Day 20: DS9, The Homecoming

Show: Star Trek; Deep Space Nine

Episode Particulars: S2EP1, “The Homecoming”

Summary: Things are not going smoothly on Bajor. The provisional government is fraying at the edges, with a lot of factions developing, including an extremist group known as “The Circle” who want Bajor to kick all non-Bajorans out so they can live independently from everyone. Having something to unite Bajor would make things a lot easier for both Bajor itself and the Federation, and an opportunity arises when Kira is given an earring that came from the great hero Li Nalas (Richard Beymer), who had been presumed dead. Tracking him down to an illegal Cardassian work camp, Kira mounts a daring rescue, to the delight of pretty much everyone. Li, however, doesn’t seem very happy with all the attention, and it’s not just because he’s shell-shocked from the labor camp. And as Sisko discovers, Li’s presence isn’t necessarily going to have the results Sisko was expecting.

Standalone Thoughts: My assumption going into Season Two was that it was going to be a lot like Season One. It would have good character work and start making steps towards what it would eventually become, but it would still mostly be “situation of the week”. This assumption might still turn out to be true, but my expectations have gone up slightly, thanks to three little words; “To be continued”.

Yes, the show is giving us an (at least) two-part story arc—and they aren’t even labeling them “Part 1” and “Part 2”—in the very first episode of the second season. I didn’t even remotely expect that this early in either the season or the show, and it’s made me a little excited, truth be told. I’m currently taking it as an indication that the showrunners were either experimenting with new things, or were starting to move in the right direction. This may turn out to be another case of a strong start followed by a mediocre season, but for now, there’s a lot of interesting possibilities ahead.

Moving away from the potential to talk about the episode itself, I’d say it’s pretty good. The pace is just right, moving quickly enough that I was surprised when we reached the end (though that’s because I felt like there was a lot more to tie up, something which will hopefully take place in subsequent episodes) but also slow enough to let things develop naturally. There’s humor (mostly in the form of Quark, of course) to keep things grounded, there’s some suspense, an action scene, and a hint of the shades of grey aspect I expect from this show. There’s certainly enough here to get the audience wondering what happens next.

There is, however, a recurring theme of “tell, don’t show”. The major plot revolves around a fracturing provisional government, but this is the first we’ve really heard about it. In fact, we’ve barely seen anything about the provisional government up till now—there was the representative insisting the project be completed in “Progress” and a brief appearance by the government leader in “Duet”, and that’s about it. Like the religious aspect of “In the Hands of the Prophets”, the lack of setup for this makes it harder to get invested. That being said, there’s at least some excuses for this. First, the episode strongly implies that some of this happened between the end of Season One and the start of this season, which is a nice way of making it look like the show continues even when we aren’t getting new episodes every week. Secondly, “In the Hands of the Prophets” had set a precedent for a major Bajoran power having different factions; extending that to the government is a natural next step. Third, Tahna from “Past Prologue” held similar beliefs to The Circle, so that part, at least, is familiar to us. These aren’t the strongest justifications, I’ll grant you, but at least it looks like the showrunners were trying. If they build off of this and have it come into play later on, I’m willing to chalk it up to them being on the learning curve.

How it Relates to the Whole: To be honest, I’m not quite sure yet. I have no memory of this story arc, so I don’t know what, if any, impacts it winds up having. I’m going to have to find out along with the rest of you.

Other: *The exchange between Sisko and Jake early on is great, because it really does feel like an interaction between a loving parent and child. It reminds me of my own family life, and I appreciate that.

*On a related note, there was a slight recurring bit in Season One that I never talked about on the grounds of it not really being relevant, in which Sisko seemed alternately baffled and resigned to the fact that Jake was becoming a teenager, which meant being both interested in girls and more likely to start challenging his dad. I mention this because it shows up again here, when Jake asks where he should take a girl on their first date. He suggests the holosuites, which Sisko immediately shuts down. I understand why, given that the heavy implication is that they’re mostly used for sex programs, but at the same time…you and Jake have a baseball program, which isn’t sexual. And Quark once mentioned looking into getting more family-friendly programs in order to make a better profit. So maybe there’s a program for an amusement park, or a zoo, or something. I’m probably overthinking this, but I think that Sisko’s being a bit unfair here.

*It’s a little convenient that we only find out that the Cardassians were supposed to have released all Bajoran prisoners of war as part of the peace treaty at the same time Sisko is worrying about how to justify allowing Kira to rescue Li, but I’m not sure when else they could have brought that point up. We’ve heard of Cardassian labor camps, but they weren’t important enough to the plot to bring up that point in the treaty. I think the writers had their hands tied on that one.

*Nana Visitor continues to prove she knows her stuff. She not only has to play Kira, she also has a scene where she needs to play Kira doing some acting of her own, and it’s very convincing. I remember really growing to like her as the series went on, and I’m happy to see that she was always pretty good.

*I mentioned in passing in “Q-less” that most 24^th century fashion is ridiculous, and I stand by that statement (though again, I’m waiting for an episode with a lot of it on display before I really rip into it), but I’ll give credit where credit is due;

I’d wear Kira’s outfit. Yeah, the crochet vest thing’s a little weird, but the colors are nice and it looks fairly practical, albeit high-waisted. Plus, Kira looks good in it, and it makes her look a little less harsh. A commentary on her personality, perhaps?

*Gul Dukat returns again in this episode, though he’s still mostly relegated to being “government bureaucrat using weasel words”. One of those weasel words caught my attention, however; he says that the leader of the illegal Bajoran work camp will be “chastised” for his actions. I wonder if that was a code for something a little more severe, because otherwise, that seems like a pretty mild punishment for violating a treaty. Since there’s a very good chance the Cardassians are up to something, I’ll be curious to see if anything comes of this in the next episode.

Best Line/Exchange: While I was tempted to go with Quark’s recitation of the 76^th rule of Acquisition (“Every once in a while, declare peace; it confuses the hell out of your enemies.”), I also feel like I should try to pick more serious lines. So in the end, I went with;

Sisko: No. It’s based on a legend. And legends are as powerful as any truth.

Sisko’s absolutely right, of course, but the main reason I chose this is because it’s the DS9 version of the slightly more famous line that immediately went through my head when I realized where the plot was going; “When the legend becomes fact…print the legend.” Methinks somebody watched The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance around the time they came up with this story. And as a film buff, it seems like I should acknowledge that.

After the Fact Update: The DS9 Companion confirms a lot of what I’d been thinking/hoping; they deliberately did a three parter at the start of the season to, in Ira Steven Behr’s words “dig deeper and see just how far we could go.” He also confirms that he was inspired by The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and while that’s blatantly obvious to anyone who’s seen the movie, I’m still happy that my suspicions were correct.