399. By Inferno's LightFORMULA: In Purgatory's Shadow + The Gamesters of Triskelion + The Passenger + Generations
WHY WE LIKE IT: The unyielding Worf.
WHY WE DON'T: Sorry, no ship battle.
REVIEW: By Inferno's Light keeps promising a huge starship battle, but never delivers. That might be frustrating to some, but what we get instead is one shocking twist after another and is quite satisfying, thank you. Because that first fight out of the Wormhole never happens. The locust of prophecy turn toward Cardassia and it turns out they were invited! Yep, Dukat turns bad again. Like he says himself, Kira and him on the same side, it never seemed quite right. He even manages to get revenge on Garak from a quadrant away.
Regrouping at Cardassia and joining a Cardassian fleet there gives the Klingons a chance to revive the Khitomer Accords and join their fleet to Starfleet's at Deep Space 9. And then the Romulans join the fun! So he it going to be a massive battle with 5 fleets involved? Sorry, not yet either. The Bashir Founder's plan is much worse: Making Bajor's sun go supernova, wiping out the Alpha Quadrant's forces, DS9 and Bajor in one fell swoop. Incredibly clever and a close call indeed. And while special effects battles are cool and all, it's the Dominion's smarts that make them truly dangerous.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Wormhole, Garak must overcome severe claustrophobia to access computer systems and contact their runabout, while Worf fights every last Jem'Hadar in the POW camp to buy them time. The Worf story is epic and Martok is right to say songs would be written about it. No matter what happens, he never yields, even when he's badly wounded, even when an awestruck Martok tells him honor has been satisfied, he will not yield. Shades of Picard's "four lights". In the end, Ikat'ika the Jem'Hadar First has to admit he cannot beat Worf, only kill him. A great moment.
The escape itself is less interesting though, since it asks us to believe the Dominion would be so sloppy as to leave the working runabout in orbit around the camp and its transporters locking onto just the right prisoners in the nick of time. Still, some nice tense moments when Jem'Hadar come searching the barracks, leading to the Breen making a move and Bashir using a shank (yipes!). Nice to see Martok join the supporting cast for good, insuring that Klingon presence on the station and show too. We're definitely entering a new phase of the story, with battle drums added to the final musical sting.
LESSON: Never turn your back on a Breen... or a Cardassian... or a Vorta... or a changeling.
REWATCHABILITY - High: Though some of the resolutions are a bit too pat, getting there is quite exciting and promises a lot of intense episodes to come. Not as strong as the first part, but you wouldn't watch one without the other, would you?
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