Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 2.25

Tribunal

Miles and Keiko O'Brien leave Deep Space Nine in a runabout. They are planning to enjoy some time off when the runabout is boarded by Cardassians. Keiko is returned to the space station but Chief O'Brien is taken to Cardassia Prime and put on trial. 

Commander Sisko is contacted to let him know what is going on. It is explained that Chief O'Brien has already been found guilty. The trial is merely for the purposes of public display. Once it is over Chief O'Brien will be put to death.

Odo, volunteers to act as counsel to Chief O'Brien. Makbar, the judge, reluctantly agrees to allow Odo to be present. Keiko is also allowed to be at the trial but no one else from Deep Space Nine is permitted to be present for the proceedings.

Doctor Bashir, Jadzia Dax, and Major Kira work together to piece together what it is exactly that might have precipitated the arrest of O'Brien. They discover that a couple dozen photon warheads are missing and it looks like they were taken by Chief O'Brien. They dig a little deeper and discover that someone who looks very much like Raymond Boone, an old acquaintance of Chief O'Brien who crossed paths with him just before he left on vacation, is responsible for the theft.

The trial begins. The Cardassians, including Kovat, Chief O'Brien's lawyer, hope that he will confess because it will look better. He refuses to play along. Odo does what he can to try and get the court to consider new evidence but it isn't until Commander Sisko shows up with the man who looks very much like Raymond Boone in tow, that the court decides to reconsider the verdict and releases Chief O'Brien.

Thoughts

This is good but not great. They wrapped it all up a little too quickly to satisfy me. Maybe if I felt that the story was a little more nuanced or the performances were a little more powerful then I might consider this to be an upper tier episode. The most interesting thing here for me was the opportunity to see Cardassian jurisprudence at work. My biggest problem might have been that I didn't feel like there were any real stakes. I knew that they weren't going to kill off Chief O'Brien.

Notes

This is the ninth of 19 episodes of this show in which Keiko O'Brien appeared. Jake and Quark were not in this episode.

Caroline Lagerfelt played the part of Makbar. This is the only episode of this show in which she appeared.

John Beck played the part of Raymond Boone. This is the only episode of this show in which he appeared. He appeared in one episode of Tales of the Unexpected.

Richard Poe played the part of Gul Evek. This is the third of three appearances he made in this show. He was last seen on this show in 2.20 The Maquis, Part 1.

Fritz Weaver played the part of Kovat. This is the only episode of this show in which he appeared. He appeared in two episodes of The Twilight Zone (1959), the first of which was 1.14 Third from the Sun. He appeared in one episode each of of The Invaders and Tales of the Unexpected. He has been in a few movies I have seen but none that I have seen recently.

This episode was written by Bill Dial. It is the second of two episodes of this show that he wrote. The first was 2.12 The Alternate. He also wrote one episode of Voyager.

This episode was directed by Avery Brooks. It is the first of nine episodes of this show that he directed.