This September and October, we’re taking a look at the jam-packed 1994 to 1995 season of Star Trek, including Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager. Check back daily for the latest review.
The Die is Cast is, like Improbable Cause before it, a wonderful piece of television.
As with most Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine two-parters, The Die is Cast maintains continuity and consistency with its predecessor, but it feels like a very different episode than Improbable Cause. After all, the curtain has been pulled back. The assassination attempt is no longer the driving force of the narrative (in fact, it’s barely referenced), with the plot focusing on Enabrain Tain’s pre-emptive strike against the Dominion.
A bruised ego…
It’s interesting that it falls to the Cardassians and the Romulans to drive the Dominion plot onwards. There’s been no real development of this long-form plot since Sisko and his crew escaped at the end of The Search, Part II. Episodes like The Abandoned and Heart of Stone have seen the crew encountering individual members of the Dominion, and shows like Visionary have had characters sitting around talking about them, but nothing has actually happened. It is mostly business as usual.
As such, the episode’s title feels beautifully appropriate – it’s the crossing of a threshold, a point from which there can be no return. Not just for Tain or the Cardassians, but the show itself.
Odo’s sympathy for Garak runs dry…
Filed under: Deep Space Nine | Tagged: arcs, Caesar, cardassians, changelings, crossing the rubicon, deep space nine, Dominion, ds9, enabran tain, Federation, foreshadowing, Garak, Julius Caesar, lovok, Odo, plotting, romulans, ronald d. moore, star trek, star trek: deep space nine, tain, the die is cast, tragedy, war, war on terror | 8 Comments »
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