"Star Trek: Deep Space Nine"
Homefront (1996)

Director:

David Livingston

Writers:

Gene Roddenberry (creator: "Star Trek")
Rick Berman (creator) ...

TV Series:

"Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (1993)

Original Air Date:

1 January 1996 (Season 4, Episode 10)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Plot:

Sisko travels to Earth when a bombing at a Federation conference is determined to be the work of Changelings.

Plot Keywords:

Culture Clash | Engineer | Writer | Novel | Operation

Cast

Avery Brooks	...	Captain Sisko
Rene Auberjonois	...	Odo
Michael Dorn	...	Lt. Commander Worf
Terry Farrell	...	Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax
Cirroc Lofton	...	Jake Sisko
Colm Meaney	...	Chief O'Brien
Armin Shimerman	...	Quark
Alexander Siddig	...	Doctor Bashir
Nana Visitor	...	Major Kira
Robert Foxworth	...	Admiral Leyton
Herschel Sparber	...	President Jaresh-Inyo
Susan Gibney	...	Benteen
Aron Eisenberg	...	Nog
Brock Peters	...	Joseph Sisko
Dylan Chalfy	...	Head Officer

Trivia:

Sisko notes the names of some of the officers whom he served with on the U.S.S. Okinawa: Daneeka, McWatt, Snowden, Orr, and Moodus. All of these are the names of characters in Joseph Heller's book "Catch 22".

The one where Starfleet suffers a case of major paranoia...

'Homefront'

Season four, episode eleven

This claustrophobic episode, and it's sequel 'Paradise Lost', are one of the first inklings in the DS9 series that the mood is going to turn much darker as the show develops, taking it away from the previously conceived idea that life in the twenty-fourth century Trek verse is a perfect utopia. The episode sees Sisko and Odo arriving on Earth where Starfleet Command has asked for their expertise in helping Starfleet Security prepare contingencies to protect Earth as they believe the Founders have have infiltrated the Federation.

Aside from seeing more of Sisko's personal life in the form of meeting his chef father Joseph, what made this episode so good was watching as Federation Earth seemed to crumble as they prepared to face this new threat from within. After nearly four centuries on peace on the planet, I imagine the high levels of paranoia, fear and anxiety as people began to distrust even those close to them is exactly how humans would react despite claims they have moved passed such immature behaviour expected more from a 'barbaric' twenty-first century human. It also has hints, which link to how the Federation would eventually win the war, over why unity is more important than division. After all, the Founders were able to ravage the Alpha Quadrant by dividing up old alliances and casting doubt among various races.