***SPOILER ALERT*** This is probably my third time watching this episode and it really does not get better with subsequent viewings. Here are my issues with it:
1. The Odo storyline. So apparently The Great Link is paradise - which would indicate it's highly addictive - and Odo just walks away from it because of Kira? Kira, that constantly angry, annoying, shrill woman? And after Odo's many betrayals - including having a conversation about the Resistance with the female Changeling in the room, letting Rom get caught, his beliefs becoming almost Nazi-like in his disdain for "solids" – he suddenly sees the light and goes right back to how he was? And all is forgiven after he saves Kira in the end? This was just way too easy and contrived. Basically "let's have Odo dance with the devil for a while and then get him back into the fold quick and easy with no lasting impact". This is not how real situations unfold. It's lazy.
2. As others have mentioned, none of the things that happened in previous episodes to impact the Dominion war effort ever had a noticeable impact. What happened to the limited supply of White? What about the destruction of the shipyards or the sensor array? It's as if none of it mattered to the strength of the Dominion.
3. The Battle. I cannot for the life of me understand how the writers think "good" space war strategy would be to get a bunch of ships close together in the vastness of space for a huge battle. If I were the Federation, and I were trying to get to DS9, there would seem to be a nearly infinite number of paths for getting there. Why in the world would I group my "last ditch" fleet in close proximity to each other where they could easily be destroyed? Why wouldn't you break your ships up into many, many, smaller groupings each with a different path to get to the station? No way with its sensor array out the Dominion would be able to stop them all from getting there. Setting that aside and accepting the stupid premise that the Federation would group its fleet together in such a way, once they spotted the huge Dominion fleet, why wouldn't they have just gone to warp and gone around it? Again, they could have sent different groupings on different routes. At a minimum, the faster ships would have reached DS9 before the Dominion. Why would you risk all at that point to try to "break through" this grouping of ships that's an infinitely small cluster in the vastness of space? This makes absolutely no sense. Maybe if they had said there was a HUGE nebula between the Federation fleet and DS9 and there was a hole in the nebula that was the quickest way to DS9 and the Dominion fleet was waiting there to ambush...that *might* make sense. But by all indications, this was the middle of nowhere and they just decided a confrontation with a superior force was a great idea.
And whatever happened to "hey captain, there's this giant Dominion Fleet on our sensors. It's about 8 hours out. I just thought I'd let you know." Seems like the writers forgot about long range sensors. The Dominion fleet can't cloak. Should have been fairly easy to pick up such a massive number of ships! Instead, we get this clever dialogue:
O'BRIEN: I'm picking something up. It's a large Dominion fleet bearing zero zero four mark zero zero nine.
Instead of Sisko saying "how close is it?" or "can we go around it" or "hey O'Brien what the hell have you been doing for the last few hours that you missed a MASSIVE fleet", he just charges into battle when his ONLY goal at this point is to get to DS9 and stop the OTHER massive Dominion fleet from coming through the wormhole. At least come up with some plot contrivance that FORCES Sisko to fight this fight. There's nothing.
And why didn't the Klingon's hail Sisko and let him know they were on their way? You think that might have affected his strategy at all? Or maybe the Klingons should have just headed to DS9 since the Dominion fleet was busy with Sisko? See how many holes there are in the plot logic here?
Also, if the favored strategy of space warfare in the day is to create these massive fleets of ships that travel right next to each other for some reason, why not develop long-range weapons that you can fire over light years? You know, maybe equip photon or quantum torpedoes with warp engines and bombard these huge fleets from light years out? Or launch devices from way out that could irradiate a large area? Kind of like old-fashioned shelling or chemical warfare? Why would you fight the fight that they want you to? I know, this wouldn't look very fun on TV, and HUGE SPACE BATTLES ROCK!!!, but this is SCIENCE fiction, right? So shouldn't we use logic?
1. The Odo storyline. So apparently The Great Link is paradise - which would indicate it's highly addictive - and Odo just walks away from it because of Kira? Kira, that constantly angry, annoying, shrill woman? And after Odo's many betrayals - including having a conversation about the Resistance with the female Changeling in the room, letting Rom get caught, his beliefs becoming almost Nazi-like in his disdain for "solids" – he suddenly sees the light and goes right back to how he was? And all is forgiven after he saves Kira in the end? This was just way too easy and contrived. Basically "let's have Odo dance with the devil for a while and then get him back into the fold quick and easy with no lasting impact". This is not how real situations unfold. It's lazy.
2. As others have mentioned, none of the things that happened in previous episodes to impact the Dominion war effort ever had a noticeable impact. What happened to the limited supply of White? What about the destruction of the shipyards or the sensor array? It's as if none of it mattered to the strength of the Dominion.
3. The Battle. I cannot for the life of me understand how the writers think "good" space war strategy would be to get a bunch of ships close together in the vastness of space for a huge battle. If I were the Federation, and I were trying to get to DS9, there would seem to be a nearly infinite number of paths for getting there. Why in the world would I group my "last ditch" fleet in close proximity to each other where they could easily be destroyed? Why wouldn't you break your ships up into many, many, smaller groupings each with a different path to get to the station? No way with its sensor array out the Dominion would be able to stop them all from getting there. Setting that aside and accepting the stupid premise that the Federation would group its fleet together in such a way, once they spotted the huge Dominion fleet, why wouldn't they have just gone to warp and gone around it? Again, they could have sent different groupings on different routes. At a minimum, the faster ships would have reached DS9 before the Dominion. Why would you risk all at that point to try to "break through" this grouping of ships that's an infinitely small cluster in the vastness of space? This makes absolutely no sense. Maybe if they had said there was a HUGE nebula between the Federation fleet and DS9 and there was a hole in the nebula that was the quickest way to DS9 and the Dominion fleet was waiting there to ambush...that *might* make sense. But by all indications, this was the middle of nowhere and they just decided a confrontation with a superior force was a great idea.
And whatever happened to "hey captain, there's this giant Dominion Fleet on our sensors. It's about 8 hours out. I just thought I'd let you know." Seems like the writers forgot about long range sensors. The Dominion fleet can't cloak. Should have been fairly easy to pick up such a massive number of ships! Instead, we get this clever dialogue:
O'BRIEN: I'm picking something up. It's a large Dominion fleet bearing zero zero four mark zero zero nine.
Instead of Sisko saying "how close is it?" or "can we go around it" or "hey O'Brien what the hell have you been doing for the last few hours that you missed a MASSIVE fleet", he just charges into battle when his ONLY goal at this point is to get to DS9 and stop the OTHER massive Dominion fleet from coming through the wormhole. At least come up with some plot contrivance that FORCES Sisko to fight this fight. There's nothing.
And why didn't the Klingon's hail Sisko and let him know they were on their way? You think that might have affected his strategy at all? Or maybe the Klingons should have just headed to DS9 since the Dominion fleet was busy with Sisko? See how many holes there are in the plot logic here?
Also, if the favored strategy of space warfare in the day is to create these massive fleets of ships that travel right next to each other for some reason, why not develop long-range weapons that you can fire over light years? You know, maybe equip photon or quantum torpedoes with warp engines and bombard these huge fleets from light years out? Or launch devices from way out that could irradiate a large area? Kind of like old-fashioned shelling or chemical warfare? Why would you fight the fight that they want you to? I know, this wouldn't look very fun on TV, and HUGE SPACE BATTLES ROCK!!!, but this is SCIENCE fiction, right? So shouldn't we use logic?