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Episodes
Disc Five: “Penumbra”, “’Til
Death Do Us Part”, “Strange Bedfellows”, “The Changing Face Of Evil”
Episodes
Disc Six: “When
It Rains…”, “Tacking Into The Wind”, “Extreme Measures”, “The Dogs
Of War”
Episodes
Disc Seven: “What You Leave Behind”
Stars:
Avery Brooks, Rene Auberjonois, Alexander Siddig, Michael Dorn, Nicole deBoer,
Cirroc Lofton, Colm Meaney, Armin Shimerman, and Nana Visitor
Guest
Stars: Brock Peters, Marc Alaimo, Aron Eisenberg, Max Grodenchik, Wallace Shawn,
Louise Fletcher, J.G. Hertzler, Rosalind Chao, Andrew J. Robinson, Jeffrey
Combs, Penny Johnson, Chase Masterson, Casey Biggs, William Sadler, Barry Jenner,
Cecily Adams, Salome Jens, James Darren, Adrienne Barbeau, Hal Lindon, Jr., Marc
Lawrence, Deborah Lacey, Robert O’Reilly, John Vickery, Megan Cole, Julianne
McCarthy, Hana Hatae, Bill Mumy, and John Colicos
Writers:
David Weddle, Bradley Thompson, Ira Steven Behr, Rene Echevarria, Ronald D.
Moore, Philip Kim, David Mack, John J. Ordover, Robert Hewitt Wolfe, and Hans
Beimler
Directors:
Allan Kroeker, Michael Vejar, Victor Lobl, Chip Chalmers, Avery Brooks, Michael
Dorn, Jonathan West, Rene Auberjonois, Winrich Kolbe, Anson Williams, David
Livingston, Levar Burton, Les Landau, Steve Posey, Tony Dow, and John Kretchmer
Based
On “Star Trek” Created By: Gene Roddenberry
Feature Length: 19
hours and 33 minutes
Extras:
“Ending An Era”, “Crew
Dossier: Benjamin Sisko”, “Crew Dossier: Jake Sisko”, “The Last
Goodbyes” “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/16 For “What You Leave Behind”
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Dolby Surround Sound
Year
of Television Broadcast: 1998-1999/DVD Release: 2003
Home
Video Distributor: Paramount Home Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: Not Applicable
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
“Star
Trek: Deep Space Nine” came to a close with a bittersweet feature length
episode that saw many characters good and bad undergo changes that forever
change their lives and in some cases, end them. In a multi-episode story-arc, we
have Gul Dukat (Marc Alaimo) and Kai Win (Louise Fletcher) releasing the
Pa-Wraiths with Sisko (Avery Brooks) sacrificing his mortal life to stop them.
Of course this being “Star Trek,” death is never final, so we find that
Sisko has now become one of the “Prophets” and as such now lives in a
different level of existence outside the field of linear time as we understand
it. It turns out Sisko was in fact conceived by is human father and one of the
beings from the celestial temple within the wormhole. So that is why he was able
to punch “Q” down to the floor in the first season episode “Q-Less” when
“Q” tried to make a fool of him by challenging him to a boxing match at
Quark’s. The tragedy is that his son Jake (Cirroc Lofton) and expecting wife
Cassidy (Penny Johnson) are left on the station without a father and husband
respectively.
The
Federation is victorious in its war against the Dominion, but not without the
high price of hundreds of millions of lives lost in the process. Quark (Armin
Shimmerman) remains a bartender while his brother Rom (Max Grodenchik) becomes
the unlikely new “Grand Nagus.” Worf (Michael Dorn) becomes the new
Federation Ambassador to the Klingon Empire, something that was foreseen in the
alternate future timeline of the series finale to “Star Trek: The Next
Generation” entitled “All Good Things…” Here is a question I have for
the folks behind “Star Trek: Nemesis.” If Worf is now the Federation
Ambassador to the Klingon Empire, then why was he serving aboard the Enterprise-E
in “Nemesis?” I mean I could understand why there would be many reasons for
his presence aboard the ship. Riker’s wedding is enough, but you would think
he would get a slightly more grandiose reception from someone like Picard, who
in many ways is both an accomplished diplomat and a man who takes formalities as
seriously as he does his duty to Star Fleet.
The
new Dax (Nicole deBoer) ends up with Dr. Bashir (Alexander Siddig), but the
Doctor loses his buddy relationship with Chief O’Brien (Colm Meany), who
returns to Earth with his wife and kids where he will be a professor at Star
Fleet Academy. Odo (Rene Auberjonois) returns to the Founders thus ending his
relationship with Kira (Nana Visitor) so that he can teach the “Changelings”
to trust the “Solids” as he had and cure them of a biologically engineered
plague created by Star Fleet’s Section 31. By series end we have a Bajor
strong enough to stand on it’s own feet, but a Cardassia Prime perhaps more
ravaged than Bajor was after the Cardassians
finally ended their occupation of the planet. In short, the conclusion of
“Deep Space Nine” was more about emotional separations and new beginnings
then it was about the end of the Dominion War.
Guest
stars for the seventh and final season include Brock Peters, Wallace Shawn,
William Sadler, Jeffrey Combs, Adrienne Barbeau, John Vickery, Bill Mumy, and
John Colicos. The picture quality of this final season of “Deep Space Nine”
is about equal to the previous season releases on DVD, with great looking
effects shots, fantastic detail, solid colors, and little noticeable video
anomalies. As a whole “Deep Space Nine” on DVD looks better than “The Next
Generation” does on DVD. The English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack is
full, but not as vibrant as some theatrical mixes. An English Dolby Surround
Soundtrack as well English Captions and Closed Captions for the hearing impaired
are encoded for all of the season seven episodes.
Extra
value features on disc seven include an interview with the series’ producers
and writers in “Ending An Era” (15:22), which covers the challenges of
paying off and concluding as many story threads as possible to end the series
satisfyingly and definitively for television. Interview clips with Avery Brooks
and Cirroc Lofton are provided respectively in the Crew Dossiers for “Benjamin
Sisko” (13:03) and “Jake Sisko” (10:09). The main series featurettes
concludes complete with ending credits for what seems like the entire batch of
featurettes produced for all seven sets with footage of the farewell party after
the series wrapped in “The Last Goodbyes” (14:33).
A short season seven gallery of production stills and yet another trailer
for “The Adventures Of Indiana Jones: The Complete DVD Movie Collection”
(2:23) wrap up the main features, but like the previous releases, there are the
hidden, but quite easy to find “Section 31 Files.” There are nine this time
that cover interview clips with “Marc Alaimo” (2:37), “Jeffrey Combs”
(4:27), “Robert O’Reilly” (2:52), “Louise Fletcher” (3:04), “Penny
Johnson” (4:15), “J.G. Hertzler” (3:29), “Aron Eisenberg” (2:36),
“Max Grodenchik” (3:06), and Ira Steven Behr discussing the creation of the
“Vic Fontaine” character played by James Darren in the series (4:20). Unless
I somehow missed them, there was no trailer for the upcoming “Star Trek:
Voyager” DVD sets and no Section 31 file on “Section 31” itself.
The
menus are well rendered and easy to navigate. “Star Trek Deep Space Nine”
was perhaps the most complex and darkest of the “Star Trek” TV series to
ever air as well as the only one to truly take the Federation to war. Kudos to
Paramount for continuing their commitment toward bringing the entire series to
DVD in seven season box sets in one year just like they did with “Star Trek:
The Next Generation” and will do again next year with both “Star Trek:
Voyager” and the re-release of “Star Trek: The Original Series” in
complete season sets. “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Complete Seventh Season
On DVD” is available at retailers on and offline now along with the previous
six season box sets from Paramount Home Entertainment.
©
Copyright 2003 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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