Search - Star Trek Deep Space Nine - The Complete Fifth Season on DVD

Great season form popular series

Wayne Klein | My Little Blue Window, USA | 10/27/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"War isn't hell after all but it is profitable.We've seen that with in the real world and the producers/writers of Deep Space Nine found it to be true in fiction as well. With season five Deep Space Nine hit its stride. No longer dependent on The Next Generation, the series had begun to carve out its own niche during seasons three and four. The introduction of Next Gen character Worf and the conflict with the Klingon Empire during season four had distracted producer Steven Ira Behr from venturing further into the trenches of the war between the Federation and The Dominion. Now with season five they were back on course. Behr had also introduced new blood in both the writing and directing department that had not been affiliated with Trek before. This again allowed the show to achieve its own distinctive dramatic presence. DS9 also boasted the strongest writing staff of any show of the Star Trek franchise. The characters didn't always get along (a minor flaw of The Next Gen) and the show frequently examined the ethical boundaries of war (something that didn't trouble Captain Kirk too much despite his allegiance to the Prime Directive).The story arcs during season five focused on much more on action than before. Behr also broke out a Trek stable that had been missing during many of the early season stand-alone episodes-humor. Apocalypse Rising , Trials and Tribble-ations, Things Past, For The Uniform and Rapture were all highlights for season five. Trials and Tribble-ations integrated a classic old episode of Star Trek into a new DS9 one. Sisko and his crew must go back in time to prevent the murder of James Kirk. Set in the whimsical Trouble with Tribbles episode from 1967, the big challenge was integrating the crewmembers from the current series into shots from an episode shot nearly 30 years ago. What's surprising is that both episode and the effects work are seamlessly interwoven into the Tribbles episode. Another strong episode is the time travel story Children of Time. While on a mission investigating a strange energy field, the Defiant is struck by a tendril from the field. Every one survives the encounter but there's been a change; the Crew is hailed by someone on the uninhabited planet. An unidentified man and woman call the crewmembers by name and invite them to visit the planet. Once on the planet's surface the two people identify themselves as descendants of the crew. Evidently the ship has been thrown into the future and when they try and leave orbit in two days time they'll be flung into the past again, crash land and be unable to escape or get off a distress signal. What's most interesting about the episode is the examination of the concept of fate. If Sisko and his crew do attempt to get home and try and circumvent the accident, they'll cause an entire population of people to cease to exist. If they elect to let fate deal them a hand, they'll never see their loved ones at Deep Space Nine again. It's an interesting episode and the climax is all the more stunning for the revelations we discover. For the Uniform brought back guest star Kenneth Marshall as Michael Eddington a Star Fleet officer who had betrayed Commander Sisko during the previous season. Sisko had vowed to hunt Eddington down and make him face a court martial. Eddington was working for the Marque a group of colonist living in an area given back to the Federation's former enemy. All the colonist were ordered to leave the planets turned over to the Cardassians an alien species that have become new allies of the Federation. The colonist refused christened themselves the Maque and proceeded to fight both sides. It's a tense episode that deals with a number of intriguing ethical issues.With the last episode of season 5 the production crew pulled out many of the stops. Call to Arms watches the Federation lose the battle but not the war against the shape shifter led Dominion. Sisko and his crew must retreat from Deep Space Nine and give up the space station. It's a bittersweet moment during the series run given all the obstacles that the characters faced when they first took over the space station on DS9.
The image is quite good although there is some noticeable edge enhancement in some episodes as well as other digital compression artifacts. The picture is surprisingly clear and sharp. Still, compared to The Next Generation boxed sets, DS9 is a considerable improvement.. The 5.1 Dolby Digital mix is used very well. Expanding both the scope and depth of the original sound. There's a number of feaurettes worth watching. There's two on the creation of the episode Trials and Tribble-ations that are quite interesting. The first looks at the origin of the episode and the second focuses on the unusual technical challenges of joining two episodes separated by 30 years. There's also the usual featurette on the aliens created for season five. Also, there's a special featurette that tours the main set of Deep Space Nine and looks at inside jokes. The Section 31 Hidden Files are fairly easy to find and access and do provide interesting background on the characters.This is a good boxed set with some minor compression flaws and well worth picking up. The original series was always darker looking than Next Generation and, as such, is a bit of a challenge for DVD. The limitations of the format mean there are quite a few compression artifacts but, again, these were unavoidable given the amount of information encoded on each disc. For neophytes I'd recommend picking up season 3 and 4 prior to this boxed set to have a better understanding the series as a whole."