The Defiant Decloaks 

The episode opens with Kira (Nana Customer) principally telling the station crew what the viewers already is aware of: There’s no method DS9 might survive a direct assault from the Jem’Hadar, the troopers of an even bigger entity referred to as the Dominion, a brand new menace launched on the finish of season 2. For 2 seasons, DS9 was protected by a bunch of souped-up shuttle crafts often called runabouts. Even when taking up the terrorist cell of The Maquis in season 2, Sisko (Avery Brooks) and the crew have been nonetheless utilizing runabouts.

However the emergence of the Jem’Hadar and the Dominion required one thing new: A Federation warship that was a leaner and meaner model of the Enterprise. Proper in the beginning of the episode, Sisko decloaks the Defiant and tells Kira that “I’ve introduced again somewhat shock for the Dominion.” We shortly study that this was a take a look at warship, created to battle the Borg, however that the Defiant was principally a prototype and isn’t precisely essentially the most well-rounded ship. Sisko says, “It’s overgunned and overpowered for a ship its measurement.”

This was one thing Star Trek had by no means completed earlier than. DS9 was principally wanting on the digicam and saying, “This actually isn’t your mother and father’ Star Trek anymore. This ship is hardcore!” However, apparently, by having the Defiant be totally unstable, DS9 was bringing Trek again to its roots. In The Authentic Collection, you all the time obtained the sense that the Enterprise was about to disintegrate if Kirk pushed Scotty too far. In “The Search,” O’Brien (Colm Meaney) turns into a full-on Scotty, now saddled with a ship someplace between the traditional Enterprise and the rickety Millennium Falcon.

And but, well, “The Search” pulls its punches with the introduction of the Defiant. After heading into the Gamma Quadrant to seek out the Founders, the Defiant is jumped by some Jem’Hadar warships and loses. In reality, Dax and O’Brien have been stranded at this level, so the one that first fires the pew-pew-pew new most important phasers of the Defiant is Dr. Bashir (Alexander Siddig). The remainder of the primary episode, and all the second half, aren’t actually in regards to the Defiant in any respect. As an alternative, Odo and Kira are with the mysterious Changelings, whereas the remainder of the crew suppose they’ve escaped in shuttlecraft, however are actually caught in a simulation for all the second episode.

Principally, if anybody thought the Defiant was going to boldly go, “The Search” makes it clear that very dangerous issues can occur to this ship. Sisko instructed you this factor was experimental and will break instantly, after which, positive sufficient, it does. Whereas the Defiant would go on to havemany wonderful and heroic moments, the concept it failed its maiden voyage is important. With this defeat, DS9 was reminding us that sudden issues might occur on this Star Trek collection; folks might die and funky new starships might lose. Badly.

The Thriller of the Dominion

Not like earlier Trek baddies, de facto showrunner Ira Steven Behr wished the Dominion to really feel larger, but additionally extra intricate and reasonable than earlier Trek villains. The Federation was composed of varied species, however its enemies tended to be one-race governments—the Romulans, the Cardassians, the Klingons. With the Dominion, Behr challenged writers Robert Hewitt Wolfe, James Crocker, and Peter Allan Fields (and others) to give you a brand new form of enemy within the Gamma Quadrant. A part of the affect was Isaac Asimov’s Basis books, and Wolfe particularly referred to the Dominion as an “Anti-Federation.”