Customer Reviews

Star Trek - Deep Space Nine, Episode 122: Empok Nor [VHS]

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After a conduit is blown on DS9, Chief O'Brien concocts a plan to harvest materials from the abandoned Cardassian space station, Empok Nor. The space station is almost identical in design to DS9 (Tarok Nor, as the Cardassians call it), and since the parts cannot be replicated and they know that Gul Dukat won't help them, it's pretty much the only option.

O'Brien takes a small crew of volunteers, along with Nog, his aspiring apprentice and reluctantly, Garak. The tailor of DS9, once a high-ranking official in the nefarious "Obsidian Order," is bribed by Sisko to accompany the Chief. It is well known that Cardassians leave booby-traps behind when they have to abandon their technology. Much of their traps are triggered to spring when non-Cardassian DNA is detected.

Garak is the first to board the station and disengages many of the traps on the docking ring. He powers up the station and we see 3 stasis chambers in the infirmary light up and start blinking - and then the eyes of one of its occupants opens.

Because there was no power or even a breathable atmosphere on the station, O'Brien didn't bother to check for life signs - first big mistake. The second big mistake was to not station an armed guard or two onboard the runabout.

Because they must harvest a long list of materials, the group splits up into 3 groups and because the station is running on minimum power, there is very little light available to see if anyone is lurking in the shadows.

As the crew gets picked off one-by-one, it becomes evident that they have enemies on the station, and perhaps even an enemy among their own ranks. The dark lighting adds to the tense moments of confusion. Not knowing who can be trusted or when someone might jump from the shadowy darkness makes viewing this episode especially agonizing. I was literally on the edge of my seat watching this episode.

Great character development for Garak, who is always brilliantly portrayed by Andrew J. Robinson, where for a brief moment, we see there is a tender spot in him, under all those callouses.