‘CIVIL DEFENSE’ (DS9)
Please feel free to comment on my review.
This is another exciting episode in the ‘DS9’ series where the DS9 members find themselves caged in aboard the station. This is because Chief O’Brien set off a booby trap by accident which gets exciting.
In the episode, Jake Sisko helps Chief O’Brien to convert the station’s old ore processing unit into a deuterium refinery. In the process, an old Cardassian security program gets tripped by Chief O’Brien.
It puts the station into lockdown, trapping O’Brien, Jake and Commander Sisko in the ore processing unit. Kira, Dax and Bashir soon get trapped in ops whilst Odo gets trapped with Quark in his office. 😀
This lockdown was meant to happen in the event of a Bajoran uprising during the Cardassian occupation. The ore processing unit used to have Bajoran slave labourers working in them one time.
Recorded messages are sent throughout the station by Marc Alaimo as Gul Dukat to warn the Bajoran workers of their actions. Fail-safes are put in the system to stop the crew in accessing areas.
Sisko, O’Brien and Jake can’t be beamed out from where they are and Kira, Dax and Bashir can’t get out of ops with forcefields placed on the doors. Odo and Quark are annoyed with stuck together too.
I like how Jake works with his father and O’Brien to find a way out of the ore processing unit before poisonous gas gets released. Jake has to crawl up through one ore chute in order to break a way out.
It was funny to see the scenes between Odo and Quark when stuck together. Quark tries to phaser their way out but Odo stops him. Quark tries to get the phaser back as Odo refuses to give it back. 🙂
Kira, Dax and Bashir try to find a way to disable the lockdown program but it only makes things worse and another fail-safe gets tripped. Dax burns her hands in the process in accessing something.
Andrew J. Robinson as Garak then walks in. This surprises everyone in ops before it’s realised that Garak’s Cardassian codes allow him access around the station. It doesn’t anyone else to have access.
Under Garak’s advice, the DS9 crew shut down the life support systems to prevent the release of poisonous gas. Unfortunately, it leaves them 12 hours to solve the situation before oxygen runs out.
The 12 hours also get reduced to 2 hours with the station about to self-destructed by the Dukat program. Garak tries to hack into the station’s computer using Gul Dukat’s identity computer codes.
This again trips off another fail-safe as one of the ops replications activates and a disruptor fires random blasts of fire on people. It causes the crew to take shelter whilst one of them is killed in this.
As this goes on in ops, the real Gul Dukat beams into ops from his ship. He received notification that the lockdown system had been tripped. Dukat takes pleasure with teasing the crew in their situation.
The phaser fire also doesn’t affect Cardassians like Dukat and Garak when they’re in ops. This episode also presents more rivalry between Dukat and Garak since they clearly don’t like each other.
Dukat deactivates the disruptor in ops and takes advantage of using the opportunity to get DS9 back by persuading Major Kira to agree to let a Cardassian presence be on board. He uses blackmail here.
But Dukat’s hopes to have the station back are short-lived. When he attempts to return to his ship, a program of Danny Goldring as Legate Kell, his former commander, tells Dukat he’s disgraced Cardassia.
Dukat’s access codes have been denied and he can’t leave the station. So Dukat is stuck with everyone else. They have to work together and stop the station blowing up as well as the lockdown.
Thankfully, O’Brien and the Siskos manage to find a way to get the controls and shut down the station’s shielding as well as prevent the self-destruct sequence. This all saves everyone and the station too.
I liked that scene where Sisko and O’Brien crawl through a shaft. Sisko goes on ahead whilst O’Brien gets injured in the process. Jake rescues O’Brien to get him out of the shaft, which is so brave of him.
‘Civil Defense’ is a gripping ‘DS9’ episode to watch with the DS9 crew under siege whilst being in lockdown. I like how they solve the situation and manage to overcome obstacles in a very tight spot.
‘Civil Defense’ rating – 9/10
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