Oh yes, and don't forget the war! There was an early announcement that the show would attempt a 10-part resolution to the Dominion War, but viewers could be forgiven for forgetting all about it with so much sentimental distraction. When the horrors of war did resurface, they at least injected a few surprises into the mix. Odo and his ambiguously "evil" Founders were hit with a melting disease, prompting a backstabbing race for the power of developing and owning a cure. The original baddie Cardassians finally settled on the Federation's side.

Contrary to these interesting twists, however, were the unexpected turns taken by matters relating to Sisko's spiritual destiny. Suddenly the mystery of the wormhole and an entire religious belief system was reduced to the problem of translating correctly the words of a sacred book. The struggle to join with some evil aliens significantly diluted the attempt at resolving what had begun seven years before in the show's pilot episode. Ultimately, Sisko's destiny, as with all those who'd followed him to the open-ended climax, was to be decided elsewhere. In a move that was either bold and daring--or possibly born of desperation for not having thought things through properly--the show's storylines were to be continued in a series of spin-off books. --Paul Tonks

DVD Description
Episodes:

• Image in the Sand
  
• Shadows and Symbols
  
• AfterImage
  
• Take Me Out to the Holosuite
  
• Chrysalis
  
• Treachery, Faith and the Great River
  
• Once More Unto the Breach
  
• The Siege of AR-558
  
• Covenant
  
• It's Only a Paper Moon
  
• Prodigal Daughter
  
• The Emperor's New Cloak
  
• Field of Fire
  
• Chimera
  
• Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges
  
• Badda-Bing Badda-Bang
  
• Penumbra
  
• Til Death Do Us Part
  
• Strange Bedfellows
  
• The Changing Face of Evil
  
• When it Rains
  
• Tacking Into the Wind
  
• Extreme Measures
  
• The Dogs of War
  
• What You Leave Behind, Part I
  
• What You leave Behind, Part II