25 Years Ago Today,Deep Space Nine‘s Dominion War ChangedStar TrekForever

Deep Space Ninerevolutionized so much of what could be possible in the humans of Star Trek , but it will always be remembered for one of its mosttransgressive plot of ground screw thread : the devastating outbreak of the Dominion War , a fight that , 25 years ago , challenge everything the franchise’sidealistic vision of utopiacould stand for .

Although the Dominion had been an ever - grow threat throughout the fifth season of Deep Space Nine , its dramatic finale — and the coming six - part opening to time of year six that would conclude with “ Sacrifice of Angels , ” which air 25 years ago today — brought the conflict its bomber and villains alike were dreading to an explosive , horrifying new level . Across these seven episodes , Star Trek distinguish a serialized arc unlike anythingit had done before , even as element of try - and - true figure of speech still tissue in and out of it . Deep Space Nine had been invaded before , even as far back as the climax of the show ’s first time of year , but there is something profound in examine the Cardassian ’s re - occupation of the show ’s heart and home , routing the Starfleet personnel aboard it and go away a whole lump of the main cast — Odo , Kira , Quark , Garak , Rom , Leeta , and more — under the duo of foe occupation .

Even more heavy is that the crisis is not get back straightaway . Star Trek has done big threats before , but they ’re tarradiddle that , at most , are told across two episodes , either back - to - back or bookending and opening two season . It takes six episode , six hours across six weeks of television , for Captain Sisko and the gang of the Defiant to make up the design to re - take the post , struggle along the way with the price of fighting a war on the scale unlike anything Starfleet has seen in centuries up to this point . Across these episodes—“A meter to Stand , ” “ Rocks and Shoals , ” “ Sons and Daughters , ” “ Behind the Lines , ” “ Favor the Bold , ” and “ Sacrifice of Angels”—the Defiant ’s bunch is never give a chance to rest , and neither are the characters left back on Deep Space Nine either . The setting of what this arc does , touching on everything from Worf ’s relationship to his Logos and Klingon honor , climaxing Kira and Dukat ’s beguiling , tense relationship , Odo ’s divided loyalty to his foresightful lost changeling peoples and his friends , and the very body of our Starfleet hero sandwich as they are desperately chase from one wartime crisis to the next , is unthinkable compare to even some of Star Trek ’s most enduring epics before this .

Gif: Paramount

The length of the Dominion War electric arc work just as much on the interview as it does our champion . We are as unsealed as they are . Is this the week things go back to normal ? Is this the week they win , like all good Starfleet champion do ? As things hang back on , thing get worse for everyone — whether they ’re tired or miss Leslie Townes Hope , or it ’s in arc like Odo ’s as we see him conflicted and ultimately straying from helping Kira and his friends resist the Cardassian occupation . humble victory like Worf ’s balancing with Alexander or the simple fact the Defiant bunch cook it through their missions week to week , scrambling to poke holes at the Domnion ’s encroaching force , feel important in the threatening tone that reverberate throughout each sequence . No one knows if triumph is potential , even if you assume that it has to be , masterfully using the length this electric discharge take to matter upon the audience .

So when , 25 age ago , we get to “ Sacrifice ” and are put away into the do - or - pass battle for Sisko ’s scarce - prepared fleet to retake the post , that incertitude coalesces into an hour of television that is Star Trek ’s ultimate epic up to this point . Yes , the ship struggle scenes are bluff and vast on a scale unseen in the franchise up to this point , but they ’re more than their sizing and spectacle because we have spent five episodes before this leading to this effort — a fleet half the size of it of the Dominion ’s , scrounged together in desperation , being torn asunder . Every red matters not just because it ’s what these ship be — Starfleet thrust into a conflict Trek had never touched in this room before — but because it proceed the tensity built up across the episodes before it at a constant pyrexia pitch .

Which is why , in the end , the deus ex machina of Sisko ’s gambit to the Prophets in the Bajoran Wormhole , an as desperate supplication to save not just Deep Space Nine and the Federation ’s effect , but Bajor itself , works at the episode and the electric arc ’s minute of stand-in . It forces Sisko to face the quasi - spiritual status he has assumed in Bajoran bon ton as a nosepiece between the Prophets and Bajor , a position he has otherwise up to this stop void or endure . A heavy price is still paid — personally on the station when Gul Dukat ’s daughter Ziyal is killed for assist the resistivity , send Dukat even further down his nefarious path , and on a macro scale when the Federation ’s fleet is still annihilate even in victory . Everyone on the show is vary by the outcome of this arc ’s conclusion , in fundamental way that go on to shape their stories for the sleep of the series . And of course , so is Deep Space Nine itself , no longer just Star Trek show , but a Star Trek show about wartime , about the variety of battle generations of Trek before it had only allowed to exist in the shadows of the past and in worldbuilding , never at the marrow of its story .

Screenshot: Paramount

Screenshot: Paramount

“ Sacrifice of Angels ” finish the battle , but it does n’t end the war — but arguably it end at least some level of Star Trek ’s wide affirmative sinlessness , challenging it to embolden its rarefied of values , and in the process , changing what Star Trek can be forever .

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Screenshot: Paramount