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Episodes
Disc Two: “The Assignment”, “Trials And Tribble-ations”, “Let He Who
Is Without Sin…”, “Things Past”
Episodes
Disc Three: “The Ascent”, “Rapture”, “The Darkness And The Light”,
“The Begotten”
Episodes
Disc Four: “For The Uniform”, “In Purgatory’s Shadow”, “”By
Inferno’s Light”, “Doctor Bashir, I Presume?”
Episodes
Disc Five: “A Simple Investigation”, “Business As Usual”, “Ties Of
Blood And Water”, “Ferengi Love Songs”
Episodes
Disc Six: “Soldiers Of The Empire”, “Children Of Time”, “Blaze Of
Glory”, “Empok Nor”
Episodes
Disc Seven: “In
The Cards”, “Call To Arms”
Stars:
Avery Brooks, Rene Auberjonois, Siddig El Fadil, Michael Dorn, Terry Farrell,
Cirroc Lofton, Colm Meaney, Armin Shimerman, and Nana Visitor
Guest
Stars: Robert Picardo, Vanessa Williams, Marc Alaimo, Aron Eisenberg, Max
Grodenchik, Kenneth Marshall, Charlie Brill, Paul Dooley, Wallace Shawn, Louise
Fletcher, F.J. Rio, J.G. Hertzler, James Horan, Tiny Ron, Kaitlin Hopkins, Mary
Kay Adams, Robert O’Reilly, Philip Anglim, Rosalind Chao, Andrew Robinson,
Jeffrey Combs, Penny Johnson, Chase Masterson, and Casey Biggs,
Writers:
Pam Wigginton, Richard Carson, David Weddle, Bradley Thompson, L.J. Storm, Bryan
Fuller, Brice R. Parker, Peter Allan Fields, Jimmy Diggs, Edmund Newton, Robin
L. Slocum, Gary Holland, Ethan H. Calk, Truly Barr, Clark Neal, Scott J. Neal,
Ira Steven Behr, Rene Echevarria, Ronald D. Moore, Robert Hewitt Wolfe, Michael
Taylor, Toni Mayberry, and Hans Beimler
Directors:
James L. Conway, Kim Friedman, Andrew J. Robinson, Allan Kroeker, Michael Vejar,
Jesus Salvador Trevino, Victor Lobl, Gabrielle Beaumont, John Kretchmer, Siddig
El Fadil, Michael Dorn, Jonathan West, Rene Auberjonois, Reza Badyl, Winrich
Kolbe, Les Landau, David Livingston, and Levar Burton
Based
On “Star Trek” Created By: Gene Roddenberry
Feature Length: 19
hours and 41 minutes
Extras:
“Trials And Tribble-ations:
Uniting Two Legends”, “Trials And Tribble-ations: A Historic Endeavor”,
“Crew Dossier: Miles O’Brien”, “Inside DS9 With Mike Okuda”,
“Michael Westmore’s Aliens”, “Photo Gallery”, “Section 31 Files”
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Dolby Surround Sound
Subtitles:
English Captions and Closed Captions
Packaging:
Digipack Book Style Gatefold Within A Slipcase
Chapter
Stops: 8 Per Episode
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Dolby Surround Sound
Year
of Television Broadcast: 1996-1997/DVD Release: 2003
Home
Video Distributor: Paramount Home Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: Not Applicable
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
The
fifth season of “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” can best be summed up by using
the three words that appear above the character photos on the inner flap of the
book style Digipack packaging and that simply states
“Heroes And Adversaries.” While perhaps you could call Gul Dukat
(Marc Alaimo) a villain given his duplicitous nature, I think that the rest of
the characters are truly more or less heroes or adversaries depending on whose
side your on. Some characters have more personal reasons than others, but
basically I see season five as the resolution to much of the character cliff
hangers leftover from season four in the shadow of the buildup to the war
against the Dominion for control of the Alpha Quadrant.
When
we last our diligent crew aboard Deep Space Nine, Odo (Rene Auberjonois) had
been sentenced to live out the remainder of his life as a solid humanoid being,
Quark (Armin Shimerman) had lost his Ferengi Business License at the hands of
Ferengi Commerce Authority Liquidator Brunt (Jeffrey Combs) and was now all but
an outcast from Ferengi Society. Worf (Michael Dorn) continued to live aboard
the Defiant, in the capacity of Lt. Commander and as a Federation liaison
to the Klingon Empire aboard the station. However his job was made difficult
even by Klingon standards when he was once again shunned by Klingon society for
siding with the Federation in opposing the Klingon encroachment upon the
Cardassian Empire. Major Kyra (Nana Visitor) was now holding Miles O’Brien’s
baby after his wife Keiko (Rosalind Chao) had been involved in an accident that
required the fetus to be carried to term in Kyra’s womb. All the while
Commander Sisko (Avery Brooks) was forced to balance his life as a single father
raising his son (Cirroc Lofton) while coping with the ongoing struggle regarding
the paranoia the Dominion had started across the Quadrant and the espionage
caused by the Marquis.
Now
we open on a mission that has Sisko, O’Brien, Odo, and Worf going on
undercover deep into Klingon territory to expose a changeling within the Klingon
Empire, whom they believe may be the leader of the Klingon High Council Gowron
(Robert O’Reilly). The discovery of who the changeling really is does not halt
the hostilities between the Klingons and the Federation until the Jem’Hadar
launch an offensive and drive back the Klingons from Cardassia Prime, which is
now a part of the Dominion. This ultimately leads to the complete annihilation
of the Marquis movement and soon “Deep Space Nine” becomes the first “Star
Trek” TV series to take the Federation to war over the course of the show’s
final two seasons.
Among
other surprises to be discovered include learning how Odo gets his shape
shifting abilities back, how Quark gets his license back, which person is the
traitor aboard Deep Space Nine, and a possible career killing secret regarding
one of the crewmembers is finally exposed.
I
like Season Five of “Deep Space Nine” a lot, but for the most part as I have
noted above, it is more of a series of resolutions to problems introduced in the
fourth season so the writers and producers can move the series forward into the
war against the Dominion. However that does not mean the season does not have
its share of important episodes. You cannot get to the point where we leave
“Deep Space Nine” in Season Five without these resolutions and bridge
episodes so here are my picks for the essential must-see episodes in Season Five
related to the character arcs introduced last season.
On
disc one “Apocalypse Rising” and “…Nor The Battle Without Sin..” are
extremely important in understanding the fight against the Klingons and the
repercussions involved. On disc four “In Purgatory’s Shadow” and “By
Inferno’s Light” are essentially the crux of the entire season. It is where
the paradigm begins to shift as the threat from the Dominion becomes more real.
Disc five’s “Ferengi Love Songs” is important since it not only resolves
Quark’s problems with Brunt, but it expands Ferengi society for the viewer and
gives a first glimpse of their home world “Ferenginar.” Finally “Call To
Arms” pretty much sets the cards on the table for what will be the balance of
the series to comes in seasons six and seven. The events halfway through Season
Five coincide with the events in “Star Trek: First Contact” and halfway
through the season we see the Federation crewmembers begin to wear the uniforms
introduced in that eighth “Star Trek” feature film.
There
are story points I am leaving out and the reason why is that it is simply hard
to encompass all of the character developments in the context of one DVD review
without spoiling everything for those who have not seen it or wish to rediscover
it. So as broad as this is, it can be followed easily without getting too hung
up on the various idiosyncrasies that I think are a part of the fun of
discovering and revisiting the series for one’s self enjoyment. Last but
certainly not least in the episode “Trials And Tribble-ations,” which is on
disc two of the set, our characters encounter and interact with characters and
situations in the classic Original Series episode “The
Trouble With Tribbles” through the same technology developed and used to
put Tom Hanks in various historical clips in “Forrest Gump.”
That classic episode can be viewed on DVD in “Volume
21” of Paramount Home Entertainment’s “Star Trek: The Original
Series.”
All
26 episodes of “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Complete Fifth Season On DVD”
box set are presented in their original broadcast (1.33:1) aspect ratios with a
picture quality that is consistently good throughout. At times one can notice a
bit of video artifacts, since these episodes are edited using video, but the
anomalies are extremely faint and easy to just look over and for some, they may
not even be noticeable. The English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtracks also
remain consistent with previous releases in terms of quality and are well mixed.
An English Dolby Surround Soundtrack and English Captions and Closed Captions
for the hearing impaired are also encoded as options for each episode.
As
with previous sets, the extra value featurettes are all on the seventh disc
beginning “Trials And Tribble-ations: Uniting Two Legends” (17:00), which
goes into the original idea for a 30th anniversary episode, which
would have had the “Deep Space Nine” crew go to the planet Iotia, the world
where Kirk and crew encountered a human society was based around a book on the
Chicago mobs in the 1920s in the Original Series episode “A Piece Of The
Action,” only to find that in the century since then the Iotians were now
imitating their society around caricatures of Kirk and Spock. It was meant to
spoof the fans of The Original Series, but as nifty as that idea sounds, wisely
they went with “Trials And Tribble-ations” while “Star Trek: Voyager”
had a flashback episode that took place during events of “Star Trek VI: The
Undiscovered Country” entitled “Flashback.”
In
addition to clip interviews with various cast and crewmembers sharing their
recollections and excitement over the episode, the featurette also shows some of
the behind-the-scenes footage that depicts in part how The Original Series and
Deep Space Nine series characters were able to interact on screen for the
episode. “Trials And Tribble-ations: A Historic Endeavor” (16:39) continues
the exploration on how the show was put together complete with how the models
were replicated down to the chance seeing of Actor Charlie Brill, who played
“Arne Darvin” in “The Trouble With Tribbles” and returned to reprise his
role for this 30th anniversary episode. Paraphrasing Actress Terry
Farrell, she likens her experience working with matching movements for
compositing her character into the episode as being easier than working with the
effects required for scenes she had with “Pinhead” in “Hellraiser III:
Hell On Earth.”
Next
is an interview with Colm Meaney discussing his character and it’s evolution
from “Star Trek: The Next Generation” through the seven seasons of “Star
Trek: Deep Space Nine” in “Crew Dossier: Miles O’Brien” (11:31). Among
Meaney’s favorite episodes that he starred in was the fourth season episode
“Hard Time.” “Inside DS9 With Michael Okuda” (7:20) is very much a tour
of the sets and props for the series complete with little inside jokes for the
crew that the television would never capture while “Michael Westmore’s
Aliens” (7:22) focuses on the Klingon makeup for “Apocalypse Rising” as
well as the Jem’Hadar and Trill makeup evolution for the series.
There
are 10 hidden, but easy to find “Section 31” files that focus on various
characters and or episodes that include “The Begotten” (3:02), “The
Ascent” (3:06), Writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe’s exodus from the series after
the fifth season (2:06), Nana Visitor’s recollections on “The Begotten”
(2:15) and “Ties Of Blood And Water” (2:57), “Soldiers Of The Empire”
(2:32), “Doctor Bashir, I Presume?” (3:04), “Ferengi Love Songs” (3:26),
Actor J.G. Hertzler on his character of Klingon “General Martok” (3:34), and
Jeffrey Combs various appearances on “Deep Space Nine” (4:12). Interestingly
he actually auditioned for the role of “Riker” back in the 1980s and he
describes his recurring character as the Vorta “Weyoun” as being a gift.
A
still gallery of production photos and a trailer for the upcoming “Indiana
Jones” DVD box set (1:48) wrap up the extra features in this seven-disc set.
“Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Complete Fifth Season On DVD” box set is
available now at retailers on and offline from Paramount Home Entertainment.
©
Copyright 2003 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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