Synopsis: Scavenging an abandoned Cardassian space station identical to DS9 for equipment, O’Brien’s team discovers that the station may not be completely abandoned.

Memory Alpha Summary: Haunted house…in space!

Review: Yet another late Season 5 episode that has the makings of something special but ultimately doesn’t deliver.

While I enjoy that they brought along four never seen before redshirts for the mission at Empok Nor, it makes it a forgone conclusion that most if not all of them are going to die (all of them, in this case). It would have been nice to introduce some of these characters earlier in the season to at least give their deaths a tiny bit of emotional weight, but alas, they’re mostly dead mannequins here. The conflict between O’Brien and Garak starts out interesting, and it’s cool that they finally bring up O’Brien’s history as a soldier during the war with the Cardassians; unfortunately, Garak becoming a psychopathic killer due to a drug on the station is just not terribly interesting and it removes all the great subtlety that Andrew Robinson infuses his character. 

Once again I am impressed with the development of Nog (as opposed to Jake). He appropriately comes on a mission related to his skillset, is useful but not a superhero, and stays within his role. Nothing special, but nice to see.