Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV Series) The Reckoning (1998) User Reviews

So-so episode with some decent character moments

[snoozejonc · 6/10 · 24 June 2023]

Sisko takes an important religious artefact from Bajor.

I think how much you enjoy it will depend how interesting you find the Bajoran religion episodes. For me this is one of the weaker entries as it kills much of the intrigue surrounding the Profits and Pah-raiths, plus is shows little consistency in the character development of Kai Winn, for the sake of making her the antagonist once again. I like the themes of leaders (religious or otherwise) portrayed as self-serving, but the writers make her quite one-note in this one.

I also struggle with some of the luvvy-duvvy scenes between Kira and Odo. Even though I wanted them to get together the compelling dynamic that existed previously has given way to something less appealing for me. As a beloved Trek character once said "having is not so pleasing a thing after all as 'wanting."

The visuals have been slated enough by other reviewers and I wouldn't disagree with it, but it is Star Trek and I have seen far worse.

I think all actors do a great job with the material.

For me it's a 5.5/10 but I round upwards.

I liked this one.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 23 January 2015]

Some of the episodes involving the so-called 'Prophets' are annoying--such as the ones where Sisko has visions of all his friends and family with them talking with the voices of the Prophets. This one is a bit different and it further illustrates what a giant butt-head Kai Winn is.

When the show begins, Sisko is on Bajor when he feels the urge to take an ancient holy relic with him back to DS9. You assume the Prophets planted this urge in him. Not too surprisingly, Kai Winn is unhappy and lodges a formal protest. Imagine, then, her reaction when once again the Prophets tell Sisko to do something...SMASH the relic! What's next (other than Winn blowing a gasket?!)?

This episode is a good prelude to the crazy stuff that ends the series a year later. The religious angle obviously annoyed some folks (read through the reviews for this episode and you'll get some idea of this) but I liked it, as it was very different.

Again, the Emissary, and Again

[Hitchcoc · 6/10 · 8 November 2018]

I'll never buy into this stuff. I continue to say that the Bajoran people are like ridiculous sheep. They walk around the space station, most of them saying nothing, and getting nowhere. Once again the Kai and Benjamin butt heads over their power bases. Ben has brought some stone thing on board. It is very old and seems to have magical powers. Here we go again.

Kai Ratchet's Revelation

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 12 December 2019]

Kai Winn makes a huge statement in this episode: One that speaks directly to her lack of qualification to actually be the Kai of The Bajora: she has never spoken to The Prophets.

In the first episode where we meet this Bajoran version of a television evangelist, "In the hands of The Prophets", she claims visions from the "Orb" justify her persecution of Keiko O'Brien.

We can now officially ascribe this as a LIE.

She has never seen nor spoken to The Prophets, and in this episode that continues: they basically ignore her completely.

Lies from religious figureheads is certainly nothing new, it is something that we see on this planet constantly especially with the so-called spiritual advisor in the "orange" house (in 2019). A verse from Jeremiah comes to mind:

Jeremiah 23:21 I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.

And Kai Winn embodies this type of hypocrisy where people dare claim to be speaking for a God that does not speak to them. Jeremiah was not the only one who spoke against this kind of hypocrisy, it is all through the Old Testament. And the New Testament.

This episode reveals some of the religious aspects of The Bajoran Religion, also the topic of prophecy. Who are we to say what something actually means? And The Sisko, who had a direct line to The Prophets and spoke to them constantly, doesn't really understand until the last minute what The Prophets were actually saying.

The Bajorans are either going to be destroyed, or they will eat fruit.

Kai Winn interferes with The Prophets, once again.

Of Course, there are going to be some residents of Reddit to come here to IMDb Who are going to start babbling on about filler episodes. In deep space nine, there was no such thing, and one of the aspects of this episode becomes an important figure in the final episode of this season and also of the final season: Kosst Amojan/Amoran: The prophet that was kicked out of the celestial temple.

Kai Winn defies the Phophets

[Tweekums · 9/10 · 23 August 2010]

When an ancient relic is found on Bajor Sisko, Jake and Kira go to the site. The writing on it says 'Welcome Emissary' and when he touches it he finds himself with the prophets who are talking about something called 'The Reckoning'. He takes the relic back to the station to work on a full translation. When it is translated he has reason to worry, as it appears to prophesy the destruction of Deep Space Nine. People start to worry when the wormhole keeps opening and closing causing the station to shake like an earthquake and natural disasters to occur on Bajor. Kai Winn believes this is because Sisko has angered the Prophets by removing the relic from Bajor. He agrees to its return but after frustration that he doesn't understand what the Prophets are trying to say he breaks it. One of the Prophets possesses Kira and announces that she will battle the 'Kosst Amojan', the evil counterpart of the prophets. The station is evacuated ahead of the battle and there is quite a surprise when we see whom the Kosst Amojan has chosen to possess for the battle: Jake Sisko.

It was nice to take a break from the war with the Dominion and return to the Prophets and learn a bit more about Captain Sisko's relationship with them. The extra jeopardy when we see whom the Kosst Amojan had chosen nicely raised the tension and made it look as if the Captain was going to have to make a real sacrifice. It was interesting to see that the person who defied the prophets and saved Jake wasn't Sisko but the Kai. Louise Fletcher put in a fine performance as the unlikeable Kai, it can't be easy playing such a character as she is meant to be self-serving rather than being truly villainous.

When will we be rid of this CREEPY Kai WinI and the actress Fletcher good grief!

[Blumanowar · 10/10 · 28 December 2021]

The truth came out with her but I'm not watching another episode with her in it. Period.

What a creepy actress she fits her charachter well. Her personal history makes you wonder why she was ever cast. Creepy.

Abraham and the binding of Isaac

[Zephyr707 · 4/10 · 8 July 2019]

Some of the Bajoran religion episodes in DS9 aren't bad even though faith vs science usually isn't handled all too well. This episode wasn't great, but had its moments. Louise Fletcher's performance as Kai Winn is always great to watch and if the plot did take a cue from the binding of Isaac and Sisko willing to sacrifice his son, Jake, for his faith then she would be the angel, which is an interesting twist. Louise Fletcher does a really good job of creating a more complex character rather than an easy outright villain.

I liked the episode, I don't see why so much deslike on this

[Thecuchix · 9/10 · 26 April 2024]

Another episode about the Emisary and the Prophets, there are stuff what we see already like body possession from part of the Pah-wraith.

I didn't expecting the end of the episode, not only for the fight itself, but also Kai Winn taking the choise of stop the fight, even if is debated to actually wanting the best to Bajor or only acting angry against the Prophets for ignore her.

Much people hate not only the character, but also the actress, the first thing, well, somebody need to be the bad one, but attacking the actor just because you don't like the character is one of the most childish things to do.

Now, some negative points are the fact some stuff aren't explained, like why Sisko break the tablet, he was done of all of this or somehow the Pah-wraith make him angry? Also, why the destiny make this fight in the corporeal realm if the prophets are supposed to almost don't know anything about corporeal stuff?

I find it a good episode anyway, not perfect but enjoyable to watch.

space wizard-ghosts

[Ar_Pharazon_the_golden · 3/10 · 22 August 2018]

The Prophets and Bajoran religion and culture are clearly DS9's greatest and glaring flaw. Sure, at first the idea of super-aliens who live in the wormhole and are worshipped on the nearby planet as gods was a decent one. But it quickly derailed into silliness, with Sisko having visions, all too convenient interventions, and of course, prophecies, the shame of any plot that respects itself.

So here an old stone contains a prophecy about the Emissary (unsuprisingly, all the rest has little to do with him) and after some whining by Kai Winn, in the end one of the prophets possesses Kira, an evil ghost possesses Jake, and they go all Harry Potter, until Kai Winn interrupts the fight by releasing a mcguffin.

The whole affair is bad enough, with the continuous (and failing) effort to show the Bajoran religion and culture as admirable when it is simply (very) annoying being especially disappointing for a franchise which stands directly opposed to such primitiveness.

Enough with the prophets already

[tomsly-40015 · 2/10 · 22 November 2023]

Another episode of the prophets. This time a prophet takes over Kira's body to fight a Pah wraith that grabbed Jake's body. And of course the shootout takes place on the station while both face each other like gunslingers in a Western movie. But instead of pulling their guns they just shoot different colored energy beams at each other which come out of their bellies.

Even worse than those Bajorans still thinking that the prophets are their gods, Sisko is now full on prophet mode, too. Ignore the fact, that this species is just a highly evolved non-corporal life form that exists beyond our definition of space and linear time.

All starts with a stone tablet that is found in ancient ruins on Bajor. Sisko travels to Bajor to investigate but the petroglyphs cannot be deciphered on the spot so Sisko decides to take the whole tablet with him back to the station (I wonder why he doesn't just take a photograph or a holographic image - he did that before with an obelisk he found in that same ancient city in another episode). Suddenly nature catastrophes begin to strike Bajor and the wormhole seems to cause quakes in space. Kai Winn is not amused and accuses Sisko of blasphemy and that he caused all this by stealing the sacred artefact.

And then it is high noon and the energy beings battle each other while Sisko seems just fine with risking the life of his son dying in that fight. It is just really bad.

"Come, Child", says the annoying, religious leader to a middle-aged fellow kneeling nearby.

[Xolotl · 1/10 · 6 June 2014]

Another boring episode featuring Bajoran religious fanaticism at work. No doubt this episode was tailored to accommodate the American obsession with religion. It's a wonder that Bajor manages to be a space-faring culture with such backwards mentality. Hear this: to them, it's perfectly logical that a weird space phenomenon (the gate), as well as their planet's meteorology and geology, could be severely upset depending on the particular location of an archaeological artefact.

Something funny about Bajor, but also about most other Star Trek "races", is the fact that they achieve global unity in such eminently polarising subjects as religion or ideology. Look at human religions, and see how they're prone to split into rival branches, over trivial, petty details, and with such intensity that their members are not above killing people from the other side at the slightest "provocation". Religion has never been a unifying force: it's been one of the main dividers within humankind, and a willing originator of death, suffering, intolerance.

The fact that this is a work of science fiction does not mean that shoddy plot designs should be acceptable, when they breach the credibility of a universe based on progress.

Decent episode that turns into Power Rangers on a space station

[a-gordon-2374 · 4/10 · 16 November 2021]

The first half of this episode is OK. The only good part about the episode overall is Kai Winn's duplicity. Other than that, this episode takes a steep nose-dive in the last 15 minutes and turns into some extra cringe-worthy garbage with awful acting and terrible effects. It basically becomes Power Rangers, but in Star Trek. The ending is underwhelming, too.

DS9 in Star Trek universe

[morn1960 · 3/10 · 17 August 2020]

This episode represents almost everything wrong with DS9 belonging in in Star Trek universe. The Dominion war is the exception but the religious mumbo jumbo is a betrayal of Roddenberry's dream. It also represents how much of a rip off of Babylon 5 the show. With over 25 similarities the show is clearly the result of Trek producers seeing the B5 bible that JMS presented for consideration as new a new series and it being rejected but suddenly DS9 appeared.

So annoying

[alreadyseenbeentaken · 5/10 · 7 September 2019]

Whenever Jake Sisko is involved, an episode is doomed. Once again this whiny, childish coward-character ruins the flow of the story. Kai Winn is annoying as usual. This, paired with the bad script - Cpt. Sisko being thrown through the air by touching a stone - didn't let me enjoy this episode. Even Dex was super annoying. And Winn is sabotaging the prophets? Such a dumb script.