Deep Space Nine 601 "A Time to Stand"

Hey everyone, today is the 20th anniversary of the first airing of Deep Space Nine! I had no idea really! It's fortuitous because now we have come to THE GOOD BIT!...

Season six, episode one - "A Time To Stand". Kicking off a new season and jockeying for new viewership, as shows will do, they give you a decent recap before the cold open. But then again, the entirety of the cold open is spent on expository recaps that are kind of obvious. When Garak is Getting treated by Dr. Bashir for a superficial injury, and begins recounting the doctor's genetically enhanceitude, Garak stops just short of turning to the camera and saying "Everybody got that? He's got some enhancements!" Sisko and Dax tackling about going back to the front lines (Dax's uniform has been made noticeably tighter. Again.) and then enter Martok and Worf to complain about Worf becoming whatever the Klingon equivalent of a bridezilla is. More on that in about six episodes.

Then Sisko gets a Skype from his dad (have you noticed that "to Skype" is now a verb?), and has to explain to him why he left his only son onboard the enemy occupied station. For my part, it would've been funnier if he'd said, "well, I left my lucky baseball, too!" Also, I should mention here that Brock Peters, the actor who plays Sisko's dad was not only inducted into the Trek-verse by playing Admiral Cartwright in Star Trek VI, The Undiscovered Country, but ALSO had the dubious honor of playing the voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars Radio Dramas. It's a small world, nerds.

Anyway, Ben gets himself a new ride in the form of the Dominion fighter they captured last season, and a cool headset to go with it. The crew engages in amusing banter about their desire for viewscreens, chairs, and sandwiches aboard the Dominion fighter (or is it a destroyer? The small ships, anyway).

Back on Terak Nor, Gul Dukat is busy turning the heat up and forbidding under pain of death anyone to touch the thermostat. He's also doing his best Hannibal Lector impression on Kira. Who for some reason stayed on the station. I know, I know. I think she did it just so she could get legally snippy with Dukat.

Meanwhile, the interesting members of the crew are tooling around on their Jem'Hadar fighter, get into a tickle fight with a federation frigate, and complete their mission to blow up a Jem'Hadar cocaine factory. But not before blowing up their own warp drive in the process. Cliffhanger!

All in all, probably the weakest in the arc that I'm currently in, but even when I first watched this air, it felt like they were setting you up with big stuff. And they were! I should also note parenthetically this is actually where I started watching the series regularly on a weekly basis back in the 90's. Modern television owes a LOT to the serial nature the show had taken on at this point. I could never miss an episode.

Stay tuned, geeks. Next up is a doozy.