Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reviews L

This is one of my posts where I “review” Star Trek episodes. I will be giving each one a star rating. I sometimes will make some comments about non-political parts of them that I like or don’t like. I’ll sometimes use the issues raised in the episode to discuss similar issues in real life. And I will sometimes simply high-light the progressive politics of ST. ST is in-line with the three original themes of this blog, as I explain in the first ST post where I offer some general thoughts about ST.

I’m not very familiar with The Original Series and there might be some small amount of material there that would affect what I say about Star Trek (i.e. how often religion is mentioned)

Lastly. multi-culturalism is such a pervasive theme in ST that I only comment on it when it goes beyond the norm (i.e. inter-species partners).

“Second Skin” See this for a plot summary.

A fairly non-political episode. One aspect of it that’s political is that there is more evidence, combined with other episodes, that women do okay among Cardassians- not as well as they do in the Federation or among the Romulans, but it seems like they do better than Klingon women do.

Another bit of politics is that the plot represents another conflict between Cardassian dissidents and the Cardassian state, something that I like- the struggle of democratic forces on Cardassia is inspiring. There’s also the part where Kira becomes a kind of daughter of a former Cardassian leader turned exiled dissident (this is at the end when she says good-bye to him). Although it’s not a surprise with Kira, it’s still nice to see that she’s supportive of democratic forces on Cardassia. I’m not sure if that’s despite what Cardassia did to Bajor or because of it- besides believing in democracy and human rights for Cardassians, she might also understand that a democratic Cardassia will probably hold to account those responsible for crimes of the occupation AND will also be less likely to re-invade Bajor.

UPDATE 1/12/12 I should have added this a long time ago, but I DO find the Arab Spring inspirational and I do support it.

A good story, I give it three, almost four stars out of five.


“The Abdandoned” See this for a plot summary.

A very non-political episode, I give it two stars out of five.


“Civil Defense” See this for a plot summary.

A very non-political episode, I give it three stars out of five.


“Meridian” See this for a plot summary.

A very non-political episode, I give it one star out of five.