We recently faced the difficult task of ranking every Star Trek TV series and that got us thinking; what are the greatest episodes in the franchise? Each series had some brilliant episodes (yes, even Star Trek: Voyager) that to try and name the top five episodes of all time is too complex a task to complete. But it is probably possible to pick favourites from each series indidually.
So let’s start with what many consider the best series of them all – Star Trek: Deep Space Nine…
The Way Of The Warrior (S4, E1/E2)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine delivered some thrilling conflicts across its seven years, from the futile assault on the Founders homeworld in season three’s ‘The Die is Cast’ through to the epic space battles of the Dominion War in the final two seasons. But few delivered the game-changing, dramatic scale of season four opener ‘The Way of the Warrior’. While the introduction of the Dominion in season two finale ‘The Jem’Hadar’ shook up the dynamic of the show, it was this double-episode that delivered two hours of confident storytelling which changed how we saw the show forever.
The Cold War with the Dominion was now gaining momentum and in this massive episode, Cardassia closed its borders and the Klingon Empire launched a full scale invasion to eradicate the threat of Changeling imposters (the irony of course being that Klingon commander Martok was a changeling all along, though he wouldn’t be revealed as such for another year). Not only did the show deliver the first appearance of the brilliant J.G. Hertzler as the gravelly Martok, it reintroduced Robert O’Reilly’s Chancellor Gowron as a major player in the Star Trek universe and brought Michael Dorn’s Worf over from Star Trek: The Next Generation as a main character for the remaining four seasons.
It also tore up the rulebook, ending the Khitomer Accords that Kirk and co. fought so hard for in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and kickstarted a war between the Federation and the Klingons that raged for a year and a half. That culminated in an explosive attack on Deep Space Nine that tested Sisko and his crew like nothing before. Adding in the irony of the Defiant saving the Cardassian leaders and Gul Dukat and Garak fighting side by side, this season opener had huge ramifications for the show moving forward.
In Purgatory’s Shadow / By Inferno’s Light (S5, E14 / E15)
Okay, perhaps I’m cheating, sticking these season five episodes together, but this two-parter brings to a head so many narrative threads, including the Klingon conflict established in ‘The Way of the Warrior’. It was another game changer of an episode that set up the galactic war which would begin at the end of the season.
Worf and Garak attempt to locate a Cardassian signal deep in Dominion space and find themselves prisoners on an internment camp. But it’s their fellow prisoners that spark the biggest twists; Enabran Tain, who is revealed once and for all to be Garak’s father, and Dr. Julian Bashir, wearing the old style uniform that hadn’t been seen on the show for several episodes. The reveal that Bashir had been *replaced by a Changeling* for several episodes was one of the series’ biggest twists and raised the stakes further. The ending to ‘By Purgatory’s Shadow’ as hundreds of The Jem’Hadar poured through the wormhole was one of the best cliffhangers the show ever did.
What’s so great is that ‘By Inferno’s Light’ doesn’t let up, starting with another huge twist as quasi-ally Gul Dukat reveals his true villainy and sells Cardassia to the Dominion as an ‘ally’ all for a seat at the table. In just one episode, the Klingons are driven back from Cardassian borders, reforging the Khitomer Accords and the stage is set for the Dominion War to come.
Duet (S1, E19)
As a rule, all Star Trek spin-offs don’t have great first seasons, something which Star Trek: Discovery is looking to change. Deep Space Nine had perhaps the strongest first year as it was the only one to deliver an all time classic. In fact, ‘Duet’ is so good, it was one of Deep Space Nine‘s best episodes full stop.
The show delivered many emotional, character driven episodes, with ‘The Visitor’ and ‘Far Beyond The Stars’ all vying for position in the top ten. But none quite beat the mesmerising interplay between Nana Visitor’s Kira and Harris Yulin’s Cardassian Aamin Marritza, as she discovers he is a war criminal responsible for thousands of Bajoran deaths, determined to interrogate him for his crimes.
The episode rests on the interplay between Visitor and Yulin and they deliver every moment of it. Her realization that he is actually innocent and was just a filing clerk who saw the atrocities is a chilling allegory for the Nazi death camps, and her journey from hatred to compassion is utterly absorbing, and shows just how dark the show would dare to go to deliver great drama. This late season one episode showed that this was not another shiny copy of its predecessors.
Trials and Tribble-ations (S5, E6)
The Star Trek franchise celebrated its thirtieth anniversary far more successfully than its fiftieth. And while Star Trek: Insurrection and Star Trek: Voyager (with its Captain Sulu cameo) were decent affairs, Deep Space Nine absolutely nailed it with the wonderful ‘Trials and Tribble-ations’, that saw the crew of the station travel back to the events of the original Star Trek 1960’s episode ‘The Trouble With Tribbles’, Forrest Gump-style.
It was a wonderful tribute, full of tongue in cheek humour (Worf refusing to talk about why the Klingons do not have bumpy foreheads), to the delightful sequences where Dax, O’Brien, Bashir and Sisko are inserted into old footage. It’s so seamless, while also adding to the original narrative as the crew desperately attempted to save the crew of the Enterprise from a time travelling killer. Plus the cast look like they’re having the time of their lives too.
In a period in the show where the overall narrative was growing darker, this was a huge amount of fun and a perfect, nostalgic tribute to Star Trek: The Original Series, where it all began.
In The Pale Moonlight (S6, E19)
The Dominion War that consumed the narrative of Deep Space Nine‘s final two seasons was filled with many huge, dramatic moments. Do you go with the loss of the station in season five finale ‘A Call To Arms’? The battle to retake it in ‘Sacrifice of Angels’? The harrowing grittiness of ‘The Siege of AR-558’ or the destruction of the Defiant in ‘The Changing Face of Evil’? While the war arc was breathtaking, no episode made more of an impact to the series than season six’s ‘In The Pale Moonlight’.
This is dark, daring and gritty Trek; the events of the Dominion War growing more desperate as Betazed fell to the enemy and the crew faced endless lists of casualties as the Federation and Klingons continued to use. The desperation to bring the Romulans into the war forges the narrative, told through the sombre personal log of Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks is never better). Giving him a double act in Garak is a wonderful choice too, the insidious nature of the Cardassian tailor forcing Sisko to go where no other captain would dare to, in a world of corruption, lies and moral ambiguity to deliver what needed to be done.
It leaves Sisko exposed as a character, complicit in an elaborate scam to deceive the Romulans into joining the war against the Dominion, but also murder (albeit at the hands of Garak) when their daring plan unfolds. Other captains would have been consumed with regret over their actions, but the episode make the courageous decision to have Sisko face acceptance over his actions. Sure, they were wrong, but they were needed.
What is your favourite Deep Space Nine episode? Would you pick a different five? Let us know!