The Changing Face of Evil

DVD, DS9 S7 (The Changing Face of Evil)

No more games. Now things get serious. The destruction of one of the best ever Starships, the USS Defiant; the unmasking of Dukat; the murder of Solbor; the open resistance of Damar; Earth attacked; new Breen weapons that eliminate shields... The first three parts of the story were slow in comparison, and the feeling is that at last we have got to some meat in the story.

There are a lot more well-written scenes and enjoyable moments in this, such as Damar's pulling the wool over Weyoun's eyes as he tries to pull back on his previous contempt of the Cardassian, mistakenly believing Damar's reborn confidence is due to his encouragement in the wake of the Dominion's successes. Even more welcome is the message Damar sends to the Vorta who has been a thorn in his side for so long - by the destruction of the cloning facility, which means Weyoun can't be cloned anymore - he could be the last one!

There's also a nice scene as the Defiant crew prepare for launch while cross-talking about a minor matter involving the Chief's model of the Alamo. Confident writing as it used to be. There are also some little facts to notice, such as the revelation by Weyoun that the homeworld of the Breen isn't a frozen wasteland as previously thought, and so their wearing of refrigeration suits is even more of a mystery! And Sisko has become extremely quiet, mostly talking in a whisper it seems to me, and it's happened since he got married as if he's walking on eggshells and has pulled into himself. He is especially saddened by the destruction of the Defiant that had served for so long, but it is a thrill to see the evacuation and escape pods with the klaxon blaring. Something so rare to see! It survived the Borg, Cardassians, Dominion, but was finally bested by the largely unknown race of the Breen, who show their worth for the Founders.

Kai Winn further sinks into evil with even the shocking revelation that the man she has grown close to is her enemy Gul Dukat, yet he still controls her, speaking to her unerring motivation towards power, and now there is no turning back. She kills her trusted aide, Solbor, who only wanted to protect her, and consults the evil texts of the Pah-wraiths. Nothing will reconcile her with the Prophets now her true nature rules unfettered. And with Dukat's villainous words persuading her on, bad things are sure to ensue. I must point out something I noticed which hardly ever happens on the series - a background painting wasn't good enough. Perhaps it was the higher resolution of DVD, but the cityscape in the background of Winn's study looked definitely painted, where usually they do such a good job of making it seem real.

On the other hand the matte work was excellent when it came to the skies over Cardassia! I kept expecting the episode to end and not fulfil what was promised, but we did get a pretty good battle and more plot points were hammered home, as if underlining that we're headlong into a spiral of death, destruction and danger in the final hours of DS9.

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