"Starship Down" | |
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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode | |
Episode no. | Season 4 Episode 7 |
Directed by | Alexander Singer |
Written by |
David Mack John J. Ordover |
Featured music | Jay Chattaway |
Production code | 479 |
Original air date | November 6, 1995 |
Guest appearance(s) | |
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"Starship Down" is the 79th episode of the science fiction television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the seventh episode of the fourth season.
A badly damaged starship Defiant must battle Jem'Hadar fighters in the atmosphere of a gas giant while Quark tries to smooth out trade relations with the angry and offended Karemma representative.
The title is a reference to the 1978 submarine disaster movie "Grey Lady Down".
The Federation starship Defiant carries the senior staff of Deep Space Nine into the Gamma Quadrant to settle trade arrangements with the Karemma representative, Hanok. As the Dominion disapproves of trading with the Alpha Quadrant, the talks take place secretly in orbit around a gas giant. The Karemma are upset over the expense of doing business with the Alpha Quadrant, especially regarding all the tariffs that the Federation's trade representative, Quark, said must be imposed. They are further angered when the now upset Captain Sisko informs them that they've been cheated: the "tariffs" were means Quark used to line his pockets with extra profit.
The negotiations are interrupted when a pair of Jem'Hadar ships burst in and fire on the Karemma ship. The Jem'Hadar chase the ship into the atmosphere of the gas giant, and the Defiant takes off in pursuit. The Jem'Hadar open fire on the Defiant, crippling it in the turbulent fluorine atmosphere of the planet.
Science Officer Jadzia Dax heads below to try to help patch up the engines so the ship can escape the planet's atmosphere. She is successful but is nearly blown out of the ship when the hull is breached. To save the rest of the ship, Dr. Bashir is forced to seal off the breached area with Dax still inside, but he seals himself in the breached section so he can help her. They remain trapped in a turbolift with a diminishing supply of oxygen and without communication with the bridge, where the rest of the crew presume them lost.