Plot Summary: Against the will of the Prophets, Sisko leads a
Federation, Klingon, and Romulan
fleet to attack a Cardassian outpost. While he is away, a pagh-wraith-possessed
Dukat kills Dax,
and collapses the Wormhole by darkening the orbs. Depressed, Sisko
goes home to Earth to peel potatoes.
Sub-Plot: Dax and Worf discuss having a baby, and this
depresses Bashir and Quark enough to
visit Vic Fontaine.
Jadzia Dax on her deathbed from the season finale.
My Opinion: This was well done, there was never any doubt about
that. But, I had some
problems with some fundamentals of the plot. Why was it such a big
deal that Sisko went off to
fight? What could he have possibly done to save Dax, or help the
Prophets? He couldn't have
done anything! And yet, the whole premise of the episode was: To win a
major victory, Sisko has
to pay a huge price. Supposedly this price was Dax and the closing of
the Wormhole. But to me,
it seemed these things would have happened regardless of the big
victory!
Another factor that turned me against the episode was Dax's death.
While I know it was
inevitable, I think it could have been handled better. After watching
six seasons of this character,
I would have liked to see her go down in a blaze of glory, possibly
sacrificing herself for the
Federation's victory. This would have solved my first problem to. But,
instead her death was
pure coincidence! She was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Dukat
even told us that this
was so! Even if they felt they had to kill Dax in this manner, they
could have put a little more
malice in Dukat! They could have given us another reason to hate him!
Those were the major problems. There are some little things I would
like to express my
dislike for, as well. First of all there was that awful scene with
Bashir, Quark, and Vic Fontaine.
Secondly, Garak, my favorite character, was entirely under-used! He
shouldn't have even been in
the episode! Third, I'm really getting sick of all the "Odo and
Kira Mush (TM)". And finally, did
anyone else find that little Bajoran girl at the beginning and end
extremely annoying!?
As for good things, there were enough to keep the episode above
average. I loved all the
scenes with Weyoun, Damar, and Dukat. They were very well written and
performed. I also
liked the bickering between Gen. Martok and the Romulans. Third, the
actual battle against the
weapons platforms was great! The visuals were stunning, and the idea
of turning the weapons
platforms against their own generator was clever (not that I have any
clue how O'Brien did it!).
Lastly, I thought all the ending scenes, after the Defiant returned to
DS9, were very well done and
thought out. I especially liked the baseball reference to last
season's finale.
Wrap-Up: "Tears of the Prophets" had a lot of good material, but it had some major flaws as well,.
I give it two and a half stars.
Review by -William Phillips
05/22/04 01:00:00 AM