Part Three: The Siege

I don’t mean to be unreliable or fickle but I must admit I have procrastinated even trying to finish this trilogy of episodes. I have read the summary on Memory Alpha in advance of re-watching the episode, and I can’t quite put my finger on why I dislike these episodes so much. I don’t know what the concensus is – are they universally liked or disliked? How do others evaluate the writing of these early season 2 episodes? I don’t feel qualified to say it’s the writing that’s at fault. But they just don’t capture my interest, which honestly is pretty unusual. Generally, the rule is: if it’s Star Trek, I love it. (Something I have noticed though that some of my all-time favourite episodes across the whole franchise are really not well liked generally, so perhaps it’s just me.)

Summary

Essentially, Sisko is expecting a siege or an invasion by the Circle-affiliated troops, and has to do everything he can to protect everybody on the station, overseeing the evacuation, and also make it as difficult as possible for the invaders, and get word to the Provisional Government about what is really going on.

For some reason I still can’t understand or remember, Dax and Kira go off to find an old transport to smuggle the data in to the council, which they eventually do after crashing and some other shenanigans, and it all works out.

The End.

Notes on Re-watching

Sisko’s speech to his staff outlining his plan and talking about all the relationships they’ve made with Bajorans is quite touching. I hadn’t realised the full name of The Circle was the Alliance for Global Unification, or that their motto was ‘Bajor for Bajorans’. It feels suddenly quite topical and relevant with all the racism that has been going on in the UK and the US with Brexit and Trump over the last 5 years.

There’s a sweet conversation between Nog and Jake as well, and an argument between Miles and Keiko, and a funny little scene where Quark realises that Rom has sold him out and taken a Dabo girl on his ticket off the station, all of which foreshadow the development of their relationships throughout the series.

Actually, as I’m re-watching, I confess I am enjoying it a bit after all, which may indicate that it has much more to do with me, my mood and how I was feeling when I watched the episodes previously than it has to do with the quality of the episodes themselves. I’d be interested to hear from other fans on their opinion. (One of my kids just said to me that the early seasons are pretty bad with just a handful of really good episodes.)

On My Station

Again, I think one of the reasons I could never quite gel with these episodes is that I’m having difficulty relating any of it to my real life…. unless I translate it over to the Brexit situation.

I’m pretty ashamed to confess that I voted for Brexit because, at the time of the vote in June 2016, I was still very much under the influence of the fundamentalist Christian group I had previously been involved with. I was physically away from them for years prior to the Brexit vote, but detoxing and deconstructing the effect of those teachings on your mind can take much, much longer (I see all the time on ex-Christian groups, a huge amount of residual sexism, racism and especially antisemitism).

I shudder to think how easy it is to get taken in by fundamentalists and conspiracy theories. One of my old ex-Messianic Jewish friends started her religious Deconstruction before me but instead of coming right out of it, has ended up going deep down into the Conspiracy Theory hole in a big, big way, and I had to cut all ties with her, for my sanity.

It would be lovely if, in real life, it would all come right in the end, with a simple message of ‘Truth’, or fact that is then clear to all. But of course in the real world it is much, much more complicated than that.

I found this neat Deviant Art pic when I had a quick search for ‘Star Trek Conspiracy’, from the TNG episode of that name.

The only conspiracy that’s troubling me right now though, is why Discovery was taken off Netflix, preventing everybody in the UK from accessing season 4 😦

LLAP

Part Two: The Circle

Well it took me a few days to get back to this, but here we are again.

Part Two of the trilogy of episodes relating to The Circle.

I won’t write a blow by blow commentary of everything that happens in the episode, I’m sure you’ll be relieved.

Instead, here is my quick summary:

Summary

Jarro is replacing Major Kira with Li Nalas. Sisko objects but Jarro insists it’s actually a promotion.

Jake calls Sisko to their quarters to reveal that The Circle emblem has been graffiti’d on their door.

Kira isn’t thrilled about her so-called ‘promotion’, but accepts that she has no choice, concluding that she has broken one too many rules. Her friends (Odo, Dax, Julian, O’Brien, Quark) and all come to her quarters as she is packing and commiserate and argue with her and each other about her capitulation . Vedek Bareil also arrives and offers Kira the option of taking a retreat at his monastery on Bajor, and she agrees.

In Ops, Kira is having one, last look around. Li Nalas is already there, and he admits to Kira that he doesn’t want her job. She tells him she didn’t want it either, to begin with. He tells Sisko he knows he can’t replace Major Kira, and Sisko says “No one could.” It’s quite a touching moment.

On Bajor, Kira is apparently rearranging the stones in the monastery pool. She admits to Bareil that she’s not happy. She hates being useless. Bareil takes Kira in for her first Orb experience, with the Third Orb, the Orb of Prophecy and Change.

“What do I do?”

“Be useless, Nerys. Allow the Prophets to guide you.”

Kira has a vision of Dax as a Vedek. Kira says she can’t hear them. Then Vedek Winn appears, with Jarro, and finally, Kira is naked with Vedek Bareil. Bareil realises Kira doesn’t want to tell the truth about her vision, and admits to her that when he had a vision with the Third Orb, she was in his vision. Vedek Winn appears and everything she says is just dripping with venom (I love her, such a brilliant actress and such a fantastic character that you love to hate!)

News from Bajor is bad, and now there’s increasing violence on the station. Quark tells Odo that the Circle is being armed by the Kressari (an alien species I’m not sure they ever mention again). Odo makes Quark a Deputy, in such an unexpected move that Quark laughs. Odo gives him the choice between working for him and getting arrested so Quark reluctantly agrees. Li Nalas suggests to Sisko a curfew might be necessary on the station. Sisko speaks to the head of the Bajoran Militia, and informs them about the Kressari. He asks for Kira to be returned but the Colonel says it’s not up to him.

Back on the station, a Kressari vessel is stopped and searched, and Li Nalas has to placate its captain. He is so much more timid and softly spoken than Kira, it’s hard to imagine he’d ever be able to fill her shoes. They let the vessel go but Odo sneaks aboard.

Sisko visits Kira in the garden at the monastery. He informs her that it looks like there will be a Coup. Immediately after Sisko leaves, Kira is abducted and taken to a Circle hide-out, and Minister Jarro reveals himself to be the ringleader, against the provisional government and the military. He claims to hate the Cardassians, but he’s not opposed to using their tactics to extract information. Fortunately, Quark has heard about Kira’s abduction and informs Sisko, who arranges a rescue, including Li Nalas, who is much more comfortable being a soldier than a ‘Navarch’, the title he was given.

Meanwhile, Odo observes a Cardassian on board the Kressari vessel, revealing that the Circle are actually being armed by Bajor’s enemies.

They realise the only way to fight this is by getting Li Nalas back to the Government, but Jarro has already reacted to Kira’s rescue by blocking all DS9’s frequencies.

We see Jarrow and Winn together, obviously plotting together to boost each other toward power.

On DS9, Sisko contacts Admiral Chekote (pronounced exactly the same as Chakotay, I wonder what the significance is?) to inform him what is going on, but the Admiral dismisses it all as an internal civil war, and orders Star Fleet to pull out and evacuate the station. Sisko makes it clear to O’Brien that he has no intention of abandonding Bajor or the station.

To be Continued….

Oh, well, oops. I pretty much did do a blow by blow account after all. Apologies! I can’t help myself! (After NaNowriMo, I promise I’ll go back to much more succinct summaries!)

Back on the Station

I think this is the problem I have with these episodes, I can’t seem to relate it to my life. I suppose that’s a good thing. I can’t think of a time when I’ve been usurped or pushed out of a job or position. I’ve never been involved in any kind of coup at work, I know they happen, but I guess I was always one of the minions, never in any kind of position of power so nothing really affected me directly.

The only thing I could relate it to was when my boss was ousted (I can’t even remember why, he undoubtedly stuck to his moral guns when the management were behaving badly, but the details escape me now) and for a long time, I ended up instead with four bosses, which was much worse, until one of them convinced the management to promote him, and that was, in a way also a little bit worse, but I won’t name names!

There was also, many, many years ago in the 80s, a church split which, on the surface, had to do with Bible versions (it was originally a KJV-only church but the Sunday School Superintendent had brought the NIV Bible in through the back door sneakily by giving it out to the children as a Sunday School Prize), but it came out much later that there were serious abuses going on. Again, I don’t want to be too specific as it affects real people. The abuser was kicked out, but soon got re-employed in a position of power by another church, sickeningly enough, which is thoroughly typical of the way fundamentalist evangelical churches behave.

Going a little bit further into the metaphors, I guess I could say that my parents’ falling in with the Christian missionaries was like an abduction. It was definitely abusive. It was obviously a Cult. No obvious physical torture like Kira’s, but they were brainwashed and suffered the mental and emotional, and even physical fall-out for decades after they got out of it. Anyway, enough of that! I hadn’t meant to get into that territory today. I guess it’s inevitable though. These things are part of my story, and they will come up from time to time.

I don’t expect to be able to get to the next episode until some time next week. Give me a virtual kick if I take too long (assuming anybody is actually interested in reading my posts!)

LLAP