Copyright 1993, Jennifer A. Hawthorne. All rights reserved,
but I'm not stuffy about it as long as you don't go overboard.

[DSN] Episode Synopsis: "Progress"

Episode Number: 415
Air Date: 5/8/93

	The show opens with Nog and Jake sharing a friendly game
of cards in Quark's, when Quark passes by in the process 
of berating Rom for making a very unwise purchase of a 
large quantity of "yamok sauce", a culinary dish that 
Cardassians love and no one else will touch. Nog takes an 
interest in the conversation, and decides that this may be 
his opportunity to make a big profit; he drags a reluctant 
Jake off in pursuit of this goal.
	In Ops, Sisko, Kira, and a Bajoran administrator named
Toran are discussing a new combined Bajor/Federation 
project to tap the core of Bajor's fifth moon, Jeraddo, for 
energy. Several hundred thousand Bajoran homes will benefit 
from the project, which will be used to provide heat.
	Kira and Dax take the *Ganges* out to Jeraddo to make a
routine check of the proceedings. Dax' scan of the moon 
reveals the unexplained presence of a few humanoids in an 
area of the moon which was supposed to have been evacuated 
by this point, and Kira beams down to check out the 
situation. She arrives in the middle of a tiny community 
surrounded by lush farmland, and is immediately greeted by 
two of the residents -- who wordlessly brandish 
nasty-looking farm implements at the apprehensive Major. 
	As the menacing couple hold Kira at pitchfork-point, a
third man emerges from a nearby cottage, and says "They 
don't like uniforms." After conversing with Kira for a few 
minutes, the new arrival tells the threatening duo to put 
their weapons down. Kira tries to explain her reason for 
coming, but the man, Mullibok, who appears to be the leader 
of the small farming community, is not inclined to listen. 
When Kira persists, the farmer first patronises her by 
calling her "girl", and then, when she objects, invites her 
in for dinner. 
	Back on the station, Jake and Nog approach the captain of
the freighter that brought in the useless yamok sauce 
cargo. Nog wants to sell the sauce to the captain, but he's 
not interested in buying -- though he would be willing to 
trade a load of "self-sealing stembolts" for the Cardassian 
delicacy. The stembolts were intended for a Bajoran who was 
unable to pay for them when they arrived, to the captain's 
disgust. Nog, who has his heart set on acquiring some real 
latinum, is disinclined to make the trade, but Jake 
convinces him that it's a good deal, and the two boys 
accept. Their only problem now will be actually getting 
their hands on Quark's yamok sauce.
	On Jeraddo, Mullibok tells Kira that his invitation to
dinner will require her to remain on the moon for three 
hours while he prepares it. Kira, irritated but also 
vaguely amused by the farmer's talent for procrastination, 
sends Dax back to the station, saying that she'll catch a 
lift back with one of the energy project technicians. Kira 
tries to make conversation with Mullibok's two companions, 
Baltrim and Keena, but Mullibok informs her that they can't 
speak -- "The Cardassians took care of that." All three of 
them escaped from Bajor to Jeraddo many years ago to get 
away from the Cardassian invaders. Throughout the 
conversation, Mullibok continues to patronise and annoy 
Kira with his comments, which progress from irritating to 
downright offensive. Kira prepares to give the farmer some 
of his own back, then realises that Mullibok is 
deliberately provoking her in order to try and get her to 
go away. She tells him he won't succeed. Mullibok asks her 
name, and is not satisfied with her official title; he 
demands to know her first name, and, when told, refers to 
her as Nerys from that point on. 
	Kira reminds Mullibok that the commencement of the core
drilling in seven days will render the moon uninhabitable, 
and he and his companions will have to evacuate to Bajor. 
Mullibok flatly rejects this, saying he's had his fill of 
Bajor. Kira tries to convince him that Bajor has changed 
since he last saw it, and that he can lead an even better 
life there than the one he now has on Jeraddo, but Mullibok 
is unswayed. He states that if he leaves the moon, he'll 
die, and if he's going to die anyway, he'd rather die at 
home. 
	Back at the station, the budding entrepreneurs are
implementing their plan to acquire the yamok sauce. Nog 
simply asks Quark if he wants Nog to take and dispose of 
the stuff, and Quark, still thoroughly disgusted with the 
whole mess, is quite happy to let him. 
	Over dinner at Mullibok's, the farmer regales Kira with a
series of rambling tall tales of his escape from Bajor and 
his early days on Jeraddo. He tells Kira she looks like a 
fighter, and she admits to having fought against the 
Cardassians. He says that it must have been a trivial 
matter to defeat them, and Kira hotly protests that it was 
nothing of the sort -- it was a hopeless battle from the 
very start. Then how did they get rid of the Cardassians? 
asks Mullibok. "We hung on like fanatics," Kira replies. 
"Hung on like fanatics," he echoes. "I gotta remember 
that." Mullibok heads outside to do some bricklaying work 
on a new kiln he's building, and Kira follows, still trying 
to undermine the farmer's stubborn determination to die 
with his home. He tells her bluntly that he, like her, 
intends to hang on, and stay on Jeraddo until the moon is 
cracked apart. So Kira should let her superiors know. Kira 
agrees to tell them.
	On the station, Jake and Nog examine their new stock in
trade, the piles of self-sealing stembolts. Unfortunately, 
they have no idea what stembolts are supposed to be used 
for, which is likely to hamper their ability to sell them. 
O'Brien enters, asking questions about irregularities with 
the cargo, and the two boys come up with a plausible (and 
false) story to explain them. They then try to trick 
O'Brien into telling them what stembolts are good for, but 
discover to their chagrin that O'Brien doesn't know either. 
Stymied, they decide that the only sure source of 
information about the cargo is the Bajoran who originally 
ordered it; fortunately, his name and address are on the 
packages. Nog comments that, since they acquired the 
stembolts essentially free, they are in a position to offer 
the man his cargo at a substantial discount. 
	In Sisko's office, Kira explains the situation with
Mullibok to Sisko and Toran. She exhibits an unexpectedly 
large degree of sympathy for the old Bajoran farmer. Sisko 
suggests offering Mullibok a bribe of some sort in order to 
gain his co-operation, but Kira rejects this option; the 
commander then suggests delaying the start-up of the 
project in order to give Kira time to work on convincing 
the farmer, but this time Toran rejects the option, saying 
the delay would be impractical. Toran announces his 
intention to have Mullibok beamed off Jeraddo without his 
consent, but Kira objects, stating that this would be 
tantamount to killing the farmer. Toran is incensed that 
three stubborn holdouts should be allowed to jeopardise the 
welfare of hundreds of thousands of other Bajorans. Kira 
suggests using a different method to obtain the energy, one 
that would allow the moon to remain habitable, but Toran 
points out that it would take at least a year to switch 
over to a new project. Toran states that he believes Kira's 
emotions are getting the better of her, and questions 
whether or not she should be replaced on the assignment; 
she denies the necessity, saying she'll do her job.
	Kira returns to Jeraddo with two Bajoran security men. She
sends the two of them to find Mullibok's companions while 
she goes for Mullibok, after cautioning them to take great 
care to distress the recalcitrant farmers as little as 
possible with their actions. They head off, and Kira 
confronts Mullibok with the evacuation order, offering to 
help him pack his things. "I'm just doing what needs to be 
done," she says, and he responds, "Me, too." Kira pleads 
with the farmer not to make her use force, again telling 
him of the new life he could build on Bajor, but he doesn't 
respond, instead going off on another rambling anecdote 
while he continues to work on his kiln. She urges him to 
rethink his options, but he refuses, telling her she'll 
have to deal with it on her own. She then states that 
she'll pack his things herself.
	Before she can reach Mullibok's cottage, there is a shout
from the other part of the settlement. She turns to see 
the two security men coming back with Baltrim and Keena, 
but one of the security men is bleeding. He yells that one 
of the couple stuck him with a farm weapon. Mullibok shouts 
"Let her go!" and attacks the uninjured security man who is 
holding Keena, and the wounded security man pulls a phaser 
and fires, felling the old farmer. Kira kneels beside 
Mullibok's unconscious body and shouts at the security men 
to get back to the station and bring medical help.
	Back on the station, Nog and Jake have contacted the
Bajoran who ordered the stembolts, using a communications 
terminal that they have rigged so that their identities 
cannot be discerned. Nog tells the Bajoran that they are 
the "Nojay Consortium" and offers him the stembolts for a 
very reasonable amount of gold-pressed latinum. The Bajoran 
says that he has no latinum, to Nog's serious 
disappointment, but offers to trade them the title to a 
small piece of land on Bajor in exchange for the cargo. As 
with the stembolts, Nog would rather have latinum and is 
unimpressed with the offer, but Jake once again convinces 
him that the deal is good and should be made, and they do 
so.
	On Jeraddo, Bashir tends to the badly injured Mullibok, who
is being a difficult patient. Mullibok makes a 
cantankerous comment to Kira about her actions, and she 
turns and walks out without replying. Mullibok then mutters 
that Kira could have seized the opportunity while he was 
unconscious to beam everyone off the moon, and asks Bashir 
where Baltrim and Keena are. Bashir says they've been 
evacuated to Bajor, and goes on to state his intention to 
take Mullibok back to DSN to continue caring for his 
injury. Mullibok rejects that in no uncertain terms. The 
frustrated doctor goes outside to complain to Kira about 
Mullibok's attitude, and tells her that he intends to take 
Mullibok to the station without his permission. Kira 
refuses to let him, however, to Bashir's bafflement; he 
protests that there's no medical facility in the 
settlement, and Kira replies that he should leave 
instructions and supplies and she'll care for Mullibok 
herself. She then removes her uniform jacket and goes over 
to work on the kiln that Mullibok was building.
	Later, in Sisko's office, Bashir tells a solemn Sisko of
Kira's actions on Jeraddo. Sisko says that he intends to 
tell Toran that Kira will be staying on Jeraddo for a few 
days at Bashir's request. Bashir, distressed, comments that 
this isn't true, and Sisko pointedly orders him to *make* 
it true. Bashir complies, though he's not very happy about 
the situation.
	Back on Jeraddo, Kira tends to Mullibok, her mood obviously
dark. He asks her why she's angry, but she can't give him 
any real answer. She tells him about an ugly awful old tree 
that used to grow outside her bedroom window on Bajor; she 
didn't like it, but she admits that it had a lot of 
character. Mullibok asks if she cut it down, and she 
replies, "I don't know yet."
	Kira is contacted by Sisko, who is in orbit in a Runabout.
He says he plans to beam down. Kira protests, but Sisko 
says, "Either I'm coming down, or you're coming up." 
Mullibok comments, "He doesn't have much faith in you, does 
he?" Sisko beams down and knocks on the door of Mullibok's 
house; the farmer comes to the door and tells Sisko to go 
away. Kira emerges and scolds Mullibok for speaking for 
her, and Sisko asks to speak to her alone. They walk over 
to the kiln together and Kira starts laying bricks. Sisko 
tells her she's jeopardising her career by her actions 
here; he understands why she feels for Mullibok, since he's 
the underdog and in much the same situation Kira was in 
with the Cardassians. "But you're on the *other side* now", 
he says. She turns to face him, anguished. "Pretty 
uncomfortable, isn't it?", he continues. "It's awful," she 
replies. 
	Sisko crouches down beside Kira and tells her that,
although he didn't like her at first, he now both likes 
and *needs* her, and is not looking forward to having to 
break in a replacement. "His fate is already decided. Yours 
isn't." He tells her a Runabout will be waiting, and beams 
out.
	Night falls on Jeraddo. Mullibok is sleeping uneasily, and
Kira goes over to soothe him. He wakens and is 
cantankerous, as usual, but asks Kira to move a chair over 
and sleep by him. She does so. 
	On the station, Nog and Jake are playing cards again as Nog
grumbles that he hasn't been able to make any real money 
with all his dealing. Jake tries to convince him that land 
is always a good investment, but Nog thinks it's just dirt, 
and that they'd have been better off to keep the stembolts. 
Quark and Odo walk by, discussing a mysterious new 
commercial venture operation off the station, the "Nojay 
Consortium". Odo has been contacted by a Bajoran 
conglomerate which wants to purchase a piece of land owned 
by this organisation, but it has been unable to find them. 
The land is wanted as a site for a reclamation facility, 
which Quark comments makes it a wonderful opportunity for 
the land's owners to profit. Nog and Jake listen in with 
delight. Quark finishes by saying that he doesn't know who 
the Nojay Consortium is, but he intends to find out -- and 
demand his cut of the action. After Odo leaves, Nog 
approaches his uncle and makes him a very good offer on a 
certain piece of Bajoran land. Quark stares at him, then 
looks at Jake, and light dawns.
	On the moon, daylight has arrived, and Kira awakens in her
chair to see that Mullibok is already outside, at work on 
his now nearly finished kiln. She goes out and starts to 
help him with his work, but he tells her to go back inside 
and get breakfast. She replies that there isn't time for 
that. "You're finally leaving?", he asks. She doesn't 
reply, but instead places the last brick on the kiln, 
completing it. She goes into the house and emerges a moment 
later with bags, and tells him, "You've finished your work. 
Now I have to finish mine." Mullibok says, "As long as that 
cottage stands, I stay here." 
	Instead of replying, Kira draws her phaser and fires at 
the kiln, destroying it. As Mullibok shouts at her, she 
takes a brand and lights it from the kiln, then uses it to 
set fire to Mullibok's house. She returns to Mullibok's 
side, telling them that although the time she has spent 
with Mullibok has been important to her, they both have to 
get on with their lives now. Mullibok tells her that if 
she's really his friend, she'll use her phaser on him as 
well, but Kira can't bring herself to do it. 
	"If I leave here, I'll die," says Mullibok.
	"No, you won't," Kira says. "I won't let you."
	The two of them beam out, leaving Jeraddo behind.

Copyright 1993, Jennifer A. Hawthorne. All rights reserved,
but I'm not stuffy about it as long as you don't go overboard.


Hawthorne's Deeply Spaced Reviews: "Progress"

One-sentence opinion summary: I really would have liked to
have liked this episode...

"J'y suis, J'y reste".
-- Maurice de MacMahon

Like I said above, I would have liked to have liked this
episode. I like the character concept of Kira a great deal 
(though I sometimes have problems with the way she's 
handled) and am pleased that the writers are trying to 
develop her more thoroughly. Unfortunately, watching 
"Progress" was only slightly more interesting than watching 
grass grow. It's a real shame that Kira's first true 
spotlight episode since "Past Prologue" is 
so...well...tedious. As in boring, dull, slow, sluggish, 
slack, lifeless -- you get the idea. (I'll put my thesaurus 
away now.) 

Part of the problem here is that the timing of this episode
in relation to other episodes was very poor. First of all, 
we got to see some of Kira's soft underbelly two weeks ago 
in "Battle Lines", so seeing even more of it in "Progress" 
made me wonder what the point of having a "strong" female 
character is if you're just going to have her break down 
every other week. And not only that, but this also makes 
the second time this season we've seen Kira have her 
loyalty and dedication tested; I think that's overdoing it. 
If she's *that* undependable she doesn't belong on this 
station; a crisis of confidence once every three months is 
just too often to be tolerated. Second, we had a Jake/Nog 
negotiation subplot just last week in "The Storyteller", so 
having a similar one this week strikes me as very bad 
planning on someone's part. In my humble opinion, if they 
were going to do this episode, they should have done it 
next season.

And if that weren't enough to dampen my potential enjoyment
of the show, there's the matter of it being another 
two-plot episode where the two plots weren't even remotely 
connected in any way that I could see, either through 
linked events or through theme. Add to this the fact that 
the events of both plotlines were contrived, trite, and 
implausible, and...well...it's a real clunker. There were a 
few things I liked, and one or two good moments, but 
overall I have to give "Progress" the most serious 
thumbs-down since "The Nagus." It may even deserve to be 
rated worse than "The Nagus" because that episode failed 
for me primarily because the humour wasn't to my taste, but 
I find it hard to see how anyone could really enjoy 
watching "Progress" (except for those folk who find Nana 
Visitor's aesthetic appeal sufficient reason to enjoy the 
episode, of course ;-) On the other hand, "The Nagus" was a 
pointless piece of fluff, and "Progress" was trying to be 
something more than that; I suppose the higher you reach, 
the farther you have to fall if you slip.

I'll tackle the Jake/Nog subplot first, because I have very
little to say about it and want to get it out of the way. 
Was there a *point* to any of this?? It wasn't revealing of 
the characters, it wasn't funny (except for that little bit 
with O'Brien), it wasn't original, it didn't go 
anywhere...all it did was fill screen time! And why is it 
that Jake, the human boy, is so much sharper a businessman 
than Nog, the Ferengi ultimate capitalist? Are we supposed 
to infer from this that Nog is a brain-damaged Ferengi? Or 
that he inherited all his intelligence genes from his 
father? Sorry, I just don't buy it. 

Now, about the main plot -- Kira and the stiff-necked,
crotchety Bajoran farmer, Mullibok (played by Brian Keith, 
last seen as the father on "Family Affair", I believe.) 
This plot had a lot of potential to be very good -- next to 
none of which was utilised. A large part of the problem 
lies in the plot structure itself. First, I was never clear 
on exactly *why* the situation existed in the first place. 
Did the people on Jeraddo have a government of their own? 
(They weren't ruled by the Cardassians, apparently.) Or was 
it functional anarchy? If they had a government, surely 
that government agreed to the energy project and would have 
been responsible for convincing its own people to leave the 
moon. If they didn't have a government, how could Bajor 
just move in and take over the moon for its own purposes 
without the agreement of the populace? I would be surprised 
if the Federation would support any such autocratic and 
tyrannical action on the part of Bajor. I just don't see 
how this situation could have arisen such that it would be 
the responsibility of the DSN crew to deal with it, and 
therefore I don't understand how Kira got caught in the 
middle and why her position was at stake. This seemed very 
clearly contrived to me, and I hate obvious contrivance. 

But even if the set-up for the conflict made sense, I don't
understand Kira's problem with it. It may be that I'm just 
reacting negatively to another of these "instant bonding" 
shows wherein one of the regulars becomes so attached to a 
new friend that they become willing to throw away their old 
lives for that person (you might recall that I had a 
similar distaste for the instant rapport between O'Brien 
and Tosk in "Captive Pursuit"), but it just doesn't make 
sense to me that Kira would have such a tough time dealing 
with the evacuation of Mullibok. Either she thought that 
the plan to use Jeraddo to supply energy for Bajor was 
legitimate, in which case she might feel bad about evicting 
Mullibok but could surely not justify putting his wishes 
above the needs of hundreds of thousands of other Bajorans, 
or she thought that evicting Mullibok was wrong somehow, in 
which case the conflict should have been between her and 
Toran or her and Sisko, trying to convince them they didn't 
have the right to take Mullibok's land away without his 
consent.

Kira's a former freedom-fighter (i.e. terrorist), which
means she must have been very practical, since you don't 
survive a guerrilla war if you don't keep your priorities 
in order; for her to make a completely pointless sacrifice 
as a futile gesture of respect for Mullibok's indomitable 
will is impractical in the extreme. What in the world would 
*anybody* stand to gain through such an act on her part? 
Mullibok would still be evacuated by force, and Kira would 
have been replaced. The conflict here for Kira seemed to be 
whether she would be loyal to Bajor's long-term welfare, to 
an impersonal benefit for hundreds of thousands of faceless 
Bajorans, or to the (questionable) good of a single 
individual standing right before her. The trouble is, this 
is *exactly* the same conflict she faced with Tahna Los in 
"Past Prologue", only with more cause. Were we supposed to 
believe she might choose to support Mullibok, a farmer she 
just met, when she refused to support a fellow terrorist 
with whom she had fought side-by-side for years? Please! If 
this had come before "Past Prologue" it might have been 
revealing, but here it was just redundant, a pale shadow of 
a much stronger episode.

The other problem with the plot, aside from its
implausibility, is that very little happened. Now, I'm not 
by any means going to put forth a call for action for the 
sake of action; I fully believe that an episode focusing on 
character interaction can be as gripping as any episode 
full of starship battles and phaser fire fights. But in 
order for it to work, each individual scene has to show us 
something new, or heighten the tension, or in some way 
*move*, and I just didn't see that here. Most of the scenes 
with Kira and Mullibok were interchangeable; their order 
could have been swapped around with only very minor 
fiddling and I couldn't have told the difference. Their 
relationship didn't really develop; it had no direction and 
no drive.

So what about the main purpose of the episode -- that is,
Kira's character development? Well, I think I can see what 
they were trying to do, but...I'm not at all sure it 
succeeded. For one thing, I have a number of real qualms 
about Kira being portrayed as a "nurturer". I don't have 
anything against her having a tender side, but the "Mommy 
Kira" bit while she was nursing Mullibok was, in my 
opinion, well over the top. Both of the female regulars on 
TNG are nurturers, and Dax has a distinctly parental 
attitude toward most of the rest of the DSN crew; Kira was 
refreshing in that she was a female without a great deal of 
this aspect, and now that's been taken away from her. I 
think it detracts from the character, frankly. Kira having 
a tender side is okay, but it should be something she never 
voluntarily shows if she can help it. 

Of the other little character bits we were shown, some were
fairly nice. Among the good things: we get to hear a 
regular besides Sisko mention her parents, although we 
don't find out much. It's nice to have the characters 
acknowledging that they *have* family beyond that seen on 
the show. We also get to hear someone calling her by her 
first name, which was *very* welcome. I wasn't sure 
Bajorans ever used their first names. And one of the truly 
effective scenes in the show came when Sisko asked Kira how 
it felt to be on the other side for a change; Kira is 
clearly not used to the idea of being one of the people 
responsible for maintaining the status quo, and for reining 
in the disruptive fringe elements of the new Bajoran 
society. In a sense she's gone from radical left-wing 
liberal to being a conservative right-winger, and it's 
understandable that this would be very disconcerting to 
her. However, I really don't like that "little girl lost" 
look Nana Visitor uses to show when Kira's unhappy; in a 
basically strong performance it stuck out rather badly. She 
looks like she's about to start whimpering any second, and 
the thought of Kira whimpering makes me quail.

That's a good place to segue into the next topic:
performances. In spite of the weakness of the plot 
structure and my qualms about the characterisation of Kira, 
I thought Nana Visitor did a nice, solid job with the 
episode -- except for the aforementioned expression I 
disliked. It was good to see Kira being understated for a 
change; even when she was upset, as when Mullibok got shot, 
or when she was dealing with Toran in Sisko's office, she 
didn't sound strident or shrill, the way she sometimes 
does. Brian Keith's performance as Mullibok was also solid, 
though not much more than that; at times I found the 
character a likeable curmudgeon, as he was intended to be, 
but at times I thought he needed a slightly nastier edge to 
give the character some bite. Mullibok was almost too easy 
to like at times. 

None of the other characters got any real time here. Sisko
got one good scene with Kira, though I think he was laying 
it on a little thick with the "I like you and need you" 
bits; when exactly did he and Kira achieve this much 
rapport? I think it's a bit soon for this. Of course, he 
could just have been soft-soaping her in much the same way 
he soft-soaped Odo in "The Passenger" to get what he wanted 
from her, I suppose. As an interesting side note, it seems 
the only people he bothers to use this tactic on are the 
Bajoran members of his staff; he never takes this approach 
with O'Brien, or Bashir (he wouldn't *need* to use it with 
Dax, of course -- nor would it be likely to work if he 
did.) The "Make it true" scene with Bashir showed us again 
that Sisko has a habit of deciding how he wants things to 
be and then doing what is necessary to arrange the 
situation to his liking; I'm looking forward to the first 
time one of his staff does this without being prompted. 

In terms of theme, I don't have much to say about this
episode. It seems as if the idea behind it was that a lot 
of the time, the needs and wishes of individuals must be 
disregarded in order for the requirements of the many to be 
met; however, the situation as presented wasn't ambiguous 
enough to allow for any real consideration of this idea. If 
there had been more questioning about whether or not it was 
right for the Bajoran government to evict Mullibok against 
his will, with both sides of the question presented and 
argued, then there would have been some exploration of this 
theme. But as it stands, the issue is never really brought 
up; it's stated clearly that the energy project is 
necessary and there is no other way to fulfil it, so the 
question of Mullibok's rights is seemingly not relevant, 
and is never discussed. A subordinate theme, exemplified by 
the metaphor of the kiln, might be that there comes a time 
when things are simply *finished* and one simply has to 
stop when that point is reached, but I have trouble seeing 
how Kira's helping to build it and then phasering it fits, 
really. In fact, if you want to take a particularly black 
interpretation of it (which wasn't intended, I'm sure) you 
could say that this was symbolic of Kira destroying 
everything she's been working to build all this time -- 
Bajoran freedom. Here, she's assisting in depriving a 
Bajoran of his personal freedom for a somewhat nebulous 
greater good, so perhaps she sees this as an abandonment of 
her former ideals, and therefore destroys the kiln as a 
symbol of that abandonment. Except that I'm sure that this 
is *not* the intended interpretation, so I'm unclear on 
what the intended interpretation is supposed to be. (Before 
anyone says it, yes, I know she destroyed the kiln and 
cottage in response to Mullibok's statement that he would 
stay as long as the cottage stood; however, given the 
prominence of the kiln and the bricklaying in the episode, 
there has to be more to the symbology than that. Or there 
should be more to it, at least.)

And as for the ending: okay, so Kira takes responsibility
for the old farmer's successful relocation to Bajor. Does 
this mean we're going to see him again, or at least hear 
about him through Kira at some future point? I hope so; it 
would be a nice background relationship, just to hear Kira 
talking about going to visit Mullibok at some point. But I 
just have this sinking feeling we're never going to hear 
about him again, given Trek's past track record in such 
matters.

Short Takes
-----------
-- It was good to hear about the Federation and the
Bajorans working together to improve conditions on Bajor; 
this sort of thing should be a running theme through the 
entire series, I think. It should come up in casual 
conversations more often than it does, just so we get the 
idea that this stuff is continuing to happen off-stage.

-- Kira tells Mullibok that she "could use a friend on
Bajor". What, doesn't she have *any* other friends on 
Bajor? Maybe it's body odour?? ;-P

-- Something else I don't get about this episode: What was
that initial Kira/Dax scene supposed to show? Was Dax 
teasing Kira? Or was Dax being serious, and if so, does 
this mean she's loosening up? (And if she prefers Morn to 
Bashir she has very strange taste in men!) I like seeing 
Dax and Kira being chummy and chatting, but it'd be nice if 
their conversation had a point to it. (Yes, I know that 
such conversations in real life rarely have a point to 
them, but this is drama, and *every* scene is supposed to 
have a point.) 

-- Science nit-pick of the week: Is it even possible for an
Earth-like planet (Bajor) to have an Earth-like moon? As I 
understand it, Earth's own moon is unusually large in 
astronomical terms, to the point where some have theorised 
that it's a captured planet, not actually a moon; it's only 
one-quarter the size of Earth, with one-sixth the gravity. 
I believe that in order for this to be feasible, Bajor 
would have to be a double planet (with the two planets in 
orbit around each other as well as around Bajor's sun, 
making for some very odd tidal effects.) Astrophysicists 
feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken.

-- The alien captain Jake and Nog spoke with was an example
of an alien with something more than forehead bumps. For 
that matter, the aliens Nog was tossing peanuts (or 
whatever) at last week were also more elaborate than just 
forehead bumps. It's nice to see. 

-- The "Run that by me again?" award this week goes to
whichever writer decided that "punctured the peritoneum" 
sounded cool. I fail to see how a dispersed energy beam 
could puncture anything, let alone the lining of the 
abdominal cavity (especially when the beam clearly hit the 
guy's *chest*.) Burned, okay; crushed, yes. Punctured? I 
don't think so. If it's not going to make sense, why even 
bother trying to give specifics? Why not just say "You were 
seriously injured"?

Next Week: Hmm. It's the Shore Leave Where No One Has Gone
Before on DSN. O'Brien sees leprechauns and Bashir finally 
gets into a clinch with Dax, or someone who looks a lot 
like her, at least.

(I accidentally slipped a week and put this at the end of
the Storyteller review instead of this one. Sorry if this 
caused confusion to anyone.)

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Copyright 1993, Jennifer A. Hawthorne. All rights reserved, 
but I'm not stuffy about it as long as you don't go overboard.
