This is a pretty good one, most notably famous for having Jonathon Frakes guest star as Riker. The twist that he's not actually Will Riker is absolutely fantastic if you go into this without knowing (and the beard-removing moment is kind of funny in its epicness).
For all the good stuff, I do find this episode slightly disjointed. It's split into two very distinct parts, with the early acts being a nice ensemble piece on board the station, and then changing into something very different once Riker is on board the Defiant and Sisko is on Cardassia.
Those Cardassia scene are quite fantastic, though. Sisko is especially great and demonstrates his excellent tactical skills, as well as his ability to find a way to get what he needs. The scenes between him and Dukat are quite electric, thanks again in no small part to how great Marc Alaimo is in the role. The bonding moment they share over both being fathers is a real highlight - thought, a part of me does wonder how truthful Dukat was being. Given all that we discover later about his character, this doesn't quite ring true and feels more like a manipulation. However, I like to think that at this point in the series, the writers wanted to make him genuine, so it's nice.
The stuff on board the Defiant is a bit less enticing, and I find that the episode sort of slows to a crawl as it goes on. Jonathon Frakes' charm helps it, but there's a lot of staring at screens and characters trying to persuade each other to get through. Kira has some great dialogue, fortunately.
First mention of quantum torpedoes, and a nice mystery being set up about what's going on in the Orias system. It's a real shame that the Thomas Riker storyline was never followed up on screen, but it does get some continuation in the relaunch novels.
Riker (both Rikers) is a natural lady's man. It's the beard. And the brazenness.
Can someone explain to me the O'Brien vs. Thomas Riker beef? I mean, I get it, he's basically a walking transporter accident and O'Brien used to be the transporter chief. O'Brien immediately backs off although he's clearly thinking that's Will. What did O'Brien think that Riker was alluding to? Did Miles hit on Deanna? I don't get it? Am I missing something from TNG?
All of this is pretty great. Dukat! Dukat and Benjamin becoming unlikely allies. A strong female Cardassian (Finally! Who would have thought!), an inner-Cardassian power struggle. Thomas again shuttering the belief that a Starfleet uniform prevents you from going rogue. In general, the continuation of the Tom vs Will story. Maybe Kira is right: that's why Tom does what he does. I like Tom though. His life hasn't been easy. If there's one thing I don't like then it's the fact that Sisko and Dukat are far away from the action in that safe control center. Would have been more fun if they were in midst of the action. Dukat is also pretty tame to be honest.
26+ years after being broadcast, and it was only today that made the connection of Goatee-ed sporting Riker was evil....
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2022-11-04T02:47:37Z
[8.0/10] Anytime you see Ronald D. Moore’s name on an episode of Star Trek, you know you’re in for a good time. The reason is simple, but incredibly difficult. He’s able to blend character, plot, politics, and philosophy without any element overwhelming or seeming neglected. The secret sauce of Star Trek is to match a thrilling problem to overcome, with what it means to those involved, while making a statement about the connections between people and nations and life. It’s a tricky thing to pull off, but when done right, it’s an enervating approach to storytelling, and writers like Moore made it a hallmark of the franchise.
There’s plenty of enjoyable plot to be had from the return of none other than Thomas Riker. The clone of the Enterprise’s first officer joined the Maquis and used his identical look and DNA of a senior officer to steal the Defiant. The premise is sort of bonkers. And god help me, Thomas tearing off his fake sideburns is one of the most delightfully camp things in all of Star Trek. But it also makes a strange kind of sense within the world this show and others have established. Bringing an outlandish story down to earth to where the audience can reflexively accept it is no small feat.
Much of that rests on what drives Thomas and, more importantly, whom Moore and company pair him with. The Riker duplicate talks his way onto the Defiant by courting Kira and, before the reveal at least, the two have some good on-screen chemistry. Beyond the romantic sparks, the two are in a unique position to understand one another. Thomas hopes that Kira will sympathize with his Maquis methods and Cardassian targets because she too was once a freedom fighter. And Kira, for her part, sees through Riker’s supposed “terrorist” motives precisely because she was one, and recognizes that he’s doing all of this for different reasons.
The back-and-forth between the two is well done and centered on who each of them is. Kira correctly diagnoses that Thomas isn’t doing this as a true believer in the Maquis cause. She recognizes that his tactics are too calculating, too careful, too benevolent for that. Instead, he’s trying to be a hero, to go out in a blaze of glory so that he can distinguish himself from Will Riker, and emerge triumphantly out of the shadow of his erstwhile brother who’s had such a remarkable career.
Thomas’ aim to die a hero not only ties into his past friction with Will, but gives him a motivation more complex and personal than the usual Maquis rebellion. And Kira, of all DS9’s cast members, is uniquely positioned to recognize what he’s really doing here and why, because she knows both what he’s pretending to be, and having spent time with officers like Sisko and Dax, whose values and respect he’s still chasing. The personal reveals and connections here are as important as the hijacking plot at the center of the action.
Nonetheless, it’s a damn good plot! Relations between the Federation and the Cardassians have been complicated by the colonies in the demilitarized zone and the Maquis since the late seasons of The Next Generation. So when a Starfleet officer-turned-Maquis steals the Federation’s greatest warship and goes barging into Cardassian space, it succeeds in being the spark in the tinderbox. Thomas’ stunt doesn’t just force erstwhile adversaries like Commander Sisko and Gul Dukat to work together; it motivates them to make concessions and revelations in the hopes of avoiding all out war. The stakes could hardly be higher, and the cat and mouse game between two nations for one ship creates plenty of minute-to-minute excitement.
Still forcing Dukat and Sisko to be allies, rather than enemies, pays dividends as always, and it ties into the political and philosophical elements of the episode. One of the chief inquiries of Deep Space Nine over the course of the show is why different peoples hate one another. Dukat’s all-too-real parable of how his son won’t remember this day as one where his dad missed his birthday to make a better, safer world for him, but as one where a Federation citizen threatened his people’s peace and took his father away from his special day all at once, is a dispiriting but incisive look at how what brings these two fathers together is also the thing that may drive their sons, and many sons and daughter like them, to resent one another across generations.
The purely political angles are potent too. It’s strange to call DS9 a practical show, but there’s something compelling and consistent about how Sisko and Dukat discuss what they can sell to their commanders, what sacrifices they can make and explanations they can spin that will satisfy both sides to avert any disaster.
It’s fun to see them strategizing together, with Sisko seeing the inside of Cardassian command post in exchange for secret info about Starfleet’s bleeding edge ship, with all sides a little uncomfortable about the strange bedfellows. What I like best, though, is that success here doesn’t depend on superior strategy or firepower, but on Dukat and Sisko reaching an agreement that will satisfy everyone, or almost everyone, with each making concessions in the process in deference to the needs of their people.
Of course, the fly in the ointment there is Korinas, a member of the Obsidian Order. I appreciate the fact that, like the Klingons, the Cardassians have a group of hardliners unhappy about peace with the Federation who are causing problems and agitating for war. Moore is practically the godfather of the Klingons, so having him bring the same sharp eye for international conflict and internal disagreement on DS9 that he did for TNG is a boon. The separate spheres of influence within the Cardassian government, and a surreptitious invasion force both give Dukat a reason to capitulate to Sisko in order to get more info on someone working against his interests from within, and prove that Thomas Riker was right in his suspicions and cause.
He wants to expose that secret Cardassian invasion fleet; blow it up in a blaze of glory, do something so spectacular and unexpected that he’ll never have to sit in his would-be twin brother’s shadow ever again. The poetry of the resolution is striking. Thomas gets what he wants. Sisko and Kira, and by extension their governments, learn about the fleet. So does Dukat, who’s in a position to do something about it. And the Maquis prove their worth, holding off their Cardassian aggressors for a little longer and showing what they can do. It is, undoubtedly, an achievement, even if it almost provoked an international incident.
But it doesn’t get him what he wants. The deal Sisko and Dukat reach denies Thomas the honorable death and history-shaking end he sought. It conveniently (albeit plausibly) returns the Defiant and Kira to Starfleet , and allows the other Maquis operatives to face Federation trials. But Sisko’s bargain requires turning Thomas over to the Cardassians to face justice for his crimes, with the caveat that he cannot face the death penalty. The bittersweetness of that, to have so much go right in Thomas’ favor, but to be ironically kept from his true goal by a fellow Starfleet officer’s respect for life, is palpable.
For all his misdeeds here, Thomas Riker is a tragic figure. He was stranded for years, came back to a life that had already been lived, and forced to subsist in another man’s shadow. He is a sad, funhouse mirror version of the Riker we already know, a chance to see what the distinguished officer might have become without a cause like Starfleet and the Enterprise to sate him. It’s a sad thing, to know what Thomas could have been, to comprehend what he’s trying desperately to be now, and to have someone like Kira, who’s been through hell and back, to be the one to recognize that in him.
That’s the glory Ronald D. Moore brings to the table in outings like these. There are so many layers: to the histories of the characters involved, to the dynamics between the adversaries turned allies, to the political tangles at home and abroad, to the personal and philosophical questions of identity and purpose that are raised here. There’s a depth in his approach, a complexity in what he delivers, that makes even the story of a wild transporter clone using his familiar face and common charms to abscond with a worship into enemy territory, into a poignant quest for glory gone awry, washed ashore on the coals of greater deeds yet again.