Much Star Trek The opinion is based on the paradoxical idea that at some point the series within the franchise will simply become “good”. TNGis not TNG until Riker has a beardwe say, ignoring everything fantastic ideas The series started before that. The idea of Hike Shows usually have one questionable first season was thoroughly refuted at this point in the modern Renaissance and was probably not entirely true before.
And then there is Deep Space 9– simply exquisite, remarkable television, perhaps that of the franchise darkest, most beautiful hour…but we’re not allowed to believe it until the show starts dealing with it the Dominion subplot and its eventual escalation into all-out galactic war. However, I’ve been re-watching the show from the beginning recently and can’t help but think such framing is the case DS9 a huge disadvantage. As the Dominion War opened up the rifts Star TrekIn the idealized world, these cracks have always been there and DS9 she pried it open from the start with clenched teeth in pleasure.
I already got an inkling of this when I revisited the show’s debut season last year to mark its 30th anniversary – and remarkable gemstones found in a season, the most Hike Fans will tell you it’s not worth watching beyond the actual premise of the show. But the second season really picks up the threads laid out in the first season and the various tensions that still play a role in the chaotic story scenario DS9 has found a home where most others Star Trek The series simply moved on to the next adventure: What happens when a society is saved from violent oppression and Starfleet intervenes?
From the beginning we see the powder keg of various battles Bavaria’s Provisional Government had to establish itself in the first season – a theme we saw explored largely through Major Kira’s perspective and her own despair over Starfleet and her past as a Resistance fighter – explodes in the second season as the machinations of Vedek Winn (the always remarkable Louise Fletcher(with every utterance of “My Child” laced with more venom than one would have humanly thought possible) sets the stage for an attempted coup that turns Deep Space Nine into a battlefield long before the show became a “war show”. The settlement of the Bajoran coup at the beginning of the second season also creates a ripple effect in the stories told, which is clearly reflected in the two-part storyline “The Maquis”.
“The Maquis” is a fascinating reflection of and explores the tensions of the first season’s Bajoran/Starfleet conflict – the idea of people looking at our heroes and asking them what it’s really worth being here on the frontier Creation of and the beginnings of a widespread disagreement with a guerrilla group of Federation colonists in the demilitarized zone established between the Cardassian Union and the Federation. Starfleet’s diplomacy redrew the boundaries between the two powers, changed control of the colony worlds in this area of space, and destroyed the lives of civilians – not Starfleet members, just beings from the Federation and Cardassia alike – without caring about the world. It’s this carefree level of thoughtfulness and consideration that really shines through in The Maquis – we’ve seen Starfleet officers humiliated by hubris before Star Trekbut rarely has Starfleet as a whole, and even the Federation, been portrayed as ignorantly as in these two episodes.
Commander Sisko and his team investigate reports of conflict between Cardassian and Federal colonists – including a terrorist attack on DS9 that destroyed a Cardassian ship – with Calvin Hudson, Starfleet’s liaison in the region. Throughout, the dire plight of civilians on both sides becomes incredibly clear, from the Cardassian military commander’s subtle attempts to further destabilize the region and engage in intra-command politics, to Starfleet’s attempts at remote surveillance. But as the existence of the Maquis comes to light (and the twist that Hudson himself defected from Starfleet to help them) and tensions escalate toward open conflict, DS9 bares his fangs directly Star Treks utopia in an absolutely breathtaking scene in the second part of “The Maquis”.
When he gets a face-to-face meeting with Admiral Nechayev in his office on DS9, Sisko, already reeling from the betrayal of his old friend Hudson, can barely contain his contempt when he is simply told by Starfleet that they will remember if he establishes a dialogue with the Maquis They are citizens of the vaunted, great Federation, and the day will be saved – and because everything is so simple, he will get no additional help from Starfleet other than such sage advice.
The second Nechaev leaves his office – and, above all, enters a like-minded Kira –Avery Brooks unleashes herself. Up until this point, we knew that Sisko wasn’t a man afraid to throw a few punches, literal or otherwise, or that he was willing to keep his sense of justice in check, but despite all the traumatized contempt he had for Jean, Luc Picard In DS9premiere, we’ve never seen him land on Starfleet like this, where he blasts the Federation for looking out the window and looking nowhere else. “It’s easy to be a saint in paradise,” he complains, “but the Maquis do not live in Paradise. Out there, in the demilitarized zone, not all the problems have been solved yet. There are no saints out there: just People.”
Star Trek has always characterized itself as a series about people – about the best and brightest of us, who go out into the stars to explore, to protect the innocent from justice, to preach the ideals of their post-war, post-scarcity, post-shadow world and to practice -of-gray utopia. But in a rousing speech, DS9 claims that these are the people who Star Trek should never have existed: It is the people on the margins of this society who are shaped by the decisions of their leadership and are never supported in putting these decisions into practice, but are only judged when their world does not keep up with the well-tended gardens can be Starfleet Academy, the immaculate hallways of their command center in San Francisco, or even the plush carpet of a Galaxy-class bridge. What the hell is there these people thought if something goes wrong?
“The Maquis” is a quintessential springboard from stress Deep Space Nine would go exploring with the Dominion, beginning shortly thereafter in the season two finale, “The Jem’Hadar.” We’ve already shown how good Starfleet Command is at failing its own people by facing a seemingly overwhelming enemy to the Federation in the titular Dominion foot soldiers how completely unprepared The Federation was abandoned. But their hubris and ignorance wasn’t established in their reaction to the Dominion and the impending war – it was established there Deep Space Nine has always worked best: in the middle of chaos, at the edge of the galaxy, with people trying so hard to do good work with what little they have. And that’s exactly what it did from the beginning.
Deep Space Nine is now available to stream on Paramount+.
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