Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reviews M

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).

“Defiant” See this for a plot summary.

Aside from the Maquis aspect (my thought on the Maquis are here, while discussing the two-parter “The Maquis”), a very non-political episode, although it raises some points I think I’ll discuss.

1. The power of the Obsidian Order (basically the Cardassian KGB). Although it’s revealed that they are prohibited from having military forces (i.e. warships) it’s also revealed that they in fact are building a war fleet, which is completely confirmed later in the series and it appears that the Order doesn’t get in any trouble for building such a fleet, which further indicates that they are a very powerful and unaccountable force on Cardassia.

2. At one point Kira raises the issue of outsiders helping with some cause. She speaks as if there’s something wrong with that, as if anyone who does that must have some ulterior motive. Plenty of people do that, although there are different ways of looking at it (do we count white anti-racists in general? do we count Irish-Americans who joined the IRA?). If people see injustice and want to help end it as an ally, and they get involved to the point where they’re part of an underground organization, I don’t see what the problem is. Even if they’re a total outsider, I still don’t see what the problem is. And people who criticize such volunteers probably also believe the US should pat itself on the back for liberating parts of occupied Europe during WWII. America should do that, because although we had other reasons for getting involved, we were partly motivated by concern for Europeans oppressed or threatened by the Nazis and we in fact did help liberate parts of occupied Europe. The fact that we were also doing it for some national security reasons doesn’t make that bad. When people do it simply to help others, that should be seen as even more acceptable.

You could also argue that by helping end the oppression of some other group, they are helping themselves in the sense that, as Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” But that kind of “selfish” motivation should be seen as acceptable.

3. Many times throughout the ST series ST mis-uses the word “terrorist.” In this episode and others it’s taken so far that Kira says that when she was with the resistance she was a terrorist. I define a terrorist as someone who focuses largely on intentionally killing civilians, although there are also operations aimed at NOTHING more than terrorizing the civilian population without killing anyone. There are different ways of looking at it and there are gray areas that will result in plenty of debate, but I’d say when at least around 2-5% of an organization’s operations are aimed at intentionally killing innocent civilians, it’s a terrorist organization- although there’s other factors to calculate in, that’s a rough guide to how I see it.

Although there will be debate about which groups are terrorist and which aren’t, since we view and treat terrorist organizations differently from others, we should try to have a good definition of what one is. The common definition is a group that fights the government. But that means that the ANC were terrorists (even in recent years ANC figures have been on US terrorist lists), the IRA are terrorists, the Iraqi kurdish Peshmerga were terrorists, etc.


Overall a good episode. I give it four stars out of five.


“Fascination” See this for a plot summary.

A very non-political episode, and not a very good one. I give it two stars out of five.


“Past Tense” parts 1 and 2. See this and this for a plot summary.

This two-parter is one of the most progressive and probably the most socialist episode ST has ever done. The two-parter is also very good, and I give it five stars out of five. A big part of why I like it is that I generally really like ST’s time travel episodes. Also, there’s some good action.

But the main thing I like about it is the politics. It’s about a period in America’s history lasting about 10-20 years and ending shortly after the events in the episode in the year 2024. At that point, every major American city had what was called a “Sanctuary District”- a walled in section of the city where homeless people without criminal records were housed. The buildings they occupied were basically squats and many people slept out on the street. Most were there for years, although the idea was that the staff would help with job placement. There was only one doctor for about 10,000 people. Security were notoriously cranky. The real idea of the districts was to keep homeless people out of sight of everyone else. It also occurred to me that it would make it difficult for the homeless to organize and express themselves to politicians and the media. It’s also treating homeless people who aren’t criminals as if they are, in the sense that their freedom is taken away, they’re put into what are basically prison camps.

The script brings up a lot of good points about poverty, I’ll high-light two of them. One of the sanctuary residents talks about how he lost his job because the company got new equipment. When automation results in people losing their jobs and those people end up homeless, that’s very messed up. Automation should be done in a way that makes things easier and safer and more productive WITHOUT costing jobs, which is very possible. Then the jobs created via the production and maintenance of the new equipment will bring us closer to full employment.

The best part of the two-parter is when the man who becomes a spokesperson of the residents says that one of their demands should be the re-instatement of the "Federal Employment Act." Whatever it is, it sounds like a good idea, and at the very least it’s some kind of stimulus program, if not something like the New Deal where the government creates jobs directly.

At the end Bashir and Sisko have the following exchange:

Bashir: Having seen the middle of the 21st century, how could they have let things get so bad?

Sisko: That’s a good question. I wish I had an answer.

Besides the great politics, it’s a great two-parter in other ways too. I give it five stars out of five.