Star Trek: The Search, Part I

Episode: "The Search, Part I"

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Season 3, Episode 1

Original Air Date: September 26, 1994

via Memory Alpha

Our heroes have a new weapon: the USS Defiant.  With the new threat of the Dominion looming, Commander Sisko has scored a warship.  It also gives our heroes long-range exploration capability, expanding narrative possibilities for the series as well.  Sisko wastes no time putting his new toy to good use, launching a mission to the Gamma Quadrant to find the Dominion.

"The Search" lays important groundwork not just for Season 3 but for the rest of DS9's run.  The Dominion will be the primary adversary henceforth.  As noted above, thanks to the Defiant, our friends are no longer limited to a guardian role.  They can be explorers, too.  Best of all, Odo's story takes off.  Among the DS9 principals, Odo's character thread is the most rewarding.  Up to this point, Kira and even Dax were still in the running but with "The Search," the constable's tale takes the lead for good.  On the station-front, there's a challenge to his authority when Starfleet brings in their own security officer, Michael Eddington (Kenneth Marshall).  Once in the Gamma Quadrant, Odo finds himself drawn to the Omarian Nebula.  He steals a shuttle and essentially kidnaps Kira to come with him to check it out.  They reach a rogue M-class planet.  On the surface, they meet Odo's people who welcome him home.

Now, there's a cliffhanger!

For Season 2, the producers challenged the writers to separate the new series from The Next Generation.  The charge for Season 3 was to build a sense of family.  It starts early in "The Search" as Jake and Ben discuss how they've come to see the station as home.  Later, Ben expresses a deeper love for Bajor than we've seen before as he states how determined he is to protect them, not the Federation, from the Dominion.  Finally, we see genuine warmth between Commander Sisko and Quark before they part on the Defiant, honestly concerned for each other's well-being.

Is Odo's discovery a threat to this sense of family?  We shall soon see.  Part II is next week.

Acting Notes

via Memory Alpha

Salome Jens plays the Female Changeling who greets Odo on his home world.  Jens was born in Milwaukee, May 8, 1935.  She majored in drama at the University of Wisconsin and also studied dance with Martha Graham.  This is her second of many Trek appearances.  She was the ancient humanoid in "The Chase."

She made her film debut in Terror from the Year 5000 which later had the dubious honor of being featured in Mystery Science Theater 3000.  Other films include Angel Baby, The Fool Killer and Seconds.  Soap operas were good to her.  She had a 500-episode run on Love Is a Many Splendored Thing and a recurring role on the satirical Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.  She was Martha Kent on Superboy and also had recurring roles on L.A. Law and Melrose Place.