I know they’re running the episodes on Spike TV now and everything, but I’m impatient… What is the full story arc of the show? I remember watching it periodically and being absolutely confused because I didn’t know the backgrounds on all the characters or the war or what happened to Jazdia (sp?) Dax… Does somebody want to try explaining it all to me?
Here is a link to the episode descriptions from the official website.
Jammer’s Reviews are very, very detailed. You get every Trek except for “TNG” along with shows like “Andromeda,” which Jammer reviewed until the show turned so repulsively bad that he just threw his hands up in disgust.
I’ve seen just about every DS9 episode except for the finally. For some reason when they had DS9 reruns on my local TV station, I could never seem to catch it. So I just read the review to see what happened.
Now my question. The review mentions something about Terry Farrell not permitting the use of past clips of her in the montage at the end of the show. Was there some sort of bad blood between her and the producers/writers/cast? What was her reason for leaving the show? To be in a sit-com with Ted Danson?
Well, instead of giving you a season background, I’ll try to give you broad strokes of each character.
Benjamin Sisko: Captain of DS9. Was widowed at Wolf 359 while attacking the Borg cube that had assimilated Picard. Along with Jadzia, he discovered the Bajoran wormhole. Became the Emissary (Messiah) to the Bajoran people. Found out he was a planned birth and was half Prophet. Married Kassidy Yates, a freighter captain. Dissapears at the end of the series, saying he will return.
Kira Nerys: Former Bajoran terrorist and XO of DS9. Butted heads a lot with Sisko in the beginning but mellowed out considerably during the last bit of the series. Had a long running feud with Dukat and even friended his daughter Ziyal, who was half Bajoran. Also found out her mother was one of his comfort women during the occupation. Had a romance with both Shakaar and Bareil, First Ministers (Presidents, kinda) of the Bajoran provisional government. Later boinked Odo. Was promoted to Coroporal and given command of the station after Sisko joined the Prophets.
Odo: Began the series as an enigma. No one, including himself, knew what he was. Eventually discovered he was a Changeling. Long time nemesis of Quark. Had a long term crush on Kira that he finally admitted to in the last third of the series. Boinked her for a couple years. Joined the Founders after they were defeated in the Dominion War.
Worf: Was brought aboard the station as a Klingon expert due to the K Empire attacking the Cardassians. Moved from security to tactical. Wed Jadzia, only to have her killed, was adopted into the house of Martok. Killed Gowron and made Martok the new emperor. Was made UFP Ambassador to the Klingons at the end of the series.
Jadzia Dax: Current host of the Dax symbiote, a slug living inside her, in the beginning of the series. The previous host’s name was Curzon and was a mentor to Sisko. Established fairly on as an expert in alien cultures, especially Klingons. Started boinking Worf when he joined the show in S3 or S4. They eventually wed in S6, tried to concieve, and was eventually killed by Dukat.
Ezri Dax: Jadzia’s replacement. Never wanted to be a host but was forced to when the ship carrying Dax discovered it wouldn’t make it to Trill in time to save the symbiont. Spent most of S7 trying to figure out what she was as compared to who Dax was. Boinked Worf once, then wound up boinking Bashir by the series’ end.
Julian Bashir: Began the series as a naive doctor who wanted to see the universe, which is why he was on DS9. Befriended Miles O’Brien and became best friends with him, spending lots of time in the holosuites with him, reenacting various historical periods, most especially the Alamo. Was also responsible for creating Vic Fontaine. During the later seasons, we discovered he was actually genetically enhanced, which is against UFP law. He was allowed to stay a doctor but his dad, who was responsible for his being enhanced, was sent to prison for a year. Was briefly impersonated by a Changeling and held in a Dominion POW camp. Wound up boinking Ezri after trying unsuccesfully for years to boink Jadzia.
Miles O’Brien: Transferred from the E-D to DS9 for the promotion. Was good friends with Bashir… didn’t do much in the series that I remember, except fix things, be the normal everyman, and get killed a lot only to be replaced by an alt-universe O’Brien or brought back or something. Had a second kid, a son, named Kirayoshi, who Kira carried to term since Keiko couldn’t.
Quark: Transformed from a one dimensional crook to a multi-faceted Ferengi by the end of the series. Got more women than anyone else on the station and was married to a Klingon at one point. Um… can’t remember much else, really.
Jake Sisko: Benjamin’s son. He was a typical teen in the early years of the show but near the end, becomes a reporter for the UFP News Service and stays on the station to give everyone first hand accounts of the station under Cardassian rule. Set up his dad with his future stepmom.
Anyone else can feel free to add to whatever I may be forgetting. I obviously left out all the semi-regs because I don’t have the time or energy to go over all of them… there’re literally dozens.
As someone who never watched the show regularly, but often enough to know a general who’s who, I found Aesiron’s post extremely helpful.
A few questions, if you don’t mind…
Disappears vanishes/evaporates (he is a Messiah or something), or just takes off in a roundabout?
Wasn’t he ostracized by the Founders for killing another changeling?
Didn’t you need to go through a lot of training to become a host? Was she just drafted randomly?
Cardassian rule? Huh?
Thanks for any responses. 
I believe you mean colonel. I’m sure Kira would be quite pissed off if you addressed her as a corporal. 
If you don’t want to watch the episodes on Spike, SilentButDeftly, I reccomend renting the DVDs through Netflix. All the seasons are available. If you only want the Dominion arc, start with season 3. Worf shows up in Season 4, which is when things really get interesting.
In the series finale, Dukat, disguised as a Bajoran and trying to release the Pagh Wraiths (the evil Prophets), fights Sisko to the the death in the Fire Caves of Bajor. As they both fall down the long shaft full of flame, Sisko is whisked away by the Prophets but tells Kassidy, his wife, that he will return.
Initially but the Founders wanted him back at all costs and obviously forgave him in the end. One of the lines spoken by the Female Changeling during the war was to the affect of “We would destroy the entire Alpha Quadrant for you”.
We find out in S7 that the whole training thing is just a myth perpetuated by the Symbiont Council to keep the number of prospective hosts down, so that people don’t get too jealous over not being chosen (there’re millions more humanoids than symbionts). The actual number of humanoids that could become a host is actually something like 70%.
Deep Space Nine was captured by the combined forces of the Cardassian Union and the Dominion sometime in S5 or S6 and held onto it for about an entire season, give or take. Odo, Kira, Quark, and Jake stayed on the station and everyone else that had any ties to Starfleet evacuated to continue fighting. They eventually regained control.
No problem… I love the series and am glad to help. If you have any further questions, feel free to ask.
I did mean Colonel… I don’t know why I said Corporal. Stupid Army ranks have always given me fits.
Sorry for the triple post but I really recommend friedo’s suggestion on the Season Sets. I intend to do just that when I have the money to subscribe to Netflix because I want to see it all as one long story and not just an episode here and there.
It’s a really powerful show… I’m not exaggerating when I say thinking about it now while writing out the outlines is giving me chills.
That happens in Call to Arms, the badassest season ender of all Trek shows, at the end of season 5. The first six episodes of season 6 are spent making preparations to retake the station.
Ezri (Mmmm. Eeeeeezri.) was pressganged out of neccessity between S6 and S7. Then she got stuck with the symbiote since it was in long enough to become permanent.
…and a fourth post (since Friedo kindly broke up my spamming of the the thread) to say that despite DS9 being my favorite season, it’s also one I don’t know very well in comparison to TOS or TNG. I didn’t get into it until about S3 and it was on syndication at a crappy time where I lived so it was pre-empted often so I missed a lot, even when I was into it hardcore.
In addition, it’s been five years since I’ve seen the later seasons of the show (the stupid idiots in my market never let it run in syndication) and my memory isn’t what it used to be. I’m probably forgetting a bit… anyone else that wants to step in, feel free to.
Well, yeah. That was the catalyst for our discovering that the Council governing joinings was full of it.
Pssst. Aesiron: Netflix. It’s da bomb.
Sincerely,
friedo, Netflix whore
Just clarifying the chain of events for SBD.
A thought comes to mind.
One of Dax’s earlier hosts was dangerously unstable, but they didn’t catch him until after they’d bonded him.
If he slips through the unneccessarily fine filtering, I’d hate to think the errors they’d have with the course net.
After Odo killed the other Changeling, he was taken back to the Founders’ homeworld for trial and judgement (this was before war was officially declared). As punishment, the other Founders sentenced him to live as a “solid” - they took away his ability to shapeshift. Later, Odo ended up taking care of a “baby” Changeling that came his way - it was basically a blob of goo that didn’t know what it was or how to shapeshift, much like Odo was when he was first found. At the end of the episode, the baby died, but in dying, somehow merged with Odo and gave him back his shapeshifting ability out of gratitude.
So anyway, the whole killing another Changeling thing was resolved long before the end of the series. In fact, during the finale, all the founders were dying of a disease that had been created and deliberately introduced into The Great Link by Section 31, a rogue black-ops type group within the Federation. Odo had been the first infected, and he infected the rest without knowing it. At the end of the finale, Odo had the cure to the disease, and he returned to the Great Link to cure the others and to try to teach them to love. Sniff.
Whats Garak’s story? (reeeeally?)
Garak was the son of the head of the Obsidian Order, but his father couldn’t acknowledge him for political reasons. He became his father’s protege, doing various nefarious things all over the galaxy. I don’t think it was ever revealed exactly why he got exiled to DS9, but we know that his father was at least partly responsible, and that Dukat hates him intensely. Garak’s father died with Garak at his side in a Dominion prison camp after he (the father) led a poorly thought-out attack against the Founders’ homeworld with the Romulans.
In the end, Garak ends up back home on Cardassia, helping the rebellion against the Dominion. After the Dominion left, he presumably stayed there and helped rebuild.