‘IN PURGATORY’S SHADOW’/’BY INFERNO’S LIGHT’ (DS9)
Please feel free to comment on my review.
‘IN PURGATORY’S SHADOW’ (Part 1)
We come now to an exciting two-parter in Season 5 of the ‘DS9’ series. This is where things change significantly in the show. A turning point occurs for our main characters as the Dominion War begins.
In the first episode ‘In Purgatory’s Shadow’, DS9 receives a mysterious coded message from inside the Gamma Quadrant. It happens to be Cardassian. Andrew Robinson as Garak is asked to analyse it.
After lying he doesn’t know what the message is, Garak gets caught by Bashir on his way out aboard a runabout. It gets revealed the message is a distress call from Garak’s former mentor Enabran Tain.
It was believed Enabran Tain got killed during the Cardassian-Romulan attack on the Dominion in ‘The Die is Cast’ two years ago. Garak requests to Captain Sisko on going to the Gamma Quadrant. 😐
Sisko grants him the request, but he’s to be accompanied by Worf in his search for Tain and possible other survivors from Dominion attacks. Jadzia’s not very happy about, this but she wishes Worf well.
This story also has Melanie Smith as Ziyal, Gul Dukat’s daughter, whom Garak has been seeing quite a lot lately. In fact, Ziyal is clearly in love with Garak. I guess the same is said for him in love with her.
Marc Alaimo as Gul Dukat is dead against it when he sees them together upon arrival aboard the station. He even threatens Garak’s life by throwing him off a railing before Quark and Ziyal stop him.
It was tensely dramatic when Dukat saw Major Kira and accused her letting his daughter out of her sight in dating Garak. Kira defends her actions as Dukat calls Kira a traitor. He must really hate Garak.
Very soon, Garak and Worf enter Dominion space before they wind up in the midst of a Jem’Hadar fleet. Worf deduces that the fleet has been assembled to invade the Alpha Quadrant and very soon.
He sends a warning message to DS9 before he and Garak are captured by Jem’Hadar soldiers. The Jem’Hadar are a really vicious lot since one of them knocks Garak out with the butt of his weapon. 😐
Thankfully, DS9 receives Worf’s message, realising that the Dominion is coming. They call for reinforcements which is only two days. Sisko soon sees a last option – sealing the wormhole forever.
It will mean Worf and Garak being trapped on the other side of the wormhole and not being able to return. It will also mean the Bajorans losing contact with the Prophets. Sisko sees no other choice. 😦
Eventually, Worf and Garak are taken to a Dominion detention centre which happens to be instead an asteroid in space. Already this two-parter is giving me new ideas about my Dwaxi in ‘Doctor Who’.
There, Worf and Gark find Paul Dooley as Enabran Tain on his deathbed. Instead of being thankful, Tain chastises Garak for allowing himself to be taken prisoner. I’m surprised Garak’s very hurt by that.
Also there in the asteroid is J.G. Hertzler as Klingon General Martok. This is the real Martok and not the Changeling one as seen in ‘The Way of the Warrior’ and ‘Apocalypse Rising’ as he’s lost one eye.
There’s also…Dr. Bashir. Wait! Bashir’s in the detention centre. So that means the Bashir back on DS9 isn’t the real Bashir at all. He’s a Changeling! Gosh! How he fooled everybody on board DS9, I don’t know.
As his last request before he dies, Tain makes Garak promise to escape the detention centre. It also gets revealed that Garak happens to be Tain’s son. This was a surprising revelation to be found here.
Whilst Garak and the others try to find a way out, Dukat tries to persuade his daughter Ziyal to return with him to Cardassia. But Ziyal promised to stay behind on DS9 and wait for Garak to return.
Eventually, the DS9 crew attempt to shoot a particle beam at the wormhole in the attempt to close it. But something goes wrong. The emitter array happens to be have by sabotaged. Who did it then?
Well, we know who it was. It was the Bashir Changeling, wasn’t it? I wonder how he managed to do it. We didn’t get to see the scene where the Bashir Changeling actually sabotaged the emitter array.
Very soon, the wormhole fully opens and a Dominion fleet of Jem’Hadar warships begin to pour through. It’s all battle stations aboard the DS9 and they’re about to face their biggest battle ever yet!
‘BY INFERNO’S LIGHT’ (Part 2)
Surprisingly, the Dominion fleet of Jem’Hadar warships doesn’t attack DS9 as anticipated. They instead fly off towards Cardassia. Gul Dukat joins them in his Klingon bird of prey. Has he gone mad?
Kira assumes Dukat has gone off to fight the Dominion fleet single-handed. But this is far from the truth. Dukat is escorting the Dominion fleet to Cardassia as he announces some very shocking news.
Cardassia has become a new member of the Dominion and Dukat is now Cardassia’s new leader. Kira is disbelieving of this but Dukat is serious. This is such a shocking twist that was so exciting to watch!
In all the build-up to making out that Dukat might actually be a hero in the ‘DS9’ series, his true colours have been revealed. It changes everything that’s been going on about the ‘DS9’ series so far.
Meanwhile, at the Dominion internment camp inside the asteroid where Garak, Worf, Martok and the real Bashir are, the inmates have a way out. They’ve built an illicit transmitter in the prison walls.
They hope to modify it in order to signal their runabout so they can escape via transporter beam. Garak crawls inside the walls to do this as he has some engineering experience, but has a problem. 😐
Garak suffers from claustrophobia. This was interesting to discover. It’s amazing how he copes with the claustrophobia to get the job done and to modify the signal for the runabout to beam them out.
The Cardassians aboard the internment camp have also been freed by the Dominion due to Cardassia being an official new member. Garak is sadly denied freedom since Dukat really hates him.
Worf also gets selected as an opponent for Jem’Hadar soldiers in a sort of ‘fight club’ arena. I was inspired by the ‘fight club’ scenes to write the Doctor fighting Dwaxi troopers in ‘Dawn of the Dwaxi’.
Despite a series of Jem’Hadar opponents and getting injured severely, Worf refuses to surrender. This inspires Garak to overcome his fears and continue modifying the transmitter signal to escape. 🙂
Back on DS9, the Klingon armed forces retreat from Cardassian space. Captain Sisko persuades Robert O’Reilly as Chancellor Gowron to reinstate the alliance between the Klingons and the Federation.
This gives the Federation a fighting chance to overthrow the Dominion. I liked it when in ‘By Inferno’s Light’, the Federation and the Klingons are joined by the Romulans who want to help out in this. 🙂
Sisko also receives contact from Gul Dukat who warns him that he intends to conquer DS9 for the Dominion. Sisko has the Defiant and three runabouts deployed to fight the incoming enemy fleet. 😐
Unbeknown to anyone, the Bashir Changeling is at the helm of one of the runabouts. It was shocking to see that the Bashir Changeling knocked out the female Starfleet member piloting the runabout. 😐
Back at the internment camp, it becomes tense when the Jem’Hadar come closer to discovering Garak working on the transmitter beacon. This is before they are overpowered by other prisoners. 🙂
Sadly a Breen gets killed in the process, but thankfully Garak finishes the job. This is before Worf is about to be killed after refusing to yield and pretty soon the Jem’Hadar called Ikat’ika yields instead.
Incidentally, James Horan plays Ikat’ika the Jem’Hadar commander fighting Worf in the second episode. There’s also Ray Buktenica as Deyos, the Vorta overseer aboard the internment camp here.
There’s also Carrie Stauber as the female Romulan prisoner aboard the internment camp. Soon, Garak, Worf, Bashir, the female Romulan and every other prisoner get beamed out to the runabout.
On the way back to DS9, Bashir sends an urgent message to the station. The crew receive it just as the Bashir Changeling runabout carries a bomb intend to destroy Bajor’s sun to incinerate DS9 itself.
Thankfully, the Defiant stops the Changeling Bashir, destroying him and its runabout in the process. It also turns out that there’s no Cardassian/Dominion fleet coming for DS9 as the attack was all a ruse.
All is happy in the end with Garak reunited with Ziyal; Bashir reunited with O’Brien and Worf reunited with Jadzia. Martok is also appointed to command the new Klingon presence on board DS9.
‘In Purgatory’s Shadow’/’By Inferno’s Light’ rating – 9/10
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