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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 3 Review

The third season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is in line with previous seasons – it has its weaker episodes, but it’s undeniably great in other installments.

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“It’s not your fault the way things are.

Everybody tells themselves that.

And nothing ever changes“

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The Search is a very good two-parter that introduced The Dominion in Part I, and it deals so well with Odo’s homeworld in Part II. This is one of his best, most emotional episodes. The House of Quark is your standard Quark episode – he screws something, and then has to pay for it. This time around, he brags of killing a Klingon, but that never happened. The result is another very entertaining episode that lacks depth and is too silly for its own sake.

Equilibrium is a solid, but far from memorable Dax episode. Second Skin is conceptually very intriguing, but the execution is pretty good and rarely great. The Abandoned is another forgettable, silly Quark episode. He’s very annoying in this one. Civil Defence is a fine tech episode, but most of the time these technology-based episodes are familiar and certainly not all that original.

I have seen stories like Meridian many times before, so I found it far from memorable. Dax needs much better material by this point. Defiant brings back William Riker from ‘The Next Generation’ and it was wonderful seeing an old favorite here. He interacted so well with the rest of the crew. Fascination is your regular Lwaxana Troi crazy love episode, but seeing her is always a joy for sure.

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Past Tense is a very well realized, engaging time travel episode set in Earth’s past during a violent civil disturbance. Although Part II was less interesting, Part I was so well established and quite intriguing. Life Support is forgettable, but Heart of Stone is a lot of fun. This memorable episode deals with the will they, won’t they proceedings of Odo-Kira relationship, but it was so well executed and so moving that I really appreciated it.

Destiny is one of the best Sisko episodes so far as he has to deal with his current rank, thus resulting in a very deep reexamination for the character. Prophet Motive is too disconnected in its two very different storylines. Visionary is another time travel episode, but this time it deals with short-span jumps. It’s a thrilling showcase for the character of O’Brien.

Distant Voices is an aging episode too many. It was simply too derivative. The same goes for Through the Looking Glass with the Mirror Universe idea not being that excitingly explored in this instance. Improbable Cause and The Die Is Cast are both parts of the same story (this season is interesting for having an unusually high number of two-parters) that makes great use of Odo. It’s always great seeing Garak as one of the best developed, most interesting characters on the show.

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Explorers has its moments, but it’s overall weakly paced and edited. Family Business is another Quark episode that’s too silly, though clearly memorable in its theme of misogyny interestingly explored as a metaphor. Shakaar is utterly forgettable, Facets is a fine, moving Dax episode and The Adversary is a very entertaining, well written episode that ended this season on a strong note.

Overall, I found this season pretty solid. There are too many forgettable, derivative episodes here, but at least the strong ones are great, character-driven and/or quite moving. The show is also beginning to introduce more grander, more connected storytelling around this point.

Worst Episodes: Meridian, Distant Voices and Through the Looking Glass.

Best Episodes: Part Tense Part I, Heart of Stone, Destiny, Visionary and the Adversary.