Plotlines

Although the fourth season already shows the first signs of the war looming on the horizon, it still takes care of some characters before heading into battle.

With Worf joining the station, providing another link to TNG, this character must first be thoroughly explored. This happens partly with Dax, but Worf also gets his own screen time.

Not only does the behavior on the station, especially Odo’s way of working, trouble him, causing him to take quarters on the Defiant. His brother Kurn (played by the late Tony Todd) also visits him, though not for very pleasant reasons, even if they may be honorable.

In this episode, we learn a lot about Worf, especially how he stands with family, his relationship with the Klingon High Council, and his loyalty to the Federation. An interesting compromise is reached at the end, in contrast to the drastic demand Kurn makes of Worf to regain his honor or die an honorable death.

Let’s stay with the Klingons, because not only through Dax and her adventures with other Klingons, but also through an incident with a cloaked minefield, the Klingons get particularly much screen time this season. Though allied, they feel very drawn to the Jem’Hadar due to their shared warrior mentality and try to fight on their side or claim territories for themselves before coming to their senses and rejoining the Federation. In this context, Worf is often discussed, as he sits between the chairs and must often ask himself whether he belongs to the Federation or the Klingon Empire.

Even though the war is already looming and the Federation must deal with its first conflicts, both internal and external, the series makers still manage to show the operations on the station and not let them fall completely behind. This is also a striking sign that DS9 is not only very diverse but knows its position exactly. Compliments to the makers!

I’m not sure why I noticed this here, it may well be due to the presence of the Ferengi, but money does play a role from time to time. In TNG, it’s tirelessly mentioned that the Federation and humanity have now adopted a form of society where money plays absolutely no role and thus no longer exists. In DS9, this is somewhat reversed, because it’s not entirely possible to do without it again, yes, also because of the Ferengi, but in other places you notice again and again that the exchange of goods or services is sometimes compensated with money, in this case often latinum. Personally, I find this somewhat more realistic than the abstract and hard cut to absolutely no money.

The universal translator is also something that always makes me think. Because on the one hand, there’s the language called “Federation Standard,” which is mentioned repeatedly in Lower Decks. Then there’s the universal translator, so that not everyone has to constantly learn new languages, especially in the episode with the three Ferengi on Earth, this becomes very clear. But then there are expressions from Worf or Kira, for example, that are made in their own language, which, according to the logic of the universal translator, shouldn’t actually be possible. I notice this particularly in DS9, even though it doesn’t bother me, it’s still a small logical detail that’s not quite consistent.

It’s a season that, like so many before and all after, is packed with character developments, societal themes, conflicts in the Star Trek universe, and of course a large portion of humor. This is often interspersed through the bromance between O’Brien and Bashir, especially when you see them in their large fur cloaks, walking straight through Quark’s from the holodeck.

The fourth season is now almost over, and Jake meets his muse. It’s nice that Jake hasn’t been completely forgotten, because since Nog left, his screen time has shrunk a bit. The same goes for his father, although I believe this is intentional with Sisko, because as soon as the war starts, we’ll see many more and very intense scenes with him.