Star Trek: Call to Arms

Episode: "Call to Arms"

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Season 5, Episode 26

Original Air Date: June 16, 1997

via Memory Alpha

Garak episode!

The shit hits the fan.

Dominion convoys are passing through the wormhole on the regular, heading towards Cardassia, newly in the fold.  While the ships are there officially to defend the new ally, suspicions are growing that an attack on Deep Space 9 is imminent.  Our friends attempt to mine the wormhole in order to stop the supply line but that only gives Gul Dukat the excuse to strike.  Most of those aboard the station evacuate.  As the episode, and the season, come to a close, Cardassian control over DS9 - now Terok Nor once again - is restored.  The Dominion War has begun.

By design, "Call to Arms" leaves a whole bunch of dangling threads for Season 6.  There are touching goodbyes-for-now between multiple couples.  There's Jake who manages to stay on the station when he really should have left.  The Starfleet crew head into battle on the Defiant.  Odo, Kira and Quark remain behind to make the best of things on the station.  The writers wanted options heading into the next season and now they had plenty.

But the War is definitely for real.

The two most poignant goodbyes...

Dax and Worf, who is off to serve on the Klingon ship Rotarran: Dax agrees to marry Worf once the war is over.

Rom's wonderful Casablanca-esque farewell to Leeta, not long after the two have finally married:

"You've got to go, Leeta. The problems of two newlyweds are but a small thread in the tapestry of galactic events. You might not understand that today, or even tomorrow. But someday you will. So get on that shuttle. And don't look back."

For comparison (for the record, the most famous line, "Here's looking at you, kid," is the lousiest line in the whole movie):

Overall, "Call to Arms" is one of DS9's best.  There's meaningful material for everyone and several storylines reach significant junctures.  We have a lot to look forward to.

And before my season wrap, I must acknowledge what a brutal week it has been for Star Trek...

Walter Koenig
1936-2026

Patrick Stewart
1940-2026

RIP, Gentlemen.

Thoughts on Season Five

General Impressions

Season 5 is not as seamless as Season 4 but it's still awfully damn good.  Six episodes rank in my current running top ten for the series.  Even seemingly run-of-the-mill installments sparkle with dependable professionalism.

Favorite Episode: "...Nor the Battle to the Strong"

Deep Space Nine set itself apart from the rest of Star Trek in bold and significant ways.  Perhaps most meaningfully, the series sits with the horrors of war in ways other series do not.  "...Nor the Battle to the Strong" is the most important episode in this vein.  Screenwriter René Echevarria dug deep into classic war literature for inspiration: Crane, Remarch and especially Hemingway.  Much as The Clone Wars episode "Rookies" feels like something more than Star Wars, "Nor the Battle..." dares to go beyond Trek.  In both cases, they did it by going smaller and more personal.  

Least Favorite Episode: "Let He Who Is Without Sin"

It took over four seasons, but I finally got to a DS9 episode I just don't like very much.  "Let He Who Is Without Sin" is a Risa holiday story, primarily focused on Dax and Worf as they explore their newly romantic relationship.  The idea had potential.  But when the network told the writers they couldn't have the full-on sleaze fest they wanted, they couldn't pivot to something more meaningful.  There are a lot of beautiful women in the episode's cast.  That's really it's only redeeming quality.

Favorite Recurring Character: Garak

It's always Garak.  Maybe at this point, it's more meaningful to highlight a runner-up.  Rom comes into his own in Season 5.  He thrives in engineering and, of course, he marries Leeta.  Other good recurring characters this season include Grilka, Martok, Ishka, Leeta...  As ever, the DS9 bench dazzles.

But Garak's still #1.

Favorite Blasts from the Past: Kirk and Spock

Without a doubt, 1960s Kirk and Spock casually strolling onto the screen in "Trials and Tribble-ations" is one of the great Wow! moments in all of Star Trek.  

Overall, the episode is one of the franchise's most powerful and magical nostalgic tugs.

Favorite Guest Actor, One-Shot: Kaitlin Hopkins

via Memory Alpha

Hopkins played Kilana, a Vorta in the wonderful early-season episode, "The Ship."  She is a narrative descendant of Joanne Linville's Romulan Commander character in the original series episode, "The Enterprise Incident."  She doesn't have quite the same sexual tension with Sisko that the Commander had with Spock but nonetheless, she manages to be a lot more appealing than the typical Vorta.

Onward

The end is coming.  You can feel it in Season 5.  For both Sisko and Odo, in particular, we get a glimpse of narrative paths the audience won't be allowed to follow.  I intend to savor the last two seasons.  It was decades before Trek was anywhere near this good again.

Step by Step: Burlington Sunsets

Burlington, Vermont dependably has the most spectacular sunsets in the northeast.  Facing west across Lake Champlain from New York's glorious Adirondacks, you can pretty well count on a stunning show every night.  We spent a great deal of our weekend at Main Street Landing as it is the host venue for the annual Vermont International Film Festival.  They have an especially nice view of the lake.

Here's a daytime shot from more or less the same spot for comparison:

Great festival.  I saw twelve films in all.  My wife managed 14.  My favorite of the batch was Look Back, a gorgeously filmed Japanese coming of age story about teenage manga artists.

Even with all the movies, I managed to get steps in.  7 out of 7 for fitness goals for the week.

Star Trek: In the Cards

Episode: "In the Cards"

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Season 5, Episode 25

Original Air Date: June 9, 1997

via Memory Alpha

Emotions on the station are at a low ebb.  The sense of impending war with the Dominion has everyone feeling down.  Even Captain Sisko isn't able to muster his usual optimism.  Jake takes it upon himself to cheer up Dad and he enlists Nog's help.  Among the treasures in Quark's latest auction is a Willie Mays rookie baseball card.  The two young buddies scheme to get it.  Obviously, nothing goes quite as planned, yet all falls into place by the end and they manage to make a lot of other people happy along the way.

As soon as we finished, the kid declared this one of their favorite DS9 episodes.  I was surprised.  I certainly appreciate the comic relief stories as the series can get heavy for long stretches but I rarely think of them as the best ones.  In fact, quite a lot of critics are partial to "In the Cards."  What do I know?

I do feel a little sad for Leeta, no longer having a teddy bear.

It's a great episode for the recurring cast, though aren't they all?  Nog, Kai Winn, Weyoun, Leeta and Morn (we haven't really talked about him, have we?) all get meaningful material, the last two without any spoken lines.

Music Notes

via Memory Alpha

Composer Dennis McCarthy won an Emmy for Deep Space Nine's main theme.  His Star Trek credits are extensive with underscore work on 88 NextGen episodes, 77 for DS9, 65 for Voyager and 30 for Enterprise.  He is also the score composer for Star Trek Generations.  He has ten Emmy nominations in total including nine for Trek.  

Step by Step: Peak Foliage 2026

7 out of 7 days on fitness goals this week.

Star Trek: Scorpion

Episode: "Scorpion"

Series: Star Trek: Voyager

Season 3, Episode 26

Original Air Date: May 21, 1997

via Memory Alpha

There's a new bully in town.  15 Borg cubes zoom past Voyager, evidently in too much of a hurry to assimilate our heroes.  Not long after, the crew happen upon the same cubes, completely destroyed.  What could be so powerful that it could so easily overwhelm the irresistible force of the Borg?  Species 8472, that's who.  The Doctor invents a nanoprobe that could be used to combat the new enemy.  Janeway hatches a bold plan: give the nanoprobe tech to the Borg in exchange for safe passage through their territory.  

Yup, "Scorpion" is quite a story.  For many, it is Voyager's very best.  The Janeway proposal presents a Trek dilemma of the highest order and the resulting tension between the Captain and Chakotay brings extra weight to an already solid season-ending cliffhanger.

Thoughts on Season Three

General Impressions

Voyager found more sure footing in its third season.  While quality is still uneven, the disastrous offerings of early Season 2 seem distant memories.  The show still feels like DS9's awkward younger sibling but the best episodes are satisfying.

Favorite Episode: "Distant Origin"

I can understand how one might prefer "Scorpion" if they like lots of action and a fast pace.  But if anything, Forra Gegen's trial over his assertion that his people, the Voths, descend from Earth's dinosaurs feels even more poignant now than it would have in 1997.  Plus, using the holodeck to extrapolate how that evolution might have occurred is one of the coolest applications of the technology to that point, even if it does feel quite a lot like 2020s AI in hindsight.

Least Favorite Episode: "Macrocosm"

This choice is actually a reflection of the series's improved quality in Season 3.  "Macrocosm" really isn't so bad, just not my cup of tea.  Compared to the disastrous lows of Season 2, "Macrocosm" is pretty good.  

In an Aliens send up, Janeway prowls the corridors in a tank top with a big gun, hunting the overgrown micro-organisms that have infected the rest of the crew with a debilitating disease.  I'm not keen on horror movies so this one didn't do it for me.  But it's not terrible.

Favorite Recurring Character: Rain Robinson

via Movie and TV Wiki

Because of the nature of Voyager's broader epic, recurring characters are rare compared with other series.  This time, I'll take Rain Robinson (Sarah Silverman), the scientist caught in the middle of Voyager's cat-and-mouse chase with the evil Henry Starling (Ed Begley, Jr.) in the two-part "Future's End."  She's also a low-grade love interest for Tom Paris.  

Favorite Blast from the Past: Sulu

Overall, I was underwhelmed by "Flashback," the big nostalgia offering to help celebrate Star Trek's 30th anniversary.  But I still love Sulu.  It's always good to see him in the Captain's chair and who wouldn't be drawn in by that low, resonant voice.  You get Janice Rand and Kang in the episode, too, but Sulu's the star.

Favorite Guest Actor, One-Shot: Giusseppina Pentangelli

via Memory Alpha

A fictitious 22nd century opera diva, Pentangelli (Carole Davis) was Mimi to The Doctor's Rodolfo in the latter's La Boheme holodeck program.  Davis barely gets any screen time at all but she makes the most of it.  The singing voice is her own, too.  The character would have been well worth bringing back but alas, "The Swarm" is her only appearance.  

Onward

Big changes are coming and right soon.  We'll gain a principal character and the narrative impact is seismic.  We'll lose one, too - one of my favorites.  Stay tuned.

Step by Step: The Catamount Trail

The Catamount Trail, as you can see on the sign, is a cross-country ski trail.  It runs 300 miles, the entire length of Vermont from the Massachusetts border to the Quebec one.  Maintained since 1984, it was inspired by the much older hiking trail, The Long Trail.  In the off-season - and thank goodness we don't have any snow just yet - it is open to hikers.

7 for 7 on fitness goals for the week and I've raised my daily step goal to 10,000.  Maintaining that through the winter might be a challenge but at least for the moment, I'm up for it.

Star Trek: Empok Nor

Episode: "Empok Nor"

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Season 5, Episode 24

Original Air Date: May 19, 1997

via Memory Alpha

Garak episode!

In the midst of conduit repairs, Chief O'Brien finds he needs a replacement part.  Spare parts for the Cardassian-constructed station aren't exactly easy to come by and, for technobabble reasons, can't be replicated.  He travels to Empok Nor, an abandoned station, with a small crew, including both Garak and Nog.  Unfortunately, in addition to the usual booby traps, the Cardassians left behind a couple of guards, preserved in stasis.

The heat rises when Garak is exposed to a psychotropic drug that turns him into a killing machine.  At first, he targets the "bad guys" but once they're taken care of, he turns on his friends, ultimately killing Crewman Amaro.  I'm not sure "Empok Nor" is a good episode, exactly, but it's a good one for Garak development, pressing hard on the question of whether or not he can be trusted.  Pairing him with O'Brien, the combat veteran of the Cardassian War, also opens interesting avenues.  

Like "The Ship," "Empok Nor" also makes a point of giving names and lines to red shirts...

Acting Notes

via Critters Wiki

Tom Hodges played the role of Crewman Pechetti, an engineer on the mission who meets an unfortunate end.  Hodges was born in Chicago, July 1, 1965.  He is best known for playing Bruno in Lucas and Rich in The Hogan Family.  Other films include Revenge of the Nerds II, Steel Magnolias and Heavyweights.  Other television appearances include L.A. Law, The Facts of Life and JAG.