Being a fan of Star Trek from a young age, I remember sitting up late with my dad as a young fella watching Kirk and Spock doing their thing and being awe struck by the special effects and story lines I thought were incredibly clever, I was definitely less then 10 years old and it was the early eighties, not long before The Next Generation and then DS9 starting.

When DS9 started, I was completely hooked on The Next Generation and for the first 2 seasons of DS9, I have to admit, I was a little let down, but still a trekkie through and through, I stuck with it and the writers and around the end of season 3-beginning of 4, they had a massive brain child that completely changed the feel of the series, to which they even changed their uniforms, although this coincided with the best star trek movie ever, First Contact. The writers managed to get Michael Dorn (Worf), easily my favourite character (not that you couldn't tell by my username) to join the cast as the Next Generation had finished, and even bigger then that, they introduced the Dominion, in a big way into the series.

If you thought the Borg were a force to be rekoned with, the Dominion were formidable and these last 3 seasons focus mainly on a war with the Dominion.

Personally i think there should be a Star Trek spin off involving the Borg trying to assimilate the Dominion, one can only hope and dream!!!

This small station being the gateway and therefore protectors of earth and the entire federation and even other non federation members, e.g. Klingon, Romulans, Farengi and of course, Bajor.

This impending doom of the Dominion coming through the wormhole (the conduit that connects the Alpha and Gamma quadrants) really raised the tension levels as the federation are clearly no match for the Dominion, and the Dominion know this, they have spies with in the Federation and other empires in the alpha quadrant.

In this season we see the added bonus of the Cardassians slowly go from being empowered again by joining the Dominion, to realising that you really should be careful for what you wish for, as the Dominion only appear to give the cardassians power and infact percieve the Cardassians as allies about as much as the federation. Finally, a revolution begins on Cardassia to free Cardassia and the default leader of the cardassian empire, Legat Demar, whom I had loathed for the previous 6 seasons as a drunken racist pig of a man, all of a sudden, becomes a hero and a martyr for his planet, 'For Cardassia' he screams running into battle the gentically engineered Dominion soldiers, the Jem'hadar, absolutely brilliant.

There are obvious references throughout this season to the holocaust, to the freedom fighters and underground and even to ceasar and shakespeare, as well as a slew of others.

Added to this, we have the espionage, the terrorists, the ever righteuos federation, who sometimes, in war, bend their own morales and even the Prime directive (the set of rules which govern all actions of the federation), we have the usual drama of the interpersonal relationships of the station, the real new gem being the relationship between Worf and the new host of the Dax symbioant, whom he was previously married to, that is, the symbioant carries the memories of his deceased wife Jadzia Dax, this is now Ezri Dax. We have the usual Quark antics and the introduction of another new regular, an annoying hologram called Vic Fontaine, who sings 1960's style vegas/sinatra type music. Far too much time was spent on this when there was a lot of other story that could have been told.

The Actors:

The clear favourite for me is always Worf, Michael Dorn is the template of all Klingons and what a race of people they are, I was fortunate enough to meet Michael dorn at Milton Keynes shopping centre, very nice gentleman.

The other notable characters for this season, have to Garak, played by Andrew Robinson, we finally find out everything about Garak and his past in the obsidian order (sort of CIA, but even more secretive and ruthless in their methods) Garaks character gets more opportunity to do what he does best, instead of just his usual witty repartee and quips.

Also I feel Damar needs a special mention, played by Casey biggs, again for his role in this season, I really think he played the role of a womanising Alcoholic leader hell bent on destroying himself, as much as his enemies, to waking up and realising that his world and culture was going to be inevitably wiped out and realised that his self loathing and path of self destruction, was irrelevant in the big scheme of things as now he has a real purpose and a real enemy. Although I do miss the drunken sarcastic remarks to weyoun, he is now all noble, professional and selfless with one agenda only and determined to complete the objective, even if it means working along side, and divulging highly classified security Knowledge with an ex-bajoran terrorist. The character was incredibly well written and ditto for the acting.

One other worthy mention of another recurring character was that of General Martok, J.g.Hertzler was brilliant and almost equals Michael Dorn as a Klingon. Again another well written character and just as well acted.

In all honesty, I could go through each character individually but if you are watching Season 7, you already know the characters intimately and if you haven't seen the previous six seasons, you either shouldn't be reading this or you should be going online to buy them, they are totally worth it.

I really enjoyed the way the series was tied off as well. With some t.v. series, you are left wondering what happens next, and there is a bit of that, although I think it is more, I want more, rather then there actually being more story to tell. It was a huge, story, seven years worth, and mostly worth every minute s worth and each characters conclusion I think in the very least, reaches a satisfactory conclusion.

A couple of criticisms for this season, the first being Vic Fontaine, previously mentioned already. I felt the actual ending itself was too quick. They easily could have wrapped things up a bit better with a little more detail had they just got rid of the Vic Fontaine screen time. It seemed as though the final battle is fought, then there is a sort of montage and everyone having a drink, with Vic of course, and then finished.

Otherwise, you don't need me to tell you, if you like Star Trek, if you like Deep Space Nine, this is the best season and thoroughly enjoyable.

Biggest criticism is that it ended, I wanted more, still do!

Thanks for reading and K'Plah