Station log: stardate 48467.3

While Star Trek: Generations floundered a bit at the box office, Trek continued it’s small screen adventures on DS9. It brought a couple of carryovers from Next Gen as well that show up in the episodes this week.

First up, Defiant, written by Ronald D. Moore. Airing on 21 November, 1994, the story continues the Thomas Riker (Jonathan Frakes) arc created with the Next Generation episode Second Chances.

He arrives on the station with a singular plan – he impersonates Will Riker (romances Kira (Nana Visitor)), and steals the Defiant, intent on joining the Maquis, and hand-delivering the new warship to them, after he exploses a hidden Cardassian base. Sisko (Avery Brooks) and Gul Dukat (Marc Alaimo) work together to prevent Riker from entering Cardassian space, and reclaiming the ship for Starfleet.

When O’Brien (Colm Meaney) bumps into him, his suspicion becomes aroused, but it’s too late, and Riker gets away with the Defiant. He is in an position to become one of the prime leaders of the Maquis.

Meanwhile Dukat and Sisko try to come up with a plan on Cardassian Prime, even as they deal with the secretive and dangerous Obsidian Order, in the form of Korinas (Tricia O’Neil). Through the discourse we learn that Sisko helped oversee the construction and design of the Defiant, and her cloaking device.

This is a well-thought out and fun episode, it’s great to see Frakes take Tom Riker in a new and exciting direction. And it gives Dukat and Sisko a number of moments to recognise their similarities, even as their differences keep them on opposite sides of the Demilitarised Zone.

It’s definitely better than the one that follows…

Station log: stardate unknown

Avery Brooks directs this episode that was written by Philip LaZebnik from a story by James Crocker and Ira Steven Behr.

This one sees the return of Ambassador Lwaxana Troi (Majel Barrett). Sigh. I’m really over her stories.

She arrives on the station to take part in the Bajoran Gratitude Festival, and of course, continue pursuit her of Odo (Rene Auberjonois). She has an effect on the rest of the station, as the crew and inhabitants of the station begin expressing romantic attractions for one another. This causes problems for O’Brien and Keiko (Rosalind Chao), Quark (Armin Shimerman), Dax (Terry Farrell), Kira, and Jake (Cirroc Lofton) amongst others.

As much as I love the fact that the series continues to let its actors step behind the cameras at times, i just wish this one was a better story, and perhaps let Lwaxana retire…

The Human Adventure continues Thursday as I continue exploring the third season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – The Complete Series on DVD, available now from Paramount Pictures.