Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night

DVD, DS9 S6 (Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night)

Even the lesser episodes this season seem to have something more. I kind of like the way they don't worry about the mechanics of how to get Kira back in time, whether it's right to do so, all the usual philosophising is dispensed with to get down to the story. And the other characters all get a little scene that doesn't feel tacked on, though they're just being given something to do. The best of these is Worf and Dax' part, continuing the theme of last week's episode. It also emphasises Kira's solitude and makes it easier to accept her going off at the drop of a hat (or the drop of a Gul's transmission), on a personal voyage of discovery.

There are several noteworthy moments to tick off on the great List Of Things To Be Seen On DS9 - Kira meeting herself as a child; Thomas Kopache back as a younger version of Taban, her Father, where before he'd played an older man on his deathbed; a younger Dukat before he went kerazy, and started ringing his closest enemy up in the middle of the night to pass on troubling information; and another visit to Terok Nor.

I got the feeling the guy from the resistance had been in it before as an older guy, but maybe he only looked similar? And the snooty Bajoran in charge of the comfort women reminded me of Damar.

I was thinking recently that Bajor had been put even more on a backseat to what it had become already this season, but at least we get an episode with Bajor featured, and it's especially nice to see the station orbiting the planet.

You could argue that the story ends a little unresolved, because clearly Meru is dead anyway, Dukat's out there somewhere (with nothing better to do than annoy people from afar), and the only change can be for Kira. I suppose she does realise that things weren't as simple as she always believed, and though she grows to be disgusted with her Mother, she realises she might not have survived without her decision and she didn't have the right to change that. But yes, it still feels a little as though the story hadn't come full circle, except to torture Kira with further connections to Dukat. It seems a little odd that he didn't divulge his connection to Meru when Kira and he searched for the missing Bajorans in 'Indiscretion', since it became clear then that Dukat was attached to one in particular. But when was Dukat ever sane, even before he went insane...

A good, solid, contained episode, with enough to enjoy and justify it's existence. And only DS9 could get away with a title like that!

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