Top 20 Episodes of Star Trek Deep Space Nine #8: Rocks and Shoals

Today’s episode brings us to the beginning of season six and the height of the Dominion conflict. At the end of last season, Sisko was forced to abandon Deep Space Nine to the Dominion and retreat into Dominion Space, but made it clear that he’d be back, and he’d be bringing the full might of the Federation and their allies with him. In the episode prior to this one, Sisko and crew, along with Garak who had nowhere else to go once the Dominion took the station, went on a covert mission into Dominion Space in a salvaged Jem’hadar ship. The mission was successful, but our heroes ended up crash landing on a deserted planet, their ship damaged beyond repair. And even worse than that… O’brien ripped his pants.

Elsewhere on the planet, a squad of Jem’hadar has also crash landed in an unrelated incident. Leading them is none other than Keevan, who you may remember as the Ferengi’s prisoner from or last DS9 article. Keevan is a Vorta, a species loyal to the dominion that is the Jem’hadar’s opposite in many ways. The Jem’hadar are bread to be the perfect soldiers. They are physically strong and imposing, have keen eyesight and accuracy, and are imbued from birth with single-minded fanatical devotion to the Dominion, strengthened by their genetic addiction to ketracel-white, a drug that only the Dominion possesses and is so addictive that without it, the Jem’hadar will eventually go mad and die. The Vorta on the other hand are instead bread to be the perfect diplomats. They are physically smaller and weaker than the Jem’hadar, but are gifted with great intelligence, charisma and a talent for persuasion. Because of their superior intelligence, the Founders have given the Vorta the task of coordinating Jem’hadar forces, such is the order of things.

Eventually, the Jem’hadar ambush the Sisko and the others and take them to their base camp. While Sisko sees the Jem’hadar commander as an honorable individual, Keevan makes it abundantly clear that he is an underhanded scumbag, made all the worse when he tries to cut a deal with Sisko. See, Keevan’s almost out of ketracel-white, so instead of waiting for the Jem’hadar to go mad and kill him, he intends to send them on an assault mission against Sisko’s crew. In exchange for being harmlessly taken prisoner, Keevan tells Sisko exactly where he plans to send the Jem’hadar so the federation can ambush them. Sisko has no love for the Dominion, but he’s also a man of honor and when the time comes for the assault, he tells the Jem’hadar of Keevan’s deception, but much to his surprise, the Jem’hadar already knows. Sisko pleads with him to see reason, but so devoted are the Jem’hadar to the founders and by extension, their chosen representatives, the Vorta, that they are willing to lay down their lives for that devotion, even if the one commanding them does not share it, such is the order of things. When Sisko sais that “the order of things” is not worth the lives of his people, the Jem’hadar responds by saying it was never his life to begin with. And so the Jem’hadar are all killed and subsequently buried and honored as worthy adversaries.

This is a great episode that goes a long way to show that the Dominion war was not just a black and white contest of good vs. evil. You really feel for the Jem’hadar here as they are seen to be honorable soldiers loyal to their leaders, even when that loyalty conflicts with their conscience and better judgment. Speaking of their leaders, Keevan is truly an irredeemable bastard in this episode, willing to casually sacrifice the lives of good men who have shown him nothing but loyalty simply to save his own skin. Keevan’s attitude in this episode makes seeing him get killed due to clumsy incompetence and have his corps used as part of a Weekend at Bernie’s plot in The Magnificent Ferengi all the more satisfying. Speaking of the Ferengi, next time, Quark receives a generous inheritance from a deceased friend, which may include more than he bargained for.