The second episode manages to keep up the pace, further the story of political strife for the season. "The Circle" remains one of the best pieces of Star Trek lore ever written. It's got fantastic dialogue and truly great cinematography, something not usually seen in Star Trek's TV incarnations.
The Siege breaks the streak of great episodes, which was going on for quite a while dating back to last season. It's not that it's a bad episode, it just doesn't live up to the past few episodes. Also it wraps up just a bit too nicely in the end. This story line could have benefited from being extended out another episode or two.
The next episode was just terrible, and it makes absolutely no sense within the characteristics we have some to know of the main protagonists of the show. It's just plain bad.
Julian Bashir begins to shine with the episode "Cardassians." His interactions with Garack are truly outstanding, and the political scheming going on it enough to placate the biggest of political junkies. It's a gem in a patch of turds to be honest, the next episode goes back to the 'blah' that the last few were.
This is one of the worst episodes of the entire series. Melora basically makes fun of cripples, and provides us with a bunch of things that just flat out don't make sense withing what a space travel show should be about. I wish I would have skipped this one all together it was so bad. This along with the next episode "Rules of Acquisition" are nothing more than fillers, and it shows.
"Necessary Evil" is another superb showing, one of the episodes that makes a person want to keep watching despite the majority of the issues the rest of season two has had so far. "Second Sight" the next episode is slightly better, but once again not a great episode. It does however get the season moving back into the right direction though.
The next three episodes are all slightly above average at best, but at least none of them moved on back into bad situations, nor did they present issues that make the viewer question the actions of the characters involved.
"Armageddon Game" while again another filler episode allows us greater access into the character of Mules O'Brien and Dr. Julien Bashir and how they are able to work together despite their differences.
"Whispers" is another O'Brien episode, and a fine one at that. It's one of the best episodes of the season so far, and holds onto that title as the rest of the season unfolds. It's a slight take on Bladerunner, which is a great movie, yet it's entirely unique. It's a wonderful episode top to bottom.
As is a trend though, the next four episodes take a step or two back from "Whispers." It's not entirely a bad thing, but it is a slight bit disappointing. Minus the penultimate episode the rest of the season is very good. That's a run of seven of eight, and really saves the season from being a disappointment.
Starting with "Blood Oath" which is a great episode to learn a bit more about both Klingons and Dax. We get to see Terry Farrell give a great performance and a lot of exposition on how the symbiote process works. In the next two-part episode we learned all about the Maquis, who would go on to play a huge part in the spin-off series Voyager.
"Crossover" while technically a filler episode is the series' 'mirror world' showing, and it stands up to the other series showing, and let's be honest here, Nana Visitor is fantastic playing her mirror self. After yet another politically charged episode in "The Collaborator" we move on to the second to last show, which is a fine episode on it's own, but has no business being this late in a season.
The final episode of the season is part of a 3-part arc that starts to set up the Dominion War that will dominate the next few seasons of the show. It's a fantastic performance from all involved. I can't wait to see how this wraps itself up in the season three premiere.
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