Apocalypse Rising

DVD, DS9 S5 (Apocalypse Rising)

Klingons. Lots of them - It worked for Season 4 and it worked for this season, too. With Season 5 the writers admitted they wanted to get back to the real threat of the series, the Dominion, and it was time for a more active approach, as though the Founders' nefarious schemes had caused splits in alliances, rampant suspicion and a foreboding doom hanging over those inhabiting the guard-post to the Alpha Quadrant, DS9 (as seen in the chat on the Promenade between Jake and Bashir), they had failed to destabilise the deep-rooted and strong-willed Federation. With the events of this episode firmly under their belt, the Klingon's division against their former longtime allies would begin to heal - I don't think Gowron relished war against the Federation, it was almost a waste of effort when the Jem'Hadar, real enemies, lay just beyond the Wormhole, it was just that he was never going to be seen to back down and with all the false wisdom whispered (or, more likely, shouted at volume), in his ear by the false Martok, his Klingon blood had at first rejoiced to bring his people back into their blood rights. For if a Klingon isn't fighting what is he doing?

This season the Jem'Hadar would no longer be on the other side of the Wormhole, the Klingon hatred of the Cardassians would prove valid, and the real war for the Alpha Quadrant would begin. For me, Season 5 was the most consistently great Trek season of all time (with Season 6 coming close second), and I wait with interest to see if that view has remained, after re-watching 'Enterprise' Season 2 and having my impression that that was the worst season of Trek, challenged. Ideas and inspiration can rise and fall, and I know this season of 'DS9' best because it was the one which I started collecting the videos more frequently, just because there were so many greats.

One of the great links (pardon me), to the cliffhanger ending of Season 4 was that Odo is powerless, his shapeshifting ability stripped from him in judgement by his people, and as hoped, we get to see how he reacts to his new life. This episode, apart from its rowdy Klingon story and 'Mission: Impossible' trip behind the lines of Klingon space, was a look into Odo's state of mind. And it's not good. Unlike Deanna Troi when she lost her empathic powers, he doesn't go around screaming at everybody, that's not his way. He begins to fade away. We first find him idling in an upper level of Quark's, contemplatively listening to the bubbles in his drink, despondent over his feelings of uselessness, almost depressed. But Sisko shows gives him the boot he needs and shows confidence in him, and that's what brings him round to the Odo we knew. It's a great show of the Captain's ability to command. Not only does he have to deal with an impossible mission, a bunch of inexperienced Klingon impersonators (himself included), and take on an evil Changeling, but he also has to deal with the psychological problems of one of his crewmen. He takes on the big, physical problems at the same time as the small, intimate worries and he is triumphant in both cases.

Odo realises that he hasn't lost himself along with his powers. He's still the man he was, with the skills, understanding of people and sense of justice that always drove him. Without Odo along on the mission false Martok probably would have succeeded in deepening the divide between the Klingons and Federation, and if war was fierce before, it would have been nothing less than carnage if Gowron had been seen to be assassinated by Starfleet officers. Because assassination is not the Starfleet way - we hadn't heard of Section 31 yet, as that would most certainly have been in their line. Why did they not intervene? Maybe it was a directive from them that conceived the infiltration plan, who knows? It's only once all other options have been exhausted and the mission looks to be over, that Sisko sanctions the death of Gowron. And so we have the beginning of a life and death struggle that was conceived in 'TNG' and would end at almost the very end of 'DS9': the antagonism between Worf and Gowron.

Worf had never been favoured by his brethren for being Starfleet, but his Captain, Picard, gained great respect through his interactions with the highest echelon of Klingon government, and Worf was brought along with him. Though Duras was the real, defined and hated enemy, Gowron, the other candidate for rulership, became as equal a thorn in his side, turning about from loyalty and gratitude to distrust and disgust, whatever served himself best. Worf had learned who Gowron was and so could never fully advocate him, that seam of damage between them, Gowron knowing Worf's honour to be at the heart of all motives, perhaps jealous of it, when he was more concerned with power and control. So they had twisted about each other being friends and enemies for a good few years, culminating in Worf's decision to stick with the life he knew rather than join with Gowron in a last hand of friendship and opportunity. Worf had done right and for that Gowron would never trust him again, and so it was with a certain relish that Worf took on the leader of the Empire in battle, and with equal glee that Gowron accepted the challenge.

That would almost have been enough to throw doubt into the minds of those that understood Klingons, that Gowron was not a Changeling, but in the heat of the moment Worf wasn't going to be the one thinking things through. Once challenge was laid down and accepted, death was all he was thinking about. So Odo it was, his keen, investigative mind as sharp as ever, able to reason out that Martok was the Changeling, not Gowron. Why did false Marty keep his fellow shapeshifter out of the party? Was it to protect him? Even after Odo's heinous crime of killing one of his own people in defence of his ship, the Changelings didn't bend their rules and kill him in return. No Changeling had ever harmed another, and they weren't about to start. Maybe it was Odo's safety, but it was also that Marty didn't want him interfering, but in the quiet corridor away from the rabble was exactly the place for Odo's mind to work up a solution. Even then Marty doesn't shoot him, though actually we don't see the moment when Odo escapes, just that he wrestles his way into the hall with Marty.

The only thing is that Marty, as a last resort to silence Odo, tries to choke him, thereby revealing his tentacled shapeshifting nature to a roomful of Klingons. With guns. Was he taking revenge on Odo in that moment, was the rage coming on full-tilt? For that matter, the false Krajensky whom Odo fought, didn't stand passively by in that fight, so maybe when they're riled these Founders aren't so high-minded about killing their own? The moment the Klingons all turn, disruptors raised, and blast the Changeling, is a visual and narrative turning point. They're all united in one cause against their biggest foe, and the anger of Klingons, especially armed ones, is not what you want to attract. Such a deeply dishonourable act as to infiltrate the leadership and spread lies, broke down the Klingon haughtiness to their former allies, the Federation, and because of Sisko and his team's intervention, Gowron is willing to entertain thoughts of peace. Vocal personal praise from the leader of the Klingon Empire must have gone some way to boost Odo's confidence, however bashfully he accepted it!

It's remarkable how Odo changes in the course of the episode. With a feeling of pointlessness to his life and career he eventually becomes interested in the mission, and by the time the party's in full swing, he's back to his normal self, nervous about his part in the plan, but also dedicated to it, knowing the others are relying on him. And he's rewarded with being able to fathom out what only he would understand - how the Founders' minds work. O'Brien, on the other hand, just enjoys going along for the ride, though he also doesn't understand the subtleties of being Klingon. I never thought about it until I saw it written down, but the most logical choice of officer would have been Jadzia - she has extensive knowledge of the race, a background in science for the use of the emitters that were to expose Gowron, and she has the fighting skills. If it wasn't for the fact that we see at least one female Klingon at the awards ceremony then it might have been assumed this was an exclusive, male-only honour. The real reason was apparently that Terry Farrell had sensitive skin that wouldn't appreciate the makeup, so it remained a boy's brigade. A shame, as she would have been brilliant. Never mind, she would get to dress up as a Klingon for her wedding the following season.

O'Brien makes a crack at one point about hating the teeth, and I reckon this was thrown in by the writers as an acknowledgment for all those who had had to wear the prosthetics and accoutrements over the years, or even to those doing so in this episode that were unused to appliances. Anyone seeing this as their first 'DS9' episode might have thought Colm Meaney was a woodenly bad actor, but what they wouldn't have realised is that he was a very good actor, playing another role: it's O'Brien who's not good at acting, his ineffectiveness in Worf's class showing this fact plainly. Fortunate then that this was not some Romulan or Cardassian cocktail party they were attending, in which each guest would have to give an account of themselves and their cover would have to be second nature. We saw some of that in 'Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges' in Season 7. Instead, this was a drunken mob of bloodwine and banter (for Klingon banter read: head-butting, arm-wrestling and other 'mild' fighting), which O'Brien knows all about and was quite at home with!

Though this was the first episode of the season, the writers did not forget the rich heritage of history they were plugged into. One race that almost never gets mentioned until 'Enterprise' are the Tellarites, and here we learn they are alive and well, and serving on Federation starships - a Klingon boasts that he beheaded one who was a helmsman. Makeup man Michael Westmore eventually got to update the race, as he'd wanted to, but he had to wait another seven years for it! I always thought the Tellarite was the Captain of that ship, and I would have loved to have seen a Tellarite Starfleet Captain, but it was actually a 'Benzenite' who was a friend of Sisko's. This Klingon would seem to be mistaken as he sounds as if he's talking about Ben'zites,' though it's hardly surprising in the heady mix of a barrel of bloodwine and the admiration of his fellows that he would stumble over an alien word. His slur on the Captain leads to one of the best moments in the episode, when Sisko beats him to the ground - he has enough forethought to have the excuse ready that no one gets between him and the bloodwine, but is also loosing off his immense anger, without compromising the mission. Sublime invention!

Sisko has always been the one man you think would make an excellent klingon, and he does! He has the charisma and the loudness, the gall and the guts to pull it off in the great tradition of Starfleet Captains going undercover! They even brought out an action figure of him as Jodmos son of Kobor, and I would have loved them to do the whole set, with Kodrak and Pahash, too. I'm not sure why Marty thought he recognised O'Brien's face, as I wouldn't have recognised him, but maybe Klingons look past the ridges to what's beneath. Even then, how did Martok know O'Brien? Did he have data on all those serving on DS9 as the most important strategic enemy emplacement of the Quadrant? I have to wonder if we saw the real Martok before. He only appeared in 'The Way of The Warrior,' but was he a Changeling then? Probably not, because he was happy to slice his hand and prove himself real, though it was proved in 'The Adversary' that blood testing isn't a foolproof method of Changeling detection as they can hold a small amount of blood within them to be released at will. Mind you, we also saw Drex, Martok's son, and he would probably have known if Dad was acting oddly.

Is there any guaranteed method of detecting a shapeshifter in your midst? It's an under-explored topic in the series, mainly because there would be a lot less danger if we knew how. For this specific mission Sisko has the advantage of prototype polaron emitters which will destabilise a Founder's shapeshifting ability, but is deadly with more than one exposure to the radiation and so can be used only once. It wouldn't do to have these dotted around all Starfleet facilities as it would be too dangerous, so they had their unique solution to exposing this one Changeling without compromising the longterm dramatic tension. There was something similar in the Season 4 two-parter on Earth, where there was some kind of scan on Odo that would alert sensors to one of his people, but I can't remember what was wrong with that, whether it was about personal liberties or if Odo could fool the sensors (or if 'Admiral Leighton' could). One thing I can't explain is why Martok explodes like a firecracker rather than a splatter of goo as Mirror Odo did, but maybe that's the effect of Klingon disruptors?

Rene Auberjonois must have experienced some feelings of déjà vu - he was almost recreating a scene straight from Star Trek VI: he was undercover wearing a Klingon mask during an assassination attempt where someone forces their way through crowd to save the leader of the people! He was Colonel West in the film, who'd banded together in unholy alliance with some Klingons that wanted to keep the status quo. In that, he was the villain taking aim, though in this he made amends for past injustices by playing the character that saves the intended victim. That makes him Kirk, struggling through the crowds, and I'd have loved to have seen him do the dive, with a shout of "Mr. Gowron" as he knocks him away from Worf's blade. Gowron gives a good account of himself in the battle, but Worf is younger and stronger and is always practicing in the Holosuites. Gowron had experience and the backing of the crowd, but he also had what you'd have thought was the better weapon - in 'Tacking Into The Wind' the blades would be evenly matched. Was Worf using a kut'luch blade, the weapon of an assassin? He certainly managed to break asunder Gowron's traditional bat'leth! I don't think we'd ever seen the weapon used in the way Martok does, clomping it heavily down on Sisko's back with the flat of the handle. Just another dishonourable charge to add to Marty's roster.

I wonder why Worf didn't bother to disguise himself? Maybe he thought it too dishonourable a thing to do and so came to some half measure by letting his hair down and shaving his beard off. He does look odd with a chin. Plus he wouldn't have been expecting to get up close to Gowron and the other Klingons were mostly young, up-and-coming warriors so they wouldn't know him. Perhaps his nature wanted him to be discovered so he could fight his way out, but on the other hand he had his duty, so as usual he had to keep both sides in check. I always thought, until I saw it written down, that Ty'Gokor was actually Tiger Core, as that's what it sounds like. It does generate an image of a dangerous stronghold deep in enemy territory, so I wonder if they wanted it to sound like human words while using a Klingon name? Though the location is actually the planetoid, is this the first Klingon space station seen in Trek? I don't remember seeing any others, before or since.

The Klingon statues in the Hall of Warriors were supposed to be based on real characters from the past, so in one of only a few ways I would have liked different direction - if we'd swept round the hall taking in one or two of the statues closeup, so that we could clearly see who they were, it would have been a great service to the observant. The only other aspect I felt was open to improvement is in the telling of battles without showing. We hear that Starfleet's been hard-pressed by Klingon forces and it would have been a terrific way to begin the season with all-out space battles, especially as the Defiant is retired from this episode - there were other things still to be left to the imagination (such as Vilix'pran and his 'budding' mentioned again). They even use a Runabout to get Sisko and Dax back to the station from Earth (though it was the Rio Grande, so they must have felt safer than in any other ship - treat her right and she'll always bring you home).

What an excellent way to bring Dukat back into the story, Kira luring him to DS9 with his daughter (who could have done with an appearance), his Bird of Prey the vehicle for Sisko's transportation! Some small thing missing that would have made the episode even better would have been seeing Dukat's holo-projector. We've seen Alaimo's face in several Trek roles (including 'Dukat as Bajoran'), but never as a Klingon. Dukat may be an unlikely ally, but his steely Cardassian resolve has not been dented. He ruthlessly obliterates the Klingon Bird of Prey that hails them because his holo-image isn't working, much to Sisko's dismay - he has more compassion, even though the Klingons are the enemy, perhaps he sees that only with their help will the Dominion's plans have a chance of being halted. Damar also shows great hostility to the Klingons which is understandable, they having done so much damage to his people, but it didn't bode well for when the Klingons returned to grace with the Federation, and this resentment helps set up the Cardassian/Dominion alliance. So although the Founders lost this battle, they succeeded in creating war in the Alpha Quadrant by other means, just in a more circuitous route than anticipated.

In such serious circumstances you might think humour would have a hard time coming through, but while Sisko (looking like Lurtz from 'The Lord of The Rings' - maybe Weta were fans?), and his team take their roles seriously, Dukat has much merriment out of their getup and helps to defuse any ridiculousness audience members might feel at the situation. There's also time for short scenes on the station between Bashir and Kira in which they argue over who's fault her having the baby is. Though not in the same league as Season 2's leaving argument in Kira's quarters in which everyone plays their part ('The Circle'), it has that same kind of escalating amusement. There's also the confusion Dukat expresses when, after assuming it was Shakaar's baby, Kira nonchalantly corrects him that it's O'Brien's in a tone of voice that adds, 'who else?' She obviously explained the story to him in the Turbolift ride, to which we aren't privy, but that made sense as we already knew it. Then we have the camera going handheld and following Dukat into the Infirmary so that the reveal of Sisko as a Klingon is as much for the audience as him.

Bashir's other, minor, but important scene is above the Promenade where he finds a morose Jake whose authorial tendencies lead him to notice how people behave. There's a history of a couple of people having a good observational discussion from the upper Promenade on the eve of dangerous missions and difficult times, and even though the two aren't part of the mission it's a nice touch to see them together and sets up their association in 'Nor The Battle To The Strong' a few episodes later. I almost expected Bashir to ask Jake to give him a hand in the Infirmary, but they hadn't got that far along, even though it would have been, as Sisko did for Odo, giving his hands something to do. The events of the episode do lead Bashir to offer Odo a new face, though mainly in jest, but he wants his old one back even though it was supposed to be a curse from his people. It is who he is so why should he change it? And it's a proud gesture, thumbing his nose at his people that he keeps the face they made him keep as if he couldn't care less, and maybe in some way, also to keep a connection with them, since he longs for peace between him and them, though we don't really see that externalised yet. The question is there about whether he can trust anything shown to him in the Great Link since they used him as a pawn to spark off deeper enmity. I also wonder if Martok didn't leak the information on Gowron's whereabouts to set up the mission.

This was the only season to begin with a standalone episode. All the others had either a two-parter or were feature-length (or were a six-parter!), and this is also not as grand in the space opera department as the previous season's 'The Way of The Warrior.' But that was a second pilot, announcing Worf's attachment to the series, whereas this was continuing directly from the cliffhanger ending of Season 4. It didn't do a standard tale, it pushed the boat out to give Sisko a very different challenge to meet, and along the way it helped address some issues certain characters were feeling. It would be left for the next episode, the 100th, to return to a more recognisable 'DS9,' and the opponents would be those that were to become much more direct antagonists over the course of the season: the Dominion.

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