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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 7 Review

The seventh season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is the second best after the fifth one. It proved to be a great finale for the entire show.

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“It’s like I said — the more things change,

the more they stay the same“

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Image in the Sand is a solid opening that set the stage quite well for the rest of the season with Sisko’s drama being the most memorable part. Shadows and Symbols is another strong episode that is particularly potent in Sisko’s quest in learning about his existence, but the team destroying one of Dominion’s ships was the most entertaining part of the episode.

Afterimage is okay, but I personally wasn’t immensely interested in all the drama concerning Ezri Dax. Yes, she is a well developed character and everybody adapting to the situation was interesting, but still overly played out and she, though good, is never as fun as Jadzia was. Take Me Out to the Holosuite is charming in some scenes, but still a ridiculous baseball episode that is basically filler. And this is the problem I’ve had with this and all seasons of DS9 – many episodes are unnecessary and/or downright silly that they tarnish the amazing ones, leading me to question their insistence to have 26 episodes per each season.

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Chrysalis is somewhat familiar in Bashir’s storyline, but well executed. Treachery, Faith and the Great River is memorable in Odo’s scenes, but the Nog subplot was implausible for the character. Once More Unto the Breach is a dull Klingon installment, The Siege of AR-558 is another strong, engaging Dominion War storyline, Covenant sees Dukat become more powerful and manipulative, which is important for the rest of the season. It’s Only a Paper Moon is okay, but again unnecessary as they for some reason decided to give Nog a couple of episodes all for himself, but he should be a minor character in my opinion.

Prodigal Daughter is a familial episode that is also somewhat of a filler, The Emperor’s New Cloak is a fun Quark romp, though per usual it’s rather silly, but it is undeniably entertaining. Field of Fire utilizes Ezri probably the best in this season as her arc here is quite intriguing. Chimera is a fine Odo showcase as I always like his conflict as it relates to living with other shapeshifters. Badda-Bing Badda-Bang is a silly, again entirely unasked for detour, this time concerning the minor character Vic Fontaine. These types of characters should never have gotten the whole episodes for themselves.

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Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges is a solid, but forgettable Bashir episode, Penumbra starts all this drama between Worf and Ezri, and again it was played out and it should have been resolved more quickly, though the two still share some great moments. Till Death Do Us Part continues more of the same story beats while Strange Bedfellows sees the Dominion join forces with the Breen, which was an important, dark turning point for the season.

The Changing Faces of Evil introduced the Pah-Wraits, which was definitely overly reminiscent to superhero stories, but Dukat becoming more powerful was evident here and he truly is a terrific, best villain of this series. When It Rains… sees Kira, Garak and Odo join the Cardassians against Damar’s rebellion, and that was a terrific choice that paid off. I liked seeing them working together. As for Odo’s disease, it was difficult to watch and it was a great emotional arc throughout these episodes.

Tacking into the Wind continues the war with Kira being badass per usual. Extreme Measures is highly moving in Odo’s disease and it was wonderful how Bashir and O’Brien helped him. The Dogs of War is another pretty strong episode, but it was overly reliant on Quark, which was silly given all the much more important drama going on around him.

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As for the finale, it was super powerful as most finales usually are. It was extremely emotional and I almost cried when all of them were separated in the end. What You Leave Behind was an epic two-parter that ended all storylines beautifully. Yes, Dukat and Sisko’s fight surrounded by fire was very much like Star Wars and overly bombastic for this clever show, but everything else worked for me. Winn was very memorable herself, Bashir and O’Brien separating was powerful and of course Kira and Odo saying goodbye really hurt.

Overall, the seventh season of Deep Space Nine was problematic in its first half with some downright filler episodes being ridiculous and tarnishing the rest of the season. But still, the second half was majestic, the war ended on a high note and the finale was truly powerful. It remains my favorite show of Star Trek to date.

Worst Episodes: Take Me Out to the Holosuite and Badda-Bing Badda-Bang.

Best Episodes: Strange Bedfellows, When It Rains…, Extreme Measures and What You Leave Behind.

My Rating – 3.9