History Recap / StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS04E18RulesOfEngagement

* MoralLuck: Worf is exonerated when it is revealed the transport he accidentally destroyed was deliberately planted by the Klingons and had no passengers aboard, but ultimately {{subverted|Trope}} when Sisko reminds Worf that he lucked out and should never have fired on an unidentified ship in the first place. While it's unlikely that a ''real'' civilian ship would suddenly decide to decloak in the middle of an active battlefield (or even be near one, for that matter), Sisko says that's beside the point. Starfleet doesn't risk the lives of non-combatants, however small, for the sake of tactical expediency.

* KlingonScientistsGetNoRespect: A rather fascinating aversion from the trope namer. Advocate Ch'Pok is a Klingon ''lawyer''... but as he makes clear to Sisko during a confrontation early on, the fact that he works in a theoretically non-violent profession doesn't mean he feels shame about it. It means that he ''performs'' his duties with the enthusiasm and the mindset of a warrior in combat, therefore [[MundaneMadeAwesome every speech becomes a bat'leth fight and every lawsuit a glorious battle.]]

* StockEpisodeTitles: Besides ''Deep Space Nine'', a few other shows have had episodes titled "Rules of Engagement", including ''In The Cut'', ''Series/{{JAG}}'' (see [[Recap/JAGS05E02RulesOfEngagement recap]]), ''Series/McLeodsDaughters'', ''Series/OneLifeToLive'' and ''Series/SEALTeam''.

Worf's fate is looking grim as Admiral T'Lara withdraws to deliberate, but finally, Odo has brought Sisko good news. Sisko has the hearing reconvened and brings Ch'Pok to the stand. He hands the Klingon a datapad and asks him to identify its contents, and Ch'Pok recognizes the names of the 400 victims of the destroyed transport vessel. Sisko counters that it's actually the manifest of a ''different'' civilian transport ship that crashed on Galorda Prime. The Klingons claimed that everyone survive the crash, but what are the chances that every single passenger would reconvene aboard ''another'' transport ship and die? It's clear to everyone that the Klingons have falsely tried to use the casualties of a previous accident to pin on Worf, and the ship he destroyed was actually empty.

Things are going pretty poorly for Worf. Between session, Ch'Pok gloats to Sisko that Worf's eventual conviction will grant sympathy to the Klingon Empire and give them leeway to annex more territory from the Cardassians, bringing them right to Deep Space Nine's doorstep. This has been all too convenient for the Klingons, and Sisko has been having Odo dig for clues about the Klingon transport vessel, looking for some evidence that it was intentionally sacrificed, but so far, no luck.

* ContinuityNod: Worf and Dax's sparring sessions are seen again.

* ArtisticLicenseMilitary: It's stated that O'Brien would have been next in line to command the ''Defiant'', but he's a non-commissioned officer. You'd think he'd be much further down the chain of command. Even Kira's there. At least during the "what-if" scene showing O'Brien in command, the helm officer is replaced with an enlisted crewman (no rank insignia), whom O'Brien ''would'' outrank.