As I may have mentioned, I love a good courtroom scene.
It took eight episodes, but Deep Space 9 has finally knocked one out of the park. This is a nicely constructed episode, that manages to reveal a lot about Dax’s past and character, while at the same time keeping her off screen or not talking for most of the episode. This ends up being mainly a Sisko episode, with Odo and Kira largely relegated to backup roles. And so it’s really the first time since the pilot that Sisko has driven an episode, and it works very well.
The only criticism I’d level at this episode is that it doesn’t contribute well to getting out from under the shadow of Next Generation, because this episode so clearly begs the comparison with the courtroom episodes around Data’s sentience. But that’s a minor quibble about an excellent hour of television.
256 down, 481 to go.