DS9 Flashback: To the Death

Throughout the third and fourth seasons, there were episodes of Deep Space Nine that showed the series' baddies, the Jem'Hadar, "out of their element" -- a youth growing up in isolation, a group trying to cure their addiction to ketracel-white. With "To the Death," the writers set out to show the Jem'Hadar in their element, and really drive home how scary they could be.

The Defiant returns to Deep Space Nine to find it heavily damaged in a recent Jem'Hadar attack. Setting off in pursuit, the Defiant comes upon a crippled Jem'Hadar ship that was also attacked. It seems that one group of Jem'Hadar soldiers have gone rogue, and now Sisko and his crew must team up with the conniving Vorta overseer Weyoun and his soldiers. The stakes are high: the rogue Jem'Hadar are trying to make operational an Iconian gateway, a powerful technology that will let them instantly teleport around the galaxy to strike at any target without warning.

As the writers hoped, this episode does indeed tell you a lot about the Jem'Hadar, and effectively contrasts them with other races on Star Trek. They value victory more than their own lives, in stark contrast to humans. They rarely live to be more than 20, in stark contrast to Trill symbionts. They have a subtle but important contrast with the Klingons: they value loyalty, not honor, meaning they can commit nefarious acts if ordered to do so. And the fact that they find no thrill in battle, nor do they ever get to enjoy the spoils of their labor, is what Worf may find most distasteful of all. (It's just a shame that Kira is left behind on the station for this episode. Contrasting the Jem'Hadar with her history of guerrilla combat, of fighting for a self-selected cause, could have made still more effective drama.)

Yet for as much as this episode tells you about the Jem'Hadar, it's an even more pivotal episode in the development of the Vorta, their slick and conniving overseers. No Vorta had been shown since clear back at the beginning of season three, likely a combination of a flat performance there with uncertainty by the writers of just what the Vorta were (not telekinetic, as when first introduced, for example). Reportedly, the show was having a very hard time casting this Vorta, Weyoun, for this episode. That's when episode director LeVar Burton, who'd recently done "Bar Association," suggested reaching out to Jeffrey Combs. And even though Combs was about to reprise the Ferengi Brunt in another episode before the end of the season, everyone decided that just might work.

It worked brilliantly. Combs sets the model for Vorta here, a used car salesman willing to tell any lie with a winning smile. Nearly every move Weyoun makes seems like a calculation, save possibly for the utter disdain he shows for the rituals that the Jem'Hadar hold so sacred. Combs is so good that even though his character dies at the end of this episode, the writers had to have him back, and wound up changing the nature of the Vorta to accommodate that.

Combs isn't the only bit of great casting in this episode. Hulking actor Brian Thompson, who plays Toman'torax, is exactly the sort of person you want to play a Jem'Hadar. And Clarence Williams III lends great nobility and tightly contained danger to Omet'iklan. When he threatens Sisko, it feels like a real problem. When he lets Sisko go in the end, it feels like an earned reversal. And when he promises that the next time they meet, they'll be enemies? Well, that feels like a missed opportunity for a follow-up episode.

The climax of this episode features elaborate hand-to-hand combat (with a dramatic conceit to nullify phasers and thus save money on visual effects), some of the most extensive fighting ever done for the series. It's filmed on location, at Griffith Park bird sanctuary, adding even more spectacle. But many involved with the production still weren't happy. Apparently, there was even more footage of the battle, cut for time and for violence, that many (including show runner Ira Steven Behr) felt reduced to impact of the episode.

But whether the fight is all it might have been, you can still enjoy the social dynamics aboard the Defiant on the way to the mission -- and not just the interplay between our heroes and the Jem'Hadar. Dax and Bashir give fun parenting advice to expecting father O'Brien, each from their own unique viewpoint. Odo is approached by Weyoun, who tries to tempt the constable in returning to his people. (Every time Odo says "no" to such an offer, you know part of him really wants to say "yes.") Dax and O'Brien talk about the grim tradition of recording goodbye messages for loved ones before a battle. Worf makes a droll joke that if one wants to keep a secret, don't tell Dax. There's just a lot of fun little bits throughout.

Other observations:

• The log entry that opens the episode mentions that the Defiant just drove Breen privateers away from a Bajoran colony. That in and of itself feels like an intriguing "episode that might have been."

• The visuals of the damaged Deep Space Nine are great, with a pylon blown off and debris floating about. The interiors are strong too, with wounded lining the corridors. Very dramatic.

• The conceit of the Iconian gateway is actually a callback to an episode of The Next Generation, which Worf briefly acknowledges. It's a deft little reference that adds dimension if you're a longtime Star Trek fan, without hurting this episode if you don't know about it.

• When Weyoun claps Odo on the shoulder during their "temptation scene," the script notes that this is the moment that Odo is infected with the virus that would come into play in the season finale a few episodes later.

This is an entertaining episode full of solid character moments and combat thrills. Add in Jeffrey Combs' debut as Weyoun, and I think it merits a strong B+.