Mini Review #133: Star Trek DS9 4x10/4x11 "Homefront" and "Paradise Lost" (Patreon)

NO ONE TOLD ME THIS WAS GOING TO BE A TWO PARTER!! I thank you all for not telling me as well because when I saw that to be continued sign at the end I lost it. I have been sick for the past week as you may have noticed from lack of mini reviews (as well as finishing up my degree which is done now yay!) so I haven't watched a DS9 episode in two weeks. Needless to say these two episodes were an insane way to jump back into the show! I'll talk about them together because they are connected after all. I really loved the tension and paranoia that the Dominion and Founders have inflicted among the galaxy. We saw it in The Way of the Warrior with the Klingons expanding their empire and now we are seeing it again with Earth. After what was basically a terrorist attack on the planet by the Founders, the planet slowly becomes wrapped in the grip of a very militaristic Starfleet admiral. My favourite part about the first episode was the slowness of its pacing and the methodical way it increased its tension. I found myself holding my breath countless times as it felt like the episode was ramping and ramping towards something major. I also love how the show writes this paranoia. For example, I thought I was being all smart when I guessed that Sisko's dad (legend by the way) was a changeling. Turns out, the show WANTED me to think that so that when he was revealed not to be one, I would feel bad about it and see my own paranoia on the situation as well! Not only this though, but the first episode had a lot of great character moments within the heavy tone. Dax and Odo, O'Brien and Bashir, Jake and his Grandad, Sisko and his Dad, Nog and Jake, there were so many small character driven moments of levity that just felt so good.

Now, the first part ended on what could only be described as a spicy cliffhanger. The prospect of a Jem'Hadar attack ON EARTH after a worldwide power failure occurs was frightening and exciting. This is not what we got in the second episode, however, the outcome remained very satisfying and I may have actually enjoyed it more than an attack. The fact that the admiral faked the attack in order to gain public advantage in increasing military protection of Earth was actually fairly shocking and I didn't see that coming at the end of the first part. I loved the slow build up to the reveal of what actually happened, as well as the tense moments at the end of the episode where the Defiant was pitted against an Excelsior class ship in what could have been the start of the end for Starfleet. The small battle was really fun to watch and the resolution was satisfying and left me with some questions about the future of Earth and Starfleet. My favourite part of the episode though was when a changeling had a little chat with Sisko. The fact that there were only 4 on Earth this entire time and this much chaos was achieved was shocking but what blew me away even more was when it said "this is only the beginning". WHAT DOES THAT MEAN HELLO???? Anyways, I am so excited for more DS9! This two parter was fantastic and I love not knowing when a sneaky two parter will appear!