“Apocalypse Rising” has a tough job to do. It has to get the series back to it regular plan of a coming conflict with the Dominion while wrapping up the practically non-existent Klingon war storyline without it coming across as having been a pointless interlude. It does the job as best it could, but for a season premiere, it does not start the year off with much of a bang.Sisko, O’Brien, Odo, and Worf go undercover at a Klingon military base in order to expose Chancellor Gowron as a Changeling. Dukat and his stolen Bird-of-Prey are thrown into the mix for good measure. Most of the episode is played for fish out of water laughs as our heroes try to blend in with Klingons. The twist is that Martok is the Changeling, not Gowron. The Founders tricked Odo into believing it as Gowron hoping the Federation would assassinate Gowron, thereby escalating the war. With the truth revealed, Gowron declares a ceasefire while the Empire negotiates with the Federation over Arcanis rather than fighting to conquer it.
The episode has a couple logical problems. It does not seem plausible the Changelings would be sloppy enough to let odo find out the true identity of their spy. He should have suspected something was up right away. Nor does it make sense Martok is the Chagelinng. Sue, he isa high ranking general, but does it seem likely he could convince Gowron to invade the Cardassian Union and declare war on the Federation/ if so, then Gowron is a nut unworthy of ruling an Empire. The episode needed a twist for excitement, but that stretches plausibility.
I am not a huge fan of ’Apocalypse Rising,” but since I did not like the Klingon diversion last season, I am just happy it served to shift gears away from it for the fifth season. Generally speaking, I enjoy the fifth season more than the fourth, so I am in a generous mood when scoring the season premiere. But not much of one.
Rating: ** (out of 5)
