Day 12: DS9, Battle Lines

Show: Star Trek; Deep Space Nine

Episode Particulars: S1EP12, “Battle Lines”

 Summary: Kai Opaka comes to the station, and at her not so subtle hinting, Sisko agrees to take her through the wormhole, with Kira and Bashir tagging along. When they receive a distress signal in the Gamma Quadrant, they go to investigate, only to be shot down and crashland on the surface of a moon, killing Opaka in the process. The survivors learn from Shel-la (Jonathan Banks), one of the inhabitants of this moon, that his people, the Ennis, are constantly at war with the Nol-Ennis (Nol for short). The war’s a little more complicated than it first appears, however; an attack on the Ennis base reveals that there’s something in the atmosphere that resurrects anyone killed on the planet, which includes Kai Opaka. While Bashir tries to puzzle out this medical breakthrough, Sisko attempts to negotiate a cease-fire so that everyone can be safely removed from the surface, which could possibly bring an end to the war. But as always, complications arise.

Standalone Thoughts: This is a pretty good episode, both in terms of plot and character development. Sure, the plot is one we’ve seen countless times before—two sides locked in an eternal war that nobody seems willing to stop—but it’s a decent variation on the form. Shel-la gets a monologue about how one stops caring when one cannot die that nicely sums up one of many issues that come with immortality, and the character in general is a good mix of flawed and sympathetic. And the episode’s ending is bittersweet, but at least offers up a glimmer of hope, which is generally the second best thing to a (earned) happy ending.

Character-wise, we can see that Sisko and Kira still have different ways of viewing the world, and that can lead them to angrily disagree on occasion. There’s a lovely moment where Kira is outlining defensive strategies, ignoring Sisko’s increasingly sharp requests for her to stop, only for her to immediately go quiet when Kai Opaka speaks up. It shows us where her priorities lie, and that those priorities don’t always dovetail with the Federation’s, which means that there will still be conflict down the road. Really, Kira’s generally the overall strongest character so far, so I always appreciate it when she gets a lot to do.

That being said, Kira’s given an emotional breakdown and potential character breakthrough midway through the episode that I think could have been better handled. The material itself is good (if a little cliché), but it kind of comes out of nowhere. This seems like something that should have been saved after the show really gave us a sense of what happened during the Cardassian occupation and Kira’s role in it. As it is, it seems like a bit of an overreaction given what we’ve seen in both the episode and of Kira’s character in general. I understand in part why they did it now, but I think it would have worked better if this episode had been saved for a little later in the season. Once I get through the remaining seven episodes, maybe I can figure out a better placement for it.

Finally, after dedicating several hundred words to complaining about how nobody knows what they’re doing with Bashir, I’m pleased to report that we finally get a glimpse of the Bashir I remember. He’s still a little awkward in non-medical situations, but he’s smart, resourceful, and authoritative when the chips are down. I’m guessing this isn’t going to last, but at least it’s a pleasant reminder that Bashir’s eventually going to find his equilibrium.

How it Relates to the Whole: On a minor level, this episode opens up the possibility of Kira loosening up and becoming less aggressive. But since this sort of thing doesn’t (or rather, shouldn’t) happen overnight, I’ll have to keep an eye out to see how long it takes for Kira to actually start doing so. For larger elements, the loss of Kai Opaka will set a chain of events in motion that not only will allow us to see more of Bajoran spiritual culture, but eventually give us a character who plays a large role in the major events of the plot. There’s also a hint at the very end of the episode that Opaka and Sisko will meet again, though there’s still no explanation as to why Sisko is so important. I’m not sure how long it will take before any of these plot points really start to be explored (though based on the titles for the rest of the season, I think the Sisko thing has a good chance of being looked at), but at least there are a few tantalizing hints to keep me guessing on this rewatch.

Other: *It seems odd to me that Kira and the others would call Kai Opaka “Opaka”. I do it just to save myself a few keystrokes, but given that she’s the spiritual leader of their planet, I would have thought everyone would call her by her title, or some sort of honorific. Then again, the Bajorans use the “last name first” system that’s more prevalent in Eastern countries (“Kira” is, in fact, Kira’s last name), so maybe this is relatively normal.

*When Sisko is explaining the distance between the Alpha and the Gamma quadrant to the Kai, he mentions that it would take their fastest starship sixty-five years to get from one area to the other. And once again, I wonder if someone was trying to gradually get us used to that idea, so they could spring Voyager on us later down the line.

*Maybe I missed something, but I could swear that the Ennis and the Nol had agreed not to bring weapons during the cease-fire discussion. But as you can see in my screencap above, both sides brought knives, axes, and spears. Maybe the ban was only on energy weapons?

Best Line/Exchange: There are actually two exchanges that fit a similar theme, but I chose the one that was slightly less technobabbley;

(Dax and O’Brien have finally tracked down the damaged runabout and are trying to figure out how to get their people off the planet.)

O’Brien: See? They’re putting out a mutual induction field that would block out 99% of all transmissions to and from the surface.

Dax: Is there any way for us to get a com line through the field?

O’Brien: Well, I’ve got one percent to work with, don’t I?

Hmm…an engineer with an accent from the United Kingdom who constantly manages amazing technological feats. Where have we seen that before? It’s a pretty blatant homage, but a charming one nevertheless.

After the Fact Update: The DS9 Companion says that the decision to put Kai Opaka on the moon was to throw the audience for a loop; instead of some random redshirt, they’d be killing a “recurring character”. The only problem with that is that Opaka wasn’t a recurring character, at least not in the sense that I think of it. She appeared in the pilot, and that’s it. To me, a recurring character is someone like Rom or Nog, someone who appears fairly regularly but not in every episode. This also blows a hole in my theory that they had a grand plan in mind when they decided to “kill” Opaka off. Still, someone later went through and figured out how to make it work, so I’ll still give the writers credit…just not as much credit.