Civil Defense

As I write, this has a 7.8 IMDb scoring, but it's not a very good episode IMHO. Station goes into lock-down, based on an old Cardassian program in case of a Bajoran worker revolt. Which is a pretty cool idea. Then, for dramatic tension, the self-destruct countdown starts. Sound familiar? And later on, air shafts (aka, utility shafts) come into use. Aah, air shafts, the writer's best friend. There is a very clever complication about halfway through, which I enjoyed, and you might watch it for that. But otherwise this one runs just by the numbers. Just imagine what it would be like and save yourself forty minutes. If you love the show, it will be all right, but I'd recommend skipping to a better episode.

Civil Defense is a classy episode that starts unassuming and builds its tension slowly without fanfare.

The surprises come as a comedy of errors highlighting the irony and "shortsightedness" (as Garak puts it) of Cardassia's tyrannical paranoia sparing absolutely nobody who find themselves aboard Deep Space Nine during this unique crisis.

It all works out to a darkly comedic episode where rationality is punished and chaos reigns.

Civil Defense is an ensemble episode, all of the main cast members have good moments ("Gaila, the one with the moon?"), ultimately it belongs to guest stars Andrew Robinson (Garak) and Mark Alaimo (Gul Dukat) who brilliantly steal the show.

5/5, a GREAT episode.

The premise to this is fine and it is fun up to a point. The problem is that Gul Dukat shows up and begins to extort people. He is the face of the computer which is programmed to keep miners from shirking their duties and rebelling against their masters. This program was left in place when the Cardassians left the station. It is well set up, but it devolves into a silly "we've only got so much time" and how can we get there" episode with several deus ex machina moments. There is some humor which would not be a part of a serious episode. So while the byplay is fun, it really doesn't work very well. I also have a question: What happens to Gul Dukat at the end?

This episode is not good. For a space station this is about to destroyed in x number of hours/minutes, no one is in a hurry. Everyone is going about their business in a normal manner. Even The A team of Sisko, O'Brien and Little Sisko are calmly walking down the hallways despite the fact that they are the station's only hope.

Bad writing, directing and with only a couple of exceptions, half-hearted acting. Definitely one of the worst episodes of the season.

It is a simple fact that the best Deep Space Nine episodes are the ones that discuss the Cardassian occupation. Even better are the ones that feature Garak, the 'tailor' from Cardassia exiled from the home planet to live on the station. (These two categories often overlap.)

This one is a doozy.

Sisko, Jake and O'Brien managed to trip an old Cardassian security system which threatens the existence of DS9 and everyone on it. Garak joins the effort to turn it off.

Andy Robinson, who played the 'Zodiac' style psycho in the original Dirty Harry film, is, obviously, pitch perfect. Gul Dukat - my second favourite Cardassian - gets some scenes and, predictably, steals them.

In short, one of the best, cleverest, wittiest episodes in an excellent series.