Changing Changelings

"Apocalypse Rising" Plot Summary:

Going on evidence picked up by Odo from the Founders, Sisko, Odo, O'Brien and Worf enter Klingon territory to expose Klingon High Council Leader Gowron as a Changeling. They end up in the right place, but discover that they have the wrong man; it's General Martok who's the Changeling.

Analysis:

Since I was fearing the worst, I have to say that this wasn't bad for a season premiere--nowhere near the level of "The Homecoming," but I have little hope of DS9 returning to those halcyon days. Avery Brooks makes a fine Klingon and Marc Alaimo was back in classic form as Dukat; their comedic talents saved this episode from drowning in Klingon Warriorisms and gratuitous violence. Odo was useless as a Klingon, but demonstrated that he's better at figuring things out now that he's a solid--this was his best showing as Chief of Security in a long time. And I'm glad Gowron's not dead. I always liked him, and since most of the familiar Klingons from TNG are gone, it's a relief to know that he's his old self.

Best of all, there were flashes of the old Kira again. Her reminding Worf that she is in command of the station when Sisko is gone, so he could forget about his plans to commandeer the Defiant, made me feel a lot better about the upcoming season. I'm still laughing about Dukat's expression when she told him that O'Brien, not Shakaar, was the father of her baby. Probably this explains why Dukat didn't make any cracks about Starfleet engineers around O'Brien this time out! I was less amused by the "This is all your fault" exchange between Kira and Bashir--anyone in on the joke enough to know why it was supposed to be funny didn't need it in the first place, since it broke character, and it was gratuitous to the show except to give Bashir something to do.

There were some weird plot moments. I don't understand why Sisko didn't take Dax along. Her superior knowledge of Klingon culture than O'Brien or Odo (especially since women were being honored at that Klingon gathering, so she would not have been out of place or conspicuous) made her an ideal choice. Well, at least she wasn't around to flirt with Worf. I didn't buy Sisko's drawing attention to himself by decking the Klingon who killed his Benzite friend--and if Marduk from TNG was the first Benzite ever to enter the Academy, how did one of those blue gas-breathers become a captain by Sisko's era, anyway? The Vulcan toy explanation for the sphere containing the radiation that was supposed to unmask Gowron was particularly strange, not only because the Klingons are supposed to be at war with the Vulcans as part of the Federation, but also because Vulcan children probably don't have "toys.' Pretty feeble excuse, that; the sphere should have been confiscated then and there. Well, maybe everyone was drunk.

Hopefully this will be the last Klingon episode for awhile. There are only so many shots of blood wine, bat'leth battles, and demonstrations of honor that I can take.