"The Circle" Comes Around On Star Trek: Deep Space Nine!

The Good: Interesting Characters, Good plot continuity
The Bad: Unsurprising (predictable plot)
The Basics: Part of the essential Star Trek Deep Space Nine, this is pretty much the ultimate in setups - a clear transitional episode, a firm middle act.


With Major Kira removed as Deep Space Nine's liaison officer by Minister Jaro, the station is in an awkward transition time. In easily one of the top five funniest Star Trek Deep Space Nine scenes, Kira cleans out her quarters while her friends try to convince her otherwise, sort of, and the enigmatic Vedek Bareil returns to offer her refuge in the monastery. It's a wonderful scene that one must watch a few times to actually hear everything that is being said.

Picking up where "The Homecoming" (reviewed here!) left off, "The Circle" continues by illustrating all sides of the current political conflict: Sisko appeals to the Bajoran military which is strangely complacent about the terrorist attacks, Minister Jaro attempts to persuade Vedek Winn to preach that the Prophets support him, Vedek Bareil and Kira learn more about each other at the monastery, Odo uncovers evidence - via Quark - of Cardassian involvement in The Circle and the new first officer attempts to get used to the position.

It's an excellent use of the ensemble cast, the plot is pretty tight. More than that, the characters are drawn out quite a bit in this episode. Sisko seems more alive and less bland, especially when compared to the sedate Vedek Bareil. The nice thing about this episode is that we learn things that come up throughout the rest of the series. One detail, for instance, is Kira's lack of imagination.

This is also one of those episodes that uses the full ensemble cast rather well. With Kira gone from the station, the other characters fill in more and some of the characters who almost never get airtime, like Dr. Bashir, get some choice scenes and see some action.

In "The Circle," we also come to learn who the leader of the terrorist organization is and it leaves us remarkably unsurprised, though it does set up the final episode of the arc well. This is an episode that has strong use of secondary characters, like Vedek Bareil and Vedek Winn, which makes it a little confusing for those not familiar with the cast of characters. That's alleviated quite a bit when one watches the first of the three parts to this set.

"The Circle" works best when viewed with "The Homecoming" and then "The Siege" and being the middle act is rather bound to the other two parts. Part of the essential Star Trek Deep Space Nine but pleasant to view - with the other two - by anyone.

[Knowing that VHS is essentially a dead medium, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Complete Second Season on DVD, which is also a better economical choice than buying the VHS. Read my review of the sophomore season by clicking here!
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7.5/10

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© 2011, 2007, 2001 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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