As
STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE progressed into its later seasons, it is
easy to comprehend why this reviewer considers this TV series to be the
superior Trek. The darker tone of this Trek series really comes into its
own as the political intrigues of the Dominion War begins to play out.
Season five opens with political instabilities in the alpha quadrant that
could make it easier for the Dominion to gain a foothold on the other side
of the wormhole. Also, character development continues to get richer
across season five, with certain changes in a key character providing the
opportunity to explore things from a different perspective. STAR TREK:
DEEP SPACE NINE- SEASON FIVE ($130) comes to DVD via Paramount Home
Entertainment in a seven disc set, which offers all twenty six episodes
that were broadcast during the fifth year.
Disc
one contains the episodes Apocalypse Rising, The Ship,
Looking for Par'March In All the Wrong Places, and ...Nor
The Battle To The Strong. Apocalypse Rising finds
Constable Odo (Rene Auberjonois) having to deal with the ramifications of
his fellow changelings "judgment," while at the same time
Captain Sisko (Avery Brooks) has to lead a covert mission to the Klingon
home world to expose a Dominion plot. The Ship is concerned
with a crashed Jem'Hadar warship, which Sisko hopes to retrieve for
Starfleet intelligence; unfortunately another Jem'Hadar ship shows up
looking for the downed vessel. Looking for Par'March In All the
Wrong Places has traces of Cyrano de Bergerac when Quark (Armin
Shimerman) is reunited with his Klingon ex-wife, while Commander Worf
(Michael Dorn) coaching the Ferengi in a bit of Klingon romance. ...Nor
The Battle To The Strong finds Jake Sisko (Cirroc Lofton) getting
his first real taste of the horrors of war, when he and Dr. Bashir
(Alexander Siddig) answer a distress call.
Disc
two contains the episodes The Assignment, Trials And
Tribble-ations, Let He Who Is Without Sin and Things
Past. The Assignment finds Keiko O'Brien (Rosalind
Chao) under the control of an alien entity and Chief O'Brien (Colm Meaney)
a virtual pawn in the entity’s plot to destroy the Bajoran Prophets that
reside in the wormhole. Trials And Tribble-ations pays
homage to the original series, with a time travel story that takes the DS9
crew back to the days of Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and the
Enterprise. Let He Who Is Without Sin takes Worf and Jadzia
to Risa for a holiday where they can work on their burgeoning
relationship; of course, internal and external complications abound. Things
Past finds members of the DS9 reliving a past event through the
eyes of Bajorans, at a time when the space station was under Cardassian
control and Odo was given his first investigative assignment.
Disc
three contains the episodes The Ascent, Rapture,
The Darkness And The Light and The Begotten. In The
Ascent, Odo and Quark crash land on a cold, mountainous planet and
must climb to a higher altitude if they are to send an SOS with their
malfunctioning communications equipment. Rapture finds Sisko
trying to divine the whereabouts of lost Bajoran city, which brings on
certain visions, which may spell out his fate and that of the planet
Bajor. The Darkness And The Light requires a very pregnant
Major Kira (Nana Visitor) to figure out who has been killing old friends
from her days in the Bajoran resistance. The Begotten
involves the discovery of an injured baby changeling, and Odo’s efforts
to communicate with it, which are complicated by the arrival of the
Bajoran scientist that first studied Odo.
Disc
four contains the episodes For The Uniform, In
Purgatory's Shadow, By Inferno's Light and Dr.
Bashir, I Presume?. For The Uniform
finds Sisko’s feelings of betrayal turning into an obsession, when a
subordinate that abandoned Starfleet for the Maquis resurfaces, and then
sabotages the Defiant’s computer systems. In Purgatory's Shadow
brings the Dominion invasion of the Alpha Quadrant a step closer, when
Cardassian "tailor" Garak (Andrew Robinson) receives a coded
message from the Gamma Quadrant that could have only come from his old
mentor. With By Inferno's Light the invasions of the Alpha
Quadrant finally comes, with Gul Dukat (Marc Alaimo) announcing that
Cardassia has formally become part of the Dominion, after months of secret
negotiations. Dr. Bashir, I Presume? finds the
DS9 doctor being selected as the template for a new medical hologram;
however, the close scrutiny threatens to reveal Julian’s darkest secret.
Disc
five contains the episodes A Simple Investigation,
Business As Usual, Ties Of Blood And Water and Ferengi
Love Songs. A Simple Investigation finds the usually
"law and order" focused Constable Odo falling in love with a
beautiful woman, who claims she is trying to leave the crime syndicate,
for whom she has been working. It is anything but Business As Usual
for Quark, who finds his financial future in jeopardy and in something of
a moral dilemma, when an arms dealing family member offers to help him
out. In Ties Of Blood And Water, Kira finds herself visited
by a dying Cardassian, who wishes to pass on secrets that could prove
damaging to the Cardassian/Dominion alliance. With Ferengi Love
Songs, Quark returns to his home world to visit his mother, only
to discover that she has become romantically involved with Grand Nagus Zek
(Wallace Shawn).
Disc
six contains the episodes Soldiers Of The Empire,
Children Of Time, Blaze Of Glory and Empok Nor.
Soldiers Of The Empire finds Worf serving on board a Klingon
ship as first officer for a special mission; however, the odd behavior of
the ship’s commander makes him question the Klingon officer’s fitness
for duty. Children Of Time offers an interesting premise, in
which a temporal anomaly takes the members of the DS9 crew two centuries
into the future, where they meet their possible descendants- that is if
they don’t find a way off of a planet on which they will crash. Blaze
Of Glory finds the rebellious Maquis decimated by the joint
Cardassian/Dominion forces and desperate enough to launch cloaked missiles
at Cardassia. Empok Nor entails a mission to an abandoned
Cardassian space station to find replacement parts for DS9; however, booby
traps and other surprises lie in wait for the salvage team.
Disc
seven contains the episodes In The Cards and Call To
Arms. In The Cards brings the situation in the Alpha
Quadrant closer to all out war, with representatives from the Dominion
arriving on DS9 to negotiate a non-aggression pact with Kai Winn (Louise
Fletcher), which will serve to protect Bajor from the fighting, but
ultimately force the Federation to abandon the key vantage point near the
wormhole. Call To Arms marks the official beginning to the
Dominion war, with Cardassian/Dominion forces laying siege to DS9, after
Starfleet authorizes a minefield on this side of the wormhole to prevent
Dominion reinforcements from arriving from the Gamma Quadrant.
Paramount
Home Entertainment has made all of the episodes from STAR TREK: DEEP
SPACE NINE- SEASON FIVE available on DVD in the proper full screen
aspect ratios of their original television broadcasts. Season five appears
pretty much on par with its predecessors, looking quite good for a
television series shot on film, but having its special effects and
postproduction work finished in the realm of video. The image itself
generally appears reasonably sharp, not up to theatrical standards, but
still pretty darn good. There is a bit of softness here and there, plus
some of the darker scenes come up short in shadow detail, but overall, the
DVDs far outshine broadcast and cable airings. Colors usually appear
strong and pretty vibrant; there are some mild variations in the rendering
of the hues, as well as a tiny bit of fuzziness. Blacks are accurate,
whites are clean and contrast remains respectable at the broadcast
television level. Even when four episodes are contained on a dual layer
disc, digital compression artifacts never become particularly noticeable.
All
the episodes that comprise STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE- SEASON FIVE
feature soundtracks that have been upgraded to Dolby Digital 5.1 channel
format, just as with the preceding seasons. I still think that STAR
TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE was a well-recorded television series for its
era, although these tracks are somewhat limited by the necessities of
television sound design. The forward soundstage is dominant, with good
channel separation across the front. As for the rears, they are not
particularly aggressive, but they do serve the material well, by providing
ambient sounds, engine rumble and occasional active effects. Dialogue is
always completely intelligible and the voices sound cleanly defined. The
bass channel is solid enough, but is nowhere near as powerful as would be
required for one to feel the deck plating vibrate. An English Dolby
Surround soundtrack is also encoded onto the DVDs, 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 provided
on the seventh disc of the set, and are similar to those offered in the
preceding seasons. Trials and Tribble-ations: Uniting Two Legends
is a seventeen-minute looks at this special 30th Anniversary Trek episode;
this program features old and new interviews with cast and members of the
production team. Trials and Tribble-ations: A Historic Endeavor
runs sixteen minutes and examines the nuts and bolts of placing the DS9
characters in the same environment as the original cast from the episode The
Trouble With Tribbles. Crew Dossier: Miles O’Brien
is an eleven-minute look at the endearing "everyman" station
engineer portrayed by Colm Meaney. Inside DS9 With Michael Okuda
is a seven-minute look at show’s design, with special emphasis on the
little "inside jokes" that were ever present. Michael
Westmore's Aliens Season Five runs seven minutes, and in addition
to the fifth season alien designs, the program looks at other special
make-ups used for Dominion war storyline. A photo gallery is also present
on disc seven, as are the usual array of Section 31 Hidden Files
for Easter egg hunters.
Paramount
has done their usual terrific job with STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE-
SEASON FIVE; offering presentations that outclass syndicated
broadcasts. This set also features some really nice supplements that will
be of interest to Trek fans. Season five really begins to ramp up the
actions and political intrigues of the series- thus showing why it is the
best of all Treks. If you are a longtime fan, or someone just getting into
the show for the first time, STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE- SEASON FIVE
is a must have DVD for any Trek collection. I know I’m looking forward
to the even more intriguing sixth season of this wonderful show…
As
STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE progressed into its later seasons, it is
easy to comprehend why this reviewer considers this TV series to be the
superior Trek. The darker tone of this Trek series really comes into its
own as the political intrigues of the Dominion War begins to play out.
Season five opens with political instabilities in the alpha quadrant that
could make it easier for the Dominion to gain a foothold on the other side
of the wormhole. Also, character development continues to get richer
across season five, with certain changes in a key character providing the
opportunity to explore things from a different perspective. STAR TREK:
DEEP SPACE NINE- SEASON FIVE ($130) comes to DVD via Paramount Home
Entertainment in a seven disc set, which offers all twenty six episodes
that were broadcast during the fifth year.
Disc
one contains the episodes Apocalypse Rising, The Ship,
Looking for Par'March In All the Wrong Places, and ...Nor
The Battle To The Strong. Apocalypse Rising finds
Constable Odo (Rene Auberjonois) having to deal with the ramifications of
his fellow changelings "judgment," while at the same time
Captain Sisko (Avery Brooks) has to lead a covert mission to the Klingon
home world to expose a Dominion plot. The Ship is concerned
with a crashed Jem'Hadar warship, which Sisko hopes to retrieve for
Starfleet intelligence; unfortunately another Jem'Hadar ship shows up
looking for the downed vessel. Looking for Par'March In All the
Wrong Places has traces of Cyrano de Bergerac when Quark (Armin
Shimerman) is reunited with his Klingon ex-wife, while Commander Worf
(Michael Dorn) coaching the Ferengi in a bit of Klingon romance. ...Nor
The Battle To The Strong finds Jake Sisko (Cirroc Lofton) getting
his first real taste of the horrors of war, when he and Dr. Bashir
(Alexander Siddig) answer a distress call.
Disc
two contains the episodes The Assignment, Trials And
Tribble-ations, Let He Who Is Without Sin and Things
Past. The Assignment finds Keiko O'Brien (Rosalind
Chao) under the control of an alien entity and Chief O'Brien (Colm Meaney)
a virtual pawn in the entity’s plot to destroy the Bajoran Prophets that
reside in the wormhole. Trials And Tribble-ations pays
homage to the original series, with a time travel story that takes the DS9
crew back to the days of Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and the
Enterprise. Let He Who Is Without Sin takes Worf and Jadzia
to Risa for a holiday where they can work on their burgeoning
relationship; of course, internal and external complications abound. Things
Past finds members of the DS9 reliving a past event through the
eyes of Bajorans, at a time when the space station was under Cardassian
control and Odo was given his first investigative assignment.
Disc
three contains the episodes The Ascent, Rapture,
The Darkness And The Light and The Begotten. In The
Ascent, Odo and Quark crash land on a cold, mountainous planet and
must climb to a higher altitude if they are to send an SOS with their
malfunctioning communications equipment. Rapture finds Sisko
trying to divine the whereabouts of lost Bajoran city, which brings on
certain visions, which may spell out his fate and that of the planet
Bajor. The Darkness And The Light requires a very pregnant
Major Kira (Nana Visitor) to figure out who has been killing old friends
from her days in the Bajoran resistance. The Begotten
involves the discovery of an injured baby changeling, and Odo’s efforts
to communicate with it, which are complicated by the arrival of the
Bajoran scientist that first studied Odo.
Disc
four contains the episodes For The Uniform, In
Purgatory's Shadow, By Inferno's Light and Dr.
Bashir, I Presume?. For The Uniform
finds Sisko’s feelings of betrayal turning into an obsession, when a
subordinate that abandoned Starfleet for the Maquis resurfaces, and then
sabotages the Defiant’s computer systems. In Purgatory's Shadow
brings the Dominion invasion of the Alpha Quadrant a step closer, when
Cardassian "tailor" Garak (Andrew Robinson) receives a coded
message from the Gamma Quadrant that could have only come from his old
mentor. With By Inferno's Light the invasions of the Alpha
Quadrant finally comes, with Gul Dukat (Marc Alaimo) announcing that
Cardassia has formally become part of the Dominion, after months of secret
negotiations. Dr. Bashir, I Presume? finds the
DS9 doctor being selected as the template for a new medical hologram;
however, the close scrutiny threatens to reveal Julian’s darkest secret.
Disc
five contains the episodes A Simple Investigation,
Business As Usual, Ties Of Blood And Water and Ferengi
Love Songs. A Simple Investigation finds the usually
"law and order" focused Constable Odo falling in love with a
beautiful woman, who claims she is trying to leave the crime syndicate,
for whom she has been working. It is anything but Business As Usual
for Quark, who finds his financial future in jeopardy and in something of
a moral dilemma, when an arms dealing family member offers to help him
out. In Ties Of Blood And Water, Kira finds herself visited
by a dying Cardassian, who wishes to pass on secrets that could prove
damaging to the Cardassian/Dominion alliance. With Ferengi Love
Songs, Quark returns to his home world to visit his mother, only
to discover that she has become romantically involved with Grand Nagus Zek
(Wallace Shawn).
Disc
six contains the episodes Soldiers Of The Empire,
Children Of Time, Blaze Of Glory and Empok Nor.
Soldiers Of The Empire finds Worf serving on board a Klingon
ship as first officer for a special mission; however, the odd behavior of
the ship’s commander makes him question the Klingon officer’s fitness
for duty. Children Of Time offers an interesting premise, in
which a temporal anomaly takes the members of the DS9 crew two centuries
into the future, where they meet their possible descendants- that is if
they don’t find a way off of a planet on which they will crash. Blaze
Of Glory finds the rebellious Maquis decimated by the joint
Cardassian/Dominion forces and desperate enough to launch cloaked missiles
at Cardassia. Empok Nor entails a mission to an abandoned
Cardassian space station to find replacement parts for DS9; however, booby
traps and other surprises lie in wait for the salvage team.
Disc
seven contains the episodes In The Cards and Call To
Arms. In The Cards brings the situation in the Alpha
Quadrant closer to all out war, with representatives from the Dominion
arriving on DS9 to negotiate a non-aggression pact with Kai Winn (Louise
Fletcher), which will serve to protect Bajor from the fighting, but
ultimately force the Federation to abandon the key vantage point near the
wormhole. Call To Arms marks the official beginning to the
Dominion war, with Cardassian/Dominion forces laying siege to DS9, after
Starfleet authorizes a minefield on this side of the wormhole to prevent
Dominion reinforcements from arriving from the Gamma Quadrant.
Paramount
Home Entertainment has made all of the episodes from STAR TREK: DEEP
SPACE NINE- SEASON FIVE available on DVD in the proper full screen
aspect ratios of their original television broadcasts. Season five appears
pretty much on par with its predecessors, looking quite good for a
television series shot on film, but having its special effects and
postproduction work finished in the realm of video. The image itself
generally appears reasonably sharp, not up to theatrical standards, but
still pretty darn good. There is a bit of softness here and there, plus
some of the darker scenes come up short in shadow detail, but overall, the
DVDs far outshine broadcast and cable airings. Colors usually appear
strong and pretty vibrant; there are some mild variations in the rendering
of the hues, as well as a tiny bit of fuzziness. Blacks are accurate,
whites are clean and contrast remains respectable at the broadcast
television level. Even when four episodes are contained on a dual layer
disc, digital compression artifacts never become particularly noticeable.
All
the episodes that comprise STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE- SEASON FIVE
feature soundtracks that have been upgraded to Dolby Digital 5.1 channel
format, just as with the preceding seasons. I still think that STAR
TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE was a well-recorded television series for its
era, although these tracks are somewhat limited by the necessities of
television sound design. The forward soundstage is dominant, with good
channel separation across the front. As for the rears, they are not
particularly aggressive, but they do serve the material well, by providing
ambient sounds, engine rumble and occasional active effects. Dialogue is
always completely intelligible and the voices sound cleanly defined. The
bass channel is solid enough, but is nowhere near as powerful as would be
required for one to feel the deck plating vibrate. An English Dolby
Surround soundtrack is also encoded onto the DVDs, 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 provided
on the seventh disc of the set, and are similar to those offered in the
preceding seasons. Trials and Tribble-ations: Uniting Two Legends
is a seventeen-minute looks at this special 30th Anniversary Trek episode;
this program features old and new interviews with cast and members of the
production team. Trials and Tribble-ations: A Historic Endeavor
runs sixteen minutes and examines the nuts and bolts of placing the DS9
characters in the same environment as the original cast from the episode The
Trouble With Tribbles. Crew Dossier: Miles O’Brien
is an eleven-minute look at the endearing "everyman" station
engineer portrayed by Colm Meaney. Inside DS9 With Michael Okuda
is a seven-minute look at show’s design, with special emphasis on the
little "inside jokes" that were ever present. Michael
Westmore's Aliens Season Five runs seven minutes, and in addition
to the fifth season alien designs, the program looks at other special
make-ups used for Dominion war storyline. A photo gallery is also present
on disc seven, as are the usual array of Section 31 Hidden Files
for Easter egg hunters.
Paramount
has done their usual terrific job with STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE-
SEASON FIVE; offering presentations that outclass syndicated
broadcasts. This set also features some really nice supplements that will
be of interest to Trek fans. Season five really begins to ramp up the
actions and political intrigues of the series- thus showing why it is the
best of all Treks. If you are a longtime fan, or someone just getting into
the show for the first time, STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE- SEASON FIVE
is a must have DVD for any Trek collection. I know I’m looking forward
to the even more intriguing sixth season of this wonderful show…