The Changing Face of Evil


"The Changing Face of Evil" is the 170th episode of the television series . It aired on syndicated television in 1999. This focuses on the events of the Dominion war saga, a plot arc which figured prominently in this science fiction show.

Plot

and Ezri return to the station and the Breen attack Earth. Starfleet Headquarters in San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge are damaged in the attack.
Solbor reluctantly brings Winn the book of the Kosst Amojan but to her surprise, the pages of the book are blank. It isn't until Winn kills Solbor, after he finds out about the plan to release the Pah-Wraiths, that his blood makes the text visible.
In the Second Battle of Chin'toka against the Breen, Cardassians and Jem'Hadar, the Federation alliance suffers one of its worst defeats of the war, in orbit of Chin'toka. The USS Defiant is among the many ships destroyed by a new weapon unleashed by the Breen - an energy-damping beam that renders weapons and drive systems powerless. Many escape pods eject from the Defiant and other ships as the Dominion forces retake Chin'toka. Weyoun wishes to destroy the pods but the Female Changeling allows them to be rescued, reasoning that the survivors' reports will have a demoralizing effect on their comrades.
What could have been a Dominion juggernaut is halted when DS9 intercepts a message from within Cardassian boundaries. It is Damar, who announces that Cardassia will revolt against the Dominion and initiates this action by destroying one of the Vorta cloning facilities - the one responsible for cloning Weyoun. While this would buy valuable time for the Federation alliance to regroup, Sisko realizes that they would have to contact Damar to achieve final victory.

Reception

This episode is noted for including the fictional Star Trek spaceship, the Nebula class, which appears to be similar to the Galaxy-class but has a different configuration. The Nebula class design was previously featured in special sequences on this television show in the episode "Emissary".
In 2016, The Washington Post called the Dominion War story possibly the "richest narrative" of the Star Trek universe.
This episode has been reviewed as one of a seven episode story arc starting with itself, "The Changing Face of Evil" and concluding with the last episode of Star Trek:Deep Space Nine:
In 2018, CBR ranked these seven episodes as the #1 episodic saga of Star Trek.
In 2017, Comic Book Resources ranked Kai Winn and Bajoran Dukat, the seventh best romantic relationship of the Star Trek franchise.