10 Star Trek Episodes That Deserved To Become Classics (But Didn't)

The Dominion Arc in Deep Space Nine is often remembered for the major battles, such as Operation Return and the first (and second) Battles Of Chin'toka. With the arrival of the USS Defiant in The Search, it is understandable to assume the plot really begins in the third season.

Shadowplay comes in Deep Space Nine's second season, featuring Odo and Dax discovering a Gamma Quadrant world that turns out to be populated, for the most part, by holographic recreations of a people massacred by the Dominion. This revelation comes at the end, so on the surface, the episode feels like a light fish out of water story for Odo.

The realisation that these people are all dead, and that they are being honoured by a lonely old man, is heartbreaking - but is also an example of the 'human' cost of the Dominion's reign of terror in the Gamma Quadrant. There may be flashier episodes out there, but Shadowplay is a bittersweet and poignant example of the cost of war.