The
fact that I think that STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE is the finest of
all the television series that take place in the science fiction universe
created by Gene Roddenberry is a point that I’ve driven home in my
reviews of season one and season two. My preference for STAR TREK: DEEP
SPACE NINE may have something to do with the series being the darkest
and most introspective of all the shows that bore the "Trek"
moniker. Additionally, I was intrigued by the fact that this particular
"Trek" was and is the only one that demonstrated a creative
"grand vision" that carried out story arcs over multiple
episodes and multiple seasons. As for season three itself, it is filled
with rich, character driven episodes, in addition to planting the dramatic
seeds that would germinate and bear delicious and sometimes bittersweet
fruit over the course of the remaining four seasons. STAR TREK: DEEP
SPACE NINE- SEASON THREE ($130) has been released on DVD by Paramount
Home Entertainment in a seven disc set, which offers all twenty six
episodes that were broadcast during the third year.
Disc
one contains the episodes The Search, Part I, The
Search, Part II, The House of Quarkand Equilibrium.
The Search, Part I follows on the season two ending
encounter with warlike Jem'Hadar in the Gamma Quadrant- with Starfleet
placing The Defiant under Sisko’s command. Using the prototype
battleship to fend off any unprovoked Jem'Hadar attacks, Sisko (Avery
Brooks) returns to the Gamma Quadrant to locate The Founders of the
Dominion in an effort to reach an accord. In The Search, Part II,
Constable Odo (Rene Auberjonois) is finally reunited with his people,
while the peace talks with The Founders on DS9 are not what they seem. The
House of Quark finds the Ferengi barkeep forced into marriage with
the widow of the Klingon warrior he claimed to have killed. In Equilibrium,
Jadzia (Terry Farrell) makes a startling discovery about one of the
previous hosts to the Dax symbiont.
Disc
two contains the episodes Second Skin, The Abandoned,
Civil Defense and Meridian. Second Skin
finds Major Kira (Nana Visitor) kidnapped and surgically altered to look
like a Cardassian, as part of a larger political ploy. In The
Abandoned, it is nature versus nurture, when the DS9 crew tries to
circumvent the genetic programming of a Jem'Hadar youth. Civil
Defense opens with Chief O’Brien (Colm Meaney) accidentally
tripping and old Cardassian security protocol in the DS9 computer system,
which locks down the station and activates the self-destruct mechanism. In
Meridian, the DS9 crew encounters a planet in the Gamma
Quadrant, which makes an appearance in our universe once every sixty
years.
Disc
three contains the episodes Defiant, Fascination,
Past Tense, Part I and Past Tense, Part II. Defiant
features a guest appearance by Jonathan Frakes as Tom Riker, who steals
the Defiant as part of a Maquis plot. Fascination includes
an appearance by Lwaxana Troi (Majel Barrett-Roddenberry), in this story
of the station falling victim to a virus with romantic side effects. Past
Tense, Part I opens with a transporter mishap that lands Sisko,
Jadzia and Dr. Bashir (Alexander Siddig) on Earth in the year 2024 and in
a position to change history. Past Tense, Part II forces
Sisko to become active in a social upheaval of 2024 to maintain the future
timeline.
Disc
four contains the episodes Life Support, Heart of
Stone, Destiny and Prophet Motive. Life
Support finds Kira’s lover, Vedek Bareil, critically injured and
in need of a treatment that will sustain him for the short term, but will
eventually destroy his mind. In Heart of Stone, Odo and Kira
are stranded on a hostile moon, with Odo being forced to watch as Kira is
slowly enveloped by a crystal that has begun growing around her body. Destiny
finds Sisko having to come to terms with being haled as the Bajoran
Emissary Of The Prophets, when an ancient prophecy comes to pass. In Prophet
Motive, the Ferengi Grand Nagus pay a visit to DS9, and then
begins behaving in a shocking manner, which threatens to undermine all of
Ferengi society.
Disc
five contains the episodes Visionary, Distant Voices,
Through The Looking Glass and Improbable Cause.
In Visionary, accidental exposure to radioactive isotopes
causes Chief O’Brien shift in and out of the near future, which gives
him the insight into a potentially disastrous situation. Distant
Voices is a ship in a bottle episode, or at least one that takes
place inside the head of an unconscious Dr. Bashir, who is fighting to
stay alive against a lethal adversary. Through The Looking Glass
pulls Sisko into the mirror universe, where he is forced to don the
identity of his doppelganger in the rebellion against the
Klingon-Cardassian Alliance. Improbable Cause finds Garak
(Andrew Robinson) having to deal with his dubious past in Cardassian
intelligence, when someone blows up his tailor shop.
Disc
six contains the episodes The Die Is Cast, Explorers,
Family Business and Shakaar. In The Die
Is Cast, the Romulans and the Cardassians mount a preemptive
strike against The Dominion by attacking The Founders home world in the
Gamma Quadrant. In Explorers, Sisko and his son Jake (Cirroc
Loften) embark on an adventure to prove a legend that the Bajorans had
explored their solar system eight centuries earlier. Family Business
finds Quark (Armin Shimerman) having to deal with his mother’s illegal
business ventures, while Sisko is introduced to an attractive freighter
captain named Kasidy Yates (Penny Johnson). In Shakaar,
Major Kira finds herself between the political ambitions of Kai Winn
(Louise Fletcher) and the leader of her resistance cell, from the days of
the Cardassian occupation of Bajor.
Disc
seven contains the episodes Facets and The Adversary.
Facets brings Jadzia face to face with the former hosts of
the Dax symbiont, who inhabit other members of the DS9 crew; however,
things become complicated when former host Curzon takes a liking to his
new home in Odo’s body. The Adversary finds that a
changeling has infiltrated the DS9 crew as a means of starting a war with
The Dominion. As the crew tries to capture the shape shifter, there are
inevitabilities that foretell dire consequences for the inhabitants of the
Alpha Quadrant, including Constable Odo.
Paramount
Home Entertainment has made all of the episodes from STAR TREK: DEEP
SPACE NINE- SEASON THREE available on DVD in the proper full screen
aspect ratios of their original television broadcasts. The presentations
here are very much similar to those offered in the first two seasons.
Image quality is very good when one considers that the show was produced
in a mixed environment that employed film for principal photography, but
utilized video for postproduction and visual effects work. Film segments
usually appear reasonably sharp and well defined, perhaps not to the level
of a TV series that remained completely in the photographic realm, but the
DVDs to outshine syndicated broadcasts by a respectable margin. There is a
mild softness that creeps into many effects shots, but this is related to
the show’s production history and not a deficiency in the DVDs. Colors
are pretty well saturated and are rendered without any chroma noise or
significant fuzziness. Blacks appear accurate, whites are stable and
contrast is scaled back for the necessities of broadcast television. Even
with four episodes on a dual layer DVD, there are no noticeable signs of
digital compression artifacts.
All
the episodes that comprise STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE- SEASON THREE
feature upgraded Dolby Digital 5.1 channel soundtracks, as did the first
two seasons. While the sound is definitely better in 5.1, with cleaner
channel separation and better fidelity than broadcast surround, the
television origins of these soundtracks clearly remain. The forward
soundstage remains dominant, with the majority of directionality contained
in the front three channels. As expected, the surrounds provide ambient
sounds, engine rumble and musical fill, with occasional active effects.
The bass channel is solid, but never shakes the deck as it does in the
newest theatrical "Trek" adventures. Dialogue is always cleanly
rendered and completely understandable. An English Dolby Surround
soundtrack is also encoded onto the DVD, as are English subtitles.
Full
motion video, 3-D animation and sound serve to enhance the DVD’s nicely
designed interactive menus, which utilize an interface reminiscent of DS9’s
Cardassian designed computer systems. Supplemental materials are contained
on disc seven and are fairly similar in scope to those offered in the
first two seasons. The Birth Of The Dominion And Beyond is
an eleven-minute program that examines DS9’s greatest adversaries and
the direction that the show would take once they made their presence
known. Michael Westmore's Aliens: Season Three offers a
twelve-minute look at the creatures, aliens and makeup effects that made
their appearances in the third year of the show. Time Travel Files:
Past Tense focuses on the two-part episode that transported DS9
characters into the past. Sailing Through the Stars: A Special Look
At Explorers showcases the design elements of this particular
episode. Crew Dossier: Odo is a twelve-minute program that
looks at the development of one of DS9’s most multifaceted characters,
over the course of the show’s seven season run. The program is
highlighted by new interview footage with actor Rene Auberjonois. Again,
Easter egg hunters will have fun exploring disc seven to locate the Section
31 Hidden Files.
For
my money, STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE represents Trek at its best.
Paramount has once again done a truly fine job with their release of
another season set of the show. STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE- SEASON
THREE looks and sounds better than broadcast and provides fans with
some very neat supplemental features. Long time fans and new initiates
will want to make this box set a new addition to their collections-
pronto! Since I know things get better and better with each subsequent
season, I am already looking forward to the arrival of the next slickly
packaged boxed set.
The
fact that I think that STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE is the finest of
all the television series that take place in the science fiction universe
created by Gene Roddenberry is a point that I’ve driven home in my
reviews of season one and season two. My preference for STAR TREK: DEEP
SPACE NINE may have something to do with the series being the darkest
and most introspective of all the shows that bore the "Trek"
moniker. Additionally, I was intrigued by the fact that this particular
"Trek" was and is the only one that demonstrated a creative
"grand vision" that carried out story arcs over multiple
episodes and multiple seasons. As for season three itself, it is filled
with rich, character driven episodes, in addition to planting the dramatic
seeds that would germinate and bear delicious and sometimes bittersweet
fruit over the course of the remaining four seasons. STAR TREK: DEEP
SPACE NINE- SEASON THREE ($130) has been released on DVD by Paramount
Home Entertainment in a seven disc set, which offers all twenty six
episodes that were broadcast during the third year.
Disc
one contains the episodes The Search, Part I, The
Search, Part II, The House of Quark and Equilibrium.
The Search, Part I follows on the season two ending
encounter with warlike Jem'Hadar in the Gamma Quadrant- with Starfleet
placing The Defiant under Sisko’s command. Using the prototype
battleship to fend off any unprovoked Jem'Hadar attacks, Sisko (Avery
Brooks) returns to the Gamma Quadrant to locate The Founders of the
Dominion in an effort to reach an accord. In The Search, Part II,
Constable Odo (Rene Auberjonois) is finally reunited with his people,
while the peace talks with The Founders on DS9 are not what they seem. The
House of Quark finds the Ferengi barkeep forced into marriage with
the widow of the Klingon warrior he claimed to have killed. In Equilibrium,
Jadzia (Terry Farrell) makes a startling discovery about one of the
previous hosts to the Dax symbiont.
Disc
two contains the episodes Second Skin, The Abandoned,
Civil Defense and Meridian. Second Skin
finds Major Kira (Nana Visitor) kidnapped and surgically altered to look
like a Cardassian, as part of a larger political ploy. In The
Abandoned, it is nature versus nurture, when the DS9 crew tries to
circumvent the genetic programming of a Jem'Hadar youth. Civil
Defense opens with Chief O’Brien (Colm Meaney) accidentally
tripping and old Cardassian security protocol in the DS9 computer system,
which locks down the station and activates the self-destruct mechanism. In
Meridian, the DS9 crew encounters a planet in the Gamma
Quadrant, which makes an appearance in our universe once every sixty
years.
Disc
three contains the episodes Defiant, Fascination,
Past Tense, Part I and Past Tense, Part II. Defiant
features a guest appearance by Jonathan Frakes as Tom Riker, who steals
the Defiant as part of a Maquis plot. Fascination includes
an appearance by Lwaxana Troi (Majel Barrett-Roddenberry), in this story
of the station falling victim to a virus with romantic side effects. Past
Tense, Part I opens with a transporter mishap that lands Sisko,
Jadzia and Dr. Bashir (Alexander Siddig) on Earth in the year 2024 and in
a position to change history. Past Tense, Part II forces
Sisko to become active in a social upheaval of 2024 to maintain the future
timeline.
Disc
four contains the episodes Life Support, Heart of
Stone, Destiny and Prophet Motive. Life
Support finds Kira’s lover, Vedek Bareil, critically injured and
in need of a treatment that will sustain him for the short term, but will
eventually destroy his mind. In Heart of Stone, Odo and Kira
are stranded on a hostile moon, with Odo being forced to watch as Kira is
slowly enveloped by a crystal that has begun growing around her body. Destiny
finds Sisko having to come to terms with being haled as the Bajoran
Emissary Of The Prophets, when an ancient prophecy comes to pass. In Prophet
Motive, the Ferengi Grand Nagus pay a visit to DS9, and then
begins behaving in a shocking manner, which threatens to undermine all of
Ferengi society.
Disc
five contains the episodes Visionary, Distant Voices,
Through The Looking Glass and Improbable Cause.
In Visionary, accidental exposure to radioactive isotopes
causes Chief O’Brien shift in and out of the near future, which gives
him the insight into a potentially disastrous situation. Distant
Voices is a ship in a bottle episode, or at least one that takes
place inside the head of an unconscious Dr. Bashir, who is fighting to
stay alive against a lethal adversary. Through The Looking Glass
pulls Sisko into the mirror universe, where he is forced to don the
identity of his doppelganger in the rebellion against the
Klingon-Cardassian Alliance. Improbable Cause finds Garak
(Andrew Robinson) having to deal with his dubious past in Cardassian
intelligence, when someone blows up his tailor shop.
Disc
six contains the episodes The Die Is Cast, Explorers,
Family Business and Shakaar. In The Die
Is Cast, the Romulans and the Cardassians mount a preemptive
strike against The Dominion by attacking The Founders home world in the
Gamma Quadrant. In Explorers, Sisko and his son Jake (Cirroc
Loften) embark on an adventure to prove a legend that the Bajorans had
explored their solar system eight centuries earlier. Family Business
finds Quark (Armin Shimerman) having to deal with his mother’s illegal
business ventures, while Sisko is introduced to an attractive freighter
captain named Kasidy Yates (Penny Johnson). In Shakaar,
Major Kira finds herself between the political ambitions of Kai Winn
(Louise Fletcher) and the leader of her resistance cell, from the days of
the Cardassian occupation of Bajor.
Disc
seven contains the episodes Facets and The Adversary.
Facets brings Jadzia face to face with the former hosts of
the Dax symbiont, who inhabit other members of the DS9 crew; however,
things become complicated when former host Curzon takes a liking to his
new home in Odo’s body. The Adversary finds that a
changeling has infiltrated the DS9 crew as a means of starting a war with
The Dominion. As the crew tries to capture the shape shifter, there are
inevitabilities that foretell dire consequences for the inhabitants of the
Alpha Quadrant, including Constable Odo.
Paramount
Home Entertainment has made all of the episodes from STAR TREK: DEEP
SPACE NINE- SEASON THREE available on DVD in the proper full screen
aspect ratios of their original television broadcasts. The presentations
here are very much similar to those offered in the first two seasons.
Image quality is very good when one considers that the show was produced
in a mixed environment that employed film for principal photography, but
utilized video for postproduction and visual effects work. Film segments
usually appear reasonably sharp and well defined, perhaps not to the level
of a TV series that remained completely in the photographic realm, but the
DVDs to outshine syndicated broadcasts by a respectable margin. There is a
mild softness that creeps into many effects shots, but this is related to
the show’s production history and not a deficiency in the DVDs. Colors
are pretty well saturated and are rendered without any chroma noise or
significant fuzziness. Blacks appear accurate, whites are stable and
contrast is scaled back for the necessities of broadcast television. Even
with four episodes on a dual layer DVD, there are no noticeable signs of
digital compression artifacts.
All
the episodes that comprise STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE- SEASON THREE
feature upgraded Dolby Digital 5.1 channel soundtracks, as did the first
two seasons. While the sound is definitely better in 5.1, with cleaner
channel separation and better fidelity than broadcast surround, the
television origins of these soundtracks clearly remain. The forward
soundstage remains dominant, with the majority of directionality contained
in the front three channels. As expected, the surrounds provide ambient
sounds, engine rumble and musical fill, with occasional active effects.
The bass channel is solid, but never shakes the deck as it does in the
newest theatrical "Trek" adventures. Dialogue is always cleanly
rendered and completely understandable. An English Dolby Surround
soundtrack is also encoded onto the DVD, as are English subtitles.
Full
motion video, 3-D animation and sound serve to enhance the DVD’s nicely
designed interactive menus, which utilize an interface reminiscent of DS9’s
Cardassian designed computer systems. Supplemental materials are contained
on disc seven and are fairly similar in scope to those offered in the
first two seasons. The Birth Of The Dominion And Beyond is
an eleven-minute program that examines DS9’s greatest adversaries and
the direction that the show would take once they made their presence
known. Michael Westmore's Aliens: Season Three offers a
twelve-minute look at the creatures, aliens and makeup effects that made
their appearances in the third year of the show. Time Travel Files:
Past Tense focuses on the two-part episode that transported DS9
characters into the past. Sailing Through the Stars: A Special Look
At Explorers showcases the design elements of this particular
episode. Crew Dossier: Odo is a twelve-minute program that
looks at the development of one of DS9’s most multifaceted characters,
over the course of the show’s seven season run. The program is
highlighted by new interview footage with actor Rene Auberjonois. Again,
Easter egg hunters will have fun exploring disc seven to locate the Section
31 Hidden Files.
For
my money, STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE represents Trek at its best.
Paramount has once again done a truly fine job with their release of
another season set of the show. STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE- SEASON
THREE looks and sounds better than broadcast and provides fans with
some very neat supplemental features. Long time fans and new initiates
will want to make this box set a new addition to their collections-
pronto! Since I know things get better and better with each subsequent
season, I am already looking forward to the arrival of the next slickly
packaged boxed set.