DS9 Flashback: Defiant

Throughout its run, Deep Space Nine had peppered in small crossovers of secondary characters from The Next Generation -- Lursa and B'Etor, Vash and Q, Lwaxana Troi, Gowron. But not since Patrick Stewart appeared as Jean-Luc Picard in the series premiere had any main actors from Next Gen crossed over. Until "Defiant."

William T. Riker visits Deep Space Nine, becoming fast friends with Major Kira. But when she gives him a tour of the Defiant, he stuns her with a phaser and reveals the truth: he's actually Will's transporter duplicate Thomas, a Maquis leader who plans to use the ship to prove Cardassian espionage. Meanwhile, Dukat recruits Sisko to come to the Cardassian homeworld and help track the renegade ship.

It's a bit strange to take an episode of one series and do a sequel on a different series -- so unusual, in fact, that we get an expository scene explaining the events of Next Gen's "Second Chances" to Dukat (as an audience proxy) just to make sure everyone's caught up. But show runner Ira Steven Behr really felt there was a great opportunity to have their cake and eat it too with the character of Thomas Riker -- have a main actor from the earlier, now-ended series, but have complete control of the character on Deep Space Nine's terms (not having to put him "back in the box" for future movies).

Jonathan Frakes was up to come play. In fact, he'd already directed more than one episode of DS9, including the one made immediately before this. He also liked the opportunity to play the Thomas Riker character again, saying: "Tom is insecure. He's much less confident than Will. But he's also kinder and sweeter. I think I like Tom better!"

Before Tom's cover is blown, we get fun tastes of how characters like Sisko, Dax, and Quark all know Will Riker. We also get a clever scene of Tom faking anger at O'Brien to avoid a person he probably couldn't deceive. But the really interesting relationship here is between Tom and Kira. We're pointedly reminded that even though we've come to know and like Kira, she was a terrorist not many years ago. Terrorists don't get to be heroes, she says, and she thinks Tom isn't doing this for a cause he truly believes in so much as to distinguish himself from his "brother." The only false moments in any of this come in an awkward kiss at the end, and in what retroactively becomes a more awkward promise from Kira to someday get him out of Cardassian prison. It would never happen. (Jonathan Frakes noted this episode felt like it deserved a follow-up, but by the start of next season, the writers had specifically put Tom Riker on this list of stories they did not want outside writers to pitch.)

To hear script writer Ronald Moore tell it, cracking the Riker angle of the story came quickly. Why would Tom come to the station posing as Will? Ah, to steal the Defiant! But involving more characters in the story was harder... until another writer on staff suggested an homage to a 1964 Sidney Lumet film, Fail Safe, in which Henry Fonda stars as a president forced to help Russians shoot down an American plane on its way to launch a nuclear strike on Moscow. Putting Sisko in a similar role with the Cardassians gave him something significant to do, and was also a nice reversal of the last major conflict with the Maquis, where Dukat was forced to help Sisko.

This aspect of the plot connects both forward and backward in Deep Space Nine's overall story arc. We learn about the internal Cardassian conflict between the Obsidian Order and Central Command, personified in sniping between Dukat and the "observer" Korinas. We get a "humanizing" moment with Dukat talking about his son's 11th birthday, instantly undermined by the venom he spews moments later. And we get a rumor about a secret fleet the Obsidian Order is building -- a thread that would be picked up on later this season (a connection which reportedly was not planned at the time this episode was conceived).

It's a fun little tale, though it stumbles in a couple places. The ending is too neat -- how are the Cardassians made to honor the deal they strike here, and why do they release the Defiant back to Starfleet? There's also not enough money in the visual effects budget to really do it all justice; there are some fun moments near the end of the Defiant looking dangerous and nimble, but most of the battles it's involved in play out as blips on a computer screen.

Other observations:

• At the start of the episode, Kira is snapping at everyone, and is ordered to take time off work. I've not found this to be an effective way of getting time off.

• Tom Riker calls the Defiant a "tough little ship." Will Riker would make exactly the same comment in the movie First Contact.

• The Cardassian Korinas is played by Tricia O'Neil. This is her third (and final) Star Trek appearance, but she's most known by fans for her first, as Captain Garrett in "Yesterday's Enterprise."

• Tom Riker isn't the only character from a Next Gen episode to appear here. The Maquis character Kalita originated in "Preemptive Strike."

Although this episode doesn't quite stick the landing, it's fairly entertaining overall. Watching Jonathan Frakes do his thing is worthwhile enough. I give "Defiant" a B.