TV #17 of 2022:
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, season 6
Overall I would call this the strongest run yet of DS9 — and the Star Trek saga at large, for that matter — although that designation does come with a few glaring exceptions. First is the episode “Profit and Lace,” a thankfully standalone / throwaway piece that is at once transphobic, sexist, rapey, and all-around inane. I haven’t minded the individual Ferengi or the storylines involving them until now, but this one in which Quark impersonates a woman and then has to physically fend off a lecherous admirer for audience laughs is the lowest of the low. The writing this season also repeatedly frames female cast members Kira and Jadzia as romantic targets for the men, spending time on how their prospective and rejected suitors feel about them but largely ignoring their own wants and needs. While they are still active protagonists for the most part, this treatment reduces the women to objects and sources of manpain, particularly in an otherwise-great finale.
But on to the good stuff, because generally speaking, this year is rather excellent! It’s heavily serialized, committing to the shakeup from the previous cliffhanger with the heroes off-station for longer than might be expected, and even after the status quo has been restored, there are exposed cracks that continue to cause tension across the hours ahead. We get a more focused look at the Bajoran religion and its demands on its Emissary, a franchise-best outing in the surprising take on mid-20th-century racism “Far Beyond the Stars,” unprepared children conscripted into battle, impossible choices between duty and honor, and a sinister undercutting of long-standing Federation principles with the reveal of the shadowy Section 31 police force operating with no oversight or official recognition. Sisko’s complicity in another underhanded move during “In the Pale Moonlight” is a similarly fine character moment, and a showcase for how this series blurs the lines of right and wrong in wartime.
There’s an atmosphere of palpable dread threaded throughout here, as casualty reports steadily arrive from the battlefront and the main characters display signs of stress affecting their various relationships. They openly acknowledge that they themselves aren’t safe either and that any meeting of friends could be the last, so even though the one significant death happens somewhat randomly, it almost feels like we’re mourning beforehand and the effect on the surviving crew is immediately clear. A far cry from when Tasha Yar was killed off in the early days of TNG!
If only the women were treated better and that disastrous “Profit and Lace” struck from the record entirely, I’d be tempted to give this my first five-star Trek rating. As is, it’s still remarkably close.
[Content warning for torture and gaslighting.]
★★★★☆
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