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 š¦
LLAP
The Bajoran Exile 