threat; there's danger, anyone could end up dead (and does). Maybe they just ran out of good people to kill off?

The quality of the season does dip a little and my thoughts on that have remained the same since '96 as Crossfire (another Bajoran Kira episode),The Bar Association, Assession and Rules of Engagement are average but none that I would speedily revisit. They are still a cut above average The Next Generation and good Voyager and if they were in the first couple of years of this show would have been seen as early classics. The Bar Association does have a welcome return for Leeta but it's drippy Ferengi stuff which I find difficult (but not impossible) to handle. I saw Rules of Engagement originally on a first cut VHS with all the running times still on the screen and marvelled at the clever talk-to-camera techniques used as part of the evidence against Worf. It's a fresh way of telling courtroom drama in Star Trek as it's been pretty standard if you look back at The Original Series' Court Martial, The Menagerie or The Next Generation's The Measure of a Man or The Drumhead all of which are variations on that theme. I admire that these asides do make it different and memorable but not in the same category as others that surround it in the year such as the subsequent and brilliant Hard Time.

The much vaunted annual hit-O'Brien-when-he's-down episode is the best of the lot; more cerebral than Whispers, more twisted than Visionary and probably Colm Meaney's top Deep Space Nine performance ever. O'Brien is utterly taken apart, lives another lifetime in minutes and becomes a different man by the end of the story. Bitterly though he's absolutely fine the following week as if nothing had ever happened (two episodes actually as the next one is in the Mirror Universe). I would have liked to have seen this resonate a bit further down the season but the relationship between Ichar and Miles is believable to the core and the brutal finale and the lifetime of punishment it in turn would provide is heart-crushing.

But what of the captain, what of Sisko? It is a Ben-lite season oddly with only For the Cause marking out his niche in the fourth year. Yes, he's around all the time and The Visitor is big on the Family Sisko but this late season entry is key to the character's development as I noted in another post recently. This starts a key arc and the descent of Sisko into his deepest darkest emotions which will travel through the troubles of For the Uniform and emerge kicking and screaming in In the Pale Moonlight. I never thought much of the Kasidy/Eddington/Sisko interwoven story however on this run through I realised just how important and damn good this one is. It jumped a lot of places in my favourites list. The duplicitousness of virtually all involved is delicious.

Which leaves only a couple of episodes to digest - To the Death introduces one of the greatest recurring characters ever in the form of Jeffrey Combs slippery and silver-tongued Weyoun who we thought would never turn up again but was so awesome he did and meant that the Vorta ended up being clones to cope with the issue (clever clever) and is one of those rare episodes where action takes presidence over everything else from the off. Add in a bit of Deep Space Nine destruction with one of the pylons getting blown up and it has a lot of memorable if simplistic high points plus the return of the long-dead Iconians and their rather useful gateways. It's a personal guilty pleasure episode and nice of the rebel Jem'Hadar to wear different coloured uniforms to distinguish themselves.

And finally. Broken Link. In the deep space tradition it's full of ongoing threads and repercussions playing to every strength of the show and once more ticking every box possible - and adding a couple in. I admit I do look forward with enthusiastic hunger for the season finales of Deep Space Nine. There are massive highs in the mid-season but you can't beat one of their not-a-cliffhanger cliffhangers which every season from The Jem'Hadar through to The Tears of the Prophets does with aplomb.

Odo, like Sisko got a quiet season but that "No Changeling has ever harmed another..." bit from The Adversary was never going away. The Dominion have skipped in and out of season four just as they managed in season three but their stamp is all over Broken Link more than it was the previous season closer. Broken Link is not a massive action packed, explosive jaw-dropper and much more character focused, more explorative of cause and effect than anything else. It reminds us that there is no getting away from events which has been the big winner in the trail of Deep Space Nine. For me it's not the best season finale in the seven years of the show but it still leaves you with a shiver, with a terrible fear that it's going to get worse and that, once more, nothing will be the same again...which can't be possible...again...can it?

Season four is again a step forward for the show and I can't fault it's efforts. The arcs are more rounded and you can see that there is payoff. No good deed goes unpunished here and everything has a consequence. Deep Space Nine never stepped away from showing its characters in a varied light. Here in season four that's most evident and maybe Worf's arrival just pushed some more dirt under those already grubby nails. No-one comes out of year four looking like a saint even though they may have entered the year decidedly on the more honest side of life. Season four sees a lot of information set in place, as subtle a buildup as the previous year but this time there is an sense of imminence to proceedings. Seeing little of the Dominion works in the opposite manner as every conversation leans towards them, by leaving them out they are felt even more.

Worf's arrival too might have seemed convoluted at the beginning but as the year grew on it became clear he was a better fit for the conflict-rife Deep Space Nine than the polished corridors of the USS Enterprise. He might take the occasional trip back but here Worf's links to the Empire could be explored much more deeply and the introduction of Martok as a semi-regular in the following year would have an even bigger effect on the Klingon as would his relationship with Dax. This does mark the mid-point of the show however as I've pointed out before it feels as though it's a fresh start, a stronger start with much more idea of where events will lead - the year felt like it was the first with a full roadmap from day one.

Now let's talk season five to see if that gets edged any further.

How did you rate the fourth year of Deep Space Nine? Was it the best, average or failed to deliver?