Listmania! - Part VI

Subject: my favourite episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

There are presented in chronological order, with brief descriptions alongside to help those who don’t recognize the episode by title alone.

“Duet” - A visiting Cardassian may in fact be a notorious war criminal, and Kira is determined to bring him down
“In the Hands of the Prophets” - Friction escalates when Vedek Winn arrives on the station and discovers schoolteacher Keiko O'Brien is teaching about aliens in the wormhole, contrary to Bajoran religious beliefs
“The Homecoming” – Kira and O’Brien rescue famous Bajoran prisoner of war Li Nalas; meanwhile, an extremist group begins to take control of Bajor
“The Circle” – The Circle (the aforementioned extremist group) begins a full-scale coup, but there is more to the situation than meets the eye
“The Siege” - Sisko and Li Nalas help stop the station from being commandeered by the Bajorans, while Kira and Dax try to put an end to the Circle
“Sanctuary” - Displaced Skrreean refugees from the Gamma Quadrant claim Bajor as their legendary homeland Kentanna, and petition the Provisional Government for resettlement there
“Blood Oath” - Jadzia Dax honours an oath made by her previous host to a group of Klingons, and goes with them on a crusade against a ruthless old nemesis
“The Jem’Hadar” - Sisko, Jake, Nog, and Quark go camping on a Gamma Quadrant world but are captured by mysterious soldiers called the Jem'Hadar and meet a force to rival the Federation
“Defiant” - Tom Riker shows up unannounced and uses Kira’s interest in him to steal the Defiant and take it on a mission for the Maquis
“Past Tense” – The two-parter involving a transporter accident that sends Sisko, Bashir and Dax three centuries into Earth's dark past, whereupon Sisko assumes the role of a pivotal historic figure in order to restore the future
“The Die is Cast” - Garak has to interrogate Odo to prove his loyalty to his former mentor as a joint Tal Shiar-Obsidian Order attack on the Founders is underway
“The Way of the Warrior” – After the latter refuses to support the former’s unprovoked invasion of Cardassia, the Klingon Empire withdraws from its peace treaty with the Federation; Worf joins the station crew and must decide where his loyalties lie, as the Klingon fleet sets off to attack the station
“Starship Down” - The Defiant becomes trapped in a gas giant's volatile atmosphere after battling with the Jem'Hadar in order to protect a Karemma ship
“Homefront” - Sisko and Odo are brought to Earth when it is suspected Changelings are infiltrating Starfleet
“Paradise Lost” - As Sisko and Odo prepare for war with the Dominion they discover a plot to seize control of Earth from the Federation
“Hard Time” - O'Brien is accused of espionage by an alien race who use a more expeditious form of incarcerating criminals: implanting them with fictitious yet traumatic memories of years of imprisonment in a few hours of actual time
“Shattered Mirror” - Sisko attempts to rescue Jake after he is lured into a war-torn mirror universe by his mother's living counterpart
“Apocalypse Rising” - Starfleet turns to Sisko and his team in order to expose a Changeling infiltrator in the Klingon high command
“Nor the Battle to the Strong” - Jake Sisko learns about the horrors of war firsthand
“Trials and Tribble-ations” - Sisko and his crew go back in time to the original starship Enterprise under Captain Kirk in order to find a bomb disguised as a tribble
“For the Uniform” – Former Starfleet officer-turned-Maquis traitor Michael Eddington returns and Sisko becomes obsessed with catching him
“In Purgatory’s Shadow” - Worf and Garak journey to the Gamma Quadrant to investigate a coded Cardassian message
“By Inferno’s Light” - Gul Dukat aligns the Cardassians with the Dominion, while the station must deal with a Changeling infiltrator
“Call to Arms” – Determined to stop any further Dominion encroachment into the Alpha Quadrant, Sisko mines the entrance to the wormhole – thereby prompting the Dominion invasion and capture of Deep Space Nine itself
“A Time to Stand” - With the station under Dominion control, Sisko and his crew are given a mission that could change the balance of the Dominion War - they must navigate a captured Jem’Hadar warship deep into Dominion space
“Rocks and Shoals” - Sisko and his tired crew crash on a planet where they encounter a band of Jem'Hadar and their severely wounded Vorta
“Sacrifice of Angels” - Sisko commands the Defiant against a Dominion/Cardassian armada to retake DS9 and stop the enemy from bringing down the minefield, which would allow reinforcements to come through the wormhole into the Alpha Quadrant
“Far Beyond the Stars” - After a friend's ship is destroyed, Sisko considers leaving Starfleet; visions of himself as a science fiction writer in 1950s America affect his decision
“In the Pale Moonlight” - Sisko asks Garak to help him get the Romulans to join the war against the Dominion
“Tears of the Prophets” - Starfleet Command begins an offensive against the Dominion, and Sisko is chosen to lead the invasion of the Chin’toka system
“The Siege of AR-558” - Sisko and crew relieve beleaguered Starfleet troops under siege by the Jem'Hadar at a key communications outpost
“Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang” - The crew attempt to help Vic Fontaine when a mobster buys Vic's hotel
“Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges” - While attending a diplomatic conference on Romulus, Bashir becomes an unwilling pawn of the sinister Section 31
“What You Leave Behind” – The series finale; As the Cardassians revolt against the Dominion, Sisko leads the Federation-Klingon-Romulan alliance in an all-out offensive on Cardassia Prime