The Adversary
- FIRST SHOWN (US)
- 19 June 1995
- ON
- First-run syndication
- STARDATE
- 48962.5
- DIRECTED BY
- Alexander Singer
- PRODUCTION NO.
- 472
WRITTEN BYWritten by Ira Steven Behr & Robert Hewitt Wolfe
Newly promoted, Captain Sisko takes the Defiant on a diplomatic mission to the Tzenkethi border, but sabotage soon suggests an enemy is hiding among the crew.
Red alert: the full plot, ending included. Haven't watched yet?REVEAL SYNOPSIS
Sisko is promoted to captain, and Ambassador Krajensky asks him to take the Defiant to the Tzenkethi border after a coup there. Soon the ship is sabotaged, and the crew discover that Krajensky is a Changeling, who escapes and takes control of the Defiant's systems to push the Federation into war. Knowing the shapeshifter could be anyone, Sisko orders blood tests. Eddington appears to be the impostor, but the Changeling, disguised as Bashir, had faked the results and slips away again. With the ship heading for an attack, Sisko sets the self-destruct while O'Brien fights to regain control. In engineering, Odo confronts the Changeling and kills it, becoming the first of his kind to harm another. O'Brien restores control and Sisko cancels the self-destruct. Back on the station, the crew learn that the real Krajensky was replaced long before and the coup never happened. The Changeling's dying warning haunts Odo: the Founders are everywhere.
- 01Odo's killing of the Changeling breaks the rule that no Changeling has ever harmed another. The consequences arrive in the season four finale, “Broken Link”.
- 02The producers first planned a finale about Changelings infiltrating Earth. The idea became the season four two-parter “Homefront” and “Paradise Lost”.
- 03The Tzenkethi are mentioned for the first time here, but never appear on screen.