SDS9 – S5E26: "Call to Arms"

This episode was recorded on August 31, 2025.

We recap "Call to Arms" and discuss the things to come.

You can also listen to this episode directly from your favorite podcast player by following these instructions: https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/articles/212055866-Subscribe-to-your-Audio-RSS-link-on-the-Patreon-app

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Transcript

[Note: Transcripts are autogenerated and may contain errors.]

This is Southpaw Deep Space Nine, season five. We are your hosts, Scott and Sam. On this star date, August 31st, 2025, we are discussing the season five finale, Call to Arms. Scott, can you tell us about this season finale?

Of course, Lita and Rom are looking through wedding dresses. on the Star Trek iPad, or the pad as they call it, on the show. Garrick has shown almost 200 dresses. They're running out of options. Rom wants them to be scantily clad because he feels that that is a compromise as

the tradition in Frangy is like no clothes or as little clothes as possible. Leta wants all the clothes. Torzael, Gal Ducat's daughter, who, remember, is quite young and has a weird hero crush on Garrick, is like, let's just have Garrick make his own thing.

Miles and Ben are walking and talking about their worry about this possible hot war and families having to retreat and leave. Miles' family has left the building. Rom asks Ben to marry him and Leta because Leta is Bajoran and Ben is the captain of the ship, but what's important is he is also the emissary to the prophets.

So Having him marry you is tantamount to having one of the highest religious person in your religious world marrying you, and for some, the highest. But there's a somber and scary vibe going on in the station. The wormhole keeps on emitting swarms of Dominion and coming into Dominion ships, probably Jem'Hadar, coming into the Alpha Quadrant,

heading to Cardassia, who are, unsurprisingly, from the way that the Cardassians are written, working with Dominion. Miles is very annoyed that this is the fifth convoy in five weeks and just wishes they would just get it over with and do a little war. And Ben calmly points out, they're probably going to do a little war.

He doesn't say it like that, but it would be cool if he did. Because why not? Jake arrives at Ben's, at his dad's, for some home-cooked meal, and Ben hands Jake his pad and says, read this. It says, sorry, Bajoran's Negotiating with the Dominion, Station Commander Against the Pact by Jake Sisko.

Jake's first piece for the Federation News Service. He's writing copy. He's basically a war journalist. And Ben just points out that he wishes that he had been told about it and got a heads up and asks what Jake is up to.

And he says he's writing his novel, but he gets a nice feeling out of seeing his work in print. And Ben realizes that everything he does will be in print as well. Jadzia and Kira are wondering why all this yamuk, the Cardassian condiment, is being smuggled onto Deep Space Nine.

Jadzia also notices that Kira has been acting strange, and she explains that Odo has a crush on her because, if you remember a few weeks ago, future creepy Odo destroyed a whole timeline so younger Odo could have a chance with Kira. You remember that, Sam? How could I forget? Well, sometimes people forget.

Maybe there was like a time swap or something. A Berenstain Bears, if you will. Nog brings Ben his morning drink and worries about these rumors he's heard about the Romulans. Ben does not know what he's talking about, asks for some details, and Nog says, he's been hearing murmurs. He's been reading things. People are talking at quarks.

The Romulans have signed a non-aggression pact with the Dominion. Ben figures it's just a rumor, cites rule of acquisition. Hear all, trust nothing. But... Once Nog leaves, Ben calls Jadzia, connects him to Starfleet Intel, and Ben confirms the Romulans just yesterday in the story, not yesterday, in the time that we're telling the story,

that they have signed a non-aggression pact as well as the Tholians and the Miradorns. Bajor still debates about what they should do, but Kira vows that she will never agree to a Dominion deal. Starfleet orders a minefield at the wormhole to block the Dominion reinforcements. Odo warns, this could start a war.

And Ben says, peace is already slipping away. In their quarters, the squad try to strategize mine placement. Ram is nervous and pretty much just talking about the wedding as everyone's talking about strategy. But as Ram keeps on getting anxious, he realizes that the mines need to have built-in replicators to replace themselves, create more mines,

swarm ships with deadly mines, deadly packs. The catch is that the entire field must be deployed before activation, Or there would be a risk of early boom, boom. And we don't want that. Ben decides to put boots on the ground and hop in the Defiant and go fight the Dominion as the war starts. Odo and Kira meet.

Odo wants to stop all messages coming to and from the station. Odo tells Kira that he's been wanting to ask her out, and Kira's saying that she's been thinking that he should ask her out. and it seems that they're all interested in going out,

but they agree to slow down and put this to the side until there's less unease and less war, which does actually assuage their stress and offer some relief. Wei Yun, our favorite cloned weird guy, shows up. They know about the mines. They say cancel the mines or they will take the station as the Jem'Hadar ships keep

on leaving the wormhole. Wei Yun just asks that Ben chill out, take a chill pill, chillax. But Ben doesn't do that. He stands firm. He refuses to ruin the mines, remove the mines, and is tired of Dominion's coming through. Wei Yun does his calm thing.

that he does where being calm somehow means that you're not being aggressive and starts blaming the Cardassians for pushing the convoys for security and economic game, but also says the Cardassians are downplaying what they're going through, children suffering, people suffering, and just needing to provide a space flotilla to people. That's what they're saying.

You know, whether they're telling the truth remains to be seen. Ben warns all of his senior people and also Martok that the minion's going to strike, possibly tomorrow. The talk was empty. It was posturing. It was to create a false security, a lulling, if you will,

and orders Martok to take the Rotarian to the Cardassian border and watch for other fleets and tells Kira to convene with the council immediately. He's going to use his role as emissary to do some politics. to convince Bajor to sign the non-aggression pact. Because there's no guarantee at this point that the Federation can even protect them.

And Ben is starting to believe that the only way to keep the Dominion out and preserve all the rebuilding that Bajor has done is for them to sign. So they sign, and they are decreed to leave Deep Space Nine immediately for their own safety. Zayel will stay with Kira's friends in Bajor,

though she feels a bit uncomfortable because she is half Cardassian, half Bajoran. We know that Gul Dukat had an inappropriate relationship with a Bajoran woman creating Zayel and who he was going to kill. But instead, Kira was like, could you be a little bit less of a monster? So we'll see about that.

And she asks Garak to come, but he tells a story about his ability to survive, and they have a smooch. Ben marries Ram and Kira in a beautiful ceremony, and then Nag calls Rita Mugi or something like that, which I thought was just a nickname for, you know, Quark and Ram's parents, but mom. But I don't know.

Court complains about the wedding because it's not sexist enough. And Ron sends Lita to Bajor for her own safety. Martok is calling Ben as he tries to warn him that ships are coming. And then Dukat shows up on screen with Wayu, offers Ben to stand down. And you know he ain't doing that. So they're like, let's bang.

To quote the UFC. The Dominion fleet nears, but the Defiant still needs about an hour before the mines are ready. You know how Star Trek time goes. Jake helps Bashir with the med kits. He's ready to report to the battle. He wants to be, you know, war press, which, you know, should be protected, of course. And

Odo will hold the station together, and Garak is giving warnings that be careful. Rom starts to rig all the defense. Quark keeps on protesting, even though their bond as brothers is strong. The Rotarian comes through. Ben orders Martok to guard the Defiant. Worf powers up the weapons. Kira starts to protest but then falls in line.

There is this tension hanging over the station. War is coming. Survival will depend on unity and not heroics. Kira declares that she's on Ben's team, springs into action as Dominion keeps on coming through. On the Dominion flagship Dukat tells Dumar that he's waited years for this. And Dumar is very happy with his bloodlust to reclaim Terok Noor.

And he says the quiet part out loud, Bajor. Weyoun cites the non-aggression pact, but Dukat points out he never signed that pact. But Wei Yun says, you better back down. And Dukat is like, fine. But he has his fingers crossed, probably, and looks at Damar. The fleet starts to enter into weapons range.

That's when Dukat sends some Jamhadar fighters to go after the Defiant, to attack Deep Space Nine, to... basically get it popping. The station takes out some of the attackers. They're focusing on protecting the Defiant. Dukat has to admit that Ben actually kind of knows what he's doing. If you remember, he was a commander, but whatever.

Put some respect on his name. As the evacuation starts to begin, Tadzia tells Worf, yes. And he's like, what? And she's like, I will marry you. After the war. I love you. It's kind of nice. In front of the Bajoran temple, Ben addresses those that are staying, reminding them that while the station is lost,

their stand will lead a Federation Klingon four-strike on the Dominion, and he won't rest until he's back with them. And then beams to the Defiant. Garrick boards and quietly tells Ben the truth. He has nowhere else to go. So Ben nods, heads to the bridge. The Defiant and the Rotarian fire a few final shots.

Then they do a cloak and they slip away. Kira and Odo stay behind, sending a taunting message to the Dominion before triggering Program Cisco 197. which turns the station into a trap of explosions. Devastatingly such, Quark strips the station of Federation presence, ordering his staff to break out the canar and the yamak sauce.

Okay, Quark was hedging his bets on the war. Rom returns to his old post and claims to be a Starfleet spy. Jake is at the Davo table, He's not a defiant. He wants to be a war reporter. He's going to report on the occupation, insisting that the emissary's son wouldn't be harmed.

You wouldn't want to alienate the Bajorans. You wouldn't want to create martyrs. Solidarity and shared responsibility matters more than fear. But Ben is furious on the defiant and to know that Jake is not with him. Miles asks if they can turn back, but Ben knows that he can't do that.

In this one instance, he won't risk the crew for one person. Jake has grown, and he must live his own truth. The Defiant and the Rotan head to the Federation Klingon rendezvous. Nog vows that the Dominion will grant this as he enters the Alpha Quadrant. Cadet, you took the words right out of my mouth, Ben says.

The Dominion has taken back Deep Space Nine. But no, it is now Terok Nor. They celebrate despite their heavy losses. Wayun warns it's a costly victory. Odo, Kira, and Kork arrive. Ducat reassures Weyoun the damage will be fixed and notices Ben's baseball left on the stripped command desk. A promise. He'll return for Deep Space Nine.

The war is hot now, baby.

Let me start off by saying this was the first episode of DS9 that gave me goosebumps. It has stakes, but not just stakes where there was just the possibility of losing something. Not just stakes as in talking about stakes or talking about losing something, but stakes as in things were actually lost.

It wasn't just an episode about war. but also about statecraft. Paperwork meets actual battle and how both play their own roles and are powerful in their own ways. Let's talk about statecraft. People think non-aggression pacts mean your allies, but this episode did a good job showing how that can be just part of a bigger game,

even between enemies. If you think from long-term strategy, You might do short-term compromises to set up long-term goals. Or you do it just to buy time until you can come up with something. Or sometimes it's just the best option on the table. It can be under duress. This is not only true between these fictional space countries,

but real-life countries and even real-life people. Assuming autonomy when there is none can be in itself a form of victim blaming. I mean, isn't that what victim blaming is? When you're acting like the victim could have done different, which you can only do if you assume autonomy.

With that said, non-aggression pacts can also mean they're at least on neutral terms. But it's not black or white or binary, which, like you, Scott, always mentioned, DS9 tries to explore how the world isn't binary at all. This is something I wish more progressives to radicals would realize. They could understand gender isn't binary,

yet often don't seem to understand how that also applies to everything else. Something else that stood out was how there's a formality and politeness and procedure even to being occupied in this episode. Or even a politeness after attacking each other or even after being attacked. That's all statecraft. Or under the duress of statecraft.

Or the duress of survival. Or the duress of trying to keep the escalation to a manageable point. That was the tension of this whole episode. Escalating, but not so far where we all die. Again, characters are thinking long-term. On both sides. Besides saying this episode gave me goosebumps,

this is also the first episode where I was thinking there are things radicals and progressives can learn from the characters. Like thinking long term, not short term. Not black or white thinking, but thinking for the long term. And long term means gray.

If you put a series of white and black dots together and then stand far away, it'll look gray. That's how things become long term. It all becomes gray. So black or white thinking isn't just a way of thinking in itself, but it's also a form of short term thinking.

These are things I was thinking not during the watch. But afterward, when I was reflecting, because during, I was just caught up in the story. But another reflection is how DS9 circled back to being occupied again. Yep. from a historical materialist standpoint, history is a spiral. And even if we end up in a similar place,

it's not in the same way because it's built upon all the things that happened before. So yes, it bookends, but I'm curious to see how it'll be different this time because the seeds are there for new outcomes.

Also, it should be noted that the dominion one, have even more cutthroat morals than the Cardassians, and they have an infinite amount of basically cloned soldiers born with substance use disorder that they provide the substance for.

And they're child soldiers, too.

Yeah.

Child soldiers. Yeah. So they mess up. But Scott, like I said, I was caught up in the story and couldn't even write notes for commentary while I was watching. All of this stuff, it was in retrospect during, I don't know, it just pulled me in. It was riveting. It was must-see TV.

So I want to know about that side of it, the quality of it, the storytelling. So what did you think of this episode?

This episode is almost a five. I don't remember if I've given a five yet, but I think I've gotten close. This episode gave me panic on this rewatch. It gave me anxiety. It was like really pushing my buttons. It's like, You know, you ever listen to electronic song and it's doing the buildup and you're getting

ready and you're waiting for the drop. But some people are sadistic and they'll keep on making the drop. They'll elongate and elongate and elongate the drop. And there's a couple of genres that sort of do that, just like create the tension and never do a full drop. So this episode had a very long crescendo.

My heart was racing. Getting ready for the war and showing what happens when you prepare for war. All of a sudden, your allies are creating pacts. All of a sudden, you're telling your allies to... Actually, look, that tax we told you not to sign, you should sign that right now. You're seeing what happens during the war games.

This is the kind of political theater for why people really like the West Wing or whatever. You're seeing the undercurrent of how a war starts. And it's written so tight. The characters are really being true to themselves. You're seeing things that happen in wartime, like getting married and sending people home and making promises.

Even though it's a season finale, It almost feels like a penultimate episode because it's like, get ready. So you sort of know how the next season is going to start.

But because it is a season finale, right? Everything is contextual. So when you rate something, you're taking into account what season it is, where the episode is in the season. So the bar is always highest for the season premieres and the season finales. You're rating it harder for season finales.

Yes. And that's what it is. I'm going to give it a 4.5.

You're saying that because you're telling me and other listeners who haven't watched the whole thing that as good as this is, you're kind of getting us ready to say there might be even better episodes coming.

There's a few. So there's a few episodes coming back. Well, there's one that is... I don't know if it's next this season or not because we have now two seasons left. And a lot of the last season is... sort of wrapping things up uh and i won't say how but we're going to encounter an

incredibly problematic episode for which we are not going to skip it but we are going to make sure that that we have people because to to work with us on it especially because we haven't had guests in a while but there's a couple episodes coming out that are considered the greatest Trek episodes of all time.

Okay.

There's one that many consider to be like top five Trek episodes. And there are people that say it's top five TV episodes and I'm not going to tell you which one until after you've watched it.

So I could decide on my own.

Right. Because sometimes people tell you about a restaurant and they're so excited because they've been eating it for so long. And then the food might be good, but it's been set up to be a level that is really hard to beat. So yeah, it's just the next two seasons are just crazy. The next season is a banger.

Okay. I don't know if you noticed this, or maybe you already priced that in into your review and rating of this episode. But when I watched this episode, right from the get-go, it also looked different. The cinematography looked different, as well as the storytelling. Because when you're watching a show...

You're kind of like this invisible viewer just following people around and watching it, right? Mm-hmm. So you kind of, I guess, are a fly on the wall, but it doesn't ever feel that way on TV shows. Whereas this had that feeling of like, no, you're a fly on the wall and you shouldn't be here.

You're just watching all this candid stuff. There are certain movies, war movies that are shot that way where they try to make you feel like you're somehow snuck into this room and you're a fly on the wall. watching stuff happening and playing out that you shouldn't be watching playing out, you know,

like almost a voyeurism or almost like a documentary kind of feel. And it wasn't just in the storytelling. Like I said, it also looked visually like that too. So this one, I think that added to the goosebumps and the heart racing because you're just like, I'm in there with them, you know?

You're just like kind of nervous with them. You feel the tension with them. So they did a really good job of doing that. So I feel like, Oh, like they had to like kind of rush some episodes and just get some stuff out there. Cause they've been planning this one for a long time.

Yeah. They saved us some money to get this going. I mean, it looked fantastic. It is. And what I'm saying is this is a good show. And I keep on saying when we do a season finale, it's getting better. And that's why, It's a fun show because it just continues to get better.

It starts out as a silly mid, as the kids say, TV show.

Yeah.

And then all of a sudden you're like, what?

Yes. Yeah.

And then they do what really takes it to the next level, because it's sort of a Chekhov's gun. You have this station that is stationed outside of a wormhole. You have this unknown thing outside the wormhole. You have these war criminals that have just stopped... an occupation of a planet. And you're like, well, often after a war,

another thing happens. So you're already expecting something from the get-go. But you have no idea what it's going to be because you have to develop the story. And so in my opinion, re-watching, you're like, oh, there's always going to be a war. And

Now we're just going to see what happens and see the sort of side stories that happen and things of that nature. And I'm excited for you and I feel a lot of pressure to make sure that I'm providing some good practice in these episodes to talk about the things that go on in war.

Cause that's what I think is nice about our show.

And something I want to leave here, maybe that we can explore more in the upcoming season, a theme maybe because we haven't really explored this yet. But I think it's time to bring it up because you said this thing has been being set up from the beginning, right?

It's the station right at a wormhole that connects two different areas together, right? And the context, right, of where we are, August 2025, Trump's second presidency in the U.S., and you have these masked deportations, detaining people, and this right-wing fear of immigrants and this general liberal conservative fear and fear-mongering that essentially is xenophobia.

Both are playing into this. So why I bring that up is I'm not saying it's in the text, but because of where we are, I think there's a way to also analyze this. It's like, hey, this is also, you know, it's been set up as like a border patrol from the beginning, right?

It's like this border patrol station. And ultimately the show is also has been about this fear of who's going to cross over that border, right? This fear of quote unquote illegal immigrants, right? So it's like, in a way, the Dominion is like this American fear of,

really across both parties, but the right just take it even further than the liberals. But yeah, it is also, you can see it that way, right? I mean, literally it is, right? It is a show about like, you know, if we think of the Federation and Starfleet as cops, it's just cops at a border.

And the whole conflict is about who's coming over the border. And the whole thing was setting up like, oh, we should fear what's on the other side. There is a analysis we can make that this is an allegory. I'm not saying it's in the text,

but you can read it that way as an allegory about xenophobia or just like unconscious xenophobia of like the writers. We're doing a space show about Star Trek. Usually it's explorers. So the explorers are like technically like these quote unquote illegal invaders, immigrants, whatever, going to other places and observing them entering their land.

But this one, it's flipped. Now it's the other side. How do we feel if others come towards us? What is our own xenophobia? So it's a flip on that. So the season is ending, but I'm bringing it up now because it's been kind of setting this up from the beginning, like you said.

But it's not something we've ever talked about. So I'm just leaving that there now as a teaser for for some of the discussions and analysis we could have going into the future because there is a lot to say also about immigration because this is really a story

about borders and the fear of the unknown on who's on the other side of the border and how do we control who comes across, who gets to go which direction because we did talk about how Prior to Dominion coming over, it was the Federation and Starfleet going over to the other side, too, first.

So there's a lot to discuss. I think there's a lot to discuss where it'll be uncharted territory, as it were, because we might be the first ones talking about this, having this read of DS9. So let's leave that there so people can anticipate that when we come back for season six.

So with that said, Scott, can you tell us a little bit about the next season? I know you already said it's going to be a banger.

Some people are going to get traumatized. War is going to happen. There is going to be some romance. There's going to be death. Oh, there's going to be life. There's going to be some new lore brought in. And there's going to be an incredibly problematic episode that we're not going to do alone.

Imagine a seven parter, theoretically, of course. That would be new, right? We've never had that yet. I don't know how well they accomplished that because I've only seen how well they do two parters. And sometimes they don't always land the second part of a two parter. But if it's like more than two parts,

if it's three or four or more, I have no experience with that yet. So I'm looking forward to all of that.

There's going to be some things. That's all I'm going to say.

All right. As always, Scott, this was fun to watch this season with you. Until season six, we'll catch you all next time. Peace.