Progress DS9: 1 - 14

Synopsis

Another split episode with two storylines progressing at the same time.

In the primary narrative, Major Kira is asked to evacuate one of Bajor's moons to make way for a power extracting procedure that will render the surface uninhabitable.  Unfortunately, there are some residents who refuse to leave and Kira beams down to relocate them.

One of these residents in particular, an elderly Bajoran named Mullibok who has lived there 40 years after escaping from the Cardassians, is adamant that he will not leave his home.  Kira stays behind to persuade him.

 In their ensuing conversations, she begins to learn of and appreciate his way of life and the motivations that drove him to this remote refuge, motivations that continue to be part of all Bajorans in the wake of Cardassian occupation.  And yet she also is aware of the danger he represents.  Kira admits to him that to defeat the Cardassians, the Bajoran resistance had to "hang on like fanatics" a phrase that pleases Mullibok because that is his own intention.

Charmed by his determination and fearful to become another Cardassian oppressor, Kira returns to DS9 to plead with the Bajoran government representative.

Bureaucrat: "I wish we had the time to be more delicate, but we don't."

Kira: "So instead we'll act like Cardassians..."

Threatened with being replaced, Kira returns with two Bajoran relocators, but the residents react violently, and Mullibok is hit by phaser fire in the struggle.  Dr. Bashir stabilizes him and Kira again remains behind to tend to him.  In their ensuing conversations, Kira tells Mullibok a story from her childhood about a tree.

Kira:  It was the ugliest, most gnarled and battered old tree I'd ever seen.  Even the birds stayed away from it.
Mullibok: ...but you loved it.
Kira: I hated it.  Because it had grown so huge its branches blocked out the sun for kellipates (miles).  And its roots buried themselves so deep in the soil that nothing else could grow there.  It was a big, selfish, annoying...
Mullibok: nasty...
Kira: ...nasty! nasty old tree.

Bashir reports back to Sisko on the station and he, concerned that Kira might be jeopardizing her career, travels to the moon himself.  It is this conversation that is at the heart of the story, a story that is less and less about the stubborn Mullibok, and becoming more and more about Major Kira.

Sisko: You have a job to do here Major and you're not doing it.
Kira: It's not that simple.
Sisko: I'm not saying it's simple, I'm saying it can't wait.

After a night of growing respect, Major Kira helps Mullibok complete the construction of a kiln but, in the face of Mullibok's intractability, then destroys it with her phaser before setting fire to the cottage.  Kira then beams him off the surface, leaving it free for the energy transfer project to proceed.

Self-sealing Stem Bolts

The second narrative again follows the exploits of Nog and Jake as they attempt to parlay an excess shipment of Cardassian yamok sauce into some kind of profit.  After trading the yamok sauce for self-sealing stem bolts, they trade the stem bolts for land on Bajor's surface.  Nog is unhappy because, living all his life in space, he doesn't understand the value of land, but Jake talks him into it.

Later, Jake and Nog learn that an important development project by the Bajoran government needs their land to get underway, and in triumph Nog sells the land to Quark who is prepared to drive a hard bargain with the government.land agents.

Analysis

Initially, this feels like a light-hearted episode, as the last one was.  But the metaphor inherent in the narrative soon becomes obvious.  Much more than the simple plot is happening in this episode, and it becomes a fulcrum about which the whole narrative of the first season turns.

In a classic TNG story, we visit a world for a single episode, learn of its conflict, which we develop and resolve in about 40 minutes.  Unfortunately these constraints often limit us to simplistic and incomplete resolutions, with the audience left to work out the ramifications on their own.  But the storytelling platform of DS9 is different, not quite as transitory.  It is only on Bajor that we can stay and experience the planet's recovery; only here that we can fully understand the implications of the Federation's actions.

Ironically, It is one of the strengths of being based on a space station rather than a starship.  The captain can't just fly away at the end of the episode and leave the hard work of recovery to the remaining residents.  Sisko wants to make Mullibok's story a starship story; to do the job and leave this little moon. As Kira states, "It's not that simple." 

This is the first turning point of this season.  Simplistic solutions like that of the previous episode, Storyteller will be contrasted with a longer and closer examination of the Bajor reconstruction.

The most interesting thing happening in the DS9 narrative at this moment is the recently concluded conflict between the Bajorans and Cardassians, told primarily from the perspective of the survivors.  Not all survivors were warriors and resistance fighters like Kira.  Others were Cardassian prisoners who were broken by the occupation, and still others fled from the conflict, seeking peace on a remote moon.  This story allows us to see recent history from their perspective.

It also gives Kira her first struggle with wielding power.  The use of power, even legitimate power, can be problematic.  And this conflict does not supply us with easy answers.  Both Nana Visitor and Brian Keith are electrifying and charismatic, they are a perfect match.  Keith had the harder job, making a curmudgeonly character so likeable that the audience sympathizes with him.

This story gives a great opportunity to learn more about Kira Nerys, a character who is quickly taking over the show.  the difference between this episode and the one before it, also a split episode, is clearly evident in the quality of the writing.  While the writers couldn't take O'Brien or Bashir serously, Kira and Sisko are given serious treatment.

Sisko:  You have to understand something Major: You're on the other side, now   
           Pretty uncomfortable, isn't it. 
Kira:  It's horrible...

While Kira is still the main focus of this story, I believe that Sisko reaches a major turning point at this moment.  Until now, Sisko has been an authoritarian leader, pushing people around, as he did with Julian earlier in this episode. In this scene with Kira, he is finally able to strike the right tone, to find a middle ground between concession and direct order.  To work with Kira, rather than against her.  This is the moment when he begins to see Kira as a friend and a fellow team mate rather than a subordinate. And to approach problems more as a local leader and less as a starship captain.

This is also the moment when Kira begins to accept her role as a leader who has to make hard decisions rather than as an agitator and a rebel who can rail against the monsters and burn everything to the ground.  At this moment, Kira is Bajor.  She wants to embrace all of Bajor's children and bring them back to the fold and erase the last fifty years of history.  As Kira herself says, "It's not that simple."

When Kira tells the story about the old tree she is using a double metaphor. The obvious reference is to Mullibok himself, a nasty old man standing in the way of progress.  But even as she is clearly talking about Mullibok, she realizes that she is also talking about the bitterness of the Bajorans. It is hard not to think of WB Yeats poem "The Two Trees" as the writer's reference for this. This tree has grown up in the heart of the Bajoran culture, one of defensiveness and isolation.  And this bitter tree is blocking out the sun of their culture, preventing anything from growing.  She doesn't know if the civilization on Bajor can ever flourish again without cutting it down, or if the tree "had a lot of character" and was worth preserving as part of the culture.

When Kira sets the cottage on fire, she is letting go of the Old Bajor that Mullibok represents.  He moved there 40 years ago, about 10 years into the Cardassian occupation, and built this refuge stone by stone, just as Bajorans have built up their bitterness and anger over the years.  They have become used to their unhappiness and are hesitant to give it up.  Not ready to say that this tough life they have built for themselves should give way to something better for everyone.

 In order for this new Bajor to thrive, it must let go of the old hatred, their old bitterness;  not just at the Cardassians but at the Federation who refused to intervene, at the universe which doomed them to this arbitrary fate.  And this is the choice that is ultimately brought before Kira.  This is the question the story must answer.

Battle Lines DS9: 1-12

"Away from here...  To live one life, to die in peace.  To us this is an ancient prayer that has never been answered."  

Synopsis

Kai Opaka, the Bajoran spiritual leader appears unexpectedly on DS9 and asks to be taken on a visit through the wormhole to the Gamma quadrant.  On the far side, the runabout picks up an unexplained transmission.  The Kai expresses an interest in investigating and against his better judgement Sisko agrees.   The crew traces the signal back to a moon that is protected by a network of satellites.  One of them fires on and disables the Rio Grande and the runabout crashes on the surface.

In the crash, Kai Opaka is killed.  As Mjr. Kira morns the loss of her mentor and hero, the crew is approached by the bedraggled residents of the planet, a group permanently at war with a similar group in a conflict that has lasted for decades. Learning that the residents don't control the satellites, Sisko initially surmises that they are on  penal colony. During the introduction, the equally ill-equipped opposing force attacks and kills several of the band, although Kira is instrumental in driving off the attackers.


In the aftermath of the attack, Opaka comes into the cave, in apparent good health, despite having been
declared dead by the doctor 20 minutes before.  Soon, other fighters killed in the attack begin to show signs of life and Julian surmises that artificial microbes of some kind are returning the prisoners and Kai Opaka to life after they are killed.  It is apparent, however, that this continual regeneration has become more of a curse than a blessing, dooming the residents to perpetual war, fighting and dying without progress being made on either side.  Like the warriors of Valhalla, they fight all day and then resurrect the next morning to do it all over again.

In several instances Opaka reaches out to make connections with members of the DS9 staff.  Initially she gives O'Brien her necklace, intending it for his daughter.  She also has words for Sisko and makes a more emotional connection with Kira, for whom she has always been an inspiration.  She urges Kira to let go of her life of violence, an attitude she has adopted during the Bajoran war for independence against the Cardassians.

Sisko is expecting a rescue from DS9 and offers to remove the inmates from this prison if only both sides will declare a truce and agree to cooperate.  Peace talks are arranged but it becomes apparent that neither side is willing to make peace with the other.  With help from the ship's computer, Dr. Bashir determines that the microbes that regenerate the fallen warriors can only operate on this planet, and those dependent on the microbes will die if they attempt to leave.  This includes Kai Opaka.



Searching for Sisko's missing runabout, Chief O'Brien and Dax locate the moon with the satellite sentries.  O'Brien is able to avoid their attacks and engineers a solution to communicate with the surface, and beam out the stranded team. Unaware of her situation, Opaka declares her intention to stay with the warring prisoners on the moon and perhaps bring peace to this unhappy situation.  She feels that prophecy has led her to this moment in time, and it is her destiny to help.  Lacking any other alternative, the DS9 crew are beamed away by O'Brien, leaving the Kai alive but trapped on the far side of the wormhole. 

"Prophecy can often be vague, Commander.  That's why we must test it."  Kai Opaka

Roses

This episode had both high and low points.  The Kai Opaka was a majestic figure and we could certainly believe that she was both the spiritual leader of the oppressed Bajoran people and the person inspiration of a fighter like Major Kira.  Her ultimate fate as a permanent resident on the far side of the wormhole from Bajor is an interesting choice for the storytelling of the series.

On one hand, it does make the Kai more or less immortal, being sustained by the microbes of the orbiting satellites.  But only if she stays on that world.  In a very real sense, Opaka has adopted white martyrdom made famous by Irish missionaries in the 8th century.  Their sacrifice was not to be killed for their faith, but to renounce their homelands in Ireland, never to return.  This is the very sacrifice that Opaka is making.

On the other hand, this development removes her from Bajor and potentially lessens any direct influence she might have in negotiating a peace.  This leaves the way clear for Sisko and Kira to take on the larger roles that Opaka hinted at for each of them.  At this stage in Ben Sisko's hero's journey, Opaka would be required to die (like Obi-wan or Dumbledore).  Instead, the story gets to retain a powerful and well conceived figure while freeing Ben and Kira from her influence at the appropriate time for them to develop further.  Opaka experiences both a literal and figurative death, but remains a figure to play some part in the future.

One of the gaps in storytelling from DS9 so far is that we lack any motivation or connection to the Gamma quadrant.  Yes, many cultures are interested in travel across the wormhole, but the DS9 team itself is not.  They don't have any reason to explore the Gamma quadrant.  That doesn't seem to be their job for the Federation at all.  Others will do the exploring while they wait and keep the home fires burning.

So they are perched on the edge of this vast unknown, but have no reason to travel there and must wait for the stories to come to them.  This episode, however, begins to establish ties to the Gamma quadrant.  By remaining in the Gamma quadrant, Opaka could become a pilgrimage destination for the spiritually faithful Bajorans, giving them a reason to travel to the other side.

Kira got her own chance at character building from the writers here.  In a comic moment right at the beginning of the episode, a discovered list of Bajoran activists lists Kira as a minor functionary, a designation which offends the major.  In her mind, she was a major player in the Bajoran resistance, part of how she frames her identity.  Later, the Kai asks her to compare her own understanding of the war to the warped perspective of those on the prison world.  While Kira initially rejects the comparison, she comes to understand that she, and many Bajorans like her, have some of these same attitudes. 

Thorns

On the downside, however, Benjamin Sisko continues to be an ass and a bully to his own people.  In one particular scene, Dr Bashir makes a very mild comment and Sisko launches into a tirade about the prime directive and that people had suffered enough.  In that scene Ben comes across as very insecure, as a leader.  Who was he trying to convince, Bashir or himself?  I could have felt the attitude was justified if he was responding to a challenge from Dax or Kira, but poor Julian was so innocuous that Ben's response just seemed disproportional and inappropriate.  Looking back over the past 10 episodes, I can't find a reason why Julian has become Ben's whipping boy.

I think it is part of a larger problem with Ben Sisko's character.  What does he bring to the command?  In this episode, as in many others, he has no major contribution to make, either in terms of expertise or critical decisions.  I believe that Ben is supposed to be the audience's point of identification, and such a role is often a passive one, as an observer letting the interesting elements of the scene scroll past him and reacting to them as the audience would, mirroring their responses.  But taken too far, the observer is in danger of being wholly extraneous to the scene as it unfolds, so busy watching and reacting that they fail to take part.  And when the writers want Ben to assert his own identity, it comes across as too much, too extreme.