Heat of Battle

"By Inferno's Light" Plot Summary:

Gul Dukat forges an alliance between Cardassia and the Dominion, and plots to destroy the Federation and retake Deep Space Nine. Meanwhile, Worf and Garak are held prisoner and discover that Martok is still alive...and a prisoner or the Jem'Hadar.

Analysis:

The action on the station was a letdown in the second half of this two-parter, but I enjoyed the scenes with Garak in prison, especially his claustrophobia. Worf's behavior rang less true to me, but that might be boredom with the usual Klingon honor crap; Klingons and Jem'Hadar deserve one another. Then again it was odd that these Jem'Hadar refused to obey their Vorta, and spared Worf's life; is there change in the Dominion? Bashir was impressive in his refusal to wait around passively; on the other Trek series the doctors have tended to be pacifists, whereas Bashir seems to understand that in order to save lives, one does not always have that luxury.

I don't know why they bothered with the threat of a Bashir-changeling on the station, since it never represented a real crisis; I guess the idea that there COULD be changelings on the station at any time is creepy enough. I wish the Dominion were more scary on a regular basis. Like the Borg, these baddies are hard to take seriously the more exploitable weaknesses they are found to have.