History Recap / StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E01ATimeToStand

Meanwhile on ''Terok Nor'' (formerly ''Deep Space Nine''), Dukat is enjoying his return to command in spite of his failure to take down the minefield. As Dukat eyes both Bajor and [[VillainousCrush Kira]] for conquest, Weyoun struggles to keep him on a tight leash and focused on the objectives at hand. Though Dukat refuses Kira's official request to return the station to join Bajoran control, Odo manages to leverage his status as a Founder to appeal to Weyoun. The Vorta eagerly agrees to his request and even offers him a spot on the station's ruling council, infuriating Dukat. Weyoun is not as generous to the would-be journalist Jake, refusing to broadcast his news reports until he takes a friendlier tone on the Dominion. Still, most legacy station residents must admit that things could be worse.

** Garak notes that Dukat was wearing one of those consoles during the battle in which the Cardassians and Dominion took over Deep Space 9. His deduction is that Cardassians would be able to wear the headgear. He's correct.

* CurbStompBattle: The Seventh Fleet was carrying out a counterattack against the Dominion in the Tyra System. Out of 112 ships, only fourteen make it back to Federation-held territory.
* CuttingTheKnot: Kira unsuccessfully presses Dukat to reinstate the Bajoran security forces, then she realizes she's dealing with the wrong person and suggests that Odo asks Weyoun. Given a command from his god, Weyoun instantly agrees.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Jake stayed on the station to report on the occupation, but didn't think that a theocratic autocracy might not take kindly to him reporting that they ''are'' a theocratic autocracy, especially since he's a citizen of an enemy state.

** When Kira expresses concern about Dukat striking back against Bajor, Odo is actually grateful that Weyoun is around to keep him in check. As he says, Weyoun knows that the other powers who signed non-aggression pacts with the Dominion are watching. Those powers want proof that the deals will be honored, and the Dominion can't risk suggesting otherwise while fighting the Federation and the Klingons.

* YesMan: Weyoun fully demonstrates this when Odo comes to see him.

* JerkassHasAPoint: After Kira feels Quark's only interested in profit, the Ferengi pointedly compares the current Dominion Occupation to the horrors all three of them lived through during the Bajoran Occupation. He admits things ''are'' bad...but, they could also be a ''lot'' worse too. Kira can muster no real counterargument, while Odo ''very'' grudgingly agrees with Quark's assessment.

* MyFriendsAndZoidberg: Dukat mentions that the war is going well for Cardassia...then adds the Dominion almost as an afterthought.

* WhamShot: The previous season ended with a joint Federation-Klingon fleet moving out, ready to fight the Dominion. This season, we open with that same fleet...and it's battered and scarred, a sign that the war is not going well at all for the Federation. An Excelsior-class ship, the workhorse of the fleet, is even being towed.

* AttackPatternAlpha : Sisko orders "attack pattern omega" against the ''Centaur''.

Meanwhile on ''Terok Nor'' (formerly ''Deep Space Nine''), Dukat is enjoying his return to command in spite of his failure to take down the minefield. As Dukat eyes both Bajor and [[VillainousCrush Kira]] for conquest, Weyoun struggles to keep him on a tight leash and focused on the objectives at hand. Though Dukat refuses Kira's official request to return the station to join Bajoran control, Odo manages to leverage his status as a Founder to appeal to Weyoun. The Vorta eagerly agrees to his request and even offers him a spot on the station's ruling council, infuriating Dukat. Weyoun is not as generous to the would-be journalist Jake, refusing to broadcast his news reports until he takes friendlier tone on the Dominion. Still, most legacy station residents must admit that things could be worse.

* TheMainCharactersDoEverything:
** It really doesn't make much sense that Bashir delivers the news about the fleet to Sisko unless he simply had nothing better to do at the moment.
** It's a bit odd that Nog, still just a Starfleet cadet, is such a fixture on the bridge.

The Federation/Klingon fleet is banged up and in full retreat from a battle with the Dominion and Cardassians. The crew members lament how poorly the war is going for them. This is emphasized by the failure of a counter-attack against the Dominion: out of 112 ships deployed against them, only 14 returned. If these losses keep happening, the Dominion will win the war in very short order.

Meanwhile on ''Terok Nor'' (formerly ''Deep Space Nine''), Dukat is enjoying his return to command in spite of his failure to take down the minefield. As Dukat eyes both Bajor and Kira for conquest, Weyoun struggles to keep him on a tight leash and focused on the objectives at hand. Though Dukat refuses Kira's official request to return the station to join Bajoran control, Odo manages to leverage his status as a Founder to appeal to Weyoun. The Vorta eagerly agrees to his request and even offers him a spot on the station's ruling council, infuriating Dukat. Weyoun is not as generous to the would-be journalist Jake, refusing to broadcast his news reports until he takes friendlier tone on the Dominion. Still, most legacy station residents must admit that things could be worse.

* TheMainCharactersDoEverything: It really doesn't make much sense that Bashir tells Sisko that an entire fleet got obliterated, but we can accept it. Unless he simply had nothing better to do at the moment.

* PragmaticVillainy: When Kira expresses concern about Dukat striking back against Bajor, Odo is actually grateful that Weyoun is around to keep him in check. As he says, Weyoun knows that the other powers who signed non-aggression pacts with the Dominion are watching. Those powers want proof that the deals will be honored, and the Dominion can't risk suggesting otherwise while fighting the Federation and the Klingons.

When the ''Defiant'' reaches Starbase 375, Sisko receives new orders. It turns out [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E02TheShipThe that Dominion ship he salvaged last year]] has been repaired. Sisko will use it to sneak deep into Dominion space and destroy their main ketracel-white facility. Without ketracel-white, the Dominion's Jem'Hadar will quickly die. The crew chafes under the ship's strange designs. It lacks seating, there's no sick bay, and the view screen is replaced by weird headsets that only Garak can use without discomfort.

In this jaw-dropping, action-packed season premiere of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', we see the Federation retake [=DS9=] from the Dominion, [[BlatantLies starting a six-episode arc in which they will ultimately prevail in the Federation-Dominion War.]]

[[BaitAndSwitch Yeah, right.]]

[[OhCrap It's bad.]]

[[FromBadToWorse Really, really bad.]]

We're seeing a Federation/Klingon fleet in full retreat from a battle with the Dominion and Cardassians. Multiple ships are heavily damaged and several are being towed. The crew members on board the ''Defiant'' are stressed and exhausted. They note the continuous slaughter at the hands of the Dominion ever since the war started. This is emphasized by the failure of a counter-attack against the Dominion: out of 112 ships deployed against them, only 14 returned. If these losses keep happening, the Dominion will win the war in very short order.

Meanwhile on Terok Nor (formerly Deep Space Nine), Dukat reports in his "permanent documentation file" that the war effort is going very well on their side. Well, except for two details: firstly, all efforts to take down the minefield have failed. Secondly, despite retaking Terok Nor, the Cardassians are still not allowed to take any action against Bajor, with Weyoun holding Dukat on a very tight leash on that front. For now, Dukat will have to settle with his unrequited VillainousCrush against Kira, while thwarting any move she makes to have the Bajoran security corps to return to the station. Kira eventually gets around this problem by asking Odo to intervene (after all, he was in charge of said security force). Odo goes to Weyoun with this request and it goes even better than expected. Not only does Weyoun grant Odo's request, Weyoun also invites Odo to sit on the station's ruling council, an action that infuriates Dukat. At least now, they have someone who can find out what the Dominion and Cardassians are up to, but Kira remains skeptical of Weyoun's motives. Weyoun also has to deal with Jake Sisko, who is complaining that Weyoun is blocking all his transmissions to the Federation News Service. Weyoun's logic is simple: Jake labels the Dominion and Cardassian forces on the station as an "occupying force", a term he has great issue with. Quark and Odo doesn't seem to have any problem with the current powers holding the station, after all, it isn't being run like the Terok Nor before the Federation took over. But then again, things could be worse. Kira remains skeptical of these recent developments.

When the ''Defiant'' reaches Starbase 375 Admiral Ross reveals he has new orders for Sisko. Remember [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E02TheShip The Ship that Sisko and crew captured last year and lost a lot of crew members?]] Well, the Federation has been busy salvaging the ship and examining it. And now they have an idea on how to use the ship: to sneak behind enemy lines to destroy a main ketracel-white facility deep in Cardassian space. The logic is simple: if they can limit production of Ketracel-White, they can hopefully limit the Jem'Hadar. Despite the rather spartan furnishing around the ship, Sisko takes the crew onto the ship and departs for Cardassian space. This journey is not without its hiccups however.

The first hiccup is that there is no viewscreen, just a Google-Glass type headset that projects a viewscreen to Sisko's head. It looks fun at first but Sisko soon has to deal with headaches from constant use; it looks like the technology is just not compatible with the human brain. But Garak volunteers to wear the headset. After all, he notes that Dukat was using one of those headsets as well when he led the attack on Deep Space Nine, so the technology is likely safe for the Cardassians to use. Garak has no issues with the headset afterwards.

The second hiccup is that their ship is soon accosted by a friendly Federation ship, the U.S.S. ''Centaur'', captained by a friend of Sisko's. Because of an issue with the communications system, Sisko has no way to alert the ''Centaur'' that they are firing on a friendly, so the crew targets the ''Centaur''[='=]s weapons array to at least disarm them. This does work in shaking them, although the arrival of a wing of Jem'Hadar fighters may also have helped.

Finally, the crew reach their intended target. O'Brien has concealed explosives within the empty Ketracel-White containers that the crew intend to exchange for fresh ones. Everything seems to be going well until the [[OhCrap the shields go up around the facility]], trapping the crew's ship. It gets worse when the bombs concealed within the containers go off prematurely in the facility, triggering a massive explosion that destroys the depot. Sisko's crew manage to OutrunTheFireball, but the effort appears to have left them in a worse situation: their warp drive has been completely destroyed and they have no means to return to Federation space.

* AbhorrentAdmirer[=/=]VillainousCrush: Dukat to Kira, as usual. She (once again) makes it clear it will never happen.

* [[AttackPatternAlpha Attack Pattern Omega]]: Sisko orders this against the ''Centaur''.

** Hell, the Dominion has just been dealing one of these right after the other to Starfleet and the Klingons. While Sisko is talking with his dad, Joe asks if the war is really going as badly as the Federation News Service is reporting. He's not comforted at all when he hears [[HopelessWar that it's actually]] ''[[HopelessWar worse]]'' [[HopelessWar than that]].

-->'''Joe Sisko:''' [[SarcasmMode You certainly know how to comfort a frightened old man.]]\\

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Jake stayed on the station to report on the occupation, but didn't think that a theocratic autocracy might not take kindly to him reporting on things, especially since he's a citizen of an enemy state.