Line #27 Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E01ATimeToStand


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ds9_a_time_to_stand_3.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:It even comes with Netflix.]]
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4	[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E26CallToArms It has been 3 months since the Federation withdrew from Deep Space Nine.]] The Dominion War is now in full swing and the Federation and the Klingons are clearly on the losing side: we find the Defiant in full retreat from a battle in which several disabled ships are being towed. To make matters worse, [[FromBadToWorse they receive news of 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.
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6	Meanwhile on ''Terok Nor'' (formerly ''Deep Space Nine''), [[Characters/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineGulDukat 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.
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8	When the ''Defiant'' reaches Starbase 375, Sisko receives new orders. It turns out [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E02TheShip 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.
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10	As the crew settles in, they discover a bigger problem with piloting a Dominion ship on a secret mission. As soon as a Federation ship, the U.S.S. ''Centaur'', spots them, it opens fire. 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.
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12	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.
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14	----
15	!!Tropes
16	* AbhorrentAdmirer: Dukat to Kira, as usual. She (once again) makes it clear it will never happen.
17	* AffablyEvil: Weyoun's affability is back on full force after the previous episode, trying with all his might to make everyone play nice on the Dominion's newest station.
18	* AsYouKnow: Dukat reminds Weyoun how the mines work.
19	* AttackPatternAlpha: Sisko orders "attack pattern omega" against the ''Centaur''.
20	* CallBack:
21	** It's explicitly noted that this ship [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E02TheShip is the one Sisko salvaged about a year ago]].
22	** Garak notes that Dukat was wearing one of those headsets 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.
23	* CaptainsLog: Or the dark counterpart thereof--the scenes on the station open with Dukat's "Permanent Documentation File."
24	* ContinuityNod: [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E21SoldiersOfTheEmpire In Worf’s absence]], Bashir is serving as the Defiant’s intelligence officer.
25	* 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.
26	* 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 one of his gods, Weyoun instantly agrees.
27	* DeadpanSnarker: Old Man Sisko has a pretty dry response to his son's BrutalHonesty about how badly the war is going.
28	-->'''Joe Sisko:''' You certainly know how to comfort a frightened old man.\
29	'''Ben Sisko:''' You didn't raise me to be a liar.\
30	'''Joe Sisko:''' I raised you to be a ''chef'', for all the good it did me.
31	* DestructoNookie: Subtly {{Lampshaded}} by Sisko when Worf and Jadzia head off for some alone time: "Try not to break any bones."
32	* 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. Weyoun won't harm him, but he doesn't have to let Jake publish anything, either.
33	* EasyLogistics: Averted. While Dukat boasts that the war is going well, Weyoun is deeply concerned with resupply and reinforcement, which are heavily dependent on the wormhole. The Jem'Hadar depend on drugs which, if not regularly provided, forces them into homicidal rampages, and Cardassia's infrastructure hasn't fully adapted to support the Dominion war machine.
34	* FacePalm: Sisko's reaction to the Federation's losses in the Tyra system.
35	* FirstNameBasis: Weyoun encourages this with Jake. Gotta maintain the "affably" part of AffablyEvil, after all.
36	* FriendOrFoe: While [[DressingAsTheEnemy flying the stolen Jem'Hadar fighter]], our heroes are attacked by the starship ''Centaur'' and have to repel the attack without crippling or destroying them.
37	* FriendshipFavoritism: Garak seems to expect this of Bashir when he has a minor concussion as opposed to Bashir's more seriously injured patients. Or he was just being a {{Troll}}.
38	* GetOut: Weyoun angrily dismisses Damar for bad-mouthing the Bajorans. Damar doesn't leave, however, until Dukat says so.
39	* InsistentTerminology: Weyoun insists to Jake that the Dominion is not ''occupying'' the station; they're merely running a Cardassian outpost.
40	* 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.
41	* LudicrousPrecision: Bashir no longer needs to hide his ability to calculate a 32.7% chance of survival, or that the trip without warp will be "seventeen years, two months and three days, give or take an hour." (Siddig hated getting these lines and played them as woodenly as possible until the writers stopped giving them to him.)
42	* TheMainCharactersDoEverything: It's a bit odd that Nog, still just a Starfleet cadet, is such a fixture on the bridge.
43	* MandatoryLine: Worf only appears in the teaser, discussing the wedding plans with Dax before leaving to make sweet Klingon love.
44	* MissionBriefing: Admiral Ross gives one to Sisko and his crew for their upcoming mission to destroy the ketracel-white facility.
45	* MyFriendsAndZoidberg: Dukat mentions that the war is going well for Cardassia... then adds the Dominion almost as an afterthought.
46	* OhCrap: Garak does his best to not freak out when the Jem'Hadar raise the security net, trapping them close to the ticking bomb.
47	* OutrunTheFireball: The Jem'Hadar fighter ends up doing this. She survives, but she catches some of the fireball and her warp drive gets hosed.
48	* PercussiveTherapy: Sisko takes out his frustration over the war on a tabletop, breaking the glass.
49	* PragmaticVillainy:
50	** 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 both the Federation and the Klingons.
51	** Weyoun is also quick to point out how the station is prospering under Dominion control, with businesses and families returning. The Dominion wants to rule over a functioning empire, after all.
52	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: The U.S.S. Centaur breaks off its pursuit of Sisko's Jem'Hadar Fighter when three more Jem'Hadar attack ships show up.
53	* SomebodySetUsUpTheBomb: Double Subverted. To destroy the Ketracel White Depot, O'Brien had hidden explosives inside the empty canisters that they beamed over to exchange for fresh ones. The initial subversion is when the forcefield around the depot is activated, implying that something has triggered the Dominion's sensors, likely the canisters themselves. Then subverted back when the canisters explode anyway, destroying the depot.
54	* StealthPun: The episode title. The Jem'Hadar ship doesn't come with chairs.
55	* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Kira's suggestion that the Bajoran security force be reinstated is an early sign that Dukat and Weyoun are not getting along.
56	* TheUnsmile: Bashir's "boyish smile."
57	--> '''Garak:''' Not so boyish anymore.
58	* VillainousCrush: Dukat's AbhorrentAdmirer status on Kira graduates to a villainous crush now that he's a clear bad guy.
59	* WhamLine:
60	--> '''Bashir:''' Only fourteen ships made it back to our lines.
61	--> '''Martok:''' Fourteen... out of a hundred and twelve!
62	* 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.
63	* WideEyedIdealist: Jake finds out the Dominion is preventing his articles reporting on their oppressive policies from being delivered to his publisher, and actually tries to invoke freedom of the press.
64	--> '''Weyoun''': [[LampshadeHanging Please tell me you're not that naive]].
65	* YesMan: Weyoun fully demonstrates this when Odo comes to see him. To his credit, however, Weyoun is willing to ask a favor of Odo in turn, showing he recognizes that Odo is taking advantage of his status and is at least willing to ask for a concession.
66	-->'''Odo:''' I want my Bajoran security officers reinstated.
67	-->'''Weyoun:''' Consider it done.
68	-->'''Odo:''' From now on, they'll be responsible for security on the Promenade.

Context Recap / StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E01ATimeToStand