fter five years on the air, a show's characters are like your old friends: They're easy to invite into your living room. This is true even with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, a series whose characters weren't known for emanating warmth and comfort. Nonetheless, there was an easy familiarity to listening to Dax's wisecracks, watching Odo and Quark's repartee, or seeing how Sisko's baseball will find its way into a plot—even when that familiarity comes under a dark cloud, as it does in Deep Space Nine's sixth season.
To say season six was dominated by a pervasive sense of gloom would be an understatement. The series got off to a big start with an alternately masterful and oppressive six-part story arc focusing on the Federation-Dominion war, a conflict that broke out at the end of the previous season. There's no lack of big-action effects in this arc, which sees Sisko (Brooks) leading the Defiant in battle while Maj. Kira (Visitor) and Odo remain on the Cardassian-occupied space station. And the writing sets a strong foundation for the rest of the season—perhaps too strong. Though it's realistic to keep the somber tone throughout the course of the season, the war effort does prove tiring at times.
There are a number of episodes that distinguish themselves this year: "Inquisition," the mind-bender that introduced the Federation's clandestine arm, Section 31; "Sacrifice of Angels," where Gul Ducat's daughter is killed; the humorous Quark (Shimerman) escapades, "The Magnificent Ferengi" (Quark, Rom and Nog endeavor to rescue their mother from the Dominion) and "Who Mourns for Morn"; "Sons and Daughters," with the return of Worf's son, Alexander; the character study "Waltz," which traces Ducat's (Marc Alaimo) spiral into madness; and the Klingon wedding of Dax (Farrell) and Worf (Dorn) in "You Are Cordially Invited."
"Far Beyond the Stars" gave the entire ensemble cast a chance to shed their makeup in a whimsical yet relevant trip to 1940s, where Sisko is actually a science-fiction author struggling to make his mark in a racist world. "One Little Ship"—Trek's take on Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, mixes humor with wartime circumstance. As does "The Sound of Her Voice," which does what DS9 does best—provide a story that goes against the gradient and lacks a neatly packaged ending.
The season finale, "Tears of the Prophets," propels the war in new directions as Ducat channels the Bajoran prophets' enemy, and takes the life of Jadzia Dax in the process.
This seven-disc set has three featurettes, two character profiles, 10 so-called "hidden" files for soundbites on specific subjects and a still photo gallery.
Middling extras just aren't enough
The assorted extras are self-contained on the seventh disc of the set, and while none of these segments offers earth-shattering insights, they do provide a nice complement to the season's episodes.
There are some glaring omissions among this supplemental content, though. For one, there are no audio commentaries for any of the episodes. For another, there's no season overview discussing the direction and intentions for season six (a subject done injustice in a Hidden Files snippet)—let alone the major developments of the year, culminating with the death of Dax. And, most disturbing, is the lack of a staple of previous season installments: Michael Westmore's Aliens.
Instead, there's a nearly 10-minute-long piece dubbed Mission Inquiry: Far Beyond the Stars, which includes reminiscences from Brooks, producer Ira Steven Behr, and Auberjonois, among others, on the making of this clever period piece-cum-social commentary.
While that first segment is interesting, the 10 minutes you'll spend stepping behind the scenes of Worf and Dax's 24th-century wedding could have been better spent. Among the interviews is Farrell, writer Ronald D. Moore, director David Livingston and actor Aron Eisenberg (with a great anecdote about Nog's dancing); however, there are no reflections from Dax's other half, Michael Dorn.
This time out there are two Crew Dossiers, one each for Dr. Julian Bashir and Quark. Bashir's 14-minute profile mostly features reflections from actor Alexander Siddig, Behr and Andrew Robinson (who played the tailor Garak).
Where Siddig's comments are run-of-the-mill, Shimerman's are more lively, offering some fun insights into Quark and what he hoped to do with the character over the years, and how his sparring relationship with Auberjonois' Odo evolved. The 15-minute profile of Quark is more tightly edited, with perspectives from multiple cast and crew.
The brief Sketchbook featurette gives illustrator John Eaves an opportunity to showcase some of the designs and influences for them for a handful of episodes, including "Far Beyond the Stars," "Valiant," "Waltz," "One Little Ship" and more.
Ranging from barely one to three minutes in length, the 10 Hidden Files spread out across the DS9 graphic on the Extra Features menu seem more scattershot than in the past. Like other aspects of this season's extra content, these soundbites seem unsatisfying, somehow. They're shorter and less meaty than we've seen before, which is not to say there aren't a few gems contained therein. (Did you know that Iggy Pop guest starred as a Vorta in "The Magnificent Ferengi"? Or how Odo came to have his trademarked, gruff "harrumph"?)
