Season 3 of Deep Space Nine marks a turning point for the series, as it introduces the USS Defiant, a powerful starship that allows the crew to explore the Gamma Quadrant and face the threat of the Dominion, a vast and ruthless empire ruled by the shape-shifting Founders.
Stardate: 48213.1. Instead of waiting for the Jem'Hadar to attack, Sisko wants to try a different approach. He wants to take a new class starship to try to find the Founders.
Stardate: 48213.1. Odo has found his home and is introduced. Meanwhile Sisko finds out peace talks between the Dominion and the Federation have already started.
Stardate: Unknown. Quark is forced to marry a Klingon widow after he takes credit for the accidental death of her husband, the head of a powerful Klingon House.
Stardate: Unknown. The Trill homeworld is the setting, as Sisko and Bashir take Jadzia home for treatment when she begins experiencing hallucinations after playing a tune she can't recall.
Stardate: Unknown. Odo tries to change the nature of a Jem'Hadar boy that Quark finds, while Sisko tries to break his son's relationship with a 20 year old Dabo girl.
Stardate: 48423.2. Dax falls in love with one of the residents of a multi-dimensional planet, while on DS9 an alien requests a holosuite program of Kira from Quark.
Stardate: 48467.3. Thomas Riker, impersonating Will Riker, steals the Defiant in order to fight with the Maquis. Sisko assist Gul Dukat on Cardassia Prime in stopping the ship entering Cardassian territory.
Stardate: 48481.2. Sisko, Bashir and Dax are accidentally sent to San Francisco in the 21st century due to a transporter malfunction, and must figure out how to get back without changing the time line.
Stardate: 48498.4. Dr. Bashir must use extraordinary measures to prolong Vedek Bareil's life long enough to allow Bareil to complete sensitive peace negotiations between the Bajorans and the Cardassians.
Stardate: 48521.5. After chasing a fugitive into a cave, Kira gets stuck and is slowly encapsulated by a growing crystal stone while Odo tries to figure out how to free her.
Stardate: 48543.2. Sisko faces a conflict between his Starfleet duties and his role as the Bajoran Emissary when an ancient Bajoran prophecy predicts that a joint Federation-Cardassian project will lead to the destruction of the wormhole.
Stardate: Unknown. Grand Nagus Zek is acting bizarre by giving away money and rewriting the Rules of Acquisition. Quark attempts to get the old Nagus back.
Stardate: Unknown. While a Romulan delegation tries to get information about the Dominion, O'Brien gets visions of unpleasant things that are about to happen in the future.
Stardate: Unknown. After being attacked in the infirmary, Dr. Bashir has a dual mystery on his hands: what has happened to the station while he was out and why is he aging so rapidly now?
Stardate: Unknown. Now rejoined with his former mentor, Garak is ordered to interrogate Odo about the secrets of his people, while the joined Romulan/Cardassian attack fleet moves towards the Founders' home world on a mission of destruction.
Stardate: Unknown. Sisko rebuilds an ancient Bajoran space vessel from the blueprints, and he and Jake take the ship on a trip, attempting to prove that the ancient Bajorans went beyond their solar system without warp drive.
Stardate: Unknown. Quark and Rom return to the Ferengi home world because their mother has broken the law - by wearing clothes and earning profits, forbidden for women in Ferengi society.
Stardate: Unknown. News arrives that Kai Winn has also become Bajor's political leader. She asks Kira to negotiate with an old resistance friend about returning soil reclamators.
Stardate: Unknown. Dax asks the crew to join her Zhian'tara ritual. The memories of her former hosts will take over their bodies. Nog is preparing for Starfleet Academy.
Stardate: 48959.1. The Defiant is off to show the Federation's presence to the new Tzenkethi government. While underway the ship malfunctions and Bashir is suspected of sabotage.