Deep Space NineWas Getting Good Long Before the Dominion War

A stack of Star Trek opinion is based on the self-contradictory approximation that the serial publication within the dealership simply “ get in force ” at some point . TNG ’s not TNG untilRiker has a byssus , we say , ignore all thefantastic ideasthe serial got into before that . The mind of Trek shows ordinarily cause adodgy first seasonhas been good refuted at this point in the innovative renaissance , and was arguably not altogether true even before that .

And then there’sDeep Space 9 — simply dainty , remarkable television , perhaps the franchise’sdarkest , finest hour … but only , we ’re to believe , once the show begin tacklingthe Dominion subplotand its eventual escalation into all - out galactic warfare . Except I ’ve been revisiting the show from the beginning latterly , and can not help but opine that such a frame does DS9 a Brobdingnagian ill turn . While the Dominion War forced launch the cracks in Star Trek ’s idealized world , those gap have always been there , and DS9 was prying them undefendable with gleefully gritted tooth from the get - go .

I already got an inkling of this revisiting the debut season of the series last year for its thirtieth anniversary — andfound remarkable gemsin a time of year that most Trek rooter narrate you is not worth checking out beyond the establish premise of the show . But time of year two really picks on up on the threads put down across time of year one of the various tensions still at play in the messy tale scenario DS9 rule itself a home in , where most other Star Trek serial publication simply proceed on to the next adventure : what happens when a beau monde is save from vehement subjugation , and Starfleet steps in ?

Screenshot: Paramount

From the get - go , we see the tinderbox of the various strugglesBajor ’s Provisional Governmentfaced establishing itself in time of year one — an return we mostly saw explored through the eyes of Major Kira and her own aggravation with both Starfleet and her past as a opposition fighter — blow up in season two , as the machinations of Vedek Winn ( thealways noteworthy Louise Fletcher , lace every utterance of “ My child ” with more venom than imagine humanly possible ) fix the stage for a coup d’etat attempt that sees Deep Space Nine become a battlefield long before the showbecame the “ war show . ”Settling the Bajoran coup d’etat early on in time of year two likewise creates a ripple effect throughout the storey being secern , ones we really begin to see reflected in the two - part plot line “ The Maquis . ”

A fascinating mirror to the tensions of the Bajoran / Starfleet engagement of season one — the estimate that hoi polloi are expect at our submarine sandwich and ask them what the point of them being here on the frontier is really worth—“The Maquis ” explore the establishment of , and the beginnings of across-the-board - scale protest with , a guerrilla group of Federation colonists in the disarm zona established between the Cardassian Union and the Federation . Starfleet ’s diplomacy re - drew lines of territory between the two power , change the ascendancy of colony world in that expanse of space and uprooting the life of civilians — not penis of Starfleet , just beings from the Federation and from Cardassia alike — without a care in the world . It ’s that regardless grade of thought and consideration is really what come through in “ The Maquis”—we’ve seen Starfleet officers humble by hubris before this in Star Trek , but seldom has Starfleet as an entity , and even the Federation , been portrayed as so unlearned as they are in these two episode .

Commander Sisko and his team enquire reports of engagement between Cardassian and Federation colonists — include a terrorist attack on DS9 that destroyed a Cardassian ship — with Starfleet ’s liaison to the region , Calvin Hudson . As they do so , the severe predicament civilian on both English are confront , from the Cardassian military commander ’s subtle attempts to destabilize the region further and spiel intra - command politics , to Starfleet ’s attack to police from afar , becomes incredibly clear . But as the revelation of the Maquis ’ beingness ( and the twist that Hudson himself has resigned from Starfleet to help them ) emerge , and tensions begin to storm up towards open conflict , DS9 bares its fang directly at Star Trek ’s utopia in an utterly stunning vista in part two of “ The Maquis . ”

Screenshot: Paramount

Screenshot: Paramount

Recieving a merging in person with Admiral Nechayev in his office on DS9 , Sisko , already reeling from his old friend Hudson ’s betrayal , can barely contain his patronage when he ’s simply severalise by Starfleet that if he set up a dialogue with the Maquis , they will commend that they are citizens of the lauded , grand Federation , and the day will be saved — and that because it ’s all that simple , he ’ll be getting no excess assist from Starfleet beyond such sage advice .

The 2nd Nechayev leaves his office — and crucially , a likeminded Kira enters — Avery Brooks unleashes himself . We ’ve known up to this point that Sisko is not a man afraid of drop a few punches , literally or otherwise , or that he ’s uncoerced to keep his sense of jurist in checkout , but even for all the traumatise disdain he had for Jean - Luc Picardin DS9 ’s premiere , we ’ve never control him unload on Starfleet like he does here , blasting the Federation for looking outside its window and nowhere else . “ It ’s loose to be a saint in paradise , ” he rails , “ but the Maquis do not survive in Eden . Out there , in the demilitarize zona , all the problem have n’t been solved yet . Out there , there are no saints : just people . ”

Star Trek has always qualify itself as a series about people — about the best and brightest of ourselves go out into the stars to explore , to guard innocents from justice , to prophesy and exercise the ideals of their post - war , post - scarcity , post - shades - of - gray Sion . But in one invoke talking to , DS9 puts forward that these are the hoi polloi that Star Trek should never have been about : it ’s the hoi polloi on the fringes of that society , regulate by the decisions of its leadership , and never supported to put those decisions into practice , only pronounce when their macrocosm does n’t match up to the well - maintained gardens of Starfleet Academy , the pristine hallways of its San Francisco command center , or even the lush carpet ofa Galaxy - Class ’ bridge . What on earth are those people meant to do when things go wrong ?

Screenshot: Paramount

Screenshot: Paramount

“ The Maquis ” is a fundamental stepping stone to the stress Deep Space Nine would search with the Dominion , starting in short after in time of year two ’s finale , “ The Jem’Hadar . ” Already having shown just how good Starfleet Command is at letting down its own people , in give the Federation a ostensibly overpowering foe in the Dominion ’s nominal footsoldiers , we seehow thoroughly unpreparedthe Federation has been left . But its hubris and ignorance was not established in its reply to the Dominion , and the war that was to amount — it was established where Deep Space Nine has always worked best : in the sludge of it all , on the edge of the galaxy , with the hoi polloi trying so heavily to do the good work with the little they ’ve develop . And that was something it was doingfrom the very commencement .

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