Summary: Sisko is recalled to Earth after a terrorist bombing reveals that the Changelings have reached Earth. Odo accompanies him to help Starfleet security beef up their anti-Changeling security measures. When the global power grid goes down, all evidence points to Changeling sabotage, and the Federation Presidents declares a state of emergency. Fearing an all-out Dominion assault, Sisko recommends that the President tighten security measures. The President does, and Starfleet troops are deployed across the planet. However, Sisko begins to suspect that the power outage wasn't Changeling sabotage at all, but the work of a militant faction of Starfleet that wants to overthrow the civilian government and install a military dictatorship. Why It's Great: The threat of Changeling infiltration is a storyline that continues to resonate, perhaps even more relevant today than when Deep Space Nine first aired. What's great about these two episodes, however, is not that it dramatizes the threat of an enemy that could blend in to any environment in an instant, but that it identifies our fear of that threat as an even greater enemy. As a Changeling posing as O'Brien tells Captain Sisko on Earth, "In the end, it's your fear that will destroy you." In the end, Sisko talks the conspirators down and proves the Changeling wrong, but the fact that what the Changeling predicted came so close to happening is as frightening as the threat of the Dominion itself.
Michael is one of the founders of FACT TREK (www.facttrek.com), a project dedicated to untangling 50+ years of mythology about the original Star Trek and its place in TV history. He currently is the Director of Sales and Digital Commerce at Shout! Factory, where he has worked since 2014. From 2013-2018, he ran the popular Star Trek Fact Check blog (www.startrekfactcheck.blogspot.com).
