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The fleet assembles. 
Weyoun shuffles of this mortal coil. 
Cardassia in ruins. 
The Emissary makes his move. 
Kira and Odo say “good-bye”.
This is it. We’ve made it to the series finale of Star Trek: Deep Space 9. It’s taken almost two and a half years, but we have finally made it to “What You Leave Behind”.
“What You Leave Behind” has an enormous amount on the agenda. The Dominion War needs to end, characters need to close out their stories, and a penance must be paid to the Prophets. Closing out a series is never easy, but it’s a world of difference from closing out something like The Next Generation and ending something like Deep Space 9. While TNG remained compact and focused during its entire run, DS9 sprawled in ways that labyrinthine. A multitude of characters were introduced that intertwined with the main cast as a story of galactic war took hold of the series. Ending such a jumbled mess of story lines would certainly not be easy.
So how did the show manage its own end? It’s a fascinating mixed bag of both wild successes and head-scratching lows. It could be argued that the series ended as the final arc before it deserved: with some excellent plot lines smashing into plot lines that likely should have been left on the cutting room floor. But for any failures that certain plot lines had, it is undeniable that the show succeeded in some of the ways that matter most. The finale is an episode of television that sits in the heart, not the head.
In this podcast, Wes and Clay discuss how DS9 closed out its seven year run. They analyze the plots that our characters rode to the finish line. They detail the ways that DS9 and TNG both ended. And finally, they talk about how the finale worked in both their heads and their hearts.
Thanks so much for listening to our coverage of Deep Space 9! It’s been a terrific undertaking and it wouldn’t have been possible without our listener and supporters. You guys are great!
See you in the next series (whatever it may be)!