4-17. Accession.

Akorem Laan (Richard Libertini),
the new Emissary of the Prophets.

THE PLOT

When a 300 year old Bajoran lightship comes through the wormhole with one Bajoran aboard, Sisko has the man beamed directly to the infirmary. The man is Akorem Laan (Richard Libertini), a revered poet from Bajor's past who disappeared more than 200 years ago. Akorem was swallowed up by the wormhole, and has only returned to Bajor now. He declares himself to be the Emissary of prophecy - the very role into which Kai Opaka thrust Sisko, and which the captain has reluctantly filled ever since.

Sisko is all too happy to step aside to allow Akorem to be The Emissary... Until the new Emissary's first public appearance, that is. Akorem may be a revered poet, but he is still a man from the distant past. He is shocked that modern Bajorans no longer follow their d'jarras, a strict caste system that was in place in his time. His first speech is almost fanatically devoted to this single topic, insisting that every Bajoran should return to his or her d'jarra - a thought which doesn't rest easy with all Bajorans, and which would disqualify Bajor from admittance into Starfleet!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Sisko: "I'm just a Starfleet officer again. All I have to worry about are the Klingons, the Dominion, and the Maquis. I feel like I'm on vacation!" Be careful what you wish for. Sisko doesn't waste a second in relinquishing the "Emissary" title to Akorem. But once he does, he is left as little more than a bystander as Akorem's desire to reinstate the caste system wreaks havoc. When it leads to the murder of a Bajoran Vedek for having been born to the wrong caste, Sisko realizes he must reclaim the title he was so eager to escape. Being the Emissary may not be something he enjoys, but it is his responsibility, a duty he cannot shirk without consequences.

Major Kira: Her religious convictions keep her from questioning Akorem after Sisko steps aside as Emissary. She tries to explain to Odo that having faith means "no explanation is necessary." If the Emissary says something must be done, it is her place as a Bajoran to accept him at his word. In one of the best moments in the episode, one that recalls similar exchanges in last season's Destiny, she tells Sisko just how much the Emissary's word means."Maybe you never realized this, Captain, but we would have tried to do whatever you asked of us when you were Emissary - no matter how difficult it seemed." Sisko's wordless reaction is the perfect cap to an excellent scene.

O'Brien/Keiko: The "B" plot is about the return of Keiko, and its affect on O'Brien. He is certainly happy to have his family back, but it's been a year and he has developed certain routines for his leisure time that don't include her. At the same time, she's been spending time on her work, something which doesn't include him. O'Brien quickly misses his playtime with Julian, and his constant presence is a distraction for Keiko. The solution is obvious, and more time is devoted to this side plot than is called for, but Colm Meaney plays all of this as authentically as ever.


THOUGHTS

Accession is a very early script by Jane Espenson, a writer who would move onto a truly splendid career, writing for series as disparate as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Battlestar Galactica, Torchwood, Once Upon a Time, and Game of Thrones. This script isn't up to the very best work she would eventually do, but even in this early work there is the attention to characterization, the intelligence, and the thoughtfulness that would make her so successful.

I always appreciate seeing Deep Space 9 return its focus to Bajor, something which has become much less common since the introduction of the Dominion threat. This episode starts out feeling like wheel-spinning. After all, we know that Akorem will not remain as Emissary past this episode, and we know that Sisko will reclaim the title with no lasting consequences. It all seems like a setup for an hour of filler - and insofar as this episode is unlikely to affect later ones, it could probably still be classified as such.

But the details make it richer than it might be otherwise. The d'jarra draws on the caste systems of countries such as India and Pakistan, among others, and just enough information is given about it to make it fit with what we already know about Bajor's past society. That the d'jarras were abandoned only fairly recently, with the Cardassian Occupation, makes it plausible that Akorem could persuade a large percentage of the population to return to this system... something that would be implausible if it had been abandoned centuries ago. The script also namedrops Kai Winn, whose suspicion of Starfleet and previously established fundamentalist tendencies likely make her happy to embrace Akorem as the Emissary.

It's a good episode, but not a great one. The main thing that limits it for me is that we see very little of how this impacts the average Bajoran. We see how it impacts Kira, as she prepares to give up her life and career to follow her d'jarra. I would have liked some other Bajoran characters in this episode, though, to show a variety of reactions. We hear that Shakaar won't give up his position and return to farming, for example. But we don't see him, even though this would have been excellent episode for him to make an appearance. We could see him and Kira in conflict, with the religious Kira accepting of the new Emissary even as Shakaar rebels. I'd be a lot more interested in that as a "B" plot than the issues of the O'Briens.

The O'Brien strand is definitely the episode's weakest element. It doesn't really seem to fit with the "A" plot, and it takes away screen time that the main story could have used to feel more fully developed. It's not really a badly-done plot, though it's given at least two scenes more than it needs to make its point. But it would have been better placed in a different episode, perhaps one with a lighter overall tone.

My issues with the "B" plot and with the lack of really seeing the effect of the new Emissary on the Bajoran population keep this from an excellent score. Still, this is a solid episode with some tantalizing hints for the future. The Prophets inform us that they are "of Bajor." More than that, they pronounce that "the Sisko" is also "of Bajor." This is a statement that I suspect will get followed up in the future.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

Previous Episode: Bar Association
Next Episode: Rules of Engagement


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2-24. The Collaborator.

Kira makes a deal with the devil.

THE PLOT

It is now mere days before the selection of the new Kai. The election is a foregone conclusion, with it well-known that Vedek Bareil (Philip Anglim) was Kai Opaka (Camille Saviola)'s personal choice to succeed her. But Bareil appears to have doubts, as he spends an increasing amount of time looking into the Orb of Prophecy, seeing visions that clearly trouble him.

Meanwhile, the station receives a new and most unexpected visitor: Kubus Oak (Bert Remsen), a member of the Bajoran government during the Occupation. For his collaboration with the Cardassians, Kubus is under a permanent sentence of exile. But the old man desperately wants to return home, and has made a deal with Vedek Winn (Louise Fletcher) for sanctuary on Bajor. In exchange for Winn's help, he will release the name of the Bajoran who ordered the massacre that killed Kai Opaka's son. The name? Vedek Bareil!


CHARACTERS

Commander Sisko: Refuses to involve himself directly in Bajoran internal affairs. To that end, he has made no public gesture of support toward Bareil, even though it's clear that he favors him. He also resists a fairly blatant attempt by Winn to make a public appearance with her before the choosing. He does leave himself open to making such an appearance with Winn after the selection, though he does little to conceal his dislike and distrust of her.

Major Kira: In the wake of the attempted assassination of Bareil, she no longer trusts nor likes Winn. But Winn knows exactly which buttons to push to get Kira to run the investigation. The authority of the Bajoran Kai is too important for her to stomach even the vaguest possibility of a collaborator being selected for the office. Kubus may well be lying, but it's essential that the truth be known. A few well-placed words sets Kira in dogged pursuit of the scant crumbs of evidence Kubus has presented. She confesses to Odo that she is in love with Bareil - but though she protests that he must be innocent, it's clear that the question tugs at the back of her mind: What if he's guilty?

Odo: Is sympathetic to Kira, but realistic enough to know that it is possible that Kubus' accusation is true. He does his best to prepare Kira for that possibility, even as he works to help her in her inquiry.

Vedek Bareil: Even before the ending, it seems clear that Bareil doesn't really want to be Kai. One of his visions has Opaka present him with a serpent, telling him that "its venom will make (him) stronger." Honestly, Bareil could use a bit of strength. He is clearly a good man, but he prefers to be a sympathetic ear, and is happier at the prospect of spending time with Kira than at the prospect of inheriting the crown (so to speak). Philip Anglim's performance has steadily improved throughout the season, and at this point he is doing some very good acting. I'm not sure where Bareil's story is going, but I do think he probably isn't ready to be a true leader at this point in the series' run. Perhaps some tribulations during Winn's stewardship will grant him some strength for him to take office at the series' end - assuming he survives.

Vedek Winn: Continues to be a strong adversary. She tries to manipulate everyone around her. She has no success with Sisko, but the transparency of her attempted manipulation is such that I doubt that was even a serious effort. She plays Kira effortlessly, weaving Kira's loyalty toward Bajor together with Kira's hatred of collaborators until Kira is acting as her tool. She doesn't seem inclined to use Kira's information against Bareil once Bareil withdraws - it may be that she knows there is more to the story than that, it may simply be that she has no need to destroy him once he is no longer in her way.


THOUGHTS

"The one thing I've learned about humanoids is that in extreme situations, even the best of you are capable of doing terrible things."

In light of Necessary Evil, Odo's words to Kira carry extra resonance - not only for the viewer, but for both of the characters. A nice, unobtrusive nod at continuity, as well as an important thematic statement for the episode itself.

Though a late plot twist does offer a surprise, one that works very well both in terms of the plot and the episode's themes, this really isn't a mystery. The episode's opening lays out for us that Bareil feels deep guilt, and he behaves with the consciousness of someone with something to hide at every turn. We - and Kira - know that he is the best man to succeed Opaka as Kai, and that Winn is the worst possible choice. We also know that he does have guilt, and that his guilt will keep him from attaining the position. The result of Kira's investigation is a foregone conclusion, because this episode is not a mystery; it's a tragedy.

This episode also sees the ever-increasing consequences of Opaka's one-way trip through the wormhole. I said at the time that I hoped the removal of Bajor's spiritual leader would have consequences. Though it took a while for it to be followed up with In the Hands of the Prophets, the fallout of Opaka's removal from the show has resulted in some of the richest and most interesting episodes of the past season. Now it has had a result Opaka could not have foreseen, and I look forward to seeing where the Bajoran stories take this series next season.


Rating: 9/10.

Previous Episode: Crossover

Next Episode: Tribunal

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1-13. Battle Lines

Kai Opaka comforts Kira.

THE PLOT

The station's command crew are surprised when Kai Opaka (Camille Saviola) abruptly takes Sisko up on his offer to show her the station. When it becomes clear how interested the Kai is in the wormhole, Sisko decides to take her on a trip through it.

It's meant to be a quick trip - through and back again. But when they investigate a signal from a nearby moon, they are fired upon and crash. Opaka is killed, while the others find themselves thrown in amongst a group of prisoners known as the Ennis, who are in the midst of a brutal war. After an attack in which the Ennis take heavy casualties, Sisko, Bashir, and Kira discover that this moon has another secret.

Anyone who dies will return to life - again and again and again, until life itself becomes a curse!


CHARACTERS

Commander Sisko: Flatly refuses to become involved in the conflict, but he does offer aid, in the form of Bashir's medical expertise, in exchange for the Ennis' protection while awaiting rescue. When it becomes clear that this is a neverending conflict, he attempts to mediate peace, offering both sides a way off the moon.

Major Kira: Though she has grown to respect Sisko, she still does not always defer to him. Following the attack in the caves, she gets worked up, trying to organize a more effective defense. When Sisko orders her to stop, she ignores him. Only the Kai's intervention keeps her from willful disobedience. Her absolute respect for and faith in Kai Opaka is evident throughout, from her instant obedience of her soft-spoken urgings to her grief at the woman's (temporary) death. Nana Visitor gets some strong scenes here, particularly an emotional moment in which she tries to deny her own violent nature even as she clearly worries that her personality is defined by that violence.

Dr. Bashir: Finally, a genuinely good episode for him! "Dr. Cocky Horndog" is given a rest, and instead we get a Bashir-heavy episode in which he is characterized through his medical abilities and his caring for life. The result plays to Siddig El-Fadil's strengths, and allows the regular I would most eagerly thrust out an airlock to emerge as a likable figure.

Dax/O'Brien: These two are paired for "B" plot duties, acting as a search and rescue team for the others. Dax interprets the clues left by the Sisko's shuttle, tracking the landing party to the moon. O'Brien then pulls out a dazzling array of Technobabble Techniques to locate Sisko's party and beam them back aboard.


THOUGHTS

It isn't much of a reach to draw a direct line between the endless war of this episode and the Occupation that is this series' principal backstory.  It's about as subtle as a nail-studded 2x4 to the cranium, but this isn't really a problem, as it allows for a scenario that connects very effectively with Kira's character.  Nana Visitor, already the series' strongest regular, gets some superb character material, and her emotional turmoil keeps this episode gripping.

I have to give credit to the makeup department. The Nol and the Ennis look like residents of hell: filthy, battered, and battle-scarred. When Shel-la (Jonathan Banks) drops his mask of being reasonable and starts ranting about "wiping (the Nol) out" and not allowing "a single Nol to leave this moon alive," the combination of the scarred look granted by the makeup and the actor's own ability to create villains is genuinely unsettling.

The script also further expands the basic situation on Bajor through its treatment of Kai Opaka. Though she was previously seen in Emissary, this episode gives us a much stronger sense of what she means to the Bajorans, and why. Her "death," and what follows it, should have some impact on the show that follows... and in the case of Deep Space 9, I find myself a bit more hopeful that it actually will be followed up on than I would be with other Trek shows.


Rating: 7/10.

Previous Episode: Vortex
Next Episode: The Storyteller


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1-1, 1-2. Emissary

THE PLOT

After literally decades of resistance, the Cardassian occupation of the Bajoran homeworld has finally ended. The provisional Bajoran government has requested a Starfleet presence on Deep Space 9, the Cardassian space station orbiting their world, to help make the transition... well, possible.

Commander Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks), a veteran of the battle against the Borg at Wolf 359, has been assigned to command the space station. It is not a task he relishes. Left widowed after his encounter with "Locutus of Borg," Sisko has focused his attention on raising his young son, and prefers duties that give him time for that task. He finds Deep Space 9 a less than ideal environment.

Nothing he sees when he arrives changes that impression. His first officer, the Bajoran Major Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor), resents his presence almost as much as she resents Starfleet's. The Cardassians have left the station in disarray, and it is all his Chief of Engineering, O'Brien (Colm Meaney), can do to get everything on-line and functioning. With Bajoran spiritual leader Kai Opaka (Camille Saviola) talking about Sisko having a "destiny," and a new (surprisingly stable) wormhole appearing near the station, Sisko finds that he has walked into a political and religious minefield.

And with the implications of a stable wormhole granting access to a distant quadrant of space - and back again - the Cardassians, led by former station commandant Gul Dukat (Marc Alaimo), suddenly find themselves with a renewed interest in the territory around Deep Space 9...


CHARACTERS

Commander Sisko: Avery Brooks doesn't look right with hair. He needs to start shaving his head immediately. That said, Sisko has much that is interesting, right from the get-go. He's resentful of Picard, more than a little jaded with the Federation, and already contemplating taking an early retirement. He's quite willing to bend the rules to make his job workable, offering Quark a deal to stay that effectively allows the Ferengi to operate outside Starfleet regulations ("We're just here to administrate"). The episode does over-sell Sisko's relationship with his son, but otherwise manages to create an interesting central figure who has some shades of grey unusual for the lead of a Trek series.

Capt. Picard: Patrick Stewart does some terrific acting in the scene in which Sisko reveals exaclty where they have met before.  His bearing instantly changes when he learns Sisko was a veteran of Wolf 359, and he spends the rest of the scene trying (and never quite succeeding) to regain his natural authority. There isn't much else for him in this episode, save for a nicely subdued farewell to Chief O'Brien, but Stewart plays what he's given as well as ever.

Major Kira: Has spent her entire life fighting for Bajoran independence from the Cardassians. As a result, she sees Sisko's arrival, and the Federation's, as simply a new occupying force. Sisko gains her respect over the course of the episode - a process that's arguably a bit too fast, and something I would rather have seen played out over a good chunk of the first season. Still, she retains an inherent brittleness, which is something that could be used to good effect.

Dax: The lovely Terry Farrell is Jadzia Daz, the Trill scientist who is also an old friend of Sisko's. Farrell's performance is actually a bit uneven here, with her lack of substantial acting experience perhaps showing in some of technobabble-heavy scenes she is given. She does have a natural screen rapport with Avery Brooks, however, and a natural good humor which eases over some of the bumps in her acting. Beyond which... How to put it? It's a lot easier to forgive an actress a few bad line readings when she looks like Terry Farrell.

Quark: Armin Shimerman, who was the principal Ferengi in that race's disastrous debut in The Last Outpost, does much better in playing the Ferengi merchant, Quark. In an early interrogation scene, he carries himself in a manner reminiscent of a small-time mobster in a police procedural, right down to his dress sense and his baiting of Constable Odo ("If I'm a thief, you never proved it. For four years"). Shimerman doesn't get a lot to do in this episode, but he registers strongly on screen, gets several humorous moments, and is given a strong role to play in the series' development as a community leader whose shady doings will be overlooked - to a point - in exchange for his aid in maintaining the station's economy.

Dr. Bashir: Siddig El-Fadil (aka, Alexander Siddig)'s first appearance as Dr. Bashir is not an entirely auspicious start. For a character who would become quite fun, and an actor who would prove himself not only on this show, but in other work such as Kingdom of Heaven and Syriana, this is a rather disappointing debut. Siddig overplays Bashir's nervous stammer in his early scenes, and Bashir's enthusiasm for "the frontier" is over-written in these scenes as well. He does do well in the only scene in which he is called upon to act as a doctor, coming to the aid of a severely wounded woman during the climactic attack, and summoning up a natural authority that has been entirely absent in his performance up to that point. Thankfully, that one good scene is good enough to raise hopes that the weaker elements of both character and performance will recede over time.


THOUGHTS

And so begins the darkest, grimiest Star Trek series, certainly the best of the spinoffs and, on its best days, the only Trek series that can lay claim to being as good as the original series. I've long felt that the later Trek movies made a mistake following the popular, yet shallower, Next Generation cast. The Deep Space 9 cast and setting had, in my opinion, more weight on which big-screen movies could balance. And they wouldn't even have had to have Worf making multiple inexplicable trips from DS9 to justify his presence.

I was all set to write a review talking about how startling it is that such a comparatively rich series came from rather generic Trek spinoff beginnings. But you know something? A lot of what made this series great is there in the pilot. The characters have shades of grey. The commander doesn't want to be there (something, disappointingly, that is resolved within the pilot, when I'd have preferred that to be an ongoing element as well). Further, he's willing to bend rules and turn a blind eye to Quark's past goings-on and even potentially to his present ones as long as the Ferengi doesn't go too far. Kira has a huge chip on her shoulder, and obvious problems with authority. Both station and planet are given enough history within this pilot to make them interesting, and not every issue is resolved. For instance, the provisional government's instability is never resolved within this pilot. Beyond that, the wormhole itself will clearly open up new complications. This is a darker and grittier Trek, and the potential is clearly there even in this opening installment.

The standalone plot is passable, if less than remarkable. The discovery of the wormhole and Sisko's opening of communications with the intelligence therein are rendered in a visually interesting manner. I enjoyed the intercutting between Sisko's perspective - a barren wasteland - and Dax's persepctive of a lush garden setting. A reflection of their mental states, perhaps, with Sisko's bitterness and closed-off nature contrasted with Dax's embracing of everything life has to offer? I also thought the production team showed some imagination in Sisko's communications with the nonlinear entity. Some of the bits in that "conversation" went on a bit long, but the cutting between settings that were part of the commander's memory, and the use of different figures from his past to express different attitudes, was intriguing.

It's not perfect, but this pilot holds up very well. It's far better than the 2-hour pilots for Next Generation or Enterprise (and neither of those were bad, by the way). It's not as good a story as The Cage was for TOS... but with strong moments for every character, it's probably a better pilot to an ongoing series.


Rating: 8/10.

Next Episode: Past Prologue


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