**Does contain spoilers** **Does contain spoilers**.
So lets get the bad aspects to this episode out of the way first. That of Gul Ducat's daughter getting shot by one of Gul Ducat's underlings. IT WOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED. Keep it real script writers!.
There is just NO WAY his underling would have shot the daughter of the Dictator of the entire Cardassian empire then at the same time loyally attempt to evacuate him from DS9.
What did he think Gul Ducat would do?. Pat him on the back & say, "Well done, lets leave her body on the floor, shes dead anyway, lets go". No way, just would not have happened as portrayed.
THEN we have the preposterous notion that even when the Dominion & Cardassian forces are winning against all those in the Alpha Quadrant they are fighting against, all because they are unable to deactivate the worm hole mines to let in more Dominion space ships, that all of a sudden they all have to clear off away from DS9.
Perceived as winning the war even by Starfleet officers but can't manage to hold on to that area of space. A sudden turnaround wasn't it.
And WHY would all those opposing space craft and Starfleet and its alliance converge upon one tiny small area in space, hundreds & hundreds of ships when even a detonated 50MT 1960's Earth nuclear bomb would likely have wiped the lot out.
Yes it looks spectacular to see them all on a modern day 65" 4K TV buzzing about. Some really good effects for something now over 20 years old. The producers always spent money, time & effort into the production, special effects and scenery, prop design, nice details can be seen, a good STYLE to the Starfleet tech. So this episode was an action packed ending to what was an engaging 7 episode run. Would have scored higher were it not for the glaring plot hole/unlikelihood of Gul Ducat's daughter being shot by his subordinate.
MAYBE a stray or even targeted ship to station phaser fire, blowing out part of the DS9 side section his daughter was in, it would have been more believable, with her being gradually sucked out into space, a force field being partially erected and Gul Ducat trying to pull her in from the gaping hole in the side of DS9. A MUCH more believable & 'dramatic' plot, more worthy of her character.
With maybe a Klingon ship having first located Gul Ducat on DS9, fired upon his location within DS9 only to have all 3 people in that area, have to hang on to things whilst being slowly sucked out into space.
His daughter being the first and only killed, because a temporary faint force field activated in just in time, strong enough to hold only some of the air in as it left a small gap around her without damaging her body. (A Starfleet safety feature). Still managing to survive being partially in & partially out, with the force field getting more stronger & solid. "The force field is narrowing, you'll be killed", shouts Gul Ducat. Drag that scene out a bit, the force field slowly contracting with her holding on to him, dragging him and eventually having to let go due to her knowing he too would likely be pulled out with her or she would be crushed.
FAR MORE DRAMATIC and realistic than his poxy aid shooting her cause he heard she was a traitor. It just needed that extra bit of plot development with the writers taking her demise to its fullest. Yes milking!! It for all it was worth, not just some sudden out of place unlikely killing. The character really did deserved better.
So 6 stars for this particular episode, though the entire first 6 episodes of season 6 & the last one of season 5 that started that collection off deserves quite a bit more than 6 stars. An entertaining & thrilling mini series in that block of episodes, some real good action, effects, developing storyline and good acting.
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Talking of acting. As promised in my last review of series 6 ep 3, the three actors of the entire DS9 series who I thought gave the best continual acting performance in no particular order is as follows.
Quark. We always got a high level of acting from him, played his part very well with skill & confidence. The show would have been really flat without him.
Odo. Some really fine acting from him, he absolutely did become the most alien & alienated of all the characters in the series, immersed himself in the role. A believable portrayal. Some really good acting scenes with both Quark & Odo's constant adversarial nature being portrayed. And at times a softening of relations & feelings, well acted.
Garak. The Cardassian Taylor/Spy. He also gave out that air of constant confidence, though with menace & sneakiness, a great linguist & quick witted, fitted that role perfectly. Gave the show an edge.
Oh, and a special mention to Major Kira for having such incredible eyes. Maybe the ridged Bajoran nose somehow added to the look in that area, gave it a contrast, but mainly I suppose due to her genetics she has eyes that light up her face, drawing people in, captivating them whilst beaming out such a startling sight of her eyes for us to see.
Acted firstly with her eyes & the rest of her vocal & gesture acting followed along. May not have had the model figure of eye candy roll-on tire tracks but her stunning captivating eyes more than made up for that. A more interesting character portrayal as well. Though was not keen on her portrayal of Miss Whiplash from the Alternative Universe. A bit over the top, a nauseating character, maybe to her credit played that way to evoke such feelings with such a contrast in character, mostly.
The rest of the cast ALSO put in fine performances, immersed themselves into their roles, year after year, all quite convincing. Almost as fresh in the later episodes as in the earlier not so polished & fluid ones. They didn't seem tied of the roles, maybe knowing in themselves that this series was likely to be the pinnacle of their career, that later on there may not be a solid constant slew of work to do. Hoping though they would go on to greater things now & then with odd movie appearances & hopefully other shows, but knowing they'd be likely typecasted forever as being in Star Trek. With the pitfalls of that.
The major cast must have known this series would financially take care of them for a long while. Fandom conventions were taking off & were popular even in those days, regular appearances at conventions tiding them over, keeping them relevant & in the public/production casting crew's eye. And perhaps a bit of fun for them as well meeting fans & fellow cast members.
The whole series shaped up to be a decent enough series for the Star Trek franchise, I have been surprised overall. Some of the individual themed episodes were a bit hit & miss, the odd few were flat, going nowhere fast & even going nowhere very slowly. Then we had, (after finding out about them), the main theme that being of the threat of the Dominion & also the constant Cardassian menace & aggression.
This episode has its flaws as mentioned though a fitting end to that run of episodes, maybe the best block of episodes in the entire DS9 series so far.
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6 stars then for this episode, with my input as a writer or had the writers thought of it I feel that episode could have been made even better. Maybe with the development of 3d realistic animation/modelling and all the new AI malarkey, budding filmmakers can create for themselves from existing content, substituting an alternate scene into episodes & even movies. If they have the time, ability & money to do so. For home use & viewing, but some may slip out to selected public/fans.
The copyright owners may or may not publicly approve, but if it raised interest in that series throughout the viewing World it would be a good thing for that franchise, they may not mind behind closed doors so much as what was said publicly.
It would take a lot of doing though, but I suspect many fans would like to view such material even for a few mins of different scenes in a particular episode. The tech has to become more capable in its ability, cheaper and easier to use. It may become quite common for those able & willing to do so in decades to come. Bit like music sampling only with TV & movie scenes.
Viewers becoming interested in someones particular edit of episodes, movies and certain genre. Like a visual DJ. Even bringing life to some offbeat near obscure piece of work that the owners can then, with a new fan following, package up the original material and profit by this new interest. Sales figure will persuade them. A win win.
Later on the owners of such original material faced with the sheer volume of improvised material being made would generally not even try to put an end to it. There being such a MASSIVE amount of original material out there, tons of it, with only so much public interest to go around, some outfits would actually be grateful for increased interest.
There would be an air of what was acceptable and what was not. Unofficial guidelines that these visual DJ creative people would mostly stick to or bring it all upon themselves from these companies & their own piers. All in years to come. The shape of things to come. We may then get a better scene to view of the Ziyal character's ending.
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