Time jumps, old age makeup, alternate universes, and military intrigue...
- O'Brien becomes a "Visionary" after a radiation accident lets him jump into the future. Romulans are on the station checking out intelligence reports on the Dominion (part of the trade for borrowing cloaking tech to the Defiant), and he sees the destruction of DS9, only a few hours away. The time jump storyline is rather complicated, but the producers pull it off well. Our heroes keep trying to stop Miles' events from happening with no luck. Of course, there's a technobabble explanation for whole thing. We also get a great sequence with the station exploding--no CGI, it's a real model blowing up, per the Memory Alpha site.
- Bashir starts hearing "Distant Voices" after he is attacked by an alien junkie. The station is mostly deserted and trashed--he only finds Quark and Garak. He starts rapidly aging (a favorite Trek trick). He finally finds most of the staff, bickering with each other. A damaged communication system starts emitting the crew's voices--it turns out he's in a coma, and the "others" with him are actually different aspects of his subconscious. The alien takes out each of them, removing a bit of Bashir's mind when he does so. In the end, he repairs the ship and stops the alien--all in his mind--to save himself. This is really a tour de force for Siddig.
- Speaking of favorite Trek tricks--we return to the Mirror Mirror universe "Through the Looking Glass". Mirror O'Brien kidnaps Sisko and takes him back--he's needed to replace the now dead Mirror Sisko to complete a rebellion mission, Unfortunately, the mission is to convince Mirror Jennifer Sisko (who's was killed by the Borg in the normal universe) to stop work on a Macguffin device--or kill her. There's a lot of overacting, especially from Mirror Kira. We also meet Mirror Dax, who's Sisko's mistress. Vulcan Tuvok (Tim Russ) from Voyager also guest stars. Our Sisko seems to have no trouble slipping into the pirate role--even remembering all the details of his alternate. There's a very Star Wars-ian chase through Terek Nor (DS9), then the self-destruct gambit is used for our heroes to escape. You can tell the cast loves these episodes. Frankly, I think this storyline is better than the main series.
- Another two-parter begins with "Improbable Cause". There's an attempted assassination of Garak, and Odo is on the case. The attack is tracked back to the Romulans, who have apparently hired new tailors--the huge shoulder pads are gone. A Cardassian "deep throat" provides more backstory, and Odo confronts Garak. There's a whole "Obsidian Order" angle involved. A trip to track down Garak's mentor Enabran Tain (Paul Dooley) ends in their capture by the Romulans, who are working with the Cardassians to take out the Dominion. Garak sells out Odo to Tain, and we're onto part two--"The Die is Cast". The Cardassian/Romulan fleet move to DS9 and the wormhole while Tain and Garak talk over old times. Starfleet, of course, wants DS9 to stay out of it, and Sisko, of course, ignores it. There's a power play between Garak and Tain as the former's loyalties are tested regarding Odo's torture, and a technobabble device that stops Odo from changing his shape used to provide the torture. In the end, the Jem'Hadar trap and destroy the Cardassian/Romulan fleet--the Romulan commander is actually a Founder. Odo and Garak use the confusion to escape, with the Defiant giving them a hand. Apparently, this story was made into a two-parter at the last minute--and it shows. There's a lot of dialogue designed to stretch out the story rather than advance it.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (and all the Trek series) is available on Netflix.