Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

In 2369, Cardassian forces finally withdraw from 70 years of Bajoran occupation -- leaving the planet, the people and an old orbiting mine station stripped and depleted. Asking for Federation aid, the Bajorans get widowed Commander Ben Sisko to head up the joint team -- including a shapeshifter constable and a feisty Bajoran liaison. Still bitter from his wife's death against the Borg at Wolf 359 three years earlier, Sisko's heart is not in his new command at DS9. But first contact with Bajor's "gods" and the discovery of their "temple," a stable wormhole across 70,000 lightyears to the Gamma Quadrant, suddenly gives him a hot command and a new outlook.

In 2369, Cardassian forces finally withdraw from 70 years of Bajoran occupation -- leaving the planet, the people and an old orbiting mine station stripped and depleted. Asking for Federation aid, the Bajorans get widowed Commander Ben Sisko to head up the joint team -- including a shapeshifter constable and a feisty Bajoran liaison. Still bitter from his wife's death against the Borg at Wolf 359 three years earlier, Sisko's heart is not in his new command at DS9. But first contact with Bajor's "gods" and the discovery of their "temple," a stable wormhole across 70,000 lightyears to the Gamma Quadrant, suddenly gives him a hot command and a new outlook.

Kira has barely gotten to know her new DS9 colleagues or settled in as a "legitimate" officer of post-occupation Bajor when she has to confront an old fellow freedom-fighter who can't give up the fight -- and the infamous Duras sisters from TNG are a surprise part of his plans.

Odo, the station's mysterious, gruff and yet incredibly fair shape-shifter constable, falls under suspicion for a Bajoran's baffling murder -- and xenophobic hatred rears its ugly head in the station's rush to judgment. Meanwhile, Chief O'Brien's wife Keiko opens a school for the station's youth, and convinces Quark's brother Rom to send his own son, Nog.

An aphasia-like virus planted in DS9's food replicator system by the Bajoran underground against their onetime oppressors lies dormant until being activated during refurbishment. The baffling babble epidemic leads to a quarantine that falls to Kira to cure, while the immune Odo and Quark work together to avoid a panicked ship's destruction.

The first two species to visit through the wormhole are hardly ceremonial: one, described only as "Tosk," is being hunted in a formal, ritualized sport that both he and his pursuers enjoy. Tosk befriends O'Brien, who breaks Prime Directive protocol by interfering long enough to set Tosk free to continue The Hunt.

Famed for their encounters with Capt. Picard, John deLancie guest stars as pesky super-alien "Q" and Jennifer Hetrick reprises her romantic rogue archeologist Vash -- last seen on TNG headed for the Gamma Quadrant. Their mischief and running spat, though, is confused for a bizarre crisis apparently linked to her artifacts being auctioned by Quark.

The nature of Trill symbiosis is explored when a Klaestron commando legal team tries to kidnap Jadzia Dax for alleged treason committed by Curzon, the prior Dax host. When Jadzia refuses Sisko in defending herself, the victim's zealous son and prosecutor is shocked to find the truth is a family secret held by his mother.

The master Kobliad criminal-scientist Rao Vantika is presumed dead after an inmate transport fire, but his wily pursuer Ty Kajada is not so sure. Her incredible tales of how Vantika has already prolonged his life finally hit home: Vantika has implanted his consciousness into Dr. Bashir, who tries to "escape" with Vantika's henchmen.

If the Tosk and Hunters were surprise guests from the Gamma Quadrant, the first formal delegation is just as unorthodox. The Wadi are gamers, and Quark winds up leading the welcome until he realizes the Wadi game he tries to play is using the senior staff as real-life pawns.

Grand Nagus Zek, the leader of the Ferengi Alliance, pays a surprise visit to lowly Quark's Bar to host a conference on exploiting the Gamma Quadrant -- and names Quark, not his own son, as his successor. Quark soon finds the "honor" a dangerous one -- and not at all what it seems.

A suspicious Odo is still intrigued by Rakhari fugitive Croden's claims of clues to the constable's shape-shifting roots back near Croden's Gamma Quadrant home. Once there, Odo is angered that the ploy is fake -- but softens when he sees the man and his daughter are political targets.

Kai Opaka's glimpse of the wormhole and Gamma Quadrant turns tragic when she dies in a Runabout crash on a prison moon. But her fate is intertwined with the two factions jailed there -- both cursed with the blessings of eternal life, no matter how many times they kill each other.

Chief O'Brien is reluctantly "adopted" as spiritual leader by a Bajoran village that annually follows the "Storyteller" to fight a demon of the town's collective fears. Meanwhile, on DS9 young Nog and Jake outwit even Quark in the high-stakes world of business.

Bajor's fifth moon Jeraddo must be evacuated to make way for a much-needed power plant for the home planet, but one old codger refuses to evacuate. Brian Keith guest stars as Mullibok, who forces Kira to realize just how much she and Bajor have changed in a few short months.

It's harder to decide what's more incredible: little Molly O'Brien's storybook Rumpelstiltskin coming to life, or Jadzia Dax as a sex kitten. Toss in baseball great "Buck" Bokai come to life, and you'd almost think that nonhumanoid alien envoys are exploring DS9 in their own way.

Dreary diplomatic baby-sitting seems to swallow up Dr. Bashir when three of four obnoxious ambassadors come for a tour of the station. Pity Odo as well -- the fourth is Lwaxana Troi (played once again by Majel Barrett Roddenberry) and her sudden crush on him.

Acting out roles both melodramatic and deadly, the DS9 staff is infected by a viral historical incident archive from an alien culture within the Gamma Quadrant. The Klingon crew that unwittingly brought the virus killed itself in paranoid anarchy, and DS9's crew seems headed the same way unless Odo can stave off the madness.

Kira is forced to re-examine her post-occupation prejudices about Cardassians when her running battle of wits with a jailed man claiming to be a notorious death camp leader is actually his remorseful file clerk -- surgically altered in a bizarre attempt to spark culture-wide remorse on Cardassia Prime.

A bombing at Keiko's school and a would-be sleeper assassination haunts DS9 amid the rise of a fundamentalist faction of the Bajoran faith. Oscar winner Louise Fletcher guest stars, as DS9 first meets Vedeks Bareil and Winn, rivals in the upcoming election to replace Kai Opaka.