The Federation has decided to go on offense in the Dominion War, striking a target in Cardassian space... if they and the Klingons can persuade their Romulan allies to join them. At the same time, Dukat is waging war in an entirely different way, reaching out to the Pah-wraiths for a direct attack on the Prophets. And meanwhile, Worf and Jadzia are making plans to have a baby.
This is episode is so full that you might even say it's overstuffed. When you watch, there are signs throughout that either more footage was filmed and cut for time, or was pruned at script phase to the bare bones. There are whiplash cuts between plot threads. We jump into conversations that already seem well underway. Characters like Garak and Weyoun seem to appear not because they have anything important to do, but because it's a season finale.
And yet, it's not like the episode has no moments where it stops to breathe and serve the characters. Indeed, there are several nice ones. Odo and Kira have their first serious fight, with the fun element that Odo dwells on it long after Kira has forgotten it entirely. We find time for a Vic Fontaine song, a meaningful "Here's to the Losers" sung to Quark and Bashir -- apt and oddly touching, assuming you're not just put off by them still being rather skeezy about not ending up with Jadzia Dax. Plus, the time is rightly given to some fantastic visuals during the big battle scenes; it's a proper Star Wars-ian action sequence (right down to the "one vulnerable spot" our heroes are after, though they must use Star Trek ingenuity to hit it).
Then there are the quick and pithy lines peppered throughout that truly did make me smile: Jadzia declaring she hopes her daughter does look like her father, Martok being goaded by an aggravating Romulan diplomat, Jake threatening to ride into battle on a Klingon ship if his Dad won't take him on the Defiant, Weyoun dismissing other religions as superstitious because the Founders are gods.
But to power through to these moments (and to the ending it wants to reach), the episode also really leaves its "construction debris" in plain sight. Since we last saw Dukat, he's worked through his mental disorder, decided he doesn't blame Damar for killing his daughter, and has done a deep dive on Bajoran religion -- because that's what the plot demands. Sisko starts out experiencing the highs of interacting with Bajoran children and receiving an award named for Christopher Pike, specifically to contrast the low of ending the episode scrubbing clams in the alley behind his father's restaurant
And foremost, in my view, a pretty terrible ending for the character of Jadzia Dax.
The story of Terry Farrell's departure from Deep Space Nine has evolved a bit over the years, perhaps in part due to drifting recollections, but also clearly due to an increased willingness over time to air dirty laundry. At the time, the official story seemed to be "Terry Farrell just wanted to leave and do that sitcom Becker instead." Today, a more plausible story has emerged, that seems to fit with executive producer Rick Berman's pattern of sexist behavior:
Where other actors were offered raises to renew their contracts for a season seven, Farrell was told she should be grateful just to keep her job, that she'd "would be working at Kmart instead" if she walked away from the show. Farrell says she didn't want to leave, and tried floating the idea of 13 episodes for her character instead of the full 26 -- a better per-episode rate for her but less money for the production over the whole season. (Plus more likelihood of good material for her when her character did appear.) Head writer Ira Steven Behr says he would have leapt at that chance to keep Jadzia Dax around, and had always thought Farrell just wanted out. Farrell says she was given an ultimatum: do all 26, for the same amount of money, or leave. She chose to leave.
If it had been pretty much any other actor leaving the show, their character wouldn't necessarily have had to die. But I think the prospect of "just stick Dax in a new host" was too tempting for the writers; you get to both kinda-sorta keep a beloved character around and have new interactions between characters to explore. So it's no surprise that once Terry Farrell was out, Jadzia was fated to die. But you'd think that Star Trek would have learned a lesson about Tasha Yar's unheroic, unceremonious death (which they ultimately took a "do-over" on) and not repeated the same mistake with Jadzia Dax.
Dax stays behind on this mission out of pure plot convenience, even though on any other mission, she'd be off with the others on the Defiant. She doesn't die trying to save the day; she's simply in the wrong place at the wrong time and gets zapped in a split second by Pah-wraith Dukat. (Just like Tasha, by Armus.) That "wrong place" is particularly wrong for the character of Jadzia Dax. She's always been a scientist and skeptic, and particularly unimpressed by religion. The one moment she sets foot inside the Bajoran temple in... well, possibly ever? Dead!
And nearly as much as it's a disservice to Jadzia to kill her this way, it's a disservice to Sisko that he should shoulder the blame for it. True... people blame themselves irrationally for things all the time, and Sisko shouldn't be immune to that. But what exactly could he have done to prevent Jadzia's death had he heeded the Prophets' vague warning and stayed on the station? Were the Prophets going to suddenly possess him, put him in the temple at exactly that moment, power him up with magic, and stop Pah-wraith Dukat? Unlikely.
But given these lemons, Terry Farrell and Avery Brooks make some fine lemonade. Jadzia's excitement over becoming a mother again is palpable, and her final words to Worf about that very thing are truly heartbreaking (thus, Worf's death yell comes off quite dramatic when it could have been silly). Sisko's monologue to Jadzia's torpedo coffin is powerful and vulnerable. He seems deflated when he literally takes his ball and goes home (in a great bit of dramatic resonance with the prior season finale).
Other observations:
- Money was spent not just on visual effects, but on background actors. The conference room where the Federation, Klingons, and Starfleet meet has never been so crowded.
- The Pah-wraith angle came into this episode a little later in the story development. According to the writers, they latched onto the idea that because the prophecy of "The Reckoning" was unfulfilled, that meant the Pah-wraiths weren't defeated, and thus there was one for Dukat to call upon for aid.
- The kid who talks to Sisko about the Orbs all having gone dark lays it on pretty thick.
The breathless pace of this episode does work in its favor most of the time. There are good moments throughout. And there is no denying that it ends in a great cliffhanger that teases so many possibilities for the next season -- Sisko in spiritual crisis, Dax gone, the wormhole closed! But the way Dax's death is handled does take a huge bite out of the experience for me. In all, I give "Tears of the Prophets" a B.
As for season six as a whole? There are many who regard it as the best season of Deep Space Nine -- and indeed it has episodes that are both favorites with fans and my personal favorites. (Though I'd say season five hit at a more consistently high level, albeit without having any Top 10 episodes of the series.) My picks for the best five episodes of season six: "Rocks and Shoals," "Far Beyond the Stars," "In the Pale Moonlight," "A Time to Stand," and (silly as it is in concept) "One Little Ship."
Next up: season seven, the final season of Deep Space Nine.
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