Apocalypse Rising 2 Secret Locations

[Suanne Forte]

SinceI originally wrote this review, I've had some minor changes of opinion and now rate the episode at three stars. To see the reasons for this change, find the capsule review in the Fifth Season Recap. Below is the orignial review of the episode, which at the time I rated at 2 1/2 stars.

For a DS9 season premiere (and for an episode with such an imposing title), "Apocalypse Rising" sure plays it safe. This is probably the safest season premiere DS9 has ever done. When compared with "Way of the Warrior" of last year, "The Search, Part I" of the year before, or "The Homecoming" of the year before that, "Apocalypse Rising" can't come close to recapturing the fresh and daring sense that those shows had. The reason for this is that those premieres offered something new into the DS9 equation, whether it was startling Bajoran political developments, the discovery of the Founders, or the sudden movements of the Klingons.

"Apocalypse Rising," on the other hand, offers nothing new; it simply makes use of the existing elements and puts them into a relatively standard plot. That isn't inherently bad, but considering how long the Dominion and Klingon plot lines have been intertwined and how many shows they've been seeming to build up to a major event, I was expecting a major event. Well, I didn't get my major event; instead I got an acceptable plot-driven episode that had some reasonable character moments.

Also characteristically, Marc Alaimo turns in another classic Gul Dukat portrayal. Scenes in which Dukat mocks Sisko's masquerading crew prove amusing. And as Sisko's ticket for safe passage through Klingon space, Dukat demonstrates a no-nonsense take-no-prisoners attitude and methodology. When he encounters another Klingon ship that inquires why he is wandering through the particular area of space, something goes wrong with his communications holo-projector. Dukat's solution: destroy the Klingons. The swiftness with which he makes his decision even prompted a double-take from me. Pretty cold... I like it.

Aside from the character tidbits, "Apocalypse Rising" is fundamentally plot-driven. Most of the screen time is devoted to advancing the plot or explaining how the crew intends to execute its plan. Specifically, they attend a bat'leth tournament which Gowron is to attend. The plan: to subject the Gowron Changeling to a specific radiation field that will make him revert to a liquid. Of course, to make things more interesting, the field must simultaneously emanate from four different locations in the room with four different devices that have been set up ahead of time.

The tournament is held in a hall filled with rudely lively characters. And while it's kind of fun watching drunken Klingons beat on one another and tell stories, it sure doesn't add much to the grand scheme of things. In short: We've seen all this before, so all that becomes important are the plot manipulations.

And these plot manipulations are, in fact, nicely done on the basis of this show alone. The story is structured with an even hand, having no scenes that feel out of place or distracting subplots to interrupt the main story. Conway's direction is good, and he even has a few memorable camera angles.

When General Martok (J.G. Hertzler) shows up at the tournament and recognizes Captain Sisko, he throws Sisko and his crew in a cell. Sisko attempts to reason with Martok and is successful; Martok agrees to let them out if they will kill the Gowron Changeling. Worf challenges Gowron to a battle to the death, and under details I'm not going into here, the show throws the revelation/twist on us when Odo realizes that not Gowron but Martok is the Changeling infiltrator, who is shot about 53 times after he's found out.

For that matter, I would've liked to know when exactly Martok was replaced (it was presumably before "Way of the Warrior") or how he had so much direct influence over Gowron. How could Gowron not detect Martok's change in behavior when Odo could pick him out based on a few things he said? Such details are not extremely important to the plot as it stands, I suppose, but the possibilities could've lent themselves to another powerful analysis of paranoia and mistrust like "Homefront." It was not to be.

In short, "Apocalypse Rising" is a fun, nicely assembled plot that adds up to not a whole hell of a lot. For a season premiere it's surprisingly ordinary. It's a decent ride, but tomorrow you might forget it happened.

It also would have been interesting if Martok was the founder, but Gowron had been killed by mistake as well, leaving the Klingons without a strong leadership and giving Worf some serious problems to think about.

Ah, nice catch on the Benzanite, Jay! I noticed that, too. It is a minor issue, but I wonder how a mistake like that could have been made? We only ever had two episodes featuring Benzanites, and the writer must have been relatively familiar with those episodes. Otherwise, why make a Benzanite reference at all?

The TNG aliens were actually Benzites, not Benzenites, but it seems clear from the breathing tubes reference that the writers were thinking about Benzites when they wrote it.

Even though the first Benzite shown in TNG was supposedly the first one in the academy, each subsequent Benzite seems to have graduated earlier than the one before.

Watching this episode I realized how much I missed those season openers that would just put you right into the action from the very first scene ("The Best of Both Worlds, Part II", "Redemption II", "Scorpion, Part II", etc.). There was something envigorating about waiting all summer with excitement for the new season, and then sensing your excitement double as the episode started up right where the cliff-hanger left off. Deep Space Nine's season openers are all great episodes, but they do take a little longer to get going. Just a thought.

That being said, I knew long before I started watching DS9 that Martok was a Changeling (damn you, Memory Alpha!) and when I was watching "The Way of the Warrior" I thought it was blatantly obvious that he was the impostor. So I was surprised to find out that it was a last-minute decision made by Ron Moore to avoid upsetting TNG fans & give the episode a surprise ending.

One thing's for sure, I can't imagine watching the series at the pace they originally aried (e.g. one season per year). Though I guess that was part of its appeal. Oh well!

Hey, you didn't comment on Sisko's fight with the Klingons! What, didn't like it? I thought it was perfect. Seeing Sisko give a full punch to the Klingon boasting about killing his friend with an excuse of "getting more bloodwine" is too good to pass up in a review!

P.S. With regard to Dax not coming along on the mission to Qu'onos, the real reason is because Terry Farrell was allergic to the Klingon make-up. Of course it would have been nice to have an on-screen explanation (simply saying Dax was recently wounded and had to recuperate would have been satisfactory), but I think it's easily forgivable.

Jammer,

I am really shocked at the error you made in your review. You said the DS9 crew had to infiltrate a " bat'leth tournament" Gowron was going to be at.

No. No. No.

It was induction into the Order of the Bat'leth, the highest award for bravery a Klingon can receive!

Nic, thanks for that info, I kept thinking, "With her insight into Kilingons, Dax should be on this mission!"

I thought that this was a pretty good episode further highlighting the subversiveness of the Dominion in trying to fool the Federation into assasinating the (non-changling) head of the Klingon Empire- doing their dirty work for them. Although I'm not sure if it was a retcon or not but Martok turning out to be the changling infiltrator helps explain his urging Gowron to be more aggressive and to launch their invasion of Cardassia and attacking DS9, ending the Khitomer Accords with the Federation, etc. My only major disappointment with this episode is that revealing Martok to be a changling and eliminating him doesn't really change anything in regards to the Klingon-Cardassia-Federation conflict begun in WOTW. Gowron, while sparing the lives of the DS9 crew, makes clear that he plans to press ahead with the war against the Cardassians/Federation (or at least feigns a certain helplessness in stopping it). Thankfully, that changes a few episodes later but at the (unnecessary) expense of more lives and conflict.

I felt it was a very solid episode, nice twist at the end, and a good follow up later in the series. The Klingon claptrap is tolerable. Gowron and Martok were both interesting characters.

3 stars from me

O'Brien and Odo make very poor Klingons. Sisko was a great Klingon; he lived up to the part well. I loved this episode -- Klingon and Ferengi episodes are frequently the most entertaining because both species are so over the top.

Forget why Dax was excluded; why were *any* Niners given this mission? Doesn't Starfleet have a spec ops team? And why would Sisko and Dax have to personally report on the situation?Odo was the one with first-hand (dis)information.

Assuming Starfleet has no other Klingon experts, I can see why Worf and Dax might be chosen to go undercover. To accommodate Farrell's allergy, the story could show how her Trill immune system makes surgical disguise impossible.

Of course, surgical disguises have been possible since "The Enterprise Incident." We never learned how future people cope with fluid identities, a problem also sidestepped this season by "A Simple Investigation."

I think a 3 is fair for this. It's an episode that has elements of fun, most Klingon episodes do, as well as getting some serious stuff and Odo development in.

I love O'Brien as a character and seeing him as a Klingon is brilliant.

Yes, sending Worf was the biggest error of the episode. He's a famous Klingon. He's known as the starfleet klingon and the klingon who helped install Gowron as chancellor. Sometimes he had been considered a traitor and other times he was considered an honorable Klingon but he would have been noticed by everyone no matter how much blood wine they had.

I do like that Odo didn't spend too much time mourning his loss. It reminds me of when Troi lost her powers. She went insane the whole episode. Odo kept it together and got back to work pretty quick.

Avery Brooks has a problem overacting. Watch the secede when he's talking to Martok and he says "You think we're right don't you? You think gowrons a changeling TOO". Lol. I'm not sure why the directors didn't tell him stop acting like that

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