Its hard to believe that its only been five years since the final episode of DEEP SPACE NINE aired on television. Season seven brought with it the conclusion of the shows biggest storyline, the Dominion War, but it didnt necessarily bring closure to the shows main characters. True, by the time the final scene faded to black we knew where they would be heading in their future, but the end of DS9 also brought with it plenty of unresolved questions. Creatively speaking, the shows writers proved that they were exiting at the top of their game, delivering episodes that expanded on the war, its effect on the main and supporting characters, as well as producing stand-alone episodes that floated between comedy, action and drama. In short, the final season of DS9 delivered just about something for everyone (including plenty of starship battles.)

I believe its the attention to the detail of the shows characters that is DS9s defining trait, and a perfect example of that is in the seasons opening episode "Image in the Sand". At the close of last season Captain Sisko (Avery Brooks) was returning to Earth to reconcile with the loss of his friend and crewmate Jadzia Dax. Instead of starting on a spaceship or on the station, we get to see Sisko on Earth working in his fathers restaurant, trying to clear his head. The motivation for pushing Sisko out of his Dads restaurant and on his way back to DS9 is never without doubt, but its these small moments that allow us to see the characters as people that elevate this show to the best moments of THE NEXT GENERATION. Throughout the season we get to see plenty of these moments, from the deep personal losses that Worf and Nog go through to the moments of self-doubt that the new character, Ezri Dax (played by the very cute-as-a-button Nicole deBoer) experiences. Its these things that make this incarnation of STAR TREK my favorite of the bunch.

Story-wise, the first two-thirds of the season has a broad range of episodes ranging from comedy ("Take Me Out to the Holosuite" being my favorite of this kind) to two murder-mysteries (the Dax-centered "Field of Fire" and Bashirs "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges"), with the final nine shows becoming an ambitious nine-part multi-arc episode that wraps up the war and the fates and futures of all the characters. While every main character gets at least an episode where they are front and center, special credit deserves to be given to Marc Alaimo (Dukat) and Andrew Robinson (Garak), the actors who play DS9s two most important Cardassian characters. Robinsons Garak really developed into his own during the shows final two seasons, with the seventh showing his characters descent into personal hell as the impact of the war is felt by his people. Throwing away all of the good will developed over the past five years, Alaimos Dukat took a major turn in the sixth season and became a truly unpardonable villain. When the final story-arc begins in "Penumbra", Alaimo has been able to show us a multifaceted villain thats capable of just about every kind of horror including the loss of his sanity and his unwavering belief that what he is doing is just and right. Even with hundreds of other hours of STAR TREK produced, there hasnt been a villain as well developed, nor one thats had such a well-traveled role through evil, redemption and back into evil again as Alaimos Dukat.

Looking back at the final season as a whole, its too bad that the makers of DS9 chose to call it a day here; even with the resolution of the Dominion War theres enough questions left unanswered and interest in seeing where these characters go on -- in the final episode that the show could have easily gone on. Part of the reason to end of the series was due to Brooks desire to move on (revealed in a crew dossier featurette devoted to the character included in the sets bonus features), but even with half of the shows characters moving on in their lives or destinies, it would have been interesting to see where a season eight of DS9 went, watching the Dominion and Federation try and create a peace in the aftermath of a major war, seeing Kira try and serve the interests of Bajor and of the Federation, and getting to know new characters posted there. While its still nothing more than a pipe dream in the fans imaginations, some of the cast members of DS9 have expressed a desire to pick up their characters and show where they are now. If Paramount is leery about committing millions to a DS9 feature film, what about UPN doing a mini-series?

The episodes are presented in fullscreen format, just as they appeared on TV. Video clarity is generally above average, with no noticeable image artifacting or compression errors. Audio is also above average in terms of TV shows on DVD due to the amount of sound effects that goes into a firefight.

Along with the aforementioned Captain Sisko featurette, theres one with Cirroc Lofton on his character of Jake Sisko. He spent his teen years growing up on the set of the show, and when you compare the character of Jake to that of Wesley Crusher from NEXT GENERATION, you see that the DS9 writing team correctly handled how to write a teenage character on a space show. Theres also two featurettes on the shows ending, one specifically devoted to the lounge scene from "What You Leave Behind" showing us the cameos by the writers and producers. Interviews with the shows cast and crew are interspersed throughout each of the featurettes. Theres also more easily discovered Section 31 easter egg interviews hidden on the screen menus and a photo gallery from that season.

As with previous DS9 seasons, my biggest beef would be the lack of commentary tracks for the episodes. The featurettes are fine and do an adequate job of answering questions about the show but again Id wish there was more in the way of getting into the minds of the shows stars and creators while watching the episodes. Still, Paramounts digipak case is a better solution for a seasons worth of episodes than the accordion-like Fox sets!

While it doesnt get as high a recommendation as the sixth season from me, DS9s final chapter is still one of the shows best seasons and a highpoint for STAR TREK in general. Its enough to almost make you forget about captains on starships.