"Civil Defense" is a coma-inducing bore, a Star Trek episode so dull and dreary and pointless that you wonder how it was made. And why.
Sisko, Jake & O'Brien inadvertently trigger a Cardassian security program which locks down the station and threatens our hero's lives. It also provides the episode's ONLY dramatic arc. You see, the Cardassians had evidently anticipated a rebellion of the enslaved Bajoran mine workers and wrote a computer sub-routine to subdue the potentially unruly mob. (How convenient!) This computer program serves as a very thin disguise for terribly written, terribly detailed empty threats to keep our protagonists in supposed danger until the next act break, at which point the program starts issuing a new hollow warning.
"Warning. Warning," says the computer, "poison gas will be released in twelve minutes." Thanks for the heads-up.
"Surrender, Bajoran rebels, or we will be forced to destroy the station," says a prerecorded message from the writers. I mean from Gul Dukat. "You have eight minutes to decide."
Eight minutes?
"Warning. Warning," says the computer as the episode nears its ridiculous 'action' climax, "Core meltdown in three minutes. And just wait till your Father gets home." Chock-full of junky, clunky writing, zero character development and extraordinarily contrived plot devices, "Civil Defense" is Deep Space Nine- and the Star Trek franchise- at its most abysmal. Will our three lead characters be killed and the space station destroyed in the middle of the third season?!?
I won't spoil the ending for you.
Sisko, Jake & O'Brien inadvertently trigger a Cardassian security program which locks down the station and threatens our hero's lives. It also provides the episode's ONLY dramatic arc. You see, the Cardassians had evidently anticipated a rebellion of the enslaved Bajoran mine workers and wrote a computer sub-routine to subdue the potentially unruly mob. (How convenient!) This computer program serves as a very thin disguise for terribly written, terribly detailed empty threats to keep our protagonists in supposed danger until the next act break, at which point the program starts issuing a new hollow warning.
"Warning. Warning," says the computer, "poison gas will be released in twelve minutes." Thanks for the heads-up.
"Surrender, Bajoran rebels, or we will be forced to destroy the station," says a prerecorded message from the writers. I mean from Gul Dukat. "You have eight minutes to decide."
Eight minutes?
"Warning. Warning," says the computer as the episode nears its ridiculous 'action' climax, "Core meltdown in three minutes. And just wait till your Father gets home." Chock-full of junky, clunky writing, zero character development and extraordinarily contrived plot devices, "Civil Defense" is Deep Space Nine- and the Star Trek franchise- at its most abysmal. Will our three lead characters be killed and the space station destroyed in the middle of the third season?!?
I won't spoil the ending for you.