STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE. Tonight at 8, WPIX/Ch. 11. 3 Stars Along the way on its seven-year TV voyage, the syndicated "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" has logged several firsts in the "Star Trek" universe (first wedding among major characters, first female-to-female kiss). Tonight's two-hour finale (at 8, Ch. 11) offers a few other firsts, not the least of which is the finality of its farewell. The original "Star Trek," yanked by NBC after three seasons in the '60s, had no goodbye episode yet, thanks to syndicated repeats, built enough of a following to spawn both a series of theatrical films and a successful syndicated spinoff, "Star Trek: The Next Generation.
" When it came time for that latter series to retire, it merely moved to the big screen and picked up where the "Star Trek" films had left off. Meanwhile, "Star Trek: Voyager," another series spinoff, was used to launch UPN in 1993, and is still on the air. That means tonight's "Deep Space Nine" is the first entry in the entire "Star Trek" franchise to say goodbye and mean it. This episode, which contains an all-out war between the Federation good guys and an alliance of evil forces, gets the opportunity to throw all its characters in harm's way, and make the danger as real as possible. In other words, in this finale, some of the heroes can, and do, die adding other significant footnotes to "Star Trek" lore. The episode gives some of the best scenes to Nana Visitor as Kira Nerys and Rene Auberjonois as Odo, with Avery Brooks as Sisko finally fulfilling his long-prophesized destiny. Special effects during the extensive battle sequences, with fleets of starships attacking each other in outer space, are unprecedentedly complex for "Star Trek.
" Before it's over, each main character is given some sense of closure (some more final than others). Fans of the show should enjoy a similar sense of closure, and say goodbye to a series whose demise was understandable and unavoidable. For though "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" lived long, it never really prospered.
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