‘DESTINY’ (DS9)
Please feel free to comment on my review.
This is a decent episode in Season 3 of ‘DS9’. It’s an intriguing one about a prophecy concerning Sisko as the Emissary of the Prophets for Bajor. It also tackles how he feels about being the Emissary.
In the episode; Sisko, Odo and Dax prepare for the arrival of two Cardassian scientists to DS9. With their help, they hope to deploy a subspace relay and permit communications through the wormhole.
This is so DS9 can keep in contact with anyone on the other side of the wormhole in the Gamma Quadrant whilst exploring space and monitoring any Dominion activity. It’s a peaceful collaboration.
But things get stirred when Sisko receives a visit from Erick Avari as Vedek Yarka. Erick Avari is no stranger to ‘Star Trek’ since he played a Klingon character in ‘Part I’ of the ‘TNG’ story ‘Unification’. 🙂
I wouldn’t have guessed. 😀 Now he’s playing a Bajoran in this ‘DS9’ episode. Erick Avari would later played Elektra’s father Nikolas Natchios in the ‘Daredevil’ movie with Ben Affleck. That’s so amazing!
Anyway, Vedek Yarka warns Sisko not to have the Cardassians come to DS9. He tells him of a Bajoran prophecy – Trako’s Third –where ‘three vipers’ will attempt to ‘peer’ into the Celestial Temple gates.
Yarka believes the ‘three vipers’ are the Cardassians whilst the Celestial Temple is the Bajoran wormhole. Sisko is sceptical over this prophecy since there are only two Cardassians coming to DS9.
Despite Yarka’s warnings, Sisko is determined not to be put off and continues with this project to put the relay into space. Sisko and Kira soon meet the two Cardassian scientists that come and visit DS9.
They happen to be Cardassian women. There’s Tracy Scoggins as Gilora and Wendy Robie as Ulani. They seem really friendly when Sisko and Kira meet them. They’re keen to see this project a success.
After a debriefing, Gilora and Ulani tell Sisko that a third colleague of theirs will be joining them in this project. Kira is startled by this announcement, wondering if the prophecy is about to come true.
The third scientist happens to be Jessica Hendra as Dejar. She’s clearly not appreciated by Gilora and Ulani. She enjoys the Cardassian food given to them by Quark while Gilora and Ulani don’t care for it.
Interesting! Anyway, Sisko commands the Defiant with Kira, Dax, Ulani and Dejar on board as they go to set up the relay on the other side of the wormhole. They see this comet that approaches them.
Kira describes the comet as ‘a sword of stars’ as described in the Bajoran prophecy. As elements of the prophecy start to come true, Sisko confronts Kira over her thinking the prophecy is coming true.
This is where Sisko hears from Kira that she believes in him as the Emissary of the Prophets. This is something that Kira was afraid to admit. Sisko isn’t very comfortable with being called the Emissary.
It was intriguing to see O’Brien and Gilora working together in the episode. They don’t get on well with each other first before Gilora misinterprets O’Brien’s hostility before her as romantic overtures.
It’s also interesting to hear how Cardassian women are regarded as the scientists and they don’t consider men capable of being scientific. This is because Cardassian males are mostly in the military.
Once the relay gets deployed in space and certain tests begins, problems are caused and soon the comets changes course, heading for the wormhole. This could mean total disaster for Bajor and DS9.
It soon gets revealed that Dejar caused sabotage to the phasers when the Defiant tried to divert the comet. It turns out Dejar is a member of the Obsidian Order. Gilora and Ulani expose her to everyone.
Thankfully, they manage to divert three fragments of the comet as well as establish the relay link through the wormhole from the Gamma Quadrant to DS9. Thus the prophecy gets fulfilled that way.
Sisko and Kira realise that the three vipers weren’t the three Cardassians. They were the three comet fragments. I like how that twist is revealed and the prophecy was misinterpreted beforehand.
‘Destiny’ is a fascinating episode featuring Sisko’s dilemma with contending to his role as the Emissary of the Bajoran Prophets. It’s also intriguing to learn Kira had faith in Sisko as the Emissary. 🙂
‘Destiny’ (DS9) rating – 8/10
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