‘DEFIANT’ (DS9)
Please feel free to comment on my review.
I’ve noticed how certain ‘DS9’ episodes seem to be about something first before they change radically later on. That’s the case for ‘Defiant’. It turned out to be a different episode from the start.
The episode begins with Major Kira overworked and not having had a day off for a long time. Dr. Bashir notices this when Kira lets out her stress and anger onto him. He sees to it that Kira gets rest.
At Quark’s, Bashir and Quark make sure that Kira uses at least two items of relaxation to get away from home. She’s reluctant at first but gradually softens to adhere to the relaxation items at Quark’s.
She’s then met by…Jonathan Frakes as Commander Riker. Wow! Riker’s in this! It was nice to see him. I guess as he directed two ‘DS9’ episodes beforehand, he has to appear as Riker in another one.
Riker is welcomed aboard DS9 by Commander Sisko later on. Kira is quite taken with Riker, even though she’s dating Vedek Bareil. She can’t help looking at Sisko’s office with Riker inside with him. 🙂
Once she bumps into Riker on the promenade later on, Kira offers to give him a tour of the station. Riker happily agrees and wishes to see the Defiant. Kira obliges and they soon head off for that ship.
There they find Chief O’Brien doing some maintenance work on the Defiant. He’s happy to see Riker, but Riker doesn’t seem happy to see him. Not sure why as I don’t recall Riker and O’Brien falling out.
Once O’Brien’s gone, Kira unlocks the Defiant’s tactical systems in order to show Riker what they’re like. After she’s done that, Riker pulls out a phaser and stuns Kira, faking a warp-core breach as well.
Riker then steals the Defiant away from DS9, joined by two Maquis members. It turns out that Riker isn’t the Riker we know and love at all. This happens to be Riker’s duplicate and is renamed Thomas.
Yeah, this episode happens to be a sequel to the ‘TNG’ episode ‘Second Chances’ where two Rikers were created. The Thomas Riker in this ‘DS9’ episode is the one who got abandoned nine years ago.
Sisko and Odo tell Marc Alaimo as Gul Dukat this when he visits them aboard DS9. They also tell Dukat that Thomas Riker happens to be a member of the Maquis. Dukat is really unhappy about this.
With the Defiant now controlled by the Maquis, it poses a serious threat to Cardassian forces. Sisko agrees to help Dukat and the Cardassians to stop the Defiant and possibly destroy it to prevent war.
This is where the episode gets a little less interesting for me. Oh it’s interesting to see Sisko and Dukat join forces on Cardassia and intriguing how Riker and Kira interacted with each other on the Defiant.
The episode also highlights some interesting things about the Obsidian Order as they happen to have Cardassian warships in the Orias system. It’s something that’ll be delved into more later in the series.
But there’s not much action happening in the second act. Apart from a few brief scenes of space battle between the Defiant and the Cardassian ships, there doesn’t seem to be anymore beyond that.
Thomas Riker comes across to Kira as wanting to be a hero more than a terrorist. She argues with him about not going further with the Maquis mission, sharing her experiences as a resistance fighter.
Dukat is also appalled by the Obsidian Order having Cardassian warships in the Orias system when they’re not supposed to have them. The Defiant has some information concerning the Orias system.
The episode’s climax was quite disappointing. Riker ends giving himself up to the Cardassians in order to spare the lives of his Maquis crew in exchange for the Defiant’s logs about the Orias system.
It’s not action-packed enough. I would’ve thought Thomas Riker went out in a blaze of glory and fought the Cardassians to the bitter end. I don’t believe Riker makes another ‘Star Trek’ appearance.
I’ve checked and apparently Thomas Riker did end up appearing in a few ‘Star Trek’ comics and computer games, but as for TV – no. Thomas Riker ends up kissing Kira before he’s taken by Cardassians.
‘Defiant’ had a good first act before it became average in the rest of the episode. I enjoyed Jonathan Frakes as Thomas Riker in the episode and there were a few surprises. But it could have been better.
‘Defiant’ rating – 7/10
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