Day 19: DS9, In the Hands of the Prophets

Show: Star Trek; Deep Space Nine

Episode Particulars: S1EP19, “In the Hands of the Prophets”

 Summary: As Keiko tries to teach her students about the scientific properties of the wormhole, Vedek Winn (Louise Fletcher), one of the Bajoran monks in the running to become the new Kai, interrupts and says that Keiko shouldn’t be teaching the Bajoran children blasphemy—the Celestial Temple was made by the Prophets, not elements. Winn quickly gathers a following and pulls the Bajoran children from school, which starts straining the relationship between the Bajorans and Federation people on the station. Sisko tries to get support from another Vedek, Bareil (Philip Anglim), but while Bareil is sympathetic, there’s not much he can do. But a murder and a terrorist attack finally forces everyone to get involved, and appropriately, it takes pretty much all the major characters doing their jobs to solve the problem.

Standalone Thoughts: I can tell what the showrunners were trying to do here. They wanted to end the season with a sign of hope and moving forward, so it makes sense that they would address one of the major threads of the season and resolve as much of it as they could. The Federation vs. Bajoran ideals as represented by Sisko and Kira fits the bill nicely. So why not have a conflict that initially pits them against each other, then causes them to come together and possibly come to an understanding once and for all? They even quietly call back to prior episodes when they have Sisko declare that he’s butted heads with Bajorans, but in the end, both sides have come away knowing a little more about the other’s perspective. Plus, we’ve seen episodes that show that Kira’s open to changing her perspective, so everything’s in place for this to work. Yet for all that, this winds up feeling…rushed.

I think this is because we haven’t seen this particular kind of Federation vs. Bajoran conflict before. When this sort of thing has come up, it’s mostly matters of regulations, especially where Cardassians are concerned. Religion hasn’t really come up since the first episode, and while we know Kira’s spiritual, it hasn’t really come across as a big part of her character. The end result is that this feels like a manufactured conflict, one that has roots in what’s come before to be sure, but more like an offshoot rather than the main branch.

Furthermore, because we haven’t really explored Bajoran religion before, a lot of the episode has to act as an infodump. We’ve never heard of the Vedek class of Bajoran monks before, much less that there are different offshoots of the Bajoran religion, so we have to get this quickly explained to us so that we can follow along with what’s happening. As if that wasn’t bad enough, we’re also treated to some “tell, not show” when it comes to past events. After the throwaway line about Sisko being the Emissary in the pilot, that idea hadn’t come up again in pretty much any episode until now. Even Kai Opaka called Sisko “Commander” and not “Emissary” during “Battle Lines”. Suddenly, it sounds like it’s a big deal on Bajor, and one that Sisko is a little uncomfortable about. Doesn’t this seem like something that probably should have been addressed prior to now? Would it really have added that much to various episodes to have a scene where a Bajoran comes up to the station to see the wormhole and then says or does something reverent to Sisko? That way, things might have felt a little more natural.

It also might have prevented my knee-jerk response to the beginning of the episode, when Winn keeps interrupting Keiko’s class and insists that her teaching the science of the wormhole is blasphemy. It’s basically a fictional version of the “Creationism vs. Evolution” debate, with the religious side being portrayed much worse than the scientific side. My immediate response to the opening was annoyance at Winn, followed very rapidly by annoyance at the showrunners for being so obviously biased to one side. It took me a minute to realize that this didn’t make sense—the show is very respectful to the Bajoran religion later on, so why would it be so negative now? Finally, I figured it out; Winn was supposed to represent one aspect of the Bajoran religion, while Bareil represents another side, and the whole thing is supposed to be somewhat complicated. The problem is, this is our first major exposure to Bajoran religion, so it’s very easy to just assume that this is what the whole portrayal of the religion is going to be like, which will (most likely) bias us towards the Federation. Again, introducing the religion gradually throughout the season would have made it more obvious that Winn didn’t represent the whole, and would have fit so much better with the shades of grey themes DS9 is good at.

What this all boils down to is that the conflict of the episode feels forced, and therefore the resolution also doesn’t feel as earned as it could have been. This is compounded by a climax that’s both silly (excessive use of slow-motion and dramatic music, complete with a “Noooo!”) and a little too neatly tied up (a character comes to a realization that the audience knows is correct, but doesn’t entirely make sense given the limited knowledge the character has). So my ultimate conclusion is that this could have been a decent season finale and episode in general if the showrunners had laid a little more groundwork. As it stands, it’s mediocre at best.

How it Relates to the Whole: We’re introduced to Vedeks Bareil and Winn, both of whom play important roles in later events. The Kira/Sisko conflict also seems to have reached a plateau, at least if the ending scene is any indication. It’s a decent enough place to end the season, though as I pointed out above, it’s also only semi-earned. It’s not much, but it offers up a few possibilities for Season Two. Let’s see how many the crew decides to take.

Other: *Nog never appears as one of the students in Keiko’s school, which is probably because Aron Eisenberg wasn’t available, but it’s a noticeable absence. I guess Rom’s pulling him out of school in “The Nagus” stuck, but it would have been nice to have made that official.

*As we come back from a commercial break, the scene fades in on an overhead light in Ops before panning down to the characters around a table, discussing matters. It’s an odd directorial choice, especially since it doesn’t relate to the conversation in any way. I wonder what the rationale was.

*In keeping with the tone of the episode, Jake tells his dad that they spent the day learning about Galileo and how the church jailed him for his scientific beliefs, and actually compares that situation to the one on the station. I will, however, be a little more lenient on this, because it does make sense that an upset Keiko would deliberately choose that subject as a lesson plan.

*I generally don’t pay a lot of attention to minor continuity errors, since I’m more focused on story and character development, but I noticed an odd one here. During a scene between Quark and Odo on the Promenade, Morn walks by in the background. Forty-seven seconds later, he walks by again, though now he’s eating a jumja stick. Unless there are two of Morn’s species on the station, this suggests that (in-universe) the Promenade is smaller than it looks and/or Morn moves faster than he looks, or (out of universe) that this was shot on different days and the director forgot that they’d already used Morn. That being said, they do then redeem themselves by having Morn holding the jumja stick in the background while the main characters are reacting to the situation, so I guess the two wind up cancelling each other out.

*Given that this is the end of Season One, I guess I should write out my thoughts on it as a whole. I stand by what I said in a comment elsewhere on this blog; if I was watching it fresh, I’d probably think it was decent but nothing special, and there’s a good chance I’d have dropped it because it wasn’t holding my interest. There’s good material here, but the writers aren’t fully sure what to do with it, hence some of the plot developments that would have been better if there’d been some groundwork laid throughout several episodes. Based on my reactions, there are two really good episodes, ten decent to ok episodes, and six that are varying levels of bad. The good does beat out the bad, but the fraction isn’t as high as I’d like. I knew that first seasons generally have issues as they try to find their footing, but even so, I’m a little surprised by the weaknesses I found here. However, I maintain confidence that my memories of the later seasons haven’t let me down, and so I’m willing to push through the mediocre material to get there. And so, onward to Season Two!

Best Line/Exchange: One moment jumped out immediately as I was watching, and as is so often the case when this happens, it wound up being my ultimate choice;

Bareil: Today, I am only a Vedek. If the Prophets will it, someday I may be Kai, and I can be a better friend to you then.

Sisko: In other words, being my friend now might hurt your chances.

Bareil (smiling faintly): The Prophets teach us patience.

Sisko: It appears they also teach you politics.

Pointed comments, plot-relevant, a touch of humor, and even a tiny bit of foreshadowing; this one’s got it all. As quotes go, it’s not a bad one to close out the season with.