4x01 The Way of the Warrior (1)

(One programming note -- I’m reviewing this as one big episode rather than two constituent parts. So this review contains SPOILERS for the second half of this two-parter. Please beware!)

[9.5/10] When I think of Deep Space Nine, I think of its complexity, both political and personal. I think of having to make tough choices in moral gray areas, where there are no easy or obvious answers. And I think of a willingness to earnestly examine an outsider’s view of Starfleet, something even the modern Star Trek series haven't embraced with the same conviction.

“The Way of the Warrior” has them all.

Oh yeah, and it also has Worf! Eventually, he will blend seamlessly into the cast, and it will seem as though he was always there. But for now, this feels like a melding of series more significant that Lwaxana Troi, Thomas Riker, or even Captain Picard’s meaningful but brief appearance in “Emissary”. This is the period where Star Trek felt most like a cinematic universe, with the Maquis dispute running through three distinct shows, and characters moving back and forth between different corners of the franchise.

Worf’s arrival is the peak of that -- a major character from one show joining the cast of another -- and I won’t hesitate to mention that I threw my hands in the air in celebration when the camera panned up to that familiar baldric and those distinctive ridges. a signifier that one of The Next Generation’s most vaunted heroes would be continuing his story within DS9’s multifaceted milieu.

What I love about Worf’s appearance here is that it’s much more than a cheesy crossover. This is, instead, about Starfleet’s only Klingon standing at a crossroads. After the Enterprise-D’s destruction during the events of Star Trek: Generations, Worf has been a man without a home. He’s taken a leave to study with the monks on Boreth. He’s again felt the tension between his pull toward this calling he’s given so many years to, and the Klingon community he feels an equal and opposite loyalty to. When he first meets with Captain Sisko, he offers some characteristic frankness, revealing that he’s seriously considered resigning his commission, but also some of his trademark steadfastness, evincing a commitment to do his duty until he makes a decision about his future.

This is not merely a story of Starfleet’s resident Klingon helping to settle a dispute with the Klingons. It’s a story of someone torn between two peoples and two worlds, neither of which he’s felt fully comfortable in, resolving where he belongs.

Despite the dilemma, “The Way of the Warrior” does well to integrate Worf into the cast, playing on past relationships and known parallels to make him seem like a natural fit. O’Brien is, naturally, his envoy for the station, given their shared history serving on the Enterprise, which of course gives him a good introduction to Julian as well. A bit of post-holosuite medieval madness gets Worf and Kira, two battle-ready warriors if there ever were a pair, off on an amusing foot, as the Major protests she doesn’t normally dress like this. Jadzia already feels some sparks with Worf, which makes sense given her and Curzon’s history with Klingons. And Odo knows more than anyone else in the cast what it’s like to be pulled by conflicting loyalties to your people on the one hand and Starfleet on the other. These are all natural connection points that make Worf feels like an organic addition to the show’s dynamic, rather than a fan favorite spackled in halfway through a show’s run.

But the prime parallel here comes between Worf and Captain Sisko, who knows what it’s like to want to resign your commission and leave this all behind at a time of uncertainty. The catch is that, amid all that laudable personal complexity, there is a tangled, intricate diplomatic situation erupting, and Benjamin badly needs the help of someone like Worf to help resolve it.

I’ll confess, I am over the moon for how well showrunner Ira Steven Behr and co-writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe meld the politics and threat of war that have been bubbling up on Deep Space Nine since the beginning with the international tensions that have persisted from the early days of The Next Generation. The mix of complicated Federation/Cardassian relations, with the always tenuous Federation/Klingon alliance, should feel like too much. Instead, it feels like a genuine international crisis, with all the dimensions and impossible angles such clashes of civilizations with differing interests should.

The Klingons have overrun DS9, hassling civilians and inspecting neighboring ships. On the one hand, that's understandable, given the threat the Dominion poses to the whole Alpha Quadrant, and the Founders ability to infiltrate any space. On the other, this isn’t their jurisdiction, but policing that requires Sisko and his team to walk the delicate tightrope of corralling the Klingons without disrupting the delicate alliance between the Klingon Empire and the Federation. The intricacies of walking that line, balancing the need to maintain relations with the need to preserve authority and protect others in your own territory, is meaty, engrossing stuff.

Of course, things kick up a notch when it turns out the Klingons don’t just want to defend against a possible incursion through the Wormhole, but plan to invade Cardassia out of a fear that it’s been taken over by Changelings in disguise. The simple fact of the civilian government rising to power on Cardassia is fascinating. On the one hand, it could be the product of rising dissidents using the destruction of the Obsidian Order as an opportunity for people to reclaim the government from the military. On the other, the Klingons aren’t out of line to think that this could all be something orchestrated by the Founders to disrupt the balance of power in the Alpha Quadrant.

There’s an incredible amount at stake -- the Federation’s relationships with two major nations at odds with one another -- and justifiable concerns on both sides of the equation. Whether to help their prickly allies in the Klingon Empire, or warn then frenemies on Cardassia, or sit back and let the situation play out, all while the shadow of the Dominion looms large makes this a powder keg of politics and diplomacy with no easy answers, with Sisko in particular having to make some incredibly tough calls.

And he does. One of the other trademarks of DS9 is a willingness for Sisko to color outside the lines, violating some of the pure nobility that was a greater part of TNG and TOS. So while he won't violate the Federation’s alliance with the Klingons by telling Gul Dukat about the impending invasion, he will conspicuously talk about while Garak’s been invited for an impromptu fitting, knowing what will flow from there. Despite Dr. Bashir’s mild objections, he’ll violate the agreement with the Romulans not to cloak the Defiant in the Alpha Quadrant, because saving Cardassia’s civilian government is more important right now. This is a captain willing to set aside certain principles and bits of decorum given the exigencies of the moment, a thread that would continue through the series until its conclusion.

That matters when push comes to shove, and he has to decide whether to decloak and attack Klingon warships to save the Cardassian leaders, Gul Dukot included. I love how “The Way of the Warrior” pauses in that moment, not only building the tension for what’s going to happen, but selling the gravity of the decision, and Sisko wanting to make sure he takes whatever time he can to make it, even in a ticking clock situation.

Ticking clocks aside, what I don’t necessarily associate Deep Space Nine with is action. And yet, “The War of the Warrior” has some of the best action sequences in Star Trek this side of the movies. The Defiant’s evasions and dogfights with the Klingon ships are kinetic and thrilling, especially the image of the Federation ship emerging from a space-bound explosion. The script ably sets up the station’s new defenses, and the array of torpedoes and phaser fire stymying the Klingon fleet responding to Sisko’s interruption is incredible. And while it’s a little cheesy how easily our heroes come out on top, the hand-to-hand combat between the DS9 faithful and the Klingon warriors is some of the best-choreographed and most exciting fisticuffs in any Star Trek outing. The knock on DS9 is that it didn’t have enough fireworks, but the beginning of the show’s fourth season delivered it in spades.

And it also delivers on the character moments. The romance between Captain Sisko and Cassidy Yates continues to blossom, as part of his stand-off with General Martok’s subordinate is muddied by the fact that the Klingons are impounding his girlfriend’s ship. Amidst the thrilling game of laser tag on the promenade, Dr. Bashir rises to the challenge and saves Odo’s bacon, a nice counterpoint to the constable’s warning that the Klingons won’t hold back on medical personnel. Most of all, Quark and Garak have one of the series’ signature conversations, about cloying, bubbly root beer as an analogue for the vile and insidious Federation, that even these outsiders have spent enough time around to the point that, no matter how much they might laments that their fate is in Starfleet’s hand, they’ve begrudgingly come to like it.

Of course, our heroes do save the day, rescuing Cardassia’s civilian leadership (a side-switching Gul Dukot included) from the Klingons, albeit while giving them all blood tests to ensure they’re not, in fact, stealthy Changelings. Sisko’s munitions buy the station enough time for Starfleet reinforcements to be in bound, his warnings convince Chancellor Gowron that the Dominion wants the Alpha Quadrant’s forces to be weakened by fighting each other, and Worf’s words from Kahless convince the Klingon leader that a war on two fronts is not worth hobbling the Empire for. For the moment, at least, things can go back to normal, without the outbreak of war that seemed eminent.

And yet, as is also a hallmark of Deep Space Nine, there are consequences. Cardassia seems on the up and up, but there’s still a new government to deal with, one that might have a different view of relations with the Federation and Bajor than the last one did, for better or worse. The long fractured alliance between the UFP and the Klingon Empire firmly shatters, as diplomatic relations are cut off, and a sense from the Klingons that they’ve been at peace for too long without glorious victory takes hold. In that vein, they capture outlying Cardassian colonies and refuse to give them up, giving Martok and his soldiers a foothold in this corner of the galaxy that mean they’ll be a thorn in Sisko’s side for the foreseeable future, as if there weren't enough political turmoil this close to the wormhole. Things are all well for now, but there’s the clunky but tantalizing promise of more trouble and excitement to come.

And also the promise of more from Worf. “The War of the Warrior” commendably plays on his history, with Gowron, with the House of Mogh, and with Starfleet. His involvement is crucial to seeing this crisis through, from uncovering the information about Klingon plans thanks to an old connection, to helping Gowron see the dishonor in his actions, to coming up with a tractor beam tactic that buys the Defiant the time it needs to beam over the last of the Cardassian leaders. But his choices too come at a cost -- another discommendation.

(I think? Gowron’s words seem to indicate that's what’s happening, but nobody does the fancy crossed-arms/turn away thing, so who knows?)

So he can't go back to his Enterprise, which is lying in the debris on Veridian III. He can't go back to the Klingons, since his devotion to his own sense of honor over the Chancellor imploring him to join in an unjust war evaporates that possibility. He is a man without a home, ready to run away from all of this, and go to some far-flung place where life and death concerns will be someone else’s problem.

And yet, who can relate to that impulse better than Captain Sisko? The capstone to “The Way of the Warrior” sees Benjamin ready to grant Worf his resignation once the crisis has passed, but cautioning him not to make the same mistake Sisko himself nearly did. His warning is a profound one. Running away from pain is easy. You associate it with a time and a place and so you leave them behind, thinking the pain will go away with them. But that's not how pain works. It lingers with us, and choosing to face it, rather than giving up the places where we can improve the world, is an act of bravery and ultimately, of healing. The understanding between them, having been in similar places in their careers and emotional trajectories, helps justify Worf’s inclusion on the station and the show, and gives him reason to stay someplace where he’s not only welcomed, but understood.

It is heartening to see him rise into ops wearing command red. As with new looks from Sisko, Kira, and others, and a more filled-in and awkwardly jaunty intro, these are the signs that a new era of Deep Space Nine had arrived. It would include more political snarls, more hard decisions, more personal struggles, and more alien outsiders who look on the Federation with some combination of practiced disdain and begrudging appreciation. But it would also include more of our heroes, standing firm in the face of such turmoil, depending on one another to face it down, and knowing that whatever the challenges, they’d all found a home.