Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is the third live-action television series in the Star Trek franchise and aired in syndication from January 1993 through June 1999. There were a total of 173 (original broadcast & DVD) or 176 (syndicated) episodes over the show's seven seasons, which are listed here in chronological order by original airdate, which match the episode order in each season's DVD set.
A Bajoran terrorist with ties to Kira arrives on Deep Space Nine and is pursued by the Cardassians. Garak, a mysterious Cardassian tailor who lives on the station, assists in uncovering what he is up to.
Jadzia Dax is arrested for a murder allegedly committed by Curzon Dax, a previous host of her symbiont. An extradition hearing is held to determine whether Jadzia can be held liable for Curzon's actions.
Quark plays a board game with the Wadi, a newly encountered species from the Gamma Quadrant, and the lives of the crew seemingly depend on the outcome.
The spiritual leader of Bajor, Kai Opaka, travels with Sisko, Bashir and Kira on a trip to the Gamma Quadrant, but is stranded on a world where the dead are resurrected.
The Federation ambassador from Betazed, Lwaxana Troi, visits the station, and develops an affection for Odo. Meanwhile, data from a mysterious Gamma Quadrant probe causes system failures on DS9.
A visiting Cardassian, Marritza, may in fact be the notorious war criminal Gul Darhe'el, butcher of Gallitep labor camp, and Kira is determined to bring him down.
A conniving Bajoran cleric, Vedek Winn, protests Keiko O'Brien's school on Deep Space Nine when she discovers Keiko is teaching her students that the inhabitants of the wormhole are aliens, not gods.
Sisko and Li Nalas help stop Deep Space Nine from being commandeered by the Bajorans, while Kira and Dax try to put an end to the Circle by presenting evidence that Minister Jaro is being backed by the Cardassians. (Part 3 of 3)
Quark represents Grand Nagus Zek in a plot to establish a Ferengi business presence in the Gamma Quadrant. Pel, a young Ferengi, teams up with Quark and they learn that to do business in the Gamma Quadrant they must contact the Keremma, a member race of the Dominion.
A mysterious woman, Fenna, catches Sisko's eye during their fleeting meetings. Meanwhile, an extremely egotistical scientist is working on a project to re-ignite a dead star.
O'Brien and Bashir help two warring races, the Kellerun and T'lani, erase all knowledge of a deadly biological weapon, but are not trusted to keep what they have learned a secret.
While preparing the station for upcoming peace talks, O'Brien discovers that the crew have been hiding information from him and giving orders behind his back. O'Brien begins to suspect everyone on the station is gradually being altered or replaced by an unknown force.
Commander Sisko and Chief O'Brien are stranded on a planet, Aurelius, where their leader, Alixus, rejects technology, even when it means the death of others.
Dax is supervising Arjin, a Trill candidate for joining, and she helps him find his voice and discover what he wants from life and from joining. Meanwhile, a proto-universe threatens to destroy the station and Bajor.
Quark is reunited with his former Cardassian lover, Natima Lang, but she is engaged in dangerous political intrigue with her students Rekela and Hogue: they want to reduce the political power of the Cardassian military.
Jadzia Dax honors an oath made by Curzon Dax to three Klingons (Kor, Koloth, and Kang), and goes with them on a crusade against their sworn enemy "the Albino" who murdered their firstborn children as revenge for stopping his raid on a Klingon colony.
Federation colonists reject a treaty with Cardassia and take matters into their own hands by planning to destroy a weapons depot at the Cardassian Bryma colony.
Kira and Bashir accidentally cross into the Mirror Universe, where a Klingon-Cardassian alliance rules and Terrans are slaves on the station. A century before, James T. Kirk had made a similar crossover, affecting human and galactic history.
A Bajoran secretary named Kubus, who aided the Cardassian occupation forces, wants to return home from exile. Vedek Winn engages in a power play against Vedek Bareil to become Kai.
Sisko takes the new USS Defiant into the Gamma Quadrant to find the mysterious leaders of the Dominion and avert a war, while Odo is drawn by instinct towards his home planet in the Omarion Nebula.
Quark purchases a salvaged ship from the Gamma Quadrant and discovers an infant on board. Sisko invites Mardah, the dabo woman Jake is interested in, to dinner. Odo officially gets quarters aboard DS9.
Deep Space Nine is progressively locked down after O'Brien, Jake and Sisko accidentally activate an automated Cardassian security program. The program's counter-insurgency measures keep escalating until it initiates an auto-destruct. Gul Dukat beams on board, but is unable to stop the self-destruct sequence.
Commander William Riker shows up unannounced and Kira shows him the Defiant, where his real identity and his true motives for coming to Deep Space Nine are revealed.
A transporter accident sends Sisko, Bashir, and Dax three centuries into Earth's dark past to a time just before the 2024 Bell riots, a violent civil disturbance in opposition to Sanctuaries which are controlled ghettos for the dispossessed.
Bashir's ethics are put to the test as he keeps Vedek Bareil alive long enough to help Kai Winn complete negotiations for a peace treaty with Cardassia.
When Kira's life is put in jeopardy, Odo expresses the depth of his feelings for her. Meanwhile, back on the station, Nog requests a letter of recommendation to Starfleet.
Despite Trakor's Bajoran prophecy of destruction, Sisko assists in a joint scientific venture with the Cardassians to open communications through the Bajoran wormhole. Sisko is forced to face his status as Emissary seriously in the face of the prophecy.
Quark discovers that Grand Nagus Zek has written a new virtuous and benevolent set of the Rules of Acquisition, which would put an end to traditional Ferengi ways. Bashir is oddly disturbed when he is nominated for a highly prestigious medical award.
Exposure to radiation causes O'Brien to jump five hours into the future for brief periods, including one that shows Deep Space Nine's destruction, while the station hosts Romulan and Klingon delegations.
Approaching his 30th birthday, Julian Bashir is subjected to a telepathic attack by an alien seeking a restricted substance. He wakes up to find the station almost deserted and that he is aging rapidly.
Garak reluctantly tortures Odo for information to prove his loyalty to his former mentor, Enabran Tain, as a joint Tal Shiar/Obsidian Order attack on the Founders in the Omarian Nebula is underway. (Part 2 of 2)
Sisko builds a replica of an ancient Bajoran space vessel and with Jake attempts to prove that the Bajorans developed interstellar travel before Cardassians. Bashir frets over the impending visit of the classmate who graduated first in his class at Starfleet Medical Academy.
Quark returns to his home planet to confront his mother (Moogie) after hearing from the Ferengi Commerce Authority that she broke the law by earning profit. Sisko meets Captain Kasidy Yates as a romantic interest, which Sisko has discovered his son has told most of the station about.
Kai Winn needs Kira to convince the former resistance leader Shakaar, now a farmer on Bajor, to return soil reclamators needed elsewhere in Rakantha, which used to be Bajor's most productive agricultural region.
Jadzia Dax deals with feelings of inferiority as she encounters past hosts in a Trill Zhian'tara ceremony, which is able to transfer the memories of former hosts into another recipient, and Odo takes on the role of Curzon Dax during the experience.
Ambassador Krajensky informs newly promoted Captain Sisko that there has been a coup on Tzenketh. He orders Sisko to take the Defiant to the nearby Federation colonies to ”show the flag” and keep the Tzenkethi quiet. A Changeling hides on board the Defiant and sabotages the ship.
A Klingon fleet arrives on its way to expand the Klingon Empire at the expense of the Cardassians in the face of the Dominion threat, and Worf is brought to DS9 to negotiate.
Bashir is captured, with Chief O'Brien, by a rogue group of Jem'Hadar who are attempting to overcome their genetic addiction to Ketracel White. Their leader, Goran'Agar, is able to survive without it and forces Bashir to find out why. Worf is finding it difficult to leave security matters to Security Chief Odo.
Forced to bring along Dukat on a personal mission to investigate the fate of the Cardassian prison ship Ravinok, which disappeared six years ago, Kira discovers the real reason her old enemy wants to accompany her. Sisko appears to have reservations about Kasidy Yates' coming to live on the station.
Dax is reunited with Lenara Kahn, whose previous host was the wife of one of Dax's former hosts, Torias Dax, and the two struggle with their feelings for one another.
Bashir plays a 1960s secret agent in a holosuite, when Garak unexpectedly intrudes, but his help is needed when the DS9 computer uses the holosuite to store the patterns of other crew members during a transporter accident.
Cast out of Klingon society because of Worf's dishonor, his brother, Kurn, asks Worf to kill him. Kira and O'Brien investigate a mysterious high-energy discharge just outside Bajoran space.
After he nearly dies because his contract kept him from seeking medical help, Rom organizes the Guild of Restaurant and Casino employees, a union for Quark's downtrodden staff, and they go on strike when their demands for fairer treatment are rejected.
A famous Bajoran poet, Akorem Laan, who disappeared over 200 years ago, appears from the wormhole and convinces Sisko that he is the true Emissary, but when he announces a return to the pre-occupation caste system, Sisko points out it would disqualify Bajor for membership in The Federation. O'Brien is less than enthusiastic when Keiko announces she's expecting.
Sisko and the Defiant crew join forces with the Jem'Hadar to stop a group of Jem'Hadar renegades from gaining power using an Iconian Gateway discovered in the Gamma Quadrant.
Quark is diagnosed with a terminal disease, Dorek's Syndrome, and given a week to live. Due to an unavoidable accident on the runabout Volga, Miles and Keiko's unborn baby is transferred to Major Kira by Dr. Bashir.
While exploring in the Gamma Quadrant, Sisko, Dax, Worf and O'Brien see a Jem'Hadar warship crash on a planet's surface. Odo arrests Dr. Bashir and Quark.
Dr. Bashir has been away at a conference and Jake Sisko has accompanied him to research a profile he is writing about the doctor. Returning in a runabout, they get a distress call from a Federation colony under Klingon attack.
Darvin, a disgraced Klingon spy, travels back in time. The DS9 crew must prevent him from altering the timeline. Based on the original Star Trek episode "The Trouble with Tribbles" by David Gerrold.
Sisko, Odo, Dax and Garak are found unconscious. While Bashir attempts to revive their bodies, the four wake up during the Cardassian occupation of Bajor several years earlier.
Forced to crash-land on a desolate planet, Odo and Quark must climb a mountain to transmit a distress signal. Jake and Nog (temporarily back at DS9) find sharing quarters isn't as enjoyable as they thought it would be.
An accident causes Sisko to have prophetic visions. When he finds an ancient Bajoran city, lost for 20,000 years, Kai Winn reconsiders her attitude towards him.
Julian Bashir is selected to become the model for a Long-term Medical Hologram, until a family secret is revealed. Rom has great difficulty in telling Leeta something.
Quark's cousin Gaila, knowing Quark is desperate for funds, takes him on as a junior partner in his highly lucrative arms dealing business. With his mother Keiko away dealing with a plague on Bajor, Yoshi O'Brien will only stop crying when Miles holds him, making things difficult.
Martok, Worf and Dax go on a mission aboard a Klingon ship to search for a missing Klingon vessel. However, Martok's uneasiness about battle, a result of his captivity, affects his crew's morale.
O'Brien, Garak, Nog and an engineering team go to Deep Space Nine's abandoned sister space station, Empok Nor, to salvage components. The away team soon discover that all is not as it seems.
Jake wants to give his father a present to cheer him up, a 1951 Willie Mays baseball card. He enlists Nog to help him obtain it, but they run into complications with a mysterious geneticist, Dr. Giger. Kai Winn, worried over the prospect of a Federation/Dominion war and its effects on Bajor, meets with Dominion representative Weyoun.
Faced with the realization that the Dominion are taking over the Alpha Quadrant, Sisko decides to mine the entrance to the wormhole with self-replicating cloaked mines, thus beginning the Dominion War.
Three months into the war, DS9 is still under Dominion control. Sisko and his crew are given a mission to destroy a vital Ketracel White facility deep in Dominion space using a captured Jem'Hadar ship. Jake is working for the Federation News Service. Odo is head of Terok Nor's security supported by the Vorta Weyoun.
Learning of thousands of Dominion reinforcements gathering in the Gamma Quadrant, Sisko initiates a plan to retake Deep Space Nine and secure the wormhole before the minefield is detonated. (Part 1 of 2)
Bashir attempts to reintegrate genetically engineered misfits into society, but they are asked by Starfleet to become a think tank when they provide insightful analysis of upcoming Dominion peace talks.
An attack on the Starfleet ship carrying Gul Dukat to a hearing for war crimes, as well as Captain Sisko who is to testify at the hearing, leaves the two of them stranded on a deserted planet together.
As Sisko considers leaving Starfleet due to the destruction of Captain Swofford's ship, the Cortez, he has a vision of himself as a science fiction writer in the 1950s.
When Jadzia Dax is critically injured on an away mission, Worf must choose between saving his wife or completing their assignment. O'Brien becomes obsessed with beating Quark at Tongo.
When Dukat tells Kira that her mother, Kira Meru, did not die when Nerys was three, but was actually Dukat's lover, Kira goes into the past using the Bajoran Orb of Time to find the truth.
Sisko asks Garak to help him get the Romulans to join the war against the Dominion. However, Sisko finds that he might not be able to keep his ethics intact to do it.
Bashir shows off a new Holosuite program of a martini lounge with a 1960s Vegas singer named Vic Fontaine who is very perceptive; and gives advice to Odo when Kira visits her ex-lover Shakaar.
Jake and Nog come under attack by the Jem'Hadar and are rescued by a rogue Defiant class starship, the Valiant, under the command of Starfleet Red Squadron cadets.
The Defiant picks up a distress call from Captain Lisa Cusak, whose escape pod has crashed on a remote planet following the destruction of her ship, the Olympia.
Starfleet Command begins an offensive against the Dominion, and Sisko is chosen to lead the invasion of Cardassia, but the Cardassian/Dominion Alliance has secretly reinforced their borders with unmanned orbital weapons platforms.
With the Bajoran wormhole collapsed, Sisko struggles for a way to contact the Bajoran Prophets. The Romulans receive permission from the Bajorans to open a military hospital on the moon Derna. General Martok offers Worf an opportunity to gain admission to Sto'Vo'Kor for Jadzia.
A new Dax appears on the scene. Sisko's quest leads him to the truth about his existence. The discovery that the Romulan hospital is heavily armed leads Colonel Kira to set up a blockade of Derna. Bashir, O'Brien and, surprisingly, Quark join Worf and Martok on a dangerous mission to destroy the Dominion shipyard.
Sisko must train his staff to play baseball when the Vulcan Captain Solok, an old rival of his, challenges Sisko to a game while his ship is being repaired.
A Vorta defector, Weyoun-6, gives Odo valuable information in exchange for asylum. Weyoun-7, the next clone in the series, pursues them. Nog engages in a series of barters to get a Graviton Stabilizer for Miles.
Kor (Ep 2.19, "Blood Oath" & 4.9, "The Sword of Kahless"), an aging Klingon hero, asks Worf to find him a battle assignment. Martok plans a "cavalry raid" of five birds of prey, hitting several key targets behind enemy lines to throw them off balance.
Sisko and crew relieve Starfleet troops under siege by Jem'Hadar at a key communications outpost, AR-558, the largest Dominion communications array in the sector.
Dukat, now a religious leader of a Bajoran Pah-Wraith cult, holds Kira hostage. Mika, one of Dukat's followers, gives birth to a half-Cardassian child.
Ezri goes to New Sydney to find O'Brien and uncovers some disturbing family secrets. Miles goes in search of the widow of Liam Bilby, Morica Bilby, whom he befriended in an undercover operation.
Captured by the Breen, Ezri and Worf undergo mental torture. Sisko agonizes over his broken engagement. Kai Winn receives her first vision; she learns a messenger will be sent to her. It is a simple Bajoran farmer, who is actually Gul Dukat in disguise.
An alliance is born between the Dominion and the Breen which will prove devastating for the Federation. Ezri and Worf are sentenced to death on Cardassia. Initially horrified, Kai Winn eventually accepts her visions are from the Pah Wraiths.
The war reaches a crucial turning point when the Dominion retakes the Chin'Toka system, the only Allied foothold in enemy space. Winn learns that Dukat plans to release the Pah-Wraiths. Damar begins a revolt against the Dominion.
Sisko orders Kira, Garak and Odo to Cardassia to assist Cardassians in resistance tactics as Damar's rebellion gains ground. Bashir makes a shocking discovery about the disease that is ravaging the Founders. Dukat's cover has been blown by Sobor. Gowron arrives on DS9.
Kira masterminds a plot to steal a Breen energy-dampening weapon. Gowron's political vendetta against Martok is endangering the war effort and prompts Worf to instigate a power shift in the Klingon Empire.
Sisko takes command of a new ship. Kira, Damar, and Garak stumble into a Dominion ambush on Cardassia; they also discover the entire resistance organization has been destroyed. Ezri and Julian finally clear the air with each other. Grand Nagus Zek has an announcement to make, as does Kasidy Sisko.
Sisko leads the Federation/Klingon/Romulan alliance in the offensive on the Cardassian homeworld, aided by Damar's grassroots resistance campaign -- and a surprise, last-minute ally. Dukat and Winn journey to the fire caves to release the Pah'Wraiths.
Originally shown as a two-hour series finale, but in syndication is shown as two episodes.
Reception
In 1999, Trek Nation's Greg Fuller said the series had been successful among its peers, writing: "Even when it became a near-serial show (usually, long-term serial shows are ratings disasters -- witness Babylon 5) airing in prime-time in less than 60 percent of the nation, DS9 managed well over a 4.0 average in its final two years. As a general rule, a syndicated show needs to maintain a 3.0 to be successful, DS9 always maintained that despite the strikes against it."[8]
In 2019, CBR rated all 31 seasons (across seven series at that time, including the first season of Star Trek: Discovery) of the Star Trek franchise, separately ranking each season of each series.[9] They rated Season 6 of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as the very best season of any Star Trek season up to that time.
CBR rankings
1 – Season 6
6 – Season 7
15 – Season 5
18 – Season 2
20 – Season 3
21 – Season 4
26 – Season 1
In 2016, The Washington Post called the Dominion war story arc in the later seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine possibly the "richest narrative" of the Star Trek universe.[10]
