Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Season 4 (1996)
Review by Doc Ezra
Film:
DVD:

Series created by Rick Berman and Michael Piller, based on original concepts by Gene Roddenberry
Starring Avery Brooks, Rene Auberjonois, Michael Dorn, Terry Farrell, Colm Meaney, Siddig El Fadil, and Nana Visitor

Features:

• All twenty-six fourth season episodes
  
• Charting New Territory featurette
  
• Crew Dossier: Worf
  
• Michael Westmore's Aliens, Season Four featurette
  
• Deep Space Nine Sketchbook: John Eaves
  
• Section 31 hidden files
  

Released by: Paramount
Region: 1
Rating: NR, suitable for audiences 12+
Anamorphic: N/A; appears in original 1.33:1 aspect

My Advice: Trek fans should own it, general sci-fi lovers should consider doing likewise.

How do you take a slowly improving Trek franchise and push it over the top? The answer, in a word, is Klingons. Season 4 of Deep Space 9 features steadily eroding relations between the Federation and their enemies-made-allies and the appearance of Worf as a permanent crew addition to the station. This season also represents the creators' attempts to finally quash any lingering doubts that the show might be too slow-moving to hold an audience, amidst more action-packed shows like Babylon 5, with the liberal application of violence. Season 4 opens with phasers firing on all sides at the station, and the shooting just keeps coming throughout the course of the season. Hell, the theme song even gets a more aggressive remix. There's very little left of the show that could be accused of being "too subdued." For those that preferred DS9's quieter tone, this is an unfortunate development, but for those that felt the show was just missing something, this may be just what the doctor ordered.

The real beauty of these episodes is that, while simultaneously raising the action quotient, the show maintains some of its more complex plot elements and a healthy dose of ambiguity about who precisely are the "good guys" and the "bad guys," or even whether such ideas make much sense. In the season opener two-part "Way of the Warrior," as the Klingons grow more aggressive, the Cardassians start to look like victims and the Federation starts to look a little too wishy-washy on the whole issue to really come away with clean hands. Odo's connection to the Dominion makes him increasingly unhappy. One of Sisko's closest loved ones turns out to be a rebel activist. The number of issues keeping matters complicated on the show are legion, and there's still plenty of meaty story to sink one's teeth into amidst the fighting. There's also still room for humor, as well. Seeing the Ferengi at Roswell in 1947 ("Little Green Men") is a welcome relief from the high drama of some of the other episodes. Bashir's turn as a secret agent ("Our Man Bashir") is also pretty amusing stuff. Other notable episodes include "The Visitor," "Crossfire," "Hard Time," and "The Quickening."

The performances are outstanding, and the entire cast seems to now be perfectly at home in their characters and with each other. With the third season revelation regarding Odo's people, his character gets a little more time in front of the camera to really develop depth. The character of Dukat (played ably by Marc Alaimo) grows into one of the most interesting "second tier" Trek regulars I've ever seen during this season, particularly with his performance in "Return to Grace." Brooks' stoic station commander becomes less the pure diplomat in this season, as some serious action is required on his part. This complicates my theory that puts Picard at the Golden Mean between space cowboy (Kirk) and pure diplomat (Sisko), but it makes for good television anyway.

The features list on this set of DVDs is as impressive as always when you're dealing with anything Star Trek. The making-of featurette discusses the shift in tone in this season, providing good insight into what the show's creators were shooting for when they made the adjustments. There's also a bit of coverage allotted to cast-turned-crew, as Avery Brooks gets behind the lens for a couple, and LeVar Burton comes over from TNG to helm five episodes in this season. The continuing feature on the alien design is excellent stuff as well. Trek has long suffered the slings and arrows of critical fandom for the "humans with bumpy heads" school of creature design, but Westmore's creatures are pretty impressive stuff. The choice of Worf for this season's crew dossier makes sense from a story standpoint, but given that the character was already profiled in the TNG sets, it seems the space might better have been spent on one of DS9's original characters.

Star Trek fans should certainly pick this season up, unless they fall into the "disenchanted by all the action" camp of DS9 viewers. If you enjoyed Babylon 5, this season represents Star Trek's best approximation of a similar feel, without coming across as derivative of JMS's space station epic. It's really a shame it took the series four seasons to hit the same level of story-telling that B5 managed in two, but there you have it.