DS9 Sixth Season Favors the Bold

Reviews of the DVD release of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's sixth season have begun to appear, complimenting both the content and the bonus material, though one reviewer lamented the lack of commentary by the show's writers as they continued to challenge traditional Trek formulas.

Home Theater Forum's Scott Kimball wrote that "Deep Space Nine keeps getting better and better, praising both the stories and the packaging of the DVD set.

"Producers pushed the envelope on continuing threads as far as Paramount executives would let them," Kimball said, noting that the deus-ex-machina ending of "The Sacrifice of Angels" was explained later in the series and saying that "Far Beyond the Stars", an homage to pulp science fiction dealing with racism, is "one of the best written episodes of DS9."

"Images seem a bit brighter and sharper than in seasons past. And, some of the effects sequences seem sharper - quite noticeable alongside recycled flybys from seasons past," he said of the technical quality.

Kimball also lists the Section 31 Hidden Files, including one on the character death at the end of the season, three in which Nana Visitor discusses her character's relationships with Cardassians, Vic Fontaine and Odo, and one in which Marc Alaimo talks about Gul Dukat.

"Another month, another collection of 26 nearly perfect episodes of Deep Space Nine," agreed Steve Krutzler of TrekWeb, calling the sixth season "unique for several reasons."

In addition to the Dominion War arc, Krutzler thought it was courageous of the producers to have Dukat turn to mysticism in his madness, a break from Trek's standard scientific view of the universe, plus the death at the end of the season of a series regular.

"Some say Star Trek isn't, shouldn't, and wasn't intended to be about war," Krutzler said, "But in the war stories of DS9 season six, we see a cast of characters confronted with one of the most devastating scourges of civilization and in the end, whatever their actions, the ideals of Gene Roddenberry's utopian hope for our future was maintained."

Krutzler reserved most of his criticism for the bonus material, complaining that "the extra features on this DVD just do not measure up to the quality of the work they document." He enjoyed the feature on "Far Beyond the Stars" but was a bit disturbed that it was shorter than the one on Worf and Dax's wedding,

Though he found both Alexander Siddig (Bashir)'s and Armin Shimerman (Quark)'s commentaries insightful, he regretted both the absence of any substantive commentary from Terry Farrell on her departure and particularly the lack of interviews with the writers about the decisions that led to some of the groundbreaking developments in the story arc.

The set received a rating of four stars out of five.

The complete sixth season is available from Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.de.

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