Star Trek DS9 - Season 5 - Episode 01
Star Trek DS9 - 5x01 - Apocalypse Rising
Originally Aired: 1996-9-30
Synopsis:
Sisko approaches Starfleet Command with Odo's suspicion that Gowron, the Klingon leader, is really one of Odo's people -- a Changeling. [DVD]
Filler Quotient:
0, not filler, do not skip this episode.
- Numerous major long term plot threads are serviced here.
Problems
None
Factoids
- Season 5 begins a trend of very cool episode names. Granted there were a few creepy cool episode names before this one, I like to officially designate this as the first such episode.
Remarkable Scenes
- Kira telling Dukat who the father of her child is. I love the confused look he gets on his face when she tells him O'Brien, a married man, is the father of her child. :)
- Sisko, O'Brien, and Odo as Klingons.
- Bashir and Kira arguing about her pregnancy.
- Worf training his crewmembers on how to act Klingon.
- Dukat destroying a Klingon Bird of Prey.
- Klingons bragging about killing Starfleet officers. One Klingon mentions killing a Tellarite and a Benzanite. Sisko attacks him "because he's in the way of his blood wine" but really because the captain of that ship was his friend.
- Martok seeing something familiar in O'Brien.
- Martok discovering the intruders when Sisko is nominated for an award.
- Odo discovering that Martok is the Changeling.
- Hoards of Klingons killing the impostor Martok.
- Morn Appearances; 1. Just after the opening credits.
My Review
Odo is feeling sorry for himself now that he's no longer a Changeling. Starfleet is planning to expose the fact that Gowron is a Changeling. Sisko is stuck with the job of implementing this plan. Their spy mission doesn't go precisely as planned; because Martok is the Changeling, not Gowron. Despite a distinct lack of lines, this is really Odo's episode, not anyone else's. For he has regained his confidence in this episode. He may no longer be a Changeling, but he's still a fantastic observer of human(oid) behavior and that makes him a brilliant investigator. Odo expertly discovers who the real Changeling is.
The following are comments submitted by my readers.
Good episode. I don't have much of a comment except to say that O'brien makes one ugly Klingon.
There is a problem: how come Gowron and a lot of other Klingons did not recognise Worf?
So if Odo is a solid now, does that mean a Changling can harm and kill him? I guess it does because Odo would have killed had the Changling attacking him not been killed. If Odo isn't considered a Changling anymore then why did the fake general hold him back and let the others in the room (other than it being a plot device)?
Overall, a great episode, and I love the new Dukat with his Bird of Prey. The consistency of writing in the characters so far has been amazing, considering all the different writers and directors. By the way, I am just now, in late 2011, seeing DS9 for the first time via Netflix.
This is not a good episode - it's full of problems, is completely unrealistic and the actual story is lame. One problem was that the Klingons didn't seem to notice that the DS9 crew didn't speak Klingon (except for Worf but he didn't say much). I undertand that the Universal Translator would translate their English into Klingon but doesn't answer the problem for two reason: 1. They would still know that they're speaking a different language because of mouth shapes ect. 2. They actually say some Klingon words... then switch to English.
Another problem was how easy the crew got into the Kingon base. If their intelligence and epionage skills are that good then how did they not know of the Klingon plot to attack Romulus and the countless other things that they don't know?
Also the whole Odo being down thing is getting really old. It's about the fifth time he's told Sisko that he's not up to the job for various reasons.
A really annoying episode and it didn't even include Major Kira.
The exposition in the opening scene was really forced and obvious.
But when this happened,
- "Tough assignment. Who are they sending?"
- "Me."
all was forgiven.
They really over-did Jake's teeth.
Must have been an in-joke among the crew or something.
(whoops, wrong Sisko. *Benjamin's* teeth.)