Station log: stardate unknown

Robert Hewitt Wolfe and Ira Steven Behr pen the season five opener that sees Sisko (Avery Brooks) going to Starfleet Command with Odo’s (Rene Auberjonois) belief that Gowron (Robert O’Reilly), the leader of the Klingon Empire, is a changeling.

Hearing this, and after some debate, Sisko is given the orders… expose Gowron.

With the war between the Federation and Klingon Empire growing, Sisko and his strike team will have to find a way to get onto the Klingon homeworld. So under Bashir’s (Alexander Siddig) able hand, Sisko and his crew are manipulated to look like Klingons – including O’Brien (Colm Meaney) and Odo, all of whom look fantastic as Klingons!

Worf (Michael Dorn) comes along, and the group is given its opportunity to confront the imposter.

Odo continues to struggle with the fact that he is now a solid, and no longer has his shape-shifting ability.

The season opener catches up quickly on events, and reintroduces everyone, gearing us up for the continued conflict with the Klingon, and the imminent war with the Dominion.

Will Sisko and his team be able to pull off the assignment? Or will they be captured before the truth can be outed, letting the war continue?

It’s a great start to the fifth season, with some interesting reveals, and perhaps the chance for peace between the Federation and the Empire can be achieved after all.

And, it’s also of note that this is a Klingon heavy episode that wasn’t written by Ronald D. Moore.

Station log: stardate 50049.3

Hans Beimler pens this episode from a story by Pam Wigginton and Rick Cason. The episode debuted on 7 October, 1996.

The station crew, on an expedition to a Gamma Quadrant planet come across a damaged Jem’Hadar ship that crashed. But it’s not going to be easy, because the Dominion wants it back.

We are introduced to a new Vorta, Kilana (Kaitlin Hopkins), who comes in pursuit of the downed ship, and Sisko begins to wonder about the import of the craft. Will the Defiant be able to get to them before Sisko and his team are overrun? And will they be able to keep their prize?

This is a great episode, Sisko and his crew hold out, even as Kilana and her Jem’Hadar try to recover something from the crashed ship, something that is preventing them from launching an all-out assault on the Starfleet crew currently holed up in the ship.

Trapped on the ship, the crew start to lose their tempers with one another, and it definitely adds some tension, and some nice character moments to the series.

The Human Adventure continues Thursday with Star Trek: Voyager, and next week as Deep Space Nine The Complete Series on DVD, now available from Paramount Pictures continues.

Boldly go…