10 Episodes That Turned Good TV Shows Into Classics
2. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - “The Way Of The Warrior”
Although it never quite entered the public consciousness like Picard and company did, Deep Space Nine garnered a strong fan following and attracted a lot of critical praise. It was an altogether darker show than it’s predecessors, moving away from light-hearted space wandering and focusing more on the various races in the Star Trek universe and the complex relationships they had with each other. While the first three seasons were by no means a bad effort - certainly DS9’s primitive years have held up a lot better than those of The Next Generation - it’s the feature-length Season 4 premiere where the show really started cooking on gas.
Tensions are high in “The Way Of The Warrior”, when the Deep Space Nine is visited by a Klingon fleet on shore leave. They soon start trouble on the station, which leads to an annoyed Captain Sisko (now rocking a spiffing shaven head and goatee) calling in TNG favourite Worf for assistance. It soon surfaces that the Klingons have plans to invade Cardassia, a war that could have galaxy-wide ramifications. With the Dominion growing stronger, the Cardassians and Romulans weakened and the Federation urging caution, Sisko and their crew find themselves against some serious odds.
DS9 is praised for exploring multi-faceted themes that other Star Trek series rarely touched on - in “The Way Of The Warrior”, the focus is on the themes of suspicion and paranoia between civilisations, something that continues to resonate in our current political climate. It’s a long way from the Tribbles, that’s for sure (although to be fair, they would make a memorable appearance in the sixth season). It also highlighted just how volatile this universe was - something that would become more and more clear in later seasons as the Dominion War erupted.