Top 20 Episodes of Star Trek Deep Space Nine #19: Apocalypse Rising

We've jumped ahead four seasons and much has happened since the events of Emissary. Remember when I mentioned how Odo, the shape-shifting head of station security didn't really know his own origins? Well, at the beginning of the third season, Odo finally found his people, only to be devastated to learn that they were the founders of the tyranical Dominion. At the end of that season, Odo was forced to kill a fellow Changeling in order to defend his friends and at the end of the following season, he was tried for that crime by his people and was stripped of his shape-shifting ability and sentenced to life as a solid. Earlier that season, The Federation condemned the Klingons' invasion of Cardassia, something the Klingon Empire saw as an act of betrayal. Insulted and enraged, the Klingons withdrew from the Kitomer Accords, meaning that the Federation and the Empire were once again enemies. However, while Odo was on his homeworld to be judged, he learned that Chancellor Gowron, the head of the Klingon Empire was, in fact, a Changeling infiltrator.

In light of that revelation, the crew of DS9 puts together an infiltration mission of their own. Sisko, O'brian and Odo all get surgically altered to look like Klingons and, along with TNG's Worf who joined the main cast the previous season, put a plan into motion to expose the Changeling impersonating Gowron and, hopefully bring the conflict to an end.

This episode is great mix of serious drama along with a few funny moments here and there, particularly with Sisko getting way too into character as a Klingon. You can tell that Avery Brooks is having the time of his life every time he's on screen in that makeup. However, the real star of this episode is Odo. For the majority of the series, Odo projects the aura of a tough as nails, no nonsense cop, but here, now that he's been stripped of his abilities as well as his sense of identity, we see him at his lowest and most vulnerable. At the beginning of the episode he is even contemplating resigning as the head of security. Sisko sees that through this mission, Odo can rediscover who he is, and it's actually through Odo's detective skills and inuition that the day is ultimately won.

Next time, we take a break from the Klingons and take a look at the Ferengi.