Synopsis: Bashir tries to help members of a Jem’Hadar unit free themselves of their addiction to the drug the Founders use to control them. Meanwhile, Worf tries to adjust to life aboard DS9.
Review: A decent script for Bashir and O’Brien to be at odds again and I like how the more pragmatic character ends up on the “right” side versus the altruistic one. It’s another way the producers of DS9 differ from Roddenberry in that the enlightened choice sometimes makes real people dead people and sometimes you have to think safety before virtue.
Synopsis: Attending a medical conference on Romulus, Dr. Bashir becomes embroiled in an elaborate scheme devised by Section 31 as a way to ensure the Romulans remain on the side of the Federation Alliance.
Synopsis: Doctor Lewis Zimmerman arrives on Deep Space 9 to use Bashir as the model for his new Long-term Medical Hologram, but his plans could unveil a dark secret that Bashir has carried since childhood.
Review: While it definitely feels like the truth bomb on Bashir’s genetic engineering is forced just to create some conflict (especially since the resolution comes from a sacrifice from a character we just met thirty minutes ago), there are some touching moments. His mom’s speech to him about why they genetically engineered him practically made me cry; I think being a parent of a son who has also struggled at times certainly is the reason. Also, learning the Bashir has been letting O’Brien win at times with darts is good fun.
Synopsis: Odo receives a sick infant Changeling from Quark and tries to teach it to shapeshift without resorting to the invasive techniques used by his old mentor, Doctor Mora. Meanwhile, Major Kira gives birth to the O’Briens’ baby.
Review: While I admit I had trouble at times not just wondering what materials the infant Changeling was made out of, it was not for lack of effort or skills on Rene Auberjonois’s part.
Synopsis: Following a hit and run attack on Deep Space 9 by a band of rogue Jem’Hadar, Sisko and his crew are joined by the Dominion on a mission to locate the rebels, who have discovered another Iconian Gateway.
Review: An important episode for the series as we get to know the Jem’Hadar more deeply, yet there’s something about the rhythm of the episode that loses me.
Synopsis: Kira rescues a Bajoran Resistance hero from a Cardassian labor camp; an extremist group calls for all non-Bajorans to leave Bajor. Sisko and Odo work to reveal the real force behind the Circle’s coup. Sisko tries to prevent the Circle from taking the station; Kira and Dax take proof that the Cardassians are the real force that is arming the Circle to the Bajoran government.
Review: The first three-parter in the Star Trek canon does an excellent job at immersing us in the DS9 world of the Bajorans, while unfortunately only having an average plot to go with it. Li Nalas is a rather drab character study of a war hero, though I did like the scene where he describes his accidental foray into being that hero, shooting a Cardassian in his underwear out of sheer luck. During the final two episodes, he is just sort of there, doing predictable things, including his sacrifice to save Sisko.
Review: Similar themes to The Hunted from TNG, Captive Pursuit explores pretty well the dilemma of what to do with a member of another species that finds value in its members not being equal. Of course, we don’t even learn about this dilemma until there’s about 15 minutes left in the episode, so the first two-thirds are only vaguely interesting as we learn about our first Gamma Quadrant species.
Synopsis: With the Dominion on track to winning the war against the Federation, Sisko and his crew take a captured Jem’Hadar ship into enemy territory with a mission to cut off the Jem’Hadar’s supply of ketracel-white in the Alpha Quadrant.
Review: I wish the losses suffered by the Federation here would have had more impact. In The Best of Both Worlds, we see the destruction at Wolf 359 and it’s powerful. Here, the loss of 98 ships is mentioned in a conversation and it doesn’t feel as powerful.
Synopsis: Sisko leads an invasion of Cardassian territory, ignoring a warning from the Prophets, with fatal consequences for a member of the DS9 crew. (Season finale)
Review: Jadzia’s death initially had an impact on me (though it was foreshadowed a bit too much with all of the talk about having a baby with Worf). It was quick. It was brutal. It had no purpose. Yet the writers chickened out and allowed her to have one last dying breath statement for her husband. Man, I hate that crap. It’s faux-drama. Almost nobody dies getting to say what they want to say.
Death By Troggles 
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