Back to our favorite dysfunctional sci-fi family…
- Worf screws up the ""Rules of Engagement", and ends up in a Klingon trial for murder. It's "DS9 Law". We get testimony via flashbacks--with characters directly talking to the camera when replying to the attorney (shades of House of Cards), which is very unnerving. Sisko is, of course, the defense attorney, and a Klingon plays prosecutor. Avery Brooks over-enunciates at a Shatnerian level. At one point, Worf's son Alexander is mentioned--oh, yeah, whatever happened to him? In the end, Odo comes up with evidence that the Klingons were setting Worf up.
- O'Brien does some "Hard TIme"--or does he? Apparently, 20 years have gone by--he looks like the "IT'S" guy from Monty Python--but it's all in his mind. Alien correction technology makes you think time has passed when it hasn't. Colm Meaney really gets a chance to shine in the episode. He tells everyone he was in solitary conferment over the virtual 20 years, but that's not really the case. He had a cellmate--who Miles killed (in his mind, of course). He wants to kill himself to save the rest of the station--but Bashir talks him off the ledge.
- It's back to the "mirror" universe--but now it's a "Shattered Mirror". Mirror-Jennifer Sisko shows up and spirits Jake back to the other universe--all in order to get Sisko help them fix their Defiant. The cast plays their dopplegangers with gusto--and since he joined the cast, Worf gets in on the fun as the "Regent". Mirror-Kira is now a prisoner of the rebels (albeit with perfect makeup)--she does every villain move but twirl a mustache--and shoots shoots Mirror-Jennifer at one point. There's a whole "Han Solo" moment when Mirror-Bashir comes in to save the Miirror-Defiant in battle. In the end, Sisko sees his wife die--again.
- Lwaxana Troi is back--and she's got a Betazed bun in the oven--in "The Muse". No, Odo's not the father! Daddy is from a race where they keep the sexes separate until they are adults--and the child is a boy. She's come to Odo for help. There's a great moment when Odo asks if she would like to take a walk--Worf, stuck in a conversation, says "I would". Odo's solution involves a fake wedding--and he gives a heartfelt speech about her at the ceremony. This is Majel Barrett Roddnberry's final Trek onscreen appearance, although she would continue doing the compute voice of the computer for another decade before her death in 2008. Meanwhile, there's a weird story about an older alien woman and Jake--she seems VERY interested in Jake's writing. At one point, Jake writes on paper--how in the galaxy does he know cursive? People barely know it today. The older woman? She's a soul vampire who sucks the life out of young creative people--yes, really. Sisko saves his son in the nick of time. I think either story could have stood up on their own.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (and all the Trek series) is available on Netflix.